Search Worlds Without End

The fourteen stories in this mind-blowing collection range from outrageous satire to evocative fantasy, revealing the future with an alarming intensity.

Table of Contents:

• Poem at a Lunar Eclipse - poem by Thomas Hardy
• The Moment of Eclipse - (1969)
• The Day We Embarked for Cythera... - (1970)
• Orgy of the Living and the Dying - (1970)
• Super-Toys Last All Summer Long - (1969)
• The Village Swindler - (1968)
• Down the Up Escalation - (1967)
• That Uncomfortable Pause Between Life and Art... - (1969)
• Confluence - (1967)
• Heresies of the Huge God - (1966)
• The Circulation of the Blood... - (1966)
• ...And the Stagnation of the Heart - (1968)
• The Worm That Flies - (1968)
• Working in the Spaceship Yards - (1969)
• Swastika! - (1970)

Watching HMS Eclipse through the geosynch spaceport window, Officer James Dunne, a newly minted graduate of the Royal Interstellar Service Academy, thinks his first assignment will be routine... an easy going excursion on an aging deep-space cruiser, heading into the Dark, on a mission to explore the farthest reaches of known space.

James had always wanted to be a part of the romantic final frontier. Now, he thought, his lifelong dream was about to come true.

In fact, he was about to begin the greatest challenge, and worst nightmare, of his already-too-short service career!

Although repeatedly warned "not to rock the boat", it soon becomes obvious that it is too late for the young Officer!

He is drafted into the First Contact Team where he realizes two things: (1) that his contribution to the Interstellar Space Service might easily turn out to be that of a 'replaceable warm body' and (2) that disrespecting junior officers, like Dunne himself, often suffer 'unfortunate' and sometimes fatal 'accidents' out in the Dark.

Dunne's survival will depend on his ability to separate power from perversion while enduring the corruption and control of others!

Nineteen light years from Earth, on Sigma Draconis, an international space team stumbles upon the first evidence of another highly advanced civilization in the universe.

Tragically, however, the Draconians are extinct and have been for a hundred thousand years. What mysterious disaster destroyed man's nearest neighbour in the colossal emptiness of space? And will the same fate befall Earth?

The answers, as Earth degenerates into squabbles, paranoia and self-destruction, are vital. But how to begin the almost insuperable task of cracking the enigma of a long-buried and utterly alien culture?

If you think political campaigns are getting stranger and stranger, consider the Presidential campaign of 1988: When the United States has virtually collapsed after civil war and a foreign embargo; When DC lies in ruins and the White House is in California; And when Robert Colonby, Presidential candidate, promises to rebuild the nation with help from an awesome, godlike race of beings on Jupiter. An inventive, fast-paced novel about this startling campaign... a behind-the-scenes look at one of our possible futures.

This is a big, broad-canvas novel of romance and conflict on a far from Earth, water-starved planet.

When a young anthropologist leaves a dying Earth for Serensunar, she finds more than she bargained for. There are the eclipses that come frequently because Serensunar is one of a double planet system. And there is the volatility of the crust of the planet, which heaves and tosses every few years, knocking down dams and aqueducts the colonists erect.

Yet Serensunar is lush and fertile, mainly because the vision of one man, old Calib the Water Baron. He built a personal Empire by controlling the continent's main watershed, which insured the continued balance of man and nature on this planet. It is Calib and his heir, Aram, who enable Beth to continue her search for the Lost Expedition despite limited funding. Aram is smitten early on by this young woman who is working alone in the wilderness and feeling lucky to have gotten the chance. And while she is more wary of their budding relationship, it is finally her commitment to Aram in which Beth finds the beginnings of personal peace.

But it's a peace that is shattered. Both are strong individuals, and peace in their life together begins to seem like an unsustainable dream. Aram has come into his inheritance, the Earth's social system collapses and more and more colonists arrive, disturbing the delicate ecological balance. Then even more ships arrive from Earth with tales of increasing disasters--and hordes of immigrants. Aram is forced to make the hard decisions about whether to wake the cryogenically sleeping passengers, which would strain the already limited water supply on the planet. Beth, herself a fortunate refugee, wishes to accommodate them all. And Aram's own children side with their mother. Soon, Beth and their children are battling Aram the Water Baron for control of their planet's destiny.

