Dimly, like the daybreak glimmer of a sky long wrapped in fogs, a sign of consciousness began to dawn in the face of the tranced girl. Once more the breath of life began to stir in that full bosom, to which again a vital warmth had on this day of days crept slowly back. And as she lay there, prone upon the dusty floor, her beautiful face buried and shielded in the hollow of her arm, a sigh welled from her lips.

CONTENTS: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag The Man Who Traveled in Elephants '--All You Zombies--' They Our Fair City '--And He Built a Crooked House--'

Tails and Fixers is a Sci-Fi novel that deals with survival on a far distant hostile world. In the end it is a love story with both sorrow and great hope.Tails and Fixers is a Sci-Fi novel that deals with survival on a far distant hostile world. In the end it is a love story with both sorrow and great hope.Floyd was slowly dying and was given the chance to live; if he would agree to be an emissary from Earth. He is sent on a one way mission to a distant world in return for the promise of restored health from a secret stem cell treatment. He and his computer partner arrive fifty Earth years later only to find a planet which had been decimated by a major asteroid strike. The only survivors live in the Sanctuary deep below a mountain. The ruling council finds the idea of democracy a threat to the stability of the Sanctuary. Floyd is evicted from the Sanctuary to an expected death from the elements. Lina with her long fluffy tail, and Tesla a fixer, were to be eliminated in order to sanitize the thinking within the Sanctuary. With the help of the other fixers they escape and join Floyd in his struggle for survival.

Max Aries, a skinny twenty-seven year-old could leap up and snare a football thrown fifteen feet over his head. He could punt a football ninety yards in the air. Kick a seventy-yard field goal. Bend a steel bar, then straighten it out. Max joined a mediocre professional football team, and made them Super Bowl Champions. In short, Max Aries was out of this world. LiterallyMax Aries is a skinny, twenty-seven year-old who appears from nowhere to convince the coach of the Cincinnati Rams, a mediocre professional football team, that he can perform feats that will make them Super Bowl champions. Although he falls victim to a series of obstacles, he manages to live up to his promise. Little does anyone know that Max, or Xam, his real name, was sent from heaven. Not the heaven we all know, but the distant planet Oh Ess Yew.

The dead have risen over night. Lifelong friends Zoe Kate and Boggs wake in the woods to find their world a living Hell. They flee to the mountains in hope of finding safety. Joined by two other survivors, the will face unimaginable horror and unthinkable tragedy.18+ for language, graphic horror & gore, and sexual situations.Caught in the middle of a zombie plague, Zoe Kate and Adam Boggs flee their rural hometown in search of safety in the nearby Cascade Mountain range. They are joined by two other survivors, Gus and Emilie. Infected, Zoe must also face the realization that she has developed a telepathic link to the living dead that fills her mind with darkness and evil. Facing unimaginable horrors and unthinkable tragedies, the group must fight both the living and the dead. Zoe and Boggs manage to fall in love while surrounded by death and despair. Before long, it becomes clear that the living dead do not play by usual zombie rules. Watch for the sequel, Tainted Grace, spring of 2013!

Hope appears to be the ultimate perfect woman: she's beautiful,is incredibly intelligent, and seems to have no limitations. But Hope has one fatal flaw... she is not completely human. In a business where the clones do not disobey under any circumstances, will Hope follow her clone nature and obey, or will her new self-awareness get in the way?Hope appears to be the ultimate perfect woman: she's beautiful, is incredibly intelligent, and seems to have no limitations. But Hope has one fatal flaw... she is not completely human. Hope is the 19241th Hope clone created from the genes of a deceased woman named Sarah Keefe. These Hope models are capable of anything and are expected to do whatever it takes to complete whatever mission they are given. But Hope 19241 is not like the other emotionless, compliant clones, and her creator, Conner Keefe, senses it immediately. Hope doesn't think mechanically like the others, which may cause problems when her mind glitches between the day she was initially programmed, and seven months later when she cannot remember anything since her initial meeting with Conner. Will Hope continue her mission to make the future senator Jesse Oliver, fall in love with her so her bosses can infiltrate the government, or will she find that her newly emotional self-awareness will get in her way?

