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Arenas's first work set in the United States breaks new ground with the story of a young Cuban refugee who becomes a doorman at a luxury apartment building. Oddly alienated from the tenants, he is seduced by their pets, who are determined to revolt against humans and human society.

The nobles of Aureity have been breeding their children for psychic powers for generations. Women's powers are mental, including psychic control and mind-reading, making them ideal rulers. Men have superhuman strength and can teleport to any place they have previously visited. Consequently, young noblemen make their fortune by competing in psychic gladiatorial contests to display their powers in the hope of being hired--and married--by women of high rank.

When Quirt, an older man with obvious skill but little known record, first enters the arena, the combat circuit is abuzz wondering who he might be. But his mystery is almost eclipsed by the young cub who has been entering competitions anonymously and winning them all. Barely in his teens, full of raw power but short on training or patience, Humate is so horrified when he's bested by Quirt that he insists on finding out where he came from.

Unfortunately for Humate, the answer reaches far beyond his birth: back to the terrible wrongs done to Quirt's mother and his new wife by one of Humate's relatives, and back to Quirt's sentencing, a doom which takes away his identity until he can bring the culprit to justice. Humate is in deep denial about this familial scandal generations deep, but Quirt must try to covince him to help, compelled by his doom and by the stirrings of a new love that cannot possibly be realized in his nameless condition.

No one ever said revenge was going to be easy.

A science fiction retelling of The Nutcracker.

The voyage from Earth to Petipa isn't cheap, but those who can't afford it can pay off the trip by working the farms of Eta, the fertile moon that feeds humanity's new colony. Klara Silber's parents paid their debt, but left her behind, in charge of the orchards and the android nutcrackers. She's sure if she follows their example, she'll earn her invitation to ascend the space elevator and join Petipa Colony in no time. Only, the android nutcrackers have been malfunctioning all season, and some of the other farmers have suddenly gone missing.

They were told Eta didn't have any native animal life, but the annual winter party is abuzz with rumors of large creatures lurking in the shadows. When one of the party guests inexplicably transforms into a giant rat and goes on the attack, Klara is sure the night can't get any stranger. That is, until a fairy-like creature who communicates through dance appears, and a whole hidden history unspools about how the humans conquered these alien lands. To prevent the nuts that caused the giant rat mutation from being sent to Petipa, Klara needs to get two very different communities to work in harmony, even if it means she may never earn her way to the colony.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, March 2013.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

A fast-paced and gripping near-future science fiction debut about the gritty world of competitive gaming...

Every week, Kali Ling fights to the death on national TV.
She's died hundreds of times. And it never gets easier...

The RAGE tournaments--the Virtual Gaming League's elite competition where the best gamers in the world compete in a no-holds-barred fight to the digital death. Every bloody kill is broadcast to millions. Every player is a modern gladiator--leading a life of ultimate fame, responsible only for entertaining the masses.

And though their weapons and armor are digital, the pain is real.

Chosen to be the first female captain in RAGE tournament history, Kali Ling is at the top of the world--until one of her teammates overdoses. Now, she must confront the truth about the tournament. Because it is much more than a game--and even in the real world, not everything is as it seems.

The VGL hides dark secrets. And the only way to change the rules is to fight from the inside...

Plug back into the dangerous world of virtual gaming, in the next thrilling novel from the author of Arena.

Kali Ling has faced down death hundreds of times for the entertainment of millions. She knows fear--and she knows what's truly terrifying...

There's a new game in town. A brutal, winner-takes-all, international video game tournament showcasing the world's most elite players, promising fame, prestige, and unbelievable fortune. But there's a catch. The game uses new VR pods guaranteed to push digital warriors to their physical and psychological brink--adapting every time a gamer makes a move.

As the first female captain and youngest team owner in VGL history, Kali is used to defying the odds. But as the all-star tournament heats up, her determination begins to waver and the pressures of media, sponsors, and the game itself begin to put cracks in her hard-set convictions--and strain on her relationship with the one person who matters most.

If Kali and her teammates are to survive, they'll have to find a way to be stronger than ever before. But battling the system may prove too difficult for even the most hardened of fighters...

This brilliant, readable synthesis of the history of mythology and the function it serves to humanity is the launch title of the groundbreaking publishing event, The Myths. "Human beings have always been mythmakers." So begins Karen Armstrong's concise yet compelling investigation into myth: what it is, how it has evolved, and why we still so desperately need it. She takes us from the Paleolithic period and the myths of the hunters right up to the "Great Western Transformation" of the last five hundred years and the discrediting of myth by science. The history of myth is the history of humanity, our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, which link us to our ancestors and each other. Myths help us make sense of the universe.

Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by authors from around the world, Armstrong's characteristically insightful and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense -- and explains why if we dismiss it, we do so at our peril.

In the ruins of Las Vegas, Ryan Cawdor enters the blood-soaked arena of regional barons to reclaim his son's life.

The nuclear firestorms had swept away the hatreds and the power struggles that had dominated the Earth for decades. But no hoped-for better reality was born in that blighted landscape. In a lawless and maddened world, blood and violence remained a means to survival -- and power.

