Search Worlds Without End

One of the loveliest riddles of Austrian literature is finally available in English translation: Gert Jonke's 1982 novel, Awakening to the Great Sleep War, is an expedition through a world in constant nervous motion, where reality is rapidly fraying--flags refuse to stick to their poles, lids sidle off of their pots, tram tracks shake their stops away like fleas, and books abandon libraries in droves. Our cicerone on this journey through the possible (and impossible) is an "acoustical decorator" by the name of Burgmüller--a poetical gentleman, the lover of three women, able to communicate with birds, and at least as philosophically minded as his author: "Everything has suddenly become so transparent that one can't see through anything anymore." This enormously comic--and equally melancholic--tale is perhaps Jonke's masterwork.

This selection of short stories offers a return journey through the future as it used to be. Time speeds backwards to the 1870s - to the alpha point of modern futuristic fiction - the opening years of that enchanted period before the First World War when Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and many able writers delighted readers from Sydney to Seattle with their most original revelations of things-to-come. In all their anticipations, the dominant factor was the recognition that the new industrial societies would continue to evolve in obedience to the rate of change. One major event that caused all to think furiously about the future was the Franco-German War of 1870. The new weapons and the new methods of army organization had shown that the conduct of warfare was changing; and, in response to that perception of change, a new form of fiction took on the task of describing the conduct of the war-to-come.

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction: The Paper Warriors and Their Fights of Fantasy - (1995) - essay by I. F. Clarke
• 27 - The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer - (1871) - novella by George Tomkyns Chesney
• 74 - The Battle of Dorking - (1871) - poem by Anonymous
• 77 - Der Ruhm, or, The Wreck of German Unity. The Narrative of a Brandenburger Hauptmann - (1871) - shortstory by Anonymous
• 95 - War in the Twentieth Century - [Le vingtième siècle / The Twentieth Century - 2] - (1995) - shortstory by Albert Robida (trans. of La Guerre au vingtième siècle 1887)
• 113 - The Taking of Dover (excerpt) - (1888) - shortfiction by Horace Francis Lester
• 139 - In a Conning Tower: How I Took HMS Majestic Into Action - (1888) - novelette by Hugh Oakley Arnold-Foster
• 162 - The Stricken Nation (excerpt) - (1890) - shortfiction by Hugh Grattan Donnelly
• 193 - The Raid of Le Vengeur - (1901) - shortstory by George Griffith
• 210 - The Green Curve - (1909) - novelette by Ole-Luk-Oie [as by Ernest Swinton ]
• 234 - The Trenches - (1908) - shortstory by C. E. Vickers
• 251 - The Secret of the Army Aeroplane - (1909) - shortstory by A. A. Milne
• 257 - The Unparalleled Invasion - (1910) - shortstory by Jack London
• 271 - A Vision of the Future - (1912) - shortstory by Gustaf Janson
• 281 - Planes! - (1913) - shortstory by F. Britten Austin [as by Frederick Britten Austin ]
• 293 - Danger!: Being the Log of Captain John Sirius - (1914) - novelette by Arthur Conan Doyle (variant of Danger!)
• 321 - Frankreichs Ende im Jahr 19?? (excerpt) - (1995) - novelette by Adolf Sommerfeld

In the second of a series of anthologies on future war stories, the leading specialist in the field presents a selection of prophetic tales about the conflict-to-come between the British and the Germans, tales which had immense influence in the quarter-century before the First World War. An extensive range of contemporary illustrations is included.

Contents:

