Grantville Gazette 102 is all about adaptations. This starts with drying the laundry in Bethanne Kim's "Clotheslined." Next, a perfumer has lost his sense of smell in "A Cloud of Beauty" by Iver P. Cooper.

One of the biggest and most tragic adjustments was for people whose spouses were left up-time. Marc Tyrrell shows how this was resolved in "Schrödinger's Spouse."

Life in Grantville is full of adjustments. Virginia DeMarce portrays how some adapt and some don't, in "Too Many Cooks."

The Venetian Van Castre household faces a number of challenges in Terry Howard's "A Proposal To a Fisherman."

Chuck Gannon and David Carrico conclude their series "Time May Change Me" with Part 4, discussing weapons production.

Even authors have to adjust, as Kris Rusch explains in "Notes from the Buffer Zone: Peering at the Future."

The Universe Annex gets in on the theme with two stories this issue. Ryk E. Spoor begins "Adventurers, Part 1" about an unlikely pair of heroes. J. Kenton Pierce returns to Hesperides Colony in "An Apple for the Legion, Part 1."

Grantville Gazette 101 begins with "Hidden People," by well-known Czech science fiction authors Jan Kotouč & Lucie Lukačovičová. What will happen when knowledge of one future reaches Iceland?

Bethanne Kim brings us "A Sodden Mess." How does an up-timer deal with the concept of a wet nurse?

In "Boats of Stone," Herb Sakalaucks shows how Denmark's agents seek workers from an unlikely source—Italy.

Marianne has a new assignment. Find out what it is in Mark Roth-Whitworth's "Finding Her Way."

In "Notes from The Buffer Zone," Kristine Kathryn Rusch discusses luck.

We bring you new releases and upcoming books in "Hot Off Ring of Fire Press."

Planetary settlers under attack fall back on "Pride and Peppers" in J. Kenton Pierce's Universe Annex story.

By contrast, the aliens in Michael Tinker Pearce's "Danger" have some real doubts about any conflict with Earth.

Selei City is the capital of the Imerialte and one of the most desired locales in all of the Skolian Empire. But its thin veneer of civilization is cracked when a series of brutal crimes implicates those in political power in a vast conspiracy. Three prominent scientists have lost their lives to a serial killer—and notes at the scenes of the crimes lead to a connection to the Royalist political party.

Major Bhaajan, former military officer turned private detective, is called back to Selei City to solve the crime. Bhaaj and her crew of Undercity Dust Knights plunge into the Byzantine world of Imperial politics—a jigsaw world where none of the pieces seem to fit. As the assassination plot becomes more and more convoluted, Bhaaj is kidnapped, threatened with death, and must fight for her life against the growing number of people threatened by her investigation. Bhaaj has faced all this and more, but now she must deal with something far deadlier—interstellar politics.

There wasn’t much money to be made as a Trailblazer, searching out new worlds for possible development. Still, it was safer than the bounty hunter career that had cost Gregory Roarke his left arm six years ago. And thanks to his Kadolian partner Selene’s ultrasensitive sense of smell, they occasionally discovered a medically promising seed or spore they could sell under the table. It was a quiet life, uneventful and mostly legal.

Until Roarke was approached by two men with a proposal: track down a mysterious woman named Tera and, through her, locate a secret project called Icarus.

The challenge was intriguing. The unlimited budget was tempting. But Roarke had a more personal reason to accept the job.

The chance for long-delayed payback.

A plan to kidnap the child of a diplomat quickly spirals out of control, triggering a series of events that threatens to reignite another global war. Pavel Marino is caught up in a blood-soaked plot to overthrow his regent, while a growing insurgent movement lashes out against the fledgling star nation trying to establish a foothold on their world.

Terry Hannigan and his mates get the mission to assassinate a senior Trajan government official and end up in a conspiracy, getting in way over their heads. They become pawns in a grand game of life and death, manipulated by shadowy people and government agencies they barely understand.

