In a devilishly dark and funny debut, a teen finds himself the unwitting beneficiary of eight enslaved and angry ghosts seeking bloody vengeance.When Luke Manchett’s estranged father dies unexpectedly, he leaves his son a dark inheritance: a collection of eight restless spirits, known as his Host, who want revenge for their long enslavement. Once they figure out that Luke has no clue how to manage them, they become increasingly belligerent, and eventually mutiny. Halloween (the night when ghosts reach the height of their power) is fast approaching, and Luke knows his Host is planning something far more trick than treat. Armed with only his father’s indecipherable notes, a locked copy of The Book of Eight, and help from school outcast Elza Moss, Luke has just thirteen days to uncover the closely guarded secrets of black magic and send his unquiet spirits to their eternal rest—or join their ghostly ranks himself.

In a futuristic society run by an all-powerful Gov, a bender teen on the cusp of adulthood has choices to make that will change her life—and maybe the world.Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? people ask, and Kivali isn’t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? Now she’s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she’s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider. But she has a gift—the power to enter a trancelike state to harness the “knowings” inside her. She has Lizard Radio. Will it be enough to save her? A coming-of-age story rich in friendships and the shattering emotions of first love, this deeply felt novel will resonate with teens just emerging as adults in a sometimes hostile world.

Master storyteller Todd Strasser reimagines the classic tale of Moby Dick as set in the future—and takes readers on an epic sci-fi adventure.When seventeen-year-old Ishmael wakes up from stasis aboard the Pequod, he is amazed by how different this planet is from the dirty, dying, Shroud-covered Earth he left behind. But Ishmael isn’t on Cretacea to marvel at the fresh air, sunshine, and endless blue ocean. He’s here to work, risking his life to hunt down great ocean-dwelling beasts to harvest and send back to the resource-depleted Earth. Even though easy prey abounds, time and again the chase boat crews are ordered to ignore it in order to pursue the elusive Great Terrafin. It’s rumored that the ship’s captain, Ahab, lost his leg to the beast years ago, and that he’s now consumed by revenge. But there may be more to Captain Ahab’s obsession. Dark secrets and dangerous exploits swirl around the pursuit of the beast, and Ishmael must do his best to survive—if he can.

Antale (pronounced An-tal-ee) is an allegory. Written in the tradition of Animal Farm, though with no political message, it explores humanity's challenge at the start of the 21st century to find the collective spiritual enlightenment that has eluded us through the millennia of known history. Antale is the world of the ants. It is a delicate, precious place-a crater world surrounded by the vastness of the Rim, an endless expanse of desolate rock across which faint signals of intelligence reach in tantalizing, mysterious wavelengths, detectable by listeners on Mount Opportunity. Antale is not a peaceful world, though several leaders of its major colonies have dedicated their lives to creating a peaceful federation. These efforts fall apart when aggression and treachery spearheaded by the Red Ants plunge the whole world into a Great War. This conflict rages through most of the first year of the three year period covered by the story. In the second year, when wisdom should have grown out of experience, an uneasy tension envelops the collective consciousness. Technology and expansionism begin to push the ant civilization to its limits. A probe sent across the Rim looking for guidance from beyond the known world, is lost. The one dim light of hope lies in a bold attempt to raise a new generation filled with a new consciousness, born in the whisperings of the universal life force carried through the biology of the Queens in the great brood chambers of the nests. In Year 3, the world of Antale is pushed to the brink of collapse as social folly and natural order exact an unremitting toll. A message from beyond the Rim confirms that consciousness alone contains the life force of the future. This message arrives just in time to strengthen the fledgling spiritual renaissance that steps forward at the end into its rightful place, and allows the crumbling leadership of the old order to find new light. Commentary It might well be asked: Why write an allegory using the social systems of ants to illuminate the human condition? The answer is that it sheds a light with greater resolution, in much the same way as a halogen lamp provides clearer illumination than its incandescent counterpart. Judiciously used, the allegorical format gives greater freedom to the writer-and reader-to see and understand life at a deeper level than the analytical, deeper even than the traditional conventions of literary fiction permit. Why ants? Because their social behaviour so much parallels our own. One need take only a very little license to achieve a telling effect. Beyond its carefully measured message, Antale is a crackling good story, moving along swiftly through tension filled events created by the highs and lows of characters whose predispositions to greatness and folly are readily recognizable. In this one short text the remarkable events of the century just ended, and the great potential of the one now beginning, come alive in a way as fresh as only human imagination can make them.