Search Worlds Without End

Spirited, restless Gracie Lockwood has lived in Cliffden, Maine, her whole life. She's a typical girl in an atypical world: one where sasquatches helped to win the Civil War, where dragons glide over Route 1 on their way south for the winter (sometimes burning down a T.J. Maxx or an Applebee's along the way), where giants hide in caves near LA and mermaids hunt along the beaches, and where Dark Clouds come for people when they die.

To Gracie it's all pretty ho-hum... until a Cloud comes looking for her little brother Sam, turning her small-town life upside down. Determined to protect Sam against all odds, her parents pack the family into a used Winnebago and set out on an epic search for a safe place that most people say doesn't exist: The Extraordinary World. It's rumored to lie at the ends of the earth, and no one has ever made it there and lived to tell the tale. To reach it, the Lockwoods will have to learn to believe in each other--and to trust that the world holds more possibilities than they've ever imagined.

The speaker is a hickory-faced crone trying to explain to Chet, a shy kid with eyeglasses and pocket protector, why he can't take her granddaughter to the high school dance. For quiet, elfin Flannery is not like other kids. A living Blud-eye-eth, she has caught the attention of the faerie, beautiful evil creatures from a mysterious Otherworld, who seduce their victims with moonlight raves before feeding them to a dragon and hunting souls with a supernatural black dog of prodigious evil. And they have taken Flannery for one of their own. And she won't be going to the school dance-not unless Chet rescues her.

Table of Contents

• Visions from the Edge: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (1981) - interior artwork by Rand Gaynor
• Introduction (Visions from the Edge: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy) (1981) - essay by John Bell and Lesley Choyce
• The Porter of Bagdad (1885) - shortstory by Archibald MacMechan
• The Swamp Monster (excerpt from A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder) (1888) - shortfiction by James De Mille
• Hairbreadth Escapes of Major Mendax (excerpt) (1889) - shortfiction by Francis Blake Crofton [as by Francis B. Crofton]
• The Stone Dog (1885) - shortstory by Charles G. D. Roberts
• The End of the World (1903) - shortstory by Simon Newcomb
• After the Cataclysm (excerpt) (1909) - shortfiction by H. Percy Blanchard
• The Dancer in the Crystal (1929) - shortstory by Francis Flagg
• The Living Galaxy (1934) - shortstory by Laurence Manning
• The House Party at Smoky Island (1935) - shortstory by Lucy Maud Montgomery [as by L. M. Montgomery]
• The Amulet (1939) - shortstory by T. H. Raddall
• The Ghost of Reddleman Lane (1957) - shortstory by Desmond Pacey
• About Time to Go South (1957) - shortstory by Douglas Angus
• Remembrance Day, 2010 (1981) - novelette by Hugh MacLennan
• For Sale, Reasonable (1959) - shortstory by Elizabeth Mann Borgese [as by Elizabeth M. Borgese]
• Owe, Canada (1972) - shortstory by Andrew Wetmore
• Letter from America (1976) - shortstory by H. R. Percy
• Space Greens (1975) - shortstory by Jean Marie Chard
• It's a Sunny Day (1976) - shortstory by Spider Robinson
• The Sow's Ear (1980) - shortstory by Harold Walters
• The Curio Shop (1980) - shortstory by William Kotzwinkle

What if the whole world fell asleep... and didn't wake up again?

Dave Torres, a night watchman in a placid coastal town, knows all about sleep troubles. Since childhood, he's battled terrors and nightmares. Sometimes those battles leak into his waking life, with disastrous consequences for those he loves. Now Dave lives alone and self-medicates to neutralize his dreams. It's not much of a life, he knows.

The morning after Independence Day, Santa Mira, California, is so quiet Dave can hear the ocean from miles away. Traffic signals blink from red to green over empty intersections. Storefronts remain locked up tight. Every radio station whispers static.

And all over town, there are bodies, lying right where their owners left them. Dead right where they slept.

Dave -- along with his ex-girlfriend, Katie, his best friend, Matteo, and Linda, a nurse he's just met -- struggle to unravel the mystery before sleep overtakes them all.

Except the answer to the mystery might lie in the one place that frightens Dave most: His twisted, unnerving dreams. Now Dave and his friends must straddle the liminal boundary between life and death as they fight to save everyone they've ever loved--and to keep their eyes open.

Because if any of them falls asleep now, it will be the last thing they ever do.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Venture Science Fiction Magazine, March 1958. The story can aslo be found in the anthologies SF: '58: The Year's Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy (1958), edited by Judith Merril, Worlds to Come (1967), edited by Damon Knight, and Decade: The 1950s (1976) edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison.

It was Thane who crossed the abyss of the ages and stood on the very brink of Eternity... who found the secret of the Time Treasure... who saw, and laughed and came back sane from that place beyond the Universe where no man had ever been before him, and where none should ever come again.

This was the ending. But the beginning was in the city of Zotheera on the planet Daikoon...

A restless outworlder was Thane of the Two Swords. A man of blood and steel, a man of strange powers strangely acquired. The warrior Thane possessed a secret vital to the greedy Princes of the Planets. And it was on the planet Daikoon that the princes tried to buy Thane's services...

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction (1998), edited by Stephen Pagel and Nicola Griffith. The story is included in the collection Love's Body, Dancing in Time (2004).

A thrilling, thought-provoking novel from one of young-adult literature's boldest new talents.

January 29, 2035. That's the day the comet is scheduled to hit--the big one. Denise and her mother and sister, Iris, have been assigned to a temporary shelter outside their hometown of Amsterdam to wait out the blast, but Iris is nowhere to be found, and at the rate Denise's drug-addicted mother is going, they'll never reach the shelter in time. A last-minute meeting leads them to something better than a temporary shelter--a generation ship, scheduled to leave Earth behind to colonize new worlds after the comet hits. But everyone on the ship has been chosen because of their usefulness. Denise is autistic and fears that she'll never be allowed to stay. Can she obtain a spot before the ship takes flight? What about her mother and sister? When the future of the human race is at stake, whose lives matter most?

