Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared on Strange Horizons, 28 September 2009. It can also be found in the anthology Tails of Wonder and Imagination (2010), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

This short story originally appeared in Fantasy Magazine, January 2010. It is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read the full story for free at Fantasy Magazine.

This short story originally appeared in the collection Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002), and was reprinted on Strange Horizons, 30 May 2011. It can also be found in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

This story of birds who have lost the power of flight is about the confluence of gender roles, power plays, sex, pride, and desperation. So of course it is very funny.

This story originally appeared in on Sci Fiction, November 17, 2004. It can also be found in the anthologies Science Fiction: The Best of 2004, edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan, The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2 (2006), edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin and Jeffrey D. Smith, and Digital Domains: A Decade of Science Fiction & Fantasy (2010), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read this story online for free at the Sci Fiction archive.

This story explores war from typically Emshwilleresque viewpoints. Soldiers are unsure of who they are, who they are fighting, or why. War is the question, not the subject.

Two armies of men exist in the mountains on either side of a valley. The women live in villages between them and bear sons and daughters for both sides, though their sons are always stolen to join the war effort. The men have been fighting so long, no one even knows how it started. The women, however, have decided to end it--no matter what the price.

This story originally appeared on Sci Fiction, January 28, 2003. It can also be found in the anthologies The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1 (2005) and Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (2015). The story is included in the collections I Live With You (2005) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read this story online for free at the Sci Fiction archive.

In this dangerous and sharp-eyed look at men, women, and the world we live in, everything is changing: women are turning into animals, and animals are turning into women. Pooch, a golden setter, is turning into a beautiful woman -- although she still has some of her canine traits: she just can't shuck that loyalty thing -- and her former owner has turned into a snapping turtle. When the turtle tries to take a bite of her own baby, Pooch snatches the baby and runs. Meanwhile, there's a dangerous wolverine on the loose, men are desperately trying to figure out what's going on, and Pooch discovers what she really wants: to sing Carmen.

Carmen Dog is the funny feminist classic that inspired writers Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler to create the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award.

This short story originally appeared in Cavalier, October 1966. It can also be found in the anthology SF 12 (1968), edited by Judith Merril. The story is included in the collections Joy in Our Cause (1974), The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories (1990), and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

Nebula Award winning short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 2001. It can also be found in the Nebula Awards Showcase 2004, edited by Vonda N. McIntyre and the collections Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1959. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The 5th Annual of the Year's Best S-F (1960), edited by Judith Merril
• An ABC of Science Fiction (1966), edited by Tom Boardman, Jr.
• SF: The Best of the Best (1967), edited by Judith Merril
• Beyond Armageddon: Twenty-One Sermons to the Dead (1985), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• The Great SF Stories 21 (1959) (1990), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Isaac Asimov

The story is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2002. It can be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 8 (2003), edited by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell, Superheroes (2013), edited by Rich Horton and the Nebula Awards Showcase 2005, edited by Jack Dann. The story is collected in Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

Read the full story for free at belletrista.com.

In the future, a couple go on a hunting trip of the contemporaneously luxurious variety, with the aid of a robot which takes the work and the risk out of the enterprise, along with much of the point.

This short story originally appeared in Science Fiction Stories, May 1957. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Best Science Fiction Stories and Novels: 9th Series (1958), edited by T. E. Dikty
• Science Fiction Inventions (1967), edited by Damon Knight
• The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction (1980), edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
• Machines That Kill (1984), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Fred Saberhagen
• The Great SF Stories 19 (1957) (1989), edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg

The story is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2005. It can also be found in the anthologies The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 17 (2006), edited by Stephen Jones and the Nebula Awards Showcase 2007, as well as the collections I Live with You (2005) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

I Live With You is a sophisticated collection of fierce, compassionate fiction marked by an absurdist sense of humor. A contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Fay Weldon, Carol Emshwiller has been lauded for her originality and lyricism. These striking short stories skillfully explore themes of war, seduction, and censorship: An Eden emerges from the wreckage of burning books in "The Library," "Boys" sets a weary general and his sons against a village of determined mothers, and "I Live With You (and You Don't Know It)" brings a necessary chaos from an uninvited guest.

