After saving the world, reluctant sorcerer Thomas Quinn just wants a quiet life running his shop in Philadelphia, but with a tribunal looming and his knack for trouble still intact, he may find himself pulled back into a battle for humanity once again.

Thomas Quinn, Reluctant Sorcerer of the Arcanum

What’s the reward for a job well done? For the Roman general Belisarius, it was a trial and conviction. Thomas Quinn, sorcerer, after having just saved the world this side of the veil, is hoping for a gentler fate from the tribunal called to pass judgment on him. But after centuries of putting his life on the line for humanity, he just doesn’t have a lot of patience with protocol.

In fact, he’s never been known for tact or subtlety, and one of these days that may get him trouble. Again. For the time being, the reward for doing his job? It’s back to Philadelphia, back to his little shop of esoteric goods—and back to the range, just in case he’s needed to save the world one more time.

A relentless alien pursues a beleaguered squad of soldiers through time and reality, while the Elderwatch monitors their fates, unraveling the intertwining stories of survival and annihilation.

When does the hunter become the hunted? How does a single image change the story to something . . . else?

In Dancing with Destruction, we get to find out. Nine stories from some of the top authors in military science fiction will tell the tale of the poor, hapless soldiers and an apex predator in hot pursuit.

Featuring stories from David Weber & Marisa Wolf, Nick Cole & Jason Anspach, Kacey Ezell, Jacob Holo & Edie Skye, Rick Partlow, Joelle Presby, Blaine Pardoe, Nick Steverson & Melissa Olthoff, and Jason Cordova.

In the end, it’s not about who is the hunted or the hunter, but who is willing to dance . . .

Interstellar medic Melanie Mooney races against time to save her patients while unraveling cosmic mysteries and navigating the dangers of space, all while longing for the Earth she left behind.

Find a Way Home

Everything is relative. Einstein said so.

After years of traversing the galaxy as an emergency medic, Melanie Mooney is learning this in a personal way. With each run to a far-flung star system, she is taken ever farther from her former life, and not only in distance. The penalty for zipping around the galaxy at light speed means time is moving slower for her than it is back home, and the difference is adding up. If Melanie ever hopes to return, she must do so before the Earth she knew becomes as unrecognizable to her as the alien worlds of the Galactic Union.

Intergalactic travel is expensive, far beyond anything Melanie can afford with her Medical Corps pay. There may yet be a way to not only get a free ride home, but in a manner that would avoid the pernicious effects of relativity. It’s risky, and will force Melanie to place her trust in some unsavory characters, including the last person in the galaxy she wants to be caught dead with.

The trick will be not getting caught dead or hopelessly lost in dimensions of the universe where no human or alien belongs. That’s a lot for a woman who just wants to go home.

CLASSIC SF STORIES FOR ANYONE THINKING ABOUT THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Imperium Sine Fine

Step back in time and traverse the stars with classic stories that reimagine the grandeur of the Roman Empire—with a science fiction twist.

From the vastness of interstellar conquests to the intricate politics of alien worlds, these tales blend history and imagination, exploring what might have been if Rome had extended its reach beyond the cosmos.

Join us as we uncover the stories that blend the glory of the past with the possibilities of the future—where the empire never truly fell, but soared among the stars.

When a prank bonds Harper Tavros to a fierce griffin instead of the dragon she always dreamed of, she must battle her doubts and rise to the front lines, forging an unbreakable alliance to save her country from impending doom.

Together we fly, divided we fall.

All Harper Tavros ever wanted was to be a dragon rider.

But after a prank goes wrong, she ends up soul bonded to a griffin. Now, she'll have to learn an entirely new skillset before she ends up on the front lines of a war her country is slowly losing.

If she's going to make a difference, she'll need to rise up from the ruin of her dreams and embrace a new path. One that includes her accidental bondmate, an utterly ridiculous, insanely brave griffin. But in order to form a strong enough bond to defend their country, they'll need to keep the pressures of war, loss, and doubt from tearing them apart. Because the only way Harper and her griffin will survive is together.

In the wild chaos of a post-apocalyptic Florida panhandle, a reluctant hero navigates a zombie-infested hellscape, battling madmen and hurricanes, all while reluctantly donning the crown of the Narco King—because when the world goes mad, someone's got to rule the freak show!

INHALE TO THE KING, BABY!

It’s just a law of the universe: Whenever there’s a power vacuum, something will rise to fill it. You might not always like what rises to the top, though. . . .

