sci fi – greenpunk

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Summary: He'll get by with a little help from his mate. When Paul's long-buried past reaches out for him, having Simon at his back should make all the difference. The shy, studious teen who ditched his hometown is now a grown man with a good life, an honorable profession, and a werewolf boyfriend. So why is still so hard to go home? A new 37,000 word novella in the same time frame as book 6 in the Hidden Wolves series brings challenges, pain, love, and their HEA for our favorite guys. Content warning for assisted suicide.

Word Count: Click here to reveal105,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Enslaved by demonic aliens, a teenage boy must first survive if he is to avenge his murdered father. A typical Alaskan teenager, Paul’s greatest joy is hunting and fishing with his father. But when alien demons attack his family’s isolated cabin, they shatter Paul’s comfortable life. After killing his father and enslaving Paul, his twin sister, and their mother, the demons teleport their three captives to Hell, a desert world in the Demonic Empire. Once there, they face one of two terrible fates. They can either live as useful slaves or be immediately slaughtered as food for the merciless demons. With his demon masters demanding their slaves’ absolute obedience to their brutal human overseers, Paul soon learns to hide his burning hatred and desire for revenge behind the stoic expression of a servile slave. But as the years slowly pass, Paul adapts to survive, first as a field slave and then as a gladiator. Will he live long enough to take his revenge, or will Paul’s years of slavery rob him of his will to resist and cost him his humanity? Action-packed and with a strong emotional core and relatable characters, this multi-award-winning, stand-alone prequel to the Hell Holes series of alien invasion novels is an epic tale of love, loss, friendship, and survival under the most hellish of conditions. If you enjoy science fiction books like The Hunger Games and Divergent that stay with you long after you finish them, you will love Hell Holes: A Slave’s Revenge.   Awards: Winter 2022 Pinnacle Book Awards - Winner 2023 Cygnus Science Fiction Book Awards - Finalist 2023 Chrysalis BREW Project – Seal of Excellence 2021 Top Shelf Magazine Book Awards – Runner-up – Fiction/Fantasy Subcategory July 2022 BooksShelf Writing Awards – Finalist – Fiction Category 2021 The Wishing Shelf Book Awards – Finalist – Adult Category 2023 ReadFree.ly Best Book We’ve Read All Year – Finalist 2021 ReadFree.ly 50 Best Indie Books 2023 Kindle Book Award – Semifinalist – Science Fiction Category

Word Count: Click here to reveal26000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Wilderness tour guide, Patrick Morgan, wakes to discover Harlan Quinn—the man he’d invited home for the night—has left, with no traces of his presence. Disconcerting as that might be, Patrick is shocked when the police turn up a week later, demanding to know Harlan’s whereabouts. He’s an ex-patrol officer, accused of manslaughter. Harlan Quinn is desperate. Not only has he been dismissed from the Space Patrol, on a charge he strongly denies, but now he is on the run.   He can’t find a legitimate job. With no money and no prospects, what’s left? When Patrick’s tour group is caught up in a kidnapping plot, the last person he expects to run into is Harlan. With everything he knows, can Patrick dare to trust him?

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Summary: Charlie’s life force is fading. His only hope is an aged martial arts master in the remote reaches of China who, as far as Cappa can tell, doesn’t like him very much. While Charlie and Cappa are away from Z-Tech, William has been raising an empire of his own — one determined to crush any who interfere with his plans for world domination. Worse, he’s sided with the only other organization who had almost succeeded in erasing Z-Tech from the global market, pitting Anne and her friends in a desperate struggle for survival. The enemy has the advantage of numbers, but Z-Tech has Zima — a one-person army in her own right. Only time will tell if she’s enough to offset the overwhelming forces set against Z-Tech, and if San Francisco will survive their battle.

Word Count: Click here to reveal70,028 (Click here to hide)

Summary: How Far Would You Go to Find a Lost Loved One? Ten years ago, a man and his girlfriend went into the woods at the end of Claver Road on what was supposed to be a weekend's camping trip, and never returned. Police combed the area, but nothing was found except for his car, abandoned where they'd parked it. It seemed like Brad Ellicott and Cara Marshall had been swallowed by the silent, brooding forest, leaving not a trace of what had happened or where they went. His identical twin brother, left to mourn his loss, has spent the last decade unable to let go of his grief, to accept that Brad and Cara are gone forever. Based on sinister hints from a few of the older residents of Guildford, New York, the closest village to the woods, he discovers that there might be more to the story than the disappearance of a couple of hikers. The woods has had an evil reputation for well over a century, and his brother and his girlfriend are not the first people to defy the warnings and brave the shadows under the trees-nor the first to vanish there. Becoming obsessed with discovering what happened to his brother, he delves deeper and deeper into the mystery that lies beyond the end of Claver Road, and he uncovers a terrifying truth that challenges everything he believes. Is the knowledge worth the cost? And will he get the answers he needs before the forest claims him as its next victim?

