SOMETIMES A DARK PAST CAN HAUNT YOU—OTHER TIMES IT JUST MAY BE THE ONLY THING KEEPING YOU ALIVE

Fresh out of college with his Ship Engineer 3rd-Class certificate, Dave Walker’s only thought is to try to find a berth on a corporate ship plying the trade routes between the many habs, orbitals, and moons in the Solar System. The problem for Dave, however, isn’t his straight C average; it’s that his stepfather, a powerful Earth senator he’s never met, now wants him dead.

Forced to take the first berth he can find, Dave ends up on the Iowa Hill, an old tramp freighter running with a minimal crew and nearing the end of its useful life, plying the routes that the corporations ignore and visiting the kinds of places that the folks on Earth pretend don’t exist.

Between the assassins, the criminals, and the pirates he needs to deal with, Dave is discovering that there are a lot of things out there that he still needs to learn.

But there’s one hard lesson he learned long ago that he’s being forced to remember: how to be ruthless.

ALL-NEW STORIES OF ANCIENT ALIEN ARTIFACTS FROM TOP NAMES IN SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

The universe is older and more alien than we can ever understand.

We were not alone. The farther we push into the universe, the more obvious it becomes. The signs are everywhere: canals and pyramids on Mars, old roads on the moons of Jupiter, ruined cities on worlds about the nearer stars. The galaxy once teemed with life—or so it seems. Which begs the question: what happened to it all?

These stories explore the ruins of lost civilizations, solve ancient mysteries . . . and awaken horrors from beyond the dawn of time.

Featuring stories by Orson Scott Card, Griffin Barber, Adam Oyebanji, Jessica Maguire, and Patrick Chiles, and an all-new entry in the Sun Eater universe from editor Christopher Ruocchio. Join us for your next adventure to Worlds Long Lost!

IN A FOLLOW-UP TO GROUNDBREAKING A LONG TIME UNTIL NOW, MASTER OF MILITARY SF MICHAEL Z. WILLIAMSON SENDS EPOCH-DISPLACED SOLDIER SEAN ELLIOTT AND HIS CREW ON A RESCUE MISSION WITHIN THE FOLDS OF TIME ITSELF

SOLDIERS OUT OF TIME

Then: First Lieutenant Sean Elliott and nine other mixed-service U.S. soldiers on a convoy in Afghanistan suddenly found themselves and their MRAP vehicle thrown back to Earth’s Paleolithic Age. And they were not alone. Displaced Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and more showed up as well. Some would be allies. Some became deadly foes.

Now: Scientists from an almost unimaginably far future need the survivors’ advice and support to reconnoiter and ultimately recover other groups displaced in time. There's just one problem. Not all of those other groups want to be recovered or even understand where they are. Prehistory is an ugly place, fascinating to visit, but no place for a civilized person to live. But the future, gorgeous as it is, has a darker side that dampens the appeal. In the end, only inventiveness, grit, and a thirst for freedom from the fickle tides of time can keep Sean and the displaced Americans alive and on a path to finally find a place—and a time—to call home.

NEW EPIC FANTASY FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR CHARLES E. GANNON. A young man must face dangers from without and within—and question everything he believes to be true.

Since boyhood, Druadaen expected he’d ascend to the command of an elite legion and become the leader his father predicted he would be. However, fate had something different in store.

Assigned instead to a small group of outriders tasked with watching nearby kingdoms, Druadaen discovers that the world beyond his homeland is riddled with impossibilities. How do humanoid raiders, known as the Bent, suffer staggering losses and yet return as a vast horde every decade? How do multi-ton dragons fly? How have fossils formed in a world which sacrists insist has existed for only ten millennia?

Determined to solve these mysteries, Druadaen journeys into the dank warrens of the Bent, seeks out a dragon’s lair, and ventures into long-buried ruins in search of ancient scrolls. But, whereas legends tell of heroes who encounter their greatest perils during just such forays into the unknown, Druadaen’s most lethal enemies might lurk in even more unusual places:

The temples and council chambers of his own homeland.

A BRILLIANT BLEND OF MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE-LEVEL SPECULATIVE WONDER BY A WORKING SPACE SCIENTIST!

