Search Worlds Without End

A 21st-Century Utopia

Two of England's most distinguished thinkers have created a bold and startling vision of a new society escaping the ashes of the old.

In the not-so-distant future, Man will have begun to colonize our planetary neighbor, Mars. Entrenched corporate and national interests have footed the bill, but a few visionary people attempt to keep Mars free of the hidebound ideologies that have plagued the Earth and turned it into a polluted wasteland of war and hunger.

The colony has barely begun to take root in the Martian soil when all communication with EUPACUS--as the industrialized nations of Earth are known--is cut off completely. Environmental and economic stresses have finally spun out of control, and civilization as we know it has collapsed. With no hope of escape or support from Earth, the Martians must overcome the dire obstacles that face them and forge a new alliance for survival.

Led by the brave Tom Jefferies, the colonists struggle to build a new way of living based on the search for knowledge, the improvement of human conditions, and the elimination of the hatreds and delusions that lead to misery in the past.

Included in an appendix is the complete text of the Charter for an Independent Mars, written by Dr. Laurence Lustgarten, a renowned expert on international law.

This short story originally appeared in Russian in 2007. The first English publication appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May-June 2014. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015), edited by Gardner Dozois.

An American short story writer and novelist acclaimed for his playful, postmodern style of short fiction, Barthelme's first novel, Snow White, is a countercultural, experimental reconstruction of the Disney version of the traditional fairytale.

In Barthelme's modern day world, Snow White is a seductive woman waiting for her prince to return to New York. Pushing the bounds of fiction and form, Barthelme subverts the classic tale, prompting The New York Times to call him "a splendid practitioner at the peak of his power" and inspiring a new generation of authors including Charles Baxter, Dave Eggers, and David Gates.

At a small marine institute off the coast of Connecticut, only marine biologist Simon Chase realizes that a sixteen-foot pregnant Great White is feeding in the area. But even Simon doesn't know that a far deadlier creature is about to come out of the deep and threaten everything he cares for. A creature whose malevolence is unthinkable. Whose need to feed is insatiable. And whose relentless hunt for prey is unstoppable.

Twenty years after his huge bestseller Jaws, the master of the deep has done it again, letting loose a chilling new predator that only he could create. Drawing on his singular knowledge of the sea, science, and history, Peter Benchley masterfully spins a suspense-filled novel that hits you on a primal level, makes your heart pound, and leaves your blood running cold.

White Shark is Peter Benchley at his best. Read it at your own risk.

Eleven well-known British writersM. Kornbluth, Hilary Bailey, Greg Bear, Keith Roberts, David Brin, Brad Linaweaver, Sheila Finch, Algis Budrys, Howard Goldsmith, Tom Shippey and Gregory Benfordcontribute tales that delineate a theme: even if the Nazis had won World War II, it would have been a hollow victory. The Germans portrayed here are as gray as the field-grade uniform. The settings range from a psychedelic trip by an American physicist in Los Alamos to a house haunted by the fetuses of murdered Jewish mothers to excerpts from Joseph Goebbels' postwar diaries. The volume has a seminal flaw, however. No matter how powerful the fiction or symbolic the myth, neither is as compelling as what actually happened during the years of the Third Reich. - Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

• Preface: Imagining the Abyss - (1986) - essay by Gregory Benford
• Introduction: Hitler Victorious - (1986) - essay by Norman Spinrad
• Two Dooms - (1958) - novella by C. M. Kornbluth
• The Fall of Frenchy Steiner - (1964) - novelette by Hilary Bailey
• Through Road No Whither - (1985) - shortstory by Greg Bear
• Weihnachtsabend - (1972) - novelette by Keith Roberts
• Thor Meets Captain America - (1986) - novelette by David Brin
• Moon of Ice - (1982) - novella by Brad Linaweaver
• Reichs-Peace - (1986) - novelette by Sheila Finch
• Never Meet Again - (1958) - shortstory by Algis Budrys
• Do Ye Hear the Children Weeping? - (1986) - shortstory by Howard Goldsmith
• Enemy Transmissions - (1986) - shortstory by Tom Shippey
• Valhalla - (1982) - shortstory by Gregory Benford

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology New Dimensions Science Fiction Number 5 (1975), edited by Robert Silverberg. The story can also be found in the collecitons In Alien Flesh (1986) and The Best of Gregory Benford (2015).

The White Garden is a compelling portrait of a man whose lust for power is expressed in his treatment of psychiatric patients.

Seven women die in deep sleep therapy; the doctor rapes his patients in the Sleeping Beauty Ward. The sister of one of the doctor's victims becomes his nemesis.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1973. The story can also be found in the collections Beneath the Shattered Moons (1978) and Blooded on Arachne (1982).

This is the tale of Lukka, the Hittite soldier who traveled across Greece in search of the vicious slave traders who kidnapped his wife and sons. He tracks them all the way to war-torn Troy. There he proves himself a warrior to rank with noble Hector and swift Achilles. Lukka is the man who built the Trojan horse for crafty Odysseus, who toppled the walls of Jericho for the Isrealites, who stole beautiful Helen--the legendary face that launched a thousand ships--from her husband Menaleus after the fall of Troy and fought his way across half the known world to bring her safely to Egypt.

Jim Bentley's plans for the evening were simple: a movie and the graveyard shift at the 7-Eleven. That was before he stumbled into another world. Evolution has taken a very different direction on this parallel Earth, but some things are constant. Jim Bentley has falled straight from his ordinary life inot the most constant thing of all: war. Even as he struggles to learn the ways of a strange culture, to make a place for himself in what seems likely to be his home for the rest of his life, the tides of revolution are rising around him. Jim Bentley has a part in play in this war- for his coming has been foretold by True Dreamers. His feet already set on a path that leads to the heart of the crisis. Like it or not, he is vital to the war efforts of the Architect of Sleep...

In 1953, the brilliant but terrifying titan of cinema John Huston summons the young writer Ray Bradbury to Ireland. The apprehensive scribe's quest is to capture on paper the fiercest of all literary beasts -- Moby Dick -- in the form of a workable screenplay so the great director can begin filming.

But from the moment he sets foot on Irish soil, the author embarks on an unexpected odyssey. Meet congenial IRA terrorists, tippling men of the cloth impish playwrights, and the boyos at Heeber Finn's pub. In a land where myth is reality, poetry is plentiful, and life's misfortunes are always cause for celebration, Green Shadows, White Whale is the grandest tour of Ireland you'll ever experience -- with the irrepressible Ray Bradbury as your enthusiastic guide.

THOUSANDS OF YEARS FROM NOW THE HUMAN ANIMAL IS STILL A BEAST

Now there are two sentient races inhabiting the known universe: one as human as Adam... the other of robotic mind.

They share the Earth in harmonious coexistence. But elsewhere, only those who age and war and die are permitted.

On earth, a young human prince has befriended a being far different from himself. But usurpation and fratricide are calling them both to the royal youths embattled home planet--drawing them into a nest of treacherous family conspiracy and cruel, naked ambition where the enemy owns the armies, the power, and the very soul of the world. But the prince will have his revenge, though only ally stands at his side: a peace-loving creature of augmented intelligence in a place where he is am unwelcome stranger--a barbarous world where he is forbidden... and feared.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #56 May 2011. It can also be found in the anthology Clarkesworld: Year Five (2013), edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

From outside it was simply an ordinary looking London pub, a place you'd have to be guided to more than once before you memorized it's location, somewhere between Fleet Street & the Embankment. But, if by chance, an insider led you to the White Hart on a Wednesday night, you would have found yourself in the midst of a select gathering or writers, editors, scientists & interested layman--drinking, swapping odd bits of information, &, like as not, listening to Harry Purvis' memorable stories.

A scientist by profession, Harry Purvis has had or heard about some of the most astonishing experiences--like the story of the carnivorous orchid that was used in a murder plot, or the one about the military computer that was converted to pacifism. There's SILENCE PLEASE, involving a spurned lover & a device that was supposed to destroy sound; & BIG GAME HUNT, in which an ambitious researcher becomes so wrapped up in his latest projest--controlling animal behavior with electrical impulses-- that he overlooks one tiny important detail. Such stories may challenge your powers of logic & strain your imagination. Yet even if you doubt their veracity, they're guaranteed to provide you with hours of SF reading. Baron Munchausen, step aside.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - (1957) - essay by Arthur C. Clarke
• Silence, Please! - (1950)
• Big Game Hunt - (1956)
• Patent Pending - (1954)
• Armaments Race - (1954)
• Critical Mass - (1949)
• The Ultimate Melody - (1957)
• The Pacifist - (1956)
• The Next Tenants
• Moving Spirit - (1957)
• The Man Who Ploughed the Sea - (1957)
• The Reluctant Orchid - (1956)
• Cold War - (1957)
• What Goes Up ... - (1956)
• Sleeping Beauty - (1957)
• The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch - (1957)

Frederick Plowright, a well-known scientific photographer, is recruited by Professor Clark Ashton Scarsdale to accompany his research team in search of "The Great White Space," described in ancient and arcane texts as a portal leading to the extremities of the universe. Plowright, Scarsdale, and the rest of their crew embark on the Great Northern Expedition, traversing a terrifying and desolate landscape to the Black Mountains, where a passageway hundreds of feet high leads to a lost city miles below the surface of the earth. But the unsettling discoveries they make there are only a precursor of the true horror to follow. For the doorway of the Great White Space opens both ways, and something unspeakably evil has crossed over-a horrifying abomination that does not intend to let any of them return to the surface alive...

Silver is an intelligence operative working for an agency that doesn't officially exist-beyond any government and above the law. Chapter 11 is the kind of place a person can join but never leave. And it keeps a third of the world's population under constant surveillance. At work. On the street. In their homes.

Why? Because of Shaman syndrome.

One in three people are born with Shaman syndrome, which endows them with abilities they cannot control and do not even know they have. It is Chapter 11's responsibility to cap and surveil these walts-as they are known-to ensure their talents don't turn ugly for the ordinary people around them.

After Silver's partner, Dark, is seriously injured by a walt, Silver is driven to investigate. What starts as a routine investigation isn't as clear-cut as it seems, especially when she discovers there's a price on her head.

Chapter 11 might be watching the world, but it can't see the division in its own ranks. Someone wants the white list-the list of every known walt that Chapter 11 has capped-but for what purpose? Silver needs to find out the secret behind Shaman syndrome, before it's too late.

Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.

Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family - radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmerings - pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.

A classic work of magical realism, this bestselling novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni tells the story of Tilo, a young woman from another time who has a gift for the mystical art of spices. Now immortal, and living in the gnarled and arthritic body of an old woman, Tilo has set up shop in Oakland, California, where she administers curatives to her customers. But when she's surprised by an unexpected romance with a handsome stranger, she must choose between everlasting life and the vicissitudes of modern society.

This short story originally appeared in Interzone, #222 June 2009. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 15 (2010), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, May 2012.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

"Crackpot" is what everybody calls the Pott family. So when they go to buy a new car and come back with a wreck, nobody is surprised. Except for the Potts themselves. First, the car has a name. And she tells them what it is. Then they find out that she can fly. And swim.... Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a car on a mission to stop a criminal gang in its tracks -- and she is taking the Potts with her! Jump into the world's most loved magical car for her first adventure.

Told in the same fanciful, irreverent style as the Hitchhiker trilogy, with scraps of scripts, letters and comments from Adams, Don't Panic is the perfect companion to one of the most successful series in publishing history.

A story inspired by one of David Bowie's alter egos. It first appeared in the collection Trigger Warning (2015).

Read the full story for free on Neil Gaiman's website.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld, Issue 73, October 2012. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013, edited by Paula Guran, Clarkesworld: Year Seven (2015), edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace, and Warrior Women (2015), edited by Paula Guran.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss is a dark fantasy about a kitchen girl obsessed with fairy tales, who upon discovering a ragged woman outside the castle during a storm, takes her in--certain she's a princess in disguise.

This Locus Award novelette is included in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 11 (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

A young woman hunts for her wayward shadow at the school where she first learned magic--while another faces a test she never studied for as ice envelopes the world. The tasks assigned a bookish boy lead him to fateful encounters with lizards, owls, trolls and a feisty, sarcastic cat. A bear wedding is cause for celebration, the spinning wheel and the tower in the briar hedge get to tell their own stories, and a kitchenmaid finds out that a lost princess is more than she seems. The sea witch reveals what she hoped to gain when she took the mermaid's voice. A wiser Snow White sets out to craft herself a new tale.

In these eight stories and twenty-three poems, World Fantasy Award winner Theodora Goss retells and recasts fairy tales by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Oscar Wilde. Sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious, always lyrical, the works gathered in Snow White Learns Witchcraft re-center and empower the women at the heart of these timeless narratives. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Jane Yolen, in her introduction, proclaims that Goss "transposes, transforms, and transcends times, eras, and old tales with ease. But also there is a core of tough magic that runs through all her pieces like a river through Faerie... I am ready to reread some of my new favorites."

Table of Contents:

• A Welcome to the Coven: Introduction - essay by Jane Yolen
• Snow White Learns Witchcraft - poem
• The Ogress Queen - poem
• The Rose in Twelve Petals - (2002) - short story
• Thorns and Briars - poem
• Rose Child - (2016) - poem
• Thumbelina - poem
• Blanchefleur - (2013) - novelette
• Mr. Fox - poem
• What Her Mother Said - (2004) - poem
• Snow, Blood, Fur - (2017) - short story
• The Red Shoes - poem
• Girl, Wolf, Woods - poem
• Red as Blood and White as Bone - (2016) - novelette
• The Gold-Spinner - poem
• Rumpelstiltskin - poem
• Goldilocks and the Bear - poem
• Sleeping With Bears - (2003) - short story
• The Stepsister's Tale - poem
• The Clever Serving-Maid - poem
• Seven Shoes - (2017) - poem
• The Other Thea - (2016) - novelette
• The Sensitive Woman - poem
• The Bear's Wife - (2016) - poem
• The Bear's Daughter - (2004) - poem
• A Country Called Winter - novelette
• How to Make It Snow - poem
• Diamonds and Toads - poem
• The Princess and the Frog - poem
• Conversations with the Sea Witch - short story
• The Nightingale and the Rose - poem
• Mirror, Mirror - poem
• Acknowledgments - essay

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1975. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series IV (1976), edited by Gerald W. Page and is included in the collections A Glow of Candles and Other Stories (1981) and Tales from the Nightside (1981).

Wizard Seeks Witch. Tired of slaving over a hot cauldron all alone? Let's make beautiful magic together. Herbs/healing potions OK.

Lad Seeks Lassie. SWM, outdoorsy, faithful, wants to share moonlit strolls, and the occasional walk on the wild side. Put an end to my solitary days and lone wolf nights. No smokers, drug users, or vegans, please.

Single White Vampire Seeks Same is a wickedly wonderful new collection of original stories devoted to that most frightening of romantic pursuits: the personal ads. From modern-day Cupids to mismatched monsters, these thirteen twisted tales offer their own "personal" take on the personals-where even the most diabolical of demons can dig up a date...

Includes new, original stories by Mickey Zucker Reichert, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Peter Crowther, Esther Friesner, Michelle Sagara, Charles de Lint, and others.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Brittiany A. Koren
• Personals Wishes - shortstory by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• Folk Lure - novelette by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• A Kiss at Midnight - novelette by Russell Davis
• Starless and Bible Black - novelette by Gary A. Braunbeck
• Fireflies - shortstory by Bradley H. Sinor
• Bernard Boyce Bennington and the American Dream - novelette by Peter Crowther
• Werotica - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• Someone to Share the Night - shortstory by Tanya Huff
• Fixer-Upper - shortstory by Tim Waggoner
• Secret Identities - novelette by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Déjà Vu - novelette by Michelle West
• Trading Hearts at the Half Kaffe Café - (2001) - novelette by Charles de Lint

In the heart of the superstitious Pennsylvania Dutch country stands the mansion of Pierre de Camp-d'Avesnes, whose family history dates to the 12th century, when, according to family lore, an ancestor made a deal with the devil. As part of the bargain, the legend says, every seventh generation a terrible curse is visited upon the eldest child of the family.

Recently strange things have begun to happen: children are being savagely murdered, a mysterious white wolf has been sighted, and Pierre's daughter Sara has been behaving oddly. Is the curse to blame, or is there a rational explanation? Desperate to uncover the truth, Pierre enlists the aid of cynical journalist Manning Trent and psychiatrist and occult expert Dr. Justin Hardt. It's a race against time to save Sara and stop the killings as modern-day science and skepticism are pitted against medieval magic and superstition in this suspenseful thriller.

This is the definitive biography of Robert E. Howard, a giant of the pulp era, who created the archetypal brooding fantasy figure. To the general public, he is virtually unknown, but millions are familiar with the name and exploits of his most famous creation: Conan, the barbarian.

Joe Haldeman's For White Hill confronts humanity with hostile aliens who remorselessly grind down every defense against them. A lone artist struggles to find a place in this distant, wondrous future, where humanity seems doomed.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Far Futures (1995), edited by Gregory Benford. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection (1996), edited by Gardner Dozois, Year's Best SF (1996), edited by David G. Hartwell, Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming (2001), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer. The story is included in the collections A Separate War and Other Stories (2006) and The Best of Joe Haldeman (2013).

Vell hangs in the sky like a rosy pearl, but it is indeed a poor, dry planet, where people starve and armies devastate whole continents, where superstition thrives and half the year is spent in darkness.

To Vell comes Seren of Khryashs, warrior and warlord, running from the death of his bitterest rival, Rhamant, the leading warrior, the Spear of Gheo. For all know of their rivalry, and all think Seren murdered the Spear.

Following Seren, dreaming of lust and vbengeance, is Risha Skhorb, court lady of Gheo, caught up in an interplanetary web of political intrigue.

Risha must wear the luruka scars, carved deep into her flesh, and she must accept the mantle of the goddess Ijejl, danding dreams and bringing visions, if she is to track down the man she loathes--and loves.

She bring him to justice... or perish in the attempt.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue One, November-December 2014.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

What if women were an endangered species?

It begins in Ireland, but soon spreads throughout the entire world: a virulent new disease expressly designed to target only women. As fully half of the human race dies off at a frightening pace and life on Earth faces extinction, panicked people and governments struggle to cope with the global crisis. Infected areas are quarantined or burned to the ground. The few surviving women are locked away in hidden reserves, while frantic doctors and scientists race to find a cure. Anarchy and violence consume the planet.

The plague is the work of a solitary individual who calls himself the Madman. As government security forces feverishly hunt for the renegade scientist, he wanders incognito through a world that will never be the same. Society, religion, and morality are all irrevocably transformed by the White Plague.

Once upon a time, everything was fine. Humpty Dumpty sat on his wall, Jack and Jill went about their lawful business, the Big Bad Wolf did what big bad wolves do, and the wicked queen plotted murder most foul. But the humans hacked, cried havoc, shut down the wicked queen's system, and corrupted her database-and suddenly everything was not fine at all. But at least we know that they'll all live happily ever after. Don't we?

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the collection Skin Folk (2001).

Sean Doyle is no stranger to violence. As a member of the Counter Terrorist Unit he's seen more than his fair share of it.

And it seems his intimate acquaintance with death and brutality is set to continue, as he investigates the hijack of an army weapons convoy in Northern Ireland. Managing to infiltrate the organisation, he soon makes some disturbing discoveries: the body of an IRA informer stuffed with heroin, and an IRA safe house full of Chinese Triads.

With a wave of violence sweeping across Britain, Doyle soon realises the stakes have been raised to an alarming degree. The evidence points to an unholy war between two Triad groups with the IRA behind one of them. Motive? Only Doyle can find out, and he must do so before the carnage spirals out of control...

In a valley steeped in legend lies an abandoned house where Edens may be lost, found and remade...

The White Valley in the far west of Cornwall cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea. The house above the beach has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation, which is why Mila and her mother Magda acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954.

Magda plans to restore the house to its former glory: the venue for glittering parties, where the rich and celebrated gathered for bracing walks by day and sumptuous cocktails by night. Mila's ambitions, meanwhile, are much less grand; she dreams of creating a safe haven for herself, and a happy home for her little girl, Janey.

The White Valley comes with a long, eventful history, laced with tall tales. Locals say that a white hare may be seen running through the woods there; to some she's an ill omen, to others a blessing. Feeling fragile and broken-hearted, Mila is in need of as many blessings as she can get. But will this place provide the fresh start she so desperately needs?

This novelette originally appeared in Argosy Magazine, January-February 2004, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld, June 2015. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections A Is for Alien (2009) and Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan (2011).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Tiptree nominated story originally published at Strange Horizons where it can still be read for free (part 1, part 2). Later anthologized in Paula Guran's Zombies: The Recent Dead (2010).

Fia, the Storygiver, had come to the backward kingdom of Veliano to practice her special art. In the mist that swirled between her hands, her mind formed tiny figures to act out simple folk tales for the entertainment of the lords and ladies.

But in the court of King Rofdal and his third Queen, Leonore, the story forming in the mist became a tale of twisted passion and shocking betrayal... for waiting in Veliano was the man Fia both loved and feared. Waiting was a web of intrigue to trap her in a struggle for ultimate power - a magic linked to the dark legend of the White Pipes... the secret instrument of Fia's fate, and the fate of all she held dear.

Ghost story, murder mystery, love letter to American music--White Tears is all of this and more, a thrilling investigation of race and appropriation in society today.

Seth is a shy, awkward twentysomething. Carter is more glamorous, the heir to a great American fortune. But they share an obsession with music--especially the blues. One day, Seth discovers that he's accidentally recorded an unknown blues singer in a park. Carter puts the file online, claiming it's a 1920s recording by a made-up musician named Charlie Shaw. But when a music collector tells them that their recording is genuine--that there really was a singer named Charlie Shaw--the two white boys, along with Carter's sister, find themselves in over their heads, delving deeper and deeper into America's dark, vengeful heart.

White Tears is a literary thriller and a meditation on art--who owns it, who can consume it, and who profits from it.

Gwenhwyfar moves in a world where gods walk among their pagan worshipers, where nebulous visions warn of future perils, and where there are two paths for a woman: the path of the Blessing or the rarer path of the Warrior. Gwenhwyfar chooses the latter, giving up the power that she is born into. Yet the daughter of a King is never truly free to follow her own calling. Acting as the "son" her father never had, when called upon to serve another purpose by the Ladies of the Well, she bows to circumstances to become Arthur's queen-only to find herself facing temptation and treachery, intrigue, love and redemption.

Sometimes the shadows that haunt us are what lead us back to the light

Disgraced former police detective James Draygo has sunk as low as his habit allows, working as a fake psychic despite his very real talents. When a media mogul's trashy trophy wife gets gunned down at his tapping table he has to decide whether he can straighten up long enough to save his own skin. He may not have a choice with Essex's loudest ghost bawling in his ear about cults, conspiracies and cut-rate drugs. Oblivion sounds better all the time...

Ten fantasy stories to tease and intrigue from the astonishing Margo Lanagan.

Ten brilliant stories to unsettle and intrigue from the astonishing Margo Lanagan, internationally acclaimed author of Black Juice. 'White Time is book of absolutely outstanding short stories . . . a collection of extraordinary richness and power that will reward adult as well as teenage readers.' Adelaide Advertiser 'Ten more compelling stories from the author of the much-lauded Black Juice. Taut, vivid, original: another winner.' The Horn Book, USA 'I haven't read such challenging short stories as these for a long time. I'm in awe of the author's imagination.' Well Read, NZ 'This most diverse, nourishing set of stories had me riveted. They represent fantasy at its best, the unreal blended with the real, the unknown beating down the safe door of the known.' Magpies 'Dazzling.' John Marsden

even ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world

Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers--characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.

In "The White Cat's Divorce," an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which will become his heir. In "The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear," a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In "Skinder's Veil," a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers--or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.

Twisting and winding in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable--these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the art of short fiction.

Table of Contents:

• The White Cat's Divorce - (2019) - novelette
• Prince Hat Underground - novelette
• The White Road - novelette
• The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear - (2019) - short story
• The Game of Smash and Recovery - (2015) - short story
• The Lady and the Fox - (2014) - novelette
• Skinder's Veil - (2021) - novelette

This short story originally appeared in Interzone, #229 July-August 2010, and was reprinted in Apex Magazine, April 2012. It can also be found in the anthologies The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012), edited by Lavie Tidhar, and Robots: The Recent A. I. (2012), edited by Rich Horton and Sean Wallace.

Read the full story for free at Apex Magazine.

This short story originally appeared in Philippine Speculative Fiction IV (2009) edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, May 2015.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, July 2016.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

A landscape of frozen darkness punctuated by grim, gray days.
The feeling like a buzz in your teeth.
The scrape of bone on bone...

Paul Gallo saw the report on the news: a mass murderer leading police to his victims' graves, in remote Dread's Hand, Alaska.

It's not even a town; more like the bad memory of a town. The same bit of wilderness where his twin brother went missing a year ago. As the bodies are exhumed, Paul travels to Alaska to get closure and put his grief to rest.

But the mystery is only beginning. What Paul finds are superstitious locals who talk of the devil stealing souls, and a line of wooden crosses to keep what's in the woods from coming out. He finds no closure because no one can explain exactly what happened to Danny.

And the more he searches for answers, the more he finds himself becoming part of the mystery...

Plague, civil war, and uncontrolled experiments in genetic engineering have caused widespread chaos and devastation throughout Africa. Nicholas Hyde is part of a team of forensic pathologists investigating a massacre in the swamp forest of the northern Congo when an armed band of ferocious ape-like creatures attack. Nick survives, but finds that he's at the center of a massive cover-up.

For although the "white devils" that killed Nick's friends were almost certainly the result of illegal genetic manipulation, Obligate, the environmentally conscious transnational now controlling this part of the Congo, denies that they exist, and ruthlessly suppresses all evidence to the contrary. Although he has secrets of his own to conceal, Nick becomes determined to uncover the origin of the mysterious creatures -- and why certain individuals are prepared to resort to murder to bury the truth.

But even the atrocities he has already witnessed cannot prepare him for the terrifying secrets he uncovers on his journey into the wrecked heart of Africa, and the birthplace of the white devils.

Set between 1891 and 1922, The White Body of Evening is a compelling and thought-provoking debut novel. It focuses on the exploits of a family of true eccentrics--the Walters--as they come to grips with all the horror and hilarity of life. They roam the alleyways and arcades of old Melbourne--a Gothic labyrinth teeming with brothels, magic shops, fortune tellers, poets and predators--and even flee to the war-torn Europe, all the while trying to make sense of what it means to be urban and Australian. For beyond the respectable facades, beyond the rituals of nation-building and middle-class propriety lies another darker world--one of obsession, derangement, dissipation and crime--and it is this world into which the Walters are drawn. From Melbourne to Vienna and back again, nothing is quite what it seems--the lure of the perverse is potent and can only climax in one disastrous way...

This is an exceptional novel, a work of intricacy, magic and squalor, at once confronting and entertaining, ribald and elegant. Written with an historian's eye for detail and a painter's love of beauty, it heralds an important new voice in Australian fiction.

A brooding, Goth-historical tale from an outstanding new talent.

Valdar, heir to the throne of Dhulon, was in the fabled city-state of Schaerisa to pay his kingdom's respects to the recently deceased co-emperor. But then he ran into his old mentor, the sorcerer Nyrthim-who was supposed to be dead. The sorcerer's death had been faked so that he could be free to investigate tales that demons, once banished, were returning to the world. And unfortunately, the tales understated the danger.

Once demons ranging from deadly imps to evil demigods had ruled the world. They had been cast out and confined to the nether world only with powerful sorcery, using spells long lost. Now someone is trying to summon the most powerful-and unspeakably dangerous-of these accursed creatures back to the world of men, hoping to conquer it through them.

And unless Valdar and his companions at arms can thwart the plan, creatures evil beyond all human conception will return to rule the world. And this time, nothing will drive them back into the darkness. Instead darkness will rule the world forever...

When Derek Secrest was suddenly pulled out of the Naval Academy to take part in a top secret government project involving telepathy-because tests showed that he had a strong latent talent for psi powers-he thought things couldn't get more weird. He was wrong. Soon he was contacted by a mysterious woman who could open portals at will through spacetime. Her powers seemed godlike, and they were.

Millennia ago, extra-dimensional beings with great powers had come to earth and taken on human form, to be later remembered in legends as gods and goddesses-and titans, the ancient enemies of the gods. The godlike beings had driven off the titans, but now they are returning, with a new plan to use humans with psionic abilities to rule the Earth, and not be driven from it this time. And the titans always did have a fondness for human sacrifice and other anti-social activities.

Unless Derek and a handful of other telepaths can join forces with the ancient gods to defeat the titans, the world will be plunged into a new dark age of terror and death. But, judging from mythology, just how much can you really trust a god...?

