Showing results by author "Christopher G Nuttall" in All Categories

The war is over. But the scars remain. Emily's New Learning has been good for Beneficence. In the years since she arrived on the Nameless World, the city has been at the forefront of technological advancement and social development. Thousands of newcomers are moving to the city, railways span the gorge and drive into Zangaria, the first steamboats are plowing the ocean wave and a whole new banking system is reshaping national and international trade. A true golden age appears to be on hand. But all is not well.

King Randor has been defeated. Queen Alassa has taken her throne. The Kingdom of Zangaria can look forward to a new age of peace and prosperity. But their victory came at a terrible price. A moment before his death, King Randor hit Emily with a powerful curse. She's lost her magic. She's losing her mind. She may soon lose her life. As rumors start to spread, as her enemies start to gather, Emily searches desperately for the key to unlock the curse before it is too late.

Years ago, Heart’s Eye, a school built on top of a nexus point, was attacked and captured by a necromancer. The nexus point was snuffed out, the handful of survivors forced to flee, and the once great school turned into a forward base for a necromantic invasion. All seemed lost, until Emily killed the necromancer and retook the school. Now, she intends to lay the building blocks for a university, a place where magical knowledge and mundane technology are brought together for the benefit of all. But dark secrets lie within the shadowed school.

The Royal Navy never expected to fight a full-scale interstellar war. Everyone knew the Great Powers would never risk everything on armed conflict when there was plenty of room for everyone in outer space. But when a hostile alien force stumbles across humanity's handful of colony worlds, the Great Powers must set aside their differences and fight to preserve humanity from utter destruction.

The new grandmaster of Whitehall doesn't want Emily in his school. She's dangerous, he thinks. The only way he'll allow her to return to Whitehall is if she chooses to be a probationary student, a student who can be expelled at the slightest excuse, a student who has to work for one of the professors. Reluctantly, unwilling to leave her first true home, Emily accepts. But she rapidly discovers that she's about to be pushed right to the limit.

The magicians went with it, stepping into the Gates to Mystic Albion and leaving OldeWorld—Earth—forever. Since then, the two worlds have remained separate, until now. Three young magicians, experimenting with dangerous spells, find themselves accidentally transported to the world their ancestors fled. Finding friends and allies, they try to blend in as they struggle to find a way back to their home, unaware that danger lurks in the shadows of a very alien world...And that they are already running out of time.

Join the adventure through dystopian worlds, to outer planets and into a speculative future. Welcome to the Future Days Anthology. Seventeen authors imagine a future with thrilling tales, starships, unlikely heroes, and exotic aliens, all of which combine to make Future Days a must-listen sci-fi fantasy short story collection.

Arthur's Seat had never sought a galactic role. A relatively new colony world, a mere 300 years old, the planet was always isolated from the galactic mainstream. But with the Empire crumbling after the fall of Earth and other planets taking advantage of the chaos to make their own bids for power, Arthur's Seat suddenly finds itself playing host to tens of thousands of unwanted immigrants, refugees who have been kicked off countless other worlds.

Fifty years after Steve Stuart and his friends captured an alien starship, the Solar Union is a thriving interstellar power while Earth is increasingly backward and falling into barbarism. For two youngsters from Earth, the Solar Union offers the only chance they will ever have to make something of their lives.

The Federation has endured for hundreds of years, but now it is dying, killed by the corruption and decadence of the Senate and the rising power of military warlords. The shipping lanes are coming apart, the colonists are revolting, and outside forces are pressing against undefended borders. Now, as one warlord makes a bid for supreme power, the entire edifice is on the verge of falling apart.

In the wake of Earth's collapse into chaos, Captain Hoshiko Stuart made the mistake of speaking her mind - and was exiled six months from Sol to a naval base in an unexplored and uncontacted sector. Placed in command of a single squadron of starships, she expected nothing but boredom. But when she discovers an alien race threatening to exterminate all other races within the sector, Hoshiko and her squadron are drawn into a war to stop them.

Starting a war with an enemy 100 times stronger is insane. It’s desperate. And it’s Earth’s only hope. A massive alien power looms over humanity, claiming Earth as its territory and humanity as its slaves. The Hegemony has already taken over one colony, yoking hundreds of thousands under their brutal rule. Every tactical exercise, every war game, and every simulation gives humanity zero chance in a defensive campaign.

Isabella Rubén is a traitor - at 12 years old. Disgraced, abandoned by her friends and shunned by her family, Isabella is sent into exile with scant hope of returning to her former home. Her destination, Kirkhaven Hall; a stone mansion miles from civilization, inhabited only by a pair of older exiles. As she tries to settle into Kirkhaven Hall and a life far from the one she enjoyed before her fall from grace, she discovers that the hall has secrets. Intruders on the grounds, ghostly shadows moving at night, and a plot that may destroy everything she once held dear.

After her victory over Master Grey, Emily wants nothing more than to relax and give herself time to recover from the duel. Her magic, pushed to the limits, is no longer reliable, forcing her to learn to control it from scratch. Every time she delays using her magic, she risks headaches...or worse. But she must return to Whitehall to complete her fourth-year exams and bid farewell to those of her friends who are not returning for fifth year. And then, she must return to Zangaria to play her role in Princess Alassa's wedding to Jade.

A tyranny stretching over thousands of worlds. The grand dreams of the founders are a joke. The Thousand Families, the rulers of the Empire, care nothing for anything save their own power. From the undercity of Earth to the new colonies at the Rim, discontent, anger, and rebellion seethe, but there is no hope of breaking the power of the Empire and freeing the trillions of enslaved humans and aliens.

On a peace mission, desperately trying to hammer out a settlement that will keep the radicals and reactionaries from starting yet another civil war, Emily is attacked by Marah, a young woman rescued by her enigmatic master and turned into a living weapon to start the chaos. Seeing something of herself in the girl, Emily takes her as an apprentice both to give her a better chance at life and to use her to track down her master, who appears to have plans of his own...

After a brief visit to the Blighted Lands in hopes of recovering something useful from Shadye's Dark Fortress, Emily returns to Whitehall for her fourth year, bracing herself for the exams that will determine her future. But as she resumes her education, she discovers that the shadows of the past are hanging over the school. A teacher wants to break her, some of her friends are acting oddly, and, worst of all, a boy intends to court her.

Captain Kat Falcone owes her life and career to her former right-hand man, William McElney, and she did everything in her power to make sure he was front and center for a promotion. But now that he has it, she fears he'll have to watch his back. Captain McElney has been assigned to HMS Uncanny - nicknamed Unlucky - a heavy cruiser tainted by the mysterious deaths of two former captains and rumors of mutineers.

Six months ago, Colonel Edward Stalker and his Marines were abandoned on Avalon, left to fend for themselves as the Empire withdrew from the Rim. Since then, Avalon has been isolated from the settled universe... until now. As a mysterious pirate organisation attempts to take over Avalon, the Marines find themselves struggling against a shadowy figure with dreams of power, while a young civilian is kidnapped and press-ganged into a pirate crew.

Prince Roland - the Childe Roland, Heir to the Imperial Throne - grew up in a gilded cage, surrounded by men who wanted to use his powers while keeping him under tight control. He was growing into a petty sadistic brat until a Marine Pathfinder took him in hand, helping him to overcome his caretakers - jailers - and make something of himself. But it was too late for Earth and, as the planet collapsed into chaos, Roland and his mentor barely escaped before it was too late. He was taken into the care of the Marine Corps and given a chance to go to Boot Camp and forge a new life.