Search Worlds Without End

From Victor Frankenstein to Lex Luthor, from Dr. Moreau to Dr. Doom, readers have long been fascinated by insane plans for world domination and the madmen who devise them. Typically, we see these villains through the eyes of good guys. This anthology, however, explores the world of mad scientists and evil geniuses--from their own wonderfully twisted point of view.

An all-star roster of bestselling authors--including Diana Gabaldon, Daniel Wilson, Austin Grossman, Naomi Novik, and Seanan McGuire... twenty-two great storytellers all told--have produced a fabulous assortment of stories guaranteed to provide readers with hour after hour of high-octane entertainment born of the most megalomaniacal mayhem imaginable.

Everybody loves villains. They're bad; they always stir the pot; they're much more fun than the good guys, even if we want to see the good guys win. Their fiendish schemes, maniacal laughter, and limitless ambition are legendary, but what lies behind those crazy eyes and wicked grins? How--and why--do they commit these nefarious deeds? And why are they so set on taking over the world?

If you've ever asked yourself any of these questions, you're in luck: It's finally time for the madmen's side of the story.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Chris Claremont
• Secret Identity Management Variables: Managing Your Love Life is No Easier for Geniuses - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Professor Incognito Apologizes: An Itemized List - short story by Austin Grossman
• Unexpected Cryptozoological Ramifications: Spoiled Brides are No Match for Science - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Father of the Groom - short story by Harry Turtledove
• Observations in Psychological Cataclysms: Doctor, Heal Thyself - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Laughter at the Academy: A Field Study in the Genesis of Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder (SCGPD) - short story by Seanan McGuire
• Vectors and Properties in Nemesis Relationships: Every Genius Needs a Good Publicist - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Letter to the Editor - short story by David D. Levine
• Experiments in Inorganic Intelligence: The Only Thing Worse Than Obsolescence is Knowing You're Obsolete - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Instead of a Loving Heart - (2004) - short story by Jeremiah Tolbert
• Experiments in Inorganic Intelligence: Families Can Drive You Crazy - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Executor - short story by Daniel H. Lewis
• Vectors and Properties in Nemesis Relationships: Everybody Needs Help with Their Evil Monologue - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Angel of Death Has a Business Plan - short story by Heather Lindsley
• Biochemical Deterministic Happenstances: You Might Not Like Drugs, But They Will Like You - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Homo Perfectus - short story by David Farland
• Promethean Origination and Impacts: Weird Science is No Substitute for Love - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Ancient Equations - short story by L. A. Banks
• Unmapped Variables in Multiple Intelligences: Touch Nothing in the Secret Lab - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Rural Singularity - short story by Alan Dean Foster
• Logistics and Support of Evil Programmatics: Never Trust a Job Posting on Craigslist - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Captain Justice Saves the Day - short story by Genevieve Valentine
• Promethean Origination and Impacts: These Things Run in the Family - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Mad Scientist's Daughter - (2010) - novelette by Theodora Goss
• Alchemical Explorations: Mad Science is Stranger Than Magic - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Space Between - (2012) - novella by Diana Gabaldon
• Unexpected Cryptozoological Ramifications: It's Not Easy Being Tentacled - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Harry and Marlowe Meet the Founder of the Aetherian Revolution - short story by Carrie Vaughn
• Promethean Origination and Impacts: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap (or Even Geniuses Get What They Deserve) - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Blood & Stardust - short story by Laird Barron
• Power Strategies and Fact Management: A Real Genius Can Fool All the People, All the Time - essay by John Joseph Adams
• A More Perfect Union - short story by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
• Secret Identity Management Variables: It's Lonely at the Top - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Rocks Fall - short story by Naomi Novik
• Mathematical Destruction Scenarios: Always Double-Check the Calculations - essay by John Joseph Adams
• We Interrupt this Broadcast - short story by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Unexpected Cryptozoological Ramifications: Pick Your Supervillain Name with Care - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Last Dignity of Man - novelette by Marjorie M. Liu
• Observations in Pathological Cataclysms: If it Sounds Too Good to Be True, It's Crazy - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Pittsburgh Technology - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Vectors and Properties in Nemesis Relationships: Pick a Good Partner and an Even Better Nemesis - essay by John Joseph Adams
• Mofongo Knows - short story by Grady Hendrix
• Absolute World Domination Successes: When You Can Get Anything You Want, Be Careful What You Wish For - essay by John Joseph Adams
• The Food Taster's Boy - short story by Ben H. Winters