In an alternate future where the British empire never crumbled, the space ships of Her Majesty's Navy work to keep the spaceways safe. Commander Robert Rogers of the Royal Space Navy is a defense intelligence officer known for his unconventional ways. Rogers is American born-and-raised, a loyal citizen of the Viceroyalty of North America. He's a descendant of the founder of the highly effective, pro-British Rogers' Rangers during the Colonial unpleasantries of 1776, and he's inherited his ancestor's intelligence and drive in spades.

But there are those among the stars who are not so happy being subjects of the British Empire. In the Tau Ceti system, a cauldron of trouble brews as a terrorist faction of the rebellious Sons of Arnold attacks the empire from within, and warships of the theocratic Caliphate enters the system, prepared to do their worse to destroy the hated empire head on. Yet standing against the coming anarchy and tyranny is one intrepid spy prepared to risk all for queen and empire:

In a strange alternate universe, Ponce de León's quest for the fountain of youth has unexpected results, the Spanish Armada destroys the English fleet with high-tech weapons using beams of fiery light, and the queen flees to the New World, accompanied by her sorcerer advisor Dr. Dee and William Shakespeare, where they find a gateway to an alien world.

Private investigator Bob Devaney searches for a traitor selling secrets to an interstellar mafia called the Tonkuztra among the members of the top-secret Prometheus Project, a group whose mission is to fool the aliens who rule the galaxy into believing that Earth possesses a technology comparable to that of the galactic rulers in order to protect the planet from conquest.

Two years ago, on the same day but miles apart, Finn Darby lost two of the most important people in his life: his wife Lorena, struck by lightning on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Tom Darby, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip Toy Shop. Against his grandfather's dying wish, Finn has resurrected Toy Shop, adding new characters, and the strip is more popular than ever, bringing in fan letters, merchandising deals, and talk of TV specials. Finn has even started dating again.

When a terrorist attack decimates Atlanta, killing half a million souls, Finn begins blurting things in a strange voice beyond his control. The voice says things only his grandfather could know. Countless other residents of Atlanta are suffering a similar bizarre affliction. Is it mass hysteria, or have the dead returned to possess the living? Finn soon realizes he has a hitcher within his skin... his grandfather. And Grandpa isn't terribly happy about the changes Finn has been making to Toy Shop. Together with a pair of possessed friends, an aging rock star, and a waitress, Finn races against time to find a way to send the dead back to Deadland... or die trying!

Young Jane Silverlake lives with her father in a crumbling family estate on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Jane has a secret--an unexplainable gift that allows her to see the souls of man-made objects--and this talent isolates her from the outside world. Her greatest joy is wandering the wild heath with her neighbors, Madeline and Nathan.

But as the friends come of age, their idyll is shattered by the feelings both girls develop for Nathan, and by Nathan's interest in a cult led by Ariston Day, a charismatic mystic popular with London's elite. Day encourages his followers to explore dream manipulation with the goal of discovering a strange hidden world, a place he calls the Empyrean.

A year later, Nathan has vanished, and the famed Inspector Vidocq arrives in London to untangle the events that led up to Nathan's disappearance. As a sinister truth emerges, Jane realizes she must discover the origins of her talent, and use it to find Nathan herself, before it's too late.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Future Is Japanese (2012), edited by Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Imagine you live with your aunt, who hates you so much she's going to sell you into a dreadful apprenticeship. Imagine you run away before that can happen. Imagine that you can see ghosts--and talk with the dead. People like you are feared, even shunned.

Now imagine... the first people you encounter after your escape are a mysterious stranger and a ghost boy, who seem to need you desperately--though you don't understand who they are or exactly what they want you to do. So you set off on a treacherous journey, with only a ghost dog for company. And you find that what lies before you is a task so monumental that it could change the world.

In the sealed city of Mickey-san the skies are still blue. There is no crime. No pollution. No one is unemployed and entertainment is the primary industry. In the tunnels below lies Dogton. Hard, dirty, industrial and restless with a subterranean rage, it's nightlife neon and garish. But surrounding all is Ded-Tek, grim, violent and predatory, with survival being the sole occupation of its inhabitants, and The Market its only hope.

Amidst this city of outcasts is Tommy Uchida, enigma, god, a mind too brilliant for his artificially enhanced body: and Kumo, trickster chimera, living by her wits and for her art, trying to assert her humanity. All are interconnected by the uncertainty of their future: fifteen minute viruses, a cold blistering sun, savage police 'wire-dogs', offbeat cult groups, roving gangs of rich boys, and the punishment of the 'Bell Factory', and the spectre of a brutal murderer, a foreshadow of a change that none of them can comprehend.

Saranna had heard rumors about Tiensin, the strange old mansion with its oriental treasures. She had heard it was haunted. Now with her own eyes she had seen it was true. The Macabre circle of small foxes ringing the dancer in the secret garden, the mysterious robed woman with a fox's face. Had Saranna realy seen them? Or had she dreamed it?

Saranna had gone to Tiensin under protest. Her spoiled young niece, Honora, had forced her to become a governess to her stepdaughter, Damaris. Never had Saranna encountered anyone as thoroughly evil as Honora. She was beautiful, and she could pull the wool over any man's eyes. But she could not deceive Saranna. Or Damaris, whom she was planning to cheat out of a huge inheritance. Even the handsome and trustworthy Gerrad Fowkes seemed to be taken with the deceitful young stepmother. Saranna knew now that the future held great danger for her and Damaris. She needed desperately to talk to someone. But there was no one. Except Gerrad Fowkes. Or was he too enamored of Honora to believe Saranna?

“Miranda is at home-homesick, home sick ...”

As a child, Miranda Silver developed pica, a rare eating disorder that causes its victims to consume nonedible substances. The death of her mother when Miranda is sixteen exacerbates her condition; nothing, however, satisfies a strange hunger passed down through the women in her family. And then there’s the family house in Dover, England, converted to a bed-and-breakfast by Miranda’s father. Dover has long been known for its hostility toward outsiders. But the Silver House manifests a more conscious malice toward strangers, dispatching those visitors it despises. Enraged by the constant stream of foreign staff and guests, the house finally unleashes its most destructive power.

With distinct originality and grace, and an extraordinary gift for making the fantastic believable, Helen Oyeyemi spins the politics of family and nation into a riveting and unforgettable mystery.

Set in ancient, magical Scotland, this is the story of Maira, a proud and beautiful Celt, trained in warfare as well as womanhood. Carric loves her but he belongs to an enemy tribe and she has vowed to kill him.

TWO GODS-ONE CHANCE FOR MANKIND

In Victorian London, the Whitechapel section is a mechanized, steam-driven hell, cut off and ruled by two mysterious, mechanical gods-Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock. Some years have passed since the Great Uprising, when humans rose up to fight against the machines, but a few brave veterans of the Uprising have formed their own Resistance-and are gathering for another attack. For now they have a secret weapon that may finally free them-or kill them all...

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, August 2018.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

In 3229 A.D., human civilization is scattered among the planets, moons, and asteroids of the solar system. Billions of lives depend on the technology derived from the breakthroughs of the greatest physicist of the age, Arthur Holywelkin. But in the last years of his life, Holywelkin devoted himself to building a strange, beautiful, and complex musical instrument that he called The Orchestra.

Johannes Wright has earned the honor of becoming the Ninth Master of Holywelkin's Orchestra. Follow him on his Grand Tour of the Solar System, as he journeys down the gravity well toward the sun, impelled by a destiny he can scarcely understand, and is pursued by mysterious foes who will tell him anything except the reason for their enmity.

Malcontent mathematics instructor Feliz Raymond's afternoon naps are the subject of Rudy Rucker's strange and delightful White Light. Bored with his life and job at a state university in New York and making no headway in solving Georg Cantor's Continuum Problem, Raymond finds himself every afternoon, lying flat on his floor, entering into a state of lucid dreaming that allows him to explore an entirely new surreal and mathematically-charged reality. What follows is an adventure through time and space, the likes of which only a collaboration between Umberto Eco and Lewis Carroll could attempt. With traveling companions ranging from Einstein to the devil to a giant beetle named Franx, Raymond explores the infinite reaches of his new playground, which is filled with a multitude of cultural and scientific references, some subtle and many overt. Each turned corner of White Light is another gleeful surprise, another celebration of cleverness and imagination. Rucker, who is just as comfortable presenting accessible introductions to modern ideas in geometry (The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes) as he is spinning yarns of hacker fiction (The Hacker and the Ants), wrote this novel while, like the protagonist, endeavoring to solve Cantor's Continuum Problem at a state university in New York. This novel belongs to the tradition of science fiction pioneered by H. G. Wells, where the science is the source of intrigue that adventures grow from and propel the protagonists.

When magician Seymour saves Bard Bryon from the hounds of death, the two are forced to flee to the king's palace, the one place where they hope to find sanctuary from countless enemies. And along the way Seymour learns that Byron is possessed by the white mists of power, perhaps the long-prophesied bringer of doom to the world.

A novel of horror, terror and tantasy - a blizzard in the Catskills....

In the reign of Minos, King of the Cretans, the gods gave proof of their existence: a bull-headed man accompanied by his bronzen servitor strode forth from Neptune's realm. At last the gods had removed the veils that separated them from their worshippers... or had they?

Strangely enough, the Minotaur forswears all claim to divinity - and his metallic servant cannot speak at all. Instead, he comes to the Greeks bearing gifts of alien knowledge. But Daedelus at least will have cause to beware the teachings of... The White Bull.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (2016), edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. It was reprinted in Lightspeed Magazine, October 2017. The story is included in the collection Tender: Stories (2017).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Some secrets are better left buried: some secrets are so frightening they might make angels weep and the devil crow.

Thought provoking as well as intensely scary, White Crow unfolds in three voices. There's Rebecca, who has come to a small seaside village to spend the summer, there is Ferelith, who offers the show Rebecca the secrets of the town... but at a price. Finally, there's a priest whose descent into darkness illuminates the girls' frightening story. White Crow is as beautifully written as it is horricically gripping.

This short story originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1990. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection (1991), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections Love in Vain (2001) and Collected Stories (2010).

AS THE WORLD SHUDDERS, JAMSHID HURTLES TOWARD THE FINAL, SHIVERING CLIMAX.

He grasps you in his wicked, loving embrace, a dark, seductive beauty. His ecstacy transports you beyond the moon, beyond the stars.

As earth shudders toward its end, as it throbs with the power of his mind -- he is the ultimate weapon, the final, terrifying angel of death.

No one can hide from him. No one can escape his evil. No man, no woman can resist his... BLACK MAGIC.

For years, people have feared that sexual material removed from victims of alien abductions might lead to the creation of something that modern science considers impossible: hybrids of the alien and the human.

They would think like aliens, but appear human, and be able to do something that full-blooded aliens can't--walk the earth freely.

In Hybrids, Whitley Strieber unleashes his unparalleled skills as a thriller writer and his unique knowledge of the abduction phenomenon to explore, what might happen if hybrids invaded the earth--not from the stars, but from exactly where the aliens told him they would emerge, when one of them said, "We will come from within you."

Beresford doesn't remember much about his past or how he came to live in the chutes and crawl spaces of the posh high-rise that shares his name. But when rock star and teen sensation Melody McGrath moves to an apartment on the fiftieth floor, he knows he has to be near her. Although she doesn't realize it, Melody is threatened by more dangerous forces than her manipulative stage mom and the pressures of life in the spotlight. The owner of the glamorous building has been hiding a fatal secret within its walls, and Beresford puts all his plans at risk. Will Beresford and Melody be able to escape with their lives (and love) intact?

The authors of the best seller Warday depict in powerful detail a 21st-century Earth with devastated environment and rampant overpopulation. A rich and comfortable elite coexists with malnourished, pitiful billions, "the victim generation." The rich enjoy youth preservation treatments and other biomedical wonders while the rest just endure the toxicity and pollution. Hero John Sinclair and a few rich companies fight to thwart the leader of a burgeoning Depopulation Movement that would have each third person poisoned to "solve'' the population crisis.

Readers will follow with grim fascination these struggles to survive in a dying world. Sobering message eclipses story, and the book should strike home with a variety of informed citizens.

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Cutting Edge (1986), edited by Dennis Etchison.

The planet is warming up and as the ice caps melt, the great currents of the oceans shift and the Northern Hemisphere is plunged into a new ice age. One scientist has the key to turning back the clock of global warming.

But as Western civilisation succumbs to blizzards and tidal waves and the population of the Northern hemisphere begins a mass exodus south, mankind's only saviour is making a lonely, terror-filled trip north. To a New York disappearing under snowdrifts hundreds of feet high. The city where his son was last heard of.

The mound, a quiet town gathering spot ... until now. Now something undeniably evil is hiding beneath it. A powerful darkness, terror with unfathomable needs and desires, spreading its roots in secret, transforming all that the good townfolk love and cherish: their past, their hopes, their souls.

Courageous physicist Brian Kelley and his beautiful, very pregnant wife, must confront the horror. They will band together with their neighbors to battle a power transcending their worst imaginings. And only an impossible gamble will give them a chance to survive The Forbidden Zone -- master storyteller Whitley Strieber's breakneck journey beyond the cutting edge of terrifying suspense.

We are not alone. Millions of people are confronting aliens that authorities say do not exist.

Meet the Three Thieves, a group of Grays assigned to duty in a small Kentucky town. They have been preparing a child for generations. Innocent Conner Callaghan will face the ultimate terror as he struggles to understand who he has been bred to be, and what he must do to save humanity. Colonel Michael Morax strives to keep the secret of the Grays from the public for reasons so sinister, yet believable, that they read like truth. And Lauren Glass, government "empath" to the last surviving captive Gray, known only as B for Bob, has a unique ability to communicate with this captive Gray. But when B for Bob suddenly escapes the highly secure underground Air Force facility that he's been captive in for years, a frantic race begins, as the government must outmaneuver the Grays to keep the secret of their presence intact.

The Grays is a mind-bending journey behind the curtain of secrecy that surrounds the subject of aliens, written by the field's great master, Whitley Strieber. If you've never so much as thought about the subject before, this book will make you think deeply, not only about the mystery of who the Grays are, but who exactly we are.

In the Night Church, on the altar of the true church, no one will see the rape, no one will hear the screams of ecstasy -- no one except the devil's disciples...

She is young, incredibly desirable, the virgin bride. He is young, incredibly brilliant, the devil's groom. They are genetically perfect, programmed to plant a seed of flesh, destined to breed a mutant life -- of overwhelming beauty and overwhelming evil. Evil which will emerge as the anti-human, evil which will use cold, sinister technology to wipe out the world -- our world. Now it is a matter of life and death. For them. For us. For humankind.

2012 came and went. The world prepared itself for impending disaster--and nothing happened. Or so it seemed.

But by 2020, energy from a supernova is disrupting the sun. Solar storms ravage the globe with unprecedented ferocity, and debris in the form of comets and asteroids threaten to end life on earth. The wealthy of the world hide in vast underground bunkers, but even they know that they cannot survive without a miracle.

It all comes down to one man--a young psychiatrist named David Ford--who may hold the power to save the world. Newly employed at the extravagant Acton Clinic, Ford encounters people who seem to understand what's happening... some may even possess an extraordinary knowledge of what's to come. One of them is the beautiful and enigmatic Caroline Light, who demands more from Ford than he could possibly give... another is cunning ex-CIA operative Mack Graham, a skilled killer with questionable loyalties...

December 21, 2012 was not the end.

The end is The Omega Point: where time stops.

WOLF DREAMS

Bob Duke dreamed of becoming a wolf. Of running free on four strong legs. Howling. Stalking. Living with nature, in nature.

Then his dream came true -- and threatened to become a nightmare.

Bob's wife and son vow to restore his humanity. But even if then can find him -- a man-wolf loose in the concrete forests of Manhattan -- will he even want to become human again?

Once set free, no cage can hold back... THE WILD.

In the dark, they are watching...

They are waiting for you.

No one has ever lived to tell the horrifying truth about them. Yet even now the Wolfen are gathered in the night-dark alleys... unseen, poised... ready to destroy their helpless human prey. Only one man and one woman, trained cops, willing to risk their lives, stand in the way.

Father John Rafferty is a dedicated priest with only one temptation--the beautiful and troubled young woman he has been counseling. When she is found brutally murdered in his Greenwich Village church, Father Rafferty is forced to face his greatest test of faith... especially when the NYPD uncovers her sexually twisted life. But the terror and scandal continue as the church he loves becomes the site of increasingly violent and sinister acts.

Father Rafferty knows he must overcome his personal horror in order to emerge from the devil's shadow... to triumph over Hell's fiendish strength... to unmask a murderer who wears an angel's face.

This chilling novel of psychological terror and demonic possession will hold you in thrall as it explores the powerful forces of evil lurking where we least expect them...

Five years after a "limited" nuclear war, two survivors journey across America. They -- and you -- will discover what is left of our way of life: the depth of the devastation -- and the hopes of a new society desperately struggling to be born.

Set in the era of two world wars, this comprehensive work weaves together the bizarre mythology and eccentric beliefs that explain how a nation went insane for 12 years. Told through the compelling lives and loves of a pair of very unique characters, this tour de force will take you into a radical blend of religion and myth frighteningly similar to what is going on in parts of the world today.

Certain to be a benchmark work of elegantly written fiction and historical perspective, Case White delivers a poignant people story played out on a grand stage.

Nine stories of horses and their people. Nine tales of magic and enchantment.

Horses of the ancient world, horses of the Middle Ages and the Arabian Nights, horses of the present and the future, even horses (and not quite horses) of a world that never was.

When a mysterious stranger steals the Emperor Charlemagne's favorite horse, the Emperor's page goes hunting for the thief and the horse--and uncovers a secret older than gods.

Drawn to a stableyard full of legendary white horses, a passerby finds a greater legend still, and an ancient treasure.

In a far future world, horses are no longer precisely horses--except for one precious herd, which alone preserves the ancient bloodlines. When that herd is ordered to conform to modern laws of genetics, the results are not at all what the laws' makers expect.

In these and other stories, horsewoman and author and historian Judith Tarr celebrates the lore and legend of the horse, and the age-old bond between horse and human.

It is a dream of electrifying eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. It is a horrifying yet restrained narrative of the Holocaust. It is a searing vision of the wounds of our century, and an attempt to heal them. Interweaving poetry and case history, fantasy and historical truth-telling, THE WHITE HOTEL is a modern classic of enduring emotional power that attempts nothing less than to reconcile the notion of individual destiny with that of historical fate.

Here is a Thurber world of enchanted deer and seven-headed dragons, of wizards and witches, of riddles and spells, of false love and true. It is the story of a beautiful princess, transformed from a deer, who assigns each of three princes a perilous labor to perform in order to win her hand.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #1 October 2006. It can also be found in the anthology Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine (2007), edited by Sean Wallace and Nick Mamatas.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Tatyana Tolstaya's short stories--with their unpredictable fairy-tale plots, appealingly eccentric characters, and stylistic abundance and flair--established her in the 1980s as one of modern Russia's finest writers. Since then her work has been translated throughout the world. Edna O'Brien has called Tolstaya "an enchantress." Anita Desai has spoken of her work's "richness and ardent life." Mixing heartbreak and humor, dizzying flights of fantasy and plunging descents to earth, Tolstaya is the natural successor in a great Russian literary lineage that includes Gogol, Yuri Olesha, Bulgakov, and Nabokov.

White Walls is the most comprehensive collection of Tolstaya's short fiction to be published in English so far. It presents the contents of her two previous collections, On the Golden Porch and Sleepwalker in a Fog, along with several previously uncollected stories. Tolstaya writes of lonely children and lost love, of philosophers of the absurd and poets working as janitors, of angels and halfwits. She shows how the extraordinary will suddenly erupt in the midst of ordinary life, as she explores the human condition with a matchless combination of unbound imagination and unapologetic sympathy.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales (2009), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It 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 Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010, edited by Paula Guran. The story is included in the collection Ventriloquism (2010).

Hugo, Nebula and Sidewise award nominated novelette. It was originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine, #71 August 2012. It can be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Clarkesworld: Year Six (2014), edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace. The story is collected in The Melancholy of Mechagirl (2013) and The Bread We Eat in Dreams (2013).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Novella

From New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente comes a brilliant reinvention of one the best known fairy tales of all time. In the novella Six-Gun Snow White, Valente transports the title's heroine to a masterfully evoked Old West where Coyote is just as likely to be found as the seven dwarves.

A plain-spoken, appealing narrator relates the history of her parents--a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. With her mother's death in childbirth, so begins a heroine's tale equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have. Filled with fascinating glimpses through the fabled looking glass and a close-up look at hard living in the gritty gun-slinging West, readers will be enchanted by this story at once familiar and entirely new.

Novelette originally published in Subterranean Press Magazine. It can also be found in the collection The Bread We Eat in Dreams (2013) and the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six (2012), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Mythic Journeys (2019), edited by Paula Guran.

Read the full story for free at Subterranean.

In a land pockmarked with the grim relics of a long-ago war live a people consumed by the fear of magic. Those suspected of sorcery die at the hands of the infamous White Tribunal. And death and terror will reign until a young man pawns his soul for the temporary power to destroy his murdered father's false accusers.

Now, disguised as a foreigner and with his time measured by the sands of a magical hourglass, Tradain liMarchborg enters the capital city of Lis Folaze, stronghold of the White Tribunal's power. Here his path will cross that of the beautiful Glennian liTarngrav, whose own mission will lock them together in a vortex of love, revenge, death, and enchantment that could save a land... or thrust them both--as Tradain's hourglass sands run out--into eternal torment.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology New Worlds (1997), edited by David Garnett. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection (1998), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections Heart of Whitenesse (2005) and Things Will Never Be the Same: Selected Short Fiction, 1980 - 2005 (2007).

On an Earth of the near future, a world in which multinational corporations control the planet and hunger, poverty, and overpopulation are the norm, a power struggle erupts for control of Antarctica, the last pristine food and water source.

Count Lodovico is banished from Rome for debauchery and murder; his friends promise to work for the repeal of his sentence. The Duke of Brachiano has conceived a violent passion for Vittoria Corombona, daughter of a noble but impoverished Venetian family, despite the fact they are both married to other people. Vittoria's brother Flamineo, employed as a secretary to Brachiano, has been scheming to bring his sister and the Duke together in the hope of advancing his career. The plan is foiled by the arrival of Brachiano's wife Isabella, escorted by her brother and Cardinal Monticelso. They are both outraged by the rumours of Brachiano's infidelity and set out to encourage him to make the affair open; before that happens Brachiano and Flamineo arrange to have Camillo (Vittoria's husband) and Isabella murdered.

Vittoria is put on trial for the murder of her husband and although there is no real evidence against her, she is condemned by the Cardinal to imprisonment in a convent for penitent whores. Flamineo pretends madness to protect himself from awkward suggestions. The banished Count Lodovico is pardoned and returns to Rome: confessing he had been secretly in love with Isabella, he vows to avenge her death. Isabella's brother Francisco also plots revenge. He pens a love letter to Vittoria, which falls into the hands of Brachiano. It fuels his jealousy and forces him to elope with Vittoria. Cardinal Monticelso is elected Pope and as his first act he excommunicates Vittoria and Brachiano.

Vittoria and Brachiano, now married, hold court in Padua. Three mysterious strangers have arrived to enter Brachiano's service. These are Francisco, disguised as Mulinassar a Moor and Lodovico and Gasparo, disguised as Capuchin monks, all conspiring to avenge Isabella's death. They begin their revenge by poisoning Brachiano. As he is dying, Lodovico and Gasparo reveal themselves to him. Next Zanche, Vittoria's Moorish maid, who has fallen in love with her supposed countryman Mulinassar, reveals to him the murders of Isabella and Camillo and Flamineo's part in them.

Flamineo is banished from court by Giovanni, the new Duke, and sensing that his crimes are catching up with him he goes to see Vittoria. He tries to persuade her and Zanche to shoot each other. Vittoria and Zanche shoot Flamineo and thinking him dead, exult in his death and their escape. Much to their surprise Flamineo rises from the 'dead' and reveals to them the pistols were not loaded. While trying to exact his own revenge on Vittoria, Lodovico and Gasparo then enter the scene and complete their revenge by killing them. Giovanni and officers come to the scene and the play ends with Giovanni sending Lodovico off to torture.

While the human race spreads throughout the universe, a man gifted with telepathy considers his talent a curse, until a fateful encounter with an alien species convinces him about the potential of his powers.

Hugo Award nominated story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fact -> Fiction, October 1960. The story can also be found in the anthology What If? Volume 2 (1981) edited by Richard A. Lupoff. It is included in the collection Unwillingly to Earth (1992).

"A good, original, space-setting adventure" (Piers Anthony) from a Hugo Award nominee. Raised on a backwater miners' planet thousands of light-years from civilization, Lysistrata Lee is surprised to receive a scholarship to the most prestigious university in the galaxy. And in the process of getting an education, Lizzie manages to solve a murder, prevent a planetary war, and find a little romance.

Table of Contents:

• Unwillingly to School - (1958) - novelette
• Rats in the Moon - (1982) - novella
• Fatal Statistics - (1988) - novella
• The Lost Kafoozalum - (1960) - novella

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, January 1958. The story is included in the collection Unwillingly to Earth (1992).

Loxley Fiddleback can see the dead, but the problem is... the dead can see her.

Ghosts have always been cruel to Loxley Fiddleback, especially the spirit of her only friend, alive only hours before. Loxley isn't equipped to solve a murder: she lives near the bottom of a cutthroat, strip-mined metropolis known as "The Hole," suffers from crippling anxiety and doesn't cotton to strangers. Worse still, she's haunted.

She inherited her ability to see spirits from the women of her family, but the dead see her, too. Ghosts are drawn to her like a bright fire, and their lightest touch leaves her with painful wounds.

Loxley swears to take blood for blood and find her friend's killer. In doing so, she uncovers a conspiracy that rises all the way to the top of The Hole. As her enemies grow wise to her existence, she becomes the quarry, hunted by a brutal enforcer named Hiram McClintock. In sore need of confederates, Loxley must descend into the strangest depths of the city in order to have the revenge she seeks and, ultimately, her own salvation.

Corey J. White's debut novel Repo Virtual blurs the lines between the real and virtual in an action-packed cyberpunk heist story.

The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities -- augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive.

Enter Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief. He's been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he's stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated.

A genderfluid witch in a small Southern town prepares for their Black Cotillion coming out party. Singing worms converge on an old woman and young boy living in a house buried deep underground. Revenge drives an angry spirit through possession after possession in the bare-knuckle boxing ring. A father and son's canoe trip to one of the world's "soft places" culminates in an ecstatic encounter with the Weird.

These are just a few of the fifteen stories contained in As Summer's Mask Slips, and Other Disruptions, Gordon B. White's debut collection of horror and Weird fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (As Summer's Mask Slips and Other Disruptions) - essay by John C. Foster
• Birds of Passage - (2019) - short story
• Open Fight Night at the Dirtbag Casino - (2017) - short fiction
• As Summer's Mask Slips - (2016) - short story
• The Buchanan Boys Ride Again - (2019) - novelette
• Clara Walker's Little Death - (2016) - short story
• Eight Affirmations for the Revolting Body, Confiscated from the Prisoners of Bunk 17 - (2019) - short fiction
• Hair Shirt Drag - (2014) - short fiction
• The Hollow - (2014) - short fiction
• The Lure of the Lollipop Tree - short fiction
• The Meatbag Variations - short fiction
• Mise en Abyme - (2016) - short story
• The Rising Son - (2013) - short fiction
• The Sputtering Wick of the Stars - (2015) - short story
• Ultramarine - (2014) - short fiction
• We Eat Dirt and Sleep and Wait - (2019) - short fiction

When Cabot Howard's ex-wife, Leana, flees the pandemic with their son Porter to the backwoods town of Rookfield, Cabot sets off after them. Once he arrives, however, he finds Leana is in hiding, her family won't hand Porter over, and the townsfolk are deadly serious about always wearing masks. The town's children dress like little plague doctors and the adults are hellbent on getting Cabot out by nightfall.

Despite being alone and under attack, Cabot won't leave without his son. Nothing-not ex-in-laws, not the sheriff, not even whatever monstrosity might be lurking in the woods just behind the barn-will stop Cabot from getting them out of... Rookfield.

In such books as Hospital Station and Star Surgeon, James White has built an enviable reputation as a writer of science fiction about the future of medical science and what it may be like to treat and care for a staggering variety of alien life-forms. He has an extraordinary talent for creating believable but utterly alien extra-terrestrials.

In ALL JUDGEMENT FLED, he considers the critically important 'first contact' between humans and others - and of how political expediency could make this a bloodbath for mankind.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Stellar #2 (1976), edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey. The story can also be found in the anthologies Republic and Empire (1987) edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr and The Road to Science Fiction 5: The British Way (1998), edited by James Gunn. It is included in the collections Futures Past (1982) and The White Papers (1996).