After the Fall, after the plague that turned a significant portion of humanity into mindless zombies or corpses, the people who weren’t turned had to do whatever it took to survive. Down in the Florida panhandle, life wasn’t easy for the survivors. They needed a system to keep them going, someone to organize them to fight against the ravaging zombies, raging hurricanes, and each other. Luckily, even though mainstream culture was destroyed, a parallel structure was already in place.

LONG LIVE THE KING!

But uneasy lies the crown on the head of a man with even the vestiges of human dignity. Eric Magnus Lamont might just be the right man, in the right place, at the right time.

THE KING OF FLORCUBATAMP!

In the world of the cutthroat augmented reality game TransDimensional Hunter, Lynn Raven must outsmart stalker fans and a rogue algorithm, forcing her to push her limits to survive and win the championship.

Truth is stranger than fiction . . . and it’ll kill you a whole lot faster.

When Lynn Raven set out to win the championship for groundbreaking augmented reality game TransDimensional Hunter, the worst she thought she’d face was sunburn, mosquito bites, and annoying spectators.

The more she plays, though, the higher the stakes become—and the stranger the obstacles she has to face.

From dodging fans-turned-stalker to managing inter-team sabotage to surviving the increasingly bizarre antics of a game algorithm that seems to have it out for her, Lynn isn’t sure how much more she can take.

And then the other shoe drops.

If Lynn has any hope of coming out alive and on top, she’ll have to up her game beyond anything she thought possible.

And even that might not be enough.

In a desperate fight for humanity's survival, Captain Saef Sinclair-Maru must lead the powerful private warship Salahdiin and an unlikely alliance against genocidal forces, balancing the demands of shareholders with the heart of a rebellion.

Piracy, War, and Humanity's Last Stand

The heavy cruiser Salahdiin is the most powerful private warship in the history of the Myriad Worlds, and bears a Letter of Marque, the Imperial charter for legalized piracy. As the most successful fighting captain of the Imperial Fleet, Saef Sinclair-Maru is the ideal choice to command the privateer, but exchanging egotistical admirals for demanding shareholders carries its own unique challenges, particularly when the fate of humanity lies in the balance.

While war rages within the Imperium, few comprehend the inhuman instigators at the heart of the conflict or their genocidal ambitions, but Saef and his counterpart, Inga, draw a surprising coterie of allies to their campaign of desperate resistance, including spy master Winter Yung, former Molo Ranger Kyle Whiteside, and even Erik Sturmsohn, a Thorsworld war chieftain sworn to overthrow the emperor.

Together, in the face of approaching annihilation, they each must choose: Obedience to the edicts of their leaders, or loyalty to a deeper motivation that defines the very heart of humanity.

Artorius and his team must race against time to thwart a looming clash between two ancient powers, navigating a treacherous landscape where their actions could rewrite history and spark a catastrophic conflict.

In a world where history can be rewritten at will, the threads of destiny intertwine in ways no one could have foreseen.

Years after their groundbreaking journey into the past, Artorius and his team stumble upon a devastating revelation: the Chinese government has dispatched five time-travelers and a trove of advanced technology back to 165 CE, during the waning days of the Han dynasty. While believed they were guiding Rome toward a new era of modernization and unity, the emergence of Chinese influence threatens to unravel everything they have fought for.

As whispers of innovation ripple through the ancient world, Artorius and his companions realize they are in a race against time—not just to protect their vision for a united future, but to prevent a catastrophic clash that could bring about nuclear war centuries sooner than they ever imagined.

With their own presence now at risk of exposure, they must navigate the treacherous waters of politics, technology, and culture in a world caught between two colossal powers. As the balance of history teeters on a knife's edge, loyalties will be tested, alliances forged, and the very fabric of fate will hang in the balance.

When astronomer Stephanie Bronson uncovers a massive alien vessel named Fenrir racing toward the Sun, she must lead a desperate mission to rescue its crew before a catastrophic failure dooms them both to fiery destruction.

It was just a dot of light . . .

. . . a dot of light that appeared out of nowhere. Stephanie Bronson thought she might have found a distant supernova. Instead, what she’d found was something more than a thousand miles across, moving towards the Sun at almost a third the speed of light from the constellation of Lupus, the Wolf. Even more frightening, the object—called Fenrir, after the Norse Wolf of the World’s End—was slowing down. It was not a comet or even a rogue planet.

