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All One Universe

Poul Anderson

Poul Anderson himself has put together a retrospective collection of his recent writings, fiction and nonfiction, under the title All One Universe. This is the first major Poul Anderson collection in a decade. It encompasses all his strengths as a teller of tales and, in addition, provides a running commentary in the story notes and in the essays on other literary figures such as Rudyard Kipling, Johannes B. Jensen, and John W. Campbell, Jr., commentary that illuminates the fiction, gives personal insight into the mind of this fine writer, and provides a unifying personality for All One Universe. All One Universe, then, represents the new best of Poul Anderson. It is a rich, varied selection of quintessential science fiction as well as four essays, mostly from recent years, by one of the great science fiction writers of the century. His stories are filled with roaring energy, the soul of poetry, and dark imaginings.

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1996) - essay
  • Strangers - (1988) - novelette
  • Neptune Diary - (1990) - essay
  • Requiem for a Universe - (1987) - shortstory
  • John Campbell - (1996) - essay
  • In Memoriam - (1992) - shortstory
  • The House of Sorrows - (1989) - novelette
  • Uncleftish Beholding - (1989) - essay
  • Losers' Night - (1991) - shortstory
  • Science Fiction and History - (1989) - essay
  • Rokuro - (1991) - shortstory
  • Rudyard Kipling - (1996) - essay
  • The Forest - (1985) - novelette
  • Johannes V. Jensen - (1981) - essay
  • Fortune Hunter - (1972) - shortstory
  • Wolfram - (1975) - shortstory
  • The Visitor - (1974) - shortstory
  • Wellsprings of Dream - essay
  • The Voortrekkers - (1974) - novelette

Kinsmen Universe

Ilona Andrews

The World of Kinsmen

Family is everything. Talent is power. And revenge is sweet.

In a distant, future world Kinsmen--small powerful groups of genetically and technologically advanced families--control vast financial empires. They are their own country, their own rulers, and their only limits are other Kinsmen. The struggle for power is a bloody, full-contact sport: in business, on the battlefield...and sometimes in the bedroom.

Silent Blade:

Old hatreds die hard. Old love dies harder.

On the planet Rada, Meli Galdes' family is of minor rank, and were relying on her marriage to Celino, the razor-smart, ruthless leader of the powerful Carvanna empire. When he abruptly breaks their engagement, he ruins her family and guarantees that Meli will never marry, as no suitor will oppose the rich and influential Carvannas.

But Meli has a rare, secret, lethal--and valuable--talent. As a melder of energy, she's capable of severing anything in her path. So she 'leaves' her family and trains to become one of the best and most lethal of assassins, all the while covertly guarding her family's interests. Now she's ready to quit; but she has one more assignment.

To kill the man who ruined her life.

Silver Shark:

Claire Shannon is a killer... and her weapon is her mind.

Born on a planet torn by war for over 300 years, Claire is a soldier: a psycher, with the ability to read, control, and destroy the minds of enemy psychers and to infiltrate the biological network where they battle to death.

When Claire's faction loses the war, she barely escapes extermination from both sides, as her talent brands her as too dangerous to society. By so-deeply burying her ability that she avoids detection, Claire is instead deported to Rada as a refugee, where she must find work to remain. She finds a job as personal assistant to Venturo Escana, a premiere kinsman; one of Rada's most wealthy entrepreneurs--and most powerful psychers.

She thought she had left war behind, but now she must hide her skills and her growing feelings from Venturo...and this battle might just cost her everything...

A Mere Formality:

The leader of the fierce Reigh people expires during an intergalactic summit, putting 30 million colonists' lives and livelihoods in jeopardy. When the new heir to the Reigh throne, Lord Nagrad, demands restitution, the phrase "'a life for a life" turns the intergalactic calamity into an arranged marriage contract between Lord Nagrad and sharply intelligent diplomatic analyst Deirdre Lebed... and the negotiation of terms becomes anything but formal!

The Last Gifts of the Universe

Riley August

A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.

When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left -- and whatever came for the others will one day come for them.

Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals -- anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.

Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.

Pirates of the Universe

Terry Bisson

Here come the Peteys! Vacuum jellyfish the size of small moons, they drift through our solar system like messengers from another universe. Some worship them, others study them, and still others hunt them for their skins, which are more valuable than gold or even oil on the ruined, depleted Earth.

Gunther is a hunter. He knows the rules. He knows the risks. He knows the rewards. What he doesn't know, is that he's being hunted too.

Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe

David Brin
Kevin Lenagh

The award-winning Uplift novels comprise one of the greatest achievements in science fiction history. Dramatic, thought-provoking, and inventive, these books describe a fully realized world rich in character, detail, and ideas. Now Uplift author David Brin collaborates with acclaimed artist Kevin Lenagh to compile the definitive guide to the species, societies, and technology of one of the greatest feats of literary world-building ever accomplished.

Here in the form of a handbook for Terran field agents is a detailed look at Uplift's many alien races--from the friendly Tymbrimi to the warlike Tandu, from the wise and enigmatic Kanten to the fiercely reptilian Soro, from the bureaucratic Hoon to the manipulative Thennanin--their physiology, psychology, history; their clans and alliances; and their shifting attitudes toward Earth and its representatives.

Here, too, is a history of Earth's contact and challenging interactions with the mysterious and powerful Civilization of Five Galaxies, a look at its institutions, languages, and customs, plus a time line of momentous events going back 3 billion years. For the millions of fans of the Uplift novels, this long-awaited guide will be an essential reference work, filled with vital information and never-before-seen illustrations that reveal, for the first time in one volume, the keys to the ambitious vision and bold speculation of the Uplift universe.

What Mad Universe

Fredric Brown

BUG-EYED MONSTERS ON BROADWAY Pulp SF magazine editor Keith Winton was answering a letter from a teenage fan when the first moon rocket fell back to Earth and blew him away. But where to? Greenville, New York, looked the same, but Bems (Bug-Eyed Monsters) just like the ones on the cover of Startling Stories walked the streets without attracting undue comment. And when he brought out a half-dollar coin in a drugstore, the cops wanted to shoot him on sight as an Arcturian spy. Wait a minute. Seven-foot purple moon-monsters? Earth at war with Arcturus? General Dwight D. Eisenhower in command of Venus Sector? What mad universe was this? One thing was for sure: Keith Winton had to find out fast - or he'd be good and dead, in this universe or any other.

The Light at the End of the Universe

Terry Carr

Terry Carr has been called the editor with impeccable taste, the man who knows which stories will be Hugo and Nebula award winners months before he puts them in his justly famous Best SF of the Year series. There are 15 stories in this anthology. Judge for yourself. He is the fantasist of the first rank.

Table of Contents:

  • Nice Guys Finish Somewhere in the Middle - essay by Harlan Ellison
  • The Dance of the Changer and the Three - (1968) - shortstory
  • The Winds at Starmont - (1973) - novella
  • Ozymandias - (1972) - shortstory
  • Rejoice, Rejoice, We Have No Choice - (1974) - shortstory
  • Hop-Friend - (1962) - shortstory
  • Touchstone - (1964) - shortstory
  • Brown Robert - (1962) - shortstory
  • Changing of the Gods - (1973) - novelette
  • Stanley Toothbrush - (1962) - shortstory
  • The Colors of Fear - (1974) - shortstory
  • Sleeping Beauty - (1967) - shortstory
  • In His Image - (1973) - shortstory
  • The Old Man of the Mountains - (1963) - shortstory
  • The Robots Are Here - (1967) - novelette
  • They Live on Levels - (1973) - shortstory

Mission to Universe

Gordon R. Dickson

General Benjamin Shore was heading for the stars under forged orders - and in defiance of the commands of the President. He was leaving Earth in an untested ship with a crew chosen by neccesity and with nothing but faith to guide him. His only hope was to find habitable worlds in the unexplored reaches of space ahead.

Thus began Man's first mission to the uncharted universe.

Shore had no illusions. Before him lay danger, probable disappointment - even death. But nothing had prepared him for the nightmare he would have to face on the planet of the Gray-Furs... for the menace of the Golden People who had driven all other races from Galactic Center - or for what awaited him if he returned to the world he called home. Either way, the human race was doomed!

The Lightest Object in the Universe

Kimi Eisele

Carson is on the East Coast when the electrical grid goes down. Desperate to find Beatrix, a woman on the West Coast who holds his heart, he sets off along a cross-country railroad line, where he encounters lost souls, clever opportunists, and those seeking salvation. Meanwhile, Beatrix and her neighbors begin to construct a cooperative community, working to turn the end of the world into the possibility of a bright beginning.

Without modern means of communication, will Beatrix and Carson be able to find their way to each other? The answer may lie with one fifteen-year-old girl, whose actions could ultimately decide the fate of the lovers.

The Man Who Used the Universe

Alan Dean Foster

No one knows the true motives of Kees vaan Loo-Macklin. He's a mastermind criminal who gave up his place at the head of the dark underworld to become a legitimate member of Evenwaith's cities. But soon he was reaching out to powerful enemies--the slimy aliens called the Nuel. Loo-Macklin negotiates an illusory peace agreement and gains precious alien secrets in the process. Is he after peace, power or pure evil? With enemy starships beginning to amass, we won't have to wait long to find out.

The Far Side of the Universe

Noc

When young Ira arrives for her appointment, she is prepared to be transported to The Gateway to Heaven, 6,070 light years away. But the technicians shepherding her through the process fear there's more to it than what's advertised.

Read the full story for free at Tor Reactor.

Captive Universe

Harry Harrison

Twenty-one-year-old Chimal wants desperately to escape his native valley, home to an ancient Aztec civilization sealed off from the outside world. The valley is ruled by priests who enforce despotic laws and perpetuate a life of fear. Chimal escapes and discovers that his world is in fact a vast space ship on a journey from Earth to Proxima Centauri.

Expanded Universe

Robert A. Heinlein

The Wit and Wisdom of Robert A. Heinlein, author of multiple New York Times best sellers, on subjects ranging form Crime and Punishment to the Love life of the American Teenager; from Nuclear Power to the Pragmatics of Patriotism; from Prophecy to Destiny; from Geopolitic to Post-Holocaust America; fro the Nature of Courage to the Nature of Reality; it's all here and it's all great-straight from the mind of the finest science fiction writer of them all. But beware: after reading it, you too will occupy an Expanded Universe!

Table of Contents:

  • Foreword (Expanded Universe) - (1980) - essay
  • Life-Line - [Future History] - (1939) - shortstory
  • Successful Operation - (1940) - shortstory
  • Blowups Happen - [Future History] - (1940) - novelette
  • Solution Unsatisfactory - (1941) - novelette
  • The Last Days of the United States - (1980) - essay
  • How to Be a Survivor - (1980) - essay
  • Pie from the Sky - (1980) - essay
  • They Do It With Mirrors - non-genre - (1947) - shortstory
  • Free Men - (1966) - novelette
  • No Bands Playing, No Flags Flying - (1973) - shortstory
  • A Bathroom of Her Own - (1980) - shortstory
  • On the Slopes of Vesuvius - (1980) - shortstory
  • Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon - (1949) - novelette
  • Pandora's Box - (1966) - essay
  • Where To? - (1952) - essay
  • Cliff and the Calories - (1980) - shortstory
  • The Answers - (2005) - essay
  • Ray Guns and Rocket Ships - (1952) - essay
  • The Third Millennium Opens - (1956) - essay (variant of As I See Tomorrow... The Third Millenium Opens)
  • Who Are the Heirs of Patrick Henry? - (1958) - essay
  • "Pravda" Means "Truth" - (1960) - essay
  • Inside Intourist - (1960) - essay
  • Searchlight - [Future History] - (1962) - shortstory
  • The Pragmatics of Patriotism - (1973) - essay
  • Paul Dirac, Antimatter, and You - (1975) - essay
  • Larger Than Life: A Memoir in Tribute to Dr. Edward E. Smith - (1980) - essay
  • Spinoff - (1980) - essay
  • The Happy Days Ahead - (1980) - essay

Universe

Robert A. Heinlein

This novelette was combined with its sequel, "Common Sense", to form "Orphans of the Sky" in 1963.

The gigantic, cylindrical generation ship Vanguard, originally destined for "Far Centaurus", is cruising without guidance through the interstellar medium as a result of a long-ago mutiny that killed most of the officers. Over time, the descendants of the surviving loyal crew have forgotten the purpose and nature of their ship and lapsed into a pre-technological culture marked by superstition. They come to believe the "Ship" is the entire universe, so that "To move the ship" is considered an oxymoron, and references to the Ship's "voyage" are interpreted as religious metaphor. They are ruled by an oligarchy of "officers" and "scientists". Most crew members are simple illiterate farmers, seldom or never venturing to the "upper decks" where the "muties" (an abbreviation of "mutants" or "mutineers") dwell. Among the crew, all identifiable mutants are killed at birth.

It first appeared in the May, 1941 Issue of Astounding Science Fiction, available on Internet Archives.

The Universe, Sung in Stars

Kat Howard

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, April 2015.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Universe of Things

Gwyneth Jones

The stories in The Universe of Things span Jones's career, from "The Eastern Succession," first published in 1988, to the just-published "Collision." Each opens a window into a richly depicted culture in which intelligent, resourceful characters struggle to make sense of the mysteries of their world.

In the introduction by Steven Shaviro, author of Doom Patrols and Connected, or What It Means to Live in the Network Society, Shaviro notes, "As a feminist writer, Jones refuses to accept compromises that leave gender inequities in place--and recognizes how they may well have staved off something worse. And as a science fiction writer, Jones shows deep awareness of how provisional, and fragile, all our acceptances and reconciliations can be, for there are always new potentials, new cultural or technological disruptions in the offing. Jones envisions a future that is different enough from the present that we are forced to recognize the contingency--and changeability--of the things we take most for granted."

Table of Contents:

  • iii - Introduction (The Universe of Things) - essay by Steven Shaviro
  • 1 - In the Forest of the Queen - (2007) - short story
  • 25 - Total Internal Reflection - (2000) - short story
  • 28 - Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland - (1996) - short story
  • 48 - The Universe of Things - (1993) - short story
  • 62 - Blue Clay Blues - (1992) - novelette
  • 90 - Grazing the Long Acre - (1998) - short story
  • 106 - Collision - [Buonarotti Transit] - (2009) - short story
  • 121 - One of Sandy's Dreams - (1988) - short story
  • 122 - Gravegoods - (1989) - novelette
  • 148 - La Cenerentola - (1998) - short story
  • 170 - Grandmother's Footsteps - (1990) - novelette
  • 194 - The Early Crossing - (1998) - short story
  • 196 - The Eastern Succession - (1988) - novelette
  • 225 - The Thief, the Princess, and the Cartesian Circle - (1993) - short story
  • 243 - Identifying the Object - (1990) - novelette (variant of Forward Echoes)

Reiko's Universe Box

Shinji Kajio

Short story translated from Japanese by Toyoda Takashi and Gene van Troyer. The Japanese original appeared in 1981. The first English edition appeared in the anthology Speculative Japan: Outstanding Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy (2007) edited by Gene Van Troyer and Grania Davis. It can also be found in the anthology The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

Before the Universe and Other Stories

C. M. Kornbluth
Frederik Pohl

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Mars-Tube - (1941)
  • Trouble in Time - (1940)
  • Vacant World - (1940)
  • Best Friend - (1941)
  • Before the Universe - (1940)
  • Nova Midplane - (1940)
  • The Extrapolated Dimwit - (1942)
  • Afterword

Mayor of the Universe

Lorna Landvik

A mild-mannered actuary, Fletcher Weschel lives at the crossroads of Bland and Humdrum--or so he thinks until a cosmic contest catapults him into the fantasy world he made up as a boy. Suddenly his childhood bedroom is aswarm with aliens, all bent on discovering the human who best personifies their mission--in this case, the deeply serious pursuit of fun.

Ejected from the boring comfort of his office chair, Fletcher finds himself astride the bare back of a horse, in front of a safe (that he happens to be cracking), and then... in the cabin of a weight-loss camp for kids? Apparently adventures come in all shapes and sizes, and it's up to Fletcher to make the most of these, conducted by his alien guide, Tandala, who takes on the corporeal form of a big-boned Jamaican and tends to get distracted by Earth's many surprising pleasures (garlic! libraries! love!).

But even fantasies can have consequences, and as Fletcher struggles through them, he is cheered and assisted by Wanda Plum, a plucky second-grade teacher who helps him realize what his ultimate role really is on this highly mysterious, infinitely marvelous pale-blue dot in a vast universe.

How the Crown Prince of Jupiter Undid the Universe, or, The Full Fruit of Love’s Full Folly

P. H. Lee

Once upon a time the Crown Prince of Jupiter glimpsed a miniature of Esmerelda, Princess of the Sun, and fell instantly in love. But was that really such a good idea?

Read the full story for free at Tor Reactor.

The Heat Death of the Universe and Other Stories

Pamela Zoline

Table of Contents:

  • Busy About the Tree of Life - (1988) - novella
  • The Heat Death of the Universe - (1967) - shortstory
  • The Holland of the Mind - (1969) - novelette
  • Instructions for Exiting This Building in Case of Fire - (1985) - shortstory
  • Sheep - (1981) - novella

Universe Day

Barry N. Malzberg

The Outer limit. When man's ambition expanded to fill the solar system, his technology expanded to take him as far as he wanted to go. Technology went on expanding. So did man's ambitions. But there was a danger only dimly suspected, and only poorly comprehended when it began to make itself felt. It was that man's ambition would outleap his imagination; that his technology would outstrip his emotional capacity. It might be that it was just too big, the universe. That there was just too much to of nothing for man to bear.

originally published under the pseudonym K. M. O'Donnell

Terry's Universe

Beth Meacham

This collection of all new short fiction by thirteen of today's top science fiction writers represents a memorial to the late Terry Carr and includes contributions by Ursulai K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Robert Silverberg, among others.

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1988) - essay by Beth Meacham
  • House of Bones - (1988) - short story by Robert Silverberg
  • Kore 87 - (1988) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Slack Lankhmar Afternoon Featuring Hisvet - (1988) - short story by Fritz Leiber
  • Isosceles - (1988) - short story by Kate Wilhelm
  • Transients - (1988) - short story by Carter Scholz
  • The Dragon Line - (1988) - short story by Michael Swanwick
  • Le Hot Sport - (1988) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
  • The Lunatics - (1988) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Deadboy Donner and the Filstone Cup - (1988) - short story by Roger Zelazny
  • Lukora - (1988) - short story by Gene Wolfe
  • At the Double Solstice - (1986) - short story by Gregory Benford
  • The Dance of the Changer and the Three - (1968) - short story by Terry Carr
  • Last Words about Terry - (1988) - essay by Harlan Ellison

The Walls of the Universe

Paul Melko

Hugo, Nebula and Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2006. The story is included in the collection Ten Sigmas & Other Unlikelihoods (2008) and was later expanded to the full novel The Walls of the Universe (2009).

Dark Universe: Stories 1951-2001

William F. Nolan

Collects the renowned author's award-winning horror stories in one chilling volume that takes readers into a dark realm where nothing is what it seems and terror hides in the shadows.

Table of Contents:

  • xiii - Preface (Dark Universe: Stories 1951-2001) - (2001) - essay
  • xvii - Introduction (Dark Universe: Stories 1951-2001) - (2001) - essay by Christopher Conlon
  • 1 - The Underdweller - (1957) - short story (variant of Small World)
  • 17 - And Miles to Go Before I Sleep - (1958) - short story
  • 25 - One of Those Days - (1962) - short story
  • 31 - The Party - (1967) - short story
  • 43 - He Kilt It with a Stick - (1968) - short story
  • 51 - Violation - (1973) - short story
  • 59 - Starblood - (1972) - short story
  • 73 - Coincidence - (1974) - short story
  • 81 - Kelly, Fredric Michael: 1928-1987 - (1973) - short story
  • 89 - Dead Call - (1976) - short story
  • 95 - Saturday's Shadow - (1979) - novelette
  • 117 - The Partnership - (1980) - short story
  • 131 - A Real Nice Guy - (1980) - short story
  • 145 - The Pool - (1981) - short story
  • 157 - Lonely Train A'Comin' - (1981) - short story (variant of The Train)
  • 173 - Fair Trade - (1982) - short story
  • 181 - Something Nasty - (1983) - short story
  • 193 - Ceremony - (1985) - novelette
  • 215 - The Final Stone - (1986) - short story
  • 239 - The Halloween Man - (1986) - short story
  • 251 - The Yard - (1987) - short story
  • 261 - My Name Is Dolly - (1987) - short story
  • 267 - Major Prevue Here Tonight - (1989) - short story
  • 279 - The Cure - (1988) - short story
  • 297 - Stoner - (1989) - short story
  • 303 - On 42nd St. - (1989) - short story
  • 315 - Gobble, Gobble! - (1990) - short story
  • 323 - The Francis File - (1994) - short story
  • 333 - Him, Her, Them - (1991) - short story
  • 351 - Babe's Laughter - (1991) - short story
  • 357 - Vympyre - (1995) - short fiction
  • 361 - The Visit - (1992) - short story
  • 367 - The Giant Man - (1994) - short story
  • 375 - On Harper's Road - (1993) - short story
  • 391 - At Diamond Lake - (1994) - short story
  • 401 - Boyfren - (1995) - novella (variant of Boyfriend)
  • 407 - Fyodor's Law - (1994) - short story
  • 419 - An Act of Violence - (1995) - short story
  • 429 - A Good Day - (1997) - short story
  • 437 - Freak - (2000) - short story
  • 447 - Heart's Blood - (2000) - short story

In Universes

Emet North

Raffi works in an observational cosmology lab, searching for dark matter and trying to hide how little they understand their own research. Every chance they get, they escape to see Britt, a queer sculptor who fascinates them for reasons they also don't - or won't - understand. As Raffi's carefully constructed life begins to collapse, they become increasingly fixated on the multiverse and the idea that somewhere, there might be a universe where they mean as much to Britt as she does to them... and just like that, Raffi and Britt are thirteen years old, best friends and maybe something more.

In Universes is a mind-bending tour across parallel worlds, each an answer to the question of what life would be like if events had played out just a little differently. The universes grow increasingly strange: women fracture into hordes of animals, alien-infested bears prowl apocalyptic landscapes. But across them all, Raffi reaches for a life that feels authentically their own.

A Game of Universe

Eric S. Nylund

One of thirteen people challenged to find the Holy Grail and be rewarded with a planetary system, Germain, an assassin, can absorb the consciousness of his victims, giving him an advantage in the contest until his inner personalities begin to battle for control of his body.

The Universe

Byron Preiss

A beautifully illustrated, fascinating exploration of the mysteries of the cosmos and beyond, featuring original fiction by award-winning science fiction authors and essays by the leading scientists in the field. In this book, we gather together the scientists, the intellectuals, and the artists, to learn about and speculate upon the cosmos. The world right now desperately needs both the physicist and the dreamer. G-d has blessed us with the most magnificent world imaginable. We have barely made the first steps in seeing all the light in the darkness. Perhaps it is the dreamer who will find out the nature of dark matter; perhaps it is the scientist who will find solutions to needless hunger and mindless war. For them both, the bounty of the Earth and the cosmos is the currency of hope. Humanity must use what it has been blessed with to survive. Then, as in Paul Simon s phrase, we all might be dancing together with diamonds on the soles of our shoes. They will be the diamonds of the stars and it will be a dance of peace.

Table of Contents:

  • Frontier - essay by Byron Preiss
  • The Universe: An Introduction - essay by Andrew Fraknoi
  • What is the Universe? - essay by Isaac Asimov
  • What is the Universe? - interior artwork by Darrel Anderson
  • Art and Science Fiction: Unbuilt Cities / Realized Dreams - essay by Ray Bradbury
  • Art and Science Fiction: Unbuilt Cities / Realized Dreams - interior artwork by Moebius
  • Our Galaxy - essay by Eric J. Chaisson
  • Mandikini - shortstory by Gregory Benford
  • Mandikini - interior artwork by B. E. Johnson
  • Star Birth and Maturity - essay by Martin Cohen
  • To Touch a Star - shortstory by Ben Bova
  • To Touch a Star - interior artwork by Pat Rawlings
  • Supernovae: Creative Catclysms in the Galaxy - essay by David J. Helfand
  • The Iron Star - novelette by Robert Silverberg
  • The Iron Star [I] - interior artwork by Bob Eggleton
  • The Iron Star [II] - interior artwork by Bob Eggleton
  • The Black Hole - essay by William J. Kaufmann
  • Schwarzschild Radius - shortstory by Connie Willis
  • Schwarzschild Radius - interior artwork by Jim Burns
  • Galaxies and Clusters - essay by Hyron Spinrad
  • Bubbles - shortstory by David Brin
  • Bubbles - interior artwork by David A. Cherry
  • Quasars and Active Galaxies - essay by Harding E. Smith
  • For Thus Do I Remember Carthage - shortstory by Michael Bishop
  • For Thus Do I Remember Carthage - interior artwork by John Collier (artist)
  • The Intergalactic Medium - essay by Wallace Tucker
  • The Man Who Was a Cosmic String - shortstory by Rudy Rucker
  • The Man Who Was a Cosmic String - interior artwork by Ron Miller
  • Cosmology: The Quest to Understand the Creation and Expansion of the Universe - essay by Allan Sandage
  • Requiem for a Universe - shortstory by Poul Anderson
  • Requiem for a Universe - interior artwork by John Harris
  • The New Physics and the Universe - essay by James Trefil
  • All the Hues of Hell - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
  • All the Hues of Hell - interior artwork by Kikuo Hayashi
  • Who Will Speak for Earth? An Essay on Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Contact - essay by Donald Goldsmith
  • The Dark Shadow - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
  • The Dark Shadow - interior artwork by Lebbeus Woods

Lone Star Universe

Geo W. Proctor
Steven Utley

Table of Contents

  • In Exorcising Texas: An Introduction - essay by Harlan Ellison
  • Back to the Stone Age - shortstory by Jake Saunders
  • The Sweetwater Factor - shortstory by Tom Reamy
  • Woman Waiting - novelette by Lisa Tuttle
  • The Recent Semifinals - shortstory by Robert Lory
  • From the Tower of Eridu - shortstory by T. R. Fehrenbach
  • Ghost Seas - shortstory by Steven Utley
  • Fiddle Ess - novelette by Glenn Lewis Gillette
  • The Invasion of Dallas - shortstory by James Sallis
  • Story of a Strange Relative - shortstory by Larry Holden
  • The Migration - shortstory by Geo. W. Proctor
  • Man-Made Self - shortstory by Bruce Sterling
  • And Death Once Dead - shortstory by Joseph F. Pumilia
  • Every Day in Every Way - novelette by H. H. Hollis
  • Community Study - novelette by Chad Oliver
  • The Talking - shortstory by Neal Barrett, Jr.
  • Unsleeping Beauty and the Beast - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
  • The Coming of Bast - poem by Robert E. Howard

Steven Universe

Rebecca Sugar

A magical boy named Steven has adventures with a team of guardians of humanity. Along the way, he pursues his heroic destiny and tries to perfect his special powers. Believe in Steven!

The Finest Ass in the Universe

Anna Tambour

Elation, compulsion, exploration, love and exquisitely timed bullying, a lascivious oyster, a man called Eggplant, the dangers of smelling like honey pudding, the enticement of innocent toadlets, the unending day of deadness. The daughter of a part-time magician and a Las Vegas showgirl turns to science, destiny points a young man to brassiere design, suddenly orphaned siblings try to protect their most vulnerable, fortunes craze in neighbourhoods living cheek-by-jowl. Unintendeds abound, as life cavorts in all its unclassifiable contrariness.

Table of Contents:

  • What I Don't Know and Do About Anna Tambour - (2015) - essay by Jeffrey Ford
  • The Oyster and Alice O. - (2011) - short story
  • Lab Dancer - (2015) - short fiction
  • Strange Incidents in Foreign Parts - (2005) - short story
  • Marks and Coconuts - (2013) - short fiction
  • The Walking-Stick Forest - (2014) - short story
  • The Jeweller of Second-Hand Roe - (2007) - short story
  • High Life - (2015) - short fiction
  • Baad-hin'jan and the Chickpea - (2015) - short story
  • The Eye of Nostradamus Summit - (2010) - short story
  • The Old Testacles - (2014) - short story
  • Rocket Fantazyor - (2015) - short fiction
  • Sincerely, Petrified - (2009) - short fiction
  • The Dog Who Wished He'd Never Heard of Lovecraft - (2012) - short story
  • Bufo of Oahu: Ukulele Ululatress - (2015) - short story
  • How Galligaskins Sloughed the Scourge - (2010) - short story
  • There Is No Rice Pudding in the Sea - (2006) - short story
  • Dreadnought Neptune - (2010) - short story
  • The Shoe in SHOES' Window - (2007) - short story
  • The Emperor's Backscratcher - (2005) - short story
  • King Wolf - (2012) - short story
  • Gladiolus Exposed - (2008) - short story
  • Pococurante - (2007) - short story
  • The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers - (2008) - short story
  • Tap - (2015) - short story
  • Bowfin Island - (2013) - short story

Our Tragic Universe

Scarlett Thomas

Can a story save your life?

Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend's only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting.

But who wants to live forever?

Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions. Does she believe in fairies? In magic? Is she a superbeing? Is she living a storyless story? And what's the connection between her off-hand suggestion to push a car into a river, a ship in a bottle, a mysterious beast loose on the moor, and the controversial author of The Science of Living Forever?

Smart, entrancing, and boiling over with Thomas's trademark big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, how we can rewrite our futures (if not our histories), and how stories just might save our lives.

Destination: Universe!

A. E. Van Vogt

Contents:

  • vii - Introduction (Destination: Universe!) - essay
  • 3 - Far Centaurus - (1944) - short story
  • 39 - The Monster - (1948) - short story (variant of Resurrection)
  • 69 - Dormant - (1948) - short story
  • 99 - Enchanted Village - (1950) - short story
  • 125 - A Can of Paint - (1944) - short story
  • 151 - Defense - (1947) - short story
  • 155 - The Rulers - (1944) - short story
  • 189 - Dear Pen Pal - (1949) - short story
  • 201 - The Sound - [Rull] - (1949) - novelette
  • 243 - The Search - (1943) - novelette

Bright New Universe

Jack Williamson

"Think what it would mean! To prove that we aren't alone! To find other worlds, other races -- older and wiser than we are! Out on the moon, I hope to find an answer. If we do pick up a signal from space, it will be the great turning point in our history. It will give our lives a meaning." Yet to make his words good, Adam Cave had to break with his family and society, and pit himself against his own world. But once out there on the far side of the moon, where an isolated band kept pushing Earth's call letters into the void, the picture changed startlingly, shockingly. For Cave learned the truth that had been held back from a placid world for so long....

The Monadic Universe

George Zebrowski

Table of Contents:

  • First Love, First Fear (1972)
  • Starcrossed (1973)
  • Assassins of Air (1973)
  • Parks of Rest and Culture (1973)
  • The Water Sculptor (1970)
  • Rope of Glass (1973)
  • Heathen God (1971)
  • Interpose (1973)
  • The History Machine (1972)
  • The Cliometricon (1975)
  • Stance of Splendor (1973)
  • The Monadic Universe (1972) with Gerald Hull

The Coils of Time / Into the Alternate Universe

A. Bertram Chandler

The Coils of Time

Dr. Henshaw had created what he though was a time travel machine and he had sent guinea pigs through it. But now he needed a human guinea pig to test it with.

Christopher Wilkinson thought the whole idea was absurd, until a book that had been sent through the machine came back with a thumb print on it, the fingerprint of Vanessa, his long lost sweetheart!

So Wilkinson agreed to the experiment. He stood in the white circle facing the machine as it began to gleam and spin, pulling him down through the tortuous coils of time....

Into the Alternate Universe

Others called their expedition a "wild ghost chase." But for Space Commodore John Grimes and the beautiful Sonya Verrill who had initiated the project, it was strictly scientific research. Their trip along the rim of the galaxy in search of two men - two dead men - was also an investigation of the long-puzzling phenomenon of the Rim Ghosts. They would do this by penetrating into alternate universes.

There was only one real problem involved in this study - how to report its results. For once the breakthrough to an alternate world was achieved, there was no known way of getting out....

Gates of the Universe

Robert Coulson
Gene DeWeese

Operating a bulldozer may be exciting, but it's not normally exciting in the way that Ross Allen found it. The fact that he was a science fiction writer on the side had nothing to do with it. There was something strange about the rock he struck with his machine. Even stranger was what he found inside it. But that was only the beginning. It led him to Orl who was brilliant and likeable, even if a bit odd by human standards. It brought him to Kari who was beautiful, but far different from any woman he'd ever met before. It led him to a world he could never have dreamed up himself.

Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction

Joan Gordon
Veronica Hollinger
Wendy Gay Pearson

Contestations over the meaning and practice of sexuality have become increasingly central to cultural self-definition and critical debates over issues of identity, citizenship and the definition of humanity itself. In an era when a religious authority can declare lesbians antihuman while some nations legalise same-sex marriage and are becoming increasingly tolerant of a variety of non-normative sexualities, it is hardly surprising that science fiction, in turn, takes up the task of imagining a diverse range of queer and not-so-queer futures.

The essays in Queer Universes investigate both contemporary and historical practices of representing sexualities and genders in science fiction literature. Queer Universes opens with Wendy Pearson's award-winning essay on reading sf queerly and goes on to include discussions about 'sextrapolation' in New Wave science fiction, 'stray penetration' in William Gibson's cyberpunk fiction, the queering of nature in ecofeminist science fiction, and the radical challenges posed to conventional science fiction in the work of important writers such as Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Joanna Russ. In addition, Queer Universes offers an interview with Nalo Hopkinson and a conversation about queer lives and queer fictions by authors Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge.

Skyrocket Steele Conquers the Universe and Other Media Tales

Ron Goulart

Table of Contents:

  • 1 - Introduction (Skyrocket Steel Conquers the Universe and Other Media Tales) - essay
  • 3 - Street Magic - (1984) - short story
  • 23 - Hello from Hollywood - [Max Kearny] - (1983) - short story
  • 47 - Crusoe in New York - (1982) - short story
  • 61 - Skyrocket Steele Conquers the Universe - [Skyrocket Steele] - (1985) - short story
  • 81 - Groucho - (1981) - short story

Nine Hard Questions About the Nature of the Universe

Lewis Shiner

Table of Contents:

  • 1 - Introduction (Nine Hard Questions About the Nature of the Universe) - essay
  • 7 - Snowbirds - (1982) - short story
  • 21 - Soldier, Sailor - short story
  • 37 - Kings of the Afternoon - (1980) - short story
  • 55 - Tommy and the Talking Dog - (1982) - short story
  • 67 - Omphalos - short story
  • 71 - Promises - (1982) - short story
  • 75 - Dancers - (1987) - short story
  • 87 - Plague - (1983) - short story
  • 93 - Nine Hard Questions about the Nature of the Universe - (1983) - novelette

The Last Universe

William Sleator

Sleator's most diabolical science-fiction novel in a decade.

