sci fi s-z

Word Count: Click here to reveal81,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: In the last surviving cities of a ruined world, the concept of “woman” has been forgotten to history. Those unfortunate enough to lack a Y chromosome live as second-class citizens in a world dominated by mascs. Ember is Y negative. He is scorned, bullied, abused by every masc he encounters, at work and at the gym. Not even his Y negative roommate cuts him any slack. He wants so desperately to be accepted as a masc that he’d rather buy black market testosterone than food. Something’s gotta give—he needs a change in his life, but has no idea how to find it. Jess is a masc with a passion for studying the recovery of their devastated world. His boyfriend is pressuring him for more commitment, and his father expects him to take over the family business. He can’t wait to get away from civilization for his seasonal research out in the wild. When Jess offers Ember a job, their lives collide in the isolated wasteland, and their initial attraction turns into a relationship that horrifies those around them. Soon their struggle to stay together and to be who they are turns into a fight for their lives.

Word Count: Click here to reveal24,074 (Click here to hide)

Summary: While Sacrum Umbra showed us the darkness of our own shadow, and In Ventre Tuo the guts of our inner monster, The Lesser Apocrypha is still another beast altogether. Meant to gather together the stranger stories, it contains some of the more surreal and ephemeral stories, the ones that just are without much rhyme or reason. Stories like an odd moment in the park, the strange child who won't stop haunting you, an alien invasion that gets very personal, an AI born of a lolcat, monsters in the woods, and a spell gone terribly wrong.

Word Count: Click here to reveal32,507 (Click here to hide)

Summary: In Sacrum Umbra you were treated to tales from the shadows, the literary darkness that lives within all of us. Here you will find tales of another sort, the type you might find in the less wholesome end of the collective unconscious and the very depths of the gut. From stories of childhood gone horribly wrong to sex and madness with an impossible cost, this is where you'll find the more gruesome end of the spectrum.

Word Count: Click here to reveal19852 (Click here to hide)

Summary: No government lasts forever, and the Third Confederation is no exception. With its collapse, the starship Midnight Ride has no choice but to run—from rebels, pirates, and warlords, with a cargo bay of political refugees who’ve been cryogenically frozen. Now, after centuries of drifting through space, trying to get home, the starship’s systems are failing, and her occupants don’t have much time left. Fortunately, they’ve wandered into a solar system containing a G-type star, and it’s left to Chief Scout Hart and his scout pod Sarah to explore the sole planet that seems as if it might be hospitable. However, others call the blue and green planet home, and Hart must determine if they’re a threat. Will what Hart finds on the planet be enough to ensure the survival of the Midnight Ride’s passengers and crew, or will the desire for power overtake the refugees and lead to disaster?

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Discover ten planets, joined through music-based magic and an immense sentient crystal. This anthology contains ten stories from the popular Dissolutionverse universe! Journey with a new majus as he investigates the Pixie homeworld and tries to avert a war. Learn how to change the Symphony during a search for a majus' lost brother. Find a new relationship on an island at war! Travel with merchants in an old war train transporting suspicious cargo. Fly with the first majus in space! Discover the food and culture of the ten species. Uncover what lurks in the basement of the House of Potential. Investigate magic, mystery and murder when a miscreant attacks the secret Society of Two Houses! Confront other-dimensional entities alongside an ancient being. Climb to the top of a miles-high wall with a crew riding a giant steampunk beetle! If you like space opera, fast-paced adventure, music-based magic, and complex, diverse characters, then you’ll love this collection of stories from William C. Tracy’s Dissolutionverse. Pick up Tales of the Dissolutionverse to discover the music today! There’s more adventure in The Dissolution Cycle (Epic Space Opera, LGBT): Book 1: The Seeds of Dissolution Book 2: Facets of the Nether Book 3: Fall of the Imperium Book 4: Tales of the Dissolutionverse

Word Count: Click here to reveal42060 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Dark deeds are being done, and Jenn Canaday, a special agent with the FBI, has been assigned to look into them. This takes her to New Mexico, where cattle are being rustled and people are going missing—one of them the niece of the state’s governor. Meg Parkinson is a sheriff’s deputy in the small town of Laurel Hill. She and Jenn had once spent a steamy week together, but then Jenn had sent her away, something Meg hasn’t gotten over, as reluctant as she is to admit it. When Meg notices that the homeless camp on the edge of her town has become deserted, Jenn is brought into her vicinity to aid in the investigation. Will the former lovers be able to work together? Can they rekindle the flame that had once burned so brightly? And will they learn what’s behind all the disappearances without disappearing themselves?

