Search Worlds Without End

Table of Contents:

Foreword - essay by Roger Elwood
Tomorrow's Children - (1947) - novelette by Poul Anderson and F. N. Waldrop
The Queen of Air and Darkness - (1971) - novella
Her Strong Enchantments Failing - essay by Patrick L. McGuire
Epilogue - (1962) - novella
The Longest Voyage - (1960) - novelette
Challenge and Response - (1970) - essay by Sandra Miesel
Journeys End - (1957) - short story
A World Named Cleopatra - essay by Poul Anderson
The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch - (1951) - novelette by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson
Day of Burning - (1967) - novelette

The Winter of the World

George R. R. Martin
Linda Antonsson
Elio M. Garcia, Jr.

Thousands of years from now, after a new Ice Age has reduced our world to frozen ruins, new civilizations and cultures arise from the Ice. But as the people of tomorrow slowly uncover the lost technology of the past, they also rediscover war, conquest, diplomacy...and betrayal.

While the might Rahidain-Barammian Empire expands across the globe, Josserek Derrain, uncover agent for the freedom-loving Seafolk, must find a way to save his people from the Empire's grasp. His best hope is an alliance with the Rogaviki, a wild and nomadic race whose women are rumored to cast an unbreakable spell on any man who dares seek them out.

(Amazon.com)

The World of Ice & Fire

The never-before-seen history of Westeros and the lands beyond. With hundreds of pages of all-new material from George R.R. Martin.

If the past is prologue, then George R.R. Martin's masterwork--the most inventive and entertaining fantasy saga of our time--warrants one hell of an introduction. At long last, it has arrived with THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE.

George R.R. Martin, in collaboration with Elio M. García, Jr. and Linda Antonsson, has written a comprehensive history of the Seven Kingdoms, featuring the epic battles, bitter rivalries, and daring rebellions that lead up to the events in the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Collected within this volume is the accumulated knowledge, scholarly speculation, and inherited folk tales of maesters and septons, maegi and singers, including over 170 full-colour illustrations and maps, family trees for the Houses Stark, Lannister and Targaryen, and in-depth explanations of the history and culture of Westeros.

This is the definitive companion volume to George R.R. Martin's dazzlingly conceived universe; THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE is indeed proof that the pen is mightier than a storm of swords.

Not the End of the World

Kate Atkinson

What is the real world? Does it exist, or is it merely a means of keeping another reality at bay?

Not the End of the World is Kate Atkinson's first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks just beneath the surface of our consciousness, a world where the myths we have banished from our lives are startlingly present and where imagination has the power to transform reality.

From Charlene and Trudi, obsessively making lists while bombs explode softly in the streets outside, to gormless Eddie, maniacal cataloguer of fish, and Meredith Zane who may just have discovered the secret to eternal life, each of these stories posits a skewed reality glimpsed out of the corner of an eye. When the worlds of material existence and imagination collide, anything is possible.

Vibrantly contemporary, plausibly implausible, refreshingly original, Not the End of the World is a timely meditation on mythology and transformation, and demonstrates Kate Atkinson to be one of the most inventive and entertaining of modern writers.

In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination

Margaret Atwood

Note: The electronic version of this title contains over thirty additional, illuminating eBook-exclusive illustrations by the author.

At a time when speculative fiction seems less and less far-fetched, Margaret Atwood lends her distinctive voice and singular point of view to the genre in a series of essays that brilliantly illuminates the essential truths about the modern world. This is an exploration of her relationship with the literary form we have come to know as "science fiction,” a relationship that has been lifelong, stretching from her days as a child reader in the 1940s, through her time as a graduate student at Harvard, where she worked on the Victorian ancestor of the form, and continuing as a writer and reviewer.

This book brings together her three heretofore unpublished Ellmann Lectures from 2010: "Flying Rabbits," which begins with Atwood's early rabbit superhero creations, and goes on to speculate about masks, capes, weakling alter egos, and Things with Wings; "Burning Bushes," which follows her into Victorian otherlands and beyond; and "Dire Cartographies," which investigates Utopias and Dystopias. In Other Worlds also includes some of Atwood's key reviews and thoughts about the form. Among those writers discussed are Marge Piercy, Rider Haggard, Ursula Le Guin, Ishiguro, Bryher, Huxley, and Jonathan Swift. She elucidates the differences (as she sees them) between "science fiction" proper, and "speculative fiction," as well as between "sword and sorcery/fantasy" and "slipstream fiction." For all readers who have loved The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood, In Other Worlds is a must.

The World Turned Upside Down

Jim Baen
David Drake
Eric Flint

When readers first encounter science fiction, they find adventures on other planets and in future worlds, explorations of future technology and its implications, and extrapolations of social trends and warnings of where they may lead--but they also encounter concepts heretofore undreamed of, and the impact on the readers' thinking does nothing less than turn their world upside down.

Now, David Drake, Jim Baen and Eric Flint gather together some of the greatest science fiction ever written in one volume, with each story chosen for a startling breakthrough concept which left readers stunned and changed the course of science fiction.

In the Golden Age of science fiction, the science fiction magazines weren't given titles such as Astounding, Amazing, Startling, etc., for nothing! Pick up this generous serving of the very best of science fiction and prepared to be astounded, amazed, startled--and entertained.

Table of Contents:

Preface - essay by Eric Flint
Rescue Party - (1946) - novelette by Arthur C. Clarke
The Menace from Earth - (1957) - shortfiction by Robert A. Heinlein
Code Three - (1963) - novella by Rick Raphael
Hunting Problem - (1955) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
Black Destroyer - (1939) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
A Pail of Air - (1951) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
Thy Rocks and Rills - (1953) - novelette by Robert E. Gilbert
A Gun for Dinosaur - (1956) - novelette by L. Sprague de Camp
Goblin Night - (1965) - novelette by James H. Schmitz
The Only Thing We Learn - (1949) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
Trigger Tide - (1950) - shortstory by Wyman Guin
The Aliens - (1959) - novelette by Murray Leinster
All the Way Back - (1952) - shortstory by Michael Shaara
The Last Command - (1967) - shortstory by Keith Laumer
Who Goes There? - (1938) - novella by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Quietus - (1940) - shortstory by Ross Rocklynne
Answer - (1954) - shortstory by Fredric Brown
The Last Question - (1956) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
The Cold Equations - (1954) - novelette by Tom Godwin
Shambleau - (1933) - novelette by C. L. Moore
Turning Point - (1963) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
Heavy Planet - (1939) - shortstory by Milton A. Rothman
Omnilingual - (1957) - novelette by H. Beam Piper
The Gentle Earth - (1957) - novella by Christopher Anvil
Environment - (1944) - shortstory by Chester S. Geier
Liane the Wayfarer - (1950) - shortstory by Jack Vance
Spawn - (1939) - novelette by P. Schuyler Miller
St. Dragon and the George - (1957) - novelette by Gordon R. Dickson
Thunder and Roses - (1947) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon

The End of the World as We Know It

Dale Bailey

Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 2004. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best Fantasy 5 (2005), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, Nebula Awards Showcase 2007, edited by Mike Resnick, and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2008), edited by John Joseph Adams. The story is included in the collection The End of the End of Everything (2014).

Listen to a podcast of this story at Drabblecast.

Wonders of the Invisible World

Christopher Barzak

Seventeen-year-old Aidan Lockwood lives in the sleepy farming community of Temperance, Ohio--known for its cattle ranches and not much else. That is, until Jarrod, a friend he hasn't seen in five years, moves back to town and opens Aidan's eyes in startling ways: to Aidan's ability to see the spirit world; to the red-bearded specter of Death; to a family curse that has claimed the lives of the Lockwood men one by one... and to the new feelings he has developed for Jarrod.

The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle

Peter S. Beagle

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle) - (1978) - essay
Lila the Werewolf - [Sam Farrell] - (1969) - novelette
The Last Unicorn - [Last Unicorn] - (1968) - novel
Come, Lady Death - (1963) - short story (variant of Come Lady Death)
A Fine and Private Place - (1960) - novel

Beneath the World, A Sea

Chris Beckett

South America, 1990. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest to investigate a spate of killings of Duendes. These silent, vaguely humanoid creatures - with long limbs and black button eyes - have a strange psychic effect on people, unleashing the subconscious and exposing their innermost thoughts and fears.

Ben becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel, with terrifying results...

Beneath the World, A Sea is a tour de force of modern fiction - a deeply searching and unsettling novel about the human subconscious, and all that lies beneath.

Who Runs the World?

Virginia Bergin

Welcome to the Matriarchy.

Sixty years after a virus has wiped out almost all the men on the planet, things are pretty much just as you would imagine a world run by women might be: war has ended; greed is not tolerated; the ecological needs of the planet are always put first. In two generations, the female population has grieved, pulled together and moved on, and life really is pretty good - if you're a girl. It's not so great if you're a boy, but fourteen-year-old River wouldn't know that. Until she met Mason, she thought they were extinct.

The World Wrecker

Sydney J. Bounds

The strange reports came from all over the world. Reports of a bearded man who could walk through solid walls. Business conferences found a stranger listening to their secret plans: military documents, and gold reserves disappeared from impregnable safes; Miss World just vanished from a locked room before the eyes of several astonished witnesses.

From a remote part of South American came an even stranger rumor--of a Martian spaceship full of scientific devices far in advance of the earth's greatest scientific knowledge. And terrified humanity knew that their planet stood in the utmost dander from a completely alien race.

Cities were destroyed by gigantic earthquakes, bridges and all metal structures just dissolved. In fact the people of earth faced complete and utter destruction....

The Many Worlds of Science Fiction

Ben Bova

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1971) - essay by Ben Bova
The Blue Mouse - (1971) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
Hot Potato - (1971) - shortstory by Burt K. Filer
All Cats Are Gray - (1953) - shortstory by Andre Norton
The Law-Twister Shorty - [Dilbia] - (1971) - novelette by Gordon R. Dickson
Three Blind Mice - (1971) - novelette by Keith Laumer
Daughter - [Nora Fenn] - (1971) - shortstory by Anne McCaffrey
Something Wild Is Loose - (1971) - novelette by Robert Silverberg
Silent in Gehenna - (1971) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison

The Counterworld

James Bradley

A grieving mother wakes up to find all traces of her lost son have been erased as if he had never existed. Only in the hallway mirror is she able to see a glimpse of the reality she remembers having lived - the reality she wants back.

Originally published on 1 February 2023, read it for free at Tor.com

The Ruined Queen of Harvest World

Damien Broderick

A story for everyone who ever loved the work of the late, great SF writer Cordwainer Smith.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie

Keith Brooke

We've all dreamt of Faraway, a place so like the world we know but where we make the rules. For Frankie Finnegan, a boy whose sister has died, whose family is in meltdown and whose school life is blighted by bullies, such dreams have a keener edge. Until one day he wakes up in Faraway. His World; His Rules; His Dream; where Grace is still alive and his parents can be happy again.

Yet it soon becomes clear that he's not the only one with power in Faraway, and the mysterious 'Owner' doesn't take kindly to interference. Things start to unravel, and Frankie's Dream slides inexorably towards Nightmare...

Give Warning to the World

John Brunner

Are there aliens among us? Are the chariots of the gods returning? If so - are they for us or against us?

John Brunner, award-winning author and science fiction writer extraordinary, takes the questions now on everyone's mind, and gives one possible answer in this startling novel.

Here is an edge-of-the-seat story of the man who discovers that the vanguard of the aliens are indeed amongst us - and that the human species has but a few hours left before our time runs out.

It's a science fiction thriller you won't be able to put down.

The World Swappers

John Brunner

Originally appeared in Ace Double D-391 in 1959.

The inhabited galaxy was caught in the crushing vice of a struggle for power. The political titans of the planets of mankind were making their bids for supremacy.

The contestants: Cornice, man of strange powers, authority in the spheres of the intellect; and Bassett, man of money-power, financial and business wizard.

As the association of human worlds drew near the teetering edge of internal revolutions; one of these men would be in a position to triumph. The only thing that neither side could foresee was that there were Others hovering among the stars, loo ling for new worlds to conquer!

Interview for the End of the World

Rhett C. Bruno

Nebula Award nominated short story.

The apocalypse is coming. There's only one way off Earth.

When a small-moon-sized asteroid is discovered hurtling toward Earth, billionaire-scientist Darien Trass must deal with the hardships of finding the select few who will join him on his voyage to escape the apocalypse and rekindle civilization on another world. But is he even worthy of the trip?

This Nebula Award nominated short story originally appeared in the anthology Bridge Across the Stars (2018) edited by Rhett C. Bruno and Chris Pourteau.

Tides From the New Worlds

Tobias S. Buckell

Caribbean born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining.

Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time.

Table of Contents:

Fish Merchant
Anakoinosis
Aerophilia
In The Heart of Kalikuata
The Shackles of Freedom (with Mike Resnick)
Shoah Sry (with Ilsa Bick)
Her
In Orbite Medievali
Four Eyes
Trinkets
Spurn Babylon
Death's Dreadlocks
Smooth Talking
Tides
Something In The Rock
A Green Thumb
All Her Children Fought
Necahual
Toy Planes

The Folly of the World

Jesse Bullington

On a stormy night in 1421, the North Sea delivers a devastating blow to Holland: the Saint Elizabeth Flood, a deluge of biblical proportions that drowns hundreds of towns, thousands of people, and forever alters the geography of the Low Countries. Where the factions of the noble Hooks and the merchant Cods waged a literal class war but weeks before, there is now only a nigh-endless expanse of grey water, a desolate inland sea with moldering church spires jutting up like sunken tombstones. For a land already beleaguered by generations of civil war, a worse disaster could scarce be imagined.

Yet even disaster can be profitable, for the right sort of individual, and into this flooded realm sail three conspirators: a deranged thug at the edge of madness, a ruthless conman on the cusp of fortune, and a half-feral girl balanced between them.

With The Folly of the World, Jesse Bullington has woven an extraordinary new tale of the depraved and the desperate.

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

Jen Campbell

'These days, you can find anything you need at the click of a button.
That's why I bought her heart online.'

Spirits in jam jars, mini-apocalypses, animal hearts and side shows.
A girl runs a coffin hotel on a remote island.
A boy is worried his sister has two souls.
A couple are rewriting the history of the world.
And mermaids are on display at the local aquarium.

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of twelve haunting stories; modern fairy tales brimming with magic, outsiders and lost souls.

Dark Feasts: The World of Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1987) - essay
The Room in the Castle - (1964) - shortstory
Cold Print - (1969) - shortstory
The Scar - (1969) - shortstory
The Interloper - (1973) - shortstory
The Guy - (1973) - shortstory
The End of a Summer's Day - (1973) - shortstory
The Whining - (1974) - shortstory
The Words That Count - (1976) - shortstory
The Man in the Underpass - (1975) - shortstory
Horror House of Blood - (1976) - shortstory
The Companion - (1976) - shortstory
Call First - (1975) - shortstory
In the Bag - (1977) - shortstory
The Chimney - (1977) - shortstory
The Brood - (1980) - shortstory
The Voice of the Beach - (1982) - novelette
Out of Copyright - (1980) - shortstory
Above the World - (1979) - shortstory
Mackintosh Willy - (1979) - shortstory
The Ferries - (1982) - shortstory
Midnight Hobo - (1979) - shortstory
The Depths - (1982) - novelette
The Fit - (1980) - shortstory
Hearing Is Believing - (1981) - shortstory
The Hands - (1986) - shortstory
Again - (1981) - shortstory
Just Waiting - (1983) - shortstory
Seeing the World - (1984) - shortstory
Apples - (1986) - shortstory
Boiled Alive - (1986) - shortstory

Secret of the Sunless World

C. C. MacApp

His name was Gondal, most feared of all creatures in the universe. But there was one ravenous ambition he had yet to satisfy. On a distant, sunless planet lay the key to the secret of the humanoids who had strangely vanished after reigning over all space. Gondal intended to discover that secret - and become master of the galaxies.

But Gondal needed one man to help him - an Earthling named Vince Cullow. Prisoner on Gondal's spaceship, Cullow was forced to choose between robot-like submission, and the kind of torture only the twisted mind of Gondal could conceive, as they sped toward the unknown...

The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World

Brian Allen Carr

Welcome to Scrape, Texas, a nowhere town near the Mexican border. Few people ever visit Scrape, and the unlucky ones who live there never seem to escape. They fill their days with fish fries, cheap beer, tobacco, firearms, and sex. But Scrape is about to be invaded by a plague of monsters unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. First there's La Llorona -- the screaming woman in white -- and her horde of ghost children. Then come the black, hairy hands. Thousands, millions, scurrying on fingers like spiders or crabs. But the hands are nothing to El Abuelo, a wicked creature with a magical bullwhip, and even El Abuelo don't mean shit when the devil comes to town.

The Blazing World

Margaret Cavendish

The adventures of a lady who after being kidnapped finds herself traveling through a portal at the north pole to a different realm. In this incredible world, the animals are highly intelligent and can even speak. Cavendish has cleverly blended her feminist views with science fiction in this spectacular portrayal of a utopian land.

A Hero at the End of the World

Erin Claiborne

Sixteen year-old Ewan Mao knows one thing for certain: according to prophecy, it's his destiny to kill the evil tyrant whose dark reign has terrorized Britain for as long as he can remember. Although he's just a normal boy, deep down Ewan is confident that he has exactly what it takes to be a hero. But when Ewan's big moment comes and his best friend, the clever and talented Oliver Abrams, defeats the villain for him, Ewan's bright future crumbles before his eyes.

Five years later, while Ewan is living at home and working a minimum wage job, Oliver has a job as an Unusual in the government's Serious Magical Crimes Agency, the life he and Ewan always dreamed of. A routine investigation leads him and his partner, Sophie Stuart, to uncover a dangerous and powerful cult... one that seems to have drawn his former best friend into a plot to end the world.

A deftly plotted, hysterically funny journey through magical London and beyond, A Hero at the End of the World expertly walks the fine line between satire and sincerity. Its sensitive depiction of a broken friendship and wry takedown of unfairly great expectations will appeal to all readers of modern fantasy.

A Tower for the Coming World

Maggie Clark

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld, Issue 126, December 2016. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

The Day the World Stopped

Stanton A. Coblentz

In the year 2020 A.D., not only the peace, but the continued existence of Earth as a habitable planet lay in the hands of two men: Carl C. Armitage, President of the United States, and Yu Lu-Wai, Chairman of Red China. Neither were fools; both knew that the employment of the dreadful weapons that had been perfected in recent decades would result not in victory, but universal ruin. Yet both were being pushed toward the moment when they would strike - preventive war - which they would persuade themselves would annihilate only the other, before the enemy could strike back.

But it was not only the peoples of Earth who trembled under the weight of impending doom. For the Jupiter system was the home of a great race, humanoid in form - enough so that its inhabitants could disguise themselves as Earthmen - and the people of Omegricon had frequently sent intelligence expeditions to Earth, which they called Mugud or the Errant Planet. They knew how close to doom Earth was; and not only did they seek to avert events.

The Runaway World

Stanton A. Coblentz

Orcus a rogue planet, a runaway world, finally being captured by the Sun's gravitational field, but only after doing terrible damage to a future Earth. Even before this catastrophic event, the human race had been split into different factions - the Ants and Antelopes. The Ants who had become specialised in mechanical aptitude, and the Antelope who specialised in the aesthetic. The antelopes flee en masse to Orcus, to build a civilisation there, whilst the Ants remain on Earth.

The Sunken World

Stanton A. Coblentz

"A GIANT PASSENGER ROCKET... hurtling through space on a plume of flame... bound for the Moon."

That would have sounded fantastic only yesterday--but today it is possible--because fuel for such a trip is available NOW. Scientists have learned how to develop and control almost unlimited power by splitting the atom.

Shortly there will come within range new planets, Venus, Saturn, Mars. We already know a great deal about the conditions and climates on these which may give rise to new ways of life. In Fantasy Books, a new type of thriller, you will find these facts set out in fascinating details and woven into stories and adventures of an entirely refreshing kind.

The Wall Around the World

Theodore R. Cogswell

Collects ten previously published science fiction stories. Introductions by Anthony Boucher and Frederik Pohl.

Table of Contents:

7 - Introduction: Fantasy and/or Science Fiction (The Wall Around the World) - (1962) - essay by Anthony Boucher
9 - Introduction: Fantasy in Science Fiction - No (The Wall Around the World) - (1962) - essay by Frederik Pohl
11 - The Masters - (1954) - short story
18 - The Specter General - (1952) - novella
72 - Wolfie - (1954) - short story
80 - Emergency Rations - (1953) - short story
85 - The Burning - (1960) - short story
89 - Thimgs - (1958) - short story
101 - Test Area - (1955) - short story
108 - Prisoner of Love - (1962) - short story
121 - Invasion Report - (1954) - novelette
135 - The Wall Around the World - (1953) - novelette

Of All the New Yorks in All the Worlds

Indra Das

A student of multiversal time travel slips from one version of New York to another, discovering that love may transcend timelines, but so too can heartbreak...

Read it for free here Tor.com

The Worldless

Indra Das

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, March 2017. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Light at the End of the World

Siddhartha Deb

Delhi, the near future: Bibi, a low-ranking employee of a global consulting firm, is tasked with finding a man long thought to be dead but who now appears to be the source of a vast collection of documents. The trove purports to reveal the secrets of the Indian government, including detention centers, mutated creatures, engineered viruses, experimental weapons, and alien wrecks discovered in remote mountain areas.

Bhopal, 1984: an assassin tracks his prey through an Indian city that will shortly be the site of the worst industrial disaster in the history of the world.

Calcutta, 1947: a veterinary student's life and work connect him to an ancient Vedic aircraft that might stave off genocide.

And in 1859, a British soldier rides with his detachment to the Himalayas in search of the last surviving leader of an anti-colonial rebellion.

These timelines interweave to form a kaleidoscope in which each protagonist must come to terms with the buried truths of their times as well as with the parallel universe that connects them all, through automatons, spirits, spacecraft, and aliens.

Another World: Adventures in Otherness

Gardner Dozois

Here is life on another world, in another place, another time. Here is what it is like to wear an alien skin. Here are new concepts, new vistas, magic..."Why read science fiction?" It's alive in a world of dead art, dead minds, dead institutions; it's a bright-eyed, irreverent little animal scurrying through a petrified landscape of old dead trees; it's unashamedly potent and prolific in a world that grows increasingly weary and sterile; it dares to raise its voice in boisterous joy, sorrow, and anger in a place full of sour silence and dead echoes.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1977) - essay by Gardner Dozois
The Oldest Soldier - (1960) - short story by Fritz Leiber
After the Myths Went Home - (1969) - short story by Robert Silverberg
The Stars Below - (1974) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
Straw - (1975) - short story by Gene Wolfe
On the Gem Planet - (1963) - novelette by Cordwainer Smith
Beam Us Home - (1969) - short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
The Barbarian - (1968) - novelette by Joanna Russ
Among the Hairy Earthmen - (1966) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
Man in the Jar - (1957) - short story by Damon Knight
Old Hundredth - (1960) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
The Signaller - (1966) - novelette by Keith Roberts
Reader's Guide to SF - (1977) - essay by uncredited

The Waterdancer's World

L. Timmel Duchamp

Humans have been struggling to live on Frogmore for almost five centuries, adapting themselves to punishing gravity and the deadly mistflowers that dominate its ecology. Financier Inez Gauthier, patron of the arts and daughter of the general commanding the planet's occupation forces, dreams of eliminating the mistflowers that make exploitation of the planet's natural wealth so difficult and impede her father's efforts to crush the native insurgency.

Fascinated by the new art-form of waterdancing created by Solstice Balalzalar celebrating the planet's indigenous lifeforms, Inez assumes that her patronage will be enough to sustain Solstice's art even as she ruthlessly pursues windfall profits at the expense of all that has made waterdancing possible.

Welcome, Kid, to the Real World

L. Timmel Duchamp

This story can be found in the Spring/Summer/Fall 1996 issue of Tales of the Unanticipated.

The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

Harlan Ellison

"It crouches near the center of creation. There is no night where it waits. Only the riddle of which terrible dream will set it loose. It beheaded mercy to take possession of that place. It feasts on darkness from the minds of men. No one has ever seen its eyeless face. When it sleeps we know a few moments of peace. But when it breathes again we go down in fire and mate with jackals. It knows our fear. It has our number. It waited for our coming and it will abide long after we have become congealed smoke. It has never heard music, and shows its fangs when we panic. It is the beast of our savage past, hungering today, and waiting patiently for the mortal meal of all our golden tomorrows. It lies waiting."
--Harlan Ellison

15 stories by Harlan Ellison

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Waves in Rio - (1969) - essay
The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World - (1968) - novelette
Along the Scenic Route - (1969) - shortstory
Phoenix - (1969) - shortstory
Asleep: With Still Hands - (1968) - novelette
Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R. - (1969) - novelette
Try a Dull Knife - (1968) - shortstory
The Pitll Pawob Division - (1968) - shortstory
The Place with No Name - shortstory
White on White - (1968) - shortstory
Run for the Stars - (1957) - novelette
Are You Listening? - (1958) - shortstory
S.R.O. - (1957) - shortstory
Worlds to Kill - (1968) - novelette
Shattered Like a Glass Goblin - (1968) - shortstory
A Boy and His Dog - (1969) - novella

Song for the Unraveling of the World

Brian Evenson

A newborn's absent face appears on the back of someone else's head, a filmmaker goes to gruesome lengths to achieve the silence he's after for his final scene, and a therapist begins, impossibly, to appear in a troubled patient's room late at night. In these stories of doubt, delusion, and paranoia, no belief, no claim to objectivity, is immune to the distortions of human perception. Here, self-deception is a means of justifying our most inhuman impulses--whether we know it or not.

The Eternal World

Christopher Farnsworth

If you could live forever, what would you die for?

Five hundred years ago, a group of Spanish conquistadors searching for gold, led by a young and brilliant commander named Simon De Oliveras, land in the New World. What they find in the sunny and humid swamps of this uncharted land is a treasure far more valuable: the Fountain of Youth. The Spaniards slaughter the Uzita, the Native American tribe who guard the precious waters that will keep the conquistadors young for centuries. But one escapes: Shako, the chief's fierce and beautiful daughter, who swears to avenge her people--a blood oath that spans more than five centuries...

When the source of the fountain is destroyed in our own time, the loss threatens Simon and his men, and the powerful, shadowy empire of wealth and influence they have built. For help, they turn to David Robinton, a scientific prodigy who believes he is on the verge of the greatest medical breakthrough of all time. But as the centuries-old war between Shako and Simon reaches its final stages, David makes a horrifying discovery about his employers and the mysterious and exotic woman he loves. Now, the scientist must decide: is he a pawn in a game of immortals... or will he be its only winner?

After the World: Gravesend

Jason Fischer

Bored out of your brains at school?

Still - better than having your brains bored out, or at least that's what Tamsyn and Ali think. The zombie apocalypse is here but life continues in the Kent town of Gravesend. Parents, school, politics - it's your everyday small town, albeit with an army of cannibals looking to get in.

And when they do...

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

Charlie Fletcher

When a beloved family dog is stolen, her owner sets out on a life-changing journey through the ruins of our world to bring her back in this fiercely compelling tale of survival, courage, and hope.

My name's Griz. My childhood wasn't like yours. I've never had friends, and in my whole life I've not met enough people to play a game of football.

My parents told me how crowded the world used to be, but we were never lonely on our remote island. We had each other, and our dogs.

Then the thief came.

There may be no law left except what you make of it. But if you steal my dog, you can at least expect me to come after you.

Because if we aren't loyal to the things we love, what's the point?

Otherworld

Kenneth C. Flint

Skeptic Robert Cassiday is suddenly touched by the supernatural when his closest friend, Phillip Buckley, is savagely murdered, and he discovers that there are people who would go to any length to stop Buckley's research into the violence paralyzing the country.

The Cosmology of the Wider World

Jeffrey Ford

Jeffrey's Ford's extraordinary new fantasy novella, The Cosmology of the Wider World, is a beast epic, a talking animal story in the vein of The Jungle Books and The Wind In The Willows; but this is no ordinary fable. The protagonist, Belius, is a minotaur, a wanderer in strange labryrinths of the mind and body, and his story features sex, drugs and a healthy dose of pyrotechnic metaphysical profundity. There's murder too, an instance of bestiality, and quite a few references to Dante's Inferno...

This novella was reprinted in two parts in Lightspeed, May and June 2012. It can also be found in the anthology Best Short Novels: 2006, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

The Flavors of Other Worlds

Alan Dean Foster

Thirteen Science Fiction Tales from a Master Storyteller

From fighting giant bugs to defeating an interstellar empire without firing a shot; from scientific idiot savants toying with the universe to how the robots will really win the robot apocalypse, these thirteen flavorful tales are guaranteed to entertain, amuse, awe, and maybe even enlighten.

Includes the first appearance in print of the Icerigger novellete "Chilling" and a new novelette, "Valentin Sharffen and the Code of Doom."

Table of Contents:

ix - Introduction (The Flavors of Other Worlds) - (2018) - essay
1 - Unvasion - (2004) - short story
11 - The Man Who Knew Too Much - (2006) - short story
20 - Perception - [Humanx Commonwealth - 6] - (2006) - short story
33 - Chilling - [Humanx Commonwealth - 7] - (2006) - novelette
57 - Consigned - (2007) - short story
67 - Cold Fire - (2008) - short story
81 - Pardon Our Conquest - [Humanx Commonwealth] - (2009) - short story
92 - That Creeping Sensation - (2011) - short story
102 - Rural Singularity - (2013) - short story
112 - Seasoning - (2014) - short story
120 - Our Specialty Is Xenogeology - (2017) - short story
133 - Ten and Ten - (2018) - short story
142 - Valentin Sharffen and the Code of Doom - short story

The Invisible World

Nora Fussner

Eve is a frustrated young artist and the owner of what she believes is a haunted house. Sandra is an overworked producer at Searching for... the Invisible World, a paranormal investigations show perpetually on the brink of cancelation.

When the show descends upon Eve's home, they're intent on creating just another staged spectacle. But, unexpectedly, the crew encounters some very real activity--shelves collapse, electronics go haywire, a cameraman disappears in the dead of night. Meanwhile, the show's teenage ghost hunter Caitlin is caught up in the unexplained events, convinced she's glimpsing the "other side" and desperate to make contact--even if it means putting the investigation, and herself, in jeopardy.

As the terror mounts, it's up to the show's harried, skeptical producer, Sandra, to create order from the madness--or will the madness take her, too?

The World According to Anna

Jostein Gaarder

When fifteen-year-old Anna begins receiving messages from another time, her parents take her to the doctor. But he can find nothing wrong with Anna; in fact he believes there may be some truth to what she is seeing.

Anna is haunted by visions of the desolate world of 2082. She sees her great-granddaughter, Nova, roaming through wasteland with a band of survivors, after animals and plants have died out.

The more Anna sees, the more she realises she must act to prevent the future in her visions becoming real. But can she act quickly enough?

The World of the End

Ofir Touché Gafla

As an epilogist, Ben Mendelssohn appreciates an unexpected ending. But when that denouement is the untimely demise of his beloved wife, Ben is incapable of coping. Marian was more than his life partner; she was the fiber that held together all that he is. And Ben is willing to do anything, even enter the unknown beyond, if it means a chance to be with her again.

One bullet to the brain later, Ben is in the Other World, where he discovers a vast and curiously secular existence utterly unlike anything he could have imagined: a realm of sprawling cities where the deceased of every age live an eternal second life, and where forests of family trees are tended by mysterious humans who never lived in the previous world. But Ben cannot find Marian.

Desperate for a reunion, he enlists an unconventional afterlife investigator to track her down, little knowing that his search is entangled in events that continue to unfold in the world of the living. It is a search that confronts Ben with one heart-rending shock after another; with the best and worst of human nature; with the resilience and fragility of love; and with truths that will haunt him through eternity.

The Glory of the World

Sergey Gerasimov

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, July 2008. It can also be found in the anthologies Realms 2: The Second Year of Clarkesworld Magazine (2010), edited by Nick Mamatas and Sean Wallace, and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012), edited by Lavie Tidhar.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Widows in the World

Gavin J. Grant

This novelette originally appeared on Strange Horizons, February 7th and 14th, 2011. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, edited by Rich Horton.

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons - Part 1 - Part 2.

Tales of the Hidden World

Simon R. Green

Seventeen delightfully unexpected stories from Simon R. Green—including a brand-new adventure of the Droods—take us deep into the Darkside, embroil us in the Secret Histories, and lead us into the shadowy places where monsters and demons roam

Welcome to the worlds of Simon R. Green. In this wide-ranging collection, the New York Times–bestselling urban fantasist opens doors into hidden places: strange realms bordering our own mundane existence and prowled by creatures of fancy and nightmare. Here are the strange, frequently deadly—and sometimes even dead—things that lurk in garbage-strewn city alleyways and grimy subway stations after midnight, visible only to the most perceptive human or inhuman eye.

In these tales, Green revisits the ingenious worlds within worlds that he created for his wildly popular novels. Take a stroll on the Darkside with a jaded street wizard, an underpaid government functionary responsible for keeping demons, vamps, and aliens in line. Enter the hidden recesses of Drood Hall, where the aging family member who creates powerful weapons that protect humankind recalls his long and bloody career. Join a squad of no-longer-human soldiers dispatched to combat the all-consuming jungle on a distant planet. Visit a house at the intesection of two realities that serves as a sanctuary from the evil of all worlds. Confront the unstoppable zombie army of General Kurtz in a brilliant homage to Apocalypse Now. And whatever you do, never forget that there are monsters out there. Really.

Each story includes a new afterword by the author.

Table of Contents:

Question of Solace - shortfiction
Street Wizard - (2010) - shortstory
Death is a Lady - (1997) - shortfiction
Dorothy Dreams - (2013) - shortfiction
Down and Out in Deadtown - (2012) - shortfiction
From Out of the Sun, Endlessly Singing - (2012) - shortstory
It's All About the Rendering - (2011) - shortfiction
Find Heaven and Hell in the Smallest Things - (2012) - novelette
Jesus and Satan Go Jogging in the Desert - (2011) - shortfiction
Food of the Gods - (2009) - shortfiction
He Said, Laughing - (2010) - shortstory
Soldier, Soldier - (1979) - shortfiction
Manslayer - (1980) - shortstory
Cascade - (1979) - shortfiction
Soulhunter - (1982) - shortstory
Awake, Awake Ye Northern Winds - (1979) - shortfiction
In the Labyrinth - (1983) - shortstory

Other Worlds of Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov
Martin H. Greenberg

Table of Contents:

1 - The Gods Themselves - (1972) - novel
171 - The C-Chute - (1951) - novelette
187 - The Dead Past - (1956) - novelette
229 - Hostess - (1951) - novelette
259 - "In a Good Cause--"? - (1951) - novelette
277 - The Key - [Wendell Urth] - (1966) - novelette
299 - Lest We Remember - (1982) - novelette
321 - The Martian Way - (1952) - novelette
355 - Nightfall - (1941) - novelette
379 - Profession - (1957) - novella
419 - Sucker Bait - (1954) - novella
467 - The Ugly Little Boy - (1958) - novelette (variant of Lastborn)
497 - Youth - (1952) - novelette
519 - The End of Eternity - (1955) - novel

Before the World Crumbles Away

A. T. Greenblatt

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 27, March-April 2019.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

Questions Asked in the Belly of the World

A. T. Greenblatt

For the residents of this mycological ecosystem, creating art feeds the World around you and requires working in harmony with your inner voice. When one artist's voice begins screaming, he's forced to travel farther than he ever has before to reconcile with the noise in his head and find his true place in society before it's too late.

Red the full story for free at Tor Reactor.

The Wandering Worlds

Terry Greenhough

A strange and viscious attack of mental energy is suddenly unleashed on the occupants of Explorer Globe 13 during a routine mission to find mineral wealth in a distant planetary system. Only Keek, the vessels alien menial is unaffected.

End of the World Blues

Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Kit Nouveau figured he'd already come to the end of the world. An Iraqi war veteran, expatriate, and part owner of Pirate Mary's, the best Irish bar in Tokyo, Kit had settled down to await the inevitable with barely a whimper. It wasnt exactly how Kit thought he'd end up, and he was right.

It's going to end up a lot worse.

A teenage runaway with fifteen million dollars in stolen cash and a taste for cosplay is about to save Kit's life in a lethal swirl of scarlet and bridal lace. Lady Neku, a.k.a. Countess of High Strange, has her own dangerous destiny to fulfill and it's mysteriously connected to Kit's ravaged past. Now Kit's only hope for redemption is to save an ex-girlfriend he tragically failed once before. But everyone says it's already too late. And she's left behind only one ominous clue: her suicide note.

Psalms for the End of the World

Cole Haddon

It's 1962 and physics student Grace Pulansky believes she has met the man of her dreams, Robert Jones, while serving up slices of pecan pie at the local diner. But then the FBI shows up, with their fedoras and off-the-rack business suits, and accuses him of being a bomb-planting mass-murderer.

Finding herself on the run with Jones across America's Southwest, the discoveries awaiting Gracie will undermine everything she knows about the universe. Her story will reveal how scores of lives - an identity-swapping rock star, a mourning lover in ancient China, Nazi hunters in pursuit of a terrible secret, a crazed artist in pre-revolutionary France, an astronaut struggling with a turbulent interplanetary future, and many more - are interconnected across space and time by love, grief, and quantum entanglement.

When the World Shook

H. Rider Haggard

When adventurers Bastin, Bickley, and Arbuthnot are marooned on a South Sea island, they discover two Atlanteans in a state of suspended animation. One of the awakened sleepers, Lord Oro, is a superman -- the last king of the Sons of Wisdom, who'd relied on hyper-advanced technology to subjugate the planet's lesser peoples. The other is Oro's sexy daughter, Yva... who falls in love with Arbuthnot. Using astral projection, Lord Oro visits London and the battlefields of the Western Front. Why? To determine whether or not he should once again employ an infernal chthonic machine to drown the worthless human race, as he'd done 250,000 years earlier!

The novel, which Rudyard Kipling helped plot, was first published in 1919.

Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds

Joe Haldeman

An engaging tour through the work and life of one of America's great science fiction writers

Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Joe Haldeman burst onto the literary scene with the hugely popular novel The Forever War, but his career also took off on the strength of his short fiction. This brilliant collection brings together examples of his science fiction as well as his writing on Vietnam--and reveals the inexorable connections between the two.

The works included in Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds are united by its title essay, in which Haldeman explains how his past informs his envisioned futures. One of these futures is a grouping of four stories from the Confederación universe, which includes his novels All My Sins Remembered and There Is No Darkness. An anthropological expedition goes awry as a research team's subjects become murderous, and trade negotiations fall apart, comically lost in translation. The collection closes with one of Haldeman's most affective works about Vietnam--the moving narrative poem "DX."

Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds proves to be an anthology as versatile and multifaceted as the author who wrote it.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - essay
Passages - (1990) - novelette
A !Tangled Web - (1981) - novelette
Seasons - (1985) - novella
The Mazel Tov Revolution - (1974) - shortstory
Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds - (1992) - essay
Not Being There - essay
Confessions of a Space Junkie - (1992) - essay
War Stories - essay
Photographs and Memories - essay
Saul's Death - (1983) - poem
Homecoming - (1990) - poem
Time Lapse - (1989) - poem
DX - (1987) - poem

The World with a Thousand Moons

Edmond Hamilton

There was terrible danger among the moons circling this world, but even greater menace on its surface.

This novel first appeared in the December, 1942 Issue of Amazing Stories magazine.

A free copy of The World with a Thousand Moons is available from The Project Gutenberg.

The Broken Worlds

Raymond Harris

THESE ARE THE BROKEN WORLDS...

MARS... center of the fractured universe, planet of immortal warlords and cloned warriors, fallen now to the alien invaders.

PARMENIO... fog-shrouded pleasure planer, playground of the decadent, where anythi9ng and anybody could be bought--or stolen.

LOEI... world of towering peaks, rife with intrigue and dander, rumored hiding place of the fabled fleet of Old Earth.

YNENGA... desert planer, home fo the bird-like Tu-u, with shifting sands that hide ancient secrets.

VIHARN... a world divided, where cloud dwellers turn traitor, and those who dwell on the land may hold the key to survival.

Attanio Hwin, reluctant messender. Chance and a beautiful woman have bfought him from the steamy streets of Parmenio to the vaulting corridors of a Martian veilship and the scattered settlements of the Galactic Arm. He carries a warning to the hostile inhabitants:

The aliens are coming.

The Broken Wrolds must unite... or die!

The World Treasury of Science Fiction

David G. Hartwell

Table of Contents:

Foreword - (1989) - essay by Clifton Fadiman
Introduction - (1988) - essay by David G. Hartwell
Harrison Bergeron - (1961) - shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Forgetfulness - (1937) - novelette by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Special Flight - (1939) - novelette by John Berryman
Chronopolis - (1960) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
Triceratops - (1982) - novelette by Tensei Kono
The Man Who Lost the Sea - (1959) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
On the Inside Track - (1986) - novelette by Karl Michael Armer
The Golem - (1955) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
The New Prehistory - (1983) - shortstory by René Rebetez-Cortes
A Meeting With Medusa - (1971) - novelette by Arthur C. Clarke
The Valley of Echoes - (1973) - shortstory by Gérard Klein
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - (1972) - novella by Gene Wolfe
The Chaste Planet - (1975) - shortstory by John Updike
The Blind Pilot - (1960) - shortstory by Nathalie Henneberg
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed - (1958) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
Pairpuppets - (1976) - shortstory by Manuel van Loggem
Two Dooms - (1958) - novella by C. M. Kornbluth
Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon - (1977) - shortstory by Stanislaw Lem
The Green Hills of Earth - (1947) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
Ghost V - (1954) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
The Phantom of Kansas - (1976) - novelette by John Varley
Captain Nemo's Last Adventure - (1973) - novelette by Josef Nesvadba
Inconstant Moon - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
The Gold at the Starbow's End - (1972) - novella by Frederik Pohl
A Sign in Space - (1968) - shortstory by Italo Calvino
The Spiral - (1968) - shortstory by Italo Calvino
The Dead Past - (1956) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
The Lens - (1984) - shortstory by Annemarie van Ewijck
The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast - (1949) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
Zero Hour - (1947) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
Nine Lives - (1969) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Muse - (1968) - shortstory by Anthony Burgess
The Public Hating - (1955) - shortstory by Steve Allen
Poor Superman - (1951) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
Angouleme - (1971) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
Stranger Station - (1956) - novelette by Damon Knight
The Dead Fish - (1955) - shortstory by Boris Vian
I Was the First to Find You - (1977) - shortstory by Kir Bulychev
The Lineman - (1957) - novella by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius - (1961) - shortstory by Jorge Luís Borges
Codemus - (1976) - shortstory by Tor Åge Bringsvaerd
A Kind of Artistry - (1962) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
Second Variety - (1953) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
Weihnachtsabend - (1972) - novelette by Keith Roberts
I Do Not Love Thee, Doctor Fell - (1955) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
Aye, and Gomorrah... - (1967) - shortstory by Samuel R. Delany
How Erg the Self-Inducting Slew a Paleface - (1977) - shortstory by Stanislaw Lem
Nobody's Home - (1972) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
Party Line - (1976) - novelette by Gérard Klein (trans. of Ligne de partage 1969)
The Proud Robot - (1943) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
Vintage Season - (1946) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
The Way to Amalteia - (1984) - novella by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
Acknowledgements - (1988) - essay by David G. Hartwell

How I Saved the World in a Week

Polly Ho-Yen

Rule number one: Always be prepared...

Billy's mum isn't like other mums. All she wants is to teach him the Rules of Survival - how to make fire, build shelter and find food. She likes to test Billy on the rules until one day she goes too far, and Billy is sent to live with a dad he barely knows.

Then the world changes forever as people begin to be infected with a mysterious virus that turns their skin grey. As chaos breaks out, Billy has to flee the city. Suddenly he realises that this is what his mum was preparing him for - not just to save his family, but to save the whole world.

The World That We Knew

Alice Hoffman

In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it's his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.

Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she's destined to be.

What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never ending.

To the Bright Edge of the World

Eowyn Ivey

In the winter of 1885, decorated war hero Colonel Allen Forrester leads a small band of men on an expedition that has been deemed impossible: to venture up the Wolverine River and pierce the vast, untamed Alaska Territory. Leaving behind Sophie, his newly pregnant wife, Colonel Forrester records his extraordinary experiences in hopes that his journal will reach her if he doesn't return--once he passes beyond the edge of the known world, there's no telling what awaits him.

The Wolverine River Valley is not only breathtaking and forbidding but also terrifying in ways that the colonel and his men never could have imagined. As they map the territory and gather information on the native tribes, whose understanding of the natural world is unlike anything they have ever encountered, Forrester and his men discover the blurred lines between human and wild animal, the living and the dead. And while the men knew they would face starvation and danger, they cannot escape the sense that some greater, mysterious force threatens their lives.

Meanwhile, on her own at Vancouver Barracks, Sophie chafes under the social restrictions and yearns to travel alongside her husband. She does not know that the winter will require as much of her as it does her husband, that both her courage and faith will be tested to the breaking point. Can her exploration of nature through the new art of photography help her to rediscover her sense of beauty and wonder?

The truths that Allen and Sophie discover over the course of that fateful year change both of their lives--and the lives of those who hear their stories long after they're gone--forever.

The Library of Broken Worlds

Alaya Dawn Johnson

A girl and a god, alone in communion...

In the winding underground tunnels of the Library, the great peacekeeper of the three systems, a heinous secret lies buried - and Freida is the only one who can uncover it. As the daughter of a Library god, Freida has spent her whole life exploring the Library's ever-changing tunnels and communing with the gods. Her unparalleled access makes her unique - and dangerous.

When Freida meets Joshua, a Tierran boy desperate to save his people, and Nergüi, a disciple from a persecuted religious minority, Freida is compelled to help them. But in order to do so, she will have to venture deeper into the Library than she has ever known. There she will discover the atrocities of the past, the truth of her origins, and the impossibility of her future.

With the world at the brink of war, Freida embarks on a journey to fulfill her destiny, one that pits her against an ancient war god. Her mission is straightforward: Destroy the god before he can rain hellfire upon thousands of innocent lives - if he doesn't destroy her first.

The Space Between Worlds

Micaiah Johnson

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there's just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying – from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn't outrun. Cara's life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works – and shamelessly flirts – with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined – and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.

The Logic of the World

Robert Kelly

This short story originally appeared in Conjunctions 52: Betwixt the Between: Impossible Realities (2009), edited by Brian Evenson and Bradford Morrow. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010, edited by Rich Horton.

The All-Consuming World

Cassandra Khaw

A diverse team of broken, diminished former criminals get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade... but they're not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir. The highly-evolved AI of the universe have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humans from ever controlling the universe again. This band of dangerous women, half-clone and half-machine, must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.

The Hero and His Elf Bride Open a Pizza Parlor in Another World

Kaya Kizaki

Save the World... With Pizza?!

After being struck and killed by a delivery bike, Kaito is given the opportunity to be reborn in an alternate world as one of three "hero" classes:

1. A swordsman
2. A magician
3. A hero who saves the world with pizza

When the first two options are quickly taken, Kaito is forced to live his second life as a hero endowed with the power of pizza in a land of herbivorous elves...one of whom happens to be his new wife! What kinds of pizza-related adventures lie ahead for our High-Calorie Hero and his food-obsessed elf bride?

The World of Science Fiction: 1926-1976: The History of a Subculture

Lester del Rey

The important role Sci-Fi has played in defining modern life is explored in this work edited by a true insider.

Contents include:

What Science Fiction Is
The Beginnings of Science Fiction
The Rise of the Pulps
The Third Source
The Age of Wonder 1926-37
Magazines of Hugo Gernsback
Dawn of Astounding
The Crucial Years
The Active Fan
The Shaping of the Future
The Golden Age 1938-49
Campbell's Astounding
War and the Bomb
Proliferation of Magazines
Science Fiction in Books
Growth of Fandom
Reshaping the Future
The Age of Acceptsance 1950-61
The Quest for Magic
The Big Boom
And the Collapse
The Magazine Business
Wider Horizons
FIAWOL ir FIJAGH?
Watershed
The Age of Rebellion 1962-73
Survivors
The Torch Passes
Rebellion
The New Wave and Art
Enter: Academe
The Big Con Game
The Fifth Age 1974-
Parrallels and Perspectives
Fantasy, Buck Rogers and Mr. Spock
Glossary
Themes and Variations
Utopias and Dystopias
But What Good Is It?
Mene, Mene, Tekel
After "Star Wars"
Index

The World and Thorinn

Damon Knight

Thorinn went down. He had little choice, since his own father had hurled him into a well.

Yet the world was shifting in those days, and Thorinn was to go deeper than his father had ever dreamed; destined to discover strange worlds within worlds, to meet beasts undreamed of, and to discover that which few of us are permitted to know:

His Own True Name.

The House at the End of the World

Dean Koontz

In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob's Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting.

The neighboring island of Ringrock houses a secret: a government research facility. And now two agents have arrived on Jacob's Ladder in search of someone--or something--they refuse to identify. Although an air of menace hangs over these men, an infinitely greater threat has arrived, one so strange even the island animals are in a state of high alarm.

Katie soon finds herself in an epic and terrifying battle with a mysterious enemy. But Katie's not alone after all: a brave young girl appears out of the violent squall. As Katie and her companion struggle across a dark and eerie landscape, against them is an omnipresent terror that could bring about the end of the world.

The Most Famous Little Girl in the World

Nancy Kress

This short story originally appeared on Sci Fiction, May 8, 2002, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld, Issue 123, December 2016. It can also be found in the anthologyThe Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection (2003). The story is included in the collection Nano Comes to Clifford Falls: And Other Stories (2008).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Waiting Out the End of the World in Patty's Place Cafe

Naomi Kritzer

This Clarkesworld Reader's Poll Finalist short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld, #126, March 2017. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

The Dark World

Henry Kuttner

Henry Kuttner's Sword and Sorcery classic returns to print at last! World War II veteran Edward Bond's recuperation from a disastrous fighter plane crash takes a distinct turn for the weird when he encounters a giant wolf, a red witch, and the undeniable power of the need-fire, a portal to a world of magic and swordplay at once terribly new and hauntingly familiar. In the Dark World, Bond opposes the machinations of the dread lord Ganelon and his terrible retinue of werewolves, wizards, and witches, but all is not as it seems in this shadowy mirror of the real world, and Bond discovers that a part of him feels more at home here than he ever has on Earth.

Where the World is Quiet

Henry Kuttner

The life of an anthropologist is no doubt filled much of the time with the monotonous routine of carefully assembling powdery relics of ancient races and civilizations. But White's lone Peruvian odyssey was most unusual...

This story was originally published under the pen name of C. H. Liddell in Fantastic Universe, May 1954. Read this story for free at Project Gutenberg.

In the Shadow of the Towers: Speculative Fiction in a Post-9/11 World

Douglas Lain

In the Shadow of the Towers compiles nearly twenty works of speculative fiction responding to and inspired by the events of 9/11, from writers seeking to confront, rebuild, and carry on, even in the face of overwhelming emotion.

Writer and editor Douglas Lain presents a thought-provoking anthology featuring a variety of award-winning and best-selling authors, from Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation) and Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) to Susan Palwick (Flying in Place) and James Morrow (Towing Jehovah). Touching on themes as wide-ranging as politics, morality, and even heartfelt nostalgia, today's speculative fiction writers prove that the rubric of the fantastic offers an incomparable view into how we respond to tragedy.

Each contributor, in his or her own way, contemplates the same question:

How can we continue dreaming in the shadow of the towers?

Table of Contents:

There's a Hole in the City - (2005) - shortstory by Richard Bowes
My Eyes, Your Ears - (2010) - shortfiction by Ray Vukcevich
Beautiful Stuff - (2004) - shortstory by Susan Palwick
The Goat Variations - (2009) - shortstory by Jeff VanderMeer
The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill - (2015) - shortstory by Kelly Robson
Retribution - (2012) - shortfiction by Tim Marquitz
Until Forgiveness Comes - (2008) - shortstory by K. Tempest Bradford
Pipeline - (2005) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
Unexpected Outcomes - (2009) - shortstory by Tim Pratt
Closing Time - (2003) - novella by Jack Ketchum
The Last Apollo Mission - (2011) - novelette by Douglas Lain
Giliad - (2004) - novella by Gregory Feeley
Apologue - (2001) - shortstory by James Morrow
Beyond the Flags - shortfiction by Kris Saknussemm
Our Lady of Toledo Transmission - shortfiction by Rob McCleary
Out of My Sight, Out of My Mind - shortfiction by David D. Friedman
The Zenith Angle (excerpt) - shortfiction by Bruce Sterling
Little Brother (excerpt) - shortfiction by Cory Doctorow

The Sky That Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black

Jay Lake

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #18 March 2008. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection (2009), edited by Gardner Dozoiz, and Realms 2: The Second Year of Clarkesworld Magazine (2010), edited by Nick Mamatas and Sean Wallace. It is included in the collection The Sky That Wraps (2010).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

The Birthday of the World

Table of Contents:

vii - Introductory Note (Dancing at the Edge of the World) - essay
3 - The Space Crone - (1976) - essay
7 - Is Gender Necessary? Redux - (1987) - essay
17 - "Moral and Ethical Implications of Family Planning" - essay
21 - It Was a Dark and Stormy Night; or, Why Are We Huddling About the Campfire? - (1980) - essay
31 - Working on "The Lathe" - (1980) - essay
37 - Some Thoughts on Narrative - essay
46 - World-Making - (1983) - essay
49 - Hunger - essay
51 - Places Names - essay
75 - The Princess - essay
80 - A Non-Euclidean View of California As a Cold Place to Be - (1983) - essay
101 - Facing It - essay
104 - Reciprocity of Prose and Poetry - essay
115 - A Left-Handed Commencement Address - essay
118 - Along the Platte - (1983) - essay
123 - Whose Lathe? - (1984) - essay
127 - The Woman Without Answers - essay
130 - The Second Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb - shortstory
135 - Room 9, Car 1430 - (1985) - essay
138 - Theodora - (1985) - essay
142 - Science Fiction and the Future - essay
144 - The Only Good Author? - (1985) - essay
147 - Bryn Mawr Commencement Address - (1986) - essay
161 - Woman/Wilderness - essay
165 - The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction - (1988) - essay
171 - Heroes - (1986) - essay
176 - Prospects for Women in Writing - (1986) - essay
179 - Text, Silence, Performance - (1986) - essay
188 - "Who is Responsible?" - (1987) - essay
190 - Conflict - (1987) - essay
192 - "Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?" - (1987) - essay
201 - Over the Hills and a Great Way Off - (1988) - essay
212 - The Fisherwoman's Daughter - (1988) - essay

REVIEWS:

1977 The Dark Tower, by C.S. Lewis
1978 Close Encounters, Star Wars, and the Tertium Quid
1979 Shikasta, by Doris Lessing
1980 Two from "Venom"
Freddy's Book and Vlemk, by John Gardner
The Marriage Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, by Doris Lessing
Kalila and Dimna, retold by Ramsay Wood
Unfinished Busines, by Maggie Scarf
Italian Folktales, by Italo Calvino
1981 Peak's Progress, by Mervyn Peake
1983 The Sentimental Agents, by Doris Lessing
1984 Difficult Loves, by Italo Calvino
"Forsaking Kingdomes": Five Poets
1985 The Mythology of North American, by John Bierhorst
1986 Silent Partners, by Eugene Linden
Outside the Gates, by Molly Gloss
Golden Days, by Carolyn See
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories

Locus Award winning and Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2000. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001), and Year's Best SF 6 (2001), edited by David G. Hardwell. It is included in the collection The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (2002).