A brilliant collection of Harlan Ellison's short fiction, featuring an introduction by Norman Spinrad.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword: The Frontiers of Edgeville - (1970) - essay by Norman Spinrad
• Brinkmanship - (1970) - essay by Harlan Ellison
• Pennies, Off a Dead Man's Eyes - (1969)
• Final Trophy - (1957)
• !!!The!!Teddy!Crazy!!Show!!! - (1968)
• Ernest and the Machine God - (1968)
• Tiny Ally - (1957)
• The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World - (1967)
• Blind Lightning - (1956)
• 3 Faces of Fear - (1966) - essay by Harlan Ellison
• Blank ... - (1957)
• Night Vigil - (1957)
• Enter the Fanatic, Stage Center - (1961)
• Rock God - (1969)
• Afterword: Back of the Book - essay by Harlan Ellison

From a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction comes a hilarious, off-beat fantasy of adventure and chain-smoking A disenchanted spell-caster, a feeding-disordered and phobic vampire with a penchant for television talk shows, an inept shape-shifter, a militaristic saint, and a surferesque Viking are aligned in a mission to find the answer to unanswerable questions, drink coffee, and slaughter vaguely annoying bystanders.

In the course of their journey, they encounter a variety of Famous Dead Guys, Mythic Creatures, and Horrendous Jokes. Under the dominion of a patriarchal authority figure, they stumble blindly through layers of past, present, and future, only to find that No One will help them.

Table of Contents:

• 11 - The World Beyond - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 17 - An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street - novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• 43 - The Rat That Could Speak - short story by Charles Dickens
• 49 - An Inhabitant of Carcosa - short story by Ambrose Bierce
• 55 - Lost Hearts - short story by M. R. James
• 68 - The Yellow Sign - novelette by Robert W. Chambers
• 92 - The Sealman - short story by John Masefield
• 97 - A Night in Malnéant - short story by Clark Ashton Smith
• 105 - Werewoman - novelette by C. L. Moore
• 135 - Shottle Bop - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• 167 - Armageddon - short story by Fredric Brown
• 174 - The Cheaters - novelette by Robert Bloch
• 198 - Legal Rites - novelette by Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl
• 233 - O Ugly Bird! - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
• 252 - Journeys End - short story by Poul Anderson
• 265 - The Man Who Liked - short story by Robert Hoskins
• 270 - Nightmare Gang - short story by Dean R. Koontz
• 281 - Elephants - short story by Barry N. Malzberg

In the winter of 1885, decorated war hero Colonel Allen Forrester leads a small band of men on an expedition that has been deemed impossible: to venture up the Wolverine River and pierce the vast, untamed Alaska Territory. Leaving behind Sophie, his newly pregnant wife, Colonel Forrester records his extraordinary experiences in hopes that his journal will reach her if he doesn't return--once he passes beyond the edge of the known world, there's no telling what awaits him.

The Wolverine River Valley is not only breathtaking and forbidding but also terrifying in ways that the colonel and his men never could have imagined. As they map the territory and gather information on the native tribes, whose understanding of the natural world is unlike anything they have ever encountered, Forrester and his men discover the blurred lines between human and wild animal, the living and the dead. And while the men knew they would face starvation and danger, they cannot escape the sense that some greater, mysterious force threatens their lives.

Meanwhile, on her own at Vancouver Barracks, Sophie chafes under the social restrictions and yearns to travel alongside her husband. She does not know that the winter will require as much of her as it does her husband, that both her courage and faith will be tested to the breaking point. Can her exploration of nature through the new art of photography help her to rediscover her sense of beauty and wonder?

The truths that Allen and Sophie discover over the course of that fateful year change both of their lives--and the lives of those who hear their stories long after they're gone--forever.

One morning the residents of Walden, Virginia, woke up to find the rest of the world gone. Just... gone.

Surrounding their town was a wall of inky darkness, plummeting Walden into permanent night. Nothing can get in - not light, not people, not even electricity, radio, TV, internet, food, or water. And nothing can get out. No one who dared to penetrate the mysterious barrier has ever been seen again. Only their screams were heard.

But for some, the darkness is not the worst of their fears. Driven mad by thirst, hunger, and perpetual night, the residents of Walden are ready to explode. The last few sane prisoners of this small town must prepare a final stand against their neighbors, themselves, and something even worse... something out there... in the darkness...

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2005, and was reprinted on infinity plus, August 2007. The story can also be found in the anthologies Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton, and Year's Best SF 11 (2006), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer. The story is included in the collection The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories (2008).

Read the full story for free at infinity plus.

Table of Contents:

• vii - Introductory Note (Dancing at the Edge of the World) - essay
• 3 - The Space Crone - (1976) - essay
• 7 - Is Gender Necessary? Redux - (1987) - essay
• 17 - "Moral and Ethical Implications of Family Planning" - essay
• 21 - It Was a Dark and Stormy Night; or, Why Are We Huddling About the Campfire? - (1980) - essay
• 31 - Working on "The Lathe" - (1980) - essay
• 37 - Some Thoughts on Narrative - essay
• 46 - World-Making - (1983) - essay
• 49 - Hunger - essay
• 51 - Places Names - essay
• 75 - The Princess - essay
• 80 - A Non-Euclidean View of California As a Cold Place to Be - (1983) - essay
• 101 - Facing It - essay
• 104 - Reciprocity of Prose and Poetry - essay
• 115 - A Left-Handed Commencement Address - essay
• 118 - Along the Platte - (1983) - essay
• 123 - Whose Lathe? - (1984) - essay
• 127 - The Woman Without Answers - essay
• 130 - The Second Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb - shortstory
• 135 - Room 9, Car 1430 - (1985) - essay
• 138 - Theodora - (1985) - essay
• 142 - Science Fiction and the Future - essay
• 144 - The Only Good Author? - (1985) - essay
• 147 - Bryn Mawr Commencement Address - (1986) - essay
• 161 - Woman/Wilderness - essay
• 165 - The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction - (1988) - essay
• 171 - Heroes - (1986) - essay
• 176 - Prospects for Women in Writing - (1986) - essay
• 179 - Text, Silence, Performance - (1986) - essay
• 188 - "Who is Responsible?" - (1987) - essay
• 190 - Conflict - (1987) - essay
• 192 - "Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?" - (1987) - essay
• 201 - Over the Hills and a Great Way Off - (1988) - essay
• 212 - The Fisherwoman's Daughter - (1988) - essay

REVIEWS:

• 1977 The Dark Tower, by C.S. Lewis
• 1978 Close Encounters, Star Wars, and the Tertium Quid
• 1979 Shikasta, by Doris Lessing
• 1980 Two from "Venom"
• Freddy's Book and Vlemk, by John Gardner
• The Marriage Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, by Doris Lessing
• Kalila and Dimna, retold by Ramsay Wood
• Unfinished Busines, by Maggie Scarf
• Italian Folktales, by Italo Calvino
• 1981 Peak's Progress, by Mervyn Peake
• 1983 The Sentimental Agents, by Doris Lessing
• 1984 Difficult Loves, by Italo Calvino
• "Forsaking Kingdomes": Five Poets
• 1985 The Mythology of North American, by John Bierhorst
• 1986 Silent Partners, by Eugene Linden
• Outside the Gates, by Molly Gloss
• Golden Days, by Carolyn See
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Master storyteller Robin McKinley here spins two new fairy tales and retells two cherished classics. All feature princesses touched with or by magic. There is Linadel, who lives in a kingdom next to Faerieland, where princesses are stolen away on their seventeenth birthdays-and Linadel's seventeenth birthday is tomorrow. And Korah, whose brother is bewitched by the magical Golden Hind; now it is up to her to break the spell. Rana must turn to a talking frog to help save her kingdom from the evil Aliyander. And then there are the twelve princesses, enspelled to dance through the soles of their shoes every night. . . . These are tales to read with delight!

