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Ryan Adler and his twin sister, Jane, spent their happiest childhood days at their parents' mountain Colorado cabin--until divorce tore their family apart. Now, with the house about to be sold, the Adler twins gather with their closest friends for one last snowboarding-filled holiday. While commitment-phobic Ryan gazes longingly at Lauren, wondering if his playboy days are over, Jane's hopes of reconciling with her old boyfriend evaporate when he brings along his new fiancée. As drama builds among the friends, something lurks in the forest, watching the cabin, growing ever bolder as the snow falls... and hunger rises.

After a blizzard leaves the group stranded, the true test of their love and loyalty begins as the hideous creatures outside close in, one bloody attack at a time. Now Ryan, Jane, and their friends must fight--tooth and nail, bullet and blade--for their lives. Or else surrender to unspeakable deaths in the darkened woods.

A quest, a war, a ring that would be grounds for calling any wedding off, a king without a kingdom, and a little, furry "hero" named Frito, ready - or maybe just forced by the wizard of Goodgulf - to undertake the one mission which can save Lower Middle Earth from enslavement by the evil Sorhed... Luscious Elfmaidens, a roller-skating dragon, ugly plants that can soul-kiss the unwary to death - these are just some of the ingredients in the wildest, wackiest, most irreverent excursion into fantasy realms that anyone has ever dared to undertake.

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Alastair Reynolds
• The Turing Test - (2002) - shortstory
• The Warrior Half-and-Half - (2001) - shortfiction (1995)
• Monsters - (2003) - shortstory
• The Gates of Troy - (2000) - shortfiction
• The Perimeter - (2005) - novelette
• Valour - (1999) - shortstory
• Snapshots of Apirania - (2000) - shortfiction
• Piccadilly Circus - (2005) - shortstory
• Jazamine in the Green Wood - (1994) - shortstory
• Dark Eden - (2006) - novelette
• We Could be Sisters - (2004) - shortstory
• La Macchina - (1991) - shortstory
• Karel's Prayer - (2006) - shortfiction
• The Marriage of Sky and Sea - shortfiction (2000)

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1971. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year #1 (1972), edited by Terry Carr.

A harsh Apartheid-ridden South Africa is the background for "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana." Opening with a strange accident involving an imported Cadillac, a disappearing elephant and a mysterious black man with the name Mordecai Thubana, the story is a realistic examination of the biases people live with and what happens when they begin to question their own prejudices. Gerrit Myburgh, the white South African who was involved in the accident, doesn't think of himself as a racist, but his rescue by a "kaffir bus" makes him question some of the foundations upon which the Apartheid system was run.

Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries.

The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

Fiametta Beneforte dreamed of making beautiful and enchanted objets d'art, but alas her magician-goldsmith father was more likely to have her scrub the kiln than study magic. After all, it was a waste to train a mere daughter beyond the needs of the moment.

Thur Ochs dreamed of escaping the icy mines of Bruinwald. But the letter from his brother Uri arranging his apprenticeship to Master Beneforte was not the only force that drew him over the mountains to the Duchy of Montefoglia...

A betrayal at a banquet plunges Thur and Fiametta into a struggle against men who would use vile magic for vile ends. Needs of this desperate moment will require all their wits, all their talents, and all their courage, if they are to rescue both Montefoglia and the souls of those they most love.

A Chilling new anthology of all-original tales of horror

Includes New Stories by:

• Ray Bradbury
• Graham Joyce
• Peter Crowther
• Kim Newman
• Sara Douglass
• Thomas Tessier
• M. John Harrison
• Gahan Wilson

The anthology market these days is awash with small, themed works focused on very specific markets, like vampire erotica and tales of werewolves, or it features best of the year reprints. It has been years since anyone has dared to bring out a broad-reaching anthology that seeks to define the current state of the genre with all original tales from both masters and hot new writers.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2003) - essay by Ramsey Campbell and Jack Dann and Dennis Etchison
• The Hanged Man of Oz - (2003) - short story by Steve Nagy
• The Bone Ship - (2003) - short story by Terry Dowling
• Li'l Miss Ultrasound - (2003) - novelette by Robert Devereaux
• The Intervention - (2003) - short story by Kim Newman
• Blake's Angel - (2003) - short story by Janeen Webb
• The Obedient Child - (2003) - short story by George Clayton Johnson
• Sounds Like - (2003) - short story by Mike O'Driscoll
• The Wind Sall Blow for Ever Mair - (2003) - short story by Stephen Dedman
• "The Mezzotint" - (2003) - short story by Lisa Tuttle
• The Lords of Zero - (2003) - short story by Tony Richards
• Smoke City - (2003) - short story by Russell Blackford
• Moments of Change - (2003) - short story by Thomas Tessier
• The Big Green Grin - (2003) - short story by Gahan Wilson
• The Big Green Grin - interior artwork by Gahan Wilson
• Both And - (2003) - short story by Gary Fry
• Love Is a Stone - (2003) - short story by Simon Brown
• Memento Mori - (2003) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• The Mistress of Marwood Hagg - (2003) - short story by Sara Douglass
• The Right Men - (2003) - short story by Michael Marshall Smith
• The Raptures of the Deep - (2003) - short story by Rosaleen Love
• Out Late in the Park - (2003) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Bedfordshire - (2003) - novelette by Peter Crowther
• Mr Sly Stops for a Cup of Joe - short fiction by Scott Emerson Bull
• Finishing School - (2003) - short story by Cherry Wilder
• Jennifer's Turn - (2003) - short story by Fruma Klass
• Mother's Milk - (2003) - short story by Adam Nevill
• No Man's Land - (2003) - short story by Chris Lawson and Simon Brown
• The Watcher at the Window - (2003) - short story by Donald R. Burleson
• Coming of Age - (2003) - short story by Joel Lane
• Picking Up Courtney - (2002) - short story by Tim Waggoner
• Watchmen - (2003) - short story by Aaron Sterns
• Gardens - (2003) - short story by Melanie Tem
• Under the Bright and Hollow Sky - (2003) - novelette by Andrew J. Wilson
• The Dove Game - (2003) - novelette by Isobelle Carmody
• Tiger Moth - (2003) - short story by Graham Joyce
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited
• About the Editors - essay by uncredited

Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life.

Published to coincide with the centennial of her birth, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington collects for the first time all of her stories, including several never before seen in print. With a startling range of styles, subjects, and even languages (several of the stories are translated from French or Spanish), The Complete Stories captures the genius and irrepressible spirit of an amazing artist's life.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington) - essay by Kathryn Davis
• The Debutante - (1988) - short story (trans. of La débutante 1939)
• The Oval Lady - (1988) - short story (trans. of La dame ovale 1939)
• The Royal Summons - (1988) - short story (trans. of L'ordre royal 1939)
• A Man in Love - (1988) - short story
• Uncle Sam Carrington - (1988) - short story (trans. of L'oncle Sam Carrington 1939)
• The House of Fear - (1988) - short story
• As They Rode Along the Edge - (1988) - short story (trans. of Quand ils passaient 1986)
• Pigeon, Fly! - (1988) - short story (trans. of Pigeon, vole 1986)
• The Three Hunters - (1988) - short story (trans. of Les trois chasseurs unpublished)
• Monsieur Cyril de Guindre - (1988) - short story (trans. of Monsieur Cyril de Guindre 1986)
• The Sisters - (1942) - short story (trans. of Les sœurs?
• 1978)
• Cast Down by Sadness - (1988) - short story (trans. of Abattue par la tristesse ... ou Arabelle 1979)
• White Rabbits - (1941) - short story
• Waiting - (1942) - short story
• The Seventh Horse - (1943) - short story
• The Neutral Man - (1988) - short story (trans. of L'homme neutre 1957)
• A Mexican Fairy Tale - (1988) - short story
• Et in Bellicus Lunarum Medicalis - (1988) - short story (trans. of Et in bellicus lunarum medicalis unknown)
• My Flannel Knickers - (1988) - short story
• The Happy Corpse Story - (1988) - short story
• How to Start a Pharmaceuticals Business - (1988) - short story (trans. of De cómo funde una industria o el sarcófago de hule 1961)
• My Mother Is a Cow - (1988) - short story
• The Sand Camel - (1994) - short story
• Mr. Gregory's Fly - short story
• Jemima and the Wolf - short story

Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), the distinguished British-born Surrealist painter who made her home in Mexico City, was also a writer of extraordinary imagination and charm, and The Hearing Trumpet is perhaps her best loved book. It tells the story of 92-year-old Marian Leatherby, who is given the gift of a hearing trumpet only to discover that her family has been plotting to have her committed to an institution. But this is an institution where the buildings are shaped like birthday cakes and igloos, where the Winking Abbess and the Queen Bee reign, and where the gateway to the underworld is wide open. It is also the scene of a mysterious murder. Occult twin to Alice in Wonderland, The Hearing Trumpet is a classic of fantastic literature that has been translated and celebrated throughout the world.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, October 2017.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The stories in F. Brett Cox's debut collection move through multiple genres and many times and places, from the monsters of the 19th century to the future fields of war, from New England to the South to the American West, from the strange house at the top of the hill to the bottom of your childhood swimming pool. But whatever the time and place, and whether utterly fantastic or all too real, all of these remarkable fictions pose the fundamental question: what's next? The End of All Our Exploring features 27 stories, and it also includes Cox's unique historical notes.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Andy Duncan
• Legacy - (2003)
• The Amnesia Helmet - (2013)
• See That My Grave Is Kept Clean - (2014)
• The Light of the Ideal - (2000)
• Flannery on Stage - (2001)
• The Serpent and the Hatchet Gang
• Petition to Repatriate Geronimo's Skull - (2006)
• Consider the Services of the Departed - (2014)
• When John Moore Shot Carl Bell - (2001)
• Mary of the New Dispensation
• What We Did on Our Vacation: My Whole World Lies Waiting
• The Deep End - (2017)
• Nylon Seam - (2009)
• Up Above the Dead Line - (2000)
• It Came Out of the Sky - (2001)
• Suspension
• The Last Testament of Major Ludlum
• Road Dead - (2014)
• Madeline's Version - (2004)
• The Sexual Component of Alien Abduction - (2002)
• Maria Works at Ocean City Nails - (2014)
• Elimination of Restraint and Seclusion: The Road to Engagement - (2011)
• What They Did to My Father - (2001)
• What We Did on Our Vacation: She Hears Music Up Above
• They Got Louie - (2016)
• The End of All Our Exploring
• Where We Would End a War - (2014)
• Notes and Acknowledgements - essay by F. Brett Cox

The gods of Poseidonis - or Atlantis - were powerful and real. Now they were determined to destroy the kingdom ruled by the father of Prince Vakar, the one man whose mind they could not read. The only way to save the kingdom was to discover that thing which the gods feared most.

To find it, Prince Vakar set out across the largely unknown world where dangers multiplied with every league. There he found savage countries and strange people - the wild Amazons; a voluptuous, ensorcelled queen; a too-charming girl who was half-horse, half-woman; dangerous magicians who ruled hordes of headless slaves- and the Gorgons, who could paralyze their victims at a glance.

Behind was his ambitious brother, determined that Vakar must fail. Even closer were unknown enemies set on his trail by the suspicious gods.

And to add to his troubles, Vakar had no idea of what he sought!

Table of Content

• The Tritonian Ring - (1951) - novel
• The Stronger Spell - (1953) - shortstory
• The Owl and the Ape - (1951) - shortstory
• The Eye of Tandyla - (1951) - novelette

It is the twelfth century, the era of Richard the Lion-heart and the Third Crusade. Along the Danube, the tranquil world shared by the young squire Otto and his cousin Bertha is changed forever when they witness a knightly contest for possession of a magic ring. Soon both are drawn into a quest that transforms them and endangers all they love. The resulting adventures lead each to different paths of enchantment and peril, from the mysteries of Moorish Spain to the birthplace of Norse mythology. While navigating an ever-changing sea of allies and foes, both natural and magical, the two seek love, honor, survival, and a ring that possesses more power than either can possibly understand.

A seamless blend of medieval quest, epic fantasy, and Gothic nightmare, The Magic Ring draws on an impressive host of inspirations, such as Germanic folk tales and Icelandic sagas, Arthurian romance and Gothic horror. This novel has earned its place as a text of considerable historical significance, and yet it continues to offer an exhilarating reading experience for the modern audience. This is, after all, one of the books which Inspired Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings!

When Hannah Green's dog comes out of the woods carrying a sneaker that contains a partially decomposed foot, she thinks it's the worst thing that could ever happen to her.

She is wrong.

Hannah and her best friend, Ashley, decide to play detective but find themselves in the middle of a decades-old mystery.

What is the strange old woman Mama Bayole hiding in her decrepit farmhouse? Why is the local librarian so determined to prevent them from researching town history? Who is following them around Hopedale, New Hampshire?

The girls make a shocking discovery about what has been happening in the woods behind Hannah's house. As they get closer to the truth, things take a dangerous turn, and they play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that may end up costing them their lives.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It origianlly appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, November-December 2017. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Twelve (2018), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

A family will never be the same after Dad is consumed by the perfect puzzle.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1995 and can also be found in the collection Angels and You Dogs (2012).

