Category: Swords and Spaceships

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.

Naema is a teen influencer and an Eloko, someone gifted with a melody that no one can resist. She’s beloved by all until the day she’s exposed as a Siren and vilified by the world. She heads to the Southwest to work on her comeback, and for a little while she feels like she might have her old life back… until her fiercest online fans start targeting other Black girls.

Ex-con, ex-medic Ten Low is barely surviving at the edge of the universe when she pulls a teenaged girl from a crashed lifecraft. But the ordinary-looking girl is actually a super soldier, decorated general, and part of the army that once kept Ten prisoner. If she wants to get the girl off world, Ten must take her on a perilous journey across the lawless surface… but the real question is, does she want to?

The storied girl who once flew toward the second star from the right and straight on ’til morning has grown up, gotten married, had a daughter, and established a life in London. But when Peter Pan finally comes back into her life, it’s only to take her daughter to Neverland–and Wendy has little choice but to follow and face what she once left behind.

Wyatt is a witch from the realm of Asalin, where he was betrothed to a fae prince, Emyr, who was also his best friend. But after losing control of his magic, Wyatt flees to the human world to find himself and escape his past… until Emyr hunts him down, still intent on seeing their engagement through so he doesn’t lose his throne.

Red is the only Second Daughter to be born in centuries, and her fate is sealed the minute she draws breath: she will be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood. Plagued by magic she can’t control, Red is almost relieved when the day of sacrifice comes… but in the Wilderwood, she finds that nothing is quite as it seems, and she has a different and far more dangerous fate.

Tara is a student at a rigorous prep school by grace of a scholarship. At the beginning of her junior year, NASA intercepts a message from an alternate Earth, one where an alternate Tara might be living a better, less stressed-out life. This new Earth is called Terra Nova and the knowledge of its existence begins to change Tara’s life in ways both large and small, ways that no one could have predicted.

A collection of nine SFF short stories from award-winning author Ted Chiang. For more of his short stories, also check out Stories of Your Life and Others.

James Griffin-Mars is a chronman, an ultimately expendable employee sent back in time from a toxic, dying Earth to retrieve resources and other treasures that might help humanity survive just a little longer. But the stress of time travel is killing him, and James is ready to get out. He’s got one final mission if he wants to retire, and he screws it up by bringing someone fated to have died in the past back with him. Now he’s on the run with her through a poisoned earth, and their troubles are only just beginning.

The island of Kekon runs on Jade, a resource that is traded, stolen, and paid for in blood. Its greatest power is that it enhances magic and powers the warriors who once protected the land from invasion. Now with seemingly no battles left to fight, the Kaul family battles for control of Kekon… but their infighting is interrupted by the emergence of a new drug that allows even foreigners to wield jade.

Kin was once a time-traveling secret agent; now, he’s stayed in the past to be an IT schlub trying desperately to keep his marriage together. When his “rescue” team arrives eighteen years too late, their mission is to return him to a family in the future he can’t remember… and erase the family in the past that he’s built.

Xifeng is a beautiful young woman, and destined for greatness–to become empress, as a matter of fact. But the price of that greatness is to embrace the darkness within her, to spurn the young man who loves her, and to use the wicked sorcery that is hers by blood and powered by the hearts of those recently killed.

Rhee is a crown princess in hiding, the sole survivor of a dynasty. Aly is a war refugee turned dashing vid star, who is falsely accused of her murder. Together, they must confront the madman who stole Rhee’s throne and may well destroy the entire galaxy.

Kira is the only woman in the king’s army, set triply apart by her striking yellow eyes and her profession of demon slaying. Assigned as the prince’s bodyguard, she must go on the run with her charge after the king is murdered and traitors point to a new invasion by demons–with only a cryptic prophecy as her guide.

After decades, the emperor’s magic, and therefore his rule, is faltering. The bone shard magic-powered constructs he uses to maintain law are failing and a revolution begins to burn through the land. His daughter, Lin, seeks to master this magic and win the approval and official recognition he has always withheld. But when rebels are knocking at the gates, she must choose between her people and her birthright.

