Tis the Season for 14 magical, macabre and merry tales to make your Holidays Fantastic.

Gingerbread houses, caroling carolers, brightly trimmed trees, big family dinners, pristine snowfalls-the familiar pleasures of the season.

But what better pleasure is there than a good holiday story? So open this winter solstice sampler and indulge in fully festive fantasies, nightmares before Christmas, and stunning space-age celebrations. These stories will warm hearts and minds like a blazing Yule log.

Fantastic Holiday Stories by Kevin J. Anderson, Mercedes Lackey, Mike Resnick, Kristine Rusch, Jonathan Maberry, Eric James Stone, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Quincy J. Allen, Ken Scholes, Sam Knight, David Boop, Heather Graham, Brad R. Torgersen, and Patricia Briggs.

Asimov Science Fiction Readers’ Choice, and RT Reviewers’ Choice.

Hurtling through the blackness of space, Boss detects a mysterious blip from an unknown source that sets her heart pounding…

Boss dives derelict space vessels, for money, yes, but more for their historical value. So, when she uncovers the find of a lifetime, she enlists the best divers she knows to help her pursue it—off the grid and under the Empire’s radar.

Boss’s discovery leads her and her team to the Room of Lost Souls. Boss remembers the Room. It haunts her. Her mother died there. Now, a client wants her to go back to help uncover the Room’s mysteries. But the truths they discover might destroy everything Boss holds sacred.

Because the more they discover, the less they realize they know—and the more it will cost them all.

Read all 11 novels in the Diving Universe!

Diving Into the Wreck

City of Ruins

Boneyards

Skirmishes

The Falls

The Runabout

Searching for the Fleet

The Renegat

Thieves

Squishy’s Teams

The Chase

“This is classic sci-fi, a well-told tale of dangerous exploration. The first-person narration makes the reader an eyewitness to the vast, silent realms of deep space, where even the smallest error will bring disaster. Compellingly human and technically absorbing, the suspense builds to fevered intensity, culminating in an explosive yet plausible conclusion.”

—RT Book Reviews Top Pick

“Diving into the Wreck has much to offer, including what even Boss—the avid researcher into lost forms of science—describes as ‘secrets which, if understood, can teach us more about ourselves than any science can.’”

—Locus Magazine

“Rusch delivers a page-turning space adventure while contemplating the ethics of scientists and governments working together on future tech.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is a New York Times bestselling author whose fiction has won dozens of awards and critical accolades.

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the field. With an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation of short stories has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.

Winner of the Endeavor Award

 “…one of the top science fiction sagas in recent years.”

—Midwest Book Reviews

Whose rules does Detective Miles Flint live by?

Humans and aliens have formed a loose government called the Earth Alliance, with treaties that guarantee humans are subject to alien laws when on alien soil. But alien laws often seem senseless, and minor violations draw outrageous punishments—from death to the loss of a first-born child.

Miles Flint grapples with three cases that have collided: a stolen space-yacht filled with dead bodies, two kidnapped human children, and a human woman on the run to avoid alien prosecution, trying to become one of the Disappeared. Flint must enforce the law—giving the children to aliens, solving the murders, and arresting the woman for running from the legal system. But how can he enforce laws that are unjust? How can he sacrifice innocents to a system he’s not sure he believes in? How can Miles Flint do the right thing in a universe where the right thing is very, very wrong?

This is Flint's first adventure in the 15-book series, the story that turns him from a police detective in the Armstrong Dome on the Moon into a Retrieval Artist.

“Part CSI, part Blade Runner, and part hard-boiled gumshoe, [Retrieval Artist] Miles Flint would be as at home on a foggy San Francisco street in the 1940s as he is in the domed lunar colony of Armstrong City.”

—The Edge Boston

"Rusch has created an entertaining blend of mystery and sf, a solid police drama that asks hard questions about what justice between cultures, and even species, really is."

—Booklist

"It feels like a popular TV series crossed with a Spielberg film-engaging."

