The Ansible Stories Series by Stant Litore

It is the twenty-fifth century. As in the early Middle Ages, the Islamic world is now the center for learning and scientific exploration. And the planet’s most ambitious project is Starmind, a research institute that transfers the minds of volunteers, called Ansibles, across gulfs of space and time to make first contact with other sentient beings in the universe. Sometimes, this does not go well. Each of the Ansible Stories follows one team of brave minds across the void... moreIt is the twenty-fifth century. As in the early Middle Ages, the Islamic world is now the center for learning and scientific exploration. And the planet’s most ambitious project is Starmind, a research institute that transfers the minds of volunteers, called Ansibles, across gulfs of space and time to make first contact with other sentient beings in the universe. Sometimes, this does not go well. Each of the Ansible Stories follows one team of brave minds across the void. These are their reports, their transcripts, the only accounts of what they have found. You should read them. After all, Starmind might need you, too, and isn't it time you finally found out what’s out there? ANSIBLE includes four of Stant Litore's Ansible Stories in one volume, including the never-before-published story "Ansible 2." less

Rasha is a Syrian refugee fleeing war with her infant son. Sahira is a time-traveling, shapeshifting hijabi defender of humanity. In a distant future when all humanity flees a predatory and unexpected horror, Rasha's choices at a critical moment could make the difference between extinction and refuge -- if Sahira can get her safely to that day... moreRasha is a Syrian refugee fleeing war with her infant son. Sahira is a time-traveling, shapeshifting hijabi defender of humanity. In a distant future when all humanity flees a predatory and unexpected horror, Rasha's choices at a critical moment could make the difference between extinction and refuge -- if Sahira can get her safely to that day. Both time-travel thriller and love story, this riveting addition to the Ansible saga takes you from the dust and despair of bombed-out cities and poisoned land to the weird apparitions that can transform a planet’s future. Ansible: Rasha’s Letter is the opening episode of Ansible: Season 3. PRAISE FOR THE ANSIBLE SERIES “Stant Litore may be SF’s premiere poet of loneliness.” – Jason Kirk, author of Reverb and The Other Whites in South Africa “Litore’s stories aren’t only entertaining. They are stories invading our lives, unexpectedly. You encounter them, as you might encounter people. They are those random elements in life that happen to you, like a mugging, like childbirth, like falling in love and marriage, like death and the funeral that follows. They are moments that leave a mark, and leave you changed.” – Andrew Hallam, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver “Stant eloquently writes passages that are so moving, full of passion, fury, loneliness, blind drive … He takes us to places of amazing beauty, awe-inspiring, as well as places where the implications in the story can leave you almost in despair for the human race.” – Nikki Ebright, Director, Myths & Legends Con less

"Please hear me. We are all in danger, the most terrible danger; we are all going to die terrible deaths. If you can hear me, if anyone can hear me, remember these words. Please. Pass them on to your children, and to theirs. You are our one hope..." Ansible 15715, a short story, is a frantic broadcast from the mind of a woman lost in time, a researcher trying to forewarn the human species about an unexpected and terrifying threat. There is very little chance that anyone will hear her plea... more"Please hear me. We are all in danger, the most terrible danger; we are all going to die terrible deaths. If you can hear me, if anyone can hear me, remember these words. Please. Pass them on to your children, and to theirs. You are our one hope..." Ansible 15715, a short story, is a frantic broadcast from the mind of a woman lost in time, a researcher trying to forewarn the human species about an unexpected and terrifying threat. There is very little chance that anyone will hear her plea. Unless possibly you. "Litore's elegant prose seeps into the soul, stoking our fears of dark labyrinths and the loss of self, of having our direst warnings passed off as madness in a cruel and ignorant world. A chilling and masterful tale." - Allison M. Dickson, author of Strings less

Ansible 15715 was sent to a nightmare world that threatened to devour her, a world of endless dark. But the Ansible 15716 team is sent to a planet that burns beneath a white-hot sun ... a saline desert where immense objects loom on the horizon, completely buried beneath a hundred meters of salt... moreAnsible 15715 was sent to a nightmare world that threatened to devour her, a world of endless dark. But the Ansible 15716 team is sent to a planet that burns beneath a white-hot sun ... a saline desert where immense objects loom on the horizon, completely buried beneath a hundred meters of salt. When this team's sole survivor finds himself stranded in an alien body, among an alien race, he must search for some connection with home -- or for some connection with this desert species, on a planet so vast, it makes the mind itself a desert. less

"Imagine a forest ten times that intense, an entire ecosystem of miniature forests growing inside the hollow bole of a tree the size of a spaceport. Then imagine that the tree of such prodigious vitality is not even a tree, but only a kind of flowering weed with an exterior harder than bark, harder than granite... more"Imagine a forest ten times that intense, an entire ecosystem of miniature forests growing inside the hollow bole of a tree the size of a spaceport. Then imagine that the tree of such prodigious vitality is not even a tree, but only a kind of flowering weed with an exterior harder than bark, harder than granite. Imagine a single nocturnal blossom that would fill the Al-Masjid al-Haram from one wall to the other, that each night spews into the air millions of airborne spores that burn with light like violet sparks; all it would take is the feather-soft touch of just one against the back of your hand, and you would be dead before you could even gasp. "This is a world of beauty and strange poisons. An entire species of botanists could not fully catalogue it." The Starmind Project leaves a cryptic note for the woman who will lead the Ansible 15717 team, inviting her to a planet that makes the Amazon rain forests, now long gone, seem only a pale imitation. One of humanity’s foremost botanists, she is reluctant to leave an earth that has only just begun to flower again, but the lure of that alien paradise and the discoveries to be made there is too strong to deny. And what she finds there, in those distant forests, will shake her to the heart. PRAISE FOR THE ANSIBLE STORIES: "From an Alien-style eerie dread to a desolate existential longing, the Ansible series skitters along a spectrum of science fiction promise that will in turn thrill, terrify, and spook you. I have never wanted to stay home more." - Melissa Olson, author of Dead Spots "Litore's elegant prose seeps into the soul, stoking our fears of dark labyrinths and the loss of self, of having our direst warnings passed off as madness in a cruel and ignorant world. A chilling and masterful tale." - Allison M. Dickson, author of Strings "Stant Litore truly weaves a spellbinding story that leaves the reader feeling vulnerable. It is impossible not to become drawn into the world that Stant created..." - Heather Maloney, examiner.com less

Jihad burns through the galaxies. The previous Ansibles found themselves marooned, but Ansible 15718's last survivor commands battlefleets. An extremist, Zahid is committed to building a new home for humanity out of the cinders and ashes of fallen civilizations. But when he finishes his war against the universe, will he still be human?