THIS WAY TO THE END TIMES: Classic Tales of the Apocalypse, gathers 21 compelling, gripping stories of the not-too-distant demise of the earth as we know it. And what a collection. From little-known, brilliant tales by sci-fi legends Jules Vernes and Olaf Stapledon, to intense short works by sci-fi masters Ursula K. Le Guin, Connie Willis, Jack Vance, and Brian W. Aldiss, to haunting works by contemporary authors Dale Bailey, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Karen Haber and Megan Arkenberg, THIS WAY TO THE END TIMES paves the road to the fantastical future, alternating humor with grit, and hope with ghastly post apocalyptic visions. Guest editor Robert Silverberg—winner of numerous Hugo and Nebula awards, Grand Master of Science Fiction Writers of America, and a Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee—hand-picked each story, and offers an introduction to each, as well as an introduction to the anthology as a whole. A unique collection for longtime and new fans of speculative fiction, THIS WAY TO THE END TIMES roars into the future wide-eyed and full speed ahead. Complete list of authors: Jules Verne, James Elroy Flecker, Frank Lillie Pollock, G. Peyton Wertenbaker, Philip Latham, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Brian W. Aldiss, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, James Tiptree, Jr., Malcolm Edwards, Connie Willis, Karen Haber, by Dale Bailey, Megan Artenberg, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Olaf Stapledon

In this dramatic prequel to the award-winning Chaos Walking Trilogy, author Patrick Ness gives us the story of Viola's journey to the New World.

Rath Scampion explores the barren planet Fenrir just before a Regency Council plants a genetically created "alien." Geneticists create the Fenrites in cloning labs, infusing knowledge of basic agriculture, but as the colony takes hold, researchers discover the Fenrites advancing at an alarming pace. The experiment spirals out of control, and Rath must flee, ending up in the midst of outcasts.From the Author: Alien Cradle is one of my first novels. It is more plot focused than character driven, so it is very different from my other works, such as the Delver Magic series. I am including it for the sake of completeness. I wanted to make all of my work available for anyone interested in my earliest books. If you decide to give Alien Cradle a try, I hope you will also consider some of my other novels, even if you find this particular story not to your liking. Thank you,Jeff InloSummary: Rath Scampion, outer rim scout, explores the barren landscapes of Fenrir just before a Regency Scientific Council plants the seed of a genetically created "alien." Captured trying to steal precious gems from the planet, Rath finds himself entangled in a massive deception. Geneticists create the Fenrites in cloning labs, infusing knowledge of basic agriculture through brain wave technology. As the alien colony takes hold on the once barren planet, researchers discover the Fenrites advancing at an alarming pace, passing quickly through complex stages of industrial and technological growth. The experiment spirals out of control and Rath must flee Regency controlled space, ending up in the midst of marauders and outcasts. He is caught with no safe haven as the Fenrite disaster spurs on political and military chaos throughout the Regency colonized worlds.

The Atlantean Adair has to climb her way back into reality and start to take on the enemies of the Atlanteans - they call themselves The Messengers.There is a secret war going on unbeknownst to not only mankind but to many civilized sentient creatures across the galaxy. Only but a select few organizations are aware of this war and doing the best they can to prevent a pending collapse of life as everyone understands it to be. Dimensional Drifts and Rifts are starting to occur in Paradise. The first Paradise located in Paradise, Texas will be attacked by the hands of an old enemy. The ancient race known as the Atlanteans are known in fairy tales and myths to mankind and alien alike. A resurgence is occurring and soon everyone will have to choose a side. The Atlantean Adair has reclaimed her role in the very first and oldest war the universe has ever seen.

In the wake of the fall of the Ubaganian Empire, a troupe of actors prepared to inspire the army to battle instead find themselves caught behind enemy lines. It's up to Vijaya Choudhary to lead them to safety.I, Vijaya Choudhary, am a Chaplin.I thought it best to keep that from the Qorathi. It's not that I'm anything other than proud of my work. But he and I, for the moment, were not exactly on the same side.Peacekeeping is an honorable job. Promises, once made, must be kept, and noble are the warriors who ensure that those promises hold, the GalPax forces who maintain the lines of ceasefires and peace settlements. But until that ceasefire settlement is made, you must fight like hell, to be in position to make the right deal when the time comes. And we humans have a truce with the Dilgarians on one front only. On that front, GalPax may take its proper stand. But on the front to which I was headed, no truce held.And I am a bard of war.

