Category: Swords and Spaceships

This is a collection of two pairs of science fiction stories. One set is about an engaged couple on separate missions trying to coordinate a return to Earth at the same time through the grace of relativity–and the Earth they return to will be profoundly different. The other pair of stories is about the interaction between humanity and the godlike beings that created it, and our different views on the necessity of rebellion.

Shizuka made a literal deal with the devil to escape damnation. The price? She has to convince seven of her fellow violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She’s managed to swindle six, but in her pursuit of the final soul, she runs into complications she could have never imagined: a retired starship captain who she can’t help but love and a runaway with a wild talent who all too quickly feels like family.

Myrra is a contract worker, and has been since she was five years old. In fifty years, she’ll be free… but until then, her life and labor belong to whoever is the highest bidder on her contract. She’s worked many jobs, but her latest, for the Carlyles, ends abruptly when she finds them dead. She must care for the orphaned daughter of her dead “employers” and face the secret they died to escape.

A pregnant woman escapes from a religious compound to give birth to her twins in the woods. But cults don’t let go easily, and she’s forced to fight against that community and the outside world to defend her family–a battle that begins an uncanny metamorphosis of her body that can only be understood by facing the past.

Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke, and jobless, so she’s moving back to Malaysia, a country she hasn’t seen since she was a toddler, with her parents. When she starts hearing a voice in her head, at first she assumes it’s stress… but then she finds out it’s the ghost of her grandmother, who in life was the avatar of a god called the Black Water Sister. Grandma wants Jess to help her settle an old score with a local business magnate… whether she wants to or not.

A new brain implant called a Pilot is sweeping the nation, quickly going from a curiosity to a necessity to keep up with school or work. Soon all people face a choice: get a Pilot or be left behind. The new technology divides a family, setting Sophie against her parents and her brother… and then against the powerful manufacturer of the device.

The Montoya family is one surrounded by inexplicable magic and mysteries they know better than to ask about. But when Orquídea Divina, the matriarch who refused to ever leave their home, even for weddings and baptisms, invites them to her own funeral, rather than answers or a direct inheritance, her transformation leaves them only with more questions. After seven years, this inheritance has manifested differently for each of her descendants… and put them in the line of fire of a mysterious enemy that seems determined to pick them off, one by one.

Andromeda has been training as an debtera, a special kind of exorcist that cleanses the Evil Eye… except her mentor threw her out before she could complete her training. Her only hope is to find a rich patron to vouch for her, so when Magnus Rorschach contacts her, it seems like her best opportunity. Only she arrives to find that he runs his house on a set of weird and capricious rules, and he’s gone through quite a few debtera before her…

Jordan has anything a woman could want in 1920s America: money, education, social clout, a great talent with golf. But as a Vietnamese adoptee who is also queer, she also gets treated like an exotic pet by her peers and finds many doors are closed to her. Her world isn’t just money and parties though–it’s also ghosts, magic, and infernal pacts. And Jordan has always been a fast learner.

Laina gets tragic news one October morning: Boston police have shot and killed her brother. But soon, this horror reveals something far stranger: monsters are real. And they’re coming out of the shadows now, looking for safety. This shift in the social fabric of the world leads to strife and protests. But the one question no one seems to be asking as society reshapes itself is: what has frightened the monsters so badly that they came out of the dark?

Esso is having the worst week of his life… and then an accident lets him see beyond space and time, into the past and future. If what he saw is reality and not just a hallucination, however, he needs to change history if he wants to survive. In order to do so, he must seek out the help of Rhia, the student he’s supposed to tutor at physics, and with her unravel a fifteen-year-old mystery.

Odette faces her final death, and only the half fey Arjun Desai could possibly save her… if he’s willing to cross over into the Sylvan Vale, a world that he absolutely despises. This, he’s willing to do to save Odette; but unknown to him, Pippa Montrose is following his path between worlds on her own search for a friend… which may just help her find the love and security she’s been missing.

Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2089 is a strange place where climate catastrophe has been averted by pumping a sufficient amount of nanotech into the people of this densely-populated city that it can sustain its own microclimate… if no one moves. But the people are getting restless, and all the nanotech is started to have some weird effects. This is the reason the mercenary Djibrel has to carry a machete with him at all times, because beheading someone is now the only way to make sure they’re actually dead. He’s trying to track down the Djinn, a race of magical super geniuses that have seemingly disappeared… and he’s being tracked by the Cyber Mage, a snotty, privileged teenager who also moonlights for a Russian crime syndicate.

Twentynine Palms is a military base in the Mojave Desert, and a place Rylie has been avoiding since he death of her father. There are too many memories and too many contentious relationships with both family and friends. Yet when she’s forced to return there due to her mom’s new work assignment, the place seems at least somewhat welcoming. But not everyone is happy to see her, there might be a killer on the loose, and Rylie starts having visions of monstrous creatures stalking the desert.

Liam is a reclusive, shell-shocked veteran who has few memories of his time during the Great War… until he’s saved from a brutal attack at a Chicago speakeasy by Grace. Formerly, Liam was from a squad known as the Devil’s Henchmen, who were given experimental treatments to make them telepathic killing machines. As Liam tries to dig into his past and his newly-remembered powers, his former commander will stop at nothing to keep those secrets. And as the President of the United State, he’s got a lot more resources than Liam.

Elise is a Death Oracle who can experience how her loved ones will die with a single touch–she’s already proven it works by predicting and being unable to prevent her brother’s death. Claire is a vampire assigned to help Elise master her powers. It would be complicated enough already if the two girls, who are at first suspicious of each other then perhaps sliding toward romance, weren’t also sharing their town with a killer who also has paranormal powers.

Followed by Jade War and Jade Legacy to make up the completed Green Bone Saga!

This is an epic trilogy that features lots of kung fu action scenes in a fantasy metropolis where rival clans battle it out. Green Bone warriors use jade to fuel their magic in adherence with ancient tradition, but times are changing–and foreigners would like to get their hands on that jade.

Followed by Caliban’s War, Abaddon’s Gate, Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Babylon’s Ashes, Persepolis Rising, Tiamat’s Wrath, and Leviathan Falls to make the completed Expanse series.

What is there to say? This is a nine-book space opera behemoth that takes humanity from squabbling in the Sol system to across the galaxy–and it’s the basis for one of the most beloved sci-fi series on TV today, which is also finishing up this year.

Followed by The Silvered Serpents and The Bronzed Beasts to complete the series.

An alternate history fantasy that starts out at the close of the nineteenth century, where a Parisian treasure hunter assembles a strange team to help him steal an ancient and powerful artifact so that he can earn his rightful inheritance.

Followed by The Long War and Days of Storm to complete the Wild Trilogy. It’s one of those strange ones that was all published this year!

Disaster has forced humanity to make its home on a wild continent inhabited by cruel and hostile spirits of nature that want them all dead. To survive, humans need to seek new alliances–and new magic.

Followed by Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle, and Perhaps the Stars to finish the Terra Ignota series.

Set about 430 years in the future, this series starts in a world where the nation state hasn’t existed for 300 years and humanity is made up of seven remaining “hives.” The four books follow the events that lead this strange Earth to war for the first time since the 22nd century.

The ninth and final book of The Expanse has arrived at last. Thirteen hundred solar systems have been freed by the fall of the Laconian Empire, but the ancient enemy that destroyed the gate builders has returned, ready to start a new war. With the annihilation of all of humanity on the table, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante struggle to find a new future for themselves and find a way to unite humanity in a galactic civilization that will be free of wars.