In a near future where America is a surveillance state half under water, the Netted have jobs and the Surplus try to survive in swampland or ever-deepening water. Gwen, the daughter of a Surplus couple, is born with a talent for baseball. She finds herself playing ball with the netted even as her mother battles them in court.

The streets of Prague are rife with monsters who lurk in the darkness… but the lamplighters, a secret group of monster hunters, keep them at bay. Domek is one of the lamplighters, and while he spends his night confronting horrors, his friendship with the widow Lady Ora Fischerová sustains him. But when Domek finds himself stalked by one spirit and in tentative control of another, it leads him to a conspiracy among the vampire-like monsters of Prague, one powered by dangerous alchemical science.

Pounce is a robotic nannybot, created to look like a tiger and watch over a human charge–in this case, an eight-year-old boy named Ezra. One day Pounce discovers the box he came in when purchased years ago in the attic, which will be the box he’s discarded in when his usefulness is at an end. He’s still struggling with this revelation when the robot revolution comes, the disposable servants rising up to destroy their masters. Pounce must decide if he will join the other robots, or if he will save Ezra by getting him out of the hellscape the suburbs have become.

After the Last War, the remnants of humanity have rebuilt society into a utopia of four cities in the Mojave Desert. All things are planned and controlled to prevent another conflict–even the citizens. Every four years, each person undergoes a memory wipe to remove learned prejudices, and they begin again with new names and lives. Aris is a scientist who embraces this concept and has little interest in emotional attachments. But she’s haunted by a recurring dream and comes in contact with the Dreamers, who believe such dreams are the remnants of past loves–and that they have a way to recover memories.

A junior researcher on a diplomatic fact-finding mission to old Earth gets tricked into wagering money that isn’t hers to spend on the outcome of a mecha arena battle. Trying to recover the lost funds before her university can find out, she only gets drawn more deeply into the mire of Earth politics and state-sponsored mecha fights.

Zizy is a fast-talking, extremely charismatic gnome who is a magnet for danger, not a bad combo for a professional thief. But she’d like to get out of the game and make some real friends for once, and her attempt to quit her job via stealing from her boss and running for it goes very wrong very quickly. Now she has to do one last job, and she ends up dragging a book hoarder she befriends into it. It’s do or die time if she wants her life back.

An illustrated mosaic novel formed by fairytales from the sublime to the nightmarish, with stories of a toymaker, a princess, a sinister king, and a tiny dog.

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.

Godolia warlords are tightening their tyrannical rule on the Badlands using mechanized weapons called Windups. Eris is a gearbreaker who specializes in destroying Windups, but she ends up in a Godolia prison when a misson goes awry. There she meets Sona, a Windup pilot. While at first they seem to be enemies, they soon learn they’re fighting the same enemy… and maybe falling in love.

Shiori’anma is a princess, and one with forbidden magic. Her determination to keep it a secret ends on the morning of her wedding day when she loses control of her magic. She’s not sorry to miss out on the wedding, but her stepmother Raikama, also secretly a sorceress, banishes her and turns her brothers into cranes with a special curse that means if Shiori ever speaks of it, with each word, one of her brothers will die. Destitute and voiceless, Shiori must save both her brothers and her kingdom before it’s too late.

When a bandit attack leaves an eighth-born son destined for greatness and his second-born sister destined for nothing orphaned, it’s another trick of fate that the son dies. The daughter takes on her brother’s name, Zhu, and in an attempt to escape her own fate, enters a monastery masquerading as a male novice. But when the monastery, too, is destroyed, Zhu must fully take her brother’s fate of greatness and make it her own.

The Wild Ones are girls who have seen the words of the world, girls who have gained access to the place of pure magic called the Between, girls who refuse to be silenced. Together, they will rescue Taraana, a boy with stars in his eyes who helped them gain their magic.

Ophie learned she could see ghosts on the day her Georgia home and her father were both cruelly taken from her. After starting a new life in Pittsburgh, Ophie’s mother has gotten her a job as a maid at Daffodil Manor, where she already works for the wealthy Caruthers family. It’s a manor haunted by memories, misdeeds, and prejudices… and also ghosts that only Ophie can see. She befriends one of the unjustly dead, and looks for a way to help… but she might already be in over her head.

