sci fi – greenpunk

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Summary: In a Dying Earth of wizards and walled cities, a boy climbs out of poverty when he becomes an assistant to a moneylender’s debt collector, then enters a career as henchman to a young, ambitious thaumaturge.  But Baldemar’s career as a wizard’s minion goes sideways after a powerful entity left over from the creation of the cosmos finds him useful for its own ends. Now he must tread a perilous path peopled by dukes and demons, spellslingers and secret agents, assassins and academics, plus a pair of vengeful wizards who want their stolen treasures returned. His course will lead him through the Underworld and Overworld, and along shadowy paths in the tenebrous realm known as the Glooms, to a final confrontation that will test Baldemar’s hard-won knowledge to the utmost.

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Lucee Fearney legitimately inherited the leadership of the Fae faction known as Eleriannan, but what will happen when they find out that she still only has the magical skills of a Mortal?

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Summary: Give the Enemy Hell! At the ass-end of the galaxy, Allied Forces-including the 142nd Mobile Special Ops Team, better known as Daire's Devils-stand ready to defend the contested colony planet Demeter from military invasion and corporate exploitation. But when the Allied Forces are infiltrated by those determined to secure the top-secret designs of AeroCom's new prototype flagship, the Cromwell, the newest member of the Devils, Corporal Katrion Alexander, finds herself facing off against an unexpected menace, synthetic operatives indistinguishable from living beings. She and the Devils must neutralize this new threat, but how when the enemy wears a trusted face?

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Summary: Adventures among the stars need a ship to get you there. Stories Rule Press presents Space Opera Digest 2022: Have Ship, Will Travel Space Opera heroes and heroines explore the stars and discover cool new places in ships which range from beat-up rust-buckets to sleek technologically advanced craft that are the envy of the galaxy. Space ships are quintessential for the adventures and challenges our favourite characters face. Come and explore over 400 pages of worlds of wonder and the ships our heroes fly with Stories Rule Press' 2022 edition of Space Opera Digest. Space Opera Digest 2022: Have Ship, Will Travel is the second volume in a quarterly collection of genre fiction anthologies presented by Stories Rule Press. "Sole Survivor" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch "Captain" by Stephen Sottong "Big Top" by Sonia Orin Lyris "Cycle Three" by Stephanie Mylchreest "Star Cruise" by Ron Collins "Watch of the Starsleepers" by Christopher D. Schmitz "Tome Raiders" by Eric Del Carlo "The Passenger" by Eve Morton "An Ordinary World" by J. L. Royce "Insanity is Infectious" by Cameron Cooper "Achemar" by Jasmine Luck "Moby Dick's Doors" by Michèle Laframboise "Learning Curve" by Neil Williams "Exotic Matters" by Phil Giunta "An icub on Mars" by Barbara G. Tarn "Of Hedgehogs and Humans" by Rob Nisbet "Smugglers Blues" by Blaze Ward "Altered Skin" by Sara C. Walker "An Unexpected Taste of Home" by Terry Mixon "Symphony" by Douglas Smith

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Summary: This time, the universe puts the cat in catastrophe. Plucked from her home on Earth and ending up aboard a strange spaceship in an even stranger universe, Lem and the misfit crew of the Teapot have more than enough trouble on their hands… and then they receive an urgent last-minute call to save a race of cat-people from certain destruction. Stuck with a disaster-platypus of a project manager and an entire race of people seemingly determined to thwart their own rescue, the Teapot’s crew face the impossible job of herding cats and helping evacuate the planet before it’s blown to smithereens. Can Lem and the gang avert disaster and save this race of infuriating cat-people? Perfect for fans of wacky and imaginative sci-fi stories, this satirical space opera is a ridiculous adventure that will delight readers of John Scalzi’s take on Fuzzy Nation or TJ Berry’s Space Unicorn Blues.

