Life, Death, and the elemental Gods have awakened in the lands of Kerith after a cataclysmic collision with Trevalka, home of Vaelinar ambition, lies, and magic. Only a handful of the bravest and most foolhardy left standing dare to face the consequences of these two worlds meeting. Unwillingly thrust through space and time, the Vaelinars have made the most of their exile and woven the threads of their magic deep into the fabric of Kerith. Makers and masters of the Elven Ways, now they, and the Gods, must choose their final paths. Rivergrace and her partner Sevryn have no choice but to cross the treacherous divide between worlds in pursuit of Quendius and his army of Undead. They are determined to risk everything to prevent the Death Master from joining forces with the queen of lost Trevalka, a tyrant who has risen to power by draining the energies of those around her.

ORDER # S418-1   $12-95   ISBN 9780756412883

Having decided to betray CASE Global, he can finally reveal his origins to the Enclave and warn them about the company's imminent invasion. Even if it means alienating Jillaine - and allying with someone he's always considered his adversary. But war makes for strange bedfellows, and uniting Alissians against such a powerful enemy will require ancient enmities - as well as more recent antagonisms - to be set aside. The future of their pristine world depends on it. As Quinn searches for a way to turn the tide, his former CASE Global squadmates face difficult decisions of their own. For some, it's a matter of what they're willing to do to get home. For others, it's deciding whether they want to go home at all.

ORDER # S418-2   $11-95   ISBN 9780062659118

War is coming to Ruthnia. As ancient, inhuman powers move against one another, Rel Kressind finds himself in the company of the fabled modalmen - giants who regard themselves as the true keepers of humanity's legacy. Far out in the blasted, magical wastelands of the Black Sands where no man of the Hundred has ever set foot before, Rel comes face to face with the modalman's deity, the Brass God. What Rel learns in the Brass God's broken halls will shake his understanding of reality forever. Magic and technology combine in an epic fantasy like no other, where lost science, giant tides and jealous gods shape the fate of two worlds, and the actions of six siblings may save a universe, or damn it.

ORDER # S418-3   $11-95   ISBN 9781781085073

Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, The Fantastic Four.
The epic story that blows the marvel universe apart!
Iron Man and Captain America: two core members of the Avengers, the world's greatest super hero team. When a tragic battle blows a hole in the city of Stamford, killing hundreds of people, the U.S. government demands that all super heroes unmask and register their powers. To Tony Stark - Iron Man - it's a regrettable but necessary step. To Captain America, it's an unbearable assault on civil liberties. SO BEGINS THE CIVIL WAR.

ORDER # S418-4   $13-90   ISBN 9781785659584

Out of the spotlight, in the darker corners of the studio backlots, Hollywood hides a remarkable secret. Actor or actress, set designer, electrician, best boy, or grip - in la-la land, it pays not to be human. Vampires, succubae, trolls, elementals, goblins - studios hire anyone and anything that can take direction, be discreet, and not eat the extras. (The less you know about your agent, the better.) Though only human, stuntwoman and struggling actress Lee Striga is a member of the legendary Katz Stunt Crew. They're the best in the biz, in part because they can fly, and boast superhuman strength. When Lee lands a job on the movie Pale Dreamer, however, not everyone is following the script. It's up to her to figure out who - or what - is killing the cast and crew. Especially when Lee goes from stuntwoman to lead role - and the next target.

ORDER # S418-5   $11-95   ISBN 9781785656149

William Sandberg, once a well-respected military cryptologist, is a ruined man. His career is in shambles, his marriage is over, and he's succumbed to a deep depression. But William's talents haven't gone unnoticed. A nameless, top-secret organization abducts him and tasks him with a daunting mission: decode a message that will reveal the disastrous prophecies hidden in our DNA before it is too late. Meanwhile, William's ex-wife Christina sets out to find him. She connects with an eccentric group at a mysterious chateau in the Alps, where the secret organization is plotting the destruction of humankind - unless the ex-lovers can reunite and put a stop to the plan.