The Shadow at the Bottom of the World

Six of these tales are set in the author's signature world of the Ekumen, a world made familiar in her award-winning novel The Left Hand of Darkness. The title story was hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "remarkable... a standout." Paradises Lost is a mesmerizing novella of space exploration and the pursuit of happiness. These stories explore complex social interactions, troublesome issues of gender and sex, and the meaning of transformation, religion, and history.

Contents:

Another Word for World

Ann Leckie

This novelette originally appeared in Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft (2015), edited by Jennifer Henshaw and Allison Linn (and can be obtained for free at the Kindle link above). It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 1 (2016), edited by Neil Clarke, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois.

A Heroine of the World

Tanith Lee

The fortune teller had spoken the words, shown her the cards that predicted she would become the focal point of great events. But now, a captive of those who had invaded her land, Ara could only wait, hoping to discover the true path of her destiny. But in a world ruled by the war, what chance did Ara have to attain her heart's desire? Carried far from her home, alone among strangers, only the will of the goddess, the Lady Volmardra, could protect and guide her.

Yet the path the Lady had set her upon would lead Ara to the very heart of conflict. And through she might gain great wealth or lose it, become both pawn and player in the power games of princes and warlords, there was only one for whom she would risk everything, a soldier who some named traitor and others liberator, the man for whom she would strive to become-A HEROINE OF THE WORLD.

The World Gives Way

Marissa Levien

In fifty years, Myrra will be free.

Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract--butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles.

But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated--and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world--and embrace what's left before it's too late.

The Glittering World

Robert Levy

Lambda Award Finalist

When up-and-coming chef Michael "Blue" Whitley returns with three friends to the remote Canadian community of his birth, it appears to be the perfect getaway from New York. He soon discovers, however, that everything he thought he knew about himself is a carefully orchestrated lie. Though he had no recollection of the event, as a young boy, Blue and another child went missing for weeks in the idyllic, mysterious woods of Starling Cove. Soon thereafter, his mother suddenly fled with him to America, their homeland left behind.

But then Blue begins to remember. And once the shocking truth starts bleeding back into his life, his closest friends -- Elisa, his former partner in crime; her stalwart husband, Jason; and Gabe, Blue's young and admiring coworker -- must unravel the secrets of Starling Cove and the artists' colony it once harbored. All four will face their troubled pasts, their most private demons, and a mysterious race of beings that inhabits the land, spoken of by the locals only as the Other Kind...

Thomas Ligotti

Brings together some of the best works of master horror writer Thomas Ligotti. The title story The Shadow at the Bottom of the World is the tale of a small town that is gripped by a kind of existential darkness.

Thirteen Steps in the Underworld

Su-Yee Lin

Stories about mortals travelling into hell have been omnipresent in our literary canon for almost as long as weve had one, but young writer Su-Yee Lin has still managed to find modern resonance and new territory to explore in this lyrical and evocative vision of a trip to a place that is never quite what we expect it to be.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Blue, Beautiful World

Karen Lord

The world is changing, and humanity must change with it. Rising seas and soaring temperatures have radically transformed the face of Earth. Meanwhile, Earth is being observed from afar by other civilizations... and now they are ready to make contact.

Vying to prepare humanity for first contact are a group of dreamers and changemakers, including Peter Hendrix, the genius inventor behind the most advanced VR tech; Charyssa, a beloved celebrity icon with a passion for humanitarian work; and Kanoa, a member of a global council of young people drafted to reimagine the relationship between humankind and alien societies.

And they may have an unexpected secret weapon: Owen, a pop megastar whose ability to connect with his adoring fans is more than charisma. His hidden talent could be the key to uniting Earth as it looks toward the stars.

But Owen's abilities are so unique that no one can control him and so seductive that he cannot help but use them. Can he transcend his human limitations and find the freedom he has always dreamed of? Or is he doomed to become the dictator of his nightmares?

Other Times, Other Worlds

John D. MacDonald

Table of Contents:

9 - Introduction (Other Times, Other Worlds) - essay by Martin H. Greenberg
15 - The Mechanical Answer
35 - Dance of a New World
51 - Ring Around the Redhead
75 - A Child Is Crying
91 - Flaw
101 - But Not to Dream
113 - The Miniature
127 - Spectator Sport
135 - Half-Past Eternity
193 - The Big Contest
203 - Susceptibility
215 - Common Denominator
227 - Game for Blondes
239 - Labor Supply
249 - The Legend of Joe Lee
263 - The Annex
279 - Afterword (Other Times, Other Worlds) - essay by John D. MacDonald
283 - Bibliography (Other Times, Other Worlds) - essay by June Moffatt and Len Moffatt

The Woman Between the Worlds

F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre

A female shape-changer, pursued by invisible aliens, escapes to Victorian London. . . where she is aided by Aleister Crowley and the disciples of the Golden Dawn.

The Hothouse World

Fred MacIsaac

A post-apocalyptic world far gone, Humanity huddled within their glass-cage city were they lived, the last survivors of the Ice-Age cataclysm... One man dared the hostile world of freezing death outside the city in a bottle, in a wild despairing fight to turn back the clock and save the smouldering embers of mankind.

Learning the World

Ken MacLeod

Humanity has spread to every star within 500 light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. Societies rise and fall. Incautious experiments burn fast and fade. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with the job of settling a universe that has, so far, been empty of intelligent life.

The ancient starship But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering orbit around a promising new system after a four hundred year journey. For its long-lived inhabitants, the centuries have been busy. Now a younger generation is eager to settle the system. The ship is a seed-pod ready to burst.

Then they detect curious electromagnetic emissions from the system's Earth-like world. As the nature of the signals becomes clear, the choices facing the humans become stark.

On Ground, second world from the sun, a young astronomer searches for his system's outermost planet. A moving point of light thrills, then disappoints him. It's only a comet. His physicist colleague Orro takes time off from trying to invent a flying-machine to calculate the comet's trajectory. Something is very odd about that comet's path.

They are not the only ones for whom the world has changed.

"We are not living in the universe we thought we lived in yesterday. We have to start learning the world all over again."

The Many Worlds of Barry Malzberg

Barry N. Malzberg

Barry Malzberg's fourth collection, including several previously unpublished stories. Includes an introduction by Malzberg and a preface by Roger Ellwood.

Contents:

Initiation - (1975)
Management - (1975)
The Union Forever - (1973)
Reconstitution - (1975)
Final War - (1968)
Closed Sicilian - (1973)
After the Unfortunate Accident - (1975)
The Second Short Shortest Fantasy Story Ever Published - (1973)
In the Cup - (1972)
Death to the Keeper - (1968)
Chronicles of a Comer - (1972)

The Hidden World

Graham Masterton

When Jessica's parents are tragically killed in a car crash, she goes to live with her grandparents in their big old house in Connecticut. Bullied at her new school because of the injury she suffered in the crash, Jessica finds solace in her favourite fairies and the pictures she loves to draw. One day she suffers bad concussion after falling downstairs at school, and while recovering at home she hears the strange sound of children's voices calling for help.

At first Jessica cannot work out where the voices are coming from, but eventually she discovers from a mysterious but kindly old neighbour that they are in fact coming from inside her bedroom wallpaper. Attempting to overcome her own disbelief, Jessica and some friends venture into the world inside her wall where they find an extraordinary land where everyday household objects like spoons and hats take on a life of their own. But there is great danger to be found inside this hidden world, and it is up to Jessica to rescue the strange children whose voices she had heard, before it's too late.

He Owned the World

Charles Eric Maine

8000 YEARS AGO HE DIED...

Eighty centuries of war and massive destruction, and peace and war again; centuries in which the earth was ravaged and mankind forced to leave the once green hills and fields to burrow, molelike, away from the deadly radiation that was the atom's legacy.

Centuries, too, in which man gained firm footholds in space and victories over disease and age and, finally, death itself.

Eighty centuries of undreamed-of progress and unspeakable violence, while Robert Carson, earth's first sacrifice to space, circled the heavens in his airless tomb.

Now, suddenly, he was alive and resurrected from the dead and dreamless centuries by a miracle of science, thrust into the middle of the greatest conflict in mankind's history.

And Robert Carson, eight thousand years a corpse, was the undisputed owner of the world!

Wonders of the Invisible World

Patricia A. McKillip

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Full Spectrum 5 (1995), edited by Tom Dupree, Jennifer Hershey and Janna Silverstein. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF (1995), edited by David G. Hartwell. The story is included in the collection Wonders of the Invisible World (2012).

Wonders of the Invisible World

Patricia A. McKillip

Pass through fairy tales into the magic of invisible worlds in these opulent stories by a beloved fantasy icon and author of the classic Riddlemaster trilogy. Patricia McKillip has inspired generations of dedicated readers with enchanting tales that are as romantic as they are unexpected. Her lush, mesmerizing narratives are as deliciously bittersweet as the finest chocolate and as intoxicating as the finest wine.

The bewitching wonders offered here include princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune's fool stealing into the present instead of the future. You'll discover a ravishing undine and her mortal bridegroom who is more infatuated with politics than pleasure, a time-traveling angel forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather's religious ravings, a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen returning with a treasure that is rightfully hers, and an overachieving teenage mage tricked into discovering her true name very close to home.

Table of Contents

Introduction - essay by Charles de Lint
Wonders of the Invisible World - (1995) - short story
Out of the Woods - (2004) - short story
The Kelpie - (2005) - novelette
Hunter's Moon - (2002) - short story
Oak Hill - (1998) - short story
The Fortune-Teller - (2007) - short story
Jack O'Lantern - (2006) - novelette
Knight of the Well - (2008) - novella
Naming Day - (2007) - short story
Byndley - (2003) - short story
The Twelve Dancing Princesses - (2000) - short story
Undine - (2004) - short story
Xmas Cruise - (1993) - short story
A Gift to Be Simple - (1999) - short story
The Old Woman and the Storm - (1985) - short story
The Doorkeeper of Khaat - (1989) - short story
What Inspires Me: Guest of Honor Speech at WisCon 28, 2004 - essay

The Carefully Considered Rape of the World: A Novel About the Unspeakable

Shepherd Mead

This is the story of women becoming inexplicably pregnant. And it happens to every type of woman, regardless of race or creed, from nuns to lesbians.

It happened to Beauford Abel's wife. With her, a perfume tester called; one of his more exotic samples made her black out for a split second. At least, she thought it was a split second...

When Beauford eventually figures out what's going on, he plays amateur sleuth. But instead of finding sex maniacs, he finds brainy apes planning to invade the earth. And the brainy apes are clever enough to ask Beauford to handle their PR. They'd like to be liked when they land. And they'd like the baby apes that earth women will soon be giving birth to, to be liked as well.

You might think this is a pretty funny way for invaders to act. In this book, everything's funny.

The Worlds of Science Fiction

Robert P. Mills

A collection of 15 science fiction stories that introduce the reader to the variety of themes and subjects that the genre can offer.

Table of Contents:

9 - Introduction (The Worlds of Science Fiction) - essay by Robert P. Mills
13 - The First Men - novelette by Howard Fast
49 - A Work of Art - short story by James Blish
71 - Evening Primrose - short story by John Collier
87 - Memento Homo - short story by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
109 - A Miracle of Rare Device - short story by Ray Bradbury
127 - "All You Zombies..." - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
143 - Faq' - short story by George P. Elliott
157 - Babel II - novelette by Damon Knight
187 - A Saucer of Loneliness - short story by Theodore Sturgeon
205 - Night Piece - short story by Poul Anderson
225 - Now Let Us Sleep - short story by Avram Davidson
241 - The Strange Girl - short story by Mark Van Doren
249 - The Quest for Saint Aquin - novelette by Anthony Boucher
273 - The War in the Air - short story by R. V. Cassill
293 - The Ugly Little Boy - novelette by Isaac Asimov
340 - Epilogue: My Private World of Science Fiction - essay by Alfred Bester

The Sundered Worlds

Michael Moorcock

The first book of the multiverse.

Dorian Hawkmoon... Corum Jhaelen Irsei... Elric of Melniboné. Over the years, Michael Moorcock has captivated readers with his unending versions of the Eternal Champion, the timeless warrior who serves the Cosmic Balance in the ongoing battle that rages between Law and Chaos through the many planes and levels of the multiverse. But what is the multiverse and what are its origins? In this essential novel, Michael Moorcock provides readers these critical answers.

World War Three has come and gone, and humankind has survived its brutal past to assume its place among the stars. Yet their existence is endangered nonetheless, as their entire universe is threatening to collapse. All their hopes rest on the shoulders of Count Renark von Bek, a nobleman of extraordinary psychic abilities and carefully guarded secrets.

Aided by his companions, von Bek will delve into the Sundered Worlds, a mysterious galaxy outside the space-time continuum that has materialized on the edges of known space. Inside this roving galaxy, they will uncover the secrets of the multiverse and embark upon a last desperate gamble to save humankind.

But as they will soon discover, even survival comes laden with danger, as the solutions to their dilemma may also hold the final keys to their destruction...

Alternate title: The Blood Red Game

The Unseen World

Liz Moore

The moving story of a daughter's quest to discover the truth about her beloved father's hidden past.

Ada Sibelius is raised by David, her brilliant, eccentric, socially inept single father, who directs a computer science lab in 1980s-era Boston. Home-schooled, Ada accompanies David to work every day; by twelve, she is a painfully shy prodigy. The lab begins to gain acclaim at the same time that David's mysterious history comes into question. When his mind begins to falter, leaving Ada virtually an orphan, she is taken in by one of David's colleagues. Soon she embarks on a mission to uncover her father's secrets: a process that carries her from childhood to adulthood. What Ada discovers on her journey into a virtual universe will keep the reader riveted until The Unseen World's heart-stopping, fascinating conclusion.

The Well at the World's End

This is the Way the World Ends

The Complete The Well at the World's End (Books One through Four)

Using language with elements of the medieval tales which were his models, Morris tells the story of Ralph of Upmeads, the fourth and youngest son of a minor king, who sets out, contrary to his parents' wishes, to find knightly adventure and seek the Well at the World's End, a magic well which will confer a near-immortality and strengthened destiny on those who drink from it. The well lies at the edge of the sea beyond a wall of mountains called "The Wall of the World" by those on the near side of them but "The Wall of Strife" by the more peaceful and egalitarian people who live on the seaward side.

Ralph meets a mysterious lady who has drunk from the well, and they become lovers. Together and separately, they face many foes and dangers including brigands, slave traders, unscrupulous rulers and treacherous fellow travellers. The lady is killed, but with the help of Ursula, another maiden whom Ralph meets upon the way, and the Sage of Sweveham, an ancient hermit who has also drunk of the well, Ralph eventually attains the Well, after many more adventures. The outward journey takes more than a year. Returning from the well, Ralph, Ursula and the Sage find that some of the poor oppressed folk they had helped on the way to the well have righted grave wrongs, increased prosperity and reduced the level of strife in the city-state kingdoms along the way. The wayfarers must now decide whether they can settle down to a righteous but stodgy life at Ralph's home kingdom now that they have learned so much and become near-immortal, or are called to further heroism in the wider world.

James Morrow

When George Paxman, a contented tombstone engraver in a sleepy Massachusetts town, is offered a bargain, he doesn't hesitate long. The deal is that his beloved daughter gets an otherwise unaffordable scopas suit to protect her from radioactive fall-out and all George has to do is sign a document admitting that, as a passive citizen who did nothing to stop it, he has a degree of guilt for any nuclear war that breaks out. George signs on the dotted line. And then the unthinkable happens. The world and everyone in it (scopas suit or no scopas suit) is destroyed in nuclear Armageddon. Except for George and five others who must now face prosecution from the great mass of humanity who will now never be born. And George Paxman stands accused in the name of all the people who stood by and never raised a finger to stop the horror of nuclear war.

The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Haruki Murakami

The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages is the unnamed narrator of this excellent book by Murakami, one of Japan's best-selling novelists and winner of the prestigious Tanizaki prize. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite. In alternating chapters he tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow, from which he has been severed by the grim, dark "replacement" consciousness implanted in him by a dotty neurophysiologist. Both worlds share the unearthly theme of unicorn skulls that moan and glow.

The Job at the End of the World

Ray Nayler

A weary resilience worker should know better than anyone: no one is safe when the world is always ending...

Originally published on 30 August 2023, read it for free on Tor.com

The Many Worlds of Andre Norton

The Day the World Turned Upside Down

How many millions of books have been sold and read with pleasure by science fiction readers is beyond anyone's guess. For quite without fanfare Andre Norton has become the favorite author in the pantheon of science fantasy writers. Norton's novels of time travel, of interstellar trade, of other dimensions, and of the fabulous Witch World, are constantly in print and always in demand - and so it with pride that this new book brings to the sf public Norton's rarest gems: novelettes and short stories unavailable elsewhere that comprise between themselves the whole strata of Norton's marvel cosmos. "The Book of Andre Norton" Contains, among others, "The Toads of Grimmerdale", "Long Live Lord Kor!", and five more classics, as well as special articles about and and a complete bibliography.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1974) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
The Toads of Grimmerdale - (1973) - novella
London Bridge - (1973) - shortstory
On Writing Fantasy - (1971) - essay
Mousetrap - (1954) - shortstory
All Cats Are Gray - (1953) - shortstory
The Long Night of Waiting - (1974) - shortstory
The Gifts of Asti - (1948) - shortstory
Long Live Lord Kor! - (1970) - novella
Andre Norton: Loss of Faith - (1971) - essay by Rick Brooks
Norton Bibliography - (1974) - essay by Helen-Jo Jakusz Hewitt

Thomas Olde Heuvelt

That day, the world turned upside down. We didn't know why it happened. Some of us wondered whether it was our fault. Whether we had been praying to the wrong gods, or whether we had said the wrong things. But it wasn't like that--the world simply turned upside down.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed Magazine.

The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence

Alexei Panshin
Cory Panshin

Traces the influences of science-fiction writing on western culture's conception of humankind, writings of such authors as Jules Verne and Robert Heinlein.

The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

Robert Jordan
Teresa Patterson

The Wheel of Time - the #1 New York Times and international bestselling series - is the most extraordinary work of American fantasy ever published. Its popularity is immense; its quality is dazzling. And its world has indeed taken on a fictive reality for its millions of readers.

Over fourscore new full color paintings include stunning new maps of the world, portraits of the central characters, landscapes, objects of Power, and national flags. The reader will learn about the exotic beasts used by the Seanchan and read of the rise and fall of Artur Hawking, peruse the deeper story of the War of the Shadow. Here is the tale of the founding of the White Tower, and the creation of the Ajahs. The inner workings of the closed country, Shara, are revealed, as is the existence of a hitherto unknown continent called The Land of the Madmen. This stunning volume also includes double-page spreads of the seven book jackets by Darrell Sweet so that the art can be enjoyed without type, and all the known maps of the world, including maps of the Seanchan Empire, the nations of the Covenant of the Ten Nations, and the nations as they were when Artur Paendrag Tanreall began his rise to legend. Every Robert Jordan fan needs this book.

The Worlds of H. Beam Piper

H. Beam Piper

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1983) - essay by John F. Carr
Time and Time Again - (1947) - short story
The Mercenaries - (1950) - novelette
Dearest - (1951) - short story
Hunter Patrol - (1959) - novelette with John J. McGuire
Flight from Tomorrow - (1950) - novelette
Operation R.S.V.P. - (1951) - short story
Genesis - - (1951) - novelette
The Answer - (1959) - short story
Crossroads of Destiny - (1959) - short story
Day of the Moron - (1951) - novelette

The Man Who Ate the World

Frederik Pohl

A collection of Frederik Pohl's short stories, including:

The Man Who Ate The World
The Wizards of Pung's Corners
The Waging Of Peace
The Snowmen
The Day The Icicle Works Closed

The World at the End of Time

Frederik Pohl

Wan-To was the oldest and must powerful intelligence in the universe, a being who played with star systems as a child plays with marbles. Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice.

The colonists of Newmanhome first suffered the effects of Wan-To's games when their planet's stars began to shift, the climate began to cool down, and the colony was forced into a desperate struggle to survive.

Viktor Sorricaine was determined to discover what force had suddenly sent his world hurtling toward the ends of the universe. And the answer was something beyond the scope of his imagination -- even if he lived for 4000 years...

The Inverted World

Christopher Priest

The city is winched along a track through a devastated land full of hostile tribes. Tracks must be freshly laid ahead of the city and carefully removed in its wake. Rivers and mountains present nearly insurmountable challenges to the ingenuity of the city's engineers. But if the city does not move, it will fall farther and farther behind the "optimum," slipping into the crushing gravitational field that has transformed life on earth. The only alternative to the city's forward progress is death.

The secret directorate that governs the city makes sure that its inhabitants know nothing of this. Raised in common in creches, nurtured on synthetic food, prevented above all from venturing outside the closed circuit of the city, they are carefully sheltered from the dire necessities that have come to define human existence. And yet, for all that, the city is in crisis. The people are growing restive, the population is dwindling, and the rulers know that, for all their efforts, slowly but surely the city is slipping ever farther behind the optimum.

Helward Mann is a member of the city's elite. Better than anyone, he knows the risks the city runs, how tenuous is its continued existence, how essential it is that discipline be maintained. And yet, as he is about to discover, the world is even stranger than he dreamed.

Mother Goddess of the World

Kim Stanley Robinson

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, October 1987. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988). It is included in the collection Escape from Kathmandu (1989).

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Spider Robinson

Table of Contents:

Foreword - essay by Spider Robinson
Introduction to Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon" - essay by Spider Robinson
Inconstant Moon - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
Introduction to "Spud and Cochise" by Oliver La Farge - essay by Larry Niven
Spud and Cochise - (1936) - novelette by Oliver La Farge
Introduction to "Need" by Theodore Sturgeon - essay by Spider Robinson
Need - (1960) - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
Introduction to "Hop-Friend" by Terry Carr - essay by Theodore Sturgeon
Hop-Friend - (1962) - short story by Terry Carr
Introduction to "Duel Scene" by William Goldman - essay by Spider Robinson
"Duel Scene" (from The Princess Bride) - (1973) - short fiction by William Goldman
Introduction to "Seventh Victim" by Robert Sheckley - essay by William Goldman
Seventh Victim - (1953) - short story by Robert Sheckley
Introduction to "Portions of This Program..." by Dean Ing - essay by Spider Robinson
Portions of This Program... - (1977) - novelette by Dean Ing
Introduction to "They Bite" by Anthony Boucher - essay by Dean Ing
They Bite - (1943) - short story by Anthony Boucher
Introduction to "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants" by Robert A. Heinlein - essay by Spider Robinson
The Man Who Traveled in Elephants - (1957) - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
Introduction to "Our Lady's Juggler" by Anatole France - essay by Spider Robinson
Our Lady's Juggler - (1908) - short story by Anatole France (trans. of Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame 1892)

The World is Round

Tony Rothman

Their world was 50 times bigger than any world had a right to be. Their days were a year long. They had no moon. Normal seasons didn't exist, and when the natives weren't worried about being roasted alive they lived in dread of freezing to death. Paddelack wasn't a native of Patra-Bannk, but he had been trapped there long enough to hate its insanity with every fiber of his being.

Then a crew from far-off Two-Bit arrived to search for a fantastic city and its fabulous treasures. Paddelack greeted them with a vengeance and begged for passage off this crazy world. But the mission commander had something else in mind, and he needed Paddelack's help. So Paddelack stayed on the world he hated, an unwilling captive of a mercenary band. Together they traversed the face of this bizarre planet - plagued by unpredictable natives, beset by irrational weather, and thoroughly confused by the enormity of their predicament.

The End of the World

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Small-town detective Becca Keller must struggle with her own demons when her ex-husband calls her to help with a mass grave unearthed at the site of his resort-restoration project in the Oregon desert. Her investigation unearths more questions than answers--about the bones and about the past.

Rod Serling's Other Worlds

Rod Serling

Contents:

ix - Introduction (Rod Serling's Other Worlds) - essay by Richard Matheson
1 - Robert A. Heinlein - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
3 - They - (1941) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
21 - Ben Bova - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
23 - Fifteen Miles - [Kinsman] - (1967) - shortstory by Ben Bova
37 - Gordon R. Dickaon - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
39 - Dolphin's Way - (1964) - shortstory by Gordon R. Dickson
61 - Carl Jacobi - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
63 - The Royal Opera House - (1972) - shortstory by Carl Jacobi
75 - Theodore Sturgeon - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
77 - Special Aptitude - (1951) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
97 - William F. Nolan - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
99 - The Underdweller - (1957) - shortstory by William F. Nolan (variant of Small World)
113 - Isaac Asimov - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
115 - I'm in Marsport Without Hilda - (1957) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
131 - Dennis Etchison - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
133 - A Nice, Shady Place - (1963) - shortstory by Dennis Etchison
149 - Clifford D. Simak - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
151 - Construction Shack - (1973) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
167 - Ray Bradbury - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
169 - A Little Journey - (1951) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
179 - Gardner R. Dozois - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
181 - The Visible Man - (1975) - novelette by Gardner Dozois
215 - Thomas F. Monteleone - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
217 - Mister Magister - shortstory by Thomas F. Monteleone
223 - Joe Haldeman & Robert Thurston - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
225 - What Johnny Did on His Summer Vacation - shortstory by Joe Haldeman and Robert Thurston
237 - Fritz Leiber - essay by Jack C. Haldeman, II
239 - Little Old Miss Macbeth - (1958) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber

Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley was science fiction's in-house reply to the black humorists of the 1950s and 60s: Bruce Jay Friedman, Terry Southern, and the young Thomas Pynchon were his none-too-distant relatives; Mort Sahl's comedy, Charles Schultz's cartoons, and Tom Lehrer's songs all mined similar veins. Sheckley targeted the conformity and consumerism of our mid century technotopia while it was still under construction.

His new worlds, alternate universes, and future dystopias have only become more present with the passing years, even as his career, played out both in the pulp magazines and in front-line venues like Playboy and Omni, is a glimpse of a time when "science fiction writer" could be a kind of hipster credential. Mordant, absurdist, and deadpan, the best of Sheckley's dissident farces represent science fiction's high-water mark as an allegorical clearinghouse for twenty-century angst.

How to Save the World

Charles Sheffield

There's no question mark in this book's title. The stories gathered under it won't politely request permission to play with your head. They're not asking you, they're telling you! In the gutsy tradition of the best science fiction speculation, they'll confront your assumptions and force you to discard the thoughtless certainties of everyday life. In thirteen stimulating tales, some of SF's brightest thinkers entertainingly challenge you to stretch your mind around the answers that might shape your future.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1995) - essay by Charles Sheffield
Zap Thy Neighbor - (1995) - novelette by James P. Hogan
Choice - (1995) - short story by Lawrence Watt-Evans
The Meetings of the Secret World Masters - (1995) - novella by Geoffrey A. Landis
The Invasion of Space - (1995) - novelette by Charles Sheffield
The South Los Angeles Broadcasting System - (1993) - short story by Larry Niven
Buyer's Remorse - (1995) - short story by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
Souls on Ice - (1995) - short story by Arlan Andrews, Sr.
Raw Terra - (1995) - novelette by Nick Pollotta
The Product of the Extremes - (1995) - short story by Brenda W. Clough
My Soul to Keep - (1995) - novelette by Jerry Oltion
Defense Conversion - (1995) - novelette by Doug Beason
The Guatemala Cure - (1995) - short story by Mary A. Turzillo
Higher Education - (1994) - novella by Jerry Pournelle and Charles Sheffield
About the Authors - (1995) - essay by Charles Sheffield

The Web Between the Worlds

Charles Sheffield

Rob Merlin was the best engineer who had ever lived. That was why "The King of Space" had to have him for the most spectacular construction project ever - even though Rob was a potentially fatal threat to his power...

Thus begins a breakthrough novel by the former President of the American Astronautical Society, about an idea whose time has come: a shimmering bridge between Earth and space that mankind will climb to the stars!

The World Inside

Earth 2381: The hordes of humanity have withdrawn into isolated 1000-story Urbmons, comfortably controlled multicity-buildings which perpetuate an open culture of free sex and unrestricted population growth. Nearly all of Earth's 75 billion live in the hundreds of monolithic structures scattered across the globe, with the exception of the small agricultural communes that supply the Urbmons with food. When a restless Urbmon computer engineer begins to think unblessworthy thoughts of making a trip outside, he risks being labeled a flippo, for whom there is only one punishment.

The World Outside

When We Went to See the End of the World

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, October-November 1970. There are no other known publications but the story was incorporated in the fix-up novel The World Inside (1971).

The Unfinished World and Other Stories

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story.

A parody of the end-of-the-world theme in which time travel allows Nick, Jane and their friends to witness the final apocalypse. As a group of friends gather for Mike and Ruby's party, each couple boasts about their recent trip to the end of the world: a new holiday service available from travel agents at tremendous expense. But as the time-tourists compare their experiences, they soon realise they have not all witnessed the same end of the world.

The story was originally published in the anthology Universe 2 (1972), edited by Terry Carr. It has been reprinted many times. It can be found in the anthologies:

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #2 (1972), edited by Terry Carr
Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Second Annual Collection (1973), edited by Lester del Rey
Nebula Award Stories Eight (1973), edited by Isaac Asimov
The Mammoth Book of the End of the World (2010), edited by Mike Ashley
Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse (2015), edited by John Joseph Adams

As well as the collections

Unfamiliar Territory (1973)
Beyond the Safe Zone (1986)
The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Three: Something Wild Is Loose: 1969-72 (2008)

The Worlds of George O.

George O. Smith

Table of Contents:

Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
Blind Time - (1946) - short story
The Planet Mender - (1952) - novelette
The Catspaw - (1948) - novella
Rat Race - (1947) - short story
Meddler's Moon - (1947) - novelette
Meddler's Moon (radio script) - short story
In the Cards - (1947) - novelette
History Repeats - (1959) - short story
The Big Fix - (1959) - novelette
Fire, 2016! - (1964) - novelette
Understanding - (1967) - novelette

Amber Sparks

In the weird and wonderful tradition of Kelly Link and Karen Russell, Amber Sparks's dazzling new collection bursts forth with stories that render the apocalyptic and otherworldly hauntingly familiar. In "The Cemetery for Lost Faces," two orphans translate their grief into taxidermy, artfully arresting the passage of time. The anchoring novella, "The Unfinished World," unfurls a surprising love story between a free and adventurous young woman and a dashing filmmaker burdened by a mysterious family. Sparks's stories?populated with sculptors, librarians, astronauts, and warriors?form a veritable cabinet of curiosities. Mythical, bizarre, and deeply moving, The Unfinished World and Other Stories heralds the arrival of a major writer and illuminates the search for a brief encounter with the extraordinary.

All the Love in the World

Cat Sparks

Ditmar Award winning short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Sprawl (2010), edited by Alisa Krasnostein. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The story is included in the collection The Bride Price (2013).

Science Fiction in the Real World

Norman Spinrad

No ordinary critic, Norman Spinrad explicates, celebrates, and sometimes excoriates science fiction from the privileged perspective of an artist armed with intimate knowledge of the craft of fiction and even of the writers themselves.

In these 13 essays, Spinrad urges science fiction as a genre to reach its potential. He divides the essays—new works written specifically for this book combined with those that appeared inIsaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine—into five sections: "Literature and Genre: A Critical Overview," in which Spinrad establishes his critical standards; "Alternate Media: Visual Translations," a discussion of comic books and books made into movies; "Modes of Content: Hard SF, Cyberpunk, and the Space Visionaries"; "Psychopolitics and Science Fiction: Heroes—True and Otherwise"; and "Masters of the Form: Careers in Profile," discussions of Sturgeon, Vonnegut, Ballard, and Dick.

The Last Days of the Edge of the World

Brian Stableford

Six of the world's seven edges have been rounded out and the last one, edging a thin sliver of land where magic still survives, is in a parlous state. No longer able to remember the future, the last enchanter, Sirion Hilversun, knows that is about to die, and is anxious for the fate of his young daughter Helen, when a letter arrives from the neighboring unmagical kingdom of Caramorn, asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. Helen does not know that the offer is a desperate move on the part of the king of a bankrupt kingdom, but she hates the idea anyway. Unfortunately her cunning plan to avoid the marriage without disappointing her father too much goes badly awry when it volves her and Ewan, the boy hired to catalogue Caramorn's palace library, in a spell that has been gathering power for hundreds of years. If she and Ewan can complete the spell, the last of the world's edges should be neatly disenchanted and tidied away -- but can the human pawns necessary to complete it survive the obliteration of the magic lands?

The Girl Who Outgrew the World

Zoje Stage

When precocious eleven-year-old Lilly undergoes an inexplicable and startling growth spurt, her father and doctors decide to take drastic action to curb what they see as a dangerous development. Faced with condescending treatment and cruelty, Lilly escapes and embarks on a journey to discover her true self. Zoje Stage's new novella is a parable for how patriarchy treats the female body (and, by extension, the female mind and soul) and the objectification of girls.

Begin the World Over

Kung Li Sun

A revolutionary tale of Black and Indigenous insurrection. History as it should have been.

Begin the World Over is a counterfactual novel about the Founders' greatest fear--that Black and Indigenous people might join forces to undo the newly formed United States of America--coming true.

In 1793, as revolutionaries in the West Indies take up arms, James Hemings has little interest in joining the fight for liberté--talented and favored, he is careful to protect his relative comforts as Thomas Jefferson's enslaved chef. But when he meets Denmark Vesey, James is immediately smitten. The formidable first mate persuades James to board his ship, on its way to the revolt in Saint-Domingue. There and on the mainland they join forces with a diverse cast of characters, including a gender nonconforming prophetess, a formerly enslaved jockey, and a Muskogee horse trader. The resulting adventure masterfully mixes real historical figures and events with a riotous retelling of a possible history in which James must decide whether to return to his constrained but composed former life, or join the coalition of Black revolutionaries and Muskogee resistance to fight the American slavers and settlers.

The Not-World

Thomas Burnett Swann

The Not-World: One would not have expected to find the last hideout of the ancient weird folk of legend and prehistory in an English forest of two centuries ago - and yet in that land which has always been haunted by the lore of little folk there had to be some truth behind such universal belief.

Here is the story of Dylan and Deirdre, of Thomas Chatterton - and of the balloon flight that brought them into an older and more enchanted land to mingle their fates with those of Arachne and the Night Mares in whom a rising industrial materialism could no longer believe.

The Edge of the World

Michael Swanwick

Sturgeon Award winning and Hugo and Wold Fantasy Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Full Spectrum 2 (1989), edited by Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy, Amy Stout, Pat LoBrutto. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection (1990), edited by Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection (1990), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and Modern Classics of Science Fiction (1991), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections Gravity's Angels (1991), A Geography of Unknown Lands (1997) and The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008).

Read the full story for free at Fantasy Magazine.

The Gone World

Thomas Sweterlitsch

March 9th, 1997: A family murdered, a daughter missing. All evidence points to a dangerous suspect: ex-Navy SEAL Patrick Mursult, who has vanished without a trace. NCIS Special Agent Shannon Moss is determined to take down Mursult and bring the girl home. But Moss isn't only up against the clock -- working together with the FBI, the case runs against walls of uncooperative witnesses and a lack of solid leads. Spanning the coal towns and mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, every moment without a break in the case brings everyone involved closer to tragedy.

Shannon Moss, however, is one of the few federal agents with clearance to investigate strands of the multiverse -- to experience possible futures that grow out of the circumstances of the present.

April 19th, 2014: Moss arrives seventeen years in the future to question witnesses whose lives have changed far from their fears and tensions that had made them so reticent to talk about the killing of the Mursult family when it was close at hand. Filling in details of the long past case, Moss learns the terrible truth about Mursult and the fate of the missing girl.

Moss returns to the present with the information she needs to close the case, but at what cost? Every decision she makes, every plot she unravels, has terrifying consequences -- consequences she sees with every trip to a new future.

How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future

Rachel Swirsky

After a powerful sorceress is murdered, she's summoned over the centuries to witness devastating changes to the land where she was born. A woman who lives by scavenging corpses in the Japanese suicide forest is haunted by her dead lover. A man searches for the memory that will overwrite his childhood abuse. Helios is left at the altar. The world is made quiet by a series of apocalypses.

From the riveting emotion and politics of 'The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window' (Nebula winner) to the melancholy family saga of 'Eros, Philia, Agape' (Hugo and Theodore Sturgeon finalist), Rachel Swirsky's critically acclaimed stories have quickly made her one of the field's rising stars. Her work is, by turns, clever and engaging, unflinching and quietly devastating--often in the space of the same story.

How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future collects the body of Swirsky's short fiction to date for the first time. While these stories envision pasts, presents, and futures that never existed, they offer revealing examinations of humanity that readers will find undeniably true.

Table of Contents

The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window - (2010)
A Memory of Wind - (2009)
Monstrous Embrace - (2008)
The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth: A Nautical Tail - (2008)
Heartstrung - (2007)
Marry the Sun - (2008)
A Monkey Will Never Be Rid of Its Black Hands - (2008)
The Sea of Trees - (2012)
Fields of Gold - (2011)
Eros, Philia, Agape - (2009)
The Monster's Million Faces - (2010)
Again and Again and Again - (2010)
Diving After the Moon - (2011)
Scene from a Dystopia - (2006)
The Taste of Promises - (2011)
With Singleness of Heart - (2013)
Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind - (2007)
How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth - (2007)
Speech Strata - (2013)

I'll Stop the World

Lauren Thoman

Is it the right place at the wrong time? Or the wrong place at the right time?

Trapped in a dead-end town, Justin Warren has had his life defined by the suspicious deaths of his grandparents. The unsolved crime happened long before Justin was born, but the ripple effects are still felt after thirty-eight years. Justin always knew he wouldn't have much of a future. He just never imagined that his life might take him backward.

In a cosmic twist of fate, Justin's choices send him crashing into the path of determined optimist Rose Yin. Justin and Rose live in the same town and attend the same school, but have never met?because Rose lives in 1985. Justin won't be born for another twenty years. And his grandparents are still alive--for now.

In a series of events that reverberate through multiple lifetimes, Justin and Rose have a week to get Justin unstuck in time and put each of them in control of their futures--by solving a murder that hasn't even happened yet.

The Circumference of the World

Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn't supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction-obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia's husband Levi goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer.

The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley's novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe?

The Dying World

Up the Walls of the World

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2009. It can also be found in the anthology Clarkesworld: Year Three (2013), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

James Tiptree, Jr.

A complex science fiction story of a secret military research project involving the investigative powers of the mind and their possible strategic applications and a distant planet which is being threatened by a monumental interstellar entity.

Humans who have shown indications of telepathic ability make mental contact with the Tyrenni, strange alien beings resembling winged squids who dwell in the upper atmosphere of their tempestuous world. But the Tyrenni are threatened by a huge being and forced into the decision to take over the bodies of their human contacts...

The Cabin at the End of the World

Paul Tremblay

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what's going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won't want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

Other Worlds and This One

Cadwell Turnbull

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July-August 2017, and was reprinted in Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 102, November 2018.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed Magazine.

It's the End of the World as We Know It, and We Feel Fine

The Last Murder at the End of the World

This short story originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2013. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection We Install and Other Stories (2015).

Stuart Turton

Solve the murder to save what's left of the world.

Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island?and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer?and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

The Boy at the End of the World

Greg van Eekhout

Fisher is the last boy on earth-and things are not looking good for the human race. Only Fisher made it out alive after the carefully crafted survival bunker where Fisher and dozens of other humans had been sleeping was destroyed.

Luckily, Fisher is not totally alone. He meets a broken robot he names Click, whose programmed purpose-to help Fisher "continue existing"-makes it act an awful lot like an overprotective parent. Together, Fisher and Click uncover evidence that there may be a second survival bunker far to the west. In prose that skips from hilarious to touching and back in a heartbeat, Greg van Eekhout brings us a thrilling story of survival that becomes a journey to a new hope-if Fisher can continue existing long enough to get there.

The Far-Out Worlds of A.E. Van Vogt

A. E. Van Vogt

Contents:

The Replicators - (1965)
The First Martian - (1951)
The Purpose - (1945)
The Earth Killers - (1949)
The Cataaaaa - (1947)
Automaton - (1950)
Itself! - (1963)
Process - (1950)
Not the First - (1941)
Fulfillment - (1951)
Ship of Darkness - (1948)
The Ultra Man - (1966)

The Blue World

The World-Thinker and Other Stories

King Kragen has ruled a sea-covered world since human colonists arrived twelve generations before. A monstrous water creature with gluttonous appetites, King Kragen demands a payoff in return for protection- and to appease him has become a way of life. To anger King Kragen means certain death, but Sklar Hast is fed up with slavery and sacrifice. In a world without weapons, the fight won't be easy--particularly when the unwilling treat Sklar Hast as the enemy!

Engines of the Broken World

A collection of Vance's early short stories, including The World Thinker (1944), I'll Build Your Dream Castle (1946), The God and the Temple Robber (1946), Men of the Ten Books (1949), Seven Exits from Bocz (1949), Telek (1951), The Secret (1951), Noise (1952), D.P. (1951), The Absent Minded Professor (1953), The Devil on Salvation Bluff (1954), The Phantom Milkman (1955), Where Hesperus Falls (1955), A Practical Man's Guide (1956), and The House Lords (1956).

Jason Vanhee

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her?they did?but it's far too cold outside, and they know they won't be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn't make them feel any better about what they've done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she'd never hear again. It's her mother's voice, and it's singing a lullaby....

Engines of the Broken World is a chilling young adult novel from Jason Vanhee.

Newer York: Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy About the World's Greatest City

Lawrence Watt-Evans

Table of Contents:

Introduction - essay by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Cloister - (1991) - shortstory by Piers Anthony
Getting Real - novelette by Susan Shwartz
The Cleanest Block in Town - shortfiction by Janet Asimov
Another Dime, Another Place - novelette by A. J. Austin
Watching New York Melt - shortfiction by Lawrence Watt-Evans and Julie Evans
Post Time in Pink - novelette by Mike Resnick
Learning Experience - shortfiction by Laurence M. Janifer
Ties - shortfiction by Martha Soukup
Wild Thing - shortfiction by Eric Blackburn
Rise and Fall - shortfiction by Stephen L. Antczak
Shadows on the Moon - shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Baby Track - shortfiction by Howard Mittelmark
Clash of Titans (A New York Romance) - shortfiction by Kurt Busiek
What Lives After - shortfiction by Robert Frazier
Slow Burn in Alphabettown - shortfiction by S. N. Lewitt
Let Me Call You Sweetheart - shortstory by Michael A. Stackpole
Tomb w/ View - shortfiction by P. D. Cacek
A Walk Through Beirut - novelette by John Shirley
The Last Real New Yorker in the World - shortfiction by James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle
Tunnel Vision - shortfiction by Esther M. Friesner
A Nice Place to Visit - shortfiction by Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran
Long Growing Season - novella by Robert J. Howe
Candelabra and Diamonds - shortfiction by Don Sakers
In the Good Old Summer Time - shortfiction by B. W. Clough
Afterword - essay by Eric S. Johansson

Children of the New World

Alexander Weinstein

Children of the New World introduces readers to a near-future world of social media implants, memory manufacturers, dangerously immersive virtual reality games, and alarmingly intuitive robots. Many of these characters live in a utopian future of instant connection and technological gratification that belies an unbridgeable human distance, while others inhabit a post-collapse landscape made primitive by disaster, which they must work to rebuild as we once did millennia ago.

In "The Cartographers," the main character works for a company that creates and sells virtual memories, while struggling to maintain a real-world relationship sabotaged by an addiction to his own creations. In "Saying Goodbye to Yang," the robotic brother of an adopted Chinese child malfunctions, and only in his absence does the family realize how real a son he has become.

Children of the New World grapples with our unease in this modern world and how our ever-growing dependence on new technologies has changed the shape of our society. Alexander Weinstein is a visionary new voice in speculative fiction for all of us who are fascinated by and terrified of what we might find on the horizon.

Table of Contents:

Saying Goodbye to Yang
The Cartographers
Heartland
Excerpts from The New World Authorized Dictionary
Moksha
Children of the New World
Fall Line
A Brief History of the Failed Revolution
Migration
The Pyramid and the Ass
Rocket Night
Openness
Ice Age

Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds

Manly Wade Wellman

Contents:

11 - The Adventure of the Crystal Egg - [Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars] - novelette
53 - Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars - [Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars] - (1975) - novelette
97 - George E. Challenger Versus Mars - [Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars] - novelette
147 - The Adventure of the Martian Client - [Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars] - (1969) - short story
175 - Venus, Mars, and Baker Street - [Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars] - (1972) - short story
205 - Appendix: A Letter from Dr. Watson - [Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars] - short fiction

The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds

H. G. Wells

Scientific visionary. Social prophet. Master storyteller. Few novelists have captivated generations of readers like H. G. Wells. In enduring, electrifying detail, he takes us to dimensions of time and space that have haunted our dreams for centuries -- and shows us ourselves as we really are.

The Time Machine

In the heart of Victorian England, an inquisitve gentleman known only as the Time Traveler constructs an elaborate invention that hurtles him hundreds of thousands of years into the future. There he finds himself in the violent center of the ultimate conflict between beings of light and creatures of darkness.

The War of the Worlds

Martians invade Great Britain, laying waste turn-of-the-century London. This tale of conquest by superior beings with superadvanced technology is so nightmarishly real that an adaptation by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater sent hundreds of impressionable radio listeners into panicked flight forty years after the story's original publication.

The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008

Jack Williamson

The Worlds of Jack Williamson celebrates the 100th birthday of one of the Grand Masters of science fiction. While Jack Williamson passed away in 2006 at the age of 98, his incredible body of work continues to be enjoyed by legions of fans and admirers. Assembled in this centennial tribute are several unpublished stories: The Moon Bird, The Forbidden Window, The Golden Glass, and a film treatment from 1957, The Planets are Calling. Also included are several classics in the Williamson canon such as the original novella-length version of Darker Thank You Think; Minus Sign, an unreprinted seetee story of anti-matter and terraforming; and a tale with the first use of psionics, The Man from Outside. Contemporary stories include The Hole in the World, Afterlife, and The Luck of the Legion, the last Legion of Space adventure. Included are four essays from academics and scholars who have studied Williamson s works, as well as Dr. Williamson s 1957 Master s Thesis, A Study of the Sense of Prophecy in Modern Science Fiction. Fellow Grand Masters of science fiction Frederik Pohl and James Gunn provide introductory remarks on reading, knowing, collaborating with, and admiring Jack Williamson.

Table of Contents:

"Jack" - essay by Frederik Pohl
"Worlds of Jack Williamson" - essay by James E. Gunn
The Moon Bird - novella by Jack Williamson
The Forbidden Window - shortstory by Jack Williamson
The Golden Glass - novelette by Jack Williamson
Darker Than You Think - (1940) - novella by Jack Williamson
Darker Than He Thought: The Psychonalysis of Jack Williamson - essay by Alan C. Elms
Minus Sign - (1942) - novella by Jack Williamson
The Man from Outside - (1951) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
A Study of the Sense of Prophecy in Modern Science Fiction - essay by Jack Williamson
The Planets are Calling - novelette by Jack Williamson
Jack Williamson: The Comedy of Cosmic Evolution - (1976) - essay by Alfred D. Stewart
Tricentennial Century - novella by Jack Williamson
The Humanoid Universe - (1980) - novelette by Jack Williamson
The Hole in the World - (1997) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
Afterlife - (2002) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
The Luck of the Legion - (2002) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
A Christmas Carol - (2007) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
Queens Of Space - essay by Vicky L. Medley
Collecting Jack Williamson: Master of Wonder - essay by Richard A. Hauptmann
Contributors
Acknowledgments

Mother to the World

Richard Wilson

Nebula Award winning and Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Orbit 3 (1968), edited by Damon Knight. The story can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Award Stories Four (1969), edited by Poul Anderson and The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume III (1981), edited by Arthur C. Clarke. It is included in the collection The Man Without a Planet and Other Stories (2012).

The Other World

R. R. Winterbotham

Here is an amazing story of a world much like our own, yet startlingly different, and one man's struggle against overwhelming forces.

George Braderick, a civilian GS 5 Civil Service employee, was also a Sergeant Major in the National Guard. His principal duty was to guard the local armoury. It was as such that he became the target of the sinister Dr. Ludwig Taun-and the victim.

Here is a story of a desperate struggle for power in a world out with the dimensions we know.

A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World

A. C. Wise

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation (2017), edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke.

How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion

Gene Wolfe

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, May 1973. The story can also be found in the anthologyThe Best of Analog (1978), edited by Ben Bova and the collections Gene Wolfe's Book of Days (1981) and Castle of Days (1992).

The Best from the Rest of the World: European Science Fiction

Donald A. Wollheim

Here is the book that opens up the science fiction scene to the masters of Western Europe. Gathered together by Donald A. Wollheim, whose annuals of the World's Best SF are considered the most reliable indicators of what is best in the English-language sector, sf readers at last have the opportunity to meet the best sf writers of the Old World and discover for themselves new variations and unexpected approaches to all the themes of science fiction.

In this remarkable collection will be found memorable stories by Gerard Klein, Wolfgang Jeschke, Sandro Sandrelli, Domingo Santos, Sam J. Lundwall, Niels E. Nielsen, Eddy C. Bertin, N.C. Henneberg, and many more, many of whose tales have been translated for the first time for this book.

Table of Contents:

Party Line by Gerard Klein (France)
Pairpuppets by Manuel Van Loggem (Holland)
The Scythe by Sandro Sandrelli (Italy)
A Whiter Shade of Pale by Jon Bing (Norway)
Paradise 3000 by Herbert W. Franke (Germany)
My Eyes, They Burn! by Eddy C. Bertin (Belgium)
A Problem in Bionics by Pierre Barbet (France)
The King and the Dollmaker by Wolfgang Jeschke (Germany)
Codemus by Tor Age Bringsvaerd (Norway)
Rainy Day Revolution No. 39 by Luigi Cozzi (Italy)
Nobody Here But Us Shadows by Sam J. Lundwall (Sweden)
Round and Round and Round Again by Domingo Santos (Spain)
Planet For Sale by Niels E. Nielsen (Denmark)
Ysolde by Nathalie-Charles Henneberg (France)

The World in Winter

John Christopher

The story involves a new ice age hitting Europe, British refugees fleeing to Nigeria, and what a later group find when they return.

As the story opens, Andrew Leedon, a London-based television documentary producer, is given a new story to research: an Italian scientist, Fratellini, has proposed an imminent fall in solar radiation for the forthcoming few years which may lead to harsher winters. Leedon meets with David Cartwell, a Home Office civil servant and useful source, to see if he can find out more. Cartwell quickly becomes a close friend of Leedon, but also begins an affair with Leedon's wife, Carol.

The winter of that year is, as predicted, long and harsh, but by January is it becoming clear to insiders that the solar downturn is worse than Fratellini had calculated and no upturn is in sight. By March, food stocks are becoming dangerously low, rationing has been imposed and the Government imposes martial law. Those in the know, including Andrew's estranged wife, sell up and move south to the tropics and countries such as Nigeria. Leedon stays behind, as inner London is finally cordoned off from the rest of the UK to protect the seat of power - an area called the London Pale - as the rest of the country is abandoned to starvation and barbarism.

Finally Leedon is persuaded both by Carol and by David Cartwell to exit the country while safe passage is still possible. Taking with him Cartwell's wife Madeleine, he moves to Lagos in Nigeria, finding that the tables have now turned - white refugees fleeing from the ice-bound northern countries are living in slums, unemployed or with only menial jobs, and penniless, as African governments have withdrawn recognition of currencies such as Sterling and no longer recognize the British Government, with reason, as it no longer exercises sovereignty over its own land.

A ray of hope arrives for Leedon as Abonitu, a young Nigerian whom Leedon had treated with kindness and generosity one evening in London, finds him and in turn helps him and Madeleine out of the slum. Abonitu plans a reconnaissance expedition back to Britain.

The Worlds of Robert F. Young

Robert F. Young

The worlds of Robert F. Young are unlike any others, and they are all stamped with the hallmark of excellence that is distinctively his own. Some of these worlds are strange and alien, distant in time and space; some are as familiar as your own back yard -- so close you can reach out and touch them. But be careful! They all contain unlooked-for surprises: what you expect to happen never does. These are tales of the unexpected.

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The Worlds of Robert F. Young) - (1965) - essay by Avram Davidson
The Girl Who Made Time Stop - (1961) - short story
Added Inducement - (1957) - short story
Hopsoil - (1961) - short story
Flying Pan - (1956) - short story
Emily and the Bards Sublime - [Poetic Androids] - (1956) - short story
The Dandelion Girl - (1961) - short story
The Stars Are Calling, Mr. Keats - (1959) - short story
Goddess in Granite - (1957) - novelette
Promised Planet - (1955) - short story
Romance in a Twenty-First Century Used-Car Lot - (1960) - novelette
The Courts of Jamshyd - (1957) - short story
Production Problem - (1959) - short story
Little Red Schoolhouse - (1956) - short story
Written in the Stars - (1957) - short story
A Drink of Darkness - (1962) - short story
Your Ghost Will Walk... - [Poetic Androids] - (1957) - short story

The River and the World Remade

E. Lily Yu

When the waters rose, the people who stayed on the River learned they weathered the storms best together, but what happens when one of their own becomes curious about the Land?

