The Ministry of Serendipity at Mornington Crescent runs everything. And that is everything. When the Ministry learns of' a spacecraft that crashed four thousand years ago into the Pacific Ocean, it sends Sir John Rimmer and his elite team of' paranormal investigators to recover it. Amongst Sir John's team is Danbury Collins, and Danbury isn't keen. He's seen the movies. He knows how it works: spacecraft is brought up from the depths. Mad alien thaws out. Hell and horror all around. Thousands flee in terror. And bloody big explosion at the end. Danbury knows just what should be done. Nuke it, and nuke it now. But will anybody listen? No! Porrig has Inherited a planet or it might be a bookshop, or it might be a gateway into another world. And Porrig is worried because he has learned a terrible secret. But if he told people all about it, would they listen? No! But perhaps they should, because a spacecraft has been brought up from the depths, a mad alien has thawed out, there is hell and horror all around and thousands are fleeing In terror. And there is every likelihood of there being a bloody big explosion at the end. In this, his eighteenth novel, Robert Rankin takes a classic science fiction theme, turns it inside out and upside down and blends it with horror and humour to produce something all his own.

Griffins, Dragons, and BNPs (Bugs of Nightmarish Proportions). Who knew? It seemed harmless enough. See a mysterious door and step through to see what happens, right? Now stranded in a magical kingdom, husband and wife search for a way home. However, enlisting the aid of the king and queen has given them their biggest shock yet: Royal Babysitters. Some days it didn't pay to get out of bed.Dragons, griffins, and BNPs (Bugs of Nightmarish Proportions). Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined what was in store for them. After learning he had inherited an enormous mansion and a huge tract of land from a reclusive set of relatives, Steve Miller, along with his wife Sarah, decide to take a few days off to investigate their new-found fortune in the quiet resort town of northern Idaho, Coeur d’Alene. While taking inventory of the vast manor, they discover a unique set of doors on the top floor. Mistaking them to be an ornate decoration, the doors are accidentally activated, presenting the two new homeowners with a tantalizing decision: step through or ignore? No harm could possibly befall them by simply walking through an open door, right? Curiosity getting the better of them, they step through and both are sent on a one-way journey to a land of unimagined wonder! Realizing they were now stranded on a world populated with creatures that should exist only in one’s imagination, they enlist the aid of the local king and queen. Their troubles continue to escalate, however, as it is revealed their arrival had been long foretold by an ancient local prophecy, bestowing upon them the status of Royal Bodyguards to the young crown prince. Stuck on a foreign world where mythical creatures abound, trying to avoid being attacked by griffins, and hoping to impress a living, breathing dragon, the newly appointed babysitters must find a way to return home soon before harm could befall the young prince.Some days it didn't pay to get out of bed.

What is left on earth after all the good people go? A bizarre mix of Clones and Urchins inhabit what is left of civilization as the Last Detective in the World operates in an underworld where crime pays. The original novella, Dydeetown Girl, is a Nebula Award finalist.

Newlyweds Joel and Sonnet have just wrapped up a housewarming party in Suburban Phoenix. Custom-built on the site of a meteor crash a half century ago, the young couple received everything they wanted in their dream house. Unfortunately, Joel and Sonnet also got what they didn't want: thousands of unwelcome, venomous guests.Newlyweds Joel and Sonnet have just wrapped up a housewarming party in Suburban Phoenix. Custom-built on the site of a meteor crash a half century ago, the young couple received everything they wanted in their dream house. Unfortunately, Joel and Sonnet also got what they didn't want: thousands of unwelcome, venomous guests. Despite a clean inspection report, the house is crawling with more scorpions than your average infestation, leaving husband and wife to avoid the pests' numbing and potentially fatal sting.On a night that will forever alter their fates, Joel and Sonnet are forced to uncover the mystery of the scorpions' origins. What they find challenges their greatest fears as well as their love for one another.

