The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita captain their living ship into the reaches of space in Lina Rather's debut novella, Sisters of the Vast Black. A Golden Crown Literary Society Award Finalist Years ago, Old Earth sent forth sisters and brothers into the vast dark of the prodigal colonies armed only with crucifixes and iron faith. Now, the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, a living, breathing ship which seems determined to develop a will of its own. When the order receives a distress call from a newly-formed colony, the sisters discover that the bodies and souls in their care—and that of the galactic diaspora—are in danger. And not from void beyond, but from the nascent Central Governance and the Church itself. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

World Fantasy Award nominee for Best Novella Lina Rather's A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is an eldritch historical fantasy of midwifery, monstrosity, and the rending of the world, for fans of The Essex Serpent and The Death of Jane Lawrence. "An entrancing and transformative queer tale of cosmic horror."—Caitlin Starling "A blood sacrifice of a novel."—Meg Elison In 17th-century London, unnatural babies are being born, with eyes made for the dark and webbed digits suited to the sea. Sarah Davis is intimately familiar with such strangeness—having hidden her uncanny nature all her life and fled to London under suspicious circumstances, Sarah starts over as a midwife’s apprentice to a member of the illegal Worshipful Company of Midwives, hoping to carve out for herself an independent life. But with each new unnatural birth, the fear in London grows of the Devil's work. When the wealthy Lady Wren hires her to see her through her pregnancy, Sarah quickly becomes a favorite of her husband, the famous architect Lord Christopher Wren, whose interest in the uncanny borders on obsession. Sarah soon finds herself caught in a web of magic and intrigue created by those who want to use her power for themselves, and whose pursuits threaten to unmake the earth itself. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita navigate the far reaches of space and challenges of faith in Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, the follow-up to Lina Rather's Sisters of the Vast Black, winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society Award. “We lit the spark, maybe we should be here for the flames.” Not long ago, Earth’s colonies and space stations threw off the yoke of planet Earth’s tyrannical rule. Decades later, trouble is brewing in the Four Systems, and Old Earth is flexing its power in a bid to regain control over its lost territories. The Order of Saint Rita—whose mission is to provide aid and mercy to those in need—bore witness to and defied Central Governance’s atrocities on the remote planet Phyosonga III. The sisters have been running ever since, staying under the radar while still trying to honor their calling. Despite the sisters’ secrecy, the story of their defiance is spreading like wildfire, spearheaded by a growing anti-Earth religious movement calling for revolution. Faced with staying silent or speaking up, the Order of Saint Rita must decide the role they will play—and what hand they will have—in reshaping the galaxy. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In celebration of Pride, Tor.com Publishing presents four critically acclaimed novellas featuring LGBTQ+ characters. With Miranda in Milan, debut author Katharine Duckett reimagines the consequences of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, casting Miranda into a Milanese pit of vipers and building a queer love story that lifts off the page in whirlwinds of feeling. After the tempest, after the reunion, after her father drowned his books, Miranda was meant to enter a brave new world. Naples awaited her, and Ferdinand, and a throne. Instead she finds herself in Milan, in her father’s castle, surrounded by hostile servants who treat her like a ghost. Whispers cling to her like spiderwebs, whispers that carry her dead mother’s name. And though he promised to give away his power, Milan is once again contorting around Prospero’s dark arts. With only Dorothea, her sole companion and confidant to aid her, Miranda must cut through the mystery and find the truth about her father, her mother, and herself. NPR calls Every Heart a Doorway "a mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy — a jewel of a book that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll's and C. S. Lewis' classics". Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex AWARD winner, World Fantasy and British Fantasy Award finalist, and Tiptree Honor List title. Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children No Solicitations No Visitors No Quests Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy's arrival marks a change at the Home. There's a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it's up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things. No matter the cost. The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita captain their living ship into the reaches of space in Lina Rather's debut novella, Sisters of the Vast Black. Years ago, Old Earth sent forth sisters and brothers into the vast dark of the prodigal colonies armed only with crucifixes and iron faith. Now, the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, a living, breathing ship which seems determined to develop a will of its own. When the order receives a distress call from a newly-formed colony, the sisters discover that the bodies and souls in their care—and that of the galactic diaspora—are in danger. And not from void beyond, but from the nascent Central Governance and the Church itself. Sorcerer of the Wildeeps is the Crawford Award-winning novella that Wired listed as one of their twenty-five all-time favorite books. Critically acclaimed author Kai Ashante Wilson makes his commercial debut with this striking, wondrous tale of gods and mortals, magic and steel, and life and death that will reshape how you look at sword and sorcery. Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors' artifacts in hand, the Sorcerer follows the Captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight. The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive. The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his brothers and his beloved captain alive. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tor.com Publishing is proud to present a sneak peak at its 2019 debut authors. Read free sample chapters from the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy today: C. S. E. Cooney (Desdemona and the Deep) Katharine Duckett (Miranda in Milan) Jennifer Giesbrecht (The Monster of Elendhaven) Kerstin Hall (The Border Keeper) Vylar Kaftan (Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water) Scotto Moore (Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You) Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth) Lina Rather (Sisters of the Vast Black) Priya Sharma (Ormeshadow) Emily Tesh (Silver in the Wood) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

