James Alan Gardner

Monsters are real. But so are heroes. Sparks are champions of weird science. Boasting capes and costumes and amazing super-powers that only make sense if you don’t think about them too hard, they fight an eternal battle for truth and justice . . . mostly. Darklings are creatures of myth and magic: ghosts, vampires, were-beasts, and the like. Their very presence warps reality. Doors creak at their approach. Cobwebs gather where they linger. Kim Lam is an ordinary college student until a freak scientific accident (what else?) transforms Kim and three housemates into Sparks—and drafts them into the never-ending war between the Light and Dark. They struggle to master their new abilities—and (of course) to design cool costumes and come up with great hero-names. Turns out that “accident” was just the first salvo in a Mad Genius’s latest diabolical scheme. Now it’s up to four newbie heroes to save the day, before they even have a chance to figure out what their team’s name should be!

A Novel

All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault

Anne Bishop

Anthony Francis

Three Great Authors; Three Great Science Fiction Stories A Strand In the Web New York Times Bestselling Fantasy Author Anne Bishop makes her U.S. debut in Science Fiction with this engaging futuristic novella. The Restorers travel the universe fulfilling a purpose handed down through the generations. They live and die aboard city-ships, never knowing the worlds they create and save. What begins as a disastrous training exercise in creating and balancing ecosystems becomes an unexpected fight for survival. The only hope may be the secret project of an untried Restorer team. A Host Of Leeches Award winning author James Alan Gardner pens a wonderfully imaginative tale in which a young woman wakes to find herself the sole human on an orbiting, mechanical space station. To find a way home, she must navigate the dangerous politics of war between opposing robot leaders. Stranded Popular urban fantasy writer Anthony Francis explores a clash of ethics and survival when a young, genetically engineered centauress from the ultra-advanced Alliance lays claim to a rare, strategic garden planet, only to find herself captured by a band of rag-tag Frontier refugees who've crashed their vintage ship on her unexpectedly hostile world.

Stranded

In the 25th century, when young people reach a certain age, they are allowed to choose their sex for the rest of their life. The decision is taken at a ceremony called the Commitment Hour, which the novel describes through the eyes of two protagonists.

Commitment Hour

Award-winning author James Alan Gardner returns to the superheroic fantasy world of All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault with They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded. Only days have passed since a freak accident granted four college students superhuman powers. Now Jools and her friends (who haven’t even picked out a name for their superhero team yet) get caught up in the hunt for a Mad Genius’s misplaced super-weapon. But when Jools falls in with a modern-day Robin Hood and his band of super-powered Merry Men, she finds it hard to sort out the Good Guys from the Bad Guys—and to figure out which side she truly belongs on. Especially since nobody knows exactly what the Gun does . . . .

They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded

A debut collection of short fiction by the award-winning author of Radiant features fourteen tales of speculative fiction that explore topics ranging from the unknown mystery of everyday experience to the secrets of the cosmos, from peanut butter sandwiches to space drives. Original. 20,000 first printing.

Speculative Fiction Stories

Gravity Wells

On any given planetdown mission, there's always someone whose job it is to walk into danger and get killed. What must it be like to be him, knowing your lifespan is as short as a fruitfly's?

Expendable

In this fast-paced adventure from the author of "Expendable," the Explorer Corps must battle a highly advanced alien intelligence determined to annihilate their world--a mission that will lead them to the secret origins of the Corps.

Radiant

A virtually indestructible being, the last of her genetically altered human race, Oar must face powerful forces seeking her destruction for unknown reasons. There are old allies who need her assistance and a true history that must be revealed. Together with her friend, Admiral Festina Ramos, Oar must find her final destiny.

Ascending

A member of the Vigil, monitors of government corruption, Faye Smallwood suddenly becomes the target of a sinister and lethal conspiracy threatening to unleash a deadly plague on the planet and joins forces with outcast explorer Festina Ramos to unravel the mystery. Original.

