Science Fiction Monsters

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.

I'm determined to turn Quirky Kingdom into the showpiece it used to be. Problem is—more than just the rides need fixing. It's way more than I can handle on my own. I tap my new neighbor to help—Rexin, a hunky orc handyman who's also a single dad extraordinaire. Since it's summer, he brings his twelve-year-old son to the job with him.

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?

In the Clandoms, everyone is born with wings, though not all the clans are treated equally. Ellie Meadows longed to become a Goldwing—the knights who protect the people -- but because she came from the humble Sparrow Clan, her dream faced almost insurmountable resistance. Nox Hatcher has it even worse. Nox is a Crow, a shattered clan. They can't own businesses or run organizations, all due to a mistake made hundreds of years ago. Nox has had to steal and scrape just to survive, but a single goal has kept him going, even when it felt like all the Clandoms were against him.

Carly Beth thinks she's found the best Halloween mask ever. With yellow-green skin and long animal fangs, the mask terrifies the entire neighborhood. Before long, it has a surprising effect on Carly Beth, too. She tries to take it off... but it won't budge! Halloween is almost over, but fright night is just beginning. Now with all-new bonus materials!

As the second son, Prince Larkin doesn't have much of a role at court. When his brother sends him on a quest to slay a wyvern, he pounces on the opportunity. Only problem? It's not a wyvern. It's a dragon. A naked dragon in human form, who possesses two very large...anyway. Larkin is definitely, absolutely, very not interested in trying them out, but Jade is very, very persuasive. It helps that Jade's fluids make Larkin tingle all over in the best of ways.

"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.

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.

Over two decades ago, forty-eight young, gifted superheroes fell to Earth and were eventually marketed as opposing brands: heroes and villains. Now, one exceptionally gruff bad guy is looking to hop teams. Hello, PR director Vanessa Theriot. His real name is Roland Casteel a.k.a. the Pyro. First, swap that with the less incinerating the Wyvern. Next, put him in spandex to highlight that near-godlike body. Finally, give that hero in training a heroine—if Vanessa will play the part in a pretend romance guaranteed to make the city swoon. She’s game.

The Horde has been raising hell and leveling cities from New York to Los Angeles, keeping Dave and his fellow monster killer, Russian spy Karin Varatschevsky, very busy. But when the legions of hell invade the small seaside town his boys call home, Dave has to make a call. Save the world? Or save his family? Not as easy a choice as you'd think, since Dave's ex-wife expects to be saved, too.

Ghoulia lives in Crumbling Manor with her Auntie Departed and spends most of her time playing with Tragedy, her beloved albino greyhound. But things aren't as easy as they seem for this little zombie girl - all she wants is a real friend. She tries to venture past the manor's walls, but she can't hide her pale green skin or the deep purple circles under her eyes. The other children will be afraid of her, and no one will want to be her friend. But when Halloween rolls around, Ghoulia hatches a brilliant plan.

Ben and Mira have driven the orcs off the deer women’s island, but the question is not if the orcs will return, but when. As if the orcs weren’t bad enough, Ben spots a simultaneously new and ancient enemy on the horizon.

My disciplinary file at ESCU is almost as thick as my personnel file, which is saying something since I've been working for them for more than twenty years. I do the jobs no one else wants, go places no one is supposed to go to deal with monsters that don't exist. After a while, you get a feel for how a mission's going to go, and I have a feeling this next one is going to be fifty shades of FUBAR.

Hades kidnapped me. Yeah, that Hades. Greek mythology is real, and I’m learning the gods are real dicks. I’m tasked with caring for the monsters in the Underworld. Oh, yeah, Demeter is pissed about the whole Persephone thing. She’s kidnapped her daughter and making the monsters fight for sport. Persephone is quite happy in the Underworld according to Hades pet dog...who has three heads and is kind of a goof. I’ve met a Kraken, a minotaur, a phoenix, and a black widow spider. I’ve also met Hephaestus, the God of the Forge, who has been abused by his family.

Hendric and his companions have braved the treacherous depths of the Dungeon of Despair and now face levels unlike anything they’ve encountered before. My Monster Companions – Book 3: The Third takes listeners into the heart of danger, where monsters are deadlier, the stakes are higher, and the bonds of trust and friendship are put to the ultimate test. As the group ascends the icy peaks of Level Twelve and battles the fiery infernos of Level Fourteen, the dungeon proves to be more than just a labyrinth of monsters and treasure...

Rowan Bennett has always been the lighthouse of his family; steadfast, dependable and constantly putting himself last. But when a malicious entity attaches itself to him, his life takes a disastrous turn.

Who answers the call when the mundane police dial 911? Matt Bordelon—former Silver Griffin, wizard, and the Big Easy Bounty Hunter. Matt has a good thing going. Deliver justice to magicals? Check. Keep the world safe from threats? Check. Make good money doing it? Cha-ching. Unless his bounty ends up dead when the paperwork specifies alive, that is. Good thing he’s a pro at avoiding that. Then he stumbles across a dark witch embroiled in a vicious spell battle with a dark wizard and feels compelled to aid her.

Jack Wilder’s a big animal vet, a wildlife wrangler, and a man with a huge heart. His passions take him through Asia, Africa, and all points in between to rescue endangered species or heal creatures who’d be happy to repay the favor with a fanged bite. His life gets an unexpected upgrade when he’s brought to Navishala, a fantasy world of mountains, high-altitude forests, and more sentient species than you can shake a sword at. It’s a world that needs someone who can wrangle dragonkin, rescue trapped pegasus foals, or save the odd cattle ranch from a monster rampage.

It only takes an instant for Grim—monster hunter and emotionally scarred hero—to lose everything. Grim is having a bad year. A hunter by trade, his world is ripped apart when he is cursed with a sickness that is slowly changing him into one of the very creatures he hunts. Worse, Grim is forced to abandon the woman he loves for fear that he'll destroy her. So he must find a cure. Otherwise, they'll never be together.

Twelve-year-old Octavia grew up believing the town of Vittoria was the only one left in the world. The sole survivors of a deadly magical war and plague, the people of Vittoria know there’s no one alive outside the town walls - except the terrible monsters that prowl the forest. But then the impossible happens: Octavia meets another girl beyond the walls, someone who isn’t Vittorian. Everything she’s ever believed is thrown into question, and there’s no going back.