World Fiction

In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant, elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney, sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns...By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps.

When four campers decide to take a short vacation in the pine forests of Mount Shasta, a potentially active volcano, and some say, a mystical mountain region in the Cascade Mountain Range of Northern California, it turns out they aren't alone. After a long drive through the Shasta Trinity National Forest, British MIT graduate Tom Bishop and his three friends set up camp in the closed-for-the-season Pine Crags Wilderness Campsite, in the shadows of Mount Shasta. As they exchange legends about the mysterious mountain, something appears from the woods which defies all logic....

A story of tragedy and triumph, love and war. The long-awaited sequel to Light and Shadows, begins in 1922 during the Asia Minor Genocide, when Maria, a twelve-year-old Greek Orthodox girl, witnesses what she believes is the total massacre of her family in Smyrna. Although haunted by the death of her family, Maria grows up to be a spirited, independent-minded archeologist. In 1941, as Germany invades Greece, Maria falls in love with Rob, an English spy. She is recruited by British intelligence, and Maria and Rob become entangled in the dangerous world of espionage.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer who wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, history, satire, biography, and autobiography. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called the "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne.

When the Russian Army invading northern Poland threatens to quickly overwhelm Warsaw, a lone Company of American Abrams tanks and a unit of Irish infantry are sent forward to the small village of Stare Lubiejewo and given an impossible mission: hold back the advancing Russian Army at all costs.

2010, San Francisco. Anna Young is content with her life, running a bustling deli and taking care of her adored grandfather Max, who raised her. Max has never spoken of his past until he hands over an old map, the plans to a grand house just north of Berlin. With a shaking finger, he points to it and says, “I left something behind under the floorboards. Please bring it home before I die.”

It was one of the most dangerous secret missions of the War in the Pacific: a coordinated US submarine attack against a Chinese arms shipment rumoured to be bound for Pakistan. But as USS Oklahoma City sails toward the Chinese coast, she stumbles onto an even greater threat to the West. Outnumbered, isolated and alone, with tension aboard the submarine at breaking point, the OKC and her exhausted crew must battle to outwit the Chinese navy and then finally fight for their lives.

In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.

It's the year 641 since the beginning of everything, and when Eve passes away, she leaves Adam, the only man on earth who remembers everything since they walked in Eden. When Enoch, God's newly appointed prophet, decides to collect the stories of the faithful from previous generations, he finds Adam in desperate need to confess the dark secrets he's held onto for too long.

1918, London. Twenty-year-old Emily Burdon has been training as a nurse at St. Marylebone Infirmary, learning on the job as she tends to patients from the crowded poorhouses that ring the hospital as well as wounded soldiers returning from the war. She pours her heart into her nursing while she waits for happier times - peace in Europe and the return of her childhood sweetheart, Lewis, from the Western Front. But when the deadly Spanish Flu arrives in London on the heels of the war, Emily’s faith and courage are put to the test.

In what many refer to as one of the first and greatest science fiction thrillers, a mysterious stranger wanders into an inn, wrapped head-to-toe in bandages. What lies beneath the bandages is something even more mysterious. As Wells tackles issues of identity, deception, and the deterioration of the human mind, listeners will be drawn into the story of the mysterious man, whose own mistakes end up whisking him into a whirlwind of deceit, terror, and even murder. In the end, the question will be asked: when your sense of self and identity vanish, who will you become?

During his 28 years as a holistic practitioner and health expert on syndicated TV and radio, Dr. David Friedman has interviewed hundreds of world-renowned doctors and best-selling authors. From proponents of a vegan, paleo, mediterranean diet to a gluten-free and low-carb diet, the opinions are as different as night and day. After becoming frustrated with all the conflicting research and opinions, Dr. Friedman wrote Food Sanity, which explores all the fads, facts, and fiction.

With Maggie’s beloved Micah far away in German-occupied France, and Tillie’s fiancé Trevor fighting on the front line, the girls need each other now more than ever. Which is why, when Maggie is confronted with a choice, it is one of the hardest she will ever have to make: stay with her sister and family or leave them behind for a dangerous role in the Women’s Army, manning the anti-aircraft batteries protecting London’s skies.

Europe, 1939. Hanne is an adolescent boy, born into a wealthy family from Belgrade. Realizing the Nazi threat is advancing toward the Balkans with giant strides, his parents are prepared to do anything to save their son’s life. The road to survival, however, is not easy. Just as Europe’s gates are about to shut down, Hanne and 1,100 other youths sail away on the Danube River. On board the ship, under appalling living conditions, Hanne falls in love with Inge, a young German Jewish girl.

The life of the vibrant Schwartz Family changes completely overnight. The sudden illness of Noa, the family's youngest daughter, forces them to attain a great sum of money for an urgent operation, and they are at a loss. Daria, the oldest sister, is the only one who believes that the not so distant past of the intricate Hungarian family holds an old secret that could lead the way to save her little sister's life. Armed with great determination, Daria goes on a cross-continent journey to investigate the Schwartz dynasty's origins.

During the disastrous Allied retreat north following the fall of Warsaw, a small group of American infantry from the 10th Mountain Division are cut off from the rest of their company while fighting a desperate rear-guard action. Abandoned and surrounded by Russians, Lieutenant Simon McLane and a handful of soldiers are aided in their escape by a Troop of British Challenger 2 tanks from the Royal Tank Regiment. The tankers and infantrymen forge an unlikely alliance as they fight their way toward Gdansk.

Russian High Command has a plan to smash NATOs forces arrayed along the Poland-Lithuania border with an assault that would punch a hole in the Allied lines and overrun the NATO perimeter along a ten-mile wide front. A triumph would turn the momentum of the war in Europe back in Russia’s favor. Standing in the way of the Russian advance is an isolated American outpost, manned by a Platoon of veteran soldiers and a rookie Lieutenant. "Fort Suicide" is right on the frontlines isolated from support, and is directly in the path of the imminent Russian advance.

From a funeral procession in Asia, to an ancestral estate deep in the heart of a vaguely Victorian forest, to a carriage accident in the vast universe of The Runelords, Unnatural Worlds takes listeners on a journey to the far side of the imagination. Funny, heartbreaking, frightening, but most importantly, memorable, the original stories in this anthology go places few writers dare reach. Unnatural Worlds marks the perfect start to the brand-new Fiction River anthology series.

With provocative discussions from both professional and fan writers, on subjects from Star Trek to The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Harry Potter, Twilight, and beyond, Fic sheds light on the widely misunderstood world(s) of fanfiction - not only how fanfiction is transforming the literary landscape, but how it already has.

Jersey, 1940. In the quiet of the English Channel, war is brewing. When the Nazis first set foot on her island home, 16-year-old Marcy comes to realize that nothing will ever be the same. Fueled by the devastating disappearance of the man she loves and in defiance of her distant mother, Violet, she joins forces with fellow islander Louisa to aid Jersey’s secret resistance.