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Some threats hide in plain sight... Two years have passed since Jed Welch escaped the ruins of New York City. The monsters have begun vanishing from parts of the world, and rebuilding efforts are underway. Isolated communities and their militias are starting over, slowly reclaiming cities and countryside alike. Now a sergeant, Jed leads a squad providing security on Galveston Island, as they await the arrival of the first refugee ships. When a saboteur's bomb threatens everything, Jed and his people find themselves cut off from support and communication. With nothing but the gear they carry to help them survive, the squad hunts the saboteur across the southern Texas landscape, and discovers the truth behind the Variants' disappearance. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

Word Count: Click here to reveal103900 (Click here to hide)

Summary: A little blue world, the third planet from the sun. It’s home to 7 billion people with all manner of faiths, beliefs and customs, divided by bigotry and misunderstanding, who will soon be told they are not alone in the universe. Anyone watching from the outside would pass by this fractured and tumultuous world, unless they had no other choice. Todd Landon is one of these people, living and working in a section of the world called the United States of America. His life is similar to those around him: home, family, work, friends and a husband. After the attack on San Jose, Todd is appointed to Special Envoy for Terran Affairs by the nentraee, a position many world leaders question. Undeterred Todd wants to build bridges between both people. However, this new position brings with it a new set of problems that not only he, but his new allies Mi’ko and Mirtoff must overcome. Will the humans and nentraee learn to work together despite mistrust and threats of more attacks by a new global terrorist group, or will the terrorists win? Will this bring an end to an already shaky alliance between nentraee and humans?

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: They said it was a suicide mission. Cora has only one question. When can they start? Cora’s world gets larger as she seeks out allies. The cost to find them leads her to once again cross the dragon, Lucius. The wheels of fate continue to turn. Are Cora and Lucius destined to fight to the death, or can the future be changed?

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Most will run, but the brave will fight... A deadly virus is sweeping through America's cities, pitting the worst humanity has to offer against its best warriors and scientists in a race against extinction. The virus doesn't just kill--it transforms and creates monsters of men and women called Variants. New York firefighter Meg Pratt is among those trapped in New York City. Together with her fellow rescue workers and the scattered elements of America's front-line military fighters, Meg fights to survive and save civilians from the coming apocalypse. Across the city, Marine Corps washout Jed Welch is on his own path to survival, and it intersects with Meg and her ragtag group of survivors. If they are lucky, they will see the help they need emerge from within, just as everything around them is coming to an end. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: There is no escaping the evil lurking in the shadows... After the harrowing trials of Emergence, Jed Welch finds himself alone in the ruins of New York City. But not all is lost. USMC Staff Sergeant Alexandra Gallegos and the two surviving members of her platoon find Jed, and together they will bring the full weight of their Marine Corps training, and mission-driven sense of vengeance, to bear upon the real monsters: human collaborators who aid the Variants at the expense of their fellow human beings. For SSGT Gallegos, theirs is a mission borne of duty and command. For Jed, it becomes an act of penance, in hopes he may atone for his sins. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

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

Summary: Planet Hy Man is in turmoil. Its’ leader lost on earth. Will Mex rise to the challenge or fade faster than her hair dye? Mex is heading for the Edinburgh Festival in search of planet Hy Man’s lost energy. A feat made near impossible considering her arch-rival has taken over Planet Hy man’s “operations room” along with every high- tech spying equipment going. Led down the road of false leads by her `arch rival” Mex hooks up with a troupe of performing transvestites, delves into the seedier side of the festival and discovers gin. Saving Planet Hy Man could not be further from her mind if she was comatose until that is her personnel robot Pete finds her. Will Pete convince Mex to sober up and save their planet or will Mex stick with the padded bras and all who wear them? Rebel Without A Bra is the quirky second book in the Planet Hy Man science fiction comedy series. If you like high-mileage heroines, fast-paced satire, and meticulously crafted universes, then you’ll love Kerrie Noor’s otherworldly farce. 

Word Count: Click here to reveal72000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Ellison Firebrandt fights the good fight for Earth. Under a letter of marque, he raids the ships of Earth's opponents, slowing down their progress and ability to compete with the home system. On the planet Epsilon Indi 2, he rescues a woman named Suki Mori from a drug lord, only to find she isn't so happy about living a pirate's life. However, when the captain finds a new engine that will make him the most successful pirate of all, Suki is the only one who can make it work. Now Firebrandt must find a way to keep his crew fed and his ship supplied while relying on a woman who barely trusts him and while every government in the galaxy hunts him to get the engine back!

Word Count: Click here to reveal120000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Isabelle des Zephyrs has always been underestimated, but after discovering the well of hidden magic within her, unraveling a centuries-long conspiracy, and stopping a war between rival nations, she has gained a newfound respect amongst the cutthroat court. ​All that is quickly taken away when Isabelle is unfairly convicted of breaking the treaty she helped write and has her political rank and status taken away. Now bereft, she nevertheless finds herself drawn into mystery when her faithful musketeer Jean-Claude uncovers a series of gruesome murders by someone calling themselves the Harvest King. As panic swells, the capital descends into chaos, when the emperor is usurped from the throne by a rival noble. Betrayed by their allies and hunted by assassins, Isabelle and Jean-Claude alone must thwart the coup, but not before it changes l’Empire forever.

