Meet Gemma Fae Cross. She’s a real tough cookie. A pollster by occupation, she’s currently taking a break from full-time employment so as to avoid any perceived conflict of interest with her boyfriend, who’s running for the House of Representatives. Sadly, this has left her with little to do besides act as arm candy in the D.C. social scene, and hone her boxing skills at the gym she considers her second home. That’s right, she’s a boxer, capable of holding her own against would-be contenders and wannabe Rockys, able to kick serious butt when the occasion demands. And she’s just been informed that she, like her mother before her, is a tooth fairy.

I’m sorry, a what?

A tooth fairy. A wings-sprouting, magic-wielding, tooth-collecting member of a hidden mythological race, dedicated to preserving the innocence of the world. Not only that, but Gemma is that once-in-a-generation warrior, called to battle evil and stop threats to the Olde Way.

Yeah, she doesn’t exactly take it well at first either.

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The future is a terrifying place. Three years after the end of the War, what’s left of the United States is almost unrecognizable. Major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. are abandoned and off-limits. The all-powerful Federal Bureau of Reformation controls the populace with an iron grip, enforcing the Moral Statues which have replaced the Bill of Rights. Those who violate the rules vanish in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. It’s a crime to follow any religion save the Church of America. The motto of the day is “One Whole Country, One Whole Family,” and families are defined as one man, one woman, and children. Welcome to our national nightmare. Ember Miller has just been declared an unperson under Article 5, which requires all children to be born in wedlock….

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Lieutenant Oscar Britton thinks he has things all figured out. A seasoned Army vet, he’s an expert at assessing the situation and getting results. But that’s before he and his team are tasked with assisting the Supernatural Operations Corps in taking down a pair of rogue Sorcerers, teenagers wielding dangerous and prohibited magical abilities. The situation is resolved, but only with the death of the teens involved, much to Oscar’s frustration and disgust. But the rules are simple: Selfers — those who refuse to use their powers for good, under strict supervision — either go to prison or die. Probes — those manifesting the forbidden schools of magic like Necromancy — simply die. It’s the only way to maintain order when anyone, anywhere, might be capable of controlling the elements, of raising the dead, of summoning elementals, of commanding others to do their bidding. It’s the law, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to like it.

With this incident fresh in mind and the first cracks in his loyalty to the government already showing, Oscar’s entire worldview is devastated when he himself manifests one of the rarest schools of magic: the ability to open gates, to summon creatures from afar and to teleport. And just like that, his career is shot, and his life is over.

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Salvage expert. Wreck diver. Historian. The woman called Boss is no stranger to delving into abandoned ships and installations, and has encountered her fair share of trouble and dark secrets. However, this time, she’ll have to deal with problems in the here and now, as friendships and obligations force her to make a life-altering decision. Kristine Kathryn Rusch returns to her space operatic setting with this third book in the series (which boasts a cover blurb from Tor.com’s review of the last installment, City of Ruins, by our own Stefan Raets).

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After a mysterious explosion annihilates the University of Central Florida, the world is in an uproar. After believing it was a terrorist attack, the U.S. government soon discovers that it was actually a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong. Now there’s a crater where the high energy physics building once stood, and a whole lot of unanswered questions. It gets even weirder when the black globe hanging in the middle of the crater starts spitting out alien bugs. And that’s before they discover the other portals popping up all over the place, each opening to…somewhere else. Now the Earth is being invaded by aliens, and they’re not at all friendly.

Who do you call? William Weaver, the world’s most awesome physicist, that’s who. With a poker hand’s worth of Ph.D.s and the athletic build of a young god, he’ll outthink and quite possibly outfight the problem. If that fails…well, he’ll think of something.

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The good news: Mankind has finally made contact with an alien race.
The bad news: The aliens who’ve approached us are engaged in a losing war against a much more aggressive, nigh-unstoppable race known as the Posleen. The worse news: Our planet is right in the path of the Posleen onslaught.
The “it gets better” news: The galactic community is willing to share their knowledge, technology, and tactical support. To a degree. And it’ll cost us heavily.
The “we’re screwed” news: Our supposed allies are virtually incapable of fighting or aggression, and the real reason they want us is because we’re a violent bunch of barely-evolved monkeys with itchy trigger fingers. Moreover, they’re hoping to exploit us in much more subtle ways. They want us to do the dirty work. Good thing we’re up to the challenge.

