Search Worlds Without End

Sturgeon and Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Starlight 1 (1996), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. The story is included in the collection Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (2004).

This is a collection of John M. Ford's short fiction and poetry previously published in magazines and anthologies, including several items released only in limited edition printings, and a new story, "Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail." Hardbound with cover art by Ron Walotsky.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (From the End of the Twentieth Century) - essay by Neil Gaiman
• From the End of the Twentieth Century - essay
• 1952 Monon Freightyard Blues - (1981) - shortstory
• Amy, at the Bottom of the Stairs - (1982) - shortstory
• A Little Scene to Monarchize - (1990) - poem
• Mandalay - [Alternities, Inc.] - (1979) - novelette
• Rules of Engagement - essay
• Monochrome - poem
• Another Island - poem
• Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail - shortstory
• The Dark Companion - (1981) - novelette
• All Our Propagation - (1990) - shortfiction
• To the Tsiolkovsky Station - essay
• As Above, So Below - (1980) - shortstory
• Walkaway Clause - (1986) - novelette
• The Lost Dialogue - (1995) - poem
• Scrabble with God - (1985) - shortstory
• Preflash - (1988) - shortstory
• Persephone's Daughters - poem
• The Bard in Prime Time (selections) - poem
• White Light - poem
• Intersections - [Alternities, Inc.] - (1981) - novelette
• Troy: The Movie - (1989) - poem
• Roadshow - essay
• Waiting for the Morning Bird - (1981) - shortstory
• Restoration Day: Plainsong - [Liavek] - (1990) - poem
• Riding the Hammer - [Liavek] - (1988) - novelette
• Acknowledgments (From the End of the Twentieth Century) - essay by Paul J. Giguere

At the end of the twenty-first century, the moon boasts a thriving network of politically and technologically progressive cities and a permanent home for its distinctive culture while serving as a convenient port-of-call for Earth-born tourists and Far World space shuttles. Just past the legal age for shipping out to work on the shuttles and privately yearning for more freedom, Matt Ronay is restrained by his powerful father, statesman Albin Ronay, as well as by the bond he has with his brilliant circle of moon-born friends. Matt immerses himself in his comrades' computer-based role-playing, and his father maneuvers to gain key political support for the moon's water supply until both Ronays realize a common goal that will finally make possible Matt's opportunity for adventure.

John M. Ford is an astonishingly versatile writer. He has written award-winning fantasy novels (The Dragon Waiting, winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award), award-winning fantasy role-playing games (The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues), New York Times bestselling Star Trek novels (the classic The Final Reflection and How Much for Just the Planet), and the only poem to ever win the World Fantasy Award for best short fiction ("Winter Solstice, Camelot Station"). He is as at home writing sonnets as he is writing short stories or novels.

Heat of Fusion and Other Stories collects stories and poems written over the course of two decades. It includes award winners and award nominees, as well as some rarities, amusements, and astonishments, such as "110 Stories," which has never been published in book form. Twenty-two works in all, gifts from the talent that Robert Jordan calls "the best writer in America, bar none."

Table of Contents:

• The Persecutor's Tale - (1982) - shortstory
• 20 Questers - poem
• The Hemstitch Notebooks - (1989) - shortstory
• Third Thoughts - (1993) - poem
• Chromatic Aberration - (1984) - novelette
• Cosmology: A User's Manual - (1990) - poem
• The Man in the Golden Mask - poem
• Preflash - (1988) - shortstory
• Letter from Elsinore - (1993) - poem
• In the Days of the Comet - (2000) - shortstory
• Windows on an Empty Throne - poem
• Erase/Record/Play: A Drama for Print - (1996) - novelette
• Winter Solstice, Camelot Station - (1988) - poem
• Heat of Fusion - (1984) - shortstory
• The Lost Dialogue: A Reconstruction from Irrecoverable Sources - (1997) - poem (variant of The Lost Dialogue 1995)
• Janus: A Sonnet - (1993) - poem
• Shared World - (1993) - poem
• Shelter from the Storm - (1982) - novella
• SF Cliches: A Sonnet Cycle - poem
• Dateline: Colonus - (1993) - shortstory
• Dark Sea - poem
• Tales from the Original Gothic - (1987) - shortstory
• 110 Stories - poem

This short story originally appeared in Nature, June 22, 2000, and was reprinted in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2001. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 6 (2001), edited by David G. Hartwell. The story is included in the collection Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (2004).