ORDER # S418-6   $11-95   ISBN 9780316483926

After Isstvan, after Deliverance, the Raven Guard still endure. Their primarch Corvus Corax has rallied countless warriors to his banner, striking back at the forces of the Warmaster on every front - from the degenerate hereteks of the Mechanicum to the cruel legionaries of the Sons of Horus, none shall escape his wrath. But although Corax has managed to stall the physical corruption of his own Space Marines, what of their spirit? And what sinister end must await those who dwell forever in the darkness? The saga of the primarch Corax comes to its grim conclusion in this anthology, which collects together the novellas Soulforge, Ravenlord and Weregeld along with several short stories.

ORDER # S418-7   $13-90   ISBN 9781784966768

Ten years ago, Hell Diver Xavier "X" Rodriguez fell to Earth. Those he left behind went on without him aboard the airship he once called home. Michael Everhart - the boy once known as Tin - has grown into a man and the commander of Hell Diver Raptor Team. While Michael dives to help keep the Hive in the air, Captain Leon Jordan rules with an iron fist at the helm of the ship. But unrest stirs under his strict leadership as a prophecy of hope sweeps the lower decks. When a mysterious distress signal calls the Hell Divers to the surface, Michael and his loyal team begin to uncover long-buried truths and the secrets Captain Jordan will do anything to keep. They dive so humanity survives but will they survive the ultimate betrayal?

ORDER # S418-8   $13-90   ISBN 9781538507551

In the year 1635, the Rhineland is in turmoil. The impact of the Ring of Fire, the cosmic accident which transported the small modern West Virginia town of Grantville to Europe in the early seventeenth century, has only aggravated a situation that was already chaotic. Perhaps nowhere in central Europe did the Thirty Years War produce so much upheaval as it did in the borderlands between France and Germany. Archbishop Ferdinand of Cologne shares the religious fanaticism of his older brother, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. He is determined to restore the power of the Catholic Church over the middle Rhine, the so-called "Bishop's Alley," and has unleashed a plot for that purpose. But that same middle Rhine is territory which Landgrave William V of Hesse-Kassel is determined to seize for himself, under the guise of expanding the influence of the United States of Europe.

ORDER # S418-9   $11-95   ISBN 9781481483216

The African nation of Wakanda stood alone as an unconquerable land filled with incredible technological advancements for ten centuries. T'Challa, the latest in a lineage of warrior-kings, is the Black Panther, endowed with enhanced speed and strength, along with a suit made of the indestructible metal that secured his country's future: Vibranium. Now, outsiders have returned to plunder Wakanda's riches - including its store of the rare metal. Leading this brutal assault is Klaw, an assassin with the blood of T'Challa's father on his hands. Klaw brings with him a powerful army of super-powered mercenaries, all hell-bent on raining death and destruction on this pristine land.

ORDER # S418-10   $13-90   ISBN 9781785659478

Deep inside the Battlecruiser Absolution, a captured Resistance spy endures brutal interrogation at the hands of a crimson-armored stormtrooper - Cardinal. But the information he desires has nothing to do with the Resistance or its covert operations against the First Order. What the mysterious stormtrooper wants is Phasma's past - and with it whatever long-buried scandal, treachery, or private demons he can wield against the hated rival who threatens his own power and privilege in the ranks of the First Order. His prisoner has what Cardinal so desperately seeks, but she won't surrender it easily. As she wages a painstaking war of wills with her captor, bargaining for her life in exchange for every precious revelation, the spellbinding chronicle of the inscrutable Phasma unfolds. But this knowledge may prove more than just dangerous once Cardinal possesses it - and once his adversary unleashes the full measure of her fury.

ORDER # S418-11   $13-90   ISBN 9781524796334

As a soldier of the Celestial Expanse, Guardian First Class Michael Sorenson knows better than anyone that when the Spectres invade, there are only two options. Run or die. However, his defensive war takes on a whole new spin when he's recruited into Division 7, a Research & Development facility with the ultimate mission: to create a large-scale weapon that can kill Spectres en masse. Here Michael joins a team of military elite who have the daring - and dangerous - task of taking new weapons prototypes out into the field for testing on enemy troops. Yet the closer they come to developing a working WMD, the more it becomes clear: There's a saboteur in R&D. With all signs pointing to a massive Spectre attack brewing on the horizon, the creation of a new weapons system yields an opportunity to end the threat once and for all. As the days count down toward its launch, Michael must hunt down the saboteur - before the saboteur hunts down him.