Jake Barnes, an odd man, is a struggling novelist that makes his living at a publishing house where the owner and the other employees find him too strange to fraternize with. His social life and his writing career change when a mysterious man shows up on his doorstep demanding that Jake hand over the man’s cat. Quirky humor.In A Fool For A Client, Hobie Burrows returns to San Francisco after the conclusion of A Dream Is A Pinhole In Time. Not only does he have to face a future without Keiko, Lott & Pembroke (his old law firm) undermines his plans to practice law as a solo practitioner in San Francisco. Can Tiranoan technology and a wealthy client help him succeed on either account?A Fool For A Client is a story in The Encircling Belts of Tirano Saga. Planet Tirano creates a unique milieu for the series The Encircling Belts of Tirano Saga. Its aristocracy consists only of pureblooded descendants of the leaders of the mother ship that landed two millennia ago. Genetically engineered women, conceived in vitro, control Tirano’s computer network and hyperspace portals. Vhirko, clones of women who died valiantly in battle, guard Tirano’s monarch. Tirano has been at war for decades with a savage alien species that becomes sentient only if mentally linked in groups of four or more.Tirano’s King Mhikhel unleashes fundamental, and uncontrollable, changes to this milieu when he acknowledges as his child an illegitimate son of a commoner and raises the child (Tarnlot) as a prince. Despite the aristocracy’s antagonism, Mhikhel grooms Tarnlot to serve as the Lord Chancellor (the highest governmental post, which is normally held by a member of the aristocracy) when Mhikhel’s heir (Prince Zhun’Mar) assumes the throne.In A Bastard’s Oath Tarnlot must rescue the throne for Zhun’Mar’s by foiling both an aristocrat’s coup d’etat and the aliens’ coup de main. In the series’ second installment, A Dream Is A Pinhole In Time, Tarnlot and Zhun’Mar escape an ambush in deep space by entering a hyperspace fissure that strands them on a planet in an unknown galaxy: present day Earth. The third installment, Outliers of Tirano, begins the stories of Siniastra, Zhun’Mar's daughter. Sibyl of Doom continues the story of Siniastra's quest to serve as Queen of Tirano despite the efforts of Tirano's aristocrats to remove her from the throne.

Welcome to the November-December 2013 issue of Uncharted Frontier EZine, our 14th issue! This month's issue contains stories dealing with the dark and fantastic! Richard Lawrence continues his Merlin saga, Ben Franklin travels through time?! Don't miss this issue!Welcome to the November-December 2013 issue of Uncharted Frontier EZine, our 14th issue! This month's issue contains stories dealing with the dark and fantastic! Richard Lawrence continues his Merlin saga with the appearance of a new rival in an Old One whose name will ring familiar if you've ever travelled to Lovecraft Country! David Rutter's Collection of Poetry is not to be missed! Not to mention, Ben Franklin's infamous Time Travel experiment?! You heard it here folks.Enjoy our latest issue!

It is the distant future and Earth appears to be at peace. Into this tranquil world a man from another era wakes up. Upon exploring his surroundings he finds the people to be friendly and helpful. However, he feels a malevolent presence is at work, not only in this new world but he fears also within him. A Novelette of 14,200 words, this is a science fiction story.It is the distant future and Earth appears to be at peace. Into this tranquil world a man from another era wakes up. Upon exploring his surroundings he finds the people to be friendly and helpful. However, he feels a malevolent presence is at work, not only in this new world but he fears also within him. The first book in the Charred Earth trilogy.A Novelette of 14,200 words, this is a speculative science fiction story with a hint of adventure and high technology.

