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Since mankind first climbed down from the trees, we have looked out to the stars. We looked outward, wondering what secrets to our existence are out there. Professor John Spanks is about to discover the biggest secret the universe has. John has his world turned upside down when he discovers that all this time, we were looking the wrong way!

Dagger Jameswood wants to believe he is a crack detective, only he's never solved a case. Or even been hired by anyone. Or even been out of his mother's house for very long. Then a phone call from a mysterious woman begins the adventure of a lifetime.

SENT BACK FROM THE YEAR 2124, I’m Sorry, Here’s a Plasma Rifle is the last known work of author Aaron N. Hall before his tragic jet ski accident with a shipping container of rubber ducks. It contains seven short stories, eighteen poems, and four pastry recipes that highlight his affection for fantasy, science fiction, and the endearingly odd.

More than a century ago, the network of MASTTs, the space-time tunnels that made interstellar travel possible, violently collapsed, the backlash destroying a lot of the solar system's space-based infrastructure. Cooper "Coop" Douglas, a thief and conman is in serious debt to outer-system crime-lord Eric Galioto. While trying to salvage a valuable chunk of a space station destroyed by the backlash, Coop makes a startling discovery: MASTT Primus, the tunnel that used to lead to New Earth, is open again. That raises an intriguing possibility.

Signals are coming from beyond the edges of charted space. All indications are that they are being generated by the broken pieces of a Gate, used by the ancient Gatekeepers to scatter all the Human races across the universe. Except that as far as anyone knew, nothing could dent a Gate, forget break it. Yet the legendary warrior, Etrusca, scattered pieces of broken Gate across known and unknown space.

Thirteen months into his seven-day cruise, all Captain Leo MacGavin wants for his birthday is to finally go home. When his crew gives him a fully functional starship transporter, his wish comes true...sort of. As soon as the WTF Americano Grande returns to its home galaxy, things start to go awry. Leo’s relationship status becomes “more than complicated” as he’s torn between his holographic sweetheart, the woman she was based on, and an old crush who sashays back into his life.

Santa Claus just saved Christmas, so why are there dozens of prehistoric nightmares ravaging the streets of Moscow on Christmas Day? With his reindeer team restored and Snoot at his side once again, Santa springs into action, only to find a nefarious force eager to destroy not only Christmas but also the entire human race. As the Lord of Time and Space, the Time Raptor has inherited cosmic powers far beyond his control. Recognizing the evils mankind has perpetrated upon the Earth, the Time Raptor knows he must act to save the planet from its modern-day menace: humanity.

Life-altering tech is on the horizon, and someone wants it stopped—permanently. Can a murder witness escape paying the ultimate price? Near future. Angela Kapp struggles with demons from her past. Working remotely from an isolated cabin in a dead-end customer support job, she drinks too much and spends her days avoiding the world. But while on shift using a visual-interpretation headset to assist a blind person, the cynical loner is horrified when she virtually experiences the other woman’s gruesome slaying. Shocked the next day when she recognizes the killer closing in on a second ...

The stories of Weird Fauna of the Multiverse explore what happens to love and work when pushed beyond the boundaries of human decency.

Hi. My name is Kayobi Taida, and I am an assassin, no, not one of those piddly little human assassins. I'm an alien, an assassin on a galactic scale. My job is to exterminate dictators who get too big for their britches and decide that ruling one world just isn't enough. I stalk them, eliminate them, and then get paid. It's pretty easy for me, since I'm a 'swapper' what you might call a 'shape shifter' and my people are the only ones in the galaxy known to have magic power. But this isn't 'that' story. Not for the most part. These are the stories of my days off, my vacations, the little ...

In this short story first published by Ray Bradbury in the 1951 "Illustrated Man" collection, the game of "Invasion" has been sweeping the country. Children all across the nation pretend to have been enlisted by alien invaders, their job to overthrow their parents, and help their newfound friends take over the Earth. To Mrs. Morris, it's harmless fun — but to her daughter Mink, it's far from just a game.

