Showing results by narrator "Luke Daniels" in All Categories

The ex-planet Pluto has a few choice words about being thrown out of the solar system. A listing of alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died. A lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions. And four artificial intelligences explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity. Welcome to Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi.

Eight years ago, Sharlah May Nash's older brother beat their drunken father to death with a baseball bat in order to save both of their lives. Now thirteen years old, Sharlah has finally moved on. About to be adopted by retired FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, and his partner, Rainie Conner, Sharlah loves one thing best about her new family: they are all experts on monsters.

Mattie and Brewster are normal, typical 16-year-old twins who live with their normal, boring parents: Martin and Gwen Banks. Normal and boring, that is, until the day their father's best friend shows up at their house - dressed in what appears to be a bathrobe. The next thing Mattie and Brewster know, their parents are frozen like human statues in their living room, the guy in the bathrobe has vanished, and they need to find answers - fast.

An ordinary snapshot causes a mother’s world to unravel in an instant. After picking up her two young children from school, Grace Lawson looks through a newly developed set of photographs. She finds an odd one in the pack: A mysterious picture from perhaps twenty years ago, showing four strangers she can’t identify. But there is one face she recognizes—that of her husband, from before she knew him. When her husband sees the photo that night, he leaves their home and drives off without explanation.

Pen Yas ben Min’s cousin was one of the legendary heroes of the wars against the giants until her untimely death. Pen has grown up in her famous cousin’s shadow, but when she’s given a quest to plant the seed of the magical Fourth Tree, she has a chance to step into the light—and usher in a new age for her country.

A young woman is found strangled in the stairwell of a college library, only her sneakers missing. With no physical evidence, no signs of sexual assault, and no witnesses, all the police have to go on are the three men who were in the library with her: her boyfriend and two campus security guards...all of whom have secrets, none of whom can be proven guilty. Five years later, ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy and his wife, former police officer Rainie Conner, agree to consult on the still-unsolved case.

Diving into a revolutionary new video game, Marcus and his friends escape a stagnant society, entering into a world that defies their wildest imaginations. But from the moment that he logs in, Marcus finds himself separated from his friends and thrown into a remote village under attack by a horde of goblins. Forced into battle, Marcus rallies the beleaguered villagers and, with their help, manages to drive off the invading creatures. With the village in ruins and their supplies spoiled, the villagers turn to Marcus for help in rebuilding the village.

A home destroyed. New graves line the grass like fresh scars. Warm sunlight dries tears from dirt-stained cheeks. The terrible enemy had been stopped, but now an ally must face the consequences for allowing such destructive evil into our world. Locke is forced into a position that pits him against powerful members of the council in order to save a friend while Depweg and Meli attempt to piece together a stolen life that should never have been. Then there’s John…always stuck in the middle, torn between two impossible decisions that will inevitably end up killing someone he cares about.

A peaceful organization of civilized planets is faced with a threat to their very existence. Desperate to save themselves, they turn for help to the most brutal, backward, violent species in the known galaxy: humans.

Hugh Logan has won the battle for Los Angeles and secured his sector of the galaxy from the rampaging Ssath. What do you do when a former enemy offers peace and a chance to fight back against your true foe? Hugh Logan and his war core are called to battle, but this time, he finds himself in an uneasy alliance with the Ssath. With new allies fighting at his side and hardened veterans at his mechs' controls, Hugh must risk everything to remove the shackles of the GCA and free the universe from endless war.

How did Lev Calder move from an unwillingly escaped Tithe to a clapper? In this revealing short story, Neal Shusterman opens a window on Lev’s adventures between the time he left CyFi and showed up at the Graveyard. Pulling elements from Neal Shusterman’s critically acclaimed Unwind and giving hints about what is to come in the riveting sequel, UnWholly, this short story is not to be missed.

Join Jake as he navigates his crazy new reality of different dimensions, dangerous monsters, and powerful gods. Eastern cultivation meets a gacha-like LitRPG system as Jake’s understanding of an eternal struggle grows. Evolutions to new monster forms and races, powerful items straight out of Xianxia, and powerful sacred arts will help Jake survive. The earth will never be the same after the apocalypse, but maybe after getting a second chance, Jake will be enough to tip the balance and prevent true evil from prevailing.

After saving the people of Ironmoor, Boyd Knight thought he was finally getting a handle on this whole Vigil thing. Bounties were rolling up. Monsters were dying in droves. Plus, he convinced his chaotic pixie familiar, Renholm, to stop committing random acts of arson. But defeating the fabled Hexblight of Ironmoor is child’s play compared to the tests Boyd will face in Wildespell, home to the Citadel of the Vigilant. Something foul has infiltrated the city.

Stranded in the present, time traveler Caleb Hornblower's biggest problem isn't returning to the twenty-third century - but falling head over heels for the beguiling Liberty Stone, who shows him a love more powerful than time itself. Though Caleb knows he belongs in the future, how can he leave the past, and Liberty, behind?

Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simultaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand.

Cynical Jacob Hornblower has followed his brother, Caleb, back in time, hoping to convince him to return home. His mission is soon forgotten, however, when he finds himself captivated by Liberty's spitfire sister, Sunny. But can a man who is down on love truly understand the unbounded strength of the human heart?

When the immortal Fae destroyed the ancient wall dividing the worlds of Man and Faery, the very fabric of the universe was damaged, and now Earth is vanishing bit by bit. Only the long-lost Song of Making - a haunting, dangerous melody that is the source of life itself - can save the planet.

In a postapocalyptic world of endless snow, Captain Romulus Buckle and the stalwart crew of the Pneumatic Zeppelin must embark on a perilous mission to rescue their kidnapped leader, Balthazar Crankshaft, from the impenetrable City of the Founders. Steaming over a territory once known as Southern California — before it was devastated in the alien war — Buckle navigates his massive airship through skies infested with enemy war zeppelins and ravenous alien beasties in this swashbuckling and high-octane steampunk adventure.

Vicious interstellar conflict with an indestructible alien species. Bloody civil war over the last habitable zones of the cosmos. Political unrest, militaristic police forces, dire threats to the solar system. Humanity is on the ropes, and after years of fighting a two-front war with losing odds, so is Commonwealth Defense Corps officer Andrew Grayson.

Hardly a day passes without Trille and Lena inventing some kind of adventure that often ends in trouble. Whether it's coaxing a cow onto a boat or tobogganing down the steepest and iciest hill with a chicken, there is always a thrill - and sometimes an injury - to be had. Trille loves to share everything with Lena, even Auntie Granny's waffles, which make everything just perfect. But when Lena has to move away, and Auntie Granny leaves the world, it sometimes seems nothing will ever be right again.