ORDER # S418-12   $11-95   ISBN 9780756410889

When Monster Hunter International's top hunter, Owen Zastava Pitt, was given a tip about some hunters who had gone missing in action, he didn't realize their rescue mission would snowball into the single biggest operation in MHI's history. Their men are being held prisoner in a horrific nightmare dimension, and the only way to reach them is through the radioactive ruins of a monster-infested war zone. As if that wasn't bad enough, it's also the home base of the powerful creature behind the devastating attacks on the Last Dragon and Copper Lake. It turns out ancient gods of chaos really hate trespassers. But this god picked a fight with the wrong crew, and now MHI wants payback. Calling on their allies, a massive expedition is formed, and with the odds stacked against them, a legion of hunters goes to war.

ORDER # S418-13   $11-95   ISBN 9781481483278

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must swear herself to secrecy in return for the rather large sum of money. Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace - the world's fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it's up to Tristan to find out why. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations - D.O.D.O. - gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive - and meddle with a little history at the same time.

ORDER # S418-15   $25-90   ISBN 9780062409157

Bruce has saved thousands and forged them into an awesome fighting force. Now they must destroy forty million smart, fast, undead maniacs if they hope to save the world. The human gangs that preyed on the survivors of the apocalypse have been defeated and scattered; they live in fear of Bruce's clan and their overwhelming weaponry. Now it's time to begin the long, violent process of taking back the country, one dead zombie at a time. Rebuilding civilization isn't going to be easy. But if anybody can do it. The clan has rescued the few remaining survivors of the mortal marauders. They have gathered military hardware from choppers to rocket launchers and beyond. And they've taken over the drones and satellite network from the factionalized remains of the U.S. government, locked in internal conflict with an increasingly fascist and evil Homeland Security.

ORDER # S418-16   $23-90   ISBN 9781618687319

For Josette Dupre, the Corps' first female airship captain, it might just be a bullet in the back.
On top of patrolling the front lines, she must also contend with a crew who doubts her expertise, a new airship that is an untested deathtrap, and the foppish aristocrat Lord Bernat, a gambler and shameless flirt with the military know-how of a thimble. Bernat's own secret assignment is to catalog her every moment of weakness and indecision. So when the enemy makes an unprecedented move that could turn the tide of the war, can Josette deal with Bernat, rally her crew, and survive long enough to prove herself?

ORDER # S418-17   $24-90   ISBN 9780765388780

24 Award-Winning Authors and Illustrators. Accompanied by Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, Jody Lynn Nye, Jerry Pournelle, Ciruelo and Echo Chernik. Edited by David Farland
Your search for something new and different in sci-fi and fantasy ends here. Presenting this year's collection of fresh voices, fabulous worlds, and fantastic new characters. Each year, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests' blue-ribbon judges search the world to discover and introduce to you the very best new talent in sci-fi and fantasy.

ORDER # S418-18   $23-90   ISBN 9781619865754

After months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on Mars for her new job as a geologist and de facto artist in residence - and already she feels she is losing the connection with her husband and baby at home on Earth. In her room on the base, Anna finds a mysterious note, painted in her own hand, warning her not to trust the colony psychiatrist. A note she can't remember painting. When she finds a footprint in a place that the colony AI claims has never been visited by humans, Anna begins to suspect that she is caught up in an elaborate corporate conspiracy. Or is she losing her grip on reality? Anna must find the truth, regardless of what horrors she might discover or what they might do to her mind.

ORDER # S418-19   $23-90   ISBN 9780399587320

Polly Newton has one single-minded dream, to be a starship pilot and travel the galaxy. Her mother, the Director of the Mars Colony, derails Polly's plans when she sends Polly and her genius twin brother, Charles, to Galileo Academy on Earth. Strange, unexplained, dangerous coincidences centered on their high-profile classmates begin piling up. There's more going on than would appear, and the stakes are high. Polly is determined to find the truth, no matter the cost.

