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Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a tomboy in her childhood, by the age of 17 she is "in training for a heroine" and is excessively fond of reading Gothic novels, among which Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho is a favourite.

When Catherine Moorland is asked to go to Bath, she is immersed in the world of attentive men and elaborate balls. But when one of her suitors takes her to his family estate, Northanger Abbey, she becomes lost in the gothic mystery which surrounds it.

Besides exploring social and romantic themes, it also satirised the excesses of the 'gothic' novels that were popular at the time. In this context the famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft described it as a "merited rebuke to a school which had sunk far towards absurdity".

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon.

Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels?

This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen's biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It's survival of the fittest--and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

A postmodern Mary Shelley, taking the parable of Frankenstein's monster several giant steps farther, might have written this fable of a novel about a tragic race of monster dogs--in this case, genetically and biomechanically engineered dogs (of several major breeds). Created by a German mad scientist in the 19th century, the monster dogs possess human intelligence, speak human language, have prosthetic humanlike hands and walk upright on hind legs. The dogs' descendants arrive in New York City in the year 2008, still acting like Victorian-era aristocrats. Most important, the monster dogs suffer humanlike frailties and, ultimately, real suffering more serious and affecting than the subject matter might at first glance suggest.

Future Tense Fiction is a collection of electrifying original stories from a veritable who's-who of authors working in speculative literature and science fiction today, pointing the way forward to the fiction of tomorrow.

A disease surveillance robot whose social programming gets put to the test. A future in which everyone receives universal basic income--but it's still not enough. A futuristic sport, in which all the athletes have been chemically and physically enhanced. An A.I. company that manufactures a neural bridge allowing ordinary people to share their memories. Brimming with excitement and exploring new ideas, the stories collected by the editors of Slate's Future Tense are philosophically ambitious and haunting in their creativity. At times terrifying and heartwrenching, hilarious and optimistic, this is a collection that ushers in a new age for our world and for the short story.

A partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University, Future Tense explores how emerging technologies will change the way we live, in reality and fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Future Is Made of Choices - essay by Kirsten Berg, Torie Bosch, Joey Eschrich, Ed Finn, Andres Martinez, and Juliet Ulman
• Mother of Invention (2018) - short story by Nnedi Okorafor
• No Me Dejes (2018) - short story by Mark Oshiro
• When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis (2018) - short story by Annalee Newitz
• When We Were Patched (2018) - short story by Deji Bryce Olukotun
• Domestic Violence (2018) - short story by Madeline Ashby
• Mr. Thursday (2017) - short story by Emily St. John Mandel
• A Brief and Fearful Star (2018) - short story by Carmen Maria Machado
• Overvalued (2018) - short story by Mark Stasenko
• Safe Surrender (2018) - short story by Meg Elison
• Lions and Gazelles (2018) - short story by Hannu Rajaniemi
• Burned-Over Territory (2018) - short story by Lee Konstantinou
• Mika Model (2016) - short story by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Starfish Girl (2018) - short story by Maureen F. McHugh
• The Minnesota Diet (2018) - short story by Charlie Jane Anders
• About the Contributors
• About the Editors

Aurealis Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology The Alsiso Project (2004), edited by Andrew Hook, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, April 2014. The story is included in the collection That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote (2013).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Duellists in a decadent urban dream. Lost creatures in a bizarre post-apocalypse. Fables lingering into almost-modern worlds. From hallucinatory surrealism to human dramas at the fuzzy edges of reality, these stories and poems by the author of The Etched City are by turns exuberant, poignant, darkly funny and delightfully deranged, all showcasing the inventive magic of an acclaimed literary fantasist. Includes Aurealis Award winner The Heart of a Mouse and two stories in the world of The Etched City, one previously unpublished.

Gwynn and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the losing side of a hard-fought war. Gwynn is a gunslinger from the north, a loner, a survivor... a killer. Raule is a wandering surgeon, a healer who still believes in just - and lost - causes. Bound by a desire to escape the ghosts of the past, together they flee to the teeming city of Ashamoil, where Raule plies her trade among the desperate and destitute, and Gwynn becomes bodyguard and assassin for the household of a corrupt magnate. There, in the saving and taking of lives, they find themselves immersed in a world where art infects life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles begin to bloom...

This short storry originally appeared in the collection That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote (2012), and was reprinted in Lightspeed, February 2017.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and Gerald Livingston has to clean up the mess. Only... there's something spinning a little bit higher than he expects. It isn't on the orbital maps. An hour after he grabs the Object and brings it in, rumors fill Earth's infomesh about an "alien artifact." Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, this is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

What may we become? How will we endure? The future is a daunting realm, filled with real and imagined perils. So enter it prepared! Here are vivid tales about possible tomorrows, from the keen eye and colorful pen of David Brin, a modern master of speculative fiction. Visit a chillingly plausible tomorrow, when prisoners may be sent to asteroidal gulags. Or might prisons vanish and felons roam, seeing only what society allows? Suppose, amid lavish success, we gain the superpower to fly! Will we even appreciate it... or will we find new reasons to complain? In "Mars Opposition," you'll experience an alien invasion like no other, confronting humanity with a stark and terrible choice... followed by several more tales of conquest from beyond, each of them wildly different. On the other hand, might fantastically potent new beings emerge out of ourselves, as revealed in "Chrysalis"? Featuring guest appearances by Gregory Benford, Jules Verne, and Galileo, this adventure takes you beyond the very singularity in "Stones of Significance," pondering what could happen after humans are like gods. And "Reality Check" asks one of you readers -- just one of you -- to wake up! Tomorrow awaits. We can face it and prevail. So long as our stance is brave INSISTENCE OF VISION.

Table of Contents

• Introduction - essay by Vernor Vinge
• The Heresy of Science Fiction - essay
• Insistence of Vision - (2013) - short story
• Transition Generation - (2014) - short story
• Chrysalis - (2014) - short story
• Stones of Significance - (1998) - novelette
• News from 2035: A Glitch in Medicine Cabinet 3.5 - (2003) - short story
• The Logs - (2013) - short story
• The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss - (2015) - novelette
• Eloquent Elepents Pine Away for the Moon's Crystal Forests - (2006) - short story
• Mars Opposition - (2005) - novelette
• A Professor at Harvard - (2003) - short story
• I Could've Done Better - (2007) - short story, with Gregory Benford
• Paris Conquers All - (1996) - short story, with Gregory Benford
• A Retrospective by Jules Verne - (1996) - short story, with Gregory Benford
• Fortitude - (1996) - short story
• An Ever-Reddening Glow - (1996) - short story
• The Diplomacy Guild - (1990) - short story
• The Other Side of the Hill - (1994) - short story
• Temptation - (1999) - novella
• Avalon Probes - (2014) - short story
• Six-Word Tales - (2006) - short story
• Reality Check - (2000) - short story
• Waging War with Reality - (1992) - essay
• Afterword & Book Notes - essay

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Omni, September 1986. The story can also be found in the anthologies Omni Best Science Fiction One (1992), edited by Ellen Datlow, Nebula Awards 22 (1988), edited by George Zebrowski and Vanishing Acts (2000), edited by Ellen Datlow. It is included in the collection Stagestruck Vampires and Other Phantasms (2004).

A Dragon in the Man was first published in Feburary-March issue of Destinies, in 1980.

It was reprinted in the anthology Dragons of Darkness.

This short story originally appeared in Electric Velocipede, Issue #17/18, Spring 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010, edited by Rich Horton, The Best of Electric Velocipede (2014), edited by John Klima, and The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women (2014), edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane.

Perfect for fans of Jane Austen, this engrossing debut novel offers an unusual twist on the legacy of one of the world's most celebrated and beloved authors: two researchers from the future are sent back in time to meet Jane and recover a suspected unpublished novel.

London, 1815: Two travelers--Rachel Katzman and Liam Finucane--arrive in a field in rural England, disheveled and weighed down with hidden money. Turned away at a nearby inn, they are forced to travel by coach all night to London. They are not what they seem, but rather colleagues who have come back in time from a technologically advanced future, posing as wealthy West Indies planters--a doctor and his spinster sister. While Rachel and Liam aren't the first team from the future to "go back," their mission is by far the most audacious: meet, befriend, and steal from Jane Austen herself.

