Satire Science

A flab-normal life.... Kallie Grande-White can pretend to go on with her life, but reminders of her transgressions into heroism continuously follow her throughout her day - especially now that her awkward classmate Zeus Evans knows her secret. Even with the return of Model Middle America to Cuttingham City, to attempt another round of modeling auditions, Kallie soon realizes there is no escaping from her double-sized life when one of the show’s producer asks for Fatgirl’s assistance.

As Kallie becomes a beloved city hero and overnight sensation, there's more on her mind when Kallie's grandmother, Abuela-Blanca, reveals the origins of the radioactive doughnuts - and why she now needs Kallie's help in bringing down an even bigger threat. And while there's nothing Kallie wants to do less than take up the media's given mantle of "Fatgirl", she soon finds out she has little choice - not if she wants to keep her identity a secret, and not if she ever wants to get her mother to come back home.

There's nothing that 17-year-old Kallie Grande-White hungers for more than to be a famous model like her mother - except maybe actually food. But that's a small inconvenience, especially with the Model Middle America reality show holding auditions for the Next Top Heartland Teen Heartthrob Model right in Kallie's hometown. Now that she has a chance to make her dream come true, Kallie is determined not to let anything stand in her way - not her best frenemy, Amory Franklin, not her lacrosse-playing crush, and especially not the new, awkward fat kid in her computer class.

Jon Gilligan is the only man with a pulse in a city of the undead. It's his job to maintain order between the factions of walking corpses and disembodied spirits. The workload has been driving him a little insane, leading him to take on the persona of a noir detective. He narrates his adventures, casting himself as a hero to all those under his watch.

Question: when do sewer rats in suburbia acquire intelligence and cunning? Answer: when they begin calling each other names. For Duff and Tuff, newly arrived on Conner's lawn after being ejected from a drain culvert during a flood, their I.Q. soon begins to rise while Conner's falls. Conner, you see, is obsessed with TV. Now the plan is to keep this bachelor from going through with his vow to change his life (and their situation) by pretending to be his supposedly deceased ex wife. Inspired by "Who Moved My Cheese?", this short fable has but one lesson: imagination is linked to reading, not watching television.

The antidote to those cotton-candy platitudes that are all too familiar to anyone who’s ever worn a mortarboard, Wheelan’s 10 head-turning aphorisms - backed up by a PhD in public policy and extensive social science research - set the record straight. Readers everywhere agreed, turning a Dartmouth Class Day speech that had gone viral into a best-selling book.

My creator once reveled in his mastery over life and death. He dug from graves, stitched me together, and brought me to life. However, he never anticipated how hard it would be to get good tech support.

A smart, funny political satire. It is written as if a future woman president published what she wanted to say, before she becomes president. A look at politics through a different, and definitely provocative, lens. As a woman she has a lot to say about the insanity of war as a solution to anything in this century, much less labeling and drugging children instead of making schools exciting for young lives. A fast, furious, sometimes deep listen.

You know the drill. Rub the magic lamp and a genie appears, promising to grant you three wishes. But the wishes always have a trap in them. What happens when a Hollywood lawyer draws up the contract? This notorious little short by the Hugo and Nebula award-winning author David Gerrold ("The Trouble With Tribbles" episode of Star Trek) is a delicious tale of well-deserved revenge.

Colonies require support and expansion to other planets means shipping supplies to them. Pirates love long supply chains and not even Elon Musk is invulnerable, although there is reason to believe he might do slightly better than cumbersome governments. This highly speculative look at the perils of building the first functional Mars colony stars Elon Musk.

Space exploration gone different. Although HAM was the first US astronaut, at one point in history it seemed inevitable that the first deep-space pilots would be humans. Of course, we know that things didn't work out that way. This is the story as it actually unfolded, including the real story of Tolan Baboon's flight and his best dirty jokes. A humorous alternate history of the space program.

In an alternate timeline, John F. Kennedy goes into acting instead of politics and ends up as captain of the starship Enterprise. But what if history has its own plan for JFK? This savage satire of American politics and Hollywood egos was written by Star Trek's most notorious scribe, David Gerrold, who also wrote Star Trek's popular "Trouble with Tribbles" episode.

Running afoul of a pants-less ghost pirate wasn't exactly what paranormal psychologist Matilda Schmidt had in mind when she took off for some R&R. Even at a quiet beach-side bungalow, Matilda can't catch a moment's peace when the restless spirits aren't the only ones haunting her bedroom. Marooned by a disappearing demigod, and seeking a solution to banish her unwelcome guests, Matilda rides shotgun with a hit man who's better at making ghosts than eliminating them.

Paranormal psychologist Matilda Schmidt is sick of secrets. But when her troubled mother falls into dangerous hands, she must enlist the help of the two men who may be hiding the most: the hot-bodied demigod who's suddenly tight-lipped about his current client, and the delicious hit man who's been concealing much more than a gun in his pocket.

Five historical short stories with a pinch of parody and conspiracy theory twists....

The story of The Happy Prince has three major themes. Firstly it shows that apparent beauty is nothing and the real beauty is to bestow love and sacrifice. Secondly, it discusses that love and sacrifice are two saving forces. Thirdly, it shows that there is a large gap between rich and poor people the rulers and the masses. When the happy prince is alive he lives a happy life without sorrows, he is living a care free life but after his death he sees through a tall Colum that life has another view except happiness and that is helplessness poverty, hypocrisy and corruption of elite and ruling class.

In a satirical, high-octane future, humanity’s first mission to colonize Mars is sabotaged by the very forces that launched it: corporate greed, political stupidity, rebellious robots, and influencer warfare. What begins as a sleek launch countdown quickly spirals into an interstellar comedy of errors.

A figure from the distant past is resurrected just in time to solve the world's problems. There's only one catch - she plans to rule the world.

Grotesque insect looking beasts, which burst out of your chest, and have acid for blood. Grey and short aliens with big eyes, who want to take over your mind, and they do horrible experiments with instruments that go up your anus. They’ve come to take over the world, and make you into a zombie or dinner. If they ever land in full view, they would either be worshiped and a new religion would form, or murdered immediately, and their ship parts sold to the highest bidder. Alien 597 read her report about aliens that humans had encountered.

Joel Dunbar, the last branch of an Appalachian family tree, accepts a mysterious invitation from a billionaire plutocrat to attend a conservation expo in San Francisco. The rock star environmentalist has startling plans for the future and a caveat for Joel: Don’t ask too many questions, and don’t divulge any answers. But when Joel befriends a rebellious eco-friendly Arizona rancher, he’s roped into a new kind of war, with new kinds of casualties.