Showing results by author "Kacey Ezell" in All Categories

When the US Army Air Corps came calling in 1943, looking for psychic women to help their beleaguered bomber force, Evelyn answered, hoping to use her powers to integrate the bomber crews and save American lives. She was extremely successful at it...until her aircraft got shot down. Now, Evelyn is on the run in occupied Europe, with a special unit of German Fallschirmjager and an enemy psychic on her heels. Worse, Evelyn learns that using her psychic powers functions as a strobe that highlights her to the enemy.

Edited by Jamie Ibson and Chris Kennedy, We Dare is a collection of 15 all-new stories that explores the use of augmented humanity in the near future. From getting a new personality loaded with the skills you need for a mission to nanobots that keep you from being killed to creating an indestructible tank, anything is possible!

From the pulpy pages of Black Mask Magazine in the 1920s and '30s, through the film noir era of the 1940s, to today, noir fiction has lured many a reader and movie-goer away from the light and into the dark underbelly of society. Names such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain; titles like The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice...these have inhabited our collective consciousness for decades. Humanity, it seems, loves the dark. And within the dark, one figure stands out: that of the femme fatale.

They have absolute power; after all, they are the ones with the weapons. The only other armed agency, the Peacemaker Guild, is far smaller and unable to bend them to their will. But absolute power has the tendency to corrupt absolutely, and this is becoming increasingly apparent as the guild’s members pursue their hidden agendas.

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

Fifteen outstanding authors. Fourteen extraordinary stories. One best-selling universe. It’s the 22nd century. The galaxy has opened up to humanity as a hyperactive beehive of stargates and new technologies, and we suddenly find ourselves in a vast playground of different races, environments, and cultures. Enter the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates humans from the majority of the other races. Enter a galaxy not only of mercenaries, but also of aliens, hired assassins, and accountants. Accountants?

From the outside, The Lyon’s Den doesn’t look like much; there isn’t even a sign. But Mercs of all species know that if you head to Southwest Houston, near the Starport, there’s a particular run-down strip mall that looks like it’s been abandoned for years. The glass door second from the south end of the strip is plastered over on the inside with blue paper, and the faint golden outline of a rampant lion is the only clue.

Thirty years ago, the world ended. Giant electrovoric ants and pterodons came through a rift in space-time, millions of humans died, and that was that. Thirty years later, humanity has rebuilt … to an extent. Human ingenuity has provided some creative solutions to life without electricity, but most folks survive at the subsistence level, farming to keep themselves and their families fed.

With the death of her beloved husband, the Jaerl of Antiroc, Laethine knew she had to take his place and be a good leader for her people. However, her husband had a secret, one that would thrust her into the cutthroat world of royal interplanetary politics and dark conspiracies.

In a world of criminals, thugs, con artists, cheats, and swindlers, there must be a man to stand against the powers of darkness and corruption. A man not afraid to walk the mean streets—whether they be those of 1930s Los Angeles, an ancient fantasy realm, or some far-flung planet of a future star empire. He is a man who knows that a “good man” is not always a “nice guy”. But when the chips are down, he understands that a hero does the right thing, even if it means losing everything.

The Lunar colony is a mining colony with only internal security capabilities. Nobody had even considered that there might soon arise a need to defend the colony from the Earth! But that day has come. Something has been uncovered on the moon. Something important. Something...alien.

Pearl Silver was happy. She had a good job teaching young nurses. She was married to a good man who loved her. She had a son who made her proud every day. Most of the time, her memories of her time fighting in the skies over Europe remained a distant part of her past. Something she was proud to have done, but that time was over. Her life twenty years later was very different, and she didn’t have much reason to tap into her psychic power—or to stay in touch with her old comrades in arms.

Thirteen tales of Horror, perfect for a dark and stormy Friday the 13th…or a sunny Tuesday afternoon. From science fiction to classic European horror, interwoven with layers of creep factor, gore, and mystery that will keep you listening…and looking over your shoulder.

All her life, Aelys of Brionne had been weak. As the noble daughter of one of the empire's most powerful magic-wielding families, it should have been easy for her to live her dream of bonding with a warrior protector and joining the Imperial Battlemage Corps. But when her weakness robs her of her dreams, best friend, and the man she loves, Aelys makes the only choice she can see: she takes her fate into her own hands and runs, leaving her safe, protected world behind.

A half millennia ago, Siolene’s enemies took everything from her, including, they thought, her life. Against all odds, she survived in cryo stasis, and thanks to the pirate captain who rescued her, she built a new family and a new life as Queen of Ajen. But old enmities die hard, and when the lives of her children are threatened, there is only one choice left for her: Siolene must trust in her found family, in her husband, and in his enigmatic fixer as they return to face the enemy on his own ground. It may cost her everything she’s built, but Siolene cannot fail.

Caledin knew he could never go home. Two decades after losing his family to Zhretennais saboteurs, the former Ajenite naval officer made his living as a pirate, prowling the shipping lanes and picking off rich Zhretennais merchant vessels. For the most part, he’s content, and he tells himself often that the Free Ship Rampart and his crew are all the family he’ll ever need again. But then the Rampart stumbles upon a strange lifepod deep in the black nothingness of space. And against all the odds, the occupant in stasis—a girl named Siolene with ancient, royal DNA—is still alive.