Young Science Fiction

Danny Tozer has a problem: She just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world's greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she's transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny's body into what she's always thought it should be. Now there's no hiding that she's a girl.

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

Four sci-fi short stories where you'll find good computers, people who regret their past, and an explanation for something you're familiar with.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

Immortality can be a heavy burden, but Tala is not walking this long path alone. Time flows onward, and those who seek to join with her must weigh the heavy cost. After all, the tying of fates inevitably brings both trouble and benefit. With the shackles of mortality well and truly discarded, Tala and her companions continue to progress and grow. That looming longevity makes them ever more aware of those they will necessarily leave behind, and though time heals all wounds, it does not guarantee closure. To truly embrace the future unencumbered, the dark parts of the past must be faced.

A colony survives among the icy rings of a planet, hiding from alien robots determined to destroy them … at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment … a man who can’t feel pain has been bioengineered to be a killing machine, but he refuses to give in to his fate … a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction.

The best of the year's science fiction and fantasy stories as selected by the multiple award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. Distant worlds, time travel, epic adventure, unseen wonders, and much more! The best, most original and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past 12 months are brought together in one collection by multiple award winning editor Jonathan Strahan.

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.

Earth has been warned! But when the Council Navy shows up on their doorstep, they are woefully unprepared. Jinny Ambrosa and Tyrus Tyne have reached Earth and the Four Worlds to warn them of the impending Council invasion. But they soon learn that the Council’s shadowy agents are already there! Spies, traitors, scheming politicians, and deadly assassins will do anything to keep them from accomplishing their mission. Now, on the run from even those they considered allies, can they save humanity from the darkness?

Every night, Adachi transforms into a nightmarish creature--and every morning, he reverts to human form. When he encounters his ostracized classmate Yano Satsuki in his monstrous state, the two develop a peculiar bond. But daylight brings its own form of terrors. Which is worse, the monsters at night, or the cruel realities of the classroom by day?

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 33 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2020.

Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse and series editor John Joseph Adams select twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explore the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today. Today’s readers...

Abandoned as a child, Sera dreams of becoming an inspector and finding her family. To do that, she must be referred into the Advanced Studies Program at the Aetherium's Witchling Academy. Her birth order, quick temper, and tendency to set things on fire, however, have left her an outcast with failing marks...and just what Professor Nikolai Barrington is looking for.

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories.

A soul from Earth awakens as Seventh Princess Adelheid of the Vuldar Empire. With a weak body but a monstrous reservoir of mana that threatens her very life, Adelheid engraves an oath into her very soul. She shall seize the throne at all costs, but with ambitious cousins and discontent nobles, her father and brother are far from her only rivals.

How do you stop an invasion force that just defeated the most powerful person on the planet? Chances are, you don’t. But the world’s greatest heroes and villains are going to team up and make their best attempt. After the Tuldarians—a race of dinosaur-like aliens—invade the Earth with overwhelming numbers of ships and soldiers, the world’s governments finally repeal the Anti-Vigilante Acts. Now, the masked crimefighters and criminals who haven’t been allowed to use their powers are being asked to fight to save humanity. And to think, I was just put in prison for just trying to be a good guy.

The greatest of human mages means to finish a conquest that started forty years ago—and the Betrayer has every intention of purging all dragons to claim the throne Skálda has sacrificed everything for. But this war proves far deadlier than one mage's ambitions to rule. A web of political agendas a thousand years in the making will ensure that no rider survives the brutal new warzones.

Jason Richards is in his 40s, recently divorced, and hates his job, but all of that changes when he's attacked by a redheaded vampire and left for dead in a truckstop bathroom. He soon wakes up in a mansion, surrounded by beautiful women and told he can never go home again. More importantly, he finds that his bones no longer ache, he feels amazing, and he looks like a 20-year-old kid again. That's because he's a Ferin, a Forever Young, gifted with immortality and special abilities unlike anything he ever thought possible.

Jonathan Strahan, the award-winning and much lauded editor of many of genre's best known anthologies, is back with his 11th volume in this fascinating series, featuring the best science fiction and fantasy. With established names and new talent, this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the listener to the outer reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.

Two decades of bitter war between Earth and her furthest colonies is finally at an end. Captain Lee Saito's massive new starship is sent to seal the uneasy truce. But a series of terrorist attacks on Earth and the mysterious acts of a strange cult threaten to derail the fragile peace. When the mission goes awry, Saito must try to salvage what he can in deep space while his estranged son must navigate a conspiracy back on Earth that could implicate the highest levels of government.