Bringing the mythological world into a modern setting and introducing young adult readers to a variety of strange monsters, this fantasy novel follows 12-year-old Joe Copper, as he travels along in his quest to save humankind. When Joe is hired by the eccentric Mrs. Merrynether as an errand boy at her remarkable veterinary practice—a hidden refuge for a menagerie of creatures that should only exist in dreams and legend—he soon learns that she has a startling plan for his future: he is destined to command an army of beasts to protect humanity from the Conclave—a brutal council of dragons hiding on a distant island. But Joe is plunged into his new role prematurely when the callous tycoon Argoyle Redwar, who has a secret menagerie of his own, tricks Mrs. Merrynether into revealing the location of the island. Overcoming his fears, the school bully, and an escaped creature on the loose in his own village, Joe races to the island to stop Redwar from provoking the dragons to war. He takes the most bizarre team imaginable: Lilly, the surly alcoholic cluricaun; Danariel, the seraph who lives in a lightbulb; Flarp, the giant flying eyeball who can’t control his excitement; Kiyoshi, the narcoleptic kappa with an extraordinary vocabulary; Snappel, the fiery wyvern plagued by hiccups; and Cornelius, the poisoned manticore. Together with newfound allies on the island, the champions are forced into an epic battle against fantastic odds, facing not only the Conclave but Redwar as he seeks total control.
There is an open wound in the heart of the Cosmos. A wound that tears at the flesh of reality, drawing powerful and malign aberrations from an unknowable realm. Salem Ben stopped the first, but more are coming, and now he must solve the riddle of their purpose if he is to prevent an all-out invasion. Only by living the digitally reproduced lives of three individuals will Salem find the solution: Diabolis Evomere, a tortured but enlightened prisoner in ancient Babylon; Clifford Arken-Bright, a twentieth-century physicist who has uncovered a terrible secret in the quantum world, and Silicant 5, a refugee of the Great AI seeking to understand its hatred of humanity"--
In a future so distant that time is almost without meaning, death is defeated and immortality has been made reality through instantaneous cloning and synaptic transfer. Mankind, frustrated by the futility of timeless existence, chooses extinction. All but one man. Far removed from the known universe with only one companion, an AI named Qod, Salem Ben watches the cosmos from afar and relives the digitally reproduced lives of countless souls archived in the Soul Consortium by means of a neuroimmersive device. He hopes to discover the answer to the ultimate question: What lies beyond? But at the birth of the next universe, billions of years before the pattern of life repeats its design, Salem’s quest takes a disturbing turn. Unexplained aberrations appear among the digital souls. To hunt down their source and to continue his search for evidence of life after death, Salem endures four very different lives: Orson Roth, a serial killer in 20th-century Britain; Dominique Mancini, a spiritual medium from 16th-century Lombardy; Plantagenet Soome, a monk sent to the distant Castor’s World; and Queen Oluvia Wade, the creator of the Soul Consortium. As the mystery unfolds, Salem is confronted by a malevolent entity which threatens the future of humanity before it can begin again—and only Salem stands in the way of it breaking free.
A ruthless and influential cult leader known only as Theodotian begins a campaign of murders to unveil a powerful revelation threatening to destroy the organized Church and to change the world. When the first murder victim is revealed, numerologist Lucas Morrow is summoned to help Detective Bruce Wickman at the scene. They soon learn the killer is leaving numerical breadcrumbs to preach his message. The investigation uncovers the existence of a long-lost manuscript that supports the cult’s cause, setting off a deadly race to recover it. But Theodotian’s influence is everywhere, and with the police and media infiltrated, Wickman’s team find their own lives in danger as they try to solve Theodotian’s puzzle and uncover the shocking claims of the cult’s revelation.
England. 1923. A violent earthquake has mysteriously transformed the village of Dennington Cross into a hellish realm of eternal darkness, overtaken by murderous beasts roaming the cobbled streets. English university lecturer Alexander Drenn attempts to flee the village but narrowly escapes plunging into the abyss that completely surrounds it. Upon returning home to live out his final days, Drenn finds a mysterious invitation to the home of Lord Hargraven, a man whose obsession with the occult has paved the way for a dark entity to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world. But Drenn realizes he’s not the only one invited to the party—there are others who received the same invitation. Now they must discover why Hargraven chose to lead them straight into the belly of the beast and solve a riddle that will bring Dennington Cross back into the light.
