Search Worlds Without End

Ever since her troubled mother abandoned her, Trix McCabe has preferred to stay on the move.

But when she lands with her long-lost relatives, she finds out that the McCabe women have talents like her own that defy explanation: pies that cure all ills, palm-reading that never misses the mark, knowledge of secrets that have never been told.

Before long, Trix feels like she might finally have found somewhere she belongs. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she'll have to decide whether to take a chance on this new life... or keep running from the one she's always known.

A car lies at the bottom of an icy ravine. Slumped over the steering wheel, dead, is the most critically acclaimed horror writer of his time. Was it an accident? His son Milo doesn't care. For the first time in his life, he's free. No more nightmarish readings, spooky animal rites, or moonlit visions of his father in the woods with a notebook and vampire make-up.

Or so he thinks.

Milo settles into a quiet routine--constructing model Greek warships and at last building a relationship with his sister Klara, who's home after a failed marriage and brief career as an English teacher. Then Klara hires a gardener to breathe new life into their overgrown estate. There's something odd about him--something eerily reminiscent of their father's most violent villain. Or is Milo imagining things? He's not sure. That all changes the day the gardener discovers something startling in the woods. Suddenly Milo is fighting for his life, forced to confront the power of fictional identity as he uncovers the shocking truth about his own dysfunctional family--and the supposed accident that claimed his parents' lives.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) is a short story by the American writer and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. Described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature", it was originally published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 13, 1890, and was first collected in Bierce's book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891). The story, which is set during the American Civil War, is known for its irregular time sequence and twist ending. Bierce's abandonment of strict linear narration in favor of the internal mind of the protagonist is an early example of the stream of consciousness narrative mode.

The condemned man stands on a bridge, his hands bound behind his back. A noose is tied around his neck. In a moment he will meet his fate: DEATH BY HANGING. There is no escape. Or is there? Find out in... An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

This short story originally appeared in The San Francisco Examiner, July 13, 1890. It has been anthologized numerous times, and can also be found in several collections, including The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce (1970) and Terror By Night: Classic Ghost and Horror Stories (2011).

It was the basis for the 1962 French short film La Rivière du hibou, later screened in 1964 as episode 142 of The Twilight Zone.

Of all the writers of ghost and horror stories, Ambrose Bierce is perhaps the most colourful. He was a dark, cynical and pessimistic soul who had a grim vision of fate and the unfairness of life, which he channelled into his fiction. And in his death, or rather his disappearance, he created a mystery as strange and unresolved as any that he penned himself. But more of that later.

Ambrose Gwinett Bierce was born in a log cabin on 21st June 1842, in Horse Creek, Meigs County, Ohio, USA. He was the tenth of thirteen children, ten of whom survived infancy. His father, an unsuccessful farmer with an unseemly love of literature, had given all the Bierce children names beginning with 'A'. There was Abigail, the eldest; then Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius etc. So oddness was a part of Bierce's life from the beginning. Poverty and religion of the extreme variety were the two chief influences on young Ambrose's childhood. He not only hated this period of his life, he also developed a deep hatred for his family and this is reflected in some of his stories which depict families preying on and murdering one another. For example the unforgettable opening sentence of 'An Imperfect Conflagration' seems to sum up his bitter attitude: 'Early in 1872 I murdered my father - an act that made a deep impression on me at the time'.

Table of Contents

• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - (1890)
• The Moonlit Road - (1907)
• Haïta the Shepherd - (1891)
• The Secret of Macarger's Gulch - (1891)
• The Eyes of the Panther - (1897)
• The Stranger - (1909)
• An Inhabitant of Carcosa - (1886)
• The Applicant - (1892)
• The Death of Halpin Frayser - (1891)
• A Watcher by the Dead - (1889)
• An Imperfect Conflagration - (1886)
• The Man and the Snake - (1890)
• John Mortonson's Funeral - (1906)
• Moxon's Master - (1899)
• The Damned Thing - (1893)
• The Realm of the Unreal - (1890)
• Chickamauga - (1889)
• A Fruitless Assignment - (1888)
• A Vine on a House - (1905)
• One of Twins - (1888)
• Present at a Hanging - (1888)
• A Wireless Message - (1905)
• One of the Missing - (1888)
• An Arrest - (1905)
• A Jug of Sirup - (1893)
• The Isle of Pines - (1888)
• At Old Man Eckert's - (1901)
• Three and One Are One - (1908)
• The Spook House - (1889)
• The Middle Toe of the Right Foot - (1890)
• The Thing at Nolan - (1891)
• The Difficulty of Crossing a Field - (1888)
• The Affair at Coulter's Notch - (1889)
• An Unfinished Race - (1888)
• Charles Ashmore's Trail - (1888)
• Staley Fleming's Hallucination - (1906)
• The Night-Doings at "Deadman's" - (1874)
• A Baby Tramp - (1891)
• A Psychological Shipwreck - (1879)
• A Cold Greeting - (1888)
• Beyond the Wall - (1907)
• John Bartine's Watch - (1893)
• The Man Out of the Nose - (1887)
• An Adventure at Brownville - (1892)
• The Mocking-Bird - (1891)
• The Suitable Surroundings - (1889)
• The Boarded Window - (1889)
• A Lady from Redhorse - (1891)
• The Famous Gilson Bequest - (1878)
• A Holy Terror - (1882)
• A Diagnosis of Death - (1901)

Before he trailed off into the wilds of Mexico, never to be heard from again, Ambrose Bierce achieved a public persona as "bitter Bierce" and "the devil's lexicographer." He left behind a nasty reputation and more than ninety short stories that are perfect expressions of his sardonic genius.

Brought together in this volume, these stories represent an unprecedented accomplishment in American literature. In their iconoclasm and needle-sharp irony, their formal and thematic ingenuity and element of surprise, they differ markedly from the fiction admired in Bierce's time.

Readers familiar with the classic An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge will want to turn to Bierce's other Civil War stories. Also included here are his horror stories, among them The Death of Halpin Frayser and The Damned Thing, and such tall tales as Oil of Dog and A Cargo of Cat.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Cathy N. Davidson
• Introduction: Ambrose Bierce, Nonconformist - (1970) - essay by Ernest J. Hopkins
• Foreword Part I - (1970) - essay by Ernest J. Hopkins
• Haïta the Shepherd - (1891)
• The Secret of Macarger's Gulch - (1891)
• The Eyes of the Panther - (1897)
• The Stranger - (1909)
• An Inhabitant of Carcosa - (1886)
• The Applicant - (1892)
• The Death of Halpin Frayser - (1891)
• A Watcher by the Dead - (1889)
• The Man and the Snake - (1890)
• John Mortonson's Funeral - (1906)
• Moxon's Master - (1899)
• The Damned Thing - (1893)
• The Realm of the Unreal - (1890)
• A Fruitless Assignment - (1888)
• A Vine on a House - (1905)
• The Haunted Valley - (1871)
• One of Twins - (1888)
• Present at a Hanging - (1888)
• A Wireless Message - (1905)
• The Moonlit Road - (1907)
• An Arrest - (1905)
• A Jug of Sirup - (1893)
• The Isle of Pines - (1888)
• At Old Man Eckert's - (1901)
• The Spook House - (1889)
• The Middle Toe of the Right Foot - (1890)
• The Thing at Nolan - (1891)
• The Difficulty of Crossing a Field - (1888)
• An Unfinished Race - (1888)
• Charles Ashmore's Trail - (1888)
• Staley Fleming's Hallucination - (1906)
• The Night-Doings at "Deadman's" - (1874)
• A Baby Tramp - (1891)
• A Psychological Shipwreck - (1879)
• A Cold Greeting - (1888)
• Beyond the Wall - (1907)
• John Bartine's Watch - (1893)
• The Man Out of the Nose - (1887)
• An Adventure at Brownville - (1892)
• The Suitable Surroundings - (1889)
• The Boarded Window - (1889)
• A Lady from Redhorse - (1891)
• The Famous Gilson Bequest - (1878)
• A Holy Terror - (1882)
• A Diagnosis of Death - (1901)
• Foreword Part II - (1970) - essay by Ernest J. Hopkins
• One of the Missing - (1888)
• A Baffled Ambuscade - (1906)
• The Affair at Coulter's Notch - (1889)
• A Son of the Gods - (1888)
• One Kind of Officer - (1893)
• A Tough Tussle - (1888)
• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - (1890)
• Chickamauga - (1889)
• The Coup de Grâce - (1889)
• One Officer, One Man - (1889)
• The Story of a Conscience - (1890)
• Parker Adderson, Philosopher - (1891)
• An Affair of Outposts - (1897)
• Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General - (1885)
• A Horseman in the Sky - (1889)
• The Mocking-Bird - (1891)
• George Thurston - (1883)
• Killed at Resaca - (1887)
• Three and One Are One - (1908)
• Two Military Executions - (1906)
• The Major's Tale - (1890)
• A Resumed Identity - (1908)
• A Man with Two Lives - (1905)
• The Other Lodgers - (1907)
• A Bivouac of the Dead - (1903)
• Foreword Part III - (1970) - essay by Ernest J. Hopkins
• An Imperfect Conflagration - (1886)
• A Bottomless Grave - (1888)
• The City of the Gone Away - (1888)
• Curried Cow - (1874)
• A Revolt of the Gods - (1886)
• Oil of Dog - (1890)
• The Widower Turmore - (1891)
• The Baptism of Dobsho - (1874)
• The Race at Left Bower - (1874)
• The Failure of Hope & Wandel - (1874)
• A Providential Intimation - (1874)
• Mr. Swiddler's Flip-Flap - (1874)
• The Little Story - (1874)
• My Favorite Murder - (1888)
• The Hypnotist - (1893)
• Mr. Masthead, Journalist - (1874)
• Why I am Not Editing "The Stinger" - (1874)
• Corrupting the Press - (1874)
• "The Bubble Reputation" - (1886)
• A Shipwreckollection - (1874)
• The Captain of the "Camel" - (1875)
• The Man Overboard - (1876)
• A Cargo of Cat - (1885)

When nine-year-old Billy Fenwick goes missing on a train journey through East Germany, British authorities suspect a kidnapping for ransom, or, worse, a Communist conspiracy. But after Billy returns home safely, it appears his parents' fears were unfounded... until a 107-degree fever sets in and the buboes begin to appear on his body. Famed bacteriologist Sir Marcus Levin immediately recognizes the signs of bubonic plague, the first outbreak in England since the Black Death of the fourteenth century. But is it a freak occurrence caused by a natural mutation, or Soviet germ warfare, or something far more sinister? The trail leads Sir Marcus and General Kirk of British Intelligence to an ancient German crypt, where a macabre relic from 600 years ago will provide the crucial clue in unravelling the diabolical plot of a madman hellbent on wiping out the human race!

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 1997, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, October 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

A novel of breathtaking space adventure: Earthblood by SF legend and Bolo and Retief saga creator Keith Laumer writing with award-winning SF luminary Rosel George Brown. Humanity has been defeated by the rapacious Niss millennia ago and lies scattered across the galaxy. Young Roan, raised by aliens, is determined to reclaim his heritage and rediscover the legendary, lost human homeworld. But between Roan and home is a dangerous Niss fleet.

Also included are more tales by Laumer and by Brown, masters of humorous SF adventure with a sharp and often satirical point.

Table of Contents

• Earthblood (1966) novel by Rosel George Brown and Keith Laumer
• The Long Remembered Thunder (1963) novelette by Keith Laumer
• The Other Sky (1968) novella by Keith Laumer
• The Soul Buyer (1963) novelette by Keith Laumer
• Save Your Confederate Money, Boys (1959) short story by Rosel George Brown
• Flower Arrangement (1959) short story by Rosel George Brown
• Fruiting Body (1962) novelette by Rosel George Brown
• Visiting Professor (1961) short story by Rosel George Brown
• Car Pool (1959) novelette by Rosel George Brown
• And a Tooth (1962) short story by Rosel George Brown

In a world where experience is currency, Rosemary is the owner of a very special library--a library of memory, where scented coins transfer personal experience from one individual to another. When she trades away the sole memory of her grandmother's final concerto, family opposition, in the form of her daughter Ruth, forces Rosemary to go on a quest to try and recover the lost coin. Yet having to trade away her own memories to get it back, how much of Rosemary will survive the exchange?

The Yiddish Policeman's Union meets The Windup Girl when a female PI goes up against a ruthless gangster--just as both humans and robots agitate for independence in an Argentinian colony in Antarctica.

In Argentine Antarctica, Eliana Gomez is the only female PI in Hope City--a domed colony dependent on electricity (and maintenance robots) for heat, light, and survival in the icy deserts of the continent. At the center is an old amusement park--now home only to the androids once programmed to entertain--but Hope City's days as a tourist destination are long over. Now the City produces atomic power for the mainland while local factions agitate for independence and a local mobster, Ignacio Cabrera, runs a brisk black-market trade in illegally imported food.

Eliana doesn't care about politics. She doesn't even care--much--that her boyfriend, Diego, works as muscle for Cabrera. She just wants to save enough money to escape Hope City. But when an aristocrat hires Eliana to protect an explosive personal secret, Eliana finds herself caught up in the political tensions threatening to tear Hope City apart. In the clash of backstabbing politicians, violent freedom fighters, a gangster who will stop at nothing to protect his interests, and a newly sentient robot underclass intent on a very different independence, Eliana finds her job coming into deadly conflict with Diego's, just as the electricity that keeps Hope City from freezing begins to fail...

From the inner workings of the mob to the story of a revolution to the amazing settings, this story has got it all. Ultimately, however, Our Lady of the Ice questions what it means to be human, what it means to be free, and whether we're ever able to transcend our pasts and our programming to find true independence.

A new space opera about a young woman who must face the truth about her father's past from critically acclaimed author Cassandra Rose Clarke.

The Corominas family owns a small planet system, which consists of one gaseous planet and four terraformed moons, nicknamed the Four Sisters. Phillip Coromina, the patriarch of the family, earned his wealth through a manufacturing company he started as a young man and is preparing his eldest daughter, Esme, to take over the company when he dies.

When Esme comes of age and begins to take over the business, she gradually discovers the reach of her father's company, the sinister aspects of its work with alien DNA, and the shocking betrayal that estranged her three half-sisters from their father. After a lifetime of following her father's orders, Esme must decide if she should agree to his dying wish of assembling her sisters for a last goodbye or face her role in her family's tragic undoing.

Orphaned as young women, Celestia and Izara De Malena find themselves land rich but destitute, with only a failing rainforest acreage, Celestia's perfect manners, and Izara's nascent magic to their aristocratic names. With the last of their money running out, they enact a dangerous plan--using a spell she doesn't fully understand, Izara summons the Lady of the Seraphine and demands a favor: a husband for Celestia, one rich enough to enable the De Malena sisters to keep their land. But a favor from the river goddess always comes at a cost...

There's never been anyone - or anything - quite like Finn. He looks, and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task is to tutor Cat. When the government grants rights to the ever-increasing robot population, however, Finn struggles to find his place in the world.

Spies and sorcerers face off during the Cold War, with the fate of the world in balance in this print edition of a hugely popular serial novel from five award-winning and critically acclaimed authors.

The Cold War rages in back rooms and dark alleys of 1970s Prague as spies and sorcerers battle for home and country. The fate of the East and the West hangs in the balance right along the Iron Curtain--and crackling beneath the surface is a vein of magic that is waiting to be tapped.

"The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects."

When five sentient digital beings?condemned for over three hundred years to crew the small survey ship by the all-powerful Company?encounter a mysterious black sphere, their course of action is clear: obtain the object, inform the Company, earn lots of praise.

But the ship malfunctions, and the crew has no choice but to approach the sphere and survey it themselves. They have no idea that this object?and the transcendent truth hidden within?will change the fate of all existence, the Company, and themselves.

Suppose a stranger told you your daughter was his daughter in another life? Suppose you began to believe him? Suppose it was true?

He is the Songweaver, but before he was a master of song he was merely Cerin of Wran Cheaping-a seventeen-year-old orphan raised by a wildland witch. Then he encountered the Maid of the Grey Rose-the lone survivor of the war that devastated the Trembling Lands and the promised bride of Yarac Stone-Slayer, the feared and terrible Waster. The mysterious beauty captured Cerin's heart, drawing him into a world both dark and deadly, until armed with only a tinkerblade and the magic of song, he would take on a man's challenge...and choose a treacherous path toward a magnificent destiny. The Harp of the Grey Rose is award-winning fantasist Charles de Lint's first novel has been long out of print until now and it hints of the wonderful stories to come.

The city of Mera is a fortress hidden from the rest of humanity, a sanctuary for the diverse group of people rescued from death by the Oracle that rules the city. The Oracle has brought together the citizens of Mera from every land and every time period, protecting them from the ravages of time, death and the evil demon forces that howl outside the city at night. All that the Oracle asks in return is a willingness to aid the rest of humanity, calling the citizens to go forth on various missions of rescue to mortals in need of aid.

The Oracle sends Jerry out into the wilderness, accompanied by his ancient Greek friend, Killer, a world-famous lecher and juvenile delinquent with deadly combat skills. There they must rescue a woman named Ariadne, on the run with her children and seeking shelter. But children are not allowed in Mera, and Ariadne will not leave them, while Mera's evil demon enemies move closer and closer to Jerry's and Killer's temporary place of respite.

Jett is a girl passing as a boy, living as a cowboy in the old West as she searches for her long-lost brother. When the book opens, she's just rolled into a new town, where she stops by the saloon. Things are relatively calm, although she suspects there will be Trouble from at least one of the locals. Sure enough, Trouble starts to mosey over, when-- The saloon is invaded by zombies. Barely escaping with her life, Jett hightails it out of town and soon falls into the company of Honoria Gibbons, a smart, self-sufficient young woman who also happens to be a fabulous inventor. Together with White Fox, a young man they meet, they set out to discover what's caused the zombie uprising. Turns out these zombies aren't rising from the dead of their own accord... but who would want an undead army? And why?

Twenty Tales of Crime and the Supernatural

• 1 - Introduction (Murder by Magic) essay by Rosemary Edghill
• 5 - Piece of Mind short story by Jennifer Roberson
• 21 - Special Surprise Guest Appearance by ... short story by Carole Nelson Douglas
• 35 - Doppelgangster short story by Laura Resnick
• 51 - Mixed Marriages Can Be Murder short story by Will Graham
• 63 - The Case of the Headless Corpse short story by Josepha Sherman
• 83 - A Death in the Working short story by Debra Doyle
• 95 - Cold Case short story by Diane Duane
• 111 - Snake in the Grass short story by Susan R. Matthews
• 125 - Double Jeopardy short story by M. J. Hamilton
• 139 - Witch Sight short story by Roberta Gellis
• 155 - Overrush short story by Laura Anne Gilman
• 173 - Captured in Silver short story by Teresa Edgerton
• 189 - A Night at the Opera short story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
• 205 - A Tremble in the Air short story by James D. Macdonald
• 225 - Murder Entailed short story by Susan Krinard
• 245 - Dropping Hints short story by Lawrence Watt-Evans
• 259 - Au Purr short story by Esther M. Friesner
• 277 - Getting the Chair short story by Keith R. A. DeCandido
• 295 - The Necromancer's Apprentice by Lillian Stewart Carl
• 311 - Grey Eminence - [Elemental Masters] - novelette by Mercedes Lackey
• 341 - Afterword (Murder by Magic) essay by Rosemary Edghill
• 346 - About the Editor (Murder by Magic) essay by uncredited

LIVE THE LEGEND!

