Urban Contemporary Fiction

Together for the first time, 14 action-packed tales of demons, monsters, vampires, and cosmic horrors too terrible to name - and the men and women who take them all down. Oh, and toss in an interdimensional insurance salesman for good measure.

The winner of multiple Hugo Awards, Charles Stross is one of the most highly regarded science fiction writers of his time. In The Apocalypse Codex, occasionally hapless British agent Bob Howard tackles a case involving an American televangelist and a supernatural threat of global proportions.

Though born into a leopard's lair in the bayou, Joshua Tregre's fighting skills were honed in the rainforests of Borneo. Sleek and deadly, he's the perfect man to take over a crime syndicate back home in Louisiana's lush swamplands. His razor sharp instincts give him an edge in the violent underworld he knows so well, but even the watchful leopard inside him isn't prepared for the danger that comes from the girl next door.

In the days leading up to The Big Day, Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor seems to have a full house - and the wedding guests have yet to arrive. Along with her human buddies, there's a ghost, a werewolf, and a fiend crashing at her place. And though her fiancé, Vampire King Eric Sinclair, conveniently disappears when the conversation turns to seating charts and flower arrangements, he does manage to make his oh-so-sexy presence known at other moments.

Bo Blackman is a rookie private investigator working for the London based firm of Dire Straits. She doesn't often get triber-based assignments, which is just as well. Vampires and daemons don't interest her as much as humans do... However, when she has to serve a summons on a dodgy daemon called Devlin O'Shea and she ends up saving his life instead of being framed for his murder, her life takes a shocking turn for the worse.

Working as a quality-assurance grunt in the gaming industry sounds like fun, right? You get to play the coolest new games before anyone else. And all you have to do is to find, reproduce, and report bugs before the last pixel is locked in and the games are launched to an eager public. Sure, there’s the unpaid overtime, the office politics, and the ever-present threat of layoffs. But you get to game!

As a half-demon master of the dark arts, Eve Levine isn't what anyone would call "angelic." That's exactly why the Fates chose her for the job. She's their secret weapon against the forces of evil. However, after five years, Eve is tired of being the designated rebel of the angel corps, expected to break the rules, then being penalized for it. When the leaderless djinn stage an uprising, Eve sees the perfect chance to get herself fired.

The claws come out in this paranormal romance by the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Leopard's Blood. An all-new couple is introduced in this next novel in Christine Feehan's Leopard series.

Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world. Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.

For Rose Marshall, death has long since become the only life she really knows. She's been sweet 16 for more than 60 years, hitchhiking her way along the highways and byways of America, sometimes seen as an avenging angel, sometimes seen as a killer in her own right, but always Rose, the phantom prom date, the girl in the green silk gown. The man who killed her is still out there thanks to a crossroads bargain that won't let him die, and he's looking for the one who got away. When Bobby Cross comes back into the picture, there's going to be hell to pay - possibly literally.

Lena, Flint and their unique family have discovered what created their extrasensory abilities and hidden memories. When a new opportunity arises to give them answers to a past they thought was lost, an entire world is reopened. Now, stronger than they were before, they venture to the heart of what created them knowing they may not all return.

Get four complete stories in Frank Kurns: Tales of the Underworld: You Don't Touch John's Cousin, Bitch's Night Out, Bitch's Night Out, and Challenges.

From the author of Fight Club, the classic portrait of the damaged contemporary male psyche, now comes this novel about the apocalyptic marketing possibilities of female pleasure. Beautiful You is Palahniuk's much-anticipated satire of the emerging erotic thriller genre, a mash-up of mommy porn and chick lit à la Sex and the City, and fantasy lit à la Clan of the Cave Bear. Imagine if Ira Levin had a baby with Jean Auel.

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, a first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring him back to life before his city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without him, the metropolis’ steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in.

When bizarre magical disappearances disrupt shows around the city, Esther receives a mysterious warning not to go on with her off-Broadway show. Desperate to stay on stage rather than resort to waiting tables, Esther turns to her new BFF, Dr. Maximillian Zadok, a 350-year-old mage whose day job is protecting New York from Evil. Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery without losing her job, Esther and Max team up with a conjuring cowboy, a banker with stage aspirations, and a flock of fearless drag queens.

Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world's most beloved superheroes.

Sweeney Cassidy is the typical college freshman at the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine in Washington, DC. She drinks. She parties. And she certainly doesn't suspect that underneath its picturesque Gothic facade, the university is a haven for the Benandanti, a cult devoted to suppressing the powerful and destructive Moon Goddess. But everything is about to change as Sweeney learns that her two new best friends are the goddess' Chosen Ones.

Betsy Taylor needs a job and amazingly lands the perfect one: selling designer shoes at Macy's. But the other vamps, including sexy Sinclair, don't want their queen selling shoes. And the vampire hunters are becoming a real pain, murdering innocent vampires. It seems that everyone wants something from Betsy.

Zacriah Trovirn is concerned with two things in life: hunting and dodging Petrer, the boy who broke his heart. Heartbreak becomes a distant concern when Zacriah is taken to the Elven capital of Thessolina, where he is forced into King Dalior's new legion of shapeshifters. But Zacriah isn't a shapeshifter. In truth, he doesn't know what he is. Zacriah joins forces with new friends and they soon find themselves embroiled in a clash between the three Elven continents. With war on the horizon, Zacriah must learn to use his latent power to fight and protect those he loves before they are destroyed.

The battle has been won, but the war is far from over. With her greatest ally at death's door, it's up to Lily Singer to make things right. Troublemaking witch friend and talking cat in tow, she must pursue her father as he seeks to discover an ancient evil and steal its power for himself. But her father isn't the only one seeking that power. When a queen of the fae gets involved and Sebastian's past comes back to haunt him, the three friends have to think fast and act faster to defeat legends that are, unfortunately, no longer in the past.