Forbidden by her father to indulge in music in any way, a girl on the planet Pern runs away, taking shelter with the planet's fire lizards who, along with her music, open a new life for her.

A tale of first contact follows a range of characters as they question their place in the universe and what it means to be human when spaceships arrive at Earth and then depart just as suddenly.

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie's death in combat, along with his personal effects--but something doesn't make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted...

From the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Nommo award nominated author of Shigidi and The Brass Head Of Obalufon comes a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves. In "An Arc of Electric Skin," a roadside mechanic seeking justice volunteers to undergo a procedure that will increase the electrical...

In a future where the world is roughly divided into two factions, the Pacific League of Nations and the Atlantic Division of Nations, tensions are high as each side waits for the other to make a move. But neither side is prepared for a powerful third party that has apparently been an influential presence on Earth for thousands of years, and just might be making a reappearance very soon. With the realization that a highly intelligent alien race has...

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined -- to be used as a biological match for the president's son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue -- the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often - he's pacing and imagining he's free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too, she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room. In the present, Imogen...

"Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda's ready to give up everything to start anew. Even her career--after one last week consulting at a top secret particle accelerator. Except the strangest thing happens: a man stops her...and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning, why she's there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he's saying. But just as they figure out this new life,...

"Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, traveling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of Earth's first life forms--what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our...

"On the shore of an unfamiliar reality, Max has landed in a world too good to be true. Rachel, the girl who suffered a terrible fate in Max's reality, is alive and well, and with Chloe. Both of them are starting a new life to call their own in Los Angeles. Three years have passed since the events of Dust, and although Max is struggling to understand what brought her here, all is well. But then a mysterious young man, Tris, appears, with his own secrets...

"Following on from one possible ending of the much-loved game, Life is strange: Dust, finds aspiring photographer Max Caulfield and best friend Chloe Price struggling to build a new life, one year after the shocking events of the storm that swept through Arcadia Bay. When Max seemingly starts traveling in time without her knowledge or control, she and Chloe must return to where their journey began-- to uncover the truth, set things right, and confront...