Fantasy Adventure Short Stories

I’ve always wanted to conquer the Big 5 dungeons ever since one of them took the life of my father nearly fifteen years ago. Nobody ever said the Path of Progression was easy, but my burning desire to dive can’t be quenched. I just never thought I’d be prohibited from getting a diving license just because I tried to help a bratty blonde girl get hers. Soon, we’re joined by a lovely brunette bookworm, and we start diving the dungeon on our own terms.

Alaria Hartwood vanquishes a legendary kraken, becoming a Tentacle Mage. Her newfound talents and wealth bring hope of a quiet retirement but fate has far different plans. While Alaria wants to turn her retirement dream location into a place where she can focus on enchanting, potion making, and spell crafting it won't be easy. She quickly finds herself having to vanquish orcs and demons with a vibrant assistant. Mia is a great student, and a gifted soul, but even with her help, it seems like Alaria's shop on Brighthill will have to wait for the brewing storm to calm.

Don't start a war. Don't get your trainees killed. And most importantly, don't date them. Hunting monsters for coin was enough for me, until the King begged me to tame the wildest beast of all: a guild with no humans.

A practical farmer discovers a crossroads connecting four different realities. An elderly woman is granted forty-eight hours of youth, beauty and wishes. A circus performer learns how to switch bodies. A gold miner confronts a seventy-five-foot island god. New York landmarks mysteriously vanish. And a powerless drifter discovers he can heal—or kill—with a glance. Across these fantasy short stories, wishes, powers, supernatural encounters, alternate realities and impossible changes create adventure, humor, danger, wonder and unexpected consequences.

Jack Pritcher has hit rock bottom, losing his home and job. Just when he believes his sanity might be next, he's presented with an opportunity that sounds utterly unbelievable. The offer on the table is to become a guardian of a Portal, a doorway to another world. But there's a twist–he must keep it a secret. Portals, it turns out, are alive in some way. They possess sentience and dictate their own set of rules that guardians must follow, under the penalty of death.

Nate is the hardworking CEO of SouthernCool, an AC company in Florida. After years of toiling to get rich, he finally takes a well-deserved vacation to Australia. A chance encounter ties him to a gorgeous gal named Senna. Right as things between the two are heating up on the Great Barrier Reef, pesky aliens intervene. Humanity is doomed, they tell him, destined to become extinct in the not-too-distant future. Nate and Senna are forced to compete for a spot on a human preserve.

Beaten, bruised, and shot, Caleb Ledger dives off a burning yacht, desperately trying to cling to life. It doesn’t work. Instead of a briny death, Caleb finds himself reborn in the world of Avalon. A place of magic, levels, and quests filled with adventure involving mystery, rescues, dragons, and a revenge-obsessed warlock.

Step into twenty science fiction short stories where strange possibilities become immediate human problems—and ingenuity, courage, ambition or sheer stubbornness may be the only way out. Buy a planet where the laws of physics refuse to cooperate. Escape a tyrannical Earth aboard the last rebel ship. Hunt the Great Secret of the Universe. Race to save a dying world. Watch reality disappear because everyone believes it should. Travel through time to Nero's Rome. And meet aliens, inventors, engineers, soldiers, con men and unlikely heroes confronting problems no one has faced before.

Magic is real—all the myths and legends of mankind come from a place that actually exists. And Jonathan is about to go there… The world of Skyhall awaits, unlocked by a mysterious inheritance from Jonathan’s eccentric, adventuring uncle. The threats are legion—dungeons, undead, wyverns, and beastfolk—but Jonathan has a unique class that will give him the power to expand and improve his own airship. In time, he will turn it into a veritable fortress and flying palace.

After traveling across the entirety of the Sealance Empire and the deserts of Lowenthal, Larek has returned home to the Kingdom of Androthe to find that the situation is quite different from what he remembered. Not only are there massive Apertures called Calamities consuming large portions of the landscape, but most of his friends are also scattered to locations unknown around the Kingdom. Worse yet, they have no idea who he is because of the Dominion magic used on them before he was transported to the Empire.

In a realm where wizards rule, magic reigns supreme. Power. The ambitious thirst for it. But when a power-hungry wizard lord seeks to expand his might, he triggers a series of events unforeseen. The balance of magic is altered, races of old return, and beasts of legend stalk the land. This omnibus includes the first three books in the series.

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Rew, the King’s Ranger, accepted a role on the far edge of the realm to avoid the morass of intrigue and betrayal that bleeds from the heart of the kingdom. His only desire is to shoulder the burden he’s taken, to protect the village of Eastwatch, and to monitor the wilderness beyond. When three youths are arrested for petty theft in the village and beg for help, Rew’s friend insists he take responsibility for them. By ties stronger than steel, Rew is forced onto a path he knows leads to chaos. The King’s Ranger will battle to grant the youths a life he never had a chance of.

Excitement, drama and action - and the answers to all your burning questions about the Rangers of Araluen! Everyone knows the legends of the Rangers of Araluen. But no one has heard the whole story - until now. Has Halt told Will the truth about how Will became an orphan? Did Gilan track down Morgarath's lieutenant after the battle of Three Step Pass? Is there to be a royal wedding - or will tragedy strike first?

The System Apocalypse has brought the clothing industry, and just about everything else, to a grinding halt. Now Lana Pearson intends to kickstart the local industry into gear to help Vancouver self-sustain itself. Key to her strategy are special teams of non-combat classes.

There are many stories of the legendary Irish hero Finn MacCool, or Fionn mac Cumhaill. Liam Gerrard brings together some of the most well-known in this treasure-trove of Irish folk tales and short stories. Chief among them is the well-loved "Finn & The Scottish Giant", telling the tale of how the Giant's Causeway came into being. Gerrard has adapted and edited over 40 short stories of Irish and Celtic folklore. So sit back, relax, and enjoy hearing the stories of the legends that have been passed down through generations over thousands of years.

Join the adventure through dystopian worlds, to outer planets and into a speculative future. Welcome to the Future Days Anthology. Seventeen authors imagine a future with thrilling tales, starships, unlikely heroes, and exotic aliens, all of which combine to make Future Days a must-listen sci-fi fantasy short story collection.

Gold miner Billy Newman thinks he has made the deal of a lifetime when he buys a remote island in the Philippines. Then crops fail, disease spreads and the islanders insist there is only one explanation: Billy has angered Tadamona, the giant god who claims the island as his own. Billy trusts medicine, dynamite and his own nerve—not superstition. But when Tadamona proves terrifyingly real, disbelief is no protection. With a young girl marked for sacrifice and an island in panic, Billy has to find a way to fight something everyone else believes cannot be defeated. A plague is spreading.

I was having an ordinary day as a tour guide aboard the Steadfast when suddenly the ship was attacked by a kraken. Mythical creatures like this giant sea monster weren't meant to exist on Earth, but this one was definitely real. And so was the damage it did to the Steadfast. After washing up on a deserted island, I'm looking for ways to survive. Food, water, and shelter are at the top of the list. Next comes some kind of weapon to deal with the strange creatures who lurk the island. It's not long before I discover that this island isn't even on Earth.

Sword and Sorcery Fans Rejoice! Pick up the latest issue of Savage Realms Monthly and fill up on stalwart heroes doing battle with the forces of evil in this epic collection of short sword and sorcery fiction. This month's crop of stories starts off with a new tale in the ongoing saga of Redgar and Natali by Willard Black. In addition we have a story of a monster hunter with a cursed sword in search of a fabled blacksmith, along with a swashbuckling adventure of heroes forced to hunt strange creatures in service to an evil sorcerer."Fantastic Sword and Sorcery Action!