Fantasy Environment

Together for the first time, 14 action-packed tales of demons, monsters, vampires, and cosmic horrors too terrible to name - and the men and women who take them all down. Oh, and toss in an interdimensional insurance salesman for good measure.

This is the second volume collecting all of best-selling author Larry Correia's short stories, novelettes, and novellas. Correia's novels are known for their hard-hitting, no-holds-barred action sequences, in-depth worldbuilding, and vivid characterization. Now, Correia turns to the short form to deliver stories that take no prisoner.

After defeating the hobgoblin threat, Oren is now faced with an even more tenacious enemy: the players themselves. His old guild have discovered his village's location and a deadly strike force is closing in. With time running out, Oren must build up his clan and recruit an army of monsters if he's to have any hope of withstanding the coming attack.

Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the Moon closer to the Earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun?

Freshly unemployed gamer Arnold O'Connor is short on cash and facing eviction. When an indie game developer advertises looking for participants in a brain study to help revolutionize enemy AI, he's not thinking about the benefits to his hobby, just his bank account. But things get weird once the trials start. Neuroscientists monitor his brain waves as Connor performs a variety of tasks, culminating in venturing into a testing version of the very game they're hoping to develop. The tests mess with his sense of reality, seeing things he can't touch and deafened to some sounds but not others.

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful boyfriend, Cat decides that she needs a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry.” But when the budding social influencer finally gives in to impulse, buying a Burmese python from a local pet shop, she sets in motion a chain of increasingly dire events that culminates in one of the most memorable denouements in recent fiction, one that ensnares her entire family, from her eco-obsessed parents, Ottilie and Frank, to her frat-boy-turned-husband, Todd.

The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought, and the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093. Dramatizing science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, The Collapse of Western Civilization reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do, providing a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate-change literature.

Neal Stephenson’s sweeping, prescient new novel transports listeners to a near-future world where the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, merciless heat waves and virulent, deadly pandemics. One man has a Big Idea for reversing global warming, a master plan perhaps best described as 'elemental'. But will it work? And just as important, what are the consequences for the planet and all of humanity should it be applied?

When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn't pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA—a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence—has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research.

Sol, a thinker-linker crow, challenges the Sky Council to work with select humans to put those sharing the planet on a flight path to make the world more habitable. Many members of the Great Flock – including the mischief-loving magpies – master thinker-linker techniques, and use their abilities to encourage humans to make better choices. In some parts of the planet, progress happens, often one human at a time. Alas, not all humans are willing to cooperate. The Sky Council sends Sol on dangerous missions, requiring many sacrifices from him, his sister Ava, their dead brother Peeps and ...

Daisy Thistledown has recently escaped from boarding school, and has a mystery to solve. The trail will lead her through a hidden doorway to the Greenwild, a rich and verdant land bursting with magic. There, Daisy finds herself confronting a dangerous presence that threatens green magic on both sides of the door. Daisy must band together with a botanical prodigy, a boy who can talk to animals, and a cat with an attitude, to channel the power that can save the Greenwild - and her own world too.

Jack Trainer is a sales executive working for the fossil fuel industry and as ruthless as they come. Then one day he meets environmentalist Kara Jones and Jack experiences something he can’t explain. Something fantastic and wondrous. Something that will change him forever. In the tradition of “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits”, and “Amazing Stories”, “The Green Girl” is an epic, page turning tale of fantasy, romance, and suspense, from the imagination of acclaimed writer James J. Caterino, author of “Watch the Skies”, “The Girl from the Stars”, and “Super ...

Daisy Thistledown and the Five O'Clock Club have defeated a terrifying foe, but their journey to find the missing Botanists is only just beginning. Smuggling on board the long-awaited expedition to the heart of the Amazon, Daisy and her friends find themselves in danger on the high seas, pursued across the waves by Grim Reapers. Their only hope: to find the legendary Iffenwild, a mysterious magical pocket lost to time. But beneath the waves of Iffenwild, a strange botanical magic stirs.

Wrongly accused of her brother’s murder, Sonara’s destiny was to die, sentenced to execution by her own mother. Punished and left for dead, the shadows have cursed her with a second life as a Shadowblood, cast out and hunted by society for her demon-like powers. Now known as the Devil of the Deadlands, Sonara survives as a thief on the edge of society, fighting for survival on a quest to uncover what really happened to her brother and whether he is even dead at all....

In Shajarpur, everyone is always happy. The weather is always perfect. But newcomer Savi, a lonely teenager, doesn’t know what happiness means anymore. If she were to make a list of things that were the absolute worst, moving to Shajarpur would be right on top. Well, right after missing her father, who just died of a heart attack. As Savi grapples with loss in a strange new town, she discovers something startling. Not only can she communicate with her father’s plants—all forty-two of them—she can talk to the giant ficus tree behind her school.

Like every other being in our world, fantastical creatures have been forced to adapt to the climate, industrial, and cultural changes of the modern era. Countless formerly common creatures including akeki and cave trolls have been driven out by urban sprawl and climate change while others, like ether sprites and brownies, have been able to thrive in abundance, creating homes in city environments.

Over the course of a single night in 2052, a homeless man named Cuthbert Handley sets out on an astonishing quest: to release the animals of the London Zoo. When he was a young boy, Cuthbert's grandmother had told him he inherited a magical ability to communicate with the animal world - a gift she called the Wonderments. Ever since his older brother's death in childhood, Cuthbert has heard voices.

Alys was seven when the soul eaters came to her village. These soul eaters, twin sisters who were abandoned by their father and slowly morphed into something not quite human, devour human souls. Alys, and all the other children, were spared - and they were sent to live in a neighboring village. There the devout people created a strict world where good and evil are as fundamental as the nursery rhymes children sing. Fear of the soul eaters - and of the Beast they believe guides them - rules village life.

With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild. One night, he hears voices in the valley—poachers, come to hunt his bear. A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey—Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his own.

When an earthquake flattens New York City, the devastation is phenomenal and loss of life beyond comprehension. The world is in shock. Only the chosen few can see it. A firefighter, newspaperman, thief, engineer, bride and a priest are all strangers across the country and are all thrown together. All of them believe it is the beginning of the end. Together they work diligently to try to save humanity and stop the inevitable. But is it already too late?