Most unexpectedly, General Agon has come to recognize the inherent evil of the Dominion and its depraved Blood Priests and has turned on his former leaders. Awkwardly at first, Lewis Cayce and Agon join forces to press their common enemy back toward the dark heart of the Dominion in the Great Valley of Mexico. But more Dominion troops have been drawn from the west to stop the Allied march on the Holy City, and a grueling race has begun.

Since stumbling from their world into the Up and Under, Avery and Zib have walked the improbable road across forests, seas and skies, finding friends in the unlikeliest of places and enemies great in number, as they make their way toward the Impossible City in the hope of finding their way home.But the final part of their journey is filled with danger and demise. Not everyone will make it through unscathed. Not everyone will make it through alive.

The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are well-acquainted with the weird and never shy away from a challenging case. But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake - going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven - the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head.

Jared Clement has returned to Trinity, now a 5 Suns Fleet Admiral. When his migrant fleet arrives in the system, he learns that former Fleet Admiral Elara DeVore has escaped her exile on the planet Alphus and has a new fleet and a new ally, the Solar League from Earth. The Solar League has arrived with a massive fleet and plans on taking Trinity for itself, then forcing the 5 Suns to surrender. Clement is faced with the almost impossible task of defending both his people and the natives from becoming slaves of the Solar League.

1643: A small group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed in an isolated part of Northern England and flee into Moresby Wood. Of the 17 who entered, only two emerge. Today: five women are headed into Moresby Wood to discover, once and for all, what happened to that unfortunate group of soldiers.

Shantiport was supposed to be a gateway to the stars. But the city is sinking, and its colonist rulers aren't helping anyone but themselves. Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, has no desire to escape Shantiport. But her brother, Bador, is a small monkey bot with a big attitude and bigger ambitions. When Shantiport's resident tech billionaire coerces Lina into retrieving a powerful artifact rumoured to be able to reshape reality, forces from before their time begin coalescing around the siblings.

In 2145 AD John Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller - beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back - but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, a mission which will take him five million years to complete. He will return to a vastly different time, a time in which erosion has almost erased every landmass on Earth.

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

The winds shift nervously on the Kansas plain whispering of travelers lost and buried, whispering of witches. Something dark and twisted has taken root at the Bender Inn. At first the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. Kate's messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope and her mother's potions cure their little ills - for a price. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life.

Lilith, the youngest musketress of Ninetha, has never seen a book, and she never expects to encounter one within the safety of the citadel. When Ishmael, an outcast librarian, shows up outside the Afriq Gate, Lilith saves him from immediate execution by her father's second-in-command, the zealot Kira. As Lilith's curiosity draws her to Ishmael, she lets slip her family's most dangerous secret, sparking a deadly rebellion and an unexpected journey full of stunning revelations.

Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is now an Auditor, enforcing laws about magic for Boston's Department of Unorthodox Affairs. But tiring of being overlooked for all the exciting cases, he appropriates a case file intended for a friend. Alongside Leslie Mayflower, the temporarily unretired Huntsman, Grimsby aims to crack the case and discover the origin of a strange, unfinished ritual.

To join the Colonial Marines, Jeanette Vasquez had to give up her twin children. Raised by Jeanette's sister, those children, Leticia and Ramon, had to discover their own ways to survive. Leticia by following her mother's path into the military, Ramon into the corporate hierarchy of Weyland-Yutani. Their paths would converge on an unnamed planet which some see as a potential utopia, while others would use it for highly secretive research. Regardless of whatever humans might have planned for it, however, Xenomorphs will turn it into a living hell.

A collection of stories set from before, during, and after the events of THE CITY OF BRASS, THE KINGDOM OF COPPER, and THE EMPIRE OF GOLD.

Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King's ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper. When Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she embarks on a wild chase for intel, first through Hell and then mortal Shanghai.

Bren Cameron is tasked with getting Ilisidi, the aiji-dowager, back to the capital alive, on an urgent basis. But events are cascading down on the south, the Guild is stretched thin in the east, and the Shadow Guild is within striking distance of critical targets that could bring war to the entire south.

In a bleak, desiccated future, 11 year old Magdala and her father are forced to flee through the desolate landscape of the American Southwest, searching for shelter and peace. Pursued by horrors both unnatural and all-too-human, they join a pilgrimage to the holy city of Las Vegas, where it is said that vigilante saints reside, bright with neon power. Magdala, born with a clubfoot, is determined to be healed there.

In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher - the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. A failed assassination attempt brings Kel together with physician Lin Caster, one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. Together they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane's underworld.

The wreck of the Ormen, an old whaling ship, has washed up on the forbidding, remote coast of Iceland. It's scheduled to be destroyed, but explorer Dominique feels an inexplicable pull to document its last days, even though those who have ventured onto the wreck before her have met uncanny ends. Onboard she will uncover a dark past riddled with lies, cruelty, and murder--and her discovery will change everything. Because she'll soon realize she's not alone. Something has walked the floors of the Ormen for almost a century. Something that craves revenge.

Los Angeles: the 1970s. Disco is king. But below the glitz and glamor, a darkness lurks. Chloe Mendoza knows darkness. She is a nagualii, a half-demon created by the gods of Central and South America, a daughter of the Court of Feathers, a group of demigods who ruled Mesoamerica before the Spanish arrived. Now, a member of Monster Hunter International, Chloe gets a message from the Court of Feathers, warning her of a Dark Master who is building up its power in the region.

A horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu and many more.

Nellie Gardner is looking for a way out of an abusive marriage when she learns that her long-lost grandfather, August Redfern, has willed her his turpentine estate. She arrives in Georgia with her 11 year old son Max to find a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old pine forest. It takes her a while to notice the strange scratching in the walls, the faint whispering at night, how the forest is eerily quiet.

Outside the walls of Phoenix City a plague has overrun Ireland -- one bite from the savage skrake means death or infection. Inside, the city is ruled by an oppressive and ruthless elite, their rule enforced by Orpen and the banshees - a fierce, all-women force of fighters. But when two women are publicly executed, Orpen knows she must make a choice between guaranteed survival within a cruel society or treacherous freedom beyond the walls.

Rosemary meets Ash at the farmers' market. Ash - precise, pretty, and practically perfect - sells bars of soap in delicate pastel colors, sprinkle-spackled cupcakes stacked on scalloped stands, beeswax candles, jelly jars of honey, and glossy green plants. Ro has never felt this way about another woman; with Ash, she wants to be her and have her in equal measure. But as her obsession with Ash consumes her, she may find she's not the one doing the devouring...

He's known as The Cur, and he leaves no trace - except for the victims he viciously slays every fifteen years. Young women who refuse to conform and don't know when to shut up. This is the story of 13 year old Lila Sawyer from 2019 and artist Caroline Sawyer from 2004.

25 year old American grad student Grayson Hale, an acerbic young atheist, is newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger, but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him.

Promoted and sent north to the tundra of Windscar, Iari leads a team of templars to investigate ancient, subterranean ruins. As they delve into the ruins, they find remnants of long-ago battles, bits of broken armor and mechas - which unexpectedly reanimate and attack. It seems there is still dangerous arithmancy in Windscar - but the source isn't who Iari expected, and they're far worse than the separatists.

A retelling of Beowulf. All her life, Fryda has longed to be a shield maiden, an honor reserved for Geatland's mightiest warriors. Now, when foreign lords and chieftains descend upon Fryda's home to celebrate her uncle King Beowulf's fifty-year reign, she realizes not all their guests come with good intentions.

Saint Petersburg, 1812. Russian forces have defeated Napoleon at great cost, and the tsar's empire is once again at peace. Sasha, a captain in the imperial army, returns home to Grand Duke Felix, the disgraced second son of the tsar and his irrepressibly charming lover, but their reunion is quickly interrupted by the arrival of Sofia, a mysteriously persuasive figure whose disruptive presence Sasha suspects to be something more than human.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But she is not good at people, so when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of spending time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby. But as she gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery. Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want?