Carefully selected and rigorously trained by The Royal Institute for Special Topics in Physics, disaster-relief doctor Rachel and actor-turned-scholar Liam have little in common besides the extraordinary circumstances they find themselves in. Circumstances that call for Rachel to stifle her independent nature and let Liam take the lead as they infiltrate Austen's circle via her favorite brother, Henry.

But diagnosing Jane's fatal illness and obtaining an unpublished novel hinted at in her letters pose enough of a challenge without the continuous convolutions of living a lie. While her friendship with Jane deepens and her relationship with Liam grows complicated, Rachel fights to reconcile the woman she is with the proper lady nineteenth-century society expects her to be. As their portal to the future prepares to close, Rachel and Liam struggle with their directive to leave history intact and exactly as they found it... however heartbreaking that may prove.

Prix Auroa winning and Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, February 1997. The story can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Awards 33 (1999), edited by Connie Willis, Aurora Awards: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Science Fiction & Fantasy (1999) edited by Edo van Belkom and Galileo's Children: Tales Of Science vs. Superstition (2005) edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories (2005).

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, September 1968. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Award Stories Four (1969), edited by Poul Anderson. It is included in the collection Breaking Point (1972). This novelette forms the first part of the novel The Listeners (1972).

After fifty-one long years of patient waiting, the message has finally arrived. They have dedicated their lives to trying to decipher the eerie silence that resounds from space and now there is finally a sound after decades of quiet. In the beginning there is a hail of celebration, the Project has finally produced results, but then the questions begin. What does the message mean? Could it be 'we come in peace' or 'get ready for world domination'?

The message baffles Earth. Only one man has the power to make the decision and it could mean intergalactic warfare if he makes the wrong choice. Director MacDonald holds in his hands the fate of Earth, the universe and the Project, which is dedicated to answering questions that have plagued humanity for centuries. Will he make the correct choice?

This short story originally appeared in The Fortean Bureau, March 2005. It can also be found in the anthology Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

Listen to the full story for free at PodCastle.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Realms of Fantasy, April 2010. There are no other known publications at this time.

1934. Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities.

In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot. Joining together they leave their small time confidence scams behind to attempt an elaborate kidnapping-for-ransom scheme in New Orleans.

In a different part of town, Curtis Mayhew, a young black man who works as a redcap for the Union Railroad Station, has a reputation for mending quarrels and misunderstandings among his friends. What those friends don't know is that Curtis has a special talent for listening... and he can sometimes hear things that aren't spoken aloud.

One day, Curtis Mayhew's special talent allows him to overhear a child's cry for help (THIS MAN IN THE CAR HE'S GOT A GUN), which draws him into the dangerous world of Partlow and LaFrance.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, November 2014. It can also be found in the anthology Wilde Stories 2015: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction (2015), edited by Steve Berman.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left the family when he was nine years old without a trace. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, his family's life has been governed by laws written to preserve "American culture" in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn't know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn't wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.

Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It's a story about the power--and limitations--of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.

Set in the world of the House of Comarr, Kristen Painter gives us a new novella about the price of freedom.

Maris's life as a comarr? Has come down to three options: escape her patron and spend the rest of her days looking over her shoulder, fight him for her freedom with the understanding it could mean her death or undergo dangerous experimentation to transform her blood into something even more powerful.

Before she can make a decision, she discovers the vampire who's been charged with sunproofing her blood isn't so fond of her patron either. In fact, Dominic is unlike any vampire she's ever met, but is she desperate enough to put her trust in another noble? Her heart says yes...

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in Edison's Frankenstein (Postscripts #20/21, 2009), edtied by Nick Gevers and Peter Crowther. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010, edited by Rich Horton.

From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community.

In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat's milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone's problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable's goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone?

Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not.

Kristen Simmons's Metaltown, where factories rule, food is scarce, and hope is in short supply.

The rules of Metaltown are simple: Work hard, keep your head down, and watch your back. You look out for number one, and no one knows that better than Ty. She's been surviving on the factory line as long as she can remember. But now Ty has Colin. She's no longer alone; it's the two of them against the world. That's something even a town this brutal can't take away from her. Until it does.

Lena's future depends on her family's factory, a beast that demands a ruthless master, and Lena is prepared to be as ruthless as it takes if it means finally proving herself to her father. But when a chance encounter with Colin, a dreamer despite his circumstances, exposes Lena to the consequences of her actions, she'll risk everything to do what's right.

In Lena, Ty sees an heiress with a chip on her shoulder. Colin sees something more. In a world of disease and war, tragedy and betrayal, allies and enemies, all three of them must learn that challenging what they thought was true can change all the rules.

An enthralling story of friendship and rebellion, Metaltown will have you believing in the power of hope.

Blue skies. Green grass. Clear ocean water. An island paradise like the ones that existed before the Melt.

A lucky five hundred lottery winners will be the first to go, the first to leave their polluted, dilapidated homes behind and start a new life. It sounds perfect. Like a dream.

The only problem? Marin Carey spent her childhood on those seas and knows there's no island paradise out there. She's corsario royalty, a pirate like her father and his father before him, and she knows a con when she sees one. So where are the First Five Hundred really going?

Once there was a time when men and women lived as equals, when girl babies were valued, and women could belong only to themselves. But that was ten generations ago. Now women are property, to be sold and owned and bred, while a strict census keeps their numbers manageable and under control. The best any girl can hope for is to end up as some man's forever wife, but most are simply sold and resold until they're all used up.

Only in the wilderness, away from the city, can true freedom be found. Aya has spent her whole life in the mountains, looking out for her family and hiding from the world, until the day the Trackers finally catch her.

Stolen from her home, and being groomed for auction, Aya is desperate to escape her fate and return to her family, but her only allies are a loyal wolf she's raised from a pup and a strange mute boy who may be her best hope for freedom... if she can truly trust him.

The Glass Arrow is a haunting, yet hopeful, new novel from Kristen Simmons, the author of the popular Article 5 trilogy.

It's not every day that the Devil knocks on your door From the critically-acclaimed author of Only Forward comes a delightful new tale about Hannah, a young girl living a mundane existence in California, who discovers that her grandfather has been friends with the Devil for the past 150 years... and now, they need her help.

There's more than one kind of monster.

When Chase first sees the little girl in umbrella socks disemboweling the Rottweiler, he's not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he's no stranger to such horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations.

But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived. And with Chase's life already shattered by addiction, the apocalypse might actually be an opportunity--a last chance to hit restart, win back the love of his life, and become the person he once dreamed of being.

That is, if the darkness inside him doesn't destroy everything--again.

This is a sequel to Tidbeck's story "Sing", which can be read for free at Tor.com.

A strange people have appeared out of nowhere. Their speech is impossible to understand for most human beings; their agenda, they say, is to colonize the "right place". The interpreter Mika accompanies one of their ambassadors to the little moon Kiruna. Here, celestial bodies play havoc with sound, and reality may not be what it appears.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com or Uncanny.

Hugo, Nebula and Locus award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1978. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• The 1979 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim, Arthur W. Saha
• The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1 (1979), edited by Terry Carr
• Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Eighth Annual Collection (1979), edited by Gardner Dozois
• Nebula Winners Fourteen (1980), edited by Frederik Pohl
• The Hugo Winners, Volume 4: (1976-79) (1985), edited by Isaac Asimov
• The Best of the Nebulas (1989), edtied by Ben Bova

It is half of Tor Double #29: Nanowire Time / The Persistence of Vision and is included in the collections The Persistence of Vision (1979) and The John Varley Reader (2004).

Genetic engineering, sex changes, arcane pleasures, computer technology, and communication beyond the five senses are among the topics treated in nine stories by an acclaimed new science-fiction writer.

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• The Phantom of Kansas - (1976) - novelette
• Air Raid - (1977) - shortstory
• Retrograde Summer - (1975) - novelette
• The Black Hole Passes - (1975) - novelette
• In the Hall of the Martian Kings - (1976) - novella
• In the Bowl - (1975) - novelette
• Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance - (1976) - novelette
• Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - (1976) - novelette
• The Persistence of Vision - (1978) - novella

A definitive collection of interviews with one of America's most famous writers, covering his life, faith, friends, politics, and visions of the future.

