Michael has everything; tall, handsome, and famous, he is worshipped by billions of fans around the globe. He is wealthy beyond measure, the heir apparent to RiverGroup, one of the handful of high-tech corporations that controls the world. He is fashionable, setting trends with his wardrobe of immaculate designer suits, each a unique and celebrated work of art. And Michael is in love, perfect love, sharing a private language based entirely on quotes from the latest fashion magazine advertisements, with Nora, his beautiful, witty, and equally perfect fianc

    Nothing would be the same for Cory again. Suddenly his life was thrown into chaos when the company that controlled his patent was sold out from under him, and instead of imminent wealth, Cory was facing immediate poverty. Then along came Alan Stark, who wanted to recruit Cory for a special research project on virtual reality.Stark was reviving the secret NSA work of the legendary Matthew Brand, who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances years before. Cory had always idolized Brand, so he was initially thrilled to be involved. But he quickly discovered that there was nothing virtual about the realities he was working on. Instead, he found that Stark was on the verge of controlling the very fabric of reality itself.Cory was unsure of Stark's ultimate goal, until he began to recall pieces of another life and found himself in the middle of a battle between two groups of people who could use "rabbit holes" in space and time to jump between different realities, personalities, and lives. Whoever had control of the power to shape reality would have the power to become a god--or a devil. But before Cory could combat Stark and his minions, he first had to remember which side he was on...

    The Insiders lead a privileged existence: never having to leave their homes, they enjoy a vastly prolonged lifespan, a regular supply of food and mind-altering drugs, and holographic entertainment at the push of a button. Meanwhile, the Outsiders, half-savage, inhabit a polluted wilderness of ruins and industrial waste, struggling for survival.Uncumber has been warned never to go outside. But when she meets an Outsider on the Holovision and falls in love with him, she becomes curious and decides to venture out into the world . . .Equal parts dystopian science fiction and brilliant social satire, Michael Frayn’s eerily prescient fourth novel A Very Private Life (1968) earned widespread critical acclaim and comparisons to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. This edition features a new introduction by the author.WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING‘A weird and frightening intensity.’ – Time ‘Easily the most original thing Frayn has done . . . written with elegant simplicity.’ – New Statesman‘An ingenious fable . . . at times poetically imaginative.’ – Sunday Times‘An intriguing fantasy.’ – Sunday Telegraph

    Dick in this dystopian drug-fueled novel set in the not-so-distant future.Synth is a drug able to induce hallucinations indistinguishable from reality. But it’s brand new, highly addictive, and more than likely dangerous. Even the dealers peddling the pills don’t know what long term effects the drug will have on its users. For Markus Olsen, Synth offers an easy escape to his crumbling life. Markus, an ex-hacker, has been caught red-handed, and while his friends were sent to jail for thirty years, Markus decided to cooperate, agreeing to lend his services and particular criminal expertise to Viborg City’s secret service, aiding the oppressive state power he’d been fighting to break in exchange for his relative freedom.But Markus’ past as an anarchist comes back to haunt him, in the form of a credit card with no account but an seemingly unlimited balance as well as the discovery of a mysterious novel in which he is a main character. How much of his reality is being produced by Synth? How disconnected from real life has Markus become? Forced to face his past and the decisions he’s made, Markus must decide to choose between the artificial comfort of his constructed life and the harsh reality of treason and the struggle for freedom.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

    And only Jaz can stop it from controlling the world.

    For over one hundred years, Noah's people have toiled deep beneath the Earth preparing for The New Dawn – the historic day when they will emerge to reclaim the land stolen by a ruthless enemy. But when Rebekah, the girl of his forbidden desire, discovers a secret their leader has been so desperate to keep, Noah suspects something is wrong. Together, they escape and begin the long climb to the surface. But nothing could prepare them for what awaits outside. BOOK TWO, CLOUD CUCKOO is due out September 2016

    Imagine a world so technologically advanced that happiness and contentment can be achieved without effort, a world where there is no sickness or hunger, no deprivation, no want, no striving, no disappointment. Imagine that any experience can be yours and any fantasy or desire reconstructed by machines and fed directly into your cerebral cortex. Imagine all this, and you have the world of James Gunn's The Joy Makers, a nightmare world of indolence, of lost purpose, of the death of civilization. The Joy Makers tells of a future society on Earth where the psychomedical science of Hedonics, concerned with the manipulation of human desired and the achievement of happiness, becomes the ruling philosophy. In a chilling climax, an Earthman returning from Venus, where life is still a rugged pioneering affair, attempts to smash the grotesque domination of the machine over a captive human population. Originally published as separate stories in 1954 and 1955 in the pulp magazines of the day and first published in book form in 1961, The Joy Makers is a brilliant exposition of a theme well known to science fiction fans -- that of a paradise gone wrong. Its author takes a jaundiced look at utopian societies and suggests that unhappiness and dissatisfaction may be necessary underpinnings of all human progress.

