Short Science Fiction Fantasy Stories

Look outward beyond the stars with six stories from bestselling visionary authors. An AI awakens to its purpose. A researcher seeds a thousand new worlds for one more chance at love. A murder rocks the crew of an interstellar ship. With a sweeping sense of wonder, these stories explore the galaxy . . . and the horizons of humanity’s potential.

For centuries, the woods have been a pivotal part of the wonder and danger of fairy tales, for once you enter anything can happen. Elves, druids, fairies - who knows what you will find once you dare step into the forest?

And now, New York Times best-selling author Kim Harrison ventures into these mysterious, hidden lands of magic and mystery in her first short-story collection. Into the Woods brings together an enchanting mix of brand-new, never-before-published stories and tales from Harrison's beloved, best-selling Hollows series.

Take your first steps into the adrenaline-fuelled fiction of the 41st millennium with a thrilling collection of tales, including an action-packed novella pitting noble Ultramarines against sinister necrons. Whether you're dipping a toe into the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000 or are a hardened veteran of the universe, this anthology is the perfect way to discover the many factions of the games in action-packed tales.

Like the creation myths they supersede, the revelations of science are seared into our collective imagination through storytelling. From Archimedes' bath to Newton's apple, vivid accounts of scientific discovery help us understand the principles behind each theory, and add to the larger narrative of how the universe works, and how we came to be here. This anthology draws out and distils science's love of narrative from a wide range of scientific disciplines, weaving theory into very human stories.

Return to the amazing worlds created by some of fantasy's most famous authors as they tell all-new, original tales set in their best-selling series with Legends - the greatest anthology of original fantasy short novels ever published!

For well over a century, Monster Hunter International has kept the world safe from supernatural threats small and large - and, in some cases, very, very large. Now, join us as MHI opens their archives for the first time. From experienced hunters on their toughest cases, to total newbies' initial encounters with the supernatural, The Monster Hunter Files reveals the secret history of the world's most elite monster fighting force.

Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.

London awakes one morning to find itself besieged by a sky full of floating icebergs. Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse’s bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?

PLAGUERS PROWL THE EARTH. HUMANITY HAS BECOME PREY. Those who remain live in walled compounds. Life is ruled by warlords, their power upheld by mercenaries. Standing against the warlords is a covert resistance group of researchers and mercenaries. They work in secret to develop a cure for the plague. But the warlords will stop at nothing to control the cure. Can the resistance force outmaneuver the warlords in their quest to save humanity? If you like the dystopian future of The Running Man and the gritty characters of The Last of Us, you’ll love the high-octane Afterworld Apocalypse bundle.

Kitty Norville is everybody's favorite werewolf DJ and out-of-the-closet supernatural creature. Over the course of eight books, she's fought evil vampires, were-creatures, and some serious black magic. She's done it all with a sharp wit and the help of a memorable cast of werewolf hunters, psychics, and if-not-good-then-neutral vampires by her side. Kitty's Greatest Hits not only gives listeners some of Kitty's further adventures, it offers longtime fans a window into the origins of some of their favorite characters.

Get four fast-paced druid urban fantasy novels in a boxed set featuring magic, mystery, Celtic mythology, and non-stop paranormal action! Reluctant druid, and sole apprentice of the last living master druid on Earth. Heir to Fionn MacCumhaill’s legacy. Hunted and feared by the Fae, and cursed with Cú Chulainn’s ríastrad. All he wants is to live in his junkyard in peace...but the gods have other plans for the young druid apprentice!

Tales of Dune collects eight of Herbert and Anderson’s Dune short stories, ranging from the period of the Butlerian Jihad to the time of young Paul Atreides to a story set during the events of the novel Dune to the very end of Frank Herbert’s future history.

What William Gibson did for science fiction, China Miéville has done for fantasy, shattering old paradigms with fiercely imaginative works of startling, often shocking, intensity. Now from this brilliant writer comes a groundbreaking collection of stories, many of them previously unavailable in the United States, and including four never-before-published tales - one set in Miéville’s signature fantasy world of New Crobuzon.

I was hanging out with some buddies, doing a little caving, when everything went south. When I woke up, I was in some kind of medieval dungeon. Totally naked and in the dark. Luckily, I had a neighbor in a cell near me. One with a decidedly sexy feminine voice. When she explained to me that she was due to be executed and I was in line to be brainwashed, there was only one thing to do. We had to escape.

You define life or it defines you. In Shawn Speakman’s case, it was both. Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011, Shawn quickly accrued a massive medical debt that he did not have the ability to pay. That’s when New York Times best-selling author Terry Brooks offered to donate a short story that Shawn could sell to help alleviate those bills—and suggested he ask the same of his other writer friends. Unfettered is the result: An anthology built in order to relieve that debt, featuring short stories by some of the best fantasy writers in the genre.

The highly-anticipated final volume of the critically-acclaimed science fiction anthology series....

Best-selling author Patricia A. McKillip (The Riddle-Master of Hed) is one of the most lyrical writers gracing the fantasy genre. With the debut of her newest work, Dreams of Distant Shores is a true ode to her many talents. Within these chapters you will find a youthful artist possessed by both his painting and his muse and seductive travelers from the sea enrapturing distant lovers. The statue of a mermaid comes suddenly to life, and two friends are transfixed by a haunted estate.

Fantasy fans rejoice! Seven years after writer and editor Robert Silverberg made publishing history with Legends, the acclaimed anthology of original short novels by some of the greatest writers in fantasy fiction, the long-awaited second volume is here.

An unabridged audio collection spotlighting the "best of the best" hard science fiction stories published in 2016 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster, as narrated by top voice talents.

A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.