A futuristic dystopia where two polarized societies representing the ultimate ends of libertarianism vs theocracy battle for survival. While both sides have strong ideology, the law of pragmatism reigns supreme...The year is 2250.Post holocaust.Humanity's once expansive civilizations have been laid to waste, a victim of their own innovations, desires and foolhardy concepts of progress. The first cataclysm was an ideological war between factions who, although adhered to largely the same principals and structure, were separated by a rift in mythology and scripture. This was syntax, not semantics. However, those at the top knew that this rift was simply a front, since the real situation concerning mankind was that of overpopulation and the dwindling of resources. As it is politically incorrect to fight wars based on the simple principal of supply and demand, increasing extremism on both sides and the polarizations of the so called ideologies were pumped to the masses as the sole reason for their respective struggles.Despite this lack, technology continued to advance on both sides, spurred on by the real and present danger of being subjugated and persecuted should the other side win. Atrocities piled on top of atrocities and a complete ban on communication meant that the separate civilizations eventually no longer considered the other side as human.However, the war was not the cause.To sustain the ever increasing need for resources, scientists had long since pulled out the safeguards and checkpoints that regulated the progress of technology. Thus, a combination of genetic mutations, caused by medical advances that cured diseases through altering DNA and rouge nano-machines that had also evolved, mechanically as opposed to biologically, to wreak havoc on the balance of nature and topple of human being from the top of the predatory pyramid on Earth.Now the expanses of the globe had been rendered largely uninhabitable. To step outside of a protected zone, sealed off by the massive infrastructure projects that isolated humans with their own air, food and water from the majority of the planet would mean certain death.But there was still war.

A man wakes up in a strange place with no knowledge of how he got there or who he is when a mysterious woman enters the scene and his life. Armed with nothing but his own intuition and a mysterious package to guide him he must make a crucial decision that will change his world and that of his new acquaintance forever.Have you ever wondered why you were born? You know deep in your soul that life has purpose, but answers to your questions are illusive. We are all searching. A million years before the Florida peninsula existed, a chain of small islands arose from Earth’s primordial oceans. Today, people call it the Florida Ridge. It was there an ancient and highly advanced civilization established a final sanctuary containing an underground library with historical records and remnants of technology. The archaeological site was discovered in 1930 by French explorer Claude Gautier, but remains a closely guarded secret to this day. Sleep was difficult for Haley King. For as long as she could remember, her nights were filled with recurring dreams of a strange civilization. Everyone in her community knew her. They all loved the little blind girl, everyone except Brian. He learned of her true identity from a strange old man with glowing eyes, but he didn’t dare tell anyone; they would laugh at him. She was the biological offspring of two full-blooded Hopi Indians, but her DNA was very different. Her eyes were fluorescent yellow, hair blond, and her skin was pale. An ancient Hopi legend predicted her birth, but the tribe’s partial conversion to Catholicism in the late sixteenth century resulted in a serious misinterpretation of what to do with her. The medicine man took Haley from her mother and gave her to the Catholic Church. Haley was adopted and moved to Florida when she was twelve years old. She became close friends with five boys who had the suspicious happening of all being born on the same day. While the boys were on a fishing trip celebrating their sixteenth birthday, their boat was struck by lightning. Four of them (including Brian) were nearly killed. A tattoo of a leafless tree was burned on their feet. The fifth boy experienced a vision of the future. They were all changed by the incident and their lives became more intermingled with Haley.

For Vivian Caine, becoming the world’s most fearsome airship pirate comes with obstacles. When she crosses paths with the fresh-faced Jonathan Thorpe, a recent graduate of the Sky Marshal Academy tasked with enforcing order and justice across the skies, Vivian will be forced to weigh her swashbuckling life of crime against the unwelcome feelings she finds herself developing for the young captain.For Vivian Caine, becoming the world’s most fearsome airship pirate comes with its share of obstacles. The largest is her family, helmed by notorious outlaw and misguided patriarch Benedict Caine, whose name alone is enough to strike terror into the hearts of millions. Vivian’s mother and three siblings are anything but interested in pursuing the family business, so things take a sour turn when they cross paths with fresh-faced idealist Captain Jonathan Thorpe, a recent graduate of the Sky Marshal Academy tasked with enforcing order and justice across the skies.As Thorpe and the Caine family engage in a wild cat-and-mouse game rife with incredible capers and narrow getaways, Vivian must weigh her swashbuckling life of crime against the unwelcome feelings she finds herself developing for the young captain.

