Science Fiction & Fantasy

Hell Week has begun. Senior students have been tasked with making the freshmen's lives pure torture as we prepare to face The Reckoning—the assessment that will decide whether we stay at Zodiac Academy or lose our places here forever. With the Lunar Eclipse on the horizon, my sister and I have more to worry about than just passing our exams. A dark plot is unfolding and the shadows are drawing closer. It looks like our enemies could be more powerful than we ever realised.

A barely employed tech worker has never felt they belonged. Not in society, not even in their own family. Their days are filled with loneliness, a struggle to survive and a desperate search for connection—even if that connection is merely virtual. Now, a black-market hacker promises to open a new world for them, and it works—in ways no human has ever experienced. They find a world of wonder, of possibilities and of danger—where their new virtual reality could mean the end of their physical reality. And what they discover could change the fate of humankind—forever.

After fulfilling the duty all Arch Necromancers are tasked with, the last thing Sylver Sezari expected was to be reborn. He was usually the one reanimating dead things, after all. How ironic. But reborn he was. And after crawling his way back into the land of the living, he finds himself in a strange land, a strange time, and with a strange floating screen in front of his new face. Either through plan or chance, he’s alive again, and planning to enjoy himself to his heart's content.

Michael Maloney, Neve McIntosh, David Warner, Nicholas Briggs and Alex Kingston read these four original stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory.

Schon als Kind war Morgan wild. So wild wie das Meer, das gegen die Klippen donnert, auf denen ihr Zuhause ruht: Tintagel Castle. Dort wähnte sich Morgan seit jeher in Sicherheit. Doch dann wurde ihr Vater in den Krieg berufen, und kehrte nie wieder. Stattdessen kam Großkönig Pendragon nach Tintagel - und mit ihm Merlin, der Zauberer.

Ah, Nyil, with its magic, its monsters, and its petty gods. A divine spat leaves French medic Viv stranded in the middle of an arcane disaster zone crawling with undead horrors. Thankfully, there are strange allies to be found, not least the mysterious interface that helps humans survive in this merciless world. Viv will have to progress fast to survive this calamity and find civilisation. She will also need a bit of luck. Unless, of course, she becomes the calamity herself. After all, luck is such a fickle thing.

Fortuna Minor is overrun by Speed Waaagh!s, its population enslaved to build weaponised effigies of the orks’ foul gods. For the Imperial forces on the planet, every hour is a hopeless fight for survival. But into this nightmare steps Arcadian Leontus – Lord Commander of the Segmentum Solar, peerless tactician and mastermind of countless victories. Even stripped of his armies, Leontus has no intention to merely survive this war. He intends to win it.

This short story collection will take you into the depths of Beck’s dark imagination: from what happens when the deepest bore hole on Earth has just passed nine miles and hits a strange open space – and it's hellishly hot down there; to an Antarctic research team examining fragments from a deep ice glacier and discovers a tiny seed that, once thawed, grows into something terrifyingly unexpected.

Wren Embervale, alchemist-turned-assassin, finds solace in only one thing: seeking vengeance for the death of her friends. The wars of the past may be over, but her thirst for revenge is far from quenched. For years, she has been content with her poisons and potions for company, but when an unknown form of alchemy is used to attack a king of the midrealms, Wren’s time in the shadows comes to an end. She’s offered a place at the ancient alchemy academy of Drevenor to find a cure to the dark magic threatening the kingdoms. To win her spot, she must conquer the Gauntlet.

Suddenly Maddy is right there… in her very own future. And it’s all wrong, yet again. It happens to her every time. When the kisses lead to the bedroom, just when she thinks she might have found the one… Just for a split second, Maddy disappears, and she finds that she’s living her own life. But ten years into the future. She’s only there for a little while. But each time, it’s long enough to know that she doesn’t want to be any of those future versions of Maddy. Because every man she falls for seems to lead her to a future that is just… wrong. Until she meets Oliver.

Book 6 of this Fantasy LitRPG Series about a reincarnated necromancer growing in power and finding his way in a new world where the rules have changed vastly since he last "lived. "

I was the Rift Magus—master of space and time, protector of worlds. For decades, I defended my realm with unmatched power. But when an unspeakable creature threatened everything I held dear, I was forced to create a rift to nowhere—a trap designed to seal it away for all time. It worked, but the creature was not without power itself.

Kit McCafferty's life is quiet, unremarkable, and filled with cat hair. In the magical city of Coldstream, located on the border between Scotland and England, Kit is viewed as little more than mildly eccentric and mostly harmless. She passes her days caring for her family of five cats, feeding the local feral moggies, and maintaining relatively good relations with her neighbors. All that changes, however, when a teenage werewolf shows up at her door in the desperate hope of renting out a nearby vacant flat.

