Science Fiction

Love them or hate them, without a good villain, a story is missing a vital piece of its puzzle. These authors tackle the often misunderstood and misguided antagonist from their perspective. Though we'd be remiss if we didn't allow for evil for the sake of evil, because who doesn't love a 'good' Big Baddie. Come along as we explore the other side of the story and see just what makes these character ...

An Impossible Promise...A Remarkable Discovery...A Decision for Mankind... When Ryan Webster is summoned to a Miami hospice by his dying grandfather, he knows his hero's life is about to end. A renowned zoologist and founder of the world's most famous primate park, his grandfather tells Ryan about a remarkable species of monkey kept secret by the Webster men since their discovery in 1926, the year ...

If you're fighting immortals who always get back up, you'd better have a way to do the same thing. Otherwise, it's lights out... When you're a soldier genetically enhanced to the point of near immortality and you fight a mortal soldier resurrected with the pilfered blood of your people, friendship never enters the equation. But what if the enemy you despise holds the key to your salvation?

He’s loved her for so long, and she’s ignored him all along. When disaster strikes, will he lose his life to keep her alive?

Young and ambitious Earmon has climbed up the ladder in Levitor city to become the Queen’s topmost advisor. He seems to have everything he’s dreamt of but for one thing: princess Zenithia’s love.

When he witnesses an intruder inside the city and decides to ...

In 1632, Lord August Godwine, an Austrian nobleman, commissions Swiss clockmaker Frederick Jori to create a miniature city of automatons to amuse himself and impress the aristocracy. When Jori refuses to commit offenses against God, he undergoes brutal, unimaginable torture until the once-pious craftsman surrenders to his fate. But what he hides in the innocuous-appearing automatons ignites a horr ...

Christine Stewart is a regular woman just doing her job when she gets stranded in history. When she gets up for the day her plan is simple: wake up and head off to work, traveling to Oklahoma in 1867 to deport a cyber-criminal. After work, it's back to 2070 Los Angeles to prepare for a vacation with her son, Michael. That's the plan. Then the system fails, leaving Christine stranded hundreds of ye ...

The Dark Age, eastern Europe: the earth has decided to rid itself of humanity with earthquakes, volcanoes and new plagues. Civilizations, even the mighty Roman Empire, crumble under the pressure of barbarian waves that are fleeing worse terrors. Rejected by his own people, pursued by a dragon, young Javor heads for Constantinople, the centre of civilization, looking for answers to the puzzle of hi ...

Battle for Earth is an imaginative mix of Sci-fi and Fantasy with plenty of action. Earth has been invaded by alien monsters. Shockwave is an elite special forces team, a diverse group of individuals with unique capabilities. Shockwave is a fitting name for our best hope to overcome the invaders and the dark powers that stand behind them. Even action meant for evil can have a good outcome. A divid ...

Stella Jayne Walsh, New York City’s top-rated trauma surgeon, holds an astounding record. She’s never lost a patient—until the day she does. In that moment, her world shatters, and she’s swept into an adventure that launches her from Manhattan into alien worlds in the far reaches of space. John Ryder Alexander is a handsome rogue and one of the most decorated soldiers in the galaxy—until he turns ...

The inventor of augmented/virtual reality glasses used all over the world, Oreste Pax, is working on a brain-computer interface he believes will revolutionize human cognition. However, a massive computer virus attacking the Internet of Things threatens to destroy civilization first. Pax is forced into an encounter with Alethia, the brilliant leader of a mysterious society possessing technology far ...

When Coralie Frazer arrives at Nimbus Station aboard the National Space Research Council starship Triumph, it’s not as the engineer she expected to be. Light-years and several wormhole jumps from Earth, she’s now the prisoner of her former crew, and they want nothing from her but the blood that keeps them alive. When she’s granted a sliver of unexpected freedom, she jumps at the chance to escape—b ...

They have awoken as far away from home as it ever gets…

Laura and Jason Sinclair did not want to be transported from Earth, but their alien hosts have plans to take them even further beyond their comfort zone.

They are on a space station, orbiting a mysterious planet in a strange new galaxy. And they must battle for the future of a group of humans who are being ...