—Locus

"The Disappeared is a very readable, very thought-provoking novel that lives up to every expectation we have of Rusch and her considerable talents. Buy and enjoy."

—Analog

On the run.

After fleeing pursuers from two different missions, Boss and Coop reconvene at the Lost Souls Corporation headquarters. Both share exciting but troublesome news.

And a whole lot of questions.

But before they begin to even scratch the surface of the new information, they face threats from all quarters.

And when an old adversary of Coop’s gets involved, Boss questions who to trust to survive and find some long-awaited answers.

A nonstop new adventure, The Chase provides thrilling new details about Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s award-winning Diving series.

“By mixing cerebral and investigative elements, emotional character segments, and the adrenaline of action, Rusch tells a complete yet varied tale that will please science fiction readers looking for something different from the usual fare.”

—Publishers Weekly on Searching for the Fleet

“Think of the Diving universe as an exciting mystery saga, pitting the drama of ship salvage against the dangers of space.”

—Astroguyz

“Kristine Kathryn Rusch is best known for her Retrieval Artist series, so maybe you’ve missed her Diving Universe series. If so, it’s high time to remedy that oversight.”

—Don Sakers, Analog

“[The Runabout] is so good, it will make you want to read the other stories.”

—SFRevu

“Amazing character construction, building a plot that riveted me almost from the moment it began. I will now absolutely have to read the preceding titles and I cannot wait to see what will come as a result of The Runabout.”

—Tangent Online

Nedda Ferguson-Lithe lost her father on the Gabriella’s final mission. The ship’s disappearance remains one of the great mysteries of the sector.

But as Nedda interviews the crew’s survivors, she finds more questions than answers.

No one knows who or what causes the maelstroms that make exploring Nájar Crater on Madreperla so dangerous. But everyone knows that the rumors of the crater’s riches prove far too tempting despite the danger.

Every time a ship ventures into that crater, a maelstrom drives it out. Or destroys it. Nedda hopes to find out which fate met the Gabriella—and her father.

Nominated for the Asimov’s Readers Choice Award for best novella, Maelstrom proves a heart-wrenching addition to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s award-winning Diving Series.

“Like everything [Kristine Kathryn Rusch] writes, the story is beautifully-told and has a lot of heart. Who could ask for anything more?”

—SFRevu

As a young recruit, brilliant engineer Nadim Crowe accidentally destroys an entire Scrapheap full of ships. Now, decades later, he ends up on the crew of the Renegat, the only ship in the Fleet ever sent on a mission backwards to investigate an ancient Scrapheap.

Something invaded that Scrapheap and the Fleet wants to know what. Or who.

The Renegat: The only ship the Fleet dares risk. The Renegat: A ship of misfits and screw-ups sent on an impossible mission. All alone in deep space.

A thrilling new addition to the Diving Universe.

Praise for the Diving Series:

Rusch’s handling of the mystery and adventure is stellar, and the whole tale proves quite entertaining.

—Booklist Online on Diving into the Wreck

This is classic sci-fi, a well-told tale of dangerous exploration. The first-person narration makes the reader an eyewitness to the vast, silent realms of deep space, where even the smallest error will bring disaster. Compellingly human and technically absorbing, the suspense builds to fevered intensity, culminating in an explosive yet plausible conclusion.

—RT Book Reviews Top Pick on Diving into the Wreck

Rusch delivers a page-turning space adventure while contemplating the ethics of scientists and governments working together on future tech.

—Publishers Weekly on Diving into the Wreck

Rusch keeps the science accessible, the cultures intriguing, and the characters engaging.  For anyone needing to add to their science fiction library, keep an eye out for this.

—Josh Vogt, Speculative Fiction Examiner.com on City of Ruins

Filled with well-defined characters who confront a variety of ethical and moral dilemmas, Rusch’s third Diving Universe novel is classic space opera, with richly detailed worldbuilding and lots of drama.

—RT Book Reviews on Boneyards