Portfolios | Jim C. Hines

Tamora Carter: Goblin Queen

One night after roller derby practice, twelve-year-old Tamora Carter discovers a pair of goblins digging through the dumpster behind the rink. The scruffy pair passed through a magical portal into our world, and they’re not alone.

Do these creatures know the truth about what happened to Tamora’s best friend Andre? She won’t rest until she finds out. But there are things far more dangerous than goblins…

Read the first chapter

January 7, 2018 /

Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse

Terminal Alliance
Locus Bestseller

When the Krakau came to Earth, they planned to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species.

This would have worked out better for all involved if they hadn’t arrived after a mutated plague wiped out half the planet, turned the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroyed human civilization. You know—your standard apocalypse.

The Krakau’s first impulse was to turn their ships around and go home. After all, it’s hard to establish diplomatic relations with mindless savages who eat your diplomats.

Their second impulse was to try to fix us.

A century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but hey, at least they stopped trying to eat everyone. Mostly.

Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos is surprisingly bright (for a human). As a Lieutenant on the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish, she’s in charge of the Shipboard Hygiene and Sanitation team. When a bioweapon attack by an alien race wipes out the Krakau command crew and reverts the rest of the humans to their feral state, only Mops and her team are left with their minds intact.

Escaping the attacking aliens—not to mention her shambling crewmates—is only the beginning. Sure, Mops and her assortment of space janitors and plumbers can clean the ship, but flying the damn thing is another matter. As they struggle to keep the Pufferfish functioning and find a cure for their crew, they stumble onto a conspiracy that could threaten the entire alliance.

A conspiracy born from the truth of what happened on Earth all those years ago…

Read the First Chapter (PDF | EPUB | MOBI)

Terminal Uprising

Human civilization didn’t just fall. It was pushed.

The Krakau came to Earth in the year 2104. By 2105, humanity had been reduced to shambling, feral monsters. In the Krakau’s defense, it was an accident, and a century later, they did come back and try to fix us. Sort of.

It’s been four months since Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos learned the truth of that accident. Four months since she and her team of ~~janitors~~ hygiene and sanitation specialists stole the EMCS Pufferfish and stopped a bioterrorism attack against the Krakau homeworld. Four months since she set out to find proof of what really happened on Earth all those years ago.

Between trying to protect their secrets and fighting the xenocidal Prodryans, who’ve been escalating their war against everyone who isn’t Prodryan, the Krakau have their tentacles full.

Mops’ mission changes when she learns of a secret Krakau laboratory on Earth. A small group under command of Fleet Admiral Belle-Bonne Sage is working to create a new weapon, one that could bring victory over the Prodryans … or drown the galaxy in chaos.

To discover the truth, Mops and her rogue cleaning crew will have to do the one thing she fears most: return to Earth, a world overrun by feral apes, wild dogs, savage humans, and worse. (After all, the planet hasn’t been cleaned in a century and a half!) What Mops finds in the filthy ruins could change everything, assuming she survives long enough to share it.

Perhaps humanity isn’t as dead as the galaxy thought.

Read the first chapter.

Terminal Peace

Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos and her team were trained to clean spaceships. They were absolutely not trained to fight an interplanetary war with the xenocidal Prodryans or to make first contact with the Jynx, a race who might not be as primitive as they seem. But if there’s one lesson Mops and her crew have learned, it’s that things like “training” and “being remotely qualified” are overrated.

The war is escalating. (This might be Mops’ fault.) The survival of humanity—those few who weren’t turned to feral, shambling monsters by an alien plague—as well as the fate of all other non-Prodryans, will depend on what Captain Mops and the crew of the EDFS Pufferfish discover on the ringed planet of Tuxatl.

But the Jynx on Tuxatl are fighting a war of their own, and their world’s long-buried secrets could be more dangerous than the Prodryans.

To make matters worse, Mops is starting to feel a little feral herself…

Read the first chapter.

