New Releases by Kay Kenyon

Book four of the celebrated series, now complete. Finally in control of the Ascendancy, Titus Quinn has styled himself Regent of the Entire. But his command is fragile. He rules an empire with a technology beyond human understanding; spies lurk in the ancient Magisterium; a few Tarig lords still hound the edges of Quinn’s reign; and worse, his daughter Sen Ni opposes him for control. She is aided by a navitar who can weave reality to his twisted purposes. Now the highly reclusive Jinda ceb Horat enter the game. Masters of supreme technology, they maintain a lofty distance from the Entire’s struggle, yet may be persuaded to intervene. Now, Quinn’s wife Anzi becomes a hostage among the Jinda ceb, and undergoes alterations that her husband may not be able to accept. As Quinn approaches a confrontation with the dark navitar, he learns that the stakes of the conflict extend far beyond the Rose and the Entire. The navitar commands forces that lie at the heart of the Entire’s geo-cosmology, and will use them to his own ends. As the navitar’s plan approaches consummation, Quinn, Sen Ni, and Anzi are swept up in forces that will leave them forever changed. In this rousing finale to Kenyon’s celebrated quartet, Titus Quinn is forced to make the unthinkable choice for or against the dictates of his heart, for or against the beloved land. "Prince of Storms is the perfect conclusion to what could well be one of the most ambitious and fascinating ongoing scifi series out there. Highly recommended." —Pat''s Fantasy Hotlist "[O]ne of the most captivating multi-universe, multi-cultural settings in science fiction history, [in] a story of tragedy and loss, of decisions made and regretted, sacrifices made, and an ultimate re-birth and renewal. It’s a grand theme that more than matches its brilliant setting, and that makes The Entire and the Rose a landmark science fiction series of the twenty-first century.” –SF Site

The powerful conclusion to The Arisen Wolrds, a four-book series! Yevliesza is no longer alone. In her adopted land, people call her their savior. For a vast army of demonic engines is massing and, in the crossings between the worlds, only Yevliesza can stop them. Amid this vital mission, her heart still belongs to Valenty, who has sworn to find her again across a chasm of war and duty. But she has a dilemma. If she uses her rare power to block the invaders at the Gates, she risks bringing the arisen worlds to ruin. Her only hope is to unlock the deeper secrets of the Mythos crossings. She has no time to lose. The sorceress Nashavety is coming home. Accompanying an army of conquest, she will wield an immense and ancient magic—a legacy of the origin world, Earth. For ages, that power has rested in fitful sleep. Soon it will awaken. coming of age; fantasy saga; hidden power; lost magic; hidden realms; medieval realm; dark magic; magic gate; warlike realms; female protagonist; sorcery; slow burn romance; world threatening forces; myth world; powerful lord; fantasy romance action adventure

In a time of war and sorcery, Yevliesza faces the ultimate test. One that may lead to deliverance—or the loss of all that she loves. As war threatens her adopted land, Yevliesza has found a refuge. But it won’t last. Her enemies are closing in and mean to exploit her apparently accidental and rare power. It is a lost magic. But in the wrong hands, the worlds of the Mythos may not survive. In the fight against the brutal Volkish, Yevliesza is called upon to use this lost power. But first she must learn how. To find her true strength, she turns to an ancient wisdom hidden in the wilderness. There she will be invited to enter a mysterious realm to seek answers and pass its tests. If she accepts the challenge, she may return with new skills in her fight against the twisted realm. But the price for using her power may be exile from her new-found homeland and from the man she has grown to love. Can she bear to lose everything? When Yevliesza emerges from the secret kingdom, she will have the answer. A high fantasy from acclaimed fantasy and science fiction world-builder Kay Kenyon. Don''t miss books one and two in The Arisen Worlds quartet, The Girl Who Fell Into Myth and Stranger in the Twisted Realm. Watch for book four, Keeper of the Mythos Gate, the conclusion of the series, coming February 20, 2024. KEYWORDS: high fantasy, portal fiction, coming of age, women''s fantasy, chosen one, royal destiny, slow burn romance, forbidden love, fantasy romance action adventure, myths and legends, saga, sorcery, myth world, dark magic

