Grandma gives a sweater she knitted, Dad receives a necktie he doesn’t really like, the kids get toys that make a variety of noises, most of them loud, all of them annoying.

What do writers give for the holiday season? They give the gift of stories that take the reader away to fantastical times or places, tales that can be blood-curdling or heart-warming, adventures that capture the heart of the season.

Fantastic Holiday Stories by Kevin J. Anderson • Kristine Kathryn Rusch • Rebecca Moesta • David Farland • Larry Correia • Nina Kiriki Hoffman • Dean Wesley Smith • Debra Gray De Noux & O’Neil De Noux • 
Jerry Oltion • Kathy Oltion • Kent Patterson • Ray Vukcevich • Kim Antieau.

’Tis the Season—for 14 more magical, macabre and merry tales to make your Holidays … Fantastic!

Gingerbread houses, caroling carolers, brightly trimmed trees, big family dinners, pristine snowfalls … the familiar pleasures of the season.

But what better pleasure is there than a good holiday story? So open this winter solstice sampler and indulge in funny festive fantasies, nightmares before Christmas, and stunning space-age celebrations … these stories will warms hearts and minds like a blazing Yule log.

Fantastic Holiday Stories by

Kevin J. Anderson, Mercedes Lackey, Mike Resnick, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Jonathan Maberry, Eric James Stone, Nina Kiriki Hoffman., Quincy J Allen, Ken Scholes, Sam Knight, David Boop, Heather Graham, Brad R. Torgersen, Patricia Briggs

Four science fiction tales from the mind of Kevin J. Anderson, each with a short introduction by the author. Includes: "Landscapes," "Fondest of Memories," "Controlled Experiments," and "Human, Martian—One, Two, Three."

Four science fiction tales from the mind of Kevin J. Anderson, each with a short introduction by the author. Includes: "Collaborators" (written with Rebecca Moesta), "Good Old Days," "Job Qualifications," and "Prisoner of War."

Alternitech sends prospectors into alternate but similar timelines where tiny differences yield significant changes: a world where the Beatles never broke up, or where Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t gunned down after the Kennedy assassination, where an accidental medical breakthrough offers the cure to a certain disease, where a struggling author really did write the great American novel, or where a freak accident reveals the existence of a serial killer. Alternitech finds those differences—and profits from them.

Six adrenalin junkies who call themselves the Daredevils Club hold the fate of the world in their hands. In an ancient undersea cavern, one of them, oil man Frik Van Alman, discovers a set of stones that are unlike anything else on Earth. Fitted together, the stones form an object that promises limitless free energy for the world.

After a terrified scientist scatters the pieces, the club members race to retrieve them. Each knows that whoever reassembles the unique device will have unlimited power at his or her fingertips. Can anyone be trusted?

In a thrilling adventure that stretches from deep beneath the Caribbean to the penthouses of Las Vegas, friend battles friend for control of the Artifact.

Nebula Award Nominee. The crew of Moonbase Columbus make an amazing discovery on the far side of the Moon—a massive alien structure is erecting itself, built up atom by atom by living machines, microscopically small, intelligent, and unstoppable, consuming everything they touch. The mysterious structure begins to expand and take shape, and its creators begin to multiply.

Is this the first strike in an alien invasion from the stars? Or has human nanotechnology experimentation gone awry, triggering an unexpected infestation? As riots rage across a panicked Earth, scientists scramble to learn the truth before humanity’s home is engulfed by the voracious machines.

It’s just supposed to be an educational field trip to the Challenger Learning Center, but JJ Wren and her friends find themselves transported into the future, to a time when the human race is besieged by deadly alien invaders. The evil Kylarn have shifted the orbits of three asteroids, sending them on a collision course with Earth!

The Avatar XPRIZE is designed to drive the exponential innovations needed to make General Purpose Avatars an everyday reality. The development of “avatar” technology—the fusion of human awareness consciousness with remote robotic bodies—offers breathtaking advances in medicine, culture, work, transportation, education and imagination.

The transformational potential of avatars is endless—and who better to illustrate the possibilities than some of the most insightful science fiction writers working in the field today?

Imagine a group of remote spectators traveling along remotely during a rigorous mountain climbing expedition. Or a severely injured athlete able to play his favorite sport vicariously through another body. Or a comatose woman using an avatar to interact with her family and the outside world, even though her body is failing. Or a skilled operative using an avatar on a dangerous search and rescue operation. Or medical specialists using avatar bodies to enter hot zones that no vulnerable human can breach.

These fourteen tales by premier science fiction authors explore the wondrous possibilities of avatar technology—and they still only scratch the surface. Read these stories and let your own imagination roam!

