Laura Resnick

When off-Broadway female performers start mysteriously disappearing, actress Esther Diamond, filling in for the missing lead in the play Sorcerer!, sets out to find the truth, with a little magical assistance, before she meets the same fate. Reprint.

Disappearing Nightly

For a thousand years, Sileria has toiled under the yoke of foreign conquerors, Savage Moorlanders, sorcerous Kints, and now the hedonistic Valdani have forced the Silerian mountain clans into harsh slavery. Villages have been razed, and the innocent populace dragged to the mines, there to toil until death with no hope of escape. But there is hope. Five disparate people have been brought reluctantly together by the prophesy of a young Guardian--a prophesy that promises the coming of a savior. These five must put aside ages-old blood feuds before the conquerors force all to bend to their vicious will...

In Legend Born

Laura Anne Gilman

Edmund R. Schubert

Stephen Leigh

Faith Hunter

Gini Koch

Susan Jett

David B. Coe

Amy Griswold

Juliet E. McKenna

Steve Ruskin

Elektra Hammond

Sofie Bird

Seanen McGuire

Chuck Rothman

Christopher Barili

Jeremy Sim

It’s frustrating when a gadget stops working. But what if the gadget is working fine, it’s just “temporally” out of order? What would you do if you discovered your cell phone linked you to a different time? Or that your camera took pictures of the past? In this collection, seventeen leading science fiction authors share their take on what happens when gadgets run temporally amok. From past to future, humor to horror, there’s something for everyone. Join Seanan McGuire, Elektra Hammond, David B. Coe, Chuck Rothman, Faith Hunter, Edmund R. Schubert, Steve Ruskin, Sofie Bird, Laura Resnick, Amy Griswold, Laura Anne Gilman, Susan Jett, Gini Koch, Christopher Barili, Stephen Leigh, Juliet E. McKenna, and Jeremy Sim as they investigate how ordinary objects behaving temporally out of order can change our everyday lives.

Temporally Out of Order

Out-of-work actress Esther Diamond, while waiting tables, stumbles upon mystical mayhem and must once again call on Max the magician and Detective Connor Lopez for help when a gangster meets his demise at the hands of his doppelganger. Original.

Doppelgangster

Mike Resnick

Esther M. Friesner

Jody Lynn Nye

Eric James Stone

Alex  Shvartsman

Lucy A Snyder

Funny Horror

Ken Liu

Jack Campbell

Alan Dean Foster

Unidentified Funny Objects 6

Exploring the multiverse while testing the limits of her volatile powers, impulsive young fire mage Chandra Nalaar draws the attention of an ancient faith that comes to regard her as a herald of the apocalypse. By the award-winning author of The White Dragon. Original.

The Purifying Fire

When the major Manhattan department store in which she works becomes a staging ground for the rebirth of a voracious demon that is using the winter solstice to escape its mystical prison, Esther, along with a 350-year-old sorcerer, must save Christmas and her city from demonic disaster. Original. 10,000 first printing.

Polterheist

Lian Hearn

David Dalglish

Mark Lawrence

Anthony Ryan

Django Wexler

John Gwynne

David Alvarez

Shawn Speakman

Carol Berg

Michael J. Sullivan

Joseph R. Lallo

Paul S. Kemp

James Enge

Richard Lee Byers

Jon Sprunk

Cat Rambo

Peter Orullian

Snorri Kristjansson

Kenny Soward

Tim Marquitz

J. M. Martin

Jean Rabe

Mark Smylie

Anton Strout

Orion Zangara

Arman Akopian

A FANTASY ANTHOLOGY featuring the deadly, the worldly, and the sneaky. Blackguards consists mainly of stories in established series, and the authors range from wildly successful indie authors to New York Times bestsellers. If you enjoy roguish tales of scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells, this one's for you.

Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues

Blackguards

David Gerrold

Tim Pratt

Esther Friesner

SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR * Aztec Astronauts * Punster Prophets * Apocalyptic Apps * Cantankerous Cryptids * and the Duck Knight Fifth annual volume of the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series features eighteen lighthearted science fiction and fantasy tales from the masters of the genre. Read about planetary adoptions, secret agent princesses, alien cooking reality shows, rigged elections, magical insurance agents, and much more.