Continuing the Eastern Europe storyline from 1637: THE POLISH MAELSTROM. Up-timer Morris Roth and his Grand Army of the Sunrise stand at a crossroads. An envoy from Transylvania arrives with a promising offer from its prince, who wishes to form an alliance with Bohemia, but the land shrouded in the fog of the Carpathian mountains and known only to most up-timers as the playground of Count Dracula is a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Such an alliance would surely draw the ire of Sultan Murad IV.

Casia Greythorne is still reeling from a devastating loss and the revelation of an identity she wasn't ready for. She must now also master the strange magic that's awakening within her. But first she must lead her friends through cursed lands and the dwellings of the gods, away from the crumbling empire and the king-emperor who clutches the crown with ever-bloodier hands.

Gripped by a tyrant king and in the thrall of dark magic, the kingdom is in peril. Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last - and most important - one remains to be found: the Twin Alders. If they're going to find the card before Solstice and set free the kingdom, they will need to journey through the dangerous mist-cloaked forest. The only one who can lead them through is the Nightmare, the monster that shares Elspeth's head. And he's not eager to share any longer.

The alien-conquered Earth governments don't trust Brooklyn Lamontagne, while the Average Joe can't make up their mind -- but all agree that Brooklyn should stay in space. Now, he's just about covering his bills with junk-food runs to Venus and transporting horny honeymooners to Tycho aboard his aging spaceship, the Victory. When a pal asks for a ride to Mars, Brooklyn lands in a solar system's worth of espionage, backroom alliances, ancient treasures and secret plots while encountering a navigation system that just wants to be loved...

The heart is a battlefield. All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, she found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret. Light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire's shadows.

400 pages of last year's best, featuring such authors as Angela Slatter and Gemma Files.

Collecting the year's best fantasy stories: 406 pages, including Elizabeth Bear, Max Gladstone, etc.

It's 1962 and physics student Grace Pulansky believes she has met the man of her dreams, Robert Jones, while serving up slices of pecan pie at the local diner. But then the FBI shows up, with their fedoras and off-the-rack business suits, and accuses him of being a bomb-planting mass-murderer. Finding herself on the run with Jones across America's Southwest, the discoveries awaiting Gracie will undermine everything she knows about the universe.

Deep inside the Ice wastes, Raythe's people stumbled upon Rath Argentium, the legendary Aldar city, and the long-lost Tangato people. Now they've put aside their dreams of wealth and revenge and embraced something better: a life outside the tyrannical Bolgravian Empire. But the Bolgravian Empire hasn't forgotten Raythe Vyre. Guided by Toran Zorne, the implacable imperial assassin, they are coming to claim Rath Argentium for themselves.

Anita Blake is engaged to Jean-Claude, the new vampire king of America. In the midst of wedding preparations, Anita gets a call that the local police need her expertise at a brutal murder scene linked to a nationwide slaughter of vampires and humans. But there is more than just a murderer to catch: an ancient evil has arrived in St. Louis to challenge Jean-Claude for his crown, his life, Anita, and all they hold dear.

An authorized return to the world of Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. Struggling playwright Holly Sherwin has received a grant to develop her play, The Witch of Edmonton. All she needs now is time and space to bring her vision to life. And when she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she knows she's found the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Featuring 16 stories from the best contemporary speculative authors from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, including John Ajvide Lindqvist, Hannu Rajaniemi, Tor Age Bringsvaerd and more, many of which are appearing in English for the very first time.

Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. The young woman has a wise and independent streak and is determined to become much more than a pawn to be moved about on anyone's gameboard. Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Chani - the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist who serves under the harsh rule of House Harkonnen - is trained in the Fremen mystical ways by an ancient Reverend Mother.

Jame rides south to Bashti. Here she confronts an unready and presumptuous heir, a withholding and manipulative paymaster, and invisible assassins. Her formal errand, meanwhile, is to compete in martial games with secret stakes - which she fears are a cloak for a massacre, or worse.

The team of commercial sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson can help with any metaphysical engineering project, large or small (though by definition they all tend to be pretty large). They can also create massive great puddles of chaos that might one day swallow up the entire universe. Take, for example, the decision to recruit a certain bearded fellow whose previous work experience mainly involves reindeer and jingle bells. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but is he really the best person to save the world from Tiamat the Destroyer, who has literally gone ballistic?

Every year, Vedma Kada gives thanks to the bone roots - those that belong to the child-bearing tree who gave Kada her desperately-wanted baby, Secha. Kada lives her life in service of the bone roots and the goddess Zemya, but they cannot keep her daughter safe. Not when Secha's emerging powers, both mysterious and brutish, threaten to out her for who she truly is...

The first original novel from Howey in six years. In a barren land of howling wind and infernal sand, siblings Conner, Rob, Palmer and Violet daily carve out a future. On the other side of No Man's Land, Anya follows her father to a strange land of dunes to bring vengeance to their enemies, after an atomic bomb delivered to her town by a stranger murders all her friends and community.

Far off the edge of human existence, beside a dying star, lies a nameless ship abandoned and hidden, lost for a millennium. One thousand years later refugee, criminal and linguist Sean Wren is given a choice: life in prison, "voluntary" military service - or salvaging data in a long-dead language from an abandoned ship filled with traps and monsters, just days before it is to be destroyed in a supernova.

Deep in the birchwoods of Norway, magic courses through the veins of two sisters. For years they've been alone, but sweet-tempered Kaija is tired of living in shadows and longs for a life filled with community, even if it means stifling her magic. But Minna is a witch through and through, with wrath always simmering just below the surface. Different as they may be, both will never forget the day they were driven from their village. The day their mother burned.

All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat.But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge. To survive, Stephen will have to take his talent and build it up into something greater - for only then can he beat them at their own game.

On a dusty backwater planet, occasional thief Jun Ironway has her hands on the score of a lifetime: a secret that could raze the Kindom, the ruling power of the galaxy. A star system away, preternaturally stoic Chono and brilliant hothead Esek - the two most brutal clerics of the Kindom - are tasked with hunting Jun down. And tracking all three across the stars is a ghost from their shared past known only as Six.

Winner of the Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy and Best Horror Novel. The Masters, dreadful and severe, rule the Red City and the lands far beyond it. By night, they politic and feast, drinking from townsfolk resigned to their fates. By day, the Masters must rely on their human servants, their Day Boys, to fulfill their every need and carry out their will. Mark is a Day Boy, practically raised by his Master, Dain.

Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading - and destroying the entire universe in the process - the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside.

Hanuvar had pledged to find the remnants of his people, scattered into slavery across the whole of the peninsula. This time he had no army to help him. His would be a stealthy war of liberation, buying the freedom of some and arranging for the escape of others, aided only by a young playwright, the daughter of a hated political rival, the tattered remnants of his old spy network, and the unlikeliest ally of all, the general who had once defeated him.

Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock, Idaho. Convicted serial killer Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for 389 Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard. Dark Mill South's Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday. Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.

Ford and Neuland are paranormal mercenaries - one living, one undead. One of them kills the undead, the other kills the living. When a job goes bad in New York, they head west to wait for the heat to cool down. There, a young woman named Tilda Rosenbloom hires them on behalf of wealthy landowner, Shepherd Mansfield, to track and kill a demon haunting a mansion in remote northern California. Novella.

Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out 30 year old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She's been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she'll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help.

Toba Peres can speak, but not shout; sleep, but not dream. She can write with both hands at once, in different languages, but she keeps her talents hidden at her grandparents' behest. It is the time of the Spanish Inquisition, when all Jews must convert or be banished. Toba stumbles through a pomegranate grove into the mirror realm of the Mazik: mythical, terrible immortals with an Inquisition of their own, equally cruel and even more powerful.

