Showing results by publisher "Tantor Media" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

"Next of Kin" by Astrid Amara: Jay Yervant is a Hell Cop so powerful that his bare skin incinerates anyone he contacts. Isolated, he is tortured by desire, until he meets Brian, a sensual young man who touches him with impunity. But Jay's burgeoning hope is threatened when a malevolent sorcerer unleashes a host of demonic assassins against Brian. Keeping his lover may cost Jay his life.

The United States of America has been gone for over a century. In its place, The Unified American Territories—a nation divided, the impoverished and the wealthy are separated by a looming steel wall. In the Northern Territories—The Vault, as it is known by its inhabitants—the government rules with an iron fist: All citizens are tested for intelligence and aptitude, thrust into compulsory higher education and saddled with insurmountable debt.

Zacriah Trovirn is concerned with two things in life: hunting and dodging Petrer, the boy who broke his heart. Heartbreak becomes a distant concern when Zacriah is taken to the Elven capital of Thessolina, where he is forced into King Dalior's new legion of shapeshifters. But Zacriah isn't a shapeshifter. In truth, he doesn't know what he is. Zacriah joins forces with new friends and they soon find themselves embroiled in a clash between the three Elven continents. With war on the horizon, Zacriah must learn to use his latent power to fight and protect those he loves before they are destroyed.

In Yellow Jessamine, shipping magnate Evelyn Perdanu controls the dying city of Delphinium with trade deals and secrets. But when mysterious sickness sparks death and obsession, all leading back to her, Evelyn's brittle existence is strained to breaking. She retreats to her estate, amidst paranoia and poisonous secrets, intent on rooting out this plague before it destroys everything she has built.

Affected by the Druid's power, something dark lurks within Hadrian Vulmar, threatening the existence of those around him. Following a lead, Zacriah and Nyah head into the forest on an expedition to cure him. When they are ambushed by living dead - bodies controlled by shadow - covered in Druid marks, they know the Druid did not perish in the sea as they thought. The Druid is back. The three known Dragori are sent on a dangerous quest to stop this dark magick before Hadrian gives into his new power and the shadow beings end more innocent lives.

The Southlands is a place of mystery. A hermit kingdom with which Ilirya has been at war for 40 years and the home of monsters and living nightmares. But now it is Ilirya's only hope. Bold, brave lesbian Asher is among a small band of knights sent to achieve peace at any cost with the Southlands' mercurial leader, the King of Cats. With enemies howling at Ilirya's gates, failure will mean Asher's homeland will fall.

At the end of the Victorian era, a handful of public intellectuals advocated for tolerance of the "Uranian"—a man who loved other men. Some went so far as to propose that these "intermediate sexes" might, in fact, constitute a totally different species, even serve as intrepid guides in our march toward an uncertain future. The five speculative stories in Theodore McCombs's kaleidoscopic collection span several possible worlds, teasing the boundaries between coexisting realities and taking up the question of queer difference from one surprising vantage after another.

The Surun' nomads do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But aged Uiziya must find her aunt in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay. Among the Khana in the springflower city of Iyar, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter, as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.

In the glittering city state of Volun, Lorelei Steddart never thought she'd be anything but an office drone—until her family all die under mysterious and likely magical circumstances, leaving her to inherit everything. To figure out what's happened, her uncle marries her off to the city state's top War Alchemist, Nephele Corisande, an intimidating older woman who might just be able to save her.

As they struggle to survive in a barbarous fantasy land, a mother and daughter attempt to shake off the bonds of female slavery and escape to freedom.

Otto Hollen has always protected his younger brothers. Three of them have been chosen to be guardians for the next Great Ward, and Otto's determined to avoid the final position. Yes, being chosen is a great honor, but Otto's convinced it will force Owen, his youngest brother, to sacrifice...

The fallen angel of fruit Rosier lives among cold caves and fiery demons with a soft heart succumbing to comfortable misery. He shares a bed with the monster who'd been his most beloved friend in Heaven, captive now to a beastly body of eternal rot. If there is any love left between them, it's surely a ghost fading with each daybreak. But when the devil commands Rosier to have the Earth bloom with its first fruits—Rosier must confront whether there is really any life after falling from paradise and whether there is really any solace in abandoning all hope.