Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she moves from town to town with her mother, caring for the ironwood groves that people rely upon for survival. When a dangerous blight threatens these magical trees, the Sixsmiths must journey to the city of Mistwood for answers.

Nick can't wait to explore everything Mistwood has to offer: the bustling markets, the neighborhoods nestled behind a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear and tensions in the city reach a boiling point.

As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads them--underground, to a strange and enchanting place called Underhill. Only there, among the roots of the ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save the ironwood trees and the city she's come to love.

This immersive fantasy adventure combines vivid world-building with timely themes of environmentalism, and young readers will be riveted until the final page.

An investigator must solve a brutal murder on a claustrophobic space station in this tense science fiction thriller from the author of Salvation Day.

Hester Marley used to have a plan for her life. But when a catastrophic attack left her injured, indebted, and stranded far from home, she was forced to take a dead-end security job with a powerful mining company in the asteroid belt. Now she spends her days investigating petty crimes to help her employer maximize its profits. She's surprised to hear from an old friend and fellow victim of the terrorist attack that ruined her life--and that surprise quickly turns to suspicion when he claims to have discovered something shocking about their shared history and the tragedy that neither of them can leave behind.

Before Hester can learn more, her friend is violently murdered at a remote asteroid mine. Hester joins the investigation to find the truth, both about her friend's death and the information he believed he had uncovered. But catching a killer is only the beginning of Hester's worries, and she soon realizes that everything she learns about her friend, his fellow miners, and the outpost they call home brings her closer to revealing secrets that very powerful and very dangerous people would rather keep hidden in the depths of space.

Twelve-year-old Octavia grew up believing the town of Vittoria was the only one left in the world. The sole survivors of a deadly magical war and plague, the people of Vittoria know there's no one alive outside the town walls--except the terrible monsters that prowl the forest.

But then the impossible happens: Octavia meets another girl beyond the walls, someone who isn't Vittorian. Everything she's ever believed is thrown into question, and there's no going back.

In her quest for the truth, Octavia discovers a world full of lies, monsters, and magic. She'll have to use every scrap of her skill, wits, and courage to uncover what's real about Vittoria and the rest of the world.

They thought the ship would be their salvation.

Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya--the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.

But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship--a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead.

And then they woke it up.

A dark and riveting middle grade fantasy from the critically acclaimed Kali Wallace about an archipelago of magical islands and one girl's dangerous discovery on the ocean floor. Perfect for fans of Holly Black and Kate Milford.

In a foggy archipelago called the City of Islands, twelve-year-old Mara has always been fascinated by the magic that drifts on the air as songs. But as a servant for the powerful Lady of the Tides, Mara must earn her keep by searching for magical treasures deep in the murky ocean.

Then Mara finds the skeletons of strange hybrid creatures that haven't existed in the city for centuries--all humming with a powerful spell-song. Convinced her discovery will earn her the opportunity to study magic, Mara shares them with the Lady. But instead of a reward, the Lady gives Mara a new challenge: to sneak into the island fortress, the Winter Blade.

Now Mara must dive deeper than ever before to survive her mission. The chilling truths that Mara uncovers along the way, about her past as well as about the secrets of her beloved city, are more dangerous--and magical--than she ever imagined.

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art.

Our December 2014 issue contains:

Original Fiction by Kali Wallace (Fatima's Wound), Tom Crosshill (The Magician and Laplace's Demon), Matthew Bennardo (Now Dress Me in My Finest Suit and Lay Me in My Casket), and Dominica Phetteplace (No Vera There).

Classic stories by Allen M. Steele (The Emperor of Mars), Alastair Reynolds (The Sledge-Maker's Daughter), and Xia Jia (Tongtong's Summer).

Non-fiction by Ken Liu (Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction), an interview with Kameron Hurley, an Another Word column by Daniel Abraham, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

For fans of Holly Black and Nova Ren Suma, a gripping, hauntingly atmospheric novel about murder, revenge, and a world where monsters--human and otherwise--lurk at the fringes. Shallow Graves is a stunner. Gripping, gory, and insightful (Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns).

When seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow grave one year after her death, she doesn't remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she's somehow conscious--and not only that, she's able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past. In life, Breezy was always drawn to the elegance of the universe and the mystery of the stars. Now she must set out to discover whatever is to become of her in the gritty, dangerous world to which she now belongs--where killers hide in plain sight, and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her.

What she finds is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

NYPL Best Books for Teens * Junior Library Guild Selection