Centuries ago, we lost our world. Planetary Acquisitions keeps us alive solely to maintain their vast fleet of gate ships in an endless quest to find them new worlds to settle - or to conquer. Years flutter by like a tree shedding its spring petals, and so we desperately cling to this chunk of dirt-and-machine we call home.

I always thought of Silas Rush as my biggest rival on the track and a stuck-up loner off of it. He and his fancy pro career left our crappy hometown in the dust before high school even finished, and then I didn't think of him much at all. I was too busy trying to keep my little sisters from turning into addicts like our mom, and myself from turning into a rage-junkie like our dad. All while keeping food on the table. Now he's back, reminding me of all the things I don't have, just like he always did.

Post-war life in the large British manor of Tremontaine is normally quiet, especially for assistant cook Ellie Stone. When Giles and Kate St. Clair's son John returns unexpectedly from his American college the same week Mr. St. Clair's business partner Martin Trevayn is visiting to conclude a business deal, tensions run high. Mr. St. Clair takes out some of his stress on Ellie's girlfriend Abby, a housemaid, and for a brief moment, Ellie wishes the head of the family dead.

Tom wished for a meaningful job with the chance to make things. Someone listened. Judged by a masked demigod, Tom gets sent to another world with magic, game-like rules, and massive opportunity for a clever inventor. He's been handed a new identity and adopted by a loving family. As a young man with otherworldly knowledge, he tries to recreate technology from humble beginnings. There are spells to learn, too, and he wants to treat his sister and parents right. His river homeland seems idyllic, but there are problems brewing.

A well-placed kick into Kanti’s stomach dropped him back to the deck, grasping his gut and gasping for breath.

"They’ve put Kaz on trial for the murders!” cried Aziz. “They’re going to execute her as the killer!” Tori shook her head in an attempt to wake more fully. “What? No. That’s a mistake. Kaz wouldn’t harm an insect. There’s no way a court could find her guilty.” “The krakun legal system doesn’t give a damn about geroo. They find everyone guilty!”

If Sol can just survive his last year of high school, he can escape his homophobic small town and go live with his Internet boyfriend for the summer. But when he loses his starting spot on the baseball team and converts to vegetarianism - a wolf, giving up meat! - his father threatens him with a hot, muggy summer working in the peach cannery unless he gets his act together. His teammates, who suspect his sexuality already, won't make it easy for him.

Kory was having enough trouble in high school. His girlfriend just dumped him, his poetry made him a target for ridicule, and college applications were looming. The very last thing he needed was to fall in love with another boy.

It has been thousands of years since beast-kind were united under one banner. The empire encompasses most of the known world, driving out or enslaving the lesser races without mercy. In a state of constant war and conquest, they have perfected the art of battle. For commoner wolf-kind Valian, being accepted and trained in a noble house's army was a dream come true. Without wealth or a family, it was his best shot at attaining honor and glory. Until fate intervened. When Valian discovers he's descended from an ancient and long-thought-extinct line, everything changes.

Summerhill is a dog with a problem: He isn't exactly sure who he is. Living alone in a desolate world as its only inhabitant, he has no memories of his previous life - only the tantalizing clue that the answers he seeks may lie with a mysterious woman named Katherine, the hostess on a cruise ship that sails between dimensions.