Felice's novel combines political, economic, and ecological speculations to explore the nature of power and love.

True Dreamer: When Calyx's father banished her to the dream temple at Aster, it was an answer to her prayers, for now she would be trained to watch and read the dreams of others. But Calyx was barred from training, and only through long-buried knowledge and the secret aid of the young priest Dev did she find the means to explore her power of prophecy. Yet even as Calyx struggled to test her skills, Edishu, the gods' own nightmare, reached out to freeze the lands and conquer Calyx through her own dreams. Now one woman stands alone to protect her people from the living death of a dread rule

The stories and novellas gathered here range from wartime England to Leningrad under the siege, from the coal mines of Coventry to the hallucinatory beauty of the Greek islands. Some of the stories ("Gap Sickness," "The Careperson") utilize overtly science fictional premises. Some ("Under the Pylon," "Black Dust") recall the overall ambience of The Tooth Fairy, Graham's unforgettable portrait of adolescent rites of passage. Others, such as "Candia" and "Xenos Beach," are accounts of magical, erotic, and dangerous encounters in exotic ports of call. And some of the stories transcend all traditional categories. One of these is the unforgettable novella, "Leningrad Nights," a story of suffering and survival in a frozen, surreal city ruled by "the blind justice of the Whistling Shell."

Partial Eclipse is a book of dark, disturbing, sometimes beautiful dreams. It is also, as the extraordinary title story tells us, a book about the primal importance of dreaming. For admirers of Graham Joyce's novels, this is an indispensable volume. For those who have yet to discover his work, it is a varied, elegant introduction to one of the singular dreamers of our time.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Partial Eclipse and Other Stories) - essay by Bill Sheehan
• 13 - Partial Eclipse - (2000) - short story
• 29 - Black Dust - (2001) - short story
• 45 - The Apprentice - (1993) - novelette
• 79 - Candia - (2000) - short story
• 95 - The Careperson - (1992) - novelette
• 119 - Gap-Sickness - (1993) - short story
• 131 - Xenos Beach - (2000) - short story
• 149 - Pinkland - (1998) - short story
• 163 - Leningrad Nights - (1999) - novella
• 213 - Under the Pylon - (1992) - short story

On the planet Nightshade, anyone can buy or sell the death-dealing drug, Flex, to take offworld but no one is supposed to use it. Nonetheless, Flex addicts are a common sight in Riotmark, the planet's largest city. No one comes to Nightshade for anything but the Flex--no one except Benedict and his traveling companions, who believe there may be something even more interesting in the jungle... something Benedict has been searching for all his life.

Benedict Saltow is a First Order Empath who never knows when another crippling seizure will strike and immobilize him. Ryker is an adventurer who likes to give orders Benedict might not like to take. Renata is a beautiful woman who loves to walk a dangerous tightrope. And Silky is a fourteen-year-old Flex addict who knows she will die soon--and the most important person in Benedict's world.

In a near-future dystopia, a limited nuclear strike has destroyed portions of Europe, bringing the remaining nation-cities under control of the Second Alliance, a frighteningly fundamentalist international security corporation with designs on world domination. The only defense against the Alliance's creeping totalitarianism is the New Resistance, a polyglot team of rebels that includes Rick Rickenharp, a retro-rocker whose artistic and political sensibilities intertwine, and John Swenson, a mole who has infiltrated the Alliance. As the fight continues and years progress, so does the technology and brutality of the Alliance... but ordinary people like the damaged visionary Smoke, Claire Rimpler on FirStep, and Dance Torrence and his fellow urban warriors on Earth are bound together by the truth and a single purpose: to keep the darkness from becoming humankind's Total Eclipse - or die trying!

