Short Stories Science

Shelby is struggling with parenthood, marriage, a passive-aggressive mother, and unemployment. But she also has a sweet escape in her beloved Hallmark movies. When a secret admirer promises to sweep her away into a world of those same romantic tropes, the temptation is so heady, Shelby can already smell the pumpkin spice. But this rom-com dream has a whiff of conspiracy....

New York Times Notable Book author Charles Yu wrote the best-selling novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. In his stunning, often humorous, collection Sorry Please Thank You, Yu draws on pop culture and science to make incisive observations about society - and offer touching insight into the human condition. In two of Yu’s remarkable stories, he focuses on a big-box-store night-shift employee with girl trouble and a company that outsources grief for profit.

On the island of Avalon, everyone has magical abilities. Except Selena Pearce. As if being the only nonmagical person on the island isn’t bad enough, her parents happen to be the king and queen of Avalon - and the most magical people alive. She’s never felt like she fit in on Avalon, but that all changes when she leaves the island and meets Julian - a mesmerizing, mysterious human.

At long last, millions of Dune fans can now hear the unpublished chapters and scenes from Dune and Dune Messiah. The Road to Dune also includes the original correspondence between Frank Herbert and famed editor John W. Campbell, Jr.; excerpts from Herbert's correspondence during his years-long struggle to get his innovative work published; and the article, "They Stopped the Moving Sands", Herbert's original inspiration for Dune.

It was a dark and stormy knight, and nine dark defenders embarked upon a most perilous quest. They're the ultimate defenders of humanity, modern day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons. In this all-star collection, nine of today's hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights that are brimming with magic mystery and mayhem.

Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. The events of City of Heavenly Fire left him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn't sure who he is anymore. So when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon hunting, determined to find himself again. Whomever this new Simon might be. But the Academy is a Shadowhunter institution, which means it has some problems.

Since the 1970s, FantasticLand has been the theme park where "Fun is Guaranteed!" But when a hurricane ravages the Florida coast and isolates the park, the employees find it anything but fun. Five weeks later, the authorities who rescue the survivors encounter a scene of horror. Photos soon emerge online of heads on spikes outside of rides and viscera and human bones littering the gift shops, breaking records for hits, views, likes, clicks, and shares.

In the wilds of a jungle planet, the Legion fights in brutal combat as Republic marines fly their SLICS from one tragedy to the next. H292, a repurposed warbot, shows the heart of a hero as he wades into the battle not to destroy - but to save.

"The Red House”, a story by Robert McCammon, was originally published in the 1985 anthology Greystone Bay and was selected for inclusion in The Year's Best Fantasy Stories 1985.

In Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff's "Poor Little Rich Girls," we follow the continuing adventures of the teenage tycoons begun by Huff in "The Sewing Circle" (Gazette #1) and "Other People's Money" (Gazette #3). The focus in this story, however, is on the younger siblings - the so-called Barbie Consortium - and their down-timer associates and enemies.

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.

The Ultimate Horror Collection is a fully-indexed collection of over 60 classic horror stories, read by four Audie-winning narrators. Included here are stories by H.P. Lovecraft; Edgar Allan Poe; M.R. James; Oscar Wilde; Joseph Le Fanu; Bram Stoker; Mary Shelley; Robert Louis Stevenson; and Henry James.

During a time of political and social unrest in Egypt, a god-like force, Nyarlathotep, emerges. He travels the land dazzling people with electricity and psychology. While witnesses of this god-like creature encourage others to see him, afterwards, people seem terrified. As the narrator recounts his experiences, he becomes disoriented. By the end of the story, the narrator and the other viewers of Nyarlathotep begin to lose touch with reality.

George Dumas (Bruiser) calls Jane Yellowrock to the Royal Mojo Blues Company, because the club has been the scene of vampire attacks from an unknown rogue-vamp. And they dance. Oh, do they dance…

An anthology celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Predator franchise, If It Bleeds includes 17 brand new, never-before-seen or heard stories featuring the Predators throughout space and time. Based entirely on the original films, novels, and comics, Predator: If It Bleeds reveals the Predators stalking prey in 12th-century Japan, ninth-century Viking Norway, World War I, Vietnam, the Civil War, Hurricane Katrina, and the modern day, as well as across the far reaches of future space.

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

"Dancers in the Dark" is set in the Sookieverse and features Sean and Layla. Dancer Layla Rue Le May's childhood prepared her to handle just about anything, including her aloof partner, Sean McClendon, a 300-year-old, redheaded vampire. Even so, when she somehow acquires a stalker, Layla Rue is surprised to find that Sean is the only one she can trust.

He's the ass-kicking, wise-cracking, hard-drinking demon hunter you never knew you needed. He's Quincy Harker, and he's here to save your ass whether you want it or not. The immortal magic-wielding son of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray from the classic novel Dracula, Harker now lives in North Carolina hunting down demons and sending them back to Hell. This Omnibus Edition collects the first 12 novellas in the Quincy Harker series.

With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of contemporary science fiction and fantasy.

A quite different science fiction saga with a very special heroine After a starship accident, eleven-year-old Tanit is lost among the stars, fifteen thousand light-years from home. Although she is a genius, she cannot repair the ship, and her only hope is to find an alien civilization that could help her out. For the first time in history, humans will meet aliens, but the girl will soon discover that the aliens don't really care about humans, and much less about her troubles. And Tanit will then face a real problem: It's called survival. Second episode of the Spanish science fiction series ...