[Canadian author]. Vickers plans to throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station. No matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedralesque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight. And, amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realize that he almost certainly is not alone.

Cordelia Levine, a 23 year old witch hidden in the human world, leads a quiet life in London with her aunt, managing an apothecary for the supernatural. But her life is upended when a brooding and handsome werewolf, Bishop Danvers, kidnaps her on her estranged father's orders - the Alpha of the Albion Pack. At her father's estate Cordelia learns that she traces her ancestry to both witches and werewolves. But not everyone in the pack is happy about Cordelia's arrival.

Samantha Payne hadn't seen her grandfather in the 14 years since her father took his own life after being accused of murdering a child at their lakefront cottage. So when he died, she figures she won't even get a mention in the will. But she was left the very valuable lakefront property where the family cottage sits. There's one catch: Sam needs to stay in the cottage for a month. It doesn't take long before she begins hearing sounds in the forest and seeing shapes crawling from the water.

Skolia needs the Undercity to trust them - for their inbred population has created a large concentration of Kyle operators, an otherwise almost extinct group of humans. Angel, one of the top runners among the Dust Knights, joins the Kyle Corps - and dives into a world of neurological marvels, including star-spanning networks that access a dimension with dramatically different laws than our space-time universe.

There are two halves of Charlie Duchamp. One is a brain in a jar, stranded on Jupiter's jungle moon, Io. The other is hanging on the wall of Barrowfield Home on Earth's own moon, host to the eggs of the Moon Spider. On Io, deep in the flooded remains of a crashed cathedral ship, lives a giant centipede called the Bishop, who has taken control of the drowned astronauts inside. Both half-Charlies converge here, stalking each other in the haunted ruins, while a new Moon Spider prepares to hatch.

Only with the rise of the committees of the named - Maps, Ghosts, Dreams, and Names - could the people stand against the terrors of the nameless wilds. For one unnamed courier of the Names Committee, the task of delivering new words preserves her place in a world that fears her. But after a series of monstrous attacks on the named, she is forced to flee her committee and seek her long-lost sister. Accompanied by a patchwork ghost, a fretful monster, and a nameless animal who prowls the shadows, her search for the truth of her past opens the door to a revolutionary future - for the words she carries will reshape the world.

Sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into the sorority known as the House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. But as Nina and the sorority's new academic liason, Dr. Sloane Hartley, get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

13 original tales to terrify in a brand new anthology showcasing the very best and most bizarre in horror fiction. Featuring horror legends and worldwide bestsellers Olivie Blake, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Tim Lebbon, V Castro, Ally Wilkes, Rian Hughes, Lindy Ryan, Susi Holliday, Lily Kade, TL Huchu, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Clay McLeod Chapman.

A collection of short fiction featuring fourteen magical ruminations on life, death, and the love - or desire for revenge - that outlasts both.

Medra Pendragon is a half-fae in a school of highblood vampires. She is the last of the dragon riders. Unfortunately, there are no dragons left, none. But the vampires have captured her anyway and now she's stuck at Bloodwing Academy, where the highbloods run everything and blightborns are just blood in their veins, pawns in their games. Worst of all is the cold, arrogant, and way too gorgeous Blake Drakharrow.

Linked short stories, two new and three previously published, wherein the deadly werewolf Asil is gifted five blind dates by some anonymous "friends". Asil has been connected with five people from online dating sites. The whole pack has been informed and a betting pool instigated.

When Mercy needed to travel to Montana to help her brother, she intended to go by herself. But she's not alone anymore, which is why, with her mate Adam, she finds herself trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness. There, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power she discovers her brother's issues are a tiny part of the problem. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could bring about the end of the world.

Mornhavon the Black has reawakened and freed two undead wraiths from their imprisoning tombs to hunt Karigan down and bring her to him in Blackveil Forest. In a deadly confrontation with one of the wraiths amid the frivolity of the Harvest Ball, Karigan is left vulnerable to the intrigues of another old adversary she thought destroyed long ago. Haunted by the unceasing rhythm of the dance, she falls endlessly through the frigid dark of the heavens.

The night Tisaanah tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life. Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic wielders in the world. To join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with fire-wielder Maxantarius Farlione and prove herself under the threat of looming war.

A team of scientists working on a secret NASA-funded project involving quantum theory bring in accountant Darren Costa to deal with some complex federal paperwork. But when the group reveal that they have accidentally established a communication link across space and time to four aliens, Darren is put in a glass cage where he connects to the aliens and their planet through a series of dream-like visions. Is it possible that an incomplete mathematical formula shared by the aliens could prevent Earth's future extinction?

Stevland, the dominant sentient lifeform of Pax, has clandestinely sent some of its progeny to Earth. To explore, to spread, to report back. Since their germination, Earth has been a powder keg. Human rebellion, robot uprisings, and global pandemics have created chaos, distrust, and deaths. As more and more conflicts break out across Earth, Stevland's children work in the background, in an attempt to control human behavior and, perhaps, bring peace to the planet. Stevland took control of Pax. Earth shouldn't be too difficult...

Told from multiple POVs: a young heiress, an undercover spy, a bastard brother and a fugitive who has history with all three; Sargassa is equal parts political intrigue, queer romance, and revolution. 22 year old Imperial Historian Selah Kleios is custodian of more than just the Imperial Archives. There's also the question of the two puzzling classified items her father left in her care - an ancient atlas filled with landscapes that don't exist, and a carved piece of stone that seems to do nothing at all.

Here, Rome never fell, but the apocalypse is coming - if it hasn't arrived already. In the wake of startling revelations and personal betrayals, Tair finds herself the Iveroa Stone's new custodian as she embarks on a battle for Luxana's streets. As the fallout of the fighting pit massacre leads to a rise in legionary crackdowns and vigilante justice, Tair is determined to find a better path forward for Sargassa's future.

Cunning man Hiram Woolley and his son Michael carry an itinerant preacher across the border into Mexico. In the Mormon colonies around Nuevo Casas Grandes, Hiram and Michael are dragged into investigating an impossible murder. They track the killer across a land haunted by robbers, by its history of oppression and revolution. They battle bandits and also an elusive ghostmaster who blights the land with the spirits of the uneasy dead.

DAWN, ADULTHOOD RITES, and IMAGO, the XENOGENESIS TRILOGY in a deluxe, hardcover collector's edition.

Nesi makes a risky prayer to T'sidaan, the Fox of Tricks. In folk tales, the Fox is a lovable prankster. But despite their humor and charm, T'sidaan, and their audition, is no joke. They throw Nesi back in time three hundred years, when her homeland is occupied by the brutal Wolfhounds of Zemin. Now, Nesi must learn a trickster's guile to snatch a fortress from the disgraced and exiled 100th Pillar: the Wolf of the Hunt.

When a rise in London's supernatural crime puts Fey society at risk of discovery, the Winter Council turns to Avery Hemlock, the changeling they sentenced to 500 Years of Nightmares. Inherently lacking social grace and missing approximately two centuries of world knowledge, Avery must solve the case or lose her probationary freedom. She forms a partnership with med school dropout and would-be witch Saga Trygg.

With the outcome of the brutal 33-year war tilting in the Korilians' favor again, Admiral Jon McCarthy, a Nexus Ten with the gift of foresight, must lead 3rd Fleet on a perilous mission behind enemy lines. By his side is Lara Anderson, a woman whose absence of a prime timeline - rendering her past and future indiscernible - may hold the key to humanity's survival. Joining them is Elena Kapadia, another Nexus Ten, whose years of captivity and torture by her Korilian captors have molded her into a formidable, yet unpredictable ally.

[Canadian author]. Now a Minister of Hell, Lady Jing is mind-numbingly bored - until Aengus, a visiting Celtic deity, turns up boneless and drained of yin qi. The only way to help him is to return him to his pantheon's healer, in residence in Paris. Accompanied by Tony Lee, Jing's group settle into the Immortal Express for what should be a run-of-the mill journey. But then the train is hijacked by the Vampire Republic, who are seeking hostages in their bid to demand recognition by the international pantheons. When Jing unwittingly reveals her heritage, the vampires embrace her as one of their own . . . if she abandons her friends.

An employee on the night shift at the Institute soon learns why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels the lives of those who seek to possess it. Meanwhile a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee steals a cursed sneaker down the hall, but later finds he can't escape its tread. The cat in Room 206 begins to reveal the crimes of its former family, wanting to understand its own path to the Institute's dimly lit halls.

Kel Saren, body double to Conor, crown prince of the dazzling city of Castellane, must find the culprits responsible for a massacre at the royal palace - and the only clues are held by the Ragpicker King, the notorious criminal who rules Castellane's underworld. The trail Kel follows leads back to the Hill, where among decadent nobles and glittering parties a dark conspiracy to destroy the royal family has taken hold - a conspiracy headed up by the monstrous Artal Gremont, the man engaged to marry the woman Kel adores.

The clans of the fens enjoy a tenuous peace, and it is all thanks to Agnir, ward and hostage. For as long as she can remember she has lived among the enemy, learning their ways, growing strong alongside their children. When a burgeoning love for the chieftain's daughter lures them both to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could bind the clans under one banner at last - or destroy any hope of peace.

Conclusion to the queer political fantasy trilogy. Luca is the new queen of Balladaire. Her empire is already splintering in her hands. Her uncle wasn't the only traitor in the court, and the Withering plague will decimate her people if she can't unearth Balladaire's magic. The only person who can help her wants the only thing Luca won't give--the end of the monarchy.

Featuring twelve new and original stories authored by some of today's best writers of historical and gothic fiction, all centred around Christmas or Advent.

