Showing results by author "M. Darusha Wehm" in All Categories

Elsinore Robotics is on the cusp of a breakthrough—the company is poised to create the first humanoid androids powered by true artificial intelligence. Their only rival, Norwegian Technologies, lost a publicly streamed contest between their flagship model, Fortinbras, and Elsinore’s HAM(let) v.1. But when the first Hamlet model is found irreparably deactivated, the apparent victim of wild malware, the field of consumer cybernetics is thrown wide open. However, Hamlet v.1’s memories were not entirely lost in the accident.

The stories in this anthology range from quietly strange to ambitiously speculative. Humans transform into cosmic energy or sentient algae. A man wakes up in a new body in a world with continents cut out, months absent from the calendar year, and souls misplaced. Students at a high school regularly vanish without a trace. A woman descends into the depths of the ocean and encounters all-knowing creatures who may have the answers to her deepest questions.

Ever wish things were different? Ivy Velasquez did, so she became someone else. In the 3D virtual world Marionette City, you can be anything you want - but everyone still knows who you are. Driven by her desire for a new life, Ivy takes her future in her hands when she makes another identity for herself. A brilliant designer, Ivy works for one of the huge multi-national firms which control the online system the world relies upon for both business and pleasure.

Mars is good place to reinvent yourself, isn’t it? Jules Morales’s life has always been a state of contact change. When the opportunity comes up, why not take a trip to Mars to work on the platinum mining operation - and make a load of money? But what if there is more to Mars than just a payday and an adventure? The woman now calling herself Lisa Marie has spent her whole life trapped by the struggle to make ends meet, and sometimes held hostage by her own memories.

After settling into a new job, new home, and new living arrangements, Andersson Dexter has finally found a comfortable life in both the physical and virtual worlds. But that sense of security is blown apart when an explosion rocks Dex’s real-life Nice neighborhood. He and his colleagues begin an investigation into a string of seemingly senseless and random vandalism attacks that remind them all of similar assaults in the simulated world Marionette City. While at first the attacks seem more like a nuisance than a threat, Dex discovers that there are more serious consequences.

Welcome to the Crucible - an artificial planet larger than our sun - an ever-growing patchwork of countless other worlds, filled with creatures, sentient beings and societies stolen from across the universe by the mythical Architects. Across this dizzying juxtaposition of alien biospheres, the enigmatic and godlike Archons seek to unlock the secrets at the heart of the Crucible. Everyone else is just trying to survive.... 

Storefronts busted, businesses destroyed, accounts frozen. No one knows who's behind the rash of vandalism in the virtual world, Marionette City, or how to protect themselves from becoming the next victim. Andersson Dexter has a new lease on life. Things are looking up for the newly independent investigator, when he picks up what seems like an ordinary case of vandalism.

Part vigilante, part private eye, part cop, Dex is muddling his way through his day job as a faceless customer service rep for a giant firm, while solving routine cases in his off hours. But when a gruesomely mutilated corpse is found, things heat up for Dex and the underground organization he calls the Cubicle Men.

Wibble & Pplimz, the Crucible's most unusual private investigators, must set off from their office in Hub City to clear the name of a former client. Along the way, their investigation broadens from a simple accusation of theft to include a missing person, a potential murder, and a highly unusual gem. Four interlinking incidents take them across the Crucible, as they attempt to solve the case. But there's something more sinister lurking underneath: evidence of a secret society that aims to discover the power of the Architects, and forever change the nature of the Crucible itself.

On Mars, terraforming breakthroughs leave citizens dreaming of a transformed planet. However, when a contaminated ice asteroid puts water supplies in peril, the dream quickly shatters. Professor Zambrotta "Zammi" Kaspar is tasked to investigate a fatal crash on a remote ice asteroid, but he never expects to discover his missing sister there as an indentured worker for the Mining Guild. As the siblings reconnect and dig deeper into the mystery of the contaminated water, they both discover a personal legacy of secrets and loss over competing visions for the future of humanity.

Can home be a place you’ve never been, a place no one has ever been? The White Cloud is the most audacious experiment the human species has ever undertaken - to search for a new Earth. The ship and its crew exist for a solitary purpose - to reach a distant planet and establish a colony. However, the vast majority of people undertaking this journey will not live to see its result, nor were they part of the decision-making process to leave.

Kaus wants nothing more than to be loved while its human counterpart, Raj Patel, believes fervently in freedom. Arkadia, one of four space stations circling Jupiter, was to be a refuge for all who fought the corrupt systems of old Earth, a haven where both humans and Artificial Intelligences could be happy and free.

In a queer-normative future that isn’t all rainbows and sparkles, the justice you receive depends on your job – assuming you can get it at all. Enter vigilante detective Andersson Dexter, whose beat covers both the physical world and the online universe Marionette City. Helping people who have nowhere else to turn, he’s making the worlds better one client at a time, but is it enough? The Andersson Dexter Investigations is a four-book cyberpunk detective series by Nebula Award finalist M. Darusha Wehm.

The future is boring. Technology has solved the world’s most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn’t. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer’s computer system has been invaded. Jack enlists the help of her only friends – her co-worker, Gilles and Adrian, an online friend she’s never met – to help her track down the source of the invasion. Her investigation leads her to a shadowy group called the Red...

Can home be a place you’ve never been, a place no one has ever been? The White Cloud is the most audacious experiment the human species has ever undertaken—to search for a new Earth. The ship and its crew exist for a solitary purpose—to reach a distant planet and establish a colony. However, the vast majority of people undertaking this journey will not live to see its result, nor were they part of the decision-making process to leave. A novel-in-stories, following the many generations who make the journey, The Voyage of the White Cloud asks how you can find meaning as a slave to destiny,...

In a queer-normative future that isn’t all rainbows and sparkles, the justice you receive depends on your job – assuming you can get it at all. Enter vigilante detective Andersson Dexter, whose beat covers both the physical world and the online universe Marionette City. Helping people who have nowhere else to turn, he’s making the worlds better one client at a time, but is it enough? The Andersson Dexter Investigations is a four-book cyberpunk detective series by Nebula Award finalist M. Darusha Wehm.

Mars is good place to reinvent yourself, isn’t it? Jules Morales’s life has always been a state of contact change. When the opportunity comes up, why not take a trip to Mars to work on the platinum mining operation—and make a load of money? But what if there is more to Mars than just a payday and an adventure? The woman now calling herself Lisa Marie has spent her whole life trapped by the struggle to make ends meet, and sometimes held hostage by her own memories. On Mars she might finally find financial security, but will she also find something to care about today, and maybe even for ...

In a queer-normative future that isn’t all rainbows and sparkles, the justice you receive depends on your job – assuming you can get it at all. Enter vigilante detective Andersson Dexter, whose beat covers both the physical world and the online universe Marionette City. Helping people who have nowhere else to turn, he’s making the worlds better one client at a time, but is it enough? The Andersson Dexter Investigations is a four-book cyberpunk detective series by Nebula Award finalist M. Darusha Wehm.