Read the First Chapter (pdf)

January 1, 2015 /

Magic Ex Libris

Libriomancer
Locus Bestseller

Isaac Vainio has spent the past two years working at the Copper River Library in northern Michigan, secretly cataloguing books for their magical potential, but forbidden from using that magic himself . . . except for emergencies. Emergencies like a trio of young vampires who believe Isaac has been killing their kind, and intend to return the favor.

Isaac is a libriomancer, brilliant but undisciplined, with the ability to reach into books and create objects from their pages. And attacking a libriomancer in his own library is never a good idea.

But vampires are only the beginning. This was merely the latest in a series of attacks against members of Die Zwelf Portenære, a secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg to protect the world from supernatural threats. Among the casualties is Ray Walker, Isaac’s friend and mentor in magic.

Complicating matters further is the arrival of a dryad named Lena Greenwood. Lena packs a pair of wooden swords and proves to be quite adept at helping to beat down various magical threats. She also seems to be a little too interested in Isaac . . . not that he minds. Yet Lena’s nature could make her a greater threat than any vampire.

Along with a neurotic fire-spider named Smudge, Isaac and Lena set out to find and stop whoever is behind the attacks. But things are worse than Isaac imagined. An unknown killer of unimaginable power has been torturing and murdering humans and vampires alike. And Gutenberg, now more than six hundred years old, has disappeared.

As Isaac searches for Gutenberg and the murderer, hoping they aren’t one and the same, he uncovers dark secrets about magic’s history and potential. Secrets which could destroy Die Zwelf Portenære and loose a magical war upon the world. If Isaac is to have any hope of preventing that war, he will have to truly master the magic of libriomancy.

Assuming he doesn’t lose control and wipe himself from existence first.

Codex Born
Locus Bestseller

Isaac Vainio’s life was just about perfect. He should have known it couldn’t last.

Living and working as a part-time librarian in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Isaac had finally earned the magical research position he dreamed of with the Porters. He had been cleared by Johannes Gutenberg to practice libriomancy once again, reaching into books to create whatever he chooses from their pages. Best of all, it had been more than two months since anything tried to kill him.

And then Isaac, along with a dryad named Lena Greenwood and Porter psychiatrist Nidhi Shah, are called to the small mining town of Tamarack, where a pair of septuagenarian werewolves have discovered the body of a brutally murdered wendigo.

What begins as a simple monster-slaying leads to deeper mysteries and the discovery of an organization thought to have been wiped out more than five centuries ago by Gutenberg himself. Their magic rips through Isaac’s with ease, and their next target is Lena.

The dryad’s powers are unique, and Gutenberg’s enemies mean to use her to destroy everything he and the Porters have built. But their plan could unleash a darker power, an army of entropy and chaos, bent on devouring all it touches.

The Upper Peninsula is about to become ground zero in a magical war like nothing the world has seen in more than five hundred years. But the more Isaac learns about Gutenberg and the Porters, the more he questions whether he’s fighting for the right cause.

One way or another, Isaac must find a way to stop a power he doesn’t fully understand. And even if he succeeds, the outcome will forever change him, the Porters, and the world.

Read the First Chapter (pdf | epub)

Unbound

For five hundred years, the Porters have concealed the existence of magic from the world. Now, old enemies have revealed the Porters’ secrets, and an even greater threat lurks in the shadows. The would-be queen Meridiana, banished for a thousand years, has returned in the body of a girl named Jeneta Aboderin. She seeks an artifact created by Pope Sylvester II, a bronze prison that would grant her the power to command an army of the dead.

Michigan librarian Isaac Vainio is powerless to stop her, having been stripped of his power and his place among the Porters by Johannes Gutenberg himself. But Isaac is determined to regain his magic and to rescue his former student Jeneta. With no magic of his own, Isaac must delve into the darker side of black-market magic, where he will confront beings better left undisturbed, including the sorcerer Juan Ponce de Leon.

With his loyal fire-spider Smudge, dryad warrior Lena Greenwood, and psychiatrist Nidhi Shah, Isaac races to unravel a mystery more than a thousand years old as competing magical powers battle to shape the future of the world. He will be hunted by enemies and former allies alike, and it will take all his knowledge and resourcefulness to survive as magical war threatens to spread across the globe.

