Fantasy Short Stories

Follow a core group of characters known as the Trailblazers as they use alien technology and knowledge discovered in Antarctic ruins to obtain limited immortality and lead humanity out into the galaxy, encountering, befriending, and fighting hundreds of alien races, all the while desperately trying to prepare Earth for the unbeatable threat at the core of the Milky Way that is destined to return and reclaim their lost colony... and their former human slaves.

Allen Ming awakens in an unfamiliar realm, trapped within an unfamiliar form—feeble in body and spirit. Thrust into a world of cultivation, Allen Ming finds himself grappling with a reality of a wastrel body, and a world filled with danger and killing. With an AI-enhanced eye, he seeks his way through the dark world of cultivation. But with his newfound family haunted by a looming threat, he has to take charge of the situation even before he gets familiar with the new body.

I’d always had a hidden desire…a naughty thought I imagined would stay forever in my head, never to see the light of day. How could it? Something so forbidden, yet so tempting.... But still, something drove me to pursue that lingering in my loins. A lusty craving I couldn’t extinguish. I had to do something about it! And my sexy husband would never dare cheat on me, or stray even in the slightest. He was always so supportive and doting.

When the end of the world arrived, it came not with a bang, as most expected, but with more of a "pfft" instead. Humanity has been torn asunder and brought to the edge of total annihilation in less than an hour. For those who died, it was a quick death, so fast that their brains didn't have time to process the pain signals from their nerves. For those who survived, the true horror is about to begin as they struggle to not only stay alive, but come to grips with the shocking realization about what - and who - was responsible.

Magic and myth inhabit these chapters in figures both familiar and strange. Giant trolls and talking animals are everywhere. The winds take human form. A one-eyed old woman might seem reminiscent of the Norse god Odin. We meet sly aunts, resourceful princesses, and devious robbers. These stories, set in Norway's majestic landscape of towering mountains and dense forests, are filled with humor, mischief, and sometimes surprisingly cruel twists of fate. All are rendered in the deceptively simple narrative style perfected by Asbjørnsen and Moe.

In this terrifying tale by New York Times bestselling author Richard Kadrey, a young aspiring serial killer goes in search of a mentor—the supreme, the ultimate killer. What he finds is much greater and much worse than he ever could have imagined...

In this hotly-requested collection of after-stories, the colorful residents of the Spirit Realm take center stage!

Contains three complete, novel-length books in the Middle Falls Time Travel series: The Empathetic Life of Rebecca Wright, The Successful Life of Jack Rybicki, and The Many Short Lives of Charles Waters.

In a world inundated with dystopian narratives, White Mirror is a bold attempt to breathe a new air of hope and adventure into science fiction and civilization as a whole. This collection of thirty-one original stories, each more thought-provoking and mind-bending than the last, follows the many lives of Lucilius—an explorer, inventor, and all-round Renaissance man of the next frontier—whose breathtaking journey through space and time offers us not only a profound glimpse into who we are, but who we could become.

While training for a manned mission to Mars, Dr. Sophie Winston and her team of scientists find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped inside a biosphere deep within the confines of Cheyenne Mountain, Sophie and crew discover they are the survivors of a brutal alien invasion. But as they struggle to stay alive, they realize their safe haven is far from safe and that they must team up with other survivors around the world to defeat the aliens before it’s too late for humanity and the Earth.

Chris Beckett's thought-provoking and wide-ranging collection of contemporary short stories is a joy to listen to, rich in detail and texture. From stories about first love, to a man who discovers a labyrinth beneath his house, to an angel left alone at the end of the universe, Beckett displays both incredible range and extraordinary subtlety as a writer. Every story is a world unto itself - each one beautifully realized and brilliantly imagined.

From the author of science-fiction classics such as The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? comes a collection of 13 short stories of dystopic visions of technological terror, post-nuclear holocaust warfare, time travel, space travel, man vs. alien, man vs. machine, man becomes machine, man becomes plant, and other fantastic tales performed in a vividly dramatic narration by Andy Harrington.

In his hugely influential and tempestuous career, Robert E. Howard created the genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery - and brought to life one of fantasy's boldest and most enduring figures: Conan the Cimmerian, reaver, slayer, barbarian, king. This volume gathers together three of Howard's longest and most famous Conan stories.

Featuring A Prelude to War, an Iron Druid novella. After an old friend is murdered in retaliation for his mercenary strikes against the oldest vampires in the world, Atticus O'Sullivan must solicit the aid of another old friend in Ethiopia if he's going to have a chance of finishing a war he never wanted. Meanwhile Granuaile MacTiernan starts a private war of her own against Loki, the lord of lies, and if it brings Ragnarok early - so be it.

Nate is the hardworking CEO of SouthernCool, an AC company in Florida. After years of toiling to get rich, he finally takes a well-deserved vacation to Australia. A chance encounter ties him to a gorgeous gal named Senna. Right as things between the two are heating up on the Great Barrier Reef, pesky aliens intervene. Humanity is doomed, they tell him, destined to become extinct in the not-too-distant future. Nate and Senna are forced to compete for a spot on a human preserve.

As a master of the art of narrative and one of the leaders in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, L. Ron Hubbard’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories helped reshape the future of speculative fiction. The universe is yours as you explore fabulous worlds of unfolding mystery and unlimited potential. Discover the herald of possibility in these fantasy adventures.

Hayley Phillips came to Memphis hoping for a new start, for herself and her unborn child. What she found was a home, said to be haunted but surrounded by beauty and friends - including Roz's son Harper. But to Hayley's chagrin, she has begun to dream about Harper - as much more than a friend. If Hayley gives in to her desire, she's afraid the foundation she's built with Harper will come tumbling down. Especially since she's begun to suspect that her feelings are no longer completely her own.

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.

In a post-apocalyptic America, Deaver Teague makes a living salvaging things left behind from before the war. When he hears some truck drivers talking about a hidden cache of gold in a Mormon temple in flooded Salt Lake City, he enlists some friends to look for it.

This story is included in Orson Scott Card's collection The Folk of the Fringe.

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.