Vigilant

For the children of Admiral Alexader York, perfection wasn't just expected, it was guaranteed -- written into their DNA before they were born.But while Samantha grew into the physical and mental marvel their father had bought and paid for, her twin brother Edward proved a disappointment. Genetic tinkering had raised Sam above the common herd, but Edward's faultless body housed a faulty brain. It took all the Admiral's influence to get Edward commissioned in the Outward Fleet Explorer Corps -- a fiercely independent band of misfits who referred to themselves proudly as Expendables. Accompanying Sam on a mission to the troubled planet of Troyen, home to the alien Mandasar, Edward found himself in the midst of a civil war. There, in an instant of horrifying insanity, Sam was killed, along with the alien hive-queen. For the next twenty years, Edward was exiled to a lonely outpost on one of Troyen's moons, blamed by the Admiral for Sam's death -- and blaming himself as well. But when escalating violence forces the evacuation of the system, Edwar d embarks on a perilous journey home that will lead hin into a forgotten past -- and, with the assistance of another ex-Expendable, the greatest Explorere of them all, the legendary Admiral Festina Ramos, into a future thick with conspiracy and betrayal. For there lurks a dark secret powerful enough to bury the hopes of human and Mandasar alike...or give them a new and brighter beginning.

Hunted

Following the murder of her would-be partner, archaeologist Lara Croft finds herself in the middle of a deadly battle between the Order of the Bronze and her arch-nemesis, Lancaster Urdmann, and his mysterious employer over control of an ancient bronze android with uncanny abilities. Original.

The Man of Bronze

On the edge, all things are possible... From Stranded, by Anthony Francis She crested a ridge overlooking the wreck--and froze, bewitched. Climbing from the ship were the most beautiful people she'd ever seen. They wore armored spacesuits, patched in a thousand places, and painted to look like animals. Helmets folded back revealed inner pressure suits decorated too: one girl in a leopard outersuit had a snakeskin helm, adorned with feathers, over skin painted a pale blue. Serendipity gasped. These were adventurers. The gravity was clearly punishing their slender frames, but they kept going, crawling out of the smoking ship from every hatch, rappelling down on spacelines, tools jangling on their belts when their boots touched the broken earth. Not one of them looked a day over sixteen. That should have meant nothing--her grandmother didn't look a day over sixteen--but as fractured shale dislodged by her slogs crackled down the slope, they turned and stared at her with youthful shock. They had none of the smug poise of ancient souls newly young. What Serendipity saw instead, and felt keenly, was fear. Her gut churned. The boys were armed with projectile automatics. ? Three Great Authors--Three Great Science Fiction Stories A Strand In The Web New York Times Bestselling Fantasy Author Anne Bishop makes her U.S. debut in Science Fiction with this engaging futuristic novella. The Restorers travel the universe fulfilling a purpose handed down through the generations. They live and die aboard city-ships, never knowing the worlds they create and save. What begins as a disastrous training exercise in creating and balancing ecosystems becomes an unexpected fight for survival. The only hope may be the secret project of an untried Restorer team. A Host Of Leeches Award winning author James Alan Gardner pens a wonderfully imaginative tale, in which a young woman wakes to find herself the sole human on an orbiting, mechanical space station. To find a way home, she must navigate the dangerous politics of war between opposing robot leaders. Stranded Popular urban fantasy writer Anthony Francis (Dakota Frost, Skindancer series) explores the clash of ethics and survival when a young, genetically engineered centauress from the ultra-advanced Alliance lays claim to a rare, strategic garden planet, only to find herself captured by a band of rag-tag Frontier refugees who've crashed their vintage ship on her unexpectedly hostile world. On the edge, all things are possible... From Stranded, by Anthony Francis She crested a ridge overlooking the wreck--and froze, bewitched. Climbing from the ship were the most beautiful people she'd ever seen. They wore armored spacesuits, patched in a thousand places, and painted to look like animals. Helmets folded back revealed inner pressure suits decorated too: one girl in a leopard outersuit had a snakeskin helm, adorned with feathers, over skin painted a pale blue. Serendipity gasped. These were adventurers. The gravity was clearly punishing their slender frames, but they kept going, crawling out of the smoking ship from every hatch, rappelling down on spacelines, tools jangling on their belts when their boots touched the broken earth. Not one of them looked a day over sixteen. That should have meant nothing--her grandmother didn't look a day over sixteen--but as fractured shale dislodged by her slogs crackled down the slope, they turned and stared at her with youthful shock. They had none of the smug poise of ancient souls newly young. What Serendipity saw instead, and felt keenly, was fear. Her gut churned. The boys were armed with projectile automatics. ?