The ship survived, but over time the original crew died out. Their children were left to continue the fight for their home against their sworn enemy, the vicious alien Malibor. They’ve lived their whole lives in space. Their idea of heaven is open air, blue skies, and the quiet of peace. But they'll never have that if they don't take it by force.

Una Hartstone, Princess of Issos, learns the price the Wraith King demands to end the war once and for all—Her. In exchange for the safety of her people, she agrees to give her life—and her body—to her greatest enemy. Gollaya Verbane is determined to fulfill his destiny and his god's prophecy. When his seer points to the Princess of Issos as the key to the rise of the dark fae, he demands her submission. But when she finally yields, he realizes Una is much more to him than a priceless weapon.

Earth is gone, and humanity has been scattered across a multiverse they didn't even know existed. The only way to survive is to become powerful enough to fight back against the god-like forces that seek to control everything in the universe. Finn and his sister spent their lives fighting to survive, and just when it looks like he's finally getting somewhere, the world comes to an end. Now, he finds himself in the biggest battle of his life... for himself, his sister, and the entire human race.

Lorelei Clay isn’t like other people. She isn’t even like other supernaturals. Her specialties are the nightmares of the living, communication with the dead, and cooking bacon until it’s golden brown and perfectly crispy—no magic required.

Peter Busch-McGinley is a self-employed handyman in Max City. For the last eight years, life has been a downward spiral that left him nothing to show for his pain. But that's about to change. Pete is approached by the patron deity of the Fertile Valley and Mineral Village—the self-described Harvest Goddess. She reveals his destiny as her chosen one, which obviously throws him for a loop. As shocking as that is, it isn't nearly as surprising as what his childhood friend, Queenie Luna, reveals to him.

Growing up on modern day Earth, I had no idea I’d been selected from birth to help a dying race save their population. So when a starship abducts me for a royal wedding with galactic consequences, my only option is to help its crew of beautiful officers complete their mission. The catch? I have to protect my gorgeous bride and new allies from an alluring enemy who wants my immunity to a fertility-killing plague for herself, even if it means I have to take command.

Prophecy tells of a hero who shall slay the Lord of Demons—but this is not his story. This is the story of his twin. Where he has a magical core of unparalleled talent, she has none at all. Where he is celebrated, she is shunned Yet she refuses to accept her fate. She will prove herself. Even if it means breaking a sacred taboo, and eating the flesh of demons…

Reincarnated as the War God—he has a lot to learn to live up to that title. His power is only as good as the skill he possesses to wield it. But there is a reason the former War God fell. He can only dare to imagine what foes lie in wait. He will have to build a team out of a former shield maiden, an elven sorceress intent on hiding her power, a beautiful lycan who doesn't trust anyone and a mortal-hating fire celestial. What could be hard about that?

The UEC has been fighting a losing battle against the demonic hordes, forced to surrender more ground every day. But aboard the U.S.S. Shotgun Opera, the Overmaiden—a sixth-generation Ghost AI—has just forged humanity’s perfect weapon and best hope: a supersoldier. The man he used to be is gone, lost with his family to demons on the mining world of Aonus. All that’s left is hate, rage, and unyielding power. Rip, crunch, gore, dismember—the unstoppable juggernaut will slaughter his way through Hell, driven by righteous fury and a singular drive.

I can turn into a housecat. It’s a fun magic, except in a world filled with vampires and werewolves, it doesn’t exactly make me a powerhouse. Instead, the supernatural community has classified me as an outcast, which means one thing: picking on me is open season all day, every day. The local fae are the worst of all, and it’s during one of their regular “capture the cat-girl” sessions that I shift into my cat form and meet HIM for the first time.

In a world where everyone wields magic, I'm the odd one out—ungifted and unsure. My lack of magic gnaws at my confidence, but amid this struggle, I find unexpected solace in Ayden, a fellow Ranger cadet. Our budding romance becomes the one bright spot in my life. Then everything changes. A shadowy threat emerges, and an ancient cult aims to resurrect a long-forgotten queen, plunging our world into chaos. Kidnappings and whispers of disaster force Ayden and me into a dangerous journey, one where trust is scarce, and betrayal lurks around every corner.

Finn was living a good life as a blacksmith's apprentice, training hard to earn the right to become one of the Kingsguard, the elite force of one hundred knights that serve and protect the King. He worked hard, trained hard, and often got into trouble with his best friend, Prince Galen. The two of them had been almost inseparable since they were toddlers. For Finn, life couldn't be better. Until a force of assassins and mercenaries attacked the palace! Prince Galen and the entire royal family were murdered, along with Finn's father.