As the sun sets on a late spring evening, eight college students arrive by charter boat at the private island residence of their brilliant and reclusive professor, the renowned Doctor Alistair Grimdeath.They have come to take their final exam for a seminar titled Horror in Popular Culture and Practice. But what the students do not know is that in order to pass the class, they must first survive the night...With an engaging blend of suspense, mystery, and humor,

Aboard the starship Undertoe, a skeleton crew of misfits takes orders from a smugly bureaucratic computer which couldn't care less if they live or die. The Undertoe is part of the Galactic Freedom Corporation, a huge interstellar conglomerate whose owner -- the inconceivably wealthy Largo Foote -- has a cunning scheme to seize control of the galactic economy.Unaware that their ship is a key pawn in Largo's master plan, the crew just try to do their jobs, despite t...

A troll lives in a hidden cave in the hills, deep inside the ancient forest that lies above the valley. By day, he sleeps, while at night he prowls the roadways and the surrounding villages, in search of food.He eats people.He has also learned how to read and write. He begins to keep a diary, which slowly grows to become a record of his daily life, his most intimate thoughts, and his deepest fears...----------Quietly introspective and sometimes disturbing,

According to the old prophet, the dragon cannot be slain until he has devoured a princess. Princesses, however, are valuable, and in short supply.And so a peasant girl is condemned to die instead. Locked into an iron cage and dressed in royal finery, she is taken by a troop of soldiers to the ruined city beneath the dragon's lair...So begins this unusual tale of adventure and intrigue, as three kingdoms strive for dominance, and an unknown peasant girl becomes the key to he...

An all-new Star Trek e-novella featuring the Department of Temporal Investigations!The dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations have their work cut out for them protecting the course of history from the dangers of time travel. But the galaxy is littered with artifacts that, in the wrong hands, could threaten reality. One of the DTI's most crucial jobs is to track down these objects and lock them safely away in the Federation...

Are we alone? From War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ET to Close Encounters, creators of science fiction have always eagerly speculated on just how the story of alien contact would play out. Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today's most exciting genre writers, weaving a tapestry that covers a broad range of scenarios: from the insidious, to the violent, to the transcendent.

Kedna has been consigned to fostering on the empty world of Iskan when her power and her health become dangerous. Being mentored by a planetary Avatar is difficult, but moving the weather for an entire world is second nature.When she is older and her skills are needed off world, she is paired with her first member of the Sector Guard. He is a pain in the butt and harbours resentments toward her for hogging his ancestral planet. She simply concentrates on the job and earns his respe...

A Warrior Maiden of Cumae and a mercenary for hire, Arista is used to both hunting and being hunted. She accepts an assignment from Queen Arcana of Regalia so that she’ll have a chance to find the secret that can save both Regalia and Incendium from destruction. Arista never expects to be helped by one of Arcana’s own sons, much less that she will fall in love. How can she choose between defending her beloved and completing her quest?Arista’s Legacy is a short story set in the ...

All sorts of MineCraft mods have been made available by developers who believe that the Sandindie game could be made way more fun. Here are 70 of them, categorized into groups, depending on what their themes are. You may install them on your copy of the game and leave your friends bedazzled as to how you can have an edge on them.

Bob Astor is a Quality Assurance agent working at Vartan Inc. Lately his days have been stressful, to say the least. Butting heads with upper management has put his career on life support. A surprising change in circumstance has Bob going on a business mission to the moon city, Langrenus. On the way, he meets one of the delegates on board the Starbird, a desperate man with a dark past and a very dangerous secret. Through a mysterious series of events Bob finds himself in the middle of an i...

The year is 2438. Humanity has migrated to the stars in discrete waves, driven by evolving technologies and new ways of being human. The far-flung Arc Systems struggle under the yoke of their newest rulers—Exarchs from Sol, whose monopoly on faster-than-light communication gives them absolute control of a growing interstellar empire.But humans weren't the first to conquer the stars, and the discovery of an alien artifact promising transport between systems threatens to undermine the...

Hartwell was desperate to get off Venus… desperate enough to join the crew of the Hyperion!