In the world of speculative fiction… Your favorite authors…Have selected the best new voices of the year. 24 Award-winning Authors and Illustrators. 3 Bonus Short Stories by Kevin J. Anderson • L. Ron Hubbard • S. M. Stirling. Art and Writing Tips by Lazarus Chernik • L. Ron Hubbard • Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Edited by Dean Wesley Smith • Jody Lynn Nye. 16-page color gallery of artwork • Cover art by Tom Wood. Check out the stories Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Nnedi Okorafor, Robert J. Sawyer, Kevin J. Anderson, Jody Lynn Nye and others chose as the best of the best. Be amazed. Be amused. Be transported … by stories that take you by surprise and take you further and deeper into new worlds and new ideas than you’ve ever gone before….Twelve captivating tales from the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy accompanied by three from masters of the genre. Contents: * Kitsune / Devon Bohm: A miracle? An omen? Or something else? One day, they arrived in droves—the foxes of the desert, the field, the imagination…. Illustrated by Alaya Knowlton * Moonlight and Funk / Marianne Xenos: When a vampire, a dragon and a shape-shifting Chihuahua meet on a beach in Key West, fireworks go off! But that’s just the background. Illustrated by April Solomon * *Fire in the Hole / Kevin J. Anderson: Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., faces one of his funniest and most perplexing cases ever—an enlightened ogre, a salamander with low self-esteem, and a raging fire dragon terrorizing the Unnatural Quarter! * Death and the Taxman / David Hankins: The Grim Reaper, trapped in an IRS agent’s dying body, must regain his powers before he dies and faces judgment for his original sin. Illustrated by Sarah Morrison * Under My Cypresses / Jason Palmatier: In a metaverse future, a woman who exposes falseness in others must decide what is real to her, the love she lost or the love she may have found. Illustrated by Helen Yi * *The Unwilling Hero / L. Ron Hubbard: Vic Harden wasn’t lured by glory on a daring mission into the reaches of outer space, he was ordered out there by his editor. Illustrated by Bruce Brenneise * White Elephant / David K. Henrickson: Dangerous opportunities present themselves when an alien ship arrives in the solar system seeking repairs. Illustrated by Kristen Hadaway * Piracy for Beginners / J. R. Johnson: With her spaceship at the wrong end of a pirate’s guns, a former war hero must face down her enemies and demons to save Earth’s last best chance for peace. Illustrated by Chris Binns * A Trickle in History / Elaine Midcoh: Years after the Second Holocaust, the last surviving Jews on earth attempt to rewrite the past. Illustrated by Jose Sánchez * The Withering Sky / Arthur H. Manner: When I said I’d do anything to pay off my debts and get back home to Earth, I didn’t mean survey a derelict spaceship at the edge of the solar system, but here I am. Illustrated by Ximing Luo * The Fall of Crodendra M. / T. J. Knight: High-powered telescopes bring galactic life to our TVs, and network tuner Hank Enos figures he’s seen everything, until the day an alien boy stares back. Illustrated by Chris Arias * *Constant Never / S. M. Stirling: Knights, damsels and dragons, curses and fates foretold, the stuff of legends and stories, but unexpectedly perverse. Illustrated by Nick Jizba * The Children of Desolation / Spencer Sekulin: Determined to save his wife, Tumelo takes an unlikely client through South Africa’s ruins to the heart of the Desolation, a journey that will cost or save everything. Illustrated by Alexandra Albu * Timelines and Bloodlines / L. H. Davis: When a terrorist smuggles a nuclear weapon into London, a team regresses in time to AD 1093 to assassinate a knight on the battlefield, thereby eliminating the terrorist a millennia before his birth. Illustrated by Clarence Bateman * The Last History / Samuel Parr: The Grand Exam, a gateway to power for one, likely death for all others, its entrants include ambitious nobles, desperate peasants, and Quiet Gate, an old woman with nothing left to lose. Illustrated by Dao Vi .
Authors
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century. While, as such, he presents the culmination of science and spiritual technology as embodied in the religion of Scientology. For an in-depth look at his life, visit www.LRonHubbard.org
Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series. I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps. I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.
Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series. MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY: (personal website: source) I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.
Award-winning author David Hankins writes from the thriving cornfields of Iowa where he lives with his wife, daughter, and two dragons disguised as cats. David joined the US Army after college and, through some glitch in the bureaucracy, convinced Uncle Sam to fund his wanderlust for twenty years. He has lived in and traveled through much of Europe, central Asia, and the United States. Now that he’s retired from the Army, David is devoted to his passions of writing, traveling with his family, and finding new ways to pay his mortgage. You can find him at https://davidhankins.com
