The Girl in the Middle
"Amber". KC slides down to sit beside me. "Are you okay ?" He places his hand on my knee and looks at me with compassion. "People die". I whisper. "I can't.. ". "The others have pulled back again. Right now we are all safe". KC tells me. "Clay wants a meeting in the commando room. The rest is on the computers". "Is there any way to stop this ?" I ask, letting KC help me to my feet. "I am ready to do anything to stop this". "Only by killing Zombie". KC puts an arm around my waist and supports me on our way to the commando room. Without any memory of her past and not knowing why people react to her as they do, a young woman has to learn to survive in the hard underworld of the city, among gangs and the unwanted citizens. Her apparent resemblance with Clay's dead girlfriend Amber, places her in the middle of a war that easily can cost her and others their lives. In her quest to find her identity, Clay gives her the name Amber. Now the new Amber has to learn to tell friend from foe. To see behind the lies and decide if Clay's past matters at all. When Clay asks Tom to train Amber he gets pulled into the war happening around him, far more than he wants to be. Tom's alliance with Clay hangs in a thin thread, when he not only develop feelings for Amber but also starts a relationship with Kattie, who already has a boyfriend in Michael, Clay's second in command. Will Clay's brother Zombie start the war he is threatening with ? What is it Amber feels for Zac ? A member of the gang 'the stars', who sees women as less than men. Will Amber ever find out who she really is ? And how will they get through the war ?
Slab City Blues
Gangs, killers, and vampires. One war-torn detective is the only hope of survival for a crime-ridden orbiting city… Blade Runner meets Se7en in this gritty five-story collection from New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Anthony Ryan. Alex McLeod paid dearly during the war for independence from Earth. It left the detective disfigured, jaded, and alone. In the aftermath of victory, Alex seethes as criminal factions and cold-blooded killers clash over control of the newly-liberated confederation. In his crusade for justice in the free states, he's willing to break more than a few rules along the way… The only home Alex knows is the slums of Slab, an orbiting city teeming with lowlifes, back-stabbers, and gene-spliced monstrosities. From the grimy streets of his city to the lawless Asteroid Belt, Alex goes toe-to-toe with a sharp-clawed vigilante, a mythical serial killer, and a gorgeous vampire with an ominous message. His quest won't end until his homeland earns the freedom it was promised… But even Alex may not be able to stop the impending Reckoning and a voyage to the one place he swore he'd never return: Earth… Slab City Blues: The Collected Stories contains four exciting novellas and one sensational novel set in a world of hard-boiled sci-fi and cyberpunk. If you like hard-nosed detectives, futuristic planets, and pulse-pounding action, then you'll love Anthony Ryan's world of vampires, werewolves, and space.
Into Summer
The twins, Robbie and Ronnie Lindgren, head off on a new adventure. Tired of all the warfare, they want to try to return south Texas to a peaceful state, but change is always difficult, and peace comes at a high price. One will live and one will die in their quest for a new government, economy, and society.
Kipuka Blues
After extinction?Politics.Monsters.Murder.The alien Absolute eradicated Earth’s native life, replacing a fraction of it with alien duplicates. Kevin remembers the life of a police officer, but must find a new life in the bizarrely warped landscape of northern Michigan.But even astonishingly resilient alien flesh breaks down, with enough effort.Or enough electricity.Absolute eradicated humanity. But his copies brought the worst parts of humanity with them…
Proxima B
One day not too far from now there will be too many people on this planet. When that day comes, what will we do? Jerry, Michael, Emily, Amelia, Abigail and David receive their answer in the form of a letter. Proxima B is waiting for them and is going to expose their differences and their fears, which will let them make unexpected choices. Sometimes, a more obvious answer is not more predictable. Co-authored science fiction novel about a space mission that leads a group of colonists to land on Proxima b, which is an exoplanet in the habitable zone of the red dwarf called Proxima Centauri and whose distance from the sun is 4.24 light years. The year is 2099. Due to world's pollution, the excessive number of inhabitants, the subsequent lack of resources and other reasons, Earth is no longer fit to live in. The only hope is to try to reach what appears to be a ”second possibility”, Proxima b, indeed. This is why New Nasa Corporated is planning a mission called ”For everyone's sake!” that imposes the recruitment of several practitioners in their own field, including biologists, doctors, chemists, engineers and soldiers. These include Jerry, Michael, Emily, Amelia, Abigail and David, in addition to Matthew Ross, who is the captain of one of the three mother ships (the MATERs) that after the ”new colonizers” have been trained leave Earth and manage to reach the new planet through a wormhole. But during space travel something does not go as planned. Terrestrial beings find something different from what they expected on Proxima…
Exile
In the distant future the humanity is subject to meticulous control and class segregation. The criterion for belonging to one of the classes is IQ, determined at birth according to measurements of synaptic density of the brain. Permits to have a child are issued by committees that severely assess the physical and mental health of future parents, and marriages between castes are prohibited. The young librarian, Leeta finds herself accidentally at the center of political game and as the only witness to an attack on members of the global government she becomes a threat to many prominent figures. Her protector, Citizen Hakat, decides to send the girl to the moon, to an industrial city where she would be safer than on Earth. The city of Lunnaria is completely dependent on supplies from Earth and theoretically falls under its jurisdiction, but it is really ruled by large mining corporations. Leeta gets assigned to the local police.
