Category: Swords and Spaceships

Misery Nomaki heard the voice of an angel, choosing them to pilot a holy mech and lead their people to victory. They know it’s a delusion, that they are a fraud… but if they want to survive, they have to convince everyone else it’s real. And soon, they may even begin to convince themself…

Marion Shaw’s ticket out of the misery of the slums is a job advertisement for a bloodmaid — a servant to the high and mighty nobles who live to the north, who are known to drink the blood of those in their employ. Her escape from deprivation takes her to the House of Hunger and into the orbit of the Countess Lisavet, dark and magnetic, loved and feared in equal measure. But Lisavet isn’t nearly the most dangerous thing in the House of Hunger, and the building’s walls hide every darker and older secrets that Marion will soon find out.

After her mother’s death, Layla finds herself back in contact with her maternal aunts, whom she hasn’t been allowed to even speak of for years. The news she hears is surprising: a Gullah-Geechee island off the coast of South Carolina now belongs to her. But as she learns more about this new property, and about her mother’s past, she finds another unexpected truth. She’s a Dreamwalker, a power passed down from her Gullah ancestors, and her family’s past is darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined.

Lawman Solitario Cisneros lost his family and his country in the 1870s when the Rio Grande shifted its course and abruptly made the Mexican town of Olvido the property of the United States. But when a series of gruesome murders and kidnappings strike Olvido, he has little choice but to pick up his gun and badge again and try to keep the mix of Mexican, Anglo, and Apache residents from destroying the town and themselves as accusations swirl. He finds an unlikely co-investigator in Onawa, an Apache-Mexican seer who will help him unravel a mystery that is only cover for a battle between the immortal forces of good and evil.

This short story anthology is filled with tales of supernatural creatures in love — because the love is the most powerful magic, greater than death and curses. A girl in a graveyard, a shipwrecked sailor, creatures from folk tales, and monsters from marriage – all of them find love in these pages.

Laura Ann Langston lives in a very different 1930 from the one where we know, where America is recovering from a blight on the mystical arts known as the Great Rust and throwing itself wholly into industry and technology. But Laura knows her future is still as a mage, and finds a job with the Conservation Corps of the Bureau of the Arcane, working on its mission to repair magic so the new technology can thrive. When she’s sent on a mission into the heart of the country’s oldest Blight, she must rediscover work long lost in the days when Black mages like her were killed for their power.

Ledge is a place of civilization in only the loosest sense; it’s a settlement trapped between a vast chasm and a sheer mountain face. The only way to leave is death. All they know of the outside world is the Glacians, winged creatures who bring them supplies in exchange for sacrifices. When Dawsyn is chosen as sacrifice, she knows only that her life has ended — until a half-Glacian named Ryon offers her escape. She must choose between the terrifying unknown of what waits on the other side of being sacrificed and trusting one of the creatures that have plagued her people.

After ending the Partisan War on Mars, Harris Alexander Pope wanted nothing more than to return to a life of solitude. But then he learns a terrible truth: war criminals have invaded the minds of others and are hiding there to escape justice. Harris teams up with other survivors in pursuit of justice, but soon begins to wonder if his memories of the war itself are even true.

Remy has left the kingdom to hunt a new kind of deadly vampire — never mind the rumors that he’s half-vampire himself. Along the way, though, he meets a vampire couple who claim to have the answers to the virus called Rot that’s spreading. As he grows closer to them, he begins to question everything he thought he knew about vampires.

Rose is living a dangerous deception — her name is actually Luna, she comes from a family of bruja, and she isn’t actually white. But the identity she hides behind lets her gain power as a bootlegger who deals with the criminal families of Kansas City as she works to get her own jazz club. But the perilous game is about to come to an end, and she’s going to have to learn to rely on her magic and her allies if she’s going to survive.

Roxanne, who is equal parts vampire and hot mess, resurrects her deceased friends. Of course it’s not that simple — she’s soon confronted by a Guardian of the Underworld who tells her she needs to replace them with three equally terrible monsters, or she will take their place instead. If she wants to save her friends and herself, they’re all going to need to team up and become monsters hunting monsters.