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Summary: Does the need for knowledge balance its burden? Donovan would prefer to die in his bed, but circumstances might force him to do otherwise. When Donovan is tasked with Retrieving a young child thought to be a magus — the most powerful magic user in any generation — he is thrown headfirst into a world of intrigue and deception where any move he makes could be the one that shifts his people into a position of bloodshed and failure. There is a war brewing, centuries old. The Hunters, blood mages and child-snatchers fight the born mages, people of the Order, the school of magic and scholarly pursuit. Donovan must learn who and what to trust and how to endure suffering as he finds more and more about the nature of this endless war and what he can do to stop it.

Word Count: Click here to reveal81000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: As a private eye closes in on her city's secrets, there are those who will go to any lengths to stop her. After the horrific events of our last chapter, Jacqui's in a medical predicament. If she wants to stay free from the Spadros crime syndicate, she has to find the cure for her condition - and time's running out. But just when Jacqui thinks she's found what she's after, she finds herself instead in a much bigger - and deadlier - situation. She's getting closer to discovering what mechanisms really lie beneath the city. And the Red Dog Gang isn't the only one who wants her stopped. Warning: on-screen death, captivity, child murder, terror, blood, bad language, smoking.  

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Summary: You’ll tell me the truth in this trial of blood. After suffering a horrific loss, Midnight Fury is looking to settle the score, and she’s determined to do it alone. A vendetta against vampires doesn’t mix with music or touring, but Midnight’s never been afraid of a challenge. The Furies are fragmented and Midnight’s bond with Lottie is tenuous at best. Erebus is her clean slate, the perfect distraction from the broken pieces she’s left behind. But Midnight isn’t the only one with a secret. Danger is closing in. The past is threatening to catch up to them. When a member of her new band is targeted by a vampire, Midnight has no choice but to confront everything she’s been running from. It’s time to go on the offensive. Will Midnight measure up to her own expectations? Or will she lose part of herself to vengeance?

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Summary: Home, a place where we belong and are safe and loved. Home, the house in which we grew up, a neighborhood, a culture, even a country. Home is a state of mind, it is a place of the heart, and in the heart. Finding home, coming home, and bringing home the one we love is a journey, a journey that can be a dangerous adventure. For the lovers in these stories, adventures can include quests and fighting dragons and demons, past and present, physical as well as mental and emotional. Rocket launchers need to be dodged, the Wild Hunt needs to be outrun. For some of the lovers here, home has been lost, or they have been forced to leave, as is too common for LGBT+ youth. In this collection queer positive speculative fiction stories, explore the idea of what and where home is in the lives of these lovers. Will they survive their quests, defeat their monsters? Will they find a place to call home?  

Word Count: Click here to reveal4576 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sometimes, we get second chances -- at love, to make things right, to say good-bye the way it should have been said. Darian promised his dying husband Randy he would go through with the plan to teach summer school in Bath, England. Randy insisted; it was always Darian’s dream to live in England, go, do it. But once there, in Tintagel, on a street in Coverack, a small Cornish seaside village, Darian sees Randy. Grief can make us see things, right? So Darian tells himself, until the man whom he buried, whose ashes he carried with him to England, sits down beside him on a bench in front of Bath Abbey, with screaming seagulls nearby. It seems the dead can come back. But why and how? Has Randy come to take Darian with him? Or is something else going?

Word Count: Click here to reveal60000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: One starship, six friends, 10,000 lives in the balance. Hugo Award Finalist Gideon Marcus has done it again with this second installment in The Kitra Saga. Sirena is a thrilling YA space adventure, unusually hopeful and optimistic in a sea of grimdark, dystopian releases. Enhanced with beautiful illustrations, fans of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers and Emily Skrutskie’s Bonds of Brass will adore Sirena. Young captain-for-hire Kitra Yilmaz has gotten her first contract: escort the mysterious Princess of Atlántida beyond the Frontier and find her a new world. It’s a risky job, fraught with the threat of pirates, dangerous squatters, and rising romantic tensions. Still, Kitra and her crew are up for anything – until they find a lush world, perfect for settlement…with an enormous ghost ship already in orbit. What secret does the crippled vessel hide? And is Kitra ready to take responsibility for its precious cargo? With illustrations by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.

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Summary: African-descended USians are finally obtaining reparations—underwater. Plunge into the action of a visionary future by the award-winning author of Everfair, with narration by LeVar Burton (Star Trek: The Next Generation). Five miles off the South Carolina coast, Darden and Catherina are getting their promised forty acres, all of it undersea. Like every Black “mer,” they’ve been experimentally modified to adapt to their new subaquatic home—and have met with extreme resistance from white supremacists. Darden has an inspired plan for resolution. For both those on land and the webbed bottom-dwellers below, Darden is hoping to change the wave of the future. Nisi Shawl’s 2043 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) is part of Black Stars, a multi-dimensional collection of speculative fiction from Black authors. Each story is a world much like our own. Read or listen to them in a single sitting.

