Fantasy Short Fiction

For well over a century, Monster Hunter International has kept the world safe from supernatural threats small and large - and, in some cases, very, very large. Now, join us as MHI opens their archives for the first time. From experienced hunters on their toughest cases, to total newbies' initial encounters with the supernatural, The Monster Hunter Files reveals the secret history of the world's most elite monster fighting force.

Terraform hones the predictive capacity of science fiction and seeks new, vivid, and visceral ways to depict the future we’re hurtling toward, translating the decay and anxiety that surround us into something else, something unexpected, something that burns like a beacon and upends the conventional ideas of where we’ll end up next. Section by section—Watch/Worlds/Burn—the book takes on surveillance, artificial intelligence, and climate collapse. With a potent roster of established names and rising talents, it confronts the issues that orbit our everyday existence.

“These are dangerous stories. The kind that warp reality and threaten to change the world” warns guest editor Hugh Howey in his introduction. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 promises a treasure trove of audacious characters, daring worldbuilding, and twisted realties. A sibling duo of supernatural hitmen. A traveling spellbreaker and his trusty alligator mount. Superheroes registering for work. Sentient spaceships with an AI-human interface grow up together with their human pilots.

The Drexian warriors are big, and gorgeous, and tasked with keeping Earth safe from violent invaders. In exchange, Earth has agreed to send a select number of women to their holographic space station, to be the warriors’ mates. Too bad, the women don’t know anything about it. Not until they’ve been abducted, at least. As hot as the Drexian warriors are, not all the abducted women want to take an alien mate. But these warriors aren’t used to being disobeyed. And they aren’t used to feisty human women. Sparks will fly.

Ryan David Ginsberg bursts onto the literary scene with this hauntingly beautiful collection of stories that cannot be listened to just once and then forgotten. They are stories to be listened to again and again, stories that will stay with the listener long after the book has been put down. Within these stories, you will meet a woman who must auction her unborn baby’s rights away; a twelve-year-old boy who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a war; an extraterrestrial being sent to Earth to determine whether or not humans are worthy of an invitation to the Confederation of the Cosmos.

I’m Lucy, a regular accountant turned alpha werewolf. A tryst with the wrong incubus ripped me from my ordinary life and sent me tumbling into a magical realm that I'd never even dreamed existed. I was just adjusting to pack life when I was asked to mercy-kill the current alpha. I'm not a total bitch so I did what he asked, but it's left me as alpha of a pack I don't know, full of werewolves who resent that I still live and breathe while their old alpha doesn't. If I’m to survive in this dog-eat-dog realm, I’m going to have to win my new pack over–and fast.

Bestselling author Stephen R. Lawhead's Dragon King Trilogy—now available in one volume.

When it comes to expressing the pleasure and pain of being just a touch too smart to be happy, Dorothy Parker is still the champion. Along with Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and the rest of the Algonquin Round Table, she dominated American popular literature in the 1920s and 1930s. This collection of more than 30 short stories and poems is essential for any Parker fan and an excellent way for new listeners to make the acquaintance of one of the 20th century's most quotable authors.

Muchas veces nos encontramos con reyes, magos, sabios y princesas, que son como arquetipos de partes de nosotros mismos que están dormidas esperando un despertar. Pero les falta luz, y las luces que nos ofrece el mundo exterio no les sirven. Cada uno de estos cuentos que te presentamos son como "luciérnagas" o shamirim, que representan esa chispa de luz que nos habita y que en nuestro ajetreo cotidiano parece que hayamos olvidado.

When the Colonial Marines set out after their deadliest prey, the Xenomorphs, it's what Corporal Hicks calls a bug hunt - kill or be killed. Here are fifteen all-new stories of such "close encounters", written by many of today's most extraordinary authors. Set during the events of all four Alien films, sending the Marines to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe's most dangerous monsters, these adventures are guaranteed to send the blood racing - one way or another.

From Cixin Liu, the New York Times best-selling author of The Three-Body Problem, To Hold Up the Sky is a breathtaking collection of imaginative science fiction.

Working for the last traveling carnival in Cascadia is sweaty, back-breaking work - and Ansley loves it. She's fiercely loyal to her charge, Billie - a giant genework Indricothere. But now the only life Ansley has ever known is in danger - and the threat is coming from within. This story was first published in METAtropolis: Green Space, the third entry in Audible's original series.

Roguish swordsman Korm and his cyclops companion, Aebos, are no strangers to death, yet neither would have expected that starvation on the high seas would be the foe to eventually lay them low. When a beautiful spellcaster in a magical ship arrives just in time to save them from being roasted alive by mutinous sailors, it seems like their luck may finally be turning around - yet are they jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

The King of the Elves is the opening installment of a uniform, five-volume edition of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, expanded from the previous Collected Stories set to incorporate new story notes, and two added tales, one previously unpublished, and one uncollected.

Sviska is a man of the shadows, an assassin without any one place to call his own. But in the Far North, he discovers a secret. Magic, long thought lost to the world, is alive. The genocide to destroy every elf, wizard, and sacred being of old is not yet complete. Sviska's masters work the strings of the world and he has been sent for a task he does not even fully understand yet. When at last he feels he has what he has always wanted, darkness falls upon the world.

Charlaine Harris' smash-hit Sookie Stackhouse series may have reached its conclusion, but the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, lives on in this all-new collection of 15 stories. Written by a killer lineup of authors, including New York Times best-sellers Rachel Caine, MaryJanice Davidson, Jonathan Maberry and Seanan McGuire, and with introductions read by Charlaine herself, Dead but Not Forgotten puts your favorite characters center stage.

The very first Spellmonger anthology! Includes two audio exclusive stories, Stonesinger and The Ugliest Maid in Castal.

Hundreds of years after the end of the world, the Appalachian community of Iron Hollow finds itself beset by demons. Such horrors are common these days in the outlands, where most folks die young—if they don’t turn into monsters first. When a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest unearthly beast to haunt their woods, the town’s new oral historian, Shrike, has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still herself, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

A larval Great Old One is growing day by day in power and just about ready to pop. If Chad Gadenier can't convince "the powers that be" to get involved, not only New Orleans, but the entire world, is going to fall under the power of the nastiest of nasties. Now on the outs with the US government and in exile from his usual job of saving the world, Chad must rally the forces of light against the coming darkness. The problem is one guy with a sword and a sub-gun isn't going to solve this one.

Major Sharpe finds himself a fugitive, hunted by enemy and ally alike. Major Richard Sharpe awaits the opening shots of the army's campaign with grim expectancy. For victory depends on the increasingly fragile alliance between Britain and Spain - an alliance that must be maintained at any cost. Pierre Ducos, the wily French intelligence officer, sees a chance both to destroy the alliance and to achieve a personal revenge on Richard Sharpe.