A book such as this spins not only words but also whole worlds: eighteen of them, representing the best lesbian-themed stories of the fantastic or futuristic published the prior year: An artisan who tests the skills and wares of her friends in the hope of finding the ideal housing for an idealized love. A shape-shifting sidekick ensures that the heroine, who might not even be aware of her, saves the day. The device on a young girl's wrist that counts down the years until she will meet her ...

"One of the most compelling aspects of speculative fiction is its ability to fulfill otherwise unattainable desires—whether one wants to create a magical society or travel through time, visit an alien civilization or remake history. It also satisfies more mundane reader desires, the ones it would not seem so hard to fulfill. To call a few of these out, I'll willingly step on this mine: the explosion of 'should.'"It should not be easier to find a zombie apocalypse than it is to find...

For a decade Alice Sheldon produced an extraordinary body of work under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr, until her identity was exposed in 1977. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever presents the finest of these stories and contains the Nebula Award-winning ' Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death', Hugo Award-winning novella 'The Girl Who Was Plugged In', 'Houston, Houston, Do You Read?' - winner of both the Hugo and Nebula - and of course the story for which she is best known: 'The Women Men Do...

For readers who crave stories of uninhibited, unrepentant sex between women, Lesbian Lust delivers. This is real lesbian sex: sensual, inventive, and nothing less than breathtaking. Butches abound, baby dykes learn important life lessons, femmes and fatales bring each other to the brink. In "The Office Grind," by R. G. Emanuelle, a stressed-out businesswoman loses herself and her heart in the startling green eyes of a sleek butch in a bar. The ultimate in eroticism, the relentless...

Summer, 1816. Glamourists Jane and David Vincent return home to an unseasonably cold Long Parkmeade. Cooped up inside with Jane's fretful sister and father, they soon become restless, so when they receive a commission from a prominent family in London, they decide to go - taking Melody with them. Perhaps the change of scenery will brighten their moods (and Melody's marriage prospects).The capital is fizzing with talk of crop failures and unemployment riots in the north. Finding it ...

From the co-author of the viral New York Times bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War."[A] taut and unique blend of legal drama, fantasy, and noir." —Publishers Weekly, starred reviewMax Gladstone's Craft Sequence chronicles the epic struggle to build a just society in a modern fantasy world.Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler an...

ROLE-PLAY REVERSAL By Chris WestlakeEmily has joined the amateur dramatics where she plays the sort of rich spoilt housewife that every milkman longs to meet on his round. The tables are turned when Deana, the sassy ebony minx who plays her meek maid in the play, turns out to be a dominatrix with her own set of handcuffs! When Emily is licked out on stage, it seems that there could be a third role in this production .HOLY MATRIMONY By Chloe...

Nnedi Okorafor's Binti is the winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novella!Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.Knowledge comes at a cost, one th...

It began with a terrible vision of the future. Compelled by her precognitive abilities, Ia must somehow save her home galaxy long after she’s gone. Now Jean Johnson presents the long-awaited epic conclusion to her national bestselling military science fiction series…Demoralized, their ship destroyed, Ia’s Damned must fight their way out of a planet-bound blockade and back into space. But there is more happening here on Dabin than meets even Ia’s inner eye.Some of t...

From the author of the viral bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War..."Stunningly good. Stupefyingly good." —Patrick RothfussMax Gladstone's Craft Sequence chronicles the epic struggle to build a just society in a modern fantasy world.A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart....

'It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.'Fifteen-year-old Morwenna lives in Wales with her twin sister and a mother who spins dark magic for ill. One day, Mori and her mother fight a powerful, magical battle that kills her sister and leaves Mori disabled. Devastated, Mori flees to her long-lost father in England. Adrift, outcast at boarding school, Mori retreats into the worlds she knows best: her magic and he...