Against all expectations, Krispos had won the crown of Videssos. But how long could he hope to keep head and crown together? For trouble was brewing in every, quarter. Civil war erupted under Petronas, the late Emperor's uncle. A brilliant general and a canny politician, Petronas had a very personal score to settle against the upstart Krispos. And even as rebel troops took the field against the untried Emperor, outland raiders swept down from the northlands in a tide of carnage. The power stemmed from foulest sorcery, and Videssos' wizards could not counter its evil curse. Krispos reign showed every sign of being brief -- and very bloody...

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Roger Zelazny once again teams with Robert Sheckley for the latest comic fantasy starring demon extraordinaire, Azzie Elbub. On a devilish sabbatical in Europe, Azzie discovers that morality plays are all the rage, so he strikes back by producing an immorality play.

A steampunk princess is torn between love and duty in this prequel to SyFy.com’s wildly popular webisodes. Riese has never been happy as a princess; she’d much rather be hunting or fighting than sitting through another lesson on court etiquette. When she meets Micah, a wandering artist with a mysterious past, she pretends to be a peasant—it’s a chance to be just a normal girl with a normal boy for a while. But with war decimating her once-proud nation and the sinister clockwork Sect infiltrating her mother’s court, Riese’s moments with Micah are the only islands of sanity left in a world gone mad. As her kingdom falls and the Sect grows ever stronger, will Riese remain true to her duty as a princess…or risk everything on a boy she barely knows? SyFy’s enormously popular Riese webisodes come to literary life in this prequel rife with steampunk technology and medieval mysticism.

A collection of thirteen short stories includes tales of an alternate world where the weather is time, a faeries' challenge to a young prince, and a possible explanation for Jack the Ripper

World Fantasy Award for Best Novel ALA Best Books for Young Adults Book Two of the Great Alta Saga Jenna was the White Queen. Skada was the Dark Queen. She is bound to Jenna—the other half of Jenna’s self. Drawn out of a mirror by a rite of magic, a “dark sister” is confined to the dark. She vanishes in daylight. It is in this other world the dark sisters wait for moonlight or lamplight to call them forth again. This is their story: of myths turned real, ordinary people turned heroes, a land turned inside out by the coming of White Jenna.

"Phoebe Gilman has written and illustrated a very attractive book with an appealing story about a very capable and spirited girl. The illustrations are full of life and colour...Highly recommended!" — CM Magazine “Don’t worry,” said Princess Leora’s father just before he left for the tournament. “If anything goes wrong, release a bunch of balloons from the castle tower. Wherever I am, I will see them and come home right away.” Now, something is wrong—very wrong. Princess Leora’s grumpy uncle, the Archduke, wants to be king, and the very first thing he does is pop every balloon in the kingdom. Princess Leora is afraid, but she doesn't give up. If she can find just one whole balloon, the kingdom will be saved! This is a book every mother and father will look forward to reading to their child at bedtime. Enjoy!

Noah Prime must set out to save his friends and the universe once again in this action-packed, alien-filled, hilarious novel in the New York Times bestselling The N.O.A.H. Files series. Noah Prime never expected to wind up a fugitive hunted by aliens. To be honest, he had never even believed in aliens...until a team of them blew up his house. He escaped--and managed to save the world--by using his mysterious ability to harness the traits of every animal on earth. Now he's in hiding, and thinks all is well.... ...Until his friend Ogden buys a star for Claire, the most popular girl in school. However, instead of a quaint romantic notion, it turns out to be an actual real estate deal--and aliens from that star system abduct Claire to take her to the nasty, trash-filled planet she now owns. It's up to Noah, Sahara, and Ogden to cross the cosmos in search of Claire to save her and her strange new world from the evilest body-snatching worms in the galaxy. This time it's going to take a lot more than walrus blubber, cheetah speed, or skunk funk to save the day...it's going to take friendship of the most extraordinary and extraterrestrial variety. Read all The N.O.A.H. Files: I Am the Walrus Shock the Monkey The Dog Days Are Over

Two girls become fast friends practicing witchcraft together. Just when they think they've perfected their special flying potion, Jennifer and Elizabeth quarrel over the main ingredient. Will it take a magic spell to make them friends again? A Newbery Medal winner.

"Rose House, the AI-infused creation of legendary architect Basit Deniau, a building that can think for itself. On his death, Deniau specified that his life's work should be locked permanently away in Rose House, and that the building should be sealed, accessible only to his former student Dr. Selene Gisil. Now Rose House sits alone in the desert, haunting itself and guarding its hoard, until one night it discovers a dead man within its halls and contacts Det. Maritza Smith to investigate. Selene, living in Turkey, has denounced Deniau and would rather never return to Rose House--until she, too, learns of the impossible corpse. To crack the case and understand the house's dark mysteries, Selene and Maritza enter Rose House, knowing that the last person who did so never left, and that whatever killed him may still be inside."--.

"all will be impressed by Turtledove's immersive ancient world." − Publishers Weekly A new novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of alternate history in the world; a New York Times bestselling author who has been crowned as 'the Master of Alternate History' by Publisher Weekly and has won virtually every major award associated with the genre. Salamis is the fifth (standalone) novel in Harry Turtledove's critically acclaimed Hellenic Traders universe, detailing the adventures of two cousins, Menedemos and Sostratos, who work as seaborne traders following the death of Alexander the Great. This time the stage is one of the greatest sea battles ever fought in ancient times; the Battle of Salamis of 306 BC . The small, free, and independent polis of Rhodes is trying to stay neutral between the local great powers, each ruled by one of Alexander the Great's marshals: Asia Minor, controlled by one-eyed Antigonos, and Egypt, under the rule of Ptolemaios. As tensions between the great powers escalate, Menedemos and Sostratos are trying to resolve their own problems, oblivious to the fact that one of the greatest navel fleets in ancient history is about to set sail. Ptolemaios, needing shipping to carry weapons for the army he intends to land, coerces Menedemos into bringing their ship, the Aphrodite , along as part of his expeditionary force. And so, very much against their will, Menedemos and Sostratos become small parts of one of the ancient world's most significant naval battles.

Reissued after seventy-five years out of print -- and in hardcover for the first time in a generation -- Lucky Starr and the Pirates of Asteroids is the second book in the Lucky Starr series written by the legendary Isaac Asimov, author of Foundation, the Galactic Empire series, and I, Robot. Twenty-five years before, Lucky Starr's parents had been destroyed during a pirate raid on the Terrestrial Empire. Now Lucky was a man, and an officer of the Council of Science. His ship was heavily armed and the pirates were at hand. The time for sweet blaster vengeance was near! Lucky Starr's Ergometrics probed space with widely stretching fingers. It detected many ships, but Lucky watched only for the one which he would recognize with certainty the instant it appeared. Nor did he fail. At a distance of twenty-million miles, the first quiverings roused his suspicions. At 100-thousand miles, his telescope showed it as a faint dot. At ten thousand, it had form and shape -- it was the flagship of Anton, the pirate chieftain! At a thousand miles, Lucky sent out his first message -- a demand that Anton return to Earth. At one hundred miles, Lucky received his reply -- a blast of energy that made his generators whine and rocked his ship as if he had collided with another. Lucky's tired face took on a drawn look. Anton's ship was heavily armed. It was not what Lucky had expected ...

"This volume showcases the nuanced, playful, ever-expanding definitions of the genre and celebrates its current renaissance." --Washington Post Science fiction and fantasy can encompass so much, from far-future deep-space sagas to quiet contemporary tales to unreal kingdoms and beasts. But what the best of these stories do is the same across the genres--they illuminate the whole gamut of the human experience, interrogating our hopes and our fears. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Charles Yu, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 continues to explore the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today, with Yu bringing his unique view--literary, meta, and adventurous--to the series' third edition.

"In these 19 evocative pieces of short fiction, best-selling and award-winning writers tackle such intriguing issues as sex by telepathy, the pick-up scene on other planets, and making love with Superman. Thought-provoking, often shocking, always entertaining, 'Alien Sex' daringly explores those barriers between men and women that can make them seem so 'alien' to one another. probing the current and future state, shape, and complex problems of the human male/female relationship, this fantastic collection will make you think about sex in a whole new way."--Pg. [4] of cover.

The sequel to the phenomenal national bestseller and enduring classic Love Story. Can the love of your life appear twice in a lifetime? Oliver Barrett IV found his soulmate in Jenny Cavilleri. Their love was magical and exhilarating...and though heartbreakingly brief, it was a love to last a lifetime. Two years have passed since Jenny was taken from him, and Oliver believes he will never love again. Then one day, Marcie--beautiful and mysterious--enters his world and suddenly the future holds new promise. From the running track in New York's Central Park to the hushed executive suites of a mightly department store empire, from a snowy Massachusetts Christmas to a shattering moment of turth in exotic Hong Kong--the story of Oliver Barrett IV is a story of passion and principle, of a young man's journey out of sadness, into love.

