“I really don’t know why I’m surprised anymore to find that the quality of every story is so good!”A dozen science fiction writers, including New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, offer remarkable tales in this third collection of space opera stories presented under the Beyond the Stars banner.These twelve stories showcase strange new worlds, alien life forms, and deep space battles.Come with us to where the legends are born… at galaxy’s edge.

This fourteenth anthology of short stories set in the beloved Valdemar universe features tales by debut and established authors and a brand-new story from Lackey herself.

The Heralds of Valdemar are the kingdom's ancient order of protectors. They are drawn from all across the land, from all walks of life, and at all ages--and all are Gifted with abilities beyond those of normal men and women. They are Mindspeakers, FarSeers, Empaths, ForeSeers, Firestarters, FarSpeakers, and more. These inborn talents--combined with training as emissaries, spies, judges, diplomats, scouts, counselors, warriors, and more--make them indispensable to their monarch and realm. Sought and Chosen by mysterious horse-like Companions, they are bonded for life to these telepathic, enigmatic creatures. The Heralds of Valdemar and their Companions ride circuit throughout the kingdom, protecting the peace and, when necessary, defending their land and monarch.

This anthology includes 120 authors—who contributed 230 works totaling

approximately 1.1 million words of fiction. These pieces all originally

appeared in 2014, 2015, or 2016 from writers who are new professionals to the

SFF field, and they represent a breathtaking range of work from the next

generation of speculative storytelling.All of these authors are eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New

Writer in 2016. We hope you’ll use this anthology as a guide in nominating for

that award as well as a way of exploring many vibrant new voices in the genre.