Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories (2011), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and was reprinted in Apex Magazine, December 2012. It can also be found in the antholgy The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six (2012). The story is included in the collection Crackpot Palace (2012).

Read the full story for free at Apex Magazine.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories (2011), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, January 2013. It can also be found in the anthology Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution (2012), edited by Ann VanderMeer.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

You hold in your hands the most complete and official guide to imaginary ailments ever assembled--each disease carefully documented by the most stellar collection of speculative fiction writers ever to play doctor. Detailed within for your reading and diagnostic pleasure are the frightening, ridiculous, and downright absurdly hilarious symptoms, histories, and possible cures to all the ills human flesh isn't heir to, including Ballistic Organ Disease, Delusions of Universal Grandeur, and Reverse Pinocchio Syndrome.

Lavishly illustrated with cunning examples of everything that can't go wrong with you, the Lambshead Guide provides a healthy dose of good humor and relief for hypochondriacs, pessimists, and lovers of imaginative fiction everywhere. Even if you don't have Pentzler's Lubriciousness or Tian Shan-Gobi Assimilation, the cure for whatever seriousness may ail you is in this remarkable collection.

You’ll be astonished by what you’ll find in The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. Editors Ann and Jeff Vandermeer have gathered together a spectacular array of exhibits, oddities, images, and stories by some of the most renowned and bestselling writers and artists in speculative and graphic fiction, including Ted Chiang, Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), China Miéville, and Michael Moorcock. A spectacularly illustrated anthology of Victorian steampunk devices and the stories behind them, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities is a boldly original, enthrallingly imaginative, and endlessly entertaining entry into a hidden world of weird science and unnatural nature that will appeal equally to fantasy lovers and graphic novel aficionados.

Contents:

• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities [2] - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• Just One Shelf in Lambshead's Study - interior artwork by Jennifer Potter and J. K. Potter
• Introduction: The Contradictions of a Collection: Dr. Lambshead's Cabinet - short story by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
• Travailleurs de lacier - interior artwork by Sam Van Olffen
• Dissecator - interior artwork by Sam Van Olffen
• Family Portrait - interior artwork by Myrtle Von Damitz, III
• Mecha-Rhino - interior artwork by Vladimir Gvozdev
• Contructing an Elysian Pod for the Last Journey - interior artwork by Kristen Alvanson
• Cryptozoology Print - interior artwork by Jan Svankmajer
• Bassington & Smith Wlectro-Mechanical Brain - interior artwork by Jake Von Slatt
• More Evidence of the Disarray ... - interior artwork by J. K. Potter
• Mecha-Fish - interior artwork by Vladimir Gvozdev
• Mecha-Frog - interior artwork by Vladimir Gvozdev
• Holy Devices and Infernal Duds: The Broadmore Exhibits - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• The Broadmore Exhibits - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Electric Neurheographiton - short story by Minister Faust
• Electrical Neurheographiton - interior artwork by Greg Broadmore
• St. Brendan's Shank - short story by Kelly Barnhill
• St. Brendan's Shank - interior artwork by Greg Broadmore
• The Auble Gun - short story by Will Hindmarch
• The Auble Gun - interior artwork by Greg Broadmore
• Cours Lapin, Cours! - interior artwork by Sam Van Olffen
• Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny - short story by Ted Chiang
• Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny - interior artwork by Greg Broadmore
• Honoring Lambshead: Stories Inspired by the Cabinet - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• Stories Inspired by the Cabinet - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• Threads - short story by Carrie Vaughn
• Medieval Tapestry - interior artwork by James A. Owen
• Ambrose and the Ancient Spirits of East and West - novelette by Garth Nix
• Tree Spirits Rising - interior artwork by Jonathan Nix
• Relic with Fish - interior artwork by Ivica Stevanovic
• Relic - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• Lord Dunsany's Teapot - short story by Naomi Novik
• Lord Dunsany's Teapot - interior artwork by Yishan Li
• Lot 558: Shadow of My Nephew by Wells, Charlotte - short story by Holly Black
• Portrait of a Bear Unbound (with Speaker) - interior artwork by Eric Orchard
• A Short History of Dunkelblau's Meistergarten - short story by Tad Williams
• The Meistergarten - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• Microbial Alchemy & Demented Machinery: The Mignola Exhibits - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• The Mignola Exhibits - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• Addison Howell and the Clockroach - short story by Cherie Priest
• Addison Howell on His Clockroach - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Sir Ranulph Wykeham-Rackham, GBE, a.k.a. Roboticus the All-Knowing - short story by Lev Grossman
• Sir Ranulph Wykeham-Rackham - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Shamalung (The Diminutions) - short story by Michael Moorcock
• Shamalung - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Pulvadmonitor: The Dust's Warning - short story by China Miéville
• Pulvadmonitor - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• The Miéville Anomalies - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• The Miéville Anomalies - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Very Shoe - short story by Helen Oyeyemi
• The Very Shoe - interior artwork by China Miéville
• The Gallows-horse - short story by Reza Negarestani
• Gallows-horse - interior artwork by China Miéville
• Further Oddities - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• Further Oddities - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Thing in the Jar - short story by Michael Cisco
• Thing in Jar - interior artwork by Aeron Alfrey
• The Singing Fish - short story by Amal El-Mohtar
• The Singing Fish - interior artwork by Edith Abendroth
• Frog Resurrection - interior artwork by Ron Pippin
• The Armor of Sir Locust - short story by Stepan Chapman
• Armor Montage - interior artwork by Ivica Stevanovic
• A Key to the Castleblakeney Key - short story by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Castleblakeney Key - interior artwork by Aeron Alfrey
• Taking the Rats to Riga: A Critical Examination of Stigmata's Print - short story by Jay Lake
• Taking the Rats to Riga - interior artwork by Eric Schaller
• The Book of Categories - short story by Charles Yu
• The Book of Categories - interior artwork by Ron Pippin
• Objects Discovered in a Novel Under Construction - short story by Alan Moore
• The Dead Dead Gang Book Cover - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• Visits and Departures - interior artwork by John Coulthart
• Visits - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• 1929: The Singular Taffy Puller - short story by N. K. Jemisin
• 1929: The Singular Taffy Puller - interior artwork by uncredited
• 1943: A Brief Note Pertaining to the Absence of One Olivaceous Cormorant, Stuffed - short story by Rachel Swirsky