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?

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.

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.

Poor Ezra was about to have a very bad accident. One that would leave him trapped where he might never be found. Trapped with Virgil, who was not a very nice dummy. Virgil, who was about to make this blood-soaked nightmare so much worse....

Thirty years ago, the town of Peace Falls was flooded to build a hydroelectric dam. To this day, its ruins remain below the surface of Chapel Lake—including the church, miraculously undamaged after all these years, its steeple visible above the water. When his younger sister's body is found washed up on the shore, Owen Saddler follows in her footsteps to the cabin she'd rented on Chapel Lake, diving among the ruins below the surface.

When a deadly marine creature escapes AUTEC, the US Navy’s top-secret Bahamian research facility, retired Navy SEAL, turned marine biologist, Jack Tarr, is called back into action. Reluctantly leading a team of SEALs, Jack embarks on a perilous pursuit across the Caribbean, through the treacherous Florida Keys, and into the stormy Gulf of Mexico.

SWORD FIGHT and WAR CAR, the epic two-part adventure series set in a world where knights drive fast cars and clash in duels of honor across a medieval America.

Suggesting this historic anthology is just a regional horror collection is like calling Frankenstein's monster a simple misstep in medical technology. Road Kill is no longer just an annual anthology of horror stories. It's a serial collection of some of the most serious voices in Lone Star literature. It's a chronicle of Texas terror, and Vol. 9 is eerie, edgy and feral. It will haunt you long after its first reading. It's as fine a selection of horror fiction as you'll find today. It's alive!