Tory's great aunt, Temperance Brennan, visits just in time to investigate a robbery at the Loggerhead Island Research Institute. As a renowned forensic anthropologist, Tempe is obviously qualified to figure out whodunit, but Tory and her Virals pack want to crack the case on their own. Yet the crime is puzzling. Who could have accessed the labs at LIRI, and how could they have gotten the equipment off the island? It's Brennan vs. Brennan in this short story that gives readers a brand new insight into the world of the Virals.

Intervention sets the scene for Julian May's new trlogy of the Galactic Milieu. This has been split into two books: The Surveillance (containing Prologue, The Surveillance, and The Disclosure) and The Metaconcert, containing The Intervention and Epilogue. For 60 000 years the five races of the Galactic Milieu have watched and waited for the time when human mental development on Earth is ready for the Intervention ... As the twentieth century draws to its end, phenomenal mental powers are displayed by 'operants' all across our planet... They can 'farspeak' one another telepathically. They can build mental shields and they are capable of coercion by power of mind. One of there is Rogatien Remillard, a dealer in secondhand books, whose memories - written a century on - form the core of this chronicle. They tell of a world where the mind has become a weapon; and of two brothers, each possessed of extraordinary powers - one a peace-bringer, the other an advocate of evil...

In the newest volume of this exhilarating series, Eric Flint continues to reshape American history, imagining how a continent and its people might have taken a different path to its future. With 1824: The Arkansas War, he spins an astounding and provocative saga of heroism, battlefield action, racial conflict, and rebellion as a nation recovering from war is plunged into a dangerous era of secession. Buffered by Spanish possessions to the south and by free states and two rivers to the north, Arkansas has become a country of its own: a hybrid confederation of former slaves, Native American Cherokee and Creek clans, and white abolitionists–including one charismatic warrior who has gone from American hero to bête noire. Irish-born Patrick Driscol is building a fortune and a powerful army in the Arkansas Confederacy, inflaming pro-slavers in Washington and terrifying moderates as well. Caught in the middle is President James Monroe, the gentlemanly Virginian entering his final year in office with a demagogic House Speaker, Henry Clay, nipping at his heels and fanning the fires of war. But Driscol, whose black artillerymen smashed both the Louisiana militia in 1820 and the British in New Orleans, remains a magnet for revolution. And fault lines are erupting throughout the young republic–so that every state, every elected official, and every citizen will soon be forced to choose a side. For a country whose lifeblood is infected with the slave trade, the war of 1824 will be a bloody crisis of conscience, politics, economics, and military maneuvering that will draw in players from as far away as England. For such men as Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Sam Houston, charismatic war hero Andrew Jackson, and the violent abolitionist John Brown, it is a time to change history itself. Filled with fascinating insights into some of America’s most intriguing historical figures, 1824: The Arkansas War confirms Eric Flint as a true master of alternate history, a novelist who brings to bear exhaustive research, remarkable intuition, and a great storyteller’s natural gifts to chronicle the making of our nation as it might have been. From the Hardcover edition.

In this dark science fiction short story, taking a ride through your partner's psyche can be highly addictive, as Stan finds out via Cortex Composer 8. He witnesses others' personal heavens, hells, outer-inner spaces, and fantasies... but Stan finds there's only one thing he's truly afraid to see.When I first imagined The Company Wars Chronicle, it was to be based around the life of Alexi Davanoff; alongside him are number of other characters of which Rhea is one. Like all fictional characters: and many of us in real life, Alexi needed someone in particular who could bring out the parts of him that he kept hidden; Rhea was to Alexi the woman who took his heart and never gave it back, but there was more to Rhea than just being a lost love.

