The first entry in the Living Novel series, Identity Illusions is a story that was born in the community of RolePages.com - There thousands of creative people have come together to build a rich, and dynamic world, filled with exotic magical races, and strange charismatic heroes. The characters in this book all live in that place, along with many others, and the stories of their struggles are beingIn an empire of technology and power, a populace of once magical beings has been stripped of their abilities using cruel injections. Forced to relocate to crowded cities, they are pressed into mundane, toil laden lives. The only escape comes from the Weave, a device that allows you to log in and become anyone, do anything, and live out your dreams. But only for a few hours each day. Meanwhile the ruling Crowley family is struggling over the future of the True Evolutionist Empire. More of the wealthy and powerful are getting physical upgrades, reinforced skeletons, cybernetic implants, functional wings and extra limbs. Others are going further, removing their brains from their bodies and pumping them full of chemicals to expand their capacities, then tying them into factories that can control hundreds, or even thousands of robotic drones at a time. Corgan Crowley finds the implications of concentrating so much power in the hands of so few to be troubling. He doesn't like that so many people, even important people, are spending so much time in the Weave either. He believes the empire should get back to the roots of the True Evolutionist doctrine. But he's out of favor with the emperor, and can already feel political hands closing around his neck. What can he do?

Three comrades from a reconnaissance space ship go against orders and end up crashing their rover on Planet Argel. Their little jaunt thrusts them into life changing experiences. The three face death by the planet’s royal government and reassessment of their own values. They must make the decision to stay or return to ship. However, it may not be their call.Strange sounds emanating from the swamp startled Jack during the night. Alone in the house, he wondered what was outside. Would he determine what was tormenting him before it was too late?A short story with about 2300 words.

Zack Mbele, a reformed smuggler and his crew find respectability a bit boring. That is until the brother of an old acquaintance needs their help tracking down a long buried secret. When they run afoul of the richest man in the solar system who happens to want Zack dead, respectability is anything but boring.A short lyrical prose that tells the story of a man who finds his place in the world, and becomes obsessed with it when he starts to have visitors.

Curiosity gets the better of Craig West when he hears a metallic 'bang' from the abandoned foundry. His attention is drawn to a figure at the window and he makes the decision to investigate.INSIDE — 2012’s SEXIEST WOMAN ALIVE: VENICE’s Nadia Bjorlin! Exclusive Interview: Why She Turned Down DAYS; Her New CSI Role; VENICE Sex Scene Secrets; And Mama Fary! Source: ABC Refused To Pay For AMC’s WGA Table! More Chaos Behind The Scenes at GH? Also: Are GH’s Jason and Franco Twins? Spoiler: Is Robin Really Dead? DAYS: Will Kisses a Boy; Ejami Exposed! Plus: Will John and Hope Kiss? Why Did Andrea Evans Not Submit Herself For Emmy Consideration? Exclusive: Pre, Pre-Noms Revealed — Plus, Supporting Actress and Lead Actor Emmy Reel Deets! Lauralee Bell’s Prime-Time Gig! GH’s Jenn Lilley Staying On! Bren Foster Out At DAYS! Exclusive Interview: Cameron Mathison Hosts Oscar Special! DAYS Casts Celeste’s Son! Brittany Underwood’s New Soap Role! GH Stars Mourns Wife’s Death! Plus: Last Week's Reviews, Unbelievable Blind Items, and Next Week's Cheat Sheet!

Life is short and brutal in the apocalyptic wasteland. Skag Murdet culls herds for slaughter to help sustain the population on razor-thin margins of available sustenance. Everyone has a duty to perform. Everyone has a quota to fill.Parental Warning: This story contains imagery which may be disturbing to young readers.Worst epic fail of her scientific career? Falling for a cyborg she helped create.Kyra Winters never meant for her cyber science discoveries to be used for evil, but that’s exactly what happened. Now returning Peyton 313’s humanity is the last chance she’ll ever have to atone. She can’t get back the lost decade, but she can only change the present by restoring the cyborg who was once Marine Captain Peyton Elliot.Certainly her grand plan for rectifying her mistakes didn’t include madly kissing the confused, passionate Marine when he begged her to. The same scientific mind that constructed the cyborg creator code now warned her not to let Peyton’s tempting offers of heaven cloud her rational decision making. Yet it’s difficult to resist the cyborg she’s restoring when he’s also the most intriguing man she’s ever known.

