Showing results for "Stories" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

When half-human Kai Schiffer steps into the Interstices—the post-creation gaps between realms—his supernatural half kicks in, and he literally disappears unless…well, don’t ask. But in a stroke (heh) of good fortune, Kai finally has a chance to show his face (and other parts, stars willing) to his long-time crush Jovan Kos—Interstitial Law Enforcement agent, wolf warrior, occasional berserker, and best man at their mutual best friends’ Imbolc wedding. Jovan is grateful his best man duties are light enough that he can focus on Kai. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

This remarkable novel begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. After being initiated into eternal life as one who "shares the blood" by two women there, Gilda spends the next 200 years searching for a place to call home. An instant lesbian classic when it was first published in 1991, The Gilda Stories has endured as an auspiciously prescient book in its explorations of blackness, radical ecology, re-definitions of family, and yes, the erotic potential of the vampire story.

Trans sailor Darragh Thorn has made a comfortable life for himself among people who love and accept him. Ten years after his exile from home, though, his sister asks him to reconcile with their ailing father. Determined to resolve his feelings rather than just survive them, Darragh sets off on a quest to find the one person who can heal a half-dead man: the mysterious enchanter who once gave him the magic he needed to become his true self.

A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.

Ancient folklore and modern myth come together in these stories by author Craig Laurance Gidney. Here are found the struggles of a medieval Japanese monk seduced by a mischievous fairy, and a young slave who finds mystery deep within the briar patch of an antebellum plantation. Gidney offers a gay teen obsessed with his patron saint, Lena Horne, and, in the title story, an ailing tourist seeks escape at a distant shore but never reckons on encountering an African sea god. Rich, poetic, dark and disturbing, these are distinctive tales not soon forgotten.

When my family finally left our little close-minded pack back in Utah to join a huge progressive pack in Northwest Louisiana, I thought I’d finally be free of the chains of judgment, scrutiny, and homophobia that had tainted my life. But when the Alpha’s son rejects my sister as his fated mate on our very first day at Blackstone Academy, his callousness and stupidity kick off a chain of events that embroils us both in the drama we wanted to avoid. It also entangles me with the Alpha Heir’s best friend, Thad James, and I can’t seem to fight my attraction to him.

In a world where logic meets the extraordinary, Tamara, a brilliant forensic scientist, discovers a mysterious purple plant that blesses her with superhuman abilities, including invisibility. Teaming up with her best friend, Annalise, a passionate FBI agent haunted by scars from her past, the two friends embark on a quest to bring down a brutal serial killer known only as The Hunter. As the danger intensifies, their bond deepens, and secrets are revealed. Will Tamara and Annalise finally admit to their feelings despite being polar opposites?

There was once, long ago, a foolish king who decreed that women should not, and would not, inherit. Thus when a girl-child was born to Lord Cador - Merlin-enchanted fighter of dragons and Earl of Cornwall - he secreted her away: to be raised a boy so that the family land and honour would remain intact. That child’s name was Silence. Silence must find their own place in a medieval world that is determined to place the many restrictions of gender and class upon them. With dreams of knighthood and a lonely heart to answer, Silence sets out to define themselves.

An android who knows nothing besides his work in a factory is given one final week to explore the world before he is forced to undergo mandatory reprogramming in this bittersweet precursor to TJ Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets, now available in trade paperback! A Macmillan Audio production...

Conthan's only talents are sarcasm and art. That is, until he learns he's a Child of Nostradamus with the ability to teleport. When his newfound powers kill a Marine, he finds himself hunted by the military's elite. He is not the only one in danger. Conthan discovers his future entwined with a warden bent on corrupting imprisoned Children. As he unravels a conspiracy about to destroy the country, will he sacrifice his humanity to become a hero?

