Swords and Spaceships for October 27

A poor scholar and a mindship that is a notorious thief and master of disguise meet in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt. Vân (the scholar) and Sunless Woods are brought together by a corpse found in the quarters of Vân’s student; together they work to unravel a mystery that leads them from tea house to mindship corpse, while the secrets they’ve hidden from each other threaten to destroy them both.

Emilia and Victoria are twins, and both of them are strega—witches living secretly among humans—living out a normal life and working in their family’s Sicilian restaurant. One night, Victoria misses dinner service, and Emilia finds her body, horrifically desecrated, soon after. Emilia will do anything to avenge her beloved twin, even using long-forbidden magic.

The bonds between Midgard and the gods are straining to the breaking point, and the world shows the strain. A demon is accidentally released from Muspelheim; a village that follows the old ways is slaughtered by marauding Christians. Hilda, Ragnar, and their tribesman must find a way to save their gods and save their traditions in the face of a changing, violent world.

Rory Thorne has renounced her title after kicking over everything in her range, and retired to a more peaceful life as an unglamorous privateer at the edge of space. But she and her crew get drawn back into the multiverse’s problems when they find an abandoned ship that seems to have fallen victim to an attack, and take on its cargo: a rose bush that turns out to be both sentient and a powerful biological weapon.

Reynevan is a healer, magician, and quite possibly a charlatan, depending on who you ask. A foolish indiscretion leaves him pursued by some vengeful brothers, and far worse, the Holy Inquisition. His flight leads him to the Tower of Fools, an asylum that might be for the mad or might be for those who have dared imagine a different world. Escaping it will be his most challenging trick yet.