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.

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.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

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?

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.

The artifact we found on Vesta changed everything. Sure, we were able to patent the new technologies we managed to reverse engineer, and make a hefty sum. But we could never have anticipated where these discoveries would eventually lead. The board of directors still wants to see what we come back with, but those of us on the ship know that there's something far more significant than Hegemony credits out here. And we have to do it right by humanity.

Mitch's mediocre life has just taken a turn for the worse, so his buddy tries to cheer him up by showing him a secret starship. Unfortunately, everything goes south when hostile aliens arrive. In an effort to save his buddy and the starship from the aliens, Mitch does the obvious thing: he accidentally warps hundreds of light-years away. Marooned in a distant star cluster, Mitch is forced to deal with a snarky teenage AI, a rogue auto-pilot, and a beautiful alien soldier who's ready to steal his ship at any moment—so she can fight an oppressive military faction, of course.

Jarat Ellington was just an exile from Elite society, trying to lead a simple life, when a genius friend dropped an explosive mystery in his lap. The old pal, Thom Tseng, created a priceless chemical substance called the Juice that turns mildly charming people into almost god-like presences, known as Charismites. But the Juice is stolen, and Thom killed.

When a deadly plague ravaged the Earth, refugees fled into space, crowding into any space station or lunar colony that would take them. Decades passed and the descendants of the survivors struggle to live in anything remotely spaceworthy. Omesh, banished from his Earthly home, finds himself in Barnacle Town, a collection of salvage clinging to the hull of a space station in lunar orbit. Thousands of lives cling precariously to the hull, at the whim of the corporation that owns the station.

Deirdre Morgan is a Reconstructor working at the Rust-city Criminal Investigations Agency. She is one of the Touched, people with extrasensory perception serving society but always kept on the fringes, feared and mistrusted for what they can do. Deirdre has been transferred from one team to another, until she becomes a part of Agent Sebastian Cadwalder’s unconventional squad.

Carina Lin is a slum brat turned space mercenary. With a twist. She’s also a mage, and she’s about to risk everything. Her merc band, the Black Dogs, is assigned a suicide mission. A young boy has been kidnapped by one of the galactic sector’s most powerful clans, and the Dogs’ task is to rescue him.

Simon, one of the last of his kind, seeks otherworldly treasures to change the card fate has dealt him. When he discovers Penumbra Springs, a secret haven for mythics, he's determined to join. But the haven hides more than just a community of strange beings.

Connor Huntsson had a plan: build a home, marry his best friend, and make lots of babies. The house was easy—but the rest? Problematic. Getting into a brawl alongside the chieftain’s daughter might have been forgivable, but kidnapping a drunken king would lead to war. Armed with his inheritance and the truth of who he is, Connor still wants to live the life of a man. But to do that, he must first seek the powers of a god.

Deicide is one-part public service, one-part revenge . . . or at least that's why Lilith does it. An operative of the multiverse-spanning Eifni Organization, she travels to new worlds to clear out the local deities before they can eat everyone's souls. It's a tricky process, requiring advanced sociological science and an arsenal of tools weaponizing meaning itself. But a god once tried to eat her, and she's not one to easily forgive. When Lilith deploys to pre-industrial Theria, she finds their gods aren't willing to go quietly.

The victim of a daring scientific experiment, Sarah wakes alone, naked and confused, in what appears to be a swamp. Terrified and suddenly angry, she quickly realizes she's in a whole new world, part of some kind of "system" and receiving messages regarding her status—both mental and physical—via holograph. Soon Sarah will learn just how different this world is from her own. In the meantime, all she can do is heed her system's instructions and warnings about mutating, "levels," and her "life force." But the longer she's there, the less she remembers about her old life and the people in it.