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Summary: Aric kan Ingan is an Exile... Stripped of title, wealth, and citizenship for treason against the Arcanian Empire, a crime of which he is innocent. For a decade, he’s wandered the Emeraunt Galaxy, haunted by fear of instant death, while earning barely enough to survive, performing chores no self-respecting citizen would touch. Destitute and addicted to the two most powerful illegal substances in the galaxy, he finds only one path left open: He enlists as a guard for a Terran mining colony. From his point of view, he’s now hit rock-bottom. Life among aliens is bad enough, but life with Terrans is near-unbearable for the prejudiced former prince whose pride is currently wallowing in the mud…until Aric meets two people who become a special part of his life. Susan Moran is the company physician, a woman with secrets of her own. Miles Sheffield is his former mistress’ brother, a young, brash, wet-behind-the-ears Terran, who is as shocked as Aric when he becomes the Exile’s best friend, especially since their first meeting ended, not with a handshake, but with a fist to the jaw. With Susan and Miles, Aric will experience friendship, passion, and grief, and eventually make a decision affecting the future of the entire galaxy as he unknowingly takes another step in the ancient prophecy of the GodChosen.

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Summary: Can love last when one won’t leave, and the other can’t stay? Fear of moving farther away from his family had cost Eer the love of his life, but now, after twenty-five turns, Kat has returned…with a son, and Eer’s feelings resurface as if it had been only yesterday since they’d first kissed. But any hope Eer has of rekindling their love seems doomed to fail when a murderer’s taste for revenge forces Kat to choose between endangering their family or running… and leaving Eer behind, again. ___________________________ wordcount: 31,600 words TALES OF THE FOREST is an ongoing series of standalone stories linked by a forest world. Content warnings are available in the book's front matter and on the author's website.

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Summary: Bobby Gene is a man who stands out even among his people. Guided by the knowledge of his heritage as a backwoods shaman and more perceptive than many, he's grown to be a valuable asset to those he knows. While he isn't surprised to be the first to know when the woods around him begin to show clues that something isn't right, he doesn't expect just how much these omens and signs will prove to foretell something far more sinister to come. Soon strange dreams and inexplicable encounters have him questioning everything he knows- and then the people who live in his woodland Appalachian community begin to disappear. It's his job to protect and guide the others, what will he do when he's the only thing between them and the end of life as they know it?

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Summary: Blood of the past. A curse returned. The Furies are in mourning, and without her sisters by her side, Lottie is drowning in resentment and grief. Her magic has left her, her band has scattered, and something dark is stirring inside her. Without the Goddess to guide her, Lottie is struggling to find the answers to recovering her severed magic. Isolation is taking its toll, and bigger dangers loom on the horizon. Desperate for any solution and against her better judgment, Lottie turns to an unexpected source for help. When an ancient force is awakened, the band must find a way to reconnect, both with themselves and each other. Can Lottie find her way out of the dark, or will the things she loves be lost, leaving her in silence forever?

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Summary: Solving mysteries is her business. Finding love is her dream. Will combining the two get her killed? Victorian Era England. Stetson revels in being unconventional. So when society shies away from her independent nature, the bold woman creates an imaginary boss and opens her own detective agency. And her keen observational skills, convincing disguises, and Holmesian methods quickly bring in a string of tough-to-crack cases. Struggling to squeeze a personal life in around a series of hazardous investigations, Stetson worries she'll never find a woman of like-passions. But with her heart set on true love despite the risk, she carries on hunting for the perfect relationship. Will her clever escapades lead to death… or delight? Daring Duplicity: The Wellington Mysteries, Vol. 1, Adventures of a Lesbian Victorian Detective is a collection of five sequential novellas, each encompassing its own exciting mystery while furthering the story of Stetson’s life in London. If you enjoy crime dramas, Victorian era fiction, or a sweet lesbian romance, then you’ll love award-winning author Edale Lane’s Daring Duplicity. Order yours today!

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Summary: Humanity's time has run out She'll never be a victim again, but Rowena's new power could destroy her country. WOODSPELL is Volume 1 in the completed trilogy TALES OF ARDONNA: WOODSPELL SERIES, a fairy tale for adults.  

