Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, December 2017. It can also be found in the anthology Mythic Journeys (2019), edited by Paula Guran.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

A speculative fiction anthology of diverse, challenging stories about gender and artificial intelligence.

From Pygmalion and Galatea to Frankenstein, Ex Machina and Person of Interest, the fictional landscape so often frames cisgender men as the creators of artificial life, leading to the same kinds of stories being told over and over. We want to bring some genuine revolution to the way that artificial intelligence stories are told, and how they intersect with gender identity, parenthood, sexuality, war, and the future of our species. How can we interrogate the gendered assumptions around the making of robots compared with the making of babies? Can computers learn to speak in a code beyond the (gender) binary?

If necessity is the mother of invention, what exciting AI might come to exist in the hands of a more diverse range of innovators?

Table of Contents:

• Mother, Mother, Will You Play with Me? - short story by Seanan McGuire
• Junkyard Kraken - short story by D. K. Mok
• An Errant Holy Spark - short story by Bogi Takács
• The Goose Hair of One Thousand Miles - short story by Stephanie Lai
• The Art of Broken Things - short story by Joanne Anderton
• Sexy Robot Heroes - short story by Sandra McDonald
• A Robot Like Me - short story by Lee Cope
• New Berth - short story by Elizabeth Fitzgerald
• Fata Morgana - short story by Cat Sparks
• Bright Shores - short story by Rosaleen Love
• Quantifying Trust - short story by John Chu
• Reflecting on Indigenous Worlds, Indigenous Futurisms and Artificial Intelligence - (2017) - essay by Ambelin Kwaymullina
• Sugar Ricochets to Other Forms - short story by Octavia Cade
• Kill Screen - short story by E. C. Myers
• Living Proof - short story by Nisi Shawl
• S'elfie - short story by Justina Robson
• Knitting Day - short story by Jen White
• The Revivalist - short story by Kaaron Warren
• Arguing with People on the Internet - short story by E. H. Mann
• Rini's God - short story by Soumya Sundar Mukherjee
• Tidefall - short story by Meryl Stenhouse
• The Ghost Helmet - short story by Lev Mirov

Dio Taurus falls into the "road-trip" of a lifetime alongside three dangerous assassins on the magical River Divine, where anything is possible.

From Granny Weatherwax to Susan Death and beyond...

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is an epic, groundbreaking work of fantasy often hailed for its originality, humour and deep, layered intelligence. But what about the women?

Award-winning author & pop culture critic Tansy Rayner Roberts looks at the portrayal of female characters in many of Pratchett's best loved books, from the early years of fantasy satire and sexy lamps to the more complex, iconic characters of the witches, werewolves, dwarves and queens.

Contains 10 essays about gender and the Discworld, including "Socks, Lies & the Monstrous Regiment" which is exclusive to this collection.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 14, January-February 2017.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

It's time to take history seriously.

The cats and humans of Chronos College know that time travel is the best job in the world, and nothing bad can ever happen to them in the past... except that one time they lost a traveller. And that other time they lost a cat.

Now they have a chance to make up for past mistakes by rescuing a long lost legend. If only they could convince Professor Boswell, the grumpiest marmalade tabby of all time, to join their mission to the Swinging Sixties, and save one of their own. (Plus pick up a missing piece or two of lost media along the way.)

Join Ruthven, Boswell, Monterey and Lovelace on the most chaotic time travel adventure of their lives. Featuring special appearances by Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, famous actress Fleur Shropshire, and the even more famous house where they filmed TV show Cramberleigh between 1964-1986.

Time of the Cat is a cozy sci-fi romp through the centuries, featuring academic endnotes, epic friendships, and far more cat hair than is strictly necessary. If you'd rather use time travel to steal the pens of famous writers of history than stop to fill in the proper paperwork, then this is the novel for you.

From the award-winning author of Cookie Cutter Superhero and Kid Dark Against the Machinecomes a brand new novella about girl reporters, superheroes, and interdimensional travel

In a world of superheroes, supervillains, and a machine that can create them all, millennial vlogger and girl reporter Friday Valentina has no shortage of material to cover. Every lottery cycle, a new superhero is created and quite literally steps into the shoes of the hero before them--displacing the previous hero. While Fry may not be super-powered herself, she understands the power of legacy: her mother is none other than the infamous reporter Tina Valentina, renowned worldwide for her legendary interviews with the True Blue Aussie Beaut Superheroes and her tendency to go to extraordinary lengths to get her story.

This time, Tina Valentina may have ventured too far. Alongside Australia's greatest superheroes--including the powerful Astra, dazzling Solar, and The Dark in his full brooding glory--Friday will go to another dimension in the hopes of finding her mother, saving the day, maybe even getting the story of a lifetime out of the adventure. (And possibly a new girlfriend, too.)

