Showing titles in Humorous

When Alan Ashe died and his surviving brain was implanted into a combat cyborg, he didn't think much about it. After all, he'd worked with cyborgs for years and knew how they operated. Sure, he'd have no memories of his past life, but what could he do about it . . . he was dead! But something wasn't right. Alan still had his memories—all of them—including those of his death. Not only that, but the way the techs were rebuilding him was . . . different.

Jax hates stools. He hates counters that are chest-high. But mostly, he hates not getting paid. Captain Jax is a pilot with a Napoleon complex and a corvette held together by duct tape and lizard spit. He’s five-foot-six of pure spite in a galaxy built for giants. When a slime-mold broker offers him a retirement-level payday to transport a "biological sample" to the edge of the Drift, Jax doesn’t ask questions. He just wants the credits.

Dorian Hawke's daily routine was pretty straightforward. Wake up, pull his weight around the village, eat potatoes, go to bed. Not too shabby. Not very interesting, maybe, but it was honest work. Then a boat falls like a meteor from the sky. Next thing he knows, a gorgeous elf and stunning faun tell him that magical blood runs through his veins, and they need him to navigate their ship through space.

Halycon Sage is back! As the eccentric citizens of Dry Creek Gulch happily organize a peaceful, post-technological society, big sparkly blue Squidren are rapidly approaching Earth! These telepathic, time-traveling, dimension-hopping Squids have plans for us-as do the suddenly sentient Nanobots...

With the help of a team from a nearby settlement, the rebuilding begins with a focus on safety. Their healer, Jessica, is as beautiful as she is tough. If we could convince her to stay in Hope that would be a huge advantage. More hands means less work, and soon we had a thriving garden and four livable homes. With some help, I began work on a waterwheel that could power our new settlement. Next step: getting the plumbing working again. Things were going well, and life was simple and satisfying when we focused on the basics.

What happens when five fabulous women from different walks of life decide to trade their annual beach vacation for the adventure of a lifetime? They go to Mars, of course. From the vibrant Nita, whose bold fashion choices light up every room, to the cautious Mary, who must face her deepest fears, this is a group bonded by laughter, love, and a friendship as fierce as any force of nature.

Step into Isaac Asimov’s early foray into science fiction comedy with The Magnificent Possession. First published in 1940, this witty short story follows Walter Sills, a struggling chemist whose “brilliant” discovery—plating metals with ammonium to mimic gold—spirals into chaos. Gangsters, corrupt politicians, and desperate industrialists descend on him, only for the invention’s fatal flaw to emerge: a stench so foul it ruins everything. Part satire, part cautionary tale, this story reveals Asimov’s youthful experimentation with humor and the pitfalls of unchecked ambition.

Bounty hunter Duke LaGrange has seemingly retired on the primitive world of Neprius. His former sidekick, Ishiro’shea, has hung up his katana and is now the proud owner of the galaxy’s loudest bar, Cyborg Joe’s Grill N’ Go and The Why Not Saloon on the planet Kelt. But when a mysterious entity visits Duke and warns him of a great danger set to destroy Earth, he must decide if he will get the gang back together for one last mission.

Jakes back. He's older, wiser, and better dressed. He's going to be the coolest spy ever, then he fails his pilot exam. Disgraced, Dashi sends him out hunting missing food shipments. It's boring, but Nadine's shadowing him. Is it to find out what he knows, or just to snoop on that slinky redhead free trader pilot he took to dinner?

Tensions are running high in the Spacetime Ocean. A single spark could lead to war. But it's nothing Sergey can't handle . . . right?

Do you fit in? Me neither. I wrote these stories for weirdos like you and me. A messed up kid keeps a mightily upset alien prisoner in his barn. Carnage ensues. A hunter pairs up with a mysterious girl to track down a terrifying humanoid predator. Carnage ensues. Aliens commandeer the body of the wrong Taylor Swift. Carnage ensues. A marshmallow toasting fork turns out to be a sacred relic of an alien empire. Carnage ensues. You get the idea. One of these short stories isn’t very short, but I included it anyway.

Tomorrow, the funk descends on Manhattan, a noxious cloud that separates the island from the rest of the world and mutates the population. Some generations on, the surviving population exists amid the rubble of modernity, wearing our cast-off clothing, worshipping celebrities as dim gods, and using emojis in place of written language. The Island exists in a state of uneasy peace, with each neighborhood an independent fiefdom, protecting itself with scrap metal spears and Molotov cocktails.

Die Erde ist doch nicht gesprengt worden! Arthur Dent ist nach seiner Odyssee durch den Weltraum wieder auf dem Heimatplaneten gelandet...

Sergey finally escapes from Paris-only to have his multidimensional shelter invaded. His time in France may have been rough, but it was a walk in the park compared to what's in store for him...central Europe is going to be a wild ride!

Dr. Mick Strong has bought himself something unusual for his seventy-fifth birthday: a LifeTime projection. This new tech crunches data including your medical history, diet, and lifestyle to predict how much—or little—time you’ve got left. That’s all well and good, but he’s also bought them for his daughter, his grandchildren, and even his eleven-year-old great-grandson. He wants them each to wait until their next birthday to use the app. But whether they scoff at it, sneak an early look, desperately turn into a health nut, or die before their appointed time, the gift is wreaking havoc.

One winter morning in 1998, Alex Martin inherits a mysterious invention from her late father. The Finding Machine solves mysteries. But the biggest mystery of all lies deep within its wiring — the unsolved disappearance of a little girl, dating back seventy years. What happened to the girl, all those years ago? Who was she? Alex and her handsome housemate, Antony, must follow the dots to solve the mystery. But, as dark family secrets are revealed, will the Finding Machine bring them together…or push them further apart?

The next chapter in Roth's journey takes him to Hilsford. After getting his journey off to a good start and becoming friends with the ratans, foxes, badgers, corvids, and boars of the woods, it's time to take his journey to one of the big cities of AstroTerra, Hilsford.

The Zang, an elder race of the galaxy, may be a shrinking population, but they're also intelligent, curious, and powerful. What's more, they practice a most unusual art form: they bonsai star systems. Eager to witness this first hand, Lieutenant Lord Thomas Kinago, accompanied as always by his personal assistant Parsons, sets out on a several-week jaunt to see the Zang destroy a moon to enhance the beauty of a star system.  

Living and slaving in Fill City One, you get used to the smell. We call it the Everpresent Stink. But every once in a while, on a spring day with a breeze, it clears away enough to remind us that there is something more out there. Most Fillers' wildest dreams would be just to get past the walls and live in the mainland. But my dream? It’s a little bigger. I’m going to Mars.

Noah Beckett was living a perfectly average life—regular job, mild coffee addiction, zero expectation of being humanity’s last hope. But then, a voice in the sky informed the good people of Earth that they had been drafted into an intergalactic war, and suddenly, survival became his full-time occupation. As promised, a relentless invasion of alien knights descends, reducing our planet to a smoldering battlefield. Their armor shrugs off bullets. Their swords cut through steel. Their goal? Annihilate humankind. Noah’s goal? Find his wife. Don’t die. Maybe punch an alien in the face.