Collection: Science Fiction

Strange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us...

Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly eighty years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret...

...of The Croning.

From Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Imago Sequence and Occultation, comes The Croning, a debut novel of cosmic horror.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

The third installment of Scott Westerfeld's New York Times bestselling and award-winning Uglies series--a global phenomenon that started the dystopian trend.

Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she's one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.

But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.

Still, it's easy to tune that out--until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

"A breath of fresh air . . . the vision is deeply imagined, very complete and controlled . . . Gibson is truly brilliant."--Washington Times magazine

From a true master of science fiction comes a collection of short stories that show how, no matter the length, Gibson is one of the greatest writers working today.

Known for his seminal science fiction novel Neuromancer, and for the acclaimed books Pattern Recognition, The Peripheral, and Agency, William Gibson is actually best when writing short fiction. Tautly written and suspenseful, Burning Chrome collects 10 short stories, including some written with Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, and Michael Swanwick, and with a preface from Bruce Sterling, now available for the first time in trade paperback. These brilliant, high-resolution stories show Gibson's characters and intensely realized worlds at their absolute best, from the chip-enhanced couriers of "Johnny Mnemonic" to the street-tech melancholy of "Burning Chrome."

In the shocking wake of the Hellfire Gala, what will the FALL OF X mean for the X-Men? For one of their greatest, it will change everything! She's been known as Kitty Pryde, Sprite, Ariel, Red Queen, Captain Kate and more. Now, out of tragedy and torment emerges...Shadowkat! But how will Kitty and her fellow mutants react when Emma Frost marries Tony Stark? And as wedding bells ring, where is Cyclops? Nowhere fun! Meanwhile, Juggernaut has come a long way from his beginnings as a bully transformed into an unstoppable foe. In fact, he'd recently become one of mutantkind's best human allies. So why is he trying to kill Firestar? And, with your favorite super-team at its lowest ebb, there's a new group looking to claim their mantle: meet Doctor Doom's Latverian X-Men! Collecting X-MEN (2021) #25-29.

The epic space saga, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, is finally retold in the iconic Little Golden Book format! After the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire has regrouped--with Darth Vader leading the hunt for Luke Skywalker. Featuring stunning retro illustrations, this book is perfect for Star Wars--and Little Golden Book--fans of all ages!

The stunning and lushly illustrated debut of Marvel's next screen sensation! She is Echo. A deaf young Native American woman with the uncanny ability to assimilate the skills of others by sight. Dancing, piano playing - even hand-to-hand combat! Though Maya Lopez and Matt Murdock meet as seemingly kindred souls, their secret identities are very much at odds. For Maya is seeking vengeance against her father's killer - who the Kingpin claims is Daredevil! Can Matt clear his name before his new love becomes his executioner? With Echo's entire history defined by her quest for justice and revenge, can she make sense of the world when everything she thought she knew is called into question? And will a vision quest help her pick up the pieces of her shattered life? Collecting DAREDEVIL (1998) #9-15 and #51-55.

A Middle-earth Traveler is an illustrated guide to J. R. R. Tolkien's most famous creation, with lavish art showing the many locations and characters the author described in his classic novels, along with notes on their importance to the world--the perfect gift for Tolkien enthusiasts.

A Middle-earth Traveler presents a walking tour of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, visiting not only places central to his stories, but also those just over the hill or beyond the horizon. Events from Tolkien's books are explored--battles of the different ages that are almost legend by the time of The Lord of the Rings; lost kingdoms and ancient myths, as well as those places only hinted at: kingdoms of the far North and lands beyond the seas.

Sketches that have an 'on-the-spot' feel to them are interwoven with the artist's observations gleaned from Tolkien's books and recollections of his time spent in Middle-earth while working alongside Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies. Combining concept work produced for films, existing Middle-earth art, and many new paintings and sketches exclusive to this book, A Middle-earth Traveler will take the reader on a unique and unforgettable journey across Tolkien's magical landscape.

EDGAR AWARD WINNER FOR BEST MYSTERY
BANK STREET BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
SILVER BIRCH AWARD WINNER

"Complex and satisfying. Written from Daniel's point of view, this perceptive first-person narrative is sometimes painful, sometimes amusing, and always rewarding." --Booklist (starred review)

From the author of Incredible Space Raiders from Space! comes a brand-new coming-of-age story about a boy whose life revolves around hiding his obsessive compulsive disorder--until he gets a mysterious note that changes everything.

Daniel is the back-up punter for the Erie Hills Elephants. Which really means he's the water boy. He spends football practice perfectly arranging water cups--and hoping no one notices. Actually, he spends most of his time hoping no one notices his OCD habits--he calls them Zaps: avoiding writing the number four, for example, or flipping a light switch on and off dozens of times over. But everything changes when a girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the first time. She doesn't just notice him: she seems to peer through him.

Then Daniel gets a note: "I need your help," it says, signed, Fellow Star Child--whatever that means. And suddenly Daniel, a total no one at school, is swept up in a mystery that changes everything for him.

With great voice and grand adventure, this book is about feeling different and finding those who understand.

This deluxe three-volume paperback boxed set--gorgeously designed editions in a see-through case, with a removeable sticker on the shrink wrap packaging--is a collector's item in the making. It beautifully showcases Haruki Murakami's most ambitious novel yet, 1Q84--a love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's.

