Jay Lake Books in Order

Rooted in Texas, this collection blends new and previously published stories of ghosts, angels, gods, and aliens. Lake moves through past, present, and future, bringing speculative encounters into the landscapes and lives of the Lone Star State.

Twenty-two stories explore the Pacific Northwest through both recognizable landscapes and imagined versions of the region. Everyday lives meet strange possibilities across a collection that includes previously unpublished fiction alongside Lake’s earlier stories.

Jay Lake’s stories are paired with Frank Wu’s illustrations in this collaborative collection. Nine tales receive new artwork, while a tenth responds to one of Wu’s paintings, creating a conversation between speculative fiction and visual imagination.

Lake’s speculative stories move among science fiction, fantasy, and horror, including Into the Gardens of Sweet Night. A boy’s journey with a cosmos-traveling pug becomes one exploration of freedom and responsibility within the collection.

Twelve linked stories draw on the verses of an old English counting song, each corresponding to a different line. Originally published month by month, the sequence turns the song into an imaginative account of Britain as a garden.

A friend returns from World War II with an aircraft stolen from the Germans, but Vernon Dunham discovers it is not human technology. As rival forces pursue it, he must unravel its secrets before they gain control.

The secret heir to the City Imperishable vanishes as political factions threaten its stability. A persecuted dwarf leader, the missing ruler’s apprentice and an aspiring mayor struggle against one another and the forces pushing their city toward destruction.

Raised among shipwreck survivors on the enormous Equatorial Wall, gifted Paolina Barthes longs for the knowledge she believes England holds. Leaving her isolated village exposes her untrained sorcery to powerful factions determined to control it or destroy her.

In a universe powered by immense celestial gears, a clockmaker’s apprentice receives a command from the Archangel Gabriel. He must carry the Key Perilous to Earth’s southern axis and rewind its failing mainspring before the world stops.

After surviving a struggle for the City Imperishable, its transformed leaders face a newcomer promising access to a lost imperial tomb. Her expedition stirs dreams of treasure and power, threatening to plunge the fragile city into fresh conflict.

Rumors of a long-lost battleship’s return draw a priest, an alien hunter, and a dismissed engineer into a chase across humanity’s interstellar empire. Their search exposes anomalies and secrets that powerful institutions would prefer remain forgotten.

Sold as a child, Green is trained as both courtesan and assassin for an immortal duke. Her struggle for freedom draws the attention of gods and political rivals, making her a dangerous participant in conflicts she never chose.

Magic and revenge intertwine on rain-soaked city streets in the world of Green. This standalone fantasy story explores the dangerous relationship between personal power and violence in a setting where supernatural forces shape mortal lives.

Sorceress Paolina Barthes crosses the Equatorial Wall seeking freedom from northern powers. Meanwhile, Emily Childress travels aboard a renegade Chinese submarine, as secret orders and a wary southern power pursue the people and magic shaping their world’s future.

In an alternate Philadelphia, ancient Russian vampires, arsonists, a mad scientist and an unusual French secret agent cross paths. Their competing purposes drive a steampunk adventure through a city where old supernatural forces meet dangerous new inventions.

This collection combines Lake’s chosen recent and earlier stories across science fiction, fantasy, and their boundaries. New work joins previously uncollected pieces, ranging from mythic encounters to distant futures while keeping human experience at their center.

A fictional account of living with cancer parallels experiences from Jay Lake’s own illness. The novelette explores grief through the perspective of someone confronting the disease, bringing an intimate human focus to the realities of mortality.

Returning to Copper Downs after winning her freedom, Green remains entangled with demanding gods. When a cult of godslayers reaches the Stone Coast, those deities turn to her for protection, including the god she created from her own memories.

Unexplained events begin in deep space and move steadily closer to Earth. As the disturbances spread, they suggest that the universe itself is shutting down, turning distant astronomical mysteries into an increasingly immediate threat.

Damaged by his past, Markus Selvage searches for fulfillment in San Francisco’s underground sexual culture. His exploration of his own body and those of others leads through extreme modification toward experiences far beyond the satisfaction he initially sought.

A scientist makes a discovery that challenges the beliefs governing a rigidly religious world. As evidence collides with established doctrine, the implications threaten more than an intellectual dispute, exposing the tensions between authority, faith and inquiry.

Five years of Jay Lake’s blog posts trace his developing approach to writing and publishing. Reflections on craft, workshops, reviews and professional experience reveal how he worked through practical problems and built a career in speculative fiction.

Gods from two cities lay claim to Green and her children as she returns to Kalimpura. Determined to rescue two girls held by a rival guild, she must navigate temple politics and supernatural demands that threaten her independence.

Coauthored stories explore distant empires, altered futures, and alternate histories, including a world where slavery persists. Scientists, travelers, and watchers face mysteries of faith, family, and life beyond Earth across a varied collection of speculative settings.

Thirty-two stories range across science fiction, fantasy, and horror in Lake’s final collection. Encounters with aliens and angels sit beside tales of distant worlds, love, mortality, and the personal experience of cancer.

A century after an expedition’s mutiny devastated Bonificium, a recontact team arrives to assess the consequences. Agent Rogelio’s growing attachment to local leader Melia complicates an already impossible assignment, while her people seek control over their returning visitors.