Modern Science Fiction

Some small towns keep their secrets. Crescent Pines buries them in blood. Alex Castillo never planned to return to Crescent Pines. The remote Northern California town was little more than a ghost in his past—a place he left behind years ago. But when he decides to visit his aging aunt, Rosa, Alex can’t ignore the sense of urgency in the town's residents voices. They sound scared. Desperate. Like they know something he doesn’t. From the moment he arrives, the town feels wrong. The streets are too quiet. The locals avoid his gaze.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 stand-alones - 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.

In this modern version of the fairy tale classic, who wouldn't want to marry a rock star? That's what Petra told herself when she agreed to fly from Minsk to Los Angeles - a mail-order bride to the lead singer of Bluebeard, one of the most popular American rock bands of the twentieth century. The question really was - why would a rock star want to marry her? Find out in this modern tale on the Bluebeard fairy tale by Selena Kitt!

Lord Dunsany was the most influential writer in the genre that came to be known as fantasy, which his stories set trends for that continue to this day. In this collection you’ll find sixteen stories from the first and greatest master of the fantasy genre.

This is a compelling new story about the Olympic gods in our century. Here, Artemis’s nymph Timessa fully embraces her transformation into the Great Goddess, a primal being who was worshipped throughout the ancient world. Her powers are second only to Gaia’s, and she doesn’t know what to do with them.

Featuring 12 short stories where each one takes a well-known fairy tale and propels them into uncharted territories, creating surprising perspectives that challenge the very essence of the original tales.