New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month. We are a 2013 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine! FICTION Perfect by Haddayr Copley-Woods Steel Snowflakes in My Skull by Tom Piccirilli The Cultist's Son by Ferrett Steinmetz Repairing the World by John Chu Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary by Pamela Dean (eBook/subscriber exclusive) The Violent Century (extract) by Lavie Tidhar (eBook/subscriber exclusive) POETRY Cogs by Beth Cato Unlabelled Core c. Zanclean (5.33 Ma) by Michele Bannister Tell Me the World is a Forest by Chris Lynch Aristeia by Sonya Taaffe NONFICTION Resolute: Notes from the Editor-in-Chief by Sigrid Ellis Interview with Cover Artist Mehrdad Isvandi by Loraine Sammy Interview with Ferrett Steinmetz by Maggie Slater After Our Bodies Fail by Abra Staffin-Wiebe Cover art by Mehrdad Isvandi Edited by Sigrid Ellis

    War and oppression are everyday constants for the people of the Badlands, who live under the thumb of their cruel Godolia overlords.Eris Shindanai is a Gearbreaker, a brash young rebel who specializes in taking down Windups from the inside. When one of her missions goes awry and she finds herself in a Godolia prison, Eris meets Sona Steelcrest, a cybernetically enhanced Windup pilot. At first Eris sees Sona as her mortal enemy, but Sona has a secret: She has intentionally infiltrated the Windup program to destroy Godolia from within.As the clock ticks down to their deadliest mission yet, a direct attack to end Godolia's reign once and for all, Eris and Sona grow closer--as comrades, friends, and perhaps something more...

    It's time for retirement, freedom from the tedious drudgery of his job as a data clerk. Time to explore parts of the city he's never seen before, and hopefully meet some people other than his Deacon or his health monitor. And at the end of the month? Time to die.Will runs the counter at the historic coffee shop, and when he talks, he sounds just like an old-time data feed. He's nothing like anyone Ernest has ever met—which isn't saying much—but still, something about him simply doesn't parse.

    After leaving her homeland Russia, she is sent to live with her aunt in America. Nina tries to adjust to a new life with her homophobic cousins and American high school. But then things begins to take a new turn when the enigmatic Allecra Knight, a blonde mystery who seems to bring Nina's day both the sunshine and dark storm. There is a spark of something unusual between them, but it comes with an underlying cost. Allecra Knight has a secret and a big one at that. There is something different about her that fascinates Nina but at the same time terrifies her. Will she prefer a normal peaceful existence or find the courage to explore the unknown?

    Le Guin and Sheri S. Tepper, in which an innocent young woman becomes entangled in a web of ancient secrets and deadly lies that lie at the dark center of her prosperous island world.Eliana is a model citizen of the island, a weaver in the prestigious House of Webs. She also harbors a dangerous secret—she can dream, an ability forbidden by the island’s elusive council of elders. No one talks about the dreamers, the undesirables ostracized from society.But the web of protection Eliana has woven around herself begins to unravel when a young girl is found lying unconscious in a pool of blood on the stones outside the house. Robbed of speech by her attackers, the only clue to her identity is one word tattooed in invisible ink across her palm: Eliana. Why does this mysterious girl bear her name? What links her to the weaver—and how can she hold Eliana’s fate in her hand? As Eliana finds herself growing closer to this injured girl she is bound to in ways she doesn’t understand, the enchanting lies of the island begin to crumble, revealing a deep and ancient corruption. Joining a band of brave rebels determined to expose the island’s dark secrets, Eliana becomes a target of ruthless forces determined to destroy her. To save herself and those she loves, she must call on the power within her she thought was her greatest weakness: her dreams.

    She didn't imagine herself crawling through abandoned mine shafts, scrounging for rusty pickaxes and gold pans to sell on auction sites, but Indiana Jones didn't have to make student loan payments.Scouring the mountains of Arizona with Simon, her best friend and computer geek extraordinaire, Delia dreams of turning their scavenging enterprise into a legitimate business. More, she longs to earn the respect of peers who shun her for turning into a treasure hunter. What she doesn't dream of is stumbling across a decapitated body in an old mine near Prescott.Something dangerous has come to the mountains, and a pair of Harley-riding strangers are the only ones who seem to have a clue. They speak a language Delia has never heard and carry mysterious artifacts she's never seen. Investigating these strangers might lead her to discoveries that change the face of archaeology forever... or it might lead her and her best friend into a deadly monster's lair.

    While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

    Alone on her island, she has exiled herself to a life of tending watery graves as penance for a long-ago mistake that still haunts her. Meanwhile, North works as a circus performer with the Excalibur, a floating troupe of acrobats, clowns, dancers, and trainers who sail from one archipelago to the next, entertaining in exchange for sustenance. In a world divided between those inhabiting the mainland ("landlockers") and those who float on the sea ("damplings"), loneliness has become a way of life for North and Callanish, until a sudden storm offshore brings change to both their lives - offering them a new understanding of the world they live in and the consequences of the past, while restoring hope in an unexpected future. Inspired in part by Scottish myths and fairytales, The Gracekeepers tells a modern story of an irreparably changed world: one that harbors the same isolation and sadness, but also joys and marvels of our own age.

