Yun Tianming helped the alien Trisolarans subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from complete destruction. Now nearing the end of his existence, he suddenly receives another reprieve - and another regeneration. A consciousness calling itself the Spirit has recruited him to wage battle against an entity that threatens the existence of the entire universe. But Yun refuses to be a pawn again and makes his own plans to save humanity's future...

Into the heart of Hell come three entities: Lilith, the former First Consort to Beelzebub and her Sisters of Sargatanas trying to find a way to save Hannibal...again; Boudica, no longer a brick in the load-bearing walls of Hell, forever in search of her lost daughters; Adramalik, the former Grand Master of the Priory of the Fly reduced to serving a new lord, Ai Apaec, and seeking his destiny as Prince of Hell.

Ceda, now leader of the Shieldwives, a band of skilled desert swordswomen, works feverishly to break the curse on Sehid-Alaz, the ancient, undying king of her people. But when the combined might of Sharakhai and the desert gods corner the survivors of the Thirteenth Tribe in a mountain fastness, the very place that nearly saw their annihilation centuries ago, Ceda knows the time has come for her to lead.

Heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete leave the city, haunted by the rumours of the skin sealing epidemic starting to infect the urban population, for a new, remote mountain home. But the mountains and their people hold a different kind of danger. With their relationship under intolerable pressure, violence erupts and Alice is faced with the unthinkable as she fights to protect her unborn child.

With the Death Wave no longer a threat to humanity, humans have spread out and colonized all the worlds of the solar system. The technology of the Predecessors has made Earth a paradise, at least on the surface. But a policy of exiling discontented young people to the outer planets and asteroid mines has led to a deep divide between the new worlds and the homeworld, and those tensions are about to explode into open war.

Liz Kendall wouldn't hurt a fly. She's a gentle woman devoted to bringing up her kids in the right way, no matter how hard times get.But there's another side to Liz - -one which is dark and malicious. A version of her who will do anything to get her way, no matter how extreme or violent. And when this other side of her takes control, the consequences are devastating.

After Chen's parents are incinerated by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of mysterious natural phenomena. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station -- and to an entirely new frontier in particle physics. And it brings him into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own: a beautiful army major who has an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

Winner of the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.

A selection of stories set on the moon from such authors as John Varley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Michael Swanwick, Paul McAuley, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Jack McDevitt, Hannu Rajaniemi, Ian McDonald, Nancy Kress and many more.

The best science fiction stories of 2018 from all the countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and other sources.

Uhtred of Bebbanburg has won back his ancestral home but, threatened from all sides by enemies both old and new, he doesn't have long to enjoy the victory. In Mercia, rebellion is in the air as King Edward tries to seize control. In Wessex, rival parties scramble to settle on the identity of the next king. And across the country invading Norsemen continue their relentless incursion, ever hungry for land.

In New Orleans a larval Great Old One has been growing day by day in power and is just about ready to pop. If Chad Gadenier can't convince "the powers that be" to get involved not only New Orleans but the entire world is going to fall under the power of the nastiest of nasties. Now on the outs with the US Government and in exile from his usual job of saving the world, Chad must rally the forces of light against the coming darkness.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

An assassin tries to kil Everleigh Blair, the new gladiator queen of Bellona, in her own throne room. The King of Andvari, moreover, wants to punish Evie for the deaths of his countrymen during the Seven Spire massacre. Dark forces are also at work inside the Andvarian palace, and Evie soon realizes that no one is safe. Worse, her immunity to magic starts acting in strange, unexpected ways, which makes Evie wonder whether she is truly strong enough to be a Winter Queen.

When a young farm girl, Livia, demonstrates magical powers for the first time in a century there are many across the land that will kill to obtain her power. The Duke of Gothelm's tallymen, the blood-soaked Qeltine Brotherhood, and cynical mercenary Josten Cade, all are searching for Livia and the power she wields. But Livia finds that guardians can come from the most unlikely places... and that the old gods are returning to a world they abandoned.

Caine Riordan receives a summons to visit the ancient and enigmatic Dornaani - who still have his mortally-wounded love, Elena Corcoran, in their unthinkably advanced medical facilities. But he finds them in such social disarray that they have lost track of Elena's surgical cryocell. As he searches for Elena, he discovers that the Dornaani empire is not merely decaying; there are subtle signs that its decline is being accelerated from without.

Smoke Eater Tamerica Williams is so bored that she nearly gets her whole team killed, and Cole Brannigan has to step in. Then a new threat emerges. The legendary bird of fire, the Phoenix, is spreading fire like a plague and whipping dragons into a frenzy. It's a perfect task for Williams, but killing the Phoenix just brings it back stronger. Is that too much excitement, even for Williams?

She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline. In the old days, when people still talked about her, she was known as the end-of-the-line woman. Vasethe, a man with a troubled past, comes to seek a favor from a goddess who is not what she seems, and must enter the nine hundred and ninety-nine realms of Mkalis, the world of spirits, where gods and demons rage in an endless war.

Guillot dal Villevauvais, once a member of the King's personal guard, is dispatched by the Prince Bishop on a dubious mission to slay a dragon. Dragons were supposed to be extinct. On the way, Gill rescues Solene, a young barmaid, about to be burned as a witch. His belief in her innocence turns out to be mistaken. Between Gill's rusty swordsmanship and Solene's unstable magic, what could go wrong?

In the year 2204, humanity is expanding into the wider galaxy in leaps and bounds. Cutting-edge technology of linked jump gates has rendered most forms of transportation - including starships - virtually obsolete. Every place on Earth, every distant planet humankind has settled, is now merely a step away from any other. All seems wonderful - until a crashed alien spaceship of unknown origin is found on a newly located world eighty-nine light-years from Earth, carrying a cargo as strange as it is horrifying. To assess the potential of the threat, a high-powered team is dispatched to investigate. But one of them may not be all they seem.

Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon, seizes the opportunity for immortality and becomes a vampire during the American revolution. Fast forward to contemporary London, where Marcus has fallen for Phoebe Taylor, a young employee at Sotheby's. She decides to become a vampire, too, and though the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable in the modern world than they were in the 18th century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both - forever.

As a growing rebellion unites King Harald's enemies, Ragnvald suspects that some Norse nobles are not loyal to Harald's dream of a unified Norway. He sets a plan in motion to defeat all of his enemies, and bring his sister back to his side, while Svanhild finds herself with no easy decisions, and no choices that will leave her truly free.

11th volume of the year's best science fiction and fantasy from Horton features thirty stories.

Math-genius mercenary Cas Russell is responsible for the recent outbreak of violence in the world's cities - she's the one who crushed the organization of telepaths keeping the world's worst offenders under control. And her own power has a hidden history that creeps into her mind and fractures her sanity - just when she's finds herself on the hit list of every crime lord on the West Coast. And her best, her only, sociopathic friend.

Big Yellow, the ship form of the plastic aliens responsible for the war, returns. The Silsviss test the strength of the Confederation. Torin has to be Gunnery Sergeant Kerr once again and find a way to keep the peace.

SMOKE AND SHADOWS, SMOKE AND MIRRORS and SMOKE AND ASHES in one volume.

Bea works as a bookstore lackey, hangs out with best friends Sam Fujikawa and Leah Kim, and calms her workplace's more difficult customers. When a mysterious being starts communicating with Bea, hinting at an evil that is about to overtake the city, she seizes the opportunity, hoping to turn her "should haves" into the fabulous heroic life she's always wanted. But gaining that life may mean sacrificing everything - and everyone - she holds dear...