The oceans are dying. In an effort to provide sustainable tuna stocks, genetically engineered humans have been reconfigured to live at sea, using dolphins to herd large tuna schools. Olga is one of these shepherds. Independent fisherman are having a hard time catching fish and Toivo is among the best because he has a pair of dolphins that he talks to and they help locate fish for him. Troubles eru ...

Teen superhero, Starrella, and her flying horse combat vicious killers in the skies of Atalanta. The quiet summer before her freshman year turns frighteningly weird after Estelle Wright trespasses onto an Army base. Blown into the air and knocked unconscious, she wakes with a nascent superpower. Not to mention a winged horse with a snarky attitude and a mind of her own. Back home in Atalanta, a se ...

A farmgirl in space. Fulfilling her mom’s dying wish, Maisy goes to live with her dad on the Citadel, a fancy name for an ore processing plant built into the side of an asteroid. There she discovers the terrible truth… Space is boring. No alien princesses, no cool cyborgs. Just a greedy corporation that controls everything from the food you eat to the air you breathe. Welcome to the Citadel. Just ...

Genetic Engineering. Intrigue. Space Exploration. Perfect for fans of Enders Game, Brave New World, and Divergent. Earth is dying, circling the drain on life support. The future of the human race depends on finding a new homeworld, but they’re running out of time. Parasitic insects are systematically killing the best scientific minds but no one knows why. Mable Wilkinson is the last hope to figure ...

"I and my 2,883 sisters, brothers, and half-siblings are heirs to some of the richest families in the world. We are also genetically engineered freaks..." — Allison Kemp, Foundation Heir.

Allison faces the challenge of a lifetime when she and those she loves are targeted by RealHuman, a cult determined to protect the human race from the rise of a genetically engineered species. Being we ...

\"WHAT AN AMAZING ACTION PACKED THRILLER OF A BOOK SET IN A WORLD THAT YOU CAN EASILY IMAGINE AS OUR FUTURE.\" -Amazon Reader Along the lines of City of Ember meets CW’s The 100, this story will capture your heart and still won’t let go...even at the end. Written in part while listening to Outside by Ellie Goulding, this story contrasts technology to nature, rich to poor, privilege to hardship, li ...

Blurb: What if ISIS had biological weapons? This nightmare scenario was published in Germs of War first in 1999, which predicted 9/11. A fast-paced amalgamation of science, international intrigue with rogue CIA agents battling terrorists, and politics. And a lonely student who can thwart it all. Will she be able to?

After Mike goes through a gut-wrenching betrayal by his fiancée, he finds himself in what he thinks might be the afterlife. But this is no heaven. The gods made a mistake and created another Earth in a parallel universe, putting both universes in peril. They need someone from his planet to destroy the alternate, and Mike is randomly selected for the job. Trapped in an impossible choice, Mike accep ...

I’m a doctor, not a fighter. Too bad in my town being a doctor means conscription to the frontline. War? What war? I’m not talking about war—I’m talking about the gangs. They swept into our town and took over, leaving violence in their wake. Some people think we’re better off with armed men patrolling the streets and the corrupt mayor locked up in his pretty mansion, but they don’t see what I s ...

An Epic Science Fiction/Fantasy Adventure With A Supernatural Edge.

Prosperine didn't have an extinction event, so intelligent life on the planet evolved unlike any other in our galaxy. The inhabitants look human—more or less—though they do hatch from eggs. It comes as a shock, then, when one of the locals is reported to be performing miracles.

The Alien Corps ...

On her world, they call her star struck, but why do the stars beckon her so … On a mining outpost in the Inner Worlds, a young woman dreams of the stars. When she falls in with a motley crew of bounty hunters seeking to avenge an injustice, Novi believes her dreams have come true. But her journey has just begun. Led by the only man to bring the mightiest army in the sector to its knees, the crew i ...

Wilda Firestone thrives on coffee and snark. Outfitting agents for time travel vacations is her craft, but she thought her days of leaping through epochs were behind her. However, when acts of sabotage point towards moles in the agency, the weight of time rests on her seasoned shoulders. With the gravitas of her profession and a bit of reluctance, Wilda navigates the mystique of medieval Irelan ...

Experience the gripping adventures of Axel Nash in No Grave for Heroes. If you're a fan of journeying to the stars in thrilling space operas, this is the series you’ve been waiting for! An aging veteran of the first Solar War, Axel is reduced to living in the shadows to avoid arrest by the war crimes commission for a crime he didn’t commit. To get by, he lives as a scoundrel for hire. But when an ...

