Science Fiction Monsters

Wounds is a confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella from Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in The Visible Filth to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher’s Table”, Ballingrud’s beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.

Ben is now Draco Rex the dragon king, and his dynasty is steadily growing. His women give him a new dragon-kin child every few weeks, he has fortified and improved his village and palace, and the water dragons are coming back from the brink of extinction. Life is good for him, but the gods have further plans, so it is time for the new ruler to build a raft and expand his domain.

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average 13 year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games, and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team.

Sorcha has spent her life helping raise her many siblings but now finally has the chance to seek her own adventures. At least, she did, before she was snatched from her horse and peddled by slavers. Taken far from home, she's brought to the worst place imaginable—the craggy western mountains infested with brutal, brutish orcs. All humans know to fear them and stay away, and now she's been sold to the cruelest clan chief of them all. But the first orc she meets is nothing like the stories. He's gentle. He frees her.

At twenty-four, Cody has already lost hope of having a life of his own. All his time is spent playing nurse to a dying, spiteful stepfather and maid to his bully half-brother. His only escapes are playing his favorite online fantasy game, Black Oasis, and talking to the strange, unearthly presence under his bed that may or may not actually exist. Everything changes when his nightly visitor, who introduces himself as Nor, starts talking back. As their connection deepens, Nor invites Cody into the surreal world existing just beyond his nightmares.

After pacifying the old Earth underground military base and defeating the Sleem, Tyson Dawes and Silken Sands are flush with new items and morties. But the Dearth Conglomerate has been circling over them in Arizona, and they want his land. Which wouldn't be such a problem if the boss weren't such an incompetent and spoiled child.

Syl, an archmage who tirelessly fought the monsters spilling from the magical Gates and Towers, yearns for a life free from the chaos of battle. When he is assigned to an Aurian magic academy to guard an undercover princess, he is happy to be no more than an unremarkable class three student with dismal practical scores. Right up until people start trying to kill them both.

It’s the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn’t be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington. But the world is changing, and Terry isn’t content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code named MKULTRA.

Monsters Unleashed - where you catch virtual-reality monsters on your cellphone - is one of the hottest mobile games around, and Bex and Charlie just can't stop playing. They even check out an old map in Charlie's grandfather's attic in hopes of discovering some forgotten places in town where the rarest monsters might hide. But they find a strange machine up there, too, and after Charlie switches it on, the wifi goes down...and Bex's entire catalog of monsters vanishes!

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. Rather than being an actual Monster. That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that. A day that the career as a hitman for hire built on the Monster’s needs will end. Where Rene will be forced to atone for his actions. To be held accountable and judged.

Do you know that the Olympians weren’t the original immortals? Or that the Goddess Hera restored her virginity each year? The ancient Greeks wove one of the richest and best-preserved collections of stories of all the early civilizations, from the dawn of creation to the bloody siege at Troy.

Do you know that the ancient Egyptians believed that people were made out of clay by their river god? For eons, the wisdom cultivated by the Egyptian people has been extolled time and time again. These timeless myths are fountains of insight and, many would argue, beacons of light that can shatter the darkness of ignorance. For those of you that are ready and willing to receive these ancient messages, your time has come. All you need to do is start listening. Then the wisdom of Thoth will begin to stir inside you.

Team Six and I have finally found our ticket into Hell. But the journey to cashing it will be anything but easy, and every decision along the way will come with a sacrifice . . . sacrifices we might not be willing to make. Darius's creepy brother, Claude, is determined to push us out of his city as soon as possible. And, oh man, are we ready to leave. But, unfortunately for us, hitching a ride to hell will have to wait.

For the first time in her life, Moriah has an open door of possibility before her. Recently divorced, she's free to do what she's always wanted. There's only one thing holding her back—the desire to have a child. Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic offers a unique service—trigger a heat and breed with a werewolf.

For 200 years, monsters have terrorized the wilds. The only thing keeping humanity safe: Monster Tamers. Orphaned during a wild monster attack when he was young, Dirk has always wanted to join the Monster Tamer Academy. Becoming a Tamer involves bonding with a monster to unlock one’s access to magic. As a Tamer raises their bond, both the Tamer and their monster grow stronger.

I only got into trucking because my granddad was a trucker, and he was the best damn person I ever met. I'd always thought I was your average dude with an 18-wheeler and an addiction to energy drinks, but it turns out there might be something more brewing in my blood. Now instead of some desert highway, I'm stuck in a whole new realm, and it's full of worm cults, actual lot lizards, one seriously smoking catgirl mechanic, and enough sand and bloodthirsty creatures to make me think I took a wrong turn somewhere. But I might be able to add a whole new career path to my resume.

Gaia has an eldritch problem, and Cain is tasked with stopping it before it gets out of control. To do that, he'll have to make an uneasy alliance with a human black-ops organization called Aegis. Run by the US government, Aegis has the personnel and resources to stop an eldritch invasion in its tracks. The problem is, Aegis has been taking a short-term approach, blowing up eldritch wormholes as they form on Gaia rather than cutting them off at the source.

Sunny has spent years of her life hiding from her own desires and hiding them from those she loves. Forced to face the idea of denying that part of herself forever, Sunny takes a nose dive out of her routine and into her fantasies. All she needs is the help of Monster Smash Agency and one exceptionally talented Orc. Khell'ar has mastered his work with Monster Smash Agency, satisfying his clients with perfect expertise. Guiding inexperienced Sunny into a new realm of extreme pleasures should be easy, simple. All he has to do is follow her requests, play his part, and not form a mating bond.

Each day, Owen rises with the sun. Creatures cheer as he shovels food into the trough. Enchanted plants dance and sway while he waters their stalks. This is a strange, wild world. A place where mushrooms can sprout sentience. A place where forest slimes make the best pets. It’s cozy. Simple. But that’s the tip of the monster-farming iceberg. The more his creatures work, the stronger they become. They grow and grow, morphing into unbelievable, frightening beasts.

This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic.