Julie E. Czerneda

Winner of the 2020 Aurora Award for Best Novel, this fantasy epic tells the tale of one mage who must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic. Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic. Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage. For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die. To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.

The Gossamer Mage

A supposedly harmless form of alien fungal life that possesses a tranquilizing effect on the human nervous system, the Quill begins to mutate, taking on a dangerous new form that threatens to annihilate the terraformed planets and their human colonists. Original.

In the Company of Others

Biologist Julie E. Czerneda's new standalone science fiction novel, "To Each This World" follows a desperate mission to reconnect with long lost sleeper ships, sent centuries earlier from Earth to settle distant worlds. A trio of Humans must work with their mysterious alien allies to rescue any descendants they can find on those worlds. Something is out there, determined to claim the cosmos for itself, and only on Earth will Humans be safe. Or will they? The challenge isn’t just to communicate with your own kind after generations have passed. It’s to understand what isn’t your kind at all. And how far will trust take you, when the truth depends on what you are?

To Each This World

The first book in the Web Shifter's Library series returns to the adventures of Esen, a shapeshifting alien and member of an ancient yet endangered race, who must navigate the perils of a hostile universe. Esen's back! And the dear little blob is in trouble, again. Things began so well. She and her Human friend Paul Ragem are ready to celebrate the first anniversary of their greatest accomplishment, the All Species' Library of Linguistics and Culture, by welcoming his family back. He hopes. Having mourned his supposed death years ago, understandably, feelings are bent. Instead, they've unexpected guests, starting with an old acquaintance. Paul's father has gone missing under dire circumstances. Before he can convince Esen to help him search, a friend shows up to use the Library. A crisis on Dokeci Na is about to explode into violence. To stop it, Evan Gooseberry needs answers. Unfortunately, the artifact he brought in trade holds its own distracting secret. A touch of very familiar blue. Web-flesh. The race is on. Paul, to find his father. Esen, to search for a mysterious legacy while helping Evan avert an extinction. What none of them realize is the price of success will be the most terrible choice of all.

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David Brin

John Scalzi

Gareth L. Powell

David Weber

Seanan McGuire

Joe Haldeman

Christopher Ruocchio

Fonda Lee

Thoraiya Dyer

Tanya Huff

John C. Wright

Derek Künsken

Shelley Adina

D. J. Butler

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

Dr. Charles E. Gannon

Within these pages lie eighteen stories, from eighteen worlds shaped by some of today’s best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its first year. Some are international bestsellers. Among them are winners and nominees for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, Aurealis, Ditmar, British Science Fiction Association, and Dragon Awards. Some have been writing for decades, others are at the beginning of their careers. All have honed their craft to razor-sharpness. A teenage girl finds something strange in the middle of the Canadian prairie. An exobiologist tries to liberate a giant alien enslaved on its homeworld by humans. The music of the spheres becomes literal for an Earth ship far from home. A superhero league interviews for new members. Strangers share a drink on a world where giant starships fall. Two boys, one a werewolf, one a mage, get more than they bargained for when they volunteer to fight an evil Empire. A man with amnesia accepts a most unusual offer. A young woman finds unexpected allies as she tries to win a flying-machine race in steampunk London . . . Ranging from boisterous to bleak, from humorous to harrowing, from action-filled to quiet and meditative; taking place in alternate pasts, the present day, the far, far future, and times that never were; set on Earth, in the distant reaches of space, in fantasy worlds, and in metaphysical realms, each of these stories is as unique as its creator. And yet, they all showcase one thing: the irrepressible need of human beings to create, to imagine, to tell stories. To shape worlds.

Science fiction & fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers

Shapers of Worlds

Truthseer Bannan Larmensu is forbidden from leaving Marrowdell to help his turn-born sister Jenn Nalynn who has disappeared from the mysterious domain of Mellynne. By the author of A Turn of the Light. Original. 10,000 first printing.

A Play of Shadow

A Thousand Words for Stranger

The tenth anniversary edition of Julie Czerneda's debut science fiction novel, the story of a woman on the run, from the law, her own people, and an unknown pursuer. Her memory taken from her by a stasis block, Sira must stay free long enough to regain her identity and the full use of her telepathic powers-for failure may cost not only her own future but that of her entire race.

A Thousand Words For Stranger (10th Anniversary Edition)

The second book in the Web Shifter's Library series returns to the adventures of Esen, a shapeshifting alien who must navigate the perils of a hostile universe. Relationships get complicated when you don't know who--or what--you really are. Esen must find a way to rescue a hapless group of chimeras, beings who are a new and unique blend of species she knows, when she can't become one herself. When Evan Gooseberry tries to help, he is shattered to learn he himself isn't entirely Human and begins to suspect his new friend Esen isn't what she seems. Complicating matters, a mysterious contagion has killed the crew of the ship that brought the chimeras--and Evan--to Botharis. Everyone's been quarantined inside the All Species' Library of Linguistics and Culture, including over a hundred disgruntled alien scholars. The risks climb as Skalet and Lionel continue their quest to solve the disappearance of Paul's mother's ship, the Sidereal Pathfinder, only to find themselves caught in a tangle of loyalties as Skalet is betrayed by her own Kraal affiliates, who infiltrate the Library. All of which would be quite enough for one Web-being's day, but Paul Ragem hopes to rekindle the romance of his first love. A shame Esen hasn't told him who's hiding in their greenhouse.

Mirage

This Gulf of Time and Stars begins the hard sci-fi Reunification series, perfect for space opera readers looking for unique aliens and interstellar civilizations. Sira di Sarc, the leader of an alien race hiding in plain sight among humans, must find a way to take her Clan home, in this trilogy within the award-winning Clan Chronicles series. To save their world, the most powerful of the Om'ray left their homes. They left behind all memory of their past. Calling themselves the Clan, they settled among Humanity, hiding in plain sight, using their ability to slip past normal space to travel where they wished, using their ability to control minds to ensure their place and security. They are no longer hidden. For the Clan face a crisis. Their reproduction is tied to individual power, and their latest generation of females, Choosers, are too strong to safely mate. Their attempt to force others to help failed until Sira di Sarc, their leader and the most powerful of their kind, successfully Joined with a human, Jason Morgan, starship captain and telepath. With Morgan, Sira forged the first peace between her kind and the Trade Pact. But it is a peace about to shatter. Those the Clan have controlled all these years will rise against them. Her people dying around her, war about to consume the Trade Pact, Sira will be left with only one choice. She must find the way back. And take the Clan home.

This Gulf of Time and Stars

Presents the complete trilogy that follows biologist Dr. Mackenzie Connor in her quest to help an alien archaeologist discover the truth behind the area of space known as the Chasm.

Species Imperative

United in their natural form they are one, sharing all their memories, experiences, and lives. Apart they are six, the only existing members of their ancient race, a species with the ability to assume any form once they understand its essence. Their continued survival in a universe filled with races ready to destroy anyone perceived as different is based on the Rules. And first among those Rules is: Never reveal your true nature to another being. But when the youngest among them, Esen-alit-Quar, receives her first independent assignment to a world considered safe to explore, she stumbles into a trap no one could have anticipated. Her only means of escape lies in violating the First Rule. She reveals herself to a fellow captive―a human being/ While this mistake might not ordinarily prove fatal, the timing of the event could not be worse. For something new has finally made its way into the Universe, the Enemy of the Web, bringer of death to all forms of life. And the hunt it about to begin.

Beholder's Eye

In Tananen people worship a single deity: Deathless Goddess. In this small, forbidden realm people are haunted by words of no language known to humans. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic. Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature wild, free and costly. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die. To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage vows to find and destroy Her.

Isaac Szpindel

Some of today's top science fiction writers explore the futures that might have been, including original stories from Julie E. Czerneda and other great names in the genre.

Revisions

Jana Paniccia

FOURTEEN ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES OF SECRET AGENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE LEFT THEIR MARK ON TIME AND SPACE... From the true role of the Freemasons to Chronographers who steal pieces of time to an assassin hired by a group that reweaves the threads of history, here are fourteen imaginative tales of time and space and realms beyond our own-all watched over, preserved, or changed by those who work covertly under cover of darkness.

Under Cover of Darkness

Species Imperative #3 (Species Imperative)

Regeneration

Species Imperative #2 (Species Imperative)

Migration

Speaker for the Clan Council, Sira, a human telepath, and her life partner, Jason, unexpectedly find themselves trapped in the middle of a fierce conflict between the Drapsk and a mysterious alien race living in the M'hir, a confrontation that is heightened by the machinations and intrigues of the Clan and humans out to take advantage of the strife. Original.

Julie E. Czerneda

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