The prince who will conquer all the kingdoms of myth. The woman who must stop him. Not all myths are harmless. Yevliesza, formerly of earth and now of the Mythos, knows that one of the mythical realms is based in darkness. Volkia. This warlike kingdom has shattered the rules of magic, bringing all the realms into peril. When Yevliesza is sent to Volkia on a diplomatic mission, she arrives at a nest of vipers. The cunning ruler of Volkia, Prince Albrecht, appears to welcome her, but suspects that she is linked to a rare and world-altering power. One that he intends to harness for conquest. To preserve the Mythos, Yevliesza must never reveal that power. But she has left behind a trail of evidence, and worse, she possesses a damning arcane tracery--etched upon her very skin. Now she is in the hands of a ruler who is determined to bend her to his will, whether through a twisted courtship or outright coercion. Unless she can outwit him. The prince has formidable allies, but one is supreme: the twisted being who hovers over the realm, guiding the Volkish and seeking revenge on Yevliesza’s homeland. And especially on the girl with the Lost Power. Book two of a high fantasy quartet from acclaimed science fiction and fantasy world-builder Kay Kenyon. Don''t miss the first book in The Arisen Worlds quartet, The Girl Who Fell Into Myth. Watch for Servant of the Lost Power, Book three, coming February 20, 2024. KEYWORDS: high fantasy, portal fiction, coming of age, women''s fantasy, chosen one, royal destiny, slow burn romance, forbidden love, fantasy romance action adventure, myths and legends, saga, sorcery, myth world, dark magic

The complete four-book series now available! A modern woman travels through a secret portal, flies on the back of a dragon, and encounters a storm that splits open the sky—before arriving in a ruined state in a world of magic, war, and legend. A lover is waiting. And a looming power of darkness. In Book One you’ll discover: -- A castle on a towering hill where foreigners are unwelcome, but where a foreigner is just what they need. -- What happens when a 21st century woman finds herself in a medieval culture. -- Where witches went when they were driven from Earth by fear and prejudice. -- How the alter-worlds of the Mythos are connected with each other. -- What the worst myth in the world is and the havoc it’s going to cause. -- How a lightning strike changes Everything. A high fantasy from acclaimed fantasy and science fiction world-builder Kay Kenyon. “The Girl Who Fell Into Myth is a marvel of beautiful language, elegant worldbuilding, and a story of powers and magic on a grand scale. This will be a series to treasure.” —Louisa Morgan, author of The Great Witch of Brittany The Girl Who Fell Into Myth is set in a richly imagined world of entangled mythologies, elusive magic, and bitter treachery, perfect for fans of complex, dark-edged fantasy. —Rachel Neumeier, author of the Tujo Series “Kay Kenyon excels at creating strong women who must navigate chaotic, perilous situations as they slowly learn the extent of their own abilities. I was hooked on The Girl Who Fell Into Myth and am impatiently waiting for the next installment in this series!” —Sharon Shinn, author of The Shuddering City KEYWORDS: medieval fantasy, portal fiction, coming of age, women''s fantasy, warlike realm, chosen one, royal destiny, slow burn romance, forbidden love, hidden power, fantasy romance action adventure.

Of starships, aliens, and butterflies.Collected in this volume are stories set in space and at home--as far as Alpha Centauri and as close as a town near you. In space, we''ll walk the decks of a generation ship, visit a starship graveyard and test-drive quantum teleportation. On the home planet we''ll watch gargoyles come to life, meet aliens who offer far-flung tourism, ride on the shoulders of an avatar, and enter a new green world where metal and plastic bow down to the seeds of time. There will also be a butterfly. "Kenyon writes beautifully, her characters are multilayered, and her extrasolar worlds are real and nuanced while at the same time truly alien." --Robert J. Sawyer

In this “riveting” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) conclusion to the Dark Talents series, Kim Tavistock is undercover in Berlin as the wife of a British diplomat but when she uncovers a massive conspiracy that could change the course of the war, she’s the only one in a position to stop it. November, 1936. Kim Tavistock is in Berlin for her first Continental mission for SIS, the British intelligence service. Her cover: a sham marriage to a handsome, ambitious British consul. Kim makes a diplomatic party circuit with him, hobnobbing with Nazi officials hoping for a spill that will unlock a secret operation called Monarch. Berlin is a glittering city celebrating Germany’s resurgence, but Nazi brutality darkens the lives of many. When Kim befriends Hannah Linz, a member of the Jewish resistance, she sets events in motion that will bring her into the center of a vast conspiracy. Forging an alliance with Hannah and her partisans, Kim discovers the alarming purpose of Monarch: the creation of a company of enforcers with augmented Talents and strange appetites. Called the Progeny, they have begun to compel citizen obedience with physical and spiritual terror. Soon Kim is swept up in a race to stop the coming deployment of the Progeny into Europe. Aligned against her are forces she could never have foreseen, including the very intelligence service she loves; a Russian woman, the queen of all Talents, who fled Bolsheviks in 1917; and the ruthless SS officer whose dominance and rare charisma may lead to Kim’s downfall. To stop Monarch and the subversion of Europe, Kim must do more than use her Talent, wits, and courage. She must step into the abyss of unbound power, even to the point of annihilation. Does the human race have limits? Kim does not want to know the answer. But it is coming.