Ray Bradbury, the poetic and visionary author of such classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. From Mikhail Gorbachev to Alfred Hitchcock to David Bowie, Bradbury's sway on contemporary culture is towering. Acclaimed biographer and Bradbury scholar Sam Weller has spent more than a decade interviewing the author; the fascinating conversations that emerge cast a high-definition portrait of a creative genius and a futurist who longs for yesterday. Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews is the definitive collection of interviews with an American icon.

The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past--Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Her name was written in the pages of someone else's story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula's first victims.

But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire, and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula's clutches - and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants.

Her undead life takes an unexpected turn when, in twenty-first-century London, she meets another woman who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris's family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they'll do anything to stay in power.

Lucy has long believed she would never love again. But she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris, while Iris is mesmerised by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by forces from without. Iris's mother won't let go of her without a fight, and Lucy's past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl again.

Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children's program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who--or what--the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it's been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven't seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they're the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

This book contains four striking novellas, and the author's own philosophy of fiction writing expressed in her speech as a guest of honour at the 38th World Science Fiction Convention.

Table of Contents:

• The Winter Beach - (1981) - novella
• Julian - (1978) - novelette
• With Thimbles, with Forks, and Hope - (1981) - novella
• Moongate - (1978) - novella
• The Uncertain Edge of Reality - (1980) - essay

Listen! The Stars!

Tune in on eternity - and disappear...

The Rebellers

The population explosion conspiracy!

When the first moon-bound rocket blasted off from the Earth's space station in 1983, it was as ready for every eventuality as scientists and engineers could make it. But neither the crew nor the authorities were prepared for the last-minute switch in the ship's complement that upset carefully planned replacement schedules. Instead of a highly trained Air Force Academy graduate as the fifth man in the pioneering crew, the inaugural rocket headed into space with teen-age Ted Baker, an Academy senior.

Around a tragic misunderstanding, Richard Marsten has traced a tale of high excitement from the Earth's gleaming satellite space station to the ragged surface of a hostile Moon. His story of how a teen-ager crash lands a crippled ship on the Moon, far from its base of supplies, is not only an unexcelled description of space flight but a tense personal drama of a young man who proves his worth to a hostile crew.

A thousand-mile trek on foot across the face of the Moon, the discovery of organic matter on the planet's airless surface, the slow depletion of irreplaceable supplies, the effect of the Sun on a planet that lacks atmosphere, stud this story of a strained relationship between stranded crew members with fascinating detail. Climaxed with a rocket blastoff that vindicates the judgment of one young earthling, ROCKET TO LUNA is as gripping a flight into space and the future as any contemporary author has written.

Since they began appearing in the 1970s, Michael Bishop's science fiction and fantasy stories have been recognized for their polished prose and their depth of thought and feeling. His award-winning fiction includes No Enemy but Time (1982), Unicorn Mountain (1988), Brittle Innings (1994) and the outstanding short story "The Pile" (2008). After the 2017 publication of his collection Other Arms Reach Out to Me, Bishop was inducted into the Georgia Writers' Hall of Fame. Revision and republication of much of Bishop's fiction in recent years have renewed interest in Bishop's explorations of religion, belief and the pursuit of human truth.

This book is the first comprehensive study of Michael Bishop's literary body, examining his work in full. Featured are close readings of all his novels and studies of short stories, poetry and essays that Bishop himself identified for special attention.

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police--instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior--instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings... the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Kristen Simmons' fast-paced, gripping YA dystopian series continues in Breaking Point.

After faking their deaths to escape from prison in Article 5, Ember Miller and Chase Jennings have only one goal: to lay low until the Federal Bureau of Reformation forgets they ever existed.

Near-celebrities now for the increasingly sensationalized tales of their struggles with the government, Ember and Chase are recognized and taken in by the Resistance--an underground organization working to systematically take down the government. At headquarters, all eyes are on the sniper, an anonymous assassin taking out FBR soldiers one by one. Rumors are flying about the sniper's true identity, and Ember and Chase welcome the diversion....

Until the government posts its most-wanted list, and their number one suspect is Ember herself.

Orders are shoot to kill, and soldiers are cleared to fire on suspicion alone. Suddenly Ember can't even step onto the street without fear of being recognized, and "laying low" is a joke. Even members of the Resistance are starting to look at her sideways.

With Chase urging her to run, Ember must decide: Go into hiding... or fight back?

Kristen Simmons' fast-paced, gripping YA dystopian series continues in Three.

Ember Miller and Chase Jennings are ready to stop running. After weeks spent in hiding as two of the Bureau of Reformation's most wanted criminals, they have finally arrived at the safe house, where they hope to live a safe and quiet existence.

And all that's left is smoking ruins.

Devastated by the demolition of their last hope, Ember and Chase follow the only thing left to them--tracks leading away from the wreckage. The only sign that there may have been survivors.

With their high profile, they know they can't stay out in the open for long. They take shelter in the wilderness and amidst the ruins of abandoned cities as they follow the tracks down the coast, eventually finding refugees from the destroyed safe house. Among them is someone from Chase's past--someone he never thought he'd see again.

Banding together, they search for a place to hide, aiming for a settlement a few of them have heard about...a settlement that is rumored to house the nebulous organization known as Three. The very group that has provided Ember with a tiny ray of hope ever since she was first forced on the run.

Three is responsible for the huge network of underground safe houses and resistance groups across the country. And they may offer Ember her only chance at telling the world her story.

At fighting back.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife... and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom's influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.

Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to the people around her--Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde; Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen's knight; and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere--the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn't belong. She never will.

When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere's younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving--Camelot, or herself?

While journeying north toward the Dark Queen, Guinevere falls into the hands of her enemies. Behind her are Lancelot, trapped on the other side of the magical barrier they created to protect Camelot, and Arthur, who has been led away from his kingdom, chasing after false promises. But the greatest danger isn't what lies ahead of Guinevere--it's what's been buried inside her.

Vowing to unravel the truth of her past with or without Merlin's help, Guinevere joins forces with the sorceress Morgana and her son, Mordred--and faces the confusing, forbidden feelings she still harbors for him. When Guinevere makes an agonizing discovery about who she is and how she came to be, she finds herself with an impossible choice: fix a terrible crime, or help prevent war.

Guinevere is determined to set things right, whatever the cost. To defeat a rising evil. To remake a kingdom. To undo the mistakes of the past... even if it means destroying herself.

Guinevere has been a changeling, a witch, a queen--but what does it mean to be just a girl?

Roland: He was born to an evil heritage of black magic and bastardy. Battling his own dark nature, Roland was determined to serve in Charlemagne's handpicked regiments.

Lord Ganelon: Hungry for power, this bloodthirsty lord vowed to destory Roland. And he was but one of the young knight's foes. For Roland was blessed by courage and magic--and chosen for the greatest of glories.

Durandal--the dark sword, cruel instrument of death and affliction. Once she served Roland, and made him invincible on the battlefield. But now Roland is supposed dead. And in a land torn by bloodshed, many a man seeks Durandal's killing force for himself.

Hautville--a name despised throughout the land, for from it sprang evil Lord Ganelon. Now from Hauteville comes a black inhuman sorcery, ancient and unholy. From the magic is born treason in the highest circles of Charlemagne's court--and from treason is hatched a plot...

The vampire Count Saint-Germain protects Americans fleeing persecution--and becomes trapped in a web of betrayal, deceit, and murder in post-WWII Europe in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's SUSTENANCE

The powerful House Un-American Activities Committee hunted communists both at home and abroad. In the late 1940s, the vampire Count Saint-Germain is caught up in intrigue surrounding a group of Americans who have fled to postwar Paris. Some speak out against HUAC and battle the authorities.

Saint-Germain swears to do his best to protect his friends, but even his skills may not be able to stand against agents of the OSS and the brand-new CIA. And he has an unexpected weakness: his lover, Charis, who has returned to Paris under mysterious circumstances.

Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived.

Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors?Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax?have reunited for one strange and terrible reason: they've been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.

Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one goal: find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished?an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.

As soon as they begin, they're dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen's grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules:

They have one night to complete seven challenges or they'll all be stuck in this world forever.

Once inseparable, the survivors now can't stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices?blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.

And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.

Isn't life terrible? Isn't it all going to end in tears? Won't it be good to just give up and let something else run my mind, my life?

Something distinctly odd is going on in Arbroath. It could be to do with golfers being dragged down into the bunkers at the Fetch Brothers' Golf Spa Hotel, never to be seen again. It might be related to the strange twin grandchildren of the equally strange Mrs Fetch – owner of the hotel and fascinated with octopuses. It could be the fact that people in the surrounding area suddenly know what others are thinking, without anyone saying a word.

Whatever it is, the Doctor is most at home when faced with the distinctly odd. With the help of Fetch Brothers' Junior Receptionist Bryony, he'll get to the bottom of things. Just so long as he does so in time to save Bryony from quite literally losing her mind, and the entire world from destruction.

Because something huge, ancient and alien lies hidden beneath the ground – and it's starting to wake up...

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets... until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost... as the world she knows is consumed by darkness

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the New York Times bestselling Green Rider series, this short volume introduces readers to new sides of Sacoridia in two new short stories and a novella.

In The Dream Gatherer, Kristen Britain presents a novella and two short stories set in the universe of her best selling Green Rider series in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of her first novel, Green Rider.

The Dream Gatherer
Dreams can be dangerous. A visit with the eccentric Berry sisters turns dangerous when an arcane device is discovered in their house that can summon dreamers through their dreams, and one of them is a nightmare.

Wishwind
Finding peace during the Long War. Raised in an orphan camp, Green Rider Danalong has known only war and strife, until a shipwreck leaves him stranded on a mysterious island.

Linked, on the Lake of Souls
A story of friendship within a story of friendship. In the sixth volume of the Green Rider series, Firebrand, a wounded Karigan G'ladheon asks her friend Estral to tell her a story to take her mind off her pain. This is that story.

The book includes illustrations and backstory on the creation of Green Rider by the author, and a special introduction by award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, Julie E. Czerneda.

A young woman on the run discovers her true destiny--as a magical messenger--in the extraordinary adventure that has thrust first-time novelist Kristen Britain into the master ranks of Mercedes Lackey and Melanie Rawn.

In this long-awaited sequel to Green Rider, Karigan G'ladheon finds herself in a world of deadly danger and complex magic. Compelled by forces she cannot understand, she becomes one of the legendary Green Riders-magic messengers to the king. Pursued by the ghost of the First Rider, Karigan will re-enter the life of the Green Riders-just as an ancient evil is reawakening…

A thousand years ago the armies of the Arcosian Empire, led by Mornhavon the Black, crossed the great sea and tried to conquer the land of Sacoridia ?and during Karigan G?ladheon?s early years as a Green Rider, Mornhavon?s spirit, sensing weakness in his prison walls and seeking vengeance, began to wake. With the ghostly help of the First Rider, Karigan had managed to drive off the spirit of Mornhavon?but for how long, no one could know. And now, the descendants of those Arcosians are ready to strike, reaching out to claim the land their forebears had tried to conquer. Worse, these vengeful enemies had spent generations honing their powers of dark magic?a force against which the Sacoridians had no defense?.

Once a simple student, Karigan G'ladheon finds herself in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand when she becomes a legendary Green Rider-one of the magical messengers of the king. Forced by magic to accept a dangerous fate she would never have chosen, headstrong Karigan has become completely devoted to the king and her fellow Riders.

But now, an insurrection led by dark magicians threatens to break the boundaries of ancient, evil Blackveil Forest -- releasing powerful dark magics that have been shut away for a millennium.

Karigan G'ladheon is a Green Rider—a seasoned member of the elite messenger corps of King Zachary of Sacoridia. This corps of messengers, each gifted with a brooch of office that imparts a unique magical ability to its wearer, was founded over a thousand years ago during the terrible time of the Long War.

During that spell-fueled war, Sacoridia was besieged by the sorcerous armies of the Arcosian Empire, led by Mornhavon the Black. When Sacoridia finally triumphed, Mornhavon resorted to dark magic that rendered his twisted spirit immortal. Determined to keep the realm safe from this terrifying enemy, multitudes of Sacoridian magicians sacrificed their lives to build the immense D'Yer Wall, imprisoning the dangerous spirit of Mornhavon in Blackveil Forest, which uncontrolled magic had mutated into a perilous and unnatural place.

For over a thousand years, the magic of the D'Yer Wall protected the people of Sacoridia, but as the centuries passed, memory of how the wall had been built was lost as a traumatized nation turned its back on magic. And when a malicious entity cracked the immense wall, there were none left who knew how to repair it. Desperate to regain the knowledge and repair the ever-expanding breach in the wall, agents of the king scoured the kingdom for magical relics and information. Finally, in a last-ditch attempt to gain time, Karigan, whose Rider brooch enabled her to "fade"—sometimes traversing the layers of time and space—was able to catapult the spirit of Mornhavon into the future. But how far into the future was anyone's guess.

Realizing that this might be their only chance to enter Blackveil and examine the tainted peninsula, King Zachary sends Karigan and a contingent of Sacoridians beyond the wall, along with an equal number of Eletians—the immortal race that eons ago lived in what is now Blackveil Forest. But in addition to the unnatural dangers of the forest itself, Karigan and her small delegation have been followed by a secret rebel sect— descendants of the original Arcosian invaders. And during a showdown between these two groups, Mornhavon suddenly reappears.

In the magical confrontation that follows, Karigan is jolted out of Blackveil and wakes in a darkness blacker than night. She's lying on smooth, cold stone, but as she reaches out, she realizes that the stone is not just beneath her, but above and around her as well. She's landed in a sealed stone sarcophagus, some unknown tomb, and the air is becoming thin.

Is this to be her end? If she escapes, where will she find herself? Is she still in the world she remembers, or has the magical explosion transported her somewhere completely different? To find out, she must first win free of her prison— before it becomes her grave. And should she succeed, will she be walking straight into a trap created by Mornhavon himself?

Green Rider Karigan G'ladheon, not yet recovered in heart or mind from her unexpected trip through time, is assigned a new mission. She must seek out the legendary creatures called p'ehdrosian to renew an alliance of old in the face of dire threats from enemies who seek to destroy Sacoridia using dark magic.

Each step on her journey northward grows more perilous as she faces attacks from groundmites, encounters with ghosts, and, ultimately, the threat of the necromancer and leader of Second Empire, Grandmother, as they approach the enemy encampment in the Lone Forest.

Meanwhile, King Zachary of Sacoridia has been kidnapped by an ice elemental who is allied with Second Empire. Can Karigan free her king from captivity with just two allies by her side?

After her capture at the hands of Grandmother and the Second Empire, Karigan G'ladheon is making halting progress towards recovery. Karigan takes on increasingly dangerous missions, haunted by the specter of her torturer, Nyssa, and sinking ever further into the mire of her recollections of the past and the losses she's sustained.

Meanwhile, the forces of the Second Empire are moving on Sacoridia and their primary target is a vulnerable garrison that guards a crucial mountain pass. Faced with new fatherhood and a country on the verge of war, King Zachary sends a contingent of soldiers and Green Riders to the pass--but his own recovery from the events of the north is not yet complete either.

Reunited with her fellow Riders at the pass, Karigan takes on a leadership role, but quickly finds that the Riders are not as she last left them. As tension mounts and war draws ever closer to the heart of Sacoridia, Karigan must discover what it truly means to be a Rider and a hero of the realm--and what sacrifices must be made to truly heal from her past.

After years of leading the battle against the vicious Darrow Raiders, Lieutenant-Rider Laren Mapstone has built a fortress around herself to conceal her emotions and the deep scars she carries. When she is made mentor to Tavin Bankside, a Green Rider trainee on his first message errand, her cold and brooding exterior quickly earns her the moniker the "Ice Lady."