Table of Contents:

• Do Not Remove This Tag - essay by Eileen Gunn
• The Library - (2004) - short story
• I Live with You and You Don't Know It - (2005) - short story
• The Prince of Mules - (2002) - short story
• Boys - (2003) - short story
• The Doctor - (2002) - short story
• Bountiful City - short story
• Coo People - (2003) - short story
• The Assassin, or Being the Loved One - (2004) - short story
• See No Evil, Feel No Joy - short story
• Gliders Though They Be - (2004) - short story
• My General - (2004) - novelette
• Josephine - (2002) - short story
• WisConsin Speech - essay

Bobby Lassiter has some important secrets-but it’s not as if anyone’s paying attention. It’s the middle of the Depression, and while Bobby’s mother and older sister knit all day to make money, Bobby explores the California desert around their home. That’s how Bobby finds Boots. He’s under their one half-dead tree, halfdead himself. Right away he’s a secret, too-a secret to be fed and clothed and taken care of, and even more of a secret because of what he can do. Sometimes Boots is a man. Sometimes he’s (really, truly) a horse. He and Bobby both know something about magic-and those who read this book will, too.

This short story originally appeared in the collection The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories (1990). It can also be found in the anthololgy The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifth Annual Collection (1992), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

This short story originally appeared in Omni, August 1993. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and Blood and Other Cravings: Original Stories of Vampires and Vampirism by Today's Greatest Writers of Dark Fiction (2011), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story is included in the collections Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

Read the story for free at Small Beer Press.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, July 2010. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, edited by Rich Horton and Lightspeed: Year One (2011), edited by John Joseph Adams. It is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared on Strange Horizons, 24 May 2010. It is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1958 and was reprinted in Venture Science Fiction (UK), August 1964. It can also be foundin the anthologies SF: '59: The Year's Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy (1959), edited by Judith Merril, A Pocketful of Stars (1971), edited by Damon Knight, The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, and The Future Is Female!: 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin (2018), edited by Lisa Yaszek. It is included in the collections The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories (1990) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy (2006), edited by Sharyn November. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 12 (2012), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The story is included in the collection The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 2 (2016).

What if the world ended on your birthday--and no one came? What if your grandmother was a superhero? Recommended to readers of Judy Budnitz, Geoff Ryman, Aimee Bender, and Grace Paley this fourth collection by the wonderful Carol Emshwiller includes the Nebula winning story "Creature."

Table of Contents:

• Grandma - (2002) - shortstory
• The Paganini of Jacob's Gully - (2002) - shortstory
• Modillion - (1994) - shortstory
• Mrs. Jones - (1993) - shortstory
• Acceptance Speech - (1990) - shortstory
• One Part of the Self Is Always Tall and Dark - (1977) - shortstory
• Foster Mother - (2001) - shortstory
• Creature - (2001) - shortstory
• The Project - (2001) - shortstory
• It Comes from Deep Inside - (2002) - shortstory
• Prejudice and Pride - (2002) - shortstory
• Report to the Men's Club - (2002) - shortstory
• Overlooking - (2002) - shortstory
• Water Master - (2002) - shortstory
• Abominable - (1980) - shortstory
• Desert Child - (2002) - shortstory
• Venus Rising - (1992) - novelette
• Nose - (2002) - shortstory
• After All - (2002) - shortstory

This short story originally appeared in Omni, February 1987, and was reprinted on Strange Horizons, 30 April 2001. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection (1988), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and Omni Visions Two (1994), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story is included in the collections The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories (1990) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2012).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

Charley is an athlete. He wants to be painted crossing the finish line, in his racing silks, with a medal around his neck. But Charley isn't a runner. He is a human mount, the property of one of the alien invaders called Hoots. Charley hasn't seen his mother in years, and his father is hiding out in the mountains with the other Free Humans. The Hoots own the world, but the humans want it back. Charley knows how to be a good mount-now he's going to have to learn how to be a human being.

This remarkable novel, winner of the 2002 Philip K. Dick Award, should be read by every fan of speculative fiction, teenagers and adults alike.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 2001. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection (2002), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. The story is included in the collections Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002) and The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (2011).

Written in a voice that is accessible to both mainstream and genre readers, this gripping tale contains a contemporary political subtext that is packed with humanism, complexity, and subtle humor. This inventive story centers on a mysterious enclave protecting a lost culture, a hidden city in the wilderness where stranded aliens struggle to preserve their fragile society. Hoping for a better life, many have fled the Secret City in favor of trying to survive in the harsh human world; others remain concealed, living out a fading memory in hope of deliverance. When the mythical rescuers suddenly arrive, insisting on an immediate interplanetary return, these very-human aliens discover that neither world is truly their own.

Eighteen stories deal with alien worlds, extraterrestrial invaders, crossbreeds, animals, and lonely city-dwellers.