We love our dystopias. Dark societies call us with a twisty fascination. And yet. No matter how bad things get, there will always be people who refuse, rebel and survive. Enter these dystopian worlds inspired by the Singularity, designer medicine, a few all-too-possible oppressive ideologies and, of course, the plain-old end of the world. Collected here are seven short stories of the world gone wrong in its hierarchies, ecology, governments, elite circles and controlling technologies from a science fiction and fantasy author known for her unique world-building.

One man''s insurgent is another man''s freedom fighter... From The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to The Hunger Games, everyone enjoys a good rebellion. There is something compelling about a group (or individual) who throws caution to the wind and rises up in armed defiance against oppression, tyranny, religion, the government—you name it. No matter the cause, or how small the chance, it''s the courage to fight against overwhelming odds that grabs our hearts and has us pumping our fists in the air. Win or lose, it''s the righteous struggle we cherish, and those who take up arms for a cause must walk The Razor''s Edge between liberator and extremist. With stories by Blake Jessop, William C. Dietz, D.B. Jackson, Gerald Brandt, Sharon P. Goza, Walter H. Hunt, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Kay Kenyon, Steve Perry, Seanan McGuire, Christopher Allenby, Chris Kennedy, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Alex Gideon, Brian Hugenbruch, and Y.M. Pang.

Kim Tavistock, now officially working for the Secret Intelligence Service, returns to solve another mystery—this time, the case of a serial killer with deep Nazi ties, in this sequel to At the Table of Wolves. Summer, 1936. In England, an assassin is loose. Someone is killing young people who possess Talents. As terror overtakes Britain, Kim Tavistock, now officially employed by England’s Secret Intelligence Service, is sent on her first mission: to the remote Sulcliffe Castle in Wales, to use her cover as a journalist to infiltrate a spiritualist cult that may have ties to the murders. Meanwhile, Kim’s father, trained spy Julian Tavistock runs his own parallel investigation—and discovers the terrifying Nazi plot behind the serial killings. Cut off from civilization, Sulcliffe Castle is perched on a forbidding headland above a circle of standing stones only visible at low tide. There, Kim shadows a ruthless baroness and her enigmatic son, playing her skills of deception and hearing the truths people most wish to hide. But as her cover disguise unravels, Kim learns that the serial killer is closing in on a person she has grown to love. Now, Kim must race against the clock not just to prevent the final ritual killing—but to turn the tide of the looming war.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets Agent Carter meets X-Men in this classic British espionage story where a young woman must go undercover and use her superpowers to discover a secret Nazi plot and stop an invasion of England. In 1936, there are paranormal abilities that have slowly seeped into the world, brought to the surface by the suffering of the Great War. The research to weaponize these abilities in England has lagged behind Germany, but now it’s underway at an ultra-secret site called Monkton Hall. Kim Tavistock, a woman with the talent of the spill—drawing out truths that people most wish to hide—is among the test subjects at the facility. When she wins the confidence of caseworker Owen Cherwell, she is recruited to a mission to expose the head of Monkton Hall—who is believed to be a German spy. As she infiltrates the upper-crust circles of some of England’s fascist sympathizers, she encounters dangerous opponents, including the charismatic Nazi officer Erich von Ritter, and discovers a plan to invade England. No one believes an invasion of the island nation is possible, not Whitehall, not even England’s Secret Intelligence Service. Unfortunately, they are wrong, and only one woman, without connections or training, wielding her talent of the spill and her gift for espionage, can stop it.