Connor Matthews was born with powers that human beings can only dream of, and he could care less. All he wants is to be with his wife, who yearns for a quiet life, and his son, who wants nothing more than to train his dad for the superhero he will one day become. And that day has just arrived.Connor Matthews was born with powers that human beings can only dream of, and he could care less. All he wants is to be with his wife, who yearns for a quiet life, and his son, who wants nothing more than to train his dad for the superhero he will one day become. And that day has arrived. When a villain comes to his doorstep, demanding his allegiance, he must embrace the powers he has been given, and ultimately become the Champion of the world.

A machine, a traveler, with so much time, far away from home. He has some pictures and some sheets of paper, his personal belongings, his treasure. Why not take a peek at his treasure, be my guess. I think he is broken in some way, can you see this too? Can you figure out what he does all day long? So quiet, so dark, this is universe. How scare it is. The universe challenges life.‘I like this book, very much.’ CNP93A a coffee-maker.‘I don’t like very much, I’ll go write a much better book.’ XNT5 great bread-maker.‘well, this book is dangerous, it is full of viruses, especially in the paper version, do not turn its pages or your computer will get infected.’‘I have read and would like to know, this book is serious? These things narrated it will happen?’‘Things in books didn't need to happen, they have already happened.’‘But who is the author of this book? He really is in the future? I can say that this is proof that time travel is possible?’‘Never mind, anyway you cannot travel to the future, but the future can travel to you, duh!’‘Can't travel to the future ??? :P ’ ‘The problem is that the future is made of endless possibilities, only when one of these takes place is that it ceases to be a lie.’‘Seriously, this book should be burned, deleted. These changes are horrible, it is okay how things be. No way live without money, damn. End of money is end of the world, ow yeah.’‘After I read this book I have looked at the machines around me with different eyes, I'd talked more with my fridge =) ’

What is life? By what traits and attributes is one thing defined as living, and another not? CCD-08, who prefers to think of herself as "Bo", muses on the subject as the civil war for robot independence rages on outside her bakery doors. She wages her own personal fight inside, trying to bring robots and humans together on either side of a table.What is life? By what traits and attributes is one thing defined as living, and another not? CCD-08, who prefers to think of herself as "Bo", muses on the subject as the civil war for robot independence rages on outside her bakery doors. Defeat could mean lobotomy at best, mass decomissioning at worst. Victory will likely only open the way for further battles. Bo, in turn, wages her own personal fight inside, trying to bring robots and humans together on either side of a table. Maybe she can't change the world on her own. But at least she can stop the fighting long enough, courtesy of a hot cup of motor oil on one side and some perfectly prepared cupcakes on the other, for robots and humans together to see that maybe they don't have much to fight about in the first place. Whatever happens next, both sides have to see that they can't coexist without the other anymore if they both want to escape the flames of war.

Earther forces have begun appearing deep inside New Terran space, raining terror on every planet, settlement, and facility they can find and killing millions along the way. Greatly outnumbered, Assemblage forces have instituted a draft and expanded conscription to the furthest reaches of space, but Major William Anderson has a different plan, a different ideology for dealing with the swarms of EarEarther forces have begun appearing deep inside New Terran space, raining terror on every planet, settlement, and facility they can find and killing millions along the way. Greatly outnumbered, Assemblage forces have instituted a draft and expanded conscription to the furthest reaches of space, but Major William Anderson has a different plan, a different ideology for dealing with the swarms of Earther marines. Instead of brute force against brute force, he wants to build a new kind of unit, something simple but effective, agile but deadly. This is the beginning of that story. Unit 37.

A short story, about 6100 words.Keshawn Bolling lives in a future of total government control. His religion, his education, even the length of his hair are dictated to him, Worse, his own father is one of the enforcers. He wants out; rumor says there is freedom to be had in the orbital habitats. But getting there won't be easy, and freedom is a slippery thing to define...If you don't like insurance companies you should like this story.Then of course there is the question, what is a good thing, and for whom?This story is fun, enjoy it. It's not real life, yet.

When Theo discovers the father he thought died when he was a baby is still alive, he's determined to find him. The clues lead him to lonely Rachel, who has problems of her own, including parents who compare her unfavourably to her long-dead sister. But when Rachel and Theo are attacked by men from RAGE - the Righteous Army against Genetic Engineering - they are rescued by strangers and taken to meet a mysterious figure who leads them to make startling discoveries about their identities, which will affect their past, present, and future in dramatic and life-altering ways...

