In the midst of the horror of the first World War, a stranger falls from nowhere into the mud and death of the Flanders battlefield - bruised, babbling, and stark naked...with a remarkable story to tell. Wrongly accused murderer Edward Exeter has reappeared on this Earth hearing scars and secrets. From somewhere he calls next door - a place old godly intrigues and an ancient prophecy that he wants no part of. But powerful forces on both sides of a mystical border have other plans for the young fugitive.

Beautiful Queen Inos married the loyal stableboy Rap and made him her king. They were very much in love, and they lived happily ever after. Fifteen years went by. Rap and Inos were comfortable, secure, and truly happy, raising their family in the little backwater kingdom of Krasnegar, well removed from the hurly-burly of great affairs.... But in far-off Hub, the old Imperor's health - and, some said, his sanity - deteriorated inexorably. The borderlands were seething....

The vendetta in space had started centuries before "Mouse" Storm was born, with his grandfather's raid on the planet Prefactlas, the bloodbath that freed the human slaves from their Sangaree masters. But one Sangaree survived--the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers,in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse's father, Gneaus, must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld.

Missy Masters inherited more than the usual genetic cocktail from her estranged grandfather. She also got his preternatural control of shadows and his enduring legacy as the legendary vigilante superhero, Mr. Mystic. After a little work the costume fits okay, but Missy is far from experienced at fighting crime, so she journeys to China to seek the aid of Lung Huang, the ancient master who once guided her grandfather.

Too long to be a short story, too short to be a novel - welcome to the surprisingly potent world of the novelette. The award-winning magazine Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show has been an online haven for this powerful form of storytelling since 2005. Now its editors have selected their all-time favorite science fiction novelettes from the magazine's eight-year history and reprinted them together in one big book of listening pleasure.

In Polar City - the capital of Hagar, one of the planets in the forlorn Star Republic - a human-dominated entity is caught in the power politics between the enormous Interstellar Confederation and the Coreward Alliance. The leaders of these entities keep their alien eyes on the Republic in the hopes of one day adding its territory to theirs. When an alien member of the Confederation is found murdered in Hagar's public square, the situation turns dangerous fast.

The people of planet Earth have suffered the tides of war for six long years, but it's not their war. Earth is the battleground for the thousand-year conflict between the invading Hahnshin and the Godan warriors of the Galactic Confederation. Mira Donazetto's only concern is for her family's survival, so when she's offered work as a translator for the Godan, she jumps at the chance and right into the arms of the new First Commander, Roark.

Among the ruins of a civilization beyond their understanding, humanity clings to survival. Guilds vie for control of ancient cities, bandits ride glowing highways and cyborg adventurers hunt for lost technology. In the City of Towers, once the heart of the fallen Tarakan empire, a historian searches for clues to explain the disappearance of Rafik, a young boy with extraordinary abilities - a Puzzler.

What if the entire universe were the creation of alien minds? After an unfortunate spaceship accident, the hedonistic human Lutt Hansen, Jr., finds himself sharing his body and mind with a naïve alien dreamer. Together the two must survive dangers, schemes, and assassination attempts - but can they survive each other?

Charles Forbin has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to the construction of his own supercomputer, Colossus, rejecting romantic and social endeavors in order to create the United States' very first Artificially Intelligent defense system. Colossus is a supercomputer capable of taking in and analyzing data rapidly, allowing it to make real time decisions about the nation's defense.

The dwarfish, fetally damaged yet brilliant Miles Vorkosigan has more than his share of troubles. Having recently escaped an assassination plot whose tool was a brainwashed clone of himself, Miles has set the clone, Mark, free for a new chance at life. But when he decides to let his clone brother assume his secret identity and lead the Dendarii Free Mercenary on an unauthorized mission to liberate other clones from the outlaw planet of Jackson's Whole, things get really messy.

India in 1947 is a country in the grip of chaos - a country torn apart by internal strife. When the Doctor and Donna arrive in Calcutta, they are instantly swept up in violent events. Barely escaping with their lives, they discover that the city is rife with tales of 'half-made men', who roam the streets at night and steal people away. These creatures, it is said, are as white as salt and have only shadows where their eyes should be.

Otherland, a universe where any fantasy can be made real, but which is ruled by Earth's wealthiest and most ruthless power brokers, the Grail Brotherhood. Shrouded in secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Vast amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have laboured to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming Earth's most valuable resources - its children

Jake Ramsey - an unassuming yet talented archaeologist - has been given the chance of a lifetime. Hired to investigate a recently unearthed Xel'Naga temple, he knows this latest assignment will open up whole new possibilities for his career. Yet when Jake discovers the remains of a long-dead protoss mystic, his hopes and dreams are irrevocably drowned in a flood of alien memories. Bonded to the spirit of the dead protoss, Jake has become the sole inheritor of the protoss' total history - every event, every thought - every feeling. 

Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that, while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction. Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source, the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard.