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The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Brilliantly weaving together such seemingly disparate elements, Atwood creates a world of astonishing vision and unforgettable impact.

Naida is living a lie.

A peerless battlefield surgeon. A talisman for the army. A symbol of hope in an impossible, grinding war.

A fraud.

Society, led by the queen, has long held that the Esselrode people and their abilities are inherently, irredeemably evil, a truth which Naida has been brought up to believe. But as one of them, feeling compelled to use her powers again and again to heal those on the brink of death, it's hard to accept. It's even harder to live a lie, conflicted about her hidden identity, when the truth could save lives.

Taken from the battlefield where she thrives to a court where her life hangs ever more precariously in the balance, Naida is about to learn that there are even greater secrets, and conspiracies, afoot... and that her dangerous truth could change the course of a nation...

Set in a hazy Middle East that seems at once ancient and modern, Acts of the Assassins features Gallio, an aging, hard-boiled investigator who has one last chance to save his career: He's got to prove Christ's resurrection was a hoax.

To uncover the conspiracy behind the so-called resurrection, Gallio figures all he needs is for one of the apostles to crack. The only problem is that one by one, the apostles keep dying--and in ever more grotesque ways--just before Gallio gets to them.

Racing to save both his case and the witnesses he needs to solve it, Gallio begins to suspect he's become the unwitting pawn in the plot to kill the apostles... but who's behind it? And to what end? As Gallio realizes even his own superiors are not to be trusted, The Apostle Killer transforms from a dazzling literary experiment into a moving, haunting work of art.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - The Small Assassin - (1946) - short story
• 26 - The Next in Line - (1947) - novelette
• 63 - The Lake - (1944) - short story
• 70 - The Crowd - (1943) - short story
• 80 - Jack-in-the-Box - (1947) - short story
• 98 - The Man Upstairs - (1947) - short story
• 111 - The Cistern - (1947) - short story
• 119 - The Tombstone - (1945) - short story
• 126 - The Smiling People - (1946) - short story
• 137 - The Handler - (1947) - short story
• 148 - Let's Play "Poison" - (1946) - short story
• 154 - The Night - [Dandelion Wine] - (1946) - short story
• 163 - The Dead Man - (1945) - short story

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, August 2016.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.

Nor do they have tails.

But they are most assuredly dead.

Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins -- resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories -- have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That's above Eveen's pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen's a professional. She's never missed her mark.

The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A ?nal death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen's newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn't supposed to remember and a vow she can't forget.

In Ed Greenwood's The Iron Assassin, Victoria never ascended the throne; the House of Hanover held England only briefly before being supplanted by the House of Harminster. It is a time of gaslamps and regularly scheduled airship flights, of trams and steam-driven clockwork with countless smoke-belching stacks. London, the capitol of the Empire of the Lion, is a filthy, crowded, fast-growing city where a series of shocking murders threatens the throne itself.

Energetic young inventor Jack Straker believes he has created a weapon to defend the Crown: a reanimated, clockwork-enhanced corpse he can control. He introduces "the Iron Assassin" to the highly placed Lords who will decide if Straker's invention becomes a weapon of the Lion-or something to be destroyed.

It quickly becomes apparent that the Iron Assassin is more self-willed than Straker intended, and that the zombie's past life is far more sinister than Straker thought. Has he created a runaway monster? Or the best guardian the Lion could ever hope for?

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse - with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.

Also published as BROTHER BERSERKER.

The novel is told in three parts, each part based on a short novel: Stone Man, Winged Helmet and Brother Berserker.

On the planet Sirgol the death machines have a unique and subtle mode of attack--for all the galaxy only on Sirgol is time travel possible. Now, fought to a standstill in the present, they have turned to the past in an attempt to destroy the very roots of life. The time and place of the next attack has been pinpointed: the berserkers will try to eliminate Vincent Vincento, an early genius whose loss will cost mankind a hundred years of progress in the physical sciences.

Derron Odegard, one of the elite corps of Time Operatives, has the toughest assignment in Sirgol's history: protect Vincento at any cost.

The berserkers have chosen to focus their latest attack upon one individual. Their target, King Ay of Queensland. His removal from history would have disastrous consequences for us . . . In nineteen or twenty days' present-time, the historical shock wave reaches us. I'm told that the chances of our finding the enemy keyhole within nineteen days are not good.