Unidentified Funny Objects 5

"...gripping and enticing..." —Crash and Burn Reviews Acting jobs don't grow on fire escapes, so struggling actress Esther Diamond is outraged when her guest role as a hooker on controversial TV drama The Dirty Thirty is jeopardized by zombies, angry spirits, and a voodoo curse. Meanwhile, the talented teens Esther is coaching at a Harlem cultural center are also being attacked by the sinister supernatural power that's spreading through Manhattan. Since the show must go on, Esther boldly helps her friend, the 350-year-old sorcerer Dr. Maximillian Zadok, combat the Evil forces at work—all while attempting to salvage her love life with her would-be lover, Detective Connor Lopez. But will Esther's courage backfire and end up leading her to become a human sacrifice on the altar of the sinister supernatural powers that are taking over New York City? Unsympathetic Magic is the exciting third installment of the Esther Diamond series.

Unsympathetic Magic

Seanan McGuire

Will McIntosh

Karen Osborne

Edward M. Lerner

Oleg Divov

Issue 3 of Future Science Fiction Digest features over 60,000 words of fiction. A selection of moon-based stories commemorates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, followed by a sampling of AI stories (featuring both humans owning robotic dogs and robots owning live dogs!), with a little bit of time travel to round things out. Fiction from authors in the United States, China, Russia, Bulgaria, and Sri Lanka.

Future Science Fiction Digest Issue 3

Feuerbringer

Die Chronik von Sirkara

In the days leading up to Christmas, struggling actress Esther Diamond is working as a singing-and-dancing elf at Fenster & Co, a major Manhattan department store. As if dealing with hordes of holiday shoppers isn't bad enough, Esther's ex-almost-boyfriend, Detective Connor Lopez, is on the scene investigating a series of mob-related truck hijackings of Fenster's merchandise. Semi-retired hitman Lucky Battistuzzi is also nosing around, since the mob resents being implicated in thefts they didn't commit. But when supernatural mishaps occur, Esther realizes this is more than the usual holiday insanity—it's time to call in her friend Max, Manhattan's resident mage. Esther and Max discover that Fenster's has become the staging ground for the rebirth of an ancient demon that's plotting to escape its mystical prison on the winter solstice. As dimensional barriers crumble, can Esther rescue her fellow elves, save her city from demonic disaster, and collect her paycheck in time to make rent? Polterheist is the thrilling fifth installment of the Esther Diamond series.

R.I.P. = Reanimated, Infernal, and Pretty damn dangerous Struggling actress Esther Diamond, whose year got off to a rough start (what with incarceration, unemployment, and mystical death curses), finally catches a break when she lands an acting job. She's hired to reprise her guest role as prostitute Jilly C-Note on The Dirty Thirty, a TV crime drama about depravity and corruption in the New York Police Department. Esther's ex-sometime boyfriend, NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, hates that show with undying passion -- especially after Esther convinces her narcissistic co-star to shadow Lopez on the job, in order to add verisimilitude to his performance as a morally bankrupt cop. But Esther's fellow thespian is her best bet for keeping an eye on Lopez 24/7—and, more to the point, on Lopez's new partner, Detective Quinn. Esther and her friend Max, a 350-year-old mage whose day job is protecting the city from Evil, suspect Quinn of being involved in the latest mystical mayhem to menace Manhattan... Corpses suddenly aren't staying quite as dead as they should. While Max and Esther try to determine what Quinn's role is in the supernatural reanimation of the deceased downtown, a dangerous foe with deadly intent changes everyone's dinner plans one cold winter night...

