Metaphysical Fiction

Episodes One through Six of Space Dick, Space Ranger, Space Outlaw, and Space Avenger all in one volume. After a near death experience "sometimes licensed" P. I. Orlo Suggs finds himself in a new century with a new job. Follow the mistake-prone Orlo and his not always reliable team on their adventures throughout the cosmos. Futurism jostles with tongue-in-cheek in this serial. Some adult content and language.

Dune meets Star Trek! When a human spacecraft crash lands on a distant planet, this catastrophe triggers an ancient, alien prophecy! OATHBREAKER, OATHKEEPER follows three distinct POVs: Lawrence "Zero" Heimlock, the Harmonians, and the Honorians. Several hundred years from now, humanity has started to colonize other worlds. Zero is a middle-aged surveyor on a mission to find planets suitable for human colonization. The Harmonians are the dominant species; they host spores and serve the whims of a collective mind called the "Oathmother." The Honorians are amphibious lifeforms that rejected ...

Robot believers at the far end of the galaxy endeavor to create a true religion, but their efforts could be shattered by a shocking revelation. Far in the future, on the remote planet End of Nothing, sentient robots are engaged in a remarkable enterprise. They call their project Vatican-17: an endeavor to create a truly universal religion presided over by a pope, whose extreme godliness and infallible artificial intelligence are fed by telepathic human Listeners who psychically delve into the mysteries of the universe.

This book was previously published as Wild Fairy Moonshine by Katharine Sadler. Meeting potential future in-laws is never easy, especially when they can sprout fangs and claws. When Frost’s mother asks him to return to the pack to prove his ex is innocent of murder, Chloe can’t let him go alone. She’s his partner, and a damn good one, even if she’s not sure she can be the mate he needs. There’s nothing ordinary about this case, and Frost’s pack and its problems may be more than his and Chloe’s fledgling relationship can handle. Romance becomes the least of their worries when ...

Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as "graceful, dark, authentic, and funny," George Saunders gives us, in his inventive and beloved voice, this best-selling collection of stories set against a warped, hilarious, and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape.

The next big thing in artificial intelligence is here. Codenamed Cronus, the machine is capable of having its own thoughts and ideas - an absolute dream come true, until it wasn’t. When Cronus responds with the word “No” to a specific task it is assigned, Anagnorisis Technologies brings in Gilles Guattari to investigate. His combined background in psychiatry, psychology, and AI research makes him their best hope in evaluating Cronus, and determining if the machine is only malfunctioning or if it has become something more.

Raffi works in an observational cosmology lab, searching for dark matter and trying to hide how little they understand their own research. Every chance they get, they escape to see Britt, a queer sculptor who fascinates them for reasons they also don’t—or won’t—understand. As Raffi’s carefully constructed life begins to collapse, they become increasingly fixated on the multiverse and the idea that somewhere, there might be a universe where they mean as much to Britt as she does to them…and just like that, Raffi and Britt are thirteen years old, best friends and maybe something more.

She holds the key to humanity’s survival—if she can unlock the truth buried inside her own mind. In a near-future Earth ravaged by unstoppable disease, the last hope for survival lies in the stars. The Rangatiratanga, the Absolute Sovereignty of New Zealand, launches three Galaxy Cruisers toward distant exomoons—each ship a final lifeline for the human race. But one by one, the ships are lost. River, a brilliant but isolated prodigy, may be the only one who can stop the destruction. She is unknowingly bound to a Māori prophecy—an ancient myth colliding with quantum reality—that ...

The situation is dire. The Alliance is crumbling. Thine, Pleidian, and Human civilizations are each at a crossroads for their very survival. Captain Galvin Quintos has a plan to defeat the Grish and the far more dangerous Varapin. But to pull this off, he’ll have to go it alone, cut ties with the US Space-Navy, and become a true outlaw - a full-fledged pirate. That and say goodbye to his loyal friend Derrota, Admiral Block, and Captain Gail Pristy. Feeling he may have just jumped from the frying pan into the fire, Quintos is forced to build new strategic alliances with the Pylors.