Gloria "Glory" McArdle plays Vixen the Slayer in a straight-to-syndication TV show where even the fans say the villain is the better actress. The wizards of Erchanen have been searching all the worlds to find a hero, and Vixen the Slayer is the last name on their list.

The Warmother, imprisoned a thousand years before by Ginnas the Warkiller, has broken free of her ancient chains. If a hero can't be found somewhere in all the universes to fight for them, the people of Erchanen are toast. But is it Glory they're looking for... or Vixen

It all seemed to be a perfectly straightforward misunderstanding when Belegir was explaining it in Glory's dressing room. The reality--if you could call it that--isn't just fighting for her life. Faced with a challenge like that, what can a girl do but pick up her magic sword and her stuffed elephant and give her trademark battle cry:

"Hi-yi-yi-yi! Come, Camrado! Evil wakes!"

North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence--but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich.

The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux's wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty's mother, Nola. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition--the sweat lodge--for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them.

LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new "sister," Maggie, welcomes him as a coconspirator who can ease her volatile mother's terrifying moods. Gradually he's allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches' own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal.

But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole.

A surreal exploration of one woman's life and death against a landscape of meat, office desks, and bad men.

The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday -- school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents -- with the surreal -- rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats -- Cassie's realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty.

This novelette originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1985. The story is included in the collection Artificial Things (1986). A chapbook edition appeared in 1991.

Contents:

• The Rose in Twelve Petals
• The Rapid Advance of Sorrow
• Professor Berkowitz Stands on the Threshold
• Lily, With Clouds
• Her Mother's Ghosts
• What Her Mother Said
• Chrysanthemums
• The Ophelia Cantos
• That Year
• The Bear's Daughter
• Bears
• Helen in Sparta
• By Tidal Pools
• The Changeling

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1978. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series VII (1979), edited by Gerald W. Page. It is included in the collection A Glow of Candles and Other Stories (1981).

Unexpected tales of the fantastic, & other odd musings.

Table of Contents:

• Travels with the Snow Queen - (1996) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Scotch: An Essay into a Drink - (1997) - essay by Gavin J. Grant
• Unrecognizable - (1998) - poem by David Findlay
• mehitobel was queen of the night - (1999) - poem by Ian McDowell
• Tan-Tan and Dry Bone - (1999) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• An Open Letter Concerning Sponsorship - (1999) - shortfiction by Margaret Muirhead
• I Am Glad - (1999) - poem by Margaret Muirhead
• Lady Shonagon's Hateful Things - (1999) - poem by Margaret Muirhead
• Heartland - (1988) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• What A Difference a Night Makes - (2000) - shortfiction by Gavin J. Grant
• Pretending - (2001) - shortstory by Ray Vukcevich
• The Film Column: Don't Look Now - (2003) - essay by William Smith
• A is for Apple: An Easy Reader - (2001) - poem by Amy Beth Forbes
• My Father's Ghost - (2001) - poem by Mark Rudolph
• What's Sure to Come - (2002) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Stoddy Awchaw - (2002) - shortstory by Geoffrey H. Goodwin
• The Rapid Advance of Sorrow - (2002) - shortstory by Theodora Goss
• The Wolf's Story - (2002) - poem by Nan Fry
• Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland - (2002) - shortstory by Sarah Monette
• Tacoma-Fuji - (2002) - poem by David Moles
• Bay - (2003) - shortfiction by David Erik Nelson
• How to Make a Martini - (2003) - essay by Richard Butner
• Happier Days - (2003) - shortfiction by Jan Lars Jensen
• The Fishie - (2003) - shortstory by Philip Raines and Harvey Welles
• Dear Aunt Gwenda (The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet) (1) - [Dear Aunt Gwenda] - (2004) - essay by Gwenda Bond
• The Film Column: Greaser's Palace - (2004) - essay by William Smith
• The Ichthyomancer Writes His Friend with an Account of the Yeti's Birthday Party - (2003) - shortfiction by David J. Schwartz
• Serpents - (2003) - shortfiction by Veronica Schanoes
• Homeland Security - (2003) - shortfiction by Gavin J. Grant
• For George Romero - (2003) - poem by David Blair
• Vincent Price - (2003) - poem by David Blair
• Music Lessons - (2004) - shortstory by Douglas Lain
• Telling Lives - (2004) - shortstory by James Sallis
• The Museum of Last Week - (2004) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Help Wanted - (2005) - shortstory by Karen Russell
• "Eft" or "Epic" - (2005) - shortstory by Sarah Micklem
• The Red Phone - (2005) - shortstory by John Kessel
• The Well-Dressed Wolf - (2005) - shortfiction by Lawrence Schimel
• - The Well-Dressed Wolf - (2005) - interior artwork by Sara Rojo
• The Mushroom Duchess - (2005) - shortstory by Deborah Roggie
• The Pirate's True Love - (2005) - shortstory by Seana Graham
• You Could Do This Too - (2005) - essay by Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link
• The Posthumous Voyages of Christopher Columbus - (2006) - poem by Sunshine Ison
• And If They Are Not Dead, They May Be Living Still - (2006) - poem by Sunshine Ison
• This Is the Train the Queen Rides On - (2006) - shortstory by Becca De La Rosa
• Dear Aunt Gwenda (The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet) (2) - [Dear Aunt Gwenda] - (2005) - essay by Gwenda Bond
• Bright Waters - (2005) - novelette by John Brown
• How the Burkina Faso Bicycle Fell Apart - (2006) - poem by K. E. Duffin
• Forwarding Address - (2006) - poem by K. E. Duffin
• Sliding - (2006) - poem by D. M. Gordon
• You Were Neither Hot Nor Cold, But Lukewarm, and So I Spit You Out - (2006) - shortstory by Cara Spindler and David Erik Nelson

Contains:

• The Rose
• The Chessplayers
• The New Reality

Imogen and her sister Marin escape their cruel mother to attend a prestigious artists' retreat, but soon learn that living in a fairy tale requires sacrifices, whether it be art or love in this haunting debut novel from "a remarkable young writer" (Neil Gaiman).

What would you sacrifice for everything you ever dreamed of?

Imogen has grown up reading fairy tales about mothers who die and make way for cruel stepmothers. As a child, she used to lie in bed wishing that her life would become one of these tragic fairy tales because she couldn't imagine how a stepmother could be worse than her mother now. As adults, Imogen and her sister Marin are accepted to an elite post-grad arts program--Imogen as a writer and Marin as a dancer. Soon enough, though, they realize that there's more to the school than meets the eye. Imogen might be living in the fairy tale she's dreamed about as a child, but it's one that will pit her against Marin if she decides to escape her past to find her heart's desire.

Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, is done with wolves and woods.

Hou Yi the Archer is tired, and knows she's past her prime.

They would both rather just be retired, but that's not what the world has ready for them.

When deadly sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, threatening everything they've both grown to love, the two must join forces. Now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, they begin a quest that's a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, July 2012. It is included in the collection Selected Stories (2016).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Roused by a single drop of blood, Rosie Daniels wakes up to the chilling realisation that her husband is going to kill her. And she takes flight - with his credit card. Alone in a strange city, Rosie begins to build a new life: she meets Bill Steiner and she finds an odd junk shop painting, Rose Madder, which strangely seems to want her as much as she wants it.

Caroline Bohentin, Joe McLaren, and Robbie Brekke meet at a fashionable private hospital where each has signed up for a new -- expensive and exclusive -- procedure: Previous Life Access Surgery. This procedure removes barriers in the human brain and allows patients to recall memories from all of their previous incarnations throughout human history. But the memories are not under conscious and willful control. After the operation, each patient must begin his or her journey into the past with moments of discovery and surprise, whose meaning and significance are often unclear.

Meanwhile, in the outside world, which is ravaged by plagues that destroy the body's immune defenses, a crisis is building, both medically and politically. The mutated plague virus is destroying people's memories at an ever-increasing rate. And only those who have had the surgery seem to be immune.

As Caroline, Joe, and Robbie begin to remember flashes of previous lives, it becomes more and more evident that they are somehow connected to each other and that their connection has fateful implications for the entire future of the human race.

A great war, a great love, and the mythology that unites them; The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War is a lyrical adaptation of a beloved classic.

Set against the shattering events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the tale's heart are an American schoolteacher?dynamic and imaginative?and an Irish musician, homeless and hated?who have survived bloodshed, poverty, and sickness to be thrown together in an English village. Together they quietly hide from the world in a small cottage.

Too soon, reality shatters their serenity, and they must face the parochial community. Unbeknownst to all, a legend is in the making?one that will speak of courage and resilience amidst the forces that brought the couple together even as outside forces threaten to tear them apart.

North to Orsinia and the boundaries between reality and madness... South to discover Antarctica with three ladies from Chile... West to find an enchanted harp and the borderland between life and death... and onward to all points on and off the compass. Twenty astonishing stories from acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin that carry us to worlds of wonder and horror, desire and destiny, enchantment and doom.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - (1982) - essay by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Gwilan's Harp - (1977)
• Intracom - (1974)
• Malheur County - (1979)
• Mazes - (1975)
• Schrödinger's Cat - (1974)
• Small Change - (1981)
• Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time - (1979)
• SQ - (1978)
• Sur - (1982)
• The Diary of the Rose - (1976)
• The Eye Altering - (1976)
• The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb - (1978)
• The New Atlantis - (1975)
• The Pathways of Desire - (1979)
• The Phoenix - (1982)
• The Water Is Wide - (1976)
• The White Donkey - (1980)
• The Wife's Story - (1982)
• Two Delays on the Northern Line - (1979)
• The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics - (1974)

Grand Master Ursula K. LeGuin has been recognised for almost fifty years as one of the most important writers in the SF field - and is likewise feted beyond the confines of the genre. The Wind's Twelve Quarters was her first collection and it brings together some of finest short fiction, including the Hugo Award-winning 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas', the Nebula Award-winning 'The Day Before the Revolution', and the Hugo-nominated 'Winter's King', which gave readers their first glimpse of the world later made famous in her Hugo- and Nebula-winning masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness.

This is the omnibus edition of the two short story collections The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Graham Sleight

The Wind's Twelve Quarters

• Foreword - (1975) - essay
• Semley's Necklace - (1964) - shortstory
• April in Paris - (1962) - shortstory
• The Masters - (1963) - shortstory
• Darkness Box - (1963) - shortstory
• The Word of Unbinding - (1964) - shortstory
• The Rule of Names - (1964) - shortstory
• Winter's King - (1969) - novelette
• The Good Trip - (1970) - shortstory
• Nine Lives - (1969) - novelette
• Things - (1970) - shortstory
• A Trip to the Head - (1970) - shortstory
• Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - (1971) - novelette
• The Stars Below - (1974) - shortstory
• The Field of Vision - (1973) - shortstory
• Direction of the Road - (1973) - shortstory
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - (1973) - shortstory
• The Day Before the Revolution - (1974) - shortstory

The Compass Rose

• Preface - (1982) - essay
• The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics - (1974) - shortstory
• The New Atlantis - (1975) - novelette
• Schrödinger's Cat - (1974) - shortstory
• Two Delays on the Northern Line - (1979) - shortstory
• SQ - (1978) - shortstory
• Small Change - (1982) - shortstory
• The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb - (1978) - shortstory
• The Diary of the Rose - (1976) - novelette
• The White Donkey - (1980) - shortstory
• The Phoenix - (1982) - shortstory
• Intracom - (1974) - shortstory
• The Eye Altering - (1976) - shortstory
• Mazes - (1975) - shortstory
• The Pathways of Desire - (1979) - novelette
• Gwilan's Harp - (1977) - shortstory
• Malheur County - (1979) - shortstory
• The Water Is Wide - (1976) - shortstory
• The Wife's Story - (1982) - shortstory
• Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time - (1979) - shortstory
• Sur - (1982) - shortstory

Love, history or blood...which is the strongest?

In childhood something black settled on Mechail Korhlen and drank from his throat. And later somebody pitied him enough to kill his poor deformed body when he became an adult. But then Mechail chose to return from beyond the veil to enact revenge - and to follow Anjelen, ruler of the sinister monastery sited deep in the forest.

The fulfilment of his destiny had begun.

This short story originally appeared in Artemis #1, Spring 2000. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 5 (2000), edited by David G. Hartwell.

She never meant to be a hero...

In fact, Dreckly Jones has made a point her whole life to be exactly not that. The daughter of a forbidden union between an earth elemental and a selkie, her rare powers have meant she has always had a target on her back.

So Dreckly - a 40-something oyster shucker according to her fake documents, 140-something sprite if you're going to get all nit-picky about it - has become an expert at many things. Chief amongst them: hiding.

When she meets a determined group of rebels who desperately need her help, she finds herself wanting to stick her neck out for the first time in a long while. Yet is she ready to be noticed? Is Dreckly willing to use her powers to stand up when it could cost her everything?

Struggling for freedom, New Empire officer Bren Morkaarin and rancher's daughter Kara Grenlaarin find their destinies intertwined as they battle side-by-side through the Imperial Sea toward the capital of the wizard kings.

As we follow Rex Sackett ("The Metaphor Kid") on his way to the top in that great spectator sport of the future, hack-writing, we realize that this a fast-moving, ribald parody of the writing profession. From the moment the Head Editor waves his red flag to the second the typewriting stops and a victor is chosen, every reader will be cheering at the sidelines of Prose Bowl.

When Corbet Lynn returns home to rebuild his family's estate, his grandfather's curse is rekindled-and lures a free spirited woman from the woods that border Lynn Hall.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #5 February 2007. It can also be found in the anthology Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine (2007), edited by Sean Wallace and Nick Mamatas.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

From the author of the breakout fantasy novel Thistlefoot: a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring all the ways love can save us--or go monstrously wrong.

The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, hungry the desire to be loved, and seen, and known. And the terror of those things to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be known and recognized as the monstrous thing you are.

Two young women working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets--and their own doomed summer love. A group of witchy teens concoct the perfect plan to induce the hated new girl into their ranks. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. And two outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.

In these lush, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores love in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.

Table of Contents:

• Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - short story by GennaRose Nethercott
• A Diviner's Abecedarian - short story
• The Thread Boy - short story
• Fox Jaw - short story
• The War of Fog - short story
• Drowning Lessons - short story
• The Autumn Kill - short story
• Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart - short story
• A Lily Is a Lily - short fiction
• Dear Henrietta - short story
• Possessions - short story
• Homebody - short story
• A Haunted Calendar - short story
• The Plums at the End of the World - short story

The Yaga siblings--Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist--have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet--only to discover that their bequest isn't land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas' ancestral home outside Kyiv--but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine's blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family's traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide--erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore: a powerful and poignant exploration of healing from multi-generational trauma told by a bold new talent.

A 21st-Century Utopia

Two of England's most distinguished thinkers have created a bold and startling vision of a new society escaping the ashes of the old.

In the not-so-distant future, Man will have begun to colonize our planetary neighbor, Mars. Entrenched corporate and national interests have footed the bill, but a few visionary people attempt to keep Mars free of the hidebound ideologies that have plagued the Earth and turned it into a polluted wasteland of war and hunger.

The colony has barely begun to take root in the Martian soil when all communication with EUPACUS--as the industrialized nations of Earth are known--is cut off completely. Environmental and economic stresses have finally spun out of control, and civilization as we know it has collapsed. With no hope of escape or support from Earth, the Martians must overcome the dire obstacles that face them and forge a new alliance for survival.

Led by the brave Tom Jefferies, the colonists struggle to build a new way of living based on the search for knowledge, the improvement of human conditions, and the elimination of the hatreds and delusions that lead to misery in the past.

Included in an appendix is the complete text of the Charter for an Independent Mars, written by Dr. Laurence Lustgarten, a renowned expert on international law.

Welcome to the fictional universe of C. D. Rose, whose stories seem to be set in some unidentifiable but vaguely Mitteleuropean nation, and likewise have an uncanny sense of timelessness -- the time could be some cobblestoned Victorian past era, or the present, or even the future.

A journalist's interview with an artist turns into a dizzying roundelay of memory and image.

Two Russian brothers, one blind and one deaf, build an intricate model town during an interminable train ride across the steppe.

An annotated discography for the works of a long-lost silent film star turns into a mysterious document of obsession.

Three Russian sailors must find ways to pass the time on a freighter orphaned in a foreign port.

A forgotten composer enters a nostalgic dream-world while marking time in a decaying Romanian seaport.

In these 19 dreamlike tales, ghosts of the past mingle with the quiddities of modernity in a bewitching stew where lost masterpieces surface with translations in an invisible language, where image and photograph become mystically entwined, and where the very nature of reality takes on a shimmering sense of possibility and illusion.

"Every madness is logical to its owner," one of Rose's characters says. And it is that line -- between logic and madness -- that Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea walks with such assuredness and imagination.

When the polar ice caps melted, America's East Coast became an underwater graveyard - except for New York City. Today, a million people make their home among the skyscrapers poking through the ocean waves. A million people who like to live by their own rules - including Simone Pierce, one of the best private investigators in the city.

It starts out as a routine surveillance job: cheating husband, attractive blonde. Something feels off, though, and when the husband turns up floating in the water with a hole in him, the cops like Simone for the murder. If she can just find the blonde, she'll clear her name, but instead she stumbles onto a strange network of power brokers and art collectors, all looking for a treasure that can't possibly exist. As she struggles to find the murderer, Simone is only sure of one thing: she can't trust anybody, not even herself, because the city she grew up in might have more secrets than even she knows.

Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England.

It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism, and socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated.

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world's motor--and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life--from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy--to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction--to the philosopher who becomes a pirate--to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph--to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad--to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions. This is a mystery story, not about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Twenty Epics (2006), edited by David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan, Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition, edited by Rich Horton, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twentieth Annual Collection (2007), edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link, and The Mammoth Book of Warriors and Wizardry (2014), edited by Sean Wallace. It is included in the collection The Ant King and Other Stories (2008).

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories (2004), edited by David Moles and Jay Lake. It can also be found in the anthologies Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology (2004), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy (2010), edited by Sean Wallace and Rachel Swirsky and The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (2012), edited by Sean Wallace. It is included in the collection The Ant King and Other Stories (2008).

Nebula Award nominated short story. It orginally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2004. The story can also be found in Nebula Awards Showcase 2006, edited by Gardner Dozois and the collection The Ant King and Other Stories (2008).

Critically acclaimed and Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominated author Benjamin Rosenbaum makes his first appearance on Tor.com with an epistolary storyof a sort. Rosenbaum is a software developer by trade, which gives him precisely the right background to think through the implications of how fantastical tropes might alter a familiar technology that many of us use every day. Not to mention the fact that he and his family play a ton of Pandemic, and that all of his friends had already written zombie stories, and he was feeling a bit left out . Whatever the genesis, the result is a delightful and cheeky look into an all-too-plausible future.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Solaris Rising 3: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction (2014), edited by Ian Whates. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton.

No.6 in the Small Beer Press chapbook series is Benjamin Rosenbaum's Other Cities. Twelve of the stories in Other Cities were previously published as a weekly series on Strange Horizons. The entire series is presented here for the first time and each story is illustrated with the art of Boston artist and architect Peter Reiss.