The Slythonians are an alien race well know for capturing the best female breeders in the galaxy.

Extinction is a cruel and very real possibility, As the Zuvrakian alien warrior race is running out of time. Lord Asgar and his crew have searched the galaxies far and wide looking for an answer ti their world'a fast decreasing population. After another failed attempt at fi ...

A manned, interstellar survey ship has gone missing. A nuclear terror plot is thwarted just outside Washington, D.C. And it’s an election year. Mandisa “Mandi” Nkosi is a young reporter who, while on a trip to Johannesburg to connect with her roots, is contacted by an anonymous source with evidence that material seized from a nuclear terror plot will point squarely at one of huma ...

Chimera Island. For more than a century, the tiny atoll has been the subject of legend and rumors. Mysterious sightings. Strange deaths. Unexplained disappearances. A transport plane sent to Chimera to evacuate frightened scientists from a climate research station on the island disappears, along with a Chinese spy ship prowling nearby waters. The U.S. Coast Guard sends its most secret team to inve ...

When an immortal relocates to the Tarthian Empire, where should they go first? What places should they avoid? More importantly, who should they avoid? A tongue-in-cheek look at what relocating to the Tarthian Empire would be like for the immortals in books by Kayelle Allen. A bit of fiction, written in a non-fiction way, the book offers guidance from Joss Avaton, one of the immortals. She prov ...

Logan West and Emma James grew up together but are now high school seniors going in totally opposite directions after graduation. When they are assigned to work together on one last history project, they hardly expect the monotony of high school life to change. Instead, as they decode a series of unexplained clues hidden within their history project itself, Logan and Emma manage to unfold an ancie ...

With his career threatened and his life at risk, Wulf must seek help from the one man he swore he would never trust again, Luc Saint-Cyr, a.k.a. the Harbinger. An enigmatic man whose legendary power makes him the most feared person in the empire. For the Harbinger, saving Wulf is a simple matter of asserting his will. Luc's ties to the Thieves' Guild grant him access anywhere. He can protect Wulf ...

After fifteen years, the intelligent computer Julius returns. Earth’s survivors have learned to live with their celestial neighbors. Julius has worked to gain enough resources to end all threats to his existence: Joan and Tom Herl, SiMPOC, and the remaining humans.

"VERY WELL WRITTEN! SO HARD TO PUT DOWN!" -Amazon Reviewer "WOW, WOW, WOW! NOTHING SHORT OF GREAT!" -Amazon Reviewer Set in the robot cyberpunk year 2055 in British Columbia, Canada, where humans are part robotic and robots are becoming more humanlike, the line dividing the two is becoming less clear. When the nation is controlled by a popular online program, those that deviate risk their lives. B ...

For fans of "Dune", "Ender's Game", and "Star Wars" comes a new character-driven space opera... Cris Sietinen, heir to the most influential High Dynasty in the Taran empire, was born with rare telekinetic gifts--abilities he refuses to ignore, regardless of the governing Priesthood's decrees. Determined to be true to himself, and test the limits of his abilities, Cris escapes his stifled life of b ...

A Five-Star Reader's Favorite! After her brother takes his own life, Wrenn Jodh’s life unravels. With nothing left of him but a pair of journals she can’t bear to read, Wrenn retreats to the stability of her job as an aid worker for Kohath’s refugees. On the way, she finds herself thrown together with Caed, a steely-eyed security officer with a sketchy past, a gift for languages, and a talent ...

“It’s so hot, what is going on. Is it even humanly possible to sweat this much?” Oh, but the temperature is just perfect “Who is that? Wait, you can hear my thoughts? Where am I?” As I open my eyes, I realize I’m not on my bed or even in my room where I should be after coming home late last night. “Or did I not make it home? This is definitely not earth” I said to myself as I looked around and too ...

'The moon was no longer a barren on-looker, it was a destination.' In 2065, a resurgence in space exploration, mainly driven by tourism has seen Earth benefit in many ways. But with private money steering progress in a commercial direction, mistakes were made, none worse than the Europa Space Orbiter incident. The enigmatic entrepreneur, James Healey the Third, sees a business opportunity - he wou ...