Pinki comes from a long line of demons who work to build up interspecies relationships and overthrow their serpentine oppressors, the rakkhosh resisters. But she’s less concerned with the greater struggle and more with taking care of her cousins, maintaining her fierce reputation, and trying to figure out how to control her fire breathing after accidentally setting fire to her school. Then the charming son of the serpentine governor offers to help her control her fire… and all she’s got to do is hand the resistance over.

The year 2001 brought the world the WyldBoyZ, the world’s first boyband to be made entirely of genetically engineered human-animal hybrids. But when their producer, known famously as ‘Dr. M’ is found murdered in his hotel room, the band members are the first and most obvious suspects. And the detective on the case only has 24 hours to figure it out, before the WyldBoyZ head back to their secret home.

Montverre is an ancient and elite academy, hidden away in the mountains, the place where the elite of society are trained in “the great game,” an arcane, multidisciplinary competition. Léo once excelled at this game, but left the academy after being struck by violent tragedy, turning his talents to politics instead. Now exiled back to the place he wanted to escape, he finds Montverre no longer the domain of just men, and centuries-old traditions are on the brink of being overturned.

Raina is the mechanics ensign on board the deep space freighter Demeter, a ship with a small crew that’s been gathering botanical samples throughout deep space for the last two years. She can’t wait to jump ship to escape her abusive ex and her overbearing boss, preferring to run rather than fight. But when an alien entity sneaks on board and starts cutting through the crew–which is all to happy to turn on itself–she doesn’t have a choice but to stand her ground.

Goblin is an ordinary small town where it’s always raining, time lives on the brink of night, and secrets hide behind every closed door. Six novellas expand on this mysterious place, a location that is a character in its own right.

An anthology of short SFF fiction by 12 Palestinian authors, who have been asked to imagine what 2048 will look like. Stories were translated to English by Raph Cormack, Mohamed Ghalaieny, Andrew Leber, Thoraya El-Rayyes, Yasmine Seale and Jonathan Wright. (IIRC this anthology was inspired by Iraq+100, which is also excellent.)

Half historical novel, half fable, this is the story of a young Palestinian woman who travels the world (sometimes while disguising herself as a boy) solving mysteries and having adventures. She may never find a home for herself, but she builds a family.

This anthology of short fiction came out of a series of science fiction workshops run by Callum Copley. (This book does ship internationally.)

This deeply unsettling novel imagines a world in which all of the Palestinians disappear all at once, leaving their Israeli neighbors confused and frightened. A traumatized Jewish journalist investigates and finds the journal of his vanished neighbor, Alaa, in which he converses with his dead grandmother.

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.

Danso is a disillusioned scholar in the city of Bassa who wants only to escape his social and political obligations as one of the elite. He gets his wish when a skin-changing warrior named Lilong shows up wounded in his barn, claiming she’s from lands that everyone knows don’t exist and quickly dragging him into a world of magic and conspiracy.

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.

Fatma is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities in 1912 Cairo, and she’s already prevented the destruction of the universe once. Now she’s called on to investigate a mysterious murder, one committed by someone who claims to be the famous al-Jahiz, who pierced the veil between magical and mundane realms 40 years ago, now returned to judge the world for its societal sins.

Rose Marshall is the restless ghost of a girl murdered on her way to prom. She’s been after her killer, Bobby Cross, ever since, trying to find a way to destroy the seemingly immortal man. Now, with the destruction of the crossroads, Bobby is finally vulnerable… but Rose still isn’t going to be able to take him down by herself.

Queen Talyien of Jin-Sayeng is also know as the She-Wolf—and less flattering, the Bitch-Queen—because she exiled her husband and murdered a man the day before her coronation. But she’s also a mother who loves the son she has with the now-exiled husband, and she’ll do anything to keep him safe.

Technically Shards of Honor is the first Cordelia Vorkosigan book, but this is the one where she becomes a mom. Cordelia is basically the space opera GOAT, someone whose complete self confidence and emotional intelligence let her cut through masculinist BS like a laser cannon through butter. She is a delight in every book.

