Showing results by author "Rob Shelsky" in All Categories

What happens when a man finds a water sprite in his kitchen sink? And worse, what if it has an agenda? For Harold, with a hangover from a Christmas party, this is exactly what happens. Worse, the sprite insists Santa has been "spirited" away by an evil Vila, and so must be saved. For Harold, the reluctant hero, and committed nonbeliever in fairy creatures, this is all just too a little too much.

A Super State, a bureaucratic monster that has swallowed its citizens' individual rights, and become a totalitarian society, a dystopia. When Stephen inadvertently says the wrong thing to a friend in private, he is marked out as a traitor. He and his family will undoubtedly end up in a concentration camp, unless they do something! Escape is their only alternative, but how? And where can one go? A suspenseful short story!

Ghosts, or something very like them, are about in Manhattan and they're causing trouble! Even worse, they're causing one love triangle in particular. What's a man to do when he must choose between his dead wife, and his living one? And what do his wives think about it all? The answers lie in Brane Drain, and inter-dimensional love story. A fantasy/science fiction short story.

A strange plague has caused the downfall of civilization. For Paul, this means a meager existence hunting, helping to feed a few survivors. One woman, Marilyn, he'd love to know better. But she's already taken by Greg. Paul, a loner, a man without hope, must watch from afar at night, as she and Greg make love, until one night when their eyes finally meet, and everything changes, but for the worse! This short story is adult-themed, and may not be suitable for minors.

For the English postgraduate, Ian, it all seemed so simple. All he had to do was create a working quantum computer. But Mama Doc, a voodoo shop owner in the New Orleans French Quarter, knew Ian was crossing the line. When does science stop being science and starts becoming magic? When quantum computers get involved, it seems. And for Mama Doc and Ian, her unwitting new Shiva, things were now getting very dangerous, indeed. A science fiction/fantasy short story.

A luxury space yacht owned by a trillionaire. A strange journey to an uninhabited solar system with an alien artifact, the Lost Beacon Of The Vanished. And a murder! Dame Naje Elpram must solve a baffling case. Someone was murdered, but the circumstances seem impossible. Dame Elpram must figure it out in this cozy murder mystery set in an alien asteroid belt, near the Lost Beacon Of The Vanished! A cozy, science fiction, murder mystery short story.

Verity, a sweeping tale of desperate love, dark intrigue, ship wreckers, smugglers and the enigmatic Lord Draken Hazelmere. Verity Beresford, pampered darling of Regency London, is forced by Lord Hazelmere to travel to the Devonshire coast, there to nurse an invalid uncle. Strange, evil events occur upon her arrival. Is Draken the culprit? If so, he will certainly hang. Can Verity save the man she so reluctantly loves? Original Title, Veracity In Truth. A slightly sensual Regency Romance.

A luxury star ship, lost in time and space. Then, at last, they find an earth-like planet, but it isn't quite as earth-like, as they had hoped! Strange and dangerous creatures abound. Just where have they ended up, and what should they do next? They have to decide fast, because time and supplies are running out! And unfortunately, the dangers they are in are not. One exciting short story!

Earth, locked into a degrading status quo by the Five Races, aliens determined to watch earth's civilization rot from within and collapse. But when Kavin Dubaire travels to the planet Tiartha, one of the few colonies allowed Earth, he makes a momentous and terrible discovery about the aliens. Then a new alien race appears on the scene and triggers a full-fledged interstellar war. For Kavin, Deidre von Holstead, and the whole human race, all bets are now off!

Earth is in a desperate battle against the alien Sinaquan and losing! The only hope is to send colonists to places the enemy isn't likely to look, marginal worlds, such as Viejo, with its migrant seas, and gas-giant neighbor, Prometheus. But when those colonists explore for a new base location, disaster strikes! The Sinaquan have found them. And their Serpent Caravan may have nowhere left to go...