With handsome young men who never grow old, and the strangest of relatives appearing from dark corridors and long shadows, the frenzied imagination of the American Gothic is a fertile theme for this next anthology in the Gothic fantasy short story series. As with other titles in the series, new short fiction complements the work of classic authors including: Gertrude Atherton, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Brockden Brown, George Washington Cable, Charles W. Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Ralph Adams Cram, Stephen Crane, Emma Dawson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ellen Glasgow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Shirley Jackson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Grace King, H.P. Lovecraft, Herman Melville, W.C. Morrow, Flannery O'Connor, Edgar Allan Poe, Annie Trumbull Slosson, Clark Ashton Smith, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, Madeline Yale Wynne.

Vor Jahren sandte die Erde Ordensschwestern in die weit entfernte Dunkelheit des kolonisierten Weltalls aus, bewaffnet nur mit Kruzifixen und eisernem Glauben. Jetzt befinden sich die Schwestern des Ordens der Heiligen Rita in interstellarer Mission auf einem lebenden, atmenden Schiff, das entschlossen scheint, einen eigenen Willen zu entwickeln. Als der Orden einen Notruf von einer neu gegründeten Kolonie erhält, entdecken die Schwestern, dass nicht nur das Seelenheil ihrer weit verstreuten Gemeinde auf dem Spiel steht. Es droht tödliche Gefahr – und diese geht nicht zuletzt von der eigenen Kirche aus ... Unsere Liebe Frau der Endlosen Welten ist eine Space-Opera über Glaube, Pflicht, Erlösung und Offenbarung ... und natürlich über Nonnen, die in einer riesigen Weltraumschnecke durch das All missionieren.

Muchos años atrás, la Vieja Tierra comenzó a enviar misiones religiosas para colonizar todos los confines del espacio. Así nació la congregación de monjas de la Orden de Santa Rita, que a bordo de Nuestra Señora de las Constelaciones Imposibles, una nave viviente, surca la oscuridad de la galaxia ofreciendo su misericordia y su fe. Cuando la orden recibe una llamada de auxilio desde una colonia desconocida, las monjas descubren que las almas y los cuerpos a su cargo, así como los de la diáspora galáctica, se encuentran en peligro; un peligro que proviene del Gobierno Central y de la propia Iglesia. Lina Rather es una autora de ficción especulativa natural de Michigan, Estados Unidos y que actualmente reside en Washington D. C. Sus historias han aparecido en diversas publicaciones tales como Shimmer, Flash Fiction Online y Lightspeed. Los pocos ratos en los que no está frente al ordenador escribiendo es habitual encontrarla cocinando alguna receta deliciosa, caminando por la montaña o disfrutando de su colección de tebeos de los años noventa. «Hermanas de la vasta oscuridad» es su primera novela.

Factor Four Magazine is a quarterly magazine featuring flash fiction stories from the Speculative Fiction realm. Factor Four Magazine will focus on four of these genres. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural, and Super Hero. Genre lines are very hard to define at times, so we keep things a bit fuzzy when it comes to the definition of each of those. You may even find a few stories blend several genres together.Flash Fiction is traditionally thought of to be stories that are 1,000 words or smaller. We do stretch that word count a little if the mood strikes us. The great thing about Flash Fiction is that these are satisfying stories packaged up in a bite size format. Great to read on the commuter train, during your lunch break at work, or while waiting for soccer practice to end.In this issue we have 16 flash fiction stories from these authors:Krystal ClaxtonFloris M. KleijneKT WagnerLina RatherMatthew BaileyMark SalzwedelJeff SoesbeLarry HodgesJonathan BronicoZoey XoltonLaura DavySteven FischerEdd VickDawn BonannoKyra Worrell and Theresa Barker