Download or read book Prophet of the Badlands written by Matthew S. Cox and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most twelve-year-olds, being kidnapped is terrifying. For Althea, it's only Tuesday.Her powers of healing make her a precious commodity in the Badlands, a place where the strong write the law in blood. For as long as she can remember, she has lived either as a possession or a goddess. Althea contents herself with captivity as long as she can help others, even those who killed to own her.After three whole months in the same village, the friendship of a young warrior makes her feel almost like a member of the tribe rather than a prisoner. Alas, raiders seize her yet again. For the first time in six years, being stolen hurts.Following a reluctant escape, she questions if she should dare risk using her powers to defend herself, and those she has come to love. Her attempt to return to the tribe leaves her lost and alone and, for the first time in her life, trying to stay free.Alas, two threats far beyond her experience to understand also hunt her. One wishes to use her for his grand scheme-and one wants to destroy her.

Download or read book Heir Ascendant written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of World War Three, the most famous face in the world belongs to a nine year old girl. Maya Oman is the daughter of the woman who controls what’s left of civilization, the CEO of Ascendant Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Her smile is as ubiquitous as air, selling everything from vital medicine to vanity drugs with risky side effects. Lifelike android clones reside in over a dozen homes, shielding her from the violent resentment of a population straining under her mother’s boot heel. Ascendant’s power comes from Xenodril, a drug capable of reversing the effects of Fade, a disease some claim came from aliens or from the governments that predate the war. Only Ascendant sells it, and at a price only Citizens can afford. The rest are left to die. Maya’s earliest memories are of living alone in a penthouse apartment, desperate for the attention of a mother who never visits. Forbidden to go out except to record advertising video, her only friend has been the ‘net. When she is taken for ransom by a group of mercenaries with nothing left to lose, she discovers her life may not be what she thought it was—or wants.

Download or read book The Sapphire Soul written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monarchs often face the consequences of a predecessor’s actions—but death is asking too much. Kitlyn and Oona never wanted power, only to love each other… a potentially deadly desire in a kingdom obsessed with a twisted notion of purity. After years hiding the truth, even from themselves, they sit on the throne together as queens. It only took bringing an end to a horrible war—and the direct intervention of a goddess—for the citizens to accept a marriage between two young women. Earning the respect of two kingdoms affords them the opportunity of learning how to lead, but goodwill won’t last forever in the face of complacency. Their resolve is tested as beasts long thought mythical are spotted around the kingdom, threatening the citizens. The sightings take an ominous turn when a stranger wielding unknown powers strolls into the throne room. Worse , the ancient curse still stalks Kitlyn. A cryptic message from a ghost offers her only chance to survive… if she dares risk the safety of the kingdom to spare her own life.

Download or read book Axillon99 A LitRPG Novel written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death isn’t a big deal in the virtual world of online gaming, but after poking her nose where it doesn’t belong, Dakota Marx finds herself running for her life―and reality doesn’t come with a respawn. At twenty-two, she’s still slinging coffee at an Amazon Cafe despite having a degree in programming. It’s not because she’s unlucky, unmotivated, or even that she fancies herself an underground activist crusading against evil corporations… hunting for a ‘real’ job would take time away from her game. Axillon99 is the world’s most popular multiplayer online experience, with a universe containing billions of planets to explore. Ever since video games broke the screen barrier, plunging players fully into their characters, reality just can’t compete. Cognition Systems International announces a ten million dollar prize to celebrate the release of the next generation Neurona 4 interface helmet. After her crew decides to try chasing the money, Dakota discovers a sinister intent behind the new technology. Going public threatens the lives of her friends, but keeping CSI’s secret could destroy the very fabric of society.

Download or read book Araphel written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes, the best thing a girl has to look forward to is killing someone. When she learned the truth behind her father’s death, Risa Black thought she’d given up on revenge. After an unknown enemy takes the life of someone dear to her, revenge is all that keeps her going. While hunting for the assassins, she uncovers a web of espionage and deceit that destroys her sense of everything she knew. Her idealism tarnished, her drive to free Mars from Earth gives way to something more personal: the need to protect a child. It soon becomes clear she’s in over her head. Consumed by the sorrow of loss, she accepts a mission from the Martian Liberation Front, not caring it’s a one-way ticket. Desperate to uncover the truth hidden behind all the lies, she hopes to find answers in a place that should not exist: Araphel. The home of the angel Raziel.

Download or read book The Hand of Raziel written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Risa Black will decide the fate of an entire planet. After all, an angel told her so. Orphaned young, she grows up among the resistance, fighting to give the people of Mars command of their own destiny. Two governments from Earth vie for control of the Red Planet. She wants them gone, regardless of how many explosives it takes. To the outside world, she’s an emotionless, broken marionette. Inside, her father’s fiery end haunts her every waking moment. She never cared for destiny or politics, until the angel Raziel focused her anger. Both friend and foe alike believe her grip on sanity tenuous, but she knows he is real, and pities those who will never feel his divine presence. Whenever her adrenaline wears off, guilt at what her bombs did cuts deep, as does the apathy of the citizens she fights to liberate. The pain worsens after unexpected love cracks open her armored heart, causing her to question the role she plays in the bloody conflict. Torn between duty and desire, she learns change never comes without loss. Even to the Hand of Raziel.

