Longlisted for the BSFA Award When a precocious Guardian in Sector Z in New Inku'lulu-an elite space outpost-misuses her sound magic, the Guardians punish her by stripping away her magical ability. Chant'L is exiled to Savage Mound, a sound island on planet Wiimb-ó. She discovers that magic is inborn, never truly lost or taken, and summons the Nga'phandileh, creatures of unreality. But her magic is more than she bargained for. Now the Guardians in Sector Z find themselves with a massive catastrophe they must not only keep secret, but resolve. A science fiction horror from an award-winning queen of Afro-Irreal genre bending. A glossary of Bantu, Afrocentric and authorly-crafted words complements this genre-bending, cross-cultural novella. Something beautiful, something dark in lyrical language packed with affection, dread, anguish and hope. From Bram Stoker Award winner Pedro Iniguez, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories weaves fantasy and science fiction, Latinx themes, and traditional pulp stylings. This book collects 21 tales of outsiders, explorers, renegades, and dreamers as they navigate the mysteries and perils of the vast sandbox that is the universe. Some of the stories you'll read: A boy and his grandmother witness the spectacle of a magical lucha libre match; amidst the Robot Apocalypse, an expectant mother's only hope for survival may just be a robot; a convict finds himself torn asunder and reassembled into a facsimile as he is teleported to a distant battlefield; plagued by ghosts, a young girl finds the source of her hauntings may be tied to time travel; after the Earth is destroyed, three astronauts stranded on Mars may hold the key to humanity's future. From magical realism to military science fiction, Lovecraftian cyberpunk yarns to swashbuckling tales in space, this collection spans the frontiers of the imagination and the vastness of the cosmos.