In an alternate Bronze Age, the people are merely trying to survive the capricious whims of a myriad of gods. But four god-touched mortals are about to be brought together, and they will launch a conspiracy to take down the corrupt and aging gods, who are already fighting a war on one front.

This isn’t actually fiction, but I think this is very relevant to our SFF interests. This is an anthology of personal essays by Black creatives about the film Black Panther and its impact on culture, society, and film.

Once every ten years, Sol’s power must be replenished to keep the Obsidian gods at bay. The ten most worthy semidióses are selected to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries the light to all the temples of Reino del Sol… and the loser is sacrificed to refuel the Sun Stones that protect the world. Teo, a Jade semidiós and trans son of the goddess of birds, is mostly worried about his best friend Niya, who will definitely be selected. But when Teo is also put into the trials, against opponents he’s not nearly as strong or as well-trained as, he finds he needs to worry first for himself.

Every day, sixteen-year-old Koral and her older brother Emrik must capture monstrous maristags in the black sea around their island so their family won’t starve. But the maristags aren’t to eat — they’re to sell to the Landers, the elite family Koral and her relatives are indentured to, to be used in the Glory Race. But when Koral loses the last maristag of the year, the only solution she can find to saving her family from financial ruin and death is to cheat her way into the Glory Race. The race was already dangerous enough, but Koral’s competitors have no intention of letting a low-caste girl win.

Princess Shiori promised to return the dragon’s pearl to its rightful place; now she must journey to the kingdom of dragons, and along the way navigate the politics of both humans and dragons — and fight off thieves who want the pearl for themselves. The pearl itself is a chaotic factor, aiding Shiori one moment and trying to destroy her relationships with all those she loves the next. Shiori must marshal all her strength to keep her promise, defend herself from the pearl, and maintain her appearance as the perfect princess while doing it.

When Bea Tanaka’s family comes to visit on her favorite holiday — Christmas — she couldn’t be happier. Her life seems to be going great, and everyone is ecstatic for her… too bad Bea feels adrift, between trying to figure out the long distance relationship with her boyfriend and her powers expanding toward something rather villainous again. When the holiday visit is cut short by monsters rising out of the ocean near Maui, Bea gets blasted back to the perfect Christmas in San Francisco during battle…and into the rom-com of her nightmares.

A despotic emperor and the Three Terrors, his monstrous sons, have ruled with an iron fist from the Moon Throne for centuries, oppressing the people beneath them with power they have stolen from a god locked under the palace. But with the aid of a guilt-ridden guard and an outcast, the god escapes the palace — and her own children, the previously mentioned Terrors. If she and her companions can complete a five-day pilgrimage, they may be able to end throw down the Moon Throne for good.

Raliel Dark-Smile is the daughter of the Emperor — and her best friend is a demon named Moon who lives in the palace. Moon is bound to the Emperor and his consorts, and when Raliel comes of age, she will in turn be bound to Moon, never to leave the palace again. But Raliel wishes more than anything to travel the empire, and Moon longs to break free to these arcane bonds. And when it is time to Raliel to take her first and last journey, her coming of age, she hatches a plan to take Moon with her, hidden — into danger neither of them could imagine.

The Banished Prince has returned to seize the dragon throne in Dàxi, aided in no small part by the mass poisonings that have rocked the populace. A young but powerful wielder of tea-making magic named Ning is one of Princess Zhen’s escorts to her exile, along with Zhen’s sister and bodyguard. Together, they must figure out to restore Zhen to the throne that’s been taken from her, but there is a far greater threat than deadly politics lurking on the horizon…

Mika Moon is one of the very few witches in Britain, and thus she knows it’s best to keep her powers secret — and part of that is avoiding other witches so they don’t draw attention. She’s also is an orphan who lost her parents at a young age; her one foray into rule breaking is an online account where she “pretends” to be a witch because she thinks no one will take her seriously… until someone does. Soon, she’s been recruited to go to Nowhere House to train three young witches… and her life only gets more complicated from there.