Download or read book My Dad is a Mad Scientist written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saving the world isn’t easy. It’s even harder when you’re only nine. Kelly Donovan used to be a nobody. Well, a smart nobody. Skipping ahead a year in school made her the smallest kid in fifth grade and a target for bullies in search of an easy mark. She tried to follow her father’s advice and ignore them, but it didn’t do any good. Escaping into her favorite comic books at least helped her through the day. Who needs friends anyway? Sometimes, dreams find a way to come true, even if nobody asked them to. Aliens bombard the Earth with gigantic glowing red crystals to restore its failing magnetic field. Soon after the seemingly benevolent invasion, Kelly discovers her wildest, happiest fantasy come to life: she has superpowers, along with roughly two percent of the population. Her strong good nature leads her to adopt the heroic persona of Übergirl. However, she has one major problem… Her dad’s turning into a mad scientist. It’s difficult to be a hero, especially when your father’s a bad guy.

Download or read book Dr Infinity and the Soul Smasher written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There’s only one thing Übergirl loves—almost—as much as helping people: Star Prince comics. Before the Nolmek accidentally made superheroes real, Kelly Donovan often escaped into the pages of her favorite comic series to forget about bullies and her parents always complaining about their jobs. Star Prince and Ms. Omni might be fictional, but they saved her as much as any living hero could. When Dad surprises her with a copy of the latest and greatest video game set in the Star Prince Universe, Kelly dives right in, too excited to think. Alas, diving in turns out to be far more literal than she expected. Übergirl and her best friend Paige—a.k.a Will-O-Wisp—end up stranded inside the MegaStation, helpless to interfere while Dad puts together a most nefarious plan. If the girls cannot defeat the virtual Dr. Infinity in time to escape, her father’s orbital machine will rain down an unimaginable horror on innocent people… adding pineapple to every pizza on Earth.

Download or read book The Cursed Codex written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-02-09 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fantasy roleplayers often get deep into their games, but thirteen-year-old Keith Croft is about to take it to a new level. He’s been invisible for seven years, smart but not working hard, athletic enough, but too lazy to excel. His parents are sorta cool, but only two weeks into his eighth-grade year, his friends are all busy with sports or projects and can’t hang out. On the way home one day, he stops at a neighbor’s yard sale and discovers a book for Crypts & Creepers that the lonely old woman says belonged to her granddaughter who disappeared without a trace. Days after he convinces his friends to try this bizarre game that doesn’t require electronics, strange noises in his closet wake him. His increasing inability to focus on anything other than a girl who vanished before he was born―and his obsession with her NPC ranger―drives him to dig deeper into the past, searching for what really happened to her. By the time Keith realizes the Gamemaster’s Codex holds something darker than rules within its pages, the curse that claimed the soul of a girl in 1987 has its claws in his group as well. Keith vows his friends will escape―even if he can’t.

Download or read book The Far Side of Promise Anthology written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Far Side of Promise is an anthology of short stories spanning cyberpunk, high fantasy, psychological horror, and science fiction. In the titular story, a jaded deep-space miner sets out on a desperate bid for real food. The boundary between the virtual and real worlds becomes an Ouroboros. Alex Grant always gets what he wants—until he gets what he deserves in The Tower. Many people hide skeletons in their closets, but in The Roommate, Roy talks to his. At age ten, Kirsten Wren’s mother tried to kill her. To survive, she followed a ghost Into the Beneath. In A Queen’s Lament, a young monarch copes with love, betrayal, and demons. In Evergreen, seventeen-year-old Harper and her little sister find themselves alone after nuclear war. Neris dreams constantly of A Ghost Among Fireflies, an unseen force compelling her to visit a dangerous, destroyed world.

Download or read book A Thousand Lifetimes written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2019-10-19 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the realm of imagination, characters live out a thousand different lifetimes in hundreds of worlds, offering an escape from the mundane. This book contains a selection of twenty-seven chapter ones from my standalone novels and first-in-series books. Spend a while with agent Kirsten Wren chasing ghosts across the cyberpunk future or Althea as she searches the Badlands for a place to belong. Follow Risa Black into the deepest tunnels of Mars, then go with Mia Gartner an unsuspecting happy owner of a new home who has yet to discover what awaits her inside. Watch little Kelly Donovan, a nine-year-old fan of superheroes, have an awful day at school unaware she'll soon be living her wildest dream. These, and many other stories wait inside.

