Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2009. The story can also be found in the anthologies Clarkesworld: Year Three (2013), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke, and Aliens: Recent Encounters (2013), edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, April 2013.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

What will you find within these pages? A photographer stumbles on a wounded troll, and attempts to nurse it back to health. A lonely girl discovers the flames in the family smithy are tied to an ancient portal between worlds. A modern woman excavates something sickening from the shower drain...and falls in love. A peculiar swamp holds restorative powers, for its avian and human inhabitants alike.

It Came From the North offers a diverse selection of fifteen fantastical tales from some of Finland's most respected writers, alongside up-and-coming talents who are redefining the rules of contemporary literature.

With stories by Carita Forsgren, Mari Saario, Johanna Sinisalo, Hannu Rajaniemi, Anne Leinonen, Marko Hautala, Maarit Verronen, Olli Jalonen, Leena Likitalo, Tuomas Kilpi, Tiina Raevaara, Jyrki Vainonen, Sari Peltoniemi, Leena Krohn, and Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen--author of the critically acclaimed The Rabbit Back Literature Society.

A dark future finds humanity imprisoned. Invaders took away our story and rewrote everything: all minds, all lives, all history. Everyone forgot. How could this happen?

But in this now, Lolo must reclaim her stolen words -- her stolen family -- from the silent Caretakers. She must call out to all rapt children, "This world is hell. Let's run." When the words needed are forgotten, lying unknown, when memories flit like smoke, how can she recover what is lost? She must. To live in this nightmare without a story would be too much to bear.

Never Now Always is a surreal world where memory and family aren't taken for granted -- even if they are only dreams. It explores how the stories we tell about ourselves shape us and those around us. It's a weird sci-fi search for meaning, an apocalyptic murder mystery, a chilling look at the thin line between memory and dream, and it's the drive to find family. It's a twisting mix of The Wizard of Oz, Dark City, and Jacob's Ladder.

It takes place in a future in which something's gone terribly wrong. But Lolo's memories aren't what they used to be. What's real? What's dream? She can't say, but she's sure there used to be more. Who are these Caretakers? Where's her family, her sister? What happened to the world? So many questions. Time to find answers.

Steampunk, the retro-futuristic cultural movement, has become a substantial and permanent genre in the worlds of fantasy and science fiction. A large part of its appeal is that, at its core, Steampunk is about doing it yourself: building on the past while also innovating and creating something original. VanderMeer's latest book offers practical and inspirational guidance for readers to find their individual path into this realm. Including sections on art, fashion, architecture, crafts, music, performance, and storytelling, The Steampunk User's Manual provides a conceptual how-to guide that motivates and awes both the armchair enthusiast and the committed creator. Examples range from the utterly doable to the completely over-the-top, encouraging participation and imagination at all levels.