For Balthazar and his family of thieves, stealing a statue during the annual celebration of the god Karanis was just a good bit of fun...or a way to stick it to the governor who murdered his parents. And yeah, the small fortune in reward doesn't hurt - even if his boss also hired the mysterious Queen of Days to join the crew as "the weapon of last resort..." Whatever that means. But Bal doesn't know the ceremony isn't simply empty words and dusty tradition; it's true magic. The kind of magic that rips open a portal for the god himself.

The twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explores the ever-expanding and changing world of science fiction and fantasy today.

Seven ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world, featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Shaun Tan.

The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri's power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels' plans, the choice becomes clear. Stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what's right. And they've never been very good at staying silent.

Following a confrontation with her reclusive great-grandfather, the one-time Wizard of Oz, Rainary Ko - the granddaughter of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West - has re-upped in a mission to settle a few scores and right a wrong or two. Traveling companions and arrivistes can befuddle a young witch coming into her own, but Rain marshals a steely determination to stare her troubles in the eye and see who blinks first.

In 2108, Colony Ship Voyager departed Earth for the planet of Promissa with 18,000 of the world's best and brightest on board. 250 years and 27 light years later, an arrival is imminent. But all is not well. The probes that they've sent ahead to gather the data needed to establish any kind of settlement aren't responding, and the information they have received has presented more questions than answers. It's a time when the entire crew should be coming together to solve the problem, but the crew is too busy forming factions to notice.

The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven't a modicum of honor, a fact Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows Waverly Green's most notorious rake Lord Phillip Vexley to blackmail her. And now it seems Vexley isn't the only scoundrel interested in securing her unique talents as a painter. To avoid Vexley's clutches and a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced into an alliance with the enigmatic Lord Ashford, who is actually the demon known as the Prince of Envy, come here from his circle of hell.

Maud Blyth has always longed for adventure. She expected plenty of it when she volunteered to serve as an old lady's companion on an ocean liner, in order to help her beloved older brother unravel a magical conspiracy that began generations ago. What she didn't expect was for the old lady in question to turn up dead on the first day of the voyage. Now she has to deal with a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and the lovely, dangerously outrageous Violet Debenham.

St Philomena's military hospital has been abandoned for over three years. Now Lilian Chesterfield, who works for one of the most successful building companies in England, is in charge of developing it into a luxury housing complex. But as soon as she and her colleagues start work in the Jacobean-style mansion, their dream turns into a nightmare.

Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds and navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe. Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Together they escape the military and journey to the rubble of a neuromodifcation lab that hides a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful.

The power of the Sixth Gate grows stronger within Raine each day - to control it, she needs lessons no living Draoihn can teach her, lessons hidden in the ever-changing pages of the book. Amidst threats old and new, Raine must learn the secrets promised by the book, magic promised by a queen with a crown of feathers. A queen to whom Raine has promised more than she can afford to give...

Along with the Undersea and the rest of the Court of Cats, Tybalt, King of Cats has been banished by Titania, Faerie's Summer Queen, Mother of Illusions. Now he must find the woman he loves in a world designed to keep her from him, convince her that he's not a stranger trying to ruin her life for no apparent reason, and get her to unmake the illusion she's been firmly enmeshed in.

Inga has been trained and augmented, and now she has been assigned to help rescue a trapped Legion force from the surface of Delta Three. With Marines plummeting into surface combat, an orbital space battle raging, and assassins swarming within Hightower, the stakes could scarcely be greater, but in the midst of this tumult, treacherous revelations continue to unfold.

After nearly winning the eleventh iteration of Rabbits, the mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses the entire world as its canvas, Emily Connors suddenly finds herself trapped in a dimensional stream where the game does not exist. Meanwhile, architect and theme park designer Rowan Chess is having the weirdest month of his life, full of odd coincidences and people who appear one moment and vanish the next. The game that is hiding from Emily seems to have found Rowan - with a vengeance.

His first short story collection spans forty years of work and features many never before published pieces.

Cordelia Bone's meticulously crafted life and career in Dallas are crashing down around her thanks to a philandering husband with criminal debts. When her older, carefree sister, Eustace - a cannabis grower in Boulder - calls to inform her that the great aunt they never met has died and they must travel to a small town in Connecticut to deal with the estate, she sees an opportunity to unload the house and save herself.But once there, the sisters learn they are getting much more than they bargained for.

Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like, and might actually be, a centuries-long sleep with two new innate pieces of knowledge. Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence. And he is the Cure. He begins slipping into an alternate consciousness, with new physical strengths, to violently defend his family - the only Black family in their neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles - against pure evil.

After his parents die in a house fire, 14 year old Richard is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne, where he quickly earns a reputation as an outcast. When a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects that the angry new boy is responsible. Certainly no one believes Richard when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie.

1984, from the point of view of Julia. Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. One day she finds herself walking toward Winston Smith in a corridor and impulsively slips him a note, setting in motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story.

Naira and Tarquin have escaped vicious counter-revolutionaries, misprinted monsters, and the pull of a dying planet. Now, bound together to find the truth behind the blight that has been killing habitable planets, they need to hunt out the Mercator family secrets. But, when the head of Mercator disappears, taking the universe's remaining supply of starship fuel with him, chaos breaks loose between the ruling families. Naira's revolution must be put aside for the sake of humanity's immediate survival.

September, 1940. Three women of the Checquy, the secret organization tasked with protecting Britain from supernatural threats, break the law and bring down a Nazi bomber. They resolve to tell no one about it, but soon learn that a crew member is missing from the downed bomber. Charred corpses are discovered in nearby houses and it becomes apparent that the women have unwittingly unleashed a monster.

Niger, West Africa, 2074. When 15 year old Ejii witnesses her father's beheading, her world shatters. In a time of mind-blowing technology and seductive mysticism, Ejii embarks on a journey to track down her father's killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face to face with an earth turned inside out - and with her own mystical ability. And then she discovers that her travels across the sands of the Sahara have a deeper purpose.

On a foggy winter morning Luca Wolf and Emma Reich discover an 18th century sailing ship stranded on a barren flower field, its name written on its side: Oracle. Emma, unable to resist, enters the hatch on the tilted deck. The ship's bell begins to toll and no one sees her again. Before long eleven more have disappeared, and Luca and his mother have been abducted by a clandestine government agency that forces Robert Grim, a retired specialist of the occult with a strange history and a healthy dislike of authority, to unravel the mystery.

There's no formal training for battlefield salvage. You just have to pick things up as you go along. Swords, armor, arrows - and the bodies, of course. Over the years, Saevus Corax has picked up a lot of things. Some of them have made him decent money, others have brought nothing but trouble. But it's a living, and somebody has to deal with the dead. Something else that Saevus has buried is his past. Unfortunately, he didn't quite succeed.

Featuring horror stories by: Maurice Broaddus, P. Djele Clark, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, and many more.

Nathan Treeves is dead, murdered by the Master of Mordew, his remains used to create the powerful occult weapon known as the Tinderbox. His companions are scattered, making for Malarkoi, the city of the Mistress, the Master's enemy. Only Sirius, Nathan's faithful magical dog, has not forgotten the boy. Bent on revenge, he returns to the shattered remains of Mordew - only to find the city morphed into an impossible mountain, swarming with monsters.

Three years after running away from home, Olivia is stuck with a dead-end job in nowhere town Chapel Hill, Pennsylvania. At least she has her best friend, Sunflower. Olivia figures she'll die in Chapel Hill, if not from boredom, then the summer night storm which crashes into town with a mind-bending monster in tow. If Olivia's going to escape Chapel Hill and someday reconcile with her parents, she'll need to dodge residents enslaved by the storm's otherworldly powers and find Sunflower.

Tchami "Chummy" Fabrice has brought together an odd and mismatched group of Africans to an ambitious end - constructing the world's first space elevator in Africa. With this, the space industry that it initiates will enrich the continent and all involved. They have the carbon nanofiber, prime land around Kilimanjaro, and a captured rock in orbit for the tether. The hard part will be getting all these different people working together long enough to see it built.

