Fleeing an unknown assassin after surviving a radiation bomb planted in his dorm room, University of Earth student Biron Farrill is outraged by the subsequent murder of his father and caught up in a deep-space rebellion.

"Prince Kiem, a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, has been called upon to be useful for once. He's commanded to fulfill an obligation of marriage to the representative of the Empire's newest and most rebellious vassal planet. His future husband, Count Jainan, is a widower and murder suspect. Neither wants to be wed, but with a conspiracy unfolding around them and the fate of the empire at stake they will...

Resting one night on a boat on the River Thames, Charlie Marlow tells his friends about his experiences as a steamboat captain on the River Congo. There, in the heart of Africa, his search for the extraordinary Mr. Kurtz caused him to question his own nature and values-- and the nature and values of his society.

"Costa Rica, 1968. When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company’s most lucrative banana plantation burning all evidence of a massive cover-up, the future of Teresa Cepeda Valverde’s family is changed forever. Now, twenty-seven years later, Teresa and her daughter Lyra are still picking up the pieces. Lyra wants nothing to do with Teresa, but is desperate to find out what happened to her family that fateful night. Teresa, haunted by...

"Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. Working alongside the legendary...

"A diverse, exciting debut space opera about a young tea expert who is taken as a political prisoner and recruited to spy on government officials-a role that may empower her to win back her nation's independence-perfect for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor. The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor's surrender means little to a lowly scribe...

In this pair of literary voyages into the inner self, Joseph Conrad wrote two of the most chilling, disturbing, and noteworthy pieces of fiction of the twentieth century. "Heart of Darkness" is a devastating commentary on the corruptibility of humanity. Based on Conrads own 1890 trip up the Congo River, the story is told by Marlow, the novelist's alter ego. It is a journey into darkness and horror -- both literally, as the narrator descends into a...

"The Praxis, the empire of now extinct Shaa, has again fallen into civil war, with desperate and outnumbered humans battling several alien species for survival. Leading the human forces are star-crossed lovers Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula, who must find a way to overcome their own thorny personal history to defeat the aliens and assure humanity’s survival. But even if the human fleet is victorious, the divisions fracturing the empire may be...

"When Akuany and her brother Bol are orphaned in a village raid in South Sudan, they’re taken in by a young merchant Yaseen who promises to care for them, a vow that tethers him to Akuany through their adulthood. As a revolutionary leader rises to power--the self-proclaimed Mahdi, prophesied redeemer of Islam--Sudan begins to slip from the grasp of Ottoman rule, and everyone must choose a side. A scholar of the Qur’an, Yaseen feels beholden to...

"The Galactic Imperium of the Myriad Worlds slumps into centuries of decadent peace enabled by a flood of advanced technology from the mysterious nonhuman 'Shapers.' Among the great Families, only the once-mighty clan of Sinclair-Maru remembers the maxims of the warrior emperor, Yung I, ready to defend the Imperium from any threat. Stubbornly clinging to the Honor Code, Family prodigy Saef Sinclair-Maru finds himself in command of an outmoded, under-equipped...