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.

In this collection are volumes four through seven of the Crucible Shard, the completed LitRPG adventure that mixes fantasy, gaming, and humor in an often brutal combination.

The Planetary Republic and Star League have settled their differences. Treaties are signed, trade is restored. But spies and diplomatic turmoil lead to a high-tech cold war of epic proportions. Ex Space Marine Gina Wilcox finds herself in a law enforcement career after the war, but life can be just as dangerous on the streets as the battlefield. Sleeper cells activate, assassinating government officials. Crime syndicates flourish. And a certain high-tech android has been stolen by the League, spirited off world for unknown purposes. Into this milieu a band of Marine outcasts join the fight....

Gamers are celebrities. Superstars. Idols to the masses. Only a few ever make it out of Piper's Mill, most toil their lives away in the small town just dreaming of a better life. Liam thought he had a comfortable life all worked out when it winds up wrenched away from him. Drawn into other's schemes to hack the game and steal some spotlight he never expects to find himself playing in a game nobody has ever heard of.

Sergeant Harry Kabutt has seen better days. He's been shot down, blown up, and tossed to the wayside by the corporations, left to rot in a ratty apartment in gang territory. His own limbs? Shredded, cut away, and left to rot on a mountainside. The replacement mods? Likely to fall apart or leave him to die of sepsis. No longer an operator of the feared APS mecha, Kabutt has hit rock bottom. But he's on foot, he's armed, and he's in serious pain…now it's time to take that pain and spread it around the mega-city of Artem. See who flinches first.

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Jason starts his first day at his new school by unintentionally punching the local bully through the cafeteria wall. When Kevin's father, a legendary superhero, learns of this, he insists on training Kevin to master his new powers, though Kevin finds his father's training methods a lot less exciting than he thought they were going to be. But Kevin's training takes on new urgency when the local bully's father—Master Chaos, one of the world's most dangerous supervillains—breaks out of prison and declares Kevin his new archenemy for harming his son. Now Kevin must ...