Showing results by author "Kevin J Anderson" in All Categories

The music of Rush, one of the most successful bands in music history, is filled with fantastic stories, evocative images, thought-provoking futures and pasts. In this anthology, notable, best-selling, and award-winning writers each chose a Rush song as the spark for a new story, drawing inspiration from the visionary trio Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart.

Two continents at war: the Three Kingdoms and Ishara have been in conflict for a thousand years. But when an outside threat arises - the reawakening of a powerful ancient race that wants to remake the world - the two warring nations must somehow set aside generations of hatred to form an alliance against a far more deadly enemy.

It's all-out war between the players and characters in a role-playing game that has taken on a life of its own. The fighter Delrael, the sorcerer Bryl, as well as famed scientists Verne and Frankenstein, use every trick in the Book of Rules to keep the world of Hexworld intact while the outside group of players does everything possible to destroy it. The end is here. Or will it be a new beginning?

Over the past two years, a group of four players had given so much to their role-playing world that it had developed a magic of its own. The creatures, warriors, sorcerers, thieves—all came alive. Now, there is an odd connection between the gamers and their characters, splitting into factions to determine the fate of the Game itself, and both the inside and the outside worlds. One thing is for certain. Hexworld will never be the same.

This first volume of Anderson's selected short fiction focuses on his science fiction stories, from flash fiction to novella length, written solo or with collaborators. These stories showcase his writing talent across a range of military science fiction, dystopian fiction, space adventure, humor, alternate timelines, and political and psychological extrapolation.

The only way to stop a bad guy with fangs is a good guy with a stake. And Simon Helsing believes he was put on this Earth to do the job. He is on a single-minded crusade to hunt down vampires and kill them in their lairs. But what if vampires aren’t real? The only thing that Detective Todd Carrow believes is that the bodies turning up in Colorado Springs are the work of a lunatic. Are they strange and sadistic gang murders? Or does someone actually believe in the existence of vampires?

Throughout history and infinite dimensions, there exists a secret group of supernatural investigators operating on the fringes of society, lurking in the shadows, working strange cases with little reward. They are hardboiled zombies and ghosts, mythological creatures, ass-kicking vampires, tortured humans, and uncanny sleuths whose normal is the bizarre and weird.

These 16 stories, ranging from flash fiction to novella length, extend from the far corners of space to the edge of time and back to cutting-edge explorations inspired by today’s headlines. Hear about clones and combat cyborgs, nanotechnology experiments and giant robots, super-sentient lab rats and immortal dogs, alien magicians and altered time lines.

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 imaginations.

The crew of Moonbase Columbus makes 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?

After terrible atrocities by both sides, the religious war between Tierra and Uraba has spread and intensified, irreparably dividing the known world. What started as a series of skirmishes has erupted into a full-blown crusade. Now that the Uraban leader, Soldan-Shah Omra, has captured the ruined city of Ishalem, his construction teams discover a priceless ancient map in an underground vault—a map that can guide brave explorers to the mysterious Key to Creation. Omra dispatches his adopted son Saan to sail east across the uncharted Middlesea on a quest to find it.

After long voyages plagued by hurricanes and sea monsters, Criston Vora and Saan race to the mysterious lost continent of Terravitae. Saan’s quest is to find the Key to Creation, a weapon that may defeat his country’s enemies. And Criston wants vengeance against the monstrous Leviathan that ruined his life long ago. Back home, two opposing continents and religions clash over the remnants of a sacred city, unleashing their vengeance in a war that could end both civilizations.

Le cruel président de la Hanse, Basil Wenceslas, s'efforce d'écraser la nouvelle Confédération menée par le jeune roi rebelle, Peter. Des robots klikiss continuent leurs ravages sur des planètes sans défense. Et leurs créateurs, les Klikiss eux-mêmes, qu'on avait cru éteints depuis longtemps, sont réapparus avec l'intention de reconquérir leurs mondes.

Life is full of decision points - those key moments when what we decide can change everything for better or for worse. These 20 tales describe such instances in young people's lives, ranging from tragic to triumphant, from horror to fantasy to science fiction. Written by authors new and old, those known for Young Adult writing and those known for Adult novels, a few new and barely known at all, these stories will make you think, make you laugh, make you feel angry, sad, determined, etc. as you examine choices and consequences.

In Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, listeners 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.

Even being murdered doesn’t keep a good detective down, and in the Unnatural Quarter—inhabited by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mummies, and all sorts of creatures that go bump (or thud!) in the night—a zombie PI fits right in. Dan Chambeaux, aka “Shamble,” solves a string of madcap cases with his ghost girlfriend Sheyenne, his Best Human Friend Officer Toby McGoohan, and his firebrand lawyer partner Robin Deyer.

Dan Shamble, zombie P. I. He’s a stiff detective, and he’s got stones! The cases don’t solve themselves in the Unnatural Quarter, filled with ghosts, vampires, mummies, werewolves, and other mythical creatures. It takes an intrepid zombie detective to decipher mysteries, unravel conspiracies, track down cursed objects, and find time for a beer with his Best Human Friend at the Goblin Tavern. Dan Shamble, zombie P. I.

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 Avatar project is designed to drive the exponential innovations needed to make General Purpose Avatars an everyday reality. 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?

After Halley's Comet was destroyed in a magical battle in 1759, the backlash separated the entire New World from the Old in an event known as The Sundering. Now isolated from the rest of the globe, America has become a very different place, where magic works and history has been changed forever.

King Cullin may be known as "the Dragon Slayer", but he fears his son’s legacy will be as "King Maurice Who Speaks with Proper Grammar". The boy keeps his nose buried in parchments, starry-eyed at the idea of noble knights and eager to hand royal gold to any con man hawking a unicorn horn. Tonight, though, Cullin will educate the prince in the truth behind minstrels’ silly songs of glory….