Heading home should have been joyous, but crashing in an unknown part of her world was not part of her holiday plan.
After taking her courses and mastering the talents she was born with, Minya just wants to go home and hold her family close.
When her drop pod spins out of control and lands her in the dead zone, she doesn’t know how she is going to survive in the ice and snow. She can’t communicate with family, and she doesn’t know where she is, so following her instincts, she starts hiking for the distant hills.
The party of strangers doesn’t say anything, they simply bring her into their underground community and help her get warm. The women smile and offer her a crown and sash of woven greenery, and the men bow and urge her down a hall where warm air hints at a comfortable place to rest.
A man with ice-white eyes occupies the warm zone, and he offers her hospitality. Her decision will make a choice for herself and her world. Views: 350
SOMEWHITHER is the first part of A TALE OF THE UNWITHERING REALM, a new science fantasy series from the science fiction author John C. Wright. It is an adventure, it is a romance, and it is a coming of age story of a young man who is not a man, in a world that is only one among many. It is a tale of a greater and darker evil with longer reach than anything he could imagine, of despair without bounds, of pain beyond measure, and of the faith required to surmount all three. It is a story of inexorable destiny written in the stars and the stubborn courage that is required to defy it.
Ilya Muromets is a big, ugly, motherless boy who does not look like anyone else in his Oregon town. His father is often absent on Church
missionary work that strangely seems to involve silver bullets, sacred lances, and black helicopters. Ilya works as a janitor for Professor Achitophel Dreadful of the Cryptozoological Museum of Scientific Curiosities, and he has a hopeless crush on the Professor’s daughter, Penelope, who seems to think his name is Marmoset.
One night, when Professor Dreadful escapes from the asylum in which he is presently residing, he sends a warning to Ilya that not only is the professor’s Many Worlds theory correct, but those many worlds are dominated by an unthinkably powerful enemy determined to destroy anyone who opens the Moebius Ring between the worlds. And, as it happens, prior to his involuntary absence, the Professor left his transdimensional equipment in the basement of the Museum plugged-in and running….
So it is that Ilya, as he has long dreamed in secret, is called upon to save the mad scientist’s beautiful daughter. With his squirrel gun, his grandfather’s sword, and his father’s crucifix, Ilya races to save the girl, and, incidentally, the world. Views: 350
3 stories by Jaunt author Erik J Kreffel. "Peace, At Long Last" a dying man raised by an alien foster family embraces his humanity before the last flicker of life leaves his body. "The Sap Hole" the last diary entries of a soldier during the Battle of the Somme and a horror beyond the enemy. "Neptune Diamond" is a weird homecoming tale.Yohanna is a very smart young woman. However, her great curiosity has got her bitten on occasion. Despite Mr Besterby's timid warning Yohanna stuck her hand out. This time she's in real trouble, and Mr Besterby, weak at the knees at the best of times, through no fault of his own is along for the ride of his life. Now Yohanna needs all her wits to survive. On a foreign world evil minions gather evidence of Yohanna's and Mr Besterby's colorful arrival. The presence of these strangers according to the prophecy signals a great threat to the minions' unforgiving and ruthless rulers. Outnumbered, hunted and lost, the only way home for Yohanna and Mr Besterby, a pallid desk bound suit, is a perilous journey to confront the Twisted Coven. Cobbling together the unlikely band of Yohanna, Mr Besterby, some almost human friends and a few furry agents, a secretive underground organisation sends them on a journey into the realm of a wicked internecine battle. Here according to the lore only the most brutal and evil Witch can be left standing to bring about a very, very wicked event. Aided by some well meaning misfits who don't understand the words "Go away", the unlikely band head off on their dangerous and desperate mission. On this trek marked by mysteries and threatening events the furry agents have a particularly dark ace to play when the time is right. What the agents don't know about their ace is that it could also destroy the universe(s). To get home Yohanna and Mr Besterby will have to rise to the occasion time and time again, and then fight the best fight of their lives if there is to be hope. Views: 350
The theft Top Secret technology is the catalyst for a lab tech's murder and plunges two couples into a web of criminal activity on the colony of Barsoom, a hybrid of advanced technology and Renaissance Culture. Returning home to Barsoom after a successful mission to earth, Randal brings an unexpected dividend with him: A data crystal with the formula for finding earth-type planets. When the data crystal is stolen and a lab tech murdered during the break-in, his father and his fiancée's father come under suspicion. It's up to him, his fiancée Judith, and some new friends to clear their fathers of murder, and find and retrieve the stolen crystal before it falls into the wrong hands. Devon Morton and Tash Higgens came to Barsoom to help set up new programming for the colony's Portal to Laughing Mountain and the other Outlawed Colonies. When an important data crystal is stolen from a lab owned by Randal's... Views: 350
Ahoy and welcome back! Set sail on The Eversea for the second time- hoist off on an uncompromising adventure with powerful relics, talking lobsters, and a dense web of lies and deception.Ahoy and welcome back! Set sail on The Eversea for the second time- hoist off on an uncompromising adventure with powerful relics, a talking lobster, and a dense web of lies and deception. Colette’s pissed this time. Some vagrant with command over the mist kidnaps Colette’s best friend, the also-just-human Grancis. With the “help” of The Captain himself and The Nocturna’s giant killer lobster/cook named Boris, Colette will stop at nothing to get her friend back from the kidnapper’s mysterious island, on which two great houses of sorcery engage in a tumultuous civil war. Sides are quickly chosen and lines are readily drawn when The Captain doubts Colette’s choice as to which house has the kidnappers. It falls to her to prove him wrong, save her friend and play part in a secret conspiracy years and years in planning. She won’t flinch, not even to The Captain- but will her youthful courage, skill and gall me enough to save her friend’s life? Man your stations and hop aboard- The Eversea awaits you! (This is the second of the series.) Views: 350
Rae's world is safe. Her tower is all the shelter she needs from all the scary men, beasts, and other dark forces her mother says roam the world of Fable.