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Summary: What do you do if you’re guilty of a crime, but not the one for which you’ve been convicted? It’s simple: You keep as low a profile as possible and hope for clemency. That’s extremely difficult if you are Aric kan Ingan, once the Emeraunt Galaxy’s Prince of the Realm, and now beneath the lowest rung of Society’s Ladder. Under a sentence of Civil Death, the former Prince Tanist to the throne of Arcanis finds himself experiencing firsthand how the dregs of humanity live, while making major adjustments to his attitude as well as life-style. In an effort to stay alive, Aric is forced to work at tasks no self-respecting (or law-abiding) citizen would touch …while he avoids the Space Guard who have a right to kill him on sight. Aric’s personal morality as well as the vows he’s taken in hopes of being allowed to return to Arcanis will be severely tested as he begins the first steps in the journey fulfilling the rest of the ancient prophecy given to Riven kan Ingan three millennia before. The Twilight of the GodChosen has begun.

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Summary: The Big Cinch embeds readers in a magic-laced St. Louis, once known as Mound City, home of the indigenous Americans’ Mississippian ancestors. Little evidence of their civilization survives in 1924, apart from the popular Piasa monster image, invoked to sell plows as well as ornament civic pageants. Sean Joye, a recent Irish immigrant, tried to avoid fae attention and ignore his magical abilities since childhood. A young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, he aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean life in America.  Sean helps a wealthy, powerful, magic-dabbling family—founders of the most exclusive club in town, the Piasa Lodge--with a discreet inquiry or two. Sexually involved with a secretive, high-society flapper, he falls hard for her fiancé, a Great War flying ace with a few secrets of his own. But Sean asks the wrong questions about a kidnapped toddler and missing Native American artifacts and becomes a suspect in his lover’s bludgeoning and a tycoon’s murder. Can he master the paranormal abilities he’s rejected for so long in time to protect the innocent and save his own skin?

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Summary: In the dystopian future where the rich have turned two dimensional and gobbled up the world’s resources, leaving the enslaved poor to remain three dimensional, can a disgraced detective help his rebellious daughter save the world? The sci-fi paranoia of Philip K. Dick meets the hardboiled sleuthing of Raymond Chandler. Prior Futures is a fast-paced and enigmatic trip through a nightmare world lost to its own decadent affair with nanotechnology and two-dimensional beings. Atmospheric and thought-provoking, this book will have you looking over your shoulder for nanos. It won’t help, though. You can’t see them. – David E. Sharp, author of Lost on a Page Winner of a 2022 Independent Press Award for Science Fiction Distinguished Favorite! Finalist, The Best Thriller Book Awards on BestThrillers.com

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Summary: For three years, Jeth and Kodie and their soldiers have guarded a hostile mountain pass against the invading Dathians in a war that has waged for decades. Jeth has the blood of giants running through his veins, and it has caused bigotry and death to dog his steps his entire life. After a childhood tragedy shatters his world, it takes the courage and loyalty of his best friend, Kodie, to protect him from himself. Jeth knows he’s a danger to everyone around him and joins the army to control and focus the black rage inherited from his bestial bloodline. Kodie follows his friend into the army, determined to stay close to the one he loves most. He has never revealed his deeper feelings for Jeth, and is ignorant of Jeth’s own feelings. Their bond is too precious for either of them to risk rejection. Yet they might have to take the chance when Kodie’s life is threatened, and their enemy forges an alliance with a giant clan. Jeth must call upon his darker heritage to brave the hostile environment to make an alliance of his own—with a giant clan that knows more about him than he does himself.

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Summary: Can they catch hold of happiness before it floats away? Space station school teacher Ada Solomon spends her free time drinking coffee with her best friend and people watching. When she catches sight of a gorgeous stranger Ada is immediately intrigued, and once they meet a flirtation quickly grows. If only they could move past friendship... Vivienne Lambert is looking forward to a quiet life on Belco-Psyche station. She misses Paris, but not her old life as a crime syndicate lawyer. An attractive new friend saves her from loneliness, but her secrets stop her from pursuing her desire... Fly away for the holidays with this short, romantic read with plenty of spice!

