Tim Pratt

Selected from the Hugo award-nominated Clarkesworld Magazine, Realms collects the work of twenty-five visionary writers of short fiction, including such World Fantasy, Philip K. Dick, Tiptree, Hugo, and Campbell Award winners and finalists as Jeffrey Ford, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jay Lake, Cat Rambo, Tim Pratt, Robert Reed, Mike Resnick, and Catherynne M. Valente — and amazing stories from up-and-comers like Karen Heuler, Paul Jessup, Yoon Ha Lee, Margaret Ronald, and many more

Glenn is a normal graduate student (aside from his kinkiness and genderfluidity), living a normal life with his normal girlfriend, Vivy. Until he finds out that Vivy isn’t as ordinary as he thought – she’s a spy for an interdimensional agency. After a cruel twist of fate, Vivy gets called away on a scouting trip to stop a rogue comet, and Glenn finds himself pulled away from his normal life and on an adventure he never asked for, having to navigate the multiverse with only a snarky starship as his guide. Set on two separate missions, both Glenn and Vivy must face dangerous foes – with Glenn battling an evil cult leader with a limitless supply of power, and Vivy trying to recover a stolen jewel that can devastate entire universes. Their paths will cross again, but first they must recover the jewel, stop the cult, and avoid a full-blown war with aliens from neighbouring realities, all while navigating their own interpersonal issues. A humorous and thrilling space opera with a hint of romance that will have readers on the edge of their seats and rooting for the characters, despite all the odds stacked against them.

Seven years after the galaxy awoke from a period of collective amnesia known as the Gap, the citizens of Absalom Station have established a new normalcy living at the hub of recently discovered interstellar Drift travel. But all is not well for the founding members of the Starfinder Society, as tensions between the living and undead inhabitants of the station come to a violent head. Now, the undead starships and invading troops from the dead world of Eox besiege the station, threatening everything the station’s inhabitants have built. Can famed android explorer Tyrcell and their companions survive the chaos of the Magefire Assault and restore order to Absalom Station or will this be the end of their Society and their home? Centuries later, what horrors of war will fledgling Starfinders Chk Chk and Dae discover as they pry into the past? From Hugo Award-winning author Tim Pratt comes a sequel to the fan-favorite Starfinder novel, Era of the Eclipse, detailing another key moment in the history of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game’s Pact Worlds setting—a moment not all of the Starfinder Society’s founders will survive!

Everything has a beginning, even the death of history. When two novice Starfinders, the energetic Dae and somber Chk Chk, make a startling discovery, they unlock a link to one of the galaxy’s most momentous events: the Gap, and the disappearance of the now lost world of Golarion. Shrouded in mystery, the Gap ended with mortals across the cosmos suddenly finding themselves with memories stripped from their minds without warning or explanation. The android Tyrcell wakes up on Absalom Station, the core of the Starfinder setting, on the day after the Gap. With their memories wiped, they contend with chaos on the station while surviving and building a coalition of memory-addled allies. All the while, other forces begin to wake after the cosmic event and enact plans of their own. From the undead media mogul, Zo!, who seeks to capitalize on the event, to the fiendish servants known as Hellknights, there’s no shortage of opportunists as the galaxy reels! Both stories collide as the Starfinder agents and Tyrcell, separated by centuries, uncover a gift left to mortals by Yaraesa, goddess of knowledge and science. This secret could unravel the truth of the Gap, but in the days following the event, the nascent Hellknight Order of the Eclipse will stop at nothing to control exactly what that message is. Meanwhile, in the modern age, a mysterious figure trails the Starfinders as they follow in Tyrcell’s footsteps… From Hugo Award winning author Tim Pratt (City of the Fallen Sky, Reign of Stars, Liar’s Blade) comes the definitive starting point to the science-fantasy galaxy of the award-winning setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Experience firsthand the days after the Gap when history disappeared and follow in the footsteps of Starfinder’s newest iconic characters as they rush to uncover the truth of Starfinder’s greatest mystery!

