Space Fantasy Adult

In AD 2076, Earth has been conquered and humanity brutally enslaved under the cruel tyranny of the Kalkar invaders whose evil was spawned from Va-nah, the Moon’s hollow interior. But when a desperate plea comes from the planet Barsoom, Julian Seventh - descendant of the great hero who nearly defeated the Kalkars - is hurled upon a lonely quest into the heart of Va-nah. There he must team up with a U-ga princess and a fierce alien quadruped to launch a daring rescue to save a lost Barsoomian ambassadorial mission.

The imagination of humanity has a tendency toward the extremes. It's at the extremes that the excitement is found. Fortunately, reality has a tendency toward the mean. The reality for the humanity of the 2080s is about what you'd expect. Life on Earth is rough, but not especially rough compared to eras past. The second space race has come and gone, leaving the masses to figure out the rules of yet another new status quo.

Treinta años en el futuro. La Tierra es cada vez menos habitable, por lo que un grupo de colonos (entre ellos Will, sus dos hermanas adolescentes y sus padres) emprende un viaje intergaláctico, en busca de un nuevo hogar. Durante la travesía, la nave es atacada y la familia Robinson se queda varada en un planeta alienígena, en el cual deberá lidiar con un entorno hostil y muchas dificultades técnicas, para poder reemprender la marcha y alcanzar al resto de la colonia.

Branded as a pirate, collared like a dog, chained to a wall at night, and isolated as a prisoner on a journey to another planet, could the situation get any worse for thirteen-year-old Megan Willis? Much worse. Megan’s parents have been sentenced to death, and now she is speeding away through a space-fabric wormhole, unable to try to save them. Also, her ship’s captain frequently interrogates her about a mysterious gem called a dragon’s eye, and he delivers punishing shocks through her collar when she refuses to reveal its location.

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories.

Step into the mesmerizing expanse of the Carina Nebula, where the boundaries of science and the mysteries of the cosmos collide. Nebula’s Whisper, is a spellbinding sci-fi that follows Chief Science Officer Sarah Chen and her team as they navigate a seemingly routine mission aboard a remote research station—until they uncover a discovery that will change humanity forever. When the nebula's haunting radiation anomalies reveal mathematical patterns too intricate to be natural, Sarah embarks on a quest for answers. But with every revelation, she finds herself unraveling secrets Earth ...

A looming supernova. A long-lost starship. A hero turned evil. Olive Joshi never meant to fall through a portal into her own abandoned novel, much less kill her protagonist and resurrect her as a villain. Now she’s on the run in a universe quickly spiraling out of her control. After narrowly escaping Coseema with her life, Olive and her friends head for a distant planet in search of the legendary starship the Wave-Rider, which may be the only hope for the doomed people of Lyria.

Laterre is on the brink of war. The Third Estate are rioting against the injustices of a corrupt system. The Patriarche, reeling from the murder of his only heir, makes brutal attempts to quash the unrest, while a new militant faction launches a series of deadly attacks. And three outlaws find themselves pulled into the fray. Marcellus is now a traitor to his planet, willing to do anything to stop his grandfather from seizing control of Laterre. Chatine is a prisoner on Bastille. Alouette is a fugitive who has been lied to her entire life. These three renegades must risk everything.

The Xortaags are back with a vengeance. Not being the forgive-and-forget types, they’ve conquered the Akakie homeworld, and now they set their sight upon Earth. Having reverse-engineered the advanced technology they scavenged on Kanoor, they now hold the key to rule the universe forever. It now befalls to Jim and his friends to save not only humanity, but every sentient species in the galaxy.

The White Republic’s navy decimates the Federation’s forces in a surprise attack. Now Jim and his friends must unite once more to kick out the invaders and liberate their worlds, but they have only a few thousand ships left. To make matters worse, they’re under a tight deadline, and time’s running out.

Aedre thought she had escaped. She thought the temple was safe. She was wrong. After bringing two victims of the slave rings into hiding, Aedre uncovers a deeper horror—one of them is a killer. Now she’s stranded on Haunted River, paralysed and cut off from her powers, unable to warn her allies before it’s too late. When an unstable volcano erupts ten years too soon, Aedre must find the time key and open a portal before the villagers are wiped out. But the further she goes, the more she begins to understand: the disasters aren’t natural. The invaders who rule the sky cities may have...

