Short Game

Nick Antosca's The Girlfriend Game is a tumble through the looking glass into a vortex of violence and desire. The 12 stories in the newest collection by the Shirley Jackson Award-winning author are brutal, urgent and unforgettable. In "Predator Bait", a decoy in a sex-sting news show questions her job and the man who shares her bed. An undependable son watches his mother become a creature he hardly recognizes in "Amphibian". A young man plots the death of his girlfriend's killer in "Winter Was Hard".

Less than a minute remains in the game; their offense presses - the ball bears down; you're the last defender. What will you do?

Why do you suppose some combat veterans give up the sport of hunting? Is it because they gain empathy with the hunted, or hunting a prey less cunning than they has lost its allure. Richard Connell, in this short story “The Most Dangerous Game” takes us where the hunter becomes the hunted. This hunter is not being hunted by a beast less cunning or calculating than he is, like a lion or a tiger. No, this hunter is a master at his craft, crueler and only slightly better armed than he is.

They had a plan, but they never thought the plan would be reality. Friendship as a whole is strong, but during an apocalypse it is a different story.

Losing your virginity should be epic. But what happens when you're nearing 30 and the right man hasn't come along? Apparently, you sign up for a crazy dating game at a club. Kellan hasn't even thought about dating since he walked in on his fiancée cheating on him two years ago. He's dedicated all his time to his medical practice, afraid to give his heart away. But when his friend drags him to The SX Club, all that's about to change.

Ex-soldier Lenora is determined to escape an alien slave colony no matter what the cost. Her disobedience angers her male alien overseers, who are trying to breed humans so they can intermarry with them. Lenora, and willful women like her, are sent to the Bride Games. If they win they will be granted their freedom. If they lose they must accept marriage to an alien nobleman.

When the late-night delivery order came into Frank's Pizza, Alicia knew she'd be the one stuck with having to deliver it. She just never thought it might be her last night alive. Drugged and abducted, Alicia awakens to find herself tied to a wooden chair in a basement, surrounded by corpses, and is suddenly forced into a high-stakes poker game. One where losing comes with the heaviest of penalties.

War is a serious business - or is it? Christopher Anvil turns his sardonic sense of humor loose on the subject. Hard-SF legend and Analog regular Christopher Anvil brings together mind-bending ideas and grim-but-true black humor in the face of war's utter destruction in this mega-compilation.

And through the sleepiness, Inka sensed a man in her presence. He was standing there but she couldn’t see him. He was hunting for her, but he couldn’t see her either. Inka Keto - Sexy, curvy and full of vigor, she's a bear shifter from a very close family of shifters. As open, kind, and as whimsical as she is, she's also tight like a steel trap. Her family has been trying to save shifter slaves from the powerful, yet evil regime, on Herta for some time.

Enjoy eight short stories with a travel theme - a perfect companion for the train, the plane, or on a road trip. Road Games happen on the road, in the air, the open sea, and in the uncharted territory where the twilight meets the horizon.

Caleb Ryan was the only man I ever loved. But then he betrayed me.... I spent years trying to get over what he'd done to me, honing my hatred until it was knife-sharp. Now I finally have a chance to take my revenge. The only problem is I need him to achieve another goal. Whether I like it or not, we're going to have to work together. Now feelings are coming back that should be buried and gone. Can years mend a broken heart, or is my need for revenge all I have left?

With a hungry horde of husks chasing them through the Sunflower Plains, Erik, Brock, and Dewie seek shelter in the woods, eventually coming across a young girl named Ruby, who is mysteriously armed with a Netherite sword. At her home, Ruby tells them that her father is missing; he too went out in search of answers after seeing the purple smoke in the distance.

Genie and Serena are just a normal couple of girls...just kidding. As a dormant mermaid (she hasn't activated her genetic abilities yet), Genie is actually kind of normal - except for being kind of sheltered. At least, she is compared to her cousin, the millennia-old siren Serena. But, as different as they are, the cousins are bound together by their mutual affection for each other - and their love of solving mysteries. Together, Genie and Serena form a paranormal investigation business to celebrate Genie's first time in the real world.

At first glance, 'The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell, ‘Paul’s Case’ by Willa Cather, and ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ by Henry James have very little in common. In ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ Sanger Rainsford, an accomplished big game hunter, is marooned on a remote island that is inhabited by another big game hunter, General Zaroff, who has found a very twisted way to add thrills to his hunting parties.

Financial version of Arab spring? Or just another populist wave? This book reviews the short squeeze of GameStop shares in simple terms to make sense of what happened and what lessons it has for your investment decisions. At the start of 2021 GameStop shares (a company selling games, think: EB Games, Micromania, ThinkGeek stores) went all the way up to $500 from being less than $20 within days.

Adjusting to life after the game (football), a player reminisces about his playing career and his achievements on and off the gridiron.

The third audiobook in the delightful series set in Carrington’s Department Store. Georgie Hart and Carrington’s Department Store have got the world at their feet. Since a reality TV series put them both on the map, life has been amazing! Carrington’s profits are in the pink, Georgie has carved herself a place in the nation’s heart and her romance with Tom, the store’s boss, has finally blossomed. Now summertime has come to Mulberry-on-Sea, and Georgie is in great demand.

We all think we want 20/20 vision, don't we? But in the metaphysical and psychological realms we often prefer our accustomed blindness. It's far more comfortable. Here are two stories that take a close, 20/20 look at these things.

David Joseph's "The Great Hijacking", "Putin's Shoot-Down", and "The Bully" all bundled into one book titled Putin and MH370/MH17. A Boeing 777 takes off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and rendezvouses behind an American tanker refueling fighters, thus falling in its radar. Chinese military computer hackers break into a key defense satellite, a North Korean cargo ship drops a black box into the Indian Ocean, and a home flight simulator has traces of island landings in the Indian Ocean. All the events combine to produce a perfect storm for "The Great Hijacking".

No wonder Elias Canetti described it as "one of the few great and perfect works of the poetic imagination written". The Metamorphosis remains one of the best works of fiction in history. It is the story of a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up to find himself being transformed to an insect-like creature. The story unfolds into one of the greatest short fiction stories ever written.