This story was originally published on Tor.com on March 29, 2023. Read it for free at Tor.com.

The House Between the Worlds

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Cameron Fenton participates in a parapsychology study, using an experimental drug. Instead of increasing his ESP, it causes him to leave his his body and enter other worlds. But are they real, or do they exist only in his mind? And if they are real, will he ever be able to get anyone in his world to believe him?

Vanguard from Alpha / The Changeling Worlds

Brian W. Aldiss
Kenneth Bulmer

Vanguard from Alpha

The spy team from Earth knew they were looking for trouble when they secretly landed in Luna Area 101 - dangerous Rosk territory. But the fearless trio got more than they bargained for at the hands of these hostile guests of Earth. Tyne and Murray escaped with their lives. The third man was dead, and Tyne suspected that Murray had murdered him in cold blood.

Ready to confront him with his charge, Tyne discovered that Murray had disappeared somewhere in the banned area. But when he followed him, he discovered something vastly more dangerous than Murray's guilt or innocence--the Rosks threatened imminent invasion of Earth. And only Tyne now held the secret that could deflect their hordes of death.

The Changeling Worlds

On the gold-symbol world of Beresford's Planet, Richard Kirby lived in total luxury. As a member of "The Set" his life was a never-ending round of planetary party-hopping. The only restriction imposed on him - that he never put down on any world marked with a red or black symbol - was something that he had always accepted without question.

That is until his brother Alec was murdered in cold blood! Alec had been an undercover agent to these forbidden planets, and in order to avenge him, Kirby had to find out for himself what was really happening there.

But with the start of his investigation, Kirby found out quickly that the authorities meant business when they said "Hands off!" The secret they were protecting was of vital importance, and it now became a matter of life and death, not only to Kirby, but to all the inhabitants of the Changeling Worlds.

The 1000 Year Plan / No World of Their Own

Poul Anderson
Isaac Asimov

The 1000 Year Plan

Title variant of Isaac Asimov's novel Foundation (1951).

No World of Their Own

Space explorers returning to an unrecognizable Earth after five millennia away find themselves caught up in a deadly political power game on a planet racing toward intergalactic war.

Threshold of Eternity / The War of Two Worlds

Poul Anderson
John Brunner

Threshold of Eternity

Because of a twist in the structure of Time, three strangers were brought unexpectedly together: Red Hawkins of California, Chantal Vareze of London and a man from the 41st Century. Their meeting seemed an impossible prank of a universe gone mad - but it turned out to be quite otherwise.

For it seemed there was a war going on throughout space and time. A war fought by men of different epochs, on planets of different cultures, but for a cause that all could acknowledge - the very continued existence of creation itself.

And the coming together of these three very unlikely people - a modern man, a lovely girl and a futurian soldier - was to prove the master stroke of a super-science strategy that had already brought humanity to the THRESHOLD OF ETERNITY.

The War of Two Worlds

The twenty-year Earth-Mars war was finally over. What was left of Earth - its crumbled cities, its ruined farmlands - were firmly and completely under the rule of the Martian Archon. And this powerful planetary ruler was taking no chances: he intended to reduce the Terrans to a society of primitive agricultural tribes in less than a generation!

But for David Arnfeld, ex-spaceman and Earth Base Commander, there was something in the whole set-up which did not ring true. Why had both sides muffed countless chances to end that awful war in the first year or two? And why had the two planets gone to war in the first place?

In the back of Arnfeld's mind an idea was growing...perhaps there was yet a chance to save the doomed population of Earth. But if his idea was true, and proof was available, he had to work fast. Too many people were involved in this War of the Two Worlds to let one man upset their plans.

The Byworlder

The Off-Worlders / The Star Magicians

Early in the 21st century the world is enjoying an uneasy peace, with a distinct division between the 'straight' society and the various fringe groups that go to form the Byworld. Tension grows, however, over the presence of an alien spaceship that is orbiting the world, bearing a single occupant - the Sigman.

It appears that no-one knows how to communicate with the Sigman; no-one knows the purpose of his visit. Until two people - one 'straight' and the other a Byworlder - solve the problems involved; and in doing so trigger off a series of violent plots and counterplots that mount to a frenetic climax...

Lin Carter
John Baxter

The Off-Worlders

The man from Beyond the Limit.

The Star Magicians

Who will stop the planetary marauders?

Siege of the Unseen / The World Swappers

A. E. Van Vogt
John Brunner

Siege of the Unseen

THE THREE EYES OF EVIL

"The crash was over, the car on its side. Slade sprawled dizzily on his back, while something warm trickled from his forehead into his left eye. He wiped it away, and saw with a start that it was blood. The skin was torn raggedly..."

"A third eye was plainly visible. The eyelid of it was closed by a surplus of sticky matter, but abruptly he grew aware that it was pulsing with a vague perception of light..."

At first it was a grotesque discovery, when the accident revealed that young businessman Michael Slade was a bizarre freak -- a man with three eyes. But the impact of what it meant to see with three eyes was even more macabre. For Slade, that shocking third eye was his entry into a strange new dimension of terror and adventure -- a fearful new world that would wrap itself about him forever!

The World Swappers

The inhabited galaxy was caught in the crushing vice of a struggle for power. The political titans of the planets of mankind were making their bids for supremacy.

The contestants: Cornice, man of strange powers, authority in the spheres of the intellect; and Bassett, man of money-power, financial and business wizard.

The World at Bay

Paul Capon

No one believed Professor Elrick of the London Radar Research Laboratory when he announced in 1977 that Earth was in imminent danger of attack. Ever since his discovery of the dark star, Nero, the Professor and his young assistant, Jim Shannon, had studied the planet and its satellites through the radaroscope with a growing sense of impending doom. There seemed to be positive proof that the third planet, Poppea, had a civilization which was technologically far more advanced than Earth's!

The grim truth of the Professor's warning came upon an unprepared world with a frightful concussion that seemed to rock the planet in its orbit. The space fleet from Poppea had hit Earth's atmosphere! When the English government realized the dire circumstances, the Home Guard was called out, the ack-ack guns manned and plans drawn up for London's evacuation. But the measures that saved the heroic island during World War II proved ineffective against the grotesque Poppeans. Gray-skinned, horny-limbed, they landed in impregnable space ships, releasing bacteria-laden white powder.

The Door Through Space / Rendezvous on a Lost World

A. Bertram Chandler
Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Door Through Space

Wolf: a deadly world under a cold red sun, old when Terrans were learning to walk upright. Only one Terran agent knew Wolf well enough to pass undetected; but he had ruined his usefulness long ago. And yet only this scarred and bitter man could discover the secret of The Door Through Space...

Rendezvous on a Lost World

His was a dream few spaceman ever saw come true. In a second-hand, obsolete space ship, Kemp and his three comrades took off determined to set up a shuttle service between the planets at the rim of the galaxy.

But trouble--in the form of two lost colonies, one inhabited by giant mechanical insects and the other by the descendants of a murderous pirate--threatened. Kemps crew began to wonder: just how much will one man sacrifice to realize a dream?

The Hard Way Up / The Veiled World

Robert Lory
A. Bertram Chandler

The Hard Way Up

Collection including:

With Good Intentions - shortstory by A. Bertram Chandler
The Subtracter - (1969) - novelette by A. Bertram Chandler
The Tin Messiah - (1972) - shortstory by A. Bertram Chandler
Sleeping Beauty - (1970) - novelette by A. Bertram Chandler
The Wandering Buoy - (1970) - shortstory by A. Bertram Chandler
The Mountain Movers - (1971) - novelette by A. Bertram Chandler
What You Know - (1971) - novelette by A. Bertram Chandler

The Veiled World

Shamryke Odell, save the worlds!

The World as it Shall Be

Emile Souvestre
I. F. Clarke

It's the year 3000, and children are raised by steam machines, Switzerland has been converted into a theme park, and there are no fewer than 684 kinds of mental illness. With eccentric, dark humor, Émile Souvestre portrays a society dominated by mechanization and greed. However comically exaggerated, the unmistakable echoes of real problems and possibilities in Souvestre's satire make this book science fiction's earliest warning against the dangers of mechanization in a society ruled by consumerism.

The World as It Shall Be was originally published in France in 1846--the first fully illustrated story in the history of future fiction. The satiric novel, with 87 charming illustrations, unfolds through the eyes of Maurice and Marthe, a young couple who are brought to the year 3000 by the spirit of the age, M. John Progrès. This first English translation includes all of the original art.

The Sex is Out of This World: Essays on the Carnal Side of Science Fiction

Michael G. Cornelius
Sherry Ginn

"Science fiction" can be translated into "real unreality." More than a genre like fantasy, which creates entirely new realms of possibility, science fiction constructs its possibilities from what is real, from what is, indeed, possible, or conceivably so. This collection, then, looks to understand and explore the "unreal reality," to note ways in which our culture's continually changing and evolving mores of sex and sexuality are reflected in, dissected by, and deconstructed through the genre of science fiction.

This book is a collection of new essays, with the general objective of filling a gap in the literature about sex and science fiction (although some work has gone before, none of it is recent). The essays herein explore the myriad ways in which authors--regardless of format (print, film, television, etc.)--envision very different beings expressing this most fundamental of human behaviors.

The World Jones Made / Agent of the Unknown

Margaret St. Clair
Philip K. Dick

The World Jones Made

Floyd Jones is sullen, ungainly, and quite possibly mad, but in a very short time he will rise from telling fortunes at a mutant carnival to convulsing an entire planet. For although Jones has the power to see the future -- a power that makes his life a torment -- his real gift lies elsewhere: in his ability to make people dream again in a world where dreaming has been made illegal, even when the dream is indistinguishable from a nightmare.

In Philip K. Dick's unsettling chronicle of the rise and fall of a postnuclear messiah, readers will find a novel that is as minutely realistic as it is prophetic. For along with its engineered mutants, hermaphroditic sex performers, and protoplasmic drifters from the stars, The World Jones Made gives us nothing less than a deadly accurate reading of our own hunger for belief.

Agent of the Unknown

Don Haig had been content to lie around and drink in the synthetic beauty of the pleasure planetoid Fyon, until a woman came into his life. A woman more beautiful and more perfect than any other female in the galaxy. A woman who brought about a curious change in Don.

For she was a pocket-sized doll -- a very strange and miraculous puppet who shed constant tears and held powers that Don never even dreamed of.

But what Don did know was that dangerous alien forces were swiftly focussing on him and his living puppet... and that he had to discover the doll's super-scientific secret before his own life was smashed to atoms!

The World Jones Made

Philip K. Dick

Originally appeared in Ace Double D-150 (1956).

The Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film

Sonja Fritzsche

The Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film offers critical insights into SF far beyond the more common Anglo-American narratives. Contributors take either a national or transnational approach, and stretch the geographic and conceptual boundaries of science fiction cinema. Recurrent themes include genre discussions, engagement with Hollywood, and the international subgenre of science fiction parody. Chapters contain a variety of perspectives and styles: from gender and race studies, to the eco-critical, and the post-colonial; from the avant-garde, to socialist realism, and the Hammer film.

Edited by Sonja Fritzsche, the collection contains fourteen chapters written by specialists from around the world. Film traditions represented include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States plus a chapter on digital shorts.

From the dinosaur myth that became Godzilla to Brazilian science fiction comedy, from China's Death Ray to Kenya's Pumzi, this book will broaden the horizons of scholars and students of Science Fiction.

The Worlds of Farscape: Essays on the Groundbreaking Television Series

Sherry Ginn

Reversing a common science fiction cliche, Farscape follows the adventures of the human astronaut John Crichton after he is shot through a wormhole into another part of the universe. Here Crichton is the only human being, going from being a member of the most intelligent species on our planet to being frequently considered mentally deficient by the beings he encounters in his new environment. John Crichton befriends a group of beings from various species attempting to escape from imprisonment aboard a living spaceship. The series, which broke many of the so-called "rules" of science fiction, follows Crichton's attempts to survive in worlds that are often hostile to him and his friends. Their adventures center on each being's attempt to find a way home.

The essays in this volume explore themes running throughout the series, such as good and evil, love and sex, and what it means to be a hero, as well as the various characters populating the series, including the villains and even the ship itself.

The 13th Immortal / This Fortress World

James E. Gunn
Robert Silverberg

The 13th Immortal

Who was your father the mutant asked Dale Kesley. And try as he might, Kesley could not remember; his past was an utter blank. But he knew one thing - the answer to his life's riddle lay in Antarctica, the once-frozen continent, now an earthly paradise surrounded by an impenetrable barrier. But how to get there?

The only means of transportation were the spindly six-legged mutant horses. And it was suicide for Kesley to travel on the American continents. Two immortal dictators had set king-size rewards for his capture - dead or alive! But somewhere in the two continents there was someone who would help him, someone he had to find. The future of the world depended on his success.

This Fortress World

William Dane is a man with a nasty but valuable secret, one that all the cutthroats in the galaxy are itching to get their hands on. Dane must perfect the art of concealing himself from the crazed factions yearning for the power that this secret can give.

The Gone-Away World

Nick Harkaway

There couldn't be a fire along the Jorgmund Pipe. It was the last thing the world needed. But there it was, burning bright on national television. The Pipe was what kept the Livable Zone safe from the bandits, monsters and nightmares the Go Away War had left in its wake. The fire was a very big problem.

Enter Gonzo Lubitsch and his friends, the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company, a team of master troubleshooters who roll into action when things get particularly hot. They helped build the Pipe. Now they have to preserve it—and save humanity yet again. But this job is not all it seems. It will touch more closely on Gonzo's life, and that of his best friend, than either of them can imagine. And it will decide the fate of the Gone-Away World.

Tonight We Steal the Stars / The Wagered World

John Jakes
Laurence M. Janifer
S. J. Treibich

Tonight We Steal the Stars

In II Galaxy, only Wolf Dragonard can make the impossible possible.

The Wagered World

The astronauts didn't know they were betting the Earth on the toss of the dice!

The Worlds of Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert

Contains:

The Tactful Saboteur
Committee of the Whole
Old Rambling House
Mating Call
A-W-F, Unlimited
The Featherbedders
The GM Effect
Escape Felicity

The Braided World

Kay Kenyon

"Come find what you have lost..."

Heeding this cryptic message from deep space, the crew of the starship Restoration journeys from Earth to a distant planet, hoping to find humanity's lost genetic diversity. But with the human race on the verge of extinction from the twin horrors of plague and a mysterious scourge of dark matter, how can an alien world harbor any remedies for Earth's declining populations?

Worse, the Restoration arrives depleted: its captain is dead, its crew demoralized--except for an indomitable old woman whose power and wealth give her the privilege of naming the new captain. Anton Prados, a young, untested officer, will now preside over humanity's first contact with an alien race. An alien race that, improbably, looks exactly like humans. Only, the Dassa possess highly unusual breeding habits--and a reproductive process that seems to be the nullification of all that is human. And they think much the same about humanity…

The History of Our World Beyond the Wave

R. E. Klein

A tidal wave came, as high as the stars and hissing, and it washed away bathers, buildings, all civilization. Paul Sant survived by clinging to a surf mat. Eventually he found land-but unlike land he had ever know. Combining an allegory of good and evil with adventure that takes us through nightmare to salvation-including knights in armor, fish people called Gugs, and an ominous yelloe Volkswagon-R.E. Klein creates a world that is strange beyond our imagination yet familiar to the heart, a world where things may not be real, but they are true. In the History of Our World Beyond the Wave, Klein imagines a world washed clean of materialism, cynicism, of the emptiness of modern life, a world where the metaphysical and the magical are again possible.

The Worlds of Fritz Leiber

Fritz Leiber

THE WORLDS OF FRITZ LEIBER is a brand new collection of some of the finest SF, Fantasy and Horror stories produced by the internationally acclaimed author of THE BIG TIME.

It is a collection handpicked by the author and contains two Change-War stories, a Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tale, Catch That Zeppelin (the winner of the 1976 Nebula Award) and eighteen other outstanding stories.

But no one could describe this book better than Fritz Leiber himself: "I believe this collection represents me more completely, provides a fuller measure of the range of my creative efforts, than any other. Welcome to my worlds!"

Contents:

Hatchery of Dreams (1961)
The Goggles of Dr. Dragonet (1961)
Far Reach to Cygnus (1965)
Night Passage (1975)
Nice Girl with Five Husbands (1951)
When the Change-Winds Blow (1964)
237 Talking Statues, Etc. (1963)
The Improper Authorities (1959)
Our Saucer Vacation (1959)
Pipe Dream (1959)
What's He Doing in There? (1957)
Friends and Enemies (1957)
The Last Letter (1958)
Endfray of the Ofay (1969)
Cyclops (1965)
Mysterious Doings in the Metropolitan Museum (1974)
The Bait (1973)
The Lotus Eaters (1972)
Waif (1974)
Myths My Great-Granddaughter Taught Me (1963)
Catch That Zeppelin! (1975)
Last (1957)

Ruler of the World

J. T. McIntosh

Earth, four centuries from today, is in dire peril. A half-empty world, it is slowly destroying itself. The Terrans are drab and obedient. Instant exile is the penalty for non-conformity. Interplanetary visitors are restricted to reservations where they cannot meet native Terrans or threaten their self-imposed isolation. But Burrell succeeds in breaking through. He is a rough, tough spaceman with a flair for stirring up trouble. And he is determined to shake the world of his ancestors out of its apathy.

The Holder of the World

Bharati Mukherjee

This is the remarkable story of Hannah Easton, a unique woman born in the American colonies in 1670, "a person undreamed of in Puritan society." Inquisitive, vital and awake to her own possibilities, Hannah travels to Mughal, India, with her husband, and English trader. There, she sets her own course, "translating" herself into the Salem Bibi, the white lover of a Hindu raja.

It is also the story of Beigh Masters, born in New England in the mid-twentieth century, an "asset hunter" who stumbles on the scattered record of her distant relative's life while tracking a legendary diamond. As Beigh pieces together details of Hannah's journeys, she finds herself drawn into the most intimate and spellbinding fabric of that remote life, confirming her belief that with "sufficient passion and intelligence, we can decontrsuct the barriers of time and geography...."

Saving the World Through Science Fiction: James Gunn, Writer, Teacher and Scholar

Michael R. Page

One of the major figures in science fiction for more than sixty years, James Gunn has been instrumental in making the genre one of the most vibrant and engaging areas of literary scholarship. His genre history Alternate Worlds and his The Road to Science Fiction anthologies introduced countless readers to science fiction. He founded the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in 1982.

But Gunn has also been one of the genre's leading writers. His classic novels Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson), The Joy Makers, The Immortals and The Listeners helped shape the field. Now in his nineties, he remains a prominent voice. His forthcoming novel is Transformation. Drawing on materials from Gunn's archives and personal interviews with him, this study is the first to examine the life, career and writing of this science fiction grandmaster.

Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition, and the Politics of SF

Patrick Parrinder

Learning from Other Worlds provides both a portrait of the development of science fiction criticism as an intellectual field and a definitive look at the state of science fiction studies today. Its title refers to the essence of "cognitive estrangement" in relation to science fiction and utopian fiction--the assertion that by imagining strange worlds we learn to see our own world in a new perspective. Acknowledging an indebtedness to the groundbreaking work of Darko Suvin and his belief that the double movement of estrangement and cognition reflects deep structures of human storytelling, the contributors assert that learning-from-otherness is as natural and inevitable a process as the instinct for imitation and representation that Aristotle described in his Poetics.

In exploring the relationship between imaginative invention and that of allegory or fable, the essays in Learning from Other Worlds comment on the field's most abiding concerns and employ a variety of critical approaches--from intellectual history and genre studies to biographical criticism, feminist cultural studies, and political textual analysis. Among the topics discussed are the works of John Wyndham, Kim Stanley Robinson, Stanislau Lem, H.G. Wells, and Ursula Le Guin, as well as the media's reactions to the 1997 cloning of Dolly the Sheep. Darko Suvin's characteristically outspoken and penetrating afterword responds to the essays in the volume and offers intimations of a further stage in his long and distinguished career.

This useful compendium and companion offers a coherent view of science fiction studies as it has evolved while paying tribute to the debt it owes Suvin, one of its first champions. As such, it will appeal to critics and students of science fiction, utopia, and fantasy writing.

Contents:

1 - Introduction (Learning from Other Worlds) - (1999) - essay by Patrick Parrinder
19 - Before the Novum: The Prehistory of Science Fiction Criticism - (1999) - essay by Edward James
36 - Revisiting Suvin's Poetics of Science Fiction - (1999) - essay by Patrick Parrinder
51 - 'Look into the Dark': On Dystopia and the Novum - (1999) - essay by Tom Moylan
72 - Science Fiction and Utopia: A Historico-Philosophical Overview - (1999) - essay by Carl Freedman
98 - Society after the Revolution: The Blueprints for the Forthcoming Socialist Society published by the Leaders of the Second International - (1999) - essay by Marc Angenot
119 - From the Images of Science to Science Fiction - (1999) - essay by Gérard Klein
127 - Estranged Invaders: The War of the Worlds - (1999) - essay by Peter Fitting
146 - 'A part of the... family [?]': John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos as Estranged Autobiography - (1999) - essay by David Ketterer
178 - Labyrinth, Double and Mask in the Science Fiction of Stanislaw Lem - (1999) - essay by Rafail Nudelman
193 - 'We're at the Start of a New Ball Game and That's Why We're All Real Nervous': Or, Cloning - Technological Cognition Reflects Estrangement from Women - (1999) - essay by Marleen S. Barr
208 - 'If I find one good city I will spare the man': Realism and Utopia in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy - (1999) - essay by Fredric Jameson
233 - Afterword: With Sober, Estranged Eyes - (1999) - essay by Darko Suvin
272 - Checklist of Printed Items that Concern Science Fiction (with Utopian Fiction or Utopianism, and a few Bordering Items) - (1999) - essay by Darko Suvin

The Space Willies / Six Worlds Yonder

Eric Frank Russell

Six Worlds Yonder

Stories in this collection:

The Waitabits
Tieline
Top Secret
Nothing New
Into Your Tent I'll Creep
Diabologic

The Space Willies

An Earthman's tongue is his deadliest weapon

There was a common understanding in the Space Navy that scout-pilots were a breed apart--cocksure, reckless, and slightly nuts. But it was also understood that when a really dangerous job had to be done, a scout-pilot was the man to do it.

So for John Leeming, a couple of months of dodging death in a one-man ship, zipping in and out of the enemy Combine's rearguard, was just another one of those jobs. And there was no man in the Universe more surprised than Leeming when his heretofore indestructible ship just gave up the ghost smack in the middle of a Combine-held prison planet!

It was then that the spirit of the Scout Corps had its chance to shine. With self-confidence as his only weapon, Leeming had only two choices: give in to the enemy and be captured...or quick-talk them into a real case of THE SPACE WILLIES!

Message from the Eocene / Three Worlds of Futurity

Margaret St. Clair

Message from the Eocene

Legacy of a Lost Race

His name was Tharg, but he was not of any life form we know today. He lived so long ago that the planet Earth had not yet shaped itself. Lava seas roiled and churned, volcanoes spouted and grew, and heavy clouds hung in the hydrogen atmosphere, leaving the planet's surface dark and dangerous.

On that world Tharg met his death, or something very much like it. He became a disembodied, totally nonphysical intelligence, cut off from all contact with the life he had known. He "slept" for hundreds of millions of yhears, unconnected with the world, unthinking, hardly existing.

But then he began to awake--for there was new life on Earth, creatures called "human," and Tharg, knowing an anceint promise from the stars, had to tell them of it. But... how?

Three Worlds of Futurity

Collection of short stories:

The Everlasting Food - (1950) - novelette
Idris' Pig - (1949) - novella
The Rages - (1954) - novelette
Roberta - (1962) - shortstory
The Island of the Hands - (1952) - shortstory

Patricia A. McKillip and the Art of Fantasy World-Building

Audrey Isabel Taylor

From wondrous fairy-lands to nightmarish hellscapes, the elements that make fantasy worlds come alive also invite their exploration. This first book-length study of critically acclaimed novelist Patricia A. McKillip's lyrical other-worlds analyzes her characters, environments and legends and their interplay with genre expectations. The author gives long overdue critical attention to McKillip's work and demonstrates how a broader understanding of world-building enables a deeper appreciation of her fantasies.

The Island at the End of the World

Sam Taylor

A chilling post-apocalyptic tale of how far a father will go to protect his children-from the author of The Amnesiac.

In a world nearly destroyed by catastrophic floods, one family has been spared. Many years ago, as the waters rose, a father and his three children took to their ark and drifted to the safety of a small island. Life there is a quiet idyll of music and farming-and young Alice, Finn, and Daisy are grateful for their salvation-until the day a stranger swims ashore.

A terrifyingly plausible adventure story, The Island at the End of the World is a mesmerizing novel from an exciting new writer.

The World of Null-A / The Universe Maker

A. E. Van Vogt

The World of Null-A

It is the year 2650 and Earth has become a world of non-Aristotelianism, or Null-A. This is the story of Gilbert Gosseyn, who lives in that future world where the Games Machine, made up of twenty-five thousand electronic brains, sets the course of people's lives. Gosseyn isn't even sure of his own identity, but realizes he has some remarkable abilities and sets out to use them to discover who has made him a pawn in an interstellar plot.

The Universe Maker

Did you ever hear of the Inter-Time Society for Psychological Adjustments? Well, neither had Morton Cargill in 1953 when he accidentally killed a girl. A year later that very girl turned up, apparently alive, and announced that the mysterious society had condemned him to death! Cargill's astounding adventures began when he escaped the execution chamber to find himself in the far future. Three conflicting societies were hunting for him, to use him in their own desperate schemes. There were the Floaters, a nation of aerial vagabonds. There were the Tweeners, who dreamed of world conquest. And finally, interwoven through everything, were the sinister figures of the Shadow Men-supermen without visible substance.

Monsters in Orbit / The World Between and Other Stories

The Brains of Earth / The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

Table of Contents:

Monsters in Orbit - novel
The World Between - (1953) - novelette
The Moon Moth - (1961) - novelette
Brain of the Galaxy - (1951) - novelette (variant of The New Prime)
The Devil on Salvation Bluff - (1955) - shortstory
The Men Return - (1957) - shortstory

The Last Castle / World of the Sleeper

Table of Contents:

The Brains of Earth - novella
The Kokod Warriors - (1952) - novelette
The Unspeakable McInch - (1948) - shortstory
The Howling Bounders - (1949) - shortstory
The King of Thieves - (1949) - shortstory
The Spa of the Stars - (1950) - shortstory
Coup de Grace - (1958) - shortstory

Tony Russell Wayman
Jack Vance

The Last Castle

For 700 years the Meks served without complaint; they were indispensable, for no gentleman would demean himself with toil. But now they turn against the strongholds of civilization--Castle Halcyon, then Sea Island, Morninglight, and Maraval--one by one the proud castles of Earth fall; last standing is Castle Hagedorn.

World of the Sleeper

Take your choice of any world or time - but at your perril.

The War of the Worlds

H. G. Wells

Famous for the mistaken panic that ensued from Orson Welles’s 1938 radio dramatization, The War of the Worlds remains one of the most influential of all science fiction works.

The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. Naïve locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag—only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge.

Soon the whole of human civilization is under threat as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroying all life in their path with black gas and burning ray. The forces of Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they appear.

To the End of Time and Other Stories / World of the Masterminds

Robert Moore Williams

To the End of Time and Other Stories

Showdown on the sun's last plantet!

World of the Masterminds

Collection of short stories:

To the End of Time - (1950)
Where Tall Towers Gleam - (1950)
Homeward Bound - (1949)
When the Spoilers Came - (1952)
Like Alarm Bells Ringing - (1947)

The End of the World News: An Entertainment

Anthony Burgess

Presented without chapter breaks, the plot weaves together three storylines. One follows Leon Trotsky on a journey to New York City shortly before the Russian Revolution of 1917. This story is written as the libretto of an Off-Broadway musical. A second tale covers the life and career of Sigmund Freud and includes portrayals of Havelock Ellis and Krafft-Ebing. The third part is set in the future, shortly before the impact of a rogue, extrasolar planet with the Earth. Because of the latter story line, it is considered a work of fantastic fiction. (from Wikipedia)

Other Worlds, Better Lives: Selected Long Fiction, 1989-2003

A Howard Waldrop Reader: Book 2

Howard Waldrop

Contains:

Nebula- and World Fantasy Award-nominated Novella "A Dozen Tough Jobs"
Hugo-, Asimov's-, and Locus-nominated Novelette "Fin de Cyclé"
Sidewise- and Locus-nominated Novella "You Could Go Home Again"

Other Worlds, Better Lives features longer stories written Howard Waldrop between 1989 and 2003 and displays his mastery of the novella form.

Among the stories here is "You Could Go Home Again", in which Thomas Wolfe, having survived the brain disease that killed him in our world, returns from the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, aboard an airship where fellow voyager Fats Waller provides musical interludes, to a U.S. governed by technocrats.

"Fin de Cyclé" is the story of how a movie made by Georges Méliès, assisted by Alfred Jarry, Marcel Proust, and Pablo Picasso, rouses the French public to demand justice in the case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus and helps to free him from Devil s Island.

Various young characters from late 1950s and early 1960s TV programs and science fiction movies confront the Cuban missile crisis in "The Other Real World", while Richard Wagner abandons his operatic ambitions to become one of the forefathers of the Peoples Federated States of Europe in "A Better World's in Birth!"

"Flatfeet!" combines reflections on Osvald Spengler's classic The Decline of the West and American artist Thomas Cole's series of paintings entitled "The Course of Empire" with a number of historical parallels and Keystone Kops-style antics in what the author calls in his afterword "one of the most jam-packed stories I ever wrote".

In "Major Spacer in the 21st Century!" Waldrop manages to cover the history of much of twentieth century communications technology in realistic detail.

The longest story in the collection is "A Dozen Tough Jobs"; here, Waldrop takes the mythological figure of Hercules and sets him down in early twentieth-century Mississippi along with an African-American sidekick appropriately named I.O. Lace. Readers unfamiliar with Greek mythology can read this novella straight as a tale of race relations, rural poverty, and class distinctions centered on the convict Houlka Lee; those who know the old myths will delight in the meticulously worked-out parallels between Waldrop's story and the fabled Twelve Labours of Hercules.

- Pamela Sargent, SciFi Weekly

Table of Contents:

Size Matters - essay
A Dozen Tough Jobs - (1989) - novella
Afterword (A Dozen Tough Jobs) - essay
Fin de Cyclé - (1990) - novelette
Afterword (Fin de Cyclé) - essay
You Could Go Home Again - (1993) - novella
Afterword (You Could Go Home Again) - essay
Flatfeet! - (1996) - shortstory
Afterword (Flatfeet!) - essay
Major Spacer in the 21st Century! - (2001) - novelette
Afterword (Major Spacer in the 21st Century!) - essay
The Other Real World - (2001) - novelette
Afterword (The Other Real World) - essay
A Better World's in Birth! - (2003) - novelette
Afterword (A Better World's in Birth!) - essay

The World's End

A Hundred Names for Magic: Book 3

Rin Chupeco

It's been three months since the Snow Queen and OzCorp infiltrated Maidenkeep and nearly seized the Nine Maidens. Ryker is still unconscious and the rest of the group is feeling the effects of the prolonged war. Not to mention that Abigail Fey's curse has far-reaching consequences, and many in the Royal States have been using it to stir unrest and hostilities against Avalon.

When the Adarna, a firebird-like creature appears in Avalon, the gang discovers it is one of seven magical artifacts that the Snow Queen has been searching for, in her bid to open a portal to Buyan-a place that could grant her tremendous power. Determined to find the artifacts first the Bandersnatchers find information about the other five: The Singing Bone, The Hamelin Flute, The Tamatebako, The Lotus Lanternm The Raskovnik, and The Wonderland Tree.

But the Snow Queen will stop at nothing to get to the relics first. And as the final battle approaches, both sides will lose the ones they love as the fight to save or destroy Avalon finally comes to be.

The Hidden World

A Princess of Roumania: Book 4

Paul Park

After finding that she is the lost princess of Roumania and the mythical White Tyger, Miranda's fate is still uncertain. The ghosts of her enemies cluster about her, the insane spirit of the Baroness takes possession of her body for a time, and demons released by her mother are abroad. Through it all her heart calls out to Peter, whom she has come to love, and to her best friend Andromeda. Any answers may lie only in the hidden world of spirits, where death is but an inconvenience, and Miranda is the most powerful creature of all: the White Tyger.

The Wide World's End

A Tournament of Shadows: Book 3

James Enge

The tale of the early days of Morlock Ambrosius--master of all magical makers, wandering swordsman, and son of Merlin--concludes!

From beyond the northern edge of the world, the Sunkillers (undying enemies of everything that lives and breathes and is an individual) are reaching into the sky of Laent to drain out its light and warmth. Their hope is to scrape sky, land, and sea clean of mortal life and return to where they once dwelled, before the first rising of the sun. Against them stand only the Graith of Guardians, defenders of the peaceful anarchy of the Wardlands. But the agents of the Sunkillers are abroad even in the Wardlands: plotting, betraying, murdering among the Graith.

Married now for a century, Morlock Ambrosius and Aloê Oaij will take different paths to counter the threat. As Aloê ferrets out the enemy within the Graith, Morlock joins forces with his sister, the formidable Ambrosia Viviana, and crosses the monster-haunted plains of the deep north to confront the Sunkillers in their own realm. Morlock and Aloê think their parting is temporary, but it is final. They may or may not save the world, but they will not save each other, or themselves.

The Ruby Incomparable

Anvil of the World

When purest Evil and purest Good join in marriage, you can't expect the relationship to be a tranquil one--but sometimes it can produce unexpected consequences that surprise both.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy (2007), edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. It was reprinted in Lightspeed, May 2012. The story can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best Fantasy 8 (2008), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and Best American Fantasy 2 (2008), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. It is included in the collection The Best of Kage Baker (2012).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Anvil of the World

Anvil of the World: Book 1

The Anvil of the World is the tale of Smith and his feud-prone people, the Children of the Sun. Smith, formerly a successful assassin, is trying to retire, hoping to live an honest life in obscurity in spite of all those who have sworn to kill him. But when he agrees to be the master of a caravan from traveling from the inland city of Troon to Salesh by the sea, trouble follows.

As always, Baker's approach is charmingly distinctive. Smith's adventure is certainly the only fantasy featuring a white-uniformed nurse, gourmet cuisine, one hundred and forty-four glass butterflies, and a steamboat.

The House of the Stag

Anvil of the World: Book 2

Before the Riders came to their remote valley the Yendri led a tranquil pastoral life. When the Riders conquered and enslaved them, only a few escaped to the forests. Rebellion wasn't the Yendri way; they hid, or passively resisted, taking consolation in the prophecies of their spiritual leader.

Only one possessed the necessary rage to fight back: Gard the foundling, half-demon, who began a one-man guerrilla war against the Riders. His struggle ended in the loss of the family he loved, and condemnation from his own people.

Exiled, he was taken as a slave by powerful mages ruling an underground kingdom. Bitterer and wiser, he found more subtle ways to earn his freedom. This is the story of his rise to power, his vengeance, his unlikely redemption and his maturation into a loving father--as well as a lord and commander of demon armies.

Kage Baker, author of the popular and witty fantasy, The Anvil of the World, returns to that magical world for another story of love, adventure, and a fair bit of ironic humor.

The Bird of the River

Anvil of the World: Book 3

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World, Vol. 1: The Ultimate Party is Born

In this new story set in the world of The Anvil of the World and The House of the Stag, two teenagers join the crew of a huge river barge after their addict mother is drowned. The girl and her half-breed younger brother try to make the barge their new home. As the great boat proceeds up the long river, we see a panorama of cities and cultures, and begin to perceive patterns in the pirate attacks that happen so frequently in the river cities. Eliss, the girl, becomes a sharp-eyed spotter of obstacles in the river for the barge, and more than that, one who perceives deeply.

A young boy her age, Krelan, trained as a professional assassin, has come aboard, seeking the head of a dead nobleman, so that there might be a proper burial. But the head proves as elusive as the real explanation behind the looting of cities, so he needs Eliss's help. And then there is the massive Captain of the barge, who can perform supernatural tricks, but prefers to stay in his cabin and drink.

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World: Book 1

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World, Vol. 2: The Lovely Paladin

Nick used to be a member of a veteran adventurer party, helping his undisciplined friends with the accounts whenever he could. But what was his reward? Getting accused of embezzlement and kicked out by the leader he respected. Before long, he finds a few other jaded adventurers and kindred spirits, and together, they form their own unstoppable party!

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World: Book 2

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World, Vol. 3: The Southern Saint

Betrayed and kicked out of his adventurer party, Nick thought he might never trust another again. However, it isn't long before he finds new comrades with similar experiences: Tiana, a mage and former noble lady, Zem, an excommunicated priest, and Karan, a female dragonian warrior. Together, they form an adventurer party called "Survivors" and are later joined by the Sword of Bonds. But just as things start picking up for them, Nick runs into his ex, Claudine, and they get dragged into a duel with her adventurer party. Can the newly formed Survivors win against a group active in the underworld?

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World: Book 3

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World, Vol. 4: The Idol Appreciation Concert

Unjustly expelled from his last party, adventurer Nick and his crew of similarly burned adventurers - a once-noble mage, excommunicated priest, and dragonian lady knight - have conquered the slimes of the first beginner labyrinth, and they now set out toward Goblin Forest. Taking down some goblins? That you can do alone! But trust and teamwork are their only hope to defeat the hordes of hobgoblins and the mighty ogre deep in the woods... Can they really succeed when their strategy relies on Karan the dragonian, who will have to relive her traumatic memories and act as the van guard with her back to her team once again?

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World: Book 4

Archonate Universe: Kaslo Chronicles

THE DEEPEST SHADOWS CAN HIDE BEHIND THE BRIGHTEST LIGHTS.

After a fierce battle, Nick and the others succeeded in crushing the demon-god worshipper White Mask. The guild is extremely happy with their performance, so the Survivors are entrusted with Nick's dream job: guarding an idol concert! But when they discover counterfeit tickets--and a connection to the demon god's adherents--they start to doubt that this is a normal escort mission. And that's all before Sun Knight captain Alice shares her suspicions about Nick's former party member Garos, shaking him to the core. Karan is there to lend her support, but her feelings for Nick seem to be changing...

A Hole in the World

Matthew Hughes

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, February 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The First Days

As the World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy: Book 1

Rhiannon Frater

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town. There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.

Fast-paced and exciting, filled with characters who grab your heart, The First Days: As the World Dies is the beginning of a frightening trilogy.

Fighting to Survive

As the World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy: Book 2

Rhiannon Frater

Picking up where The First Days ends, Fighting to Survive features the further zombie-killing, civilization-saving adventures of a pair of sexy, kick butt heroines and the men who love them. A hundred or so survivors of the zombie plague have found tenuous safety in the walled off center of a small Texas town. Now the hard work of survival begins--finding enough food; creating safe, weather-resistant shelter; establishing laws; and fighting off both the undead who want to eat them and the living bandits who want to rob and kill them.

Fighting to Survive won the Dead Letter Award for Best Novel from Mail Order Zombie. The first book in the As the World Dies trilogy, The First Days also won the Dead Letter Award and was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by the Harrisburg Book Examiner. Tor Books began bringing this series to a wider audience with the Spring 2011 publication of The First Days.

Siege

As the World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy: Book 3

Rhiannon Frater

The zombie illness has shattered civilization. The survivors who have found tenuous safety in Texas defend their fort against the walking dead and living bandits.

Katie has made peace with the death of her wife and is pregnant and married to Travis, who has been elected Mayor. Jenni, her stepson, Jason; and Juan--Travis's righthand man--are a happy family, though Jenni suffers from PTSD. Both women are deadly zombie killers.

In Siege, the people of Ashley Oaks are stunned to discover that the vice president of the United States is alive and commanding the remnants of the US military. What's left of the US government has plans for this group of determined survivors.

The Wood Beyond the World

Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Book 3

The Well at the World's End Volume I

When the wife of Golden Walter betrays him for another man, he leaves home on a trading voyage to avoid the necessity of a feud with her family. His efforts are fruitless, as word comes to him en route that his wife's clan has killed his father. As a storm then carries him to a faraway country, the effect of this news is merely to sunder his last ties to his homeland. Walter comes to the castle of an enchantress, from which he rescues a captive maiden in a harrowing adventure (or rather, she rescues him). They flee through a region inhabited by mini-giants, eventually reaching a city whose custom is to take as ruler when the throne is vacant the next foreigner to arrive. The late king having died, Walter and his new love are hailed as the new monarchs, and presumably live happily ever after.

At the Edge of the World

Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Book 13

Lord Dunsany

Table of Contents:

About "At the Edge of the World" and Lord Dunsany: The Dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai - essay by Lin Carter
The Cave of Kai - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
Of the Gods of Averon - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory (variant of "The Sorrow of Search")
Mlideen - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
The King That Was Not - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
The Men of Yarnith - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
In the Land of Time - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
Time and the Gods - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory
The Opulence of Yahn - [Pegana] - (1906) - shortstory (variant of "Usury")
The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth - (1908) - shortstory
Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean - (1908) - shortstory
The Idle City - (1909) - shortstory
Bethmoora - (1908) - shortstory
Idle Days on the Yann - [Beyond the Fields We Know - 1] - (1910) - shortstory
The Hashish Man - (1910) - shortstory
Carcassonne - (1910) - shortstory
In Zaccarath - (1909) - shortstory
The Dream of King Karna-Vootra - (1915) - shortstory
How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana - (1915) - shortstory
The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller, and of the Doom That Befell Him - (1911) - shortstory
A Shop in Go-by Street - [Beyond the Fields We Know - 2] - (1912) - shortstory
The Avenger of Perdóndaris - [Beyond the Fields We Know - 3] - (1912) - shortstory
How the Dwarfs Rose Up in War - (1919) - shortstory (variant of "A Pretty Quarrel)"
The Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men - (1911) - shortstory
The Loot of Bombasharna - (1912) - shortstory
The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater - (1910) - shortstory
The Bride of the Man-Horse - (1911) - shortstory
The Quest of the Queen's Tears - (1911) - shortstory
How One Came, as Was Foretold, to the City of Never - (1911) - shortstory
A Day at the Edge of the World - (1916) - shortstory (variant of "The Long Porter's Tale" 1914)
Erlathdronion - (1916) - shortstory (variant of "A Tale of the Equator" 1914)
Epilogue to "The Book of Wonder" - (1912) - essay
Afterword (The Edge of the World) - essay by Lin Carter

Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Book 20

The Well at the World's End Volume II

The first half of The Well at the World's End (Books One and Two)

Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Book 21

H. Rider Haggard
Andrew Lang

The second half of The Well at the World's End (Books Three and Four)

The World's Desire

Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Book 40

The World's Desire is the continuing story of Odyseus, who returns to Ithaca to find his home destroyed. Aphrodite orders him to go to Egypt to seek out the immortal Helen, whom he wooed before marrying Penelope.

The Starless World

Bantam Star Trek Original Novels: Book 5

Gordon Eklund

Captain's Log, Stardate 6532.1

While investigating rumors of renewed activity by the Klingon Empire within the Galactic Core, the Enterprise made contact with a shuttlecraft from the USS Rickover, a starship presumed lost with all hands over 20 years ago. The lone occupant of that shuttlecraft - Thomas Clayton, once my roommate at Starfleet Academy, now the self-proclaimed chosen son and favored prophet of a deity he calls Ay-nab. I had planned on disregarding Clayton entirely - until control of our engines was seized by an as-yet-unexplained outside force... a force, Clayton insists, that is now taking us to meet his god.

The World Above the World

Black Coat French Science Fiction: Book 64

Brian Stableford

A balloon ascent to the Heavens... A man with X-ray vision... A utopian metal city built on giant pylons above Paris... A sexless world in which women reproduce parthenogenetically and man is unknown... Is science insane? Unholy? See nine French authors of the 19th century grapple in a ground-breaking fashion with the future themes of science fiction. All the stories included in this volume predate the first translation into French of H.G. Wells. They are representative of a distinct tradition of romans scientifiques whose cardinal influences included astronomer Camille Flammarion and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (2011) - essay by Brian Stableford
A Heavenward Voyage - (1840) - short story by Samuel-Henry Berthoud (trans. of Voyage au Ciel)
The Second Sun - short fiction by Samuel-Henry Berthoud (trans. of Le Second Soleil 1862)
Mimer's Head - short fiction by René de Pont-Jest (trans. of La Tête de Mimer 1863)
Wood'stown - short fiction by Alphonse Daudet (trans. of Wood'stown 1874)
Love Among the Stars - short fiction by Camille Flammarion (trans. of Un amour des astres 1896)
The X-Ray - short fiction by Charles Recolin (trans. of Le Rayon X 1896)
The Mysterious Dajan-Phinn - short fiction by Michel Corday (trans. of Le Mystérieux Dajan-Phinn 1908)
A World Above the World - short fiction by Jules Perrin and H. Lanos (trans. of Un Monde sur le monde 1911)
Drymea, World of Virgins - short fiction by André Mas (trans. of Drymea, monde de vierges 1923)

At the End of the World

Black Tide Rising: Book 8

Charles E. Gannon

CASTAWAYS IN A ZOMBIE PLAGUE

Six kids ranging from suburban geeks to street-smart pariahs. A British captain who rarely talks and never smiles. All on the 70-foot pilot house ketch Crosscurrent Voyager, bound on a senior summer cruise to adventure and serious fun.

Except most of the kids don't get along. And they'll be gone all summer. And none of them have sailed before. And worst of all--because they booked at the last minute--they got the destination nobody else wanted: the frigid and remote South Georgia Islands.

But there's one other hitch: they'll never see their families or friends again. Just days after they leave, a plague starts spreading like wildfire, turning most of its survivors into shrieking, cannibalistic rage-monsters. So with their past dying as fast as the world that shaped it, the kids' hated destination becomes their one hope for survival.

But it's an uncertain hope. Not only are other hostile survivors headed there, but South Georgia Island is unable to support permanent habitation. So if the strange crew of the Voyager doesn't come up with a further plan, they are--in every sense--heading straight toward the end of the world.

All These Worlds

Bobiverse: Book 3

Dennis E. Taylor

Being a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can't stay out of trouble.

They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.

Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.

Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol -- unless the Others arrive first.

The Edge of Worlds

Books of the Raksura: Book 4

Martha Wells

An expedition of groundlings from the Empire of Kish have traveled through the Three Worlds to the Indigo Cloud court of the Raksura, shape-shifting creatures of flight that live in large family groups. The groundlings have found a sealed ancient city at the edge of the shallow seas, near the deeps of the impassable Ocean. They believe it to be the last home of their ancestors and ask for help getting inside. But the Raksura fear it was built by their own distant ancestors, the Forerunners, and the last sealed Forerunner city they encountered was a prison for an unstoppable evil.

Prior to the groundlings' arrival, the Indigo Cloud court had been plagued by visions of a disaster that could destroy all the courts in the Reaches. Now, the court's mentors believe the ancient city is connected to the foretold danger. A small group of warriors, including consort Moon, an orphan new to the colony and the Raksura's idea of family, and sister queen Jade, agree to go with the groundling expedition to investigate. But the predatory Fell have found the city too, and in the race to keep the danger contained, the Raksura may be the ones who inadvertently release it.

The End of the World : And Other Catastrophes

British Library Science Fiction Classics: Book 6

Mike Ashley

Sound the sirens! The end is here, and it comes in many forms in this new collection of apocalyptic short stories from the classic age of science fiction. Join humanity on the brink of destruction in 13 doom-laden visions from the 1890s to the 1960s, featuring rare tales from the Library's vaults.

Tales of plague seizing an over-polluted capital, a world engulfed in absolute darkness by some cosmic disaster, and of poignant dreams of a silent planet after the last echoes of humanity have died away.

Extreme climate change, nuclear annihilation, comet strike; calamities self-inflicted and from beyond the steer of humankind vie to deal the last blow in this countdown from the first whisper of possible extinction to the Earth's final sunrise.

The Lost Worlds of Cronus

Cageworld: Book 2

Colin Kapp

Mercury Shell, Venus Shell, Earth, Mars, Asteroid, Jupiter, Saturn. Each shell concentric, studded with artificial planets, each planet embedded in its shell, spinning like a ball-bearing. The whole Zeus-created in the service of Man but now beyond his control.

Now mathematics and space physics, converging, suggested another shell, its existence hidden from Man. A shell of utter darkness, cold and silence where only extreme mutants could survive.

To find that shell, the three were journeying again: Maq Ancor, Master Assassin, Magician Cherry and Sine Anura, Mistress of the Erotic. Together, daring the all-seeing, all-sensing hostility of Zeus.

The Lost World of Time

Captain Future: Book 8

Edmond Hamilton

The Futuremen Race into the Past to Answer a Cry for Help that Has Traveled Across a Hundred Mil lion Years! Follow Captain Future as the Greatest Enigma of All Time Transports Him into the Forgotten Ages...

This novel was originally published in Fall 1941 editionCaptain Future Magazine.

It is also contained in the collection The Collected Captain Future: Volume Two.

After the End of the World

Carter & Lovecraft: Book 2

Jonathan L. Howard

After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard brings the H.P. Lovecraft mythos into the twenty-first century.

The Unfolded World is a bitter and unfriendly place for Daniel Carter and Emily Lovecraft. In this world, the Cold War never happened because the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1941. In this world the Nazi Großdeutschland is the premier superpower, and is not merely tolerated but indulged because, in this world, the Holocaust happened behind the ruins of the Iron Curtain and consumed only Bolsheviks, Communists, and others the West was glad to see gone. In this world, there are monsters, and not all of them are human.

But even in the Unfolded World, there are still bills to pay and jobs to do. Carter finds himself working for the German secret security service to uncover the truth behind a major scientific joint project that is going suspiciously well. The trail takes Lovecraft and him to a distant, abandoned island, and a conspiracy that threatens everything. To fight it, Lovecraft must walk a perilously narrow path between forbidden knowledge and soul-destroying insanity.

Fortunately, she also has a shotgun.

Chronicles of the Hidden World: How I Became a Doctor for the Gods, Vol. 1

Chronicles of the Hidden World: Book 1

Tamaki Itomori

A JAPANESE FANTASY OF GODS AND CURSES...

After dying in our world, Yae is reborn into a strange country called Izumo, which resembles ancient Japan, except for the fact that the supernatural is commonplace. When she is attacked by a terrifying monster called a shade, Yae has no choice but to release Arai, a golden tiger and former god, from his seal. In no time, the bossy tiger has her helping to find his brother, Sui, but it turns out that Sui has fallen ill and will soon become a monster himself. Arai, however, thinks Yae is just the person to heal his afflicted sibling... Does Yae really have what it takes to be doctor to a god?

The Slanted Worlds

Chronoptika: Book 2

Catherine Fisher

Jake, Sarah, and Oberon Venn continue their fight for control of the Obsidian Mirror, and whoever wins will either save a life, change the past, or rescue the future.

But the Mirror has plans of its own.

Constance Verity Saves the World

Constance Verity: Book 2

A. Lee Martinez

For Constance Verity, saving the world isn't the hard part. It's keeping her new, ordinary life from falling apart along the way that's going to be tricky. This is the next book in the witty Constance Verity trilogy, which Booklist named a Top 10 SF/Fantasy book of 2016.

Constance successfully became an ordinary person. People warned her it would be boring--and they were right. That's exactly why Connie loves it. But there's an Adventurer-shaped hole in the cosmos now, and a lot of interested parties eager to fill it. Not all of those candidates are fit for the role, and if The Adventurer falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to chaos and destruction.

Constance still has all the skills of her old life, but she's no longer chosen. Yet when the fate of the world is at stake, she sets off, reluctantly, to keep the forces of evil from stealing the destiny she abandoned.

The Game of Worlds

David Brin's Out of Time: Book 3

Roger MacBride Allen

Adam O'Connor, a teenage troublemaker of the late twentieth century, is hurtled out of time to the twenty-fourth century, where he is assigned the task of leading a historic meeting between humans and the warlike K'lugu and Devlins.

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World

Dayworld

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 1

This short story originally appeared in the anthology New Dimensions 1 (1971), edited by Robert Silverberg, and was reprinted on Sci Fiction, February 5, 2003. It can also be found in the anthologies:

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #1 (1972), edited by Terry Carr
Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year (1972), edited by Lester del Rey
Alpha 9 (1979), edited by Robert Silverberg
The Best of New Dimensions (1979), edited by Robert Silverberg
The Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction Masterpieces (1983), edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg

The story is included in the collections The Classic Philip José Farmer, 1964-1973 (1984), The Grand Adventure (1984) and The Best of Philip Jose Farmer (2006).

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 1

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 2

Programmer Ichirou Suzuki is transported to another world. In a foreign land, he finds that life is an adventure that's sometimes fun, sometimes serious, and full of girls!

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 2

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 3

Satou has broken free of the demon's labyrinth, rescuing Pochi, Tama, and Liza. And after liberating two more girls from slavery, he's on his way to building an entire harem! But beautiful girls aren't the only ones coming his way...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 3

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 4

Twenty-nine year old Satou just closed his eyes for a brief nap at work, but when he opened them, he found himself in a game-like alternate world. Fortunately, thanks to some excellent luck, his level is high, and his wallet is full.

After successfully saving the elf girl Mia from the evil Zen, he's set off to accompany her back to her village. Satou is enjoying his break from work and touring a brand-new world, but such a journey couldn't possibly end without a little adventure, right?

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 4

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 5

When Satou and his party cross into the famously unsafe Muno Barony, they find ramshackle villages, fortresses inhabited by the souls of the dead, and all manner of unrest. Amid the chaos, Satou meets a girl who happens to be the Baron's daughter and stumbles across a conspiracy...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 5

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 6

After rescuing Muno Barony from disaster, Satou and crew head for dwarf territory and rescue an Oracle priestess from the demons! But for some reason, the attacks just keep coming...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 6

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 7

After their journey down the river, Satou and crew finally arrive at the old capital just in time for the martial arts tournament, along with some fireworks, a ball at the castle, and sightseeing in the Ougoch Duchy. But the followers of the demon lord are plotting in the shadows...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 7

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 8

As Satou's gang sets off for more sightseeing, he bumps into the hero Hayato yet again-and apparently, Hayato has been infatuated with Arisa for some time! How will Satou fight to keep her?

