System Fiction

Fie abides by one rule: Look after your own. Her Crow caste of undertakers and mercy-killers takes more abuse than coin, but when they’re called to collect royal dead, she’s hoping they’ll find the payout of a lifetime. When Crown Prince Jasimir turns out to have faked his death, Fie’s ready to cut her losses - and perhaps his throat. But he offers a wager that she can’t refuse: Protect him from a ruthless queen, and he’ll protect the Crows when he reigns.

When the System came to Earth, technology failed, monsters appeared, and billions died as humans were inducted into the game-like physics the System enforced. Unfortunately for the System, not all humans were on Earth. Some scattered postbiological individuals decided to push it back, and embarked on a decade-long crusade to eliminate the System from Earth.

In 2014, the ESA spacecraft Rosetta lands a small probe named Philae on 67P, a Jupiter-family comet. The lander goes radio-silent two years later. Suddenly, in 2026, scientists receive new transmissions from the comet. Motivated by findings that are initially sensational but soon turn frightening, NASA dispatches a crewed spacecraft to the comet. But as the ship approaches the mysterious celestial body, the connection to the astronauts soon breaks. Now it seems nothing can be done anymore to stop the looming dark danger that threatens Earth....

What do you do when you're given advance notice that your planet is about to be inducted into a System in thirty days? Strange arches show up all over the world, and no-one quite knows what's going on, although theories abound. Mike and his grandfather, Collin, try to investigate one of these arches. With the announcement that the training offered will take place on a planet already inducted into the System, Mike loses hope. Collin comes through, surprising Mike with a gold Krugerrand that will allow him to pass through the portal to train.

For Lori Straford, born into the lowest caste of citizens—the pleasure arts strata of their society—it is an inescapable fate that she can only hope to better by enlisting as a spa attendant and masseuse on one of the luxury world colonies under the purview of Darvel Exploration Corporation. When she is talked into working on one of their mining planets for a year with the promise of a hefty bonus and to be transferred to her choice planet after more non-gratas can be sent over, it is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University...and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center. Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce - the protagonist of Dear Martin - Quan's story takes form.

The System is here! Most of the population of the planet were suddenly turned into zombies, while the rest acquired new abilities. Abilities that let them run from the zombies, save themselves, hide, and try to survive. But it only takes one bite that almost always means death. Our hero was standing in line when the apocalypse came. He was lucky at first to be caught in a crowd when the zombies tried to bite him on the leg. Really lucky, because those trials unlocked new abilities for him.

Spreading into the wider System, Cato is confronted with the full scope of his crusade. Tens of thousands of worlds or more, beings capable of destroying planets, and even stricter limitations on technology if he doesn’t want to show is hand early.

The Ambulance Made Two Trips by Murray Leinster is a riveting blend of hard-boiled crime and speculative science fiction. When Detective Sergeant Fitzgerald investigates a crime wave tied to racketeer Big Jake Connors, he uncovers more than just thuggery—he finds reality bending around a mysterious psi unit. As violent plans backfire in bizarre ways, Fitzgerald teams up with the enigmatic Brink to confront corruption head-on.

Marc is all too aware that the end of the acclimatization year the System has provided to Earth is quickly drawing to a close and that others will be allowed onto the planet to start claiming areas shortly. Zeus has promised that his series of quests will get Marc, at least, to the maximum level reachable in that first year, but Marc is nervous that it isn't going to happen.

John wakes up in a familiar place, only to find a world that is different from what he knows. In order to protect those he loves, John must sift through his memories to ensure his previous ending doesn’t become true once more. He might have brought knowledge of the future back to the past, but this time, he finds his enemies much earlier. How will he tell Sarah, who does not remember the love they shared or the adventures they had, who he really is? Old debts are repaid, and new friends are made as he carves out a familiar path to the top.

Intended to create life from nothingness, the Genesis Wave had the potential to become a weapon of awe-inspiring destructiveness, capable of rearranging matter and life energy on a planetary scale. After cataclysmic close calls, Starfleet wisely decided to destroy all data and records on Project Genesis, hoping to bury its deadly secrets forever...but now it is back with a vengeance...Read by Tim Russ, Tuvok on Voyager!

Caleb Hanson assumed the most exciting part of his field trip scouting in Northern Minnesota would be a rare bird sighting. Instead, he was abducted by hive-minded hexapods and forced to be their children's teacher. Not the worst way to ride out the end of the world. Two years later, the apocalypse has finally come for Caleb. His savior-captors are murdered, leaving him as the last line of defense for the alien kids he's grown to know and love. Now, he'll have to bend his values or watch his students die.

The crew of the Enterprise find themselves plunged into the middle of a murderous civil war between a determined band of rebels and the planet's ruthless mind police - a civil war whose outcome will determine not only the future of the planet, but also the life of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Read by Jonathan Frankes and enhanced with sound effects and an original score!

Continuing the mission he began in Unification, Starfleet Ambassador Spock endeavors to impart the logic of the Vulcans to a small band of Romulans. But Spock and his students are taken hostage, and the Enterprise and Jean-Luc Picard are sent to secure the hostages' release. Read by Jonathan Frakes!

It's been 10 years since Handry was wrenched away from his family and friends, forced to wander a world he no longer understood. But with the help of the Ancients, he has cobbled together a life, of sorts, for himself and his fellow outcasts. Wandering from village to village, welcoming the folk that the townships abandon, fighting the monsters the villagers cannot - or dare not - his ever-growing band of misfits has become the stuff of legend, a story told by parents to keep unruly children in line.

The mysterious Overlords destroyed all electronics on Earth, imposed a game-like System, and unleashed ravenous horrors upon the planet. I’m Noah Clark, a streamer famous for my ability to beat co-op games while playing solo. The System doesn’t care if we live or die, but I was able to pick the hidden summoner class, so I’ve got access to game breaking mechanics that just might give me a chance.

Is our sun behaving differently from other stars? When an amateur astronomer discovers something strange on telescopic solar pictures, an explanation must be found. Is it merely artifact? Or has he found something totally unexpected? An expert international crew is hastily assembled, a spaceship is speedily repurposed, and the foursome is sent on the ride of their lives. What challenges will they face on this spur-of-the-moment mission to our central star?

Nick Abrahams still holds the official world record for the number of space launches, but he’s bored stiff with his job hosting space tours. Only when his wife leaves him, however, does he try to change his life. He accepts a tempting offer from a Russian billionaire. In exchange for making a simple repair on Neptune’s moon Triton, he will return to Earth a multi-millionaire, enabling him to achieve his ‘impossible dream’ of buying his own California vineyard.

The end of the world is always a nightmare. But when it comes with the System, then it's not a nightmare for everyone. Not everybody is ready to fall into despair and come to terms with their fate as zombie food. Some people are ready to keep fighting however they can. Take Kasp as an example of one of those people. The end of the world was no nightmare for him. In fact, when the zombies and the System showed up, it brought new meaning to his life along with exciting new adventures!