Rearing over the ship was a head out of nightmare: a dragon face from some evil legend. The eyes were clouded suns the size of silver platters, the scales of head and neck were gray and heavy as wet iron. The mouth was a coffin, lid opened just a crack, all fenced inside with daggers . . . Ay met it bravely. But the full thrust of his long sword, aimed straight into the darkness of the throat, counted for no more than a jab from a woman's pin. The doorllike jaws slammed shut. For a moment, as the monstrous head swept away on its long neck, there could be seen the horrible display of broken limbs dangling outside the teeth. . .

Divine justice is written in blood.

Or so Amastan has been taught. As a new assassin in the Basbowen family, he's already having second thoughts about taking a life. A scarcity of contracts ends up being just what he needs.

Until, unexpectedly, Amastan finds the body of a very important drum chief. Until, impossibly, Basbowen's finest start showing up dead, with their murderous jaan running wild in the dusty streets of Ghadid. Until, inevitably, Amastan is ordered to solve these murders, before the family gets blamed.

Every life has its price, but when the tables are turned, Amastan must find this perfect assassin or be their next target.

Trapped within the dead city of Marandur, Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain must escape both merciless barbarians and the pitiless Imperial Legion. Beyond those dangers lie the mightiest and most unforgiving powers in the world of Dematr: the Great Guilds that rule the world with iron fists.

Mari's Mechanics Guild and Alain's Mage Guild have always been enemies, but they are united in wanting to kill their rogue members before Mari can fulfill the ancient prophecy of being the one who will finally overthrow their power. Mari and Alain must risk those dangers because halfway across their world lies a place where truth has long been hidden. A place that could explain why their world's history begins abruptly, with no hints of what came before. A place where they might learn how the Mechanics Guild came to control all technology and how the Mages manage to alter reality temporarily. A place that might tell them how to achieve a task that appears to be impossible.

Never before have a Mage and a Mechanic worked together, and their combined talents offer their only hope. But she and Alain must first survive the deadly and implacable Assassins of Altis.

Alexander the Great. Napoleon. The 47 Ronin. Long dead, but the future still rides on their successes at war!

First there was war, then there were wargames, growing more and more realistic until the games themselves surpassed war as mankind's most popular sport. But with no blood, guts, or glory, boredom began to set in and strategy lost its edge. Something was needed to bring fresh excitement to an old, old game. And so the past was mined for the greatest warriors and generals history had to offer: Napoleon, Alexander, the 47 Ronin, assassins from ancient Persia--all brilliant at either combat or at tactics and strategy.

It was just a game--until mock war turned real on an unimaginable scale, and only those legendary warriors could turn the tide...

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #82 July 2013. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Cyberabad Days (2009).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

The autumn semester at the University of Maradaine is underway, and Veranix Calbert is doing his best to balance the new responsibilities of being a fourth-year magic student under the militant Altarn Initiatives, while still acting as The Thorn, the street vigilante deep in a personal war against the drug kingpin Willem Fenmere. With the help of his friends Kaiana, Delmin, and Mila, he's been able to strike real blows against Fenmere's empire.

But Veranix's fight has earned him more enemies than just Fenmere, including the mad alchemist Cuse Jensett, the imposters Erno Don and Enzin Hence, and the Deadly Birds Magpie and Jackdaw. These five killers join forces to escape Quarrygate Prison and offer an alliance to Fenmere, bringing with them the perfect leverage to seal the deal: the Thorn's identity.

Once Fenmere knows who Veranix is, he doesn't just want to kill him, but to utterly shatter him. Calling on everyone in Maradaine holding a grudge against the Thorn, he unleashes a brutal hunt against Veranix. With old and new enemies all looking to claim the bounty on his head, stripped of the security of his secret identity, Veranix faces the most brutal fight of his all too-short life.

When a terrorist attack rocks Starfleet Academy, it's clear someone has a very serious--and very deadly--secret agenda.

The rules are simple: Draw a target. Track him down and "kill" him with a spork. Take your victim's target for your own. Oh, and make sure the player with your name doesn't get to you first. No safe zones. No time-outs. The game ends when only one player remains.
James T. Kirk is playing for fun. Leonard "Bones" McCoy is playing to get closer to a girl. But when a series of terrorist attacks rock the usually placid Starfleet Academy campus, it becomes clear that somebody is playing the game for real. Is it one of the visiting Varkolak, on Earth to attend an intergalactic medical conference? Or could it be a member of a super-secret society at the Academy dedicated to taking care of threats to the Federation, no matter what rules they have to break to do it? Find out in The Assassination Game, the fourth installment in Spotlight's exciting series for teens.