ORDER # S418-20   $23-90   ISBN 9780765382214

A scavenger robot wanders in the wasteland created by a war that has destroyed humanity in this evocative post-apocalyptic "robot western" from the critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, and noted film critic.
It's been thirty years since the apocalypse and fifteen years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots. Humankind is extinct. Every man, woman, and child has been liquidated by a global uprising devised by the very machines humans designed and built to serve them. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI - One World Intelligence - the shared consciousness of millions of robots, uploaded into one huge mainframe brain. But not all robots are willing to cede their individuality - their personality - for the sake of a greater, stronger, higher power. These intrepid resisters are outcasts; solo machines wandering among various underground outposts who have formed into an unruly civilization of rogue AIs in the wasteland that was once our world.

ORDER # S418-21   $23-90   ISBN 9780062405852

Damian Ward thought he was done fighting. But the retired veteran and war hero is now leading the revolution against the oppressive Federal America - a bloody battle for the future of his adopted planet that will cost brave rebel lives. But failure means living under the yoke of tyranny - a price Ward and the people of Haven refuse to pay. Federal America cannot allow Haven to break away. If rebellion is successful on one colony, it will spread, and threaten the flow of wealth and raw materials the government needs. With its superior troops and weaponry, it will crush the traitorous rebellion, and retain the empire's standing and power. The colonists have won the first battle, and driven the government forces from the planet. But the Federals are by no means defeated. For just months after the brutal Colonel Semmes and his defeated troops return to Earth, a new force is gathering, larger, better-equipped, and augmented with front line units, veterans of the last war, ready to take back the planet and end the threat of rebellion once and for all.

ORDER # S418-22   $23-90   ISBN 9780062566843

With the realm on the brink of war, the once-celebrated blades have become an easy target for the rage of its devastated citizens. The nightblade warrior Asa's lifelong quest for vengeance is over, but now she finds herself on the run from the people she sought to protect. As Asa forges a new course of action in an uncertain world, her path crosses with that of a young noblewoman. Mari knows that great opportunity lies in the heart of chaos. If the Kingdom is to rise again, Mari will need support, and she can think of no group better than the nightblades. But the nightblades have been betrayed before, and gaining their trust will not be easy. Mari wants to save the Kingdom. Asa wants to save the people. Both are willing to risk everything. But do their quests make them allies - or enemies?

ORDER # S418-23   $22-90   ISBN 9781503953154

An engineer upsets the rigid social order of a medieval-level magical society as his attempts to return to our world amass him more power - and more enemies.
The continuing adventures of Christopher Sinclair, mechanical engineer turned priest of war.
Christopher is sent north to avenge the destruction of County Nordland, but murderous dragons and genocidal goblins are the least of his worries when his allies keep promising to kill him first. His advancement has not gone unnoticed, and even powers outside the realm show an interest in his career. As always, the price is high, and Christopher is not the only one who must pay.

ORDER # S418-24   $25-90   ISBN 9781633884373

To keep up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a new yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy award-winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.
The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor in chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

ORDER # S418-25   $25-90   ISBN 9781597809368

There is only one way forward for Glint. He and his crew undertake a risky mission to steal a crystalline energy source - the only object capable of saving Jasette's planet - from the immense spaceship of legend known as the ghost ship. If they're lucky, they'll escape with their lives - and Glint won't lose the woman he loves. The ghost ship is run by a nanotech kitten and an army of spider bots with zero tolerance for theft. Soon they are hot on the trail of Glint and his crew. Glint uses every piloting trick in the book to find safe haven but to no avail. The ghost ship tracks them from every space bar to remote outpost, getting closer at each turn. To make matters worse, Mar Mar the Unthinkable, the galaxy's most powerful gangster, wants revenge for Glint's double cross during their last encounter. Mar Mar sends a legion of fembots and bounty hunters to capture him dead or alive.

ORDER # S418-26   $23-90   ISBN 9781683700821

Laytham Ballard once protected humanity as part of the Nightwise, a secret order of modern-day mages dedicating to holding hellish supernatural forces at bay, but that was before a string of sadistic ritual murders shook everything he believed in - and sent him down a much darker path. One that has already cost him most of his soul, as well as everything he once held dear. Now a powerful faerie mob boss has hired Ballard to find his lost-lost daughter, who went missing several years ago. The long-cold trail leads him across the globe, from the luxurious playgrounds of the rich and famous to the seedy occult underbelly of Los Angeles, where creatures of myth and legend mingle with street gangs and sex clubs, and where Ballard finds his own guilty past waiting for him around every shadowy corner. To find Caern Ankou, he will have to confront old enemies, former friends and allies, and a grisly cold case that has haunted him for years.