Isaac’s choices will determine the fate of his friends, the Porters, the students of Bi Sheng, and the world. Only one thing is certain: even if he finds a way to restore his magic, he can’t save them all…

Read the First Chapter (pdf | epub)

Revisionary

When Isaac Vainio helped to reveal magic to the world, he dreamed of a utopian future, a new millennium of magical prosperity. One year later, things aren’t going quite as he’d hoped. An organization known as Vanguard, made up of magical creatures and ex-Porters, wants open war with the mundane world. Isaac’s own government is incarcerating “potential supernatural enemies” in prisons and internment camps. And Isaac finds himself targeted by all sides.

It’s a war that will soon envelop the world, and the key to victory may lie with Isaac himself, as he struggles to incorporate everything he’s learned into a new, more powerful form of libriomancy. Surrounded by betrayal and political intrigue, Isaac and a ragtag group of allies must evade pursuit both magical and mundane, expose a conspiracy by some of the most powerful people in the world, and find a path to a better future.

But what will that future cost Isaac and the ones he loves?

Read the First Chapter (pdf | epub)

“Chupacabra’s Song” (Short Story)

In the Magic ex Libris series, Nicola Pallas is one of the most powerful magic-users in the world, able to overpower her enemies with little more than a whistle. She’s also known for raising chupacabras in her barn.

This 5000-word short story introduces Nicola as a young girl, new to magic and unfamiliar with her potential. A woman brings a strange creature to Nicola’s father, the local veterinarian. That injured animal–Nicola’s first encounter with a chupacabra–leads her into a larger world of magical poachers, supernatural creatures, and danger.

It also offers the possibility of a life-changing friendship. Assuming Nicola survives.

The story is set approximately twenty years before the events of Libriomancer.

“Imprinted” (Novelette)

Jeneta’s magic could give us the stars…or destroy everyone she cares about.

Seventeen-year-old libriomancer Jeneta Aboderin is a prodigy, determined to move on from the horrors she’s faced and use her power to create a better future. To show the world that magic isn’t a threat to be feared, but a tool of hope. After eight months, she’s ready to present the Venture, a magically-created ship capable of reaching Mars within hours. It will mark a new phase of human exploration and discovery.

But at a crucial moment, her spell is wrested from her control and twisted against her. As Jeneta recovers, whoever sabotaged her magic begins to strike down those around her. The attacker haunts her thoughts and dreams, reviving Jeneta’s past traumas. And the most powerful magic-users at New Millennium are unable to help.

How do you stop an enemy who strikes from within your own mind?

This 15,000-word novelette is set eight months after the events of Revisionary.

Available in print from Amazon.

December 18, 2014 /

Princesses

You know how all those old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures until you finally reach that inevitable line: “And they lived happily ever after….” Guess what? It’s not true.

The Stepsister Scheme
Locus Bestseller

The epic, action-packed story of what happened after the fairy tales.

Once upon a time, a girl named Danielle (better known as Cinderella) escaped her evil stepmother, married a prince, and according to the stories, lived happily ever after.

The stories lie.

Danielle Whiteshore has no sooner moved into the palace when her stepsisters show up to kidnap her prince and steal him away to the realm of fairies. To save Prince Armand, Danielle needs more than the enchanted glass sword her mother left her. She needs the Queen’s secret protectors: the deadly warrior and assassin Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and the fun-loving, flirtatious witch known as Snow White.

Plunged into a world of adventure and intrigue, Danielle must forge the trio into a team if they’re to rescue her prince and survive the machinations of a foe far deadlier than her stepsisters.

The Mermaid’s Madness
#1 Locus Bestseller

Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White face a deadly threat from under the sea.

The first meeting between Princess Danielle Whiteshore, better known as Cinderella, and the merfolk who inhabit the seas of Lorindar, should have been a diplomatic formality. Instead, a deranged mermaid named Lirea launches a sudden and brutal attack that leaves Queen Beatrice on the edge of death.

