Brandon Tuggle slumbers and toils upon the world's sharpest acres. During the day, he mans the salvage crane and stacks refuse into teetering piles. During the night, he traces maps in his dreams. His skin is scarred by the salvage yard's sharp piles, and lonely Brandon wonders where all his uncles have gone. It takes a surprise visit from Mercy before Brandon can see a color other than rust.Loneliness irritates Brandon Tuggle's scarred skin. He never knew his mother, and his father has left him behind in the Tuggle salvage yard to be raised by a crowd of uncles. Each day, Brandon operates the yard's giant crane as a fleet of trucks dumps the world's refuse at his doorstep. He is helpless as his uncles vanish amid the maze of junk piles looming throughout the yard, and Brandon can't help but worry that he too will soon find himself lost in that jungle of sharp steel and rusting ore. But a day comes when a truck delivers him Mercy, opening the door to color and splendor that Brandon never thought he would see floating between his family's junk piles.

The followers of Griffin have built their thirteenth colony in record time. The United Systems rewards the effort by placing the governance of Griffin XIII into the hands of the colonists. For the thirteenth time, the followers of Zeb may live in true freedom. Only none of the twelve previous colonies named Griffin remain, and the ultimate danger resides in the colonists themselvesKassie Mayhap strives to live her life true to the tenants of Zeb Griffin. While the lethal, lavender and gold skies of Griffin XIII sway beyond her colony's glass dome, Kassie vows to live a life of self-reliance. She will answer to no government. Nor will she seek to establish any rule over her neighbors. Kassie will seek no charity, and she will pay no tax. The United Systems has retreated back into the stars with a promise to leave the colonists of Griffin XIII to themselves. Only, the United Systems delivers a final tool to each patriot of Griffin XIII as a last payment for his or her labor. Though the tool feels so soothing in each hand that grips it, the tool empowers each colonist with the power to both preserve and destroy. Though all twelve of the previous colonies of Griffin XIII have perished, Kassie remains faithful that the thirteenth effort of her people will survive in the merciless worlds beyond the supervision of the United Systems.

John Johnson is tired of his family and name, and so his dreams weave elaborate stories to replace the mediocrity of his days. And then one summer night, a tattooed wizard arrives at the community park to unfold magic of the most incredible kind. With a final unraveling of chain, that stranger transforms John Johnson into a new man by replacing the bonds John knows with much more sinister knots.A tattooed wizard unleashes double-edged magic in this excerpt from the novel The Sisters Will Dance by Brian S. Wheeler. The wizard with the strange patterns of ink swirling across his skin discovers an audience of one in the young man named John Johnson. Spells of earth and smoke unfurl at the wizard's summons and captivate John, whose life until witnessing such magical powers felt timid and dull. The wizard saves his most amazing, and most diabolical, trick until the end. With water and chain, that wizard wraps John's soul into floating, iron chain, and so forever shatters the smooth conformity until then known by John Johnson's days.

Grandfather Henry clutches his granddaughter, his Sunflower, close as armies prepare to turn his village nestled in the valley into a battlefield. The roses still bloom no matter that the surrounding hills are so dry, and Henry knows the village defenders will once more rise to protect them. Only, Sunflower must know the dark, and bitter, tale of their defenders’ origins.The roar of cannons and the crack of rifles whistle over Sunflower's village as the frightened child clutches her grandfather. Sunflower's grandfather assures her that the legends regarding the defenders of that village nestled between the hills are indeed true, that the village's defenders will rise from the dust and destroy those who descend from the hills seeking to harm the blossoms that provide such uncanny color in a land teeming with dust. But the grandfather holds no detail of his story back from his Sunflower, aware that even his granddaughter must know the truth of those monsters she wishes would rise from the dirt.

Llungruel linger in the lom fields around the village. The llungruel is a feared lizard, whose bite brings ravaging fever that drives the mind wild. Malek and Elloch hate the creature, but they must bear the poisonous lizard to grow a sustaining harvest. But after the llungruel kills a brother, Malek and Elloch vow to destroy the lizard, and so discover secrets more bitter than the choking lomMalek and Elloch's village has not hungered since the gray men and their gray ships transformed the surrounding swamps into fields by planting the lom seed onto the land. Though a prevalent and hardy staple crop, the lom is also bitter. The llungruel lizard, with its venom that turns its victims' minds wild, multiplies in the fields and plagues the villagers depending upon the lom. Malek and Elloch vow to destroy the llungruel after they must witness a brother succumb to the lizard's poison. They vow to ignore any of the gray men's rules that prevent them from banishing that fearful creature. Their quest will unveil bitter truths, and demand further sacrifice, before a more delicate balance can be rediscovered to bring relief from the llungruel hissing in the field

Chuck Wuebbles has lost much since his relocation into Old Town. All of the possessions Chuck earned as a younger man have been noted in the Administrators' black notebooks, to be liquidated to pay for the care Chuck's age will inevitably demand. Yet the Administrators have not taken all. Chuck still possesses his old skills; and with a knife and cleaver, Chuck vows to keep one final freedomThe sick and the old fuel the modern world's economy. Age and disease supply a final, and renewable, resource for a new world's commerce. Chuck Wuebbles has turned old, and so the Administrators have assigned him to a housing unit in the Old Town district, where the care which Chuck will, surely, one day soon need may be delivered quickly. Only that care, that supervision and concern comes with a cost which forces Chuck to watch the Administrators claim possession of his wealth in order to pay for all the doctor and hospital bills eventual sickness will demand. Yet when the pain visits, Chuck vows to keep his suffering a secret with a plan to keep the last possession of his pride through the end.

