Science Thriller

Out of prison and back on the streets, Daniel Faust returns home to a city on fire. The Chicago mob is making their play for control of Las Vegas, with an army of gunmen and a lethal shapeshifter on their side, while Daniel's friend Jennifer marshals the forces of the Vegas underworld. Staying on the sidelines isn't an option, especially when a Metro detective orders him to get the war under control - and if he can't, he'll expose Daniel's secrets to the FBI.

As the United States unravels, the town of Fall Creek, Michigan struggles to survive. Hannah and Liam have endured the brutal winter and ruthless adversaries, but the threat has never been greater. Enemies from within have wrested control of the town — including what little remains of the food. Isolated, overpowered, and on the verge of starvation, the townspeople are faced with a desperate choice.

This vampire messed with the wrong girl. I used to call myself a witch, shifter, and vampire slayer. Now I'm none of those things. I thought I was doing the right thing by killing Valkas, the original vampire and eye of the storm. But I played right into Matias Vayne's hands. His magic is back, but he's taken the rest of ours in his plot to gain power and "purify" the world. Innocent lives are on the line. I'll do anything to save them and restore our magic, but first I must face the most powerful man alive without any power of my own.

It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe, eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty, is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit. Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick’s calling card.

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

When an EMP cripples the nation, Charlie is one of the few prepared to survive. What would you risk to save your family? Former United States Department of Defense contractor Charlie Owens resigned from his position with the government to live a life off-grid. After building a cabin on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, the detonation of an EMP sets into motion a series of events that will test Charlie and his family in ways he never imagined.

After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace, and Fallon Swift has spent her young years learning its ways. Fallon cannot live in peace until she frees those who have been preyed upon by the government or the fanatical Purity Warriors, endlessly hunted or locked up in laboratories, brutalized for years on end. She is determined to save even those who have been complicit with this evil out of fear or weakness - if, indeed, they can be saved.

Dakota Sloane, a tough-as-nails former foster kid, has spent her life running from the past. A man haunted by secrets, Logan Garcia has only one goal: to drink himself into oblivion. They're two strangers in a bar—until the news reports nuclear detonations in New York City and Washington, D.C. Before they can escape Miami, everything explodes. Buildings collapse and fires rage. As the fallout descends, utter chaos erupts.

Danny Walker's survival retreat has been devastated by violence since the detonation of the EMP. A megalomaniacal warlord has stepped in to fill the vacuum of authority left by the utter collapse of society. Regent Schlusser's designs on absolute power have already brought him to Danny's doorstep once, leaving a trail of blood and heartbreak in his wake. Another conflict with the malicious dictator will spell certain death for the remaining members of the compound.

Three weeks after the nation's power grid goes down, chaos reigns. Food supplies have dried up. Fuel is running low. And the bleak, brutal winter is relentless. Fall Creek has forged a shaky peace, but the cost for safety proves higher than some are willing to pay. The town is a powder keg waiting to explode. For Hannah, home is finally within reach. But it won't be anything like she expected....

It’s an ordinary Monday. Until everything changes forever. At 2:44 PM, a mysterious crack appears in the sky. Anyone unfortunate enough to look up is immediately struck blind. What’s worse, their mind is wiped clean, replaced with a vicious urge to kill anyone within reach. Mark is at work when it happens. Fighting not to fall asleep, the boring department meeting suddenly turns into a bloodbath when people are drawn to the windows to look up at the sky.

Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of horrifying depravity. Assault, theft, sexual abuse, slavery, and murder are commonplace. And a zealous, bigoted tyrant has won his way into the White House. Directly opposed is Lauren Olamina, founder of Earthseed - a new faith that teaches "God Is Change". Persecuted for "heathen" beliefs as much as for having a Black female leader, Earthseed's followers face a life-and-death struggle to preserve their vision.

In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO.

After a scourge of griefer attacks and a change in headmasters, Minecrafters Academy is once again at peace, and Lucy is working hard to keep up in all her classes. Meanwhile, the school is gearing up for an end-of-the-year talent show where everyone will showcase their greatest skills, from master building and clever potion making to strategic fighting. But when a hoard of skeletons and hostile mobs attacks the campus one night, an all-too-familiar struggle begins.

Bacca has it all. The most celebrated (and furry) star in the Overworld, he's the person others look to for help building their dungeons, mazes, and castles. He has a girlfriend, LadyBacc, and his most prized possession of all - a diamond ax called Betty. One day Bacca is approached by a mysterious dragon...made entirely of diamonds! The dragon is from a new biome - a secret land few have ever seen - where a special object has been stolen.

The first story ever told left a scar on the skin of the universe, with its characters doomed to an endless cycle of reincarnation and death. Trapped by his enemies, Daniel Faust - magician, mobster, and newly-minted knight of hell - has been cast in the role of the eternal Thief. Now, the story is dead-set on writing his final chapter, the one that ends with a knife in his back. The curse can’t be broken without tracking down the original Thief. The truth is buried beneath the legacy of a long-dead stage magician and a cache of occult relics from the 1940s.

The Abyssal demigoddess, Xanos, has nearly destroyed the Overworld. During a recon mission of a Razor Echelon base, Justin and Elyssa uncover Xanos's new weapon...They learn that a woman might be the key to salvation...But first, they have to find this woman...So he and the gang start off on their most dangerous mission yet: traversing unknown realms with the faintest hope of finding the one woman who might save them all.

Justin and gang finally find a way back to Eden. But the world they find isn't the one they left. The people are gone. Zombie-like creatures roam the streets. And the grand ruler of this dystopia is a man named Vokan. How did Eden die? How did Vokan gain power over the ashes of civilization? None of the clues make sense and Vokan isn't giving straight answers. What started as a jubilant return home becomes a lethal quest to fight Vokan and save the world yet again. But Vokan is no pushover and his kind of magic is something Justin has never faced before.

An epic tale of evil and rescue, betrayal and love, and a terrorist threat unlike anything the human race has ever known.

Enter the void. Baal has assembled nearly all the major relics of Juranthemon. Once the final pieces are in place, the realms will collapse, killing billions and erasing countless others from existence. Even the afterlife may be wiped into oblivion. Only two or three relics remain, and the sword of Jura, Unmaker, is in the worst place imaginable - the Void. Thanks to the insane goddess, Eve, it's possible Baal already knows where Unmaker is, pitting Justin and gang in a race against time and the grand overlord of Haedaemos.