Thus begins the Posleen War series, which marked the start of John Ringo’s prolific and popular career, and thoroughly established him as a military science fiction writer worth watching. While the series has spawned a good twelve books in as many years, many written with various co-authors, I’m just going to take a look at how it all began.

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The year is 1997 and the Earth is at war with the enigmatic Taurans. Our best and brightest have been drafted into UNEF, the United Nations Exploratory Force. Their training will be brutal, unrelenting, and rigorous, and half of them may very well die rather than graduate. Those who survive will be sent to fight in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, defending our fledgling colonies and the portal planets near the collapsars that make interstellar travel possible. Thanks to relativity and time dilation, these soldiers will skip through time, years and decades passing by back home while they experience days and weeks. Some will never go home. Some will go home to a world they don’t even recognize. This, then, is the story of the Forever War, and of William Mandella, who, despite all odds, lived through the entire duration.

The Forever War was first published as a serial in Analog, before being released in book format in 1974. Over the next two years, it won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards, which is pretty much the Triple Crown of science fiction honors. It’s one of the great classics of military science fiction, for a great many reasons.

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Linh Cinder is the best mechanic in New Beijing, renowned for her skills in repairing just about anything technological. What very few people know is that she’s a cyborg, her artificial body parts making her a second-class citizen, virtually enslaved by her needlessly cruel stepmother. Her only allies are her stepsister Peony, and the family droid, Iko. She dreams of being free, of breaking her stepmother’s legal hold over her, of hiding her mechanical foot and hand, or opening a shop where she alone is in control. A chance meeting with Prince Kai, the heir to the Eastern Commonwealth’s throne, is about to change everything, setting into motion a fantastic and thrilling series of events.

This isn’t the Cinderella story you’re expecting.

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Jere Gutierrez is the head of Neteno, a television network dedicated to keeping the art of linear entertainment alive. Unfortunately, it looks like Neteno’s brand of impressed-reality shows and scripted lives isn’t enough to compete against the new breed of interactive games and MMOs. The writing’s on the wall and the judgment has come down from on high: Neteno must change or fall by the wayside. That’s when Evan McMaster comes to Jere with an audacious, impossible idea. Resurrect the reality show, and take it to Mars. Go where no man has gone before, and turn it into the ultimate competition. Combining extreme sports with a race against time in a lethal environment, it’s as ambitious as it is perilous. With nothing left to lose, Jere accepts the challenge.

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I have a confession: I am not a Lovecraft fan. I’ve never really been able to get through his work, try as I might. I guess my mind just isn’t capable of wrapping itself around his old-fashioned, dense, often complex style. And yet, I’m absolutely fascinated by the things he created and inspired. I’m intrigued by the Cthulhu Mythos, by the Old Ones and their alien servitors, by the disturbing settings and the upsetting themes, by the epic scale and the exploration of the (in)human condition. Though I’ve never been much for Lovecraft’s writing, I’m attracted to his legacy. And if this anthology is any indication, I’m not alone.

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Almost two centuries from now, the human race endures, broken but not beaten. After a laundry list of disasters — floods, famine, plagues, nuclear war, super volcano eruptions — what’s left of humanity has clawed its way back from the brink of extinction, setting itself up in new tribes, and new societies. Down in Central America, the Territory of New Victoria thrives, mixing the technology of the future with the idealized fashions and morals of the past. Computers and holograms exist side-by-side with genteel manners and high fashion, creating a unique blend of old and new. Unfortunately, while it might be something of a new golden age, it’s not perfect. New Victoria’s been at war with the so-called Punks for years, pitting their military might against the rag-tag rebels who’ve rejected the aristocratic system and its inherent corruption.

Enter Nora Dearly, a young woman whose interest in military history and war documentaries sets her apart from her status-obsessed peers. She has little to look forward to beyond being married off to help secure her family’s dwindling finances and mounting debts. That is, until she’s kidnapped by zombies.

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My first exposure to military science fiction came at an early age, when my father exposed me to two drastically different books: Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, and Joe Haldeman’s Forever War. Ever since then, I’ve approached military SF with those two examples lurking in the back of my mind, fully aware that it’s not just about laser rifles, power armor, rampaging aliens, and gung-ho Space Marines storming the Space Beach. No, right from the start I’ve understood that this particular aspect of the genre can encompass everything from political essays to social allegories, complex morality and exploration of the human nature. And that brings us to the Kris Longknife series, which recently released its ninth book: Daring.

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