Search Worlds Without End

They were a strange lot, the residents at Mrs. Mumble's boardinghouse -- her name wasn't "mumble," but that was what people did when they tried to pronounce it -- and you might call the place a miniature United Nations. There was Yusef Afifi, Afghan, an importer; Fritz Holtzer, advertising model; Johnny Jones, Welshman; Oonalak, an Alaskan Eskimo; Chien Wang, a refugee from Hong Kong; a beautiful Ethiopian woman, whom they all called Sheba; an equally lovely girl, Eufemia Rosario, who claimed to be a full-blooded Mohawk Indian, and Irish Dan Gorman, science fiction and fantasy illustrator and artist. They all got along in reasonable harmony until the night of Honey Tucci's party.

The Tucci girl knew all of them, and they were all invited. Dan Gorman knew that la Tucci expected something kookie from him because of his occupation, so he stopped in at a place called Lew's Joke Shop to see if he could find something unusual to bring. A tall, scrawny kid behind the counter asked, "Help you?" and then was sent...

Brothers Macbeth and Drederick Tooms should have it made as fair-haired scions of an impossibly rich and powerful family of industrialists. Alas, life is complicated in mid-1950s USA when you're child heirs to the throne of Sword Enterprises, a corporation that has enshrined Machiavelli's The Prince as its operating manual and whose patriarch believes, Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds, would be a swell company logo.

Consider also those long, cruel winters at the Mountain Leopard boarding school for assassins in the Himalayas, or that Dad may be a supervillain, while an uncle occasionally slaughters his nephews and nieces for sport; and the space flight research division of Sword Enterprises "accidentally" sent a probe through a wormhole into outer darkness and contacted an alien god. Now a bloodthirsty cult and an equally vicious rival firm suspect the Tooms boys know something and will spare no expense, nor innocent life, to get their claws on them.

Between the machinations of the disciples of black gods and good old corporate skullduggery, it's winding up to be a hell of a summer vacation for the lads.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, January 2018.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

It seemed like a good idea; even a noble experiment. But the outcome was sheer hell.

When the Balduin brothers escaped from the tedium of the human hive of Atlanta, Georgia, they had a mission. They were to voyage to the planet Trope. Contact a tribe there known as the Ouemartsee. And transport it to Glaparca for a useful purpose.

But suddenly the Balduin brothers discovered that they were in the slavetrade, and that the Ouemartsee had made one of them a God...

This is a complete rewrite of Bishop's 1975 novel A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire.

On a secret mission of surveillance and experimentation the ship Dharmakaya had come. What its travelers found was a ruling race of humanoids, the Tropiards, their feelings reflected in their hard, glowing eyes of crystal.

But there were beings below these leaders, beings who threatened even as they enticed, a mysterious, mystical subculture known as the Sh'gaidu. To win them as immigrants to a new world was the goal -- but the ruling race had other goals, other motives hidden behind the crystal stare of their eyes of fire.

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1975, The story can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year #5 (1976), edited by Terry Carr.

A fantasy about a woman bequeathed an odd gift by a former lover who broke up with her, then died--his handwriting. Why did he do this and what does it mean? Find out in Jonathan Carroll's Played Your Eyes.

The full story can be read for free at Tor.com.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2003) - essay by Stanley Schmidt
• The Astronaut from Wyoming - (1999) - novella by Jerry Oltion and Adam-Troy Castro
• If You Wish Upon a Star... - (1988) - shortstory by Jerry Oltion
• Crisis on Ward H! - (1998) - shortstory by Adam-Troy Castro
• Suicide - (1990) - novelette by Jerry Oltion (variant of Suicide by UFO)
• Jesus Used a Paper Cup - (1994) - shortstory by Adam-Troy Castro
• Unfamiliar, Foreign, Outré - (1995) - shortstory by Jerry Oltion
• The Adventure of the Garrulous Codger - (2003) - shortstory by Adam-Troy Castro

Cold sleep had given Earth the stars, but at what price?

Filled with the hope of a new life on a new world, many a voyager had entered the cryo-containers aboard the titanic starships sent to populate Jayvee 9, Earth's lone far-flung colony. For some that hope was fulfilled, for others there was no awakening at journey's end. And for those like ex-marshal Walker, a man permanently scarred by the madness and loneliness of seven years of cold sleep, the sole way to find peace was in space itself, flying the starways as a solitary mining pilot.

With the empathic alien Nis as his only companion, Walker combed the giant asteroid rings near Jayvee, searching for ore and returning periodically to his base at Hephaestus Station. It might not have been much of a life, but for Walker it was enough.

But the discovery of a massive derelict, the sleeper-ship E.S.S. Republic, found floating in the debris of Ring Belt 3 signaled an end to Walker's personal seclusion. Assigned to investigate this wreck which had been lost for more than a century, Walker and a team of anthropologists led by the renowned Dr. Elaine Bartlett, were about to confront an alien presence far more terrifying than Walker's most shocking cold-sleep nightmares!

Tiptree nominated novella. Originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January-February 2014. Later anthologized in Paula Guran's The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2015.

Taking a delightful departure from his more common urban-fantasy settings, this epic tale from acclaimed author Charles de Lint weaves elements of Celtic and Nordic mythology while bringing sword and sorcery to the forefront. Summer magic is waning in the Green Isles, and the evil Icelord is encasing the lands in a permanent frost while coastal towns are pillaged by snake ships. Mounting one last defense against the onslaught, a mysterious old wizard instructs his inexperienced apprentice in the art of shape-changing. Mercilessly pursued by the Icelord's army, this newfound mage gathers allies-a seemingly ordinary young woman and her protective adoptive family-and they flee north in a desperate race to awaken the Summerlord. Time is running short for the Summerborn, especially when a treacherous family betrayal is discovered.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novelette.

A lonely gambler puts his last dollar into a slot machine which has been possessed by the soul of a gold-digging woman.

It originally appeared in Knight, May 1967. The story can be found in the anthologies:

• Best SF: 1967, edited by Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss
• Nebula Award Stories Three (1968), edited by Roger Zelazny
• The Fantasy Hall of Fame (1983) edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg

It is included in the collections:

• I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream (1967)
• Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods (1975)
• The Essential Ellison: A 35-Year Retrospective (1987)

Future Tense Fiction is a collection of electrifying original stories from a veritable who's-who of authors working in speculative literature and science fiction today, pointing the way forward to the fiction of tomorrow.

A disease surveillance robot whose social programming gets put to the test. A future in which everyone receives universal basic income--but it's still not enough. A futuristic sport, in which all the athletes have been chemically and physically enhanced. An A.I. company that manufactures a neural bridge allowing ordinary people to share their memories. Brimming with excitement and exploring new ideas, the stories collected by the editors of Slate's Future Tense are philosophically ambitious and haunting in their creativity. At times terrifying and heartwrenching, hilarious and optimistic, this is a collection that ushers in a new age for our world and for the short story.

A partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University, Future Tense explores how emerging technologies will change the way we live, in reality and fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Future Is Made of Choices - essay by Kirsten Berg, Torie Bosch, Joey Eschrich, Ed Finn, Andres Martinez, and Juliet Ulman
• Mother of Invention (2018) - short story by Nnedi Okorafor
• No Me Dejes (2018) - short story by Mark Oshiro
• When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis (2018) - short story by Annalee Newitz
• When We Were Patched (2018) - short story by Deji Bryce Olukotun
• Domestic Violence (2018) - short story by Madeline Ashby
• Mr. Thursday (2017) - short story by Emily St. John Mandel
• A Brief and Fearful Star (2018) - short story by Carmen Maria Machado
• Overvalued (2018) - short story by Mark Stasenko
• Safe Surrender (2018) - short story by Meg Elison
• Lions and Gazelles (2018) - short story by Hannu Rajaniemi
• Burned-Over Territory (2018) - short story by Lee Konstantinou
• Mika Model (2016) - short story by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Starfish Girl (2018) - short story by Maureen F. McHugh
• The Minnesota Diet (2018) - short story by Charlie Jane Anders
• About the Contributors
• About the Editors

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Century, Number 1, March-April 1995 and was reprinted in Nightmare Magazine, October 2015 (Queers Destroy Horror special edition). The story can also be found in Nebula Awards 31 (1997), edited by Pamela Sargent and the collection Dangerous Space (2007).

