Farley Meadowsweet always planned to travel beyond the quiet Flox village where he was born. He’s finally on his way to greatness, alongside Dessa, the mountain who called him, and Torio Kite. The two men share a unique affinity for stone, which makes them perfect for a dangerous vocation—hunting rogue statues known as the Misbegotten.

Galleries of Stone introduces a world where magical mountains are entrusted to master sculptors like Freydolf. Necessity drives this recluse from the Statuary to find a new servant. The villagers thereabouts fear him, but when people are poor, and homes are crowded, all it takes is a handful of coins to loosen family ties. Tupper Meadowsweet isn’t the cleverest child, but he’s brave enough to follow Freydolf onto the gray mountain, where the Statuary’s living masterpieces hint at faraway lands, diverse races, unique customs, long histories, and danger.

Stranded at Stately House, Suuzu Farroost is restless and fretful and lonesome for Akira. Waiting is a misery, and all he has to hold onto is the memory of a fleeting kiss, a circlet of nippet eggs, and one very stubborn, very outspoken valet. To keep him from wallowing, Suuzu's friends find ways to distract him, and as one story leads to another, the phoenix learns about the special place nippets hold in avian lore, especially where courtship is concerned.

Governed by Whimsy: The Anthology is a collection of short stories set in Forthright's Amaranthine universe. Before the Emergence, the clans were nothing more than whispers and mysteries and legends and lore. But every so often - in out-of-the-way places or shockingly close to home - an unsuspecting person stumbled into a fateful encounter with someone who was decidedly other.

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.

Betrayed. Murdered. Reborn. One last chance, to make it right. Theo's adventure ended with his mentor's hands around his neck. The betrayal cost him his friends, allies, and everything he had built...but not his life. Though broken and powerless, Theo has one last chance to enter the Nine Worlds, wielding the knowledge and expertise of his first life. This time, he needs more than just power, he needs to unravel the deception that killed him once...and is coming for him again.

Zac was alone in the middle of the forest when the world changed... The whole planet was introduced to the multiverse by an unfeeling System... or God. A universe where an endless number of races and civilizations fought for power and dominion. Zac finds himself stuck in the wilderness surrounded by deadly beasts, demons, and worse. Alone, lost and without answers, he must find the means to survive and get stronger in this new cut-throat reality.

Jin Rou wanted to be a cultivator. A man powerful enough to defy the heavens. A master of martial arts. A lord of spiritual power. Unfortunately for him, he died, and now I’m stuck in his body. Arrogant Masters? Heavenly Tribulations? All that violence and bloodshed? Yeah, no thanks. I’m getting out of here. Farm life sounds pretty great. Tilling a field by hand is fun when you’ve got the strength of ten men—though maybe I shouldn’t have fed those Spirit Herbs to my pet rooster.

Becoming a knockoff Dracula in tight leather pants was never part of Vincent’s plans. Neither was being summoned to another world by a cult of vampire wannabes. But both happened. Now, Vincent’s left to pick up the tattered pieces of his humanity as he tries to grow strong enough to keep his family safe. The world is filled with nightmares, and the looming threat of losing his soul stands between his goal and his reality, so it’s not like it will be too hard or anything. Hell should tremble. A good man is going to war.

Hello stranger, my name is Tal, and I’m not an adventurer—those people are crazy. I’m just a sorcerer who is masquerading as a wizard. Oh, and I’m searching for answers about my parents’ mysterious deaths. Also monsters and other foes seem to show up wherever I go. All right, I see it. My new traveling companions are seasoned adventurers and are teaching me their ways—or at least they were before something happened to Time.

When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals. But Fin’s secret identity doesn’t stay hidden for long. After all, it’s not every day a house witch and his kitten familiar, Kraken, take to meddling in imperial affairs.

Silas is inducted into the System, becoming the last in a long line of Earth's "forerunners." The rewards are great, but the danger is greater. We are not alone in the universe. The fate of five worlds hangs on how their forerunners perform. Will Silas have what it takes to win Earth a place in the multiverse? Or will Earth become another mining world stripped of all resources and left a barren husk floating in the cosmos?

It's Ruwen’s Ascension Day, and he finally dies for the first time. His newly revived body can learn spells and abilities for the class given him by the Goddess Uru, and dying is no longer permanent. Ruwen’s high intelligence makes becoming a Mage inevitable. With his new powers, he will locate his parents and clear their family name. But nothing goes as Ruwen imagined, and when a rival God tries to kill Ruwen shortly after his disastrous Ascension, his focus turns from his future to just surviving.

After Lucas dies during a freak explosion, divine intervention sees him brought back to life with the power to control a new dungeon. There are just a couple of issues: his old body is bound to his dungeon, and the craziness of what he thought was his final act is only getting weirder. When he sees newbie adventurers entering his dungeon, though, he decides to help them survive and complete their quests. After all, adventuring is a process, and someone needs to guide the rookies.

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Light years from Earth, an alien planet forced their queen from power and cast her into space. For millions of years, the queen's ship wandered the cosmos, until it crashed on Earth. As a child, Michael Hems first lost his mother to cancer, and then his father to the bottom of a bottle. Growing up in a small town, Michael's friends became his life. The only one he knew. The only one he wanted. But the night he found the ship, everything he loved was thrown into jeopardy.