A strange and viscious attack of mental energy is suddenly unleashed on the occupants of Explorer Globe 13 during a routine mission to find mineral wealth in a distant planetary system. Only Keek, the vessels alien menial is unaffected.

The root of the trouble was the ring... as long as you had it, you couldn't get a single wrong number

This novellette was published in Beyond Fantasy Fiction - 1954, The Fantasy magazine of Galaxy.

This novellette is contained in the collections:

• Living Way Out, By Wyman Guinn, 1967 ** There is a variant title of this called "Beyond Bedlam" not to be confused with this Novella
  
• Beyond Bedlam, by Wyman Guin (1973)
• Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment, By Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, 1988

Note:

The 2008 edition contains revisions partly made in response to reader feedback.

The 2014 edition has been again revised and updated to mark the 60th anniversary of "The Lord of the Rings".

In The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion internationally acclaimed scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull examine Tolkien's masterpiece chapter by chapter, offering expert insights into its evolution, structure, and meaning.

They discuss in close detail important literary and historical influences on the development of The Lord of the Rings, connections between that work and other writings by Tolkien, errors and inconsistencies, significant changes to the text during its fifty years of publication, archaic and unusual words used by Tolkien, and words and passages in his invented languages of Middle-earth.

Thousands of notes, keyed to standard editions of The Lord of the Rings but universally accessible, reveal the richness and complexity of one of the most popular works of fiction in our time. In addition to their own expertise and that of other scholars and critics, Hammond and Scull frequently draw upon comments by Tolkien himself, made in letters to family, friends, and enthusiasts, in draft texts of The Lord of the Rings, and in works written in later years which amplify or illuminate characters and events in the story.

Extensive reference is made also to writings by Tolkien not previously or widely published, including elaborate time-schemes, an unfinished manuscript index to The Lord of the Rings, and most notably, the important Nomenclature or guide to names in The Lord of the Rings prepared for the use of translators, long out of print and now newly transcribed and printed in its entirety.

With these resources at hand, even the most seasoned reader of The Lord of the Rings will come to a greater enjoyment and appreciation of Tolkien's magnificent achievement.

A science fiction novel of revenge and retribution set against a background of galactic civilisations.

Doctor Toby Glyer has effected miracle cures with the use of nanotechnology. But Glyer's controversial nanites are more than just the latest technological advance, they are a new form of life, and they have more uses than just medical. Glyer's nanites also have the potential to make everyone on Earth rich from the wealth of asteroids.

Twenty-five years ago, the Briareus mission took nanomachinery out to divert an Earth-crossing asteroid and bring it back to be mined, only to drop out of contact as soon as it reached its target. The project was shut down and the technology was forcibly suppressed.

Now, a much, much larger asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, and the Briareus nanites may be responsible. While the government scrambles to find a solution, Glyer knows that their only hope of avoiding Armageddon lies in the nanites themselves. On the run, Glyer must track down his old partner, William Connors, and find a way to make contact with their wayward children.

As every parent learns, when you produce a new thinking being, the plans it makes are not necessarily your plans. But with a two-hundred-gigaton asteroid that rivals the rock that felled the dinosaurs hurtling toward Earth, Glyer and Connors don't have time to argue. Will Glyer's nanites be Earth's salvation or destruction?

Brian Delaney is a 24-year-old mathematics prodigy, a young genius on the edge of an incredible Al breakthrough when gunmen attack his lab and leave him for dead. Miraculously, he lives.

Painstakingly, scientists reconstruct his brain with the very nerve reprogramming techniques and computer-human connections that Brian himself helped invent. Even so, he has no memory of the past ten years.

His challenge now is to regain his past and rediscover the scientific knowledge he lost before his enemies dare to strike again.

Set in Toronto after the turn of the millennium, Brown Girl in the Ring focuses on "The Burn," the inner city left when Toronto's economic base collapsed. Young Ti-Jeanne lives with her grandmother, who runs a trade in herbal medicine that is vital to the disenfranchised of The Burn. A fascinating cast of characters combined with the dark world of Afro-Caribbean magic create an altogether original and compelling story by an intriguing new voice.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, December 2014.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

From the unsurpassed imagination of the creator of Conan, Robert E. Howard, here are twenty-one tales of suspense, high adventure and Lovecraftian horror. Foul sacrifices are made to a reptilian God in Hungary, a werewolf prowls the corridors of a castle in strife-torn Africa, criminal masterminds on both sides of the Atlantic vie for world domination, an enchanted ring exerts a terrible influence upon its wearer...And, as written in the pages of the accursed Necronomicon and Unaussprechlichen Kulten, the Great Old Ones watch our world from beyond the void - and wait...

• Introduction - essay by M. J. Elliott
• In the Forest of Villefore - [De Montour] - (1925) - short story (variant of In the Forest of Villefère)
• Wolfshead - [De Montour] - (1926) - novelette
• The Dream Snake - (1928) - short story
• The Hyena - (1928) - short story
• Sea Curse - [Faring Town] - (1928) - short story
• Skull-Face - [Steve Harrison] - (1929) - novella
• The Fearsome Touch of Death - (1930) - short story
• The Children of the Night - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1931) - short story
• The Black Stone - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1931) - short story
• The Thing on the Roof - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1932) - short story
• The Horror from the Mound - (1932) - short story
• People of the Dark - (1932) - short story
• The Cairn on the Headland - (1933) - short story
• Black Talons - (1933) - short story
• Fangs of Gold - [Steve Harrison] - (1934) - novelette
• Names in the Black Book - [Steve Harrison] - (1934) - novelette
• The Haunter of the Ring - (1934) - short story
• Graveyard Rats - [Steve Harrison] - (1936) - novelette
• Black Wind Blowing - (1936) - novelette
• The Fire of Asshurbanipal - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1936) - novelette
• Pigeons from Hell - (1938) - novelette

Eleven-year-old Jane Grandison, tormented by her stutter, sits in the back seat of a car, letter in hand inviting her to live and study at the Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children. Founded in 1890 by Headmistress Sybil Joines, the school--at first glance--is a sanctuary for children seeking to cure their speech impediments. Inspired by her haunted and tragic childhood, the Headmistress has other ideas.

Pioneering the field of necrophysics, the Headmistress harnesses the "gift" she and her students possess. Through their stutters, together they have the ability to channel ghostly voices communicating from the land of the dead, a realm the Headmistress herself visits at will. Things change for the school and the Headmistress when a student disappears, attracting attention from parents and police alike.

Set in the overlapping worlds of the living and the dead, Shelley Jackson's Riddance is an illuminated novel told through theoretical writings in necrophysics, the Headmistress's dispatches from the land of the dead, and Jane's evolving life as Joines's new stenographer and central figure in the Vocational School's mysterious present, as well as its future.

After a youth spent trapped in space exile, Jeff Font returned to Earth to seek vengeance against the planetary mogul who had framed and destroyed his family. Jeff's plans backfired: He was captured, drugged, rammed through a computerized court system, convicted... and ringed.

The ring. The ultimate high-tech civics lesson. A surgically implanted electronic monitor that automatically caused unendurable agony when a convict strayed from righteousness. A ringer would do no evil, think no evil, see or hear evil robocops--nor defend himself or others from insult or injury.

And in a corrupt world of licensed sin and satanic parties, floral estates, and city-size slums, ringers were the ultimate victims. But the ring's data banks had not factored in Jeff Font's strength, courage, and his will to fight society, the world, and the agony of the ring to unravel the plot that entrapped him--and see justice done.

THE GREKS WERE PEOPLE-HATERS

They came to Earth in their space ship, bearing fabulous gifts - such as machines that did any day job automatically, and fertilizer that made plants shoot up overnight. But they presented their gifts with contempt, and with a look in their eyes that made people feel "creepy".

Still, because of the brave new world they promised, they Greks could be forgiven anything - until they left and people discovered the machines were breaking down. Then their only choice was to beg the Greks to come back, on their own terms. And they knew the terms would be hard...

Hugo-nominated and Nebula-winning Novella

The year is 2035. After ecological disasters nearly destroyed the Earth, 26 survivors-the last of humanity-are trapped by an alien race in a sterile enclosure known as the Shell. Fifteen-year-old Pete is one of the Six-children who were born deformed or sterile and raised in the Shell. As, one by one, the survivors grow sick and die, Pete and the Six struggle to put aside their anger at the alien Tesslies in order to find the means to rebuild the earth together. Their only hope lies within brief time-portals into the recent past, where they bring back children to replenish their disappearing gene pool.

Meanwhile, in 2013, brilliant mathematician Julie Kahn works with the FBI to solve a series of inexplicable kidnappings. Suddenly her predictive algorithms begin to reveal more than just criminal activity. As she begins to realize her role in the impending catastrophe, simultaneously affecting the Earth and the Shell, Julie closes in on the truth. She and Pete are converging in time upon the future of humanity-a future which might never unfold. Weaving three consecutive time lines to unravel both the mystery of the Earth's destruction and the key to its salvation, this taut adventure offers a topical message with a satisfying twist.

This short story originally appeared in Nightmare Magazine, June 2016. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2017, edited by Paula Guran.

Read the full story for free at Nightmare.

From demon-haunted France to the High Crusades, The Wandering Unicorn will take you on a magical dangerous journey with the legendary Melusine, an enchanting half-woman, half-fairy who alters her shape as startlingly as this book will alter your imagination.

Lambda Award Finalist

When up-and-coming chef Michael "Blue" Whitley returns with three friends to the remote Canadian community of his birth, it appears to be the perfect getaway from New York. He soon discovers, however, that everything he thought he knew about himself is a carefully orchestrated lie. Though he had no recollection of the event, as a young boy, Blue and another child went missing for weeks in the idyllic, mysterious woods of Starling Cove. Soon thereafter, his mother suddenly fled with him to America, their homeland left behind.

But then Blue begins to remember. And once the shocking truth starts bleeding back into his life, his closest friends -- Elisa, his former partner in crime; her stalwart husband, Jason; and Gabe, Blue's young and admiring coworker -- must unravel the secrets of Starling Cove and the artists' colony it once harbored. All four will face their troubled pasts, their most private demons, and a mysterious race of beings that inhabits the land, spoken of by the locals only as the Other Kind...

"The Wandering Earth" is a collection of short stories by Cixin Liu, China's most acclaimed contemporary science-fiction author. Unabashedly classic in the great tradition of Asimov and Clarke, Cixin Liu's science-fiction is firmly rooted in the cosmic.

Cixin Liu uses the unique perspective of science-fiction to take us on a journey into this majestic, desolate cosmos. He gives us the chance to reacquaint ourselves with the fundamental truth that in the face of a vast universe we are no more than a speck of dust; That the Earth is just another celestial body – And an extremely vulnerable one at that. The flash of a gamma-ray burst or the blast of a nearby supernova could, at any moment, reduce our cherished home to nothing but ashes. It can be terrifying to contemplate the end of our world and stories that describe such destruction can be disturbing. At the same time however, they can leave us feeling not only entertained, but exhilarated and inspired. Maybe, they can even give us a chance to renew our love of life.

Most stories found in the "The Wandering Earth" collection take us to a sci-fi vision of Earth's end. But here, there are no Hollywood aliens, descending from the depths of space to blow up our cities. In these futures, the dangers humanity faces are much stranger and whimsical than that. The unexpected calamities that befall his richly detailed worlds are only eclipsed by humanity's epic, but always plausible, attempts to escape destruction.

In all this peril and doom, Cixin Liu always feels for humanity. His stories are full of a deep love for all of Earth's peoples. But even this love does not escape reflection and even ridicule when viewed through his unrelenting cosmic lens. No matter how dearly one loves the Earth, humanity and all its cultures, there is no avoiding the cold, hard truth that they mean absolutely nothing when viewed against the vastness of the universe. But even an infinite universe could not change the simple fact that we are worthy of love, that we need love. It is this twist that lies at the very heart of the stories in this collection.

In The Age of Wire and String, hailed by Robert Coover as "the most audacious literary debut in decades," Ben Marcus welds together a new reality from the scrapheap of the past. Dogs, birds, horses, automobiles, and the weather are some of the recycled elements in Marcus's first collection--part fiction, part handbook--as familiar objects take on markedly unfamiliar meanings. Gradually, this makeshift world, in its defiance of the laws of physics and language, finds a foundation in its own implausibility, as Marcus produces new feelings and sensations--both comic and disturbing--in the definitive guide to an unpredictable yet exhilarating plane of existence.

Tiptree nominated short story. Originally published on Strange Horizons where it can still be read for free (part 1, part 2). Later collected in Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories (2010)

Longing to escape his island home, a boy named Hodaka runs away during his first summer of high school to find a new life in Tokyo. As rain falls for days on end and Hodaka struggles to adjust, he meets a girl named Hina who holds a mysterious power: With a single prayer, she can part the clouds and bring back the sun. But her power comes at a price, and as the weather spirals further and further out of control, they must choose what future they truly want for themselves.

The underground people of Earth were united in terror and desperation against what they considered a frightful threat from the skies. They had sent a mighty armada into space, rushing in lethal orbit toward Mars. The Spacers --- still really Earthmen themselves --- were poised for the counter-blow. The great fleet at Asteroid Central had sufficient warheads to reduce Earth to a cinder. But there was a third force, watching...

Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries--and ghosts. Soon Peggy becomes involved with the spirits of her own Colonial ancestors and witnesses the unfolding of a centuries-old romance against a backdrop of spies and intrigue and of battles plotted and foiled. History has never been so exciting--especially because the ghosts are leading Peggy to a romance of her own!

In the title story of this first-rate science fiction collection, a renegade misfit conquers the dragons and renews the threat of nuclear chaos aboard Springplace, a man-made repository for old reactor cores, dirty plutonium, and dismantled bombs. Another story is a sprawling intergalactic epic that takes place aboard a starship. Salvaged and commandeered by humans, the massive generation starship becomes the setting for a titanic struggle between two alien entities who engage in a monumental battle for survival. The tale "Chrysalis" explores not just an alien milieu but the nature of man himself when another ancient starship lands and investigates an icy unknown planet inhabited by humans millions of years earlier.

Table of Contents

• The Dragons of Springplace - (1997) - novelette
• Waging Good - (1995) - novelette
• To Church with Mr. Multhiford - (1997) - short story
• Stride - (1994) - novelette
• Chrysalis - (1996) - novelette
• The Utility Man - (1990) - short story
• Guest of Honor - (1993) - novelette
• Decency - (1996) - short story
• The Remoras - (1994) - novelette
• Aeon's Child - (1995) - novelette
• The Shape of Everything - (1994) - short story

Thirteen-year-old Grif Weston and his siblings, Barbara, Ann, Jim, Edward, and Edward's friend Palmer Dorset, travel to their grandfather's home in rural Ireland, where they hope to pass an eventful summer. Unexpected dangers and adventures lurk, as the children must solve the kidnapping of their beloved dog Pouncer and thwart a burglary attempt on Grandpapa's house. Yet there is another danger, far more sinister, involving Billy Tremaine, a local boy who died at age fourteen in a tragedy no one wants to talk about.

When Grif hears a mysterious figure singing an old tune called "The Spring Song," old Mr. Bradley tells him that it's Billy's ghost, trying to lure Grif into joining him in the world of the dead; shortly afterwards Grif falls ill with an inexplicable sickness. But Palmer Dorset, an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes tales, is determined to solve these mysteries, and he'll risk every danger to find the truth behind Mr. Bradley's ghastly stories and Grif's unexplainable illness....

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, November 2013.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Sjón's novels have been championed by a veritable pantheon of literary luminaries: Junot Díaz, David Mitchell, A. S. Byatt, Hari Kunzru, and Alberto Manguel, who calls The Whispering Muse "an extraordinary, powerful fable—a marvel." The Whispering Muse is Sjón's masterpiece so far.? The year is 1949 and Valdimar Haraldsson, an eccentric Icelander with elevated ideas about the influence of fish consumption on Nordic civilization, has had the extraordinary good fortune to be invited to join a Danish merchant ship on its way to the Black Sea. Among the crew is the mythical hero Caeneus, disguised as the second mate. Every evening after dinner he entrances his fellow travelers with the tale of how he sailed with the fabled vessel the Argo on the Argonauts' quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.? What unfolds is a slender, brilliant, always entertaining novel that evokes Borges and Calvino as it weaves together tales of myth and antiquity with the modern world in a literary voice so singular as to seem possessed.

It Is That Spawn Which the Hidden Dweller in the Vaults Has Begotten Upon Mortality.

This short story is included in the collections:

• A Vintage From Atlantis: Volume Three of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (2007), Clark Ashton Smith
• The Klarkash-Ton Cycle: Clark Ashton Smith's Cthulhu Mythos Fiction (2008), Clark Ashton Smith
• The Emperor of Dreams (2002), Clark Ashton Smith

It first appeared in the June 1932 issue of Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror available free on Internet Archives.

"The Wandering Jew has got, as the form demands, everything: an heiress falsely accused of madness and incarcerated in a lunatic asylum; a destitute hunchbacked seamstress of the highest moral character hopelessly in love with a blacksmith... bloodthirsty panthers, telepathic twins, debauchery, murder, suicide, duels, supernatural manifestations, blazing passions, wild mobs, a plague of cholera, [and] scenes in Java and the Arctic." (Thomas M. Disch)

The story is entitled The Wandering Jew, but the figure of the Wandering Jew himself plays a minimal role. The prologue of the text describes two figures who cry out to each other across the Bering Straits. One is the Wandering Jew, the other his sister, Hérodiade. The Wandering Jew also represents the cholera epidemic-- wherever he goes, cholera follows in his wake.

The Wandering Jew and Hérodiade are condemned to wander the earth until the entire Rennepont family has disappeared from the earth. The connection is that the descendants of the sister are also the descendants of Marius de Rennepont, Huguenots persecuted under Louis XIV by the Jesuits. Sue never explains how a Huguenot family came to be descended from an immortal Jewish woman who never married or had children. The brother and sister are compelled to protect this very family from all harm. After this first introduction, the two appear only very rarely.

The Rennepont family is unaware that these protective éminences grises exist, but they benefit from their protection in various ways, be it by being saved from scalping by the Native Americans, or from languishing in prison.

Kurt Hauptmann will learn to make stained glass to help men see the glory of God, one of the many bizarre heritages handed down from his ancestry. But the family has other, more frightening secrets. The path to God runs through darkness as well as light. And the bond of a family is blood, its own and that of its enemies.

What is the strangeness in Uncle Detlef, head of the stained-glass studio? Why has he descended from his cathedral roofs to steeplejack the perils of a secular world? What are his secrets? Why do the family's holy rites seem perverse?

Most of all, why are men getting killed in bizarre, archaic ways here in South Florida?

As Kurt gropes toward the truth, so does the tough and cynical cop, Jack Skelote. What lies before them is a limbo of murdered martyrs, unblessed, unholy, and unburied.

This short story originally appeared in Fantasy Magazine, May 2010. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (2011), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Fantasy Magazine.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2001. There are no other known publications but the story can be read for free at the author's website.

Dr. Tandy Venner is an irreplaceable asset to the Charter Worlds Union. Much too valuable to go off on an unexpected vacation by herself. So Jano Kegan, an operative of Charter Worlds, went along on a Euphor Tek team.

But he and Dr. Venner got more than they bargained for. Attempted kidnapping, mind-control, out-of-bounds programming... not quite what was promised. Before they know it, Venner and Kegan are off on a wild odyssey, breaking all the rules to find out what Eupor's really all about.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, February 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013, edited by Rich Horton.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology 2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush (2016), edited by John McFetridge and Kevin J. Anderson. It can also be found in the anthology The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017, edtied by Charles Yu and John Joseph Adams.

Read or listen to the full story for free at Escape Pod.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue Four, May-June 2015. It can also be found in the anthology The New Voices of Fantasy (2017), edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

Pearl doesn't know how she's ended up in the river--the same messy, cacophonous river in the same rain-soaked valley she'd been stuck in for years. But here her spirit swirls and stays... Ada, Pearl's daughter, doesn't know how she's ended up back in the house she left thirteen years ago--with no heating apart from a fire she can't light, no way of getting around apart from an old car she's scared to drive, and no company apart from her own young daughter, Pepper. She wants to clear out Pearl's house so she can leave and not look back. Pepper has grown used to following her restless mother from place to place, but this house, with its faded photographs, its boxes of cameras and its stuffed jackdaw, is something new. Fascinated by the scattering of people she meets, by the river that unfurls through the valley, and by the strange old woman who sits on the bank with her feet in the cold, coppery water, Pepper doesn't know why anyone would ever want to leave.

As the first frosts of autumn herald the coming of a long winter and Pepper and Ada find themselves entangled with the life of the valley, with new companions who won't be closed out, each will discover the ways that places can take root inside us, bind us together, and become us.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1974, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, Issue 104, January 2019. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4 (1975), edited by Terry Carr, Nebula Award Stories Ten (1975), edited by James Gunn, and The Road to Science Fiction 3: From Heinlein to Here (1979), also edited by James Gunn. It is included in the collections The Last Defender of Camelot (1980) and This Mortal Mountain (2009).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The Key to Irunium

"A porteur? Never heard of it." Robert Prestin was just an ordinary aviation journalist who had never heard of such things as porteurs, nor of other dimensions that supplied jewels to the Earth, nor of the metamorphic Borgia-like countess who ran the show with the aid of her scarlet-scaled Thrugs. And certainly he had never heard of a lombok vine that could grow faster than a man could run.

No, Robert Prestin was just an ordinary man who sometimes lost things. That is until he sat next to a beautiful girl on a plane headed for Rome - and lost her somewhere in mid-air! At that point he knew he had a lot to learn, because somehow he had - or was - the key to Irunium.

The Wandering Tellurian

Would his super-weapons help backward planets?

Seventeen-year-old Keri likes to plan for every possibility. She knows what to do if you break an arm, or get caught in an earthquake or fire. But she wasn't prepared for her brother's suicide, and his death has left her shattered with grief. When her childhood friend Janna tells her it was murder, not suicide, Keri wants to believe her. After all, Janna's brother died under similar circumstances years ago, and Janna insists a visiting tourist, Sione, who also lost a brother to apparent suicide that year, has helped her find some answers.

As the three dig deeper, disturbing facts begin to pile up: one boy killed every year; all older brothers; all had spent New Year's Eve in the idyllic town of Summerton. But when their search for the serial killer takes an unexpected turn, suspicion is cast on those they trust the most.

As secrets shatter around them, can they save the next victim? Or will they become victims themselves?

Only one scientist realized the danger that threatened Earth when the Terraluna Corporation started deep-core mining operations on the moon. Dr. Emanuel Rhodes and his teen-age son, Bruce, saw that continued blasting at the moon's core would weaken the satellite's brittle structure to the extent that the small planet's breakup would be assured. The subsequent bombardment of Earth by meteorites would put an end to man!

But Terraluna's profit-hungry officials would not understand the scientist's conclusions. It was for the sake of humanity that Dr. Rhodes and his son started for Saturn's rings to prove to mankind that what had once been a hospitable and prosperous planet was now nothing more than a dangerous phenomenon.

Breath-takingly realistic in detail, this story of the Rhodes' flight into outer space explodes with action, intrigue and suspense. Terraluna spies conspired to wreck their ship. Outposts of the huge corporation fired on the courageous little crew. And in the whirling maelstrom of rock that make up Saturn's rings, danger and disaster lay in anxious wait. How Bruce outwitted the hostile elements to save his father, stranded helplessly on a bit of airless rock, leads to a surprise climax when the two discover ancient evidence of intelligent creatures. The relationship of their discovery to the Earth and its satellite presents a fascinating theory and space yarn that you won't put down until the very last page.

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagent international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.

A modern-day homicide detective is working as an undertaker's assistant in Victorian Scotland when a serial poisoner attacks the men of Edinburgh and leaves their widows under suspicion.

Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she's not housemaid Catriona Mitchell?even though Mallory is in Catriona's body?and Mallory is now officially an undertaker's assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows... the latest of which is Gray's oldest sister.

Poison is said to be a woman's weapon, though Mallory has to wonder if it's as simple as that. But she must tread carefully. Every move the household makes is being watched, and who knows where the investigation will lead.

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.

Sturgeon and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 2003. The story is also included in the collection Tangled Strings (2003).

Osberne Wulfgrimsson and Elfhild are lovers who live on opposite sides of the Sundering Flood, an immense river. When Elfhild disappears during an invasion by the Red Skinners, the heartbroken Osberne takes up his magical sword Boardcleaver and joins the army of Sir Godrick of Longshaw, in whose service he helps dethrone the tyrannical king and plutocracy of merchants ruling the city at the mouth of the river. Afterwards he locates Elfhild, who had fled with a relative, a wise woman skilled in the magical arts, and taken refuge in the Wood Masterless. Elfhild tells Osberne of their adventures en route to safety. Afterwards they return together to Wethrmel, Osberne's home, and all ends happily.

Life as a man of leisure was becoming a bit dull for Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, so he welcomed Professor Wurzle's invitation to visit the empty castle of Selznak, the Evil Dwarf. There they chanced upon a treasure map. Soon Jonathan, his wonderpooch Ahab, the Professor ad Miles the magician set off by boat for the location of the treasure - the unknown city called Landsend. But between them and their goal lay the Case of the Missing Squire, the Attack of the Headless Oarsmen, a mysterious witch, some evil goblins - and the Secret of the Purloined Globe.

HE IS FELIMID MAC FAL, once a bard of Ireland. Now he uses his wits and his magic in the service of his lover, the most notorious pirate on the seas of ancient Britain.

SHE IS GUDRUN BLACKHAIR, the lusty, legendary pirate chieftain who commands the sorcerous ship "Ormungandr" and numbers the shape-shifting Children of Lir among her crew.

Together they've sailed through adventure after adventure, and never known defeat. But Gudrun's many enemies are gathering, and Odin himself will lead them into battle against her. How can a poet and a pirate hope to defeat a god?

This is #4 in Bard Series.

Israel, 960BC. Much to his annoyance, Bartimaeus the djinni has been enslaved by King Solomon the Great, who commands his empire with an all-powerful magic ring. But things get even worse for him when he meets Asmira, a young Sheban girl sent to Jerusalem on a deadly errand. Featuring an all-new setting, and Bartimaeus at the height of his powers, The Ring of Solomon is the most action-packed Bart book so far.

