Tales of Hayven Celestia tells 13 stories of ordinary people put in extraordinary circumstances. Stuck in situations far beyond their control, they have to make the hardest choices of their lives. The stakes have never been higher, and one wrong move will lead to catastrophe.

Post-war life in the large British manor of Tremontaine is normally quiet, especially for assistant cook Ellie Stone. When Giles and Kate St. Clair's son John returns unexpectedly from his American college the same week Mr. St. Clair's business partner Martin Trevayn is visiting to conclude a business deal, tensions run high. Mr. St. Clair takes out some of his stress on Ellie's girlfriend Abby, a housemaid, and for a brief moment, Ellie wishes the head of the family dead.

"They’ve put Kaz on trial for the murders!” cried Aziz. “They’re going to execute her as the killer!” Tori shook her head in an attempt to wake more fully. “What? No. That’s a mistake. Kaz wouldn’t harm an insect. There’s no way a court could find her guilty.” “The krakun legal system doesn’t give a damn about geroo. They find everyone guilty!”

A well-placed kick into Kanti’s stomach dropped him back to the deck, grasping his gut and gasping for breath.

Tom wished for a meaningful job with the chance to make things. Someone listened. Judged by a masked demigod, Tom gets sent to another world with magic, game-like rules, and massive opportunity for a clever inventor. He's been handed a new identity and adopted by a loving family. As a young man with otherworldly knowledge, he tries to recreate technology from humble beginnings. There are spells to learn, too, and he wants to treat his sister and parents right. His river homeland seems idyllic, but there are problems brewing.

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.