The generational fleet was supposed to land on a new world in eighty years. Eleven planets and four hundred years later, they finally found a home. The only problem is something already lives there, and it's big. Agetha and her husband Daved have lived in zero-G in the fleet their whole short lives. Now they are thrown into turmoil as the fleet lands, surrounded by a vibrant biomass consisting of ...

In the dusty ruins of the world, three groups exist: the Sovereign, the Fortis, and the Outliers. Within their walled city, exclusive access to the only remaining technology gives the Sovereign an advantage that seems impossible to beat. In exchange for meager scraps and free reign outside the walls, they use the brawn of the Fortis to their advantage while the Outliers struggle to survive. Living ...

No matter where the watch hands turn, she’d rather remain home. But with every time-traveling trekker’s life at stake, can she stop a deadly clock? Wilda Firestone survives off black coffee and white-hot sarcasm. And despite the colorful slew of characters filing through her time tourism costume shop, the retired First Nations Temporal Agent would prefer a quiet, more linear existence. So she’s le ...

A collection of 8 Science Fiction stories from the future What do robot apocalypses, existence-ending devices, fractured time, and a sentient single-celled species have in common? The Institute Investigative journalist, [REDACTED], spent a year stealing secret documents from The Institute's scientific think-tank in [REDACTED]. These files will leave you awed and terrified.

All Jawk has to do is seduce Luc, the most powerful man in the empire. And then betray him. Easy mission. Until he discovers that Luc has a heart... Jawk spies on the enigmatic Luc Saint-Cyr, known empire-wide as the Harbinger. People who cross "the Man" tend to disappear. Undercover as a waiter in Luc's favorite haunt, Jawk gets a break when Luc seeks to hire him for a one-night ménage with his c ...

Only one obstacle stands in his way of enjoying a normal life. He remembers—every life he's lived before. Tres is about to be born... with the biggest burden any has ever had to bear. He is beginning again—as an ageless adult trapped in an infant body. He and his teenage mother face life filled with extraordinary challenges as they strive to protect, nurture, and hide how truly different he is. Bu ...

24 October 2114: the day that shocked the world. Young diplomat Cory Wilson narrowly escapes death in the assassination of President Sirkonen. No one claims responsibility but there is no doubt that the attack is extraterrestrial. Cory was meant to start work as a representative to Gamra, the alien organisation that governs the FTL transport network, but now his new job may well be scrapped in ang ...

Kaleidoscope is back with 13 more tales from members of the LBGTQ+ community. These authors bring their unique perspectives to realms of Fantasy and SciFi with stories that will make you laugh, make you cry, and most certainly - make you think. Come along to experience these wonderful voices as you read about haunted places, unearthly horrors, magic, artificial life, and learn about love and accep ...

A stimulating and sometimes dangerous romp through unknown space by a teenaged girl, who must also deal with her mother’s injury, a demanding toddler, and an alien pet that seems always to be somewhere he’s not supposed to be. Iris Demming, her mom and little brother, with their alien pet, Omni, are on the way to the Moon when they’re suddenly swept into a wormhole, and emerge in unfamiliar space ...

In a war torn world, one soldier rises above the ashes to take the fight to the enemy. As the cities of New Glasgow lay largely in ruins, Sergeant Rachel Duncan leads her squad against the mechanized iron fist of the Federated Union of Planets. Short on men and materials, the odds are against them. Help is coming from other planets but with nothing left but strong willed determination, will they b ...

From out of the post-apocalyptic ashes of a dead Earth, 200 people placed into hibernation are sent into space to keep the last of humanity alive. Three thousand years later, the sole survivor of that starship awakens into the post-apocalyptic world of the planet of his birth --A New Science Fiction/Fantasy from the Author of the best selling Tales of Nevaeh series. WARLORD: Arrival, Journal 1 of ...

Prevent a stellar civil war... or die trying. When Captain Kira Elsar comes face-to-face with a military assault mech inside a civilian research lab, it’s abundantly clear that MTech is up to no good. Illegal alien nanotech experimentation. Clandestine political dealings. Disappearances. Connections all trace back to MTech’s newest research lab on Kira’s homeworld. As the Tararian Guard’s sole tel ...

