Jaine Fenn

Rhia Harlyn risks death for science. Accused of heresy for promoting an unorthodox cosmology, she must defend herself, her work and her House alone. If only she could rely on her feckless brother Etyan, transformed through the combination of an occult scientist’s experiments and the harsh rays of the skyland sun. But she knows she cannot. When Dej, Etyan’s half-alien lover, finally uncovers Etyan’s dark secret she runs off into the perilous skyland. She is looking for peace in a world that has rejected her; what she discovers instead will change everyone’s lives. Meanwhile, overhead, the very stars themselves are shifting. Rhia is about to find herself proved disastrously right... File Under: Fantasy [ Unnatural Science | Making Contact | Lost Secrets | Out of Darkness ]

Short novels are movie length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This audio collection showcases the best-of-the-best science fiction novellas published in 2017 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of story-telling. A very cool heist on Mars pays homage to the classic film, The Italian Job, in "The Martian Job," by Jaine Fenn. In "The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse," by Kathleen Ann Goonan, a group of highly gifted children steals a luxury spaceship and kidnaps a physicist for a voyage to a new planet far outside the solar system. A human living in a crowded city on an alien planet risks her life to gather information on enigmatic aliens while also investigating the death of an exterminator in "How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry," by Alexander Jablokov. In "Proof of Concept," by Gwyneth Jones, scientists must partner with a reality show to attract funding for an experiment to achieve instantaneous transport from a dying Earth to another planet. A problem with the local birds threatens the rebuilding of Bikini Island as sea-levels rise due to global warming in "The Proving Ground," by Alec Nevala-Lee. Finally, in "The Speed of Belief," by Robert Reed, three diplomats are sent by the Great Ship to a planet of intelligent rivers to negotiate for worlds to colonize.

Rhia Harlyn is a noble in Shen, one of the dozens of shadowlands which separate the bright, alien skyland. She has a missing brother, an unwanted marriage proposal and an interest in science considered unbecoming in her gender. Her brother’s disappearance coincided with a violent unsolved murder, and Rhia impulsively joins the search party headed into the skyland – a place whose dangers and wonders have long fascinated her. The dangerous journey brings her into conflict with a young rebel stuck between the worlds of shadow and light, and a charismatic cult leader who believes he can defeat death itself. File Under: Fantasy [ Secret Science | Iron Age | Caravan of Courage | Into the Light ]

Editor Donna Scott has selected the very best short fiction by British authors published during 2017. Twenty-two stories, from established names and rising stars of genre fiction. Introduction - Donna Scott Blinders - Tyler Keevil In the Night of the Comet - Adam Roberts The Walls of Tithonium Chasma - Tim Major 3.8 Missions - Katie Gray Over You - Jaine Fenn The Ghosts of Europa Will Keep You Trapped in a Prison You Make for Yourself - Matt Dovey Uniquo - Aliya Whiteley Looking for Laika - Laura Mauro A Good Citizen - Anne Charnock Mercury Teardrops - Jeff Noon The Nightingales in Pl tres - Natalia Theodoridou The Road to the Sea - Lavie Tidhar When I Close My Eyes - Chris Barnham Targets - Eric Brown London Calling - Philip A. Suggars The Last Word - Ken MacLeod After the Atrocity - Ian Creasey Voicemail - Karen McCreedy Green Boughs Will Cover Thee - Sarah Byrne Airless - N. J. Ramsden Product Recall - Robert Bagnall The Endling Market - E. J. Swift About the Authors.

The Sidhe look like us. They live amongst us. What they lack in numbers they make up with their fearsome mental abilities and the considerable physical resources at their disposal. And their biggest advantage? No one believes they exist. Almost no one. Bez, the best hacker in human-space, is fighting a secret war against them. Always one step ahead, never lingering in one place, she's determined to bring them down. But she can't expose the Hidden Empire alone and when the only ally she trusted fails her she must accept help from an unexpected quarter. Just one misstep, one incorrect assumption, and her Sidhe trap - her life's work - could end in vicious disaster. Worse, if Bez fails then humanity may never have another chance to win free of the manipulative and deadly Sidhe ...

Jarek Reen is trying to save a lost world. He discovered the primitive theocracy of Serenein by accident, and now he wants it to take its place in human-space. To do this he needs a shiftspace beacon - without it, there is no way to find the planet again. The beacons were made by the Sidhe, the race that originally gave humanity access to the stars - and dominated human-space for millennia, before a coalition of human rebels and Sidhe males brought the evil Sidhe females down. Most people think the Sidhe are long dead, but Jarek knows better: a renegade female Sidhe is one of his companions, and a male Sidhe gave her and her lover the special powers that made them Angels, very unusual trained assassins. Jarek's only hope is to find Aleph, the hidden system where the last Sidhe males are rumoured to live. But even if he can persuade these eccentric, introspective beings to put aside their interminable internal squabbles, he still has to persuade Serenein that joining the rest of humankind is a good thing ... for the price of progress is likely to be high. Can he stop it turning into tragedy?

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he's discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They've already killed his sister, so he's not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe's hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead - and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets - where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that's when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted ...

The book is SF, but the first three-quarters take place in an almost fantasy setting. It is not a sequel to PRINCIPLES OF ANGELS, but it is set in the same universe and share the same villains, the Sidhe. When a naked, amnesiac stranger is found outside a remote highland village, he is taken in by Kerin, a widow whose unconventional ways are tolerated because her son Damaru is 'skytouched' - he appears simple, but he is able to affect matter. All skytouched are tested by the Beloved Daughter, the living goddess who rules the world from the City of Light. If he's found worthy, Damaru will become a Consort of the skymothers, the Gods of this world. Kerin and the stranger, nicknamed Sais, accompany Damaru to the City, in the company of a priest who's helping Sais to get back his missing past - but as Sais recovers his memory, he realises that the world does not work the way he assumed - and everyone believes - it does. Worse still, the hierarchy which has kept society stable for thousands of years is rotten to the core. Then Kerin and Sais uncover the true nature of the world, and the unimaginable fate of the Consorts - a fate Kerin will do anything to stop her son sharing.

Khesh City floats above the surface of the uninhabitable planet of Vellern. Topside, it's extravagant, opulent, luxurious; the Undertow is dark, twisted and dangerous. Khesh City is a place where nothing is forbidden - but it's also a democracy, of sorts, a democracy by assassination, policed by the Angels, the élite, state-sponsored killers who answer only to the Minister, their enigmatic master. Taro lived with Malia, his Angel aunt, one of the privileged few, until a strange man bought his body for the night, then followed him home and murdered Malia in cold blood. Taro wants to find the killer who ruined his future, but he's struggling just to survive in the brutal world of the Undertow. Then an encounter with the Minister sets him on a new course, spying for the City; his target is a reclusive Angel called Nual. Elarn Reen is a famous musician, sent to Khesh City as the unwilling agent of mankind's oldest enemy, the Sidhe. To save her own life, she must find and kill her ex-lover, a renegade Sidhe. Though they come from different worlds, Taro and Elarn's fates are linked, their lives apparently forfeit to other people's schemes. As their paths converge, it becomes clear that the lives of everyone in Khesh City, from the majestic, deadly Angels to the barely-human denizens of the Undertow, are at risk. And Taro and Elarn, a common prostitute and an uncommon singer, are Khesh City's only chance ...