Science Fiction City

Three science prodigies go on a time-traveling adventure to save the Earth—if they don't accidentally destroy it first.

Conor and Aine have barely escaped Seare with their lives. Conor knows he must return to find the harp that could end the Red Druid’s reign of terror, but he must first see Aine safely to her family home on the isle of Amanta. When an unnatural storm tears them apart, they find themselves in even more danger than that which they fled. Because magic is not the only thing to fear in Aine's homeland, where the Sofarende invaders harry the coasts and shifting clan alliances make it impossible to know who to trust.

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.

Over two decades ago, forty-eight young, gifted superheroes fell to Earth and were eventually marketed as opposing brands: heroes and villains. Now, one exceptionally gruff bad guy is looking to hop teams. Hello, PR director Vanessa Theriot. His real name is Roland Casteel a.k.a. the Pyro. First, swap that with the less incinerating the Wyvern. Next, put him in spandex to highlight that near-godlike body. Finally, give that hero in training a heroine—if Vanessa will play the part in a pretend romance guaranteed to make the city swoon. She’s game.

Erik Tarverro is a skilled blacksmith, a better swordsman—and hated for his mixed aeradi parentage. Denied mastery of his craft in the human city he grew up in, he accepts a risky contract from a dangerous stranger. With new enemies at his heels, he leaps at the chance to join his father's people in the sky city of Newport. Despite his human blood, he finds his place among the aeradi: heir to an ancient noble family. But Erik's enemies will have blood, and the peace between his people and the Draconan dragon riders is like a powder keg. All it would take is one spark.

Clara has been patient, waiting for her opportunity. Now, the time has come. She will command the Prince of the Doomed City himself to aid her in her quest. Together they must travel to the various courts of Eledria, facing foes and monsters, each more deadly than the last, as Clara strives to save her childhood sweetheart from enslavement.

As Mumbai empties under the threat of imminent nuclear annihilation, statistician Sarita can only think of being reunited with her physicist husband. To find him, she must journey across the surreal landscape of a near-abandoned city, braving gangs of competing Hindu and Muslim hoodlums. Joining her is Jaz - a Muslim whose true religion has always been sex. Danger lurks around every corner, but so does the absurd: the patron goddess Devi Mahas even materialized on a beach to save her city....

Beast waves, Chaos cultists, new Primordials rising. The world has gone crazy. A tournament has been called to find new champions. Aiden and his team must compete in Craesti City, the capital of their kingdom, to earn the right to journey to Monster Island for a multinational competition. Can Aiden rise to become the true chosen one, or will he fall into obscurity and failure?

In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence.

Having returned Mother Death to Bastion, Nuru flees to the inner rings. The Loa heretics seek to turn her to their own ends and topple the nahual from power. As Bastion crumbles, Nuru contemplates the ultimate blasphemy: a world without gods. Broken by his battle with Mother Death, Akachi awakens with renewed purpose. He must hunt the blasphemers who would destroy his beloved city.

For Cesar, life in Swift City was rough. Still dealing with the aftermath of a major family tragedy, adjusting to a new normal while also striving to amount to something was more than enough for him to handle. Despite that adversity, he and his younger siblings were managing well enough. Unfortunately, the only constant in life is the force of change. Change occasionally throws all into chaos. Destroying everything in its wake. Swift City never had a chance to prepare. No one did.

Lovecraftian horror from award-winning Forgotten Realms game designer Bruce R. Cordell. Raidon Kane travels to the subterranean fortress of the somnambulant aboleths, bent on killing the Eldest in its sleep. But he isn’t the only one bound for the hidden city. A warlock, an arch fey, a pirate, and a high priestess of the Abolethic Sovereignty all have designs of their own on the Eldest – if they don’t kill each other first.

Home is where the heart is…unless that home burns to the ground. When Guilder University is attacked, it's all hands on deck. Agents are called in from all corners of the globe. The alumni reunite to protect the younger generation and safeguard the future of the school. But things aren't as simple as they seem.

TENTAKELMONSTER GREIFT LOS ANGELES AN! Wäre das nicht eine hübsche Schlagzeile für ein Boulevardblättchen? Ist aber wirklich passiert. Kein Scheiß! Ich war dabei. Mein Name ist Caliriel - meine irdischen Freunde nennen mich meist Clyde - und ich bin ein Engel. Ein Schutzengel, um genau zu sein. Und als solcher kann ich natürlich nicht zulassen, dass übernatürliche Ungeheuer ungestraft meine Heimatstadt heimsuchen. Also trommele ich ein paar Leute zusammen und jage die Viecher dahin zurück, wo auch immer sie hergekommen sind. So habe ich mir das zumindest vorgestellt.

Trees are storehouses of the complex origins and histories of city growth, coming as they do from different parts of the world, brought in by various local and colonial rulers. From the tree planted by Sarojini Naidu at Dehradun's clock tower to those planted by Sher Shah Suri and Jahangir on Grand Trunk Road, trees in India have served, above all, as memory keepers. They are our roots: Their trunks our pillars, their bark our texture, and their branches our shade. Trees are nature's own museums.

When Tarzan of the Apes frees a man being tortured by cruel bandits, he is surprised to learn that the stranger comes from no race or country the ape-man knows. He is from the fabled land of Onthar, where lie two ancient cities unknown to the outside world. One is Athne, city of ivory; the other is Cathne, city of gold and evil. There great prides of trained lions are used to hunt down men and wage eternal war. And there Tarzan meets the beautiful queen Nemone, who is determined to have Tarzan as her king...or feed him to the lions!

It has been three years since Elvira "Ellie" Ryder was betrayed by her ex-boyfriend Cor, which caused the destruction of her people by invaders from a different Zone. Now she will do anything to find him and make him pay.

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Matteo lives on the back of a giant turtle, one of several kaiju that roam the land. It's the only place safe from the hordes of monsters roaming the forest below. Everything from goblins to grasshoppers make living on the ground deadly. Matteo's new job is to kill those monsters in the giant turtle’s path, pest control for their home kaiju. He just has to survive the training. Unfortunately for him, the other recruits hate him, the mortality rate for recruits is sky high, and every outing involves fighting monsters that can easily kill him.

Nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Award, City on Fire returns to the world-city of Metropolitan, a city dominated by plasm, the magical substance capable of both creation and destruction. With her help, Aiah's lover Constantine has established himself in the metropolis of Caraqui, a nation dominated by corrupt officials, gangsters, and the genetically altered known as the "twisted." Here they hope to create a revolution in the cosmic order - but first they must fend off treachery, war, and the threat of Taikoen, a deadly creature that lives within plasm itself....