Nine months ago, Zeus' murder catapulted the Greek gods back into public life. Now, the whole pantheon revels in new temples, casinos, and media empires - except Apollo. An overachiever with a bursting portfolio of godly duties, the amount of email alone he receives from rapacious mortals turns each day into a living hell. Yet there may be hope, if only he can return Zeus to life! With the aid of Thalia, the muse of comedy and science fiction, Apollo will risk his very godhood to help TV producer Tracy Wallace and a gamer geek named Leif, who hold the key to Zeus' resurrection.

In a world of elves and dwarves and sprites and mages, Tane Carver is a human with no gift but his wits. Which, to be fair, did get him into the world's most prestigious university of magical technology. For a while. Until his lack of magic was discovered. And then it all came crashing down. But when a student is murdered on campus behind unbreakable wards, Tane gets a second chance. Solving an impossible crime should be easy for the man who fooled the university's best mages for years. Except he's not counting on the head constable being an old flame who isn't so fond of him anymore.

Stranded at Stately House, Suuzu Farroost is restless and fretful and lonesome for Akira. Waiting is a misery, and all he has to hold onto is the memory of a fleeting kiss, a circlet of nippet eggs, and one very stubborn, very outspoken valet. To keep him from wallowing, Suuzu's friends find ways to distract him, and as one story leads to another, the phoenix learns about the special place nippets hold in avian lore, especially where courtship is concerned.

What if Sherlock Holmes never truly defeated the Baskerville Hound? What if they’re still embroiled, still vying, still wrestling for control? Varti Weller’s promising career as a badge ended the day he was cursed by an Olde Childe to only speak in lies. While others from his cohort protect the city, Varti’s consigned to the evidence lockers in the Bastion’s several basements. Until a string of grisly murders bring him face-to-face with a monster and a legend and a job offer. Because Sherlock Holmes is in fresh need of a new assistant.

After Lucas dies during a freak explosion, divine intervention sees him brought back to life with the power to control a new dungeon. There are just a couple of issues: his old body is bound to his dungeon, and the craziness of what he thought was his final act is only getting weirder. When he sees newbie adventurers entering his dungeon, though, he decides to help them survive and complete their quests. After all, adventuring is a process, and someone needs to guide the rookies.

Divorced, desperate, and destitute, former restaurateur Defiance Dayne finds out she has been bequeathed a house by a complete stranger. She is surprised, to say the least, and her curiosity gets the better of her. She leaves her beloved Phoenix and heads to one of the most infamous towns in America: Salem, Massachusetts. She's only there to find out why a woman she's never met would leave her a house, a veritable castle that has seen better days.

The primordial waters, full of algae and unicellular organisms...not quite how one would imagine the end of the world, is it? The goal is to evolve and reach the land. Use your teeth, claws, stings, and whatever else you deem appropriate to take down your opponents and survive in the New World.

When a down-on-his-luck engineer ends up coming into possession of a rundown suit of power-armor, he sees an opportunity to make some quick cash by selling it off to the nearest supervillain. Unfortunately for him, what should have been a quick and easy sale to pay off his debts quickly grows into an ongoing series of events that serve only to drag him deeper and deeper into the criminal underbelly of the city he calls home.

Clara is an Obligate—a human servant at the Court of Dawn. She doesn’t know why. She knows only that she broke the Pledge and must therefore spend her days obliging the every whim of a capricious fae princess. If she can keep her head down and follow the rules, she might survive to the end of her Obligation, spending her days working in the vast palace library.

Hella is a planet where everything is oversized. The trees are mile-high, the dinosaur herds are huge, and the weather is extreme - so extreme, the colonists have to migrate twice a year to escape the blistering heat of summer and the atmosphere-freezing cold of winter. Kyle is a neuro-atypical young man, emotionally challenged, but with an implant that gives him real-time access to the colony's computer network. When an overburdened starship arrives, he becomes the link between the established colonists and the refugees from a ravaged Earth.

The Trateri are about to learn a vital lesson of the Broken Lands. Deep in the remote expanse where anything can happen, it pays to be on a pathfinder's good side. Nobody ventures beyond their village. Nobody sane, that is. Monstrous creatures and deadly mysteries wait out here. Luckily for the people she serves, Shea's not exactly sane. As a pathfinder, it's her job to face what others fear and find the safest route through the wilderness. It's not an easy job, but she's the best at what she does.

Governed by Whimsy: The Anthology is a collection of short stories set in Forthright's Amaranthine universe. Before the Emergence, the clans were nothing more than whispers and mysteries and legends and lore. But every so often - in out-of-the-way places or shockingly close to home - an unsuspecting person stumbled into a fateful encounter with someone who was decidedly other.

Like all Purebred with their menial jobs, Ken ekes out a living sweeping the floors of Kyoto Peacekeeping Central. His kind serves as a benchmark for XHumans to measure how far they've progressed and a reminder of what Homo sapiens once was. His life changes when 800-year-old Ryu crosses over from the World of Rivers and Lakes, looking for a lost temple; and Aya, a beautiful hacker whose Sensory Interface perceives the EtherCloud as Feudal Japan, learns that XHumans aren't as perfect as they thought.

Twenty years ago, the Merge brought armies of monsters flooding into the West Coast. Dungeons popped up in shopping malls, airports, and Starbucks. Walls were built to contain the spread, but the promise of priceless loot dropped by the creatures inspired a new type of gold rush. Clay Jaeger has nothing left outside the walls. Civilization took everything he worked for, chewed it up, and spat it out. Now Clay, his wife Alex, and his beer-loving, chainsaw-toting brother, Joe, are going west to try their hand at monster killing.