Table of Contents:

• The Start of the End of It All - (1981) - short story
• Looking Down - (1990) - short story
• Eclipse - (1986) - short story
• The Circular Library of Stones - (1987) - short story
• Fledged - (1988) - short story
• Vilcabamba - (1987) - short story
• Acceptance Speech - short story
• If the Word Was to the Wise - short story
• Living at the Center - (1989) - short story
• Moon Songs - short story
• But Soft, What Light ... - (1966) - short story
• Pelt - (1958) - short story
• Début - (1970) - short story
• The Institute - (1970) - short story
• Woman Waiting - (1970) - short story
• Chicken Icarus - (1966) - short story
• Sex and/or Mr. Morrison - (1967) - short story
• Glory, Glory - short story

Science fiction chapbook based on "The Aquatic Ape" and "The Descent of Woman" by Elaine Morgan. A stunning story of an alien exiled to an exotic world, the peaceful inhabitants he finds there and his attempts to "civilize" them. Collected in Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories and anthologized in Flying Cups and Saucers: Gender Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy (1998).

Crossing the boundaries between fabulist literature, science fiction, and magical realism, the stories in this collection offer a valuable glimpse into the evolution of Carol Emshwiller's ideas and style during her more than 50-year career. Influenced by J. G. Ballard, Steven Millhauser, Philip K. Dick, and Lydia Davis, Emshwiller has a range of works that is impressive and demonstrates her refusal to be labeled or to stick to one genre. This exhilarating new collection marks the first time many of the early stories have been published in book form and is evidence of the genius of Emshwiller, one of America's most versatile and imaginative authors.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay
• Built for Pleasure - 1954 - short story
• The Victim - 1955 - short story
• This Thing Called Love - 1955 - short story
• Love Me Again - 1956 - short story
• The Piece Thing - 1956 - short story
• Bingo and Bongo - 1956 - short story
• Nightmare Call - 1957 - short story
• Murray is for Murder - 1957 - short story
• The Coming - 1957 - short story
• Hunting Machine - 1957 - short story
• Hands - 1957 - short story
• You'll Feel Better... - 1957 - short story
• Two-Step for Six Legs - 1957 - short story
• Baby - 1958 - short story
• Idol's Eye - 1958 - short story
• Pelt - 1958 - short story
• Day at the Beach - 1959 - short story
• Puritan Planet - 1960 - short story
• But Soft, What Light... - 1966 - short story
• Chicken Icarus - 1966 - short story (variant of A Dream of Flying)
• Eohippus - 1967 - short story
• Sex and/or Mr. Morrison - 1967 - short story
• Krashaw - 1967 - short story
• Lib - 1968 - short story
• Animal - 1968 - short story
• Methapyrilene Hydrochloride Sometimes Helps - 1968 - short story
• White Dove - 1969 - short story
• I Love You - 1969 - short story
• The Queen of Sleep - 1970 - short story
• Peninsula - 1970 - short story
• Debut - 1970 - short story
• The Institute - 1970 - short story
• A Possible Episode in the Picaresque Adventures of Mr. J.H.B. Monstrosee - 1971 - short story
• Woman Waiting - 1970 - short story
• Yes, Virginia - 1971 - short story
• Al - 1972 - short story
• Strangers - 1973 - short story
• The Childhood of the Human Hero - 1973 - short story
• Autobiography - 1974 - short story
• Maybe Another Long March Across China 80,000 Strong - 1974 - short story
• Joy in Our Cause - 1974 - short story
• Biography of an Uncircumcised Man (Including Interview) - 1974 - short story
• To the Association - 1974 - short story
• Destinations, Premonitions and the Nature of Anxiety - 1974 - short story
• Dog Is Dead - 1974 - short story
• One Part of the Self Is Always Tall and Dark - 1977 - short story
• Escape Is No Accident - 1977 - short story
• Thanne Longen Folk to Goen on Pilgrimages - 1977 - short story
• Expecting Sunshine and Getting It - 1978 - short story
• Omens - 1980 - short story
• Abominable - 1980 - short story
• The Start of the End of It All - 1981 - short story (variant of The Start of the End of the World)
• Slowly Bumbling in the Void - 1981 - short story
• Queen Kong - 1982 - short story
• The Futility of Fixed Positions - 1982 - short story
• Mental Health and Its Alternative - 1983 - short story
• Verging on the Pertinent - 1984 - short story
• There Is No God But Bog - 1985 - short story
• Eclipse - 1986 - short story
• The Circular Library of Stones - 1987 - short story
• If Not Forever, When? - 1987 - short story
• Vilcabamba - 1987 - short story
• Fledged - 1988 - short story
• The Promise of Undying Love - 1989 - short story
• What Every Woman Knows - 1989 - short story
• Not Burning - 1989 - short story
• Being Mysterious Strangers from Distant Shores - 1989 - short story
• Clerestory - 1989 - short story
• Living at the Center - 1989 - short story
• Yukon - 1989 - short story
• As If - 1989 - short story
• Secrets of the Native Tongue - 1989 - short story
• Moon Songs - 1990 - short story
• Acceptance Speech - 1990 - short story
• Looking Down - 1990 - short story
• Peri - 1990 - short story
• If the Word Was to the Wise - 1990 - short story
• There Is No Evil Angel But Love - 1990 - short story
• Draculalucard - 1991 - short story
• Emissary - 1991 - short story
• Mrs. Jones - 1993 - short story
• Venus Rising - 1992 - novelette
• Modillion - 1994 - short story
• After Shock - 1995 - short story
• The Project - 2001 - short story
• Foster Mother - 2001 - short story
• Creature - 2001 - short story
• Grandma - 2002 - short story