Erebus Resort in the Colorado Rockies offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire's son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.

After publishing his debut novel to disappointing sales and reviews, Campbell P. Marion is struggling to find inspiration for a follow-up. When Edenville College invites him to join as a writer-in-residence, he's convinced that his bad luck has finally taken a turn. But there's something wrong in Edenville. Despite the charming old ladies milling about Main Street and picturesque sunflowers dotting the sidewalks, poison lurks beneath the surface.

It's been over a decade since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy and Evan Whitesky led his Ashinaabe community in remote northern Ontario off the rez and into the bush. Now Evan and his 15 year old daughter, Nangohns will lead a small scouting party on a months-long trip to their traditional home on the north shore of Lake Huron - to seek new beginnings, and discover what kind of life - and what dangers - still exist in the lands to the south.

It is Keegan who is at Breen's side when the enemy's witches, traitorous and power-mad, appear to her in her sleep, practicing black magick, sacrificing the innocent, and plotting a brutal destruction for Breen. And soon, united with him and with all of Talamh, she will seek out those in desperate need of rescue, and confront the darkness with every weapon she has: her sword, her magicks - and her courage...

Novella. Quintus Shu'al, the world's only navigating fox, is in disgrace after guiding an expedition to its doom, leaving no survivors. One year later, Quintus is offered the chance to redeem himself. He will need to lead a motley, fractious team - both human and animal - all the way to the gates of Hell.

When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie's workplace, she blows up Frankie's life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, sleeping with strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. As their relationship intensifies, so too does Frankie's feeling that Vanya is hiding something from her. When Vanya's secrets threaten to tear them apart, Frankie starts digging, and unearths a sinister, depraved conspiracy, the roots of which go deeper than she ever imagined.

THE FEMALE MAN (1975), WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO...(1977), ON STRIKE AGAINST GOD (1980), the complete Alyx stories and assorted other stories, in one volume.

A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. He's not alone - there are six others. None of them can remember their names, but all bear the scars of recent surgery. When a message appears on the onboard computer -Proceeding to Point A- the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming. But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form, and the group is plagued by questions. Who is directing them, why have their memories been wiped, and what are the screams they can hear beyond the mist?

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other's communities from certain disaster?

For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set - with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders - since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead.

A limited number of signed copies available. A new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own - but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown it instead. And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion. And now a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds. Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together - or unravel it all.

The vicious Tempest Runner Lourna Dee stays one step ahead of the Jedi Order at the helm of a vessel named after one of the deadliest monsters in the galaxy: herself. But then Lourna falls into the hands of the Jedi - but not before she hides her identity, becoming just another Nihil convict. But as Lourna plans her glorious escape, she makes alliances that grow dangerously close to friendships.

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity. She will never speak of it again. Two decades later her daughter Ashling becomes convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show.

Drawn to the desert scrublands and Hollywood mansions of California, Haven discovers a string of murders that point directly to members of her family. And when the trail of death ends at a studio from the Golden Age of horror films, reality and fiction become the strangest of bedfellows indeed.

Over a hundred stories from more than 25 different countries - from gritty, near-future noir to pulse-pounding action. Urban rebels undermine monolithic corporate overlords. Daring heists are conducted through back alleys and the darkest parts of the online world. There's dangerous new technology, cybernetic enhancements, scheming AIs, corporate mercenaries, improbable weapons, and roguish hackers.

Hacker Murdock is part of a foursome with a formidable reputation for daring heists, massive payoffs, and never, ever getting caught. Until now. Now they are imprisoned aboard a sentient warship that's styled itself into a punitive god. The Justice's all-seeing eyes are fixed on its newest acquisitions, Murdock in particular. It has use for a hacker - if it can wrest her devotion away from the group.

Returning to the slime-covered ruins of the city of R'lyeh and the tentacled deity who slumbers there would make anyone hungry. The terrifying trio behind the best-selling Necronomnomnom have summoned forth another gruesome grimoire: a throng of more than 50 nightmarish nibbles.

An alternate 1979. Apollo 32, commanded by career astronaut Vivian Carter, docks at NASA's Columbia space station en route to its main mission: exploring the volcanic Marius Hills region of the Moon. Vivian is caught in the crossfire as four Soviet Soyuz craft appear without warning to assault the orbiting station.

A magical serial killer is stalking the Occult town of Wrackton. Hypnotic whistling causes victims to chew their own tongues off, leading to the killer being dubbed the Whistler (original, right?). Enter the Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don't ask). They are hired to investigate the murders, but with their only case so far left unsolved,will they be up to the task?

The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn't exist before - and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her, but who is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel.

Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance - and Lin is dangerously short of allies. As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Yet legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide.

In this exuberant retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story. But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns. Her best-loved sister Kitty is really a barn cat; Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would one expect from a demon? And if Mr. Darcy is uptight about etiquette, that's nothing compared to his feelings about magic. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that for a witch, promises have power...

St Mary's is under investigation. Their director has been shot and Max is Number One Suspect. She needs to get away - fast - but dare she risk another jump so soon? And if she does, will it be a case of from the frying pan into the fire? We all know the answer to that one.

Earth is failing. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carry its precious human cargo to a potential new Eden. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then Liff, Holt's granddaughter, hears whispers that the strangers in town aren't from neighbouring farmland. That they possess unparalleled technology - and that they've arrived from another world.

On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less. Nina Treadway is new to the Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina's heard about the Day, of course. But until the nightmare begins, she believes it all superstitious nonsense.

Bullied to the point of dropping out of school, Kokoro's days blur together as she hides in her bedroom, unable to face her family or friends. As she spirals into despair, her mirror begins to shine; with a touch, Kokoro is pulled from her lonely life into a resplendent, bizarre fairytale castle guarded by a strange girl in a wolf mask. Six other students have been brought to the castle, and soon this marvelous refuge becomes their playground.

Novella. A widowed writer begins to work on a biography of a novelist and artist - and soon uncovers bizarre parallels between her own life and her subject's.

Members of the Gordian Division, both human and AI, were to fly out to Saturn, inspect the construction of their latest time machines, then fly back. But when the division's top scientist and chief engineer are killed in the same freak accident, suspicions of foul play run deep. Detective Isaac Cho is sent in to investigate, accompanied by Special Agent Susan Cantrell - whose notion of proper "law enforcement" involves blowing up criminals first and skipping questions entirely.

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war. Greta has a secret, though. The witch's grimoire, secreted away and whispering in Greta's ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you've ever tasted.

Delve into the era of the Unification Wars and discover Constantin Valdor's role in bringing about the Imperium of Mankind.

Each night, one thorn witch - and only one - must cross the veil by burning at the stake. Each morning, that witch draws on their magic to return. Failure to follow the rules risks the veil and risks them all. But one morning, Penny's favorite sister Ella doesn't return. And that night, determined to find her, Penny breaks the rules and burns in secret. And she discovers that all isn't as it seems in Life or Death, as her journey leads her to Malin, a devastating lord with too many secrets; to Alice, a mysterious captive prophet; and to a rebellion brewing in the shadows beneath the city.

While the Dragonqueen and her flights set to reshaping Azeroth, not all of dragonkind sees Order magic as a gift. Spurning the titans' interference, a group of rebel primal dragons drink deep from the elemental powers of the planet and are reborn as the Incarnates. Led by Iridikron, the Incarnates believe that dragonkind should be subservient to no one. They foment a rebellion against the Aspects, what they are and all they stand for.

Martha Einkorn fled her father's isolated compound in Oregon to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything and surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry while spouting technological prophecy. Meanwhile, across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, a famous internet survivalist, flees from an assassin. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for?

