Search Worlds Without End

Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when, as a young child, she watched helplessly as the alien S'sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Only the Translators, an elite guild of empaths, were able to free her from the trauma and give her a new life.

Jarrikk was a young S'sinn, an unproven warrior who saw his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who sought to colonize his world. Crippled so that he could never fly again, he would have chosen death, but he wasn't allowed a choice. Instead, he too was trained to be a Translator.

As humans and S'sinn find themselves poised on the brink of a war that could not only destroy their own species, but also disrupt the delicate balance of the multiracial Commonwealth, these two Translators--who have every reason to hate one another--must work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators' oath and training can overcome the enemies leagued against them remains to be seen.

The metal City towers at the center of the mountain-ringed Heartland, standing astride the deep chasm of the Canyon like a malevolent giant, ruled with an iron fist by the First Officer and his Provosts in the name of the semi-mythical Captain. Within its corroding walls lies a stratified society, where the Officers dwell in luxury on the Twelfth Tier while the poor struggle to survive on the First and Second, and outcasts scrabble and fight for whatever they can find in the Middens, the City's rubbish heap, filling the Canyon beneath its dripping underbelly.

Alania, ward of an Officer, lives on Twelfth. Raised among the privileged class, Alania feels as though she is some sort of pampered prisoner, never permitted to explore the many levels of the City. And certainly not allowed to leave the confines of the City for any reason. She has everything a young woman could want except a loving family and personal freedom.

Danyl, raised by a scavenger, knows no home but the Middens. His day-to-day responsibility is to stay alive. His sole ambition is to escape from this subsistence existence and gain entrance to the City--so near and yet so far out of reach--in hopes of a better life.

Their two very different worlds collide when Alania, fleeing from an unexpected ambush, plunges from the heights of the City down to the Middens, and into Danyl's life.

Almost immediately, both of them find themselves pursued by the First Officer's Provosts, for reasons they cannot fathom--but which they must uncover if they are to survive. The secrets they unlock, as they flee the Canyon and crisscross the Heartland from the City's farmlands to the mountains of the north and back again, will determine not only their fate, but the fate of the City... and everyone who lives there.

More than a century ago, the network of MASTTs, the space-time tunnels that made interstellar travel possible, violently collapsed, the backlash destroying a lot of the solar system's space-based infrastructure. Cooper "Coop" Douglas, a thief and conman, is in serious debt to outer-system crime-lord Eric Galioto. While trying to salvage a valuable chunk of a space station destroyed by the backlash, Coop makes a startling discovery: MASTT Primus, the tunnel that used to lead to New Earth, is open again. That raises an intriguing possibility: Coop could flee the solar system and his debt to Galioto and make a new life--and possibly fortune--around another star.

Accompanied by his first mate, the wisecracking, AI-uplifted, genetically modified cat Thibauld, Coop sets out to "liberate" the solar system's only remaining functioning starship from an Earthside museum, enlisting the help of Laysa Grey, a former-lover-turned-cop on Luna. Along the way, he is pursued by Galioto and dogged by law enforcement and thugs.

And beyond MASTT Primus, the tangled stars await...

Within these pages lie eighteen stories, from eighteen worlds shaped by some of today's best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its first year.

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Shapers of Worlds) - (2020) - essay by Edward Willett
• 5 - Vision Quest - (2020) - short story by Edward Willett
• 16 - Call to Arms - (2020) - short story by Tanya Huff
• 43 - The Tale of the Wicked - (2009) - novelette by John Scalzi
• 71 - The Farships Fall to Nowhere - (2020) - short story by John C. Wright
• 80 - Evanescence - (2020) - short story by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
• 97 - Peel - (2005) - short story by Julie E. Czerneda
• 108 - The Knack of Flying - (2020) - short story by Shelley Adina
• 127 - Ghost Colours - (2020) - short story by Derek Künsken
• 141 - One Million Lira - (2014) - short story by Thoraiya Dyer
• 159 - Pod Dreams of Tuckertown - (2007) - short story by Gareth L. Powell
• 172 - In Silent Streams, Where Once the Summer Shone - (2020) - short story by Seanan McGuire
• 183 - Welcome to the Legion of Six - (2019) - short story by Fonda Lee
• 196 - Good Intentions - [Sun Eater] - (2020) - short story by Christopher Ruocchio
• 214 - "Shhhh..." - (2020) - short story by David Brin
• 228 - The Greatest of These Is Hope - (2020) - short story by D. J. Butler
• 252 - A Thing of Beauty - (2020) - novelette by Charles E. Gannon
• 286 - Home Is Where the Heart Is - (2020) - novelette by David Weber
• 317 - Tricentennial - (1976) - short story by Joe Haldeman

Explore twenty-four imaginative tales crafted by some of today's best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its second year.

