sci fi s-z

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Summary: In 1915, gay men don't get married, they don't take care of children together, and if they do, they don't get caught. Gael and Jack are a lot of firsts to each other. Gael is the first other gay man Jack has ever met, kissed, or wanted. Jack is the first really decent man who only see an Irish gangster and whore  that Gael has ever known. Gael and Jack just work for each other. First love is fabulous, even if it's forbidden. Enduring love is hard, extra hard in the face of WWII, Prohibition, and a world that can't know them as they are.  The story is presented as a serial and is free to read.

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Summary: Months before World War I breaks out, two young Jewish girls just on the edge of adolescence—one from a bustling Russian city, the other from a German estate—meet in an eerie, magical forest glade. They are immediately drawn to one another and swear an oath to meet again. Though war and an ocean will separate the two for the rest of their lives, the promise that they made to each other continues through the intertwined lives of their descendants. This epic tale of the supernatural follows their families from the turn of the 20th Century through the terrors of the Holocaust and ultimately to the wonders of a future they never could have imagined. The History of Soul 2065 encompasses accounts of sorcery, ghosts, time travel, virtual reality, alien contact, and elemental confrontations between good and evil. Understated and epic, cathartic and bittersweet, the twenty connected stories in Nebula Award finalist Barbara Krasnoff’s debut form a mosaic narrative even greater than its finely crafted parts. Jane Yolen, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master, says in her introduction: “If you, like me, love quirky and original fantasy stories, I advise you to dive right in. If you, like me, admire tough writing that’s not afraid of the grit, dive right in. If you, like me, want to hang out a while with characters rich in their own traditions, dive right in. This is storytelling at the top of the heap.”

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Summary: Adil Raif is a relief-effort doctor on a space station orbiting a war-torn planet. Disconnected from life on Earth, he’s looking for sex, adventure, relief from boredom--anything but love. Esihle Queran is an alien refugee on the station who never tells the whole truth. He’s given up on ever returning to his planet, and knows that love is for other, better men. But then, the two meet... Adil and Esihle's relationship is one of intensity and lust. Can they find their way home together?

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Summary: Psiere is a world of intrigue where old ideology meets new. The Makers built massive pyramids on each continent and filled them with encrypted texts and advanced technology. The two suns, Archeos and Illeos shine down on a mostly undiscovered planet with a psionic race of people living on land, and violent sea people below the water. The Queen seeks to make the world a better place for all Psierians but her daughter, Royal Sovereign Connate Olivienne Dracore, seeks only to solve the Divine Mystery. The connate makes her living as a historical adventurist and wants the answer to two important questions. Who were the Makers and where did they go? Because she is the heir, Olivienne travels with a security force and resents it every moment. Every one of her captains has either quit or been injured trying to keep up with the risk-taking woman. That’s where Commander Castellan Tosh comes in. Capable, confident, and oh-so-dashing, she is forced to switch career corps to take charge of Olivienne’s team. Sparks fly from the moment they meet and things only get hotter as they chase down the clues to the greatest mystery of all time

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Summary: No government lasts forever, and the Third Confederation is no exception. With its collapse, the starship Midnight Ride has no choice but to run—from rebels, pirates, and warlords, with a cargo bay of political refugees who’ve been cryogenically frozen. Now, after centuries of drifting through space, trying to get home, the starship’s systems are failing, and her occupants don’t have much time left. Fortunately, they’ve wandered into a solar system containing a G-type star, and it’s left to Chief Scout Hart and his scout pod Sarah to explore the sole planet that seems as if it might be hospitable. However, others call the blue and green planet home, and Hart must determine if they’re a threat. Will what Hart finds on the planet be enough to ensure the survival of the Midnight Ride’s passengers and crew, or will the desire for power overtake the refugees and lead to disaster?

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Summary: Discover ten planets, joined through music-based magic and an immense sentient crystal. This anthology contains ten stories from the popular Dissolutionverse universe! Journey with a new majus as he investigates the Pixie homeworld and tries to avert a war. Learn how to change the Symphony during a search for a majus' lost brother. Find a new relationship on an island at war! Travel with merchants in an old war train transporting suspicious cargo. Fly with the first majus in space! Discover the food and culture of the ten species. Uncover what lurks in the basement of the House of Potential. Investigate magic, mystery and murder when a miscreant attacks the secret Society of Two Houses! Confront other-dimensional entities alongside an ancient being. Climb to the top of a miles-high wall with a crew riding a giant steampunk beetle! If you like space opera, fast-paced adventure, music-based magic, and complex, diverse characters, then you’ll love this collection of stories from William C. Tracy’s Dissolutionverse. Pick up Tales of the Dissolutionverse to discover the music today! There’s more adventure in The Dissolution Cycle (Epic Space Opera, LGBT): Book 1: The Seeds of Dissolution Book 2: Facets of the Nether Book 3: Fall of the Imperium Book 4: Tales of the Dissolutionverse

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Summary: Dark deeds are being done, and Jenn Canaday, a special agent with the FBI, has been assigned to look into them. This takes her to New Mexico, where cattle are being rustled and people are going missing—one of them the niece of the state’s governor. Meg Parkinson is a sheriff’s deputy in the small town of Laurel Hill. She and Jenn had once spent a steamy week together, but then Jenn had sent her away, something Meg hasn’t gotten over, as reluctant as she is to admit it. When Meg notices that the homeless camp on the edge of her town has become deserted, Jenn is brought into her vicinity to aid in the investigation. Will the former lovers be able to work together? Can they rekindle the flame that had once burned so brightly? And will they learn what’s behind all the disappearances without disappearing themselves?

