Search Worlds Without End

"This is the tale of the many possible lives of Anastasia Valerie Stein which come to touch one another through a twist in the fabric of space-time: Ann, unhappy wife and mother in a world much like our own; Val, independent teacher in a timeline of scarcity; Stacey, a free spirit with two lovers, and Tasha, strangest of all, a professional sorceress in a world where the Third Reich rules England. Together they join to confront a force that manipulates all their worlds, and discover a truth that transcends their individual lives.

Finch combines compelling, believable characters, the ancient magic of the Tarot, and quantum physics to weave a spellbinding tale of the infinite possibilities of space and time."

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2020.

There was something strange about Ann Bonney's mission to the unexplored world called Chameleon. Though only women were judged fit for space, Earth's Central Computer had for some reason placed a man among them... an artist who was not docile like other men. For Language Specialist Gia Kennedy, the answer lay in the baffling rituals of the planet's primitive natives -- an answer that hovered just out of reach. There, in the heart of an alien wilderness, Gia would defy her culture and discover an ancient truth.

The great myths seek to explain us to ourselves -- our exploits, passions, triumphs, and failures. They can be found all over the world, often displaying remarkable similarity. Nobody -- scientist, seer or science fiction writer -- can reliably predict what will happen two days from now, let alone two millennia. Science fiction is really about us as humans -- living, loving, fighting, raising families -- but set in another place and time so that the message may get through without being censored by the self-protective function of our egos. This welcome discussion of the connections between future fiction and stories about human inception emphasizes how mythic roots contribute to the emotional power of narrative. Finch investigates the inexplicable awe and wonder that emanates from close encounters between myth and science fiction. This juxtaposition emphatically indicates that science fiction is the predominant mythic metaphor of our time.

-- Marleen S. Barr

As part of a desperate battle to save an imperiled twenty-fourth-century Earth, four teenagers from the planet's past join forces on a mission to the edge of the solar system to a small scientific base overrun with cute but dangerous alien pests.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1996. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 2 (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell. The story is included in the collection The Guild of Xenolinguists (2007).

Nebula Award winning novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1998. The story can aslo be found in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2000, edited by Gregory Benford. It is included in the collection The Guild of Xenolinguists (2007) and was expanded into the full novel Reading the Bones (2003).

A struggling linguist, a sheltered debutante, and a strangely silent child are running for their lives, trapped in the violent confluence of three species, only one of which is human.

The Xenolinguist stories are fast-paced, gripping explorations of cross-cultural communication as well as perennial fan favorites. The Nebula Award-winning novella Reading the Bones has now been expanded to novel length, following xenolinguist Ries Danyo and sisters Lita and Jilan Patel to their pivotal roles in shaping the future of the Frehti.

The galaxy-wide Guild of Xenolinguists handles all cross-cultural communications by sending agents abroad to learn new languages and program translation computers. The travails of novice linguists animate these 11 stories as they face much more than simple translation work, taking on alien parasites and viruses, a mysterious and violent star-faring race, dolphin instructors, and large tyrant ants. As cultures and languages collide, first contact quickly becomes a matter of morality, galactic politics, death, and war.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - (2007) - essay by Ian Watson
• First Was the Word - (2007) - novelette
• A Flight of Words - (1997) - shortstory
• A World Waiting - (1989) - novelette
• The Roaring Ground - (1997) - shortstory
• No Brighter Glory - (1999) - novelette
• Out of the Mouths - (1996) - novelette
• Stranger Than Imagination Can - (2007) - shortstory
• Babel Interface - (1988) - shortstory
• The Naked Face of God - (1998) - shortstory
• Communion of Minds - (1996) - novelette
• Reading the Bones - (1998) - novella
• Afterword: Berlitz in Outer Space - (1988) - essay by Sheila Finch

Banished to an uninhabited planet, a handful of genetic scientists prepare to live out eternity. Here, beyond the reach of their accusers, theory becomes reality. Experimenting with stolen human germ plasm, they shape mankind into races unlike anything Earth has ever seen: the whimsical Llani metamorphs, the inventive but rebellious Ganus, and the Rhodaru warriors with the truth sense. Once their great test has begun, the immortal geneticists agree never to interfere.

But like the races they invent, the scientists are human. Still, nothing they do prepares the Llanis for the Ganu uprising 500 years later. Queen Sivell is young, but she possesses an unerring wisdom -- a trait rare in Llanis of any age. As she ascends to the throne, war has already begun. Sivell's own unique parentage and her newfound knowledge of her people's origins could bring peace to her world -- or death to her people!

Exiled from Earth for their radical experiments in the biogenetics, the Venn scientists took their illegal craft to a new world they called Llia. Here the immortal Venn redesigned mankind into races unlike anything their accusers could have imagined, then watched and manipulated as their inventions began fashioning societies fit for themselves.

Nearly six hundred years later, the shape-shifting Llanis and the ingenious Ganus have forged a truce. Together, despite the Venn's meddling, they are becoming one people, becoming Llian. But Rhodaru warriors -- men rumored to possess the truth-sense and to be able to see in the dark -- have camped in the hills on Ganu land. Superstitious and ignorant of their origins, Rhodarus know only one way to unite Llia... war.

The strange races of the planet Llia were created by the Venn, genetic engineers banished from Earth for tampering with human lives. Centuries later, the peoples of Llia have begun the struggle for control of their own destiny. In a world torn asunder by war and rebellion, a courageous young woman of mixed heritage holds the key to Llia's future as the last of the Shapers face justice at the hands of their creations.