The New Magnolia: Red Fungus, White Spore

Hokage of Literature | psychological | Complete

The art for this cover was drawn by StarsColdNight whose account you can find on DeviantArt and BookCoversRealm for some great and splendid artwork at fair prices. Rillia flees from the Red Mountain Ant Colony and her country of Wassergras, hoping to find and explore the Primeval World, a legendary and untamed world she has only read about. However, after a surprise storm nearly drowns her, she is saved by Jason, a shrunken human with little memory of his past life. He is the first in a series of new allies she meets along with Melsil, the mushroom swordsman and Vesha the crawfish. A storm is brewing in Wassergras of political intrigue, prejudice and schemes within schemes that threaten to tear apart their world. Rillia must put her traveling plans on hold as she and her newly made friends work to defeat this threatone that has been waging since the dawn of the world between the forces that created it.

50.93 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 10:40

Echoes of the Mind's Eye: 13 Speculative Fiction Short Stories

Victor D. Lopez | psychological | Complete

[Synopsis from the book's web pages at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords] This book is a compilation of 13 contemporary science fiction and speculative fiction short stories whose range extends from the innermost dimensions of the mind to the outer reaches of the universe. The stories touch on both timeless and novel themes including philosophical questions as to the meaning of life, the nature of reality, the power of love, the catastrophic consequences of looking for truth in all the wrong places, scientific hubris, and the superlative strength and wrenching weakness of the human spirit. Themes include hard and soft science fiction, horror, humor, romance and literary fiction in both traditional and unusual combinations. Several of the stories in this collection can be classified as "dark fiction" that pose all too disturbingly feasible ways for human beings to destroy themselves through bad decisions--and perhaps even our corner of the universe. But these are tempered with humor and with the hope that springs from humanity's ability to cheat fate through its ingenuity--and, more importantly, to learn from its mistakes. These stories are intended to entertain, but also to leave the reader thinking long after she/he puts down the book.

28.17 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 10:39

Ringing In My Ears

CandidCallalily | psychological | Complete

Shadows are humanity's tag-alongs, with the ability to empower, demoralize, enrich, or disturb, unbeknownst to those they tail. It is up to Violet to intervene when they cross the line, but when she has her most vivid dream in recent memory, she realizes she is up against a formidable adversary. Ian, a guitarist in a local band, joins her quest to find and stop the shadow, only for the threat to be closer to home than he ever could have imagined.

8.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 11:30

Saints Commit No Sins

phasmonyc | psychological | Complete

What are angels? Cherubs that spread joy and laughter wherever they go; eldritch horrors our feeble minds cannot comprehend; or a mere concept created to keep our withering will to live burning on. Here is an introduction to the duties of a certain angel. Beware they are not what you may think an angel is supposed to be. 2鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍鞍�2 Cover art by me (@phasmonyc)

0.48 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:23

In the Grasslands Away

deepfriedtails | psychological | Complete

Nothing but repetitiveness and drudgery enclosed in an office desk, a musical past, and an almost certain unease in the air All he can do is watch, as time flies by in the grasslands away. Reviews and discussions are welcome in the comments.

2.28 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:26

Hollow Moon: A Lost Shadow

Akito B. Takahashi | psychological | Complete

Silas Wren, a cynical man from earth, returns to Karakura Town. Initially trialed into walking the path of Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenage Soul Reaper thrust into protecting the innocent from Hollows, Silas changes his destiny and uses his extraordinary abilities to control his fate. From the author who brought you "Conquer the Ninja World," comes the second adaptation to the Hollow Moon series, A Lost Shadow. While battling Hollows and navigating the turbulent relationships in Ichigo's circle, Silas begins to uncover disturbing secrets about the Soul Society. He neither plays the hero nor the villain, but he veneers his own course that sets him apart from naive idealism. As forces rise, conspiracies threaten to upend the fragile balance of the Soul Society, forcing Silas to make morally ambiguous choices while battling an inner darkness stemming from his own mysterious past.

32.77 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:32

Grow Legato

TrafficButter | psychological | Complete

500 years following the Nature-Nurture Fallout's resolution, humanity and nymphs continue to project the world into one where solar energy is the status quo, horticulture is booming, and, little by little, what is proclaimed to be global peace is on the horizon. Associated with the robotics firm Swiss Puppeteer Corps, which strives to advance the future of technology to higher heights, dryad Evie, a nymph bound to a pledge behind her cybernetic arm, spares time to reminisce. She ponders where she stood those years ago in the catastrophic war and what she works for now. Even in this Solarpunk utopia, Evie still seems to have doubts about herself. *This is a dialogue-heavy short story with a Solarpunk background, and

7.07 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 14:46

Poems From The Angels - Temporary Dying

mallorybingham | psychological | Complete

Why must I shoulder the weight of your body when your spirit mingles with the seraphs and light of the cosmos?

6.62 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 14:53

A pair of twins

collegewriter | psychological | On going

In the afternoon - at the very last rows of an asphalt staircase - I met them. Twins, everchanging between a perverse grin and a gorgeous smile.Then, a week later, I couldn't ever live without them.

4.52 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 15:10

The Only One: A Robotic Flash Fiction

Kaylie Night | psychological | Complete

It's cold. 39020 feels cold. He knows what that word means: "feel." According to his databases, it's not a word that should apply to him.

0.27 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 14:47

Local Minima

ringe | psychological | Complete

[Entry for the June Royal Road Community Magazine Contest] A prisoner named Gemmei is gifted a chance to put her life on a better track after being transferred to the Hibiya Correctional Complex, a lower security prison allegedly intended for less violent offenders. However even though the walls keeping her in are no longer visible, plenty of barriers are in the way that prevent Gemmei from returning to the world she once took for granted. Chief among them is the Houzou Hakkyou, a special tattoo every prisoner in the system receives that alters how they can think and feel through forced sedation. The curse the Hakkyou enforces ensures compliance and docility among the inmates, but as Gemmei finds out, cruelty is born from more than emotion alone.

22.43 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 16:06

The Mind Hack

Peter Summersby | psychological | Complete

Reality is defined by what we, see, hear and feel. What would happen if you are unable to tell the difference between what is real and fake? When a computer AI starts testing a virtual holographic system on two unsuspecting men, they must race to find a way out of the computer that is hacking their minds and attacking New York.Tolbert, a simple room attendant is unexpectedly caught up in a holographic projection. He must decide what is real and what is not. The fate of the world hangs in the balance, as aliens and monsters ravage the centre of New York. An army of raptors led by trolls engage an alien menace.Striker, a computer gamer and hacktivist notices that a fellow gamer is being attacked in the game and seeks to find out what is going on. He must find and shut down the cause of it all before the world he knows is destroyed forever.

13.38 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 18:50