Classic Literature Dark

He thought it was the end, and his gun sat ready to make sure. But an oddball offer from his last friend comes at the literal last second. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he finds himself sucked into iNcarn8, a game claiming to be a whole new life. Now, as Montana, the larger-than-life tank warrior, he has one more last time to get his life right.

Zoë Merrick lived an ordinary life until late one night, she was brutally attacked and left for dead. She survived, saved by a stranger who witnessed her undergo a physical transformation. That's not the only thing that's different. Zoë is unable to control an unexplainable energy coursing through her body. Justus De Gradi is a man who can teach her that control. He's handsome, arrogant, and not entirely human. He reveals that she is a Mage - an immortal made of light, not magic. She must now make a choice: Rebuild her life in the human world with the man who saved her, or live with Justus and learn how to use her extraordinary gifts. Justus has sworn an oath to protect her life, but can he guard her from the one man who has a right to claim it?

Magic is the key...but will it save them, or consume them? For Natalia, there is no choice. Trained as a battle mage, she has the potential to be the most powerful spellcaster the family has ever produced. Yet their price is too high. Meanwhile, Athgar's life is about to change forever. On the day his village is burned to the ground, his magical potential is released by the very fire that nearly consumed him. He is driven by revenge until he learns he may not be the only survivor.

Bailey Monzac has just graduated college and is heading to her parents' ranch for the summer when dragons invade. Like something out of her worst nightmare, the fire-breathing beasts rain down chaos and devastation on unsuspecting human populations. One minute Bailey's planning her future; the next she's merely trying to survive. But it isn't long before she discovers she's different from the people around her - the dragons' destructive flames don't affect her.

With the world clinging to a fragile peace forced on the Fae by humanity after the Faerie Wars, metalsmith Alex Blackwood is plunged into the world of the half-fae who traffic in illegal magical artifacts. Her best friend's murder and his cryptic last message place her in the crosshairs of a scheme to reignite the decade-old war between humans and fae. Worse, violent attacks against her and the arrival of a fae knight on a mission force Alex to face a devastating revelation of who and what she is.

As the FBI closes in on the Las Vegas underworld, Daniel Faust - grifter, thief, and sorcerer - isn't the only one feeling the heat. Half-demon racket boss Nicky Agnelli is fighting to hang on to his empire, leaving a trail of dead informants in his wake, while Daniel's ex-girlfriend, Jennifer, rallies her forces on the street and aims her sights at Nicky's crown. May the best villain win.

Fae exist only in children’s stories, or so I thought. That was before a nightmarish creature of the Fae Realm dropped into my life. He claimed a seven-pointed mark on my skin signified my magical lineage, the bit of DNA my mother passed down. Days after I arrive in the Fae Realm, I’m thrown into a series of trials titled ‘The Devotion’. I must compete with demons, vampires, elves and more who want to claim their place at the future King’s side. I have no interest in this guy, but it doesn’t help that the King-to-be is a gorgeous, brooding fae.

Sam Ryder's life already sucks, and it's about to get worse when he's fired from his dead-end job as a programmer. He's about to head home to escape into his favorite RPG, Alien Civilization, when he's offered a thrill ride on a death machine by a gorgeous woman straight out of one of his games. Before Sam can say "WTF?", he's been whisked away to a dark world of monsters and goddesses, his body transformed from Outcast to Warrior, the second level on a ladder that may eventually carry him all the way to Demigod.

My name is Makoto Heart and I've always wished for a chance at freedom. Every day, I prayed before the Starlight gods, asking for their divine assistance in accomplishing such a difficult task. Being an experiment for as long as I can remember, my hopes of obtaining freedom have diminished, drastically. The disappointment, haunted me, as I and my spirits struggled to survive. I had no hope left, believing my final plea fell upon deaf ears, yet again. But what happens when my prayers are finally answered? I'm thrust into fulfilling a destiny, with the help of six star knights.

