Stephen B. Pearl

Word Count: Click here to reveal106,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: In the early 21st century, Rowan is fighting a secret war against alien pirates bent on subjugating all of mankind. At least, that's what she thinks. In reality, it's a thousand years later, Earth has long been part of an interstellar and interspecies republic, and she's a character on Angel Black, an e-entertainment that allows viewers a complete sensory experience through her perspective. Who needs actors when you can clone famous performers and splice in some alien DNA? Since studio clones have no rights, their lives and experiences can be tailor-made for the program. It's just too bad the clones don't know that. Ryan Chandler was a decorated war hero until he was cloned to save his life. His career options died with his original body and the best job he can get is a technician on Angel Black. He's planning to escape to a newly colonized system when Rowan is scheduled to be killed off. With help from unexpected allies, Ryan stages Rowan's rescue, but getting her off the set is only the beginning. To succeed, they must evade a manhunt supported by the state that fears Rowan's liberation might be the triggering event of a clone rights movement that could cost the establishment billions and shake the foundations of human society. Can two clones find their freedom in a society that treats them as second-class citizens?

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Summary: Stories of wonder and courage from the farthest stars to the ground beneath our feet Charging selflessly into danger, facing the mortality of an artificially extended life, plumbing the deepest depths of space, fighting to expose truths others want to keep hidden... This collection of all-new stories from Brain Lag authors features never-before-seen glimpses into favourite worlds as well as new characters and places to love. From starkly beautiful to brashly funny and everything in between, these stories showcase the range of voices Brain Lag has been proud to publish over the years. Why do we tell such tales of hardship and bravery, honesty and reflection? Because in the darkness between the stars, there are no heroes. There are only regular people who step up.

Word Count: Click here to reveal79,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Left for dead behind enemy lines, prince Dominel seeks refuge in an abandoned stronghold of the slaughtered wizards. There he is recruited and trained by undead mages in the once forbidden magics so that he can close the doors into the world of man and halt the advance of the horde of monsters known as the storm. Can the strength of a lone wizard stand against a god of evil bent on ruling all the worlds of monsters and men. Will other races stand as friends or foes in Dominel’s quest? Can Dominel open himself to memories of his past lives without fracturing his sanity and becoming a worse threat than the monsters he seeks to halt? And what of the man who is prince, king and wizard? What space is left for him in a life of crushing duty and wondrous enchantment? For the answers read on

Word Count: Click here to reveal52,500 (Click here to hide)

Summary: The cerebral interface has revolutionised society. Need a ride? With a thought, the cab is on its way. Want an adventure? Enter a VR 5 computer game nearly indistinguishable from reality. Amanda arranges for her Big Sisters Program little sister, Rachel, to spend a day gaming as a fourteenth birthday present. Amanda never suspects that her insane ex-boyfriend, Jim, will use a computer virus to trap her and her companions in the game. A pleasant diversion becomes a life and death struggle as her party seek a way to come back to the real world without triggering a program that will cause nanobots to rip their brains to shreds. To complicate matters, in the game scenario the adventurers have been transformed into cats. Will the party survive? Will Amanda admit that Rachel’s older brother, Tyrell, might just be her future? Will the computer virus Jim used to trap them become a cyber plague that could kill thousands?

Word Count: Click here to reveal115,674 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Oil reserves depleted. Society collapsed. A few places cling to modern technology. For everywhere else, there are the Tinkers. In southern Ontario, Novo Gaia uses sustainable energy to support its citizens in comfort. From there, Novo Gaia sends Doctors of Applied General Technology, tinkers, into the Dark Lands to install everything from solar stills to televisions—and make a profit. After twenty years as an E.R. nurse, Tabitha “Tabby” Drivensky’s failing marriage sent her into the tinker program and the open waters of the Great Lakes. While fulfilling her Coast Guard service obligation, she rescues a boy named Andy Camble from a sinking ship. Andy turns out to have vital information on Packer, a pirate captain who has been plaguing the Great Lakes for generations in an ancient, nuclear-powered submarine. Using Andy’s intelligence, Tabby sets out ostensibly to scout out a new aquatic tinker route along Lake Huron but secretly assigned by Novo Gaia to find and put an end to Packer once and for all.