Only after Laren is severely wounded in an attack on the North Road by a gang of bandits--including some former Darrow Raiders with vengeance on their minds--do the fortress walls fall. Even as they seek refuge from danger in a Rider waystation, Tavin's natural empathic gift leaves him vulnerable to the assault of the lieutenant's emotions. Tavin must save Lieutenant Mapstone's life and master his empathic gift before it destroys them both.

However, an ancient power lurks deep within the Green Cloak, and its aid or hindrance could mean survival for the Riders or the downfall of Sacoridia and all the free lands.

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle's body bears the telltale marks of a comarré -- a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world...and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now, Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

With the ring of sorrows still missing, and the covenant between othernaturals and mortals broken, Chrysabelle and Malkolm's problems are just beginning. Chrysabelle still owes Malkolm for his help, but fulfilling that debt means returning to Corvinestri, the hidden vampire city neither of them is welcome in.

The discovery that Chrysabelle has a brother could mean reneging on her promise to Malkolm, something that might make him angry enough to loose the beast living inside him. And fulfilling her vow could prove devastating for Chrysabelle --- especially when you throw in power hungry witches, dead fringe vampires, and the Kubai Mata.

Violent murders occur in Paradise City as counterfeit comarr? are systematically hunted. As war erupts at home, Malkolm and Chrysabelle head to New Orleans to recover the Ring of Sorrows. Forced to make a life and death decision, Chrysabelle will realize that her relationship to Malkolm may have fatal consequences.Samhain approaches, bringing with it the final melding of the mortal and othernatural worlds. No one knows just how much power the night holds...

After nearly dying at the hands of the Aurelian, Chrysabelle finds new determination to move beyond life as a comarr?. That is until the Kubai Mata bring a new task to her doorstep: rescue the child Tatiana has kidnapped, or Mal becomes enemy number one.

In the final showdown between the forces of dark and light, Mal and Chrysabelle face not only Tatiana, but the ancient evil that now controls her: the Castus Sanguis. Chrysabelle gathers her friends and family around her, forming a plan to bring an end to the chaos surrounding them. But the Castus is the most powerful being they've ever come up against. Defeating such evil will require a great sacrifice from someone on the side of light.

One of them will change sides. One of them will die. No one will survive unscathed. Can Chrysabelle save those she cares about or will that love get her killed? What price is she willing to pay to draw last blood?

When rumors of an uprising in Metaltown's factories hits Bakerstown, sixteen-year-old wannabe reporter Caris knows she's found the story that will finally prove her worth to the Journal.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com

ANNIE AND FIA ARE AS CLOSE AS TWO SISTERS CAN BE.

Most importantly, they keep each other's secrets, even the dangerous ones: Annie is blind, but can see visions of the future; Fia was born with flawless intuition - her first instinct is always exactly right. When the sisters are offered a place at an elite boarding school, Fia realizes something is wrong... but she doesn't grasp just how wrong. At the Keane School, Fia is soon used for everything from picking stocks to planting bombs. If she tries to refuse, they threaten her with Annie's life.

Noe Fia 's falling in love with a boy who has dark secrets of his own. And with his help, she's ready to fight back. They stole her past. They control her present. But she won't let them take her future.

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other--but that may not be enough to save them

Two novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood told by a nun; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. "Bravura pieces... executed with brilliance and brio"(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun.

Evie's always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through supernatural glamours.

She's also about to find out that she may be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, this New York Times bestseller is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, the Paranormalcy trilogy is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

Evie finally has the normal life she's always longed for. But she's shocked to discover that being ordinary can be... kind of boring. Boring enough that when she's given a chance to work for the International Paranormal Containment Agency again, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie's faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there's a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, the Paranormalcy trilogy is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

In this third book in the series, Evie has way too much on her to-do list. Paranormals are begging her to open a faerie gate so they can leave the human world. The Dark Queen is torturing humans and must be destroyed. Prom is coming up, too--and, oh, yeah, her shape-shifting boyfriend has been cursed to fall into an enchanted sleep whenever he and Evie are in the same room. Even Evie's ex-boyfriend, the faerie Reth, can't reverse the dark magic.

An epic battle is looming, and the choices Evie makes will determine the fate of the whole paranormal world--and her own life.

Ash is descended from a long line of gladiators, and she knows the brutal nature of war firsthand. But after her mother dies in an arena, she vows to avenge her by overthrowing her fire god, whose temper has stripped her country of its resources.

Madoc grew up fighting on the streets to pay his family's taxes. But he hides a dangerous secret: he doesn't have the earth god's powers like his opponents. His elemental gift is something else--something that hasn't been seen in centuries.

When an attempted revenge plot goes dangerously wrong, Ash inadvertently throws the fire and earth gods into a conflict that can only be settled by deadly, lavish gladiator games, throwing Madoc in Ash's path. She realizes that his powers are the weapon her rebellion needs--but Madoc won't jeopardize his family, regardless of how intrigued he is by the beautiful warrior.

But when the gods force Madoc's hand, he and Ash uncover an ancient war that will threaten more than one immortal--it will unravel the world.

Two gods are dead. The Mother Goddess has returned. War is rising.

Fleeing the ruins of Deimos, Ash and Madoc sail across the ocean toward their only possible allies: the water and plant gods. But when Anathrasa attacks on the way, Ash leaps to the defense--by using a power she didn't know she had.

When Madoc made the fire and earth gods mortal, he inadvertently transferred their magic to Ash. Now, if Ash can get energeias from the other four gods, she will be powerful enough to end Anathrasa once and for all.

But not all the gods want the Mother Goddess defeated. To stop her, Madoc will have to become the obedient son his mother always wanted, and Ash will have to take a merciless place among the gods.

To defeat an immortal, Ash and Madoc must fight like gods--even if it means sacrificing their humanity.

Star Trek: No Man's Land picks up right after the action-packed season one conclusion of Star Trek: Picard. While Raffi and Seven of Nine are enjoying some much-needed R&R in Raffi's remote hideaway, their downtime is interrupted by an urgent cry for help: a distant, beleaguered planet has enlisted the Fenris Rangers to save an embattled evacuation effort. As Raffi and Seven team up to rescue a mysteriously ageless professor whose infinity-shaped talisman has placed him in the deadly sights of a vicious Romulan warlord, they take tentative steps to explore the attraction depicted in the final moments of Picard season one.

Based on the hit audio original, fans can now read this riveting script with fan-favorite characters.

Book One in the New York Times bestselling trilogy set in the expanded universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation!

A BRAZEN HEIST
Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise crew race to find out who has stolen Data's android brother B-4--and for what sinister purpose.

A BROKEN PROMISE
One desperate father risks all for the son he abandoned forty years ago--but is he ready to pay the price for redemption?

A DARING MISSION
Against overwhelming odds, and with time running out, Commander Worf has only one chance to avert a disaster. But how high a price will he pay for victory?

The Full Circle Fleet has resumed its unprecedented explorations of the Delta Quadrant and former Borg space. Commander Liam O'Donnell of the U.S.S. Demeter makes a promising first contact with the Nihydron--humanoid aliens that are collectors of history. They rarely interact with the species they study but have created a massive database of numerous races, inhabited planets, and the current geopolitical landscape of a large swath of the quadrant. When an exchange of data is proposed via a formal meeting, the Nihydron representatives are visibly shaken when Admiral Kathryn Janeway greets them. For almost a century, two local species--the Rilnar and the Zahl--have fought for control of the nearby planet Sormana, with both sides claiming it as their ancestral homeworld. The shocking part is that for the last several years, the Rilnar have been steadily gaining ground, thanks to the tactics of their current commanding officer: a human woman, who appears to be none other than Kathryn Janeway herself...

Admiral Kathryn Janeway has now taken command of the Full Circle Fleet. Her first mission: return to the Delta Quadrant and open diplomatic relations with the Confederacy of the Worlds of the First Quadrant, a civilization whose power rivals that of the Federation. Captain Chakotay knows that his choices could derail the potential alliance. While grateful to the Confederacy Interstellar Fleet for rescuing the Federation starships from an alien armada, Voyager's captain cannot forget the horrors upon which the Confederacy was founded.

