Science Fiction Monsters

Many years ago, Sir Aelfric and his nine companions saved the world, seizing the Dark Lord's cursed weapons, along with his dread city of Necrad. That was the easy part. Now, when Aelfric—keeper of the cursed sword Spellbreaker—learns of a new and terrifying threat, he seeks the nine heroes once again. But they are wandering adventurers no longer. Yesterday's eager heroes are today's weary leaders—and some have turned to the darkness, becoming monsters themselves. If there's one thing Aelfric knows, it's slaying monsters. Even if they used to be his friends.

For five years, Cason Cole has been a chew toy for a god. He walked away from his wife and son and devoted his life to a predator who holds nothing and no-one dear. Now, as the man he loves and hates lies dying at his feet, the explosion still ringing in his ears, Cason is finally free. For centuries, the swarming gods of the Earth were content to lounge in Heaven, forgetting the mortals they left behind; but 30 years ago, the all-powerful "Usurper" ejected them all. Now it's back to the bad old days: cults and sycophants, and the terrible retribution of the gods.

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.

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.

Eric is a physicist, an angel vivisectionist, and an architect of the future. He's also an accidental time traveler, stuck in the past and trying to re-create his own future. Now he's got to save the world for a better tomorrow, but not like everyone does, in general, every day. Oh, no. He has to make a better tomorrow that looks exactly the way he remembers it, or there may be no yesterday, no today, and no Eric! There is a reason he hates time travel, and it has nothing to do with physics.

Traveling the country camping was supposed to be an escape from the strange and unusual that clings to my family. My family’s calling to fame terrifies me. The ghosts, the hauntings, the supernatural—I want nothing to do with it. Too bad it wants everything to do with me. Where did the trip first go wrong? Maybe when an old friend with dark secrets insisted on coming—a rising rock star whose fame is now putting me in the limelight. Then there is the West Virginia local legend.

Enter a land of wizards, warriors, mythical creatures and powerful Magic in an exciting fantasy adventure. Wish and Xar are outlaws on the run, hunted by Warriors, Wizards and, worst of all, Witches.... Can they find the ingredients for the spell to get rid of Witches before the Kingwitch gets his talons on the Magic-that-Works-on-Iron? Their next Quest is the most terrifying and treacherous of all...and someone is going to betray them. Are you ready to Knock Three Times?

Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out 30-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s trying to establish herself as a major psychic operative in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top. Desperate to break the dead-end grind, Julie summons a guardian angel for a quick career boost. But when her power grab accidentally releases an elder god hell-bent on the annihilation of our galaxy, the body count rises rapidly.

A virus tears across the globe, transforming its victims in nightmarish ways. As the world collapses, dark forces pull a small group of women together. Erin, once quiet and closeted, acquires an appetite for a woman and her brain. Why does forbidden fruit taste so good? Savannah, a professional BDSM switch, discovers a new turn-on: committing brutal murders for her eldritch masters. Mareva, plagued with chronic tumors, is too horrified to acknowledge her divine role in the coming apocalypse, and as her growths multiply, so too does her desperation.

One night, when Ethan checks under the bed for his monster, he finds a note instead: “Gone fishing. Back in a week. --Gabe” What will Ethan do? He needs a monster under his bed. How is he supposed to get to sleep if his monster is gone? Substitute monsters appear, but none are just right. Herbert's teeth aren't sharp enough, Mack's slobbering induces giggles, Cynthia's tail isn't scary at all, and Ralph has nail polish on his claws! This will never work! How will Ethan ever get to sleep without his monster?

Bucky Drake literally just got his managerial position at McDaniel’s, but he’s already been promoted to "Hero" whether or not he's interested in the job. Dragged against his will through a yawning purple vortex by a mouthy catgirl, he finds himself in another world full of vivid colors—and peerless beauties. Cowgirls, lamias, satyresses, unicorns, and even elves of all colors of the rainbow make his acquaintance early and often...and he handles them pretty darn well for a random fast food worker in over his head.

For nearly a century, Victorian London relied on "climbing boys" - orphans owned by chimney sweeps - to clean flues and protect homes from fire. The work was hard, thankless and brutally dangerous. Eleven-year-old Nan Sparrow is quite possibly the best climber who ever lived. With her wits and will, she's managed to beat the deadly odds time and again. But when Nan gets stuck in a deadly chimney fire, she fears her time has come. Instead, she wakes to find herself in an abandoned attic - and not alone. Huddled in the corner is a mysterious creature - a golem - made from ash and coal.

Ben has saved the dragonkin women’s island from the ancient, ghostly maldungs, so it’s time for his next adventure. But when he and his crew of women set sail again, they discover the orcs have another enemy. A dangerous, fire-breathing, ship-destroying enemy. And Ben wonders if he can tame it.

The Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for as long as anyone can remember. The great prophecy has foretold that a band of misfits, led by a high priestess will defeat the Dark Lord Darvezian, armed with their wits, the blessing of the Light and an artifact stolen from the merciless Spider Queen. Their journey will be long, hard and fraught with danger. Allies will become enemies; enemies will become allies. And the Dark Lord will be waiting, always waiting…

Something is wrong at the Sea. The weeping tide, a carnivorous algae bloom, is eating up all the fish. Beasts are terrorizing the nearby Elsewheres. And Lochmordra, the Legendary Beast, is rising at random and swallowing ships whole. Barclay’s teacher, the famous Guardian Keeper Runa Rasgar, has been summoned to investigate, and as her apprentice, Barclay gets to join too. But Runa’s nemesis has also been called to the Sea, and he’s brought apprentices of his own. When the not-so-friendly competition between them grows fierce, it’s Barclay who can’t seem to keep up.

Following the end of their quest to find the legendary Owen Deathstalker, Lewis and his group of Madness Maze survivors take the new rebel fleet in search of allies. On the Empire’s home world, the exiled King Douglas begins to marshal his own forces amid the outcasts of the Rookery, enlisting a number of unlikely elements to his cause. And the mightiest Deathstalker of them all plunges into the timestream to confront the relentless mad hunger of the being called the Terror.

This third edition to the Prince Roger Series takes the Bronze Barbarians across the Eastern Ocean of Marduk, facing giant sea monsters, pirates, and the barbarian nations that dwell on the other side. Their destination is a spaceport held by humans of questionable loyalties. As Roger comes nearer to making his way home, he learns that his attempted assassination was part of a larger plot. Not all is as it seems on Earth or on Marduk.

An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth, in this Tor.com Original science fiction tale from Jeff VanderMeer, the New York Times best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy.

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away. When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father's death. His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin.

In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.