JAMES WHITE has produced a long series of remarkable science fiction story over the years--notably the running of a fantastic space hospital geared for all kinds of extra-terrestrial beings.

In DEADLY LITTER, he turns his hand to the peculiar problems of man in space. Four ingenious tales explore some of the wild--and not so wild--possibilities; the pressures, dangers, boredom man will have to suffer, and the courage it will take to get homo sapiens to live in a totally hostile element.

Excitement, suspense and the thread of realistic humor hold together these four fast moving tales of the future.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Grapeliner - (1959) - novelette
• 47 - The Ideal Captain - (1958) - novella
• 97 - The Lights Outside the Windows - (1957) - novelette
• 129 - Deadly Litter - (1959) - novella

A CASE FOR SECTOR GENERAL

The big birdlike creature, found floating in the vastness of space by the Scoutship Torrance, was obviously sick.

A strand--and perhaps deadly--rash that covered its body may well have caused the creature's companions to abandon their helpless friend.

But the crew couldn't leave the beast to die. First they would have to find a way to tow it... and then the doctors and nurses at Sector General could find a cure!

------
PLUS TEN MORE SUPER SCIENCE-FICTION STORIES
------

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Spacebird - [Sector General] - (1973) - novelette
• 23 - Commuter - (1972) - short story
• 40 - Assisted Passage - [Allen - 1] - (1953) - novelette
• 59 - Curtain Call - (1954) - short story
• 68 - Boarding Party - (1955) - novelette
• 94 - Patrol - (1957) - novelette
• 120 - Fast Trip - (1963) - novelette
• 160 - Question of Cruelty - (1956) - novelette
• 173 - False Alarm - [Allen - 2] - (1957) - novelette
• 193 - Dynasty of One - (1955) - short story
• 199 - Outrider - [Allen] - (1955) - novelette

DISASTER!

The passengers were the usual varied lot, some nervous, some boisterous, some smart-aleck, some quiet.

The ship's Medical Officer was brand new and didn't anticipate having to do much more than take care of a few queasy stomachs and bruises among his charges--from learning how to handle weightlessness.

It was a routine trip.

And so was the safety drill.

Until the disaster call went out...

SECOND ENDING

A Complete Short Novel

Awakening from a deep sleep can be hell for anyone. Bur for a medical student who had been in suspended animation for more than two centuries, it was a particularly terrifying hell. For Ross suddenly was alive, aware and imprisoned five miles underground in a world he didn't know... and he was being prepared for a fate beyond his wildest dreams!

-- Plus --

COUNTER SECURITY

A locked-store thriller in which the only way to solve impossible crimes is with impossible solutions.

NUISANCE VALUE

A curious family affair where one man's obsession is another man's top secret.

DOGFIGHT

An inter-galactic war story in which man's worst enemies are the last to know the truth about their friends...

-- And lots more --

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction: Reality in Science Fiction - (1977) - essay
• 9 - Second Ending - (1962) - novel
• 118 - Counter Security - (1963) - novelette
• 143 - Dogfight - (1959) - novelette
• 171 - Nuisance Value - (1975) - short story
• 195 - In Loving Memory - (1956) - short story
• 209 - The Apprentice - (1960) - novelette
• 245 - Answer Came There None - (1974) - short story

Five miles beneath the surface, Ross was awakened from the deep sleep of suspended animation to find himself in an empty world. There was no noise, no people, and no motion save for the steady activity of the hospital robots. What had happened to life? Was Ross the last human being in existence?

ON EARTH OR ON SECTOR GENERAL... THE ALIENS ARE HERE

*Star Surgeon Conway had to share his brain with an alien medic--and the alien was taking over.

*The Orligs were cute, cuddly teddy bears--and they wanted to to batter all humans to death.

*Colonel Dermod had to fight a war--but his troops were cowards, handpicked by the enemy.

*Humans hardly stood a chance in a telepathic cat-and-mouse game of sorts.

From Sector General, the incredible space hospital where strange and wonderful doctors and patients are drawn from all species, to the barren storm-tossed hills of Donegal--the aliens are coming!

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Countercharm - [Sector General] - (1960) - novelette
• 22 - To Kill or Cure - (1957) - novelette
• 52 - Red Alert - (1956) - novelette
• 82 - Tableau - [Sector General] - (1958) - novelette
• 109 - The Conspirators - (1954) - novelette
• 136 - The Scavengers - (1953) - novelette
• 160 - Occupation: Warrior - [Sector General] - (1959) - novella

Earth was a polluted, dying planet. Violence was rampant and civilizaton was doomed. If Man was to survive, John Devlin had to find him a new home somewhere in the galaxy. He had 1,000 years to look - and 1,000 years to dream. But all his dreams were nightmares...

A captured human officer leads his fellows in an escape from an alien-dominated prison planet.

Armed with sharp steel and iron resolve, the deposed Queen Sheela sets out for the mysterious Southern Lands to raise an army of allies to liberate her people.

WHEN IRISH SPIES AR SMILING

The kingdom of Hibernia had risen from its sleepy emerald isle to befriend the native Redmen of the West, and, with technology brought out of ancient Egyptian lands, had forged a mighty industrial empire. And after generations of development under the Pax Hibernia, the Empire was poised for human-kind's greatest adventure--settling a new world under a distant star.

Healer Nolan was a lone male in the traditionally female healing prfession and an unbeliever in the religion of the priest-kings of Hibernia. He had to be careful to avoid any trouble that could jeopardize his place among the crew of the starship Aisling Gheal. But the lowly Healer was unaware of hi part in a subtle struggle for control of the future colony... until he discovered evidence of a plot against the projectL a secret plan for the new world that did not include heretics like Nolan.

And as betrayal and deceit followed Nolan into the silent depths of space and on to the surface of a raw, untamed planet, he was challenged to become the one thing he had never even dreamed of--a hero.

In The Watch Below, two narrative lines dovetail cleverly. In one a World War Two merchant vessel sinks, leaving three men and two women to survive in a large air pocket, work out life-maintenance systems and eventually breed there Under the Sea while 100 years pass. In the other, water-dwelling Aliens, who have long been seeking a wet world like Earth to inhabit peacefully, land their Generation Starship in the sea in time to save the descendants of the five twentieth-century survivors.

Table of Contents:

• The White Papers - interior artwork by ATom
• The White Papers - interior artwork by Steve Stiles
• 13 - Introduction (The White Papers) - (1996) - essay by Mike Resnick
• 17 - James White - (1996) - essay by Walt Willis
• 23 - Custom Fitting - (1976) - novelette
• 43 - Commuter - (1972) - short story
• 59 - House Sitter - (1996) - novelette
• 79 - Sanctuary - (1988) - novelette
• 105 - Christmas Treason - (1962) - novelette
• 125 - The Secret History of Sector General - (1979) - essay
• 135 - Accident - [Sector General] - (1983) - novelette
• 161 - Medic - [Sector General] - (1960) - novelette (variant of O'Mara's Orphan)
• 191 - Countercharm - [Sector General] - (1960) - novelette
• 209 - Visitor at Large - [Sector General] - (1959) - novelette
• 243 - An Introduction to Real Virtuality - (1996) - essay by Bruce Pelz
• 247 - The Last Time I Saw Harris - (1996) - essay
• 251 - The Beacon - (1996) - essay
• 275 - The Not-So-Hot Gospeller - (1996) - essay
• 281 - The Long Afternoon of Harrogate - (1996) - essay
• 293 - The History of IF #3 - (1996) - essay
• 299 - The Qunize-y Report - (1996) - essay
• 323 - Fester on the Fringe - (1996) - essay
• 345 - The Exorcists of IF - (1976) - short story
• 353 - The Unreal George Affair - (1996) - essay
• 361 - Sector General Timeline - (1996) - essay by Gary Louie
• 365 - Notes on the Classification System - (1996) - essay
• 367 - The Classification System - (1996) - essay by Gary Louie

SECURITY RISK

Jim Carson was Security Chief at the Hart-Ewing plant--and he was very good at his job. That is, he accomplished what he had to unobtrusively. The nature of the job made Carson caution and meticulously thorough. What he brought to his profession was a most thoughtful sensitivity,

So when Carson became uneasy, he knew something was really wrong. And methodically, as usual, he started going over the multitude of details and impressions he had been picking up day-by-day for weeks.

He came up with a most astonishing result!

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, February 1996. There are no other known publications available at this time.

It began in a hospital -- the incredible trail of clues which lead to the discovery of the invasion of Earth...

UNDERKILL

Normally the socio-political problems of the outside world did not concern Dr. Malcoml and his wife, safely cocooned in their hospital work. But it was their misfortune to be on duty the night the three patients were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit... a small boy, a beautifyl girl, and an old man -- all clost to death, all victims of a diseased society.

UNDERKILL

Malcolm's investigations revealed a further link between the three -- one which involved the medics with an all-powerful police force and took them to the sub-surface city of Plessat... the centre of an extra-terrestrial conspiracy of super-elite beings dedicated to curing the terminal illness of the planet Earth...

The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past--Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children's program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who--or what--the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it's been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven't seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they're the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

My mother.

At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her. Through our thin shared wall, I can hear the makings of my mother gurgle through her body just like the water in the walls of the house...

Teenager Aoileann has never left the island. Her silent, bed-bound mother is the survivor of a private disaster no one will speak about. Aoileann desperately wants a family, and when Rachel and her newborn son move to the island, Aoileann finds a focus for her relentless love.

"She saw: first, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the lowest step... finally she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one, outside the nearest door... she went to look at the shell--but looked with the greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it."

So ten-year-old Maria, orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers the secret of her deteriorating estate: on a deserted island at its far corner, in the temple long ago nicknamed Mistress Masham's Repose, live an entire community of people--"The People," as they call themselves--all only inches tall. With the help of her only friend--the absurdly erudite Professor--Maria soon learns that this settlement is no less than the kingdom of Lilliput (first seen in Gulliver's Travels) in exile. Safely hidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are at first endangered by Maria's well-meaning but clumsy attempts to make their lives easier, but their situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Maria's greedy guardians, who look at The People and see only a bundle of money.

Tad Dameron's assignment was routine enough: escort Bjonn, the alien from Farhome on the final leg of his journey to Earth--and learn what he could about the alien's culture.

But from the beginning Dameron realized that there was something strange and ominous about Bjonn--something in his eyes and the way he spoke, even the way he held himself, that forewarned of danger.

Then Bjonn was gone, slipped away to mingle with Earth's teeming millions, and with him the beautiful Dian, Dameron's woman. When next he surfaced, Bjonn was heading a new religion--one which threatened to subvert all humanly. Dameron found himself embarked upon the most dangerous, most isolating job of his career in an attempt to halt the...

ALIEN MENACE

For untold centuries humanity had dreamed of realities like these.

- An ideal agrarian community, run by women and ruled by love and harmony.

- A city state that mirrored history's most famous utopian vision.

- A society aglow with the wit and style that only Regency England had briefly achieved.

All were real. All were flourishing. All were waiting to astound and entrap four space voyagers from Earth who had violated all odds by landing on this unknown planet, and who now broke all laws to learn the terrifying secret of -

FORBIDDEN WORLD

As a newly minted graduate of space school, Paul lands space station duty and is given the tricky and dangerous assignment of salvaging defunct satellites. But there's more up there than anyone bargained for...

One minute I was in New York... walking down Sixth Avenue, a private eye on a two-bit job... Next minute I was in New York... a crazy town I almost recognized--but Goebbels was speaking in Union Square, Hitler invited me to a cocktail party, and aliens from outer space were running the whole show. Fun City it wasn't...

Plucked from his own 'time', a pawn in a Galactic power play, Ron Archer fights his way through a deadly maze of intrigue and conspiracy to an incredible destiny at the end of the star lanes!

You are riding home from work on the subway. There is a jolt - and as you fall against your neighbour you discover - he is a manikin.

You investigate. The entire train is filled with manikins. Are there no humans in this world...?

You approach a door. There is only an opaque blackness on the other side. You are wary. You put through only one arm. It disappears completely. You are curious. You must find out what lies beyond.

You walk through the door into the void...

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1965. The story can also be found in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF (2009) edited by Mike Ashley.

Larry is home from grad school to work on his father's project to save the world from starvation, and finds himself the target of a plot to sabotage the whole project and kill them all...

The Compleat Boucher contains all of the science fiction and fantasy written by Anthony Boucher. It contains such classic stories as "The Quest for Saint Aquin," "Snulbug," and "The Compleat Werewolf." Many of the stories collected here have never before appeared in a Boucher collection, and some haven't been reprinted since their original magazine publication. "Rappaccini's Other Daughter" appears here for the first time.

When the explosions began, shaking the very roof of his world, only Rah had the courage to climb to the surface to investigate. There he found a strange machine, tended by two-eyed creatures with silvery skin. Aliens! A deep chill touched Rah's very soul. The unbelievable had finally happened. Mars had been invaded!

Lance Garrith, star reporter for the Solar News, came to Mars for the scoop of a lifetime: evidence of a visitor from beyond the stars. But a Martian colony can be a dangerous place. Lance is watched, followed... and nearly killed. Something on Mars doesn't want to be found. Something not quite human...

Verticality, architectural and social, is at the heart of Colson Whitehead's first novel that takes place in an unnamed high-rise city that combines twenty-first-century engineering feats with nineteenth-century pork-barrel politics. Elevators are the technological expression of the vertical ideal, and Lila Mae Watson, the city's first black female elevator inspector, is its embattled token of upward mobility.When Number Eleven of the newly completed Fanny Briggs Memorial Building goes into deadly free-fall just hours after Lila Mae has signed off on it, using the controversial 'Intuitionist' method of ascertaining elevator safety, both Intuitionists and Empiricists recognize the set-up, but may be willing to let Lila Mae take the fall in an election year.

As Lila Mae strives to exonerate herself in this urgent adventure full of government spies, underworld hit men, and seductive double agents, behind the action, always, is the Idea. Lila Mae's quest is mysteriously entwined with existence of heretofore lost writings by James Fulton, father of Intuitionism, a giant of vertical thought. If she is able to find and reveal his plan for the perfect, next-generation elevator, the city as it now exists may instantly become obsolescent.

The National Book Award Winner and #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood--where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned--Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor--engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey--hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.

Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization under orders from the provisional government based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street-aka Zone One-but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety-the "malfunctioning" stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.

Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams working in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz's desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.

And then things start to go wrong.

Both spine chilling and playfully cerebral, Zone One brilliantly subverts the genre's conventions and deconstructs the zombie myth for the twenty-first century.

Let Henry S. Whitehead take you into the mysterious and macabre world of voodoo where beasts invade the mind of man and where lives of the living are racked by the spirits of the dead. In this collection of rare and out of print stories you will encounter the curses of the great Guinea-Snake, the Sheen, the weredog whose very touch means certain death, the curious tale of the 'magicked' mirror, and fiendish manikins who make life a living hell. Included in this festival of shivering fear is the remarkable narrative 'Williamson' which every editor who read the story shied away from publishing.

With deceptive simplicity and chilling realism, Whitehead's Voodoo Tales are amongst the most frightening ever written.

Omnibus edition includes the collections:

• West India Lights
• Jumbee and Other Voodoo Tales
• The Black Beast and Other Voodoo Tales

And six previously uncollected stories.

Drink down the brew and dream of a better Earth.

Skyward Inn, within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, is a place of safety, where people come together to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita.

But safety from what? Qita surrendered without complaint when Earth invaded; Innkeepers Jem and Isley, veterans from either side, have regrets but few scars.

Their peace is disturbed when a visitor known to Isley comes to the Inn asking for help, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.

Did humanity really win the war?

In the aftermath of the Great War, Shirley Fearn dreams of challenging the conventions of rural England, where life is as predictable as the changing of the seasons.

The scarred veteran Mr. Tiller, left disfigured by an impossible accident on the battlefields of France, brings with him a message: part prophecy, part warning. Will it prevent her mastering her own destiny?

As the village prepares for the annual May Day celebrations, where a new queen will be crowned and the future will be reborn again, Shirley must choose: change or renewal?

Somewhere away from the cities and towns, a group of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their stories in the Valley of the Rocks. For when the women are all gone the rest of your life is all there is for everyone. The men are waiting to pass into the night.

The story shall be told to preserve the past. History has gone back to its aural roots and the power of words is strong. Meet Nate, the storyteller, and the new secrets he brings back from the woods. William rules the group with youth and strength, but how long can that last? And what about Uncle Ted, who spends so much time out in the woods?

Hear the tales, watch a myth be formed. For what can man hope to achieve in a world without women? When the past is only grief how long should you hold on to it? What secrets can the forest offer to change it all?

Discover the Beauty.

Table of Contents:

• "The Beauty" (2014) novella
• "Peace, Pipe" novella

Somewhere away from the cities and towns, a group of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their stories in the Valley of the Rocks. For when the women are all gone the rest of your life is all there is for everyone. The men are waiting to pass into the night.

The story shall be told to preserve the past. History has gone back to its aural roots and the power of words is strong. Meet Nate, the storyteller, and the new secrets he brings back from the darkness. William rules the group with youth and strength, but how long can that last? And what about Uncle Ted, who spends so much time out in the woods?

Hear the tales, watch a myth be formed. For what can man hope to achieve in a world without women? When the past is only grief how long should you hold on to it? What secrets can the forest offer to change it all?

Discover the Beauty.

In a world where people shed their skin every seven years, it's just a fact of life that we will cast of all the attachments of our old life. With every moult we become a new person, and though we can discard the past, the skin remembers, brings it all back if we touch it. And when our loves are part of us, those memories of love can be bought, if you know the right people.

Introducing the new drug, Suscutin, that will prevent the moult. Now you can keep your skin forever. Now you never need to change who you are.

But it's not so simple for celebrity bodyguard Rose Allington, who suffers from a rare disease. Her moults come quickly, changing everything about her life, who she is, who she loves.

Meanwhile, her former client, superstar actor Max Black, is hooked on Suscutin, because he knows moulting could lose him everything. When one of his skins is stolen, and the theft is an inside job, he needs the best who ever worked for him on the job - even if she's no longer the same person.

Because Max has a film to make about the Stuck Six, the world famous sextet of lovers, who share a perfect life. The Six have trusted him to tell the love story that captivated the world.

The Loosening Skin peels away the layers of these stories, exploring our definitions of love, sex and friendship, and what it means to grow, and change.

In January 2314, Rowena Savalas -- a curator of the vast archive of the twenty-first century's primitive internet -- stumbles upon a story posted in the summer of 2024. She's quickly drawn into the mystery of the text: Is it autobiography, fantasy or fraud? What's the significance of the recurring number 381?

In the story, the protagonist Fairly walks the Horned Road -- a quest undertaken by youngsters in her village when they come of age. She is followed by the "breathing man," a looming presence, dogging her heels every step of the way. Everything she was taught about her world is overturned.

Following Fairly's quest, Rowena comes to question her own choices, and a predictable life of curation becomes one of exploration, adventure and love. As both women's stories draw to a close, she realises it doesn't matter whether the story is true or not: as with the quest itself, it's the journey that matters.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1987. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988), edited by Gardner Dozois.

"There is death here, woven through with the rest. Death--and again death."

Pagad Trevayne has a god to kill.

Feared and despised because of his Jenemun origins, Isaf will work for anyone as long as the pay is right.

Cayla yearns to see more of life than the inside of a Julkrean brothel.

But all three are merely pawns in a much larger game.

Together with an embittered mountain king and a resurrected demigod, they must battle insurmountable odds and journey to the very heart of creation itself, before finally confronting the mysterious power that has shaped all their destinies

In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men. Aboard the expeditionary ship of his hero, the world-famous explorer James "Australis" Randall, Jonathan may live as his true self--and true gender--and have the adventures he has always been denied. But not all is smooth sailing: the war casts its long shadow over them all, and grief, guilt, and mistrust skulk among the explorers.

When disaster strikes in Antarctica's frozen Weddell Sea, the men must take to the land and overwinter somewhere which immediately seems both eerie and wrong; a place not marked on any of their part-drawn mapsof the vast white continent. Now completely isolated, Randall's expedition has no ability to contact the outside world. And no one is coming to rescue them.

In the freezing darkness of the Polar night, where the aurora creeps across the sky, something terrible has been waiting to lure them out into its deadly landscape...

As the harsh Antarctic winter descends, this supernatural force will prey on their deepest desires and deepest fears to pick them off one by one. It is up to Jonathan to overcome his own ghosts before he and the expedition are utterly destroyed.

In this collection's richly imagined title story, our brutal and resourceful protagonist is determined to protect her family from a murderous, shark-ridden world--at any cost. Elsewhere, an old woman uncovers a sinister plot while looking after a friend's plants ("Orchids"), and a girl in the war-torn countryside befriends an unlikely creature ("Keeper of the Glass"). In "Barnstormers," a futuristic flying circus tries to forestall bankruptcy with one last memorable show. At the heart of "Sheila" is the terrible choice a retired judge must make when faced with the destruction of his beloved robotic dog, and "Yuri, in a Blue Dress" follows one of the last survivors of an alien invasion as she seeks help.

Extending from World War II to the far future, these fifteen stories offer a gorgeously observed perspective on our desire for connection and what it means to have compassion--for ourselves, for one another, for our past...and for whatever lies beyond.

Some people are haunted in more ways than one...

Kari James, Urban Native, is a fan of heavy metal, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and dive bars. She spends most of her time at her favorite spot in Denver, a bar called White Horse. There, she tries her best to ignore her past and the questions surrounding her mother who abandoned her when she was just two years old.

But soon after her cousin Debby brings her a traditional bracelet that once belonged to Kari's mother, Kari starts seeing disturbing visions of her mother and a mysterious creature. When the visions refuse to go away, Kari must uncover what really happened to her mother all those years ago. Her father, permanently disabled from a car crash, can't help her. Her Auntie Squeaker seems to know something but isn't eager to give it all up at once. Debby's anxious to help, but her controlling husband keeps getting in the way.

Kari's journey toward a truth long denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, thoughts about a friend she lost in childhood, and her desire for the one thing she's always wanted but could never have...

After a bird fatally collides with her car, a troubled young woman's life changes irrevocably.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This haunting retelling of the tale of Tristan and Iseult (here called Drustan and Esseilte in accordance with Celtic legend and language) goes back to early versions, before Mallory and Wagner, to explore the nature of love, duty and loyalty. The story is told by Branwen, cousin and companion to Esseilte, daughter of the High King of Eriu (Ireland). The two young women save the life of a badly wounded harper, later discovered to be Drustan, who had killed Esseilte's beloved uncle and Branwen's father, Morholt, in battle. Drustan seeks Esseilte's hand for his uncle, Marc'h, King of Kernow (Cornwall), an alliance arranged for political reasons. On the way to Cornwall, Esseilte tries to poison Drustan, but the potion they both drink turns out to be a love filtre prepared for Esseilte and Marc'h. Thus the tale is set in motion, with passion and hate binding the lovers together. With Branwen's aid, they are able to deceive Marc'h on the wedding night: Branwen, close in appearance to the queen, sleeps with the king and falls in love with him. For a while Esseilte and Drustan escape detection, but eventually they are caught in circumstances that cannot be ignored, leading to the tragic denouement. This is a complex tale, interweaving the political and religious conflicts of the sixth century, when the ancient Druid religion still had a strong hold.

Master of Life and Death

Global overcrowding, a new immortality serum and an unfriendly alien ambassador are only a few of the problems confronting Roy Walton, government's new Master of Life and Death in Robert Silverberg's early and accomplished novel. Praised by a distinguished critic, Anthony Boucher, for "its complete clarity and narrative drive" the novel retains its power today.

The Secret Visitors

When the World Security Organization asked Doctor Lockhart to treat their mysterious prisoner, they hadn't known that the dying old man would reply to their questions in a totally unknown language. They had expected the stranger to reveal something about the world war which seemed imminent. But they had been thinking in terms of foreign spies - not alien beings!

Now suddenly they found themselves confronted with a Gargantuan task. They had to find a way to another world, a means of communicating with creatures they could barely imagine.

They had to stop a war which was originating in the farthest stars - or else surrender the Earth unconditionally to THE SECRET VISITORS.

The Jewels of Aptor

When Argo, the White Goddess, orders it Geo, the itinerant poet, and his three disparate companions journey to the island of Aptor to seize a jewel from the dark god, Hama, and return it to Argo so that she may defeat the malign forces ranged against her and the land of Leptar

But, as the four push deep into the enigmatic heart of Aptor and the easy distinctions between good and evil start to blur, their mission no longer seems straightforward. For Argo already controls two of the precious stones and possession of the third would make her power absolute. And the four friends have learned that power tends to corrupt...

Second Ending

Five miles beneath the surface, Ross was awakened from the deep sleep of suspended animation to find himself in an empty world. There was no noise, no people, and no motion save for the steady activity of the hospital robots. What had happened to life? Was Ross the last human being in existence?

The Altar on Asconel

Whether or not he had wanted to turn back at the last minute, he couldn't have - the wave of dirty, hungry people carried him helplessly along in their fervour reach the temple. Like dope addicts, he told himself, they don't even care about themselves, only about the thing that is inside the temple!

He remembered the day ten years ago when his older brother had been made a Warden of Asconel, a prosperous and happy planet, and he and his other brothers had left in the interests of their people. Now they returned to a world where a fanatical cult had usurped the Warden's chair, and men and women were offering themselves up as human sacrifices to Belizuek - whoever or whatever that being from beyond the galaxy was...

I'll find out, he told himself grimly, when I enter these doors...

Android Avenger

All of a sudden I was moving faster than usual. The other passengers standing on the subway platform seemed rooted to their places. It took me only seconds to reach the top of the six flights of stairs, and then I was out of the station and moving down Fulton Street at better than forty miles an hour!

What was happening to me? It was as though I were the helpless passenger in a runaway car. Something else had assumed control and was guiding me.

My body turned into an office building and raced down the corridor to a room where a man was sitting at a console. He'd begun to swing around in his chair when my mouth opened, and a thin, blood-red ray shot out, cleaving the man from head to abdomen.

Then it was over. My mouth closed, and I stood there, stunned. Up to today I was Bob Tanner, an average, sane Citizen. Now what was I, man or murder machine?

It is a world much like our own, with one deadly difference: ninety-nine percent of the population is lycanthropic. When the full moon rises, humans transform into lunes, bloodthirsty beasts who cannot be reasoned with or tamed. Those few born unable to change are disparagingly known as barebacks, and live as victims of prejudice and oppression. All too often, they are targets of savage mauling and death by lunes who break the law to roam free on full-moon nights.

Twenty something bareback Lola Galley is already a veteran of the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activities. When her friend loses a hand to a marauding lune, then is murdered before the attacker is brought to trial, Lola is desperate to see justice prevail. But the truth is seldom simple–and Lola may not like the shocking answers she uncovers.

During a time of great upheaval, the citizens of Venice make a pact that will change the world. The landsmen of the city broker a treaty with a water-dwelling tribe of deepsmen, cementing the alliance through marriage. The mingling of the two races produces a fresh, peerless strain of royal blood. To protect their shores, other nations make their own partnerships with this new breed–and then, jealous of their power, ban any further unions between the two peoples. Dalliance with a deepswoman becomes punishable by death. Any “bastard” child must be destroyed.

This is an Earth where the legends of the deep are true–where the people of the ocean are as real and as dangerous as the people of the land. This is the world of intrigue and betrayal that Kit Whitfield brings to life in an unforgettable alternate history: the tale of Anne, the youngest princess of a faltering England, struggling to survive in a troubled court, and Henry, a bastard abandoned on the shore to face his bewildering destiny, finding himself a pawn in a game he does not understand.

Yet even a pawn may checkmate a king.

The History of Middle-earth traces the evolution of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary world, stories, and characters from their earliest written forms to the final revisions Tolkien penned shortly before his death in 1973. Published posthumously by Tolkien's son Christopher, the extensively detailed 12-volume work allows readers to follow the development of the texts that eventually became Tolkien's immensely popular The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales. This work provides a thorough study of Tolkien's life and influences through an analysis of The History of Middle-earth.

The work begins with a brief biography and an analysis of the major influences in Tolkien's life. Following chapters deal with elements common to Tolkien's popular works, including the cosmogony, theogony, cosmology, metaphysics, and eschatology of Middle-earth. The study also reviews some of the myths with which Tolkien was most familiar--Greek, Roman, Finnish, and Norse--and reveals the often overlapping relationship between mythology, biblical stories, and Tolkien's popular works.

Everyone knew that there was no escape from the slave galleys of the Murghai: once chained to an oar the only release is death. But Korendir refuses to recognize impossibilities and aided by his rowing companion, Haldeth, he leads a desperate but successful revolt.

Nevada and Rogan navigate a world where magic is the norm...and their relationship burns hot...

Nevada Baylor has a unique and secret skill--she knows when people are lying--and she's used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.

Rogan is a billionaire Prime--the highest rank of magic user--and as unreadable as ever, despite Nevada's "talent." But there's no hiding the sparks between them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally, and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that nothing burns like ice...

