Science Fiction
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The Survivors by Angela White
“The end of the world has given us a harsh, merciless existence, where nature tries hard to push humanity to the very brink of extinction. Everything is against us, between us. Untold miles of lawless, apocalyptic roads wait for our feet, and the future, cold and dark, offers little comfort. Without change, there can be no peace. Only survivors.”
Fated to lead New America, seven gifted people survive an apocalypse only to find themselves on a cross-country quest through horrors that will shake the very core of who they believed they were. These long-denied protectors of humanity are destined to rebuild their country, if they can stay alive long enough to find each other. Only Time Will Tell by TL Travis
Two men, one watch…
When Alex and Charlie met, they instantly clicked. Throughout the years, their bond grew from friends, to lovers. But when Charlies father passes away something inside him changes. Alex feared their relationship was over and knew his heart would never survive.
Things spiral out of control as Charlie’s erratic behavior leads Alex to think the worst. During an intense argument, they’re transported back in time. When Charlie come to, Alex isn’t by his side. Frantically, he searches for him. But when he finds him, he’s surprised Alex doesn’t remember who he is.
Charlie must make Alex fall in love with him again. But what happens if he doesn’t?
Will this be the end of their relationship, or will it be game over for them both?
A Town Called Wonderful, Part 1: from Book One of The Underlands Series by Michael Lacey
What if lands of legend and myth did exist? Cities of gold, fountains of youth, and lost worlds of wonder! Turns out, they do exist . . . as Underlands.
A young couple finds a land under time. A crooked government, a Resilient rebellion, a living land, and hidden abilities make this a life-changing adventure. Join Thomas and Emily as they grow closer and learn about sacrifice, purpose, and love.
*Clean content, fast-paced, and imaginative
Eclipse by Ophelia Rue
On the distant planet Oasis the secrets lay behind the Porcelain Man’s dead eggshell eyes. The panicked riddles he spews between catatonic cycles drive agent Carver closer to the missing. The brilliant Ceren Dore lies frozen in her virtual snow globe world, watching perfect false birds glide across a perfect false sky. She shatters in his dreams as the disease inside her grows. A secret society of eight guardians, the super elite, live in the shadows, ever tinkering, their dark mechanisms making the world their own. Echoing moans call from the dystopian nightmare of East Banzen as the war torn buildings grow twisted, a physical representation of their inhabitants. Through the chaos, one step ahead of a deadly assassin, Carver must piece together the clues as they intertwine with the hope to cure Ceren.
The conspiracy he uncovers changes him, changes everything, and sets him on a collision course with an ancient evil, waiting, ever patient, ever present. The Shadow, the Siren, and the Sage (Part Three of the Witch Doctor Trilogy) by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
A series of enormous explosions rocked the grounds and Jeremiah hit the deck, pieces of glass and other debris raining down upon him, pattering his shoulders. Thump! Ka-thump! Thump!
Now it is too late to turn back, he thought to himself, and wondered if Satyena, wherever she was, were laboring under the same yoke: the yoke of wanting to destroy a thing while at the same time yearning (paradoxically) for its embrace. Then he was up and running, running for the base of the cliff, wanting to look back and yet too terrified to do so, a Bible quote from one of Kill-sin’s sermons echoing in his ear: But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Tales of the Far Wanderers by David Welch
To Gunnar of the Tarn life is wandering. A half-breed with no home to return to, he has escaped the endless wars of his father’s people to drift through the vastness of a land once known as North America. Slow to trust and swift with a sword, he had resigned himself to a lonely, itinerant life. That all changes the day he meets Kamith of the Red Horse. The last of her kind, Kamith barely escapes being sacrificed and joins Gunnar in his wanderings. Together, they will try to build some sort of life in a wild and brutal world. Mad priests, crazy fertility rituals, roving slavers, land-hungry kingdoms, desperate sieges, sprawling civil wars, and deranged warriors are only a few of the challenges they’ll face. Their only reward? To survive and live another day by each other’s side.
Inspired by the sword-slinging pulp heroes of old, this story cycle tells the tales of two vagabonds spurned by the world, and forced to fight off it’s madness at every step. But they’re nothing if not tough, and find in each other much to fight for, and to live for…
Flashback Dawn, A Serialized Novel, Part Four: “Charlotte” by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
She supposed it was what they—or at least Sting of The Police—would have called synchronicity: that twangy guitar and soft-pedaled keyboard emanating so clearly from the RV’s speakers as she ascended the vehicle’s aluminum ladder. All she knew was that the song matched her mood perfectly, absurdly, as Karen Carpenter sang, Such a feeling’s comin’ over me / There is wonder in most everything I see …
She gained the RV’s roof and looked around: at the motor homes being corralled in the parking lot of Bluebeard’s Cove, at the velociraptors gathered like spectators outside the fence, at the brontosaurus mulling its cypress leaves nearby and the pterodactyls circling in the blood-red sky and the volcano spewing lava not thirty miles away. Not a cloud in the sky / Got the sun in my eyes / And I / Won’t be surprised if it’s a dream …
Viral Spark by Martin McConnell
“A retelling of the original Viral Trilogy, McConnell has condensed, distilled, and masterfully rewritten the original story beautifully.”