• 1 - 'Horribly Stuffed with Epithets of War' - essay by I. F. Clarke
• 29 - The Great War of 198- (excerpt) - (1893) - shortfiction by Colonel J. F. Maurice, R. A. and Rear-Admiral P. Colomb and Captain F. N. Maude and Archibald Forbes and Charles Lowe and D. Christie Murray and F. Scudamore
• 72 - The Final War (excerpt) - (1896) - shortfiction by Louis Tracy
• 80 - The Spies of the Wight (excerpt) - (1899) - shortfiction by Headon Hill
• 87 - Die Abrechnung mit England (excerpt) - (1900) - shortfiction by Karl Eisenhart
• 102 - The Invaders (excerpt) - (1901) - shortfiction by Louis Tracy
• 108 - The Enemy in Our Midst (excerpt) - (1903) - shortfiction by Walter Wood
• 116 - The Riddle of the Sands (excerpt) - (1903) - shortfiction by Erskine Childers
• 129 - A New Trafalgar (excerpt) - (1902) - shortfiction by A. C. Curtis
• 139 - The Invasion of 1910 (excerpt) - (1906) - shortfiction by William Le Queux
• 152 - When the Eagle Flies Seaward (excerpt) - (1907) - shortfiction by Patrick Vaux and Lionel Yexley
• 167 - The Death Trap (excerpt) - (1907) - shortfiction by Robert W. Cole (variant of The Death Trap (Extract)) [as by Robert William Cole ]
• 178 - The Child's Guide to Knowledge - (1909) - shortstory by Anonymous
• 183 - The Coming Conquest of England (excerpt) - (1906) - shortfiction by August Niemann
• 201 - Armageddon 190- (excerpt) - (1907) - shortfiction by Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff [as by Seestern ]
• 225 - Die 'Offensiv-Invasion' gegen England (excerpt) - (1907) - shortfiction by Karl Bliebtreu
• 233 - Berlin-Bagdad: Das Deutsche Weltreich im Zeitalter der Luftschifffahrt, 1910-1931 (excerpt) - (1907) - shortfiction by Rudolf Martin
• 249 - The Real Le Queux (excerpt) - (1938) - shortfiction by N. St. Barbe Sladen
• 256 - Before the Lights Went Out (excerpt) - (1945) - shortfiction by Esmé Wingfield-Stratford
• 256 - Bouquets for Fleet Street (excerpt) - (1951) - shortfiction by Bernard Falk
• 258 - About German Spies - (1910) - essay by Charles Lowe
• 276 - The Essence of Parliament - (1908) - shortstory by Anonymous
• 278 - Les Fictions guerrières anglaises - (1910) - essay by Louis C.
• 281 - Incidents of the Coming Invasion of England (cartoon) - (1910) - interior artwork by W. Heath Robinson
• 293 - Die Invasion Englands in englischer Belechtung - (1908) - essay by Anonymous
• 296 - Vademecum für Phantasiestrategen - (1908) - essay by Carl Siwinna
• 313 - The Swoop! or, How Clarence Saved England (excerpt) - (1909) - shortfiction by P. G. Wodehouse
• 326 - The Boy Galloper (excerpt) - (1903) - shortfiction by L. James
• 339 - The Message (excerpt) - (1907) - shortfiction by A. J. Dawson
• 356 - When England Slept - (1909) - shortstory by Capt. H. Curties
• 363 - The North Sea Bubble - (1906) - shortstory by Ernest Oldmeadow
• 368 - When William Came (excerpt) - (1913) - shortfiction by Saki
• 377 - The Cliffs - (1909) - poem by Charles Doughty
• 381 - The Battle of the North Sea (excerpt) - (1912) - shortfiction by Rear Admiral Eardley-Wilmot
• 385 - 'Sink, Burn, Destroy': Der Schlag gegen Deutschland (excerpt) - (1905) - shortfiction by Anonymous
• 390 - The Germans in Hampton Court (excerpt) - (1904) - shortfiction by August Niemann
• 398 - 100 Jahre deutsche Zukunft (excerpt) - (1913) - shortfiction by Max Heinrichka
• 408 - Hindenburgs Einmarsch in London (excerpt) - (1915) - shortfiction by Paul Georg Münch
• 413 - America Fallen (excerpt) - (1915) - shortfiction by J. Bernard Walker
• 413 - Epilogue: Meanwhile, Across the Atlantic - essay by I. F. Clarke
• 413 - Introduction (America Fallen by J. Bernard Walker) - (1915) - essay by George Haven Putnam
• 422 - Notes (The Great War with Germany, 1890-1914) - essay by I. F. Clarke

The acclaimed author of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles launches a powerful new trilogy about a prince's desperate quest for a sorcerous library to save his people.

Fire. Wind. Pestilence. Earthquake. Drought. Lightning. These are the six Decimates, wielded by sorcerers for both good and evil.

But a seventh Decimate exists--the most devastating one of all...

