Vonda N. McIntyre

On an Earth scarred by nuclear war, Snake harnesses the power of venom to cure illnesses and vaccinate against disease. The healer can even ease patients into death with the power of her dreamsnake. But she is not respected and trusted by all, and when she tries to help a sick nomad child, the frightened clan kills her dreamsnake. Ashamed of being misjudged and grieving the loss of her dreamsnake, Snake has one choice to maintain her livelihood:...

A woman from the sea is captured by 17th century French sailors so that King Louis XIV can eat her rejuvenating organs. The captive, who has green hair and flaps for legs, sings beautifully and this moves a woman courtier to save her. A look at what it means to be human. In seventeenth-century France, Louis XIV rules with flamboyant ambition. In his domain, wealth and beauty take all; frivolity begets cruelty; science and alchemy collide. From the...

Metaphase Cast out from interstellar civilization, the crew of the Starfarer encounters an extraterrestrial whose reputation is equally bad: the squidmoth. Contact specialist J.D. Sauvage risks her life to befriend the creature, trusting her instincts instead of the warnings of the alien human. The welcome Sauvage receives and the connection she makes will help her overcome her innate fears and prejudices, and she will be given a gift that will save...

The Exile Waiting was the first novel by the Hugo and Nebula award-winning novelist Vonda N McIntyre, published in 1975. It introduces the world that McIntyre later made famous with her multi-award-winning Dreamsnake: a post-apocalyptic world in which Center, an enclosed domed city, is run by slave-owning families who control the planet's resources, and are strangling the city's economy by their decadence. Mischa is a thirteen-year old sneak thief,...

The U.S.S. Enterprise is summoned to transport a dangerous criminal from Starbase prison to a rehabilitation center. The brilliant physicist Dr. Georges Mordreaux has been accused of promising to send people back in time, but then killing them instead. But there's more at stake than just a few lives. Mordreaux's experiments have somehow thrown the entire universe into a deadly time warp. All of existence is closing in on itself, and only Spock can...

James T. Kirk is the youngest man to be promoted to the rank of captain in Federation history. His crew consists of a first officer who finds him impetuous; a chief engineer who finds him arrogant; a chief medical officer who finds him trifling; and a helmsman who wants a transfer. But the young crew, which would later become the legendary space explorers, quickly puts aside their differences when a monstrous starship appears on their nascent flight...

"In the 1970s, feminist authors created a new mode of science fiction in defiance of the “baboon patriarchy” - Ursula K. Le Guin's words - that had long dominated the genre, imagining futures that are still visionary. In this sequel to her groundbreaking 2018 anthology The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin, SF-expert Lisa Yaszek opens a time portal to the decade when women changed...

This eighth volume of the year's best science fiction and fantasy features over thirty stories by some of the genre's greatest authors, including John Barnes, Elizabeth Bear, C.C. Finlay, Yoon Ha Lee, Kelly Link, Ian McDonald, Seanan McGuire, Vonda N. McIntyre, Geoff Ryman, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine, and many others. Selecting the best fiction from periodicals including Analog, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed) as well as top...