Falsely accused of murder on the colony world of Atlas, Troy Boren trusts the young Truthsayer Kalliana … until, impossibly, she convicts him. Kalliana doesn't realize her power is fading, but soon the evidence becomes impossible to ignore. The Truthsayer drug, Veritas, has been diluted and someone in the colony is selling smuggled telepathy. Justice isn't blind—it's been blinded!

THE FANTASTIC HISTORY OF A DARK GENIUS

The life story of Jules Verne’s enigmatic dark hero from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.

He built the Nautilus sub-marine, which terrorized the sea in his war against all war.

He discovered a passage to the center of the Earth.

He explored Africa in a balloon.

He fought pirates on the high seas . . .

And he was a friend of Jules Verne.

In this epic fantastic history, André Nemo experiences incredible adventures, which Verne then incorporates into his classic novels. Learn the truth of these extraordinary journeys, which is even more incredible than fiction.

They were prisoners, exiles, pawns of a corrupt government. Now they are Dr. Rachel Dycek's adin, surgically transformed beings who can survive new lives on the surface of Mars. But they are still exiles, unable ever again to breathe Earth's air. And they are still pawns.

For the adin exist to terraform Mars for human colonists, not for themselves. Creating a new Earth, they will destroy their world, killed by their own success. Desperate, adin leader Boris Tiban launches a suicide campaign to sabotage the Mars Project, knowing his people will perish in a glorious, doomed campaign of mayhem—unless embattled, bitter Rachel Dycek can find a miracle to save both the Mars Project and the race she created.

For more than two centuries, the land of Albion has been ruled by the supposedly benevolent Watchmaker, who imposes precision on every aspect of life. Young Owen Hardy from the village of Barrel Arbor dreams of seeing the big city and the breathtaking Clockwork Angels that dispense wisdom to the people, maybe even catching a glimpse of the Watchmaker himself.

He watches the steamliners drift by, powered by alchemical energy, as they head towards Crown City—never dreaming that he is already caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos, between the Watchmaker and his nemesis, the Anarchist. Owen’s journeys begin at a fabulous carnival with clockwork wonders beyond his imagination and take him aboard airships, far into the Redrock Desert to seek lost cities, through storms at sea to encounters with pirates … and give him a chance at love.

With illustrations by noted album artist Hugh Syme and complete with album lyrics, Clockwork Angels: The Novel is a remarkable, innovative story unlike any other.

Clockwork Angels is a steampunk fantasy adventure—and an innovative multimedia feast!

Based on a story and lyrics by legendary drummer Neil Peart, Clockwork Angels became the worldwide bestselling concept album by Rush and was developed into a New York Times bestselling and award-winning novel by Kevin J. Anderson.

Anderson and Peart, working with comics artist Nick Robles, brought the epic tale to a visual canvas, a six-issue graphic novel published by BOOM! Studios. Clockwork Angels: The Comic Scripts pulls aside the creative curtain, showing the original scripts, panel by panel, interactions between author and artist, as well as all the secret “Easter eggs”

The final volume in the New York Times–best-selling, award-winning steampunk trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson and legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart

In Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, readers met the optimistic young hero Owen Hardy, as well as the more reluctant adventurer Marinda Peake, in an amazing world of airships and alchemy, fantastic carnivals and lost cities. Now Owen Hardy, retired and content in his quiet, perfect life with the beautiful Francesca, is pulled into one last adventure with his eager grandson Alain. This final mission for the Watchmaker will take them up to the frozen lands of Ultima Thule and the ends of the Earth. Marinda Peake must undertake a mission of her own, not only to compile the true life story of the mysterious Watchmaker, but also to stop a deadly new group of anarchists.

The Clockwork trilogy is based on the story and lyrics from the last album of musical titans Rush, with Anderson and Peart expanding the world, stories, and characters. The two developed the final novel in the trilogy in the last years of Peart’s life, and more than a year after his passing, Anderson returned to that unfinished project, with the full support of Peart’s wife, bringing Owen and Marinda’s stories to a satisfying and stirring conclusion.

In Clockwork Angels, #1 bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and legendary Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart created a fabulous, adventurous steampunk world in a novel to accompany the smash Rush concept album of the same name. It was a world of airships and alchemy, clockwork carnivals, pirates, lost cities, a rigid Watchmaker who controlled every aspect of life, and his nemesis, the ruthless and violent Anarchist who wanted to destroy it all.

Anderson and Peart have returned to their colourful creation to explore the places and the characters that still have a hold on their imagination. Marinda Peake is a woman with a quiet, perfect life in a small village; she long ago gave up on her dreams and ambitions to take care of her ailing father, an alchemist and an inventor. When he dies, he gives Marinda a mysterious inheritance: a blank book that she must fill with other people’s stories — and ultimately her own.