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT

Humanity has finally made it to the stars. Colony worlds thrive and there is general peace among the settled systems. Until now. Matte black ships of an advanced design appear in colonial systems. Their drives and weapons are not extremely advanced beyond their Terran counterparts—just superior enough to be utterly devastating. Colonies and their populations are obliterated. Once settled worlds are rendered radioactive wastelands. Earth herself lies defenseless before the marauding enemy.

DEFEND THE SKIES OF EARTH

Standing against the invasion are British Space Navy Captain Winslow Price and Anika Ahuja of the Indian Space Forces. Compatriots. Fierce competitors. Former lovers. They are the best of the best when it comes to military starship captains. Now they are on a quest that will plumb the scientific wells of existence itself, where the primordial knot of spacetime may be unraveling. Price and Ahuja are sworn to do whatever it takes to defend Earth and humanity from ultimate obliteration by an enemy that will not even speak its name. Even if it pushes each to the brink of life and death in battle. Even if it leads each beyond space and time—and to edge of ultimate possibility!

TAKE THE BATTLE TO THE STARS

THE CHICKS ARE BACK! CELEBRATING FEARLESS AND FEARSOME FEMALES WITH ALL-NEW STORIES.

Featuring all-new stories inspired by the classic Chicks in Chainmail series!

A boy and his dog. A girl and her tank. Tropes have been with us throughout all of history. Any girl would gladly trade in her skimpy armor for a tank. While a little bit of chainmail can take a chick far, heavy armor can take one even farther.

Besides, what’s not to love about chicks in tank tops? From pure near-future military science fiction to Pride and Prejudice with zombies, AI tanks, and true love!

All-new stories by: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, David Drake, Jody Lynn Nye, Kevin Ikenberry, Esther Friesner, Joelle Presby, Robert E. Hampson, A.C. Haskins, Lydia Sherrer & David Sherrer, G. Scott Huggins, Philip Wohlrab, Marisa Wolf, and Jason Cordova & Ashley Prior.

A scavenger and her oddball crew are catapulted into the midst of a strange secret at the heart of a derelict colony ship among the Billion Worlds of the Tenth Millennium in a new novel of explosive SF from James L. Cambias.

Solana Sina is a scarab, salvaging wrecked and abandoned space habitats among the Billion Worlds of the Tenth Millennium. She and an oddball crew—a raven, a cyborg, and a dinosaur—board the derelict colony Safdaghar hoping to score some loot before the colony gets catapulted into the outer reaches of the Solar System. But Solana and the scarabs come face-to-face with a gang of vicious pirates looking for slaves and treasure, and a mysterious stranger intent on preserving an explosive secret. Solana must overcome her own horrifying past to survive and escape before it’s too late. But there’s an even more dangerous threat lurking in the dark passages and ruined buildings of Safdaghar . . .

SOLDIERS LOST IN TIME, 152 LIGHT-YEARS FROM HOME, WITH A DAUNTING TASK FOR SURVIVAL

NEW NOVEL SET IN THE AWARD-WINNING TERRAN REPUBLIC SERIES

Taken from their planet and their century, they are not just the Lost Soldiers: they are Murphy’s Lawless.

Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in 1993. Instead, he woke up in 2125, 152 light-years from home. Murphy and a hundred other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by two officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic: Trevor Corcoran and Richard Downing.

Promising to return, Corcoran and Downing leave the twentieth-century castaways with a daunting objective: establish a base of operations on the main world of R’Bak using local allies they have yet to recruit and enemy equipment they have yet to seize.

They haven’t been back yet.

But the company of misfits and ne’er-do-wells who’ve taken the nickname Murphy’s Lawless rises to the challenge!

Book four in the nationally best-selling Manticore Ascendant series, set in the world of David Weber’s multiple New York Times best-selling Honorverse series.

Yesterday, the Star Kingdom of Manticore was a small, unimportant interstellar backwater. A quiet little star nation, only recently recovered from the devastating blow of the Plague Years. More affluent than some, perhaps, but with little to attract trade or interstellar commerce, it had little need for a navy . . . and even less interest in paying for one.

