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Welcome to the first year’s worth of stories from the new online magazine ZNB Presents published by the small press Zombies Need Brains. In these pages, you will find original science fiction and fantasy stories of awe and wonder, darkness and light, ranging through all of the subgenres, including urban fantasy, alternate history, space opera, fairy tales, and more. They come from the most talented authors in the field today—new voices as well as trusted and familiar names. Join us as we explore visions of the past, present, and future, as we encounter strange new creatures, both in our own backyard, in the depths of space, and our own imagination. Here you will: --Enter an abandoned col...
Welcome to Ampyrium, a city of a thousand wonders! May the trading be always in your favor. Powerful magicians called the Magnum have created a massive city contained within eight walls, each with its own portal to another world. Here, eight different magical lands collide. In these streets, all of the races from those worlds come to trade, to politic, to carouse, and to murder. Merchants and royalty, thieves and assassins; caravans and envoys, armies and entourages. Everyone...and everything...can be found in Ampyrium. Every dream can be made real. Every vice is available. Every wish can be fulfilled. All you have to do is stay clear of the Magnum...and their Eyes are everywhere. Enter the streets of AMPYRIUM with your guides in tow—authors Joshua Palmatier, Juliet E. McKenna, David B. Coe, Esther Friesner, Patricia Bray, S.C. Butler, and Jason Palmatier. Eight stunning worlds await you. But beware. Don’t stray. Don’t fall behind. Don’t get lost. Because the streets of Ampyrium will swallow you whole.
Is anything more terrifying than a dragon? Bat-winged nightmares swooping down from the sky to breathe fire and ice on the wretched humans below; kidnapping princesses, hoarding treasure, swallowing cows. Or not. In Dragonesque, the latest fantastic anthology from Zombies Need Brains, you finally get to experience all that awfulness from the dragon’s point of view. And what if it isn’t necessarily that awful? What if the princess wants to be kidnapped, or the dragon is tired of being made fun of week after week at the Renaissance Faire? Or maybe a dragonet just really, really wants to be a unicorn? Perhaps they’re happiest collecting art, or enjoy being tattooed? Or maybe some dragons ...
What happens when a computer glitch sends eighty-nine copies of the same scientist (and no one else) to settle a new planet? Or a privateer gets stranded on a slow ship he tried to hijack that’s still years away from its destination and has no food? BRAVE NEW WORLDS presents fifteen original stories that follow humanity’s long dream of traveling to the stars, from heart-wrenching departures from Earth, through the unknown dangers of the long flight through the cold vastness of space, to the immigrants’ final arrival on an alien world. Perhaps your father has signed you up for life on a gen ship before you’ve even graduated high school. Or maybe you’ve arrived at a gloriously green ...
Welcome to the second year’s-worth of stories from the online magazine ZNB Presents published by the small press Zombies Need Brains. In these pages, you will find original science fiction and fantasy stories of awe and wonder, darkness and light, ranging through all of the subgenres, including urban fantasy, alternate history, space opera, future fairy tales, and more. They come from the most talented authors in the field today—new voices as well as trusted and familiar names. Join us as we explore visions of the past, present, and future, as we encounter strange new creatures, both in our own backyard, in the depths of space, and our own imagination. Here you will: --Search for a crypt...
Would you kill for your art? Would it kill for you? A painter who kills with blood-tinged pigment. A tattoo artist with a dark past who treats with demons. A sculptor on Venus who carves his life’s history into ice at the cost of his sanity. A ceramic vase that might avenge the life of a murder victim. A haunted song that drives listeners to kill. Art surrounds us. It entertains and nurtures. And for some it can do far more. It can protect a family over generations or bridge the boundary between the realms of the living and the dead. It can be a curse or a boon, a path to riches or to damnation. In Artifice and Craft, speculative fiction authors Lyndsay E. Gilbert, Laura E. Price, Adam Stemple, Brian K. Lowe, James R. Tuck, Briana Una McGuckin, Jordan Davidson, James Maxey, Madeline Dau, Joel Armstrong, C.E. Murphy, Mark Painter, Alex Bledsoe, Alethea Kontis, Gerri Leen, and Jelena Dunato craft tales of art and artistry that are shaded with the supernatural, tuned to the fantastic, and glazed with the unexpected. So listen, watch, admire. But don’t touch, and don’t turn your back. Because these works of art are far more than they seem.
Successful spies change history. Failures are never heard from again. From simple data theft or sabotage to protecting state secrets and last-ditch gambles that alter the tides of war, it's the spy—professional or amateur—who gets the job done! Whether it's for King and country or private vendetta, it is often the lone agent, through stealth, skill, and sometimes a little luck, who makes the difference. If only it were that easy. In Last-Ditch you'll find sixteen original stories of men, women, aliens, and even creatures who face seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve their goals. So come join in on a little heart-pounding espionage, as Jason M. Hough, Tanya Huff, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., D. Thomas Minton, Nemma Wollenfang, Hayden Trenholm, Edward Willett, Blake Jessop, Steve Perry, Ember Randall, Derryl Murphy, Chadwick Ginther, Russell Hugh McConnell, Gary Kloster, E.C. Ambrose, and Donald McCarthy put it all on the line to take you behind the scenes and behind enemy lines.
What if future criminals played games of skill for their freedom? Would spellcasters dare use magic to skew chance in their favor? What if aliens judged us based on the games we play? Can a dying woman literally cheat Death? Games are about more than winning and losing. They’re about risk and reward, strategy and blind fortune, our need to win and our fear of being outplayed. And when magic and science infuse a game, the stakes can be of cosmic importance. Each move could decide life or death. Are you ready to play? In this anthology, seventeen of today’s leading fantasy and science fiction authors explore the role games play in worlds both seen and unseen. Join Aliette de Bodard, Jennifer R Povey, Ed Greenwood, Cory Swanson, David Hankins, Cat Rambo, Wulf Moon, Jo Miles, James Alan Gardner, Karen Aria Lin, Mike Rimar, Eric Choi, Tris Lawrence, Mark Silcox, Melissa Yi, Michael Picco, and Sean Williams as they share with us games played for unimaginable stakes. The board is set, the cards are dealt—now it’s GAME ON!
For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it’s a cryptic message encountered by a survey ship, the discovery of alien life in the distant reaches of space, a window into a future Earth, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires our imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. At the very heart of the genre is short fiction, the secret lab that has introduced many of the new ideas, techniques, and voices prominent across all other media. In The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Eight, Hugo and Locus Award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a comprehensive year-in-review of 2022's short fiction markets and selects thirty-one of its best stories from the wealth of magazines, anthologies, podcasts, and collections that make up the field. In these pages you'll find works by both the new and established authors who are setting the pace for science fiction today and into tomorrow. Start your journey here.
Who Needs a Friend, When You Have a Familiar? Animals have been our companions since the dawn of time, but in science fiction and fantasy, often that bond is taken one magical—or technological—step further. In Familiars we asked authors to put their own unique spin on this idea, resulting in this collection of fifteen stories that explore the range of familiar bonds—from cats to caterpillars, squids to squirrels, and everything in between. With settings from fantasy to science fiction, and stories ranging from humor to horror, there's something to appeal to everyone! Featuring stories by Brian Hugenbruch, Lawrence Harding, Jean Marie Ward, Jordan Bricco, Alexander G.R. Gideon, Gini Koch & Bebe Bayliss, Russell Hugh McConnell, Kari Sperring, Alicia Cay, Jim C. Hines, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Shanna Germain, Jacey Bedford, A. Katherine Black, and Jason Palmatier. The buddy system is back, baby!