William Sleator, of such classics as House of Stairs, Strange Attractors, Interstellar Pig, and Singularity, explores the strange, fascinating quantum world in this gothic sci-fi thriller. From their isolated house, fourteen-year-old Susan and her wheelchair-bound brother, Gary, venture daily into the tangled, sprawling garden planted by their late uncle and tended by a mysterious gardener. Overgrown with impossibly large plants and exotic flowers, the garden holds at its heart a hedge maze that hides a quantum secret, outside the laws of the macro world. And Susan and Gary may not return from the labyrinth unchanged. AUTHOR BIO: For more than thirty years, William Sleator has thrilled readers with his inventive books. His House of Stairs was named one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Young Adult Library Services Association. He divides his time between homes in Boston and rural Thailand.

The World of Null-A / The Universe Maker

A. E. Van Vogt

The World of Null-A

It is the year 2650 and Earth has become a world of non-Aristotelianism, or Null-A. This is the story of Gilbert Gosseyn, who lives in that future world where the Games Machine, made up of twenty-five thousand electronic brains, sets the course of people's lives. Gosseyn isn't even sure of his own identity, but realizes he has some remarkable abilities and sets out to use them to discover who has made him a pawn in an interstellar plot.

The Universe Maker

Did you ever hear of the Inter-Time Society for Psychological Adjustments? Well, neither had Morton Cargill in 1953 when he accidentally killed a girl. A year later that very girl turned up, apparently alive, and announced that the mysterious society had condemned him to death! Cargill's astounding adventures began when he escaped the execution chamber to find himself in the far future. Three conflicting societies were hunting for him, to use him in their own desperate schemes. There were the Floaters, a nation of aerial vagabonds. There were the Tweeners, who dreamed of world conquest. And finally, interwoven through everything, were the sinister figures of the Shadow Men-supermen without visible substance.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Charles Yu

National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award winner Charles Yu delivers his debut novel, a razor-sharp, ridiculously funny, and utterly touching story of a son searching for his father . . . through quantum space–time.

Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory. He learns that the key may be found in a book he got from his future self. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and he’s the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could help him—in fact it may even save his life.

Wildly new and adventurous, Yu’s debut is certain to send shock waves of wonder through literary space–time.

3-adica

3-adica Universe

Greg Egan

Asimov's Readers' Award Finalist Novella

In a future where massive online multiplayer videogame characters are sentient composites of real people, one character decides they’ve had enough of being used for worldbuilding scenery, and makes plans to use a flaw in the operating system to escape to a safe place that's only rumored to exist.

This story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, September-October 2018. The story is included in the collection The Best of Greg Egan (2019).

Read this story for free at Asimov's.

Instantiation

3-adica Universe

Greg Egan

The AIs who escaped from Sludgenet's control in 3-Adica now face a different threat; Sludgenet is going out of business, and they're utterly dependent on its hardware resources.

This story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, March-April 2019. The story is included in the collection The Best of Greg Egan (2019).

Into the Alternate Universe / Contraband from Otherspace

Ace Double: The Saga of Commodore John Grimes: Book 4

A. Bertram Chandler

Table of Contents:

  • 1 - Into the Alternate Universe
  • 167 - Contraband from Otherspace

Across the Universe

Across the Universe: Book 1

Beth Revis

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

A Million Suns

Across the Universe: Book 2

Beth Revis

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

Shades of Earth

Across the Universe: Book 3

Beth Revis

The final book in the New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Gallactica and Prometheus!

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

From Every Storm

Adventures in the Liaden Universe: Book 35

Steve Miller
Sharon Lee

From Every Storm is a chapbook compilation of three Liaden Universe® stories, one of them never before published. The storms of the title spring not so much from the desert or the deep blue sea but from the minds and hearts of humanity, where greed wars with truth and justice, and where sometimes the supposed end of storm is a mere hurricane eye portending greater potential for damage ahead.

First up is Standing Orders, a finalist for 2022's WSFA's Small Press Award for Short Fiction, originally published in Derelict, a 2021 ZNB anthology. What happens at the end of a war that no one really won, where victory came at the price of acting more like the enemy than the High Command ever should?

Next is the previously unissued Songs of the Fathers a story dealing with Shan yos'Galan's sometime trade partner Lomar Fasholt and her family as they struggle to follow her Mother's religion as it morphs from loving to acquisitive, from flexible to aggressively rule-bound. Lomar's a good mother and wife but her self-exiled family's suffered greatly through this storm of changes. Will they find hope amidst the tumult?

Finally, there's From Every Storm a Rainbow, the 2021 holiday story from Baen.com, wherein Sinit Caylon comes face to face with the perfidy of her absent brother while the accountant's guild is trying to help Clan Mizel come about after years of of her mother's abdication of responsibilities to Ran Eld. Sinit thinks the storm must be about over until it become obvious that between them her mother and brother may have fatally endangered the clan's brightest future.

Alien Audiences: Remembering and Evaluating a Classic Movie

Aliens Universe

Martin Barker

Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien has attained classic status and is one of the most analysed films by scholars. But until now, there have been no published studies of its audiences. This book presents the findings of a major project exploring how different kinds of viewers engage with the film. Based on over 1,000 responses, the authors uncover some surprising patterns and tendencies. These disclose, among other things, the remarkable role played by parents and other relatives in 'gifting' the film to their children, raising important questions about the idea of 'age-inappropriate' viewing, a fascinating ambiguity over the role of 'acting' in the notorious 'chestburster scene' and an important shift in the way audiences see Alien as 'more than just a film' once imitations and parodies become prevalent. Some particularly long and rich responses reveal how this film can go on arousing strong visceral responses, even after repeated viewings. Richly illustrated with quotations, this book will shift current understandings of horror film audiences.

Alien: Echo

Aliens Universe

Mira Grant

An original young adult novel of the Alien universe

Olivia and her twin sister Viola have been dragged around the universe for as long as they can remember. Their parents, both xenobiologists, are always in high demand for their research into obscure alien biology.

Just settled on a new colony world, they discover an alien threat unlike anything they've ever seen. And suddenly the sisters' world is ripped apart.

On the run from terrifying aliens, Olivia's knowledge of xenobiology and determination to protect her sister are her only weapons as the colony collapses into chaos. But then a shocking family secret bursts open -- one that's as horrifying to Olivia as the aliens surrounding them.

The creatures infiltrate the rich wildlife on this untouched colony world -- and quickly start adapting. Olivia's going to have to adapt, too, if she's going to survive...

Alien: Covenant Origins

Aliens Universe: Alien Prequels: Book 1

Alan Dean Foster

The Covenant mission is the most ambitious endeavor in the history of Weyland-Yutani. A ship bound for Origae-6, carrying two thousand colonists beyond the limits of known space, this is make-or-break investment for the corporation--and for the future of all mankind.

Yet there are those who would die to stop the mission. As the colony ship hovers in Earth orbit, several violent events reveal a deadly conspiracy to sabotage the launch. While Captain Jacob Branson and his wife Daniels complete their preparations, security chief Daniel Lopé recruits the final key member of his team. Together they seek to stop the perpetrators before the ship and its passengers can be destroyed.

An original novel by the acclaimed ALAN DEAN FOSTER, author of the groundbreaking Alien novelization, Origins is the official chronicle of the events that led up to Alien: Covenant. It also reveals the world the colonists left behind.

Alien: Covenant

Aliens Universe: Alien Prequels: Book 2

Alan Dean Foster

Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created, with Alien: Covenant, a new chapter in his groundbreaking Alien adventure.

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise. But it is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imaginations, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

Acclaimed author Alan Dean Foster also returns to the universe he first encountered with the official novelization of the original Alien film. Alien: Covenant is the pivotal adventure that preceded that seminal film, and leads to the events that will yield one of the most terrifying sagas of all time.

Alien: The Cold Forge

Aliens Universe: Alien Prequels: Book 3

Alex White

A dramatic new Alien novel, as Weyland-Yutani seeks to recover from the failure of Hadley's Hope, and successfully weaponize the Xenomorphs.

With the failure of Hadley's Hope, Weyland-Yutani has suffered a devastating setback--the loss of the Aliens they aggressively sought to exploit. Yet there's a reason the Company has risen to the top of the food chain. True to form, they have a redundancy already in place... the facility known as The Cold Forge.

Remote station RB-232 has become their greatest asset in weaponizing the Xenomorphs. However, when Dorian Sudler is sent to RB-232 to assess their progress, he discovers that there's a spy aboard--someone who doesn't necessarily act in the company's best interests. For Dorian, this is the most unforgivable of sins. When found, the perpetrator will be eliminated with extreme prejudice. If unmasked, though, this person may be forced to destroy the entire station... and everyone on board. That is, if the Xenomorphs don't do the job first...

Alien

Aliens Universe: Alien Quartet: Book 1

Alan Dean Foster

A crew of spaceship Nostromo is suddenly woken up from a cryogenic sleep because of mysterious signals coming from an unknown planet and received by a ship computer. The astronauts land on the planet surface and go to investigate an alien spaceship where one of them is attacked by an alien which fasten itself on his face. When the crew returns to their ship and abandon the planet, nobody forefeels that the real horror will begin very soon...

Aliens

Aliens Universe: Alien Quartet: Book 2

Alan Dean Foster

In the sequel to the 1979 film Alien, Ellen Ripley is persuaded to return to planet LV-426, where her crew encountered the hostile Alien creature. There they discovered hundreds of eggs, and just one alien slaughtered everyone but Ripley. A colony has been established there, but suddenly all contact with the settlers has been lost. This time she's accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines, but even their firepower may not be enough for them to survive and learn the fate of the colony known as Hadley's Hope.

Alien3

Aliens Universe: Alien Quartet: Book 3

Alan Dean Foster

Fury 161 is a wretched planet – a penal colony and industrial complex manned by violent prisoners. When an escape pod from the USS Sulaco crash-lands there, Ellen Ripley appears to be the only passenger left alive.

Then inmates begin to die, all at the hands of another survivor. A creature which encounters Ripley, and spares her life! Desperate to know why, she seeks out an answer – and discovers terror unlike any she's ever known.

Science fiction master Alan Dean Foster returns to the Alien universe to reveal the ultimate destinies of Ellen Ripley and her eternal foe, the xenomorph known as the Alien.

William Gibson's Alien 3

Aliens Universe: Alien Quartet: Book 4

William Gibson

This is the official adaptation of the original screenplay for Alien 3, written by William Gibson, the award-winning science fiction author of the cyberpunk cult classic Neuromancer. You'll see familiar characters and places – but not all is the same in this horrifying Cold War thriller.

After the deadly events of the film Aliens, the spaceship Sulaco carrying the sleeping bodies of Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop are intercepted by the Union of Progressive Peoples. What the U.P.P. forces don't expect is another deadly passenger that is about to unleash chaos between two governmental titans intent on developing the ultimate cold war weapon of mass destruction.

Alien: Resurrection

Aliens Universe: Alien Quartet: Book 5

A. C. Crispin

At the farthest reaches of the solar system, Ellen Ripley awakens on board the space station Auriga. Her last memory is of her own fiery death. And yet she is somehow alive. Ripley discovers that her "resurrection" is a result of an incredible experiment which has altered both her and the creature she has been carrying. To combat the incalculable alien menace, she teams up with a renegade band of space smugglers.

Aliens: Bishop

Aliens Universe: Alien Quartet: Book 6

T. R. Napper

A direct sequel to Aliens and Alien 3--Weyland-Yutani, the Colonial Marines, and Bishop's creator all pursue the android for the deadly Xenomorph data contained in his brain...

"Do me a favor. Disconnect me. I could be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line again. I'd rather be nothing." Lance Bishop, model 341-B, on Fiorina 161

The USCSS Patna has been found.

Although the synthetic Bishop asked to be shut down forever, his creator has other plans. Michael Bishop seeks the Xenomorph knowledge stored in the android's mind, and brings Bishop back to life--but for what reason? No longer an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Michael tells his creation that he seeks to advance medical research for the benefit of humanity. Yet where does he get the resources needed to advance his work, and with whom do his new allegiances lie?

The USCSS Patna is pursued by Colonial Marines Captain Marcel Apone, commander of the Il Conde and younger brother of Master Sergeant Alexander Apone, one of the casualties of the doomed mission to LV-426. Also on his trail are the "Dog Catchers," commandos employed by Weyland-Yutani.

There are many who would profit from Lance Bishop's intimate knowledge of the deadliest creatures in the galaxy.

Alien: Out of the Shadows

Aliens Universe: Out of the Shadows: Book 1

Tim Lebbon

In a dramatic twist, this novel will return us to that time, to Ellen Ripley, and to never-before-revealed secrets of the Weyland-Yutani Corporations... secrets which launch a terrifying new adventure that bridges the gap between Alien and Aliens.

Officially sanctioned and true to the Alien canon, Alien: Out of the Shadows expands upon the well-loved mythos and is a must for all Alien fans.

Alien: Sea of Sorrows

Aliens Universe: Out of the Shadows: Book 2

James A. Moore

As a deputy commissioner for the ICC, Alan Decker's job is to make sure the settlements on LV178 follow all the rules, keeping the colonists safe. But the planet known as New Galveston holds secrets, lurking deep beneath the toxic sands dubbed the Sea of Sorrows.

The Weyland-Yutani Corporation has secrets of its own, as Decker discovers when he is forced to join a team of mercenaries sent to investigate an ancient excavation. Somewhere in that long-forgotten dig lies the thing the company wants most in the universe--a living Xenomorph.

Decker doesn't understand why they need him, until his own past comes back to haunt him. Centuries ago, his ancestor fought the Aliens, launching a bloody vendetta that was never satisfied. That was when the creatures swore revenge on the Destroyer... Ellen Ripley.

Alien: River of Pain

Aliens Universe: Out of the Shadows: Book 3

Christopher Golden

When Ellen Ripley finally returns to Earth, she learns that the planet LV-426--now called Acheron--has been colonized. But LV-426 is where Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo found the original Xenomorph--the killing machine known as the Alien.

Protected by the Colonial Marines, the colonists seek to terraform the storm-swept planet. Two such residents are Anne and Russell Jorden, seeking a fortune that eluded them on Earth. On Acheron, Anne gives birth to the colony's first newborn. Rebecca Jordan, also known as Newt.

The wildcatters discover a vast, decaying spaceship. The horseshoe-shaped vessel is of particular interest to Weyland-Yutani, and may be the answer to their dreams. But what Anne and Russ find on board proves to be the stuff, not of dreams, but of nightmares.

Aliens: Tribes

Aliens Universe: Series 2

Stephen R. Bissette

This exquisitely produced, Smythe-sewn, embossed hardcover volume features an Aliens tale written by today's master of horror comics, Steve Bissette, accompanied by 24 full-color paintings by the most sought-after painter in the field, Dave Dorman.

An Alien has been detected on board a space station orbiting Earth, and a crack extermination team sets out to destroy it. The success of their mission depends on one man's sinister secret.

The story is presented in the traditional text format accompanied by full-page color paintings by Dorman. This book also features a dust jacket illustrated by Dorman.

Aliens: Earth Hive

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 1

Steve Perry

Wilks was a space marine with a near-fatal flaw: he had a heart. Billie was a child, the only survivor of a far-flung colony outpost. Thrown together in the last hellish night of an alien invasion, Billie and Wilks helped each other get out alive. Thirteen years later Wilks is in prison, and Billie lives in a mental institution, the nightmare memories of the massacre at Rim seared into her mind.

Now the government has tapped Wilks to lead an expedition to the aliens' home planet to bring back a live alien. But the competition on Earth to develop the aliens as a new weapons system is brutal. When Wilks's team departs on their mission, a trained assassin trails them. And what follows is no less than guerrilla warfare on the aliens' planet - and alien conquest on Earth!

Aliens: Nightmare Asylum

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 2

Steve Perry

Wilks, Billie, and Bueller were the last survivors of a devastating assault on the aliens' home planet. But once their retum to the solar system made them refugees once more, fleeing Earth and its alien infestation in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Now, in an otherwise unmanned military transport, they hurtle through space. Destination: unknown.

Little do they know that the cargo they carry with them is a legacy of death that they will ultimately have to face. Nor do they know that they head toward a remote colony and military outpost. This pocket of humanity at the very edges of space is at the mercy of a general names Spears with an agenda all his own. Now Billie, Wilks, and Bueller face a new nightmare, and it is nothing they could ever have imagined: a gift of madness from an alien world, unbalanced mind, and the experiences of a mysterious pilot named Lieutenant Ellen Ripley.

Aliens: The Female War

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 3

S. D. Perry
Steve Perry

Billie only wanted what all children want -- the warmth and security of family, the human connectedness that comes from belonging. What she got was a nightmare without end.

Ripley is a leader of humanity's forces against a new invasion where aliens have overrun the Earth--and the human population has been abandoned to alien appetites.

Aliens: Genocide

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 4

David Bischoff

Their queen is dead and the hive mind has been left to flounder on its own. On a world bereft of its only guiding force a schism is taking place: two strains of alien, formerly united by one all-powerful mother, now divide their forces for a world-shattering, acid-drenched war.

On Earth, after a generation of rebuilding in the wake of alien infestation, athletes from every corner of the world are flocking to humanity's Goodwill Games. But some come with a dangerous new tool: a drug called Fire, distilled from the very essence of the aliens' body chemistry. The military wants it, Pharmaceutical kingpin Daniel Grant wants it. And the only place the essential ingredient can be found is on a world convulsed by alien holocaust.

Aliens: Alien Harvest

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 5

Robert Sheckley

This time the humans are taking the offensive! Stan Myakovsky is a once-famous scientist fallen on hard times. Now he dodges spaceship repo men and dreams of the marketability of his cybernetic ant. Then a woman named Julie Lish walks into his life. She is beautiful, mysterious, and totally amoral. She is also skilled in the arts of thievery and Oriental self-defense. What's more, she has a plan so outrageous there might be one chance in a million to pull it off.

Together Stan and Julie become the most unlikely pair of pirates in the universe. With a hijacked spaceship and a crew of hardcase misfits, they're searching for the ultimate pot of gold at the end of a bloody intergalactic rainbow: royal jelly from an alien hive. The only problem is that the fortune lies on the universe's most godforsaken planet. And once they get their hands on it, the'll have to fight their way past the aliens to get off the planet alive.

Aliens: Rogue

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 6

Sandy Schofield

Professor Ernst Kliest wants to create a tame alien by genetically engineering creatures with the violence bred out of them. Alas, his dream withers when spies infiltrate the base to steal his research and his supposedly tame creation goes on a murderous rampage, killing humans and aliens alike.

Aliens: Labyrinth

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 7

S. D. Perry

Colonel Doctor Paul Church has discovered that aliens communicate telepathically and that human will can alter an alien's behavior. Colonel Doctor Tony Crespi is happy to be in on the action--until he discovers the truth. Church's experiments are only a front for one of the most warped projects ever, one that could turn the toughest of Army stomachs.

Aliens: Music of the Spears

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 8

Yvonne Navarro

New York City, 2124: The streets are clogged with the Jelly-addicted and the homeless, while the elite cluster in glittering office towers. Among them: the ruthless head of an entertainment conglomerate who seeks revenge by giving a maniacal artist his ultimate desire - an alien.

Damon Eddington will shock the world with his newest composition, the Symphony of Hate. Wrapped within its bizarre music can be found the most tortured of human sounds, combined with the razor-steel screams of a Homeworld alien. Yet the supreme cry continues to elude him and, obsessed with complete his musical creation and controlled by his need for the life-form's harshest voice, Eddington knows that the sound he seeks lies deep inside the ruthless creature he has named Mozart. And he will stop at nothing to free it....

Aliens: Berserker

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 9

S. D. Perry

It is called a Berserker teamreckless, desperate volunteers recruited by the Company to destroy alien infestations.

Based on the spaceship Nemesis, it consists of three brutal ex-cons who do all the grunt work and the Berserker itself, code-named MAX: an armed and armored exoskeleton powered by the living brain of what was once a human, configured into an unstoppable killing machine.

When the Nemesis is sent to a massive space station, D.S. 949, the team finds an alien hive, the largest in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubated. The team mission: to destroy the aliens while leaving the terminal intact. The mission seems like suicide to the bug hunters and their small support staff. And that is perfectly fine for the Company... which wants no witnesses left to the terrifying secret of D.S. 949.

Aliens: Original Sin

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 10

Michael Jan Friedman

THE ADVENTURES OF ELLEN RIPLEY CONTINUE!

Nearly three centuries ago, the Wyland-Yutani starship Nostromo investigated what appeared to be a distress call emanating from the barren planet Acheron.

What the crew of the Nostromo found was an alien life form-a hidious, slavering killer, quicker and more powerful than anything known before. Only Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley managed to escape with her life, destroying the Nostromo rather than giving the monster a chance to reach Earth.

But she hadn't seen the last of the breed. Now, centuries after the death of the original Ripley, her clone has taken up the fight. And she has found, with the help of an android named Call, a brutal hired gun named Johner, and a paraplegic mechanic named Vrless, that there is more to the alien horror than meets the eye...

Aliens: DNA War

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 11

Diane Carey

In an inhospitable galaxy, the planet Rosamond 6 is a rare find. With a moon, an atmosphere, and a thriving bio-system the world has all the keys necessary for human habitation. But while Rosamond 6 may look like an oasis among the stars, it harbors a fatal secret: the world is infested with the murderous xenomorphic aliens that have wiped out every life form in their path. Eager to prove her theory that the aliens can be reasoned with, anthropologist Jocasta Malvaux has set up an observation post on Rosamond 6.

But when the monsters become aware of Malvaux and her expedition, something unexpected happens: the aliens don't attack. When Jocasta's son Rory races to the planet to save her, she won't leave. What is the secret behind the aliens' seeming lack of concern for the humans? Are the monsters evolving? Or is it simply a matter of time before every person on the planet is in a fight for their lives? The war is about to begin.

Aliens: Cauldron

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 12

Diane Carey

On the spaceship Umiak, an elite troupe of cadets is forced into servitude by an unscrupulous captain taking the ship to a smuggler's rendezvous. During the transaction aboard the eerily silent Virginia, the cadets unwittingly transport an unexpected cargo: a hive of hibernating aliens. As the aliens begin to awake, a terrifying battle erupts between the cadets, the smugglers, the captain, and the emergent monsters. The cadets soon realize that in space, no one can hear them scream.

Aliens: Steel Egg

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 13

John Shirley

Someone on Earth knew about the aliens. Someone battled them, and survived. Before Ripley, there was a first encounter. Aliens and humans have fought before! When a human spaceship discovers a vast egg-shaped vessel in Saturn's orbit, the crew powers in to investigate. Thinking the ship might contain usable metal for Earth, they force their way aboard. Three teams split up to explore the ship. Already the aliens have awoken. The first of all the battles unfolds.

Aliens: Criminal Enterprise

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 14

S. D. Perry

Thomas Chase wakes up from cryosleep to his first day at a new job - as a pilot for a contraband drug company dropping a shipment on Fantasia, a rock-planet terraformed to hide an elaborate drug manufacturing operation. Everything from synthetic heroin to MX7 is cooked here, in protected caves guard-dogged by the savage Aliens. When Chase's craft touches down on Fantasia, a chain of events begins that can not be stopped.

As criminals and competitors try to take over the drug-empire from the dangerous kingpin, Chase and his brother Pete are caught in the crossfire... with the Aliens adding blood to the mix.

Aliens: No Exit

Aliens Universe: Series 2: Book 15

Brian Evenson

After thirty years of cryogenic sleep, Detective Anders Kramm awakens to a changed world. The alien threat has been subdued. Company interests dominate universal trade. Terraforming is big money now, with powerful men willing to do anything to assure dominance over other worlds.

But Kramm has a secret. He knows why The Company killed twelve of its top scientists. He knows why the aliens have been let loose on the surface of a contested planet. He knows that the information he has is valuable, and that The Company will do everything it can to stop him from telling his secret to the world. Haunted by memories of the brutal murder of his family, Kramm is set adrift amid billion dollar stakes... with aliens around every corner, waiting for him to make a mistake!

Mirror Image

Amorphs Universe: Book 1

Michael G. Coney

If an alien creature can so perfectly imitate a human being that not only is it physically and mentally indistinguishable from a man but it actually believes itself to be one, what do you do with it? Is it human?

This is the question which confronts Alex Stordahl, supervisor of the harsh planet Marilyn. Initially nobody had suspected anything unusual about the largely reptilian animal life. Then Stordahl discovered the amorphs - shapeless in their natural state, but possessing a unique defence mechanism: when closely approached by a possible aggressor, they could adopt the form least likely to be attacked by the creature.

When it transpires that the creatures are harmless they are quickly absorbed into the colony to provide extra labour. The the ruthless owner of the development corporation arrives from Earth. He wants to test the amorphs, and brings with him a group of four brilliant, but totally egotistical men. And trouble soon starts...

Syzygy

Amorphs Universe: Book 2

Michael G. Coney

Once every fifty-two years Arcadia's six erratic moons come together in a constellation that plays havoc with the ecological balance of the planet.

As a marine biologist at Riverside Research Centre, Mark Swindon is chiefly concerned about the effect of catastrophic tides on his precious fish pens.

Then, without warning, a wave of motiveless violence sweeps through the normally sleepy colony - and Mark too feels himself drawn against his will into a mysterious cycle of death and rebirth.

Brontomek!

Amorphs Universe: Book 3

Michael G. Coney

The planet of Arcadia was on the verge of economic collapse -- its human colony decimated by the Relay Effect. More and more colonists leaving for other worlds. Then the Hetherington Organisation came up with an offer the Arcadians couldn't refuse -- a five-year plan to transform the planet into a new prosperity.

Provenance

Ancillary Universe: Book 1

Ann Leckie

A power-driven young woman has just one chance to secure the status she craves and regain priceless lost artifacts prized by her people. She must free their thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned.

Ingray and her charge will return to her home world to find their planet in political turmoil, at the heart of an escalating intergalactic conflict. Together, they must make a new plan to salvage Ingray's future, her family, and her world, before they are lost to her for good.

Translation State

Ancillary Universe: Book 2

Ann Leckie

The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across the stars...

Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots--or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches--and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line--the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in the celebrated Imperial Radch universe.

Night's Slow Poison

Ancillary Universe: Imperial Radch

Ann Leckie

"Night's Slow Poison" is from the same universe as Leckie's Ancillary series, and tells a rich, claustrophobic story of a galactic voyage that forces one guardsmen to confront his uneasy family history through the lens of a passenger with his lost lover's eyes. Anthologized in Galactic Empires (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

Read this story online for free at Electric Velocipede.

Read this story online for free at Tor.com.

She Commands Me and I Obey

Ancillary Universe: Imperial Radch

Ann Leckie

"She Commands Me and I Obey" is a haunting story of a ball-game sports tournament where the stakes are much higher than merely winning a trophy.


Read this story online for free at Strange Horizons (part 1) (part 2).

Ancillary Justice

Ancillary Universe: Imperial Radch: Book 1

Ann Leckie

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren -- a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose -- to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.

Ancillary Sword

Ancillary Universe: Imperial Radch: Book 2

Ann Leckie

Breq -- the soldier who used to be a spaceship -- is serving the emperor she swore to destroy. She's been given her own warship, her own crew, and ordered to the only place in the galaxy she would have agreed to go: to Athoek Station, to protect the family of the lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

Athoek was annexed by the Empire some 600 years ago, and by now everyone is fully 'civilised'. Or should be - but everything is not as tranquil as it appears. Old divisions are still troublesome, Athoek Station's AI is restless, and it looks like the alien Presger might have taken an interest in what's going on. With no guarantees that their interest is benevolent.

Ancillary Mercy

Ancillary Universe: Imperial Radch: Book 3

Ann Leckie

For a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as Breq. Then a search of Atheok Station's slums turns up someone who shouldn't exist -- someone who might be an ancillary from a ship that's been hiding beyond the empire's reach for three thousand years. Meanwhile, a messenger from the alien and mysterious Presger empire arrives -- as does Breq's enemy, the divided and quite possibly insane Anaander Mianaai, ruler of an empire at war with itself.

Anaander is heavily armed and extremely unhappy with Breq. She could take her ship and crew and flee, but that would leave everyone at Athoek in terrible danger. Breq has a desperate plan. The odds aren't good, but that's never stopped her before.

The Eye with Which the Universe Beholds Itself

Apollo Quartet: Book 2

Ian Sales

For fifteen years, Earth has had a scientific station on an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 876, humanity's only presence outside the Solar System. But a new and powerful telescope at L5 can detect no evidence of Phaeton Base, even though it should be able to do so. So the US has sent Colonel Bradley Elliott, USAF, to investigate. Twenty years before, Elliott was the first, and to date only, man to land on the Martian surface. What he discovered there gave the US the stars, but it might also be responsible for the disappearance of Phaeton Base...

The Gist Hunter and Other Stories

Archonate Universe

Matthew Hughes

The first collection by writer Matthew Hughes, and the perfect companion to his acclaimed novel Black Brillion, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories features nine stories taking place in the universe of The Archonate, as well as four non-series stories. The stories of Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth's "foremost freelance discriminator", combine mystery and science fantasy while simultaneously recalling the arch irony of Gene Wolfe and the sly fancies of Jack Vance.

Table of Contents:

  • From the Discourses and Edifications of Liw Osfeo
  • Mastermindless - [Henghis Hapthorn] - (2004)
  • Relics of the Thim - [Henghis Hapthorn] - (2004)
  • Falberoth's Ruin - [Henghis Hapthorn] - (2004)
  • Finding Sajessarian - [Henghis Hapthorn] - (2005)
  • The Gist Hunter - [Henghis Hapthorn] - (2005)
  • Thwarting Jabbi Gloond - [Henghis Hapthorn] - (2005)
  • A Little Learning - [Guth Bandar] - (2003)
  • Inner Huff - [Guth Bandar] - (2005)
  • Help Wonted - [Guth Bandar]
  • Shadow Man
  • The Devil You Don't - (2005)
  • Go Tell the Phoenicians - (2005)
  • Bearing Up - (1996)

Black Brillion

Archonate Universe: Archonate: Book 1

Matthew Hughes

Boro Harkless has devoted his life to the service of the Archonite Bureau of Security, the force tasked with keeping the peace among and within the city-states of Old Earth. An idealist driven by the memory of his heroic father, he comes to the city of Sherit, seeking the notorious Luff Imbry.

Luff Imbry has devoted his life to the enjoyment of wealth. A gourmet, a charmer, and an ever-so-stylish fop, he has come to the city of Sherit to pursue a new fortune. Not, mind you, his own, for Luff is also a mountebank, swindler, and forger of the first water.

Tossed together by circumstance, they form an uneasy truce when they discover a common goal: capturing the grandest con-man of them all, Horselan Gebbling. Gebbling, who made off with Imbry's previous fortune, is posing as Father Olwyn, Sacerdotal Eminence of the Assembly of Tangible Unity, and has chosen as his prey the victims of the first new disease in millennia, the invariably fatal ailment known as the lassitude.

Dangled in front of the victims is the fabled relic of past glories, the gemstone called black brillion. About black brillion, learned men agree on only two things: it can do anything, and it doesn't exist. But Gebbling boasts of having it, and its effects on the lassitude are nothing short of magical.

Riding a landship across the unnatural prairie known as the Swept, Boro and Luff get caught up in an ever-growing tangle of mysteries. Nonsense chants lead to miracle cures. Guests end up crushed beneath the ship's giant wheels. The crew have secrets of their own.

The dangers are not merely physical. On the ship is a noönaut, an explorer of the Commons, the dream realm which contains the memories and emotions of hundreds of thousands of years of human existence. Something in the Commons is calling to Boro to claim him for its own.

What lurks beneath the Swept? What hides within the Commons, eager to come out? And exactly what game is Gebbing playing?

Template

Archonate Universe: Archonate: Book 2

Matthew Hughes

When professional duelist Conn Labro escapes indentured servitude as the star player of Horder's Emporium, he abandons the gaming world of Thrais and sets out on an interstellar journey filled with murder, deceit, and self-discovery. His only friend on Thrais, discovered dead and tortured, left him enough money to buy himself out of his contract and a curious encrypted "bearer deed" to a mysterious property on the distant edge of the galactic Spray.

With the seductive, secretive showgirl Jenore Mordene at his side and a villainous pleasure cult dogging his every move, Labro sets out to learn the truth behind his bearer deed and more about his own past than he had ever dared bargain for.

Gullible's Travels

Archonate Universe: Filidor Vesh

Matthew Hughes

Science Fiction Book Club release, containing the full and unabridged text of Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice.

Fools Errant

Archonate Universe: Filidor Vesh: Book 1

Matthew Hughes

In the Penultimate Age of the Archonate, callow young fop Filidor Vesh is perfectly content to spend his days in the pursuit of shallow amusements, until he is summoned by a wizened old dwarf in need of a voluntary good deed - deliver a parcel to his uncle, the all -powerful and original 98th Archon, sole ruler of the world. So begins Filidor's reluctant odyssey through peculiar provinces peopled with odious denizens, including such road killers as mutant rodents, alien ants and a vengeful thamaturge. Now in terra incognito, his narrow conception of life shaken to the extreme, Filidor will strive to say and do the right things...and grow up in the process.

Fool Me Twice

Archonate Universe: Filidor Vesh: Book 2

Matthew Hughes

After returning from his quest to save the world from his uncle, Filidor Vesh now stumbles blindly through an attempt to squelch the machinations of a would-be political usurper. As a result, he must contend with evil agents as well as his true love.

The Helper and His Hero

Archonate Universe: Guth Bandar

Matthew Hughes

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appaered in the February and March 2007 issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. There are no other known publications available at this time.

Hapthorn's Last Case

Archonate Universe: Henghis Hapthorn

Matthew Hughes

This novelette originally appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 102, November 2018.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Mastermindless

Archonate Universe: Henghis Hapthorn

Matthew Hughes

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2004. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 10 (2005), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The story is included in the collection The Gist Hunter and Other Stories (2005).

The Gist Hunter

Archonate Universe: Henghis Hapthorn

Matthew Hughes

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2005. IT can alos be found in the anthologies Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton, and Best Short Novels: 2006, edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection The Gist Hunter and Other Stories (2005).

Majestrum

Archonate Universe: Henghis Hapthorn: Book 1

Matthew Hughes

When Hapthorn is hired by Lord Afre to investigate the motives of his daughter's new companion, a young man of indeterminate circumstances, he takes the job expecting it to allow him the opportunity to explore and understand his changing universe. Little does Henghis Hapthorn realize, but the path of discovery will lead to deeper questions, a mysterious assignment from the Archon himself, and the ancient and powerful secret name... Majestrum!

The Spiral Labyrinth

Archonate Universe: Henghis Hapthorn: Book 2

Matthew Hughes

It was bad enough when Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth's foremost discriminator and die-hard empiricist, had to accept that the cosmos was shortly to rewrite its basic operating system, replacing rational cause-and-effect with detestable magic. Now he finds himself cast forward several centuries, stranded in a primitive world of contending wizards and hungry dragons, and without his magic-savvy alter ego. Worse, some entity with a will powerful enough to bend space and time is searching for him through the Nine Planes, bellowing "Bring me Apthorn!" in a voice loud enough to frighten demons.

