Search Worlds Without End

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Justine Larbalestier
• Diamond Shell - short story
• Number 3 Raw Place - (2004) - short story
• Hush - short story
• Seven Ages of the Protagonist - (2008) - short story
• Silicon Cast - (2002) - short story
• Stone by Stone - (2003) - short story
• Pale Dark Soldier - (2008) - short story
• Coming Up for Air - short story
• Watertight Lies - (2008) - short story
• The Distance Keeper - (2003) - short story
• Six Suicides - short story
• Life's Work - (2002) - short story
• The Tailor of Time - (2008) - short story
• King of All and the Metal Sentinel - (2002) - short story
• Problems of Light and Dark - short story
• The First and Final Game - (2000) - short story
• Stealing Free - (2006) - short story
• Summa Seltzer Missive - (2005) - short story
• The Razor Salesman - (2002) - short story
• The Dying Light - (2006) - short story
• This Time, Longing - short story
• Afterword - essay

On a far, frozen desert world, Muir the pilot discovers an ancient artefact in the ice. She sees a mermaid at first, but later comes to wonder if it is Ningyo, a fish god from her homeland in Japan. A god that brings misfortune and storm. A god that -- by all means possible -- should be returned to the sea.

The rest of Base Station Un see something else. Bayoumi the lab rat sees Sekhmet the lioness goddess, daughter of the sun god. Partholon the creep finds in its shape a 'good, old-fashioned cruxifix'. But all of them want to possess it. All of them want it for themselves.

Hate superheroes?
Yeah. They probably hate you, too.

'There are two kinds of people with lawyers on tap, Mr Grey. The powerful and the corrupt.'
'Thank you.'
'For implying you're powerful?'
'For imagining those are two different groups.'

From Crawford Award nominee Deborah Biancotti comes this sinister short story suite, a pocketbook police procedural, set in a world where the victories are
only relative, and the defeats are absolute. Bad Power celebrates the worst kind of powers both supernatural and otherwise, in the interlinked tales of five people - and how far they'll go.

If you like Haven and Heroes, you'll love Bad Power.

X-Men meets Heroes when New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti to create a sizzling new series filled with action and adventure.

Don't call them heroes.

But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart.

Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He's got a voice inside him that'll say whatever you want to hear, whether it's true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn't--like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren't exactly best friends these days.

Enter Nate, a.k.a. Bellwether, the group's "glorious leader." After Scam's SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the recue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. At the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.

Filled with high-stakes action and drama, Zeroes unites three powerhouse authors for the opening installment of a thrilling new series.

X-Men meets Heroes when New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti in the second book of an explosive new trilogy about a group of teens with amazing abilities.

They thought they'd already faced their toughest fight. But there's no relaxing for the reunited Zeroes.

These six teens with unique abilities have taken on bank robbers, drug dealers and mobsters. Now they're trying to lay low so they can get their new illegal nightclub off the ground.

But the quiet doesn't last long when two strangers come to town, bringing with them a whole different kind of crowd-based chaos. And hot on their tails is a crowd-power even more dangerous and sinister.

Up against these new enemies, every Zero is under threat. Mob is crippled by the killing-crowd buzz--is she really evil at her core? Flicker is forced to watch the worst things a crowd can do. Crash's conscience--and her heart--get a workout. Anon and Scam must both put family loyalties on the line for the sake of survival. And Bellwether's glorious-leader mojo deserts him.

Who's left to lead the Zeroes into battle against a new, murderous army?

The Zeroes are in disarray. One of them has vanished into thin air. One of them is in prison. The rest of them are on the most-wanted list. And something big is brewing.

After defeating Swarm in a breath-taking stand-off, Nate has been arrested for his murder. In prison and isolated, he can't use his powers of influence at all. Flicker, Chizara, Kelsie and Ethan are on the run and in hiding from the FBI who believe the Cambria Five are domestic terrorists. And Agent Phan and the FBI have a secret weapon up their sleeve - a teenager with a superpower that the Zeroes haven't encountered yet.

Meanwhile, Sonia Sonic and her growing band of weird-hunters are tracking inexplicable events across the country - and their investigations lead them to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, where the celebrating crowds promise enormous power to anyone who can channel it. Time is running out for the Zeroes, but they must learn to trust each other again and combine their powers for good - to avert the looming disaster...