Search Worlds Without End

Change or die: the only options available on the Durallium Company-owned planet GP. The planet's deadly virus had killed most of the original colonists - and changed the rest irrevocably. Centuries after the colony had lost touch with the rest of humanity, the Company returned to exploit GP, and its forces found themselves fighting for their lives. Afraid of spreading the virus, the Company had left its remaining employees in place, afraid and isolated from the natives.

Then anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrived on GP, sent to test a new vaccine against the virus. As she risked death to uncover the natives' biological secret, she found that she, too, was changing, and realized that not only had she found a home on GP - she herself carried the seeds of its destruction...

"Cold Wind", by Nicola Griffith, is a dark fantasy tale about a woman who enters a Seattle bar on a cold wintry night in the midst of the Christmas holidays, searching for something... or someone.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Eclipse Three: New Science Fiction and Fantasy (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan and was later reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #101 February 2015. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore Van de Oest was the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families...and now she was nobody.

Then out of the rain walked Spanner, an expert data pirate who took her in, cared for her wounds, and gave her the freedom to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore if she didn't want to be found: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped...but she paid for her newfound freedom in crime, deception, and degradation--over and over again.

Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows, stay with Spanner...and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and inventing her future.

But to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents--Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's games one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van de Oest to be paid. Only by confronting her past, her family, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be....

This stort story appeared in Interzone, #48 June 1991, Aboriginal Science Fiction, July-August 1991 and Lightspeed, May 2012. It is included in the collection With Her Body (2004).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

She left all she knew to find who she could be...

She grows up in the wild wood, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake drift to her on the spring breeze, scented with promise. And when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she decides her future lies at his court. So, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and sets out on her bony gelding for Caer Leon.

With her stolen hunting spear and mended armour, she is an unlikely hero, not a chosen one, but one who forges her own bright path. Aflame with determination, she begins a journey of magic and mystery, love, lust and fights to death. On her adventures, she will steal the hearts of beautiful women, fight warriors and sorcerers, and make a place to call home.

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Little Deaths: 24 Tales of Sex and Horror (1994), edited by Ellen Datlow. The first US publication was in Asimov's Science Fiction, March 1995. The story can also be found in the anthogoly Nebula Awards 32 (1998), edited by Jack Dann. It is included in the collection With Her Body (2004).

With Her Body presents three pieces of short fiction by the Nebula-, Lambda-, and Tiptree-award winning Nicola Griffith. Intense stories about hope, joy, the body, mainly joy and the body--feeling the world on our skin, the place where Us and Not-Us meet. Nicola Griffith writes about being as well as doing--about life and love and the fears that keep us from having what we want.

The women in these stories live in a world not quite like ours, where the jungle is alive with more than animals, music can be made with the body, and civilization can only end if we all give up...

Table of Contents:

• Touching Fire - (1993) - novelette by Nicola Griffith
• Song of Bullfrogs, Cry of Geese - (1991) - shortstory by Nicola Griffith
• Yaguara - (1994) - novella by Nicola Griffith
• Afterword: A Word for Human Is Woman - essay by L. Timmel Duchamp

Bending the Landscape: Fantasy, edited by world-renowned speculative fiction author Nicola Griffith and publisher Stephen Pagel, brings together the best short fiction from the fantasy genre's most notable and daring writers. In Leslie What's "Beside the Well," a captivating myth set in ancient China, a young woman rebels against her abusive husband by allying herself with the spirit of his first wife. Tanya Huff's "In Mysterious Ways" tells the riveting story of Terizan the thief and her intrigues in the Thieves' Guild. Don Bassingthwaite's "In Memory Of" is a tantalizing look into the passions and jealousies of two improbably long-lived brothers. This stunning anthology of works by writers both gay and straight demonstrates that gender and sexual orientation can be used to create rich works of fantasy and spectacularly imaginative plots.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1997) - essay by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel
• Frost Painting - (1997) - short story by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• Gary, in the Shadows - (1997) - short story by Mark Shepherd
• Prince of the Dark Green Sea - (1997) - short story by Mark McLaughlin
• Water Snakes - (1997) - short story by Holly Wade Matter
• Gestures Too Late on a Gravel Road - (1997) - short story by Mark W. Tiedemann
• The Fall of the Kings - (1997) - novelette by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
• Cloudmaker - (1997) - short story by Charlee Jacob
• Magicked Tricks - (1997) - novelette by K. L. Berac
• The Sound of Angels - (1997) - short story by L. S. Silverthorne
• The King's Folly - (1997) - short story by James A. Moore
• Beside the Well - (1997) - short story by Leslie What
• The Home Town Boy - (1997) - short story by B. J. Thrower
• Expression of Desire - (1997) - short story by Dominick Cancilla
• There Are Things Which Are Hidden from the Eyes of the Everyday - (1997) - short story by Simon Sheppard
• Full Moon and Empty Arms - (1997) - short story by M. W. Keiper
• Mahu - (1997) - novelette by Jeff Verona
• The Stars Are Tears - (1997) - short story by Robin Wayne Bailey
• Desire - (1997) - short story by Kim Antieau
• Young Lady Who Loved Caterpillars - (1997) - short story by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• In Memory of - (1997) - short story by Don Bassingthwaite
• In Mysterious Ways - novelette by Tanya Huff
• In the House of the Man in the Moon - (1997) - short story by Richard Bowes
• Contributors' Bios (1997) - essay by uncredited