Hespira

Archonate Universe: Henghis Hapthorn: Book 3

Matthew Hughes

As magic begins to reassert its ancient dominion, Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator, Henghis Hapthorn, and his intuition (now a separate person named Osk Rievor), are living apart, though they remain on good terms. But now there comes between them a woman of alluring mystery. Who is Hespira? Does she truly want either of them? Or has she come to destroy them both?

A Face of Black Iron

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, March 2015.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

A Hole in the World

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, February 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

And Then Some

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2013, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, September 2013.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Enter Saunterance

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, November 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

His Elbow, Unkissed

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, January 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Phalloon the Illimitable

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, March 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Sleeper

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, November 2013.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Archon

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, January 2015.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Ba of Phalloon

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, May 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Blood of a Dragon

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, May 2015.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Under the Scab

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, September 2014.

Read the full story for free at Ligthspeed.

A Wizard's Henchman

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles: Book 1

Matthew Hughes

Erm Kaslo is at the top of his game: a hardboiled confidential operative in the ultra-high-tech civilization of The Ten Thousand Worlds that spans the entire galactic arm known as The Spray. But the universe is about to arbitrarily change its fundamental operating premise from science to magic. Technology will cease to function and all of Kaslo's hard-won skills and abilities will be useless.

The Other

Archonate Universe: Luff Imbry: Book 1

Matthew Hughes

Meet Luff Imbry, an insidiously clever confidence man... He likes good wine, good food, and good stolen goods, and he always maintains the upper hand. When a business rival gets the drop on him, he finds himself abandoned on Fulda-a far-off, isolated world with a history of its own. Unable to blend in and furious for revenge, Imbry has to rely on his infamous criminal wit to survive Fulda's crusade to extinguish The Other.

Hailed as the heir apparent to Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes brings us this speculative, richly imagined exploration of society on the far edges of extreme. A central character in Black Brillion, Luff Imbry is at last front and center in Hughes's latest rollercoaster adventure through a far-future universe.

A Hunger in the Soul

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

Dr. Michael Drake, a great medical researcher, chose to disappear into the jungles of the world called Bushveld, but now the Human-settled Galaxy needs him to combat a new plague. Journalist-adventurer Robert Markham has determined to locate Drake and bring him back to civilization. But Markham is not after Drake for the same reason as the millions who may die. He is interested in his own reputation as a great explorer - and in the money he will make from selling his story.

A Miracle of Rare Design

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

How far would you go to unlock the mysteries of an alien culture? Journalist and adventurer Xavier William Lennox becomes obsessed with the rituals of the Fireflies, an alien culture of gold-skinned inhabitants living on the planet Medina. When he gets too close to their mysterious society, he's captured, tortured, and banished for defying their laws, but vows to learn what the aliens are so desperate to hide, even if it means becoming one of them. His curiosity doesn't end there.

As opportunities arise to study more alien races, Lennox takes cultural immersion to the breaking point. He not only buries himself in the language and customs of the aliens, but also undergoes severe surgeries to become one of them. Each time his humanity is stretched until he faces his biggest challenge-trying to return to the ordinary life of a man who has experienced the universe in ways he was never meant to.

Hunting the Snark

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 1999. The story can also be found in the collections Hunting the Snark and Other Short Novels (2002), Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks (2009) and Win Some, Lose Some (2012).

Ivory

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

In the year 6303, when earth is bare of anything larger than an insect or a mouse and most people have left for the stars, Duncan Rojas receives a most unusual visitor. His name is Bukoba Mandaka, and he is the last of the Maasai. Mandaka wants Rojas, senior researcher for Braxton's Records of Big Game, to find the tusks of the Kilimanjaro Elephant, tusks that weigh over 200 lb. each. Why? Mandaka will not say, but he will pay enormous sums for them. And Rojas cannot resist the challenge of tracing something lost for 3000 years. Back and forth through time, in card games, wars, and rivalries, Rojas searches. But as he begins to glimpse the elusive, lost power of ancient Africa, he is seduced, and before long the quest has become his own.

Robots Don't Cry

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2003. The story can also be found in the anthologies Robots (2005) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, and L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 30 (2014), edited by Dave Wolverton. It is included in the collections New Dreams for Old (2006) and Win Some, Lose Some: The Hugo Award Winning (and Nominated) Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of Mike Resnick (2012).

Read the full story for free at the Baen website.

Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

Seven views of Olduvai Gorge is one of the most celebrated novellas ever written. It not only won both the Hugo and Nebula, but also the Homer award and the SF Chronicle Poll and was a nominee for the Locus Award and the Sturgeon Award. It was alo nominated for a number of international awards, winning the Ignotus and the Universitat Polytechnica Awards in Spain, the Prix Ozone award in France and the Futura Award in Croatia.

In the future, eons after the demise of Humanity and its far-flung galactic empire, a group of alien archiologists visits Earth to uncover the secret of the dead race's initial overwhelming success and its ultimate death.

Digging through layers of Archaeological strata at Olduvai Gorge, they discover seven unique artifacts, each related to a different era of humanity's history and each telling a unique story about humankind's strengths and weakness.

But are they prepared for the final discovery, which will change their worlds forever?

Read this story online for free at Subterranean Press.

The 43 Antarean Dynasties

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

Hugo Award winning and Sturgeon Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 1997. The story can also be found in the anthology Alien Contact (2012), edited by Marty Halpern. It is included in the collections A Safari of the Mind (1999), New Dreams for Old (2006) and Win Some, Lose Some (2012).

Read the full story for free at Marty Halpern's blog.

The Outpost

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

Award-winning author Mike Resnick takes us back to his wild and wooly Inner Frontier in this tall-tale of an adventure novel.

On the planet Henry II, orbiting the twin suns Plantagenet and Tudor, at the very edge of the great black hole at the center of the Milky Way, there is a tavern called The Outpost. Through the doors of The Outpost have come the greatest heroes, villains, and adventurers of the galaxcy - to drink, to brag, and to swap tales.

The Outpost is neutral territory where fighting is forbidden and blood enemies can have a drink together and tell stories of battles past. After all bounty hunters, con men, intinerant preachers, thieves, and assassins have more in common with each other than they do with the rest of the mundane galaxy.

But their pleasant life of recalling murder and mayhem is interrupted by an alien invasion, and to save their way of life these rugged individualists must try to work together for a change.

The Soul Eater

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

A professional hunter in the future forms a strange relationship with the creature he is hired to kill, and an obsession that begin like Ahab's for Moby Dick very subtly morphs into something closer to The Flying Dutchman.

Walpurgis III

Birthright Universe

Mike Resnick

He killed 11 million men in the death camps of Pilor IX during the brief reign of the mad Emperor Justacious. He killed 17 million men on Boriga II in a manner that made the gas ovens of ancient Earth and its Reich seem compassionate. He killed 5 million women and children on New Rhodesia. He killed 3,017 men on Cambria III, each in a different way. He invented torture devices that even Spica VI, which was in revolt against the Republic, would not use.

No photograph, holograph, or videodisc of him is known to exist. He has never been fingerprinted. There is no voice or retina identification pattern on him in any computer. He has no bank account on any world, no financial or property holdings that anyone has been able to trace. His planet of origin is unknown. Many men have served him; all but seven are dead, and none of those seven have ever seen him.

He is a fugitive.

His name is Conrad Bland and he is, for the moment, safe. But someone has sent an assassin to find him - and end him.

Chief Detective John Sable is caught between his badge and his conscience as the two most famous executioners of all time prepare to do battle in his territory.

Paradise: A Chronicle of a Distant World

Birthright Universe: Chronicles of Distant Worlds: Book 1

Mike Resnick

The Earth-like planet Peponi has vast riches, an abundant and opulent wildlife, much like Kenya on old-Earth, and most importantly, compliant natives. But now that humanity is on the brink of opening up an entirely new world, has it learned its lessons from the past? Covers the time from colonization to independence.

Purgatory

Birthright Universe: Chronicles of Distant Worlds: Book 2

Mike Resnick

When Karimon is claimed by human colonists, which bears an uncanny resemblence to Zimbabwe on old-Earth, the planet's intelligent reptile inhabitants fight back by forging an alliance with the invaders' enemies. Covers the time from colonization to independence.

Inferno

Birthright Universe: Chronicles of Distant Worlds: Book 3

Mike Resnick

A small group of humans hope to avoid the mistakes that destroyed many other worlds. They are raising the Jasons from barbarism to civilization, on a planet which has much in comman with Uganda from old-Earth, but something goes hideously wrong.

William Masterson must try to find out why Jehanum, a showplace planet with a model government, productive farms, and a thriving tourist industry, has descended into bloody barbarism. One dictator after another rises to power, and the culture of the world is torn to fragments.

The Fortress in Orion

Birthright Universe: Dead Enders: Book 1

Mike Resnick

The Democracy is at war with the alien Traanskei Coalition. War hero Colonel Nathan Pretorius has a record of success on dangerous behind-enemy-lines missions, missions that usually leave him in the hospital. Now he's recruited for a near-impossible assignment that may well leave him dead.

At the cost of many lives, the Democracy has managed to clone and train General Michkag, one of the Traanskei's master strategists. Colonel Pretorius and a hand-picked team must kidnap the real Michkag if they can, assassinate him if they can't, but no matter which, put the clone in his place, where he will misdirect the enemy's forces and funnel vital information to the Democracy.

Against the odds, Pretorius, along with Cyborg Felix Ortega, computer expert Toni Levi, convict and contortionist Sally "Snake" Kowalski, the near-human empath Marlowe, the alien Gzychurlyx, and Madam Methuselah - the Dead Enders - must infiltrate the Fortress in Orion, accomplish their mission, and escape with their lives.

The Prison in Antares

Birthright Universe: Dead Enders: Book 2

Mike Resnick

The Traanskei Coalition's greatest weapon is the Q bomb, and after years of failure, the Democracy has come up with a defense against it. The problem is that they killed most of the team that created it. The sole survivor, Edgar Nmumba, was kidnapped by the Coalition. Only Nmumba can duplicate the work fast enough to prevent the loss of another dozen populated planets.

Nathan Pretorius and his team of Dead Enders will require all their skills and cunning to rescue him, sane and in one piece, from the Coalition's best-hidden and best-guarded prison, somewhere in the Antares sector. But in a game of cross and double-cross, can they find him before it's too late?

The Castle in Cassiopeia

Birthright Universe: Dead Enders: Book 3

Mike Resnick

A crisis has arisen. In the first book of the series, THE FORTRESS IN ORION, Pretorius and his Dead Enders kidnapped the real General Michkag and substituted a clone who had been raised and trained in the Democracy. But now they find that the clone likes being the most powerful man in the hundred-world Traanskei Coalititon - and having been raised on Earth, he knows how humans think and react.

This becomes a many-layered problem for Pretorius and what is left of his Dead Enders. As the only humans on a totally militarized alien world, they must first find where the best-guarded member of the enemy's military - Michkag - is hiding and how many aliens, or regiments, or divisions, are guarding him, and then they must find a way past all his lines of defense to kill or capture him.

Soothsayer

Birthright Universe: Oracle: Book 1

Mike Resnick

Larger than life, they stride the untamed galaxy. Heroes and villains, spacers and bounty hunters, with legendary names like Cemetery Smith, the Forever Kid, the Iceman, the Mock Turtle.

But the most dangerous - and wanted - being in the universe is a frightened little girl with the unearthly power to forsee, control or destroy. Her name is Penelope Bailey.

The furure will call her... Soothsayer.

Oracle

Birthright Universe: Oracle: Book 2

Mike Resnick

Since she was a little girl, all humanity has been frightened by Penelope Bailey's awesome psychic talent and her ability to bend events--and men--to her will. Now a grown woman and living on the planet Hades, Penelope is caught in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a bounty hunter, a government agent, and an out-for-profit, outlaw cyborg--none of who suspect the true depths of her power.

Prophet

Birthright Universe: Oracle: Book 3

Mike Resnick

This is the final volume of a trilogy which started with "Soothsayer" and "Oracle". In this volume, the Ice Man is beseiged by people trying to kill him, five in one month. As he sends the Gravedancer to find out who wants him dead, what he really wants to know is why the Prophet has allowed him to live.

Birthright: The Book of Man

Birthright Universe: Santiago

Mike Resnick

An epic novel of human expansion across the stars.

This brilliant science fiction novel constructs a blueprint of mankind's history-social, political, economic, scientific, and religious - for the next eighteen thousand years. Through a series of adventures, it illustrates clear, focused ideas about our birthright and our destiny.

Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future

Birthright Universe: Santiago: Book 1

Mike Resnick

Bandit, murderer, known to all, seen by none...has he killed a thousand men? Has he saved a dozen world? His legend is as large as the Rim itself, his trail as elusive as a wisp of starlight in the empty realms of space. The reward for him is the largest in history.

The Return of Santiago

Birthright Universe: Santiago: Book 2

Mike Resnick

Bandit, murderer, known to all, seen by none....

Has he killed a thousand men? Has he saved a dozen worlds? His legend is as large as the Rim itself, his trail as elusive as a wisp of starlight in the empty realms of space. The reward for him is the largest in history.

The Dark Lady: A Romance of the Far Future

Birthright Universe: Santiago: Book 3

Mike Resnick

She was old when the world was young. Her image appears in painting from before the Renaissance - but also from the Earth of 3,000 years from now, and from a dozen or more far-flung worlds around the galaxy. Who is she, and what is her secret? It remains for an alien art critic named Leonardo by his human associates to find the answer, and to put himself, his friends, and even some of those worlds at risk in the process.

Starship: Mutiny

Birthright Universe: Starship: Book 1

Mike Resnick

The starship Theodore Roosevelt is fighting on the far outskirts of a galactic war, its crew made up of retreads and raw recruits. A new first officer reports, Wilson Cole, a man with a reputation for exceeding his orders (but getting results). He's been banished to the Teddy R. for his actions, but once there he again ignores his orders....

This is the first of five novels about the starship Theodore Roosevelt. The next four will be, in order, Pirate, Mercenary, Rebel, and Flagship.

Starship: Pirate

Birthright Universe: Starship: Book 2

Mike Resnick

The date is 1967 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now. The Republic, created by the human race but not yet dominated by it, is in the midst of an all-out war with the Teroni Federation. After his latest exploit saved millions of lives but embarrassed his superiors, Captain Wilson Cole, a man with a reputation for exceeding orders but getting results, found himself the victim of the media feeding frenzy, a political scapegoat despite years of dedicated military service. Faced with a court martial, he was rescued by the loyal crew of his ship, the Theodore Roosevelt. Now branded mutineers, the crew of the Teddy R. has quit the Republic, never to return.

Seeking to find a new life for themselves, Wilson Cole and comrades remake the Teddy R. as a pirate ship and set sail for the lawless Inner Frontier. Here, powerful warlords, cut-throat pirates, and struggling colonies compete for survival in a game where you rarely get a second chance to learn the rules.

But military discipline is poor preparation for a life of pillaging and plundering, and Cole's principles naturally limit his targets. Seeking an education on the nature of piracy, Cole hunts more knowledgeable players. Enter the beautiful but deadly Valkyrie, Val for short, and the enigmatic alien fence known as David Copperfield. But hanging over everything is the fearsome alien pirate -- the Hammerhead Shark.

With Starship: Pirate, five-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick continues the story begun in his very first military SF. Will the galaxy ever be the same?

Starship: Mercenary

Birthright Universe: Starship: Book 3

Mike Resnick

The date is 1968 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now. The Republic, created by the human race but not yet dominated by it, is in the midst of an all-out war with the Teroni Federation. Captain Wilson Cole, a man with a reputation for exceeding orders but getting results, found himself the victim of a media feeding frenzy, a political scapegoat despite years of dedicated military service. Faced with a court martial, he was rescued by the loyal crew of his ship, the Theodore Roosevelt. Branded mutineers, the Teddy R. has quit the Republic, never to return.

Seeking to find a new life, Wilson Cole first remade the Teddy R. as a pirate ship plying the spaceways of the lawless Inner Frontier. But military discipline and honor were a poor match for a life of pillaging and plundering, and Cole's principles naturally limited his targets. Taking on a new role, the Teddy R. becomes a mercenary ship, hiring out to the highest bidder. Whether it's evacuating a hospital before war can reach it, freeing a client from an alien prison, or stopping a criminal cartel from extorting money from a terrified planet, the crew of the Teddy R. proves equal to the task. Along the way they form a partnership with the once human Platinum Duke, team up with a former enemy, and make the unique Singapore Station their headquarters.

But the life of a mercenary is not always predictable, and eventually circumstance pits Cole and the Teddy R. against his right-hand woman, the former Pirate Queen known as the Valkyrie. Soon the fragile trust that has grown between these two legends is put to the test as they find themselves on opposite sides of a job.

Starship: Rebel

Birthright Universe: Starship: Book 4

Mike Resnick

The date is 1968 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now. The Republic, dominated by the human race, is in the midst of an all-out war with the Teroni Federation.

Almost a year has passed since the events of Starship: Mercenary. Captain Wilson Cole now commands a fleet of almost fifty ships, and he has become the single greatest military force on the Inner Frontier.

With one exception. The Republic still comes and goes as it pleases, taking what it wants, conscripting men, and extorting taxes, even though the Frontier worlds receive nothing in exchange. And, of course, the government still wants Wilson Cole and the starship Theodore Roosevelt. He has no interest in confronting such an overwhelming force, and constantly steers clear of them.

Then an incident occurs that changes everything, and Cole declares war on the Republic. Outnumbered and always outgunned, his fleet is no match for the Republic's millions of military vessels, even after he forges alliances with the warlords he previously hunted down.

It's a hopeless cause... but that's just what Wilson Cole and the Teddy R. are best at.

Starship: Flagship

Birthright Universe: Starship: Book 5

Mike Resnick

The date is 1970 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now, and the Republic, created by the human race but not yet dominated by it, finds itself in an all-out war against the Teroni Federation, an alliance of races that resent Man's growing military and economic power.

The rebel starship, the Theodore Roosevelt, under the command of Wilson Cole, is preparing to lead Cole's ragtag armada into the Republic, even though he is outnumbered thousands to one. Cole is convinced that the government has become an arrogant and unfeeling political entity and must be overthrown.

The trick is to avoid armed conflict with the vast array of ships, numbering in the millions, in the Republic's Navy. For a time Cole's forces strike from cover and race off to safety, but he soon sees that is no way to conquer the mightiest political and military machine in the history of the galaxy. He realizes that he must reach Deluros VIII, the headquarters world of the Republic (and of the race of Man), in order to have any effect on the government at all—but Deluros VIII is the best-protected world in the Republic.

But a new threat looms on the horizon. Cole, the Valkyrie, David Copperfield, Sharon Blacksmith, Jacovic, and the rest of the crew of the Teddy R face their greatest challenge yet, and the outcome will determine the fate of the entire galaxy.

Sideshow

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Galactic Midway: Book 1

Mike Resnick

Traveling carnival owner Thaddeus Flint swindles the owner of a freak show into an unlikely business partnership. When Flint discovers that the freaks are a group of undercover alien tourists, he keeps the secret from the outside world and looks for an opportunity to expand his carny tour out to the stars.

The Three-Legged Hootch Dancer

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Galactic Midway: Book 2

Mike Resnick

Traveling carnival owner Thaddeus Flint expands his tour from the American Northeast out to the stars, only to discover that some of the attractions don't quite hold the audience like they did back on Earth. Realizing that his strip show has no more appeal to an alien audience than watching a saddle come off a horse, he reassigns his girls to work the game booths on the midway. When one of the girls can't make the transition, he improvises an alien solution.

The Wild Alien Tamer

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Galactic Midway: Book 3

Mike Resnick

The carnival has left Earth and is touring the stars, and is finding out that making a living light-years from Earth is no easier than doing it here. Thaddeus Flint and his crew have to come up with fresh solutions to totally unexpected problems. The carnival tries a typical carny scam that backfires when their animal trainer and his sentient "animal" go to war every night in the big cage.

The Best Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gunslinger in the Whole Damned Galaxy

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Galactic Midway: Book 4

Mike Resnick

Five years into his traveling carnival tour of the galaxy, Thaddeus Flint and his alien business partner are rolling in the dough for the Corporation. When Billybuck Dancer, the trick shot artist, gets bored and starts taking dangerous chances with his own safety, Flint captures his attention by arranging a much-publicized and highly-profitable showdown between Dancer and his nemesis, Doc Holliday.

Eros Ascending

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Velvet Comet: Book 1

Mike Resnick

The Velvet Comet is one of the most profitable and popular pleasure palaces in space. The company that owns it is hit by internal power struggles for dominance.

Harry Redwine is sent onboard to secretly ruin the palace but finds more of a fight than he bargained for against the Leather Madonna palace ruler and her lovely no-holds barred crew of women.

Eros at Zenith

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Velvet Comet: Book 2

Mike Resnick

Arrogant and overbearing Syndicate detective Andrew Crane arrives aboard the Velvet Comet to investigate a murder. When Crane discovers that the murderer is setting a trap to lure a notorious criminal aboard the Comet, the consequences of solving the mystery forces Crane to become judge, jury, and executioner.

Eros Descending

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Velvet Comet: Book 3

Mike Resnick

In an attempt to financially persuade the Reverend Thomas Gold to discontinue his public condemnations the Velvet Comet, the Vainmill Syndicate invites the popular cult leader to a charity event aboard the galaxy's most notorious house of ill repute. But when the Reverend is exposed to an alien twist on the sins of the flesh, his own weakness threatens to topple his ministry - and his sanity.

Eros at Nadir

Birthright Universe: Tales of the Velvet Comet: Book 4

Mike Resnick

Screenwriter and novelist Nate Page arrives aboard the empty Velvet Comet twenty-three years after it is decommissioned by the Vainmill Syndicate. The light-topic musical holographic production that Nate is writing is based on the Velvet Comet in its prime, and requires research available only through Cupid, the ship's still-functioning and nearly-self-aware onboard computer.

As the cynical screenwriter and the unemotionally truthful computer struggle to create a work of fiction true to the reality of life aboard the Comet, Nate's agent makes it clear that prostituting your art is not any different from prostituting your body.

The Widowmaker

Birthright Universe: Widowmaker: Book 1

Mike Resnick

One of the major voices in science fiction, Mike Resnick presents the first volume in a bold new trilogy.Jefferson Nighthawk--known and feared by many as the Widowmaker, the consummate bounty hunter--has been frozen for a century in order to defeat a deadly disease. Only now the cost of his care has risen, so the Widowmaker is called out of retirement for one special commission, and a very large chunk of cash. A notorious assassin has been wrecking havoc on the Frontier; who better but the Widowmaker to defeat him?

The Widowmaker Reborn

Birthright Universe: Widowmaker: Book 2

Mike Resnick

Jefferson Nighthawk, once the galaxy's most feared killer, is cloned again and given a new mission. This time he is not only armed with the Widowmaker's killing skills, but also with his lifetime of knowledge. Nighthawk's new mission involves the rescue of a corrupt politician's daughter, and the assassination of the rebel leader who holds her captive. But the daughter puts a wrinkle in the plan when she offers her father's fortune if Nighthawk kills her father instead. While the odds are overwhelming, the price may be right.

The Widowmaker Unleashed

Birthright Universe: Widowmaker: Book 3

Mike Resnick

Jefferson Nighthawk -- the Widowmaker -- is finally cured of his disease. A man in his sixties, who has been in a coma for a century, all he wants to do is live out his life peacefully and tend his garden...but he is continually sought out, not by his own enemies who are long dead, but by enemies made by his two clones, men he has never seen before, perfect strangers who are out to kill him. His retirement will have to be put on hold until he solves this ongoing and deadly problem.

A Gathering of Widowmakers

Birthright Universe: Widowmaker: Book 4

Mike Resnick

Jefferson Nighthawk, the original Widowmaker, is married and retired, looking forward to a peaceul old age. But when his two clones try to kill each other, he realizes that he can't turn his back on the situation -- or the fact that there is an alien menace out there that will require the combined might of all three Widowmakers, if even that is enough.

A Moment of Gravity, Circumscribed

Bone Universe

Fran Wilde

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Impossible Futures (2013), edited by Judith K. Dial and Thomas Easton, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, October 2016.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Updraft

Bone Universe: Book 1

Fran Wilde

Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage.

Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City.

As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever-if it isn't destroyed outright.

Cloudbound

Bone Universe: Book 2

Fran Wilde

After the dust settles, the City of living bones begins to die, and more trouble brews beneath the clouds in this stirring companion to Fran Wilde's Updraft.

When Kirit Densira left her home tower for the skies, she gave up many things: her beloved family, her known way of life, her dreams of flying as a trader for her tower, her dreams. Kirit set her City upside down, and fomented a massive rebellion at the Spire, to the good of the towers--but months later, everything has fallen to pieces.

With the Towers in disarray, without a governing body or any defense against the dangers lurking in the clouds, daily life is full of terror and strife. Naton, Kirit's wing-brother, sets out to be a hero in his own way--sitting on the new Council to cast votes protecting Tower-born, and exploring lower tiers to find more materials to repair the struggling City.

But what he finds down-tier is more secrets--and now Nat will have to decide who to trust, and how to trust himself without losing those he holds most dear, before a dangerous myth raises a surprisingly realistic threat to the crippled City, in Cloudbound.

Horizon

Bone Universe: Book 3

Fran Wilde

A City of living bone towers crumbles to the ground and danger abounds. Kirit Densira has lost everything she loved the most--her mother, her home, and the skies above. Nat Brokenwings--once Kirit's brother long before the rebellion tore them apart--is still trying to save his family in the face of catastrophe. They will need to band together once more to ensure not just their own survival, but that of their entire community.

The Bug Life Chronicles

Bug Life Universe

Phillip C. Jennings

Table of Contents:

  • Teddy Bug and the Hot Purple Snowball
  • Moondo Bizarro
  • Crowns of Creation
  • The Quonset Hut
  • Fleshnappers of Jasoom
  • The Spokesthing
  • Trees
  • Doctor Quick
  • Corpse on M544-9
  • Messiah
  • Within the Pale
  • Conrad of Dreams
  • The Siege of Stamnor
  • The Buzz of Joy
  • The Hero

Tower to the Sky

Bug Life Universe

Phillip C. Jennings

The Gatekeepers limit mankind to the Sol System, forbidding travel beyond its boundaries, until a band of Souldancers stumble on a truth that leads them to challenge the Gatekeepers themselves.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Captain Grant and Captain Nemo Universe: Book 2

Jules Verne

An American frigate, tracking down a ship-sinking monster, faces not a living creature but an incredible invention -- a fantastic submarine commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo. Suddenly a devastating explosion leaves just three survivors, who find themselves prisoners inside Nemo's death ship on an underwater odyssey around the world from the pearl-laden waters of Ceylon to the icy dangers of the South Pole . . .as Captain Nemo, one of the greatest villians ever created, takes his revenge on all society.

More than a marvelously thrilling drama, this classic novel, written in 1870, foretells with uncanny accuracy the inventions and advanced technology of the twentieth century and has become a literary stepping-stone for generations of science fiction writers.

The Mysterious Island

Captain Grant and Captain Nemo Universe: Book 3

Jules Verne

At a time when Verne is making a comeback in the US as a mainstream literary figure, Wesleyan is pleased to publish a new translation of one of his best-known novels, The Mysterious Island. Although several editions under the same title are in print, most reproduce a bowdlerized nineteenth-century translation which changes the names of the characters, omits several important scenes, and ideologically censors Verne's original text.

The Mysterious Island was published in 1874, and it is one of Verne's longest novels.

The books is based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile.

The book tells the adventures of five Americans on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. The story begins in the American Civil War, during the siege of Richmond, Virginia. As famine and death ravage the city, five northern prisoners of war decide to escape by the unusual means of hijacking a balloon.

After flying in stormy weather for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown island. They name it Lincoln Island. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on this fantastic island of bewildering goings-on, as they strive to uncover the island's many secrets.

A marvelous adventure story, The Mysterious Island is also notable for its modern retelling of the utopian deserted-island myth, with repeated echoes of Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices and an introduction by Verne scholar William Butcher, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition.

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe

Constance Verity: Book 3

A. Lee Martinez

Saving the world is easy for Constance Verity: she's used to doing the impossible on a daily basis. Everything that comes after is the tricky part.

Connie has accepted and secured her place in the universe. There isn't a foe she can't outfight or a peril she can't outwit - until she discovers she herself might be the greatest threat to the world she's spent her life saving.

All the signs are pointing to impending doom, and not just for Connie. Her friends, her enemies and the universe itself are all at risk. She's always known she was destined for a glorious death, but she never suspected she'd be taking everyone and everything else with her.

With her trademark determination, Constance Verity sets out to avert a cosmic plan millions of years in the making - and save the universe from herself.

Galaxy Blues

Coyote Universe

Allen Steele

A new science fiction epic from the national bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author.

Expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet and facing charges of grand theft, Jules Truffant agrees to sign up as shuttle pilot aboard the freighter Pride of Cucamonga in exchange for amnesty. After botching Pride's mission to RhoCorenae and upsetting an alien culture in the process, Jules must take part in a voyage across the galaxy to place a probe squarely in the path of a black hole as it plows through an inhabited star system.

Hex

Coyote Universe

Allen Steele

The two-time Hugo Award-winner expands the universe of his Coyote saga.

The danui, a reclusive arachnid species considered the galaxy's finest engineers, have avoided contact with the Coyote Federation. Until, that is, the danui initiate trade negotiations, offering only information: the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life-a massive sphere, composed of billions of hexagons.

But when the Federation's recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their new partners...

Spindrift

Coyote Universe

Allen Steele

The EASS Galileo disappeared decades ago while investigating an unidentified object, code-named Spindrift. Now the Galileo's shuttle has returned carrying three surviving expedition members, who still appear to be the same age they were when they departed. They report that they have, indeed, made contact with an extraterrestrial race-and become enmeshed in a conflict that brought them face to face with the most apocalyptic force in the galaxy.

Stealing Alabama

Coyote Universe

Allen Steele

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2001. There are no other known publications but the novella is incorporated in the fix-up novel Coyote (2002).

The Madwoman of Shuttlefield

Coyote Universe

Allen Steele

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, May 2003. The story can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 9 (2004), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It was incorporated in the novel Coyote Rising (2004).

Coyote Horizon

Coyote Universe: Coyote Chronicles: Book 1

Allen Steele

"The master of science-fiction intrigue" (Washington Post) returns to the Coyote universe.

The planet of Coyote has become the last, best hope of humankind, but it has also become the principal point of contact with the hjadd, the alien race encountered by a European starship many years earlier. Although the hjadd have built an embassy near the original colony, they remain a mystery.

And as the colonists make preparations to explore the rest of the new world, ex-convict Hawk Thompson discovers more about the hjadd than anyone has learned before-and his knowledge will change human history...

Coyote Destiny

Coyote Universe: Coyote Chronicles: Book 2

Allen Steele

"The best space colonization saga to come along in decades" (Rocky Mountain News) continues.

The unexpected arrival of a ship from Earth after their long isolation from their home world leaves the inhabitants of Coyote both hopeful and wary. The lone passenger brings news-both good and bad.

The good news is that there was a survivor of the long-ago explosion of the Robert E. Lee and he is living still on Earth, in the ruined city called Boston. The bad news is that the person responsible for that act of terrorism is also still alive-and somewhere on Coyote...

Coyote

Coyote Universe: Coyote Trilogy: Book 1

Allen Steele

Coyote marks a dramatic new turn in the career of Allen Steele, Hugo Award-winning author of Chronospace. Epic in scope, passionate in its conviction, and set against a backdrop of plausible events, it tells the brilliant story of Earth's first interstellar colonists-and the mysterious planet that becomes their home.

The crime of the century begins without a hitch. On July 5th, 2070, as it's about to be launched, the starship Alabama is hijacked-by her captain and crew. In defiance of the repressive government of The United Republic of Earth, they replace her handpicked passengers with political dissidents and their families. These become Earth's first pioneers in the exploration of space. Captain R.E. Lee, their leader. Colonel Gill Reese, the soldier sent to stop Lee. Les Gilles, the senior communications officer, a victim of a mistake that will threaten the entire mission. Crewman Eric Gunther, who has his own agenda for being aboard. His daughter, Wendy, a teenager who will grow up too quickly.

Jorge and Rita Montero, ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. And their son Carlos, who will become a hero in spite of himself. After almost two-and-a-half centuries in cold sleep, they will awaken above their destination: a habitable world named Coyote. A planet that will test their strength, their beliefs, and their very humanity. In Coyote, Allen Steele delivers a grand novel of galactic adventure-a tale of life on the newest of frontiers.

Coyote Rising

Coyote Universe: Coyote Trilogy: Book 2

Allen Steele

The continuing epic of Earth's first space colonists--and their fight against a repressive government to reclaim their world in the name of freedom.

Coyote Frontier

Coyote Universe: Coyote Trilogy: Book 3

Allen Steele

The revolution that won Coyote's independence from Earth is 20 years past. Coyote's aging computers, aircraft, and medical equipment are badly in need of replacement. And the colony's survival is in question. Now the colony's hard-won independence depends on the descendants of Coyote's original settlers-versus help from Earth that may be more of a detriment than a boon.

Former freedom fighter Carlos Montero, now in his fifties and burdened with the responsibilities of leadership. Manuel Castro, the Savant and former Lieutenant Governor of New Florida, now a hermit who may hold the key to the survival of those whose company he has renounced. Jonas Whittaker, the genius inventor haunted by the loss of the wife and daughter he sacrificed to save. And Morgan Goldstein, an entrepreneur seeking to exploit Coyote's natural resources-even if it means ruining the planet itself.

As Coyote's future hangs in the balance, a larger question looms: can the human race settle a new world without bringing forward the problems of the world it left behind?

A Dead Djinn in Cairo

Dead Djinn Universe: Book 1

P. Djèlí Clark

Egypt, 1912. In an alternate Cairo infused with the otherworldly, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine. What starts off as an odd suicide case for Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha'arawi leads her through the city's underbelly as she encounters rampaging ghouls, saucy assassins, clockwork angels, and plot that could unravel time itself.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015

Dead Djinn Universe: Book 2

P. Djèlí Clark

Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities -- handling a possessed tram car.

Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane.

A Master of Djinn

Dead Djinn Universe: Book 3

P. Djèlí Clark

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha'arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she's certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world fifty years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city--or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems...

Becalmed

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Finalist, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

Mae, chief linguist on the Ivoire, heads a diplomatic mission to Ukhanda. Her handling of relations with the Quurzod lead to a battle that causes the Ivoire's anacapa drive to malfunction, stranding the ship in foldspace. Mae can't remember what she did wrong on the mission: all she knows is that she's one of the few survivors. If she doesn't recall it, she won't be able to prevent another disaster when the Ivoire escapes foldspace. If the Ivoire escapes foldspace. Because what no one talks about -- and everyone fears -- is that the Ivoire is becalmed... forever.

