From NEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY bestselling author Marata Eros Note: THE TOKEN is a dark romantic suspense serial dealing with disturbing themes of violence, coercion, and the underbelly of sexual degradation. Could contain trigger elements. TT4 Faren doesn't think her heart can break any further until Mick discovers her sullied secret in the worst way possible. Faren picks up the shattered remnants of her emotions and moves forward with a desperate plan to win Mick back that doesn't involve one penny of his billions. When Faren sees what remains of her life coming together with a synchronicity she can only dream of, the unexpected happens with Jay—and she must play a razor's edge of deception once again. Can she tie this final loose end and receive the money from that aborted last dance before the countdown of debt has expired? Will a dirty cop and the long arm of Ronnie Bunce conspire to ruin the fragile bond she's created with Mick? Or will the concessions Faren's made along the way shatter the dark joy she has been given .... TT5 Jay puts pressure on Faren for more than she's willing to give. With the discovery of a deeper secret than she can keep to herself, Faren commits to lying no more. Though the goal of her mother's debt has been absolved and is safe from transport, Faren struggles with concerns over her long term care. When Mick finds out the absolute truth, the dynamic of their relationship changes to include something she never expected to have: hope. On the cusp of a new reality, with more than just herself to be responsible for, Faren elicits Thorn's help to take down the corruption that's closing in around the tight group. How long can Faren keep those at bay that wish to destroy the fragile happiness between Mick and Faren? Will blackmail be successful in ruining the one thing Faren's decided she wants even more than her own life? TT6 Faren is blown away about the dual revelation of her health. A different threat against her mother remains, while Mick and Faren execute caution with the excavation of the past. Neither want Thorn to suffer for something he's not responsible for. The lesson taught to Ronnie Bunce didn't stick and he has connections that even Mick's monetary status can't silence. When its discovered the players on the chessboard have been closing in for a checkmate against Faren and Mick, Faren uses whatever's at hand to save the one she cares about the most. Will the gauntlet Faren rushes through put everything she cares about to the test? Does this final danger erase the seeds of the truth she's finally come to terms with—or will the larger threat irrevocably damage her most precious treasure?

    Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, bestselling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Seanan McGuire to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans—and, really, any reader with an appetite for richly imagined worlds. Stories include: Seanan McGuire’s “Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust” finds Dorothy grown up, bitter, and still living in Oz. And she has a murder to solve—assuming Ozma will stop interfering with her life long enough to let her do her job. In “Blown Away,” Jane Yolen asks: What if Toto was dead and stuffed, Ozma was a circus freak, and everything you thought you knew as Oz was really right here in Kansas? “The Cobbler of Oz” by Jonathan Maberry explores a Winged Monkey with wings too small to let her fly. Her only chance to change that rests with the Silver Slippers. In Tad Williams’s futuristic “The Boy Detective of Oz,” Orlando investigates the corrupt Oz simulation of the Otherland network. Frank Baum’s son has the real experiences that his father later fictionalized in Orson Scott Card’s “Off to See the Emperor.”Some stories are dystopian... Some are dreamlike... All are undeniably Oz.***No stranger to Oz reinvention himself, Wicked author Gregory Maguire provides the foreword to these outstanding modern stories inspired by the enchanting Land of Oz.

    The tales are organized chronologically to give readers a sense of how the genre's range, vitality, and literary quality have evolved over time. Each tale offers a unique vision, an altered reality, a universe all its own. Readers can sample H.G. Well's 1903 story The Land Ironclads (which predicted the stalemate of trench warfare and the invention of the tank), Jack Williamson's The Metal Man, a rarely anthologized gem written in 1928, Clifford D. Simak's 1940s classic, Desertion, set on "the howling maelstrom that was Jupiter", Frederik Pohl's 1955 The Tunnel Under the World (with its gripping first line, "On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming out of a dream"), right up to the current crop of writers, such as cyberpunk's Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, whose 1982 story Burning Chrome foreshadows the idea of virtual reality, and David Brin's Piecework, written in 1990. In addition, Shippey provides an informative introduction, examining the history of the genre, its major themes, and its literary techniques.

    Everyone follows the Rule of One. But Ava Goodwin, daughter of the head of the Texas Family Planning Division, has a secret—one her mother died to keep and her father has helped to hide for her entire life.She has an identical twin sister, Mira.For eighteen years Ava and Mira have lived as one, trading places day after day, maintaining an interchangeable existence down to the most telling detail. But when their charade is exposed, their worst nightmare begins. Now they must leave behind the father they love and fight for their lives.Branded as traitors, hunted as fugitives, and pushed to discover just how far they’ll go in order to stay alive, Ava and Mira rush headlong into a terrifying unknown.

