Can a Necromancer save a dying world?The Viiminian Empire rots from within, its dominion mere walking corpses and fading memory. Everyone knows its glory is gone. Everyone except Rhea Phuul.Confronted with the painful decay of the once-mighty Empire, Rhea has taken up the mantle of the Eternals: the restoration of her society and its ancient faith. Only when long-forgotten duties are carried out might the Empire again find renewal.But Rhea must conv...

Hekate and Diana. Odin and Apollo. Freyja and the Witch-Lord. Eternal Haunted Summer was born in the late summer of 2009. It was created as a place where Pagans and polytheists and witches (and non-Pagans with a love of the old myths) could feature their short stories and poems and essays with those of a like mind and similar beliefs and practices. EHS has grown steadily over the years, due entirely to the wonderful contributors whose works fill its digital pages. Without their creativity ...

Here, between the realms of the Sky Father and Earth Mother, hellhounds race, ghosts drift aimless, and the taniwha stalks. Home fires drive them back, at the same time sparking stories and poems that traverse seconds, eons, and parsecs. Tales of gatekeepers, cloak wearers, and secret keepers. Of pigs with AK-47s or ruby-hued eyes, of love-struck moa, and unruly reflections. Stark truths, and beautiful possibilities…* WINNER * Sir Julius Vogel Award 2019 (SFFANZ) for Best C...

Read twelve postcombat-themed science fiction stories from award-winning authors!

Welcome to the End of the World...and more importantly, what comes after.Disasters have occurred around the country and the world, but we're "getting through it", as Kiwi are apt to do. She'll be right. Life moves on, in some form.Things were bad here in Aotearoa, but in our isolation down under, we've escaped most of the chaos around the world. In fact, we might be the last bastion of humanity on the planet - anybody else home out there? R...

Walking corpses and black-market liquor: the quiet life.Teltö Phuul, Necromancer and Library Clerk, likes his days safe and predictable. Not for him the intrigues of the Viiminian Empire, a gothic monstrosity held together by sheer force of will.Until the Empire's dreaded secret police come knocking. Caught in a web of schemes in the diseased heart of Kuolinako, the underground Imperial capital, Teltö can trust no-one. Not the Northern theocrats who abhor Necromancy, and ce...

A bonus short story featuring Silhara and Martise from Master of Crows.In The Light Within, Silhara of Neith, now known as "the god-smiter," travels as the guest of honor to the winter festival of his father's people.The crow mage who destroyed one god must ignite sacred fires in honor of another. Yet the winter festival only reminds Silhara that the brightest light within him isn't the fire of a deity but the devotion of one woman.A tale of hope and celebration.

A deeply moving and uplifting exploration of the power of nature - even urban nature - to heal the deepest hurts.Shortlisted for the ABIA Nonfiction Book of the Year'A tender, touching and at times bloody funny meditation on life. And death. And how to live.' David Wenham'For as long as I can remember, there has always been just the three of us. Three sisters. Only a year between each. Inseparable. It's been like that f...

The right mistress but the wrong bride!Lindy was amazed when shipping tycoon Atreus Dionides made her his mistress. Her with her fuller figure and lowly lifestyle, making candles and pot–pourri! However, Atreus seemed enchanted by her curves when he made passionate love to her at his country retreat.But Lindy came down to earth with two bumps first when Atreus revealed she was just his weekend mistress; his bride would be selected from the upper echelons of Greek society. T...

Death gets a roommate...An electronic Pope faces a difficult theological question...A wicked vizier makes a terrible bargain...44 stories. 19 poems. No sparkly vampires. There's a thin line between genius and insanity, and James Hutchings has just crossed it - but from which direction?

Born in a colony world in 2310, Lawrence Newton hankered after the golden era of starships exploring the galaxy. But the age of human starflight was drawing to a close... Twenty years later, he's the sergeant of a washed-out platoon taking part in the bungled invasion of another world. The giant corporations who own the remaining starships euphemistically call such campaigns "asset realisation". In practice, it's simple piracy.But while he's on the ground being attacked by disturbi...

Born to a harsh world, we Jokka have evolved three sexes to survive: neuter, male and female. Twice in our lives we may change from one to another. A change we accept with grace... or resignation. It was our way. ...until one female defied all tradition: Dlane Ashoi-anadi, revolutionary, intentionally childless, runaway.This is not her story.This is mine.I am Thenet Reña-eperu, female-guardian, voice of orthodoxy... and Dlane's first and dearest companion. This is t...