For centuries, the realms of Belleger and Amika have been at war, with sorcerers from both sides harnessing the Decimates to rain blood and pain upon their enemy. But somehow, in some way, the Amikans have discovered and invoked a seventh Decimate, one that strips all lesser sorcery of its power. And now the Bellegerins stand defenseless.

Prince Bifalt, eldest son of the Bellegerin King, would like to see the world wiped free of sorcerers. But it is he who is charged with finding the repository of all of their knowledge, to locate the book of the seventh Decimate--and reverse the fate of his land.

All hope rests with Prince Bifalt. But the legendary library, which may or may not exist, lies beyond an unforgiving desert and treacherous mountains--and beyond the borders of his own experience. Wracked by hunger and fatigue, sacrificing loyal men along the way, Prince Bifalt will discover that there is a game being played by those far more powerful than he could ever imagine. And that he is nothing but a pawn...

Stephen R. Donaldson, the New York Times bestselling author of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, returns to the world of his Great God's War fantasy epic as two kingdoms--united by force--prepare to be challenged by a merciless enemy...

It has been twenty years since Prince Bifalt of Belleger discovered the Last Repository and the sorcerous knowledge hidden there. At the behest of the repository's magisters, and in return for the restoration of sorcery to both kingdoms, the realms of Belleger and Amika ceased generations of war. Their alliance was sealed with the marriage of Bifalt to Estie, the crown princess of Amika. But the peace--and their marriage--has been uneasy.

Now the terrible war that King Bifalt and Queen Estie feared is coming. An ancient enemy has discovered the location of the Last Repository, and a mighty horde of dark forces is massing to attack the library and take the magical knowledge it guards. That horde will slaughter every man, woman, and child in its path, destroying both Belleger and Amika along the way.

With their alliance undermined by lingering hostility and conspiracies threatening, it will take all of the monarchs' strength and will to inspire their kingdoms to become one to defend their land, or all is lost....

Two kingdoms, ancient enemies, must stand alone against an implacable invader...

They are coming.

The kingdoms of Belleger and Amika had been fighting for generations. But then they learned of a terrible threat moving through them to destroy the Last Repository, an immense hidden library. To face this greater enemy, King Bifalt of Belleger and Queen Estie of Amika allied their lands and prepared for war.

They are at the door.

Now the time of preparation is over. Black ships and sorcery test the cannon that defend the Bay of Lights. Treachery and betrayal threaten the kingdoms. The priests of the Great God Rile sow dissent. And Estie rides for the Last Repository, desperate to enlist the help of their Magisters--and to understand the nature of her own magical gift.

They are here.

Bifalt hates sorcery as much as he loves Estie, and the discovery that she could become a Magister shatters him. But he must rally and fight. Belleger and Amika are all that stand between the Great God's forces and his ultimate goal: the destruction of the Last Repository and its treasure of knowledge.

When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different--that war itself would never be the same again. For this was to be a protracted, global conflict waged with new and chillingly efficient innovations--the machine gun, the airplane, poison gas, and trench warfare.

Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation...

The year is 1915, and the world is convulsing. Though the Confederacy has defeated its northern enemy twice, this time the United States has allied with the Kaiser. In the South, the freed slaves, fueled by Marxist rhetoric and the bitterness of a racist nation, take up the weapons of the Red rebellion. Despite these advantages, the United States remains pinned between Canada and the Confederate States of America, so the bloody conflict continues and grows. Both presidents--Theodore Roosevelt of the Union and staunch Confederate Woodrow Wilson--are stubbornly determined to lead their nations to victory, at any cost. . .

Is it the war to end all wars--or war without end? What began as a conflict in Europe, when Germany unleashed a lightning assault on its enemies, soon spreads to North America, as a long-simmering hatred between two independent nations explodes in bloody combat. Twice in fifty years the Confederate States of America had humiliated their northern neighbor. Now revenge may at last be at hand.

Into this vast, seething cauldron plunges a new generation of weaponry changing the shape of war and the balance of power. While the Confederate States are distracted by an insurgency of African Americans who dream of establishing their own socialist republic, the United States are free to bring their military and industrial might directly to bear--and to unleash the most horrific armored assault the world has ever seen. Victory is at hand. But at a price that may be worse than war itself...