The Gage and the Dead Man brought a message from the greatest wizard of Messaline to the ruling queen of Sarathai, one of the Lotus Kingdoms. But the message was a riddle, and the Lotus Kingdoms are at war.

**Readers met the irrepressible Karen Memory in Elizabeth Bear's 2015 novel _Karen Memory_ , and fell in love with her steampunk Victorian Pacific Northwest city, and her down-to-earth story-telling voice. ** **** **_iO9 --_28 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Well Worth Checking Out in Marc

It's hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, and a hundred times too big to be a ship. It looks like nothing anyone ever saw. And it's crashed just outside Tombstone with something alive inside.

A fantastical nineteenth century alternate historical steampunk romp from Beth Bernobich, the critically acclaimed author of the River of Souls trilogy. Éire is one of the most powerful empires in the world. The Anglian Dependencies are a dusty backwater filled with resentful colonial subjects,

*She was cold, hurt, and doomed, but otherwise reasonably cheery.* Life might emerge under the most unlikely conditions...or in the last extremity. From the author of the "Galactic Center" novel comes Gregory Benford's hard sci-fi tale, *Backscatter.* At the Publisher's request, this title is bein

Kage Baker's stories and novels of the mysterious organization that controls time travel, The Company, have made her famous in SF. So has her talent for clever dialogue and pointed social commentary with a light touch. "Ms. Baker is the best thing to happen to modern science fiction since Connie Wil

**Stephen Baxter's _The Martian in the Wood_ , a Tor.com Original** In the aftermath of the First Martian War, in the interim between it and what was to come later, England seemed to once again become a green and peaceful place, if one haunted by the terrible events in Surrey that had happened in t

In the last years of the Forerunner empire, chaos rules. The Flood-a horrifying shape-changing parasite-has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies. Internal strife within the ecumene has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses. Too little, too late, the legal rate of Juridicals is only no

**Readers met the irrepressible Karen Memory in Elizabeth Bear's 2015 novel _Karen Memory_ , and fell in love with her steampunk Victorian Pacific Northwest city, and her down-to-earth story-telling voice. ** **** **_iO9 --_28 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Well Worth Checking Out in Marc

_Ascendant Sun_ is the direct sequel to _The Last Hawk,_ in which Kelric, heir to the Skolian Empire, crash-landed his fighter on the Restricted planet of Coba. He was imprisoned by the powerful mistresses of the great estates--women who, over time, fell in love with him. After 18 years of living in

In 2002, Catherine Asaro won the Nebula Award for _The Quantum Rose_ , the sixth novel in her Saga of the Skolian Empire. This very same novel was also named Best SF Novel by the _Romantic Times_. _Schism: Part One of Triad_ is the tenth novel in this multiple award-winning series, and represents an

Once upon a moment, the One spoke to He and She, and learned that infinity and eternity are slippery concepts. At best.

Disgraced government operative Colonel Chu is exiled to the flooded relic of New York City. Something called the Light has hit the streets like an epidemic, leavings its users strung out and disconnected from the mind-network humanity relies on. Chu has lost everything she cares about to the Light.

Our young narrator has many skins. Shedding and taking on new ones help them to find their way back home after leaving to avoid more tragedies and assaults. But what price do they have to pay to acquire the one true skin that fits the best? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold witho

Facing the imminent collapse of their civilization, the Librarian and the Ur-Didact reveal what they know about the relationship between the long-vanished Precursors and the Flood. Facing the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time -- to preven

Driven by his dreams, Asa will stop at nothing to find Tanja Duhr again: he will leave home, disappoint his parents, cross the wastelands, and, somewhere, find the courage to tell her who he is, and how she loved him, once.

In _The Last Dragonlord_ and _Dragon and Phoenix_ Joanne Bertin created a world unlike our own, where Dragonlords soar in the skies above the many realms of the land. The Dragonlords' magic is unique, giving them the ability to change from dragon to human form; to communicate silently am

*Queen's Hunt* is the second title in Beth Bernobich's River of Souls novels, following her startling debut, *Passion Play*. Filled with dark magic and sensual images, this is fantasy writing at its best. Ilse Zhalina has left to start a new life in a garrisoned fort, leagues from her estranged lov