    K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, and more. For many Americans, imagining a bright future has always been an act of resistance. A People's Future of the United States presents twenty never-before-published stories by a diverse group of writers, featuring voices both new and well-established. These stories imagine their characters fighting everything from government surveillance, to corporate cities, to climate change disasters, to nuclear wars. But fear not: A People's Future also invites readers into visionary futures in which the country is shaped by justice, equity, and joy.Edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams, this collection features a glittering landscape of moving, visionary stories written from the perspective of people of color, indigenous writers, women, queer & trans people, Muslims and other people whose lives are often at risk.Contributors include: Violet Allen, Charlie Jane Anders, Ashok K. Banker, Tobias S. Buckell, Tananarive Due, Omar El Akkad, Jamie Ford, Maria Dahvana Headley, Hugh Howey, Lizz Huerta, Justina Ireland, N. K. Jemisin, Alice Sola Kim, Seanan McGuire, Sam J. Miller, Daniel José Older, Malka Older, Gabby Rivera, A. Merc Rustad, Kai Cheng Thom, Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel H. Wilson, G. Willow Wilson, and Charles Yu.

    It is the JFK assassination, Area 51, the moon landing, the surveillance state. It is a French spy posing as Abraham Lincoln, it is a video game designed by the CIA, it is "Suicide Mickey." It is Adolf Hitler and it is Elvis Presley. In this short story collection, today's top fiction authors pull back the curtain on the biggest conspiracies of all time. Who really killed JFK? What happened in Roswell, New Mexico? Is Elvis still alive? With stories that run the gamut from touching to thrilling to utterly deranged, Tinfoil will take you on a tour of paranoia you won't soon forget. Twelve short stories, twelve conspiracy theories, twelve twisted rabbit holes.Hold on to your hats.

    There is no better anthology that captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. Published in 1973 to honor stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country. This volume contains novellas by: Ray Bradbury, James Blish, Algis Budrys, Theodore Cogswell, E. M. Forster, Frederik Pohl, James H. Schmitz, T. L. Sherred, Wilmar H. Shiras, Clifford D. Simak, and Jack Vance.Contents: Introduction · Ben Bova · in · Call Me Joe · Poul Anderson · nv Astounding Apr ’57 · Who Goes There? [as by Don A. Stuart] · John W. Campbell, Jr. · na Astounding Aug ’38 · Nerves · Lester del Rey · na Astounding Sep ’42 · Universe [Hugh Hoyland] · Robert A. Heinlein · na Astounding May ’41 · The Marching Morons · C. M. Kornbluth · nv Galaxy Apr ’51 · Vintage Season [as by Lawrence O’Donnell] · Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore · na Astounding Sep ’46 · ...And Then There Were None · Eric Frank Russell · na Astounding Jun ’51 · The Ballad of Lost C’Mell · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Oct ’62 · Baby Is Three · Theodore Sturgeon · na Galaxy Oct ’52 · The Time Machine [Time Machine] · H. G. Wells · na The New Review Jan, 1895 (+4) · With Folded Hands... [Humanoids] · Jack Williamson · nv Astounding Jul ’47

    But small incidents wreak havoc on space and time, driving their wedding date further away. As centuries on Earth pass and the land and climate change, one thing is constant: the desire of the lovers to be together. In two separate yet linked stories, Kim Bo-Young cleverly demonstrate the idea love that is timeless and hope springs eternal, despite seemingly insurmountable challenges and the deepest despair.In “The Prophet of Corruption” and “That One Life,” humanity is viewed through the eyes of its creators: godlike beings for which everything on Earth—from the richest woman to a speck of dirt—is an extension of their will. When one of the creations questions the righteousness of this arrangement, it is deemed a perversion—a disease—that must be excised and cured. Yet the Prophet Naban, whose “child” is rebelling, isn’t sure the rebellion is bad. What if that which is considered criminal is instead the natural order—and those who condemn it corrupt? Exploring the dichotomy between the philosophical and the corporeal, Kim ponders the fate of free-will, as she considers the most basic of questions: who am I?