Many girls daydream that they are really a princess adopted by commoners. In the case of teenager Miranda Popescu, this is literally true. Because she is at the fulcrum of a deadly political battle between conjurers in an alternate world where "Roumania" is a leading European power, Miranda was hidden by her aunt in our world, where she was adopted and raised in a quiet Massachusetts college town.

The narrative is split between our world and the people in Roumania working to protect or to capture Miranda: her Aunt Aegypta Schenck versus the mad Baroness Ceaucescu in Bucharest, and the sinister alchemist, the Elector of Ratisbon, who holds her true mother prisoner in Germany. This is the story of how Miranda -- with her two best friends, Peter and Andromeda -- is brought back to her home reality. Each of them is changed in the process and all will have much to learn about their true identities and the strange world they find themselves in.

Ilya Muromets is a big, ugly, motherless boy who does not look like anyone else in his Oregon town. His father is often absent on mysterious Church missionary work that involves silver bullets, sacred lances, and black helicopters. Ilya works as a janitor for Professor Achitophel Dreadful of the Cryptozoological Museum of Scientific Curiosities, and he has a hopeless crush on the Professor's daughter, Penelope, who pays him little attention and appears to be under the impression that his name is Marmoset.

One night, when Professor Dreadful escapes from the asylum to which he has been temporarily committed, he sends a warning to Ilya that not only is his Many Worlds theory correct, but those many worlds are dominated by an unthinkably powerful enemy determined to destroy anyone who opens the Moebius Ring between the worlds. And, as it happens, prior to his involuntary absence, the Professor left his transdimensional equipment in the basement of the Museum plugged-in and running....

So it is that Ilya, as he has secretly dreamed, is called upon to save the mad scientist's beautiful daughter. With his squirrel gun, his grandfather's sword, and his father's crucifix, Ilya races to save the girl, and, incidentally, the world.

After receiving the archangel Metron's blessing, Haruyuki sets off with Takumu, Chiyuri, and Blood Leopard still determined to fulfill his vow to save Nico from imprisonment. When they charge into the Acceleration Research Society's main base, they overcome several obstacles and eventually face off against Black Vise and Argon Array! But the moment they think the true fight is beginning, a mysterious red light descends, heralding the birth of Disaster Armor Mk. 2!!

As the showdown with the White Legion, Oscillatory Universe, looms in the distance the Red and Black Legion schedule yet another meeting the only way they know how--with a battle! Haruyuki is dumbstruck when faced by the full might of of a Legion that triples his own in size, but the biggest surprise is yet to come...

Not all magicians go to schools of magic.

Adam Binder has the Sight. It's a power that runs in his bloodline: the ability to see beyond this world and into another, a realm of magic populated by elves, gnomes, and spirits of every kind. But for much of Adam's life, that power has been a curse, hindering friendships, worrying his backwoods family, and fueling his abusive father's rage.

Years after his brother, Bobby, had him committed to a psych ward, Adam is ready to come to grips with who he is, to live his life on his terms, to find love, and maybe even use his magic to do some good. Hoping to track down his missing father, Adam follows a trail of cursed artifacts to Denver, only to discover that an ancient and horrifying spirit has taken possession of Bobby's wife.

It isn't long before Adam becomes the spirit's next target. To survive the confrontation, save his sister-in-law, and learn the truth about his father, Adam will have to risk bargaining with very dangerous beings... including his first love.

In a land on the brink of peace -- watched jealously by a ruthless cult from across the sea and beset by hidden enemies -- five extraordinary humans must serve as sword and shield of the Gods.

Auraya is one.

Her heroism saved a village from destruction; now Auraya has been named Priestess of the White. The limits of her unique talents must be tested in order to prove her worthy of the honor and grave responsibility awarded to her. But a perilous road lies ahead, fraught with pitfalls that will challenge the newest servant of the gods. An enduring friendship with a Dreamweaver -- a member of an ancient outcast sect of sorcerer-healers -- could destroy Auraya's future. And her destiny has set her in conflict with a powerful and mysterious, black-clad sorcerer with but a single purpose: the total annihilation of the White. And he is not alone . . .

Alacrity Fitzhugh and Hobart Floyt had claimed Hobart's inheritance from the ruler of a small interstellar empire, then returned to earth and toppled its government. But Alacrity had more important goals than body-guarding Hobart. He wanted command of the fabulous White Ship. Yet it took only a few minutes at the White Ship's helm for Alacrity to learn that a Captain's problems can be tougher than the work of a knockabout Spacer. And that solving them could cost a piece of his heart.

Soon to be an original series on Syfy, from executive producers Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) and Natalie Chaidez (12 Monkeys) and Universal Cable Productions. Premieres April 2016.

In Whitley Strieber's Alien Hunter, a young wife disappears in the night, never to be seen again. There is no evidence of kidnapping-in fact, everything indicates that she left on purpose. Her husband, a brilliant police detective, cannot believe this-but he also can't find her.

Flynn Carroll's lost love becomes his obsession. He begins amassing a file of similar cases nationwide. His conclusion is unavoidable: somebody is taking people and making it look like they walked out on their own. As Flynn's case files grow, his work comes to the attention of Special Agent Diana Glass, a member of the most secret police unit on the planet. This police force seeks the most brilliant and lethal criminals who have ever walked free-thieves and murderers from another world.

Without fully understanding what Glass and her team are doing, Flynn steps into a hidden world of extraordinary challenge and lethal danger. The job is the most difficult police assignment ever known to man, but the idea is the same-find the bad guys. Stop them.

Alien Hunter: Underworld, The searing sequel to Alien Hunter from bestselling author Whitley Strieber

Flynn Carroll works for the most secret police unit on the planet, seeking the most brilliant and lethal criminals who have ever walked free: thieves and murderers from another world.

As part of a top secret CIA alien communications project, Flynn's unit has been tasked with tracking down rogue agents from the planet Aeon. While Aeon claims to be a free planet desiring open communications with humanity, Aeon criminals have committed a series of brutal and bizarre murders on Earth. Flynn has been forbidden to take lethal action against the alien murderers--but as the bodies begin to pile up, something must be done.

Flynn finds himself cut off from his team, struggling to unearth Aeon secrets while protecting Earthling civilians from the deadly creatures. But as Flynn gets closer to the truth, he finds himself facing not only some of the most dangerous and frightening criminals ever seen on Earth, but also questions about his own existence. In order to crack the case, Flynn must come to grips with the greatest mystery he has yet confronted: who--or what--is he?

Alien Hunter: The White House is the electrifying third installment in Whitley Strieber's Alien Hunter series

The aliens have seen many worlds, but they know that Earth in particular is a jewel. They lust for its soaring mountains, its shining seas, its gorgeous forests, and majestic deserts. There is just one part of the planet that they don't want: us.

Flynn Carroll knows that the aliens are a race of brilliance and extraordinary cruelty. And he knows that they have found a way to eliminate humanity: capture the mind of the president of the United States. Control him, and you control the most powerful man in the world.

Though Carroll is determined to stop the aliens from achieving their goal, the president remains ignorant of the danger that he and the rest of the planet are in. With doomsday coming ever closer, Carroll might be the only hope for the survival of the human race.

A dramatic new Alien novel, as Weyland-Yutani seeks to recover from the failure of Hadley's Hope, and successfully weaponize the Xenomorphs.

With the failure of Hadley's Hope, Weyland-Yutani has suffered a devastating setback--the loss of the Aliens they aggressively sought to exploit. Yet there's a reason the Company has risen to the top of the food chain. True to form, they have a redundancy already in place... the facility known as The Cold Forge.

Remote station RB-232 has become their greatest asset in weaponizing the Xenomorphs. However, when Dorian Sudler is sent to RB-232 to assess their progress, he discovers that there's a spy aboard--someone who doesn't necessarily act in the company's best interests. For Dorian, this is the most unforgivable of sins. When found, the perpetrator will be eliminated with extreme prejudice. If unmasked, though, this person may be forced to destroy the entire station... and everyone on board. That is, if the Xenomorphs don't do the job first...

A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer.

SET A TRAP FOR A SORCERER... WITHOUT BEING TRAPPED YOURSELF!

Eric Banyon has settled into the New York whirl nicely: he's doing well at Juilliard, he's made a lot of new friends, he's defeated a lord of the Unseleighe Sidhe...

Or has he

Aerune mac Audelaine, whose beloved was killed by mortal men, was determined to destroy the human race until Eric, with a little help from his new friends the Guardians, thwarted Aerune's plans and exposed the chemists whose designer poison turned ordinary humans into zombie Mages. The human side of the threat is finished, but Aerune, like the rest of the Sidhe, has a long memory... and a lot of patience. He's also got Jeanette Campbell, former Threshold Black Ops, and the science behind the murder.

Can Eric stop Aerune's latest plan Only if he finds out about it before it's too late, but between babysitting a visiting Healer, training a banjo-playing Bard, attending his daughter's Underhill Naming ceremony, dealing with a dragon-and trying to survive summer school-Eric's got his hands full. Saving the world has never been more necessary-or come at a higher price.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1952) - essay by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas
• Huge Beast - (1950) - shortstory by Cleve Cartmill
• John the Revelator - (1951) - shortstory by Oliver La Farge
• Elephas Frumenti - (1950) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• The Gift of God - (1950) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• The Friendly Demon - (1726) - shortstory by Daniel Defoe
• Old Man Henderson - (1951) - shortstory by Kris Neville
• The Threepenny-Piece - (1913) - shortstory by James Stephens
• No-Sided Professor - (1947) - shortstory by Martin Gardner
• The Listening Child - (1950) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• Dress of White Silk - (1951) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• The Mathematical Voodoo - (1951) - shortstory by H. Nearing, Jr.
• Hub - (1951) - shortstory by Philip MacDonald
• Built Up Logically - (1949) - shortstory by Howard Schoenfeld
• The Rat That Could Speak - (1860) - shortstory by Charles Dickens
• Narapoia - (1948) - shortstory by Alan Nelson
• Postpaid to Paradise - (1940) - shortstory by Robert Arthur
• In the Days of Our Fathers - (1949) - shortstory by Winona McClintic
• Barney - (1951) - shortstory by Will Stanton
• The Collector - (1951) - novelette by Gerald Heard
• Fearsome Fable - (1951) - shortstory by Bruce Elliott

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas
• Come On, Wagon! - (1951) - shortstory by Zenna Henderson
• Hobson's Choice - (1952) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• The Black Ball - (1952) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• Ransom - (1952) - shortstory by H. B. Fyfe
• Letters to the Editor - (1950) - shortstory by Ron Goulart
• The Hole in the Moon - (1952) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• The Desrick on Yandro - (1952) - shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
• Jizzle - (1949) - shortstory by John Wyndham
• Ugly Sister - (1935) - shortstory by Jan Struther
• Stair Trick - (1952) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• The Cheery Soul - (1942) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bowen
• The Shout - (1929) - shortstory by Robert Graves
• Budding Explorer - (1952) - shortstory by Ralph Robin
• The Tooth - (1952) - shortstory by G. Gordon Dewey
• The Soothsayer - (1952) - shortstory by Kem Bennett
• The Third Level - (1950) - shortstory by Jack Finney
• The Earlier Service - (1935) - shortstory by Margaret Irwin
• The Hyperspherical Basketball - (1951) - shortstory by H. Nearing, Jr.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1954) - essay by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas
• Attitudes - (1953) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• Maybe Just a Little One - (1953) - shortstory by Reginald Bretnor
• Solar Systems... - (1953) - poem by E. D. B.
• The Star Gypsies - (1953) - shortstory by William Lindsay Gresham
• The Naming of Names - (1953) - poem by Anthony Boucher
• The Untimely Toper - (1953) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• Some Facts About Robots (1953 version) - (1953) - poem by Leonard Wolf
• Vandy, Vandy - (1953) - shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
• Experiment - (1953) - shortstory by Kay Rogers
• Lot - [David Jimmon] - (1953) - novelette by Ward Moore
• Manuscript Found in a Vacuum - (1952) - shortstory by P. M. Hubbard
• The Escapist - (1953) - poem by E. D. B.
• The Maladjusted Classroom - (1953) - shortstory by H. Nearing, Jr.
• Child by Chronos - (1953) - shortstory by Charles L. Harness
• The Antiquary - (1953) - poem by Winona McClintic
• New Ritual - (1953) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• The Two Voices - (1953) - poem by Winona McClintic
• Devlin - (1953) - shortstory by William Bernard Ready
• Captive Audience - (1953) - shortstory by Ann Warren Griffith
• Snulbug - (1941) - shortstory by Anthony Boucher
• Shepherd's Boy - (1912) - shortstory by Richard Middleton
• The Unquiet Grave - (1953) - poem by Winona McClintic
• Star Light, Star Bright - (1953) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• His Master's Voice - (1953) - poem by Winona McClintic

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1955) - essay by Anthony Boucher
• Fondly Fahrenheit - (1954) - novelette by Alfred Bester
• I Never Ast No Favors - (1954) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Some Facts About Robots (1954 version) - (1954) - poem by Leonard Wolf
• Heirs Apparent - (1954) - novelette by Robert Abernathy
• $1.98 - (1954) - shortstory by Arthur Porges
• The Immortal Game - (1954) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• All Summer in a Day - (1954) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• The Accountant - (1954) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Epitaph Near Moonport - (1954) - poem by Sherwood Springer
• Brave New Word - (1954) - shortstory by J. Francis McComas
• My Boy Friend's Name Is Jello - (1954) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• The Test - (1954) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• Careless Love - (1954) - shortstory by Bud Foote
• Report on the Sexual Behavior of the Extra-Sensory Perceptor - (1954) - poem by Anthony Boucher
• Bulletin - (1954) - shortstory by Shirley Jackson
• Epitaph in Avalon - (1954) - poem by Sherwood Springer
• Sanctuary - (1954) - novelette by Daniel F. Galouye
• Misadventure - (1953) - shortstory by Lord Dunsany
• More Facts About Robots - (1954) - poem by Leonard Wolf
• The Little Black Train - (1954) - shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
• Cowboy Lament - (1954) - poem by Norman R. Jaffray
• The Foundation of Science Fiction Success - (1954) - poem by Isaac Asimov

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1956) - essay by Anthony Boucher
• Imagine: A Proem - (1955) - poem by Fredric Brown
• You're Another - (1955) - novelette by Damon Knight
• Survival - (1955) - poem by Carlyn Coffin
• This Earth of Majesty - (1955) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Birds Can't Count - (1955) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• The Golem - (1955) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• 1980 Overtures - (1955) - poem by Winona McClintic
• Pottage - [The People] - (1955) - novelette by Zenna Henderson
• The Vanishing American - (1955) - shortstory by Charles Beaumont
• Created He Them - (1955) - shortstory by Alice Eleanor Jones
• Silent, Upon Two Peaks... - (1955) - poem by Anthony Boucher
• Too Far - (1955) - shortstory by Fredric Brown
• A Matter of Energy - (1955) - shortstory by James Blish
• Nellthu - (1955) - shortstory by Anthony Boucher
• Dreamworld - (1955) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts - (1955) - shortstory by Shirley Jackson
• The Glass of the Future - (1955) - poem by Anthony Boucher
• The Short Ones - (1955) - novelette by Raymond E. Banks
• The Last Prophet - (1955) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• Botany Bay - (1955) - shortstory by P. M. Hubbard
• A Canticle for Leibowitz - (1955) - novelette by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Lament by a Maker - (1955) - poem by L. Sprague de Camp
• The Doctrine of Original Design - (1955) - poem by Winona McClintic
• Pattern for Survival - (1955) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• The Singing Bell - (1955) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• The Last Word - (1955) - shortstory by Chad Oliver and Charles Beaumont

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1957) - essay by Anthony Boucher
• The Cosmic Expense Account - (1956) - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
• Blaze of Glory - (1955) - poem by Randall Garrett
• Mr. Sakrison's Halt - (1956) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• The Woods Grow Darker - (1955) - poem by Leah Bodine Drake
• The Asa Rule - (1956) - shortstory by Jay Williams
• King's Evil - (1956) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• Interview - (1955) - poem by Bird Ferguson
• The Census Takers - (1956) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Flying Chaucer - (1956) - poem by Anthony Brode
• The Man Who Came Early - (1956) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• The Anti-Climax - (1956) - poem by Winona McClintic
• Final Clearance - (1956) - shortstory by Rachel Maddux
• The Silk and the Song - (1956) - novelette by Charles L. Fontenay
• The Shoddy Lands - (1956) - shortstory by C. S. Lewis
• I Want My Name in the Title - (1956) - poem by Winona McClintic
• The Last Present - (1956) - shortstory by Will Stanton
• No Man Pursueth - (1956) - novelette by Ward Moore
• I Don't Mind - (1956) - shortstory by Ron Smith
• The Barbarian - (1956) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• Bright Destruction - (1956) - poem by Winona McClintic
• And Now the News ... - (1956) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• Icarus Montgolfier Wright - (1956) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• Free Flight - (1956) - poem by P. M. Hubbard

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1958) - essay by Anthony Boucher
• The Wines of Earth - (1957) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• In Memoriam: Fletcher Pratt - (1957) - poem by James Blish
• Adjustment - (1957) - novelette by Ward Moore
• The Cage - (1957) - shortstory by A. Bertram Chandler
• Mr. Stilwell's Stage - (1957) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• The Starting Line - (1956) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Robin Hood, F.R.S. - (1956) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Green Fingers - (1956) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• All That Glitters - (1956) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Watch This Space - (1956) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• A Question of Residence - (1956) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Expedition - (1956) - shortstory by Fredric Brown
• Lyric for Atom-Splitters - (1957) - poem by Doris Pitkin Buck
• Rescue - (1957) - shortstory by G. C. Edmondson
• The Horror Story Shorter By One Letter Than the Shortest Horror Story Ever Written - (1957) - shortstory by Ron Smith
• Between the Thunder and the Sun - (1957) - novelette by Chad Oliver
• A Loint of Paw - (1957) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• The Wild Wood - (1957) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• Dodger Fan - (1957) - shortstory by Will Stanton
• Goddess in Granite - (1957) - novelette by Robert F. Young
• Yes, but... - (1957) - poem by Anthony Brode
• MS. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie - (1957) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Journey's End - (1957) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• Full Circle - (1956) - poem by Dorothy Cowles Pinkney
• The Big Trek - (1957) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Best from F&SF 8) - (1959) - essay by Anthony Boucher
• Ministering Angels - (1955) - shortstory by C. S. Lewis
• Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot - (January 1958) - shortstory by Reginald Bretnor
• Backwardness - (1958) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• The Wait - (1958) - shortstory by Kit Reed
• Origin of the Species - (1958) - poem by Karen Anderson
• The Up-to-Date Sorcerer - (1958) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• Epithalamium - (1958) - poem by Doris Pitkin Buck
• A Deskful of Girls - (1958) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• Eripmav - (1958) - shortstory by Damon Knight
• The Watchers - (1958) - poem by Anthony Brode
• Poor Little Warrior! - (1958) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• The Better Bet - (1958) - poem by Anthony Brode
• The Omen - (1958) - shortstory by Shirley Jackson
• Ye Phantasie Writer and His Catte - (1958) - poem by Winona McClintic
• Gil Braltar - (1958) - shortstory by Jules Verne
• In Memoriam: Henry Kuttner - (1958) - poem by Karen Anderson
• The Grantha Sighting - (1958) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• Theory of Rocketry - (1958) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• C. M. Kornbluth: A Memorial Bibliography (Recommended Reading) - (1958) - essay by Anthony Boucher
• A New Lo! - (1958) - essay by Ron Goulart
• Gorilla Suit - (1958) - shortstory by John Shepley
• Captivity - (1958) - novella by Zenna Henderson
• The Men Who Murdered Mohammed - (1958) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot - (August 1958) - shortstory by Reginald Bretnor
• Valise Macabre - (1957) - poem by Winona McClintic

She is the last hope of good in the war against the evil sorceress known as the Lady. From a secret base on the Plains of Fear, where even the Lady hesitates to go, the Black Company, once in service to the Lady, now fights to bring victory to the White Rose. But now an even greater evil threatens the world. All the great battles that have gone before will seem a skirmishes when the Dominator rises from the grave.

Welcome to Isle, a land of fantasy that existed long before there were such things. Surrounded by vast oceans and dotted with thick forests, Isle was a land in which all beings lived together. There were gods and ghosts dwelling with the Old Ones, the wise ancient ancestors. During this period, The Book of Suns began its life, though little was known about its contents. The mighty marriage between Sun and Moon begins an adventure never seen before.

It's the classic locked-room mystery-a member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit killed inside a sealed morgue populated only by the dead and to which only four PCU members had a key. To make matters worse, the Unit has been shut down for a forced "vacation," and Bryant and May are stuck in a van in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak snowstorm. Now they'll have to crack the case by cell phone while trying to stop a second murder without freezing to death. For among the line of trapped vehicles, a killer is on the prowl, a beautiful woman is on the run, and an innocent child is caught in the middle....

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife... and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom's influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.

Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to the people around her--Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde; Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen's knight; and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere--the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn't belong. She never will.

When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere's younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving--Camelot, or herself?

While journeying north toward the Dark Queen, Guinevere falls into the hands of her enemies. Behind her are Lancelot, trapped on the other side of the magical barrier they created to protect Camelot, and Arthur, who has been led away from his kingdom, chasing after false promises. But the greatest danger isn't what lies ahead of Guinevere--it's what's been buried inside her.

Vowing to unravel the truth of her past with or without Merlin's help, Guinevere joins forces with the sorceress Morgana and her son, Mordred--and faces the confusing, forbidden feelings she still harbors for him. When Guinevere makes an agonizing discovery about who she is and how she came to be, she finds herself with an impossible choice: fix a terrible crime, or help prevent war.

Guinevere is determined to set things right, whatever the cost. To defeat a rising evil. To remake a kingdom. To undo the mistakes of the past... even if it means destroying herself.

Guinevere has been a changeling, a witch, a queen--but what does it mean to be just a girl?

He was a prince, he knew. And he was riding a white horse. But who he was, and how he got there, he had no idea. The horse didn't know either - it was good at protecting him from the many monsters that came to attack him, and it could turn into a lion, for difficult jobs like climbing mountains, but although it told the prince many things, it always denied that it could speak.

The prince needed all the help he could get. During a series of adventures in which he encountered two witches (one good and one bad), escaped from Beesles, Oggrings, Skolks, and some of the other extremely unpleasant creatures that lived in the world, and acquired a companion, Gemant the Red Knight, the Prince discovered from Vultikan the Hoiler that he was the Looked-For Deliverer. VultiKan gave him a special sword and a suit of armour to equip him for the fray. His foe was Nulgrave, and the very mention of the word terrified everyone.

Suffering from confusion himself, and in a world which operated by no logic he could fathom, the prince's task was monumentally hard. But Nulgrave was horribly serious, so he persevered, and the result was as crazy and funny - and satisfying as anyone could wish.

In an alternate history dominated by Imperial China, the forces of the Dragon Throne control most of the Earth, and now turn their attentions to the heavens. In the tradition of its great fifteenth century admiral, Zheng He, the Chinese Empire constructs a massive Treasure Fleet. But unlike the dragon boats which coursed across terrestrial seas, the ships of this new armada are ceramic and steel, fuelled by nuclear reactors and spun against tethered counterweights to provide a semblance of gravity for their crews. Rather than sailing to open new trade routes to foreign shores, this new fleet sails interplanetary gulfs, to the red planet fourth from the sun, in search of mineral wealth and territorial claims.

The least of the ships of the Treasure Fleet is Night Shining White, one of many water tenders. It will be the last to reach the red planet, and the first to return, its hold emptied of precious water and filled with mineral samples and ores to be milled and studied back on Earth. The ship's captain, a eunuch who has sacrificed much in the service of his emperor, has never ventured beyond the bounds of Earth before, much less in command of a ship and her crew.

Before it reaches its destination, Night Shining White's reactor coolant system fails, and the crew is faced with the prospect of a quick death by runaway nuclear meltdown, or a slow painful demise by radiation poisoning. Their only hope of salvation is the captain, but will his inexperience only ensure their demise?

This novella can also be found in the anthology Best Short Novels: 2007, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

The Savage Vengeance of Boadicea

I wish there were a man strong enough to stand against me.

AD61: Nero has a comfortable grip on his empire. In Gaul, in Germany, in the Middle East, all is quiet. But in Britain his tax collectors beat and rape the daughters of an obscure minor chieftain, sparking an upheaval that is to cause seventy thousand deaths and bring to his ears the name Boadicea.

Against the backdrop of Boadicea's doomed, bloody rebellion, Henry Treece sets the story of young Gemellus Ennius, whose secret mission is complicated by his love for a British princess, and whose relationship with his Celtic half-brother reflects the conflict between tribalism and civilisation.

Treece's empathic understanding of the Celtic spirit combines here with a masterly attention to detail, in a powerful rendering of the stark, confused, violent mood of the age.

John Connolly thrilled readers with his bestselling novels, "Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow," and "The Killing Kind." Now he delivers spellbinding suspense as Charlie Parker races to unravel a brutal crime committed in the Deep South. After years of suffering unfathomable pain and guilt over the murders of his wife and daughter, private detective Charlie Parker has finally found some measure of peace. As he and his lover, Rachel, are awaiting the birth of their first child and settling into an old farmhouse in rural Maine, Parker has found the kind of solace often lost to those who have been touched by true evil.

But darkness soon descends when Parker gets a call from Elliot Norton, an old friend from his days as a detective with the NYPD. Now practicing law in Charleston, South Carolina, Elliot is defending a young black man accused of raping and killing his white girlfriend, the daughter of a powerful Southern millionaire. Reluctantly, Parker agrees to help Elliot and by doing so ventures into a living nightmare, a bloody dreamscape haunted by the specter of a hooded woman and a black car waiting for a passenger who never arrives. Beginning as an investigation into a young woman's death, it is a fast-moving descent into an abyss where forces conspire to destroy all that Parker holds dear.

Hailed as a "master storyteller" "(The London Express)" by critics stateside and abroad, Connolly has once again delivered a riveting and suspenseful story that draws readers toward the horrifying crossroads of the past and present, of the living and the dead. "We are trapped not only by our own history but by the histories of all those with whom we choose to share our lives," he writes. As chilling as it is beautifully rendered, "The White Road" is sure to tread a frightening path for even the most world-weary crime fiction fan.

Niall, Prince of Homana, key player in a prophecy that spans generations, should have been the treasured link between Cheysuli and Homanan. Yet neither of the peoples he is destined to someday rule feel anything but suspicion of Niall. Homanans fear him for his Cheysuli heritage, while Cheysuli refuse to accept him as their own because he has acquired neither a lir-shape nor the lir companion which is the true mark of the Cheysuli shapechangers.

And now, despite his precarious situation within the kingdom, Niall must undertake a journey to fulfill yet another link in the ancient prophecy. He must travel through war-torn lands to claim his bride--a mission which may prove his doom. For searching for both his destiny and his lir, Naill is about to be plunged into a dangerous maelstrom of intrigue, betrayal, and deadly Ihlini sorcer.

History is turned inside out when off-world travelers challenge Tyson Reyes and Madi Grace to a real-life game of Temporal Dilemma. Three rounds from the opponents and Hitler takes Europe, Pearl Harbor never happens, a fascist cloud hangs over the postwar United States, and CHRONOS itself is erased from existence.

Now Tyson, Madi, and a team of seasoned players must make their moves?in 1930s New York. Jazz and the blues waft from Village clubs. The World's Fair draws assassins. Madison Square Garden hosts Nazis. And the Manhattan Project never gets off the ground.

Tyson and Madi have only three days to undo the strategy that changed the tides of war and the fate of the world. A surprise survivor from CHRONOS could be their best hope for flipping the timeline. If he's on their side. But can they risk trusting him when the past, the future, and the lives of millions hang in the balance?

The seven T'ang- the Chinese kings who rule the seven great city-continents of Chung Kuo- are grappling to hold on to their power. The Dispersionists- the group of European elite who conspired to bring down the Chinese rule- have been brutally destroyed. But now more violent bands of rebels are climbing the levels of the great cities, carrying out mass destruction and gaining power among the downtrodden people in the lower levels of the city. Can the young kings continue to rule by the ancient Chinese tenets of peace through strict order and stability? Or dare they allow change and progress to alter their ancestors' vision of an enforced Peace of Ten Thousand Years?

The pressure comes from within and without- as the brash young T'ang of City Africa dares to confront his ruling brothers, and Li Yuan, the new young T'ang of City Europe, must fight to maintain not only the allegiance of his people but the loyalty of his own wife. Can he and his small group of supporters and friends stop his prophetic dream from coming true- the dream of a great white mountain of bones where the great city once stood...?

Fired with hopes of freedom, exiles turn howeward from Pluto, from Mars, and from the unknown to fight one last battle for the Earrth.. and for their souls.

