Search Worlds Without End

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology The Essential Bordertown (1998) edited by Terri Windling and Delia Sherman.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Welcome to Bordertown (2011), edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Farrel Din
• Prodigy - novella by Steven R. Boyett
• Gray - short fiction by Terri Windling [as by Bellamy Bach ]
• Stick - novella by Charles de Lint
• Charis - novelette by Ellen Kushner

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Farrel Din
• Danceland - novella by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly
• Demon - novella by Midori Snyder
• Exile - novelette by Terri Windling [as by Bellamy Bach ]
• Mockery - novella by Terri Windling and Ellen Kushner [as by Ellen Kushner and Bellamy Bach]

Contents:

• Lost in the Mall (I) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Global News Service: Life on the Border - uncredited short story
• Nevernever - [Wolfboy of Bordertown] - short story by Will Shetterly
• Lost in the Mall (II) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Nightwail - short story by Kara Dalkey
• Lost in the Mall (IV) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Alison Gross - novella by Midori Snyder
• Lost in the Mall (V) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Berlin - (1989) - novella by Charles de Lint
• Lost in the Mall (VI) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Reynardine - novella by Michael Korolenko
• Light and Shadow - short story by Craig Shaw Gardner
• Lost in the Mall (VII) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Rain and Thunder - novella by Terri Windling [as by Bellamy Bach ]
• For it All - poem by Emma Bull
• Lost in the Mall (VIII-IX) - short story by Ellen Kushner

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling
• From the World to the Border - essay by Terri Windling
• Oak Hill - (1998) - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Path from the True and Only Realm to the False Lands and the City of Illusion (Translation for Humans: How to Get from Elfland to Bordertown) - essay by Terri Windling
• Dragon Child - (1998) - novelette by Midori Snyder
• First Things First: So You Need a Place to Stay - essay by Terri Windling
• Socks - novelette by Delia Sherman
• The Gangs: And Life's Other Little Annoyances - essay by Terri Windling
• Half Life - novelette by Donnárd Sturgis
• What to Eat: A Tasteful Guide to Border Cuisine - essay by Terri Windling and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• Hot Water: A Bordertown Romance - short story by Ellen Kushner
• The Music Scene: What's Up and What Ain't - essay by Terri Windling and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• Arcadia - short story by Michael Korolenko
• Nightlife: Where to Find It - essay by Terri Windling
• Changeling - novelette by Elisabeth Kushner
• So You Want to Be a Star: Get Real - essay by Terri Windling
• May This Be Your Last Sorrow - short story by Charles de Lint
• Uptown: How the Other Half Lives - essay by Terri Windling
• Rag - short story by Caroline Stevermer
• The Peculiar Joy of Cooking on the Border - essay by Terri Windling and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• When the Bow Breaks - short story by Steven Brust
• A Human Guide to Elvin Etiquette - essay by Terri Windling and Mimi Panitch
• Argentine - novelette by Ellen Steiber
• A Trueblood Guide to Human Peccadillos - essay by Terri Windling
• Cover Up My Tracks with Rain - novelette by Micole Sudberg
• Famous Last Words - essay by Terri Windling
• How Shannaro Tolkinson Lost and Found His Heart - novelette by Felicity Savage

Bordertown: a city on the border between our human world and the elfin realm. Runaway teens come from both sides of the border to find adventure, to find themselves. Elves play in rock bands and race down the street on spell-powered motorbikes. Human kids recreate themselves in the squats and clubs and artists' studios of Soho.

Terri Windling's original Bordertown series was the forerunner of today's urban fantasy, introducing authors that included Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and Ellen Kushner. In this volume of all-new work (including a 15-page graphic story), the original writers are now joined by the generation that grew up dreaming of Bordertown, including acclaimed authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, and many more. They all meet here on the streets of Bordertown in more than twenty new interconnected songs, poems, and stories.

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Holly Black
• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling
• Welcome to Bordertown - novella by Terri Windling and Ellen Kushner
• Shannon's Law - novelette by Cory Doctorow
• Cruel Sister - poem by Patricia A. McKillip
• A Voice Like a Hole - short story by Catherynne M. Valente
• Stairs in Her Hair - poem by Amal El-Mohtar
• Incunabulum - novelette by Emma Bull
• Run Back Across the Border - poem by Steven Brust
• A Prince of Thirteen Days - novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• The Sages of Elsewhere - short fiction by Will Shetterly
• Soulja Grrrl: A Long Line Rap - poem by Jane Yolen
• Crossings - short fiction by Janni Lee Simner
• Fair Trade (Comic) - short fiction by Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis
• Night Song for a Halfie - poem by Jane Yolen
• Our Stars, Our Selves - short fiction by Tim Pratt
• Elf Blood - short fiction by Annette Curtis Klause
• Ours is the Prettiest - short fiction by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Wall - poem by Delia Sherman
• We Do Not Come in Peace - short fiction by Christopher Barzak
• A Borderland Jump-Rope Rhyme - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Rowan Gentleman - short fiction by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black
• The Song of the Song - poem by Neil Gaiman
• A Tangle of Green Men - novella by Charles de Lint

When Ron runs away, he ends up in Bordertown, a grim city that lies between the real world and the world of faerie, a place where elf and human gangs stalk the streets side by side, and where magic works better than technology. If the city doesn't kill him, it just may teach him what it is to be human.

Growing up is hard to do... especially if, like Ron, you've been cursed (blessed?) and changed into a half wolf/half human. But though he may look strange, there is nothing weird about his loyalty to his newfound friends, or in his attempts to stay true to himself in the deadly, shifting world of Bordertown.