A brilliant but reclusive biotech engineer transforms these broken, handicapped heroes into something extraordinary, giving them superhuman powers. But there's a cost. These powers last for only 60 seconds at a time, then pain and incapacitation hits. The first mission for the Minute-Men is to stop a ruthless corporate warlord from weaponizing life-saving nanotechnology.

Helena Scheuberin should be doing what every other young wife is doing: keeping house, supporting her husband, bearing his children. But when her husband's footman, Leopold, with whom she was having an affair, is found dead, Helena is accused of killing him and of being a witch, and is sent to prison. When a cursed witch totem is smuggled into the prison, the prisoners attempt to use it to conjure escape. But the totem is the severed hand of a murdered woman, and Helena's life is in danger both inside and outside the dungeon.

Inside the mysterious Artifact world of Yensere, Nick has scored a major victory in the war against God-King Vaan, but now the true test of power has begun, and it won't end until either Nick or Vaan are truly dead. Fighting alongside the army of the usurper king, the mighty Batal the Beast, they march their way toward Castle Goltara, the seat of power for the supposed Conqueror of Time. Outside the Artifact, things are dire - whatever approaches from inside the black sun portal in Majus' atmosphere shall soon arrive, but Nick's older brother, Simon, struggles to find haven for his crew or obtain permission to flee their station with the Artifact.

17 year old Lexi has been living in a remote stretch of the Rocky Mountain woods since her father dragged her there ten years ago, after her mother and baby brother were afflicted with a magical sickness. Lexi never tells him about her friend Gil, who is definitely not human, or the magic Gil taught her, which can open a path to wherever she needs to go. But when pop star TJ Furey hires them to help him hunt down a bear, Lexi's secret is threatened. The bear he wants to kill is under Gil's protection, and if Lexi doesn't prevent its death, she'll never see Gil again.

In the spare wing of a church-run sanatorium some zealous youths create "the Library," a space where lonely citizens can read one another's personal diaries and connect with like-minded souls. But a malicious force consumes their privacy and their sanity, and the city of Turin suffers a twenty-day collective psychosis culminating in nightly massacres. The Library is shut down and erased from history - until a lonely salaryman decides to investigate.

An independent novella in the highly popular The Winds of War universe. Vice President Al Hayden is on his way to Panama when a laser facility located deep inside China establishes a satellite link and fires a 50-100kW laser at Air Force Two. The damaged plane is forced to make a crash landing in El Salvador. Hayden survives but is badly injured. Members of Joint Task Force-Bravo, located at nearby Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, are notified and placed on high alert.

Non-fiction. We're living through the Enshittocene, the Great Enshittening, a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. The once-glorious internet was colonized by platforms that made all-but-magical promises to their users - and, at least initially, seemed to deliver on them. But once users were locked in, the platforms turned on them to make their business customers happy. Then the platforms turned to abusing their business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. In the end, the platforms die.

Conscripted as a child, Lys, potentiate of the Dawn Cloister, is outwardly a loyal servant to her goddess, Tempestra-Innara, the Eternal Flame. If she harbors impossible dreams of deicide, that's her business. But when a routine heretical execution erupts into a near-fatal assassination attempt on Tempestra-Innara, Lys is chosen to hunt down the heretics and find an ancient reliquary that holds the power to kill a god.

Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume. In its roots, Guy Moulene, an exterminator, hunts a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice. Guy doesn't have a choice.

A young gentlewoman, Margaret de Beauchamp, meets American up-timers imprisoned in the Tower of London. In exchange for her help, Rita Simpson and Harry Lefferts give her a huge sum of money to keep her family's manor and its woolen trade from falling into the hands of the crown. Then, with the help of Aaron Craig, an up-timer programmer using aqualators, water-powered computers, she teaches her father's craftsmen to create a combination machine loom that can produce a new type of woolen cloth.

When young Henry Thorne is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods - using that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting the interlopers gone.

Legends passed down from his world-traveling grandfather have called Adam to a crumbling manor in the Highlands. His closest friend Nicola longs for the same adventure, as well as for Adam himself. But when a storm strikes and strands them unexpectedly, Adam and Nicola find themselves at the mercy of the eccentric owner of the infamous house, Eileen, as well as her brooding groundskeeper, Finley.

Alex Delmore wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream. Good thing there's a genie in town - and he's hiring at the Wellspring Mall. It'd help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants. But when the the biggest problem of all is that people are really terrible at wishing.

Houston, 1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American cooperation. But as NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from Earth, a deadly accident changes everything. Meanwhile, from a remote location in East Asia, the first Chinese spacecraft secretly launches. On board is China's first astronaut, Fang Guojun, whose mission puts him on a collision course with the Apollo crew. As Kaz races against an enemy on the ground and for answers beyond the sky, the safety of the remaining crew hangs in the balance...

Is there even an M. John Harrison and if so, where do we find him? This is the question the author asks in this memoir-as-mystery, turning for clues to forty years of notetaking. Are these notebooks records of failed presence? How do they shine a light on a childhood in the industrial Midlands, a portrait of a young artist in counterculture London, on an adulthood of restless escape into hill and moorland landscapes? And do they tell us anything about the writing of books, each one so different from the last that it might have been written by another version of the author?

After idealistic navy lieutenant Jacob Grimm is forced to return fire and destroy a squadron of ships to save his own, he learns the ships are full of children. Disgraced and denied promotion, he is sent to command a battered destroyer on the rim. There's just one problem, Interceptor hasn't had a CO in months and the ship is a mess. Worse, the system he's assigned to is corrupt and on the verge of all-out civil war with the Alliance. However, no one told Jacob he was disposable.

Kenna Heron is still reeling from her lover's betrayal and the threat of an impending civil war. With only a sentient dagger and her two closest - and most powerless - friends by her side, she must navigate the treacherous politics of Mistei while coming to terms with her new identity as not just Fae, but princess of the reborn Blood House.

Arthur Oakes, a student at Maine's Rackham College, is trapped by a local drug dealer into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library. He turns to his closest friends and together they plan to use the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. But their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year - or become his next meal.

Three former Chosen Ones have joined together to spend their retirement running a bookstore in Salem, MA. But then some of the locals start summoning ancient creatures best left where they were - and the retirees discover that of all the rotten luck the store basement just may be the portal to the underworld. If they want to finish their retirement in peace, they'll have to join together to save the world one last time.

The narrative follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in violent, vengeful ways.

It's been a year since Tamsyn transformed. From royal whipping girl in the palace of Penterra to the bride of Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands. From the enemy in the Beast's bed to the wife he sacrificed himself to save. Now, a dragon, a powerful fire-breather, Tamsyn trains in the arena until her muscles burn and her blood spills. Slowly, Tamsyn forges herself into a warrior in the shadow of Fell's enigmatic brother, Vetr.

Ford, Neuland and Tilda return home after the events of THE PALE HOUSE DEVIL to try and make peace with the NYC crime syndicates. Then they'll only be welcomed back if they take on a job for free - hunting down, and killing the Flesh King, a gruesome killer who is stalking the city, leaving a macabre and bloody trail wherever he goes. Caught up in a twisted set of conspiracies and bloodletting, the monster hunters step up to do what they do best once more - take down the unstoppable evil.

Fortune Blyth suffered the loss of a secret child when she was 16 and vowed never to let another man touch her. Ten years later she is content with Ma and her beloved birds.But when witch hunters come to town it isn't long before fingers are pointed at the spinster and she is forced to choose; stay and hang, or marry a man who can offer her safety far from home. She chooses marriage. But her husband's island home is not the safe haven she expected. Perhaps she would have been better off hanging after all...

128 pages - novella, originally featured in the story collection IF IT BLEEDS. In a crumbling world plagued by natural disasters, collapsing infrastructure, and mass panic, bizarre billboards and advertisements appear throughout town: "Charles Krantz. Thirty-nine great years. Thanks, Chuck!" Marty Anderson, a schoolteacher, becomes obsessed with these messages as the world, inexplicably linked to Chuck's life, seems to be approaching its end.

Alex Easton does not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted. But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin - who went missing in that very mine - well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do...

A young knight, his head full of his grandfather's tales of chivalry and dragonslaying, single-handedly defeats the rebel Baron Reynald of Gorstone. The king rewards his courage with a fief of his own in the borderlands. The new Lord of Blackthorne is struggling to rebuild a life from the ruins and forge key alliances when he receives a cryptic warning. A warlord is gathering outlaws to his banner in the west...

Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find - and save - her.

The warring gods are returning and the only thing between them and absolute power are two young women. But for the first time in their lives, Reina and Eva have something to fight for. And they won't back down.

Featuring an original introduction from Joe Hill, this much-anticipated volume showcases the best of Lansdale's terrifying short stories--menacing, astute, and wildly inappropriate, nightmarish visions where you'll discover psychotic demon nuns, a psychopathic preacher, cannibals, 80-year-old Elvis, undead strippers, flying ghost fish, Elder Gods, possessed cars, and the worst evil of all: mankind.

Here are: the Art of Bunditsu, Le Guin's hard-to-find "tabbist" meditation on the arranging of cats; 26 cat poems, many illustrated by Le Guin herself; the Historic First Issue!of Le Guin's one-of-a-kind cat comic book, Supermouse Comix!; Cat Correspondence: letters between Le Guin's cat and those of her daughter detailing the Five Deliberations that cats spend their lives studying; Cat Tai Chi, as depicted in a charming series of drawings.

Singapore, 1972. Here, gangsters in Chinese secret societies are the last conduits of their ancestors' migrant gods, and the back alleys where they fight are the last place magic has not been assimilated and legislated away. Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin, Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight - a girl with a butterfly tattoo.

Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful - to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn't proven much use to anyone. But though her chance to earn her magehood has her working with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who's managed to alienate everyone around her, she commits to transporting minor magical artifacts to the dullest, least magical village around.

Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at 14 as the "orphan hacker," must leave her life of digital obscurity when a lawyer named Piers - whose famous dream artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals - barges into her life. Julia discovers that Elli was dreaming one-on-one with the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he's demanding the return of his dreams in exchange for Elli.

Bela sails the skies with a reader and a metal man, searching for a path to peace. Shae faces the truth of what it means to love and what she is willing to sacrifice for it. Alira leads desperate refugees seeking a new home-and may at last find one for herself. War rises. Blood sings. And the world of the Seaborn will never be the same. Helm to the end.

Criminals market alchemy to the world's elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves. In LA it is controlled by two rival syndicates, balanced on a razor's edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city - and the paths of their lives - will be irrevocably transformed.

Gabriel Axton - infamous as the Prince of Gluttony, the self-proclaimed rake of rakes - has always lived for indulgence in delicious food, in tantalizing women, and most of all, in the thrill of the hunt. But when his favourite adventure takes a deadly turn, he realizes something is very wrong in his demon court. With the clock ticking, he must turn to the only one who might uncover the truth: Adriana, a journalist he has spent a decade avoiding...

Novella. Murdered at sixteen, Ella's ghost is trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters. Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died. Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom.

All Theo asked for was a happy ending: a life of freedom where she could do what she wanted, when she wanted, with whom she wanted. But now that she's a familiar to the mighty Cecily of the Ash Fairies, her happily ever after feels farther away than she could possibly imagine. If only there were some way to break a fairy bargain...

Young Adult. Following the end of The Rise of Skywalker, the Resistance rescues a ship full of young passengers who had been kidnapped by the First Order. As Finn and Jannah set out to find the First Order officer responsible before he can endanger any more children, the two former stormtroopers must wrestle with their own complicated pasts as soldiers of the oppressive regime.

When the studio announces a series reboot of the 80s horror franchise, Night of the Reaper, Howard Browning, the aging thespian who played the Reaper, is crushed to learn he's being replaced in the iconic role by heartthrob Trevor Mane, a former sitcom child-star fresh out of rehab. But as Howard fights to reclaim his legacy, the sinister alter ego consumes his unraveling mind, pushing him to the brink of violence.

Having been saved from execution at the hands of the Draoihn - powerful magic users Raine used to count as allies - Raine finds herself in the Fault, a vast magical wasteland, which is falling apart before her eyes. Alongside her two closest companions, Raine is searching for the only person she believes can help them get back home: the enigmatic and infuriatingly elusive Queen of Feathers.

Something is rotten in Faerie. In the aftermath of Titania's reality-warping enchantment, things are returning to what passes for normal in the Kingdom in the Mists - until it's discovered that the royal vaults have been looted, and several powerful magical artifacts are missing. The theft means that Sir October "Toby" Daye, Knight errant and Hero of the Realm, finally has an excuse to get out of the house. Sure, she's eight and a half months pregnant, but that doesn't mean she can't take care of herself.

RED STAR HUSTLE. High-class escort Aran, framed for the assassination of his famous filmmaker client and pursued by an ace bounty hunter, is on the run. The last thing he needs is to fall for the studly and noble clone of a murderous puppet monarch. APPREHENSION. A family vacation arranged by Bonnyjean, a grieving mother, her son-in-law Jax, and her six-year-old grandson Tristan, quickly becomes disastrous as Tristan is kidnapped by a terrorist operation that is hoping to affect the planet's upcoming elections between rival parties.

Fifty years after the establishment of the Imperium, and 450 years before the events of ISOLATE, Dominic Mikail Ysella becomes a legalist and is elected to the Imperial Council, quietly working as an isolate, someone unreadable by government telepaths. He tries to build a coalition within the Council and quietly drafts a new constitution to save the Imperium from itself. Uncovering rampant corruption and graft, Ysella discovers any number of ways that simple legal specialist in water rights could get himself killed.

[Canadian author]. Novella. Henryk Mandrusiak, finding nothing left for him in his community following the departure of his best friend, Reid, travels through the devastated land in search of a new place to call home.

Early 1930s. Sent undercover by Britain's Temporal Agency to Istanbul, Detective Sir Seaton Begg and Doctor Sinclair are on the hunt for the Red King, the leader of a secretive group of assassins who are plotting to change the shape of the world. At the same time, the nascent Nazi forces are also in Istanbul, for their own reasons. Yet, one ally has emerged, an enemy from the past, the dreaded albino Monsieur Zenith, Begg's nemesis.

When a rival Wolf king, Nero, kidnaps the Queen's friend and mentor Ora, royal guard Sadie Rauxtide is asked to travel with Navin and Maez to try to win new allies and uncover Nero's hidden secrets. Also, Navin has secrets of his own, and Sadie must uncover them while battling her growing attraction to the man who betrayed her. Meanwhile, Queen Calla wavers between diplomacy and being their true self as they realize coming out is only the beginning of their journey of self-discovery.

Who is Mary Darling? In this Victorian mash-up starring legendary literary characters - Peter Pan's Mary Darling and Sherlock Holmes - the mother of the Darling children is on the case to find Sherlock's sister Enola, despite the meddling of both her inept husband and a clueless Sherlock.

December 1st. Angie and her teenage son Rust prepare for Christmas, stringing fairy lights around their isolated home on the Somerset levels and decorating a tree with traditional ornaments. The first door of the advent calendar is opened, but the chocolate inside tastes off. And that's only the first day...

Nnedi Okrafor selects 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. Includes Kij Johnson, S. L. Huang, Joe Hill, T. J. Klune, Olivie Blake and many more.

Betrayed by the men in their lives, two women seethe with rage and bitterness. When a trickster spirit offers them the gift of revenge, they cannot resist. Chia runs one of the best restaurants in Abuja, Nigeria, and is renowned among the male clientele for her captivating beauty and delicious hot pepper soup. But her hot pepper soup has a secret ingredient, and her beauty is not what it seems. Claire is a 50 year-old British woman living in Abuja with her young Nigerian boyfriend and his beautiful cousin, Shade. Consumed by jealousy and resentment, Claire's carefully organised life spirals into chaos after a night out at Chia's infamous restaurant.

She is trapped in Tartarus, humanity's worst pit stop, squaring off against monsters who make the gods look merciful. Titans, twisted by centuries of rage and ruin, are sealed behind seven ancient locks. To escape Tartarus, she'll have to survive every horrifying trial they throw at her. To win, she might have to become something the gods never saw coming. Oh, and Hades? He's about to break every rule the gods ever wrote. Because to save her the god of death will burn the world.

The best and brightest students at a seemingly reputable high school are disappearing. Every day it seems another overachiever is lost to an apparent suicide. But, in fact, these kids have been under surveillance since birth, monitored and measured by billionaires observing and recruiting the next generation of talent. A couple of billion dollars in exchange for the remainder of your life and intellectual labor sounds like a pretty fair deal - doesn't it?

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, delivers the definitive guide to ghoulish hosting all year round - from a "Beastly Bloody Brunch" to a "Romantic Graveside Picnic" to a "Creepy Cocktail Party" to "Having Your Friends for Dinner" - Elvira's Cookbook from Hell is a volume bound to raise any party from the dead!

A ground-breaking anthology of ten haunting speculative stories by contemporary Black Canadian writers that explore growth, futurity, and joy.

Lyra is alone in a city haunted by daemons, searching for her beloved Pan. Malcolm Polstead isn't far behind, searching for Lyra. And they are both racing toward the desert of Karamakan, following the trail of roses said to hold the secret of Dust. All are converging on the mysterious red building at the heart of the desert: Marcel Delamare and the military might of the Magisterium; the radical Men from the Mountains; scientists, scholars and spies; troops of witches and other people of the air. And awaiting them all is a previously unseen and chilling new threat that will change everything.

When a brutal murder rocks her neighborhood and shatters her sense of safety, seven-year-old Layla realizes that she needs to grow into something untamable, even otherworldly, if she wants the freedom she's always dreamed ofin this visceral and captivating horror debut based on Middle Eastern folklore.

Gabriel Hawthorne is missing, and Miles Warren - psychic, co-conspirator, and aspiring boyfriend - is terrified. All their efforts so far have failed. The prophecy stands unbroken; if the future remains unchanged, Gabriel will die. Armed with Florence's grimoire, they might stand a chance of breaking the Hawthorne curse and preventing Gabriel's murder - but only if Miles can find him.

Michael Edwards is back in New York City, looking for vengeance - for what was done to his mother, but he also seeks the inheritance that is his due. Blocking the path to Michael's inheritance is the Society, a secret organization which runs most of the world and can best be described as pure evil. No teenage boy alive could possibly hope to bring down the Society on his own. Except, perhaps, for one Michael Edwards, aka Stone Tactical, aka Boogie Knight.

Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: a doctor, an occultist, and, briefly, a widow. In 1879, after her husband, Private Frank Humble, was killed in a Sioux attack, she used her formidable skills to resurrect him. But he'd lost his soul, becoming a vicious undead monster. Now, 25 years later, Catherine has decided she must make things right and travels to Texas with a pair of hired killers. But Frank is no longer a monster. He has remade himself as the Unkillable Frank Lightning, traveling with the Wild West Show.