Table of Contents:

• The White City - (2002)
• The City of Peace
• Bellur - (2001)
• Ponge - (2001)
• Ahavah - (2001)
• Amea Amaau - (2001)
• Ylla's Choice - (2002)
• Zvlotsk - (2002)
• New(n) Pernch - (2002)
• Maxis - (2002)
• Jouiselle-Aux-Chantes - (2002)
• Penelar of the Reefs - (2002)
• The Cities of Myrkhyr - (2002)
• Stin - (2002)

Sturgeon Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 2004. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Telling Tales: The Clarion West 30th Anniversary Anthology (2013), edited by Ellen Datlow. It is included in the collection The Ant King and Other Stories (2008).

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2007. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection (2008), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

"Rosenbaum's The Ant King and Other Stories contains invisible cities and playful deconstructions of the form. In "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, With Air-Planes,' by Benjamin Rosenbaum"--yes, his name is part of the title--the author imagines a world whose technologies and philosophies differ wildly from ours. The result is a commentary on the state of the art that is itself the state of the art."

Table of Contents:

• The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale - (2001)
• The Valley of Giants - (2004)
• The Orange - (2002)
• Biographical Notes to "A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes" by Benjamin Rosenbaum - (2004)
• Start the Clock - (2004)
• The Blow - (2008)
• Embracing-the-New - (2004)
• Falling - (2005)
• Orphans - (2008)
• On the Cliff by the River - (2008)
• Fig - (2002)
• The Book of Jashar - (2003)
• The House Beyond Your Sky - (2006)
• Red Leather Tassels - (2003)
• Other Cities - (2003)
• Sense and Sensibility - (2008)
• A Siege of Cranes - (2006)

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany (2015), edited by Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It first appeared at Strange Horizons where it can still be read for free. Later anthologized in Rich Horton's Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition (2007), Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One (2007) and Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection. Collected in Ant King and Other Stories (2008).

In the distant future, somewhere in the galaxy, a world has evolved where each person has multiple bodies, cybernetics has abolished privacy, and individual and family success are reliant upon instantaneous evaluations of how well each member conforms to the rigid social system.

Young Fift is an only child of the Staid gender, struggling to maintain zir position in the system while developing a friendship with the acclaimed bioengineer Shria--a controversial and intriguing friendship, since Shria is Vail-gendered.

Soon Fift and Shria unintentionally wind up at the center of a scandalous art spectacle which turns into a multilayered Unraveling of society. Fift is torn between zir attraction to Shria and the safety of zir family, between staying true to zir feelings and social compliance... when zir personal crises suddenly take on global significance. What's a young Staid to do when the whole world is watching?

Hugo-nominated Novella

This is a tale of galactic wars between vast, post-Singularity intelligences that are competing to corner the universe's supply of computation before the heat-death of the universe.

Download this book for free from the author's website.

An inventive historical thriller that reimagines the tumultuous presidential election of 1860, capturing the people desperately trying to hold the nation together--and those trying to crack it apart.

Abby Kelley Foster arrived in Springfield, Illinois, with the fate of the nation on her mind. Her fame as an abolitionist speaker had spread west and she knew that her first speech in the city would make headlines. One of the residents reading those headlines would be none other than the likely next president of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, lawyer and presidential candidate, knew his chances of winning were good. All he had to do was stay above the fray of the slavery debate and appear the voice of reason until the people cast their votes. The last thing he needed was a fiery abolitionist appearing in town. When her speech sparks violence, leading to her arrest and a high-profile trial, he suspects that his political rivals have conspired against him.

President James Buchanan is one such rival. As his term ends and his political power crumbles, he gathers his advisers at the White House to make one last move that might derail Lincoln's campaign, steal the election and throw America into chaos.

A fascinating historical novel and fast-paced political thriller of a nation on the cusp of civil war, The Day Lincoln Lost offers an unexpected window into one of the most consequential elections in our country's history.

A thought-provoking novel that imagines what would have happened if the British had succeeded in kidnapping General George Washington.

British special agent Jeremiah Black, an officer of the King's Guard, lands on a lonely beach in the wee hours of the morning in late November 1780. The revolution is in full swing but has become deadlocked. Black is here to change all that.

His mission, aided by Loyalists, is to kidnap George Washington and spirit him back to London aboard the HMS Peregrine, a British sloop of war that is waiting closely offshore. Once he lands, though, the "aid by Loyalists" proves problematic because some would prefer just to kill the general outright. Black manages--just--to get Washington aboard the Peregrine, which sails away.

Upon their arrival in London, Washington is imprisoned in the Tower to await trial on charges of high treason. England's most famous barristers seek to represent him but he insists on using an American. He chooses Abraham Hobhouse, an American-born barrister with an English wife--a man who doesn't really need the work and thinks the "career-building" case will be easily resolved through a settlement of the revolution and Washington's release. But as greater political and military forces swirl around them and peace seems ever more distant, Hobhouse finds that he is the only thing keeping Washington from the hangman's noose.

Drawing inspiration from a rumored kidnapping plot hatched in 1776 by a member of Washington's own Commander-in-Chief Guard, Charles Rosenberg has written a compelling novel that envisions what would take place if the leader of America's fledgling rebellion were taken from the nation at the height of the war, imperiling any chance of victory.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1994. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelth Annual Collection (1995), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April 1995. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection (1996), edited by Gardner Dozois.

David Chen severed his family ties to become a virtual reality artist on the Net. Jewel Martina left an impoverished family in the 'burbs to become a medical aid, on her way to becoming a VR deal-broker in the economic network that spanned the world. When Jewel saves David's partner's life, it becomes clear someone wanted him dead. There is trouble brewing on the Net, and as Jewel and David are caught up in it, they search the Net, the flesh world, and their own unhappy pasts for some answers. Nothing was ever as it seemed on the Net, where illusion was the rule of the game--but for Jewel and David, the difference beween real and virtual was a matter of life and death....

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, February 1996. There are no other known publications available at this time.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2006. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Year's Best SF 12 (2007), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer.

Ahni Huang is hunting for her brother's killer. As a class 9 empath with advanced biogenetic augmentations, she has complete mental and physical control of her body, and can read other people's intentions before they can even think them. Ahni soon finds though, that there are deceptions behind deceptions, and in the middle of it lies the fate of her brother.

Earth is in the midst of a political struggle between the World Council, which governs humankind, and the Platforms, which orbit high above Earth. On the Platform New York Up, "upsider" life is different. They have their own culture, values, and ambitions--and now they want their independence from Earth. One upsider leader, Dane Nilson, is determined to accomplish this goal, but he has a secret, one that could condemn him to death.

When Ahni stumbles upon Dane during her quest for vengeance, her fate becomes inextricably linked to his. Together they must delve beyond the intrigue and manipulative schemes to get to the core of truth; a truth that will shape the future of the Platforms and shatter any preconceived notions of what defines the human race.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2009, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld, Issue 118, July 2016. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Federations (2009), edited by John Joseph Adams, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, March 2012. It can also be found in Telling Tales: The Clarion West 30th Anniversary Anthology (2013), edited by Ellen Datlow.

Read the full story for free at Lighstpeed.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Lace and Blade (2008) edited by Deborah J. Ross. There are no other known publications at this time.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, February 1997. There are no other known publications available at this time.

This short story originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 2005. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois, Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton, and Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (2007), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2004. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois.

A major new talent... one of the strongest debuts in recent science-fiction history, " wrote Lucuis Shepard not long ago about emergent superstar Mary Rosenblum. And just as Shepard himself was the most powerful new short-story writer of the previous decade, so has Ms. Rosenblum come forth as a compelling voice in the 1990s in a sequence of nouvelles, set primarily within the near-future West Coast, exploring the persistence of humanity amid a nightmarish landscape of desiccated ecologies, disintegrating societies, and bewildering techniques.

Table of Contents:

• Water Bringer - (1991)
• Entrada - (1993)
• The Centaur Garden - (1995)
• Second Chance - (1992)
• Bordertown - (1993)
• Synthesis - (1992)
• Flood Tide - (1990)
• The Rain Stone - (1993)
• Stairway - (1993)

With crops failing, refugee camps filling, and riots raging, Carter Voltaire, a Corps officer in charge of rationing what little water is left in the Columbia River-bed Pipeline, must stop a group of desperate farmers from sabotaging the Pipe.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2008, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #90 March 2014. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection (2009), edited by Gardner Dozois, Year's Best SF 14 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer, and After the End: Recent Apocalypses (2013), edited by Paula Guran.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Tiptree nominated story, originally published in Asimov's March 1998, later anthologized in David G. Hartwell's Year's Best SF 4 (1999).

Discovery of the mysterious asteroids called Stones had quickly spawned a new breed of artists: "sculptors" who shaped the Stones into vivid collages of sensation and emotion by layering human experiences into them one by one. Although asteroid-belt miners harvested the Stones from deep space and artists with inborn sensitivity sculpted them, no one was sure what made the Stones so strangely receptive -- or where they came from.

Now Stone sculptors were being brutally murdered, one by one. No one knew why, and no one had more need to know that sculptor Michael Tryon. Famous, burned out, and reclusive, Michael had given up the security of Old Taos to meet Margarita Espinoza, a young artist who claimed to be his daughter -- only to find out that someone was killing off his friends and rivals and framing him for murder. The search for the truth led Margarita and Michael below the sea, onto a dangerous orbital platform, and into the far reaches of space. But the answer lay in the Stones themselves...

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2004, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, January 2017. It can also be found in the anthology Beyond Singularity (2005) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2006. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 12 (2007), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

Cale Alexandros was five years old when the path of his life was irrevocably altered. As the scion of a wealthy and powerful family, he enjoyed a privileged existence--until his family's starship was attacked en route to Morningstar, the lone outpost of civilization on a savage planet known as Conrad's World. In an escape ship, Cale crash-landed in the wilds, and was picked from the wreckage by nomads.

For years, Cale is forced to endure life as a slave, sold and shuffled from one group of brutish thugs to another--until a trader recognizes a glimmer of promise in Cale's eyes, and frees him. Cale travels far and wide, but he never forgets what happened long ago, in the desert wastes... when, in a strange, ancient temple, he found a book with pages made of a strange metal, and writings he could not identify.

When he finally reaches Morningstar, he comes to realize that the book is a key to understanding a language never heard by mankind, an alien dialect. It also holds a secret that some people want to learn, a treasure that some want for themselves, and a revelation that some will do anything to control.

An exciting modern fantasy based on Cherokee traditions; a moving love story; a cry of protest against crimes against native peoples-- and more. A young Cherokee, his dead (but still sarcastic) shaman grandfather, and the Asian woman they both love.

Dr. Elsa Adams arrives at Hawkins Island to complete research on a massive computer program called Archmorph, but also to solve a mystery in her own past.

Sturgeon and Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 4 (2013), edited by Mike Allen. It can also be found in the Nebula Awards Showcase 2015, edited by Greg Bear.

Read the full story for free at the publisher's website.

WFA and Shirley Jackson Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense (2011), edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers. It is included in the collection Five Autobiographies and a Fiction (2013).

Enter an all too conceivable future when the Religious Right has taken over our country and basically made everything fun illegal. Where AIDS has become even more letal, and those found to be HIV positive are shipped off to concentration camps that are so over-crowded and under-staffed that the dead often lay in their beds for days before being carted off the be burned.

The Freedom Coalition is fighting in the West to free the country from the grip of the Right Party's fanatical leader, Heilinger, and his so-called "Good Law," and the rebel forces are drawing nearer. Lorn Zany has seen too much death and injustice at the hands of the Right Party for one life time. New it looks like he might just live to see the Right America crumble. That is, of course, if he doesn't die of AIDS first.

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 1996 and was reprinted in Jim Baen's Universe, February 2009. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Dancing with Dragons (2001).

Eleanor Zarrin has been estranged from her wild family for years. When she flees boarding school after a horrifying incident, she goes to the only place she thinks is safe: the home she left behind. But when she gets there, she struggles to fit in with her monstrous relatives, who prowl the woods around the family estate and read fortunes in the guts of birds.

Eleanor finds herself desperately trying to hold the family together--in order to save them all, Eleanor must learn to embrace her family of monsters and tame the darkness inside her.

These 18 darkly complex short stories and novellas touch upon human nature and perception, metaphysics and epistemology, and gender and sexuality, foreshadowing a world in which biological tendencies bring about the downfall of humankind. The Nebula Award-winning short story "Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death," the Hugo Award-winning novella "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," and the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" are included.

Table of Contents

• Introduction - essay by John Clute
• The Last Flight of Dr. Ain - (1969)
• The Screwfly Solution - (1977)
• And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side - (1972)
• The Girl Who Was Plugged In - (1973)
• The Man Who Walked Home - (1972)
• And I Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways - (1972)
• The Women Men Don't See - (1973)
• Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light! - (1976)
• Houston, Houston, Do You Read? - (1976)
• With Delicate Mad Hands - (1981)
• A Momentary Taste of Being - (1975)
• We Who Stole the Dream - (1978)
• Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - (1974)
• Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death - (1973)
• On the Last Afternoon - (1972)
• She Waits for All Men Born - (1976)
• Slow Music - (1980)
• And So On, and So On - (1971)

Bryony and her sisters have come down in the world. Their merchant father died trying to reclaim his fortune and left them to eke out a living in a village far from their home in the city.

But when Bryony is caught in a snowstorm and takes refuge in an abandoned manor, she stumbles into a house full of dark enchantments. Is the Beast that lives there her captor, or a fellow prisoner? Is the house her enemy or her ally? And why are roses blooming out of season in the courtyard?

Armed only with gardening shears and her wits, Bryony must untangle the secrets of the house before she -- or the Beast -- are swallowed by them.

Hugo Award-nominated Short Story

This story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 25, November-December 2018. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume Thirteen (2019), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

Basit Deniau's houses were haunted to begin with.

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau's been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect's will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.

Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau's former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House's vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House's animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.

But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.

There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes--has shut up.

No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still.

In art as in life, you've got to change in order to live. Even when your audience--and maybe your friends--thinks it would be great if you stayed the same forever. In some cases, literally forever.

The author of over seventeen SF and fantasy novels published over the last half-decade, Elizabeth Bear won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005, and the Hugo Award and the Sturgeon Award in 2008 for her short story "Tideline."

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Ever since she was a child, Rebecca has been enchanted by her grandmother Gemma's stories about Briar Rose. But a promise Rebecca makes to her dying grandmother will lead her on a remarkable journey to uncover the truth of Gemma's astonishing claim: I am Briar Rose. A journey that will lead her to unspeakable brutality and horror. But also to redemption and hope.

Hugo Award nominated story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1963. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fourteenth Series (1965), edited by Avram Davidson
• 10th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1965), edited by Judith Merril
• The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One (1970), edited by Robert Silverberg
• The Great SF Stories 25 (1963) (1992), edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
• Fourth Planet from the Sun: Tales of Mars from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (2005) edited by Gordon Van Gelder

It is included in the collections Four for Tomorrow (1967), The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (1971) and Threshold (2009).

Read or listen to the full story for free at Escapepod.

This is the story of Isabelle of France, born heir to the throne, and the mystery of one man who enters her life at several key moments, becoming her icon, her soul's other half, and her destiny - a man who may in fact be much more than an ordinary man. His bloodline goes back to the Holy Land and he is far, far older than he appears.

In the empty halls of a house on the edge of the woods, a dancer faces the aftermath of a career-ending injury and subsequent divorce.

Twenty years earlier, on the land where her house would be built, two boys died violently and mysteriously while recording a music video for their band, leaving one survivor. Something sleeps in the woods beyond the house, and when the dancer finds the last musician, it will start to wake...

From Rhysling Award finalist Cassandra Rose Clarke comes a visceral examination of dance, music, and obsession told entirely in verse.

Sarah Minnivitch, an actor sentenced to prison for acts of civil disobedience, wreaked havoc at the for-profit medium-security facility she was first sent to. When Penco transfers her to a high-security facility, the facility's director assigns Dr. Eve Escher the task of rehabilitating Minnivitch and recovering the corporation's losses. Escher believes she is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough that will not only rehabilitate the prisoner but also win the physician fame and glory. But the stakes for both Escher and Minnivitch prove to be higher than either of them imagined.

Inspired by the traditional ballad of the same name, "Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary" tells the tale of a mysterious young man who brings magic into the lives of three sisters.The tale of a mysterious young man and three bright young girls, of ancient magic and the modern world.

Neeve meets Valentine at her Work Unit. A tentative friendship develops between them and together they summon the courage to leave the regimen of the Sixth Compound. Then Lol, unrepenatant law-breaker and member of the underground movement, blasts into their lives and their friendship takes a path none of them could have forseen.

Inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, All Men of Genius takes place in a Victorian London familiar but fantastical, where mad science makes the impossible possible.

Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father's policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.

But keeping the secret of her sex won't be easy, not with her friend Jack's constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke's young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet's alter ego, "Ashton." Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, the way Violet's pulse quickens whenever Ernest speaks to her, and a deadly legacy left by Ernest's father. She soon realizes that it's not just keeping her secret until the end of the year she has to worry about: it's surviving that long.

Her heart torn between her clean-cut lawman partner and a dashing, dark-eyed mystery man who knows far more about the aliens than he has any right to, Jayne must risk everything to keep the materialistic Japanese government from harnessing the power of the atom decades before humanity-and history-is ready!

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill -- the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price...

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

The start of a sensational romantic fantasy trilogy by the bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series.

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court – but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms -- and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future -- and the future of a world cleaved in two.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit-and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords-and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.

Feyre, Rhysand, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can't keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated -- scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal--kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia's freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic... requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a heart-pounding course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

Karina lost everything after a violent coup left her without her kingdom or her throne. Now the most wanted person in Sonande, her only hope of reclaiming what is rightfully hers lies in a divine power hidden in the long-lost city of her ancestors.

Meanwhile, the resurrection of Karina's sister has spiraled the world into chaos, with disaster after disaster threatening the hard-won peace Malik has found as Farid's apprentice. When they discover that Karina herself is the key to restoring balance, Malik must use his magic to lure her back to their side. But how do you regain the trust of someone you once tried to kill?

As the fabric holding Sonande together begins to tear, Malik and Karina once again find themselves torn between their duties and their desires. And when the fate of everything hangs on a single, horrifying choice, they each must decide what they value most--a power that could transform the world, or a love that could transform their lives.

Margerit Sovitre did not expect to inherit Baron Saveze's fortunes--even less his bodyguard, a ruthlessly efficient swordswoman known only as Barbara. Wealth suddenly makes Margerit a highly eligible heiress and buys her the enmity of the new Baron. He had expected to inherit all, and now eyes her fortune with open envy.

Barbara proudly served as the old Baron's duelist but she had expected his death to make her a free woman. Bitterness turns to determination when she finds herself the only force that stands between Margerit and the new Baron's greed.

At first Margerit protests the need for Barbara's services, but soon she cannot imagine sending Barbara away. And Barbara's duty has become something far more hazardous to her heart than the point of a sword. But greater dangers loom than one man's hatred--the Prince of Alpennia is ill. Deadly intrigue surrounds the succession and the rituals of divine power known as The Mysteries of the Saints.

Heather Rose Jones debuts with a sweeping story rich in intrigue and the clash of loyalties and love.

Antuniet Chazillen lost everything the night her brother was executed. In exile, she swore that treason would not be the final chapter of the Chazillen legacy in Alpennia's history. A long- hidden book of alchemical secrets provides the first hope of success, but her return to the capital is haunted by an enemy who wants those secrets for himself.

