System Fiction

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

I was there when the Gaia System was first born. The changes were more than anyone could have dreamed of: magical powers, a stronger body, and a call to adventure. It should have been a paradise; gifted the ability to combine spells with my Meta Bracer, I should have had an easy climb to the top. Maybe it was just me, Jory Mitchels, previously middle management in a start-up from hell. The change was supposed to make life better for the humans of Earth, but something went wrong.

After finding out the truth about my coma and my current situation, I was shocked. Devastated. Broken. And learning that my benefactor could be my enemy certainly didn't help. But a certain Goddess tells me that there's hope. That I can give back Alex what's rightfully his. And earn a second chance at becoming my real self. It won't be easy, but nothing is when you're . . .Left Out by the System.

As a software developer from Texas, Tom thought he understood broken code. But when mysterious obelisks transform Earth into a glitch-riddled dungeon crawler, he discovers that debugging the apocalypse won't be as easy as turning it off and back on again. Their lifeline? Vending machines turned into miniature storefronts. These mechanical saviors dispensed everything from swords to shampoo—until they started dispensing death.

In a desperate attempt to return to Kalli’s side, Melvin finds himself on a mysterious new planet. There he meets his father, the all-powerful wizard behind the M bloodline. Grounded by powerful magic that prevents him from leaving the planet, Melvin must piece together clues about his family’s past before it’s too late.

In Journey Through The Solar System, you can join the experience of a lifetime without leaving your home. Get ready for an unforgettable space holiday! You're about to launch on a voyage beyond your wildest dreams, touring the marvels of our Solar System (the sun, planets, comets, and asteroids) and the mysteries of the cosmos.

They couldn’t afford a ship or a fleet...and now they have a whole system to defend! Harmon Tomeral, along with friends Clip, Zerith, and the artificial intelligence Jayneen, were heroes. They’d brought back the battlecruiser Salvage Title from an unknown system and had defeated the alien Squilla and saved their home system of Tretrayon, not once, but twice. But now they have a system of their own, and the Bith are about to open it up to the galaxy at large.

Having fled his home country, Jack finds himself in a foreign land surrounded on all sides by people who hate his existence, even those that claim to support him seem to have some ulterior motive. Be it because of his eye color, or the shadow of his parent's sins cast over him, Jack finds himself having to strike deals and play a part with the Princess of the Empire if he wishes to protect his sister.

From its bright beginnings to its darkest hour, Arabella Online was more than just a game—it was a world. A forge for legends. A grave for the forgotten. A home for Humanities digital Angel. This anthology traces Arabella’s evolution through the eyes of those who lived—and sometimes died—within it. From first-generation launch players shaping kingdoms in code, to war-born guildmasters caught in digital collapse, and the broken fragments of AI and memory that still haunt its ghost servers, each story is a thread in a tapestry unraveling over millennia. As old systems break and new ...

Bounty hunter Hal Mason is doing well for himself, a year after the System converted Earth into a lawless, apocalyptic Dungeon World. Now, though, old friends have come calling with a new opportunity and with it, the murky politics of Galactic interests and overlapping contracts. Hal must protect the first train to cross the new wildlands of the American Midwest.

With Princess Selfia suddenly missing, it is now up to Jack to plan and organize his team for the academy mid-term. The next task, a low altitude airdrop into the Frelia Mountain range where Almus cadets will put their landnav, survival, and teamwork skills to the test. The criteria for passing? Survival, simple enough. However what was supposed to be a simple test of preparedness becomes far more as Jack and his squad become victims to events that forever change the trajectory of their lives and the world as they know it.

Peter Kraemer, a physics teacher with a passion for astronomy, makes a discovery that he himself can hardly believe: Stars disappear from one day to the next, with nothing left of them. The researchers he contacts provide reassuring and logical explanations for every single case. But when Peter determines that the mysterious process is approaching our home system, he becomes more and more anxious. He alone perceives the looming catastrophe. When he believes he has found a way to avert the impending disaster, he chooses to pull out all the stops.

The battle for Sar rages on. The Alliance offensive has failed, ammunition is running out, and only nuclear weapons have saved the players from utter obliteration. Ivan Susanin, also known as Vasily, found himself in a Lich trap and escaped by a miracle. Yet the mission continues as long as the return card has not been used. He can still return and find a way to reverse this seemingly hopeless situation. Retreat is not an option—the fate of two worlds rests in his hands. Victory or death!

Claire Pendleton has seen the thin spots between dimensions since she was five, when another reality merged into her family's apartment. That night, eldritch horrors flooded into her bedroom and murdered her mom while she watched. No one believes her, but she knows the truth. It doesn't matter what her perfect sister and deadbeat dad say about a "traffic accident." Claire knows what happened that night ten years ago, the cover-up that followed—and all about Vancouver Island's other thin places.

"A Pail of Air” by Fritz Leiber is a haunting and poetic science fiction short story set in a frozen, post-apocalyptic Earth where the sun has gone dark. Written in the early 1950s, this atmospheric tale follows a resilient family struggling to survive in a world turned to eternal night, where even breathable air must be collected by hand. Told through the eyes of a young boy, the story captures the stark beauty of isolation, the desperation of survival, and the enduring hope that flickers in humanity’s darkest hours.

The Most Feared Prison in the Solar System. Ephraim Simpsons has been on the run for the better part of two weeks- since his underground church had been raided. Not wanting to put his family or friends in danger, he plans to keep to the streets as he tries to make it across North America to a space port on the east coast and potentially freedom on Mars or the Asteroid Belt. Detective Joe Lancaster has a different plan in mind: he wants to send Ephraim to the asteroid prison of Vesta, where lifespans average five months. Along with his two officers, Amy Jennigan and Cayman Morgan, he is ...

En un futuro controlado por entidades corporativas donde el viaje espacial es posible, una compañía de seguros debe aprobar y abastecer todas las misiones planetarias. Los equipos de exploración tienen que ir acompañados de androides suministrados por las aseguradoras, por su propio bien. Pero en una sociedad donde los contratos se conceden al postor más bajo, la seguridad no es lo más importante.

Two weeks into the System Apocalypse, and the transformations are just beginning. Mutated insects, carnivorous toads, and angry drop bears were not on the school curriculum, but when the apocalypse hits, you roll with it. Parenting a teenager has prepared Kira for the worst; she just didn’t expect that to include the end of the world. A menacing conglomerate of alien hunters is breathing down their necks, and new threats lurk just over the hills. Kira and the rest of the Australian survivors of Brisbane must level up, bolster defenses, and prepare for an incoming invasion.

The time of Amina’s mission is here. With an unbreakable bond, she and her deck leader, Clyde, must triumph over an organization that harassed the realms she protected for centuries and, at last, confront Niphlem, the chaos god.

The Last Evolution by John W. Campbell Jr. is a visionary science fiction classic that explores the profound future of humanity and artificial intelligence. Set in a world where machines have surpassed their creators, this thought-provoking novella examines the evolution of consciousness, the decline of mankind, and the rise of intelligent machines as Earth's final guardians.