For millenia the cycle has seen a Demon King rise and conquer the world, and then a hundred years later, a Hero reborn to defeat him. But now there's a problem. It's only been 23 years since the Demon King's latest rise, and this time, he's already conquered more than half the world. Humanity can't wait for the Hero. And so, Yui Shaw sets out with an ambitious ten-step plan. Find the legenday sword. Attend classes. Gain levels. Increase skills. Travel to the meticulously-crafted dungeons that seem designed for one specific Hero to complete. And, if she's truly (un)fortunate, she might even find a fairy.

When Elan trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elan's home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is. Elan is tasked with captaining a canoe crewed by an unlikely team including a human bear-cousin, a massive wolf, and the endlessly vulgar raven.

Breezy Do'Urden, daughter to Drizzt Do'Urden and Catti-brie, has dedicated herself to the study of combat, magic, and more recently, to the elusive Way of Shadow. But since her parents struggle to see her as more than just their little girl, Breezy takes on the most intense challenge she can - to fight her way to becoming a Master of Dragons at the renowned Monastery of the Yellow Rose.

After her terrifying experience at the hands of the Watchers, Mina has escaped to a cottage on the west coast of Ireland. She obsessively researches her former captors, desperate to find any way to prolong the safety of humankind. When Mina encounters a stranger near her home, she fears the worst - for she knows the figure is not what it seems. Soon, people she has encountered start to disappear.

Anne is leading the city's witches as Chicago's Diviner, Beatrix is swept away on a book tour across the country, and Violet has found her place with her feet swinging through the air above the circus crowds. That is, until the Quigley sisters find themselves stumbling on their chosen paths, and they are drawn back home. Anne must lean on her sisters and team up with a mysterious - and oddly infuriating - necromancer to save the city from an uncertain destiny and help old friends find a happy end.

In the hundred-level city of Iridis, the artist Chrys directs her microbes to paint startling installations, design smart buildings and fix quantum networks. A world-size virtual intelligence called Transit commissions Chrys to create a whole new city on another planet. But unexpected flaws fracture her designs. Microbial criminal gangs invade Chrys's brain to kill off her own micros and take control. In Iridis, the roots of buildings grow cancers that escape the Underworld and cause earthquakes. Outlawed machines shake down shops and kidnap human lords for ransom.

In 1983 Vivian Carter and her NASA crew set off on a double flyby of Venus and Mars, a two-year mission with repurposed Apollo technology. Meanwhile, superpower conflicts escalate on Earth, fueled by battles for valuable mineral resources on the Moon. Now, on her triumphant return in 1985, Vivian Carter's path inevitably brings her back to where she began: a desperate rescue mission, with no NASA support and no safety net, to a dangerous, war-torn Moon.

When the Maxwell family moved into the lily-white neighbourhood, they were the only Black family there. The neighbours acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things - the strange and the unexplainable - began to happen in their house. As adults, the three Maxwell siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house - until they learn of their parents' deaths and are forced to return.

Someone is killing werewolves. At least, that's the way Vincent Van Gogh tells it when he shows up at Mark Abernathy's art gallery seeking protection. For gallery assistant and art history addict Hanna Harvey, meeting Van Gogh is a dream come true - until death follows the troubled artist to town and Hanna becomes the murderer's next target. Only absinthe-swilling bodyguard Toulouse Lautrec stands between Hanna and the malevolent murderer whose grudge runs deep and appears to be connected to the mystery of her bloodline.

Margaret's rare autoimmune condition has destroyed her life. It has no cure, but she's making do as best she can - until she's offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial. She subjects herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital.

Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn Rae Bjornberg is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., during the depths of the Great Depression. Then a surprising revelation forces her to return to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB.

15 brand-new short stories inspired by and in honour of legendary writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Featuring Ann Leckie, Karen Joy Fowler, Charlie Jane Anders, Kelly Link, Ai Jiang, and many others.

Being an unwanted twin in the imperial line of succession, Farilane becomes a scholar, an adventurer, and - in a time when reading is forbidden - a hunter of books. Her singular obsession is finding the mythical Book of Brin, a tome not just lost but intentionally buried. But what she finds is more dangerous than what she sought.

Novella. 176 pages. Daedalus is the constructor of the Labyrinth that imprisoned the Minotaur - and the grieving father of Icarus, who plunged into the sea as father and son flew from the grasp of the tyrannical King Minos. Now, Daedalus seeks to reunite with Icarus in the Underworld, even as he revisits his own memories of Crete, hoping to understand what went so terribly wrong at the end of his son's life.

Sapphic romantasy. Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen's court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other? As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them.

The night Lyssa Cadogan's brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she vowed she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. Now she has met Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster's lair, and - even more surprising - retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

A queer melding of Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein that recasts Mary Bennet as a scientist who creates a monster in an attempt to save herself from spinsterdom. For what does any bright, intrepid girl do in an age when brains and hard work are only valued if they come with a pretty face? Take to the attic and teach herself to reanimate the dead of course. Her desperate attempts to rein in the destruction wreaked by her creations leads her to forge a perhaps unlikely friendship with another brilliant young woman unlike any she's ever known.

[BC author]. Moments after signing the paper to have his head cryogenically frozen Bob Johansson is killed crossing the street. A century later, Bob wakes up, not in a utopia but an Earth on the precipice of war. America is run by an extremist government that stripped his rights as a frozen head, uploaded his consciousness into an AI, and selected him to search space for habitable planets as a self-replicating von Neumann probe. Using his new abilities and the von Neuman technology he does what any engineer would do. He makes more Bobs - and a virtual cat - and sets to save humanity before it's too late.

Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach, that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, the Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she'll learn that the price of her nation's success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.

Hildegard College, high in the Rockies, is known for its scientific innovation and its sprawling botanical gardens. Historian Robin Quain has been awarded a residency to examine Hildegard's impressive collection of ancient manuscripts, but she's actually on the hunt for an artifact - one she must find before her former best friend turned professional rival gets his hands on it first. But Hildegard has secrets of its own.

World first publication of a previously unknown short satirical fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, and accompanied by illustrations from the author together with an essay, The Origin of Bovadium, by Richard Ovenden OBE.

1902. 21 year old Ava Stanley is the daughter of two celebrated Arcane Taxonomists. But while her parents draw power from spectacular birds and megafauna, Ava's connection to the natural world is much smaller, stemming from the microscopic, and so her power itself is also smaller. Even so, she plans to make the most of it when she boards a ship to Nassau, where she'll continue her research. But those plans change when pirates take over the ship, bringing with them danger, mystery, and the stirrings of war.

Novella. Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.

[BC author]. Colin is a low-level employee toiling away in a cubicle at Dark Enterprises, a Hell-like multinational corporation solving the world's most difficult problems in deeply questionable ways. He'd like to climb the corporate ladder, but he's pretty sure he's about to be terminated. Like, terminated. In return for a small, unspecified favor, a shadowy figure grants Colin a promotion. But that small favour unleashes an ancient evil. People in New York are disappearing, the world might be ending, and Management is starting to notice.

In the middle of the night, Riley pulls her younger brother Oliver out of bed, and the two run away from home. Riley is intent on joining a group of teenagers squatting in the abandoned ruins of an infamous movie star's ranch, Nowhere. Riley hopes to find a new family there, but the Nowhere Kids are fierce in defending their turf and their clan, and Riley quickly realizes that while she and Oliver may have left the devil they knew, this group is a new type of diabolical.

The Five Hundred are the elite families who rule the Terran Federation, control its political power and its wealth, and they've grown steadily wealthier and more powerful, thanks to the war against the Terran League. But the Fringe Worlds, who do most of the dying in that war, are increasingly hostile. And the alien Rishi have planned carefully for the Federation's destruction. And the Five Hundred have fatally underestimated the man named Terrence Murphy.

Detective Luke Stockton is preparing for his first child with his wife, Beatrice. But Beatrice begins to frequent a medspa offering mysterious prenatal checkups, leech treatments, and vampire facials. And, against his will, Luke finds himself irresistibly drawn to the spa's sophisticated owner, Cleo, who has a deadly secret to keep. The pressure builds for Luke as he investigates a series of murders involving exsanguinated runaway boys.

Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt - a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons - perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Helene Enriquez - everything unraveled. Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. Until a videotape arrives in the mail.

Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch? And can he trust his companions to do what's right?

The Canarviers are the premier performance thieves in New Washington, blending astonishing acrobatics, clever misdirection, and daring escapes to entertain their rich patrons. As King Canarvier has always told his children, their work is art. But when their father disappears, Roo and Dax must compete in a high-stakes Grand Heist, pushing down their resentments to work together. Against a technocrat wagering more than he can lose, a security chief with a taste for pain, and a society beauty with secrets of her own, any misstep promises catastrophic ruin.

A romantasy in which a young woman, who will do anything to rescue her sister from an evil sorcerer's curse, hires a ruthless assassin. They embark on a quest with a band of misfits, one of whom harbours a devastating secret that could ruin her fairy-tale ending.

In Oklahoma a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by a down-on-his-luck father trying to reconnect with his teenaged daughter. At NASA's Houston headquarters an astrophysicist observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft and concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker deep in the earth, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends an urgent message to the president and highest-ranking military brass: "First contact imminent".

MARS, 2103: a place of division, suspicion and fear. This is the story of the first human being born on Mars, Rose Fuller, who saw a better future than the one that came to pass. And Dylan Ward, a woman raised in the vast wilderness of the frontier, who will find her way back to it. It's a story about a man who went missing, and the man who wants to find out what he knew: the story of the first murder on Mars.