In the harsh territory near what used to be the Western badlands, Ryan Cawdor and his crew join the search for the wreck of a crashed space station. But in the ruins of Las Vegas he falls prey to a maelstrom of violence. Hostage in a bitter war between regional barons, Ryan finds that even his best effort is an odds-even gamble, and that his son's life may depend on the whims of destiny.

Deathlands is a conspiracy against survival....

Join the Doctor on his travels and influence his adventures with your decisions. Will you explore the alien planet or get back in the TARDIS and travel to somewhere new? Choose a direction and let the adventure begin... "Arena" is one of four exciting new "Decide Your Destiny Doctor Who" books. Each page has two options for the reader to decide what happens next and each novel has several possible endings.

Never a man to leave something half done, Dray Prescot knows his task on the mysterious continent of Havilfar is far from complete. There are cruel conquerors to be overthrown, the pursuit of the manhounds and their masters to continue, and there is the dreaded arena. Can he survive the life of a gladiator against the killers and monsters of a spoiled queen while the Star Lords wait for his mission to continue?

It was supposed to be a simple test flight, one that pilot Ariane Austin was on only as a last-ditch backup; intelligent, superhumanly fast automation would handle the test activation and flight of humanity's first faster-than-light vessel. But when the Sandrisson Drive activated, every automated system crashed, the nuclear reactor itself shut down, and only the reflexes and training of a racing pilot saved the test vessel Holy Grail from crashing into the impossible wall that had appeared before them, a wall which is just part of a monstrous enclosure surrounding a space twenty thousand kilometers across. With all artificial intelligences inert and their reactor dead, they had to find some other source of power to reactivate the Sandrisson Drive and--hopefully--take them home.

And that was only the beginning. As Ariane, Dr. Simon Sandrisson, darkly enigmatic power engineer Marc C. DuQuesne, and the rest of the Holy Grail's crew explore the immense artifact, they discover that they are not alone; they have entered a place the alien inhabitants call "The Arena," and there is no way out without joining one of the alien factions... or winning recognition as a faction in their own right, playing by the Arena's rules - and by the Arena's rules, one failed challenge could mean death or worse - perhaps for the entire human race.

Surrounded by alien factions, each with its own secret plans and motivations, some wielding powers so strange as to be magical, Ariane sets out to beat the Arena at its own game. With DuQuesne's strategies, Sandrisson's genius, and her own unyielding determination, she's going to bring the Holy Grail home - even if she has to beat every faction in the Arena to do it!

Leader of the Faction of Humanity. It was a ridiculous title, but the Arena said that was what Captain Ariane Austin was since she'd led the crew of the Holy Grail in their discovery of the impossible, physics-violating place and their eventual return, and when the nigh-omnipotent Arena said something, it meant it.

Ariane must discover what it means to be the Leader of Humanity, both for herself and for humanity, before her enemies--at home or in the Arena--depose her, kill her, or worse. It will take all her luck, Marc DuQuesne's indomitable will, Simon Sandrisson's genius, and the peerless skill of a living legend. And, in the end, humanity's fate in the galaxy and beyond will hinge on the choice of an uncertain ally who has nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by aiding those neophyte upstarts, the humans.

The Arena: a vast alien otherspace that all species were forced to enter when they discovered faster-than-light travel. The Arena: where the lives of entire species might hang in the balance in a single Challenge. The Arena: filled with mysteries, alliances, betrayals, opportunities, and hideous dangers for individual and empire alike. And the only thing you couldn't do... was refuse to play the Arena's game.

Ariane Austin and her crew had learned these lessons the hard way, and--with luck, skill, and sheer will, had managed to survive so far. But now a debt of honor to Humanity's oldest, if sometimes self-serving, ally Orphan has come due. The threat of war looms with the xenophobic Molothos, one of the five Great Factions; the dark and omnipresent legacy of the Hyperion Experiment lingers. As Leader of the Faction of Humanity, Captain Ariane Austin had to deal with all of these problems, and deal with them soon. For within her was also the alien power that the Shadeweavers and the Faith had sealed away--with a seal that would not last forever. She needed to find a way to control that power before it broke free--or more than just Humanity would pay the price.

Now Ariane must travel with Orphan into the legendary Deeps of the Arena, far from any known Spheres--to a destination only the enigmatic alien knows, leaving behind one of her most trusted friends and advisors to confront whatever new trials the Arena may throw at Humanity in her absence.

But before Ariane can depart, she must deal with a minor matter of a Challenge against one of the Great Factions--a Challenge with an entire species' citizenship in the Arena at stake!

One thousand years in the future...

Two descendant races of humanity square off over their political differences as Sevolite Prince Amel's life hangs in the balance.

The neo-feudal Sevolites finally acknowledge the vulnerable but civilized people of the Reetion Confederacy as independent commoners.

The supposedly enlightened Reetions prove however, that they are far from being the harmless pacifists they claim to be -- this sophisticated society run by incorruptible Artificial Intelligence is prepared to do anything to ensure its own survival!