Twenty-fourth century scoundrel Jaf Daskal takes an honest look back on the adventure that started his unlikely climb to 'hero'.Stumbling on the 'lost planet' of Caliuga, he and his criminal crew try to engage in harmless fraud, but end up experimenting with a new drug and founding a new religion. Oh, and a war breaks out, with Jaf and crew trying their best to survive and profit from it all.Okay, here goes. When Jaf Daskal betrays the sinister fellow who paid him to recover a mysterious ‘treasure,’ he feels like he’s being pursued by the Valkyries of Andromeda as he and his little band are launched into a bizarre adventure of fraud, power, sex, drugs, and religion that culminates in a battle for planet-wide freedom.Valkyries of Andromeda is a science fiction adventure story that begins the saga of Jaf Daskal,an orphan brought up by a poor elderly woman on the afterthought planet Kipple. From her he learned some appreciation of universal feminine attributes; from the city he learned to adapt and fit in, to be everybody’s friend, and to bend ethics in order to survive. He goes into free-lance work, doing whatever pays, contracting to recover a mysterious treasure on the desert planet of Mobahey. There he signs on two drifters, one oh-so-sharp and one oh-so-peculiar, and the three head out on a hunt. But first, Jaf also arranges with the original discoverer of the treasure map, an eccentric old sort, to betray Jaf’s sponsor so the two can make off with the treasure themselves. Once the ‘treasure’ (two big rubbery balls) is brought back to town the sponsor figures out what’s up and comes after them like the ‘Valkyries of Andromeda’, and they make a hasty uncharted escape to equally uncharted Caliuga, a planet settled by wayward travelers over the past couple centuries. There they are mistaken for the Empire’s Inspector General, Caliuga’s first contact with the Empire ever, bringing joy that the planet of castaways will soon be re-connected to civilization, and all its blessings.The Caliugan settlements have mostly prospered peacefully, but the latest arrivals (before Jaf and crew) are trying to consolidate and gain power over the others by forming a Planetary Union and coercing other colonies into joining; it is into this vortex that Jaf and his crew are drawn. Fraud, confusion, intrigue, schemes and plots ensue as Jaf is sucked into the politics of Caliuga, and it all culminates with battles and bloodshed.Valkyries of Andromeda is the first in a series of stories told by Jaf Daskal, a man of the 24th century who has been many things in his life, often mistaken for noble or heroic. Here he takes a shameless look back at his hundred-year career that made him famous enough that people would care about his life, and candid enough that they would enjoy his account.

After the sun turned, Madelyn fled north to escape the riots and the encroaching glaciers. As long as the world was ending, she wanted to live her final days in the one place she had always been happy—her grandmother's cabin. She survived the Roamers, the scavengers, and the wildlife, but she can't escape her fear of dying alone.After the sun turned, Madelyn fled north to escape the riots and the encroaching glaciers. As long as the world was ending, she wanted to live her final days in the one place she had always been happy—her grandmother's cabin. She survived the Roamers, the scavengers, and the wildlife, but she can't escape her fear of dying alone.She left behind this note:"Gather my bones, if you find them. If a bear hasn’t dragged them off, or a wolf cracked them for my marrow. My skull goes on the wall with the others. Any other remains can be planted near Sacrifice Rock. That’s where my grandfather is buried, and where I dug up the skull of my beloved grandmother.Her sweet eyes were still wise and kind, even when I only imagined them from their hollow sockets. She taught us so many things—how to hunt, trap, and fish. She should have taught me how to live alone. I never learned the trick of scaring away the ghosts. They won’t shut up and leave me in peace. I guess it's time to join them."—MadelynThis series is continued in "Madelyn's Mistake" and "Madelyn's Last Dance".

Hu-bots – robots that humans created as perfect versions of themselves – now control the world. They seized power in a war that almost wiped humankind off the face of the earth. The humans that remain are forced to either work as servants or live in prison camps. But one teenage girl, Six, has a device that could change everything. Her Q-comp, a computer onto which the memories of her murdered family have been downloaded, contains information that could save humankind. Six is unaware of the power she holds, but the ruling hu-bots are not. Forced to flee from those sent to kill her, can Six discover the secret that could save her life, and the future of the human race?

Seventeen-year-old Mana has found and rescued her mother, but her work isn't done yet. Her mother may be out of alien hands, but she's in a coma, unable to tell anyone what she knows. Mana is ready to take action. The only problem? Nobody will let her. Lyle, her best friend and almost-boyfriend (for a minute there, anyway), seems to want nothing to do with hunting aliens, despite his love of Doctor Who. Bestie Seppie is so desperate to stay out of it, she's actually leaving town. And her mom's hot but arrogant alien-hunting partner, China, is ignoring Mana's texts, cutting her out of the mission entirely. They all know the alien threat won't stay quiet for long. It's up to Mana to fight her way back in.

