Adventure Fantasy Fiction

On humanity's first extra-solar mission, the exploration vessel Magellan, or, as she prefers, "Maggie", discovers an alien artifact. Deciding that finding advanced alien life is too important to ignore, Captain Allison Ridgeway chooses to return to Earth while ordering her crew to reverse engineer technology far beyond anything back home. Meanwhile, at mission control, the governments struggle to maintain the existence of aliens a secret while also combating bureaucracy, the military industrial complex, and everyone else who wants a piece of what could skyrocket humanity into a new technological age.

Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross is renowned for his cutting-edge science fiction. This third entry in his “edgy … spoof of Cold War spy thrillers” ( Booklist) finds covert agent Bob Howard learning about a top-secret dossier that vanishes with his boss. Determined to discover the contents of this memorandum, Howard runs afoul of Russian spies, ancient demons, and apostles of a hideous cult planning to raise the Eater of Souls from the undead.

The 200 years' (and counting) peace was a time of tranquility that hasn't been seen since...well, ever. Mankind in the Galactic Age had finally conquered war, so what was left for the military to do but drink and barbecue? That's the kind of military that Sergeant R. Wilson Rogers lived in before he left the fleet to become a smuggler. But it turns out that smuggling is hard. Like getting-arrested-for-dealing-with-pirates-and-forced-back-into-service kind of hard.

Rus, a fearless runner by day and racer by night, stands at the brink of eviction, with his family's home hanging in the balance. After a catastrophic accident, he's faced with a life-changing choice: undergo experimental modifications and be forever indebted to the ominous M-Corp or be left to perish. As Rus grapples with his new reality, Pim's journey of hope and despair intertwines with Shay, a ten-year-old scavenger, revealing the harshest aspects of city life.

Into Darkness is the fifth episode in Terry Goodkind's new serial novel, The Children of D'Hara. Told in irresistibly intense installments, this is the story of a world confronted by an apocalyptic nightmare. The insatiable hunger of Golden Goddess.... The irresistible power of a Witch's Oath.... A fracture in the world of life.... An opening in the world of death.... Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell face the perfect storm.

It has been 10 years since the magical Cataclysm which destroyed the twin strongholds of the two world's most powerful Mages, killing Urtho, creator of the gryphons, and sending his forces into exile. Now Urthro's peoples - human and non-human alike - live in a terraced city carved into the face of a gleaming white cliff on the edge of the Western Ocean. Secure...at least until the fleet of the mysterious Black Kings appears in their harbor, bringing envoys who inform the residents of White Gryphon that their newfound home is claimed by this powerful kingdom.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

Geary believed in the Alliance. Even when he uncovered overwhelming evidence that the highest echelons of the government and fleet command were involved in secret programs and prison camps, he believed it was worth saving. He believed his duty was to see that justice was served even though some factions feared that revealing the truth would cause the Alliance to crumble. But after narrowly surviving two assassination attempts when he brings evidence of the misdeeds to the capital star system, Geary realizes that some want to get rid of him.

United Nations Special Operations Command sent an elite expeditionary force of soldiers and pilots out on a simple recon mission, and somehow along the way they sparked an alien civil war. Now the not-at-all-merry band of pirates is in desperate trouble, again. Their stolen alien starship is falling apart, thousands of light years from home. The ancient alien AI they nicknamed Skippy is apparently dead, and even if they can by some miracle revive him, he might never be the same.

In the fourth installment of the Star-Crossed Series, we find Eden Matthews a prisoner in the very household she set out to destroy. She is without magic and engaged to the same boy who betrayed her and everyone she loves. With her wedding looming on the horizon, conditions for her people continue to worsen, and her goal of offering her kingdom freedom seems further away than ever. Her brother is free, however, and building a rebellion that hopes to rescue her.

On Ludus, life is often cheap. Nora's childhood hadn't given her many options. With nowhere else to go after losing her family, she joined an old friend in a street gang and found an unlikely home there. But unfortunately, tragedy is about to befall Nora. Grudges from the distant past and movements of shadowy organizations may take away everything she is familiar with and all that she holds dear...possibly even her life. Danger has never stopped her before, but survival may require escaping her old life and embarking on an insane, desperate journey.

Fighting her way through the dark underbelly of civilization, Juliet Bianchi has become a top-tier mercenary with a heart of gold and a killer smile. A shadowy, high-priced operative embedded with high-tech AI, she goes by the moniker "Lucky," and the life she once led as a metal scrapper seems eons behind her. Now, armed with her very own formidable monoblade and fresh ink warning all others not to mess with her lest they become very dead, she's taking a step away from business to handle something personal.

This Audible Original drama voyages across the seas on board the USS Abraham Lincoln in pursuit of a mysterious monster that has been terrifying unsuspecting ships, in an expedition to hunt this creature down before more people are injured or killed. Amongst the crew are Professor Pierre Aronnax, who wants to be the first person to identify the creature, believing it to be nothing more than an oversized Narwhal. He’s joined by Ned Land, a Canadian harpoonist, believed to be the best in the world.

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author G.A. Aiken is widely celebrated for her compelling Dragon Kin series. In The Dragon Who Loved Me, Rhona the Fearless, first daughter of a proud warrior family, resents that she’s not respected for her battle prowess by the male Northland dragons. But when one barbarian dragon becomes enamored with her, she begins to relish her influence over him.

Ellis Rogers is an ordinary man who is about to embark on an extraordinary journey. All his life he has played it safe and done the right thing. But when he is faced with a terminal illness, Ellis is willing to take an insane gamble. He's built a time machine in his garage, and if it works, he'll face a world that challenges his understanding of what it means to be human, what it takes to love, and the cost of paradise. Ellis could find more than a cure for his disease; he might find what everyone has been searching for since time has begun.

A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.

Captain Kate Fitzmaurice was born to sail. She has made a life of her own as a privateer and smuggler. Hired by the notorious Henry Wallace, spymaster for the queen of Freya, to find a young man who claims to be the true heir to the Freyan, she begins to believe that her ship has finally come in. But no fair wind lasts forever. Soon Kate's checkered past will catch up to her. It will take more than just quick wits and her considerable luck if she hopes to bring herself - and her crew - through intact.

The car crash was the last thing I remembered...then I woke up here. Where "here" was felt like an impossible nightmare. I died, but this wasn't what I'd expected to find when they said I'd meet my maker. The afterlife is just like a video game, except I didn't start in a noob world like everybody else. I started out on one of the most challenging dungeon worlds meant only for ancient souls who've been dead much longer than I have.... Welcome to Epoc.

Cast into a brutal military camp by his once loving master, Mateo feels like the last six wonderful years of his life have been a lie. With the mysteries surrounding him growing, Mateo knows that his only option is to become one of the supernaturally powerful Duelists and grow in power until he can take his fate into his own hands. That plan is thwarted from the beginning when he gets stuck with the lowest-ranked Root Card against his will, ensuring that his growth as a Duelist will always be excruciatingly slow.