Word Count: Click here to reveal51000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Escaping intergalactic kidnappers has never been quite so ridiculous. When Lem and her faithful dog, Spock, retreat from the city for a few days of hiking in Algonquin Park, the last thing they expect is to be kidnapped by aliens. No, scratch that. The last thing they expect is to be kidnapped by a bunch of strangely adorable intergalactic bounty hunters aboard a ship called the Teapot. After Lem falls in with an unlikely group of allies – including a talking horse, a sarcastic robot, an overly anxious giant parrot, and a cloud of sentient glitter gas – the gang must devise a cunning plan to escape their captors and make it back home safely. But things won’t be as easy as they first seem. Lost in deep space and running out of fuel, this chaotic crew are faced with the daunting task of navigating an alien planet, breaking into a space station, and discovering the real reason they’re all there… Packed with preposterous scenarios, quirky characters, and oodles of humour, The Left Hand of Dog tackles complex subjects such as gender, the need to belong, and the importance of honest communication. Perfect for fans of Charlie Jane Anders’ Victories Greater than Death – especially ones who enjoy endless references to Red Dwarf, Star Trek, and Doctor Who. This book will show you that the universe is a very strange place indeed. Scroll up and grab your copy now!

Word Count: Click here to reveal50000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Werewolves, vampires, and King Arthur converge in the Lavender Valley.  Living safely in a valley set aside for them and protected by magic under a peace negotiated by King Arthur, the blood song and Lunae have left the past behind, seemingly. A prophecy has promised that a girl will be born of a certain family line and that she will give incredible power to her mate. Stella is of the right line, but she carries the blood of both sides, half vampire, half werewolf.  She's half outcast with the wolves that raised her.  She's been told all her life that she can't be the girl of prophecy, that she'll never be good enough to be the luna of the clan. Aurelius is the silver haired alpha. Raised in Camelot, Arthur expects the boy he raised to bring the wolves and the blood song into the civilized world. The only thing Aurelius has from his father is a letter telling him to marry Onyx. Stella and Aurelius have a forbidden love that is about to wreck the civilized world. Only on the NovelStar app, first six chapters free! Come read a world where chivalry meets wild instinct!

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Summary: INK (NOUN) Five definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) A colored fluid used for writing 2) The action of signing a deal 3) A black liquid ejected by squid 4) Publicity in the written media 5) A slang word for tattoos Ink features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Word Count: Click here to reveal10,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: The job seemed simple enough: collect the package and deliver it to Europa within two days' time, no questions asked. If only the client hadn't lied about there being no catch... A tale from the Jovian Empire.

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Summary: What would you do to protect what’s yours? Donnie’s whole world changed the day he met Nate at The Stop, a cruising spot outside a small Texas town. Nate saw him, knew him, cared for him, and then one day, in an incomprehensible act of violence, Nate was taken from him. Broken but not beaten, Donnie steps into Nate’s role at The Stop with one goal in mind: find the man who murdered his lover and see justice served no matter the cost. “Breathless and brutal, THE STOP is an unflinching Texas revenge noir awash in moral complexity and the coded lives and languages of the marginalized. W. Dale Jordan’s insistent, riveting prose and imminently relatable cast of characters, force the reader to confront the inconvenient reality of who society chooses to preserve and defends against who is abandoned to slip through the cracks.”--Mark Wheaton, author of Emily Eternal "THE STOP by W. Dale Jordan is raw and honest and gripping. In this exciting suspense/revenge tale, Jordan explores an aspect of gay culture that is often overlooked, but he does so with compassion and a lack of judgement that humanizes his characters to a thrilling degree."--Mark Allan Gunnells, author of 2B and BEFORE HE WAKES

Word Count: Click here to reveal132,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Rules were made to be broken. From terraformed outposts to magical realms, journey to worlds where deadly plants, rampant biodiversity, or failed colonies have created irresistible opportunities for those brave enough to seize them. New worlds, found family, mystical secrets, and deadly science weave together in this lesbian-centric anthology focusing on a very different kind of first time—a first encounter with a world, or being, entirely unlike our own. If you like diverse stories with lesbian heroines practicing science, magic, and seduction, buy Distant Gardens today!

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Summary: An Element to surpass all others. The one with the power to wield it. Can he overcome his fears in time to save the world from imminent doom? The Pattern Juggler has inherited a formidable power. It can create, and just as easily destroy. He has the lore book of his father, but key parts of it remain impenetrable. On the day of the new Water Wizard’s inauguration ceremony, an injured stranger interrupts proceedings. He babbles an incoherent story about impending doom. Can it be true? How does the young man know what is to come? And if the Elementals can confirm his story, will the Juggler be able to confront his darkest fear? Can he unlock the last mysteries of his lore and overcome the deadliest challenge of all? Juggler is the final volume in John Beresford’s Science Fiction / Fantasy crossover trilogy The Berikatanyan Chronicles, where colonists from Earth join forces with the indigenous population to battle with nameless terrors from the Void.

Word Count: Click here to reveal54000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Silas Thornwood's worst nightmare has come to life. Darien's familiar Pip is gravely injured, and Darien and Jasper have been kidnapped. Someone ruthless and violent is holding the man Silas loves prisoner, for purposes he doesn't want to imagine. Silas needs help from his friends to locate and rescue Darien. And when he does, those responsible― whether sorcerer, human, or demon― are going to be truly, utterly sorry…