Seraph is a Raven mage who left behind her responsibilities for the love of the ex-soldier Tier. But when Tier disappears, Seraph must use her magic?and fulfill her ancestors? oath to protect humanity from destruction. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs comes a fantastical series set in a world where magic is the only thing that stands between humanity and total destruction...Seraph is a Raven mage, and among the last of the Travelers who ensure that the city of Colossae is safe from evil. Unwelcome by those who fear magic, the wizard clans have been decimated by the very people they’ve sworn to protect. But Seraph is spared a similar fate by the ex-soldier Tier—and together they build a life where she is no longer burdened by her people’s responsibility.   But now Tier is missing—or dead—and Seraph’s reprieve from her duty is over. Using her magic to discover her husband’s fate, Seraph realizes the prison that holds the evil entity known as Stalker is weakening—and only Seraph can fulfill her ancestors’ oath...

Already addicted to the pharmaceutical drug that keeps her body from decomposing, Bryn has to stop a secretive group of rich and powerful investors from eliminating the existing Returné addicts altogether. To ensure their plan to launch a new, military-grade strain of nanotech, the investors’ undead assassin—who just happens to be the ex-wife of Bryn’s lover Patrick—is on the hunt for anyone that stands in their way. And while Bryn’s allies aren’t about to go down without a fight, the secret she’s been keeping threatens to put those closest to her in even more danger. Poised to become a monster that her own side—and her own lover—will have to trap and kill, Bryn needs to find the cure to have any hope of preserving the lives of her friends, and her own dwindling humanity…

Craphound had wicked yard-sale karma, for a rotten, filthy alien bastard. He was too good at panning out the single grain of gold in a raging river of uselessness for me not to like him -- respect him, anyway. But then he found the cowboy trunk. It was two months' rent to me and nothing but some squirrelly alien kitsch-fetish to Craphound. So I did the unthinkable. I violated the Code. I got into a bidding war with a buddy. Never let them tell you that women poison friendships: in my experience, wounds from women-fights heal quickly; fights over garbage leave nothing behind but scorched earth. Craphound spotted the sign -- his karma, plus the goggles in his exoskeleton, gave him the advantage when we were doing 80 kmh on some stretch of back-highway in cottage country. He was riding shotgun while I drove, and we had the radio on to the CBC's summer-Saturday programming: eight weekends with eight hours of old radio dramas: "The Shadow,"

In the future, psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis have begun to appear in a new generation. Jane possesses these abilities, but knows the danger in using them is real. When she encounters a non-human entity by the name of Max, he warns her that she is being pursued by a dangerous man who has ties to a secretive committee.Jane has always suppressed her dormant paranormal abilities: telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis. The only significant thing that she connects them to is a devastating accident that occurred in her childhood.Amidst the stirrings of an approaching danger she cannot articulate, a distantly remembered spectre from her past — a non-human entity by the name of Max — returns with a warning: a dangerous man is pursuing her.Now, the walls she had so carefully erected around her psychic abilities begin to crumble as she is forced to defend herself against this new intruder.

The destinies of four Planets are pulled together by fate. Persephone, is to be the home for five hundred new world colonists, Orion, was settled by colonists one hundred years ago, New Earth is under attack by space pirates, and the people on Genesis are dying. Four planets that rely on one man, only Tyler Burrows can see them through their ordeals, five if you count Earth.Two Aldebran spies steal the latest technology from Earth and leave a trail of bodies behind them as they escape. Two government agents are on their trail but are almost killed just as they get close. Tyler Burrows is called in to try and retrieve the technology and find those responsible for the murders that accompanied the theft. If that isn`t hard enough he must also face up to space pirates, a homicidal computer and a mad planetary leader.

The Autumn 2014 issue of The Common Oddities Speculative Fiction Sideshow is an eclectic mix of science fiction, fantasy, and poetry by established and up-and-coming authors. All issues of COSFS are archived at www.commonodditiessideshow.com. Published by www.ProvisionBooks.com.The Autumn 2014 issue of The Common Oddities Speculative Fiction Sideshow is an eclectic mix of science fiction, fantasy, and poetry by established and up-and-coming authors. All issues of COSFS are archived at www.commonodditiessideshow.com. Published by www.ProvisionBooks.com. Jessica E. Thomas, EditorCover art by OddMrT.comContributors: Melissa McDanielLawrence BuentelloMirtikaAndy DeckerJill DomschotLou AntonelliEd ShackleeStoney M. Setzer

A First Shot Fired: Part Three and February installments of Tin Universe Daily all for the low price of FREE!!This fictional novel tells the moving tale of two young policemen in the Western Cape who come from two very different backgrounds but whose paths cross each other as a result of traumatic events in their adolescent years.This leads to a very deep friendship that can only be described as the brotherhood relationship between David and Jonathan in the Holy Scripture. Barry, being an atheist, life is saved by Adrian in more than one way that, with constant prayer and support brings Barry to surrender his heart to the Only Saviour, Jesus Christ.This novel, written by a cop, is a true reflection of what the men and women in blue are really exposed to on a daily basis but also that no problem or tribulation is defeat to a child of God in any means and that with God; true peace can be experienced in the worst storms of life.The reader can expect an overdose of real police action as well as suspense and drama, yet there are enough lighter moments as a result of both Adrian and Barry’s razor sharp sense of humour. With three kidnappings and two hostage situations, the audience is sure to be kept captivated to the end!