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84--"Q is for 'question mark.' A world that bears a question." Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

An instant bestseller around the world, 1Q84 is a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

"Full of high stakes, thrillers, and fantastic twists and turns, fans of Ready Player One are sure to love this addictive read." --BuzzFeed

"A potent commentary on how much we're willing to give up to the lure of technology." --EW

"A fantastic journey from start to finish." --Hypable

New York Times bestselling authors Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller imagine a world in which you can leave your body behind and give in to your greatest desires in the first book in a fast-paced trilogy perfect for fans of the hit HBO show Westworld and anyone interested in the terrifying possibilities of the future of technology.

That's how Otherworld traps you. It introduces you to sensations you'd never be able to feel in real life. You discover what's been missing--because it's taboo or illegal or because you lack the guts to do it for real. And when you find out what's missing, it's almost impossible to let it go again.

There are no screens. There are no controls. You don't just see and hear it--you taste, smell, and touch it too. In this new reality, there are no laws to break or rules to obey. You can live your best life. Indulge every desire.

This is Otherworld--a virtual reality game so addictive you'll never want it to end. And Simon has just discovered that for some, it might not.

The frightening future that Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller have imagined is not far away. Otherworld asks the question we'll all soon be asking: if technology can deliver everything we want, how much are we willing to pay?

"An engaging VR cautionary tale." --The A.V. Club

"[A] fast-paced adventure." --Publishers Weekly

"Authors Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller keep the action nonstop." --Shelf Awareness

Like What Dreams May Come, which inspired the movie starring Robin Williams, Somewhere in Time is the powerful story of a love that transcends time and space, written by one of the Grand Masters of modern fantasy.

Matheson's classic novel tells the moving, romantic story of a modern man whose love for a woman he has never met draws him back in time to a luxury hotel in San Diego in 1896, where he finds his soul mate in the form of a celebrated actress of the previous century. Somewhere in Time won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1979 movie version, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, remains a cult classic.

From acclaimed short fiction writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant alternate history set in the Congo, where heroes strive for a Utopia and endeavor to live together despite their differences.

Now with a beautiful new cover and a foreward from award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull.

In this re-imagining of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo, African American missionaries join forces with British socialists to purchase land from the Congo Free State's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, which they name Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven for native populations of the Congo as well as settlers from around the world, including dream-eyed Europeans attempting to create a better society, formerly enslaved people returning from America, and Chinese railroad builders escaping hard labor. Using the combined knowledge of four continents, Everfair becomes a land of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives.

With this technology, Everfair will attempt to defeat the Belgian tyrant Leopold II. But even if they can defeat their great enemy, a looming world war and political infighting may threaten to destroy everything they have built.

"A book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and hates, histories and fantasies... Everfair is sometimes sad, often luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement." -- Karen Joy Fowler

The champions of BioWare's award winning series embark on thrilling interstellar expeditions through alien war and existential crisis, struggling for peace and fighting for the right to survive.

Mass Effect's vibrant world is teeming with conflict, and always on the edge of tipping into despair--but there are some who still struggle to maintain order in the chaos and secure the future of the galaxy. Join Liara as she teams up with the Drell Feron to recover the body of Commander Shepard from the Shadow Broker, uncover the origins of the Illusive Man in an epic tale of betrayal and discovery, and witness Aria defend the space station Omega from Cerberus forces, as well as the internal conflicts at Cerberus and the lives of the agents who serve it. Also included in this volume are collected stories of characters you love like Garrus, Tali'Zorah, and Wrex, and the series Discovery which follows the Turian soldier Tiran Kandros.

This book compiles all of the Mass Effect comic book series in one affordable, accessible, and comprehensive format--a must buy for fans of the Mass Effect universe and BioWare.

Collects Mass Effect: Redemption #1-4, Mass Effect: Evolution #1-4, Mass Effect: Invasion #1-4, Mass Effect: Homeworlds #1-4, Mass Effect: Foundation #1-13, and Mass Effect: Discovery #1-4.

Five towers. Five colors. One way out.

After four towers and four scars, the final stage of Cipher's journey takes him into the depths of darkness. The Black Tower stabs like a spear into the sky. Its girls summon smoke. Its boys fight hard as iron. And within its walls lie the gravest dangers yet.

Cipher begins alone, thrown into a battle for his life. His past torments him, his powers fail him, and the colorless enemy will do anything to stop him. All of history and time have led to this. There is only one way out. Cipher must unite the Five Towers to find it.

The Handmaid's Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hive's survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.

But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all--daring to challenge the Queen's fertility--enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her society--and lead her to unthinkable deeds.

Thrilling, suspenseful and spectacularly imaginative, The Bees gives us a dazzling young heroine and will change forever the way you look at the world outside your window.

Imagine waking to a world where every last human has been mysteriously turned to stone...

One fateful day, all of humanity turned to stone. Many millennia later, Taiju frees himself from the petrification and finds himself surrounded by statues. The situation looks grim--until he runs into his science-loving friend Senku! Together they plan to restart civilization with the power of science!

Senku and company are determined to reach the moon, but first they face their greatest obstacle yet--building a computer! They need the help of a genius programmer named Sai, who just happens to be Ryusui's older brother. As progress on the rocket continues, Senku shocks the Kingdom of Science when he reveals a grim truth about their mission...