Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

Ashley Perrin is fresh out of college and starting a job as a community liaison for the Third District–the city’s only sector with more alien residents than humans. Ashley’s barely found where the paper clips are kept when she’s beset with constituent complaints–from too much noise at the Annual Lupidian Celebration Parade to a trip-and-fall chicken to a very particular type of alien hornet that threatens the very city itself. And if that’s not terrifying enough, Ashley is next up at the office karaoke night.

The Heathen is a short story by the American writer Jack London. It was first published in Everybody's Magazine in August 1910. In the story, two people, from different cultural and racial backgrounds, are the only survivors of a ship that encounters a hurricane in the Pacific, and they remain together. The narrator, a pearl buyer named Charley, is a cabin passenger on a schooner, the Petite Jeanne, sailing from Rangiroa to Tahiti with a Kanaka crew, at the end of the pearling season in the Paumotas. The boat, having eighty-five deck passengers, is overloaded.

A baby hippo learns about diversity when he discovers that animals come in many shapes and sizes.

В 1894-1895 годах в свет выходят знаменитые "Книга джунглей" и "Вторая книга джунглей", подлинные шедевры Редьярда Киплинга. Сказка "Слуги Её Величества" (Книга джунглей) о том, как животные, которые служат людям во время военных походов, рассуждают о военных сражениях. Во время войны животные вместе с людьми несут все тяготы и неудобства походной жизни. Однажды ночью солдат, который немного понимал язык животных, подслушал, о чем говорят животные в лагере. Оказывается, о том же, что и люди.

The God of His Fathers: Tales of The Klondyke. It was written by Jack London in the 1919 year. As a young man in the summer of 1897, Jack London joined the Klondike gold rush. From that seminal experience emerged these gripping, inimitable wilderness tales, which have endured as some of London's best and most defining work. With remarkable insight and unflinching realism, London describes the punishing adversity that awaited men in the brutal, frozen expanses of the Yukon, and the extreme tactics these adventurers and travelers adopted to survive.

"The Alchemist" was a "validation" of Lovecraft's literary skills in the United Amateur Press Association, i.e., a literary text based on which the author's writing predispositions were assessed and a decision was made about whether to accept him into the said association or reject his candidacy.

Tamerlane is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe that follows a fictionalized accounting of the life of a Turco-Mongol conqueror historically known as Tamerlane. The poem was first published in the 1827 collection Tamerlane and Other Poems. The poem's original version was 403 lines but trimmed down to 223 lines for its inclusion in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems.

A short dramatic story explaining the rule of five nouns in the Arabic language.

In the dark recesses of the province of Averoigne, where mists intertwine with legends, and night conceals secrets, vampires, witches, and ancient powers meet. In this tale full of intrigue and danger, heroes face a choice between light and darkness. Will love and courage be enough to survive this encounter in Averoigne?

"A Lodging for the Night: A Story of Francis Villon" is a gripping tale set in 15th-century Paris. Francis Villon, a poet and a poor master of arts, finds himself entangled in a web of crime and desperation on a snowy November night. After witnessing a murder committed by his companions, Villon grapples with fear and moral dilemmas as he navigates the treacherous streets of Paris in search of shelter. T

It is a short story that tells about the future of humanity and the end of the world.

Дикий помещик — сатирическая сказка Михаила Евграфовича Салтыкова-Щедрина, впервые опубликованная в 1869 году. Одному помещику страшно надоели собственные мужики, и он молился Богу, чтобы тот его избавил от них. Бог внял его молитвам, и тех пор с помещиком стали происходить дивные метаморфозы.

Pu Yi, a spoiled but lonely child emperor, learns to ride a bicycle with the help of his tutor, hoping it will impress his aloof father.

The Goophered Grapevine is the first short story from The Conjure Woman, published in The Atlantic in August 1887, told to the narrator by Julius McAdoo, a former enslaved man who lives on the plantation that the narrator, John, and his wife, Annie, visit one day. Set in Patesville, North Carolina, John and Annie moved there for an improvement in his wife's health and to seek other business opportunities. Knowing that the couple wanted to purchase the property, McAdoo advises them not to do so, informing them that when Dugal McAdoo, the previous master, purchased the property, it was very rich in wine production because of its vineyards.

A short story about a young man who meets a girl in an unexpected moment, admiration and love arise, and the moment ends in an unbelievable ending.

Медведь на воеводстве — одна из «взрослых» сказок Михаила Евграфовича Салтыкова-Щедрина, знаменитого русского писателя ХІХ века, опубликована в 1886 году. Состоит из трех новелл, представляющих пародию на историческую хронику. Три воеводы Топтыгины всячески мечтали продержаться как можно дольше у власти, но исход у каждого был одинаков.