Jefferson Nighthawk, the original Widowmaker, is married and retired, looking forward to a peaceul old age. But when his two clones try to kill each other, he realizes that he can't turn his back on the situation -- or the fact that there is an alien menace out there that will require the combined might of all three Widowmakers, if even that is enough.

Jared is a Red-Jeweled Warlord bound as a pleasure slave by the Ring of Obedience. After suffering nine years of torment as a slave, he murdered his owner and escaped - only to be caught and sold into slavery once again. The notorious queen who has purchased him, known as the Gray Lady, may not be what she seems. Soon, Jared faces a difficult choice: his freedom, or his honor.

Sir Richard Francis Burton--explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead.

Algernon Charles Swinburne--unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade; for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin!

They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy.

The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End.

Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn t exist at all!

The magical threat to Coronnan defeated, and the people of the kingdom working to rebuild their shattered realm, Lukan--son of the witchwoman Brevelan and Jaylor, the Chancellor of the University of Magicians--is determined to break free of his family's shadow and find his own place in the world.

He has finally achieved journeyman magician status, but he needs a special goal, a quest to complete his training. Wanting the quest to take him far from home and family, Lukan focuses on finding and rescuing his long-lost mentor, Master Robb.

The search will send him overseas to Amazonia along with the bard Skeller, who had won Lukan's sister Lily's heart but had been forced to leave her in the aftermath of a deadly incident. Now Skeller is returning to his own kingdom to take up the responsibilities of the king's son, a duty he never wanted to face.

But what awaits Lukan and Skeller in the land of Amazonia is a series of terrifying challenges--a mad king, a power-hungry witch, a people held captive by fear, and the very monsters that had nearly destroyed all of Coronnan!

Can a journeyman magician and an unwilling prince overcome the threats they must face to free a kingdom and rescue a master mage?

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr.

The Crown and Key Society face their most terrifying villain yet: Gaios, a deranged demigod with the power to destroy Britain.

To avenge a centuries-old betrayal, Gaios is hell-bent on summoning the elemental forces of the earth to level London and bury Britain. The Crown and Key Society, a secret league consisting of a magician, an alchemist, and a monster-hunter, is the realm's only hope--and to stop Gaios, they must gather their full strength and come together as a team, or the world will fall apart.

But Simon Archer, the Crown and Key's leader and the last living magician-scribe, has lost his powers. As Gaios searches for the Stone of Scone, which will give him destructive dominion over the land, monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane, alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther, gadget geek Penny Carter, and Charlotte the werewolf scramble to reconnect Simon to his magic before the world as they know it is left forever in ruins.

The time of cataclysm is almost here when the land of the Aoi-cast forth from the world long centuries ago by an unimaginably powerful spell-weaving-will at last return to its starting point with disastrous consequences…

Three brothers, caught in a web of lies and corruption, must overcome a lifetime of misconceptions and distrust to find the united strength needed to save their City.

A land of myth and magic... and ruled by the power company.

Rhomatum: a powerful city-state built around the massive, energy-producing Rhomatum Node.

Mauritum: a node city second only to Rhomatum herself.

Khoratum: an exceedingly attitudinal satellite of Rhomatum---with notions of autonomy.

The Rhomandi Family are the descendants of Rhomatum's founding father, and heirs to the Ley Tower which controls the node's life-giving energy. Anheliaa Rhomandi, the despotic Ringmaster of Rhomatum, a woman of legendary Talent, is aging rapidly and is desperate for an heir to the unprecedented web of power she has created.

Her nephews, Deymorin, Mikhyel and Nikaenor, three singularly unTalented young men, brothers torn apart by mistrust, jealousy and polarized political views---are not the Masters she has in mind.

Mauritum senses weakness in her long-time rival and sees an opportunity to add Rhomatum---and all Rhomatum's satellite nodes---to her already glittering crown.

All she must do is wait for Anheliaa to die.

But Anheliaa has plans for her precious heir, plans that involve her three nephews---will they or nil they. Those plans will set them all, brothers, cities... and the ley itself... on a collision course with destiny. Whether or not any of them survive depends on whether or not Deymio, Khyel and Nikki can set aside their differences and become the brothers nature intended them to be.

The Pride of Princes

Deymorin, Mikhyel, and Nikaenor were the descendants of Darius Rhomandi, the man who three centuries before had rebelled against the tyrannical ruling priesthood of Mauritum, and founded Rhomatum--a new city based upon his dream of democracy.

Now Rhomatum is the most influential city in the world, supported by a Syndicate of loosely allied satellite cities. But the sudden death of the ringmaster of Rhomatum--the person responsible for channeling and controlling the magical leythium which fuels the city, throws the nation-state into chaos, threatening the rule of the Rhomandi dynasty and leaving Rhomatum open to plots of conquest both from its ancient enemy Mauritum, and the Syndicate satellite cities.

As Deymorin desperately strives to resurrect defenses that have lain fallow for generations, and Nikaenor struggles to bring order to s city in shock, Mikhyel finds himself following a trail of secret agreements and ancient feuds--a trial which leads him from the depths of Sparingate prison, to the teeming trade city of Shatum, and finally to the decadent courts of Khoratum, and a fight for independence that penetrates to the heart of the leythium web itself!

The Destiny of Kings

For three centuries the Rhomandi family has ruled in Rhomatum, the city whose magical leythium node is the richest in the world, more powerful than even that of rival city Mauritum. And with the passing years Rhomatum has become the most influential of all the Ring cities.

But ancient hatreds have finally led to war, overturning the delicate balance of power, devastating the leythium-controlling Ring Towers of many city-states, fragmenting Rings, leaving satellite cities in darkness, and breaking down the very basis of civilization. And now, three telepathically linked brothers, the heirs to the Rhomandi dynasty, must desperately strive to regain stability and supremacy for their city.

Deymorin--Eldest brother, Princeps of Rhomatum, he has always rejected his natural Talent. With his world in shambles, will he have the courage to awaken his magical Gift and accept his destiny to become the greatest Ringmaster in history?

Mikhyel--called "the Barrister," his world is the dark underworld of political machination. A cutthroat negotiator and skilled statesman, he has nevertheless been hiding form his true destiny: as that rarest of magicians--one who can handle the deadly leythium itself and speak directly with the strange beings who dwell within it.

Nikaenor--as the youngest brother, he is beloved by all but has never been taken seriously. Now, at eighteen, he is about to become a father--to a son who has been prophesied to become a Ringmaster of legendary power. Can he somehow unite his family and, with the birth of his son, finally accept his own responsibilities?

Ten years have passed since the Demon Lord Kranos declared war on mankind. As the situation grows desperate, the Ruxe Kingdom summons a hero from another world to stand against this threat. Assigned by the Church to join the hero's party, a battle-worn priest arrives to fulfill his obligations but is shocked to find that his companions are utterly inept! A mage who can only use fire magic, a swordswoman recently defected from her father's fighting school, and a hero obsessed with women?! With an average level totaling just 15, there's no way these novices are capable of taking down a demon lord! But a job's a job, so it's up to the man of God (who thankfully has power to spare) to support these buffoons from the shadows. With an extraordinary healer on their side, defeating their target will be a cinch! ...Hopefully.

Next stop on the party's quest to defeat the Demon Lord: Yutith's Tomb, home to undead monsters. It's a great place to level up a bunch of novices, but there's just one problem -- the hero is terrified of the undead! On the bright side, the party may have finally found a priest to join their quest. She's an apprentice and can't cast any spells, but that's still better than nothing, right? In the meantime, the party's previous priest, Ares, trails behind them, providing support in secret -- and pulling a few strings -- until they can defeat the Demon Lord once and for all.

Having wrapped up their battles in Yutith's Tomb, Holy Warrior Naotsugu Toudou and crew (with Ares Crown hot on their heels) make their way to Golem Valley to level up. But there's no end in sight for Ares's troubles-his newest recruit, Stephenne Veronide, may be a talented holy caster, but she's also a world-class ditz! With her around, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Will Ares be able to keep his cool as he maneuvers both her and the Holy Warrior out of harm's way? Or has this priest finally reached the end of his rope?

The hero's party is off to the water capital, Cloudburst, in order to contract with more powerful elemental spirits. It's a big endeavor for even the typical mage, but a necessary one to defeat the Demon Lord. They may have bitten off more than they can chew, but not to worry-priest Ares Crown is close behind, and this time he's got two powerful mercenaries with him! One way or another, he'll keep the hero safe, even if it means venturing to the bottom of the ocean! ...Unless the Demon Lord's right-hand man and ruler of the seas has anything to say about that.

Beleaguered priest Ares Crown has encountered all sorts of trials and tribulations in supporting the hero's party thus far, and now the Holy Warrior Naotsugu Toudou can no longer wear the holy armor Fried. But there's good news: The top prize at the local casino is the legendary summetal armor, and that should make a fine substitute. Alas, Ares's subordinate, Stey, is banned from this casino, and the owner is notoriously corrupt. Has the party's (already dismal) luck run out? Or will one harried man of the cloth have to take matters into his own hands?!

The great magical Houses of Paris - headed by Fallen angels and magicians - were, however temporarily, at peace with each other. Until House Harrier was levelled by a powerful explosion. Now that peace has become chaos, tearing apart old alliances and setting off a race in which each House hoards magic and resources to protect itself against another such blast.

Thuan, the Dragon head of the divided House Hawthorn, is still consolidating his power when war comes to his doorstep. Aurore -exiled from and almost beaten to death by House Harrier - sees her moment to seek power in order to protect her family, even if she must venture back to her destroyed former home to get it. And Emmanuelle finds herself alone in the middle of it all, driven to protect others, trying to piece together what has happened, andhoping - eventually - to make sense of it all.

None of them know what destroyed House Harrier, though... and when they do uncover that fiery, destructive magic then divided Houses, old enemies and estranged friends will all have to make a decision: stand together, or burn alone...

The Dread Empire of the Shaa is no more, following the death of the last oppressor. But freedom remains elusive for the myriad sentient races enslaved for ten centuries, as an even greater terror arises. The Naxids -- a powerful insectoid species themselves subjugated until the recent Shaa demise -- plan to fill the vacuum with their own bloody domination, and have already won a shattering victory with superior force and unimaginable cruelty.

But two heroes survived the carnage at Magaria: Lord Gareth Martinez and the fiery, mysterious gun pilot Lady Caroline Sula, whose courageous exploits are becoming legend in the new history of galactic civil war. Yet their cunning, skill, and bravery may be no match for the overwhelming enemy descending upon the loyalist stronghold of Zanshaa, as the horrific battle looms that will determine the structure of the universe -- and who shall live to inhabit it -- for millennia to come.

When magic calls - not even Brann, the Drinker of Souls, can resist. And now the Chained God has drawn upon every spell at his command in a life-and-death struggle to break free of the energy-draining trap which holds him before he is driven into total dissolution.

To win release from his invisible prison, the Chained God must obtain six talismans of power, and he will use Brann and the demon children, the sorcerer Maksim, and all their former allies - as well as deadly predators from another dimension - as pawns in a desperate campaign to breach the strongholds of gods, shamans, wizards, and priests, and steal the magical orbs that are the vital focal points for a magical spell more powerful than any Brann's world has ever experienced. And should Brann and the rest fail to obtain even one of the precious talismans in time, not only will the Chained God's doom be sealed but a new and all-consuming evil will be released on Brann's own world!

Written for serial publication in 1822 under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin, this Faustian tale by Balzac has never before been available in English. More than a long-lost curiosity by an important writer, The Centenarian is also a seminal work of early science fiction, crucial to understanding both the development of the genre and the craft of this great author.

Beringheld, a 400-year-old "mad scientist," discovered the fluid necessary to human life, but he must extract the vital fluid of others to enlarge his own powers.

Balzac intertwines the mythic and the modern in ways that would prove enormously influential to science fiction. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, this novel bridges the gap that separates alchemy and magic from the practice and problems of science. It is also crucial to an understanding of Balzac's oeuvre, as it anticipates significant themes of power, knowledge, and secrecy.

This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices, and a critical introduction.

J'role, a young man cursed by a terrifying burden, joins forces with an ork named Garlthik, and together they try to elude powerful enemies and hold onto a magical ring.

Set during World War II, this story finds the Doctor caught up in the code breaking activities of the Bletchley Park workers. He is arrested after making contact with Alan Turing but inevitably ends up taking on the SS in war-torn Vienna.

The Story of the Glittering Plain is an 1891 fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. His earlier fantasies The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains were to some degree historical novels. Morris would go on to develop the new genre established in this work in such later fantasies as Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair, The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at the World's End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles. It is also important for its exploration of the socialist themes that interested Morris.

This latest installment in New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore's beloved fantasy saga, The Companions moves Salvatore's signature hero Drizzt into a new era of the Forgotten Realms. As Drizzt's fate hangs in the balance, he reflects on the lives of the trusted allies who stood by his side throughout his early life--the friends now known as the Companions of the Hall. Meanwhile, the first stirrings of the Sundering begin.

In the 2nd book of the multi-author Sundering series launched by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, the shadow legacy of Erevis Cale lives on even as his old foe Mephistopheles seeks to stamp it out at any cost. Cale's son Vasen--unmoored in time by the god Mask--has thus far been shielded from the archdevil's dark schemes, alone among the servants of the Lord of Light who have raised him since birth.