The enigmatic Carl Sanford is the master of all things occult in Arkham, until a charismatic newcomer threatens to take everything away from him in this dark mystery set in the world of Arkham Horror. Carl Sanford's mastery of the Silver Twilight Lodge gives him unbridled power and influence, but unforeseen turmoil is coming to Arkham... A new occult curiosity shop in the city, opened by newcomer Randall Tillinghast, draws Sanford's ire, challenging his formerly unrivalled authority. Sanford expects to crush the newcomer like an ant and take what he wants from the wreckage, but Randall Tillinghast isn’t quite as humble and harmless as he seems. In possession of an array of magical artifacts, Tillinghast begins to subvert Sanford’s reputation in more ways than one, forcing Carl Sanford to call all the monsters and magic at his disposal to stop him. Will it be enough?

An epic space opera from bestselling and award winning author Tim Pratt, perfect for fans of Peter F. Hamilton and Adrian Tchaikovsky. After her grandmother is murdered in a home invasion, Tamsin Culver leaves her cushy programming job in San Francisco and returns to her Midwestern hometown to settle the estate. What she doesn't expect is to find out her grandmother's life changing secret: She's not an earth native, but an exile from the Nigh-Space continuum, an adjacent reality with technology far more advanced than ours. What's more, her grandmother ruled as an ogliarch, meaning Tamsin is the heir to a vast wealth only accessible by someone from her bloodline... but the enemies who tried to exterminate her family won't be happy to see her return. Back in the Bay Area, grad student Glenn makes a startling discovery about his girlfriend Vivy. She's a secret agent for the Interventionists: an inter dimensional organisation devoted to protecting the inhabitants of Nigh-Space from those trying to take advantage of the wealth of technology. When she lands in trouble, Glenn finds himself on a sapient starship in a distant level of the continuum, hell bent on saving her. But when the ancestor of a previously exiled ruler returns, keeping each other out of harm's way may be harder than they first anticipated. The Knife and the Serpent is an all new epic space opera about the clash between opposing universes and worldviews, from award winning and highly acclaimed author Tim Pratt.

A nightmarish power unleashed from the depths infiltrates Arkham in this nautical-horror pulp adventure from the acclaimed Arkham Horror game worldWhen dissolute fisherman Abel Davenport discovers an ancient temple in the deep ocean, he under the influence of a long dead god. In his attempts to restore the god’s cult, Abel unleashes a plague of twisted doppelgangers on Arkham. Horrified by the consequences, Davenport realizes that he alone cannot stop the monsters from resurrecting the Ancient One. Sometimes the only way to end one cult is to start another… Teaming up with redeemed cultist Diana Stanley and notorious thief Ruby Standish is the first step. The second is convincing Carl Sanford, the powerful leader of Arkham’s Silver Twilight Lodge, to join their cause. Together they might be the only hope of averting a cataclysmic eldritch invasion.

Intergalactic civilization emerges from its war-torn ruins for the first time in generations to explore the galaxy, in this stunning new anthology from the bestselling world of Twilight ImperiumA terrible war destroyed a vast empire, and left its survivors shattered and isolated. Millenia of history, technology and the ever-expanding imperial grip were lost. From the secretive Naalu, the proud Hacan, to the piratical Mentak Coalition, these factions and worlds are recovering and looking past their borders to the galaxy beyond again – but what awaits them in the vastness of space? New territory, allies, and opportunities abound, but the history that once bound them together now stands between them, and the opportunities to be found in war may be greater than in peace…

The galaxy stands on the brink of war, yet hope remains that the vast web of schemes can be exposed before it’s too late, in this astounding space opera from the acclaimed game, Twilight ImperiumThe balance of power is shifting, with bold new alliances, unknown invaders, and the rumored return of the galaxy’s ancient masters. When black-ops spy Amina Azad saves a Hacan ambassador from assassination, she draws him into her investigation of a vast conspiracy: unseen forces are destabilizing the whole galaxy, at the worst possible time. Pursued by agents from dozens of other factions, they can only make progress by allying with their apparent enemies. But even they might be compromised – duped into action by a secret puppet-master. How can they trust an alliance when they can’t trust themselves?

