Showing results by author "Maria K" in All Categories

Stories with depth, strong protagonists, high tension, all told while pulling at your heartstrings, or making you smile with understanding. In this anthology, you'll find fifteen stories, including many novelettes. Go on adventures with heroes old and young, a couple of war pigs, and visit many new fantasy worlds. Watch out for the dragons! Deep Magic: Volume 3 has stories that will satisfy your hunger to escape.

International Research Institute of Sleep (IRIS) is the last resort for patients seeking a good night's sleep. When an odd sleep disorder epidemic flares up in multiple locations around the world, IRIS must call on its secret weapon - a group of sleep experts unafraid to look for answers beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.

It should have never happened. But it did. It should have been left alone. But it wasn’t. No one should have gone in. But someone did.

Imagine if one man devised a way to gain control of one vital resource no one can live without. What would you do then?

The best of Deep Magic: Volume 1—fantastical worlds of space adventures, changelings, and dragons await—stories with depth, strong protagonists, high tension, all told while pulling at your heartstrings, or making you smile with understanding. In this volume, you'll find twenty-two stories, including many novelettes. Go on adventures from deep space to ancient Rome (with magic), to Mars, and many other new fantasy worlds.

Fed up with Jack's beanstalk shenanigans, the ogre and his wife decide to turn the tables on him.

The lore and everyday life of the Caucasus Region had a great impact on Mikhail Lermontov's work. In addition to serious, profound pieces with very clear Caucasus influence, like "The Hero of Our Time" and "Demon", he offers up this very traditional and slightly mischievous tale of a wandering minstrel in search of happiness.

Inspector Peter Glebski thinks he is on vacation. Instead, he ends up embroiled in the strangest murder case of his long career.

This love story for nerds initially appeared in the author's anthology Elemental Tales and Other Unusual Adventures.

Alexander Kuprin prefaced his novel The Pit about the lives of early 20th century Russian prostitutes as follows, "I know many people will find this novel amoral and inappropriate, but nevertheless I dedicated it from the bottom of my heart to mothers and young people" Indeed, the novel's publication was followed by an explosion of outrage. The "good" society accused Kuprin of slander and forever exiled him from its sitting rooms, charity auctions, and holiday balls. Progressive intellecutals winced and shuddered, but could not help admitting Kuprin had a point.

A Child in Translation is a deeply personal autobiographic narrative about growing up in Soviet Ukraine that delivers a vivid picture of life in a part of the world most outsiders have never thought about. Please meet Maria from the Ukraine. She came to the West as an alien, bringing with her a childhood yet to be defined by translation.

They don't alter the past. They don't spy on the future. Yet, even very cautious time-travel research leaves plenty of room to get into trouble. Time, Limited is a foremost authority on space and time research. Wary of the time travel-related doomsday scenarios described by science fiction writers, the employees of the company take every precaution imaginable and move forward carefully as slowly. But when a critical experiment is threatened by a natural disaster, even the best-laid precautions go tumbling down, and the nerds have to think on their feet to protect the research and ensure the company's recovery.

Society gossip and life in the slum, life's tragedies and comedies, the sacred, the profane, the admirable, the ridiculous, and much more - mixed thoroughly and presented for your listening pleasure by one of the most delightful old gossips of Russian literature, Vladimir Odoyevsky.

On the heels of the worst year in his life, Carter Wolski loses his will to live. He is prodded, shoved, sniffed, and slobbered back to life by a trio of very strange helpers.

What would happen if damsels in distress defied evil wizards and wicked queens, dismissed the marginally competent princes, and took the matters of their rescuing into their own hands? Find one possible answer here, in the first installment of Maria K's Alternative Endings series.

After being rescued from the greedy mole by her faithful swallow and brought to the tropical kingdom populated by elves, Thumbelina finds herself thrust into the intricacies of elvish court politics and facing yet another marriage no one had asked her about.

This installment of the Alternative Endings series takes a fresh look at Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen", following Kai and Gerda in a somewhat different direction than the original.

Tenar è solo una bambina quando viene scelta come alta sacerdotessa per gli Antichi Poteri della Terra e tutto le viene portato via, anche il nome. Ora è conosciuta come Arha, custode delle oscure Tombe di Atuan, e il suo compito è proteggere l'Anello di Erreth-Akbe. Così, quando il mago Ged tenta di rubarlo, lei farà di tutto per impedirglielo. O almeno finché Ged non le mostra la luce della magia e la promessa di un mondo che lei non ha mai conosciuto.

Be careful what you wish for when you say you want someone to love you to death. Such is the warning by Alexander Kuprin, issued in this beautifully written and poignant story.

An old and insightful tale, Indian Tale About Four Deaf Men holds up surprisingly well in the modern context.