Showing results by publisher "WordFire Press LLC" in Literature & Fiction

Tales of Dune collects eight of Herbert and Anderson’s Dune short stories, ranging from the period of the Butlerian Jihad to the time of young Paul Atreides to a story set during the events of the novel Dune to the very end of Frank Herbert’s future history.

Sometimes you go to the movies. And sometimes, the movies—and their monsters—come to you. At any moment, without notice, monsters once relegated to the screen become a reality. Aliens and demons, dragons and ghosts, werewolves, vampires, zombies, and seemingly ordinary people who are just plain evil.

Join former scamp Cullin and his merry band of confidence men (and one liberated princess) as they put The Sting in the Middle Ages. With dreams of being a hero, or at least a storyteller, Cullin travels with Sir Dalbry, a washed-up knight in shining armor; Reeger, ready and eager for any part of the dirty work; and Affonyl, former princess, who wanted to study science and alchemy, rather than embroidery.

’Tis the Season for 14 more magical, macabre and merry tales to make your holidays … Fantastic! Gingerbread houses, caroling carolers, brightly trimmed trees, big family dinners, pristine snowfalls … the familiar pleasures of the season. But what better pleasure is there than a good holiday story? So open this winter solstice sampler and indulge in funny festive fantasies, nightmares before Christmas, and stunning space-age celebrations … these stories will warms hearts and minds like a blazing Yule log.

Life is full of decision points - those key moments when what we decide can change everything for better or for worse. These 20 tales describe such instances in young people's lives, ranging from tragic to triumphant, from horror to fantasy to science fiction. Written by authors new and old, those known for Young Adult writing and those known for Adult novels, a few new and barely known at all, these stories will make you think, make you laugh, make you feel angry, sad, determined, etc. as you examine choices and consequences.

In the late 1930s something fell from the sky and landed in an area of the Atlantic not yet known as the Bermuda Triangle. After that event, part of the world irrevocably changed...and the mysteries began. Something else would change as well - seemingly ordinary men and women on both sides of the Allied/Axis war suddenly began to manifest uncanny powers. Super powers. The advent of the age of metahumans had begun. And hidden in the heart of the ocean, the masterminds sat back to watch.

In his undead quest for justice, Felix Gomez - detective vampire extraordinaire - has traveled from dusty desert battlefields, to gritty urban barrios, to the deepest corners of outer space. Now he's about to embark on his wildest adventure yet: back to an alternative past of steam-powered technology, telepathic magic, and intrigue more deadly and unforgiving than any he has ever encountered. There, he's a renowned pistolero hired to find the missing daughter of notorious Chinese gangster Wu-Fei.

Trade Minister Rlinda Kett seeks to reestablish contact with lost human colonies that have vanished in the chaos, and she travels to a planet called Happiness, site of an isolated neo-Amish colony where the treacherous Prince Daniel was exiled. As a civil war brews among the Roamer clans over the old ways versus new business methods, some brave clans venture back to skymining again, harvesting the restless clouds of huge gas giant planets - where the threat of the devastating hydrogue aliens always looms....

In these nine stories of determination, seemingly ordinary people find themselves in extraordinary circumstances as they confront their fears and embrace their challenges on a near-future Earth, in an alternate-history past, or even on a far, distant alien world.

The band is eating at a cheap diner with the local club manager, making arrangements for the evening's gig, when they are attacked by a swarm of flying snakes. Adrian, the organ player and wizard, is bitten. Before he puts himself into a magical coma, face turning purple, he warns his band mates that they only have three hours to save him. Can the band find a cure before Adrian's time is up? Why is the town's preacher obsessed with the ancient Israelite serpent icon, the Nehushtan? And can the band get out of town before the snake god Apep arrives? 

When your secret identity is revealed.... When the monster is unleashed.... When the superhero’s child has no power.... When Death himself is caught unawares.... Pull back the mask to reveal 21 tales from seasoned and award-winning authors, of magical masks, gas masks, death masks, superheroes, secret identities, disguised robots, alien symbionts, a Napoleonic thief, a swindling demon - even a hidden clown.

Two award-winning writers take us on an alternate-history adventure - a 1940s barnstorming baseball team, led by retired baseball player and spy Moe Berg, is transported from rural Illinois to Ancient Rome, just after the death of Emperor Septimius Severus.

In a universe where corporate scions hold aristocratic titles and wield absolute power, a young princess embarks on a mission of mercy to find a new home for the refugees created by her father’s many wars. To her dismay, an invitation to an isolated planetoid that could serve as the perfect home for the poor exiles turns out to be a ploy by the infamous Baron Von Schmidt to add yet another outrage to his repertoire.

Bass player Mike Archuleta is down on his luck in a major way. The shattered survivor of a misspent youth, he is haunted by the ghost of his dead brother, and is now driven to planning his suicide. Halfway through the show that's supposed to be his last, a hellhound bursts into the club and attacks the band. The band members pull out karate moves, guns, and even a sword...and then things start to get strange. 

In That Summer, Allen Drury turns from the world of international politics to the private politics of Greenmont, an exclusive vacation colony high in the California Sierras where an intense love story is played out against tribal country-club mores and tragic social pressures. Greenmont is a millionaire’s hideaway, an encampment for the privileged few, but dangerous currents run beneath its affluent exterior. Major Bill Steele arrives there as an outsider, lonely and shaken after a painful and humiliating divorce. But the people of Greenmont have their own plans for him.

These 16 stories, ranging from flash fiction to novella length, extend from the far corners of space to the edge of time and back to cutting-edge explorations inspired by today’s headlines. Hear about clones and combat cyborgs, nanotechnology experiments and giant robots, super-sentient lab rats and immortal dogs, alien magicians and altered time lines.

In an alternate world where real magic exists, its practitioners are hunted down by police officers called M-forcers. But some groups are fighting back! Callum McGuire is a new M-forcer who once worked the quiet streets of London. As an orphan, Callum has been brought up to believe that all magic is evil, but the more he sees of The M-forcers’ cruel methods (implemented by General Nero Stark, and his second-in-command Sherman Pryce), the more he begins to question whether or not they are right.

Planet Pleasure. The one place in the galaxy you seriously want to avoid, but it’s the next stop for Felix Gomez, detective-vampire and undead enforcer. His mission: rescue the bodacious vampiress, the hyper-sexual Carmen Arellano, from the clutches of ruthless warrior aliens. Her captors have doomed themselves by honing their military prowess at the expense of their libido, and Carmen is their last chance in regaining their mojo before they die out.

Bram Gold is a Courser, a hunter-for-hire who deals with supernatural creatures, mystical happenings, and things that go booga-booga in the night in the Bronx, New York. The Bronx is the home to several immortals, who are notoriously hard to kill - so it comes as rather a surprise when one of them turns up murdered, seemingly by a vampire. In addition, binding spells all across town are either coming undone, failing to work, or are difficult to restore.

From fighting giant bugs to defeating an interstellar empire without firing a shot; from scientific idiot savants toying with the universe to how the robots will really win the robot apocalypse, these 13 flavorful tales are guaranteed to entertain, amuse, awe, and maybe even enlighten.