Living in a remote abbey nestled among the Thunder Peaks of Sembia, Vasen is haunted by dreams of his father, trapped in the frozen hell of Cania. He knows the day will come when he must assume his role in the divine drama unfolding across Faerûn. But Vasen knows not what that role should be... or whether he is ready to take it on. He only knows what his father tells him in dreams--that he must not fail.

Enter Drasek Riven, a former compatriot of Erevis Cale, now near divine and haunted by dreams of his own--he too knows the time to act is near. Shar, the great goddess of darkness, looks to cast her shadow on the world forever. Riven has glimpsed the cycle of night she hopes to complete, and he knows she must be stopped.

At the crossroads of divine intrigue and mortal destiny, unlikely heroes unite to thwart the powers of shadow and hell, and the sundering of worlds is set on its course.

In this third book of the Sundering series kicked off by R.A. Salvatore and the dark elf Drizzt, SCRIBE award-winning author Erin M. Evans thrusts her signature character Farideh into a maelstrom of devilish politics and magical intrigue that will have far-reaching implications for the future of the Forgotten Realms.

As the chaos of the Sundering rages around her, young warlock Farideh faces a more personal turmoil wrought by a deal she made with a devil years ago. Hoping to protect her twin sister, she leaves everything she holds dear to assist a wizard in a scheme that pits the devils of the Nine Hells against the gods above.

But when Farideh casts the spell to enter the wizard's remote mountaintop fortress, she picks up a stowaway--a Harper agent named Dahl who isn't so inclined to follow devilish demands. Dahl attempts to escape only to run into a village of odd people, lurking behind an impenetrable wall.

Forced to gaze into the villagers' souls, Farideh points out the ones who seem different, only to watch as the wizard's guard carts them off to fates unknown. Are these villagers or prisoners? Are they blessed or doomed by the gods? As the wizard's guessing game proves more and more diabolical, Farideh resolves to unravel his secrets--even if it means she'll lose her own soul to the Nine Hells.

In the 4th book of the multi-author Sundering series launched by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, Richard Lee Byers introduces Anton Marivaldi--a renowned reaver with an insatiable thirst for bounty and a moral compass that always leads him toward the evil he's never tried.

Endless, pounding rain afflict the Sea of Fallen Stars and the coastal regions surrounding it. Harvests are failing, travel and trade are disrupted, and civilized forces are giving way to the deluges caused by the storms. In panic and despair, many have turned to the goddess Umberlee, Queen of the Deeps, offering her sacrifices with hope that they will be spared the inevitable reckoning of her perpetual tempest.

Evendur Highcastle, undead pirate captain, risen from the depths to assume the mantle of Umberlee's Chosen, takes advantage of the people's desperation to strike for both spiritual and temporal power in her name.

Vying with Highcastle for the hearts and minds of the people is Stedd Whitehorn, a little boy and the chosen of a god thought lost to time: Lathander, the Morninglord. In a time of such upheaval, Stedd's message of renewal and hope runs in stark contrast to the savage ethos of Highcastle and his waveservants.

When Anton captures the boy in order to collect Highcastle's considerable bounty, the reaver is quickly caught in the riptide caused by the sundering of worlds.

In the fifth book of the multi-author Sundering series, New York Times best-selling author Troy Denning sends an embittered paladin, Kleef Kenric, on a quest to stop evil forces from taking advantage of the chaos rolling across the land of Faerûn and claiming dominion over the entirety of the Realms.

Stubbornly clinging to his family's worship of a long-forgotten god, Kleef Kenric soon discovers that his god has blessed him with divine gifts, making him one of a new group of Chosen cropping up around the Realms. This divine gift makes him an excellent ally--and a target for those who wish corral his powers.

After battling his way out Marsember, a city besieged on all sides in the wake of the Sundering, he becomes swept up in the mission of a group of odd allies--a warrior noblewoman, an accomplished thief, and a mysterious short pudgy man exuding a faint odor of decay. With the forces of Shade tracking their every step, they travel to the Underdark to thwart the rise of the goddess of Death, but before long Kleef learns that his allies hide dangerous secrets--secrets that could destroy not only Kleef but the very fabric of the Forgotten Realms.

In the 6th and final book of the multi-author Sundering series launched by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms®, further chronicles the exploits of Elminster as he fights for the future of Faerûn.

Chaos grips Faerûn as vainglory, prophecy, and ancient forces comingle in the shadows cast by war. Agents of the Shadovar lurk in the corners of Candlekeep in search of the arcane secrets that will power their war machine toward Myth Drannor. Gods and their Chosen run amok, all in a gambit to seize power. And a threat foretold by an ancient seer stirs.

At the heart of it all, Mystra, the great Goddess of Magic, has withdrawn from the world. Without her protection, Elminster, her greatest champion, fears for the nascent Weave, the fabric of magic Mystra wields to bind Faerûn. Will the Nightseer Shar, mistress of the great and fearsome Shadovar, seize the opportunity to blanket the world with her Shadow Weave?

With the help of Storm Silverhand and his protégé Amarune, Elminster works frantically to strengthen the Weave's tethers and forestall what seems an inevitable reckoning. But other interests machinate for their own sinister ends.

As the Sundering draws nigh, Elminster and his heroic cohort must see the signs for what they are. The choice of worlds lies in the balance.

First there was war, then there were wargames, growing more and more realistic until the games themselves surpassed war as mankind's most popular sport. But with no blood, guts, or glory, boredom began to set in and strategy lost its edge. Something was needed to bring fresh excitement to an old, old game. And so the past was mined for the greatest warriors and generals history had to offer: Napoleon, Alexander, the 47 Ronin, assassins from ancient Persia - all brilliant at either combat or at tactics and strategy.

It was just a game - until mock war turned real on an unimaginable scale, and only those legendary warriors could turn the tide.

Homeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned groundskeeper's cottage. Her new home is tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.

And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering.

The cemetery is alive with faint, spectral shapes, led by a woman who died before her time... and Keira, the only person who can see her, has become her new target. Determined to help put the ghost to rest, Keira digs into the spirit's past life with the help of unlikely new friends, and discovers a history of deception, ill-fated love, and murder.

But the past is not as simple as it seems, and Keira's time is running out. Tangled in a dangerous web, she has to find a way to free the spirit...even if it means offering her own life in return.

To the Danes, he is skraelingr; to the English, he is orcnéas; to the Irish, he is fomoraig. He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He is Grimnir, and he is the last of his kind?the last in a long line of monsters who have plagued humanity since the Elder Days.

Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slew his brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that's changed. A new faith has arisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into the shadows; even still, Grimnir's vengeance cannot be denied.

Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on a journey that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of the ancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southern England, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thence to the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where his enemy awaits.

But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retribution will come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning?the Old Ways versus the New?and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind, must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeance done or stand against him and see it slip away?

Haruhi Suzumiya, the fierce and fabulously spontaneous leader of the SOS Brigade (a club for her high school's most extraordinary students), is always a magnet for wild adventures (and trouble!).

Now, get ready to go back in time in this sixth installment of the series! Five short stories reveal never-before-seen events from the SOS Brigade's past exploits. The last story, which brings the SOS Brigade back to the present, rounds out this collection of entertaining, hilarious, and, as always, unpredictable misadventures. Anything is possible in Haruhi's world!

Live Alive:

Kyon peruses the stalls at the cultural festival and visits Mikuru's noodle stall. Everything seems normal for once, until a surprise band shows up to perform.

The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina: Episode 00

The movie that the SOS Brigade created in The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (Book 2) is shown, and the Bridage gets to see it in its final form.

Love at First Sight:

Kyon meets with an old friend, who describes seeing a girl he's fallen in love with--and it turns out to be Yuki! Will this mere human have a chance with the world's most stoic robot?

Where Did the Cat Go?

This story takes readers back to Book 3 (The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya) in which the SOS Brigade finally begins the main event for the Snow Mountain retreat murder mystery.

The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina:

Mikuru asks Kyon to accompany her to buy tea leaves, but a secret motive may be involved.

"No time to delay. Do what you were born to do. Fame will be yours when you do this."

These are the words that ring in the mind of mild-mannered, beloved schoolteacher Cora Gundersun--just before she takes her own life, and many others', in a shocking act of carnage. When the disturbing contents of her secret journal are discovered, it seems certain that she must have been insane. But Jane Hawk knows better.

In the wake of her husband's inexplicable suicide--and the equally mysterious deaths of scores of other exemplary individuals--Jane picks up the trail of a secret cabal of powerful players who think themselves above the law and beyond punishment. But the ruthless people bent on hijacking America's future for their own monstrous ends never banked on a highly trained FBI agent willing to go rogue--and become the nation's most wanted fugitive--in order to derail their insidious plans to gain absolute power with a terrifying technological breakthrough.

Driven by love for her lost husband and by fear for the five-year-old son she has sent into hiding, Jane Hawk has become an unstoppable predator. Those she is hunting will have nowhere to run when her shadow falls across them.

The rune-carved ring of an ancient mummy catapults Gwenlliant of Celydonn and her infant son into the Shadow realm, where a monster stalks the children of Celydonn.

The sequel to "Ringworld". Louis Wu, Speaker-to-Animals, and the Hindmost return to Ringworld. Their aim is to prevent cataclysm. In the process, they find themselves learning Ringworld's incredible secrets.

Come back to the Ringworld... the most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. A place of untold technological wonders, home to a myriad humanoid races, and world of some of the most beloved science fiction stories ever written!

The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee... legendary beings brought together once again in the defense of the Ringworld. Something is going on with the Protectors. Incoming spacecraft are being destroyed before they can reach the Ringworld. Vampires are massing. And the Ghouls have their own agenda--if anyone dares approach them to learn.

Each race on the Ringworld has always had its own Protector. Now it looks as if the Ringworld itself needs a Protector. But who will sit on the Ringworld Throne?

Rokugan is Doomed!

The Serene Prophet foresaw its downfall -- tides of demons flooding out of the Shadowlands. One man seeks to avert the catastrophe -- the leader of the Scorpion Clan. He will pay any price, perpetrate any deception, to save the empire. If he must, he will become evil to fight evil. He and the emperor's champion will battle each other to the death for that which they both hold dear: Rokugan

The Land is Wounded.

Shadowlands monsters mass on the edges of Rokugan. The Crab Clan, long vigilant in battling them, seems unable or unwilling to stop the demonic onslaught.

But from an unlikely quarter, a hero arises. She will lead her forces in a battle that will rend the world: The Battle at Beiden Pass.

A Spring of War.

Doji Hoturi, the young Champion of the Crane, is everything a samurai could wish to be: swift of sword and pure of heart... but his eyes hide a terrible secret.

Bloody magic whispers through Rokugan's greatest cities, and the undead servants of a Dark God rise. From the shadows, Doji Hoturi watches as a new champion of evil lifts his sword and laughs -- and the face beneath the armor is his own.

Ashes of the Phoenix

Magic is power for the Phoenix clan. During the depths of the Clan War, the Elemental Masters seek ultimate power in the form of a magic that will permanently destroy the Shadowlands armies. Without it, the enemy will reduce the clan to ahses from which even the Photenix cannot rise. All hope rests in the mysteries of a dark and dreaded source: The Black Scrolls.

The Crab have defended the Emerald Empire against Shadowlands hordes for a millennium and beyond. Nothing will drive them from the Carpenter's Wall.

Nothing but the destruction of the empire itself.

Plague has gripped the land, dangling Rokugan by a thread. The defenders of the empire must now become its saviors by doing the unthinkable: Joining the enemy.

Legend of the Five Rings fans played a key role in the development of the Clan War storyline. Author Ree Soesbee is well recognized among those fans and has been extremely instrumental in the design of the Legend of the Five Rings storyline.

The story follows the heroine throughout her career, through the forces that molded her, and the lessons she had to learn to obtain some of her potential.

The last book in the Clan War series, The Lion will generate a great deal of interest. All the great clan heroes from the six previous books play critical roles in this novel. This book provides an exciting conclusion that is eagerly anticipated by fans of the popular series.

The prelude to the upcoming Legend of the Five Rings series.

This novel introduces new characters and settings based on the events in the Legend of the Five Rings: The Spirit Wars card set. This book also sets up the story for future novels in the upcoming series The Four Winds Saga.

The Clan War is over. The danger is not.

Once the greatest samurai in all Rokugan, Toturi has managed to hold the Empire together despite warring clans and internal treacheries. But nothing has prepared him for the hordes of vile spirits ravaging his beloved realm.

As the Spirit Wars rage, Toturi and his children are the only hope for Rokugan.

The Emperor is Dead.

The Steel Throne, seat of imperial power in Rokugan, sits empty. Ambition wars with justice and deception with truth as the emperor's heirs seek to gain the favor of the Clans. The fate of the Empire walks the edge of a blade, and before all is lost, the Lady of hte Sword must step forward to restore honor to a land in need.

The Steel Throne Sits Empty...

Rokugan stands on the brink of chaos. As his brothers and sister seek the favor of the clans, the illegitimate son Akodo Kaneka forsakes grasping for power and takes up a new quest--defending the helpless and destroying those who ravage the common people. But as his world crumbles about him, he discovers that no son of Toturi can escape his destiny.