    Fearing his son will never know his father, Dave pens a gripping text--part memoir, part deranged philosophical treatise, and part handbook of "the Knowledge" learned by all London cab drivers. Meant for the boy when he comes of age, the book captures the frustration and anxiety of modern life. Five hundred years later, the Book of Dave is discovered by the inhabitants on the island of Ham, where it becomes a sacred text of biblical proportion, and its author is revered as a mighty prophet.

    Outrun the Galaxy.Tina never worries about being ‘ordinary’—she doesn’t have to, since she’s known practically forever that she’s not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter. She’s also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day soon, it’s going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible. Tina’s legacy, after all, is intergalactic—she is the hidden clone of a famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil.But when the beacon activates, it turns out that Tina’s destiny isn’t quite what she expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed. Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachael, and she is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she’ll have to save herself.Buckle up your seatbelt for this thrilling sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders.

    Told in the beguiling voice of a narrator who is fish, snake, girl, and woman - all of whom must struggle against adversity for survival - the novel is set alternately in nineteenth-century China and in a futuristic Pacific Northwest.At turns whimsical and wry, "Salt Fish Girl" intertwines the story of Nu Wa, the shape-shifter, and that of Miranda, a troubled young girl living in the walled city of Serendipity circa 2044. Miranda is haunted by traces of her mother's glamourous cabaret career, the strange smell of durian fruit that lingers about her, and odd tokens reminiscient of Nu Wa. Could Miranda be infected by the Dreaming Disease that makes the past leak into the present?Framed by a playful sense of magical realism, "Salt Fish Girl" reveals a futuristic Pacific Northwest where corporations govern cities, factory workers are cybernetically engineered, middle-class labour is a video game, and those who haven't sold out to commerce and other ills must fight the evil powers intent on controlling everything. Rich with ancient Chinese mythology and cultural lore, this remarkable novel is about gender, love, honour, intrigue, and fighting against oppression.

    Yet when she meets the beautiful blond poet, Amber Reed, that's exactly what happens. But Meagan finds her relationship with Amber is fraught with just as many anxieties and frustrations as her previous relationships. She struggles to come to terms with her newfound attraction to Amber as she juggles work, familial expectations, and her own guilt and insecurity.At times it seems the only solace she can find is in the cherished moonstone ring her beloved grandmother bestowed upon her before she died, along with some sage advice Meagan is just now beginning to understand. Yet soon Meagan discovers she can’t be the person Amber needs her to be, and when their relationship comes to a dramatic end, Meagan finds herself fleeing to London in an attempt to put the pieces of her life back together. Just when she finally figures out how to make things right, a tragic accident occurs, threatening to undo everything and everyone around her.

    Pratt returns to the series that started it all. Five years have passed since the end of the Madoc/Empire war. When word of his exploits spreads, life at The Ranch grows intolerable as people seek him out for one reason or another. Assuming the moniker, The Dark Mage, he takes steps to ensure his privacy. Despite his best efforts, soldiers led by a mage of great power lay siege to his island. During the battle, one of James' unfinished experiments inadvertently activates, causing him, Jiron, and Jiron's daughter Jira, to be sent to Earth. James is soon to learn that magic is no longer at his beck and call. To make matters worse, their arrival upon Earth precipitates a fire blast, making them wanted men. Somehow, James must find a way back to Jiron's home world before running afoul of the authorities. But how can he, if he can't even perform the most basic of spells? Earth is truly a land barren of magic.

    The car is packed to capacity, and as midnight approaches, a family flees the city in a fit of panic and paranoid, conflicting emotions. The ensuing journey spans decades and offers a sharp-eyed perspective on a hardscrabble future, as a boy jettisons his family and all other ties in order to survive as a journeyman in an uncertain landscape. By turns led by love, larceny, and a new sexual order, he must avoid capture and imprisonment, starvation, pandemic, and some particularly bad weather. In Things We Didn’t See Coming, Steven Amsterdam links together nine luminous narratives through the mind of one peripatetic and resourceful wanderer who always has one eye on the exit door and the other on a future that shifts more drastically and more often than anyone would like to imagine.

    Kate Morrison doesn’t know how or why someone would create human bombs that are triggered by touch. But when Sergeant Andy Wyles blocks Kate from touching the patient who collapses in her Vancouver ER, Kate joins the investigation to demand answers, regardless of the danger. As the two women work together to find those responsible for creating an army of human weapons, Kate finds it increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings for the fiercely protective and unrelentingly perceptive cop. The investigation escalates, and Kate gradually begins to trust Andy, not only with her safety but also with the difficult details of her past. With lives at risk and her heart on the line, Kate must search for a way to defuse the bombs and save her patients, even as she questions the intensifying connection between herself and Andy.