Fantasy Patrick

Sometimes the only way out is to fall further in…

As Earth's leaders gather to usher in a new era of interplanetary cooperation, a remarkable discovery in the skies above New Kerguelen threatens to destroy the peace on both worlds....

A civil war raging in the Des Moines River valley forces Ryan and his companions to take sides, or die. Because somewhere in the middle of the generations-old conflict is a lost redoubt. But Snake Eye, the deadliest gunslinger in Deathlands, stands between them and the way out. And the mutie contract chiller won't step aside until he has Ryan's head.

Captain Thomas Baldwin and the crew of Constantine have saved the Concord from the Assembly, and are tasked with bringing them to prison. With a stop at Earon, the human home planet, everyone gets a few days of well needed rest. When communication comes that the wormhole generator is ready, Constantine must return to the Statu system with a new fleet, alongside a brand-new flagship with a familiar AI. Constantine Baldwin was rumored to have ended the War 50 years ago, but its up to Thomas Baldwin to really finish the job.

As a boy, Arai Sunaomi was known as the Miracle Child and crossed between the worlds to walk among the dead. Now he has put aside his past to follow the way of the warrior. His aunt, Kaede, is considering making him her heir, and her General, Miyoshi Kahei, hopes to betroth Sunaomi to his daughter, Kinu. But there is one girl whom Sunaomi cannot forget - Utahime, who has been dead for seven years. Will he dare bring her back to life?

2069: Earth is dying, and society is on the brink of collapse. We are out of time to save the planet. All that’s left is to watch the world burn, but the apocalypse is about to take an unexpected twist. Alice Rice has discovered the impossible: a potentially habitable world in close proximity to Earth. The media is calling it Planet B.

Leo has explored the zany, wonderful Whippet Hotel from basement to top floor, with trains, flying goats, and mazes (among other things) in between. But even Leo doesn't know every secret of the Whippet and when he discovers that there's more beneath the hotel than he'd thought, it doesn't take long for more adventures to unfold!

When legends live, dragons die. Steven Drokharis is on an impossible quest to find the Holy Grail. The Dragonknights came close, but then their ranks were decimated by the mysterious Dragon Slayer, a legend that still fills Primes with terror. Standing in Steven’s way are ancient forces that have been waiting for the Lost Son and Merlin’s Daughter to continue the hunt. And yet, war has come to Steven’s doorstep, and he must balance defending what he’s earned with his greater ambition of bringing revolution to Dragonsouls everywhere.

"Vielleicht habt ihr von mir gehört" ...von Kvothe, dem für die Magie begabten Sohn fahrender Spielleute. Das Lager seiner Truppe findet er verwüstet, die Mutter und den Vater tot. Wer aber sind diese Chandrian, die weißglänzenden, schleichenden Mörder seiner Familie? Um ihnen auf die Spur zu kommen, riskiert Kvothe alles. Er lebt als Straßenjunge in der Hafenstadt Tarbean, bis er auf das Arkanum, die Universität für hohe Magie aufgenommen wird. Vom Namenszauber, der ihn als Kind fast das Leben gekostet hätte, erhofft sich Kvothe die Macht, das Geheimnis der sagenumwobenen Dämonen aufzudecken.

Unfortunately for him, the secrets of the giant machines appear to have been lost to antiquity. Still, he has to try. After returning from a lucrative contract, he secures a base of operation for his Cavaliers in the Karma system, then he sets off toward the galactic core. It’s something he feels he needs to do by himself, so he leaves his overprotective mentor Hargrave behind.

Staff Sergeant Markus ‘Spartan’ Nicolos is one of the Intelligence Department’s best. A hacker who can beat any code, he’s in charge of communications intercepts for the Golden Horde’s Computer Operations section. Spartan used to be a frontline CASPer pilot - until he lost his entire squad in an ambush. He also lost his edge in the attack, and he swore he would never pilot a CASPer in combat again. Everything changed, though, when he came up with an idea for a new type of scout CASPer - one that would prevent what happened to him from ever happening again.

On a world scoured by demons, even dragons are prey. Gaia Alpha is safe under Steven’s rule. He’s secured his borders, made allies of the remaining Dragonsoul Primes, and retrieved Icharaam’s Gift, the fabled Holy Grail. But Steven’s war is bigger than one world. On Gaia Beta, the Battle World, Spider Finger, and the Zothoric are gathering, and if they find a path to Steven’s home, everything he’s fought to save will be swallowed in the Great Devouring. It’s time to take the fight to the shadows on a road trip between universes.

Edited by best-selling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, Tales from the Lyon’s Den includes 18 all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of best-selling authors - and some you may not have heard of...yet.

Steven Drokharis finally has his own Primacy, and he will stop at nothing to defend it. Luckily, Steven has a new Magician in his Escort, and she’s as beautiful as she is powerful. And yet, they are still on a journey of vengeance: his now dead enemy, Rhaegen Mulk, wasn’t working alone. At the same time, Mouse wants her own form of vengeance against the Prime who now rules the Rocky Mountains.

From Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, here are the best stories of 2002, written by four of the most respected writers of our day: Robert Silverberg, James Patrick Kelly, Ian Watson, and Gregory Benford. Also try The Best of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 2002.

The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....Michael Havel was flying over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers when the plane’s engines inexplicably died, forcing a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. And as Michael leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated incident.

I've spent most of my time on this alien planet alone in the wrecked human ship. Now that I'm living with the other girls and the barbarian warriors at the Cliffs of Uruzai, I'm finding it hard to adjust. These Sea Sand guys are just so... alien. They're nothing compared to the beast that comes stalking out of the shadows of the cliffs one night. He has a snout, claws, and a massive spiked tail. He's more monster than a man, and even worse than that, he claims he has a human mate. When his dark eyes settle on me, I know with a sinking feeling exactly who it is he's been looking for.

In the last few months, Alex and his family have survived a rampaging alien attack and a murderous plot on behalf of the hardened criminal Lucius Serrano. Throughout that turmoil, the colony of Vesta has seen the return of peaceful days, but peace is an increasingly fleeting idea, especially when two representatives from the Directorate of Interstellar Research arrive in Vesta.

Humanity has always looked to the heavens, curiosity urging them to take flight. After a failed mission to go beyond the borders of Earth’s solar system, a new fleet has been built ready to tackle any threat they may discover. But sometimes danger seeks out victims, and just as they are preparing to depart, two ships arrive on the edge of their space. Unsure if these invaders are friendly or hostile, the Behemoth, the flagship of the fleet and only real military vessel, prepares for battle.

When one man is brutally murdered and the priest he works for mortally wounded, Willet Dura, reeve to the king of Bunard, is called to investigate. As he begins to question the dying priest, the man pulls Willet close and screams in a foreign tongue. Then he dies without another word. Willet returns to his task, but the clues to the crime lead to contradictions and questions without answers, and his senses are skewed.

Thirteen incredible authors. Thirteen stories about the Depik - what they were and where their society goes from here!