Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?

Compiled by intrepid journalist Neve Pride, this archive of recordings spans the months after dragons emerged on earth, chronicling the communities that sprang up amid the destruction, the scientists, military leaders, and experts searching for a defense, and those steadfastly seeking the missing. Neve and her young daughter Bex travel among the wreckage speaking to those left behind and surviving, against all odds. Neve records everything for history, and in the hopes of locating a clue as to where the dragons came from and how one might stop them.

For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

My young friend had a problem. I’d been mentoring him some since his father died a few months earlier. His problem wasn’t his father’s death. It wasn’t the fact that his father was very wealthy and, now, so was my young friend. He was prepared for that. We sat at the coffee shop, and he worked up the courage to tell me what he needed my help with. Finally, he took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and leaned across the table toward me. “Dude, it’s my dad’s widow. You gotta take her off my hands. You’re the only one I can trust and the only one who can help me.”

Well, this was different. Janice seemed to think that I was her blind date. She had my dating profile from a matchmaking service I didn’t even know I was part of. I had never heard about this and she was sure I was the guy she was destined to meet. I did know the person who arranged this, and I trusted them completely, but this was a surprise. But not to Janice. Yeah... the girl and I had a mutual acquaintance. We met each other at his office. He told us to use his private study upstairs to get to know each other and that he’d talk to us in an hour to see how things were going. Things ...

Last thing I remembered, I was in my backyard, thoughtfully pruning a bonsai tree. The next thing I remembered was alarms and bells and flashing lights and a voice yelling that death was imminent. And now, I was staring down at a beautiful female clone, gray and featureless, about to wake her up from transport hibernation. On a space ship. In space. Thank goodness I still had my bonsai scissors. Otherwise I’d never have been able to cut open her containment bag and that imminent death thing would have killed her. The voice said that there was more of them and that I’d better hurry if I ...

At least I was out in the air again. The past few days had been underground in a prison cell. I had hardly eaten since my capture. If I won my fight, I would win my freedom. Those were the rules. I was naked and bare-handed. So was my opponent. That didn’t make it an especially fair fight. I was strong and just short of six feet tall. My opponent was at least six-nine, maybe seven feet. An Ogress. Her size and slightly mottled skin gave her away. She was naked and bare-handed, too. The story is related to The Guardian Maidens or Sturgil’s Mark. It isn’t a sequel, and it’s not ...

Paul’s son and daughter-in-law have a plan for the holidays. A gift exchange. But only between Paul and his son’s mother-in-law. The kids expect it to be life-changing because that’s the kind of guy Paul is. They don’t know what kind of gift he’ll give, but as always, it will have no monetary value. Not because he isn’t generous. Because he is. But first, he has to teach this woman how to hug.Paul’s son and daughter-in-law have a plan for the holidays. A gift exchange. But only between Paul and his son’s mother-in-law. The kids expect it to be life-changing because that’s ...

I was kneeling on one knee, Terminator-style, like in that scene where he first arrives in 1984. Very much like that, actually. There were no flashes of lightning or anything like that. But there had been a lot of wind the moment before. Unlike a moment before, I wasn’t alone, and I wasn’t in my hotel room overlooking the ocean. Scattered around me were the bodies of twenty men. At the front of the large stone room were four more men, very much alive, and a woman screaming. Rushing at them, I reached them just as one of the men was about to strike the woman in the face. In that instant,...

Sitting here on the beach, I could see my now useless glider plane, various bits of driftwood and debris, and a girl with long black hair, about 150 feet away. The girl was new. She hadn’t been there for the past three days the way that everything else had. I was sitting under a tree looking out at the ocean. It was probably the Pacific Ocean. I didn’t know for sure. When she got closer, she called out, but not loudly. It sounded something like, “Aquilala soma towatsina.” Or something like that. I didn’t understand a word of it. It was a nice language though. I liked the sound of ...

