A collection of excerpts from some of the best original science fiction short fiction published by Tor.com Blast off into adventure with psychic powers, half-human revolutions, haunted luxury spaceships, murderous sentient robots, and genetic experiments. Check out excerpts from five short works that will be lighting up the stars this summer: Starfire: A Red Peace by Spencer Ellsworth The Ghost Line by Andrew Neil Gray and J. S. Herbison Acadie by Dave Hutchinson All Systems Red by Martha Wells Killing Gravity by Corey J. White. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ahmed is a doctor working in a far flung outpost of humanity. His way was paid for by the leaders of his faith and his atheism is a guarded secret. His encounters with the "kite people" will cause him to doubt his whole worldview however when the aliens start dying and escalating tensions between religious extremists threatens to destroy the colony's peace. Spencer Ellsworth's WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED is a moving story about alien contact, religious intolerance, and the redemptive power of the divine channeled through the spirit. Whether that spirit is human or alien. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A group of colonists are hunted by the planet they left behind in this science fiction novella by the award-winning author of the Fractured Europe series. The Colony left Earth to find utopia, a home on a new planet where their leader could fully explore their genetic potential, unfettered by their homeworld’s restrictions. They settled a new paradise, and have been evolving and adapting for centuries. Earth has other plans. The original humans have been tracking their descendants across the stars, bent on their annihilation. They won’t stop until the new humans have been destroyed, their experimentation wiped out of the human gene pool. Can’t anyone let go of a grudge anymore? Praise for Acadie “Acadie deserved to win many, many awards. It’s got a great character in Duke, the writing is wonderful and the ideas magnificent. Proof that good things do indeed come in small parcels.” —SFBook Reviews “It’s a Space Opera tale that packs a lot in! . . . Acadie is a well-written tale. What this story does is show a writer willing to play with traditional tropes, an author who is very skillful at setting scene and developing characters in a limited amount of words.” —SFFWorld

Corey J. White's debut novel Repo Virtual blurs the lines between the real and virtual in an action-packed cyberpunk heist story. An Amazon and Kobo Best Book of April and winner of the Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel! The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities — augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive. Enter Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief. He's been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he's stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Mars Xi can kill you with her mind, but she'll need more than psychic powers to save her in Killing Gravity, the thrilling science fiction space adventure debut by Corey J. White. Before she escaped in a bloody coup, MEPHISTO transformed Mariam Xi into a deadly voidwitch. Their training left her with terrifying capabilities, a fierce sense of independence, a deficit of trust, and an experimental pet named Seven. She’s spent her life on the run, but the boogeymen from her past are catching up with her. An encounter with a bounty hunter has left her hanging helpless in a dying spaceship, dependent on the mercy of strangers. Penned in on all sides, Mariam chases rumors to find the one who sold her out. To discover the truth and defeat her pursuers, she’ll have to stare into the abyss and find the secrets of her past, her future, and her terrifying potential. The Voidwitch Saga Book 1: Killing Gravity Book 2: Void Black Shadow At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Shadow Sun Seven continues Spencer Ellsworth's Starfire trilogy, an action-packed space opera in which the oppressed half-Jorian crosses have risen up to supplant humanity. Jaqi, Araskar and Z are on the run from everyone - the Resistance, the remnants of the Empire, the cyborg Suits, and right now from the Matakas - and the Matakas are the most pressing concern because the insectoid aliens have the drop on them. The Resistance has a big reward out for Araskar and the human children he and Jaqi are protecting. But Araskar has something to offer the mercenary aliens. He knows how to get to a huge supply of pure oxygen cells, something in short supply in the formerly human Empire, and that might be enough to buy their freedom. Araskar knows where it is, and Jaqi can take them there. With the Matakas as troops, they break into Shadow Sun Seven, on the edge of the Dark Zone. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.