Captain Kit Brightling is invaluable to Queen Charlotte of the Saxon Isles because she is Aligned to the magic of the sea. And her magic and determination are about to be put to the test; Gerard Rousseau, the former Gallic emperor, has escaped the island he was imprisoned on and is gearing up for a new war of conquest against the continent–using whatever dark magic he can find to his advantage. Kit’s quest to serve queen and country will take her and her crew across the seas and into a clash with an old enemy who has thrown his lot in with Gerard.

Everyone in the world wants to get their hands on jade and the supernatural power it provides. As this struggle for power between such disparate groups as governments, mafiosos, and athletes grows more deadly, the Kaul family will never be the same. As more and more enemies descend on their country, the clan must figure out how to stop fighting amongst itself and discern enemy from ally if they want to protect their nation and their way of life.

A young orphan who died by drowning has come back to life in a strange land; everyone he meets will die because of him. But rumors are already spreading that the entire world is dying. And a set of strangers–a young man who signs on to a failing militia, an abused teenage girl who craves what she despises, a childless mother who has been convicted of murder–will find their fates intertwined with his.

The last Lei saw of Wren, the girl she loves, was her facing down an entire army in a battle to the death. And now Lei is being taken back to the Hidden Palace and its sadistic king, the very last place on earth she wants to go. Lei and Wren must find a way to escape their perilous fates and find each other again… even if they have to break destiny to do it.

After risking so much–and losing so much–Lin Sukai has taken the throne as emperor, and that will turn out to have been the easiest step. She has few hours, the political intrigue is thick, and a rebel of constructs is gathering in the northeast of the empire, its leader intent to take the throne from her. And now the Alanga are returning; they claim they come in peace, and Lin needs their help if she wants to keep her empire. But will the price be too high?

In an alternate Britain, Vincent and Petra meet by the strange chance of Vincent falling off a ladder at just the right time. Vincent immediately offers to take Petra on a date to a theater experience he’s got free tickets to via a competition he doesn’t actually remember entering. As they become regulars at this Metamuse, stranger and stranger occurrences begin to happen around them, though only Petra can see the sinister cast of these things. This theater might be more than either of them can realize.

Reapers are elite soldiers injected with Stormtech, a drug made with the DNA of the Shenoi, a genocidal alien race. Stormtech makes them strong, fast, and aggressive at the price of a violent nightmares and a sense of their own humanity slowly eroding away. Vakov is one such Reaper, set against the House of Suns cult; he’s saved his brother from them and killed their leader, so now they’re hunting him down. But the House of Suns is no ordinary cult–they want to awaken the Shenoi, and Vakov knows this must not happen at any price. He’s already fighting them for his own mind.

A brilliant scientist receives a letter from herself, detailing faster-than-light travel, and her life is forever changed. The equations she gleans from it work, but her paper is quickly discredited and she’s hounded out of academia. Without friends or resources, when a stranger offers to finance the spaceship she wants to build, she has little choice but to accept. But there’s already a secret lurking on the planet Venus that will change the course of humanity.

A series of grisly murders takes place in New York City, but with a twist: all of the victims were born with twelve fingers and twelve toes, meaning they’re Nephilim, the descendants of fallen angels. FBI agent Michael Childs is tasked with tracking down the killer, but he soon discovers that those thought dead aren’t necessarily–and that he’s one of the Nephilim himself.

Beatrice is a sorceress in a land where the magic of women is considered to be dangerous, something that must be locked away with a collar once she’s married, because the pregnancy of female mages has supposedly produced unfortunate results. She would rather not marry at all, but her family is as desperate for money as she is to practice magic. Still, she pursues her dream until another sorceress from a foreign land snaps up the grimoire that she was going to use to become a Magus… and then she meets that woman’s brother and falls unfortunately in love. She has to decide which dream to sacrifice… or find a way to have both.

Humans left Earth hundreds of years ago in the Exodus Fleet and have spread through the galaxy since then. But the Exodus Fleet remains in a stable orbit around an alien star, forgotten history for many humans, but the cherished home of those who remain. The lives of several people intersect–space born and planet born–as the fleet tries to find meaning in its continued existence as a home for any human who cares to return.

Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an Amrithi outcast and a governor in the empire that conquered that people. Her Amrithi heritage gives her magic she barely understands but the empire fears, magic that may allow her to talk to gods. As a way to control her, she’s married to another Amrithi in service of the oppressive empire, a man she barely knows. But these two find more in each other than they could have ever guessed possible–life and resistance. Also, you can read about Mehr’s sister in Realm of Ash.

Suzanna is chosen by her god to be the Angelica, the most powerful woman in the land, but to meet her fate she must marry a man she doesn’t know, who snatched her out of her campsite. Can she bring peace to a land that’s seen strangers for the first time in its history?

It was a coin flip between this and Seven of Infinities. What if Sherlock Holmes was an eccentric scholar in a far future where humans live in a collection of ring habitats? And what if Doctor Watson was actually a sentient ship discharged from military service after a traumatic battle? And what if the two of them meet over a murdered corpse?

In pseudo-medieval France, a religious clash leads a bitter, jaded ex-mercenary to see the value of beauty in the world–and love.

Miryem belongs to a family of money lenders, though her father has proven incredibly bad at that job, since he won’t collect on debts. She takes over the business to save her family from starvation and quickly earns a reputation for “turning silver to gold” with her cool unwillingness to be put off. But when that boast catches the attention of the Staryk king who has been slowly freezing the land she lives in, she’ll have to use all of her cleverness to save herself, her family, and two kingdoms.

Lena was cursed by a witch before she was ever born; simply touching her skin can kill another person. After one terrible mistake, she and her father are forced to flee from the safety of their village into the foreboding forest known as the Silence. In the Silence, Lena meets Miranda, a girl from a city named Gather she says is in the forest. Miranda is on a quest to wake a sleeping princess who is the key to freeing Gather from an evil ruler… and if Lena helps her on this quest, Miranda will help Lena break her curse. But the deeper Lena goes into the forest and along the path of her quest, the more she begins to realize that her curse and its origins may not quite be what she was told.

The fourth daughter of a queen tries to save her people from a demon by asking for help from the Elder sorcerer who has always watched over her people from a massive tower. But the tower isn’t quite a tower, and the sorcerer isn’t actually a sorcerer–he’s an anthropologist, and a junior one at that–and he’s forbidden from interfering with the people he’s supposed to be observing. He’s also fairly certain that this demon is no demon at all.

Juliette sacrificed her relationship with Roma to save him from the blood feud of the Scarlets, but her position is more precarious than ever. If she makes the smallest mistake, her cousin will usurp control of the Scarlet Gang. Roma himself has rejected her, believing she murdered his best friend–and she’s allowing him to keep believing that, no matter how much it hurts. But when a monstrous new danger comes into the city, Juliette needs Roma’s help if they’re going to save Shanghai.

Former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind Niko Larson has very specifically gone to live in TwiceFar station at the ass-end of the known universe because she wants to be free of continual wars of conquest. She and the remnants of her former unit have opened a restaurant on the station, and they’d all like to be forgotten and left to obscurity, thank you very much. But their past catches up with them eventually, and if Niko and her crew want to survive and keep their restaurant alive, they need to kidnap a sentient ship and face down a sadistic pirate king.

Alaya won a Nebula for this book back in 2015. An ordinary girl with a great life named Emily Bird wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the last several days after a chance meeting with a government agent and finds herself in the middle of a deadly flu pandemic. Emily knows there’s more than meets the eye–and research scientist parents are probably involved, too. But the only person who believes her is the small-time drug dealer from a neighboring prep school. You should also check out The Summer Prince, which was nominated for a Nebula and shortlisted for the National Book Award.

Alaya’s website is very worth visiting, too!

