2020 Derby Books
GameLit
LitRPG
Aether Online sounded like Alex’s dream. Now, it’s his nightmare.
Cheating his way to the head of the line, Alex is one of the first to play Aether Online, the world’s first full immersion VRMMO. Alex quickly learns that once you’re in, you can’t get out.
Trapped in the Aether Lands, Alex must become an Aether Knight to survive. Struggling in a world under siege, Alex must learn to fulfil his new role, hunting the deadly machine beasts known as Machina for parts. Every kill brings him new materials, new equipment to forge, each beast slain making Alex more powerful.
Hunting monsters is only the first step. Alex must gather allies and master the mysterious powers of the Aether if he ever hopes of getting home
Mystery
Urban Fantasy
Horror
Set in the 90’s in the Midwest a young man tries to grapple with his traumatic past and find out what really happened to his mother all those years ago.
Find the book here!Mystery
Urban Fantasy
Horror
The Rook legacy: duty at all Costs. Regina’s family are the last living members after a long line of magical families. Their heritage is a promise to the world; they can be trusted to keep magic from corrupting power hungry witches — In doing so they keep an unearthly evil from crushing humanity.
When Regina Rook’s mother dies a sudden, violent death, the living coven members come from around the world to attend the funeral, and begin breathing down her neck as next in line to lead. Trying to find a balance between her own goals and her family’s demands, all the while keeping her recent nightmares hidden where she becomes the very thing they fighting.
But when those things become intertwined, can she do anything but watch as the world around her crumbles to ancient horrors?
Science Fiction
McCallister was done with the galaxy. The galaxy wasn’t quite done with him.
When the Tamani blew a hole in his ship, his friend, and his career, Richard McCallister called it quits. No more TerraCorp work. No more cheerfully donning the uniform and pretending he couldn’t see the cracks in the bulkheads around him. From that moment, he’d be his own man again.
Until the message came – a whisper, carried through the few contacts he had left to the Dust, the farthest reaches of settled space. A warning that the Tamani had returned.
When it arrives, McCallister is presented with a choice: He can run, hiding in a darker corner of the universe that the Tamani haven’t found yet. He can stay moving, and stay alive. Or he can turn back, straight into the maw of their approaching doom, and pluck his friend’s legacy from its teeth.
Winning means honoring his partner’s memory. Losing means sharing his fate.
The choice is his.
Mystery
Urban Fantasy
Horror
They’re late.
Dark Mistress Elizabel sent her imps for a simple job. Once completed, it should’ve been a quick drive back to the hideout. Key word- should’ve. When they return, hours after they were expected, she is not amused.
In a desperate attempt to pin one another for the tardiness, they fall over themselves trying to explain. As they launch into a tale of explosions, and dinosaurs, the truth is crazier than fiction. Because in the end, only one thing matters.
Who will face Elizabel’s wrath?
Science Fiction
He became a Pilot to protect humanity. Little did he know what the cost of it would be.
Through the miracle of cybernetics, humans can control technology as if it were an extension of themselves. After an apparent accident, he finds himself dragged before Doctor Knight – the technology’s creator. She offers him power and wealth beyond his wildest dreams, in exchange for being remade into a weapon in humanity’s war against its alien enemies.
But Doctor Knight has darker plans in mind. The Pilot finds his humanity being whittled away by her experiments. He may be able to save humanity, but will he be able to save himself?
Mystery
Urban Fantasy
Horror
Who would have thought that a single photograph would be so dangerous?
Photofest. The ultimate photography convention. Not only is Seddy finally able to attend, but this year, it is being held in the city for which she was named. And she cannot wait.
No sooner does she check into the conference when a murder interrupts her night on the town with a new friend. Shaken, Seddy just wants to put the incident behind her.
But someone has other ideas. After attending her first day of workshops, Seddy discovers her hotel room has been ransacked. Her new love interest seems very eager to help her while the local detective keeps asking her questions about her camera. To make matters worse, the chief of police keeps giving her strange looks.
And then someone tries to kill her.
As she works out whom she can trust, Seddy realizes she may hold the one piece of evidence that could help solve the mystery.
Science Fiction
Holland has been scavenging the desert for years, pulling treasures from the wrecks of starships. They’re drawn to the planet by the dozens, thrown into the sky and forced to crash by an ancient, inscrutable satellite network. All he can say is it’s called the Well.
Ripped from cryo and into the fringes of civilization, Silvea has little idea of how to survive. There’s no way off-planet, no rescue coming, and nothing to do but get comfortable. This has happened before and will happen, save for one small detail. The ship she crashed on held royalty.
And it was split in half.
Now the pair must make a mad dash to the bridge in the hopes of retrieving the royal’s companion AI. Through miles of sand, ancient wrecks, and fleets of vicious pirates. All worth the risk for something so powerful. But they can’t be the only ones who see this opportunity.
Things older than gods lurk within the scrap.
Fantasy
It’s not every day that a vengeful god lays claim to your soul.
When Emlyn Graves woke up that morning, he thought he’d be doing what he always did: working the land, drinking at the inn, and warding off the agents of the tyrannical local baron.
But when his soul is corrupted by a new dark master, Emlyn is forced to use his god’s gifts to survive… and to fulfill a prophecy with the potential to change the world forever.
Emlyn’s choice is simple: embrace an eternity of infernal torment, or accept his fate, and become the worst kind of hero imaginable.