Larry McPeak has come to the seer's crimson table in hopes of reaching beyond the veil separating the living from the dead. Among those gathered at the table, only Larry doesn't hide his face behind a mask, and he fears the oversight will prevent him from peering into the table's waters. But the seer promises him his turn, and so Larry stares in the rippling cloth hoping to touch the other side.Like all the others who shamble out of the shadows to find the light of the seer's crimson table, Larry McPeak's loneliness yearns to reconnect with lost loved ones. It is Larry's first time seated before the table, and he realizes as the others gather that only he does not cover his face with a ghastly mask. The seer assures Larry that the donning of any mask is not required to gaze into the waters that ripple from the crimson table. The seer promises Larry that he will get his to gaze into the table's vision, to hope that someone waits on the other side to hear his voice whispering across the divide. Larry gazes at what his companions seated at the table call into the waters, and in the end, learns we he too wishes for a mask.

Harmon’s heart breaks when his dog Tonka turns wild and and buries teeth into his master. The madness overtakes that mighty dog just as Harmon fears the third man drawing close. The third man brings the bullet and the blade. The third man reminds all the old pushers and pimps that the city never forgets. So Harmon hurries to train Tonka’s replacement, and in the end, Harmon succeeds too well.Harmon Fowler fears the past hunts him. Harmon could once count himself as one of the street princes, once as one of the street boss's trusted men, granted the permission to pimp women and peddle dope in the city's underground trade. But then one street boss replaced another, and Harmon was forced to flee the corner he once ruled, stopping only when he found a rural and ruined town in the heartland so forgotten that Harmon believed the village might hide him from the hitmen the new boss would likely one day send on his trail. He transformed himself into a breeder and trainer of fine dogs, and he strove to introduce a new canine line that would cement his fame. Harmon nearly had that goal in hand when the sheriff warned that strangers came to town, strangers who Harmon sensed came from those old street corners he long ago fled.

Mallory and Mitchell Howard hope a vacation to the woods will help them rediscover their chemistry. If a break from the responsibilities of their everyday lives fails to reignite their old passion, then Mallory and Mitchell hope they might return as changed partners thrilled by new love. Yet the woods hold something sinister, and soon neither Mallory nor Mitchell recognize their own reflections.Though they have settled into routine, Mallory and Mitchell Howard fail to feel content with their lives and marriage. Their passion for one another has faded as both begin to watch one aspiration after another slip beyond their grasp. Thus Mallory and Mitchell flee into the north woods, hoping an unplanned, spontaneous vacation will return some of the carefree splendor of their lost youth. But Mallory wakes in the night at the sound of a pounding at their hotel door and stammers to see a shadow at the foot of her bed. Mallory soon after trembles as she witnesses her face in the mirror transform into a woman she does not know, and fear chokes her as Mallory desperately runs from the reflections that suddenly haunt her. Mallory and Mitchell enter the north woods hoping for change, but neither anticipates the transformation the shadows between the trees deliver.

Nigel Hightower cannot sleep in a world built upon dreams. The machine has shunned Mr. Hightower, refusing to give him digital manifestations of his dreams. So Mr. Hightower finds solace in crafting replicas of the lost world's wildlife for the children too young for the computer, until a series of updates threatens Mr. Hightower's audience so that none remain to call him “replicant maker.”The world has retreated into the limitless landscapes the computer constructs out of zeros and ones. Every citizen of the machine realizes his or her dreams. Everyone is content. No one lacks for any kind of wealth or pleasure. Everyone except for Nigel Hightower. For the machine has shunned Mr. Hightower by replacing his dream with nightmare. Like a child, Mr. Hightower cannot thrive in the virtual landscape. And so he creates mechanical creatures to stir the imagination of the children, who like himself, find no solace in an electronic world. Now even the children threaten to leave Mr. Hightower as updates tempt their younger minds. Mr. Hightower promises to resist the machine with a final, incredible creation.