Tiptree nominated story originally published in Ellen Datlow's Little Deaths: 24 Tales of Sex and Horror (1994). Included in the collection Dangerous Space (2010) and anthologized in Flying Cups and Saucers: Gender Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy (1998) and Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (2015).

Read this story for free online at the author's website.

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Dangerous Space (2007).

Read the full novella for free at the author's website (pdf).

Dangerous Space showcases a collection of seven seductive stories by Kelley Eskridge, whose novel Solitaire was a New York Times Notable Book, with an introduction by Geoff Ryman (author of Was and Air).

The opening story, "Strings," takes us to a world that tightly controls musical expression and values faithfulness to the canon above all else. By contrast, in the title novella, "Dangerous Space," we see the full power of music unleashed to sexually enthralling as well as risky effect; original to the volume, this tale features Mars, the intriguing narrator of "And Salome Danced" (short-listed for the Tiptree Award), on tour with an indie rock band on the verge of breaking out. Closing the volume, the moving, edgy "Alien Jane" (a finalist for the Nebula Award and adapted for the SciFi Channel's Welcome to Paradox series) delves into the importance of pain for the human organism and finds hope in the most unlikely of places.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Dangerous Space) - (2007) - essay by Geoff Ryman
• Strings - (1994) - shortstory
• And Salome Danced - (1994) - shortstory
• City Life - (2007) - shortstory
• Eye of the Storm - novelette (variant of The Eye of the Storm 1998)
• Somewhere Down the Diamondback Road - (1993) - shortstory
• Dangerous Space - (2007) - novella
• Alien Jane - (1995) - shortstory

The Nebula-nominated Novella "Dangerous Space" can be read online here. (pdf)

"Strings" can be read online here.

"And Salome Danced" can be read online here.

Ren "Jackal" Segura is a Hope -- a special child, a powerful symbol of a new world government destined for greatness. But two months before she is to assume the role she has been preparing for her entire life, Jackal discovers that everything she believes, everything she is, is a lie. Convicted of a terrible crime, she agrees to participate in a "rehabilitation" experiment: While her body lies comatose for eight months, a computer will convince her mind that she is spending eight long years in solitary confinement. But Jackal's history as a Hope has given her strengths and skills other prisoners lack -- powers she will need to endure the tormenting loneliness, to discover the truth about her betrayal, and to rediscover her life, her love, and her soul in a strange place of shattered hopes and new beginnings called Solitaire.

When the Dragon Ships began to tear through the trade lanes and ravage coastal towns, the hopes of the arichipelago turned to the Windspeakers on Tash. The solemn weather-shapers with their eyes of stone can steal the breeze from raiders' sails and save the islands from their wrath. But the Windspeakers' magic has been stolen, and only their young apprentice Shina can bring their power back and save her people.

Tazir has seen more than her share of storms and pirates in her many years as captain, and she's not much interested in getting involved in the affairs of Windspeakers and Dragon Ships. Shina's caught her eye, but that might not be enough to convince the grizzled sailor to risk her ship, her crew, and her neck.

A New World in Embryo

Public Law 10927 was clear and direct. Parents were permitted to watch the genetic alterations of their gametes by skilled surgeons... only no one ever requested it.

When Lizbeth and Harvey Durant decided to invoke the Law; when Dr. Potter did not rearrange the most unusual genetic structure of their future son, barely an embryo growing in the State's special vat-the consequences of these decisions threatened to be catastrophic.

For never before had anyone dared defy the Rulers' decrees... and if They found out, it was well known that the price of disobedience was the extermination of the human race...

Linc Hosler was sitting in a packed football stadium when the Flying Eyes appeared and cast their hypnotic power over half the crowd. Thousands of people suddenly began marching zombie-like into the woods where they vanished into a black pit.

Linc used every resource of the Space Research Lab and the National Guard to destroy the Eyes. But nothing could stop them, for they proved immune to bullets and bombs.

In desperation, Linc captured an Eye and found a way to communicate with it through his mind. He learned that radiation was fuel for the creatures' lives. And when they issued their terrible ultimatum: Explode a series of atom bombs to supply them with radiation or they would turn the world's population into mindless robots!

It gave the world two harrowing choices---self-destruction via fallout from the bombs or annihilation via the sinister Flying Eyes...

In Woolrich's iconic tale, Detective Tom Shawn saves a lovely young woman from a suicide attempt one night, and later hears her story. She is in despair because the death of her wealthy father has been predicted by a confidence man seemingly gifted with the power of clairvoyance; a man whose predictions have unerringly aided her father in his business many times before. Shawn and a squad of detectives investigate this dire prediction and try to avert the millionaire businessman from meeting his ordained end at the stroke of midnight.

One of Cornell Woolrich's most influential novels, this classic noir tale of a man struggling with his ability to see the future is arguably the author's best in its depiction of a doomed vision of predestination.

This novelette originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, October 1983. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection (1984), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections Meeting in Infinity: Allegories & Extrapolations (1992), The Pure Product (1997), and The Collected Kessel (2012).

Hugo Award winning story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1959 and was reprinted in the October 1979 and May 2000 editions of that magazine. The story has been reprinted many times. It can be found in the anthologies:

• The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Ninth Series (1960), edited by Robert P. Mills
• The 5th Annual of the Year's Best S-F (1960), edited by Judith Merril
• The Hugo Winners, Volume 1: (1955-61) (1962), edited by Isaac Asimov
• The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One (1970), edited by Robert Silverberg
• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: A 30 Year Retrospective (1980), edited by Edward L. Ferman
• The Road to Science Fiction 4: From Here to Forever (1982), edited by James Gunn
• The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: 60th Anniversary Anthology (2009), edited by Gordon Van Gelder.

The story would later be expanded to the full novel Flowers for Algernon (1966), which went on to win a Nebula Award.

With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance--until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie?

The pueblo people who landed on the Fifth World found it Earthlike, empty, and ready for colonization... but a century later, they are about to meet the planet's owners

One hundred years ago, Sand's ancestors made the long, one-way trip to the Fifth World, ready to work ceaselessly to terraform the planet. Descendants of native peoples like the Hopi and Zuni, they wanted to return to the way of life of their forebears, who honored the Kachina spirits.

Now, though, many of the planet's inhabitants have begun to resent their grandparents' decision to strand them in this harsh and forbidding place, and some have turned away from the customs of the Well-Behaved People. Sand has her doubts, but she longs to believe that the Kachina live on beyond the stars and have been readying a new domain for her people.

She may be right. Humans have discovered nine habitable worlds, all with life that shares a genetic code entirely alien to any on Earth. Someone has been seeding planets, bringing life to them. But no other sign of the ancient farmers has ever been discovered-until one day they return to the Fifth World. They do not like what they find.

For centuries the Drehhu have ruled every continent, brutally enslaving the human inhabitants. Now after endless wars the human empires of Ophion, Velesa, and Modjal have pushed the inhuman enemy back to their heartland and unite in a final, massive assault.

Alastor Nevelon and his son Crespin set sail against the Drehhu, and they have their own secret weapons. Yet Alastor is forced to send his daughter Chrysanthe to the capitol city Ophion Magne as a "token" of his loyalty to the emperor. He instructs Chrysanthe to use her considerable intellect to discover what plots may be afoot, even as she enters a place where courtly manners hide murderous intent.

As nations collide the true key to defeating the Drehhu may lie in a remote mountain stronghold, with a wild rogue known as Hound and Ammolite, the young slave of a sorcerer more ancient than any nation--whose loyalties remain threateningly unknown.

THE END OF EARTH WILL NOT BE THE END OF US

From acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, this is the chronicle of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage. At stake are the fate of a planet... Earth... and the future of the human race.

Ji-won's life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa's extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying... yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George's, who is Umma's obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family's claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma's fawning adoration. No, George doesn't deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won's hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

"Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a king with two sons...."

Thus begins one of the most unique tales that master storyteller Stephen King has ever written--a sprawling fantasy of dark magic and the struggle for absolute power that utterly transforms the destinies of two brothers born into royalty. Through this enthralling masterpiece of mythical adventure, intrigue, and terror, you will thrill to this unforgettable narrative filled with relentless, wicked enchantment, and the most terrible of secrets....

