A routine physical shows Captain Ross Mitchell has a flesh-eating virus that specifically targets the brain. Prognosis says he'll be a vegetable by week's end. Having survived numerous incursions in combat around the world, Ross decides he's not going out like that. He drives a rented corvette into a cliff face at over 200 mph. The fiery impact catapults him toward the afterlife.

A coup has thrown the kingdom of Farshores into turmoil, and one of the pretender’s first moves was to order mercenaries to invade the Mage District and put all its inhabitants - men, women, and children - to the sword. There is one survivor: Horace Stonecutter, the youngest son of the Stonecutter family. Consumed with anger and a hunger for retribution, he journeys out to find who ordered the murder of his family. Along his bloody journey, he meets kings, princes, princesses, noblemen - and not so noble men. May God have mercy on his enemies - because he won’t.

All of this was because of the dragon stone necklace I scavenged from that dead mage. I knew it was magic when I saw it. Well, it was and it wasn’t. Dragon stone, they call it, but what it actually is, is a dragon’s egg. When I touched it, I felt the need to put it around my neck for safekeeping. When I did, the necklace embedded itself inside my skin, making me the new dragon’s envoy. It has since been my duty to protect the egg until she’s ready to hatch. How do I know the egg is a she? Easy, she talks to me and is helping me to bring out my natural magic talents.

In the summer of 2257, the asteroid Wormwood was closing in to strike Earth a glancing blow. Even a glancing blow would be catastrophic. Earth's governments and militaries united to try to shift Wormwood's path. Earth launched every nuclear missile she had and succeeded in changing its path, just enough to miss her surface. In doing so, shards from the asteroid, caused by the nuclear blasts, struck the earth.

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.

His human father named him Cam, as he and his clan were chameleon cats. Kol-ha is what the clan called him, which means shame in clannish. Being a half-breed, Cam was not allowed to take the test to become a clan member. Cam decides that rather than not being worthy to be part of the clan, the clan is not worthy of him. Taking nothing, he leaves the clan to find his place in the world. Though ignorant of the ways of the "outside" world, Cam is a quick learner. His first lesson is the outside world is at war, and he is inadvertently drawn into it.

First countries, then worlds no longer kept large standing armies. They preferred to hire mercenaries, spending their citizens’ money rather than their citizens’ lives. Governments found it more cost-effective to keep their populations working, continuing to pay taxes rather than dying on some battlefield. War became a business. As in times of old, owning a mercenary company became a way for the ordinary man to become wealthy...if he survived.

Searching the battlefield after a major battle, Sgt. Eli finds a dead Union Army messenger. In the messenger's bag is a message saying the South had surrendered, the war was over. Along with the Union Messenger was a dead Union Captain carrying his discharge papers, and 8,000 dollars. Sgt. Eli decides now is a good time to seek other opportunities, away from the stink of war. While buying supplies from his friend the quartermaster, he is advised to go to St. Louis. Those opportunities may lie there and a crowd to get lost in.

Nic Haydock, “Nac” to his friends, because, as they said, saying he had a knack for fixing and improving mechanical devices was the understatement of all time. After spending 10 years on Titan where he went through rehab and attended college, he was now returning home to Conclave Station. Reuniting with his lifelong friends - Mal, a computer genius, and Jazz, a natural-born pilot, he started a mining and shipping business. However, while repairing their rock-tug, they stumbled upon a way to control artificial gravity, creating a gravitational force field.

It was a day like any other when suddenly the world changed. The universe reached a threshold humanity didn’t even know existed, and it was time to finally be integrated into the vast multiverse. A place where power is the only thing anyone can truly rely on.

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.

Legends speak of wizards with the power to rival Gods. To Hump, it’s just a story. Apprenticed to a wandering wizard, he grew up on the road, following the coin on whatever quest it took them. He always believed his master was just an ordinary hedge wizard, until the old man suddenly died, and his book of spells bound to Hump’s soul. Knowing no other life, Hump takes up his master’s staff and heads out alone into a world of dungeons and monsters. So begins the path of The Wanderer. The White Flame. The Hedge Wizard.

A monster dungeon is all Thomas has ever known. After all, he was born there. Now, at age 14, he’s been solo-clearing all 100 floors of the dungeon for years. The last of his family and friends are about to die off as an eternal void beast tirelessly pursues them. Will they ever escape?

Verdan Blacke is an Imperial Wizard, a researcher by preference but soldier by necessity. Surviving an intense battle, Verdan is cursed by a hex witch in her final moments. Without any good options, Verdan escapes the ever-increasing pain the curse inflicts by performing a self-made stasis ritual.

Beneath the light of three moons, the world of Aster Fall lies shattered. Classes are broken, Outsiders are invading, and the future is unknown. The ancient guardians have left and no one knows where they have gone. The fate of the world lies with one young man. Sam Hastern. His family has been cursed by a broken class for the last fifty years. No one has ever managed to level it, condemning them to the lowest paying jobs and life in a barren village. It’s called Battlefield Reclaimer.

Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter follows her dream of becoming a hero out of legend by running away to join the army. Military life and warfare aren't anything like she imagined - yet she holds to both her duty and her dreams. Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance, and Oath of Gold tell of her rise to become the paladin who saves a kingdom. In this new trilogy, Paks's former comrades in Duke Phelan's Company assume new roles and the story turns to follow their adventures.

After nearly 30 years and more than two dozen novels, Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle has become one of the most iconic, beloved, and enduring sagas in modern fantasy. The Riftwars were epic battles between Good and Evil whose ramifications have echoed through generations. The latest entry in the epic, A Kingdom Besieged, ushers in the most fearsome threat the Kingdom has yet faced - the Chaoswar - a magic apocalypse with cataclysmic results.

Tragedy tears Gerald's world apart, and only his unwavering loyalty to the Baron of Bodden saves him. After serving as a soldier for years, a single act of self-sacrifice thrusts his future into the world of politics. Cut off from all he knows, he becomes no more than a pawn to those in command. Banished with little more than the clothes on his back, he seeks a new purpose, for what is a warrior who has nothing left to fight for?

This is the story of Stavin Kel'Aniston. A boy trained as a warrior, he serves his people as a caravan guard to obtain gold for their community. Stavin earned dragon-scale armor from the dragon on the mountain for his bravery, but the gift of the dragon comes at a price. Thieves, brigands, and ne'er-do-wells of every kind are attracted to Stavin. As the summer passes, Stavin fights for his life and the honor of his name.

Will, son of Harry, is about to join one of the freebooting mercenaries who serve the Black Prince in Gascony and Spain. Soldiers of fortune, they fight for pay and for loot. Circumstances mean that he comes to the attention of the heir to the English throne, Prince Edward, and is chosen as the bodyguard for his sons, Edward and Richard. When the Black Prince dies before his father and his elder brother, Edward, also dies, a young Richard of Bordeaux becomes heir to the throne, and Will has a greater responsibility than he expected.

Young wizards coming of age in a time of war... Will they be ready? Eynon was excited to leave his village and set off on his wander year. He’d turned sixteen today, and hoped for at least a few adventures. At high noon, he arrived a crossroads and saw a shimmer of silver in the mud. It was a thin and dirty oval, about the size of his palm. He washed it with squirts of water from his goatskin, then marveled at what was revealed.

A king grappling with personal tragedy prepares his army to save his kingdom. A restless princess seeks love and adventure. In the middle of it all is Traven, a poor, ambitious peasant who dreams of being more than a simple woodcutter and unknowingly holds the key to saving the world.

Alexandra Yorke was a top police clairvoyant, but years of living inside the heads of serial killers has taken its toll. Unable to control her gifts, she retreats from the world, but a few months of peace is all she has before a friend calls in need of help.

When his father is killed at Arsuf protecting King Richard, Thomas is knighted. His hopes of inheriting his family's manor are dashed when Prince John takes power in his brother's absence. With a handful of men, Sir Thomas is forced to travel to Sweden where he joins the Jarl Birger Brosa fighting the Estonians, Karelians and Slavs. Fighting in the harsh environment of a Baltic winter makes Sir Thomas and his men stronger. There he learns of further treachery and dishonour among Bishops, Kings and Princes who value thrones more than men.

What do you do when everything you've ever known is ripped away from you, leaving nothing but ashes and charred memories behind? You get angry. So very angry. Malwynn and his twin sister, Umaryn, live in a small town in Northern Varrland. In idyllic New Picknell nearly nothing happens, and when their day-to-day routine is interrupted by a skirmish between an invading patrol of the dead from The Amaranth Empire and a defending force from Varrland, their world begins to come undone.

When second son Alexander Valentine loses his brother to an assassin's arrow, he discovers that his family protects an ancient secret and reluctantly finds himself at the center of the final battle of a war that was supposed to have ended two thousand years ago. Pursued by the dark minions of an ancient enemy, Alexander flees to the mountain city of Glen Morillian where he discovers that he is the heir to the throne of Ruatha, one of the Seven Isles, but before he can claim the throne he must recover the ancient Thinblade.

Tamora Pierce begins a new Tortall trilogy by introducing Beka Cooper, an amazing young woman who lived 200 years before Pierce's popular Alanna character. For the first time, Pierce employs first-person narration in a novel, bringing readers even closer to a character they will love for her unusual talents and tough personality.

With this stunning series opener, Django Wexler leaps to the upper echelon of today’s best fantasy authors. The Thousand Names opens his Shadow Campaigns series with a tale of bloody rebellion that will reshape an empire -- and a world. Captain Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass see their fortunes rise under the command of military genius Janus bet Vhalnich. But Janus’ obsession with the supernatural portends a dire fate for the realm.