In an alternate universe, the rise of the Nazis has forced the United States and its allies to make common cause with the Draka--an empire originating in South Africa that has reduced all of the African continent and much of Asia to slavery. The allies desperately need the Draka's courage and military might. But they have made a devil's bargain, for the Draka have their own agenda beyond crushing the Nazis: first reduce all of the nations of Europe that they "liberate" to slavery--then enslave the rest of the world.

Tanya von Shrakenberg established a plantation, Chateau Retour, in formerly-French Touraine Province. She purchases as serfs Marya Sokolowska, formerly a Polish nun, Chantal Lefarge, a French Communist and Chantal's sister Therese. The three are escorted from the security holding compound by Yasmin, a senior serf belonging to Tanya. During the journey to the plantation, the convoy is attacked by French partisans who are defeated by forces in the convoy, including Tanya, Yasmin's father Tom and by a Draka response force. The partisans are tortured to death.

The Stone Dogs is the third of four books of S.M. Stirling's alternate history series, The Domination.

During the cold war between the Alliance and the Domination, Frederic and Marya work for the OSS as spies and assassins. During the Draka conquest of India, Marya Lefarge is taken prisoner. She becomes a serf to Yolande Ingolfsson, who after torturing her repeatedly with a neural weapon, forces her to become a "brooder" (i.e. a surrogate mother) for her offspring, Gwendolyn. Yolande also swears vengeance on Fred Lefarge after he kills her lover, Myfanwy Venders, during the Indian Incident.

As both superpowers expand into space, they prepare different doomsday weapons. The Alliance's weapon is a computer virus ("comp plague") secretly planted in Draka military computers by spies; the Draka's is a biological virus called the Stone Dogs that causes infected personnel to go insane. Yolande discovers Marya, who has contacted the OSS, planting the comp-plague and allows her to escape with knowledge of the Stone Dogs. This forces her uncle, Archon Eric von Shrakenberg, to use the weapon prematurely. The Draka win the resulting conflict; however, their incomplete victory leads to Eric negotiating an arrangement whereupon the Alliance is allowed to launch its generation ship "The New America" and the remaining Alliance survivors in space are granted limited Draka citizenship.

Gwendolen Ingolfsson, hurled into a parallel Earth filled with billions of unaltered, antique humans when the molehole experiment she was working on malfunctioned, is very clear where her duty lies. As a member of the Draka, genetically engineered to dominate crude, unmodified humans, her task is to build a molehole device in this universe and establish a bridgehead for the Race to come through. It had been some time since the Draka last had such an opportunity for conquest...

As for Detective-Lieutenant Henry Carmaggio, he'd seen plenty of blood, both in Cambodia and in twenty years of police work. But he'd never seen anything like this. Something was loose in his city, something inhuman that walked among us, killing with the easy precision of a leopard in a flock of sheep. And unless he could track it down it would kill and kill again - until the whole world was its hunting ground.

THINK ABOUT HISTORY. NOW MAKE IT WORSE...

The Domination of the Draka begins as a British possession in Africa, but soon becomes far more. Absorbing refugees after the American Revolution, and later the Civil War, the Draka become a people bred to rule with an iron fist. They permanently enslave the peoples of Africa, when they do not simply kill them.

But this does not slake the Draka thirst for power. Sweeping across the world, the Draka empire engulfs nation after nation, shackling into servitude all who are not Draka. Europe, Asia, and finally all the Earth and its colonies throughout the Solar System fall before the might of the Draka.

But empires are not faceless monoliths; they are made of individuals, complex humans with their own hopes and dreams. And so one might ask: Who are the Draka? What sort of people does the Domination rule? The Draka would have many different answers...