Benjamin Sisko tells the story of his career in Starfleet, and his life as a father and Bajor's Emmissary of the Prophets. Charting his rise through the ranks, his pioneering work designing the Defiant-class, his critical role as ambassador and leader during the Dominion War, and his sacred standing as a religious leader of his adopted home.

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk and to spend her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor. Still, adventure isn't all that far away.

Faithfully reproduced from notebooks kept in the 1970s and 80s, these annotated original illustrations by Banks depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of the Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

Illustrated by Rovina Cai. Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue. Before Cardan was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone.

Ray Bradbury believed that, someday, a collection of his letters could illuminate the story of his life in new ways. That story emerges across time and memory from the pages of REMEMBRANCE.

208 pages. When Lieutenant-Rider Laren Mapstone is made mentor to Tavin Bankside, a Green Rider trainee on his first message errand, her cold and brooding exterior quickly earns her the moniker the "Ice Lady." But after Laren is severely wounded, the walls fall and Tavin's natural empathic gift leaves him vulnerable to the assault of the lieutenant's emotions. Tavin must save Lieutenant Mapstone's life and master his own empathic gift before it destroys them both.

Auris's adoptive sister Char knows she will never grow into the woman she was meant to be under her family's loving but repressive eye, so a month before she turns fifteen, she runs away and joins a Human pirate crew in the warm southerly regions of her world. Then, three years into her pirate career, her captain - the man she is convinced she loves - is captured by the leaders of the slave trade he has been fighting.

Penric and Desdemona are back in three novellas in the World of the Five Gods: MASQUERADE IN LODI, THE ORPHANS OF RASPAY, and THE PHYSICIANS OF VILNOC.

From the creation of heaven and earth to Ragnarok, the Norse myths are told from the perspective of Loki, the trickster God.

A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch's diplomatic agents. It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion - assuming that it is not already too late.

Tanta and Cole may have stopped the mass murder of InTech's residents, but the cost was severe. Despite their efforts, Harlow 2.0 - the update to InTech's mind-based operating system - fed out. Now its citizens are compliant zombies, and Tanta and her crew are trapped underground. All except for Fliss, who has no system to update. She alone can go outside, and it's Fliss the crew are relying on to help get them out. For only then can they dismantle the damage Harlow 2.0 has done.

The 31 stories by disabled authors imagine such wonders as a shapeshifter on a first date, skin that sprouts orchid buds, and a cereal-box demon. An insulin pump diverts an undead mob. An autistic teen sets out to discover the local cranberry bog's sinister secret. A pizza delivery on Mars goes wrong.

Ana and Reid needed a lucky break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Then they win an apartment in one of Manhattan's most revered buildings with beautiful vistas of Central Park and stunning architecture. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana's deep unease and paranoia as the price of living in New York - people are odd - but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on the baby.

From the countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - the best stories of the year.

Best horror stories of the previous year.

London, 1861. Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges - searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone. But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. He's nearly seven feet tall, with matted hair covering his legs, and on his head are the suggestion of horns.

For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To them it is just a giant scam.And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they're armed to the teeth.

Two young women - Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing - find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic.

Siyon Velo might be acknowledged as the Alchemist. He may even have stabilized the planes and stopped Bezim from ever shaking into the sea again. But that doesn't mean he has any idea what he's doing - and it won't be long before everyone knows it. To make things worse, mythical creatures once confined to operas and myths are spotted around Bezim. It's up to Siyon to figure out a way to stop it, or everything he's worked so hard to save will come crashing down.

The captain of a ragtag mercenary ship is given an offer she can't refuse by the ruthless head of an intergalactic noble family. The only catch is she'll have to team up with his son - an upsettingly competent hardbody with his own agenda - to get her reward.

Casia has survived her brother's attempts to crush her but the battle is just beginning. Bitter, wounded and carrying the curse of a dark upper-god, she journeys north to the elven court in search of allies. The Court of Moreth holds knowledge, secrets - and power. The kind of power that could shift everything in her favour. But only if she can survive it.

An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock is trying to make sense of the world. Living alone in an old house, he spends his time reading comic books, collecting birds' eggs, and playing with marbles. When one day a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears on a horse and cart, offering a cure-all medicine, a mysterious friendship develops and the young boy is introduced to a world beyond his wildest imagination.

All the archaic hominids have to save them is a dying quantum computer called Quancee and her student, a Denisovan man named Lynx. When the last Jemen, Vice Admiral Jorgenson, tells Lynx he's going to dismantle Quancee and use her parts to create a new computer, Lynx is stunned. He can't let Jorgenson kill Quancee! Meanwhile, in the lodges of the Sealion People, a sick boy on the verge of manhood hears voices.

St. Louis Necromancer/US Marshal Anita Blake never expected her walk down the aisle with Jean-Claude to go smoothly. They've already been confronted with naysayers and a power-hungry ancient evil, but now Anita has to do the one thing that actually scares her: introduce her very religious, very human relatives to her fiance - the newly crowned vampire king of America.

David is growing up in a world where something is very badly wrong but everyone is protecting David from knowing what it is. People are going missing, bodies are showing up with wings, or bones in nests if you believe the rumours from the kids at school. Most importantly for David the centre of his world - his grandfather - is gone. His parents say he is dead but why is his grandfather's backpack and jumper missing from the house?

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland - and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it's best to let the uncanny house - and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling - go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden.

Seeker and Sower Pen Yas ben Min has grown up in the shadow of her legendary cousin, but when she's given a quest to plant the seed of the magical Fourth Tree, she has a chance to step into the light. Fighter and Friend Abhi must complete one last mission to speak to the colossal creatures who wait beneath the waves - the krakens. Sailor and Explorer Koesha, having secured an unusual cloak that has turned out to be the key to unlocking the mystery of the Seventh Kenning, must risk everything on another life-threatening journey.

Celia wakes up in a house that's supposed to be hers, but Celia knows this family - and this life - is not hers. Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip - but then her friend's boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she's in a dangerous situation and she doesn't know who put her there or why. Three women. Three stories. Only one way out.

When a top engineer on Mercury commits suicide, Detective Isaac Cho and Special Agent Susan Cantrell of the Gordian Division are called in to review the case. But what seems like an open-and-shut case spirals into the strange. And if Cho and Cantrell don't solve the mystery soon, they may be the next ones to wind up dead.

Adam's commander is concerned about the rumours coming from Oxford and its surrounds, rumours that Father John - the only man who escaped Plymouth's grasp - is building an army, and decides to send Adam to investigate. To Adam's surprise, the city appears to be thriving, with a healthy populace and objects not seen since before the Sisters fell. However, it does not take long before dark events follow Adam. Murders, paint-splashed graffiti on walls, people going missing - and he can't help but wonder if the past is following him.

31 sf short stories in tribute to the prophetic dystopias of J. G. Ballard - featuring Chris Beckett, Pat Cadigan, Adrian Cole, Ramsey Campbell, Paul Di Filippo, Christopher Fowler, Jeff Noon, James Lovegrove, Barry Malzberg, Michael Moorcock, Adrian McKinty, Adam Roberts, Iain Sinclair, Lavie Tidhar and many more.

Every adventuring party has a starting quest. Join Edgin Darvis and his team of heroic (well, occasionally heroic) heisters in this official prequel to the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Kindred Greyreach dives below to find a Seafloor populated by roving bands of scavengers. Among them, she discovers a familiar face working to save the Sea from the continued spread of the Greys and the ravages of the world above. Meanwhile, above, a boy named Flitch, son of the Baron of the Borders, finds himself caught in a dangerous political crisis as survivors from Arcadia and the Once-City arrive on the Mainland.

A new group of visitors come to the Cafe Funiculi Funicula, ready to take a trip to the past and back in the time it takes for their coffee to get cold: The Husband with Something Important Left to Say; The Woman Who Couldn't Bid Her Dog Farewell; The Woman Who Couldn't Answer a Proposal; The Daughter Who Drove Her Father Away.