Between climate change and nuclear disasters, Earth is basically uninhabitable by the year 2172, with the wealthy and lucky having escaped to floating colonies. In Nigeria, soldiers must be augmented if they want to survive and battles are conducted with massive mecha. Onyii and Ify are twin sisters who dream of a life beyond the ongoing civil war… and they’re willing to fight to find that future. Also check out Goliath, which is up for pre-order.

Honestly, Tochi has a ton of great stuff on his website, so you should check it out.

A collection of short stories, from the mystical to the mimetic, with a dash of magical realism to go with it, some written in standard American broadcast dialect and some in Caribbean dialect. Celeste’s prose is, as always, gorgeous.

Also swing by Celeste’s website to see her other numerous short stories, some of which are for sale as Kindle editions!

Ann and Jeff Vandermeer are basically a power couple for literary science fiction. Ann’s been an editor for years with a wide range of tastes and a bent for the weird; Jeff is more known as an author, but obviously he works with his wife to edit the crap out of some big books. This one is the companion volume to the book that won this year.

For a couple more of their anthologies to check out, cast your eyeballs on Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology and The Time Traveler’s Almanac.

And of course Jeff is known on his own as a writer, mostly in the new weird field subgenre. His most recent is, if memory serves, Hummingbird Salamander.

It’s a little more difficult to find more work by Aoko Matsuda right now. She has short stories that have appeared in the magazine Monkey Business, including Volume 6 and Volume 7, and Strangers Press in the UK has published her novella The Girl Who Is Getting Married, a dizzying journey through an apartment building and memories of a friend.

Anwuli Okwudili prefers to just be called AO, initials she thinks of as meaning ‘artificial organism.’ She was born with several disabilities and acquired more after a car accident, but her body augmentations have enabled her to live a decent life and she has embraced them. Then, one day, everything goes wrong at her local market and she’s forced to go on the run as a murderer. She meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA, who has been condemned as a terrorist, and together they journey across the deserts of Northern Nigeria, their every movement streamed to the world.

Lord Cassia was once an engineer’s apprentice, given his mission by the king himself. Then came an ambush by enemy soldiers; then came a devastating plague. After rotting in a prison cell for three years, Cas wants nothing more than to return home… but what he finds there is a royal court in refuge and their enemies circling. When an assassin tries to kill those close to the queen in Cas’s home, he must search for the killer—and he soon comes to understand that who is far less important than why.

Hetty and Benjy return to investigate another crime, one that seems a bit too simple and neat at first glance. Raimond Duval appears to have died in an accidental fire, one of many that have happened recently in Philadelphia. Their investigation implicates a Fire Company that’s been in the habit of letting the homes of Black folk burn to the ground. Then Raimond’s son Valentine is found dead, another supposed “accident” far too connected to the death of his father.

Thirty years ago, Cisco Collins saved his town from being swallowed by a hell mouth which had been opened by the ancient ghost of a pirate. Now he’s come back home as a single parent, and he has enough problems without signs of the pirate’s power creeping back and killing people in the town in some truly bizarre ways. Cisco must figure out how to save the town again, and that’s going to involve convincing his old friends to help him save the day while they all try to keep up with the grueling holiday schedule dictated by having school-age children.

Simi serves the gods as a mermaid; her task is to collect the souls of those who have died at sea and send them home. But when she finds a still-living boy in the water, instead of letting him drown and sending his soul on, she saves his life instead. Now she must journey to the Supreme Creator to face the consequences of her actions, but there are forces moving against her that would like to see her fail and take the other mermaids with her— and the boy she saved knows far too much.

A young Black woman named Lou wakes up in 1930s L.A. in a back alley with no memories. After being taken in by a foster family, she focuses on her education and becomes the first Black female journalist at the Los Angeles Times, all the while doing her best to forget her mysterious origin. Then she meets a firefighter at a boxing gym and realizes she’s been drawing his face for years even though she has no idea who he is. Haunted by dreams and inexplicable flashes of almost-memory, Lou begins to believe she must be some sort of immortal, sent to L.A. for a reason… and she needs to figure out what that is before it’s too late.