Ultima Thule has been destroyed - but somehow the Thulians mounted an even bigger force to destroy Metis. The Metisians that escaped the carnage and destruction of their secret city now must somehow find somewhere safe to go - without getting snapped up by various world governments. And now the Thulians have changed their tactics to "blitz guerilla warfare," sending wave after wave of their ships and troops to attack vulnerable targets all over Earth, with no clue for ECHO as to where these things are coming from. John Murdock and the Seraphym have become a force of nature, but they can't be everywhere at once, and if they were regarded with suspicion before, now they are regarded by ECHO's allies with fear as well.

Abidela, daughter of Heralds Mags and Amily, dreams of building on her parents' legacy by joining her father's network of spies, hoping to offset her seeming lack of a Gift. But when Abi senses the imminent collapse of a bridge only moments before it happens, she saves countless lives, including that of her best friend, Princess Katiana.

The search for a woman who, after being struck by lightning twice, has disappeard, leads to a place folded away from reality, ruled by the immortal fairy who had been held prisoner by Mary Rock (in Relics). A power struggle ensues among the creatures of myth who seek to launch a war against humanity. It falls upon Angela, Vince, and Dean (from Relics) to stop them before they succeed.

A collection of 21 stories set in the universe of NINEFOX GAMBIT and its sequels.

Rem and Torval, one a human, the other a dwarf, work as Watchwardens for the city of Yenara. Now, they must escort a notorious thief through a dangerous forest to the nearby city from where the thief escaped. But the thief's companions are waiting, and the soldiers Rem and Torval travel with might not be so honourable.

The stakes were already high enough at Giovanni Galante's poker table that night in Chicago. Poker. Dealer's choice. Seven players. A million-dollar cash buy-in. But after a superpowered mishap, the most high profile criminals in the city are scattered throughout the past and their schemes across time threaten the stability of the world.

Maung, the last "dream warrior," a Burmese military unit whose brains are more machine than grey matter, is hunted for the multiple atrocities his unit committed during war. He flees to a prison asteroid where his fellow Burmese countrymen must labour. And there he discovers a secret weapon system - one lost for almost a generation and which may help his people redeem themselves while at the same time saving the human race from an impending alien invasion.

A sorcerous cataclysm has hit the Range, the final defensive line between the republic and the immortal Deep Kings. The Blackwing captains are being picked off one by one, and the Deep Kings are poised to deliver a blow that will finally end the war. And the ghosts of his past, formerly confined to the Misery, accompany Ryhalt Galharrow everywhere - they will even follow him - and the few surviving Blackwing captains - on one final mission into the darkness.

With half of his city in ashes and the Queen's Men at his back, the webs of political intrigue stretch out from the capital to pull Tomas Piety in. Dannsburg is calling. In Dannsburg the nobility fight with words, not blades, but the results are every bit as bloody. In this pit of beasts, Tomas must decide once and for all whether he is truly the people's champion...or just a priest of lies.

Thanks to a stunning flying performance and a harrowing shootout in the streets of Boston, Robert Canderelli Weekes becomes the first male allowed to join the US Sigilry Corps's Rescue and Evacuation service, an elite, all-woman team of flying medics. But as he deploys to France during the waning days of the Great War, Sigilwoman Third-Class Canderelli learns that carrying the injured from the front lines to the field hospital is not the grand adventure he imagined.

Follow up to THE MONGREL MAGE. Beltur's fellow mages now see him as a threat to be destroyed, and the local merchants want to exploit his power. There's only one way he can remain free and survive - he's going to have to run.

Since the Orisha War that rained thousands of deities down on the streets of Lagos, David Mogo, demigod, scours Eko's dank underbelly for a living wage as a freelance Godhunter. In his biggest feat yet he captures a high god for a renowned Eko wizard. But when the wizard conjures a legion of Taboos - feral godling-child hybrids - to seize Lagos for himself, David must team up with his foster wizard, the high god's twin sister and a speech-impaired Muslim teenage girl to defeat the wizard.

It's time for another Information election. But unknown enemies are attacking Information's network infrastructure. Spies, former superpowers, and revolutionaries sharpen their knives in the shadows. And Information's best agents question whether the data monopoly they've served all their lives is worth saving, or whether it's time to burn the world down and start anew.

Jasminda is living quietly on her farm, shunned by townsfolk for the colour of her skin and her gift of Earthsong, when a group of Lagrimari soldiers wander into her valley with an Elsiran spy. Through Jack, the spy, Jasminda learns that the Mantle between Esira and Lagrimar is weakening, putting Elsira in grave danger. Their only hope lies in uncovering the secrets of the Queen Who Sleeps and Jasminda's Earthsong is the key to unravel them.

Inspector Keon's long search for his wife, Alysha, has led him to a grand conspiracy by a powerful cabal and the forces of distant Earth reaching into every level of Magentan society. Is she involved? Meanwhile the AI construct of his wife he created searches for her own place in this world. On the run, and with nowhere to turn Keon must decide who to trust: the wife he loves or the AI who loves him.

Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon and have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car. Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177.

Set ten years before THE GOLDEN COMPASS, this trilogy will center on the much-loved character Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon.

Tom Smith and his fellow refugees have escaped New York City and the teeming millions there infected with the zombie virus. Now they're holed up in a safe house in coastal Virginia, ready to breakout cross-country for the Cumberland Valley. Between him and his objective are hundreds of miles of clogged roads, burnt-out towns and howling mobs of infected humans who know only hunger.

Lauren Pailing is born in the sixties, and a child of the seventies. She is thirteen years old the first time she dies. Lauren Pailing is a teenager in the eighties, becomes a Londoner in the nineties. And each time she dies, new lives begin for the people who loved her - while Lauren enters a brand new life, too. But in each of Lauren's lives, a man called Peter Stanning disappears. And, in each of her lives, Lauren sets out to find him. And so it is that every ending is also a beginning. And so it is that, with each new beginning, Peter Stanning inches closer to finally being found...

Hadrian Marlowe now must go among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.

Rogue archaeologist Nolan Moore hosts a documentary series derisively dismissed by the "real" experts, but beloved of conspiracy theorists. He sets out to retrace the steps of an explorer from 1909 who claimed to have discovered a mysterious cavern high up in the ancient rock of the Grand Canyon. But the trip takes a nasty turn, and the cave begins turning against them in mysterious ways.

Europe, 1963. When the assassination of a traitor trading with the enemy goes terribly wrong, British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter must flee London. In a tense alliance with a lethal, mysterious woman named Karina Lazarova, he's caught in a quest for hidden knowledge from centuries before, an occult secret written in a language of fire. A secret that will give supremacy to the nation that possesses it.

When someone starts killing his fellow bounty hunters in the port of Fairhaven, Drago Appleroot is happy to help his contacts in the City Watch with their investigation - for a reasonable fee, of course. But posing as an assassin-for-hire to draw out the killer attracts the attention of two separate groups from a far-off Elven kingdom whose private war is being fought on the streets of his home town.

An anthology of stories exploring equipment failure in space.