Tina Evans can think of no better time for a fresh start. It's been a year of unbelievable heartache since her son Danny's death. Now the Vegas show that she directed is about to premiere, so she vows to out her grief behind her. Only there is a message for Tina, scrawled on the chalkboard in Danny's room. Two words that will send Tina on a terrifying journey... NOT DEAD.

Slim MacKenzie knows what they are, what they do - and how they hide in human form. He is blessed - or cursed - by twilight eyes. He can see the diabolical others through their innocent human disguise. He's already killed one of them.

And he'll kill again...

But even the grave won't hold them...

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The New and Perfect Man (2011), edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue One, November-December 2014. It is included in the collection Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection (2014).

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

This short story originally appeared on Sci Fiction, May 7, 2003. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in Omni, April 1986. It can also be found in the anthologies Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (1986), edited by Bruce Sterling, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (1987), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Omni Best Science Fiction One (1992), edtied by Ellen Datlow.

The Prophecies

The eyes of the Virgin Mother gaze out of the piece of stained glass, their expression wise and protective. From time to time, the Virgin "blinks," and words appear in the glass-cryptic prophecies which the Vatican decodes and discloses, carefully.

The Cabal

There are those outside the Church who believe that Mary's words will lead them to untold wealth and earthly power. They have stolen the glass, but not the code needed to unlock the prophecies.

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

A bloody message scrawled by her dying sister pitches computer programmer Kate Harrison into a storm of conspiracies, assassinations, and espionage. Suspected of murdering her husband and her sister, Kate finds herself hunted by the police and the cabal alike. Can Kate's few allies keep her safe from the unstoppable assassin on her trail long enough for her to find the stolen glass?

And what will she do with it once it is in her hands? Should anyone really know the future?

Undead girls begin re-entering the world of the living, emerging from refrigerators.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Nebula Award nominated short fiction story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 15th Series (1966), edited by Edward L. Ferman and 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1966), edited by Judith Merril. It is incleded in the collections Nightfall and Other Stories (1969), Nightfall Two (1971), Robot Dreams (1986), The Asimov Chronicles: Fifty Years of Isaac Asimov (1989), and The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990).

Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she's thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar... who says the kiss was a terrible mistake, but who still can't keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who's new to town and in need of a friend. But she also just happens to be married to David. And if you think you know where this story is going, think again, because Behind Her Eyes is like no other book you've read before.

David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife. But then why is David so controlling? And why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele's orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong. But Louise can't guess how wrong?and how far a person might go to protect their marriage's secrets.

Small Press newcomer, Paper Golem, debuts the first in a annual series of single author collections by brilliant new authors.

EYES LIKE SKY AND COAL AND MOONLIGHT brings together twenty stories from the extraordinary talent of fantasy author Cat Rambo. Here are tales from seaport city of Tabat, both before and after the sorcerous wars that destroyed the Old Continent. Here are alchemical explanations for failed blind dates. Here you'll find a dryad, the last great elephant, and an uneasy blur of humanity.

Cat Rambo doesn't simply amaze and delight, she restores wonder to her readers with every page. You won't simply believe that pigs can fly, you'll question why you ever doubted the premise at all.

Table of Contents:

• Eight Letters of Wonder - essay by Michael Livingston
• Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight - short story
• The Accordion - short fiction
• I'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said - [Tabat Short Fiction] - (2007) - short story
• Heart in a Box - short story
• In the Lesser Southern Isles - [Tabat Short Fiction] - short story
• Up the Chimney - (2008) - short story
• The Silent Familiar - short story
• Events at Fort Plentitude - [Tabat Short Fiction] - (2008) - short story
• Dew Drop Coffee Lounge - short story (variant of The Dew Drop Coffee Lounge 2008)
• Narrative of a Beast's Life - [Tabat Short Fiction] - short story
• Eagle-Haunted Lake Sammamish - (2007) - short story
• Sugar - [Tabat Short Fiction] - (2007) - short story
• A Key Decides Its Destiny - [Tabat Short Fiction] - (2007) - short story
• The Towering Monarch of His Mighty Race - (2007) - short story
• In Order to Conserve - (2009) - short story
• Rare Pears and Greengages - [Altered America] - short story
• A Twine of Flame - [Tabat Short Fiction] - short story
• The Dead Girl's Wedding March - [Tabat Short Fiction] - (2006) - short story
• Worm Within - (2008) - short story
• Magnificent Pigs - (2006) - short story

On the day Concord Webster turned eighteen, the Devil died. The Devil's real name was Judge Martin, but Concord's mother called him the Devil. She said he boiled babies for dinner and made lampshades out of human skin. So why did she, who hated him so venomously, have a key to his house?

The key will unlock more than just Judge's front door. It will also unlock a multitude of stories - where magic children talk to crows, men disappear in piles of leaves, and James Dean lookalikes kiss in dark alleys - and reveal a secret history that will change Concord's life forever.

Philip Ridley's second novel (following the sexually charged tour de force Crocodilia) was an instant cult classic when originally published in 1989. Now, for this new edition, Ridley has reimagined the story, expanding the original novel into the world's first LGBT magical realist epic. A vast, labyrinthine, hall-of-mirrors saga, its breathtaking imagery and stunning plot twists - covering over a hundred years - reveal Ridley to be one of the most distinctive and innovative voices in contemporary fiction.

They've infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of in Sierra Leone, town squares in Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. They're everywhere. They're here. They're us. They're not pets, or ghosts, or robots. They're real people, but how can a person living in Berlin walk freely through the living room of someone in Sydney? How can someone in Bangkok have breakfast with your children in Buenos Aires, without your knowing? Especially when these people are completely anonymous, unknown, unfindable.

The characters in Samanta Schweblin's brilliant new novel, Little Eyes, reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung souls--but yet they also expose the ugly side of our increasingly linked world. Trusting strangers can lead to unexpected love, playful encounters, and marvelous adventure, but what happens when it can also pave the way for unimaginable terror? This is a story that is already happening; it's familiar and unsettling because it's our present and we're living it, we just don't know it yet. In this prophecy of a story, Schweblin creates a dark and complex world that's somehow so sensible, so recognizable, that once it's entered, no one can ever leave.

Slow glass was an amusing scientific toy. Light traveled through it so slowly that, looking through a pane of it, you might see what had happened five minutes ago on the other side--or five years. It stopped being a toy when great new jeliners began to crash, caraccidents multiplied astronomically and a mounting toll of deaths and disasters revealed its true potential. And it was no toy at all when blackmailers discovered how to use it to see into the secret life of any victim--and government officials found it could permit surveillance of any person, any time, anywhere.

Life the second time around is short, strange and terrifying to the awakened. One "zombie", victim of a bizarre scientific obsession, breaks away, leaving a trail of muder and miracle as he flees the Project and the horror his "life" has become.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 1983. It is included in the collection The Jaguar Hunter (1987).

Eight centuries ago, the legendary Keerana Dost conquered a vast empire. Now younger nations battle for the remnants of his realm. As the turmoil spreads, princes and spies, priests and heretics are drawn into the fray.

Nomad leader Rafiq Khast fights to reclaim his homeland and avenge his family honor.

Princess Natalya undertakes a journey for love and finds herself standing alone against forces that could shatter her nation.

And the warrior-priest Malachy Kidd, blinded in combat years before, finds himself holding the fate of the world in his hands, using his powerful battlemagicks in service to his god... protecting a figure who may be the very devil himself.

Contains:

• Earth's Last Fortress
• The Three Eyes of Evil

Hugo Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1977. The story can also be found in the anthologies The New Women of Wonder (1978), edited by Pamela Sargent, The 1978 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, The Analog Anthology #2 (1982), edited by Stanley Schmidt and The Hugo Winners, Volume 4: (1976-79) (1985), edited by Isaac Asimov. It is included in the collection Eyes of Amber and Other Stories (1979).

