In the Valley, A Shadow by Samantha Tano

SPSFC 2024

An action-packed sci-fi western tale of revenge, love, and identity. The frontier planet Celestine, millennia from now. It was supposed to be the furthest Alix could get from the Xypha Corporation, that all-consuming entity at the heart of humanity’s interstellar expansion. After the Xypha forward station arrives in orbit, Alix, a transgender pilot, finds herself out of work and her ship grounded. She’ll do anything to pay off her mounting debts so she can fly again—even if it means killing for the meanest crime boss in the Isidis Valley. As Xypha’s influence grows, Alix is trapped in a web of betrayal and politics that threatens more than just her life. Armed with a pair of Plasveld-7s, a sharp wit, and with the love of her life by her side, Alix embarks on a deadly path across the valley. Can she flee Xypha’s creeping shadow, or is it time to stop running and stand her ground?

Eye of the Ouroboros by Megan Bontrager

The woods surrounding the insular town of Mill Creek, West Virginia, have a habit of taking people and refusing to give them back. The National Parks Service Search and Rescue Team knows this, just like they know when you find a door in the woods, you don’t go through it. But park ranger Theo Buchanan has a knack for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Determined to find the truth behind her sister Flora’s strange disappearance, she boldly steps through one such door, catching the attention of the Federal Bureau of Reality. She quickly learns how far they are willing to go to keep their secrets locked tight, even if it means silencing those who stumble upon them permanently. Together with her journalist ex-girlfriend, a fellow ranger, a conspiracy theorist, and a rogue member of the Bureau’s Requisitions Department, Theo must brave the horrors of the Infinite Corridor and its web of connected realities to find Flora…before the Bureau does.

Their Heart A Hive by Fox N. Locke

It isn’t until meeting Lowen, a lowborn boy dealing with grief and battling bad luck, that the immortal genderqueer aristocrat, Tamorna Rosen Roane, can face the shame of their past lives and move towards catharsis. Inspired as much by the rugged beauty of south-eastern England as Cornish folklore, this summery gothic portrays a queer-normative society with an 18th century flair. A story of shanties and secrets, of long dead giants and merfolk that mind the sea, where piskies provide luck and the beast of Brasbudfand stalks the night. Balancing the macabre and the absurd, this unconventional coming of age story promises twists and turns and lyrical prose aplenty. A story about the power of kindness and empathy and how no one is ever beyond help. If you've a love for Jane Eyre, Dracula and queer-centric stories, this debut YA novel may just be for you.

Odin's Tillit by Edge O. Erin

Fox was twelve when he faked his own death to escape his father Dagr and his precious tugboat, Odin's Tillit. Cloaked in an identity produced from the inside of a tobacco can, he has become a glorified drug mule for Texas lawman Sheriff J. J. Raskin. Sixteen-year-old Ren is at the helm of Odin's Tillit, pushing rafts of logs and helping the sheriff make his problems disappear. Obligation, destiny, and Odin's Tillit are bloodying the waters of British Columbia's Arrow Lakes. Fox and Ren know better, want better, but they cannot escape the clutches of the incorrigible or incorporeal forces around them. As the principals come together, the past threatens to destroy Fox and Ren, even as the sheriff seeks to eliminate them. What does fate have in store for them? Only Odin's Tillit knows.