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Summary: Some threats hide in plain sight... Two years have passed since Jed Welch escaped the ruins of New York City. The monsters have begun vanishing from parts of the world, and rebuilding efforts are underway. Isolated communities and their militias are starting over, slowly reclaiming cities and countryside alike. Now a sergeant, Jed leads a squad providing security on Galveston Island, as they await the arrival of the first refugee ships. When a saboteur's bomb threatens everything, Jed and his people find themselves cut off from support and communication. With nothing but the gear they carry to help them survive, the squad hunts the saboteur across the southern Texas landscape, and discovers the truth behind the Variants' disappearance. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

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Summary: A little blue world, the third planet from the sun. It’s home to 7 billion people with all manner of faiths, beliefs and customs, divided by bigotry and misunderstanding, who will soon be told they are not alone in the universe. Anyone watching from the outside would pass by this fractured and tumultuous world, unless they had no other choice. Todd Landon is one of these people, living and working in a section of the world called the United States of America. His life is similar to those around him: home, family, work, friends and a husband. After the attack on San Jose, Todd is appointed to Special Envoy for Terran Affairs by the nentraee, a position many world leaders question. Undeterred Todd wants to build bridges between both people. However, this new position brings with it a new set of problems that not only he, but his new allies Mi’ko and Mirtoff must overcome. Will the humans and nentraee learn to work together despite mistrust and threats of more attacks by a new global terrorist group, or will the terrorists win? Will this bring an end to an already shaky alliance between nentraee and humans?

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Summary: Most will run, but the brave will fight... A deadly virus is sweeping through America's cities, pitting the worst humanity has to offer against its best warriors and scientists in a race against extinction. The virus doesn't just kill--it transforms and creates monsters of men and women called Variants. New York firefighter Meg Pratt is among those trapped in New York City. Together with her fellow rescue workers and the scattered elements of America's front-line military fighters, Meg fights to survive and save civilians from the coming apocalypse. Across the city, Marine Corps washout Jed Welch is on his own path to survival, and it intersects with Meg and her ragtag group of survivors. If they are lucky, they will see the help they need emerge from within, just as everything around them is coming to an end. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

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Summary: There is no escaping the evil lurking in the shadows... After the harrowing trials of Emergence, Jed Welch finds himself alone in the ruins of New York City. But not all is lost. USMC Staff Sergeant Alexandra Gallegos and the two surviving members of her platoon find Jed, and together they will bring the full weight of their Marine Corps training, and mission-driven sense of vengeance, to bear upon the real monsters: human collaborators who aid the Variants at the expense of their fellow human beings. For SSGT Gallegos, theirs is a mission borne of duty and command. For Jed, it becomes an act of penance, in hopes he may atone for his sins. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

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Summary: Murmur and Fable are left reeling after Somnia’s servers crash, and nothing is quite the same. Even as they challenge new dungeons, Murmur is haunted by an old enemy who seeks to take her down a dark path. Meanwhile, Laria and Shayla struggle to hide Wren’s prolonged immersion in the game from coworkers and sponsors alike, forcing them to seek out unlikely allies. As more people are made aware of Wren’s predicament, freeing her from Somnia becomes even more crucial. But it seems the game has other plans for her, and not even the AIs know what they are.

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Summary: You can run, but sometimes the farther you go the closer you are to where you started. Gabriel’s life ground to a halt some time ago, but he’s still running—from his past, his family, and now the new man in his life. A man who just won’t get the message that Gabriel isn’t interested in love anymore. Laurie won’t give up on the beautiful man who is broken and intent on running away. Even though he doesn’t know what Gabriel is running from, he’s determined to be at his side no matter what. When Gabriel’s past finally catches up, they both stop running and find themselves plunged into something Laurie could not have dreamed of, and Gabriel never stopped having nightmares about. Reader Advisory: This book contains a scene of attempted suicide.

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Summary: Ellison Firebrandt fights the good fight for Earth. Under a letter of marque, he raids the ships of Earth's opponents, slowing down their progress and ability to compete with the home system. On the planet Epsilon Indi 2, he rescues a woman named Suki Mori from a drug lord, only to find she isn't so happy about living a pirate's life. However, when the captain finds a new engine that will make him the most successful pirate of all, Suki is the only one who can make it work. Now Firebrandt must find a way to keep his crew fed and his ship supplied while relying on a woman who barely trusts him and while every government in the galaxy hunts him to get the engine back!