Caitlin of House Sans Merci is the young half-human pilot of a sentient mechanical dragon. Returning from her first soul-stealing raid, she discovers an unwanted hitchhiker. When Caitlin is framed for the murder of her brother, to save herself she must disappear into Industrialized Faerie, looking for the one person who can clear her. Unfortunately, the stakes are higher than she knows.

Thousands of years after an abortive attempt to terraform Nod, the Portiids and their humans have sent an exploration vessel there after receiving fragmentary but desperate radio signals. On arrival they discover warring factions attempting to rebuild, following an apocalyptic catastrophe, apparently triggered by something those early terraformers woke.

Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life. He lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads. When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past - both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.

2019 Stoker Best Novel. 7 year old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what's going to happen is your fault".

What would happen if the ancient prophecy of the End of Days came true? A sign presaging the rising of the Third Temple is located in America, a dirty bomb is detonated in downtown Tel Aviv, and events conspire to place a team of archaeologists in the tunnels deep under the Temple Mount.

This collection explores the stories that shaped our modern idea of "fantasy." In addition to the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Mary Shelley, Christina Rossetti, Nikolai Gogol, Franz Kafka, L. Frank Baum, Robert E. Howard, and J. R. R. Tolkien, there are unexpected treasures from other traditions - including 14 stories never before available in English.

Commander Maryam "May" Knox awakes from a medically induced coma alone, adrift in space on a rapidly failing ship that was once bound for Europa on a research mission, the only survivor of either an accident - or worse, a deliberate massacre. When her estranged husband Stephen gets word that NASA has received a transmission from May, he comes rushing to her aid. What he doesn't know is that not everyone wants May to make it back alive. Even more terrifying: she might not be alone on that ship.

Told from the perspective of key players, including a cynical FBI agent, an audacious campaign manager, and a war veteran turned nurse turned secret operative, the story of a viral outbreak of vampirisim that leads to civil war in America.

House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. If Zahra and her crew kidnapped the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship, the ship would be their's. But what they could not know was what waited for them on the ship - a terrifying secret buried by the government, a threat to the whole human race.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey.

Jorit, broke and branded a thief, just wants to escape the Far Reaches for something better. Ania, a rumpled librarian, is trying to protect her books from the Pressmen, who value knowledge but none of the humanity that generates it. When they stumble upon a mysterious clock powered by an ancient jewel, they may discover secrets in the past that will change the future forever.

Tau is not one of the gifted, able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine - and thus he is fodder, destined to fight and die in an endless war. His plan is to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance - those closest to him are brutally murdered. Fixated on revenge, he dedicates himself to become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.

Even when his parents are accused of treason Aren supports the establishment and maintains there's been some mistake - which is all it takes to get himself and his best friend arrested. Thrown into a prison mine they plan their escape - only to be overtaken by events when they're rescued, and promptly find themselves in the middle of an ambush. By the time they've escaped, they're unavoidably linked to Garric - their unwelcome saviour - and his quest to overturn to Dachen way of life.

Though the Tsar aims his dragons at his enemies - Jews and Bolsheviks - his entire country is catching fire. Conspiracies suffuse the royal court: bureaucrats jostle one another for power, the mad monk Rasputin schemes for the Tsar's ear, and the desperate queen takes drastic measures to protect her family. Revolution is in the air - and the Red Army is hatching its own weapons.

With the Imperial foothold in the sector eliminated, the Far Stars is free and almost united. While Astra's forces continue to depose local tyrants and warlords, Ark and his crew have slipped back into the shadows. Then a petty smuggler makes a discovery that can enable the emperor to strike back and crush the resistance - unless Ark and Astra join forces again to stop him.

1803. Venerated old wizard Benjamin Franklin commissions Meriwether Lewis and his partner William Clark, who will be accompanied by the shape-shifting sorceress Sacajawea, to embark on a voyage of exploration, to meet and document the indigenous tribes, to find a route all the way to the Pacific Ocean - and perhaps beyond the magical veil to Europe again - and to stop the growing evil that is filling the American West.

A plague rages in the streets of Perizzi. City guards rally to deal with riots while the young magicians of the Tower pool their healing powers to find a cure. Elsewhere, new alliances are formed to stem the rising darkness strengthening a deity who feeds on pestilence and decay. Gods, Sorcerers and Battlemages must set aside the past and their vendettas to work together or risk unleashing greater suffering than they can possibly imagine.

Ten millenia after the events of CREATION MACHINE, the Spin is in decline and the beleaguered slave economy of the Inside is surrounded by rebel civilizations. A group of escapees from the vast forced-labor unit known as the Hive have stolen the last of the Inside's ancient warships and woken it from an enforced trance. Meanwhile someone has destroyed a planet that didn't exist, and halfway across the Spin, something has gone wrong with the sky.

2120. Mage-kind has retreated inside the domes that protect them from the nuclear wasteland on the other side. Nikolai's duty is to maintain the protective Veils, but then, confronted by one of his former instructors gone rogue, Nik tumbles into a dark secret. The humans weren't nuked into oblivion - they're still alive. Not only that, outside the domes a war rages between the last enclaves of free humans and vast machine intelligences.

Michael Poole was one of mankind's most influential heroes, a builder of wormhole transit systems that would ultimately lead to a vast and destructive conflict, a million-year war between humanity and the enigmatic, powerful aliens known as the Xeelee. That million-year war with humankind was one blemish on Xeelee history. It had to be erased. And in order to do that, a lone Xeelee was sent back in time to remove Michael Poole from history.

The first in a new fantasy series from the author of the acclaimed Divine Cities trilogy. In a city that runs on industrialized magic, a thief must join forces with the town's only honest cop to stop a ritual that will kill thousands - and threatens to make their home a battleground between ancient evils.

The Sturm, a group of "species purists" intent on destroying any human with genetic or cybernetic enhancements once cut a bloody swathe across the stars, killing billions before finally being defeated. Now, after centuries, they are back. On the brink of annihilation, humankind's only hope is five flawed, reluctant heroes who must band together to prevail against the relentless enemy and near-impossible odds.

After the young Eddie LaCrosse fails to save a stranger from being mauled to death by a bear, he leaves the baby girl that the man died to protect with a kindly shepherd family and goes on with his violent life. 16 years later his travels bring him back to that same part of the world. He finds that the child, now a lovely young teenager named Isadora, is at the center of complicated web of intrigue involving two feuding kings, a smitten prince, a powerful sorceress, an inhuman monster, and long-buried secrets too shocking to imagine. And once again she needs his help.

Audrey, granddaughter of Lady Trent, is recruited by Lord Gleinheigh to decipher a series of ancient tablets holding the secrets of the ancient Draconean civilization. She has no idea that her research will plunge her into an intricate conspiracy, one meant to incite rebellion and invoke war.

Seizing power after a controversial election, America's ruling regime has begun cracking down on dissidents fighting the nation's slide toward dictatorship. But for lawyer Donny Kimoe, chaos is good for business - he makes his living defending enemies of the state. His newest client, young filmmaker Xelina Rocafuerte, witnessed the murder of an opposition leader and is now accused of terrorism. To save her from the only sentence worse than death, Donny has to extract justice from a system that has abandoned the rule of law.

Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile, has returned to the Core. Determined to bring peace back to mankind at the edge of his sword, he must overcome or unite the treacherous Gold families of the Core and face down Darrow over the skies of war-torn Mercury. But theirs are not the only fates hanging in the balance. As alliances shift, break, and re-form - and power is seized, lost, and reclaimed - every player is at risk in a game of conquest that could turn the Rising into a new Dark Age.

