Showing results by author "Jane Lebak" in All Categories

What image does Venus draw to your mind? A great planetary body of deadly gases neighboring Earth, existing as its own world, mysterious and alluring? Or an image of a more fantastical nature, such as the jungles described by Edgar Rice Burroughs? Or do you think, perhaps, of a goddess who holds power and beauty beyond measure, whose name, throughout the ages, has been synonymous with love? Within this book, you will find tales of wonder, some of space, some of the heart, some that follow in the footsteps of the goddess herself.

There are stories here that explore the mythology of Zeus and the personalities in myth, as well as urban fantasy and fantasy stories that explore our understanding of leadership. The science fiction worlds range from splendidly alien to profoundly human to mixes of each as authors present their visions of what life might be like on Jupiter’s moons.

All angels have known since their creation that they cannot be killed, but now Satan is convinced the impossible can be done. Demons abduct and are able to tear apart the Archangel Gabriel's soul, leaving the angels in stunned grief. If Heaven isn't forever, where is God's justice? Can Gabriel be saved from the void? How can Michael stop Satan from winning this final victory against God?

No one knows why Tabris, a guardian angel, killed the child he vowed to protect. The boy Sebastian got into Heaven, but the angels don't understand why Tabris isn't in Hell. Instead God's given him a second chance. Another assignment. Another guardianship.

It's 20 years after the Resurrection, and rumors coming out of Hell are that Satan's got a new weapon in development, only no one knows what it is. When the archangels Remiel and Zadkiel infiltrate Hell to learn the truth, they discover that new weapon, only to unwittingly set it off. The weapon maims Belior, one of Satan's highest-ranking demons, but also leaves Zadkiel blind and Remiel disabled.

Gabriel and the other Archangels of the Presence have a new assignment: guard the Messiah through his childhood and ministry. Gabriel still struggles to synthesize the lessons for his year as a man, but he carries the shame of his punishment with him into his relations with the other angels. When created beings kill the son of God, mortal enemies suddenly become allies, while close friends become enemies, and Gabriel finds himself on the battlefield of a war he never wanted to fight.

Ever since Adam left the garden, Gabriel has known why humans sometimes act irrationally, and he helps them without hesitation whenever God gives him an assignment. All seven Archangels of the Presence do as much, sometimes even without orders - whether it's redirecting a lovesick princess, encouraging a terrified hero, or dealing with an amulet-wielding old man who's compelling an unlikely service from the angel least likely to give it. But after a brutal attack during one assignment, Gabriel starts getting touchy and harder to deal with.

A former gang member has tracked down the man who ratted out his brother 10 years ago. It's time for some good old-fashioned revenge, except the man in question is crippled. And he's a priest. And no one's going to let him go down without a fight.

Jay Farrell, a crippled priest, has begun housing homeless boys in his rectory. Once a street kid himself, he was riding the rocket-train to a lifetime in prison until the day he drove over a land mine in Iraq. Today he works at an inner-city parish, running a soup kitchen and struggling to manage an impoverished church.

The Ellington siblings seem to need nothing at all. Their recently deceased grandfather, Linus Ellington, bequeathed them his money, his influence, and his Fortune 500 company. But they're also heirs to Ellington’s pact with Hell, and now the demons are coming to collect. Cosmiel needs to guide his team through the most intricate case of intergenerational evil he’s ever faced, or else these three human souls—and the thousands more under their influence—will perish.