Nizzara, reluctant heir to the Kingdom of Zarr, has always been able to perceive spirits better than the average caster. When she enters a deadly tournament to escape her betrothal, she's determined to win without succumbing to the addictive spirit magic she channels, or the unnerving darkness growing within her. But finding herself outmatched, Nizzara must face her fear of power and team up with Dagen - an enemy who is half-ghost and all charm - to survive the tournament.

This retrospective love-letter to the Golden Age of science fiction in the 1930s and 40s and beyond collects radio interviews with both well-known science fiction titans such as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Anne McCaffery, and Harlan Ellison, alongside bestselling authors more-commonly known in other genres, such as Kurt Vonnegut, Walter Tevis, Margaret Atwood, and Joyce Carol Oates.

Being a siren, Naomi has attracted attention all her life, but when working as a ghost artist, she can at least maintain some anonymity. She's never felt anything pull at her inner demon, until a certain crime boss locks eyes with her. He watches her like he's hunting her, and it's only a matter of time till he catches her. But now, when danger threatens the women Luka loves, there's no stopping his inner demons.

Novella. Megan and her mom are on the run after narrowly escaping the clutches of an abusive man who dragged them from Portland to Beijing. With few options, Megan's mom turns to an old friend who offers them room and board in Huihuang Opera Theater in exchange for cleaning the ancient building.Between her rusty Mandarin and constant reminders that she's an outsider, Megan struggles with loneliness - until she meets Kristy, the glamorous young lead in the operatic adaptation of "The Monkey King and the White Bone Demon".

Fen has spent her life working as a mercenary bodyguard for a cunning magistrate, entangled in the politics of the empire that shattered her family. But then her fathers - her last remaining tether to hope - are executed by the ruthless Sovereign, who marks Fen for the same fate. With nothing left to lose, Fen escapes with a single map and an old quarterstaff, embarking on a dangerous quest to seek out the last remnants of her parents' rebellion. But the underground insurgents she finds may be even more dangerous than the Sovereign's army.

Foul-mouthed bookseller Fern transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend's coffee shop. A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover. As together they fend off a rogue's gallery of ne'er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is.

Rab is based on the Mask, the all-encompassing structure which hides the Solar Sytem from alien eyes. And it is during his watch that a spaceship arrives, one which has travelled for a hundred years from a long-forgotten colony planet. If they pierce the Mask, everything humanity has created will be left open to the alien threat. But this strange ship, bearing an offshoot of the species, may bring something else with them. Hope.

On Samhain in medieval Scotland, pregnant Janet rescues her lover Tam Lin from being sacrificed by the Wild Hunt - but the callous Faery Queen is not finished with them yet. Over the span of a single night, the Queen and Janet spar over Tam Lin's fate.

London, 2015. When reclusive art appraiser Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a silver-haired gentleman in her office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her. His name is Max Everly - curiously, the same name as Eve's favorite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she has the sudden feeling that she's held his hand before - but where, and when? The White Octopus Hotel, 1935. In this belle epoque building high in the snowy mountains, Eve and a young Max wander the winding halls, lost in time.

Some people come to Destiny Park to make a bargain with the Arcana, the paranormal beings who rule the Isle of Wyrd, to change their fate. And some people come for dark purposes. When young Detective Beth Fahey is sent to Destiny Park to inquire about a "ghost gun," she will begin a strange journey on which she must learn to navigate the Arcana's unforgiving laws and dangerous attractions. Her search will draw her into seemingly impossible cases and the secrets of her own past as tensions rise between the Arcana and their human neighbors across the river.

She thought surviving her first year in Bloodwing's deadly halls would be enough. She was wrong. She accidentally woke a dragon - a creature of myth, of death, of fire. Now every highblood house wants control over her and the dragon's legacy she carries. But here's the truth: She has no control. She's bluffing her way through every encounter, trying to keep everyone from realizing that she's not the one pulling the dragon's strings.

Major Larry Randall has been called to Pluto to retrieve Dr. Aaron Mikelson. Mikelson, no longer human after a horrific accident, is now melded to an AI. His enhanced senses have detected an alien artifact on Pluto's surface, and he's not leaving without it. Transferred to the research vessel studying Pluto, Randall and the other scientists are stumped as to the artifact's purpose and origin. Looking for similar signs of aliens they make their way to Pluto's moon, Charon, where, buried deep under its icy surface, something stirs - and wakes.

This is the story of Bess - or Dog-Bitch Bess as she came to be known. It's the story of the gun she carried, whose name was Wakeful Slim. It's the story of the dead man who carried that gun before her and left a piece of himself inside it. And it's the tale of how she turned from teacher, to renegade, and ultimately to hero. This is also the tale of the last violent engagements in an inter-dimensional war - one of the most brutal the multiverse had ever seen.

On the volcanic world of Mustafar, Darth Vader undertakes a dark ritual, bleeding a kyber crystal to forge his lightsaber. This act unleashes a power far greater than he anticipated, giving him a glimpse into the limitless potential of the Force. Vader is determined to follow this vision, even if it means defying his master's orders. Yet he finds the Emperor is suspiciously supportive of his mission, even sending Vader to the Diso system to investigate rumors of a Force-wielding shaman able to raise the dead.

In 1983, artist Tony Mathias began work on a new installation - a collage of visuals and sounds, exploring the history of the abandoned RAF base on Warden Fell. But after visiting the site to tape-record the sounds there, he killed his wife and children, set their home on fire, and turned his gun on himself. Decades later, true-crime podcaster Cally Darker begins researching the murders. When she finds Tony's recordings, she thinks she has a chance to solve the mystery. But Warden Fell, for centuries the focus of folklore, mysteries and fearful legends, has a far older and more terrifying story to tell.

In Hsien the company returns to their former base, An Abode of Ravens, where the Lady ages backwards in a return to force, shaking off the thrall, one breath at a time. At first, life in Hsien appears quiet, even boring, but it is quickly apparent that strange goings on are more than what they seem, and it's up to them to discover the truth hidden in the shadows of this strange land.

A new entry in the series that has brought you the best horror stories available each year. This year includes Gemma Amor, Brian Evenson, Gemma Files, Lee Murray, Paul Tremblay and many more.

Princess of the Aether Dominion, Kadeesha wants nothing to do with fae politics. But bound since infancy to be betrothed to the Hyperion High King, ruler of all Dominions, she has no choice but to do what men have chosen for her. Repulsed by the idea, she decides to spend one last night of freedom - in the arms of a dangerous stranger who takes her to sexual heights she's never experienced before...but who is only using Kadeesha to set a trap for the High King.

[Canadian author]. A shipwrecked royal mage-in-training wants to join the crew of the infamous pirate ship who rescued her. But first, she must not only prove herself to the infuriating captain, but also to the sentient ship, the Ship of Spells, that's bonded to him.

Emrael Ire has won the first round of war against the dark god, but at a terrible cost to himself. Unsure of who he can trust, even among his own people, Emrael must find a way to score a major victory against both the forces of the dark lord and the corrupt lords of the provinces. He thought he already paid his price. The gods will exact another.

Yeeran has left her new lover, the Queen of the fae, to return to her homeland, only to find that her former lover now threatens war against the fae. Left behind, her sister Lettle is determined to break the curse that binds the fae to their realm. When a stranger appears in the city, Lettle is convinced he's the key. But the Fates that once spoke to her have fallen silent.

When the royal party finds themselves in a land they never believed they could access, it will take all of Prince Gevulin's (admittedly impressive) diplomatic skills to forge a coalition with an unlikely group of would-be allies. Meanwhile, as Erin mourns her lost love, an unwelcome visit to the land of her birth brings back the traumatic memories of the childhood she shared with her sister. And a surprise visit from an unwelcome family member threatens to derail the plans of multiple opposing factions.

[BC author]. Seeking to crush the revived cult of the Apocalyptic before it ignites the entire subcontinent, Fist Arenfall has only a few dozen squads of marines at his disposal, and many of those are already dispersed - endeavouring to stamp out multiple brush-fires of dissent. But his soldiers are exhausted, worn down by the grind of a simmering insurrection and the last thing Arenfall needs is the arrival of the new Adjunct, fresh from the capital and the Emperor's side.

Verden Dotnet made an easy living mixing drinks for the creator of all sentient tech in the galaxy - until he decided to kill the creator. Now this man is dead, really dead, no cloud back-ups, and V-Dot is on the run, carrying a galaxy-shattering secret in his pocket. When he misses the last ship back to Ganymede, he convinces an old, outdated but still sentient ship, TR-8901, to give him a lift. But TR suspects that something is up - it is hearing rumours about his creator's death, and the man who fled the scene. But TR is a dutiful ship, and will carry out its duties until proven otherwise...

Emily Wilde is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project yet: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm--as its queen. Along with her former academic rival--now fiance--the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.

Markets crash and cities burn as a new god struggles to be born. Divided, the world of the craft is certain to fall. In Alt Coulomb, the great powers of the world gather in conference. Empires, divinities, and corporate concerns take seats at the table. Untold wealth and inexhaustible might is on offer, but coalition will not come easily. Can these forces come together to save the world? And if they do, what parts of it will they choose to save, and for whom?

A collection of 16 stories by the World Fantasy Award winner, each set in a different imaginary country.

Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind, part-elemental god, part-aerial demon blasting through the sublime landscape of Northern England since the dawn of time. Through the stories of those who have obsessed over Helm, an extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe, the Dark Age wizard priest, the Victorian steam engineer, and the farmer's daughter who fiercely loved Helm. But now Dr. Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears human pollution is killing Helm.