Rael Armstrong is an apprentice to a hunter of the Order. Hunters have one mission in life: to vanquish evil beings from other planes of reality. Normally, it’s very exciting work, but Rael’s current mission feels a little on the dull side. She’s been tasked with watching a suspect, and that’s it—just watching. It is a dull task until an unlikely visitor shows up to talk with her suspect. It couldn’t hurt to do a little less watching and a lot more following of this visitor to see what he’s up to, right? Well, it wouldn’t hurt unless this visitor was something really ...

This ninth volume of Favorite Science Fiction Stories is a little unusual, in that it includes a few stories that are not really that short, bordering on novellas. Titles include: "The Concrete Mixer" by Ray Bradbury, "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, "Bedside Manner" by William Morrison, "The Inferiors" by Mari Wolf, "The Aggravation of Elmer" by Robert Arthur, "Conquest over Time" by Michael Shara, "The Virgin of Valkarion" by Poul Anderson, "No Charge for Alterations" by H. L. Gold.

What if everything you believe is a lie? Maia has spent most of her life trying to run away from her past. When a chance encounter lands Maia in a dubious peace initiative, she has to walk down a road she had hoped never to tread. Little does she know that the real truth about her long-deceased mother is somewhere down this path. But before she gets to that, Maia will discover true friendship, face an unimaginable evil, and fight her deepest fears to save the world she loves. A planet on the brink of extinction. An enemy from the dark side of the universe. Only one girl and her secret stand...

Following Jim’s audacious plan, Kurt and a team of Marines traveled to the future to destroy Voltex. However, in doing so, they inadvertently started a chain reaction that ended with the extermination of all life in the universe. Now our heroes must get together one last time to save the universe, before it is too late.

In an empire ruled by the honored dead, seraphs are the ultimate weapons. Fueled by the pilot's very soul, these colossal humanoid war machines are unstoppable in battle. Only a few possess the gift to control such craft, and those men and women are prized above all others. Seth Elexen and a small group of elite pilots have tracked the renegade Veketon to the far side of the galaxy. With only one ship and a single squadron of seraphs, they alone must face the tyrant within the heart of his growing power. But Veketon is no easy mark.

A world under siege... Loyalties divided... And deception... Kara Howard's arrival on Zaratan is shadowed by Joffray violence. With the planet under siege, her loyalties to her new home will be tested. If the terrorists were not enough of a challenge to her allegiance to her guardian - her discovery of a new faction further complicates the situation. The Pure Bloods have claimed Kara as one of their own. They are determined to end the practice of bringing children from other worlds to Zaratan. If Kara's life wasn't complicated enough, her feelings for Matt Sparks is tested with her growing ...

Secrets always find their way out. Thirteen-year-old Maia thinks she has seen it all. She has survived a soul-extraction attempt, been threatened with death, and faced off with saboteurs trying to bring down her nation. She lets nothing get to her anymore—not even the memories of her dead mother's terrifying communique. All Maia wants is for the Alliance Initiative to resume. She longs to visit the under-ocean civilization of the Jjord, ride the underwater transport lines, and to learn about the Jjordic energy farms that could save her ruined planet. Most of all, she wants to goof off ...

Zara Cole was a thief back on Earth, but she’s been recently upgraded to intergalactic fugitive. On the run after a bloody battle in a covert war that she never expected to be fighting, Zara, her co-pilot, Beatriz, and their Leviathan ship, Nadim, barely escaped the carnage with their lives. Now, Zara and her crew of Honors need a safe haven, far from the creatures who want to annihilate them. But they’ll have to settle for the Sliver: a wild, dangerous warren of alien criminals.

The best of the year's science fiction and fantasy stories as selected by the multiple award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. Distant worlds, time travel, epic adventure, unseen wonders, and much more! The best, most original and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past 12 months are brought together in one collection by multiple award winning editor Jonathan Strahan.