Some got the gift; some didn’t. And then there were those who saw it as a threat. The gift was an unexpected side effect of Dr. Zworsky’s now banned vaccine, which was created for a generation of children who developed antibiotic resistance. They were known as the Metachromes: humans who could fly. Darlene Verity never enjoyed the attention she got as a Meta. But she never thought those who labele ...

2047. Tiny pockets of humanity remain, scattered, and struggling. Civilization has fallen. The Vista has remained isolated since World War Last, a generation earlier, its survivors content with what they have. Their children yearn for the knowledge of the outside world. That knowledge could make their lives less perilous, or it could destroy them. The Vista: Book 1 of The Wildblood introduces Team ...

This thrilling science fiction adventure follows a family of innocent botanists as they find themselves in the middle of a dangerous drug war on an alien planet. When Rupert, Aire, and Clan members Sesuna and teenage Selick, along with their companion, the Dactyl Pelcon, come to Trellya to negotiate the purchase of plants, they are unaware of the danger that awaits them. Teenage Selick wants to me ...

Ivy lived a normal life. She knew about the Capes, but she never thought she’d get the chance to join them. Now her Fate Gene is active, and the voices in her head tell her everything will be alright. After all, she’s like them. On the other side of the superheroes lies The Control, a branch of the World Government where Lochlan, an android Agent, is rapidly rising through the ranks. They recruit ...

A collection of tantalizing tales with more twists than braided hair:

Mystery, murder and mayhem – plus a moment of romance.

Sympathize with a doomed husband and connect with an altruistic robot. Explore an isolated Scottish isle and touch down on a far-flung asteroid.

From the light-hearted to the darkest depths of the human psych ...

John is an unassuming but talented high school sophomore who finds a strange object while walking in the woods one quiet Sunday morning. There, catching beams of sunlight shining through the trees is an alien object! The object is a Kinetic Assistant Disk, or KAD. It’s smooth, silver, and about the size of a hockey puck. And John soon learns that it can be dangerous, too!
Although barely able ...

★Winner of the Houston Writer's House Competition★ Seven survivors. One monster. Nowhere to hide. Mission Specialist Adán Fuentes awakes from cryo-hibernation to discover that most of his fellow crewmates are dead and the shuttle Carpathia is not where it’s supposed to be. Surrounded by a vast barren landscape, he and the other survivors wonder how they can accomplish their mission, to establish a ...

ACTION PACKED space battles against a corrupt government and a malevolent alien presence. Jamie Hawkins was living on an obscure planet in the twenty third-century when on one fateful night--his life changed forever. His heroic effort to save the lives of women and children, caught in the cross-fire of war, placed him squarely in the cross-hairs of avenging soldiers. Hawkins was stunned when his r ...

Once part of the Tokyo elite, Wen Harkwell lost his status when his mother died, and now he’s forced to labor in the depths of the city, far from the easy life of the Heights, struggling to support his thirteen-year-old brother Sammy. By day he toils in a factory and by night he digs for scrap in the infamous Heap under the city. One night Wen is drawn to an old book he finds and risks taking it h ...

"Conflicts with alien races are given enormous depth in this engrossingly written science fiction novel." ~Forewords Clarion Reviews Roswell. Area 51. The X-Files. You've seen the aliens known as "the Greys" in movies and on T.V. But what if everything you think you know about them is wrong? And what if the Greys are only the beginning? On a nondescript planet on the far side of the galaxy, the M' ...

A desert wasteland. Mutant life-forms. Humans on the verge of extinction. Teenagers Don and Janet run off to California to start a new life together. Along the way, they find themselves in a dangerous land. Did they inadvertently time travel to a future Earth? Or, a parallel universe? One of the nomadic tribes they encounter rescues the young couple. These small groups journey endlessly, searching ...

The Anunnaki and Human worlds collide In this epic alien first contact saga, they came to Mars to search for life...Something else found them. This is the story of ancient aliens, three astronauts, and one cosmonaut, and what happened the day the Anunnaki world and the modern human world collided on a distant planet. Jon Carson, the American military man, Doug “Digger” Johnson, The American archae ...

A mash-up of 40’s style detective fiction and sci-fi, A.I. P.I. examines a racist future where society has turned against a new silver-skinned minority: androids. But for some, they’re a necessity. When you’re in trouble and don’t want the police involved, who are you going to call? An Artificially Intelligent Private Investigator.