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Joan Vinge: The Turing Criterion - essay by Ben Bova
• Eyes of Amber - (1977) - novelette
• Afterword (Eyes of Amber) - essay
• To Bell the Cat - (1977) - novelette
• Afterword (To Bell the Cat) - essay
• View from a Height - (1978) - shortstory
• Afterword (View from a Height) - essay
• Media Man - (1976) - novella
• Afterword (Media Man) - essay
• The Crystal Ship - (1976) - novella
• Afterword (The Crystal Ship) - essay
• Tin Soldier - (1974) - novella
• Afterword (Tin Soldier) - essay

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Two (2008), edited by George Mann. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009, edited by Rich Horton, and Distant Early Warnings: Canada's Best Science Fiction (2009), edited by Robert J. Sawyer. The story is included in the collection Beyond the Rift (2013).

World Fantasy Award winning novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1999.

Eve Klein was born wtih a "gift" she doesn't want. It drove her husband away and her mother to suicide. It forces her to see things...to know things.

In her mind, she can see the pain, the terror, the blood. and the eyes-- cold and merciless, alive... yet dead.

Destiny has brought her to a remote and mountainous place, with no avenue of escape. For the killer's glassy doll eyes are now focused solely on Eve Klein. And he's coming for her now.

The Space Barbarians

John of the Hawks was a proud, young man, proud of his people, proud of his heritage, and proud of his ability to count coup on his clann's traditional enemies. He knew what was right and what was wrong - the four great books had laid down the way things had to be.

Which is why the uncouth ways of the clannless drifters from space outraged him so. Not only did these peddlers know nothing of the finesse of proper combat, they knew nothing of the respect due to such things as the coup stick, the right way to capture a wife, and the sanctity of the clann's elders.

Worse still, they had some idiotic notion that that cheap silvery metal so commonly used for plumbing and horse-bits, known as platinum, was somehow of special merit.

Well, one could excuse an outrage or two on the grounds of ignorance, but there came a time when any good clannsman, such as John certainly was, must decide to teach these barbarians from space a lesson!

The Eyes of Bolsk

Was he puppet or sword-arm for a world's unseen master?

A dazzling quest whose outcome will raise humanity to unparalleled heights of glory--or ring down a curtain of endless night . . .

1681: When Sir Isaac Newton turns his restless mind to the ancient art of alchemy, he unleashes Philosopher's Mercury, a primal source of matter and a key to manipulating the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Now, as France and England battle for its control, Louis XIV calls for a new weapon--a mysterious device known only as Newton's Cannon.

Half a world away, a young apprentice named Benjamin Franklin stumbles across a dangerous secret. Pursued by a deadly enemy--half scientist, half sorcerer--Ben makes his fugitive way to England. Only Newton himself can help him now. But who will help Sir Isaac? For he was not the first to unleash the Philosopher's Mercury. Others were there before him. Creatures as scornful of science as they are of mankind. And burning to be rid of both . .

1722: A second Dark Age looms. An asteroid has devastated the Earth, called down by dire creatures who plot against the world of men. The brilliant-- some say mad--Isaac Newton has taken refuge in ancient Prague. There, with his young apprentice Ben Franklin, he plumbs the secrets of the aetheric beings who have so nearly destroyed humanity.

But their safety is tenuous. Peter the Great marches his unstoppable forces across Europe. And half a world away, Cotton Mather and Blackbeard the pirate assemble a party of colonial luminaries to cross the Atlantic and discover what has befallen the Old World. With them sails Red Shoes, a Choctaw shaman whose mysterious connections to the invisible world warn him that they are all moving toward a confrontation as violent as it is decisive . . .

There has never been an epic quite like The Age of Unreason. By interweaving reality with arcane fantasy, J. Gregory Keyes proves himself a literary alchemist who vividly recreates the eighteenth century-and brings it brilliantly to new life.

When Sir Isaac Newton uncovered the secrets of alchemy, he could never have imagined the tragic results. Dark sorcery rules. Europe is lost and the American colonists have been driven south. The demonic creatures known as the Malekim won't tolerate even a flicker of hope. Any who oppose them- Franklin, Voltaire, even the mysterious daughters of Lilith-will be swept away. However Benjamin Franklin and his secret society, the Junto, manage a precarious existence founded on the mutual trust of Native Americans, whites, and freed blacks. And as armies and alchemy clash, the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes witnesses a vision of an ancient, implacable evil-and of a young boy who shines as brightly as an angel... the fallen, avaricious kind.

As the ruthless forces of Russia lay waste to the New World, English troops make landfall in the east, determined to reconquer the colonies. Trapped in between are the Native Americans, ex-slaves, and European refugees, led by Benjamin Franklin and the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes. But the balance of power rests with the French woman Adrienne de Montchevreuil, whose grasp of science is the equal of Franklin's, whose magic may be stronger than the Choctaw, and whose shocking secret may call into question where her true allegiances lie....

Long before the Babylon 5 space station brought Humans face-to-facewith alien races, they discovered an extraordinary breed among their very own...

The year is 2115. Shock waves follow in the wake of astonishing news: science has proven the existence of telepaths. Amid media frenzy, panic, and bloodshed, Earth's government steps in to restore order--and establish tight control over the newfound special population... by any means necessary.

Ambitious senator Lee Crawford spearheads the effort, overseeing the creation of the Psi Corps -- an elite unit charged with tagging and monitoring all telepaths "for their own protection." But the real agenda behind the crackdown is one of government control. Many question the telepaths' origins, while others view them as a coveted weapon. As the Corps tightens its iron grip, the stage is set for a cataclysmic confrontation -- one in which the future of Earth will be decided.

The child of their greatest heroes -- he was destined to become their darkest enemy...

In the twenty-second century, the discovery of human telepaths led to terror and bloodshed, and to the creation of the Psi Corps -- a government agency of elite telepaths who were used to control their own kind. Under the command of a power-mad politician, the Corps became a ruthless tool of oppression, and the telepath underground was formed.

Matthew and Fiona Dexter led the resistance to its greatest victories. But when they were martyred for the cause, their only child was claimed by the very forces they had died opposing.

Raised from infancy within the Psi Corps, Alfred Bester was a telepath of exceptional ability, determined to make his mark by transforming himself into a master of deceit. Schooled in hate but tormented by shards of conscience, he wrestled with the seductiveness of the sinister cause he served. But slowly stripped of humanity by the war between decency and betrayal, he surrendered his soul -- and rose to become the most dreaded figure of his time...

For Alfred Bester, "the Corps was mother, the Corps was father." But now, his Corps was doomed...

Under the ruthless command of Alfred Bester, Psi Corps's reign of terror reached unspeakable new heights -- and touched off a civil war among the telepaths. Corps minions fought renegade defectors -- a new resistance movement determined to overthrow Bester's monstrous regime. But the tide was destined to turn...

Interstellar Alliance President John Sheridan intervenes to stop the bloodshed as a new Psi Corps rises from the ashes. Its first mission: to hunt down and neutralize war criminals, individuals such as Bester himself. Once feared across the galaxy, the dreaded hunter becomes the fleeing prey -- with Michael Garibaldi in hot pursuit.

Underground and on the run, Bester builds a new life on the ruins of his secret, sinister past. But as the forces of justice -- and vengeance -- close in, he must confront the hell he created, choose between surrender or survival at any cost, and prepare to make his final stand...

There is nothing as dangerous as a predator who has been cornered and has nothing left to lose.

A bitter old woman's curse has set in motion events that have felled innocent lives across an already war-weary land. She has paid the ultimate price, and an end to the curse is at hand, but her evil has created chaos and destruction.

Qirsi all across the Southlands are dying from a plague that turns their own magic against them, allowing an Eandi army from Stelpana to boldly march into their territory. But magic has many faces, and the Qirsi aren't the only ones cursed; even as Stelpana's force wins battles, an insidious magic has corrupted the spells of their sorcerers, and what began as a military triumph is suddenly jeopardized. The future of the Southlands hangs in the balance, as the deeds of previous generations wreak terrible consequences on both sides in this misbegotten war.

Book #2 in The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, a new contemporary fantasy series from fantasy all-star David B. Coe. A hardboiled, magic-using private detective battles dark sorcerers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Justis Fearsson is a weremyste. He wields potent magic, but every month, on the full moon, he loses his mind. He's also a private detective, who can't afford to take time off from his latest investigation while his sanity goes AWOL.

