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.

Max was a professional soldier, and extremely good at his job. Right up until it killed him. At the moment of his death, he meets Hildi the Valkyrie, and is given three options. Serve Odin in Valhalla as one of the Einherjar, fighting each day and celebrating each night until the battle of Ragnarok. Accept his death as final, and end his existence. Or be reincarnated as a Battleborne on a random unknown world. Max chooses to gamble! To live a new life, whatever that might entail.

In a world where vampires have conquered mankind, Turner West is the only thing they fear. Threaded with silver through his body, he is a Bonemaker - a rare human who can Unmake vampires with a single cut of his blade. Crossing the prairie of what was once the United States, Turner will face a blood-crazed cult, a governor who wants power more than life itself, and a trio of beautiful women who will help him toward his ultimate goal: ridding the world of bloodsuckers. But Turner's exploits have attracted a vampire so old, his very existence threatens what remains of the human race.

When naval officer Troy Weston loses his hands in a training accident, the doctors present him with a unique offer: robotic replacement hands with added strength and durability. He'll be a new man with a new life, far more capable than he ever was before. He accepts, and during his recovery he returns to Lake Superior to pilot his sailboat on bays he's known since childhood. During a fierce and wild thunderstorm, Troy and his craft are sent through a portal and into an unknown world. When the rain settles, he finds himself on a foreign coastline surrounded by Greek architecture.

Rob is a sheriff's deputy faced with a choice: die in a meaningless shootout six hours from now, or accept the offer of a new life in another world offered by a mysterious goddess. But it won't be easy. He has to bring law and order to the wild frontier. The shocks keep coming when he finds out humans aren't native to Olimero. It is a land populated with fierce orcs, wild beastkin, and cunning elves. He may not have their magic, but he does have an edge. As an outsider, he has no cap on his stats. He will need to train, fight, and survive if he wants to rule.

Boredom was killing Jay, not in a dramatic way, but in the life of stifled potential way. He wanted more out of life. Then, without any warning, he found himself part of an experiment with not even so much as the courtesy of a "how do you do?". It wasn't really all bad, though. The fit, busty babes outnumbered him 30 to one. Now, Jay has to fight to survive. He has to conquer the dungeon or die. On top of that, he has to juggle a bunch of gorgeous women who are all stuck in the same life or death fight as him.

No resources. No memories. No help. Jak awakens, cold and confused, on the shore of an unknown island at the beginning of a dangerous nightfall. With nothing but his name and a head drained of memory, he stumbles into the nearby forest and is quickly forced to fight for his very survival. When he meets Niri, a beautiful elf exiled from her people and left to die in the wilderness, he begins the quest to build his own tribe in a land of blood, brutality, and wild adventure.

Chuck, a 15-year-old hardened war orphan has seen friends killed, and now lies dying on a salvage battlefield himself. But the universe has a different plan for Chuck. A mortally wounded man offers to save his life, and Chuck accepts his help. A moment later, Chuck regrets his decision, when his rescuer forces Chuck’s mouth open and a reptilian octopus is ejected from his rescuer’s mouth and into his.

James's great adventure begins with a simple thing — a rustic cabin in the countryside. Charmed by the prospect, he decides to leave his stressful city life behind and move into the woods. But country living isn't boring. There's a quaint town nearby with kind folks who still help each other out. Maybe the bubbly blonde storekeeper has a job or two for James? And let's not forget the magical legacy waiting for James, tracing back through the history of his family.

In The Waste, every fantasy creature, fairytale demon, or mythological monster exists. From orcs, to neriads, ogres, trolls, wraiths, elves, harpies, and even beastmen. They all exist, and all despise humankind. In the ruins of the west and east coasts, new governments have arisen. With new jobs. Vince is a Ranger, a profession whose sole job duty is surviving in the waste, and taking missions from the Ranger Guild. Be it courier services, escorts, or simply exploring tombs and cities.

A world on the precipice of the apocalypse. A secret forged in the flames of war. A chance to start over. For John Sutton, only one of those three things matters. Retired from a decade of brutal war, he wants nothing more than a quiet pastoral life while he does his best to stem the steady increase of his Doom Points before they hit 100, signaling the start of the end. He’s been given a small farm on the outskirts of the empire as a thanks for his service, but no matter how far he travels, it's impossible to escape the war's devastating effects on the world.

I was hanging out with some buddies, doing a little caving, when everything went south. When I woke up, I was in some kind of medieval dungeon. Totally naked and in the dark. Luckily, I had a neighbor in a cell near me. One with a decidedly sexy feminine voice. When she explained to me that she was due to be executed and I was in line to be brainwashed, there was only one thing to do. We had to escape.

Jack Sawyer takes a sorority on a party boat tour when a mysterious storm slams into them. Now they are stranded on a chain of strange islands with bizarre creatures that have an unsettling desire to kill them. He must learn how to survive the elements by building rafts, shelters, and weapons from whatever they find on the islands, all while fighting for their lives.

The aliens tested humans on an individual basis for miner rentals. Do well on your pilot test, get a spaceship, sign up with a corp, and you can mine the belt. For a puddle-jumper pilot like me, yeah, I was so interested I became obsessed. When I finally tested, I performed above and beyond, being offered a contract for some better than a miner - Earth's First Starfighter.