Jeanne, Vicomtesse de Cherdillac is bored. The Rotenek season is flat, her latest lover has grown tediously jealous and her usual crowd of friends fails to amuse. When Antuniet turns up on her doorstep seeking patronage for her alchemy experiments, what begins as amusement turns to interest, then something deeper. But Antuniet's work draws danger that threatens even the crown of Alpennia.

The alchemy of precious gems throws two women into a crucible of adversity, but it is the alchemy of the human heart that transforms them both in this breathtaking follow-up to the widely acclaimed Daughter of Mystery.

Winner of the Gaylactic Spectrum Best Novel Award

All her life, Serafina Talarico has searched in vain for a place where she and her mystical talents belong. She never found it in Rome--the city of her birth--where her family's Ethiopian origins marked them as immigrants. After traveling halfway across Europe to study with Alpennia's Royal Thaumaturgist, her hopes of finding a home among Margerit Sovitre's circle of scholars are dashed, for Serafina can perceive, but not evoke, the mystical forces of the Mysteries of the Saints and even Margerit can't awaken her talents.

When Serafina takes lodgings with Luzie Valorin, widowed music teacher and aspiring composer, both their lives are changed forever. Luzie's music holds a power to rival the Mysteries, and Serafina alone has the vision to guide her talents. For sorcery threatens the fate of Alpennia--indeed of all of Europe--locking the mountains in a malevolent storm meant to change the course of history. Alpennia's mystic protections are under attack and the key to survival may lie in the unlikeliest of places: Luzie's ambition to write an opera on the life of the medieval philosopher Tanfrit.

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an ally pirate clan. She wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to a handsome and clueless man. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns that her fiancé's clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when this assassin, Naji, finally finds her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse -- with a life-altering result. Now, Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work to complete three impossible tasks that will cure the curse.

Unfortunately, Naji has enemies from the shadowy world known as the Mists, and Ananna must face the repercussions of betraying her engagement that set her off on her adventures. Together, the two must break the curse, escape their enemies, and come to terms with their growing romantic attraction.

This is an omnibus version consisting of The Assassin's Curse and The Pirate's Wish.

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse - with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.

After setting out to break the curse that binds them together, the pirate Ananna and the assassin Naji find themselves stranded on an enchanted island in the north with nothing but a sword, their wits, and the secret to breaking the curse: complete three impossible tasks. With the help of their friend Marjani and a rather unusual ally, Ananna and Naji make their way south again, seeking what seems to be beyond their reach.

Unfortunately, Naji has enemies from the shadowy world known as the Mists, and Ananna must still face the repercussions of going up against the Pirate Confederation. Together, Naji and Ananna must break the curse, escape their enemies — and come to terms with their growing romantic attraction.

A stunning return to Arkham Horror when a movie director shoots his silent horror masterpiece in eerie Arkham, capturing crawling nightmares instead of moving pictures, in this chilling novel of creeping dread...

Hollywood make-up artist and costumier, Jeany Lin, travels to Arkham to work on the new "nightmare movie" by enigmatic director Sydney Fitzmaurice. The star is her sister, Renee Love, Sydney's collaborator and lover. Desperate to outdo the thrills and terror of Lon Chaney's popular pictures, Sydney prepares occult-infused dream sequences for Love and her co-stars to perform. But there's more than mere imagery at play as the cast suffer recurring nightmares, accidents, and impossible waking visions. When events take a sinister turn and people start dying on set, it's up to Jeany to unmask the monsters before Sydney's obsessions doom them all.

A daring actress and a barnstorming pilot team up to save the world from supernatural disaster in this uncanny pulp adventure set in the world of Arkham Horror...

Betsy Baxter is the plucky stunt-actor star of the 1920s serial adventure, The Flapper Detective. While researching a wing-walking scene, she meets the fearless Winifred Habbamock and discovers a shared background of eerie encounters and eldritch phenomena. For years, Betsy has been investigating the disappearance of an old friend during the horror-struck filming of The Mask of Silver, when she learns of his reappearance in Arkham, she and Winifred hit the road to investigate. But Arkham is full of mysteries and danger. Betsy will need all her skills, and new allies, to prevent an otherworldly cataclysm from consuming her and all of Arkham.

Christmas comes to Arkham Horror in this action-packed eldritch adventure full of secret whispers, haunted streets, and a lost actor falling through time

Raquel Malone Gutierrez is running away, although she won't admit that to herself. Suffering from hearing loss after an illness, the former music teacher wants to find a way to retain her independence, but only a wealthy relative offers any hope of that. Put to work in her aunt Nova's Kingsport dance hall, Raquel stumbles upon a mystery when her new hearing aids begin picking up conversations that no one else can hear. As Christmas draws closer, Raquel realizes the voice comes from a hunted man lost in time. Now she must do everything she can to free him before the monsters chasing him can catch up and break through.

THIS IS YOUR SOUL ON DRUGS

After the events chronicled in Bedlam's Bard, world-saving bard and magician Eric Banyon moves into his new New York apartment hoping to settle down to the quiet life. No such luck: his building is a safe-house for a group of occultist Guardians protecting the city from supernatural evil. And there's a new evil for them to guard against....

When unethical drug researchers discover that they can induce amazing mental powers using psychotropic drugs, they begin planning to raise a drug-enslaved army of mercenaries and grow very, very rich. But this gets the attention of Aerune mac Audelaine, lord of the dark Unseleighe Sidney, who hopes to use the drugs to break through to the human world and feed on the suffering there. Both plans will bring terror to the world-and both are threatened by the very existence of Eric Banyan.

With his possibly loyal companions-a beautiful elven half-breed and a gargoyle Eric heads for a three-way battle of wizardry that will determine Gotham's fate-and his own.

SET A TRAP FOR A SORCERER... WITHOUT BEING TRAPPED YOURSELF!

Eric Banyon has settled into the New York whirl nicely: he's doing well at Juilliard, he's made a lot of new friends, he's defeated a lord of the Unseleighe Sidhe...

Or has he

Aerune mac Audelaine, whose beloved was killed by mortal men, was determined to destroy the human race until Eric, with a little help from his new friends the Guardians, thwarted Aerune's plans and exposed the chemists whose designer poison turned ordinary humans into zombie Mages. The human side of the threat is finished, but Aerune, like the rest of the Sidhe, has a long memory... and a lot of patience. He's also got Jeanette Campbell, former Threshold Black Ops, and the science behind the murder.

Can Eric stop Aerune's latest plan Only if he finds out about it before it's too late, but between babysitting a visiting Healer, training a banjo-playing Bard, attending his daughter's Underhill Naming ceremony, dealing with a dragon-and trying to survive summer school-Eric's got his hands full. Saving the world has never been more necessary-or come at a higher price.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary--and Quite Deadly...

Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, is finally about to graduate from Julliard and enter the Real World and so, with the help of a psychiatrist who specializes in the problems of magicians, he's finally coming to terms with his past. But a spur-of-the-moment trip home to Boston to visit his parents brings him more trouble than even Eric thought possible.

Meanwhile, his Bardic apprentice Hosea has discovered that the young homeless children in New York's shelters have created a bizarre mythology about a demon called Bloody Mary who preys on young children--and somehow Bloody Mary has taken on an independent life and now stalks the streets of the city.

And for some reason, she's after Eric as well....

Eric Banyon, also known as Bedlam's Bard, managed to rescue his young brother Magnus from what seemed to be a killer demon (in Mad Maudlin), but now he must rescue Magnus again, this time from their tyrannical parents.

Eric does not look forward to the battle, but is confident he can gain custody. His financial sources are virtually unlimited, his friend Ria Llewellyn heads the most high-powered law firm in New York, and in a pinch he and his friends can use to magic powers, even flummoxing a DNA test, it comes to that.

What Eric does not know is that his parents are allied with the evangelist Billy Fairchild, who himself is a tool of the evil Unseleighe elves, who feed off human sorrow and suffering. Fairchild specializes in getting "bad" children to shape up, which is accomplished by letting a soulsucker--malevolent creature from the elf world--drain the victim of all talent, creativity, and will, leaving an obedient zombie husk behind.

If Magnus and his friend Ace, who is also on the run from her twisted parents, fall into Fairchild's hands, they will join the Unseleighe's zombie ranks. And Eric's bardic magic may not be enough to save them.

Deeply depressed Olivia, whose parents are divorcing, is ripe for manipulation. And swimming star Blake is looking for someone just like her. Although her friend tries to warn her, Olivia falls for his ploys and accepts an invitation to go to the Adirondack resort camp of Lake Endor with him and his family.

But all is not as it seems at the hundred year old resort. Not only does Olivia discover that Blake is not the guy she thought he was, there is something sinister afoot at the lake.

There is something lying beneath the waters of Lake Endor. Something not of this world.

Will Olivia be drawn under or will she allow true friends to draw her from the lure of oblivion?

She is the last hope of good in the war against the evil sorceress known as the Lady. From a secret base on the Plains of Fear, where even the Lady hesitates to go, the Black Company, once in service to the Lady, now fights to bring victory to the White Rose. But now an even greater evil threatens the world. All the great battles that have gone before will seem a skirmishes when the Dominator rises from the grave.

There are four sons of Lot at court and Sir Gaheris knows himself to be the least of them. Yet the charismatic and headstrong young knight Sir Lamorak looks up to him, despite more obvious choices, and when Lamorak catches his mother's eye, Gaheris knows there's trouble brewing. Soon he finds himself at the centre of family tensions, deceit and tragedy. Can he prevent the bloodshed that seems inevitable?

Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy (Koko, Mystery, and The Throat) is one of the landmark accomplishments of modern popular fiction. Ranging from the Caribbean to Vietnam to the American Midwest and spanning decades of tumultuous history, these books are both unforgettable narratives and indelible portraits of people in extremis, struggling to survive in a world marked by grief, loss, pain, trauma, and homicidal madness. The four stories gathered here are offshoots of that larger fictional universe. Each one stands entirely on its own. Together, they shine a revelatory light on the mysteries and hidden corners of the novels that inspired them.

"Blue Rose" recounts a defining moment in the childhood of Koko's Harry Beevers, the moment when the ten-year-old Harry discovers his capacity for violence and brutality. "The Juniper Tree" describes, with almost unbearable clarity, a lonely young boy's encounter with adult betrayal, and with the darker aspects of human sexuality. "The Ghost Village" takes us to the phantasmagoric landscape of Vietnam, where the barriers between the living and the dead begin to dissolve, to mesmerizing effect. "Bunny is Good Bread" is arguably Straub's single most harrowing story. With relentless attention to detail, it anatomizes the creation of a human monster through abuse, cruelty, and neglect.

These disturbing, beautifully written stories have a moral weight and emotional resonance that only the finest fiction achieves. They are the clear product of a master storyteller at the very top of his game. No one who reads them is likely to forget them, or come away unchanged.

Table of Contents:

• Blue Rose
• The Juniper Tree
• Bunny is Good Bread
• The Ghost Village
• An Interview with Peter Straub (Conducted by Bill Sheehan)

'KOKO ' Only four men knew what it meant. Vietnam vets. One was a doctor. One was a lawyer. One was a working stiff. One was a writer. All were as different as men could be - yet all were bound eternally together by a single shattering secret. And now they are joined together again on a quest that could take them from the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York, hunting an inhuman ghost of the past risen from nightmare darkness to kill and kill...

Tom Pasmore, ten years old, survives a near fatal accident. During his long recovery, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder and finds he has clues to solving it that he shouldn't. Lamont von Heilitz has spent his life solving mysteries, until he wanted to know nothing more of the terror of life and the horror of death. When a new murder disrupts their world of wealth, power, and pleasure, the two must form an unlikely partnership to confront demons from the past and the dark secrets that still haunt the present.

Writer Tim Underhill, the haunted Vietnam-vet hero of Koko, has been summoned by childhood friend John Ransom to his home town of Millhaven, the site of old horrors now plagued by new demons. After decades of silence, it appears that the Blue Rose killer has struck again - brutally murdering Ransom's wife. Assisted in his search for the truth by the reclusive amateur detective Tom Pasmore, Underhill is swiftly drawn into a dark labyrinth of lies and deceit, each turn punctuated by jolting shocks, leading inexorably back to the terrors of his own past - to mysterious events in the jungles of Vietnam; to the day he witnessed the killing of his young sister; and to the ensuing series of murders that rocked the city.

Seventeen-year-old Cade is a fierce survivor, solo in the universe with her cherry-red guitar. Or so she thought. Her world shakes apart when a hologram named Mr. Niven tells her she was created in a lab in the year 3112, then entangled at a subatomic level with a boy named Xan.

Cade's quest to locate Xan joins her with an array of outlaws--her first friends--on a galaxy-spanning adventure. And once Cade discovers the wild joy of real connection, there's no turning back.

Cadence is in a race against time and space to save her family and friends from the Unmakers, who are tracking the last vestiges of humanity across the cosmos. As the epic battle begins, Cade learns that letting people in also means letting them go. The universe spins out of control and Cade alone must face the music in the page-turning conclusion to Entangled.

Thrust into a volatile world where King Henry IX rules over the English Empire, America never revolted, and Napoleon Bonaparte marches unchecked across Europe, is young Sarah Cunningham, ripped from our history by magic and the machinations of the dying Duchess of Roxbury.Magically coerced into believing she is Roxbury, Sarah finds herself caught up with the Duke of Wessex, the King's most trusted spy. A perilous adventure takes them into the black heart of Imperial France to rescue a missing princess before the last chance for peace dissolves and the world is left at the mercy of Napoleon.

Under King Charles II, England's New World colonies are flourishing, as is France's colony Louisianne. Napolean is the dreaded Master of the European continent . . . And Sarah Cunningham, a woman from our own world, knows all too well what a difference this makes, for not long ago she was ripped from her life as a United States citizen in our history.

Sarah, now the Duchess of Wessex, journeys to North America with her new husband, the Duke--but this is no pleasure trip. The fate of the world--New and Old--rests on her saving her friend Meriel, rescuing Louis, rightful King of France, from the clutches of the Marquis de Sade, and finding the Holy Grail. But she and her beloved Duke are beset by perils that will test their strength and spirit to the utmost.

Feared by enemies and friends alike, Elric of Melniboné walks a lonely path among the worlds of the Multiverse. The destroyer of his cruel and ancient race, as well as its final ruler, Elric is the bearer of a destiny as dark and cursed as the vampiric sword he carries—the sentient black blade known as Stormbringer.

Del Rey is proud to present the sixth and concluding installment of its definitive omnibus editions featuring fantasy Grand Master Michael Moorcock's most famous—or infamous—creation. Here is the full text of the novel The Revenge of the Rose, a screenplay for the novel Stormbringer, the novella Black Petals, the conclusion to Moorcock's influential "Aspects of Fantasy" essay series and other nonfiction, and an indispensable reader's guide by John Davey.

The Comte de Saint-Germain is living in relative peace and prosperity in the village of Orgon in fourteenth-century France. He has won a grudging acceptance from the local populace, who are uneasy with his strange and foreign ways but appreciative of his generosity. But a new threat has upset the precarious balance: Plague has come to France, and the people's fear turns to xenophobia. To avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature, Saint-Germain must flee. However, his travels drive him deeper into the heart of the Black Death--and danger.

Kami Khazud is a member of an acrobatic troupe led by his famous father. While Kami is a fine acrobat, he knows this is not his "kazuh", his spirit force, special talent or destiny. In this elegant feudal society, where nobles have absolute rights over the peasant class and intrigue is a way of life, Kami and his troupe must walk more than one kind of tightrope to survive...

When a noble known to have abused Kami is murdered, Kami must first prove his innocence and find the murderer. D'Shai presents a fascinating, dangerously subtle society whose complexity is reminiscent of medieval Japan or the Byzantine court.

In an ancient world of magic, Kami, the Discoverer-of-Truth, must use his detective skills to investigate the murder of a nobleman on the eve of a royal wedding, a crime in which the bridegroom becomes the prime suspect.

A 2,000 year old statue of Rose Tyler is a mystery that the Doctor and Rose can only solve by travelling back to the time when it was made. But when they do, they find the mystery is deeper and more complicated than they ever imagined.

While the Doctor searches for a missing boy, Rose befriends a girl who it seems can accurately predict the future. But when the Doctor stumbles on the terrible truth behind the statue, Rose herself learns that you have to be very careful what you wish for.

Gargantuan dragons soar over Krynn, battling for control of the lands below. On the isle of Sancrist, the weakened Knights of Solamnia ask their old enemies the Knights of Takhisis, for help. At the insistence of Lord Gunthar, the knights renew the alliance forged during the last days of the Chaos War. But when the Grand Master of the Knights of Solamnia abruptly dies, the leadership of the knights -- in fact their very existence -- is challenged.

Jeff Crook's novel tells a tale of the Knights of Solamnia, the greatest knightly order on Krynn, faced with what may be their greatest challenge.

First in an all-new trilogy from long-time Dragonlance author Douglas Niles.

This title kicks off a key new Dragonlance trilogy from popular Dragonlance author Douglas Niles. This series will explore the post-war era in Solamnia, a central region of the Dragonlance world, continuing key story elements from the New York Times best-selling War of Souls series.

A hidden artifact waits to be found--and used...

The half-breed ogre, Golgren, at last Grand Khan of all his people, faces unpleasant threats. Tthe Knights of Neraka encroach on one border and the minotaur empire crosses another, while the rise of a new and unlikely rival among his own kind augurs the death stroke to all his ambitions...perhaps his very life. Now Golgren must abandon everything to embark on a quest he can trust to no other. The Fire Rose is a mysterious artifact that could prove the salvation - or destruction - of his growing empire. Safrag, the new master of the Ogre Titans, is just as eager to claim the precious artifact and promote his own might.

Richard A. Knaak's post-War of Souls trilogy is the follow-up to his New York Times best-selling Minotaur Wars trilogy in the popular Dragonlance series.

The Knights of Solamnia were the greatest order of chivalry in the history of Krynn.

After a knight has achieved the Order of the Crown and the Order of the Sword, he must then begin his training in the virtues of wisdom and justice in order to achieve the Order of the Rose, the highest of all orders.

This is the third tale of Sir Pirvan the Wayward, whose reluctant and inauspicious beginnings bore few clues to his potential as a knight of the highest order. In a time when others of Solamnia had become corrupt and self-serving, Sir Pirvan maintained the dignity of the Order, walking the fine line between personal codes of honor and loyalty, and diplomacy and duty.

Roland J. Green is the author of the Starcruiser Shenandoah and Wandor series and numerous Conan novels, and is coauthor (with Jerr Pournelle) of the Jannisaries series.

The Warriors series details the exploits of the heroes and villains of the War of the Lance.

Fitz, Anji, and the Doctor are in New Orleans in 2000 to relax, but find the city is a center for the occult as practitioners converge on an ancient graveyard. The Doctor is also having strange dreams of something is seeking him out. A bone artifact found on board the TARDIS may be the key to a chain of murders, but can the Doctor and his companions discover the true source of the evil?

The Doctor's second heart was taken from his body -- for his own good, he was told. Removed by his sometime ally, sometime rival, the mysterious time-traveller Sabbath. Now, as a new danger menaces reality, the Doctor finds himself working with Sabbath again. From a seance in Victorian London to a wild pursuit on Dartmoor, the Doctor and his companions work frantically to unravel the mystery of this latest threat to Time... Before Time itself unravels.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, February 1997. The story is included in the collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein (2008).

Sturgeon and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 1999. The story is included in I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein (2008).

Accepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children, no wife, and she is not to meet with him face to face. Instead, her duties are to read to him, through a speaking tube, from ancient manuscripts in obscure, nearly-forgotten dialects.

A requirement for the job was skill in translating medieval French, and she now understands the reason for that requirement, and assumes her unseen employer's interest in the descriptions of medieval spells and sorcery is that of an eccentric antiquary. What she does not realize is that his interest is anything but academic. He has a terrible secret and is desperately searching for something that can reverse the effects of the misfired spell which created his predicament.

Finally the knight Sparhawk had come to possess Bhellion, the legendary jewel of magic. With it, he frees Queen Ehalana from the crystalline cocoon that preserves her life, but Bhellion carries dangers of its own. And now Sparkhawk is being stalked by a dark lurking menace that is only the beginning of his troubles....

Eighteen masterful fairy tales for adults from a remarkable gathering of contemporary Grimms and Andersens, the new princesses and princes of fantastical fiction

World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling return with another superb collection of wonders and terrors. In Black Thorn, White Rose, the magical tales we were told at bedtime have been upended, turned inside out, reshaped, and given a keen, distinctly adult edge by eighteen of the most acclaimed storytellers ever to reinvent a fairy tale. Our favorite characters, from Sleeping Beauty to Rumpelstiltskin to the Gingerbread Man, are here but in different guises, brought to new life by such masters as Nancy Kress, Jane Yolen, Storm Constantine, and the late, great Roger Zelazny.

These breathtaking tales of dark enchantments range from the tragic and poignant to the humorous to the horrifying to the simply astonishing. The story of an aging woodcutter persuaded to help a desperate prince make his way through the brambles to save a sleeping beauty twists ingeniously around like the thorny wall that impedes them. The fable of an all-controlling queen mother who faces her most fearsome adversary in a sensitive princess who appears mysteriously during a storm is a dark, disturbing masterpiece. And readers will long remember the exquisite tale of Death, his godson, football, and MTV.

Anyone who has ever loved or even feared the old tales of witches and trolls and remarkable transformations will find much to admire in this extraordinary collection--happily ever after or not.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Words Like Pale Stones - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Stronger than Time - novelette by Patricia C. Wrede
• Somnus's Fair Maid - novelette by Ann Downer
• The Frog King, or Iron Henry - shortstory by Daniel Quinn
• Near-Beauty - shortstory by M. E. Beckett
• Ogre - shortstory by Michael Kandel
• Can't Catch Me - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Journeybread Recipe - shortstory by Lawrence Schimel
• The Brown Bear of Norway - shortstory by Isabel Cole
• The Goose Girl - shortstory by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Tattercoats - novelette by Midori Snyder
• Granny Rumple - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• The Sawing Boys - novelette by Howard Waldrop
• Godson - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• Ashputtle - novelette by Peter Straub
• Silver and Gold - poem by Ellen Steiber
• Sweet Bruising Skin - novelette by Storm Constantine
• The Black Swan - novelette by Susan Wade
• Recommended Reading - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her love he is released from the curse that had turned him from man to beast.

Filled with magic and quests, war and deception, fantastic cultures and exotic landscapes, and a most dynamic heroine, the Fool's Gold trilogy concludes.

Rosa Eldi, has escaped the clutches of the evil sorcerer Rahe. But will she regain her memory and restore her world before man's baser nature triumphs and brings ruin to Elda forever?

The three temperamental gods that rule this world are bound under a renegade magician. In their struggle to break free, they will change their world, affecting the fates of their peoples.

Cloaked in mist and layered in magic, the denizens of Moonshae Isles move in secret circles as capricious rulers vie for power.

High Lady Ordalf wanted her niece, the princess known as the Rose of Sarifal, dead. Instead, the young regent was secreted away by the high lady's opponents. For years the eladrin queen of Gwynneth Isle has searched for evidence of her niece's death, and word has finally come in the form of a castaway's tale. The princess lives on the island of Moray--a mad beauty who leads a nation of lycanthropes.

As long as her niece is alive, Lady Ordalf cannot rest secure in her claim to the throne. Enlisting a band of adventurers to seek out the princess is the first step toward stemming the Rose of Sarifal and her tide of wolves. Will those heroes see the same threat the queen sees in the beautiful young maiden?

Explore the terrifying depths of the dungeons of Faerun with the merriest band of misfits to ever dig a tunnel!

The Siegebreakers are a tight-knit group of eccentric mercenaries who boast they can safely bring down the walls of any fortress, and will do so for the right amount of coin. But when the walls of their latest job crash down on their heads, trapping them in ruins treacherous with magic, monsters, and ever-rising water, it's all they can do to stay alive. Undaunted, the Siegebreakers are determined to escape and finish the job. If only the camel hadn't eaten their breakfast.

A haunting adventure hand-picked by Ed Greenwood...

Something is causing trouble in the City of the Dead, and Sophraea Carver, born and bred next to the historic graveyard, is determined to solve the mystery before it places all of Waterdeep in peril.

Set in the classic City of Splendors and presented by Forgotten Realms campaign setting creator and celebrated author Ed Greenwood, you don't want to miss out on this exciting glimpse into what the latest edition of the Realms has to offer.

Captives of Sorcery...

It began as just another evening of fantasy gaming with James, Karl, Andrea, and the rest ready to assume their various roles as wizard, cleric, warrior, or thief. But sorcerous gamemaster Professor Deighton had something else planned for this unsuspecting group of college students. And the "game" soon became a matter of life and death as the seven adventurers found themselves transported to an alternate world and into the bodies of the actual characters they had been pretending to be.

Cast into a land where magic worked all too well, dragons were a fire-breathing menace, and only those quick enough with a sword or their wits survived, the young gamers faced a terrible task. For the only way they would ever see Earth again was if they could find the legendary Gate Between Worlds - a place guarded by the most terrifying and deadly enemy of all....

WARRIOR, WIZARD, DWARF, THIEF, AND MASTER BUILDER all of them had chosen this world as their destiny, a realm where dragons were only too real and magic, not science, was the law of the land. Karl, Andrea, Ahira, Walter, and Lou knew there was no going back to twentieth-century America now. Instead they were stranded in a time and place where only healing spells and their own wits stood between them and the sharp, deadly edge of a slaver's blade.

But even if they could have returned home by some sorcerous trick, all of them would have refused the chance, bound by their pledge to bring this incredible realm the one treasure it lacked -freedom! But leagued against them in their fight were the entire forces of both Wizards and the Slavers guilds. And, in this world where a wrong step or a twisted spell could transform friend into foe, how could Karl and his band fulfill their pledge?

The stronghold called Home was prospering, and Karl's dream of bringing freedom to everyone in this land, peopled by wizards, warriors, lords and slaves, dwarfs and elves, and dragons, was at last coming true. But by attacking slaver caravans, by offering Home as a haven to any eager to throw off their chains, Karl, Andrea, Ahira, and their comrades had made many powerful enemies.

Led by the evil Ahrmin, the Slaver Guild was stirring the kingdoms into a bloody war in which Karl and his friends might soon have to choose sides. And the elfin kingdom of Therranj claimed Karl's valley sanctuary as part of its own territory and was demanding both tribute and loyalty from the people of Home.

Caught between slaver forces armed with a magical new weapon and elves attempting to steal the treasured secret of gunpowder, could Karl's human, dwarf, elf, and dragon warriors keep the walls of Home standing for long?

Karl Cullinane and his fellow Earth-exiles Andrea, Ahira, Walter, and Lou had succeeded beyond their wildest expectations in the years since a wizard's spell had cast them into an alternate world where magic and dragons were real. Now Karl was Emperor and his son Jason was of an age to begin learning the realities if war and leadership. And with the aid of dwarves, elves, humans, and one sarcastic dragon, Karl and his friends had freed many from the evil specter of slavery and were pledged to fight till slavery was at an end.

But their actions had made them some extremely powerful enemies, chief among whom was Ahrmin of the Slaver's Guild. And for Ahrmin the time of final reckoning had at last arrived.

With or without the aid of the Guild, he would draw sword and take blood vengeance on Karl and Jason Cullinane and all they held dear....

The word arrives that Karl Cullinane is dead. Jason, his son and heir, assumes command. He leads the inner circle of warriors and the dragon Ellegon against the evil Slaver's Guild. Then Jason learns his father still lives. When a dwarf appears, signaling death, Jason faces a choice and the full weight of kingship.

As magic from Faerie begins to creep into This Side, the border town of Ehvenor becomes the site of a battle between Jason Cullinane's warriors and the invading forces of sorcery.

The Road to Ehvenor is the sixth installment of the Guardians of the Flame series.

Hoping to intercept his bitter best friend's crusade to kill off all the slave masters in the land and keep the legend of the Warrior alive, baron Jason Cullinane is unaware that his search will force him into a dangerous pact.

Kethol -- The pretty fellow, a long and lanky redhead with an easy smile and an easygoing attitude that his clever eyes deny. He is quick with a quick... and quicker with a sword.

Durine -- The big man, a head taller than most and twice as wide, built like a barrel, with a loyal heart and hands too thick to use anything more delicate than an ax handle.

Pirojil -- The ugly one, his face heavy-jawed, with an eye ridge that would mark him as a Neanderthal only to the most gracious. But looks deceive, and his might be the rarest gift of all.

Athos, Porthos, and Aramis they're not.

Several of them, in fact. He's the heir to an empire-but he doesn't want to be. And nobody believes that he could or would walk away, and give the job of ruling the kingdom to someone else.

In this roller coaster of a sequel to Not Exactly the Three Musketeers, it looks like the stage is set for a major shake-up in the kingdom. Jason's help in keeping everything from blowing up are the self-appointed soldiers of the errant Jason, sent by that wily off-worlder Walter Slovotsky to keep Jason in one piece... more or less.

There's Kethol, the long and lanky redhead with an easy smile, who's quick with a quip and quicker with a sword; Pirojil, the ugly one, whose looks deceive and whose might and loyalty are worth a kingdom; and the fledgling wizard Erenor, a man who tries to stay two steps ahead of his enemies--as well as one step ahead of his friends. They're all part of the Cullinane retinue, sworn to protect the Cullinane manse and the sometimes-heroic Jason Cullinane and they have their hands full.

Because no one likes a vacuum--or one too many contenders for power, Jason's soldiers are going to have to do some fast adventuring to make it all turn out all right.

Next in Joel Rosenberg's bestselling Guardians of the Flame series, Not Quite Scaramouche continues the adventures of the journeyman soldiers of Castle Cullinane (and their sometimes ill-fated leader) in all their raucous glory.

Kethol is an adventurer with an easy smile, a man who is quick with a quip and quicker with a sword.

His partner, Pirojil, the ugly one, looks impressive and deceives people into thinking he's stupid to their sorrow-for his might and loyalty are worth a kingdom.

And the fledgling wizard Erenor, a man who tries to stay two steps ahead of his enemies, as well as one step ahead of his friends.

Loyal retainers they are, sworn to Jason Cullianane, a man who walked away from a crown, and who has been trying to convince all the almost-warring factions that he doesn't want the job back. Their lives aren't very easy, what with keeping Jason from getting killed by yet another conspiracy, rescuing some damsel or whatnot in distress, and squirreling away something for the ever-diminishing prospect of retirement.

And now it looks like our heroes might wind up succeeding in none of their schemes, for there are plots within plots, and Kethol has been forced into a disguise not of his own making. There is magic aplenty in the air (and on the ground), and in order to save a kingdom, they may have to pull off a complicated scheme that could kill them all--or land them in positions of supreme power.

But, hey, whoever said that a soldier's life was a cakewalk?

Set in Joel Rosenberg's bestselling Guardians of the Flame series, Not Really the Prisoner of Zenda is the third adventure of the journeymen soldiers of Castle Cullianane (and their sometimes ill-fated leader) in all their raucous glory. A fun, fast-paced read, it's a rollicking roller coaster of a book that will have fantasy fans reaching for more.

Number-one New York Times best-seller Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, True Blood, Midnight Crossroad) delivers the first thriller in a new trilogy that presents a chilling alternate history of the US where everyone believes in magic - but no one is sure whether they can trust it.

After the assassination of FDR in the 1930s, the US collapses and is picked off by the UK, Canada, Mexico, and Russia. We find ourselves in the Southwestern states, now known as Texoma. It is here that the gunnie Lizbeth Rose tries to piece out a life, running security on runs from Texoma across the border to Mexico, where work and prospects are stronger.

When two Russian magicians come looking for a man named Alex Karkarov, they hire Lizbeth to find him or his family, but there are problems: The man they're looking for is dead, but he has a daughter they now need to find, as an ever-growing set of sorcerers and gunnies do not want them to succeed. It's a good thing Lizbeth is a deadly gunfighter; too bad she hates sorcerers, even the ones on whom she has to learn to rely.

Number-one New York Times best-seller Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, True Blood, Midnight Crossroad) returns to fantasy in a taut thriller set in a US where magic is an acknowledged truth, but disreputable.

In this second thrilling installment of the Gunnie Rose series, Lizbeth Rose is hired onto a new crew for a seemingly easy protection job, transporting a crate into Dixie, just about the last part of the former United States of America she wants to visit. But what seemed like a straight-forward job turns into a massacre as the crate is stolen. Up against a wall in Dixie, where social norms have stepped back into the last century, Lizbeth has to go undercover with an old friend to retrieve the crate as what's inside can spark a rebellion, if she can get it back in time.

Picking up right where A Longer Fall left off, this thrilling third installment follows Lizbeth Rose as she takes on one of her most dangerous missions yet: rescuing her estranged partner, Prince Eli, from the Holy Russian Empire. Once in San Diego, Lizbeth is going to have to rely upon her sister Felicia, and her growing Grigori powers to navigate her way through this strange new world of royalty and deception in order to get Eli freed from jail where he's being held for murder.

Russian Cage continues to ramp up the momentum with more of everything Harris' readers adore her for with romance, intrigue, and a deep dive into the mysterious Holy Russian Empir

Felicia, Lizbeth Rose's half-sister and a student at the Grigori Rasputin school in San Diego--capital of the Holy Russian Empire--is caught between her own secrets and powerful family struggles. As a granddaughter of Rasputin, she provides an essential service to the hemophiliac Tsar Alexei, providing him the blood transfusions that keep him alive.

Felicia is treated like a nonentity at the bedside of the tsar, and at the school she's seen as a charity case with no magical ability. But when Felicia is snatched outside the school, the facts of her heritage begin to surface. Felicia turns out to be far more than the Russian-Mexican Lizbeth rescued. As Felicia's history unravels and her true abilities become known, she becomes under attack from all directions. Only her courage will keep her alive.

Following the murderous events of The Serpent in Heaven, Lizbeth Rose is awaiting the arrival of her sister Felicia and her husband's younger brother Peter in Texoma. Both needed to leave the seat of the Holy Russian Empire in San Diego after Felicia's burgeoning wizardly power in death magic became the reason for kidnapping and assassination attempts from her mother's family of high-powered wizards in Mexico.

Yet bad news has traveled ahead of them, as Eli is called back to San Diego, taking Peter along with him, splitting them apart in more ways than one as their enemies' plans for revenge come to fruition.

Taking place in the world of Cassandra Rose Clarke's Magic of Blood and Sea, this is the story of a would-be witch who embarks on an adventure filled with intrigue, mystery, mermaids, and magic.

Hanna has spent her life hearing about the adventures of her namesake Ananna, the lady pirate, and assassin Naji, and dreams to have some adventures of her own.

One day when Hanna is with her apprentice--a taciturn fisherman called Kolur--the boat is swept wildly off course during a day of storms and darkness. In this strange new land, Kolur hires a stranger to join the crew and, rather than heading home, sets a course for the dangerous island of Jadanvar. As Hanna meets a secretive merboy--and learns that Kolur has a deadly past--she soon realizes that wishing for adventures can be deadly... because those wishes might come true.

This is an omnibus version consisting of The Wizard's Promise and The Nobleman's Revenge.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1966. The story can also be found in the anthologies Modern Classics of Fantasy (1997), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection The Dolphin and the Deep (1968).

The Silver Empire is in ruins. War is in the wind. Kagen and his allies are on the run from the Witch-king. Wild magic is running rampant everywhere. Spies and secret cabals plot from the shadows of golden thrones.

Kagen Vale is the most wanted man in the world, with a death sentence on his head and a reward for him?dead or alive?that would tempt a saint.

The Witch-king has new allies who bring a terrible weapon?a cursed disease that drives people into a murderous rage. If the disease is allowed to spread, the whole of the West will tear itself apart.

In order to build an army of resistance fighters and unearth magical weapons of his own, Kagen and his friends have to survive attacks and storms at sea, brave the haunted wastelands of the snowy north, fight their way across the deadly Cathedral Mountains, and rediscover a lost city filled with cannibal warriors, old ghosts, and monsters from other worlds. Along with his reckless adventurer brothers, Kagen races against time to save more than the old empire... if he fails the world will be drenched in a tsunami of bloodshed and horror.

When strange wolf-like creatures kidnap his girlfriend and his mother, Torrie and his friend Ian Silverstein join Torrie's father Thorsen and the mysterious "Uncle Hosea" on a rescue mission via a passageway to the exotic world from which Hosea and Thorsen had fled two decades earlier. Once entering the world of The Hidden Ways, they must battle gods, monsters and men, including the sinister Fire Duke, who seeks ultimate power and control of magical gems that can destroy the universe. Intrigue, swordplay and courage all loom large in this first novel of The Keeper of the Hidden Ways trilogy by bestselling author Joel Rosenberg, called by Mike Resnick "a major star in the fantasy firmament."

Ian Silverstein and an old army vet from Hardwood, North Dakota make their way through a hidden passageway to Tir Na Nog to find more of the seven jewels that can shape the universe. They are followed soonafter by four friends, including Tir Na Nog natives Thorsen and the mysterious Hosea. Odin sends Ian on a mission, supposedly to broker peace between two strongholds, that places Ian in great danger, and Ian learns that gods like Odin can mislead humans for their own strange reasons. Ian's challenges include overcoming the demons within himself as well as defeating foes in the magical world of The Hidden Ways.

Ian Silverstein returns to the magical land of the Hidden Ways in search of some of the "Brisingamen" gems that can shape or destroy the universe -- and to keep them out of the hands of the likes of the trickster god Loki. Many surprises ensue, and Ian must make some tough choices and survive the deadly intrigues of the powerful lords in Tir Na Nog.

Sorcery and swordplay as well as psychological depth are present in this series that Booklist called an "excellent and intelligent fantasy adventure".

In Midkemia, there are no easy roads . . .

For twenty years the mercenaries Durine, Kethol, and Pirojil have fought other people's battles. Having already defeated the Tsurani, the Bugs, and the goblins, it seems there are no more enemies for them to vanquish-even as the Riftwar rages on in the west. What lies ahead for the able trio are a few welcomed months of restful garrison duty.

When ordered to accompany the promiscuous Lady Mondegreen, her aging husband, and her current lover to a summit in the city of LaMut, the Three Swords willingly comply, expecting an uncomplicated and undemanding assignment. But nothing is straightforward in this land of violence and treachery. And when the fury of a winter's storm traps them inside a castle teeming with ambitious, plotting lords and ladies, the mercenaries suddenly find themselves with a series of cold-blooded murders to solve . . . and the political future of Midkemia resting in their hands.

The envelope was tied with three delicate silk ribbons: "One of the new recruits is not to be trusted..."