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Summary: Fifteen years ago, Guard Four stood by and watched her friend, Atalant, be jettisoned into space for questioning their planet's religion. Atalant should have died. Instead, she disappeared. Consumed by guilt, Guard Four trawls space, hopping from spaceport to spaceport, hoping to find and bring Atalant home with exonerating evidence that Ardulum, the traveling planet her people worship, is no mystic deity. At the edges of the known galaxy, Guard Four finds the shattered remains of a murdered world - a world of her genetic cousins who could have provided the evidence she desperately seeks. Ardulum, it seems, is no fairy tale but rather a bogeyman, set on destroying anyone who gets between it and its biological imperative to reproduce. And in its seat of governance rules Atalant - god to a planet she swore did not, could not, exist. Guard Four must unravel Ardulan fact from myth to save her friend and the billions of other beings threatened by the Void - a tear in space created from Ardulum's most recent birthing event. But how does one bring a god of a killer planet home? And how is Guard Four supposed to stop the Void without giving it the only thing it wants - the destruction of Ardulum? If you're looking for adventure and a touch of romance across time and space, filled with diverse alien species, deep emotions, and science fact and fiction, don't miss the next book in J.S. Field's Ardulum Series!

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Summary: Tangents & Tachyons is Scott's second anthology - six sci fi and sci-fantasy shorts that run the gamut from time travel to hopepunk and retro spec fic: Eventide: Tanner Black awakes to find himself in his own study, staring out the window at the end of the Universe. But who brought him there, and why? Chinatown: Deryn lives in an old San Francisco department store with his girlfriend Gracie, and scrapes by with his talent as a dreamcaster for the Chinese overlords. But what if a dream could change the world? Across the Transom: What if someone or something took over your body on an urgent mission to save your world? Pareidolia: Simon's not like other college kids. His mind can rearrange random patterns to reveal the images lurking inside. But where did his strange gift come from? And what if there are others like him out there too? Lamplighter: Fen has a crush on his friend Lewin, who's in a competing guild. But when the world goes dark, only a little illumination can save it. And only Fen, Lewin and their friend Alissa can light the spark. A Liminal Sky short. Prolepsis: Sean is the closeted twenty-five-year-old editor of an 80's sci-fi 'zine called Prolepsis. When an unabashedly queer story arrives from a mysterious writer, it blows open Sean's closet door, and offers him the chance to change the world - and the future. Plus two flash fiction stories – The System and The Frog Prince, never before published. This is the first time all of these stories have all been collected in one place.

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Summary: Sometimes, life is completely unfair. Spoiled teenager Jenny Halpen's parents were against her going on a cruise, but her doting uncle didn't see it that way. He thought it a fine graduation gift for his favorite (and only) niece. Unfortunately, before Jenny has a chance to enjoy the voyage, the Cassandra collides with a meteor shower, and her escape pod is separated from the others. Landing on an uninhabited world might not be so bad if Jenny's pod-mates were human, but they're not. They're poodles...all three of them...and not just your garden-variety poodles, either. They're the telepathic Royal Family of Canaris, and they're of the opinion that Jenny's now their servant, existing only to protect and serve them. Robinson Crusoe had it easy!

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Summary: Gulf War veteran Cole Jensen returns stateside to start life as a civilian. When he gets a visit from the Federal Bureau of Temporal Affairs, his life is turned upside-down. Fleeing from this shadow government organization throws him into the past. His life is saved by Gemma, a mysterious woman from the future that is also a fugitive from this Bureau. On the run through time, they’ll try to piece together why they’ve been marked for erasure. Everywhere they go and everything they touch runs the risk of incursion, bringing agents down on them. Can they find the truth before their very existence is erased from the timeline?