ORDER # S418-27   $25-90   ISBN 9780765390127

The kings and queens of the northern continent lay siege to the Darkwater Forest, desperate to contain its evil. But rumors of gold and aurium have lured deserters and the desperate into its shadow, creating a growing army held in its sway. Desperate after the death and dissolution of their greatest ally, Willet and the Vigil seek the truth of what lies at the heart of the evil they face. They delve the mind of an old enemy and find an answer far worse than they could have imagined. Danger stalks the cities of the north, striking at the rulers of the kingdoms. As Willet and the rest of the Vigil seek to find answers, the group is scattered with an ever-growing darkness around them. Will they discover a path to keep their land safe, or will an ancient evil reclaim the world it once called its own?

ORDER # S418-28   $23-90   ISBN 9780764213489

It's the dawn of a new era - and we're ready to colonize Mars. But the company that's been contracted to construct a new Mars base, has made promises they can't fulfill and is desperate enough to cut corners. The first thing to go is the automation - the next thing they'll have to deal with is the eight astronauts they'll send to Mars, when there aren't supposed to be any at all.
Frank - father, architect, murderer - is recruited for the mission to Mars with the promise of a better life, along with seven of his most notorious fellow inmates. But as his crew sets to work on the red wasteland of Mars, the accidents mount up, and Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all. As the list of suspect grows shorter, it's up to Frank to uncover the terrible truth before it's too late.

ORDER # S418-29   $23-90   ISBN 9780316522182

The Dutchman is destined to travel through realities, the harbinger and - as so many believe - the cause of the end of one variation of the earth after another. Ahead of each devastation flee the Scattered Ones, refugees from one of those lost earths. Yet in our world, the Dutchman and one of those refugees must come together to face not only the coming catastrophe, but a dark hunter intent on the secrets of the Dutchman himself.

ORDER # S418-30   $23-90   ISBN 9781682613863

He has been known by countless names and terrifying deeds throughout the lands of mankind - thief, magic wielder, swordsman, assassin, adventurer. But chief among those names and perhaps the most dangerous of his personae is that of Nightfall, a man - or perhaps the legendary demon himself - gifted with unique powers which any sorcerer would kill to possess. Yet though Nightfall has always escaped his pursuers by moving on to new realms, new identities, and new enterprises, even the cleverest of beings must occasionally slip. And when this master of the night finally falls prey to a royal trap, he finds the consequences beyond even his ability to evade. Bound by sorcery and oath to guard and guide a young prince on his quest, Nightfall will need every trick and talent at his command to keep both himself and his idealistic young charge from death at the hands of unknown betrayers.

ORDER # S418-33   $25-90   ISBN 9780756414085

The energy crisis has been solved. Core Taps have been driven 300 miles into the Earth to tap into the subterranean power source at its core. The only catch: when activated, the Core Taps disrupt brain waves, sending everyone nearby into a deep, forced sleep. It's a small price to pay for a world of plenty. Or so it seems. Rafe Harald is one of the few humans not affected by the Core Taps. Back from the Moon, where he has been preparing for humankind's first trek into deep space, he makes his way through a shadowy night world of induced slumber. He's come to discover the whereabouts of a missing colleague. What he'll find is a mysterious figure known as the Old Man - and a conspiracy so devious in its design, he'll wish it was a nightmare. But soon the Old Man will discover that he has awoken a sleeping giant in Rafe Harald. And on a planet of perpetual sleep, a new day is about to dawn.

ORDER # S418-34   $23-90   ISBN 9781481483162

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year:  Vol 12: Jonathan Strahan 

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine. Fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder. For more than a decade award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has sifted through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.
Featuring stories from Daniel Abraham, Charlie Jane Anders, Kelly Barnhill, R. S. Benedict, Tobias Buckell, Indrapramit Das, Samuel R. Delany, Greg Egan, Max Gladstone, Theodora Goss, Saad Z. Hossain, Dave Hutchinson, Kathleen Kayembe, Caitlin R Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rich Larson, and more.