Contents:

• Shadow Sight - short fiction by Kelley Armstrong
• Ghost and Fox - short fiction by Marie Brennan
• Shapeshifter Finals - (1995) - novelette by Jeffrey A. Carver
• Angel and Monica - short fiction by Helen Dale
• Going to Ground - short fiction by Candas Jane Dorsey
• I Hid in the Bathroom When the Aliens Arrived - short fiction by Lisa Foiles
• The Only Road - short fiction by Susan Forest
• I Remember Paris - short fiction by James Alan Gardner
• The Little Tailor and the Elves - (1994) - short story by Barbara Hambly
• The Cat and the Merrythought - short fiction by Matthew Hughes
• Anamnesis in Ruins - short fiction by Heli Kennedy
• The Lost Cipher of Dr. Dee - short fiction by Lisa Kessler
• Casey's Empire - (1981) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Root Mother - short fiction by Adria Laycraft
• River of Ice - short fiction by David D. Levine
• Message Found in a Variable Temporality Appliance - short fiction by Ira Nayman
• Letters from an Imprisoned Wizard to a Young Queen - short fiction by Garth Nix
• The Chthonic Op - short fiction by Tim Pratt
• The Cool Sequestered Vale of Life - short fiction by Edward Savio
• The Cancellation - [John Simon] - short fiction by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
• A Murder in Eddsford - [Emberverse] - (2008) - novella by S. M. Stirling
• Beneath a Bicameral Moon - short fiction by Jeremy Szal
• Salvage - (2014) - short story by Carrie Vaughn
• The Tale of Tybalt the Cat - short fiction by Edward Willett

From outer space to inner space, from realms of magic to the here-and-now, from the distant past to the far future, the twenty-one authors in this third collection of science fiction and fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers will take you on incredible adventures in the company of unforgettable characters.

Contents:

• The Writer Speaks to the New World - poem by Jane Yolen
• And the Walls Came Tumbling Down - short fiction by James Morrow
• Thresholds - short fiction by Kristi Charish
• Court Day in Shelocta County - short fiction by Robert Penner
• Limbo - short fiction by David Ebenbach
• Offshore - (1996) - novelette by F. Paul Wilson
• How a World Dies - poem by Jane Yolen
• Car Wars - (2016) - short story by Cory Doctorow
• Tribes of the Sun - short fiction by K. M. Rice
• The Metamorphosis of Thomas Darrow - short fiction by Gerald Brandt
• Fairy Invention - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Key - short fiction by Griffin Barber
• Choices - short fiction by Miles Cameron
• Mister Farnsworth Versus the Alien Demons of Ancient Egypt - short fiction by Sebastien de Castell
• How to Create Language for a New-Made World - poem by Jane Yolen
• Together As One - short fiction by Jess E. Owen
• Ghostwind - short fiction by Violette Malan
• The Thing in the Play - short fiction by Edward Willett
• Joseph Campbell Misses the Mark - poem by Jane Yolen
• A Single Breath, Heard Only in My Dreams - short fiction by Cat Rambo
• The Desert of the Real - short fiction by Mark Everglade and Joseph Hurtgen
• We Love You - short fiction by Anna Mocikat
• "It's Coming" - short fiction by Frank J. Fleming
• The New Planet - poem by Jane Yolen
• Hostile Universe - (2012) - short story by K. Eason
• Send Them Flowers - (2007) - novelette by Walter Jon Williams

From the farthest reaches of our galaxy to the cozy-yet-mysterious spaces under beds and behind sofa cushions, from mystical realms of fantasy to the here-and-now and the very near future, the nineteen authors in this fourth collection of science fiction and fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers offer readers a kaleidoscope of fantastical adventures in the company of unforgettable characters.