Magic powers? His own mech? A whole airship of gorgeous women desperate for his genes? Yes, please! Paralyzed by a drunk driver, let go from his job, and stuck in a sad, stagnant town in the middle of nowhere, Joseph Locke was having the worst day of his life. And then he died. But considering that he wakes up with a brand new body, in the cockpit of a badass steampunk robot, on an airship of nothing but hot babes, his next life may not be all that bad. Especially when he learns that he’s a void mage—the rarest and most powerful of all mages on the world of Haven.

Ever since being part of the pot in a high-stakes poker game, elfin outcast Kai Gracen figures he used up his good karma when Dempsey, a human Stalker, won the hand and took him in. Following the violent merge of Earth and Underhill, the human and elfin races are left with a messy, monster-ridden world, and Stalkers are the only cavalry willing to ride to someone's rescue when something shadowy appears.

Best-selling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind’s first outpost in the farthest reaches of space. Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise—until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.

When half of mankind revolts and demands more opportunity, those at the top decide on a compromise: They will build the first colony ships and allow the rest to discover new worlds and start over. Twelve ships are built. The first is called the Orion. Many are eager to go, but only 100,000 are chosen for each vessel. Far from Earth, a new life awaits, and it promises the prosperity they've always wanted. But still, resistance stirs.

Cade Clarke spends his last night on Earth drinking with an old Army buddy. When he decides to risk his life to defend a gorgeous bartender, he pays the ultimate price. Resurrected to Antinium, Cade finds himself thrown into a world where the very rules of reality have shifted. He chooses a unique class, customizes his soul weapon, and levels up to unlock vital skills, traits, and attribute points in order to survive.

In a world where vampires have conquered mankind, Turner West is the only thing they fear. Threaded with silver through his body, he is a Bonemaker - a rare human who can Unmake vampires with a single cut of his blade. Crossing the prairie of what was once the United States, Turner will face a blood-crazed cult, a governor who wants power more than life itself, and a trio of beautiful women who will help him toward his ultimate goal: ridding the world of bloodsuckers. But Turner's exploits have attracted a vampire so old, his very existence threatens what remains of the human race.

In the beginning, the gods destroyed the world. Five hundred years later, things haven’t gotten much better for humans. The demigods that were left behind to guard over humanity have been using them as fodder for an endless civil war between themselves, and the humans just go on dutifully slaughtering each other, battle after battle. It’s not all bad, though. Perry McGown makes his living off those bloody, stinking battlefields. He works on a crew that reclaims all the spent shell casings. But if anyone found out that he was a deserter from the war, he’d be executed for heresy.

Gutsy and her friends, along with Benny and his crew, have just survived a massive attack on New Alamo by the Night Army - a mix of mindless shambling los muertos and sentient half-zombie ravagers. She's also reeling from the revelation that the residents of her town were the lab rats of the biological testing facility linked to creating the most dangerous zom, the Raggedy Man, who controls all of the living dead. And the first raid was only a test. The real Night Army is coming, and this time, it'll be a handful of survivors against seven billion zombies.

For three years, Rixon Caldwell has been the most lethal gamer online. He is undefeated in international play, and his stream is viewed by millions of avid fans each and every day. When an unsigned email arrives inviting him to beta test the newest, most immersive MMO ever, Circuit World, he discounts the offer out of hand. For him, offers like this one are a daily event. He’s a brand, and charity is not his default setting. When he moves to delete the email, his laptop screen vanishes, replaced with a simple question: Do you accept our challenge?

Caitlin finally gets the chance to explore what's outside of the walls of the town she's been trapped in and finds vampires, werewolves, and zombie-like creatures.

When Caleb reported for his normal shift, he never expected to go from the front seat of his ambulance to a bloody battlefield in a medieval Fey Realm. Kidnapped and beaten unconscious, he wakes up with a concussion and a fresh tattoo. While this might not be totally unusual for him, having the tattoo project the image of his stats and equipment like an old school tabletop RPG kind of is.

When William stumbles through a portal in the middle of Antarctica, he'll suddenly find himself in a world unlike any he's ever known. Now, he's surrounded by monster girls, vicious warlords, and everything in between. Worse, his only weapon is a magical branding iron, which seems to have one skill and one skill only, to overwrite slave brands. Thing is, monster girls seem pretty grateful about being freed from the tyranny of their masters, and with each one he brands, the stronger he becomes.

Alec works in the Detroit Overseer-factories, building a mysterious alien device. When three strangers appear, he's provided an opportunity to escape after years of servitude. Cole, a Freeborn loner, encounters Lina after her village is destroyed by the alien Occupation. Together, they make the arduous journey to a fabled safe-zone, trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy drones on their trail. Dex is a Hunter, working for the Occupation to track down escaped factory slaves, or Roamers, at all costs. But his latest hunt uncovers a massive secret.

A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires....

For 10 years Kal Hakala has been the Bureau of Supernatural Investigation's top man, the longest surviving agent in its blood-soaked history. The World At Large has no idea that The World Under exists. And its vampires, demons, zombies, and mythic monsters are growing increasingly restless. In all Kal's time with the Bureau, there has been no case he couldn't crack, no monster he couldn't kill. Then a plague of zombies comes to Denver, along with a vicious serial killer dubbed The Organ Donor.

This omnibus edition contains Survival (book 1) and Humanity (book 2) of the After It Happened series.