An omnibus of all three novels-revised by the author-of the prophetic, still frighteningly relevant cyberpunk masterpieces: Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona. With an introduction by Richard Kadrey and biographical note by Bruce Sterling.

Book one of John Shirley's pre-holocaust series, A Song Called Youth.

The Russians didn't use the big nukes.

The ongoing Third World War leaves parts of Europe in ruins. Into the chaos steps the Second Alliance, a multinational eager to impose its own kind of New World Order.

In the United States ... in FirStep, the vast space colony ... and on the artificial island Freezone -- the SA shoulders its way to power, spinning a dark web of media manipulation, propaganda, and infiltration.

Only the New Resistance recognizes the SA for what it really is: a racist theocracy hiding a cult of eugenics.

Enter Rick Rickenharp, a former rock'n'roll cult hero: a rock classicist -- out of place in Europe's underground club scene, populated by "wiredancers" and "minimonos" ... but destined to play a Song Called Youth that will shake the world.

The guerilla war against the Second Alliance and its plans for a European apartheid intensifies in this second volume of John Shirley's A Song Called Youth trilogy. From its beginning, thwarting the Second Alliance has been the first priority of the New Resistance; now the SA has decided it was time to return the favor, Resistance could not be allowed to interfere with the progress of the SA's master plan. Eliminating the rebels will clear the way for Project Total Eclipse, which in turn would stretch the SA's shadow over every remaining outpost of humanity--selecting scapegoats, directing violence, and creating an immutable new order. And the penumbra of the Eclipse would establish complete SA control over the Grid, the space colony and the survivors of the war... and also it to decide the fate of humanity.

The power of the Second Alliance has coalesced and terrorism institutionalized. New concentration camps bring the horrors of "Ethnic Cleansing" to a terrifying intensity. The SA stands poised to conquer the ruins of Europe with brutality. Media manipulation has become mind control--and mind control, an art. Secret treaties have been made in back rooms, on the Internet, and in hidden laboratories. Your only hope is the New Resistance. People like Dance Torrence and his fellow urban warriors on Earth; Claire Rimpler on the L5 colony, FirStep; Smoke, the damaged visionary; and Alouette, a precocious cyber-jacked little girl on the cutting edge on a strange new frontier of human collective-consciousness, the Entelechy. Ordinary people bound together by the truth and a single purpose: to keep the secret darkness from becoming humankind's Total Eclipse--or die trying.

Eclipse

What happens if after the days keep getting shorter?
And shorter?
Until there is an eternal night?

What happens as the darkness grows?
And the creatures of dusk take control of the Mountain?
And Atreu and Verlinden's quest for the third Book is the only hope?

The Mountain is in its death throes as the Nazir send their wraiths to finish what the dusk-rats and grale had begun. Soon there will be no daylight to protect the Maelir and Faemir, and with each twilight there are fewer places to hide. Will the Mountain finally collapse under its own instability or will Atreu and Verlinden's descent find the words of salvation in the Lost Book of Ascension?

Can you see the story breathing?

Table of Contents:

• It's a Funny Thing - [Asimov's Editorials] - (1978) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• It's a Funny Thing - (1978) - interior artwork by Frank Kelly Freas
• Public Relations - (1978) - shortstory by Ginger Kaderabek
• Public Relations - (1978) - interior artwork by Freff
• The Great Ring of Neptune - [SF Puzzles] - (1978) - shortstory by Martin Gardner
• But Do They Ride Dolphins? - (1978) - interior artwork by Rick Sternbach
• But Do They Ride Dolphins? - (1978) - shortstory by Frederick S. Lord, Jr.
• One Rejection Too Many - (1978) - shortstory by Patricia Nurse
• Fragger's Bottom Line... Line... Line... - (1978) - interior artwork by Alex Schomburg
• Fragger's Bottom Line... Line... Line... - (1978) - novelette by Sherwood Springer
• When We Come Down - (1978) - interior artwork by Jack Gaughan
• When We Come Down - (1978) - novelette by Stephen Leigh
• On the Way - (1978) - shortstory by Conway Conley
• On the Way - (1978) - interior artwork by Freff
• Dance Band on the Titanic - (1978) - interior artwork by Freff
• Dance Band on the Titanic - (1978) - novelette by Jack L. Chalker
• Cautionary Tales - (1978) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• Cautionary Tales - (1978) - interior artwork by Jack Gaughan
• Horseless Carriage - (1978) - shortstory by Michael A. Banks
• Horseless Carriage - (1978) - interior artwork by Alex Schomburg
• Message to Myself - (1978) - shortstory by Diana L. Paxson
• Message to Myself - (1978) - interior artwork by Alex Schomburg
• The Suicide of Man - (1978) - interior artwork by George Barr
• The Suicide of Man - (1978) - novelette by John Brunner

