Melissa Scott

The city of Astreiant has gone crazy with enthusiasm for a new play, The Drowned Island, a lurid farrago of melodrama and innuendo. Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is not amused, however, at a real dead body on stage and must investigate. A string of murders follow, perhaps related to the politically important masque that is to play on that same stage. Rathe must once again recruit the help of his soldier lover, Philip Eslingen, whose knowledge of actors and the stage, and of the depths of human perversity and violence, blends well with Rathe's own hard-won experience with human greed and magical mayhem. Their task is complicated by the season, for it is the time of year when the spirits of the dead haunt the city and influence everyone, and also by the change in their relationship when the loss of Philip's job forces him to move in with Nicolas. Mystery, political intrigue, floral magic, astrology, and romance--both theatrical and personal-- combine to make this a compelling read.

Desperately in need of vital nutritional supplies, the crew of the USS Voyager must risk dealing with an enigmatic race known as the Kirse, legendary for the bountiful crops of their world—and for their secretive ways. Despite Neelix's warnings, Captain Janeway leads an away team to the Kirse homeworld. But when the hostile Andirrim attack the Kirse, Janeway finds herself caught in a deadly situation. Forced to fight alongside the Kirse, Janeway and her crew can only hope that their strange, new allies are not more dangerous than their common foe.

A novel exploring the impact of robots on society. The heroine is Celinde Fortune, a magician on the planet Persephone, who uses robots for her acts. She becomes the target of a terrorist labor movement which is combatting robots as they have caused mass unemployment.

How does one write science fiction so that it is believable and meaningful? In Conceiving the Heavens, Scott shares her successful techniques and insights to help would-be science fiction writers turn their ideas into workable stories.

A fantasy adventure in an alternate MiddleAges, featuring Nico Rather, a policeman in the city ofAstreion, as he investigates the disappearance of children, apparently kidnaped by astrologers. By the author of TheArmor of Light.

Once, Special Agent Smoky Barrett hunted serial killers for the FBI. She was one of the best--until a madman terrorized her family, killed her husband and daughter, and left her face scarred and her soul brutalized. Turning the tables on the killer, Smoky shot him dead--but her life was shattered forever. Now Smoky dreams about picking up her weapon again. She dreams about placing the cold steel between her lips and pulling the trigger one last time. Because for a woman who's lost everything, what is there left to lose? She's about to find out.In all her years at the Bureau, Smoky has never encountered anyone like him--a new and fascinating kind of monster, a twisted genius who defies profilers' attempts to understand him. And he's issued Smoky a direct challenge, coaxing her back from the brink with the only thing that could convince her to live.The killer videotaped his latest crime--an act of horror that left a child motherless--then sent a message addressed to Agent Smoky Barrett. The message is enough to shock Smoky back to work, back to her FBI team. And that child awakens something in Smoky she thought was gone forever.Suddenly the stakes are raised. The game has changed. For as this deranged monster embarks on an unspeakable spree of perversion and murder, Smoky is coming alive again--and she's about to face her greatest fears as a cop, a woman, a mother...and a merciless killer's next victim.From the Hardcover edition.

The free flow of traffic to the Gamma Quadrant is vital to the recovery and survival of the planet Bajor and to Federation interests as well. When a mysterious cloaked ship begins raiding wormhole shipping, cleaning out holds and killing entire crews, Commander Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine acts at once to stop the menace. Commander Sisko has unexpected aid: the cloaked vessel has been striking Cardassian ships as well, and the Cardassian commander Gul Dukat intends to destroy the ship at all costs. Their unlikely alliance works well - until two of Sisko's crewmen are captured by the raiders. Gul Dukat will stop at nothing to gain his victory; now Sisko must locate the predator ship, hold off the Cardassians long enough to rescue his people - and prevent an interstellar war.

Gay cyberpunk, baby!

Synopsis - Orestes was a cruel world, cold and inhospitable. Its first colonists were castaways from a crash landing, cling to survival through the institution of strict socio political controls. Over the generations life grew somewhat easier, but the code of honour remained. Misdeeds and errors were paid for with blood. At one time all miscreants were executed. Now a social death is imposed. Every Oresteian city has colony of “ghosts”: ostracised citizens who must survive, somehow, without help from the living. But galactic civilisation is spreading and Orestes is in its path. The old ways are under scrutiny. And though the Oresteian aristocracy will fight for the status quo, they have not reckoned on the power of a thousand ghosts.

Calling on his old school friend Julian Lynes--private detective and another victim of the younger Nevett--Ned races to solve the murder, clear the stain on his professional reputation, and lay to rest the ghosts of his past. Assisted by Ned's able secretary Miss Frost, who has unexpected metaphysical skills of her own, Ned and Julian explore London's criminal underworld and sodomitical demimonde, uncover secrets and scandals, confront the unexpected murderer and the mysteries of their own relationship.