The Waiting Stars


Aliette de Bodard - 2013
    Holt.Reprinted in Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection, and later in Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue #129~~~The derelict ship ward was in an isolated section of Outsider space, one of the numerous spots left blank on interstellar maps, no more or no less tantalising than its neighbouring quadrants. To most people, it would be just that: a boring part of a long journey to be avoided–skipped over by Mind-ships as they cut through deep space, passed around at low speeds by Outsider ships while their passengers slept in their hibernation cradles.

Exile's End


Carolyn Ives Gilman - 2020
    An artifact of indescribable and irreplicable beauty created by an "extinct" culture has been the basis of another culture's origin stories. The race who created the artifact has survived on a distant world and has sent a representative to reclaim it, throwing everything into question. Inspired by the SF camp in Danzhai, China, which is co-hosted by the Future Administration Authority (FAA) and Wanda Group.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Flowers of Vashnoi


Lois McMaster Bujold - 2018
    When Enrique’s experimental bioengineered creatures go missing, the pair discover that the zone still conceals deadly old secrets. This novella falls after Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance in the Vorkosigan series timeline, but may be read entirely independently.

Dress Your Marines in White


Emmy Laybourne - 2012
    Like one of many, many he’d written up in the past. Except this time, several of the test subjects are dead…”At first, Dr. James Cutlass had thought his new job at NORAD was thrilling and full of opportunities, but that was before the demonstration… “Dress Your Marines in White” is the story of the terrifying choices surrounding a chemical weapons demonstration gone horribly wrong.DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE is a prequel to Monument 14.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Night Flights


Philip Reeve - 2018
    A key character in the Mortal Engines book and upcoming film produced by Peter Jackson (December 2018), this is your chance to learn more of Anna's thrilling past. Night Flights includes Traction City, Philip Reeve's 2011 World Book Day Book.In a dangerous future world where gigantic, motorized cities attack and devour each other, London hunts where no other predator dares. But Anna Fang -- pilot, adventurer, spy -- isn't afraid.The three stories show gripping, moving, exciting moments in Anna Fang's life: her childhood as a slave aboard the moving city Arkangel, a showdown against a robotic Stalker that is terrifyingly out of control, and her free life as an intelligence agent for the Anti-Traction league ...

The Destroyer


Tara Isabella Burton - 2016
    The test subject? Her own daughter. A mother-daughter mad scientist story, "The Destroyer" asks how far we'll go to secure our own legacies — and how far we'll run to escape them.

Invitations: A Foreigner short story


C.J. Cherryh
    Every friendship has a meeting. Every job has a first day. This is Bren's.

The People of Sand and Slag


Paolo Bacigalupi - 2004
    It was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 2004.

A Tall Tail


Charles Stross - 2012
    From the author of Rule 34 and Halting State, a tale of deception, engineering, and the most unlikely rocket propulsion technology imaginable.

This Night So Dark


Amie Kaufman - 2014
    Now he and Lilac reconcile his memories of that night with the truth uncovered after the crash. Short connects first two novels. Includes preview chapter from This Shattered World.

Iron to Iron


Ryan Graudin - 2016
    If he can accomplish that, maybe his father will finally see him as a worthy son. He's completed the grueling trek from Germania to Tokyo before, but this time is different. Luka never expected to meet Adele Wolfe, another racer posing as her twin brother and with a singular dream--to live life on her own terms.When Luka and Adele form an alliance, an unlikely bond forms, and even possibly love. But only one person can win the Axis Tour....Can everything Luka and Adele built together survive the race?Word count: 24000

Press Start to Play


Daniel H. WilsonSeanan McGuire - 2015
    The humble, pixelated games of the ‘70s and ‘80s have evolved into the vivid, realistic, and immersive form of entertainment that now rivals all other forms of media for dominance in the consumer marketplace. For many, video games have become the cultural icons around which pop culture revolves.PRESS START TO PLAY is an anthology of stories inspired by video games: stories that attempt to recreate the feel of a video game in prose form; stories that play with the concepts common (or exclusive) to video games; and stories about the creation of video games and/or about the video games—or the gamers—themselves.These stories will appeal to anyone who has interacted with games, from hardcore teenaged fanatics, to men and women who game after their children have gone to bed, to your well-meaning aunt who won’t stop inviting you to join her farm-based Facebook games.At the helm of this project are Daniel H. Wilson—bestselling novelist and expert in artificial intelligence—and John Joseph Adams—bestselling, Hugo Award-nominated editor of more than a dozen science fiction/fantasy anthologies and series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy (volume one forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin in 2015). Together, they have drawn on their wide-ranging contacts to assemble an incredibly talented group of authors who are eager to attack the topic of video games from startling and fascinating angles.Under the direction of an A.I. specialist and a veteran editor, the anthology will expose readers to a strategically chosen mix of stories that explore novel video game concepts in prose narratives, such as save points, kill screens, gold-farming, respawning, first-person shooters, unlocking achievements, and getting “pwned.” Likewise, each of our authors is an accomplished specialist in areas such as science fiction, fantasy, and techno-thrillers, and many have experience writing for video games professionally.Combining unique viewpoints and exacting realism, this anthology promises to thrill generations of readers, from those who grew up with Atari 2600s to the console and PC gamers of today.

The Martian Obelisk


Linda Nagata - 2017
    A story about an architect on Earth commissioned to create (via long distance) a masterwork with materials from the last abandoned Martian colony, a monument that will last thousands of years longer than Earth, which is dying.

Loss of Signal


S.B. Divya - 2018
    The first mind to circle the moon without a body in tow. It's a golden opportunity, perhaps the only chance for a 19-year-old whose body failed him to become immortal. But as he reaches the dark side of the moon and loses signal from Earth, the cold of space threatens to overwhelm him, in S.B. Divya's engrossing Tor.com Original short story, Loss of Signal.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Our King and His Court


Rich Larson - 2018
    "Our King and His Court" by Rich Larson is a futuristic story about a high-ranking soldier in a criminal gang who has conflicting loyalties to his monstrous boss and that boss’s innocent young son.