ORDER # S418-37   $27-90   ISBN 9781781085738

Adele Michaels had found safe haven from her abusive ex-husband at the Rocky Mountains Geo-Domes resort. But when a nuclear electro-magnetic-pulse took down the entire power grid, multiple warheads turned the east coast into an unstable hot zone. Adele may be safe at the resort, but she's also stranded far from home and family. Now she must undertake a long and perilous journey from Montana to Michigan, and two of her new friends aren't about to let her make the journey alone. Faced with both friend and foe, the travelers find themselves on a dangerous path. Will finding her mother be enough for them to start rebuilding their new lives?

ORDER # S418-38   $23-90   ISBN 9781682616369

Hutch has been the Academy's best pilot for decades. She's had numerous first contact encounters and even became a minor celebrity. But world politics have shifted from exploration to a growing fear that the program will run into an extraterrestrial race more advanced than humanity and war. Despite taking part in the recent scientific breakthrough that rejuvenates the human body and expands one's lifespan, Hutch finds herself as a famous interstellar pilot with little to do, until a message from an alien race arrives. The message is a piece of music from an unexplored area. Despite the fact that this alien race could pose a great danger and that this message could have taken several thousand years to travel, the program prepares the last interstellar ship for the journey. As the paranoia grows, Hutch and her crew make an early escape - but what they find at the other end of the galaxy is completely unexpected.

ORDER # S418-40   $35-90   ISBN 9781481497930

Roy Olfetrie planned to be an officer in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, but when his father was unmasked as a white-collar criminal he had to take whatever he was offered.
What is offered turns out to be a chance to accompany Captain Daniel Leary and Lady Adele Mundy as they go off to start a war that will put Roy at the sharp end. Duty snatches Roy from the harem of a pirate chief to a world of monsters, from interstellar reaches in a half-wrecked starship to assassination attempts at posh houses. Roy has the choice of making friends or dying friendless; of meeting betrayal and responding to it; of breaking his faith or keeping it at the risk of his life.
Pirates, politics, and spies - and waiting for Roy if he survives all the rest, a powerful warship.

ORDER # S418-41   $33-90   ISBN 9781481483131

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision in an over-the-top galactic science fiction spectacle from bestselling author Catherynne Valente where sentient races compete for glory in a universe-wide musical contest - where the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.
A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented - something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.

ORDER # S418-42   $27-90   ISBN 9781481497497

Summer, 1936. In England, an assassin is loose. Someone is killing young people who possess Talents. As terror overtakes Britain, Kim Tavistock, now officially employed by England's Secret Intelligence Service, is sent on her first mission: to the remote Sulcliffe Castle in Wales, to use her cover as a journalist to infiltrate a spiritualist cult that may have ties to the murders. Meanwhile, Kim's father, trained spy Julian Tavistock runs his own parallel investigation - and discovers the terrifying Nazi plot behind the serial killings. Cut off from civilization, Sulcliffe Castle is perched on a forbidding headland above a circle of standing stones only visible at low tide. There, Kim shadows a ruthless baroness and her enigmatic son, plying her skills of deception and hearing the truths people most wish to hide. But as her cover disguise unravels, Kim learns that the serial killer is closing in on a person she has grown to love. Now, Kim must race against the clock not just to prevent the final ritual killing - but to turn the tide of the looming war.

ORDER # S418-43   $35-90   ISBN 9781481487849

John Scalzi returns with Head On, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi's trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports. Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent's head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are "threeps," robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden's Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it. Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.

ORDER # S418-44   $34-90   ISBN 9780765388919

Espionage, diplomacy, conspiracy, passion, and power are the sensuously choreographed steps of the soaring new high fantasy novel by Ilana C. Myer, one woman's epic mission to stop a magical conflagration.
Lin, newly initiated in the art of otherwordly enchantments, is sent to aid her homeland's allies against savage attacks from the Fire Dancers: mysterious practitioners of strange and deadly magic. Forced to step into a dangerous waltz of tradition, treachery, and palace secrets, Lin must also race the ticking clock of her own rapidly dwindling life to learn the truth of the Fire Dancers' war, and how she might prevent death on a scale too terrifying to contemplate.

ORDER # S418-45   $35-90   ISBN 9780765378323