Or is it? And what are men, anyway?
And why did she overhear her mother saying a young man might try to take her away soon? But when Henry sneaks into her tower, he's not so bad, and he makes Rae feel strange in ways she doesn't understand. Only after Henry gets chased off by her mother does Rae learn she has the gift of light. And a certain dark wizard wants to destroy her before she can combat the darkness he's spreading through Fable.
Forced to leave her home when the dark wizard comes knocking, Rae's only hope of survival is to venture into the dangerous world, find Henry, and claim her happily ever after. Views: 350
When Marco runs into his old friend Erek he doesn't think too much of it. He's got a couple of more important things to do. Like helping to save the world. But then Marco finds out Erek's been hanging with some of the kids at The Sharing. And he starts to think that something just a little weird is going on. Views: 349
-an Eagle Cove romance- This "Sweet Version" is the exact same story as the original, with no foul language and the bedroom door—even when there isn't one—tastefully closed. Becky Billings loves the small Oregon Coast town of Eagle Cove. Lifelong friendships and simple joys abound here, as does her deepest passion—her craft-beer brewery. Then her best friend's wedding reminds her of just what she doesn't have in Eagle Cove. Harry Slater couldn't brush off the sand of tiny Eagle Cove quick enough. He's slamming the partner fast-track for a top law firm in the Big Easy and nothing could make him come back here, except briefly for his little brother's wedding. Neither of them can guess how their lives will be changed when they come up with a new Recipe for Eagle Cove. Views: 349
Death came in on sixteen legs.So begins a novella set in the Galactic Center series, "A Hunger for the Infinite." Now this novella and much other writing about the science and fiction in the series, appears in one volume. Unique in literature, the series comes from the author's own scientific research. The series took a quarter century to complete, and Benford traces his own research into the strange structures there, first discovered in the 1980s. Critics have described the six novels as "magnificent" by "the most rigorous of hard SF writers." The series has been called "one of the greatest sf series ever written," "a major achievement in realizing the potential of hard SF not only as speculation, but as literature," with "a bardic heft worthy of Poul Anderson." "No one has surpassed this ground-breaking achievement in mapping the unmappable depths of space, time, and consciousness."For the first time, all the depth surrounding the series is collected in one volume. Views: 349
A handful of humans and a multitude of robots create a new society on a mysteriously abandoned Earth in this breathtaking science fiction classic from one of the genre's acknowledged mastersWhat if you woke up one morning on Earth . . . and no one else was there? That is the reality that greeted a handful of humans, including Jason Whitney, his wife Martha, and the remnants of a tribe of Native Americans in the year 2135. Their inexplicable abandonment had unexpected benefits: the eventual development of mental telepathy and other extrasensory powers, inner peace, and best of all, near-immortality. Now, five thousand years later, most of the remaining humans live a tranquil, pastoral life, leaving technological and religious exploration to the masses of robot servants who no longer have humans to serve. But the unexpected reappearance of Jason's brother, who had teleported to the stars many years before, threatens to change everything yet again—for... Views: 349
Each culture has its own myths and legends, but only one is shared, and it is feared by all. With Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and New York Times Bestseller Age of War, fantasy master Michael J. Sullivan riveted readers with a tale of unlikely heroes locked in a desperate battle to save mankind. After years of warfare, humanity has gained the upper hand and has pushed the Fhrey to the edge of their homeland, but no farther. Now comes the pivotal moment. Persephone's plan to use the stalemate to seek peace is destroyed by an unexpected betrayal that threatens to hand victory to the Fhrey and leaves a dear friend in peril. Humanity's only hope lies in the legend of a witch, a forgotten song, and a simple garden door. Views: 349