A legion of dark sorcerers has descended on Phoenix, wreaking havoc in the blistering desert heat. With the next moon phasing approaching, Jay has to figure out what connects a billionaire financier and a vicious drug kingpin to an attempted terrorist attack, a spate of ritual killings, and the murder of a powerful runemyste. And he has to do it fast. Because these same dark sorcerers have nearly killed the woman he loves and have used their spells to torment Jay's father. Now they have Jay in their crosshairs, and with his death they intend to extend their power over the entire magicking world. But Jay has other plans, and no intention of turning his city, or those he loves, over to the enemy.

The River flowed through all the land, deep and unstoppable, a god in his own right. His head was in the mountains; his arms embraced the outlands; his body lay at the core of all the civilized realms; and his legs stretched on to the distant sea. Dark and sluggish, he rolled unchallenged, dreaming his own invincible might and glory into stark reality.

Everywhere he touched, the River God held dominion. And in Nhol, the fabled city at the heart of the world, an emperor ruled as the living aspect of the god, presiding over the splendors and intrigues of a prosperous land and a glittering court.

Hezhi was an imperial princess; her blood carried the seeds of the River's power. When her favorite cousin disappeared, Hezhi searched throughout the sumptuous palace with its ghosts and priests, giants and courtiers, and frightening creatures of wizardry. And the magic within her began to grow; soon it must attract dangerous attention. Hezhi's anxious quest ripened into a desperate fight for her own life--a battle she could not hope to win alone.

Small wonder that the princess wished for a hero.

And far away, a hero's journey began...

A mythic tale of magic, passion, and primal power.

In the rich and tragic world beyond the River, magic springs from the elements--and danger, fear, and friendship each wait to claim their place in the grand design of life . . .

Everywhere the River God touched, he ruled. But the world beyond his reach was a dangerous riot of gods, ghosts, and strange spirits. And in that ominous otherworld, Hezhi--the River's own daughter--fought to master the magic that was her birthright. Spurned, the River bent all his might and slumbrous cunning to the task of reclaiming his wayward child.

Only the Blackgod saw a way for Hezhi to defeat the River once and for all.

But the Blackgod was a creature of mystery and--perhaps--of limitless duplicity. To trust him might be the most perilous choice young Hezhi could make . . .

The Elaki came from the stars to offer humankind a helping hand. But they should have left a few things at home. Like politics. Saigo City was never what Detective David Silver would have called a peaceful place. But he never saw pouchlings murdered in their beds. Until interstellar revolutionaries brought their fight to a new battleground: Earth.

The official prequel to the eagerly anticipated Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Bridging the gap between Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the eagerly anticipated sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this prequel takes readers on a journey through the build up to the next chapter.

The novel mainly centering around the spread of the deadly ALZ-113 virus (Simian Flu).

Suddenly the air was filled with a thousand glistening reptiles. Suddenly Doc Savage became the cruelest of mass murderers. Suddenly the world was threatened with extinction by the contamination of its water supply. In the space of twenty-four hours the Earth became a seething storm of agony as the menace of the slithering madness struck in all its fury!

Laurence Donovan authored this novel under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

The Shape of Terror

A sinister plot is underway, and it all begins with the incredible and horrifying death of Doc Savage. Everyone says it is an accident, but Monk and Ham know the truth -- and that means they know too much. For the terrifying plan to succeed, Monk and Ham must die too!

This is # 109 in the Doc Savage Novels series.

More information about The Shape of Terror available at the Hidalgo Trading Company website.

Death Had Yellow Eyes

Out of the darkness, yellow and bodiless eyes peer into the faces of Doc Savage and his crew. And when Monk vanishes inside a locked room, Doc leaps to the rescue -- plunging straight into a vicious international maelstrom that could change the course of history!

This is # 110 in the Doc Savage Novels series.

More information about Death Had Yellow Eyes available at the Hidalgo Trading Company website.

Lester Dent authored both novels under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

The Eyes of the Overworld is the first of Vance's picaresque novels about the scoundrel Cugel. Here he is sent by a magician he has wronged to a distant unknown country to retrieve magical lenses that reveal the Overworld. Conniving to steal the lenses, he escapes and, goaded by a homesick monster magically attached to his liver, starts to find his way home to Almery. The journey takes him across trackless mountains, wastelands, and seas. Through cunning and dumb luck, the relentless Cugel survives one catastrophe after another, fighting off bandits, ghosts, and ghouls-stealing, lying, and cheating without insight or remorse leaving only wreckage behind.

Betrayed and betraying, he joins a cult group on a pilgrimage, crosses the Silver Desert as his comrades die one by one and, escaping the Rat People, obtains a spell that returns him home. There, thanks to incompetence and arrogance he misspeaks the words of a purloined spell and transports himself back to the same dismal place he began his journey.

Alternate title: Cugel the Clever

The first book deals with the birth of the Divine Mutant in the ancient city of Phadraig (where mutants are swiftly put to death at birth) and his escape in the northern wastelands, aided by his mother and by a group of former heroes-adventurers of the city. In the north the Divine Mutant reckons with his ancient lieutenants, a group of 30 powerful mutants from his ancient reign who managed to hibernate and await his reincarnation. After the meeting, the newborn and his followers defeat Khassam, a powerful mutant overlord who had declared himself the Divine Mutant and assembled an army some 10,000 strong in order to conquer the southern lands. The true Divine Mutant manages to destroy Khassam's mind and routs his army by seeding chaos in the minds of its soldiers, who start to kill each other. The Divine Mutants let some survivors (including his former companions, no longer necessary to his protection) escape into the nearby lands so as to spread further disorder.

The eyes were always watching. Probing. Hungry. She could feel then as she huddled there, naked, vulnerable, in an iron cage in a twisted man's basement. But now she's free. She isn't vulnerable anymore. She's the one with the power, the need to close the eyes. And she'll close them all. When she's done the will be no more hungry eyes...

The second book is set just some days after the end of the first one. It revolves around Liam, a former bard and one of the Phadraig ex-adventurers of the first novel, who roams the lands of Miir (northwest of Phadraig and Khassam's camp) after the dispersion of Khassam army and the separation from his comrades. While the Divine Mutant madness begins to spread around the country, Liam - still shocked by the events of the first book - meets and befriends Tshea, a noblewoman of the ancient city of Ussian. The two manage to survive the surrounding chaos, and Liam discovers that, by playing his ancient technological instrument, he has the power to influence the minds of other people. In particular, he finds he is able to harness the madness induced by the Mutant and turn it into more positive thoughts. Together Liam and Tshcea reach the Delta of Miir region, where the imminent fulfillment of an ancient prophecy has gathered thousands of people fleeing from the burning nearby lands. Here Liam plays his songs and, with the aid of an ancient artifact hidden in the swamps of the delta, manages to turn the tide against the impending chaos, himself disappearing in the process.

Lysette had seen it all. As a child, she has witnessed her parents' gruesome murder, and as an adult, she had seen men leering at her as she worked the strip clubs. But that night in the subway, the night she shot the mugger, she saw something else. She saw the mugger, dying and bleeding, at her feet. And she saw her mission in life. That night, The Nightwatcher was born. That night, the terror began.

Shara doesn't kill anymore. At one time she was a vigilante killer, vicious and effective, stalking her victims one by one. But those days are over. She still has a need for the hunt, but now she's able to quell her inner demons legally -- as a bounty hunter. She still hunts her prey with the same chilling efficiency, but without the need to kill.

Shara has accepted a private bounty to hunt Mica Swann, in many ways a kindred spirit. Mica is on a killing spree, driven by mysterious forces within her that urge her on to more and more bloodshed. But Shara and Mica have more than murder in common. There is a strange psychic connection between them that allows Shara to peer into Mica's mind, an ability that Shara hopes will enable her to bring her prey to ground. But nothing is more dangerous than cornered prey.

The Saga of Eric Brighteyes is the title of an epic viking novel. It concerns the adventures of its eponymous principal character in 10th century Iceland. Eric Thorgrimursson (nicknamed 'Brighteyes' for his most notable trait), strives to win the hand of his beloved, Gudruda the Fair. Her father Asmund, a priest of the old Norse gods, opposes the match, thinking Eric a man without prospects. But deadlier by far are the intrigues of Swanhild, Gudruda's half-sister and a sorceress who desires Eric for herself. She persuades the chieftain Ospakar Blacktooth to woo Gudrida, making the two men enemies. Battles, intrigues, and treachery follow.