Chet Finley is having the worst day of his life. Dumped by his girlfriend and fired from his latest job, Chet’s day gets even worse when he uncovers a galactic conspiracy controlling all life on Earth. The only way for Chet to save Earth—and himself—is to find the source of the conspiracy. Banding together with a haywire robot and a shape-shifting assassin, Chet sets out into a universe unlike anything he could have ever imagined.

Decades ago, Masha hid under a table and watched her parents die. Now, with war in the streets and chaos in the government, she can at last put the ultimate piece of her revenge into action. But it will involve murder, deception, and cunning on an unprecedented scale, and she's no longer as certain as she once was that she can pull this off. In the meantime, behind the barricades, the rest of the crew is trying desperately to survive as the Svodrani System government brings its full weight to bear. And surviving a war against the entire System might be a step too far, even for them.…

Tyrus Murphy is a bumbling EMT from Nebraska with big dreams. When he gets a call from an unknown number informing him he’s just inherited his uncle’s island of killer robots, he has one thought: world domination. International conquest ends up being more challenging than it seems, as the young ruler faces hard partying politicians, mysterious old aristocrats, and even his own unexpected aversion to violence. Powered by optimism and greed, Tyrus falls face-first through a globe-trotting adventure that rarely goes according to plan.

After taking down the two most powerful mafia bosses in the system, ex-smuggler pilot Jez and the crew race back to the capital to head off an impending civil war in the ensuing power vacuum. But to stop a bloodbath, they need to buy themselves time to prepare. So while Masha, Ysbel, and Tanya provide a distraction, Jez and Lev infiltrate a government paralyzed by the news, while Tae goes out into the volatile streets to neutralize the gangs who are more than willing to prove they’re the mafia’s natural successors. But preventing a civil war is more complicated than it sounds.

Former space trucker Jon Simmons, now bona fide U.S.E. Marshal agent Bob3831, has a murder to solve—and on it rests the fate of the universe. The problem is, he has little experience in detective work and, worse still, no leads. The victim, a high-ranking public figure on Cloisteria—a wealthy planet where only the elite can gain residence—has a hole in his head the size of a peach. And if Jon can't solve the crime, the consequences are unthinkable. But time is against him: The people of Cloisteria are lobbying for independence, and if that happens he'll be taken off the case.

Scanlon's Overpass. It's a shitty place. But for Eugene, an ex-clown recruited by his former comedy partner into a para-governmental, supranational organization engaged in psychic warfare, the overpass is going to become something a hell of a lot weirder!

Joe Slade is a detective with a hot lead and no idea where he is. Fallen from the world of fiction, Joe journeys through a hellscape of conflicting happy endings. There, he must confront the story–and the life–he left behind. His last chance to escape his fictional existence is to navigate an impossible labyrinth of genre tropes and reunite with his mentor Ellodrine, a wizard who suffers from reinterpretation. Their quest will take them through genres dark and deadly: Treacherous Spy Fiction, Gothic Horror, Gritty Cyberpunk, Urban Fantasy, and others too terrible to tell.

Jerusalem (Jeru) Pix virtually lives in the virtual worlds he loves until his high school crush asks him to do a teeny, tiny favor: stop her brother from becoming the next cult-inspired suicide bomber to target the wealthiest one percent. Jeru ventures from his safe life in cyberspace (and his parents’ condo) into the chaos of mid-21st-century Atlanta, where terrorism and religious zealotry are rampant and the ultra-rich have retreated into their own state within a state. Now, Jeru will have to become a hero in real life, with no do-overs, save points, or bathroom breaks.

Balloon has always been a morbidly obese moron. But recently, something about his feeble brain has changed. Every time he guesses, he’s right. Victory, the girl he’s been crushing on for over 10 years, needs his abilities to save her dying father. Desperate for her affection, Balloon agrees to help.