The Sci-Fi Detective Thriller Gets Cool...Liquid Cool! Liquid Cool Book #1 is the FIRST-IN-SERIES action-packed (and funny) sci-fi detective series. Meet a private eye with a cool hat, laser gun, and attitude. But don’t touch his red hovercar -- or you could get shot! Enter the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool as Cruz faces off neon gangsters, sinister cyborgs, corporate samurai soldiers, ...

A mysterious Romanian monk arrives in New York. He brings with him a strange offer for social media influencers: In exchange for hundreds of millions more followers, the influencers must surrender their soul. But, there is an ancient evil that must be fed. And a merciless vigilante who will stop at nothing to prevent the monk's plan.

A mermaid turns out to be the perfect bait. A young man in the Badlands discovers the price of business. And a man desperate to escape his life finds out he's not the only one. These are just a few of the stories in Honest Fibs, a collection of speculative and science fiction short stories that explore our perception of the world around us. Is there more to the world than we can see? How far can w ...

When life has stripped you of everything, how hard will you fight to get it back? Adelaide Taylor’s life is anything but ideal. After losing her parents to the new, tyrannical government, she’s forced to live in an orphanage for women under twenty-five. While she toils away six days a week at a thankless job, the government systematically destroys the country. Elections are abolished. Borders are ...

When the Strongest Hurricane in Decades Takes Aim at Florida, Ronnie Tries to Escape its Wrath. Will she Die in the Storm or Be Lost in Time Forever? Ronnie Andrews is lucky to be alive after a time travel glitch nearly took her life during Hurricane Frances. When Hurricane Ivan, one of the strongest storms in decades, sets its sights on Florida, Ronnie jumps at the chance to join Mike, her myster ...

The Shadows have come into the light… Captain Blake Campbell of the Vega class destroyer Revenant and her crew might be unorthodox, but they have a reputation for getting the job done. A year after the adventure that led them to the ancient alien Artificial intelligence boxes and the creation of the Rangers. Blake and crew travel back to Croatoan and what they find will change the course of the ga ...

Gwyn is just getting the hang of her time-travelling skills when her confidence takes her too far. She saves the wrong person and now the whole timeline is off track. Now she has to manipulate one of the most dangerous people in all of Europe, Cesare Borgia, son of the corrupt Pope Alexander VI, as the French threaten to invade Italy. With Machiavelli as a bail lawyer, and Da Vinci hanging out ...

Could you survive? ..........in the 22nd Century? ......................after an apocalypse? Youngblood was eighteen when his father placed him in hibernation to await a cure for his disease. But when he woke a century later, he was gasping for breath in a deserted underground bunker. The post-apocalyptic world he found was divided between valley settlers who lived a subsistence existence and moun ...

Chloe and Caleb are two people who have been thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Chloe is a former assassin for hire who is trying to reinvent herself as an investigator in the bustling metropolis of Junction City. Her first case proves to be far more complicated than expected, she finds a deceased Samuel Adams with a wicked knife sticking out of his groin - and all fingers point to her. C ...

Tabitha Enns is given work experience on board the Kestrel, on the adventure of her life, that will push her to the limit. Tabitha gets to meet her first aliens, but it doesn't go smoothly, and being out in space isn't what she expected. When a hostile alien species are discovered, the Kestrel is sent to make contact, leading the crew – and Tabitha – into danger, and the crew have problems with th ...

Alodeé is a girl with a secret. She’s strong, smart and just a little too different.

After a miraculous crash-landing on the mysterious exoplanet dubbed Resurrection Dawn, the Humanoid colonists quickly discovered a carnivorous ecosystem of gigantic proportions. Most of it rather fancied Humanoid meat. They barely survived. What they still do not know about their immense, physics-defyin ...

One of Case City's most skilled assassins, Jackson Cole is a wanted man. After annihilating his latest target, he quickly learns the prominent man's identity. Now, a perilous enemy seeks revenge, and rival guilds look to take advantage of his vulnerability. For Jackson, it's become kill or be killed, but will a steady aim be enough to take on the entire city?

They hunted her mother. They abducted her father. If Grace can’t uncover the secret of her family’s alien past, will she be next?

“New favorite series for YA readers!” —San Francisco Book Review

Grace is unique. She tries not to draw attention, but most teens don’t have naturally green hair, live in a van, and change schools every couple of months. When people around ...