When her friend Brooke is put on trial with the Council and may lose her magic, with her ex Bastien reappearing to lead the charge, McKenna readily volunteers to represent Brooke. Then Bastien goes missing, leaving a trail of clues and mystifying secrets: a strange new spell he's working on with an unknown partner, a secret demon research project, a ring filled with corrupted magic, and a literal demon hiding in his closet.

Desperate, depressed and nearly destitute, Cynthia Goodwin goes against her better judgement to keep her ship the Chariot and its crew in work. She agrees to take reclusive billionaire Roman Fade to the abandoned colony of New Providence and bring back his former lover, the renowned artist Corinth Bloch. No one knows what happened on New Providence or why it is under quarantine. And Bloch may be brilliant, but he is also deranged. Cynthia learns of a mind obsessed with images of dark and horrifying creatures, and the drive to capture the sublime terror of the perfect organism.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters - but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory - failed soldier, struggling scholar - falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives - and then into the past itself..

The Arcology is a pan galactic utopia whose people live entirely online. Tired of paradise, Praveenthi 'Prab' Saal had herself printed into the physical world of Sirajah's Reach, working as an Interlocutor - a go-between for the Arcology and the cultures it meets in flesh and blood. Then, suddenly, the entire Arcology goes missing. Prab's only resource is a ship into which all the knowledge and culture of the Arcology has been downloaded. Asked to be a life raft for the Arcology, the ship, a frigate without a name, is dying - slowly being swallowed whole by the literal universe of information it's been asked to carry.

Zora Robinson is an ambitious grad student in her dream program, Appalachian Studies, at Bricksbury University. After her thesis advisor hands her a strange diary and suggests she research the local folklore about a beast roaming the woods surrounding campus, Zora uncovers a rumoured secret society called the Keepers that has tenuous ties to the beast...and Bricksbury itself.

Vis Telimus is no longer one. He won the Iudicium, and lost everything - and now, impossibly, the ancient device beyond the Labyrinth has replicated him across three separate worlds. A different version of himself in each of Obiteum, Luceum, and Res. Three different bodies, three different lives. He needs to find answers before it's too late. He needs to find a way to stop the coming Cataclysm, because if all he has learned is true, he may be the only one who can.

The Winged, a mysterious group involved with his father, have noticed Stephen, and they want him to join them or else. His career as a corporate locator has hit a dead end. And his new job as bodyguard to Calhoun Ashford is proving a lot more lethal than expected due to assassination attempts from outside the House, and possibly also from within.To survive, Stephen's going to need allies of his own. And along the way, he's going to have to figure out the secret of his own gift, and what it means.

Violence has erupted across the Treble. The colony that Jun Ironway and Masar Hawks have fought to protect is now woefully compromised, and its people, unwilling to submit to tyranny once more, face a brutal fight for their lives and freedom. In the midst of upheaval and rebellion, new enemies arise at every corner, including a familiar player who won't let power slip through his fingers again.

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.

Zayit is notorious for its trade in salt, a substance toxic to the near-immortal Maziks. If the Cacador can control the salt, he will be nearly unstoppable. But the stolen killstone, the key to the Cacador's destruction, could eliminate the threat - if only Barsilay could find and use it. Deadly allies and even more dangerous bargains might be the only path to resist La Caceria's ruthless conquest of both the mortal world and the Maziks', but the cost is steep and the threat is near.

Illustrated edition with bonus (never before published) short story. The system of hyperspace shunts that ties together a multi-alien civilization is threatened. A reconnaissance team is deployed in response. This team includes a washed-up, drug-dependent star pilot with a talent for finding hidden paths in hyperspace, an AI wrangler with an extensive network of artificial intelligences, a soldier gifted in detecting patterns in time and space, an alien gunner with impeccable aim, and a steadfast female captain who keeps them all in line.

Last seen rallying under Loran's banner, Emere survives an assassination attempt that will lead him to uncover sinister plots at the very heart of the Empire. Arienne has crossed the continent to learn more about the Star of Mersia, the famed weapon that wiped Mersia from the map. But when she arrives in the lifeless land, Arienne finds much more than ruins.

With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt's house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. But something lurks beneath the surface there. Selena's search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, and she discovers that her new home is the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as "Snake-Eater," who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.

Violet Thistlewaite leaves the practice of dark sorcery and starts over in the quaint town of Dragon's Rest. Here she'll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life. She will work with the prickly yet dashingly handsome alchemist Nathaniel Marsh to fight the mysterious blight that threatens every living plant in town - until a figure from her past threatens her new life.

After seven long years Joan Greenwood is finally returning home. Unfortunately, her family totally forgot about it. Joan's homecoming is lukewarm at best, but soon turns disastrous when news hits that someone has created a spell that can turn an ordinary human into a powerful witch, threatening the balance of the magical world and the Greenwoods' place at the top of it. When her best friend confesses that he has secretly, accidentally, saved this human-turned-witch from an uncertain fate, Joan is thrust headfirst into a desperate race to undo the spell before it does permanent damage to its unwilling host.

In a remote castle perched atop a windswept island, a long-awaited royal heir is born. In accordance with ancient custom, a blessing ceremony takes place to bestow the princess with magical gifts - along with a terrible curse. Except this is not the love story you may think you know. There is no enchanted sleep for the princess, and no handsome prince to save the day. Just three women, who together concoct a desperate plan of misdirect that changes the course of all their lives. But dark magic cannot be tricked...

Winter has come early to Korslakov, City of Spires, and Lukan Gardova has arrived with it. Most visitors to this famous city of artifice seek technological marvels, or alchemical ingenuity. Lukan only desires the unknown legacy his father has left for him, in the vaults of the Blackfire Bank. But when Lukan's key to the vault is stolen by a mysterious thief known as the Rook, he and his friends race to win it back - and find themselves trapped in a web of murder and deceit.

Still mourning Belit and flush with gold after a heist, Conan attempts to drink away his sorrows. In his tavern-hopping journey he meets and befriends married couple Hunwulf and Gudrun and their son, Bjorn. When Bjorn is kidnapped, Conan and Bjorn's vengeful parents search for the lad. They catch up to the tribe, only to find Bjorn has been taken by murderous bat-winged figures, who fought with talon and sword. The boy, and other "gifted" children have been taken to the Rotlands, a place plagued by a contaminating supernatural force that warps all who go there.

When student Una Chin-Riley and teacher Christopher Pike meet at Starfleet Academy after one of his lectures, they immediately become friends. As their friendship evolves, Pike also suspects Una is involved with the Euxhana, a Chionian cultural minority, who are seeking asylum in Federation space, leading to more questions than answers. Twenty-five years later, Una and Pike are working together on the USS Enterprise to settle a Chionian trade agreement when a pro-Euxhana saboteur launches a terrorist attack.

Introduced by Ellen Kushner, with cover art by Thomas Canty. A collection of McKillip's best stories.

Zoe Ziakas enjoys a quiet life, working as a librarian in her quaint New England town. When a mysterious black book with an unbreakable latch is delivered to the library, Zoe has a strange feeling the tome is somehow calling to her. She decides to consult the Museum of Literature, home to volumes of indecipherable secrets, some possessing dark magic that must be guarded. Here, among their most dangerous collection, the Books of Dubious Origin, Zoe discovers that she is the last descendant of a family of witches and this little black book is their grimoire.

Briar Marriel, once the heir of the Golden Court, is now a prisoner in the heart of enemy territory. But when her ex-lover Maez - now a dark sorceress - comes to "rescue" her, Briar must decide if she's willing to trust the twisted version of the woman she once loved or remain under the rule of the cruel King Nero. In a war where enemies wear familiar faces, escape might come at a terrible cost. But if she can harness Maez's newfound magic, could it mean winning the war?

Mr. Montessori and his family return home from a trip to the beach to discover that their sofa is different. Once dark and contemporary, it's now antique, green and yellow, and smelling faintly of damp. Its appearance and origins are a mystery. Montessori's quest for answers will take him to a dank highway overpass in decayed upstate New York, a very strange dry-cleaning supply concern in outermost Queens, and into the depths of an eerie, warped forest where time and space no longer connect, all while putting his ever-more-troubled marriage and young family in grave danger.

His name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and he is a very poor copy of himself. Out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, he died. And then, he was reborn. He became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And he vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged him. This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives he's lived since he died for the first time.

With the end of Alistair Sorenson's tyrannical reign, Demi has accepted Jonas's proposal to rule as his Queen with hopes to finally free her people, the magical Oluso. Yet social prejudice, corrupt council members, and the continued distrust of the nonmagical Ajes throughout the kingdom prove seemingly implacable obstacles. To make matters worse, Demi struggles to control her newly awakened iron blood magic. Before long, a new evil appears that hunts Oluso and Aje alike, promising desolation on a larger level than ever before.

In Lock Haven, a quiet little town in Washington State, Bird Street is a very special place. The residents of this pretty cul-de-sac are all successful, wealthy, healthy, and happy. Their children are high achievers, well-mannered and smart. But when November arrives a stranger appears to collect on a longstanding debt. A price must be paid for the good fortune the residents of Bird Street enjoy the other eleven months of the year. The devil is due. A sacrifice must be made.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC. But there are rules. He cannot look inside the box. He cannot ask questions. He cannot tell anyone.They must leave immediately. He must leave all trackable devices behind. As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

After losing both their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an "aunt" she's never heard of who promises she can help, she reluctantly agrees to meet - and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Even her father might still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures to a whole other realm - the one he is from. Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods and fae and monsters.

Kingdom of Gododdin, AD 580. Artur receives a mysterious summons from his father in Dalriada. Languoreth and Lailoken return to Strathclyde with the dangerous former bishop Mungo in tow, determined to maintain the fragile peace between the Christians and the people of the Old Way. Meanwhile, Angharad must travel deep into the shadowed land of the Picts, hoping to become the initiate of Briochan, a druid who practices the secret Celtic art of summoning weather.

