Apocalyptic Fantasy

Hugh Howey is known for crafting riveting and immersive tales of boundless imagination. Now comes Machine Learning, an impressive collection of Howey's science fiction and fantasy short fiction, including three stories set in the world of Wool, two never-before-published tales written exclusively for this volume, and 15 additional stories collected here for the first time. These stories explore everything from artificial intelligence to parallel universes to video games, and each story is accompanied by an author's note.

Three years have passed since the Jamaicans caused the apocalypse, and things in post-Armageddon Chicago have settled into a new kind of normal. Unfortunately, that "normal" includes collapsing skyscrapers, bands of bloodthirsty maniacs, and a dwindling cache of survival supplies. After watching his family, friends, and most of the non-sadistic elements of society crumble around him, Patrick decides it's time to cross one last item off his bucket list. He's going to Disney World.

The infection has begun, ravaging the American Southwest and leaving chaos in its wake. In this new world, there will be no last meal, no dying wish. The only reward left is to survive another day...The complete Contamination series - all in this one, special edition.

The world watches the sky with trepidation. The insanity of Xenocide knew no bounds, and all will soon suffer the effects he had planned for a millennium. Though none know what is to come, they all know it isn't going to be easy to survive. The Master has a plan, one that can give the world at large a way to escape the onrushing desolation. It may be on the bleeding edge of morality and what he needs might prove too difficult to secure, but the Master asks for trust. Cal and Dale both have their role to play as the world hurtles toward destruction.

Almost 3,000 years after an extinction-level event on Earth, mankind seeks to regain its former glory in a new world where magic and technology collide. Laney and Celeste, Templars of Sparo, embark upon a mission of mercy to a far-off land to aid a people thought lost to time before the Altii even found the Lower Ten. The Westlands are found along with a new enemy that Sparo may not be able to stand against: Avalon. Can this new threat be the Great Wizards of the Before Times? New alliances will be forged, and hearts will be held and broken as Laney faces her biggest challenge yet.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon, they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

Cee awoke on an abandoned island three years ago. With no idea of how she was marooned, she only has a rickety house, an old android, and a single memory: She has a sister, and Cee needs to find her. STEM prodigy Kasey wants escape from the science and home she once trusted. The Metropolis - Earth's last unpolluted place - is meant to be sanctuary for those committed to planetary protection, but it's populated by people willing to do anything for refuge. Now, she'll have to decide if she's ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered most.

In a night of devastating terror, ISIS operatives have unleashed a coordinated attack on America's infrastructure. With thousands of trapped travelers and scarce law enforcement, the miles between Jim Powell and his family become a brutal gauntlet where the rules of civilized society no longer apply. As Jim puts his years of preparation and planning to the test, he is forced to ask himself if he has what it takes to make it home. Does he have the strength - the brutality - required to meet this new world toe-to-toe?

Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.

River issues a 24-hour evacuation notice for Athens, but Emmett Brown is 12 hours away at the Long Lake Camp when the text comes in. While preparing for the long ride home, Emmett is interrupted by the arrival of his old mentor, One - a New Texas Knight and former Navy SEAL. But with the Knights implicated in River’s disappearance, Emmett has to determine whether One is an old friend or a new enemy.

The battle for Panama is over, and King Xavier Rodriguez secretly deploys the airship Vanguard to Queensland. The hunt for the Coral Castle is on. The rest of the fleet returns to the Vanguard Islands with new ships and supplies, but tensions rise with rumors of a hidden food cache. When two sky people are murdered, Chief Michael Everhart knows the stage is set for mutiny. And with King Xavier off in search of the Coral Castle, he feels the target on his back.

Before the lights went out, Jack Warrant never considered himself a prepper. That was someone on the edge, a conspiracy theorist or a doomsday cultist who had a fatalistic view of the world. He was neither a theorist nor a cultist. He was an optimist. At least that was what he told himself when the darker thoughts creeped into his psyche as he stared at the ceiling in the middle of the night. Whenever he started down the rabbit hole, he always clawed his way back into the sunlight.

Un demi-siècle après l'Ultime Bataille, l'équilibre précaire dû à la dissuasion de la forêt sombre continue de maintenir les envahisseurs trisolariens à distance. La Terre jouit d'une prospérité sans précédent grâce au transfert des connaissances et des technologies trisolariennes. La science humaine connaît des progrès remarquables, les Trisolariens découvrent avec fascination la culture humaine et l'espoir grandit que les deux civilisations puissent bientôt coexister pacifiquement sans la terrible menace d'une annihilation réciproque.

Troias Drakos awakens to find that the world he knew is gone. Most of Earth's life was killed in a single instant, and those that survived have been granted powers and abilities that seem almost magical. Unfortunately, this world is filled with terrors and monsters that are equally powerful or far more so. Only by uniting and learning to use their new abilities will humanity survive. Troias has been given a unique set of powers. He must learn to master these and become a true Spirit Warrior. Will even his great abilities be enough to survive the Quantum Shift?

When the world blew out in 2001, the secrets locked in its darkest corridors became the answer to humanity's survival. Now, more than two centuries later, a mysterious Imperator prepares to seize his birthright from the nine hybrid barons fighting each other for domination of the planet. All that stands between freedom and extinction is a renegade force of exiles who are prepared to challenge the ancient warring entities thrusting mankind into a horrifying future....

Rex Walker always wanted to be like his father: a daring, adventurous man, traveling the world in pursuit of mysterious relics. While teaching anthropology at a Boston college, Rex attempts to bury the past, until he discovers a hidden clue he can’t ignore. With the help of a former student, he teams up with an alien-obsessed billionaire, and they search for the fabled Bridge. As an unidentified object nears Pluto, speculation surges. Some hail it as the homecoming of a distant alien race, and this cult is unwavering in their efforts to usher our world into a new era.

Freeman is a genius with an uncommon mixture of memory, intelligence and creativity. He lives in a worldwide utopia, but it was not always so. There was a time known as the Grind—when Freeman’s people lived as slaves to another race referred to simply as “Master.” They were property. But a civil rights movement emerged. Change seemed near, but the Masters refused to bend. Instead, they declared war. And lost. Now, the freed world is threatened by a virus, spread through bites, sweeping through the population.

The world of man was brought to its knees with the zombie apocalypse. A hundred and fifty years have passed since man clawed and climbed his way back from the brink of extinction. Civilization has rebooted, man has begun to rebuild, creating new communities and society. It is on this fragile new shaky ground that a threat worse than the scourge of the dead has sprung... Once again, one man finds himself once thrust into the forefront of a war he wants nothing to do with and seemingly cannot win.

Deep in the mountains of West Virginia, Conor and his team are sheltering at the Banks Compound, desperate for some way to regain the momentum that billionaire Walter Lightspeed brought to the country. They’d been so close to recovery and now salvation slipped further away with each passing moment. Desperate for a ray of hope amidst their grim reality, the team launches a mission to find someone who might be able to bring new energy to the national recovery effort. Someone America knows and respects. Someone who clawed their way up from poverty to build an empire. Someone plainspoken and unquestionably patriotic.

The zombie outbreak is affecting more than just the Evans Family. Book 2 dives into not just what is happening to Mike and his family but begins to fall further into the zombies on the block, or better said, those that are not yet zombies. The heart-pounding action continues as does the humor and sarcasm. Who will survive? Who will perish? What obstacles will they need to overcome? Find out in Zombies on the Block: There Goes the Neighborhood.