System Anthology

My life took a turn I never expected on the day the world ended. Suddenly forced to fight in a bloody arena by a faceless System, I find the only way to survive is to win. I’m told that ten victories in the arena will give me my freedom, but if I’m going to get there, I’ll need a crack team of hardened allies to fight with me. What I got instead was a bratty college girl with a jealousy streak, a momma’s boy roommate who now inhabits the body of a piglet, and a devastatingly gorgeous teacher whose sword is as sharp as her tongue.

Ten years ago, deep within a rift, a choice was granted. Defeat the Demon King and end the apocalypse. Or take his power for themselves and keep the rifts open. Sloan chose an ending. His party turned against him. They killed him. They split his legacy and belongings amongst themselves. They hid the truth. They profited. Those heroes who betrayed the world. Now he’s back. Reborn. Reincarnated in a world where the system is life.

Time has always offered criminals one seductive promise: that eventually people will stop looking. Witnesses die, memories blur, detectives retire and evidence boxes disappear into storage. For some killers, every passing year must have seemed like another step away from justice. They Thought Time Would Save Them: Volume One tells the stories of ten cases in which that confidence proved misplaced. Some offenders remained free because the science of their era could not yet identify them. Others benefited from investigative mistakes, false confessions, wrongful convictions or simple bad luck....

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

After saving the world and defeating his enemies, Sloan has gained an incredible title and unmatched power in the system. Enjoying a decade of peace, his calm life is suddenly disrupted, pushing him towards a new journey and a new mission. A new enemy, known only as the Architect has emerged, causing chaos and breaking the balance. As new rifts appear, Sloan must explore unknown realms, find strong allies, and learn ancient secrets to stop the Architect's plans.

These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR From "one of our most nuanced thinkers on the intersections of race, class, and feminism" (Cathy Park Hong, New York Times bestselling author of Minor Feelings) comes a memoir "as electric as the title suggests" (Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom). A...

While the Australian master Gerald Murnane’s reputation rests largely on his longer works of fiction, his short stories stand among the most brilliant and idiosyncratic uses of the form since Borges, Beckett, and Nabokov. Brutal, comic, obscene, and crystalline, Stream System runs from the haunting “Land Deal”, which imagines the colonization of Australia and the ultimate vengeance of its indigenous people as a series of nested dreams to “Finger Web”, which tells a quietly terrifying, fractal tale of the scars of war and the roots of misogyny.

A bounty hunting survivor. A Galactic dark elf. A woman who has given up her humanity to become something more. These stories and more are available in the first short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, covering year one on Earth. When the world ends, humanity steps up, finding new ways to survive in a world with classes, magic, and monsters. The anthology features exciting, new stories by five new writers and a new, never publicly released short story by Tao Wong.

Step into the visionary worlds that defined a genre. *Golden Age Science Fiction Short Stories Anthology* brings together unforgettable tales from Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, E. E. Smith, and Robert Sheckley—masters who shaped modern science fiction with bold ideas, cosmic adventure, and thought-provoking storytelling. From distant planets and advanced civilizations to sharp social commentary and mind-bending twists, this collection captures the imagination, innovation, and timeless wonder of classic sci-fi at its very best.

⚖️ When the courtroom doors close, the real battles begin… Justice isn’t blind—it’s messy, dangerous, and often deadly. Judgment Calls: 18 Relentless Legal Thrillers with Verdicts That Haunt pulls you into the heart-pounding world where sharp legal minds collide with hidden agendas, and every choice carries a cost. From corrupt prosecutors in Chicago to whistleblowers in Boston, from a vanished witness in Los Angeles to a desperate appeal in San Francisco, these gripping tales explore the razor-thin line between law and morality. Each story unravels a different case, a different...

Diagnosed as severely autistic at the age of three, Tito, nearly nonverbal, was brought up by his loving mother Soma, who taught him to read English and challenged him to write his own stories. The initial result was The Mind Tree, published in 2003, which Tito wrote between the ages of eight and 11. The Gold of the Sunbeams is an equally impressive, beautiful collection of stories, each prefaced by a charming note from Tito explaining how the story came into being.

Earth as a new Dungeon World means opportunities and dangers galore. One of the enduring aspects of the System is the Shop, an interdimensional series of stores that compete for the opportunity to service clients and make a profit doing so. New clients on a new Dungeon World mean rare and heretofore unseen items and massive profits. No surprise that the vultures have arrived, searching for easy marks.

Enter a world of ancient magic, political intrigue, and fierce courage... In this captivating anthology, acclaimed fantasy author James Tallett invites readers back to the richly imagined world of Arhosa. From the treacherous political machinations of "Ashes of Ambition," where arcane power and betrayal intertwine in deadly fashion, to the soaring adventures of "Wings of the Ancestors," where a young Yn Gyntaf must unlock his true potential to save his tribe, these ten tales showcase the breadth and depth of a world struggling to redefine itself after empire. Journey through the ruins of a ...

From planets and asteroids to black holes and galaxies, every page will captivate young listeners as they journey through the vastness of the Universe. Each celestial body is explored wonderfully by our narrator, Oliver James Parkins and children will love listening to his fantastic voice...

One Voice Recordings presents amazingly versatile voice actor David Ian Davies performing 10 of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories: "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Sphinx", "The Descent into the Maelstrom", "Hop-Frog", "The Man of the Crowd", "Some Words With a Mummy", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether", "Shadow: A Parable", and "Silence: A Fable".

Every truth has a price. Every secret, a designer. From bestselling suspense author Alisha Dusk comes Hidden Architectures — a breathtaking collection of 14 relentless conspiracy thrillers where lies build empires, power is never what it seems, and truth is the deadliest weapon of all. ⚡ Across shadowed laboratories, sealed data vaults, government bunkers, and forgotten ruins, ordinary people stumble upon the machinery behind reality itself — and must decide whether exposing it will save the world… or destroy it. 🔍 Inside this heart-pounding anthology: A deep-space officer ...

Morning in Whitehorse, and everything is normal. All too normal. A girlfriend who loves him; an evening at the farmer’s market in Shipyard’s Park. Idyllic, relaxing, peaceful. What more could a man want? John Lee isn’t sure, but stray thoughts intrude, and memories of a different time, a different place, a different world keep intruding. Angst-ridden, exhausting memories of a world of pain and struggle. Nothing like the paradise he lives in. Now, if only John wasn’t so attracted to them.

Frederic Reamer finds his belief in justice tested every time he faces criminals and victims at parole board hearings in "The Real Consequences of Justice," his contribution to NPR’s This I Believe series. This I Believe is a National Public Radio program that features Americans, from the...

"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" is a dark comedy short story by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. First published in Graham's Magazine in November 1845, the story centers on a naïve and unnamed narrator's visit to a mental asylum in the southern provinces of France. The story follows an unnamed narrator who visits a mental institution in southern France (more accurately, a "Maison de Santé") known for a revolutionary new method of treating mental illnesses called the "system of soothing".