She almost missed the sight of a naked youth falling out of the sky. He was long and lean and muscled ... He was also completely off his face. A war is being fought in the skies over the city of Aufleur. No one sees the battles. No one knows how close they come to destruction every time the sun sets. During daylight, all is well, but when nox falls and the sky turns bright, someone has to step up and lead the Creature Court into battle. Twelve years ago, Garnet kissed Velody and stole her magic. Five years ago, he betrayed Ashiol, and took his powers by force. But now the Creature Court is at a crossroads ... they need a Power and Majesty who won't give up or lose themselves in madness ...

She could hear that laughter again, and for a moment Velody was confused, not sure which dead man was mocking her.

Velody now holds the leadership of the Creature Court. The unsteady alliances within the Court are beginning to fracture, as a series of murders and disappearances throw suspicion on one of their own. Ashiol finds Aufleur's many festivals frivolous, until a major one is cancelled. Unease grows. It seems nothing can save the city from a massacre ... nothing but the ultimate sacrifice from one of the Creature Kings.

'Raze it to the ground ... No amount of ritual can return fortune to this place.'

The Creature Court are at war with each other.

Three kings fight bitterly for power and dominance over Aufleur and the streets run red with blood. Some believe that Velody has betrayed them as a new Power and Majesty rises, one who has no hesitation in torturing or killing those he should protect.

At Saturnalia, the fate of the city will be decided.

If Velody cannot persuade Ashiol to trust her again, Aufleur will fall.

Kassa Daggersharp has just heard word that her dad's dead and she's heir to a vast silver treasure-trove from the famous Splashdance pirate ship.

But in grand pirate tradition, the last will and testament of Vicious Bigbeard Daggersharp doesn't actually say where the silver is. And to add to Kassa's woes, everyone - from legendary royal champion and pin-up boy Aragon Silversword to the the Emperor Lady Talle - seems to be trying to find and claim the silver for themselves.

This hilarious story of the race for the Splashdance silver is about pirates and politics, treasure and traitors, epic adventures, magical mysteries, nearly-true-love and things which glint in the night.

Liquid Gold - the most seductively dangerous substance in the history of the cosmos - has just been discovered in the Mocklore Empire. But no sooner does its creator, Mistress Opia, realise its breathtaking capacity to manipulate time than Sparrow, the troll-raised mercenary, steals it away.

With the Liquid Gold unleashed, nothing will ever be the same again, certainly not for Kassa Daggersharp, who is unexpectedly killed by a rampaging trinket. As the Underworld's latest client, Kassa is in a position to notice that something is terribly wrong with the afterlife - and everywhere else.

Meanwhile, an escaping Sparrow teams up with Daggar, a profit-scoundrel doing his best to be unscrupulous. But neither are prepared for the repercussions of tampering with the Liquid Gold.

Tansy Rayner Roberts' hilarious sequel to 'Splashdance Silver' has a full complement of dysfunctional gods, dastardly villains and butt-kicking heroines.

Because sometimes, it takes cleavage and big skirts to save the world from those crazy teenagers.

Kassa Daggersharp has been a pirate, a witch, a menace to public safety, a villain, a hero and a legend. These days, she lectures first year students on the dangers of magic, at the Polyhedrotechnical in Cluft.

Egg Friefriedsson is Kassa's teenage cousin, a lapsed Axgaard warrior who would rather stay in his room and draw comics all day than hang out with his friends. If only comics had been invented.

Aragon Silversword is missing, presumed dead.

All the adventures are over. It's time to get on with being a grownup. But when Egg's drawings come to life, including an evil dark city full of villains and monsters, everyone starts to lose their grip on reality. Even the flying sheep.

Kassa and Egg are not sure who are the heroes and who are the villains anymore, but someone has to step up to save Mocklore, one last time.

True love isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Happy endings don't come cheap.

All that magic is probably going to kill you.

You really can have too much black velvet.

Thousands of years ago, Julia Agrippina wrote the true history of her family, the Caesars. The document was lost, or destroyed, almost immediately. (It included more monsters than you might think.)

Hundreds of years ago, Fanny and Mary ran away from London with a debauched poet and his sister. (If it was the poet you are thinking of, the story would have ended far more happily, and with fewer people having their throats bitten out.)

Sometime in the near future, a community will live in a replica Roman city built in the Australian bush. It's a sight to behold. (Shame about the manticores.)

Further in the future, the last man who guards the secret history of the world will discover that the past has a way of coming around to bite you. (He didn't even know she had a thing for pointy teeth.)

The world is in greater danger than you ever suspected. Women named Julia are stronger than they appear. Don't let your little brother make out with silver-eyed blondes. Immortal heroes really don't fancy teenage girls. When love dies, there's still opera. Family is everything. Monsters are everywhere. Yes, you do have to wear the damned toga.

History is not what you think it is.

LOVE AND ROMANPUNK.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Helen Merrick
• Julia Agrippina's Secret Family Bestiary
• Lamia Victoriana
• The Patrician
• Last of the Romanpunks
• Afterword