(5850 words) After Bryce's eight-year-old daughter tells him she can't remember last summer, or any summer for that matter, he starts to notice discrepancies in the world of his cozy little town. How long has this winter lasted? And why does he feel so cold all the time? A slightly different version of this story appeared in Wild Violet, Feb. 2013.Vivia Brisk knows about the dead. She should. She’s died enough times. Vivia is a hag – or death witch – one of the last of her race, and can die, visit the underworld and return at will. As a consultant with charity The Lipscombe Trust, she has a job she loves – helping London’s most vulnerable supernaturals, even if her colleague Malcolm drives her round the bend on a daily basis. Vivia thinks she’s got Malcolm’s measure – sexist, not too bright and generally a pain in the ass, but then Malcolm zombifies and, along with his fourteen year old son Ben, flees the police. With a zombie on the loose, London goes into lock down and Vivia is roped in into find them. After all, Malcolm can only keep control so long without fresh flesh, and the risk of the zompocalypse increases the longer he’s on the lam. At first what happened seems simple, but then the police find decades-old corpses hidden near Malcolm’s house, and Vivia begins to realise Malcolm’s missing son is in a lot more danger than from just a single zombie on the loose…

A father's quest to save his daughter from Alien dinosaurs that invaded earth and enslaved humans. The dinosaurs are more intelligent than humans and they are an advanced civilization who has high tech weapons with them. They can talk, sing, dance and do various other things that humans could not imagine about dinosaurs.A hug-warm bed every night. A freshly-brewed coffee every dawn. That's the promise being touted by revolutionary tech giant iSYS and their new smart-home system. For Grayl, a self-confessed couch-potato, the chance to be a part of history in the making for the first time in his life was just too enticing to pass up. Promises, though, are cheap. Trust is not. If Grayl hopes to find a purpose to his languorous life, he's going to need to place his trust in a spider web of circuit boards and copper wires.Good thing computers can't lie, right?

The Grauken Wakes... It was the dormant, loathsome instinct possessed by every beast of Ponath. An innocent pup of the Degnan Packstead, Marika thought it was just a tale to frighten the young. Then the Grauken-possessed, cannibalistic nomads swept down from the far north -- and the winter of death began. Marika's pack now has to fight for its life -- even if it means calling upon the treacherous witchlike Silth who can slay by mind alone. But young Marika has powers, too... enormous, untamed mental energies. Can Marika be a weapon against their foes? Or will she become something far greater than the Silth, something fearfully whispered of only in legends... Doomstalker.

The stories here, all of them written between March of 1972 and November of 1973, mark a critical turning point in my career. Those who know the three earlier volumes have traced my evolution from a capable journeyman, very young and as much concerned with paying the rent as he was to advancing the state of the art, into a serious, dedicated craftsman now seeking to leave his mark on science fiction in some significant way. Throughout the decade of the 1960s I had attempted to grow and evolve within the field of writing I loved building on the best that went before me, the work of Theodore Sturgeon and James Blish and Cyril Kornbluth and Jack Vance and Philip K. Dick and half a dozen others whose great stories had been beacons beckoning me onward and then, as I reached my own maturity, now trying to bring science fiction along with me into a new realm of development, hauling it along even farther out of its pulp-magazine origins toward what I regarded as a more resonant and evocative kind of visionary storytelling. Robert Silverberg, from his introduction Table of Contents Introduction In the Group Getting Across Ms. Found in an Abandoned Time Machine The Science Fiction Hall of Fame A Sea of Faces The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV Breckenridge and the Continuum Capricorn Games Ship-Sister, Star-Sister This is the Road Trips Born with the Dead D.V. Perrot: Teach Yourself Swahili Schwartz Between the Galaxies In the House of Double Minds

The War of the Spider Queen begins here.While their whole world is changing around them, four dark elves struggle against different enemies. Yet their paths will lead them all to the most terrifying discovery in the long history of the drow and set them on a quest to save not only Menzoberranzan but the entire dark elf race from Dissolution...