Over the years Devera, a small Dragaeran girl of indeterminate powers has turned up at the oddest moments in Vlad's life. Now she appears again, to lead Vlad into a mysterious, seemingly empty manor overlooking the Great Sea. Inside this structure are corridors that double back on themselves, rooms that look out over other worlds, and - just maybe - answers to some of Vlad's long-asked questions about his world and his place in it. If only Devera can be persuaded to stop disappearing in the middle of his conversations with her...

A millenium after the Fallen Gods' War drove the regiments of a victorious army across the ocean in search of a new homeland, their god-touched blades rule a nation. When it's discovered that Riam and Nola carry enough Draegoran blood to serve in the regiments, they are dragged away from their families to begin training. Neither is given a choice...and neither may ever get the chance to serve.

With the Imperial fist tightened around her city of Cahokia and the beastkind of the Heron King ravaging across the river, Sarah Elytharias Penn must find a way to access the power of the Serpent Throne itself - a feat, she has learned, that her father never accomplished. To complicate her efforts, Cahokia's Metropolitan, a beloved and charismatic priest who despises the goddess as a demon, returns from a long pilgrimage and attempts to finalize the Wisdom-eradicating reform that dogged Sarah's father when he was king.

Percival Tunstell loves that his sister and her best friend are building themselves a family of misfits aboard their airship, the Spotted Custard. Of course, he'd never admit that he belongs among them. He's always been on the outside - dispassionate, aloof, and hatless. But accidental spies, a trip to Japan, and one smart and beautiful doctor may have him renegotiating his whole philosophy on life. Except hats. He's done with hats. Thank you very much.

Cassie Palmer has been chief seer of the supernatural world for a little over four months. Now she finds herself facing two adversaries, although they have a single purpose: to wipe out the supernatural community's newest fighting force, leaving it vulnerable to enemies in this world and beyond.

Julie Shakleford is the Guardian of a powerful ancient artifact known as the Kamaresh Yar, and Brother Death wants it. In the wrong hands, it could destroy reality as we know it. Julie would die before giving it up. Then her infant son Ray goes missing, taken by Brother Death. The price for his safe return: the Kamaresh Yar.

In Tananen, mage scribes learn to write the words of the Death Goddess as intentions, spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage. Each successful intention ages a mage. Now the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy the Goddess, not understanding that she is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside.

There's only one way for a man with Maseo Kaytu's criminal past to join the military: by volunteering for a suicide mission as a 'cry pilot'. Assigned to a squad of misfits, Kaytu learns how to fight, how to obey, and how to trust. Then he discovers that his platoon is being deployed against a new kind of rogue bio-weapon. One that has torn apart every military force it's ever faced.

Contributors include: Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Hoffman, Seanan McGuire, Richard Kadrey, Terry Dowling, Aliette de Bodard, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Gemma Files, Paul Tremblay, Pat Cadigan, and many more.

Three ancient, sentient, alien starships await Oichi Angelis, former Worm, along with her fellow insurgents on the generation starship Olympia. The race that made the Three are dead, but Oichi's people were engineered with this ancient DNA and must be judged by them. Before they're done, they will discover that weapons are the least of what the ships have to offer.

After his impeachment, the president of the United States refuses to leave office, and the country erupts into a fractured and violent war. Orphaned by the fighting and looking for a home, 10-year-old Hannah Miller joins a citizen militia in a besieged Indianapolis.In the Free Women militia, Hannah finds a makeshift family. Her older brother Alex ends up on the other side, in a militant group of fighters who see themselves as the last bastion of their America.

A collection of Flint's short stories.

Holmes and Watson discover a structure in Innsmouth designed to enable the Old Ones to flood into our world and unleash horrors that - unless stopped - will annihilate all of humanity. Yet when it is destroyed people continue to mutate and go mad. Cthulhu rises over Devil Reef, ready to unleash his minions. In an epic battle - logic vs. brawn - Holmes must defeat Cthulhu and permanently seal the deadly dimensions.

A remote Florida island is the perfect wedding destination for the upcoming nuptials of Anita's fellow U.S. Marshal and best friend, Edward. But long-simmering resentment leads to a big blow-up within the wedding party. Then women start disappearing from the hotel, and worse, her own friends and lovers are considered the prime suspects.

Young gunslinger Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards to be their local guide and gunnie. They're searching through the small border towns near Mexico, trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner, Oleg Karkarov. The wizards believe Oleg is a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin, and that Oleg's blood can save the young tsar's life. But it becomes clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission.

Passion drew a nameless, wild young man to a new world, and trickery has kept him there - without his memories, separated from his own people. But as he finds his way in this dangerous new life, so he learns that his notions of home, and your people, might not be as fixed as he believed. Illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins.

When an old enemy of Ragnvald's kidnaps his niece, Freydis, his sister Svanhild follows the daughter she has neglected to Iceland, where an old love awaits. Meanwhile a growing rebellion pits Ragnvald and his sons against enemies old and new, and a looming tragedy threatens to divide the hardened warrior from Harald and all who care for him.

Aiphaton, the son of the indelible and erstwhile Emperor of the Alfar, has sworn that his race will never again pose such a dire threat to the world. He is determined to seek out and destroy the last of his own people. But there may be a greater enemy to face - an enigmatic mage with powerful magic at her fingertips is threatening the entire country. Suddenly the Hidden Land's greatest enemy has become its only hope.

When Naval officer Mila Blackwood's submarine is attacked by a monster, she and fellow sailor, Holland, are marked with special abilities, whose manifestations could end the war - but in whose favor? Forced to submit to military scientists in her paranoid and war-torn home, Blackwood soon learns that the only people she can trust might also be the enemy.

A collection of her stories.

Three-time Hugo Award winner N. K. Jemisin's first collection of short fiction.

1930. An orphan from a faraway country, Anna lives in rural Oxfordshire with an old farmer named Gabriel who may be a demon, or an angel, or both. Her best friends are a doll named Pie and a werewolf. Her long-lost mother was an Anatolian witch. Here another world has opened out beyond her own, the Old World of myth and story, and it is not a fairy-tale. It is a darkness filled with eyes and teeth.

Short stories set in Kratman's Carrera military sf series, tales of the history of Mankind's future first colony, from the first failed attempt at colonization, to the rise in crime, to the rise in terrorism, to its descent into widespread civil war and rebellion...and ultimately liberation..

Shaman and warrior Rin cannot forget the atrocity she committed to save her people. Now she is on the run from her guilt, the opium addiction that holds her like a vice, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix - the vengeful god who has blessed Rin with her fearsome power. Though she does not want to live, she refuses to die until she avenges the traitorous Empress who betrayed Rin's homeland to its enemies.

In Israel, the Sons of Simeon, a group of religious extremists, persecute sorcerers while the government turns a blind eye. After a march for equal rights ends in brutal murder, empath, moodifier and reluctant waiter Reed becomes the next target. While his sorcerous and normie friends seek out his future killers, Reed complicates everything by falling hopelessly in love. As the battle for survival grows ever more personal, can Reed protect himself and his friends as the Sons of Simeon close in around them?