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Call to the Edge) - (1992) - essay by Michael J. Tolley
• 7 - The Colours of the Masters - (1988) - novelette (variant of The Colors of the Masters)
• 29 - The Eyes of the Green Lancer - [Greatwinter] - (1992) - novelette
• 63 - Destroyer of Illusions - [Greatwinter] - (1992) - novelette
• 91 - Alone in His Chariot - (1991) - short story
• 111 - The Deciad - (1986) - short story
• 135 - Pax Romana - (1992) - novelette
• 171 - While the Gate Is Open - (1990) - novelette
• 197 - The Devils of Langenhagen - (1992) - novelette
• 225 - The Dominant Style - (1991) - short story

Step up, as close as you dare...

...to a place at the edge of sanity, where cicadas scritch across balmy summer nights,

at the edge of town, where the cellphone coverage is decidedly dodgy,

at the edge of space, where a Mimbinus argut bounds among snowy rocks,

at the edge of the page, where demon princes prance in the shadows,

at the edge of despair, where 10 darushas will get you a vodka lime and a ring side seat,

at the edge of the universe, where time stops but space goes on...

From the brink of civilisation, the fringe of reason, and the border of reality, come 23 stories infused with the bloody-minded spirit of the Antipodes, tales told by the children of warriors and whalers, convicts and miners: people unafraid to strike out for new territories and find meaning in the expanses at the edge of the world.

Compiled by award-winning editing team Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray, and including a story by Arthur C. Clarke finalist Phillip Mann and foreword by World Fantasy Award winner Angela Slatter, At the Edge is a dark and dystopic collection from some of Australia and New Zealand's best speculative writers.

Isaac Asimov writes about actual and fictional scientists--from Archimedes in his bath to the alien astronomers on the far planet of Largesh--whose minds and discoveries have shaped our past, present, and future.

Table of Contents:

• xi - Foreword (The Edge of Tomorrow) - essay by Ben Bova
• 1 - Introduction (The Edge of Tomorrow) - [Asimov's Essays: Own Work] - essay
• 4 - Unique Is Where You Find It - [Black Widowers] - (1985) - short story
• 20 - The Eureka Phenomenon - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1971) - essay
• 33 - The Feeling of Power - (1958) - short story
• 44 - The Comet That Wasn't - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1976) - essay
• 57 - Found! - (1978) - short story
• 73 - Twinkle, Twinkle, Microwaves - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1977) - essay
• 85 - Pâté de Foie Gras - (1956) - short story
• 104 - The Bridge of the Gods - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1975) - essay
• 116 - Belief - (1953) - novelette
• 150 - Euclid's Fifth - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1971) - essay
• 162 - The Plane Truth - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1971) - essay
• 174 - The Billiard Ball - (1967) - novelette
• 194 - The Winds of Change - (1982) - short story
• 210 - The Figure of the Fastest - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1973) - essay
• 222 - The Dead Past - (1956) - novelette
• 272 - The Fateful Lightning - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1969) - essay
• 284 - Breeds There a Man? - novelette (variant of Breeds There a Man...? 1951)
• 322 - The Man Who Massed the Earth - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1969) - essay
• 334 - Nightfall - (1941) - novelette
• 371 - The Planet That Wasn't - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1975) - essay
• 383 - The Ugly Little Boy - (1958) - novelette (variant of Lastborn)
• 425 - The Three Who Died Too Soon - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1982) - essay
• 437 - The Last Question - [Multivac] - (1956) - short story
• 451 - The Nobel Prize That Wasn't - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1970) - essay

With In the Palace of Repose, her debut collection of mostly unpublished work, Holly Phillips accomplished the improbable. The unknown Canadian author received critical acclaim and numerous honors including the 2006 Sunburst Award and nominations for the World Fantasy and Crawford Awards. Her accomplished prose sang with a unique voice, seamlessly blending emotion, insight, and craft.

Now, At the Edge of Waking presents her latest tales written with even more depth and range-including a new, never-published story. Portraying human reaction to dire change or extreme circumstance, combining the real intruded upon by the fantastic or the fantastic grounded in reality, Phillips describes the world as it is, as it may be, as something impossible yet entirely acceptable, enthralling the reader with her words.

Contents:

• Introduction (At the Edge of Waking) - (2012) - essay by Peter S. Beagle
• Brother of the Moon - (2007) - short story
• Castle Rock - (2012) - short story
• Cold Water Survival - (2009) - short story
• Country Mothers' Sons - (2010) - short story
• Gin - (2006) - short story
• Proving the Rule - (2008) - novella
• Queen of the Butterfly Kingdom - (2007) - short story
• Story Notes (At the Edge of Waking) - (2012) - essay
• The Long, Cold Goodbye - (2009) - novelette
• The Rescue - (2010) - short story
• Three Days of Rain - (2007) - short story
• Virgin of the Sands - (2006) - short story

Awards: nominated for Hugo Award - Best non-fiction, 1994

An enquiry into the facts behind the non-appearance of a science fiction anthology called The Last Dangerous Visions, a project that was originally announced in 1971 but which was never in fact completed or delivered to the publisher, let alone published. Constantly hyped and boasted about by its editor, Harlan Ellison, and frequently promised for imminent completion, the incontinently overlength book has been subjected to years of editorial procrastination. As contributors began to ask when their work would be appearing, Mr Ellison announced false publication dates at regular intervals, and produced untrue testimony from hapless acquaintances saying (apparently under duress) that they had personally seen the completed manuscript. None of this was true and could not be, and none of it would in fact matter but for two things.