1462: an alien who feasts on the suffering of sentient beings dines off the agonies of Vlad the Impaler's twenty-thousand victims near Targoviste, Romania. 1688: a woman is framed for witchcraft and hanged by the neck in Boston. 1965: a toy store that never seems to run out of special toys is suspected of being the location of a temporal portal, the same one used by the agony-feeding alien. 2022: a grandfather, showing his young grandchildren what remains of the Boston of his youth, is shown that portal by his granddaughters.

Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory Viridian on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory's best friend from high school. Mallory doesn't believe in coincidences, and so she's not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. Also, there is a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and some alarmingly peculiar behavior from the sentient space station they all call home.

In 16th-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule. The mask off, Leonora de las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs.

Lal is languishing in her role at a coffee shop and feeling overshadowed by her quietly brilliant sister, Janetta, whose Ph.D. is focused on making auts empathetic. Even Rose, Lal's best friend, has found a sense of purpose in charismatic up-and-coming politician Alek. When vigilantes break in to the coffee shop and destroy their new coffee-making aut, it sets in motion a chain of events that will pull the three young women in very different directions.

From the author of the ARABELLA OF MARS series. After a heist has gone wrong, the gang called the Cannibal Club scatters in a storm of recriminations. Ten years later, Strange's son Cayce shows up at Kane's door to break Strange out of captivity. But after ten years, no one is who they were - and some are not what they seem.

A companion to the series that includes (1) a brand-new, redrawn world map by Ellisa Mitchell using change requests discovered in Robert Jordan's unpublished notes; (2) An alternate scene from an early draft of the Eye of the World; (3) The long-awaited backstory of Nakomi; (4) 8 page, full color photo insert.

Following the shocking destruction of Starlight Beacon, the Nihil have established an impenetrable barrier called the Stormwall around part of the Outer Rim, where Marchion Ro rules and his followers wreak havoc at his every whim. Jedi trapped behind enemy lines, including Avar Kriss, must fight to help the worlds being pillaged by the Nihil while staying one step ahead of the marauders and their Nameless terrors.

Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. But they will need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross, who is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

Up and Down goes Carissa in her elevator, content with the sometimes chewy food her reality fabricator spits out, as long as it means she doesn't have to speak to another living person. Then a mysterious shapeshifter from an ambiguous world lands on top of her elevator, intent on stopping a plot to annihilate hundreds of floors, and Carissa finds herself stepping out of her comfort zone, forced to flee into the Wild Massive network of theme parks in the Building.

Beatrice Bird is plagued by ghosts. It's a gift she's had since she was a small child that has grown more intense. In a desperate attempt for relief, she flees her home, her partner, and a psychology practice in San Francisco for a remote island with only nuns and a few cows for company. Then she meets Anne Iredale, a timid woman who has lost everything that matters to her. And for the first time in a long time, Beatrice's gift will be called on to help someone in need.

During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner's remote control. When a young man claiming to be a time traveler appears, our protagonist has a brilliant idea. The sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control.

Traumatized by their escape from Bassa, Lilong and Danso have found safety in a vagabond colony on the edge of the emperor's control. But a new bounty makes every person a threat, and whispers of magic have roused those eager for their own power. Yet Lilong is determined to return the Diwi - the ibor heirloom - to her people. It's the only way to keep it safe from Esheme's insatiable desire.

2009. The US has been a second-rate power ever since Argentina's victory in the Falkland's War -- thanks to their development of "psychopigments." They have now been embraced in the US as both pharmaceutical cure-alls and popular recreational drugs. Psychopigment Enforcement Agent Kay Curtida works a beat in Daly City, just outside the ruins of San Francisco, chasing down smalltime crooks. But when an old friend shows up with a tantalizing lead on a career-making case, Curtida's humdrum existence suddenly gets a boost.

Zoey Ashe, the 23 year old heiress to a criminal empire must navigate a futuristic world of high-tech liars and cutthroats. Now the gleaming new city of Tabula Rasa is hosting its massive annual music festival, which every year precedes the equally massive annual drunken riot. This is all organized by Zoey's people, including the riot. But then a horrific crime is broadcast live on an all-seeing social network, and Zoey and her team suspect a carefully staged hoax arranged by one of the Tabula Rasa's shadowy power players.

A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present - loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, pop bands and the perils of social media.

It's important to look after your crew when you're in the battlefield salvage business. It's stressful work at the best of times, and although your employees are unlikely to be happy it makes sense to keep them alive. So when Saevus Corax finds himself having to capture a castle to stop his men from being killed, he has no choice but to give it a try. Needless to say, the conventional rules of siegecraft are unlikely to be followed. ____Puyssegur, Alain T. ]THE HIGHLANDS CHILDREN. [ASSASSIN'S CREED: FRAGMENTS]. Titan, 21.95 tp. Scotland, 1296. Under assault from King Edward I, the besieged city of Berwick-upon-Tweed is delivered into the hands of the English, who massacre and burn everything in their path. Aileas and Fillan, 16-year-old orphan twins, get separated on that horrific night. Aileas is carried away and disappears while Fillan manages to join forces with a Scottish clan fleeing to the north, into the very heart of the Highlands, where he will meet a mysterious group named the Brotherhood of Assassins.

A novella. In 17th-century London, unnatural babies are being born, with eyes made for the dark and webbed digits suited to the sea. Sarah Davis, now a London midwife's apprentice to a member of the illegal Worshipful Company of Midwives, is hired by the pregnant wife of Lord Christopher Wren. She soon attracts the attention of the famous architect, whose interest in the uncanny borders on obsession and finds herself caught between those who want to use her power for themselves, and those whose pursuits threaten to unmake the earth itself.

Teenage gaming prodigy Lynn Raven has stepped out of the shadows to compete in the cutting-edge augmented reality game TransDimensional Hunter that has taken the world by storm. And she's winning. But with success has come swarms of paparazzi drones, jealous teammates, and a backstabbing rival team that will use any trick in the book to ruin her. Then there's the game itself, where at times, the "augmented" reality seems too real for Lynn's comfort, and strange accidents keep happening.

The standalone story "The Lightning Tree" is expanded to twice its previous length and lavishly illustrated by Nate Taylor. When Bast accepts a gift, taking something for nothing, his whole world is knocked askew, for he knows how to bargain - but not how to owe. From dawn to midnight over the course of a single day, the Kingkiller Chronicle's most charming fae schemes and sneaks, dancing into trouble and back out again with uncanny grace.

1968. After actress Gemma Turner accepts the lead in an experimental French horror film, she disappears on set and is never seen again. Yet Gemma is alive. She's been pulled into the film. And the script - and the monsters within it - are coming to life. 2007. Screenings of L'Etrange Lune only happen once a decade, and each time there is new, impossible footage of Gemma that shouldn't exist. Curiosity drives film student Christopher Kent to unravel the truth. But answers to the film's mystery may leave him trapped by it forever.

Two years before the events of Stranger Things: Season 4. Eddie Munson - Hellfire Club leader, metalhead, and Hawkins outcast - has one shot to make it big. All he needs to do is make a demo tape of his band's best songs. Just one problem: Recording costs money. His dad just stumbled back into his life, with another dubious scheme up his sleeve, and yet Eddie knows this is his only option to make enough dough in enough time. It's a risk, but if it pays off he will finally have a one-way ticket out of Hawkins.

An anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African diaspora.

Kat, a talented thief, is pursuing one big score that will settle the debt that destroyed her family. No easy feat in a realm where indentured spirits hold vigil over every vault and treasure room. However, Kat has a unique gift: she can speak to those spirits, and even command them. She'll need every advantage she can get.

If the Barish-Estranza corporation can't have the planet, they're sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there's something wrong with Murderbot; it isn't running within normal operational parameters. ART's crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza's SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they're going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what's wrong with itself, and fast! 256 pages.