On the island of Kekon, the Kaul family is locked in a violent feud for control of the capital city and the supply of magical jade that endows trained Green Bone warriors with supernatural powers they alone have possessed for hundreds of years. And beyond Kekon's borders, powerful foreign governments and mercenary criminal kingpins alike turn their eyes on the island nation, forcing the Kaul family into new and dangerous alliances.

The residents of Sycamore River have only just adjusted to the end of the Change. Until the morning people notice that metal starts to behave oddly. It's dissolving. The world is pushed into global war, and a small band of Sycamore River survivors only have one another. They have to survive the unthinkable.

Needing to make some quick cash, teen hacker Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships - only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. She gets a call from the game's creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. But soon she uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

Illustrated by John Howe.

Xenovirus Takis-A has reached Britain. There, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, gifted with extraordinary longevity, together with the Enigma ace Alan Turing, set up a special organization named the Order of the Silver Helix. They will need all of the wild cards they can find if they are to deal with the terrifying mutations spawned by the virus.

While most of the displaced dragonriders known as the Oldtimers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed. Piemur, a journeyman harper, also feels displaced, cast adrift by the loss of his spectacular boyhood voice and uncertain of his future. But when the Masterharper of Pern sees promise in the young man and sends him undercover among the exiled Oldtimers, Piemur senses the looming catastrophe that threatens the balance of power between the Weyrs and Holds of Pern.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parents' violent deaths, is now a ward - virtually a hostage - of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished off the surface of the moon. Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point, that he is still a major player in the game.

In this world Rome never fell. Marcus Novius is caught in a massive explosion at the Coliseum which kills his uncle the emperor ... making Marcus, his heir, the new leader of the Roman Empire. Marcus had intended to usher a new era founded on freedom and justice, but he is horribly wounded himself in the explosion. And the Roman Empire is about to face its most dangerous enemy...

Beltur and his companions flee their refuge in Axal and are given the opportunity to become the Councillors of the run-down and disintegrating town of Haven. There Beltur and the others must reinstitute law and order, rebuild parts of the town, deal with brigands - and thwart an invading army.

[Vancouver author]. The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's house to listen to any fast tunes. Then one day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather's room, opens it - and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother.

An ex-corporate enforcer, Hakan Veil, is forced to bodyguard Madison Jegede, part of a colonial audit team investigating a disappeared lottery winner on Mars. But when Jegede is abducted, and Hakan nearly killed, the investigation takes him farther and deeper than he had ever expected. And soon Hakan discovers the heavy price he may have to pay to learn the truth.

Flawless Bershad is the most successful dragon slayer in history and marked as a doomed man, stands apart from the world. But the man who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an out. Kill a king and walk free forever. Bershad could care less about the fates of kings and kingdoms, until, that is, he discovers he is the only person able to save an innocent child and, possibly, the life of every creature in Terra.

Astounding follows these four friends and sometime rivals through the invention of modern science fiction in the thirties; their experiences in World War II; the dawn of dianetics, in which Campbell's pivotal role is fully examined for the first time; and the tragic final act that estranged him from the others and marked the end of science fiction's golden age.

Lirael lost one of her hands in the binding of Orannis, but now she has a new hand, one of gilded steel and Charter Magic. On a dangerous journey, Lirael returns to her childhood home, the Clayr's Glacier, where she was once a Second Assistant Librarian. There, a young woman from the distant North brings her a message from her long-dead mother, Arielle. It is a warning about the Witch with No Face. But who is the Witch, and what is she planning?

An extremist faction called the Brotherhood of Redemption launched a failed assassination attempt on the president that caused mass destruction. Sara Holmes is investigating the Brotherhood when she disappears. When Dr. Janet Watson receives a mysterious message from Holmes's cousin Micha that indicates that Sara Holmes' disappearance might be connected to the Brotherhood and to Adler Industries, Watson and Micha go on a high-stakes mission to reunite with Holmes once more.

When an Earth-like planet is discovered, a team of six teens, along with three veteran astronauts, embark on a twenty-year trip to set up a planet for human colonization - but find that space is more deadly than they ever could have imagined.

Lestat, rebel outlaw, addresses the tribe of vampires, directly, intimately, passionately, and tells the mesmerizing story of the formation of the Blood Communion and how he became Prince of the vampire world, the true ruler of this vast realm, and how his vision for all the Children of the Universe to thrive as one came to be.

Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend's wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history - a Medieval text known as the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches.

Arrested on accusations of witchcraft and treason, Storyteller Chant finds himself imprisoned in a foreign land. Chant has little idea of what is happening outside the walls of his cell, but he must quickly start to unravel the puzzle of his imprisonment before they execute him for his alleged crimes. He has one great power: his stories in the ears of the rulers determined to prosecute him for betraying a nation he knows next to nothing about.

Whispers have come from across the sea - rumours of an army called the Steel Horde, led by a man who believes himself a god. Vaelin has no wish to fight another war, but when he learns that Sherin, the woman he lost long ago, has fallen into the Horde's grasp, he travels to the realms of the Merchant Kings.

AD 55. As the reign of Emperor Claudius ends, turmoil in Rome spreads unease across the globe, giving heart to the enemy. The Roman army moves to deal with rebellion in its territories. Veterans Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro are selected for the most dangerous missions, and given command of troops whose lives as well as the fate of the Empire depend on their military might and vision.

A new take on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, taking the Beast's side of the story.

Oasis Natrun: a private, exclusive, highly secret luxury health spa for mummies, high in the hills above Marseille, equipped with the very latest in therapeutic innovations both magical and medical. When Dr. Greta Helsing, London's de facto mummy specialist, is invited to spend four months there as the interim clinical director, it isn't long before she finds herself faced with a medical mystery that will take all her diagnostic skill to solve.

Rook has been modified to fly 'shells,' huge robots that fight for the outer regions of settled space. When her shell is destroyed she is imprisoned, left stranded, scarred and broken. Then her cohort of prisoners is sold into indenture to a vast frontier corporation, and Rook's given another shell and sent to a rusting bucket of a ship on the end of known space to patrol a strange, unnerving permanent storm in space. Where something is stirring...

Marith's power is growing. His empire stretches across half the world, and allies are flocking to his banner to share the spoils of war. With Thalia ruling at his side they are unstoppable. But Marith is becoming increasingly mentally unstable and their victories cannot continue forever.

The mysterious Pulse was sent by a highly intelligent intergalactic species that called themselves the Ascendants. It soon becomes clear this alien race isn't just interested in communication - they are capable of rewriting human DNA, in an astonishing process they call the Elevation. Five years after the Pulse, acclaimed journalist Keith Thomas sets out to make sense of the event that altered the world.

Europe's despots and monarchs can barely contain the simmering anger of their people. From Ireland to Scandinavia, Italy to Spain, European fundemantalists have carried out assassinations, hijackings, and bombings on their own soil and elsewhere. Extremist fundamentalist leaders have begun calling for a "crusade", an obscure term from the mists of European history. Now senior investigator Khalid al-Zarzisi has been sent to Rome, ground zero of backwater discontent. He and his partner Dawud have been tasked with figuring out how to protect the tinpot Grand Duke, the impoverished Pope, and the overall status quo, before European instability starts overflowing into the First World.

Kate and Sophia and their dragon Dalgren form a desperate plan to free Phillip from prison. Thomas is crowned king and discovers a plot by King Ullr to invade Freya. And Henry is forced to flee to the Aligoes where he makes a discovery that could change the fortunes of his beleaguered nation.