But, for all that, I went on writing short fiction all through the seventh and eighth decades of my life, and though I’m not very active these days, I would still pay attention if someone were to approach me with an interesting and challenging short-story project, or if some absolutely irresistible story idea were to come into my mind. I will not, at this point, try to claim that the stories that are collected here are the last short stories I will ever write. Surely some editor, in the years ahead, will tickle my imagination with a proposal I can’t resist. But I doubt that will be happening very often; and, meanwhile, here’s the harvest of the fourteen years that began in 1995—not an enormous number of stories, no, but stories nevertheless that I think are worth reading and reprinting. —Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction

When starfighter pilot Simon Dodds is enrolled in a top secret military project, he and his wingmates begin to suspect that there is a lot more to the theft of a legendary battleship and an Imperial nation's civil war than either the Confederation Stellar Navy or the government are willing to let on.Abby refuses to marry the monster to whom she is betrothed. As she flees, she meets a mysterious stranger at a wayside inn. His startling proposition will either save her, or leave her mired in scandal.

Kenneth and Savannah are classmates, regular teenagers, who are whisked away 50 centuries into the future to save over one hundred trillion lives and prevent the destruction of the human race. Only then will they be allowed to return home. And they better hurry, for time is running out….FROM PAST TO THE FUTUREHEROES... TRANSFERRED IN TIMEThis story is a dazzling tale of intrigue and mystery, centered on a young girl and boy who find themselves whisked away to save the future of humankind.Meet Kenneth, a regular school kid from the 21st century. All he wants to do is skip gym class and play video games after school. Meet Savannah, a classmate that Kenny would rather not be stuck with. An intelligent girl, she is fond of poetry and insulting the boys.As they wait for their bus home after school, a rather strange occurrence takes place. They are picked up by a giant in a spacesuit, who proceeds to take them 50 centuries into the future.Kenny and Savannah must work with Unquill Hester to save over one hundred trillion lives, and prevent the destruction of the human race. Only then will they be allowed to return home.They had better hurry up though, for their time is fast running out….If you wish to read more, download now!BONUS PREVIEW IF YOU BUY THIS BOOK!EXCERPT"Good morning, significant citizen," the man said. "I trust you are well?"The words came to Kenneth as though they traveled a long way to reach him. He put a hand to his forehead, already despising the headache that he felt growing there."What?" was all Kenneth could utter. The back of his eyes felt like they were being punctured by shards of glass and he blinked his eyes in rapid succession, trying to will away the pain."I am your introductory guide to the 73rd century. My designation is Unquill Hester. Please be at ease. You were chosen out of an infinite number of lives in the time stream because you are special." The man, larger than any man Kenneth could remember seeing, looked delighted. He couldn't stop grinning.A light danced in the man's eyes. He looked to Kenneth like a scientist who'd just discovered a particularly fascinating insect in its natural habitat."Say what?" Kenneth violently rubbed at his face with both hands.The man bowed before Kenneth. His hair flopped over the front of his head in a way that Kenneth could not help but find comical."Ahh, yes, do forgive me. It always slips my mind that time transport subjects often experience a certain amount of—shall we say, disorientation—upon entering another point in time. Please don't be alarmed. It is not my intention to cause you distress. You have been chosen, you and one other. The other remains asleep at present. Shall I wake her for you?""The—the other. You mean Savannah?"Kenneth didn't think he liked the idea of being alone in the future with a girl who had just got done insulting him only a few hours before. He started thinking of all the things he would say to her. Many of them he would not repeat to his parents."Is that her designation? A geographical area that is neither plains nor forest, yet a mixture of both. This land type vanished completely from record around the 30th century when—""Let her sleep," Kenneth said. "I'm hungry, and sore. You have anything to eat?"Download and discover why readers are raving about Carl Johnson.Scroll up and get the book now!

Newt Run is a town that shouldn't exist, a town of artists, drug dealers, miners and steam. It’s a town at the center of a broken universe, and broken universes have the bad tendency to fall apart. In this tale, a homeless man takes it upon himself to find out why so many pigeons are turning up without their heads.Newt Run is a town that shouldn't exist, a town of artists, drug dealers, miners and steam. It’s a town at the center of a broken universe, and broken universes have the bad tendency to fall apart.Newt Run is also a novel, but the world of Newt Run was much too large to fit inside a single book. These short stories, or 'modules', extend this world, probing into its deepest, smallest secrets. In 'Dead Birds', a homeless man takes it upon himself to find out why so many pigeons are turning up without their heads.