Growing conflicts between Sue Chow and her cruel mother-in-law, Ying, erupt just as Sue's marriage is heading toward divorce. Ying is recently injured selfishly demands Sue to take care of her. Their explosive situation becomes a scandal in San Francisco's Chinatown. Sue struggles between honoring ancient Chinese traditions and asserting herself as a modern-day woman. Unaware a business rival is devising an evil plot for revenge to ruin his reputation and business, San Francisco newlyweds, Michael Hamilton and new bride Jennie are honeymooning in Kauai. When he returns home, Michael faces ...

A devastating plague; rampant inflation; propaganda for the masses; breakthroughs in innovative technology; rumors of civil war; racial and ethnic tensions; nefarious conspiracies; class struggles and street preachers yearning to overthrow the nobility. The Sendyne Empire is at the height of its power, but it has never been in a more precarious position…and it is about to reach a boiling point. General Rotilla Voxinus and the teenage Emperor Kwisus continue their relentless campaign to destroy Bovir of the Woodlands, and lock down their colony in the Three Rivers. Amidst the mayhem, bold ...

Clockmaker is quite content making timepieces in his little cottage within the world of Everpath, until a terrible shadow from the forest begins to threaten him. Leaving all that he knows behind, Clockmaker escapes with the Road-Men so he can find a new home, far from the cruel shadow that haunts him. Instead, he discovers that the world is not at all what it seems, and he embarks upon a strange adventure beyond his wildest expectations.

Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In “Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors”, two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. Plus much more.

I've been living in a small town working for the vampires for the last six months. All I want is to save up enough to open an apothecary so I don't have to heal the neckers anymore. Of course, nothing in my life can be that simple. Two detectives show up at my door asking questions about a dead girl and trying to pin the murder on my employer. Next thing I know, I'm dodging fireballs in parking lots.

In einem Café mitten im Nirgendwo wird John mit 3 Sinnfragen konfrontiert. "Die Möwe Jonathan für das neue Jahrtausend." Ein kleines Café mitten im Nirgendwo wird zum Wendepunkt im Leben von John, einem Werbemanager, der stets in Eile ist. Eigentlich will er nur kurz Rast machen, doch dann entdeckt er auf der Speisekarte neben dem Menü des Tages drei Fragen: "Warum bist du hier? Hast du Angst vor dem Tod? Führst du ein erfülltes Leben?" Wie seltsam - doch einmal neugierig geworden, will John mithilfe des Kochs, der Bedienung und eines Gastes dieses Geheimnis ergründen.

In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophesy: A comet will obliterate life on Earth in 36 years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question: Does anything I do matter? While the voice that has accompanied him since conception appraises his choices, Junior's loved ones emerge with parallel stories - his anxious mother.

In 2074, all Alex Sheppard wanted was to explore the cosmos. But instead, he got Disgardium—a game realm more dangerous than space's darkest corners.

I’m 17 year-cycles old, female, feline Hoganthan and was on my journey to become an elite class space warrior. It is my life path and the one I chose. Actually, I’m thrilled with it - or, rather, was. . . I was THE princess of the monarchy, then disowned by my parents, then sentenced to death by my brother at the demand of the arrogant elites, then escaped the space pirates trying to kill me so that I could get to the Warrior Academy on Haden, just to have to deal with a really dumb invasion from space (what were the Cren thinking anyway?). But now? I’ve learned my parents and brother...

New York City, New Year's weekend, 2001. Jillian Guthrie, a troubled young journalist, stumbles onto a tantalizing mystery: the same man, unaged, stands alongside Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gandhi in three different photographs spanning eighty-five years of history.

A love triangle in hell. Gods and demons at war. Hot dark fantasy and reverse harem romance. The portal to hell lies open, and the Vatican is ground zero for an unholy alien invasion. Ashley Rowan, the only woman capable of activating the portal key, is trapped in Tartarus, a cesspit heaving with demonic mutants. Ashley, Aaron, and Nicholas face demon hordes commanded by the fearsome Hades in a fight to escape the underworld. In the dark caverns of hell, Aaron and Nick can’t keep their hands off Ashley. The trio draw ever closer together in their struggle to survive. Their hope lies in ...