New Releases by Linda Nagata

The starship Dragon, accompanied by its fleet of outriders, is faring ever deeper into that region known as the Hallowed Vasties. Here, at the shattered heart of ancient human civilization, once-living worlds were ripped apart by the dimensional intrusions of a Blade. Yet despite the apocalyptic-scale destruction, the fleet''s telescopes have picked out signs of life among the ruins and the ship''s company is eager to go on-but should they? From his post on Dragon''s high bridge, Urban looks ahead to the smaller starship, Griffin, now far, far in front of the fleet. The mind that pilots that ship-a stern and colder version of his lover, Clemantine-has gone silent. The implication chills him. Like Dragon, Griffin was an alien warship, designed to destroy without mercy all living worlds, and it still has a mind of its own. The question that haunts Urban: Has that alien mind somehow reclaimed control of Griffin? It''s a question he must answer, and soon. Every wonder that lies ahead-and every ambition hidden within his heart-is at risk while Griffin''s true nature remains unknown.

"Tanjiri is not for you. You are not ready to encounter what exists there." So Lezuri spoke in warning, long ago. Urban still possesses the strange gift-the impossible puzzle-Lezuri gave him that day. A needle, ultra-thin and twelve centimeters long, with a silvery surface that slices light into rainbow glints. All Lezuri''s knowledge lies locked within that needle. Urban has only to discover the trick of opening it, to gain that knowledge for himself-but the needle remains an enigma.Now Dragon and its fleet of outriders has reached the periphery of Tanjiri system. The belt of ruins lies ahead: a chaos of remnant megastructures from a fallen civilization. Farther in, an Earthlike world orbits in the company of a miraculous living moon created less than 4,000 years ago. An entity-one greater even than Lezuri-must have made that moon. And yet the system is silent. No one, nothing, has answered Dragon''s hails.Perhaps the entity is gone? But Urban doesn''t believe that. He is sure that when the fleet enters Tanjiri system, he will meet this maker of worlds-with the lives of everyone he loves at stake. Better, safer, to encounter this entity from a position of strength, armed with all the knowledge and power contained within the needle.So he believes.

Selected for the Class of 2026 Air Force Academy One Book, One USAFAFiction can be seen as a thought experiment that allows us to test our ideas, our values, and the creative reach of the human mind. Science fiction is a special kind of thought experiment because it can reach beyond the known world, to explore the temptations, hazards, conflicts, challenges, and possibilities that might lie just over the horizon.Attitude and Other Stories brings together select military and near-future science fiction tales by award-winning author Linda Nagata. These stories embrace action and harrowing adventure across high-tech battlefields and surreal other worlds-while also exploring the complex landscapes of the human heart.

Never before have the people warred against the people.Bennek senses change flooding the world. Dread weighs on him, and he fears what is to come. But Jahallon sees hope. Gifted with foresight, Jahallon is certain it won''t be much longer before Lanyon returns, bringing the talisman with her. Determined to distract and weaken Lanyon''s enemies before they have a chance to waylay her, he launches a great offensive against both the Inyomere Siddél and the sorcerer Édan.With his growing skills, Bennek serves at Jahallon''s side, directing Habaddon''s army-but his skills are not enough to contend against Édan, while Siddél remains an even greater enemy. All the while, time is running short.Days of Storm is the riveting conclusion to The Wild Trilogy.

An end must be made-and soon:The future of the people hangs in the balance as Lanyon continues her journey north. She must find the Storm Lair, home of the Inyomere Siddél, where she''ll have one more chance to slay the great spirit of storm. But her journey grows ever more perilous and strange, and even her devoted companions cannot keep her safe. Bennek, meanwhile, has been taken south to Habaddon. Through Lanyon''s magic he has survived terrible injury, yet he still needs time to heal. But time is short-and Siddél is resolved to destroy Habaddon. As the great Inyomere sends ever more arowl south towards the city, Bennek finds himself swept up in a relentlessly brutal war.

Two gritty dark fantasy novels and a bonus short story. His name is Smoke, though some know him as the Demon Dismay. He''s a charming, well-armed young murderer who is not altogether human. Smoke''s purpose in life is to mete out the stern justice of a vindictive goddess, and he is pleased to do it-that is, until he finds other things to live for. A woman, a child, a quiet home deep in the forest. He is so far from anywhere he can no longer hear the haunting prayers of those who would ask him to deliver them vengeance. But the quiet life is not Smoke''s fate. Stories of the Puzzle Lands includes two novels-The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher-plus the short story, "A Moment Before It Struck," originally published in Lightspeed Magazine.

