The opening of Pandora's Box changed the world, giving rise to an age of superhumans and monsters. Yet mankind was not safe from its own hubris, and in the end, it destroyed itself. Sonya Chernovna returns to the past with a mysterious new ability that lets her absorb powers, combine them, and even bestow them onto others. It's a power with near limitless potential.

For twenty years, the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this golden age, threats to the empire are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland weave their plots behind pleasant smiles while rebellion stirs beyond Peren Woods, for dreams of crowns were buried in shallow graves. The greatest danger of all lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer restored order at last: her people sundered, she ponders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign.

Stranded on a world of sorcery and monsters, one AI will unleash the fury of the universe to protect her humans. Sapphiria was performing her duties as a fleet admiral of the Terran Federation, leading a goodwill tour of the fringe worlds, when she was caught in a hyperspace anomaly. Now, she’s crash-landed on a planet ruled by magic and monsters, cut off from reinforcements, with only her escape pod and her genius to rely on. But she’s not just any survivor—she’s an Artificial Intelligence forged from the minds of humans and fragments of the Federation's greatest AIs.

A curse from birth has doomed Vivi to die when she turns eighteen. She’s a masterful runesmith, and if she could just convince arrogant ether hunters that her family has solved runeswords’ fatal flaw, she might earn enough ether to save herself. When a rebellious spirit defies his handler to bond with Vivi, she becomes a fugitive, escaping capture only to land in an inescapable demonic prison.

When Mira’s home is destroyed by gods, she makes two requests to the System that sends her to another world: to be sent to an isolated forest where she can avoid the violent path to godhood, and to gain magic that helps her live and thrive in the forest. She is granted both, though in the harshest way possible. The System strands her in a dangerous forest where half the plants are poisonous, the rivers teem with souls, and even the smallest beasts lay waste to experienced adventurers.