Word Count: 74061
Summary: Peace in the Sky Peace-in-the-Sky awakens, captive, after a brutal head injury. With her fractured memories, she knows only that she must protect her daughter Anissa. Even if Peace-in-the-Sky manages to escape the fierce wasteland tribe holding her captive, she and Anissa face a journey through a blasted landscape inhabited by warring peoples scrabbling for subsistence. To find safety, Peace-in-the-Sky must use her developing power of the pillars-of-flame to clear their path. As her memory reveals the secret of her true nature, her body and mind deteriorate. But nothing can stop her from delivering Anissa to the promised paradise of safety and plenty, even at the expense of her life. Station in the Sky Donna, once Peace-in-the-Sky, awakens aboard Station-in-the-Sky and rejoins a society that had been her home for thousands of years before knowing Anissa. But she soon discovers her fellow stationers have lost sight of their original mandate to protect Earth. Instead, their new plans will threaten all of Earth’s inhabitants. As her memories return, she becomes suspicious her head injury was actually an attack by another stationer. Framed as being faulty, Donna must navigate the eccentricities of the other stationers without being caught, and covertly assemble proof of their plans before they realize she will do anything to keep Earth safe from their meddling.
Word Count: 87700
Summary: What magic does the Library hold? Adopted at birth by a loving family of magic users, fifteen year old Ryn desperately wants to fit in, but the law is clear: only those with documented bloodlines use magic. If Ryn’s birth parents remain unknown, she will be denied the use of magic along with the knowledge and training those ancestors could provide. When Ryn receives an unexpected invitation to search for her legacy in the closely guarded ancestral Library, she leaps at the chance. With its odd passageways and hidden treacherous rooms, the Library holds powerful knowledge, keys to ancient mysteries, and potentially, Ryn’s heritage. To her dismay Ryn’s quest is thwarted by the very tutor who committed to mentoring her. Time is short, and access to the Library will end with her tutor’s departure. If Ryn can’t find her heritage before she comes of age, her chance to become a magic user will disappear. Find out what happens in The Slayer's Magic by C.J. Hosack! Genres: Epic Fantasy / Young Adult / Fantasy Adventure / Gay / LGBT Market: YA, Adult
Word Count: 108540
Summary: The Library is dying. Ryn is finally working in the Ancestral Library, a childhood dream and a way to find her birth parentage. But the magic of the Library is being sabotaged, allowing pests, water damage and worse, while hostile Ancestor Houses are vying to move the books from the location they’ve occupied for a thousand years. Rumors of a secret society bent on sabotage, with only the words “Kill the roots, take the fruits,” leads Ryn and her stepbrother Zo on a chase across Waatch and the ancestor Islands. Three items are a danger to the Library: a rock, and sword, and a branch. Though Ryn has hated being an Ordinary her whole life, it seems the Ordinaries of Waatch, disdained by the Ancestor descendants, might hold the true key to the Library. They might be the only way for Ryn to find the saboteur and items, and save the Library along with any hope of finding her birth family.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: The immortal King Glëa po’Lon is rebuilding the Kingdom of Xol after his hard-won victory ended a civil war. While he plans for perpetual reign, he grapples with the prospect of outliving his aging friends. Meanwhile, distant foes are on the move seeking to challenge his place on the throne. A defeated rebel, Ravel po'Marn, is scarred by talons of an unearthly creature. While struggling to delay her transformation into an inhuman monstrosity, she is also bound by family honor to join her younger brother Candor on his quest for vengeance against the king. With her very humanity at risk, she must do whatever she can to protect her brother… even from himself.