The rural community of Owensville has grown old. The glass factory that once gave that town heart has been shuttered for decades. Yet the residents still hope that Mr. Turner will rise from his bed to bring life and industry back to their sleepy streets. Each morning those residents gather at the foot of Mr. Turner's crumbled wall and pray that man's bones provide answers they desperately need.Following the death of her father, Lauren Freeman decides to pay an overdue visit to Owensville, the town of her family’s origins. She travels to the estate of her grandfather, Roscoe Turner, a man who built and managed the great glass factory that long ago provided purpose and means for the families who settled in that rural town. Lauren is shocked to discover that one of the walls to her grandfather’s home has collapsed, and that Grandpa Roscoe’s body sleeps in a bed exposed to wind, sun and rain. Yet cousin Maximillian holds up a hand and tells Lauren that calling for help can no longer do any good, and Lauren must learn what forces Max to keep a family skeleton in the daylight

Ben Cane has outlived the world, and so he waits for his ailing grandchild to deliver his execution in the center of that room surrounded by glass walls. Every bone in his body throbs with arthritis. His guts burn after so many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. And mercy is the last thing Ben desires at the end of the world.Mallory Cane resists the urge to cry as the projectors knit glory all around her. She knows that all of the worlds the vision chamber shows her have long gone extinct. None of the laughing hyenas remain. No more elephants shrill. The eagles no longer soar. Not a single domesticated dog or cat remain to nuzzle with Mallory when her illness brings suffering. She understands that the vision chamber offers only illusion and heartbreak, and yet her father forces her to look upon the color that glowed before the world was wasted. He tells Mallory that she must be made strong, and that she must remember all that has been lost. He tells Mallory that she must prepare herself to punish that generation that did nothing as the world faded to gray.

Dr. Zito lives only with his creations, Ernie and Oliver. In Ernie, the doctor has created a universal donor, a clone ready to give Dr. Zito any part should one of the doctor's organs fail. In Oliver, the doctor has created a robotic surgeon, ready to harvest from Ernie any flesh the doctor may need. Only, the doctor never anticipated the friendship that forms between his clone and robot.Ernie lives knowing that his death could fall at any moment. Ernie's mortality is linked to Dr. Zito's health. Only a clone, Ernie can voice no objection when the obese doctor partakes of another bourbon after another rich meal. Ernie has no right to encourage the doctor to seek even a little exercise to help strengthen Dr. Zito's failing heart. Ernie is only a clone, only a commodity, only a closet of organs and parts maintained in the best of health to be ready to save Dr. Zito from the health emergency arriving perhaps next year, next month, or next week. Ernie rebels against the purpose endowed by his creator, however, when he makes a new friend in the world of his online adventure game. Ernie suddenly cares for his tomorrows. Only Ernie must convince the robotic surgeon and guardian named Oliver that a clone deserves an opportunity to at least meet the face behind a game's avatar if a clone does not deserve a future of his own.

Naomi guides her spacecraft through the stars in search of the starfly world. Humanity wants revenge for the invasion those aliens launched upon the Earth. It is a daunting quest for Naomi, for there are so many stars to explore. Yet she sacrifices her years and floats through the nothing to chase the tiny hope she might find a way to deliver vengeance to those aliens who sing a song of chimes.Shimmering creatures called the starfly create magnificent relics in honor of their golden spires of crystal. The spires provide that alien race with a common home, a location anchored amid the infinite planes where the starfly can gather to share ideas and love. The starfly fail to notice until it's too late how the pull of those spires tears at their wings, and the time comes when the starfly must throw themselves into the stars in a desperate search for a new world they might call home.Humanity tosses its bravest space captains into the stars to search out the home world of the alien creatures who draped the Earth in a net of crystal and brought the armies of man to their knees. Humanity has no way of knowing what star the starfly planet might orbit. Humanity has no way of knowing if the starfly, in truth, originate from any planet at all. Yet the thirst for revenge is too great, and however small the chances may be of ever taking the war to starfly, humanity tosses itself into the stars.And both races are surprised to discover how dreams bond them together.

Bryce Munson resents the dreams of the automata. The robotic writers have monopolized the publishing industry, and their dull paperbacks lull the reading public to sleep while the world falls to ruin. A frustrated Bryce becomes a keeper of the machines, and through the robots he distributes the words he hopes will change the world. He fails to understand how his story might set his city to flame.Bryce Munson lives a miserable life. The generic paperbacks of the automata offer him no pleasure. Unable to find enjoyment in the neat categories of robotic fiction sold in the bookstations, Bryce scribbles his own stories, but there seems to be no one left in his wasting world who is interested in reading words that are not produced by the publishing world's machines.Yet a new hope visits Bryce after his desperate effort to destroy a writing robot with a little gun fails to spark the rebellion he desires. A beautiful and dark woman teaches Bryce how to become a keeper of the automata, and how his life might find the purpose it requires in the intricate work involved in maintaining the writing machines. As a keeper, Bryce finds a fellowship of writers. And in short time, he shares a love with the woman who offered him meaning within a repair shop.Too much of Bryce, however, still worries for the world. Too much of his pride still resents how his words must be subservient to those imagined within artificial intelligences. Thus Bryce forms a plan to finally spark the rebellion he hopes will save his world, and he puts everything on the line to topple the automata.