Is it easy to survive in the game world? You could say yes, if you didn't know what the additional conditions were. They are unusual: it's the real world in which you have lived all your life. The enemy, craving to destroy you. Your own class who couldn't care less about you. Are you still sure that survival is easy? Then welcome to The Game! It will prove you wrong.

Emma Donahue has just started her new job as nanny to Simone, the daughter of John Chen, a very rich Hong Kong businessman. She understands that Simone may be a target for kidnappers but she does not expect to be drawn into a world of martial arts, magic and extreme danger, where both gods and demons can exist in the mortal domain. When John and his American bodyguard, Leo, teach Emma their particular style of martial arts, they begin to realise that Emma herself is more than she seems....

Moon, Jade, and other favorites from the Indigo Cloud Court return with two new novellas from Martha Wells, who continues to enthusiastically ignore genre conventions in her exploration of the fascinating world of the Raksura. Her novellas and short stories contain all the elements fans have come to love from the Raksura books: courtly intrigue and politics, unfolding mysteries that reveal an increasingly strange wider world, and threats both mundane and magical.

Suspicious deaths are not usually the concern of PC Peter Grant or the Folly, even when they happen at an exclusive party in one of the most expensive apartment blocks in London. But Lady Ty's daughter was there, and Peter owes Lady Ty a favour. Plunged into the alien world of the super-rich, where the basements are bigger than the house and dangerous, arcane items are bought and sold on the open market, a sensible young copper would keep his head down and his nose clean. But this is Peter Grant we're talking about.

Everyone loves Mathias. Naturally, when he discovers it’s his destiny to save the world, he dives in headfirst, pulling his best friend, Aaslo, along for the ride. However, saving the world isn’t as easy, or exciting, as it sounds in the stories. The going gets rough, and folks start to believe their best chance for survival is to surrender to the forces of evil, which isn’t how the prophecy goes. At all. As the list of allies grows thin and the friends find themselves staring death in the face, they must decide how to become the heroes they were destined to be.

It's been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses. Together with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn't lead her in treacherous directions....

The Knights of the Gabala were legendary protectors of the Nine Duchies - until they disappeared through a demon-haunted gateway between worlds. Manannan, the Coward Knight, held back. Now he lives in torment. Yet war is coming to the Duchies - and with it Manannan's chance for redemption. But to regain his honour and save his land, he will have to confront his deepest fear. He must ride through the gateway and seek out his lost companions in the unknown world beyond. And the secret he will learn there will tear his soul apart.

The ads enthused, "The virtual lands of Mirror World await you! Live out your most secret dreams in our world of Sword and Sorcery! Become a Great Wizard or a Famous Warrior! Build your own castle, tame a dragon, conquer a kingdom! All those desperate, lonely, and insecure - Mirror World offers you a chance!" But Oleg isn't meant to become a great wizard or a famous warrior. He'll never have a castle of his own. Nor will he ever tame a dragon. And he's definitely not the type to conquer a kingdom, however virtual it may be.

Charlie Bucket and his family are rushing around the Earth at seventeen-thousand miles an hour in a great glass elevator. It belongs to the fantastic Mr Willy Wonka, and the adventure becomes even greater upon discovering they're not the only ones orbiting the Earth at that particular time....

A montage of his life flickered before my eyes. I felt every joy, heartbreak, triumph, and defeat. And then there was nothing but terror.... For years, powerful empath Vesper Tallinn has kept herself isolated from the rest of the world. Because of her ability to manipulate emotions, she has the tendency to draw dangerous people to her. She can count the number of people she trusts on one hand, because in her experience, it's altogether safer to be alone. Not only that, but keeping her head down keeps her off the radar of the Remnant Gods.

A decade dead, Jacob Campbell is a preservationist, providing a kind of taxidermy to keep his clients looking lifelike for as long as the forces of entropy will allow. But in the Land of the Dead, where the currency is time itself and there is little for corpses to do but drink, thieve, and gamble eternity away, Jacob abandons his home and his fortune for an opportunity to meet the man who cheated the rules of life and death entirely.