Word Count: 101000
Summary: With a click, the bread fell into the toaster. One circuit fired the heating coils. Others monitored bread temperature and color. Yet another circuit was quite unlike all the rest— as exotic as it was sinister; when it activated, 368 people would die. In the 22nd century, the justice system is airtight in the domed city of Arcadia. Human error has been removed. Yet somehow, a well-intentioned young kleptomaniac named Rainville falls through the cracks and is wrongfully convicted of mass murder. He is exiled to Wychwood Prison, a crumbling necropolis beyond the dome where the dead outnumber the living, where the inmates are also the guards. News of the crime follows him, and he becomes a marked man. Rainville’s only hope for survival is becoming the first inmate in history to escape Wychwood. Can he do it? The fate of Arcadia depends on it.
Word Count: 27000
Summary: Runa, alone, survives the massacre. But a traitorous mage has captured her king’s essence—his vital energy, linked to a long line of wolf-shifter rulers. Unless Runa can recover that power by dawn, the mage will command not only her, but also her kindred. Yet Runa is the weakest of the pack. Her quest will fail unless she finds help, and the dark winter woods is deserted but for a small dog and a young soldier. Prince Paolo is eager for adventure and stirred to action by Runa’s ordeal. As they learn to respect each other’s unique skills, attraction blossoms. But the mage is a trusted figure from Paolo’s past. And he’s filled his lair with marvelous steam-powered machinery and ambitious plans for the prince’s future. Paolo can’t help but have second thoughts about Runa’s story and must choose between his promise to Runa and the life he’d hardly dared to envision. Can Runa recover the king’s essence and protect her kindred? The answers lie in the wolf’s very heart.
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Summary: What happens when you're face-to-face with a truth that shakes you? Do you accept it, or pretend it was never there? Award-winning author Mark A. Rayner smudges the lines between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative in this collection of stories that examines this question-what Homer called passing through The Gates of Polished Horn. We discover the cruelty of creating synthetic consciousness. A woman is worried that her husband is having an affair but discovers it's much, much worse. A time traveler uncovers a reality-bending fact while observing the death of Socrates. Waldo, of Where's Waldo fame, has an existential crisis. A traveling salesperson is killed on the highway, and this is just the start of his journey through the gates. Infused with comic insight and tragic vision, this collection invites readers into new realities thattouch on our shared humanity.
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Summary: Em is a twelve-year-old girl in a floating community off the Gulf Coast. Kaya is a political activist in a terrifying prison. They are pen pals. A wistful message in a bottle ends up in the hands of an imprisoned activist, who writes back. Em and Kaya are both living precarious lives, at the mercy of societal, natural, and perhaps supernatural forces beyond their control. Through their letters, they encourage and inspire one another—eventually to acts of great heroism.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Blind seamstress Grazia has an ambitious plan to create a ballgown that can make music, but to do so, she must make a dangerous bargain with a fairy weaver.
Word Count: 78000
Summary: “A must-read for fans of strange, surreal horror.” —The New York Times In a frozen tundra, one man fights for redemption as monstrous creatures ravage a community already struggling to survive. Sebastian Pana is a “sin-eater,” a shaman-like figure who can absolve the dead of their transgressions before they move on to the afterlife. But when Sebastian’s small arctic town is invaded by hideous, otherworldly beasts, he must wage battle with them the only way he knows how: by unleashing the power of sin itself. From an author who has been compared to Lovecraft, Bradbury, and Gaiman, Incarnate is a masterpiece of contemporary arctic horror—both an epic confrontation between the forces of good and evil and a profoundly redemptive tale about our eternal quest for forgiveness.