In 2215, a disturbance ripples through space as a ship passes invisibly onward to its destiny. In it is the rebel DeVore, a master of stealth and subterfuge, thought dead by his enemies, but very much alive- and getting ready to bring a terrifying flotilla against the T'ang, the dictators of Earth.

On Mars, another rebel, the long-exiled Hands Ebert, meets with a lost African tribe, the Osu, to reveal his audacious plan- to take them home. And on Earth, the mega-cities of the T'ang begin to crumble as war ripples across the planet.

It is a time of change, of endings, of beginnings. It is an era when the last of the T'angs, Li Yuan, will make a terrifying alliance... when chaos will strike in the form of human-looking androids programmed to kill.. and when Emily Ascher, a woman dedicated to liberty for all the billions the T'ang have kept in chains, will see her vision blossom, though its color will be bloodred and blurred by tears.

A City Under Threat

The year is 2207. Currents of unrest and tides of innovation threaten to overwhelm Chung Kuo's stability. And some threats are beyond the immense city's control. When a lethal epidemic strikes the Seven's chief supporters, Li Yuan acts ruthlessly to wipe out the disease. But his actions incur far more fatal consequences for the rule of the Seven.

While the Seven splinters, Kwibesi, the detention camp for terrorists, continues to establish order. However, rebellion is brutally contained inside the camp and a growing sense of injustice stirs in its guard, Kao Chen, who begins to question his sense of duty.

The Seven are divided amongst themselves, and around them allegiances are shifting

The epic and mind-blowing finale to this visionary space opera series surpasses all expectation: Menelaus Montrose, having forged an uneasy alliance with his immortal adversary, Ximen del Azarchel, maps a future on a scale beyond anything previously imagined. No longer concerned with the course of history across mere millennia, Montrose and del Azarchel have become the architects of aeons, bringing forth minds the size of planets as they steer the bizarre intellectual descendants of an extinct humanity.

Ever driving their labors and their enmity is the hope of reunion with their shared lost love, the posthuman Rania, whose eventual return is by no means assured, but who may unravel everything these eternal rivals have sought to achieve.

John C. Wright's The Architect of Aeons is the latest in his millennia spanning space opera.

When Emma Donahoe becomes a nanny to John Chen's daughter Simone, she does not expect to be drawn into a world of martial arts, magic and extreme danger, where both gods and demons can exist in the mortal world.

A little meet-cute in a decimated city

April 10. The first day of school. Shido Itsuka is rudely awoken by his personal alarm clock--his little sister. It's shaping up to be another typical day... well, as typical as it gets on a planet plagued by massive spatial quakes. Little does Shido know, however, his life is about to take a sudden turn when he encounters the source of this destructive phenomenon--a girl his age, apparently known as a Spirit. Turns out, there are only two ways he can stop her from unleashing hell on the world: Eliminate her by force or placate her... by taking her out on a date and making her fall in love with him!

When it rains, it pours!

Things have only gotten stranger for Shido ever since Tohka transferred to his school. These days, his life teeters between heaven and hell, and the forecast today points toward the latter. He's already been caught in the line of fire between Tohka and Origami, and a sudden downpour leaves him sopping wet. Just his luck. Lately, it seems the only place he can catch a break is in the comfort of his own home. That's all about to change, however, when a new "training" regimen calls for him to live with Tohka--and while Shido is at his most vulnerable, a second Spirit emerges from the storm...

The clock is ticking! June 5. The day another disaster strikes Shido's high school. Transferring into his class is a new student, Kurumi, who immediately makes the jaw-dropping confession that she's... a Spirit. With a twisted sense of justice and homicidal tendencies, she seems to buzz with impish glee whenever she destroys a piece of the world and its human populace. As tensions mount, Shido is instructed to do the one thing that will placate her--ridiculously enough, taking Kurumi out on a date and making her fall head over heels for him!

A spirit in flames, a town on fire... Shido was determined to save Kurumi and Mana. He simply had to. At the critical moment, though, he found himself immobilized, unable to keep his promise. Had Kotori Itsuka not shown up at the last second, everything would have been over... Nevertheless, Shido feels like his world has come crashing down, especially after discovering his little sister is a Spirit, too... Now he's been called to save her using the only method he knows: taking her on a date and making her fall for him. He needs to act fast--because he only has one day to complete this seemingly impossible mission!

Twin Spirits mean double the trouble.

Summer break is just around the corner, and it's time for Raizen High School's class trip to Arubi Island. While the other students gear up for a bit of fun at the beach, though, Shido has no time to relax! As soon as his class reaches its destination, he immediately encounters twin Spirits Kaguya and Yuzuru. Now, he's wrapped up in some "final battle" where the one who seduces him first will be named the victor! But this time, he has no backup from Ratatoskr. Can he make it out alive and save the twins from their cursed fate?!

Battle of the bands! The students of Tengu City's ten high schools are all hard at work preparing for the annual Tenou festival. So what better time for a Spirit to appear and liven up the festivities?! Shido's latest adversary is a talented singer by the name of Miku Izayoi. With a voice bewitching enough to place anyone under her spell, this spoiled princess is used to getting her way. Dealing with her sense of entitlement is bad enough, but then Shido's attempts to win her heart quickly go awry when he makes a worrying discovery--Miku doesn't like men! If he wants to bring her into the fold, he's going to need to get... creative.

Things are looking grim. The entire city of Tengu City has been enthralled by a spirit. Worse, Tohka has fallen into the clutches of DEM. When Shido feels trapped by this seemingly hopeless dilemma, the sinister Kurumi Tokisaki appears before him with the worst possible timing... and offers to help rescue Tohka?!

"Can you guess which one is me?

The Seventh spirit, Natsumi, can seemingly transform at will and masquerade as anyone, even people Shido know very well. His only option is to date everyone until he can figure out who Natsumi is pretending to be... but there's twelve whole suspects!

THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO TRANSFORM!

In a nail-biting finish, Shido managed to correctly guess who Natsumi was impersonating. His reward for beating her at her own game? A house full of screaming children! In an act of pure frustration, Natsumi turned Shido's friends into a bunch of kids before making a break for it. Of course, there's no need to worry because she's still hanging around, doing her best to ruin his reputation from a distance... Shido's only chance to return the gang to normal and reclaim any semblance of peace is to give Natsumi... a makeover?!

Fate is a tricky thing... Five years ago, a Spirit killed Origami Tobiichi's parents. Holding a grudge that has only grown since then, Origami turns to DEM in hopes of becoming powerful enough to enact her revenge by killing every last Spirit. Shido can see that this is guaranteed to lead her down a path of death and destruction, so he's ready to do whatever it takes to stop Origami's plans to attack Tohka and the others. But what if there was a chance to turn back the clock and potentially undo everything...?

Back just in time?

With Kurumi's help, Shido has successfully jumped five years into the past in a desperate bid to save the city and everyone he cares about. His mission? Prevent Oragami Tobiichi's family tragedy from ever happening and end her quest for vengeance against Spirits before it has a chance to begin. This won't be easy, because not only will Shido need to carefully avoid changing the wrong events, but he'll also have to move fast to be in the right place at the right time when Phantom arrives!

Stranger in the 27th Century...

For sixteen years, Del Whitby lived quietly among the pious farmers of the planet Gilead, in a society bypassed by 27th century progress.

Then, on his sixteenth birthday, he was kidnapped by a band of Daltrescan slave traders, and sold to a gladiatorial school on Tarquin VII.

After a series of excrutiatingly close encounters, Del proves his prowess in the arena, and is awarded his freedom, and a spaceship.

He now begins the perilous voyage home to distant Gilead, a trek which will take him to the outermost reaches of the galaxies and back.

Jolon Gallamor was being hunted by the same inter-galactic hunters who had slain his father. Behind him lay certain death. Ahead of him lay a universe teeming with pirates, slavers, tyrants & warriors, where all law & order had broken down, & survival was only for the fittest. Jolon Gallamor had a mother wit & an acting skill that let him play a different role on every planet. He had a strange store of knowledge from the nearly forgotten past that he used to his bizarre advantage. And he had an implacable enemy coming closer & closer as Jolon moved ever outward in space toward the point of no return.

AKA: Stardrift

They had landed on the forbidden planet of Boroq-Thaddoi. They had made their way across the snow-covered desert and the vast graveyard of mangled spaceships. Now they stood gazing with awe at their destination, the Citadel.

The Citadel was unique in the galaxy. Some mad, brilliant architect might have dreamed this blending of the arts and materials of a hundred civilizations into a single monstrous edifice, but no known race could have erected such a thing. It dwarfed the nine walls of Skix, the great corridor on Clotho, the ageless pyramids of Xhanchos, even the legendary cities of Old Earth in the proud and violent centuries before the exodus. It was the monument of giants.

Somewhere in the perilous labyrinth behind these towering walls lay the secret that had eluded and destroyed all searchers for thousands of years... The secret that had to be found before the Great rebellion could begin...

The Sternverein polices the universe. Criminals dread it; law-abiding citizens esteem it; all respect it. Ryne an orphan from the tiny planet Jadjeel, worships it. The organization rescued him from slavery and trained him to be a man among men, and elite Blackjacket. It gave his life purpose and direction, excitement and adventure. But it is totally corrupt, as Ryne learns.

The scene is a forbidding semi-barbarian "frostworld" with synchronous days and years. The last survivor of the strange, metamorphosing "Onhla" species is struggling to rebuild his race, unaware that both the Onhla and an unfortunate human faction are headed on a collision course with the schemes of intergalactic traders and ruthless rulers.

In the great exodus from Earth, a timeless faith was lost...

Jod Enskeline, master of the driveship Rimjack, was a free trader traveling from one alien planet to another in his restless search of the universe.

Then he landed on Peter's Rock, a forgotten planet of humans, ruled by priests who harbored a treasure of books holding all the extinct languages of Earth. The books would bring Jod a fortune, but in return for this uncountable wealth, he must take priest-voyagers on a dangerous mission - to find the Holy Shroud, the last relic of an ancient faith lost somewhere in the universe!

Let's face it, none of us deserve to be saved. None of us are wiser, smarter, stronger or prettier than all those we watch die. Whatever criteria Down uses, how worthy we are doesn't come into it.

Since escaping London's inferno, Mary and Dalip have fought monsters and won - though in the magical world of Down, the most frightening monsters come from within. Now they hold the greatest of treasures: maps that reveal the way to the White City, where they can find the answers they're looking for and learn the secrets of Down. But to get there they must rely on Crows, who has already betrayed them at every turn.

As they battle their way towards the one place in all of Down without magic, they must ask themselves how far they will go to find their way home. After all, if there's one thing the White City offers those brave enough to enter, it's more than they bargained for.

Simon Morden's Down Station was an extraordinary quest for meaning and identity. Now he's leading us to the kind of truths that leave us changed.

Ravaged by the Nazi Secret Service during World War II, Romanian resistance forces turn to one of their leaders, Professor Van Helsing for any way out. To fight these monstrous forces, Van Helsing raises a legendary monster from centuries of slumber... Prince Dracula himself.

Once he was the ruler of Transylvania. Prince Vlad Dracul, is, above all else, a patriot. He proves more than willing to once again drive out his country's invaders. Upshot: No one minds if he drinks all the German blood he desires.

In Berlin, when Hitler hears about the many defeats his forces are suffering at the hands of an apparent true vampire, he is seduced by the possibility of becoming immortal. Thus two forces are set upon a collision course, the ultimate confrontation: Superpower against superpower.

From out of the clouds it comes, breathing ice, terrorizing those who live by the seas of Krynn. It is a terror beyond belief: the Great White Wyrm.

And for centuries, a dedicated band of elves known as Dragonsbane has pursued it.

They've finally brought the dragon to bay, but a fanatical captain dedicated to the beast's destruction and driven by revenge threatens to bring ruin upon them all.

White Wolf marks a return to the bestselling Drenai series and David Gemmell’s most popular hero of all, Druss the Legend.

Skilgannon the Damned had vanished from the pages of history. No-one knew where he had gone, following the terrible triumph at Perapolis, and the assasins sent by the Witch Queen could find no trace of his passing. Three years later, a murderous mob gathers outside a monastery, faced by a single, unarmed priest. In a few terrifying seconds their world is changed for ever, and word spreads across the lands of the East -- Skilgannon is back.

Now he must travel across a perilous, demon-haunted realm seeking a mysterious temple and the ageless goddess who rules it. With assassins on his trail and an army of murderous foes ahead, the Damned sets off on a quest to bring the dead to life. But he does not travel alone. The man beside him is Druss the Legend.

In this tale of love, betrayal and treachery, in a world torn by war, White Wolf examines the nature of heroism and friendship and the narrow lines dividing good and evil.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 13, November-December 2016.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

The first instalment in the new, gripping supernatural thriller series from international bestselling author, Jodi Taylor.

"I don't know who I am. I don't know what I am."

Elizabeth Cage is a child when she discovers that there are things in this world that only she can see. But she doesn't want to see them and she definitely doesn't want them to see her.

What is a curse to Elizabeth is a gift to others - a very valuable gift they want to control.

When her husband dies, Elizabeth's world descends into a nightmare. But as she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers that not everything is as it seems.

Alone in a strange and frightening world, she's a vulnerable target to forces beyond her control.

And she knows that she can't trust anyone...

White Silence is a twisty supernatural thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Brian Stableford launched an ambitious future history series with Inherit the Earth, to widespread praise. "Stableford has created in this novel a totally believable world, and wrapped it around a series of mysterious events, surprise revelations, double crosses, confused motivations, rumors, lies, plots, and counterplots.... Tightly controlled and suspenseful throughout," said Science Fiction Chronicle.

Library Journal said, "The ethical questions posed by the prospect of conquering the aging process underscore this fast-paced SF adventure, adding depth to a story that will appeal to fans of high-tech SF and conspiracy theories." This future world is a complex society obsessed with the technology of life extension and on the brink of creating true immortals.

Now, in Architects of Emortality, Stableford gives us a story set hundreds of years in the future, filled with people who can hope for 300-year lifespans and a fortunate few whose lives will be in the thousands of years. This society is on the edge of radical change, where people have the time to develop eccentric lifestyles and personal obsessions, a world sometimes reminiscent of the distant future of Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time series. And there has been a series of murders that threaten the future stability of the world, murders executed by bioengineered flowers. Police officers Watson and Holmes investigate, but the central figure quickly becomes the amateur detective Oscar Wilde, a student of history who has taken on the persona of his namesake. And the question is not so much who the murderer is, but how and why.

Filled with memorable characters and powerful and striking images of the richly altered world of the future, Architects of Emortality is a satisfying and complete story that also adds depth and detail to the evolving series.

In the dawn of time, women ruled, and the people had no word for war. Then the horsemen came.

Sarama is the last of the White Mare's servants, descended from an ancient line conquered long ago by warrior tribes. Her father is the king of one such tribe. Her twin brother Agni is the king's heir. But she is heir to an older world, and a different way.

A sacred vision calls the White Mare westward, and Sarama follows. There, she finds a land where women rule, and men serve, and their language has no word for war. But the horsemen are coming. Sarama must choose between her own people and the people whom she has come to love, and find a way to save them both.

Once upon a time, fairy tales were for children... But no longer.

You hold in your hands a volume of wonders -- magical tales of trolls and ogres, of bewitched princesses and kingdoms accursed, penned by some of the most acclaimed fantasists of our day. But these are not bedtime stories designed to usher an innocent child gently into a realm of dreams. These are stories that bite -- lush and erotic, often dark and disturbing mystical journeys through a phantasmagoric landscape of distinctly adult sensibilities... where there is no such thing as "happily ever after."

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: White as Snow: Fairy Tales and Fantasy - (1993) - essay by Terri Windling
• Introduction: Red as Blood: Fairy Tales and Horror - (1993) - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Like a Red, Red Rose - (1993) - novelette by Susan Wade
• The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep - (1993) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Frog Prince - (1993) - shortstory by Gahan Wilson
• Stalking Beans - (1993) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Snow-Drop - (1993) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Little Red - (1993) - shortstory by Wendy Wheeler
• I Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood - (1993) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• The Root of the Matter - (1993) - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Princess in the Tower - (1993) - shortstory by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• Persimmon - (1993) - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Little Poucet - (1993) - shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Changelings - (1993) - novelette by Melanie Tem
• The Springfield Swans - (1993) - shortstory by Caroline Stevermer and Ryan Edmonds
• Troll Bridge - (1993) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman (variant of Troll-Bridge)
• A Sound, Like Angels Singing - (1993) - shortstory by Leonard Rysdyk
• Puss - (1993) - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• The Glass Casket - (1993) - shortstory by Jack Dann
• Knives - (1993) - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Snow Queen - (1993) - novelette by Patricia A. McKillip
• Breadcrumbs and Stones - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• Recommended Reading - (1993) - essay by uncredited
• Terri Windling - (1993) - essay by uncredited
• Ellen Datlow - (1993) - essay by uncredited

Eighteen masterful fairy tales for adults from a remarkable gathering of contemporary Grimms and Andersens, the new princesses and princes of fantastical fiction

World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling return with another superb collection of wonders and terrors. In Black Thorn, White Rose, the magical tales we were told at bedtime have been upended, turned inside out, reshaped, and given a keen, distinctly adult edge by eighteen of the most acclaimed storytellers ever to reinvent a fairy tale. Our favorite characters, from Sleeping Beauty to Rumpelstiltskin to the Gingerbread Man, are here but in different guises, brought to new life by such masters as Nancy Kress, Jane Yolen, Storm Constantine, and the late, great Roger Zelazny.

These breathtaking tales of dark enchantments range from the tragic and poignant to the humorous to the horrifying to the simply astonishing. The story of an aging woodcutter persuaded to help a desperate prince make his way through the brambles to save a sleeping beauty twists ingeniously around like the thorny wall that impedes them. The fable of an all-controlling queen mother who faces her most fearsome adversary in a sensitive princess who appears mysteriously during a storm is a dark, disturbing masterpiece. And readers will long remember the exquisite tale of Death, his godson, football, and MTV.

Anyone who has ever loved or even feared the old tales of witches and trolls and remarkable transformations will find much to admire in this extraordinary collection--happily ever after or not.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Words Like Pale Stones - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Stronger than Time - novelette by Patricia C. Wrede
• Somnus's Fair Maid - novelette by Ann Downer
• The Frog King, or Iron Henry - shortstory by Daniel Quinn
• Near-Beauty - shortstory by M. E. Beckett
• Ogre - shortstory by Michael Kandel
• Can't Catch Me - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Journeybread Recipe - shortstory by Lawrence Schimel
• The Brown Bear of Norway - shortstory by Isabel Cole
• The Goose Girl - shortstory by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Tattercoats - novelette by Midori Snyder
• Granny Rumple - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• The Sawing Boys - novelette by Howard Waldrop
• Godson - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• Ashputtle - novelette by Peter Straub
• Silver and Gold - poem by Ellen Steiber
• Sweet Bruising Skin - novelette by Storm Constantine
• The Black Swan - novelette by Susan Wade
• Recommended Reading - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Unforgettable stories of witches and wishes, Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites, ingeniously twisted into darker, more grown-up shapes by fantasy fiction's most talented practitioners

Once again, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling prove that fairy tales don't have to be for little children and that happily ever after doesn't necessarily mean forever. Black Swan, White Raven is Datlow and Windling's fourth collection of once-familiar and much-beloved bedtime stories reimagined by some of the finest fantasists currently plying their literary trade--acclaimed writers like Jane Yolen, John Crowley, Michael Cadnum, and Joyce Carol Oates, who give new lives and new meanings to the plights of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel, and more.

Hansel and Gretel make several appearances here, not the least being at their trial for the murder of a supposedly helpless old woman. The shocking real reason for Snow White's desperate flight from her home is revealed in "The True Story," and the steadfast tin soldier, made flesh and blood, pays a terrible price for his love and devotion.

The twenty-one stories and poems in this collection run the gamut from triumphant to troubling to utterly outrageous, like Don Webb's brilliant merging of numerous tales into one wild, hallucinogenic trip in his "Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs." All in all, the reimagined fairy tales and fables in Datlow and Windling's literary offering mine the fantastical yarns we loved as children for new and darker gold.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• The Flounder's Kiss - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• The Black Fairy's Curse - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• Snow in Dirt - novelette by Michael Blumlein
• Riding the Red - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• No Bigger Than My Thumb - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
• In the Insomniac Night - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Little Match Girl - poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Trial of Hansel and Gretel - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Rapunzel - shortstory by Anne Bishop
• Sparks - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Dog Rose - shortstory by Sten Westgard
• The Reverend's Wife - novelette by Midori Snyder
• The Orphan the Moth and the Magic - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs - shortstory by Don Webb
• True Thomas - novelette by Bruce Glassco
• The True Story - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• Lost and Abandoned - shortstory by John Crowley
• The Breadcrumb Trail - poem by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• On Lickerish Hill - novelette by Susanna Clarke
• Steadfast - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Godmother Death - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

Vampire, nosferatu, creature of the night--whatever you call him--Jules Duchon has lived (so to speak) in New Orleans far longer than there have been drunk coeds on Bourbon Street. Weighing in at a whopping four hundred and fifty pounds, swelled up on the sweet, rich blood of people who consume the fattiest diet in the world, Jules is thankful he can't see his reflection in a mirror. When he turns into a bat, he can't get his big ol' butt off the ground.

What's worse, after more than a century of being undead, he's watched his neighborhood truly go to hell--and now, a new vampire is looking to drive him out altogether. See, Jules had always been an equal opportunity kind of vampire. And while he would admit that the blood of a black woman is sweeter than the blood of a white man, Jules never drank more than his fair share of either. Enter Malice X . Young, cocky, and black, Malice warns Jules that his days of feasting on sisters and brothers are over. He tells Jules he'd better confine himself to white victims--or else face the consequences. And then, just to prove he isn't kidding, Malice burns Jules's house to the ground.

With the help of Maureen, the morbidly obese, stripper-vampire who made him, and Doodlebug, an undead cross-dresser who (literally) flies in from the coast--Jules must find a way to contend with the hurdles that life throws at him... without getting a stake through the heart. It's enough to give a man the blues.

After morphing into 187 very large white rats in the name of self-preservation, Jules Duchon is back to his portly self, a member of that secret class of New Orleans citizens known as the undead. Though he would like nothing better than to spend his nights raising hell and biting flesh in his beloved French Quarter, duty calls when an exclusive club of blue blood vampires demands that the 450-pound cabbie find out who is attacking its young and beautiful members. Adding insult to injury, he has to enlist the help of a former foe: a black vampire named Preston.

What's a vampire to do? Without the love of a woman to ease his pain, Jules isn't convinced that his undead life is worth living. He doesn't desire Doodlebug (she may be a woman now but Jules knew her back when she was just a boy) any more than he longs for Daphne, a rat catcher who nourishes a crush the size of Jules. No, only Maureen will do. Once a beautiful stripper with nothing but curve after curve to her bodacious body, now she is mere dust in a jar. But Jules will move heaven and earth to get her back... even if it means pulling her back from the dead.

An exciting series especially for readers new to the Forgotten Realms!

Thazienne Uskevren, the only legitimate daughter of the wealthy Uskevren family, has suffered blow after blow to her body and spirit. Even as she struggles to mend her fractured soul, Tazi finds herself on a journey that will take her far from the safety of Selgaunt and into the deadly heart of the Calim Desert. There the shifting sands hide an old foe, who holds the key to Tazi's salvation--or the doom of Sembia.

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets... until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost... as the world she knows is consumed by darkness

TO SAVE THE WORLD, THEY PLOTTED TO WIPE OUT ALL MALES!

This science fiction classic begins when Larry Finlay, a young and unsuspecting chemist, discovers sinister forces have taken an interest in his new approach to the seemingly innocuous problem of hemophilia. Soon, Finlay is unwittingly caught up in a nightmare plot of violence and counter-violence. Behind it is the sinister cabal that calls itself The White Widows. But who are what are they? When Larry learns all these events are tied in to the concept of parthenogenesis, he realizes that a certain woman scientist has found the secret of giving birth without the need of males. She and the other White Widows are determined to end war, greed, violence, poverty, and the idea of cut-throat competition by eliminating all men! Particularly the man named Larry Finlay! The only person he can turn to for help is the woman he loves. If he can trust her with his life... And he'll have to!

Set in a fascinating alternative world in which ghosts are real, the United States never came into existence, and Russia is still ruled by the Romanovs, this sequel to Of Tangible Ghosts and The Ghost of the Revelator continues the adventures of semi-retired spy Dr. Johan Eschbach.

His lovely wife Llysette du Boise, a refugee from the burning remains of France and a world-famous vocalist, has been invited to provide a command performance for the Russian Imperial household. Johan accompanies her, allowing him to work on the oil concession in Russian Alaska that Columbia so desperately needs and do some spying on the side. Johan's espionage is carried out against the backdrop of the famous white nights of St. Petersburg, the nearly Arctic midsummer when the sun barely dips below the horizon and the sky seems to dissolve in ivory light. But even the oil shortage will fade to insignificance when Johan discovers what new weapons technology the Russians are developing, a threat even more fearsome than the atomic bombs of Austro-Hungary.

Working in the tradition of Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson for hard-edged adventure with sophisticated social and political dimensions, Modesitt provides a unique blend of speculation and intrigue that brings the trilogy to a rousing end.

The year is 2030. Advances in robotics and cyberbrain technology have transformed the world into a miraculous place where almost anything is possible - even the melding of humans and machines. In this not-too-distant future, the crimes of flesh and metal are investigated by Section 9, an elite counterterrorist squad headed by Chief Aramaki and his cyborg sidekick, Major Motoko Kusanagi. When dead bodies, drained of blood and with two bite marks on their necks, start turning up on the streets of Tokyo, it isn't long before the entire city is in a panic. As Major Kusanagi and the other members of Section 9 investigate the killings they begin to wonder - is the killer a real vampire or something much worse? In a dark world of murder, where cyberbrain hacks and treacherous conspiracies reach to the furthest heights of government, Section 9 is all that stands between the people and anarchy.

It is 1946, and the events of The Green Glass Sea have changed the world - and Dewey Kerrigan's life. She's now living near the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico with the Gordon family. Dr. Gordon is working on rockets that will someday go to the moon; Mrs. Gordon is working on stopping the Bomb. Meanwhile, Dewey and her 'sister,' Suze, share secrets, art, and science as they adjust to high school in an isolated desert town. Then, like a different kind of dropped bomb, Dewey's long-lost mother, Rita Gallucci, reappears in their lives. And she wants to take her daughter away.

A debut historical fantasy that recasts Jane Austen's beloved Pride & Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom: gryphons, direwolves, lamias, banshees, and lindworms.

They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay--and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters.

Passionate, headstrong Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she's already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again.

Her relief is short-lived. With the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn't expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers... something far more sinister than gryphons.

It's a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she's never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart.

Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen's beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world.

The Greater Lindworm is dead, its monstrous armies have fled, and the Battle of North Fields is over--or at least that's what Aliza Bentaine, now a Daired, fervently wants to believe.

With memories of the blood-soaked fields behind them, she and Alastair are happy to escape the aftermath within the walls of the Daireds' family fortress, safe from the Tekari bent on destroying them. There, gods willing, they can begin to enjoy their well-earned happily ever after.

Unfortunately, the gods have other plans. Rumors are spreading of a new monster creeping across Arle, something leaving the mutilated bodies of both humans and Oldkind creatures in its wake. When the plea for aid arrives from the remote Castle Selwyn on the northern border of the kingdom, Alastair and his dragon, Akarra, prepare once more for the hunt.

And if Aliza has anything to say about it, they won't be hunting alone.

Torn between the world she was born to and the high calling of the Riders, Aliza refuses to stay at House Pendragon, determined to do her part to protect those she loves. But their journey through the Old Wilds proves more perilous than she can imagine, for she is not the only one following her husband north. Shadowing the Daireds is an ancient evil, a harbinger of a dark danger of which the Worm was only a foretaste, and all too soon Aliza realizes the terrible truth.

The Battle of North Fields may be over, but the real war is just beginning.

"The summons comes for the House of Edan Daired. Debts must be paid."

Tristan Wydrick, sworn enemy of House Daired, is back from the dead. Possessed by a ghast and sharing its shadowy unlife, he commands not only the soul-sucked ghastradi, but also the monstrous Tekari forces bent on Arle's destruction. As their enemies begin amassing, desperate Arleans look to their greatest defenders. But Aliza and Alastair Daired, along with their dragon Akarra, are far from home, trapped in the icy northern wastes by Wydrick's treachery.

Fighting their way through blizzards, haunted forests, and their own growing fears, the Daireds find a new battle awaiting them in the capital, for the Tekari and ghastradi are not the only forces converging on the heart of the kingdom. Another moves toward Arle, riding the winds from the south: an ambassador from the Silent King of Els.