Imagine a war between angels and demons that extends across our universe. Now, think bigger. Imagine that the fight between Lucifer and Jehovah extends across not only our universe but also involves two more ancient universes filled with demons and elves.Imagine a war between angels and demons that extends across our universe. Now, think bigger. Imagine that the fight between Lucifer and Jehovah extends across not only our universe but also involves two more ancient universes filled with demons and elves.The Lucifer's Fall trilogy of the Primal Patterns series is the story of the most celebrated demon warrior and king in history, and the birth of a moral and intellectual renaissance in the Chaos Universe. The first book, "Lucifer's Odyssey", traces the demon prince Lucifer from his imprisonment by Jehovah on Earth to the betrayal of his parents in Chaos and a shaky alliance with the Elven people. Filled with irreverent humor and fast paced action, Lucifer's Odyssey beckons you to take a journey through space and time into a story where elven technology meets the ruthlessness of the demon race and the potential of Jehovah's great creations."Lucifer's Odyssey" is the first book of the Lucifer's Fall trilogy, and book one in the Primal Patterns series.The third book "Shadows of Our Fathers" is set for release in May 2017.

The merged worlds of Phaze and Proton face a new threat from an invading force--leaving the fate of the two planets in the hands of Nepe/Flach and Lysander, two children possessing magical powers.

Master storyteller Peter Benchley combines high adventure with practical information in Shark Trouble, a book that is at once a thriller and a valuable guide to being safe in, on, under, and around the sea. The bestselling author of Jaws, The Deep, and other works draws on more than three decades of experience to share information about sharks and other marine animals. “Shark attacks on human beings generate a tremendous amount of media coverage,” Benchley writes, “partly because they occur so rarely, but mostly, I think, because people are, and always have been, simultaneously intrigued and terrified by sharks. Sharks come from a wing of the dark castle where our nightmares live—deep water beyond our sight and understanding—and so they stimulate our fears and fantasies and imaginations.” Benchley describes the many types of sharks (including the ones that pose a genuine threat to man), what is and isn’t known about shark behavior, the odds against an attack and how to reduce them even further—all reinforced with the lessons he has learned, the mistakes he has made, and the personal perils he has encountered while producing television documentaries, bestselling novels, and articles about the sea and its inhabitants. He tells how to swim safely in the ocean, how to read the tides and currents, what behavior to avoid, and how to survive when danger suddenly strikes. He discusses how to tell children about sharks and the sea and how to develop, in young and old alike, a healthy respect for the ocean. As Benchley says, “The ocean is the only alien and potentially hostile environment on the planet into which we tend to venture without thinking about the animals that live there, how they behave, how they support themselves, and how they perceive us. I know of no one who would set off into the jungles of Malaysia armed only with a bathing suit, a tube of suntan cream, and a book, and yet that’s precisely how we approach the oceans.” No longer. Not after you’ve read Shark Trouble. From the Hardcover edition.

The whole world has become a prison, and Alfred Furnace is its master. Monsters rule the streets, beasts of pure fury that leave nothing but murder and madness in their wake. Those who do not die are turned, becoming slaves to Furnace's reign of cruelty. It is a war to end all wars, one that will leave the planet in ruins. I am a monster too. I am one of Alfred Furnace's children. And I am the only one who can stop him. I have to find a way to use my powers to destroy Furnace, but in doing so I risk becoming the very force that kills us all. I don't know if I am the executed or the executioner. I don't know who will die: me, Furnace or the entire human race. All I know is that one way or another, it all ends today.

Spring comes to Merovingen... and plots begin to grow - as tangled as the strange new plants proliferating in tire backwaters of the City of a Thousand Bridges, as dangerous as the ferment of religious mania that threatens hightowners and canalsiders alike... In debt to the hightown Boregys, approached by the Boregys' rivals, and blackmailed by the fanatic Sword of God, Thomas Mondragon faces a narrowing circle of enemies as he is bound still more tightly in the affairs of the great Houses. Even the dark demimonde of the canals has become unfriendly territory for a man the Sword is seeking either to use - or to destroy.

Sabotage!!! Agrav. It was the century's most important advance in space travel. . . and an experiment so revolutionary that only the men who huddled beneath the surface of Jupiter Nine were permitted to know its full meaning. Yet someone else did know--knew everything, saw everything, head everything--and was diabolically sabotaging the top-secret mission. Who or what the enemy was, Lucky Starr didn't know. but one thing was certain. The deadly force was not human. . . not even remotely human!