It was an alien vessel.

And despite the increasingly detailed and insistent messages of greeting from Earth, it showed no sign of responding. As the world braced itself for the arrival of the immense, frighteningly silent alien visitor, Stephanie held hope that they still might communicate with Fenrir—until something happened that no one had imagined: Fenrir flared and its drive died, leaving the huge ship careening out of control to a fiery death inside the orbit of Venus.

There was—just possibly—a chance for Earth to act—to rescue the now-shipwrecked “Fens.” But even Stephanie—or those trying to stop her and the rescue ship Carpathia—could not imagine that not merely the fate of the aliens, but that of Earth itself, would be decided by Fenrir.

Fleeing her sheltered life, a noblewoman must trust a warrior, a forester, and a thief to unlock her true power and face her destiny.

Embrace Your Power and Forge Your Destiny

All her life, Aelys of Brionne had been weak. As the noble daughter of one of the empire’s most powerful magic-wielding families, it should have been easy for her to live her dream of bonding with a warrior protector and joining the Imperial Battlemage Corps. But when her weakness robs her of her dreams, her best friend, and the man she loves, Aelys makes the only choice she can see: she takes her fate into her own hands and she runs, leaving her safe, protected world behind.

Now she must find a way to work with three dangerous strangers—a warrior, a forester, and a thief—to escape the bandits stalking her, fight through the dangers of the untamed forest, and make her way back home, where her family and her destiny await.

Only . . . her violent protectors might be the key to the power and freedom she’s always craved. Can Aelys find the strength to choose her own destiny and become the sorceress she was born to be? Or lose herself on the path to power?

A Wild Chase Through Elizabethan England

Thomas Rimor, a man hunted by time and bound by destiny, roams the sinister pathways of Þagalwood—a haunted realm where grotesque trees whisper his name and prey upon the unwise. Armed with a mysterious ördstone and fueled by a relentless mission to thwart the sinister Yvag elves, Thomas risks his life to rescue the helpless teinds, victims destined for sacrifice in the fathomless pit of Hel.

But the woods hold secrets as dangerous as the Yvags themselves. When a spectral figure emerges from the depths, leaving a trail only the ördstone can illuminate, Thomas is drawn into a deadly mystery that challenges the limits of his courage and cunning. Poisonous blooms, traps within traps, and a shocking betrayal await him in a perilous game of survival against ancient powers.

With each step, Thomas ventures closer to uncovering the truth of his enemy’s dark designs—and the shadowy forces that may already control his fate.

Conspiracy Theories Meet Superhero Reality

ALL IT TAKES

It’s there for anyone to see: There are dark forces at work on the world, working to destroy civilization. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing. We need a good guy.

NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES—BUT SOME DO

For a generation, individuals have arisen with super powers, able to change the course of history, or at least save a few lives. But these people have free will—and not all choose to work for the forces of good. We need someone with an unblotted escutcheon, a Galahad for the 21st Century, someone pure of ethics and morality.

NOT THAT KIND OF GOOD GUY

What we get is Michael: the product of a broken childhood, raised in the foster system of one of America’s most dangerous inner cities, his wisdom comes from drug addicts and whores. Maybe he’s not the hero we asked for, but he’s the hero we need. And he’s about to hit puberty.

After the end of the world, a tropical paradise might just be the hardest place to survive.

The virus robbed humans of their higher thought processes, turning them into uncontrollable savages. The Hawaiian Islands are separated from the rest of the world by thousands of miles of ocean, but that couldn’t stop the virus. Civilization fell, and it fell HARD.

Can paradise survive the end of the world?

High atop a dormant volcano, a team of scientists preserve the last remnants of higher technology. Off the coast of Kauai, a flotilla of survivors must decide whether to return to their island, or make their way to another location, risking pirates and nature on the gamble of safer shores. On the central plateau of the Big Island, a group of ranchers want to rebuild civilization . . . but to do that, they’ll need to reunite a people scattered across an ocean of stars.

NEW RING OF FIRE SERIES ENTRY FROM IVER P. COOPER

A cosmic catastrophe, the Ring of Fire, strands the West Virginia town of Grantville back in time in the middle of the Thirty Years War. One of its ripple effects is that Japan has pulled back from a policy of isolation and staked out its own claims on the west coast of North America. But it is not the only power interested in that part of the New World, and the native Americans have also responded, in different ways, to the unexpected colonists. And there are conflicts among the colonists themselves.