Bringing the mythological world into a modern setting and introducing young adult readers to a variety of strange monsters, this fantasy novel follows 12-year-old Joe Copper, as he travels along in his quest to save humankind. When Joe is hired by the eccentric Mrs. Merrynether as an errand boy at her remarkable veterinary practice—a hidden refuge for a menagerie of creatures that should only exist in dreams and legend—he soon learns that she has a startling plan for his future: he is destined to command an army of beasts to protect humanity from the Conclave—a brutal council of dragons hiding on a distant island. But Joe is plunged into his new role prematurely when the callous tycoon Argoyle Redwar, who has a secret menagerie of his own, tricks Mrs. Merrynether into revealing the location of the island. Overcoming his fears, the school bully, and an escaped creature on the loose in his own village, Joe races to the island to stop Redwar from provoking the dragons to war. He takes the most bizarre team imaginable: Lilly, the surly alcoholic cluricaun; Danariel, the seraph who lives in a lightbulb; Flarp, the giant flying eyeball who can’t control his excitement; Kiyoshi, the narcoleptic kappa with an extraordinary vocabulary; Snappel, the fiery wyvern plagued by hiccups; and Cornelius, the poisoned manticore. Together with newfound allies on the island, the champions are forced into an epic battle against fantastic odds, facing not only the Conclave but Redwar as he seeks total control.
There is an open wound in the heart of the Cosmos. A wound that tears at the flesh of reality, drawing powerful and malign aberrations from an unknowable realm. Salem Ben stopped the first, but more are coming, and now he must solve the riddle of their purpose if he is to prevent an all-out invasion. Only by living the digitally reproduced lives of three individuals will Salem find the solution: Diabolis Evomere, a tortured but enlightened prisoner in ancient Babylon; Clifford Arken-Bright, a twentieth-century physicist who has uncovered a terrible secret in the quantum world, and Silicant 5, a refugee of the Great AI seeking to understand its hatred of humanity.
STORIES:Ryan Wilson – “American Trash”Stuart Gibbel – “Break on Through”Craig Clevenger – “Obsolescence”Nik Korpon - "South of Thirteen"Dennis Cruz – “Smile Now, Cry Later”Pela Via – “Bathhouse”Stephen Conley – "Don't Feed the Animals"Grigori Black – “This Was Heaven”Doc O'Donnell – “Your Personal Apocalypse”Nikki Guerlain – “Sick Ticket”Patrick Verhagen – “Swim”Craig Wallwork – “El Bordello Alexandra”Nicholas Merlin Karpuk – “Ahm's Bay”Nik Houser – “Subtitles for a Silent Film”H.R. Tardiff – “Walls in the Sand”Richard Thomas – “The Jenny Store”Bob Pastorella – “Alexandra”Simon West-Bulford – “Project Asmodeus”Jay Slayton-Joslin – “The Fantasy of California vs. The Reality of London”Amanda Gowin – “Gilded Bones”Chris Deal – “Padre Nuestro”Boden Steiner – “Here”Gordon Highland – "Fry Girl"edward j rathke – “All the Dreams You Dreamt Retold”Michael Paul Gonzalez – “Tidal”Victor Bengtsson – “Venice, Forever”ABOUT THE BOOK:Los Angeles is whatever you want it to be, and nothing like you think. I gave these photos to a group of authors and asked them for precisely 1,000 words about what they saw. They didn't disappoint. Dreams, drugs, drama. Fame, famine, and fading glory. Few of the authors in this book have stepped foot in L.A., yet the soul of this city is so invasive and pervasive that the collection embodies everything that makes up this sprawling metropolitan mess.There's everyday life in Los Angeles, from the shiny dreams of the Hills to the hard realities of life in the Valley and out to the Inland Empire, and even more stories that are purely the stuff of dreams and fantasies, the kinds of worlds that exist only behind giant creaking doors on backlots scattered throughout the Southland.Whether you live here or just want to visit for a few moments, you're in for one hell of a ride.
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