Darkness Grows in the Empire...

Naseru, known as "The Anvil," will stop at nothing to sit upon the Throne of Rokugan. When dark forces rise in the City of Night, he must act swiftly. To save his beloved Empire, Naseru must learn to wield the most unlikely weapon of all -- justice.

This concluding title to The Four Winds Saga explores a different character's perspective on the events taking place in the series. The overall storyline is based on the Gold Edition set for the Legend of the Five Rings trading card game released by AEG. The ending of this title will actually be decided by the Legend of the Five Rings readers and fans in a tournament during the Summer of 2003, allowing players to have direct impact on novel content.

Rose Rita wishes she could go to camp like her best friend, Lewis. She's sure that boys get to have all the fun, but instead she must stay at home and get ready to attend Junior High, where she will have to do "girly" activities--something she hates! That is until Mrs. Zimmermann offers her an adventure of her own--a trip to cousin Oley's farm. Mrs. Zimmermann's cousin Oley has left her his farm, as well as a ring that he thinks is magic.

But when Mrs. Zimmermann and Rose Rita arrive at the deserted farm, the ring has mysteriously vanished. Strange things start to happen around them--Mrs. Zimmermann becomes ill, Rose Rita keeps on seeing scary images and Mrs. Zimmermann goes missing. What power does this magical ring have? Will the person who took the ring use it to do evil? And will Rose Rita be able to rescue Mrs. Zimmermann from whatever evil force has taken her?

The luck runs rough around Theo Waitley. Not only are people trying to kill her and capture the self-aware intelligent ship Bechimo to whom Theo is bonded, they're also trying to arrest her crew members, and throw the dignity of an important passenger, the duly-constituted norbear ambassador Hevelin, into question.

No wonder Theo and her crew felt the need of a break, and retired to what Bechimo refers to as "safe space." Unfortunately, safe space may not be so safe, anymore. It seems that things are leaking through from another universe, and another time. In fact, whole spaceships are coming through. One of those ships is a blasted battleship seemingly fleeing a long-lost war. What's more, its crew may be members of Theo's ancient ancestral line--her relatives. It's certain that they are in dire need of help. Theo has a choice to make. It seems that Bechimo's "safe space" is about to become deadly perilous.

Ghosts and ghouls beware! London's smallest, shabbiest and most talented psychic detection agency is back.

Life is never exactly peaceful for Lockwood & Co. Lucy and George are trying to solve the mystery of the talking skull trapped in their ghost jar, while Lockwood is desperate for an exciting new case.

Things seem to be looking up when the team is called to Kensal Green Cemetery to investigate the grave of a sinister Victorian doctor. Strange apparitions have been seen there, and the site must be made safe. As usual, Lockwood is confident; as usual, everything goes wrong - a terrible phantom is unleashed, and a dangerous object is stolen from the coffin.

Lockwood & Co must recover the relic before its power is unleashed, but it's a race against time. Their obnoxious rivals from the Fittes agency are also on the hunt. And if that's not bad enough, the skull in the ghost-jar is stirring again...

The author of the blockbuster BARTIMAEUS sequence delivers another humorous and chilling instalment in the critically acclaimed LOCKWOOD & CO. series.

Six weeks after returning from the Jovian system, David "Lucky" Starr receives an urgent visit from Hector Conway, Chief Councilman of the Council of Science. The Council has been sweeping up the Sirian spy ring uncovered by Starr in the Jovian system, but the head of the ring, Jack Dorrance, has eluded capture and escaped from Earth in his one-man spaceship, The Net of Space. A fleet led by Councilman Ben Wessilewsky is in hot pursuit, but there is only one ship that can catch up with Dorrance, and that is Starr's own Shooting Starr.

In this book from Wrede's acclaimed Lyra fantasy series, a young woman must fight for her life while on a quest to claim a magical family heirloom

Three weeks after Eleret's mother is killed, the messenger arrives with the tragic news. She died far from home, succumbing to wounds sustained in battle, and Eleret must travel to reclaim her belongings. The overland journey to the city of Ciaron is treacherous, but Eleret has no fear. She straps a dagger to her leg and sets off to recover one of her mother's prized possessions: a ring etched with a raven. Though she makes it to Ciaron safely, getting home is another story.

Eleret doesn't know what's special about her mother's ring, but someone wanted it badly enough to kill for it. To make it home in one piece, she must unlock the mysteries of the ring her mother died to protect.

The Magelords are plundering the civilized galaxy one planet at a time. First their scoutships appeared above the outplanets. Raiding parties followed, then whole armadas bent on loot and conquest. The Mages break the warfleets that oppose them. They take entire planets. Who can stop them? Now, the Mages have attacked Entibor--that was their first mistake.

Twist it once, you're horned and haired;
Twist it twice and fangs are bared;
Twist it thrice? No one has dared!

Russell is sure that the ring he gets at Mr. Elives' shop is just a silly magic trick, but he follows the instructions and twists the ring twice anyway--and becomes a monster!

The Kzin, formerly invincible conquerors of all they encountered, had a hard time dealing with their ignominious defeat by the leaf-eating humans. Some secretly hatched schemes for a rematch, others concentrated on gathering power within the kzin hierarchy, and some shamefully cooperated with the contemptible humans, though often for hidden motives. In war and in uneasy peace, Kzin and Humans continue their adventures.

Contents:

• 1 - Echoes of Distant Guns - [Man-Kzin Wars] - (2009) - shortfiction by Matthew Joseph Harrington
• 15 - Aquila Advenio - [Man-Kzin Wars] - (2009) - shortfiction by Matthew Joseph Harrington and Hal Colebatch
• 131 - The Trooper and the Triangle - [Man-Kzin Wars] - (2009) - shortfiction by Hal Colebatch
• 149 - String - [Man-Kzin Wars] - (2009) - shortfiction by Hal Colebatch and Matthew Joseph Harrington
• 197 - Peace and Freedom - [Man-Kzin Wars] - (2009) - shortfiction by Matthew Joseph Harrington
• 227 - Independent - [Man-Kzin Wars] - (2009) - shortfiction by Paul Chafe

Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings is a study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien written by Lin Carter. It was 1st published in paper by Ballantine in 3/69 & went thru numerous additional printings. It was among the earliest full-length critical works devoted to Tolkien's fantasies, the 1st to set his writings in their proper context in the history of fantasy. It was the earliest of three studies by Carter devoted to fantasy/horror writers & the history of fantasy, being followed by Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos ('72) & Imaginary Worlds: The Art of Fantasy ('73), establishing him as an authority on the genre, indirectly leading to his editorial guidance of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. Gollancz published a cloth edition updated by Adam Roberts in 8/03.

The study serves as an introduction for those unfamiliar with Tolkien's work. An introduction briefly reviews the publishing phenomenon of The Lord of the Rings & its popularity in the wake of the 1st paper editions in the '60s, after which he devotes three chapters to a short biography of the author thru the late '60s, including an account of how it was written. Four chapters explaining Middle-earth & summarizing the stories of The Hobbit & the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings follow, for the benefit of readers who may not have actually read the works.

Carter next turns to the question of what the works are, a point of some confusion at the time. The then-current vogue for realistic fiction provided critics with few tools for evaluating an out-&-out fantasy on its own terms. Attempts to deconstruct it as a satire or allegory were rife. Carter firmly debunks these efforts, supporting his argument by drawing on Tolkien's own published ruminations on fantasy's functions & purposes. He then contextualizes the works by sketching the history of written fantasy from its earliest appearance in the epic poetry of the ancient world thru the heroic poetry of the Dark & the prose romances of the Middle Ages, down to the fairy tales, ghost stories & gothic novels of the early modern era & the rediscovery of the genre by writers of the 19-20th centuries prior to & contemporary with Tolkien. The origins of the modern genre are discovered in the writings of Wm Morris, Lord Dunsany & E.R. Eddison & followed thru the works of authors they influenced, including H.P. Lovecraft, Fletcher Pratt, L. Sprague de Camp & Mervyn Peake.

Carter next highlights some of Tolkien's particular debts to his predecessors, tracing the motifs & names he utilizes back to their beginnings in Norse mythology & highlighting other echoes in his work deriving from legend & history. Finally noted is Tolkien's influence on contemporary fantasy, which was just beginning to make itself felt, primarily in the juvenile fantasies of Carol Kendall, Alan Garner & Lloyd Alexander.

As he wrote The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's mental pictures often found expression in drawing, from rough sketches made within the manuscript to more finished illustrations. Only a few of these were meant for publication; most were aids to help Tolkien conceive his complex story and keep it consistent. Many do not illustrate the final text, but represent moments of creation, illuminating Tolkien's process of writing and design. In addition to pictorial sketches, numerous maps follow the development of the Shire and the larger landscape of Middle-earth, while inscriptions in runes and Elvish script, and "facsimile" leaves from the burned and blood-stained Book of Mazarbul, support Tolkien's pose as an "editor" or "translator" of ancient records.

The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien collects these drawings, inscriptions, maps, and plans in one deluxe volume. More than 180 images are included, all of them printed in color from high-quality scans and photographs, more than half not previously published. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, two of the world's leading Tolkien scholars, have edited the book and provide an expert introduction and comments.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.

When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.

The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.

This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure, The Lord of the Rings.

Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power -- the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring -- the ring that rules them all -- which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take the accursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor–the dark Kingdom where Sauron was supreme. Their guide was Gollum, deceitful and slave to the corruption of the Ring.

Thus continues the magnificent, bestselling tale of adventure begun in The Fellowship of the Ring, which reaches its soul-stirring climax in The Return of the King.

The third volume in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure THE LORD OF THE RINGS

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

As the Shadow of Mordor grows across the land, the Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, has joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard, and takes part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escape into Fangorn Forest and there encounter the Ents. Gandalf has miraculously returned and defeated the evil wizard, Saruman. Sam has left his master for dead after a battle with the giant spider, Shelob; but Frodo is still alive--now in the foul hands of the Orcs. And all the while the armies of the Dark Lord are massing as the One Ring draws ever nearer to the Cracks of Doom.

"A triumphant close... a grand piece of work, grand in both conception and execution. An astonishing imaginative tour de force."--Daily Telegraph

Includes the complete appendices and index for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Fosse House, home of the reclusive Luisa Gilmore, harbours curious secrets - secrets that stretch back almost a century, to the ill-fated Palestrina Choir in its remote Belgian convent.

When Oxford don Michael Flint travels to the house to trace the origins of the long-dead Choir, he is at once aware of the house's eerie menace. Who is the shadowy young man who lurks in the grounds, and why does his exact likeness appear in a sketch from 1917? What is the strange whispering that echoes through the corridors? And why is Luisa so afraid when a storm makes it necessary for Michael to spend the night inside the house?

Back in Oxford, when Nell West uncovers the story of the infamous 1917 'Holzminden sketch' - the lost, legendary drawing from World War I - a dark fragment of the past begins to stir. A fragment that Michael, in the lonely old house, may not be able to resist.

The death-stars had come, and they had kept on coming for hundreds of thousands of years, falling upon the Earth, swept upon it by a vagrant star that had passed through the outer reaches of the solar system. They brought with them a time of unending darkness and cold. It was an event that occured every twenty-six million years, and there was no turning it aside

But all that was done with now. At last the death-stars had ceased to fall, the sky had cleared of dust and cinders, the sun's warmth again was able to break through the clouds. The glaciers relinquished their hold on the land; the Long Winter ended; the New Springtime began. The world was born anew.

Now each year was warmer than the last. The fair seasons of spring and summer, long lost from the world, came again with increasing power. And the People, having survived the dark time in their sealed cocoons, were spreading rapidly across the fertile land. But others were already there. The hjjks, the somber cold-eyed insect-folk, had never retreated, even at the time of greatest chill. The world had fallen to them by default, and they had been its sole masters for seven hundred thousand years. They were not likely to share it gladly now...

The darkness will find you.

Seventeen-year-old Tark knows what it is to be powerless. But Okiku changed that. A restless spirit who ended life as a victim and started death as an avenger, she's groomed Tark to destroy the wicked. But when darkness pulls them deep into Aokigahara, known as Japan's suicide forest, Okiku's justice becomes blurred, and Tark is the one who will pay the price...

Breathtaking and haunting, Rin Chupeco's second novel is a chilling companion to her debut, The Girl from the Well.

The fiercest herioine of the Hyborian kingdoms battles dark sorceries and her own dark soul.

She lived in a savage world in an uncivilized age-a world ruled by men and governed by the sword. They called her Red Sonja-for her flame-red hair, for the smouldering fire of her pride which gave her sword-arm strength that few men could match and none had ever defeated.

On the magical planet Gramarye, 500 years from their own time, Rod and Gwen Gallowglass are held captive in an alternative universe--a world where purple-skinned, fur-kilted men challenge them in primitive battle. Lost within time and space, and unable to communicate with the combative natives, Rod and Gwen must fight for their freedom and survival.

In the wake of the destruction of Psychon the Moon approaches the planet Ekimmu, a world visited in the past by Psychon expeditions, an ocean world with an abandoned city hidden below its blood-red waters. Maya, Daughter of Mentor, accompanies the Alphans as they explore the planet and the possibility of settling there. Not yet an Alphan, Maya seeks clues to the fate of her people. Together they find that the waters of Ekimmu are now the medium of madness, desperation and rage. The Alphans face a terrible choice: eternal torment or death.

