In the near future, if Vegas games are ingeniously scam-proof, then the heists have to be too, in this imaginative and whip-smart story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.

An IT whiz at the Babylon Casino is enlisted to upgrade security for the game of keno and its random-number generator. The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house—unless human ingenuity isn’t entirely a thing of the past.

Andy Weir’s Randomize is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award–winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out eons ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

Reminiscent of Elizabeth Lynn and Robin McKinley, the tale of valorous Queen Ylia continues, told by Nisana, the cat who is much more than a cat. Ylia must call upon all her powers of might and sorcery to gather the scattered survivors of fallen Nedao. Advertising in Locus.

A video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

Blake Crouch’s Summer Frost is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

En la vida de Luis Bassat, uno de los publicistas más prestigiosos del mundo, confluyen dos familias errantes y muchos viajes a través de los siglos. Los Bassat, sefardíes, después de haber tenido que dejar España en el siglo xv, recorren durante los siglos xix y xx Bulgaria, Turquía, Austria, Alemania y Francia, antes de regresar a España. Los Coen, judíos romaniotas establecidos en la isla griega de Corfú, también tienen que emigrar a Italia y Francia, antes de que uno de sus miembros llegue a Barcelona en 1905. Vicenç Villatoro, de la mano de Luis Bassat, indaga en este periplo extraordinario del regreso a Sefarad, y nos traslada a un mundo ya desaparecido, que entrelaza todos los confines del Mediterráneo. Hilvanando narración, testimonio y reflexión literaria, El regreso de los Bassat repasa el esplendor y la tragedia de los judíos del viejo continente. Y también, al fin y al cabo, la historia de la misma Europa.

The story is written in first person. It depicts the main character going outside Hampden and finding a special tree. The tree makes him day dream about a big temple in a land with three suns. The temple was half-violet, half-blue. Some shadows attracted him into the inside. He thought he saw three flaming eyes watching him and he shouted twice and the vision was gone.

An elegant werewolf in Edinburgh...

1788. When Lindsay Somerville, the most elegant werewolf in Paris, learns that the man who held him in abject captivity for decades is on his way to France, intent on recapturing him, he knows he must leave the Continent for his own safety. Lindsay cannot take the risk of being recaptured—he may have been free for a century but he can still feel the ghost of his old chains under his fine clothes.

… on a mission...

While he’s in Edinburgh, Lindsay has been tasked with acquiring the “Naismith Papers”, the writings of a long-dead witchfinder. It should be a straightforward mission—all Lindsay has to do is charm an elderly book collector, Hector Cruikshank. But Cruikshank may not be all he seems, and there are others who want the papers.

… meets his match

As if that were not enough, while tracking down the Naismith Papers, Lindsay meets stubborn architect Drew Nicol. Although the attraction between them is intense, Nicol seems frustratingly determined to resist Lindsay’s advances. Somehow though, Lindsay can’t seem to accept Nicol’s rejection. Is he just moonstruck, or is Nicol bonded to him in ways he doesn’t yet understand?


Note: This is the first book of a duology – the story continues and will complete in the second book, Master Wolf.