Once NASA's leading astronaut, but now haunted by failure, Sally Jansen is called back from retirement when a large alien object enters the solar system and poises above Earth. She will lead NASA's expedition to the object. But then K-Space, a powerful corporation, launches its own rival mission intent on claiming ownership of the object and whatever lies within.

One moment of violence shatters Shawna's perfect life. Mysterious attackers kill her best friend. They're about to kill Shawna. She can't believe it's happening - and just like that, it isn't. It hasn't. No one else remembers the attack, or her friend. To everyone else, Shawna's friend never existed...everyone, that is, except the mysterious stranger who shows up in Shawna's shop. He claims her world has been perfect because she Shaped it to be perfect; that it is only one of uncounted Shaped worlds in a great Labyrinth; and that all those worlds are under threat from the Adversary who has now invaded hers.

His second collection of short fiction, essays, and provocations.

The Protector is dead. But in one tavern, deep in rebel territory, her greatest enemy drowns her sorrows. Lady Han raised a movement that sought the Protector's head, yet now she can only mourn her loss. She remembers how it all began, when the Protector was young, not yet crowned, and a desperate dancing girl dared to fall in love with her.

In a future dysfunctional Germany, Britta runs the Bridge, an outfit that supplies terrorist organizations looking to employ suicide bombers. It uses a complex candidate-identifying algorithm designed by Babak, a brilliant programmer and has cornered the market. Then their database is stolen and Britta, Babak, and their latest recruit are driven into hiding, pursued by a new terrorist organization called Empty Hearts, a group unlike any they've encountered before.

The slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control. The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another...

Stories from the first name in science fiction and fantasy - 15 stories spanning the SF/F genres - all by a "David." Includes stories by David Drake, David Weber, David Brin, D.J. Butler - and more!

With the demise of the Old King, there's a prophesy that a queen will ascend to the throne of the Black Hills. Bad news for the king's sons, who are prepared to defend their birthright against all comers. When it looks like the chosen king will be blacksmith Keeley Smythe's younger sister Beatrix, Keeley must protect her family from the enraged royals. Thundering to her aid comes a clan of kilt-wearing mountain warriors called the Amichai.

For Martin Newland watches and clocks are metaphorical time machines, a means of coming to terms with the past and voyaging into the future. But was his first timepiece a Smith, given to him on his fourteenth birthday, or the Longines he received four years later? Was it the small brass travelling clock unearthed in the run-down house for which he is to act as estate agent? And who is the maker of these time machines?

Deep within Albuquerque's Hydra Mountain hundreds of thousands of tons of nuclear waste are being stored. When a small plane crashes at a nearby military base, it sets off Hydra's lockdown, trapping a Department of Energy team in the heart of the hazardous, waste-filled mountain. Now, the only direction for them to go is deeper into the mountain, through the tear gas and into a secretive area no one was ever supposed to know about.

Catalina Baylor is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, and the Head of her House. Catalina has always been afraid to use her unique powers, but when her friend's mother and sister are murdered, Catalina risks her reputation and safety to unravel the mystery. But behind the scenes powerful forces are at work, and one of them is Alessandro Sagredo, the Italian Prime who was once Catalina's teenage crush.

The sequel to THE HANDMAID'S TALE - the testaments of three female narrators from Gilead on events taking place 15 years after Offred stepped into the unknown.

When Sikander finds himself in the middle of an alien uprising, he, once again, must do the impossible: smuggle an alien ambassador off-world, break a siege, and fight the irrational prejudice of his superior officers. The odds are against his success, and his choices could mean disgrace - or redemption.

Rubi Whiting works as a public defender to help troubled individuals with anti-social behavior. That's how she met Luciano Pox. Luce is a firebrand and has made a name for himself as a naysayer. But there's more to him than being a lightning rod for controversy. Rubi has to find out why the governments of the world want to bring Luce into custody, and why Luce is hellbent on stopping the recovery of the planet.

The corrupt leadership of the Great Library has fallen. But with the Archivist plotting his return to power, and the Library under siege from outside empires and kingdoms, its future is uncertain. Jess Brightwell and his friends must come together as never before, to forge a new future for the Great Library . . . or see everything it stood for crumble.

On the magic-drenched battlefield, information is the lifeblood of victory, and Aranthur is about to discover that carrying messages, scouting the enemy, keeping his nerve, and passing on orders is more dangerous, and more essential, then an inexperienced soldier could imagine . . . especially when everything starts to go wrong.

Isobel designs artificial 'heavens' for her clients, created from the memories they treasure most. She works for Oakley Associates, London's most prestigious firm of its kind. Her heavens are renowned for their beauty and perfection. But Isobel crosses an ethical line when she falls for Jarek, a new - and married - client. Then, in the wake of his wife's murder, Isobel uncovers a darker and deadlier side of the world she works in. As her life starts falling apart, Isobel realizes that nothing is as perfect as it seems, not even heaven itself...

Standalone novella (176pp). A team of explorers, Ariadne O'Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

The time for hiding underground is over. Heloise must face the tyrannical Order and lay siege to the Imperial Palace itself.

The Company's historian, Croaker, the one person who was taken into the Lady's Tower and returned unchanged, has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as the Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn't trust any of the Taken, especially not ones that look so much like the Lady and her sister.

A collection of Correia's short stories.

The best horror stories of the year includes entries from Michael Marshall Smith, Joe Hill and Adam-Troy Castro and many many more.

It is the dawn of the twentieth century. Following the Martians' failed invasion of Earth, the British Empire has seized their technology and unlocked its secrets for themselves, rolling out new machines and ever more deadly weapons in their quest for dominance. Featuring stories by Stephen Baxter, Adam Roberts, James Lovegrove, Emma Beeby and many more.

Three novellas featuring the intrepid necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: The Wurms of Blearmouth, The Crack'd Pot Trail and The Fiends of Nightmaria...

The United States of Europe sends an embassy to Ming China hoping to open trade. But the Ming dynasty is on the verge of collapse and China's rulers are suspicious of foreigners. The mission experiences one setback after another, but they gain an important ally in Zheng Zhilong, a former pirate now an admiral for the Ming navy and the head of an extremely wealthy Fujian province trading family.

Time shatters into shards of the past, present, and future. A group of survivors dodges threats from across history to locate the source and repair the damage before it's too late.

When a nobleman's first duty is to produce a male heir, women are treated like possessions and bargaining chips. But as the after effects of a world-altering spell ripple out physically and culturally, women at last have a bargaining chip of their own. And two women in particular find themselves at the liberating crossroads of change.

This volume of the year's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than five hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique.

Inspired by a gathering of scientists, science fiction authors, and futurists at a series of annual meetings held by the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop - this is a collection of original science fiction stories and nonfiction essays speculating about humanity's far-term expansion into the universe beyond the limits of our solar system - with an emphasis on the changes humans will undergo as a species.

Now mankind dreams of the Norse Gods once again, the river Dream is but a stone's throw from their dark prison, and Loki is the first to escape into a new reality. The first, but not the only one to. Other, darker, things have escaped with him, who seek to destroy everything that he covets. If he is to reclaim what has been lost, Loki will need allies, a plan, and plenty of tricks...

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place. Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl's imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they're too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas - until Tippy runs into The Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently.

