Science Fiction Mystery

Facing down an unprecedented malevolent enemy, the government responds with a nuclear attack. America as it was is gone forever, and now every citizen - from the President of the United States to the homeless on the streets of New York City - will fight for survival. In a wasteland born of rage and fear, populated by monstrous creatures and marauding armies, earth's last survivors have been drawn into the final battle between good and evil, that will decide the fate of humanity.

This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter.

Harmon Waite is the son of the most powerful angel in the universe. He will undergo 12 trials by fire in an unrivaled hero's journey. If he is to survive, Harmon must discover his power to fight evil on the immense stage of the Celestial Wars.

After a long and bloody battle, legendary Hell Diver Xavier Rodriguez reigns as the dutiful but reluctant new king of the islands. Advised by a council of former sky citizens as well as Cazadores, he works to assimilate the two societies peacefully. But not all Cazadores have accepted the new order. While X tries to ease tensions at home, a rookie team of divers, led by Michael Everhart, returns to the skies in Discovery, formerly the ITC Deliverance. Their mission: To locate other human survivors throughout the world and rescue them.

Heartsick about her on-again, off-again boyfriend-werewolf, Fiona O’Malley is struggling to make the hardest decision of her life - if she should break up with him once and for all. Though she knows he loves her and is sweet, funny and kind, he’s just not the sort of guy you can depend upon, especially in the romance department. Immortal Matthew “Matty” Hyland is crazy in love with Fiona. He’d do anything to make her happy. Though he tries repeatedly to be there for her, things just keep getting in his way.

George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane. He has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but also to "improve" people - make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly...and make them compliant to his will.

In the high mountains of Tibet, rumors are spreading. People whisper of an outbreak, of thousands of dead, of bodies pushed into mass graves. It is some strange new disease...a disease, they say, that can kill in minutes. The Chinese government says the rumors aren't true, but no one is allowed in or out of Tibet. At the Pentagon, admiral James Curtiss learns that satellite images prove that a massive genocide is underway. This is no disease. It's a weapons test. Chinese scientists have developed a way to kill based on a person's genetic traits.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Probationary constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale....

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them - for a price.

The Winter Queen of Faerie has manipulated Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden into accepting a case to solve a murder and stop a war between the courts of Summer and Winter that could have literally earth shattering consequences. His own soul is up for grabs. Dresden must dig deep to discover that at time a willingness to accept a little help from your friends, be they a cub pack of werewolves, old loves in sheep's clothing, or a battalion of pizza loving dewdrop fairies, is a very good thing.

I never thought my life would take a turn into the world of murder mysteries, but here I am, Ophelia Pane, vampire veterinarian extraordinaire, caught in the middle of a deadly game of cat and mouse... or should I say parrot and vampire? As I struggle to juggle my overflowing clinic of fur babies and mythical creatures, a simple house call to check in on a chatty parrot named Elvis turns into a nightmare when I stumble upon his owner’s lifeless body.

You wake up floating. Not in the air, but horizontally in a coffin-sized chamber filled with blue gelatinous fluid. You do not remember what this is. You do not remember why you are here. You do not remember who you are.

Step Fletcher, his pregnant wife DeAnne, and their three children move to Steuben, North Carolina, with high hopes. But Step's new job with a software company turns out to be a snake pit, and 8-year-old Stevie's school is worse. As Stevie retreats into himself, focusing more and more on a mysterious computer game and a growing troop of imaginary friends, the Fletchers' concern turns to terror.

I wasn't supposed to be here. I was supposed to be marrying my fiancé, looking forward to a tropical honeymoon. Instead, I found myself on a ferry headed for historic Balfour Manor on Blackridge Island, in the Pacific Northwest. Now I'm stranded, with a woman I'm irresistibly drawn to. Rayne holds secrets as dark and mysterious as her old house. Crimson shadows stalk the halls and strange voices call out in the night—but it's she who haunts me most.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden has had a rough couple of weeks. As the only openly practicing professional wizard in the Chicago area, he has squared off against a multitude of supernatural bad guys. Harry has won the day against demons, poltergeists, sorcerers, trolls, vampires, werewolves, and even an evil faerie godmother. You might think nothing could spook him. You would be wrong.

Ambitious college student Daniel Walker has his world turned upside down when he begins having prophetic dreams about the judgment coming upon America. Through one of his dreams, Daniel learns of an imminent threat of an EMP attack that will wipe out America's electric grid and all computerized devices, sending the country into a technological dark age. Living in a nation where all life-sustaining systems of support are completely dependent on electricity and computers, the odds for survival are dismal.

Joseph Bridgeman is now an official member of the Continuum, a group of time travelers that heal the past to protect the future. When a rare focus object is stolen and put up for sale, Joe jumps at the chance to retrieve it, but a simple auction turns into a dangerous new mission that takes him farther back in time than he’s ever been before. Alone and unprepared in ancient China, Joe must not only complete the mission, but also unravel the mystery of a secretive organization known as Extempero.

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born". An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy - abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued, and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape - but he can’t stop society’s collapse.

Likable antiques dealer Joseph Bridgeman is back in the present and dreaming of a quiet life. But when a mysterious and enigmatic time traveler arrives in his shop, Joe learns that his first trip was just the beginning and this time, the rules of the game have changed. Blackmailed into accepting a new mission, Joe is flung back to 1960s London where he comes face-to-face with a ruthless gangster and witnesses the brutal murder of an innocent woman. Joe knows better than most that death can be reversed and the final chapter is sometimes where the story actually begins.