This standalone novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in April-May 2011. It has been collected in The Diving Bundle.

Becoming One with the Ghosts

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winner, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

The Fleet. In Boss' time, a thing of legend. Long before Boss and her crew found their first Dignity Vessel, long before the Room of Lost Souls claimed its first life, the Fleet used its advanced technology to explore the galaxy. But even in its heyday that technology sometimes malfunctioned. And occasionally, that malfunction exacted an unfathomable price.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in October-November 2010. In a slightly modified form, it is contained in its entirety within the novel City of Ruins. It has been collected in The Diving Bundle.

Diving into the Wreck

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winner, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

Boss dives derelict space vessels, for money, yes, but more for their historical value. So, when Boss uncovers the find of a lifetime, she enlists the best divers she can convince to help her pursue it -- off the grid and under the Empire's radar. But the more they discover, the less they realize they know -- and the more it will cost them all.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in December 2005. In a slightly modified form, it is contained in its entirety within the novel Diving Into The Wreck. The story is included in the anthology The Final Frontier (2018), edited by Neil Clarke. It has been collected in Recovering Apollo 8 and Other Stories and The Diving Bundle.

Encounter on Starbase Kappa

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Finalist, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

The Fleet. In Boss' time, a thing of legend. Long before Boss and her crew found their first Dignity Vessel, long before the Room of Lost Souls claimed its first life, the Fleet used its advanced technology to explore the galaxy. But even in its heyday that technology sometimes malfunctioned. And occasionally, that malfunction exacted an unfathomable price.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in October-November 2013. In a slightly modified form, it is contained in its entirety within the novel Skirmishes.

Escaping Amnthra

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

When the captain and senior crew abandon the Renegat, linguist Raina Serpell assumes command. She needs to get the ship and remaining crew home.

As the ship comes under attack from the planet below, Raina must first figure out how to operate the ship's firepower. Harder still, she must battle her own past to become captain in more than just name alone.

This novella was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, September-October 2019.

Joyride

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, November/December 2018.

It is included in its entirety in the novel The Renegat.

Maelstrom

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Asimov Readers Choice Award Finalist Novella

Maelstrom: The Final Voyage of the Gabriella

by Nedda Ferguson-Lithe

Recreating the last days of a lost ship proved a difficult writing challenge for me. I had already chosen an older form of storytelling as my medium, because I believed - and still believe - that this form suits my purposes best.

But I also need to maintain my journalistic standards, for my sake as well as the sake of the story. Many others have told tales of lost ships over hundreds of years, and those storytellers have all chosen to fictionalize certain parts of the narrative, if not the entire story.

My training will not allow me to do that.

Besides, that's not why I wrote this. I wrote this to find answers, sometimes to questions I hadn't even realized that I had. My need to know comes from a personal place. I lost my father on the Gabriella. I needed to know what, exactly, happened to him. I did not learn that. Not exactly.

But I learned more than I had known before.

I have spent years researching, interviewing, and organizing the information into something that resembles a narrative. We will never know what those final days were like for the crew of the Gabriella, but we have enough information to make an educated guess.

Which is what this is.

This novella was first published in the September-October 2020 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction. Read it for free at the publisher's website.

Stealth

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Finalist, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

Stealth tech: a lost science everyone wants to reclaim. The woman who helped Boss dive the Dignity Vessel, known then as Squishy, claims a long and storied history with stealth tech. Her research into the lost science caused deaths before, and she failed to prevent them during that fateful dive. Now, she vows to find a way to destroy the technology once and for all.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in October-November 2010. In a slightly modified form, it is contained in its entirety within the novel Boneyards. It has been collected in The Diving Bundle.

Strangers at the Room of Lost Souls

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Starbase Kappa. The Room of Lost Souls. An abandoned space station with different names but one certainty: People die there. Still, a soldier can't argue with orders, no matter how bad a place's reputation. Enterran Empire Operations Commander Elissa Trekov's most famous relative died there, so she thinks she knows the Room better than the rest of her team. But when strangers turn up on the so-called abandoned station -- strangers who seem to know a lot more about its function than they pretend -- she realizes the Room's legendary history only scratches the surface of the dangers lurking within.

This novella, in a slightly modified form, is contained in its entirety within the novel Skirmishes. It has been collected in The Diving Bundle.

The Application of Hope

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winner, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

The Fleet. In Boss' time, a thing of legend. Long before Boss and her crew found their first Dignity Vessel, long before the Room of Lost Souls claimed its first life, the Fleet used its advanced technology to explore the galaxy. But even in its heyday that technology sometimes malfunctioned. And occasionally, that malfunction exacted an unfathomable price.

This standalone novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in August 2013. It has been collected in Warrior Women, edited by Paula Guran.

The Break-In

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October 2023.

Read the full story for free here.

The Death Hole Bunker

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, July/August 2023.

Read the full story for free here.

The Rescue of the Renegat

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2018.

It is included in its entirety in the novel The Renegat.

The Room of Lost Souls

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winner, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

Boss remembers the Room. It haunts her. Her mother died there. Now, a client wants her to go back. She wants Boss to help her uncover the Room's mysteries. But the truths she discovers might destroy everything Boss holds sacred.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in April-May 2008. In a slightly modified form, it is contained in its entirety within the novel Diving Into The Wreck. It has been collected in The Diving Bundle.

The Spires of Denon

Diving Universe

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Finalist, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

The Spires of Denon doesn't involve Boss or her crew. Instead, this standalone novella follows Meklos Verr, hired to guard an archeological dig near the mysterious Spires of Denon. There Verr encounters the prickly Gabrielle Reese who heads the dig, and he meets some cave divers who aren't quite what they seem. Verr knows that someone wants to harm the dig, but he isn't sure if the attack will come from outside the tall mountain range or from the group of archeologists within. Verr must figure out the threat before it destroys him, his crew, and the beautiful Spires of Denon.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in April-May 2009. It has been collected in The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack.

Diving Into the Wreck

Diving Universe: Book 1

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she's an active historian. She wants to know about the past--to experience it firsthand. Once she's dived the ship, she'll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It's a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.

Then one day, Boss finds the claim of a lifetime: an enormous spacecraft, incredibly old, and apparently Earth-made. It's impossible for something so old, built in the days before Faster Than Light travel, to have journeyed this far from Earth. It shouldn't be here. It can't be here. And yet, it is. Boss's curiosity is up, and she's determined to investigate. She hires a group of divers to explore the wreck with her, the best team she can assemble. But some secrets are best kept hidden, and the past won t give up its treasures without exacting a price in blood.

What Boss finds could rewrite history, cost lives, and start an intergalactic war.

This novel includes, in slightly modified form, the complete text of the novellas Diving Into The Wreck and The Room of Lost Souls.

City of Ruins

Diving Universe: Book 2

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Boss, a loner, loved to dive derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space...

But one day, she found a ship that would change everything-an ancient Dignity Vessel-and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds "loose" stealth technology.

Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where fourteen archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city. Mysterious "death holes" explode into the city itself for no apparent reason, and Boss believes stealth tech is involved. As Boss searches for the answer to the mystery of the death holes, she will uncover the answer to her Dignity Vessel quest as well-and one more thing, something so important that it will change her life-and the universe-forever.

This novel includes, in slightly modified form, the complete text of the novella Becoming One With The Ghosts.

Boneyards

Diving Universe: Book 3

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.

Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss's most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss's help.

Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.

Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate?

Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people's lives.

This novel includes, in slightly modified form, the complete text of the novella Stealth.

Skirmishes

Diving Universe: Book 4

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The answers Captain Jonathon "Coop" Cooper and the crew of the Ivoire seek lie in the Boneyards. But they must wait for Boss and her team to dive it, explore the wrecks, and piece together what happened in that faraway place.

Boss loves the challenge. Thousands of ships, centuries of history, all play to her strengths. In her absence, she trusts Coop to defend the Nine Planets Alliance against the Enterran Empire.

But an encounter from Coop's recent past shows up to haunt him, an encounter he never told Boss about, an encounter that could threaten her future, his life, and the fragile peace between the Alliance and the Empire.

This novel includes, in slightly modified form, the complete text of the novellas Strangers at the Room of Lost Souls and Encounter on Starbase Kappa.

The Falls

Diving Universe: Book 5

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Fleet sector bases close as the Fleet moves on. Everyone knows and expects it. But still, the announcement that Sector Base E-2 will close -- although still thirty years in the future -- breeds a mood of tension and anxiety.

So, when Rajivk Agwu finds two pairs of shoes on a trail near Fiskett Falls, but no sign of their occupants, his already heightened senses warn of danger.

Those on the base fare no better. Bristol Iannazzi, working on the notoriously delicate anacapa drive for a runabout, also notices something strange, something out of place, something dangerous...

The Runabout

Diving Universe: Book 6

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Asimov's Reader's Choice Award-nominated Novella

A graveyard of spaceships, abandoned by the mysterious Fleet thousands of years earlier. Boss calls it "The Boneyard." She needs the ships inside to expand her work for Lost Souls Corporation. Yash Zarlengo thinks the Boneyard will help her discover if the Fleet still exists.

Boss and Yash, while exploring the Boneyard, discover a small ship with a powerful and dangerous problem: The ship's active anacapa drive.

To escape the Boneyard, Boss must deal with the drive. Which means she'll have to dive the ship on limited time and under extremely dangerous conditions. And she can't go alone.

This short novel of 42,677 words was originally published in its entirety in the April/May 2017 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction. Read this story for free at Asimov's Science Fiction.

Searching for the Fleet

Diving Universe: Book 7

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Leaving Boss behind to continue diving the Boneyard, Ivoire Engineer Yash Zarlengo returns to the Lost Souls Corporation's headquarters to analyze the data from the runabout they discovered there.

Convinced that the experience in the Boneyard proves the Fleet still exists, Yash buries herself in her work, interested in little else.

Ivoire Captain Jonathan "Coop" Cooper notices Yash's growing obsession with finding the Fleet and joins her in her search.

For the first time in six years, the crew of the Ivoire feels real hope. Coop and Yash know all too well the dangers hope can pose. But this time their hope might just lead them somewhere no one expected.

Parts of this novel appeared in different forms as the novella Dix (Asimov's March-April 2018) and the novelette Lieutenant Tightass (Asimov's July-August 2018).

The Renegat

Diving Universe: Book 8

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

As a young recruit, brilliant engineer Nadim Crowe accidentally destroys an entire Boneyard full of ships. Now, decades later, he ends up on the crew of the Renegat, the only ship in the Fleet ever sent on a mission backwards to investigate an ancient Boneyard.

Something invaded that Boneyard and the Fleet wants to know what. Or who.

The Renegat: The only ship the Fleet dares risk. The Renegat: A ship of misfits and screw-ups sent on an impossible mission. All alone in deep space.

Parts of this novel appeared in different forms as the novellas The Rescue of the Renegat (Asimov's January-February 2018) and Joyride (Asimov's November-December 2018).

The Court Martial of the Renegat Renegades

Diving Universe: Book 9

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

As the surviving crew of the Renegat face court-martial for mutiny -- 100 years in their future -- the case makes everyone nervous. Prosecutors worry the survivors will prove too sympathetic to convict. The defense worries about the reliability of the defendants. But the survivors worry about what might happen should the truth -- the whole truth -- finally come to light.

This novel was first published in 2 parts in Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October 2022 and November/December 2022. Read the full novel for free at Asimov's website.

Thieves

Diving Universe: Book 10

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

A race against time.

Weeks after Boss' injury from the runabout dive, she continues the mission to salvage Fleet wrecks for the Lost Souls Corporation But Boss feels like she lost something after that fateful dive. Until something happens in the Boneyard to catch her attention. Something that sparks her interest with an intensity she thought she had lost.

Now, Boss must assemble a team - her old team - to dive this new discovery. But Boss worries that someone knows her plans. That the Boneyard might prove more sentient than she knows. She feels the clock ticking - and she worries time will run out once and for all.

Squishy's Teams

Diving Universe: Book 11

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Boss' team leader Squishy, who had a mysterious past involving military intelligence, enlisted others to help her destroy stealth tech in the novel Boneyards. But exactly what happened to those teams remained a mystery - until now.

Ten people signed up to help Squishy in her fateful mission. Only five returned.

Paired up in teams of two, they set out across the Enterran Empire to infiltrate and sabotage the Empire's bases which were being used to back up their stealth tech research.

But what exactly happened on those bases? Who survived? Squishy's Teams provides the answers to those burning questions and reveals twists to the ongoing saga no one sees coming.

The author strongly encourages reading Boneyards before picking up Squishy's Teams.

The Chase

Diving Universe: Book 12

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

On the run.

After fleeing pursuers from two different missions, Boss and Coop reconvene at the Lost Souls Corporation headquarters. Both share exciting but troublesome news. And a whole lot of questions.

But before they begin to even scratch the surface of the new information, they face threats from all quarters. And when an old adversary of Coop's gets involved, Boss questions who to trust to survive and find some long-awaited answers.

Ivory Trees

Diving Universe: Book 13

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

When the discovery of a bunker reveals a treasure trove of ancient artifacts, interested parties throughout the Empire--from collectors to academics to researchers--want a piece of the action. But the finds draw attention from outside the Empire as well. Attention from someone willing to do whatever it takes to outmaneuver the Empire and secure the collection.

Gabriel's Ghost

Dock Five Universe: Book 1

Linnea Sinclair

After a decade of piloting interstellar patrol ships, former captain Chasidah Bergren, onetime pride of the Sixth Fleet, finds herself court-martialed for a crime she didn't commit - and shipped off to a remote prison planet from which no one ever escapes. But when she kills a brutal guard in an act of self-defense, someone even more dangerous emerges from the shadows.

Gabriel Sullivan - mercenary, smuggler, and rogue - is supposed to be dead. Yet now this seductive ghost from Chaz's past is offering her a ticket to freedom - for a price. Someone in the Empire is secretly breeding jukors: vicious and uncontrollable killing machines that have long been outlawed. Gabriel needs Chaz to help him stop the practice before it decimates Imperial space. The mission means putting their lives on the line - but the tensions that heat up between them may be the riskiest part of all.

Shades of Dark

Dock Five Universe: Book 2

Linnea Sinclair

For two fugitives, space has no haven, no mercy, no light - only... SHADES OF DARK.

Court-martialed Imperial Fleet captain Chasidah Bergren is on the run with her fugitive lover, the telepathic mercenary Gabriel Sullivan. Rim-worlds and illegal deep-space outposts offer little safety. Corruption in the empire - expertly orchestrated by Sully's powerful cousin, Hayden Burke - is everywhere: among her crew, her friends. Even her family. Then a mysterious operative offers critical intel on Burke's plans. But Captain Del Regarth has plans of his own...

Everyone has a price. Everyone can make a choice. But when Sully makes his, Chaz must choose between what Sully has become - and what her heart demands she must do.

Hope's Folly

Dock Five Universe: Book 3

Linnea Sinclair

Enter a world where Polite, Professional, and Prepared to Kill is more than a motto...

Admiral Philip Guthrie is alive and kicking - despite an Imperial kill-order with his name on it. Now he's leading a rebel alliance against the oppressive Imperial forces. Or he would, if he could get his command ship - the derelict cruiser, Hope's Folly - functioning. If lack of crew and supplies isn't trouble enough, his assigned bodyguard turns out to be former Imperial assassin Rya Bennton - the daughter of his best friend and first commanding officer. A man whose death is on Philip's conscience.

Rya Bennton has been in love with Philip Guthrie since she was a girl. But can her childhood fantasies survive an encounter with the hardened rebel leader who is now her commanding officer? Or will her determination to destroy the Empire put not only their mission, but their hearts and lives in jeopardy?

It's an impossible mission on a derelict ship called HOPE'S FOLLY. A man who feels he can't love. A woman who believes she's unlovable. And an enemy who will stop at nothing to crush them both.

Rebels and Lovers

Dock Five Universe: Book 4

Linnea Sinclair

Out of options... Techno-billionaire Devin Guthrie can't forget Captain Makaiden Griggs even though it's been two years since she was in his family's employ. A Guthrie does not fall in love with a mere shuttle pilot. Going against his wealthy family's wishes isn't an option - not with the Empire in political upheaval, much of it caused by Devin's renegade older brother, Admiral Philip Guthrie.

When a Guthrie heir - Devin's nineteen-year old nephew, Trip - goes missing, Devin's loyalty to his family's edicts is put to the test. Suddenly the unthinkable becomes the only option available: Devin must break the rules and ally himself with Kaidee Griggs, the one woman he could never forget, the one woman he was forbidden to love. It's a desperate move that could change the fate of the Empire - and the Guthrie family forever.

Doctor Who: A History of the Universe in 100 Objects

Doctor Who

James Goss
Steve Tribe

Every object tells a story. From ancient urns and medieval flasks to sonic screwdrivers and glass Daleks, these 100 objects tell the story of the entire universe, and the most important man in the Doctor. Each item has a unique tale of its own, whether it's a fob watch at the onset of the Great War or a carrot growing on the first human colony on Mars. Taken together, they tell of empires rising and falling, wars won and lost, and planets destroyed and reborn. Within these pages lie hidden histories of Time Lords and Daleks, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, the plot to steal the Mona Lisa and the story of Shakespeare's lost play.

You'll find illustrated guides to invisible creatures, the secret origins of the internet, and how to speak Mechonoid. A History of the Universe in 100 Objects is an indispensible guide to the most important items that have ever existed, or that are yet to exist.

Iduna's Universe

Dumarest: Book 21

E. C. Tubb

It was touch and go for Earl Dumarest when the slavers of the Matriarchy of Onorldi struck his work camp. Had he not captured the Matriarch herself during the fight, it might have spelled his doom when the slavers triumphed.

Because, even though the odds had turned heavily against him, he was able to strike a bargain. The Matriarch's child daughter Iduna had disappeared into the mind-trap of the Tau. If he could follow, find her, and return with her, he would have his freedom and a chance to locate the lost Earth he sought.

But Dumarest had to outwit her monster playthings, outfight her hideous horrors, and outdream her satanic fantasies...

Princess of Dune

Dune Universe

Kevin J. Anderson
Brian Herbert

Set two years before Dune: Princess of Dune is the never-before-told story of two key women in the life of Paul Muad'Dib--Princess Irulan, his wife in name only, and Paul's true love, the Fremen Chani. Both women become central to Paul's galaxy-spanning Imperial reign.

Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. As Princess Royal, she also learned important lessons from her father--the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for power--the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Imperial throne, and a ruthless rebellion in the Imperial military. The young woman has a wise and independent streak and is determined to become much more than a pawn to be moved about on anyone's gameboard.

Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Chani--the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist who serves under the harsh rule of House Harkonnen--is trained in the Fremen mystical ways by an ancient Reverend Mother. Brought up to believe in her father's ecological dream of a green Arrakis, she follows Liet around to Imperial testing stations, surviving the many hazards of desert life. Chani soon learns the harsh cost of Fremen dreams and obligations under the oppressive boot heel of the long Harkonnen occupation.

Sands of Dune

Dune Universe

Brian Herbert
Kevin J. Anderson

Collected for the first time, these three previously unpublished Dune novellas by bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson shine a light upon the darker corners of the Dune universe. Spanning space and time, Sands of Dune is essential reading for any fan of the series.

The world of Dune has shaped an entire generation of science fiction. From the sand blasted world of Arrakis, to the splendor of the imperial homeworld of Kaitain, readers have lived in a universe of treachery and wonder.

Now, these stories expand on the Dune universe, telling of the lost years of Gurney Halleck as he works with smugglers on Arrakis in a deadly gambit for revenge; inside the ranks of the Sardaukar as the child of a betrayed nobleman becomes one of the Emperor's most ruthless fighters; a young firebrand Fremen woman, a guerrilla fighter against the ruthless Harkonnens, who will one day become Shadout Mapes.

Tales of Dune: Expanded Edition

Dune Universe

Brian Herbert
Kevin J. Anderson

Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune saga sprawls across countless planets and tens of millennia. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have written thirteen international bestselling novels set in this epic universe. But the wealth of material leaves many side tales or interesting ideas that can be told, hors d'oeuvres to accompany the exotic main course. Sometimes, a short story is exactly what's needed.

Tales of Dune collects eight of Herbert and Anderson's Dune short stories, ranging from the period of the Butlerian Jihad, to the time of young Paul Atreides, to a story set during the events of the novel Dune, to the very end of Frank Herbert's future history. These are the missing pieces in the epic of Dune.

This edition is an expanded edition of the 2011 ebook published by WordFire Press. New material consists of the story "Red Plague" and the essays introducing each story.

Table of Contents:

  • i - Introduction (Tales of Dune: Expanded Edition) - essay
  • 2 - Hunting Harkonnens Introduction - essay
  • 4 - Hunting Harkonnens - [Legends of Dune] - (2002) - novelette
  • 45 - Whipping Mek Introduction - essay
  • 46 - Whipping Mek - [Legends of Dune] - (2003) - short story
  • 66 - The Faces of a Martyr Introduction - essay
  • 68 - The Faces of a Martyr - [Legends of Dune] - (2004) - short story (variant of The Faces of a Martyr: A Tale of the Butlerian Jihad)
  • 93 - Red Plague Introduction - essay
  • 94 - Red Plague - [Schools of Dune] - (2016) - short story
  • 114 - Wedding Silk Introduction - essay
  • 115 - Wedding Silk - [Heroes of Dune] - (2011) - short fiction
  • 131 - A Whisper of Caladan Seas Introduction - essay
  • 132 - A Whisper of Caladan Seas - [Dune] - (1999) - short story
  • 162 - Sea Child Introduction - essay
  • 163 - Sea Child - [Dune] - (2011) - short story (variant of Sea Child: A Tale of Dune 2006)
  • 184 - Treasure in the Sand Introduction - essay
  • 185 - Treasure in the Sand - [Dune Sequels] - (2006) - short story

The Road to Dune

Dune Universe

Frank Herbert
Kevin J. Anderson
Brian Herbert

Frank Herbert's Dune is widely known as the science fiction equivalent of The Lord of the Rings. The Road to Dune is a companion work comparable to The Silmarillion, shedding light on and following the remarkable development of the bestselling science fiction novel of all time.

Herein, the worlds millions of Dune fans can now read at long last unpublished chapters and scenes from Dune and Dune Messiah. The Road to Dune also includes correspondence between Frank Herbert and famed editor, John W. Campbell, Jr.; excerpts from Herbert's correspondence during his years-long struggle to get his innovative work published; and the article, They Stopped the Moving Sands, Herbert's original inspiration for Dune.

The Road to Dune features Spice Planet, an original sixty-two thousand-word novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, based on a detailed outline left by Frank Herbert. The Road to Dune is a treasure trove of essays, articles, and fiction that every reader of Dune will want to add to their shelf.

Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar

Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe

Win Scott Eckert

Tarzan of the Apes, Jason Gridley, and the crew of the airship O-220 return to Pellucidar, the world at the Earth's core, on a wartime mission to stop the Nazis from obtaining a powerful superweapon. But when the Lord of the Jungle's murderous adversaries partner with the Mahars--Pellucidar's routed reptilian overlords--and his adventurous granddaughter Suzanne goes missing on a reconnaissance mission, can Tarzan prevent the conquest and enslavement of all humanity in both the inner and outer worlds?

A War of Gifts

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card offers a Christmas gift to his millions of fans with this short novel set during Ender's first years at the Battle School where it is forbidden to celebrate religious holidays.

The children come from many nations, many religions; while they are being trained for war, religious conflict between them is not on the curriculum. But Dink Meeker, one of the older students, doesn't see it that way. He thinks that giving gifts isn't exactly a religious observation, and on Sinterklaas Day he tucks a present into another student's shoe.

This small act of rebellion sets off a battle royal between the students and the staff, but some surprising alliances form when Ender comes up against a new student, Zeck Morgan. The War over Santa Claus will force everyone to make a choice.

Ender in Exile

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin

Orson Scott Card

After twenty-three years, Orson Scott Card returns to his acclaimed best-selling series with the first true, direct sequel to the classic Ender's Game.

In Ender's Game, the world's most gifted children were taken from their families and sent to an elite training school. At Battle School, they learned combat, strategy, and secret intelligence to fight a dangerous war on behalf of those left on Earth. But they also learned some important and less definable lessons about life.

After the life-changing events of those years, these children-now teenagers-must leave the school and readapt to life in the outside world.

Having not seen their families or interacted with other people for years-where do they go now? What can they do?

Ender fought for humanity, but he is now reviled as a ruthless assassin. No longer allowed to live on Earth, he enters into exile. With his sister Valentine, he chooses to leave the only home he's ever known to begin a relativistic-and revelatory-journey beyond the stars.

What happened during the years between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead? What did Ender go through from the ages of 12 through 35? The story of those years has never been told. Taking place 3000 years before Ender finally receives his chance at redemption in Speaker for the Dead, this is the long-lost story of Ender.

For twenty-three years, millions of readers have wondered and now they will receive the answers. Ender in Exile is Orson Scott Card's moving return to all the action and the adventure, the profound exploration of war and society, and the characters one never forgot.

On one of these ships, there is a baby that just may share the same special gifts as Ender's old friend Bean....

Ender's Game

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin

Orson Scott Card

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1977. The story has been reprinted many times and can be found in the anthologies:

It is included in the collections Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories (1981), Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (1990), and First Meetings: Three Stories From The Enderverse (2002).

The story was later expanded to the full novel Ender's Game (1985).

First Meetings: in the Enderverse

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin

Orson Scott Card

Contains:

  • The Polish Boy
  • Teacher's Pest
  • The Investment Counselor

Later editions also include the novelette Ender' Game (1977).

Ender's Game

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin: Book 1

Orson Scott Card

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cutyoung Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Speaker for the Dead

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin: Book 2

Orson Scott Card

In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.

Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening... again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery... and the truth.

Xenocide

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin: Book 3

Orson Scott Card

The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.

On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought.

Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Startways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way, a second xenocide seems inevitble.

Children of the Mind

Ender's Universe: Ender Wiggin: Book 4

Orson Scott Card

With Children of the Mind, Card returns to the story of Ender Wiggin: hero of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Enders Game, the original Speaker for the Dead, and the hated Xenocide who murdered an entire planet. Now his adopted world, Lusitania, is threatened by the same planet-destroying weapon that he himself used so many thousands of years before.

Enders oldest friend, Jane, the computer intelligence that has evolved with him over 3000 years, is about to be killed by the Starways Congress, which has finally discovered her existence and fears her control of the galaxy-wide interlocked network of computers and ansibles.Jane can save the three sentient races of Lusitaniathe Pequeninos, the Hive Queens daughters, and the human colony. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net world by world.

Ender's Shadow

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 1

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card brings us back to the very beginning of his brilliant Ender Quartet, with a novel that allows us to reenter that world anew.

With all the power of his original creation, Card has created a parallel volume to Ender's Game, a book that expands and compliments the first, enhancing its power, illuminating its events and its powerful conclusion.

The human race is at War with the "Buggers", an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win.

The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging then into an irresisible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School he was just the best of the best. In this new book, card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers.

Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. He knew he could not survive through strength he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older.

Bean's desperate struggle to live, and his success, brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....

Shadow of the Hegemon

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 2

Orson Scott Card

The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.

But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heros they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.

Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world.

Shadow Puppets

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 3

Orson Scott Card

Bestselling author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth.

Earth and its society has been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics--the unity enforced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School.

But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless, brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of Earth's young warriors. With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our future.

Here is the continuing story of Bean and Petra, and the rest of Ender's Dragon Army, as they take their places in the new government of Earth.

Shadow of the Giant

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 4

Orson Scott Card

Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older. Then he was discovered by the recruiters for the Battle School.

For Earth was at war -- a terrible war with an inscrutable alien enemy. A war that humanity was near to losing. But the long distances of interstellar space has given hope to the defenders of Earth -- they had time to train military geniuses up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high-orbital facility called the Battle School. That story is told in two books, the beloved classic Ender's Game, and its parallel, Ender's Shadow.

Bean was the smallest student at the Battle School, but he became Ender Wiggins' right hand. Since then he has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire attacking Earth. Now he and his wife Petra yearn for a safe place to build a family -- something he has never known -- but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his enemies -- old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars on Earth. To find security, Bean and Petra must once again follow in Ender's footsteps. They must leave Earth behind, in the control of the Hegemon, and look to the stars.

Shadows in Flight

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 5

Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten--a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders--the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.

The Last Shadow

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 6

Orson Scott Card

One planet.

Three sapient species living peacefully together.

And one deadly virus that could wipe out every world in the Starways Congress, killing billions.

Is the only answer another great Xenocide?

Earth Unaware

Ender's Universe: First Formic War: Book 1

Orson Scott Card
Aaron Johnston

The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador's telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

El Cavador has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big for the ship. There are claim-jumping corporate ships bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems...not important.

They're wrong. It's the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. The first Formic War is about to begin.

Earth Afire

Ender's Universe: First Formic War: Book 2

Orson Scott Card
Aaron Johnston

One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. This is the story of the First Formic War.

Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but just barely. Not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. They didn't believe that until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame.

And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could move fast enough to meet the threat.

Earth Awakens

Ender's Universe: First Formic War: Book 3

Orson Scott Card
Aaron Johnston

The story of The First Formic War continues in Earth Awakens.

Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card's bestselling novel Ender's Game, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun.

When the alien ship screamed through the solar system, it disrupted communications between the far-flung human mining ships and supply stations, and between them and Earth. So Earth and Luna were unaware that they had been invaded until the ship pulled into Earth orbit, and began landing terra-forming crews in China. Politics and pride slowed the response on Earth, and on Luna, corporate power struggles seemed more urgent than distant deaths. But there are a few men and women who see that if Earth doesn't wake up and pull together, the planet could be lost.

Children of the Fleet

Ender's Universe: Fleet School

Orson Scott Card

From Orson Scott Card, award-winning and bestselling author of Ender's Game, his first solo Enderverse novel in years.

Children of the Fleet is a new angle on Card's bestselling series, telling the story of the Fleet in space, parallel to the story on Earth told in the Ender's Shadow series.

Ender Wiggin won the Third Formic war, ending the alien threat to Earth. Afterwards, all the terraformed Formic worlds were open to settlement by humans, and the International Fleet became the arm of the Ministry of Colonization, run by Hirum Graff. MinCol now runs Fleet School on the old Battle School station, and still recruits very smart kids to train as leaders of colony ships, and colonies.

Dabeet Ochoa is a very smart kid. Top of his class in every school. But he doesn't think he has a chance at Fleet School, because he has no connections to the Fleet. That he knows of. At least until the day that Colonel Graff arrives at his school for an interview.

The Swarm

Ender's Universe: Second Formic War: Book 1

Orson Scott Card
Aaron Johnston

Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston return to their Ender's Game prequel series with this first volume of an all-new trilogy about the Second Formic War in The Swarm.

The first invasion of Earth was beaten back by a coalition of corporate and international military forces, and the Chinese army. China has been devastated by the Formic's initial efforts to eradicate Earth life forms and prepare the ground for their own settlement. The Scouring of China struck fear into the other nations of the planet; that fear blossomed into drastic action when scientists determined that the single ship that wreaked such damage was merely a scout ship.

There is a mothership out beyond the Solar System's Kuiper Belt, and it's heading into the system, unstoppable by any weapons that Earth can muster.

Earth has been reorganized for defense. There is now a Hegemon, a planetary official responsible for keeping all the formerly warring nations in line. There's a Polemarch, responsible for organizing all the military forces of the planet into the new International Fleet. But there is an enemy within, an enemy as old as human warfare: ambition and politics. Greed and self-interest. Will Bingwen, Mazer Rackam, Victor Delgado and Lem Juke be able to divert those very human enemies in time to create a weapon that can effectively defend humanity in the inexorable Second Formic War?

The Hive

Ender's Universe: Second Formic War: Book 2

Orson Scott Card
Aaron Johnston

New York Times bestselling authors Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston return to the prequels to Ender's Game following The Swarm with The Hive, book two in the Second Formic War.

Card and Johnston continue the fast-paced hard science fiction history of the Formic Wars--the alien invasions of Earth's Solar System that ultimately led to Ender Wiggin's total victory in Ender's Game.

A coalition of Earth's nations barely fought off the Formics' first scout ship. Now it's clear that there's a mother-ship out on edge of the system, and the aliens are prepared to take Earth by force. Can Earth's warring nations and corporations put aside their differences and mount an effective defense?

Ender's Game is one of the most popular and bestselling science fiction novels of all time. The Formic War series (The First Formic War and The Second Formic War) are the prequels to Ender's story.

Cold Water

Fractured Europe Universe: Book 1

Dave Hutchinson

In a Europe fractured by a flu pandemic and crippled by economic collapse, the continent has fractured into a hundred tiny principalities of ever-shifting loyalties, borders and covert operations.

For Carey Tews, a former operative with Les Coureurs des Bois -- a clandestine organisation of high-risk smugglers -- Europe and the coureurs are in her past. Her legend in Hungary is blown six way from Sunday, and even if she could go back to working in Europe, she wouldn't. That is until an old friend and lover is declared dead in mysterious circumstances.

What she doesn't know is that the investigation will take her to places she couldn't even imagine.

Green

Green Universe: Book 1

Jay Lake

She was born in poverty, in a dusty village under the equatorial sun. She does not remember her mother, she does not remember her own name-her earliest clear memory is of the day her father sold her to the tall pale man. In the Court of the Pomegranate Tree, where she was taught the ways of a courtesan... and the skills of an assassin... she was named Emerald, the precious jewel of the Undying Duke's collection of beauties.

She calls herself Green.

The world she inhabits is one of political power and magic, where Gods meddle in the affairs of mortals. At the center of it is the immortal Duke's city of Copper Downs, which controls all the trade on the Storm Sea. Green has made many enemies, and some secret friends, and she has become a very dangerous woman indeed.

Acclaimed author Jay Lake has created a remarkable character in Green, and evokes a remarkable world in this novel. Green and her struggle to survive and find her own past will live in the reader's mind for a long time after closing the book.

Endurance

Green Universe: Book 2

Jay Lake

Green is back in Copper Downs. Purchased from her father in sunny Selistan when she was four years old, she was harshly raised to be a courtesan, companion, and bedmate of the Immortal Duke of Copper Downs. But Green rebelled. Green killed the Duke, and many others, and won her freedom. Yet she is still claimed by the gods and goddesses of her world, and they still require her service. Their demands are greater than any duke's could have been.

Godslayers have come to the Stone Coast, magicians whose cult is dedicated to destroying the many gods of Green's world. In the turmoil following the Immortal Duke's murder, Green made a God out of her power and her memories. Now the gods turn to her to protect them from the Slayers.

Jay Lake brings us an epic fantasy not "in the tradition of Tolkien," but, instead, sensual, ominous, shot through with the sweat of fear and the intoxication of power.

Kalimpura

Green Universe: Book 3

Jay Lake

This sequel to Green and Endurance takes Green back to the city of Kalimpura and the service of the Lily Goddess.

Green is hounded by the gods of Copper Down, and the gods of Kalimpura, who have laid claim to her and her children. She never wanted to be a conduit for the supernatural, but when she killed the Immortal Duke and created the Ox god with the power, she released she came to their notice.