Alice Wyndham has been plagued by visions of birds her whole life...until the mysterious Crowley reveals that Alice is an 'aviarist': capable of seeing nightjars, magical birds that guard human souls. When her best friend is hit by a car, only Alice can find and save her nightjar. With Crowley's help, Alice travels to the Rookery, a hidden, magical alternate London to hone her newfound talents.

Goblin King Mordak is really keen to be a lot less despicable than his predecessors. But the other goblins do not appreciate Mordak's attempts to redefine the role. With confidence in his leadership crumbling, what Mordak desperately needs is a distraction. Perhaps some of these humans moving to the Realm in search of great homes at an affordable price will be able to help?

After a series of high-profile delays and snags at the Sioux Crossing Supercollider, its multibillionaire owner hires journalist Alex Dolan to write a book about the facility and give it a positive spin. Then something goes wrong at the site. Very wrong. After the accident, Dolan finds himself changed, and the only one who can stop the disaster from destroying us all.

In Shiang, the young king rules without dissent. Though swordsmen stand watch on every corner, in one swift move, order is overturned, the balance of centuries undone, and in the darkness something terrible returns. Far to the west, four Shiang masters approach the city walls of Darien. The sword saint and his companions have crossed a continent to bring an old man home for punishment. And they will not be denied, even if the whole city stands in their way.

To return to L.A., James Stark, aka, Sandman Slim, had to make a deal with the evil power brokers, Wormwood - an arrangement that came with a catch. While he may be home, Stark isn't quite himself - because he's only partially alive. There's a time limit on his reanimated body, and unless Stark can find the people targeting Wormwood, he will die again - and this time there will be no coming back. Even though he's armed with the Room of Thirteen Doors, Stark knows he can't find Wormwood's enemies alone.

One night intruders silently murder Luke Ellis's parents and load him into a black SUV. Now he is in the Institute, imprisoned with other kids with special talents - telekinesis and telepathy - who got to this place the same way Luke did. The staff is ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. And no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz was able to deal with a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction by containing it and burying it in cold storage deep beneath a little-used military repository. Now the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy. Diaz races across the country to help two unwitting security guards - one an ex-con, the other a single mother - attempt to quarantine this horror again.

Mia Corvere, gladiatii, escaped slave and infamous assassin, is pursued by Blades of the Red Church and soldiers of the Luminatii legion. But beneath the City of Bridges and Bones a dark secret awaits. Together with her lover Ashlinn, brother Jonnen and a mysterious benefactor returned from beyond the veil of death, she must undertake a perilous journey across the Republic.

More than 100 of Lee's sketches and early conceptual pieces reveal how the project of creating an illustrated version of the Hobbit progressed from idea to finished art. In addition, there is a wealth of brand-new full-colour paintings and sketches drawn specially for this book.

Members of the Dagon Club, the secretive inner circle of the Diogenes Club, are being killed systematically, among them Holmes's own brother Mycroft. Meanwhile, unrest in Europe is threatening to turn into all-out war, and London is riddled with German spies whose machinations could have far-reaching, apocalyptic consequences. New enemies and old are conspiring against the great detective, and the stakes have never been higher.

Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, a thief and a minstrel's son raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself at the mercy of his new family's ruthless power plays and political ambitions. Practically a prisoner, Kihrin discovers that being a long-lost prince is nothing like what the storybooks promised.

J is one of 26 students at a school deep in a forest far away from the rest of the world, trained to be prodigies of art, science and athletics. He, like the others, think of the school's enigmatic founder as his father. Then he discovers another school like his own, but all girls. As he and one of the girls, K, work to investigate the secrets of their two strange schools, they come to discover something even more mysterious: each other.

Forced into retirement following his mission on Cappa, Colonel Carl Butler has resettled on Talca Four where he's now Deputy VP of Corporate Security, protecting a high-tech military company on the corporate battlefield. The job is largely ceremonial - until a breach of a competitor's computer network occurs. Butler is asked to investigate, and no sooner does he start digging when his first contact is murdered.

18 year old Liobhan and her brother wish to join an elite warior band on Swan Island. Because of their musical skills they are sent on a mission while still candidates, going undercover as traveling minstrels. Their mission is to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has gone missing. If the instrument is not played at the upcoming coronation, the candidate will not be accepted and the kingdom will be thrown into disarray.

The quarry that's been lying unsullied for over a century on Hazel Ellis's father's property is stirring the old magic that crosses the boundaries between this world and the next. With the aid of the Algonquin demigod Nanabush, Hazel must unravel a web of deceit that, if left untouched, could destroy her family and her home on both sides of the Medicine Wheel.

Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest. What she doesn't need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn't need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harbouring secrets of her own. There's no question of whether she'll take the case. The only question is whether she's emotionally prepared to survive it.

When the Luidaeg - October "Toby" Daye's oldest and most dangerous ally - tells her the time has come for the Selkies to fulfill their side of the bargain, and that Toby must be a part of the process, Toby can't refuse. Literally. They will travel to the fabled Duchy of Ships and call a convocation of the Selkies, telling them to come and meet the Luidaeg's price...or face the consequences. Of course, nothing is that simple.

Teenagers Mox and Mitsu founded the global business Supercute Enterprises armed only with a phone, a collection of their favourite cuddly toys and a love of all things kawaii. The Supercute aesthetic is now a way of life, but the business has continued to grow bigger and more powerful, morphing from an entertainment company to a ruthless organisation fighting for their right to the world's water.

The witch Circe has been banished by Zeus to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

1917. Delia's peaceful life with Police Captain Gabe Ryan is shattered when a strange young girl starts haunting their lives and threatens Gabe. The ghost draws her into a mystery surrounding a charismatic evangelist who preaches pacifism and an end to war. But as young people begin to disappear, and audiences display a loyalty and fervor not attributable to simple persuasion, that message of peace reveals a hidden dark side.

The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without a cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.

Under the guidance of Miss Gossage, tutor to a class of Unusual Talents, Amy takes part in the Great Game, a contest of skill against other institutes of learning. In a nightmare, and in the cellars of a house in Piccadilly, Amy glimpses a spectre who might have dogged her all her life. For a paladin, ordinary ghosts are no worry. But the Broken Doll is not an ordinary ghost. Wherever the limping spectre is seen, terror strikes. And the lopsided, cracked-face, glass-eyed creature might well be the most serious threat the Moth Club have ever faced.

An anthology of fantasy and horror stories inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

18 retellings of classic myths. Seanan McGuire, Naomi Novik, Ann Leckie, Stephen Graham Jones, Amal El-Mohtar, and Jeffrey Ford are among the contributors.

One of Luce Cannon's songs had just taken off and she was on her way to becoming a star. Now terror attacks and deadly viruses have led the government to ban concerts, and Luce's connection to the world - her music, her purpose - is closed off forever. Rosemary Laws has found a new job and a new calling: discover amazing musicians and bring their concerts to everyone via virtual reality. The only catch is that she'll have to do something she's never done before and go out in public.

Phantom cars and lanes from nowhere begin to appear on LA freeways. Sometimes unmarked offramps give glimpses of a desolate desert highway. Disgraced ex-Secret Sercice agent Sebastian Vickery has become a driver for a covert supernatural-evasion car service. Because of something he learned years ago at a halted Presidential motorcade he has become a target for another government agent that is using and perhaps causing the freeway anomalies.

