Science Fiction City

Hidden truths have surfaced, and I'm forced to question some of the people closest to me. Instead of turning into the shadow form of a demon, I'm a wolf shifter with the same dark fur as my enemies. My fated mate, a sexy silver wolf, should be standing by my side as we face a frightening new enemy, but he was kidnapped along with four other shifters. Saving them could cost my life, but it’ll bring me closer to finding out who...or rather what I am and why I'm being hunted. Everything is falling apart, but I'll do anything to protect my mate and my newfound family.

Ulfenkarn is a city of nightmares. Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel house. Already crushed beneath the tyranny of Radukar the Wolf and his Thirsting Court, a spate of vicious murders plunges the mortal inhabitants into fresh terror. Emerging to uncover a connection between the attacks is an unlikely group of heroes: a vampire hunter from Carstinia; a slum-born vigilante; a ruthless wizard; and a soldier who is the last survivor of her noble bloodline.

Death has a voice. The wanderer knew that, for he had heard that voice often enough. And as he walked through the village of Alhs, past the corpses of those who had chosen to stay, he heard it again. He heard it in the rasp of the wind along the eaves of the abandoned homes he passed, heard it in the slow, methodical banging of window shutters with no one to secure them.

Among the dark streets of the city move thieves and cutthroats. And they don't like independent operators like Lhasha Moonsliver. But when she hires the town drunk as a bodyguard, she gets more than she bargained for. Together they'll have to battle the thieves' guild, the Cult of the Dragon, and other, darker foes. And a fallen man will have to remember the proud warrior he once was.

Here is Old Man's War author John Scalzi's sendup of the heroic fantasy genre, now a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Abel loves dragons, but after a disastrous showing in his dragon rider exam, he feels he's destined never to pilot one. That's why when an opportunity presents itself - even though it's tied to one of Drakopolis' mob-like kins - Abel leaps at the opportunity. But soon he's swept into a game of danger and cruelty - cruelty toward people, and especially toward dragons. With his own family's loyalties split between the kins, soon Abel will need to choose a side.

COME BACK TO THE WORLD OF "B" MOVIES AND GENRE FILMS AS WILLIAM SCHOELL OF "GREAT OLD MOVIES" REVIEWS HUNDREDS OF CLASSIC AND NOT-SO-CLASSIC PICTURES IN THE CATEGORIES OF HORROR, SCIENCE FICTION, INTRIGUE, MONSTER MOVIES, ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILMS, SPIES, EXPLOITATION, CLIFFHANGER SERIALS, AND VINTAGE TV SHOWS IN A LIVELY, INFORMATIVE, AND ENTERTAINING FASHION. ILLUSTRATED. WILLIAM SCHOELL IS THE AUTHOR OF DOZENS OF BOOKS INCLUDING "CREATURE FEATURES: NATURE TURNED NASTY IN THE MOVIES;" AND "MARTINI MAN: THE LIFE OF DEAN MARTIN." A CULT HORROR AUTHOR, HE HAS ALSO WRITTEN SUCH NOVELS AS "...

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

Orphaned and left to fend for herself in the slums of Averalaan, Jewel Markess - Jay to her friends - meets an unlikely savior in Rath, a man who prowls the ruins of the undercity in search of artifacts and treasure. Nursing Jay back to health is an unusual act for a man who renounced his own family long ago, and the situation becomes stranger still when Jay begins to form a den of other rescued children in Rath’s home. But worse perils lurk beneath the slums....

From the end of the 18th century, Americans traveled west to find new homes and new lands. They brought with them the magics of plain people. It is from these roots of the American dream that award-winning writer Orson Scott Card has crafted what the Charlotte Observer called "a uniquely American fantasy." Using the lore and the folk magic of the men and women who settled a continent, and the beliefs of the tribes who were here before them, Card has created an alternate frontier America.

In a city ravaged by disease, one mistake could mean the difference between life and death. James and his group come up with a plan to reach the military checkpoint, but they realize too late that danger comes not just from outside the safety of the town hall, but within it, too. Heather needs to decide whether she can trust a group of strangers to help her and her sister. Pierce's team has been left stranded in the city, and they can no longer count on extraction.

Jess and Hannah Ballard's determination to protect the Gateways brings them to Edinburgh's Old Town, where a strange phenomenon threatens to disturb the delicate balance between the worlds of the living and the dead. Spirits who wish to cross over are vanishing, and it is up to the Ballard sisters to discover why.

A wedding on an enchanted island of magic. A guest list of gods, immortals, shifters, dragons, and druids. And a sentient city waking after centuries . . . What could go wrong? When Fiona's magnet for mayhem weighs in on her special day, there's no escaping the fallout . . . or the island. With Dark invaders, realm refugees, a feral vampire, and the mystery of the Light Weavers' disappearance to solve, Fi and her friends are fighting on multiple fronts. Thank the goddess there's cake.

Clara is an Obligate, an indentured servant of the fae. If she ever wants to see home again, she must survive ten more years of servitude, developing her newly-discovered magic and battling powerful nightmare monsters in the Doomed City Library. She can’t afford any distractions. Distractions like Danny—her handsome childhood sweetheart—who longs to free her from her Obligation. Or Lord Ivor—the devastatingly beautiful fae lord—who desires to whisk her away to his own bright court of intrigue and danger.

Thirty years ago, the world as we know it was lost. Now humans live like rats, desperate for food and safety, the wall towering before us as a mocking reminder of what happened. Some are born into privilege and wealth, and I am one of those. I spend my days trying to change the world we live in and fighting for the truth as any good scientist does. However, when I am thrust through the wall, I have to fight just to survive. Hurt, alone, and scared, I run smack into one of the very creatures we are taught to fear—a monster. But this monster is intent on protecting me, even as I fear him.

Lief, Barda and Jasmine - companions with nothing in common but their hatred of the enemy - are on a perilous quest to find the seven lost gems of the magic Belt of Deltora. Only when the Belt is complete once more can the evil Shadow Lord be overthrown. They have succeeded in finding the golden topaz and the great ruby. The two gems' mysterious powers have strengthened them and given them the courage to move on in their search for the third stone. But none of them can know what horrors await them in the forbidden City of the Rats.

Jax survived the Smugglers Path, as did most of his party, but he's suffered losses, found out just how far he's willing to go for Oracle, and seen his own darker side . . . as have his followers. The City of Himnel crawls with depravity, violence, and backstabbing, and if Jax wants to keep his people, supply his growing war-machine, and have any kind of a chance at survival, he needs to not only survive there, he needs to rob it blind!

When a giant airship descends on New York City in 1892 and threatens destruction if the world doesn't submit to the Martian flag, it's up to the mysterious Smith, inventor and adventurer, to find out what forces are at work. From the dangerous basement fan-tan parlors of Chinatown to the top of the Statue of Liberty's torch, Smith and his brilliant assistant, April Malone, will have to unravel the clues and avoid danger lurking behind every corner.

James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in L.A. But he also lost the Qomrama Om Ya, an all-powerful weapon from the banished older gods. Older gods who are returning and searching for their lost power. The hunt leads Stark to an abandoned shopping mall - a global shopping paradise infested with Lurkers and wretched bottom-feeding Sub Rosa families, squatters who have formed tight tribes to guard their tiny patches of retail wasteland.

The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. Sixteen years have passed since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over - and terrorizing - the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Heterodynes’ return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck.