Dazzling space battles, intergalactic politics, and rogue AI collide in the second book in this epic space opera by award-winning author Megan O'Keefe. Sanda and Tomas are fleeing for their lives after letting the most dangerous smartship in the universe run free. Now, unsure of who to trust, Sanda knows only one thing for certain -- to be able to save herself from becoming a pawn of greater powers, she needs to discover the secret of the coordinates hidden in her skull. But getting to those coordinates is a problem she can't solve alone. They exist beyond a dead gate -- a Casimir gate that opened up into a dead-end system without resources worth colonizing, and was sealed off. To get through the dead gate, she needs the help of the enemy Nazca. But some Nazca are only interested in the chip in her head -- and they'll crack her open to get to it.

Everfair, the brilliant Neo-Victorian alternate-history novel from acclaimed short-story writer Nisi Shawl, potently explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had adopted steam technology as their own. In Shawl's eloquently explored vision, told by a multiplicity of voices that have historically been silenced—Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another—Fabian socialists from Great Britian join forces with African American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as former slaves returning from America and other places where African natives and their descendants were being mistreated. The work of keeping this land their own is near impossible, and tragedy is unavoidable. Yet the citizens of Everfair are determined, and even try their hand at the rewarding tasks of governance, invention...and romance. Everfair is not only a beautiful book, but an inspiring and educational one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history. Shawl's speculative masterpiece thereby reframes the notorious atrocities of Leopold's reign into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history.

A Zothar Athrabis Novel Zothar is an Ossiarch Bonereaper who rules over a city in Shyish. He struck a bargain with Nagash to preserve the soul of his dead son, choosing a new host from the victor of the Games – a festival that takes place once each decade. When Zothar breaks tradition and raises Lycus, the current champion, as his own son, his actions incite a bloody rebellion amongst the citizens. READ IT BECAUSE It’s a fascinating look at what passes for normal life in the realm of Shyish, where the living and the dead walk side by side, and everyday existence is filled with danger, adventure, and no shortage of bizarre and mystical creatures. THE STORY In a forgotten corner of Shyish, the city of Lament prepares for the most important festival in its calendar, the Games – a series of events that will seal the fate of their victor. Following the tragic death of his son many centuries ago, the cruel Vulture Lord, King Zothar Athrabis, made a terrible bargain with Nagash to preserve his child’s soul. Now, once every 10 years, the new champion of the Games must become host to the boy’s tormented spirit, while the old vessel is condemned to death. Most citizens of Lament deem this a great honour, but when the city’s newly crowned champion, Lycus, is taken by the king to raise as his own, his family question their sacrifice. As the years pass and a new decade looms ever closer – and with it Lycus’ grisly fate – the Prince of Athrabis is caught between his duty to his new father and the prospect of escaping death to return to his old life. As fierce, bloody rebellion ensues, and Lycus is exposed to violent truths, he must decide once and for all where his loyalties lie.

Imagine a Viking, and a certain image springs to mind: a nameless, faceless warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorise the hapless local population of a northern European country. Yet while such characters define the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. This is the history of the other people who inhabited the medieval Nordic world-not only Norway, Denmark and Sweden, but also Iceland, Greenland, parts of the British Isles, Continental Europe and Russia- a history of a Viking Age filled with real people of different ages, genders and ethnicities, as told through the traces that they left behind, from hairstyles to place names, love-notes to gravestones. It's also a history of humans on an extraordinarily global stage, spanning the centuries from the edge of the North American continent to the Russian steppes, from the Arctic wastelands to the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphate.

Vers l’an mille  : la fille d’Erik le Rouge met cap au sud.1492  : Colomb ne découvre pas l’Amérique.1531  : les Incas envahissent l’Europe.  À quelles conditions ce qui a été aurait-il pu ne pas être  ?Il a manqué trois choses aux Indiens pour résister aux conquistadors.  Donnez-leur  le cheval, le fer, les anticorps, et toute l’histoire du monde est à refaire.  Civilizations est le roman de cette hypothèse : Atahualpa débarque dans l’Europe de Charles Quint. Pour y trouver quoi  ?L’Inquisition espagnole, la Réforme de Luther, le capitalisme naissant. Le prodige de l’imprimerie, et ses feuilles qui parlent. Des monarchies exténuées par leurs guerres sans fin, sous la menace constante des Turcs. Une mer infestée de pirates. Un continent déchiré par les querelles religieuses et dynastiques.Mais surtout, des populations brimées, affamées, au bord du soulèvement, juifs de Tolède, maures de Grenade, paysans allemands  : des alliés.De Cuzco à Aix-la-Chapelle, et jusqu’à la bataille de Lépante, voici le récit de la mondialisation renversée, telle qu’au fond, il s’en fallut d’un rien pour qu’elle l’emporte, et devienne réalité.