A science-fiction short story involving: an alien autumn, an unseen predator, deadly burrowers and an oncoming winter, and bugs big enough to ride. Joaquin only wants to warn his daughter of a new danger, to keep her safe, to make her understand her mother isn’t coming back, while keeping her alive. But what if he’s wrong? What if Mariam really did survive? What if, when everything looks like it’s going wrong, it’s really going right?

When planet-colonist, Joaquin, takes his daughter, Ry, into the autumn forest to show her the danger lurking amongst the trees, he does not expect to end the day fleeing for his life, nor does he think he can discover more about the spider-like orsovite, or what happened to his wife, one short year ago, but autumn is a time when the leaves fall, and secrets are uncovered.

From ships lost to accidents in warp, space pirates and plague, to colonies facing unexpected rivals, and new lifeforms on the ground, this collection draws on some of the what-ifs and maybes surrounding humanity’s future among the stars. From flash fiction to novelette-length short stories to verse, the speculation runs from the idea of corporate takeovers of colony worlds, to unusual critter incursions, to the simplicity of plague, and how our future selves might cope when facing the gamut of human emotion on an extra-terrestrial stage.

I came around to a stranger’s touch. And familiar faces I didn’t remember. Memories surfaced slowly, but would they return in time to save the mission? Or our lives? And what about those we’re sworn to protect? Only time will tell, and we have no time. With events coming to a head, we have to roll out…and be prepared to defeat the traitor in our midst, as we bring our investigation to a close. Can we do it before they strike again? Well, there’s only way to find out, isn’t there?

From the author of The Flood and The Drought comes this charming collection of verse. Within this elegant volume Wright demonstrates his prowess, showing thereÕs a lot more to autumn than simply falling leaves.

The terror of yellow fever conjures images of mass infection of soldiers during the Spanish-American War and horrific death tolls among workers on the Panama Canal. Medical science has never found a cure and the disease continues to present a threat to the modern world, both as a mosquito-borne epidemic and as a potential biological weapon. Drawing on firsthand accounts and contemporary sources, this book traces the history of the viral infection that has claimed countless victims across the United States, Central America and Africa, and of the global effort to combat this challenging and deadly disease.