Word Count: Click here to reveal99,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Oil reserves depleted. Society collapsed. A few places cling to modern technology. For everywhere else, there are the Tinkers. In southern Ontario, Novo Gaia uses sustainable energy to support its citizens in comfort. From there, Novo Gaia sends Doctors of Applied General Technology, tinkers, into the Dark Lands to install everything from solar stills to televisions—and make a profit. Brad Cooper is a tinker on his route in Guelph when he finds himself at the epicentre of a plague outbreak. Stranded without support in a tenuously-held quarantine zone, he must use his limited medical training in a desperate search for a treatment against an insidious relic from an age of excess. Meanwhile, fuelled by panic, other townspeople caught within the quarantine zone conspire to sabotage relief efforts. Distrusted by the people he's trying to help, hampered by political rivals, under-supplied, over-worked, and with his own risk of infection increasing, Brad seems to be fighting a losing battle as the casualties mount...

Word Count: Click here to reveal80,350 (Click here to hide)

Summary: The sun and moon have been devoured by the cosmic wolves Skoll and Hati. Fimbulwinter has enveloped the world in the cold and darkness. Men prey on each other in order to survive. Amid the chaos, in the struggle for the throne, comes a war between brothers. Hakon, the illegitimate heir to the throne of Norveig, has obtained a horn that can summon a terror from the depths of the ocean. This monstrosity has been sinking the vessels of his half-brother, Jarl Erik Bloodaxe. Erik sends a company of untried heroes to infiltrate Hakon’s stronghold and steal the horn. As with all things political, there are other agendas. Fjorn, the leader of the team, is Erik’s half-brother who could challenge Erik for the throne. Erik's wife Gunnhild is a powerful sorceress with her own ambitions- could her goals derail the heroes? In life, sometimes a Jarl wins, and other times a Jarl wins.

Word Count: Click here to reveal113,100 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Markus a wizard from a parallel Earth travels to our world in a bid to stop a blight that is destroying his own. Here he meets Alcina, a Wiccan Priestess, who is in a custody battle over her son, Tim, against Carl, the boy’s sire, who abandoned her when she was pregnant eight years before. Carl has the backing of a dangerous religious cult in his bid to take Tim. Together Markus and Alcina face the forces of intolerance and hate to save a child and a world and thaw two warm harts too long trapped in the ice of betrayal. Meanwhile, Markus’ best friend and his ex-fiancée, who is now a vampire, battle the authorities who are likely to hang Markus upon his return because he has done research into forbidden magics.

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Summary: Nukekubi are a form of Japanese goblin that during the day look like ordinary folk. At night they separate their head from their body and fly around scaring people to death to feed on the energies released. Ray McAndrues, a Pagan wizard/priest, encounters a Nukekubi that is feasting on the people of Toronto and decides that he has got to put a stop to it. Ray gains allies in his quest in the form of two Japanese martial artists who have made hunting Nukekubi their life’s work and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Cathy, who is also a mystic. Problems arise when east and west do not communicate wall and Cathy is his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Also, what is the centuries-spanning tie that binds Ray to the Nukekubi and will it help or hinder the quest?

Word Count: Click here to reveal99837 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Race, an ex-cop private eye in a world where most people are conditioned so that they cannot commit an act of violence, must release a savage artificial personality, Ralf, that was implanted in him when he did a deep-cover mission as a police officer, to rescue Astra, the woman he secretly loves, from the crime syndicates who have used a drug to turn her into a sex slave. Race succeeds at the cost of the crime syndicates discovering that Ralph is still alive. The syndicates want their assassin back and think nothing of toppling Race’s sanity to achieve their ends. Can Race maintain control of his body? Freed of the drug’s effect, will Astra return his affections? And what of Ralph, can a sociopath learn to love and what changes might that bring?

Word Count: Click here to reveal92459 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Ben and Alysia, sole mates, cursed to be separated by age and social norms until they live a life and raise a child together in love, struggle to defeat the curse. Meanwhile, the originator of the curse, Dorry, hounds them from life to life in a selfish and self- destructive vendetta. Follow these souls through Albert, Bernidine and Darius, nobles in fifteen hundreds France when the curse begins. To Abigail and Bernia Sapphic lovers in the year 1774 who are hounded by Donald, a false pretender to Abigail’s Estates. Later still in the Colorado Territories of the American west shortly after the civil war Ada and Bailey, a young emancipated slave and a radical Doctor from the North, struggle to love against the bias of their time and the plots of Deigo. Then in our current times, the lovers strive to break the curse and let love triumph. But is love enough when the world is against you?