A trip to the library prompts one woman to question her fate in this galvanizing short story. For a woman like Hadley, deemed not acceptable to procreate, there’s only one recourse. Unlicensed for motherhood, she can alleviate her grief and frustration at a “baby library,” where a curiously endless supply of infants is available for a two-week loan. But the borrowed life that serves as a temporary balm leads to a journey of self-discovery that will forever change the direction of Hadley’s future.

A man in exile, banished to a planet far from home and cursed with immortality, discovers that a ship has crash-landed near his settlement. After two hundred years, his heart’s desire has come true. A visitor has finally arrived on his lonely little speck in the stars. He’ll have companionship again. Someone he could love forever. As the weary traveler heals, the two men form a tender bond. But all they’ve come to share may not be enough to curb the visitor’s irrepressible wanderlust.

From terraformed outposts to magical realms, journey to worlds where deadly plants, rampant biodiversity, or failed colonies have created irresistible opportunities for those brave enough to seize them. New worlds, found family, mystical secrets, and deadly science weave together in this lesbian-centric anthology focusing on a very different kind of first time - a first encounter with a world, or being, entirely unlike our own.

Long out-of-print, this novella is Ganymede's life story - unapologetic in its ribald details of Greek gods in disguise, trying to seduce the most beautiful youth in the Ancient world. When a prince of Troy is born with perfect proportions, not only does every man he meets desire him, but the Immortals want him as their lover. Ganymede loses his virginity to Hermes at 12, at 14 he captures the attention of Ares and Apollo...can Zeus be next?

All Sebastian ever wanted was a place to call home. Bound to Liam, his fated mate, and nestled in the center of a werewolf pack, he’s found one. However, opening portals filled with monsters in his sleep, Sebastian’s power is a wild thing he’s unable to control. And it’s slowly destroying him. He never asked to be part fae, or for any of their magic. Now something dark is creeping through the pack bonds, bringing unrest and chaos. Desperate to find a safe way to release the churning well of power inside Seb, the pair venture into Underhill, the abandoned land of the fae.

Pirates and kraken, boats and submarines, deadly sirens, mermaids, and the women who face them all. These are our heroes. High seas adventure, fantasy, and magic weave together in this sapphic anthology focusing on the joy of the unbounded oceans.

At the end of the Victorian era, a handful of public intellectuals advocated for tolerance of the "Uranian"—a man who loved other men. Some went so far as to propose that these "intermediate sexes" might, in fact, constitute a totally different species, even serve as intrepid guides in our march toward an uncertain future. The five speculative stories in Theodore McCombs's kaleidoscopic collection span several possible worlds, teasing the boundaries between coexisting realities and taking up the question of queer difference from one surprising vantage after another.

Opal has been planning to go to Chicago and join the Midwest's superhero team, the Sentinels, since she was a little kid. That dream took on a more urgent tone when her superpowered dad was unjustly arrested for protecting a neighbor from an abusive situation. Now, she wants to be a superhero not only to protect people, but to get a platform to tell the world about the injustices of the Altered Persons Bureau, the government agency for everything relating to superpowers.

Savedra Severos is no stranger to intrigue. Mistress to the King of Selafai and daughter of a rival noble house, she navigates the treacheries of court with every breath. On the eve of delicate peace talks, the court mage is found murdered. As Savedra investigates, she stumbles further into a web of secrets that enmeshes three kingdoms - entangling spies and sorcerers, lovers and enemies, strangers and kin. Among those secrets are Savedra's own, dangerous enough to destroy her king and her family if they come to light.

How does a murderer redeem herself? By going to another world to kill the same person again! Bobbi Nox was notorious for committing a gruesome murder against a former employee; she was sentenced to rot in jail for the rest of her life. But in a divine twist of fate, Dike, the Goddess of Moral Justice, has come calling with an offer: become Dike's Champion of Justice. The target? None other than Markos Turloch, the person Bobbi had murdered! To her astonishment, Markos had been reincarnated as a dungeon core and he conquered the Kingdom of Vessar.