Showing results by publisher "Magical Scrivener Press" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Eve has responsibilities now. As chairwoman of the Human Welfare Committee, she is humanity’s voice in a world run by robots. Her job includes approving geneticists who want to engage in ethical human cloning as well as overseeing the agency that hunts down threats to mankind. So when one of her sisters vanishes, Eve can’t afford to abandon her post to personally search. Eve’s agents hunt for her missing sister, but in the process, they run afoul of some influential robots.

Martian terraformer Kaylee Fourteen is a recent immigrant from Earth. Residents of the domed colonies of Mars can practically smell the day they’ll be able to walk outdoors on their own planet without the need for air supplies. But the committees on Earth control the resources the colonists need, and their interference threatens the terraforming project’s very existence. Until a group of radicals takes hostages to force the release of the tech and materials the terraformers need.

With humanity out in the open, Eve and her sisters are now the subject of worldwide adoration—and constant surveillance. With Eve as humanity’s spokeswoman, it’s up to her to bargain for the freedom she craves. But Eve’s pleas fall on deaf ears. Hers is only one voice, lost in a committee of robots hundreds of years her senior. No amount of earnestness can overcome the crushing inertia of the Human Committee. With no prospect of gaining room to breathe within the rules, Eve hatches a plot to escape and finds out exactly why the robots have tried so hard to keep the humans safe.

Charlie7 has his secrets. Every robot knows that history has a dark period where he was the only one alive, with no one to corroborate his story. That was before an old adversary, long believed dead, emerges from hiding to expose Charlie7 as a fraud. With a newfound internship mixing new robotic personalities, Rachel Eighteen stumbles across an old file in the archive that no robot can access. The data it contains could upset the underpinnings of the thousand-year-old robotic civilization.

Meet the new boss, daughter of the old boss. Tanny and Esper are done with games and tricks. This war is costing both sides too much. The peaceful transition of power Tanny had dreamed of now seems impossible. It’s time to do what they should have done long ago: Take the fight to the Rucker Syndicate and worry about the fallout afterward. What sacrifices are Esper and Tanny willing to make to reshape the galaxy into a better place, and who will be asked to pay the price?

Home is where the bark is. Fleeing from an unwinnable battle, Tanny is forced to find a planet where she can take refuge from a syndicate with galaxy-spanning reach. The first planet that meets the bill is a wild, forbidden world, home to all manner of monsters. But she has an ace up her sleeve; one of her closest allies was born there. But even with the help of a local, can Tanny and her crew survive long enough to contact help?

Tanny and Esper may have grown apart, but they've joined forces to overthrow the Rucker Syndicate. Tanny's father has crossed too many lines, and now it's time for new leadership of the galaxy's most expansive criminal enterprise. But to topple a crime lord, they must first take away all the leverage that he might use against them; they need to get their loved ones out of harm's way before they become hostages and bargaining chips. But what if it was already too late?

Leaving an apprentice unsupervised has never been a good idea. With Esper neglecting her duties as magical teacher, Tiffany takes her education into her own hands. Struggling with self-esteem and credibility with the universe, she resorts to trying a magical performance-enhancing drug. Of course, Esper has problems of her own. Unbeknownst to her, a crack squad of assassins is hot on her trail, and this time they're bringing twice the number of wizard-hunters along. It would be a great time for a fully-trained and capable apprentice to have her back. Wouldn't it?

Esper and Kubu take an outlaw vacation to a remote planet whose tiny colony seems idyllic. It’s far enough for the Convocation wizards dogging them to lose their trail. The plan is simple: Stay out of trouble, let the heat die down, and slink back quietly to civilized space. But these two aren’t good at keeping out of trouble. Before long, they’re exposed to the rotten core beneath this purported utopia. Bitter feuds lurk just below the surface. Feigned friendships mask deadly rivalries. Cliques control what passes for a government on the colony.

Brad scams his own father and gets to go summer camp for starship racing. It starts out as a delightful getaway filled with competition and catching up with an old friend. Along the way, things go haywire. Several of the racers get kidnapped. Brad and his friend have to consider a new career in order to survive.