Ethshar and the Northern Empire have been at war for hundreds of years. Hardly anyone alive remembers why, or over what. The tempest, turmoil, and war are endless, and the killing more endless still. The war has become not just a way of life, but an institution; no one dares to dream that it could end. Not even Valder of Kardoret, Ethsharitic Scout, trapped behind enemy lines.

Do you have the courage, the wits, and the skill to claim a dragon's hoard? If so, apply within . . . The sign is small, tucked into the corner of Mr. Clutter's bookshop window: “Adventurers Wanted. Apply Within.” No one but fifteen-year-old Alex Taylor even seems to notice it is there. And for Alex, who has wished for a change in his life, it is an irresistible invitation.Upon entering Mr. Clutter's shop, Alex is swept away on an incredible adventure to a faraway land filled with heroic warriors, mysterious elves, and hard-working dwarves.

When they hanged mage Baron Homburg and his family for treason, they missed one of his sons. The fourth son, ten-year-old Dale, witnessed the execution of his family, and something inside him broke. Two things happened that day: one, Dale became a borderline sociopath, and two, his mage abilities manifested at almost full strength, especially his wood or forest magic. That night he used his new wood magic to hang the earl who ordered the killing of his family.

Scraps, a gutter child, is sitting in his hiding place in a back alley, waiting for the cold thunderstorm to pass. Suddenly, lightning strikes in front of him, and then a second time. The two lightning bolts become men — two wizards — one from the Red Order, the other from the Blue. The Red Wizard, chanting his curses, throws lightning bolts and fireballs. The Blue Wizard, singing his spells, throws lightning bolts and ice shards.

A routine physical shows Captain Ross Mitchell has a flesh-eating virus that specifically targets the brain. Prognosis says he'll be a vegetable by week's end. Having survived numerous incursions in combat around the world, Ross decides he's not going out like that. He drives a rented corvette into a cliff face at over 200 mph. The fiery impact catapults him toward the afterlife.

A coup has thrown the kingdom of Farshores into turmoil, and one of the pretender’s first moves was to order mercenaries to invade the Mage District and put all its inhabitants - men, women, and children - to the sword. There is one survivor: Horace Stonecutter, the youngest son of the Stonecutter family. Consumed with anger and a hunger for retribution, he journeys out to find who ordered the murder of his family. Along his bloody journey, he meets kings, princes, princesses, noblemen - and not so noble men. May God have mercy on his enemies - because he won’t.

All of this was because of the dragon stone necklace I scavenged from that dead mage. I knew it was magic when I saw it. Well, it was and it wasn’t. Dragon stone, they call it, but what it actually is, is a dragon’s egg. When I touched it, I felt the need to put it around my neck for safekeeping. When I did, the necklace embedded itself inside my skin, making me the new dragon’s envoy. It has since been my duty to protect the egg until she’s ready to hatch. How do I know the egg is a she? Easy, she talks to me and is helping me to bring out my natural magic talents.

First countries, then worlds no longer kept large standing armies. They preferred to hire mercenaries, spending their citizens’ money rather than their citizens’ lives. Governments found it more cost-effective to keep their populations working, continuing to pay taxes rather than dying on some battlefield. War became a business. As in times of old, owning a mercenary company became a way for the ordinary man to become wealthy...if he survived.

In the summer of 2257, the asteroid Wormwood was closing in to strike Earth a glancing blow. Even a glancing blow would be catastrophic. Earth's governments and militaries united to try to shift Wormwood's path. Earth launched every nuclear missile she had and succeeded in changing its path, just enough to miss her surface. In doing so, shards from the asteroid, caused by the nuclear blasts, struck the earth.

Nic Haydock, “Nac” to his friends, because, as they said, saying he had a knack for fixing and improving mechanical devices was the understatement of all time. After spending 10 years on Titan where he went through rehab and attended college, he was now returning home to Conclave Station. Reuniting with his lifelong friends - Mal, a computer genius, and Jazz, a natural-born pilot, he started a mining and shipping business. However, while repairing their rock-tug, they stumbled upon a way to control artificial gravity, creating a gravitational force field.

In a former life, Jack was gifted, meaning he possessed peculiar abilities. If rich folks found themselves in a jam, Jack could use his talents to get them out of it. Where others were sure to fail, Jack's aristocratic clientele could always count on him to finish jobs cleanly, efficiently, and leave no trace, for which his services commanded a hefty fee. But one day, Jack picked a fight with the wrong man and his old life came to an end. But, as it turned out, his story was far from over.

Tala had to fight tooth and nail in the Magic Academy to forge a path to power that was her own. She knows it’s her duty to use that power to serve humanity, defending them against the creatures of the untamable wilds. However, she skipped a few steps in her education, like apprenticing to someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Now, Tala has to balance learning as fast as she can with paying off the veritable mountain of debt the Magic Academy dropped on her shoulders for the opportunity; not to mention staying alive.