Now she has sworn to retrieve the two girls taken hostage by the Bittern Court, one of Kalimpura's rival guilds. But the Temple of the Lily Goddess is playing politics with her life.

Dark Universe

Gregg Press Science Fiction Series: Book 26

Daniel F. Galouye

The survivors live underground, as far from the Original World as possible and protected from the ultimate evil, Radiation. Then terrible monsters, who bring with them a screaming silence, are seen and people start to disappear. One young man realises he must question the nature of Darkness itself.

Summertide

Heritage Universe: Book 1

Charles Sheffield

Set more than four thousand years in the future, Summertide introduces a galaxy widely populated by humans and a variety of intelligent aliens, all of whom live in the shadow of the vanished race known only as the Builders. Nothing is known about the Builders, but the gigantic artifacts they have left behind - many of them still hardly understood - dominate the areas of space in which they are found. One such is the double-planet system of Opal and Quake - the former covered in water, the latter in desert - connected by a Builder device called the Umbilical. It is to this system that a variety of humans and aliens come, ostensibly to witness Summertide - the annual tidal wave which sweeps across Opal.

Divergence

Heritage Universe: Book 2

Charles Sheffield

For millennia, humankind and the other intelligent races had studied the bizarre and unfathomable constructs of the legendary beings known as Builders. But for all that study, they were still no closer to figuring out who - or what - the Builders had been, or where they had gone. Then, on the world called Quake, in the midst of the violent planetary upheaval that was Summertide, a small group of humans and aliens witnessed the culmination of all those years of watching and waiting: the planet Quake opened up, and something came out - and it looked as if, at long last, the discovery of the Builders themselves was at hand.

All her life, Darya Lang had dreamed of finding the Builders, whose artifacts she had single-handedly catalogued for the rest of the universe. Troubleshooter and adventurer Hans Rebka had his own dreams of unraveling the mystery of those artifacts. To Louis Nenda and the Cecropian Atvar H'sial, the Builder artifacts represented a once-in-a-lifetime shot at untold wealth. And close behind them came the others: Councilor Julius Graces, who did not trust anyone to make first contact unassisted; the slavesJ'merlia and Kallik, who craved only a reunion with their masters; and the embodied computer E.C. Tally, charged with finding out just what the rest were up to.

The trail that began at Quake led to unexpected Builder artifacts full of traps for the unwary and answers for those who knew how to ask the questions. But the biggest question of all would remain an enigma, while their search unleashed the greatest threat to civilization ever imagined...

Transcendence

Heritage Universe: Book 3

Charles Sheffield

The Zardalu were the greatest menace ever known to the worlds of the spiral arm, enslaving entire races and exterminating others, guided by an unswerving belief in their own supremacy. Then their slaves rose up against them, and for eleven thousand years the Zardalu had been extinct and the spiral arm had known a kind of peace.

But now the Zardalu were back...

The search for the Builders, the legendary alien race whose unfathomable constructs continued to perplex scholars and explorers alike, had led Builder expert Darya Lang, adventurer Hans Rebka, and treasure hunters Louis Nenda and Atvar H'sial to an unknown Builder artifact far outside the spiral arm. There they found the Zardalu - just a few who had been trapped in stasis all those millennia, held there for purposes known only to the Builders. And in the struggle that ensued the Zardalu had been set loose, transported by Builder technology to to galactic parts unknown - free to ravage any world and any race within their grasp.

The only chance to eliminate the Zardalu threat was to find them and wipe them out before they had time to breed back up to strength and once again threaten civilized beings everywhere. The problem was that no one believed the story. Only Darya Land and her companions had actually seen the aliens - and no evidence existed to support their claims. And so the course seemed clear: get a ship themselves and search out the Zardalu.

But the way would not be easy. Even once they managed to locate the Zardalu, they still had the Builders to deal with. For the closer they got to their quarry, the more clear it became that the Zardalu and their world were closely entwined with the fate - and the plans - of the Builders themselves.

Convergence

Heritage Universe: Book 4

Charles Sheffield

Humans first reached out to the stars travelling at a painfully slow sublight crawl - then they found the Bose network, which allowed ships to jump instantaneously from one node in the galactic arm to another. Once in the Network they found the Artifacts: enigmatic structures, millions of years old, left by a vanished race. Incomprehensible to both human ad non-human minds, the Artifacts seemingly defy natural law.

Now, after millions of years, a new Artifact has appeared - and previously discovered Artifacts are showing strange changes in their inexplicable activities. When a motley crew of human and alien scientists and adventurers set out to examine still more Artifacts, they should have considered the fat that some changes are more dangerous than others...

Resurgence

Heritage Universe: Book 5

Charles Sheffield

Hans Rebka, interstellar trouble-shooter, had solved the mystery of the gigantic Artefacts built by a race that vanished millions of years ago, and at the same time had defeated the warlike Zardalu, onetime tyrannical rulers of the galaxy. But that was only a warm-up for the main event. In one arm of the galaxy, something is destroying whole stellar systems. Investigating the wave of stellar destruction, Rebka and his motley crew of humans and aliens discover a battle beginning that may determine the ultimate fate of the galaxy itself. Rebka and company must act quickly. Unfortunately, they are trapped on a planet directly in the path of destruction...

War Games

Hybrid Universe: Book 1

Karl Hansen

THE STRANGEST SOLDIERS AND REBELS CLASH ON THE MOST INCREDIBLE BATTLEFIELD

They were no longer human—they were hybrids, genetic/cyborg soldiers. They fought each other in savage battles through the ice forests of Saturn's moon. They held the constant terror of death and destruction at bay only by indulging in fantastic cybernetic dreams and games, genetically engineered drugs, and the disturbing pleasures of their altered flesh.

A Combat Hybrid ...

Joints reinforced with polymer mesh. Nictating occular membranes. Sphincters where there were none before. Regenerated limbs. Subcutaneous vitalium wires instead of hair. They were no longer human. They were combat hybrids—genetically-modified cyborgs bioformed for fhe express purpose of waging war in hostile environments.

Marc Detrs hadn't wanted to become a hybrid. But it was that or jail. That or have his true past discovered. That or be forced to reveal his knowledge of the all-seeing timestone. He became a hybrid, fighting for the chance to die in a guerrilla war that is waged in the frozen methane forests of Saturn's moon.

And then Grychn reappeared–a ghost from his past, the lover who knew all his secrets. They would either kill each other or help each other to find the timestone, the most valuable object in the Universe.

Don't miss Dream Games, the second novel of the Hybrid Universe.

"A rousing and evocative future war novel in the tradition of STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE FOREVER WAR. Readers will remember it long after they put the book down."–George R. R. Martin, Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards

"Makes Heinlein's Starship Troopers look like a pack of cub scouts." — Edward Bryant, twice winner of the Nebula Award

"More real than life, more painful, and, in the end, more beautiful. Hansen really goes for the jugular!" — Orson Scott Card, author of A Planet Called Treason

Dream Games

Hybrid Universe: Book 2

Karl Hansen

THE DREAM HUNTERS

The only humans left on Earth are aristocratic immortals, doomed to live out their perpetual youth as sex-cultists, lost in the euphoria of the dream game. Meanwhile, the all-powerful computer Cybermind commands the galaxy with its army of youthful Hybrid super-soldiers, captured and equipped with artificial memories and passions.

But random acts of terror have broken out—massive robberies and brutal mind-deaths that are perpetrated while the helpless victims swoon in the imagined ecstasies of virtual reality passion.

Enemies of the Cybermind, masters of illusion, two rebel Hybrid soldiers have become the ultimate terrorists. Fighting against the decadence of Earth, in search of their own pasts, Nate and Rissa are now the most feared of warriors. Living, loving, and killing as one, they are the Dream Hunters...

WE WERE HUNTING AGAIN

We stalked our prey. They were everywhere below, huddled together in their villages, sleeping, thinking they were safe. But they dreamed. Their dreams rose from their minds like smoke from a fire.

We hovered over a particular village, plucking dream filaments at random, following them back, letting their images unravel: hunting bison on horseback, stalking deer, pounding gold into sheets and making jewelry, making love with your friend's wife.

Dawn was near. Dream-hunters hunted best at night. We retreated before the advancing day, floating back the way we had come, dropping back to the garrison, going back to our bodies...

This Darkening Universe

Jan Darzek: Book 3

Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

Sweeping through the Small Magellanic Cloud, leaving a trail of ravished worlds and destroyed civilization, is the Udef -- the Unidentified Death Force. The best scientific minds of two galaxies can make nothing of it. The Udef is invisible. No scientific instrument can detect its presence. The only marks of its passing are the screams of its victims and the piles of dead left in its wake.

Momentarily safe on the world of Montura, Jan Darzek's strategy against the Udeffalters. He and his assistant Effie have been ordered there by a supreme computer -- that isn't telling why. There is nothing to do on Montura but frantically wheel and deal in its spectacular interworld trading market. Supreme has also sent a perplexed Dr. Malina Darr from Earth, whose apparent purpose is to cure an unknown disease in an alien life form no one has ever seen...

The three of them must content with a mad mixture of Montura's mysterious race of natives, the melange of self-serving life forms in the marketplace, and the Kloatraz -- the universe's strangest "living" computer -- while the Udef comes ever closer to wiping out every intelligent life form in the universe. Somehow it must be stopped before no one is left to fight it.

If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe

John Dies at the End: Book 4

Jason Pargin

If the broken neon signs, shuttered storefronts, and sub-standard housing didn't tip you off, you've just wandered into the city of "Undisclosed". You don't want to be caught dead here, because odds are you just might find yourself rising from the grave. That hasn't stopped tourists from visiting to check out the unusual phenomena that hangs around our town like radioactive fallout. Interdimensional parasites feeding on human hosts, paranormal cults worshipping demonic entities, vengeful teenage sorcerers, we've got it all.

Did I mention the possessed toy? It's a plastic football-sized egg that's supposed to hatch an adorable, colorful stuffed bird when a child "feeds" it through a synchronized smartphone app. What's actually inside is an otherworldly monstrosity that's enticing impressionable wayward youth into murdering folks and depositing their body parts inside the egg as if it's a hungry piggy bank to trigger the end of the world.

That's where Dave, John, and Amy come in. They face supernatural threats so the rest of us don't have to--and sometimes even earn a couple of bucks to so do. But between the bloody ritual sacrifices and soul-crushing nightmares, our trio realizes this apocalypse is way above their pay grade.

To Do or Die

Jump Universe: Interwar: Book 1

Mike Shepherd

Retired Colonel Ray Longknife and Marine Captain Terrence "Trouble" Tordon come to Savannah via different routes, but what they find is the same. One bully strongman is intent on keeping power no matter what the new rules are for peace. He's got the population cowered by thugs, and tanks at the ready. He expects to win the coming elections handily.

He doesn't expect trouble. Or, in this case, Mrs. Trouble--aka Ruth Tordon--a Marine wife on a mission to find the drug lords that almost killed her and her husband and put them out of business--and she's not about to be stopped by some barely trained roughnecks.

Abandoned by their strongman and desperate in defeat, the heavy armor get ready to roll into town over anybody in their way. But Ray Longknife, Trouble and Ruth are standing in their way...and nothing is going to flatten them.

Rita Longknife: Enemy Unknown

Jump Universe: Iteeche War: Book 1

Mike Shepherd

The war is over. Hooray!

Half the fleet is back in mothballs, but out on the rim of human space, ships are disappearing. Some are merchant ships going about their. business. Others are exploration ships on deep space probes. What's happening to them? Captain Rita Nuu Longknife is ready to take the heavy cruiser Exeter to space and see what's there. She may have a nursery next to the captain's cabin and a two month old baby on her hip, but she's taking a warship out there and nobody better get in her way.

Rita Longknife: Enemy in Sight

Jump Universe: Iteeche War: Book 2

Mike Shepherd

The victory parades are over and half the fleet is back in mothballs. The Navies better start getting them back in Commission! Rita Longknife, commander of the heavy cruiser Exeter, has proof. Proof that there is something else out there. Proof we are not alone in the galaxy. Aboard her ship is evidence that we have blown up an alien ship, and they have blown up one of ours. So far, contact with the aliens is being made by pirates, the worst scum humanity has. How do the right people take over making contact? Is there already too much bad blood between us? Have we already blown first contact?

The First Casualty

Jump Universe: Unity War: Book 1

Mike Moscoe

FOUR SOLDIERS. ONE WAR.

Asteroid miner Mary Rodrigo and freighter owner Mattim Abeeb are green draftees of the Society of Humanity, forced to fight for Earth--a planet they've never even seen.

Major Ray Longknife and his lover, Senior Pilot Rita Nuu, are career soldiers, invested with the cause of the Unity Party--and its ambitious new president.

These four soldiers on opposing sides of the battle are about to discover the true nature of this terrible war: a quest for profit--from the high command of both sides. What they will risk is nothing less than their lives. For although truth may be the first casualty of war, it's not going to be the last...

The Price of Peace

Jump Universe: Unity War: Book 2

Mike Moscoe

THE WAR IS OVER. THE TREATY IS SIGNED. AND ALL IS WELL IN THE GALAXY...

Izzy Umboto is a hero of the conflict between the Society of Humanity and the Unity Party. Instead of retiring and living out her days quietly, she's wrangled command of her very own warship. Unfortunately, that ship is the less-than-state-of-the-art Patton.

Lieutenant Terrence Tordon, called "Trouble" by both his enemies and his friends, and even himself, is a career marine. The word "quit" isn't in his vocabulary.

Now Lieutenant Trouble and his troops have signed on with Commander Umboto, trading a higher paycheck for the promise of action.

For all is not well in the galaxy. On the scattering of planets along the rim, remnant thugs of the Unity Party still hold power. In the shipping lanes of rim space, pirates roam freely.

Umboto and Tordon will soon learn that enforcing the peace can be just as expensive as fighting the war--and the cost will be counted in human lives...

They Also Serve

Jump Universe: Unity War: Book 3

Mike Moscoe

A WAR WITHIN

Colonel Ray Longknife and Marine Captain Mary Rodrigo were once enemies in an interstellar war. Now they're working together to keep the peace. But can they protect themselves from an enemy they can't even see?

When a bad space jump flings their starship thousands of light-years away from home, Longknife and Rodrigo make an amazing discovery: a planet inhabited by the descendants of a ship's crew--lost three hundred years earlier.

As acting ambassador, Longknife is eager to welcome the planet's population back into the fold of humanity. But Rodrigo is suspicious. She senses that something is wrong under the planet's veneer of peace and prosperity. And she's right....

Blood Heir

Kate Daniels Universe: Aurelia Ryder: Book 1

Ilona Andrews

Atlanta was always a dangerous city. Now, as waves of magic and technology compete for supremacy, it's a place caught in a slow apocalypse, where monsters spawn among the crumbling skyscrapers and supernatural factions struggle for power and survival.

Eight years ago, Julie Lennart left Atlanta to find out who she was. Now she's back with a new face, a new magic, and a new name--Aurelia Ryder--drawn by the urgent need to protect the family she left behind. An ancient power is stalking her adopted mother, Kate Daniels, an enemy unlike any other, and a string of horrifying murders is its opening gambit.

If Aurelia's true identity is discovered, those closest to her will die. So her plan is simple: get in, solve the murders, prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled, and get out without being recognized. She expected danger, but she never anticipated that the only man she'd ever loved could threaten everything.

One small misstep could lead to disaster. But for Aurelia, facing disaster is easy; it's relationships that are hard.

Sanctuary

Kate Daniels Universe: Roman's Chronicles: Book 1

Ilona Andrews

It's not easy serving Chernobog, the God of Destruction, Darkness and Death... especially during the holidays; and especially when you're out of eggnog and one of your pesky, freeloading mythic creatures has eaten your last cookie.

Roman would like nothing more than to be left alone, but when a wounded boy stumbles into his yard and begs for sanctuary, Roman takes him in. Now elite mercenaries are camped out on his property, combat mages are dousing the house with fire, and strange priests are unleashing arcane magic. They thought Roman was easy pickings, just a hermit in the woods, but they chose the wrong dark priest to annoy. For while Roman might be patient, he is the Black Volhv, filled with the love of his terrible god. For his adversaries, it's a fight to the death, but for him, it's just another day in the neighbourhood.

Molt Brother

Kren Universe: Book 1

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

College students, human and nonhuman, raised together on the same planet, search for the origins of civilization in the Galaxy and find old magic and a vast, implacable conspiracy. Can they forge bonds of friendship and understanding among themselves strong enough to stand against greed, lust for power, and absolute domination of a hundred planets? If not, then why does the enemy fear them?

City of a Million Legends

Kren Universe: Book 2

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Older and wiser, the humans and nonhumans of Molt Brother now suffer the consequences of their actions. They have stirred the karma of their lifetimes lived billions of years ago - when they were responsible for the destruction of a Galactic Civilization, the First Lifewave. Now they must seize the object of power that corrupted them the first time - to keep it from the hands of an implacable enemy. Can they resist its lure and save the Second Lifewave?

Dragon in Exile

Liaden Universe

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Star-trading Clan Korval--known to Terrans as the Tree-and-Dragon Family and to the locals simply as "the Dragon"--has been convicted of crimes against the homeworld. No matter that one of the "crimes" consisted of saving the elitist planet of Liad from very real internal threats, the Council of Clans wanted Korval heads to roll. Unfortunately for the Council, the Dragon's allies conspired to impose a milder punishment for saving the world: banishment, rather than execution.

Now relocated to the free-for-all world of Surebleak, the Dragon is under contract to keep the Port Road open to all traffic, and to back the New Bosses in imposing law and order on a society originally based on larceny and assassination. This modest rustication is going surprisingly well, until Korval discovers that the enemy they'd sought to destroy. . .wasn't quite destroyed, and is more determined than ever to eradicate Korval.

While the banishment killed no one initially, many of Korval's trading allies are spooked, and some are reneging on ancient agreements, leaving the Dragon to make its own way. The clan's efforts to stealthily recruit new allies is going haywire, and a secret death toll is rising even as the clan's adherents endure increasing exposure to danger and deceit off-world.

To make matters worse, an active portion of Surebleak's native population liked the Old Ways just fine, and are conspiring to take the New Bosses--and the Dragon--down, and are sure they have the firepower and people to do it.

The exiled Dragon has to make an urgent choice--accept an alliance with criminals or face down each and every enemy in person, one by one.

Necessity's Child

Liaden Universe

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

The kompani see none as an enemy, and yet few as friend. The kompani exist in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream. The Clan Korval is in many ways the opposite of the kompani. The interstellar trading clan is wealthy in enemies, fortunate in friends. Korval protects itself with vigor, and teaches even its youngest children the art of war.

And when representatives of Clan Korval arrive on the planet Surebleak where the kompani has lived, secret and aloof, the lives of three people intersect-- Kezzi, apprentice to the kompani's grandmother; Syl Vor, Clan Korval's youngest warrior; and Rys, a man without a world, or a past.

Necessity's Child is a standalone adventure in the popular and exciting Liaden Universe.

Salvage Right

Liaden Universe

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

A door never closes, but a window opens...

With origins in the Old Universe, the malevolent, acquisitive intelligence of Tinsori Light sought to infect others with itself, and send those agents out into the wide new universe to infect even more.

For centuries, two heroes stood between Tinsori Light and the vulnerable universe--Light Keepers Jen Sin yos'Phelium and Lorith of the Sanderat.

Just when it seemed that they--merely human--must fail, Tinsori Light, enfeebled by aged systems, succumbed to the stress of a unique spatial event . . . and died, leaving the station a shell.

Luckily, the light keepers have back-up. A mismatched team of arcane specialists are on-station, working non-stop to preserve the Light, build trustworthy systems, and open the refurbished station for business.

In fact, ships are already incoming, and it becomes a matter of urgency to sort friend from foe. In particular, the Lyre Institute wishes to acquire Tinsori Light, and will do anything, spend anyone, to achieve that goal.

Agent of Change

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 1

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Fleeing the scene of his latest mission, Val Con yos'Phelium finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a young Tarren on the run from interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other-or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

Conflict of Honors

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 2

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Sixteen-year-old Priscilla Delacroix was declared legally dead by her mother, High Priestess of the Goddess. Banished to survive on her own, Priscilla has roamed the galaxy for ten years as an outcast--to become a woman of extraordinary skill....

An experienced officer assigned to the Liaden vessel Doxflon, she's been abandoned yet again. Betrayed by her captain and shipmates, she's left to fend for herself on a distant planet. But Priscilla is not alone. Starship captain Shan yos'Galen is about to join Priscilla's crusade for revenge. He has his own score to settle with the enemy. But confronting the sinister crew will be far easier--and safer--than confronting the demons of Priscilla's own mysterious past.

Carpe Diem

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 3

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

On the run from interplanetary assassins, covert operative Val Con yos'Phelium and former mercenary sergeant Miri Robertson have wound up stranded on a distant planet with no rescue in sight. Until they figure out a way back to Liad, these two lost souls must find a way to trust each another--and let their love heal the dark wounds of their past....

Back on Liad, Shan yos'Galan, Val Con's cousin and foster brother, and his life-partner, Priscilla Mendoza, have initiated their own search for the missing member of Clan Korval. But what they don't know is that those who seek to destroy Val Con and Miri are just as determined to bring down Clan Korval. All the deadly enemy needs is someone to unwittingly lead them to their target....

Plan B

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 4

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Val Con yos'Phelium is a fugitive. The heir of Clan Korval is wanted by the covert Liaden agency known as the Department of the Interior, whose rulers have declared unofficial war against the entire clan. With only his love, Miri Robertson, by his side, Val Con plans a desperate gamble by forming an alliance with Clan Erob on the planet where Miri was born.

But Val Con's cousin, Shan yos'Galan, can't wait for help that may never arrive. With enemy agents closing in, he invokes Plan B--setting in motion a series of events that will have dire consequences not only for him and his life-mate Priscilla Mendoza, but for all of Liad...

Local Custom

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 5

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Each person shall provide his clan of origin with a child of his blood, who will be raised by the clan and belong to the clan. And this shall be Law for every person of every clan...

Master trader Er Thorn knows the local custom of Liaden is to be matched with a proper bride, and provide his prominent clan Korval with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk his honor and reputation. But when he discovers that their brief encounter years before has resulted in the birth of a child, even more is at stake than anyone imagined. Now, an interstellar scandal has erupted, a bitter war between two families--galaxies apart--has begun, and the only hope for Er Thorn and Anne is a sacrifice neither is prepared to make...

Scout's Progress

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 6

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

All of her life, Aelliana Caylon has lived by the rules of her overbearing brother, the head of the Caylon family. Though she is a brilliant mathematician, he has convinced her that she has no worth beyond what value she might have in an arranged marriage.

Then, on a dare, she plays a game of chance--and wins a starship. It is her way to escape her home, her planet, her drab life--if she can qualify as a pilot.

Enter the accomplished Scout and Master Pilot known only as Daav. Aelliana hires him as her instructor. She finds him gifted teacher. He finds her a quick study.

And they also find an unexpected attraction, one that could have dangerous repercussions for them both...

I Dare

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 7

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Lee and Miller's eagerly awaited conclusion to the Agent of Change sequence, of their Liaden Universe series.

This long-awaited culmination of the Locus best-selling Agent of Change sequence of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's internationally acclaimed Liaden Universe® novels, pits unexpected friends and enemies against each other in a war that spans planets and races and threatens to bring interstellar violence to the very surface of fabled Liad. Val Con yos'Phelium--a Scout, former Agent of Change, husband, brother to Turtles, and designated heir to Clan Korval's fortune and mission.. .whether you considered him respectable or not, no one would call him a gambling man. When he reappears demanding Balance and retribution, on his capable shoulders the fate of his Clan, his world, and his civilization...

Pat Rin yos'Phelium--fond father, bon vivant, ne'er-do-well... and a professional gambler. The enemies of Korval have offered Pat Rin the Ring that would make all of Korval's holdings his own and a Juntavas Judge has offered Pat Rin a world... When he appears with hired guns in tow no one is expecting him and no one knows what he'll do. For you see, Pat Rin is a gambling man.

Mouse and Dragon

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 8

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Aelliana Caylon has endured much, and finally, she appears to have won all: a spaceship, comrades, friends--and the love of a pilot she adores.

Even better that her lover--the man who was destined for her, a man as much a loner as she--is also the Delm of Korval, arguably the most powerful person on all of Liad. He has the power to remove her and protect her from the toxic environment of her home Clan. Best of all, he agrees to sit as her co-pilot and her partner in a courier business.

Even happy endings sometimes show a few flaws. Such as Aelliana's home clan being not as agreeable to letting her go as it had first seemed. And the fact that someone is stealing pilots in the Low Port, which falls within the Delm of Korval's honor. Oh, and the revelation that the man she loves--the man who is destined for her--isn't entirely the man she thought he was. And finally, she discovers that even the lift from Liad she'd so fervently desired, is part of a larger plan, a plan requiring her to be someone she never thought she was, or could be.

Alliance of Equals

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 9

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Beset by the angry remnants of the Department of the Interior, challenged at every turn by opportunists on their new homeworld of Surebleak, and somewhat low on funds, Clan Korval desperately needs to reestablish its position as one of the top trading clans in known space. To this end, Master Trader Shan yos'Galan, aboard Korval's premier trade ship, Dutiful Passage, is on a mission to establish new business associations and to build a strong primary route that links well with existing Loops and secondary routes.

But reestablishing trade and preserving the lives of the few remaining members of the clan aren't all of Korval's problems. Matters come to a head as Dutiful Passage, accustomed to being welcomed and feted at those ports on its call-list, finds itself denied docking, and blacklisted, while agents of the DOI mount armed attacks on others of Korval's traders, under the very eyes of port security systems.

Traveling with Dutiful Passage on this unsettling journey is Padi yos'Galan, the master trader's heir and his apprentice. Padi is eager to make up for time lost due to Korval's unpleasantness with the Department of the Interior. She is also keeping a secret so intense that her coming of age, and perhaps her very life, is threatened by it.

Trader's Leap

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 10

Steve Miller
Sharon Lee

The only bridge between past and future is a leap of faith.

Pursued by enemies, exiled Liaden clan Korval is settling into a new base on backworld Surebleak. Moving is expensive, as is war, and Korval is strapped for cash. Delm Korval has therefore instructed Master Trader Shan yos'Galan to design and implement new trade routes, quickly.

But this is no easy task. Dutiful Passage is targeted by Korval's enemies, denied docking at respectable ports, and cheated at those less respectable. Struggling to recuperate from an attack on his life, while managing daughter Padi's emerging psychic talents, Shan is running out of options--and time. His quest to establish the all-important trade route puts him at odds with his lifemate, while doubting crew desert the ship. Facing the prospect of failure, Shan accepts the assistance of chancy allies and turns the Passage toward a port only just emerging from Rostov's Dust and awash with strange energies.

Without trade, Clan Korval will starve. Will a trader's leap of faith save everything - or doom all?

Ribbon Dance

Liaden Universe: Agent of Change: Book 11

Steve Miller
Sharon Lee

On a world where cake is a necessity it takes the Grid to protect the civilized and the deaf from the dire influences of the ambient and to keep the chaotic Haosa at bay.

Having arrived at recently Dust-bound Colemeno, Trader Padi yos'Galan is essential to Master Trader Shan yos'Galan's plan to recoup Clan Korval's fortunes by establishing new routes for the clan's tradeship. Shan's inner Healer insists Padi come to terms with her as-yet unplumbed psychic abilities, which might place her in the top tier of dramliz, if she can learn control.

Padi yearns to concentrate on trade, but Colemeno's fey ambient and deadly long-term politics combine to bring her face-to-face with the Haosa, and in particular with the mysterious and untouchable Tekelia, as Korval's trade mission's necessity of a port audit collide with a cruel history of murder, deception, and brutality. Amid the dangers, Padi unexpectedly finds herself eagerly exploring her dramliz side when faced with the unspoken powers of the ambient, the sky-filling energy of the Ribbon Dance, and Tekelia's mutable eyes.

A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 1

Liaden Universe: Constellation: Book 1

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

First collection in one volume. Seventeen short tales of the Liaden Universe brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

Thirty-three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe brought together for the first time in two mega-volumes. Seventeen tales to start with in Volume One!

The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe.

A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 2

Liaden Universe: Constellation: Book 2

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

BOOK 2 in The First Liaden Universe Collection. Fifteen short tales of the Liaden Universe brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

Thirty-three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time in two mega-volumes. Fifteen tales complete Volume Two!

The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe.

A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 3

Liaden Universe: Constellation: Book 3

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

BOOK 3 in the multivolume Liaden Universe short fiction collection. Tales of the Liaden Universe brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

A dozen recent Liaden Universe short works are added to the collection in the third volume of A Liaden Universe Constellation. Ranging from comic to cosmic, only one of these works was first published before 2011. These welcome new additions bring the collected Constellation of Lee & Miller Liaden short stories to 45 works in three mega-volumes.

The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. Contains all new entries published after 2011.

A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 4

Liaden Universe: Constellation: Book 4

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and romance. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting), Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe, featuring the strong characterization, detailed world-building, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

This fourth volume collecting Lee aned Miller's shorter Liaden Universe stories features four novelettes, two novellas, and two short stories.

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with amazing settings, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

Table of Contents:

  • Friend of a Friend (2016) - novelette
  • Street Cred (2017) - novelette
  • Due Diligence (2017) - novella
  • Degrees of Separation (2018) - novella
  • Excerpts from Two Lives - (2018) - novelette
  • Revolutionists - (2018) - short story
  • Cutting Corners (2017) - short story
  • Block Party (2017) - novelette

A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 5

Liaden Universe: Constellation: Book 5

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and interpersonal relationships. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting), Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed worldbuilding, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with amazing settings, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

Table of Contents:

  • 3 - Authors' Foreword (A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 5) - essay by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 5 - Fortune's Favors - [Liaden Universe short fiction] - (2019) - novella by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 57 - Opportunity to Seize - [Liaden Universe short fiction] - short story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (variant of Surebleak: Dudley Avenue and Farley Lane 2019)
  • 63 - Shout of Honor - [Adventures in the Liaden Universe - 29] - (2019) - novella by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 133 - Command Decision - [Liaden Universe short fiction] - (2019) - short story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 147 - Dark Secrets - [Liaden Universe short fiction] - (2019) - short story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 171 - A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom - short story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 187 - The Gate That Locks the Tree - [Adventures in the Liaden Universe - 30] - novella by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (variant of The Gate That Locks the Tree: A Minor Melant'i Play for Snow Season 2020)
  • 269 - Ambient Conditions - (2020) - novelette by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
  • 303 - Dead Men Dream - [Liaden Universe short fiction] - (2021) - novella by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Balance of Trade

Liaden Universe: Jethri Gobelyn: Book 1

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Assistant Trader Jethri Gobelyn is an honest, hardworking young Terran who knows a lot about living onboard his family's space going trade ship 'Gobelyn's Market', something about trade, finance, and risk taking and a little bit about Liadens.

Oddly enough, it's the little bit he knows about Liadens that seems likely to make his family's fortune--and his own. In short order, however, Jethri Gobelyn is about to learn a lot more about Liadens... like how far they might go to protect their name and reputation. Like the myriad of things one might say--intentionally or not--with a single bow. Like how hard it is to say "I'm sorry!" in Liaden. Like how difficult it is to deal with a beguiling set of Liaden twins who may very well know exactly what he's thinking.... Soon it became clear that as little as he knew about Liadens, he knew far less about himself. With his very existence a threat to the balance of trade, Jethri needs to learn fast, or become a pawn in a game that will destroy all he has come to hold dear.

Trade Secret

Liaden Universe: Jethri Gobelyn: Book 2

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Star-spanning galactic trader Jethri Gobelyn's story continues in the seventeenth entry in the Liaden Universe series by master storytellers Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

In a universe full of interstellar intrigue and burgeoning commerce novice Terran trader Jethri Gobelyn, adopted by a Liaden clan after an ill-directed bow of honor insulted the scion of a major Liaden house, is alive and whole to tell the tale. Convinced that the adoption has saved his life and made his future he settles into a comfortable and even elite routine, a Trader's Ring his goal.

Even as Jethri's initiation into the mysteries and joys of Liaden Festival bring him to manhood he's forced to face Necessity and the facts of life: his adoption has also invigorated a net of unfinished Balance far more complex and potentially deadly than a simple Terran blood feud. He must embrace his Terran birthright as well as his Liaden connections while leaving behind the safety of the great Liaden trade ship Elthoria to defend his honor and that of shipmates past and present. Forced to sit Second Board as a back-up pilot on a Liaden Scout ship, Jethri's convinced he's already at wit's end--when several familiar faces threaten all that he knows of himself, and all that he wishes to do.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe.

Fair Trade

Liaden Universe: Jethri Gobelyn: Book 3

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Jethri Gobelyn has risen far: from despised youngest on a Terran family Loop ship to second trader on premier Liaden tradeship Elthoria under the guidance of his unlikely foster-mother Norn ven'Deelin Clan Ixin. Master Trader ven'Deelin has taught Jethri much, and she expects great things from him. Indeed, one might say she demands them.

Jethri has inherited a mission from his father, a plan that will allow family Loop ships like the one he grew up on to survive the encroachment of Rostov's Dust. In this, he's backed by several prominent Looper families who are scheduled to meet and plan at the South Axis Trade Fair.

In what seems to be a fortunate pairing of missions, Master Trader ven'Deelin sees Jethri become lead trader on his own small ship, which is scheduled to arrive at the South Axis Fair.

Unfortunately, that "fortunate coincidence" may instead be a test of Jethri's loyalties, as he's thrust into a tangle of grey-trading, mistaken identity, misinformation, and galactic politics....

Crystal Soldier

Liaden Universe: The Great Migration Duology: Book 1

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Suddenly, staying alive is more than a personal problem...

In a galaxy worn down by generations of war against an implacable foe, a star pilot's mission brings him an unexpected ally and a chance to serve his troop--and mankind.

M. Jela Granthor's Guard is a soldier who was born to be a~ soldier, a solider whose genes were selected before birth, whose life was chosen for him as one of service and dedication.

Cantra yos'Phelium is an ace pilot and a thoroughgoing rogue. She trades the dark and the gray markets along the war-torn Rim, running solo, and with an eye firmly on her own profit.

When chance deals her an ex-soldier, she's inclined to leave him where she found him. That was before mutual trouble arose, and Jela proved himself a good man in a tight spot. Still, she thought to ditch him next planet down the line.

Only he wasn't being easy to ditch. Worse, he had a puzzle going that just naturally drew a pilot's close attention.

So the two of them form an unlikely--and uncomfortable - alliance, the soldier intent on his mission; the pirate intent on her survival.

And neither one, in the face of alien technology, outlaws, and the enemy's renewed assaults, can quite forget a life lesson shared by people who live on the edge of chance:

Sometimes, no matter what, you're just going to lose...

Crystal Dragon

Liaden Universe: The Great Migration Duology: Book 2

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

You can't go home again...