Unknown enemy? Or unexpected ally? Plunged into the dangerous world of royal intrigue and ancient grudges, Aliza and Alastair soon realize it will take more than steel and dragonfire to save their kingdom, for the silence of Els hides a secret that could shake House Daired to its foundations.

And silence, it seems, is about to be broken.

The year is 1889 and the San Francisco gold rush is in full swing. Seeking adventure, Duncan MacLeod, member of an age old race of immortals, sets out for the Alaskan territory. MacLeod, Hugh Fitzcairn and his young apprentice get trapped in the frozen Yukon. There they face their deaths... over and over and over again.

No one reads the fine print.

The good news is that the USA is finally out of debt. The bad news is that we were bought out by Valor National Bank, and debtors are the new big game, thanks to a tricky little clause hidden deep in the fine print of a credit card application. Now, after a swift and silent takeover that leaves 9-1-1 calls going through to Valor voicemail, they're unleashing a wave of anarchy across the country.

Patsy didn't have much of a choice. When the suits showed up at her house threatening to kill her mother then and there for outstanding debt unless Patsy agreed to be an indentured assassin, what was she supposed to do? Let her own mother die?

Patsy is forced to take on a five-day mission to complete a hit list of ten names. Each name on Patsy's list has only three choices: pay the debt on the spot, agree to work as a bounty hunter, or die. And Patsy has to kill them personally, or else her mom takes a bullet of her own. Since yarn bombing is the only anarchy in Patsy's past, she's horrified and overwhelmed, especially as she realizes that most of the ten people on her list aren't strangers. Things get even more complicated when a moment of mercy lands her with a sidekick: a hot rich kid named Wyatt whose brother is the last name on Patsy's list. The two share an intense chemistry even as every tick of the clock draws them closer to an impossible choice.

From the author of the "gritty near-future dystopian tale," (Booklist) Hit comes the thrilling sequel about an indentured assassin fighting to survive in a world of anarchy.

The hit list was just the beginning.

Time to strike back.

After faking her own death to escape her term as an indentured assassin for Valor Savings Bank, Patsy is on the run with her boyfriend, Wyatt. All she wants to do is go home, but that's never going to happen--not as long as Valor's out to get her and the people she loves.

Left with no good choices, Patsy's only option is to meet with a mysterious group that calls itself the Citizens for Freedom.

Led by the charismatic Leon Crane, the CFF seem like just what Patsy has been looking for. Leon promises that if she joins, she'll finally get revenge on Valor for everything they've done to her--and for everything they've made her do.

But Patsy knows the CFF has a few secrets of their own. One thing is certain: they'll do absolutely anything to complete their mission, no matter who's standing in their way. Even if it's Patsy herself.

Eternal youth is a wonderful thing for the few who have it, but for Miriam Blaylock, it is a curse -- an existence marred by death and sorrow. Because for the everlasting Miriam, everyone she loves withers and dies. Now, haunted by signs of her adoring husband's imminent demise, Miriam sets out in serach of a new partner, one who can quench her thirst for love and withstand the test of time. She finds it in the beautiful Sarah Roberts, a brilliant young scientist who may hold the secret to immortality. But one thing stands between the intoxicating Miriam Blaylock and the object of her desire: Dr. Tom Haver... and he's about to realize that love and death to hand in hand.

The Number One New York Times bestselling author returns to the world of the Hunger with the long-awaited sequel to the cult classic. Whitley Strieber's vampire classic, the Hunger reinvented the genre and created a truly eternal heroine in Miriam Blaylock. Now, after two decades of mountin ganticipation, the Last Vampire finally steps back into Miriam's shadow and weaves a tale of stunning invention and mounting suspense. Miriam Blaylock's insatiable hunger has never ceased. Her incomparable beauty has made her a legend among the Keepers. She knows the secret of civilisation, and the mysteries of life. In the hollow sould of her mother she has witnessed the agony of undeath. For centuries she has gained the wisdom of God and the wit of the Devil. For centuries she has felt safe. Until now. For Miriam Blaylock, immortality is a thing of the past. He watches, Interpol agent Paul Ward knows of them. The undead. He has battled them, cleansed entire continents of their exquisite poison. He possesses their sacred Book of Names. He knows their weaknesses... and fears his own: Miriam Blaylock. Elusive and toxic, she has escaped his complex network of hunters for years. Seductive and cunning, she has become his obsession. And now each has set a trap for the other. Now, predator is about to become prey. Killer is about to become lover. As good and evil are rendered indistinguishable, the endgame begins. The Last Vampire will take readers as deep into the dark as a nightmare.

An ancient vampire, beautiful beyond words, a vulnerable young man drawn to her by a power beyond his understanding, two desperate parents searching across the world for the son they love -- these are the riveting, unexpected elements of Whitley Strieber's extraordinary new novel.

Lilith, the ages-old mother of the dying race of vampires, has been forced to come out of her cave deep in the Egyptian desert in search of food -- human blood. But she knows nothing about the modern world. She can't drive a car, rent a room, turn on a TV. She struggles to New York, penniless, vulnerable, and starving, protected only by her beauty and her power to capture men with desire... especially certain very special men.

The instant she sees young Ian Ward, she knows that he is part vampire himself. She knows that Ian, if he ever tastes human blood, will belong to her forever. And she needs him desperately, to help her survive and live in this harsh new world of jets and credit cards and guns. She sets out on a campaign of seduction -- as sensuous as it is terrifying -- to touch human blood to Ian's lips, which will then become for him a drug a thousand times more addictive than heroin.

Ian's father, Paul Ward, part vampire turned expert and obsessive hunter of vampires, knows that if the blood transforms Ian, Paul will have to kill his own son. The titanic conflict between father and son and seductress, hunter and hunted and huntress, comes to its surprise conclusion in the secret chambers beneath the great pyramids, where the hidden truths of all human history are stored.

From its beginning in the dark back alleys of Cairo to its totally unexpected ending, Lilith's Dream draws the reader down seductive new paths of discovery, into places where no novel has ever before. With Lilith's Dream Whitley Strieber has created a vampire so original and a story so new that he has virtually invented a new genre.

BUTTON MASH TO VICTORY

On the verge of flunking out of Grand Swordcraft Academy due to his total lack of talent, Allen Rodol's life goes from bad to worse when the class prodigy challenges him to a duel where it's win or face expulsion. However, the night before his hopeless bout, a mysterious hermit grants Allen a button that will give him one hundred million years to train in an alternate reality when pressed. Allen not only gladly accepts the offer but also goes back for seconds, thirds, tenths even! With over a billion years of straight practice under his belt, the world is about to see what the "Reject Swordsman" can really do!

TIME OFF? HARDLY!

During their month-long suspension from Thousand Blade Academy, Allen, Lia, and Rose volunteer for some freelance monster extermination to keep their swordcraft sharp. But as the three make names for themselves in the outside world, they remain unaware that an old enemy from Allen's past is hot on their heels and out for blood... Things don't let up when they finally go back to class, either. From duels with the Student Council to a chance reunion with his Ice King Academy rivals, the Reject Swordsman certainly has his work cut out for him!

A ROYAL HEADACHE!

When Lia's overprotective father, the king of Vesteria, catches wind of the fact that his daughter and Allen have been rooming together, he abruptly summons the pair back to his domain. There, the king demands that Allen prove himself worthy of Lia by defeating Vesteria's top swordfighters in a series of public duels. After the dust settles, however, Allen finds himself at risk of losing Lia again when a formidable duo from the Black Organization abducts her! Can our hero summon the confidence and power he needs to save his friend?

After managing to rescue Lia from the Black Organization, Allen is selected to represent Thousand Blade Academy in the Royal Sword Festival. As our hero uses his newfound power to score victory after victory against competitors from rival schools, however, a sinister conspiracy begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Allen and his friends finally get a moment to catch their breath when their school's cultural festival comes around... only for his longtime rival Dodriel and a powerful new foe to launch a surprise attack on the event!

RAIN VERSUS SUNSHINE!

Though Allen managed to protect his friends from harm when the Black Organization attacked, the same can't be said for Thousand Blade Academy, which now lies in ruins. While their campus undergoes repairs, the students of Thousand Blade are transferred elsewhere to continue their education... and Allen ends up at an all girls school! After that, he and his friends are sent abroad to liberate Daglio, the Land of Sunshine, from the Black Organization's tyranny. But this will be no easy task, with one of the overwhelmingly powerful Thirteen Oracle Knights facing off against them. Can the former Reject Swordsman awaken his true power and set things right?

'TIS THE SEASON... FOR DUELING?!

After putting a stop to Raine Grad and ousting the Black Organization from Daglio, Allen barely has a chance to catch his breath before Claude transfers to Thousand Blade Academy. Things get even more hectic during the school's annual Christmas Party, which includes the much-anticipated Crush Your Crush Competition! Just a few days later, Allen is invited to the Liengard New Year's Jubilee to meet his nation's empress. But when a demon in league with the Holy Ronelian Empire attacks the gathering, it's up to Allen to fend off his deadliest foe yet!

With the aid of the powerful changeling Molimo and her wondrous magical bird Zolkan, Kesira Minette, a beautiful warrior-maiden, battles to free her people from the tyranny of the Jade Demons.

Two Bodies in One

With looks to die for, Saika Kuozaki is the most powerful mage in existence and the only one who can thwart the annihilation factors that attempt to destroy the world once every three hundred hours. When Saika is mortally wounded, however, she bequeaths both her powers and body to the normal high school boy who happens to find her, Mushiki Kuga. Just because Mushiki inherits her abilities, though, doesn't mean he can control them. To stand a chance of saving the world, Mushiki will have to attend an academy for mages as Saika--while trying to keep his true identity under wraps!

Mushiki Kuga has slowly gotten used to life as the powerful mage, Saika Kuozaki. However, Saika is chosen to represent Void's Garden in the upcoming interschool exhibition match with Shadow Tower. Not only that, the popular broadcaster of Magitube and representative for Shadow Tower--Clara Tokushima--challenges Saika for the position of Mushiki's girlfriend!

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace!

After being suddenly informed that she is engaged, Ruri indignantly returns to the Fuyajoh household to tell them what's what. But when she appears to change her mind out of the blue, Mushiki seeks out the head of the Fuyajoh family - and discovers she is also the headmistress of an all-girls mage training institute! Unfortunately, no boys are allowed, so he'll have to infiltrate the school as Saika Kuozaki, special guest lecturer. But will he be able to stop Ruri's marriage in time?!

Be Careful What You Wish For!

When Anviet saves a little girl named Surya from a gang of stray mages, the last thing he expects is for her to call him Papa. Though Anviet swears up and down that he doesn't have any children, news of a Garden instructor with an illegitimate daughter starts to spread like wildfire. Amid all this commotion, Mushiki wakes up to find that Saika has been separated from his body, even though the two of them are supposed to be fused together! However, they don't have long to savor this stroke of good fortune before cities across the world begin to disappear without a trace. As Mushiki and company investigate, it soon becomes clear that Surya, Saika's separation, and the disasters sweeping the globe are all connected somehow...

Master con artist Ardor Benn and his crew of intrepid thieves are hired to pull off a series of wildly complex heists, from stealing a crown to saving the world, in this daring fantasy adventure.

Liar. Thief. Legend.

Ardor Benn is no ordinary thief. Rakish, ambitious, and master of wildly complex heists, he styles himself a Ruse Artist Extraordinaire.

When a priest hires him for the most daring ruse yet, Ardor knows he'll need more than quick wit and sleight of hand. Assembling a dream team of forgers, disguisers, schemers, and thieves, he sets out to steal from the most powerful king the realm has ever known.

But it soon becomes clear there's more at stake than fame and glory - Ard and his team might just be the last hope for human civilization.

Discover the start of an epic fantasy trilogy that begins with a heist and quickly explodes into a full-tilt, last ditch plan to save humanity.

The second in an action-packed epic fantasy series set in a world with dragon-fueled magic where master con artist Ardor Benn must infiltrate a centuries old secret organization to find a missing royal heir.

Ardor Benn saved civilization from imminent destruction, but his efforts brought war to the kingdom. It is believed that the rightful rulers have all been assassinated. However, a young heir might have survived.

An ancient organization known as The Realm is behind the chaos, working from the shadows. Under the anonymity of masks, information is distributed sparingly.

Ard's been hired to infiltrate them, but he's got competition from an old friend. One who's set to prove she's better than the self-proclaimed "Ruse Artist Extraordinaire."

If Ard can't find the heir then his world may again approach ruin. Stopping the complete and utter collapse of civilization is quickly becoming Ard's specialty.

The final book in an action-packed epic fantasy series set in a world with dragon-fueled magic where master con artist Ardor Benn takes a job to steal a living dragon.

Ardor Benn has taken his lies to a new level, infiltrating high society so he can steal a priceless resource. But now that he's on the inside, he finds himself poring through ancient texts, searching for answers to his deepest questions. He discovers something is coming. Something world-ending.

Now, an old enemy is extorting him for one last job. Steal a live dragon. He doesn't know how, and he doesn't know why. But he's got a feeling that it's a job he has to take. Only problem is, Ard's running short on time and shorter on lies. And his personal ambitions are alienating all of his allies.

With no one else to rely on, he'll have to trust the one person nobody else does: himself.

The first-ever story collection from the New York Times bestselling author, including two all-new works!

Kitty Norville, star of a New York Times bestselling series, is everybody's favorite werewolf DJ and out-of-the-closet supernatural creature. Over the course of eight books she's fought evil vampires, were-creatures, and some serious black magic. She's done it all with a sharp wit and the help of a memorable cast of werewolf hunters, psychics, and if-notgood- then-neutral vampires by her side. Kitty's Greatest Hits not only gives readers some of Kitty's further adventures, it offers longtime fans a window into the origins of some of their favorite characters.

In "Conquistador de la Noche," we learn the origin story of Denver's Master vampire, Rick; with "Wild Ride," we find out how Kitty's friend T.J. became a werewolf; and in "Life is the Teacher," we revisit Emma, the human-turned-unwilling-vampire who serves the aloof vampire Master of Washington, D.C.

This entertaining collection includes two brand-new works: "You're On the Air," about one of Kitty's callers after he hangs up the phone; and the eagerly awaited "Long Time Waiting," the novella that finally reveals just what happened to Cormac in prison, something every Kitty fan wants to know.

Table of Content

• Il Est Né
• A Princess of Spain
• Conquistador de la Noche
• The Book of Daniel
• The Temptation of Robin Green
• Looking After Family
• God's Creatures
• Wild Ride
• Winnowing the Herd
• Kitty and the Mosh Pit of the Damned
• Kitty's Zombie New Year
• Life Is the Teacher
• You're on the Air
• Long Time Waiting
• Author's Notes

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010, edited by Paula Guran, and Clarkesworld: Year Three (2013), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke. The story is included in the collection Unnatural Creatures (2011).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

"I sold my Excalibur... for money."

In all honesty, Rintarou's life is boring as hell. If you ask him, he was born into this world with too much talent. Everything goes too according to plan. His way of having fun? Joining forces with the weakest candidate, Luna Artur, in the upcoming battle to become King Arthur's successor-and save the world from impending doom.

The only problem? She's the scummiest of scum, pawning off her sacred sword and forcing her knight, Sir Kay, into some seriously skeevy cosplays! Or so he thinks-until a close encounter with death, when her true power astonishes all.

Make way for an unexpected take on the age-old legends of King Arthur!

There's nothing in the world money can't buy...

With the succession battle in full swing, it's too dangerous to keep living in the dorms. But have no fear: Rintarou has the genius idea to rent a place with Luna. Well, he must have forgotten who he was dealing with, because as soon as he hands her the reins-and his checkbook-money-hungry moocher Luna squanders his life savings on a colossal mansion! And just when their relationship couldn't get any worse, they have a run-in with another duo vying for the throne: Emma Michelle and her Jack, Sir Lamorak. Turns out, Rintarou has history with Emma, who challenges Luna to a different kind of fight-where the prize is Rintarou!

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'VE GOT UNTIL IT'S GONE...

A King obsessed with justice, Hitoshi Kataoka is making his presence known in the battle for the throne, flanked by a wicked witch and his Jack, Sir Tristan. When Luna goes up against them along with her team, she finds herself beaten down by his accomplices to the verge of death. As Luna fights for her life, Rintarou realizes he must battle the demon inside him to reclaim his powers, recover the place where he belongs, and return to those precious to him.

THE SEARCH FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE...

Ever since Rintarou awakened the power within him, he's felt largely at peace with himself... even though most of his days are still spent trying to keep up with Luna's reckless antics. When he realizes his new life has come at the cost of Nayuki's, though, he just can't accept her sacrifice... or fully process the loss of his friend. The only way to save Nayuki is to obtain the Holy Grail, an object that has eluded seekers since ancient times. Even before embarking on a quest for the unattainable chalice, Rintarou has a feeling he might be out of his depth...

COUNTDOWN TO MIDNIGHT...

Luna and Rintarou return from their quest for the Holy Grail to find the doomsday clock has begun ticking down. It is said that global destruction will befall humanity when King Arthur is resurrected from the age of legends--and that fated moment is drawing ever closer. The other candidates for the throne balk at the task ahead of them, but Luna steps up to participate in a final battle that will transcend time, all to impress a certain vassal who goes by the name Rintarou Magami...

When Marianne's parents died, leaving control of their fortune to her feared older brother, she struggled to make her way as a student in America - and her old home began to seem as unreal as a fairy tale, her childhood there as distant as a dream . . . Until the Magus came to claim her, and the Black Madame to destroy her, and the Manticore to hunt her down through the streets of another world - for there is magic in Marianne's blood, and magic in her soul. And in a battle fought in an everchanging world of warped time and wicked magic, it is the souls of Marianne and her family that are the ultimate prizes. Marianne, the Matchbox and the Malachite Mouse is the final volume of Sheri S. Tepper's acclaimed Marianne Trilogy.

For his characters alone in this book, Anthony Boucher deserves awards. They are other-worldly (a ghost who gets killed--?); an air-breathing squid-like Martian who is a brilliant bartender of mixes for two humans who revolutionize the use of robotics and androids; some mummified creatures who have a cannibalistic way of coming alive when unexpected; a Lilliputian demon who can't manage the simplest of tasks when asked; and of course, the title player, a college professor-turned-werewolf for love. Not enough? How about a murder that costs the killer more than his life by summoning a creature from his own imagination? Just ask Gorgo, Dugg Quinby, Wolfe Wolf, Guzub, and Snulbug (but don't ask the latter for tomorrow's newspaper. He might bring it and a lot of surprises too.)

Contents:

• 7 - The Compleat Werewolf - [Fergus O'Breen] - (1942) - novella
• 63 - The Pink Caterpillar - [Fergus O'Breen] - (1945) - shortstory
• 74 - Q. U. R. - (1943) - shortstory
• 99 - Robinc - (1943) - shortstory
• 119 - Snulbug - (1941) - shortstory
• 136 - Mr. Lupescu - (1945) - shortstory
• 141 - They Bite - (1943) - shortstory
• 154 - Expedition - (1943) - shortstory
• 170 - We Print the Truth - (1943) - novella
• 240 - The Ghost of Me - (1942) - shortstory

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she'll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

ANNIE AND FIA ARE AS CLOSE AS TWO SISTERS CAN BE.

Most importantly, they keep each other's secrets, even the dangerous ones: Annie is blind, but can see visions of the future; Fia was born with flawless intuition - her first instinct is always exactly right. When the sisters are offered a place at an elite boarding school, Fia realizes something is wrong... but she doesn't grasp just how wrong. At the Keane School, Fia is soon used for everything from picking stocks to planting bombs. If she tries to refuse, they threaten her with Annie's life.

Noe Fia 's falling in love with a boy who has dark secrets of his own. And with his help, she's ready to fight back. They stole her past. They control her present. But she won't let them take her future.

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other--but that may not be enough to save them

Launching into new territory that the author hadn't mapped out when he embarked on the series, NEKOMONOGATARI (White) tells the tale of heroine Tsubasa Hanekawa from her own perspective, in her own voice--if that can hold true for a damaged soul who, depending on who you're asking, suffers from a split personality or a supernatural aberration.

The bone-chilling brokenness of her household, where father and mother and daughter keep three separate sets of cookware in the same kitchen and only ever prepare their own meals, and the profound darkness nurtured in the genius schoolgirl's heart, come to life, if that is the word, through her self-vivisection.

As for our customary unreliable narrator, Araragi, we seem to learn revealing tidbits about him now that we have an outside view of him at last, while his lady friends Senjogahara, Hachikuji, et al, freed from his predilection for proudly inane banter, show subtly new faces to us via their female interlocutor. Welcome to the Second Season.

It was just a test report. Like one of many, many he'd written up in the past. Except this time, several of the test subjects are dead..."

At first, Dr. James Cutlass had thought his new job at NORAD was thrilling and full of opportunities, but that was before the demonstration... "Dress Your Marines in White" is the story of the terrifying choices surrounding a chemical weapons demonstration gone horribly wrong.

DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE is a new original science-fiction story from writer and actress Emmy Laybourne, who has appeared in movies like Superstar and The In-Laws and has performed original comedy on Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and with UCB and Chicago City Limits.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Identity Crisis...

Skeeve is just settling into his duties as Court Magician of Possiltum and his training as sorcerer's apprentice to Aahz, his scaly green demon mentor, when Aahz is suddenly called back to his home dimension on family business. Skeeve figures he can handle things on his own for a while, but then King Roderick convinces Skeeve to use his powers of illusion to take the king's place while Roderick takes a little "vacation."

That's when Hemlock, the ruthless, ambitious queen of a powerful neighboring nation, turns up to fulfill her part in an arranged marriage with Roderick. Skeeve realizes that Roderick has taken a powder, leaving the hapless magician in his place to marry his homicidal fiancée. As if dealing with a potential Black Widow isn't trouble enough, representatives of Skeeve's old nemesis, the Mob, show up. They're determined to find out what happened to Big Julie's army, which they sent in a previous attempt to conquer Possiltum.

Without his mentor's help, Skeeve must solve the problem of the Runaway King, protect himself from the ardor and the threat of the Killer Queen, and finally face the wrath of Don Bruce, the Mob's fairy godfather--who makes Skeeve an offer he can't refuse!

A political operative and a volunteer are brutally murdered. Written in their blood on the wall of the crime scene: IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK. In 145 years, Nathaniel Cade, the President's vampire, has fought one particular evil over and over again: the source of urban legends and nightmares across the country. It has gone by many names and guises, but is best known by the one that all children instinctively fear: the Boogeyman. No matter how Cade kills him, the Boogeyman always comes back. When the killer begins targeting the president's people on the campaign trail, Cade and his human handler, Zach Barrows, are tasked with cleaning up the mess before it spills over into the upcoming election. Cade and Zach must stop the one monster Cade has never been able to defeat completely. And they must do it before the Boogeyman adds another victim to his long and bloody list: the President of the United States himself.

For centuries, the White City has graced the banks of the Moskva River. But in the early years of a twentieth century not quite analogous to our own, a creature even more ancient than Moscow's fortress heart has entered its medieval walls.

In the wake of political success and personal loss, the immortal detective Don Sebastien de Ulloa has come to Moscow to choose his path amid the embers of war between England and her American colonies. Accompanied by his court--the forensic sorcerer Lady Abigail Irene and the authoress Phoebe Smith--he seeks nothing but healing and rest.

But Moscow is both jeweled and corrupt, and when you are old there is no place free of ghosts, and Sebastien is far from the most ancient thing in Russia.

A light novel series exploring an alternate ending to one of the most influential anime series of all time!

What if reluctant hero Ikari Shinji had saved the world? Now, at seventeen years old, he is the defacto leader of the EVA team. Under the leadership of Commander Katsuragi Misato, the Evangelion suits have been updated with advanced designs and powers, in preparation for the possible return of the monstrous Angels. Four copies of Ayanami Rei have been tasked with operating a global anti-Angel search-and-destroy program. But when one of these clones goes rogue, it's up to Shinji to stop her.

THE SHADOW IN THE SKY

Tensions run high as the black giant Armaros looms threateningly over planet Earth, armed with the mighty Spear of Longinus. The pilots race to avert disaster, but Rei Quatre throws a wrench in their plans by kidnapping Misato! Meanwhile, Shinji is confronted by a strange white Evangelion that looks just like Eva-02, piloted by a familiar face. Can Shinji and his comrades save the world yet again, or are the forces arrayed against them just too strong this time?

Severely wounded in battle with Armaros, Shinji struggles to shoulder the responsibility of being Earth's savior yet again. Meanwhile, Asuka adjusts to her strange new body, and the clones Trois and Quatre continue their quest for their own identities. But their enemy wields the power of a god, and it's going to take every single one of them working together to prevent a reprise of the Human Instrumentality Project.

APOCALYPSE NOW

A chunk of the growing moon breaks off and hurtles toward Earth, spelling immediate doom for the planet even as the Lance of Longinus continues to suck it dry. Shinji moves to destroy the deadly asteroid before it can make contact, but is felled by a horrifying, unforeseen force. Can he be resurrected once more before it's too late? Or are Earth's defenders finally out of miracles?

ONE FINAL DREAM

Sacrificing himself to shield Earth from the devastation of the Third Impact, Shinji's mind floats untethered from his body. He lingers in a space where time stands still, trapped in the moment of the impact. As Armaros swallows Heurtebise and defeat seems near, Asuka tries to use the memories of their classroom days together to wake Shinji from his new, shattered reality.

Dissolute nobles, master spies, and the unlikeliest of heroes, Alec and Seregil have survived exile, treachery, and black magic. But the road that lies ahead is the most hazardous they've ever traveled. For with enemies on all sides, they must walk a narrow path between good and evil where one misstep might be their last.

Having escaped death and slavery in Plenimar, Alec and Seregil want nothing more than to go back to their nightrunning life in Rhíminee. Instead they find themselves saddled with Sebrahn, a strange, alchemically created creature - the prophesied 'child of no woman.' Its moon-white skin and frightening powers make Sebrahn a danger to all whom Alec and Seregil come into contact with, leaving them no choice but to learn more about Sebrahn's true nature.

With the help of trusted friends and Seregil's clan, the duo set out to discover the truth about this living homunculus - a journey that can lead only to danger or death. For Seregil's old nemesis Ulan í Sathil of Virèsse and Alec's own long-lost kin are after them, intent on possessing both Alec and Sebrahn. On the run and hunted, Alec and his comrades must fight against time to accomplish their most personal mission ever.

The multiple award-winning author of The Dreamthiefs Daughter and The Skrayling Tree delivers a stirring new novel in his beloved Elric the Eternal Champion saga. When Una, granddaughter of Oona the Dreamthiefs Daughter and Count Ulric von Bek, is left alone at the family house in Yorkshire Dales, all kinds of strange visitors start appearing. They believe that she will lead them to the White Wolfs son, control of whom will give them immense power. They are also searching for The Runestaff, a manifestation of the Holy Grail that Unas family has protected for centuries. Only with the help of the White Wolfs son will Una be able to prevent the power of The Runestaff from falling into the hands of the most evil creatures in creation.

Homicide detective Harry Picard had seen a lot of violent deaths... but never like this. Three bodies -- blonde, female, strangely emaciated -- were found in the Potomac River with their throats brutally slashed. Each had been seen in the company of a huge, hulking man dressed in black. Picard's investigation catapulted him into a roiling morass of passion, sexual intrigue, violence, and primordial fear... as he faced an enemy as powerful, and as horrifying, as man's oldest superstitions!

Evie's always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through supernatural glamours.

She's also about to find out that she may be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, this New York Times bestseller is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, the Paranormalcy trilogy is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

Evie finally has the normal life she's always longed for. But she's shocked to discover that being ordinary can be... kind of boring. Boring enough that when she's given a chance to work for the International Paranormal Containment Agency again, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie's faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there's a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, the Paranormalcy trilogy is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

In this third book in the series, Evie has way too much on her to-do list. Paranormals are begging her to open a faerie gate so they can leave the human world. The Dark Queen is torturing humans and must be destroyed. Prom is coming up, too--and, oh, yeah, her shape-shifting boyfriend has been cursed to fall into an enchanted sleep whenever he and Evie are in the same room. Even Evie's ex-boyfriend, the faerie Reth, can't reverse the dark magic.

An epic battle is looming, and the choices Evie makes will determine the fate of the whole paranormal world--and her own life.

Past and present collide as Special Agent Pendergast uncovers mysterious connections between a string of 19th century bear attacks in a Colorado mining town, a fabled, long-lost Sherlock Holmes story, and a deadly present-day arsonist.

In 1876, in a mining camp called Roaring Fork in the Colorado Rockies, eleven miners were killed by a rogue grizzly bear. Corrie Swanson has arranged to examine the miners' remains. When she makes a shocking discovery, town leaders try to stop her from exposing their community's dark and bloody past.

Just as Special Agent Pendergast of the FBI arrives to rescue his protege, the town comes under siege by a murderous arsonist who-with brutal precision-begins burning down multimillion-dollar mansions with the families locked inside. Drawn deeper into the investigation, Pendergast discovers a long-lost Sherlock Holmes story that may be the key to solving both the mystery of the long-dead miners and the modern-day killings as well.

Now, with the ski resort snowed in and under savage attack-and Corrie's life suddenly in grave danger-Pendergast must solve the enigma of the past before the town of the present goes up in flames.

The dream of being a superman came true for Max Quest - and immediately turned into a nightmare.

He was not alone. There were Others with extraordinary powers, and the last thing they wanted was another superman on Earth - especially one working for good instead of evil.

They couldn't kill him. But they could send him... elsewhere.

Elsewhere was the viciously hostile world of Qanar, where Max's powers didn't work and sorcery was a more potent weapon than science, where shadows were as menacing as steel. Max Quest still had to save Earth from the corrupt threat of the Others - but he found his destiny intricately linked with that of Qanar as well. And somewhere in space-time was his lost love.

TWO PATHS TO ARMAGEDDON

Two valiant humans: swashbuckling Elron and the Sorceress Shannara... two implacably evil "Others"... two kinds of weapons with which to fight... and many kinds of doom awaiting an entire world if the battle is lost!

Again Ted White takes us to the strange, paradoxical world of Qanar, where a weird age-old magic exists as everyday reality, side by side with the remnants of an equally ancient but less understood science. The alien "Others" are making a new bid to take over the planet... and only the noble Elron stands against them. But not entirely alone after he meets the beautiful Shannara, and she adds her limited psionic powers to his great strength to vanquish the enemy. Together they share an outstanding Odyssey - through unpredictable matter transmitters and over treacherous terrain - to reach a hair-raising climax... IN THIS GREAT SEQUEL TO PHOENIX PRIME!

Makstarn was ugly, an outcast in the midst of the beautiful people of his tribe. Where they were tall and slender, he was short and squat. Where they were golden, touched with the beauty of the dawn, he was black and hairy... and hated by those of his own generation. It little mattered that the Elders respected him for what he was... and for what his father, Max Quest, had been; the young were all that mattered.

And their hatred drove him at last from the tribe, and on an impossible journey in search of the memory of his father... and in search of his own manhood.

The White Crow, one-time Soldier-Scholar of the Invisible College and a practioner of Hermetic science and magic, and Baltazar Casaubon, architect and lover, a man not too particular about his personal hygiene, are two of Mary Gentle's finest creations. The worlds they stride across range from the Renaissance city where aristocratic rats rule the human servant class, to a near-future London where chaos is come again. They are two of the most powerful players in the games of magic and politics, and the most colourful. This volume brings together three brilliantly imaginative, powerful and disturbing tales - Rats and Gargoyles, The Architecture of Desire and Left to His Own Devices - and the linked short fiction and confirms Mary Gentle as one of the foremost writers of dark and visionary fantasy.

Two powerful magicians -- the White Crow and her husband, Lord-Architect Casaubon -- become embroiled in a deadly conflict of politics and magic as the opposing forces of Queen Carola and Protector-General Olivia battle for control of seventeenth-century London.

This long awaited companion novel to The Regiment finds those legendary warriors training the first test regiment of teenagers--the first ever White Regiment. But teenagers who make the perfect warriors are about as easy to train and control as wildcats. And there's little time to whip them into shape before the horrendous Klestronu unleash their massive firepower on the inexperienced regiment.

Here are two great, neglected horror novels by Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, together in one volume for the first time. It is a double treat for lovers of blood-curdling fantasy fiction.

The Lady of the Shroud, published here in its full and unabridged form, is a fascinating and engrossing concoction of a vampire tale, Ruritanian adventure story and science fiction romance. The novel fully demonstrates the breadth and ingenuity of Stoker's imagination.

The spine-chilling The Lair of the White Worm features a monstrous worm secreted for thousands of years in a bottomless well and able to metamorphose into a seductive woman of a reptilian beauty who survives on her victim's life blood. The novel contains some of Stoker's most graphic and grisly moments of horror.

Hospital Station is a 1962 science fiction book by author James White and is the first volume in the Sector General series. The book collects together a series of five short stories previously published in New Worlds magazine between 1957 and 1960.

Contents:

• 7 - Medic - [Sector General] - (1960) - novelette (variant of O'Mara's Orphan)
• 41 - Sector General - [Sector General] - (1957) - novelette
• 85 - Trouble With Emily - [Sector General] - (1958) - novelette
• 114 - Visitor at Large - [Sector General] - (1959) - novelette
• 151 - Out-Patient - [Sector General] - (1960) - novella

This is the second installment of the Sector General series, about a huge multi-species hospital on the edges of the galaxy.

A "Fix-up" novel containing the introductory novelette Resident Physician and the novel length work, Field Hospital.

Sector General: A massive deep-space hospital station on the Galactic Rim, where human and alien medicine meet. Its 384 levels and thousands of staff members are supposedly able to meet the needs of any conceivable alien patient--though that capacity is always being strained as more (and stranger) alien races turn up to join the galactic community. Sentient viruses, interspecies romances, undreamed-of institutional catering problems--it all lands on Sector General's doorstep. And the only thing weirder than a hitherto unknown alien species is having a member of that species turn up in your Emergency Room.

Contents:

• 1 - Invader - [Sector General] - (1966) - novelette by James White
• 41 - Vertigo - [Sector General] - (1968) - novelette by James White
• 68 - Blood Brother - [Sector General] - (1969) - novelette by James White
• 103 - Meatball - [Sector General] - (1969) - novelette by James White
• 136 - Major Operation - [Sector General] - (1971) - novelette by James White

The medics were in worse danger than the victims they were trying so hard to save...

Contents:

• ix - The Secret History of Sector General - (1979) - essay by James White
• 1 - Contagion - [Sector General] - (1979) - novelette by James White
• 61 - Quarantine - [Sector General] - (1979) - novella by James White
• 121 - Recovery - [Sector General] - (1979) - novella by James White

Four tales of medical disaster and imaginative recovery.

Contents:

• 1 - Accident - [Sector General] - (1983) - novelette by James White
• 35 - Survivor - [Sector General] - (1983) - novelette by James White
• 71 - Investigation - [Sector General] - (1983) - novelette by James White
• 117 - Combined Operation - [Sector General] - (1983) - novella by James White

Conway is replaced on the ambulance ship Rhabwar by Diagnostician Prilicla. Conway visits healer Khone on the planet Goglesk, and witnesses first-hand their destructive racial mass-hysteria response to physical proximity. He inadvertently links minds with Khone and learns a great deal more. Back at Hospital Station, Conway decides to treat some Hudlar accident victims with a rear-to-front limb transplant, because stranger transplants require permanent exile. Conway also proposes staving off geriatric Hudlar problems by elective amputation. At the end, he successfully delivers a sentient telepathic Unborn (seen in the other novel of the series Ambulance Ship) from its violent non-sentient Protector.

Sector General Hospital was prepared for anything - except the alien standards of their newest trainee.

The protagonist of the story is Sommaradvan healer Cha Thrat. She bravely saved a human pilot who crashlanded on her planet, despite a complete lack of knowledge about his physiology. Contact with her species was established by the accident, so knowledge of their social customs is still virtually non-existent. However, she is invited to join the Sector General staff.

Cha Thrat innocently wreaks havoc by following her instincts and social customs. First she befriends a hypochondriac Chalder. Next, she is invited to assist at a therapeutic surgery operation to amputate the limb of a Hudlar, which will prolong its life (following events depicted in the previous novel in the series, Star Healer). When given the honour of cutting the limb, she obliges--and then deliberately cuts her own arm off as well, in accordance with the custom of her people. Next she saves the untouchable patient Khone (see Star Healer), and then finds a weird parasite species on a derelict spaceship. Due to the chaos she causes, every department in the hospital now refuses to allow her near their patients. O'Mara values her unusual approaches, and decides to add her to his staff.

In his zeal to cure the plague that has reduced the peaceful citizens of Cromsag to barbarism and war, Surgeon-Captain Lioren inadvertantly causes the death of the entire population and for punishment is banished to Sector Twelve General Hospital.

In this latest novel of the series, readers meet an alien chef named Gurronsevas who has come to Sector General to face the greatest challenge of his career--making hospital food palatable. His ensuing adventure combines interspecies administrative politics, ingenious science puzzles and a judicious admixture of action and adventure.

It's a massive hospital space station on the Galactic rim--384 levels, a staff of thousands--where human and alien medicine meet.

But Patient Hewlitt, new to Sector General, doesn't want to meet alien medicine--or alien doctors, or alien nurses, or aliens of any kind. Which is just too bad; he's an interesting case, and he'll have to get used to it.

In the meantime, it's always been an article of faith among Sector General's multispecies staff that infections can't pass from one alien race to another. But in this season of anomalies, it looks like they might have their first-ever interstellar virus on their hands, their tentacles, their cilla....

Combining intrigue, ingenious puzzles (and even more ingenious solutions), action, adventure and White's characteristic easy charm, Final Diagnosis is a science-fiction treat.

It's where human and alien medicine meet: a massive hospital space station on the Galactic Rim, with 384 levels and a multispecies staff of thousands.

In the course of practicing deep-space medicine, that staff has seen more than its share of challenges--from plagues caused by cafeteria food, to cafeteria food that resembles alien species. But now they are facing a disquieting new development: the terrifying Chief Psychologist, Dr. O'Mara, has been promoted to head of the hospital.

Worse, he's been given the job on a temporary basis, for just as long as it takes to train his own replacement. After that, he is up for mandatory retirement. Nobody at Sector General can begin to imagine what they'll do without him--assuming they last long enough to find out.

Now, in the latest adventure, the empathic Dr. Prilicla, a veteran of Sector General for years, is put in command of an expedition answering three distress beacons. What he finds is two hitherto-unknown intelligent species, one of which has nearly wiped out the other. And he also finds evidence of a botched first contact--along with a rare opportunity to set matters right.

Assuming, as always, that he can make an accurate diagnosis....

The Demon Gods have risen. Skies' End has fallen to the colonizers. And Lan and Zen have chosen sides.

But they will not fight together.

Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil, and that the future of the Last Kingdom depends on their being eliminated forever. Worse, she knows that if the Elantians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save her kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon capable of destroying the Demon Gods: the Godslayer.

Zen is sure that the only way to free the Last Kingdom is to use the power of the Demon Gods. When he bound the Black Tortoise, he paid the ultimate price: to inherit its strength, he will forfeit his body, his mind, and his soul. Yet one Demon God is not enough against the might of the colonizers. In the ruins of the northern Mansorian lands slumbers a magical army of demonic practitioners capable of facing off against the Elantians--but Zen must find the Seal to awaken them to fight by his side.

At the center of both Lan's and Zen's journeys is one city: Shaklahira, a former stronghold of the Imperial Court that vanished without a trace when the Elantians invaded. Its location is a mystery, and both are sure that it holds the answers they need, but the past it hides might be more dangerous than anything they've faced yet.

The battle for the Last Kingdom rages on. But to win the war, Lan will have to decide: Can she face the boy she loves again? And when she does, can she kill him to free her people?

The Space Marines stand against the darkness, and yet on countless battlefields they play unwitting roles in the schemes of Fateweaver. From the doomed world of Ilissus, through the embattled corridors of the Endeavour of Will, to the borders of the Eye of Terror itself - friend and foe alike follow the great plan that he set in motion many thousands of years ago. But not even the Architect of Fate himself can foresee the destiny that lies in wait for him...

All four parts of the Architect of Fate novella series--'Endeavour of Will', 'Accursed Eternity', 'Fateweaver' and 'Sanctus'--are presented in a single volume. The infamous Kairos Fateweaver, greater daemon of Tzeentch and master of manipulation, has discovered the limits of his power--even one so prescient as he cannot divine beyond the event horizon at the end of the 41st Millennium.

Before they became the crack team of engineers we've all come to know and love on the U.S.S. da Vinci, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers team had plenty of adventures throughout the galaxy. Now some of those exploits are chronicled, featuring special guests from all across the Star Trek universe.

Progress: Captain David Gold's previous command brings him and former Starship Enterprise medical officer Dr. Katherine Pulaski to Drema IV and a special young woman named Sarjenka.

The Future Begins: Learn how Captain Montgomery Scott found himself in charge of the S.C.E.--also featuring Geordi La Forge, Admirals Alynna Nechayev and William Ross, and Robin Lefler.

Echoes of Coventry: During the height of the Dominion War, Bart Faulwell is part of a team that must crack Cardassian codes.

Distant Early Warning: In the 23rd century, the U.S.S. Lovell helps in the construction of Starbase Vanguard in this special prequel to the hit novel series.

10 Is Better than 01: An inside look at the culture of Bynaus, home of 110--the future Soloman.

Many Splendors: Before they were reunited on the da Vinci, Sonya Gomez and Kieran Duffy had a whirlwind romance aboard the Starship Enterprise.

Contents:

• 1 - Progress - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 61] - (2006) - novella by Terri Osborne
• 119 - The Future Begins - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 62] - (2006) - novella by Michael Schuster and Steve Mollmann
• 223 - Echoes of Coventry - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 63] - (2006) - novella by Richard C. White
• 311 - Distant Early Warning - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 64] - (2006) - novella by Kevin Dilmore and Dayton Ward
• 413 - 10 Is Better than 01 - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 65] - (2006) - novella by Heather Jarman
• 505 - Many Splendors - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 66] - (2006) - novella by Keith R. A. DeCandido

As the Federation Starship Voyager continues to lead the Full Circle Fleet in its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, Admiral Kathryn Janeway remains concerned about the Krenim Imperium and its ability to rewrite time to suit its whims. At Captain Chakotay's suggestion, however, she orders the fleet to focus its attention on a unique planet in a binary system, where a new element has been discovered. Several biospheres exist on this otherwise uninhabitable world, each containing different atmospheres and features that argue other sentient beings once resided on the surface. Janeway hopes that digging into an old-fashioned scientific mystery will lift the crews' morale, but she soon realizes that the secrets buried on this world may be part of a much larger puzzle--one that points to the existence of a species whose power to reshape the galaxy might dwarf that of the Krenim.

Meanwhile, Lieutenants Nancy Conlon and Harry Kim continue to struggle with the choices related to Conlon's degenerative condition. Full Circle's medical staff discovers a potential solution, but complications will force a fellow officer to confront her people's troubled past and her own future in ways she never imagined...

BEING A TEENAGER IS HARD ENOUGH WITHOUT ALSO TRAINING TO BE A JEDI....

Obi-Wan Kenobi has not been apprenticed long to Qui-Gon Jinn, and he is chafing at Qui-Gon's training style: all meditation, no action. Obi-Wan yearns to prove himself on a mission, but when he and Qui-Gon are finally set to leave on an assignment, Qui-Gon is nowhere to be found. Angered by his master's abandonment, Obi-Wan sets out on the mission alone, determined to prove himself. On a mysterious planet he encounters a pack of feral, Force-wielding teens who seem to be the planet's only inhabitants. As he experiences wild freedom with them and wonders if this isn't the life he was meant for, Obi-Wan can't escape the nagging sense that something is wrong with the Force there. Growing attachments, startling revelations, and a looming threat to both the planet and his new friends will bring Obi-Wan face-to-face with his worst fear: that maybe he was never supposed to be a Jedi at all. Can he connect with the living Force in time to save himself and everyone around him?

It is a time of great turmoil. The oppressive Empire is close to seizing complete control of the galaxy. The ragtag guerrilla army of the Rebel Alliance fights on, striking wherever it can, but now something has come to light that could spell certain doom. Hidden in the Jedi ruins of Dantooine is a Holocron containing a list of high-level Rebel sympathizers. If that list were to fall into the hands of Darth Vader, the Rebel Alliance would lose its most valued support--and possibly the war itself.

As an Imperial bio-engineer who frequently visits other worlds, Dusque Mistflier is the perfect cover for a Rebel who needs to travel far and wide without arousing suspicion. And so she agrees to help Rebel spy Finn Darktrin in his quest to recover the crucial Holocron. Despite help from Han, Luke, and Leia, the mission is fraught with peril. And as their journey takes them into the fiery belly of the beast that is galactic civil war, Dusque and Finn will learn that the hardest part of all is figuring out whose side you're on--and how far you're willing to go to win....

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

In the end, the only political systems that seem to work are those based on freedom. The Inner World leaders of the Terran Federation seem to have forgotten this simple truth. After fighting the Khanate--with the Fringe Worlds to supply the raw material and the fighting men--the Inner Worlds found it hard to give up the powers they had seized during the war. So they decided not to--rather than allow the rapidly expanding Fringe Worlds representation in the Federation, they are inviting the Khanate in, to keep the colonial upstarts in their place. The Fringers have only one answer to that:

INSURRECTION

Spacers call the warp point Charon's Ferry.

No star ship has ever entered it and returned since a vengeful Orion task force pursued a doomed Terran colonization fleet into it in 2206.

Almost a century has passed. The fiery hatreds of a quarter-century of warfare between the Terran Federation and the Zheeerlikou'valkhannaieeee, the cat-like species humans called the "Orions," have eased at least a little. The "Grand Alliance" forged by the need to fight side-by-side against the genocidal Rigelians remains, but there are those on either side who continue to hate, continue to distrust.

Now the strength of that war-forged alliance is about to be tested. For Charon's Ferry is about to give up the secret of its dead. A ship has emerged from the deadly warp point at last. A ship which responds to the challenge of an Orion star ship using ancient human communications codes... then opens fire.

The holocaust of interstellar warfare has been ignited anew, in a bloody crusade to free Holy Mother Terra.

Five thousand years after Sun Tzu writes The Art of War, his advice is followed during the Fourth Interstellar War between the terrible Bugs and the humans, who are aided by their catlike Orion allies.

The bugs have overrun planet after planet and they regard all sentient species as convenient protein sources. The Grand Alliance of Humans has been driven to the wall. When the only possible outcomes are victory or racial extermination, only one option is acceptable - The Shiva Option.

The Promised Land Has A Vermin Problem...

Once before, the sentient races in the known part of the galaxy had united against alien invaders. Decades have since passed and new generations have grown complacent... dangerously so.

Long ago, much of the population of an entire planet fled their world before its sun went nova in thousands of ships, each one larger than a city. Now, the armada has arrived at the world they intend to make their new home. They regard the fact that the planet is already colonized by humans as a mere inconvenience, and their mode of communication is so different from anything humans use that they do not consider humans and their allies to be truly intelligent.

This time, the races of the old alliance will not have to worry about becoming an invader's meal -- but that will be small comfort if these new invaders decide that genocide is justified for their own survival....

An implacable foe with telepathic cohesion in battle, near-immortality, and eons-advanced engineering skills threatens to wipe humanity from the galaxy. What's more, they've overcome their one weakness--no faster-than-light travel--and have followed humanity through our star gates and beyond. But humans are the master of adaption, and have got a counterpunch of devastating proportions in reserve. Now a hard-bitten and brilliant admiral must face down renewed alien attack and somehow communicate to the enemy that if he is forced to use his ultimate military option, galactic civilization itself may come to a fiery end.

The war with the Arduans--profoundly alien invaders who originally arrived in STL ships--is over. Most of those attackers are now probationary (and very productive) citizens of the Rim Federation.

However, many among the Arduans' warrior caste have neither accepted defeat, nor the personhood of any of the other intelligence races. Their leader, the ruthless admiral of the second Arduan exodus-- Amunsit--is in firm control of the Zarzuela system. Along with a fifth column among the peaceable Arduans, she hopes to find allies in subsequent refugee fleets that abandoned their race's now-dead home system long ago.

But as the victors' diplomats attempt to soothe tensions with these warlike neighbors, two heroes of the last war--veteran Admiral Ian Trevayne and young trouble-shooter Ossian Wethermere--suspect they have stumbled upon a deeper Arduan plot: one which could shatter the Pan-Sentient Union, and perhaps interstellar civilization itself.

The war with the profoundly alien Arduans has ended, and the Arduans have come to call humanity their allies. Most of them--the Arduan warrior caste refuses to accept defeat. Now known as the Kaituni, they are waging a war of extermination against all members of the pan-Sentient Union, human and Arduan alike. What's more, the Kaituni have an unexpected weapon in their arsenal: the alien Arachnids, once thought driven to extinction. The Kaituni drive the Arachnid fleet ahead of them, inflicting untold damage.

The war has been marked by retreat on the side of the pan-Sentient Union. It seems the best they can do is minimize their losses. But now the Arachnids and the Kaituni are at the doorstep to the Heart Worlds, Sol, and Earth: Alpha Centauri. The odds look bleak. But Admiral Ian Trevayne and Commodore Ossian Wethermere have faced down long odds in the past. It's time to take a stand, for Earth, for humanity... and for the pan-Sentient Union!

Born to rule...

With Ancient technology scattered across the Pegasus galaxy, the Atlantis team is not surprised to find it in use on a world once defended by Dalera, an Ancient who was cast out of her society for falling in love with a human.

But in the millennia since Dalera's departure much has changed. Her strict rules have been broken, leaving her people open to Wraith attack. Only a few of the Chosen remain to operate Ancient technology vital to their defense and tensions are running high. Revolution simmers close to the surface.

When Major Sheppard and Rodney McKay are revealed as members of the Chosen, Daleran society convulses into chaos. Wanting to help resolve the crisis and yet refusing to prop up an autocratic regime, Sheppard is forced to act when Teyla and Lieutenant Ford are taken hostage by the rebels...

The eye of the beholder...

When Dr. Carson Beckett disturbs the rest of two longdead Ancients, he unleashes devastating consequences of global proportions.

With the very existence of Lantea at risk, Colonel John Sheppard leads his team on a desperate search for the long lost Ancient device that could save Atlantis. While Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Elizabeth Weir battle the ecological meltdown consuming their world, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Zelenka travel to a world created by the Ancients themselves. There they discover a human experiment that could mean their salvation...

But the truth is never as simple as it seems, and the team's prejudices lead them to make a fatal error -- an error that could slaughter thousands, including their own Dr. McKay.

Creatures of the night...

When a series of gruesome murders are uncovered around the world, the trail leads back to the SGC -- and far beyond...

Recalled to Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Colonel John Sheppard, and Dr. Rodney McKay are shown shocking video footage -- a Wraith attack, taking place on Earth. While McKay, Teyla, and Ronon investigate the disturbing possibility that humans may harbor Wraith DNA, Colonel Sheppard is teamed with SG-1's Dr. Daniel Jackson. Together, they follow the murderers' trail from Colorado Springs to the war-torn streets of Iraq, and there, uncover a terrifying truth...

As an ancient cult prepares to unleash its deadly plot against humankind, Sheppard's survival depends on his questioning of everything believed about the Wraith...

My enemy's enemy...

When a Crystal Skull is discovered beneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, it ignites a cataclysmic chain of events that maroons SG-1 on a dying world.

Xalótcan is a brutal society, steeped in death and sacrifice, where the bloody gods of the Aztecs demand tribute from a fearful and superstitious population. But that's the least of Colonel Jack O'Neill's problems. With Xalótcan on the brink of catastrophe, Dr Daniel Jackson insists that O'Neill must fulfil an ancient prophesy and lead its people to salvation.

But with the world tearing itself apart, can anyone survive? As fear and despair plunge Xalótcan into chaos, SG-1 find themselves with ringside seats at the end of the world...

Special section: Excerpts from Dr Daniel Jackson's mission journal!

A stitch in time...

When a Stargate malfunction throws Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Dr. Daniel Jackson, Colonel Sam Carter and Teal'c back in time, they only have minutes to live.

But their rescue, by an unlikely duo--General Jack O'Neill and Vala Mal Doran--is only the beginning of their problems. Ordered to rescue an Asgard also marooned in 1947, SG-1 find themselves at the mercy of history.

While Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c become embroiled in the Roswell aliens conspiracy, Cam and Vala are stranded in another timeline, desperately searching for a way home. As the effects of their interference ripple through time, the consequences for the future are catastrophic.

Trapped in the past, SG-1 can only watch as their world is overrun by a terrible invader...

For almost a hundred years, Hadrian Marlowe has served the Empire in its war against the Cielcin, a vicious alien race bent on humanity's destruction. Rumors of a new king amongst the Cielcin have reached the Imperial throne. This one is not like the others. It does not raid borderworld territories, preferring precise, strategic attacks on the humans' Empire.

To make matters worse, a cult of personality has formed around Hadrian, spurred on by legends of his having defied death itself. Men call him Halfmortal. Hadrian's rise to prominence proves dangerous to himself and his team, as pressures within the Imperial government distrust or resent his new influence.

Caught in the middle, Hadrian must contend with enemies before him--and behind.

And above it all, there is the mystery of the Quiet. Hadrian did defy death. He did return. But the keys to the only place in the universe where Hadrian might find the answers he seeks lie in the hands of the Emperor himself....

Snow White and Rose Red live on the edge of the forest that conceals the elusive border of Faerie. They know enough about Faerie lands and mortal magic to be concerned when they find two human sorcerers setting spells near the border. And when the kindly, intelligent black bear wanders into their cottage some months later, they realize the connection between his plight and the sorcery they saw in the forest.

In a novel-length tale of dark fantasy based on the fairy tale "Snow White," Arpazia and her unwanted daughter, Coira, conceived in violence during the sacking of her Arpazia's father's castle, are lured into the woods by the elder gods, who are seeking to restore their worship in a magical land in which a new religion threatens to transform life for everyone.

In the year 2038, the earth has been ravaged by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Retroviruses run rampant through humanity. Economic disaster has destabilised the world, the US has undergone a socialist revolution, and the balance of power has changed.

Then the aliens arrive.

With no clear understanding of the visitors' intent, factions form, including the anti-alien group White Queen, working to turn humans against these extra-terrestrial tourists. Caught in the middle is Johnny Guglio, an American exile whose only fault was living near the landing site, and Braemar Wilson, a cutthroat reporter who will do whatever she needs to get ahead of the story. And for better or for worse, it seems being caught in the middle is the best place for them to uncover the truth.

Widely praised by reviewers and a growing body of fans, R. Scott Bakker has already established his reputation as one of the few unique new talents in the fantasy genre. Now he returns with the long-awaited The White Luck Warrior--the second book in the Aspect-Emperor series.

As Anasurimbor Kellhus and his Great Ordeal march ever farther into the wastes of the Ancient North, Esmenet finds herself at war with not only the Gods, but her own family as well. Achamian, meanwhile, leads his own ragtag expedition to the legendary ruins of Sauglish, and to a truth he can scarcely survive, let alone comprehend. Into this tumult walks the White- Luck Warrior, assassin and messiah both.

The White Luck Warrior is a story filled with heartstopping action, devious treachery, grand passion, and meticulous detail. It is both a classic quest tale and a high fantasy war story.

His veins ran with blood of Vazkor the warrior king and Uastis, the silver masked witch woman - the woman he had sworn to destroy....

The first in a rousing, funny, genre-busting trilogy from bestseller Jaclyn Moriarty!

This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life, under mysterious circumstances, and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world).

Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. The talk in the town of Bonfire (in the Kingdom of Cello) is that Elliot's dad may have killed his brother and run away with the Physics teacher. But Elliot refuses to believe it. And he is determined to find both his dad and the truth.

As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds -- through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap: dangerous weather phenomena called "color storms;" a strange fascination with Isaac Newton; the myth of the "Butterfly Child," whose appearance could end the droughts of Cello; and some unexpected kisses...

This collection brings together the early Company stories in one volume for the first time with three previously unpublished works, including 'The Queen in Yellow', written exclusively for this compilation. In these tales sci-fi fans follow the secret activities of the Company's field agents -- once human, now centuries-old time-travelling immortal cyborgs -- as they attempt to retrieve history's lost treasures. Botanist Mendoza's search for the rare hallucinogenic Black Elysium grape in 1844 Spanish-held Santa Barbara, facilitator Joseph's dreamlike solicitation of the ailing Robert Louis Stevenson in 1879, and marine salvage specialist Kalugin's recovering of an invaluable Eugene Delacroix painting from a sunken yacht off the coast of Los Angeles in 1894 are included.

NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who's expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he's made a true friend--and Lada wonders if she's finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against--and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes the first book in a dark, sweeping new series in which heads will roll, bodies will be impaled... and hearts will be broken.

A SISTER FILLED WITH RAGE
Lada Dracul has no allies. No crown. All she has is what she's always had: herself. After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada is out to punish anyone who dares cross her. She storms the countryside with her men, but brute force isn't getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed, the defiant Ottoman sultan, brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There's no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her.

HER BROTHER CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Lada needs the support of her diplomatic younger brother, Radu. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople--and it's no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines. And for the first time in his life, when Lada asks him for help, he refuses... leading his sister to make the darkest of choices.

THE ULTIMATE POWER PLAY
Torn between loyalties to faith, to the Ottomans, and to Mehmed, Radu knows he owes Lada nothing. If she dies, he could never forgive himself--but if he fails in Constantinople, would Mehmed ever forgive him?

