The Venus Trap By Evelyn E. Smith Views: 484
Twelve tales of the unknown from a master of science fiction
Clifford D. Simak had a sublime ability to evoke a lost way of life. He spent his youth in rural Wisconsin, a landscape filled with mysterious hollows, cliffs, dark forests, and the Wisconsin River flowing in its deep-cut valley. As Simak wandered the countryside and the ridges, he peopled them with imaginary characters who later came to life in his stories. One such individual is Johnny, the orphaned farm boy of “The Contraption,” who stumbles upon a wrecked starship and receives a priceless gift from its owners. Another is the old prospector Eli, whose surprising discoveries on Mercury get him killed in “Spaceship in a Flask.” In “Huddling Place,” a man with paralyzing agoraphobia is the only one who can save the life of a dear friend on Mars—if he can bear to make the trip. And in the title story, aliens slowly take over Earth while humans leave it behind and head for the Homestead Planets.
Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook. Views: 484
The Doorway By Evelyn E. Smith Views: 484
‘Something from the menu?’ she asked.‘No, thank you.’ The boy held up a newspaper. He had scrawled a message on the front page: the passenger behind me has a gun.‘Something from the menu?’ Aravinya asked the pre-teen boy in seat 9A.‘No, thank you.’ The boy held up a newspaper. He had scrawled a message on the front page in thick black marker pen: the passenger behind me has a gun.This short story was written before a live audience and features characters from The Cut Out, a bestselling middle-grade action thriller which was shortlisted for multiple awards. Views: 484
Watson woke up happy.But he didn't go to bed that way.Something he found on his porch destroyed any chance of his day turning out any better.Now he and Holmes must solve a case that is extremely difficult for both of them:Watson's death! Views: 484
Tom Winter thought the secluded cottage in the Pacific Northwest would be the perfect refuge—a place to nurse the wounds of lost love and happiness. But Tom soon discovers that his safe haven is the portal of a tunnel through time. At one end lies the familiar present. At the other end—New York City, 1963.
Tom’s journey back through time offers renewed hope in the form of a new life, a new love, and the chance to start life over in a simpler, safer world. But he finds that the time tunnel holds a danger far greater than anything he left behind: a human killing machine escaped from the bleak and brutal future, who will do anything to protect the secret passage he thought was his alone. And Tom Winter is forced to face the terrors of an unknown future to preserve his worlds, both past and present. Views: 484
Cassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015—but it’s not our United States, and it’s not our 2015.
Cassie’s world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1914. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn’t what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades—back to the dawn of radio communications—human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. That by interfering with our communications, this entity has tweaked history in massive and subtle ways. That humanity is, for purposes unknown, being farmed.
Cassie’s parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Since then, the survivors have scattered and gone into hiding. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. Others live nearby. For eight years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked.
Until now. Because the killers are back. And they’re not human. Views: 484
A post-catastrophe mystery thriller, The Vanguard is the first part of a trilogy following the adventures of Sorcha Blades - courier, hacker and reluctant superhero. Sorcha and her friends are accustomed to doing whatever they have to do to survive, but making sure everyone else survives? That’s not really in their repertoire.“...a genuinely original and genre-busting novel combining speculative, fantasy and science fiction writing to great effect” The Bookbag ‘And so a time will come to pass when the vanguard will emerge from the underground to battle the forces of darkness for the first of the final times. There will be five to face these foes. One to speak in tongues, one to cleanse in flame, one to stand beyond sight, one to read beyond the veil and one to move the earth.’In the city that will not drown but cannot swim, Sorcha Blades keeps her head above water by wheeling, dealing and stealing. But when an accident gifts her and four friends with talents their world has never seen, they must take a stand against the angels and their acolytes before everything they never knew they cared about is swept away. Views: 483