A beguiling fantasy filled with magic, adventure, romance... and dangerous secrets. When she is pulled from the wreckage of a New York subway crash, Jane Gray is astonished to recognize her rescuer as Prince Starling, an imaginary companion from her childhood. Determined to uncover the truth about her past, Jane tracks him to another realm; the world of the Palazzo, a magical ship that is both a colossal steam vessel and a Renaissance kingdom. There, she discovers that magic is real and her destiny is more tangled than she ever imagined. In this story of a modern Alice in Wonderland, Jane is courted by two different men and must survive the machinations of an exotic and dangerous queen. When she discovers the urgent secret of the Palazzo''s endless voyage, Jane holds the fate of the realm in her hands. Guided by maps, legends, and dead reckoning, she must pilot a course that will lead to the salvation or destruction of the world she has come to love.

Tras descubrir, gracias a Titus Quinn, que los extraños y poderosos seres que manejan el Omniverso pretenden destruir nuestro universo (la Rosa) con el fin de proveer de energía al suyo, la corporación Minerva decide enviar a Quinn de vuelta a Ahnenhoon para desmantelar el artefacto destinado a acabar con la raza humana. Titus tiene, además, motivos personales para volver al Omniverso: encontrar a su esposa, cautiva en Ahnenhoon, y rescatar a su hija, Sydney, que vive con unos alienígenas conocidos como los inyx. Pero esta vez Titus Quinn no viajará solo. Le han impuesto la compañía de Helice Maki, una joven científica de mente privilegiada que ha escalado hasta el consejo de Minerva. Y, aunque oficialmente está ahí para ayudarlo, ella tiene sus propios planes...

Un desastroso vuelo interestelar lanza al piloto Titus Quinn, a su esposa y a su hija Sydney a un universo paralelo llamado Omniverso. Titus consigue regresar a su dimensión sin memoria, con su familia dada por muerta y su reputación arruinada. La corporación para la que trabaja lo envía de vuelta por la distorsión espaciotemporal en busca de nuevos métodos de viaje espacial. Allí recordará gradualmente a los gobernantes de ese mundo, los crueles alienígenas Tarig, así como a la población humanoide subyugada por ellos, los Chalin, y averiguará que su hija ha sido apresada. La odisea de Titus para recuperar a Sydney descubrirá un plan de los Tarig cuyas ramificaciones afectarán a algo más que a su propia familia.

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy *** ISSUE 9: July 2014 *** Mike Resnick, Editor Shahid Mahmud, Publisher *** Stories by: Kary English, Gardner Dozois, Andrea G. Stewart, Robert Sheckley, Laurie Tom, Lou J. Berger, Michael Swanwick, Lisa Tang Liu & Ken Liu, Kay Kenyon. *** Serialization: Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp *** Columns by: Barry Malzberg, Gregory Benford *** Book Reviews: Paul Cook. *** Interview: Joy Ward interviews Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon *** Galaxy''s Edge is a bi-monthly (every two months) magazine published by Phoenix Pick, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor, an award winning independent press based in Maryland. Each issue of the magazine has a mix of new and old (reprint) stories, a serialization of a novel, columns by Barry Malzberg and Gregory Benford, book reviews by Paul Cook and an interview conducted by Joy Ward.

Enter a magic-infused Victorian alternate history, where silver tigers and demon birds roam, and one young woman is caught up in a sweeping mutiny... In this epic historical fantasy by Kay Kenyon, discover an alternate 19th century where two warring continents vie for power: the scientific Anglica and magical Bharata. Inspired by her grandfather''s final whispered secret of a magical lotus, young Tori Harding, an aspiring botanist, embarks on a quest to Bharata, where magic, intrigues, and ghosts await. There she will find what she most desires; less perfect than she had hoped and stranger than she could have dreamed. Her fate awaits. But how can she make the choice between two suitors - and two irreconcilable realms?

Titus Quinn, pilote interstellaire, est prêt à tout pour retrouver son épouse et sa fille. il est persuadé qu''après le naufrage de leur vaisseau, ils ont été tous trois projetés dans un autre univers: "l''Entier". Un endroit à la fois étrange et attirant, peuplé de différentes espèces intelligentes qui vivent sous un ciel de feu qu''on appelle la splendeur. Les Tarigs, seigneurs élégants mais cruels, règnent sans partage sur ce monde fabuleux. Resté longtemps leur prisonnier, Quinn réussit à s''échapper et à revenir sur Terre, seul hélas. Sans preuves ni souvenirs précis de son séjour là-bas, personne ne croit à son histoire. Jusqu''au jour où la compagnie Minerva découvre des indices de l''existence de l''Entier. Quinn reçoit la mission d''y retourner, afin d''ouvrir cet eldorado à la convoitise de ses employeurs. Mais Quinn n''a qu''une idée en tête: sauver ses deux bien-aimées.

