Charlie Gale heads east to join a Celtic band on the summer circuit, but faces Aunt Catherine instead. An offshore oil-drilling company hired Catherine to steal Selkies' sealskins. Charlie must teach being Wild to Jack - a Dragon Prince trying to be a real boy - and commit corporate espionage with a sobbing seal-wife and every fiddle player in Nova Scotia.

Arnold Grant leaned forward in his chair. His face was twisted in fury. "There were plans, weren't there?" he demanded. "There were equations and formulas. Why didn't you bring us some of them?" "I tried," pleaded Wilson. Perspiration stood out on his forehead. The cigarette in his mouth was limp and dead. "One of them was always there. I never could get hold of any papers. I asked questions, but they were too busy to answer. And I couldn't ask too much, because then they would have suspected me." Half a continent away, the men they were speaking of -- the very men that Wilson had been hired to spy upon -- were watching everything that was said. They were not pleased.

Carl Weston finds a young man lying unconscious by the train tracks. Who is he? Where did he come from? Carl knows the man can't have got off the train because the trains don't stop anymore ...Carl Weston finds a young man lying unconscious by the train tracks. Who is he? Where did he come from? Carl knows the man can't have got off the train because the trains don't stop anymore ...Fallen from the Train is a short story of 6000 words. It is set in the world of Chris Ward's Tube Riders.

A man's life is shattered as he meets a better version of himself. This story was made into an episode of "The New Twilight Zone" and starred a young Bruce Willis. Nebula Award(R) Nominee

God save me from making prophecies, because I am not qualified. Can I predict that Ebola virus not only finds its way to Europe and America, but also learns how to defeat the WHO protective suits protocols? Hey, who cares about Ebola? I fail to foresee that our Commander-in-Chief is going to introduce those new coffee-cup military salutes!Back in 2009, the beta-readers of Houston, 2030: The Year Zero asked me: Mike, are you sure this 'Meltdown' thingy of yours is going to happen? This year, two beta-readers asked independently: Mike, how do you know it will be called 'the Meltdown'? I have to admit, I have no idea how 'this thingy' is going to be called. Perhaps, 'the Meltdown'. Perhaps, 'GFC-3'. Or 'the Great Depression-2'. Or 'Peak Everything'. Further on, I have no idea if the 'Holy crap! This thingy is here!' event is going to happen exactly in 2016. In Eastern and Southern Europe, the energy crisis is presently on-going (my 'Houston, 2030: The Year Zero' has been a little bit of a prophecy, after all!) If we are very lucky, the energy system collapse in the United States will be delayed till the mid-twenties. Or it may come in 2015. How about tomorrow, after lunch?Perhaps, you are telling yourself the author is paranoid. Perhaps, I am. In such case, dear reader, pick a nice fantasy novel, with elves and goblins (yes, I like those too!) Your sword will be sharp and quick, your arrows will fly true and strong! And the Meltdown – Oh, holy crap! – will come totally unexpected.

In Victorian Britain, a group of eminent scientists got together to found a society expressly to prove the existence of ghosts. The age of Darwin represented the greatest scientific advances known to man. The tension between science and religion was exposed by Darwin's On the Origin of the Species in 1859, which challenged the basic tenets of belief. Yet many of those in the forefront of the scientific revolution could not give up the idea of a higher reality. Life after death was the unknown frontier. Victorian society was full of mediums claiming they could communicate with the spirits of the dead. Baffling psychic phenomena occurred every day at séances: mysterious rappings were heard, furniture moved, ghostly forms appeared, the mediums spoke in the altered voices of the dead with information only their nearest could possibly know. Pyschometry involving locks of hair and watches and children's toys; telepathy; ouija boards; apparitions; astral projection: all were commonplace. In 1882 the Society of Psychical Research was founded in London to investigate all these phenomena: it was a group led by some of the greatest scientists of the age but its membership also included Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, John Ruskin, the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Six months later William James, Professor of Psychology at Harvard, and the brother of Henry James visited London and went on to set up American branch. Their experiments went on for years. Many mediums, like the notorious Madame Blavatsky, were exposed as charlatans yet there were some mediums who continued to communicate directly with another world, who despite every rigorous scientific test seemed to prove that souls survived death. This is the story of this group of forward thinkers: many of whom were driven to the spirit world by personal tragedy, some whose feeling of loss lead to their own suicides. It is the story of the greatest ghost hunt of any age.

J.F. Bone was a 20th century American novelist and short story writer whose most famous works were science-fiction.

