Edited by Paula Guran.

An Anthology of Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy from Award-Winning Editor Paula Guran

Speculative fiction imagines drastically diverse ways of being and worlds that are other than the one with which we are familiar. Queerness is a natural fit for such fiction, so one would expect it to be customarily included. That has not always been the case, but LGBTQ+ representation in science fiction and fantasy — in both short and long form — is now relatively common. Even so, most of the queer science fiction and fantasy anthologies published in the last thirty-five years have been narrowly focused: specifically gay male or lesbian (or, more recently, transgender) themes, or all science fiction or all fantasy, or adhering to a specific theme or subgenre.

Far Out: Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy, on the other hand, features both science fiction and fantasy short fiction from the last decade and includes characters, perspectives, and stories that span the rainbow. With stories from incredible authors ranging from Seanan McGuire to Charlie Jane Anders to Sam J. Miller, it’s an essential read for anyone interested in queer science fiction and fantasy.

Contents:

Introduction: Over the Rainbow and into the Far Out by Paula Guran

Destroyed by the Waters by Rachel Swirsky

The Sea Troll’s Daughter by Caitlín R. Kiernan

And If the Body Were Not the Soul by A. C. Wise

Imago by Tristan Alice Nieto

Paranormal Romance by Christopher Barzak

Three Points Masculine by An Owomoyela

Das Steingeschöpf by G. V. Anderson

The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir

The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri

Otherwise by Nisi Shawl

The Night Train by Lavie Tidhar

Ours Is the Prettiest by Nalo Hopkinson

Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue by Charlie Jane Anders

Driving Jenny Home by Seanan McGuire

I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno by Vylar Kaftan

In the Eyes of Jack Saul by Richard Bowes

Secondhand Bodies by JY Yang

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

Né łe! by Darcie Little Badger

The Duke of Riverside by Ellen Kushner

Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer

The Lily and the Horn by Catherynne M. Valente

Calved by Sam J. Miller

The River’s Children by Shweta Narayan

Detective Inspector Joe Lazarus always believed he could solve any murder, until it came to his own.

When Lazarus storms a Lincolnshire farmhouse, he expects to bring down the drug gang within it; instead, he discovers his own bleeding-out body and a spirit guide called Daisy-May.

She's there to enlist him to The Dying Squad, a spectral police force who solve crimes their flesh and blood colleagues cannot.

Lazarus reluctantly accepts and returns to the Lincolnshire Badlands, where he faces dangers from both the living and the dead in his quest to discover the identity of his killer - before they kill again.

A riveting, thought-provoking speculative literary novel exploring the impact of the AI revolution through the eyes of three very different young women.

Lal, Janetta and Rose are living in a time of flux. Technological advance has brought huge financial rewards to those with power, but large swathes of the population are losing their jobs to artificial intelligence - or Auts, as they're called. Unemployment is high, discontent is rife and rumours are swirling. Many feel robbed - not just of their livelihoods, but of their hopes for the future.

Lal is languishing in her role at in a coffee shop and feeling overshadowed by her quietly brilliant sister, Janetta, whose Ph.D. is focused on making auts empathetic. Even Rose, Lal's best friend, has found a sense of purpose in charismatic up-and-coming politician Alek.

When vigilantes break in to the coffee shop and destroy their new coffee-making aut, it sets in motion a chain of events that will pull the three young women in very different directions.

Change is coming - change that will launch humankind into a new era. If Rose, Lal and Janetta can find a way to combine their burgeoning talents, they might just end up setting the course of history.

A new team of Reckoners must infiltrate the flying city of Lux to take down the Epic Lifeforce in this audio-exclusive novel from Brandon Sanderson.

When the great red star Calamity appeared in the sky, some believed the end had come. They were right.

Calamity created the Epics: humans with incredible powers they didn't deserve.

They could have saved mankind. They could have lifted us into harmony and prosperity. Instead they burned. They slaughtered. They conquered. And then they ruled.

Jax has learned all of this the hard way. Orphaned at an early age, he's spent most of his childhood training to be a Reckoner - determined to find the Epics' weaknesses, unlock their secrets, and protect those of us who are still left.

But now, the mysterious High Epic Lifeforce has arrived with his flying city, Lux, to plunder what's left of Texas. So Jax and his ragtag team - the few who remain of the once-mighty Texas Reckoners - must take their battle to this floating fortress of riches - and defeat the invincible.

To avenge what has been lost. And rise anew.

Kidnapping.
Enslavement.
Murder.

Those are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actions some will take to protect their interests in æther-oil, the coveted substance that fuels the city of Huile.

As both veteran and private investigator, Marcel Talwar knows this firsthand, and he likes to think he’d never participate in such things. However, that naïve idea comes to a crashing end when he takes on a new case that quickly shatters his world view.

A trail of evidence points to someone in Marcel’s inner circle who’s using him as a pawn to conduct grisly experiments — experiments that could lead to genocide.

Now, Marcel is more determined than ever to discover who’s pulling the strings to this sinister plot. But the further he gets, the larger the target on his back becomes, and it’s not long before Marcel has to ask himself how much and how many he’s willing to sacrifice to get to the truth.