Epic War

Here is Old Man's War author John Scalzi's sendup of the heroic fantasy genre, now a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Aric Athair is dead. But the fight for the Bullet Seas is far from over. Caledonia's nemesis, Lir - the one responsible for getting her parents killed and for turning her brother into a Bullet - has seized control of the warlord's army. Caledonia and her crew have fled to Cloudbreak to prepare for an all-out war. And they are not the only ones. Defecting soldiers begin to show up in droves to join their fight. But just as it seems like the tides might be turning, a surprise attack decimates the growing rebellion.

Out of the ashes, the Grandmasters of the Universe created a world of dragons and faerie creatures. A drive for world dominance spurred on by competing dragons produced a rift, splitting one world into two. The battle raged on through millennia and until it died out; became nothing more than a myth. As the inhabitants went on with their lives, a power-hungry fire dragon surreptitiously violated the rules of war and slowly extirpated societies in search of the forgotten egg.

Kyroo is a vast world which many species call home. A mysterious curse rapidly sprawls forth every night as the twin moons vanish behind a curtain of eternal darkness. The unknown magic is raising demons from the depths of the planet that are praying on the unsuspecting. The Kyroo Kingdom is struggling to understand what has transpired as maps, texts, and many memories are now blank.

The mission is simple: lie low until the time to reveal themselves comes. But when a quick trip for a hot meal leads into the heart of unexpected danger, Grey Cloak and Dyphestive must suffer severe consequences. Talon undertakes a treacherous journey into the bowels of the Nether Realm to find the Flaming Fence and recover the Dragon Helm. But there is a betrayer among them. One slip, and the last hope to defeat Black Frost will be lost forever.

Three strangers chosen by the gods. A castle-servant who can bend fire and light to his will. A musician whose song can soothe even the wildest of hearts. And a nobleman with the gods' own luck. Three strangers gifted with powers beyond that of normal mortals stand against the armies of shadow. But there are other gods, other powers lurking in the darkness, and they, too, will find their champions. Hunted by mortal and immortal enemies alike, Alesh and his companions flee south to the Ferinan lands.

Alyss of Wonderland's rule has only just begun, and already those who prefer chaos to peace are threatening to destroy everything worth imagining. Trailed by newly appointed royal bodyguard Homburg Molly, Alyss is doing her best to keep pace with the nonstop demands of being queen while attempting to evade Molly for a few private moments with Dodge.

The actual war has come, and the enemy is without number! Hayden and the others must find a way to stop the warlord as the realm of Altar is facing its final moments. The heroes must deal with the horrors of the demon world and Little Flowers ever-growing powers. Mara finds out a hard truth about the City of Night, while Hayden begins to withdraw from the others including Na’Resse. The realm stands upon a cusp, will the heroes make the hard choices needed to save it and themselves? Will a new age dawn?

A journey into peril.Cyrsania, high priestess of the Temple of Paladine, is blind to the beauty of the world but not to the joy of her faith. Lately, though, her communion with the god of light has become distant. Now a mysterious stone has come into her possession. Its power compels her to undertake a merilous quest, accompanied by a strange band of companions.Together they endure the burning heat of Kyrnn's most violet summer as they struggle toward their destination: the Temple at Neraka.

Renowned as FDR's favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. But the men of the Houston fought back with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, willpower, and the undying faith that their country would prevail.

Una terra devastata da tempeste e predatori. Un'alleanza impossibile tra due acerrimi nemici. Una guerra che ha inizio tra un battito del cuore e l'altro. Talasyn è stata abbandonata da piccola sulla soglia di un orfanotrofio sardoviano. Nella vita non ha conosciuto altro se non le Guerre degli Uragani e la lotta disperata del popolo che l'ha cresciuta per liberarsi dalla tirannia di Gaheris, imperatore della Notte.

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.

Blaine "Mick" McFadden managed to restore Donderath's magic partially, but not without a cost. He and the magic are now bound together, and the power remains dangerous and erratic - draining the life from him with every use. New threats are rising from the wreckage of the battered kingdoms, and warlords both mortal and undead vie for control.

When bon vivant Italian opera star turned pilot Pietro is shot down during WWII, he nearly loses his life. Worse, he's lost his passion for music and is close to losing his sanity in a soul-crushing prisoner-of-war camp in South Africa when he meets Iris. He has a vision of love worth dying for - worth living for - and realizes he must find his voice if he ever hopes to find her again.

Every war has its "bridge" - Old North Bridge at Concord, Burnside's Bridge at Antietam, the railway bridge over Burma's River Kwai, the bridge over Germany's Rhine River at Remagen, and the bridges over Korea's Toko Ri. In Vietnam it was the bridge at Thanh Hoa, called Dragon's Jaw. For seven long years hundreds of young US airmen flew sortie after sortie against North Vietnam's formidable and strategically important bridge, dodging a heavy concentration of anti-aircraft fire and enemy MiG planes. Many American airmen were shot down, killed, or captured....

In this strange, new world deep among the shadows under a triple-canopy jungle and plagued by dangers real and imagined, soldiers strive to fulfill a mission they don’t understand and are ill-equipped to carry out. And high above them, the heavy rush of wings slashing through the humid air herald a coming wave of death and destruction, and just possibly, salvation.

You will discover how some of these heroes pulled off the impossible, accomplished more than entire squadrons could manage, and others who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

In May 1940 British and Allied troops on mainland Europe were in a perilous situation: cut off and surrounded, at the conclusion of the bloody Battle of France they faced complete annihilation. It would be a devastating blow, handing Europe to the Nazis. But over a few frantic days, the greatest evacuation in history managed to salvage hope, saving the total destruction of the army and hundreds of thousands of soldiers lives. It was a pivotal and defining moment in the war, one Churchill described as a "miracle" in his "we shall fight them on the beaches" speech.

Sprawling across the Pacific, this untold story follows the crew of the newly-built "vengeance ship" USS Astoria, named for her sunken predecessor lost earlier in the war. At its center lies US Navy Captain George Dyer, who vowed to return to action after suffering a horrific wound. He accepted the ship's command in 1944, knowing it would be his last chance to avenge his injuries and salvage his career. Yet with the nation's resources and personnel stretched thin by the war, he found that just getting the ship into action would prove to be a battle.

On the night of the new moon, the demons rise in force, seeking the deaths of two men both of whom have the potential to become the fabled Deliverer, the man prophesied to reunite the scattered remnants of humanity in a final push to destroy the demon corelings once and for all. Arlen Bales was once an ordinary man, but now he has become something more - the Warded Man, tattooed with eldritch wards so powerful they make him a match for any demon. Arlen denies he is the Deliverer at every turn, but the more he tries to be one with the common folk, the more fervently they believe.