Livak is bored. Winter in the Kellarin colony has its amusements but she's pretty much exhausted them and is eager to be doing something else. When Ryshad and Temar tell her of their plan to reclaim the southern settlement established by the original colonists, Livak reckons she may as well go along too. What she doesn't reckon on are the pirates looting the midway islands. Meanwhile In Hadrumal, the wizards are increasingly enmeshed in their own politics . With magical storytelling, powerful characters and a richly detailed world, Juliet E. McKenna concludes her wonderful Tales of Einarinn with THE ASSASSIN'S EDGE.

Doug is a just a normal guy. He lives in Deadwood, runs a store, and does his best to keep away from trouble when it rides into town. But when trouble comes looking for him - in the shape of a one-eyed, wounded gunfighter called Gabriel - Doug is drawn into his skewed world. Because Gabriel is here to find and kill Temple, a man he says is much more than a man. He's a demon. A demon with a particular mission in mind.

Deadwood is about to get lively.

During the Dark Ages, a thing named Temple slaughtered Gabriel's family. A man with snake eyes charged him to pursue the assassin wherever he may strike next, and destroy him. Gabriel never believed he'd still be following Temple almost a thousand years later.

Because Temple may be a demon, the man with snake eyes cursed Gabriel with a life long enough to hunt him down. Now he has picked up Temple's scent again. The Caribbean sea is awash with pirate blood, and in such turmoil the outcome of any fight is far from certain.

Free bonus novelette: "Dead Man's Hand" (originally published by Necessary Evil Press, 2004)

In the wilderness of the American West, the assassin is set to strike again. Despite his centuries-long curse, Gabriel is still but a man, scarred and bitter. The town of Deadwood has seen many such men... though it's never seen anything quite like the half-demon known as Temple.

Death and destruction follow the demon wherever he treads, and Gabriel is rarely far behind, waiting for his chance to extinguish the creature known as Temple once and for all.

But in Singapore during the Second World War, a lone soldier in possession of a shattering secret gets caught up in their battle. The knowledge he holds could change the course of their ancient conflict... and the fate of the world.

Venice in the early fifteenth century is at the height of its power. In theory Duke Marco commands. But Marco is a simpleton so his aunt and uncle rule in his stead. Within the Serene Republic, their word is law, but for all their influence, Venice's fate still lies in other hands . . .

Lady Giulietta is the Duke's cousin. She enjoys greater privilege than many can even dream of, but her status will demand a terrible price.

Atilo Il Mauros is head of the Assassini, the shadow army that enforces Venice's will - both at home and abroad.

Prince Leopold zum Bas Friedland is the bastard son of the German emperor and leader of the krieghund - the only force in Venice more feared than Atilo's assassins.

And then there is Atilo's angel-faced apprentice. Only a boy, Tycho is already stronger and faster than any man has a right to be. He can see in the dark, but sunlight burns him. It is said that he drinks blood.

Award-winning author Jon Courtenay Grimwood seamlessly blends history, politics and dark fantasy in a compelling vision of a Venice that might have been.

As the Byzantine and German emperors plot war against each other, Venice's future rests in the hands of three unwilling individuals:The newly knighted Sir Tycho. He defeated the Mamluk navy but he cannot make the woman he loves love him back. Tortured by secrets, afraid of the daylight, he sees no reason to save a city he hates.The grieving Lady Giulietta. Virgin. Mother. Widow. All she wants is to retire from the poisonous world of the Venetian court to mourn her husband in peace. But her duty is to Venice: both emperors want her hand in marriage and an alliance with Europe's richest city. She must choose, knowing that whichever suitor she rejects will become Venice's bitterest enemy.Lastly, a naked, mud-strewn girl who crawls from a paupers' grave on an island in the Venetian lagoon and begins by killing the men who buried her.Between them, they will set the course of history.

Snow shrouds Venice in cold darkness, ice fills the canals, and a thousand ghosts pluck at the shadow's edge.A violent attack on Lady Giulietta's son forces Tycho from his new-found happiness and back into the treacherous intrigue of the court. For Giulietta's sake he would go to the world's end to track down those responsible.As Venice teeters on the brink of civil war, its warring families prepare to discover who is a player and who a pawn in the coming struggle for power. The Exiled Blade is the climatic finale to Tycho's story.

Jerry Cornelius rises from the deep to witness the destruction of the world - and to break up the biggest party ever thrown west of Ladbroke Grove.

The Skaar have arrived in the Four Lands, determined to stop at nothing less than all-out conquest. They badly need a new home, but peaceful coexistence is not a concept they have ever understood. An advance force under the command of the mercurial princess Ajin has already established a foothold, but now the full Skaar army is on the march--and woe betide any who stand in its way.