To stop Lirea and save the queen, Danielle, Talia (Sleeping Beauty), and Snow (White) must ally with a mysterious witch from the sea. Only together can they hope to stop the war Lirea has set in motion.

But every secret they uncover leads deeper into danger. Lirea’s wrath is tangled in older, more sinister plans that could change the fates of humans and merfolk both, plans that will test the strength of Danielle’s team to the breaking point and beyond.

Red Hood’s Revenge
Locus Bestseller

The assassin known as Red Riding Hood has a new target: Sleeping Beauty.

Humans and fairies have fought for generations to control the desert land of Arathea, home of Talia Malak-el-Dahshat, better known as Sleeping Beauty. For the first time since escaping the brambles, Talia returns to a home now ruled by her enemies, where Talia is under sentence of death. A sentence the assassin Roudette, the Lady of the Red Hood, is eager to carry out.

With Snow White and Danielle (Cinderella) at her side, Talia finds herself at the heart of the conflict between human and fairy, and targeted by an ancient threat that will soon ravage all of Arathea. Talia’s allies are few, but there are those who would rally behind their rightful princess. Talia didn’t intend to start a civil war, but she may have no choice.

Assuming Roudette doesn’t kill her first.

Read the first two chapters (PDF)

The Snow Queen’s Shadow

Snow White is their dearest friend…and their deadliest enemy.

When Snow White fled her homeland of Allesandria after the death of her mother, she took with her only one thing: her mother’s magic mirror. Now, a spell gone wrong has shattered the mirror, freeing the demon enslaved there so many years ago. The demon’s magic distorts the heart and vision of each person it touches, and Snow is the first to fall under its power.

Snow takes Danielle’s son hostage and returns to Allesandria, determined to claim her rightful place as queen, and to take revenge against those who supported her evil mother.

As one city after another falls into darkness and evil, Danielle (Cinderella) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty) search desperately for a way to rescue Danielle’s son and free Snow from the demon’s influence. The cost of failure is war and death.

The cost of success might be the same.

June 17, 2014 /

Goblins

If you think it’s hard being a hobgoblin or a human, try living a goblin’s life for a while. In fact, try imagining what it’s like to be the runtiest goblin in the caves, the lone worshiper of a god who’s been forgotten for thousands of years, and the target everyone points to at the first hint of trouble.

Try picturing yourself as Jig the goblin, and see how you like it….

Goblin Quest

Made to stand tunnel watch by the goblin bullies who’d been assigned the job, it was just Jig’s luck to be taken captive by a group of adventurers–with the usual complement of a dwarf warrior, a prince out to prove himself, his mad wizard brother, and an elfin thief. Forced to guide this ill-fated party on their search for the Rod of Creation–though Jig had no more idea how to find it than they did–he soon had them stumbling into every peril anyone had ever faced in the fantasy realms. And they hadn’t even found the Necromancer or the Dragon yet!

Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy

Goblin Hero

All Jig wants to do is worship his forgotten god, hang out with his pet fire-spider, and heal humiliating goblin injuries.

But Kralk, the goblin chief, sees Jig as a threat to her power. So when an ogre comes seeking Jig Dragonslayer’s help against an unknown enemy, Kralk insists he accept the challenge. With a large, exceptionally dumb goblin and an ancient, crotchety goblin who can barely walk as his unwanted sidekicks–and pursued by a goblin who’s certain that she’s meant to be the true goblin hero–Jig sets out for ogre territory.

After all, being killed by a magical enemy who can terrify an ogre is probably no worse than being killed by your “friends. . . .”

Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy

Goblin War
Locus Bestseller

Despite impossible odds, Jig was still alive. He’d survived an adventurers’ quest against a dragon and a necromancer, a pixie invasion that had ogres and trolls dropping like flies, and most frightening of all, the threat of being made chief of the goblins. He wasn’t sure how much more he could stand.
Naturally, he was about to find out.

War was brewing in the world outside the mountain, and when the goblins’ lair was invaded by human warriors, Jig knew it was only the start of another really bad day. . . .

Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy

March 17, 2014 /

Fable

Fable: Blood of Heroes

Deep in Albion’s darkest age, long before once upon a time…

Heroes are thought to be gone from the land. So why have the bards begun singing of them once more? For Fable newcomers and dedicated fans alike, Blood of Heroes delves into a never-before-glimpsed era, telling the tale of a band of adventurers who come together to defend a kingdom in desperate need.

The city of Brightlodge is awash with Heroes from every corner of Albion, all eager for their next quest. When someone tries to burn down the Cock and Bard inn, four Heroes find themselves hastily thrown together, chasing outlaws through sewers, storming a riverboat full of smugglers, and placing their trust in a most unlikely ally. As the beginnings of a deadly plot are revealed, it becomes clear that Heroes have truly arrived—and so have villains.

What connects the recent events in Brightlodge with rumors about a malicious ghost and a spate of unsolved deaths in the nearby mining town of Grayrock? Unless Albion’s new Heroes can find the answer, the dawn of a new age could be extinguished before it even begins.

Read an excerpt on the publisher’s website.

March 16, 2014 /

Collections

The Goblin Master’s Grimoire

A collection 21 of my short stories, with an introduction from John Scalzi and an afterward by Seanan McGuire. Also includes a Jim C. Hines bibliography by Steven Silver.

Available in hardcover from ISFiC Press

Sister of the Hedge and Other Stories

In the world war against the Elf King, what is the cost of victory … a dryad vigilante in Tuscon fights an enemy more dangerous than any other: her own nature … a grim look at the true cost of Sleeping Beauty’s curse. This collection features six of my more serious stories:

Sister of the Hedge
In the Line of Duty
Heart of Ash
Bloodlines
Images of Death
Ours to Fight For

Each story includes an afterword from the author.

Or buy direct, and receive the book in .mobi, .epub, and .pdf formats.

Goblin Tales

A vengeful ghost trapped in a goblin’s ear … a flaming spider who must help stop a goddess from conquering a science fiction convention … a goblin nursery worker who finds herself trapped in the middle of a war. This collection features five humorous short stories that explore the fantasy realm from the perspective of the lowest of the low, the unlikeliest of unheroes: the goblins.

Includes the following stories:

Goblin Lullaby
The Haunting of Jig’s Ear
Goblin Hunter
School Spirit
Mightier than the Sword

Each story includes an afterword by the author.

PRINT: Lulu

EBOOK: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Lulu (PDF)

Or buy direct, and receive the book in .mobi, .epub, and .pdf formats.

Kitemaster and Other Stories

A werewolf with a taste for puppets … a modern-day bard whose power flows from the bellows of her accordion … a magical dagger with an extremely unusual power.

This collection features six of my lighter fantasy tales:

Kitemaster
Untrained Melody
Blade of the Bunny
Over the Hill
Spell of the Sparrow
The Creature in Your Neighborhood

Each story includes an afterword by the author.

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

Or buy direct, and receive the book in .mobi, .epub, and .pdf formats.

March 15, 2014 /

Edited Works

Invisible

13 essays on the importance of representation in science fiction and fantasy, with an introduction by author Alex Dally MacFarlane.

Proceeds from the sale of this collection go to support Con or Bust.

Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Invisible 2

19 more essays on the importance of representation in science fiction and fantasy, with an introduction by author Aliette de Bodard.

Proceeds from the sale of this collection go to support Con or Bust.

Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Invisible 3
Co-edited with Mary Anne Mohanraj

Winner: Imadjinn Award for Best Nonfiction Book

18 essays and poems on the importance of representation in science fiction and fantasy, with an introduction by author K. Tempest Bradford.

Proceeds from the sale of this collection go to support Con or Bust.

Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Heroes in Training
Co-edited with Martin H. Greenberg

Thirteen original stories about ordinary or inexperienced people learning to become extraordinary heroes. From the shape shifter Esen-alit-Quar who is forced unexpectedly into her first solo mission to the young man sworn to defeat a pack of lycanthropes, these heroes in training are thrown into exciting adventures that demand nothing short of all that is in them.