Firstly, a lot of writers have seen their stories held in limbo for several years (and in most cases for decades). Secondly, many writers who tried to recover their work to have it properly published have been treated abusively by Mr Ellison. Examples of his bullying tactics abound, and many are reported by the victims in the pages of this book. For this latter reason, and the understandable wish to enjoy a quiet life, most of the contributors have preferred to abandon their stories. To this day the manuscripts (most of them produced on typewriters!) remain somewhere in the depths of Mr Ellison's house. Of course, in the forty years (plus) that this storm in a teacup has been continuing, some of the writers have given up writing altogether and a large number of them have died without seeing their work in print.

Christopher Priest's short book on the subject was written more than twenty years ago in the spirit of investigative journalism, and treated the matter as one of professional concern. Even as long ago as that, Mr Ellison's unfinished project had become scandalous. Priest contacted many of the victims direct and assembled a collection of letters, reports, personal accounts and experiences, and from these mounted a dispassionate account of the rudeness, inefficiency and waste of time that have characterized dealings with Mr Ellison. This book is the only published critical account of the saga of incompetence and untruths. On publication, an attempt at a lawsuit of course followed. Mr Ellison is someone who never misses a chance to proclaim his commitment to free speech, except when the freedom is exercised about him.

In spite of Mr Ellison's attempts to persuade people that The Book on the Edge of Forever has vanished without trace, it remains available.

Amazon publishes a number of notably partisan reviews, both pro and con the book, and extracts can be read in the reviews section of this website. One of these (headlined Meanspirited Jealousy) takes partisanship to a new high, or low: signed only as being written by "A reader", it bears all the hallmarks of Mr Ellison's own unmistakable writing style: florid overstatement and a fog of half-truths intended to cloud the issue. Well worth a visit to witness the great man in action, a rare sight. (The whole thing can be read on the reviews page for this title; see link above.)

This short story originally appeared in Interzone, #209 April 2007 and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #99 December 2014. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection (2008), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections Deep Navigation (2010) and Beyond the Aquila Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds (2016).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Robert Silverberg
• The King's Dogs - novella by Phyllis Gotlieb
• In the Blood - novella by Glenn Chang
• Acts of Love - novella by Mark J. McGarry

Halvor Cullen, a genetically-engineered and technology implanted ex-soldier, doesn't see himself as a hero. After getting out of the service, all he's interested in is chasing the adrenaline rush his body was designed to crave. Hal knows he won't live long anyway; vat soldiers like him are designed to die early or will be burnt out from relentlessly seeking the rush. His best friend and former CO, Tyce, is determined not to let that happen and distracts him by work salvaging crashed ships in the Edge.

Then Hal's ship gets a new crewmember - a hacker-turned-tecker named Vivi. As they become friends, Hal wonders if he's got a chance with a natural-born like her. Then on a job, the crew finds a sphere that downloads an alien presence into their ship...

Multiple clashes with the military force Hal and his crew to choose sides. The battle they fight will determine the fate of vats and natural-borns throughout the galaxy. Will they join the movement against the Coalition? What has invaded their ship's computer? And can there be a real future for a vat with an expiration date?

Six of the world's seven edges have been rounded out and the last one, edging a thin sliver of land where magic still survives, is in a parlous state. No longer able to remember the future, the last enchanter, Sirion Hilversun, knows that is about to die, and is anxious for the fate of his young daughter Helen, when a letter arrives from the neighboring unmagical kingdom of Caramorn, asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. Helen does not know that the offer is a desperate move on the part of the king of a bankrupt kingdom, but she hates the idea anyway. Unfortunately her cunning plan to avoid the marriage without disappointing her father too much goes badly awry when it volves her and Ewan, the boy hired to catalogue Caramorn's palace library, in a spell that has been gathering power for hundreds of years. If she and Ewan can complete the spell, the last of the world's edges should be neatly disenchanted and tidied away -- but can the human pawns necessary to complete it survive the obliteration of the magic lands?

Sturgeon Award winning and Hugo and Wold Fantasy Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Full Spectrum 2 (1989), edited by Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy, Amy Stout, Pat LoBrutto. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection (1990), edited by Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection (1990), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and Modern Classics of Science Fiction (1991), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections Gravity's Angels (1991), A Geography of Unknown Lands (1997) and The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008).

Read the full story for free at Fantasy Magazine.

Connie Ramos, a woman in her mid-thirties, has been declared insane. But Connie is overwhelmingly sane, merely tuned to the future, and able to communicate with the year 2137. As her doctors persuade her to agree to an operation, Connie struggles to force herself to listen to the future and its lessons for today....

Beautiful Queen Inos married the loyal stableboy Rap and made him her king. They were very much in love, and they lived happily ever after. Fifteen years went by. Rap and Inos were comfortable, secure, and truly happy, raising their family in the little backwater kingdom of Krasnegar, well removed from the hurly-burly of great affairs...

But in far-off Hub, the old Imperor's health--and, some said, his sanity--deteriorated inexorably. The borderlands were seething. Prince Emshandar--or Shandie, as Rap knew him--found himself leading his grandfather's armies into terrible battles where victory and justice hung in gravest doubt.

And now the end of the millennium was at hand, ushered in by prophecies of cataclysmic upheaval on a scale never before imagined. All across Pandemia, sensible people tried to dismiss a growing sense of unease as superstitious nonsense.

Then a God appeared to Rap and warned him that the prophecies spoke the least of the truth. Devastation was a certainty; total destruction loomed. The very fabric of the world was at risk. And it was all Rap's fault. The last thing in the world Rap had wanted was another adventure. And it might be the last thing he would ever get.

WFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Legends (1998), edited by Robert Silverberg. The story can also be found in the collections GRRM: A RRetrospective (2003) and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2015).

Prepare for a full dive!

Umesato Junior High's culture festival is just around the corner, and Haruyuki is busy helping his classmates prepare for their exhibit. While everything may appear calm in the real world, however, the Accelerated World is steadily falling into chaos. Magenta Scissors is zeroing in on Silver Crow from an unexpected direction, and even his newfound Optical Conduction ability may not be enough to avert a tragedy!

Omnibus edition of two early Cherryh novels: Brothers of Earth (1976) and Hunter of Worlds (1977):

Brothers of Earth:
The leader of the Hana was a Priestess-Ruler in a world of humanoid aliens. Yet she was more closely related to her human prisoner, Kurt Morgan, though their star nations had been bitter enemies for two thousand years. She granted Kurt Moragn his lfie, but for a price: that he remain indebted to his captors, immersed in an alien environment which threatened to drive him mad. Beset with doubts, Kurt accepted the terms of his capture and despite his misgivings became intrigued with his life.