Ava Arnett is a Honolulu cop, captain of the night shift in the autonomous Waikiki District. To guide her actions, she relies on HADAFA - an AI designed to observe, analyze, and predict human behavior. But as a massive hurricane approaches the city, HADAFA begins to glitch. When Ava stumbles across a terrorist conspiracy, she must decide for herself whether or not to trust a mysterious federal agent named Lyric Jones - knowing that the wrong choice could lead to greater devastation... and a war no one will win.

A Lost Ship - A New World A hardened adventurer, marooned on an artificial planet, contends with a hostile post-human entity. Book 2 of the far-future series Inverted Frontier, by the award-winning author of VAST.

New anthology from the critically-acclaimed editor of Engineering Infinity - Winner of Best Anthology, 2019 Aurealis Awards Houston, we have a problem... Life is fragile. The difference between success and failure can come down to nothing – the thread of a screw, the flick of a switch – and when it goes wrong, you fix it... or someone dies. Mission Critical takes us from our world, across the Solar System, and out into deep space to tell the stories of people who had to do the impossible. And do it fast. Featuring stories by Peter F. Hamilton, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette de Bodard, Greg Egan, Linda Nagata, Gregory Feeley, John Barnes, Tobias S. Buckell, Jason Fischer & Sean Williams, Carolyn Ives Gilman, John Meaney, Dominica Phetteplace, Allen M. Steele, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Peter Watts.

Deception Well is a world on the edge, a lone surviving outpost at the farthest reach of human expansion. Now a determined crew resolves to cross the light years to explore the fallen worlds of old and discover what monstrous life might have grown up among the ruins. A far-future space-faring adventure from the award-winning author of VAST.

The multi-award winning Infinity Project undertakes its seventh and final voyage in the imagination of the finest science fiction authors alive… Infinity’s End Humanity has made the universe home. On the outskirts of the solar system, beyond the asteroid fields, deep in space, under the surface of planets, in the ruins of fallen civilisations, in the flush of new creation: life finds a way. From intelligent velociraptors to digital ghosts; from a crèche on an asteroid to an artist using a star system as a canvas, this is a future where Earth’s children have adapted to every nook and cranny of existence. This is life on the edge of the possible. Featuring astonishing tales from Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Naomi Kritzer, Paul McAuley, Seanan McGuire, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Justina Robson, Kelly Robson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lavie Tidhar, Peter Watts, Fran Wilde and Nick Wolven.

An unabridged collection spotlighting the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2017 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In “My English Name,” by R. S. Benedict, an intelligent alien, who parasitizes an English teacher in China, falls in love. After a victorious space battle, an indentured robot finds a refugee who makes an offer it can’t refuse in “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell. In “The Moon is Not a Battlefield,” by Indrapramit Das, an Indian soldier retires on Earth after spending most of her life on the Moon. A young woman joins the U.S. Army to fight terrorists after aliens arrive on Earth bearing tech gifts unevenly dispersed to humans in “Dear Sarah” by Nancy Kress. In “An Evening with Severyn Grimes,” by Rich Larson, a gifted hacker uses cyberspace to extract pay back on the rich businessman who put her in prison. Set in the author’s hexarchate universe, an ex-Kel super soldier is enlisted to retrieve a weapon of mass destruction stolen by a rogue general in “The Chameleon’s Gloves” by Yoon Ha Lee. In “The Martian Obelisk,” by Linda Nagata, on a dying Earth, an architect remotely building a monument to mankind on Mars receives a message from an abandoned Mars colony. A petty meat counterfeiter is blackmailed into forging T-bone steaks for an anonymous thug in “A Series of Steaks” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. In “The Residue of Fire,” by Robert Reed, a torturer tries to cope with one of his alien victims who witnessed a pivotal moment in the lives of two immortals, in this Great Ship tale. And finally, in this Revelation Space tale, a starship captain wakes from hibernation with her ship stalled next to an alien artifact and a mutiny in progress in “Night Passage” by Alastair Reynolds.

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, Yoon Ha Lee, Scott Lynch, Maureen McHugh, Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, Linda Nagata, Suzanne Palmer, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Alastair Reynolds, Karl Schroeder, Nick Wolven and Caroline M. Yoachim.

A powerful science fiction story about an architect on Earth commissioned to create (via long distance) a masterwork with materials from the last abandoned Martian colony, a monument that will last thousands of years longer than Earth, which is dying. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Robotics, big data, and artificial intelligence are tools to augment the skills of Requisite Operations'' warfighters-for-hire. But when army veteran True Brighton makes a chance discovery during a rescue mission, old wounds are ripped open. She''s left questioning what she knows of the past, and resolves to pursue the truth, whatever the cost.

