Showing titles in Science Fiction

Tea Leaves presents 16 speculative short stories that place queer characters in larger-than-life situations to emphasize the surreal experience of marginalization. A queer romance spans multiple incarnations, but only in doomed cities. A gay medieval scholar must testify for his life to the otherworldly octopus who traps him in a cafe bathroom. Ignoring their better judgment, a witch brings their mortal partner on a hunt for a dangerous sorcerer and must cope with the dire consequences.

Nobody leaves Queen. On the tidally locked, women-only planet, a vulva and an authority problem are the only immigration requirements. Emigration is banned. Ember spends her days cruising Queen’s endless sand dunes, hunting sand pirates, and wallowing in memories of her dead wife. After an ambush, Ember is dragged to the pirate camp and learns her wife’s biggest secret—before her death, she’d joined the pirates, built an illegal spaceship, and plotted to leave the planet. Ember’s sister, Nadia, stumbles across other secrets kept—a flourishing, impossible ecosystem.

In the distant future, somewhere in the galaxy, a world has evolved where each person has multiple bodies, cybernetics has abolished privacy, and individual and family success are reliant upon instantaneous evaluations of how well each member conforms to the rigid social system.

It's Greg's birthday. His 30th birthday - the birthday that will determine the rest of his life. At midnight, there is the chance Greg will simply cease to exist. With that in mind, he has hired Joe, an Ephemera, to accompany him on what might be his last day on earth. What starts as a rented relationship soon becomes more complicated. Is it possible to fall in love in less than 24 hours? Is there a point if one of them might not be alive at midnight? Greg can only be certain of one thing: The clock is ticking.

Following three jarring deaths and a surprise absconder, the thinly-stretched group is down by four, so the mood at Ghost Lake is somber. Kirk continues to ruffle feathers, but in typical Kirk fashion, he really doesn't give a shit. Amber worries about her future on several fronts. April finds out some fascinating details about Shasta. Beulah and Jack bury the hatchet. Alex isn't happy by Mateo's interest in Meredith. Lauren sets the record straight concerning Kirk. Logan has an unexpected telepathic experience.

Tales From Ardulum continues the journey of Atalant, Emn, Yorden, Nicholas, and Salice as they try to define their place in a galaxy that no longer needs them while battling the artifacts of Ardulan colonization. Other stories include Yorden’s acquisition of the Mercy’s Pledge (and his grudge against the galaxy), Atalant’s exile from her homeworld, Ekimet and Savath’s romance, and many others.

The series continues in book 5: Rocks in the Windshield. At Ghost Lake, the group strategizes, planning for their long-term survival, but just because they're a team doesn't mean that people will get along. After the tragedy of the plague, people's true personalities begin to emerge, and not everyone is happy with Alex's leadership. Simon's death catches up with Nina. Logan has become smitten with Kirk. Alex continues to keep his distance from Meredith.

A vision drawn from the mind of a dying member of an Outrider clan draws Shai and Lorne back into the city of Nhil-Rhar, where they are pulled into a deadly conspiracy. Pathfinders are having dreams of destruction and chaos, criminal factions are battling openly in the streets, and a mysterious virus has been unleashed in the Agency's computers.

This short novella follows Fixit, a worker on the surface of Tau Ceti Prime in another adventure. As Tau Ceti Prime recovers from the deadly Pacification Code the Galactic Federation of Old Earth killed hundreds of thousands of people of Prime, they must build defenses that can gain some time to complete their own defensive fleet. The leaders turn to the dirtside pinger mechanic, Fixit, once again. But Vega refuses to build weapons for anyone, so Prime leadership agrees to do things her way. And a great deception begins.

Lucas is driving home with Dean Gray in the passenger seat, and his parents are more than excited to meet the alpha that he's brought home. The only problem is, Lucas never told them that he and Dean are dating, and he plans to keep it that way. Too bad it's going to be next to impossible with his horny werewolf boyfriend constantly stealing kisses.

Venice, Italy, 2039. When Michael Danvers witnesses a vampire attack, his latent ability to shapeshift awakens. Revealed as a Sentinel, the natural enemy of Nightwalkers, 13-year-old Michael must turn his back on his family and his safe, predictable life. But a supernatural battlefield is no place for a child, not even a genius like Michael. Betrayed by his own kind, he leaves Earth behind, hoping to find a new path with the Spacer Guild – and the stars.

Enslaved as a child, her DNA altered until she was barely half human, Jeannie Sorenson still managed to engineer her escape back to the ship that brought her to that deadly planet. Could the humans accept her now that she was half alien? Could she learn to interact with them and still retain her freedom? And why the hell did they keep asking her for answers when they didn’t want to hear them?

The hopes, dreams, and ambitions of one generation are not easily passed on to succeeding generations. In the enclosed world of Igen they failed, the people weakened and faltered, staggering to the brink of extinction. Their only hope lay in the arrival of their greatest fear, the Outsiders, but did they come to save or destroy?

Ancient folklore and modern myth come together in these stories by author Craig Laurance Gidney. Here are found the struggles of a medieval Japanese monk seduced by a mischievous fairy, and a young slave who finds mystery deep within the briar patch of an antebellum plantation. Gidney offers a gay teen obsessed with his patron saint, Lena Horne, and, in the title story, an ailing tourist seeks escape at a distant shore but never reckons on encountering an African sea god. Rich, poetic, dark and disturbing, these are distinctive tales not soon forgotten.

This short novella follows Fixit, a worker on the surface of Tau Ceti Prime, in another adventure. As Prime approaches Perihelion as the moons align, the surface of the planet is plunged into a period of monster storms and tectonic shifts. When coming to Fixit's aid, Vashon is injured, and all of her secrets come out as Fixit races against time to save the woman she loves.

While Shax recovers from a near fatality, his shipmates have been busy. He's rather proud of them taking the initiative and finding them a lucrative cargo run. His pride turns to outright horror, though, when he finds out what sort of cargo. Unfortunately, he'll soon discover that a healthy fear of frogs doesn't prevent frog-driven disasters. Time travel has never been so messy.

Orin sells dandelion latex at a no-name market, barely scraping by. Mette is a princess. Maybe. What Orin does know is that for 30 seconds every night, Mette visits Orin in xir dreams. Orin has long since written the fancy ghost woman off as a recurring nightmare, but when Mette insists upon meeting in real life, Orin's inner world turns out to be more substantive than imaginary. Along with best friend Blathnaid, Orin embarks on a journey to discover the truth behind xir otherworldly connection—determined to free xir mind and finally get a good night's sleep.

Andy is at the top of his military academy class. Nothing can stop him from graduating with honors except a late night visit from a general with a unique classified mission - to send Andy and a less than stellar tech student into an uncharted virtual world. Though the one thing the general neglected to tell Andy is that this twisted universe would change him into a her. It's a sci-fi fantasy with a mermaid, a centaur, and Amish people.

It has been three years since Elvira "Ellie" Ryder was betrayed by her ex-boyfriend Cor, which caused the destruction of her people by invaders from a different Zone. Now she will do anything to find him and make him pay.

Killian O'Neal has a plan. The governor's son, Neith, has been enslaved in a high-end brothel. Killian's going to break him out, take him home and collect a reward. It's a daring mercenary rescue. What could go wrong? A lot, as it turns out. The governor doesn't want his son back, the ship and crew are on the run from the slavers, and Neith is in withdrawal from a drug that instills in him a desperate lust. A passionate heat flares between Killian and Neith - but is it just the effects of the drugs still in Neith's system, or could it be something more permanent?