For he shared something unique with his captor--both of them had survived the destruction of their worlds. And then they realized that the world on which they now lived was on the brink of a devastating war, and they were perhaps the only two sentient beings there who understood the ultimate sacrifice that might come from such a conflict. Could they save this world, or would they die with their adopted planet, humanity's orphans at the edge of space

Hunter of Worlds:
The Iduve were the most advanced spacefaring race in the galaxy. They traveled where they pleased in giant city-sized vessels, engrossed with their own affairs. The Iduve were humanoid, but they differed from Earth's own humans in one significant way: they were pure predators incapable of human emotion.

Aiela was a world-survey officer who found himself abducted to serve the Iduve clanship Ashanome. Forcibly mind-linked with two other captives, life for Aiela became wholly dedicated to the service of his captors.

But then the Ashanome came to the world of Priamos, a war-torn planet caught in a struggle between humans and the alien race known as the amaut. When she discovered that her fugitive brother was hiding there, Chimele, leader of the Ashanome, was willing to sacrifice this entire world to destroy him. And Priamos' only hope for survival lay with Aiela and his fellow captives...

Table of Contents:

• About "At the Edge of the World" and Lord Dunsany: The Dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai - essay by Lin Carter
• The Cave of Kai - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
• Of the Gods of Averon - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory (variant of "The Sorrow of Search")
• Mlideen - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
• The King That Was Not - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
• The Men of Yarnith - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
• In the Land of Time - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
• Time and the Gods - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
• The Opulence of Yahn - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory (variant of "Usury")
• The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth - (1908) - shortstory
• Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean - (1908) - shortstory
• The Idle City - (1909) - shortstory
• Bethmoora - (1908) - shortstory
• Idle Days on the Yann - [Beyond the Fields We Know - 1] - (1910) - shortstory
• The Hashish Man - (1910) - shortstory
• Carcassonne - (1910) - shortstory
• In Zaccarath - (1909) - shortstory
• The Dream of King Karna-Vootra - (1915) - shortstory
• How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana - (1915) - shortstory
• The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller, and of the Doom That Befell Him - (1911) - shortstory
• A Shop in Go-by Street - [Beyond the Fields We Know - 2] - (1912) - shortstory
• The Avenger of Perdóndaris - [Beyond the Fields We Know - 3] - (1912) - shortstory
• How the Dwarfs Rose Up in War - (1919) - shortstory (variant of "A Pretty Quarrel)"
• The Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men - (1911) - shortstory
• The Loot of Bombasharna - (1912) - shortstory
• The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater - (1910) - shortstory
• The Bride of the Man-Horse - (1911) - shortstory
• The Quest of the Queen's Tears - (1911) - shortstory
• How One Came, as Was Foretold, to the City of Never - (1911) - shortstory
• A Day at the Edge of the World - (1916) - shortstory (variant of "The Long Porter's Tale" 1914)
• Erlathdronion - (1916) - shortstory (variant of "A Tale of the Equator" 1914)
• Epilogue to "The Book of Wonder" - (1912) - essay
• Afterword (The Edge of the World) - essay by Lin Carter

Blade Runner, the ingenious movie version of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, has been widely acclaimed as one of the best sf films. With Dick long gone, Jeter undertakes the further adventures of twenty-first-century L.A. detective Deckard, whose recent narrow victory over a violent android "replicant" prompted a retreat to the wilderness with his replicant lover Rachel. But there is at least one more vendetta-minded replicant still on the loose. Sarah Tyrell, sole surviving heir to the powerful replicant-manufacturing Tyrell Corporation and the human model for Rachel, pulls Deckard out of retirement and into a no-win predicament. Not only are there more replicants than anyone guessed, but Deckard is now wanted for the murder of Pris, who was not, as he had assumed, a replicant but fully human.

An expedition of groundlings from the Empire of Kish have traveled through the Three Worlds to the Indigo Cloud court of the Raksura, shape-shifting creatures of flight that live in large family groups. The groundlings have found a sealed ancient city at the edge of the shallow seas, near the deeps of the impassable Ocean. They believe it to be the last home of their ancestors and ask for help getting inside. But the Raksura fear it was built by their own distant ancestors, the Forerunners, and the last sealed Forerunner city they encountered was a prison for an unstoppable evil.

Prior to the groundlings' arrival, the Indigo Cloud court had been plagued by visions of a disaster that could destroy all the courts in the Reaches. Now, the court's mentors believe the ancient city is connected to the foretold danger. A small group of warriors, including consort Moon, an orphan new to the colony and the Raksura's idea of family, and sister queen Jade, agree to go with the groundling expedition to investigate. But the predatory Fell have found the city too, and in the race to keep the danger contained, the Raksura may be the ones who inadvertently release it.

Sometimes I wrestle my demons. Sometimes we just snuggle. -- Bumper Sticker

Most girls might think twice before getting engaged to someone like Reyes Farrow but Charley Davidson is not most girls. She's a paranormal private eye and grim reaper-in-training who's known to be a bit of a hell-raiser, especially after a few shots of caffeine. Her beloved Reyes may be the only begotten son of evil, but he's dark and sultry and deeply sexy and everything Charley could hope for. Really. But when the FBI file on Reyes' childhood happens to land into her lap, she can't help herself: She opens it... and then the real fun begins. First, Charley finds a naked corpse riding shotgun in her car. Then, a man loses his soul in a card game. Throw in a Deaf boy who sees dead people, a woman running from mobsters, and a very suspicious Reyes, and things can't get any worse for Charley. Unless, of course, the Twelve Beasts of Hell are unleashed...

It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime, and the tragic past he thought he'd left behind.

In order to uncover the answers he seeks, Eddie must delve into the dark underbelly of society while digging deep into his own private history, drawing past and present together. Vast conspiracies, women both beautiful and deadly, and a centuries-old revenge scheme are only a few of the pieces in a lethal puzzle.

The Sword-Edged Blonde is a tour-de-force foray into a realm of action, intrigue, and murder.

Eddon is an interplanetary murder investigator, called to the backward world of Planet P-19. He doesn't much like his newly assigned assistant, a psychic called Vail ev Vessintor. But this is a case like no other; the first murders are only the beginning.

Sword-bearer Shkai'ra and her companion, Megan, dagger-wielding thief and mistress of illusion, are caught in a life-or-death struggle between rival magical powers as a deadly secret threatens to destroy the balance of peace and the Fehinnan Empire.

