Science Fiction Anthology

Summoners are born, not made. For Bran of Ealdor, this is the one thing stopping him from becoming a member of the legendary warriors known as summoners. They are gods among men who can call monsters into battle to fight alongside them. Mages, Rangers, Beastmasters, Protectors, Hunters, and Lancers. These are the six classes of summoners. None of which Bran can become.

The ex-planet Pluto has a few choice words about being thrown out of the solar system. A listing of alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died. A lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions. And four artificial intelligences explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity. Welcome to Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi.

Rew, the King’s Ranger, accepted a role on the far edge of the realm to avoid the morass of intrigue and betrayal that bleeds from the heart of the kingdom. His only desire is to shoulder the burden he’s taken, to protect the village of Eastwatch, and to monitor the wilderness beyond. When three youths are arrested for petty theft in the village and beg for help, Rew’s friend insists he take responsibility for them. By ties stronger than steel, Rew is forced onto a path he knows leads to chaos. The King’s Ranger will battle to grant the youths a life he never had a chance of.

Here is a story that goes beyond space and time. Isaac Asimov takes on a journey that explores the ultimate fate of the universe, along with the question, what will become of the human race? So take a journey into the outer twilight of your mind. Turn off the light, sit back and relax, close your eyes, and enter the infinite universe of your imagination.

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is an enduring masterwork of twentieth-century American literature - a chilling vision of a dystopian future built on the foundations of ignorance, censorship, and brutal repression. The origins and evolution of Bradbury’s darkly magnificent tale are explored in A Pleasure to Burn, a collection of sixteen selected shorter works that prefigure the grand master’s landmark novel.

This dazzling anthology includes epic interstellar adventures, tales of space and wonder, from some of the brightest names in science fiction.

OK, Reg. You’re a bouncer who’s barely eking out a meager existence in the decaying Wilds outside Detroit. So a little job tracking the Eddies on their patrols seems like easy money. Well, think again, Reg. Because a riot’s about to happen… and you’re going to be the cause…

This story was originally published in the Hugo Award-nominated METAtropolis.

Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.

A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.

This classic science fiction masterwork by Isaac Asimov weaves stories about robots, humanity, and the deep questions of existence into a novel of shocking intelligence and heart.

The Horus Heresy is an epic conflict spanning hundreds of worlds and thousands of battles, laced with countless tales of heroism and valour, betrayal and villainy. This anthology collects some of the most memorable, featuring every one of the Loyalist and Traitor Legions. Whether you're a veteran Legionary or exploring the grim setting of the Horus Heresy for the first time, this handpicked collection of 21 existing short stories features gripping tales for each of the Loyalist and Traitor Legions that waged wars of betrayal and destruction on an immeasurable scale.

Alien Days is a multi-author anthology with thrilling tales of aliens, invasions, artificial intelligence, friendship, deceit, and extinction. A combination which makes this collection a must-listen for science fiction short story fans. This anthology features Nebula and Dragon award nominees, Amazon best-sellers and award winners alongside rising stars in the science fiction genre. Let the authors take you on adventures through dystopian worlds and far flung planets that will stretch your imagination.

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine. Fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder. For more than a decade award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has sifted through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.

“Short stories have to accomplish a nearly impossible magic trick: to introduce a world often much stranger than our own and make you care about it in a matter of pages,” writes R. F. Kuang in her introduction. “The most important part of this magic trick is just a willingness to get weird.” The stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 are brimming with bizarre and otherworldly premises.

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

William Gibson's dark visions of computer cowboys, bio-enhanced soldiers of fortune, and hi-tech lowlifes have won unprecedented praise. Included here are some of the most famous short fiction and novellas by the author of Count Zero and Neuromancer.

I thought the last thing I would have expected while working at the mall during the holiday season was to meet a real elf woman. Then the blue-skinned ogre tore through the mall. The elf and I made a quick escape and ended up in a strange fantasy world. Now, I’m finding out that the elves have been in decline for centuries and are being hunted to extinction for their magical abilities. They need someone to help them. Someone to protect them. Someone with magical powers that could make elves strong like they used to be.

In ancient Egypt, Atticus agrees to raid a secret chamber underneath the library of Alexandria, dodging deadly traps, only to learn that on-site security includes two members of the Egyptian pantheon.

War looms on the horizon.... After the colonization of Mars and Europa, it took us fewer than five generations to reach beyond our solar system and colonize new planets capable of supporting human life. Power struggles have made a galactic war inevitable, and only an old mail runner, a space pirate, and their ragtag crews can prevent it.

Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption. One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.