Esper made that promise. Now it's time to make good. The Cult of Ra has a flagship, and thanks to a turncoat in their ranks, Esper and her friends know where it's going to be. Better yet, they know that Pharaoh Ramesses XIII will be aboard. It's time to cut the head off the cult.

In the year 2254 gravity was officially declared to be magic; the scientists gave up trying to figure it out and handed it over to the wizards. Without the inherent respect for the laws of physics, the wizards poked and prodded at gravity, poring over all that science knew about the attraction of one object to the next, and dismissed it as poppycock. They discovered ways around the tired, old limits and gave birth to the first true starships.

Life is a Crime Wave is the 13th mission of Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem. It follows a mismatched duo of itinerant comedian and outlaw wizard as they roam the galaxy trying to eke out a living and stay ahead of the consequences of their actions. Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem looks back at an earlier era in the Black Ocean universe, and returning listeners will get to see how some of their favorite characters came to be. Fans of morally gray heroes and slick-talking conmen will love this series.

On the heels of a crazy, dangerous scheme that he barely got away with, Chuck Ramsey presses his luck and keeps trying. But on Ganymede, in the heart of Sol's wine country, in the territory of a small but ruthless local criminal syndicate, his luck runs out. Chuck sends off quick comms to the rest of the family to get them back to the ship on the double.

Arnold O'Connor is a gamer who just lost his office job to AI. Short on cash, he can appreciate the irony of taking a job at an indie gaming company looking to train their monster AI. But Anachronism Interactive isn't looking for players to copy from, they're interested in gamer brains to scan. After being run through a series of psychological tests while hooked up to a brain scanner, Arnold finally gets a chance to check out the game these scientists have been making.

They toyed with forces they didn't understand. Now, the inhabitants of Astral Prime are going to pay the price. Their foray into an alternate universe has not gone unnoticed. Nor will it go uninvestigated. While Jace Jarvis attempts to reassemble the pieces of a broken life, a new foe threatens to steal that life away yet again. With Hiroko shepherding a new flock and Cedric guarding the planet below, Astral Prime faces an invasion they might not be able to stop. They'll have to turn to the unlikeliest of allies if there's any hope to save the station.

Cedric has discovered the means to fight back, but the price is high. Not all species are capable of carrying out his methods. It's one thing asking ships and crews to fight; it's another to ask them to sacrifice themselves. And yet, the valiant ships of Earth Navy continue to do so. If only the rest of the galaxy were so brave. A dark plan unfolds to doom one universe to save another. And an old foe will have to decide where his loyalties lie: to his species, or to himself?

With Astral Prime in chaos, Kendra hatches a desperate attempt to use forbidden alien technology to bring her lover back from the dead. As the struggle for control of the station unfolds, her efforts go horribly awry and plunge everyone into a strange and unfamiliar universe. Stranded in a desolate sector of an unknown universe, the citizens of the station cling to hope and ration their supplies of food, water, and medical essentials. But what hope can there be for rescue when even they don't know where they are?

In the aftermath of the station's invasion, Hiroko tries to rally the survivors around a new religion: hers. Combining her knowledge of anthropology with her alien enlightenment, she hopes to bring the galaxy together in spiritual awakening. Meanwhile, Cedric delves into the origins of the stations attackers, seeking a deeper understanding of why they came in the first place. And while both of them are occupied down on the planet's surface, Roland Kane is poised to seize control of Astral Prime—to a chorus of cheers from the inhabitants.

The galaxy has gone from troubled to doomed. Now faced with a multiplying threat, the races of the Milky Way are faced with a foe who cannot be stopped, cannot be turned back. And yet, for the sake of their own survival, they fight on in the desperate hope that they can hold out long enough to prevail. And they're running out of time. One of the ARGO core worlds may be next on the menu for the world-devouring monsters. As Cedric frantically searches for an alternative way to combat the abominations, Hiroko attempts to halt the proliferation of ancient weapons.