Download or read book The End of all Halloweens written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nine-year-old Kelly Donovan helped save the world from aliens, but now she has an even bigger problem—someone’s trying to ruin Halloween. Life is difficult for the world’s tiniest superhero. Her genius plan to save her parents from supervillainy in one easy step proved impossible… at least not without destroying the Earth. Superpowers, good or bad, aren’t going away any time soon. Mom’s as likely to hug her as trick her into a ridiculous trap, but at least her dad’s mellowed out a bit. Lately, he seems focused more on being weird than evil. Small favors. Kelly’s looking forward to the happy normal of trick-or-treating… until candy starts disappearing. Convinced a mysterious supervillain is responsible, she and her best—only—friend Paige rush to stop all the sweets in the world from evaporating. Alas, with only a week left and zero clues, humanity will likely suffer an even worse fate than enslavement by an alien race: the end of all Halloweens.

Download or read book Ghost Black written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everything Risa Black believes is a lie. Her angel is dead, the cause she’s killed for is as false as her metal eyes, and the one man she thought she could trust has deceived her for sixteen years. Smothered by deepening layers of conspiracy, she decides to embark upon the most frightening mission of her life: leaving the Martian Liberation Front. After eight years of trying to free Mars with high explosives, and a reputation as a less-than-sane killer who hears the voices of angels in her head, Risa didn’t expect to walk away clean. Her former bosses won’t let go easy, agents on both sides of the war want her dead, and truth is in short supply. A politically connected enemy threatens to purge the Front of those unwilling to play by their rules. To survive, Risa must become that which she has so long denied being—an assassin. With bombs poised to bury her former life and everyone associated with it deep beneath the surface of Mars, Risa has thirty minutes to make an impossible choice: save the life of her daughter by killing her best friend, or disarm the bombs and let her child die.

Download or read book Ascendant Unrest written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two weeks after Maya tried to save the world, little has changed. Little, except for a nine-year-old’s building fear that her ex-mother’s revenge waits around every corner. When her face appeared on every still-working video monitor along the Eastern Seaboard, streaming her plea and her evidence all over the planet, she thought they’d won. Alas, her fairy tale dream died. The Authority didn’t become noble overnight. Her ex-mother didn’t face punishment for her crimes. The lack of any retribution, or even any effort on the part of the Brigade to hide her, only fans the flames of her worry. To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah is hiding a painful secret. Maya’s fears come to fruition in the middle of the night. In a hail of gunfire, she and Sarah flee into the dangerous streets of the Habitation District, rife with dosers, street gangs, corrupt Authority officers, chased by an unknown enemy worse than Ascendant. They don’t want to kidnap her―they want her dead.

Download or read book The Cursed Crown written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of a twenty-year war, the people of Lucernia struggle to believe their former enemies aren’t demon-loving savages. However, that’s easy compared to the more alarming change: accepting their nation now has two queens. Many citizens in a land devoted to the God of Purity view the love between Kitlyn and Oona as unnatural, but the young women have earned guarded acceptance in the wake of their heroic deeds. Alas, unrest stirs in the shadows. Worse, Oona thinks the Talomir family line is cursed. All who have worn the crown before her have met with untimely deaths. Much work lies ahead for the new queens in helping the kingdom recover from a conflict older than its rulers. The people are restless and hurting, trust in the crown is tenuous, and the king of Evermoor demands reparations. That two women should love each other may be the last little piece to hurl the nation into rebellion. Mysterious forces attacking towns close to the border with Evermoor stoke tensions even further, threatening a relapse to war. Their crowns not even warm, Kitlyn and Oona set off to find the source of the raids and stabilize the nation… hoping to stay ahead of an ancient curse.

Download or read book Sophie s Light written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sophie lives in a most peculiar cottage at the center of the Forgotten Forest, its inside much larger than its outside. You see, the house must be large, for it holds a great troll as well as a little girl. As one might expect, working for such a creature is rather frightening to a seven-year-old, but the endless expanse of black trees outside is even scarier. She’s afraid to make even the slightest sound, for the troll abhors loud children. He’s not terribly fond of quiet children either―unless they’re in his stew. Sophie’s precious light offers comfort in her darkest moments. She can’t remember where it came from, but it’s her only source of hope holding back the gloom that yearns to devour her soul. Trolls are covetous beasts, and when he spots her shiny bauble and steals it, Sophie faces two terrible options: Stay and suffer the wrath of a furious troll, or take her chances in a forest of her deepest fears.

Download or read book Ascendant Revolution written by Matthew S. Cox and published by Division Zero Press. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nine-year-old Maya dreads living in the Habitation District with her new family. It’s not the lack of video games or her shabby clothes, or even wondering if she’ll eat from day to day—it’s the giant target on her back. Her ex-mother’s offer of a truce scares her more than any threat the woman could have made. Both her new parents are former Special Operations soldiers, but even that provides little sense of safety. Barely a week goes by without an abduction attempt over her connection to Ascendant Pharmaceuticals. After one such random attack, Maya discovers information that leads the Brigade to come up with a risky plan: use her unique combination of small size and large brain in an operation that could end the Ascendant threat for good. Hoping to peel the target off her back, Maya accepts the mission. Her Brigade friends assure her it’s completely safe. Freakishly intelligent kids can do many things well, but commando raids aren’t on the list. Her idealism leads to real bullets flying, crushing her hopes to live like a normal child. She’ll be happy to live at all.