Science Fiction. 3831 words long. First published in Asimov's, February 2006 Hugo Award Nominee

When man's emerging star-empire met that of the savage Cromanths, the alien hordes began a war of extinction against humankind. So overwhelming was their power that Earth's outposts and finally the Earth itself were utterly destroyed. But one starship managed to escape, carrying colonists toward some distant habitable planet, if such a place existed, and if the Cromanths didn't find them first. The mission was successful and the colony established. Mankind began to adapt to its new world, developed new abilities, and forgot much of its past on Earth. But then a Cromanth ship landed on the new planet—and the last remnants of humanity were in jeopardy once more. Could humankind somehow survive this savage new onslaught by the Cromanthian Empire? A first major SF novel by a modern master of the genre!

Issue #186 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Bruce McAllister and Tamara Vardomskaya.

Issue #167 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Bruce McAllister and C. Allegra Hawksmoor.

Dog by Bruce McAllister is a chilling horror story about a young American couple who encounter dogs in Mexico very unlike any domesticated variety north of the border and what happens. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

A strange young boy collects seashells. It’s his way of coping with constantly having to move because his father is in the Navy. The boy has thousands of shells, all cataloged with common name, scientific name, location found, etc. His parents has bought him a multitude of dressers to keep them in because they know he is a strange, special kid, and he needs this. He reenacts battles in his room(s) using the shells, with the Queen Conch being matriarch and a multitude of smaller whelks, clams, scallops and the like defending her. The story revolves around the boy relating the trials and tribulations of the Queen’s domain to his parents. Eventually, the boy begins to grow up, and school starts to normalize him. He makes friends and even meets a girl. But what of the Kingdom of the Ancient Sea? Read to find out. Bruce McAllister, born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1946, is a writer of fantasy and science fiction known primarily for his short fiction. Over the years his short stories have appeared in the major fantasy and science fiction magazines, theme anthologies, college readers and “year’s best” anthologies, including Best American Short Stories 2007 , guest-edited by Stephen King. His first novel was Humanity Prime , published by Ace Books in Terry Carr’s “Ace Specials” series. His second novel, Dream Baby (Tor, 1988), was based on the Hugo, Nebula and Locus-finalist novelette of the same name. He was away from writing in the 90’s, and returned to the field in 2003. His short story “Kin” was a 2006 Hugo finalist; in 2007 Golden Gryphon Press published a career-spanning collection of his short science fiction, The Girl Who Loved Animals and Other Stories . He lives in Costa Mesa, California with his wife, choreographer Amelie Hunter.