Science Fiction Monsters

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…

The game has changed. After receiving a mysterious message from a famous Proxima developer, Chase Knowles takes a step toward an incredible future. With an important tournament coming up, everything seems to be working in his favor. But there are other forces at play, even if some of those forces are internal. Wanting more from his relationship with Lady C., Chase goes to extreme lengths to bring her digital form to New York City through an android shell.

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.

A town of magic and danger, where what one dons becomes who they are. A desperate priestess in another world calling for a champion, only to receive an unstoppable monster.

When Jerry follows the trail of his missing uncle, he discovers a mysterious monster-girl and an equally mysterious region called Delom where everything works like a video game. But there isn't time to gawk, because Jerry's inherited his uncle's farm, once the most famous animal breeder in Delom, and everything is falling apart. The animals are low level, there's not enough food to keep their health up, and a greedy developer wants to put Jerry and the farm out of business.

Using forbidden Marrangha magic and the three stolen vapours, the evil sorcerer Zharradan Marr has created a creature....but for what purpose?

One night, when Ethan checks under the bed for his monster, he finds a note instead: “Gone fishing. Back in a week. --Gabe” What will Ethan do? He needs a monster under his bed. How is he supposed to get to sleep if his monster is gone? Substitute monsters appear, but none are just right. Herbert's teeth aren't sharp enough, Mack's slobbering induces giggles, Cynthia's tail isn't scary at all, and Ralph has nail polish on his claws! This will never work! How will Ethan ever get to sleep without his monster?

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.

Two weeks ago, I was writing press releases in a cubicle. Now I’m hunting giant crustaceans to feed a tribe of beautiful women. I awoke on a strange shore, far from Earth, with a new power raging in my muscles. In this primitive world, helpless women look to me for protection against goblin slavers and wild beasts.

After surviving an encounter with the Beast, the pinnacle of power in the Nexeus, Salvos decides she still needs to get stronger. But power does not come easy, especially at the higher levels. Fortunately for Salvos, she has made an enemy out of the Demon King himself, and she will take advantage of his animosity towards her. If the Deathsquad Hunters want to come for her head? She will welcome them with open arms.

It's been three years since Aren seized the Ember Blade. Three years since they struck the spark they hoped would ignite the revolution. But the flame has failed to catch. The Krodans have crushed Ossia in an iron grip of terror. The revolution seems further away than ever. Far in the north, the Dawnwardens seek to unite the fractious clans of the Fell Folk and create a stronghold from which to retake their land. But even if they can overcome the danger of treachery from within, they still have to contend with the dreadknights.

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. And moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over as someone different. In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.

Drue Emmerson, noblewoman-turned-ranger, wants one thing: vengeance. With her family slain by the vicious shadow wraiths, she’s determined to defend her fallen kingdom. And that means carving out the hearts of every dark creature she can find. Talemir Starling, celebrated warrior of the realms, has a dangerous secret: he's a half-wraith, kin to the creatures wreaking devastation on the world. He’ll do anything to keep his true nature under control…especially around the woman who’s vowed to destroy him.

In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.

Sacrifice your soul? Check. Die to protect those you love? Check. Come back as something the world hasn't seen since the dawn of mankind? Check. Make those who hurt me wish the Gods had never created them? I'm still working on this one.... Are you ready to play? I'm coming back. I'm more, darker, deadlier, and I'm pissed.

She spends her days chasing around her high-energy, half-shifter toddler and her nights working full-time trying to make ends meet. Oh, and add in the absolute cluster of a situation her ex dumped in her lap on his way out? Well, that's just icing on the cake. With virtually no options left, Emerson heads for Haven, a sanctuary city for monsters and humans alike. Survival means taking a job at The Monster's Den—a club that caters to the inhuman residents of her new home. But freedom comes with complications of its own.

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away. When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father's death. His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin.

In the Clandoms, everyone is born with wings, with tight-knit communities formed around bird types: Jay, Falcon, Crow. Ellie Meadows dreams of growing up to join the Goldwings - the famed knights who defend all the people of the Clandoms. It was a Goldwing, after all, who saved her life on that terrible day her parents were killed. There's just one problem: Ellie is a Sparrow, and the Goldwings are almost invariably picked from the higher clans like Eagles and Ospreys. This rigid hierarchy means that Ellie is destined to become a farmer.

In Monsters, Inc., join monsters Mike and Sulley on a wild adventure that takes them from the Scare Floor at Monsters, Inc., all the way to the dangerous human world. Joined by the human child, Boo, the best friends must return the little girl before an evil plot prevents her from ever going home.

A System apocalypse has ripped humanity away from its home planet, Earth-73, firing the starting pistol on a marathon race for survival against beastly odds. And in the violent magical worlds of the System's "Orientation," it's getting harder to tell the monsters from the savage humans.