Science Fiction
Breaking News: Confessions of the Supervillain Mask the Technopath!
In an exclusive scoop, the Daily Messenger has acquired the transcript of the infamous Technopath’s interview with the Power Defense Authority upon her initial capture after the August 19th terrorist incident in downtown Mayson.
Among the shocking revelations in the transcript is allusions to the PDA knowing of her villainous sire, on-going abuse of the children of Masks and accusations of terrorism and collusion against Mordant Technologies.
For full details, just subscribe to the Daily Messenger within!
Science Fiction
When Dr. Julian Blake joined the fight against the Immortals, he never expected his death to be the greatest weapon against them.
The fighting has not gone well. The enemy, ancient beings who sacrificed their eternal souls for immortality, are closing in on AngelThana, an independent military organization standing alone between Earth and the ever-encroaching, unstoppable Immortals. After an attack frees a captive Immortal, it becomes clear that AngelThana needs to switch tactics.
Enter Julian Blake, one of the dozens of scientists hired to devise a solution.
Julian never would have guessed that his obsessions with death and the afterlife would have landed him here. Nor would he have guessed that they would have led to his death. He certainly wouldn’t have guessed that these passions could have brought him back. But after finding himself floating peacefully down the river between life and death, Julian can’t help but explore. After all, it’s the end of his life. It’s a chance that only comes around once.
This curiosity leads Julian astray, off the edge of the river and back to Earth. Alive again, and permanently so, Julian’s going to need every life he can spare as he finds himself branded an enemy by all but a small group of insurgents within AngelThana. They’ll need to work together if Julian is going to have any chance of saving the Earth, defeating the Immortals, and hopefully find a way to save his damned soul in the process.
GameLit
LitRPG
A home, a family. Lies and resentment. To save the future he must reclaim his past.
Enjoying his retirement. Ryan has everything. The perfect wife, a daughter he adores and all the time in the world. Yet, with dinner burning on the stove and his wife late home from work, two visitors appear bringing dire news and a quest he can’t refuse.
Dragged back to a universe and a life Ryan did everything to escape, he must secretly hunt out survivors and friends all while training for the fight of his life.
Where brutality and pain were all Ryan ever knew, now he must inspire and heal. The collision of two worlds draws ever closer and if he can’t claim what was once his, all is lost.
Fantasy
The ignorance of light is comforting, but the truth lies in the shadows cast.
Syev Mekanto, anthropologist at the University of Ensa, wants nothing more than to explore the world like the luminaries before her. When she is offered the position of Chronicler on the Wavebreaker, greatest ship ever built by human hands, she leaps at the chance to serve the Empire of the Sun doing what she loves. She will record the voyage to the newly discovered Isle of Sixis, and her findings will determine whether Sixis is a friend—or a threat.
Not everything is as it seems, though. Mere days after leaving the port of Ensa, the ship is attacked by saboteurs and then a monstrous god of the sea, leaving them scrambling to remain afloat under the immense weight of their mission’s gravity. Meanwhile, Syev is forced to confront the lie she has been fed for her entire life.
The spreading of the Empire is not so innocent
Science Fiction
Dystopian AI overlords suck. Especially when they’re really just glorified school counsellors, everybody loves them and they’re not actual overlords at all!
Taylor did not look forward to her Journey. Everybody kept saying how the amazing Virtual Reality experience would change her view on artificial intelligences and land her with the knowledge of exactly what the perfect future and dream job would look like for her.
Taylor was not so sure. She was certain of one thing, however. She would teach this annoying oversized toaster that she was going to be the only one to decide her own future – at any cost. Except for money. She was, like, really broke.
Fantasy
The magic of the Green runs deep, in its woods and the animals that live there, but also in the streams and towns that border it. But when that magic itself is threatened, the Green cannot respond on its own. Instead, it chooses Defenders to act on its behalf.
Talindra Baclan was on her first patrol as part of the force that guards Dewport when a mysterious man appeared from the Green and informed her that she had been chosen. Accompanied by Halisa and Reir, who were part of Tally’s first patrol, they must find who or what is threatening the Green, as well as how to defeat it. But it’s not as simple as shooting a few targets.
Will Tally and her friends be able to stop the toxin in time to save the Green and their hometown? Or will it spread faster than they find its source and destroy everything they hold dear?
Fantasy
“Sparks fly. The sea boils. There is a hiss of steam and then silence, and it is the perfect night to drown…”
Rasta awakens in the middle of the sea, drowning. He has no memories, no family, and deep scorch marks running across his chest. The young elf is battered, weak, and hopeless. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, Rasta fights a losing battle for survival.
But all that is about to change when Rasta discovers one who can restore his memories—the wraith of the water—a timeless horror from a forgotten age. In his quest to reach her, he discovers not only friends, family, and hidden magic all around him, but a great destiny that’s been waiting for him… If Rasta can survive the encounter.
GameLit
LitRPG
Life can be confusing after highschool – and that’s before the interdimensional travel. While on his last summer break before college, Alec finds himself chasing after floating motes of light. The transfixed youth stumbles into a filled-to-bursting leyline that was more than happy to use him to vent. Transported to the unnatural world of Leyrock, he is forced to learn about the energy its residents harness in their daily lives. With the help of the device the trip infused to his arm, he struggles to refine his abilities. If he hopes to find a way home before his origin is discovered, he’ll need to embrace his role as a Candela Fluxer and head beyond the protection of town. To survive, he must cultivate where the light gathers.
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