But Manticore has now become a target. The Star Kingdom isn't certain who is attacking it, or why, or what its mysterious foe can possibly want, but Queen Elizabeth I knows she has to find out. And she knows that whatever some of her subjects think, Manticore does need a navy. And it needs allies, friends like the dynamic Republic of Haven and the Andermani Empire. It needs their trade . . . and to learn from their more experienced and powerful navies.

It is the job of officers like Travis Long and his wife, Lisa, to acquire that experience. Of utterly inexperienced diplomats like Travis's brother Gavin, Earl Winterfall, to build those alliances.

They have been sent to the powerful Andermani Empire to do just that, for the Imperial Navy is one of the most potent and experienced fleets in the galaxy. But the Andermani have problems of their own. Their Emperor's death is the trigger for insurrection, and now that powerful and experienced navy is locked in civil war.

The Manticoran visitors find themselves squarely in the path of the storm, and before Travis, Lisa, and Gavin can accomplish anything else, they first have to survive.

The most popular alternate history series of all continues. When a cosmic disturbance hurls your town from twentieth-century West Virginia back to seventeenth-century Europe—and into the middle of the Thirty Years War—you have to adapt to survive. And the natives of that time period, faced with American technology and politics, need to be equally adaptable. Here’s a generous helping of more stories of Grantville, the American town lost in time, and its impact on the people and societies of a tumultuous age.

Featuring stories by Eric Flint, Tim Sayeau, Robert Noxon, Griffin Barber, Bjorn Hasseler, Clair Kiernan, Margo Ryor, Mark Huston, Robert E. Waters, Phillip Riviezzo, Jack Carroll, Terry Howard, Tim Roesch, Sarah Hays, Mike Watson, Iver P. Cooper, Kerryn Offord, Rick Boatright, Brad Banner, Anne Keener, Jackie Britton Lopatin, and David Carrico.

NEW STORIES OF FUTURE WARFARE FROM THE HOTTEST NAMES IN SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR

TALES OF THE WAR BEYOND THE NEXT

What if there were a war after Armageddon? How would the survivors emerging from World War III’s radioactive slag heaps fight in this conflict? Would they wage it with sticks and stones . . . and sorcery? Or would they use more refined weapons, elevating lawfare to an art and unleashing bureaucratic nightmares worse than death? Would they struggle against themselves or inter-dimensional invaders? What horrors from the desolate darkness might slither into the light? Wipe away the ashes of civilization and peer into a pit of atomic glass to witness the haunting visions of World War IV from today’s greatest minds in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Contributors include:
Jonathan Maberry
Steven Barnes
D.J. Butler
Brad R. Torgersen
Martin L. Shoemaker
T.C. McCarthy
Eric James Stone
Stephen Lawson
Freddy Costello and Michael Z. Williamson
Laird Barron
Nick Mamatas
Brian Trent
Erica L. Satifka
Kevin Andrew Murphy
Maurice Broaddus and Rodney Carlstrom
David VonAllmen
Deborah A. Wolf
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Julie Frost
Weston Ochse
John Langan

It’s always high noon on Proxima Centauri b. Original stories about the final frontier.

YOU TELL ’EM THE SPACE COWPOKES A’COMIN’ AND HELL IS COMIN’ WITH ’EM!

Adventure! Danger! Revenge! And a mail-order robot gunslinger in a wedding dress? Only in the wildest parts of space could this happen. It’s time again to get in your ramshackle rocket ship and journey to the universe’s western territories with this follow-up to Gunfight on Europa Station.

Meet the employees of a space bordello as they’re drawn together to pull a con on a con. Or the crew filming a Western on a colony ship only to fight gravity and each other. Or a soldier on a backwater planet hiding from her past when it—and the military—finally tracks her down. Each voyage invokes the type of Western yarns you’ve loved before, but with a science fiction upgrade you’ll get to enjoy anew.

