Juliette Wade

This debut epic fantasy follows a deadly battle for succession, where brother is pitted against brother in a singular chance to win power and influence for their family. The cavern city of Pelismara has stood for a thousand years. The Great Families of the nobility cling to the myths of their golden age while the city's technology wanes. When a fever strikes, and the Eminence dies, seventeen-year-old Tagaret is pushed to represent his Family in the competition for Heir to the Throne. To win would give him the power to rescue his mother from his abusive father, and marry the girl he loves. But the struggle for power distorts everything in this highly stratified society, and the fever is still loose among the inbred, susceptible nobles. Tagaret's sociopathic younger brother, Nekantor, is obsessed with their family's success. Nekantor is willing to exploit Tagaret, his mother, and her new servant Aloran to defeat their opponents. Can he be stopped? Should he be stopped? And will they recognize themselves after the struggle has changed them?

Mazes of Power

Tim Waggoner

Lucy A. Snyder

Ekaterina Sedia

Maurice Broaddus

Michael Haynes

Tyler Hayes

Alex Bledsoe

Amanda C. Davis

Jennifer Brozek

Marissa Lingen

Sarah Hans

Janet Harriett

Erika Holt

Gary Kloster

Remy Nakamura

Andrew Romine

Damien A. Walters

When you talk about outsiders, it's easy to think about that sense of isolation when you're not one of the "popular kids" in high school, when you're the new person on the job, when you stand out in a bad way. But there's more than that. There's the sense of wonder at a new, alien place. There's seeing everything you know through a new, different point of view. These stories defy expectations and easy genre boundaries. But if you want that sense of wonder and amazement when you first encountered speculative fiction, that idea that there is something different, something more just around the corner, just out of sight, that sense of coming home to the unfamiliar, then this is the book you want to read. Edited by Nayad Monroe - who also edited What Fates Impose - these nineteen stories bring us tales of being the other, of belonging, and not belonging.

Not Our Kind

Inheritors of Power

Ursula K. Le Guin

Seth Dickinson

Neil Clarke

Mary Rosenblum

Thoraiya Dyer

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our March 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Seth Dickinson ("Morrigan in the Sunglare"), Thoraiya Dyer ("Human Strandings and the Role of the Xenobiologist") and Juliette Wade ("Suteta Mono de wa Nai"). Classic stories by Mary Rosenblum ("The Egg Man") and Ursula K. Le Guin ("Mountain Ways"). Non-fiction by Mark Cole ("A Sympathy of Light and Shadow: Science Fiction, Gothic Horror and How They Met"), an interview with James Cambias, an Another Word column by Jason Heller, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Clarkesworld

The third book of The Broken Trust continues an epic struggle for power, kindled in the hearts of two brothers, as it spreads to crack the foundations of their underground society. Many years have passed since the Eminence Nekantor and Heir Adon seized power, and life in Pelismara has found a fragile equilibrium under Nekantor’s thumb. Now the Imbati Service Academy suspects that Xinta, Manservant to the Eminence, may have taken control of Nekantor for his own sinister purposes, endangering what peace still remains. Imbati Catín, an Academy prodigy, vows service to Adon, balancing two core purposes — to advance her Master's designs on power, and to determine the full extent of Xinta's influence. When a trash hauler named Akrabitti Corbinan walks into a place he doesn’t belong, everything falls out of balance. Catín, who is investigating this newly discovered hidden library, immediately arrests Corbinan for trespassing. Nekantor then seizes Corbinan, believing he's a spy who sought to topple the government, and Xinta vanishes him before Catín can determine his intent. What was Corbinan really seeking? What dangerous information does the library contain, that Xinta might seek to control? And what might happen if someone more dangerous finds Corbinan first?

Now in paperback, the second book of The Broken Trust continues a deadly battle for power in this sociological sci-fi novel where brother is pitted against brother. To marry into the most powerful family in Varin is to step into a trap. Della has spent thirteen years under the scrutiny of Pelismara's political elites, supporting Tagaret in a dangerous pretense as his brother Nekantor's closest ally. In secret, however, they've planned to escape, and to break down the restrictions of Varin's caste society. When Nekantor offers to send them to Selimna, the city where their caste experiments can be carried out, how can they not accept the opportunity? But ever since Nekantor seized power as the Eminence Herin's Heir, he's wanted to keep power in the family, and that means his eye is on the children--especially their thirteen-year-old brother Adon. In their absence, Nekantor begins to execute his own long-schemed plan, and soon Della realizes they've unwittingly become a part of it. How far does Nekantor's influence spread? How much will he seek to control? And how can she save Adon from falling into his snare?

Transgressions of Power

Juliette Wade

Books

Your next favorite book is out there