Monster Fiction

Dalton Wade, aka "The Cooler", is a mega superstar pro wrestler and KAW World Heavyweight Champion. One day his life takes an unexpected turn, and he finds himself transported to a strange new world that is governed by video game-like rules. What the heck is going on? Why is Dalton seeing strange blue screens pop up in front of him?

The illegal Monster Hunt app has definitely done a number on Chase Knowles’ life, transforming him from a down-on-his-luck musician to the Alpha of two incredible Huntresses. Along with his bandmate, Iris, the group has taken New York City by storm, hunting and brawling in the city’s landmarks and hard-to-reach spaces. But there is more to the Monster Hunt app than catch or sell. An exclusive world known as EverLife presents new challenges, new adventure, and a mystery that none have been able to solve. It also presents new foes.

Our lands are fractured. They have been split into three since before my birth, but they were not always this way. Once, we prospered, magic filling our lands before it was locked away with them: the monsters. Now we suffer and starve even as our king grows stronger and richer. Then my sister is called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice. Unable to lose the one person I love, I take her place willingly, protecting her the only way I can.

Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is a terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be. When a new monster emerges from the shadows—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim’s inner demons—it lures Kate home, where she finds more than she bargained for. She’ll face a monster she thought she killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her own.

I'm like a snowball rolling downhill. That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I try to explain my life. I don't know exactly "what'"I am, but I do know who I am. At least...I did. Sometimes life sends things your way that upend everything you thought you knew, and then slings you in another direction without any sort of harness or warning. Sometimes it drops someone like me off in the path of four wildly different monsters, who all used to be best friends, but now sort of hate each other and compete over absolutely everything, including...me.

When I—along with my best friend and his big purple monster boyfriend—come across a fortress-like raider camp while journeying across the monster-infested Wastes, we stop to deliver a message. Somehow, that simple pit stop turns into a seemingly impossible quest to get this camp's missing leader out of the prison where he's being held and forced to fight monsters and other humans. I know exactly where it is because I've been there. Problem is, I'm making this journey with the prickliest and most arrogant guy I've ever met, who seems to hate me on sight. Oh, and he's also half-monster.

Can Violet and Noah protect their village from griefers and ensure the Olympic Games continue uninterrupted? Noah and Violet's village is hosting the Olympics for Minecrafters. The events are disrupted when a TNT attack destroys the Olympic stadium. Noah and Violet are forced to gather the townspeople to wage a battle against Daniel and his powerful griefers. They all must stop the griefers before they destroy the games entirely.

In a gauntlet-throwing essay at the start of this brilliant assemblage, Cynthia Ozick stakes the claim that, just as surely as critics require a steady supply of new fiction, novelists need great critics to build a vibrant community on the foundation of literary history. For decades Ozick herself has been one of our great critics, as these essays so clearly display. She offers models of critical analysis of writers from the mid-20th century to today, from Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Kafka to William Gass and Martin Amis, all assembled in provocatively named groups.

The Princes of Carnage were my enemies once. But from the ashes of the lies and betrayal between us, something else grew. Something that has roots so deep they go all the way down to my soul. And now the dark figure who’s been toying with my life from the shadows is threatening to destroy that. But I won’t let him. I’ll get Atlas back in one piece. Even if I have to give up everything to do it.

The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End…is now. When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse - until the doctors found the monster in her head. She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death. Now, with no hope of rescue - on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit - she discovers a new and horrifying truth. The Change isn't over.

When I enlist the help of Redrock Protective Services, I expect to meet with one of the company’s gargoyle brothers. Instead, I find myself face-to-face with a demon. And by the heated glow in his eyes, guarding is the last thing he wants to do with my body. Eamon is rippling with muscles, rides a motorcycle, and has extra, uh...parts...for my pleasure—all the things that have my body screaming YES! Too bad a demon lover is a distraction I can’t afford, not when I’m running from a centuries-old spirit intent on stealing my identity.

An existence spent being forced to kill others to satiate a monster. Where the only thing to look forward to was the blessed, if brief, period of time between paying that bribe. Except that very same monster is and isn’t Rene. It just happened to live inside his own mind and force him to do what it wanted - rather than him being an actual monster. That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that. A day that his career as a hitman for hire built on the monster’s needs will end. Where Rene will be forced to atone for his actions. To be held accountable and judged.

When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer, with no electricity or cell service. Still, he loves spending time with Nali and with his uncle Jet, though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds someone extraordinary: a Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story - a Water Monster - in need of help.

Goblin Girl Maid Service is expanding. After some help from Mrs. Pennington, GGMS has more customers than ever, and with it comes the need to hire more help! When we start hiring more girls, we quickly find that a growing company comes with new problems of its own. Not only do we start running out of space, but when a new opportunity with the orc mayor of Dragonmont City goes disastrously wrong from the beginning, I need to move quickly to save the day.

Tony Platz had the respect of his peers, a career on the fast track, and the body of an Olympian. There was only one problem: It was an open secret he carried a torch for his already-married partner. When a raid put her in the hospital and finally exposed her husband's ongoing infidelity, Tony got shipped out to Oolytau. Tayra Manes worked hard, graduated the academy, and became the first of her kind to join the Non-Human Investigative Corps. There was only one problem: She was a griffin, and not everyone approved of her being allowed to serve in the previously all-human NHIC.

Adrian is about to find out. When he complains about the latest chapter of his favorite web novel online, he doesn't expect the main character to come crashing through his skylight. And yet, that’s exactly what happens. Suddenly, Adrian finds himself face-to-face with the incubus Knox, a demon who's even more captivating in person than he was on the page. Ebony horns, dark magic, eyes that make Adrian’s knees go weak—Knox has got it all.

Luna Thorn’s past is a mystery...even to herself. She arrived in Detroit amid a swirl of lights and magic. She had no memory of where she came from. No idea why she was there. Years later, she’s established herself as a force to be reckoned with on the Detroit magical scene. She ingratiated herself with the local reapers. She set up a community called the Cathedral to help those who had been displaced from their homes and families, declaring that nobody would fall through the cracks. Still, doubt remains.

Courtney is a total show-off. She thinks she's so brave, and she's always making Eddie and his friends look like wimps. But now, Eddie's decided he's had enough. He's going to scare Courtney once and for all. And he's come up with the perfect plan to do it. Eddie's going to lure Courtney down to Muddy Creek. Because he knows that she actually believes those silly rumors about the monsters. That there are Mud Monsters living deep inside the creek. It's just too bad that Eddie doesn't believe the rumors, too. Because they just might be true.

As a kraken bodyguard, I rarely get human clients. When I do, the only way to protect them is to form a telepathic bond. I don't like it, but after my wife's death years ago I've learned to build an impenetrable shield around myself and my emotions, until I meet my newest client. She's a scientist investigating an ancient relic on the ocean floor. The abyssal plane is no place for humans, but the job is the job, so I shut off my soul, bury my secrets, and link our minds. The flood of her emotions takes me by surprise.

Despite Christoff and the Monster Girl Defense Force's great victories, the war to save this new future isn't over yet. It's now a race around the world to distant horizons, a race to save the keys that could end...or save...the world from the vilest monster the world's ever seen!