Light and Shadow collects eight stories by award-winning author Linda Nagata. Visit high-tech future battlefields, surreal other worlds, an orbital habitat, and a distant moon. Embrace action, and harrowing adventure. Half of these stories have appeared in various best-of-the-year anthologies, and each includes brief notes from the author.Story list: Through Your Eyes (Asimov''s 2013)Halfway Home (Nightmare Magazine 2013)Codename: Delphi (Lightspeed Magazine 2014)Attitude (Reach For Infinity 2014)A Moment Before It Struck (Lightspeed Magazine 2012)Light and Shadow (War Stories 2014)Nightside On Callisto (Lightspeed Magazine 2012)The Way Home (Operation Arcana 2015)

In the third book in The Red Trilogy, former Army Lt. James Shelley becomes a black ops sniper working for the Red—a suspected rogue artificial intelligence that is ripped from today’s headlines. James Shelley has left his lover, Delphi, and his companion-in-arms, Jayne Vasquez, with a fortune acquired from a fallen oligarch. They believe him to be dead, and he doesn’t try to set the record straight. His long-running question has been answered: There are other soldiers like him who have served the purposes of the Red—and he has accepted his place among them. As a soldier of the Red he pursues covert missions designed to nudge history away from existential threats—but that doesn’t mean the world is growing more orderly. It’s only in the froth of a “managed chaos” that human potential can grow and thrive. Shelley’s missions eventually take him into orbit—and into conflict with those he loves—Delphi and Jaynie—who are determined to escape the influence of the Red.

"Lieutenant James Shelley and his squad of US Army soldiers were on a quest for justice when they carried out the unauthorized mission known as First Light. They returned home to America to face a court-martial, determined to expose the corruption in the chain of command that compelled their actions. But in a country still reeling from the nuclear terrorism of Coma Day, the courtroom is just one battlefield of many." --

Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive. In a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him, but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear.

Humanity Among The Stars What happens when we reach out into the vastness of space? What hope for us amongst the stars? Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan brings us fourteen new tales of the future, from some of the finest science fiction writers in the field. The fourteen startling stories in this anthology feature the work of Greg Egan, Aliette de Bodard, Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder, Pat Cadigan, Karen Lord, Ellen Klages, Adam Roberts, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds and Peter Watts.

An unabridged collection of the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2012 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In “Invisible Men,” by Christopher Barzak, a maid in an inn encounters the Invisible Man who makes her an offer to be more than she is in this quasi-retelling of H.G. Wells’ famous story. In this year’s Nebula Award winner for best novelette, “Close Encounters,” by Andy Duncan, an old man is hounded by reporters about the stories he used to tell of an alien who took him into space and the dog he brought back with him. “Bricks, Sticks, Straw,” by Gwyneth Jones, follows virtual scientists forced to survive within their remotes when a young science team on Earth loses remote contact with their telepresences on Jupiter’s moons. In “Arbeitskraft,” by Nick Mamatas, Friedrich Engels strives to spread class revolution as a labor organizer for factory cyborg matchstick girls. “The Man,” by Paul McAuley, is a Jackaroo tale about a solitary woman, living in a cabin on the planet Yanos, whose life is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a naked man at her door. In “Nahiku West,” by Linda Nagata, set in the author’s Nanotech Succession sequence, officer Zeke Choy investigates an accident involving an illegal enhancement which was used to save a life. “Tyche and the Ants,” by Hannu Rajaniemi, showcases the plight of a young girl hidden on the moon by her parents, along with grags and Brain, as robotic ants have come from the Great Wrong Place to take her away. In “Katabasis,” by Robert Reed, human adventurers on a journey in an inhospitable high-gravity region of the Great Ship must use porters, evolved for massive worlds, to aid them. “The Contrary Gardener,” by Christopher Rowe, tells of the tough decisions a talented gardener in a society which genetically grows some crops for ammunition must come to when she’s recruited for the war effort. Finally, in “Scout,” by Bud Sparhawk, a reconstructed marine is deployed to a planet occupied by the Shardies to reconnoiter by making use of his “turtle” enhancements to avoid detection.