It's 1959 and a new killer haunts the streets of London, having baffled Scotland Yard. The newspapers call him The Florist because of the rose he brands on his victims. The police have turned yet again to the Inquirers at Miss Brickett's for assistance, and second-year Marion Lane is assigned the case.

But she's already dealing with a mystery of her own, having received an unsigned letter warning her that one of the three new recruits should not be trusted. She dismisses the letter at first, focusing on The Florist case, but her informer seems to be one step ahead, predicting what will happen before it does. But when a fellow second-year Inquirer is murdered, Marion takes matters into her own hands and must come face-to-face with her informer--who predicted the murder--to find out everything they know. Until then, no one at Miss Brickett's is safe and everyone is a suspect.

With brilliant twists and endless suspense, all set within the dazzling walls and hidden passageways of Miss Brickett's, Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose is a deliciously fun new historical mystery you won't be able to put down.

Elwere - city of rainbows, where the fortunes of the planet Oroga are concentrated in the grasping hands of the privileged few. To David, stolen from Elwere as a baby and raised as a thief of the Lower City, it is a dream of paradise, a treasure trove to which he must find the key, no matter what the cost... And Eschteef - a schrift of the jewel-and-precious-metals schtann, twice the size of a human, more than twice as strong, with frightfully glowing eyes and rows of needle-sharp teeth. It, too, has a dream, a dream of which David has suddenly become the crucial focus. And once a schrift has chosen, nothing can change its path.

Elwere or the Alien - two different roads to the future, leading to either wealth and power - or death...

The crudest, most ruthless officer in the Thousand World Contact Service, Major Alonzo Norfeldt - alias the Dutchman - finds himself pitted against the most cunning and deadly of intergalactic aliens... while partnered with an idiotic greenhorn.

Metzada is an inhospitable planet of Epsilon Indi whose inhabitants - most descendants from refugees forced to leave Israel - can survive only because its men are highly skilled mercenaries, Metzada's one export that brings in revenue. When young Ari Hanavi freezes in combat twice, he has one last chance to survive and even become a "hero".

Scenes of battle, military command, and operations are expertly portrayed in this novel about a young man who must overcome his terror while dealing with his fellow soldiers and fighting an enemy force. Set in the same world as Not for Glory, which David Drake called "a swift-paced, brutal, excellent political novel about the soldier of the future".

Metzada is an inhospitable planet of Epsilon Indi whose inhabitants -- most descendants from refugees forced to leave Israel -- can survive only because its men are highly skilled mercenaries, Metzada's one export that brings in revenue. When young Ari Hanavi freezes in combat twice, he has one last chance to survive and even become a "hero". Scenes of battle, military command and operations are expertly portrayed in this novel about a young man who must overcome his terror while dealing with his fellow soldiers and fighting an enemy force.

Set in the same world as Not for Glroy, which David Drake called "a swift-paced, brutal, excellent political novel about the soldier of the future".

Every schoolboy knows that Mordred the Great defeated King Arthur the Tyrant in the twelfth century, and Mordred's heirs had preserved the British crown through the Age of Crisis, and extended its reach halfway across the globe. By the 17th century, much of Europe, Asia and the New world was ruled from Londinium by the the kings of the Pendragon dynasty, protecting the Crown against the still-powerful Holy Roman Empire as much as the onset of the Dar Al Islam. The ragged band of outlaws that had been created as Mordred the Great's bodyguards had, over the centuries, become the paladins of the Order of Crown, Shield, and Dragon, dedicated to the Pendragons, each one taking the vow of "Service, honor, faith, obedience. Justice tempered only by mercy; mercy tempered only by justice."

But knights of the Order had more than vows to preserve the Crown. During the Age of Crisis, the Great Wizards had forged live swords to be weapons of the Order knights. Weapons of such power that could be trusted to no lesser mortals, because White swords held the souls of saints, while the Red swords imprisoned the souls of those who were anything but saints, and in the wrong hands, Red swords were capable of unspeakable destruction.

The art of making live swords had perished with the Great Wizards at end of the Age of Crisis.

Or so everyone thought.

But now, as the Crown, the Empire, and the Dar Al Islam sit astride the world in a precarious balance, three knights of the Order have discovered a brand new, previously unknown Red sword which has been very recently forged.

Worse, the tortured soul imprisoned in the sword remembers that it was only one of many which were cached in the hold of a mysterious sailing ship, origin unknown, and destination uncertain....

Every schoolboy knows the history: in the twelfth century, Mordred the Great defeated his father. King Arthur - known as "Arthur the Tyrant"--and founded the Pendragon Empire. Now, half a millenium later, the Empire's flag flies over much of Europe, Asia, and the New World, ably defended by the knights of the Order of Crown, Shield, and Dragon, who carry swords, each containing the soul of someone of great power. These are no ordinary swords, for a single red sword can defeat an army or leave a city in flaming ruins.

But now, as if manipulated by some unseen masterminds, supernatural menaces are threatening the empire. This time, even the knights and their swords of power may not be enough to hold back the forces of darkness....

".... the seafaring action is convincing and detailed, the characters are appealing.... [Readers] should be well satisfied with the promise of more tales to come."

Behind the king's life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector's Shadow...

Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late emperor's brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the empire, including (if he can manage it) the king himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana.

When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius—stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk.

As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name.

An instant cult classic, and groundbreaking forerunner to Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale. Native Tongue Trilogy revealed to its audiences a frightening future world where the women of Earth are once again property.

In Volume II of the trilogy, the women have at last decided to spread the language using the Roman Catholic church. But when a handful of priests discover the plot, they move to stamp it out with their own female agent, Sister Miriam Rose. But Sister Miriam has plans of her own. . . .

October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas...

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.

The 10th Anniversary edition of this novel also contains the novella Strangers in Court.

Things are looking up.

For the first time in what feels like years, October "Toby" Daye has been able to pause long enough to take a breath and look at her life -- and she likes what she sees. She has friends. She has allies. She has a squire to train and a King of Cats to love, and maybe, just maybe, she can let her guard down for a change.

Or not. When Queen Windermere's seneschal is elf-shot and thrown into an enchanted sleep by agents from the neighboring Kingdom of Silences, Toby finds herself in a role she never expected to play: that of a diplomat. She must travel to Portland, Oregon, to convince King Rhys of Silences not to go to war against the Mists. But nothing is that simple, and what October finds in Silences is worse than she would ever have imagined.

How far will Toby go when lives are on the line, and when allies both old and new are threatened by a force she had never expected to face again? How much is October willing to give up, and how much is she willing to change? In Faerie, what's past is never really gone.

It's just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

I've been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I've always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now I'm done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure.

Ari Helix may have won her battle against the tyrannical Mercer corporation, but the larger war has just begun. Ari and her cursed wizard Merlin must travel back in time to the unenlightened Middle Ages and steal the King Arthur's Grail -- the very definition of impossible. It's imperative that the time travelers not skew the timeline and alter the course of history. Coming face to face with the original Arthurian legend could produce a ripple effect that changes everything. Somehow Merlin forgot that the past can be even more dangerous than the future...

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Future Power (1976), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. The story can als be found in the anthology Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Sixth Annual Collection (1977), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections The Compass Rose (1982), Where on Earth (2012) and The Wind's Twelve Quarters & The Compass Rose (2015).

Edgar Allen Poe lies dying in a gutter in Baltimore... The Seventh Doctor and Ace cannot help him - his death has already happened. Poe will be taken to a hospital, and will die in three days time without ever coming out of his coma. But even as the Doctor explains this, the man in the gutter groans and expires.

Bewildered, the Doctor hurries Ace back to the TARDIS. At the door, they look back and see that the gutter is empty. In a moment, Poe staggers around the corner, drops to his knees in the gutter, then gets up and stumbles into another bar... Can the Doctor discover what is causing the time anomaly? Will he be able to prevent the universe itself from unraveling when everyone seems to have turned against him - even the TARDIS? Will he be able to escape the cold hell of absolute order? The answer, it seems, lies in the algebra of ice...

On the planet Barious, war has become a national pass time. During one of these conflicts Taralin Zarco, Queen of Barious, was abducted by the Barion's mortal enemies the Lockeds. When the story starts the war has ended, the Barions have won and the queen has just been found on a distant planet. Enter Drewcila Qwah, a rough-and-tumble salvager, who drinks too much, smokes too much, and has a mouth you wouldn't kiss your mother with. Drewcila (Drew) and her partner, a huge hair-covered alien named Van Gar, have been hired by the king's emissaries to take the confused queen to meet her husband.

Only two real problems with this plan. Drewcila hates royalty, and the queen has no memory of being queen or of her husband. Meet a strange world filled with palace intrigue, rebel plots, assassination attempts, civil unrest, economic depression, trash, and the unscrupulous salvager who wants to change it all to suit her own needs.

Queen of Denial is a book with one to entertain. It is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, action-packed, science fiction comedy, with a little mystery thrown in for good measure. Ms. Rosen believes in researching her work in every detail. Queen of Denial is the end product of a lifetime of drinking, working in the trash collection business, and getting into fistfights over petty crap.

Nightmares are creeping through the city of dreams...

Renata Virdaux is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadezra - the city of dreams - with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune and her sister's future.

But as she's drawn into the aristocratic world of House Traementis, she realises her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as corrupted magic begins to weave its way through Nadezra, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled - with Ren at their heart.

Trust is the thread that binds us... and the rope that hangs us.

In Nadezra, peace is as tenuous as a single thread. The ruthless House Indestor has been destroyed, but darkness still weaves through the city's filthy back alleys and jewel-bright gardens, seen by those who know where to look.

Derossi Vargo has always known. He has sacrificed more than anyone imagines to carve himself a position of power among the nobility, hiding a will of steel behind a velvet smile. He'll be damned if he lets anyone threaten what he's built.

Grey Serrado knows all too well. Bent under the yoke of too many burdens, he fights to protect the city's most vulnerable. Sooner or later, that fight will demand more than he can give.

And Ren, daughter of no clan, knows best of all. Caught in a knot of lies, torn between her heritage and her aristocratic masquerade, she relies on her gift for reading pattern to survive. And it shows her the web of corruption that traps her city.

But all three have yet to discover just how far that web stretches. And in the end, it will take more than knives to cut themselves free...

May you see the face and not the mask.

Ren came to Nadežra with a plan. She would pose as the long-lost daughter of the noble house Traementis. She would secure a fortune for herself and her sister. And she would vanish without a backward glance. She ought to have known that in the city of dreams, nothing is ever so simple.

Now, she is Ren, con-artist and thief. But she is also Renata, the celebrated Traementis heir. She is Arenza, the mysterious pattern-reader and political rebel. And she is the Black Rose, a vigilante who fights alongside the legendary Rook.

Even with the help of Grey Serrado and Derossi Vargo, it is too many masks for one person to wear. And as the dark magic the three of them helped unleash builds to storm that could tear the very fabric of the city apart, it's only a matter of time before one of the masks slips-and everything comes crashing down around them.

Rose has always felt out of place in her family. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him, she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she finds love, discovers her purpose, and realizes her travels have only just begun.

As fresh and original as only the best fantasy can be, "East" is a novel retelling of the classic tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," told in the tradition of Robin McKinley and Gail Carson Levine.

When Rose first met Charles, he was trapped in the form of a white bear. To rescue him, Rose traveled to the land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon to defeat the evil Troll Queen. Now Rose has found her happily-ever-after with Charles--until a sudden storm destroys his ship and he is presumed dead. But Rose doesn't believe the shipwreck was an act of nature, nor does she believe Charles is truly dead. Something much more sinister is at work.

With mysterious and unstoppable forces threatening the lives of the people she loves, Rose must once again set off on a perilous journey. And this time, the fate of the entire world is at stake.

Since time began, twenty Gods have ruled the universe. Though each god possessed different abilities, each was all-powerful within his realm. Now one of the Gods has upset the balance of power, leaving the others scrambling for control in the new order...

Here is the epic tale of the Great War of the Gods--and the proud people upon whom the fate of the world depends. When the God of the desert, Akhran the Wanderer, declares that two clans must band together despite their centuries-old rivalry, their first response is outrage. But they are a devout people and so reluctantly bow to his bidding.

Enemies from birth, the headstrong Prince Khardan and impetuous Princess Zohra must unite in marriage to stop Quar, the God of Reality, Greed, and Law, from enslaving their people.

But can Khardan and Zohra keep from betraying each other? Can their two peoples maintain their fragile alliance until the long-awaited flowering of the legendary Rose of the Prophet?

Against the powerful legions of the evil Amir, Khardan and Zohra fight to save the desert people--a fight unexpectedly joined by an exiled wizard named Matthew and the mysterious powers of his alien land.

The Great War of the Gods means nothing to the proud people on the mortal planet--until Akhran the Wandering God decrees the union of two mighty feuding clans. Though the families are fierce Warriors, they are few in number. Even the marriage of Khardan and Zohra is not enough to over power the strength of the invading army or prevent the imprisonment of their peoples. Now, with Khardan and Zohra mysteriously missing--seemingly cowards who hid from certain defeat--the two clans have lost all hope of ever again seeing their beloved open skies. But Prince Khardan and Princess Zohra, aided by the wizard Matthew, have been given another mission... a mission that at first seems less useful than counting the many grains of the desert sands, but soon proves to be of far more lasting importance.

The Great War of the Gods comes to a close in the last volume of this series. The epic fantasy saga finds Khardin, Zohra, and the wizard Mathew faced with crossing a vast desert. If they survive, the nomads must combat the fiercest of warriors.

To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature.

London, 1953, Coronation year - but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II.

Thirteen years have passed since a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany was formalized. George VI and his family have been murdered and Edward VIII rules as King. Yet, in practice, all power is vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain's Protector. The role and status of women is Rosenberg's particular interest.

Rose Ransom belongs to the elite caste of women and works at the Ministry of Culture, rewriting literature to correct the views of the past. But now she has been given a special task.

Outbreaks of insurgency have been seen across the country; graffiti daubed on public buildings. Disturbingly, the graffiti is made up of lines from forbidden works, subversive words from the voices of women. Suspicion has fallen on Widowland, the run-down slums where childless women over fifty have been banished. These women are known to be mutinous, for they have nothing to lose.

Before the Leader arrives for the Coronation ceremony of King Edward and Queen Wallis, Rose must infiltrate Widowland to find the source of this rebellion and ensure that it is quashed.

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband takes a special shine to them. Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavets' circle is not what it seems.

Ira Levin returns to the horror of his 1967 groundbreaking novel Rosemary's Baby with this sequel set at the dawn of the new millennium. Thirty-three years ago, Rosemary gave birth to the Devil's child while under the control of a coven of witches. Now the year is 1999, and humanity dreads the approaching twenty-first century, desperately in search of a saviour for this troubled world.

In New York City, Rosemary's son Andy is believed to be that saviour. But is he the force of good his followers accept him to be? Or is he his father's son? As the war between good and evil rages on unabated, the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, in this shocking and darkly comic novel from the modern master of suspense.

Who--or what--is stalking the students at Oakhurst Academy?

In the wake of the accident that killed her family, Spirit White is spirited away to Oakhurst Academy, a combination school and orphanage in the middle of Montana. There she learns she is a legacy--not only to the school, which her parents also attended, but to magic.

All the students at Oakhurst have magical powers, and although Spirit's hasn't manifested itself yet, the administrators insist she has one. Spirit isn't sure she cares. Devastated by the loss of her family, she finds comfort with a group of friends: Burke Hallows, Lachlann Spears, Muirin Shae, and Adelaide Lake.

But something strange is going on at Oakhurst. Students start disappearing under mysterious circumstances, and the school seems to be trying to cover it up. Spirit and her friends must find out what's happening--before one of them becomes the next victim...

The second book in the Shadow Grail series by the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

Spirit and her friends Burke, Loch, Muirin, and Addie have managed to defeat the evil force that has been killing students at Oakhurst Academy for the past forty years--or so they think. When a series of magical attacks disrupts the school, Doctor Ambrosius calls upon alumnus Mark Rider to secure the campus--and start training the students for war. The only student without magic, Spirit doesn't trust Mark or his methods. She knows that Oakhurst isn't safe. And if Spirit and her friends want to live long enough to graduate, they have to find out what is really going on--before it's too late.

The third book in the Shadow Grail series by the New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

The students of Oakhurst Academy believe they have triumphed over the Shadow Knights. But Spirit, Burke, Muirin, Loch, and Addie know better. Under the guise of a company called Breakthrough Adventure Systems, the Shadow Knights have actually taken over the campus. The new regime is brutal, designed to turn the students into soldiers wielding both weapons and magic. Anyone who protests disappears.

Desperate, the group decides that Muirin should go undercover to spy on Breakthrough. But Muirin's act is a little too good, and Spirit begins to fear that her friend's loyalties might have truly changed. Surrounded by enemies and friends who suddenly seem like strangers, Spirit has decide who can--and cannot--be trusted.

Spirit White and her friends Burke, Loch, and Addie have escaped from Oakhurst Academy. But their freedom has come at a terrible cost--a dear friend sacrificed her own life to save theirs. In the wake of Muirin's death, they are also forced to deal with the terrifying truth behind the facade of Oakhurst Academy: all of the legends are true.

Queen Guinevere, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table really had existed. With the magic of Merlin, they were able to imprison their greatest foe, Mordred, before he could plunge the world back into the Dark Ages. But Mordred is now free, in charge of Oakhurst Academy, and determined to finish what he started so long ago.

Pursued by Shadow Knights, the reincarnated remnants of Mordred's original army, Spirit's small band undertakes a quest to recover the Four Hallows, objects of immeasurable power. Memories of a past life have begun to surface, one in which Spirit wields a legendary sword. She comes to realize that these memories are the true key to Mordred's defeat. Can Spirit and her friends manage to recapture the magic of Camelot in time to save their fellow students and prevent the end of the world?

Shadow Grail #4: Victories is he fourth and final book in the Shadow Grail series by the New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill.

I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse--one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid's empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn't yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 1982. The story is included in the collections Crystal Express (1989) and Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling (2007).

When Sibyl Sue Blue, unique police sergeant of the future, smokes a benzale cigarette, she has a strange dream about the disappearance of her husband on the mysterious planet of Radix. So she pulls off her wig and rouges her knees, and goes off to Radix with sinister millionaire Stuart Grant and crew in his space ship. She finds her husband there, horribly transformed, and is in great danger of the same fate herself, unless she can get back to Earth in time. But this presents difficulties, because only Sibyl and the loathsome Dr. Beadle are in any shape to fly the ship, and neither one of them has ever done it before...

The Sea King was handsome, perhaps the most overwhelming male personality that Police Sergeant Sybil Sue Blue had ever met... but he wasn't human. He did not react in human ways, for his emotions were as alien as his logic.

Even his love was strange to an Earthwoman. His love... and his hate. The Sea King did know hatred, and his hate was big enough to defy a race from across the stars. It was up to Sybil Sue Blue to prevent that hatred from destroying her own love.

The ancient and dangerous secret of the Sime~Gen Mutation threatens to topple the ruling dynasty of the House of Zeor. How much torment can one teen girl take before the fate of the world doesn't matter to her anymore? How much psychic power can one young woman handle? What options can she create when she has no options left? And--can love truly conquer all?

In 1514 Hungary, peasants who rose up against the nobility rise again - from the grave. In 1633 Al-Shouf, a mother keeps demons at bay with the combined power of grief and music. In 1775 Paris, as social tensions come to a boil, a courtesan tries to save the woman she loves. In 1838 Georgia, a pregnant woman's desperate escape from slavery comes with a terrible price. In 1900 Ilocos Norte, a forest spirit helps a young girl defend her land from American occupiers.

