Book picks similar to
The Best We Can by Carrie Vaughn
short-stories
science-fiction
sci-fi
levar-burton-reads
Master Imus's Transgression
Dan Abnett - 2011
Inquisitor Eisenhorn investigates, and finds that the trail laid by this unassuming servant of the Imperium leads to unexpected places and a dangerous showdown.
The Tea Master and the Detective
Aliette de Bodard - 2018
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 Future is Female! Women's Science Fiction Stories from the Pulp Era to the New Wave
Lisa Yaszek - 2018
Now, two hundred years after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, SF-expert Lisa Yaszek presents the best of the female tradition in American science fiction, in the most comprehensive collection of its kind ever published. From Pulp Era pioneers to New Wave experimentalists, here are over two dozen brilliant writers ripe for discovery and rediscovery, including Leslie F. Stone ("The Conquest of Gola," 1931), Judith Merril ("That Only a Mother," 1948), Leigh Brackett ("All the Colors of the Rainbow," 1957), Kit Reed ("The New You," 1962), Joanna Russ ("The Barbarian," 1968); Ursula K. Le Guin ("Nine Lives," 1969), and James Tiptree Jr. ("Last Flight of Dr. Ain," 1969). Imagining strange worlds and unexpected futures, looking into and beyond new technologies and scientific discoveries, in utopian fantasies and tales of cosmic horror, these women created and shaped speculative fiction as surely as their male counterparts. Their provocative, mind-blowing stories combine to form a thrilling multidimensional voyage of literary-feminist exploration and recovery.Contents:Introduction / Lisa Yaszek --The miracle of the lily / Clare Winger Harris --The conquest of Gola / Leslie F. Stone --The black god's kiss / C. L. Moore --Space episode / Leslie Perri --That only a mother / Judith Merril --In hiding / Wilmar H. Shiras --Contagion / Katherine Maclean --The inhabited men / Margaret St. Clair --Ararat / Zenna Henderson --All cats are gray / Andrew North --Created he them / Alice Eleanor Jones --Mr. Sakrison's halt / Mildred Clingerman --All the colors of the rainbow / Leigh brackett --Pelt / Carol Emshwiller --Car pool / Rosel George Brown --For sale, reasonable / Elizabeth Mann Borgese --Birth of a gardener / Doris Pitkin Buck --The tunnel ahead / Alice Glaser --The new you / Kit Reed --Another rib / John Jay Wells & Marion Zimmer Bradley --When I was Miss Dow / Sonya Dorman --Baby, you were great / Kate Wilhelm --The barbarian / Joanna Russ --The last flight of Dr. Ain / James Tiptree Jr --Nine lives / Ursula K Le Guin --Biographical notes.
Sleeper
Jo Walton - 2014
And from more directions.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
Resistance Reborn
Rebecca Roanhorse - 2019
In this Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novel, Poe Dameron, General Leia Organa, Rey, and Finn must struggle to rebuild the Resistance after their defeat at the hands of the First Order in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Two Truths and a Lie
Sarah Pinsker - 2020
But he does remember. And so does her mom. So why doesn’t Stella? The more she investigates the show and the grip it has on her hometown, the eerier the mystery grows.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Only Harmless Great Thing
Brooke Bolander - 2018
Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.These are the facts.Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.
All the Names They Used for God
Anjali Sachdeva - 2018
Her story "Pleiades" was called "a masterpiece" by Dave Eggers. Sachdeva has a talent for creating moving and poignant scenes, following her highly imaginative plots to their logical ends, and depicting how one small miracle can affect everyone in its wake.The world by night --Glass-lung --Logging lake --Killer of kings --All the names for God --Robert Greenman and the mermaid --Anything you might want --Manus --Pleiades
The Dark Dark
Samantha Hunt - 2017
An FBI agent falls in love with a robot built for a suicide mission. A young woman unintentionally cheats on her husband when she is transformed, nightly, into a deer. Two strangers become lovers and find themselves somehow responsible for the resurrection of a dog. A woman tries to start her life anew after the loss of a child but cannot help riddling that new life with lies. Thirteen pregnant teenagers develop a strange relationship with the Founding Fathers of American history. A lonely woman’s fertility treatments become the stuff of science fiction.Magic intrudes. Technology betrays and disappoints. Infidelities lead us beyond the usual conflict. Our bodies change, reproduce, decay, and surprise. With her characteristic unguarded gaze and offbeat humor, Hunt has conjured stories that urge an understanding of youth and mortality, magnification and loss, and hold out the hope that we can know one another more deeply or at least stand side by side to observe the mystery of the world.
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Harlan Ellison - 1967
It was first published in the March 1967 issue of IF: Worlds of Science Fiction.It won a Hugo Award in 1968. The name was also used for a short story collection of Ellison's work, featuring this story. It was recently reprinted by the Library of America, collected in volume two (Terror and the Uncanny, from the 1940s to Now) of American Fantastic Tales (2009).
Where There's Smoke
Jodi Picoult - 2014
Now, in this original short story, available exclusively as an eBook, Picoult introduces Serenity Jones, one of the fascinating characters from her eagerly awaited new novel, Leaving Time. Even as a child, Serenity Jones knew she possessed unusual psychic gifts. Now, decades later, she’s an acclaimed medium and host of her own widely viewed TV show, where she delivers messages to the living from loved ones who have passed. Lately, though, her efforts to boost ratings and garner fame have compromised her clairvoyant instincts. When Serenity books a young war widow to appear as a guest, the episode quickly unravels, stirring up a troubling controversy. And as she tries to undo the damage—to both her reputation and her show—Serenity finds that pride comes at a high price.
Cold Wind
Nicola Griffith - 2014
"Cold Wind", by Nicola Griffith, is a dark fantasy tale about a woman who enters a Seattle bar on a cold wintry night in the midst of the Christmas holidays, searching for something…or someone.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
As Worlds Collide
Stephen Michell - 2020
This story was first published in THOSE WHO MAKE US: CANADIAN CREATURE, MYTH, AND MONSTER STORIES.
Morning Child and Other Stories
Gardner Dozois - 2004
Contentsvii • Introduction (Morning Child and Other Stories) • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • Morning Child • (1984) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois10 • A Special Kind of Morning • (1971) • novelette by Gardner Dozois59 • The Hanging Curve • (2002) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois73 • A Kingdom by the Sea • (1972) • novelette by Gardner Dozois103 • A Dream at Noonday • (1970) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois119 • Ancestral Voices • (1998) • novella by Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick191 • Fairy Tale • (2003) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois210 • The Peacemaker • (1983) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois230 • Machines of Loving Grace • (1972) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois237 • Chains of the Sea • (1973) • novella by Gardner Dozois
Nightflyers
George R.R. Martin - 1985
Nine misfit academics on an expedition to find the volcryn, a mythic race of intersteller nomads, and the only ship available for this strange quest is the Nightflyer, a cybernetic wonder with a never-seen captain...Nine innocents are about to find themselves in deep space, trapped with an insane murderer who can go anywhere, do anything, and intends to kill them all.