More troubling, it appears that several of Voyager's old adversaries have formed a separate and unlikely pact that is determined to bring down the Confederacy at all costs. Sins of the past haunt the crew members of the Full Circle Fleet as they attempt to chart a course for the future. Will they learn much too late that some sins can never be forgiven... or forgotten?

As the Federation Starship Voyager continues to lead the Full Circle Fleet in its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, Admiral Kathryn Janeway remains concerned about the Krenim Imperium and its ability to rewrite time to suit its whims. At Captain Chakotay's suggestion, however, she orders the fleet to focus its attention on a unique planet in a binary system, where a new element has been discovered. Several biospheres exist on this otherwise uninhabitable world, each containing different atmospheres and features that argue other sentient beings once resided on the surface. Janeway hopes that digging into an old-fashioned scientific mystery will lift the crews' morale, but she soon realizes that the secrets buried on this world may be part of a much larger puzzle--one that points to the existence of a species whose power to reshape the galaxy might dwarf that of the Krenim.

Meanwhile, Lieutenants Nancy Conlon and Harry Kim continue to struggle with the choices related to Conlon's degenerative condition. Full Circle's medical staff discovers a potential solution, but complications will force a fellow officer to confront her people's troubled past and her own future in ways she never imagined...

Admiral Kathryn Janeway faces a tribunal determined to execute her for supposed crimes committed during Voyager's maiden trek through the Delta Quadrant. Captain Chakotay knows that the Kinara, several species now allied against the Full Circle fleet, are not all they appear to be. The Confederacy of the Worlds of the First Quadrant--a pact he cannot trust--is his only hope for unraveling the Kinara's true agenda and rescuing Admiral Janeway. Meanwhile, Seven and Tom Paris are forced to betray the trust of their superiors in a desperate bid to reveal the lengths to which a fellow officer has gone in the name of protecting the Federation from the legendary Caeliar.

"YOU WERE TOLD NOT TO RETURN TO OUR SPACE."

Little is known about the Children of the Storm--one of the most unique and potentially dangerous species the Federation has ever encountered. Non-corporeal and traveling through space in vessels apparently propelled by thought alone, the Children of the Storm at one time managed to destroy thousands of Borg ships without firing a single conventional weapon.

Now in its current mission to the Delta Quadrant, Captain Chakotay and Fleet Commander Afsarah Eden must unravel whythree Federation starships--the U.S.S. Quirinal, Planck, and Demeter--have suddenly been targeted without provocation and with extreme prejudice by the powerful Children of the Storm... with thousands of Starfleet lives at stake from an enemy that the Federation can only begin to comprehend....

When the U.S.S. Voyager is dispatched on an urgent mission to the planet Kerovi, Captain Chakotay and his first officer, Commander Thomas Paris, must choose between following their orders and saving the lives of two of those dearest to them. B'Elanna Torres and her daughter, Miral, are both missing in the wake of a brutal attack on the Klingon world of Boreth. With the aid of their former captain, Admiral Kathryn Janeway -- as well as many old friends and new allies -- Voyager's crew must unravel an ancient mystery, placing themselves between two warrior sects battling for the soul of the Klingon people... while the life of Miral hangs in the balance.

But these events and their repercussions are merely the prelude to even darker days to come. As Voyager is drawn into a desperate struggle to prevent the annihilation of the Federation, lives are shattered, and the bonds that were forged in the Delta Quadrant are challenged in ways that none could have imagined. For though destiny has dealt them crushing blows, Voyager's crew must rise to face their future...and begin a perilous journey in which the wheel of fate comes full circle.

Following the destruction of four fleet vessels at the hands of the Omega Continuum, the U.S.S. Voyager and U.S.S. Demeter set course for a region of the Delta Quadrant far beyond anything previously explored. Captain Chakotay is determined to prove to Starfleet Command that the fleet's ongoing mission is vital to Federation interests... and the key to doing so may lie in a distress call Voyager received nine years earlier but could not investigate.

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway is recalled to the Alpha Quadrant for an evaluation period to determine her next assignment. Given the trauma she has recently endured, Admiral Akaar, Starfleet's commander in chief, is questioning Janeway's fitness to command the fleet. Janeway's primary concern remains the fleet's safety-- for their mission to continue, she must find a way to secure the resources they require. But the uncertainty of her superior officers has left her powerless to act in their best interests.

As the Voyager fleet continues its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, investigating the current status of sectors formerly controlled by the Borg becomes a key priority. Two of the fleet's special mission vessels, the U.S.S. Galen and U.S.S. Demeter, are left at New Talax to aid Neelix's people, while the Voyager, Quirinal, Esquiline, Hawking, and Curie do a systematic search for any remnants of the Borg or Caeliar, even as the Achilles moves to a location central enough to offer aid to the exploring vessels as needed.

As this critical mission begins, Fleet Commander Afsarah Eden, who has shared what little she knows of her mysterious past with Captain Chakotay, begins to experience several more "awakenings" as she encounters artifacts and places that make her feel connected to her long-lost home. She is reluctant to allow these visions to overshadow the mission, and this becomes increasingly difficult as time passes. But in the midst of this growing crisis, no one in the fleet could anticipate the unexpected return of one of Starfleet's most revered leaders--a return that could hold the very fate of the galaxy in the balance.

The long-awaited follow-up to Voyager: Architects of Infinity...

As the crew of the Full Circle fleet works to determine the fate of their lost ship, the Galen, a struggle for survival begins at the far edge of the galaxy. New revelations about Species 001, the race that built the biodomes that first drew the fleet to investigate planet DK-1116, force Admiral Kathryn Janeway to risk everything to learn the truth.

Freed with a thought, the greatest menace to humanity, the Borg, are gone, absorbed into the Caeliar gestalt. But are they? Can this deadly menace that has hovered over humanity for decades truly be gone? Might some shadow of the Caeliar remain? The Federation decides that they have to know, and Starfleet is ordered to find out.

The Starship Voyager leads a fleet into a region of space that has lived in fear of instant annihilation for generations: the Delta quadrant, home of the Borg. Afsarah Eden -- the new captain of Voyager -- is charged with getting answers, to reach out to possible allies and resolve old enmities in the Delta quadrant.

The perfection that was given to the Borg was withheld from Seven of Nine. Left behind, she is living a twilight existence -- neither Borg nor human -- and slowly going mad. The whispers of the Collective, comforting murmurs she has always known, are replaced with a voice deep within her that keeps insisting she is Annika Hansen. Chakotay, the former captain of Voyager, offers to help Seven rendezvous with the ships that Starfleet Command has sent into the Delta quadrant, the probable destination of the mysterious Caeliar.

These are not the friendly stars of the Federation; the unknown and the unexpected are the everyday.

As the Cosmos Unravels

The disruption in the space-time continuum caused by the creation of the "Blue Eye" singularity continues: Thread by thread, the fabric slowly frays and peels away, breaking down barriers between dimensions. As the lines between realities blur, the consequences cascade.

A Sleeping City Awakes

Voyager pursues Tuvok to a long-dormant space station, a place of astonishing grandeur and wonder. Ancient almost beyond imagining, the city seduces the crew with the promise that their greatest aspirations might be realized. Such promise requires sacrifice, however, and the price of fulfilling them will be high for Voyager.

A Mysterious Power Stirs

Unseen sentries, alarmed by Voyager's meddling in the Monoharan system, send emissaries to ascertain Janeway's intentions. Unbeknownst to the captain, she is being tested and must persuade her evaluators that their contention -- that Voyager poses a threat to the delicate web of cosmic ecology -- is baseless. And failure to vindicate her choices will bring certain retribution to her crew.

BEING A TEENAGER IS HARD ENOUGH WITHOUT ALSO TRAINING TO BE A JEDI....