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 8

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9

A VERDANT VACATION!

Mia's safe return to the elves of Bolenan Forest is cause for celebration! Satou and crew are showered with hospitality, including elegant music, lavish feasts, and an exclusive look at some of the most advanced technology in the world. But all these luxuries pale in comparison to the true object of Satou's desire: the beautiful high elf Aaze. As the seeds of a summer romance take root in his heart, his peaceful days in Bolenan Forest are tragically cut short by the threat of an invasive species! Can Satou quell this disaster and land a date with the demi-goddess...?

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 9

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 10

After leaving the elves behind, Satou and company begin their leisurely journey across the sea to the labyrinth city-until they're attacked by a fleet of ghost ships!

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 10

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 11

Satou and the others finally make it to the labyrinth city! As they establish their base and begin rubbing elbows with the nobles, it isn't long before trouble finds them. From a renegade child found in an alley to a mysterious miasma that descends upon the city proper, it looks like Satou's going to have his hands full yet again!

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 11

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 12

Though Satou's stay in the Labyrinth City got off to a rocky start, he's determined to put Celivera on the road to redemption! Charitable endeavors such as catching a bandit leader and founding an orphanage are no big deal for him, but despite his best efforts, the mysterious drug continues to circulate. Luckily, he may have found a new lead...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 12

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 13

With the demonic threat taken care of, relative peace has returned to the Labyrinth City, allowing the residents to return all focus to the Labyrinth itself. But when the deeper levels of the Labyrinth prove to be more of a challenge than anyone realized, Satou decides it's time for some special training with the Elves!

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 13

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 14

A DEMON IN THE DUNES

With their rigorous training session behind them, Satou's party is finally prepared to take on the tougher enemies of the Celivera Labyrinth. Never ones to shy away from a side quest or two, they also find a hot spring and open a Japanese-style inn on the spot. Areamasters and floormasters beware! This group is refreshed and ready for battle! Unfortunately, the opponent who finds them turns out to be someone nobody saw coming...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 14

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 15

A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES!

?Having toppled another powerful foe, Satou's group heads back to Labyrinth City to celebrate their achievements. Upon returning, they're greeted by two familiar faces--Zena and Karina have come to Celivera! Plans are made to give them a warm welcome, but those get derailed when Zena runs into trouble. Her labyrinth dive takes a turn for the worse when a monster kidnaps her, so Satou rushes to her rescue.

Inevitably, he finds much more than he bargained for! It seems a Hero's work is never done...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 15

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 16

RISE AND GRIND!

Desperate to protect those close to her, Zena approaches Satou with a simple wish: She wants to become stronger. Naturally, Satou agrees to help, and he and his party subject her to training so rigorous the other explorers can hardly believe her growth. Not one to be left behind, however, Karina enrolls herself in their Labyrinth boot camp as well! But they'll need to be quick about it. Satou is due in the royal capital, and if his luck is anything to go by, it's only a matter of time before trouble rears its ugly head!

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 16

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 17

Showdown in Castle Town!

Having successfully averted the airship attack, Satou and company arrive safely in the royal capital. There, they are reunited with Nana's "sisters"--Numbers 1 through 8--and give them the gift of a lifetime. But as is tradition with every trip to the capital, Satou must rub elbows with the aristocracy before he can enjoy his sightseeing. He even receives a surprise visit or two, including a summons from Sir Juleburg of the Eight Swordsman of Shiga! Because no leisurely trip would be complete without a friendly duel...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 17

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 18

Satou and his friends arrive at the castle to be decorated for their accomplishments. But there, they hear from Princess Sistina that the royal symbol--the cherry blossom, has ceased to bloom. They decide to investigate while sightseeing around the capital, only to catch wind of a case they never would have expected...

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 18

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 19

After dispatching the monsters laying siege to the royal capital and aiding in the bloom of the Royal Sakura blossoms, Satou and his party are finally able to welcome the new year. But even more exciting than New Year festivities is the auction surrounding the Ring of Prayer! If Satou wins the bid, he might just be able to free Arisa and the others from servitude!

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 19

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 20

After being appointed as Shiga Kingdom's Vice-Minister of Tourism, Satou decides to take his party on a sightseeing trip around the country. Over the course of their leisurely journey, he and his crew go rafting, reunite with old friends, and even save some refugees! But things take a turn for the serious when Satou receives word that the court mage who placed a Geas on Arisa and Lulu has been hiding out in the labyrinth beneath the ruins of Kuvork Kingdom. Will Satou and company finally get an opportunity to settle the score with him...?

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Book 20

Miss Felicity Beedle's The World of Poo

THE HERO NEEDS A HERO!

After a tip-off from a blue-haired goddess of a girl, it's off to Parion Province for Satou and the party! There, they run into Hayato the Hero, who appears to be suffering the virulent effects of a curse from a demon lord! Defeating the demon lord and curing Hayato's affliction will be no easy task, however. This foe possesses the ability to manipulate their domain at will. But a few armor and weapon upgrades later, Satou and the girls as well as soldiers from both the Saga Empire and Parion Province are ready to take this demon to task!

Defy the Worlds

Defy the Stars: Book 2

Claudia Gray

An outcast from her home -- Shunned after a trip through the galaxy with Abel, the most advanced cybernetic man ever created, Noemi Vidal dreams of traveling through the stars one more time. And when a deadly plague arrives on Genesis, Noemi gets her chance. As the only soldier to have ever left the planet, it will be up to her to save its people... if only she wasn't flying straight into a trap.

A fugitive from his fate -- On the run to avoid his depraved creator's clutches, Abel believes he's said good-bye to Noemi for the last time. After all, the entire universe stands between them...or so he thinks. When word reaches him of Noemi's capture by the very person he's trying to escape, Abel knows he must go to her, no matter the cost.

But capturing Noemi was only part of Burton Mansfield's master plan. In a race against time, Abel and Noemi will come together once more to discover a secret that could save the known worlds, or destroy them all.

In this thrilling and romantic sequel to Defy the Stars, bestselling author Claudia Gray asks us all to consider where--and with whom--we truly belong.

The Folded World

Dirge for Prester John: Book 2

Catherynne M. Valente

When the mysterious daughter of Prester John appears on the doorstep of her father's palace, she brings with her news of war in the West--the Crusades have begun, and the bodies of the faithful are washing up on the shores of Pentexore. Three narratives intertwine to tell the tale of the beginning of the end of the world: a younger, angrier Hagia, the blemmye-wife of John and Queen of Pentexore, who takes up arms with the rest of her nation to fight a war they barely understand, Vyala, a lion-philosopher entrusted with the care of the deformed and prophetic royal princess, and another John, John Mandeville, who in his many travels discovers the land of Pentexore--on the other side of the diamond wall meant to keep demons and monsters at bay. These three voices weave a story of death, faith, beauty, and power, dancing in the margins of true history, illuminating a place that never was.

Discworld - Young Sam's books

Terry Pratchett
Bernard Pearson
Isobel Pearson

A charming tale for people of all ages (but especially for young Sam Vimes) from the pen of Miss Felicity Beedle, Discworld's premier children's author.

From Snuff: 'Vimes' prompt arrival got a nod of approval from Sybil, who gingerly handed him a new book to read to Young Sam. Vimes looked at the cover. The title was The World of Poo. When his wife was out of eyeshot he carefully leafed through it. Well, okay, you had to accept that the world had moved on and these days fairy stories were probably not going to be about twinkly little things with wings. As he turned page after page, it dawned on him that whoever had written this book, they certainly knew what would make kids like Young Sam laugh until they were nearly sick. The bit about sailing down the river almost made him smile. But interspersed with the scatology was actually quite interesting stuff about septic tanks and dunnakin divers and gongfermors and how dog muck helped make the very best leather, and other things that you never thought you would need to know, but once heard somehow lodged in your mind.'

The Other World

Doc Savage Novels: Book 29

Kenneth Robeson

From the moment Decimo Tercio appeared, it was obvious that everything connected with him was unearthly. His appearance was decidedly bizarre and the goods he carried for sale were astonishingly unique. The strange visitor remained on Earth less than four days, but in that short time he managed to lure Doc Savage into the most nightmarish escapade of his danger-studded career.

Lester Dent authored this book under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

He Could Stop the World

Doc Savage Novels: Book 54

Kenneth Robeson

The world was imperiled by a terrifying, malevolent force that had the power to change men's minds. Even Doc Savage's own men willingly deserted him when struck by the waves of the Mind Changing Monster. High in the Sierras, he lived in an incredible fortress -- ruthless, omnipotent, preparing to rule the world. But he hadn't reckoned on the superhuman powers of the Man of Bronze.

Laurence Donovan authored this novel under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

The World Within

Dr. Abel Kinosky: Book 2

Adam Lukens

Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, Vol. 1

Drugstore in Another World: Book 1

Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, Vol. 2

When corporate drone Reiji wakes up in another world, he come face-to-face with a fatally wounded werewolf. Thankfully, Reiji's new Medicine Making skill enables him to brew uniquely effective potions. Alongside his new wolf-girl friend, Reiji and his amazing cures are ready to revolutionize this fantasy world. Be they an old man seeking the secret of youth or an elven archer with blurry vision, all comers are welcome to his countryside pharmacy.

Drugstore in Another World: Book 2

Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, Vol. 3

A CURE FOR WHAT AILS YOU

Former corporate cog Reiji has settled down with the otherworldly drugstore he founded. With the help of his employees, cute werewolf Noela and ghost girl Mina, Reiji's finest potions and cures can fix magical and mundane problems alike. A stressed-out shopkeeper, a local lord with parenting woes, and even the Demon King himself are just a few of the customers who make their way to the Drugstore in Another World!

Drugstore in Another World: Book 3

Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, Vol. 4

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Business is booming at Reiji's magical drugstore. The staff has expanded yet again: a fairy named Bibi has joined the crew, and the new part-timer is none other than the Demon King himself! With a steady stream of customers looking for magical cures, Reiji has his hands full keeping his menagerie of friends and acquaintances happy and healthy!

Drugstore in Another World: Book 4

Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, Vol. 5

GRILLING AND CHILLING

Reiji has settled into the routine of his new life as a pharmacist in a fantasy world, and he's comfortable enough that he wants to introduce some Earth customs to the residents of his new home. But how will a bunch of elves, demons, and werewolves react when Reiji introduces them to the strange, otherworldly ritual of... barbeque?!

Drugstore in Another World: Book 5

Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, Vol. 6

LET'S GET TOGETHER

Reiji teams up with the town toolmaker on a new invention, which brings everyone together for a wet 'n' wild battle royale! After all the excitement, he and his employees take a day off to enjoy a group hike. The crew's new griffin companion helps them out in all sorts of ways... Wait, what's that smell? It's gotta be progress!

Drugstore in Another World: Book 6

The Eyes of the Overworld

CONTEXTUAL HEALING

Reiji and his friends cozy up at camp with a new invention, inspiring the people of Kalta to enjoy the great outdoors! Later, Reiji's trusty medicine-making skill comes in handy when Elaine's dizziness prevents her from attending a party. But how will he help Mina, who doesn't know how to swim? And what balm will soothe the worries of a wind spirit?

Dying Earth: Book 2

Across the Face of the World

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 Crooked World

Eighth Doctor Adventures: Book 57

Steve Lyons

The people of the Crooked World lead an idyllic existence. Take Streaky Bacon, for example. This jovial farmer wants nothing more from life than a huge blunderbuss, with which he can blast away at his crop-stealing nemesis. And then there's Angel Falls, a racing driver with a string of victories to her name. Sure, her trusted guardian might occasionally put on a mask and menace her for her prize money, but that's just life, right? And for Jasper the cat, nothing could be more pleasant than a nice, long nap in his kitchen -- so long as that darn mouse doesn't jam his tail into the plug socket again. But somebody is about to shatter all those lives. Somebody is about to change everything -- and it's possible that no one on the Crooked World will ever be happy again. The Doctor's TARDIS is about to arrive. And when it does... That's all folks!

The Rim-World Legacy

Eli Pike: Book 1

Frank A. Javor

He was a stranger to Paldrogi. But someone had marked him for a patsy in an incredible power game played for galactic stakes - a power game with a Machiavellian twist - a power game in which murder was only the opening gambit.

The Master of Evil

Fall of the First World: Book 1

David C. Smith

You will rule to see everything precious destroyed and every hope ruined. You will rule Athadia, and the world will die in anguish. The ambitious sons of a dead monarch fulfill an ancient prophecy--their battle for a bloody throne plunges the empire into a revolution. Like jackals, the nations around them seek to lure the greedy princes into further traps. One king offers his beautiful daughter as a prize. Another wishes only to fulfill his own destiny of endless war. And so an ancient world of empire and power--the First World--begins to collapse.

As the thrones fall and the battles rage, a tragic young priest becomes a force for evil more powerful than any empire or army. The world is at war. The West is dying. More blood will flow, and more kings will dies....

Sorrowing Vengeance

Fall of the First World: Book 2

David C. Smith

"I see more in darkness than you can see in the light." A priest turned sorcerer is reborn as the ultimate creature of Evil. He will topple a throne and begin the destruction of the world, even as the crowns of two empires move inexorably toward launching an impossible war that neither can win. The King of Athadia, fearing a personal curse, tries to maintain peace. But when his Queen is abducted by the barbarian ruler of the East--and she welcomes the affront--armies gather on every border, and ships set sail on oceans of blood. The world is at war, and a great sorrowing vengeance, foretold long ago, comes to life in the darkest of times...

The Passing of the Gods

Fall of the First World: Book 3

David C. Smith

"The world is a thing of swords and hate. Men of love and charity are mistrusted and feared. All is now lost." Asawas, the Man Who Sees, the prophet of the last days, brings the truth of the end of the First World. He confronts the ultimate creature of Evil--Thameron, once a priest, now a monster of guile and fear--as the First World falls into its final war, a conflict that brings all civilization to ruin. Just one man understands--the Undying One, who may himself survive the catastrophe--but only if one other person, one soul, agrees to sacrifice her life for his. And the few others who remain, the very few--can they rescue what's left of humanity?

The Way to Dawnworld

Farstar & Son: Book 1

Bill Starr

Ranger Farstar

Expolrer, mercenary... and a star-roving trader. His quest of planets for profit drives him to the farthest reaches of space on the most dangerous and challenging adventures imaginable.

Dawnboy

High-spirited, courageous... and just a bit naive. Raised as a warrior on the semibarbaric world of Apache Highlands, he is faced with a difficult decision. What does he want to be when he grows up.

Together

On a ship that is a lulu, they set out on a far-reaching journey that takes them to the richest world in the universe... where they are caught in a deadly race to claim an uncharted planet!

Fire of Heaven Trilogy: Book 1

Russell Kirkpatrick

From a tiny snowbound village, five men and women are about to embark on a journey that will change their lives -and the destiny of their world.

For two thousand years, since he was cast out from Dona Mihst, the fabled Undying Man has been plotting his revenge on the Most High. The Destroyer's plans of vengeance are nearing fruition-and he will allow nothing to stand in his way. But one man has escaped from the Destroyer's prison, and even though the Lords of Fear ride in pursuit, he will bring word to his people. It will be up to his sons, Hal and Leith, together with a small group of villagers, to warn their world of the coming war.

Rose of the World

Fool's Gold: Book 3

Jude Fisher

Filled with magic and quests, war and deception, fantastic cultures and exotic landscapes, and a most dynamic heroine, the Fool's Gold trilogy concludes.

Rosa Eldi, has escaped the clutches of the evil sorcerer Rahe. But will she regain her memory and restore her world before man's baser nature triumphs and brings ruin to Elda forever?

The three temperamental gods that rule this world are bound under a renegade magician. In their struggle to break free, they will change their world, affecting the fates of their peoples.

Heart of the World

Forgotten Fantasy: Book 10

H. Rider Haggard

Don Ignacio, the last heir of Guatemoc and the ruler of the Aztec Empire before Cortes, is bequeathed half of an emerald meant to identify him as successor to the rightful Aztec sovereign. Accompanied by his Inglese friend James Strickland, and guided by the beautiful Maya, they travel to the City of the Heart, an ancient city hidden in the mountains. Along the Way, the indian princess and the white Englishman fall in love but suffer deeply because of their feelings.

Set mostly in Central America in the 1870s, this is one of Haggard's more interesting romantic adventure novels.

The Spine of the World

Forgotten Realms: The Legend of Drizzt 4: Paths of Darkness: Book 2

R. A. Salvatore

Join the world's most famous drow elf in the penultimate chapter of the Legend of Drizzt series!

Spending time in the unimaginable torture chambers of the Abyss for even a day would be enough to break even the heartiest soul, and the barbarian Wulfgar was there for years. When he returns, his friends find him a changed man, and not changed for the better. But Wulfgar's road to redemption is one he must travel on his own, even if it leads to the bottle.

Omega: The Last Days of the World

Frontiers of Imagination: Book 2

Camille Flammarion

Omega, written by astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), is no less than an epic history of our future--a startling and unforgettable vision of the end of the world. Reasoned scientific speculation combined with probing philosophical inquiry lend credibility and magnitude to this tale of how humankind will physically and culturally evolve over the next several million years.

The end begins in the twenty-fifth century, when a comet threatens to collide with the earth. The consequences of that frightening cosmic event are far-reaching, setting in motion a series of physical, psychic, and social changes that will profoundly affect the planet and its people far into the future. The earth's surface drastically transforms over time. Cultures radically alter, collapse, and fade away. Nations rise and fall, species become extinct, and human beings find themselves at the end of the world, alone and changed in fundamental ways. This melancholic, poetic science fiction tale of things to come is as compelling and disturbing today as when it was first written.

A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

Frontiers of Imagination: Book 30

John Jacob Astor IV

What did our ancestors dream of when they gazed up at the stars and looked beyond the present? Wildly imaginative but grounded in reasoned scientific speculation, A Journey in Other Worlds races far ahead of the nineteenth century to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth is effectively a corporate technocracy, with big businesses using incredible advances in science to improve life on the planet as a whole. Seeking other planets habitable for the growing human population, the spaceship Callisto, powered by an antigravitational force known as apergy, embarks on a momentous tour of the solar system. Jupiter proves to be a wilderness paradise, full of threatening beasts and landscapes of inspired beauty, where the explorers must fight for their lives. Dangers less tangible but equally deadly await the Callisto crew on Saturn, which yields profound secrets about their fate and the ultimate destiny of mankind.

Thoughtful, adventurous, and replete with a dazzling array of futuristic devices, A Journey in Other Worlds is a classic, unforgettable story of utopias and humankind's restless exploration of the stars.

The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground

Frontiers of Imagination: Book 35

Ludvig Holberg

Fantastic adventures at the center of the earth await a penniless Norwegian student after he plunges into a bottomless hole in a cave. Niels Klim discovers worlds within our own--exotic civilizations and fabulous creatures scattered across the underside of the earth's crust and, at the earth's center, a small, inhabited planet orbiting around a miniature sun. In an epic journey, Klim visits countries led by sentient and contemplative trees, a kingdom of intelligent apes preoccupied with fashion and change, a land whose inhabitants don't speak out of their mouths, neighboring countries of birds locked in an eternal war, and a land where string basses talk musically to one another. Brave, inquisitive, and greedy, Klim faces many challenges, the greatest of which are his own temptations.

The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground is a classic in speculative fiction and was the first fully realized novel set underground in a hollow earth. First published in 1741, it has earned comparisons to Jonathan Swift's contemporaneous fantasy, Gulliver's Travels.

Has also been published under the titles A Journey to the World Under-Ground by Nicholas Klimius and Niels Klim's Journey Under the Ground.

Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs

Frontiers of Imagination: Book 39

Richard A. Lupoff

The Bision Edition is the fourth edition. Each edition was revised and expanded.

So, just how was Tarzan created? Eager to know the inside story about the legendary John Carter and the amazing cities and peoples of Barsoom? Perhaps your taste is more suited to David Innes and the fantastic lost world at the Earth's core? Or maybe wrong-way Napier and the bizarre civilizations of cloud-enshrouded Venus are more to your liking? These pages contain all that you will ever want to know about the wondrous worlds and unforgettable characters penned by the master storyteller Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Richard A. Lupoff, the respected critic and writer who helped spark a Burroughs revival in the 1960s, reveals fascinating details about the stories written by the creator of Tarzan. Featured here are outlines of all of Burroughs's major novels, with descriptions of how they were each written and their respective sources of inspiration. This Bison Books edition includes a new foreword by fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, a new introduction by the author, a final chapter by Phillip R. Burger, as well as corrected text and an updated bibliography.

Contents:

2 - Edgar Rice Burroughs and His Most Famous Creations - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
7 - Preface (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1965) - essay by Henry Hardy Heins
24 - Introduction to the Centennial Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff
28 - Introduction to Second Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1968) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff (variant of Introduction to this Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure))
46 - John Carter Battles Green Men of Barsoom - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
76 - David Innes, Hyaenodons, and Man-Apes of Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
119 - The Land That Time Forgot - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
127 - A Scene from The Moon Men - (1965) - interior artwork by Reed Crandall
130 - A Scene from The Red Hawk - (1965) - interior artwork by Reed Crandall
162 - Carson Napier and the Klangan of Amtor - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
197 - David Innes, Jubal the Ugly One, Dian the Beautiful - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
219 - A Mahar casts her sinister spell - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta (variant of "She moved as one in a trance straight toward the reptile." 1973)
240 - Jacket Design for a Proposed Edition of Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
272 - David Innes Faces a Labyrinthodon in Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
286 - David Innes, a Hydrophidian, Ja the Mezop - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
305 - Bibliography (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1965) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff
313 - A Checklist of Edgar Rice Burroughs Books - (1965) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff

Lighthouse at the End of the World

Frontiers of Imagination: Book 49

Jules Verne

The First English Translation of Verne's Original Manuscript...

At the extreme tip of South America, Staten Island has piercing Antarctic winds, lonely coasts assaulted by breakers, and sailors lost as their vessels smash on the dark rocks. Now that civilization dares to rule here, a lighthouse penetrates the last and wildest place of all. But Vasquez, the guardian of the sacred light, has not reckoned with the vicious, desperate Kongre gang, who murder his two friends and force him out into the wilderness. Alone, without resources, can he foil their cruel plans?

A gripping tale of passion and perseverance, Verne's testament novel paints a compelling picture of intrigue and heroism, schemes and calamities. The master storyteller returns here to the theme of civilization against its two oldest enemies: pitiless nature and men's savagery.

The House of Many Worlds

Galaxy Science Fiction: Book 12

Sam Merwin, Jr.

Contains both The House of Many Worlds (1951) and Three Faces of Time (1955).

THE CLASSIC OF ALTERNATE EARTHS!

Ancient, encrusted with legend, supposedly empty, the old mansion on Spindrift Key stood like a dark and lowering wraith. Reporter Elspeth Marriner's nose for news leads her into a world of trouble. Make that, in worlds of trouble. When she and photographer Mack Fraser, the man she loves to hate, are sent to investigate the old mansion in the Hatteras, they never dream that once inside their lives will never be the same. For the house is a gateway to alternate Earths, watched over by a mysterious group called the Workers, who guard against more advanced civilizations crossing the dimensional barriers to conquer defenseless neighbors. From the Workers, Elspeth learns that her and Mack's presence at the house is no accident. They have been personally selected by the Workers for a dangerous assignment. Their unique combination of talents and knowledge are needed to counter a threat that could plunge the entire world into war. If Elspeth accepted the assignment, she would have to cross to another world, aided only by her native ingenuity, then surmount a succession of plots and counterplots, with death the price of failure. Worse, she would have to work more closely than ever with the detested Mark Fraser.

The Well of the Worlds

Galaxy Science Fiction: Book 17

C. L. Moore
Henry Kuttner

Terrifying disturbances have been reported in the Uranium mines of Fortuna. The minors have come to believe that they are haunted, and the delays in production have attracted the attention of the Royal Atomic Energy Commission. Their agent arrives to discover one of the mine's owners, a young woman of unknown origin, living in terror of the other, an old man with mad dreams of immortality. They follow a mysterious and ruthless would-be goddess into another world, where masked beings of pure energy have enslaved the population for thousands of years, drawing their titanic power from the unfathomable Well of the Worlds.

The Warrior of World's End

Gondwane Epic: Book 1

The Enchantress of World's End

"I see Gondwane as it shall be in the untold ages of dim futurity, near the time when the Earth shall be man's habitation no more, and the great night shall enfold all, and naught but the cold stars shall reign. The first sign of the end ye shall see in the heavens, for Lo! the moon is falling, falling. And there shall come a man into the lands, a man not like other men, but sent from Galendil."

The name of the man is Ganelon Silverman and this is the first of the classic science fantasy adventure series by Lin Carter!

Gondwane Epic: Book 2

The Immortal of World's End

By The Master of Sword & Sorcery....

Gondwane.... In the last days of Earth, the continents drifted together again after aeons' separation, and that was Gondwane.

Gondwane.... When all the kingdoms of all the peoples of Earth had come and gone and new ones arose, it was on Gondwane they created their ephemeral glories.

On Gondwane, amid the turmoil of the last wars and the last quests and the last efforts of scientists and alchemists, there arose one final her, the mighty Ganelon Silvermane.

Gondwane Epic: Book 3

The Barbarian of World's End

Ganelon Silvermane, the genetically designed superhero of the Earth's fabulous final age, has rapidly become the most popular of all Lin Carter's creations. Brought to life prematurely, Ganelon's adventures in a world of crumbling empires, ravaging hordes, and marvelous relics of forgotten scientific empires are always edge-of-the-seat wonder novels - the best creation of the author of the Thongor, Green Star, and Callisto books, to mention but a few!

Now, in this third novel of Gondwane, Ganelon Silvermane encounters a city of illusion, the problem of scientific immortals, and the disastrous collision of a massive horde of the world's ultimate barbarians!

Gondwane Epic: Book 4

The Pirate of World's End

Now, in this fourth novel of Gondwane, the world's last continent, Ganelon Silvermane has offered himself as hostage to the worst band of barbarians to roam the plains. As a captive of the Horde, Ganelon rises to greater heights of heroism than ever before... and begins to assume the full power of his mighty being!

Gondwane Epic: Book 5

The Word for World is Forest

Ganelon Silvermane, the genetically designed superhero of the Earth's fabulous final age, has rapidly become the most popular of all Lin Carter's creations. Brought to life prematurely, Ganelon's adventures in a world of crumbling empires, ravaging hordes, and marvelous relics of forgotten scientific empires are always edge-of-the-seat wonder novels-the best creation of the author of the Thongor, Green Star, and Callisto books, to mention but a few!

Now, in this fifth and final novel of Gondwane, the world's last continent, Ganelon Silvermane leaves the savage barbarian Horde which he has civilized, and sets off on his greatest adventure... to rescue his friend Kurdi, who has been kidnapped by force or forces unknown!

Hainish Cycle: Book 6

The Battle of the Hammer Worlds

When the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.

Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.

The Half-Made World

Half-Made World: Book 1

Felix Gilman

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared-the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they're just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.

To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

Helfort's War: Book 2

Graham Sharp Paul

He thought Hell was the worst they could throw at him.

He was wrong.

Back from tangling with the Hammer of Kraa, the most brutal, trigger-happy tyrants in humanspace, Junior Lieutenant Michael Helfort is assigned to the Federated Worlds heavy cruiser Ishaq, which is struggling to rise to the threat posed by a newly resurgent Hammer. Aboard the floundering ship, Helfort is coming to grips with a painful injury and the unpleasant truth that nobody likes a young hero--least of all senior officers.

Without warning, the Ishaq and twenty-seven Fed merchant ships are blown apart in a horrific ambush, the first step in the Hammer's master strategy to destroy the hated Federated Worlds. Michael and a pitiful remnant of the Ishaq's crew escape the inferno. The Feds have no idea who's behind the heinous attack, and the Hammer are determined to keep it that way, consigning the Ishaq's survivors to a prison camp deep in the wilderness of the Hammer's home planet.

No one's getting out alive to derail the Hammer's lethal master plan--especially not the FedWorlds hero who so humiliated them on the battlefield. It's payback time, and the Hammers intend to throw their entire space fleet into destroying Michael Helfort and the Federated Worlds.

Too bad it won't be enough.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 1

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 1

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 2

It's a war of fantasy vs. future!

Seven Japanese teenagers with incredible and unique talents barely survive a mysterious plane crash and awaken in a fantasy world! Contending with corrupt rulers and dangerous monsters, the septet of High School Prodigies sets to work improving the lives of those in Elm Village while searching for a way home. These brilliant students are poised to change the face of their new world-but is it ready for them?

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 2

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 3

The People's Revolution has begun!

By presenting themselves as angels, with Akatsuki the magician as their god, the High School Prodigies have been steadily winning over the people and growing their new democracy. While Tsukasa believes the tyrannical empire won't make a move until spring, he's proven wrong when Duke Oslo el Gustav launches a seemingly unstoppable magic attack on Dormundt City. With Shinobu taken hostage behind enemy lines, the seven extraordinary teenagers from Earth will need to pull off a miracle just to survive!

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 3

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 4

Love Huntress Ringo

It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win Tsukasa's heart when Ringo finally goes on a date with him. Can the genius scientist overcome her shyness to tell her longtime crush how she feels, though? Meanwhile, the war against Oslo el Gustav finally comes to a close, but Shinobu is still suspicious of Gustav's supposed demise. As the Prodigies' new nation grows, so too does the chance of retaliation from the wicked Freyjagard Empire. Are the high schoolers from Earth truly ready for such a powerful opponent?

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 4

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 5

A Currency Crisis!

After securing a cease-fire with (and learning some startling things from) Grandmaster Neuro, the Prodigies begin the process of handing over Elm's government to the people. An important step in that transition is the creation of a national coinage--the goss. Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn't exactly keen on this fledgling nation introducing a new currency into the market. With conspiracies running every which way, Masato, the Devil of Finance, is forced to step in. With the master businessman on the case, his opponents will be lucky to survive with a single coin to their names!

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 5

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 6

A Cry for Freedom

As Tsukasa and the other Prodigies prepare for the Republic of Elm's first-ever election and the transfer of power to the public, a new problem arises in the form of Princess Kaguya. The ousted royal is from Yamato, a nation subjugated by the Freyjagard Empire. She pleads that if the Prodigies truly believe in equality for all, then they must help liberate her country. Not everyone agrees that aiding Yamato is a wise decision, however. And no matter what Tsukasa decides, the choice will impact the future of the world... and his friends!

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 6

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 7

Despite Princess Kaguya's claims, everything in Yamato appears wonderful to Tsukasa and the other Prodigies. Could a nation living beneath the heel of the Freyjagard Empire truly be happy, or is there more to the seemingly idyllic situation than meets the eye? Meanwhile, the Republic of Elm's election has begun, and tensions between the Principlists and Reformists continue to escalate. To hold the nation together, Akatsuki will have to step up and make a tough call, but will it be the right one?

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 7

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 8

FREEDOM AND SECRETS

Under Tsukasa's brilliant leadership, the Yamato Resistance enacts its plan to wrest control of their nation from the Freyjagard Empire and the traitorous Princess Mayoi. The key to their plan is the artifact that is the source of Mayoi's mind-control magic, but will it really be as simple as destroying the object? And is returning to the old government truly the best thing for Yamato? Mayoi wasn't born hating her own people, after all. Something must have spurred the girl to turn against her homeland...

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 8

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 9

THE ORIGIN OF THE SEVEN LUMINARIES

Now that Yamato is free, the Prodigies head for an ancient elf village to learn why they were summoned to this world. The surprising truth they uncover confirms what Tsukasa has suspected all along: Time is running out. The evil dragon's forces are working to revive their master, and stopping them is the only way the high schoolers can return home. However, one in their group is missing. Can Masato be persuaded to rejoin the others before it's too late?

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 9

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 10

TANGLING WITH THE GRANDMASTER

Neuro has ordered that the empire invade and reclaim Yamato in a bid to catch Lyrule, who is the key to reviving his master. Freyjagard has greater troops and resources than Yamato, seemingly guaranteeing the grandmaster's victory. However, the Prodigies aren't going to surrender their friend without a fight! Tsukasa has a plan to turn things in their favor, but he's up against a homunculus servant of the evil dragon. Who knows what Neuro is capable of when pushed to desperation? Neuro has ordered that the empire invade and reclaim Yamato in a bid to catch Lyrule, who is the key to reviving his master. Freyjagard has greater troops and resources than Yamato, seemingly guaranteeing the grandmaster's victory. However, the Prodigies aren't going to surrender their friend without a fight! Tsukasa has a plan to turn things in their favor, but he's up against a homunculus servant of the evil dragon. Who knows what Neuro is capable of when pushed to desperation?

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!: Book 10

Walk to the End of the World

The Final Battle Emperor Lindworm is here.

Neuro's final act brought the greatest threat in the world right to the Prodigies. Although they fight desperately to keep him from Lyrule, a betrayal from one of their own seals the girl's fate. In the ensuing chaos, only Akatsuki and Shinobu manage to escape. Lindworm plans to subjugate this world and Earth, and with the strength he possesses, it's only a matter of time until he succeeds. Their only hope is to convince him to change his ways, but what chance do the Prodigies have against a man with the power of the evil dragon?

Holdfast Chronicles: Book 1

Suzy McKee Charnas

The men of the Holdfast had long treated with contempt the degenerated creatures known as "fems." To give themselves the drive to survive and reconquer the world, the men needed a common enemy. Superstitious belief had ascribed to the fems the guilt for the terrible Wasting that had destroyed the world. They were the ideal scapegoat. The truth was lost in death and decay and buried in history. It was going to be a long journey back...

The Ragged World

Holy Ground Trilogy: Book 1

Judith Moffett

In the early years of the twenty-first century, Earth teetered on the brink of ecological destruction. Then the alien Hefn came, determined to save the dying Earth -- and to the Hefn, the ends always justified the means. Humans were given nine years to correct their mistakes -- alone, with no recourse to the Hefn's advanced technology. If by then the Earth's ecology had not stabilized, the Hefn would solve the problem for good... by eliminating humans entirely.

But slowly, against their will, some of the Hefn became deeply involved with their human counterparts. And to the handful of people who came to know them, the Hefn made a great difference: as mentors, researchers, rulers... and saviors. But could those few friendships sway the Hefn to help save a despoiled planet -- and the human race?

The Orphaned Worlds

Humanity's Fire: Book 2

Michael Cobley

Darien is no longer a lost outpost of humanity, but the prize in an intergalactic power struggle. Hegemony forces have a stranglehold over the planet and crack troops patrol its hotspots while Earth watches, passive, rendered impotent by galactic politics. But its Darien ambassador will soon become a player in a greater conflict. There is more at stake than a turf war on a newly discovered world.

An ancient Uvovo temple hides access to a hyperspace prison, housing the greatest threat sentient life has ever known. Millennia ago, malignant intelligences were caged there following an apocalyptic war. And their servants work on their release.

However, Darien’s guardians have not been idle, gathering resistance on the planet’s forest moon. Knowledge has been lost since great races battled in eons past, and now time is short. The galaxy will depend on the Uvovo reclaiming their past – and humanity must look to its future. For a new war is coming.

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, Vol. 1

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too: Book 1

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, Vol. 2

A Chance to Come Back!

A mysterious door stands open, inviting a boy who's been brutally bullied all his life to take a courageous step forward into the unknown. On the other side, he finds a hoard of priceless artifacts and a world as filled with magic as it is with monsters. The most shocking revelation, however, is that he can bring whatever he wants back with him when he returns to Earth. It won't be long before this double life changes him forever...

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too: Book 2

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, Vol. 3

Leveling up has truly changed Yuuya's life. In the real world, things have done a complete 180. He's getting used to his new school and making fast friends?which includes a fluffy companion in the other world. Meanwhile, thanks to his physical prowess and good looks, his popularity is through the roof (though he's oblivious to this). He's also finally learned how to use magic! Will it be enough to help him survive fires, assassins, and trials in the wilderness?!

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too: Book 3

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, Vol. 4

Next level up--become "god's" pupil!

Yuuya Tenjou has obtained all kinds of powerful skills and abilities and continues to live his new lifestyle in both the other world and his home world. In the Weald, he comes across a "divine beast" rabbit! "I'll train you. In exchange, teach me how to use [magic]." He becomes the pupil of the unrivaled rabbit, and at the same time becomes a teacher to a divine beast. Back in his world, the Ousei Academy Sports Day begins but paparazzi aiming to get full coverage of Yuuya show up! Yuuya carelessly ends things with a single hit, sending the school into an uproar.

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too: Book 4

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 1

A Knight in Shining... Thunderbolt Armor?!

After stopping an assassination attempt on King Arnold and Princess Lexia, Yuuya is roped into the hunt for the traitorous Prince Reigar. In the ensuing chaos, a mysterious girl attacks without warning. Her goal? Destroy the world! To have any chance of holding his own against this new foe who is on par with Master Rabbit, Yuuya will have to think fast--as fast as lightning. Hopefully, his quick thinking will be just as useful on Earth, because when Kaori visits his place to study for midterms, she accidentally stumbles upon the door to the other world!

The Hidden World

Imperials: Book 3

Melinda M. Snodgrass

Fourteen years have passed since he was framed for theft to cover up an imperial atrocity, and disgraced military officer Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor has built a new life for himself. Living under an assumed name as the captain of a small trading vessel crewed primarily by aliens, he and his crew engage in both legal and illegal deals just under the radar of the Solar League authorities.

At the other end of the social hierarchy, Princess Mercedes de Arango has her own problems -- the major one being the lack of an heir. Meanwhile her philandering husband Boho Cullen has ably proved the problem isn't him. With rumors of a coup swirling around the throne, Mercedes makes the desperate decision to undertake a military campaign and gain her people's allegiance through a victory. But when things go badly wrong and her future lies in the hands of the man she betrayed, Tracy has a choice to make -- can he ever forgive her?

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 1

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 2

Fifteen-year-old Touya Mochizuki is accidentally killed by God. As an apology, God allows him to be resurrected, but since he cannot send him back to his old world, he instead reincarnates him into a fantasy world along with any special requests. Touya requested to bring his smartphone into the new world with him.

An epic tale of swords, sorcery, and smartphone apps begins!

After a freak accident involving some lightning winds up zapping him dead, 15-year-old Mochizuki Touya wakes up to find himself face-to-face with God. "I am afraid to say that I have made a bit of a blunder..." laments the old coot. But all is not lost! God says that he can reincarnate Touya into a world of fantasy, and as a bonus, he gets to bring his smartphone along with! So begins Touya's adventure in a new, anachronistic pseudo-medieval world. Friends! Laughs! Tears! Inexplicable Deus ex Machina! He sets off on a journey full of wonder as he absentmindedly travels from place to place, following whatever goal catches his fancy.

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 2

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 3

The curtains lift once again on an epic tale of sorcery, smartphone apps, and... gunblades?!

Undeterred by his untimely death on Earth, 15-year-old Mochizuki Touya continues to meander around in another world! After a series of misadventures, the young man has assembled a motley crew of adventurers including the timid mage Linze, the feisty brawler Elze, the ever-hungry samurai Yae, and even the young archer Yumina, heir to the Belfast throne. Together with his party (and a divine white tiger), Touya sets his sights on the horizon, heading for the demi-human kingdom of Mismede! But all is not what it seems... the beastman king issues a personal challenge, and a black-scaled dragon could soon spell out Touya's doom!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 3

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 4

Once more the sun rises upon an epic tale of sorcery, smartphones, and floating cities!

Stalwart as ever, 16-year-old Mochizuki Touya heads off to the far eastern land of Eashen with his party in tow. For what purpose? The Matriarch of the Fairy Clan wishes to delve into some ancient ruins, of course! But it's never quite that simple for Touya and his friends, oh no. The party is thrust into the midst of a clash between the warlords Takeda Schingen and Tokugawa Ieyahsu, while a nefarious necromancer makes his move in the shadows...

Throw in a Gynoid or two, an ancient legacy, another ridiculous summoning pact, and you've got yourself a brand new recipe for disaster!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 4

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 5

The curtains rise one more on a tale of swords, sorcery, and unnecessary housing renovations!

16-year-old Mochizuki Touya marches across the blazing desert sands toward the Burning Kingdom of Sandora. His goal? The Second Babylon. But once again, his journey is not so simple. The land is fraught with danger, and the cryptic words of an ancient doctor echo in the back of his mind. The Phrase rear their ugly heads, the dimensional boundary of the world begins to strain, and the mysterious monochrome boy, Ende, appears once more to puzzle Touya and friends. To make matters worse, a government starts to crumble, falling on the cusp of a military coup! Can Touya and his ever-growing band of adventurers stand against the combined forces of chaotic fate? Or will he finally meet his match?

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 5

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 6

The bells toll for a riveting tale of swords, sorcery, and... savage tribals?!

The newly-crowned 16-year-old Grand Duke of Brunhild, Mochizuki Touya, is just starting to get the hang of managing a nation. What better way to christen his Duchy than to host a party with all the other royals in the region? Laughter! Fun! Pinball! But it's not all fun and games, Touya's search to uncover the truth behind the Phrase and Babylon bring him to the depths of the darkest forests, and the caps of the snowiest mountains. Not only that, but new territory means new responsibilities, and soon enough the eyes of the Vatican fall upon him. "Blasphemy!" they scream, "God is no old man, he is a magnificent being of light!" How will Touya react when even the Pope challenges the honor of the old man that gave him a new lease on life.

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 6

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 7

All systems standby for a tale of swords, sorcery, and oversized wrenches!

16-year-old Mochizuki Touya continues everyday life in his new world, well aware that it could all come tumbling down at any moment. He's the budding administrator of Babylon, the fledgling grand duke of Brunhild, and now he's a... mecha pilot? Desperate to find a way to halt the incoming Phrase onslaught, Touya makes a mad dash for the Hangar of Babylon, hoping it can give him the edge he needs. What he finds is the Frame Gear, an ancient humanoid fighting machine! Join Touya and his ever-growing band of wives as they tap into their mechanical sides.

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 7

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 8

Brace yourself... for a tale of swords, sorcery, and absolute calamity.

16-year-old Mochizuki Touya has it all. Grand Duke of an upstart nation, inventor of goods ranging from hula hoop to caramelized popcorn, administrator of Babylon, and pilot of the Anti-Phrase Frame Gears. The western nations love him... but darker machinations unfurl in the far east. Yulong, the glorious Empire of Heaven, regards Touya with envious eyes, brazen enough to send assassins into Brunhild! To make matters worse, the mysterious young girl known as Sakura seems to have a connection with these dark assailants. In the background, dark forces gather. Something big approaches. Something far greater than anything Touya has ever faced before.

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 8

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 9

Prepare your best dice rolls for a hair-raising tale of swords, sorcery, and forbidden knowledge!

16-year-old Mochizuki Touya continues his noble quest to delve into the Babylon Ruins, but a deadly tabletop session could easily spell turmoil for the boy and his party. Meanwhile, Leen the fairy makes some considerations with far-reaching implications...

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 9

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 10

Put on your thinking caps for a tale of swords, sorcery, and custom-built mechatronics!

Mochizuki Touya continues his work as grand duke of Brunhild. He's the proud inheritor of the (almost) complete Babylon Islands, the mighty master of the Frame Gear Mechs, and a slowly flowering bud of divine power, but that doesn't mean he has any room to relax! The time has come for answers! A new threat emerges within the Roadmare Union! But can Touya convince the mighty doge that his Frame Gears are the right method to deal with the oncoming danger? Just who is the enigmatic Ende, and what does he have to do with the crystal creatures that so recklessly bring the world closer to despair? Just what is the secret of Touya's divinity?

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 10

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 11

Set a very cautious course for a tale of swords, sorcery, and advanced cryogenics!

Spring has sprung in Brunhild, and Mochizuki Touya continues to live his happy-go-lucky life. Flowers bloom, parties come and go, and everything seems just about fine... But wait! The mysterious pink-haired girl, Sakura, is identified by someone. Just what could this mean for her? Who exactly is Farnese Forneus, and what is her connection to the overlord of Xenoahs? But wait, a more pressing issue is the final piece of Babylon, and the remarkably twisted secret it has in store for our heroes...

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 11

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 12

The population of Brunhild is booming, which can mean only one thing. Guards, guards! We need more guards! A mass call is set out. "Knights Wanted: Apply Within!" But Touya might end up with more than he bargained for... Meanwhile, in the floating halls of Babylon, a certain resurrected doctor begins her mad machinations... Just what kind of crazy machine does she intend to build next? Set a chivalrous course for a tale of swords, sorcery, and burning sands!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 12

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 13

Mochizuki Touya carries on his carefree life in another world, the looming birth of a wicked god and the peculiar behavior of the intelligent Phrase are no reason for him to panic! A distress call from a mysterious island forces him to jump into action, but what he discovers there may very well flip his entire world upside down... Pass through the open door to find a tale of swords, sorcery, and ancient legacies of antiquated mystery!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 13

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 14

It's time for the Duchy of Brunhild to host a national festival, and Mochizuki Touya is smack-bang in the middle.

World leaders are in attendance, nobility, traveling adventurers... And even God himself has seen fit to grace the mortal realm with his presence. What will Touya do when the big man upstairs comes downstairs for a change? More importantly, will he have enough dessert?! Meanwhile, in the Reverse World, tragedy strikes... An unusual purple Gollem surfaces alongside a strange, depraved woman... Their actions paint an otherwise calm marketplace deep crimson... Put on your party hats for a tale of swords, sorcery, and tasty snacks!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 14

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 15

Mochizuki Touya has no time to rest.

The fate of two worlds hang in the balance, after all. The Metal Devils, guided by Yula and seemingly supported by two mysterious twins, are on the rampage... They've mercilessly targeted the souls of people in both the world Touya knows, and the Reverse World! Armed with his new Frame Gear, Reginleif, will Touya be able to stop the malignant machinations of a wicked god? Fissures in space begin to crack, revealing a story of swords, sorcery, and a corrupted knight!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 15

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 16

After a series of troubling events, Mochizuki Touya takes some much-needed downtime. The fate of two worlds still hangs in the balance, he needs to secure more allies in the Reverse World, and Yula and the wicked god continue their dark machinations in the background, but that doesn't mean that our hero can't take a little time for romance and relaxation. But unbeknownst to our crew, another god may have set his eyes on the mortal realm... Lovers waltz and blades clash, unveiling a story of swords, sorcery, and fun in the sun!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 16

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 17

Still struggling to unite two worlds, fledgling god Mochizuki Touya carries on with his work. The mutants continue to attack the Reverse World, hungrily devouring the souls of the fallen in service of Yula and the wicked god. And so, it's up to Touya to teach another set of off-worlders how to pilot the Frame Gears! Hopefully he's not too late... Elsewhere, a mystery unfurls regarding a long-lost prince of a devastated kingdom... Perhaps the Mage-King of Isengard has the answers Touya seeks? Chaos runs rampant, tearing open the veil upon a story of swords, sorcery, and heterochromia!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 17

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 18

Doctor Babylon creates a new technological breakthrough thanks to the help of Elluka, a renowned Gollem engineer. What is this new invention, you might ask? Why, it's the Core Frame, of course! A new, revolutionary animal-shaped mech that interfaces with the Gollems of the Reverse World. But will they be able to iron out all the kinks before disaster strikes? The golden mutants stand poised to bring the Reverse World to ruin, and they won't wait around for countermeasures to be perfected! Brace yourself for a tale of swords, sorcery, and political powerplays!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 18

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 19

The two continents have collided, but a sinister bombardment from the space between worlds casts a shadow on the occasion. What foul machinations has this wicked god orchestrated? Unfortunately, Touya may not live to find out! A new poison has appeared that can render him and everyone he loves completely powerless. Will Touya's budding divinity help him pull through, or has the unstoppable Grand Duke of Brunhild finally met his match? Pack your antidotes and prepare for a tale of swords, sorcery, and drones!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 19

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 20

You're Toxic, I'm Slippin' Under

The time has come for the final showdown against the wicked god. There's just one pesky little problem to deal with first?Touya and company need to purify the venom surrounding Isengard! But don't worry, Uncle Kousuke is here to help; he just needs a little assistance nurturing a very special sapling. Meanwhile, Touya thinks back to his life on Earth and wonders about the family he left behind.

At last, the final battle begins, ringing in a story of swords, sorcery, and some very unhelpful Unicorns.

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 20

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 21

It's a Prehistoric Ritual

The conflict with the wicked god has finally come to an end, and Touya now presides over a unified planet. There may be peace, but this world is still far from a paradise! It's time for him to help resolve centuries-long misunderstandings between feuding nations, deal with new matters of interest in the divine realm, and handle a few small national matters that are tossed his way... all while planning his long-awaited weddings. What's a groom-to-be to do?

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 21

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 22

A Nice Day for a White Wedding

The time has come: Touya's all set to marry his nine blushing brides! The invites are addressed and stamped, the dinner menu has been set, and the entire nation of Brunhild trembles with anticipation. Can he make it through his big day unscathed? Not if his divine retinue has anything to say about it! And as for the honeymoon, bringing his nine spouses through a spatial tear to vacation on Earth sounds like a nice idea. What could possibly go wrong?

The church bells ring, signaling a tale of swords, sorcery, and smiles!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 22

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 23

The Visions Dancing in My Mind...

Touya's honeymoon might be over, but love's still lingering in the air in Brunhild! Can poor Endymion cope with being part of an alien ménage à quatre? Who else might be looking for a match made in heaven? Having sealed the deal on his own romances, Touya's free to stick his nose into the love lives of those around him...but at what cost? Meanwhile, a ripple and quake rip through time, revealing images from a far-flung future. Just what?or who?might emerge?

Find out in this riveting tale of swords, sorcery, and progeny!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 23

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 24

Once the Timequake Starts, It Doesn't Stop!

Just as soon as Touya thinks he's adjusted to being a dad, he's bombarded with even more children. What kind of trouble will these time-traveling tykes get into next? And while our hapless hero is distracted with paternal precautions, could something sinister be slinking around in the shadows?

See what's next in this story of swords, sorcery, and parental peril!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 24

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 25

Airships in the Sky with... Engineers?

A group of curious Gollem engineers traveling in a great airship arrives in the Duchy of Brunhild. Their sudden appearance alone is puzzling enough, but what do these Seekers want with Yumina's white crown? Are there further secrets lurking within the ancient ruins of Gandhilis? And on top of that, will Yakumo ever come home?

Hold fast for a tale of swords, sorcery, and mechanical marvels!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 25

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 26

A world-class magic train between Belfast and Regulus is about to begin its inaugural journey, and Touya's got tickets for the whole family!

Well, his whole family minus his children who are still scattered across the world...

Can Touya and his wives still have a good time on their trip? Which child will make it to Brunhild next, and what will they bring back with them? Are the wicked devout going to continue their vile machinations for much longer? And most importantly to Touya's wives: will Lu finally be able to bake the perfect zero-calorie cake?!

It's full steam ahead in this tale of swords, sorcery, and sorcerous swords!

In Another World With My Smartphone: Book 26

Eric Kotani
John Maddox Roberts

One more sun comes sliding down the sky...

Touya's got a kingdom to run, so he can't let familial fuss from eight children keep him away from his civic duties! As domestic and international issues pile up before him, will he be able to manage it all with so many mischievous mouths to feed?

And what of the wicked devout, continuing their malicious machinations under the cover of night? Just how many of them are there now, and what are they plotting in the far west?

Find out in this installment full of swords, sorcery, and flashback episodes!

The World Menders

Interplanetary Relations Bureau: Book 2

Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

Branoff IV is a planet famous for its aristocratic culture and mistreatment of its indigenous population. When Cedd Farrari and a team of Cultural Survey experts are sent to Branoff IV to help bring about a shift to democratic goverment, the world seems an ideal candidate for political change. But all is not as it seems... A thrilling science fiction novel from the author of All the Colors of Darkness!

The Island Worlds

Island Worlds: Book 2

Because of a world-spanning socialistic bureaucracy on Earth in the twenty-first century, those who seek freedom must journey to the space colonies established in the asteroid belt.

The Lost World

Jurassic Park: Book 2

Michael Crichton

It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end--the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public. There are rumors that something has survived.

Kitty in the Underworld

Kitty Norville: Book 12

Carrie Vaughn

As Denver adjusts to a new master vampire, Kitty gets word of an intruder in the Denver werewolf pack's territory, and she investigates the challenge to her authority. She follows the scent of the lycanthrope through the mountains where she is lured into a trap, tranquilized, and captured. When she wakes up, she finds herself in a defunct silver mine: the perfect cage for a werewolf. Her captors are a mysterious cult seeking to induct Kitty into their ranks in a ritual they hope will put an end to Dux Bellorum. Though skeptical of their power, even Kitty finds herself struggling to resist joining their cause. Whatever she decides, they expect Kitty to join them in their plot... willingly or otherwise.

Kitty Saves the World

Kitty Norville: Book 14

Carrie Vaughn

It's all come down to this, following the discoveries made by Cormac in Low Midnight, Kitty and her allies are ready to strike. But, when their assassination attempt on the evil vampire Dux Bellorum fails, Kitty finds herself running out of time. The elusive vampire lord has begun his apocalyptic end game, and Kitty still doesn't know where he will strike.

Meanwhile, pressure mounts in Denver as Kitty and her pack begin to experience the true reach of Dux Bellorum's cult. Outnumbered and outgunned at every turn, the stakes have never been higher for Kitty. She will have to call on allies both old and new in order to save not just her family and friends, but the rest of the world as well.

The Ringworld Engineers

Known Space: Ringworld: Book 2

Larry Niven

The sequel to "Ringworld". Louis Wu, Speaker-to-Animals, and the Hindmost return to Ringworld. Their aim is to prevent cataclysm. In the process, they find themselves learning Ringworld's incredible secrets.

The Ringworld Throne

Known Space: Ringworld: Book 3

Larry Niven

Come back to the Ringworld... the most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. A place of untold technological wonders, home to a myriad humanoid races, and world of some of the most beloved science fiction stories ever written!

The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee... legendary beings brought together once again in the defense of the Ringworld. Something is going on with the Protectors. Incoming spacecraft are being destroyed before they can reach the Ringworld. Vampires are massing. And the Ghouls have their own agenda--if anyone dares approach them to learn.

Each race on the Ringworld has always had its own Protector. Now it looks as if the Ringworld itself needs a Protector. But who will sit on the Ringworld Throne?

