Nuns. With Guns.Nuns. With Guns.I challenged folks to give me a story with that as their theme. Here are nearly twenty authors who answered that crazy call, ranging from fantasy to science fiction. Modern. Historic. Urban fantasy and gritty realism.Come with us now on an amazing journey into other lands and other minds, as we explore what it means to first become a nun, and then to take up the sword.Or the gun.----Part of the Blaze Ward Prese...

Mr. Ambros Rothakis is going to the Country Fair. On the run from various enemies, he hopes to disappear into the Fair for a few days. When he stumbles across the unbelievable, and disappears from the Fair, mayhem and madness ensue. Join him on his adventures in Alternate Histories: even in the mysterious Hellenic Commonwealth Line!

Imagine yourself in a world where the Fourth Crusade and sack of Constantinople led to a revolution in what we now call mainland Greece. The society that arose out of that revolt is unlike any other in Europe: pagan, libertine, consciously inter-dependent yet insisting on individual rights, the people of the Hellenic Commonwealth and Polity are a self-made experiment in self-governance. Here you will meet, among others: Master Xenos, a great swordsman who teaches at the Red Warrior Skolo, ...

When Stephan Dragutin, Crown Prince of Serbia, violates his father’s safe-conduct for an Embassy of Hellenes, all hell breaks loose. The Commonwealth decides on a nearly unprecedented course: a punitive Incursion into Serbia. The Hellenic Muster gathers at the border. Can Nikos restrain Eleni as she seeks revenge on those who tortured and murdered her friends? Can he master his own desire for vengeance? In Athens, two young women recently freed from bondage in Serbia beguile Selos. His qua...

A.M. Brosius writes fiction and nonfiction: “history, real or feigned”; political-economic and cultural theory; and the history and techniques of swordplay. He is an amateur historian, with varied interests including: Pristine Civilizations, Hellas and Byzantium, Medieval Europe, the Labor Movement, Dada and Surrealism, Lettrists and Situationists. He has studied and practiced swordplay for over thirty years. The Commonwealth in his novels reflects all of his many hobbies and interests. Th...

"The Desecrator" is an original short story from the Draegaran Empire, by bestselling author Stephen Brust. This is a tale of the Hawklord Daymar, and of a particular Morganti blade. Vlad Taltos fans will enjoy new insight into Stephen Brust's fantasy series.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Not bound, as a book. Free.Like Unfettered before it, the contributing writers of Unbound were allowed to submit the tales they wished fans of genre to read—without the constraints of a shackling theme.The result is magical. Twenty-three all-original stories are sure to captivate you—some will move you to tears while others will keep you turning the pages long into the night. The power of Unbound lies in its variety of tales and the voices behind them. If you are a fan of d...

A massive collection of wonderous science fiction and fantasy stories from New York Times best-selling Mercedes Lackey. Includes Fiddler Fair and Werehunter for the first time in one volume.Fiddler FairRunning the gamut from her beloved Bardic fantasies to urban fantasy set in the modern world, from science fiction adventure to chilling horror, this is Mercedes Lackey at her best. Animal rights fanatics try to "liberate" g...

From video game characters seeking civil rights and a cave dragon loan shark pondering an investment, to Santa Clause's Australian vacation and an enemy of Sam Spade's seeking revenge-plus visits to the Nightside and Sookie Stackhouse's hometown--Unusual Suspects invokes a dozen imaginative tales featuring otherworldly investigators trailing uncanny criminals across fantastical realms governed by the laws of magic.

A story for everyone who ever loved the work of the late, great SF writer Cordwainer Smith.From "An Introduction to 'The Ruined Queen of Harvest World'":Perhaps nobody in all the world had ever written the future so well, hauntingly, yearningly [as Cordwainer Smith].And then he had gone, barely more than half a century old.We would never learn the rest of those stories, that history of the deep future, that golden journey—oh, oh, oh...

A night of passion leaves Riona with more questions than answers, and when she flees Rordan's side, she encounters the King's Dogs, werewolves who live by the law of the land. The King's Dogs are led by the powerful and charismatic Conleth, who rules his soldiers with tooth and claw. Despite his fearsome exterior, he shows a softer side to Riona, offering her the answers that Rordan never did.When two wolf kings meet, the outcome is blood or peace, and when Rordan finds Riona in Con...

A young man seeks to understand the strange connection he feels to the wolves that live hear his village.Originally published in the anthology WEREWOLVES, edited by Jane Yolen. Republished in Bruce Coville's solo collection, ODDLY ENOUGH.