In settling the fate of this part of the New World, a few remarkable individuals have an outsize role to play: Oyamada Isamu, a samurai on his first independent command; Yells-at-Bears, a young native woman of Vancouver Island; Father Blanco, a Jesuit priest and former missionary; and Iroha Data-hime, the daughter of the Grand Governor of New Nippon.

An ancient treasure in deep space holds the key to a deadly conspiracy which will shake the Billion Worlds of the Tenth Millennium.

At the end of the Tenth Millennium, Zee and his AI buddy Daslakh arrive on the icy moon Miranda, hoping to make a good impression on his girlfriend Adya's upper-class parents. Instead they discover that Adya's father is the target of a political conspiracy. While Adya tries to discover who is trying to ruin the family fortunes and expel them from Miranda's exclusive ruling class, Daslakh and Zee go on the trail of a lost treasure in deep space. As they both dig deeper they run afoul of rival political factions, romantic complications, space mercenaries, octopus gangsters, and ruthless secret agents—and all the while dealing with interference from Adya's parents and party-going sister. Love, power, wealth, and honor collide in the floating cities and palaces inside Miranda.

If someone gave you all the money in the world, just what would you do with it?

Finally free of Earth and all of his connections to it, David can now focus on his and Kacey’s fledgling cargo company, and start considering his future goals as an engineer. There is still the small matter of the agreement he made with his grandfather, one of the richest men in the solar system, but Dave knows his brother won’t be solving the FTL issue anytime soon.

So he’s got time.

However, there are forces on Earth that while David may believe he is done with them, are by no means done with David. An escalating tit-for-tat is about to begin, over issues that will one day be worth far more money and power than he or anyone else can imagine. An escalation that will soon spiral out of all control, and David will find himself with no choice but to unleash the horrors of war on an unsuspecting populace. A war that will exact a price from his own flesh and blood before it is over.

NEW ENTRY IN THE ICARUS SAGA FROM NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR TIMOTHY ZAHN

For years Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene have worked for the ultra-secret Icarus Group, hunting for the mysterious Icari teleportation portals so valued by the Commonwealth.

But their job has now come to a wrenching end. The two of them are fugitives, sought by the Commonwealth, the rival Patth, and the remnant of the ancient Ammei who once controlled the portals and who hunger for a return to those days of glory. All three groups want Selene and her unique ability to understand and deal with Icari technology.

Or is it unique?

In the shadow of an Ammei stronghold they stumble across an unfamiliar and badly confused alien named Bubloo who has the same ultrasensitive sense of smell as Selene and her fellow Kadolians. If the Ammei get hold of him, can they achieve their goal of domination without Selene?

Roarke doesn’t know. But he doesn’t dare take that chance.

Things are looking grim, with multiple puzzles and questions intertwined around Bubloo and the portals, and the future of the Spiral hanging in the balance.

And then, the Patth assassination squad arrives . . .

NEW ENTRY IN THE BEST-SELLING LIADEN UNIVERSE® SERIES

A world divided cannot stand.

A people divided cannot thrive.

The Oracle has Seen the end of Civilization, and the end of the Haosa, too. Reactions to this are—mixed.

On the one hand, foresight is a notoriously erratic Gift. On the other, can Civilization—or the Haosa—afford to assume that the prophecy is an error?

And if the Oracle has Seen truly—is it possible to alter the future?

While well-meaning people struggle to implement change that might, at least, mitigate a disaster, others are looking toward the profit they can make from the end of the world.

In the meantime, the Tree-and-Dragon Trade Team has concluded its whole port inventory, and is about to propose Colemeno as a trade-hub and anchor to a brand-new route. Padi yos’Galan is preparing to step into new roles, personally, and in trade.

And the lives of two small children may be the thread that binds the future—or unravels it.

NEW RING OF FIRE SERIES ENTRY FROM THE LATE ERIC FLINT AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR WALTER HUNT: The King is dead: Long Live the King. But which one? Gaston sits on the throne in Paris, but the dead king’s infant son has powerful forces on his side, ready to place him where he belongs. Who will prevail?

Tensions build in France following the ascension of Gaston to the throne of his murdered brother, but there are factions supporting the claim of King Louis’ surviving infant son. As France moves toward civil war, other parties, both visible and invisible, maneuver to take advantage of the increased tension. Who will survive to reign over France—King Gaston, the exiled child and his regents, or the King of Spain?