Kyrik Fights the Demon World

Kyrik: Book 2

Gardner F. Fox

DEMON WORLD

When Kyrik--warlock warrior--finds a dying man and a bloody parchment map, he is drawn into a whirlwind of evil in which demon lords contend for all Terra. With Myrnis, his gypsy sweetheart, and the aid of the thief pack, he brings five ancient magical gifts to the land of Surrillione--where he meets betrayal by the very demon lord he has been forced to serve.

The World Shuffler

Lafayette O'Leary: Book 2

Keith Laumer

Twas boring in Artesia... or so thought Sir Lafayette O'Leary, ex-draftsman from Earth, and now seemingly ex-interdimensional swashbuckler extraordinaire as well. His battles were all won, his dragons all slain, and life was just the same boring round of riches, royal hunts and regattas.

Boring, boring, boring; until he walked past the azalia. Suddenly Artesia was gone, and O'Leary was trapped in "Melange," a world of giants and pirates, a world where goons and harlots are the spitting images (literallly!) of his own aristocratic Arteisan associates. And because they think that he's his double, lots of his new friends want O'Leary dead. Unless he can get through the interdimensional gate and find the continuum path back home, O'Leary's life will never be boring again. Just short.

The Fugitive Worlds

Land and Overland: Book 3

Bob Shaw

The opening of The Fugitive Worlds finds Toller Maraquine II - grandson of the hero of The Ragged Astronauts and The Wooden Spaceships - bemoaning the fact that life on the twin planets of Land and Overland has become dull and uneventful compared to the stirring times in which his illustrious forebear lived. Then, while on a balloon flight between the worlds, he makes an astonishing discovery - a rapidly growing crystal disc, many miles across, is creating a barrier between Land and Overland. Precipitated for personal reasons into investigating the enigmatic disc, Toller - armed with only his sword and boundless courage - becomes a pivotal figure in events which will decide the future of entire planets and their civilizations.

The Tower At the End of the World

Lewis Barnavelt: Book 9

Brad Strickland

When Lewis, his uncle Jonathan, and their friends Rose Rita Pottinger and Mrs. Zimmermann take a trip to a small town near Lake Superior, they expect a pleasant vacation. Instead, they find themselves facing the ghastly Ishmael Izard, son of the fiendish creator of the Doomsday Clock that was once hidden in the walls of Uncle Jonathan's house. Ishmael himself is a cruel and heartless sorcerer, and he is determined to wreak vengeance upon the entire world.

Will Lewis and his friends be strong enough to defeat him, or will their fate be decided by their most formidable foe yet?

The Light at the Bottom of the World

Light of the Abyss: Book 1

London Shah

In the last days of the twenty-first century, sea creatures swim through the ruins of London. Trapped in the abyss, humankind wavers between fear and hope--fear of what lurks in the depths around them, and hope that they might one day find a way back to the surface.

When sixteen-year-old submersible racer Leyla McQueen is chosen to participate in the prestigious annual marathon, she sees an opportunity to save her father, who has been arrested on false charges. The Prime Minister promises the champion whatever their heart desires. But the race takes an unexpected turn, forcing Leyla to make an impossible choice.

Now she must brave unfathomable waters and defy a corrupt government determined to keep its secrets, all the while dealing with a guarded, hotheaded companion she never asked for in the first place. If Leyla fails to discover the truths at the heart of her world, or falls prey to her own fears, she risks capture--or worse. And her father will be lost to her forever.

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 1

Loner Life in Another World: Book 1

Shoji Goji

LONE WOLF

When sarcastic loner Haruka gets transported with his class to another world, he's not wild about adventuring, but he wouldn't mind having some cool powers. Unfortunately, he's last in line when the magic cheat skills get divvied up, so by the time it's Haruka's turn, there are no good choices left. Now Haruka will have to take on this fantasy world the hard way--on his own, with a hodgepodge of bizarre skills! When infighting and chaos break out among his classmates, can this loner come to the rescue?

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 2

Loner Life in Another World: Book 2

Shoji Goji

LADY OF THE LABYRINTH

Haruka has reunited with his classmates in the city of Omui, but as a loner through and through, it isn't long before their presence starts getting to him. An excursion to a dangerous underground dungeon gives him a much-needed reprieve...when he falls all the way to the bottom level, the domain of the legendary undead Emperor of the Labyrinth! But Haruka won't be alone for long--he'll soon be joined by a powerful skeleton knight who's somehow also a seventeen-year-old girl!

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 3

Loner Life in Another World: Book 3

Shoji Goji

A WATCHER IN THE SHADOWS

With Angelica at his side, Haruka enjoys the spoils of dungeoneering, and even uses his newfound wealth to inject a little modern-day flair into the city of Omui. Life on the frontier is peaceful until Haruka notices a mysterious girl tailing him. She's been sent as a spy by the neighboring nation... and the threat she's scoping out is Haruka! The tale of the lone wolf is just getting started!

The Mirror of Worlds

Lord of the Isles: The Crown of the Isles Trilogy: Book 2

David Drake

The Mirror of the Worlds is the second in David Drake's Crown of the Isles trilogy, which will conclude the epic Lord of the Isles series.

The Fortress of Glass began the tale of how the new kingdom of the Isles is finally brought into being by the group of heroes and heroines who have been central to all the books in the series: Prince Garric, heir to the throne of the Isles, his consort Liane, his sister Sharina, her herculean sweetheart Cashel, and his sister Ilna.

The powers of magic in the Isles have flooded to a thousand-year peak, and even local magicians can perform powerful spells normally beyond their control. Fantastic forces from all angles threaten, trying to keep Garric and his companions apart to thwart the reunification of the Isles.

Now the world itself has suffered a magical upheaval. The ocean has receded and the Isles have become the higher ground of a newly formed continent. But the new continent is a patchwork of geography from the dispast and future, peopled by creatures from all times and places. Garric and his companions must now struggle for the survival of humanity.

The World of the Giant Ants

Lost World-Lost Race Classics: Book 23

A. Hyatt Verrill

Giants really do exist! While on an exploration of a far-off land, noted scientist Dr. Hendon, along with his faithful servant Tom, become stranded in a lost world filled with giant insects. And of the plethora of giant insects around them, the giant ant proves to be the most interesting in many more ways than they ever could have imagined. Herndon and Tom are soon facing a host of challenges and hardships just to stay alive!

The Destroyer of Worlds

Lovecraft Country: Book 2

Matt Ruff

Summer, 1957.

Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina, where they plan to mark the centennial of their ancestor's escape from slavery by retracing the route he took into the Great Dismal Swamp. But an encounter with an old nemesis turns their historical reenactment into a real life-and-death pursuit.

Back in Chicago, George Berry fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil's bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure--but to receive it, George will first have to bring Winthrop back from the dead.

Meanwhile, fifteen-year-old Horace Berry, reeling from the killing of a close friend, joins his mother, Hippolyta, and her friend Letitia Dandridge on a research trip to Nevada for The Safe Negro Travel Guide. But Hippolyta has a secret--and far more dangerous--agenda that will take her and Horace to the far end of the universe and bring a new threat home to Letitia's doorstep.

Hippolyta isn't the only one keeping secrets. Letitia's sister, Ruby, has been leading a double life as her white alter ego, Hillary Hyde. Now, the supply of magic potion she needs to transform herself is nearly gone, and a surprise visitor throws her already tenuous situation into complete chaos.

Yet these troubles are soon eclipsed by the return of Caleb Braithwhite. Stripped of his magic and banished from Chicago at the end of Lovecraft Country, he's found a way back into power and is ready to pick up where he left off. But first he has a score to settle...

The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

Magnus Ridolph

My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 1

Contains:

The Kokod Warriors
The Unspeakable McInch
The Howling Bounders
The King of Thieves
The Spa of the Stars
Coup de Grace
The Sub-standard Sardines
To B of not to C or to D

The Ultimate Mallworld

Mallworld

S. P. Somtow

Here collected together for the first time are all the short stories, ads, and illustrations for S. P. Somtow's Mallworld. Included in The Ultimate Mallworld are all the original stories (and the one story left out of the Starblaze trade edition), all the ads for the Mallworld products (left out in the TOR mass market re-printing), and all the original artwork by Karl Kofoed (the artwork was not included in the TOR edition). This edition will also contain two new Mallworld stories written by Somtow along with their new interior illustrations by the original artist Karl Kofoed.

The Selespridar have locked us, the planet Earth, part of our solar system, and our sun up in a force field because the rest of the Galaxy plain and simple does not want to associate with us. Do we care? Not really. We have Mallworld, the shopping center almost the size of a planet. So come along and play human pinball at the arcades, order your custom-designed baby at Storkways, Inc., experience your ultimate death at the Way Out Suicide Parlors - death by vampire is a special way to go and just one of the three-hundred ways you can decide to end your life.

King of the World's Edge

Merlin's Godson: Book 1

H. Warner Munn

This is the story of ancient Roman soldiers; one in particular named Ventidius Varro, also called Haro by the native people. A ruler he wants to be and in the new world at the edge of the world he becomes one. A warrior is he, and this is a tale of his battles and conquests, along with his self-discovery.

They were a lonely, half-starved band of adventurers who had been cast out of their homeland by hordes of invading marauders -- and they came to an unknown world as strange, as fantastic, as wonder-packed as the legendary Atlantis. Here they encountered the dread fish-monsters of Piasa, and were captured by the savage legions of Miapan's barbaric empire. But they escaped -- and vowed to build a new civilization in the wilderness that would crush the tyrants of Miapan forever!

Fighting their way across an uncharted continent peopled by strange civilizations and fierce beast-monsters, the sorcerer Myrdhinn and his small band of followers had only their swords and the discipline of their military training to sustain them -- for Myrdhinn, master of Druid magic, had foresworn the black arts when he had become a Christian convert.

Yet at last, upon a barbarous pagan altar in the heart of Miapan, Myrdhinn faced an evil so great that he knew he must throw all the powers at his command against it. And when Myrdhinn called up the forces of the earth and elements against his foes, this entire new world was shaken to its foundations!

My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: Book 1

Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

Awaking to absolute chaos and carnage while on a school trip, Yogiri Takatou discovers that everyone in his class has been transported to another world! He had somehow managed to sleep through the entire ordeal himself, missing out on the Gift -- powers bestowed upon the others by a mysterious Sage who appeared to transport them. Even worse, he and another classmate were ruthlessly abandoned by their friends, left as bait to distract a nearby dragon. Although not terribly bothered by the thought of dying, he reluctantly decides to protect his lone companion. After all, a lowly Level 1000 monster doesn't stand a chance against his secret power to invoke Instant Death with a single thought! If he can stay awake long enough to bother using it, that is...

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 2

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: Book 2

Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

After their entire class was transported to another world, Yogiri Takatou and Tomochika Dannoura were abandoned when it was discovered they had failed to receive the Gift, a special power that the rest of their class inherited from a powerful Sage named Sion. What none of the others knew, however, was that Yogiri already had his own unique power - one that multiple world governments back home were keeping him under observation for: the power of Instant Death! With Yogiri's abilities now exposed and being scrutinized by Sages and Swordmasters alike, this unlikely duo continues their adventure, determined to find a way back to Japan. The only lead they have to go on is to follow their former classmates' trail and track down the formidable Sion in the hopes that she'll be willing to negotiate. But even with the power of Instant Death on their side, the world around them seems intent on making the task as much of a hassle as possible!

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 3

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: Book 3

Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

After being summoned to another world and passed over for a power known as the Gift, Yogiri Takatou and Tomochika Dannoura set out on a journey to reunite with the classmates who abandoned them, and to find a way back to their own world.

After a small detour to the Garula Canyon, where a Swordmaster set various trials before them, Yogiri accidentally used his power of Instant Death to put a stop to the revival of a Dark God who had been sealed away. Leaving chaos and carnage in their wake, the unlikely pair resume their trek to the capital, where they hope to find their estranged fellow students. However, while Yogiri's abilities have made it smooth sailing so far, his actions have inadvertently shifted the balance of power in the world around them, and now those who rule over their new world are beginning to take notice of him...

Lens of the World

Nazhuret of Sordaling: Book 1

R. A. MacAvoy

This is the story of Nazhuret, an outcast, the dwarfish offspring of unknown parents. Yet his story is a great one, filled with surprising rewards and amazing adventures. By the hands of Powl, mentor, madman, and lens grinder, Nazhuret is put to extreme mental and physical tests and is blessed with knowledge. He embarks upon a journey to his destiny through war, darkness, and death. He is determined to emerge beyond the tiny status he was given at birth.

The World of Null-A

Null-A: Book 1

A. E. Van Vogt

Grandmaster A. E. Van Vogt was one of the giants of the Golden Age of classic SF, the 1940s. Of his masterpieces, The World of Null-A is most famous and most influential. It was the first major trade SF hardcover ever, published in 1949, and has been in print in various editions ever since. The careers of Philip K. Dick, Keith Laumer, Alfred Bester, Charles Harness, and Philip Jose Farmer were created or influenced by The World of Null-A. It is required reading for anyone who wishes to know the canon of SF classics.

Servant of the Underworld

Obsidian & Blood: Book 1

Aliette de Bodard

It is the year One-Knife in Tenochtitlan - the capital of the Aztecs. The end of the world is kept at bay only by the magic of human sacrifice. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood.

Acatl, High Priest of the Dead must find her, or break the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead. But how do you find someone, living or dead, in a world where blood sacrifices are an everyday occurrence and the very gods stalk the streets?

Only I Know the Ghoul Saved the World, Vol. 1

Only I Know the Ghoul Saved the World: Book 1

Myojin Katou

Not the hero they want, but the one they need!

A heavy mist has fallen over the world, twisting many humans into horrifying monsters. Humanity is losing the battle against these grotesque fiends, but it is not entirely without defenses. Leon Crossheart is an adventurer, a hero, a hunter of ghouls... and a ghoul himself! His strength and regenerative ability are unmatched, but this power comes at a price: He's reviled by the very people he strives to protect. However, there is one girl he saved who sees beyond his frightening appearance. Alice is so grateful that she wants to be his disciple, and she isn't taking no for an answer! Will she bring light into his dark and bloodstained life, or will he keep her-and therefore his own salvation-out of reach?

Beyond the Gap

Opening of the World: Book 1

Count Hamnet Thyssen is a minor noble of the drowsy old Raumsdalian Empire. Its capital city, Nidaros, began as a mammoth hunters' camp at the edge of the great Glacier. But that was centuries ago, and as everyone knows, it's the nature of the great Glacier to withdraw a few feet every year. Now Nidaros is an old and many-spired city; and though they still feel the breath of the great Glacier in every winter's winds, the ice cap itself has retreated beyond the horizon.

Trasamund, a clan chief of the mammoth-herding Bizogots, the next tribe north, has come to town with strange news. A narrow gap has opened in what they'd always thought was an endless and impregnable wall of ice. The great Glacier does not go on forever--and on its other side are new lands, new animals, and possibly new people.

Ancient legend says that on the other side is the Golden Shrine, put there by the gods to guard the people of their world. Now, perhaps, the road to the legendary Golden Shrine is open. Who could resist the urge to go see?

For Count Hamnet and his several companions, the glacier has always been the boundary of the world. Now they'll be travelling beyond it into a world that's bigger than anyone knew. Adventures will surely be had...

The Breath of God

Opening of the World: Book 2

Once the great Glacier enclosed the Raumsdalian Empire. Now it's broken open, and Count Hamnet Thyssen faces a new world. With the wisecracking Ulric Skakki, the neighboring clan leader Trasamund (politely addressed as Your Ferocity), and his lover, the shaman Liv, Hamnet leads an exploration of the new territory in hopes of finding the legendary Golden Shrine.

But dangers abound. A violent and implacable group known as the Rulers has already killed many, and now they attack again. Riding deer and woolly mammoths and using powerful magic, the Rulers triumph and force the Raumsdalians to flee.

In the spring another battle ends even more badly for Hamnet's side, but the Glacier is also retreating, so they are able to escape. Meeting a tribe whose desperate living conditions have led them to overcome the Raumsdalian taboo against eating fallen foes, they find unexpected allies. Now, returning to the capital city and its intrigues, Hamnet prepares to lead an army against the merciless Rulers. The world, once so bounded and comprehensible, will never be the same...

The Golden Shrine

Opening of the World: Book 3

Continuing the alternate-Bronze-Age epic begun in Beyond the Gap:

The glaciers came and covered the world with ice. Now they are in retreat. North of the city of Nidaros, north of the forest, north of the steppes where the nomadic Bizogots hunt, a gap has opened in the ice-wall. And down through that gap come the men who call themselves "Rulers."

Their terrifying cavalry rides wooly mammoths. Their bows can shoot arrows farther than those of the southerners. Their wizards wield power that neither the shamans of the Bizogots nor the wizards of Raumsdalian Empire can match, a magic that can melt the stone beneath a man's feet, call down blasting fire from the sky, or decimate a tribe with plagues that have no cure. Scattered survivors of the Bizogot tribes hide from the Rulers. The Empire is shattered. The feckless Emperor Sigvat II is in hiding.

Against the Rulers stands Count Hamnet Thyssen and his small band of friends. Jarl Trasamund of the Three Tusk Bizogots. The adventurer Ulric Skakki. And, most important, Marcovefa, the female shaman of a cannibal tribe that lives atop the Glacier itself. Marcovefa has magic that the Rulers cannot counter.

But there are many Rulers, and they have many wizards. Marcovefa is but one.

Perhaps Hamnet and his allies can save their lands from the Rulers. But first they must seek out the legendary Golden Shrine--and the Golden Shrine has not been seen by human eyes since the time before the glaciers came.

Wolf's Bane

Otherworld: Kate & Logan: Book 1

Summer camp is a traditional teenage rite of passage, but when you add supernatural powers to the typically high dosage of adolescent hormones - you get an even more combustible mix. Sixteen-year-old werewolf twins Kate and Logan Danvers are none too thrilled at being shipped off to a supernatural youth leadership conference in West Virginia.

From the moment they arrive at the camp, the twins sense something is off and they react in their usual manner - Logan reserving judgement and surveying the setup, while Kate charges forward determined to get answers. Kate and Logan quickly ascertain that most of the conference attendees have already formed hostile factions, leaving the twins and a few other misfits to band together.

What seems like teen hormones in overdrive becomes something much more dangerous, even deadly. Add in a strange magic-warded cabin in the woods and a local history rife with curses and macabre legends, and it becomes clear this was a really, really bad place to build a camp for teenage supernaturals.

Wolf's Curse

Otherworld: Kate & Logan: Book 2

A Devil in Every Dark Corner

For Kate and Logan Danvers, sixteen-year-old twins of the werewolf Alpha, nothing could ruin a summer faster than the words "supernatural teen leadership conference." They expected a boring week of earnest political discussions and team-building exercises. Instead, in Wolf's Bane, they got a crash-course in real-life leadership, when the camp imploded and the twins and their new friends fled into the West Virginia forest.

Now, in Wolf's Curse, the group has taken refuge in a magically warded cabin only to discover that they might have been safer taking their chances with the demon outside. Trapped in a dark witch's sanctuary, surrounded by hell hounds, the twins will need to hone their leader and team building skills fast. There are battles to be waged and mysteries to be solved. Friendships to be forged in conflict and lost in betrayal. Even romances spark to life amid the turmoil. It might not be the way Kate and Logan expected to spend their week, but it will certainly be a summer camp to remember.

Otherworldly Investigations: Book 1

Amanda Braun Boe

Thirty-two-year-old Imogen Abernathy is fed up with being a witch. And she's definitely had enough of her family's ghost and monster-hunting business, Otherworldly Investigations. But when her younger sister, Carmen, has an otherworldly mishap, Imogen has no choice but to return home to face her past and her deep mistrust of witchcraft. Drawn back into the world of magic, Imogen and Carmen begin investigating a series of grisly murders that may be linked to the mysterious Thistle Witch, a powerful entity with demonic abilities. As magical creatures flee from the Thistle Witch, the sisters realize that they have to tap into old and dangerous witchcraft if they have any hope of defeating this sinister threat. Can they find a way to protect themselves, their family, and the world of magic before the Thistle Witch unleashes her gruesome murder machine?

A Devil in Every Dark Corner is the first novel in the Otherworldly Investigations series, which follows Imogen and Carmen Abernathy as they try to aid clients with their paranormal and cryptid quandaries. Along the way, both sisters must also decide what exactly they want in the sometimes-messy world of witchcraft.

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 1

Our Last Crusade: Book 1

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 2

Love is a battlefield

For years, a great war has raged on between the scientifically advanced Empire and a paradise of witches known as the Nebulis Sovereignty. This age-old battle sets the scene for a fateful encounter between two young combatants: an imperial swordsman, Iska, and the witch princess, Aliceliese. As sworn enemies, they vow to cut each other down in order to unite their worlds, and yet Iska finds himself entranced by her beauty and righteousness, while Aliceliese is moved by his strength and resolve.

In the midst of a never-ending war that forbids them from being together, they have no choice but to destroy each other-or can they find another way?

Our Last Crusade: Book 2

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 3

May luck shine in your favor

The stars once aligned to grant a series of meetings between two fighters from enemy nations, but those ephemeral days have come to a close. Iska and Aliceliese must now take it into their own hands to scour the land in hopes of a rematch. Call it coincidence or predestination, but the pair manage to slip past each other at every turn, unaware they've been dispatched to the same battlefield. In their fight over a vortex of astral energy, they might just find that what brews and burbles in its abyss is more than magic...

Our Last Crusade: Book 3

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 4

Break free... if you can

Getting assigned to a special mission to infiltrate the Sovereignty was already more than Iska could handle, but with Captain Mismis becoming a witch, his list of problems just keeps getting longer. To make matters even worse, Iska finds himself dragged to the Sovereignty's prison block after an accident nobody bargained for. There, he's chained to Alice, giving him no chance of escape-and intimate insight into her true nature. But reality comes crashing down on them hard when the "transcendental" sorcerer manages to break out of his cell...

Our Last Crusade: Book 4

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 5

A SECRET NEVER TO BE TOLD...

To rest and recuperate from their set of life-threatening missions, Unit 907 is finally granted a much-needed break. And what better place to spend time off than at a distant resort where they can lounge in their bathing suits 24-7? Against all odds, the trip is going according to plan...until Iska bumps into a certain witch who instantly reminds him of Alice. In fact, it feels all too familiar when she demands he come to Nebulis-for reasons she simply cannot reveal. And she isn't the only one with a hidden motive: Alice has arrived to investigate why her sister has been spying on Iska... for months.

Our Last Crusade: Book 5

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 6

Two sisters with two distinctly different goals: Sisbell would do anything to get Iska to join her side, while Aliceliese sees him as a worthy opponent, regardless of their duties and convictions. As part of his agreement with Sisbell, Iska has accepted his fate to serve as her guard in Nebulis. When Alice catches them linking arms...her heart practically leaps out of her chest.

Our Last Crusade: Book 6

Our Last Crusade of the Rise of a New World, Vol. 7

When Elletear finds out Sisbell's new guard is an Imperial solider, she holds this secret against her younger sister, caging Sisbell and Iska in the royal villa to prevent them from interrupting her plans. After all, Elletear is the one suspected of colluding with the House of Zoa to organize the coup unfolding in the palace. Afraid for Sisbell's life, Alice races over to the villa to put a stop to Elletear's deeds...forcing all three sisters to come together under one roof for the first time in a long while.

Our Last Crusade: Book 7

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 8

BURNING BRIDGES

The Nebulis Sovereignty is in flames. For the first time since its founding, the Paradise of Witches is raided by Imperial forces. It's Imperial solider versus Sovereign witch. Saint Disciples against Purebreds. Unit 907 toe-to-toe with the House of Hydra. While war indiscriminately obliterates all, Iska squares off against Alice. Finding each other on the battlefield, the two discover their circumstances have changed for the worse. As paradise falls, they face a choice that might alter the course of their relationship forever...

Our Last Crusade: Book 8

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 9

THE TRUTH LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE

As the night of the witch hunt ends, the Nebulis Sovereignty finds it's sustained nearly insurmountable damage. Its citizens are pointing fingers at the royal family, demanding they take responsibility for the chaos and accelerate the conclave to select a new queen. Meanwhile, Alice entrusts Iska with the task of rescuing Sisbell, the only one capable of revealing who is responsible for the Imperial raid. Iska's next destination? The research facility run by the House of Hydra! Just who is the blue-haired princess who awaits them there?

Our Last Crusade: Book 9

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 10

In their scheme to overthrow the government, Hydra abducts Third Princess Sisbell and spirits her away to the Empire. To rescue her, Rin takes it upon herself to tail Iska and company from the shadows and stage an infiltration! Little does she know that chaos brews in the land of witches...

Our Last Crusade: Book 10

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 11

Just as Iska and Unit 907 finally rescue Princess Sisbell, the Lord Yunmelngen abducts Rin and orders them back to the Imperial capital. Despite the obvious danger, Iska and company hurry to the heart of the Empire to both free their comrade and discover what transpired there a century ago during the creation of witches. But neither of these tasks will be easy, for the Eight Great Apostles are determined to end Iska's pursuit of the truth. Meanwhile, disaster brews in the Nebulis Sovereignty!

Our Last Crusade: Book 11

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 12

Iska and Unit 907 have defeated one of the Eight Great Apostles, Luclezeus, and arrived at the Imperial capital. There they meet Lord Yunmelngen, who asks Sisbell to use her astral power to help uncover the truth behind the tragedy that transpired a hundred years ago. At long last, the mystery behind the birth of the Founder Nebulis, of Lord Yunmelngen, and of the Black Steel Gladiator, Crossweil is revealed!

Our Last Crusade: Book 12

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World: Secret File, Vol. 1

THE AWAKENING OF A TRUE WITCH

Alice pursues the Grand Witch Nebulis to the Empire to stop her rampage, but instead, she comes across her transformed older sister, Elletear. No longer human, Elletear has gained immense power from merging with the calamity at the planet's core, and she's set on destroying the Empire and the Sovereignty to achieve her dream of building a true paradise for witches. To prevent their nations from being reduced to ashes, Lord Yunmelngen, Iska, and Alice form a united front against Elletear and her knight, the traitorous Saint Disciple Joheim.

Our Last Crusade: Secret File: Book 1

Worlds Beyond the World: The Fantastic Vision of William Morris

A GLIMPSE INTO THEIR PRIVATE LIVES

Iska's and Alice's day-to-day lives are riddled with troubles: Nene, Mismis, and Risya hold an unwelcome sleepover in Iska's room, while Queen Nebulis IIX is pressuring Alice to attend meetings with potential marriage partners. Escaping these predicaments might come with some unexpected consequences... But more importantly, how did Iska and Alice first meet when they were younger? Take a peek at the everyday adventures of these two rivals in this volume of short stories!

Godplayers

Players in the Contest of Worlds: Book 1

Damien Broderick

August Seebeck is in his twenties, a man of average looks and intellect. Then comes the claim of his great-aunt Tansy that she has been finding corpses each Saturday night in her bath (they vanish by morning). August dismisses this tale as elderly fantasy until he stumbles upon a corpse being shoved into the second-floor bathroom window of his aunt's house. Even that wouldn't faze him, but then someone steps out of the mirror...

August suddenly discovers he is a Player in the multi-universe Contest of Worlds and that his true family is quarrelsome on a mythic scale. His search for understanding follows a classic quest pattern of the Parsifal kind, except that August is nobody's fool.

An epic quest that is funny and engrossing, Godplayers is in the best tradition of Zelazny, Van Vogt, and the Knights of the Round Table, from one of science fiction's hottest up-and-coming writers.

K-Machines

Players in the Contest of Worlds: Book 2

Damien Broderick

August Seebeck is a 20-something student from a world not quite the same as ours. In Godplayers, August tumbled into a vastly larger universe, and learned that he wasn't, after all, an orphaned only child. He and his turbulent siblings, and the breathtaking Lune and others still stranger, are Players in the Contest of Worlds. They are mysteriously transformed humans whose ancient task is enigmatic battle with the dread, passionate K-Machines. Now crisis deepens.

Empowered with a potent killing device of his own, an eerie gift from legend, August finds himself flung from world to world in a brutal and baffling game, with entire universes at stake and very little idea of the rules. Only two things are clear: his beloved Lune is not who she seems, and August's pivotal role is no chance accident. In this cosmos, survival of the gods themselves depends upon human victory over the K-Machines.

Popular Writers of Today: Book 13

Richard Mathews

A critical study of the fantasy fiction of William Morris.

Contents:

3 - Worlds Beyond the World - essay
4 - Into the Unknown - essay
18 - The Dream of a Better World - essay
34 - Killing Time - essay
43 - Beyond the World - essay
61 - Some Closing Remarks (Worlds Beyond the World) - essay
63 - Selected Critical Sources (Worlds Beyond the World) - essay

The Lost World

Professor Challenger: Book 1

Arthur Conan Doyle

An exciting account of a jungle expedition’s encounter with living dinosaurs, written with the same panache exhibited in the author’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. This 1912 novel, the first installment of the Professor Challenger series, follows an eccentric paleontologist and his companions into the wilds of the Amazon, where they discover iguanodons, pterodactyls, and savage ape-people.

Proteus in the Underworld

Proteus: Book 3

Charles Sheffield

In the 22nd century biofeedback techniques to control by will the processes of one's own body have reached their ultimate expression: the ability to transform the body into virtually any viable form whatsoever. What began as an innocent technique to reduce anxiety without recourse to drugs has raised fundamental questions about what it is to be human, since form is no longer sufficient nor even relevant.

Enter the Humanity Test: in a future when other techniques can change the forms of animals, so far it has been a guaranteed one hundred percent successful means of determining if a life form started out as human. But now strange life forms, vicious and bestial, are proliferating throughout the Solar System. They are clearly not human, and clearly their nervous systems are too underdeveloped for them to have been human. But though the beasts threaten havoc and death to all the far flung isolated stations, the simple solution of shooting the varmints is impossible: for life forms that according to the Humanity Test started out human the law is very clear: Thou Shalt Not Kill.

In Other Worlds

Radix Tetrad: Book 2

A. A. Attanasio

One star-chained evening in a Manhattan bathroom, Carl Schirmer spontaneously combusts! His body transforms into light, mysteriously snatched from his banal life by an alien intelligence 130 billion years in the future. There, all spacetime is collapsing into a cosmic black hole, the Big Crunch -- and a bold, cosmic destiny awaits Carl. Rebuilt from the remnants of his light by extraterrestrials for a cryptic purpose, he awakens in time's last world, the strangest of all -- the Werld.

At the edge of infinity, Carl discovers the Foke, nomadic humans who travel among the floating islands of the Werld. The Foke teach him how to live -- and love -- at the end of time, and he loses his heart to his plucky guide, the beautiful Evoë. Their life together in this blissful kingdom that knows no aging or disease brings them to rapture -- until Evoë falls prey to the zotl, a spidery intelligence who hunt the Foke and eat the chemical by-products of their pain. In order to save his beloved from a gruesome death, Carl must return to Earth -- 130 billion years earlier -- where he is shocked to discover that the Earth he's come back to is not the one he left.

Can he meet the harsh demands of his task before the zotl find him and begin ravishing the Earth?

The Master of the World

Robur: Book 2

Jules Verne

Read a tale of one of the original evil inventors - the genius Robur - who, like his successors, wants to take over the world. The key to Robur's power lies in his latest invention, a vehicle called The Terror. It can travel by land, air, or sea, reaching such speed that it can only be seen as a blur. John Strock, federal police officer, is assigned to investigate. But he soon finds that stopping Robur is more difficult than he bargained on!

Written in 1904, this novel by the pioneering science fiction writer Jules Verne will delight anyone who likes a flight of fancy with their adventure.

The Consolidator, Or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World of the Moon

Ron Miller Science Fiction Classics: Book 6

Daniel Defoe

The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon, translated from the Lunar Language by Daniel Defoe.

The Consolidator is at once early science fiction in the form of an early voyage to the moon, a satire on the moral and intellectual currents of the time, a tongue-in-cheek praise of China's contribution to world knowledge, and a Whiggish version of the historical events of the previous 45 years.

Midnight at the Well of Souls

Saga of the Well World: Book 1

Exiles at the Well of Souls

Entered by a thousand unsuspected gateways -- built by a race lost in the clouds of time -- the planet its dwellers called the Well World turned beings of every kind into something else. There spacefarer Nathan Brazil found himself companioned by a batman, an amorous female centaur and a mermaid -- all once as human as he.

Yet Nathan Brazil's metamorphosis was more terrifying than any of those...and his memory was coming back, bringing with it the secret of the Well World.

For at the heart of the bizarre planet lay the goal of every being that had ever lived -- and Nathan Brazil and his comrades were...lucky?...enough to find it!

Saga of the Well World: Book 2

Quest for the Well of Souls

Antor Trellig, head of a ruthless interstellar syndicate, had seized a super computer with godlike powers, which could make him omnipotent. The Council offered master criminal Mavra Chang any reward if she stopped Trellig - and horrible, lingering death if she failed. But neither Trellig nor Mavra had taken the Well World into consideration. Built by the ancient Markovians, the Well World controlled the design of the cosmos. When the opponents were drawn across space to the mysterious planet, they found themselves in new alien bodies, and in the middle of a battle where strange races fought desperately, with the control of all the Universe as the prize.

Saga of the Well World: Book 3

The Return of Nathan Brazil

Mavra Chang had been a master criminal, notorious throughout the galaxy, but for years she has been trapped in a no-longer human body on the Well World - the Master Control planet for the universe. A supercomputer can restore her form, if only she can obtain a spaceship to reach it.

Saga of the Well World: Book 4

Twilight at the Well of Souls

The Dreel was a hive-mind, composed of trillions of virus-sized units, which infected intelligent beings like a disease and took over their minds. It was on its way to conquering the entire galaxy - until those whose minds were still free fought back, using a weapon so powerful that it wrought havoc with the Well World, the ancient planet-sized supercomputer that a vanished super-race called the Markovians built to maintain the form of the entire universe.

If the Well World's control of time and space could not be restored, the universe could vanish like a blown-out candle flame. Only a Markovian could go to the Well World and repair the damage, but only one Markovian was still known to survive. He had last been seen in human form, going by the name of Nathan Brazil. No one knew where he was now, what name he was using, or even if he still appeared human. Finding him, somewhere in the immensity of the galaxy, seemed an impossible task.

So the task fell to someone who had done the impossible over and over: Mavra Chang, one of the few beings ever to escape from the Well World, and owner of Obie, who just might be the second most powerful computer in the universe. With those two on his trail, Nathan Brazil could run-but could he hide?

Saga of the Well World: Book 5

The rift in the fabric of space was fast approaching the Well World, and time was running out. If the Well World were destroyed, the entire universe would disappear like a blown-out candle. But the squabbling forces on the planet weren't going to let the impending doomsday stop them from having a serious war. Troops all over the planet were gathering for the final battle. Nathan Brazil and Mavra Chang somehow had to reach the Well of Souls in time to save the universe and before any of the hostile natives managed to kill them. At best, a difficult mission. At worst, impossible - especially since there was a price on Brazil's head and many would-be claimants! So Nathan Brazil decided that the simplest way to reach the Well of Souls was to be killed. And his enemies would find that he was far more dangerous dead than he had ever been alive...

The Sea is Full of Stars

Saga of the Well World: Book 6

Ghost of the Well of Souls

This exciting, action-packed novel marks Jack Chalker's triumphant return to his celebrated multivolume saga: The Well World. The Sea Is Full of Stars explores an unknown interstellar civilization, stars an all-new cast of characters, and reveals fresh secrets. But of course, The Well remains . . .

After three passengers--Ming, Ari, and Angel--embark on an elite starship journey into the Realm, they unwittingly become ensnared in one man's bloodthirsty vendetta that will alter their very beings. That man is Jeremiah Wong Kincaid. He vows to destroy Josich Conqueror Hadun, the evil genius who has wreaked unspeakable havoc throughout the universe. It is an obsession that will take him to lands of demons and strange races--and into a deadly new cyberworld where humans are mere pawns of the godlike computers they have created.

But it is only after Kincaid and his unwitting fellow travelers enter Well World and discover the water hexes that he confronts the mad tyrant--and learns their universe is threatened by something far, far worse . . .

Saga of the Well World: Book 7

How Dark the World Becomes

Jack Chalker's Well World epic occupies an honored place among the classics of science fiction. Now this boldly imagined, intricately plotted new novel takes us deeper into the Well World than ever before . . .

On the mysterious Well World, the evil tyrant Josich and his dark agents search desperately for the eight scattered pieces of the fabled Straight Gate. Whoever possesses the Gate will wield enormous power, travelling between universes at the speed of light and wreaking havoc across galaxies.

Opposing Josich is a small band of travelers new to the Well World. There is Core, once a machine, now flesh and blood; Ming and Ari, two minds sharing a single body; Jaysu, an angel; and Genghis O'Leary, a lizard being. Unbeknownst to them, they have an unlikely ally: a vengeful entity who is able to clone any person or object with a single touch--and mete out death just as swift . . .

Sasha Naradnyo: Book 1

Frank Chadwick

Sasha Naradnyo is a gangster. He's a gangster with heart, sure, but Sasha sticks his neck out for no man. That's how you stay alive in Crack City, a colony stuffed deep into the crust of the otherwise unlivable planet Peezgtaan. Alive only--because if you're human, you don't prosper, at least not for long. Sasha is a second generation City native. His parents came to this rock figuring to make it big, only to find that they'd been recruited as an indentured labor force for alien overlords known as the Varoki.

Now a pair of rich young Varoki under the care of a beautiful human nanny are fleeing Peezgtaan, and Sasha is recruited to help. All things considered, he'd rather leave the little alien lordlings to their fate, but certain considerations--such as Sasha's own imminent demise if he remains--make it beneficial for him to take on the job.

But Sasha discovers his simple choice has thrust him into the midst of a political battle that could remake the galactic balance of power and save humanity from slow death by servitude. Now all he has to do is survive and keep his charges alive on a hostile planet undergoing its own revolution.

But it's the galaxy that had better watch out. For now the toughest thug in Crack City has gotten his first taste of real freedom. He likes it, and wants more.

The stunning debut of a nonstop science fiction noir thriller from legendary game creator Frank Chadwick.

River of the World

Selling Water by the River: Book 2

Chaz Brenchley

The city of Maras-Sund has stood for more than 20 years-two lands joined together by a magical bridge the Marasai used to conquer the Sundain. But the man known as Issel has magic of his own- an ability to manipulate water- which he will use to free his people. He finds an ally in Jendre, the daughter of a general in Maras's army, and a woman with her own vendetta against the regime. Her sister is held captive, along with others whose life essences power the magical bridge between her land and Sund. Her plan: to help Issel enter the palace and break the spell.

The World of Shannara

Shannara

Terry Brooks
Teresa Patterson

The beloved Shannara series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks is universally acclaimed as a towering achievement, an unquestioned masterpiece in fantasy literature. Now, for the first time, all the wonders of Shannara have been gathered into one single, indispensable volume in which Terry Brooks shares candid views on his creation. Lavishly illustrated with full-color paintings and black-and-white drawings, this comprehensive guide ventures behind the scenes to explore the history, the people, the places, the major events, and of course the magic, of one of the world's greatest fantasy epics.

What sets Terry Brooks apart? Is it a knack for creating complex, unforgettable characters like Allanon the Druid, Shea Ohmsford, and Amberle the elven-maid--men and women, gnomes and wizards, who come alive on the page and in our hearts? Is it the haunting and utterly believable evil of his darker creations: the foul Dagda Mor, the insanely murderous Jachyra, the enigmatic Ilse Witch? Or is it the way his adventures effortlessly partake of the timeless quality of myth? Whatever the secret of Brooks's storytelling magic, generations of readers have fallen under its spell, returning again and again to the pages of beloved classics like The Elfstones of Shannara and The Druid of Shannara, and relishing his newest novels in the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara saga.

Sure to tantalize and delight old fans and newcomers alike, The World of Shannara is the ultimate gateway into the fantasy realms of Terry Brooks--and the perfect companion to take along on the journey of a lifetime.

Half the World

Shattered Sea: Book 2

Joe Abercrombie

SOMETIMES A GIRL IS TOUCHED BY MOTHER WAR

Thorn is such a girl. Desperate to avenge her dead father, she lives to fight. But she has been named murderer by the very man who trained her to kill.

SOMETIMES A WOMAN BECOMES A WARRIOR

Fate traps her in the schemes – and on the ship – of the deep-cunning minister Father Yarvi. Crossing half the world to find allies against the ruthless High King, she learns harsh lessons of blood and deceit.

SOMETIMES A WARRIOR BECOMES A WEAPON

Beside her on her gruelling journey is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill. A failure in his eyes and hers, he has one chance at redemption.

AND WEAPONS ARE MADE FOR ONE PURPOSE

Will Thorn forever be a tool in the hands of the powerful or can she carve her own path? Is there a place beyond legend for a woman with a blade?

The Shattered World

Shattered World: Book 1

Michael Reaves

A millennium ago magicians fought a war, and smached the world into a thousand pieces. In partial expiation of these same sorcerers cast spells to set the fragments to floating about each other in the Abyss, to inform them with a proper gravity, and to supply them and the space that seperates them with an atmosphere that men and beasts may breathe. But that was long ago; in a thousand years even sorcerers grow old, and so do their spells. Now the doom that was forstalled is at hand. Already pieces of the Shattered World begin to collide. Soon all will meet, and coalesce, and melt into molten chaos.

The Real World

Silurian Tales

Steven Utley

This short story originally appeared on Sci Fiction, August 30, 2000. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction (2005), also edited by Dozois. The story is included in the collection Invisible Kingdoms (2013).

The Wind Over the World

Silurian Tales

Steven Utley

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1996. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF (2013), edited by Mike Ashley. The story is included in the collection The 400-Million-Year Itch (2012).

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 1

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 1

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 2

Reborn as a heroic... skeleton?!

A gamer falls asleep--only to wake up in the world of the game he was playing! Arc has the powerful skills and weapons of his character, but there's just one problem... he's stuck looking like that character, too. An adventure in a fantastical new land awaits him, if he can get used to being a walking skeleton!

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 2

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 3

MUCH ADO ABOUT KNIGHTING

Arc vowed to avoid drawing attention to himself, but the world has different plans for him! Between hunting magical beasts and unknowingly saving the Queen's retinue, he continues to find himself dragged into one adventure after another, culminating in a reunion with the young catgirl, Chiyome. Follow along as the Skeleton Knight embarks on a quest to set the beastmen free--and perhaps change the world while he's at it.

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 3

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 4

FIVE HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

En route to save the last of the enslaved elves, Arc and Arianne find themselves having to fight their way through ogres, monsters, and even a demon pirate when Arc's poor sense of direction gets them lost. None of these obstacles, however, compare to what awaits them when they finally reach the Holy Revlon Empire--a beast unlike anything they've ever faced: the five-headed hydra!

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 4

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 5

IN HOT WATER

Finally arriving at the magical spring that might cure his curse, Arc is astonished to find it is a hot spring! Deciding to give his weary bones a rest, he and Ponta dive right in--only to encounter something entirely unexpected. Meanwhile, Princess Yuriarna challenges Prince Sekt's underhanded bid to take control of the Kingdom. With royalty facing off against royalty, who will emerge victorious?

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 5

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 6

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

Arc, Arianne, Chiyome, and Goemon voyage to the southern continent in pursuit of Arc's newest culinary obsession: chili peppers! But when a dark figure from Chiyome's past returns to haunt her, and a nightmarish demon lays siege to a human city before the group's eyes, the skeleton knight and his crew realize they might have bitten off more than they can chew.

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 6

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 7

OF DAMSELS AND DEMONS

Arc and his companions make tracks for the Holy Hilk Kingdom, intent on unearthing the truth behind what happened to Sasuke. What they run into, instead, is yet another princess in need of rescue! Unlike Yuriarna, however, this one has no intention of letting Arc slip away afterwards. Chivalry may be a knight's watchword, but there's only so much a skeleton can do!

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 7

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 8

HERE THERE BE DRAGONS!

Arc, Arianne, and Chiyome fight their way through hordes of undead to Nohzan's capital, seeking to save Princess Riel--but are waylaid by Cardinal Palurumo, who is revealed to have been an undead creature all along! Meanwhile, another Dragon Lord enters the stage. A gorgeous lady Dragon Lord, who's got her eye on Arc!

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 8

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 9

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Elven soldiers, human troops, and even a Dragon Lord come together under the Skeleton Knight's banner to prepare to face the Holy Hilk Kingdom's onslaught. As war looms on the horizon, though, Arc has his first run-in with someone like him--a traveler from another world. What will this unexpected meeting bring?

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 9

Skeleton Knight in Another World, Vol. 10

HUNTING THROUGH HALLOWED GROUND

Thanatos has been defeated, but the war is far from over! Arc and his comrades venture into the ruins of the once holy capital, cutting their way through hordes of undead, rescuing injured civilians, even adding new companions to the party. Can they find the key to the whereabouts of the missing Cardinals? Or does only death await them at the heart of the ruined city?

Skeleton Knight in Another World: Book 10

Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction

MERCENARY TACTICS

Arc and his companions chase the one lead they have on the Cardinals--a teleportation stone that spirits them to a small town off in a distant corner of the mysterious Great Revlon Empire. With the Empire on lockdown due to impending war, the Skeleton Knight and his crew must find a way to blend in. The solution? Register themselves as a band of mercenaries and start taking on jobs, of course!

Small Change

Jo Walton

It's 1960, and the Axis powers dominate the world. Life goes on, because, as we see in "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction," history is driven both by big events and by small temptations...

Following the appearance of her first two novels, The King's Peace and The King's Name, Jo Walton won the 2002 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Two years later she won the World Fantasy Award for Tooth and Claw. Her Small Change trilogy, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half A Crown, is set in a world in which Britain struck an early truce with Hitler in 1941; "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction" is set in the America of that world.

This story is included in the collection Starlings (2018).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Dead to the World

Sookie Stackhouse: Book 4

Charlaine Harris

When telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse sees a naked man on the side of the road, she doesn't just drive on by. Turns out the poor thing hasn't a clue who-or what-he is, but Sookie knows. It's the vampire Eric Northman-but now he's a kinder, gentler Eric. And a very frightened Eric, because it soon becomes obvious that whoever took his memory now wants his life.

The World Engine

Space Marine Battles: Book 15

Ben Counter

For months, the World Engine has blazed a trail across the Vidar sector, destroying planets and devastating every fleet sent to destroy it. Now, the Astral Knights Space Marine Chapter enact a daring plan to get to the heart of the mighty edifice and bring it to an end. Crashing their battle-barge into the World Engine, they land upon its surface, seeking its heart. Confronted by sinister necrons, the fate of the Astral Knights hangs in the balance, along with the lives of untold billions...

Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds

Space Marine Battles: Book 19

Mark Clapham

Chaos Warlord Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs launch a devastating conquest of the Hollow Worlds of Lastrati.

The Imperium fights a constant battle to defend itself from its many enemies, but few are as deadly or as relentless as the Chaos Space Marines. Bearing a grudge that dates back 10,000 years to the Horus Heresy, these fallen angels are driven by hatred and an overwhelming desire for revenge. When Huron Blackheart leads his warband of Red Corsairs to attack the Hollow Worlds of Lastrati, the human defenders can do little to protect themselves against such powerful enemies. By the time the Space Wolves Chapter arrives, the Red Corsairs are already well entrenched. With neither side prepared to withdraw nor concede defeat, the battle spirals out of control--will the Hollow Worlds be destroyed by the forces of destruction that have been unleashed?

The Scoundrel Worlds

Star Risk: Book 2

Chris Bunch

Skyball - popular, challenging, violent... and the greatest sport in the universe. Two opposing worlds are neck and neck in the championships, and lately the game's been a killer. It's up to the mercenaries of Star Risk, Ltd., to keep the two sides galaxy-friendly.

The Star Risk team put their lives on the line again... for the money, of course. If they don't get killed themselves.

The Weight of Worlds

Star Trek: The Original Series

Greg Cox

The Ephrata Institute is an intellectual think tank at the outer fringes of the final frontier. Dedicated to the arts and sciences, the Institute seems an unlikely target for an invasion, but it proves easy pickings when the Crusade comes from beyond, determined to impose its harsh, unbending Truth on all the worlds of the Federation. Armed with weaponized gravity, the alien Crusaders will stop at nothing to rescue the universe from its myriad beliefs... even if it means warping the mind and soul of every sentient being they encounter.

Responding to an urgent distress signal, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise soon find themselves in conflict with the Crusade, and facing individual challenges. When Kirk and Spock are transported to the Crusade's distant homeland to confront the source of the invasion, Sulu finds himself trapped behind enemy lines, while Lieutenant Uhura is faced with possibly the most difficult decisions of her career.

As the Crusade sets its sights beyond Ephrata IV, it is up to the Enterprise and its besieged crew to keep freedom of thought from being crushed beneath the weight of worlds!

The Folded World

Star Trek: The Original Series

Jeff Mariotte

En route to a diplomatic mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise receives a distress call from the U.S.S. McRaven. As the Enterprise approaches the area where the McRaven appears to be, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew encounter an anomaly unlike anything they've ever experienced. Space itself seems inconsistent here... warping, changing appearance. But during the brief periods of calm, the McRaven is located along with other ships of various origins--all dead in space and devoid of any life forms, all tightly surrounding and being held in place by an enormous unidentified vessel that appears to have been drifting for a millennium. As incredible and impossible as it seems, this anomaly is something that can only be described as a dimensional fold, a place where the various dimensions that science has identified--and the ones it cannot yet name--have folded in on one another, and the normal rules of time and space no longer apply....

Memory Prime

Star Trek: The Original Series: Worlds in Collision: Book 1

Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Judith Reeves-Stevens

It is the central core of an immense computer library -- an elite network of research planetoids. Here, the Pathfinders -- the only artificial intelligences legally permitted to serve the Federation -- control and sift the overwhelming dataflow from thousands of research vessels across the galaxy...

Now the greatest scientists in the Federation have gathered here for the prestigious Nobel and Z-Magnees prize ceremonies -- unaware that a deadly assassin is stalking one of them. And as Captain Kirk struggles to save his ship from sabotage and his first officer from accusations of murder, he discovers the hidden assassin is far from the deadliest secret lurking on Memory Prime...

Prime Directive

Star Trek: The Original Series: Worlds in Collision: Book 2

Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Judith Reeves-Stevens

Starfleet's most sacred commandment has been violated. Its most honored captain is in disgrace, its most celebrated starship in pieces, and the crew of that ship scattered among the thousand worlds of the Federation...

Thus begins "Prime Directive", an epic tale of the Star Trek universe. Following in the bestselling tradition of "Spock's World" and "The Lost Years", Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have crafted a thrilling tale of mystery and wonder, a novel that takes the Star Trek characters from the depths of despair into an electrifying new adventure that spans the galaxy.

Journey with Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the former crew of the Starship Enterprise to Talin-- the planet where their careers ended. A world once teeming with life that now lies ruined, its cities turned to ashes, its surface devastated by a radioactive firestorm-- because of their actions. There, they must find out how-- and why-- this tragedy occurred and discover what has become of their captain.

The Closed Worlds

Starwolf: Book 2

Edmond Hamilton

When Morgan Chane and his comrades of John Dilullo's interstellar mercenaries invaded the Close World of Arkuu in search of a lost Terran expedition, they found a planet of strange menace. Incredibly powerful monsters prowled though Arkuu's dense jungles, and the ghosts of the planet's past haunted its ancient deserted cities. The Arkuuns themselves fought grimly to drive the Terrans away. But at last Chane discovered the Free-Faring, the terrible alien secret of Arkuu... and suddenly he knew why no Terran had ever left the Closed Worlds alive.

This novel is contained in the Omnibus Starwolf

The Wolf Worlds

Sten: Book 2

Chris Bunch
Allan Cole

The Eternal Emperor ruled countless worlds across the galaxy. Vast armies and huge fleets awaited his command. But when he needed a "little" job done right, he turned to Mantis Team and its small band of militant problem solvers.

Just then the Emperor needed to pacify the Wolf Worlds, the planets of an insignificant cluster that had raised space piracy to a low art.

And Mantis Team could use all the men it needed -- as long as it needed no more than two.

The Killing of Worlds

Succession: Book 2

Scott Westerfeld

The immortal Emperor can grant a form of eternal life-after-death, creating an elite known as the Risen, and so has ruled the eighty worlds unchallenged for sixteen hundred years. The only thing he fears are the Rix, machine-augmented humans who worship AI compound minds. They are dedicated to replacing his prolonged rule with an eternal cybernetic dynasty of their own.

Brilliant tactician Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx faces a suicide mission: stopping the next thrust of the Rix invasion with just his own vessel. While ship-to-ship combat rages among the stars, Zai's lover, Senator Nara Oxham, is caught in a deadly political fencing match with the Emperor himself. The Emperor has a terrible secret, a secret Nara is in danger of finding out, a secret for which he would countenance the killing of worlds.

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!, Vol. 1

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!: Book 1

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!, Vol. 2

A man uses video game crafting powers to survive a fantasy world--with the help of his beautiful dark elf mistress!

Kousuke suddenly wakes up alone in a vast forest that clearly isn't anywhere on Earth. Now he has to find some way to eat, drink, and survive! Luckily, Kousuke also has the power to craft using a special video game menu that allows him to harvest resources and build whatever he can imagine. However, every time he goes to sleep, he's attacked by one of the many non-human races of this world, all of whom despise humankind. Enter Sylphy, the beautiful dark elf who lays claim to Kousuke and vows to protect him--after all, she's taken him as her property!

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!: Book 2

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!, Vol. 3

ROCK-HARD PROTECTION!

It's official: Sylphy has Kousuke wrapped around her little finger! His beautiful dark elf mistress wants to liberate her kin, and Kousuke's ready to get the job done! Their first order of business is building a giant stone wall around the elven village to keep out any threats. After a hard day's work, Kousuke always finds himself in the arms of a lovely lady or three!

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!: Book 3

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!, Vol. 4

STICKY PREDICAMENT!

Kousuke and Sylphy's Liberation Army are making big moves! But just as they're settling into their newly captured base, betrayal strikes from within their own ranks! What's a crafty survivor from another world to do when he's trapped behind enemy lines and at the mercy of three very slimy sisters? He'll have to go under all sorts of covers if he ever wants to see his dark elf mistress again!

