Apocalyptic Fantasy

Hugh Howey is known for crafting riveting and immersive tales of boundless imagination. Now comes Machine Learning, an impressive collection of Howey's science fiction and fantasy short fiction, including three stories set in the world of Wool, two never-before-published tales written exclusively for this volume, and 15 additional stories collected here for the first time. These stories explore everything from artificial intelligence to parallel universes to video games, and each story is accompanied by an author's note.

Ten years ago, Hell Diver Xavier "X" Rodriguez fell to Earth. Those he left behind went on without him aboard the airship he once called home. Michael Everheart - the boy once known as Tin - has grown into a man and the commander of Hell Diver Raptor Team. While Michael dives to help keep the Hive in the air, Captain Leon Jordan rules with an iron fist at the helm of the ship. But unrest stirs under his strict leadership as a prophecy of hope sweeps the lower decks.

Accused of domestic terrorism, Emilio Vega was on his way to a Department of Global Security death camp when the mega-quake hit. The streets beneath his transport vehicle buckled, tossing the van in the air like a toy. He survived the crash, but the world is now in ruins. However, for a condemned man, this disaster may be just the lucky break he needed. Emilio has been left behind! Six detainees were in the van prior to the quake. However, only Emilio and one other prisoner were still around when he regained consciousness.

With their supplies reclaimed and food enough for the future, the group at Barry's cabin can do more than just scrape by. Between fruitful gardens, great friends, and sturdy fences—not to mention karaoke—life in the zompoc is better than ever. Nothing is perfect, however. Across the country, safe zones are mysteriously going dark, and Oregon's summer weather has turned the forest into a tinderbox. As the unknown danger closes in and smoke begins to fill the sky, the survivors are all too aware of how quickly plans unravel, fences fall, and luck runs out.

Boxford High pranksters cause a chemistry lab to go wrong and students are forced to face something far worse than S.A.T.’s and cafeteria lunches - an infection that turns students into zombies scouring the halls for survivors. A group of unlikely companions; an artistic goth, star-athlete jock, disgruntled loner, would-be marine, sassy cheerleader, and angry Asian, must fend off the living dead. As they fight through locker rooms and dance their way across the theater, they will find surviving zombies is more complicated than puberty.

This manual provides a review of the tactical combat advantages enjoyed by zombies and gives the listener a step-by-step guide to adopting them for him or herself. Have you wondered where the great military leaders of modern history have found their collective inspirations? Well look no further. It is the walking dead upon whom the most important tactical infantry innovations of the last three hundred years have been based.

The greatest devastation in history. A secret that will alter humanity forever. Today, the true fight for survival begins. Deep within the remnants of the United States, Lyla Richards oversees a camp of 200 survivors. In a world where living is an everyday struggle and only through banding together can people survive, the arrival of the Unwelcome only made her job harder. Riley Quinn and Miles Jones have been raised by Lyla for the last five years. They are also one of the cursed: the children between the ages of 13 and 18 whom the Unwelcome kill on sight.

Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him. That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content. Until a malfunction forces his engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.

Cassie Forrest has sworn she'll never let the world get the best of her again. She's chosen to believe everything will be all right. But on a journey filled with heartbreak and madness and zombies, Cassie and her friends must struggle to stay alive - and it's hard to believe in a future when survival seems unlikely.

The forces of evil are weakening as the conspiracy which set a civil war in motion is exposed. Those in the dark recesses of power face their greatest test as do the prepared men and women who will do anything to save their homeland. But is it enough to stitch together a nation torn apart.

The infection has begun, ravaging the American Southwest and leaving chaos in its wake. In this new world, there will be no last meal, no dying wish. The only reward left is to survive another day...The complete Contamination series - all in this one, special edition.

When the shattered fragments of the Black Moon collapsed onto planet Earth, splitting continents apart and flooding them with raging oceans, Darkness descended onto our world. The eruptions of hostile energy from behind the Edge distorted the laws of the physical world, creating new life forms which now threaten to take over the planet. The last remaining vestiges of humankind, too desperate for their own survival, have nothing to offer against their advance. So it's time to activate Incarnation: the last instruction issued by Project Stellar.

Time hasn't stopped after the apocalypse. After the long nuclear winters, a few continue the struggle for survival in the irradiated wastelands. Then, a new order emerges, with a directive to destroy whatever freedom remains in its fortified enclaves and the surrounding Outlands. Kane, once its trusted and feared warrior, is now a fugitive driven to fathom the past and unravel the future.

2033. Une guerre a décimé la planète. La surface, inhabitable, est désormais livrée à des monstruosités mutantes. Moscou est une ville abandonnée. Les survivants se sont réfugiés dans les profondeurs du métropolitain, où ils ont tant bien que mal organisé des microsociétés de la pénurie.

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.

Arto has a problem. For one, he's a robot. He’s awoken with no memory of who he is, with nothing but a mysterious letter, in a world bereft of those fleshy, talky things that made him. So why is he alone, and where have all the people gone? He stumbles upon a lost, cheeky kitten and selects it as his best friend for the adventure of a lifetime, trying to make sense of all this existence stuff. Just as Arto begins to fear he's the only sentient thing left on the whole planet, a cantankerous robot falls from the sky. She says she's his sister.

When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price.

New York Times best-selling author Kim Stanley Robinson returns with a bold and brilliant vision of New York City in the next century. As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city. There is the market trader, who finds opportunities where others find trouble. There is the detective, whose work will never disappear—along with the lawyers, of course.

After a long day on the job, house painter Gus Berry is looking forward to relaxing and spending some time with his girlfriend before returning to work the next day. But none of that is going to happen. Gus’s coworker Benny has found them a painting gig at the local Mollymart East, and it has to be done by morning. If Gus and his crew can complete the work on time, it could mean huge business with a major grocery store chain.

In just seven days, the world will crumble. The System's Descent will usher in a new era of chaos: wild animals mutating, monstrous creatures emerging, and the cessation of modern technology. Humanity will be left defenseless. Drew Wright knows none of this. At least not until he is rudely ripped from his bed and thrust into a white room to undergo a taser-happy ‘Tutorial’. Turns out, he is one of a thousand randomly selected people to be forewarned of the approaching apocalypse. Now, he faces the delightful task of convincing his wife and mother of the devastation hurtling towards them.