Martha Wells – författare

“Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?”Science fiction’s favourite antisocial A.I. is back in Rogue Protocol! The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.In Exit Strategy, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah - its former owner (protector? friend?) - submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?And what will become of it when it’s caught?

Artificial Condition continues The Murderbot Diaries, a science fiction series that tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. It appeals to fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans."As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."It has a dark past-one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself "Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don't want to know what the "A" stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.

SciFi’s favoUrite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol is the third in the Murderbot Diaries series, starring a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after adventure, though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk.Read Rogue Protocol and find out why Hugo Award winner Ann Leckie wrote 'I love Murderbot!'

For the first time in hardcover, Martha Wells' award-winning, New York Times bestselling All Systems Red Winner: 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella Winner: 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella Winner: 2018 Alex Award One of the Verge's Best Books of 2017 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure." In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid - a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is (and to watch its favorite show in its downtime.) But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.Having volunteered to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realises that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know.Including human children. Ugh.This may well call for... eye contact!(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award for Best NovellaWinner of the Alex AwardA New York Times and USA Today BestsellerNow an Apple Original series from Academy Award nominees Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz and starring Emmy Award winner Alexander Skarsgård.A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.The Murderbot DiariesAll Systems RedArtificial ConditionRogue ProtocolExit StrategyNetwork EffectFugitive TelemetrySystem Collapse

'As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.'First, read the first two stories that started the Murderbot phenomenon in All Systems Red and Artificial Condition!On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is (and to watch its favorite show in its downtime.)But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.And when Murderbot teams up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), they infiltrate the mining facility where Murderbot went rogue to try to understand its past.What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

You know that feeling when you're at work, and you've had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favourite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot. When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.

From the breakout superstar SFF author of the Murderbot Diaries comes the remarkable sequel to the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling novel Witch King. A fantasy of epic scope, Queen Demon is a story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal and of the families we choose.Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs’ Well. Knowing there’s something he isn’t telling them, the Witch King Kai – along with his companions Ziede and Tahren – travels with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?Follow Kai to the end of the world in this thrilling sequel to the USA Today bestselling Witch King.

Martha Wells' New York Times and USA Today bestselling Murderbot series exploded onto the scene in 2017, and the world has not been the same, since.Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel, Network Effect. You know that feeling when you're at work, and you've had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot.Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you'll read this century.--I'm usually alone in my head, and that's where 90 plus percent of my problems are.When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.Drastic action it is, then.

“No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.”In Fugitive Telemetry, when Murderbot discovers a body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people - who knew?)System Collapse follows the events of Network Effect, where Murderbot, ART, and the humans from Preservation are work to protect a human colony from being abducted by the Barish-Estranza Corporation. But with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall. When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?) Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans! Again!

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonised planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

'I didn't know you were a... demon.''You idiot. I'm the demon.'Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' WITCH KING....After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai-Enna wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.He’s not going to like the answers.WITCH KING is Martha Wells’s first new fantasy in over a decade, drawing together her signature ability to create characters we adore and identify with, alongside breath-taking action and adventure, and the wit and charm we’ve come to expect from one of the leading writers of her generation.

“I didn't know you were a... demon.”“You idiot. I'm the demon.”Kai’s having a long day in Martha Wells’ WITCH KING....After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai-Enna wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.He’s not going to like the answers.

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah - its former owner (protector? friend?) - submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?And what will become of it when it’s caught?

When rebels clash with renegades, it’s the Empire that may claim the final victory.Times are desperate for the Rebel Alliance. Harassment by the Empire and a shortage of vital supplies are hindering completion of a new secret base on the ice planet Hoth. So when Mid Rim merchants offer much-needed materials for sale, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo lead an Alliance delegation to negotiate a deal.But when treachery forces the rebel ship to flee into territory controlled by pirates, Leia makes a shocking discovery: the fierce marauders come from Leia’s homeworld of Alderaan, recently destroyed by the Death Star. These refugees have turned to pillaging and plundering to survive—and they are in debt to a pirate armada, which will gladly ransom the princess to the vengeful Empire . . . if they find out her true identity.Struggling with intense feelings of guilt, loyalty, and betrayal, Leia is determined to help her wayward kinspeople, even as Imperial forces are closing in on her own crippled ship. Trapped between lethal cutthroats and brutal oppressors, Leia and Han, along with Luke, Chewbacca, and a battle-ready crew, must defy death—or embrace it—to keep the rebellion alive.“[A] rollicking Star Wars adventure . . . a book that keeps you eagerly turning pages.”—Roqoo Depot

Dahin, a beloved member of the Witch King's coterie, believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?A story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.