Survival in Another World with My Mistress!: Book 4

INTO THE WILD

Kousuke and Melty flee deep into the perilous Solel mountains, with agents of the Holy Kingdom in hot pursuit! The mountains are home to fierce dragons, but crafty Kousuke and mega-mighty Melty are more than a match for these lethal lizards. Or so it seems, until a singular, supreme dragon appears before them! Can Kousuke and Melty survive to tell the tale?

The Rebel Worlds

Technic Civilization: Dominic Flandry: Book 2

The Apex Book of World SF 1

The Barbarians in their long ships waited at the edge of the Galaxy, waited for the ancient Terran Empire to fall, while tow men struggled to save it: ex-Admiral McCormac, forced to rebel against a corrupt Emperor, and Starship Commander Flandry, the brilliant young officer who served the Imperium even as he scorned it.

Trapped between them was the woman they both loved, but couldn't share: the beautiful Kathryn, whose single world could decide the fate of a billion suns.

The Edge of the World

Terra Incognita: Book 1

Kevin J. Anderson

Terra Incognita - the blank spaces on the map, past the edge of the known world, marked only by the words 'here be monsters.'Two nations at war, fighting for dominion over the world, pin their last hopes of ultimate victory on finding a land out of legend.Each will send its ships to brave the untamed waters, wild storms, sea serpents, and darker dangers unseen by any man. It is a perilous undertaking, but there will always be the impetuous, the brave, and the mad, willing to leave their homes to explore the unknown.Even unto the edge of the world...

The New World

The Age of Discovery: Book 3

Michael A. Stackpole

Time is running out. Nalenyr is besieged on all sides by those who would save the fabled land--and those who would enslave it. Soon the realm will be ravaged by the scourge of magical warfare--overrun by terrifying forces created by an ancient enemy, and soaked in the blood of champions and gods. It is the moment of final conflict, and the grandchildren of the Royal Cartographer are at the center of the climactic struggle.

Keles Anturasi will race across the world, fleeing assassins, seeking control over powers he can barely understand. His brother, Jorim, having ascended to godhood, now finds himself pitted against an elder god--the very god who once created the entire pantheon and now seeks its destruction. And their sister, Nirati, embarks on a treacherous crusade with a dead hero to wage war on hell itself!

As the final battle lines are drawn, they will gather the land's newly awakened defenders of the ancient past. But can this small band of champions, mystics, and magicians stand against an evil that threatens to sweep reality itself into an unending dark age of nightmare and oblivion?

The Weight of the World

The Amaranthine Spectrum: Book 2

Tom Toner

The universe is in disarray. Rebellions against the immortal Amaranthine are spreading, worlds and moons have fallen, and the Emperor is missing. An ancient being has reawoken and claimed the throne. And the most important invention in the history of time itself has been stolen.

And amidst this chaos, lives continue. A pair of sisters and one small child flee across a world they know nothing of. An outcast, hunted by his tormentors, is caught up in the machinations of a petty warlord. An imprisoned AI creates empires of its own in the building to which it is confined, and seeks an escape.

The World Below

The Amphibians: Book 2

S. Fowler Wright

Contents:

v - Introduction (The World Below) - essay by Everett F. Bleiler
1 - The Amphibians - [Amphibians - 1] - (1925) - novel by S. Fowler Wright
204 - The World Below - [Amphibians - 2] - (1929) - novel by S. Fowler Wright

The World Below is about an adventurer who travels 500,000 years into the future with the aid of a time machine. There he encounters a race of intelligent furry beings, the Amphibians. With their help he explores the planet and is eventually captured by the Dwellers, super-intelligent beings who direct the destinies of the planet.

Publication can be confusing as both the first and second installment have been published as The World Below. They are typically paired as The Amphibians (part 1) and The World Below (part 2), or as The World Below (part 1) and The Dwellers (part 2).

The World Beyond

The Amphibians: Book 3

Brian Stableford

S. Fowler Wright's novel, The World Below, one of the classics of British scientific romance, was hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction when it was published in the U.S. Originally intended as a trilogy, the novel was cut short when Wright's business went bankrupt. Now Brian Stableford, with the permission of the author's estate, has penned the sequel that the master never had the chance to finish.

A Million years hence, life on Earth has undergone a radical transformation that has brough it under threat from extraterresteral trials. To settle its difficulties, a time-traveler from the twentieth century must attempt a further odyssey into the remote future time, which only he is qualified to undertake. But will he be able to bring back any intelligence from his voyage, if he manages to return at all-or will the possiblity that he might change history doom his quest from the outset?

Like it's predecessor, The World Beyond attemps to enxtend the literary imagination as far as it can be taken, in the context of our present scientific understanding of evolutionary processes. This is a first-rate adventure based on a work of creative genius.

The Apex Book of World SF: Book 1

The Apex Book of World SF 2

The world of speculative fiction is expansive; it covers more than one country, one continent, one culture. Collected here are sixteen stories penned by authors from Thailand, the Philippines, China, Israel, Pakistan, Serbia, Croatia, Malaysia, and other countries across the globe. Each one tells a tale breathtakingly vast and varied, whether caught in the ghosts of the past or entangled in a postmodern age.

Among the spirits, technology, and deep recesses of the human mind, stories abound. Kites sail to the stars, technology transcends physics, and wheels cry out in the night. Memories come and go like fading echoes and a train carries its passengers through more than simple space and time. Dark and bright, beautiful and haunting, the stories herein represent speculative fiction from a sampling of the finest authors from around the world.

Table of contents:

S.P. Somtow (Thailand) - "The Bird Catcher"
Jetse de Vries (Netherlands) - "Transcendence Express"
Guy Hasson (Israel) - "The Levantine Experiments"
Han Song (China) - "The Wheel of Samsara"
Kaaron Warren (Australia/Fiji) - "Ghost Jail"
Yang Ping (China) - "Wizard World"
Dean Francis Alfar (Phillippines) - "L'Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)"
Nir Yaniv (Israel) - "Cinderers"
Jamil Nasir (Palenstine) - "The Allah Stairs"
Tunku Halim (Malaysia) - "Biggest Baddest Bomoh"
Aliette de Bodard (France) - "The Lost Xuyan Bride"
Kristin Mandigma (Phillippines) - "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang"
Aleksandar Žiljak (Croatia) - "An Evening In The City Coffehouse, With Lydia On My Mind"
Anil Menon (India) - "Into the Night"
Mélanie Fazi (France, translated by Christopher Priest) - "Elegy"
Zoran Živkovic (Serbia, translated by Alice Copple-Tošic) - "Compartments"

The Apex Book of World SF: Book 2

The Apex Book of World SF 3

In The Apex Book of World SF 2, editor Lavie Tidhar collects short stories by science fiction and fantasy authors from Africa and Latin America.

An expedition to an alien planet; Lenin rising from the dead; a superhero so secret he does not exist. In The Apex Book of World SF 2, World Fantasy Award nominated editor Lavie Tidhar brings together a unique collection of stories from around the world. Quiet horror from Cuba and Australia; surrealist fantasy from Russia and epic fantasy from Poland; near-future tales from Mexico and Finland, as well as cyberpunk from South Africa. In this anthology one gets a glimpse of the complex and fascinating world of genre fiction--from all over our world.

Featuring work from noted international authors such as Will Elliot, Hannu Rajaniemi, Shweta Narayan, Lauren Beukes, Ekaterina Sedia, Nnedi Okorafor, and Andrzej Sapkowski.

Table of contents

"Alternate Girl's Expatriate Life" by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
"Mr. Goop" by Ivor W. Hartmann
"Trees of Bone" by Daliso Chaponda
"The First Peruvian in Space" by Daniel Salvo (translated by Jose B. Adolph)
"Eyes in the Vastness of Forever" by Gustavo Bondoni
"The Tomb" by Chen Qiufan (translated by the author)
"The Sound of Breaking Glass" by Joyce Chng
"A Single Year" by Csilla Kleinheincz (translated by the author)
"The Secret Origin of Spin-Man" by Andrew Drilon
"Borrowed Time" by Anabel Enríquez Piñeiro (translated by Daniel W. Koon)
"Branded" by Lauren Beukes
"December 8th" by Raúl Flores (translated by Daniel W. Koon)
"Hungry Man" by Will Elliott
"Nira and I" by Shweta Narayan
"Nothing Happened in 1999" by Fábio Fernandes
"Shadow" by Tade Thompson
"Shibuya no Love" by Hannu Rajaniemi
"Maquech" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
"The Glory of the World" by Sergey Gerasimov
"The New Neighbours" by Tim Jones
"From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7" by Nnedi Okorafor
"The Slows" by Gail Hareven (translated by Yaacov Jeffrey Green)
"Zombie Lenin" by Ekaterina Sedia
"Electric Sonalika" by Samit Basu
"The Malady" by Andrzej Sapkowski (translated by Wiesiek Powaga)
"A Life Made Possible Behind The Barricades" by Jacques Barcia

The Apex Book of World SF: Book 3

The Apex Book of World SF 4

These stories run the gamut from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror. Some are translations (from German, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Swedish), and some were written in English. The authors herein come from Asia and Europe, Africa and Latin America. Their stories are all wondrous and wonderful, and showcase the vitality and diversity that can be found in the field. They are a conversation, by voices that should be heart. And once again, editor Lavie Tidhar and Apex Publications are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to bring them to our readers.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - Lavie Tidhar
Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods - Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Thailand)
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight - Xia Jia (China)
Act of Faith - Fadzilshah Johanabos (Malaysia)
The Foreigner - Uko Bendi Udo (Nigeria)
The City of Silence - Ma Boyong (China)
Planetfall - Athena Andreadis (Greece)
Jungle Fever - Zulaikha Nurain Mudzor (Malaysia)
To Follow the Waves - Amal El-Mohtar (Lebanon/Canada)
Ahuizotl - Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Mexico)
The Rare Earth - Biram Mboob (Gambia)
Spider's Nest - Myra Çakan (Germany)
Waiting with Mortals - Crystal Koo (Philippines)
Three Little Children - Ange (France)
Brita's Holiday Village - Karin Tidbeck (Sweden)
Regressions - Swapna Kishore (India)
Dancing on the Red Planet - Berit Ellingsen (Korea/Norway)

The Apex Book of World SF: Book 4

Mahvesh Murad
Lavie Tidhar

Now firmly established as the benchmark anthology series of international speculative fiction, volume 4 of The Apex Book of World SF sees debut editor Mahvesh Murad bring fresh new eyes to her selection of stories.

From Spanish steampunk and Italian horror to Nigerian science fiction and subverted Japanese folktales, from love in the time of drones to teenagers at the end of the world, the stories in this volume showcase the best of contemporary speculative fiction, wherever it's written.

Featuring:

Kuzhali Manickavel -- Six Thing We Found During The Autopsy
Yukimi Ogawa -- In Her Head, In Her Eyes
Rocío Rincón Fernández -- The Lady of the Soler Colony (Translated from Spanish by James & Marian Womack.)
Chinelo Onwualu -- The Gift of Touch
Deepak Unnikrishnan -- Sarama
Elana Gomel -- The Farm
Saad Z. Hossain -- Djinns Live by the Sea
Haralambi Markov -- The Language of Knives
Nene Ormes -- The Good Matter (Translated from Swedish by Lisa J Isaksson and Nene Ormes.)
Samuel Marolla -- Black Tea (Translated from Italian by Andrew Tanzi.)
Prathibha Nadeeshani Dissanayake -- Jinki & the Paradox
Sese Yane -- The Corpse
Dilman Dila -- How My Father a Became God
Isabel Yap -- A Cup of Salt Tears
Swabir Silayi -- Colour Me Grey
Sabrina Huang -- Setting Up Home (Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang.)
Vajra Chandrasekera -- Pockets Full of Stones
Zen Cho -- The Four Generations of Chang E
Tang Fei -- Pepe (Translated from Chinese by John Chu.)
Julie Novakova -- The Symphony of Ice and Dust
JY Yang -- Tiger Baby (c) 2013. First published in In The Belly of the Cat
Natalia Theodoridou -- The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul
Thomas Olde Heuvelt -- The Boy Who Cast No Shadow (Translated from Dutch by Laura Vroomen.)
Shimon Adaf -- Like A Coin Entrusted in Faith (Translated from Hebrew by the Author.)
Usman T. Malik -- The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family
Johann Thorsson -- First, Bite Just a Finger
Bernardo Fernández -- The Last Hours of The Final Days (Translated from the Spanish by author.)
Celeste Rita Baker -- Single Entry

The Apex Book of World SF 5

The Apex Book of World SF: Book 5

Lavie Tidhar
Cristina Jurado

The landmark anthology series of international speculative fiction returns with volume 5 of The Apex Book of World SF. Cris Jurado joins series editor Lavie Tidhar to highlight the best speculative fiction from around the world.

Cyberpunk from Spain, Singapore and Japan; mythology from Venezuela, Korea and First Nations; stories of the dead from Zimbabwe and Egypt, and space wonders from India, Germany and Bolivia. And much more. The fifth volume of the ground-breaking World SF anthology series reveals once more the uniquely international dimension of speculative fiction.

Table of Contents:

Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Singapore) -- "A Series of Steaks"
Daína Chaviano (Cuba, translated by Matthew D. Goodwin) -- "Accursed Lineage"
Darcie Little Badger (USA/Lipan Apache) -- "Nkásht íí"
T.L. Huchu (Zimbabwe) -- "Ghostalker"
Taiyo Fujii (Japan, translated by Matthew D. Goodwin) -- "Violation of the TrueNet Security Act"
Vandana Singh (India) -- "Ambiguity Machines: An Examination"
Basma Abdel Aziz (Egypt, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette) -- "Scenes from the Life of an Autocrat"
Liliana Colanzi (Bolivia, translated by Jessica Sequeira) -- "Our Dead World"
Bo-young Kim (South Korea, translated by Jihyun Park & Gord Sellar) -- "An Evolutionary Myth"
Israel Alonso (Spain, translated by Steve Redwood) -- "You Will See the Moon Rise"
Sara Saab (Lebanon) -- "The Barrette Girls"
Chi Hui (China, translated by John Chu) -- "The Calculations of Artificials"
Ana Hurtado (Venezuela) -- "El Cóndor del Machángara"
Karla Schmidt (Germany, translated by Lara M. Harmon) -- "Alone, on the Wind"
Eliza Victoria (Philippines) -- "The Seventh"
Tochi Onyebuchi (Nigeria/USA) -- "Screamers"
R.S.A. Garcia (Trinidad and Tobago) -- "The Bois"
Giovanni De Feo (Italy) -- "Ugo"

Soul of the World

The Ascension Cycle: Book 1

David Mealing

Inspired by the American Revolution, this enormous, intricate debut fantasy series tells the story of three heroes fighting for their country with magic and gunfire.

The Great Barrier has kept the colonies of the new world safe for hundreds of years. But the colony is a powder keg. Food shortages stir the citizens to riots against the crown. Dissidents whisper of revolution. And worse, the strength of the Great Barrier seems to be slipping.

Sarine is a street artist, selling her sketches for coin to feed her family. With the help of her magic powers, she's so far been able to escape the notice of the city police. But a strange man with powers more terrifying than her own threatens to expose her secrets.

And she's not the only one whose life threatens the strange figure threatens to upend.

The System of the World

The Baroque Cycle: Book 3

Neal Stephenson

'Tis done.

The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.

No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.

Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.

Everything that was will be changed forever...

The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.

The Best of All Possible Worlds

The Best of All Possible Worlds: Book 1

Karen Lord

Karen Lord's debut novel, the multiple-award-winning Redemption in Indigo, announced the appearance of a major new talent-a strong, brilliantly innovative voice fusing Caribbean storytelling traditions and speculative fiction with subversive wit and incisive intellect. Compared by critics to such heavyweights as Nalo Hopkinson, China Miéville, and Ursula K. Le Guin, Lord does indeed belong in such select company-yet, like them, she boldly blazes her own trail.

Now Lord returns with a second novel that exceeds the promise of her first. The Best of All Possible Worlds is a stunning science fiction epic that is also a beautifully wrought, deeply moving love story.

A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but come to discover that in order to preserve their culture, they may have to change it forever.

Now a man and a woman from these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing race-and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely team-one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive-just may find in each other their own destinies... and a force that transcends all.

The Galaxy Game

The Best of All Possible Worlds: Book 2

Karen Lord

Karen Lord is one of today's most brilliant young talents. Her science fiction, like that of predecessors Ursula K. Le Guin and China Miéville, combines star-spanning plots, deeply felt characters, and incisive social commentary. With The Galaxy Game, Lord presents a gripping adventure that showcases her dazzling imagination as never before.

On the verge of adulthood, Rafi attends the Lyceum, a school for the psionically gifted. Rafi possesses mental abilities that might benefit people... or control them. Some wish to help Rafi wield his powers responsibly; others see him as a threat to be contained. Rafi's only freedom at the Lyceum is Wallrunning: a game of speed and agility played on vast vertical surfaces riddled with variable gravity fields.

Serendipity and Ntenman are also students at the Lyceum, but unlike Rafi they come from communities where such abilities are valued. Serendipity finds the Lyceum as much a prison as a school, and she yearns for a meaningful life beyond its gates. Ntenman, with his quick tongue, quicker mind, and a willingness to bend if not break the rules, has no problem fitting in. But he too has his reasons for wanting to escape.

Now the three friends are about to experience a moment of violent change as seething tensions between rival star-faring civilizations come to a head. For Serendipity, it will challenge her ideas of community and self. For Ntenman, it will open new opportunities and new dangers. And for Rafi, given a chance to train with some of the best Wallrunners in the galaxy, it will lead to the discovery that there is more to Wallrunning than he ever suspected... and more to himself than he ever dreamed.

The Best of World SF: Volume 1

The Best of World SF: Book 1

The Best of World SF: Volume 2

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction.

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Stories:

'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard
'Debtless' by Chen Qiufan
'Fandom for Robots' by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
'Virtual Snapshots' by Tlotlo Tsamaase
'What The Dead Man Said' by Chinelo Onwualu
'Delhi' by Vandana Singh
'The Wheel of Samsara' by Han Song
'Xingzhou' by Yi-Sheng Ng
'Prayer' by Taiyo Fujii
'The Green Ship' by Francesco Verso
'Eyes of the Crocodile' by Malena Salazar Macia
'Bootblack' by Tade Thompson
'The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things' by Fabio Fernandes
'The Sun From Both Sides' by R.S.A. Garcia
'Dump' by Cristina Jurado
'Rue Chair' by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo
'His Master's Voice' by Hannu Rajaniemi
'Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys' by Nir Yaniv
'The Cryptid' by Emil H. Petersen
'The Bank of Burkina Faso' by Ekaterina Sedia
'An Incomplete Guide...' by Kuzhali Manickavel
'The Old Man with The Third Hand' by Kofi Nyameye
'The Green' by Lauren Beukes
'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck
'Prime Meridian' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
'If At First You Don't Succeed' by Zen Cho

The Best of World SF: Book 2

The Life of the World to Come

Twenty-nine new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction.

The second annual installment to the 'rare and wonderful' (The Times) The Best of World SF Volume 1, this collection of twenty-nine stories, including eight original and exclusive additions, represents the state of the art in international science fiction.

Navigating around the globe, The Best of World SF Volume 2 features writers from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Grenada, India, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, The Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Each story has been selected by World SF expert and award-winning author Lavie Tidhar. Taking us into space -- Mars at first, then the stars -- and then back to a strange, transformed Earth via AI, gods, aliens and the undead, the collection traces the ever-changing meaning of the genre from some of the most exciting voices writing today.

This is not a retrospective of what science fiction around the world used to look like. This is a snapshot of what some of it looks like now. And it's never been more exciting.

The Godel Operation

The Billion Worlds: Book 1

James L. Cambias

A DROID AND HIS BOY, ON A SEARCH FOR A LEGENDARY WEAPON

Daslakh is an AI with a problem. Its favorite human, a young man named Zee, is in love with a woman who never existed -- and he will scour the Solar System to find her. But in the Tenth Millennium a billion worlds circle the Sun--everything from terraformed planets to artificial habitats, home to a quadrillion beings.

Daslakh's nicely settled life gets more complicated when Zee helps a woman named Adya escape a gang of crooks. This gets the pair caught up in the hunt for the Godel Trigger, a legendary weapon left over from an ancient war between humans and machines--which could spell the end of civilization.

In their search, they face a criminal cat and her henchmen, a paranoid supermind with a giant laser, the greatest thief in history, and a woman who might actually be Zee's lost love.

It's up to Daslakh to save civilization, keep Zee's love life on the right track--and make sure that nobody discovers the real secret of the Godel Trigger.

The Scarab Mission

The Billion Worlds: Book 2

James L. Cambias

Solana Sina is a scarab, salvaging wrecked and abandoned space habitats among the Billion Worlds of the Tenth Millennium. She and an oddball crew--a raven, a cyborg, and a dinosaur--board the derelict colony Safdaghar hoping to score some loot before the colony gets catapulted into the outer reaches of the Solar System. But Solana and the scarabs come face-to-face with a gang of vicious pirates looking for slaves and treasure, and a mysterious stranger intent on preserving an explosive secret. Solana must overcome her own horrifying past to survive and escape before it's too late. But there's an even more dangerous threat lurking in the dark passages and ruined buildings of Safdaghar...

The Inferior

The Bone World Trilogy: Book 1

Peadar Ò Guilín

STOPMOUTH AND HIS family know of no other life than the daily battle to survive. To live, they must hunt rival species, or negotiate flesh-trade with those who crave meat of the freshest human kind. It is a savage, desperate existence. And for Stopmouth, considered slowwitted hunt-fodder by his tribe, the future looks especially bleak. But then, on the day he is callously betrayed by his brother, a strange and beautiful woman falls from the sky. It is a moment that will change his destiny, and that of all humanity, forever. With echoes of Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, and The Truman Show, Peadar Ó Guilín's debut is an action-and idea-packed-blockbuster that will challenge your perceptions of humanity and leave you hungry for more.

The Deserter

The Bone World Trilogy: Book 2

Peadar Ò Guilín

To save his tribe, the cannibal Stopmouth must abandon it. Leaving the stone-age world of the Surface behind, he travels to the Roof, the mysterious hi-tech world suspended above. But the Roof has its own problems. The nanotechnology that controls it is collapsing. And now a rebellion against the ruling Commission is about to erupt.

Hunted by the Commission's nano-enhanced agents, Stopmouth must succeed in a desperate hunt of his own: to find the woman he loves. Only she knows how to save his tribe. But in this super-sophisticated world, all he has to fight with are his raw strength and fierce courage.

The Volunteer

The Bone World Trilogy: Book 3

Peadar Ò Guilín

Everyone in the human tribe of ManWays knows their world is about to end. They are shattered from the constant attacks of their enemies and even the Roof above their heads is on the verge of collapse. But just when their doom seems certain, word reaches them of a land free of all enemies.

Humans are said to live there, but their leader is Stopmouth, the Chief's own brother and the vilest of traitors.

Can Chief Wallbreaker lead his entire tribe across the wasteland the world has become? And will enough of them survive the journey to avenge themselves on the man who kidnapped his beloved wife, Indrani?

The Volunteer is the thrilling conclusion to the story that began with The Inferior and continued with The Deserter.

Ember and Ash

The Castings World

Pamela Freeman

The old ones will have their revenge.Two peoples have been fighting over the same land for a thousand years. Invaders crushed the original inhabitants, and ancient powers have reluctantly given way to newer magics. But Ember was to change all this with a wedding to bind these warring people together - until her future goes up in flames.

Ember's husband-to-be is murdered by a vengeful elemental god, who sees peace as a breach of faith. Set on retribution, she enlists the help of Ash, son of a seer. Together they will pit themselves against elementals of fire and ice in a last attempt to end the conflicts that have scarred their past. They must look to the present, as old furies are waking to violence and are eager to reclaim their people.

The Company: Book 5

The Pearl of the Soul of the World

From idea to flesh to myth, this is the story of Alec Checkerfield: Seventh Earl of Finsbury, pirate, renegade, hero, anomaly, Mendoza's once and future love.

Mendoza is a Preserver, which means that she's sent back from the twenty-fourth century by Dr. Zeus, Incorporated - the Company - to recover things from the past which would otherwise be lost. She's a botanist, a good one. She's an immortal, indestructible cyborg. And she's a woman in love.

In sixteenth century England, Mendoza fell for a native, a renegade, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiated determination and sexuality. He died a martyr's death, burned at the stake. In nineteenth century America, Mendoza fell for an eerily identical native, a renegade, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiated determination and sexuality. When he died, she killed six men to avenge him.

The Company didn't like that - bad for business. But she's immortal and indestructible, so they couldn't hurt her. Instead, they dumped her in the Back Way Back.

Meanwhile, back in the future, three eccentric geniuses sit in a parlor at Oxford University and play at being the new Inklings, the heirs of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Working for Dr. Zeus, they create heroic stories and give them flesh, myths in blood and DNA to protect the future from the World to Come, the fearsome Silence that will fall on the world in 2355. They create a hero, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiates determination and sexuality.

"Now," stranded 150,000 years in the past, there are no natives for Mendoza to fall in love with. She tends a garden of maize, and she pines for the man she lost, twice. For Three. Thousand. Years.

Then, one day, out of the sky and out of the future comes a renegade, a timefaring pirate, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiates determination and sexuality. This is the beginning of the end.

The Darkangel Trilogy: Book 3

Meredith Ann Pierce

With the aid of a shimmering pearl, Aeriel battles the White Witch to free her husband Irrylath and discovers her own true destiny.

The World Wreckers

The Darkover Series: Book 6

Marion Zimmer Bradley

The wild and beautiful planet of Darkover becomes the target of the World Wreckers, an intergalactic company that destroys the ecology and economy of a planet so that Terran investors can make a profit in restoring it.

The Blighted Stars

The Devoured Worlds: Book 1

Megan E. O'Keefe

She's a revolutionary. Humanity is running out of options. Habitable planets are being destroyed as quickly as they're found and Naira Sharp thinks she knows the reason why. The all-powerful Mercator family has been controlling the exploration of the universe for decades, and exploiting any materials they find along the way under the guise of helping humanity's expansion. But Naira knows the truth, and she plans to bring the whole family down from the inside.

He's the heir to the dynasty. Tarquin Mercator never wanted to run a galaxy-spanning business empire. He just wanted to study rocks and read books. But Tarquin's father has tasked him with monitoring the settlement of a new planet, and he doesn't really have a choice in the matter.

Disguised as Tarquin's new bodyguard, Naira plans to destroy the settlement ship before they make land. But neither of them expects to end up stranded on a dead planet. To survive and keep her secret, Naira will have to join forces with the man she's sworn to hate. And together they will uncover a plot that's bigger than both of them.

The Fractured Dark

The Devoured Worlds: Book 2

Megan E. O'Keefe

Naira and Tarquin have escaped vicious counter-revolutionaries, misprinted monsters and the pull of a dying planet. Now, bound together to find the truth behind the blight that has been killing habitable planets, they need to hunt out the Mercator family secrets.

But, when the head of Mercator disappears, taking the universe's remaining supply of starship fuel with him, chaos breaks loose between the ruling families. Naira's revolution must be put aside for the sake of humanity's immediate survival.

The Shadow World

The Eidolon Chronicles: Book 2

Jane Johnson

The Dodman has begun his reign of terror in Eidolon. Amassing an army of trolls & giants, ghost-dogs, & goblins, he is determined to lay waste to the magical Secret Country and destroy its Queen forever. Now Isadora must return to her world, leaving her family behind, to lead her people against the evil Dodman.

The Drowned World

The Elemental Apocalypse Quartet: Book 2

J. G. Ballard

In the 21st century, fluctuations in solar radiation have caused the ide-caps to melt and the seas to rise. Global temperatures have climbed, and civilization has retreated to the Arctic and Antarctic circles. London is a city now inundated by a primeval swamp, to which an expedition travels to record the flora and fauna of this new Triassic Age.

This early novel by the author of CRASH and EMPIRE OF THE SUN is at once a fast paced narrative, a stunning evocation of a flooded, tropical London of the near future and a speculative foray into the workings of the unconscious mind.

The Burning World

The Elemental Apocalypse Quartet: Book 3

J. G. Ballard

Weird and mesmerizingly grotesque, The Drought tells the chilling story of the world on the brink of extinction, where a global drought, brought on by industrial waste, has left mankind in a life-or-death search for water. Violence erupts and insanity reigns as the human race struggles for survival in a worldwide desert of despair.

The Crystal World

The Elemental Apocalypse Quartet: Book 4

J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard's fourth novel, which established his reputation as a writer of extraordinary talent and imaginative powers, tells the story of a physician specializing in the treatment of leprosy who is invited to a small outpost in the interior of Africa. Finding the roadways blocked, he takes to the river, and embarks on a frightening journey through a strange petrified forest whose area expands daily, affecting not only the physical environment but also its inhabitants.

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World

The Empire: The Siege: Book 3

K. J. Parker

This is the true story of Aemilius Felix Boioannes the younger, the intended and unintended consequences of his life, the bad stuff he did on purpose, and the good stuff that happened in spite of him.

It is, in other words, the tale of a war to end all wars, and the man responsible.

The End of the World Running Club

The End of the World Running Club: Book 1

Adrian J. Walker

When the world ends and you find yourself forsaken, every second counts.

No one knows this more than Edgar Hill. Stranded on the other side of the country from his wife and children, Ed must push himself across a devastated wasteland to get back to them. With the clock ticking and hundreds of miles between them, his best hope is to run -- or risk losing what he loves forever.

The End of the World Survivors Club

The End of the World Running Club: Book 2

Adrian J. Walker

In THE END OF THE WORLD RUNNING CLUB Edgar Hill ran 550 miles after an apocalypse to try and find his family.

He had it easy.

This is his wife's story.

Beth Hill has survived the apocalypse with a baby and toddler in tow. And what's more she's done it alone - without her husband's help. He's never been any help. But when disaster strikes and someone steals her kids, she knows what she has to do. The new world might be very different: no government, no law, no infrastructure and a whole lot more ocean than there used to be. But one thing hasn't changed - the lengths a mother will go to save her family...

The Simoqin Prophecies

The Gameworld Trilogy: Book 1

Samit Basu

The Simoqin Prophecies, first published in 2003 in India, was critically acclaimed and an instant bestseller. It marked the beginning of Indian fantasy writing in English.

Written with consummate ease and brimming with wit and allusion, it is at once classic sff and subtle spoof, featuring scantily clad centauresses, flying carpets, pink trolls, and homicidal rabbits.

Monty Python meets the Ramayana, Alice in Wonderland meets The Lord of the Rings and Robin Hood meets The Arabian Nights in this novel--a breathtaking ride through a world peopled by different races and cultures across mythology and history.

The Prophecies foretell the reawakening of the terrible rakshas, Danh-Gem, and the arrival of a hero to face him. But heroes do not appear magically out of nowhere; they have to be found and trained. And sometimes the makers of prophecies don't know everything they need to know...

As the day of Danh-Gem's rising draws closer and the chosen hero is sent on a quest, another young man learns of terrible things he must do in secret and the difficult choices he must make in order to save the world from the rakshas.

The Manticore's Secret

The Gameworld Trilogy: Book 2

Samit Basu

Being a Hero isn't easy--but it's a lot easier than being a Dark Lord.?Dark forces just aren't what they used to be.

THE MANTICORE'S SECRET is the spellbinding sequel to THE SIMOQIN PROPHECIES and part two in the Gameworld Trilogy. Once again Samit Basu creates a mesmeric landscape bursting with weird and wonderful characters and a gripping narrative that's complex, playful, sometimes sombre but always dazzlingly inventive.

A mysterious Dark Lord and his grotesque army threaten all that is good on earth... or do they? The heroic immortals who vanquished his rakshas father long ago have returned to do battle with the forces of evil, which is good news... or is it?

In the shadows a secret society of shapeshifters battles deadly mind-controlling foes who threaten history, humanity and the future of the planet. A beautiful, amoral rakshasi plots world domination while a strangely civilized barbarian fights to save the world.

But the world is spinning out of control. Because the gods are back. And they want to play...

The Unwaba Revelations

The Gameworld Trilogy: Book 3

Samit Basu

Under the all-seeing eyes of the assembled gods, armies are on the move. The Game has begun. And when it ends, the world will end too...

In THE UNWABA REVELATIONS, the third and concluding part of the GameWorld trilogy, a way must be found to save the world; to defeat the gods at their own game. A daunting prospect under any circumstances, made worse by the fact that the gods, who control all the heroes, are blatantly cheating by following only one rule--that they cannot be defeated by their own creations.

As epic battles ravage the earth, Kirin and Maya, guided only by an old, eccentric and extremely unreliable chameleon, and egged on by the usual rag-tag gang, carry out their secret plan; a plan so secret that, in fact, no one involved has any idea what they are doing!

Monsters, mayhem, mud-swamps; conspiracies, catastrophes, chimeras; betrayals, buccaneers, bloodshed--THE UNWABA REVELATIONS continues the roller coaster journey that began with THE SIMOQIN PROPHECIES and gathered momentum with THE MANTICORE'S SECRET. Traversing earth, sea and sky, realms both infernal and celestial, worlds both imagined and material, this book will draw you irresistibly into a tantalizing, action-packed, epic race to reclaim the flawed, magical world of its heroes.

The Gate of Worlds

The Gate of Worlds: Book 1

Beyond the Gate of Worlds

In this alternate history novel, the Bubonic Plague sets the stage for a world where the West is powerless. After the Black Death has wiped out most of the European population, there is little defense against Turkish invasion and expansion, and by the 1980s, the major world powers are the Russians, the Turks, the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Japanese. Dan Beauchamp, a young Englishman whose heart longs for fortune and adventure, travels to industrial Mexico and discovers that he has a lot to learn.

The Gate of Worlds: Book 2

Robert Silverberg
John Brunner
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

These three novellas are set in an alternate world first created by Silverberg in his novel, The Gate of Worlds (TOR, 1984). The idea remains intriguing: the Black Plague decimates the European population to a degree that proves irrecoverable and the ensuing cultural, inventive, and technological vacuum is filled by the civilizations of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Silverberg and John Brunner contribute taut and tantalizing glimpses into the might-have-beens of Timbuctoo politics and would-be Eastern European assassins. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's contribution, set in the courts of the Incas, unfortunately bogs down in its strain to demonstrate just how exotic this setting is. Despite this reservation, the book is likely to be popular with fans of alternate-world dramas and of these well-known authors. In addition, it might prove a stimulating enrichment for world-history classes. -Cathy Chauvette, Fairfax County Pub. Lib., VA

The Iron Ship

The Gates of the World: Book 1

K. M. McKinley

Merchant, industrialist and explorer Trassan Kressind has an audacious plan - combining the might of magic and iron in the heart of a great ship to navigate an uncrossed ocean, seeking the city of the extinct Morfaan to uncover the secrets of their lost sciences.

Ambition runs strongly in the Kressind family, and for each of Trassan's siblings fate beckons. Soldier Rel is banished to a vital frontier, bureaucrat Garten balances responsibility with family loyalty, sister Katriona is determined to carve herself a place in a world of men, outcast Guis struggles to contain the energies of his soul, while priest Aarin dabbles in forbidden sorcery. The world is in turmoil as new money brings new power, and the old social order crumbles. And as mankind's arts grow stronger, a terror from the ancient past awakens...

This highly original fantasy depicts a unique world, where tired gods walk industrial streets and the tide's rise and fall is extreme enough to swamp continents. Magic collides with science to create a rich backdrop for intrigue and adventure in the opening book of this epic saga.

The City of Ice

The Gates of the World: Book 2

K. M. McKinley

Deep in the polar south stands a city like no other, a city built aeons ago by a civilisation mighty and wise. Locked in a race with a rival engineer, Trassan Kressind's great iron ship crosses uncharted seas. The City of Ice promises the secrets of the ancients to whomever can reach it first. It may prove too little knowledge too late, for the closest approach of the Twin in 4000 years draws near, an event that has heralded terrible destruction in past ages.

As the Kressind siblings pursue their fortunes, the world stands upon the dawn of a new era, but may yet be consumed by a darkness from the past.

Industry and magic, gods and steam-power collide in the epic sequel to The Iron Ship.

The Brass God

The Gates of the World: Book 3

K. M. McKinley

War is coming to Ruthnia. As ancient, inhuman powers move against one another, Rel Kressind finds himself in the company of the fabled modalmen - giants who regard themselves as the true keepers of humanity's legacy. Far out in the blasted, magical wastelands of the Black Sands where no man of the Hundred has ever set foot before, Rel comes face to face with the modalman's deity, the Brass God. What Rel learns in the Brass God's broken halls will shake his understanding of reality forever.

Magic and technology combine in an epic fantasy like no other, where lost science, giant tides and jealous gods shape the fate of two worlds, and the actions of six siblings may save a universe, or damn it.

Winterbirth

The Godless World: Book 1

Brian Ruckley

An uneasy truce exists between the thanes of the True Bloods.

Now, as another winter approaches, the armies of the Black Road march south, from their exile beyond the Vale of Stones. For some, war will bring a swift and violent death. Others will not hear the clash of swords or see the corpses strewn over the fields. They instead will see an opportunity to advance their own ambitions. But all, soon, will fall under the shadow that is descending.

For, while the storm of battle rages, one man is following a path that will awaken a terrible power in him -- and his legacy will be written in blood.

Bloodheir

The Godless World: Book 2

Brian Ruckley

The world has fallen from its former state. The war between the clans of the Black Road and the True Bloods has spread.

For Orisian, thane of the ruined Lannis Blood, there is no time to grieve the loss of his family, brutally slain by the invading armies. The Black Road must be stopped. However, as more blood is spilled on the battlefields, so each side in the conflict becomes more riven by internal dissent and disunity.

Amidst the mounting chaos, Aeglyss the na'kyrim uses his new-found powers to twist everything and everyone around him to serve his own mad desires.

Meanwhile, the long-dormant Anain are stirring - and when the most potent race the world has ever known returns, the bloodletting may never stop.

BLOODHEIR is the stunning sequel to Winterbirth, one of the most acclaimed epic fantasy debuts of recent years.

Fall of Thanes

The Godless World: Book 3

Brian Ruckley

The True Bloods are in disarray, their alliance crumbling and their armies humbled by the forces of the Black Road. Aeglyss, falling ever deeper into madness, casts a shadow across all. At the court of the High Thane, Anyara faces a savage struggle for survival against the na'kyrim's possessed agent: Mordyn Jerain, the Shadowhand.

In the GlasValley, Kanin, the embittered Horin-Gyre Thane, plots a desperate rising against the halfbreed. But ultimately it will be Orisian, Thane of a Blood that no longer exists, who must stand face to face with a darkly transcendent Aeglyss and make the sacrifice - of himself and others - required to end the threat he represents.

FALL OF THANES is the spectacular conclusion to the Godless World trilogy, a sweeping epic of war, politics and empire.

The Buried World

The Grave Kingdom: Book 2

Jeff Wheeler

The young warrior Bingmei pits her courage, combat skills, and very life against a brutal tyrant's dark magic...

The orphaned Bingmei didn't choose to be a hero. She has no wish to cross the Death Wall to save the world. But she has awakened Echion, emperor of the Grave Kingdom and Dragon of Night, and it is her destiny to defy him. From his imperial city of ancient sorcery and immortal darkness, Echion conspires to fulfill his own destiny: vanquish Bingmei, revive his queen, and rule together for another eon unchallenged.

Traversing a labyrinth of caves and mountains, Bingmei and her band of allies prepare their defense against a fateful war they cannot win. But when they are overcome by Echion's terrible power, Bingmei is left vulnerable to a ruthless assassin... one with orders to capture, not kill.

Before he destroys her, Echion craves something more than Bingmei's soul. Only she has the power to resurrect Echion's ancient queen, Xisi, whose evil is matched only by his own. Once reunited, their dark shadow will fall like a shroud over the realms. To be a savior, Bingmei must first survive what she has unleashed, and to survive she must begin to understand the seeds of power she's never learned to control.

Farlander

The Heart of the World: Book 1

Col Buchanan

The Heart of the World is a land in strife. For fifty years the Holy Empire of Mann, an empire and religion born from a nihilistic urban cult, has been conquering nation after nation. Their leader, Holy Matriarch Sasheen, ruthlessly maintains control through her Diplomats, priests trained as subtle predators.

Ash is a member of an elite group of assassins, the Roshun, who offer protection through the threat of vendetta. Forced by his ailing health to take on an apprentice, he chooses Nico, a young man living in the besieged city of Bar-Khos. At the time, Nico is hungry, desperate, and alone in a city that finds itself teetering on the brink.

When the Holy Matriarch's son deliberately murders a woman under the protection of the Roshun; he forces the sect to seek his life in retribution. As Ash and his young apprentice set out to fulfill the Roshun orders, their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports... into bloodshed and death.

Stands a Shadow

The Heart of the World: Book 2

Col Buchanan

Still grieving the death of her son, the Holy Matriarch of Mann has ordered her troops to embark on a mission to the Mercian Free Ports. Riding at the head of her army she plans to finally conquer the city of Bar-Khos, whose walls have kept them at bay for ten long years.

Ash has other plans for her. The old Roshun warrior is determined that he will have vengeance for the crimes she has committed. But such a course of retribution is in direct opposition to everything he has lived for – this isn't a Roshun vendetta – it's personal.

While Ash battles with his conscience, Ché, the Matriarch's personal Diplomat and assassin, is questioning his own path. Watching as the Mannian army slaughters their way across the world, he wonders whether he believes any of the doctrine he has been taught to follow.

As the battle for Bar-Khos intensifies, more and more lives are affected: Bahn who leaves all he loves in the city to try to protect it from the ravening Mannian empire, Bull the murderer who senses a chance to make things right, and Curl, the young prostitute who is determined to seek her own retribution on the field of battle.

When the two armies clash – all looks set to be decided. But it's not sheer force that will win this battle. But the tormented determination of one man seeking redemption...

Quest of the Three Worlds

The Instrumentality of Mankind: Casher O'Neill

Cordwainer Smith

Four novellas with the same main character Caher O'Neill.

Contains:

On the Gem Planet
On the Storm Planet
On the Sand Planet
Three to a Given Star

The Naked World

The Jubilee Cycle: Book 2

Eli K. P. William

In a world stripped bare of digital images and promotainment, unveiled with the audiovisual overlay of the ImmaNet, in an exposed world, a naked world, Amon Kenzaki awakens, lost and alone. He must now travel deep into the District of Dreams in search of Rashana Birla, the one person that might help him unravel the mystery of jubilee. But deprived of the apps and informational tools he's depended on his entire life, traversing the largest bankdeath camp on Earth is no easy task.

Inside an ephemeral labyrinth of slowly-dissolving disposable skyscrapers clogged to the limit with the bankdead masses, Amon soon finds himself face to face with two dangerous groups: a cult called the Opportunity Scientists, who preach bizarre superstitions about economic salvation, and a supposedly humanitarian organization called the Philanthropy Syndicate, whose mandate of serving the poor conceals rapacious motives.

Amon takes refuge in Xenocyst, a community that genuinely strives to improve conditions in the camps, where he begins to work towards its cause and reconciles himself to his newfound poverty. But when political forces threaten the community's existence and the lives of its members, he is forced to team up with a vending-machine designer, an Olympic runner, a fertility researcher, a corporate tycoon, and many others to expose the heinous secret festering at the heart of the action-transaction market he once served.

The Last World War

The Last World War: Book 1

Dayton Ward

It started small, with an unprepared band of Marine reservists encountering deadly extraterrestrial visitors in the backwoods of Missouri. But this fatal First Contact rapidly escalates into a global crisis as mankind discovers that two warring species of aliens have invaded our world through a network of hidden interdimensional portals. The apocalyptic conflict between the hastily labeled "Blues" and "Grays" has already devastated their home planet. Now Earth has become the final battleground in a cataclysmic war whose origins are barely understood.

Forced into a hasty alliance with the alien Blues, humanity has no choice but to brave the awesome Gray onslaught in every corner of the Earth. From the mean streets of Atlanta to the mountains of Afghanistan, from Washington, D.C., to the alien's war-torn homeworld, all of humanity must unite to survive.

Counterstrike: The Last World War

The Last World War: Book 2

Dayton Ward

COUNTERSTRIKE

When the alien war engulfing a distant planet spilled to Earth through a network of hidden portals, humankind was plunged into an apocalyptic, generations-old conflict between the Plysserians and the Chodrecai. Now, months after Earth's most powerful military forces formed a tenuous alliance with the Plysserians and countered a devastating, three-pronged Chodrecai offensive, alien survivors continue to wreak havoc on a shell-shocked Earth. Martial law and civil unrest run rampant. Resistance cells and pockets of Chodrecai sympathizers are gathering strength. And two U.S. Marines--Sergeant Major Simon DiCarlo and Sergeant Belinda Russell--remain trapped on the alien planet of Jontashreena.

Now, as human and Plysserian scientists and engineers race to unlock the intergalactic portals and harvest alien technology, Earth prepares for the most explosive battle for its existence. Joining the war effort are recruits like young Colin Laney, who will advance from Marine boot camp to the forefront of a massive invasion on alien terrain--with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance.

The Book That Broke the World

The Library: Book 2

Mark Lawrence

The Library spans worlds and times. It touches and joins distant places. It is memory and future. And amid its vastness Evar Eventari both found, and lost, Livira Page.

Evar has been forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover the book she wrote--one which is the only true threat to the library's existence--if she's to return to her life.

While Evar's journey leads him outside into a world he's never seen, Livira's path will taker her deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The World Raven

The Long War: Book 4

A. J. Smith

All that was dead will rise. All that now lives will fall. The final, epic battle for the Lands of Ro.

The dead god is waking. His power-mad priestess has deployed a mass of men and beasts onto the plains of Ro Weir. Faced with this black swarm, the last remnants of a nation crumbles and falls. This is the final battle for the mortal lands of Ro.

Far to the north, the ice men of Rowanoco muster their Exemplars against the witch's assassins. In the blistering southern deserts, a squire with no master walks unscathed through a poisoned city. And, in the halls beyond the world, a thrice-born man dares to tread the path of Giants...

The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1960s

The Mammoth Book of SF by Decade: Book 4

Isaac Asimov
Martin H. Greenberg
Charles G. Waugh

Contents:

1 - The Eve of RUMOKO - [Nemo] - (1969) - novella by Roger Zelazny
51 - The Night of the Trolls - [Bolo] - (1963) - novella by Keith Laumer
97 - Mercenary - [Joe Mauser] - (1962) - novella by Mack Reynolds
148 - Soldier, Ask Not - [Childe Cycle] - (1964) - novella by Gordon R. Dickson
201 - Weyr Search - [Dragonriders of Pern short fiction] - (1967) - novella by Anne McCaffrey
251 - Code Three - [Code Three] - (1963) - novella by Rick Raphael
301 - How It Was When the Past Went Away - (1969) - novella by Robert Silverberg
356 - The Highest Treason - (1961) - novella by Randall Garrett
409 - Hawk Among the Sparrows - (1968) - novella by Dean McLaughlin
454 - The Suicide Express - [Riverworld] - (1966) - novella by Philip José Farmer

The City Outside the World

The Man Who Loved Mars: Book 3

Mars: the skull of a planet picked clean by the wind of time.

North. Beyond the desert of Meroe, past the ancient cliffs of the dust-locked continents, past the dry wharts of a city that was old when Earth was new, the caravan crept into the unmapped wastland called Umbra. It was into this shadowed land that the lost nation of the People had ridden - and vanished - in a tme beyond memory. And it was here that the outworlder Ryker followed the golden-eyes of Valarda and found the Child-of-Stars.

Originally published in 1977, Lin Carter's sword-and-planet fantasy of Mars is grand adventure in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The House Between Worlds

The Milesian Accords: Book 4

Jon R. Osborne

The Milesian Accords have fallen, but their shadow remains.

As magic returns to the mundane world, so do supernatural creatures. A federal agent seeking answers, a spurned Nephilim searching for his fae-blood wife, and a primeval goddess hungering for power all seek Liam Knox, the First Druid of the Accords.

New allies and old foes appear as paths converge on a nexus between realities. No longer a simple farmhouse, the druid's home has become a pathway between worlds and a locus of power.

Can Liam protect his family? Can he shield those who have no other place to go? And can he keep magic from destroying this world?

Voyage of the Shadowmoon

The Moonworlds Saga: Book 1

Sean McMullen, one of Australia's leading genre writers, took America by storm with his sweeping Greatwinter Trilogy, a post-apocalyptic science fiction tour de force that won over critics and readers alike.

Now McMullen delivers Voyage of the Shadowmoon, a fantasy epic of daunting skill and scope. The Shadowmoon is a small, unobtrusive wooden schooner whose passengers and crew are much more than they seem: Ferran, the Shadowmoon's lusty captain who dreams of power; Roval, the warrior-sorcerer; Velander and Terikel, priestesses of a nearly extinct sect; and the chivalrous vampire Laron, who has been trapped in a fourteen-year-old body for seven hundred years.

They sail the coast, gathering useful information, passing as simple traders. But when they witness the awful power of Silverdeath, an uncontrollable doomsday weapon of awesome destructiveness, they realize they must act. But every single king, emperor, and despot covets Silverdeath's power. It will take all of their wits and more than a little luck if they hope to prevent one of these power-hungry fools from destroying the world. Their only advantage? The Shadowmoon.

While it seems to be little more that a small trading vessel--too small for battle, too fat for speed--it is actually one of the most sophisticated vessels in the world, one that allows them to travel to places where no others would dare. They can only hope it will be enough to save them all before Silverdeath rains destruction across their entire world.

Glass Dragons

The Moonworlds Saga: Book 2

Sean McMullen, one of Australia's leading genre authors, delivers Glass Dragons, the scintillating sequel to Voyage of the Shadowmoon which Kirkus Reviews called "a brilliantly inventive, marvelously plotted sea-faring fantasy that both mocks and surpasses genre expectations.... Australian author McMullen writes like Roger Zelazny at the peak of his powers: his dashing, flamboyant, cleverly resourceful characters trade off insults and reveal surprising abilities as they swagger bravely from one hair-raising scene to another. Exciting, suspenseful, vividly believable, and great, clever fun: a major fantasy-award contender."

Glass Dragons continues the tale of Laron, the chivalrous 700-year-old vampire, the appallingly dangerous and beautiful Velander, and the long-suffering Terikel, as they investigate a secret project of arcane magic, a magic so dangerous it could destroy their world. A project which threatens to fall into the wrong hands.

Glass Dragons is a broad and complicated tale, filled with wonderful characters both new and old, woven through with low humor and great courage, built upon grand acts of heroism and love. Enjoy.

Voidfarer

The Moonworlds Saga: Book 3

At first Wayfarer Inspector Danolarian thought the huge oval thing that had fallen from the sky was a dragon's egg. When it opened, however, he knew that it was much, much worse. His world was being invaded by pitiless sorcerers from Lupan, who could sweep whole armies aside, and even defeat the invulnerable glass dragons. Surrender or flight were the only options... but not for Inspector Danolarian, his Wayfarer Constables, and his sweetheart, the sorceress Lavenci.

Although Danolarian is no sorcerer, he's no ordinary Wayfarer either. Faced with civilization crumbling around him, and organized resistance shattered by the invincible magic of the Lupanians, he chances upon an unlikely ally and begins to fight back. It won't be easy, for he has to rally the demoralized sorcerers of Alberin, organize its terrified citizens, stay one step ahead of his own past, and, most importantly, survive a dinner party with Lavenci's mother.

The Time Engine

The Moonworlds Saga: Book 4

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Vol. 1: Holy Maiden Summoning Improvement Plan

Swords, sorcery, and time travel are a strange and dangerous mix.

Wayfarer Inspector Danolarian saw his world's future and did not approve. The inspector knew about time travel because he had once met his future self. What he did not know was that he would be abducted into the future, and wind up on the run with a constable who had shape-shifted into a cat. Danolarian would also find himself marooned in the ancient past, where he would have to recover his time engine from five thousand naked, psychopathic horsemen.

A faulty repair plunges him another three million years back in time, to a world of strange, beautiful people living idyllic lives in splendid castles. But things are not always as they seem. After being attacked, he learns from his unlikely rescuer that time travel is not entirely real. A furious Danolarian returns to his own time, planning revenge against the time engine's true builders.

The Never Tilting World

The Never Tilting World: Book 1

Rin Chupeco

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon?until one sister's betrayal split their world in two. A Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in eternal night, the other scorched beneath an ever-burning sun.

While one sister rules the frozen fortress of Aranth, her twin rules the sand-locked Golden City?each with a daughter by their side. Now those young goddesses must set out on separate, equally dangerous journeys in hopes of healing their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

The Ever Cruel Kingdom

The Never Tilting World: Book 2

Rin Chupeco

After a treacherous journey and a life-shattering introduction to a twin neither knew she had, sisters Haidee and Odessa expected to emerge from the Great Abyss to a world set right. But though the planet is turning once again, the creatures of the abyss refuse to rest without another goddess's sacrifice.

To break the cycle, Haidee and Odessa need answers that lie beyond the seven gates of the underworld, within the Cruel Kingdom itself. The shadows of the underworld may hunger to tear them apart, but these two sisters are determined to heal their world--together.

The Atlantis World

The Origin Mystery: Book 3

A. G. Riddle

A global cataclysm beyond imagination... a mysterious signal from space... and one last hope to save the human race: The Atlantis World.

As the clock ticks down to humanity's extinction, a team of scientists will risk it all to unravel the secrets of the past.

Northern Morocco: Dr. Kate Warner cured a global pandemic, and she thought she could cure herself. She was wrong. And she was wrong about the scope of the Atlantis conspiracy. Humanity faces a new threat, an enemy beyond imagination. With her own time running out and the utter collapse of human civilization looming, a new hope arrives: a coded message from a potential ally.

Arecibo Observatory: Mary Caldwell has spent her life waiting, watching the stars, looking for signs of intelligent life beyond our world. When that day comes, Mary finds herself in the middle of a struggle older than the human race, with far greater stakes. She must decide who to trust, because there's nowhere to hide.

Antarctica: In the wake of the Atlantis Plague, Dorian Sloane finds himself a puppet to Ares' mysterious agenda. As Dorian prepares to take control of the situation, Ares unleashes a cataclysm that changes everything. As the catastrophe circles the globe, Ares reveals the true nature of the threat to humanity, and Dorian agrees to one last mission: find and kill David Vale and Kate Warner. There will be no prisoners this time. The orders are seek and destroy, and Dorian has been promised that his own answers and salvation lie on the other side.