Angie Kaneshiro never planned to be a spy. She was a veteran of the Freehold Forces of Grainne, and was now a tramp freighter crew-woman who hadn't set foot on the dirt of a world in ten years. Angie was free, and that was the way she liked it.

Then the war with Earth started. One thing Angie knew was human space. She knew where the UN troops garrisoned, the methods they used to scan and chip their own to control them. Even better, she had a mental map of the access conduits, the dive bars, and the make-out cubbies people used to get around restrictions.

The UN forces may hold most of the stations, the docks, and the jump points, but now the Freehold of Grainne has its own lethal weapon. The Intelligence branch sends a freighter crewed with Blazers, special forces troops. All Angie has to do is lead them through the holes. Responsibility for the explosions and wreckage will be theirs. But war is complicated, and even the most unwilling of heroes can be forged in its crucible.

In Sean McMullen's glittering, dynamic, and exotic world two thousand years in the future, librarians fight duels to settle disputes, there is no electricity, fueled engines are banned by every major religion in Australica, humanity has split into two species, and intelligent cetezoids rule the oceans.

In space, the enigmatic Mirrorsun has begun to spin. Immense solar sails are pushing vast amounts of energy into its ancient orbital band, energy that could tear it apart--or be directed down at Earth. Already the hypnotic Call has ceased, and all electrical machines have been reduced to molten metal. A religious prophet has risen and is attempting to bring together the entire continent of Australica under her rule.

Meanwhile, her diesel-powered sailwing shot down by religious fanatics, the American princess Samondel is forced to set aside her trade-seeking mission and disguise herself as a student. Her only friends are a disgraced monk who is a member of the secret police and a beautiful young librarian who is a dangerous and unstable psychopath. From these unlikely friendships she must form an alliance between two continents and two species, and prevent ultimate war.

Fundamentally, unexpectedly, things are changing everywhere. As catastrophe looms and civilization begins to crumble, the Dragon Librarians of Australica have just one means left to hold their world together: to kidnap every numerate person on the continent and rebuild their out-of-date human-powered computer--the Calculor.

Cities were crushed by the falling spacecraft--but one ship didn't crash. It remained intact, and disgorged hordes of alien soldiers determined to fight to the death.

The abandoned vessels also contained a wealth of advanced technology. Led by David Levinson, the greatest minds of our world developed deadly new hybrid weapons. Bases were built on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

A new generation of defenders had to be trained, for the invaders would return. In the headlong rush to prepare, however, not everyone would survive...

Akeela, King of Liiria, was a young and idealistic scholar who was determined to bring peace to his kingdom--a land that had been plagued by war with the neighboring kingdom of Reec for decades. Lukien, the Bronze Knight of Liiria, had been taken in by the royal family when, at fourteen, he saved Akeela's life, but he'd never forgotten the brutal lessons of the streets he'd grown up on. A bond of loyalty stronger than blood linked these two men--but no two souls could be more different.

And as Akeela and Lukien entered their enemy's stronghold on a mission of peace, neither man could forsee the turmoil this historic mission would wreak on their lives. For, to seal the peace, King Karis of Reec would bestow upon Akeela the hand of his charming, beautiful, and accomplished daughter Cassandra.

But Cassandra hid a terrible secret. She was experiencing the first symptoms of a disease which would threaten her life and cause unimaginable strife for all who loved her. For Akeela and Lukien, the quest for Cassandra's salvation would overwhelm every bond of loyalty, every point of honor, every dream of peace. For only the magical amulets known as the Eyes of God could halt the progress of Cassandra's illness. But the Eyes of God would also open the way to a magical stronghold which could tear their world apart and redefine the very nature of their reality.

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is an utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old bling orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher -- a box that contains three pais of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick - a knight that has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat - and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his ture destiny.

Stand Against the Posleen Horde!

Earth invaded! The Posleen aggressors eating what population they don't outright vaporize! Now the aliens are closing in on a vital choke point for the humans: the Panama Canal. No canal, no food. No food--the North American resistance crumbles, and hope fades. What's worse, slimeball appeasers within the U.S. State Department (surprise!) are set to sell out the resistance to another race of would-be galactic overlords.

One problem for our enemies: when the chips are down for humans, heroes have a habit of arising: A captain of industry who whips a corrupt and inefficient Central American kleptocracy into fighting shape within weeks. A retired Panamanian woman warrior who returns to the field of battle to rally her people in a last stand to save their children. And a battleship that is literally brought to consciousness by the echoes of ancient naval tradition (and a sentient A.I.) to fight ferociously for her country -- and the captain she's come to love.

The Fifth and possible penultimate book in the Secret Histories series.

After the murder of the Drood Matriarch, the family finds itself vulnerable to evil. This time, it's a Satanic Conspiracy that could throw humanity directly into the clutches of the Biggest of the Bads....

After several Federation and Klingon ships disappear while traveling a newly opened trade route, the USS Enterprise is sent to investigate. Their quest leads Captain Picard and his crew to an eerie space graveyard full of ships of every size and description, all of them, dead in space.

At the center of the graveyard lies a huge, incredibly powerful artifact, constructed by an ancient alien race. And as the crew struggles to solve the mystery of the artifact, they unwittingly trigger its awesome power, a power that threatens insanity and death to all aboard the Starship Enterprise.

The dazzling Star Wars adventure The New Jedi Order continues as Luke Skywalker, Anakin Solo, Mara Jade Skywalker, and others battle their deadliest enemy in a tale of nonstop action, shadowy evil and spectacular triumph...

No longer content with the destruction the Yuuzhan Vong have already sown, Warmaster Tsavong Lah has emanded the heads of all the Jedi. Now the Jedi Knights are in terrible danger-and none more so than the young students at the Jedi academy on Yavin 4. Already the sympathizers known as the Peace Brigade are in the Yavin system- and a Yuuzhan Vong fleet is not far behind.

At Luke Skywalker's request, Talon Karrde mounts an expedition to rescue the young students. Anakin Solo has his own ideas. Impatient, and figuring that forgiveness is easier to come by than permission, he takes off for Yavin4 in his X-wing.

When it comes to confidence, courage and raw Force talent, Anakin has a few peers, But when his friend Tahiri is separated from the other academy kids and captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, even Anakin may be in over his head. For the aliens have a different future in mind for Tahiri, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their horrific end...

The STAR WARS epic continues its dazzling space odyssey in The New Jedi Order - as Luke and Mara, Leia and Han and others battle the mighty enemy from beyond the galactic rim.

The brutal Yuuzhan Vong are scouring the universe for Jedi to slaughter. With no help from the divided New Republic, the Jedi stand alone against their seemingly invincible foe. Han and Leia Organa Solo risk deadly consequences with their controversial tactics to bolster the Jedi resistance. After uncovering a new Yuuzhan Vong menace, Anakin and Tahiri find themselves wanted for murder by the Peace Brigade. To avoid capture, they jump into hyperspace... and into trouble far graver. Hunted by the Yuuzhan Vong, wanted as criminals by the New Republic, and with unrest stirring within their own ranks, the Jedi find peril everywhere they turn. But even in the midst of despair, while the fiercest battle of all looms on the horizon, hope arises with the birth of one very special child...

The last original mass-market paperback and the penultimate book in the bestselling Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series! At last we learn more of the history of the Yuuzhan Vong invaders--where they come from and why they are out to conquer the galaxy far, far away. And the scene is set up for the final, exciting climax of the series, this November's hardcover STAR WARS: THE NEW JEDI ORDER: THE UNIFYING FORCE!

When the government created 250 telepathic infants to train as warriors, the children were nurtured as only the most valuable of slaves can be. But now these rare children have come of age, and they demand the same freedom as all men and women--and possess a unique power with which to fight for it.

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Welcome to the fourth volume of the Lafferty Library, a series that will run to a dozen volumes and collect all of R.A. Lafferty's short fiction. This present volume features Lafferty classics such as Bank and Shoal of Time, The Cliff Climbers, Been a Long, Long Time, Ishmael into the Barrens and many more. The depth and breadth of R.A. Lafferty's wondrous imagination is on display once again. Enjoy seeing the world as you've never seen it before!

