Short Science Fiction Fantasy Stories

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.

This collection of short stories is a love letter to all of my wonderful fans. You asked for more stories outside of the regular Doc and Andrew narratives, and this is it!

Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption. One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.

The aliens left. Their monsters didn’t. Life after the invasion is perilous for these young men. The world ended while they were still learning to drive. Now, they’re all that stands between humanity and extinction. But here’s the kicker: Earth’s alien invaders didn’t take everything when they departed. They left monsters behind. This collection contains five explosive sci-fi survival stories from bestselling author M.G. Herron. Each one follows a different hero facing impossible odds as he discovers what it takes to remain human when the world—and its alien monsters—want him dead.

Close your eyes for a second. It’s late. The house is finally quiet. Your child is curled up, breathing slow… no fights, no stalling, no “one more story.” Just peace. Now imagine that being your every night. Inside Bedtime Stories for Kids: Dragons & Dinosaurs, you’re not just playing stories… you’re guiding your child into sleep. Soft glowing volcanoes. Gentle dragons. Calm, rhythmic adventures that slow their mind and relax their body without them even realizing it. Because kids don’t fall asleep when you tell them to… they fall asleep when they feel safe enough to let go.

This audiobook contains eight fantasy and sci-fi short stories perfect for your morning commute. Each story is self contained and lasts for about 1 hr of listening. Contains the following stories: Pale Rider, Magic Factory, Summer Sword, Floating Ink, Vampire Caving, Swamp Monster Voodoo, Frankenstein IT Support and Moonlight Motor. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Morning Motivation Series and listen to the best fantasy and sci fi short stories for your daily commute!

Like the creation myths they supersede, the revelations of science are seared into our collective imagination through storytelling. From Archimedes' bath to Newton's apple, vivid accounts of scientific discovery help us understand the principles behind each theory, and add to the larger narrative of how the universe works, and how we came to be here. This anthology draws out and distils science's love of narrative from a wide range of scientific disciplines, weaving theory into very human stories.

Hundreds of years after the end of the world, the Appalachian community of Iron Hollow finds itself beset by demons. Such horrors are common these days in the outlands, where most folks die young—if they don’t turn into monsters first. When a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest unearthly beast to haunt their woods, the town’s new oral historian, Shrike, has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still herself, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation's eight tales of terror (two never before published) include the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated story "The Forest" and Shirley Jackson Award nominee "The Lagerstatte."

The relationship between sleep and storytelling is an ancient one. For centuries sleep has provided writers with a magical ingredient, a passage of time during which great changes miraculously occur, an Orpheus-like voyage through the subconscious daubed with the fantastic. But over the last 10 years, our scientific understanding of sleep has been revolutionised. No longer is sleep viewed as a time of simple rest and recuperation. Instead it is proving to be an intensely dynamic period of brain activity.

Long lost to the public in out-of-print pulp magazines, dusty Victorian anthologies, and the pages of now defunct newspapers, these vintage vampire stories have truly proved immortal. Resurrected now for the year 2011, this is a stunning collection of nineteenth-century vampire stories by heavyweights such as Sabine Baring-Gould and Bram Stoker. These rare stories are arranged in chronological order from 1846 to 1913 and are compiled by two of the world's leading vampire anthologists and experts.

For over three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror listeners crave. Now, with the eighth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the audio of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman; Kelley Armstrong; Stephen King; Linda Nagata; Laird Barron; Margo Lanagan; and many others.

Be ready for some action, humor, and mystery in this anthology with short stories. You’ll listen about gangsters, witches, magic potions, interrogations, werewolves, and murder. Several stories have a murder victim, while others are all about theft or robberies. But in many cases, they spark the imagination and make up for a great way to sit back, relax, and read or listen to stories from a completely different world.

No communication. Limited power. An unbreakable will to survive. A violent blast of solar magnetic radiation plunges much of Earth into darkness. From the decaying orbit of the powerless ISS to a devolving Southeast Texas neighborhood and a secret doomsday bunker buried deep underneath the Colorado Rockies, The SpaceMan Chronicles tells the story of a stranded astronaut, his family and friends on the ground, and a shadowy conspiracy to rebuild the world in the shape of a new society.

31 Brand-New Dark Fantasy Horror Stories. Bloody corridors of ancient rock. A castle surrounded by poisonous thorns. A lost temple of traps and corpses. A subaqueous cave at the bottom of a cursed lake. These are the places where secrets are buried, where ancient evils are summoned, where beasts are imprisoned, where the insane lie in wait. These are tombs of darkness and nightmare, where if you stare into the abyss, the abyss will stare back. Heed the warnings of your elders and return from whence you came. Ahead lie monster lairs.

Prepare to get spooked with Scary Short Stories, a collection of 20 quick, chilling tales that will keep you up at night. Perfect for teens and adults alike, these stories bring you a mix of supernatural thrills, eerie mysteries, and heart-pounding suspense. Whether you have a few minutes or a few hours, each story will leave you craving more terror.

Barsoom Series Collection: 7 John Carter Stories is an audiobook collection of seven novels/stories of John Carter by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It will transport you to a fascinating new world unlike any other. Join John Carter as he finds himself on another planet beyond his deepest imagination - Mars, with almost a complete lack of resources.

In this epic anthology of stories in the fantasy genre, you’ll come to know more about the various characters in the stories as they struggle with life’s challenges. At times, they use magic to solve their problems, or sometimes, magic becomes the problem. Needless to say, this enormous anthology has taken the months to write, and the results show. Do yourself a favor and get caught up in a different world, a magical realm full of crazy possibilities, real dangers, and dramatic tales.

These stories tell tales of witches, dragons, princesses, angels, wolf shifters and more. Some stories feature sweet romance, while others are more passionate in nature. These stories are exclusive to this collection and cannot be found anywhere else. Featuring emotional romance, shocking romance and captivating storytelling, this collection is a short listen that can be enjoyed in an afternoon or less, perfect for breaking out of a listening slump.