Across three epic novels, THE COLD FORGE, PROTOTYPE, and INTO CHARYBDIS, see how the Xenomorph doctrine of Weyland-Yutani and Venture is a short and angry road to hell.

An all new posthumous collection of stories.

Old denim jackets, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and the occasional beer at the White Horse Lounge have defined urban indigenous woman Kari James's life so far. But when her cousin Debby finds an old family bracelet that once belonged to Kari's mother, it inadvertently calls up both her mother's ghost and a monstrous entity, and her willful ignorance about her past is no longer sustainable...

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College - Violet included. But now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just the brutal and grueling training -- it's the new vice commandant, who's made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is - unless she betrays the man she loves..

The fog of war is lifted and the conspiracy at the heart of Eidyn finally exposed. Now that they know the truth, Aranok and his allies must find a way to free a country that doesn't know it's held captive. But with divided loyalties and his closest friendship shaken, can their alliance hold against overwhelming odds? The quest to retake the country begins here.

Nestled in the Swiss Alps, VAMPS is the ultimate academy for the children of the most wealthy and powerful vampire families. Unfortunately for Dillon, he's an outsider - to be more specific, he's a dhampir: a vampire that is half human. If he wants to survive more than a single term, he's going to need to embrace his fangs. But blood never lies and soon, it becomes clear there is something special and deadly in Dillon's veins. But as his power grows, so does the target on his back...

Lorelei Aurelius is the smartest inquisitor in the mountain city of Ancris. When a mysterious tip leads her to a clandestine meeting between the Church and the hated Red Knives, she uncovers a plot that threatens not only her home but the empire itself .The trail leads her to Rylan Holbrooke, a notorious thief posing as a dragon singer. Knowing his incarceration could lead to the Red Knives' achieving their goals, Lorelei makes a fateful decision and she frees him. Now branded as traitors, the two flee the city on dragonback.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya's only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself. But winning won't be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with Raihn, a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father's crown... and her greatest competition.

Exiled to a far-flung island after being abused by powerful Gods, Medusa has little company other than the snakes that adorn her head instead of hair. Haunted by the memories of a life before everything was stolen from her, she has no choice but to make peace with her present: she is Medusa the Monster. But when the charmed and beautiful Perseus arrives on the island, her lonely existence is blown open, unleashing desire, love - and betrayal.

Cego and his team enter year two at the world's most prestigious combat school, the Lyceum. Though he'd like to focus on his martial studies, Cego feels the pull of his mysterious past and two missing brothers. Solara Halberd, daughter of the fighting legend, embarks on her own quest to bury the past. She must utilize every lesson her father taught her to explore unknown lands where evil lurks in the shadows.

An all-encompassing narrative of the 3500 year-long Second Age of Middle Earth, with 120 illustrations.

Follow up to the World Fantasy Award-winner for 2021. The best stories from the ever more diverse set of writers associated with Africa.

Talia Merritt, a former military sniper once known as Death's Handmaiden, is a woman haunted by her past. Her cybernetic arm and her phantom - the implant that allows her to control it - serve as a constant reminder of what she's lost. But Talia is hoping to leave her past and her reputation behind and start anew on the colony world of Goruden, a hardscrabble planet of frontier-minded people seeking a better life.

Dock rat David Artan takes every job he can on a poor fringe world. When he's hired to guide a boat crewed by an interstellar mafia, he comes face to face with an ancient power - the Veil - that was pivotal to a civil war that ended decades ago. Almost killed by agents of the dead and defeated Tyrant who nearly enslaved the galaxy, he's rescued by warrior scholars and given the chance to journey beyond the Veil.

Casia Greythorne is ready to take her place on the throne, to unite the empire and stand against the gods themselves. But to claim her crown - to save her world and the people she loves - she must confront her past and finally discover the answers hidden within it. Even though it may destroy her hope of a future.

The power of the dark god Malaphar grows ever stronger, threatening the future of the world before Casia's reign has even begun. Still there is hope. A way to banish him forever has been revealed. It will take Casia and her friends into a strange new realm, where they must face old enemies and race to decipher a bewildering ancient magic. But time is short. Chaos spreads throughout the empires and the bonds between allies begin to fray.

Caine Riordan and his self-styled "Crewe" have survived floods, dust storms, tornadoes, searing heat, bitter cold, desperate battles, and attacks by various strange species. However, their most desperate struggles have been against the wildly ferocious x'qao, for whom the pursuit and genocide of other beings is as much a sport as it is a strategy. Caine realizes that if they are to endure, they must claw higher up the food chain - before they tumble off into extinction.

Rosemary and Aaron Harker, along with their supernatural hound Botherton have been effectively, unofficially sidelined. So, when they are sent to a town just outside of Boston with orders to investigate suspicious activity carefully, the Harkers suspect that it is a test. Particularly since the hunt involves a member of the benefactors, wealthy individuals who donate money to the Huntsmen in exchange for certain special privileges and protections.

Lucas Carr went to Glenbury Hall, an old country manor house turned hotel. He signed in at reception, took his key, and went upstairs to his room. But he never got there. Somehow he vanished along the way, with not a single clue to suggest what might have happened to him. Lucas belonged to the same mysterious organization that employs Ishmael and Penny, so they are sent in to solve the mystery. But when they arrive at grim and isolated Glenbury Hall, they discover it has a reputation as one of the most haunted old houses in England.

A chance discovery - a lost letter written by Lovecraft to fellow Weird Tales author, Robert Blake - send Miskatonic University grad student Owen across the witch-haunted Massachusetts landscape toward the mysterious seaside town of Innsmouth. He finds himself caught up in a secret war between the servants of the Great Old Ones and their ancient enemies. A war in which yesterday's friend may be tomorrow's foe and nothing is as it seems.

Light and dark - this is the birthright placed upon Natasha and Clara by their godfather, the mysterious sorcerer Drosselmeyer. Clara, the favorite, grows into beauty and ease, while Natasha is cursed to live in her sister's shadow. But Natasha gets her chance at revenge one fateful Christmas Eve when Drosselmeyer brings the Nutcracker, an enchanted present that offers entry into a deceptively beautiful world: the Kingdom of Sweets. In this land of snow and sugar, Natasha is presented with a power far greater than Drosselmeyer. The Sugar Plum Fairy is also full of gifts - and dreadful bargains.

The invitations always arrive without warning, appearing around the city on the first snowfall of the year, simply inscribed with 'Tonight.' When struggling artist, Forster, finds an invitation, he's bewitched by the magic of the evening, swept up in the glamour of this notorious annual party and intrigued as to who is behind them. Determined to find out more about the mysterious host, Forster discovers an abandoned manor house silent with secrets and a cursed woman who is desparate to be free...

This 17th anthology of short stories set in the beloved Valdemar high fantasy universe features tales by debut and established authors and a brand-new story from Mercedes Lackey herself.

The refugees from the Empire have established a thriving city called Haven with the help of the Tayledras and their allies. But even with Haven settled, the lands around Haven are not without danger. Most of the danger comes in the form of magicians: magicians taking advantage of the abundant magical energy in the lands the Tayledras have cleansed; magicians who have no compunction about allying themselves with dark powers and enslaving magical beasts and the Elementals themselves.

Emily "Tock" Lepstein-Jackson is on a mission to rid the world of shifters trafficking humans for hunting and cash. And now that she's narrowed down her suspects to a brutal coalition of male lions, nothing will get between this honey badger and her prey - not even a dog-loving tiger with absolutely no time management skills.

Each expedition in the three-way race for Mars (China, the US, and a secretive cabal of multi-billionaires), becomes more challenging. The challenges of survival on that arid, radiation-drenched, all-but-airless, planet have somehow fallen into the lap of NASA engineer - and reluctant astronaut - Xander Hopkins. But now he must make sense of the seemingly unstoppable plague that has already killed, that seems poised to devastate all life on Mars and another world. Earth.

