science fiction

Contains thirteen original science fiction/fantasy stories by winners of L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest, including Eric Cline, Nnedi Okorafor, Tina Gower, and others.

When an alternate 1875 steam-driven America rediscovers electricity, the lifeblood of the Mangleborn monsters, and the secret society to protect humanity from the Mangleborn is compromised, twelve-year-old Archie must assemble a team of seven young heroes to save the world.

A man who was once mentally retarded must face his gradual return to his former state when the astounding results of an experimental surgery that increased his intelligence prove only temporary.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

"When seventh grader Nicholas V. Landrew, his beloved pet gerbil Henrietta, and a package of ground beef are beamed aboard an alien space ship, they soon find themselves on the run in a madcap chase across the universe. Now all Nicholas wants to do is get back home before his parents find out and ground him forever, but with the Universal Police hot on his trail, that won't be easy. Before it's all over, Henrietta will find herself safely ensconced back in her cage, Nicholas will be crowned Emperor of the Universe, and something even more surprising will happen to the package of ground beef"--From the publisher's web site.

In an alternative civilization where the social status of each person is monitored and rated and anyone can drop from celebrity to nobody, fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse's popularity ranking is so low her only chance of moving up is to find a good story, so when she meets a group of girls who hide an explosive secret, Aya decides to expose the group and unknowingly puts her own life in danger.

Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians.