Black Sails to Sunward by Shiela Jenné

In a world of frock coats, solar sails, and rigid class boundaries, a young Martian noble seeks her fortune as a midshipman of the Imperial Navy.

Mars and Earth are at war, and Lucy hopes for quick promotion. But when she arrives aboard ship, she finds harsh officers and a crew on the verge of mutiny. And worse: among the crew is her former friend, Moira—a commoner, a radical, and the woman whose love she rejected years ago.

It’s clear where Lucy’s duty lies. As an officer and a gentlewoman, she has to quell the crew’s rebellion and preserve her ship for the fight against Earth. But soon, she’ll have to make a decision between all she’s been taught to believe and the injustice she can see with her own eyes.

Rebellion is Due by Elise Carlson

Ruarnon thinks of their father as the perfect king, setter of incredibly high standards, which Ruarnon strives to live up to. But Urmilian was different as a youth. And his youth coincided with a major event in Tarlahn history; the night this story takes place on.

Everywhere he looks, 15-year-old Urmillian sees his people suffering under foreign rule. He longs to join his father’s uprising and free his people, despite father’s orders to protect the family home. When the uprising gets hairy and Urmillian’s younger brother calls for aid, Urmillian risks both their lives by joining his older sister on the front line.

Rainbow Islands by Devin Harnois

In the Christian Republic, homosexual people are given two choices—a camp to "fix" them, or exile to the distant islands populated by lesbians and gay men.

Sixteen-year-old Jason chooses exile and expects a hardscrabble life but instead finds a thriving, supportive community. While exploring his identity as a transgender boy he also discovers adventure: kraken attacks, naval battles, a flying island built by asexual people, and a daring escape involving glow-in-the-dark paint. He also has a desperate crush on Sky, a spirited buccaneer girl, but fear keeps him from expressing his feelings.

When Jason and his companions discover the Republicans are planning a war of extermination, they rally the people of the Rainbow Islands to fight back. Shy, bookish Jason will have to find his inner courage or everything and everyone he loves will be lost forever.

Carved By Water  by M.K. Nedjelkovic

Sasha, Caspar, Eliah, and Hanya each have vastly different goals in life. Sasha wants a future as a deep diver; Caspar must escape persecution; Eliah longs to break free from his mother's chains; while Hanya has her own motives—she's merely there to assist a friend.

All four are drawn into a dangerous mission aboard Ilaida, which is led by the manipulative Captain, who promises wealth, freedom, and redemption.

Their assignment is simple: retrieve a lost record from the depths of the Silean Sea that contains evidence of the atrocities committed by the Eastern States Alliance against refugees. If recovered and exposed, this evidence could ignite revolution, change their fractured world, and restore balance.

But as more and more obstacles appear, they have to quickly set aside their differences and decide just how far they are willing to go for a better future.

The Neon Garden by Alina Lee

A city under the blinding glare of neon lights. Towers reaching up high above the clouds that pour acid rain down on the gutters below. Corporate princes sit in their C-suite offices, making deals and schemes to raise the value of their stocks and increase their profit margins.

Down below, ancient fists clench. Schools trained to push and exceed human physical limits roar against a digital hellscape infringing on their world. A war is being fought between the megacorp and the martial arts.

Just another day in the Neon Garden.

The Neon Garden is a short story collection featuring sixteen stories set in the titular city, balancing the ideals and conventions of wuxia with the despair and grime of cyberpunk.

Netwalk by Joyce Reynolds-Ward

IN A TECH-DRIVEN FAMILY, HARD CHOICES PASS TO THE NEXT GENERATION

Mother against daughter.

Grandmother against granddaughter.

Melanie Landreth has maintained a lonely outpost as the President of Do It Right North America for seven years. Her grandmother, Sarah Stephens, the President of the Confederated States of North America, rules the continent with an iron fist. Melanie’s brother Andrew is one of Sarah’s lackeys. Their mother Diana controls Do It Right outside of North America, and engages in secretive maneuvers aimed at overthrowing Sarah’s reign.

Will things ever change?

When they do, who will survive?

What role does the Disruption Machine—now known as the Gizmo—play in the emergence of the new Netwalk technology? Why does the Gizmo manage to unite Sarah and Melanie’s mother Diana, when they disagree on just about any other subject?

The struggle for control within this family can change the world—for better or for worse.

And Melanie wants to be the winner.

Loyalty to the Max by Maya Darjani

Captain Maxime Dupont of the Earth Union is a rogue. A maverick. A clear-headed arbitrator of right and wrong– rules be damned.

But even Max stumbles when he encounters his latest challenge. The Union is collaborating with former enemy Mars to fix the collapse of interstellar travel–but at the cost of vulnerable citizens. Max has to figure out where his loyalties lie–and if treason is a price he's willing to pay for doing the right thing.

Meanwhile...

Lieutenant Ren Yilmaz has finally found a crew. A home. A rewarding career, on the ESS Knight.

But Ren gets drawn into a web of espionage. Her captain, Max, has shady dealings with anti-Union rebel groups and assigns her shipmates off-the-books tasks. It's Ren's duty as an officer to investigate. But snooping can be disastrous. Not only would she be betraying her newfound family, but Ren has secrets too–and if she digs too far, her own past as a spy could get spectacularly exposed.

As tensions mount, the choices Max and Ren make will test their loyalty not only to the Union, but to each other--and the crew they call family.

N.I.C.E.F. by P.J.C. Cahill

This young adult, coming-of-age space opera adventure was heavily inspired by mecha and battle academy anime, with a diverse and queer-inclusive cast.

By all reports, the Wraiths were wiped out. The genocide of this alien race allowed humanity to cement control of the galaxy. The giant robots used to defeat the Wraiths became an economic corner-stone, and the largest training academy for their pilots serves as a test-bed for the latest models and corporate propaganda.

With so much economic influence tied to the school, the last surviving Wraith infiltrates on an assassination mission, and uses the underdog team of persecuted young students to start a meteoric rise to power... perfectly positioning her to slaughter the ones who wiped her people out of the galaxy.

Taegen Atius has really only made one miscalculation: Just how courageous these persecuted teenagers really are. With the corrupt government and greedy corporations fighting and hunting them at every turn, working together may be their only option.

Their Village, Their Fortress by Dylan Madeley

When a calamitous new weapon fells a fortress once considered invincible, one soldier rides home to deliver the terrible news. This journey is against orders, but he insists no village is too small to be warned of what's coming, even if he's not sure what they can do. He delivers an impassioned call to action, daring them to try. Reconnecting with his community involves reconsidering why he left it, and what he might regret having left behind; but he soon faces scrutiny when they realize something about his appeal doesn't add up.

Join the struggle of eclectic villagers as each decides their answer. Each confronts what's happening however they must, journeying through their emotions and sometimes delving into their personal histories to reconcile themselves. Each resister's specialties enrich their efforts to scrape together a victory from what's on hand. The events to follow reveal not just how they will fight, but why.

Their truth, their skills, and their efforts enable them to resist—but even if they believe, can a hastily-prepared volunteer militia of farmers defeat a battalion of trained soldiers?

A Quiet Rebellion: Guilt by M.H. Thaung

When infectious paranormal powers aren't a gift but a threat to society, a man's conscience leads him into increasing trouble as he opposes a corrupt official. 

Convoy captain Jonathan has a guilty secret: he killed a traveller who was cursed while under his protection. The killing wasn't to defend the innocent, but to hide governmental employment of curse victims—like Jonathan—who have developed paranormal powers. 

To assuage his guilt, he bends the rules to help another, younger victim. His growing fatherly affection for her leaves him vulnerable to pressure from an unethical researcher. Can he navigate the bureaucratic web, do his duty and still keep his conscience intact?

Tele by Anna Verner

A short story.

A young woman and her friend save up enough money to go on a holiday using one of the brand new "Teles".  Something goes wrong and she is transported somewhere unexpected.

The Lawless: A Triptych by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor

TRUST IN THE LAW

A Good Citizen follows all the Laws set forth by the benevolent Government. Trust the authority of the State. Questions are against the law.

BELIEVE IN THE LAW

The Government cares about you. The Government wants you to be happy. Do not deviate from the Government's prescribed conditions of happiness. 

OBEY ONLY THE LAW

Never question the Law, for that leads to anarchy. Always obey, lest you be found undesirable. Undesirables do not deserve life. And you, Good Citizen, want to live, don't you?

Gathering of the Four by A.E. Bennett

"In the Realm, every citizen knows their place."

Leora of Mae is a young woman orphaned at birth and raised on a remote farm. As a wielder of Xanthcraft, her abilities set her apart from her adoptive family and the other villagers.

Shortly before her twentieth birthday, she learns of her family’s plot to sell her into servitude. Fearing for her life, she flees from the only home she’s ever known—defying societal conventions and breaking the edicts of the Realm.

As she runs, Leora meets Roland Shallowbrook, a traveler on the Thieves’ Road; Lady Aurora Verte, daughter of a powerful member of the gentry; and the White Rider Leopold, a soldier with a secret.

Now, this found family will have to band together to survive.

Stars and Soil by Max Murray

Caitlin Peddigree faces a dire choice: accept a loveless marriage to the crown prince, or die as a traitor to the throne. While Caitlin still grieves the death of her wife, a rebellion simmers in Fayn, the streets filled with cries for the monarchy’s fall and the rise of democracy. When Caitlin unwittingly befriends a rebel leader, she believes she may have a way out of her unwanted relationship.   

Marrying the prince would protect her family’s fortune, but can she also be an informant for the rebellion? Caught in a tangled web of political intrigue and court gossip, Caitlin treads a treacherous path, made more dangerous when a spirited new lady arrives at court and ignites a new fire in Caitlin’s heart.    

 But power in Fayn is ever-shifting. Whispers of magic and long-forgotten gods stir beneath the surface. Religious orders conspire against each other. New nobles scramble for power and old bloodlines seethe with resentment. The rebellion fractures into factions as they bicker over strategy. But underneath it all and unbeknown to most, dark and ancient forces are waiting, watching, and plotting. Surrounded on all sides, Caitlin finds herself a pawn in a deadly game.    

 But she must decide for herself: remain a prisoner of her circumstances—or reclaim her own life. And she must decide fast, otherwise the flames of revolution may be put out by a force far darker than a tyrannical king.

Wraith and the Revolution by A.J. Calvin

Kye Verex is trapped.

Due to a fluke of genetics, the decisions of the galaxy’s elite, and a lack of finances, he’s stuck on his polluted and noxious home world indefinitely. And it’s slowly killing him.

Then his more fortunate sister returns one day, bringing the promise of salvation. Kelsey has always hoped to find the means to pull him out of his desperate cycle of survival, but it has taken years. Now, she has a plan, one that will cure his genetic condition and clear him for interstellar travel.

The catch?

He has to sign over his very existence – and a portion of his humanity – to Zylar Inc., the galaxy’s most prominent and notorious corporation, in exchange for the necessary treatment. Is his cure worth the cost?

Locker's Rebellion by Jesse Pohlman

Katherine London, an arcane scientist for the Kingdom of Emor, is alarmed when her much-needed vacation with her swordswoman wife Clarice is interrupted with a summons to the capital. The Kingdom has always had trouble keeping the Principality of Presia in line, but a peasant uprising striving for independence is brewing and it falls to Kathy and Clarice to track down its ringleader.

There are just two problems making Presia an awful place for Kathy: First, the theocratic Principality is hostile to non-conformist relationships like hers’.  Second, arcane gifts are viewed as witchcraft.