Jupiter balloon beings willing to war with living spaceships, sentient computer minds, hive intelligences--an incredible array of aliens? No, just all new forms of humans. Most of these have one thing in common; the elimination of standard people by whatever means necessary. For Dinty and Jane, Earth's human diplomats on the space station, this is a life or death matter of planetary proportions! This is a modern space opera short story.

The world teeters on the brink of a nuclear holocaust. Time is running out. And for Roddy and Lacey, two physicists, their attempts to find an escape through a wormhole just aren't working. For some reason, they only open onto other universes already in the throes of nuclear anhiliation. Strange attractors are at work, but how and why? Lacey and Roddy must find the answers soon or die trying. A dark science fiction short story.

Grieving, wanting to die, an elderly Jenny escapes New York for a home in Florida. But nothing's changed. She's still desperately alone and in utter despair. Can she save herself? Why should she even try? That April Sunrise is a moving tale of one older woman's struggle to make sense of life, death, and an inconsolable grief. Can she do it? The answers lie in That April Sunrise. An inspirational short story of someone "coming alive" again.

Classic Space Opera! When Danny and Jennifer have a rooftop picnic, they've no idea the uninvited guests aren't ants, but rather a bug-eyed monster from outer space. The creature kidnaps and takes them far from Earth. Facing dissection, the two attempt escape, but this is no easy task. There are even more aliens. And not only Danny and Jennifer's lives hang in the balance, but all of Earth's! Set in the late 1940's, Author, Rob Shelsky, has created a new space opera classic, compared more than favorably to even Ed Hamilton's work by some.

Life on Mars was harsh, especially for a young monk burdened by the heavy hand of the all-powerful Quarantine Protectorate. Under its sway, civilization was collapsing. It hadn't always been so. Once, the great interstellar transceivers had kept humanity in contact with aliens, sharing knowledge. But no more. Could a mere novice discover why this was so and change things? And did he even dare try? A dark science fiction short story.

A practical joke and nothing more--until Richard accidentally raises a Red Flag. Dark forces, previously unaware of their existence, now are, and worse, nobody realizes it. What terrible thing has Richard's joke set in motion? Worse, who are the Gray Men, those shadowy figures whose anger Richard has inadvertently triggered. For Rachel, the answers are literally of life and death importance. A science fiction short story.

A humorous tale from a new Gay version of the Canterbury Tales? Author Kem Austin manages just this, and wonderfully, with his delightfully humorous and ribald story of The "Miller" And The Village Idiot, a rewrite of Chaucer's classic tale, only this time with a definitely Gay theme. For Donny, a slightly mentally impaired young man, life with his girlfriend, Sandra, isn't easy. She's abusive and mean, to say the very least. Her mother, Jenny, is no better. However, there is a third person in the house, Nigel, husband to Jenny, and stepfather to Sandra. He alone seems to genuinely care for...

The first star ship from Earth with hopes of making momentous discoveries during its deep-space explorations. But what the three lonely voyagers aboard the vessel find is of far greater importance than even they could have conceived of, or possibly imagined, for it may just answer the question of the "Great Silence" of the universe itself, but not in a way that anyone would have wished... A dark science fiction short story.

Lady Faith Heaton, a beautiful young aristocrat, dares to be "fallible" by violating class distinctions and falling in love with Giles, a handsome "commoner," and estate manager for Lord Draken Hazelmere. An angry aunt, one who controls the purse strings, the Lady Penelope Albright, will not have it. She determinedly whisks Faith away from Lord Draken Hazelemere's manor home, intent on putting as much distance as possible between Faith and Giles. However, instead of finding a safe haven, the two are kidnapped in famous Doone Valley at Robber's Bridge. The gang of brigands takes them to ...

For Jerrod, British ex-marine, a camping trip by the sea is interrupted one night by a strange event--the kidnapping of a woman. Now Jerrod must find out who she is, why this has happened. He must also figure some way to rescue her without getting them both killed in the process. When Jerrod discovers there is treasure hidden on barren and wind-swept Lundy Island, things get much more complicated! An adventure short story.