Most Popular Books by Greg van Eekhout

In the future, many animals can talk, and some have jobs. Evan outwits his dog, Bart, to do his homework. Or does he? A space explorer from 24th century Earth is on a mission to bring civilization to the tiny people of planet Tau Ceti. Is bigger really better? Read this book to find the answers.

Five robots. One unforgettable journey. Their programming will never be the same. Wall-E meets The Wild Robot in this middle grade instant classic about five robots on a mission to rescue their inventor from the corporation that controls them all. Cog looks like a normal twelve-year-old boy. But his name is short for “cognitive development,” and he was built to learn. But after an accident leaves him damaged, Cog wakes up in an unknown lab—and Gina, the scientist who created and cared for him, is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by scientists who want to study him and remove his brain, Cog recruits four robot accomplices for a mission to find her. Cog, ADA, Proto, Trashbot, and Car’s journey will likely involve much cognitive development in the form of mistakes, but Cog is willing to risk everything to find his way back to Gina. In this charming stand-alone adventure, Greg van Eekhout breathes life and wisdom into an unforgettable character and crafts a story sure to earn its place among beloved classics like Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan.

From the author of Cog and Voyage of the Dogs, Weird Kid is a hilarious and heartfelt homage to everyone who feels like they don’t belong. Perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Stuart Gibbs. Jake Wind is trying to stay under the radar. Whose radar? Anyone who might be too interested in the fact that he has shapeshifting abilities he can’t control. Or that his parents found him as a ball of goo when he was a baby. Keeping his powers in check is crucial, though, if he wants to live a normal life and go to middle school instead of being homeschooled (and if he wants to avoid being kidnapped and experimented on, of course). Things feel like they’re going his way when he survives his first day of school without transforming and makes a new friend. But when mysterious sinkholes start popping up around town—sinkholes filled with the same extraterrestrial substance as Jake—and his neighbors, classmates, and even his family start acting a little, well, weird, Jake will have to learn to use his powers in order to save his town. "The short page count, humor, and action make this a good choice for reluctant readers. A solid purchase for school and public libraries." —School Library Journal

Born half-grown in a world that is being destroyed, Fisher has instinctive knowledge of many things, including that he must avoid the robot that knows his name.

Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle''s seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher''s summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea. Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate-working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk. Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch''s curse? With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middle-grade Douglas Adams'' Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout''s first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.

"The sequel to California bones"--Jacket.

When Daniel Blackland was six, he ingested his first bone fragment, a bit of kraken spine plucked out of the sand during a visit with his demanding, brilliant, and powerful magician father, Sebastian. When Daniel was twelve, he watched Sebastian die at the hands of the Hierarch of Southern California, devoured for the heightened magic layered deep within his bones. Now, years later, Daniel is a petty thief with a forged identity. Hiding amid the crowds in Los Angeles—the capital of the Kingdom of Southern California—Daniel is trying to go straight. But his crime-boss uncle has a heist he wants Daniel to perform: break into the Hierarch''s storehouse of magical artifacts and retrieve Sebastian''s sword, an object of untold power. For this dangerous mission, Daniel will need a team he can rely on, so he brings in his closest friends from his years in the criminal world. There''s Moth, who can take a bullet and heal in mere minutes. Jo Alverado, illusionist. The multitalented Cassandra, Daniel''s ex. And, new to them all, the enigmatic, knowledgeable Emma, with her British accent and her own grudge against the powers-that-be. The stakes are high, and the stage is set for a showdown that might just break the magic that protects a long-corrupt regime. Extravagant and yet moving, Greg van Eekhout''s California Bones is an epic adventure set in a city of canals and secrets and casual brutality--different from the world we know, yet familiar and true. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Dogs in space! Share this book with middle graders who enjoy stories about dogs, space adventures, or action adventure stories—or all three! Perfect for fans of Homeward Bound and Woof. Lopside is a Barkonaut, a specially trained dog who assists human astronauts on missions in space. He and the crew aboard the spaceship Laika are en route to set up an outpost on a distant planet. When the mission takes a disastrous turn, the Barkonauts on board suddenly find themselves completely alone on their severely damaged ship. Survival seems impossible. But these dogs are Barkonauts—and Barkonauts always complete their mission. SOS. Ship damaged. Human crew missing. We are the dogs. We are alone.

Ghosts make the best thieves in this pitch-perfect middle grade adventure from the acclaimed author of Weird Kid. Perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and John David Anderson--and anyone looking for an Ocean''s 11-style heist! Zenith and her friends may be dead—but lucky for them, even getting ghosted wasn’t enough to tear them apart. The four of them were thick as thieves long before an unfortunate lab accident sent them careening into the afterlife. So when they hear about a machine that could return them to the land of the living, they are determined to steal it. Unfortunately, the magical device belongs to a dangerous necromancer who’s out for their ectoplasm. Fortunately, they’re great at heists. Because pulling off the score of their deathtimes is no job for an amateur.

"Dragon Coast: the sequel to Greg Van Eekhout''s "California Bones" and "Pacific Fire", in which Daniel Blackland must pull off the most improbable theft of all"--

What is there to do, when you have the power to do anything? John can fly, he can see through solid objects, he can take over the world and give it back again, but what he''s looking for is something else... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Stay calm and remain HAPPY. Help is on the way. Perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Jennifer L. Holm, this adventure-packed middle grade story, set in a world not too far from our own, follows a family that moves to a remote company town that seems perfect on the surface.... Keegan knows there’s something off about Happy Town. The isolated, high-tech company town is too perfect—with a dome keeping out bad weather and self-driving vehicles rumbling throughout the town delivering residents to work and school. Still, Keegan is excited to grow his art skills at Happy Town’s ultra-modern middle school, even if he has less time to see his mom and stepdad because of their new jobs. But when the two become obsessed with working and eating Happy Corp Meat Cramwich (the Microwaveable Sandwich Crammed with Meat) and Keegan gets sentenced to Mandatory Work Opportunities for refusing to follow Happy Town’s shady rules, he discovers a dangerous glitch in the system that’s turning the town’s happy residents into zombies. Carnivorous, meat-craving, literal zombies. With his new friends Gloriana and Tank by his side, he’ll need to find a way to destroy Happy Town’s happy system—before there’s nothing left.