This volume includes an introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, an afterword by John Pelan, and photographs of R.A. Lafferty.

Contents:

• Introduction by Richard Lupoff
• The Man with the Speckled Eyes (1964)
• Primary Education of the Camiroi (1966)
• Polity and Custom of the Camiroi (1966)
• Funnyfingers (1976)
• For All Poor Folks at Picketwire (1975)
• Thieving Bear Planet (1982)
• The Transcendent Tigers (1964)
• Bank and Shoal of Time (1981)
• The Emperor's Shoestrings (1997)
• McGruder's Marvels (1968)
• Been a Long, Long Time (1970)
• Entire and Perfect Chrysolite (1970)
• The Cliff Climbers (1970)
• And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire (1972)
• Ishmael into the Barrens (1971)
• Afterword by John Pelan

The John W. Campbell award-winning author of Virtual Girl offers an eyewitness account of "a complex alien ecology" (Washington Post Book World) in her stunning new novel. Amy Thomson captivated readers with her national bestselling debut, Virtual Girl. Her acclaimed thriller, The Color of Distance, was praised by Vonda N. McIntyre as "an energetic and entertaining first-contact novel." Now, Thomson has imagined a first-contact of a different sort-as two members of an alien species struggle for survival on a strange planet... called Earth.

Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil. It is Umbriel, a floating city that casts a terrifying shadow - for wherever it falls, people die and rise again.

And it is in Umbriel's shadow that a great adventure begins, and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a secret. A spy on the trail of a vast conspiracy. A mage obsessed with his desire for revenge. And Annaig, a young girl in whose hands the fate of Tamriel may rest...

Forty years after the Oblivion crisis, the empire of Tamriel is threatened by a mysterious floating city, Umbriel, whose shadow spawns a terrifying undead army.

Reeling from a devastating discovery, Prince Attrebus continues on his seemingly doomed quest to obtain a magic sword that holds the key to destroying the deadly invaders. Meanwhile, in the Imperial City, the spy Colin finds evidence of betrayal at the heart of the empire--if his own heart doesn't betray him first. And Annaïg, trapped in Umbriel itself, has become a slave to its dark lord and his insatiable hunger for souls.

How can these three unlikely heroes save Tamriel when they cannot even save themselves?

After eighty years of fragile peace, the Architects are back, wreaking havoc as they consume entire planets. In the past, Originator artefacts - vestiges of a long-vanished civilization - could save a world from annihilation. Yet the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe.

Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies are in turmoil. While some believe a unified front is the only way to stop the Architects, others insist humanity should fight alone. And there are those who would seek to benefit from the fractured politics of war - even as the Architects loom ever closer.

Idris, who has spent decades running from the horrors of his past, finds himself thrust back onto the battlefront. As an Intermediary, he could be one of the few to turn the tide of war. With a handful of allies, he searches for a weapon that could push back the Architects and save the galaxy. But to do so, he must return to the nightmarish unspace, where his mind was broken and remade.

What Idris discovers there will change everything.

Firekeeper only vaguely remembers a time when she didn't live with her "family," a pack of "royal wolves"-bigger, stronger, and smarter than normal wolves. Now her pack leaders are sending her back to live among the humans, as they promised her mother years ago.

Some of the humans think she may be the lost heir to their throne. This could be good-and it could be very, very dangerous. In the months to come, learning to behave like a human will turn out to be more complicated than she'd ever imagined.

But though human ways might be stranger than anything found in the forest, the infighting in the human's pack is nothing Firekeeper hasn't seen before. That, she understands just fine. She's not your standard-issue princess-and this is not your standard-issue fairy tale.

A young man looking for death finds purpose in a world beyond our own in this sweeping fantasy from Greg Keyes (The Briar King, Newton's Cannon).

Errol Greyson hadn't intended to commit suicide. Or so he told himself. But waking up after his "cry for help" in the body of a wood-and-metal construct magically animated by Aster--the strange girl from school--was not a result he could have imagined.

Aster's wild explanations of a quest to find the water of health that would cure her father seemed as unreal as her description of Errol's own half-dead existence, his consciousness stuck in an enchanted automaton while his real body was in a coma from which it might never wake. And of course, they would need to recruit a girl--a virgin, no less--who had been dead for thirty years, to lead them through something called the Pale, beyond which a bunch of magical kingdoms existed. Plus, the threat that Aster could turn him off like a light switch, sending him into a hellish oblivion, was a convincing incentive to cooperate.

It all seemed quite mad: either Aster was nuts or Errol was hallucinating. But if it meant a new chance at life, he reckoned it was worth playing along.

Three young friends must navigate dangerous magical worlds--and their own inner selves--in this sweeping fantasy from Greg Keyes, the sequel to The Reign of the Departed.

Errol Greyson is awake and back in his own body, thanks to his friends Aster the witch and Veronica the half-dead girl. Unfortunately, due to the attempted suicide that led to his months-long coma and temporary reincarnation in Aster's wooden automaton in the first place, he's also in a mental hospital.

But when the last person Errol expects breaks him out and forces him back to the magical Kingdoms, he has no other option but to attempt to undo a deadly curse threatening reality itself, in hopes of returning the realm to equilibrium. It's dangerous business, especially in Errol's merely-human form, weakened from months in bed.

Fearing for their friend's life, Aster and Veronica follow, but are quickly separated. Aster is captured by an ancient evil--the source of the curse--while Veronica confronts a mysterious admirer, her own evolving nature, and the dark spirit that murdered her years earlier.

As vast armies collide and dragons take wing, the friends must find each other--and themselves--again.

The Curse shaped Aster's life from birth. At first, she believed her father was its only victim, and determined to save him from it. In doing so she learned that the Curse had stricken everyone in the magical realms known as the Kingdoms -- and that, in an attempt to protect her, her father had himself created it. Now he is dead, a victim of his own sorcery. But the Curse has not ended with him. Her father's actions, his dread spell, were only the shadows cast by a much deeper, older conflict, which is now unwinding the universe itself.

As the sun fades and the stars wink out, Aster must follow a clue from her dead father to the highest, furthest domain -- beyond the fairy-tale kingdoms, through fantastic and terrifying realms of gods and demons, to the very source of reality, the beginning and ending of everything. There she might finally set things right. Her path is narrow, and the sacrifices necessary for even a tiny chance at success are unacceptable.

For the Curse has also released a rot at the very heart of the High and Faraway, an evil more ancient than time itself. It is against this unwavering malevolence that Aster, Errol, Billy, Dusk and Delia must pit themselves. They must do so without their friend Veronica, a girl murdered decades before and brought back to life by Aster's magic. For as Veronica discovers her own vast power, she stares into the face of the enemy and sees in it her true self...

In an urban fantasy that charts daring new territory in the field, Jeremiah Hunt has been broken by a malevolent force that has taken his young daughter and everything else of value in his life: his marriage, his career, his reputation. Desperate to reclaim what he has lost, Hunt finally turns to the supernatural for justice.

Abandoning all hope for a normal life, he enters the world of ghosts and even more dangerous entities from beyond the grave. Sacrificing his normal sight so that he can see the souls of the dead and the powers that stalk his worst nightmares, Hunt embarks upon a strange new career--a pariah among the living; a scourge among the dead; doomed to walk between the light of day and the deepest darkness beyond night.

His love for his departed daughter sustains him when all is most hopeless, but Hunt is cursed by something more evil than he can possibly imagine. As he descends into the maelstrom of his terrifying quest, he discovers that even his deepest fears are but prelude to yet darker deeds by a powerful entity from beyond the grave...that will not let him go until it has used him for its own nefarious purposes.

Two thousand years ago, the Born Queen defeated the Skasloi lords, freeing humans from the bitter yoke of slavery. But now monstrous creatures roam the land--and destinies become inextricably entangled in a drama of power and seduction. The king's woodsman, a rebellious girl, a young priest, a roguish adventurer, and a young man made suddenly into a knight--all face malevolent forces that shake the foundations of the kingdom, even as the Briar King, legendary harbinger of death, awakens from his slumber. At the heart of this many-layered tale is Anne Dare, youngest daughter of the royal family... upon whom the fate of her world may depend.

