Swords and Spaceships for February 9

Already an outsider in her own village, Deka fears what the blood ceremony reveals: that her blood runs gold, the color of impurity. A mysterious woman offers her an alternative to a fate worse than death, the opportunity to leave her village and join an army of girls just like her. Deka leaves behind the only home she has known to join in a war against the empire’s greatest threat–and it’s more dangerous than she could have ever imagined.

That good spirit Puck finally tells his own story, in which he faces a threat from the time before Faery, and the worst of all possible enemies: himself. Puck doesn’t face this threat alone, however; he has the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Ash, at his side. Together, the three of them must reckon with a darkness so profound even their combined powers may not be enough… and if they don’t succeed, Faery will fall.

Princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to Ephteria when she was a child. After returning home to her mother’s court, she takes on the role of diplomat. This puts her directly in the path of her first love, Eldris of Ephteria, who wants both Thanh back and concessions from Thanh’s home. But Thanh has her own fire inside, and she sees her chance to make her own fate and change the future of her country.

Angrboda is burned by Odin as punishment for not giving him knowledge of the future. She survives, her power severely damaged, and hides in a remote forest. There, she meets and falls in love with Loki. Together, they have three children, each with their own destiny. But as Angrboda heals and slowly regains her power of prophecy, she realizes her family, her life, and the entire world is at stake–and only she can remake the future into something better.

This is a collection of Isabel Yap’s short fiction, including an entirely new novella titled A Spell for Foolish Hearts. Her subjects range from immigrant tales to urban legends, and the page sings for each.

Silicon Valley outsiders Ben and Adhi develop a computer that can connect to the internet one year in the future, and suddenly their startup is the hottest commodity out there. Their machine predicts everything perfectly, from the stock market to relationships, to deaths, and what seems like a chance for fortune at first reveals a darker future than they could have guessed, culminating in a possible apocalypse. Once they’ve seen the future, can they change it?

A group of humans is stranded for centuries on another world; they have no choice but to expose themselves to the alien biome, including all its viruses and bacteria. Survival means they must adapt. On the other side of that, are they still even human, or have they been remade into another species entirely?