With Dorian in pursuit, Kate, David, and their team race through the ruins of the Atlantean ship left on Earth, across Atlantean science stations throughout the galaxy, and into the past of a mysterious culture whose secrets could save humanity in its darkest hour. With their own lives on the line and time slipping away, Kate, David and Dorian are put to the ultimate test.

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter: Book 1

Yutsuki Wakatsu

A HANDSOME COMMANDER IS THE CURE!

One day, twenty-nine-year-old accountant Seiichirou Kondou is accidentally transported to another world. As compensation, the Romany Kingdom promises to take care of all his living expenses, but the workaholic Seiichirou still asks for a job. Once he's placed in the Royal Accounting Department, he starts whipping his lackadaisical colleagues into shape. But when he gets in over his head and nearly dies from overwork, the handsome Commander Aresh steps in to save him, and the two develop a unique physical relationship... as a form of medical treatment?!

The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon, Vol. 1

The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon: Book 1

Hinagi Asami

Ready for Anything--Except This

Strapped for cash, Souya signs up for a shady gig straight out of a video game: warp to a fantasy world with a team of experts and ascend a dungeon tower to make off with its spoils. However, an accident in the transfer process leaves him stranded there alone. Desperate for support, he recruits a host of adventurers--from elven sisters banished from their forest, to a Goddess of Deception and Secrecy partial to lazing about as a cat--to form a party that can brave the tower's perils. Caught between corrupt nobles and merchants outside the dungeon and deadly monsters within, can this motley band rise to the challenge? Or will Souya's adventure end before it even begins?

The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon, Vol. 2: Wild Hunt

The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon: Book 2

Hinagi Asami

A curse passed down in blood...

Continuing their quest to reach the 56th floor of the Tower of Legions, Souya and his party decide to take on a dangerous new monster, the Dragonoise Mydranga, in a bid for glory. Little do they know, however, that this decision portends a series of devastating tragedies... As the band charts the 13th floor of the dungeon, the horrific truth behind the homeland of one of Souya's companions comes to light. Is this where the adventures of Souya, Lana, a, Bel, Shuna, Zenobia, and Arvin fall to pieces?

The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon, Vol. 3: Rhora the Deranged

The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon: Book 3

Hinagi Asami

Though the loss of Arvin and Zenobia still weighs heavy on their hearts, Souya and his remaining party members steel themselves to take on the dungeon once again. This time, they're up against their greatest trial yet: The Deranged Stratum, a perilous section of the labyrinth where a malevolent being has been abducting countless victims. And it looks like Lana is its next target...

This Alien Shore

The Outworlds: Book 1

C. S. Friedman

It is the second stage of human colon-ization--the first age, humanity's initial attempt to people the stars, ended in disaster when it was discovered that Earth's original superluminal drive did permanent genetic damage to all who used it--mutating Earth's far-flung colonists in mind and body. Now, one of Earth's first colonies has given humanity back the stars, but at a high price--a monopoly over all human commerce. And when a satellite in earth's outer orbit is viciously attacked by corporate raiders, an unusual young woman flees to a ship bound for the Up-and-Out. But her narrow escape does not mean safety. For speeding across the galaxy pursued by ruthless, but unknown adversaries, this young woman will discover a secret which is buried deep inside her psyche--a revelation the universe may not be ready to face....

This Virtual Night

The Outworlds: Book 2

C. S. Friedman

When deep-space travel altered the genes of the first interstellar colonists, Earth abandoned them. But some of the colonies survived, and a new civilization of mental and physical "Variants" has been established, centered around clusters of space stations known as the outworlds.

Now the unthinkable has happened: a suicide assault has destroyed the life support system of a major waystation. All that is known about the young men responsible is that in their last living moments they were receiving messages from an uninhabited sector of space, and were playing a virtual reality game.

Two unlikely allies have joined forces to investigate the incident: Ru Gaya, a mercenary explorer with a taste for high risk ventures, and game designer Micah Bello, who must find the parties responsible for the attack in order to clear his name. From the corridors of a derelict station lost to madness to an outlaw stronghold in the depths of uncharted space, the two now follow the trail of an enemy who can twist human minds to his purpose, and whose plans could bring about the collapse of outworld civilization.

The Woman Who Shook the World-Tree

The Palencar Project: Book 4

Michael Swanwick

One of five stories inspired by the same painting by John Jude Palencar. Anthologized in The Palencar Project and later in The Year's Best SF 18. It is included in the collection 'Not So Much' Said the Cat (2016).

Read this story online for free at Tor.com.

He Who Drowned the World

The Radiant Emperor: Book 2

Shelley Parker-Chan

How much would you give to win the world?

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.

But Zhu isn't the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband?and she's strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father's killer, the Great Khan.

Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history?and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.

All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear...

Perseus Spur

The Rampart Worlds: Book 1

Julian May

From Julian May, the acclaimed author who created the incredible worlds of The Many-Colored Land and The Golden Torc, comes a bold new science fiction adventure!

When rebellious Asahel Frost was expelled from the Interstellar Commerce Secretariat on trumped-up charges, he lost it all: wife, citizenship, fortune, self-respect. Exiled to a beautiful but remote planet in the Perseus Spur, Frost became Helmut Icicle, a man without a past or a future. But someone remembered Asahel Frost--remembered him enough to send an assassin to kill him. And in so doing, brought him back to life.

Now, determined to track down the would-be assassin, Helmut finds himself caught in a conspiracy as convoluted as it is deadly. His sister, Eve, has mysteriously vanished. His estranged father wants him to find her with the assistance of the lovely Matilde Gregoire, who happens to hate his guts. As Helmut follows the tangled strands of deceit, greed, and violence back to their common source, he begins to wonder if he is the hunter or the hunted...

Orion Arm

The Rampart Worlds: Book 2

Julian May

After a brief (but heroic) fling with all that is right and just, Asahel Frost has reverted to his true nature--undisciplined and feckless, according to the girlfriend who just dumped him. Now he is once again the legal nonentity known as Helmut Icicle, living the riverboat skipper life in a tiny galactic outpost with the rest of the ne'er-do-wells.

That is until his sister Eve, herself genetically altered by the alien Haluk, begs Helmut to expose the Haluk's conspiracy, which threatens humans throughout the Spur worlds. Genetic alteration is tightly controlled, yet now it's running rampant. Helmut must find the culprits, but time is running out. Too many people have vanished into the secret empire where an evil genius reigns supreme. Worse yet, there's an unknown traitor in Helmut's own family who is quite willing to murder. Only one thing's clear: Helmut will emerge either triumphant... or dead.

Sagittarius Whorl

The Rampart Worlds: Book 3

Julian May

Two centuries into the future, the Hundred Concerns, a group of powerful corporations that dominate galactic commerce, have pressured the Commonwealth of Humans into signing a pact with the Haluk, a conquering alien race with nefarious designs. Among the few people who recognize the malevolent intent of the aliens is hotheaded maverick Helly Frost.

To prove that the Haluk have created demiclones--genetically engineered individuals who are perfect human replicas--Helly travels to the Sagittarius Whorl, a fearsome region of the galaxy hostile to every form of life. But he must find crucial pieces of evidence that will expose the Haluk plot. Instead, he discovers something far darker than he had ever imagined....

Day of the Great Shout

The Riverworld Saga

Hugo Award nominated story. It originally appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow, January 1965. The stoyr was later incorporated in the fixup novel To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971).

Tales of Riverworld

The Riverworld Saga

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

In a collection of new Riverworld stories, all the world's dead awaken in Riverworld and play out the grand saga of human history by a new set of rules along the banks of the ten-million-mile river.

Table of Contents:

Foreword - (1992) - essay by Philip José Farmer
Crossing the Dark River - (1992) - novella by Philip José Farmer
Author's Note - (1992) - essay by Philip José Farmer
A Hole in Hell - (1992) - short story by Dane Helstrom
Graceland - (1992) - novelette by Allen Steele
Every Man a God - (1992) - novelette by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg
Blandings on Riverworld - (1992) - novelette by Phillip C. Jennings
Two Thieves - (1992) - novelette by Harry Turtledove
Fool's Paradise - (1992) - novelette by Ed Gorman
The Merry Men of Riverworld - (1992) - novelette by John Gregory Betancourt
Unfinished Business - (1992) - novelette by Robert Weinberg

The Riverworld Saga: Book 1

All those who ever lived on Earth have found themselves resurrected--healthy, young, and naked as newborns--on the grassy banks of a mighty river, in a world unknown. Miraculously provided with food, but with no clues to the meaning of their strange new afterlife, billions of people from every period of Earth's history--and prehistory--must start again.

Sir Francis Bacon would be the first to glimpse the incredible way-station, a link between worlds. This forbidden sight would spur the renowned 19th-century explorer to uncover the truth. Along with a remarkable group of compatriots, including Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the Victorian girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland), an English-speaking Neanderthal, a WWII Holocaust survivor, and a wise extraterrestrial, Burton sets sail on the magnificent river. His mission: to confront humankind's mysterious benefactors, and learn the true purpose--innocent or evil--of the Riverworld...

The Fabulous Riverboat

The Riverworld Saga: Book 2

Resurrected on the lush, mysterious banks of Riverworld, along with the rest of humanity, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) has a dream: to build a riverboat that will rival the most magnificent paddle-wheelers ever navigated on the mighty Mississippi. Then, to steer it up the endless waterway that dominates his new home planet--and at last discover its hidden source.

But before he can carry out his plan, he first must undertake a dangerous voyage to unearth a fallen meteor. This mission would require striking an uneasy alliance with the bloodthirsty Viking Erik Bloodaxe, treacherous King John of England, legendary French swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac, Greek adventurer Odysseus, and the infamous Nazi Hermann Göring. All for the purpose of storming the ominous stone tower at the mouth of the river, where the all-powerful overseers of Riverworld--and their secrets--lie in wait...

The Dark Design

The Riverworld Saga: Book 3

Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought--all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation... at any cost.

Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea--and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final...

The Magic Labyrinth

The Riverworld Saga: Book 4

The answers behind the enigmatic origins of Riverworld lie at last within reach, as the remarkable gathering of Earthlings--including Sir Richard Francis Burton, Samuel Clemens, Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the real-life Alice in Wonderland), Cyrano de Bergerac, Ulysses S. Grant, and Baron Von Richtoven--finally breaches the stronghold of Riverworld's extraordinary super-race.

But answers would lead to more enigmatic questions...

Who is the Mysterious Stranger who taunted the Riverworld resurrectees with hints of the truth? What is the key to the gargantuan computer that wields the power of life and death? The astonishing secrets lie within the Dark Tower--but only for those brave enough to seek them and wise enough to decipher them...

The Gods of Riverworld

The Riverworld Saga: Book 5

The Worst of All Possible Worlds

Thirty-five billion people from throughout Earth's history were resurrected along the great and winding waterways of Riverworld. Most began life anew--accepting without question the sustenance provided by their mysterious benefactors. But a rebellious handful burned to confront the unseen masters who controlled their fate--and these few launched an invasion that would ultimately yield the mind-boggling truth.

Now Riverworld's omnipotent leaders have been confronted, and the renegades of Riverworld--led by the intrepid Sir Richard Francis Burton--control the fantastic mechanism that once ruled them. But the most awesome challenge lies ahead. For in the vast corridors and secret rooms of the tower stronghold, an unknown enemy watches and waits to usurp the usurpers...

The Ashes of Worlds

The Saga of Seven Suns: Book 7

Kevin J. Anderson

Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against each other. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making. Acclaim for The Saga of Seven Suns'Anderson weaves action, romance, and science with a rousing plot reflecting the classic SF of Clarke and Herbert and the glossy cinematic influence of Lucas and Spielberg.' --- Publishers Weekly *Starred Review* 'Kevin Anderson has created a fully independent and richly conceived venue for his personal brand of space opera, a venue that nonetheless raises fruitful resonances with Frank Herbert's classic Dune series.' --- Scifi.com'Everything about Anderson's latest is BIG-the war, the history, the aliens. These are elemental forces battling here, folks. Yet the characters are always the heart of the story, and their defeats and triumphs give perspective to it all.' --- Starlog 'A soaring epic . . . a space opera to rival the best the field has ever seen.' --- Science Fiction Chronicle'Colorful stuff . . . bursting with incidents, concepts, and a massive cast of characters, matching well-thought-out SF ideas with melodrama and interfamily strife.' --- SFX

The Salvagers: Book 3

Alex White

The crew of the Capricious seems to leave a trail of devastation wherever they go. But with powerful enemies in pursuit and family and friends under attack planetside, there's no time to worry about all that. Ensnared by the legend of Origin, humanity's birthplace, and a long-dead form of magic, the Capricious takes off on a journey to find the first colony ship... and magic that could bring down gods.

The Sandman: Worlds' End

The Sandman: Book 8

Neil Gaiman

When Brant and Charlene wreck their car in a horrible snowstorm in the middle of nowhere, the only place they can find shelter is a mysterious little inn called World's End. Here they wait out the storm and listen to stories from the many travelers also stuck at this tavern. These tales exemplify Neil Gaiman's gift for storytelling--and his love for the very telling of them. This volume has almost nothing to do with the larger story of the Sandman, except for a brief foreshadowing nod. It's a nice companion to the best Sandman short story collection, Dream Country, (and it's much better than the hodgepodge Fables and Reflections). World's End works best as a collection--it's a story about a story about stories--all wrapped up in a structure that's clever without being cute, and which features an ending nothing short of spectacular.

Trail of Lightning

The Sixth World: Book 1

Rebecca Roanhorse

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last--and best--hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past--if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

Storm of Locusts

The Sixth World: Book 2

Rebecca Roanhorse

Kai and Caleb Goodacre have been kidnapped just as rumors of a cult sweeping across the reservation leads Maggie and Hastiin to investigate an outpost, and what they find there will challenge everything they've come to know in this action-packed sequel to Trail of Lightning.

It's been four weeks since the bloody showdown at Black Mesa, and Maggie Hoskie, Diné monster hunter, is trying to make the best of things. Only her latest bounty hunt has gone sideways, she's lost her only friend, Kai Arviso, and she's somehow found herself responsible for a girl with a strange clan power.

Then the Goodacre twins show up at Maggie's door with the news that Kai and the youngest Goodacre, Caleb, have fallen in with a mysterious cult, led by a figure out of Navajo legend called the White Locust. The Goodacres are convinced that Kai's a true believer, but Maggie suspects there's more to Kai's new faith than meets the eye. She vows to track down the White Locust, then rescue Kai and make things right between them.

Her search leads her beyond the Walls of Dinétah and straight into the horrors of the Big Water world outside. With the aid of a motley collection of allies, Maggie must battle body harvesters, newborn casino gods and, ultimately, the White Locust himself. But the cult leader is nothing like she suspected, and Kai might not need rescuing after all. When the full scope of the White Locust's plans are revealed, Maggie's burgeoning trust in her friends, and herself, will be pushed to the breaking point, and not everyone will survive.

The Demon World

The Smoke Thieves: Book 2

Sally Green

A princess. A soldier. A servant. A demon hunter. A thief. When we last saw them, this unlikely group was heading into the Northern Territory of the kingdom of Pitoria, on the run from the sadistic and power-hungry King Aloysius of Brigant. The Smoke Thieves have discovered that demon smoke is not only an illegal drug used for pleasure, but in fact, when taken by children, demon smoke briefly gives its users super-human strength. Aloysius' plan is simple and brutal: kill the demons for their smoke, and use that smoke to build an unstoppable army of children to take over Pitoria, Calidor, and then the rest of the world.

The Smoke Thieves are the only ones who understand this plan--but can they stop it? Catherine, Aloysius' daughter, is seen as a traitor from all sides; Tash is heartbroken after the loss of her one friend and sees nothing left for her in the human world; Edyon is wanted for murder; March is carrying the secret of his betrayal of his new love; Ambrose is out for revenge--and all the while, the demons have plans of their own...

Between Two Thorns

The Split Worlds: Book 1

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath's secret mirror city.

The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer.

There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs.

But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she's been born into?

Any Other Name

The Split Worlds: Book 2

Cat has been forced into an arranged marriage with William - a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family's intentions for them both.

Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate The Agency - a mysterious organisation that appears to play by its own rules - and none of them favourable to Society.

Over in Mundanus, Sam has discovered something very peculiar about his wife's employer - something that could herald a change for everyone in both sides of the Split Worlds.

All Is Fair

The Split Worlds: Book 3

In love and war nothing is safe. William Iris struggles to keep the throne of Londinium whilst hated by his own court and beset by outsiders, while Cathy discovers the legacy of her former governess. But those who dare to speak out about Society are always silenced. Sometimes for good. While trying to avoid further torments from the mercurial fae, Sam finds himself getting tangled in the affairs of the Elemental Court. But an unexpected offer from the powerful and enigmatic Lord Iron turns out to be far more than Sam bargained for.

Max and the gargoyle are getting closer to uncovering who is behind the murder of the Bath Chapter and the corruption in London and Max finds the gargoyle's controversial ideas harder to ignore. Can he stay true to his sworn duty without being destroyed by his own master, whose insanity threatens to unravel them all?

A Little Knowledge

The Split Worlds: Book 4

The long-awaited return to Emma Newman's popular fantasy series, A Little Knowledge takes us back to the Split Worlds, where dynastic families feud across the ages, furthering the agendas of their cruel supernatural patrons.

"Emma Newman is an extraordinary new voice in SF/F." ?Paul Cornell, Hugo Award winner, and author of London Falling and Saucer Country

Cathy and Will are now the Duchess and Duke of Londinium, the biggest Fae-touched Nether city, but they have different ideas of what their authority offers. Pressured by his Fae patron, Lord Iris, Will struggles to maintain total control whilst knowing he must have a child with his difficult wife. Cathy wants to muscle the Court through two hundred years of social change and free it from its old-fashioned moral strictures. But Cathy learns just how dangerous it can be for a woman who dares to speak out...

Meanwhile, as Sam learns more about the Elemental Court it becomes clear that the Fae are not the only threat to humanity. Sam realises that he has to make enemies of the most powerful people on the planet, or risk becoming the antithesis of all he believes in.

Threatened by secret societies, hidden power networks, and Fae machinations, can Sam and Cathy survive long enough to make the changes they want to see in the world?

All Good Things

The Split Worlds: Book 5

The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World

As the Iris family consolidates their hold on society within the secret world of the Nether, William Iris finds himself more powerful and yet more vulnerable than ever. His wife, Cathy, has left him, a fact that will destroy him if it becomes public. To keep his position -- and survive -- he needs to get her back, whatever the cost.

Cathy has finally escaped the Nether, but hates that she must rely so heavily on Sam's protection. When the strange sorceress Bea offers her a chance to earn true freedom by joining the quest Sam has been bound to, Cathy agrees. But can she and Sam navigate Bea's plans for the future without becoming two more of her victims?

And Bea, a self-taught and powerful killer, is not without her enemies. Rupert, the last sorcerer of Albion, is obsessed with finding and destroying her. He orders Max and his gargoyle to help him, pulling them away from protecting innocents. As the Arbiter and his partner face the ugly side of their responsibilities to Rupert, they begin to question where their loyalties should truly lie.

Amidst death, deceit, and the fight for freedom, friendships are tested, families are destroyed, and heroes are forged as the battle to control the Split Worlds rages to its climatic conclusion.

The Stainless Steel Rat: Book 3

Harry Harrison

The villainous He has travelled back in time to mankind's distant past on the legendary planet Earth (or 'Dirt') of 1984, where he is altering events so that people who opposed him in the Rat's present cease to exist, Angelina amongst them. Using the Helix, a time-travel device invented by the Special Corps' Professor Coypu, diGriz travels to 1984 America, and then to Napoleonic France where tanks and aircraft are helping bring about Napoleon's victory.

An Unkindness of Magicians

The Unseen World: Book 1

Kat Howard

There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city's magicians' power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard.

In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney--a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn't want to help the system, she wants to destroy it.

Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians.

A Sleight of Shadows

The Unseen World: Book 2

Kat Howard

After taking down the source of the corruption of the Unseen World, Sydney is left with almost no magical ability. Feeling estranged from herself, she is determined to find a way back to her status as one of the world's most dangerous magicians. Unfortunately, she needs to do this quickly: the House of Shadows, the hell on earth that shaped her into who she was, the place she sacrificed everything to destroy, is rebuilding itself.

"The House of shadows sits on bones. All of the sacrifices, all of the magicians who died in Shadows, they're buried beneath the foundations. Bones hold magic."

The magic of the Unseen World is acting strangely, faltering, bleeding out from the edges. Determined to keep the House of Shadows from returning to power and to defeat the magicians who want nothing more than to have it back, Sydney turns to extremes in a desperate attempt to regain her sacrificed magic. She is forced to decide what she will give up and what she will lose and whether what must be destroyed is not only the House of Shadows, but the Unseen World itself.

World Fantasy Award finalist Kat Howard has written a sequel that asks how you have a happily ever in a world that doesn't want it, where the cost of that happiness may be too much to bear.

The War Hound and the World's Pain

The Von Bek Trilogy: Book 1

Michael Moorcock

In this first volume in the saga of the Von Bek family, a knight is caught between his code of honor and his system of beliefs.

This Broken World

The Vortex of Worlds: Book 1

Charles E. Gannon

Since boyhood, Druadaen expected he'd ascend to the command of an elite legion and become the leader his father predicted he would be. However, fate had something different in store.

Assigned instead to a small group of outriders tasked with watching nearby kingdoms, Druadaen discovers that the world beyond his homeland is riddled with impossibilities. How do humanoid raiders, known as the Bent, suffer staggering losses and yet return as a vast horde every decade? How do multi-ton dragons fly? How have fossils formed in a world which sacrists insist has existed for only ten millennia?

Determined to solve these mysteries, Druadaen journeys into the dank warrens of the Bent, seeks out a dragon's lair, and ventures into long-buried ruins in search of ancient scrolls. But, whereas legends tell of heroes who encounter their greatest perils during just such forays into the unknown, Druadaen's most lethal enemies might lurk in even more unusual places:

The temples and council chambers of his own homeland.

Into the Vortex

The Vortex of Worlds: Book 2

Charles E. Gannon

Druadaen, Outrider for the once-mighty Dunarran Consentium, has proven that there are irreconcilable contradictions between magic and physics on Arrdanc, the world of his birth. And what is his reward for this important discovery, made against all odds and at considerable personal risk? Exile--organized and compelled by nervous temple hierarchs.

However, Druadaen remains determined to uncover what several ancient persons and beings have urged him to seek: "the truth of the world"--which might only be gained by traveling beyond it. Indeed, the mysterious Lady of the Mirror speculates that he might find the answers by journeying to the other side of her unusual looking glass: a reflective, ethereal portal that she calls a "shimmer."

But there's a catch: because the mysterious portal only allows a single person to pass through, Druadaen must leave his companions behind. Unfortunately, once he has, they discover that the "shimmer" only allows travelers to leave Arrdanc, not return to it. So his friends, led by stalwart swordsman Ahearn, resolve to find another means by which they can retrieve Druadaen--and with him, the truth of the world.

There's just one small problem with their quest: the closer they come to finding a solution, the more obvious it becomes that various powers on Arrdanc don't want them to succeed. In fact, they'd rather Druadaen doesn't return at all.

So much so that they might kill both him and his friends in order to prevent it.

The Assassin King

The War of the Known World: Book 1

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.

The Merchant Emperor

The War of the Known World: Book 2

The long awaited seventh book in Elizabeth Haydon's critically-acclaimed epic fantasy series, the Symphony of Ages.

The war that they had feared is now upon them. Ashe and Rhapsody, leaders of the Cymrian Alliance, are gathering their allies to combat the machinations of Talquist, who will soon be crowned emperor of Sorbold. Gwydion Navarne remains by Ashe's side. Anborn, Lord Marshal, has taken to the field. And Rhapsody has been forced into hiding to protect the life of her infant son.

The Merchant Emperor of Sorbold has unintentionally allied himself with a pair of demons and has begun targeting the dragons that remain on the Middle Continent. Talquist will stop at nothing until the Cymrians are wiped out and the entire continent and the rest of the Known World is under his rule.

Assailed by danger from all sides, surrounded by lies and intrigue, Rhapsody is left with one undeniable truth: if their forces are to prevail, she must join the war herself, wielding the Daystar Clarion, an ancient weapon whose power is nearly unparalleled. As she struggles to reconcile her duties as a mother and ruler, a danger far more devastating than Talquist is stirring beneath the surface of the land itself.

In The Merchant Emperor, beloved characters are forced to make soul shattering sacrifices. Bestselling author Elizabeth Haydon has delivered a breathtaking seventh installment to the Symphony of Ages.

The Hollow Queen

The War of the Known World: Book 3

Beset on all sides by the forces of the merchant emperor Talquist, the Cymrian Alliance finds itself in desperate straits. Rhapsody herself has joined the battle, wielding the Daystar Clarion, leaving her True Name in hiding with her infant son. Ashe tries to enlist the aid of the Sea Mages. Within their Citadel of Scholarship lies the White Ivory tower, a spire that could hold the key to unraveling the full extent of Talquist's machinations. Achmed journeys to the reportedly unassailable palace of Jierna Tal, to kill emperor Talquist--all the while knowing that even if he succeeds, it may not be enough to stop the momentum of the war.

As they struggle to untangle the web of Talquist's treachery, the leaders of the Cymrian alliance are met with obstacles at every turn. Rhapsody soon realizes that the end of this war will come at an unimaginable price: the lives of those she holds dearest.

The Weaver's Lament

The War of the Known World: Book 4

Acclaimed author Elizabeth Haydon returns with a heartbreaking tale of love and valor in The Weaver's Lament, the ninth and final installment of her USA Today bestselling Symphony of Ages series that began with Rhapsody.

For a thousand years, the lands ruled by the Cymrian Alliance have been at peace. When the brutal death of a dear friend catapults the kingdom to the brink of civil war, Rhapsody finds herself in an impossible situation: forced to choose between her beloved husband, Ashe, and her two oldest friends, Grunthor and Achmed. Choosing her husband will mean the death of thousands of innocents. Siding against him will cost Rhapsody the other half of her soul, both in this life and the next.

In The Weaver's Lament, the lines between the past and future are irrevocably blurred, and the strength of true love is tested in unthinkable ways. Bestselling author Elizabeth Haydon has delivered a spectacular conclusion to the Symphony of Ages.

Night of the Cooters

The War of the Worlds

Howard Waldrop

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Omni, April 1987 and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #92 May 2014. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988), edited by Gardner Dozois, Invaders! (1993) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois and War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (1996) edited by Kevin J. Anderson. It is included in the collections Night of the Cooters (1990) and Things Will Never Be the Same: Selected Short Fiction, 1980 - 2005 (2008).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Foreign Devils

The War of the Worlds

Walter Jon Williams

Sidewise Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January 1996. The story can also be found in the anthologies War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (1996), edited by Kevin J. Anderson, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Frankensteins and Foreign Devils (1998).

The World Before

The Wess'Har Series: Book 3

Karen Traviss

Three strikingly different alien races greeted the military mission from Earth when it reached the planet called Bezer'ej.

Now one of the sentient species has been exterminated -- and two others are poised on the brink of war.

The fragile bezeri are no more, due to the ignorant, desperate actions of human interlopers. The powerful wess'har protectors have failed in their sworn obligation to the destroyed native population -- and the outrage must be redressed.

But those who are coming to judge from the World Before -- the home planet, now distant and alien to the wess'har, whose ancestors left there generations ago -- will not restrict their justice to the individual humans responsible for the slaughter. Earth itself must answer for the genocide. And its ultimate fate may depend on a dead woman: former police officer Shan Frankland, who became something far greater than human before destroying herself in the vast airless depths of space.

The Eye of the World

The Wheel of Time: Book 1

Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

The Anvil of Ice

The Winter of the World: Book 1

The first volume of Michael Scott Rohan's acclaimed The Winter of the World sequence.

The chronicles of The Winter of the World echo down the ages in half-remembered myth and song - tales of mysterious powers of the Mastersmiths, of the forging of great weapons, of the subterranean kingdoms of the duergar, of Gods who walked abroad, and of the Powers that struggled endlessly for dominion.

In the Northlands, beleaguered by the ever-encroaching Ice and the marauding Ekwesh, a young cowherd, saved from the raiders by the mysterious Mastersmith, discovers in himself an uncanny power to shape metal - but it is a power that may easily be turned to evil ends, and on a dreadful night he flees his new home, and embarks on the quest to find both his own destiny, and a weapon that will let him stand against the Power of the Ice.

His wanderings will bring him great friends but earn him greater enemies, and eventually they will transform him from lowly cowherd to a mastersmith fit to stand with the greatest of all men.

The Forge in the Forest

The Winter of the World: Book 2

The siege of Kerbryhaine had been raised, the Ekwesh hordes vanquished, the Mastersmith slain. But for Alv - now Elof the Smith - the war was not yet won: Kerbryhaine was still a divided city; the Ekwesh, bloodily defeated, would look for revenge; and the Ice, implacably malevolent, continued its inexorable march southward.

So from divided Kerbryhaine Elof, Kermorvan and his companions mounted an expedition to the legendary lost cities of the East; if they managed to reunite the war-torn tribes, perhaps they could stand together against the menace of the Ice. But to Elof and Kermorvan the journey would also bring knowledge: of the Powers ranged for and against them; and the secrets within themselves waiting to be revealed - secrets that would play a part in the war yet to come.

The Hammer of the Sun

The Winter of the World: Book 3

In the great battle which had returned control of Morvannec, the legendary city, to mankind, Elof the Smith had saved Kara, his love, from the immortal Power which ruled her. But in the seven years since, the Smith has grown fearful that Kara, herself no mortal, will one day leave him. In his fear, Elof makes the mistake of drawing on his own uncanny powers to bind Kara closer to him; he only succeeds in driving her away.

Haunted, guilt-ridden, Elof can do nothing but follow his love eastwards, across the Seas of Sunrise, towards the city of Kerys in which Kermorvan of Kerbryhaine's people had originated. In the myth-filled lands of the East, where the Powers of the Ice contemplate the total extinction of life, Elof must face his past, his future and his destiny.

The Castle of the Winds

The Winter of the World: Book 4

Centuries before the building of the Great Causeway, when the enveloping Ice seems to be in retreat, the lands of the North and South are on uneasy terms. War appears to be inevitable. But there is still some trade between them, particularly for the peerless weapons created by the Northern mastersmiths.

In one small town, Kunrad, one young mastersmith, has carved out a reputation as a fine armourer. Helped by his two apprentices, the ox-like Olvar and the silver-tongued Gille, Kunrad has created the greatest suit of armour ever made: armour fit for a hero or a king.

When that armour is stolen by a powerful Southern lord, Kunrad has only one concern - to regain it. And so begins an epic journey of discovery, filled with danger, magic - and love.

The Singer and the Sea

The Winter of the World: Book 5

Gille Kilmarsson is a mastersmith and musician in a quiet northern town. But he yearns for something more. When he saves a Southern merchant ship from the savagery of the corsairs, he takes as his only reward an old musical instrument. And his life changes forever.

For the instrument has an ancient, magical past and it soon leads Gille and his companion, Olvar, on an amazing voyage of adventure and discovery. A voyage in which they must confront not only the mysteries of the sea but also a ruthless, barbaric tribe intent on massacring an ancient people fleeing the encroachment of the restless Ice.

Shadow of the Seer

The Winter of the World: Book 6

The Winter Chronicles record many tales of the folk who fled out of the west seeking refuge from the spreading dominion of the Ice. The savage, soulless warriors had destroyed the ancient civilisations, and all that survived was legend.

Among those legends is the extraordinary story of Alya, a seer's son. Still struggling to control the magic he has inherited from his father, Alya is cast adrift in a hostile land. With nothing left to lose, he embarks on a quest - to avenge the slaughter of his kin, and to rescue the girl he loves. It is a quest that will lead Alya through a world in turmoil -- a world of magic and ice.

The Skull of the World

The Witches of Eileanan: Book 5

Kate Forsyth

In the land of Eileanan, the Pact of Peace has not meant the end of unrest. And, though Isabeau would like to return home to help her family in these uncertain times, she must first venture to the Skull of the World where she will discover her true talents as a witch. And when she does return home, she does so transformed with the power.

Memory of Fire

The World Gates: Book 1

Holly Lisle

Lauren Dane discovers a doorway to another reality in Cat Creek, North Carolina -- and she crosses over, driven by a strange compulsion she can neither resist nor comprehend. Molly McColl is brought there against her will -- kidnapped from her trailer and carried into a realm that traps her, terrifies her... yet offers her a strange and wondrous escape.

In an extraordinary universe of magic and monsters, two strangers sharing only pain and loss must now pursue the destiny that has united them. Because worlds are suddenly threatened by an evil beyond imagining -- the world they have entered... and the one the have left behind.

The Wreck of Heaven

The World Gates: Book 2

Holly Lisle

There are doors into other worlds -- and those who cross over are changed forever...

Two women have discovered the way into a new reality -- one so close to Earth that events there have shattering repercussions here. On Oria -- a wondrous paradise and nightmare both -- Molly McColl has powers she never imagined... and a destiny that threatens her life, her love, and her soul. While Lauren Dane must use an extraordinary, newfound magic to protect her young son -- and to join with her sister on a quest that will shake the foundations of Heaven itself. For a serpentine evil now threatens the worldchain -- a soulless, immortal enemy who feeds on the death of worlds, and who is now turning its hungry, malevolent gaze on Oria... and Earth.

Gods Old and Dark

The World Gates: Book 3

Holly Lisle

The spellbinding conclusion to the magnificent epicof fantastic adventure and worlds within worlds.

Live magic has returned to the Earth -- as the demons of every universe gather to destroy it ...

The World Gates offer passage into countless realms, dimensions, and nightmares, changingforever those few with the courage to cross over.Lauren Dane and Molly McColl, two sisterstransformed, now hold the future of all living things in their hands -- for Lauren's mission to bringlife-giving magic back to Earth and other dying worlds has not gone unnoticed. And Molly's powerto protect her will not hold against the countless ancient evils that are closing in. For the maelstromis coming to drag down gods and humans alike.And darkness will surely prevail unless a last,desperate stand is made against the dreadedNight Watch, eater of worlds.

The World House

The World House: Book 1

Guy Adams

There is a box. Inside that box is a door. And beyond that door is a whole world.

In some rooms, forests grow. In others, animals and objects come to life. Elsewhere, secrets and treasures wait for the brave and foolhardy.

And at the very top of the house, a prisoner sits behind a locked door waiting for a key to turn. The day that happens, the world will end...

Restoration

The World House: Book 2

Guy Adams

NONE WHO ENTER THE WORLD HOUSE LEAVE IT UNCHANGED. In some rooms, forests grow; animals roam and objects come to life. Great secrets and treasures await the brave or foolhardy. And at the very top of the house, the prisoner it was all built to contain sat behind a locked door waiting for the key to turn.

The day that happened, the world ended.

A sequel to the stunning "The World House".

No Return

The World of Jeroun: Book 1

Zachary Jernigan

On Jeroun, there is no question as to whether God exists--only what his intentions are.

Under the looming judgment of Adrash and his ultimate weapon--a string of spinning spheres beside the moon known as The Needle--warring factions of white and black suits prove their opposition to the orbiting god with the great fighting tournament of Danoor, on the far side of Jeroun's only inhabitable continent.

From the Thirteenth Order of Black Suits comes Vedas, a young master of martial arts, laden with guilt over the death of one of his students. Traveling with him are Churls, a warrior woman and mercenary haunted by the ghost of her daughter, and Berun, a constructed man made of modular spheres possessed by the foul spirit of his creator. Together they must brave their own demons, as well as thieves, mages, beasts, dearth, and hardship on the perilous road to Danoor, and the bloody sectarian battle that is sure to follow.

On the other side of the world, unbeknownst to the travelers, Ebn and Pol of the Royal Outbound Mages (astronauts using Alchemical magic to achieve space flight) have formed a plan to appease Adrash and bring peace to the planet. But Ebn and Pol each have their own clandestine agendas--which may call down the wrath of the very god they hope to woo.

Who may know the mind of God? And who in their right mind would seek to defy him? Gritty, erotic, and fast-paced, author Zachary Jernigan takes you on a sensuous ride through a world at the knife-edge of salvation and destruction, in one of the year's most exciting fantasy epics.

Shower of Stones

The World of Jeroun: Book 2

Zachary Jernigan

The follow-up to Zachary Jernigan's critically-acclaimed literary debut No Return.

At the moment of his greatest victory, before a crowd of thousands, the warrior Vedas Tezul renounced his faith, calling for revolt against the god Adrash, imploring mankind to unite in this struggle.

Good intentions count for nothing. In the three months since his sacrilegious pronouncement, the world has not changed for the better. In fact, it is now on the verge of dying. The Needle hangs broken in orbit above Jeroun, each of its massive iron spheres poised to fall and blanket the planet's surface in dust. Long-held truces between Adrashi and Anadrashi break apart as panic spreads.

With no allegiance to either side, the disgraced soldier Churls walks into the divided city of Danoor with a simple plan: murder the monster named Fesuy Amendja, and retrieve from captivity the only two individuals that still matter to her--Vedas Tezul, and the constructed man Berun. The simple plan goes awry, as simple plans do, and in the process Churls and her companions are introduced to one of the world's deepest secrets: A madman, insisting he is the link to an ancient world, offering the most tempting lie of all... Hope.

Concluding the visceral, inventive narrative begun in No Return, Shower of Stones pits men against gods and swords against civilization-destroying magic in the fascinatingly harsh world of Jeroun.

The Fall of the Kings

Ellen Kushner
Delia Sherman

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Bending the Landscape: Fantasy (1997), edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eleventh Annual Collection (1998), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

A Wild and a Wicked Youth

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April-May 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction (2012), edited by Brit Mandelo.

The Death of the Duke

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Starlight 2 (1998), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and was reprinted at Strange Horizons, 30 July 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It is included in the collection Swordspoint (2003).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

The Duke of Riverside

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (2011), edited by Ellen Datlow, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January - February 2019. It can also be found in the anthology Wilde Stories 2012: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction (2012), edited by Steve Berman.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

The Man with the Knives

This story set in Kushner's World of Riverside originally appeared as a chapbook published by Temporary Culture. It can also be found in the Jonathan Strahan anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Five (2011).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Swordspoint

The World of Riverside: Book 1

Ellen Kushner
Delia Sherman

Hailed by critics as "a bravura performance" (Locus) and "witty, sharp-eyed, [and] full of interesting people" (Newsday), this classic melodrama of manners, filled with remarkable plot twists and unexpected humor, takes fantasy to an unprecedented level of elegant writing and scintillating wit. Award-winning author Ellen Kushner has created a world of unforgettable characters whose political ambitions, passionate love affairs, and age-old rivalries collide with deadly results.

On the treacherous streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. Within this elite, dangerous world, Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless--until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye.

The Fall of the Kings

The World of Riverside: Book 2

This stunning follow-up to Ellen Kushner's cult-classic novel, Swordspoint, is set in the same world of labyrinthine intrigue, where sharp swords and even sharper wits rule. Against a rich tapestry of artists and aristocrats, students, strumpets, and spies, a gentleman and a scholar will find themselves playing out an ancient drama destined to explode their society's smug view of itself–and reveal that sometimes the best price of uncovering history is being forced to repeat it.

Generations ago the last king fell, taking with him the final truths about a race of wizards who ruled at his side. But the blood of the kings runs deep in the land and its people, waiting for the coming together of two unusual men, Theron Campion, a young nobleman of royal lineage, is heir to an ancient house and a modern scandal. Tormented by his twin duties to his family and his own bright spirit, he seeks solace in the University. There he meets Basil St. Cloud, a brilliant and charismatic teacher ruled by a passion for knowledge–and a passion for the ancient kings. Of course, everyone now knows that the wizards were charlatans and the kings their dupes and puppets. Only Basil ins not convinced–nor is he convinced that the city has seen its last king…

The Privilege of the Sword

The World of Riverside: Book 3

Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power in the city's ballroom, brothels and boudoirs. Into this alluring world walks Katherine, a well-bred country girl versed in the rules of conventional society. Her mistake is thinking that they apply. For Katherine's host and uncle, Alec Campion, aka the Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here--and to him, rules are made to be broken.

When Alec decides it would be more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to marriage, her world changes forever. Blade in hand, it's up to Katherine to navigate a maze of secrets and scoundrels--and to gain the self-discovery that comes to those who master....

The Curse of Chalion

The World of the Five Gods: Chalion: Book 1

A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril returns to the noble household he once served as page and is named secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule. It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it must ultimately lead him to the place he most fears: the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies who once placed him in chains now occupy lofty positions.

But it is more than the traitorous intrigues of villains that threaten Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle here, for a sinister curse hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion. And only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge -- an act that will mark him as a tool of the miraculous... and trap him in a lethal maze of demonic paradox.

Paladin of Souls

The World of the Five Gods: Chalion: Book 2

Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets -- for she knows the truth of what brought her land to the brink of destruction. And now the road -- escape -- beckons.... A simple pilgrimage, perhaps. Quite fitting for the Dowager Royina of all Chalion.

Yet something else is free, too -- something beyond deadly. To the north lies the vital border fortress of Porifors. Memories linger there as well, of wars and invasions and the mighty Golden General of Jokona. And someone, something, watches from across that border -- humans, demons, gods.

Ista thinks her little party of pilgrims wanders at will. But whose? When Ista's retinue is unexpectedly set upon not long into its travels, a mysterious ally appears -- a warrior nobleman who fights like a berserker. The temporary safety of her enigmatic champion's castle cannot ease Ista's mounting dread, however, when she finds his dark secrets are entangled with hers in a net of the gods' own weaving.

In her dreams the threads are already drawing her to unforeseen chances, fateful meetings, fearsome choices. What the inscrutable gods commanded of her in the past brought her land to the brink of devastation. Now, once again, they have chosen Ista as their instrument. And again, for good or for ill, she must comply.

The Hallowed Hunt

The World of the Five Gods: Chalion: Book 3

Prince Boleso is dead -- slain by a noblewoman he had intended to defile.

Lord Ingrey kin Wolfcliff has been dispatched to the remote castle of the late, exiled, half-mad royal to transport the body to its burial place and the accused killer, the Lady Ijada, to judgment. Ingrey's mission is an ugly and delicate one, for the imminent death of the old Hallow King has placed the crown in play, and the murder of his youngest son threatens to further roil already treacherous political waters. But there is more here than a prince's degenerate lusts and the fatal retribution it engendered. Boleso's dark act, though unfinished, inadvertently bestowed an unwanted mystical "gift" upon proud, brave Ijada that must ultimately mean her doom -- a curse similar to one with which Ingrey himself has been burdened since boyhood.

A forbidden spirit now inhabits the soul of Ijada, giving her senses she never wished for and an obligation no one sane would desire. At once psychically linked to the remarkable lady and repelled by what she carries within, Ingrey fears the havoc his own inner beast could wreak while on their journey, as he fights a powerful growing attraction ... and an equally powerful compulsion to kill.

The road they travel together is beset with dangers -- and though duty-bound to deliver Ijada to an almost certain execution, Ingrey soon realizes that she is the only one he dares trust. For a malevolent enemy with designs on a troubled kingdom holds Ingrey in his sway -- and without Ijada's aid and love, the haunted lord will never be able to break free and realize the great and terrible destiny bestowed upon him by the gods, the damned, and the dead.

Penric's Demon

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 1

Hugo-winning and Locus-nominated Novella

On his way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric comes upon a riding accident with an elderly lady on the ground, her maidservant and guardsmen distraught. As he approaches to help, he discovers that the lady is a Temple divine, servant to the five gods of this world. Her avowed god is The Bastard, "master of all disasters out of season", and with her dying breath she bequeaths her mysterious powers to Penric. From that moment on, Penric's life is irreversibly changed, and his life is in danger from those who envy or fear him.

Penric and the Shaman

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 2

Hugo Award nominated novella. Sequel to the Hugo Award winning Novella "Penric's Demon"

In The World of the Five Gods, four years after the events in "Penric's Demon", Penric is a divine of the Bastard's Order as well as a sorcerer and scholar, living in the palace where the Princess-Archdivine holds court. His scholarly work is interrupted when the Archdivine agrees to send Penric, in his role as sorcerer, to accompany a "Locator" of the Father's Order, assigned to capture Inglis, a runaway shaman charged with the murder of his best friend.

However, the situation they discover in the mountains is far more complex than expected. Penric's roles as sorcerer, strategist, and counselor are all called upon before the end.

Penric's Mission

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 3

In his thirtieth year, Penric fell in love with light...

Learned Penric, a sorcerer and divine of the Bastard's Order, travels across the sea to sunlit Cedonia on his first covert diplomatic mission, to attempt to secure the services of a disaffected Cedonian general for the Duke of Adria. However, nothing is as it seems: Penric is betrayed and thrown into a dungeon, and worse follows for the general and his kin.

At ~45,300 words, this is technically a Novel, and is outside the Hugo Award's 45,000 word limit for Novellas in 2017.

Mira's Last Dance

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 4

In this sequel to the novella Penric's Mission, the injured Penric, a Temple sorcerer and learned divine, tries to guide the betrayed General Arisaydia and his widowed sister Nikys across the last hundred miles of hostile Cedonia to safety in the Duchy of Orbas.

In the town of Sosie the fugitive party encounters unexpected delays, and even more unexpected opportunities and hazards, as the courtesan Mira of Adria, one of the ten dead women whose imprints make up the personality of the chaos demon Desdemona, comes to the fore with her own special expertise.

Penric's Fox

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 5

Some eight months after the events of "Penric and the Shaman", Learned Penric, sorcerer and scholar, travels to Easthome, the capital of the Weald. There he again meets his friends Shaman Inglis and Locator Oswyl. When the body of a sorceress is found in the woods, Oswyl draws him into another investigation; they must all work together to uncover a mystery mixing magic, murder and the strange realities of Temple demons.

The Prisoner of Limnos

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 6

In this sequel to Mira's Last Dance, Temple sorcerer Penric and the widow Nikys have reached safety in the duchy of Orbas when a secret letter from a friend brings frightening news: Nikys' mother has been taken hostage by her brother's enemies at the Cedonian imperial court, and confined in a precarious island sanctuary.

Their own romance still unresolved, Nikys, Penric, and of course Desdemona must infiltrate the hostile country once more, finding along the way that family relationships can be as unexpectedly challenging as any rescue scheme.

The Orphans of Raspay

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 7

When the ship in which they are traveling is captured by Carpagamon island raiders, Temple sorcerer Penric and his resident demon Desdemona find their life complicated by two young orphans, Lencia and Seuka Corva, far from home and searching for their missing father. Pen and Des will need all their combined talents of mind and magic to unravel the mysteries of the sisters and escape from the pirate stronghold.

This novella follows about a year after the events of "The Prisoner of Limnos".

The Physicians of Vilnoc

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 8

When a mysterious plague breaks out in the army fort guarding Vilnoc, the port capital of the duchy of Orbas, Temple sorcerer Penric and his demon Desdemona are called upon by General Arisaydia to resurrect Penric's medical skills and solve its lethal riddle. In the grueling days that follow, Pen will find that even his magic is not enough to meet the challenges without help from dedicated new colleagues and the god of mischance.

Masquerade in Lodi

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 9

The Assassins of Thasalon

Bastard's Eve is a night of celebration for most residents in the canal city of Lodi – but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon, and a very unexpected saint of the fifth god.

This novella falls between Penric's Mission and Penric's Fox in the internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona tales.

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 10

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.

Knot of Shadows

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 11

When a corpse is found floating face-down in Vilnoc harbor that is not quite as dead as it seems, Temple sorcerer Penric and his chaos demon Desdemona are drawn into the uncanny investigation. Pen's keen questions will take him across the city of Vilnoc, and into far more profound mysteries, as his search for truths interlaces with tragedy.

Demon Daughter

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 12

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 1

A six-year-old shiplost girl draws the kin Jurald family of Vilnoc into complex dilemmas, and sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona into conflict - with each other. It will take all of Penric's wits, his wife Nikys's wisdom, and the hand of the fifth god's strangest saint to untangle the threads of their future.

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 1

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 2

"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 World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 2

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 3

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?

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 3

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 4

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...

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 4

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 5

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?

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 5

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 6

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...

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 6

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 7

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?

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: Book 7

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 1

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.

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 1

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 2

Corporate slave Arihito Atobe's death in a freak bus accident marks the beginning of his new life as a kind of adventurer called a Seeker. Reborn into a fantasy world, he settles into a previously unknown job class called "rearguard," capable of providing his (all-female) party with critical attack, defense, and recovery support. And it comes with an added bonus: Simply being at the back of the party line increases his companions' fondness for him! Freed from the shackles of corporate life, Arihito is eager to start fresh as a newly minted Seeker!

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 2

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 3

Arihito and his party continue to soar up the ranks in the Labyrinth Country's eighth district, and a chance encounter with the 117th Hidden God, Ariadne, has granted Arihito further enviable abilities as a powerful rearguard. The group prepares to move up to the seventh district, but then crisis strikes: A deadly monster stampede from the nearby labyrinth has turned the town into an impromptu battlefield! Can the top-ranked Arihito and his fellow Seekers slay the monsters and keep the people safe?!

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 3

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 4

Arihito's rearguard skills have safely bumped him and his party up to District Seven faster than any other Seekers in history. Just when their upward trajectory seems unstoppable, new obstacles stand in their way: the district's top-ranked alliance, Beyond Liberty, and its monopoly over the labyrinth's prime territory! The best shot Arihito's group has at progressing any farther involves teaming up with an all-female party-but are two parties better than one? And with the best hunting grounds out of reach, can they earn enough points to make it to the next district?

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 4

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 5

Arihito and his party are making tremendous progress towards District Six when the unthinkable happens: a Named Monster attacks the top-ranked alliance Beyond Liberty and steals their leader's soul! Only Arihito's group is capable of defeating this creature and saving the leader's life... but what path will they take now that this rival alliance no longer stands in their way?

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 5

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 6

After their many triumphs against powerful Named Monsters, it's time for Arihito and his party to take a much-needed break! Their first post-reincarnation vacation brings them to a health resort managed by the Guild, providing the perfect opportunity for the group to get to know one another even better. Rest and relaxation may not come easy for Arihito and his friends, though, because a familiar face from the White Night Brigade has an eye on Arihito's infamous rearguard skills...!

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 6

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 7

Arihito has obtained another Hidden God armament and foiled a plot by a member of the White Night Brigade that put him and his friends in danger. His valiant actions catch the attention of the Guild Saviors, who request his party's assistance in suppressing a stampede in District Five. Then, a potential opportunity arises to rescue Elitia's missing friend... How will Arihito and his group realize Elitia's most deeply held wish, even when the odds aren't in their favor?

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 7

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 8

Arihito and his party faced off against the Shining Simian Lord in District Five and successfully rescued Elitia, but the curse this horrible beast inflicted on Theresia is destroying her bit by bit. If nothing is done, she'll soon become another one of the Simian Lord's mindless underlings. In order to save his companion from this dreadful fate, Arihito must find a way to lift the curse on her and defeat the Simian Lord... But can Theresia hang on that long...?

The World's Strongest Rearguard: Book 8

The Men Who Sold The World

Arihito and his party's preparations for their ultimate battle against the Shining Simian Lord are going smoothly: They now possess an item that can help lift the curse on Theresia, and Arihito has recently obtained a new Hidden God power courtesy of Fylgja and her Intelligent Armor. But the Simian Lord's curse is still slowly eating away at Theresia. To save her from this seemingly unbeatable foe, Arihito must join forces with his vast support system and his Guild Savior allies!

King of Shards

The Worldmender Trilogy: Book 1

Matthew Kressel

Across the ineffable expanse of the Great Deep float billions of shattered universes: the Shards. Populated with vengeful demons and tormented humans, the Shards need Earth to survive just as plants need water. Earth itself is kept alive by 36 righteous people, 36 hidden saints known as the Lamed Vav. Kill but a few of the Lamed Vav and the Earth will shatter, and all the Shards that rely upon it will die in a horrible cataclysm.

When Daniel Fisher is abducted on his wedding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, he learns he is a Lamed Vav, one of the hidden righteous upholding the world. The demon Mashit has usurped the throne of demonkind from Ashmedai and has been systematically murdering the Lamed Vav. On a desert-covered Shard teeming with strange creatures, pursued by a fearsome demon army, Daniel and Ashmedai, saint and demon, must join forces to stop Mashit before she destroys all of existence. Daniel's survival means he must ally with evil Ashmedai. Yet who but a saint--a Lamed Vav--can save the world?

The Young World

The Young World: Book 1

Chris Weitz

Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens.

After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he's secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos.

But when a fellow tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure for the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip, exchanging gunfire with enemy gangs, escaping cults and militias, braving the wilds of the subway--all in order to save humankind.

The New Order

The Young World: Book 2

Chris Weitz

They thought they were the only ones left. They were wrong.

After the unexpected revelation at the end of the first book, Donna and Jefferson are separated. Jefferson returns to NYC and tries to bring a cure to the Sickness back to the Washington Square tribe, while Donna finds herself in England, facing an unimaginable new world. Can the two reunite and prevent an even greater disaster than the Sickness?

The Revival

The Young World: Book 3

Chris Weitz

The teens forge a new world in this epic conclusion to The Young World trilogy.

After the emotional cliffhanger of The New Order, shocking events take place for Donna, Jefferson, Kath, and their tribe as they face their greatest challenge yet--how to hold the new city-state of New York against a ruthless attack from the Old World.

The Pillars of the World

Tir Alainn: Book 1

Anne Bishop

The young witch Ari finds herself torn between the world of mortals and the world of the Fae-for the roads between the two lands are vanishing into thin air...

Torchwood: Book 18

Guy Adams

When Oscar Lupe appears 20,000 feet up in the air, his body is frozen solid and free-falling to earth. It shatters on impact. Soon after, a CIA Special Activities Division squad goes rogue with a cargo marked 'Torchwood' that they've been escorting from somewhere called Cardiff.

The Agency puts Rex Matheson on the case. As the strange deaths pile up, Rex realises there must be experimental tech out there, but someone is obstructing him at every turn. Rex is the CIA's golden boy - but has he met his match in the evasive Mr Wynter...?

Tristan Strong Destroys the World

Tristan Strong: Book 2

Kwame Mbalia

Tristan Strong, just back from a victorious but exhausting adventure in Alke, the land of African American folk heroes and African gods, is suffering from PTSD. But there's no rest for the weary when his grandmother is abducted by a mysterious villain out for revenge.