Meanwhile, the people of Renas try to rebuild their lives under the guns of an interstellar fleet orbiting their world. All the while, that same fleet continues surreptitiously sending raiders to the planet’s surface, manipulating global events for dark purpose. Their interference in world affairs only continues to escalate as discipline within the defeated space fleet deteriorates, and desertions to the surface continue to rise.

It’s a race to determine the fate of an entire world. A race that no one can afford to lose.

In this YA novel, Holland shows us a raging San Francisco during the beginning of the 1849 Gold Rush. Many different types of people are flocking to California. Preachers, con men, miners, Mormons, army deserters, and Native Americans are trying to start over. Here are Frances Hardhardt, an escaped slave whose goal is to never be controlled again as she has been controlled; Daisy, a gorgeous singer who is Hardhart’s protegee and tool; and Mitya, an Aleut Indian with a troubled past whose talent as a builder creates the central locale of the book, the Shining Light Saloon. That location becomes the glue that binds people and story together in a multicultural drama.

NEW STORIES OF FUTURE WARFARE FROM THE HOTTEST NAMES IN SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR

TALES OF THE WAR BEYOND THE NEXT

What if there were a war after Armageddon? How would the survivors emerging from World War III’s radioactive slag heaps fight in this conflict? Would they wage it with sticks and stones . . . and sorcery? Or would they use more refined weapons, elevating lawfare to an art and unleashing bureaucratic nightmares worse than death? Would they struggle against themselves or inter-dimensional invaders? What horrors from the desolate darkness might slither into the light? Wipe away the ashes of civilization and peer into a pit of atomic glass to witness the haunting visions of World War IV from today’s greatest minds in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Contributors include:
Jonathan Maberry
Steven Barnes
D.J. Butler
Brad R. Torgersen
Martin L. Shoemaker
T.C. McCarthy
Eric James Stone
Stephen Lawson
Freddy Costello and Michael Z. Williamson
Laird Barron
Nick Mamatas
Brian Trent
Erica L. Satifka
Kevin Andrew Murphy
Maurice Broaddus and Rodney Carlstrom
David VonAllmen
Deborah A. Wolf
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Julie Frost
Weston Ochse
John Langan

AN AGENT OF KNIGHT WATCH, TASKED TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM SUPERNATURAL ENEMIES, MUST GO TO HELL AND BACK TO CLEAR HIS NAME AND SAVE THE WORLD

When John Rast signed up for Knight Watch, he expected it to be all fighting dragons and rescuing maidens. You know, hero stuff. But instead he’s stuck patrolling game conventions and cosplayer competitions, looking for dangerous anachronisms and the villains who may be trying to exploit them. Fortunately, all that changes when an honest-to-goodness necromancer shows up wielding a weapon created by Nazi occultists and accompanied by some badass evil valkyries, hell-bent on kicking off the end of the world.

John and the team will go to great lengths—even Minnesota—to prove find out who’s responsible for all this and foil their plans. Also, there’s a giant dog who thinks the moon is a ball. It’s epic.

HORROR IN THE TRENCHES

The war between Almacia and the Empire of Kolakolvia is in its hundredth year. Casualties heap even higher on both sides as the conflict leaves no corner of the world untouched.

Illarion Glaskov’s quiet life on the fringes of the empire is thrown into chaos when tragedy strikes his village. When he is conscripted into the Tsarist military, he is sent to serve in The Wall—an elite regiment that pilots suits of armor made from the husks of dead golems.

There’s the new treecat adoptee who needs to be kept from becoming a risk to the carefully guarded secret of just how smart the arboreal inhabitants of Sphinx really are.

There’s the overeager journalist whose campaign to protect the treecats from exploitation as the newest, coolest pet on any planet could threaten the very creatures he seeks to defend.

And there’s the mysterious rash of weird accidents that are plaguing Sphinx’s younger inhabitants—including some of those nearest and dearest to Stephanie.

In trying to get enough proof to get the understaffed authorities of her pioneer planet to act, Stephanie will be called upon to attempt things she never imaged doing—including going undercover into the wilds of the late-night club scene, a realm where her faithful treecat guardian, Lionheart, cannot follow. . . .

Robosoldiers. They take many forms, from disembodied AI to humanlike androids and more. But at their cores beat the cybernetic hearts of warriors! In these stories of hard military SF you will journey to the battlefields of tomorrow with the veterans who have been there and the researchers developing the next phase of battle and get a glimpse into the future of warfare.

New stories from David Drake, Richard Fox, Weston Ochse, Martin L. Shoemaker, T.C. McCarthy, Brad R. Torgersen, and more!

2 books, $9.98

Eat, Drink, and Be Wary

edited by Lisa Mangum

Son of Avonar

by Carol Berg

A violent fugitive who cannot speak, who has no past.

A disgraced noblewoman who would rather forget her past.

And a world of magic that has turned against both of them.

Seriana Marguerite, daughter of a warrior house, once believed that intelligence, determination, and love could avert the consequences of youthful rebellion.

She was wrong.

Violating the singular tenet of the Four Realms—that sorcery and all who practice it must be reported and exterminated—brought torment and death to those closest to her. Only her family’s influence preserved her own life, a mercy for which she has never been thankful.

Over the years Seri has adapted to poverty and exile, far from royal intrigues and the politics of power. But her bitter peace collapses on the day she encounters a half-mad fugitive—a man incapable of speech, yet skilled at violence.

The discovery that one of his dead-eyed pursuers is the man responsible for the horrors of her past forces Seri onto a path of anguished memory and ancient riddles, a race to unravel the mysteries of the fugitive’s identity, his mission, and a looming danger that could shatter the very foundation of the world.

Food. We use it to celebrate, to provide both comfort and energy, and to show our love.

There’s something about mixing a pinch of this and a dash of that to create something new. And when you pair it with the perfect drink . . . *chef’s kiss*

Stories can do the same thing. They can be a celebration, bring us comfort and energy, and help us express our love. And when the perfect character is paired with the perfect plot . . . well, then you have something worth devouring.

So take a place at the table, and let’s see what’s on the menu.

For starters, gather your pennies to bid for the last two jars of peaches for sale in an apocalyptic future. Follow it up with a slice of pizza guaranteed to bring love into your life. Dig into a shrimp and pasta dish so flavorful, you’d swear it was some kind of witchcraft. Grab a plate of “Lloyd’s Secret Surprise”—it’s out of this world! And for dessert, choose between some very memorable homemade cookies, a slice of chocolate cream pie worth dying for, or a life-sized gingerbread house—just make sure it’s not occupied before you start nibbling at the door.

This collection of nineteen stories is packed full with hearty plots, meaty characters, and a surprising and mysterious twist at the end to serve as the perfect dessert.

Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: Stories with a Delicious Twist is the seventh anthology edited by Lisa Mangum and published by WordFire Press. Profits support the Don Hodge Memorial Scholarship fund for the Superstars Writing Seminars.

In 1872, the notorious outlaw King Callahan adopts an orphan after Lily’s father is killed in a botched robbery in Virginia City. They flee to Los Angeles, where Callahan tries to make a better life, but his talents all run to robbery. He runs afoul of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which is moving in on the south coast, bringing money, corruption, and inevitable social changes. A railroad detective relentlessly pursues the outlaw, which means he is also chasing Lily.

Five years later, Lily has grown up. Part of an acting troupe, she goes to San Francisco, the golden city, a mix of extreme wealth and desperate poverty, limitless opportunity and instant disaster. There, she searches for the mother she only dimly remembers, and encounters again the railroad detective who had pursued her through Los Angeles. The railroad strikes, rioting and uproar that consumed the whole United States in that summer reaches San Francisco and Lily is caught up in the turmoil of a free-wheeling society that is making itself up as it goes along.

Megan Thomas works in the office of the District Attorney as a forensic sorceress. Her job is to tell if magic has been used in the commission of a crime, in order to protect the citizens of the greater metropolitan area of Tulsa from all manner of evil sorcerers and vampires.

After arriving at her childhood home to celebrate Yule with her mother, she must help her high school crush, Police Officer Niall Lake, investigate a murder and track down the person who might be guilty. As a witness in a trial, she must defend herself against accusations of being a witch. She has to explain that being a sorceress is intrinsic to her being, but being a witch is a religion. At first, she doesn’t realize what evil is hiding in a very unusual place, but during the ceremonial excavation of a time capsule, all attendees find out.

All this as she tries to balance her work life with her love life and her mother without endangering them.

Book four in the nationally best-selling Manticore Ascendant series, set in the world of David Weber’s multiple New York Times best-selling Honorverse series.

Yesterday, the Star Kingdom of Manticore was a small, unimportant interstellar backwater. A quiet little star nation, only recently recovered from the devastating blow of the Plague Years. More affluent than some, perhaps, but with little to attract trade or interstellar commerce, it had little need for a navy . . . and even less interest in paying for one.

But Manticore has now become a target. The Star Kingdom isn't certain who is attacking it, or why, or what its mysterious foe can possibly want, but Queen Elizabeth I knows she has to find out. And she knows that whatever some of her subjects think, Manticore does need a navy. And it needs allies, friends like the dynamic Republic of Haven and the Andermani Empire. It needs their trade . . . and to learn from their more experienced and powerful navies.

It is the job of officers like Travis Long and his wife, Lisa, to acquire that experience. Of utterly inexperienced diplomats like Travis's brother Gavin, Earl Winterfall, to build those alliances.

They have been sent to the powerful Andermani Empire to do just that, for the Imperial Navy is one of the most potent and experienced fleets in the galaxy. But the Andermani have problems of their own. Their Emperor's death is the trigger for insurrection, and now that powerful and experienced navy is locked in civil war.

The Manticoran visitors find themselves squarely in the path of the storm, and before Travis, Lisa, and Gavin can accomplish anything else, they first have to survive.

Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

STORYTELLING ON AN EPIC SCALE

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and interpersonal relationships. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting), Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed worldbuilding, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with amazing settings, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

NEW FANTASY FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JANE LINDSKOLD

Instead of mentors, they got monsters . . .

That’s what Xerak, Vereez, and Grunwold think when three strange creatures shimmer into being within the circle of Hettua Shrine. Their conclusion is reasonable enough. After all, they’ve never seen humans before.

As for Margaret Blake, Peg Gallegos, and Tessa Brown—more usually known as Meg, Peg, and Teg—they’re equally astonished but, oddly enough, better prepared. Age and experience have accustomed them to surprises. A widely varied course of reading material has intellectually prepared them for the idea that other worlds, even worlds where people with traits more commonly ascribed to “animals” may exist.

Then there is the mysterious verse that Teg speaks as they arrive, words that seem to indicate that the Shrine must have been at least partially responding to the request made of it.

Despite doubts on all sides, the three unlikely mentors join forces with the three young “inquisitors” and venture out into the world Peg dubs “Over Where.” First they must find the Library of the Sapphire Wind, destroyed years before.

Will they find answers there, or is this only the first stage in their search?

Jethri Gobelyn has risen far: from despised youngest on a Terran family Loop ship to second trader on premier Liaden tradeship Elthoria under the guidance of his unlikely foster-mother Norn ven’Deelin Clan Ixin. Master Trader ven’Deelin has taught Jethri much, and she expects great things from him. Indeed, one might say she demands them.

Jethri has inherited a mission from his father, a plan that will allow family Loop ships like the one he grew up on to survive the encroachment of Rostov’s Dust. In this, he’s backed by several prominent Looper families who are scheduled to meet and plan at the South Axis Trade Fair.

In what seems to be a fortunate pairing of missions, Master Trader ven’Deelin sees Jethri become lead trader on his own small ship, which is scheduled to arrive at the South Axis Fair.

Unfortunately, that “fortunate coincidence” may instead be a test of Jethri’s loyalties, as he’s thrust into a tangle of gray-trading, mistaken identity, misinformation, and galactic politics . . .