Clockwork Lives is a steampunk Canterbury Tales, and much more, as Marinda strives to change her life from a mere “sentence or two” to a true epic.

A damaged cyborg soldier and an enemy alien fighter turn their backs on the war and try to escape. But the human and alien governments can't tolerate the two deserters working together, so they join forces to hunt them down.

Ever since the Big Uneasy, Dan Chambeaux worked as a human private investigator in the Unnatural Quarter. Even being murdered doesn't keep a good detective down, and zombie Dan Shamble is back from the dead and back on the case!

And what strange cases they are. Shamble is faced with mummies suing their museums, living-undead political tensions, defending a mixed race couple (he's a vampire, she's a werewolf) from housing discrimination, a serial scalper targeting werwolves, and a standard lost dog case with a hellhound. And above all, he's got to figure out a very personal question: who killed him?

Shamble must team up with his ghost girlfriend Sheyenne, a bleeding-heart human lawyer named Robin Deyer, and his BHF (Best Human Friend) Officer Toby McGoohan to seek justice for the denizens of the Unnatural Quarter. In these four volumes—Death Warmed Over, Unnatural Acts, Working Stiff, and Hair Raising—Dan Shamble puts the P.I. back into R.I.P.

Ever since the Big Uneasy, Dan Chambeaux worked as a human private investigator in the Unnatural Quarter. Even being murdered doesn't keep a good detective down, and zombie Dan Shamble is back from the dead and back on the case!

And what an odd assortment of cases they are. Shamble is faced with the amphibious villain Ah'Chulhu, discrimination against a Medusa in a beauty pageant, and a flock of murderous feral chickens.

Shamble teams up with his spectral girlfriend Sheyenne, a human lawyer with a soft spot for monsters named Robin Deyer, and his BHF (Best Human Friend) Officer Toby McGoohan to seek justice for the denizens of the Unnatural Quarter. In these three volumes—Slimy Underbelly, Tastes Like Chicken, and Services Rendered—Dan Shamble puts the P.I. back into R.I.P.

A hilarious horror rocker from New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and Grammy winner Janis Ian. Greatest hits—back from the dead! A famous one-hit-wonder rock star might think his career is over (being dead, for starters), but a group of obsessive fans has other ideas.

Eleutherios
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Seven Miles
by T.C. McCarthy To Spec
by Charles E. Gannon Skyspark
by Ryk E. Spoor The Krumhorn and Misericorde
by Dave Freer Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden
by Wen Spencer Haunts of Guilty Minds
by John Lambshead The Lamplighter Legacy
by Patrick O'Sullivan Dog's Body
by Sarah A. Hoyt The Sorcerer of Daigawa
by Jon F. Merz Sweothi City
by Larry Correia Out of True
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Mars Farts
by Ben Bova The Virgin of Hertogenbosch
by David Drake Murder on the Hochflieger Ost
by Frank Chadwick

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2018.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

NEW ENTRY IN THE BESTSELLING MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL SERIES BY DRAGON AWARD WINNING AUTHORS LARRY CORREIA AND SARAH A. HOYT

When Owen Pitt and the rest of the Monster Hunter International crew are called away to mount a month’s-long rescue mission in a monster-infested nightmare dimension, Julie Shackleford—Owen’s wife and descendant of MHI founder Bubba Shackelford—is left behind. Her task: hold down the fort and take care of her new baby son Ray. Julie’s devoted to the little guy, but the slow pace of office work and maternity leave are starting to get to her. But when a routine field call brings her face-to-face with an unspeakable evil calling itself Brother Death, she’ll get more excitement than she ever hoped for.

Julie is the Guardian of a powerful ancient artifact known as the Kamaresh Yar, and Brother Death wants it. In the wrong hands, it could destroy reality as we know it. Julie would die before giving it up.

Then Ray goes missing, taken by Brother Death. The price for his safe return: the Kamaresh Yar. If Julie doesn’t hand over the artifact it means death—or worse—for baby Ray. With no other choice left to her, Julie agrees to Brother Death’s demands. But when you’re dealing with an ancient evil, the devil is in the details.

To reclaim her son, Julie Shackleford will have to fight her way through necromantic death cults, child-stealing monsters, and worse. And she’ll have to do it all before Brother Death can unleash the Kamaresh Yar.

It’s one woman against an army of monsters. But Julie Shackelford is no ordinary woman—she’s one tough mother!

The Monster Hunter series:
Monster Hunter International
Monster Hunter Vendetta
Monster Hunter Alpha
Monster Hunter Legion
Monster Hunter Nemesis
Monster Hunter Siege
Monster Hunter Guardian

The Monster Hunter Memoirs series by Larry Correia and John Ringo:
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints