A Union of Worlds Story

A man is found murdered and brutally impaled near the Seattle waterfront, and during the investigation, private detectives Dave Crowell and Alan Brindos come face to face with an alien drug known as RuBy. It’s a dangerous prototype that’s bound to cause problems for the eight worlds of the Union. The murder case itself would be easy enough to solve—that is, if the suspects weren’t already dead, and the Seattle Authority cop sharing the case wasn’t Crowell’s disgruntled ex-partner.

A prequel to The Ultra Thin Man, this novelette features Crowell and Brindos before their Network Intelligence Organization contract, scraping out a living in a city—and on a world—the Union is quickly forgetting.

From the Nebula-nominated author of Ironskin comes Tina Connolly’s first full-length collection, with two dozen stories spanning a decade of writing. These inventive and compelling stories contain tales of transcending cyborgs, shapeshifting bears, sentient hands, rogue GPSs, superhero moms groups, zombie chipmunks, and a story told from the point of view of a paddle in Pong. Her stories have been described as original, charming, delightful, unexpected, poignant, mystifying, beautiful, horrific, intricate, darkly funny, imaginative, fascinating, and just plain weird. The 25 stories and 3 poems include her prequel story to her YA Seriously Wicked series from Tor Teen, as well as one new story exclusive to the collection

For more than fifteen years Carrie Vaughn has published short fiction across all genres, through time and space, earning praise from critics and readers for twists and turns, shocks and delights, and emotional heart. This collection brings together alien encounters, classic fantasy creatures, strange magic, historical milieus; stories with heart, of people making their ways in the world the best they can, however strange and hostile those worlds might be; rare, hard-to-find stories that haven't been available in years. All this, now brought together in the first widely-available retrospective collection of Vaughn's work, including her Hugo-nominated, WSFA Small Press Award winning story "Amaryllis," about a post-catastrophe future in which a community struggles to live in balance with the environment and each other.

Dave Crowell is a hero of the eight worlds of the Union, but he doesn’t want fame or fortune. These days he just wants to run his private detective business with his partner and forget about the Ultras, the insidious aliens that attacked the Union, then vanished. But a client turns up dead under mysterious circumstances, and Crowell knows the Ultras have not gone away. With the help of a beautiful alien, he uncovers fragments of memory that might lead to his missing father. When it becomes clear that Crowell’s past also contains the information he needs to save the Union, he is caught up in a conspiracy beyond his understanding and pulled into an underworld drug war on a hostile planet. With the crisis deepening, Crowell must learn the answer to the biggest question of all: Where are the Ultras?

This debut collection from Nebula-nominated author Caroline M. Yoachim showcases a wide-ranging selection of dark and beautiful stories, fiction that explores human nature against vividly imagined speculative backdrops. Here you'll find time travel, alien invasions, Japanese mermaids, and more—stories of struggle, heartbreak, and hope. The book features twenty-five of Yoachim's most popular published pieces, and two brand new stories exclusive to the collection.

In addition to exploring Silverberg’s career, now in its sixth decade, this collection of transcribed conversations delves into aspects of Silverberg’s life—such as his extensive travel, passion for film, opera and classical music—not covered elsewhere.

A decade-and-a-half-long friendship, and working together on When the Blue Shift Comes, afforded Alvaro the opportunity to speak at length with Silverberg. The result: a remarkably candid series of conversations that will be of interest to science fiction readers and anyone curious about the writing life.