Fantasy Spy

Charles Stross builds a new series with Empire Games. Expanding on the world he created in the Family Trade series, a new generation of paratime travelers walk between parallel universes. The year is 2020. It's 17 years since the Revolution overthrew the last king of the New British Empire, and the newly reconstituted North American Commonwealth is developing rapidly, on course to defeat the French and bring democracy to a troubled world.

At the bloody height of World War II, the deadliest enemies in all of human history were forced to put aside their hatreds and unite against an even fiercer foe: a seemingly invincible power bent on world domination. With awesome technology, the aggressors swept across the planet, sowing destruction as Tokyo, Berlin, and Washington, D.C., were A-bombed into submission.

Super spies reporting for duty! When Maddie Robinson and her team are assigned a new super secret mission to protect the world’s most famous pop star from a mysterious foe, she knows she’ll need every tool available. That’s when she discovers a secret buried deep within the Illuminati’s archives: a device that can predict the future, invented by renowned Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci himself!

“Are you a puritan, Bianca? Are you ashamed to show yourself naked in front of me if I’d ask you to? Or would you feel uncomfortable if we start discussing sensuality and sexuality, your past experiences, desires, and fetishes? Being naked should be as comfortable to you as being completely dressed up. You should never be embarrassed to display your nudity. Puritans are not fit for this job.” It all started with an apparently innocent interview, and I ended as an empowered slave with a sharp mind and submissive will under my owner’s power. A seduction training transformed me from a ...

Benvenuto Cellini, master artisan of Renaissance Italy, once crafted a beautiful amulet prized for its unimaginable power - and untold menace. Now the quest to recover this legendary artifact depends upon one man: David Franco, a brilliant but skeptical young scholar at Chicago's world-renowned Newberry Library.

It's the year 2027. Extraterrestrials have finally responded to broadcast signals transmitted from Earth. President Elizabeth Schaefer creates a secret alliance with Bretta, a humanistic young female, who is seeking legal asylum for herself and over 200 refugees from another world. Together they must face an ominous galactic danger testing their strategies, strengths, and desires.

Tommy Joss is working long hours, making a life for his daughter and wife. He doesn't have time to worry about politics and the endless arguments pouring across his social media feed. He has debts to pay and a boss to keep happy. When he returns from a business trip to find his house dark and empty, he discovers blood on the floor and a cryptic message painted on the door. His wife and daughter are missing. Kidnapped, dead, or disappeared for their political views, he doesn't know which.

An Anonymous-style rabble-rouser, an Arab Spring hacktivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll are each offered a choice: go to prison or help protect the United States, putting their brains and skills to work for the government for one year. But being a white hat doesn't always mean you work for the good guys.

The brilliants changed everything.

Since 1980, 1% of the world has been born with gifts we'd only dreamed of. The ability to sense a person's most intimate secrets, or predict the stock market, or move virtually unseen. For thirty years the world has struggled with a growing divide between the exceptional...and the rest of us.

The Last Layover is a fiction novel based on real places and potential scenarios where an out of control government pushes America to the brink of financial and social collapse. This vulnerable state allows the unthinkable to happen, causing the comfort, security, and conveniences of our modern first world society to quickly come to an end.

As intrepid human journalist Elif Moora stalks the levels and voids of Artha Station, camera drones on alert, interview subjects reveal the inner workings of Universal Society and offer terrifying hints regarding the existence of a mysterious mastermind, one intent on destroying humanity. Kirk Tormod, pict rogue and undercover USIA agent, has spent the past three years in pursuit of the mastermind. When Elif crashes Kirk's investigation, damage control means recruiting her as his girlfriend.

China's leaders watched the riots and looting that tore through America during the summer of 2020 carefully. The events of 1/6/21 confirmed what China's leaders had long suspected: that America is divided. World War 3: The Dragon Rises depicts how a Chinese EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon attack upon America would cripple the United States. China's leaders also unleash the world's first super-soldiers upon America in World War 3: The Dragon Rises. With altered DNA, these super-soldiers utilize the chaos that has gripped America after the electricity goes out.

Lieutenant James Shelley and his squad of US Army soldiers were on a quest for justice when they carried out the unauthorized mission known as First Light. They returned home to America to face a court-martial, determined to expose the corruption in the chain of command that compelled their actions. But in a country still reeling from the nuclear terrorism of Coma Day, the courtroom is just one battlefield of many.

James Shelley has left his lover, Delphi, and his companion-in-arms, Jayne Vasquez, with a fortune acquired from a fallen oligarch. They believe him to be dead, and he doesn't try to set the record straight. His long-running question has been answered: There are other soldiers like him who have served the purposes of the Red - and he has accepted his place among them.

Will and Lyra, whose fates are bound together by powers beyond their own worlds, have been violently separated. But they must find each other, for ahead of them lies the greatest war that has ever been - and a journey to a dark place from which no one has ever returned.... Read by Philip Pullman and a full cast of narrators.

Personable, good looking, and a whiz at physics, graduate student Allan Diffenduffer "Duff" Bogan has a bright future ahead of him. But while staying at the home of an invalid widow in Florida, Duff makes a discovery that freezes his blood: a cache of uranium hidden in the locked closet of a fellow guest. The FBI is initially skeptical, but Duff knows all too well what his findings portend.

Some terrifying things have happened to Olive in the old stone house, but none as scary as starting junior high. Or so she thinks. When she plummets through a hole in her backyard, though, she realizes two things that may change her mind: First, the wicked Annabelle McMartin is back. Second, there's a secret underground that unlocks not one but two of Elsewhere's biggest, most powerful, most dangerous forces yet. But with the house's guardian cats acting suspicious, her best friend threatening to move away, and her ally Morton starting to rebel, Olive isn't sure where to turn.

Vasalie Moran was once a dancer in King Illian’s court—until he framed her for murder. Barely surviving her two years in the dungeons, she’s suddenly called to face her king. He offers her a deal: become his spy at the month-long royal Gathering and he’ll grant her freedom. As Illian’s orders grow bloody and dangerous, forcing her to harm and betray those around her, Vasalie discovers that the monster she serves may be aligned with a bigger monster—one far closer to home.

Covert agent Cyril DePaul thinks he's good at keeping secrets, especially from Aristide Makricosta. They suit each other: Aristide turns a blind eye to Cyril's clandestine affairs, and Cyril keeps his lover's moonlighting job as a smuggler under wraps. Cyril participates in a mission that leads to disastrous results, leaving smoke from various political fires smoldering throughout the city. Shielding Aristide from the expected fallout isn't easy, though.

It’s been 18 months since the angels of the apocalypse ripped our world apart. Before, I was a burlesque dancer, decked in sequins and feathers at the hippest clubs. Now, I live in an abandoned hospital in East London, scavenging for scraps. At least, until I get the chance to fight back against the disturbingly seductive angels. In fact, I’m going undercover as a spy in their castle. I have two goals: learn their weaknesses, and find my missing sister.