Tristan must return to Alke--and reunite with his loud-mouthed sidekick, Gum Baby--in order to rescue Nana and stop the culprit from creating further devastation. Anansi, now a "web developer" in Tristan's phone, is close at hand to offer advice, and several new folk heroes will aid Tristan in his quest, but he will only succeed if he can figure out a way to sew broken souls back together.

The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Vol. 1

Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories: Book 1

James D. Jenkins
Ryan Cagle

What if there were a whole world of great horror fiction out there you didn't know anything about, written by authors in distant lands and in foreign languages, outstanding horror stories you had no access to, written in languages you couldn't read? For an avid horror fan, what could be more horrifying than that?

For this groundbreaking volume, the first of its kind, the editors of Valancourt Books have scoured the world, reading horror stories from dozens of countries in nearly twenty languages, to find some of the best contemporary international horror stories. All the foreign-language stories in this book appear here in English for the first time, while the English-language entries from countries like the Philippines are appearing in print in the U.S. for the first time.

The book includes stories by some of the world's preeminent horror authors, many of them not yet known in the English-speaking world:

Pilar Pedraza, 'Mater Tenebrarum' (Spain)
Flavius Ardelean, 'Down, in Their World' (Romania)
Anders Fager, 'The Servants' Staircase' (Sweden)
Tanya Tynjälä, 'The Collector' (Peru)
Frithjof Spalder, 'The White Cormorant' (Norway)
Jose María Latorre, 'Snapshots' (Spain)
Luigi Musolino, 'Uironda' (Italy)
Martin Steyn, 'Kira' (South Africa)
Attila Veres, 'The Time Remaining' (Hungary)
Lars Ahn, 'Donation' (Denmark)
Bernardo Esquinca, 'Señor Ligotti' (Mexico)
Cristina Fernández Cubas, 'The Angle of Horror' (Spain)
Christien Boomsma, 'The Bones in Her Eyes' (Netherlands)
Elisenda Solsona, 'Mechanisms' (Catalonia)
Michael Roch, 'The Illogical Investigations of Inspector André Despérine' (Martinique)
Solange Rodríguez Pappe, 'Tiny Women' (Ecuador)
Bathie Ngoye Thiam, 'The House of Leuk Dawour' (Senegal)
Marko Hautala, 'Pale Toes' (Finland)
Yvette Tan, 'All the Birds' (Philippines)
Ariane Gélinas, 'Twin Shadows' (Québec)
Flore Hazoumé, 'Menopause' (Ivory Coast)

Plus More....

The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Vol. 2

Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories: Book 2

Ryan Cagle
James D. Jenkins

Featuring a wide variety of tales from Brazil to Malta to Nigeria to Japan, and all points in between, this new anthology is a must-have for any horror fan or anyone interested in contemporary world literature.

Included in this volume are some of the world's best horror writers, many of them unknown in the English-speaking world:

Luciano Lamberti (Argentina)
Roberto Causo (Brazil)
Braulio Tavares (Brazil)
Yavor Tsanev (Bulgaria)
Zhang Yueran (China)
Teddy Vork (Denmark)
Indrek Hargla (Estonia)
Mélanie Fazi (France)
Konstantinos Kellis (Greece)
Gary Victor (Haiti)
Steinar Bragi (Iceland)
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (India)
Stephan Friedman (Israel)
Yasumi Tsuhara (Japan)
Anton Grasso (Malta)
Dare Segun Falowo (Nigeria)
Wojciech Gunia (Poland)
Ana María Fuster Lavín (Puerto Rico)
Val Votrin (Russia)
Bora Chung (South Korea)

Changing the World: All-New Tales of Valdemar

Valdemar Anthologies: Book 5

Mercedes Lackey

In March 1987, a young author from Oklahoma published her first novel, Arrows of the Queen. This modest book about a magical land called Valdemar was the beginning of a fantasy masterpiece that would span decades and include more than two dozen titles. Now sixteen of today's hottest fantasy authors -- including Tanya Huff, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Fiona Patton, and Judith Tarr -- visit the world of Valdemar, adding their own special touches.

Table of Contents:

1 - The One Left Behind - novelette by Mercedes Lackey
35 - For Want of a Nail - novelette by Rosemary Edghill and Denise McCune
60 - Softly Falling Snow - short story by Elizabeth Vaughan [as by Elizabeth A. Vaughan]
72 - The Relectant Herald - novelette by Mickey Zucker Reichert
98 - A Storytelling of Crows - short story by Elisabeth Waters
109 - Waiting to Belong - short story by Kristin Schwengel
124 - The Last Part of the Way - short story by Brenda Cooper
141 - Midwinter Gifts - novelette by Stephanie Shaver [as by Stephanie D. Shaver]
165 - Wounded Bird - short story by Michael Z. Williamson
185 - Defending the Heart - short story by Kate Paulk
205 - Matters of the Heart - short story by Sarah A. Hoyt
224 - Nothing Better to Do - short story by Tanya Huff
243 - The Thief of Anvil's Close - novelette by Fiona Patton
266 - Twice Blessed - novelette by Judith Tarr
303 - Be Careful What You Wish For - novelette by Nancy Asire
324 - Interview with a Companion - short story by Ben Ohlander [as by Benjamin Ohlander]

The Width of the World

Vega Jane: Book 3

David Baldacci

This is it. Vega Jane's time. She's been lied to her whole life, so she breaks away from Wormwood, the only home she's ever known, in search of the truth. She battles horrors to fight her way across the Quag with her best friend, Delph, and her mysterious canine, Harry Two. Against all odds, they survive unimaginable dangers and make it through.

And into a new world that's even worse. Not because deadly beasts roam the cobblestones, but because the people are enslaved but don't even know it. It's up to Vega, Delph, Harry Two and their new comrade, Petra, to take up the fight against a foe that's unrivaled in savagery and cunning. Not only is Vega's life and the lives of her friends on the line, but whether she triumphs or fails will determine whether a whole world survives.

The Way Between the Worlds

View from the Mirror: Book 4

Ian Irvine

In the conclusion to this series, Karan, the young Sensitive who holds the Mirror of Aachen, which has the power to heal or permanently destroy the rift between Worlds, is held captive. Her lover, Llian, is in chains, falsely accused of betraying her. With the dark moon rising, the Charon Rulke is unstoppable as he prepares to open the Way between the Worlds.

Around the World in Eighty Days

Voyages Extraordinaires: Book 11

Jules Verne

Phileas Fogg is a rich English gentleman living in solitude. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision. Very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his former valet, James Foster, for bringing him shaving water at 84 °F (29 °C) instead of 86 °F (30 °C), Fogg hires a Frenchman by the name of Jean Passepartout as a replacement.

At the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days. He accepts a wager for £20,000 (equal to about £1.6 million today) from his fellow club members, which he will receive if he makes it around the world in 80 days. Accompanied by Passepartout, he leaves London by train at 8:45 P.M. on Wednesday, October 2, 1872, and is due back at the Reform Club at the same time 80 days later, Saturday, December 21, 1872.

Tales of the Old World

Warhammer

Christian Dunn
Marc Gascoigne

Repeating the winning formula established by "Let the Galaxy Burn", this bumper anthology unites classic short stories with brand-new tales. It is an attractive package that will appeal to Warhammer fans and all lovers of great fantasy fiction.

The Burning World

Warm Bodies: Book 2

Isaac Marion

The New York Times bestseller Warm Bodies captured hearts worldwide in twenty-five languages, inspiring a major film and a cult fandom. Now R the reluctant zombie continues his journey in this much-anticipated sequel.

Being alive is hard. Being human is harder. But since his recent recovery from death, R is making progress. He's learning how to read, how to speak, maybe even how to love, and the city's undead population is showing signs of life. R can almost imagine a future with Julie, this girl who restarted his heart--building a new world from the ashes of the old one.

And then helicopters appear on the horizon. Someone is coming to restore order. To silence all this noise. To return things to the way they were, the good old days of stability and control and the strong eating the weak. The plague is ancient and ambitious, and the Dead were never its only weapon.

How do you fight an enemy that's in everyone? Can the world ever really change? With their home overrun by madmen, R, Julie, and their ragged group of refugees plunge into the otherworldly wastelands of America in search of answers. But there are some answers R doesn't want to find. A past life, an old shadow, crawling up from the basement.

The Warding of Witch World

Witch World Secrets: Book 4

Four from the Witch World

It is a desperate time in Witch World. The Magestone, the key to the pandimensional gates, has been lost and now all the gates are open. In the classic series' grand finale, an infinite flood of evil is about to wash across the world as Simon Tregarth returns to lead the planet's heroes in the final war against the forces of darkness.

Witch World Stories

Andre Norton, Grand Master of Fantasy, brings together a quartet of today's finest fantasy talents to produce short novels of extraordinary power and beauty, set in the Witch World, her greatest fantasy creation.

Stillborn Heritage by Elizabeth H. Boyer: A girl's coming of age proves a supernatural test of her strength... and of the power of love.

Stormbirds by C.J. Cherryh: A soldier of the Dales, thrown together with an Estcarp witch in the bitter aftermath of war, must overcome his own hatred or be destroyed by the Hounds of Alizon.

Rampion by Meredith Ann Pierce: An island girl, spurned by her noble father and orphaned by the death of her mother, is caught in a wed of sea-magic by a mysterious troubadour come from afar to settle old scores.

Falcon Law by Judith Tarr: A woman and a falconer could not be the one, said the code. Yet her falcon chose her, so she lived a lie, to fulfill a great destiny.

Let these four master storytellers sweep you into the magical realm of fantasy adventure that has enthralled millions of readers...

Lore of the Witch World

Witch World Stories

Few authors have achieved such renown as World Fantasy Life Achievement honoree and Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Andre Norton. With the love of readers and the praise of critics, Norton's books have sold millions of copies worldwide.

The Witch World... Far away in space and time, the Witch World has become the legendary home of all who dream and wonder of unknown worlds.

Lore of the Witch World brings together in one volume all the novelettes and tales of the Witch World, including the never previously published novelette Changeling.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - essay by C. J. Cherryh
Spider Silk - (1976) - novelette
Sand Sister - (1979) - novella
Falcon Blood - (1979) - shortstory
Legacy from Sorn Fen - (1972) - shortstory
Sword of Unbelief - (1977) - novelette
The Toads of Grimmerdale - (1973) - novella
Changeling - novelette

Tales of the Witch World

Witch World Stories: Book 1

Tales of the Witch World 2

From the windswept Dales of High Hallack to the far reaches of Estcarp, here are new excitement and peril to stir the hearts of the millions of fans of the Witch World. Norton has invited her favorite fantasy authors to collaborate with her on new tales set in her spellbinding world.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1987) - essay by Andre Norton
The Road of Dreams and Death - (1987) - novelette by Robert E. Vardeman
Green in High Hallack - (1987) - shortstory by Kiel Stuart
Isle of Illusion - (1987) - novelette by Carol Severance
Night Hound's Moon - (1987) - shortstory by Mary H. Schaub
Milk from a Maiden's Breast - (1987) - shortstory by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
To Rebuild the Eyrie - (1987) - novelette by Sasha Miller
Neither Rest nor Refuge - (1987) - shortstory by Ardath Mayhar
Were-Hunter - (1987) - novelette by Mercedes Lackey
Nine Words in Winter - (1987) - shortstory by Caralyn Inks
Of Ancient Swords and Evil Mist - (1987) - shortstory by James R. Heidbrink
Oath-Bound - (1987) - novelette by P. M. Griffin [as by Pauline Griffin ]
Cat and the Other - (1987) - novelette by Marylois Dunn
The White Road - (1987) - novelette by Charles de Lint
Bloodspell - (1987) - novelette by A. C. Crispin
Fenneca - (1987) - novelette by Wilanne Schneider Belden
Heir Apparent - (1987) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
Of the Shaping of Ulm's Heir - (1987) - novelette by Andre Norton
Biographical Notes - (1987) - essay by Andre Norton

Witch World Stories: Book 2

Tales of the Witch World 3

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1987) - essay by Andre Norton
The Hunting Of Lord Etsalian's Daughter - shortstory by Clare Bell
Afterword - essay by Clare Bell
Sea-Serpents of Domnudale - shortstory by Ginger Simpson Curry
Afterword - essay by Ginger Simpson Curry
Old Toad - novelette by Geary Gravel
Afterword - essay by Geary Gravel
The Judgment of Neave - shortstory by Shariann Lewitt
Afterword - essay by Shariann Lewitt
Through the Moon Gate - [Dorian St. James] - novelette by Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Afterword - essay by Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Dream Pirates' Jewel - shortstory by Brad Linaweaver and Cynthia Linaweaver
Afterword - essay by Brad Linaweaver and Cynthia Linaweaver
La Verdad: The Magic Sword - novelette by A. R. Major
Afterword - essay by A. R. Major
Darkness Over Mirhold - (1987) - shortstory by Patricia Shaw Mathews
Afterword - essay by Patricia Shaw Mathews
Peacock Eyes - shortstory by Shirley Meier
Afterword - essay by Shirley Meier
The Salt Garden - shortstory by Sandra Miesel
Afterword - essay by Sandra Miesel
The Stones of Sharnon - shortstory by Ann Miller
Afterword - essay by Ann Miller
Heroes - novelette by Diana L. Paxson
Afterword - essay by Diana L. Paxson
Rite of Failure - novelette by Susan Shwartz
Afterword - essay by Susan Shwartz
Futures Yet Unseen - novelette by Melinda M. Snodgrass
Afterword - essay by Melinda M. Snodgrass
S'Olcarias's Sons - shortstory by Lisa Swallow
Afterword - essay by Lisa Swallow
The Sentinel at the Edge of the World - novelette by David Wind
Afterword - essay by David Wind
Tall Dames Go Walking - novelette by Rose Wolf
Afterword - essay by Rose Wolf
Biographical Notes - essay by uncredited

Witch World Stories: Book 3

Table of Contents:

Introduction - (1990) - essay by Andre Norton
Voice of Memory - (1990) - novelette by M. E. Allen
Plumduff Potato-Eye - (1990) - novelette by Jayge Carr
The Scent of Magic - (1990) - novelette by Juanita Coulson
Heartspell - (1990) - novelette by A. C. Crispin
The Weavers - (1990) - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
The Root of All Evil - (1990) - shortstory by Sharon Green
Knowledge - (1990) - shortstory by P. M. Griffin
The Circle of Sleep - (1990) - shortstory by Caralyn Inks
Falcon's Chick - (1990) - shortstory by Patricia Shaw Mathews
Fortune's Children - (1990) - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
Godron's Daughter - (1990) - shortstory by Ann Miller and Karen Elizabeth Rigley
A Question of Magic - (1990) - novella by Marta Randall
Strait of Storms - (1990) - novelette by K. L. Roberts
Candletrap - (1990) - novelette by Mary H. Schaub
Whispering Cane - (1990) - shortstory by Carol Severance
Gunnora's Gift - (1990) - shortstory by Elisabeth Waters
Wolfhead - (1990) - novelette by Michael D. Winkle
Were-Flight - (1990) - novelette by Lisa Woodworth
The Sword-Seller - (1990) - shortstory by Patricia C. Wrede
Biographical Notes - (1990) - essay by uncredited

Web of the Witch World

Witch World: Estcarp Cycle: Book 2

Three Against the Witch World

Simon Tregarth, whose own Earthly prowess had won him a throne and a witch-wife in an alien world, knew that both triumphs were precarious as long as the super-science of Kolder held a foothold on that planet. And his premonitions were right when those invaders from another dimension made their final diabolical strike for total conquest.

Witch World: Estcarp Cycle: Book 3

Warlock of the Witch World

The offspring of Simon Tregarth, half earthling, half witch-brood, realized that they alone could perceive the four directions-for everyone else, there was no East! It was a blank in the mind, a blank in legend and history. And when new menaces threatened, the Tregarths realized that in that mental barrier there lay the key to all their worldsomewhere to the unknown eastward must lie the sorcery that had secretly molded their destinies!

Witch World: Estcarp Cycle: Book 4

Sorceress of the Witch World

Kyllan the warrior, Kaththea the untried witch, Kemoc, whose powers could surpass all others- these are the half-Earthling, half witch-brood family menaced by the sorceries of an unknown enemy. The burden of the struggle fell to Kemoc, who was forced to summon his untested powers in the battle to match the alien evil threatening the Witch World.

Witch World: Estcarp Cycle: Book 5

Kaththea the Sorceress called forth a power such as no longer existed on the distant planet known as the Witch World. It was a power so great that it could destroy all that she loved best - and might even prove to be a greater evil than the shadow itself. Yet there could be no other choice for Kaththea than to call on Hilarion in the death-naming. For she was a witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only this ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough.

Spell of the Witch World

Witch World: High Hallack: Book 3

Their fates were bound by their mother's white magic - though darkness and battle strove to drive them apart...

It was in the year of the Fire Troll that the sea-raiders struck at High-Hallack and, promise-bound, its sons rose to the defense of their Dale. But where stood amongst their number a youth whom the Dalesmen had merely fostered: Elyn, born of Estcarp, whose birthright was the wisdom of the Wise. But Elyn of Estcarp was still young and, though a warrior impatient for battle, his unscarred sword had learnt little of the dark treacheries of war. In his most desperate hour of danger Elyn's stoutest weapon would prove his brave witch-sister Elys. Together witch and warrior would face perils beyond the laws of our everyday stars!

Bitten

Women of the Otherworld: Book 1

An erotically charged, addictive thriller from the future queen of suspense.

Living in Toronto for a year, Elena is leading the normal life she has always dreamed of, including a stable job as a journalist and a nice apartment shared with her boyfriend. As the lone female werewolf in existence, only her secret midnight prowls and her occasional inhuman cravings set her apart. Just one year ago, life was very different. Adopted by the Pack when bitten, Elena had spent years struggling with her resentment at having her life stolen away. Torn between two worlds, and overwhelmed by the new passions coursing through her body, her only option for control was to deny her awakening needs and escape.

But now the Pack has called Elena home to help them fight an alliance of renegade werewolves who are bent on exposing and annihilating the Pack. And although Elena is obliged to rejoin her "family," she vows not to be swept up in Pack life again, no matter how natural it might feel. She has made her choice. Trouble is, she's increasingly uncertain if it's the right one.

An erotically charged thriller, Bitten will awaken the voracious appetite of every reader, as the age-old battle between man and beast, between human and inhuman forces, comes to a head in one small town and within one woman's body.

Stolen

Women of the Otherworld: Book 2

In the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton, a deliciously wicked sequel to Bitten, from Canada's new queen of suspense.

Even though she's the world's only female werewolf, Elena Michaels is just a regular girl at heart -- with larger than normal appetites. She sticks to three feasts a day, loves long runs in the moonlight, and has a lover who is unbelievable frustrating yet all the more sexy for his dark side. Like every regular girl, she certainly doesn't believe in witches. Then again, when two small, ridiculously feminine women manage to hurl her against a wall, and then save her from the hunters on her tail, Elena realizes that maybe there are more things in heaven and earth than she's dreamt of.

Vampires, demons, shamans, witches -- in Stolen they all exist, and they're all under attack. An obsessed tycoon with a sick curiosity is well on his way to amassing a private collection of supernaturals, and plans to harness their powers for himself -- even if it means killing them. For Elena, kidnapped and imprisoned deep underground, separated from her Pack, unable to tell her friends from her enemies, choosing the right allies is a matter of life and death.

Dime Store Magic

Women of the Otherworld: Book 3

From Canada's new queen of suspense, another hugely entertaining supernatural thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Prepare to be enchanted...

Forget the cackling green hag in The Wizard of Oz, forget Samantha from Bewitched. Real witches are nothing, NOTHING like this. For years real witches have hidden their powers, afraid of being persecuted. They have integrated so well into the community, you could have a witch living right next door and never know about it. Take Paige, for instance, whom we first met in Kelley Armstrong's novel Stolen. Just an ordinary twenty-something who runs her own website design company, worries about her weight and wonders if she'll ever find a boyfriend. Okay, so she's leader of the American Coven and guardian of Savannah, the teenage daughter of a black witch. Really, life is ordinary. But then a telekinetic half-demon, Leah O'Donnell, shows up to fight for custody of Savannah. And although Paige is ready for her, she's not quite so prepared for the team of supernaturals that Leah brings with her, including a powerful sorcerer who claims to be Savannah's father.

When all hell breaks loose -- literally -- and Paige is accused of witchcraft, Satanism and murder, the Coven, fearing exposure, abandons her. Cut off from her friends, Paige is forced against her better judgment to accept the help of a young sorcerer lawyer. And she quickly comes to realize that keeping Savannah could mean losing everything else.

Breathtakingly thrilling, hip and funny, this new novel is another page-turning triumph from an author who is going from strength to strength.

Industrial Magic

Women of the Otherworld: Book 4

Meet the smart, sexy -- supernatural -- women of the otherworld. This is not your mother's coven...

Kelley Armstrong returns with the eagerly awaited follow-up to Dime Store Magic. Paige Winterbourne, a headstrong young woman haunted by a dark legacy, is now put to the ultimate test as she fights to save innocents from the most insidious evil of all....

In the aftermath of her mother's murder, Paige broke with the elite, ultraconservative American Coven of Witches. Now her goal is to start a new Coven for a new generation. But while Paige pitches her vision to uptight thirty-something witches in business suits, a more urgent matter commands her attention.

Someone is murdering the teenage offspring of the underworld's most influential Cabals -- a circle of families that makes the mob look like amateurs. And none is more powerful than the Cortez Cabal, a faction Paige is intimately acquainted with. Lucas Cortez, the rebel son and unwilling heir, is none other than her boyfriend. But love isn't blind, and Paige has her eyes wide open as she is drawn into a hunt for an unnatural-born killer. Pitted against shamans, demons, and goons, it's a battle chilling enough to make a wild young woman grow up in a hurry. If she gets the chance.

Haunted

Women of the Otherworld: Book 5

THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF THE SMART, SEXY -- SUPERNATURAL -- WOMEN OF THE OTHERWORLD

Eve Levine -- half-demon, black witch and devoted mother -- has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can't be killed again -- which comes in handy when you've made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn't too bad -- all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter, Savannah, and she'll be happy.

But fate -- or more exactly, the Fates -- have other plans. Eve owes them a favor, and they've just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy -- previous hunters have been driven insane in the process. As if that's not problem enough, the only way to stop her is with an angel's sword. And Eve is no angel....

Broken

Women of the Otherworld: Book 6

In this thrilling new novel from the author of Industrial Magic, a pregnant werewolf may have unwittingly unleashed Jack the Ripper on the twenty-first century -- and become his next target...

Ever since she discovered she's pregnant, Elena Michaels has been on edge. After all, she's never heard of another living female werewolf, let alone one who's given birth. But thankfully, her expertise is needed to retrieve a stolen letter allegedly written by Jack the Ripper. As a distraction, the job seems simple enough -- only the letter contains a portal to Victorian London's underworld, which Elena inadvertently triggers -- unleashing a vicious killer and a pair of zombie thugs.

Now Elena must find a way to seal the portal before the unwelcome visitors get what they're looking for -- which, for some unknown reason, is Elena...

No Humans Involved

Women of the Otherworld: Book 7

Readers around the world have fallen for Kelley Armstrong's intoxicating, sensual and wicked tales of the paranormal, in which demons and witches, werewolves and vampires collide - often hilariously, sometimes violently - with everyday life. In Armstrong's first six novels, Elena, Paige and Eve have had their way with us. Now get ready for Jaime Vegas, the luscious, lovelorn and haunted necromancer...

Jaime, who knows a thing or two about showbiz, is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. As a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she's used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life - as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye-she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.

She is determined to get to the bottom of these manifestations, but as she sets out to solve the mystery she has no idea how scary her investigation will get, or to what depths ordinary humans will sink in their attempts to gain supernatural powers. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she'll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.

Personal Demon

Women of the Otherworld: Book 8

Globe and Mail and New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong follows No Humans Involved with a new, sexy, action-packed, Women of the Otherworld novel featuring a wickedly beautiful, supernaturally gifted heroine who may love danger a bit too much.

Sending readers into a dazzlingly entertaining world of danger, vice and romance, Kelley Armstrong's phenomenal Women of the Otherworld novels mark her as a trailblazer of paranormal romantic suspense.

Hope Adams, tabloid journalist and half-demon, looks like a Bollywood princess. Like full demons, she gets an almost sexual rush from danger and chaos-in fact, she thrives on it. But she is determined to use her gifts for good.
When the head of the powerful Cortez Cabal calls in an old debt and asks her to infiltrate a Miami gang of bored, rich, troublemaking supernaturals, she can't resist the excitement. As she becomes dangerously entangled in the plot she has no choice but to turn to her crooked werewolf ex-boyfriend, and the heir to the Cortez Cabal, for help.

In typical Kelley Armstrong fashion, Personal Demon takes the reader on an energetic ride through the supernatural world and the human one, bringing them together to create one huge devilish adventure.

Living with the Dead

Women of the Otherworld: Book 9

The men and women of the Otherworld - witches, werewolves, demons, vampires - live unseen among us. Only now a reckless killer has torn down the wall, trapping one very human woman in the supernatural crossfire.

Robyn moved to LA after her husband died to try to put some distance between herself and the life they had together. And the challenges of her job as the PR consultant to a Paris Hilton wannabe are pretty distracting. But then her celebutante is gunned down in a night club, and Robyn is suddenly the prime suspect. The two people most determined to clear her are her old friend, the half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams, and a homicide detective with an uncanny affinity for the dead.

Soon Robyn finds herself in the heart of a world she never even knew existed -; and which she was safer knowing nothing about...

Frostbitten

Women of the Otherworld: Book 10

Smart, sexy, supernatural--the men and women of the Otherworld live and love, fight and die, among us. Unseen and unsuspected, this realm of witches, ghosts, and werewolves is now threatened with exposure by a brutal series of bizarre murders that has left even the supernatural world baffled--and cold with terror....

Being the world's only female werewolf has its advantages, such as having her pick of the Otherworld's most desirable males. And Elena Michaels couldn't have picked a more dangerously sexy and undyingly loyal mate than Clayton Danvers. Now their bond will be put to the ultimate test as they follow a bloody trail of gruesome slayings deep into Alaska's frozen wilderness.

There's nothing the werewolf community dislikes more than calling attention to itself. So when a pair of rogue man-eaters begins hunting humans, it's up to Elena and Clayton to track down the predators. But any illusions their task would be simple are quickly dispelled. For even in werewolf terms, there's something very disturbing taking place in the dark Alaskan forests. A werewolf more wolf than human and more unnatural than supernatural is on the hunt--a creature whose origins seem to spring from ancient legends of the shape-shifting Wendigo.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Clayton and Elena find themselves confronting painful ghosts from their pasts--and an issue neither of them is eager to discuss. For one of them has been chosen to become the new Pack leader, and as every wolf knows, there can be only one Alpha. They've always been equals in everything. Now, when their survival depends more than ever on perfect teamwork, will instinct allow one of them to lead…and the other to follow?

Waking the Witch

Women of the Otherworld: Book 11

The new novel in Kelley Armstrong's bestselling Women of the Otherworld series showcases the fascinating Savannah Levine, a powerful young witch with a rebellious past and a troublesome heritage.

The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at twenty-one she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town, as a favour to one of the agency's associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes.

Soon Savannah is in over her head. She's run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn't her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she's ever had to learn.

Spell Bound

Women of the Otherworld: Book 12

Kelley Armstrong returns with an exciting new follow-up to her national bestselling book Waking the Witch.

Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she's powerless to help herself. At the conclusion of Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would help a young girl. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise.

And now, witch-hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell-casting talent, the thing she counts on most. In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Spell Bound gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jaime, Hope and others, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within.

Thirteen

Women of the Otherworld: Book 13

The exciting, page-turning LAST episode of Kelley Armstrong's acclaimed, bestselling Women of the Otherworld series!

Savannah Levine, a young witch of remarkable power and a dangerous pedigree, staggers away from a bomb blast in New Orleans, glad that she's managed to rescue her half-brother Bryce from the supernatural revolutionaries who'd held him captive. But everyone and everything she holds dear is still at risk. The reveal movement has shaken the Otherworld to its core and the resulting chaos has thinned the boundaries between dimensions, allowing creatures of the deeper realms to break through and wreak havoc on supernaturals but also on innocent humans.

Although she's been temporarily stripped her of her powers, Savannah knows she has a crucial part to play in this war of survival. In fact the fate of her loved ones--of Adam, the friend she hopes will become a lover; of Paige and Lucas, her guardians; of the werewolf Pack and Jaime Vegas; of a pregnant Hope; of her brothers Sean and Bryce--and of the human world rests on her shoulders. If she can find the way and the will to defend them.

Only in the final battle will Savannah find out her true capacities, and what love will drive her to do. In 13, Kelley Armstrong brings her powerful and unique saga to a deeply satisfying end: thrilling, surprising and harrowing.

Brazen

Women of the Otherworld: Book 14

Nick Sorrentino knows everyone in the supernatural world considers him the Pack's playboy, the pretty but not very useful werewolf whose only reputation involves his amorous exploits.

Usually, Nick couldn't care less what anyone outside the Pack thinks of him. But when it affects his hunt for Malcolm Danvers, a psychotic bogeyman from the Pack's past, it matters.

Necessity forces Nick to team up with mercenary half-demon Vanessa Callas to run Malcolm to ground in Detroit. Together, they discover Malcolm is more deadly than ever. And he wants to play.

It's time for Nick to prove he's not just a lover.

He's a fighter.

Forsaken

Women of the Otherworld: Book 15

Three years after being named Alpha of the North American pack, Elena Michaels is in London battling for respect from the British pack. When it becomes apparent she won't get it, she heads home, expecting a much-needed rest on her family vacation, only to discover a battle brewing of a very different kind.

One of her eight-year-old twins has disappeared, and all evidence points to Malcolm Danvers. It seems as if the psychotic former Pack member they've been tracking for the past year has brought the fight to them, setting the bait he knows Elena can't afford to ignore.

Otherworld Nights

Women of the Otherworld Collections: Book 5

Rare and never-before published short stories featuring fan favorites from the New York Times bestselling series

It's been more than ten years since Kelley Armstrong began the Otherworld series and drew legions of fans to a realm roamed by witches, werewolves, necromancers, vampires, and half-demons. Many of the novels have become bestselling favorites, but not all of the Otherworld adventures have been easy to find. At last, Otherworld Nights shares short stories that have previously been available only online or in obscure collections. Fans have long been clamoring for this anthology and they won't be disappointed--they'll find plenty of surprises are in store.

Otherworld Secrets

Women of the Otherworld Collections: Book 6

Kelley Armstrong captivated readers with her Sunday Times bestselling Women of the Otherworld series of supernatural thrillers. Now her characters return in this gripping anthology.

The collection begins with a brand-new novella featuring werewolf Karl Marsden and half-demon Hope, in what might be Karl's last heist. Meanwhile Elena and Clay are trapped in a wintry small town with a killer on the loose, in the fast-paced and atmospheric novella 'Forbidden'.

In 'Angelic', former black witch and part-time angel Eve is sent on a dangerous mission by the Fates, while necromancer Jaime tackles a ghost with a seriously bad attitude in 'The Ungrateful Dead'. Zoe Takano is forced to defend her territory in the hugely entertaining 'Zen and the Art of Vampirism'. And in the final novella, 'Counterfeit Magic', Paige Winterbourne and Lucas Cortez take on a troubling case that will change the couple for ever.

Table of Contents:

Life After Theft - (2015) - novella
Forbidden - (2012) - novella
Angelic - (2009) - novella
The Ungrateful Dead - (2008) - shortfiction
Zen and the Art of Vampirism - (2009) - shortfiction
Counterfeit Magic - (2010) - novella

Otherworld Chills

Women of the Otherworld Collections: Book 7

Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction

In this thrilling and hugely entertaining collection of novellas and short stories, Kelley Armstrong returns one last time to her bestselling Otherworld series. Among other tales, the werewolf pack is on the hunt for an old and very dangerous enemy; two very different vampires attempt to settle an old feud; a supernatural date turns hot enough to burn down a building and - in a brand-new novella - Paige and Lucas have a huge decision to make about their future.

Featuring much-loved characters, this final collection completes several important storylines, making it a must-have for Kelley Armstrong's many fans.

Driven

Cains are known for being big, brutish and not-too-bright. The mutt clan embodies all the supernatural world's worst stereotypes about werewolves. But not even the Cains deserve to be hunted down and skinned like animals.

When young Davis Cain comes to the Pack for help, Alpha Elena Michaels can't refuse him. It isn't about morality or justice. It's about not letting anyone think they can do this to werewolves and get away with it.

But Elena is also dealing with the Pack's homegrown monster--Malcolm Danvers, onetime enforcer, full-time psycho. Malcolm is now under Elena's control, as part of the most difficult decision she's had to make as leader. But if she has to let Malcolm in, she's going to make full use of him... and the best person to catch monsters is one who knows exactly how they think.

Hidden

Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction: Book 45

Hiking through the snow, holiday baking and playing board games by the fire--what's not to love about an old-fashioned family Christmas--Werewolves Elena Michaels and Clayton Danvers want to give their four-year-old twins, Kate and Logan, something their parents never had: a nice, normal holiday. No Pack responsibilities, no homicidal half-demons or power-hungry sorcerers to deal with--just the four of them, alone, at a chalet outside Ontario's Algonquin Park. Then a strange werewolf shows up at their door...while the town is buzzing about a young man, back from college, found half-eaten in the woods. And there's the missing little girl...

With all the signs pointing to a rogue mutt with a taste for human flesh, Elena and Clay have no choice but to investigate. But are they the hunters--or the hunted?

Forbidden

Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction: Book 46

The team-spirit sign by the side of the highway seems a good omen to loner Morgan Walsh, as he drives to what could be the most important visit of his life--a chance to join the North American Pack. Then he wakes naked in the woods, surrounded by wolf tracks and a ring of suspicious cops. The situation only gets worse when he's bailed out by Alpha-elect Elena Michaels and Clayton Danvers, her terrifying enforcer and mate.

Disappointed that such a promising young werewolf risked exposing them, Elena isn't expecting anything from the pesky retrieval job except some much-needed alone time with Clay. Instead, she finds a different kind of evil stalking the streets and forests of Westwood, New York. Trapped in town by a snowstorm and sabotage, Elena, Clay and Morgan must find the mysterious threat before it sets its sights on them.

Amityville Horrible

Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction: Book 50

Jaime Vegas--spiritualist, entertainer and, unbeknownst to her audience, real-life necromancer--swore she'd never do another reality ghost show after the last fiasco. But when she's railroaded into a charity gig, she finds herself back on the set, this time with a cast of photogenic college kids, an up-and-coming Russian spiritualist, and a tale of missing girls and murder in New England. It's cheesy, but that's show business. With her werewolf Alpha lover, Jeremy Danvers, along to keep her nights interesting, it's not so bad really. Until the bloody ghosts show up. Jaime has never faced spirits like these, and no matter how hard she tries, they won't be ignored.

The Summoning

Women of the Otherworld: Darkest Powers: Book 1

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost-and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

The Awakening

Women of the Otherworld: Darkest Powers: Book 2

You don't have to be alive to be awakened.

Chloe Saunders is a living science experiment-not only can she see ghosts, but she was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. She's a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control, which means she can raise the dead without even trying. Now Chloe's running for her life with three of her supernatural friends-a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch-and they have to find someone who can help them before the Edison Group catches them.

Or die trying.

The Reckoning

Women of the Otherworld: Darkest Powers: Book 3

The gripping finale to the New York Times bestselling Darkest Powers trilogy!

In the end, there's always a reckoning.

Chloe Saunders's life is not what you would call normal. First of all, she can't figure out how she feels about a certain antisocial werewolf or his charming brother-who just happens to be a sorcerer. Then there's the fact that she's running for her life from an evil corporation that's trying to kill her and her supernatural friends. And finally, she's a genetically altered necromancer who can raise the dead, rotting corpses and all, without even trying.

Not normal.

But Chloe has a plan. And the end is very near.

The Gathering

Women of the Otherworld: Darkness Rising: Book 1

An ordinary town... full of deadly secrets

Strange things have been happening in sixteen-year-old Maya's small Vancouver Island community-from the mountain lions that have been constantly approaching her to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations. There's also a sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel... different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

The Calling

Women of the Otherworld: Darkness Rising: Book 2

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is-a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

In The Calling, the sizzling second book in the Darkness Rising trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong pumps up the romance, danger, and suspense that left readers of The Gathering clamoring for more.

The Rising

Women of the Otherworld: Darkness Rising: Book 3

The World Fantasy Awards, Volume Two

Things are getting desperate for Maya and her friends. Hunted by the powerful St. Clouds and now a rival Cabal as well, they're quickly running out of places to hide. And with the whole world thinking they died in a helicopter crash, it's not like they can just go to the authorities for help.

All they have is the name and number of someone who might be able to give them a few answers. Answers to why they're so valuable, and why their supernatural powers are getting more and more out of control.

But Maya is unprepared for the truths that await her. And now, like it or not, she'll have to face down some demons from her past if she ever hopes to move on with her life. Because Maya can't keep running forever.

Old secrets are revealed and unexpected characters make a surprising return in this stunning conclusion to Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Darkness Rising trilogy.

World Fantasy Awards: Book 2

Fritz Leiber
Stuart David Schiff

Table of Contents:

Preface - essay by Stuart David Schiff
Introduction: Terror, Mystery, Wonder - essay by Fritz Leiber
The Whimper of Whipped Dogs - (1973) - short story by Harlan Ellison
Jerusalem's Lot - (1978) - novelette by Stephen King
The October Game - (1948) - short story by Ray Bradbury
Smoke Ghost - (1941) - short story by Fritz Leiber
Belsen Express - (1975) - short story by Fritz Leiber
Special Award--Professional, Donald M. Grant - (1980) - essay by uncredited
Special Award--Professional, Alternate World Recording, Inc. - essay by uncredited
The King's Shadow Has No Limits - (1975) - short story by Avram Davidson
The Ghastly Priest Doth Reign - (1975) - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
A Visitor from Egypt - (1930) - short story by Frank Belknap Long
It Only Comes Out at Night - (1976) - short story by Dennis Etchison
The Barrow Troll - (1975) - short story by David Drake
Special Award--Non-Professional, Carcosa - (1980) - essay by Stuart David Schiff
Special Award--Non-Professional: Stuart David Schiff--Whispers - essay by uncredited
Two Suns Setting - (1976) - novelette by Karl Edward Wagner
The Companion - (1976) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
Best Artist--Frank Frazetta - essay by uncredited
Best Artist--Roger Dean - essay by uncredited
There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding - (1976) - novelette by Russell Kirk
Appendix: World Fantasy Awards 1973-1976 - essay by uncredited

The Lavalite World

World of Tiers: Book 5

The 1972 Annual World's Best SF

The Lavalite World is a world of slow but constant change. The very landscape moves. Here mountains rise from plains or sink into rifts. New oceans form as vast hollows collapse and seas rush in. And there is only one escape from this bizarre planet: the one gateway to other universes is in the palace of the Lord Urthona. Paul Janus Finnegan - also known as Kjckaha - must reach it if he is to survive. And he must do so despite the Lords Urthona and Red Ore, the hired thug McKay, flesh-eating vegetation on the run, assorted strange beasts of prey, and planetary pseudopods . . .

World's Best SF: Book 8

The 1973 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1972 Annual World's Best SF) - (1972) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
The Fourth Profession - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
Gleepsite - (1971) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
The Bear with the Knot on His Tail - (1971) - novelette by Stephen Tall
The Sharks of Pentreath - (1971) - shortstory by Michael G. Coney
A Little Knowledge - (1971) - novelette by Poul Anderson
Real-Time World - (1971) - novelette by Christopher Priest
All Pieces of a River Shore - (1970) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
With Friends Like These... - (1971) - shortstory by Alan Dean Foster
Aunt Jennie's Tonic - (1971) - shortstory by Leonard Tushnet
Timestorm - (1971) - shortstory by Eddy C. Bertin (trans. of Tijdstorm)
Transit of Earth - (1971) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
Gehenna - (1971) - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty - (1970) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
Occam's Scalpel - (1971) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon

World's Best SF: Book 9

The 1974 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1973 Annual World's Best SF) - (1973) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Goat Song - (1972) - novelette by Poul Anderson
The Man Who Walked Home - (1972) - shortstory by James Tiptree, Jr.
Oh, Valinda! - (1972) - novelette by Michael G. Coney
The Gold at the Starbow's End - (1972) - novella by Frederik Pohl
To Walk a City's Street - (1972) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
Rorqual Maru - (1972) - novelette by T. J. Bass
Changing Woman - (1972) - shortstory by W. Macfarlane
"Willie's Blues" - (1972) - novelette by Robert J. Tilley
Long Shot - (1972) - shortstory by Vernor Vinge
Thus Love Betrays Us - (1972) - shortstory by Phyllis MacLennon

World's Best SF: Book 10

The 1975 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1974 Annual World's Best SF) - (1974) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
A Suppliant in Space - (1973) - novelette by Robert Sheckley
Parthen - (1973) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
Doomship - [Cuckoo] - (1973) - novella by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson
Weed of Time - (1970) - shortstory by Norman Spinrad
A Modest Genius - (1973) - shortstory by Vadim Shefner (trans. of 1963)
The Deathbird - (1973) - novelette by Harlan Ellison
Evane - (1973) - shortstory by E. C. Tubb
Moby, Too - (1973) - novelette by Gordon Eklund
Death and Designation Among the Asadi - (1973) - novella by Michael Bishop
Construction Shack - (1973) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak

World's Best SF: Book 11

The 1976 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1975 Annual World's Best SF) - (1975) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
A Song for Lya - (1974) - novella by George R. R. Martin
Deathsong - (1974) - novella by Sydney J. Van Scyoc
A Full Member of the Club - (1974) - novelette by Bob Shaw
The Sun's Tears - (1974) - shortstory by Brian Stableford
The Gift of Garigolli - (1974) - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl
The Four-Hour Fugue - (1974) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
Twig - (1974) - novelette by Gordon R. Dickson
Cathadonian Odyssey - (1974) - shortstory by Michael Bishop
The Bleeding Man - (1974) - novelette by Craig Strete
Stranger in Paradise - (1974) - novelette by Isaac Asimov

World's Best SF: Book 12

The 1977 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1976 Annual World's Best SF) - (1976) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Catch That Zeppelin! - (1975) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
The Peddler's Apprentice - (1975) - novelette by Joan D. Vinge and Vernor Vinge
The Bees of Knowledge - (1975) - novelette by Barrington J. Bayley
The Storms of Windhaven - (1975) - novella by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle
The Engineer and the Executioner - (1975) - novelette by Brian Stableford
Allegiances - (1975) - novella by Michael Bishop
Child of All Ages - (1975) - shortstory by P. J. Plauger
Helbent 4 - (1975) - novelette by Stephen Robinett
The Protocols of the Elders of Britain - (1974) - shortstory by John Brunner
The Custodians - (1975) - novelette by Richard Cowper

World's Best SF: Book 13

The 1978 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1977 Annual World's Best SF) - (1977) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Appearance of Life - (1976) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - (1976) - novelette by John Varley
Those Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel - (1976) - shortstory by Michael G. Coney
The Hertford Manuscript - (1976) - novelette by Richard Cowper
Natural Advantage - (1976) - shortstory by Lester del Rey
The Bicentennial Man - (1976) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
The Cabinet of Oliver Naylor - (1976) - novelette by Barrington J. Bayley
My Boat - (1976) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? - (1976) - novella by James Tiptree, Jr.
I See You - (1976) - shortstory by Damon Knight

World's Best SF: Book 14

The 1979 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1978 Annual World's Best SF) - (1978) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
In the Hall of the Martian Kings - (1976) - novella by John Varley
A Time to Live - (1977) - shortstory by Joe Haldeman
The House of Compassionate Sharers - (1977) - novelette by Michael Bishop
Particle Theory - (1977) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
The Taste of the Dish and the Savor of the Day - (1977) - novelette by John Brunner
Jeffty Is Five - (1977) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
The Screwfly Solution - (1977) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
Eyes of Amber - (1977) - novelette by Joan D. Vinge
Child of the Sun - (1977) - novelette by James E. Gunn
Brother - (1977) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak

World's Best SF: Book 15

The 1980 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1979 Annual World's Best SF) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Come to the Party - (1978) - novelette by Frank Herbert and F. M. Busby
Creator - (1978) - novelette by David J. Lake
Dance Band on the Titanic - (1978) - novelette by Jack L. Chalker
Cassandra - (1978) - shortstory by C. J. Cherryh
In Alien Flesh - (1978) - novelette by Gregory Benford
SQ - (1978) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Persistence of Vision - (1978) - novella by John Varley
We Who Stole the Dream - (1978) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
Scattershot - (1978) - novelette by Greg Bear
Carruthers' Last Stand - (1978) - novelette by Dan Henderson

World's Best SF: Book 16

The 1981 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1980 Annual World's Best SF) - (1980) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
The Way of Cross and Dragon - (1979) - novelette by George R. R. Martin
The Thirteenth Utopia - (1979) - shortstory by S. P. Somtow
Options - (1979) - novelette by John Varley
Unaccompanied Sonata - (1979) - shortstory by Orson Scott Card
The Story Writer - (1979) - novella by Richard Wilson
Daisy, in the Sun - (1979) - shortstory by Connie Willis
The Locusts - (1979) - novelette by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
The Thaw - (1979) - novelette by Tanith Lee
Out There Where the Big Ships Go - (1979) - novelette by Richard Cowper
Can These Bones Live? - (1979) - shortstory by Ted Reynolds
The Extraordinary Voyages of Amélie Bertrand - (1979) - shortstory by Joanna Russ

World's Best SF: Book 17

The 1982 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1981 Annual World's Best SF) - (1981) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Variation on a Theme from Beethoven - (1980) - novelette by Sharon Webb
Beatnik Bayou - (1980) - novelette by John Varley
Elbow Room - (1980) - novelette by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Ugly Chickens - (1980) - novelette by Howard Waldrop
Prime Time - (1980) - shortstory by Norman Spinrad
Nightflyers - (1980) - novella by George R. R. Martin
A Spaceship Built of Stone - (1980) - shortstory by Lisa Tuttle
Window - (1980) - shortstory by Bob Leman
The Summer Sweet, the Winter Wild - (1980) - shortstory by Michael G. Coney
Achronos - (1980) - shortstory by Lee Killough

World's Best SF: Book 18

The 1983 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1982 Annual World's Best SF) - (1982) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Blind Spot - (1981) - shortstory by Jayge Carr
Highliner - (1981) - novelette by C. J. Cherryh
The Pusher - (1981) - shortstory by John Varley
Polyphemus - (1981) - novella by Michael Shea
Absent Thee from Felicity Awhile... - (1981) - shortstory by S. P. Somtow
Out of the Everywhere - (1981) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
Slac// - (1981) - novelette by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
The Cyphertone - (1981) - shortstory by S. C. Sykes
Through All Your Houses Wandering - (1981) - novella by Ted Reynolds
The Last Day of Christmas - (1981) - novelette by David J. Lake

World's Best SF: Book 19

The 1984 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1983 Annual World's Best SF) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
The Scourge - (1982) - novella by James White
A Letter from the Clearys - (1982) - shortstory by Connie Willis
Farmer on the Dole - (1982) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
Playing the Game - (1982) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann
Pawn's Gambit - (1982) - novelette by Timothy Zahn
The Comedian - (1982) - shortstory by Tim Sullivan
Written in Water - (1982) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
Souls - (1982) - novella by Joanna Russ
Swarm - (1982) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
Peg-Man - (1982) - shortstory by Rudy Rucker

World's Best SF: Book 20

The 1985 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1984 Annual World's Best SF) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Blood Music - (1983) - novelette by Greg Bear
Potential - (1983) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
Knight of Shallows - (1983) - novelette by Rand B. Lee
Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair - (1983) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
In the Face of My Enemy - (1983) - novella by Joseph H. Delaney
The Nanny - (1983) - novelette by Thomas Wylde
The Leaves of October - (1983) - novelette by Don Sakers
As Time Goes By - (1983) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
The Harvest of Wolves - (1983) - shortstory by Mary Gentle
Homefaring - (1983) - novella by Robert Silverberg

World's Best SF: Book 21

The 1986 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1985 Annual World's Best SF) - (1985) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
The Picture Man - (1984) - shortstory by John Dalmas
Cash Crop - (1984) - novelette by Connie Willis
We Remember Babylon - (1984) - novelette by Ian Watson
What Makes Us Human - (1984) - novelette by Stephen R. Donaldson
Salvador - (1984) - shortstory by Lucius Shepard
Press Enter [] - (1984) - novella by John Varley
The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything - (1984) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
Bloodchild - (1984) - novelette by Octavia E. Butler
The Coming of the Goonga - (1984) - shortstory by Gary W. Shockley
Medra - (1984) - shortstory by Tanith Lee

World's Best SF: Book 22

The 1987 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1986 Annual World's Best SF) - (1986) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Earthgate - (1985) - novelette by J. Brian Clarke
On the Dream Channel Panel - (1985) - shortstory by Ian Watson
The Gods of Mars - (1985) - novelette by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann and Michael Swanwick
The Jaguar Hunter - (1985) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
Sailing to Byzantium - (1985) - novella by Robert Silverberg
Webrider - (1985) - shortstory by Jayge Carr
With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole - (1985) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
The Curse of Kings - (1985) - novella by Connie Willis
Fermi and Frost - (1985) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
Pots - (1985) - novelette by C. J. Cherryh

World's Best SF: Book 23

The 1988 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1987 Annual World's Best SF) - (1987) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Permafrost - (1986) - novelette by Roger Zelazny
Timerider - (1986) - novelette by Doris Egan
Pretty Boy Crossover - (1986) - shortstory by Pat Cadigan
R & R - (1986) - novella by Lucius Shepard
Lo, How an Oak E'er Blooming - (1986) - shortstory by Suzette Haden Elgin
Dream in a Bottle - (1986) - shortstory by Jerry Meredith and D. E. Smirl
Into Gold - (1986) - novelette by Tanith Lee
The Lions Are Asleep This Night - (1986) - novelette by Howard Waldrop
Against Babylon - (1986) - novelette by Robert Silverberg
Strangers on Paradise - (1986) - shortstory by Damon Knight

World's Best SF: Book 24

The 1989 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1988 Annual World's Best SF) - (1988) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
The Pardoner's Tale - (1987) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
Rachel in Love - (1987) - novelette by Pat Murphy
America - (1987) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
Crying in the Rain - (1987) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
The Sun Spider - (1987) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
Angel - (1987) - shortstory by Pat Cadigan
Forever Yours, Anna - (1987) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
Second Going - (1987) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
Dinosaurs - (1987) - novelette by Walter Jon Williams
All Fall Down - (1987) - novelette by Don Sakers

World's Best SF: Book 25

The 1990 Annual World's Best SF

Table of Contents:

Introduction - essay by Isaac Asimov
The Giving Plague - (1988) - shortstory by David Brin
Peaches for Mad Molly - (1988) - novelette by Steven Gould
Shaman - (1988) - novelette by John Shirley
Schrödinger's Kitten - (1988) - novelette by George Alec Effinger
The Flies of Memory - (1988) - novella by Ian Watson
Skin Deep - (1988) - shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A Madonna of the Machine - (1988) - novelette by Tanith Lee
Waiting for the Olympians - (1988) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog - (1988) - shortstory by B. W. Clough
Adrift Among the Ghosts - (1988) - shortstory by Jack L. Chalker
Ripples in the Dirac Sea - (1988) - shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis

World's Best SF: Book 26

Journey to the Underground World

Table of Contents:

Introduction (The 1990 Annual World's Best SF) - essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Alphas - (1989) - novelette by Gregory Benford
The Magic Bullet - (1989) - novelette by Brian Stableford
North of the Abyss - (1989) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
Chiprunner - (1989) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
Abe Lincoln in McDonald's - (1989) - shortstory by James Morrow
Death Ship - (1989) - shortfiction by Barrington J. Bayley
In Translation - (1989) - shortfiction by Lisa Tuttle
A Sleep and a Forgetting - (1989) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
Not Without Honor - (1989) - novelette by Judith Moffett
Dogwalker - (1989) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
Surrender - (1989) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
War Fever - (1989) - novelette by J. G. Ballard

Master of the World

Worldshaper: Book 2

Edward Willett

Shawna Keys has fled the world she only recently discovered she Shaped, narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Adversary who seized control of it...and losing her only guide, Karl Yatsar, in the process.

Now she finds herself alone in some other Shaper's world, where, in her first two hours, she's rescued from a disintegrating island by an improbable flying machine she recognizes from Jules Verne's Robur the Conqueror, then seized from it by raiders flying tiny personal helicopters, and finally taken to a submarine that bears a strong resemblance to Captain Nemo's Nautilus. Oh, and accused of being both a spy and a witch.

Shawna expects--hopes!--Karl Yatsar will eventually follow her into this new steampunky realm, but exactly where and when he'll show up, she hasn't a clue.

In the meantime, she has to navigate a world where two factions fanatically devoted to their respective leaders are locked in perpetual combat, figure out who the Shaper of the world is, find him or her, and obtain the secret knowledge of this world's Shaping. Then she has to somehow reconnect with Karl Yatsar, and escape to the next Shaped world in the Labyrinth...through a Portal she has no idea how to open.

The Moonlit World

Worldshaper: Book 3

Edward Willett

In which one woman's powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions...

Fresh from their adventures in a world inspired by Jules Verne, Shawna Keys and Karl Yatsar find themselves in a world that mirrors much darker tales. Beneath a full moon that hangs motionless in the sky, they're forced to flee terrifying creatures that can only be vampires...only to run straight into a pack of werewolves.

As the lycanthropes and undead battle, Karl is spirited away to the castle of the vampire queen. Meanwhile, Shawna finds short-lived refuge in a fortified village, where she learns that something has gone horribly wrong with the world in which she finds herself. Once, werewolves, vampires, and humans lived there harmoniously. Now every group is set against every other, and entire villages are being mysteriously emptied of people.

Somehow, Karl and Shawna must reunite, discover the mysteries of the Shaping of this strange world, and escape it for the next, without being sucked dry, devoured, or--worst of all--turned into creatures of the night themselves.

Beneath the frozen, gibbous moon, allies, enemies, surprises, adventures, and unsettling revelations await.

Zanthodon: Book 1