Every year the image of the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure another year of peace and harmony for the Celestial Empire. Every hundred years the very fabric of the world must be rewoven. Linked by the mystic energies of the Infinite, the Wheel and world are one. But a black storm is spreading across the Wheel, reappearing each morning, bigger and darker than before, unraveling the beautiful and orderly patterns.Maskelle, a murderer and traitor, has been summoned back to help put the world right with the assistance of the mysterious Rian, a swordsman of some renown. If they can’t find the source of the problems that plague the Wheel, the world may find its latest rotation is its last.

Before Martha Well captured the hearts of MILLIONS with her Murderbot series, there was Khat, Sagai, and Elen, and a city risen out of death and decay…The city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients’ design, sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working in the bottom tiers of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors.When Khat is hired by the all-powerful Warders to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, he, and his party, begin unravelling the mysteries of an age-old technology.This they expected.They soon find themselves as the last line of defense between the suffering masses of Charisat and a fanatical cult, bent on unleashing an evil upon the city with an undying thirst for bone.That, they did not expect.

The Element of Fire The kingdom of Ile-Rien lies in peril, menaced by sorcerous threats and devious intrigue, when Kade, bastard sister of King Roland, appears unexpectedly at court. The illegitimate daughter of the old king and the Queen of Air and Darkness herself, Kade's true desires are cloaked in mystery.It falls to Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen's Guard, to keep the kingdom from harm. But is one man's steel enough to counter all the magic of fayre?The Death of the Necromancer Nicholas Valiarde is a passionate, embittered nobleman and the greatest thief in all of Ile-Rien. On the gaslit streets of the city, Nicholas assumes the guise of a master criminal, stealing jewels from wealthy nobles to finance his quest for a long-pursued vengeance.But Nicholas's murderous mission is being interrupted by a series of eerie, unexplainable, and fatal events. A dark magic opposes him, and traces of a necromantic power that hasn't been used for centuries abound. Nicholas and his compatriots find themselves battling an ancient evil.

Emilie and the Hollow WorldRunning away from home, and stowing away on the wrong ship, Emilie embarks on a fantastic adventure.Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use an experimental engine to journey to the interior of the planet, but when the ship becomes damaged on arrival, and evidence points to sabotage they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with a strange new race.Can Emilie and her new-found friends possibly reach the surface world again?Emilie and the Sky-WorldWhen Emilie arrives in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of her friend Lady Marlende, warns them of something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. On further investigation they realise it’s a ship from another aetheric plane.How to determine if it’s a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister… Nothing less than a journey into the dangerous air currents will do.Join Emilie and she navigates the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the Sky World.

Celebrate the legacy of The Empire Strikes Back with this exciting reimagining of the timeless film featuring new perspectives from forty acclaimed authors. On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the fortieth anniversary, forty storytellers re-create an iconic scene from The Empire Strikes Back through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains, to droids and creatures. From a Certain Point of View features contributions by bestselling authors and trendsetting artists: Austin Walker explores the unlikely partnership of bounty hunters Dengar and IG-88 as they pursue Han Solo.Hank Green chronicles the life of a naturalist caring for tauntauns on the frozen world of Hoth.Tracy Deonn delves into the dark heart of the Dagobah cave where Luke confronts a terrifying vision.Martha Wells reveals the world of the Ugnaught clans who dwell in the depths of Cloud City.Mark Oshiro recounts the wampa's tragic tale of loss and survival.Seth Dickinson interrogates the cost of serving a ruthless empire aboard the bridge of a doomed Imperial starship.Plus more hilarious, heartbreaking, and astonishing tales from:Tom Angleberger, Sarwat Chadda, S.A. Chakraborty, Mike Chen, Adam Christopher, Katie Cook, Zoraida Córdova, Delilah S. Dawson, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Christie Golden, Rob Hart, Lydia Kang, Michael Kogge, R. F. Kuang, C. B. Lee, Mackenzi Lee, John Jackson Miller, Michael Moreci, Daniel José Older, Amy Ratcliffe, Beth Revis, Lilliam Rivera, Cavan Scott, Emily Skrutskie, Karen Strong, Anne Toole, Catherynne M. Valente, Django Wexler, Kiersten White, Gary Whitta, Brittany N. Williams, Charles Yu, Jim ZubAll participating authors have generously forgone any compensation for their stories. Instead, their proceeds will be donated to First Book-a leading nonprofit that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to educators and organizations serving children in need. To further celebrate the launch of this book and both companies' longstanding relationships with First Book, Penguin Random House will donate $100,000 to First Book and Disney/Lucasfilm will donate 100,000 children's books-valued at $1,000,000-to support First Book and their mission of providing equal access to quality education.

Nominated for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Series. “Wells...merrily ignores genre conventions as she spins an exciting adventure around an alien hero who anyone can identify with.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewMoon has spent his life hiding what he is — a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight.An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself . . . someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power . . . that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival . . . and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself . . . and his newfound kin.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.