In the year 2107, the world has both made astounding leaps forward and reduced humanity to its most basic existence. While the megacorps and those who rule them enjoy lives of extraordinary comfort and ease, most people barely scrape by, doing whatever they can to keep going. Juliet Bianchi is one of the latter. She works cutting metal in a scrapyard and doesn't have much to show for it except for a small group of equally bereft, fiercely loyal friends. Still, she maintains a bright disposition, possessing more hope and optimism than anyone would expect her to—and she's going to need it.

Victor can’t wait to get the hell out of high school, go to the local community college on a sports scholarship, and start his own life. But that’s all put on hold when he enters his abuela’s house and somehow ends up stepping into a world unlike anything he’s ever known, filled with fantastical meta-humans; walking, talking devils; and other creatures one usually needs some serious pharmaceuticals to see. Fanwath is no dream, though. In fact, it’s a nightmare.

Orphaned and alone, Moss is happy to have found a place in the world. But his humdrum working routines take a terrifying turn when a mysterious woman breaks into his apartment and hands him a data chip from his dead parents. Suddenly hearing messages revealing his benevolent employer has a far darker side, he braves the dangerous megacity streets in search of the truth. Surrounded by outcasts and criminals and running on instinct, Moss stumbles onto a rebel group intent on exposing their corrupt oppressors.

As a powerful, cybernetically enhanced elite soldier her job is to do all the dirty work for the mega-corporation she belongs to. She and her elite cyborg squad are deployed on the most dangerous missions – to protect Olympias from threats outside and inside at any cost. One day, a malfunction in her implants separates her from the all-controlling grid. For the first time in her life, Nephilim is free.

Catherine "Cat" Leblanc is an orphan that is about as far from super-rich as one can be. When the Incursion alarms start blaring and the sky starts raining hungry xenos, it's just another blemish on an already piss-poor afternoon.

In this world, where academic success could literally mean the difference between life and death, many students develop emotional baggage. Fortunately for Alexa, she does not suffer from the problems that plague most of her peers. Gifted with an intelligent mind to start, she realized early on that applying herself to both her academic and sports competitions was the number one way to succeed in this world. How can she do it? Shuffle studying, school work, and sports practice, all while being a teenager? The answer is simple: she has no emotions.

Every year, the empire administers the rite of passage into adulthood. That rite serves to identify those blessed by Aether to become magi. The new magi are shipped to the academy to learn the arts of magic. The academy is a dangerous place; the tournaments held twice each year can cripple or kill the students, and the clans of the empire will go to great lengths to recruit the students they want. Gregory had one dream: to become a magi like the legends of old. Though he was ridiculed by the residents of the village and his unsupportive father, he never wavered from his dream.

As a newly minted healer, Zoe doesn't need a unique ability to take on murderous cultists, an equally murderous paladin, and the weather. She'd certainly like one, though. It's a fast-paced, violent world, filled with undead ghouls, sprawling dungeons, and far too many scheming nobles, all of whom want a piece of her. A healer is a valuable asset—and becoming a demon and blood magic user only ups the ante.

Death isn't the end. Marie didn't expect to be given the opportunity to go to a new universe when she died, but when it was offered she held to the offer with all her might. Taking the name of Talyn, she was accompanied to the new world by the goddess Melody as her assistant, as she seeks out a more rewarding life for herself, no matter what challenges may stand before her. Even if the introduction of some game mechanics and a goddess to her life has unanticipated consequences.

Jack Bennet returns from the war to find the life he left behind has moved on without him. The only option he has to make ends meet lies in a military surplus junkyard starship. What’s a former Combat Search and Rescue soldier to do? Fix up the ship, hire the cheapest pilot—a notorious drunk—and take the first contract that comes up: collect a bounty on one of the most ruthless killers in the Pirate Worlds, a place crawling with thieves, cutthroats and con artists whose primary language is violence. Jack must abandon his nice guy persona, or exploit it, if he is to survive.

As an engineer on the arkship Pilgrim-9, bound for the Tau Ceti solar system, Morgan Hall thought his life would revolve around maintaining and repairing the ship and supporting the needs of the five thousand colonists aboard. But when he’s roused early from a 240-year stasis, he’s confronted with chaos. Along with his shipmates, Morgan is brought down to a planet teeming with peril. Forced to fight for their survival without any of their tech to hand, they must adapt quickly to overcome countless threats in a world where magic is as real as science.

The opening of Pandora's Box changed the world, giving rise to an age of superhumans and monsters. Yet mankind was not safe from its own hubris, and in the end, it destroyed itself. Sonya Chernovna returns to the past with a mysterious new ability that lets her absorb powers, combine them, and even bestow them onto others. It's a power with near limitless potential.

She's unlike any one or any thing else: a Non-Standard Leashed-Intelligence Cybernetic Enforcer aka NSLICE-00P. The first of her kind, she's let loose into a universe of superheroes on behalf of her sinister masters to destroy all who oppose them. And everything's going according to plan—until NSLICE-00P gets hacked and sent into the past to kill her own creator before he creates her. Obeying orders as always, she wastes the poor guy. Unfortunately, there are consequences to initiating a reality-breaking time paradox. The most significant: total ejection from that reality.

Typhoeus is a dragon. To the humans hunting him, he is nothing more than a monster, a mindless beast to be killed for levels and glory. To him, adventurers are not that much better. Exiled from his home due to a trait on his status, and so very tired of killing adventurers on a near daily basis, Typhoeus decides to seek refuge hidden amongst the cowed remnants of humanity that populate this world.