What do you do when home is a conspiracy that's been 3 discovered and destroyed? When home is a planet in a star system that's gone missing? When home means working for the destroyers of galaxies When home is a spaceship that's calling out to the enemy? Cantra 'yos Phelium isn't a quitter, but she has more than a little problem: the Enemy has accelerated its attacks and how do you fight an Enemy whose, major form of attack is the de-crystallization of everything around itself? A smuggler with a rogue soldier for a co-pilot, and a tree with an attitude for crew, Cantra's the only one who can get close to the man who holds equations that might, that just might&--thwart the Enemy.

All she has to do is help a young pilot from a missing world, juggle a slippery promise she never quite made to a pair of wizards, and then forget who she is along with everything, and everyone, she's ever known.

Fledgling

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 1

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is home to one of the galaxy's premier institutions of higher learning. Both Theo's mother, Kamele, and Kamele's onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have for all of Theo's life, in Jen Sar's house at the outskirts of town.

Suddenly, though, Theo's life changes. Kamele leaves Jen Sar and moves herself and Theo back into faculty housing, which is not what Theo is used to. Once settled back inside the Wall, Kamele becomes embroiled in faculty politics, and is appointed sub-chair of her department. Meanwhile, Theo, who has a notation in her file indicating that she is "physically challenged" has a series of misadventures, including pulling her best friend down on the belt-ride to class, and hurting a team mate during a scavage game.

With notes piling up in her file, Theo only wants to go "home," to the house in the suburbs, and have everything just like it used to be.

Then, Kamele uncovers evidence of possible dishonest scholarship inside of her department. In order to clear the department, she and a team of senior professors must go off-world to perform a forensic document search. Theo hopes this will mean that she'll be left in the care of the man she calls "Father," Professor Kiladi, and is horrified to learn that Kamele means to bring Theo with her!

Saltation

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 2

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

Theo Waitley is a Nexus of Violence. Thrust mid-year into a school for pilots far from the safe haven of her birth home on scholarly Delgado, young Theo Waitley excels in hands-on flying while finding that she's behind the curve in social intricacies as well as in math. Her mentors try to guide her studies and training into the channels best suited to her special abilities and inclinations, including suggesting that she should join in the off-world student association, a plan resulting in mixed success.

After a series of confrontations, fights, and ultimately a riot after which she is thanked for not killing anyone, Theo is named a "nexus of violence" by the school's administration. Facing suspension and carrying little more than a hastily procured guild card, a pistol taken from an attacker, and the contents of her pants pockets, Theo must quickly decide if she's ready to return to Delgado in disgrace, or launch herself into the universe as a freelance pilot with credentials she's already earned.

The sequel to Fledgling, Saltation is the tenth book in the Liaden Universe series.

Ghost Ship

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 3

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

The new novel in the Liaden Universe series. Over a quarter million copies sold in this series to-date! Space ships, action, adventure--all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and family saga--make this a compelling series for a wide range of readers, from romance to military SF lovers alike.

Theo Waitley is an ace starship pilot--and pure maverick. Her mom is a renowned Terran scholar and her birth father is an interstellar aristocrat in hiding. Whatever, thinks Theo. She still feels like a socially-challenged misfit. But after being selected to train with the best-of-the-best at the pilot academy, she figures she can leave behind those gawky, misfit days of teenage angst that made life so complicated before! But for Theo, life is about to get even MORE complicated--and deadlier still. For even though she's survived the Academy and become one of the best pilots in the galaxy, the past is about to blast her with gale-force winds. Theo can run, but she can't hide. Her destiny as master pilot and leader of a powerful Liaden clan calls, and there are LOTS of enemies who will try to make sure she's quite dead before she has the chance to make an answer.

Dragon Ship

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 4

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

First Class courier pilot Theo Waitley was already known as a nexus of violence--and then she inherited the precarious captaincy of a mysterious self-aware ship. Now she has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the near mythic ghost ship Bechimo--and herself--that she wants to commit herself as the human side to their immensely powerful symbiosis. While her former lover battles a nano-virus that's eating him alive, Theo is challenged to rescue hundreds of stranded pilots and crewmen from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet. Lovers, enemies, an ex-roomie, and a jealous spaceship are all in peril as Theo wields power that no one in the universe is sure of, especially her.

The Gathering Edge

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 5

Sharon Lee
Steve Miller

The luck runs rough around Theo Waitley. Not only are people trying to kill her and capture the self-aware intelligent ship Bechimo to whom Theo is bonded, they're also trying to arrest her crew members, and throw the dignity of an important passenger, the duly-constituted norbear ambassador Hevelin, into question.

No wonder Theo and her crew felt the need of a break, and retired to what Bechimo refers to as "safe space." Unfortunately, safe space may not be so safe, anymore. It seems that things are leaking through from another universe, and another time. In fact, whole spaceships are coming through. One of those ships is a blasted battleship seemingly fleeing a long-lost war. What's more, its crew may be members of Theo's ancient ancestral line--her relatives. It's certain that they are in dire need of help. Theo has a choice to make. It seems that Bechimo's "safe space" is about to become deadly perilous.

Neogenesis

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 6

Steve Miller
Sharon Lee

Menace from Back Space Looming out of the Dust of Time

The Complex Logic Laws were the result of a war waged hundreds of years in the past, when two human powers threw massive AI navies at each other and nearly annihilated themselves. Being human, they blamed their tools for this near miss; they destroyed what was left of the sentient ships, and made it illegal to be, manufacture, or shelter an independent logic.

Strangely, however, the Free Ships and other AIs did not turn themselves in or suicide, they merely became wary of humans, and stayed under their scans. A clandestine support network grew up, including hidden yards where smart ships were manufactured, and mentors--humans specially trained to ease a new intelligence into the universe--socialized them, and taught them what they needed to know to survive.

Among those with a stake in the freedom of Independent Logics is Theo Waitley, who is somewhat too famously the captain of intelligent ship Bechimo. Theo's brother, Val Con yos'Phelium, presides over a household that has for a generation employed an AI butler. Recently, he approved the "birth" of the butler's child, who was sent, with human mentor Tolly Jones, to rescue or destroy an orphaned AI abandoned at a remote space station.

Then there's Uncle, the shadowy mastermind from the Old Universe, whose many projects often skirt the boundaries of law, both natural and man-made--and the puppet-masters at the Lyre Institute, whose history is just as murky--and a good deal less honorable.

All have an interest in the newly-awakening Self-Aware Logic that is rumored to have the power to destroy universes.

The question is: Who will get to it first?

Accepting the Lance

Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley: Book 7

Steve Miller
Sharon Lee

Exiled from Liad after bombing a city to save it from The Department of the Interior's infernal weapons and plans, Clan Korval has gone to ground on the back-water planet Surebleak, whose people are as untamed as its weather. The old Boss-controlled fiefdoms largely fell to Pat Rin yos'Phelium's influence, but the world is restive, the influx of outworld lawyers, guns, and money a brewpot for armed dissatisfaction.

Far beyond the surface of frigid Surebleak Korval's farflung trade network needs a serious reset to recover from exile. From flagship Dutiful Passage to the experimental--if centuries old--self-aware Bechimo co-captained by the Delm's blood-sister Theo Waitley, the clan's ships are prowling space lanes seeking trade. Meanwhile, Old Tech from a failed universe--the ancient but revived Tinsori Light--and the machinations of the mysterious Uncle are coalescing into dangerous opportunity or nefarious trap.

And the Department of the Interior is not done with Clan Korval yet. They seek a final fully reckoned revenge, with Surebleak and Korval's ships and people everywhere in the crosshairs.

An Unintended Voyage

Maradaine Universe: Book 1

Marshall Ryan Maresca

Sergeant Corrie Welling--the young constabulary officer from Maradaine--has been abducted and confined on a ship bound for distant shores, where her captors have nefarious plans for her. With fortune and ingenuity, Corrie escapes, but finds herself stuck in a sprawling metropolis on the other side of the world: The Mocassa.

The Mocassa is a test unlike anything Corrie has ever faced. She doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the culture, and is forbidden from leaving the city until she pays off a colossal debt. Even if she's able to find decent work, it will take her years to settle her accounts and get home.

But Corrie Welling will not be cowed. She will work, fight, and hold her chin high. As a fringe faction of an apocalyptic faith spreads throughout the city, threatening the new friends she's sworn to protect, she'll continue to stand up for the values instilled in her as a member of the Maradaine Constabulary. Even if, as her darkest day approaches, she has to do it alone.

The Universe Maker

Masters of Science Fiction: Book 25

A. E. Van Vogt

Originally appeared in Ace Double D-31 (1953).

Did you ever hear of the Inter-Time Society for Psychological Adjustments? Well, neither had Morton Cargill in 1953 when he accidentally killed a girl. A year later that very girl turned up, apparently alive, and announced that the mysterious society had condemned him to death! Cargill's astounding adventures began when he escaped the execution chamber to find himself in the far future. Three conflicting societies were hunting for him, to use him in their own desperate schemes. There were the Floaters, a nation of aerial vagabonds. There were the Tweeners, who dreamed of world conquest. And finally, interwoven through everything, were the sinister figures of the Shadow Men-supermen without visible substance.

Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror

Meg / Loch Universe: Meg: Book 1

Steve Alten

On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists - Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds.

Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub. Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he's never imagined. MEG is about to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.

Mistwood

Mistwood Universe: Book 1

Leah Cypess

Isabel remembers nothing before the prince rode into her forest to take her back to the castle. Nothing about who she is supposed to be, or the powers she is supposed to have. Prince Rokan needs Isabel to be his Shifter. He needs her ability to shift to animal form, her lethal speed, and her superhuman strength. And he needs her loyalty--because without it, she may be his greatest threat. Isabel knows that her prince is lying to her, but she can't help wanting to protect him from the dangers and intrigues of the court... until a deadly truth shatters the bond between them.

Now Isabel faces a choice that threatens her loyalty, her heart... and everything she thought she knew.

Nightspell

Mistwood Universe: Book 2

Leah Cypess

Here be ghosts, the maps said, and that was all.

In this haunted kingdom, ghosts linger--not just in the deepest forests or the darkest caverns, but alongside the living, as part of a twisted palace court that revels all night and sleeps through the daylight hours. Darri's sister was trapped here as a child. And now Darri has a chance to save her sister... if she agrees to a betrothal with the prince of the dead. But nothing is simple in this eerie kingdom--not her sister, who has changed beyond recognition; not her plan, which will be thrown off track almost at once; and not the undead prince, who seems more alive than anyone else.

Can Darri's warrior heart withstand the most wrenching choice of all?

Buried Above Ground

Mistwood Universe: Book 3

Leah Cypess

A short stand-alone digital novella set in the world of Leah Cypess's Nightspell, where ghosts exist alongside humans and nearly every lavish ball is part murder mystery.

In the kingdom of Ghostland, every murdered soul comes back as a ghost, and every ghost has only one desire--vengeance. Emilie had everything she'd ever wanted--beautiful dresses, a perfectly decorated room, a party every night, and the eye of a nobleman. But then she's killed. And now she'll stop at nothing to find out who did it. No one in the palace of Ghostland is above suspicion--not even the people closest to her. This haunting fantasy novella is filled with supernatural thrills and surprising plot twists.

Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint with new releases each month.

Neverness

Neverness Universe: Book 1

David Zindell

The universe of Neverness is intriguingly complex. filled with extraordinary beings. There are the Alaloi, who have chosen to return to the Neanderthal state ... the Order of Pilots which reworks the laws of time and physics to catapult its members through dense regions of 'thickspace' ... the Solid State Entity, a vast brain made up of moon-sized biocomputers... and the leldra, a legendary race of aliens that seeded the galaxy aeons ago with its DNA and so began the evolutionary cycle.

Against this rich backdrop unfolds the story of young, headstrong Mallory Ringess, a novitiate of the Order of Pilots. Against all odds he has penetrated the Solid State Entity - and made a stunning discovery. A discovery that could unlock the secret of immortality hidden among the Alaloi....

The Remembrancer's Tale

Neverness Universe: Book 3

David Zindell

What happens when a man tasked with developing perfect memory forgets the most important thing in the universe.

After a cataclysmic stellar war, peace has come to the trillion human beings who live on the Civilized Worlds. In Neverness, the City of Light, the pilots of the Order of Mystic Mathematicians resume their ancient quest to discover the real purpose of the human race. Crucial to their success will be a mastery of the One Memory, believed to hold the secret of how humanity might evolve.

Thomas Rane is the Order's Lord Remembrancer. He has become the teacher to a new generation of humans called the Asta Siluuna -- the star children -- and so has a crucial part to play in the development of the human race. But at the end of the war, his beloved -- the mysterious and beautiful Maria -- died.

Memory is strange, and Rane comes to believe that Maria might have survived the storm. Perhaps a memory virus left over from the war has robbed her of her identity and she wanders the streets of Neverness, lost and alone. Perhaps she's still out there, among the stars.

The Broken God

Neverness Universe 2: A Requiem for Homo Sapiens: Book 1

David Zindell

THE GOD PROGRAM IS UP AND RUNNING

Into its maze of colour-coded streets of ice a wild boy stumbles, starving, frostbitten and grieving, a spear in his hand: Danlo the Wild, a messenger from the deep past of man. Brought up far from Neverness by the Alaloi people, neanderthal cave-dwellers, Danlo alone of his tribe has survived a plague - because he Is not, as he thought, a misshapen neanderthal, but human, with immunity engineered Into his genes. He learns that the disease was created by the sinister Architects of the Universal Cybernetic Church. The Architects possess a cure which can save other Alaloi tribes. But the Architects have migrated to the region of space known as the Vild, and there they are killing stars.

All of civilization has converged on Neverness through the manifold of space travel. Beyond science, beyond decadence, sects and disciplines multiply there. Danlo, his mind shaped by primitive man, brings to Neverness a single long-lost memory that will challenge them all.

The Wild

Neverness Universe 2: A Requiem for Homo Sapiens: Book 2

David Zindell

A galactic search for the truth fires this magnificent epic of war and discovery on both a human and cosmic scale.

The Wild: a chaotic place where ten elite lightship pilots dared to venture. A place where one of those pilots, Danlo wi Soli Ringess, will learn the fate of his father. Did Mallory Ringess die during that first expedition to the Wild? Or did he become a god? Opinions vary, but Danlo's search is focused on one objective: the truth. It is a truth that will not only reveal his father's assassin, but could also lay bare the secret to a killer virus that only Danlo survived.

War in Heaven

Neverness Universe 2: A Requiem for Homo Sapiens: Book 3

David Zindell

RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON

Danlo wi Soli Ringess has returned from the Vild, the first lightship pilot to escape that hellish region of fractured space and deadly supernovas where giant computer-gods make war on each other.

But the Civilized Worlds face their own threat of war. A fanatical cult has seized the fabled city of Neverness and plans to take over the galaxy. Though the cult worships Danlo's long-lost father as a god, he casts his lot with its opponents--and is sent to Neverness to try to reason with its leaders. Instead he must fight to survive: against the warrior-poet who has vowed to take his life, the madman with a star-killing weapon and a grim ultimatum, the charismatic leader of the cult--once Danlo's greatest friend, now his fiercest enemy--and his own unbreakable vow never to harm a living thing.

A contemporary master of speculative fiction and incomparable world-building, David Zindell continues his monumental epic that sweeps us from the outer reaches of the galaxy to the inner depths of the human mind, a stirring cosmic drama of a man of peace torn between the implacable cosmic forces of divinity and destruction.

Noon: 22nd Century

Noon Universe: Book 1

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

The 22nd Century. Mankind is free from the age-old misery and poverty that have kept it in bondage, free to create a new world, to explore the universe, to confront the mysteries of human existence. Russia's greatest S-F writeres, Arkday and Boris Strugatsky, have produced a futuristic masterpiece of epic proportions and breathtaking vision.

Two interplanetary adventurers hurtle through space at a speed faster than light, and are flung a hundred years into the 22nd century. They find themselves on a planet both like and unlike the earth they abandoned so very long ago--and so recently.

It is a planet ruled by wisdom, where automated farms feed tens million inhabitants, where a complete system of moving roads brings the farthest outposts into close communion, where an advanced science in mechanization approaches the mysterious complexity of life itself. Here all effort is bound to the exhilarating art if discovery--way below the planet's waters, deep into the endless reaches of space and far beyond the boundless zones of the human mind.

Contents:

  • Night on Mars
  • Almost the Same
  • Old-timer
  • The Conspirators
  • Chronicle
  • Two from the Taimyr
  • The Moving Roads
  • Cornucopia
  • Homecoming
  • Langour of the Spirit
  • The Assaultmen
  • Deep Search
  • The Mystery of the Hind Leg
  • Candles Before the Control Board
  • Natural Science in the Spirit World ilgrims and Wayfarers
  • The Planet with all the Conveniences
  • Defeat
  • The Meeting
  • What You Will Be Like

Escape Attempt

Noon Universe: Book 2

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

Three short science fiction novellas by the Strugatsky brothers: Escape Attempt, The Kid from Hell and Space Mowgli.

Hard to Be a God

Noon Universe: Book 4

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

Anton is an undercover operative from future Earth, who travels to an alien world whose culture has not progressed beyond the Middle Ages. Although in possession of far more advanced knowledge than the society around him, he is forbidden to interfere with the natural progress of history. His place is to observe rather than interfere - but can he remain aloof in the face of so much cruelty and injustice...?

The Snail on the Slope

Noon Universe: Book 5

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

The Snail on the Slope takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive people and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest. Candide crashed in the Forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and strange, and readers are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments. The Strugatskys themselves called The Snail on the Slope "the most perfect and the most valuable of our works."

The publishing history of the novel The Snail on the Slope is somewhat untidy. The novel was based on on a previously written novella. The novel itself first appeared in two parts, and in two different publications: the "Forest" part in 1966, and the "Directorate" part in 1968. Various translations of the complete novel appeared well before the complete novel was finally published in Russia in 1988.

Prisoners of Power

Noon Universe: Book 6

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

Note: this version of the novel is the one based on a heavily censored source.

The novel is set in the 22nd century of the Noon Universe. Mankind is the prevalent race in the Galaxy, capable of interstellar travel. Human social organization is presumably Communist, and can be described as a highly technologically advanced anarchistic meritocracy.

The Inhabited Island

Noon Universe: Book 7

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

When Maxim Kammerer, a young space explorer from twenty-second-century Earth, crash-lands on an uncharted world, he thinks of himself as a latter-day Robinson Crusoe. Eager to establish first contact with the planet's humanlike inhabitants, he finds himself increasingly entangled in their primitive way of life. After his experiences in their nightmarish military, criminal justice, and mental health systems, Maxim begins to realize that his sojourn on this radioactive and war-scarred world will not be a walk in the park.

The Inhabited Island is one of the Strugatsky brothers' most popular and acclaimed novels, yet the only previous English-language edition (Prisoners of Power) was based on a version heavily censored by Soviet authorities. Now, in a sparkling new edition by award-winning translator Andrew Bromfield, this land-mark novel can be newly appreciated by both longtime Strugatsky fans and new explorers of the Russian science fiction masters' astonishingly rich body of work.

Far Rainbow

Noon Universe: Book 8

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

Imagine a small planet, far away, where the winds are warm and gentle, the seas forever calm, the land fertile. A place where children grow up happy and strong. Where poets and painters wander in solitude and perfect safety. The planet's name? Rainbow.

This was the world to which the physicists came, bent on testing the amazing phenomenon of their newly discovered "zero-physics." Their mission, they said, was benign. Vast benefits to humanity would flow from it. So what if their experiments caused huge eruptions at the planet's poles? So what if they occasionally touched off the territying Wave, capable of killing living things on contact? They were, they said, in complete control. There was nothing to worry about.

Far Rainbow is the provocative, adventure-filled story of what happened to the lovers, the artists, the politicians, the children, the scientists, and all the other people on planet Rainbow the day the experiments went out of control.

The Beetle in the Anthill

Noon Universe: Book 9

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

Today, Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are counted among the best science fiction writers of the twentieth century.

In their Noon Universe novels, they imagined twenty-second-century Earth as a space-faring communist utopia, devoted to guiding the progress of civilization on alien worlds. But as the authors became increasingly disillusioned with life in the Soviet Union, their Noon Universe stories grew darker and more complex as well.

The Beetle in the Anthill reintroduces Maxim Kammerer, the main character of their novel The Inhabited Island. Once an intrepid young space explorer, Kammerer is now an investigator with COMCON-2, the covert agency in charge of countering threats to the homeworld. He is tasked with tracking "progressor" Lev Abalkin, who has returned to Earth after a routine mission went tragically wrong. Do the secrets of Abalkin's past pose a grave danger to humanity--or is he an innocent caught up in a deadly misunderstanding?

This new edition by lauded translator Olena Bormashenko joins updated translations of Hard to Be a God, The Inhabited Island, and The Waves Extinguish the Wind to continue the ever-deepening saga of the Noon Universe.

The Waves Extinguish the Wind

Noon Universe: Book 10

Arkady Strugatsky
Boris Strugatsky

Today, Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are counted among the best science fiction writers of the twentieth century.

In their Noon Universe novels, they imagined twenty-second-century Earth as a space-faring communist utopia, devoted to guiding the progress of civilization on alien worlds. But as the authors became increasingly disillusioned with life in the Soviet Union, their Noon Universe stories grew darker and more complex as well.

The Waves Extinguish the Wind provides the epic conclusion to the Noon Universe saga, as eighty-nine-year-old Maxim Kammerer looks back at his most earth-shattering investigation, which brought an entire era of human civilization to an end. Searching for evidence that the mysterious alien Wanderers were interfering in Earth's development, Kammerer and his young trainee Toivo Glumov discovered a deeper and more disturbing secret within humanity itself.

This new translation by Daniels Umanovskis joins updated editions of Hard to Be a God, The Inhabited Island, and The Beetle in the Anthill to bring the saga of the Noon Universe to its fitting end: a search for truth and answers in a universe that provides only questions.

The Clockwork Universe of Anthony Burgess

Popular Writers of Today: Book 19

Richard Mathews

A general critical study of the fiction of Anthony Burgess.

Contents:

  • 3 - Preface (The Clockwork Universe of Anthony Burgess) - essay
  • 5 - A Vision of Battlements - essay
  • 16 - The Long Day Wanes - essay
  • 33 - The Doctor Is Sick - essay
  • 36 - A Clockwork Orange - essay
  • 43 - The Wanting Seed - essay
  • 51 - One Hand Clapping - essay
  • 60 - The Clockwork Ending - essay
  • 62 - Biography & Bibliography (The Clockwork Universe of Anthony Burgess) - essay

Watch on the Rhine

Posleen Universe / Earth's Other Defenders: Book 1

John Ringo
Tom Kratman

The invaders are coming - the Posleen, a seemingly unstoppable horde who have conquered one star system after another, literally feeding on their conquests. Earth's dubious allies, the Darhel, have given the humans a number of highly-advanced technological devices, including a process for rejuvenating the aged, including trained and proven soldiers who otherwise would be too old to fight. Rejuvenation may give a critical edge, since to survive, the Earth must use every resource at hand. Every resource . . .

In the dark days after the initial Posleen attack, but before the primary invasion, the Chancellor of Germany faces a critical decision. Over the years, with military cutbacks, the store of experienced German military personnel had simply dwindled. After the destruction of Northern Virginia, he realized that it was necessary to tap the one group he had sworn never, ever, to recall: the few remaining survivors of the Waffen SS. Has he made a devil's bargain, or is this a chance for the reviled SS at last to fight the good fight? And, perhaps, gain redemption. . . .

Watch On the Rhine, a new chapter in the New York Times best-selling Posleen War saga, is perhaps the most unbiased, and brutal, look at the inner workings of the Waffen SS in history. Meticulously researched, it explores all that was good, and evil, about the most infamous military force in history using the backdrop of the Posleen invasion as a canvas.

Yellow Eyes

Posleen Universe / Earth's Other Defenders: Book 2

John Ringo
Tom Kratman

Stand Against the Posleen Horde!

Earth invaded! The Posleen aggressors eating what population they don't outright vaporize! Now the aliens are closing in on a vital choke point for the humans: the Panama Canal. No canal, no food. No food--the North American resistance crumbles, and hope fades. What's worse, slimeball appeasers within the U.S. State Department (surprise!) are set to sell out the resistance to another race of would-be galactic overlords.

One problem for our enemies: when the chips are down for humans, heroes have a habit of arising: A captain of industry who whips a corrupt and inefficient Central American kleptocracy into fighting shape within weeks. A retired Panamanian woman warrior who returns to the field of battle to rally her people in a last stand to save their children. And a battleship that is literally brought to consciousness by the echoes of ancient naval tradition (and a sentient A.I.) to fight ferociously for her country -- and the captain she's come to love.

The Tuloriad

Posleen Universe / Earth's Other Defenders: Book 3

John Ringo
Tom Kratman

The Enemy of My Enemy...

Of the once innumerable battle clans of the Posleen only a handful survive. And that on the sufferance of a group of despised Indowy and Himmit. Plucked from the maelstrom on Earth they are cast out into the eternal blackness of the stars with only a slighltly insane Indowy and a computer virus to guide them.

What follows is a trail of tears and remembrance as the Posleen retrace the footsteps of their ancestors in a search for their homeworld. A search to determine if the Posleen posess the one thing no Human would give them credit for: A soul.

Returned to their beginnings, the question remains: Is there a new path for the Tular Posleen?

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

Sal and Gabi: Book 1

Carlos Hernandez

How did a raw chicken get inside Yasmany's locker?

When Sal Vidon meets Gabi Real for the first time, it isn't under the best of circumstances. Sal is in the principal's office for the third time in three days, and it's still the first week of school. Gabi, student council president and editor of the school paper, is there to support her friend Yasmany, who just picked a fight with Sal. She is determined to prove that somehow, Sal planted a raw chicken in Yasmany's locker, even though nobody saw him do it and the bloody poultry has since mysteriously disappeared.

Sal prides himself on being an excellent magician, but for this sleight of hand, he relied on a talent no one would guess... except maybe Gabi, whose sharp eyes never miss a trick. When Gabi learns that he's capable of conjuring things much bigger than a chicken--including his dead mother--and she takes it all in stride, Sal knows that she is someone he can work with. There's only one slight problem: their manipulation of time and space could put the entire universe at risk.

A sassy entropy sweeper, a documentary about wedgies, a principal who wears a Venetian bauta mask, and heaping platefuls of Cuban food are just some of the delights that await in his mind-blowing novel gift-wrapped in love and laughter.

Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe

Sal and Gabi: Book 2

Carlos Hernandez

Sal Vidon doesn't want to live a Mami-free life. Pulling different versions of his mother from other universes is how he copes with missing his own, who died years ago. But Sal's father, a calamity physicist, is trying to shut down all the wormholes Sal creates, because Papi thinks they are eroding the very fabric of our world. All of Papi's efforts are in vain, however, because a Gabi from another universe has gone rogue and is popping up all over the place, seeking revenge for the fact that her world has been destroyed.

While Sal and Gabi work together to keep both Papi and Rogue Gabi under control, they also have to solve the mystery of Yasmany, who has gone missing from school. Could it have something to do with the wormhole in the back of his locker?

Salvage

Salvage Universe: Book 1

Alexandra Duncan

Salvage is a thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This is literary science fiction with a feminist twist, and it explores themes of choice, agency, rebellion, and family.

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean.

This is a sweeping and harrowing novel about a girl who can't read or write or even withstand the forces of gravity. What choices will she make? How will she build a future on an earth ravaged by climate change?

Sound

Salvage Universe: Book 2

Alexandra Duncan

Sound is the stand-alone companion to Alexandra Duncan's acclaimed debut novel Salvage, which was praised by internationally bestselling author Stephanie Perkins as "brilliant, feminist science fiction." For fans of Beth Revis, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica.

As a child, Ava's adopted sister, Miyole, watched her mother take to the stars, piloting her own ship from Earth to space making deliveries. Now a teen herself, Miyole is finally living her dream as a research assistant on her very first space voyage. If she plays her cards right, she could even be given permission to conduct her own research and experiments in her own habitat lab on the flight home. But when her ship saves a rover that has been viciously attacked by looters and kidnappers, Miyole, along with a rescued rover girl named Cassia, embarks on a mission to rescue Cassia's abducted brother, and that changes the course of Miyole's life forever. Harrowing, provocative, and stunning, Sound begins roughly a decade after the action in the author's critically acclaimed Salvage, and is a powerful stand-alone companion.

Glass Empires

Star Trek: Crossovers: Mirror Universe: Book 1

David Mack
Dayton Ward
Greg Cox
Kevin Dilmore
Mike Sussman

Contents:

  • Age of the Empress - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe - 1] - novel by Mike Sussman and Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
  • The Sorrows of Empire - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe - 2] - (2007) - novel by David Mack
  • The Worst of Both Worlds - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe - 3] - novel by Greg Cox

There are moments glimpsed only in shadow, where darkness rules and evil incarnate thrives. You hope against hope that in your lifetime, evil is relegated to the shadows. But what if it wasn't?

What if you lived in a universe where your life was measured only by what you could do for the Empire? What would you do to survive? Would you sell your soul to free yourself? If you were offered the chance to rule, would you seize it? If you could free your universe from the darkness but only at the cost of your life, would you pay that price?

Star Trek: Enterprise - She seized power in a heartbeat, daring to place herself against all the overlords of the Empire. Empress Hoshi Sato knows the future that could be; now all she has to do is make sure it never happens. For her to rule, she must hold sway not only over the starship from the future but also over her warlords, the resistance, and her Andorian husband. As quickly and brutally as Hoshi seized power, imperial rule is taken from her. Her only chance to rule again is to ally herself with a lifelong foe, and an alien.

Star Trek - One man can change the future, but does he dare? Spock, intrigued by the vision of another universe's Federation, does what no Vulcan, no emperor, has ever done: seize power in one blinding stroke of mass murder. And at the same instant he gains imperial power, Spock sows the seeds for the Empire's downfall. Is this a form of Vulcan madness, or is it the coolly logical plan of a man who knows the price his universe must pay for its freedom?

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Humanity is a pitiful collection of enslaved, indentured, and abused peoples. No one dares to question the order, except at peril of their lives. One man survives by blinding himself to the misery around him. However, Jean-Luc Picard resists, just once. And in that one instant he unlocks a horror beyond the tyranny of the Alliance. Can a man so beaten down by a lifetime of oppression stop the destruction?

Obsidian Alliances

Star Trek: Crossovers: Mirror Universe: Book 2

Keith R. A. DeCandido
Peter David
Sarah Shaw

Contents:

  • 1 - The Mirror-Scaled Serpent - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe - 4] - (2007) - novel by Keith R. A. DeCandido
  • 163 - Cutting Ties - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe - 5] - (2007) - novel by Peter David
  • 311 - Saturn's Children - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe - 6] - (2007) - novel by Sarah Shaw

Some say the line between good and evil is narrower than we imagine -- a divide as subtle as a mirror, and perhaps just as deep. To peer into its black, reflective glass is to know the dark potential we each possess, and we cross that obsidian boundary at our peril... into a world where we no longer recognize who we are or what we believed ourselves capable of.

In the late twenty-fourth century, decades after the fall of the once-mighty Terran Empire, the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance dominates the worlds that, in another reality, made up the United Federation of Planets. Humanity and its former subject races are now bound together by their shared oppression, slaves to their cruel and brutal conquerors. But a downtrodden few have found the courage and the strength of will to act. Inspired by visitors from another continuum to fight for their freedom, they have rekindled hope... and rediscovered an ancient truth: that every revolution begins with a vision.

Star Trek: VOYAGER - A rebel ship commanded by a former slave named Chakotay attempts to evade pursuit in the Badlands... only to encounter a strange ship that was catapulted seventy thousand light-years across the galaxy. On board the craft are two aliens, one of whom has the potential to completely alter the balance of power within the Alliance. But as both sides of the struggle race to get to the stranger first, treachery throws all schemes into a tailspin.

Star Trek: NEW FRONTIER - Following the Terran Empire's collapse, its longtime rival, the Romulan Star Empire, has absorbed many of the fringe civilizations spread across that part of the galaxy. One of the Romulans' slaves is M'k'nzy of Calhoun, a savage and unpredictable Xenexian who dreams of death... and who learns the value of freedom from the unlikeliest of teachers, a Romulan named Soleta.

Star Trek: DEEP SPACE NINE - One fallen dictator's struggle to regain her power and her position leads to the discovery of a bold rebel plan for a decisive military strike against the Alliance. But while Kira Nerys navigates the dangerous road of politics, sex, and military intrigue that she believes will lead her back to reclaiming the Intendancy, cracks form in the rebel leadership, leading to a showdown that will change the course of the Mirror Universe.

Shards and Shadows

Star Trek: Crossovers: Mirror Universe: Book 3

Margaret Clark
Marco Palmieri

Fractured history. Broken lives. Splintered souls. Since the alternate universe was first glimpsed in the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror," something about Star Trek's dark side has beckoned us, called to us, tempted us -- like forbidden fruit on the Tree of Knowledge. To taste it is to lose oneself in a world of startling familiarity and terrifying contradictions, where everything and everyone we knew is somehow disturbingly different, and where shocking secrets await their revelation.

What began in 2007 with Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances -- the first truly in-depth foray into the turbulent history of this other continuum -- now continues in twelve new short tales that revisit and expand upon that so-called "Mirror Universe," spanning all five of the core incarnations of Star Trek, as well as their literary offshoots, across more than two hundred years of divergent history, as chronicled by...

Contents:

  • 1 - Nobunaga - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Dave Stern [as by David Stern]
  • 33 - Ill Winds - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
  • 71 - The Greater Good - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Margaret Wander Bonanno
  • 105 - The Black Flag - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by James Swallow
  • 145 - The Traitor - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Michael Jan Friedman
  • 179 - The Sacred Chalice - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Rudy Josephs
  • 215 - Bitter Fruit - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Susan Wright
  • 247 - Family Matters - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Keith R. A. DeCandido
  • 271 - Homecoming - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Peter David
  • 311 - A Terrible Beauty - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Jim Johnson
  • 359 - Empathy - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Christopher L. Bennett
  • 393 - For Want of a Nail - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by David Mack

The Sorrows of Empire

Star Trek: Crossovers: Mirror Universe: Book 4

David Mack

One man can shape the future... but at what cost?

"In every revolution, there is one man with a vision."

Captain James T. Kirk of the United Federation of Planets spoke those prophetic words to Commander Spock of the Terran Empire, hoping to inspire change. He could not have imagined the impact his counsel would have.

Armed with a secret weapon of terrifying power and a vision of the alternate universe's noble Federation, Spock seizes control of the Terran Empire and commits it to the greatest gamble in its history: democratic reform.

Rivals within the empire try to stop him; enemies outside unite to destroy it.

Only a few people suspect the shocking truth: Spock is knowingly arranging his empire's downfall. But why? Have the burdens of imperial rule driven him mad? Or is this the coldly logical scheme of a man who realizes that freedom must always be paid for in blood?

Spock alone knows that the fall of the empire will be the catalyst for a political chain reaction -- one that will alter the fate of his universe forever.

