Science Fiction Monsters

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average 13 year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games, and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team.

Eric is a physicist, an angel vivisectionist, and an architect of the future. He's also an accidental time traveler, stuck in the past and trying to re-create his own future. Now he's got to save the world for a better tomorrow, but not like everyone does, in general, every day. Oh, no. He has to make a better tomorrow that looks exactly the way he remembers it, or there may be no yesterday, no today, and no Eric! There is a reason he hates time travel, and it has nothing to do with physics.

At twenty-four, Cody has already lost hope of having a life of his own. All his time is spent playing nurse to a dying, spiteful stepfather and maid to his bully half-brother. His only escapes are playing his favorite online fantasy game, Black Oasis, and talking to the strange, unearthly presence under his bed that may or may not actually exist. Everything changes when his nightly visitor, who introduces himself as Nor, starts talking back. As their connection deepens, Nor invites Cody into the surreal world existing just beyond his nightmares.

Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Luca is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply held secret: They are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

After escaping a cult, killing a giant sandworm, and nabbing three gorgeous monster girls, you’re probably wondering what could be left for ol’ Jack Vale? Turns out a hell of a lot. There’s a curse to be broken, and this time, I’m bringing some familiar company along. With 18 wheels on the road and an infinite number of realms to explore, I’ll need every upgrade and ally my girls and I can find to fight an ancient evil, woo Amazonian giantesses, and conquer the multiverse. But hey, all in a day’s work for a trucker, right?

An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth, in this Tor.com Original science fiction tale from Jeff VanderMeer, the New York Times best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy.

The Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for as long as anyone can remember. The great prophecy has foretold that a band of misfits, led by a high priestess will defeat the Dark Lord Darvezian, armed with their wits, the blessing of the Light and an artifact stolen from the merciless Spider Queen. Their journey will be long, hard and fraught with danger. Allies will become enemies; enemies will become allies. And the Dark Lord will be waiting, always waiting…

Many centuries ago, desperate to save her dying sister, Dianna made a deal with Kaden, a monster far worse than any nightmare. Locked in servitude to him, she is forced to hunt down an ancient relic held by her most dangerous enemies: an army led by Samkiel, the World Ender. After the Gods War, Samkiel hid from everything, denying his crown and deserting his people. Now, an attack on those he loves sends him back to the realm he never wished to return to, and into the sights of an enemy he had hoped to forget.

It takes guts to rise to the top of Meritocracy. It’ll take sheer ruthlessness to stay there. As militants and monsters lay waste to the Skylands, Uncle’s lawless tyranny threatens to unravel fragile Trade alliances. Conrad, no longer a mere Captain, now commands a squadron of ships at the order of the King. But Conrad’s High status can’t protect him from his own turmoil, and the price of power is steeped in blood.

F-Rank foot soldier Riven Wrangleman found people stuck in pods. And now, those people are dangling above his head. A mouse woman, a bat woman, and three anthropomorphic camel people, these five Demons bring with them incredible new glimpses into the state of the world for those lost on the island, namely Riven, Lucerein, and Enkriah. The new information is all well and good, but it doesn't change Riven's goals. He's still being slowly poisoned by the island, and his camp could still use some improvements. No amount of world-shaking revelations will alter that.

Do you know that the Olympians weren’t the original immortals? Or that the Goddess Hera restored her virginity each year? The ancient Greeks wove one of the richest and best-preserved collections of stories of all the early civilizations, from the dawn of creation to the bloody siege at Troy.

Victor Wolfe has roamed his country for twelve years now. Ever since leaving his tiny village to escape to a life that felt worthwhile, he has been traveling the lands, fighting battles, plundering old tombs, and bedding fierce adventuresses. It's been quite the life. But that all changes when he has an intimate encounter with a monster girl, a dryad who opens his eyes to the possibilities of pleasure that only monster girls can provide. Now he is headed north, towards the famed Hinterlands.

I ended my life to protect Lucian from his enemies. It should have been the hardest decision to make, but it wasn’t. Now I find that Lucian kept even more secrets, deadly ones that threaten to destroy me. I thought I won the game that he and Katarina played, but he’s never stopped shuffling the pieces on the board. Even so, I’ve found peace in his violence and learned to accept my fate within his embrace. As our enemies are revealed, and worlds crashed down into ours, everything is on the line again. Could we survive his latest betrayal, or would it destroy us all?

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 being an actual Monster. That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that. A day that the 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.

They call me mad, but I don’t see anything wrong with using science to create the perfect monster girl. They call me insane, but I just want to live my life with a harem of beautiful cat-girls, bear-girls, fox-girls, snake-girls, and...well, pretty much any type of monster girl. They call me a megalomaniac, but why wouldn’t any red blooded man want to make cute babies with all these beautiful monster girls? They call me evil, but they just don’t realize that I’d destroy anyone who tries to harm my monster girls.

When a horrific loss throws Monster High into a state of grave upheaval, Draculaura and the other ghouls find themselves coping in different ways. For her part, the chaos at school is making Draculaura sick. She finds escape only by slipping away to the cemetery to pore over her mom's old journals. It's there that she meets Poe. If her ghoulfriends find out she's fallen for a normie, they'll freak. And if Poe discovers she's a vampire, his monster-hunting dad may have a stake in the matter.

It’s really hard to pretend like life is normal when you’re staring a monster in the eyes, though he’s both tempting and irritating in his human form. I put my days as a hunter behind me, unable to cope with the death and pain anymore, to become an upstanding citizen and for what? To assist Lake, a man who claims he’s not a monster but keeps talking about me like I’m edible and–even worse–wants to woo me?

Dayra Gesha, a friend of Lirien’s and the smartest person she had ever met, was in danger, and we had to help. It wasn’t completely one-sided, though. Dayra just might have the knowledge to help us crack the nut that was the fortress ruins where we might find the demigod Aeyr. You know, to put an end to him. But finding a single person in the jungles of Teaphotria was not just difficult, it was dangerous. With myriads of monsters and even simple insects and plants able to kill on contact or with a single bite, we needed a guide.

Life is finally going right for Lazarus Kerrigan, necromancer and Pale Horseman. Business is booming, and no gods have tried to kill him for a whole month. But the past is catching up to him. There's a serial killer on the loose in New Orleans, one that targets children and leaves behind only bones. When the case develops eerie similarities to his sister's murder, Laz knows the police are in over their heads. They need help, and the dead aren't talking. Well, except for the ghost of a 200-year-old pirate, and Laz doesn't like what he has to say.

When Mike Radley inherited a mysterious old house from a long-lost relative, he wasn't sure what to expect. He didn't expect a sexual encounter with the nymph in his bathtub. He really didn't expect to discover a house full of affectionate monsters. And he definitely didn't expect a pair of witches bent on stealing the home's magic from him. Welcome to the Radley House. Expect the unexpected.