    Not just any boy, but one she is certain she has met before.Only that's not possible.Gwyn lives in the last city of men, where memories are made through repetition and yesterday is forgotten with the reset. The world has peace, what's left of it anyway. Peace that has been gained through sacrifice.But as behavioural school ends and Gwyn is sent out into the work force, she discovers that not everyone resets. Not everything is as it seems. The peace they live in is as fake as the masks they wear in the clubs. She starts to see that the walls surrounding the city, to keep the monsters out, might actually be keeping them in.And maybe the boy she thought she knew, isn't what he appeared to be at all.Don't miss this exciting new Post-Apocalyptic Romance from the author of the bestselling series The Born Trilogy!

    On one side eternal day, the sun shining down hotly from the center of the heavens. On the opposite side eternal night, the stars glowing cold in the black and airless sky.Yet the planet had been colonized. In ages past civilization had dug into the rock of the darkside and had thrived. Aristocrats vied with aristocrats, and the poor, as ever, struggled to keep home and body together against the ever-encroaching cold surface.To keep the lower classes happy, Vitro, the storyteller, spun romantic sagas on the popular network. She imagined a strange world on the sunside, inhabited by men and women enmeshed in crime and love, schemes and intrigues.Vitro believed she was making this up. But was she? Was there really another civilization on the bright side and could it be that what she related was not fiction - but events which would inevitably send both worlds out of synch to mutual disaster?

    McIntyreThe Warlord of Saturn's Moons (1974) by Eleanor ArnasonThe Triumphant Head (1970) by Josephine SaxtonThe Heat Death of The Universe (1967) by Pamela ZolineSongs of War (1974) by Kit ReedThe Women Men Don't See (1973) by James Tiptree Jr.Debut (1970) by Carol EmshwillerWhen It Changed (1972) by Joanna RussDead In Irons (1976) by Chelsea Quinn YarbroBuilding Block (1975) by Sonya DormanEyes of Amber (1976) by Joan D. VingeFurther Reading (1977), uncreditedWhen It Changed by Joanna Russ won the Nebula Award for best short story in 1972.Eyes of Amber by Joan D. Vinge won the Hugo Award for best novelette in 1978.

    Professor Lyle Peripart's world makes perfect sense, until he is recruited by an odd industrialist and begins to see evidence of alternative universes all around him, including one in which the United States surrendered to the USSR back in the 1970s.

    and Europe place their hopes in a team of DNA scientists.

    He has been stuck inside his tower since the bombs destroyed the world he knew. The reason for the war is still a mystery, but ever since that day the world stands still, trapped by the nuclear winter and the Guardians who patrol the exits. Zachary should feel lucky to be alive, but he is haunted by past mistakes which he never got a chance to put right. The only way out is the New Omega Lottery. The prize is a place in Omega, a giant glass tower in the centre of their barren world where the new government, The Conservators, rule. Nobody from Delta has ever won. But when Zachary meets Emily he knows she is not from Delta. Convinced there must be another way out, he vows that he will find it. But he doesn't realise that The Conservators have already found him.

    Beam Piper) • (1983) • essay by John F. Carr9 • Time and Time Again • (1947) • shortstory by H. Beam Piper29 • The Mercenaries • (1950) • novelette by H. Beam Piper57 • Dearest • (1951) • shortstory by H. Beam Piper77 • Hunter Patrol • (1959) • novelette by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire111 • Flight from Tomorrow • (1950) • novelette by H. Beam Piper135 • Operation R.S.V.P. • (1951) • shortstory by H. Beam Piper147 • Genesis • [Paratime Police] • (1951) • novelette by H. Beam Piper171 • The Answer • (1959) • shortstory by H. Beam Piper185 • Crossroads of Destiny • (1959) • shortstory by H. Beam Piper199 • Day of the Moron • (1951) • novelette by H. Beam Piper

    To the outside world he's an obsessive-compulsive mute - weird but harmless. But to Graham Smith, it's the world that's weird. And far from harmless. He sees things others can't . . . or won't. He knows that roads can change course, people disappear, office blocks migrate across town. All at night when no one's looking. The world's an unstable place, still growing, sloughing off layers of reality like dead skin. One day you drive by, and it's changed. Annalise Mercado hears voices, all from girls calling themselves Annalise. Sometimes she thinks they're spirit guides, sometimes she thinks she's crazy. But then they start telling her about Graham Smith and the men who want to kill him. That's when they meet. So begins the story of two people whose lives are fragmented across alternate realities. And how they hold the key to the future of a billion planets. . . .