Science Fiction Monsters

Getting stuck in the hockey locker room was not how I envisioned catching my next story. After a fateful encounter with two of the hottest players in the NMHL, I'm swept into an unforgettable first date.

One night, when Ethan reaches under his bed for a toy truck, he finds this note instead: “Monsters! Meet here for final test.” Ethan is sure his parents are trying to trick him into staying in bed...until he sees five colorful sets of eyes blinking at him from under the bed. Soon, a colorful parade of quirky, squeaky little monsters emerge from beneath the bed and compete to become Ethan's monster. But only the little green monster, Gabe, has the perfect blend of stomach-rumbling and snorting needed to get Ethan into bed and keep him there.

When a horrific loss throws Monster High into a state of grave upheaval, Draculaura and the other ghouls find themselves coping in different ways. For her part, the chaos at school is making Draculaura sick. She finds escape only by slipping away to the cemetery to pore over her mom's old journals. It's there that she meets Poe. If her ghoulfriends find out she's fallen for a normie, they'll freak. And if Poe discovers she's a vampire, his monster-hunting dad may have a stake in the matter.

The High Republic continues in this fast-paced adventure that picks up from Escape from Valo, perfect for fans of sci-fi action. Think Sailor Moon meets Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting by way of Star Wars . . . with a dash of Last Kids on Earth! The fearsome Nihil continue to spread...

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.

For Reyna Carpenter, giving up her body isn't a choice—it's survival. In a world where humans are currency and vampires rule from the shadows, Reyna accepts a high-paying position among the wealthy and ruthless elite. Her new job: a live-in blood escort for the enigmatic and dangerously powerful Beckham Anderson. She expects cruelty. She expects hunger. She expects to become his next meal. But Beckham won't drink from her.

Luna Thorn’s past is a mystery...even to herself. She arrived in Detroit amid a swirl of lights and magic. She had no memory of where she came from. No idea why she was there. Years later, she’s established herself as a force to be reckoned with on the Detroit magical scene. She ingratiated herself with the local reapers. She set up a community called the Cathedral to help those who had been displaced from their homes and families, declaring that nobody would fall through the cracks. Still, doubt remains.

Have you ever wondered where monsters came from? Their origin has been kept a secret for centuries. As long as Halsey and Brigham, her cousin turned mission partner, were on the hunt, you didn't need to wonder, or worry. Till now. Keeping people in the dark is not so easy when supernatural things stop following the rules and the Clan Council doesn't want to accept that something is very, very wrong. It's a full moon, the Summer Solstice, and an ancient coffin has washed up on the beaches of Moher, Ireland. Could the Mother of Monsters really have returned? It's just not possible.

As Kelvin, the battle junkie Summoner hailing from another world, continues his extraordinary exploits, Goddess Melfina finally returns to his side, finally having completed her artificial body. When she grants him her blessing, he gains the power to summon a Hero of his own . . . who wants to become his stepsister?! As Kelvin and his party grow stronger by the day, he receives a summons for his Rank S promotion exam. The contents of the exam involve saving an elven settlement from the threat of a terrible monster, but just how much is the militaristic nation of Trycen involved?

Josh yearns for a smidge of peace and quiet, but Mythelore has other ideas. Cassandra must learn to control her magic before she accidentally casts a world ending spell, and there is only one person who can help her. They must travel to the Elven land of Alianthia to seek out the old harmonic Simmalion—a handy coincidence as that is where the healer, Vella, comes from.

A strange creature attacked Romeo last night. A huge beast unlike anything anyone has ever seen in Philly before—an alien monster with natural armor, organic high-tech weaponry, and poison dripping from its limbs. My intuition is screaming at me. It's telling me the monster is not here for Romeo. It's here for me.

Rossamund has always dreamed of a career in the Navy, fighting tentacled monsters and rescuing damsels from hook-handed pirates. But fate has chosen him for a different path. He is being sent to train as a Lamplighter – to bring light to the inland roads of the Half-Continent, to shine the way for travellers through lands peopled by outcasts, monsters and worse. But for Rossamund to begin his education, he must first undertake a journey of his own – to the great city of High Vesting.

Alchemist Zoe Faust is no stranger to magical mayhem, but when her boyfriend's new tea shop is vandalized and his special tea blends stolen, she plunges into a baffling mystery to save him. The clues lead Zoe and her gargoyle sidekick Dorian to an eerie mansion high in the Portland hills, filled with creeping carnivorous plants and enigmatic topiary monsters. When they stumble across a corpse in the conservatory that appears to have been killed by sinister shrubbery, an estranged member of the family is implicated in the murder.

Tony Platz had the respect of his peers, a career on the fast track, and the body of an Olympian. There was only one problem: It was an open secret he carried a torch for his already-married partner. When a raid put her in the hospital and finally exposed her husband's ongoing infidelity, Tony got shipped out to Oolytau. Tayra Manes worked hard, graduated the academy, and became the first of her kind to join the Non-Human Investigative Corps. There was only one problem: She was a griffin, and not everyone approved of her being allowed to serve in the previously all-human NHIC.

My indentured servitude is almost over and freedom is a heartbeat away! Until some alien guy buys me because he needs a nanny, quick. What? I’m not even good with kids. I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. But the beings at the employment agency won’t listen. “Hew-mans are hot right now. Everyone wants a hew-man nanny”. Great. And since there isn’t another human available...I’m hired on the spot. Yay, me. And on day one of my new job I’m having a panic attack because I finally meet my new boss and he looks like Satan himself.

An existence spent being forced to kill others to satiate a monster. Where the only thing to look forward to was the blessed, if brief, period of time between paying that bribe. Except that very same monster is and isn’t Rene. It just happened to live inside his own mind and force him to do what it wanted.

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.

Doug has a normal, quiet life: he has a decent job, eats a lot of tacos, and plays video games with his best bud Ray. But it all goes out of control when Ray brings over a chemical he stole from his job, with the ability to turn animals into amazing human-animal hybrids and people into super soldiers.

Dan’s first tournament may have ended, but life goes on. His luck is still with him in his regular life as well, and it seems to be endless. However, he is surrounded by very smart people, and surely one of them is going to start doubting his talents, at least a bit? Especially now, with a new game about to start. The latest foes are even more dangerous than the last and the rules are still unfamiliar to him. Dan wonders how reasonable the rules are in the first place. Is it really possible to take a competition that lasts a couple of hours at most seriously?

"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.