Ten science fiction stories by acclaimed author Linda Nagata, including the Nebula Award winning novella "Goddesses." This collection brings together for the first time Nagata''s short fiction, originally published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, More Amazing Stories, and SciFi.com.Story list:Spectral Expectations (Analog 1987)Career Decision (Analog 1988)In the Tide (Analog 1989)Small Victories (Analog 1993)Liberator (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1993)Old Mother (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1995)The Bird Catcher''s Children (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1997)Hooks, Nets, and Time (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1997)The Flood (More Amazing Stories 1998)Goddesses (Sci-Fi.com 2000)

The demon Dismay''s murderous nature has earned him the ire of his beloved wife, who has sent him away in a fit of temper. In his exile he ventures south into the land of Lutawa, drawn there by the prayers of abused and desperate women who beg him to grant them vengeance against the men who cruelly rule their lives-and Dismay is pleased to do it. Still, murder is hard and dirty work. When an avid desire for a bath brings him to a fine Lutawan estate, he meets two beautiful young women. Ui and Eleanor are well-acquainted with the whispered tales of the demon Dismay, who slays men but never women, and they''re delighted to entertain their fearsome guest, but they warn him to beware. Lutawa is ruled by an immortal king, who punishes treason with the terrible weapon of infernal fire. Believing this king to be the same cruel deity known in the north as Hepen the Watcher, Dismay resolves to kill him-and accidentally draws Ui and Eleanor into his schemes. Those who help Dismay risk a fiery death, those who hinder him risk the demon''s bloody retribution, while Dismay, still yearning for his wife''s forgiveness, discovers that love can be as hazardous as the wrath of Hepen the Watcher.

Ketty is a pretty shepherdess with a contrary nature, who runs away from home to escape an unwanted marriage. As she flees along the forest road, she prays to the Dread Hammer for help-and to her astonishment help comes in the form of a charming and well-armed young murderer named Smoke. As Ketty soon discovers, Smoke is not entirely human. Smoke, too, is taken by surprise at their encounter. He had lurked beside the forest road intending to pierce hearts and slit throats, not to fall in love. But love it is-or it would be-if only he can convince Ketty that marriage is better than death. But just when happily-ever-after seems within reach, Smoke''s past returns to claim him. A deserter from the Koráyos army, his supernatural skill at killing is still very much in demand. Now the army wants him back. The Dread Hammer is an enthralling, dark tale of love, war, murder, marriage, and fate.

In an isolated star system far from any other human outposts, a space-faring "lifeboat" was discovered by a scientist from the city of Silk. Inside the lifeboat was a two-year-old girl in frozen sleep. She had no name and no history. The people of Silk believed her to be the only survivor of a star-faring great ship attacked in the void and destroyed by the automated warships of the alien Chenzeme. They rescued and revived the child, and named her "Skye." But the people of Silk face dangers of their own. Their city is in space, built around the column of a space elevator that rises from the planet''s surface into high orbit. Three-hundred kilometers below is the wild, plague-ridden planet called Deception Well. Far-above, a dusty nebula shrouds the star system. The nebula is made of drifting dust, gas, and tiny nanomachines left behind by an ancient and mysterious race. The microscopic nanomachines were made to attack and destroy any Chenzeme ship that enters the system . . . but they will defend against other threats too, and they have no loyalty to human life. Still, life in Silk is comfortable, and the dangers of their world mean little to the city''s youth. Skye has grown into an adventurous, independent teen-but more and more she wonders about her mysterious past. Where did she come from? Who were her parents? And, most importantly, was she really the only survivor? When evidence of her past begins to awaken within her own body, Skye finds herself driven to explore both the dangerous surface of Deception Well and the airless reaches of outer space. She is not alone in her quest. Her best friend Zia Adovna, the handsome young astronomer Devi Hand, and the adventurous Buyu Mkolu join her as she seeks to prove that other survivors of the great ship might still be found. Unique young-adult science fiction by the Locus and Nebula Award winning author.

Acclaimed hard-SF author Linda Nagata introduces a new world, where the sky is bisected by an arch of light, and the mysterious "silver" rises from the ground each night to completely transform the landscape--and erase from existence anything it touches. Young Jubilee is devastated when her brother Jolly is taken by the silver. But when a forbidding stranger with the power to control the silver comes seeking Jolly--and claiming that Jolly knows him--Jubilee flees. For she has learned an impossible secret: Jolly may still be alive! Jubilee''s flight will lead her to discoveries she could never have imagined, from the secret history of her civilization, to the awesome forgotten memories within her. And with these she will forever alter her world''s future... unless the dark stranger, relentless in his pursuit, achieves his goal of destroying it.

A beautiful young scientist lies dead in a top-secret laboratory, the victim of an illegal experiment with the forbidden nanotechnology of intelligent organisms living at the limits of human vision. In Vietnam, a journalist probes a mysterious cult rumored to have awesome powers. As factions across the globe race to control this strange creation, a new stage in evolution is about to begin high above the Earth. (July)