Science Fiction Monsters

Being raised as the Cursed One does things to a person. It changes your relationships and makes you a very paranoid young woman. This is how Sophy ends up in her fourth decade, looking 18 and having no love life. The Mage Guild provides her with a liaison so that she can stop calling to rummage through their archives, and the voice in the machines around her becomes an admirable partner, such as he is. He files a request with her to assist him in his own personal journey, and it takes her into the Guild Hall to face a mage who wants her as a trophy.

Gloriously rich and utterly delightful, Miss Peregrine’s Museum of Wonders is an indispensable guide to the peculiar world, perfect for longtime fans and new listeners alike. Covering everything from how to blend in with suspicious normals to the most popular time loops to visit as a temporal tourist, this essential volume is ideal for anyone curious about the world of Miss Peregrine: its strange history, curious practices, fascinating places, most famous (and infamous) names, and much more.

My clients at my vet clinic have always called me an animal whisperer. I’ve never questioned it. Until I started hearing monsters, too. A man came in right at closing with a sick dog. The dog told me why he was sick, and I was able to treat him. I had no idea his owner would kidnap me. I had no idea his owner had an entire dungeon of monsters he wanted me to treat. I’ve met a minotaur, a mysterious kraken, a phoenix, and this really massive spider. I can hear them, too. If monsters are real and I can talk to them, then what am I?

When John Hunter finds out he can get paid $5,000 for trapping a rogue chimera, it's game on. Now, he'll have a crash course on the goings-on of the secret underworld and more than a few bruises to prove his mettle. But not all is as straightforward as it may seem. There are those closest to Jonny who are more than they're letting on. And the humans in his life turn out to be the worst kind of monsters. Jonny may be able to save himself, if he wants to save the city from an unspeakable, ancient evil lurking in the shadows, he'll have to catch up fast.

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

A giant redneck in Fairyland, what could possibly go wrong? Everything. Absolutely everything. Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem collects four novella chronicling Bubba the Monster Hunter's trip through the lands of the Fae in search of his kidnapped sister.

I'm John Taylor. I was born in the Nightside, that square mile in the hidden center of London where it is always the hour of the wolf, where gods and monsters walk side by side, and where every dark question ever asked can be answered—for a price. I left for a while, but I did come back, to make my living doing what I do better than anyone else: finding things—lost or stolen, real or imaginary. Recently, I found the most dangerous thing of all: the true identity of my long-gone mother. Turns out she's a being who's been around since before the dawn of history.

Despite our best efforts, my devoted monstrous men and I have fallen into the clutches of one of our most powerful enemies. But the demon strikes a deal with me—our safety in exchange for my cooperation in a mysterious scheme. It turns out he wants me to tap into magical powers more vile than the brutality I've faced from his kind. With my family and the men I’ve fallen for on the line, playing along may be my only chance at survival. But as we search for a way to win our freedom for good, the danger grows greater by the day. I’m running out of options.

After the devastating events on Prism Lake, Grady and the other survivors head south, hoping to find safety in one of the rumored "Cities of Light". But as they embark on their journey, they quickly discover the monsters aren't the only things out in the snow they must fear.

Life hit Liam Cosgrave hard, like it has for a lot of people. Forced to work a dead end job to make ends meet, he barely had energy to do anything besides work and sleep. His life was basically just day to day survival. That is, until he was summoned to another world in a freak accident. Sitting in his truck after a fender bender on the highway, Liam was questioning whether something was out to get him.

I am a researcher. I read books, conduct experiments, and live quietly on the fringes of the orc town. All I want is peace, quiet, and a female to satisfy the wild urges of my orc body so they don't distract me from my work. Getting a human wife through the Temple seems like a logical solution—until I bring her home and she starts sowing chaos. She moves my books, cuts my herbs to make bouquets, and replaces the blessed silence with laughter and song. For such a tiny person, she can be very loud. And opinionated.

When she finds her best friend, Meredith, getting sick in the bathroom, Tessa knows something’s majorly wrong. Meredith was cursed years ago, and the dark magic kept her wolf dormant - only now the wolf is awake, and that same spell is killing her. Tessa has no intention of sitting around while Meredith wastes away. Even if it means playing with magic she doesn’t understand, she’ll do anything to save Meredith’s life. Including bargaining with the local coven of witches and its crazed leader, whose only goal is getting Tessa to join the witchy ranks.

John Birmingham is the master of alternate history adventure - and now he's mastered a new genre with the volcanically fast-paced and wildly inventive Dave Hooper urban fantasy series. The series is anchored by a thrilling high concept: An oil rig opens a rift deep in the ocean that unleashes terrifying monsters into the world. But perhaps its coolest asset is its hero, Dave Hooper, a tough, bleakly funny, down-on-his luck oil rig worker with an unlikely destiny as a monster-slayer and world savior.

Evan visits an eerie old toy store and buys a dusty can of Monster Blood. But then he notices something weird about the slimy green ooze. It keeps growing. And growing. And growing. And all that growing has given the Monster Blood a monstrous appetite....

The small town of Beacon Point has always been plagued by eerie local phenomena. It’s a town where disappearances are common, strange creatures have been sighted with unnerving frequency, and a ghastly secret lurks in the woods. The adults in town are oblivious to these strange occurrences. Others prefer not to talk or even think about them. But over the course of several terrifying nights, a group of kids will come face to face with the horrors hiding within their sleepy town.

Luna Thorn appeared in a swirl of pink lights with no memory of where she came from or why she was suddenly in Detroit of all places. Now, years later, she’s positioned herself as a beacon of good in a very dark place. That means it’s time to figure out where she belongs. With the help of the friendly neighborhood reapers, Luna is about to embark on an adventure that will have her traveling through time and facing the sort of terror that she never expected to come up against.

Follow Luke as he's transported to a world of magic and monsters. A mysterious goddess has tasked the Earthly game warden with protecting an all-female tribe with strange animal features. Cast off from civilization, he must help this isolated jungle people fortify their village against the rapacious Rakhasa, confound a wicked witch, and breed the next generation of monster children.

Jenna had promised her mother that if the worst happened during her dad's weekend, they would meet at Red Hill Ranch. When she finds seven words spray-painted on her dad's wall the morning after a deadly outbreak, she makes a promise to herself: to get to the ranch with her seven-year-old sister, Halle, and to get them both there alive.

Not too long ago, I was just Dominic Thompson, a former employee of an American marketing firm. I have Lilith, the goddess of the Infernal Realms, to thank for my new state in life. Now, she's returned to my dungeon, hoping to strip away what she gave to me. I won't simply roll over and let her take it. I like what I've built. Sure, she started me on my quest for domination, but where was she when I carved out my first dungeon room or built my first trap? Was she present when I enthralled my beautiful champions: the troll and the storm dungeon core?

Tired of the necromancer threat, Regan increases efforts to deal with them at their heart of power in the north. Seemingly aware of his presence, the monster horde continues to grow until finally they charge the valley. Steel Spire, one of Regan's sub-core ends up attracting their attention. Will his new inventions be able to handle the mass of monsters? Meanwhile, Louella has her own monster horde to deal with. Enlisting the aid of the adventurers that have come to her valley, she marshals a force to meet the horde on the battlefield.