Category: Swords and Spaceships

Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation is also known as Babel — and it’s what Robin Swift, a man orphaned by a cholera outbreak in Canton, has been studying for all his life. But Babel isn’t just for translation. It’s a center of silver working, a magic that’s made the British Empire an unparalleled world power. And soon, Robin must choose between the empire that he was raised in and the motherland he lost as a child.

The Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse, led by Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos, were never supposed to fight a war. They were trained to clean spaceships. But a war is what they’ve got on their hands, one with the xenocidal Prodryans, and its escalation might…also be their fault. But if they want to save humanity and ever have a chance to clean things up, they have to figure it out — and not go feral in the process.

Ari is a storyteller on the run, one hoping to disappear in obscurity in a small tavern. But the sins of their past are not ready to allow them to rest, or leave their story without a proper ending. For they have destroyed a village, killed a god, started a war, and been a monster.

A short story collection from the inimitable Eileen Gunn, including tales both darkly humorous and visionary, ones that bring together the very disparate realities of highly corporate technology and purely literary art. This is Gunn’s third short story collection and includes an in-depth interview with the author.

Armed with the prophecy of the nameless god and an army of loyal men, Malini has set her course: she will be the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa, but her brutal and malicious brother still stands in her way, and he will not let go of the throne while he lives. While Priya might long to stay at Malini’s side, the magic she carries and the fact that she is now a thrice-born priestess demand that she walk her own path if she will see her country free and the sickness that haunts it cured. But even as they are distant, the souls and fates of these two women remain intertwined — and soon they will realize that it is only together that they can save their lands.

Mars has been the lesser twin all his life, always overshadowed by his sister Caroline and barred from family traditions because of his genderfluidity. But when Caroline dies under terrible circumstances, he goes to see what he can learn about her at the prestigious (and political) Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy by attending in her place. He soon discovers a group of girls called the Honeys, once Caroline’s friends, who he is sure have something to do with her death. But with each passing day, his memories become less certain, and soon he realizes that something that can toy with his mind is hunting him in broad daylight…

In the roaring 20s in Washington, DC, Clara Johnson has a hidden talent to talk to spirits. And while that may have saved her several times, this magical skill has left her indebted to powerful spirits. When an opportunity to gain her freedom is offered, Clara takes it, no questions asked; all she has to do is steal a magical ring from the wealthiest woman in the city–shouldn’t be so hard, right? To gain her freedom and pull off this heist, Clara has to put together a team of unlikely musicians and artists, only to find they’ve all gotten more than they bargained for when the spirit world starts breaking through into the real world.

Firuz-e Jafari is a refugee from their homeland, the survivor of the slaughter of traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners. In the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, they have a good job in a healing clinic, with a nice employer and a precocious apprentice. But when a deadly new disease with symptoms of mysterious bruises begins burning through Qilwa, Firuz finds themself under suspicion as a practitioner of blood magic… and they must find a way to free themself of this prejudice if they truly want a fresh start.

There is a prophecy of a chosen one, who will defeat the Eternal Khan…but the prophecy is wrong. The anointed hero, Jian, raised in luxury, is startlingly useless. Instead, a ban of unlikely heroes has to come together to accomplish this momentous task…and Jian has to figure out how to be a hero in his own way rather than how prophecy dictates.

Alabine Rivers, a young woman who discovers that she has terminal cancer, decides to take her shot at survival using cryogenics. It works, and she’s brought back a century later, into a world where the resurrection of the dead like her has become a violent philosophical battle. Awoken like Alabine are declared illegal and can be shot on sight, and the Resurrectionists are a secret militia fighting for their rights.

A secret family that can literally eat books — and once having eaten them, retain all the knowledge within — lives out in the Yorkshire Moors. But not all books are treated equally, and not all members of the family; Devon, as a woman, is allowed to eat only fairytales and cautionary stories, unlike her brothers, who feast on adventure tales. And when her son is born and consumes not books but human minds, she realizes that happy endings are not as guaranteed as books would imply.

After her father dies in the War of the Lance, Destina Rosethorn loses both her family and her lands. She decides that she will go back in time to save his life. To do so, she must track down the kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot, last known possessor of the Device of Time Journeying. And if she succeeds in altering her past, she will change the future and perhaps even divert the course of the River of Time.

The perfect face is the key to riches and power; Schuyler and Madeleine Burroughs are lucky enough to have been engineered to have just that look. But their outer perfection hides a household that’s beginning to come apart at the seams, boredom and unhappiness taking a toll on both while they desperately try to maintain appearances.

The Novae Terrae are a fundamentalist faction that have have started a civil war in a future America ravaged by disasters and political unrest. Mazzy Goodwin is a young soldier searching for her little sister until one day she wakes up in a crater left behind by a bomb and finds she has wings emerging from her back. She chooses to become an angelic figurehead of revolution for the Novae in exchange for finding her sister.

Haelewise is a strange, weak little girl, whose black eyes and fainting spells leave her shunned by her village, with only her overprotective mother to care about her and tell her stories of an ancient tower where women can find shelter if they are sufficiently brave. When her mother dies, Haelewise sets out to find this legendary tower, which is named Gothel, and there she finds shelter under the tutelage of a wise woman. But she isn’t the only woman to seek shelter there…

Schuyler wakes up in New York safe and sound… but at the price of having sacrificed the love of her life in order to defeat Lucifer. Worse, she quickly realizes that she’s not actually in her own body… and this is not her life she’s walking around in. Because somehow, she’s ended up in an alternate reality, one where Lucifer is stubbornly undefeated… and the mayor of New York City.

Violet is a witch who has gotten herself a position in the royal court with clever phrased and selectively truthful prophecies and divinations. But Prince Cyrus is onto her and plans to eject her from the court as soon as he’s crowned. Violet takes her opportunity to strike back at him when the king asks her to prophecy Cyrus’s love story for a ball… and the false tale she weaves awakens a curse that could destroy or save the kingdom.

Sigrid was born an ordinary girl with an ordinary fate — she was even paired with the plainest possible horse instead of the winged mare of a valkyrie. She had nothing to look forward to but life as a stablehand… until Vanaheim is invaded and she sees a vision of herself leading the valkyries into battle. But to find this new destiny, the must face a fallen valkyrie who has allied herself with Vanaheim’s enemies.

When Sol disappears, their wife Lumi, who was born on Earth, sets out to find them. Through letters and other extracts, Lumi chronicles her journey from the affluent colony of Mars to the environmentally devastated Earth, which takes her deep into Sol’s past among underground environmental groups — and her own.

Raqi’s parents died when she was just four years old, and she was sent to be raised by her uncle, Dodge, a drug addict who is a member of an all-white, racist motorcycle club call the Lawless. Raqi leaves that world behind as soon as she can and eventually becomes a partner at an LA law firm. Then she gets a call from the leader of the Lawless with the news that Dodge is dead, and she’s expected to come on the Grieving Ride for him — and if she does go, she will finally receive the address of her long-lost Mexican grandfather. But the Grieving Ride is nothing like she expected, a cross-country journey into herself and her family.