Metaphysical Science

Sam Sharp faces the end of all he knows and loves on his adopted world of Gythe. Ayim Rasaad, mage and expert fighter, along with her army of humans and mutated creatures, searches for three items of power. If she collects them, she will be unstoppable in her plot to conquer the world. With only the smallest seed of a plan and not nearly enough information to act with certainty, Sam and his allies must foil Rasaad's campaign or watch as Gythe is plunged into the darkness of her tyrannical rule.

In a world where unemployment is obliterated by putting all jobless people in the military to maintain the endless ongoing warfare, Warrant Officer Viveka Vanachek finds herself in a weirder place yet. Captured, raped, and interrogated she is finally exiled to a remote snow-bound prison camp where she is placed in solitary confinement. It seems like the end of the world when she also becomes too sick to eat, and starts seeing ghosts and hearing mysterious chanting within the noises of the camp.

If techno-shaman Olivia Lawson thinks a trip to the Hopi mesas is the escape she needs, she is gravely mistaken. Abducted from her tour, Livvy quickly discovers that all is not as it seems in the quiet villages. Formidable shamans draw her into a bitter and centuries-old conflict. While Livvy struggles to do what's right, she can't help but pursue an unexpected chance to be with the man she loves.

It is the 24th century, and Earth has outlawed all religion following a devastating war fueled by zealotry on all sides. Rogue starship captain Maggie Sullivan defies authorities and embarks upon a dangerous mission in search of a rumored incarnation of Christ on a far-off planet. Her band of unlikely rebels includes a Nobel Prize-winning professor of anti-religious studies, his entourage, and a feisty, genetically-enhanced parrot who thinks she's the iconic singer Janis Joplin.

The dying embers of book one are rekindled when the Astraeans are forced to step back and reconsider all they have ever assumed about the multiverse. Their purpose is not only called into question but threatened. When this leads to the strength of relationships being tested, some falter while others are intensified. Never before have the Astraeans been challenged to such a degree in relevance, technology, or alliances.

One Christmas, Darla was given a mystical gift, along with an ominous message. Years later, meeting Chris puts her head in a spin. Could it be that gift from long ago holds the key to their happiness?

Big bugs, cloned cats, and feral star-children play leading roles in the seven stories that make up Fast’s unconventional and thought-provoking collection. The Edge of Tomorrow is a significant foray into science fiction by one of the 20th century’s most prolific novelists. In looking beyond our universe, Fast reveals much about the America of his time - where the Cold War and a nascent civil rights movement stoked unconscious fears and desires.

In the heartland of the ancient Maya, techno-shaman Olivia Lawson isn't just an oddity, she's an outcast. Despite having trekked through the jungle to find shamans thought to be extinct, Livvy finds the ultra-clandestine group not just closed but downright hostile. To her surprise though, their interest in SK borders on obsession.

In a time when prisons no longer contain inmates behind concrete and steel, the convicted serve their time while asleep, rehabilitating in virtual reality while blissfully unaware of their crimes. Roger Parker is a professional prison breaker, skilled at navigating these strange penal dream worlds and extracting those imprisoned there - for a price. Parker wants out of the game, but a powerful senator, desperate to save his son, convinces Parker to pull one last job.

An overwhelming alien invasion has broken Earth's last human encampment. The few ragged survivors flee into the mountains. But the strange aliens have a horrible secret: they can see the thought-trails the humans leave behind. And now the aliens follow these same trails into the mountainside forest to hunt - and feed - on their human prey. This story is about one alien tracker, thirsty for human thoughts, chasing one man.

Booklist calls the world of Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear’s spellbinding Jacob’s Ladder series “magnificently populated, well worth visiting.” Here the trilogy that began with Dust and Chill draws to its stunning conclusion. The passengers of the generation spaceship Jacob’s Ladder have found a new home at last. But the planet Grail is already inhabited - and its population of genetically engineered humans has no intention of sharing the world.

Montaro Caine, CEO of the Fitzer Corporation, is losing control of the company he built just as his teenage daughter is experiencing her own difficulties. At this moment of crisis, a man and woman appear at his office with a coin of unknown provenance, composed of a metal unknown on Earth. Montaro immediately recognizes it as the companion of a coin he analyzed as a graduate student working in a lab at MIT, which was later returned to its unidentified owner. The coin's appearance draws the attention of scientists, collectors, financiers, and thieves, all of whom vie to get their hands on it....

A fairly simple and submissive young man of the future is suddenly faced with losing the love of his life. Within moments, however, an extreme event makes him aware of the fact that he's had past lives and gains access to all of their knowledge and abilities. Will he be able to use this new knowledge and power to save his love? Are there others like him? If so, how are they using their gifts?

Even for a techno-shaman, a kachina in the bedroom isn't exactly part of the drill. When Olivia Lawson wakes to find one towering over her, she panics. A Hopi god visiting the real world isn't just wrong - it's impossible. Or is it? Soon Olivia learns that the kachina is the least of her worries. As she struggles to save her clients, clashes with other shamans, and fends off the attacks of real-world vigilantes, Olivia finds herself in the destructive path of a malevolent ancient force intent on leaving the spiritual realm to conquer this one.

For Jacqueline, a second date is as rare as a unicorn. She's beautiful. She's intelligent. So why is she experiencing a string of first dates that leaves her ducking behind bushes and running for buses? Contrary to her nature, trading in her heels and curling iron for an easy chair surrounded by cats sounds appealing. Is she cursed, or can she find the man who will steal her heart?

Nola and Tina are both girls with problems. They don't know each other yet, but they will, because each is a Creator, with the magical ability to turn dreams into reality. It would be a great gift and a great power - if either knew she had it. But this world is hard on dreamers, whether they dream true or not.

Genesis is the thrilling conclusion to the epic urban fantasy trilogy, The Legend of Glory. Eighteen-year-old Glory Templeton has returned from a time travel event pregnant with a child named Genesis whose DNA is predicted to save the world from genocide. However, evil forces of both natural and supernatural origins want Glory's baby. Meanwhile, Genesis' father, Zane, struggles to find his way back to Glory after nearly two centuries of living in darkness.

Krygelski writes a compelling and startling story centered on the mysterious arrival of a man who claims to be the Creator. Clearly not a mortal, Elohim - as the stranger prefers to be known - astounds those he meets with unexplainable miracles and reality-altering answers. All of this is but a prelude to his announcement that he has come to do something...something which will affect every person on Earth...something which will occur in five days.

Julian Michelson is a firefighter in a small town in Alabama. He's been struggling for years to prove to himself that Word Speakers, people who can pull characters from books, exist. Why? Because he's supposed to be one and he's failed every step of the way and a war is supposedly coming. Serena, a princess in fictional medieval Britain, is the epitome of a good girl. She lives to appease her father and her country. That is, until she felt a strange voice in her head before waking up and seeing a handsome man through the flames of a fire in a strange world.

Thirty-three years' worth of secrets fall on the shoulders of Ciaran and Madeline with a force that even their enduring love for each other might not help them survive. How much will they give, take, and sacrifice for each other and for those they love?