Obi-Wan Kenobi has not been apprenticed long to Qui-Gon Jinn, and he is chafing at Qui-Gon's training style: all meditation, no action. Obi-Wan yearns to prove himself on a mission, but when he and Qui-Gon are finally set to leave on an assignment, Qui-Gon is nowhere to be found. Angered by his master's abandonment, Obi-Wan sets out on the mission alone, determined to prove himself. On a mysterious planet he encounters a pack of feral, Force-wielding teens who seem to be the planet's only inhabitants. As he experiences wild freedom with them and wonders if this isn't the life he was meant for, Obi-Wan can't escape the nagging sense that something is wrong with the Force there. Growing attachments, startling revelations, and a looming threat to both the planet and his new friends will bring Obi-Wan face-to-face with his worst fear: that maybe he was never supposed to be a Jedi at all. Can he connect with the living Force in time to save himself and everyone around him?

Born to rule...

With Ancient technology scattered across the Pegasus galaxy, the Atlantis team is not surprised to find it in use on a world once defended by Dalera, an Ancient who was cast out of her society for falling in love with a human.

But in the millennia since Dalera's departure much has changed. Her strict rules have been broken, leaving her people open to Wraith attack. Only a few of the Chosen remain to operate Ancient technology vital to their defense and tensions are running high. Revolution simmers close to the surface.

When Major Sheppard and Rodney McKay are revealed as members of the Chosen, Daleran society convulses into chaos. Wanting to help resolve the crisis and yet refusing to prop up an autocratic regime, Sheppard is forced to act when Teyla and Lieutenant Ford are taken hostage by the rebels...

The eye of the beholder...

When Dr. Carson Beckett disturbs the rest of two longdead Ancients, he unleashes devastating consequences of global proportions.

With the very existence of Lantea at risk, Colonel John Sheppard leads his team on a desperate search for the long lost Ancient device that could save Atlantis. While Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Elizabeth Weir battle the ecological meltdown consuming their world, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Zelenka travel to a world created by the Ancients themselves. There they discover a human experiment that could mean their salvation...

But the truth is never as simple as it seems, and the team's prejudices lead them to make a fatal error -- an error that could slaughter thousands, including their own Dr. McKay.

Burden of command...

It's a dark time for Atlantis. Following the first Asuran clashes, Colonel Sheppard is buckling under the strain of command. When his team discovers Ancient technology which can defeat the Asuran menace, he is determined that Atlantis must possess it -- at all costs.

But the involvement of Atlantis heightens local suspicions and brings two peoples to the point of war. Elizabeth Weir believes only her negotiating skills can hope to prevent the carnage, but when her diplomatic mission is attacked -- and two of Sheppard's team are lost -- both Weir and Sheppard must question their decisions. And their abilities to command.

As the first shots are fired, the Atlantis team must find a way to end the conflict -- or live with the blood of innocents on their hands...

Creatures of the night...

When a series of gruesome murders are uncovered around the world, the trail leads back to the SGC -- and far beyond...

Recalled to Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Colonel John Sheppard, and Dr. Rodney McKay are shown shocking video footage -- a Wraith attack, taking place on Earth. While McKay, Teyla, and Ronon investigate the disturbing possibility that humans may harbor Wraith DNA, Colonel Sheppard is teamed with SG-1's Dr. Daniel Jackson. Together, they follow the murderers' trail from Colorado Springs to the war-torn streets of Iraq, and there, uncover a terrifying truth...

As an ancient cult prepares to unleash its deadly plot against humankind, Sheppard's survival depends on his questioning of everything believed about the Wraith...

The first two short story collections from Algernon Blackwood, originally published in 1906 and 1907, filled with hauntings, strange nature tales, weird crimes and dark fantasy from one of the greatest writers of supernatural fiction in the 20th century. Includes a new introduction by Storm Constantine, who calls Blackwood one of the most influential supernatural writers of his time.

A Tale Of Revenge

Vulcan was a factory planet, centuries old, Company run, ugly as sin, and unfeeling as death.

Vulcan bred just two types of native -- complacent or tough... and Sten was tough.

When his family died in a mysterious "accident," Sten rebelled, harassing the Company from the metal world's endless mazelike warrens.

Sten would have ended up just another burnt-out Delinquent if he hadn't rescued a mysterious stranger who turned out to be his ticket off Vulcan -- and an express ride back!

The Eternal Emperor ruled countless worlds across the galaxy. Vast armies and huge fleets awaited his command. But when he needed a "little" job done right, he turned to Mantis Team and its small band of militant problem solvers.

Just then the Emperor needed to pacify the Wolf Worlds, the planets of an insignificant cluster that had raised space piracy to a low art.

And Mantis Team could use all the men it needed -- as long as it needed no more than two.

Sten had fought his way up from slave laborer on a factory world to commander of the Eternal Emperor's bodyguard, the Imperial Gurkhas.

But during the first three months on Prime World, the most dangerous weapons Sten encountered were the well-phrased lies of Court politicians. It seemed no place for an honest fighting man. Then a bomb turned a spaceport bar and three strangers into scraps and well-mixed hamburger. The clues said "plot" and pointed right to the imperial staff.

Only quick -- and bloody -- work by Sten, Alex Kilgour, and a tough female detective would keep the Empire together and the Eternal Emperor alive.

Sten's luck was finally running out.

He had barely scraped through Imperial flight school when he was assigned a tac division in the Fringe Worlds, where the Imperial officers were more concerned with the perfect fit of their dress whites than with honing their fighting skills.

The enemy Tahn couldn't have picked a better time or place to launch their long-planned attack against the Empire. Sten and his men were outgunned, outmanned, and outfought -- and no reinforcements could be expected from the besieged Eternal Emperor.

It looked like Sten's number was up. But if he had to go, he didn't intend to go alone...

Sten had fully expected to die in a blaze of glory, taking his Emperor's greatest foe with him. Instead he was a slave laborer in a P.O.W. camp deep in the heart of enemy territory.

But sitting out the action had never been Sten's style. And now that the war was building to a climax, the Eternal Emperor needed him more than ever. Not even the toughest prison in the known universe could keep Sten from his mission...

The Privy Council who ruled in place of the dead Eternal Emperor needed to find his secret source of Anti-Matter Two. Unfortunately, the only man who knew where it could be wasn't talking. He had an agenda of his own and was willing to destroy the universe if he couldn't get his way....

The Eternal Emperor had returned at last from the dead, to pick up the pieces of his crumbling Empire. But even that great leader could not halt the Empire's decline alone. And so Sten, master spy, military strategist, and assassin, found himself appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Altaic Cluster, where a brewing civil war threatened the stability of the Empire itself.

Quelling a civil war was nothing new for Sten. But as one thing after another went wrong, he began to suspect that he was up against more than a mere local disturbance. Someone -- operating in deepest cover, with the highest authority -- was working behind the scenes to manipulate events and escalate disaster. And that someone wanted nothing more than to see Sten dead...

At last! The explosive finale of Sten's adventures as the eternal emperor's most trusted friend, bodyguard, troubleshooter... and assassin!

See Sten undertake the ultimate treasure hunt, as he and his comrades seek out the source of the Eternal Emperor's power: Anti-Matter Two.

Learn the secret of the Eternal Emperor's past: Who is he? Where did he come from? And how did he become immortal?

Watch as the loyal Sten turns traitor at last, turning on the Eternal Emperor to save his own skin...and the Empire itself!

Eternity is doomed to end. And if sten has his way, it will end sooner than later!

Contents:

• Sten - [Sten - 1] - (1982) - novel
• The Wolf Worlds - [Sten - 2] - (1984) - novel
• The Court of a Thousand Suns - [Sten - 3] - (1986) - novel

Contents:

• Fleet of the Damned - [Sten - 4] - (1988) - novel
• Revenge of the Damned - [Sten - 5] - (1989) - novel
• The Return of the Emperor - [Sten - 6] - (1990) - novel

Contents:

• Vortex - [Sten - 7] - (1992) - novel
• Empire's End - [Sten - 8] - (1993) - novel

This novella originally appeared in Clarkesworld #138, March 2018.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld Magazine.

NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who's expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he's made a true friend--and Lada wonders if she's finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against--and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes the first book in a dark, sweeping new series in which heads will roll, bodies will be impaled... and hearts will be broken.

A SISTER FILLED WITH RAGE
Lada Dracul has no allies. No crown. All she has is what she's always had: herself. After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada is out to punish anyone who dares cross her. She storms the countryside with her men, but brute force isn't getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed, the defiant Ottoman sultan, brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There's no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her.