The willow bends and does not break, but the wind that blows from the west has a name...and that name is Khan--Jenghiz Khan. It is to the north of ancient China where lies the greatest danger and no one is safe, especially foreigners.

The man known to the Chinese people as Shih Ghieh-Man faces the greatest danger. He is an enigma--a man of strength with no perceivable vices. To survive the coming storm, he allies himself with the beautiful T'en Chih-Yu, a woman warrior desperate to save her people from the Mongol horde.

But the man who offers his help has another, older name-and a terrible secret. For he is the Count St. Germain... and the greatest gift he can bestow can be bought with blood... or death.

Hard on the heels of their escape from a powerful baroness, the wayfarers arrive at the shore of the mighty Mississippi. As if whisked back in time, Ryan Cawdor and his band of warrior survivalists find themselves passengers on a riverboat. It's a high time, until the stakes escalate and Ryan is sold to the highest bidder.

An eclipse is a rare and unusual event, when the world is transformed and the sky becomes a dark eldritch thing. It's a time when anything could happen, when any kind of story just might be true. That sense of the strange and wonderful guides Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, the first volume in an exciting new annual anthology series edited by acclaimed anthologist Jonathan Strahan.

Set to become a major event on the science fiction and fantasy calendar,Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy gathers together new science fiction and fantasy stories by the best writers working today. You can see that in Eclipse 1, which features extraordinary tales by Peter S. Beagle, Jack Dann & Paul Brandon, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Eileen Gunn, Gwyneth Jones, Ellen Klages, Maureen F. McHugh, Garth Nix, Lucius Shepard, Bruce Sterling and Ysabeau S. Wilce.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2007) - essay by Jonathan Strahan
• Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse - (2007) - shortstory by Andy Duncan
• Bad Luck, Trouble, Death, and Vampire Sex - (2007) - shortstory by Garth Nix
• The Last and Only or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French - (2007) - shortstory by Peter S. Beagle
• The Lost Boy: A Reporter at Large - (2007) - shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh
• The Drowned Life - (2007) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• Toother - (2007) - shortstory by Terry Dowling
• Up the Fire Road - (2007) - novelette by Eileen Gunn
• In the Forest of the Queen - (2007) - shortstory by Gwyneth Jones
• Quartermaster Returns - (2007) - shortstory by Ysabeau S. Wilce
• Electric Rains - (2007) - shortstory by Kathleen Ann Goonan
• She-Creatures - (2007) - shortstory by Margo Lanagan
• The Transformation of Targ - (2007) - shortstory by Jack Dann and Paul Brandon
• Mrs. Zeno's Paradox - (2007) - shortstory by Ellen Klages
• The Lustration - (2007) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• Larissa Miusov - (2007) - shortstory by Lucius Shepard
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited

An eclipse is a rare and unusual event, when the world is transformed and the sky becomes a dark eldritch thing. It's a time when anything could happen, when any kind of story just might be true. That sense of the strange and wonderful guides Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, the second volume in an exciting new annual anthology series edited by acclaimed anthologist Jonathan Strahan.

