Science Fiction City

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.

At the center of a forbidden ruin, an artifact of black stone is unearthed. Archaeologist Ru Delara, vilified by the scientific community for believing in magic, is summoned to investigate. But when she arrives, she finds herself inexorably drawn to the artifact, even though it could harbor untold destructive power. Unable to resist its pull, Ru reaches out to touch the stone....

When a tragic accident cuts my lonely life short, instead of heaven or hell, I’m stolen away to a terrifying city of warring shifter clans—the Nimali and the Fai. The Nimali mistake me for their missing princess. Her father, the dragon king, is identical to my own. But in this world, he dotes on me with the love and affection I always craved. And in a land with no tolerance for outsiders, feigning amnesia and impersonating shifter royalty may be the only way to survive.

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.

Zinzi December has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job: missing persons.

Blizzard just wants to kick back and relax with her friends while visiting her family. She doesn't want to deal with supervillains, secret government conspiracies, or any of the various other things that superheroes deal with on a daily basis. Unfortunately, Blizzard finds herself working alongside a government agent who seeks to recover an object stolen from the government long ago. And if Blizzard and the agent fail to retrieve the object, Blizzard's hometown and family will be destroyed. Shell just wants to be strong. Having lived most of his young life bullied or ignored by others for ...

The day is like any other day until it becomes The Day. At 4:05 pm the United States is attacked with an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon. A 20-megaton nuclear warhead is detonated high in the atmosphere above Kansas, blanketing most of the contiguous United States and parts of Canada and Mexico with an electromagnetic pulse that damages nearly all microprocessors and electronic controls beyond repair. Nearly every system that depends on computers and electronics has ceased to work.

Bold, kind, and adventurous, Kiara was everything Volcair needed in his stiff, formal life. Along with his pet inux, Cypher, the three were inseparable during Volcair’s years on Earth. But the same winds of fate that brought them together as children tore them apart again. With half a universe separating them, years sped by, and Kiara seemed lost to him forever. Angry and bitter, he threw himself into military service for the Entris Dominion, seeking escape from the pain of loss.

In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence.

A month after his debut as the superhero Bolt, Kevin Jason's life has changed greatly. Everyone seems to have taken an interest in him, including major presidential candidate and ex-super villain Adam Plutarch, whose true motives for supporting Kevin are murky and unclear. But fame isn't all bad, especially when Kevin is offered a position on a team of young superheroes that offers him a great chance to advance in his superhero career. He leaps at the chance to join, hoping to make some new friends and maybe get a little closer to its leader, the mysterious and beautiful Incantation. Yet ...

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.

Armed with memories of her impending past, Ash bids farewell to Lotus Lake and sets her sights on conquering the crows of Clover City. However, her knowledge and newfound lease on life comes with a twist—each decision she makes sets off a chain reaction of consequences, revealing that there's far more to her future than even she expected.

New York, 1925: Arthur Kenzie is on a mission: to destroy the powerful supernatural relic that threatens Manhattan - and all the nonmagical minds in the world. So far his search has been fruitless. All it has done is keep him from the man he loves. But he'll do anything to keep Rory safe and free, even if that means leaving him behind. Psychometric Rory Brodigan knows his uncontrolled magic is a liability, but he's determined to gain power over it. He can take care of himself - and maybe even Arthur, too, if Arthur will let him.

Part three of Edward Lee’s notorious, internationally published City Infernal Saga is here. Lee dares you to take another tour through the nightmarish City of the Abyss, and to walk with him though a house of horror, a house of graves...a house infernal. A city, built with blood and bones...Three things are about to join a crypt in Hell with a house on Earth...Nuns molested and drained of blood. A virginal student seduced by the perverse and taunted by things worse than ghosts. And six Angels, imprisoned in Hell and made pregnant by God knows what...

In the climate-ravaged year of 2072, Pura stands as a miraculous green haven, a geo-engineered paradise that protects lucky residents from the global catastrophes of heat domes, fires, floods, and droughts. Demetria Lopez is Pura's PR fixer, tirelessly promoting the city's idyllic image. But when she stumbles upon a dark secret that underpins Pura's existence, she must decide who and what she is willing to protect.

Los Angeles is an apocalyptic wasteland. Without orientation, Colton stumbles through the vast, deserted city. He doesn’t remember who he is or where he came from. Scavengers save his life from mutants and bring him to the only remaining inhabited area and safe Zone in former Hollywood. There he learns that after a devastating catastrophe called The Glitch, reality shifted, allowing nightmarish creatures from another dimension to enter our world. These so-called Dark Ones feed on suffering and violence, wanting nothing less than the complete annihilation of humanity.

After a year of fighting villains as the superhero Bolt, Kevin Jason must now deal with integrating his newly-rescued twin brother into the Young Neos, as well as think about his future career as a superhero. Things become more complicated, however, when Kevin's brother is kidnapped by a mysterious new team of supervillains whose motives are unknown but whose actions could spell the end of his brother's life if Kevin doesn't save him. Despite being a member of the Young Neos for two months, White Lightning, Bolt's twin brother, still doesn't feel accepted by the rest of his teammates, who ...

Inner-city Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence; in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. The most powerful force counteracting this code and its reign of terror is the strong, loving, decent family, and we meet many heroic figures in the course of this narrative.

If he knew what was going to happen after he left home, he would have tried to stay. After the events of the great kaiju war, Matteo is sent away from the turtle. His mission is to report to the capitol about the battle and collect Wardens for their depleted village. If only things could have stayed that simple.

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.