One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was — as usual — in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars. Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians was at stake — failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war. And Smythe's own life was on the line — for if he wasn't assassinated, there was always the possibility that he might be trapped in his new role forever!

In these twenty-eight magnificent tales, which include two Nebula Award winners, Jane Yolen puts a provocative spin on familiar storybook worlds and beloved fairy tale characters One of the most acclaimed and honored authors in science fiction and fantasy, Jane Yolen has been called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America” for her brilliant reimagining of classic fairy tales. In her first collection of short stories written for an adult audience (after Tales of Wonder and Dragonfield), Yolen explores themes of freedom and justice, truth and consequence, and brings new life to our most cherished fables and myths. Here are storybook realms rendered more contemporary, and cautionary tales made grimmer than Grimm: Snow White is transported to Appalachia to match wits with a snake-handling evil stepmother and Beauty’s meeting with the Beast takes a twisty, O. Henry–esque turn; in Yolen’s Nebula Award–winning “Lost Girls,” a feminist revolt rocks Peter Pan’s Neverland and in the collection’s glorious title story—also a Nebula winner—the poet Emily Dickinson receives some unexpected and otherworldly inspiration. Sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always enthralling, Sister Emily’s Lightship is proof positive that Yolen is truly a folklorist of our times. This ebook features a personal history by Jane Yolen including rare images from the author’s personal collection, as well as a note from the author about the making of the book.

Widely respected in the so-called “mainstream” for her New York Times bestselling novels, Karen Joy Fowler is also a formidable, often controversial, and always exuberant presence in Science Fiction. Here she debuts a provocative new story written especially for this series. Set in the days of Darwin, “The Science of Herself” is a marvelous hybrid of SF and historical fiction: the almost-true story of England’s first female paleontologist who took on the Victorian old-boy establishment armed with only her own fierce intelligence—and an arsenal of dino bones. Plus... “The Pelican Bar,” a homely tale of family ties that makes Guantánamo look like summer camp; “The Further Adventures of the Invisible Man,” a droll tale of sports, shoplifting and teen sex; and “The Motherhood Statement,” a quietly angry upending of easy assumptions that shows off Fowler’s deep radicalism and impatience with conservative homilies and liberal pieties alike. And Featuring: our Outspoken Interview in which Fowler prophesies California’s fate, reveals the role of bad movies in good marriages, and intimates that girls just want to have fun (which means make trouble).

When a thoughtship and its pilot finally reach Avani, they barely have a chance to marvel at its sapphire forests before they are ambushed by an enemy far beyond their understanding.Tumbling down to the planet's surface, an ice-covered continent to the south is the only viable landing site. Lucky for them, what hides beneath may give them the chance to escape before isolation drives them mad.When a thoughtship and its pilot finally reach Avani, the shimmering gem of the western spiral arm, they barely have a chance to marvel at its sapphire forests before they are ambushed by an enemy far beyond their understanding.In the midst of the attack, a fragment is sliced off of the ship causing them to tumble out of control, down to the planet's surface. An ice-covered continent to the south is the only viable landing site. Lucky for them, what hides beneath may give them the chance to escape before isolation drives them mad.This short story is a prequel to the fast-paced Transcendental SF novel "The Truth Beyond the Sky." Heavily inspired by ancient mythology and Joseph Campbell's work, this first book kicks off the THE EPIC OF ARAVINDA series, now available in all major ebook stores.What Top Reviewers Say..."It is a helpful setup...very solid and engaging, which is enough to get me to come back and try more." --Pop Bop, Top-500 Reviewer"Great little book - mixes eastern mysticism with sci-fi. Awesome!" --FlyingRequin, Reviewer"It's the perfect carrot to lure you in. The personalities of pilot and machine are firmly established and very likable." --Jeri A. Ramirez, Reviewer"One of the best science fiction stories I have read in the last year." --Russ, Reviewer

The Clements Academy was established, somewhere around the year 2045, to train the best and brightest orphans the world over into the perfect agents. Weapons training, martial arts training, and small unit tactics are all part of the curriculum for Clements students. It's final assignment time for Jess, Jiri, Raspazzi and Crandall, when a pileup on the highway threatens to expose the bodies.The Clements Academy was established, somewhere around the year 2045, to train the best and brightest orphans the world over into the perfect agents. Weapons training, martial arts training, and small unit tactics are all part of the curriculum for Clements students. It's final assignment time for Jess, Jiri, Raspazzi and Crandall, when a pileup on the highway threatens to expose the bodies. *Contains adult themes and language. Not for the faint of heart or the narrow of mind.Buildup and Breakup is one of many self-contained tales of a tough world with no good choices. Find more in 'From the Desk of Garrett Ross', available in print or e-book.

This is Sixth in a series of short stories based in the same world as the book series A Life in After World. Instead of telling the life story of one character, these stories tell the story of one day in the life of a person in After World.Farsid is on his way to the top and he does not care if he leaves brainless bodies trailed behind him as he goes. Farsid is a witch and uses his mental powers to exert his influence on people and sometimes even to scrape their brains for knowledge which generally leaves the victim with something akin to scrambled eggs afterward. His only problem is that he cannot concentrate to his full potential without a crutch. And his crutch has just been stolen.

Centuries after the collapse of his former paradise, Leon Godwin lived on through his immortality, a parting gift from a dead era. Leon was as killable as any ordinary man, but decades of living amongst ruthless wasteland survivors made him a planner. His years had done him more than that, though. With each passing season, as the dying world around him aged, Leon remained the same.This is a (68.000 words long) paranormal romance. A Bloodeater, Uriel of the Dumes, is on a mission to hunt and destroy the Shadows, creatures that pose a bigger threat to Bloodeater society than vampires. On one of the hunts he and his two friends stumble across a group of human vampire hunters. When one of them, Jen, is hurt, he takes care of the girl, never imagining that he would fall for her. But Jen hates vampires, and even though Uriel is not one of them, he is a member of the immortal race who is responsible for the vampires' creation.

Time-travelling ravens Muninn and Huginn visit a dying boy to grant him his final wish. August desperately wants to be a scientist, and the ravens take him on a journey through history to see science... the science that happened in the month he was named after. But although August doesn't know it, Muninn has her own reason for helping him...August is nine years old, and dreams of becoming a scientist. This is a dream that will never come true, because August is dying. The only dream that's left to him now is that of reaching his tenth birthday, on the last day of the month he was named after. Yet on the eve of that month, August gets two surprise visitors: time-travelling ravens Muninn and Huginn, come out of Norse mythology to bring him the science that he loves. On each of the final days of August, the birds take him back through time to an event in science that happened on that day - the writing of the Einstein-Szilard letter; the discovery of the first Neanderthal grave; helium and Hiroshima and hot air balloons... August comes to understand that these trips into science aren't simple kindnesses. They're ways for him to come to terms with his own death, to make peace with his mortality. And, if Muninn has her way, they'll give him a chance to cheat death after all...

Jason Jacobs has an autistic daughter who identifies with lizards better than people. Jason finds it unusual when their pediatrician suggests that she take lizard hormones to feel comfortable in her not-yet-scaly skin. But why would Jason's wife be in favor of such a radical procedure in the first place? And what does her past as an activist have to do with her unorthodox choice?Jason Jacobs has a daughter named Liz. An autistic child, she identifies with lizards better than people. Jason finds it unusual when Liz's pediatrician tells Jason's wife Carrie that she had 'species identity disorder' and suggests that she take lizard hormones to feel comfortable in her not-yet-scaly skin. But why would Carrie be in favor of such a radical procedure in the first place? And what does her past as an activist have to do with her unorthodox choice?