Edited by world-renowned lesbian fantasy author Nicola Griffith and fantasy publisher Stephen Pagel, this groundbreaking anthology of all-original science fiction stories brings together some of mainstream's and science fiction's most notable writers -- gay and straight -- creating worlds where time and place and sexuality are alternative to the empirical environment. Keith Hartman's "Sex, Guns and Baptists" gives a disturbing view of how the world could become if the Christian fundamentalists continue gaining political ground; Ralph Sperry's delightful aliens in "On Vacation" are refreshingly similar to us: shy workaholics, exasperated lovers, good with machines; Ellen Klages takes a '90s dyke back forty years to 1950s San Francisco where she discovers her modern sensibilities are utterly alien to the lesbians of the time. These stories explore physical, emotional, and moral landscapes vastly different from the familiar -- where nothing is as it seems.This group of talented newcomers and award-winning genre veterans includes Jim Grimsley, Mark W. Tiedemann, Charles Sheffield, Carrie Richerson, Keith Hartman, Nancy Kress, Richard Bamburg, L. Timmel Duchamp, Charles Sheffield, Don Bassingthwaite, and many others.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel
• Sex, Guns, and Baptists - shortstory by Keith Hartman
• Half in Love With Easeful Rock and Roll - shortstory by Rebecca Ore
• Powertool - shortfiction by Mark McLaughlin
• Time Gypsy - novelette by Ellen Klages
• Lonely Land - novelette by Denise Lopes Heald
• The Rendez-Vous - shortstory by Nancy Johnston
• Silent Passion - novelette by Kathleen O'Malley
• Sun-Drenched - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• The Flying Triangle - shortstory by Allen Steele
• Brooks Too Broad For Leaping - shortstory by Charles Sheffield
• A Real Girl - shortstory by Shariann Lewitt
• Dance at the Edge - novelette by L. Timmel Duchamp
• Love's Last Farewell - shortstory by Richard A. Bamberg
• On Vacation - novelette by Ralph A. Sperry
• The City in Morning - shortstory by Carrie Richerson
• State of Nature - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• The Beautiful People - shortstory by Wendy Rathbone
• Who Plays With Sin - novelette by Don Bassingthwaite
• Surfaces - novelette by Mark W. Tiedemann
• Stay Thy Flight - shortstory by Élisabeth Vonarburg
• Free in Asveroth - shortstory by Jim Grimsley

Bending the Landscape: Horror brings together a tantalizing slew of truly horrifying tales guaranteed to provoke, entertain, and inspire fear in even the most seasoned horror aficionado. World-renowned fantasy author Nicola Griffith and fantasy publisher Stephen Pagel have compiled an exciting array of never-before-published stories, from both talented newcomers and award-winning genre veterans.

In Kraig Blackwelder's "Coyote Love," a man wakes up in a stranger's bed, not knowing how he got there, after a drunken night out. Terror ensues as the reader is shown just how far a person is willing to go to deny reality. In "The WereSlut of Avenue A," Leslie What shows us that change is not always a good thing, as we witness what may or not be a transformation into something inhuman. These stories, written by writers both gay and straight, incite fear and spur thought, transporting the reader into realms of shock and dread.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2001) - essay by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel
• Coyote Love - (2001) - shortstory by Kraig Blackwelder
• Explanations Are Clear - (2001) - novelette by L. Timmel Duchamp
• What Are You Afraid Of? - (2001) - shortstory by Simon Sheppard
• The Lost Homeland - (2001) - novelette by Cynthia Ward
• The Man Who Picks the Chamomile - (2001) - shortstory by Mark McLaughlin
• Love on a Stick - (2001) - novelette by Carrie Richerson
• Triangle - (2001) - shortstory by Ellen Klages
• Memorabilia - (2001) - novelette by Holly Wade Matter
• Blood Requiem - (1995) - shortstory by Gary Bowen
• In the Days Still Left - (2001) - novelette by Brian A. Hopkins and James Van Pelt
• Broken Canes - (2001) - shortstory by Alexi Smart
• Keep the Faith - (2001) - shortstory by A. J. Potter
• The WereSlut of Avenue A - (2001) - shortstory by Leslie What
• Kindred - (2001) - novelette by Alexis Glynn Latner
• 'Til Death - (2001) - shortstory by Barbara Hambly
• If I Could See Lazarus Rising - (2001) - novelette by Kathleen O'Malley
• The Waltz of the Epileptic Penguins - (2001) - shortstory by Keith Hartman
• Passing - (2001) - novelette by Mark W. Tiedemann

A brilliant, lush, sweeping historical novel about the rise of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages: Hild

In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. Hild is the king's youngest niece, and she has a glimmering mind and a natural, noble authority. She will become a fascinating woman and one of the pivotal figures of the Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby.

But now she has only the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world-of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next-that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her.

Her uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. Hild establishes a place for herself at his side as the king's seer. And she is indispensable-unless she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, for her family, for her loved ones, and for the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.

Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early Middle Ages-all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith's luminous prose. Working from what little historical record is extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world to vivid, absorbing life.

Making a much-anticipated return to the world of Hild, Nicola Griffith's Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking's court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin's heels. War is brewing?bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead?and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.