These gripping stories have been passed down through the generations, hidden between the lines of journal entries and love letters. Now 27 of today's finest authors - including Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Ken Liu, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, and Sabrina Vourvoulias - reveal the people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history.

On the edge of uncharted space... Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the Starship Enterprise find their way forward blocked by a mysterious alien vessel, piloted by a race they will soon come to know as the Antianna. Unable to decipher the alien ship's transmissions, unwilling to risk a battle, Enterprise is forced to veer from its planned course.

Almost immediately, they find themselves in the heart of space ruled by the Thelasian Trading Confederacy, who have also had dealings with the Antianna. The Thelasian leader, Governor Maxim Sen, is in fact in the middle of organizing a war against the Antianna, to eliminate the threat they pose to the Confederacy's trading routes. Archer suspects Sen has other motives as well. He also suspects that there is a reason for the Antianna's seemingly hostile posture.

But with the assembled races of an entire sector against him, he needs more than just suspicions. He needs facts. And only one woman can give them to him: Ensign Hoshi Sato. If she can translate the Antianna language, peace may just be possible. If not, war - a devastating sector-wide war - will soon result.

While traveling through the Delta Quadrant, the Protostar crew discovers a worn transporter coil on their ship. Despite Janeway's misgivings, the crew decides to trade a Starfleet-issued battery for new transporter parts at a market on a distant planet. Little do they know that a group of rogue traders are intent on getting their hands on something much bigger: the Protostar! Will the crew be able to defend their ship and stay out of trouble?

The crew is on their way to Starfleet. Their shuttle is cramped, and everyone is cranky. That's when Murf spots a moon that isn't on their charts. Murf really wants to go there, so the crew decides to make a stop to stretch their legs and get some supplies.

But a small detour turns into a big dilemma when the inhabitants of the moon ask Murf to stay with them. The rest of the crew begins to wonder if this is a sign. Could it be time for each of them to go their separate ways?

Four novellas by the most popular Star Trek authors finds the intrepid Starfleet Corps of Engineers called in to fix urgent crucial situations: a distress call, rampaging monsters, a reactor and a city. The Starfleet Corps of Engineers, the top flight of technical specialists, face four of their most challenging missions yet.

In THE RIDDLED POST the S.C.E. responds to an urgent distress call from an outpost that has been attacked by something that can penetrate shields.

GATEWAYS EPILOGUE finds the S.C.E. facing a horde of rampaging monsters that have been let loose on the planet Maeglin.

In AMBUSH, they must fix a reactor crucial to a mining operation, but the malevolent aliens who damaged it are still around.

And in SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED, the citizens of Keorga are counting on the Corps to save their largest city.

Contents:

• 1 - The Riddled Post - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 9] - novella by Aaron Rosenberg
• 77 - Here There Be Monsters - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 10] - novella by Keith R. A. DeCandido
• 153 - Ambush - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 11] - novella by Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur
• 221 - Some Assembly Required - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 12] - novella by Scott Ciencin and Dan Jolley
• 297 - About the Authors (Some Assembly Required) - essay by uncredited

Having recovered from the catastrophic events of Wildfire, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers team on the U.S.S. da Vinci meets its new second officer: Mor glasch Tev, an arrogant Tellarite who's the best there is -- and he knows it.

Even as Captain Gold and Commander Gomez get used to their acerbic new officer, the S.C.E. team faces crises in its own solar system. A strange vessel appears in the middle of San Francisco that the S.C.E. must deal with -- aided by engineers extraordinaire Montgomery Scott and Miles O'Brien. Then they have to help the Venus terraforming team -- a mission that brings Bynar computer expert Soloman to a difficult crossroads.

That's only the beginning of the challenges for the Corps as it faces a Ferengi with a time machine, a prison colony in a black hole -- and a mission from the Dominion War that comes back to haunt the da Vinci crew in more ways than one....

Contents:

• vii - Introduction (Aftermath) - essay by Keith R. A. DeCandido
• 1 - Aftermath - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 29] - (2003) - novella by Christopher L. Bennett
• 105 - Ishtar Rising - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 30] - (2003) - novella by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
• 237 - Buying Time - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 32] - (2003) - novella by Robert Greenberger
• 319 - Collective Hindsight - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 33] - (2003) - novella by Aaron Rosenberg
• 433 - The Demon - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 35] - (2004) - novel by Loren L. Coleman and Randall N. Bills
• 619 - About the Authors (Aftermath) - essay by uncredited

These are the voyages of the U.S.S. da Vinci. Their mission: to solve the problems of the galaxy, one disaster at a time. Starfleet veteran Captain David Gold, along with his crack Starfleet Corps of Engineers team led by former Starship Enterprise engineer Commander Sonya Gomez, travel throughout the Federation and beyond to fix the unfixable, repair the irreparable, and solve the unsolvable.

The S.C.E.'s missions don't always go as planned -- repairing the weather grid on the resort planet Risa turns into a deadly first contact, constructing an industrial complex on a nonaligned world leads to some startling revelations about the financier behind it, diverting a runaway ship could spell death for the crew the da Vinci didn't even know was there, and a planet in a box proves a more valuable prize than anyone could have imagined -- but their greatest challenge comes much closer to home...

Captain Gold's granddaughter Esther is marrying Khor, son of Lantar, a Klingon politician. Now Gold faces what may be the greatest challenge of his career: officiating the first-ever Klingon-Jewish wedding!

Contents:

• 1 - Paradise Interrupted - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 43] - (2004) - novella by John S. Drew
• 97 - Where Time Stands Still - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 44] - (2004) - novella by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
• 181 - The Art of the Deal - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 45] - (2004) - novella by Glenn Greenberg
• 277 - Spin - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 46] - (2004) - novella by J. Steven York and Christina F. York
• 337 - Creative Couplings - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 47] - (2004) - novella by Glenn Hauman and Aaron Rosenberg
• 465 - Small World - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 49] - (2005) - novella by David Mack
• 529 - About the Authors (Creative Couplings) - essay by uncredited

Spock, displaced in time, watches his closest friend heed his advice by allowing the love of his life to die in a traffic accident, thereby preserving Earth's history. Returning to the present, Spock confronts other such crises, and chooses instead to willfully alter the past. Challenged by the thorny demands of his logic, he will have to find a way to face his conflicting decisions. Once, he preserved the timeline at the cost of Jim Kirk's happiness. Now he is forced to re-examine the fundamental choices he has made for his own life. Unwilling to accept his feelings of loss and regret, he seeks that which has previously eluded him: complete mastery of his emotions. But while that quest will move him beyond his turmoil, another loss will bring him full circle to once more face the fire he had never embraced.

When the hunted become hunters...

Ronon Dex is a mystery. His past is a closed book and he likes it that way. But when the Atlantis team triggers a trap that leaves them stranded on a hostile world, only Ronon's past can save them -- if it doesn't kill them first.

As the gripping tale unfolds, we return to Ronon's earliest days as a Runner and meet the charismatic leader who transformed him into a hunter of Wraith. But grief and rage can change the best of men and it soon becomes clear that those who Ronon once considered brothers-in-arms are now on the hunt -- and that the Atlantis team are their prey.

Unless Ronon can out hunt the hunters, Colonel Sheppard's team will fall victim to the vengeance of the V'rdai.

This book is intended as a guide for those who want to know about the science fiction written by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is not written for people who have written doctoral dissertations about science fiction nor for those who are about to, although both these groups may find here some fact, insight or other valuable thing not found elsewhere. This book is what the title says: a reader's guide. As I put it together, I followed the general format of all the other books in this series, so there are a chronology, and introductory chapter, two comprehensive bibliographies, and an index.

Attempting to hone her style, a performance artist inadvertently calls upon the assistance of two gnomelike creatures. At first their advice is invaluable, but the situation quickly turns dangerous as she finds herself trapped between two conflicting, evil bands--the Sidhe and the faerie.

When two housecleaners arrive at a client's house, they are shocked to discover a strange guitar...one which actually speaks when strummed! It turns out to be their client, who is none to helpful in explaining her predicament. In their search for clues, the cleaning duo find that their client (now a guitar) had been performing bizarre musical experiments on her computer involving ancient Celtic manuscripts. What follows is an offbeat and humorous journey to locate the one man who can help restore their client's humanity... but he isn't so eager to do so!

If you ask, she will answer. If she asks, you must reply. A steerswoman will speak only the truth to you, as long as she knows it-and you must do the same for her. And so, across the centuries, the Steerswomen- questioning, searching, investigating-have slowly learned more and more about the world through which they wander. All knowledge the Steerswomen possess is given freely to those who ask. But there is one kind of knowledge that has always been denied them: Magic.

When the steerswoman Rowan discovers a small, lovely blue jewel of obviously magical origin, her innocent questions lead to secret after startling secret, each more dangerous than the last-and suddenly Rowan must flee or fight for her life. Or worse, she must lie.

With every wizard in the world searching for her, Rowan finds unexpected assistance. A chance-met traveler turned friend, Bel is a warrior-poet, an Outskirter, and a member of a barbaric and violent people. Or, so it would seem.

For Bel, unknowing, possesses secrets of her own: secrets embedded in her culture, in her people, in the very soil of her homeland. From the Inland Sea to the deadly Outskirts, surrounded by danger and deceit, Rowan and Bel uncover more and more of the wizards' hidden knowledge. As the new truths accumulate, they edge closer to the single truth that lies at the center, the most unexpected secret of them all....

Two shining lights hung above, motionless in the night sky as the constellations slowly passed behind them. The common folk knew them well, and used them to count the hours, mark the seasons.

But when the steerswoman Rowan discovered a number of broken blue jewels of clearly magical origin, her investigations led to a startling discovery: a Guidestar had fallen.

There were more than two; the others hung above the opposite side of the world; something had caused one of those to fall.

But what? And what might it mean? Rowan had no answers...

But she knew one thing: where the fallen Guidestar was located. To reach it, she must cross the Inner Lands and pass deep into the wild and deadly Outskirts.

Rowan's traveling companion, Bel, is an Outskirter herself. Together the steerswoman and the warrior-poet have a chance of surviving the cruel landscape, the barbarian tribes, and the bizarre native wildlife.

But there are more secrets than one in the Outskirts: and each dangerous step closer to the Guidestar brings new discoveries, leading to the most startling secret of all...

How do you find a person you have never seen, or have never heard described? And what if the consequences of not finding him are too terrible to imagine?

The steerswoman Rowan has learned that Slado, a mysterious wizard, has secretly been working spells of incredible power. Both the Inner Lands and the Outkskirts are now threatened by his magic-and before the destruction becomes too great to reverse, Rowan must find Slado so that he can be stopped. But how does one stop the most powerful man in the world?

In the seaside town of Alemeth, the Annex holds centuries of steerswomen's journals. They may contain clues to Slado's location, but combing through them would take more time than Rowan has to spend. Then she encounters a lost friend: Janus, one of the few rare Steersmen. But Janus quit the order without explanation. Now the bright, beloved companion of Rowan's student days has become a man dominated by dark moods and even darker secrets.

When sleepy Alemeth transforms into a place of chaos, terror, and sudden death, Rowan wonders if all the secrets are connected. The shocking answer will change the steerswoman-and her world-forever....

Rosemary Kirstein's acclaimed epic continues, as a servant of truth journeys through a world where the powerful rule by lies.

The steerswomen were seekers, collectors of knowledge, and whatever they learned was free for the asking. The wizards also had knowledge- the knowledge to command nature itself-but they jealously guarded their dark wisdom. The two groups have been at odds for centuries: They do not agree, they do not converse, they do not associate.

Now the steerswoman Rowan has uncovered evidence that the master wizard, Slado, is conjuring dangerous spells in shadow, devastating the distant lands called the Outskirts and changing the course of the world. Rowan has no choice: Slado must be stopped... if he can even be found.

Following a dubious clue, Rowan and her friend Bel, an Outskirter, have come to the city of Donner, seeking answers from the past for a danger in the present. But the secrets go deeper than Rowan had ever imagined, compelling her to wonder: What if all this time she has been asking the wrong questions?

High school is a monster, and it's eating everyone Robin knows. It's the beginning of sophomore year, and Robin's Odd Squad friends couple up, won't stop talking about college and their future careers, and are obsessed with trying to act "normal." Robin knows that game well--she's been pretending for years, hoping nobody would notice the sarcastic polyglot French horn player with a bad perm in the back of the room. But there's one aspect of her identity that she knows for sure doesn't fit in with her image--Robin likes girls.

How is she supposed to be her true self in teeny-tiny Hawkins, Indiana? Robin is convinced the only way she can experience real life is by fleeing to Europe for the summer--aka Operation Croissant. But she has no money, no permission, and no one to share the adventure with--and it will take a heck of a lot more than that to escape Hawkins in one piece.

Snow White and Rose Red live on the edge of the forest that conceals the elusive border of Faerie. They know enough about Faerie lands and mortal magic to be concerned when they find two human sorcerers setting spells near the border. And when the kindly, intelligent black bear wanders into their cottage some months later, they realize the connection between his plight and the sorcery they saw in the forest.

The Age of Darkness approaches.
Five lives stand in its way.
Who will stop it... or unleash it?

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations?until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.

All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world's salvation... or the cause of its destruction. With chaos on the horizon, five souls are set on a collision course:

A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.

One of them--or all of them--could break the world. Will they be savior or destroyer?

The Last Prophet has been found, yet he sees destruction ahead.

In this sequel to the critically-acclaimed There Will Come a Darkness, kingdoms have begun to fall to a doomsday cult, the magical Graced are being persecuted, and an ancient power threatens to break free. But with the world hurtling toward its prophesized end, Anton's haunting vision reveals the dangerous beginnings of a plan to stop the Age of Darkness.

As Jude, Keeper of the Order of the Last Light, returns home in disgrace, his quest to aid the Prophet is complicated by his growing feelings for Anton. Meanwhile, the assassin known as the Pale Hand will stop at nothing to find her undead sister before she dies for good, even if it means letting the world burn. And in Nazirah, Hassan, the kingdom-less Prince, forms a risky pact to try to regain his throne. When the forces of light and darkness collide in the City of Mercy, old wounds are reopened, new alliances are tested, and the end of the world begins.

Following the destruction of the City of Mercy, an ancient god has been resurrected and sealed inside Beru's body. Both are at the mercy of the Prophet Pallas, who wields the god's powers to subjugate the Six Prophetic Cities. But every day, the god grows stronger, threatening to break free and sow untold destruction.

Meanwhile, far away from Pallas Athos, Anton learns to harness his full powers as a Prophet. Armed with the truth about how the original Prophets killed the god, Anton leads Jude, Hassan, and Ephyra on a desperate quest to the edge of the world. With time running out, the group's tenuous alliance is beset by mounting danger, tumultuous romance, and most of all by a secret that Anton is hiding: a way to destroy the god at the price of an unbearable sacrifice. But the cost of keeping that secret might be their lives?and the lives of everyone in the Six Prophetic Cities.

Fleeing the vengeful Inquisitor Melyn, Sir Benfro is drawn to the last resting place of a great dragon of legend, Magog, deep in the ancient forest. Through Magog's spirit, Benfro discovers the true nature of his forebears - a history of unimaginable power and mystery over mankind. But with this knowledge comes terrible danger.

Errol Ramsbottom's dreams of becoming a great Warrior Priest have been shattered by his discovery of the dark secret of the Holy Order's power. And yet as a chosen noviciate he is trapped, unwillingly drawn deeper into the sinister plans for war which will engulf Gwlad.

With the forces of magic gathering so the destinies of Errol and Sir Benfro further entwine...

Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown.

When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It's adventure she wants-and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death.

IT'S TIME TO TAKE A WALK ON THE WYLD SIDE

Camellia Beaureguard, the former favorite Belle, must race against time to find the ailing Princess Charlotte, who has disappeared without a trace. The evil queen Sophia's imperial forces will stop at nothing to keep Camille, her sister Edel, and her loyal guard, Rémy, from returning Charlotte to the palace and her rightful place as queen. With the help of an underground resistance movement called the Iron Ladies--a society that rejects beauty treatments entirely--and the backing of alternative newspaper the Spider's Web, Camille uses her powers, her connections, and her cunning to outwit her greatest nemesis, Sophia, and attempt to restore peace to Orléans. But enemies lurk in the most unexpected places, forcing Camille to decide just how much she's willing to sacrifice to save her people.

Fi is a prisoner. Briar, a monster. Shane's a warrior. And Red is a traitor. What was once a formidable group of four fighting to reawaken the kingdom is now ruptured, torn apart by the wicked Spindle Witch.

Confined to a tower with the monstrous Briar Rose, Fi is caught in the Spindle Witch's ever-tightening web. With the Spindle Witch on the verge of finding the Siphoning Spells and crushing Andar--with Fi's help, no less--Fi's only hope lies in decoding the ancient riddle of the Rose Witches before she loses Briar forever.

Shane is desperate to save Andar--and her partner. She's on the hunt for a weapon left by the mysterious Lord of the Butterflies, which holds the key to the Spindle Witch's demise. Her love for Red has only fortified. But Red's betrayal puts her in danger from a new enemy--the Spindle Witch's executioner, the Wraith, a witch as powerful as he is cruel.

The future of Andar lies in the secrets of its past. Fi and Shane must take on the greatest lost ruin of them all--the Tomb of Queen Aurora.

Thunder and Roses is the fourth volume in The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Included in Thunder and Roses are 15 stories, with major works like "Maturity," "The Professor's Teddy Bear," "A Way Home," and the title story, in addition to two works never published before.

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Note by Paul Williams
• Foreword by James E. Gunn
• Maturity (1947)
• Tiny and the Monster (1947)
• The Sky Was Full of Ships (1947)
• Largo (1947)
• Thunder and Roses (1947)
• It Wasn't Syzygy (1948)
• The Blue Letter
• Wham Bop! (1947)
• Well Spiced (1948)
• Hurricane Trio (1955)
• That Low (1948)
• Memory (1948)
• There Is No Defense (1948)
• The Professor's Teddy Bear (1948)
• A Way Home (1953)
• Story Notes by Paul Williams
• The Original Second Half of "Maturity"

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 1999. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection (2000), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and The Mammoth Book of Fantasy (2001), edited by Mike Ashley. The story is included in the collection Tales from Earthsea (2001).

After the events of "The Vanishing Tower", Elric's companion Moonglum elects to stay awhile in Tanelorn, while the albino prince travels to the Valedak Directorates. When Elric meets a woman who is lost, he must embark on a series of adventures which will reveal the secrets of the world's future.

Kay Kenyon, noted for her science fiction world-building, has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme.

Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn. Believing them trapped in a parallel universe--one where he himself may have been imprisoned--he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter's dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him. As Quinn's memories return, he discovers why. Quinn's goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire--to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family's redemption.

But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm.

This is high-concept SF written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles, and Dan Dimmons's Hyperion.

In Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon introduced a milieu unique in science fiction and fantasy: The Entire, a five-armed radial universe that exists in a dimension without stars and planets and is parallel to our own universe. Stretched over The Entire is a lid of plasma, called the bright, which ebbs and flows, bringing day and twilight. Under the vast canopy of the bright live many galactic species, copied from our own universe.

Former star pilot Titus Quinn loves The Entire, but now he must risk annihilating it by destroying the fortress of Ahnenhoon. To sustain a faltering Entire, Ahnenhoon's great engine will soon reach through the brane separating the universes and consume our own universe in a concentrated ball of fire.