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our June 2017 issue (#129) contains: Original stories by Andy Dudak ("Fool''s Cap"), Julia K. Patt ("My Dear, Like the Sky and Stars and Sun"), Nina Allan ("Neptune''s Trident"), Sam J. Miller ("The Ways Out"), and A Que ("An Account of the Sky Whales"). Reprints by Jay Lake ("Human Error") and Aliette de Bodard ("The Waiting Stars"). Non-fiction by S. E. Jones, an interview with Greg Benford, an Another Word column by Jason Heller, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

"We never expected that inventing Star-Drive would lead to this! We were first! Humans invented star drive, bringing light and movement to the galaxy, forging a grand alliance with all races. (Well, most of them.) It seemed the galaxy was ours to lead and to share! Till we met demmies. Oh, they're not so bad. They mean well. Impulsive and exasperating, sure. Often brilliant, cheeky, moronic, volatile, always astonishing... did I mention exasperating? And lucky. Gradually, it dawned on humanity- Hey, that's what we wanted to be! In ancient sci-fi dreams, we pictured ourselves as the impulsive-lucky ones, not wise-patient elders. Only now... ... they reverently call Earthlings "the Ancient Ones." And demmies are having all the fun! Dr. Alvin Montessori is Human Advisor aboard the mostly demmie-crewed star cruiser Clever Gamble, orbiting Oxytocin 41, where something weird is going on. It starts when the crew unreels a humongous hose down to the surface... ... and their first contact team discovers a whole lot of 'something weird.'"--

Hand-picked authors and a literary legacy... You may want to read it in one quick bite... Or savor it slowly like fine Swiss chocolate... One delicious prose at a time! For 22 years, SF lovers from around the world have enjoyed the stories and poems of the Tesseracts series, ( Tesseracts One through Tesseracts Ten , and Tesseracts Q ). This unique collection of books has featured the work of some of Canada's finest speculative fiction writers, selected and edited by ever changing combinations of editors, hand-picked for each edition. For many science fiction writers, Tesseracts was a spring board to their fame. Tesseracts Eleven brings the series to a new height, with a tasty blend of past and present writers, with their own individual visions of the future. The literature of Tesseracts Eleven has been critically selected and shaped into the collection you see by this year's editors, two of Canada's finest writers - acclaimed authors Cory Doctorow and Holly Phillips. Together they have chosen a powerful combination of works by well-known writers, as well as newer authors whose futures you will want to follow. Some favorite Tesseracts ingredients are a featured part of this edition's literary blend: some very popular award winning names in Canada's SF scene, like Canada's grand dame of speculative fiction, Elisabeth Vonarburg, Claude Lalumiere, David Nickle and Candas Jane Dorsey, to name just a few. As well, readers will find some bright new stars in the science fiction world like Yukon's Jerome Stueart, or Calgary's Susan Forest - just 2 of the delicious authors featured in this fine offering. All told, Doctorow and Phillips have presented 22 pieces of literary delights to tantalize your imagination, and although you may want to consume the book in one sitting - take your time, and savor each exquisite morsel - delight in every bite. Grab your favorite beverage, settle down, and enjoy the latest in Canada's literary legacy - Tesseracts Eleven

Here are thirteen stories to delight the fans who all know Robert Silverberg. He has acquired the status of an old master of science fiction. Eve and the Twenty-Three Adams (1958) Warm Man (1957) By the Seawall (1967) Dark Companion (1961) The Four (1958) Bride Ninety-One (1967) World of a Thousand Colors (1957) En Route to Earth (1957) The King of the Golden River (1967) Prime Commandment (1958) Halfway House (1966) Journey's End (1958) Solitary (1957)

A rock 'n' roll band to die for.... When fourteen year old Callie McCallan scores a backstage pass to interview the lead singer of the famous band Brass Rat, she's thrilled. Peter Gringras is so cool. When he plays his flute, it's as if he has some kind of hypnotic power. But there is something strange about him, something Callie can't quite put her finger on. Then, on Halloween night, Callie's little brother Nicky disappears, along with all the other children in town. It's crazy, but Callie thinks she knows where the children have gone--and who took them. To prove it, and to rescue Nicky and the other children, Callie must journey to a mythical world filled with fantastical creatures. A world from which there may be no return....