Beyond the 22nd century: progress has triumphed, mankind inhabits worlds beyond its own, a utopian future awaits. But the old problems linger, and new problems arise. Four people, made for a suicide squad to target the enigmatic Empress of Sin, are now caught in that darkness: Crystal, a woman crafted to become the ‘new humanity’; Daniel Redfield, tortured veteran of the Mars War; Jirou Blanxart, an assassin known across all of mankind’s new lands; and Aiden Jonas, notorious PMC soldier an...

A Voyage For Fortune Leads Them to the Heart of Fear.In the desolate reaches of the Cluster, aboard the weary cargo ship Benbow, a disparate crew drifts through an meager existence. Among them are the brooding Captain Solet, the smirking Syndac, amiable Sudu, ambitious Alkmeney, enigmatic Livesey, and Lenore and Faarax, a Feles and her human ward sworn to kill each other.Their monotonous routine is shattered when fate delivers to them a mysterious ...

Vengeance is a dish best served cold.On the far side of the galaxy, in the distant future, is the Cluster—a collection of stars and worlds where life flourishes. Humans, refugees from their lost Ancient Earth, coexist with other peoples like the tribal Feles, the elite Kavki, and the distant Ekri.A human woman arrives on a remote asteroid prison. Unlike the other convicts, she is fascinating, defiant, and unbowed, earning the respect and hatred of ...

Ainori "Ai" Uchida is just out of University, trying to make his way in the world. He is also gay, and struggling with himself in a society where LGBT awareness is skewed by fiction. A chance encounter with old University friend Yusuke "Yu" Ishinori leads to the two slowly realising their mutual attraction. In a society that still misunderstands and misrepresents, can Ainori and Yusuke forge their own path?Originally published online and now available in a polished and edited form,...

Beyond the 22nd century: progress has triumphed, mankind inhabits worlds beyond its own, a utopian future awaits. But the old problems linger, and new problems arise. Four people, made for a suicide squad to target the enigmatic Empress of Sin, are now caught in that darkness: Crystal, a woman crafted to become the 'new humanity'; Daniel Redfield, tortured veteran of the Mars War; Jirou Blanxart, an assassin known across all of mankind's new lands; and Aiden Jonas, notorious PMC soldier an...

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF--and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.This month, we have original science fiction by JY Yang ("Secondhand Bodies") and the collaborative team of Keith Brooke and Eric Brown ("Beyond the Heliopause"), along ...

The biggest names in space opera and military science fiction share 20+ new short stories set in their most famous universes—including Dune, Honor Harrington, and Ender’s Game!Join Nebula and Hugo Award winners, New York Times-bestselling authors, and Science Fiction Grand Masters as they take you to uncharted worlds . . . distant galaxies . . . and the unknown threats lurking in the cosmos . . .This space opera and military science fiction antholo...

16-year-old Mochizuki Touya has it all. Grand Duke of an upstart nation, inventor of goods ranging from hula hoop to caramelized popcorn, administrator of Babylon, and pilot of the Anti-Phrase Frame Gears. The western nations love him... but darker machinations unfurl in the far east. Yulong, the glorious Empire of Heaven, regards Touya with envious eyes, brazen enough to send assassins into Brunhild! To make matters worse, the mysterious young girl known as Sakura seems to have a connecti...

He hijacked her ship to stay alive. Now the only way out is together.Cassidy Evans flies the dullest route in the solar system: the monthly supply run to the Consortium’s maximum-security prison on Titan, in a wheezing freighter she inherited from her father along with a mountain of debt. It’s mind-numbing, barely profitable, and exactly the kind of nothing life that keeps a person invisible — until the day an escaped inmate walks into her cargo hold, puts...

STARSHIPS. GHOSTS. DANGER.An abandoned starship populated by phantoms. The Panther's captain doesn’t believe in ghosts... but that doesn’t stop them coming aboard! Can the captain overcome his disbelief in time to save his ship?(Starflare Universe – Ghosts)A LANDSCAPE DROWNED. A LANDSCAPE REVIVED.He sits waiting for the tide to come in, but this is no ordinary tide. It’s taller than a tower, more destructive than a hur...

New in the fresh, sexy world of The Seek: he can't trust anyone, so why should he trust his heart?The universe is a very dangerous place when there's a price on your head.The year is 2098, and a quiet revolution has begun in the space stations of New Earth. The ruling Council has dug in to fight for a new home on Eden 13, but a group of rebels is working from the inside to support the embattled Haitites.Reetor is twenty years old and a deserter from...

HIT AND RUN...Using fast and furious hit-and-run tactics, Marcus GioAvanti and his Avanti's Angels mercenaries have earned a tough reputation throughout the Inner Sphere. But the Inner Sphere isn't where their newest job is taking them—because their latest employer resides in that remote and mysterious region of space known as the Periphery...The Magistracy of Canopus has been the target of aggression by the Marian Hegemony, and in hiring Marcus and his gut...