This free sampler includes an excerpt from Redemption—the third novel in the bestselling Orbs series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith—as well as preview samples from upcoming science fiction and fantasy titles by Scott Britz, Ethan Reid, and Stephen S. Power.

The Undying “screams for a sequel” (Publishers Weekly)—and Ethan Reid delivers, in this riveting follow-up to “a thriller that brings a genuinely fresh take to a monstrous mythology” (Andrew Pyper, #1 bestselling author of The Demonologist). THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS IN HIS HANDS. The Undying: SHADES finds American student Jeanie and her young charge, Ren, fifteen years after the EMP that wiped out Paris and sent them on the run from the undying. Walking the highways and hiding out in abandoned buildings across France, they eventually find their way to Spain and the walled city of Ronda where a few dozen survivors have gathered—safe enough from the hunting undying, but facing a new threat on the scorched planet: starvation. With their main resource—humans—bordering on extinction, the undying have weakened, retreating to their hives and slowly withering away. But not for long. A dark presence arrives, casting its shadow across Spain, reawakening the hives and creating a new breed of monster. Driven by some alien intelligence, these Shades not only reanimate the undying, but can possess the living, turning survivors against one another. When Ronda comes under attack, Ren saves the day. As the youngest human left on earth, he has been blessed with a special gift that makes him a perfect killing machine—and the last hope of humanity. Forced to leave the safety of the barricades, he takes to the highways with a company of Spaniards who intend to eradicate the undying from Europe, hive by hive, using Ren as their secret weapon. But as they approach Sevilla to face the most powerful Shade yet, Ren learns some in his company aren’t all they appear to be… **The publisher has provided this ebook to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices.**

This free sampler includes the first sneak preview of the paranormal thriller A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin, and excerpts from Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s bestselling Orbs series, as well as excerpts from several upcoming science fiction and fantasy titles from Simon451.

A masterful blend of horror, science fiction, and pulse-pounding thrills, the first book in Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s bestselling Orbs series introduces the last survivors of an alien invasion. The year is 2061, and the planet is dying. Cataclysmic solar storms have forced leaders from around the world to finally put aside their differences and agree on one thing—to jump ship. The human race is headed to Mars. Dr. Sophie Winston is hired by New Tech Corporation to test a biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain; a mission she believes will help prepare the company for the three-year flight to the red planet. But, just days into the assignment, things start to go wrong. When the blast doors hiss open, Winston’s team finds a changed world outside. Humans are gone, vanished without a trace, and they aren’t the only thing missing. The planet’s water is gone, too. As the team explores their surroundings, they find thousands of luminous blue orbs lining the streets. It isn’t until they uncover what’s inside that they realize the nightmare that lies ahead. And what it means for our most important resource…

Bizarre earthquakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll—seemingly of their own volition—carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their routine geological survey of a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself. Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents . . . and the immense Void between the Known Worlds. Across the Solar System and among its colonies—rife with plunder and alien slave trade—through dire battles fraught with strange alchemy, nothing much can shake his resolve. But events are transpiring to change all that. With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl with a remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who has embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself. Set sail among the stars with this uncanny tale, where adventure awaits, and dimensions collide! Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

A serial killer's on the loose in Ostend, Belgium. Nicknamed The Stuffer, the mysterious killer fills his victims full of sand and poses them as public art installations. Rafael Styx, a corrupt, middle-aged cop with a bum hip and ties to the Belgian underworld, is on the case. A chance encounter with The Stuffer leaves Styx dead from a gun shot to the chest--but the afterlife has just begun. Returning as a zombie, Styx has to battle his new hunger for human flesh as he seeks to restore his honor and find his own murderer.

For fans of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton comes a medical thriller that melds cutting-edge science with ripped-from-the-headlines terror. What happens when a new immortality drug leads to an explosive outbreak of a deadly virus that, if not contained, could wipe out humanity once and for all? World-renowned virologist Dr. Cricket Rensselaer-Wright abruptly abandoned her research in Africa after watching her colleague die tragically from the Ebola virus. When she returns to the States to reunite with her teenage daughter Emmy, her plans are sidetracked. No sooner does she set foot on the campus of Acadia Springs—the research institute where she grew up and Emmy now lives—than her onetime mentor Charles Gifford announces his discovery of the Methuselah Vector, a gene therapy agent that can confer immortality on a patient after a single injection. Gifford’s air of triumph is marred when a young woman on campus dies suddenly from a horrific viral infection, eerily similar to the Ebola that drove Cricket out of Africa. Despite Cricket’s pleas to slow down the rollout of the Vector and run more tests, Gifford refuses. And when the unthinkable happens—when Emmy falls ill with the same mysterious disease—Cricket is forced to take matters into her own hands. But is it already too late? Gifford will stop at nothing to release the Vector into the world. Mobs are clamoring for it. Cricket has only a few hours to find a cure for Emmy, and to convince the public that Gifford’s quest for eternal life may cost the very lives he hopes to save. **The publisher has provided this ebook to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices.**