Epic Space Fantasy

An Ensign in the navy is a Pilot Officer in fighters, and both are entry level officer ranks, and rarely ever paid any attention to. A squadron of Ensigns is a contradiction in terms, especially to the new influx of experienced pilots from new Imperium members. But the team are too busy with Eagle Wing to notice the changes happening around them. Magic in combat changes the dynamic. But every time one side gains an advantage, the other will adapt somehow. As the first of the new Excalibur squadrons ready for combat, Bud and his squadron must lead. But who is the real enemy?

This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter.

Rest and relaxation. That's all Jonx wanted after escaping from not one but two star systems on the brink of being taken over by an overpowered, psychopathic cyborg. Unfortunately, his friend, Zozka, had other plans. "Let's join a Sept," she said. "It's just one small tournament." "It'll be good for the both of us." How could he say no to someone who'd watched his back time and again as they slogged through one battlefield or riftworld after another?

He awoke in a tiny, lightless cell, groping for memory...memory that had been erased. Hope Hubris, Jupiter governor, progressive populist, warrior hero, and presidential candidate...a "mem-washed" tool of the enemy. And if his captors' plan worked, Hope would destroy his own political career, leaving the fate of his planet in the hands of its corrupt presidential incumbent - Tocsin. But Hope Hubris had a destiny to fulfill.

Triana Moore, maintenance bot technician on Station Kelly-Kornienko, prefers life in orbit where the air is purified, the commute is short, and nature doesn’t get all over you. But when a minor infraction gets her sent to remedial training dirtside, she doesn’t complain. Who wouldn’t enjoy a few days of sitting in the sunshine, eating gourmet burgers, and drinking too much Jager Hula?

Tanner Malone never aspired to heroism. For him, the Navy and the Debtor’s War were all about survival. Lately, his life has turned to better days with college, friends, and a growing relationship. He’s not interested when a Union Fleet admiral brings him a mysterious alien threat, but he can’t turn away Alicia Wong.

In Conquest Born is the monumental science fiction epic that received unprecedented acclaim - and launched C.S. Friedman's phenomenal career. A sweeping story of two interstellar civilizations locked in endless war, it was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award.

Captain Xander Hawk figured he'd stared down every cosmic catastrophe the galaxy could hurl—until the Malice Ascendant, a nightmare-class dreadnought engineered for planetary annihilation, shattered his illusions. When a rescue mission spirals into an all-out galactic war, Hawk and his ragtag crew find themselves outgunned, outfoxed, and betrayed by corrupt politicians. Hunted by a relentless empire and an enemy that never rests, Hawk leans on his sharp wit, stubborn grit, and a band of misfits—including a wisecracking AI and a reformed conwoman—to flip impossible odds.

National best-selling author and winner of three Hugo Awards, C.J. Cherryh returns to the universe of her acclaimed Foreigner trilogy - with an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft stranded on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient race. The beginning of a second trilogy, Precursor follows a single human delegate living among aliens, who are just gaining access to space.

All Thorn wanted was to be a Battle Mage. He had the talent, and his whole future was before him. On the day of Choosing, he finds things don't always go as planned. Suddenly Thorn's life is thrown into fast forward, and he finds himself in a world not of his own choosing. In a world of spaceships and blasters, instead of horses and swords, Thorn needs to adapt and survive, make new allies, and rediscover that although nothing is familiar, he's still a Mage, and pirates and slavers beware.

With the galaxy thrown into chaos by mutual breaches of the Two Hundred Years' peace, what seemed like an isolated incident on the Thelicosa/Merida border has become an epidemic. In the midst of this chaos, the Thelicosan and Meridan fleets on their respective borders have come to a sort of tense peace after the events in Book II, but now it's clear: Somebody wants war. And it's not the Free Systems of the galaxy.

Bud is now the captain of a small capital ship, and so tactics must change. And once again, Navy Mage Squadron One leads the way. But the more the Imperium ups their game, the faster the Trixone adapt. And in the middle of things changing around Bud, the new prototype dreadnought is stolen. While seemingly unimportant to the war, Navy Mage One and Eagle Wing will find out just how wrong that perception is. Just when is a mysterious invitation a good thing or a bad thing, and will they be able to tell the difference in time?

Aran awakens in chains with no memory. He’s conscripted into the Confederate Marines as a Tech Mage, given a spellrifle then hurled into the war with the draconic Krox and their Void Wyrm masters. Desperate to escape, Aran struggles to master his abilities while surviving the Krox onslaught. Fighting alongside him are a Major who will do anything to win, a Captain who will stop at nothing to see him dead, and a woman whose past is as blank as his own.

The frozen world of Asarus, a critical lifeline for the colonies, is under siege by an icy demonic horde unlike anything humanity has faced. The Hellmarine and his squad are sent in to contain the chaos, but this time, the stakes are personal. As memories of a forgotten past claw their way to the surface, the unstoppable juggernaut finds himself haunted by more than just demons.

The best of the year's science fiction and fantasy stories as selected by the multiple award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. Distant worlds, time travel, epic adventure, unseen wonders, and much more! The best, most original and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past 12 months are brought together in one collection by multiple award winning editor Jonathan Strahan.

My name's Noah Kilmartin. I'm from Ruddock, Ohio, and I'm absolutely, 100 percent unqualified to save the universe from the slavering demonic hordes of the super evil queen Lilith. Too bad nobody asked my opinion. All I've got to do is pass five lethal trials that'll prove I'm the universe's last chance at salvation. To do so, I'll have to lean hard on those three years of Okinawan jiu-jutsu classes I took in high school, learn to wield my new magic sword, and, oh yeah - select five women to flesh out my team.

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.

Diplomacy is the bane of Bud's life these days.

As riots rage across the Human Federation space, what he'd been told on Sanctuary accelerates. Everyone wants his help.

The consequences of losing your temper for a moment grow with your power.

But is this a good thing or bad? Only time will tell, but suddenly everything seems to be happening at once.

Captain Nathan Scott must decide whether to stand and fight to the end, or live to fight another day - even if it means the end of his world.

The Oracle has Seen the end of Civilization, and the end of the Haosa, too. Reactions to this are—mixed. On the one hand, foresight is a notoriously erratic Gift. On the other, can Civilization—or the Haosa—afford to assume that the prophecy is an error? And if the Oracle has Seen truly—is it possible to alter the future?