The Sadous were in space exploration from the start of the space elevators in Africa, and they remain powerful to this day. But power draws envy, and for 12-year-old Calypso, life ain't so easy. Especially when her mother, father, and two prodigy brothers - no pressure - head out, leaving her alone on Saturn's ring station with her grandparents in charge. She becomes the focus of a lot of strife, political maneuvering, and simple jealousy. As her grandparents are aging, she's going to have to grow up fast to protect them and her own hopes for a productive future.

Humanity is under assault by malevolent "antimemes" - ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself. They're predators equipped with the ultimate camouflage, living black holes for information, able to consume our very memories of their existence. But how can you fight them? Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.

A darkly satirical illustrated parody of the Tolkien universe: 'A is for Arwen broken by sorrows; B is for Boromir punctured by arrows. C is for Celebrimbor hung out to dry; D is for Denethor...'

The Abbey has controlled the minds of its patrons for a millennium through memory magic, stolen from exiled saints. At fifteen, Jude was exiled from the Abbey to the bleak moors in the countryside, to maintain their control over his bourgeoning magic. A decade later they send Maeve, a stubbornly devout iconographer, to paint an updated icon of him. Jude makes it his mission to get rid of her as soon as possible - until he discovers she holds the same tainted magic of the saints as he does, and that the icons she paints may be the key to destroying the Abbey's power.

After losing her mother - her only remaining parent - to a mysterious dark magic that has since awakened within her, Vaasa is certain death looms. So is her merciless brother, who aims to eliminate Vaasa as a threat to his crown. In one last political scheme, he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in hopes that he can use her death as a rallying cry to finally invade Reid's nation. But to her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, he will share his knowledge about the dark magic running through her veins - and help keep it at bay.

Hidden safely beyond the borders of human space, Hadrian awaits the arrival of the one ally he has left: the Jaddian Prince Kaim-Olorin du Otranto. The armies of men have grown complacent, but Hadrian knows the truth. The inhuman Cielcin are gathering their strength, preparing for their final assault against the heart of all mankind. Only Hadrian possesses the power to stem the tide: an ancient war machine, forged by the daimon machines at the dawn of time.

Stalked by spectral half-remembered dreams and haunted by the impossible choices they were forced to make, the unlikely allies seek refuge in Marrowrun, the last free city in the dream realm and supposedly home to an exiled weaver who can teach Wren to wield her newfound power. When they are ambushed and brought before the ruler of the city they expect the worst, but instead the baron proposes a bargain. Protection from Warwick and the leagues of mercenaries at his disposal in exchange for Warwick's head.

In the affluent, technocratic Alexandria Colony, people are disappearing. And witnesses are dying in grisly, mysterious ways - it all reeks of Xenomorphs. At a loss, the Hume City police call in Special Agent Tyler Matterton to solve what they can't. Tyler and his synthetic partner Serena track the killer through the underbelly of Hume City only to find themselves in the middle of something much larger and more horrifying than they possibly imagined.

As power shifts unexpectedly into the hands of the radiant and cunning Esmeralda, alliances are tested, schemes unravel, and palace intrigue reaches a fever pitch. Esmeralda's bold maneuvering silences her ambitious rivals and sends a clear message. In this new era, she alone sets the rules - and she isn't afraid to enforce them. Meanwhile, legendary warrior Commandant Bastard faces his greatest challenge yet - a spectacular duel against Grell, a hero whose strength and ferocity could change the realm forever.

Hakara risked her life to find her long-lost sister Rasha, only to lose her all over again. Now she and her Unanointed rebels hunt for the shapeshifter Lithuas, knowing that defeating her would strike a blow to the plans of the tyrant god Kluehnn. Rasha once longed to be reunited with Hakara. No longer. Now she is a Godkiller and proud to serve Kluehnn's divine will. Yet she also harbours doubts about Kluehnn's teachings. When she is sent to destroy Hakara and her allies, Rasha will have to decide where her loyalty truly lies.

If you want a story that will change your life, Chiron's bookshop is where you go, a world of powerful bargains and deadly ink magic. For Cassandra Fairfax, it's a reminder of everything she lost, when Chiron kicked her out and all but shuttered the shop. Now Chiron has died under mysterious circumstances - and if Cassandra knows anything, it's this: the bookshop must always have an owner. But she's not the only one interested.

Things are not going well for Elizabeth Cage. It all started with the Christmas she can't quite remember. There's blood on her doorstep every morning. Something unpleasant is heading her way. And then there's the sinister note threatening her life. The one that seems to have been written by Elizabeth herself...

First contact with the seemingly impossible human civilization at Proxima Centauri is not going well. The Earth ships sent to render aid have not been able to reverse the contagion ravaging their population and, worse, many Proximans are now wondering if the humans from Earth are there for other, not so charitable, reasons. Can the extinction-level disaster faced at Proxima be reversed by the combined ingenuity of scientists from both worlds working together?

As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, Loret comes to Alkhalend to act as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger. Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade...

Rowan is visiting her aunt, Winne the hedge witch, in the Welsh countryside, to get back to nature and hone her skills, as well as taking a break from her annoying sisters and enjoying some peace and quiet. But she soon comes to realize that this isn't quite the opportunity to rest and escape she thought it might be. Not only that, but mysterious events around the town are causing panic.

The Firefly crew is eager to get paid for their latest job, but when payment arrives as a gaggle of geese instead of a purse, their stay on the planet Brome gets an indefinite extension. Without coin, they can't buy fuel, and without fuel, they can't get offworld. Luckily the foreman of the local fuel refinery, Lyle Horne, wants to hire them. He needs their help on a job only a crew like Serenity can pull off.

Before the world fell, Silvio Cipriano was a contract-killer for the Italian Mafia. When the H7D3 virus came to Italy, Silvio worked to forget his past, to build a different future. Fighting to protect his loved ones from the zombie hordes, he organized the survivors, raised them up from the ashes, and gave them hope. Now, a new enemy has arisen. Worse than the zombies, and bent on conquering the planet one nation at a time, they've set their sights on Italy - with no idea what's awaiting them.

Ravence has fallen. Her enemies have ravaged her people. And now Elena Aadya Ravence must decide how far she will go to reap her revenge. As she is pulled into a bitter war that will decide the fate of her kingdom, a new tyrant rises to reclaim his home, and Elena finds that perhaps her hunger isn't enough. And his knows no bounds.

In Zamora, the city of thieves, Conan meets Valja, a thrill-seeking thief. She entices him to join her on a heist, where they steal a golden statuette of Ishtar, said to contain the goddess herself. After killing a dozen guards and failing to escape, the pair are saved by priestesses of Mitra. The priestesses have need of their skills. To defeat Uzzeran, a powerful sorceror who has been performing unspeakable experiments on humans in the name of Set, they will need a legendary warrior on their side.

Deep in the hills of Appalachia, anti-android sentiment is building. Charismatic demagogue Eli Whitaker has used anger toward new labor policies that replace factory workers with androids to build a militia - and now he is recruiting child soldiers. Part of a governmental task force, Adrian and Trey are determined to put a stop to Whitaker's efforts. Their mission is complicated by their own shared childhood experiences with Whitaker.

Laurie is 65 and living with Alzheimer's. Her daughter Amelia, a once fiery and strong-willed activist, can't bear to see her mother's mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world's first experimental merging process for Alzheimer's patients, in which Laurie's ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia's healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.

A collection of all-original stories set in the world of Honor Harrington and Haven by David Weber, Marisa Wolf, Jacob Holo, Dan Butler, Thomas Pope, and Jane Lindskold.

[BC author]. Silla Nordvig is running for her life. The Queen of Iseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavik, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous quest. Travel the treacherous Road of Bones - a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer - and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her. After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew.

Together, Wynter and Cain have prevailed over many powerful enemies, but now they face their final - and most terrifying - battle. As the last Aeon left standing, the all-powerful Adam is out for revenge. His terms: Cain and Wynter in exchange for peace. If Devil's Cradle won't deliver them, the full force of Adam's devastating rage will fall upon them all. As the stakes are raised, Cain and Wynter will do whatever it takes to defeat Adam and keep each other safe, even if it means unleashing the monsters that live within them...

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, but not everyone can find it. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop's new owner to find it ransacked, the shop's most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. Together with a charming stranger, Hana must journey through a mystical world to find her father and the stolen choice - by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

In the great walled city of Isara, political turmoil ignites a rebellion one hundred years in the making. But when a legionnaire falls in love with a Magistrate's daughter, their love will threaten the fate of the city and the will of the gods.

The residents of a village outside Moscow wake up to discover that the road out to the motorway has disappeared without a trace and the usual paths into the woods somehow lead back into the village. And the woods? Overnight their weedy and rubbish-strewn copse has become a dark and overgrown forest inhabited by something mysterious and unfriendly. Anyone who makes it into the trees either vanishes into thin air or returns, not quite themselves... And this is just the beginning...

When a betrayal tears apart Ara, Max and Tisaanah are pushed into an even bloodier conflict. Tisaanah must gamble with Reshaye's power to claim an impossible victory. And Max, forced into leadership, must confront everything he hoped to forget: his past, and his own mysterious magic. All the while, darker forces loom - far darker, even, than the Orders' secrets.

Speaking with the dead is a curse Lou has learned to hide from everyone. After running away from a past that took advantage of those abilities, Lou finally carves out a normal life for herself. That is, until she receives a mysterious message from a ghost - the Veil is thinning - and a cult of necromancers infiltrates her small town. In a race to discover and defeat her foe, Lou learns she's not alone in the fight.