Crossing the boundaries between fabulist literature, science fiction, and magical realism, the stories in this second volume of the Carol Emshwiller collection offer a valuable glimpse into the evolution of her ideas and style during her more than 50-year career. Including all of her fiction to date and additional stories not available in the first volume, this selection of 56 of Emshwiller's works demonstrate a range that is impressive and exemplifies her refusal to be labeled or to stick to one genre. This exhilarating new collection marks the first time many of the early stories have been published in book form and is evidence of the genius of Emshwiller, one of America's most versatile and imaginative authors.

Table of Contents

• Carol Emshwiller: The Hunting Machine - essay by Barry N. Malzberg
• Adapted - (1961) - short story
• Glory, Glory - (1990) - short story
• A Is for Abel, B Is for Bird - (1998) - short story
• Josephine - (2002) - short story
• Overlooking - (2002) - short story
• The Prince of Mules - (2002) - short story
• Water Master - (2002) - short story
• The Paganini of Jacob's Gully - (2002) - short story
• Desert Child - (2002) - short story
• Report to the Men's Club - (2002) - short story
• Nose - (2002) - short story
• It Comes from Deep Inside - (2002) - short story
• Prejudice and Pride - (2002) - short story
• After All - (2002) - short story
• The Doctor - (2002) - short story
• Boys - (2003) - short story
• Coo People - (2003) - short story
• Repository - (2003) - short story
• The General - (2003) - short story
• Gods and Three Wishes - (2003) - short story
• Lightning - (2003) - short story
• On Display Among the Lesser - (2004) - short story
• Gliders Though They Be - (2004) - short story
• My General - (2004) - novelette
• The Library - (2004) - short story
• The Assassin, or Being the Loved One - (2004) - short story
• All of Us Can Almost ... - (2004) - short story
• I Live with You - (2005) - short story
• The Being of It All - (2005) - short fiction
• See No Evil, Feel No Joy - (2005) - short story
• Bountiful City - (2005) - short story
• World of no Return - (2006) - short story
• Quill - (2006) - novelette
• Killers - (2006) - short story
• The Seducer - (2006) - short story
• Such a Woman, Or, Sixties Rant - (2006) - short story
• At Sixes and Sevens - (2007) - short story
• God Clown - (2007) - short story
• Master of the Road to Nowhere - (2008) - novelette
• All Washed Up While Looking for a Better World - (2008) - short story
• Self Story - (2008) - short story
• Wilmer or Wesley - (2008) - short story
• Whoever - (2008) - short story
• The Perfect Infestation - (2009) - short story
• The Bird Painter in Time of War - (2009) - short story
• The Meaning of the Fields - (2009) - short story
• A Safe Place to Be - (2009) - short story
• The Dignity He's Due - (2009) - novelette
• Logicist - (2009) - short story
• Wilds - (2010) - short story
• Above It All - (2010) - short fiction
• The Abominable Child - (2010) - novelette
• On Not Going Extinct - (2010) - short story
• No Time Like the Present - (2010) - short story
• The Lovely Ugly - (2010) - short story
• Uncle E - (2010) - short story
• A Hello to Arms - (2011) - short story
• Mountain Song - (2011) - novelette
• The News That's Fit - (2011) - short story
• The Mismeasure of Me And How I Saved the World - (2011) - short story
• Danilo - (2011) - short story
• The New and Perfect Man - (2011) - short story
• All I Know of Freedom - (2012) - short story
• Riding Red Ted - (2012) - short story