Cirrus@Austlit

'For decades the UN and the Russian military have navigated a tense interstellar Cold War.

'Lieutenant Kalina Sokolova is aide to Counter-Admiral Kasparov, the major strategist for the Russian Navy. She is also an elite spy working for the UN. She is tasked with watching the Counter-Admiral, and assassination is not out of the question.

'Solitaire Yeung is a corsair, a scavenger, a pirate. In the heart of a destroyed Russian battleship, his salvage crew makes an explosive discovery: the brain of the ship's top secret artificial intelligence. And against their better judgment, they take it and run.

'The UN wants it, and the Russians want it back, but they're not the only ones hunting it. An even more powerful foe grows in the darkness of space. Now all of humanity has to fight to survive...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Anthology of inclusive tales of people through time looking for one another and for ways for the world to be better.

'Love brought together or torn apart by time travel.

'This anthology is the latest collection of time-travel romance sci-fi short stories from prominent, award-winning sci-fi authors including Nina Allan, Carrie Vaughn, and Seanan McGuire. Follow timetravelers of all genders as they go backward and forward in time, sometimes to save the one they love, other times as a sacrifice, and others simply because it's their job. Some travel through memory, others through dreams, and others still through time machines to touch people who would otherwise be out of reach, and to join them together. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad and poignant, some are tales of fresh love and some of love forever lost, but they all are rather wonderful.' (Publication summary)

'MAGIC. MURDER. MAYHEM. But keep it in the family.

'Shine’s life is usually dull: an orphan without magic in a family of powerful mages, she’s left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and telepathic cat for company.

'But when the family descend on the house for the annual Fertility Festival, Shine is plunged into dark intrigue; stolen letters, a fugitive spy, and family drama mix with murder, sex and secrets, and Shine is forced to decide both her loyalties and future...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'100 years after Karel Capek coined the word, "robots" are an everyday idea, and the inspiration for countless stories in books, film, TV and games.

'They are often among the least privileged, most unfairly used of us, and the more robots are like humans, the more interesting they become. This collection of stories is where robots stand in for us, where both we and they are disadvantaged, and where hope and optimism shines through.' (Publication summary)

'HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM…

'Life is fragile. The difference between success and failure can come down to nothing the thread of a screw, the flick of a switch and when it goes wrong, you fix it. Or someone dies.

'Mission Critical takes us from our world, across the Solar System, and out into deep space to tell the stories of people who had to do the impossible.

'And do it fast.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The finest short science fiction and fantasy, from the master anthologist

'Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine; fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder.

'For more than a decade, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has pored through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'We have always fought. War is the furnace that forges new technologies and pushes humanity ever onward. We are the children of a battle that began with fists and sticks, and ended on the brink of atomic Armageddon. Beyond here lies another war, infinite in scope and scale.

'But who will fight the wars of tomorrow? Join Elizabeth Bear, Indrapramit Das, Aliette de Bodard, Garth Nix, An Owomoyela, Peter Watts, and many, many more in an exploration of the furthest extremes of military science fiction…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The brand new anthology from multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan, featuring stories set in futures wracked by the deluge, from some the best writers in SF, including Kim Stanley Robinson, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Charlie Jane Anders, Lavie Tidhar, Jeffrey Ford, and James Morrow.' (Publication summary)

'Look into the future and see what you might become….

'Dark age barbarian princesses, Mexican ninja zombies soldiers, icy interrogators of networked intellects, searchers for eternal youth, warrior families hiding in the corners of a future haunted by machines bent on our destruction, and distant deepspace protectors of humanity’s future.

'Whether it’s the day after tomorrow or a million years into the deep future, there are moments when humanity stares into the abyss and faced with possibility extinction follow Darwin’s theory – change, adapt, alter, evolve. Take on a different body, engineer a new intellect, become something completely different to preserve whatever is most human about us.' (Publication summary)