This book has been revised and republished as Saber and Shadow.

Explore the unexplored - enter The Wilds of the Forgotten Realms!

On the border of a dangerous, magically unstable area called the Plaguewrought Lands, the leader of a cult seeking the spread of this wild magic and an alchemist who wants to control it join forces and create an elixir that allows pilgrims to survive the Plaguewrought Lands. But only one can succeed. A young man with strange powers and a priestess of the god of death will help determine who.

The luck runs rough around Theo Waitley. Not only are people trying to kill her and capture the self-aware intelligent ship Bechimo to whom Theo is bonded, they're also trying to arrest her crew members, and throw the dignity of an important passenger, the duly-constituted norbear ambassador Hevelin, into question.

No wonder Theo and her crew felt the need of a break, and retired to what Bechimo refers to as "safe space." Unfortunately, safe space may not be so safe, anymore. It seems that things are leaking through from another universe, and another time. In fact, whole spaceships are coming through. One of those ships is a blasted battleship seemingly fleeing a long-lost war. What's more, its crew may be members of Theo's ancient ancestral line--her relatives. It's certain that they are in dire need of help. Theo has a choice to make. It seems that Bechimo's "safe space" is about to become deadly perilous.

This is the story of ancient Roman soldiers; one in particular named Ventidius Varro, also called Haro by the native people. A ruler he wants to be and in the new world at the edge of the world he becomes one. A warrior is he, and this is a tale of his battles and conquests, along with his self-discovery.

They were a lonely, half-starved band of adventurers who had been cast out of their homeland by hordes of invading marauders -- and they came to an unknown world as strange, as fantastic, as wonder-packed as the legendary Atlantis. Here they encountered the dread fish-monsters of Piasa, and were captured by the savage legions of Miapan's barbaric empire. But they escaped -- and vowed to build a new civilization in the wilderness that would crush the tyrants of Miapan forever!

Fighting their way across an uncharted continent peopled by strange civilizations and fierce beast-monsters, the sorcerer Myrdhinn and his small band of followers had only their swords and the discipline of their military training to sustain them -- for Myrdhinn, master of Druid magic, had foresworn the black arts when he had become a Christian convert.

Yet at last, upon a barbarous pagan altar in the heart of Miapan, Myrdhinn faced an evil so great that he knew he must throw all the powers at his command against it. And when Myrdhinn called up the forces of the earth and elements against his foes, this entire new world was shaken to its foundations!

A diseased town--long hidden beneath a lake--rises from the depths to become a focus of the war between humankind and the Kin.

There exists a secret and highly illegal trade in mythological creatures and their artifacts. Certain individuals pay fortunes for a sliver of a satyr's hoof, a gryphon's claw, a basilisk's scale, or an angel's wing. Embroiled in the hidden world of the Relics, creatures known as the Kin, Angela Gough is now on the run in the United States.

Forty years ago the town of Longford was the site of a deadly disease outbreak that wiped out the entire population. The infection was contained, the town isolated, and the valley in which it sits flooded and turned into a reservoir. The truth--that the outbreak was intentional, and not every resident of Longford died--disappeared beneath the waves.

Now the town is revealed again. The Kin have an interest in the ruins, and soon the fairy Grace and the Nephilim leader Mallian are also drawn to them. The infection has risen from beneath silent waters, and this forgotten town becomes the focus of the looming battle between humankind and the Kin.

Since the dawn of consciousness, a secret war has been fought between the forces of magic and religious fanaticism, and the cause of reason, understanding, and technology. On one side are the Old Ones, malign entities that feed on the suffering of mankind. On the other are the Lumina, an ancient order dedicated the liberation of the human spirit.

Officer Richard Oort of the Albuquerque Police Department is caught in the middle of this primal battle when he rescues a mysterious teenage girl from a trio of inhuman hunters. Recruited by the Lumina to serve as their latest paladin, Richard ends up fighting beside a handful of unlikely allies, including an adolescent sorceress, an enigmatic philanthropist, a sexy coroner, and a homeless god with multiple personalities.

The Old Ones and their mortal pawns are determined to destroy Richard–or subvert him to their cause. And they have all powers of magic and organized religion at their disposal. As the gates between the universes shred apart, it may be up to Richard to save humanity from the endless horror of a new Dark Age.

Provocative as The Golden Compass or the Illuminatus! trilogy, The Edge of Reason dramatizes the fundamental conflict behind the hot-button issues of today...and the future of the human race.

A novel of the eternal battle between science and superstition

I'm Richard Oort. I'm a cop.

Two months ago I had learned there were unseen worlds on the borders of our reality. Dimensions filled with horrific, nightmare creatures. Things that viewed humans as prey. Things that drove us to acts of unspeakable violence.

I had to fight them. To defend the people I loved, and to find out who I was. And am.

I'm still a cop. But now I'm also CEO of Lumina Enterprises, a mysterious, globe-girdling operation even I don't know the full extent of. Replacing the previous guy, who appears to have also been Prometheus, really and truly. Now Prometheus is bound, and the job of taking the fight to the next level is mine.

Because the horrors aren't over. And they'll use any human weakness they can get hold of. This is a fight for the world. For keeps.

What do you do when the Earth is under assault from monstrous creatures by alternate dimensions and you're the only person who can wield the weapon that can destroy them? That's the situation facing Richard Oort, hero of the Melinda Snodgrass's Edge of Dawn.

Lonely and overwhelmed after a series of terrifying, catastrophic global and personal events, Richard is still determined to save the world from the horrific Old Ones. He goes undercover in a Christian fundamentalist compound, playing house with an attractive FBI agent. At first, this only serves to increase his loneliness, missing his real family, but against all odds discovers another unique human who can use the paladin's weapon, one who might be able to join him and lighten the burden of responsibility. There's only one problem - Mosi is a nine year old Navajo girl.

Their enemies are trying to kill both Richard and Mosi-and have already killed Mosi's family. To keep her safe Richard becomes her guardian, but an error in judgement leads to disaster and betrayal, and now the odd pair will need to summon all their strength to survive the coming battle. From the American southwest to a secret society in Turkey, the paladin and his ward try to stay in front of their enemies, but the world is at stake-and time is running short.

