Showing results for "The Piper" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Compiled by intrepid journalist Neve Pride, this archive of recordings spans the months after dragons emerged on earth, chronicling the communities that sprang up amid the destruction, the scientists, military leaders, and experts searching for a defense, and those steadfastly seeking the missing. Neve and her young daughter Bex travel among the wreckage speaking to those left behind and surviving, against all odds. Neve records everything for history, and in the hopes of locating a clue as to where the dragons came from and how one might stop them.

He looked fierce now. Had since I'd mentioned occasionally dying. To be… cherished like that. To have someone who cared about my deaths, it… it had been a very long time. Cursed with immortality, the man known as the Black Shuck by some, as Bennet by others, has resigned himself to a lonely, endless existence. Long days are interspersed with death, dying, and the odd assassin job. During one of these jobs, he dies and comes back to life in front of very human and very innocent Amory, who is both fascinating and enchanting.

Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, “The Junkyard Planet”, with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real or just an old rumor? And if they find it, will it save them - or tear them apart?

Fenris isn't a hell planet, but it's nobody's bargain. With 2,000-hour days and an 8,000-hour year, it alternates blazing heat with killing cold. A planet like that tends to breed a special kind of person: tough enough to stay alive and smart enough to make the best of it. And when that kind of person discovers he's being cheated out of wealth he's risked his life for, that kind of planet is ripe for revolution.

The chartered Zarathustra Company had it all their way. Their charter was for a Class III uninhabited planet, which Zarathustra was, and it meant they owned the planet lock stock and barrel. They exploited it, developed it and reaped the huge profits from it without interference from the Colonial Government. Then Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector, appeared on the scene with his family of Fuzzies and the passionate conviction that they were not cute animals but little people.

So the Ulleran challenge begins, with the rantings of a prophet and a seemingly incidental street riot. Only when a dose of poison lands in the governer-general's whiskey does it become clear that the "geeks" have had it up their double-lidded eyeballs with the imperialist Terran Federation's Chartered Uller Company. Then, overnight, war is everywhere.

Amory lives a quiet life as a waiter. The Moonlight Diner is the home he found after he was kicked out and disowned by his family for no other crime than who he loves. Amory's life is shaken to its very foundations after a chance meeting that has Amory witness a murder—except the man who dies in Amory's arms doesn't stay dead. Far from being a ghost, Soyer is very real. He pulls Amory into a world in which magic exists and wreaks havoc on the lives of unsuspecting people. But within what remains of the spell that touches both their lives, Amory and Soyer may just find love.

Sure, I heal faster than most, and I've got a sixth sense for brewing tea that can fix just about any problem, but my cafe isn't exactly a hotbed of paranormal activity. At least it wasn't...until some psycho attacked me and woke up the freaky, forbidden magick inside, earning me a one-way ticket to jail. Now, a covert magickal university is offering me a deal: my freedom in exchange for help with the Tarot prophecies - cryptic predictions they believe hold the key to stopping a deadly apocalyptic plot.

For years, I've kept myself safe from my small pack's males, hiding in sewers and sleeping in trees to keep their teeth out of my neck. They don't really want me, just the power and prestige that comes with winning the hunt. I only want to survive. In three days, at the Enforcer Games, I'll have one chance to escape. But when the Games begin, and the most powerful shifters in the world arrive at my packlands and scent me, a new hunt begins.

Amory has burned for his Soyer, and now, Amory is no longer what he was, no longer human. He has come to embrace both his change and the overprotective Soyer. While Amory finds his footing in the supernatural world he is now a part of, things are not easy when you fall in love with a notorious witch hunter and assassin. Soyer's past is looming, and to make matters more complicated, so is Amory's birth family.

The games continue in the highly anticipated and thrilling follow-up to The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen.

From New York Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation Piper CJ comes the second in the prequel duology to The Night and Its Moon. Discover the origins of demons and darkness, unravel Gyrradin's twisted history, meet the mother of monsters, and uncover the politics behind the sprawling, bloody continent in the Villains books.

Colonel Alois Hammer: to the galaxy, a legendary commander of mercenaries. To his troops, a leader who can be trusted to always back them to the hilt - and meet a payroll. When the situation on a planet has gone beyond desperate, it's time to call for Hammer's Slammers.

Marlow ist sich sicher, dass etwas mit ihr nicht stimmt. Die Alternative wäre, sich einzugestehen, dass sie die Gabe – oder den Fluch – ihrer Mutter und Großmutter geerbt hat: Sie kann Engel und Dämonen sehen, darunter eine dunkle und heimtückische Kreatur, die Marlow ihr ganzes Leben lang begleitet hat. Zumindest glaubt sie das, bis eine Fae aus dem nordischen Pantheon in ihr Leben tritt und sie darüber aufklärt, dass sie das Bett mit dem Fürsten der Hölle geteilt hat. Ein Fürst, der nun verschwunden ist.

Viele Jahre dachte Marlow, dass der geheimnisvolle Schattendämon, den sie liebt, nicht echt sei. Doch Caliban ist nicht nur real, sondern auch der Prinz der Hölle – und er schwebt in tödlicher Gefahr. Um ihn zu retten, muss Marlow in die Heimat ihrer Vorfahren zurückkehren: das Pantheon der nordischen Götter. An diesem Ort ist Blutsverwandschaft noch lange keine Garantie für Loyalität und die Grenzen zwischen Göttern und Dämonen verschwimmen. Aber niemand hat gesagt, dass es einfach ist, im Spiel der Götter mitzuspielen, und Marlow ist bereit, alles für ihre große Liebe zu riskieren ...

In a blink, I found myself in an unknown land, greeted by the textbox of an unfriendly system. It wanted me to become a great hero, save the world, win the love of the people and all that crap. But this new world already had a hero. Why should I bust my a-s, deal with dragons and the unknown, for people I didn't know? Let him deal with that. It's his job! So instead of being tempted by the system's nonsense, I chose a simple class. Potion maker. I wasn't interested in cultivating mana and defying the heavens, courting death, none of that crap.

I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus. Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god. The worst god. Hades. For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus.

Dive into the imaginative worlds of H. Beam Piper, a pioneering voice in science fiction, with this collection of five captivating short stories that explore the boundaries of technology, society, and the human experience.

What’s a broke tea witch to do when she’s about to lose her beloved café? No idea, but chugging magic mojitos and drunk-summoning the Devil was definitely the wrong call. Now, I’m stuck with the house guest from Hell—literally—and we couldn’t be more opposite: a homebody who brews healing teas and reads romance novels to her cats versus a sexy-as-sin playboy with a pitchfork tattoo on his butt and a fondness for public day-drinking. In the nude. Ergo, the pitchfork discovery.

Dennis Short thought his tour of duty was over...but now he has stepped into another war. Short, a Navy medical corpsman stationed in Hawaii after his ordeal in Vietnam, is looking forward to his two-week excursion to the island of Kahoolawe. But from the first day, he is plagued by an oppressive sense that he is being manipulated. Each night he slips into a dreamlike world of half-human mythical creatures who tempt him, frighten him, force him to become part of their battles with one another.