Old Fantasy

For 12 years, I had managed to separate my personal life from my professional life, becoming one of the best reconstructionists in the world - and proving to myself that I could do so on my own merits. Then I’d been forced into contact with my family, reuniting with someone I thought I’d lost forever, and rescuing my best friend. Now I had to savor what little time I had left before the contract with the Conclave came due and my future was wrenched from my control. Except there was one last case to solve. One last set of puzzle pieces to collect, then assemble again.

I never got involved in the dirt and the details of an investigation. I never let my preconceptions muddy a reconstruction. And I steadfastly refrained from ever allowing my past to dictate my future. At least until the one person I couldn’t lose went missing. Because then I’d relive every dark moment of my childhood, confront every heartbreak, and even sell my soul if that was what it took to get her back. Because I couldn’t accept a future - not even a promised one of immortality and unbridled power - that didn’t include one of the only two people I’d ever truly loved.

I knew that opening the letter from the sorcerer Azar would have deadly consequences. So we had prepared. We’d planned. We knew we might have to defend ourselves, our freedom. And that I might finally get a chance to exact the revenge I kept telling myself I wasn’t interested in exacting. What we didn’t know was that we’d find ourselves hosting a dysfunctional family reunion — the kind where everyone tries to kill someone at least once over dinner.

The world is getting older. The world is getting younger. The United States is dead. The Democratic Unity killed it. After catastrophic wars and the Meltdown, the Unity rules from its East Coast citadel, leaving the outlands to savages and its strangely altered plants. Providing free health care, employment, computer-less surfing, and recreational drugs at quite reasonable prices, the Unity mandates retirement at 40 before fatigue and error contaminate a culture of youth, innovation, and vigor.

I hadn’t set foot in the human world for more than a few hours in over three and a half months. Sure, I was stronger and faster than I’d ever been before, and I had a shiny new sword, but I was seriously chocolate deprived.

I wasn’t even remotely interested in collecting the third instrument of assassination. It was far better for everyone involved—and for Warner, specifically—if I just let it be. And since I was the only one who could retrieve the artifacts, I figured it was my call to make.

Three months ago, I nearly lost my best friend while retrieving the first instrument of assassination. I also inadvertently released a rival who was definitely unhinged, way more powerful than me, and obsessed with harnessing the deadly power of the artifacts I’d been tasked by the guardian dragons to collect. Add a sexy sentinel and a nearly immortal vampire to the mix, and what could possibly go wrong?

It's Angel's birthday and she can't wait to celebrate with her purrmaid and mermicorn best friends! But the girls don't seem very excited to celebrate with her. They keep sneaking off to be alone. Angry and hurt, Angel swims out in the ocean by herself and finds Minnie—a manatee who needs help! Can the girls all work together to save Minnie? Or are Angel's friends too busy with their secret plans?

The plan was to hop a train to Oslo, hang out at a coffee shop, and connect my personal archive, Infinity, to the Internet. Yes, completely disregarding the well-established fact that magic and technology didn’t mix. At all.

I’d led a deadly squad of genetically enhanced, uber-powerful magic wielders through life-threatening missions multiple times in the first 21 years of my life. When marked for death, I’d led the escape from those who’d bred us, controlled us. Utterly annihilating the Collective’s compound, and destroying everything that had gone into creating us—the Five. I found Christopher and Paisley a home, a safe haven.

Miles Kim, cyborg and relic of a war fading from memory, is on the last train ride of his life. When a gang of bandits attacks the train, Miles and 100 passengers find themselves trapped in in a standoff in the middle of the desert. But there’s more to the robbery than meets the eye. An unknown entity has set its sights on the Seraph Express and her passengers. As people start dying, Miles realizes that any rescue will be too late, and no one will make it out alive.

Sir Callan Clanmor of Glenarchy has lost himself in war to forget a wife he does not love and douse the pain of love for another who can never be his. But as events unfold around him he is forced to confront both his memories and pain... The Old Woman of the Stones is a romantic fantasy novelette set in a fictional world comparable to fifteenth-century Scotland with mythic elements based in Scottish folklore.

Harper Harlow-Monroe has everything she’s ever wanted. She has a husband she loves, a best friend who is only irritating 50 percent of the time, and a daughter who refuses to be “normal.” So, basically, she has it all.

Goon Squad is set in a version of modern-day Manchester. Its biggest divergence from the real city is that it - along with most other large urban centers - has a team of superheroes to protect it against unusual threats with which the conventional forces of law and order would have problems.

Intimacy is an important part of every relationship. Getting to know your partner and connecting with them on a deeper level through communication and affection can go a long way to ensure a relationship grows into a strong and resilient love that can last for decades. While this book primarily focuses on intimacy in new couples, anyone in any type of relationship can apply the principles and suggestions offered here.

Twelve-year old Lia Park just wants to fit in. Her parents work with a mysterious organization that makes them ridiculously overprotective. Lia’s every move has been scrutinized since she was born, and she’d love to have the option of doing something exciting for once. So when she gets invited to the biggest birthday party of the year—and her parents say she can’t go—Lia sneaks out. But her first act of rebellion not only breaks her parents’ rules, but also an ancient protection spell, allowing an evil diviner spirit to kidnap and ransom her parents for a powerful jewel.

Written by multiple Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake, "A Very Old Man with No Wings at All" was first published in the August 2007 issue of Aeon. Over his long career, Jay Lake has published 10 novels and more than 300 stories. He was honored with the 2004 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Magdaline Spencer es una joven con una dura vida a la espalda: una madre que falleció prematuramente y un padre alcoholizado que, para pagar sus propias deudas, la vendió al mejor postor. Jessie Fitzpatrik, Jess, un ángel que renuncia a sus alas para ayudarla, llega para salvarla, aunque eso implique no volver a verla.

A genteel Border South town not far from the nation’s capital is shaken by a series of vicious slayings at historic sites. These include a Civil War cemetery for escaped slaves; a burial mound of Confederate soldiers; a church associated with George Washington; and a museum on the Antebellum Era. At the same time, violent break-ins take place at venerable banks and townhomes connected with the lives of Washington, Robert E. Lee, and civil rights figures.

At the edge of the galaxy, the Ostmen kingdoms have built a great rift gate, capable of taking them further into space than ever before. The clock ticks down as these once mighty people prepare for a new exhilarating adventure. Sten and his family work tirelessly to bring the gate online, seize their moment in time and claim the future. But nothing could have prepared them for the war waiting on the other side. Fear begins to set in as a new and unfathomably powerful enemy emerges through the fires of the gate.