The story of The First Formic War continues in *Earth Awakens*. Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card's bestselling novel *Ender's Game*, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun. When the alien ship screamed through the solar system, it disrupted communications between the far-flung human mining ships and supply stations, and between them and Earth. So Earth and Luna were unaware that they had been invaded until the ship pulled into Earth orbit, and began landing terra-forming crews in China. Politics and pride slowed the response on Earth, and on Luna, corporate power struggles seemed more urgent than distant deaths. But there are a few men and women who see that if Earth doesn't wake up and pull together, the planet could be lost. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Toler Glaive makes his living as hired muscle, guarding trade caravans against the dangers of the wasteland. Unbeknownst to the trading company he works for, Toler has also taken up smuggling, and he's about to pull off the biggest heist of his life. When nomads ambush the caravan, his carefully laid plan begins to unravel. Now he must either take the fall, or let someone else take it for him...In the heat-blasted wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world, Toler Glaive makes his living as hired muscle, guarding trade caravans against the storms, mutants, monsters, and nomads who harry them every step of the way. Only the strongest survive the wasteland, and the strongest of them all is the trading company's brutal overlord, Nichel Vantanible, a man who doesn't tolerate smugglers in his ranks.But that's just what Toler aims to become. He's got all the pieces in place to pull off the biggest heist of his life, and he isn't prepared to settle for anything less than perfection.When nomads ambush the caravan, Toler soon finds the pieces of his carefully laid puzzle coming apart. Can he live out the remainder of the journey and dispose of the goods without Vantanible finding out? Or will his career as a gambler be cut short by a headsman's machete?The Shepherd is a prelude to the Aionach Saga, a post-apocalyptic fantasy epic beginning with The Infernal Lands.

In Jack Campbell’s New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series, Campbell’s hero Captain Black Jack Geary explores the furthest reaches of space. Here, Campbell explores what kinds of problems mankind might face as our horizons expand. The third in a series of collections of Campbell’s short stories includes some of Campbell’s favorite stories, and some of his earliest. A brand new author’s note accompanies each story. “Lady Be Good” is one of Campbell’s most popular stories, winner of Analog Magazine’s “AnLab” reader poll for Best Short Story and cited in Gardner Dozois' Year’s Best SF. The Lady Be Good is an old ship, running obscure routes, not all on the right side of the law, with her loyal first officer Kilcannon and reclusive captain. When Kilcannon decides to rescue the survivors of an attack on a Vestral Company ship, a mysterious new passenger thanks him by asking difficult questions about the Lady, with unexpected answers. In “Kyrie Eleison,” the Verio shipwrecked centuries ago on an out-of-the-way planet, and the descendants of the ship’s survivors have gotten along as well as they can by following the orders that were passed on to them. But those orders weren’t intended to govern life on the planet’s surface, and when the Bellegrange arrives on a rescue mission, her captain will have to reckon with the unexpected social order on the planet. In “Do No Harm”, a ship is so technologically advanced that it can repair itself--but turning over the keys might not be the best idea. And in “Down the Rabbit Hole,” a series of failed attempts at faster-than-light travel lead to a novel approach: sending an untested Naval captain out in a space ship to see if he can figure out what’s gone wrong. With eleven stories in all, AD ASTRA is the most multi-faceted introduction to the short fiction of Jack Campbell, and an essential complement to his bestselling book-length work.