My buddy, the self-described image consultant, wanted me to meet one of his clients. All he would tell me was that she was 'odd' and he thought I should meet her. We got along great. She was easy to talk to. I liked her a lot. There was an honest attraction. But after coffee, when she tried to pay me for the hour and a half we spent together, I realized that where I thought this was a date, she thought it was an appointment. She thought she had been referred to me as a relationship coach. So we started over. As friends. But my buddy was right. She was a little odd. Six-feet tall. A ...

My name is Ronin. This is the second book of my life as an Adventurer Monk. I left my clan’s village a few weeks ago. I took nothing but the clothes that I wore, the wooden sword that I had carved myself, and a sharpened piece of flint. I didn’t have a cloak to sleep in until later, when I had worked enough to have a few coins buy one. In fact, I didn’t even have a name. I was an Adventurer Monk, a novice, trained by my father and grandfather, but now on my own. Now I have a village, a place that I call home, and two women. And the girl called Harmony. I also have a war to start. ...

My name is Ronin. This is the third book of my life as an Adventurer Monk. So far, I’ve made a name for myself locally and established a house with wonderful mates. Today, the 311-year-old Elf-Woman, The White Falcon, appeared and says that she will join us. She was a surprise. 311 looks good on a strong-blooded Elf. This should be an adventure in itself. The Kobold Cave is empty…of Kobolds. I expect even more dangerous creatures are waiting for us deeper in. I intend to take my beautiful, highly sexual spouses, and explore it. At least four of us, and possibly five now, are Adventurers...

It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t even see her. There was a bump, and the next thing I knew, she was sitting in my passenger seat. Hitting her with my car didn’t kill her. She was already dead when I smashed into her. But sitting beside me, smiling, wearing a tie-dye outfit from the Hippie era of the 1960s, she didn’t look like a ghost. She looked great for a dead girl. I kept driving. She had things to say. She was saying that she’d be happy to be my “old lady” now. I'm just trying to stay in control of the car and not freak out at the girl suddenly beside me. When the car stops ...

Marry their queens. Unite the elves. Save Terynos. Carter Quinn assumed the king’s mantle when he married Queen Seema in a rushed, yet highly enjoyable ceremony. But he quickly learned power isn’t all leisure and luxury. Now, beset by problems both foreign and domestic, he must fulfill his duty as the world-hopper. Alongside his wife Seema, his girlfriend Linn, and a small group of trusted advisers, Carter sojourns in the coastal empire known as Riatha, where sea elves face unique threats of their own. There he meets the alluring and acerbic Empress Alidona, a ruler reluctant to ally ...

I'd been told it was maybe 10,000 years since the cataclysm. I was a Delver, trained to explore the ruins of civilization buried over time. I'd studied and trained hard. I felt prepared for pretty much anything. Except for what I actually found. She said she was Shakini. She was very much mostly dead when I found her. I found out that Shakini was what she was, not who she was. The old legends said that she was a demon. A vampiric being. It was closer to the truth to say she was just a really pretty girl addicted to love. She did nearly kill me while I struggled to save her that first few ...

This is the second book of Eddie Topper’s Haunted Life. The adventure continues. This time Eddie and the girls are headed for The Well of Souls. But they don’t know what that is. All they know is that they have to go. And that it’s south of where they are now. It must be. The story starts on the road. I guess all of these books have started that way. Eddie and his electric micro-bus, and one or more of the unliving companion he had picked up along the way. Whatever The Well of Souls is, we assume that it must be haunted...

“I might as well disappear into a black hole," he thought aloud. And in the next instant, that is precisely what happened to Carter Quinn. Summoned to a fantasy world by a religious sect at the behest of their elven queen, Carter Quinn finds himself suddenly thrust into a tense struggle for power. As the “world-hopper,” Carter holds a mystique he’s not entirely sure he can live up to. But when the voluptuous blonde elf Queen Seema offers him a new life full of wealth, women, and the title of king, he doesn’t take long to give his answer. Her plan? Unite the elven realms under a ...