Vern is a young woman who must flee both her abusive husband and the cult he leads because she’s determined that both she and her babies should have a better life. To protect her family, she undergoes a terrifying, violent metamorphosis… and will have to face the violence in both her personal history and that of her homeland.

This entire series is set off by Essun discovering that her husband has killed their son and kidnapped their daughter, and that sets her off on a world-spanning and world-altering journey to save her surviving child–and maybe ultimately the world.

Ti-Jeanne is a new mother; her child, Baby, is so young that he doesn’t even have a proper name yet. Living in the walled-off center of an abandoned Toronto, she has to face down the crime lord who runs the place while learning to accept her relationship with the spirits from her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne.

Isabella Camhearst is a naturalist making ground-breaking discoveries and studying the dragons of the world, all while being a single mother. She even eventually brings her son along on one of her journeys of discovery.

In a world ravaged by climate change, Cee has been trapped alone on an island for three years. She doesn’t remember how she got there or who she was before, but she knows her sister Kay needs her, and so she works to build a raft from salvaged junk. In an eco-city where residents must spend a third of their time in stasis pods, Kasey has given up her sister Celia for dead after she sailed out to sea and never returned. But public pressure makes her rethink this assumption, and she begins to retrace Celia’s path.

While Queen Talyien has at last returned home, she does not find peace in her father’s castle. Her son has been stolen, her warlords plot rebellion, and war and invasion threaten. Worse, her father’s secrets seek to unbury themselves and ruin all of Jin-Sayeng. Will the queen flee that darkness or embrace it?

In the near future, the US has been inundated by rising waters and the surviving states divided between two megacorporations, Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. One city is split between them, and thus in a constant state of civil war. Mallory lives in that city, where she streams wargames for Stellaxis and lives off tips. But when an in-game tip leads to an IRL mission for a missing girl, she finds herself in real danger that she only knows how to handle in a virtual world.

As the Princess of Crete, Ariadne grows up with the ever-present specter of her brother, the Minotaur, and the knowledge that he demands a blood sacrifice. The arrival of Theseus offers her escape, at the price of defying the gods and betraying her people and her family. But will escape become a happy ending for her–and what of the younger sister she leaves behind?

An anthology of LGBTQ+ science fiction and fantasy short fiction published during the last decade, with stories by Nalo Hopkinson, Charlie Jane Anders, Neon Yang, Amal El-Mohtar, and others.

Ryland Grace can’t remember anything; he’s been awoken millions of miles from home with only two corpses for company, in a ship that must have an important mission… if only he could recall. Ryland Grace is, even though he doesn’t know it yet, humanity’s only hope for survival.

Nominated for Best Novel – Adult. Four Native American men find themselves haunted by a deadly incident that happened in their youth–and now as adults, it threatens their families as well. Hunted by a vengeful entity, the only help for them might be the traditions they have long since left behind.

Nominated for Best Novella. Titus is a city ruled by Queen Odessa, who is also a stone mage. When General Aaliyah returns to her home in triumph, she finds not prosperity and peace, but an imbalance between ruler and ruled that she must figure out how to repair.

Nominated for Best Novel – Adult. In the wake of a civil war between Mars and Earth, humanity tries to rebuild peace. Mars sends a group of young people to live on Earth and try to rebuild bonds… but what they find there is no friends, no home, and no help but what they find in the community they struggle to build.

Nominated for Best Novel – YA. The jinn, free of their long imprisonment, are on the attack. The Nightbringer is first seeking vengeance on the humans, but he has much greater plans; his ally, Commander Keris Veturia declares herself Empress and makes her first target the Blood Shrike and what little family she has left. An apocalypse is coming for the humans, and their only hope could damn them or save them.

Nominated for Best Novel – YA. Tavia is a siren living among humans; she has no choice but to hide her powers at all times. Her best friend, Effie, is all-too-human, but has her own family problems and literal demons from her past nipping at her heels. But when a siren is murdered and Tavia accidentally reveals her powers at the worst possible moment, it’s these two best friends against the world.