Taking you on this ride are another set of astounding space opera authors such as Walter Jon Williams (Hardwired), Susan R. Matthews (Under Jurisdiction), Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (Star Trek), Brenda Cooper (Project Earth), Milton Davis (Changa’s Safari), John E. Stith (Naught for Hire), and Peter J. Wacks (Caller of Lightning).

Ten tales of the West . . . not as it was, but as it might be!

SECRETS REVEALED. HORRORS UNCOVERED. BODIES GO MISSING.

BOOK TWO IN THE ISHMAEL JONES SERIES FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHOR SIMON R. GREEN

Ishmael Jones is called in to solve the mystery of a rogue secret agent who came in from the cold to spill all he knew, only to end up murdered in detention. Then his body goes missing. Then other people start dying. Has the murdered agent risen from the dead to get his revenge? How can all this be happening in one of the most secure interrogation centers? As Ishmael and his partner Penny dig deeper into what’s really going on, secrets are revealed and horrors are uncovered, but so many people are dying they have to wonder if anyone will be left to reveal the answer to.

ROGUE AGENTS SWEPT UP IN THE SEARCH FOR AN ANCIENT RELIC IN A UFO NOVEL AS ONLY TIM POWERS COULD WRITE IT!

Sebastian Vickery has learned something about UFOs that he shouldn’t have—and Naval Intelligence, desperate to silence him, orders his old partner, Agent Ingrid Castine, to trap him.

But Castine risks career, liberty, and maybe even life, to warn Vickery—and now they’re both fugitives, on the run from both the U.S. government and agents of the Russian GRU Directorate, which has its own uses for the UFO intelligence.

With the unlikely aid of a renegade Russian agent, a homeless Hispanic boy, and an eccentric old Flat-Earther, Vickery and Castine must find an ancient relic that spells banishment to the alien species, and then summon the things and use it against them—in a Samson-like confrontation that looks likely to kill them as well.

Sweeping from the Giant Rock monolith in the Mojave Desert to a cultist temple in the Hollywood Hills, from a monstrous apparition in the Los Angeles River to a harrowing midnight visitation on a boat off Long Beach Harbor, Stolen Skies is an alien-encounter novel like no other.

The Long-Awaited New Entry in Wen Spencer’s Popular Tinker Series

The war against the oni heats to a flashpoint even as Tinker learns that the enemy has a dangerous new weapon, the nactka. What’s more, the Stone Clan has sent its most famous warlords, the Harbingers, to take control of the allied war effort. Are these elves friends or foes? Tinker’s newfound baby siblings are up for grabs. The babies, though, are wood sprites and aren’t going to take things lying down. Team Mischief go!

A relic of humanity’s violent past, this old weapon stands ready for the Emperor to wield.

The Galactic Imperium of the Myriad Worlds slumps into centuries of decadent peace enabled by a flood of advanced technology from the mysterious nonhuman “Shapers.” Among the great Families, only the once-mighty clan of Sinclair-Maru remembers the maxims of the warrior Emperor, Yung I, ready to defend the Imperium from any threat.

Stubbornly clinging to the Honor Code, Family prodigy Saef Sinclair-Maru finds himself in command of an outmoded, under-equipped frigate of the Imperial Fleet. With spies and assassins on every side, trusting only in his considerable skill and the bizarre competence of his companion, Inga, Saef must complete his mission, restore the greatness of his Family, and uncover the chilling plot meant to extinguish humanity’s light from the galaxy.

THE EVENTS OF EARTH'S PAST MAY HOLD THE KEY TO EARTH'S SALVATION IN THE FUTURE

Marty Cohen was a gifted linguist and student of ancient military strategy who stepped away from academic Egyptology and opened a woodworking shop. Away from the bitter politics and petty rivalries, he’s happy to take care of his people, play the occasional war game, and try to make a good life.

He discovers mysterious visions rob him of sleep, and then he gets summoned back to Egypt: an off-the-grid dig funded by an eccentric financier has discovered texts that may be the earliest Egypt has produced, and they’ll pay Marty silly amounts of cash just to fly out and take one little look.

Marty turned his back on the academia game, but he’s a small business owner who has to make payroll, and he can’t say no to the money.