Galaphile Joss rises from a friendless teenage orphan stranded in the Human world to a powerful adult and master mage, studying under the infamous recluse, Cogline. His goal is to bring order to a chaotic world, and to this end, commences building the citadel which will one day be known as Paranor. But there is one other who seeks dominion over the Four Lands, a foe corrupted by an ancient evil. This one that will not only reach out and touch Galaphile's nearest and dearest, but also echo down through the centuries...

Following the directions of a demon with whom he made a pact, Vokkan travels to seek the treasure he most desires: immortality. None stand in his way - or so he thinks. But Ashok Vadal is not dead. The shard of the Black Sword embedded in his heart - the sword that called him to wield it - is not done with Vadal yet. Now, wielding another Black Sword, Vadal sets out to rescue the prophetess Thera Vane, find the Sons of the Black Sword, defeat the wicked Capitol - and throw down the Law forever, bringing for the first time, freedom to all the people of Lok.

To mark the 60th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series. 2269: On the planet Voyzr, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aided the planet to realize peace. 2289: 20 years of peace are celebrated as the crew of the Enterprise-A returns to Voyzr. But Security Chief Pavel Chekov remembers his visit to the planet as a green ensign. He has always believed the negotiations were too easy, and he wondered if there are people on the planet who still long for war.

The alien Ampersand and his human interpreter Cora Sabino are done with trying to save humanity from both the Superorganism and itself. To them, this is a civilization that does not deserve to be saved. When a strange new form of communication between the two of them reveals to Cora how alien Ampersand truly is, she begins to question her blind devotion. But she soon learns of a danger that may force them to leave Earth before either of them are ready.

Now a disgraced queen on the run, Elara must find a way to wake Enzo while also seeking the lost Titans, a league of gods who ruled the world long before the Stars.But there is a darker power at play, one that even Ariete, King of the Stars, is afraid of.

Doc witnesses a shooting and with his EMT training he saves the life of a badly injured woman. That woman, it turns out, is important to Mr. Patrice, who appears to run a lot of the city. Doc knows he holds some kind of unusual power. Mr. Patrice knows it too. So does the sorcerous Whisper-Who-Dares, who offers threats and temptations far beyond anything Doc ever imagined.

With one speech and thunderous applause, Chancellor Palpatine brought the era of the Republic crashing down. During the terrifying first year of his tyranny, Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, and Bail Organa face the encroaching darkness. One day, they will be three architects of the Rebel Alliance. But first, each must find purpose and direction in a changing galaxy.

Rachel must find an Atlantean mirror to reverse the curse and prove to Cincinnati's brand-new witch coven that, no, she does not practice illicit magic. Unfortunately, the only mirror of its kind in existence belonged to the insane demon Newt, forcing Rachel to go to the past to bargain with her for it. But the time-travel spell goes awry, dragging Elyse, the young leader of the coven, into the past with Rachel.

Irina is about to be married to a dead man. She is the willing village sacrifice for the Wedding of the Dead, designed to placate the vampire that has been terrorizing her Transylvanian village. Irina wishes to retrieve her sister's soul from the land of the dead, but needs a guide who can traverse both worlds. (Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.) During the dangerous journey Irina and Stefan begin to warm to each other.

Fifteen years ago, on Halloween night, a group of teenagers performed a summoning ritual on Hallows Hill. The next day, one of them was dead. Mia has never forgotten the chilling vision she saw that night, and which she believes foretold the death. Now the remaining friends gather for Halloween again. But when another death occurs, Mia starts to doubt everything around her.

Genetic engineer Noah Parker helped domesticate dragons for use as pets and deployed them for the U.S. military. Now his team is tasked with designing dragons to tackle invasive species and other ecological problems. Although the environmental control dragons are successful, the Build-A-Dragon Company starts to receive worrisome reports. Many of those point to a small Midwestern town where dragons have attacked livestock and even people.

The year is 1815, and the American, Miss Amelia Stonehold, has arrived in the Devon town of Axminster, accompanied by her "cousin" Serena Meleva. She's there to find a property and - possibly - find a husband. But the Honorable Captain Harold Roughtower has his eyes fixed on her fortune. How is he to know that neither Amelia nor Serena are pushovers - and that he has an Earth Master and a Fire Mage on his hands - one of them a shapeshifter?

Elena, having lost her father, must rescue herself from her evil stepmother, a Master of Water, who has bespelled her brothers into swans. She is left without home or protection by her father's villainous widow, who plans to regain her wealth by selling Elena to the highest bidder.Alone, Elena must not only find a way to save herself, but to reverse the spell that has transformed her brothers.

The 19th anthology of short stories set in Valdemar, featuring the Heralds of Valdemar, the kingdom's ancient order of protectors, includes a new story of Lackey herself.

22-year-old Vera is at a crossroads: waiting tables, grieving her previous relationship, and jogging aimlessly each morning as if toward an uncertain future. Then an odd man shows up at her workplace, insisting that she was once the legendary Queen Guinevere of Camelot, and that her lost memories hold the key to changing both the past and the present.

Tonight, Holly and Brian race toward Pinebuck, New York, trying to outrun a blizzard on their way to the ski village getaway they hope will save their relationship. But soon they lose control of the car--and then of themselves. Now Sheriff Kendra Book is getting calls about a couple in trouble--along with reports of a brutal and mysterious creature rampaging through town, leaving a trail of crushed cars, wrecked buildings, and mangled bodies in the snow.

A social justice themed collection dedicated to realistic, progressive social change. Contributors include NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias.

Richard III is trapped in the afterlife, waiting with his guide, Raven, for an angel to take his soul to Heaven. Though he's been between worlds for hundreds of years, up in the real world it's 2013 and Molly Stern has a broken heart from losing her father and a recent breakup. When the angel encounters Molly - and Raven at last finds the angel - life and the afterlife meet, with surprising and unexpected consequences.

Two teens appear out of nowhere, ransacking a small-town grocery and attacking the police officers who come to investigate. Their clothes are torn and filthy, their hands and bare feet callused, they have fangs. They're sister and brother, alone against the world. Where did they come from? Raised by wolves, they say.

Embarking on a journey to discover her past, Astraea's awakening power spins the hourglass on a history threatening to repeat itself. While Nyte tries to regain control of the vampires hungry for bloodshed, a sinister plan by his brother to overthrow him sparks a dangerous feud. But are they willing to wear the blood of their kin to see it through?

Paris, 1925. Expatriate American Harry Nolan's life as a magazine illustrator is upended when he is assigned to illustrate an anonymous article about the death of a god. A centuries-old French brotherhood, the sauteurs, are determined to suppress the story the article tells. The sauteurs have burned the magazine's office and killed the editor, and Nolan has the only surviving copy of the article. The author turns out to be a local writer named Ernest Hemingway.

As the daughter of an emperor's clan, Khamilla Zahr-zad spent her childhood training to maintain his throne. But when her clansmen are assassinated by a rival empire, plans change. With her heavenly magic of nur, Khamilla is a weapon even enemies would wield - especially those in the magical, scholarly city of Za'skar.Hiding her identity, Khamilla joins the enemy's army school full of jinn, magic, and martial arts, risking it all to topple her adversaries, avenge her clan, and reclaim the throne.

A new short fiction collection. Along with the never-before-seen novella "Moment Zero," the collection includes "Snapshot", "Perfect State", "Defending Elysium" (a novella set within the world of Skyward), and five other stories that were originally published individually elsewhere. Each story will have a B&W illustration.

1592. Cybil Harding is a First Daughter. Cursed to bring disaster to those around her, she is trapped in a house with a mother paralyzed by grief and a father willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of magic. Miriam Richter is a creature of shadow, eternal, killing mortals and consuming their souls. She offers Cybil reincarnation in exchange for her soul. Thus begins a dance across centuries as Miriam seeks Cybil in every lifetime to claim her prize.

Beginning in 2024, yet set largely during the early 2000s, the story unfolds on a secluded Swedish island, home to a secret weapon lab that has been off-limits for years. The narrative spans decades following two young men, stuck in the past and each other's orbit, as fleeting moments become defining memories as they set out to explore the forbidden zone together.

What connects a dead dinosaur with Romulus the founder of Rome, a shocking cover-up at TPHQ and a plot to murder the Princes in the Tower? The Time Police are determined to find out, helped - and occasionally hindered - by a wayward member of St Mary's and a recently reunited Team 236. Each in their own unique way, obviously. As if all that wasn't enough - something somewhere in the Timeline is wrong.

Quedra and Zham's new mercenary company is short of everything they need to get their recently discovered ship, Last Stop, operational. They need a patron, but the only likely candidate demands they show him what they're worth. Zham takes charge of a border outpost's air wing, but when the fortress is besieged by their patron's enemies, the company's first mission may end up being their last.

The world is divided by the Line of Limit. To the north are the Tokkebi - fire people able to manipulate flames as both weapons and illusions; Rekon - giant birdmen with immense strength and warrior acumen; and the humans - as divided as the other races are unified. To the south are the Nhaga - a reptilian people who relinquish their hearts for immortality. For centuries, the races didn't cross that line, but change is in the air.

Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene have been tasked with seeking out alien artifacts and bringing them under the control of the Icarus Group. But the Group's leadership has changed, and Roarke soon finds himself at serious odds with the new director's plans. The result is a counter-plan that lands Roarke and Selene on a distant world with a broken city, a dozen portals, and a group of aliens called the Ammei who dream of using the portals to bring back their own glory days.