Word Count: Click here to reveal71800 (Click here to hide)

Summary: A little blue world, the third planet from the sun. It's home to 7 billion people with all manner of faiths, beliefs and customs, divided by bigotry and misunderstanding, who will soon be told they are not alone in the universe. Anyone watching from the outside would pass by this fractured and tumultuous world, unless they had no other choice. Todd Landon is one of these people, living and working in a section of the world called the United States of America. His life is similar to those around him: home, family, work, friends and a husband. On the cusp of the greatest announcement humankind has ever witnessed, Todd’s personal world is thrown into turmoil when his estranged brother shows up on his front porch with news of ships heading for Earth’s orbit. The ships are holding the Nentraee, a humanoid race who have come to Earth in need of help after fleeing the destruction of their homeworld. How will one man bridge the gap for both the Humans and Nentraee, amongst mistrust, terrorist attacks and personal loss? Will this be the start of a new age of man or will bigotry and miscommunication bring this small world to its knees and final end?

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Civilization fell. It rose. At some point, people built starships. A millennium after the Earth was abandoned to climate change and resource depletion, Sharon Manders wakes up in a body that used to belong to somebody else, and some say she was a terrorist. She has no idea how she could be digging for Pleistocene bones in Africa one day, and crewing on a starship the next. That was just before she met the wolfman, the elf, and the sex robot. Struggling with distressingly unreliable memories, the expectations of her host body’s family and crewmates, future shock, and accusations of treason, Sharon goes on the lam to come face to face with terrorists, giant bugs, drug cartels, AIs, and lawyers. All things considered, she’d rather be back in 21st Century California.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: You probably thought it was a day like any other day when you boarded the #13 in London or Paris or Boston or Kyoto or New York or San Francisco. You’re only going to the next stop. Of course you’re expecting other passengers, but from other times and other dimensions? What about an assortment of dangerous cargoes, various decadent pleasure seekers, and a handful of privateers? No? Then you’re probably not ready for a Sasquatch, a river hag, a Strawberry Bulldog on the cusp of Doomsday, giant robots, Yokai, ghosts, and a band of Romani wielding a dimension-perverting orb. But Conductor Jack’s got your back on the #13. Or does she? Care to try your luck?

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Welcome to the last of the great flying Cities! It’s 9172, YE (Year of the Empire), and the future has forgotten its past. Soaring miles over the Earth, Autumn, the sole surviving flying city, is filled to the brim with the manifold forms of humankind: from Human Plus “floor models” to the oppressed and disfranchised underclasses doing their dirty work and every imaginable variation between. Valerius Bakhoum is a washed-up private eye and street hustler scraping by in Autumn. Late on his rent, fetishized and reviled for his imperfect genetics, stuck in the quicksand of his own heritage, Valerius is trying desperately to wrap up his too-short life when a mythical relic of humanity’s fog-shrouded past walks in and hires him to do one last job. What starts out as Valerius just taking a stranger’s money quickly turns into the biggest and most dangerous mystery he’s ever tried to crack – and Valerius is running out of time to solve it. Now Autumn’s abandoned history – and the monsters and heroes that adorn it – are emerging from the shadows to threaten the few remaining things Valerius holds dear. Can the burned-out detective navigate the labyrinth of lies and maze of blind faith around him to save the City of Autumn from its greatest myth and deadliest threat as he navigates his feelings for his newest client, the handsome golem Alejandro?

Word Count: Click here to reveal29000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sofia Cancino is tired of her mundane life, her artificial environment and her large, boisterous family descending every holiday season. She's promised herself this year will be different and books a stay on the exclusive—and expensive--holiday-themed resort, Yule Planet. She looks forward to being pampered while reconnecting with Old Earth traditions steeped in the magic and mysticism of nature. Everything will be perfect and she'll leave as a more authentic human, better connected to her roots. Naturally, things go horribly wrong. Sofia's landing pod goes off course and instead of stepping out on the landing pad at the resort, she finds herself in the snow-swept perpetual winter of the planet's hinterlands. If that wasn't bad enough, she's "rescued" by a band of criminals on work release who run deliveries to the resort from far-flung shuttle delivery sites. They refuse to take her, a paying customer, to the resort and insist on dragging her along on their parcel run. Riding giant monsters. In frigid weather. Not to mention, Marta, who handles the monsters, obviously hates her. If Sofia survives her vacation, she's definitely yelling at someone's supervisor until she gets a refund.

Word Count: Information not available

Summary: The battle against fate begins. Cora Blake needs answers to her growing magical abilities. She returns to her hometown in the Native Free Lands for the first time since she was a child, seeking out the tribe’s elder. But when a prophecy foretells of an attack on the tribal lands, she must fight against fate to prevent a war. The dragon Lucius manipulates from the shadows, while Cora’s own demons threaten to break her. Trapped in a conflict that appears predetermined, Cora must turn against the agency that trained her. She came to Heaven’s Crest for answers. What she found is a cause worth fighting for.