Science Fiction City

Once a student of alchemy with the dark scholars of the Technic League, Alaeron fled their arcane order when his conscience got the better of him, taking with him a few strange devices of unknown function. Now in hiding in a distant city, he's happy to use his skills creating minor potions and wonders - at least until the back-alley rescue of an adventurer named Jaya lands him in trouble with a powerful crime lord.

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificial Intelligence Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

Kaia lives in the Ink District, where buildings lean like tired men and the streets bleed with forgotten sketches. In this crumbling edge of a paper-crafted city, she’s used to being invisible—until the day she discovers something dangerous: her touch can erase. Not paint. Not chalk. But reality itself. As the ink on her fingers begins to spread, so do the cracks in the city’s façade.

In the heart of Venice, a woman is sacrificed to a forgotten god, sparking a mystery lost for thousands of years. Dr. Penelope Bryne is ridiculed by the academic community for her quest to find the remnants of Atlantis, but when an ancient and mysterious script is found at a murder site, she flies to Venice determined to help the police before the killer strikes again. Penelope has spent her entire life trying to ignore the unexplainable and magical history of Atlantis, but when she meets the enigmatic Alexis Donato, everything she believes will be challenged.

The conclusion to The Last Survivors series. The final battle for Brighton. Winthrop's army is on the move as Jingo and his crew rediscover an ancient secret that might change everyone's fate. Amidst the chaos, Bray vows to fulfill a promise made in the blood of a dying mother. Can the last survivors restore what is left of humanity, or will civilization crumble once again?

Amare Bellamy never meant to get married. She had a simple plan: rescue the Captain, rendezvous with the crew, and escape the Sunken City. But when her father bumps up the wedding without notice, she has no choice but to comply… that is, until Lukas shows up. Lukas presents Amare with an ultimatum: break into Skullhaven and collect the ring that could raise the Fallen Witch, or watch her friends die. She agrees, under the contingency that, once their mission is complete, they never speak again.

The city of Voortyashtan was once the home of the goddess of death, war and destruction, but now it's little more than a ruin. General Turyin Mulaghesh is called out of retirement and sent to this hellish place to find a Saypuri secret agent who's gone AWOL in the middle of a mission. But the ghosts of past wars have followed her there, and soon she begins to wonder what happened to the souls in the afterlife when the gods were defeated by her people, the Polis.

OK, Reg. You’re a bouncer who’s barely eking out a meager existence in the decaying Wilds outside Detroit. So a little job tracking the Eddies on their patrols seems like easy money. Well, think again, Reg. Because a riot’s about to happen… and you’re going to be the cause…

This story was originally published in the Hugo Award-nominated METAtropolis.

When L. Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, best-selling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Jane Yolen to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans.

Humorless and drug addicted, physiognomist Cley is ordered by the Master of the Well-Built City to investigate a theft in a remote mining town. Well-versed in serving justice, arrogant Cley sets out to determine the identity of the thief using the pseudo-science of judging people by their features, but becomes distracted from his task by a beautiful girl from town.

Hugh McDaniel lives in Queens, New York. He's a genius, and he has been struggling to pick one area to focus his life’s work on. His brother and best friend, Travis, is a marine officer. They get along very well, despite their differences. When aliens suddenly invade and destroy their entire culture, they are forced to struggle together in the ruins. At first they just tried to survive; to collect food, medicine, weapons, and to find other survivors. But now, they've set their sights higher: on resistance and reclaiming their planet from invaders.

The dragon-boy once known as Vetch has returned to his homeland of Alta to reclaim his birthright, only to discover that Alta is under the thrall of evil Priest-Kings. Gathering troops of dragon riders by his side, Vetch raises an army in the sanctuary of the desert to rid his land of both war and magical domination once and for all.

Hanuvar pledged to find the remnants of his people, scattered into slavery across the whole of the peninsula. This time he had no army. His would be a stealthy war of liberation, buying the freedom of some and arranging for the escape of others, aided only by a young playwright, the daughter of a hated political rival, the tattered remnants of his old spy network, and the unlikeliest ally of all, the general who once defeated him.

In this action-packed sequel to City of Dark Magic, we find musicologist Sarah Weston in Vienna in search of a cure for her friend Pollina, who is now gravely ill and who may not have much time left. Meanwhile, Nicolas Pertusato, in London in search of an ancient alchemical cure for the girl, discovers an old enemy is one step ahead of him. In Prague, Prince Max tries to unravel the strange reappearance of a long-dead saint while being pursued by a seductive red-headed historian with dark motives of her own.

Elle and Dex concoct a plan to lure in the Allegiant vampires responsible for the recent spate of human abductions, but a surprising revelation threatens to change everything. While Elle works hard to keep the ugly truth of who she really is from Dex, it turns out Dex is keeping a secret of his own.

Sixteen-year-old Treehugger is looking forward to visiting the newly opened school for young superhumans along with her teammates. In particular, she's been looking forward to seeing a particularly handsome young superhero who she's had a crush on for a long time, though her feelings for him are also mixed with anxiety at the idea of actually talking to him. But when Treehugger is kidnapped by members of an interdimensional agency, she soon discovers a new threat from beyond the universe which seeks to not only capture her for its own nefarious purposes, but also destroy the Earth itself. ...

Seventeen-year-old Talon loves being a superhero and desires to keep fighting crime for the rest of her life. But when her mother--an internationally-known CEO of a major fashion company--suddenly falls ill, Talon must now choose between succeeding her mother as the owner of the company or staying as a superhero. If Talon does not retire, her mother's company will be sold; but if she retires, then she will never be able to become a superhero again. Sixteen-year-old Stinger finds himself helping a former superhero rescue his family from a powerful and dangerous enemy. In order to rescue this...

Shy socialite Breanna is used to being overlooked, minimized, and ignored. She's grown up in the suffocating household of her old-money parents and done her best to please them, agreeing to marry a man of their choosing. Just weeks before the wedding, she runs away. As she flees to her friend in Canada, she wrecks her car in the mountains. Rafe, the man who rescues her, is a bear-shifter wintering in his cabin. Snowed in together, the passion flares between them, and he soon realizes she is his mate.

No longer stuck in Woodhaven, the survivors must race against the clock in order to get Mia to the City of Light before her delivery. Along the way, they meet a former resident of the City, and with this new acquaintance's help and guidance things begin looking up for Grady and company.

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories.