Swords and Spaceships for December 1

Each flight of stairs in the witch-built tower that imprisons Princess Floralinda contains a dreadful, different monster to guard it. If a lucky man makes it to the top of the tower, he gets the princess and a golden sword. But no one’s made it past the first flight… and the last prince was a long, long time ago.

This is the second collection of short stories about Caitlín R. Kiernan’s monster slayer with albinism, Dancy Flammarion. Across the American South, Dancy continues her war against the monsters, heading for madness and possibly salvation. Two brand new stories are included.

A bloody revolution has burned through the islands of Hans Lollik. Former slave Loren Jannik tries to lead the survivors in the desperate struggle to keep the islands free. But revolution doesn’t provide food or weapons, and the rebels are soon going to run out of options as they continue their fight against the conquering Fjern. Loren must choose the revolutions course, and it could bring them all victory–or spell the doom of their freedom.

Ori isn’t a big fan of the holidays, because they involves the awful meals cooked by her stepfather’s fourth wife and the presence of the woman’s Grandma Elving, who will not stop telling stories about that one Christmas she worked at Woolworth’s. But this Christmas, Ori finds an unexpected ally in her relative Sloane’s latest boyfriend, who is convinced that Grandma Elving’s boring stories about that one particular Christmas are actual traumatic flashbulb memories that hide something much more interesting.

The newly-released jinn are on the attack, destroying villages and cities–and this path of destruction is just the beginning of their vengeance. The Blood Shrike and her remaining family are the top of the kill list for Nightbringer and the newly self-declared Empress. And Laia, still struggling with her own losses, throws herself against the coming apocalypse, determined to destroy the Nightbringer if it’s the last thing she ever does.

Filomena Jefferson-Cho lives a boring, perfect suburban existence, and it’s bumming her out. Then one day, she finds she’s being followed by Jack Stalker, the hero of her favorite book series. And even weirder, she’s definitely not dreaming or hallucinating–and Jack insists that the stories are real and that he needs her help. Soon she’s immersed in the suddenly very real world of her favorite books, facing evil fairies and sorcerers, and she’ll need to find the truth that hides behind all fairytales if she wants to save the kingdom.

Ronan never wanted to return to Hudson, a sleepy upstate down that is haunted by its own ghosts of violence and hatred. But when his father falls ill, he has no choice but to come “home.” He rekindles his friendship with his first love, Dom, and Dom’s wife, Attalah. With the town seemingly falling apart around them, torn by evictions, gentrifying real estate developers, and the political paroxysms of an upcoming mayoral election, the three friends come up with a clever plan to rattle the interlopers and expose them. But what they unleash is not the truth, but something far more unknowable–and uncontainable: the spirits that have been raging at the changes in their town.