The universe is dangerous, wondrous--a vast canvas upon which humanity sketches its hopes for the future.In this anthology, you'll find seventeen tales of conflict and heroism, exploration and discovery, endurance and triumph. Flee the apocalypse of modern-day Earth, fly a fighter in the cold emptiness of deep space, and find new life on the distant shores of an alien world. You might even discover something about yourself as each author opens a window on the soul of mankind. Who are we, really? Should we survive? How do we become something greater without losing what makes us human?Open this collection and take your first steps into tomorrow. Travel the cosmos to find amazing adventure. Walk beside unforgettable characters on the bridge across the stars...Featuring a Foreword by Kevin J. Anderson- David VanDyke - "As the Sparks Fly Upward"- Ann Christy - "Peace Force"- Felix R. Savage - "Scrapyard Ship"- Lindsay Buroker - "Here Be Dragons"- Chris Dietzel - "The Gordian Asteroid"- Craig Martelle - "The Trenches of Centauri Prime"- Josi Russell - "Broken One"- Chris Pourteau - "The Erkennen Job"- Daniel Arenson - "The Firebug and the Pharaoh"- Rhett C. Bruno - "Interview for the End of the World"- Steve Beaulieu - "Night Shift"- Lucas Bale - "A Friend to Man"- Jason Anspach - "...Space Pirates"- Will McIntosh - "Drive"- Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff - "Water Babies"- David Bruns - "Take Only Memories"- Patty Jansen - "This Deceitful State of Truth"

12 year old Joel lives with his father in the cold northern part of Sweden. At night he often sneaks out of his father's house to look for a lonely dog he has seen from his window. On the bridge across the icy river he starts a secret society and has adventures. But one night he discovers that his father's bed is also empty and will have to come terms with his father's new-found love. The harsh reality of Joel's world comes vividly to life and leaves the reader spellbound.

Wartime intrigue spans the lives of three women—past and present—in this emotional novel from the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War. February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Résistance spy. Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly-held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom. When the voyage ends at New York Harbor, only one of them will disembark... Present day. Facing a crossroads in her own life, Brette Caslake visits the famously haunted Queen Mary at the request of an old friend. What she finds will set her on a course to solve a seventy-year-old tragedy that will draw her into the heartaches and triumphs of the courageous war brides—and will ultimately lead her to reconsider what she has to sacrifice to achieve her own deepest longings. CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

It is 1241 AD, and the Mongols have just invaded Europe, effecting a giant collision of cultures. Hungarian King Bela has already declared a state of emergency, Mongolian troops have killed nearly three hundred thousand people in Moscow, and now everyone fears the troops are headed for Poland. As King Boleslav and his son, Prince Alexander, anxiously await the Mongols' next move, they have no idea that a team of cavalry scouts has already made the decision to assassinate the Great Khan of Mongolia. Now all the scouts must do is capture the one person who can help them execute their plan. Tianyin has been assigned to find a girl with one blue eye and one brown eye, possessing a dagger carved with the Great Khan's name-and he must do so before the army seizes Krakow. Angela Cherreh, however, has grown up in Poland without any clue that she is the Mongolian princess they are seeking. And now she stands at the stake, preparing to be burned alive because everyone believes she is a witch. In this historical tale, an assassin and a princess discover that sometimes things do not turn out as expected, especially in an uncertain and dangerous world."

A New York Times Best Book of the Year: Short stories centered around a French Canadian family that relocates to Paris in the years before WWII. One of the greatest strengths of Mavis Gallant’s writing is her ability to distill a character’s emotions into a simple moment—a lingering glance or an unuttered word. Her flair for detail is everywhere in evidence in Across the Bridge, studies of Montreal and Paris over the last century. The primary focus of this story collection is the Carettes, a family of French Canadians who relocate to Paris before World War II. The two daughters, Marie and Berthe, could not be more different: Marie is traditional and quiet while Berthe is strong willed and open minded. But as they grow together, the two learn how much they truly have in common. Accompanying these stories of the Carettes are tales of growth and isolation at home and abroad, including one of a rebellious French-speaking Canadian girl growing up in the Anglophone area of the city. Another entry is focused on an anthropologist who, on a trip to a small country, finds a group of people who speak a language no one has ever heard before. Unfortunately, when he announces his discovery, no one believes him. Gallant writes “elegant, witty tales of place and person” and cannily observes small domestic moments as her characters create and destroy the illusions in their lives (Library Journal).

Abdullah's willingness to negotiate sometimes made him a lonely figure in a world where compromise is deemed worse than death. His assassination in 1951 at the hands of an extremist seemed to sound the death knell for peace.

One exceptional boy journeys into the ashes of society to find the cure for a devastating plague in this riveting post-apocalyptic standalone set in the same world as the USA Today-bestselling The Girl With All the Gifts. Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy. The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world. To where the monsters lived. "Strange and surprising and humane" (Lauren Beukes), The Boy on the Bridge is a gripping, powerful story that will make you question what it means to be human.

Lucy Clairmont's family treasured the magic of the past, and her childhood fascination with stories of the high seas led her to become a marine archaeologist. But when tragedy strikes, it's Dashel, an American forensic astronomer, and his knowledge of the stars that may help her unearth the truth behind the puzzle she's discovered in her family home. Two hundred years earlier, the seeds of love are sown between a boy and a girl who spend their days playing in a secret sea cave, while the privileged young son of the estate looks on, wishing to join. As the children grow and war leads to unthinkable heartbreak, a story of love, betrayal, sacrifice, and redemption unfolds, held secret by the passage of time. As Lucy and Dash journey to a mysterious old estate on the East Sussex coast, their search leads them to a community of souls and a long-hidden tale that may hold the answers--and the healing--they so desperately seek.

“Addresses an important topic for biologists and zoologists about vertebrates’ place in the ‘grand scheme’ . . . genuinely witty and charming . . . magnificent.” —Neil J. Gostling, University of Southampton Our understanding of vertebrate origins and the backbone of human history evolves with each new fossil find and DNA map. Many species have now had their genomes sequenced, and molecular techniques allow genetic inspection of even non-model organisms. But as longtime Nature editor Henry Gee argues in Across the Bridge, despite these giant strides and our deepening understanding of how vertebrates fit into the tree of life, the morphological chasm between vertebrates and invertebrates remains vast and enigmatic. As Gee shows, even as scientific advances have falsified a variety of theories linking these groups, the extant relatives of vertebrates are too few for effective genetic analysis. Moreover, the more we learn about the species that do remain—from sea-squirts to starfish—the clearer it becomes that they are too far evolved along their own courses to be of much use in reconstructing what the latest invertebrate ancestors of vertebrates looked like. Fossils present yet further problems of interpretation. Tracing both the fast-changing science that has helped illuminate the intricacies of vertebrate evolution as well as the limits of that science, Across the Bridge helps us to see how far the field has come in crossing the invertebrate-to-vertebrate divide—and how far we still have to go. “A beautiful ode to some of the least appreciated animals . . . guides the reader joyfully through deuterostomes—weaving disparate elements of embryology, paleontology, and morphology into an unprecedented and accessible narrative.” —Jakob Vinther, University of Bristol

An urgent cry for help from Elyon sends the Guardians of the Veil back across the Veil to Meridian. There, they find the young girl struggling to bridge the gap between her past life and her new role in Meridian.