Vianne di Rocancheil has been largely content to play the gawky provincial. As lady in waiting at the Court of Arquitaine, she studies her books, watches for intrigue, and shepherds her foolhardy Princesse safely through the glittering whirl. Court is a sometimes-unpleasant waltz, especially for the unwary, but Vianne treads its measured steps well.Unfortunately, the dance has changed. Treachery is afoot in gilded and velvet halls. A sorcerous conspiracy is unleashed, with blood, death, and warfare close behind. Her Princesse murdered and her own life in jeopardy, Vianne must flee, carrying the fate of her land with her--the Great Seal of Arquitaine, awake after its long sleep. Invasion threatens, civil war looms, and the conspiracy hunts for Vianne di Rocancheil, to kill or to use her against all she holds dear.

A life of dances, intrigues, and fashion has not prepared her for this. Nor has it prepared her for Tristan d'Arcenne, Captain of the King's Guard and player in the most dangerous games conspiracy can devise. Yet to save her country and avenge her Princesse, Vianne will become what she must, say what she should, and do whatever is required

A Queen can do no less.

RETURN TO EARTH?

The impossible happens! The Alphans receive a message from Earth. Humans in the Twenty-First Century have discovered how to contact Alpha and how to bring the space wanderers home through matter transmission. They have just thirty hours in which transmission is possible. The operation begins, but the first Alphans transported find themselves on Earth not in the future but in the past. And the warriors they meet intend to kill them. Can they get back to Alpha or ahead to the Twenty-First Century? Where in time and space can they find a safe haven?

The secret war among the Shadows of the Name is escalating, and there are hints that it is not so secret as the Shadows had thought. The scarred man, Donovan buigh, half honored guest and half prisoner, is carried deeper into the Confederation, all the way to Holy Terra herself, to help plan the rebel assault on the Secret City. If he does not soon remember the key information locked inside his fractured mind, his rebel friends may resort to torture to pull it from his subconscious.

Meanwhile, Bridget ban has organized a posse--a pack of Hounds--to go in pursuit of her kidnapped daughter, despite knowing that Ravn Olafsdottr kidnapped the harper precisely to lure Bridget ban in her wake. The Hound, the harper, and the scarred man wind deeper into a web of deceit and treachery certain of only one thing: nothing, absolutely nothing, is what it seems to be.

In The Edge, Kirk finds out how much of a toll the intense training classes and grueling schedule of academy life is taking on all the cadets, including himself. But some recruits seem better equipped to handle the challenges. Is there something that is giving them an edge? Kirk is determined to find out, especially since one of the cadets with a little something extra is his new girlfriend.

The original teleplay that became the classic Star Trek episode, with an expanded introductory essay by Harlan Ellison 'The City on the Edge of Forever' has been surrounded by controversy since the airing of an "eviscerated" version-which subsequently has been voted the most beloved episode in the series' history.

In its original form, 'The City on the Edge of Forever' won the 1966-67 Writers Guild of America Award for best teleplay. As aired, it won the 1967 Hugo Award (the only teleplay ever to do so!). 'The City on the Edge of Forever' is, at its most basic, a poignant love story. Ellison takes the reader on a breathtaking trip through space and time, from the future, all the way back to 1930s America. In this harrowing journey, Kirk and Spock race to apprehend a renegade criminal and restore the order of the universe. It is here that Kirk faces his ultimate dilemma: a choice between the universe-or his one true love.

This edition makes available this astonishing teleplay as Ellison intended it to be aired. The author's introductory essay (expanded by 15,000 words from the limited edition) reveals all of the details of what Ellison describes as a "fatally inept treatment" of his creative work. Was he unjustly edited, unjustly accused, and unjustly treated?

More than four hundred men and women serve aboard the USS Enterprise. While we are very familiar with Kirk and Spock, what do we know of those who live, and sometimes die, under their command? These are the best of the Federation, men and women of exceptional courage and skill. But not all of them can be trusted. Lt Jon Anderson is the newest security officer aboard the Enterprise, joining the crew at a time of mounting tension between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Previous battles have been inconclusive, but Starfleet Command fears that the Klingons are gearing up for a major offensive, and the Enterprise would be on the front line of an all-out intersellar war. Lt Anderson, however, has a secret: he is a Klingon infiltrator, assigned to sabotage Starfleet from within. His first mission: kill Captain James T Kirk.

Christmas, Hawkins, 1984. All Chief Jim Hopper wants is to enjoy a quiet first Christmas with Eleven, but his adopted daughter has other plans. Over Hopper's protests, she pulls a cardboard box marked "New York" out of the basement--and the tough questions begin. Why did Hopper leave Hawkins all those years ago? What does "Vietnam" mean? And why has he never talked about New York?

Although he'd rather face a horde of demogorgons than talk about his own past, Hopper knows that he can't deny the truth any longer. And so begins the story of the incident in New York--the last big case before everything changed....

Summer, New York City, 1977. Hopper is starting over after returning home from Vietnam. A young daughter, a caring wife, and a new beat as an NYPD detective make it easy to slip back into life as a civilian. But after shadowy federal agents suddenly show up and seize the files about a series of brutal, unsolved murders, Hopper takes matters into his own hands, risking everything to discover the truth.

Soon Hopper is undercover among New York's notorious street gangs. But just as he's about to crack the case, a blackout rolls across the boroughs, plunging Hopper into a darkness deeper than any he's faced before.

Livak is bored. Winter in the Kellarin colony has its amusements but she's pretty much exhausted them and is eager to be doing something else. When Ryshad and Temar tell her of their plan to reclaim the southern settlement established by the original colonists, Livak reckons she may as well go along too. What she doesn't reckon on are the pirates looting the midway islands. Meanwhile In Hadrumal, the wizards are increasingly enmeshed in their own politics . With magical storytelling, powerful characters and a richly detailed world, Juliet E. McKenna concludes her wonderful Tales of Einarinn with THE ASSASSIN'S EDGE.

Terra Incognita - the blank spaces on the map, past the edge of the known world, marked only by the words 'here be monsters.'Two nations at war, fighting for dominion over the world, pin their last hopes of ultimate victory on finding a land out of legend.Each will send its ships to brave the untamed waters, wild storms, sea serpents, and darker dangers unseen by any man. It is a perilous undertaking, but there will always be the impetuous, the brave, and the mad, willing to leave their homes to explore the unknown.Even unto the edge of the world...

Three weeks have passed since Cassandra Leung pledged her allegiance to ruthless pirate-queen Santa Elena and set free Bao, the sea monster Reckoner she'd been forced to train. The days as a pirate trainee are long and grueling, but it's not the physical pain that Cas dreads most. It's being forced to work with Swift, the pirate girl who broke her heart.