The U.S.S. Enterprise responds to a distress call from a vital dilithium-mining colony in the Klondike system. The colony is located on Skagway, a moon orbiting Klondike-6, a gas giant not unlike Saturn. For unknown reasons, the planet's rings are coming apart, threatening the colony and its inhabitants. Kirk and his crew need to find a solution--fast.There are more than 3,000 colonists, including hundreds of families, on Skagway, which is more than even the Enterprise can take on, and there are no other rescue ships or habitable planets anywhere in the vicinity.

Meanwhile, an approaching comet that may be the source of the crisis turns out to be a mysterious alien probe. Sensors indicate that the probe is incredibly old and running low on power. Suspecting that the probe may have something to do with the threat to Skagway, Kirk has the probe beamed aboard the Enterprise. Suddenly after a blinding flash, Kirk suddenly finds himself floating in orbit above Saturn in our solar system, drifting in space wearing a twenty-first century NASA spacesuit. What just happened...?

An entire solar system begins to disintegrate into cosmic rubble, and Captain Kirk suspects that rumors of a new Klingon superweapon are all too true. The Tautee system houses a flourishing pre-Warp civilization not quite ready to join the Federation, so the Prime Directive limits Kirk's ability to prevent the disaster, and to make matters worse his rescue efforts provoke an attack from four Klingon warships. But soon Kirk recognizes that he must get to the bottom of the forces at work in the Tautee system, because they could spill over into the rest of the galaxy.

In A Single Moment

...the lives of three men will be forever changed. In that split second, defined paradoxically by both salvation and loss, they will destroy the world and then restore it. Much had come before, and much would come after, but nothing would color their lives more than that one, isolated instant on the edge of forever.

In A Single Moment

...James T. Kirk, displaced in time, allows the love of his life to die in a traffic accident, thereby preserving Earth's history. Returning to the present, he continues a storied career as a starship captain, opening up the galaxy. But as he wanders among the stars, the incandescence that once filled his heart remains elusive.

In A Single Moment

...that haunts James T. Kirk throughout his life, he preserved the timeline at the cost of his happiness. Now, facing his own death, the very fabric of existence collapses across years and light-years, forcing him to race against -- and through -- time itself, until he comes full circle to that one bright star by which his life has always steered.

For centuries, the island nation of Redcap has been obligated to pay tribute to the powerful nation of Sylvanna. Suffering under the heavy burden of the contract that by rights should be declared illegal, the princesses of Redcap summon Gale, a wealthy seawoman, to advise them. Political savvy is only one weapon in Gale's diplomatic arsenal, but she's up against a Sylvanner ambassador who will push her to the brink... or over it.

A. M. Dellamonica's previous story for tor.com was a uniquely unusual contemporary fantasy love story set in the real world. "Among the Silvering Herd" takes place in another world, one that exists near ours but is quite different. "Among the Silvering Herd" is about loyalty, tradition, and the things people will do to protect what is theirs. This fantasy adventure shows off Dellamonica's gift for engaging characters and her ability to conjure unusual situations to test those characters' mettle.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Hugo Award winning and Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, December 1968. It can also be found in The Hugo Winners, Volume 2: (1963-70) (1971) and edited by Isaac Asimov, More Stories From the Hugo Winners, Volume 2 (1973), also edited by Isaac Asimov. It is included in the collections The Night Face and Other Stories (1978), Winners (1981), The Dark Between the Stars (1981), The Long Night (1983), Call Me Joe (2009) and Flandry's Legacy (2011).

An ancient Egyptian ring, pale red until dipped in living blood. Then its 600-year-old cure is renewed and a great museum becomes a killing ground. Can The Avenger stop the curse, or will he become its final victim?

Paul Ernst authored this novel under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

Painfully aware that her husband Irrylath is still not free of the White Witch's spell, Aeriel sets out on a dangerous quest to gather the winged steeds that Irrylath and his brothers need to do battle against the powerful witch.

The Demi-Monde is a computer-simulated training ground for soldiers. Populated by history's most notorious leaders, it is truly a Cyber-Hell.

Ella Thomas was sent there to rescue Norma Williams, the daughter of the President of the United States, but it has all gone horribly wrong, and now Norma herself must lead the Resistance. But first she must come to terms with the knowledge that those she thought her friends are now her enemies. To triumph, she must be more than she ever believed she could be... or perish – in both worlds.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory first teamed up to write The Obsidian Trilogy, set in a wondrous world filled with magical beings, competing magic systems, and a titanic struggle between good and evil. That world proved so popular with the creators and readers alike that Lackey and Mallory have returned to it with The Phoenix Unchained, Book One of The Enduring Flame, the opening volume of a new epic fantasy trilogy.

After a thousand years of peace, much Magick has faded from the world. The Elves live far from humankind. There are no High Mages, and Wild Mages are seen only rarely. Bisochim, a powerful Wild Mage, is determined to reintroduce Darkness to the world, believing that it is out of Balance.

Tiercel, a young Armethalian nobleman, is convinced that High Magic is not just philosophy. He attempts a spell--and draws the unwelcome attention of Bisochim. Tiercel survives Bisochim's attack and begins trying to turn himself into a High Mage.

Next in line to be Harbormaster of Armethalieh, Harrier instead finds himself regularly saving Tyr's life and meeting magickal people and creatures. To Harrier's dismay, it seems that he must become a hero.

In The Phoenix Unchained, Harrier and Tiercel begin a marvelous journey to uncover their destinies. Along the way, they meet a charming female centaur, several snooty Elves, and the most powerful dragon their world has ever known.

In The Phoenix Endangered, second in The Enduring Flame, Tiercel, a budding High Mage, and Harrier, a reluctant Knight-Mage, develop greater power—and learn of the evils of war when they see the devastation caused by the fanatical armies of the Wild Mage Bisochim.

The desert tribespeople led by young Shaiara flee Bisochim's evil, seeking a legendary oasis deep in the desert—a refuge that may hold the key to stopping Bisochim and preserving the Balance between Light and Darkness... or that may be the cause of Light's ultimate downfall.

In The Enduring Flame trilogy, Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory have given readers a new view of the complex and fascinating world they originally created for The Obsidian Trilogy. Jumping one thousand years in time, Lackey and Mallory have told the compelling story of Harrier Gillain, the first Knight-Mage in a thousand years; Tiercel Rolfort, the first High Mage in hundreds of years; and Shaiara, the young leader of a desert tribe who takes both boys under her wing but finds that she has a special affection for Harrier.

These three young people are their world's main defense against the evil called up by the rogue Wild Mage, Bisochim. Bisochim's conviction that he was restoring the balance was shattered the moment Ahairan took her first breath. Now, in The Phoenix Transformed, Bisochim joins forces with Harrier and Tiercel and the three mages search desperately for a way to destroy Ahairan as she sends her magical forces against them and the desert nomads under their protection.

With more than one twist in the telling, centering on a magic-plagued journey across a blistering desert, The Phoenix Transformed is the stunning conclusion to The Enduring Flame.

Combined volume:

• The Memoirs of Alcheringa
• The Gaian Expedient
• The Master of Norriya

What began as just another Alcheringian raiding party--sanctioned by the chief and approved by the Gods_ had gradually become a war to the death.

But nothing was quite as it seemed to the primitives of Norriya, for forces they could hardly comprehend were influencing events from offstage. More than tribal honor was at stake--the future of Man was being decided and time was running out!

Time had run out for the twentieth century, and civilization disappeared in radioactivity, heat, and fire. But farsighted men had hidden a colony to help Man recover from the War--and, perhaps, even prevent future ones.

Yet after several hundred years, time was running out for the colony as well--Yggdrasil's supplies were almost gone, the tribes she was to teach refused to learn, and nomads daily raided her borders.

And as shortages became more desperate, radical solutions were proposed by those who had lost sight of Yggdrasil's goals. If something wasn't done soon, Yggdrasil would be reduced to using the same methods that had previously threatened the planet...

Late in the Twentieth Century farsighted men had hidden the colony Yggdrasil far underground. From there it could guide: the survivors of the Final War toward a true civilization, one that would never settle its problems on the battlefield.

Yet after just two centuries, tribes were in revolt, high-tech supplies were running low, and the colony's leaders were planning to enslave aborigines so that Yggdrasil could continue to live in the luxurious fashion of the ancients.

But a ragtag band of mutants and outcasts had other ideas. And one man among them knew the secret of the ancients' power...

First they went to Kratos - and faced the Deathworms. Then they went on to Tantalus and tried to fathom the Rings - which could only have been fabricated with the help of highly sophisticated machinery. And then they discover an alien spaceship orbiting the planet in strict silence and incommunicability. When they finally boarded the vessel, it was obvious that it had been derelict for centuries - as a result of some dreadful battle. Meanwhile down below, the enigmatic Rings lay waiting to deal with intruders - as they did the deadly vampire tree. Once again, Commander James Conrad and his team of Expendables faced their mission to find planets suitable for colonization.

A mage's power has brought five university students from our world into a realm where an ancient evil has freed itself from captivity to wreak revenge on its enemies.

Aljan, the headstrong son of the prince of the unicorns, becomes a warrior and discovers his destiny in his people's struggle against the hideous wyrms usurping their land.

Jan, the prince of the unicorns, pursues his destiny to save his kind from their enemies by seeking fire in a distant land of two-footed creatures.

Jan, the prince of the unicorns, uses his knowledge of fire to form a historic alliance between his people and their former enemies and to return the unicorns to their ancestral homeland.

Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside. When she is given a task that no other community member can carry out, Kira soon realizes that she is surrounded by many mysteries and secrets. No one must know of her plans to uncover the truth about her world-and to find out what exists beyond it.

What if a society banished its worst nightmare to the far edge of the solar system, destined to sip only dregs of light and struggle for the barest living. And yet, that life thrived? It grew and learned and became far more than you ever expected, and it wanted to return to the sun. What if it didn't share your moral compass in any way?

The Glittering Edge duology describes the clash of forces when an advanced society that has filled a solar system with flesh and blood life meets the near-AI's that it banished long ago. This is a story of love for the wild and natural life on a colony planet, complex adventure set in powerful space stations, and the desire to live completely whether you are made of flesh and bone or silicon and carbon fiber.

In Edge of Dark, meet ranger Charlie Windar and his adopted wild predator, and explore their home on a planet that has been raped and restored more than once. Meet Nona Hall, child of power and privilege from the greatest station in the system, the Diamond Deep. Meet Nona's best friend, a young woman named Chrystal who awakens in a robotic body....

When the post-human Next suddenly re-appear in a solar system that banished them, humans are threatened. Their reactions vary from disgust and anger to yearning to live forever like the powerful Next, who are casually building a new city out of starships in the heart of the re-wilded planet Lym. The first families of Lym must deal with being invaded while they grapple with their own inner fears.

Ranger Charlie Windar is desperate to save his beloved planet. The Next are building strange cities he never imagined, and other humans who want to destroy the Next are his worst enemies.

Ambassador Nona Hall strives to forge links between the powerful station she's from, The Diamond Deep, and the people of Lym. The formidable merchant Gunnar Ellensson appears to be up to no good, and as usual his motivations are suspect. Why is he sending ships to Lym, and what does he intend to do with them when he arrives?

The Shining Revolution threatens to undo everything by attacking the Next on Lym, and their desire to eradicate the post-humans is greater than their desire to save humanity's home. It is entirely possible that they will draw the wrath of the Next onto all of humanity.

In the meantime, the Next's motives remain inscrutable. Why are they here at all? What do they want? Why are they interested in the ancient past of a planet that has been ravaged and rebuilt at least once?

Andromeda Nebula is an cosmic sf opera about a post-capitalist society one thousand or so years into the far future. The people of this society have made contact with extra-terrestrials via a long distance communications network known as 'the Great Circle'. In the novel the Great Circle pre-exists human contact. Humans of Earth made contact with the Great Circle -- an achievement made possible by the powerful engines, receivers and transmitters of a planetary society rationally organised in a post market fashion.

The activities with which most humans are creatively engaged are scientific research and artistic expression. The material necessities of life are produced by automatic machinery, or by the targeted use of human labour in industrial areas not completely automatized. The latter activities are voluntarily organised and are often conducted on a temporary basis in-between the more usual scientific and artistic activities.

Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daughter of a hateful family. But that name she has forsworn, and now she is simply Lin, a musician and lyricist of uncommon ability in a land where women are forbidden to answer such callings -- a fugitive who must conceal her identity or risk imprisonment and even death.

On the eve of a great festival, Lin learns that an ancient scourge has returned to the land of Eivar, a pandemic both deadly and unnatural. Its resurgence brings with it the memory of an apocalypse that transformed half a continent. Long ago, magic was everywhere, rising from artistic expression -- from song, from verse, from stories. But in Eivar, where poets once wove enchantments from their words and harps, the power was lost. Forbidden experiments in blood divination unleashed the plague that is remembered as the Red Death, killing thousands before it was stopped, and Eivar's connection to the Otherworld from which all enchantment flowed, broken.