But when an ancient relic tied to Presia's mythological savior is stolen through what can only be magic, the uprising’s leader gains an air of legitimacy.  Kathy would love nothing more than to leave this problem to someone else, but if she did - if the rebellion succeeded - it would strip away the Kingdom's protection from those like her who call Presia their home. She and Clarice cannot risk leaving others like them to a theocracy's scant mercies.

When an opportunity to both quell the rebellion and place a more reform-minded cleric in charge of the Principality emerges, Kathy has a first-hand opportunity to help guide him to the right side on both core issues. That leaves her with two unknowns: Whether or not they'll be in time, and what they'll find when they get there.

Holding Onto Day by E.H. Timms

Half a lifetime after the Split, when a world of myth and legend took over the night, grieving aro-ace widower Cal winds up snowed in at a waystation with post-breakup aro-allo Evvi. Proximity and patience draw them closer, both in the day when they are human, and at night, when they become vampire and werewolf.

The Knowing Doll (eBook + Audiobook editions) by Holliday Vermont

The Knowing Doll delighted in idle cruelties, held Nadir City under her wooden thumb, and at the height of her power, beholding the desolation she created, the great spymaster walked away saying:

“No more.”

Now she is only Delilah, struggling each day to be a good woman. Even though her new friends question her motives, they’ve given her a second chance and a new home in Stonetown. Delilah has dedicated herself to this town, a rare oasis of trust and community in The Twisting World, hoping to make up for what she broke in Nadir.

But Nadir learned its greed from Delilah, and stretch their hand out hungrily toward her new home. War lingers on the horizon. To stop it, Delilah is faced with a cruel choice… remain the woman of peace or become The Knowing Doll once more and abandon the moral progress for which she's struggled.

The Protector and the Annihilation by Naila Moonsi

Some 100,000 years have passed since Earthians swept across the galaxy. By the year 9955 ATF after a catastrophe all but annihilates them, humans upon the ocean planet Imion are struggling to become space-worthy again. Two young men attending university vie for the role of Protector of All Worlds. They know that the godly power the Protector wields will save them all, and yet one day they wake up momentarily and realize...

60-year-old Armando Rivera and Ranvir Chandrani once loved each other. Stuck within a mental palace called ‘the Citadel’ within ‘the Boundless,’ an otherworld that reflects the galaxy in eerie dream-like ways, they are now 19 years old again and stripped of their memories. In these young forms, the two subconsciously test if this love between them was something true while attempting to take each other down. Their life has begun anew around them due to a time loop within the Citadel, and it follows their gentle, morose memories perfectly within the years 9955 and 9956, until...

Until their families try to kill them. Until the children from the future begin to arrive. Until their son birthed outside the body with their Merged elemental outer cores—Antonio Chandrani-Rivera—insists on killing his identical twin brother Fernando Chandrani-Rivera.

Ranvir and Armando very quickly realize that they must solve the mystery of what their true goals once were within the Boundless, figure out how to get out of the Citadel, and grasp why Antonio and his friends are intruding within.

After all, upon the true planet Imion within the galaxy in the year 9996, a 20-year-old Antonio’s gone ahead and confronted his once-affectionate friend Alejandro Altaha—the Alejandro who became their generation’s Protector of All Worlds at the cost of Antonio’s worldwide reputation—and this has spiraled into circumstances that leave Antonio on the brink of death.

Only for the bright and happy memories of Antonio's teens to flood his mind… Back when he and Alejandro Altaha cared deeply about each other, and yet the understanding they gleaned regarding their ancient selves—the civilian Nasir Hadid versus the Lost Protector Shakir—still colored everything, including their continued 10,000 year rivalry over the simple stakes of saving the world.

And then there are the machinations of Antonio's cousin Layla… She laughs over their rivalry, but Antonio knows one thing: she hides secrets like breathing and despite their camaraderie, she is surely worse than Alejandro.