    When the Ventura and its crew enter orbit for a scheduled planet survey, the ship activates an automated defense system protecting the planet. Although the Ventura is destroyed in the attack, Barcus alone survives the harrowing fall to the remote planet surface. He struggles to remain alive and sane, and to discover why everyone he knew and loved on the Ventura was deliberately murdered. Swinging between despair and fury, Barcus discovers that for every answer he obtains, there are more questions raised. Barcus is assisted by the Emergency Module, Em, his most useful tool. It is an Artificial Intelligence system contained in an all-terrain vehicle specifically designed to help him survive. Barcus soon finds himself in the middle of a planetary genocide of the local native population. He is unable to stand passively by as more people die, even if they are long lost colonists who fear "The Man From Earth" like children fear the monster under their bed. Will Barcus ever find his way home? Will he find out who is responsible? Will his rage just burn this world down? Or will he find his soul in the eyes of a starving, frightened woman?

    In the award-winning title story, the narrator recounts the events of an expedition to the Belgian Congo in 1928 to collects gorillas for the Louisville Museum of Natural History. A mother invents a fairy-tale world for her son in 'Halfway People'. Twin sisters backpacking through Europe receive a mysterious invitation. A rebellious teenager is sent to a brutal reform school hidden away in paradise. A young woman inherits the family submarine. In 'The Dark', a researcher tracking plague outbreaks finds himself in the Viet Cong tunnels of Vietnam. A mystery writer visits an archaeological dig in Egypt and sets a curse in motion. In two stories, 'Booth's Ghost' and 'Standing Room Only', Fowler explores the circumstances of Lincoln's assassination from the perspectives of John Wilkes Booth's family and friends.Fowler, perhaps best known for her novels, is a master of the short story form: the secret history, the account of first contact, the murderous, ordinary tensions of family life. She draws on fairy tales, historical narratives, and war reportage, measuring the human capacities for hope and despair, brutality and kindness in the fantastic tradition of writers such as Shirley Jackson, T.H. White, Karen Russell, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

    This is the slogan of the Sustainability Unit and of a country gone eco-hysterical. After nearly twelve months without rain and the hinges of the world barely still oiled, Thomas and his younger brother, Dustin, set out across a drought-ridden landscape in search of answers. What they discover along the way will change their lives, and their country, forever.

    The two dozen stories chosen for this book by award-winning anthologist Jonathan Strahan carefully maps this evolution, giving readers a captivating and always-entertaining look at the very best the genre has to offer.A Baghdad merchant encounters an alchemist who may have conquered time; a socialite, a miniature elephant, and a butler attempt to survive a coup masquerading as a wild soiree; a pair of scientists, their species altered in order that they may perform research on an alien world, find themselves embroiled in an interplanetary conflict; a young man begins to question his faith in God when he encounters the remains of a race of tool-using hominids; a warrior treads a grisly path as he strives to stop a rogue wizard's influence; a woman born with her heart outside her body finds solace in the arms of a heartless man; the messiah returns to earth, with disappointing news about the afterlife; figures out of myth and legend do battle with an enemy armed with a frightening weapon...the ability to steal away language itself; a girl and her fortune-teller mother travel the countryside, collecting ghosts.

    Click on the inside feature to view covers, read blurbs, and see book trailers. 1. (YA horror) The Zombie Chronicles 2. (Adult Paranormal Romance) Eternal Vows 3. (YA Vampire series) Crush 4. (YA Paranormal) Enchanted Castle 5. (YA Fantasy & Sci fi) Castaway

    Communication with the enigmatic aliens proves problematic. The Dhin suddenly depart, without explanation, leaving a few samples of their technology. Wide knowledge of these events would cause chaos. The powerful Coalition Security agency strives to maintain secrecy. As Coalition researchers explore the alien technology, their discoveries turn our understanding of physics inside out. Humanity faces numerous challenges. After multiple economic crises and subsequent collapses, the remaining viable nations joined together as the Coalition. Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence then led to AI management of most economic and political affairs. Unfortunately, even AI are not perfect, and some volatility and conflict remain. Not everyone agrees the AIs are aligned with our best interests. Humanity now faces the seemingly insurmountable challenge of unlocking the secrets of the alien technology without advice or assistance. This is a new release of an edition originally published by John L. Clemmer.

    From Gold Pen Award-winner and master storyteller Brandon Massey come fourteen darker-than-night tales of sheer terror that will make your blood run cold...A man driving home from a Halloween costume party suddenly comes face to face with an evil that's all too real...An elderly woman, obsessed with obituaries, finds herself intimately connected with the dead in the most unlikely of ways...A lifelong racist is plunged into his ultimate nightmare...An unfaithful husband discovers to his horror that his attractive new neighbor has in mind seduction of the wickedest kind....Prepare to be petrified by this chilling collection, certain to send you spiraling into a dark realm of imagination where the once-familiar becomes menacingly twisted...