Killer cyborgs, crazy sex bots, glitched virtual realities, a bloody hunting party, and boomers vs. robots. Welcome to the world of cyberpunk life and death—where life is cheap and death is omnipresent.

In the year 2107, the world has both made astounding leaps forward and reduced humanity to its most basic existence. While the megacorps and those who rule them enjoy lives of extraordinary comfort and ease, most people barely scrape by, doing whatever they can to keep going. Juliet Bianchi is one of the latter. She works cutting metal in a scrapyard and doesn't have much to show for it except for a small group of equally bereft, fiercely loyal friends. Still, she maintains a bright disposition, possessing more hope and optimism than anyone would expect her to—and she's going to need it.

As a powerful, cybernetically enhanced elite soldier her job is to do all the dirty work for the mega-corporation she belongs to. She and her elite cyborg squad are deployed on the most dangerous missions – to protect Olympias from threats outside and inside at any cost. One day, a malfunction in her implants separates her from the all-controlling grid. For the first time in her life, Nephilim is free.

She's unlike any one or any thing else: a Non-Standard Leashed-Intelligence Cybernetic Enforcer aka NSLICE-00P. The first of her kind, she's let loose into a universe of superheroes on behalf of her sinister masters to destroy all who oppose them. And everything's going according to plan—until NSLICE-00P gets hacked and sent into the past to kill her own creator before he creates her. Obeying orders as always, she wastes the poor guy. Unfortunately, there are consequences to initiating a reality-breaking time paradox. The most significant: total ejection from that reality.

As if nearly burning up in a freak accident on her way to Earth wasn't bad enough, Daisy had a whole mess of other trouble on her plate. Big trouble. And she was going to get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing she'd do, which it was starting to look like it very well might be. The thing is, Daisy had a simple rule for space travel. Don't blow up, and so far she'd been managing to abide by that, but mere survival wasn't enough.

Anika DuPont just knows she's bound for stardom. As Magical Girl Understudy, she's already a big deal in her hometown, and now that she's eighteen, she's heading to Tokyexico University, where the real action is. Every superhero on Earth is jockeying for better roles in a global reality show created for the amusement of alien children, and Annie's trying to keep her secret identity hidden while she makes her way out of dead-end Little League roles.

Catherine "Cat" Leblanc is an orphan that is about as far from super-rich as one can be. When the Incursion alarms start blaring and the sky starts raining hungry xenos, it's just another blemish on an already piss-poor afternoon.

The war against the AI was won but a new threat is rising. Hank Spears is content with his life as a scrapper until he unearths an artificial intelligence who warns him of a grave threat to all life in the universe. Since AI has long been outlawed and anyone caught harboring one is imprisoned or executed, the two must go on the run, fleeing into the far reaches of space. They must avoid capture, all for the sake of those who would imprison them. Looking for help from old friends to fight new enemies, Hank must find a way to save himself so that he can save the universe.

Five years ago, Kelana Gardavros lost everything in the war against the Pale empire. Now Kel Garda is just another refugee living on the edge of an isolated star system. No one knows she was once a member of an Order whose military arm was disbanded and scattered across the galaxy. And no one knows that if her enemies found her, they might destroy the entire world to get rid of her. Kel’s past intrudes in the form of a long-dormant Pale war machine, suddenly reactivated. If the massive automaton isn’t stopped, at best it will carve a swath of devastation that displaces thousands of people.

Avo was born a weapon, a slave to his instincts and his masters. He and his brothers were made to burn New Vultun to ashes. Everything changes when Avo gains immortality and becomes heir to an impossible legacy. He must ascend the megacity of New Vultun. He must challenge the very tyrants that usurped the gods. He must finally free the world from chains.

Madeleine L’Engle once said, “When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.” The Mythic Dream gathers together 18 stories that reclaim the myths that shaped our collective past, and use them to explore our present and future. From Hades and Persephone to Kali, from Loki to Inanna, this anthology explores retellings of myths across cultures and civilizations.

Despite descending from a long line of powerful sorcerers, Vi Solaris lacked all magic. That is, until the day she manifested a powerful sorcery unlike any other. Now, a sorcerer from a distant land tells her she must leave her home to claim her true power as champion of the goddess. That the mysterious plague ripping through her empire is the first warning an ancient evil threatens to rise anew. And that she is the only one who can put a stop to it.

The Hunt has descended upon Earth, bestowing deadly powers upon ordinary individuals and pitting them against one another. In this treacherous game, players must vanquish their adversaries to claim their power. With each triumph, Hunters unearth unprecedented abilities that evolve in strange, unexpected ways.

A company of Army Rangers is sent on an interstellar colony ship to secure a foothold on a dangerous, alien planet through violence of action. Leaving behind a warring Earth flung headfirst into a conflict of mutual assured destruction, the Rangers and the accompanying crew of first colonists are guided on a 40-year journey by an unprecedented artificial intelligence. But when they emerge from the frigid embrace of cryosleep, they awake to a nightmare, finding themselves greeted by the same ruthless enemy that brought about the ruin of Earth.

A place of wonder, excitement, deadly traps and ferocious monsters, the Eternal Dungeon is an endless labyrinth of tunnels and rooms. With death awaiting through every door the dungeon needs new inhabitants to feed its hunger. Enter Jackson, snatched from his home via magic portal and dumped into the dungeon's dank halls. Assigned the role of a disposable monster by the class-based levelling system that puts the Eternal Dungeons denizens on an even footing, he must learn to master his new powers to survive.

Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.