Quinn sets off on a journey across The Entire armed with the nan, a small ankle bracelet containing nanoscale military technology that can reduce Ahnenhoon and its deadly engine to chaos. He must pursue his mission even though his wife is held prisoner in Ahnenhoon and his own daughter has sent the assassin MoTi to hunt him down.

As he traverses the galactic distances of The Entire, he learns more of the secrets of its geography, its fragile storm walls, its eons-long history, and the factions that contend for dominance. One of these factions is led by his daughter, who though young and a slave, has at her command a transforming and revolutionary power.

As Quinn wrestles with looming disaster and approaches the fabled concentric rings of Ahnenhoon's defenses, he learns that in the Entire, nothing is what it appears. Its denizens are all harboring secrets, and the greatest of these is the nature of the Entire itself.

On this stage unfolds a mighty struggle for dominance between two universes. Titus Quinn has forged an unstable peace with the Tarig lords. The ruinous capability of the nanotech surge weapon he possesses ensures detente. But it is a sham. In what the godwoman Zhiya calls a fit of moral goodness, he's thrown the weapon into the space-folding waters of the Nigh. This clears the way for an enemy he could have never foreseen: the people of the Rose. A small cadre led by Helice Maki is determined to take the Entire for itself and leave the earth in ruins. The transform of earth will begin deep in a western desert and will sweep over the lives of ordinary people, entangling Quinn s sister-in-law Caitlin in a deepening and ultimate conspiracy.

In the Entire, Quinn stalks Helice to the fabled Rim City, encircling the heart of the Entire. Here he at last finds his daughter, now called Sen Ni, in the Chalin style. Outside of earth-based time, she has grown to adulthood. He hardly knows her, and finds her the mistress of a remarkable dream-time insurgency against the Tarig lords and more, a woman risen high in the Entire's meritocracy. Quinn needs his daughter's help against the woman who would destroy the earth. But Sen Ni has her own plans and allies, among them a boy-navitar unlike any other pilot of the River Nigh a navitar willing and supremely able to break his vows and bend the world.

Quinn casts his fate with the beautiful and resourceful Ji Anzi who sent on a journey to other realms holds the key to Quinn's heart and his overarching mission. But as he approaches the innermost sanctuary of the Tarig, he is alone. Waiting for him are powerful adversaries, including a lady who both hates and loves him, the high prefect of the dragon court, and Quinn's most implacable enemy, a warrior whose chaotic mind will soon be roused from an eternal slumber.

In this series Kay Kenyon has created her most vivid and compelling society yet, the Universe Entire. Reviewers have called this a grand world, an enormous stage, and a bravura concept.

Finally in control of the Ascendancy, Titus Quinn has styled himself Regent of the Entire. But his command is fragile. He rules an empire with a technology beyond human understanding; spies lurk in the ancient Magisterium; the Tarig overlords are hamstrung but still malevolent. Worse, his daughter Sen Ni opposes him for control, believing the Earth and its Rose universe must die to sustain the failing Entire. She is aided by one of the mystical pilots of the River Nigh, the space-time transport system. This navitar, alone among all others, can alter future events. He retires into a crystal chamber in the Nigh to weave reality and pit his enemies against each other.

Taking advantage of these chaotic times, the great foe of the Long War, the Jinda ceb Horat, create a settlement in the Entire. Masters of supreme technology, they maintain a lofty distance from the Entire s struggle. They agree, however, that the Tarig must return to the fiery Heart of their origins. With the banishment immanent, some Tarig lords rebel, fleeing to hound the edges of Quinn's reign.

Meanwhile, Quinn's wife Anzi becomes a hostage and penitent among the Jinda ceb, undergoing alterations that expose their secrets, but may estrange her from her husband. As Quinn moves toward a confrontation with the dark navitar, he learns that the stakes of the conflict go far beyond the Rose versus the Entire--extending to a breathtaking dominance. The navitar commands forces that lie at the heart of the Entire's geo-cosmology, and will use them to alter the calculus of power. As the navitar's plan approaches consummation, Quinn, Sen Ni, and Anzi are swept up in forces that will leave them forever changed.

In this rousing finale to Kenyon's celebrated quartet, Titus Quinn meets an inevitable destiny, forced at last to make the unthinkable choice for or against the dictates of his heart, for or against the beloved land.

After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled Ariane's death as a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.

When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events that no one could have predicted. As the girls retrace their friend's final days, they discover a dark secret about Grimrose--Ariane wasn't the first dead girl.

They soon learn that all the past murders are connected to ancient fairytale curses... and that their own fates are tied to the stories, dooming the girls to brutal and gruesome endings unless they can break the cycle for good.

Nani, Yuki, Ella, and Rory have discovered the truth about the curse that's left a trail of dead bodies at Grimrose. But the four still know nothing of its origins, or how to stop the cycle of doomed fates.

And each girl harbors her own secret. One is learning why she was brought to the school. One struggles to keep her new and deadly power under control. One knows exactly how much time she has left.

And one, trying to escape her dark destiny, will come even closer to fulfilling it.

Can the girls change their own stories and break the curse? Or must one of them die to end it forever?

A dear friend is brutally beaten. Two thieves want answers. Riyria is born.

For more than a year Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner Hadrian Blackwater from certain death. Unable to get her out of his mind, the two thieves return to Medford but receive a very different reception -- Gwen refuses to see them. The victim of abuse by a powerful noble, she suspects Royce will ignore any danger and seek revenge. By turning the thieves away, Gwen hopes to protect them once more. What she doesn't realize is what the two are capable of, but she's about to find out.

The Rose and the Thorn is the second book in The Riyria Chronicles, a prequel series featuring the early adventures of Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater. Taking place twelve years before the events in Michael J. Sullivan's bestselling The Riyria Revelations, the books can be enjoyed either in order of publication or chronological order.

A New Adventure in the Saga of the Skolian Empire.

Kamoj Argali is the young ruler of an impoverished province on a backward planet. To keep her people from starving, she has agreed to marry Jax Ironbridge, the boorish and brutal ruler of a prosperous province. But before Argali and Ironbridge are wed, a mysterious stranger from a distant planet sweeps in and forces Kamoj into marriage, throwing her world into utter chaos.

This short story originally appeared in Omni, July 1984. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985), edited by Gardner Dozois
• The Science Fiction Yearbook (1985), edited by John F. Carr, Jim Baen and Jerry Pournelle
• Nebula Awards 20 (1985), edited by George Zebrowski
• The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (1987), edited by Ellen Datlow
• The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

The story is included in the collection Burning Chrome (1986).

Mirenburg 1900... the most famous brothel in Europe. Frau Schmetterling's in Rosenstrasse. Here the exquisite sensualists of the haut monde make assignations with the elegant courtesans of the demi-jour, exploring the extremes of sexuality - but always with taste and comfort. It is impossible to imagine a threat to this prosperous, tolerant and supremely civilized world. Impossible to imagine war in Europe.

To sample the delights and security of the brothel in Rosenstrasse comes the famous roue, Count Von Bek, bringing with him his sixteen-year-old mistress Alexandra. But soon, their lazy fin-de-siecle dream will end, to be replaced by the brutal reality of a 20th century nightmare.

In a world where wizards are relegated to ghettos, it is no surprise to see one murdered in the street. But for Stonne Caris, a young warrior monk who sees the killing and gives chase to the culprit, there is nothing ordinary about seeing a murderer disappear into a black, inky portal. The Archmage sends him in search of Antryg Windrose - a half-mad mage who understands the nature of these passages between dimensions.

On the other side of the Void is Joanna, a programmer as mild as Caris is deadly. She has spent her life in cubicles, staring into computer terminals, as far from heroism as she can get. But when the power that is crossing between dimensions draws her through the Void, she finds herself battling to save a world she never even knew existed.

There was a time when Joanna Sheraton knew nothing of the Void. She was an ordinary computer programmer, toiling in a cubicle in air-conditioned Southern California comfort, unaware that sinister forces had penetrated her universe. But from across the interdimensional divide, an evil mage had put in motion a scheme for eternal life by transferring himself into a computer that feeds on Earth's life force. Called upon to help by the wizard Antryg, Joanna could do nothing more than delay. At the end of her first sojourn across the Void, Antryg was imprisoned and their task seemed hopeless.

Now she must depart from Earth once more, to rescue Antryg and save humanity. She is friendless, and the dark mage's forces hound her every step. But a good hacker is not easily deterred.

The Citadel of Wizards was under siege. Deep in the Vaults beneath the walled city, gates into inhuman realities were opening and closing without warning. Monsters emerged from other dimensions; and ancient, malign magics came to life under the influence of cosmic chaos.

Someone was tampering with the Void.

The Council of Wizards blamed Antryg Windrose, the rebel mage who had fled their justice to find haven in the City of Angels. Across dimensions, they reached out to bring him back... Antryg refused the wizards' summons. But when Joanna was kidnapped, Antryg followed the woman he loved back across the Void. Trapped in the Citadel between the vengeful mages who once had been his friends and the unspeakable horrors in the Vaults below, Antryg launched a desperate bid to rescue Joanna - while all about him, the very fabric of the universe unraveled...

Kyra was preparing for her final wizard test before the Council. But suddenly, something was twisting her magic, weaving sinister portents of doom into even the simplest of her spells. Then she knew for certain that her young sister Alix was soon to marry--and soon to die. And so she journeyed back to the family who had disowned her. To save her sister, Kyra would have to face down her father's rage, stand firm against the venomous rivalries of her family's enemies, and confront the Inquisition. Then she must defeat a still deadlier foe--if only she could find it!

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru's heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

In Sakuri, a young woman is about to be sacrificed to the vampiric Noblewoman who reigns over the village. But before the princess can drain the life from the woman, a young man tries to slay the vampire. He fails and manages to escape, but in doing so incurs the wrath of the entire town. The citizens of Sakuri have entered into a pact with the Undead princess and her monstrous bodyguards. With the ritual offering disrupted, the vampire's armored bodyguards vow to murder the villagers one by one until the would-be hero is captured.

When Vampire Hunter D learns of the villagers' bargain he knows he faces several almost impossible challenges-can he rid the town of the parasitic demons that plague it? What if Sakuri's inhabitants don't want to be rescued? And can he uncover the secret that even the vampire Noble is afraid to speak?

'Sixty-five thousand battle-shocked, trained killers came home to no jobs, no food and the plague. What did Her Majesty think was going to happen?'

Tomas Piety takes his duties seriously: as a soldier, as a priest of Our Lady of Eternal Sorrows and as a leader of men. He has come home from the war to reclaim his family business, to provide for his men and to ensure the horrors of Abingon can never happen in Ellinburg.

But things have changed: his crime empire has been stolen and the people of Ellinburg - his people - have run out of food and hope and places to hide. With his best friend Bloody Anne, his war-damaged brother Jochan and his new gang, the Pious Men, Tomas sets out to reclaim what was his.

And as Tomas is dragged into a web of political intrigue by the sinister Queen's Men, forced to work against the foreign infiltrators lurking in the backstreet taverns, brothels and gambling dens of the Stink, one thing becomes clear.

The war has just begun.

Tomas Piety has been many things: soldier, priest, gangster...and spy. As Tomas's power grows, the nobility better watch their backs, in this dark and gritty epic fantasy series.

People are weak, and the poorer and more oppressed they are, the weaker they become--until they can't take it anymore. And when they rise up...may the gods help their oppressors.

When Tomas Piety returned from the war, he just wanted to rebuild his empire of crime with his gang of Pious Men. But his past as a spy for the Queen's Men drew him back in and brought him more power than he ever imagined.

Now, with half of his city in ashes and the Queen's Men at his back, the webs of political intrigue stretch out from the capital to pull Tomas in. Dannsburg is calling.

In Dannsburg the nobility fight with words, not blades, but the results are every bit as bloody. In this pit of beasts, Tomas must decide once and for all whether he is truly the people's champion... or just a priest of lies.

Tomas Piety has everything he ever wanted. In public he's a wealthy, highly respected businessman, happily married to a beautiful woman and governor of his home city of Ellinburg. In private, he's no longer a gang lord, head of the Pious Men, but one of the Queen's Men, invisible and officially non-existent, working in secret to protect his country.

The queen's sudden death sees him summoned him back to the capital - where he discovers his boss, Dieter Vogel, Provost Marshal of the Queen's Men, is busy tightening his stranglehold on the country.

Just as he once fought for his Pious Men, Tomas must now bend all his wit and hard-won wisdom to protect his queen - even when he can't always tell if he's on the right side.

Tomas has started to ask himself, what is the price of power? And more importantly, is it one he is willing to pay?

Gangster, soldier, priest. Governor, knight, and above all, Queen's Man.

Once, Tomas Piety looked after his men, body and soul, as best he could. Then those who ran his country decided his dark talents would better serve in the corridors of power.

Crushed by the power of the Queen's Men and with the Skanian menace rising once more on the streets of Ellinburg, Tomas Piety is forced to turn to old friends, old debts and untrustworthy alliances.

Meanwhile in the capital city of Dannsburg, Dieter Vogel is beginning to wonder if the horror he has unleashed in the Martyr's Disciples might be getting out of control.

With revolution brewing and tragedy and terrorism running rife in the cities, Piety and Vogel must each weigh the cost of a crown.

A thrilling time-travel romance of Renaissance England.

Robyn Stafford, a young American executive, has flown from Hollywood to England to surprise her lover on his birthday, only to find that he's married and it's his wife who's giving the party. She takes a few days off to recover from her outrage and dismay, travelling and hiking near the Welsh border. There she encounters a handsome young man on horseback, wearing a sword, plate armor and a surcoat, who confidently identifies himself as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, and asks directions to a nearby abbey. He thinks the year is 1459 and is amazed by her detailed, printed map and working cell phone. She doesn't know what to think. But when three hostile knights and two dozen bowmen arrive, he sweeps her up in front of him and carries her off to safety, before turning back to valiantly fight off his enemies. Then, the immediate danger past, he returns and asks her to come and be his lady once he has beaten the king. After a parting kiss, he rides away, into the distant past, to the age of the War of the Roses.

Now Robyn Stafford must find a way to leave the world of today for the fifteenth century, where she fell in love with a young knight.

The author of two highly praised novels, The Spiral Dance and American Woman, R.. Garcia y Robertson returns with a charming time-travel romance sequence. In Knight Errant, Robyn Stafford, a young American woman hiking in England near the Welsh border, was swept back in time to the 1460s, the age of the War of the Roses. There she fell in love with a young knight, Edward, son of the Duke of York. Cast back in time by witchcraft, Robyn, a young executive from Hollywood, raised in Montana, has chosen to stay there out of love for Edward, who has promised to marry her.

Now in Lady Robyn, Robyn's fantasy of courtly romance comes up against the brute reality of medieval politics: the politics of murder, warfare, and betrayal. The War of the Roses is no longer a textbook subject, it's messing up her life, and so is the noble witch who, though he doesn't know it, is Edward's enemy. Edward's father Richard is making a bid for the throne, and if he wins it, Edward will be heir apparent. And if Robyn marries him, she will someday be queen and her children heirs to the throne as well. In the 1460s, that means living with the constant threat of death. The survival rate for heirs is not high. Will Robyn reject her love or risk the lives of her children to be?

This is an engrossing time-travel romance in the mold of Diana Gabaldon's bestselling timeslip tales.

R. Garcia y Robertson's delightful saga of time travel and romance, which began with Knight Errant and continued through Lady Robyn, grows even more irresistible as Robyn Stafford, a savvy Hollywood exec mystically transplanted to 15th century England, works overtime to secure happiness and true love amidst the fratricidal madness of the War of the Roses.

Once a thoroughly modern Californian (and former Miss Rodeo Montana), Robyn has come to savor her new life as Lady Robyn of Pontefract, betrothed to the dashing young Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, Duke of York, and heir to the English throne. Temporarily stranded back in 21st century, she wastes no time getting back to 1461, albeit with a few unexpected bumps along the way.

But her troubles hardly end when she makes it back to Merrie Olde England and the arms of her beloved knight errant. War is in the air, with a rebellious Tudor army challenging Edward's forces at home, and a French invasion force gathering in the north, preparing to march on London. Having witnessed firsthand the deadly realities of medieval politics, Robyn is in no hurry to see Edward claim the throne, but, like it or not, he is the heir apparent, and Robyn must use all her wits to keep their love alive -- even if it means inventing tabloid journalism several centuries early!

Look out, London! Lady Robyn has returned, so the Middle Ages had best mind its manners.

A countdown to destruction and hatred has begun in a brand new dark fantasy series. The first exciting instalment in this brand new series, set in the dark and gothic Warhammer world, is packed with action and adventure not seen since "Indiana Jones". "Day of the Daemon" follows the journey of an archaeologist as he returns to the war-blighted city of Middenheim. The recent war against the dark forces of Chaos has corrupted the souls of many mortal men and there is now no shortage willing to do the bidding of the Dark Gods. As the clock ticks down, the day of the daemon approaches and it falls to those few men who have remained true to the Empire to stop it! Aaron Rosenberg shows that he has a real talent for writing action-packed dark fantasy in his Black Library debut.

After their adventures in "Day of the Daemon", Alaric and Dietz head south to the Border Princes, the wild, lawless land south of the Empire. Narrowly escaping the clutches of a liche lord, their quest leads them to a citadel full of Chaos cultists. Against such impossible odds, how can our heroes and their new ally get in to defeat the daemon this time?

Alaric and Dietz have one last chance to track down the daemon and destroy it before it materialises and lays waste to the civilised world. This time, their journey takes them into the dark heart of the Grey Mountains, where they must face a savage horde of beastmen and their mutated ruler. Even with the help of their allies, the wood elves, how can our heroes ever hope to triumph against such impossible odds?

Between meeting a boy who bursts into flames, alien floaters that want to devour him, and a butterfly woman who he has sex with when he enters the xenosphere, Kaaro's life is far from the simple one he wants. But he left simple behind a long time ago when he was caught stealing and nearly killed by an angry mob. Now he works for a government agency called Section 45, and they want him to find a women known as Bicycle Girl. And that's just the beginning.

An alien entity lives beneath the ground, forming a biodome around which the city of Rosewater thrives. The cities of Rosewater are enamored by the dome, hoping for a chance to meet the beings within or possibly be invited to come in themselves. But Kaaro isn't so enamored. He was in the biodome at one point and decided to leave it behind. When something begins killing off other sensitives like himself, Kaaro defies Section 45 to search for an answer, facing his past and comes to a realization about a horrifying future.

The year is 2067. The city of Rosewater is chaotic, vibrant and full of life - some of it extra-terrestrial.

The charismatic mayor, Jack Jacques, has declared Rosewater a free state, independent to Nigeria. But the city's alien dome is dying. Government forces await its demise, ready to destroy Rosewater's independence before it has even begun.

And in the city's quiet suburbs, a woman wakes with no memory of who she is - with memories belonging to something much older and much more alien.

Life in the newly independent city state of Rosewater isn't everything its citizens were expecting...

Mayor Jacques finds that debts incurred during the insurrection are coming back to haunt him. Nigeria isn't willing to let Rosewater go without a fight. And among the city's alien inhabitants, a group has emerged who murder humans to provide bodies for their takeover.

Operating across spacetime, the xenosphere and international borders, it is up to a small group of hackers and criminals to prevent the extraterrestrial advance. The fugitive known as Bicycle Girl, Kaaro and his old handler Femi, may be humanity's last line of defence.