Every time Zaxony Delatree falls asleep, he wakes up on a new world. His life has turned into an endless series of brief encounters. But at least he and Minna, the one companion who has found a way of travelling with him, are no longer pursued by the psychotic and vengeful Lector. But now Zax has been joined once again by Ana, a companion he thought left behind long ago. Ana is one of the Sleepers, a group of fellow travellers between worlds. Ana tells Zax that he is unknowingly host to a parasitic alien that exists partly in his blood and partly between dimensions. The chemical that the alien secretes is what allows Zax to travel. Every time he does, however, the parasite grows, damaging the fabric of the Universes. Ana is desperate to recruit Zax to her cause and stop the alien. But there are others who are using the parasite, such as the cult who serve the Prisoner – an entity trapped in the dimension between universes. Every world is like a bar in its prison. The cult want to collapse all the bars of the worlds and free their god. Can Zax, Minna, Ana and the other Sleepers band together and stop them? File Under: Science Fiction [ Countless Worlds | Memory Mosaicers | Unfathomable Evil | Falling Awake ]

The key to controlling the galaxy is hidden on a distant planet, and interplanetary powers will do anything to unlock its secrets, in this epic space opera from the best-selling game, Twilight ImperiumBianca Xing has spent a lifetime on a provincial planet, dreaming of travelling the stars. When her planet is annexed by the Barony of Letnev, Bianca finds herself being taken into custody, told that she’s special – the secret daughter of a brilliant scientist, hidden away on a remote planet for her own safety. But the truth about Bianca is stranger. There are secrets hidden in her genetic code that could have galaxy altering consequences. Driven by an incredible yearning and assisted by the fearsome Letnev Captain, Dampierre, Bianca must follow her destiny to the end, even if it leads to places that are best left forgotten.

These three novellas reveal what came after the original series, each one focusing on a fan favorite from the trilogy who didn't get enough time in the spotlight the first time around. In the “The Augmented Stars,” Ashok the cyborg engineer becomes the captain of his own ship and embarks on a deep-space mission to investigate a cosmic anomaly (and confront actual, literal space pirates). In “The Artificial Stars”, the machine intelligence known as Shall receives a mysterious summons... from an earlier version of himself, who warns of a threat to the fabric of the universe itself. In “The Alien Stars,” intrepid alien Lantern returns to the station where she was born to confront the monsters who reared her.... and also works out some matters of the heart.

Every time Zax Delatree falls asleep, he travels to a new reality. He has no control over his destination and never knows what he will see when he opens his eyes. Sometimes he wakes up in technological utopias, and other times in the bombed-out ruins of collapsed civilizations. All he has to live by are his wits and the small aides he has picked up along the way – technological advantages from techno-utopias, sedatives to escape dangerous worlds, and stimulants to extend his stay in pleasant ones. Thankfully, Zax isn’t always alone. He can take people with him, if they’re unconscious in his arms when he falls asleep. But someone unwelcome is on his tail, and they are after something that Zax cannot spare – the blood running through his veins, the power to travel through worlds… File Under: Science Fiction [ Green Power | Sweat Dreams | Waking Nightmare | Zax of all Trades ]

Finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of cutting-edge science fiction from the hit podcast, Escape Pod. Escape Pod has been bringing the finest short fiction to millions of ears all over the world, at the forefront of a new fiction revolution. This anthology gathers together fifteen stories, including new and exclusive work from writers such as from Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, T. Kingfisher and more. From editors Mur Laffterty and S. B. Divya comes the science fiction collection of the year, bringing together bestselling authors in celebration of the publishing phenomenon that is, Escape Pod.

Aliens known as the Liars gave humanity access to the stars through twenty-nine wormholes. They didn’t mention that other aliens, the ancient, tyrannical – but thankfully sleeping – Axiom occupied all the other systems. When the twenty-ninth fell silent, humanity chalked it up to radical separatists and moved on. But now, on board the White Raven, Captain Callie and her crew of Axiom-hunters receive word that the twenty-ninth colony may have met a very different fate. With their bridge generator they skip past the wormhole, and discover another Axiom project, fully awake, and poised to pour through the wormhole gate into all the worlds of humanity… File Under: Science Fiction [ That's No Moon | Lost Colony | Only Posthuman | Running Silent ]