When the legendary Briar King awoke from his slumber, a season of darkness and horror fell upon the Kingdom of Crotheny. Now countless breeds of unspeakable monsters roam the countryside. An epidemic of madness has transformed peaceful villagers from the wildlands into savage, flesh-eating fiends. In Eslen, King William has been murdered, Queen Muriele is stalked by treachery on every side, and their last surviving daughter, Anne, has fled the assassins bent on destroying her family.

Close on the heels of the runaway princess, young knight Neil MeqVren, the queen's one trusted ally, is sworn to rescue Anne from her murderous pursuers. Anne herself undertakes a perilous journey toward the sanctuary of her distant paramour's arms, but along the way lie the sinister agents and hidden snares of a sprawling conspiracy that few might hope to evade.

At the same time, spies in the service of Praifec Hespero, the powerful Churchman, embark upon a mission to destroy the Briar King in the heart of his domain. And the power-hungry Church, spurred on by the mystical events, has launched an inquisition whose repercussions threaten even the queen. As the noose of intrigue tightens across the land, personal fates and a kingdom's destiny alike will be decided in a conflict between virtue and malevolence, might and magic.

Here then is Book II of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone: intoxicating and harrowing, passionate and grand–it is Greg Keyes's most ambitiously imagined and vividly rendered work of epic fantasy.

Brimming with passion and adventure, Greg Keyes's epic saga of a royal family's fall from power through treachery and dark magic, set amid the return of ancient evils whose malevolence threatens to annihilate humanity, bids fair to become a classic of its kind. Now, in the eagerly awaited third installment, Keyes draws the threads of his tapestry ever tighter, illuminating old mysteries and introducing new ones as events build toward a shattering climax.

The legendary Briar King has awakened, spreading madness and destruction. Half-remembered, poorly understood prophecies seem to point to the young princess Anne Dare, rightful heir to the throne of Crotheny, as the world's only hope. Yet Anne is hunted by the minions of the usurper Robert, whose return from the grave has opened a doorway through which sinister sorceries have poured into the world. Though Anne herself is the conduit of fearsome powers beyond her understanding and control, it is time for girl to become woman, princess to become queen. Anne must stop running and instead march at the head of an army to take back her kingdom... or die trying.

But a mysterious assassin stalks her, so skilled in the deadly fencing style of dessrata that even Anne's friend and protector Cazio, a master of the form, cannot stand against him, nor can her sworn defender, the young knight Neil MeqVren.

As for Anne's other companions–Aspar White, the royal holter who bears an enchanted arrow capable of felling the Briar King; and Stephen Darige, the monk who blew the horn that woke the Briar King from his slumber–they cannot help her, as their separate paths carry them ever deeper into a deadly maze of myth and magic from which return may be impossible.

Meanwhile, Queen Muriele is a prisoner of the false king. With no allies but a crippled musician, who is himself a prisoner, and a servingwoman who is both more and less than she seems, Muriele will find herself a pawn in Robert's schemes for conquest–and a weapon to be used against her own daughter.

In The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Greg Keyes has crafted a brilliant saga of magic, adventure, and love set against a backdrop of clashing empires and an ancient, reawakened evil. Now, with The Born Queen, Keyes brings his epic to a masterly close, gathering the strands of plot and character into a stunning climax that both completes and transcends all that has gone before.

The Briar King is dead, and the world itself follows him to ruin. Aspar White, wounded and tired, must embark on one last quest to save the forest and the people he loves, but he has little hope of success.

Anne Dare at last sits on the throne of Crotheny, but for how long? The Church, now led by the corrupt and powerful Marché Hespero, has declared a holy war against her, giving the king of Hansa the pretext he needs to unleash his vast might on the young queen and her unready army.

But Hansa is the least of Anne's worries. The Hellrune, war seer of Hansa, strikes at her through vision and prophecy. The Kept–last of the elder Skasloi lords–weaves his own dark webs. Anne's teacher and ally in the sedos world might also be her worst enemy, and Anne's own mounting strength compels her toward madness.

Surviving these dangers and mastering her eldritch abilities are merely prelude to the real struggle. There are many–some with power matching or even exceeding Anne's own–who are willing to kill in order to seize control. For whoever sits upon the throne will have the ultimate command to bring about the world's salvation–or its apocalypse.

Two years ago, Csorwe and Shuthmili defied the wizard Belthandros Sethennai and stole his gauntlets. The gauntlets have made Shuthmili extraordinarily powerful, but they're beginning to take a sinister toll on her. She and Csorwe travel to a distant world to discover how to use the gauntlets safely, but when an old enemy arrives on the scene, Shuthmili finds herself torn between clinging to her humanity and embracing eldritch power.

Meanwhile, Tal Charossa returns to Tlaanthothe to find that Sethennai has gone missing. As well as being a wizard of unimaginable power, Sethennai is Tal's old boss and former lover, and Tal wants nothing to do with him. When a magical catastrophe befalls the city, Tal tries to run rather than face his past, but soon learns that something even worse may lurk in the future. Throughout the worlds of the Echo Maze, fragments of an undead goddess begin to awaken, and not all confrontations can be put off forever...

Martin may have seen his sister, Cassie, to safety at the end of The Sky Inside, but his adventure is far from over. There's still a totalitarian regime in place, murderous game shows on the air, and a couple of government agents on Martin's tail. When Martin and his AllDog, Chip, go back to his old suburbs to check up on Mom, they get a lot more than they bargained for when they end up escaping with both parents. But the biggest surprise is yet to come--the heart of the government's central power is closer to Martin than he ever suspected.

Nothing is broken that cannot be remade,
Nothing is ill that cannot be healed,
Nothing captive that cannot be freed.

Regina endures a death-in-life as a sex slave in the Subura, the ancient world's most terrible ghetto -- until a strange man sees her suffering and gives her a coat, a new name, and a new life.

The man is Polycarp, and he has the Gift of gazing into the eyes of the hungry dead and granting them rest -- a Gift that comes at a terrible cost. And ancient Rome may burn him for it.

It is AD 98. Polycarp and Regina -- their faith and their love -- will be tested as they have never imagined. And their story will shake you to the heart.

All her world's a stage.

Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.

She's not an orphan, but she has no parents.

She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.

That is, until now.

Enter Stage Right

NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.

COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE'S sidekicks.

ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie's weakness. The symbol of impending doom.

BERTIE. Our heroine.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book--an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family--and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience.

Open Curtain

The Color of Neanderthal Eyes:

A space explorer finds a race of aquatic creatures that have no concept of war or fighting. He falls in love with one of their females. All is wonderful, until another species on the world begins attacking the peaceful creatures. The explorer has to teach them how to fight and how to wage a war, violating all his first-contact rules.

And Strange At Ecbatan the Trees:

A melancholic and allegorically inclined parable about a coming cataclysm that threatens a rigorously programmed (accomplished via genetic modification) and hierarchically rigid society.

Driven from their woodland home, Caesar and his apes are still recovering from the takeover by renegade ape Koba. Caesar is desperate to avoid war with the humans, but this is a faint hope, as his enemies are about to receive military reinforcements headed by the ruthless Colonel McCullough.

A strange white cat wandered about the streets of Reme while Captain Tiana Highrider, master of the pirate ship Vixen, held court.

The red-haired beauty was queen of the pirates and had seen many strange things throughout her adventures, but when a harmless blind beggar moves with the certainty of his sighted days, her instincts are prickling.

Suddenly, she and her adopted father, the mighty Caranga, are brought before the king and asked to take up the quest to return his kidnapped daughter. The king also tells of a dark power he unwittingly unleashed in his desperation to have his daughter returned; the Eyes of Sarsis - a dark power even the most commanding of magicians desire to remain buried in the earth.

At the same time, more mysterious things are happening through the city - animated bodies, mysterious orders, corpses without blood - and at all, a white cat lurks in the shadows.

Tiana's thirst for adventure and the promised reward lead them through the city, out onto the open sea, into dangerous territory, and seeking strange lands in the quest to return the king's daughter, find the stolen treasure, and most of all, defeat the Eyes of Sarsis, a power no man can break.

Along the way they ally with strong barbarians, magicians, unknowable creatures, and ancient beings to fight the awful power of the vampiric Eyes...