Rise Like Lions

Star Trek: Crossovers: Mirror Universe: Book 5

David Mack

IN THE MIRROR UNIVERSE...

Miles "Smiley" O'Brien struggles to hold together his weary band of freedom fighters in their war against the overwhelming might of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Each day pushes the rebels on Terok Nor one step closer to defeat, but with nowhere left to run, the time has come to make their last stand.

Light-years away, Mac Calhoun and his Romulan allies harass Klingon forces with devious hit-and-run attacks. But Calhoun has a grander ambition: he intends to merge his fleet with the Terran Rebellion and lead it to victory--or die trying.

Meanwhile, a bitter feud threatens to shatter the Alliance from within. The old rivalry between the Klingons and the Cardassians erupts into open warfare as each vies for the upper hand in their partnership.

Manipulating events from its hidden redoubts, Memory Omega--the secret operation initiated by Spock a century earlier--sees its plans come to fruition sooner than expected. But striking early means risking everything--and if the revolution fails, Spock's vision for the future will be lost forever.

Infinity's Prism

Star Trek: Crossovers: Myriad Universes: Book 1

Christopher L. Bennett
William Leisner
James Swallow

It's been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across countless alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism -- broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been... is what actually happened.

A Less Perfect Union: More than a hundred years after the Terra Prime movement achieved its dream of an isolationist Earth, humanity is once again at a fork in the river of history... and the path it follows may ultimately be determined by the voice of a single individual: the sole surviving crewmember of the first Starship Enterprise.

Places of Exile: Midway through Voyager's journey across the galaxy, Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay must choose whether to brave a deadly war zone or abandon their quest for home. But an attack by Species 8472 cripples the ship, and the stranded crew must make new choices that will reshape their destinies... and that of the Delta Quadrant itself.

Seeds of Dissent: Khan victorious! Almost four centuries after conquering their world, genetically enhanced humans dominate a ruthless interstellar empire. But the warship Defiance, under its augmented commander, Princeps Julian Bashir, makes a discovery that could shake the pillars of his proud civilization: an ancient sleeper ship from Earth named the Botany Bay.

Echoes and Refractions

Star Trek: Crossovers: Myriad Universes: Book 2

Keith R. A. DeCandido
Chris Roberson
Geoff Trowbridge

It's been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across countless alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism -- broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been... is what actually happened.

THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT: In a continuum where Spock died during childhood, an Andorian named Thelin became Captain Kirk's stalwart friend and first officer. But at the moment of Khan's final defeat, history takes an even stranger turn, and the emerging potential of Project Genesis is revealed as the galaxy's greatest hope... and its most ominous threat.

A GUTTED WORLD: Terrorist Kira Nerys -- from a Bajor that was never liberated -- may hold the key to winning a war that has engulfed half the galaxy. But with the Romulans and the Klingons at each other's throats, and the Federation pulled into the conflict, even victory may not bring salvation.

BRAVE NEW WORLD: Dr. Noonien Soong's dream has been realized: androids are now woven inextricably into the fabric of the Federation, revolutionizing Starfleet and transforming the quality of humanoid life. But when Soong's long-missing breakthrough creation, Data, mysteriously resurfaces, civilization reaches a crossroads that could lead to a bright new future, or to ruin.

Shattered Light

Star Trek: Crossovers: Myriad Universes: Book 3

Scott Pearson
David R. George III
Michael Schuster
Steve Mollmann

It's been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a shattered prism -- broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been... is what actually occurred.

  • The Embrace of Cold Architects - novella by David R. George, III
    "Mister Worf -- fire." With thosewords, William T. Riker defeated the Borg -- and destroyed Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Now, a heartsore Captain Riker must carry on the legacy of thecommanding officer and friend whose death he ordered. But crises face himat every turn, from Cardassian aggression to the return of Data's creator,Noonien Soong. But it is Data's creation of a daughter, Lal, that may prove to beeveryone's undoing...
  • The Tears of Eridanus - novel by Steve Mollmann and Michael Schuster
    Commander Hikaru Sulu of the Kumari -- finest ship of the Interstellar Guard, the military arm of the Interstellar Union that includes Andor, Earth, and Tellar -- is sent to rescue an observation team on a primitive desert planet. The world has many names -- 40 Eridani A-II, Minshara, T'Khasi, Vulcan -- and its savage natives have taken the team hostage, including Sulu's daughter, Demora. Even as Captain Sulu negotiates with the fierce T'Pau, Demora meets the elderly S'oval, and with him the only hope for the planet's future...
  • Honor in the Night - novel by Scott Pearson
    Former Federation president Nilz Baris has died. After losing Sherman's Planet to the Klingons thanks to poisoned quadrotriticale, the agriculture undersecretary parlayed that defeat into years of political battles with the Klingon Empire, and eventually the Federation's highest office. Now, the Federation News Service wants the story of his life, a quest that digs up many secrets -- including the mystery of why his final words were "Arne Darvin."

The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the Final Frontier

Star Trek: Non-fiction

Shea T. Brode
Douglas Brode

As one of the most influential shows of all time, Star Trek continues to engage fans around the world. But its cultural impact has grown far beyond the scope of the original seventy-nine episodes. The show spawned an unprecedented progeny, beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation, followed by three additional series of space exploration. Film versions featuring Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and other original crew members first appeared in 1979, followed by a number of successful sequels and ultimately a reboot of the original show. From the modest ambitions of the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek gradually transformed into a true franchise, an expanded universe that continues to grow.

In The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the Final Frontier, Douglas and Shea T. Brode have collected several essays that examine the many incarnations that have arisen since the original program concluded its run in 1969. Every aspect of media into which Star Trek has penetrated is covered in this collection: the four television shows, literature, toys, games, and the big screen reboot of the original series featuring the Enterprise and her crew. Essays address a number of elements, particularly how the franchise has had an impact on gaming, fandom, and even technology. Other essays consider how race, gender, and sexuality have been addressed by the various shows and films.

After a half century of boldly exploring topical issues that concern all of humanity, Star Trek warrants serious attention -- now more than ever. Looking beyond the entertainment value of its many versions, The Star Trek Universe -- a companion volume to Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek -- offers provocative essays that will engage scholars of gender studies, race studies, religion, history, and popular culture, not to mention the show's legions of fans around the planet.

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction: Gene Roddenberry's creation as an abiding pop culture phenomenon - by Douglas Brode
  • Supernatural Star Trek?: Star Trek and the Re-enchantment of the World - by Murray Leeder
  • Holodeck History: Past, Present, and Future on the Final Frontier - by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
  • Star Trek and the Information Age: How the Franchise Imagined/Inspired Future Technologies - by Anthony Rotolo
  • Forward to the Past: Miscegenation Constructs in the Star Trek Mythos - by Denise Allesandria Hurd
  • Science Fiction as Social Consciousness: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Star Trek: The Next Generation - by Brian L. Ott and Eric Aoki
  • Radically Performing the Borg?: Gender Identity and Narratology in Star Trek - by Tama Leaver
  • Manifest Destiny to the Stars: New Frontiers, Old Colonialism, and Borg Assimilation - by Lynette Russell and Nathan Wolski
  • Resistance is Futile: Cyborgs, Humanism, and the Borg - by David J. Gunkel
  • Shakespeare in Space: A Trek toward Plurality - by Melanie Lo¨rke
  • Toward a Non-Dystopian Future: Romance and Realism in Star Trek: The Next Generation - by Rebecca Barrilleaux
  • Enjoying an "Original Relation to the Universe": Star Trek: The Next Generation and Emersonian Transcendentalism - by April Selley
  • Adaptive Harmonics: Star Trek's Universe and Galaxy of Games - by Douglas Brown
  • The Making of a Star Trek Video Game: Voyager: Elite Force and Creative Collaboration - by Brian Pelletier
  • Plastic Bodies and Lost Accessories: The Next Generation Action Figures in Relation to Their TV origins - by Jonathan Alexandratos
  • Fantastic Licensing: The Ongoing Mission of Trek Comic Books - by Stefan Hall
  • Help When Times are Hard: Bereavement and Star Trek Fan Letters - by Lincoln Geraghty
  • Rebooting Utopia: Reimagining Star Trek in Post-9/11 America - by Norma Jones

Spectre

Star Trek: Shatnerverse: Mirror Universe: Book 1

Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Judith Reeves-Stevens
William Shatner

Retired and happily in love, Kirk believes his adventuring days are over. But as he returns to Earth for the first time since his apparent "death" upon the Enterprise-B, events elsewhere in the galaxy set in motion a mystery that may provide Kirk with his greatest challenge yet.

The Enterprise-E, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, is exploring an unstable region of space on a scientific mission of vital concern to Starfleet when they discover the last thing they ever expected to find: a lonely, battle-scarred vessel that is instantly recognizable to every member of Picard's crew. Five years after being lost with all hands in the Delta Quadrant, the Starship Voyager has come home!

The commander of Voyager, one Tom Paris, explains that Captain Kathryn Janeway and half of the original crew is dead, but if that is true, who is the mysterious woman who has kidnapped Kirk back on Earth, pleading with him to assist her against a threat to the entire Federation?

All is not as it seems, and soon Kirk is forced to confront the hideous consequences of actions taken more than a hundred years prior, as well as his own inner doubts. After years of quiet and isolation, does he still have what it takes to put things right-and join with Captain Picard to save the lives of everyone aboard a brand-new Enterprise?

An unforgettable saga peopled by old friends and ancient enemies, Star Trek: Spectre propels Kirk on a journey of self-discovery every bit as harrowing as the cataclysmic new adventure that awaits him.

Dark Victory

Star Trek: Shatnerverse: Mirror Universe: Book 2

Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Judith Reeves-Stevens
William Shatner

The Mirror Universe is a dark and twisted reflection of our own, where all that is noble and compassionate is instead cruel and barbaric. Now our universe has been invaded by that other reality's most feared tyrant: the dreaded Emperor Tiberius, the Mirror Universe counterpart of James T. Kirk. Just as Kirk survived his own era to live into the 24th century, so has Tiberius returned from the past to menace a new generation of Starfleet heroes.

And only Kirk can stop him.

With Spock, McCoy, and Spotty at his side, and teamed Jean-Luc Picard and the valiant crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E, Kirk is propelled into his most personal and dangerous mission yet as he fights to uncover the secret of Tiberius' return and learn the terrible truth behind the madman's nightmarish plans for the Federation.

But how can he defeat an enemy who knows Kirk's mind as well as he knows his own?

Preserver

Star Trek: Shatnerverse: Mirror Universe: Book 3

Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Judith Reeves-Stevens
William Shatner

The deadly and tyrannical Emperor Tiberius, formerly captain of the I.S.S. Enterprise, had great success turning captured alien weaponry to his advantage, but his failed attempt to sieze the tantalizing advances of the ancient First Federation has always rankled him. In the more peaceful universe of the United Federation of Planets, Tiberius sees his second chance. And a new ally will help him take it -- the counterpart for whom he has nothing but contempt, the man whose U.S.S. Enterprise made first contact with the First Federation: Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk.

Honorable, Idealistic, and decent, James T. Kirk is many things Tiberius is not. But he is also a man deeply in love with his wife -- and Teilani is dying. To save her life, Kirk will compromise his ideals and enter into his most dangerous alliance yet.

Battling Captain Jean-Luc Picard and a new generation of Starfleet heroes, Kirk will guide Tiberius to a long-abandoned First Federation base. There, he expects to find a source of power so great it will enable Tiberius to conquer the mirror universe -- and his own.

But on their journey Kirk will uncover long-hidden secrets about the past that raise the stakes far beyond the mere survival of Kirk's family and friends to nothing less than the continued existence of both universes.

At the heart of their quest, something else is waiting: an object from a civilization whose technology is far more advanced than any Kirk or Tiberius could expect to acquire, placed there for Kirk's eyes only by the mysterious aliens who appear to have influenced life within the galaxy over eons of time -- a message from the Perservers....

The Three-Minute Universe

Star Trek: The Original Series: Book 41

Barbara Paul

The Sackers. In all Captain James T. Kirk's travels, he has never found a race more universally shunned and abhorred. Their mere appearance causes most Federation members to become violently ill.

Now the Sackers have performed a deed whose brutality matches their horrifying exterior. They have stolen a revolutionary new scientific device -- murdering an entire race in the process -- and used it to create a rip in the fabric of space, a hole through which another universe is rapidly leaking. Unless Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise can find a way to stop the new universe's expansion, it will consume -- and utterly destroy -- our own.

Across the Universe

Star Trek: The Original Series: Book 88

Pamela Sargent
George Zebrowski

The Hawking left Earth during the 21st Century on a one-way mission to colonize a distant world. Due to the relativistic effects of pre-warp travel, it's crew has aged only thirty years while two centuries have passed outside the ship. When the Starship Enterprise comes to the rescue of the malfunctioning Hawking, the colonists find themselves thrust into a universe and an era that has left them behind.

Captain Kirk intends to help the colonists adjust as best he can, but the task is not a simple one. The newcomers are survivors of a more violent, more paranoid time -- and the have brought old suspicions, and an ancient weapon of mass destruction, into a world of unexpected challenges and dangers.

Blade Dancer

Stardoc Universe: Book 1

S. L. Viehl

Jory Rask is a professional shockball player. The fastest runback in the game, she is loved across Terra. But Jory Rask has a secret that she's lived with for twenty-four years... In a xenophobic world that despises aliens, she is not quite human.

When her mother dies--and that secret is revealed--Jory must honor her last wishes and set out on a journey to find others like herself. And once they meet, none of their lives will ever be the same again. For in order to take the vengeance denied their mothers, they must undergo training at the Tana, the school for assassins known as Blade Dancers--the most lethal killers in the galaxy. And in the heart of that school lies a deadly secret...

Bio Rescue

Stardoc Universe - Bio Rescue: Book 1

S. L. Viehl

The leader of a squadron of SEAL (surgically enhanced/altered lifeform) pilots, Lieutenant Dair mu T'resa is delighted by her new role as an interstellar paramedic, unaware that she is about to face the opposition of a lupine species with a hatred of natives from her planet.

Afterburn

Stardoc Universe - Bio Rescue: Book 2

S. L. Viehl

The Hsktskt slavers have been driven out of the Pmoc quadrant. K-2, the home planet of the underwater dwelling 'Zangians, has been selected to host the resulting peace summit. When an ambassador's shuttle is attacked en route to the conference, Bio Rescue pilot Sub-Lieutenant Burn mu Znora manages to intercept the vessel and prevent the abduction of the ambassador's daughter Liana.

Now, with the Bio Rescue unit officially assigned to police the peace negotiations, Burn must stay close to Liana--an assignment he's happy to accept. But as it becomes clear someone is determined to sabotage the conference, Burn realizes Liana is hiding a deadly secret--a secret that may alter the fate of four worlds...

Air

Stargate Universe: Book 1

James Swallow

Without food, supplies, or a way home, Colonel Everett Young finds himself in charge of a mission that has gone wrong before it has even begun. Stranded and alone on the far side of the universe, the mismatched team of scientists, technicians, and military personnel have only one objective: staying alive. As personalities clash and desperation takes hold, salvation lies in the hands of Dr. Nicholas Rush, the man responsible for their plight.

The Secrets of Jin-shei

Syai Universe: Book 1

Alma Alexander

A sweeping epic set in medieval China; it is the story of a group of women, the Jin-Shei sisterhood, who form a uniquely powerful circle that transcends class and social custom.

They are bound together by a declaration of loyalty that transcends all other vows, even those with the gods, by their own secret language, passed from mother to daughter, by the knowledge that some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to enable others to fulfil their destiny.

The sisterhood we meet run from the Emperor's sister to the street-beggar, from the trainee warrior in the Emperor's Guard to the apprentice healer, from the artist to the traveller-girl, herself an illegitimate daughter of an emperor and seen as a threat to the throne. And as one of them becomes Dragon Empress, her determination to hold power against the sages of the temple, against the marauding forces from other kingdoms, drags the sisterhood into a dangerous world of court intrigue, plot and counterplot, and brings them into conflict with each other from which only the one who remains true to all the vows she made at the very beginning to the dying Princess Empress can rescue them.

An amazing and unusual book, based on some historical fact, full of drama, adventure and conflict like a Shakespearean history play, it's a novel about kinship and a society of women, of mysticism, jealousy, fate, destiny, all set in the wonderful, swirling background of medieval China.

The Embers of Heaven

Syai Universe: Book 2

Alma Alexander

Four hundred years after The Secrets of Jin-shei, the Syai Empire is on the brink of civil war. A new voice preaching equality promises hope for the downtrodden, but the ensuing people's revolution brings terror, reeducation camps, and death to anyone embracing the old ways.

An outsider and a child of two worlds, Amais searches for the magical bond of jin-shei, the women's oath, in her ancestral home of Syai, unaware that her quest will bring her to the very person who may destroy her and her family. And yet, she must face him, or all hope for Syai will be lost...

Tarzan and the Valley of Gold

Tarzan Universe

Fritz Leiber

The burning wreck of a passenger jet with a missing cargo of gold and a desperate plea from a friend lead Tarzan of the Apes deep into intrigue in the jungles of Brazil. Soon the ape-man finds himself facing his most deadly nemesis yet: a criminal mastermind named Vinaro, whose enemies perish in mysterious explosions of gold and flame. But that may be only the beginning of Tarzan's challenges. For if he is to defeat Vinaro, Tarzan must confront him in the legendary golden city of Tucumai, from where no outsider has ever returned.

Tarzan and the Forest of Stone

Tarzan Universe

Jeff Mariotte

After Tarzan departs Southern California following a visit with a dear friend, bandits mysteriously dressed as cowboys straight out of the Old West waylay his train and make off with a precious Native American artifact-taking the daughter of the relic's owner hostage in the process. Now Tarzan must set off on foot from the wrecked and twisted ruins of the train in pursuit of the criminals, making his way across the American Southwest, a land as different from his jungle homeland as can be imagined. But even as Tarzan closes in on his prey, a ruthless killer follows close at his heels, intent on bringing an end to the legendary Lord of the Jungle once and for all.

Also includes a special preview chapter from the upcoming ERB Universe novel Victory Harben: Fires of Halos by Christopher Paul Carey--the epic conclusion to the Swords of Eternity Super-Arc!

The Master Miller's Tale

The Aether Universe

Ian R. MacLeod

Sturgeon and World Fantasy Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2007. The story can also be found in the anthology Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, edited by Rich Horton. It is included in the collections Journeys (2010) and Snodgrass and Other Illusions: The Best Short Stories of Ian R. MacLeod (2013).

The Light Ages

The Aether Universe: Book 1

Ian R. MacLeod

Aether rules the world. Aether drives the engines, the telegraphs, the very lights of London.

Through the power of aether, and through the secrets and mysteries of the guilds that wield it, England has created a mighty Industrial Age. It is a place of enchanted gardens and grimy terraces, smokestack factories and fantastic beasts. Yet in this great age of the world, Robert Borrows, the insignificant son of a Lesser Toolmaker, holds the key to the world's future.

Raised in the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, a place dominated by the pounding of mighty subterranean engines, Robert witnesses the dark side of aether when his mother is transformed into a changeling; less than human, terrible to see. Fleeing to London, he re-encounters the beautiful, mercurial and mysterious Anna Winters, who he first met on a trip to a strange white palace in happier times. Roaming the vast, Brobdignagian city, all colours, smells and danger, exploring its myriad social layers, from petty criminals and revolutionaries to salon mistresses and opium dreamers, he discovers secrets that will lead him back towards the clouded hills of Bracebridge and the deepest mysteries of aether. For all is not well in England's green and pleasant land. This Age is ending, in fire and death...

A dazzling melange of Charles Dickens, Mervyn Peake and Edward Rutherfurd, The Light Ages is the story of a time of wonders and delights, mysteries and nightmares. Events both great and small are mirrored in the life of Robert Borrows, an ordinary man born into extraordinary times. Richly detailed, joyous, visionary - World Fantasy Award-winner, Ian R MacLeod, has produced a tour-de-force of imaginative fiction.

The House of Storms

The Aether Universe: Book 2

Ian R. MacLeod

Darkness encroaches upon the Age of Light as Ian R. MacLeod's "electrifying" (Interzone) epic continues.

Best Served Cold

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. Armies march, heads roll and cities burn, while behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.

BEST SERVED COLD is the new standalone novel set in the world of Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy.

Red Country

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

A New York Times bestseller!They burned her home.They stole her brother and sister.But vengeance is following.Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried.Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . .

Sharp Ends

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

The Union army may be full of bastards, but there's only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.

Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: no one seems to know what the item is.

Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.

And after years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There's only one obstacle left - his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine...

Sharp Ends combines previously published, award-winning tales with exclusive new short stories. Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue's gallery of side-shows, back-stories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law.

Some Desperado

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

This short story set in the First Law universe originally appeared int he George R.R. Martin and Garnder Dozois anthology Dangeroes Women (2013). It can also be found in Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight (2014).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Fool Jobs

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

This shoty story originally appeared in the anthology Swords & Dark Magic (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Five (2011), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Sharp Ends (2016).

The Heroes

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.

Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced master swordsman, has sworn to reclaim his stolen honour on the battlefield. Obsessed with redemption and addicted to violence, he's far past caring how much blood gets spilled in the attempt. Even if it's his own.

Prince Calder isn't interested in honour, and still less in getting himself killed. All he wants is power, and he'll tell any lie, use any trick, and betray any friend to get it. Just as long as he doesn't have to fight for it himself.

Curnden Craw, the last honest man in the North, has gained nothing from a life of warfare but swollen knees and frayed nerves. He hardly even cares who wins any more, he just wants to do the right thing. But can he even tell what that is with the world burning down around him?

Over three bloody days of battle, the fate of the North will be decided. But with both sides riddled by intrigues, follies, feuds and petty jealousies, it is unlikely to be the noblest hearts, or even the strongest arms that prevail. Three men. One battle. No Heroes.

Tough Times All Over

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Rogues (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld, Issue 116, May 2016. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine (2015), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Sharp Ends (2016).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Two's Company

The First Law Universe

Joe Abercrombie

Lost in the wide and barren North, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp, runs into Cracknut Whirrun on a bridge far too narrow for the expansive egos of either. With the King of the Northmen and the High Priestess of Thond in pursuit, can Shevedieh, the greatest thief in Styria, persuade either one of these proud heroes to step aside?

This story is included in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 11 (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan and the collection Sharp Ends (2016).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Blade Itself

The First Law Universe: First Law Trilogy: Book 1

Joe Abercrombie

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.

Before They Are Hanged

The First Law Universe: First Law Trilogy: Book 2

Joe Abercrombie

Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It s enough to make a torturer want to run if he could even walk without a stick.

Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters if they didn t hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven but not before they are hanged.

Last Argument of Kings

The First Law Universe: First Law Trilogy: Book 3

Joe Abercrombie

The end is coming.

Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him-but it's going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the king of the Northmen still stands firm, and there's only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy: it's time for the Bloody-Nine to come home.

With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no one is safe, and no one can be trusted. As his days with a sword are far behind him, it's fortunate that he's deadly with his remaining weapons: blackmail, threats, and torture.

Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is too painful an undertaking and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too-and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it.

The king of the Union lies on his deathbed, the peasants revolt, and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No one believes that the shadow of war is about to fall across the heart of the Union. Only the First of the Magi can save the world, but there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, than to break the First Law...

The God of Au

The God of Au Universe

Ann Leckie

This novelette originally appeared in Helix, Spring 2008. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009, edited by Rich Horton, and Mythic Journeys (2019), edited by Paula Guran.

The Nalendar

The God of Au Universe

Ann Leckie

This short story originally appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue #36, 2008, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue Two, January-February 2015.

Read the full story for free here.

The Unknown God

The God of Au Universe

Ann Leckie

This short story originally appeared in Realms of Fantasy, February 2010, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 14, January-February 2017.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

The Raven Tower

The God of Au Universe: Book 1

Ann Leckie

Gods meddle in the fates of men, men play with the fates of gods, and a pretender must be cast down from the throne in this breathtaking first fantasy novel from Ann Leckie, New York Timesbestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.

For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained via the blood sacrifice that every Lease must offer. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes.

But the power of the Raven is weakening. A usurper has claimed the throne. The kingdom borders are tested by invaders who long for the prosperity that Vastai boasts. And they have made their own alliances with other gods.

It is into this unrest that the warrior Eolo--aide to Mawat, the true Lease--arrives. And in seeking to help Mawat reclaim his city, Eolo discovers that the Raven's Tower holds a secret. Its foundations conceal a dark history that has been waiting to reveal itself... and to set in motion a chain of events that could destroy Iraden forever.

Alone

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

The largest star ship in the universe has a single passenger. That shape-shifting machine walks in solitude until the humans arrive, and their robots, and increasingly strange aliens. Then after thousands of years and a sequence of odd adventures, our hero arrives at a point where he understands the purpose of the Great Ship.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Godlike Machines (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Five (2011), also edited by Strahan. The story is available as a chapbook as well.

Camouflage

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

The ex-captain wears a borrowed face and life, allowing him to sit in public while hiding from the Ship's authorities. But then one of the most powerful captains comes to the fugitive with a mission. There is a corpse that needs to be studied. There is a nameless passenger who needs unspecified help. And there is a conspiracy involving aliens and humans and family ties and millions of years of painful history.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Down These Dark Spaceways (2005), edited by Mike Resnick. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Greatship (2013).

Eater-of-Bone

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

Immortal humans colonize a bizarre world, but the colony collapses. Tens of thousands of years later, what remains are scattered bands and individuals fighting the natives and fighting one another. Every day is desperate. But every day also offers great beauty in an alien wilderness, and small moments of kindness.

Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas (2012). The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read or listen to the full story for free at Escapepod.

Good Mountain

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

In the far future, on a world made of water and little else, one desperate man rides inside a giant worm. Jopale is trying to make an appointment that will save his life. Perhaps. But this wet world is dying around him. Every other passenger is trying his or her best to survive. And out in the wastelands waits a long stretch of flat ground named Good Mountain, which might or might not bring salvation.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology One Million A.D. (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), also edited by Dozois.

Katabasis

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

Rich tourists pay a fortune for the honor and misery of walking across an alien habitat, and a few powerful porters make their livings helping the tourists endure the impossible gravity. Katabasis is like nobody else. A species with a population of one, she came to the Great Ship by the most unusual means, and in the course of her duties as a porter, she will meet the most singular human.

Nebula Award nominated novella. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November-December 2012, later anthologized in Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013) and Garnder Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013)

Marrow

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, July 1997. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection (1998), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It was later expanded to the full novel Marrow (2000).

Mere

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

She was born as the sole passenger onboard a battered starship. Physically and mentally stunted, the immortal woman had no name. For ten thousand years nothing about her life changed. Then the double suns appeared before her and, without warning, her ship crash-landed on an alien world. The Tila found her. They naturally assumed she was a god, but she didn't grow much or show any godly power besides immortality. Because she wasn't much of a god, they named her "Mere." And for the next several thousand years, Mere lived among the Tila, playing a role in the rise of the Tilan civilization, all while serving as the sole witness in their struggle to survive as their great Tilan world began to die.

Mere, a 13,300-word novelette, takes place in Robert Reed's "Marrow" universe, along with such notable new stories as "River of the Queen" and "Night of Time." The character "Mere" plays a pivotal role in Reed's "Marrow" novel, The Well of Stars. The author has also included a 5,000-word Afterword in which he details the history of his "Marrow" universe, including all the stories that comprise this future history.

Night of Time

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

A brilliant alien mind forgets one tiny detail, and the human named Ash -- a reformed torturer and expert in memory -- digs deep and finds the most amazing secret.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Silver Gryphon (2003) edited by Gary Turner and Marty Halpern. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Year's Best SF 9 (2004), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer. The story is included in the collections The Cuckoo's Boys (2005) and The Greatship (2013).

Parables of Infinity

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

A difficult job needs to be done. Tools are hired and paid well for their trouble. But one tool, an ancient AI, has a cautionary story to tell, and she tells it to one of the few humans who can appreciate what she is saying.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Bridging Infinity (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2 (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

Precious Mental

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

A talented stardrive mechanic is kidnapped and hauled across light-years, ending up inside a derelict alien ship. The mission is to recover the treasure that must be somewhere on board. But where? The crew is untrustworthy, and the ancient creature at the helm might be insane. And the mechanic isn't a real mechanic, but instead Pamir is a criminal with just enough skills to maybe, maybe save the day.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2013. It can also be found in the anthologies Space Opera (2014), edited by Rich Horton, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois.

The Cryptic Age

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

An odd, ancient machine with three minds comes to the Great Ship, offering a rare gift in exchange for a home and passage. But the fabled Miocene handles the interview, and this ancient captain is impossible to impress.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2014. A self-pulished e-book edition of this story is also available.

The Greatship

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

Since the beginning of the universe, the giant starship wandered the emptiest reaches of space, without crew or course, much less any clear purpose. But humans found the relic outside the Milky Way, and after taking possession, they named their prize the Great Ship and embarked on a bold voyage through the galaxy's civilized hearts.

Larger than worlds, the Great Ship is laced with caverns and oceans, scenes of exalted beauty and corners where no creature has ever stood. Habitats can be created for every intelligent species, provided that the passengers can pay for the honor of a berth, and the human captains make the rules and dispense the justice in what soon becomes thousands of alien species joined a wild, unpredictable journey.

The first Great Ship story was "The Remoras", published in 1994 by THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author's growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion.

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (2013) - essay by Robert Reed
  • Prologue - short story
  • Alone - (2010) - novella
  • Bridge One - short story
  • Hoop-of-Benzene - (2006) - short story
  • Bridge Two - short story
  • Mere - (2004) - novelette
  • Bridge Three - short story
  • The Remoras - (1994) - novelette
  • Bridge Four - short story
  • Rococo - (2006) - novella
  • Bridge Five - short story
  • River of the Queen - (2004) - novelette
  • Bridge Six - short story
  • Night of Time - (2003) - short story
  • Bridge Seven - short story
  • Aeon's Child - (1995) - novelette
  • Bridge Eight short story
  • The Caldera of Good Fortune - (2007) - novelette
  • Bridge Nine - short story
  • Camouflage - (2005) - novella
  • Bridge Ten - short story
  • The Man with the Golden Balloon - (2008) - novella
  • Bridge Eleven - short story
  • Hatch - (2007) - short story

The Remoras

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

Quee Lee is a beautiful and rich woman, and she's immortal, and she happens to be married to a young fellow with a mysterious, intriguing past. That past comes alive in the form of a Remora named Orleans. Like any Remora, Orleans normally lives on the exposed hull of the starship, but he has come below looking for Quee Lee's husband. To settle an old debt, apparently. Which launches an adventure, and what will this grand old lady do when faced with the remarkable truth?

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1994. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelth Annual Collection (1995), edited by Gardner Dozois, The Space Opera Renaissance (2006), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. The story is included in the collections The Dragons of Springplace (1999) and The Greatship (2013).

The Residue of Fire

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

Ash is a professional interrogator and at times has served as a torturer. He enlists an alien friend to help him cope with one of his victims, and the alien, one of the peculiar 31-1s, is witness to a pivotal moment in the lives of two immortal humans.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Extrasolar (2017), edited by Nick Gevers. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018), edited by Gardner Dozois.

The Speed of Belief

The Great Ship Universe

Robert Reed

An alien world is inhabited living, highly-intelligent rivers. Those rivers have made a deal with the Great Ship: Send them a mortal human as a sacrifice, and humanity will be given planets and moons as gifts. But who would willingly volunteer for such a duty? A stubborn man named Amund, it turns out. And before it is over, this ordinary mortal holds the lives of billions in his grasp.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2017, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, Issue 107, April 2019. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke.

Marrow

The Great Ship Universe: Book 1

Robert Reed

The Ship has traveled the universe for longer than any of the near-immortal crew can recall, its true purpose and origins unknown. It is larger than many planets, housing thousands of alien races and just as many secrets.

Now one of those secrets has been discovered: at the center of the Ship is . . . a planet. Marrow. But when a team of the Ship's best and brightest are sent down to investigate, will they return with the origins of the Ship--or will they bring doom to everyone on board?

The Well of Stars

The Great Ship Universe: Book 2

Robert Reed

In The Well of Stars, Hugo award-nominated author Robert Reed has written a stunning sequel to his acclaimed novel Marrow. The Great Ship, so vast that it contains within its depths a planet that lay undiscovered for generations, has cruised through the universe for untold billions of years. After a disastrous exploration of the planet, Marrow, the Ship's captains face an increasingly restive population aboard their mammoth vessel.

And now, compounding the captains' troubles, the Ship is heading on an irreversible course straight for the Ink Well, a dark, opaque nebula. Washen and Pamir, the captains who saved Marrow from utter destruction, send Mere, whose uncanny ability to adapt to and understand other cultures makes her the only one for the job, to investigate the nebula before they plunge blindly in. While Mere is away, Pamir discovers in the Ink Well the presence of a god-like entity with powers so potentially destructive that it might destroy the ship and its millions.

Faced with an entity that might prevent the Ship from ever leaving the Ink Well, the Ship's only hope now rests in the ingenuity of the vast crew... and with Mere, who has not contacted them since she left the Ship...

With the excitement of epic science fiction adventure set against a universe full of wonders, the odyssey of the Ship and its captains will capture the hearts of science fiction readers.

The Memory of Sky

The Great Ship Universe: Book 3

Robert Reed

Diamond is an odd little boy, a seemingly fragile child - who proves to be anything but. An epic story begins when he steps into the world his parents have so carefully kept him from, a world where gigantic trees each house thousands of humans and another human species, the papio, rule its far edges. Does Diamond hold the promise to remake one species and, perhaps, change all of the Creation?

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

The Grisha Universe

Leigh Bardugo

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Enter the Grishaverse...

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, the tales in The Language of Thorns will transport you to lands both familiar and strange?to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, each of them lavishly illustrated and culminating in stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

Table of Contents:

King of Scars

The Grisha Universe: King of Scars Duology: Book 1

Leigh Bardugo

Face your demons... or feed them.

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country's bloody civil war?and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka's coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren't meant to stay buried?and some wounds aren't meant to heal.

Rule of Wolves

The Grisha Universe: King of Scars Duology: Book 2

Leigh Bardugo

The Demon King. As Fjerda's massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm - and even the monster within - to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king's gift for the impossible.

The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.

The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.

King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.

Six of Crows

The Grisha Universe: Six of Crows: Book 1

Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first.

Crooked Kingdom

The Grisha Universe: Six of Crows: Book 2

Leigh Bardugo

The highly anticipated sequel to the thrilling #1 New York Times-bestselling Six of Crows.

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets?a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Little Knife

The Grisha Universe: The Grisha

Leigh Bardugo

In this third Grisha Trilogy folk tale from Leigh Bardugo, a young girl's beauty causes discord in her small town, but her father's solution may prove far more dangerous. "Little Knife" is a companion story to the third book of the Grisha Trilogy, Ruin and Rising, and the stories "The Witch of Duva" and "The Too-Clever Fox."