They are the nobody people - ordinary individuals with extraordinary gifts who want one only thing: to live as equals in an America that is gripped by fear and hatred. But the government is passing discriminatory laws. Violent mobs are taking to the streets. And one of their own - an angry young man seething with self-loathing - has used his power in an act of mass violence that has put a new target on the community.

Pullman shares the narratives that have shaped his vision, his experience of writing, and the keys to mastering the art of storytelling. He charts the history of his own enchantment with story - from his own books to those of Blake, Milton, Dickens, and the Brothers Grimm, among others - and delves into the role of story in education, religion, and science.

American Fred Fredericks comes to the moon to install a communications system for China's Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding. Celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveler. And Chan Qi is daughter to the Minister of Finance, on the moon for reasons of her own. When she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything - on the moon, and on Earth.

Zafnafein, Drizzt's drow warrior father, is returned from the dead, centuries later, in a world he doesn't recognize. Struggling to navigate this transformed new world, Zaknafein realizes that some things have not changed: the threat of demons and the machinations of a drow matron no longer content with her family's position in the ranks of Houses.

Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost. The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient Parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar's blood-soaked past and stand together - and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past - even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

The Parthians have deposed King Rahdamistus of Armenia. Roman General Corbulo must restore his rule while preparing to fight the Parthians. So he welcomes the arrival of Cato and Macro, experienced soldiers who know how to knock into shape an undermanned unit of men ill-equipped for conflict. But Rhadamistus's brutality towards those who ousted him will spark an uprising which will test the bravery of the Roman army to the limit. While the enemy watches from over the border...

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep. As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected.

The Tolkien Calendar 2020 features all-new illustrations from Alan Lee's forthcoming Hobbit Sketchbook.

Roger Weathersby, who earns his living digging up corpses for medical schools, is framed for the murder of one of his cadavers. His former friend, princess Sibylla, offers to commute Roger's execution in a blood magic ritual which will bind him to her forever. Now he must help her investigate murders in the city of Caligo. The duo must navigate science and sorcery, palace intrigue and dank boneyards to catch a butcher before his killings tear their whole country apart.

Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by the Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom. But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money.

As the White King springs his great trap, and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile and his companions will scramble to return for one impossible final stand. In the darkest hour, will the Lightbringer come?

In the Tau Ceti system, a cauldron of trouble brews as a terrorist faction of the rebellious Sons of Arnold attacks the British Empire from within, and warships of the theocratic Caliphate enter the system, prepared to do their best to destroy the hated empire head on. Yet standing against the coming anarchy and tyranny is one intrepid spy prepared to risk all for queen and empire: the American born Royal Space Navy defense intellgience officer Commander Robert Rogers, known as Her Majesty's American.

Shawna Keys finds herself alone in some other Shaper's world, where, in her first two hours, she's rescued from a disintegrating island by an improbable flying machine she recognizes from Jules Verne's Robur the Conqueror, then seized from it by raiders flying tiny personal helicopters, and finally taken to a submarine that bears a strong resemblance to Captain Nemo's Nautilus. Oh, and accused of being both a spy and a witch.

Before Siggy has time to sit down and think about the mess her life has become, she finds herself the target of poachers who traffic in magical animals (or at least their body parts), a consortium of mages who want to register and study her, and an angry sparkle-punk Faerie assassin. The world is determined to nail Siggy's hide to the wall...literally.

After his father, a Song patriot, was murdered, Guo Jing fled to the plains and joined Ghengis Khan and his people, learning all he could from the warlord and his army. But what Guo Jing doesn't know is that he's destined to battle an opponent that will challenge him in every way imaginable. With the help and guidance of his shifus, the Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing returns to China to face his foe and carry out his destiny.

Somebody wants war. And it's not the Free Systems of the galaxy. No. It's a mom-and-pop convenience store gone galactic. It's the purveyors of balloons and nachos and supplies for bowling lanes. It's the company that made the droids and a large part of the technology that all of the Free Systems are using in their militaries. It's Snaggardirs. And they want to snag it all.

Raised by damaged adults - a con-man grandfather and a manipulative grandmother, a violent, drunken father and a mother who was repeatedly institutionalized - Joe grew up in abject poverty, living in slums and projects when not on the road, crisscrossing the country in his father's desperate attempts to escape the consequences of his past. And even though his creativity brought him success, he could not escape a dark and shocking secret that hung over his family's past, a violent truth that he uncovered over the course of decades involving mass murder.

Vast quantities of a rare energy source are discovered beneath the surface of Baldur-3, a remote planet beyond the outer fringes of Federation space. Now an old-fashioned "gold rush" is underway, resulting in widespread strife and sabotage and all-around pandemonium. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are dispatched to deal with the escalating crisis...which lies on the other side of a famously perilous region of space known as the Antares Maelstrom.

Amanda Ripley's quest to find out what happened to her mother leads her eventually to the remote Sevastopol Station. There she hopes to find the answers she seeks. But the station is in ruins, and death stalks the corridors in the form of a deadly alien the likes of which she never could have imagined.

2526. UN Space Command's only hope against the aliens are the Spartans: enhanced supersoldiers raised and trained from childhood via a clandestine black ops project to be living weapons. Led by Petty Officer John-117 the Spartans will attempt a desperate counterattack designed to buy humanity the time it needs to gather intelligence and prepare its defenses. But not everyone wants the Spartans to succeed.

After an epic battle in the hellish Pergamum nebula, lost and out of contact with Earth for an entire year, Pike and his trusted first officer, Number One, struggle to find and reunite the Enterprise's crew - all while Science Officer Spock confronts a mystery that puts even his exceptional skills to the test...with more than their own survival possibly riding on the outcome....

As Grand Admiral Thrawn's TIE defender program is halted in favor of Director Krennic's secret Death Star project, and he works to secure his place in the Imperial hierarchy, his former protege Eli Vanto returns with a dire warning about Thrawn's homeworld. Thrawn's mastery of strategy must guide him through an impossible choice: duty to the Chiss Ascendancy, or fealty to the Empire he has sworn to serve. Even if the right choice means committing treason.

A planet of lush forests, precarious mountains, and towering, petrified trees, Batuu is the last settled world before the mysterious expanse of Wild Space. Its largest settlement, Black Spire Outpost, harbours rogues, smugglers, and adventurers. Vi, a Resistance spy on the run from the First Order, is hardly a welcome guest. And when a shuttle full of stormtroopers lands in her wake, determined to root her out, she has no idea where to find help.

While picking up a new cargo on Persephone, Captain Malcolm Reynolds is kidnapped by a bunch of embittered veteran Browncoats who suspect him of sabotaging the Independents during the war. As the rest of the crew struggle to locate him, Mal is placed on trial for his life, fighting compelling evidence that someone did indeed betray them to the Alliance all those years ago.

Two heroic teenagers - one born with extraordinary gifts, one unwillingly transformed - together they can change the world - or put it in the destructive hands of a danger beyond imagination.

Cassandra Anderson will be a living legend, Psi-Division's most famous Judge. But for now it's 2101, and a young Judge Anderson is in her second year out of the Academy, the Eagle still gleaming on her shoulder. It's time to put her training - and her judgement - to the test. Three original stories from female authors have Anderson taking on biker gangs and reclusive celebrities, cults and reluctant partners, and a psychic team of murderers...