Set to become a major event on the science fiction and fantasy calendar, Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy gathers together new science fiction and fantasy stories by the best writers working today. You can see that in Eclipse Two, which features more extraordinary tales of the fantastic and astounding.

Table of Contents

• Introduction - essay by Jonathan Strahan
• The Hero - novelette by Karl Schroeder
• Turing's Apples - short story by Stephen Baxter
• Invisible Empire of Ascending Light - short story by Ken Scholes
• Michael Laurits Is: DROWNING - short story by Paul Cornell
• Night of the Firstlings - short story by Margo Lanagan
• Elevator - short story by Nancy Kress
• The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm - novelette by Daryl Gregory
• Exhalation - short story by Ted Chiang
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - novelette by David Moles
• The Rabbi's Hobby - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• The Seventh Expression of the Robot General - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Skin Deep - novelette by Richard Parks
• Ex Cathedra - novelette by Tony Daniel
• Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose - short story by Terry Dowling
• Fury - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited

To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true... In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen - where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new.

Contents:

• The Pelican Bar, Karen Joy Fowler
• A Practical Girl, Ellen Klages
• Don't Mention Madagascar, Pat Cadigan
• On the Road, Nnedi Okorafor
• Swell, Elizabeth Bear
• Useless Things, Maureen F. McHugh
• The Coral Heart, Jeffrey Ford
• It Takes Two, Nicola Griffith
• Sleight of Hand, Peter S. Beagle
• The Pretender's Tourney, Daniel Abraham
• Yes We Have No Bananas, Paul Di Filippo
• Mesopotamian Fire, Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple
• The Visited Man, Molly Gloss
• Galapagos, Caitlin R. Kiernan
• Dolce Domum, Ellen Kushner

World Fantasy Award-winner Jonathan Strahan delivers the fourth volume of this series, once again demonstrating his keen editorial eye. The multi-award winning Eclipse series (Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Aurealis) is the only on-going anthology for original non-themed science fiction and fantasy, and its contents have been regularly recognized as some of the most compelling stories of the year, both on awards ballots and on best-of-the-year lists. Eclipse 4 delivers new fiction by some of the genre's most celebrated authors, including Peter Beagle, Emma Bull, Andy Duncan, Elizabeth Hand, Gwyneth Jones and Michael Swanwick and Many others.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Jonathan Strahan
• Slow as a Bullet - shortstory by Andy Duncan
• Tidal Forces - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Beancounter's Cat - novelette by Damien Broderick
• Story Kit - shortstory by Kij Johnson
• The Man in Grey - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Old Habits - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Vicar of Mars - novelette by Gwyneth Jones
• Fields of Gold - novelette by Rachel Swirsky
• Thought Experiment - shortstory by Eileen Gunn
• The Double of My Double Is Not My Double - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Nine Oracles - shortstory by Emma Bull
• Dying Young - novelette by Peter M. Ball
• The Panda Coin - shortstory by Jo Walton
• Tourists - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited

Dr Renee Caisson knows there are worse things than an attractive man in uniform drafting her into a secret government project - especially when Major Jackson makes it clear that he isn't bothered by her questionable past. But when her labs come back with decidedly odd results, the Major is forced to come clean over who the government is actually studying. Renee is shocked to learn her subjects are demonic-looking beings who call themselves "Neighbours" - refugees from a dying world, who arrived during the nation-wide solar eclipse.

The Neighbours' technology is unlike anything Renee's ever encountered. At first, she dismisses an injury that inexplicably heals as "just one of those things". And surely August, the most gregarious Neighbour, begins to speak English overnight because of the team linguist's skills?

Not until August begins evolving in real time to withstand Earth's brighter, dryer atmosphere does she admit that the Neighbors' "tech" feels less like science and more like magic--the same magic that brought them here in the first place, and the same they're trying to rekindle with a mysterious labyrinth in order to return home and save their world.

At least, that's what August claims they came for...

Dr Renee Caisson never expected that her scientific expertise would lead to a role playing interpreter between humans and the demonic-looking Neighbours. When the door between their worlds opened, she was drafted by the government to study the otherworldly beings and was able to prove her theory: the Neighbours had been to Earth before - and now they simply wanted to save their dying planet.

At least, that's the story, and everyone - both human and Neighbour - is sticking to it. The Neighbour in charge of the new portal's operation, Noel, isn't that sure anymore. Having succeeded in finding a new planet to inhabit, the leaders of her world have made the dark truth of their existence clear to her: the Neighbours forcibly tried to make a foothold on Earth in the past - and they can't afford to fail again.

But the Neighbours' ability to magically teleport from place to place has convinced Major Jackson that the only way to keep control of the situation is to embrace it and tell the world of the Neighbours' existence.

Unfortunately, not everyone agrees.

As time has passed, Dr Renee Caisson has begun to see the demonic, alien August as more than a research subject or an unlikely colleague - they've become friends. And together she and August have helped the two societies of Nextdoor and Earth through the confusion of first contact, the danger of misunderstandings, and the anger of mistreatment.

But when a popular blogger and conspiracy theorist twists August's words, an uproar ensues, turning a powerful section of human society against the Neighbours - and resulting in Renee's house arrest. Her could-be boyfriend, Major Jackson, says it's to protect her, though that's not how Renee sees it.

Torn between duty and friendship, August jumps Renee to freedom, fully aware that the journey might reveal more to her than she should know. The wily Neighbour has pieced together that Renee has been unconsciously using their magic, a fact that, if revealed, will cause more, not less, conflict between the humans and Neighbors.

For if the people of Earth can master magic and exile August's people again, the Neighbours will not survive...

October "Toby" Daye is half-human, half-fae-the only changeling who's earned knighthood. But when someone begins targeting her nearest and dearest, it becomes clear that Toby is being set up to take the fall for everything that's happening.

A string of smashing victories by the forces of the sinister aliens known as the Yuuzhan Vong has left New Republic resources and morale stretched to the breaking point. Leia Organa Solo, estranged from her husband, Han, oversees the evacuation of refugees on planets in the path of the merciless invaders. Luke Skywalker struggles to hold the fractious Jedi Knights together, even while one of them undertakes a bold but reckless undercover mission. Manipulating their alliance with the amoral Hutts, the Yuuzhan Vong leave a cunning trail of vital information where New Republic agents are sure to find it-information the desperate defenders cannot afford to ignore: the location of the aliens' next target.Then Han Solo stumbles into the dark heart of a raging battle, thus beginning a furious race against time that will require every skill and trick in his arsenal to win.

Kee Ildez has been many things: hacker, soldier, bounty hunter. She never expected to be a hero, but when a shadowy group of traitors starts trying to goad the galaxy's two superpowers into instigating an interstellar war, Kee throws herself into the search to find out who is responsible--and stop them.

Digging up hidden information is her job, so hunting traitors should be a piece of cake, but the primary suspect spent years in the military, and someone powerful is still covering his tracks. Disrupting their plans will require the help of her entire team, including Varro Runkow, a Valovian weapons expert who makes her pulse race.

Quiet, grumpy, and incredibly handsome, Varro watches her with hot eyes but ignores all of her flirting, so Kee silently vows to keep her feelings strictly platonic. But that vow will be put to the test when she and Varro are forced to leave the safety of their ship and venture into enemy territory alone.

Cut off from the rest of their team, they must figure out how to work together--and fast--because a single misstep will cost thousands of lives.

'Bella?' Edward's soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, and kissed me again. His kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine - like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob - knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

Following the international bestsellers Twilight and New Moon, Eclipse is the much-anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer's captivating saga of vampire romance.

Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin, her husband, the djinn David, and the Earth herself have been poisoned by a substance that destroys the magic that keeps the world alive. The poison is destabilizing the entire balance of power, bestowing magic upon those who have never had it, and removing it form those who need it. It's just a matter of time before the delicate balance of nature explodes into chaos-and doom.