An anthology of festive tales featuring Bernice Summerfield.

Christmas... Advent... Midwinter Festival... Spiriting... No matter what you call it on your home planet, this magical holiday at the end of the year, when the nights are dark, and the lights are sparkly, is the perfect time for telling stories...

And who doesn’t have a tale or two to tell about Christmas? Certainly not Benny.

Did she ever tell you about the time she had to escape from a herd of rampaging battle-armoured cyborg reindeer? Or the time she had to convince three tentacled young sea creatures that she was the real Santa? Or the time she nearly let an evil deity back into the world just in time for New Year…

These ten stories are collected from all across Benny’s eventful life, from St Oscar’s to the Braxiatel Collection, to Legion and even in the Unbound Universe...

The stories are:

Part 1: Seasonal Stories from St Oscars

Tap by Mark Clapham
Bernice has a spooky story to tell about her expedition to a junk world where, looking for archaeological treasures buried in the garbage, her team disturb remnants of an old culture that, perhaps, should have been left to rot...

Null Zeit by Scott Harrison
Searching for her friend Haruko, Bernice arrives on a devastated planet that seems to be at war with itself. As the situation spirals out of control, Benny soon realises that Christmas is at the very heart of every strange occurrence...

Glory to the Reborn King by Matthew Griffiths
Bernice has dragged her assistant Gavin away from his home planet’s winter celebrations to help with an archaeological expedition to the mysterious planet Telway. But as the team dig in the dust, it seems that something sinister is stirring in the dark reaches of space...

Part 2: Christmas Tales from the Braxiatel Collection

Signifiers of the Verphidiae by Tim Gambrell
Bernice is enjoying planning a traditional Christmas party for her friends – and Bev, Jason, and Joseph are happy to join in. But Benny should have learned by now not to trust a mysterious alien artefact, especially at Christmas time...

The Frosted Deer by Fio Trethewey
Hot on the trail of an ancient artefact, Bernice goes undercover on the planet of Teilan. But it’s not long before she starts to have some doubts about Braxiatel’s real motives for finding this mysterious object...

Collector’s Item by Eddie Robson
After discovering an impossible sculpture on a small planet, Bernice decides to call in Braxiatel to help figure out what it could be - with alarming consequences for both of them...

Santa Benny at the Bottom of the Sea by Simon Guerrier Deep under the sea, Nessa, Freng and Strong are trying very hard to be nice. Because if they are naughty, then Santa won’t come and give them presents. And they do want presents very much. But what does Santa really want from them? And what does being nice really involve...?

Part 3: Holiday Stories from Legion

Bernice Summerfield and the Christmas Adventure by Xanna Eve Chown
Helping test a festive VR game should be fun - and Bernice considers herself a bit of an expert on 20th Century traditions. But as she explores a virtual Christmas in this odd little basement on Legion, it’s possible she might have bitten off more than she can chew...

White Christmas by Victoria Simpson
Life on Legion is full of surprises. But when Bernice is mistaken for a theatre critic in an odd version of the Bing Crosby classic, set in an industrial hangar – the surprises take a turn for the sinister...

Part 4: Festive Tales from the Unbound Universe

Wise Women by Q
Bernice’s plans to join her friend Gilly for a traditional Qiyotian holiday is scuppered by a less-than-festive crash. Soon she finds herself trekking through the desert on the back of a Nurmash in search of engine coolant. Whoever thinks Christmas is boring has never spent the holidays with Benny!