If you enjoyed the original series, you will appreciate the tweaks to the storyline. If you haven’t read any of the Viral books, you’re in for a treat.
From the back cover:
The world has become a place of comfort, where a shopping trip means heading to the first floor to collect new food tubes for the printer. Menial tasks, like cleaning up or cooking, are relegated to robots, and Robert’s job while finishing school is to maintain them. With only three classes remaining, he’s hoping for something better.
Then everything starts to glitch:
the robots, the building, and even the people.What starts as glitchy videos, misbehaving touch-screens, and random fighting, grows into a race against time to fix the problem before it escalates. Maybe he can land a cushy programming job in the process, but this virus is more than it appears…
More believable than iRobot, more grounded than most over-the-top scifi novels, this book takes place in a high-tech future that might be closer than you think.
Project Mothership by ash gray
Rose, a sweet and kind librarian, is on her honeymoon with her goofy gym teacher husband when the trip takes a turn for the worst and she is abducted by aliens. When the spacecraft is attacked by the enemies of Empress Nashal, Rose makes it back to Earth freshly impregnated by alien royalty with said enemies on her heels. Now faced with running for her life, she is joined by Zita, a cheerful alien marine, and must make the choice between her unborn alien child and her baffled husband, who believes the child is his.
Quotes:
“Who are you!” Rose called, aiming her white weapon at the door. “I’ve gotta Stainmaker 2000! And I’m not afraid to use it!” She was a tad insulted when she heard the woman on the other side of the door laugh derisively.
“Your people just got cell phones less than two hundred years ago,” the woman said, unimpressed. “You think I’m scared of your widdle plasma pistols?” She sighed. “Look, Mrs. Carmichael –”
–
“Some of them are mech,” said Zita, nimbly picking her high heels through the steaming pools of red goo and severed, wriggling limbs. She was splattered with blood and grinning as she came to them, but she frowned to see the utter bafflement on Rose’s face. “Hey, snap out of it. Haven’t you seen mech before?” She kicked a man’s severed head, and Rose gasped when his face slid off, revealing a skull of gleaming silver metal.Rose shook her head. “Mech are illegal. The government s-said they feared a robot war!” she insisted, turning to follow as Zita limped past her.
Zita laughed dryly, folding up her rifle and tucking it under her skirt. “Is it so hard to imagine your government lied? Governments tend to do that.”
–
“Drop. Your weapon. And. Come quietly,” said a robotic voice.“Kiss. My ass,” said Zita, mocking the robot’s tone.
–
“I’m surprised you haven’t come to hate humans,” Rose said with hesitation. “I mean, given all that happened to you here. I’m pretty sure assimilating wasn’t easy either. You have a sort of foreign look for an American, and Americans are notorious for their xenophobia.”Zita laughed softly. “Me? Hate humans?” She darkly shook her head. “I fought in the Midnight War for thirty years, Rosie. I know what happens when people let hate make decisions for them.”
The Dagger and the Chalise | Part Two of The Witch Doctor Trilogy by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
He went into the kitchen and poured her a glass of water. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”
“I’m not hungry,” she said. She seated herself slowly, tentatively. “Two, maybe three days. Ever since Sister Samain wrested control of the coven from the Council. Thank you …” She took the glass from Jeremiah, still looking at the paintings. “They’re all done by the same hand, aren’t they?”
He took off his wide-brimmed hat and studied them. “The same eye. Sometimes Jasper’s hand shakes uncontrollably and I have to steady it with my own. Other times I am his hand, and he tells me what to do.” He laughed a little. “He says that I am an artist, just as he. But even I know it’s the eye that sees, not the hands.”
She continued staring at them. “No, I don’t think that’s true. These pictures have lines of grace … look, see how the fingers are elongated, and tend to curve up or down depending on the position of the body. They dance upon the canvas … surely you can see that. I think you paint them together, Jeremiah.”
He swung the strap of the respirator over his head and set it on a mantle. “I’m just his hands.” He moved to leave the room again.
“Just? But hands are for feeling,” she said.
He paused at the entrance to the hall. “And they’re for killing, too.” Then he disappeared into the dark.
And she thought, It’s the heart that kills, Jeremiah. The hard one by slaying others … and the soft by slaying itself. Then she pushed it from her mind.
