What a rotten way for everything to turn out. Marta Grayline’s stable, fulfilling life as a freighter pilot has been yanked out from under her, she’s stuck on her miserable home planet with her obnoxious family, her beautiful girlfriend’s now on the opposite side of an interstellar war, and she’s bored to tears. What else could go wrong?

Never ask that question.

Marta’s enigmatic sister Beth offers her a way out by enlisting in the Novan Emergency Fleet, and Marta jumps at it. But it only gets worse from there; her ship is attacked and destroyed, and she finds herself stranded on a mysterious space station with a crew that won’t answer her questions.

And, of course, then there’s the aliens – the planet-destroying Abrax that somehow seem to have a hold on Beth. They’re coming for Marta, too.

Marta’s quest for answers will take her to the frozen dark side of a faraway planet, into the tense politics of a rebel base, through vast subterranean caves and into the heart of the enemy’s defenses.  She’ll have to face ancient forces, her own doubts, and the inside of an alien mind if she wants to get some answers, complete her mission and unlock her own latent potential. The Daughter Star, the red beacon in the night sky, may yet be the key to the freedom and understanding Marta so desperately wants.

Read the first two chapters!

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Blue Diamond Delivery
Anne E. Johnson
June 2013

Webrid is a carter. He’s also the savior of the world. Is it so much to ask that he get a break, and get to enjoy the simple things in life – like booze and babes – without being asked to drop everything and save the day? Again.

But all the planets of the Raralt Circle will crack to pieces unless Webrid can complete one simple carting job. How hard could it be to save the world? After all, he’s done it before.

- – -

Blue Diamond Delivery is the sequel to Green Light Delivery, and gives us another look into the wisecracking, noir-tinged worlds of the Raralt Planetary Circle and the lives of Webrid, Stravin, Zatell, and an interplanetary cast of weirdoes you can’t help but love.

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The Dominion
Gayleen Froese
Spring 2013

The world of The Dominion is much like ours, but it took a turn shortly after World War II when magic became widespread. Now, the most dangerous places on Earth are the ones where magic is strongest. That definitely includes the city-state of the Dominion, where it’s legal for vampires to eat you, dragons have burned down city hall, and the local crime boss can kill with a glance.

Adventure travel writer Innis Stuart and photographer Karsten Roth are in the Dominion for one week to pick up tips for foolhardy tourists. They aren’t planning to lock horns with the Dominion’s strangest serial killer and uncover a grotesque conspiracy, but travel always includes some surprises.

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Grave
Joan Frances Turner
Summer 2013

The concluding book in The Resurgam Trilogy by Joan Frances Turner.

The post-apocalyptic world of Grave is in trouble: after observing years of in-fighting between humans and zombies, Death himself has had enough and resolves to destroy the planet altogether. Humans and nonhumans alike must band together to save their world from Death, who promises to undo the havoc in the world—for a price.

In book one of The Resurgam Trilogy, Dust (Ace, September 2010), the world is tenuously shared by man and zombie until an artificial plague rids the world of zombies but kills most of the human population as well. Survivors riddled with mutations caused by the plague (called ‘exes’) terrorize the world in book two, Frail (Ace, October 2011), where we meet one of the last surviving humans as she discovers the secrets of the laboratory where the plague originated. Grave is the culmination of this epic tale—the characters must set their differences aside for the survival of their world; Grave promises to end with a bang.

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Infinity Key
Chrysoula Tzavelas
Summer/Autumn 2013

When her best friend is pulled into the supernatural underworld, Branwyn isn’t about to sit on the sidelines. Unfortunately, Branwyn is decidedly mortal, and in the supernatural underworld, humans are weak and helpless, no better than toys, tools and prey. But she isn’t having any of that. Branwyn wants to face the world on her own terms, mortal or not.

When she strikes a bargain with an imprisoned faerie, Branwyn thinks she’s found the solution. He’ll teach her magic and she’ll use that magic on his behalf. It’s a great deal, until she discovers what the faeries really want from her: there’s a door that only she can open…

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II Crimsonstreak
Matt Adams
Autumn 2013

Three years after the climactic battle at the Clermont Institution for the Criminally Insane, Chris Fairborne a.k.a. Crimsonstreak chases down escaped supervillains while working feverishly to reestablish world governments in the wake of collapse of the New World Common Wealth.

His father, Colonel Chaos, sits in front of a Heroic Legion tribunal to answer for crimes against humanity. His mother, Miss Lightspeed, doesn’t seem herself following her unlikely resurrection. To make matters worse, Crimsonstreak encounters a being of pure speed not even he can outrun.

Sounds like the perfect time for an alien invasion, an encounter with a group of snobbish space cops, and the mysterious return of a long-dead friend with an unbelievable secret.

War will strain friendships. A multiversal threat will test loyalties. And you will believe a man-bird can fly in II Crimsonstreak.

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City of Devils
Justin Robinson
Autumn 2013

World War II was only the beginning. When the Night War ravages America, turning it into a country of monsters, humans become a downtrodden minority. Nick Moss is the only human private eye in town, and he’s on the trail of a missing city councilor. With monsters trying to turn him – or, better yet, simply kill him – he’s got to watch his back while trying to find his man. Or mummy, as the case may be.

Once, it was the City of Angels. But now, Los Angeles is the City of Devils…and Nick has a devil of a job to do.