"Rescued," an e-short story related to the Missing series, will be available August 5. "Rescued" provides a bridge between RISKED and REVEALED Return to the world of The Missing with an original e-short story! Katherine and Jonah have just saved the Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Maria, as well as their brother the tsarevitch Alexei Romanov. Although the Romanovs are devastated that they lost the rest of their family, they are happy that they still have each other and are safe. But they weren't the only ones saved: Leonid, Alexei’s faithful servant and friend, was also whisked away to the time hollow. Will he be able to accept his fate?

For hundreds of years, the Ironship Trading Syndicate was fuelled by drake blood–and protected by the Blood-blessed, those few who could drink it and wield fearsome powers. But now the very thing that sustained the corporate world threatens to destroy it. A drake of unimaginable power has risen, and it commands an army of both beasts and men. Rogue Blood-blessed Claydon Torcreek, Syndicate agent Lizanne Lethridge, and Ironship captain Corrick Hilemore, spread to disparate corners of the world, must rely upon the new powers and knowledge they have gained at great price to halt its forces–or face the end of all they know.

Elizabeth Waters, an archaeologist who abandoned her husband and daughter years ago to pursue her career, can see the shadows of the past. It's a gift she keeps secret from her colleagues and students, one that often leads her to incredible archaeological discoveries and the realization that she might be going mad. Then on a dig in the Yucatan, the shadow of a Mayan priestess speaks to her. Suddenly Elizabeth's daughter Diane arrives, hoping to reconnect with her mother. As mother, daughter and priestess fall into the mysterious world of Mayan magic, it is clear one will be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Mike Smith's life was crap, living all alone, years after his wife had died and his children had grown up and moved away. Then he saw the commercial for the Daffodil. Far more than other robots, the Daffodil could become anything and everything he wanted it to be. Mike's life is about to change.Lucinda Brant's sweeping family sagas are a perfect reminder of why I fell in love with historical romance —Cheryl Bolen, NY Times bestselling authorSet in the opulent world of the aristocracy and inspired by real events, Midnight Marriage delivers another lavish 18th century Lucinda Brant experience—heart-wrenching drama with a happily ever after.1760s England and France. Julian and Deb are hurriedly, and secretly, married off as teenagers. Julian is then banished to the continent. Deb is returned to the nursery, told her midnight marriage was just a bad dream from the effects of laudanum. Nine years later, Julian returns incognito to claim his bride before a debonair rival can seduce her into bigamous wedlock. But Julian’s calculated deception puts his marriage and future happiness on the edge of ruin.“You will once again be reminded why Lucinda Brant’s books are such a treasure.” —SWurman, Night Owl Reviews 5 STAR Top Pick“Twists, turns, dramatic revelations, and some enjoyable chaos make this a book that keeps the reader turning pages. Highly recommended!” —Fiona Ingram, Readers’ Favorite 5 STAR Medal WinnerSeries-starter second book in the highly acclaimed ROXTON FAMILY SAGA (follows first book prequel NOBLE SATYR)100,000 words, about 400 standard pages (not including bonus material)Non-explicit, mild sensualityAccolades2016 B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree2016 Readers’ Favorite Audiobook Silver Medal Winner2013 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award FinalistConnecting BooksMany readers enjoy Lucinda Brant's books as part of a wider series since her characters inhabit the same meticulously-researched 18th Century world with people and events cross-referenced throughout. Should you wish to read each series in chronological order, here is the sequence:Roxton Family Saga1740s NOBLE SATYR (Renard and Antonia)1760s MIDNIGHT MARRIAGE (Julian and Deb)1770s AUTUMN DUCHESS (Antonia and Jonathon)1770s DAIR DEVIL (Dair and Rory)1770s PROUD MARY (Mary and Christopher)1780s SATYR’S SON (Henri-Antoine and Lisa) In progressSalt Hendon Series1763 SALT BRIDE (Magnus and Jane)1767 SALT REDUX (Antony and Caroline)SALT HENDON COLLECTION — boxed set with bonus novella SALT ANGELAlec Halsey MysteriesSpring 1763 DEADLY ENGAGEMENT (Country house murder and mayhem)Autumn 1763 DEADLY AFFAIR (A poisoned vicar and the mysterious Miranda)Winter 1763 DEADLY PERIL (Bloody intrigue abroad)Summer 1764 DEADLY KIN (Evil lurks in Edinburgh) In progress