Showing results by narrator "Gabrielle de Cuir" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

An insidious cabal has decided to change the direction of the United Alliance of Stars (UAS) with a coup d’etat - but not through a military takeover. They have devised a subtler coup: the manipulation of the Committee, the 15-star system that sets policy for the UAS. The UAS Committee enlists their de facto troubleshooter, Anna Paulus, to shut down the cabal, but they insists she leave the NIA and manage UAS Committee Security. For Anna it’s a nightmare scenario, leaving her safe world for a completely new environment dominated by macho men with years of combat experience.

A young girl dreams of seeing the stars and meeting aliens. Her chance comes in the form of a project offering a college education, a commission in the SAS Fleet, and a partnership with an alien. She successfully qualifies and wins one of the coveted 10 positions. Of Course everything comes with a price - the alien is a parasite that inhabits the body and mind, and is there for life. Is it a dream or nightmare come true? Maybe both?

Anna survives a deadly virus at age four thanks to a poisonous red-headed krait. The medical community is excited since there is no known cure for the virus, but Anna and her snake, Red, have a symbiotic relationship. If she is ever separated from Red, she will die. As her krait becomes known and valuable throughout the three star empires as one of only a handful of such snakes, she fights off attempts to kill her and snatch Red. When the Naval Intelligence Agency, the NIA, recruits her, her adventures grow beyond fending off thieves and killers.

There is a book that is shrouded in mystery. Some even say it's a myth. Within its pages is a play - one that brings madness and despair to all who read it. It is the play of the King in Yellow, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days. The King in Yellow is a collection of stories interwoven loosely by the elements of the play, including the central figure himself.

Anna and her Naval Intelligence Agency (NIA) teammates have a new high-priority assignment: foreign raiders who are wreaking havoc within the United Alliance of Stars. They hit high value targets, have access to inside information, kill the security guards, and leave no witnesses. The NIA team soon discovers the raiders' system has been well thought out and has no weak links to exploit. The raiders prove arrogant, resourceful, and in no hurry to leave.

Nadia is now an experienced naval officer with two engagements with the Raider's cruiser packs. But hosting an intelligent parasite, she continuities to be seen as an alien, generating disgust, fear, hate, and attempts to kill her. To add to her problems, the Raiders have identified her as contributing directly to their bad luck and have designated her a dybbuk - demon - and have set a price on her dead or alive.

Ryana, a worthless girl-child, is sold to a mysterious woman who takes her to the home of the Shadow Sisters who are prized for their abilities as spies and assassins. She survives years of training in spite of being unconventional: adopting poisonous bats as familiars - something no one else would dare to do; choosing the blow dart as her weapon of choice - a weapon the Sisters don't teach; and relying on intuition rather than logic. As she completes her training, the Shadow Sisters are under attack and send Ryana out to find out who is killing Sisters and why.

Sita Dulip has missed her flight out of Chicago. But instead of listening to garbled announcements in the airport, she discovers a method of bypassing the crowds at the desks, a nasty lunch, whimpering children, their punitive parents, and the blue plastic chairs bolted to the floor: she changes planes—literally. Sita discovers entire planes of existence and visits societies not found on Earth—bizarre societies that share similarities with Earth's cultures and sometimes open doors into the alien.

Dib is an Earthlike planet, only slightly smaller, with shorter days and longer years, in orbit around twin suns. On the continent of Geo, in the city of Velon in the nation of Inimata, a man lies dead in his study. In life, Professor Orno Linus was a world-class scholar: an astrophysicist, a dead-language linguist, and an expert in (and apparent true believer of) the religious concept of the Cull, i.e., the end of the world. Widely respected, nothing about Linus’s expertise suggests somebody might want him dead.

Vampires. Zombies. Wendigo. There are a million books about them, and of similar paranormal, undead creatures. Sparkly cutesy ones. Vicious evil ones. Heroic ones. Impossible to kill ones. Slow and fast ones. Some books even purport to tell you of their origins. Well, they're all bunk and bother, as Ob would say. Nothing but humbug. This eighth volume of the Harbinger of Doom saga is different. It reveals the truth about those creatures.

Exploring the boundaries of the genre, Bova not only writes of spaceships, aliens, and time travel in most of his titles, but also speculates on the beginnings of science fiction in “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” as well as the morality of man in “The Angel’s Gift.” Stories such as “The Café Coup” and “We’ll Always Have Paris” dip into speculative historical fiction, asking questions about what would happen if someone could change history for the better. This expansive collection is a key addition for Bova fans and sci-fi lovers alike!

The Shadow Sister Ryana, the very Shadow of Death, is marrying her beloved and joining his gypsy clan. War took her innocence, and now she's determined to rebuild her life. But religious cults are springing up, and the gypsies come under attack. Ryana's best friend in the Sisters, Jelena, has fled to join one of the cults, and the senior Sister asks Ryana to find out why. Too late, Ryana discovers their enemies have a sweet and seductive weapon, one that has turned Jelena into her enemy.

In the far reaches of the solar system, the outer planets - billions of miles from Earth, unknown for millennia - are being settled. Neptune, the ice giant, is swathed in clouds of hydrogen, helium, and methane and circled by rings of rock and dust. Three years ago, Ilona Magyr’s father, Miklos, disappeared while exploring the seas of Neptune. Everyone believes he is dead - crushed, frozen, or boiled alive in Neptune’s turbulent seas.

The Raider clans have been defeated, and their planet is under the supervision of the Riss, with Captain Reese the station commander. But while Reese sees the Raider clans as on probation, many in the SAS task force she commands perceive them as prisoners and hope to break the Treaty and get revenge. As Nadya attempts to maintain the fragile peace, the three empires are being invaded. They know the invading force is far more technologically advanced than the SAS. But who are they, where did they come from, and what do they want?

The world didn't end with a bang, it didn't go out in a ball of fire and fury, nor did it end in ice. But in some strange way, ice was the end - or maybe it was the beginning of something more. When Bethany finds herself suddenly alone in a world that was alive only moments before, she flees into the streets of her town in search of her family. Panicked by the immobile people surrounding her, she is almost captured by the monsters hunting her until Cade steps in.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction has submitted ten of its best of 2002. Although the collection is a veritable cornucopia of styles and subjects, each story is somehow notable for its compassion and humanity.

In this ninth volume of Glenn G. Thater’s Harbinger of Doom saga, Theta arrives at Jutenheim, hot on the heels of Korrgonn and the League of Shadows. Their fateful confrontation is fast approaching, if only they pass the Black Elf king and the ancient evils that lurk in his subterranean domain. But do the Black Elves serve the dark powers or the light?

When the black elf king comes calling, / Hide your children and your gold, / When dead men hunger, outside, the bitter cold, / When trolls venture down from mountain peak, / Hold tightly your bones, for them they seek. / Beware they who thirst on island bleak, / The Regent to come and scourge your keep, / The Black Hand will stalk you, their ranks ever deep, / And Thetan will be there, of his wrath you will weep, / The Harbinger of Doom, your soul to reap.

Frey had lived in a world where humans were fairy tales. A world where she believed she'd been wrongfully accused. All that had changed. After revealing her dark history, Frey has no choice in her allies. Her old life is the enemy. She needs their protection. Forced to join with a group of strangers whose pasts seem to intertwine with her own, she struggles to regain her memories and her full power, only to find there is more danger on the other side.

Memories and magic recovered, Frey is restored to the throne. But as she works to regain control of the North, a small silver dagger nearly brings her end.