Great Fantasy

Only the trio of returning Ark Lords has a prayer of stopping Nox, but they face problems of their own. Blair and Liz arrive in Northern California to find Angel Island deserted, and San Francisco controlled by a kingdom of deathless. Jordan and Trevor return to Peru where werewolves have founded a new religion worshiping the Mother. A religion that preaches that Trevor is the ancient enemy and must be destroyed. Only Jordan can save him, if he can finally learn to trust an old enemy.

He's desperate to see Luna again. It might be the only thing keeping Alistair from giving up, because their situation looks grim. As he sits in the captain’s seat, looking out at the vastness of space, he knows what was on its way.

After a hundred years of peace, on the remote continent of the Kingdom, evidence of the mysterious beings known as the s’orne has been discovered. Having just completed an eight-month wilderness tour, Bellona Stanick is ignorant of the threat, as she arrives at the nation's capital to attend the city's weeklong summer festival. While the Kingdom's defenses mobilize to protect its Citizens, fate brings Bellona to a new realization about the s'orne, and their connection to the Zuni lands.

With her father vanished under suspicious circumstances and her old life destroyed, Tessa Andrews is determined to pick up the pieces and forge ahead. If only their borrowed house didn't shake and rumble as if haunted. But at least she and her mom have a roof over their heads, so her luck couldn't be all bad, could it? As if to prove her wrong, Tessa gets an urgent call for help one night from crusty old Professor Brandard, one of the people on her charity meals route. She dashes over, only to find the house in flames and the professor gone.

A sprawling adventure pitting two of literature's most iconic anti-heroes against each other: Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab. Caught between them: real-life British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, builder of the century's greatest ship, The Great Eastern. But when he's kidnapped by Nemo to help design a submarine with which to fight the laying of the Translatlantic cable - linking the two colonialist forces Nemo hates, England and the US - Brunel finds himself going up against his own ship, and the strange man hired to protect it, Captain Ahab.

Princess Shara of the High Kingdom survived a mad sorcerer and his demonic master. In the process, she gained a rare and powerful gift, The Divine Key. A power so dangerous that even the archangels fear what might happen. And fear can lead even the mightiest of beings to rash decisions. All in the name of the greater good. Meanwhile, Robert and Blade are enjoying their new life, at least until Blade gets bored with the gladiators. Seeking ever greater excitement, they head for the deadly Serpent Island, where they’ll have more than snakes to worry about.

Ralph Kern presents Book 2 in the Great War series.

Newly exposed as the Black Witch of Prophecy, Elloren Gardner Grey is on the run, not knowing if she’ll find friends or foes. With her fastmate, Lukas Grey, either dead or in the hands of High Mage Marcus Vogel, Elloren knows the only chance of turning the tide of the coming war is to seek allies who will listen long enough not to kill her on sight.

At the close of 1917, the Germans introduced a new type of gas, T-Leiche - "corpse gas" - a revolutionary weapon that changed the war. Instead of killing the living, T-Leiche resurrected the bodies of the dead. For those who survived the killing fields of France, the danger has only just begun. Veteran Michael "Madman" Burke and his company have just been assigned a daring new mission by the president himself: rescue the members of the British royal family.

I want you, the listener, to learn about some of the most fascinating stories I’ve read in science fiction and fantasy so you can enjoy them yourselves. I’ve also reviewed Hugo Award winner novels to see if I had overlooked any authors. The most important Hugo Award winners are also included here.

Two exciting short stories set in the engrossing world of The Demon Cycle from bestselling fantasy author Peter V. Brett.Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons - bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting and killing humanity for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive.

Some have Magick, some don’t. Some use their powers for good, some don’t. When harm is done, the Lock Keepers Guild can give offenders a second chance, but when they must, they Magickally lock up the villain and throw the key into the abyss. Which will it be this time? To the shock of Hazzard Island, the old Master Lock Keeper, Noddy, is found dead on the rocks below Dark End. The Lock Keepers Guild, guardians of the Magickal residents of the New England province, knows he has been murdered. Vulnerable now without their fourth member, the Lock Keepers send word to his great-nephew, ...

The 330s, BCE, Greece: Alexander, a handsome young warrior of Macedon, begins his quest to conquer the ancient world. But he cannot ascend to power, and keep it, without the women who help to shape his destiny. His spirited younger half-sister, Thessalonike, yearns to join her brother and see the world. Instead, it is Alexander’s boyhood companion who rides with him into war while Thessalonike remains behind. Far away, crafty Princess Drypetis will not stand idly by as Alexander topples her father from Persia’s throne.

After finding her brother and saving the entire supernatural world, Amari Peters is convinced her first full summer as a Junior Agent will be a breeze. But between the fearsome new Head Minister’s strict anti-magician agenda, fierce Junior Agent rivalries and her brother Quinton’s curse steadily worsening, Amari’s plate is full. So when the secretive League of Magicians offers her a chance to stand up for magiciankind as its new leader, she declines. She’s got enough to worry about! But her refusal allows someone else to step forward.

One hunt has ended, but the pursuit for love and justice continues. The kingdom of Lochlanach has traded the great beast that once terrorized the realm of Eurona for something far more dangerous: the ire of powerful Lashed woman Rosaria Rocato. Rosaria demands that Eurona overturn the laws prohibiting magic, or an innocent will be killed each day.

As parts of everyday life begin to fade away, one teacher struggles to keep a semblance of normality for the teenagers in her classroom. But what can she teach to students who know they will one day be the final remnants of mankind? "The Last Teacher" is a story from The Great De-Evolution series about the lessons that are most important in life.

From the Renaissance master Andrea del Sarto who faked a Raphael masterpiece at the request of his Medici patrons, to the Vermeer counterfeiter Han van Meegeren who duped the avaricious Hermann Goering, to the frustrated British artist Eric Hebborn, who began forging to expose the ignorance of experts, art forgers have challenged "legitimate" art in their own time, breaching accepted practices and upsetting the status quo.

Ralph Kern presents Book 3 in the Great War series.

Publishers Weekly praises Steven Barnes’ Shadow Valley as “all at once rugged and elegant in style, a mix of harsh bloodletting with a primeval close-to-the-land beauty.” This mythical tale—a sequel to Barnes’ Great Sky Woman - is set in Africa in 28,000 B.C. and follows a tribal leader who must find a new land for her people.

A wandering alien life form seeks a compatible host to share its life. The life has lived for a long time and shared life with many life forms. Throughout the alien's life it is able to find suitable hosts for short periods of time and in other hosts life is hard and risky. Finally the alien life form travels to a planet and finds the perfect species to share its life with.