But perhaps the Skaar victory is not quite the foregone conclusion everyone assumes. The Druid Drisker Arc has freed both himself and Paranor from their involuntary exile. Drisker's student, Tarsha Kaynin, has been reunited with Dar, chief defender of what is left of the Druid order, and is learning to control her powerful wishsong magic. If they can only survive Tarsha's brother, Tavo, and the Druid who betrayed Drisker Arc, they might stand a chance of defeating the Skaar. But that is a very big if... as Tavo now carries the Stiehl--one of the most powerful weapons in all the Four Lands--and is hellbent on taking his revenge on everyone he feels has wronged him.

The sequel to Blades of the Old Empire.

Kara has achieved something that no Majat has ever managed – freedom from the Guild!

But the Black Diamond assassin Mai has been called back to face his punishment for sparing her life. Determined to join his fight or share his punishment, Kara finds herself falling for Mai.

But is their relationship – and the force that makes their union all-powerful – a tool to defeat the overpowering forces of the Kaddim armies, or a distraction sure to cause the downfall of the Majat?

Prince Arutha--newly returned from battle--is concerned about a rash of unexplained assassinations that plagues his capital city. And so he commissions his most trusted agent, Squire James--formerly the thief known as "Jimmy the Hand"--to discover the source of the deadly epidemic. The answers seem to lie far beneath the streets in the dank depths of Krondor, where a terrible war rages in secret between two rival criminal gangs: those who call themselves "Mockers" and others in the thrall of a mysterious being known as "The Crawler."

But the deeper the Squire delves, the closer he gets to the true nature of the horror that has left untold dead in its wake. And unless James can prevent one last, unthinkable slaying, the nightmare forces of corruption and deceit will destroy his liege and reduce his beloved Krondor to ruins.

Selei City is the capital of the Imperialate and one of the most desired locales in all of the Skolian Empire. But its thin veneer of civilization is cracked when a series of brutal crimes implicates those in political power in a vast conspiracy. Three prominent scientists have lost their lives to a serial killer--and notes at the scenes of the crimes lead to a connection to the Royalist political party.

Major Bhaajan, former military officer turned private detective, is called back to Selei City to solve the crime. Bhaaj and her crew of Undercity Dust Knights plunge into the Byzantine world of Imperial politics--a jigsaw world where none of the pieces seem to fit. As the assassination plot becomes more and more convoluted, Bhaaj is kidnapped and threatened with death and must fight for her life against the growing number of people threatened by her investigation. Bhaaj has faced all this and more, but now she must deal with something far deadlier--interstellar politics.

The Assassin King opens at winter's end with the arrival by sea of a mysterious hunter, a man of ancient race and purpose, who endlessly chants the names of the pantheon of demons that are his intended victims, as well as one other: Ysk, the original name of the Brother, now known as Achmed, the Assassin King of Ylorc.

At the same moment of this portentous arrival, two gatherings of great import are taking place. The first is a convocation of dragons, who gather in a primeval forest glade--the site of the horrific ending of Llauron, one of the last of their kind. They mourn not only his irrevocable death, but the loss of the lore and control over the Earth itself that it represents. The ancient wyrms are terrified for what will come as a result of this loss.

The second gathering is a council of war held in the depths of the keep of Haguefort: Ashe and Rhapsody, rulers of the alliance that protects the Middle Continent; Gwydion, the new Duke of Navarne; Anborn, the Lord Marshall; Achmed, the King of Ylorc, and Grunthor, his Sergeant-Major. Each brings news that form the pieces of a great puzzle. And as each piece is added it becomes quite clear: War is coming, the likes of which the world has never known.

Cataclysm, both large and small, await in this sixth volume of the USA Today bestselling fantasy series, The Symphony of Ages. A twisting, fast-moving tale, The Assassin King promises endless surprises--most of which lead to pain.

An unholy attack upon his brother-in-law General Arisaydia pitches sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona headlong into the snake-pit of Cedonian imperial politics. But they will not travel alone. The mission from his god brings Penric some of his strangest new allies yet, and the return of some of his most valued old ones.

This novel-length story takes place two years after the events of The Physicians of Vilnoc.

"I'm going to live for myself!"