Collected tales of wonder, danger, and the future, including the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning title story This volume contains ten stellar short stories by science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak. In “Grotto of the Dancing Deer,” a man carrying an ancient secret finally speaks up, unable to bear any longer the loneliness he has experienced for millennia. In “Over the River,” which Simak wrote in memory of his beloved grandmother Ellen, children from an embattled future are sent back for safekeeping to their ancestors in the peaceful past. And in “Day of Truce,” the inhabitants of a suburban subdivision must barricade themselves against bands of roving attackers. On only one day each year do the gates open wide. . . . Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook. Contents: The Language of Clifford D. Simak • essay by David W. Wixon Over the River and Through the Woods • (1965) • short story by Clifford D. Simak The Grotto of the Dancing Deer • (1980) • short story by Clifford D. Simak (variant of Grotto of the Dancing Deer) The Reformation of Hangman's Gulch • non-genre • (1944) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak The Civilization Game • (1958) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak Crying Jag • (1960) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak Hunger Death • (1938) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak Mutiny on Mercury • (1932) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak Jackpot • (1956) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak Day of Truce • (1963) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak Unsilent Spring • (1976) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak and Richard S. Simak

For 20 years Eriador has suffered under the evil power of the Wizard King Greensparrow. Luthien Bedwyr is too young and privileged to truly understand the situation--until the night a close friend is murdered by the king's thugs. In anger, Luthien flees home, teaming up with Oliver deBurrows and the wizard Brind 'Amour in a rebellion against the overlords.

A Joan Carter of Mars story.When Virginian Captain Joan Carter is strangely transported to the red planet, Mars, she must learn a new way of life, and a new way to love, with Dejar Thoris, Prince of Helium. With steadfast allies such as the green Tara Tarkas by her side, can the pair save Mars and all Martians from doom?A Gender Switch Adventure.Character author J. Timothy King's short-short romance sampler contains the following 8 stories:* "Pine," a coming of age romance;* "A Penchant for Cotton," a psychological romance;* "Only the Lonely," alone in a crowded room;* "Dead, Long Dead," a zombi-character romance;* "Of Death and Smiles," about marriage and happiness;* "The Woman Who Loved Men," a twisted concept;* "The Confidant of Jericho," based on the story of Rahab;* "The Nitpicker's Guide to Magnum, P.I.," an interesting date.

Todd, Flo, Jade, Lucy, Randy, and others return in this new eBook short. Flo is swimming in the hotel pool when her room explodes. The bomber soon has River City in an uproar. The returning characters are joined by Fred, Dooley, and a pair of Manolo high heel pumps.Ejaz Bennett is a paranormal bounty hunter. The type of guy who's seen it all, Ejaz enjoys relaxing when he's not chasing down something that could kill most men without even a thought. But today, he was greeted by an unexpected guest: Jehoash, known as the King of the Dragons, corners the hunter. But the dragon king is not here to fight or to take revenge, but to ask for Ejaz's help. Jehoash needs it to save the most important thing in his life: His family.

Part one of a series of short storied named "American Slavery Chronicles". In 2032 development was made on a lobotomy chip to enslave the mentally ill and criminals. It was designed to replace the smartphone and tablets as well. Yet something went wrong.In 2032, a lobotomy chip is designed to enslave the mentally ill and criminals. Yet it can do more, and is set to replace the smartphone and tablets. One programmer finds out his code was used for something sinister. That there are hidden functions to this l-chip, and some mega corporation is behind it. He meets with a reporter and someone else tricked into making the chip to expose the truth about it.

Nebula Award–winning author Elizabeth Moon makes a triumphant return to science fiction with a thrilling series featuring Kylara Vatta, the daring hero of her acclaimed Vatta’s War sequence. Summoned to the home planet of her family’s business empire, space-fleet commander Kylara Vatta is told to expect a hero’s welcome. But instead she is thrown into danger unlike any other she has faced and finds herself isolated, unable to communicate with the outside world, commanding a motley group of unfamiliar troops, and struggling day by day to survive in a deadly environment with sabotaged gear. Only her undeniable talent for command can give her ragtag band a fighting chance. Yet even as Ky leads her team from one crisis to another, her family and friends refuse to give up hope, endeavoring to mount a rescue from halfway around the planet—a task that is complicated as Ky and her supporters find secrets others will kill to protect: a conspiracy infecting both government and military that threatens not only her own group’s survival but her entire home planet.

The thirteen best science fiction and fantasy short stories of the year, Illustrated by the most talented aspiring artists!

Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy's husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she'll catch a train over the Rockies and―if the telegram can be believed―be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle.Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought. Reluctantly, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard.What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can't imagine why they're so interested. Perhaps the mysterious cargo secreted in the second and last train cars has something to do with it?Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she'll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the Dreadnought alive.