Peter Harkness is a brilliant prototype engineer, and one of the few humans lucky enough to score a job, at a company that designs automatons. The irony is not lost on him. Corporations are manufacturing countless automatons to replace human workers, and not just in menial jobs. His first day of work is spent gingerly avoiding the numerous protest zones of the jobless that appear along his route. He hunches his shoulders and pulls his head down as he passes by. He understands their anger, but he has no choice. He must eat. It's a devil's bargain. He makes uneasy allies where he least expects,...

The Dorchester House lies in wait like a camouflaged web, ensnaring those with the slightest bit of psychic ability. Things have happened there. Loathsome things. Unknown things. The current owners know something is off about the house and something is happening to their young daughter. They reach out to a cable TV psychic investigator program for help. The psychic they hire, Ethan Novotny, is crippled by claustrophobia and acts as a dangerous lightning rod to the paranormal phenomenon. The house is an electrifying intersection between strangers with talent and the house itself, throughout...

Katherine O'Donnell was born with a disfiguring strawberry birthmark across the bottom of her face. In 1880s London, that was enough to discourage suitors. Love was something for which she yearned, but never found within her reach. Out of necessity, she became adept at hiding inside her home and behind makeups she formulated and applied herself. When tragedy upended her modest life and dumped her out onto the streets, she was bereft of options. Desperate, she answered an advertisement for a mortuary assistant, applying makeup to cadavers. She knew what she had to do when asked what skills she...