Ever wonder why aliens don't visit Earth? Or what coffee a demon likes to drink? Or how bureaucracy could really screw up a grand space adventure? A Flash in the Pan? is a collection of speculative flash fiction and short stories that answers these questions and more.The collection includes the following speculative fiction stories:Flash fiction- Shipwrecked (500 words)- The Gloriously Cunning Plan (500 words)- Make Mine a Macchiato (500 words)- ...

Magical waste disposers – the pay stinks but the hours… yeah, they're pretty bad too.Ulanda and her apprentice Jareck make their living at the edges of the Desolate Lands, doing the only work mages are still allowed to do in pretty much the only place they are allowed to do it. Afterall it was mages that caused the wastelands in the first place. Reclaming the effects of the Blight was probably the least they could do. And they were getting by. Kind of.At least they...

The Kurent high council has gathered in the Hall of Nichrome and Ash, to direct their far-flung avatars. Half a galaxy away, in Sub-London fake humans make their way into the city centre, intent on passing the security barrier. Two worlds, joined by malice are the backdrop for a story of surreal suspense, told entirely from the point of view of Earth's enemy.

Remote, isolated Fovea is populated almost entirely by cyborgs and their mechanical implants have become the root of a fervent religion. To visit is difficult, dangerous and for those who make it to the surface, frustrating in the extreme. Forced to this place is Dyak, a man on a violent mission, but even this seasoned mercenary soon finds that on Fovea, any task is a surreal nightmare.

Saul had now lived more of his life post-apocalypse than he lived before it. A dour and broken man, Saul walks the path he has walked for years, through the ruins of Rome. Scavenging and surviving, he visits the cafe of his youth, now a dusty monument and suffers a full blown breakdown on the way back home. Will Saul pull back from his mental abyss or will this nihilistic world consume him?

[NSFW - Very Adult Content] In the brutal, decades long war against the Spheriods, those nations that survive have re-built their cities in subterranean Geo-Domes. The English Inquisition send Tracy, an unhinged murderer-sadist and a mo-hawked, elderly, ninja, dwarf to take on the Spheriod's deity, the Doom Worm. They hope she will find support among the Marxist robots that co-inhabit the planet.

Axioklemat is angry, the sanctuary of his people has been penetrated by human mining operations, many are dead. Fortunately, long ago, his race planted a failsafe in the centre of our world. Having laid dormant for most of the lifetime of the Earth, Alia is finally called to arms, to enact strange, alien vengeance. Meanwhile, in the city, General Tractus numbs himself to the oncoming slaughter.

Grant was an expert huntsmen, a mean cricketer and the last best hope for mankind. Scouring the Sub-Manchester Shark Ocean for ancient cans, Grant is enjoying one last foray before reporting for duty at Headquarters. His steed is strong, his will that of iron, but there is a strange, black, sticky secret laying in wait for him. What happens when Grant faces a foe against whom there is no recourse?

Australian Native Plants provides a comprehensive guide to the horticulture of our native plants. Based on nearly 50 years of experience at Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth, the book describes the necessary growing conditions for mainly Western Australian native plants and covers some of the more technical aspects such as plant propagation and grafting, the use and benefits of tissue culture, methods of seed collection and storage, and the role of smoke in improving germination. Western...

The Heritage of DressByWilfred Mark Webb

The Voq are a harmless alien race on a small and insignificant planet. But the virus that's now destroying them must be contained before it spreads to other worlds, especially to Earth. Dr. Roland Price has been summoned to space station Observer I to assess whether the eighty million Voq can be saved. If not, the military plan to annihilate the entire race before their disease harms anyone else.But could Price's mother be right, as she remains on the infected planet to argue for th...

Hostile aliens nearly eradicated humanity. Will the next encounter finish the job?Sixteen billion dead. In humanity's last brush with the Merkiaari, it was nearly wiped out in a war that spanned decades. When survey ship Captain Jeff Colgan discovers a new alien race, he's required to investigate.As the aliens discover Colgan's ship and begin to hunt him down, the captain's mission changes from one of study to one of survival.Hard Duty is the first ...