Cal Kestis and the crew of the Stinger Mantis meet a stormtrooper determined to chart her own course with the help of Cal and the crew. And the Imperial deserter brings word of a powerful, potentially invaluable tool for their fight against the Empire. Even better, she can help them get to it. The only catch - pursuing it will bring them into the path of one of the Empire's most dangerous servants, the Inquisitor known as the Fifth Brother.

1934. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance leave their small time confidence scams behind to attempt an elaborate kidnapping-for-ransom scheme in New Orleans. In a different part of town, Curtis Mayhew, a young black man, works as a redcap for the Union Railroad Station. What none know is that Curtis has a special talent for listening...and he can sometimes hear things that aren't spoken aloud. One day, that special talent allows him to overhear a child's cry for help, which draws him into the dangerous world of Partlow and LaFrance.

Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right. But what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her? As if that wasn't enough, one of the paper's ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.

Year 2160: our nameless antihero, a synesthete and former detective, and his daughter, Ascalon, navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by barbaric Zeroes - the permanent residents of the continent's biggest landfill, The Great Leachate - who cling to the ways of the old world. Now 19, Ascalon, a synesthete herself, takes over this story while her father succumbs to grief and decades of Akira's manipulation. Tasked with the impossible, Ascalon must find a way to free what's left of the human race.

Velasin and Caethari have been summoned north to Tithena's capital city, Qi-Xihan, to present themselves to its monarch. With Caethari newly invested as his grandmother's heir and Velasin's old ghosts gnawing at his heels, what little peace they've managed to find is swiftly put to the test. Pursued by unknown assailants and with Qi-Xihan's court factions jockeying for power, Vel and Cae must use all the skills at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive.

Beneath a sky of limpid sapphire blue, the research ship Gorgon rolled gently on the scintillating waters of the Caribbean Sea.Below, in a deep sea bathysphere a thousand feet below sea level, an impossible murder takes place. And only Sexton Blake can solve the case!

Crammed with new images and in full colour throughout, Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse is the essential celebration of 60 years of Doctor Who.

Twins Calla and Briar have spent their entire lives hiding from the powerful sorceress who destroyed their kingdom...and from the humans who don't know they are Wolves. Each twin has their own purpose in life. Briar's is to marry the prince of an ally pack and save the Golden Court. Calla's purpose is to remain a secret, her twin's shadow - the backup plan.

In near-future Japan, Susie Sakamoto has lost her husband and son and spends her days drinking heavily and taking her anger out on the annoying home robot her husband designed. Frequenting the seedy, drug-fueled bars of the city, she hears rumours of The Dark Manual, a set of guidelines that allow you to reprogram your robot for nefarious purposes. Soon she finds herself in the centre of a dark, corporate war, where someone very much wants her dead.

For over a century, Grimnir has tracked the dragon, Niohoggr - the Malice-Striker - but on a cold November night in 1347 AD, on the ruined steps of Old St. Peter's basilica, Grimnir's saga comes crashing to an end. A crossbow bolt, loosed in terror, slays him out of hand. But Death is just the beginning... Now, Grimnir is plunged headlong into the twisted Valhalla that is the afterlife of his people.

Dikeogu Obidimkpa is slowly losing his mind. Yes, that boy who can bring rain just by thinking about it is having some...issues. Years ago, Dikeogu went on an epic journey to save Earth with the shadow speaker girl, Ejii Ubaid, who became his best friend. When it was all over, they went their separate ways, but now he's learned their quest never really ended at all.

If you're going to get ahead in the battlefield salvage business, you have to regard death as a means to an end. In other words, when the blood flows, so will the cash. Unfortunately, even though war is on the way, Saevus Corax has had enough. There are two things he has to do before he can enjoy his retirement: get away with one last score, and get away with murder. For someone who, ironically, tends to make a mess wherever he goes, leaving his affairs in order is going to be Saevus Corax's biggest challenge yet.

Twenty early short stories by one of the world's best loved authors, each accompanied by exquisite original woodcut illustrations. These are rediscovered tales (none are Discworld, sadly) that Pratchett wrote under a pseudonym for newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s.

In Talamh, Breen is not the ordinary young schoolteacher Marco knew her as. Here she is learning to embrace the powers of her true identity. Marco is welcomed kindly by her people - and by Keegan, leader of the Fey. Keegan has trained Breen as a warrior, and his yearning for her has grown along with his admiration of her strength and skills. But one member of Breen's bloodline is not there to embrace her. Her grandfather, the outcast god Odran, plots to destroy Talamh - and now all must unite to defeat his dark forces.

An anthology of ancient alien artifact stories, featuring stories by Orson Scott Card, Griffin Barber, Adam Oyebanji, Jessica Maguire, Patrick Chiles, and an all-new entry in the Sun Eater universe from editor Christopher Ruocchio.

Hadrian Marlowe, with the help of the witch Valka, escaped the net of the enemy having learned a terrible truth: the gods that the Cielcin worship are real and will not rest until the universe is dark and cold. What is more, the Emperor himself is in danger. The Prophet-King has learned to track his movements as he travels along the borders of Imperial space. Now the Cielcin legions are closing in, their swords poised to strike off the head of all mankind.

In the village of Nazareth, virgin Maryam, the wife of Yosef barLevi gives birth to a miracle: a little girl. She is named Avigayil, after her grandmother. But as Avigayil grows, it's clear she believes that she is destined to be someone greater than just the daughter of Maryam. From leading a gang of village boys to challenging the priests in the temple, Avigayil is determined to find her way as Yeshu, a man. Yeshu can work miracles. He can see futures. He can speak for God.

The Academia, once an elite proving ground for the rulers of the world, has been frozen for centuries. Now its strange slumber has ended, and a new Chancellor, an orange-eyed dragon, has reopened its lecture halls and readied its dorms. In order to thrive once more, however, the Academia needs fresh blood - new students with a passion and talent for learning. And it is threatened with collapse when students start turning up dead.

Industrialist Richfield Chan rallies allies to send a seventh colony ship to Mars, hoping to undermine the current president. The Ngu family, responsible for terraforming and mining on Pallas, realize that any rescue mission from Earth will arrive too late. Four siblings launch a rescue mission from Pallas to save the ailing colonists with their expertise and better chosen implements.

What if HIV started spreading in the early 1500s rather than the late 1900s? A patriarchal society reacts to this devastating disease in the only way it knows how. It sequesters women, limiting contacts between the sexes except for married couples. Now, in the mid-19th century, with little development of technology, Viola has been born into an almost unrecognizable London. She can only dream of going anywhere else, her actions and movements are severely restricted by both law and custom.

An artificial intelligence is tasked with writing a novel, only for it to fall in love with the novel's subject, Sen, the last human on Earth. The solution to environmental collapse is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem. Sen Anon is assigned to supervise the transition. Her journals are uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. There, ad39-393a-7fbc's assignment is to capture Sen's life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap.

Just out of college and on the run from his stepfather, Ship Engineer Dave ends up on an old tramp freighter running with a minimal crew, plying the routes that corporations ignore and visiting the kinds of places that the folks on Earth pretend don't exist. Between the assassins, the criminals, and the pirates he needs to deal with, Dave is discovering that there are a lot of things out there that he still needs to learn. But he remembers this: how to be ruthless.

Witch Wynter Dellavale flees to Devil's Cradle, the home of monsters. A place for the outcasts, the fugitives, the crazies. A place ruled by the Ancients, seven beings who were once banished by the Aeons. There's a heavy price for the safety the Ancients offer, but Wynter will have to pay it. She can't take on the Aeons alone. And she has no intention of dying - been there, done that. Not that she'll be the easy prey the Aeons are expecting...

Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene now work for the Icarus Group, a top-secret government organization hunting for portals created by a long-vanished alien race, portals that can teleport a person hundreds or thousands of light-years in the blink of an eye. Roarke and Selene are searching one such possibility when they find that someone appears to be stalking them.