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Summary: A little blue world, the third planet from the sun. It's home to 7 billion people with all manner of faiths, beliefs and customs, divided by bigotry and misunderstanding, who will soon be told they are not alone in the universe. Anyone watching from the outside would pass by this fractured and tumultuous world, unless they had no other choice. Todd Landon is one of these people, living and working in a section of the world called the United States of America. His life is similar to those around him: home, family, work, friends and a husband. On the cusp of the greatest announcement humankind has ever witnessed, Todd’s personal world is thrown into turmoil when his estranged brother shows up on his front porch with news of ships heading for Earth’s orbit. The ships are holding the Nentraee, a humanoid race who have come to Earth in need of help after fleeing the destruction of their homeworld. How will one man bridge the gap for both the Humans and Nentraee, amongst mistrust, terrorist attacks and personal loss? Will this be the start of a new age of man or will bigotry and miscommunication bring this small world to its knees and final end?

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Summary: Civilization fell. It rose. At some point, people built starships. A millennium after the Earth was abandoned to climate change and resource depletion, Sharon Manders wakes up in a body that used to belong to somebody else, and some say she was a terrorist. She has no idea how she could be digging for Pleistocene bones in Africa one day, and crewing on a starship the next. That was just before she met the wolfman, the elf, and the sex robot. Struggling with distressingly unreliable memories, the expectations of her host body’s family and crewmates, future shock, and accusations of treason, Sharon goes on the lam to come face to face with terrorists, giant bugs, drug cartels, AIs, and lawyers. All things considered, she’d rather be back in 21st Century California.

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Summary: Will Logan and Luke Warren are still running, with no refuge in sight. After stopping in Tennessee to meet up with teammates Ron Perry and Jake Wilson, they head for Atlanta, to rendezvous with the remaining member of their team, Todd Jackson. Kowalski told Logan he murdered Jackson, but Logan knows all too well how hard it is to kill any of them now. He’s hopeful that Jackson survived and is waiting to meet them. Once they arrive in the city, they find Jackson easily enough. They soon discover, however, that he’s involved in a strange and savage situation, a member of a vicious fight club in the basement of an Atlanta club. When he tells Logan he’s in trouble and can’t extricate himself, Logan finds an oppressive atmosphere of evil in the club, seeming to center around the club’s owner, a charismatic man named Austell. Logan is disgusted by the illegal fighting, but Luke and the others are all inexplicably drawn to it. Something or someone is influencing the men, infusing them with violence and cruelty. A chain of events begins to unfold that will test Logan and Luke’s bond to the breaking point. Logan’s life is turned upside down as he has to fight for the lives of his friends and the man he can’t live without. When they're kidnapped, and everything Logan holds dear is in deadly danger, will he be strong enough to save them all? In this book, the second in a three part series, new clues and revelations emerge as to what happened to Logan and his friends in book 1, Origins, Gods of War, to change their lives. They face a new and savage threat to their safety, and receive intervention from Heaven itself? Or could it be Hell?

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Summary: Welcome to the last of the great flying Cities! It’s 9172, YE (Year of the Empire), and the future has forgotten its past. Soaring miles over the Earth, Autumn, the sole surviving flying city, is filled to the brim with the manifold forms of humankind: from Human Plus “floor models” to the oppressed and disfranchised underclasses doing their dirty work and every imaginable variation between. Valerius Bakhoum is a washed-up private eye and street hustler scraping by in Autumn. Late on his rent, fetishized and reviled for his imperfect genetics, stuck in the quicksand of his own heritage, Valerius is trying desperately to wrap up his too-short life when a mythical relic of humanity’s fog-shrouded past walks in and hires him to do one last job. What starts out as Valerius just taking a stranger’s money quickly turns into the biggest and most dangerous mystery he’s ever tried to crack – and Valerius is running out of time to solve it. Now Autumn’s abandoned history – and the monsters and heroes that adorn it – are emerging from the shadows to threaten the few remaining things Valerius holds dear. Can the burned-out detective navigate the labyrinth of lies and maze of blind faith around him to save the City of Autumn from its greatest myth and deadliest threat as he navigates his feelings for his newest client, the handsome golem Alejandro?

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Summary: Sofia Cancino is tired of her mundane life, her artificial environment and her large, boisterous family descending every holiday season. She's promised herself this year will be different and books a stay on the exclusive—and expensive--holiday-themed resort, Yule Planet. She looks forward to being pampered while reconnecting with Old Earth traditions steeped in the magic and mysticism of nature. Everything will be perfect and she'll leave as a more authentic human, better connected to her roots. Naturally, things go horribly wrong. Sofia's landing pod goes off course and instead of stepping out on the landing pad at the resort, she finds herself in the snow-swept perpetual winter of the planet's hinterlands. If that wasn't bad enough, she's "rescued" by a band of criminals on work release who run deliveries to the resort from far-flung shuttle delivery sites. They refuse to take her, a paying customer, to the resort and insist on dragging her along on their parcel run. Riding giant monsters. In frigid weather. Not to mention, Marta, who handles the monsters, obviously hates her. If Sofia survives her vacation, she's definitely yelling at someone's supervisor until she gets a refund.