Christmas has served as a fertile background for mystery fiction for a very long time, perhaps because it has the appearance of a time of peace and love while being so deeply at odds with violence, crime, and even murder.Many of the stories in this anthology have been written by some of the greatest Golden Age authors, undoubtedly inspired by the juxtaposition of the disparate elements of love and hate. There is a cliché about anthologies (and clichés become clichés because they ar...

An alchemist and his teenage nephew hunt down a legend in this profound and unsettling speculative Western, for fans of Karen Russell and Victor LaValle.Alone in a frontier town in the nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest, Gentle Montgomery is grieving his best friend. Liam was an alchemist, killed when he tried to capture a creature that shouldn’t exist: a giant salamander that drives men mad. When Gentle’s nephew, Kitt, arrives at his doorstep, the two set out to...

A hair-raising ambush. A malfunctioning ship. A distant, uncharted part of the Universe.Calexa Acura and her crew of misfits are lost, and their ship is in desperate need of repairs. When a massive spacecraft appears in their radius, they're helpless to resist its magnetic pull.The terrifying ship is bigger than any craft she's seen in her life, and somehow, she doubts its occupants will turn out to be the friendly sort.First Encounters are always better when they'r...

The truce with the Erasi allows the Empire and the Shara Daim to grow, expand, and develop new technologies. But the Erasi have a long memory, and the Weaver of the Erasi will not allow the alliance more time to become a greater threat than it already is.Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas-Reiss and Kar Daim Anessa plan for the inevitable Erasi attack. Their only chance is to strike first, and Adrian reaches out to an enigmatic alien race that could be the key to ending the Erasi threat. M...

The conquest of the Erasi has begun and fleets clash over Erasi worlds. But while the alliance of the Shara Daim, Empire, and Krashinar has an advantage, the war is far from won.The Erasi industrial capacity as well as their population and size make it hard to conquer and harder to hold. And while the invasion across the outer Erasi systems is going well, the alliance is yet to clash with the Erasi core fleets.The Erasi Weaver, Valanaru, sends forces into Krashinar territor...

Death-row inmates are used for a lethal mining operation—but one is innocent—in this science fiction novel by a #1 New York Times-bestselling author.Only the recently dead can helm the "deadman switch" to pilot a ship through the Cloud, a mysterious solar entity that shields the Solitaire solar system and its valuable heavy metals. Two convicted murderers are routinely sacrificed for this task—one to enter the system, one to exit. Gilead Raca Benedar is a ...

This irreverent guide to chaos magic emphasizes experimentation and finding out what works best for you. Andrieh Vitimus presents a revolutionary hands-on course of study for the average Jane or Joe. Vitimus banishes the severe tone of other esoteric orders, offering an accessible and practical approach that makes it easier to perform successful chaos magic that is uniquely your own.

After the fall of his world Konner flees to a backwater planet called Earth. Weak and wounded, he discovers the descendants of ancient Boronians and humans who take him in and display unique abilities.With Xero and Disa'ani following to finish the job, it becomes a race against the clock to regain his strength to defend our world from a team that would see it burned.Join Konner as he navigates the world he studied in his childhood, makes unexpected allies, and uncovers dark...

Reborn!With his powers reawakened, Konner begins to plan his return home to free his people until he's surprised with the arrival of his first born, Ryan Lorian. Coming from the future, Ryan helps Konner piece the puzzle together to prevent the destruction of the universe.As we return to Boron, old enemies will become allies. Older friends will turn traitor. And the dark magic pulling all the strings will be revealed. Grab a copy and join Konner and his team in this final a...

Every year, millions of public school students are suspended. This overused punishment removes students from the classroom, but it does not improve their behavior. Instead, suspension disrupts their education, harming the students, their families, and their schools. Black students suffer most within this broken system, experiencing a far greater risk of school punishment and the significant harms that accompany it. Many activists and scholars have considered how school punishment increases...

Some people are born into greatness, others have it thrust on them.Konner Lorian happens to be the latter. Being born with a gift of violence, he desires nothing more than knowledge and peace.Join Konner and his Off World Squad as they hone their skills and travel the galaxy in search of adventure. On their travels Konner uncovers a threat greater than any his civilization has faced before.Will he be able to get to the bottom of the threat before it's too late, not ...

At Sol, Adrian Farkas—Lord Sentinel of the Empire, prepares the defenses for the inevitable attack by the Legions of the Shara Daim—the third race created by the human and Nel ancestor Axull Darr. The Shara Daim come for the device left by their common ancestor, their Elders planning to use it to fulfill their goal of ruling the galaxy. But Adrian has plans of his own. But even as the Shara Daim Legions assemble for their invasion of Sol, Adrian and the Empire's fleets move to fulfill a pr...