But the texts open doors to more visions and to an astonishing journey: the ragtag team of archaeologists finds itself in protohistoric North Africa, a drying land dominated by horrors, where humanity is badly in need of champions.

And behind the war against the fearsome overlords lies a greater struggle: Marty and his team have been chosen to be champions of all Earth and to run a gauntlet on humanity’s behalf.

Failure will mean extinction.

Failure will mean extinction.

What would it really take to make the Six Million Dollar Man? a medical thriller on earth and in space!

Glenn Armstrong Shepard had his sights set on going to Mars as a flight surgeon, but a training accident on the Moon left him crippled. Now he has a new plan: to be fitted with bionic prosthetics and come back even stronger.

Fate and the Space Force have other plans, and Glenn is grounded. Another doctor—his ex-fiancée—takes his place, and Glenn will have to fight to prove he can be an astronaut once more. . . .

A STUNNING BAEN BOOKS DEBUT. A brilliant Americana flintlock fantasy novel set in a world of Appalachian magic that works.

Sarah Calhoun is the fifteen‑year‑old daughter of the Elector Andrew Calhoun, one of Appalachee’s military heroes and one of the electors who gets to decide who will next ascend as the Emperor of the New World. None of that matters to Sarah. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants is to be left alone—especially by outsiders.

But Sarah’s world gets turned on its head at the Nashville Tobacco Fair when a Yankee wizard‑priest tries to kidnap her. Sarah fights back with the aid of a mysterious monk named Thalanes, who is one of the not‑quite‑human Firstborn, the Moundbuilders of the Ohio. It is Thalanes who reveals to Sarah a secret heritage she never dreamed could be hers.

Now on a desperate quest with Thalanes to claim this heritage, she is hunted by the Emperor’s bodyguard of elite dragoons, as well as by darker things—shapeshifting Mockers and undead Lazars, and behind them a power more sinister still. If Sarah cannot claim her heritage, it may mean the end to her, her family—and to the world where she is just beginning to find her place.

HORROR IN THE TRENCHES

The war between Almacia and the Empire of Kolakolvia is in its hundredth year. Casualties heap even higher on both sides as the conflict leaves no corner of the world untouched.

Illarion Glaskov’s quiet life on the fringes of the empire is thrown into chaos when tragedy strikes his village. When he is conscripted into the Tsarist military, he is sent to serve in The Wall—an elite regiment that pilots suits of armor made from the husks of dead golems.

NEW FANTASY FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JANE LINDSKOLD

Instead of mentors, they got monsters . . .

That’s what Xerak, Vereez, and Grunwold think when three strange creatures shimmer into being within the circle of Hettua Shrine. Their conclusion is reasonable enough. After all, they’ve never seen humans before.

As for Margaret Blake, Peg Gallegos, and Tessa Brown—more usually known as Meg, Peg, and Teg—they’re equally astonished but, oddly enough, better prepared. Age and experience have accustomed them to surprises. A widely varied course of reading material has intellectually prepared them for the idea that other worlds, even worlds where people with traits more commonly ascribed to “animals” may exist.

Then there is the mysterious verse that Teg speaks as they arrive, words that seem to indicate that the Shrine must have been at least partially responding to the request made of it.

Despite doubts on all sides, the three unlikely mentors join forces with the three young “inquisitors” and venture out into the world Peg dubs “Over Where.” First they must find the Library of the Sapphire Wind, destroyed years before.

Will they find answers there, or is this only the first stage in their search?

A CLASSIC OF THE LIADEN UNIVERSE^®

All of her life, Aelliana Caylon has lived by the rules of her overbearing brother, the head of the Caylon family. Though she is a brilliant mathematician, he has convinced her that she has no worth beyond what value she might have in an arranged marriage.

Then, on a dare, she plays a game of chance—and wins a starship. It is her way to escape her home, her planet, her drab life—if she can qualify as a pilot.

Enter the accomplished Scout and Master Pilot known only as Daav. Aelliana hires him as her instructor. She finds him a gifted teacher. He finds her a quick study.

And they also find an unexpected attraction, one that could have dangerous repercussions for them both . . .