Word Count: 101000
Summary: Comma is a robot—but to survive, she must pass as an intelligent, caring, human adult. Otherwise, the anti-AI extremists who destroyed the supercomputer she once inhabited—leaving her with only 1 percent of her sentient memories—will eliminate her for good. When a university professor is murdered, Comma becomes the prime suspect. Because her robot form is university property, she will be erased while her creator and mother figure stand trial for murder. She can’t let that happen, but how far will she go to save herself? With time running out, Comma must uncover the real killer and expose the anti-AI extremists who want her dead. If she fails, it won’t just be the end of her—but the ruin of her found family and potentially the end of robotic sentience itself. For fans of Murderbot Diaries, Monk and Robot, Klara of the Sun, and sapphic science fiction. This novel takes you on adventure, where you’ll experience mystery, suspense, and a bit of romance. An AI that feels so real you’re in her silicone skin.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Kidnapped! Offyonder is a planet that celebrates its civic justice and order, and the rules on speech and thought that uphold them. Now the Director’s niece, Claire Montaigne, is seized by rebels. Inexplicably, the Director tasks Martin Allgeier, a librarian and nonentity, with rescuing Claire. The Director has also given orders to hire Sol, a famous interstellar bounty hunter. The more Martin and Sol investigate the weirder the situation becomes. Claire had a severe breakdown in her teens and now appears not entirely sane. The rebels could be either disorganized bums or masters of strategy. Sol has big demons, which she attempts to drown in alcohol. And both Martin and Sol are hiding parts of their past. Failure to rescue Claire will cost them their lives and destroy the civic order. But as Martin and Sol untangle the truth of the kidnapping, they confront the unthinkable—could the price of success be greater than that of failure? What happens when things are not as they seem?
Word Count: 90000
Summary: The Height of Land follows the quest of a young man torn between spiritual longing and commitment to his community’s survival in a harsh landscape. Red sacrifices everything to study the long-lost words of the gods. He does not know that he is reading the poetry of Lucille Clifton, Ḥáfiẓ, and Walt Whitman, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, and the Tao Te Ching. In a world reborn from catastrophe, these ancient texts take on new meanings. To seek such things is to court peril. Belief in the gods is forbidden. But Red is desperate to know the gods. And he is not searching alone. Forsaking all that is familiar, Red pledges himself to a clandestine church in the city and falls in love with the charismatic priest. But Red may lose both love and faith in defying the church for the sake of a friend. Have the gods truly abandoned the earth, or just Red? What kind of answer can he receive when he has lost the words to ask?
Word Count: 24,705
Summary: In the space of ten hours, civilization was gone... Their parents were survivors of World War Last. Children of The Vista have become guardians of the secluded valley they call home. Wanderlust will take them out into a land they know nothing about, where the line between enemy and ally blurs. Backlash - Introducing Team Three Facing an unknown adversary that threatens to wreak havoc across what little humanity remains, they must rely on their unusual abilities, and hope they're strong enough to stop the chaos. The first to join Security, Mac is an outsider despite knowing he's as different as his partners. All three are Gen En, genetically enhanced, and he understands it's not a safe thing to be. Wade is their unofficial leader. Few people outside the team gain his trust, making him seem difficult and distant. He's protecting everyone by hiding what they are. As the Scout, Shannon keeps watch on the long-abandoned roadways. This gives her time to consider what might exist beyond Montana. More curious than afraid, she wants to see for herself. Together, they are unstoppable. Their enemies are gathering and know the secrets they hide.
Word Count: 30,000
Summary: The 15 short stories in the new collection by K.G. Anderson tackle the classic science fiction query: “What if this goes on?” Her answers span magic realism, humor, science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Each story is firmly rooted in the familiar present and moves seamlessly into a very near political future—chilling in most cases, but darkly humorous in others. Stories include: “A Sign of the Times”—A Seattle protestor is tried under the new Corporate Personhood laws “Wishbone”—An elderly woman faces euthanasia under the Age Equity Act designed by her politician grandson “The Bodies We Carry”—A young widow bankrupted by medical bills joins a “death camp” protest in front of the mansion of an old college friend who is now a healthcare CEO “Unwanted Visitors”—Seattle is declared a “terrorist zone” and the new Federal Security Agency comes calling “Yoga for Protesters: A Field Guide”—Advice for combining political fury with physical fitness “The Right Man for the Job”—Summoned by desperate Democrats, the ghost of Lyndon B. Johnson returns to haunt the Trump White House “Unnoticed”—The teenage daughter of frightened immigrants demands her native identity
