Showing results by author "Kristine Kathryn Rusch" in All Categories

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.

Ten people signed up to help Squishy in her fateful mission. Only five returned. Paired up in teams of two, they set out across the Enterran Empire to infiltrate and sabotage the Empire’s bases used to back up their stealth tech research. But what exactly happened on those bases? Who survived? Squishy’s Teams provides the answers to those burning questions and reveals twists to the ongoing saga no one sees coming.

When the captain and senior crew abandon the Renegat, linguist Raina Serpell assumes command. She needs to get the ship and remaining crew home. As the ship comes under attack from the planet below, Raina must first figure out how to operate the ship’s firepower. Harder still, she must battle her own past to become captain in more than just name alone.

As a young recruit, brilliant engineer Nadim Crowe accidentally destroys an entire Scrapheap full of ships. Now, decades later, he ends up on the crew of the Renegat, the only ship in the Fleet ever sent on a mission backward to investigate an ancient Scrapheap. Something invaded that Scrapheap, and the Fleet wants to know what. Or who. The Renegat: The only ship the Fleet dares risk. The Renegat: A ship of misfits and screw-ups sent on an impossible mission. All alone in deep space. 

Officer Noelle DeRicci is investigating a murder in Armstrong, the domed colony on the Moon. The victim was one of the Disappeared - outlaws in hiding who are wanted for crimes against alien civilizations - whose family had her brought home, believing she was no longer in danger.

The Carnival Sniper - as famous as Jack The Ripper. And like Jack The Ripper, never caught, his identity lost to history. In 1913, the Carnival Sniper terrorized Vienna, murdering the famous and not-so-famous alike. Police Detective Johann Runge never caught the Sniper and his failure defined the rest of his life. In 2005, best-selling crime writer Sofie Branstadter receives permission to use modern forensic investigative techniques on the Sniper’s victims. She believes she can figure out the identity of the Sniper, but she needs the help of Runge’s great-grandson, classical pianist Anton Runge.

Stashie is a heart reader. She wields a dangerous magic: one that reveals the truth at the heart of a person. So when the old king needs to know which of his sons has he pure heart, and which must be killed, he turns to heart readers to tell him the truth. But Stashie is a victim of vicious Gerneral Tarne, the country's military leader. The empire's killing machine ruined her life - this is her chance for revenge.

Can the fate of a forgotten starbase hold the key to the moon’s survival? Long before the Anniversary Day bombings brought the moon to its knees, a far-flung starbase became the testing ground for a diabolical plan: the annihilation of every human inhabitant by an army of clones.

His name: Miles Flint. His occupation: Retrieval Artist. His job: find the Disappeared - outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures. The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law anymore.

Are vampires a bloodthirsty menace to mankind? Or simply misunderstood creatures struggling to survive? After hearing these seven stories, you'll be able to decide for yourself. From the horrifying to the humorous, some of today's finest authors share stories about one of mankind's oldest imagined evils, the vampire. From F. Paul Wilson's title story to Esther Friesner's comic tale of rival teens trying to best one another, these stories bring vampires to (un)life, in all their majesty and terror.

One of fantasy fiction's foremost creators concludes the epic Black Throne Saga with this magnificent tale of a world coveted by a ruthless spirit, returned to life in the mind of an innocent monarch.

As a Retrieval Artist, Miles Flint helps the Disappeared, saving the lives of those oppressed under the Earth Alliance regime. He owes his livelihood and his very sense of honor to a woman known as Paloma. It was she who was responsible for setting him on this path. And now she has been murdered.

Blue Isle, scene of a violent clash between its human native and the magical Fey, has now become the center of attention of the Fey king, Rugad. He is returning to finish the Fey invasion begun years ago but thwarted by the discovery that Blue Islander holy water was fatal to the aggressors. That stalemate has produced a wary coexistence, even intermarriage between royal families of the two races, but Rugad wants only one thing: total domination--and he will stop at nothing to get it

Defying their Black King in order to rally an attack on the peaceful Blue Isle, warrior-prince Rugar and his fearless daughter, Jewel, do not suspect that the islanders, under young prince Nicholas, have prepared to defend themselves.

The conflict on Blue Isle is rapidly reaching a head when one unexpected event suddenly gives the Islanders a fighting chance. Adrian's son Luke, chafing under Fey rule, leads a group of his fellow farmers in a secret strike against a Fey outpost.

Hadad Yu "recovers" things for a living. Things, not people, not animals. Things. Until he gets in trouble and must work for the alien Gyonnese. They want a person to answer for her crimes, and they want to use Yu to get her. He reluctantly agrees, and sets off events that will change his life and the lives around him forever.

Four years ago, a bomb destroyed part of the dome protecting Armstrong, the largest city on the Moon. Now, as the city celebrates its survival with an event it calls Anniversary Day, a larger threat looms - one that begins with the murder of the mayor, and spreads across the moon itself.

Emilio Diate - the greatest dancer the Kingdom has ever produced - has vowed vengeance on that government for its merciless execution of his entire family. Now forced to start over on the merchant island of Golga, where his dancing is forbidden, the handsome refugee joins the secret police with only one dark intention - to find his family’s killers and serve his own brand of justice. But when love intercedes, Diate may become the victim of his own revenge. He falls for Sheba, not knowing who she is.

While survivors search for missing loved ones and the rich and powerful set plans in motion to capitalize on the Moon's misfortune, one ruthless man vows to uncover those responsible for the attacks on the Moon. Luc Deshin, the most feared man in Armstrong, knows all too well the bombings could have killed the wife and son he loves more than life itself. To protect his family, Deshin immerses himself in a criminal network he fought long and hard to leave behind.

The Fey Empire has been at peace for fifteen years. But Queen Arianna, who holds the Black Throne, has become increasingly troubled by a mysterious presence that is waking in her mind. It is a force of ruthless power, determined to seize the throne even if it means destroying Arianna's very essence in the process. And when the queen's body is not her own, it spells trouble for a warlike empire already beginning to chafe under the strictures of peace. Worse, it seems that the only person who can help Arianna is her brother, Gift, the legitimate heir to the Black Throne - and the one the Throne itself has chosen as ruler.