The Near-Earth Orbital Guard (Neo-G) — inspired by the real-life mission of the Coast Guard — patrols and protects the solar system. Now the crew of Zuma’s Ghost must contend with personnel changes and a powerful cabal hellbent on dominating the trade lanes in this fast-paced, action-packed follow-up to A Pale Light in the Black.

Zuma’s Ghost has won the Boarding Games for the second straight year. The crew — led by the unparalleled ability of Jenks in the cage, the brilliant pairing of Ma and Max in the pilot seats, the technical savvy of Sapphi, and the sword skills of Tamago and Rosa — has all come together to form an unstoppable team. Until it all comes apart.

Their commander and Master Chief are both retiring. Which means Jenks is getting promoted, a new commander is joining them, and a fresh-faced spacer is arriving to shake up their perfect dynamics. And while not being able to threepeat is on their minds, the more important thing is how they’re going to fulfill their mission in the black.

After a plea deal transforms a twenty-year ore-mining sentence into NeoG service, Spacer Chae Ho-ki earns a spot on the team. But there’s more to Chae that the crew doesn’t know, and they must hide a secret that could endanger everyone they love — as well as their new teammates — if it got out. At the same time, a seemingly untouchable coalition is attempting to take over trade with the Trappist colonies and start a war with the NeoG. When the crew of Zuma’s Ghost gets involved, they end up as targets of this ruthless enemy.

With new members aboard, will the team grow stronger this time around? Will they be able to win the games? And, more important, will they be able to surmount threats from both without and within?

From the New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows comes a mesmerizing and chilling novel that's The Village meets Needful Things about a girl who must pay a price to make her secret wishes true.

Ellerie Downing lives in the quiet town of Amity Falls in the Blackspire Mountain range - five narrow peaks stretching into the sky like a grasping hand, bordered by a nearly impenetrable forest from which the early townsfolk fought off the devils in the woods. To this day, visitors are few and rare. But when a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned.

As fall turns to winter, more strange activities plague the town. They point to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures who promise to fulfill the residents' deepest desires, however grand and impossible, for just a small favor. But their true intentions are much more sinister, and Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.

Small Favors is a beautifully creepy gothic tale loosely based on the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin.

Miguel de Ruyter is a man with a past.

Fleeing the 'wolves' - the xenocidal alien machines known as Inhibitors - he has protected his family and community from attack for forty years, sheltering in the caves of an airless, battered world called Michaelmas. The slightest hint of human activity could draw the wolves to their home, to destroy everything... utterly. Which is how Miguel finds himself on a one-way mission with his own destructive mandate: to eliminate a passing ship, before it can bring unwanted attention down on them.

Only something goes wrong.

There's a lone survivor.

And she knows far more about Miguel than she's letting on...

Ranging from the depths of space to the deeps of Pattern Juggler waters, from nervous, isolated communities to the ruins of empire, this is a stealthy space opera from an author at the top of his game.

I ended my life to protect Lucian from his enemies. It should have been the hardest decision to make, but it wasn’t. Now I find that Lucian kept even more secrets, deadly ones that threaten to destroy me. I thought I won the game that he and Katarina played, but he’s never stopped shuffling the pieces on the board. Even so, I’ve found peace in his violence and learned to accept my fate within his embrace.

As our enemies are revealed, and worlds crashed down into ours, everything is on the line again. Could we survive his latest betrayal, or would it destroy us all?

Lena wasn’t supposed to pay for my sins, but she did. I hadn’t intended for her to suffer the consequences of my actions. I’d put pieces into motion to give her back the things that mattered most to her. She may never forgive me when she learns the cost I paid or the decisions I made.

The thing is, there’s no world where Magdalena isn’t mine. I’d do whatever it took to keep her, and I’d destroy worlds to ensure she stays with me.

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