Modern Science Fiction

What can a fairy-godmother-in-training do when Cinderella refuses to go to the ball? Why, go along in Cinderella's place of course! But falling in love with the prince's brother was never meant to happen. Soon a series of events into motion that will impact not only her career but also her entire life. The problem is she doesn't know if the prince's brother feels the same about her as she does about him. And giving up her wings on the chance that he might care about her in return seems reckless and foolish to the usually by-the-book Esmeralda.

Mit "Also sprach Zarathustra" hat Nietzsche ein faszinierendes Hauptwerk geschaffen, einen Meilenstein der Weltliteratur. In drei zentralen Formeln fasst er seine Philosophie zusammen: der Wille zur Macht, die ewige Wiederkehr des Gleichen und der Übermensch. "Gott ist tot." Es ist eine Ironie des Schicksals, dass dieses Werk von den Nazis missbraucht wurde.

"A failed ritual annihilates modern life." Manhattan, NY: The E-Train slams into James Bixby, a strapping young artist on the rise, after a life-saving rescue attempt goes awry. Belfast, Ireland: A bullet severs Olivia Young's spinal cord while she defends a doctor colleague--the second bullet pierces her heart. Then they awaken--unharmed. "Selected" and thrust into a deadly ritual, James' and Olivia's lives--along with the lives of five others--will decide humanity's fate: surrender to the old Gods' rule or live on in blissful ignorance. Follow their frantic struggle as Magnus--a secret ...

Versailles, 1682: a city of the rich, a living fairy-tale, Louis XIV's fever dream. It's a place of opulence, beauty, and power. But strip back the lavish exterior of polite society, and you'll find a dark undercurrent of sexual intrigue and vicious gossip. Nobody is safe here - no matter how highly born they are. No one knows this better than Madame Marie d'Aulnoy. Each week, a rogue group of intellectuals gather at her Parisian home to debate, flirt and perform Contes de Fées - fairy tales - that challenge the status quo, at a salon that will change the course of literature forever.

Eddie Scarr, a modern facsimile of Scrooge, is angrier and more damaged than the original, but just as successful in his own milieu. He’s a Department for Work and Pensions enforcement officer whose sole reason for existing, it seems, is to make life as difficult as possible for would-be benefit fraudsters, and everyone else who crosses his path.

1. Die Kunst am Ende einer Kultur (1933). 2. Leben ohne platonische Idee (1932). 3. Pamphlet gegen die Hochachtung des Menschen (1932). "Was Hermann Broch verlangte, war, dass die philosophische Wissenschaft die Totalität der Welt genau so entstehen lasse wie das Kunstwerk, und dass diese visionär gewordene Erkenntnis alles praktische Tun des Menschen in sich begreifen sollte." Hannah Arendt.

Act 3 - A Will to Power follows Caroline on her drive to power in the heart of the wild Comanche empire, turned thriving Texas Hill Country, turned desolate and violent and ruthless once more. A harsh landscape and a society without technology, laws, or base human agreements to guide us. Here in the New West, three lives intertwine in a quest for meaning, pleasure, and power.

Act 2 - A Will to Pleasure follows the Colonel as he seeks pleasure in the heart of the wild Comanche empire, turned thriving Texas Hill Country, turned desolate and violent and ruthless once more. A harsh landscape and a society without technology, laws, or base human agreements to guide us. Here in the New West, three lives intertwine in a quest for meaning, pleasure, and power.

A Will to Meaning follows Sheriff John Newman in his quest for meaning in the heart of the wild Comanche empire, turned thriving Texas Hill Country, turned desolate and violent and ruthless once more. A harsh landscape and a society without technology, laws, or base human agreements to guide us. Here in the New West, three lives intertwine in a quest for meaning, pleasure, and power.

Meet Thorn Scarhart: a thirty-nine-year-old witch who’s having trouble finding love in the 17th century. Despite the local matchmaker’s efforts and Thorn’s arsenal of powerful love potions, she has yet to fall in love, and she fears she may have missed her chance. But when one of her potions misfires spectacularly, Thorn is hurled 350 years into the future, landing in a bustling city where her once-isolated cottage is now a historical museum. While this unexpected leap through time is daunting, modern life does have its perks.