Award-winning author James Alan Gardner returns to the superheroic fantasy world of All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault with They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded. Only days have passed since a freak accident granted four college students superhuman powers. Now Jools and her friends (who haven’t even picked out a name for their superhero team yet) get caught up in the hunt for a Mad Genius’s misplaced super-weapon. But when Jools falls in with a modern-day Robin Hood and his band of super-powered Merry Men, she finds it hard to sort out the Good Guys from the Bad Guys—and to figure out which side she truly belongs on. Especially since nobody knows exactly what the Gun does . . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In the fourth volume of the League of Peoples series, Alexander York is one of the High Council's most iron-fisted admirals. When his children, Samantha and Edward, were born, he paid top dollar to have their DNA altered to insure they grew up perfect physical and mental specimens. But when Edward ended up with a faulty brain, his father sentenced him to join the Expendables, a band of misfits and the deformed mandated to explore the most dangerous parts of the galaxy. Accompanying his sister on a mission to Troyen, an anguished planet and home to the Mandasar, Edward finds himself in the middle of a civil war and is ultimately exiled. As violence escalates, Edward struggles to navigate a treacherous path with the assistance of none other than Festina Ramos-the greatest Explorer of all.

League of Peoples Book 4

Marie Brennan

Nancy Kress

Garth Nix

Candas Jane Dorsey

Jeremy Szal

Barbara Hambly

Jeffrey A. Carver

Tim Pratt

Carrie Vaughn

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Kelley Armstrong

David D. Levine

Helen Dale

Lisa Kessler

Susan Forest

Edward Savio

Adria Laycraft

S.M. Stirling

Matthew Hughes

Ira Nayman

Heli Kennedy

Lisa Foiles

Explore twenty-four imaginative tales crafted by some of today’s best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its second year, and including several international bestsellers and winners of every major award in the field, as well as newer authors just beginning what promise to be stellar careers. A woman seeking the power to see the evil hiding within others regrets receiving it. Letters written by a wizard in the past threaten a queen’s reign in the present. Competing for Earth, a human wrestler faces an alien shapeshifter in an interstellar tournament. A guide in Tibet must weigh the good of his people when asked to lead a westerner to the fabled realm of Shangri. An activist imprisoned for illegal genetic modification works with the materials at hand and the threads of the multiverse to make the world—a world, at least—a better place. A demonic agent sent to help a human turns the tables on his summoner. Like the “cabinets of curiosities” created by collectors of the sixteenth century, Shapers of Worlds Volume II displays a varied array of thought-provoking delights: tales of humour and sorrow, darkness and light, and hope and despair that are full of adventure, full of life, and sometimes full of regret. There are stories set in alternate histories, in possible futures, near and far, and in the here-and-now, taking place on Earth, on distant planets, or in fantastic realms. All arise from the innate need of human beings to create, to imagine . . . to shape worlds. Praise for Shapers of Worlds Volume I: “One of the most wide-ranging volumes I’ve encountered in terms of sub-genre. It’s rather like a speculative fiction buffet, offering steampunk, fantasy, military fiction, magic, space opera, post-apocalyptic, hard science fiction, and others . . . Inventive and varied, the collection has a lot to offer for those seeking an interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking read.” – Lisa Timpf, The Future Fire

Science fiction & fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers

Shapers of Worlds Volume II

Life on Old Earth is simple. Under the rule of the Spark Lords, most chaos has been brought under control. Five unsatisfied teachers out for a night of drinking is nothing out of the ordinary . . . until they find one of their students has been murdered by an unknown alien organism. When it is discovered that the murdered student’s boyfriend has gone missing, these misfits find themselves tangled in an unofficial homicide investigation that uncovers things they had never imagined. The hunt for a murderer unveils a horrifying conspiracy that may involve everyone from the Spark Lords to the League of Peoples . . . and a force more sinister than anything they could have imagined.