A RACE AGAINST TIME AND A GATEWAY TO THE UNKNOWN AWAITS

Thrilling space adventure from a Marine vet.

Five years ago, astronaut Jack Templeton took the spacecraft Magellan to the farthest reaches of our solar system, never to be heard from again.

Until now.

When the Magellan suddenly reappears where an undiscovered planet was suspected to be, it poses more questions than answers. How did Jack survive all this time? Can he be rescued before his life support runs out? And what is the object long thought to be the elusive “Planet Nine?”

In a race against time, Jack’s former crewmate Traci Keene spearheads a desperate effort to outfit a rescue mission. But she has competition. Agencies of both American and foreign governments have their own agendas, and rescuing rogue astronauts isn’t among them.

And at the edge of all that is known, a gateway to the unknown awaits. . . .

EPIC FANTASY BY A RISING STAR OF FANTASY

Since he was a boy, Rae Kelthannis has dreamed of being a stormbinder like his father, with an air elemental stitched into the fabric of his soul and the winds of heaven at his command. Those dreams died when his father, through no fault of his own, fell into disgrace and was banned by the justicars of the Iron Council. The family fled to the edge of the Ordered World, to live in fear in the shadow of encroaching Chaos.

When Rae defies his father’s orders and attempts to stitch an air elemental to his soul, he instead binds himself to a mysterious wraith. That’s when things get complicated and the world starts to fall apart around him. Literally.

THE NEW WORLD FALLS INTO THE RING OF FIRE. All new stories set in the Ring of Fire series, edited by New York Times best-selling series creator Eric Flint.

Europe, 1632. It is a time of upheaval and great change, but none so great as when an unexplained temporal and spatial phenomenon known as the Ring of Fire transports the blue collar town of Grantville, West Virginia, smack dab in the middle of the Thirty Years War. When the dust settles, it becomes clear that the town of Grantville isn't going anywhere, and the can-do Americans of the twenty-first century begin altering the course of history forever.

It is now five years later, and the effects of the Ring of Fire reach from the Old World to the New. But the course of exploration and colonization will look much different than it did in our timeline. The French bought the English possessions in North America way back in 1633, but have never done much with the uncivilized backwater. Until the new king of France, Gaston I, decides that it's time to seize the territory and establish French control over it.

Here then, a new anthology, edited by Ring of Fire series creator Eric Flint, chronicling the exploits of the citizens of Grantville, their allies, and their enemies, as they venture forth onto a new continent.

This short novel plus 7 bonus stories in the Ring of Fire!

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JOHN RINGO AND USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LYDIA SHERRER JOIN FORCES ON A NEW SF NOVEL OF ALIEN INVASION. Ender's Game meets Mean Girls meets Pokemon Go.

Lynn Raven may be the boss master of WarMonger 2050 with her online persona of "Larry the Snake," but when the CEO of Tsunami Entertainment personally asks her, as a favor, to beta test a new augmented reality game, she has to face her greatest fear: Going outside and dealing with, ugh, people.

As she becomes more immersed in the game, the stakes rise and so do the obstacles. Strife between teammates, a ruthless rival team, and these strange glitches that make it seem like the game algorithm (or maybe “game AI”?) has it in for her. Now she has to face a new fear: is she willing to step into the real to win the future she’s always wanted?

What do you do when a game and real life merge?

AN AGENT OF KNIGHT WATCH, TASKED TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM SUPERNATURAL ENEMIES, MUST GO TO HELL AND BACK TO CLEAR HIS NAME AND SAVE THE WORLD

When John Rast signed up for Knight Watch, he expected it to be all fighting dragons and rescuing maidens. You know, hero stuff. But instead he’s stuck patrolling game conventions and cosplayer competitions, looking for dangerous anachronisms and the villains who may be trying to exploit them. Fortunately, all that changes when an honest-to-goodness necromancer shows up wielding a weapon created by Nazi occultists and accompanied by some badass evil valkyries, hell-bent on kicking off the end of the world.

John and the team will go to great lengths—even Minnesota—to prove find out who’s responsible for all this and foil their plans. Also, there’s a giant dog who thinks the moon is a ball. It’s epic.