(RHR) Relaxing Holiday Reads ❄️
3 stories
THE END OF WAR (Watty Award Winner) by BenSobieck
BenSobieck
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    Parts 88
A secret program in the United States seeks to replace human militaries with artificial intelligence-driven machines, but the machines aren't so willing to play along. *** Picture a world where humans no longer fight wars. No more families missing loved ones. No more veterans with lifelong mental and physical scars. No more conscription. For the super-secret End of War Project inside the United States government, such a reality is already here. The project models out how artificial intelligence can overcome dangerous and morally sensitive war scenarios with algorithms and automation. The centerpieces are "autonomous combat machines," or ACMs, that look like humans but function like supercomputers. After a string of brilliant successes in the field of combat, the End of War Project is preparing to reveal itself to the public, but something unusual stands in the way. Against their programming, the ACMs start exhibiting all-too-human signs of apprehension, guilt and compassion as they're pushed to perform ever more extreme tasks. The human leaders of the End of War Project race to find who "hacked" the ACMs, but what they find is even more startling--and revealing--than they could ever imagine. ***2019 Watty Award Winner - Science Fiction***
Running With Scissors by Sam_le_fou
Sam_le_fou
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    Parts 2
Diagnosed with a terminal illness, Peter Katz hires a hitman to take him out. But when a cure is discovered, Peter's got to outrun the assassin to stay alive! ***** When douchebag lawyer Peter Katz gets diagnosed with terminal cancer, he wants to die painlessly. Still, death seems to elude his every attempt, so he hires an assassin to kill him at a random time and place within the month. Unfortunately for Peter, right after he orders the hit, a treatment is discovered that would add decades to his life. Now Peter Katz has to start running, until the month-long deadline ends. Desperate to survive, he has to deal with tall-dwarves, unionized suicide workers, art terrorism and all the insanity that being alive has to offer. Will he make it to the end of the month? Or will Peter Katz live a life's worth of craziness in however many days he has left? For what is Comedy, but Tragedy + Time? [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]
The Van Helsing Legacy: We Shall Not Sleep [SAMPLE] by MRGraham
MRGraham
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    Parts 7
(Wattpad picks: Up and coming List 06-07-18) The Great War is over. The guns are silent. The fires are quenched. The Dead are waking. Meg van Helsing grew up with a crucifix in one hand and a wooden stake in the other, her nose forever in a book. With the survivors and children of the band that killed Dracula, she keeps the south of England safe from the un-dead and never thinks twice about decapitating a revenant. The ghost of the War looms darker than Dracula's shadow. Until the night Quincey Harker disappears. Suddenly, her friends are under attack from all sides, beset by the blood-hungry corpses of un-dead soldiers, as another monster appears in their midst: an incubus, lethally attractive. The young man needs help, and Meg doesn't want to believe he is sending the attacks. If only she could convince them she is immune to his spell. Someone wants the Dracula gang dead at all costs. The answer lies in old magic, blood sorcery, and a secret kept for twenty-five years. If Meg wants her friends to live, she'll have to open her eyes. Highest rank #136 in Paranormal, 19 December 2017 #444 in Paranormal, 12 Feb 2017 Best of Summer Awards, Best in Show You can read the entire story in the Strange Magic collection, available here: https://books2read.com/links/ubl/mdWLjd