Andrea Cort

Two stories from the early years of Andrea Cort, later the heroine of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Emissaries from the Dead. "The Coward's Option": On the hostile home-world of the Caith, Andrea Cort has been assigned the case of a murderer who's been condemned to a horrible death. All legal options have been exhausted, but the Caith offer a rarely-used alternative to execution, one that purports to ensure that the accused will never break the law again. Alas, it's not so much another chance at life, but deliverance into a hell far worse than mere death… "Tasha's Fail-Safe": Once, she and Andrea Cort hated each other. Now, the victim of a savage assassination attempt by a traitor to the Confederacy, she lies in an unresponsive state, the identity of her assailant locked inside her head. Can Andrea penetrate a vital secret she never even knew existed? Other Andrea Cort stories available from JABberwocky: With Unclean Hands Unseen Demons

"As great as I'd hoped…Andrea Cort and her universe have terrific scope for future development." -i09 The place is One One One, a gigantic enclosed space station constructed by the AIsource, a mysterious software collective that may be the most advanced, most powerful creatures in the known universe. They have seeded the world with creatures of their own devising, and invited a delegation of human beings to observe. But now the little research community has been rocked by murder…and it appears that the AIsource may be playing a deeper game. Enter Andrea Cort. Prosecutor. War Criminal. Misanthrope. Genius. She has been sent to get to the bottom of these heinous crimes. But she is facing enemies both human and more than human…and the solution to the mystery just might change her very relationship to the world she knows… Praise for Emissaries from the Dead "A brilliantly executed novel, fully successful as both science fiction and murder mystery. Indeed, it evidences a writer at the peak of his career, and it shows none of the flaws one expects from first novels… Emissaries from the Dead is one of the best science fiction novels of the year so far, and it can be recommended especially to fans of science fiction mysteries." -SciFi Weekly "A uniquely absorbing read. It envelops you in a truly exotic and alien environment, and gives you a heroine to root for… It offers mystery, action, a few good jolts, and a bit of the old redemption sans mawkishness. All of the ingredients for a story sure to knock 'em dead." -SF Reviews "Adam-Troy Castro's Emissaries from the Dead is SF at its best: Silence of the Lambs as Larry Niven might have written it. A clever, thought-provoking page-turner. Bravo!" -Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Rollback "Adam-Troy Castro has given us the ultimate high-wire thriller." -Jack McDevitt

Vlhan. Where a race of incredibly intelligent, and sometimes unpredictably dangerous, aliens yearly perform a dance where tens of thousands of their kind die, all in pursuit of a mysterious purpose vital not only to their own survival but also to that of the human race. But something has gone wrong... Andrea Cort. Genius. Misanthrope. War Criminal. Solver of Crimes. She has traveled to Vlhan with her lovers, the linked pair known as the Porrinyards. Now, against the backdrop of a sudden and bloody war, she must not only find a missing girl, not only prevent a catastrophe that might spell the end of the human race...but also make a decision that will change her own future beyond imagining. Previous stories about the Vlhani have been nominated for two Nebulas and one Hugo. The Andrea Cort stories have been also been Nebula-nominated, and the first novel, EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD, won the Philip K. Dick Award. Now Andrea Cort arrives on Vlhan for the confrontation that will change everything!

Andrea Cort. Genius. War Criminal. Crime-Solver. An emergency summons brings Andrea and her partners, Oscin and Skye Porrinyard, to an isolated research station, where a brilliant scientist lies brutally murdered. Who committed the crime is no mystery. But it may be impossible to prosecute, because the culprit has arranged a strange transformation for himself, and may no longer be the same person who committed the crime. For Andrea, who has recently begun planning the next stage in her own personal evolution, the issue cuts straight to the atrocities of her own past…and the question that might destroy her: can she escape the guilt that has always pursued her? This collection is set in the award-winning Andrea Cort series, featuring the titular novella "Hiding Place," as well as the short stories "Among the Tchi" and "Down, Please: The Only Recorded Adventure of Lars Fouton, Captain's Lift Operator on the Starship Magnificent."