As nations fall around them, the Dracul siblings must decide: what will they sacrifice to fulfill their destinies? Empires will topple, thrones will be won... and souls will be lost.

Haunted by the sacrifices he made in Constantinople, Radu is called back to the new capital. Mehmed is building an empire, becoming the sultan his people need. But Mehmed has a secret: as emperor, he is more powerful than ever... and desperately lonely. Does this mean Radu can finally have more with Mehmed... and would he even want it?

Lada's rule of absolute justice has created a Wallachia free of crime. But Lada won't rest until everyone knows that her country's borders are inviolable. Determined to send a message of defiance, she has the bodies of Mehmed's peace envoy delivered to him, leaving Radu and Mehmed with no choice. If Lada is allowed to continue, only death will prosper. They must go to war against the girl prince.

But Mehmed knows that he loves her. He understands her. She must lose to him so he can keep her safe. Radu alone fears that they are underestimating his sister's indomitable will. Only by destroying everything that came before--including her relationships--can Lada truly build the country she wants.

Claim the throne. Demand the crown. Rule the world.

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Amongst our modern world lies another, an archaic and hidden world of tradition, sorcery and magic. As dark demons awaken from our past, the last remaining wizards are being hunted and murdered by a changeling of terrifying strength. Attacked and drained of most of his powers, a dying sorcerer must race against time to save himself, and the fate of all, from an enemy intent on cleansing the planet of humanity... Darkness spreads as friendships, betrayals and horrifying truths await...

Never had there been as close a bonding as the one that existed betweenthe daring and adventurous young Lord Jaxom and his extraordinary whitedragon, Ruth. Pure white and incredibly agile, Ruth was a dragon of manytalents, though almost everyone on Pern thought he was a runt that wouldnever amount to anything.

But Jaxom knew better, knew he could teach his dragon to fly and todestroy the deadly silver Threads that fell from the sky. Disobeying allrules, Jaxom and Ruth trained in secret. Their illicit flights seemedbut a minor disobedience -- until they found themselves in the path ofdanger and in a position to prevent the biggest disaster of all!

Someone is targeting the city's magic practitioners, the members of the supernatural underclass who don't possess enough power to become full-fledged wizards. Many have vanished. Others appear to be victims of suicide. But the murderer has left a calling card at one of the crime scenes--a message for Harry Dresden, referencing the book of Exodus and the killing of witches.

Harry sets out to find the killer before he can strike again, but his investigation turns up evidence pointing to the one suspect he cannot possibly believe guilty: his half brother, Thomas. Determined to bring the real murderer to justice and clear his brother's name, Harry attracts the attention of the White Court of vampires, becoming embroiled in a power struggle that renders him outnumbered, outclassed, and dangerously susceptible to temptation.

Harry knows that if he screws this one up, a lot of people will die--and one of them will be his brother.

Life is good for Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. They're living together in a fabulous loft, their warlock son, Max, has started learning to walk, and the streets of New York are peaceful and quiet--as peaceful and quiet as they ever are, anyway.

Until the night that two old acquaintances break into Magnus's apartment and steal the powerful Book of the White. Now Magnus and Alec will have to drop everything to get it back. They need to follow the thieves to Shanghai, they need to call some backup to accompany them, and they need a babysitter. Also, someone has stabbed Magnus with a strange magical weapon that is changing the very nature of his powers.

Fortunately, their backup consists of Clary, Jace, Isabelle, and newly minted Shadowhunter Simon. In Shanghai, they learn that a much darker threat awaits them. Magnus's magic is growing unstable, and if they can't stop the demons flooding into the city, they might have to follow them all the way back to the source--to the very realm of the dead.

"We must be bound to one another then. Bound by hell-forged chains and fate-haunted circumstance. Well, then - let it be thus so - and men will have cause to tremble and flee when they hear the names of Elric of Melnibone and Stormbringer, his sword. We are two of a kind - produced by an age which has deserted us. Let us give this age cause to hate us."

Imrryr, the dreaming city; Yyrkoon, the hated usurper; Cymoril, the beloved... all had fallen to the fury and unearthly power of the albino prince and his terrible sword. An Elric faced at last the fate that was to be his in this haunted era - that he must go forth, sword and man as one, and havoc and horror would be forever at his forefront until he found his Purpose that was yet obscured to him.

The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery.

Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.

After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared – and Idris and his kind became obsolete.

Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects – but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.

After eighty years of fragile peace, the Architects are back, wreaking havoc as they consume entire planets. In the past, Originator artefacts - vestiges of a long-vanished civilization - could save a world from annihilation. Yet the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe.

Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies are in turmoil. While some believe a unified front is the only way to stop the Architects, others insist humanity should fight alone. And there are those who would seek to benefit from the fractured politics of war - even as the Architects loom ever closer.

Idris, who has spent decades running from the horrors of his past, finds himself thrust back onto the battlefront. As an Intermediary, he could be one of the few to turn the tide of war. With a handful of allies, he searches for a weapon that could push back the Architects and save the galaxy. But to do so, he must return to the nightmarish unspace, where his mind was broken and remade.

What Idris discovers there will change everything.

He's found a way to end their war, but will humanity survive to see it?

Idris Telemmier has uncovered a secret that changes everything -- the Architects' greatest weakness. A shadowy Cartel scrambles to turn his discovery into a weapon against these alien destroyers of worlds. But between them and victory stands self-interest. The galaxy's great powers would rather pursue their own agendas than stand together against this shared terror.

Human and inhuman interests wrestle to control Idris' discovery, as the galaxy erupts into a mutually destructive and self-defeating war. The other great obstacle to striking against their alien threat is Idris himself. He knows that the Architects, despite their power, are merely tools of a higher intelligence.

Deep within unspace, where time moves differently, and reality isn't quite what it seems, their masters are the true threat. Masters who are just becoming aware of humanity's daring -- and taking steps to exterminate this annoyance forever.

Book Two of the Great Alta Saga.

Jenna was the White Queen.

Skada was the Dark Queen. She is bound to Jennathe other half of Jennas self. Drawn out of a mirror by a rite of magic, a "dark sister" is confined to the dark. She vanishes in daylight. It is in this other world the dark sisters wait for moonlight or lamplight to call them forth again.

This is their story: of myths turned real, ordinary people turned heroes, a land turned inside out by the coming of White Jenna.

Contains all the novels and the Story 'Young Zaphod Plays It Safe'

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and British sitcoms.

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability--and desperately in search of a place to eat.

Among Arthur's motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a longtime friend and expert contributor to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who's gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, the moody android who suffers nothing and no one very gladly. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food (literally) speaks for itself.

Will they make it? The answer: hard to say. But bear in mind that the Hitchhiker's Guide deleted the term "Future Perfect" from its pages, since it was discovered not to be!

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads--so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.

They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler, who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vicepresident of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-head honcho of the Universe; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.

How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert "universal" Armageddon and save life as we know it--and don't know it!

Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth's dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on. . . .

God only knows what it all means. And fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it's light-years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. But what else is new?

Douglas Adams is back with the amazing, logic-defying, but-why-stop-now fifth novel in the Hitchhiker Trilogy. Here is the epic story of Random, who sets out on a transgalactic quest to find the planet of her ancestors.

An Englishman's continuing search through space and time for a decent cup of tea...

Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has not been entirely without incident.

Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up... again.

And Another Thing... is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

Kick-ass witch and bounty hunter Rachel Morgan lost her lover, and now she wont rest until his murder is solved and avenged. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and Rachels past comes back to haunt her - literally.

A historical fantasy epic about a tyrant's second chance at life and the powerful cultivation teacher he can't get out of his mind.

Cruel tyrant Taxian-jun killed his way to the throne and now reigns as the first ever emperor of the mortal realm. Yet somehow, he is unsatisfied. Left cold and bereft, abandoned by all he held dear, he takes his own life... only to be reborn anew.

Awakening in the body of his younger self--Mo Ran, a disciple of the cultivation sect Sisheng Peak--he discovers the chance to relive his life. This time, he vows to attain the gratification that once eluded him: all who defied him will fall, and never again will they treat him like a dog. His greatest fury is reserved for Chu Wanning, the coldly beautiful and aloofly catlike cultivation teacher who betrayed and thwarted Mo Ran time and again in their last life.

Yet as Mo Ran shamelessly pursues his own goals in this life he thought lost, he begins to wonder if there might be more to his teacher--and his own feelings--than he ever realized.

HIDDEN TRUTHS AND BURIED HEARTS

The longer Mo Ran spends in his life reborn, the less he understands the man he once was, to say nothing of the teacher he so hated. As emperor of the mortal realm, Mo Ran loathed Chu Wanning with all his being, but the Chu Wanning of this life has sacrificed himself for his student's sake time and again. Nevertheless, with the day of Chu Wanning's greatest betrayal on the horizon, Mo Ran clings to his hatred and his hopes: he must not let the past repeat itself. Yet strange new tragedies continue to unfold, and Mo Ran finds himself working alongside Chu Wanning to hunt down the mysterious culprit--a cruel mastermind who may know more about Mo Ran than even he remembers.

THE LONELY ROAD TO HELL

As Mo Ran accompanies Chu Wanning in pursuit of the mastermind behind the mysterious incidents plaguing his life reborn, Mo Ran finds his hatred for his teacher beginning to waver. Yet all too soon, disaster strikes again: the opening of the Heavenly Rift, a tear in the fabric of the world that would set hell's most terrible demons loose upon humanity.

Despite all he has seen since rebirth, Mo Ran is unprepared to face the greatest tragedy of his past life--the calamity that turned him against his teacher forever and set him on the lonely path to a bloodstained throne. If Mo Ran is to avoid this bitter fate, he must make a new choice and break with the past. But while the tragedy of this life may unfold differently, the sacrifices will be no less great.

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART BURN HOTTER

Chu Wanning has slumbered for five years since Mo Ran rescued his soul from the underworld. He wakes to find the world changed--and the greatest change of all is to his disciple Mo Ran. Now grown up, Mo Ran is nothing like the callow youth he remembers, and Chu Wanning finds himself drawn to his disciple with a force he never anticipated.

Meanwhile, Mo Ran has at last set aside the misunderstandings of two lifetimes. When his hatred for his teacher falls away, he finds the feelings beneath are not respect between master and disciple, but fiery passion. Yet even as the two wrestle with their own hearts, Mo Ran begins to realize that this world is diverging from the past life he remembers in strange new ways.

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

As the day of Nangong Si and Song Qiutong's wedding draws near, a scandalous rumor circulates among the guests at Rufeng Sect. The gossip implicates not only the bride and groom, but also Nangong Si's childhood companion and Song Qiutong's savior: the young hero, Ye Wangxi.

When the wedding festivities are interrupted by a mysterious man claiming to know even more explosive secrets, Mo Ran and Chu Wanning are thrown together in the ensuing chaos. But the more time he spends at Chu Wanning's side, the more torturous it is for Mo Ran to suppress his feelings of fierce attraction and deep tenderness. Could love finally tame the beast that was the cruel tyrant Taxian-jun?

A tale of the Incrementalists -- a secret society of two hundred people, with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about just how to accomplish this is older than most of their individual memories. They first appeared in the 2013 novel The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White; subsequently, Tor.com published an Incrementalists story by Brust, "Fireworks in the Rain." "Strongest Conjuration" takes place directly after the events of the novel.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Incrementalists - a secret society of 200 people with an unbroken lineage reaching back 40,000 years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories. Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else's, has loved Celeste - and argued with her - for most of the last 400 years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules - not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

The Incrementalists are a secret society of two hundred people; an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations and time.

They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, a little bit at a time.

Now Phil, the Incrementalist whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else's, has been shot dead. They'll bring him back -- but first they need to know what happened. Their investigation will lead down unexpected paths in contemporary Arizona, and bring them up against corruption in high and low places alike.

But the key may lay in one of Phil's previous lives, in Kansas in 1859, and the fate of a man named John Brown.

A thrilling futuristic thriller of ancient superheroes, sequel to Paige's rich magical debut, The Interminables

Edmund Templeton, a time-manipulating sorcerer, and Istvan Czernin, the deathless spirit of WWI, are the most powerful agents of the magical cabal now ruling the US East Coast. Their struggle to establish a new order in the wake of magical catastrophe is under siege: cults flourish and armies clash on their borders. Perhaps worst of all the meteoric rise of a technological fortress-state threatens their efforts to keep the peace.

As if that weren't enough, a desperate call has come in from the west. A superstorm capable of tearing rock from mountains is on its way, and it acting unlike any storm ever seen before. Who better to investigate than two old friends with the sudden need to prove themselves?

Gavin Guile, once the most powerful man the world had ever seen, has been laid low. He's lost his magic, and now he is on a suicide mission. Failure will condemn the woman he loves. Success will condemn his entire empire.

As the White King springs his great traps and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile must gather his forces, rally his allies, and scramble to return for one impossible final stand.

"We believe that death should always be part of life."

The Doctor's last three visits to the scattered human colonies of the third millennium have not been entirely successful. And now that Ace has rejoined him and Bernice, life on board the TARDISis getting pretty stressful. The Doctor yearns for a simpler time and place: Earth, the tropics, the early twentieth century.

The TARDIS lands in Haiti in the early years of theFirst World War. And the Doctor, Bernice and Ace land in a murderous plot involving vodoun, violent death, zombies and German spies. And perhaps something else -- something far, far worse.

Lore has been living by her wits since she was a child, running poisons for the cartel that took her in, avoiding the attention of the law, and keeping her illicit affinity for death magic a secret.

When a job goes wrong and Lore is captured by the Sainted King's warrior-monks, she expects death. But King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what's happening - or face the pyre.

Thrust into a lavish court where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted, Lore must navigate an intricate web of politics, religion, and forbidden romance and solve the King's mystery. A mystery more dangerous and twisted than Lore can even imagine.

The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore - a necromancer and former smuggler - to his right-hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the royal court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kirythean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore's old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian has changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he's become reckless, domineering, and cold.

And something has been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that's telling her there's more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.

With Bastian's coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince, and her country before they all come crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed.

The world's greatest fantasy classic is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot, of Merlyn and Guinevere, of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged. The series is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, from Arthur's birth to the end of his reign, and is based largely on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'arthur. After White's death, a conclusion to The Once and Future King was found among his papers; it was published in 1977 as The Book of Merlyn.

Growing up in a colorful world peopled by knights in armor and fair damsels, foul monsters and evil witches, young Arthur slowly learns the code of being a gentleman. Under the wise guidance of Merlin, the all-powerful magician for whom life progresses backwards, the king-to-be is trained in the gusty pursuits of falconry, jousting, hunting and sword play. He is even transformed by his remarkable old tutor into various animals, so that he may experience life from all points of view. In every conceivable and exciting way he is readied for the day when he, and he alone of all Englishmen, is destined to draw forth the marvelous sword from the magic stone and become the rightful King of England.

The Witch in the Wood, is a the second book in T. H. White's epic work, The Once and Future King. It continues the story of the newly-crowned King Arthur, his tutelage by the wise Merlyn, his war against King Lot, and also introduces the Orkney clan, a group of characters who would cause the eventual downfall of the king. First published in 1939, it was re-released under the new title after some editing.

Also published as The Queen of Air and Darkness.

"The Ill-Made Knight" is the third book in the epic novel The Once and Future King, by T. H. White. It was first published in 1940, but is usually found today only in collected editions of all four books of the novel. Much of The Ill-Made Knight takes place in the fabled Camelot, full of blue castle tops, red banners and white castle bricks. Against this happy backdrop, White constructs a tragedy. The Ill-Made Knight is based around the adventures, perils and mistakes of Sir Lancelot. Lancelot, despite being the bravest of the knights, is ugly, and ape-like, so that he calls himself the Chevalier mal fet - "The Ill-Made Knight". As a child, Lancelot adored King Arthur and spent his entire childhood training to be a knight of the round table. When he arrives and becomes one of Arthur's knights, he also becomes the king's close friend. This causes some tension, as he dislikes Arthur's new wife Guinevere. In order to please her husband, Guinevere tries to befriend Lancelot and the two eventually fall in love. T.H. White's version of the tale elaborates greatly on the passionate love of Lancelot and Guinevere. Suspense is provided by the tension between Lancelot's friendship for King Arthur and his love for and affair with the queen. This affair leads inevitably to the breaking of the Round Table and sets up the tragedy that is to follow in the concluding book of the tetralogy, The Candle in the Wind.

The aging King Arthur faces the greatest challenge of his reign, when his own son threatens to overthrow him and destroy everything he has worked for.

This magical account of King Arthur's last night on earth spent weeks on the New York Times best-seller list following its publication in 1977. Even in addressing the profound issues of war and peace, The Book of Merlyn retains the life and sparkle for which White is known. The tale brings Arthur full circle, an ending, White wrote, that "will turn my completed epic into a perfect fruit, 'rounded off and bright and done.'"

Vagandrak is broken, and a new threat has arisen that threatens to defeat even the mighty Iron Wolves.

The twisted, deviant Elf Rats have gathered in the toxic realm beyond the White Lion Mountains... swiftly they invade the troubled land of Vagandrak, killing for profit and pleasure.

The now-disgraced Iron Wolves are the realm's only hope, but there's a problem: they've been sentenced to death by the insane King Yoon for the dark sorcery in their blood.

In the mountains of Zalazar lie the White Towers, pillars of legend said to contain the Heart of the Elves. The Iron Wolves must journey north to steal the Heart, and purify the evil in the land, but the land belongs to the Elves - and they won't give it up without a fight!

L.E. Modesitt's bestselling fantasy novels set in the world of Recluce are among the most popular in contemporary fantasy. Rich in detail, Modesitt's Recluce books are a feast of wonderous marvels. Booklist notes, "Modesitt's elaborate and intelligent working out of a system of magic and a system of technology parallel to it is becoming more the lifeblood of the Recluce books with every new volume. . . his saga continues to gain in popularity."

The White Order is the story of Cerryl, a boy orphaned when the powerful white mages killed his father to protect their control of the world's magic. Cerryl, raised by his aunt and uncle, is a curious boy, attracted to mirrors and books, though he is unable to read. When he is old enough, Cerryl is apprenticed to the local miller. The miller's daughter teaches Cerryl to read his father's books, and it seems that the talent for magic has been passed from father to son. When Cerryl witnesses a white mage destroy a renegade magician, the miller realizes the boy will not be safe there, so Cerryl must be sent to the city of Fairhaven to find his destiny.

Thus Modesitt takes one of the most enduring and mythic themes in fantasy and makes it his own. The White Order is a powerful new addition to the Recluce saga, guaranteed to add many new readers to Modesitt's devoted following.

The White Order is the eighth book in the saga of Recluce.

Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction.

Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots.

On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.

The greatest dangers hide the brightest treasures in this bold, planet-hopping science fiction adventure series.

The crew of the legendary Capricious are rich enough to retire in comfort for the rest of their days, but none of it matters if the galaxy is still in danger.

Nilah and Boots, the ship's newest crew-members hear the word of a mysterious cult that may have links back to an ancient and all-powerful magic. To find it, hot-headed Nilah will have to go undercover and find the source of their power without revealing her true identity. Meanwhile, Boots is forced to confront the one person she'd hoped never to see again: her old, turn-coat treasure-hunting partner.

The crew of the Capricious seems to leave a trail of devastation wherever they go. But with powerful enemies in pursuit and family and friends under attack planetside, there's no time to worry about all that. Ensnared by the legend of Origin, humanity's birthplace, and a long-dead form of magic, the Capricious takes off on a journey to find the first colony ship... and magic that could bring down gods.

In this semi-autobiographical novel, the hero-narrator is Michael Moorcock, but born in a different year with different parentage. The narrative follows, roughly, the outline of the author’s known life. ‘Moorcock’ is a Londoner, an early school leaver, and smart as paint. A lover of low-lit, he edits a Tarzan fanzine before drifting into SF proper. Scenes from real life alternate with interludes in Alsacia (also called the Sanctuary), a secret London enclave where historical figures mingle with literary ones.

Thomas Covenant realized that despite their awful failure on the Isle of The One Tree, there was no alternative but to return to the Land and fight. Mhoram had warned him: "...In the end, you must return to the Land."

After a long and arduous journey overland, the company reaches Revelstone. Following a fiery showdown with Gibbon Raver, Covenant discovers that he can come to terms with--and control--his awesome power. As he readies himself for the final showdown with Lord Foul, the Despiser, Thomas Covenant knows he has the answer at last.

Dev is a smuggler with the perfect cover.  He's in high demand as a guide for the caravans that carry legitimate goods from the city of Ninavel into the country of Alathia. The route through the Whitefire Mountains is treacherous, and Dev is one of the few climbers who knows how to cross them safely. With his skill and connections, it's easy enough to slip contraband charms from Ninavel - where any magic is fair game, no matter how dark - into Alathia, where most magic is outlawed.

But smuggling a few charms is one thing; smuggling a person through the warded Alathian border is near suicidal.  Having made a promise to a dying friend, Dev is forced to take on a singularly dangerous cargo: Kiran. A young apprentice on the run from one of the most powerful mages in Ninavel, Kiran is desperate enough to pay a fortune to sneak into a country where discovery means certain execution - and he'll do whatever it takes to prevent Dev from finding out the terrible truth behind his getaway.

Yet Kiran isn't the only one harboring a deadly secret. Caught up in a web of subterfuge and dark magic, Dev and Kiran must find a way to trust each other - or face not only their own destruction, but that of the entire city of Ninavel.

It is a time of vast changes in the island nation of Sileria. Oppressed for centuries by one conqueror after another, this land of fierce pride and ancient rivalries awaited the prophesied Firebringer, who would free them.

Josarian, a mountain peasant, survived his leap into the volcano to become the Firebringer. He united the impoverished shallaheen, the magical fire-wielding Guardians, and the vastly powerful mages known as Waterlords in an unprecedented alliance that defeated the foreign Valdani who had ruled Sileria for too long.

But now Josarian is dead, betrayed by the alliance and slain by the ice-dragon of Kiloran, the most powerful Waterlord in Sileria. Tansen, Josarian's second-in-command, has taken up the banner of independence, and leads the shallaheen and the Guardians against the Waterlords so that Sileria can be free of a tyranny far worse than Valdani rule.

As the volcano goddess Dar rumbles her displeasure in earthquakes and lava flows, the forces of fate, prophecy, and magic combine to create new heroes -- from the desolate mountains, from the water-starved cities, from the sea, and even from beneath the earth. Ancient forces join with unlikely allies to fulfill the prophecies that inspire revolt and excite religious fervor.

But in Sileria, betrayal has long been a way of life, and it wears many faces as the ambitions of the high and the low ensnare the fates of people across the land, wreaking havoc among the faithful.

THE ALIENS PLAYED BY THE RULES. THEIR RULES.

When the Lokaron suddenly appeared in the skies of Earth, America was enjoying victory in the off-and-on war that had occupied most of the 20th century. That's why they chose America to occupy and use as their puppet in dominating the planet. We were already set up to do it; now we would do it for them.

Not that they were evil; they just insisted that we trade with them. By their rules, rules backed up by irresistible weapons. In terms of those rules, they would even play fair--but in the long run, if they didn't own something, it would be because they didn't want it.

At first we tried to fight, but just as the Japanese, the Chinese, the Hindus and all the rest had learned, when the ones with the guns say ''Let's trade!'' they really mean 'Trade or bleed.'' And so you trade--even if you won't have a country--or a planet--left when the last round is played out.

But worms turn, and just as had the Europeans a century ago, the Lokaron were going to learn a lesson from their victims, a lesson that they weren't going to like one bit....

A near-future Earth has shaken off the devastating colonization by alien Lokaran invaders and totalitarian rule by the alien's puppets, the Earth First party. But now Earth is flung into galactic intrigue and war. The Lokaron empire teeters on the edge of a fratricidal meltdown and a cabal of ancient enemies hope to use Earth as a proxy to destroy the empire and rule over a new Galactic dark age.

Now Captain Andrew Roark, the son of heroes of the rebellion and an officer trained in Lokaran space warfare tactics, joins with a highly capable Lokar who opposes the empire but wishes to see it transformed rather than destroyed. Together they must uncover a conspiracy to control Earth, and then obtain the secret key to defeating it. War for galactic control looms, and freedom for Earth--so recently escaped from under the boot-heel of one oppressor--is once again in the balance.

Long ago, the Tripods--huge, three-legged machines--descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods' power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives. But for a brief time in each person's life--in childhood--he is not a slave. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end--unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet.

A stroke of the pen and history is changed. In 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, determined to avoid war, signed the Munich Accord, ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. But the following spring, Hitler snatched the rest of that country, and England, after a fatal act of appeasement, was fighting a war for which it was not prepared. Now, in this thrilling alternate history, another scenario is played out: What if Chamberlain had not signed the accord?

In this action-packed chronicle of the war that might have been, Harry Turtledove uses dozens of points of view to tell the story: from American marines serving in Japanese-occupied China and ragtag volunteers fighting in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in Spain to an American woman desperately trying to escape Nazi-occupied territory--and witnessing the war from within the belly of the beast. A tale of powerful leaders and ordinary people, at once brilliantly imaginative and hugely entertaining, Hitler's War captures the beginning of a very different World War II--with a very different fate for our world today.

The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.

As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose - to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood - and her world - whole.

The First Daughter is for the Throne
The Second Daughter is for the Wolf...

Red and the Wolf have finally contained the threat of the Old Kings but at a steep cost. Red's beloved sister Neve, the First Daughter is lost in the Shadowlands, an inverted kingdom where the vicious gods of legend have been trapped for centuries and the Old Kings have slowly been gaining control. But Neve has an ally--though it's one she'd rather never have to speak to again--the rogue king Solmir.

Solmir wants to bring an end to the Shadowlands and he believes helping Neve may be the key to its destruction. But to do that, they will both have to journey across a dangerous landscape in order to find a mysterious Heart Tree, and finally to claim the gods' dark, twisted powers for themselves.

Student wizard Wyrdrunne and street-wise Kira share a telepathic dream that calls them to England to save Camelot's last survivor. United with a shady French witch, a 300-pound fairy and a feisty English punk, this unlikely team must prevail over the awesome, ancient power stalking London.

Table of Contents:

• Before the Curtain... - essay by Anthony Boucher
• Re-Birth - (1955) - novel by John Wyndham
• The Shape of Things That Came - (1951) - shortstory by Richard Deming
• Pillar of Fire - (1948) - novelette by Ray Bradbury
• Waldo - (1942) - novella by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Father-Thing - (1954) - shortstory by Philip K. Dick
• The Children's Hour - (1944) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• Gomez - (1954) - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
• The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff - (1955) - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
• Sandra - (1957) - shortstory by George P. Elliott
• Beyond Space and Time - (1938) - novelette by Joel Townsley Rogers
• The Martian Crown Jewels - (1958) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• The Weapon Shops of Isher - (1951) - novel by A. E. van Vogt

Table of Contents:

• Brain Wave - (1954) - novel by Poul Anderson
• Bullard Reflects - (1941) - shortstory by Malcolm Jameson
• The Lost Years (Excerpt) - (1951) - shortfiction by Oscar Lewis
• Dead Center - (1954) - novelette by Judith Merril
• Lost Art - (1943) - novelette by George O. Smith
• The Other Side of the Sky - (1957) - shortfiction by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Man Who Sold the Moon - (1950) - novella by Robert A. Heinlein
• Magic City - (1941) - novelette by Nelson S. Bond
• The Morning of the Day They Did It - (1950) - shortstory by E. B. White
• Piggy Bank - (1942) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• Letters from Laura - (1954) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• The Stars My Destination - (1956) - novel by Alfred Bester

It has been ten years since the magical Cataclysm, which destroyed the twin strongholds of the two world's most powerful Mages, killing Urtho, creator of the gryphons, and sending his forces into exile. Now Urthro's peoples--human and non-human alike live in a terraced city carved into the face of a gleaming white cliff on the edge of the Western Ocean. Secure at least, ...until the fleet of the mysterious Black Kings appears in their harbor, bringing envoys who inform the residents of White Gryphon that their newfound home lies on the northern perimeter of lands claimed by this powerful kingdom. Desperate not to lose their hard won home, Skandranon, along with his longtime friend Amberdrake--agree to accompany the envoys back to the Court of the Black Kings, hoping to negotiate an alliance. ...When a high ranking noble who opposes this alliance is found murdered--Skandranon and Amberdrake realize that they are up against unknown enemies who will stop at nothing, even the use of diabolical Blood Magic, to destroy White Gryphon.

Commissioned by a vampire ancient to recover the coffin containing the body of the demonic Gilzen, hated even by his own kind, D travels to a frightening mountain landscape perennially shrouded in snow. Within a castle piercing the mountainside, D discovers a group of knights tasked to protect Gilzen at any cost. It's time for D to use all the forces and powers at his command to prevent Gilzen's resurrection!