Science Fiction City

Venice is a carnival of opposites, and Liona Carvatti thinks she understands it all: canal and palace, magician and merchant, plague and pantomime. As a patrician's daughter, Liona enjoys the sparkling life of a noble family—although she would prefer to be tending to her flowers than practicing violin or standing around in a ball gown. But what Liona fails to realize is that Venice is a city of stone in a world of water. And ruling the dark waters are the Seleni—ageless, cold, and calculating.

Charley is under pressure. The demands of her new community are piling on stress after stress, and even with her developing magical skills, she's finding it hard to cope. Things aren't any better for Monroe - his grief and guilt over what happened to his werewolf pack are overwhelming him. When dead bodies start to appear across the city, they're going to have to work together to prevent more killings. But whether they'll be able to survive together, too, is anyone's guess.

Lief, Barda and Jasmine - companions with nothing in common but their hatred of the enemy - are on a perilous quest to find the seven lost gems of the magic Belt of Deltora. Only when the Belt is complete once more can the evil Shadow Lord be overthrown. They have succeeded in finding the golden topaz and the great ruby. The two gems' mysterious powers have strengthened them and given them the courage to move on in their search for the third stone. But none of them can know what horrors await them in the forbidden City of the Rats.

Three years after the Monster Massacre, members of Rebecca’s old wolf pack have begun to go missing without a trace. The world has undergone many changes in the years since monsters came out of the shadows. An anti-monster group known as the Black Hand has started to organize across the United States. In response, pro-monster organizations have been growing in numbers and militancy. Targeted killings of suspected monsters and their allies, monsters spirited away in the dead of night, and the beginnings of pro-monster legislation are all signs of a cosmic shift on the horizon.

Thirty years ago, the world as we know it was lost. Now humans live like rats, desperate for food and safety, the wall towering before us as a mocking reminder of what happened. Some are born into privilege and wealth, and I am one of those. I spend my days trying to change the world we live in and fighting for the truth as any good scientist does. However, when I am thrust through the wall, I have to fight just to survive. Hurt, alone, and scared, I run smack into one of the very creatures we are taught to fear—a monster. But this monster is intent on protecting me, even as I fear him.

A wedding on an enchanted island of magic. A guest list of gods, immortals, shifters, dragons, and druids. And a sentient city waking after centuries . . . What could go wrong? When Fiona's magnet for mayhem weighs in on her special day, there's no escaping the fallout . . . or the island. With Dark invaders, realm refugees, a feral vampire, and the mystery of the Light Weavers' disappearance to solve, Fi and her friends are fighting on multiple fronts. Thank the goddess there's cake.

Fight or flight only works when you know who you're up against. There's no running from an enemy who is constantly several steps ahead. The best you can do is stand and face them. Finding my mate should have been a time to rejoice, not the catalyst for disaster. The closer we become, the more danger we find ourselves in. Shocking revelations and buried secrets surface, only reinforcing the truth that Griffin and I are in big trouble. One thing is clear, we can’t win if we don’t even know who we’re up against. I’m not quite sure if we’ll be able to make it out alive.

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented - something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past.

After finally receiving the one thing she's wanted for so many years, Elle sets out to pay the price demanded by the Godmother: She will travel through the Never Woods and complete a quest that will - if the Godmother's shocking story is to be believed - change her life.

Banished from Drakopolis to the desolate frontier town of Glassblower's Gulch, Abel and his family must face a harsh new reality: life without dragons. Far from the lights and lizards of the megacity, Abel's new home effectively bans the great beasts. Anyone caught smuggling dragons is hauled away by the ruthless sheriff and her fearsome deputies. They have the only dragons in town, and they run the dreaded dragon rodeo, which pits those who fall afoul of the sheriff's "justice" against a wild dragon in a competition for their freedom. It's dragon versus human and only one can win.

Violet is on the run - away from the Jewel, away from a lifetime of servitude, away from the Duchess of the Lake, who bought her at auction. With Ash and Raven traveling with her, Violet will need all of her powers to get her friends and herself out of the Jewel alive.

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

Jack and Annie are off on another Merlin Mission. This time, Merlin has sent them to rescue a beautiful, magical creature, the unicorn. But when they land in New York City during the Depression of the 1930s, Jack and Annie are confused. Where will they find a unicorn in a big city? And what about the blizzard that's burying New York in snow? Can Jack and Annie make their way through the windy streets, find the unicorn, and maybe even bring some hope to the people of the great city?

Constantinople, 867–A murderous plot is afoot. Assisted by the Order of the Ancients, the emperor schemes to assassinate his son and throw the city into chaos. In response, the Hidden Ones have dispatched Assassin acolyte Hytham to join his mentor, Basim Ibn Ishaq, to infiltrate the palace and foil the emperor’s plan. But that is not his only mission… Hytham’s brotherhood have entrusted him with uncovering where Basim’s true loyalties lie and whether the master Assassin’s personal obsessions outweigh his sense of duty.

Cass (plus her ghost best friend, Jacob) is in Paris, where Cass’s parents are filming their show about the world’s most haunted cities. Sure, it’s fun eating croissants and seeing the Eiffel Tower, but there’s true ghostly danger lurking beneath Paris, in the creepy underground Catacombs. When Cass awakens a frighteningly strong spirit, she must rely on her still-developing skills as a ghost hunter - and turn to friends both old and new to help her unravel a mystery. But time is running out, and the spirit is only growing stronger.

In The Golden City, Twelve Hawks delivers the climax to his spellbinding epic. Struggling to protect the legacy of his Traveler father, Gabriel faces troubling new questions and relentless threats. His brother Michael, now firmly allied with the enemy, pursues his ambition to wrest power from Nathan Boone, the calculating leader of the Brethren. And Maya, the Harlequin warrior pledged to protect Gabriel at all costs, is forced to make a choice that will change her life forever.

While working on a dig in the California wilderness, archaeologist-adventurer Annja Creed uncovers evidence of a tragedy that's linked to Chinese miners during the days of the Gold Rush. A sudden attack on the site by shadow figures drives Annja to find the connection to a mysterious buried city in China. Lured by legends of gold, betrayal, and the vengeance of a Han Dynasty overlord, Annja travels on the Orient Express, battling avaricious treasure hunters and a modern-day descendant of an ancient league of assassins.

When the god of free will declares war on the gods of fate and destiny, the battleground isn’t the heavens; it’s Earth. And the weapon is a child. Chelise never asked to be chosen. Struggling through the fractures of a broken family, she suddenly finds herself at the heart of a cosmic wager. Is life ruled by destiny, or can it truly be shaped by choice? Guided by guardian angels and hunted by forces beyond her understanding, Chelise is thrust into a dangerous journey where every decision carries divine weight.

In a modern mega-city built around dragons, one boy gets caught up in the world of underground dragon battles and a high-stakes gang war that could tear his family apart. In the city of Drakopolis, dragons and humans have co-existed for centuries. Dragons burn the city's garbage, taxi its busy citizens from place to place, and even compete in vicious underground battles for ganglike kins. But the dragons also compete in legal sports, like the spectacular aerial races that draw in cheering crowds by the thousands.

Bold, kind, and adventurous, Kiara was everything Volcair needed in his stiff, formal life. Along with his pet inux, Cypher, the three were inseparable during Volcair’s years on Earth. But the same winds of fate that brought them together as children tore them apart again. With half a universe separating them, years sped by, and Kiara seemed lost to him forever. Angry and bitter, he threw himself into military service for the Entris Dominion, seeking escape from the pain of loss.