Abracadaver

By the author of In Legend Born It is a time of vast changes in the island nation of Sileria. Oppressed for centuries by one conqueror after another, this land of fierce pride and ancient rivalries awaited the prophesied Firebringer, who would free them. Josarian, a mountain peasant, survived his leap into the volcano to become the Firebringer. He united the impoverished shallaheen, the magical fire-wielding Guardians, and the vastly powerful mages known as Waterlords in an unprecedented alliance that defeated the foreign Valdani who had ruled Sileria for too long. But now Josarian is dead, betrayed by the alliance and slain by the ice-dragon of Kiloran, the most powerful Waterlord in Sileria. Tansen, Josarian’s second-in-command, has taken up the banner of independence, and leads the shallaheen and the Guardians against the Waterlords so that Sileria can be free of a tyranny far worse than Valdani rule. As the volcano goddess Dar rumbles her displeasure in earthquakes and lava flows, the forces of fate, prophecy, and magic combine to create new heroes--from the desolate mountains, from the water-starved cities, from the sea, and even from beneath the earth. Ancient forces join with unlikely allies to fulfill the prophecies that inspire revolt and excite religious fervor. But in Sileria, betrayal has long been a way of life, and it wears many faces as the ambitions of the high and the low ensnare the fates of people across the land, wreaking havoc among the faithful. With consummate narrative skill, Laura Resnick brings to life the excitement and adventure of this magical land in its epic struggle to find its true leaders, heal ancient wounds, and chart a path out of chaos to a new day of peace.

In Fire Forged, Part One

The White Dragon

Rob Dircks

Simon R. Green

Wendy Maas

SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR The Unidentified Funny Objects series delivers an annual dose of funny, zany, and unusual science fiction and fantasy stories. All-new fiction from the genre's top voices! * Superheroes mired in government bureaucracy. * Cat cat-burglars. * Grandmotherly golems. * Literal-minded self-driving cars. * Evil overlords retired in Florida. * Indifferent aliens.

Unidentified Funny Objects 8

Es gibt Helden, die jeder Gefahr mutig entgegentreten – Esther gehört nicht dazu. Sie ist ein Showgirl und will einfach nur auf der Bühne stehen. Stattdessen landet sie in einem magischen Abenteuer, denn obwohl sie nicht an Übersinnliches glaubt, ist sie die Einzige, die New York vor einem hungrigen Dämon retten kann ... Verzaubert von Laura Resnick: Fantasy pur im eBook!

Roman

Verzaubert

"I can take care of my enemies, but Dar shield me from my friends..."For a thousand years, the mountainous island nation of Sileria, wherein dwells Dar the destroyer goddess, has toiled under the yoke of one foreign conqueror after another. But now, as the empires which surround the Middle Sea battle for supremacy on the mainland, Sileria's long-forgotten dream of independence is reborn in the mystical visions of a fiery young sorceress. The subjugated nation's perpetually feuding factions make their violent bid for freedom when a bold mountain bandit, a mysterious exile with a deadly bloodvow on his head, a seductive aristocrat, and a notoriously vengeful water wizard are all reluctantly united by prophecy, destiny, and necessity. If these treacherous enemies can maintain a truce, they might change the world; but betrayal has always been a way of life in Sileria...* The first book of the critically acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy which continues with The White Dragon and concludes with The Destroyer GoddessPraise for In Legend Born"For action-packed storytelling filled with prophecies, plot reversals, and conflict-haunted heroes, this is as good as it gets. —Philadelphia Inquirer"A smoothly narrated, intricate tale of revolution and the human heart." —Library Journal"In Legend Born is the kind of book that makes you say, 'Just one more page. I'm right in the middle of a good part and have been for the last 400 pages.' Laura Resnick's plot and characters work together seamlessly. The protagonists have complex histories, and, as Resnick deftly reveals their hidden motivations, their actions begin to make sense. These characters seem real... and readers will want to know what happens to them. —Starlog"A rich brew of conspiracies... juicy romantic entanglements... blood feuds and massacres." —Publishers Weekly"Creating a vast panorama that provides an intimate backdrop to the lives of her fascinating characters, Ms. Resnick writes with the shining wonder of truly great fantasy." —Romantic TimesAbout the AuthorLaura Resnick is the author of the popular Esther Diamond urban fantasy series. She has also written traditional fantasy novels such as In Legend Born, The Destroyer Goddess, and The White Dragon, which made the "Year's Best" list of Publishers Weekly. An opinion columnist, frequent public speaker, and the Campbell Award-winning author of many sf/f short stories, she is on the Web at LauraResnick.com.

The Silerian Trilogy, #1

Laura Resnick

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