With the holidays over, January can often seem like a dull month, and you may wish you were anywhere but where you actually are. Science fiction fans are in luck! Alien planets, dystopian futures, magical lands, and galaxies faraway off are all present in our sci-fi getaway collection.
Caught in Crystal: A Lyra Novelby Patricia C. Wrede
For more than a decade, Kayl has run a modest country inn. She opened it with her husband, and they managed it together until a summer illness took him away, leaving her alone with their two children. The three of them get by, living happily together as the years pass, but everything changes the day a sorceress asks for a room. Her name is Corrana, and by her silver brooch Kayl knows that she is a member of the order of Sisterhood of Stars, a coven of witches that Kayl left after a secret mission went horribly wrong. Kayl is sure that Corrana has come to take her back to the life she had renounced years before. Now, to save her family and her world, she will have to unlock a side of herself that she buried long ago.
Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex by Ellen Datlow
This second volume of the Alien Sex anthology series brings together authors Neil Gaiman, Robert Silverberg, Samuel R. Delany, Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Hand, and many others to explore the mysteries of sex, alien and human alike. From an alien spy who falls in love with one of the earthlings he’s monitoring, to a woman whose souvenir dream-catcher calls to her bedroom more than she bargained for, to a genetically engineered sex object aboard a space station, these thought-provoking tales of alien sex open up new worlds for fantastical exploration.
No life can survive on Unseeli—at least, not anymore. This little planet on the edge of the Empire has no oceans, rivers, or lakes—only an endless forest of metal trees, tall enough to scrape the stratosphere. Ten years ago, the indigenous people stormed out of the forest in rebellion, and Captain John Silence was there for the massacre that left Unseeli’s natives extinct and the planet completely lifeless save for the engineers who mine its invaluable metals. When the mining operation goes off the rails, Silence will be called back to the world that still haunts his nightmares.
Precious Dragon by Liz Williams
For years, the embarrassing secret of the Singapore Three police department was Detective Inspector Chen—a specialist in the supernatural whose jurisdiction extended to Heaven and Hell. But when a rampaging goddess nearly destroyed the city, only to be stopped by Chen and his demonic partner, Zhu Irzh, the department was forced to reward them, resulting in the kind of attention that both cops loathe. Their new assignment is an affair of state, escorting the Heavenly functionary Mi Li Qi on a diplomatic mission to the underworld. By the time they’re finished, Chen and Zhu Irzh will wish they had remained forgotten.