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The future is boring. Technology has solved most of the world's most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn't. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer's computer system has been invaded. Jack enlists the help of her only friends - her co-worker, Gilles and Adrian, an online friend she's never met - to help her track down the source of the invasion. Her investigation leads her to a shadowy group called the Red, where Jack learns that not everyone lives a life of quiet servitude. Even though she believes that the Red are responsible for a series of gruesome attacks, Jack begins to become attracted to their worldview. In her search for the people responsible for the attacks, she confronts the leaders of the group as well as her own burgeoning sense of self-awareness.

The book is a collection of nine short stories telling the tale of three generations of a highly dysfunctional family before, during, and after a technological singularity. It was originally written as a series of novelettes and novellas, all published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine in the period 2001 to 2004. The first three stories follow the character of "venture altruist" Manfred Macx starting in the early 21st Century, the second three stories follow his daughter Amber, and the final three focus largely on her son Sirhan in the completely transformed world at the end of the century. According to Stross, the initial inspiration for the stories was his experience working as a programmer for a high-growth company during the dot-com boom of the 1990s.

This is not your father's time travel. There's no machine, no dial. There's no telling where or when you'll go. The only thing that can change is you. It will make you what it needs to make you. And if you come back, it won't be the same you. You're messing with the nature of things, and the nature of things does not like to be messed with.

Being a zombie, not so easy. That could have been Dave Connor's six word memoir. "At first he couldn't remember how he'd ended up in that shallow grave; he just knew it was hell to claw his way out, and that the taste of its dirt would remain in his mouth for the rest of his time on this earth" ... Expect the unexpected in this existential resurrection thriller.

In a slightly alternate world the minds of teen offenders are uploaded into computers for rehabilitation-a form of virtual wilderness therapy. Zach is a homo cognoscens, one of the new humans who can enter the virtual Fulgrid. Though still a high school student, he is indentured to the Fulgur Corporation as a counsellor. Laura is a homo sapiens. Their story is part odyssey, part tragedy, part riff on the nature of consciousness. Podcasts (audiobook), narrated by Welsh actor Ioan Hefin, and further information are available at http://www.lleelowe.com

What if someone - or something - stole one of your days? Just one, and you didn't know why, or what they had done with your life in that time? Young Philip Galvez and his friend Marcus Holmes found out for themselves when they decided to discover why there was a giant stuffed moose in a house down the road.

The Heilmann Drive allowed humanity to spread across the stars and prosper for nearly two thousand years. But when the use of the device begins to eat into the fabric of the universe, the People's Interstellar Republic bans all faster-than-light travel. A new age begins, one of isolation and stagnation, and becomes known as the Fall. One rebel, Captain Seth Garland, steals the last starship in existence. He is now mankind's only hope of re-uniting the stars. The Fallen Goddess: When Captain Garland's crew questions their safety aboard their ship, he goes in search of of an engineer who can repair the Heilmann Drive. His quest leads him to a discovery that will redefine the future of his rebellion and all of mankind.

Ten year old friends Alex and Sapphire discover something strange on the city bus map, a street that existed for only one year. As they set out to solve the mystery, they encounter the possibility of another world, another dimension perhaps, lurking in a vacant lot, but they are not the only ones on the trail. Who will discover the truth, and who will pay the price? (cover photo courtesy of Michael Gakuran http://www.gakuranman.com) (see also 'Freak City', a sequel of sorts)

So I died, and to be totally honest with you it was a lot more painful than I had expected. A hell of a lot more painful. But then again I am fairly sure that you are not supposed to remember the actual death part, if you know what I mean. No, you don't, do you? You're aware of Life Extension Technologies Inc.? No? Okay, I think I had better explain a little,. Actually, I had better go back to the very beginning.

What if the whole world was still asleep and couldn't wake up? Meet Kevin, just a kid who slacks off a lot. But when he stays up all night to finish his homework, he finds everyone else still asleep the next morning! After failing to wake up his friends and parents, Kevin gets very depressed. But soon things get even crazier when a dog and cat begin speaking to him. The pets have formed an alliance and a searching for a way to save their masters, and they need his help! However, when they start investigating the problem, they are warned of a great danger: the forest animals are coming...and they intend to keep the humans asleep for good! With the help of a few drowsy classmates and some furry pals, Kevin must fend off hordes of wild animals and search for a cure...before he too will fall asleep and never awaken.

A twenty minute read: So, I'm standing in this crop circle, down in Wiltshire, England, and there's a girl dangling a crystal from the end of a chain. She's very pretty, so I'm thinking I'll have to find a way of overlooking the fact she's probably also some kind of crank if I want to take advantage of the situation here,...

Night, taking a journey across her fantastic world, falls. See her friends and lover journey with her and help her in this piece of whimsical, but heartfelt flash fiction.

An elderly professor finds a man washed up on the beach near her home. Perfectly fine, and extremely beautiful: golden-haired and sapphire eyed. A Norse legend come to life, and bewitching as she takes him home to live with her. He isn't the only element out of his time in this supernatural story of past betrayal and blood. A Gender Switch Adventure.

A fifteen minute read: I am sitting here in the lounge-bar of the McKinley Arms Hotel, by the shores of Loch Lomond, and I am staring out into the twilight at my choices. I have been this way before many times and I always seem to go wrong at this point, so you must forgive what must seem like fastidious caution, but I simply have to get it right this time!

Beauregaard Sweet became invisible, but his troubles began when he suddenly reappeared. Now everybody wants something from him. Manny the mechanic wants his wife. Sharad LeMaster wants his secret. Emma Biggs wants another shot at the TV news, the Four Tribes want to send him back to wherever it was he'd gone, and all he wants to do is eat donuts and watch reality TV.

Mike Smith's life was crap, living all alone, years after his wife had died and his children had grown up and moved away. Then he saw the commercial for the Daffodil. Far more than other robots, the Daffodil could become anything and everything he wanted it to be. Mike's life is about to change. Visit http://amathar.blogspot.com for more on books by Wesley Allison

The mother wants to have a child more than anything in the world. She gets her wish with the help of a man from another world, but, her child is not quite what she expected.