System Fiction

Last I remember I was saving my high school crush from the path of an oncoming truck. Now I'm a skin-and-bones weakling wearing nothing but my hospital gown. Oh yeah, the world is also full of monsters, and I'm the only human left. It turns out a godlike System evacuated humanity but decided to leave the vegetable in the bed. I could crawl into a corner and wait to get eaten by a kobold, but after years of being asleep, I have a new appreciation for feeling alive. I'll have to find the tenacity to survive, the courage to fight, and the strength to face some dark truths about myself.

Marc's home from college on break, spending his time laughing about some of the crazy news stories he's found online, and gaming. When a message appears in his line of sight, blocking out absolutely everything else, he nearly freaks out. The message warns that the world has been in a variant Natural Laws beta test for millennia and that it's about to revert to the norms.

Hal Mason's still going to find surviving the System Apocalypse challenging. While bringing in his latest fugitive, Hal's payday is interrupted by the translucent blue boxes that herald Earth's introduction to the System - a galaxy spanning wave of structured mystical energy that destroys all electronics and bestows game-like abilities upon mankind. With society breaking down and mutating wildlife rampaging through the city of Pittsburgh, those who remain will sacrifice anything for a chance at earning their next Level.

The Leviathan is dead. Humanity has won the global mission but the price has been too high. Japan is in ruins, Honshu lies partially underwater, and the capital has been destroyed. The country has been left without leadership and tens of millions have perished, while monsters continue to hunt down the survivors. Ivan Susanin heads to the submerged Toyo as part of an expedition to find the missing raven, help evacuate the civilians and slay as many monsters as possible. And that's only on the surface.

The Connected System has come to Earth and adapted humanity to be able to survive and try to Advance and Thrive in the Connection. With new Classes and Abilities; Lochlan Brady, his family and the rest of humanity will face challenges and threats from myths and beyond. Loch and his daughters have survived their first Dungeon in the newly changed world and come out far stronger. Just wanting to get home, and start searching for the missing Kelly, they come across other survivors in Northwood.

In the future: A united Earth, to deal with the problem of population control, divides its population into classes of citizen and non-gratis. To be born a non-gratis means a life of little freedoms and the constant possibility of being assigned to work on a colony. Lacking citizenship, every aspect of their life is controlled from where they live down to marriage and childbearing regulations. The only possible escape from life as a non-gratis is to qualify for one of the limited slots available for entrance into the military.

Valeria Velez has just pulled off a stunning upset in California's 27th District, ousting ten-term corporatist incumbent Fillian Dunne from his seat in Congress. Young, beautiful, and idealistic, Valeria and her boyfriend/campaign manager Preston Jante are determined to use Valeria's new position to "stop stuffing the maw of the military machine" and return power to the people. But when fugitive hacker Lance Thaddeus uncovers a top-secret Pentagon program combining artificial intelligence with nuclear command-and-control, Valeria might have to choose between her ideals...and her life.

Since her first day on the Miami Herald, rookie reporter Deborah Jones has been agitating for a shot at one particular story. William Craig is on death row, convicted of killing Senator Jack O'Neill's only son. There is no question of his guilt. Craig murdered the young man who was acquitted of raping his granddaughter. There are only five weeks and one day until his execution. And Craig has not given a single interview. She wants to know what prompted Craig to exact revenge.

Jay Luckrun has many interests: street dancing, anime, action movies, comedy, and dashing across rooftops to the point where his bullies nicknamed him Rooftop Weirdo. After struggling to confront his untouchable high school crush at her seventeenth birthday party, Jay adds another interest to his list—Dungeon Crawling in the face of the apocalypse. Jay meets a divine creature who chooses him to become a Champion. Someone with a leveling System, stats, skills, access to other dimensions containing dungeons filled with supernatural loot, and magical powers that’ll alter reality as they know it.

The Hunt was supposed to bring him glory... instead, it gave him war. Gary just hit the jackpot—a lottery win granting him a coveted spot in the Great Hunt, the galaxy’s most legendary hunting competition. He’s spent years theorycrafting the perfect rogue build, optimizing every stat, weapon, and skill to crush the leaderboard and bask in fame. But fate has other plans. Just after uploading into his sleek new echo body and en route to the battle-world Artemis, his ship is ambushed. The Hunt is abruptly canceled. Earth is under siege by an unknown force—and every Hunter is being ...

Wrench is a Fixer. Someone born to maintain, fix, and correct any and every issue that could go wrong in the habitat he lives in. Someone who makes sure he and his fellow humans can remain on display and entertain their owners as any good human pet would. At least, that’s what he was born to be. He’s taken a different route and joined a resistance faction to help free humanity to become more than just pets to an alien race.

All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.

Hal Mason's still going to find surviving the System Apocalypse challenging. While bringing in his latest fugitive, Hal's payday is interrupted by the translucent blue boxes that herald Earth's introduction to the System - a galaxy spanning wave of structured mystical energy that destroys all electronics and bestows game-like abilities upon mankind.

After an unfortunate accident, Handry is forced to wander a world he doesn't understand, searching for meaning. He soon discovers that the life he thought he knew is far stranger than he could even possibly imagine. Can an unlikely savior provide the answers to the questions he barely comprehends?

The train station harbors danger. Each day, one portal opens, leading to daunting trials and battles of life and death commanded by masked facilitators. Asher is forced to rely on his instincts and his weapon. He must navigate this treacherous world, both solo and with teams, and contend with other players, each harboring their own motives and ambitions. Confronted with unimaginable challenges, every day unveils a new hurdle, and each victory is bitterly earned. In this world intent on crushing him, Asher must fight to survive.

The System Apocalypse has come to Australia, altering native organisms and importing even more menacing creatures to the most dangerous continent on Earth. For Kira Kent, plant biologist, the System arrives while she's pulling an all nighter at work with her pair of kids in tow. Now, instead of mundane parental concerns like childcare and paying the bills, she's got to figure out how to survive a world where already deadly flora and fauna have grown even more perilous.

Getting hit by a truck didn't Isekai Arthur Ward, but he did wake up in a world forever changed. When Earth evolves, passing a threshold few even knew existed, humanity is whisked away by the Grand System to engage in an educational Tutorial to bring them up to speed, the introduction of the new energy source that has been made available: Ether.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there's an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can't have the planet, they're sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there's something wrong with Murderbot; it isn't running within normal operational parameters.

Love knows no bounds… In this science fiction anthology, love has no limits across space and time. From Artificial Intelligence, aliens, and intergalactic royalty. From headstrong characters fighting the status quo to those struggling to keep afloat in a tumultuous world. One way or another, their love will survive. Featuring stories by Frank Sawielijew, Kevin A. Davis, Wris Kaye, David W. Landrum, E.B. Hunter, Lyle Hopwood, Amanda Barrett, Katie Kent, T.C. Mill, and Barend Nieuwstraten III. Graphic sexual content is included within this anthology.

One Tuesday changes everything for Robert Williams. A cosmic entity known as the System arrives, selecting him—a suburban father and engineer—as Earth's sole representative for integration. He has six months to say goodbye to his family before being exiled to another universe for over 400 years. Guided by an AI companion and gifted with powerful starting perks, Robert must navigate a new reality defined by levels, skills, magic, and dungeon crawls.