In the first Quarterly Essay for 2011, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what is it to live a good life? With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways to talk about the self, morality and happiness. In an age of environmental peril, and in the wake of the global financial crisis, such questions have returned with new force - we live in unpredictable times and Homo economicus has been found wanting.

It is 1097, and a traveller arrives in the great, walled city of Antioch with a vision of a beautiful and mysterious geometric design that will change the lives of all those who see it. Pilgermann is a mesmerising recreation of the world of the Crusades, following its unlikely hero and those he meets on a journey of picaresque horror across a Europe of hatreds, visions and a desperate wish for salvation.

We never forget the stories we were told as children. Even when they are not on the top of our mind, they lurk like palm prints on the drying cement foundations of our understanding of the world. We absorb the pluck of children in the face of adult perfidy, cheering the heroism of Hansel and Gretel or Beauty and the Beast. Counterpoised by the wickedness and cruelty of parents, stepmothers, and wolves in sheep's clothing, children's wiliness usually leaves them unharmed, if not heroic. As adults, we keep returning to them again and again in film, in theater, and in books.

Vor langer Zeit ritt Prinzessin Sonja mit ihren Vater, den König, auf die Jagd. Um ihn vom Töten abzuhalten, rettet sie einem Hasen sein Leben..! Zum Dank erhält Sonja von den Waldbewohnern ein göttliches Geschenk, welches sie selbst vor ihrem Vater geheim halten muss..!

The Deer Park is a modern fairytale written in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm and other European storytellers. By utilizing classic tropes found in old traditional fairytales, The Deer Park follows the story of a brother and sister whose father has gone off to fight in a war.

Things have been quiet at the Society lately. Too quiet. It couldn’t possibly last. When a griffin appeared in the Yorkshire skies, it could only mean bad news. There’s only one place in Britain it could have come from and that’s the lost kingdom of Farringale. It’s a dire warning, and there’s worse to come. Turns out we aren’t the only people with an interest in the age-old city of the trolls. Farringale lies under attack—and these people will stop at nothing to take control of its treasures. It’s time for a showdown—the deathly serious kind.

It’s all very well deciding to build the means to save British magick. Top marks for ambitious goals! ...But there are one or two obstacles in the way. For one, said means does not yet exist, and it’ll take a genius to sort that one out. Luckily, we’ve got one of those. We call him Orlando. For another, nothing at all can be built without materials, and no common-or-garden commodities will do. It’s got to be silver. The impossibly rare, virtually extinct kind. This one’s on me, Val and Jay.

Mysterious happenings to a small handicapped boy in a little Somerset village, way back in the 1930s, suddenly repeat themselves in the 21st Century. At the first event the villagers kept quiet about what they thought was either hallucination, witchcraft or a little boy’s mischief. They suspected, quite rightly, that they wouldn’t be believed. However, silence turns out to be impossible in the present media and online culture, with the result that the lives of two families are disrupted and changed forever.

In her attempt to escape her sisters' Valentine matchmaking, Annie meets the enigmatic Eric, who she realizes could finally be the man of her dreams. In spite - or maybe because - of Eric's cryptic words and puzzling behavior, she finds herself immediately intrigued and drawn to him like no other man she's ever met. One night in Annie's sister's kitchen seals their fate, as the two lovers discover and explore the instant spark of heat between them. Their evening comes to an abrupt end when the mysterious Eric disappears into the night, and Annie realizes she doesn't know his last name! How is she to find him?

Experience a thrilling journey through the vast expanse of the universe with Science Fiction Short Stories Vol. 02. This collection of short stories is a must-read for any science fiction enthusiast, and a perfect introduction to the genre for those new to it. With each story carefully crafted to ignite the reader's imagination, this book is an unforgettable ride through the depths of space and the mysteries of the unknown. Set in the far future, Science Fiction Short Stories Vol. 02 takes readers on a journey through time and space, exploring the infinite possibilities of the universe. ...