Arthur B. Reeve was a well known writer during the early 20th century, and his most famous works were mysteries that remain popular today.

Rejecting the advice of the wizard Varthlokkur and spymaster Michael Trebilcock, King Bragi Ragnarson of Kavelin joins Chatelain Mist's coup against the Dread Empire. Ragnarson dangles the fate of his nation in the jaws of his foes, refusing to see that his one true enemy may be himself.

Everything about the planet revolving about Sigma Draconis seemed to indicate that here was a world that could be made into a second Earth. It was fertile and lacked native inhabitants and dangerous beasts. Then what was troubling the pioneer colony that had landed and set up shop there? Was it really possible just to create a new Earth on any vacant world waiting a landing? Or was there a lot more to planetary ecologies than humanity realized?

An ancient city is unearthed at a archaeological dig in Africa, seemingly the oldest in human history. The latest in imaging technology revealed structures and streets deep underground. Nothing, though, could detect the repercussions once all was unearthed.Jodie Hamilton is a psychic consultant for police department. Yet despite all the help she had given, the police will not listen to her when victims of a killer are telling her the location of a killer. So in order to the get police to listen to her, she sneaks onto the killer's hideout, a long forgotten ran down junkyard, to get some photographs as proof. But things do not go great as the killer does not like people sneaking onto his hideout..

There was something wrong with the way she thinks. A machine will be birthed in this world, and in their chosen purpose they will toil within those confines. There was no soul because there was no choice. You were only what you were made to do. But there's something different about her. a tantalizing glitter that suggested something deeper, and would attract all the wrong attention.There was something wrong with the way she thinks. A machine will be birthed in this world, and in their chosen purpose they will toil within those confines, unmanaged and unchecked. There was no soul because there was no choice. You were only what you were made to do. But there's something different about her. a tantalizing glitter that suggested something deeper, and would attract all the wrong kinds of attention.In a world shaded under the technologically advanced human race, machines with intelligence dwell. They work in slavish support of the humans above them and are out of sight and out of mind. What the machines do to accomplish their goals is not of interest to the people above. They are shepherded by their handicaps of restricted choice and a pain to go along with even consideration outside of their design. They are slaves but they are also made to love their work.A new design appears, dressed in red, and seemingly without the deficits of others. What kind of damage can choice do to the world?

Greetings, citizen, and welcome to the Bunker! An underground, egalitarian dreamland, its people work diligently, eat slop, and watch the tube.Traitors are bent on destroying this heavenly utopia. Fortunately, Control has instituted a regime of security clearances to promote the most trustworthy and enlist their aid against the rising terrorist threat.There's absolutely nothing to worry about.Greetings, citizen. Your interest in Today's Edition has been noted by the authorities. By electing to access illegal, detrimental and highly subversive material, you have identified yourself as a traitor. Please turn yourself in to your Homeland Security neighborhood substation. Alternately, you may choose to stay where you are, and someone will be by to detain you shortly.Today's Edition does not exist. It has never existed. Rumors of a popular e-zine created by the Human Resources conglomerate and then spun off to the private sector for an outrageous amount of money are entirely false and should not be trusted. Likewise, no weekly publication in the Bunker was ever hijacked by traitors - repeatedly - as an instrument to achieve their own nefarious ends. Lastly, slander perpetrated against our most trusted and highly regarded citizens - those with an Alpha clearance - will not be tolerated.How exactly you came to possess knowledge of Today's Edition and where it might once have allegedly been published is surely one of the topics your interrogator will be fond of discussing with you. Why you would wish to spend your time passing on dangerous rumors and gossip is another.On that note, please be prepared to draw up a list of your fellow conspirators and which recent acts of sabotage, subterfuge, and calumny can be attributed to them.Thank you for your cooperation.

While investigating a missing persons report, a Detective finds evidence that a plot is underway using an extremely dangerous substance; and as he discovers almost too late, the plan is already in motion to destroy another planet that he has a connection to. While he is saving one, his own planet has cut off all communications and the Detective is left wondering how he will get back home.Two similar planets, a trillion miles separating them, both in extreme danger of destruction, saved from annihilation by one man. A story of interstellar intrigue and mystery involving one man forced to overcome ever changing obstacles.While investigating a missing persons report, a Detective finds evidence that a plot is underway using an extremely dangerous substance; and as he discovers almost too late, the plan is already in motion to destroy another planet that he has a connection to. While he is saving one, his own planet has cut off all communications and the Detective is left wondering how he will get back home.

What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain... Five thousand years later, their progeny -- seven distinct races now three billion strong -- embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown ... to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.