The Game Within
The idea has always been to escape. That desire to be somebody we’re not is strong in humans. We like to pretend. Sure, as we age we get more sophisticated about hiding it, but make no mistake, we never tire of make-believe. The World Within is make-believe elevated to its highest imagining. A different place where you can be a different person.- Marcus HelkarDecember 2026Brilliant game designer Marcus Helkar created something spectacular. A place so enticing, so consuming, players forgot about real life. It wasn't playing a game. It was living in a different world.Until the locks were removed. Until the game changed the rules.Now Marcus must stop the game he created before it becomes too real. And he can only do it from within the game itself. If he can't correct the problem soon enough he'll never be able to get out and neither will anybody else.
Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates
While visiting the planet Restaapa, Jade Darcy and her employer, Megan Cafferty,discover that world is in the process of choosing a new heir to the throne. The candidates hatch plots against anyone they see as a danger to their victory. Each will go to any extreme, even murder, to assure his election. Jade has the difficult task of restoring order to Restaapa as well as protecting her own life.
Soldier's Duty
Izramith Ezmi is many things: a member of the feared, all-female Hedron guards, a war veteran recently returned from a pointless and bloody mission, and impatient, angry and above all, lonely. With her contract about to run out, she may be on her way to becoming a ruthless mercenary, since what she really wants--becoming a mother--is out of the question. Her family carries a gene that causes deeply malicious madness. Her nephew was born with it and her useless sister has left him in the care of an institute. A baby. Two days old. She wants to ask her uncle, himself born with the condition, if he can do anything for the boy. But her uncle and his band of mad outcasts have gone missing, rumoured to be on the world of Ceren. So Izramith takes another hired-gun contract in Barresh which is a city-state on Ceren. The job is to provide security at a high-profile wedding. Simple and straight-forward, right? No crawling in mud, no shoot-outs, no mangled bodies and blood-drenched soil. And meanwhile, she can try to find her uncle. Except he isn't there, and the job isn't simple. Izramith and her team discover evidence of an extensive spying ring that threatens the entire city. Postponing the wedding would be an admission of defeat, so it's time for desperate measures. Izramith leads a small team in what has to go down as the most hare-brained mission to ever be undertaken in the universe. Much is at stake: peace, the lives of her uncle and her nephew, and her own.
Shifting Reality
A few years ago, a military doctor walking the corridors of New Jakarta Space Station saved Melati's life. She signed up for the International Space Force to pay back her moral debt to him. But her family thinks she has betrayed her people. It was ISF who forcefully removed their grandmothers and grandfathers from the crowded slums of Jakarta to work in interstellar space stations. It is Melati's job to teach six-year old construct soldiers, artificial humans grown in labs and activated with programmed minds to serve in an interstellar war. Her latest cohort has one student who claims that he is not a little boy, but a mindbase traveller whose swap partner took off with his body. It soon becomes clear that a lot of people are scouring the space station for this fugitive, a scientist with dangerous knowledge about interstellar space. The best place to hide in the space station is amongst the many cultures and subcultures of the expat Indonesian B-sector. Looking for him brings Melati into direct conflict with her people. She does not want to be seen as one of the enemy, but if the scientist's knowledge falls in the wrong hands, war will come to the station.