HER BROTHER CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Lada needs the support of her diplomatic younger brother, Radu. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople--and it's no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines. And for the first time in his life, when Lada asks him for help, he refuses... leading his sister to make the darkest of choices.

THE ULTIMATE POWER PLAY
Torn between loyalties to faith, to the Ottomans, and to Mehmed, Radu knows he owes Lada nothing. If she dies, he could never forgive himself--but if he fails in Constantinople, would Mehmed ever forgive him?

As nations fall around them, the Dracul siblings must decide: what will they sacrifice to fulfill their destinies? Empires will topple, thrones will be won... and souls will be lost.

Haunted by the sacrifices he made in Constantinople, Radu is called back to the new capital. Mehmed is building an empire, becoming the sultan his people need. But Mehmed has a secret: as emperor, he is more powerful than ever... and desperately lonely. Does this mean Radu can finally have more with Mehmed... and would he even want it?

Lada's rule of absolute justice has created a Wallachia free of crime. But Lada won't rest until everyone knows that her country's borders are inviolable. Determined to send a message of defiance, she has the bodies of Mehmed's peace envoy delivered to him, leaving Radu and Mehmed with no choice. If Lada is allowed to continue, only death will prosper. They must go to war against the girl prince.

But Mehmed knows that he loves her. He understands her. She must lose to him so he can keep her safe. Radu alone fears that they are underestimating his sister's indomitable will. Only by destroying everything that came before--including her relationships--can Lada truly build the country she wants.

Claim the throne. Demand the crown. Rule the world.

At the end of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Ineluki the Storm King, an undead spirit of horrifying, demonic power, came within moments of stopping Time itself and obliterating humankind. He was defeated by a coalition of mortal men and women joined by his own deathless descendants, the Sithi.

In the wake of the Storm King's fall, Ineluki's loyal minions, the Norns, dark cousins to the Sithi, choose to flee the lands of men and retreat north to Nakkiga, their ancient citadel within the hollow heart of the mountain called Stormspike. But as the defeated Norns make their way to this last haven, the mortal Rimmersman Duke Isgrimnur leads an army in pursuit, determined to end the Norns' attacks and defeat their ageless Queen Utuk'ku for all time.

Two southern soldiers, Porto and Endri, joined the mortal army to help achieve this ambitious goal--though as they venture farther and farther into the frozen north, braving the fierce resistance and deadly magics of the retreating Norns, they cannot help but wonder what they are doing so very far from home. Meanwhile, the Norns must now confront the prospect of extinction at the hands of Isgrimnur and his mortal army.

Viyeki, a leader of the Norns' military engineers, the Order of Builders, desperately seeks a way to help his people reach their mountain--and then stave off the destruction of their race. For the two armies will finally clash in a battle to be remembered as the Siege of Nakkiga; a battle so strange and deadly, so wracked with dark enchantment, that it threatens to destroy not just one side but quite possibly all.

Trapped inside the mountain as the mortals batter at Nakkiga's gates, Viyeki the Builder will discover disturbing secrets about his own people, mysteries both present and past, represented by the priceless gem known as The Heart of What Was Lost.

Outside the mountain, Porto, Endri, and their commander Isgrimnur encounter frightening questions of their own, whose answers will affect all the lands of Osten Ard for generations to come. And in the end, both besiegers and besieged will confront terrible truths about love and loyalty--and about the lies all souls, mortal or immortal, must tell themselves to keep from going mad.

Thirty years ago Ineluki, the Storm King, was destroyed and his armies scattered. Osten Ard has been at peace ever since, ruled by Simon Snowlock, kitchen boy made king, and Miriamele, King Elias' only child. But now age weighs upon their reign. Simon's dreams have deserted him, old allies die and betrayal and assassination threaten. His son and heir John Josua is years dead and his grandson, Morgan, is a wastrel. A journey of redemption and discovery beckons in the darkening world.

And in the frozen North, in Nakkiga, the mountain fortress, Ineluki's ally, the Norn Queen, wakes from her deep, decades-long sleep and tells her followers that she will sleep no more. Humanity must be destroyed. Her sorcerers will bring a demon back from death, her warriors will seek the world for living dragon's blood...

And finally the greatest artefact of all, the Witchwood Crown, will be hers.

With a cast of hundreds - humans, giants, dragons, trolls, Sithi and Norn - The Witchwood Crown is epic fantasy as it used to be: classic, grand and sweeping and evidence that Tad Williams is the greatest living writer of the form.

The kingdoms of Osten Ard have been at peace for decades, but now, the threat of a new war grows to nightmarish proportions.

Simon and Miriamele, royal husband and wife, face danger from every side. Their allies in Hernystir have made a pact with the dreadful Queen of the Norns to allow her armies to cross into mortal lands. The ancient, powerful nation of Nabban is on the verge of bloody civil war, and the fierce nomads of the Thrithings grasslands have begun to mobilize, united by superstitious fervor and their age-old hatred of the city-dwellers. But as the countries and peoples of the High Ward bicker among themselves, battle, bloodshed, and dark magics threaten to pull civilizations to pieces. And over it all looms the mystery of the Witchwood Crown, the deadly puzzle that Simon, Miriamele, and their allies must solve if they wish to survive.

But as the kingdoms of Osten Ard are torn apart by fear and greed, a few individuals will fight for their own lives and destinies-not yet aware that the survival of everything depends on them.

The High Throne of Erkynland is tottering, its royal family divided and diminished. Queen Miriamele has been caught up in a brutal rebellion in the south and thought to have died in a fiery attack. Her grandson Morgan, heir to the throne, has been captured by one of Utuk'ku's soldiers in the ruins of an abandoned city. Miriamele's husband, King Simon, is overwhelmed by grief and hopelessness, unaware that many of these terrible things have been caused by Pasevalles, a murderous traitor inside Simon's own court at the Hayholt.

Meanwhile, a deadly army of Norns led by the ageless, vengeful Queen Utuk'ku, has swept into Erkynland and thrown down the fortress of Naglimund, slaughtering the inhabitants and digging up the ancient grave of Ruyan the Navigator. Utuk'ku plans to use the Navigator's fabled armor to call up the spirit of Hakatri, the evil Storm King's brother.

Even the Sithi, fairy-kin to the Norns, are helpless to stop Utuk'ku's triumph as her armies simultaneously march on the Hayholt and force their way into the forbidden, ogre-guarded valley of Tanakirú - the Narrowdark - where a secret waits that might bring Simon's people and their Sithi allies salvation - or doom.

The Hayholt is besieged by the Norns. Once the home of their immortal brethren, the Sithi, now capital of the kingdom of men, the fabled castle is under attack. And as the world is distracted by this strike against humankind, the Norns' deathless witch-queen Utuk'ku turns towards the mysterious fateful valley called Tanakirú - the Vale of Mists.

Meanwhile, Queen Miriamele hurries to save the Hayholt and capture the treacherous noble Pasevalles, but arrives to discover the traitor has escaped.

And inside Tanakirú, Vale of Mists, the bond between Prince Morgan and Nezeru, a renegade Norn, has become something deeper and stranger than either of them could have anticipated. They journey ever deeper to the heart of the valley's mystery, encountering wonder and horror, and come face to face at last with the ancient secret that has kindled the Norn Queen's war - a secret that will destroy immortals and humans alike.

In her father's village Kat is scorned for her fiery red hair, the legacy of her father's shameful marriage to a native woman. Her only true home is with Nall, a man who appeared to her from the depths of the sea, an outsider too.

Now a war is breaking out, and Kat's beloved brother, Dai, is taken prisoner. Kat realizes that the only way she can save him is to join Nall on a dangerous quest that will take them to the last boundary of all -- the Gate where the world was born. It is during this journey that Kat must confront not only the earthly battle that is tearing her world apart, but the struggle within herself and with the man she loves.

Nanowire Time:

The Persistence of Vision:

In a 1990s buffeted with crises, the narrator, lacking any meaning to his life, finds a happy community of deaf-blinds. This story is a quest for the trancendant, couched in a questioning of whether physical disabilities can free people from the mundane.