But Cas has even bigger problems when she discovers Boa is not the only a monster swimming free. Other Reckoners illegally sold to pirates have escaped their captors and are taking the NeoPacific by storm, attacking ships at random and ruining the ocean ecosystem. As a Reckoner trainer, Cas might be the only one who can stop them. But how can she take up arms against the creatures she used to care for and protect? Will Cas embrace the murky morals that life as a pirate brings or perish in the dark waters of the NeoPacific?

The exciting sequel to The Abyss Surrounds Us.

Years ago, a vast and mysterious object known as the Anomaly was discovered in deep space. All missions to explore and explain it failed.

Now, the Anomaly has almost reached Earth, threatening to swallow the planet whole. On an orbital research station, a team of scientists desperately search for a way to stop it or destroy it.

One of the crew, Ali, has lost faith in the mission. Following the death of a close friend, her only interest is returning to the ground -- to her young son. But strange events, both inside the station and in the void beyond, force Ali to pursue a new mystery. And as the truth starts to make itself clear, as deadly secrets are uncovered, Ali is forced to ask if she can trust anybody: her crewmates, her friends ... even herself.

The Broken is a place where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is nothing more than a fairy tale.

The Weird is a realm where blueblood aristocrats rule and the strength of your magic can change your destiny.

Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, the place between both worlds. A perilous existence indeed, made even more so by a flood of magic-hungry creatures bent on absolute destruction....

Cerise Mar and her clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands. When her parents vanish, her clan's long-time rivals are suspect. But all is not as it seems.

Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge-and Cerise's life....

Audrey Callahan left behind her life in the Edge, and she's determined to stay on the straight and narrow. But when her brother gets into hot water, the former thief takes on one last heist and finds herself matching wits with a jack of all trades...

Kaldar Mar-a gambler, lawyer, thief, and spy-expects his latest assignment tracking down a stolen item to be a piece of cake, until Audrey shows up. But when the item falls into the hands of a lethal criminal, Kaldar realizes that in order to finish the job, he's going to need Audrey's help....

The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale--and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny...

Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird. But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain. After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself. Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte's life is turned upside down once again.

Richard is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan--and he's on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird. So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them. The slavers' operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive...

What if a society banished its worst nightmare to the far edge of the solar system, destined to sip only dregs of light and struggle for the barest living. And yet, that life thrived? It grew and learned and became far more than you ever expected, and it wanted to return to the sun. What if it didn't share your moral compass in any way?

The Glittering Edge duology describes the clash of forces when an advanced society that has filled a solar system with flesh and blood life meets the near-AI's that it banished long ago. This is a story of love for the wild and natural life on a colony planet, complex adventure set in powerful space stations, and the desire to live completely whether you are made of flesh and bone or silicon and carbon fiber.

In Edge of Dark, meet ranger Charlie Windar and his adopted wild predator, and explore their home on a planet that has been raped and restored more than once. Meet Nona Hall, child of power and privilege from the greatest station in the system, the Diamond Deep. Meet Nona's best friend, a young woman named Chrystal who awakens in a robotic body....

When the post-human Next suddenly re-appear in a solar system that banished them, humans are threatened. Their reactions vary from disgust and anger to yearning to live forever like the powerful Next, who are casually building a new city out of starships in the heart of the re-wilded planet Lym. The first families of Lym must deal with being invaded while they grapple with their own inner fears.

Ranger Charlie Windar is desperate to save his beloved planet. The Next are building strange cities he never imagined, and other humans who want to destroy the Next are his worst enemies.

Ambassador Nona Hall strives to forge links between the powerful station she's from, The Diamond Deep, and the people of Lym. The formidable merchant Gunnar Ellensson appears to be up to no good, and as usual his motivations are suspect. Why is he sending ships to Lym, and what does he intend to do with them when he arrives?

The Shining Revolution threatens to undo everything by attacking the Next on Lym, and their desire to eradicate the post-humans is greater than their desire to save humanity's home. It is entirely possible that they will draw the wrath of the Next onto all of humanity.

In the meantime, the Next's motives remain inscrutable. Why are they here at all? What do they want? Why are they interested in the ancient past of a planet that has been ravaged and rebuilt at least once?

In this third volume of the Tales of Arthur series, Taliesin Glyndour, chief poet of Keltia, reveals the climax of the epic of Arthur, his sister Morgan, his beloved Gweniver, and the quest for the Graal -- and finally brings his own Triad to triumphant completion.

Rowan is visiting her aunt -- Winne the hedge witch -- in the Welsh countryside, to get back to nature and hone her skills, as well as taking a break from her annoying sisters and enjoying some peace and quiet. However, Rowan soon comes to realise that hedges are a serious business and this isn't quite the opportunity to rest and escape she thought it might be.

Not only that, but mysterious events around the town are causing panic in the secret magical community and cowans -- non-magical folk -- are starting to take notice.

Can Rowan hone her hedge craft, try to make some friends and solve the riddle of the mysterious goings-on, or is magic about to be revealed to the world... or at least Wales?

Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction.

Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots.

On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.

The Sacred Band of Stepsons is a fictional ancient cavalry unit created by Janet Morris and based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite strike force of paired lovers and friends that flourished during the fourth century BCE in ancient Greece, where sexuality was a behavior, not an identity.

The Sacred Band of Stepsons series of fantasy novels and stories take place in a myth-like milieu that mixes historical places such as Nisibis, Mygdonia and Chaeronea; warriors such as Theagenes (commander of the Theban Sacred Band at Chaeronea); gods such as Enlil, Maat and Harmonia; philosophers such as Heraclitus and Thales; cavalry tactics and customs such as homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece with those that exist only in fantasy. The exploits of the Stepsons are chronicled in eleven short stories and eight novels (as of 2010). In a fantasy context, this series explores the difficulties facing war-fighters in personal relationships and the enduring questions surrounding the military's historical mixing of homosexuals and heterosexuals in combat.

When Violeta Graceling and her younger brother Arien arrive at the haunted Lakesedge estate, they expect to find a monster. Leta knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.

As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn... Now, to save Rowan--and herself--Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.

The curse that haunted Lakesedge Estate has been broken, but at great cost. Violeta Graceling has sacrificed herself to end the Corruption.

To escape death, Leta makes a desperate bargain with the Lord Under, one that sees her living at his side in the land of the dead. And though he claims to have given her all he promised, Leta knows this world of souls and mists hides many secrets.

When she discovers she is still bound to Rowan, Leta goes to drastic lengths to reforge their connection. But her search for answers, and a path back home, will see her drawn into even more dangerous bargains, and struggling to resist the allure of a new, dark, power in Forestfall by Lyndall Clipstone.