Trapped

Laird Barron

Jeffrey Ford

Richard Lee Byers

E. L. Chen

Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

A.M. Dellamonica

Jacqueline Baker

ONLY IN CANADA, MR. BOND. . . . In Paris, James Bond meets his match over appetizers and cocktails—with an aperitif of industrial espionage and chilly sadism. Off the coast of Australia, he learns about a whole new level of betrayal under the scorching light of a ball of thunder. In Siberia, he dreams of endless carnage while his fate is decided by one of his most cunning enemies and perhaps the greatest of his many loves. And in Canada—where Ian Fleming’s work has entered public domain—James Bond finds freedom. LICENCE EXPIRED: THE UNAUTHORIZED JAMES BOND lives in this shadow space of copyright law: a collection of nineteen new, exciting, transformative James Bond stories by a diverse crew of 21st-century authors. Collected herein are new stories about Secret Agent 007, as the late Ian Fleming imagined and described him: a psychically wounded veteran of the Second World War and soldier of the Cold War, who treated his accumulated injuries with sex, alcohol, nicotine, and adrenaline. He was a good lover . . . but a terrible prospect. He was James Bond. And in Licence Expired, he’s back in action.

The Unauthorized James Bond

Licence Expired

Life on Old Earth is simple. Under the rule of the Spark Lords, most chaos has been brought under control. Five unsatisfied teachers out for a night of drinking is nothing out of the ordinary...until they find one of their students has been murdered by an unknown alien organism. When it's discovered that the murdered student's boyfriend has gone missing, this group of misfits find themselves tangled in an unofficial homicide investigation that uncovers things they'd never imagined. The hunt for a murderer unveils a horrifying conspiracy that may involve everyone from the Spark Lords to the League of Peoples...and a force more sinister than anything they could have imagined.

League of Peoples

Life under the thumb of the Spark Lords -- the League's Earthly representatives -- is dull but comfortable for Philemon Abu Dhubhai and the other teachers at a third-rate private school for second-rate rich kids. But all that changes when a female student is found murdered by an unknown alien organism, and her boyfriend, the prime suspect, goes missing. Suddenly an unofficial homicide investigation has snared Philemon and five other "misfits" -- plus one of the planet's most powerful criminals, the mother of the murdered girl -- trapping them all in a web of terrifying conspiracy that could involve the Spark Lords ... and even the League of Peoples itself.

Spider Robinson

Compostela (Tesseracts Twenty) is an anthology of hard and soft science fiction stories that best represent a futuristic view of the sciences and how humanity might be affected (for better or worse) by a reliance in all things technological. The stories contained with in the pages of Compostela are a refelction of the world we live in today; where science produces both wonders and horrors; and will leave us with a future that undoubtedly will contain both. Journeys to the stars may be exhilarating and mind-expanding, but they can also be dangerous or even tragic. SF has always reflected that wide range of possibilities. Compostela (Tesseracts Twenty) features works by Canadian visionaries: Alan Bao, John Bell, Chantal Boudreau, Leslie Brown, Tanya Bryan, J. R. Campbell, Eric Choi, David Clink, Paulo da Costa, Miki Dare, Robert Dawson, Linda DeMeulemeester, Steve Fahnestalk, Jacob Fletcher, Catherine Girczyc, R. Gregory, Mary-Jean Harris, Geoffrey Hart, Michaela Hiebert, Matthew Hughes, Guy Immega, Garnet Johnson-Koehn, Michael Johnstone, Cate McBride, Lisa Ann McLean, Rati Mehrotra, Derryl Murphy, Brent Nichols, Susan Pieters, Alexandra Renwick, Rhea Rose, Robert J. Sawyer, Thea van Diepen, Nancy S. M. Waldman. About the title of this anthology: For more than 1,000 years, Santiago de Compostela (Compostela means “field of stars”) has attracted pilgrims to walk to the cathedral that holds St. James the apostle's relics. The stories in this anthology in their own way tell the tale of futuristic travelers who journey into the dark outer (or inner) reaches of space, searching for their own connections to the past, present and future relics of their time.

James Alan Gardner

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