We love the unexpected, and we love stories that take us places we've never been. I can guarantee there's something brand new for you here, too, no matter how well traveled you are, or how many episodes of Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego you've watched.Sometimes things aren't as they seem. Sometimes that pothole is actually a portal to another dimension. Sometimes that friend is actually a clone created by an evil corporation. Sometimes that rose smells just like the maw of a particular rose-shaped alien that likes to feast on noses.To illustrate the point — well, not those particular points, but the more general one about things not being as they seem — this issue is full of stories on that topic. Life can be unexpected, as these stories so expertly show, whether that means finding out your mom's ghost isn't really your mom, your favorite fairy tale was actually made by non-robots, or the girl you met in a tree really does have skin made of spider silk but she still doesn't have your best interest at heart. And those are real examples from these stories.We love the unexpected, and we love stories that take us places we've never been. I can guarantee there's something brand new for you here, too, no matter how well traveled you are, or how many episodes of Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego you've watched.

75,000 years ago, a specific group of undesireable immortals launched from Earth, sent into deep space to colonize a nearby planet. Advancements in technology since has let Earth build entire civilizations on that planet in the meantime. Now, 75,000 years later, the original ship approaches: do they allow the craft to land, or blow it out of the sky?Joey's world turned upside down after witnessing the executions of his lifelong friends. Then things start to get chaotic when someone from his childhood returns and causes more tension and forces him to remember painful memories from his past, while, at the same time, he tries to stay strong and remain intact for his friends. But after he gets shot from the same guy who killed his team, Joey wakes up to find that Ryan has been elected Mayor, and that Kyle is right there helping him. Will Joey make it out alive to be the one to save his city and friends? Or will he scream and crumble internally as he takes a bullet to his head?

Brad touches the HoloCube, initiating a Chirpfeed interview putting out an explanation on the science of a Green Sahara. If either Asian or NATO naval commanders decide to shoot down their unarmed jet, monsoon geoengineering will collapse. If not, Chinese rice growing, extra global cooling popular among Africans, just might gain Brad’s kids a future amidst the jumbled politics of the day.A modified business jet, loaded with sulphur dioxide, leaves the west coast of Africa headed for a mid-Atlantic release point. If engineers Brad and Vince and climate scientist Tamanna, with popular support of Sahel country politicians and their citizens, can negotiate their way through a military standoff, the world of some at least might turn out better as the climate changes. The message put out to social media, cast as a mix of real science and the heartfelt storyline people truly hear, will be crucial.

Told with Andrew Smith’s signature dark humor, Rabbit & Robot tells the story of Cager Messer, a boy who’s stranded on the Tennessee—his father’s lunar-cruise utopia—with insane robots. Cager has been transported to the Tennessee, a giant lunar-cruise ship orbiting the moon that his dad owns, by Billy and Rowan to help him shake his Woz addiction. Meanwhile, Earth, in the midst of thirty simultaneous wars, burns to ash beneath them. And as the robots on board become increasingly insane and cannibalistic, and the Earth becomes a toxic wasteland, the boys have to wonder if they’ll be stranded alone in space forever. In his new novel, Andrew Smith, Printz Honor author of Grasshopper Jungle, will make you laugh, cry, and consider what it really means to be human.

Convergence is the eighteenth book in C.J. Cherryh's beloved Foreigner space opera series. Convergence marks a new phase in the Foreigner Universe: knowledge about the dangerous situation in adjacent space rests only with Bren Cameron, the human diplomat to the alien court of the atevi, four starship captains, and the two chiefs of state—both the human and the atevi, who share the planet. Bren is obliged to carry the just-signed treaty to the human government on an island some forty miles off the shores of the atevi-ruled megacontinent, and—without explaining the dire situation that would send the people into chaos—to arrange for the human refugees who are crowding the space station to be landed on the island, since the atevi will not grant more land to the human residents of their planet. Bren, a native of this island, is now an atevi official—trying to prepare the human inhabitants for the arrival of many more desperate human refugees from space.

Special contribution by Nikola Danaylov - "The Alpha Centauri Project" is a transhumanist novel about emerging technologies, set in a near future populated by humans and digital beings. Suspense and action, but also a fascinating travel into the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on our civilization, leaving us face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share. Script availableSpecial contribution by Nikola Danaylov - "The Alpha Centauri Project" is a transhumanist novel about emerging technologies and space, set in a near future populated by humans and digital beings. Suspense and action, but also a fascinating travel into the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on our civilization. From this, a powerful comparison with our civilization emerges, that stripping away layer after layer of conventions and prejudices, leaves us at last face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share. The title "Alpha Centauri project" is the symbol of the mastery by the digital people of their future. Social issues as well as dreams and projects of the digital people become key drivers of the story. For digital beings aiming at eternal life, truth and collaboration are primary values; seeking exponential growth in knowledge and technology, avoiding conflicts and spreading into the Universe their goals. Eve and Victoria - the main characters, humans changed into digital beings when their brain was digitized after death - move in this context of epoch making events, searching for identity. They become more and more involved in the hardship of the digital community to the point of rising to leaders. Finally they merge, in a crescendo of drama, their destiny with that of their new people.A script is available. The novel has been translated into English, Spanish, French and Italian. The last editions of the ebooks can be downloaded for free from the Author's website.

To Marie Hadner it's a regular shift in the boondock space colony of Pluto C. That's until people started to disappear and a comet decided to defy all logic.Somewhere deep in her mind Christine Marsden is witnessing the murder of young girls.And now she has urges to hurt her own children.After a head injury which left her having nightmares and visions, Christine is convinced that something inside her brain has broken, and that she is slowly sinking into insanity.She is terrified of what she might be capable of. She fears that in losing her mind she will also lose her children and husband.Christine embarks on a desperate fight to try to halt the fracture of her mind before it’s too late, and in doing so, discovers the hidden truth behind the dark horrors she is experiencing.

This novelette from the anthology “Mountain Magic” features the Slades, whose uneasy coexistence with underground spirits is about to end in an earthquake that'll wipe humanity off the surface of four states.