The World Fantasy Award-winning author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August presents a mesmerizing tale of a gambling house whose deadly games of chance and skill control the fate of empires.Everyone has heard of the Gameshouse. But few know all its secrets...It is the place where fortunes can be made and lost through chess, backgammon - every game under the sun.But those whom fortune favors may be invited to compete in the higher league... a league where the games played are of politics and empires, of economics and kings. It is a league where Capture the Castle involves real castles, where hide and seek takes place on the scale of a continent.Among those worthy of competing in the higher league, three unusually talented contestants play for the highest stakes of all...This novel was originally published as three digital-only novellas: The Serpent, The Thief, and The Master. Previous books... Views: 483
Zombies Evolved is a modern day crime thriller with inspiration from science fiction and the supernatural. How do the Seattle Police investigate crimes committed by zombies living among humans?“Post-mortem living humans have rights too!”The unfortunate consequence of an incredible scientific breakthrough, evolved zombies have fewer emotions and greater primal urges than average humans. They can still speak and reason, learn and recognize, plan and co-ordinate. They have a sharp sense of humor, without the social filter that people are generally conditioned to put in place. They can become aggressive when hungry and violent when aroused or scared. Many evolved zombies are affected in somewhat unique ways. Some of them were closer in behavior to “traditional” zombies than most people suspected or hoped.Evolved zombies now live and work with normal humans, and have introduced new socio-economic classes for society to deal with – with behaviors far from norm. Polite society isn’t adequately prepared.My name is Rob Stack, and I work with the Infected Affairs Bureau of the Seattle Police – known to cops as the IAB and most citizens as “Zombie Relations”. Views: 483
The long-awaited founding of Valdemar comes to life in this new series from a New York Times bestselling author and beloved fantasist. Within the Eastern Empire, Duke Kordas Valdemar rules a tiny, bucolic Duchy that focuses mostly on horse breeding. Anticipating the day when the Empire’s exploitative and militant leaders would not be content to leave them alone, Korda’s father set out to gather magicians in the hopes of one day finding a way to escape and protect the people of the Duchy from tyranny. Kordas has lived his life looking over his shoulder. The signs in the Empire are increasingly dire. Under the direction of the Emperor, mages have begun to harness the power of dark magics, including blood magic, the powers of the Abyssal Planes, and the binding and "milking" of Elemental creatures. But then one of the Duchy’s mages has a breakthrough. There is a way to place a Gate at a distance so far from... Views: 483
A short story set in a future dystopia where the television is king and cars are argumentative.Frank Miller needs to get to the convenience store but his car is in an argumentative mood. That's when Stephanie calls, she needs his help... Views: 483
Everybody has secret and everybody tells lie, but in case of Harry Wright these are both bigger than he had originally intended. What started out as a bit of fun, a distraction from his otherwise boring life that could come back and bite him on the ass if he isn’t careful. If being found isn’t enough there are other worries for Harry.Everybody has secret and everybody tells lie, but in case of Harry Wright these are both bigger than he had originally intended. What started out as a bit of fun, a distraction from his otherwise boring life that could come back and bite him on the ass if he isn’t careful. If being found isn’t enough there are other worries for Harry. First there's the disappearance of Emily Baxter a woman who seems to have no connection to Harry Wright, except that he's got the keys to her house. Then there's the mystery of why Harry is getting cheques from an insurance company that are intended for Emily Baxter. Has he done her in for the money or has he squirreled her away somewhere so that he can force more money out of her? Detective Inspector Peters certainly thinks that Harry Wright has killed Emily Baxter and is now fraudulently cashing her cheques. But if he has done so there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of a body, or even of a struggle at her house that seems to be as tidy and pristine as when she left. If she isn’t dead then where is she? And what has Harry Wright done with her?Revelations of Harry Wrights true identity could lead to the unlocking of this mystery, but will it lead to his downfall or to his imprisonment? Views: 483
Wren Harper lives on an overcrowded Earth on the brink of apocalypse. Her life is turned upside down when she is picked to be a cadet on board a vast combat training ship heading to a distant planet. She's not a fighter, so why has she been chosen? Will she survive the journey or will the training kill her first? This is a debut novella-length episode in a series full of cliffhanger endings.Wren Harper lives on an overcrowded Earth on the brink of apocalypse. There are just too many people. The answer lies 600 light-years away on Kepler; a planet more than double the size of Earth. For decades humans have been fighting another race for its control. Earth’s armies are depleted. So now 15-year-old cadets are sent to fight, trained along the way in vast combat ships. But why has Wren been chosen? She's small and geeky and not a fighter. Will she survive Kepler? Or will the training kill her first? This is a debut novella-length episode in a series full of cliffhanger endings. Views: 483
(Short Story.) Finnegan o'Flannagan (Finn) is an out-of-luck musician in the tiny town of Kilkee. The last thing he knows is how to race a horse; but this is exactly what he is requested to do, by his pretty and forceful young friend, the Lady Millen. Who can deny her?A bit of slapstick to entertain you on a rainy day...On the Friday after Thanksgiving Day in 1963 a young man finds a wallet containing over three hundred dollars laying on the ground in front of a drug store. The drug store is giving away a beautiful toy train set as a Christmas promotion. The boy could buy several of the trains with the money in this wallet but he decides to try to return the wallet to its owner. The events that ensue will have major affects on the lives of many. Views: 482
Elle Winters lost everything when the day of impact transformed Earth’s surface into an icy wasteland. All she knows are the artificial confines of the ARC, where people live in fear of failing their annual testing, being found tainted and taken away without warning. No one is ever truly safe in the ARC and Elle is about to be left with no choice but to uncover the truth about the tainted.Find out what it means to be tainted in this post-apocalyptic future where the secrets are as deep and dark as the fallout shelter humanity survives in.Elle Winters lost everything when the day of impact transformed Earth's surface into an icy, desolate wasteland. All she has ever known are the artificial confines of underground fallout shelter, the ARC. Under the Council's rule, ruthless officials roam the hallways, community comes first and everyone lives in fear of failing their annual testing. With one simple blood test you could be taken away without any warning or a word of goodbye.There are only a few people in the ARC who Elle truly cares about and she desperately tries to keep them at arm's length away for fear of losing someone else. Especially, her best friend Sebastian who she denies her feelings for, even from herself. Chilling secrets and mysterious disappearances plague the ARC, but Elle would never dare to voice the forbidden questions that linger on her lips. That is until they take the wrong person.No one is truly safe in the ARC and Elle is about to experience her own personal apocalypse. With nothing left to lose she will risk everything to uncover the truth about the tainted. Will she find what she's looking for or are some secrets better left buried deep underground? Don't miss the start of this young adult series!Series reading order:TAINTED (Book 1)TALENTED (Book 2)FRACTURED (Book 3)DESTINED (Book 4) Views: 482
Eleven French scientific romances by Jacques Boucher de Perthes, Pierre Bremond, Léon Daudet, Georges Espitallier, Louis Gallet, Pierre de Nolhac & Ralph Schropp. This is the twelfth in a series of anthologies of exemplary texts in the evolution of the French genre of roman scientifique. The eleven stories collected here were published between 1832 and 1932. They include three remarkable tales about automata and homonculi, including one in which the manufacture of an artificial human being is credited to the 13th century scholar Albertus Magnus. Also included are The Uraniad (1844), a protest against Newton's theory of gravity, The Death of Paris (1892), an account of how Paris was destroyed by a new Ice Age, and The Nickel Man (1897) by military historian and journalist Georges Espitallier, in which an eccentric scientist uses galvanic technology to turn his body into a metal statue in an attempt to preserve it. Views: 482