The greatest assassin on Earth knew only how to live as a tool for his employers--until they stopped letting him live. Reborn by the grace of a goddess into a world of swords and sorcery, he's offered a chance to do things differently this time around, but there’s a catch... He has to eliminate a super-powerful hero who will bring about the end of the world unless he is stopped. Now known as Lugh Tuatha Dé, the master assassin certainly has his hands full, particularly because of all the beautiful girls who constantly surround him. Lugh may have been an incomparable killer, but how will he fare against foes with powerful magic?

The Assassin Meets the Hero

Lugh, Dia, and Tarte enroll in the most elite academy in the Alvanian Kingdom. On the surface, the group is there to learn how to be knights, but Lugh's real goal is to get close to the hero he's been tasked with eliminating. However, Lugh winds up getting more familiar with the hero than first intended, and he learns that the prophesized savior's power comes at a steep price. Being a hero isn't easy, and when trouble strikes, will the assassin have to save the one he's supposed to kill?

To Kill That Which Cannot Die

After his success in battle with a demon, Lugh is made a Holy Knight by the Alvanian Kingdom and tasked with slaying more of the creatures. The problem is, only the hero can actually fell demons. Such a setback isn't going to stop the world's greatest assassin, however, and Lugh gets to work devising a spell to kill the supposedly immortal beings. Unfortunately, the only way to test this new magic is in a real battle! Failure promises certain doom, but triumph may turn out to be just as perilous if Lugh isn't careful...

Unexpected Allies... and Enemies

During a party in the royal capital, Lugh runs into Mina, the mysterious and flirtatious snake demon. Evidently, she's already infiltrated human society, but not to take it over. She's not too thrilled about seeing the Demon King revived and wishes to help Lugh prevent that from happening...or does she? Mina seems to have her hooks in many different important people: nobles, princes, and even Lugh's friends. Will this wolf in sheep's clothing manage to turn classmates against one another?

A wicked plot in the heart of the kingdom!

Three demons have fallen, and Lugh wastes no time preparing new tools to handle the next one. Unfortunately, he's interrupted by a conspiracy in the royal capital. It seems someone wants to frame him for murder. Whoever this cocky person is obviously doesn't know who they're dealing with. In the midst of this, another demon appears, and Lugh receives a visit from the goddess who sent him to this world. The discussion with her leaves him wondering if perhaps there's more to why he was reincarnated than he first presumed...

An impossible assassination!

After Lugh's most recent victory in his battle against the demons, he decides it's time to take his relationships with Dia, Tarte, and Maha to the next level, proposing to all of them. The celebration is brief, however, for the Royal Knights Academy has finished rebuilding, and it's time to return to school. Unfortunately, on Lugh's very first day back, he's given a new assassination target: the hierarch of Alamism. The religious leader has apparently been replaced by a demon in disguise. Lugh can't let a monster control the world's most powerful organization, but killing it will mean infiltrating the Holy Land, the most heavily guarded place in the kingdom. Has the assassin finally met his match?

To Kill A Comrade!

Naoise has turned his back on humanity and become a servant to Mina, the snake demon. Lugh thought he could find a way to stop his way ward friend without killing him, but things come to a head when Naoise turns his sword against his own people. The world's finest assassin has slain wicked aristocrats and monstrous creatures alike, but this is an opponent unlike any other - one he cares about.

With its engaging thief-taker hero, this YA series from the acclaimed author of The ADAMANTINE PALACE is perfect for fans of Trudi Canavan and Robin Hobb.

Berren has left his past as an apprentice thief-taker behind him, in a mist of blood and screams and death. Press-ganged as a sailor, his old life is now just a distant memory. Until the day he spots someone who might well be his old master, Syannis, the man who killed Berren's first love. Syannis was thought dead, but he is a hard man to kill. As Berren chases down the man he believes to be an enemy, he finds himself caught up in a web of political machination and danger unlike anything he has encountered. For Syannis is a deposed prince, and he is willing to go to any lengths - including dealing with the black-hearted sorcerer Saffran Kuy - to regain his throne.

As Berren struggles to understand his feelings towards Syannis and his mad quest, he slowly comes to realize that the world is going to war - and Berren is caught in the middle. Can he navigate a path through the dangers which surround him? Will he find a way to extricate himself from the sorcery and intrigue that follow him at every step?

And who is destined to be the King's Assassin?

Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom's most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful and ruthless Assassin's Guild, Celaena yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam. When Celaena's scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, she finds herself acting independently of his wishes - and questioning her own allegiance. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies alike, and discovers that she feels far more for Sam than just friendship.

Table of Contents:

• The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
• The Assassin and the Desert
• The Assassin and the Underworld
• The Assassin and the Empire
• The Assassin and the Healer