Modern Science Fiction

Colin McCool here, everyone’s favorite smart-aleck druid and all-around trouble magnet. Something supernaturally weird is going on in my town. I leave for six months to another timeline, and the place is on fire when I get back. As in, literally…on…fire. Now my girlfriend is missing, the vampire and werewolf factions are at war, the local fae queen has become a lock-in, and a strange cult has popped up that’s somehow connected to this whole mess.

Jason Lee kommt nach New York City, um die Sehenswürdigkeiten zu sehen. Doch seine Pläne ändern sich schnell, als das Apokalypse-Protokoll eingeleitet wird. Risse öffnen sich weltweit und entlassen Horden von Monstern auf eine panische Bevölkerung. Tore zu Dungeons erscheinen, gefüllt mit unermesslichen Reichtümern und Herausforderungen. Schließlich gibt es eine ominöse Ankündigung: Zufällig ausgewählte Individuen werden Erweckt – das heißt, sie werden mit Kräften und Fähigkeiten ausgestattet, um gegen die Monster zu kämpfen und ihre Mitmenschen zu schützen.

As a hunter in post-apocalyptic central Texas, Scratch Sullivan has survived zombies, vampires, and rogue military units. Heck, he's even the only human ever known to go hand-to-hand with a werewolf, and survive. But what’s a man to do when the local ‘thrope pack destroys your town and abducts your best girl?

Ember Wright hates high heels, steep staircases, and having to cook for herself. She lives mostly on instant noodles and old western novels. She sometimes chats with dead people. Newly-promoted to Associate Investigator, Ember is sent undercover on her first assignment to rural North Dakota. Mages and changelings have been living in harmony, hidden in plain sight among humans for centuries. But now a shadow is upsetting the balance.

Newly promoted senior investigator Ember Wright is just starting to win over the hearts of her adopted North Dakota home. But underneath the community’s quiet façade, unrest is brewing. When a missing person case comes across her desk, Ember’s the obvious sleuth for the job. The only problem: She’s the reason the three changelings went missing! Somehow, this mage must concoct a plan to keep her darkest secrets buried while solving the case.

Lane Benjamin never believed in fairy tales. Once upon a time, she had big dreams, but they never seemed to come true. Divorced, disappointed, and still a barista at 27, she feels like she's had an anti-Fairy Godmother. Then one day, the devastatingly handsome and much too old for her Abe Fujikawa confesses his feelings for her. Simultaneously, the chance to become a full-time artist drops in her lap. Has her luck changed? Is there a Fairy Godmother after all?

Rachel runs Rapunzel's, a high-end salon on the lower level of a downtown Chicago high rise and lives happily in self-imposed exile in an apartment at the top of the tower - that is until Jake Malden walks in with his teen daughter, Emma, and presents Rachel with a dilemma. Young Emma is determined to defy her mother's wishes and get her long, beautiful, untouched hair cut off so she can donate it to charity to honor a friend with cancer.

Agent Tony Mendoza has a sleeping problem… every time he falls asleep, he dreams of her. But it’s not any cozy, cuddly encounter his subconscious conjures, nor some kinky, carnal congress. Instead, Tony’s nights are haunted by nightmares of his supernatural stalker bleeding him dry. He’s also seeing things. Shadows flitting at the edges of his vision, cloaked figures lurking in darkened doorways, and a 7-foot-tall homeless man who accosts him and disappears. Except, the leviathan vagrant turns out to be real—and he’s killing people close to home.

Eddie Scarr, a modern facsimile of Scrooge, is angrier and more damaged than the original, but just as successful in his own milieu. He’s a Department for Work and Pensions enforcement officer whose sole reason for existing, it seems, is to make life as difficult as possible for would-be benefit fraudsters, and everyone else who crosses his path.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appeared frequently in socialist-leaning British periodicals, such as the Clarion, Labour Leader, and Social Democrat. Based on familiar genres, these stories were meant to entertain readers of all ages - and some challenged the conventional values promoted in children’s literature for the middle class. Acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen brings together more than 40 of the best and most enduring examples of these stories in one beautiful volume.

A collection of short stories from such favorites as Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling are joined by others written anonymously in this anthology which will have you scratching your head and listening just a bit longer to discover the key to the mysteries.

On August 10, 1632, five men in flowing black robes convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a deceptively simple proposition: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and infinitely tiny parts. With the stroke of a pen the Jesuit fathers banned the doctrine of infinitesimals, announcing that it could never be taught or even mentioned. The concept was deemed dangerous and subversive, a threat to the belief that the world was an orderly place, governed by a strict and unchanging set of rules.

Following the framework of a tale within a tale, Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, which features the subtitle The Modern Prometheus follows the scientific - and at times horrific - exploits of Victor Frankenstein. Victor studied alchemy in college, and after a mere two years he figures out that he can put human body pieces back together and restore the entire corpse to life.

Earth was being watched from afar...by creatures far greater than man...and which coveted what man possessed. The War of the Worlds is invasion literature at its finest. H.G. Wells' popular classic has never been out of print, and is presented here in a stunning new, modern edition. Bonnem's insightful narration runs the gamut of emotions, simultaneously communicating both the horror of events and the innate humanity of this timeless tale.

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, a jealous girl stole a magical artifact from a fairy tale museum, unlocking a curse that might cost her life. Right now, in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, a man obsessively studies a wild girl living with and raised by a wolf pack, but soon, watching won’t be enough. Tonight, in a city a storm will rage, waking a boy from a deadly dream and propelling him toward the insidious darkness of his ancestry. Fairy tales are taking place all around us in modern times.

Each of the best-selling writers represented in these selections from Legends II returns to the fantasy universe he or she made famous throughout the world. Whether set before or after events already recounted elsewhere, whether featuring beloved characters or compelling new creations, these masterful short novels are both mesmerizing standalones - perfect introductions to the work of their authors - and indispensable additions to the epics on which they are based.

Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had children of her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from—and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie's suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture’s idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards—standards rarely created by mothers themselves.

Senior year already drains enough of spellcaster Sophie Morris’ time. But when her pre-law-student boyfriend discovers an underhanded corporate conspiracy to destroy a rival, she dives in to dig up the clues needed to expose the truth. And as soon as the corrupt conglomerate gets wind of her interest, Sophie and her sweetheart become the targets of their under-the-table heavies.

This one-of-a-kind treasury brings together the talents of nearly two dozen best-selling middle-grade authors - including Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Ally Condie, and Jennifer A. Nielsen - who have created original short stories and modern-day fairy tales based on the lives and dreams of children they have met who all have two things in common: They have very big hopes and dreams, and they are all cancer patients.

Just when Agent Mendoza is settling into his new job with the shadowy paranormal law enforcement agency known as CERBERUS, he’s thrust into an investigation that has him questioning his career...and his sanity! The ghosts of Austin are angry—and some of them have gone stark raving mad. Now Agent Mendoza is following a trail of necromancy and grave-digging that’s leading him to the source of all this ectoplasmic trouble.