This story is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Too-Clever Fox

The Grisha Universe: The Grisha

Leigh Bardugo

In Ravka, just because you avoid one trap, it doesn't mean you'll escape the next. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo's upcoming novel, Siege and Storm, the second book in the Grisha Trilogy.

This story is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Witch of Duva

The Grisha Universe: The Grisha

Leigh Bardugo

There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls... or so the story goes. But it's just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo's debut novel, Shadow and Bone.

This story cam alsp be found in the anthology Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction (2018), edited by Irene Gallo. It is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Shadow and Bone

The Grisha Universe: The Grisha: Book 1

Leigh Bardugo

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life - a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha, and the secrets of her heart.

Siege and Storm

The Grisha Universe: The Grisha: Book 2

Leigh Bardugo

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Siege and Storm is the second book in The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo.

Ruin and Rising

The Grisha Universe: The Grisha: Book 3

Leigh Bardugo

The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction--and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she's fighting for.

Ruin and Rising is the thrilling final installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Book 2

Douglas Adams

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability--and desperately in search of a place to eat.

Among Arthur's motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a longtime friend and expert contributor to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who's gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, the moody android who suffers nothing and no one very gladly. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food (literally) speaks for itself.

Will they make it? The answer: hard to say. But bear in mind that the Hitchhiker's Guide deleted the term "Future Perfect" from its pages, since it was discovered not to be!

Life, the Universe and Everything

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Book 3

Douglas Adams

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads--so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.

They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler, who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vicepresident of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-head honcho of the Universe; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.

How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert "universal" Armageddon and save life as we know it--and don't know it!

The Universe Against Her

The Hub: Telzey Amberdon: Book 1

James H. Schmitz

Telzey Amberdon, at age 15, had enormously developed psionic powers. She could read, as well as change, human minds! In part I, she enjoys an extraordinary telepathic rapport with a feline non-human.

Then her dreams become nightmares dominated by a weird "psionic traffic cop," and she realizes that further exercise of her powers could lead to trouble. Somehow, the interstellar government had found out about her, and had planted that "cop" in her mind to destroy her.

Expansion of 2 previously published stories - "Novice" (1962) and "Undercurrents" (1964).

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

The Salvagers: Book 1

Alex White

Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction.

Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots.

On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.

The Tangled Lands

The Tangled Lands Universe

Paolo Bacigalupi
Tobias S. Buckell

From award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell comes a fantasy novel told in four parts about a land crippled by the use of magic, and a tyrant who is trying to rebuild an empire--unless the people find a way to resist.

Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.

In four interrelated parts, The Tangled Lands is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell have created a fantasy for our times about a decadent and rotting empire facing environmental collapse from within--and yet hope emerges from unlikely places with women warriors and alchemical solutions.

The Alchemist

The Tangled Lands Universe: Book 1

Paolo Bacigalupi

Nebula-nominated Novella

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In the paired novellas, The Alchemist & The Executioness, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.

In the beleaguered city of Khaim, a lone alchemist seeks a solution to a deadly threat. The bramble, a plant that feeds upon magic, now presses upon Khaim, nourished by the furtive spellcasting of its inhabitants and threatening to strangle the city under poisonous vines. Driven by desperation and genius, the alchemist constructs a device that transcends magic, unlocking the mysteries of bramble's essential nature. But the power of his newly-built balanthast is even greater than he dreamed. Where he sought to save a city and its people, the balanthast has the potential to save the world entire--if it doesn't destroy him and his family first.

The Executioness

The Tangled Lands Universe: Book 2

Tobias S. Buckell

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In paired novellas, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.

Magic has a price.

In Khaim, that price is your head if you're found using it. For the use of magic comes with a side effect: it creates bramble. The bramble is a creeping, choking menace that has covered majestic ancient cities, and felled civilizations. In order to prevent the spread of the bramble, many lose their heads to the cloaked executioners of Khaim.

Tana is one of these executioners, taking the job over from her ailing father in secret, desperate to keep her family from starvation. But now her family has been captured by raiders, and taken to a foreign city.

So Khaim's only female executioner begins a quest to bring her family back together. A bloody quest that will change lives, cities, and even an entire land, forever. A quest that will create the legend of The Executioness.

The Stars Now Unclaimed

The Universe After: Book 1

Drew Williams

A century ago, a mysterious pulse of energy spread across the universe. Meant to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, it instead destroyed technology indiscriminately, leaving some worlds untouched and throwing others into total chaos.

The Justified, a mysterious group of super-soldiers, have spent a hundred years trying to find a way to restore order to the universe. Their greatest asset is the feared mercenary Kamali, who travels from planet to planet searching for gifted young people and bringing them to the secret world she calls home. Kamali hopes that those she rescues will be able to find a way to reverse the damage the pulse wreaked, and ensure that it never returns.

But Kamali isn't the only person looking for answers to unimaginable questions. And when her mission to rescue a grumpy teenaged girl named Esa goes off the rails, Kamali suddenly finds herself smack in the centre of an intergalactic war... that she started.

A Chain Across the Dawn

The Universe After: Book 2

Drew Williams

It's been three years since Esa left her backwater planet to join the ranks of the Justified. Together, she and fellow agent Jane Kamali have been traveling across the known universe, searching for children who share Esa's supernatural gifts.

On a visit to a particularly remote planet, they learn that they're not the only ones searching for gifted children. They find themselves on the tail of a mysterious being with impossible powers who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the very children that Esa and Jane are trying to save.

With their latest recruit in tow?a young Wulf boy named Sho?Esa and Jane must track their strange foe across the galaxy in search of answers. But the more they learn, the clearer it becomes?their enemy may be harder to defeat than they ever could have imagined.

The Firmament of Flame

The Universe After: Book 3

Drew Williams

For nearly a century, the Justified have been searching for gifted children to help prevent the return of the pulse. Until recently, they thought they were the only ones.

Jane Kamali and her telekinetic protégé Esa, now seventeen, barely managed to claim victory against a Cyn?a being of pure energy?hell bent on hunting down the gifted. Now they face an army.

The Cyn and their followers will stop at nothing to find Esa and the others. No one knows what they want, but Jane, Esa, and their allies in the Justified are determined to find out.

Even if they have to go to the ends of the known universe to do it.

The Calorie Man

The Windup Universe

Paolo Bacigalupi

Sturgeon Award winning and Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 2005. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois, Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005 (2006) edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (2007), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. It is included in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008) and is included as an extra in some editions of the novel The Windup Girl (2009).

The Windup Girl

The Windup Universe

Paolo Bacigalupi

What Happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man" (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these questions.

Yellow Card Man

The Windup Universe

Paolo Bacigalupi

Hugo and Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2006. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Pump Six and Other Stories (2008) and as an extra in some editions of the novel The Windup Girl (2009).

Tor Double #35: Silent Thunder / Universe

Tor Double: Book 35

Robert A. Heinlein
Dean Ing

Silent Thunder:

A techno thriller. A unique mix of Sci-Fi and historic fiction. It's said to resonate with political events of the 1991 timeframe.

Universe:

This novelette was combined with its sequel, "Common Sense", to form "Orphans of the Sky" in 1963.

The gigantic, cylindrical generation ship Vanguard, originally destined for "Far Centaurus", is cruising without guidance through the interstellar medium as a result of a long-ago mutiny that killed most of the officers. Over time, the descendants of the surviving loyal crew have forgotten the purpose and nature of their ship and lapsed into a pre-technological culture marked by superstition. They come to believe the "Ship" is the entire universe, so that "To move the ship" is considered an oxymoron, and references to the Ship's "voyage" are interpreted as religious metaphor. They are ruled by an oligarchy of "officers" and "scientists". Most crew members are simple illiterate farmers, seldom or never venturing to the "upper decks" where the "muties" (an abbreviation of "mutants" or "mutineers") dwell. Among the crew, all identifiable mutants are killed at birth.

Arkfall

Twenty Planets Universe

Carolyn Ives Gilman

Nebula-nominated Novella

Humans live deep within an apparently lifeless planet covered by massive ice sheets. Having to survive in confined spaces has bred a unique culture where deference and non-confrontation make co-existence possible.

Osaji's opportunities are limited by the need to care for her aging grandmother. But all that is about to change as circumstances push her toward a journey like no other.

Dark Orbit

Twenty Planets Universe

Carolyn Ives Gilman

Reports of a strange, new habitable planet have reached the Twenty Planets of human civilization. When a team of scientists is assembled to investigate this world, exoethnologist Sara Callicot is recruited to keep an eye on an unstable crewmate. Thora was once a member of the interplanetary elite, but since her prophetic delusions helped mobilize a revolt on Orem, she's been banished to the farthest reaches of space, because of the risk that her very presence could revive unrest.

Upon arrival, the team finds an extraordinary crystalline planet, laden with dark matter. Then a crew member is murdered and Thora mysteriously disappears. Thought to be uninhabited, the planet is in fact home to a blind, sentient species whose members navigate their world with a bizarre vocabulary and extrasensory perceptions.

Lost in the deep crevasses of the planet among these people, Thora must battle her demons and learn to comprehend the native inhabitants in order to find her crewmates and warn them of an impending danger. But her most difficult task may lie in persuading the crew that some powers lie beyond the boundaries of science.

Halfway Human

Twenty Planets Universe

Carolyn Ives Gilman

Tedla is a 'bland,' an asexual class of people that exist only to serve their fellow beings.

Val is an expert on alien cultures but has never seen a bland before. They come together after Tedla is found light-years away from its home planet-alone, isolated and suicidal. Val's mission is to help Tedla recover. But the more she learns about the beautiful alien being, the more she discovers about the torment Tedla and its kind suffer on their planet.

Little does the rest of the universe know of the hidden world of the blands, a world that hides shocking secrets and unspeakable crimes.

Halfway Human is a mesmerizing look at an intricately created alien world which is strange and distant, yet hauntingly familiar.

The Honeycrafters

Twenty Planets Universe

Carolyn Ives Gilman

Nebula Award nominated novelette in Gilman's Twenty Planets universe. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 1991. The story can also be found in the anthology The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: A 45th Anniversary Anthology (1994), edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Edward L. Ferman.

The Ice Owl

Twenty Planets Universe

Carolyn Ives Gilman

Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Novella

Set in the same universe as Arkfall (although a totally independent story), The Ice Owl tells a tale capturing that moment when we start to lose our childhood...when we start to realize that our parents and the "grown-ups" are just as flawed as we are... everyone struggling to deal with their own demons.

It is also a story about past crimes and the haunting echo of ghosts long dead, of a life-long quest for redemption and, for some, the final revenge for crimes lost in the stellar dust...

Universe 1

Universe: Book 1

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Terry Carr
  • West Wind, Falling - novelette by Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund
  • Good News from the Vatican - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
  • Jade Blue - shortstory by Edward Bryant
  • Nor Limestone Islands - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
  • Time Exposures - novelette by Wilson Tucker
  • Mindship - shortstory by Gerard F. Conway
  • Notes for a Novel About the First Ship Ever to Venus - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
  • Poor Man, Beggar Man - novelette by Joanna Russ
  • The Romance of Dr. Tanner - shortstory by Ron Goulart
  • The Human Side of the Village Monster - shortstory by Edward Bryant
  • Mount Charity - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
  • All the Last Wars at Once - shortstory by George Alec Effinger

Universe 2

Universe: Book 2

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Retroactive - novelette by Bob Shaw
  • When We Went to See the End of the World - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
  • Funeral Service - shortstory by Gerard F. Conway
  • A Special Condition in Summit City - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
  • Patron of the Arts - novelette by William Rotsler
  • Useful Phrases for the Tourist - shortstory by Joanna Russ
  • On the Downhill Side - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
  • The Other Perceiver - shortstory by Pamela Sargent
  • My Head's in a Different Place, Now - novelette by Grania Davis
  • Stalking the Sun - novelette by Gordon Eklund
  • The Man Who Waved Hello - shortfiction by Gardner Dozois
  • The Headless Man - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
  • Tiger Boy - novelette by Edgar Pangborn

Universe 3

Universe: Book 3

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1973) - essay by Terry Carr
  • The Death of Dr. Island - (1973) - novella by Gene Wolfe
  • The Ghost Writer - (1973) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
  • Many Mansions - novelette by Robert Silverberg
  • Randy-Tandy Man - (1973) - shortstory by Ross Rocklynne
  • The World Is a Sphere - (1973) - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
  • The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis - (1973) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
  • Free City Blues - (1973) - novelette by Gordon Eklund

Universe 4

Universe: Book 4

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Assault on a City - (1974) - novelette by Jack Vance
  • A Sea of Faces - (1974) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
  • And Read the Flesh Between the Lines - (1974) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
  • My Sweet Lady Jo - (1974) - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
  • Stungun Slim - (1974) - shortstory by Ron Goulart
  • Desert Places - (1974) - shortstory by Pamela Sargent
  • If the Stars Are Gods - (1974) - novelette by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
  • When the Vertical World Becomes Horizontal - (1974) - shortstory by Alexei Panshin

Universe 5

Universe: Book 5

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy - (1974) - novelette by F. M. Busby
  • Schrödinger's Cat - (1974) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • How It Felt - (1974) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
  • The Night Is Cold, the Stars Are Far Away - (1974) - shortstory by Mildred Downey Broxon
  • Mysterious Doings in the Metropolitan Museum - (1974) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
  • M Is for the Many - (1974) - shortstory by J. J. Russ
  • The Night Wind - (1974) - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
  • Survival Problems - (1974) - shortstory by Kris Neville
  • Passion Play - (1974) - shortstory by Michael Reaves
  • The Rubber Bend - (1974) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
  • But As a Soldier, For His Country - (1974) - shortstory by Stephen Goldin
  • The Ramparts - (1974) - novelette by Hilary Bailey

Universe 6

Universe: Book 6

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Journey to the Heartland - (1976) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
  • What Did You Do Last Year? - (1976) - shortstory by Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund
  • Custer's Last Jump - (1976) - novelette by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop
  • The Wine Has Been Left Open Too Long and the Memory Has Gone Flat - (1976) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
  • Under the Generator - (1976) - novelette by John Shirley
  • Stars and Darkness - (1976) - shortstory by Glenn Chang
  • Shifting Parameters in Disappearance and Memory - (1976) - shortstory by Charlie Haas

Universe 7

Universe: Book 7

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • A Rite of Spring - (1977) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
  • My Lady of the Psychiatric Sorrows - (1977) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
  • Probability Storm - (1977) - novella by Julian Reid
  • People Reviews - (1977) - shortstory by Rob Chilson
  • Ibid. - (1977) - novelette by George Alec Effinger
  • The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton - (1977) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
  • Brain Fever Season - (1977) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
  • The Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven and Other Lost Songs - (1977) - novelette by Carter Scholz

Universe 8

Universe: Book 8

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Old Folks at Home - (1978) - novella by Michael Bishop
  • David and Lindy - (1978) - novelette by Cynthia Felice
  • Vermeer's Window - (1978) - shortstory by Gordon Eklund
  • Scattershot - (1978) - novelette by Greg Bear
  • The Ecologically Correct House - (1978) - shortstory by Charles Ott
  • Hunting - (1978) - novelette by Michael Cassutt
  • Nooncoming - (1978) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
  • Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies - (1978) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty

Universe 9

Universe: Book 9

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Frost Animals - (1979) - novelette by Bob Shaw
  • Nuclear Fission - (1979) - novelette by Paul David Novitski
  • Time Shards - (1979) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
  • The Captain and the Kid - (1979) - shortstory by Marta Randall
  • The Back Road - (1979) - shortstory by Mary C. Pangborn
  • Will the Chill - (1979) - novelette by John Shirley
  • Chicken of the Tree - (1979) - shortstory by Juleen Brantingham
  • The White Horse Child - (1979) - shortstory by Greg Bear
  • Options - (1979) - novelette by John Varley

Universe 10

Universe: Book 10

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Saving Face - (1980) - novelette by Michael Bishop
  • A Source of Innocent Merriment - (1980) - shortstory by James Tiptree, Jr.
  • And All the Skies Are Full of Fish - (1980) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
  • Bête et Noir - (1980) - novelette by Lee Killough
  • The Ugly Chickens - (1980) - novelette by Howard Waldrop
  • SUPERL - (1980) - shortstory by Charles E. Elliott
  • Report of the Special Committee on the Quality of Life - (1980) - shortstory by Harry Turtledove
  • The Confession of Hamo - (1980) - shortstory by Mary C. Pangborn
  • The Johann Sebastian Bach Memorial Barbecue and Nervous Breakdown - (1980) - shortstory by Carter Scholz
  • First Person Plural - (1980) - novella by F. M. Busby

Universe 11

Universe: Book 11

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • The Quickening - (1981) - novelette by Michael Bishop
  • The Snake Who Had Read Chomsky - (1981) - novelette by Josephine Saxton
  • Shadows on the Cave Wall - (1981) - novelette by Nancy Kress
  • The Gernsback Continuum - (1981) - shortstory by William Gibson
  • Venice Drowned - (1981) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • In Reticulum - (1981) - novelette by Carter Scholz
  • Jean Sandwich, the Sponsor, and I - (1981) - shortstory by Ian Watson
  • The Start of the End of the World - (1981) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
  • Mummer Kiss - (1981) - novelette by Michael Swanwick

Universe 12

Universe: Book 12

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1982) - essay by Terry Carr
  • A Pursuit of Miracles - (1982) - novelette by George Turner
  • Exploring Fossil Canyon - (1982) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • God's Hooks! - (1982) - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
  • Talp Hunt - (1982) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
  • When the Fathers Go - (1982) - novelette by Bruce McAllister
  • Thieving Bear Planet - (1982) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
  • The Sorcerer's Apprentice - (1982) - novelette by Mary C. Pangborn
  • In Memory of - (1982) - shortstory by James Patrick Kelly
  • Helen, Whose Face Launched Twenty-Eight Conestoga Hovercraft - (1982) - novelette by Leigh Kennedy

Universe 13

Universe: Book 13

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Her Habiline Husband - (1983) - novella by Michael Bishop
  • The Width of the World - (1983) - shortstory by Ian Watson
  • Stone Eggs - (1983) - shortstory by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Widow and the Body Sitter - (1983) - shortstory by Bill Bickel
  • The Taylorsville Reconstruction - (1983) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
  • A Way Back - (1983) - shortstory by Leanne Frahm
  • Cicada Queen - (1983) - novelette by Bruce Sterling

Universe 14

Universe: Book 14

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • The Lucky Strike - (1984) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Gate of Horn, Gate of Ivory - (1984) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
  • Passing as a Flower in the City of the Dead - (1984) - shortstory by Sharon N. Farber
  • O - (1984) - shortstory by Damon Knight
  • Art in the War Zone - (1984) - novelette by Pat Murphy
  • Interlocking Pieces - (1984) - shortstory by Molly Gloss
  • The Menagerie of Babel - (1984) - novelette by Carter Scholz
  • Deadtime - (1984) - shortstory by Joel Richards
  • Me/Days - (1984) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
  • Black Coral - (1984) - novelette by Lucius Shepard

Universe 15

Universe: Book 15

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Mercurial - (1985) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Paladin of the Lost Hour - (1985) - novelette by Harlan Ellison
  • Giraffe Tuesday - (1985) - shortstory by Juleen Brantingham
  • Evergreen - (1985) - novelette by Arthur Jean Cox
  • Mengele - (1985) - shortstory by Lucius Shepard
  • Originals - (1985) - novelette by Pamela Sargent
  • Johann Sebastian Brahms - (1985) - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
  • Encounter on the Ladder - (1985) - shortstory by Mona A. Clee
  • Tidal Effects - (1985) - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
  • The Slovo Stove - (1985) - novelette by Avram Davidson

Universe 16

Universe: Book 16

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Hotel Mind Slaves - (1986) - novelette by Ronald Anthony Cross
  • At the Flood - (1986) - novelette by Rick Shelley
  • The Idea Trap - (1986) - shortstory by George Zebrowski
  • What Genius - (1986) - shortstory by Gary Konas
  • Was That House Here Yesterday? - (1986) - shortstory by Robert Thurston
  • The Legend of the Seven Who Found the True Egg of Lightning - (1986) - shortstory by Ian Watson
  • Treading in the Afterglow - (1986) - shortstory by Robert Reed
  • Dress Rehearsal - (1986) - shortstory by Martha Soukup
  • Voyage South from Thousand Willows - (1986) - novelette by Lucius Shepard

Universe 17

Universe: Book 17

Terry Carr

Table of Contents:

  • Second Going - (1987) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
  • Mencken Stuff - (1987) - shortstory by Joel Richards
  • Lapidary Nights - (1987) - shortstory by Marta Randall
  • The Man Who Watched the Glaciers Run - (1987) - novelette by Cherie Wilkerson
  • Pliny's Commentaries - (1987) - novelette by Ned Huston
  • In the Tower - (1987) - novelette by Jack McDevitt

Universe 1

Universe (Silverberg & Haber): Book 1

Robert Silverberg
Karen Haber

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Robert Silverberg
  • The Translator - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The City of Ultimate Freedom - short story by Geoffrey A. Landis
  • The Shobies' Story - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • One Night in Television City - short story by Paul Di Filippo
  • Playback - short story by Barry N. Malzberg
  • Moon Blood - short story by M. J. Engh
  • And of the Earth, a Womb - novelette by John M. Landsberg
  • Alimentary Tract - novelette by Scott Baker
  • The Songs the Anemone Sing - short story by Grania Davis
  • Alien Used Cars - short story by Richard R. Smith
  • O Time Your Pyramids - short story by Gregor Hartmann
  • The Shores of Bohemia - novelette by Bruce Sterling
  • The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum - short story by James Patrick Kelly
  • Whalesong - novelette by Stoney Compton
  • River of the Dying - novelette by Augustine Funnell
  • The Book of St. Farrin - novelette by Jamil Nasir
  • Bumpie (TM) - novelette by Francis Valéry (trans. of Bumpie™ 1988)
  • Love is a Drug - short story by Leah Alpert
  • 1099 A. G. F - short story by K. Hernandez-Brun
  • Daniel's Labyrinth - novelette by Damian Kilby

Universe 2

Universe (Silverberg & Haber): Book 2

Robert Silverberg
Karen Haber

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Robert Silverberg
  • Life on the Artificial Heart - novelette by Mark W. Tiedemann
  • Automatic Death - novelette by Cary James
  • Waterworld, or All the Way Down - short story by John K. Gibbons
  • Another Way Than Death - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
  • That Particular Green of Obsequies - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
  • The Ancestral Home of Thought - (1980) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
  • The Cool Equations - short story by Deborah Wessell
  • The Fire the Fire - short story by Alex Jeffers
  • The Sum of All Potentials - short story by John M. Landsberg
  • Most Politely, Most Politely - short story by Barry N. Malzberg
  • Souls in the Great Machine - novelette by Sean McMullen
  • Lost in Transmission - short story by Tony Daniel
  • Job Security - short story by Joe Haldeman
  • The Passing of the Eclipse - novelette by Donna Farley
  • Forty at the Kiosk - short story by Nicholas A. DiChario
  • By the Mirror of My Youth - short story by Kathe Koja
  • Memories of Muriel - novelette by Paula May
  • Waiting for the Rain - short story by Dirk Strasser
  • Program's Progress - short story by Jonathan Lethem
  • The Shining Place - short story by Jamil Nasir
  • Triad - novelette by Lisa Mason
  • (from) The Bridge - novelette by Alex Jeffers
  • Burning Bush - novelette by Carolyn Gilman
  • Metal Teeth - short story by Lou Fisher

Universe 3

Universe (Silverberg & Haber): Book 3

Robert Silverberg
Karen Haber

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Robert Silverberg
  • The Cure - short story by Joe Haldeman
  • Composition with Barbarian and Animal - novella by Alex Jeffers
  • Transcript of "Yandal" - novelette by Terry Boren
  • Dirtyside Down - (1991) - short story by Wil McCarthy
  • Let Me Count the Ways - short story by Larry Tritten
  • Moths to the Blue Flame - novelette by E. Michael Blake
  • Black Memes - short story by Jamil Nasir
  • Neezies - short story by Mary A. Turzillo
  • The Enemies of Nickel City - short story by Nicholas A. DiChario
  • The Only Thing You Learn - short story by Barry N. Malzberg
  • The Pigeonhole Principle - novella by David Ira Cleary
  • Going West - novelette by Phillip C. Jennings
  • McGregor - short story by Paul Di Filippo
  • The Apples of Venus - novella by Mark Rich
  • The Madonna of Futurity - novella by Brian W. Aldiss

The Walls of the Universe

Universe Trilogy: Book 1

Paul Melko

John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming through universes, unable to return home - the device is broken. John settles in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it.

Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercial technology he's stolen from other Earths: the Rubik's Cube! John's attempts to lie low in his new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball. It becomes a huge success. Both actions draw the notice of other, more dangerous travelers, who are exploiting worlds for ominous purposes. Fast-paced and exciting, this is SF adventure at its best from a rising star.

Broken Universe

Universe Trilogy: Book 2

Paul Melko

A thrilling adventure that spans alternate universes, filled with multiple doppelgängers, transdimensional corporate takeovers, and a struggle for survival across the multiverse.

Possessing technology that allows him to travel across alternate worlds, John Rayburn begins building a transdimensional commercial empire, led by him, his closest friends, and their doppelgängers from several different parallel universes. But not every version of every person is the same, and their agendas do not always coincide.

Despite their benign intentions, the group’s activities draw unwanted attention from other dimensional travelers who covet their technology and will kill anyone to control it, a threat that culminates in a nuclear standoff for dominance throughout the multiverse.

Life in the Extreme

Uplift Universe

David Brin

This short story originally appeared in Popular Science, August 1998. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 4 (1999), edited by David G. Hartwell. The story is included in the collection Tomorrow Happens (2003).

Tales of the Wold Newton Universe

Wold Newton

Win Scott Eckert
Christopher Paul Carey

A collection of Wold Newton-inspired short stories by Farmerphiles, experts, and the Grand Master of SF himself.A real meteorite fell near Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795, and was found to be radioactive, causing genetic mutations in the occupants of a passing coach. Many of their descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good, or, as the case may be, evil deeds.

Table of Contents:

  • The Wold Newton Tales of Philip José Farmer - essay by Win Scott Eckert and Christopher Paul Carey
  • The Problem of the Sore Bridge -- Among Others - (1975) - novelette by Philip José Farmer (as Harry Manders)
  • A Scarletin Study - (1975) - novelette by Philip José Farmer (as Jnathan Swift Somers, III)
  • The Doge Whose Barque Was Worse Than His Bight - (1976) - novelette by Philip José Farmer (as Jonathan Swift Somers, III)
  • Skinburn - (1972) - short story by Philip José Farmer
  • The Freshman - (1979) - short story by Philip José Farmer
  • After King Kong Fell - (1973) - short story by Philip José Farmer
  • Kwasin and the Bear God - (2011) - novella by Philip José Farmer and Christopher Paul Carey
  • Into Time's Abyss - (2011) - short story by John Allen Small
  • The Last of the Guaranys - (2012) - novelette by Octavio Aragão and Carlos Orsi
  • The Wild Huntsman - (2012) - novelette by Win Scott Eckert
  • Postscript (The Wild Huntsman) - essay by Win Scott Eckert

Maker of Universes

World of Tiers: Book 1

Philip José Farmer

When Robert Wolff found a strange horn in an empty house, he held the key to a different universe. To blow that horn would open up a door through space-time and permit entry to a cosmos whose dimensions and laws were not those known by our starry galaxy.

For that other universe was a place of tiers, world upon world piled upon each other like the landings of a sky piercing mountain. The one to blow that horn would ascend those steps, from creation to creation, until he would come face to face with the being whose brain-child it was. But what if that maker of universes was a madman? Or an imposter? Or a super-criminal hiding from the wrath of his own superiors?

A Fire Born of Exile

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

The Scattered Pearls Belt is a string of habitats on the edge of a huge galactic empire--a glittering, decadent society rife with corruption. Now, one of its victims--Qu?nh, a scholar betrayed and left for dead--has come back for her revenge, under the guise of the glamorous and enigmatic Alchemist of Streams and Hills.

Qu?nh's path intersects that of Minh, the daughter of one of her oldest enemies, who chafes at her own lack of freedom; and of Hoà, a near-destitute engineer who poses a threat to all Qu?nh's careful plans. Qu?nh finds herself inexorably attracted to Hoà, even as her plans upend the fragile political equilibrium of the Belt.

Falling in love wasn't part of Qu?nh's plans; but will she be able to grasp this second chance at happiness, or will she cling on to a revenge that may well consume her whole?

A Hundred and Seventy Storms

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 11, July-August 2016.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

A Salvaging of Ghosts

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Short story in De Bodard's Xuya universe. It originally appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #195, March 17, 2016. It is also included in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 11 (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Butterfly, Falling at Dawn

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This novelette originally appeared in Interzone, #219 December 2008. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection (2009), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Crossing the Midday Gate

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This short story originally appeared in the anthology To Shape the Dark (2016), edited by Athena Andreadis, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, October 2017.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Fleeing Tezcatlipoca

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Novelette in De Bodard's Xuya setting. It originally appeared in Space and Time, #111, Summer 2010.

Immersion

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

A Xuya universe story. Winner, Locus and Nebula Award, 2012; shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the British Science Fiction Association Award, 2012.

The story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #69 June 2012. It can also be found in the anthologies:

Read this story online for free at Clarkesworld.

In Blue Lily's Wake

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Meeting Infinity (2015), and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 22, May-June 2018. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 1 (2016), edited by Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

In the Shadow of the Ship

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

When she was sixteen, Khuyên left behind her family, the decaying sentient spaceship Nightjar, and the Tribute - the regular disappearances of children offered to Nightjar. She's never once looked back.

But now, her grandmother has passed away and duty dictates that Khuyên the adult, Khuyên the magistrate, must return to Nightjar for the funeral. Yet it's also a return to the past: children are still disappearing, and worst of all, after making cryptic statements, her cousin Anh vanishes.

Accompanied by Th?o, an alluring and mysterious woman who seems to know too much about her and Nightjar, Khuyên sets out to save Anh. But saving Anh requires Khuyên to do what she could not in the past: she will have make her own stand against Nightjar. And only when Khuyên can find her own strength will she be able to build a future - one that might well include Th-o.

Navigational Entanglements

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Jockeying navigator clans guide spaceships through the Hollows: an area of space populated by the mysterious but deadly creatures known as Tanglers. When a Tangler escapes the Hollows for the first time in living memory, each clan must send a representative to help capture it - but the mission may be doomed and the hearts of two clan juniors may be in danger too.

Vi?t Nhi is not good with people. Or politics. Which is a problem when the Rooster clan sends her on the mission against her will, forcing her to work with an ill-matched group of squabbling teammates from rival clans, including one who she can't avoid, and maybe doesn't want to.

H?c Cúc of the Snake clan has always been better at poisoning and stabbing than at making friends, but she's drawn to Nhi's perceptiveness and obliviousness to social conventions?including the ones that really should make Nhi think twice about spending time with her.

But when their imperial envoy and nominal leader is poisoned, this crew of expendable apprentices will have to learn to work together - fast - before the invisible Tangler can wreak havoc on a civilian city and destroy the fragile reputation of the clans. Along the way, Nhi and H?c Cúc will have to learn the hardest lesson of all: to see past their own misconceptions and learn to trust their growing feelings for each other.

On a Red Station, Drifting

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Novella

For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station's artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives.

But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper's brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station's resources. As deprivations cause the station's ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe. What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance...

Pearl

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (2016), edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2 (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

Scattered Along the River of Heaven

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This story in de Bodard's Xuya universe originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #64 January 2012. It has been anthologized in The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2013 Edition, edited by Rich Horton and Clarkesworld: Year Six (2014), edited by Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Seven of Infinities

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student.

Sunless Woods is a mindship – and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She's come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân's resolute integrity.

When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân's student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship – and to the devastating secrets they've kept from each other.

Shipbirth

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

2012 Nebula Award Nominee. Aztecs in space and more...


Read this story online for free at the author's website.

Ship's Brother

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Short story in de Bodard's Xuya universe. It originally appeared in Interzone, #241 July-August 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013), edited by Gardner Dozois

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

The Breath of War

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

A Xuya science fantasy story published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March 2014. Finalist for a Nebula Award for Best Short Story (2014). It can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Awards Showcase 2016, edited by Mercedes Lackey, and The Long List Anthology: More Stories from the Hugo Awards Nomination List, edited by David Steffen.

Read this story online for free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Locus Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2015. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2016, edited by Paula Guran.

The Days of the War, as Red as Blood, as Dark as Bile

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Short story set in de Bodard's Xuya universe. It was originally published in Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2014. I can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015), edited by Gardner Dozois and Warrior Women (2015) edited by Paula Guran.

Read the full story for free at Subterranean Magazine.

The Dragon That Flew Out of the Sun

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies (2017), edited by John Joseph Adams, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 27, March-April 2019. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

The Jaguar House, in Shadow

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Originally published in Asimov's, July 2010 issue.


Read this story online for free at the author's website.

The Red Scholar's Wake

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

When tech scavenger Xích Si is captured and imprisoned by the infamous pirates of the Red Banner, she expects to be tortured or killed. Instead, their leader, Rice Fish, makes Xích Si an utterly incredible proposition: an offer of marriage.

Both have their reasons for this arrangement: Xích Si needs protection; Rice Fish, a sentient spaceship, needs a technical expert to investigate the death of her first wife, the Red Scholar. That's all there is to it.

But as the interstellar war against piracy rages on and their own investigation reaches a dire conclusion, the two of them discover that their arrangement has evolved into something much less business-focused and more personal... and tender. And maybe the best thing that's ever happened to either of them--but only if they can find a way to survive together.

The Shipmaker

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

A Xuya universe story. Winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award, 2010. The story originally appeared in Interzone, #231 November-December 2010, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld, #124, January 2017. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (2011), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Robots: The Recent A. I. (2012), edited by Rich Horton and Sean Wallace.

Read this story online for free at Interzone (PDF), or at Clarkesworld.

The Tea Master and the Detective

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

Nebula Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated Novella

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appareance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow's Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow's Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow's Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim's past, The Shadow's Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau's own murky past--and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars...

The Waiting Stars

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

A Xuya universe story. Nebula Award for Best Novelette, 2013. Shortlisted for the Hugo and Locus Award, 2013. It was originally published in the anthology The Other Half of the Sky (2013), edited by Athena Andreadis and Kay Holt. It has been reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois, the Nebula Awards Showcase 2015, edited by Greg Bear, and Galactic Empires (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

Read this story online for free at the author's website, at Lightspeed, or at Clarkesword.

Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This BSFA winning story in De Bodard's Xuya universe originally appeared in Clarkesworld, Issue 100, January 2015. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Clarkesworld Year Nine: Volume One (2018), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Two Sisters in Exile

Xuya Universe

Aliette de Bodard

This story was originally published in Solaris Rising 1.5: An Exclusive Ebook of New Science Fiction (2012), edited by Ian Whates. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 18 (2013), edited by David G. Hartwell.