If you enjoy the old west with a twist, cowboy lawmen with guns blazing and outlaws, always on the take and of course dope, zombies and the strange flying machines of the elders….this one might be for you?Scratches starts as the Sacramento lawman—Dan Bardwell—falls from his saddle in front of the mission gates at Arroyo de la Cantua. After safely getting his man—or men rather—and riding away into the night, the lawman is awakened by a terrible buzzing which can’t be explained. With a blood moon rising across the range, he is confronted by the undead as he stands next to a little fire with a blued Navy Colt in each hand. The zombies continue to pile through the long nighttime hours until the bullets are no more. As he lies prostrate under an unforgiving desert sun, sand blows around his form and he has a series of delirious visions, where he meets Ahote—an old Indian friend—and Father John who may or may not really be there?Scratches is the first of a planned series of short stories written in support of the novel, Ain’t No Law in California—from Solstice Publishing, in which the Sacramento lawman, Dan Bardwell, rides through hell and high water on the trail of some outlaw or another. The short collects various bits from the rewrite of a follow-up novel which I hope to submit soon.If you enjoy the old west with a twist, cowboy lawmen with guns blazing and outlaws, always on the take and of course dope, zombies and the strange flying machines of the elders….this one might be for you?

The Tampy aliens’ living spaceships are far more powerful than humanity’s non-biological technology. Can they—and should they—be tamed? Throughout the universe, space horses are among the most coveted of species. They are starfaring creatures with telekinetic abilities, tamed and controlled by the Tampy aliens—who aren’t willing to share their understanding of the creatures. Despite diplomatic government intervention, human poachers are determined to capture and control the giant beings. With a tenuous peace treaty in place between the Tampy and humans, the first jointly helmed space horse will undertake its first mission. But will the two races be able to work together—or will their peace break down into all-out war?

A short science fiction story about a young girl in an internment camp."Faith isn't faith until it's all you're holding on to."- Toralii ProverbHundreds of years before the Toralii attacked Earth, destroying the cities of Beijing, Tehran and Sydney, before they developed the voidwarp technology and destroyed their homeworld, they warred amongst themselves.The hills of the occupied Kaater Mountains were home to thousands of prisoners.Including Tami.A 1,947 word story set in the Lacuna universe suitable to read as a stand-alone story. Parts of the Lacuna universe:* Magnet* ImperfectThe Lacuna series:* Lacuna: Demons of the Void* Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi* Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion (Coming December, 2012!)

Based on actual events...maybe...It was just a party.There were six of them, three guys and three girls enjoying the cool fall evening. Good friends, they had been drawn together in high school like pieces of steel to a magnet. Considered nerds by many in their school, something in the sky that night changed their lives foreverBased on actual events...maybe...It was just a party.There were six of them, three guys and three girls enjoying the cool fall evening. Good friends, they had been drawn together in high school like pieces of steel to a magnet. Considered nerds by many in their school, all of them were near the top of their class and seemed destined for big things. But something in the sky that night changed their lives forever! The Abducted is a prequel to The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic series.

Hailed as "a literary fantasist of outstanding power and originality" by Michael Moorcock, Storm Constantine is one of the most exciting and innovative fantasy writers of her generation. The author of many acclaimed works of science fiction and fantasy, she is best known for her daring, stylish and provocative Wraeththu trilogy (The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, The Bewitchments of Love and Hate, The Fulfilments of Fate and Desire). The series, which chronicled the rise of a new race of seductive androgynous beings with awesome powers, was hailed as a modern fantasy masterpiece, winning an avid international following of devoted readers. Now, with The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure, Storm Constantine returns once again to the saga of the Wraeththu with a new epic that reveals previously unknown truths about the origins of these remarkable beings. Long before the Wraeththu assumed total mastery of the Earth and dominion over the dwindling remnants of the human race, they were a wild and passionate people, living in scattered tribes, worshiping strange gods, increasing their numbers by transmuting humans into their own kind. But all that changed on a festival night that surpassed all others, a night when the world changed forever and the Wraeththu began to realize their awesome potential. It was a time when the archmage Thiede wove the strands of Wraeththu destiny. When two young Wraeththu hara came together to produce a miraculous new life. When Pellaz, a brash and reckless young leader, rose from destruction to take his place in Wraeththu history. And a child called Lileem found a path of passion and power that led to unknown worlds of mystery. A tale of intrigue and betrayal, bloodshed and pleasure, dark and dangerous supernatural forces, ardent and consuming passions, The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure is a thrilling new chapter in a compelling fantasy epic.