Contents:

• 1 - Matter of Life and Death - (2017) - short story by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• 16 - Advent - (2017) - short fiction by James Kennedy
• 50 - Yiwu - (2018) - short story by Lavie Tidhar
• 72 - Presumed Alien - short story by David Boop
• 97 - Soldier of Fortune - short story by Edward M. Lerner
• 108 - Done with Mirrors - short story by Sarah A. Hoyt
• 127 - The End of the Sagittarius Arc - short fiction by Jean-Louis Trudel
• 158 - The Doting Duke and His Gravely Disturbed Daughters: The Books of the Bard, Scroll One - short story by Roy M. Griffis
• 181 - There's Some Thing Under the Bed - short story by Garon Whited
• 196 - I Really Need to Clear My Inbox - short story by Noah Lemelson
• 219 - BWDOC - short story by James Van Pelt
• 234 - Monster in the Second Reel - short story by Richard Paolinelli
• 252 - Souvenirs - short story by Gail Z. Martin
• 265 - Nineteenth-Century Vase - short fiction by David Liss
• 292 - Garbage - short story by Joshua Palmatier
• 310 - The Sound of the Chain - (2015) - short story by R. S. Mellette
• 317 - The Canceller - short story by Edward Willett
• 338 - A Murder of Scarecrows - (2020) - short fiction by Mark Leslie
• 366 - The Things Fenton Found - short fiction by Michaelbrent Collings

From outer space to inner space, from realms of the never-were to those of the here-and-now and the soon-to-be, the twenty-four authors in this fifth and final collection of science fiction and fantasy by writers featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers plunge readers into fantastic worlds filled with unforgettable characters.

Teenagers are disappearing in a mysterious grove, and no one knows why--not even those who escape it. The god of love finds magical arrows just don't cut it in the modern world of digital matchmaking. A prisoner discovers he has been stripped of thirty-five years of memories as punishment for a crime he cannot remember. Far from being a refuge from humdrum reality, dreams become a trap for one young man when he encounters those who dwell there. A man who hunts angels for a living has the tables turned on him by the last angel he corners. Talking beasts from the island of a certain infamous doctor arrive in London to make their way in the world of men, only to be caught up in the ongoing Martian invasion...

Shapers of Worlds Volume V showcases stories by Brad C. Anderson, Edo van Belkom, J. G. Gardner, Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, Chadwick Ginther, Evan Graham, M. C. A. Hogarth, M. J. Kuhn, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Kevin Moore, Robin Stevens Payes, James S. Peet, Omari Richards, Lawrence M. Schoen, Alex Shvartsman, Alan Smale, Richard Sparks, P. L. Stuart, Brad R. Torgersen, Hayden Trenholm, Brian Trent, Eli K. P. William, Edward Willett, and Natalie Wright. Every story is illustrated with an original black-and-white drawing by Wendi Nordell.

Travel into the past, the present, and the future in stories set in our world, in deep space, in the land of dreams, and in worlds of pure imagination, shaped by an outstanding roster of authors featuring many bestsellers and award-winners. All you have to do is turn the page...

After a worldwide disaster strikes Earth, the planet is taken over by a fanatical religious theocracy. Scientist Victor Hansen flees with a staff of non-genetically modified humans and young members of his newly created race, the Selkies, to Marseguro, a distant water world. But their peace and freedom is threatened when a traitor calls forth a strike force from Earth, and Victor's own grandson, Richard, is with them. What Richard Hansen discovers may alter not only his own destiny, but that of Marseguro and Earth as well.

Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this "abomination." But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth's Holy Warriors.

With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro's location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes the first book in a new portal fantasy series in which one woman's powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions.

For Shawna Keys, the world is almost perfect. She's just opened a pottery studio in a beautiful city. She's in love with a wonderful man. She has good friends.

But one shattering moment of violence changes everything. Mysterious attackers kill her best friend. They're about to kill Shawna. She can't believe it's happening--and just like that, it isn't. It hasn't. No one else remembers the attack, or her friend. To everyone else, Shawna's friend never existed...

Everyone, that is, except the mysterious stranger who shows up in Shawna's shop. He claims her world has been perfect because she Shaped it to be perfect; that it is only one of uncounted Shaped worlds in a great Labyrinth; and that all those worlds are under threat from the Adversary who has now invaded hers. She cannot save her world, he says, but she might be able to save others--if she will follow him from world to world, learning their secrets and carrying them to Ygrair, the mysterious Lady at the Labyrinth's heart.

Frightened and hounded, Shawna sets off on a desperate journey, uncertain whom she can trust, how to use her newfound power, and what awaits her in the myriad worlds beyond her own.

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.

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.