Mythik Imagination #1 is a collection of three sci-fi short stories in the spirit of the old pulp magazines of the 30s and 40s, but with a modern twist.- A new inmate in an ancient prison discovers an incredible secret in "Yesterday's Eye's."- See what it is like to face "The Figment of Doom."- A zombie, a ghost and a phantom are not what they seem in "Ghosts of the Future."Mythik Imagination #1 is a collection of three sci-fi short stories from the mythik imagination of Jon Mac. "Mythik" tales are sci-fi and fantasy stories in the spirit of the old pulp magazines of the 30s and 40s, but with a modern twist. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some astounding tales beyond belief:"Yesterday's Eyes"A new inmate discovers an incredible secret in an ancient prison. But something about this prisoner is different. Find out what happens to those who see with Yesterday's Eyes."The Figment of Doom"What would you do if you woke up in an unknown city and encountered a mysterious stranger who claimed to hold the key to your existence? See what it is like to face The Figment of Doom."Ghosts of the Future"A zombie, a ghost, and a phantom are on board the midnight flight of a B-17 bomber as it streaks over World War II France. But things are seldom what they seem when you are dealing with the Ghosts of the Future.Approximately 15,000 words (about 50-60 pages)About the author:Jon Mac writes SF/Fantasy with a pulp spirit, something he calls "Mythik" fiction. He's had jobs picking raspberries, babysitting Coyote pups, working in a recycling plant, directing live TV newscasts, and encoding HD video for Blu-Ray discs. He likes dancing and shopping. No, that's not really true. He's still waiting for flying cars and videophones to become popular. He lives in Los Angeles with his lovely wife and their wonder dog, Baxter.

Millions of years ago the mysterious Toysarians transported a non-human mammalian species from Earth to Tilith. Only Elliot knew why.A Noir-ish story set in 1950's England, Dennis and Celia have spent two years having an affair. Her wealthy husband will not grant her a divorce and is determined to make her life a misery. Dennis and Celia devise a plan to get rid of Simon for good. At first, the plan seems foolproof. But nothing is infallible, and Dennis and Celia soon learn that getting rid of Simon wasn't such a good idea after all. A dark tale with a grisly finality, The Long Drop To Eternity is a short story that noir fans will love.

Clayton is a nerdy teen who is constantly bullied by his peers at Gladeway High and too unappealing to win the affections of his high school crush. But a wristwatch belonging to his grandfather might change all that forever...Clayton loathes going to school and being bullied every day by Blaine Jansen, the star athlete at Gladeway High. Most days Clayton wishes he could either be invisible or attractive enough to win the heart of his long-time crush, Maddie. One day while sorting through his deceased grandfather’s belongings, Clayton finds an old wristwatch that might make his wishes come true…PLEASE NOTE: Carpe Tempus is a short story aimed at young adults.

Lift up your chin, dear reader, and enjoy these stories with the full knowledge that while your neighbor might outrun you in the zombie apocalypse, you'll know how to create adequate defense perimeters during an attack from unidentified flying objects.We like to think of ourselves as emergency preparedness instructors. Specialized ones. You see, we don't worry about the stuff that other doomsday prognosticators talk about, (government overthrow, rising sea levels, oil shortages, zombie plague, etc.). Instead, we're trying to give examples of what to do and not do in specific scenarios. Very specific. For instance, in this issue, we cover things like coping with a pending alien invasion when you've forgotten to feed your cats, or how to deal with loved ones after a ghostly apparition has implied that you will outlive them all, or even how to deal with the ruthless boss of a child mafia ring in a city of magic users.Don't you feel more prepared already?As an added bonus all these instructional scenarios have been written as compelling and fascinating narratives. Because why should the painful and horrific end of all we hold dear be a drudgery to read about?So lift up your chin, dear reader, and enjoy these stories with the full knowledge that while your neighbor might outrun you in the zombie apocalypse, you'll know how to create adequate defense perimeters during an attack from unidentified flying objects.