Is this Ragnarok, or just California? The NorseCODE genome project was designed to identify descendants of Odin. What it found was Kathy Castillo, a murdered MBA student brought back from the dead to serve as a valkyrie in the Norse god’s army. Given a sword and a new name, Mist’s job is to recruit soldiers for the war between the gods at the end of the world—and to kill those who refuse to fight. But as the twilight of the gods descends, Mist makes other plans. Journeying across a chaotic American landscape already degenerating into violence and madness, Mist hopes to find her way to Helheim, the land of the dead, to rescue her murdered sister from death’s clutches. To do so, she’ll need the help of Hermod, a Norse god bumming around Los Angeles with troubles of his own. Together they find themselves drafted into a higher cause, trying to do what fate long ago deemed could not be done: save the world of man. For even if myths aren’t made to be broken, it can’t hurt to go down fighting…can it?

A girl and her puppy face down the end of the world—which the puppy’s partly responsible for—in this middle grade story from acclaimed author Greg van Eekhout, perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and J.C. Cervantes. When Mott finds a puppy abandoned in a recycling bin, she’s ready to do everything she can to protect him. What she doesn’t realize, however, is that this is the legendary wolf Fenris, who’s prophesied to bring about the end of the world by eating the moon. Now Mott has found herself in charge of making sure the hungry pup—who’s busy munching on lampposts, cars, and water towers—doesn’t see all of California as an appetizer, while also hiding him from the Norse gods who are hot on his trail, determined to see the prophecy come true. Mott vows to protect Fenris, rescue him from his destiny, and prevent the world from ending. But will she be able to keep her promise? Or has she bitten off more than she can chew?

A collection of the best American science fiction and fantasy stories from 2016

The July/August 2024 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Sarah Pinsker, Greg van Eekhout, Sunwoo Jeong, John Chu, AnaMaria Curtis, Eleanna Castroianni, and Megan Chee. Essays by John Scalzi, Marissa Lingen, Del Sandeen, and Natania Barron, poetry by Terese Mason Pierre, Natasha King, Roshani Chokshi, and Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, interviews with Greg van Eekhout and AnaMaria Curtis by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Broci, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. Uncanny Magazine is a bimonthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in November 2014. Edited by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 Hugo award winners for best semiprozine, and 2018 Hugo award winners for Best Editor, Short Form, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, and Monte Lin, each issue of Uncanny includes new stories, poetry, articles, and interviews.

The July/August 2019 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Sarah Pinsker, Greg van Eekhout, Rachel Swirsky and P.H. Lee, Marie Brennan, A.C. Wise, and Maurice Broaddus. Reprinted fiction by Tim Pratt, essays by Aidan Moher, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Karlyn Ruth Meyer, Marissa Lingen, and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, poetry by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Alexandra Seidel, Cynthia So, and Betsy Aoki, interviews with Greg Van Eekhout and Maurice Broaddus by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

"Alien shape-shifters from the Planet Morph have landed on Earth. Fortunately, General Gleaner and his descrambler ray can turn any object into an anagram itself. Unfortunately, the new anagrams are sometimes worse than aliens" -- taken from back cover.

A girl and her puppy face down the end of the world--which the puppy''s partly responsible for--in this middle grade story from acclaimed author Greg van Eekhout, perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and J.C. Cervantes. When Mott finds a puppy abandoned in a recycling bin, she''s ready to do everything she can to protect him. What she doesn''t realize, however, is that this is the legendary wolf Fenris, who''s prophesied to bring about the end of the world by eating the moon. Now Mott has found herself in charge of making sure the hungry pup--who''s busy munching on lampposts, cars, and water towers--doesn''t see all of California as an appetizer, while also hiding him from the Norse gods who are hot on his trail, determined to see the prophecy come true. Mott vows to protect Fenris, rescue him from his destiny, and prevent the world from ending. But will she be able to keep her promise? Or has she bitten off more than she can chew?

Recounts major events from Star Wars: The Clone Wars from the respective viewpoints of different characters, from Darth Maul to Yoda.

Aliens from dull, gray Blandoid 5 come to Earth to add variety to their boring lives. With the help of some kids and their teacher, the aliens learn about the types of foods we eat, clothes we wear, and things we write with. But they make some errors along the way. What problems will they cause?

Two new inventions at Haywire Labs have caused things (especially bananas and frogs) to get more out of control than usual. How will they get back to the usual disorder?

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our February 2015 issue (#101) contains: Original Fiction by Kristine Kathryn Rusch ("The Last Surviving Gondola Widow"), Gwendolyn Clare ("Indelible"), Kelly Robson ("The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill"), and Rich Larson ("Meshed"). Reprints from Greg van Eekhout ("The Osteomancer''s Son"), Nicola Griffith ("It Takes Two"). Non-fiction by Mark Cole (What in the World Do They Want, Anyway?), interviews with Liza Groen Trombi and Tang Fei, an Another Word column by Dawn Metcalf, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.