Read the full story for free at Nature.

The Wars of the Roses have put Edward IV on the throne of England, Lorenzo de' Medici's court shines brilliantly, and Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza plots in Milan. But this is a changed world, and medieval Europe is dominated by the threat from the Byzantine Empire. Sforza, the Vampire Duke, marshals his forces for his long-planned attack on Florence, and Byzantium is on the march. A mercenary, the exiled heir to the Byzantine throne, a young woman physician forced to flee Florence, and a Welsh wizard, the nephew of Owain Gly Dwr, seem to have no common goals but together they wage an intrigue-filled campaign against the might of Byzantium, striving to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and make him Richard III.

That woman, it turns out, is important to another party on the scene: Mr. Patrice. Who, in his turn, appears to run a lot of the City. Doc knows he holds some kind of unusual power. Mr. Patrice knows it too. So does the beautiful Ginevra Benci. And so does the sorcerous Whisper-Who-Dares, who offers threats and temptations far beyond anything Doc ever imagined. By turns brutal and delicate, murderous and metaphysical, The Last Hot Time is a fantasy novel unlike any other, a brilliant dance of genres and storylines leading to a thoroughly unusual conclusion.

A soaring space epic of a galactic empire that rested on a boyhood friendship.

Nicholas Hansard is a brilliant historian at a small New England college. He specializes in Christopher Marlowe. But Hansard has a second, secret, career with The White Group, a “consulting agency” with shadowy government connections. There, he is a genius at teasing secrets out of documents old and new?to call him a code-breaker is an understatement.

When Hansard’s work exposes one of his closest friends as a Russian agent, and the friend then dies mysteriously, the connections seem all too clear. Shaken, Hansard turns away from his secret work to lose himself in an ancient Marlowe manuscript. Surely, a lost 400 year old play is different enough from modern murder.

He is very, very wrong.

Condemned to death at the age of nine for his ability to manipulate the Web, which links the many worlds of humanity, Grailer must go underground, hiding his skills and testing his powers.

World Fantasy and Rhysling Award winning poem. It originally appeared in the anthology Invitation to Camelot (1988), edited by Parke Godwin. The poem can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy: Second Annual Collection (1988), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Nebula Awards 25 (1991), edited by Michael Bishop, and Christmas Stars (1992), edited by David G. Hartwell. It is included in the collection Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (2004).

Klingon Captain Krenn is a ruthless war strategist. But on a mission to Earth, Krenn learns a lesson in peace. Suddenly he must fight a secret battle of his own. His empire has a covert plan to shatter the Federation. Only Krenn can prevent a war -- at the risk of his own life.

Dilithium: in crystalline form, the most valuable mineral in the galaxy. It powers the Federation's starships... and the Klingon Empire's battlecruisers. Now on a small, out-of-the-way planet named Direidi, the greatest fortune in dilithium crystals ever seen has been found.

Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, the planet will go to the side best able to develop the planet and its resources. Each side will contest the prize with the prime of its fleet: for the Federation -- Captain James T. Kirk and the Starship Enterprise; for the Klingons -- Captain Kaden vestai-Oparai and the Fire Blossom.

Except the Direidians are writing their own script for this contest -- a script that propels the crew of the Starship Enterprise into their strangest adventure yet.

Fugue State:

Once you start forgetting, where do you stop?

The Death of Doctor Island:

A dreamy young boy, who is reading a SF novel modeled after The Island of Doctor Moreau.