A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong. "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate" (first published in BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, 2013. Ed. Scott H. Andrews). The story of Xihe, the mother of suns, when she was young and the world was new: how she met her husband, lost herself, and found it again. "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" (first published in GIGANOTOSAURUS, 2012. Ed. Ann Leckie). Houyi rose in heaven, bow and arrow in hand: the hunt was her joy, the slaying of demons her delight. But most delightful was a serving girl called Chang'e. "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon" (first published in EXPANDED HORIZONS, 2012. Ed. Dash). Chang'e has been a prisoner on the moon while the world turns and cities rise. For centuries Houyi has looked for a way to free her wife, and now she has found it in a distant grand-niece: a young mortal woman named Julienne. **

The aliens came to uplift humanity—and brought with them quantum computation that allows chosen humans, called cognates, to travel between parallel universes.Jirayu's wife Yvette disappeared when the aliens arrived. When Yvette returns, she's an artifact of the future, a soldier from another timeline . . . and she carries with her the answer to why Jirayu is targeted by killers who have snuffed out every other version of Jirayu.Yvette lost her wife Jirayu once before, and she's determined to keep this version alive at any cost. But as she learns more and more of the aliens' plans, she realizes she has a choice to make. She can continue being their weapon, or escape with her wife to a world where there is no war, no aliens, and where both of them can set the terms of their fate—forever.

For her entire life, Nuawa has made herself a weapon to assassinate the Winter Queen. She failed. Her secrets are laid bare and she has lost everything. The queen keeps Nuawa as a tool, and soon a sacrifice as she brings her ultimate goal to fruition: to harness the divine power of her makers that'll make her lover General Lussadh immortal. But Nuawa isn't done fighting yet. She has one final chance—and she will take it, trading her soul to try one last time to end winter's eternity... even if it means she must lose Lussadh forever. "Politics, relationships, and combat presented as a matryoshka..." —Jonathan L. Howard, author of Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

On a graveyard star, machines run a deadly tournament and draw humans like moths to a flame with a priceless promise. Partner with an artificial intelligence and fight to the death. Win and receive your heart's desire . . .War veteran Thannarat has sought this hidden world to realize a single goal: bringing back the dead. To fulfill this wish, she joins the game alongside a seductive AI who pledges to give her victory. The tournament is full of lethal secrets—and so is the AI that professes to be her weapon. Yet to have what she needs, Thannarat will sacrifice everything. Her home world, the woman she once loved, and herself.All she has to do is defy the game's inescapable rule: that in the end, the only true victors are the machines . . .

A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong.A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong. "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate" (first published in BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, 2013. Ed. Scott H. Andrews). The story of Xihe, the mother of suns, when she was young and the world was new: how she met her husband, lost herself, and found it again. "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" (first published in GIGANOTOSAURUS, 2012. Ed. Ann Leckie). Houyi rose in heaven, bow and arrow in hand: the hunt was her joy, the slaying of demons her delight. But most delightful was a serving girl called Chang'e. "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon" (first published in EXPANDED HORIZONS, 2012. Ed. Dash). Chang'e has been a prisoner on the moon while the world turns and cities rise. For centuries Houyi has looked for a way to free her wife, and now she has found it in a distant grand-niece: a young mortal woman named Julienne.