Half of known space is littered with the skeletons of metal and bone from thirty years of war with the ahtra, humanity''s implacable enemy. Now, Captain Eli Dammond has landed on a deserted planet to rescue survivors of a crashed space ship. On this routine mission, Eli has in his charge Sascha, the fourteen-year-old granddaughter of a general. But the planet is not what it seems. It is about to undergo a radical seasonal change, one that will hatch monstrous, rapacious creatures. There are few refuges from the rampaging alternate season. One is in the secret ahtran habitat far underground. It''s no place for a human army officer, as Eli will learn. The other is in the most unlikely of places: the nests of the monsters themselves. Not that the intrepid Sascha ever had a choice. As her time runs out, Eli must break free of his ahtran captors and return to the surface before his crew is wiped out and Sascha is forever changed.

Human colonists have terraformed the planet Lithia, but now the green biosphere is unraveling. In its place is the old Lithia, toxic to some, preferable to others, including the orthong. Aliens. Monsters, some say. Finding himself marooned on Lithia, young Reeve Calder is determined to make a home--even rebuild the planet. But he is a newcomer, soon to encounter the powerful forces already embedded in the transforming ecology. There are the savage colonists, inhabiting the ruins of vanished power. There are the Somaformers, a doomsday cult tampering with adaptive genes. There is Loon, a feral girl who leads the marooned group by her mad, internal compass. There is Nerys, a young woman enslaved by the orthong, and determined to rise in their ranks. Driven by a whispered clue from a dying man, Reeve and his companions must reach the great rift valley where the final reckoning awaits, one that will decide world dominance--or an unthinkable world cataclysm.

Time travel was never like this--tied to the motions of the stars, a short cut across the galaxy, and--if you''re a rare Dive pilot--a chance to be a hero. Clio Finn is one of these, a space pilot on the run from a dystopian and graying Earth toward the only future she ever wanted: the stars. Problem is, she''s on the razor edge of burnout. Next stop: a labor camp in dictatorial America. Clio might be in it for escape, for adventure, but there''s also that hero thing. Her mission: to retrieve viable biota to reseed the Earth. Now, a long way from home, she''s found the jackpot, a lush paradise, with plant life so vital, its seeds could give Earth a second chance, or--as her enemies believe--seal its destruction. But she''s determined to bring her payload home. It''s Clio Finn''s last Dive. It''s Earth''s last chance.

Kay Kenyon, noted for her science fiction world-building, has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme. Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn. Believing them trapped in a parallel universe—one where he himself may have been imprisoned—he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter’s dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him. As Quinn’s memories return, he discovers why. Quinn’s goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire—to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family’s redemption. But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm. This is high-concept SF written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld, Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles, and Dan Simmons’s Hyperion.

In this series Kay Kenyon has created her most vivid and compelling society yet, the universe Entire. Reviewers have called this "a grand world," "an enormous stage," and "a bravura concept." On this stage unfolds a mighty struggle for dominance between two universes. Titus Quinn has forged an unstable peace with the Tarig lords. The ruinous capability of the nanotech surge weapon he possesses ensures détente. But it is a sham. In what the godwoman Zhiya calls "a fit of moral goodness," he’s thrown the weapon into the space-folding waters of the Nigh. This clears the way for an enemy he could have never foreseen: the people of the Rose. A small cadre led by Helice Maki is determined to take the Entire for itself and leave the earth in ruins. The transform of earth will begin deep in a western desert and will sweep over the lives of ordinary people, entangling Quinn’s sister-in-law Caitlin in a deepening and ultimate conspiracy. In the Entire, Quinn stalks Helice to the fabled Rim City, encircling the heart of the Entire. Here he at last finds his daughter, now called Sen Ni, in the Chalin style. Outside of earth-based time, she has grown to adulthood. He hardly knows her, and finds her the mistress of a remarkable dream-time insurgency against the Tarig lords—and more, a woman risen high in the Entire’s meritocracy. Quinn needs his daughter’s help against the woman who would destroy the earth. But Sen Ni has her own plans and allies, among them a boy-navitar unlike any other pilot of the River Nigh—a navitar willing and supremely able to break his vows and bend the world. Quinn casts his fate with the beautiful and resourceful Ji Anzi who—sent on a journey to other realms—holds the key to Quinn’s heart and his overarching mission. But as he approaches the innermost sanctuary of the Tarig, he is alone. Waiting for him are powerful adversaries, including a lady who both hates and loves him, the high prefect of the dragon court, and Quinn’s most implacable enemy, a warrior whose chaotic mind will soon be roused from an eternal slumber. From the Trade Paperback edition.

In Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon introduced a milieu unique in science fiction and fantasy: The Entire, a five-armed radial universe that exists in a dimension without stars and planets and is parallel to our own universe. Stretched over The Entire is a lid of plasma, called the bright, which ebbs and flows, bringing day and twilight. Under the vast canopy of the bright live many galactic species, copied from our own universe. Former star pilot Titus Quinn loves The Entire, but now he must risk annihilating it by destroying the fortress of Ahnenhoon. To sustain a faltering Entire, Ahnenhoon''s great engine will soon reach through the brane separating the universes and consume our own universe in a concentrated ball of fire. Quinn sets off on a journey across The Entire armed with the nan, a small ankle bracelet containing nanoscale military technology that can reduce Ahnenhoon and its deadly engine to chaos. He must pursue his mission even though his wife is held prisoner in Ahnenhoon and his own daughter has sent the assassin MoTi to hunt him down. As he traverses the galactic distances of The Entire, he learns more of the secrets of its geography, its fragile storm walls, its eons-long history, and the factions that contend for dominance. One of these factions is led by his daughter, who though young and a slave, has at her command a transforming and revolutionary power. As Quinn wrestles with looming disaster and approaches the fabled concentric rings of Ahnenhoon''s defenses, he learns that in the Entire, nothing is what it appears. Its denizens are all harboring secrets, and the greatest of these is the nature of the Entire itself.

Zoya Kundara has lived on the space vessel Star Road for two hundred fifty years. As its Ship Mother, kept alive in a state of pseudoimmortality, she has provided wisdom and counsel to succeeding generations of its crew, self-exiled survivors of earth’s great plague. But now, to escape the ravages of space radiation, the giant starship has returned to earth, only to discover a world on the verge of extinction, its barren surface blanketed in a crystalline substance that resembles ice and that is slowly, inexorably encapsulating the planet. Zoya is chosen as emissary to this strange new earth, and now she must approach its denizens and find a suitable home for her desperate crew among the shrinking lands. But what she finds shakes Zoya to her core: groups of humans huddled like moles in underground techno-warrens called preserves, and a pseudospiritual order known as the Ice Nuns, who seek control of the physics-defying crystals and enslave their disciples in their crazed quest for truth. For on this once green land, Ice and the science behind it are now the only God–and mastering this grand ecology of information the only higher calling. Allies are few and far between, but somehow Zoya must uncover the secrets of Ice and halt its expansion. That is, if the snow witches don’t get her first...

When you get a message from deep space, should you answer? Earth has cause to believe that the universe is not a friendly place. But one woman, a singer well past her performance years, and seeking one last adventure, funds the mission that will accept an ambiguous invitation. . . to the stars. Bailey Shaw chooses the young and untested Anton Prados to lead the interplanetary expedition. But when they make first contact with the alien Dassa, she and Anton receive a troubling reception. The Dassa appear human. But they are badly altered humans, and the crew increasingly finds them disturbing, even revolting. And the Dassa in turn are appalled by them. As Bailey makes inroads with the commoners and Anton navigates the intrigues at court, the clash between the cultures escalates, bringing the crew, one by one, to the most difficult choice of their lives. To survive, they must unravel the mystery of the Dassa, and of human--and alien--existence.

In 2014, Medicine Falls is just another rural town with a dying economy and a way of life that has become increasingly irrelevant. The lure of the Net and virtual-reality games has replaced the malls and movie theaters. The hottest game of all is Nir--short for Nirvana--with its promise of escape into a world of addictive pleasures. When Abbey McCrae''s teenage daughter dies mysteriously, everyone calls it suicide. But Abbey believes it''s murder, somehow connected to her daughter''s addiction to Nir--and to the cultlike Dimension Institute, led by the charismatic Zachariah Smith. As more and more townspeople fall under Nir''s spell, Abbey and a cynical detective uncover a horrifying conspiracy involving the game, the Institute, and the secret "guests" Zachariah Smith keeps at his ranch. And Abbey will learn that she alone can stop an alien threat that seeks to consume all of humanity....