The Red Death's return can mean only one thing: someone is spilling innocent blood in order to master dark magic. Now poets who thought only to gain fame for their songs face a challenge much greater: galvanized by Valanir Ocune, greatest Seer of the age, Lin and several others set out to reclaim their legacy and reopen the way to the Otherworld -- a quest that will test their deepest desires, imperil their lives, and decide the future.

Lin, newly initiated in the art of otherwordly enchantments, is sent to aid her homeland's allies against savage attacks from the Fire Dancers: mysterious practitioners of strange and deadly magic. Forced to step into a dangerous waltz of tradition, treachery, and palace secrets, Lin must also race the ticking clock of her own rapidly dwindling life to learn the truth of the Fire Dancers' war, and how she might prevent death on a scale too terrifying to contemplate.

Prophecies unfold, legends turn real, and a war of mythical proportions endangers the realm in Ilana C. Myer's epic fantasy The Poet King, the follow-up to her critically-acclaimed Fire Dance, continuing The Harp and Ring Sequence.

After a surprising upheaval, the nation of Tamryllin has a new ruler: Elissan Diar, who proclaims himself the first Poet King. Not all in court is happy with this regime change, as Rianna secretly schemes against him while she investigates a mysterious weapon he hides in the bowels of the palace.

Meanwhile, a civil war rages in a distant land, and former Court Poet Lin Amaristoth gathers allies old and new to return to Tamryllin in time to stop the coronation. For the Poet King's ascension is connected with a darker, more sinister prophecy which threatens to unleash a battle out of legend unless Lin and her friends can stop it.

In The War of the Ring Christopher Tolkien takes up the story of the writing of The Lord of the Rings with the Battle of Helm's Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents. This is followed by an account of how Frodo, Sam and Gollum were finally brought to the Pass of Kirith Ungol, at which point J.R.R. Tolkien wrote at the time: 'I have got the hero into such a fix that not even an author will be able to extricate him without labour and difficulty'. Then comes the war in Gondor, and the book ends with the parley between Gandalf and the ambassador of the Dark Lord before the Black Gate of Mordor. In describing his intentions for The Return of the King J.R.R. Tolkien said that 'It will probably work out very differently from this plan when it really gets written, as the thing seems to write itself once it gets going'; and in The War of the Ring totally unforeseen developmenst that would become central to the narrative are seen at the moment of their emergence: the palantir bursting into fragments on the stairs of Orthanc, its nature as unknown to the author as to those who saw it fall, or the entry of Faramir into the story ('I am sure I did not invent him, though I like him, but there he came walking into the woods of Ithilien').

The book is illustrated with plans and drawings of the changing conceptions of Orthanc, Dunharrow, Minas Tirith and the tunnels of Shelob's Lair.

The Earth has disappeared, but was it destroyed by an unauthorized gravity experiment, or was the planet kidnapped by an alien race? Humanity must discover the answer before it's too late.

In Iskryne, the war against the Trollish invasion has been won, and the lands of men are safe again... at least for a while. Isolfr and his sister, the Konigenwolf Viradechtis, have established their own wolfhaell. Viradechtis has taken two mates, and so the human pack has two war leaders. And in the way of the pack, they must come to terms with each other, must become brothers instead of rivals--for Viradechtis will not be gainsaid.

She may even be prescient.

A new danger comes to Iskryne. An army of men approaches, an army that wishes to conquer and rule. The giant trellwolves and their human brothers have never hunted men before. They will need to learn if they are to defend their homes.

Justice and the First Unit travel to Dustland once again. Can they destroy evil and save the future world?

Knowing they have unfinished business in the future, Justice, the Watcher, Thomas, the magician, Levi, the sufferer, and Dorian, the healer, again combine to form their unit and time-travel to Dustland. The unit hopes to guide the beings of Dustland out of the dangerous, barren place in the hopes of finding a safer home. But neither the unit nor the inhabitants of Dustland are truly safe as long as the sinister Mal remains in power. Will the unit be able to overcome Mal once and for all?

The Gathering is the third and final installment of Virginia Hamilton's dystopian fantasy series, the Justice Trilogy, comprised of Justice and Her Brothers, Dustland, and The Gathering.

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

From the New York Times Bestselling author of The Black Prism...

Gavin Guile is dying. He'd thought he had five years left--now he has less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son, and an ex-fianc?e who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin has problems on every side.

All magic in the world is running wild and threatens to destroy the Seven Satrapies. Worst of all, the old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.

As the old gods awaken and satrapies splinter, the Chromeria races to find its lost Prism, the only man who may be able to stop catastrophe. But Gavin Guile is enslaved on a pirate galley. Worse, Gavin no longer has the one thing that defined him -- the ability to draft.

Without the protection of his father, Kip Guile will have to face a master of shadows alone as his grandfather moves to choose a new Prism and put himself in power. With Teia and Karris, Kip will have to use all his wits to survive a secret war between noble houses, religious factions, rebels, and an ascendant order of hidden assassins, The Broken Eye.

The nail-biting conclusion to the Lightbringer series from New York Times bestseller Brent Weeks.

Stripped of both magical and political power, the people he once ruled told he's dead, and now imprisoned in his own magical dungeon, former Emperor Gavin Guile has no prospect of escape. But the world faces a calamity greater than the Seven Satrapies has ever seen... and only he can save it.

As the armies of the White King defeat the Chromeria and old gods are born anew, the fate of worlds will come down to one question: Who is the Lightbringer?

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.

Fifteen years have passed since the devastating war between the Galt Empire and the cities of the Khaiem in which the Khaiem's poets and their magical power known as "andat" were destroyed, leaving the women of the Khaiem and the men of Galt infertile.

The emperor of the Khaiem tries to form a marriage alliance between his son and the daughter of a Galtic lord, hoping the Khaiem men and Galtic women will produce a new generation to help create a peaceful future.

But Maati, a poet who has been in hiding for years, driven by guilt over his part in the disastrous end of the war, defies tradition and begins training female poets. With Eiah, the emperor's daughter, helping him, he intends to create andat, to restore the world as it was before the war.

Vanjit, a woman haunted by her family's death in the war, creates a new andat. But hope turns to ashes as her creation unleashes a power that cripples all she touches.

As the prospect of peace dims under the lash of Vanjit's creation, Maati and Eiah try to end her reign of terror. But time is running out for both the Galts and the Khaiem.

The ambitious Sultan of Alpha Centauri can only claim the illustrious title of Caliph if he makes a ritual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. This journey completed, he will rule the entire population of the greater Islamic universe. But human knowledge has not yet been able to overcome the significant challenges presented by interplanetary travel. However, the Sultan resourcefully enlists the help of Abdul Hamid-Jones, a clever fugitive with a price on his head and the law on his heels.

Thrown into the bewildering world of the Sultan's schemes, Abdul receives a hasty introduction to complex physics and the even more complex political intrigues of the Sultan's court. Responsible for the successful execution of the Sultan's plan, Abdul slowly realizes with horror that the fate of the entire Solar system could be resting on his shoulders.

Only a few nuclear weapons fell in America-the weapons that destroyed our nation were biological and, ultimately, cultural. But in the chaos, the famine, the plague, there exited a few pockets of order. The strongest of them was the state of Deseret, formed from the vestiges of Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. The climate has changed. The Great Salt Lake has filled up to prehistoric levels. But there, on the fringes, brave, hardworking pioneers are making the desert bloom again.

A civilization cannot be reclaimed by powerful organizations, or even by great men alone. It must be renewed by individual men and women, one by one, working together to make a community, a nation, a new America.

Table of Contents:

• West - (1987) - novella
• Salvage - (1986) - novelette
• The Fringe - (1985) - novelette
• Pageant Wagon - (1989) - novella
• America - (1987) - novelette
• Author's Note: On Sycamore Hill - (1985) - essay
• Afterword - essay by Michael R. Collings

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1985 and was reprinted in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, #14, September 2009. The story can aslo be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986), edited by Gardner Dozois, Nebula Awards 21 (1986), edited by George Zebrowski and Future on Ice (1998), edited by Orson Scott Card. It is included in the collection The Folk of the Fringe (1989).

It was supposed to be a civilized event...

But the first-ever cultural exchange between the Sevolite empire and the worlds of Rire was in trouble even before festivities were interrupted by the desperate rescue of a rebel Nesak priest.

There are plenty reasons for cross-cultural relations to be strained. Horth braved a Demish ball to find out why Ilse ran away. Ilse's not the only woman dealing with an unexpected pregnancy. And Eler's staging questionable plays. Amel's in trouble with the Vrellish for agreeing to get married and in trouble with the Demish for agreeing to perform with a Reetion dancer who turns out to be gay. When Amel's ex-lover, Ann of Rire, puts in an appearance with a baby she claims to be his, his Bridegroom ball is at stake. As well as the baby's life, if the Vrellish suspect unnatural origins.

The arrival of a Lorel doctor in a bizarre ship stirs the mix. And controversy flares into a duel when Rire discovers Nersallians hunt and kill grabrats -- the only intelligent aliens known to Rire.

And then the Nesaks arrive, prepared to shut down the new dawn of civilization with total war.

Ready for Anything--Except This

Strapped for cash, Souya signs up for a shady gig straight out of a video game: warp to a fantasy world with a team of experts and ascend a dungeon tower to make off with its spoils. However, an accident in the transfer process leaves him stranded there alone. Desperate for support, he recruits a host of adventurers--from elven sisters banished from their forest, to a Goddess of Deception and Secrecy partial to lazing about as a cat--to form a party that can brave the tower's perils. Caught between corrupt nobles and merchants outside the dungeon and deadly monsters within, can this motley band rise to the challenge? Or will Souya's adventure end before it even begins?

A curse passed down in blood...

Continuing their quest to reach the 56th floor of the Tower of Legions, Souya and his party decide to take on a dangerous new monster, the Dragonoise Mydranga, in a bid for glory. Little do they know, however, that this decision portends a series of devastating tragedies... As the band charts the 13th floor of the dungeon, the horrific truth behind the homeland of one of Souya's companions comes to light. Is this where the adventures of Souya, Lana, a, Bel, Shuna, Zenobia, and Arvin fall to pieces?

Though the loss of Arvin and Zenobia still weighs heavy on their hearts, Souya and his remaining party members steel themselves to take on the dungeon once again. This time, they're up against their greatest trial yet: The Deranged Stratum, a perilous section of the labyrinth where a malevolent being has been abducting countless victims. And it looks like Lana is its next target...

A towering epic of fantasy, The Pearl, is launched in The Ring of Five Dragons. Filled with action, color, and the myriad details of another world, The Pearl is the first great fantasy series of the new millennium, set to rival Robert Jordan, David Eddings, George R. R. Martin, Terry Brooks, and Terry Goodkind in popular appeal.

This astonishing first volume opens as the Kundalan people have suffered for a century under the viciously oppressive, technologically-superior V'ornn invaders. In the resulting crisis of faith -- why hasn't their goddess Miina saved them? -- Kundalan religion has fallen under the control of evil forces from within who forbid the teaching of traditional sorcery, pretending to have no magic of their own. The V'ornn's mysterious leaders, the Gyrgon, know better, and search for the lost Ring of Five Dragons, the key to the door of the fabled Kundalan Storehouse, and perhaps to Kundalan sorcery as well.

But misused, the Ring is the trigger of seemingly inexorable annihilation for V'ornn and Kundalan alike. Now from among the oppressed must arise the hero of prophecy, the Dar Sala-at, who alone can wield the sorcerous power to save the world.

Thus begins a huge epic rooted in the conflict between spiritual and technological cultures. The twisting plot raises difficult and provocative moral questions in the course of a constantly surprising, sometimes shocking, fantastic adventure that will transport fantasy readers to new heights of enthusiasm, and make them ask for more.

Zenna Henderson is best remembered for her stories of the People which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from the early 50s to the middle 70s. The People escaped the destruction of their home planet and crashed on Earth in the Southwest just before the turn of the century. Fully human in appearance, they possessed many extraordinary powers. Henderson’s People stories tell of their struggles to fit in and to live their lives as ordinary people, unmolested by fearful and ignorant neighbors. The People are “us at our best, as we hope to be, and where (with work and with luck) we may be in some future.”

Ingathering contains all seventeen of the People stories, including one, “Michal Without,” which has never before been published.

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Ingathering: The Complete People Stories) - (1995) - essay by Priscilla Olson
• 1 - Lea 1 - [The People - 1] - (1961) - short fiction (variant of I (Pilgrimage: The Book of the People))
• 13 - Ararat - [The People] - (1952) - novelette
• 33 - Lea 2 - [The People - 2] - (1961) - short fiction (variant of II (Pilgrimage: The Book of the People))
• 39 - Gilead - [The People] - (1954) - novelette
• 65 - Lea 3 - [The People - 3] - (1961) - short fiction (variant of III (Pilgrimage: The Book of the People))
• 67 - Pottage - [The People] - (1955) - novelette
• 97 - Lea 4 - [The People - 4] - (1961) - short fiction (variant of IV (Pilgrimage: The Book of the People))
• 103 - Wilderness - [The People] - (1957) - novelette
• 137 - Lea 5 - [The People - 5] - (1961) - short fiction (variant of V (Pilgrimage: The Book of the People))
• 141 - Captivity - [The People] - (1958) - novella
• 181 - Lea 6 - [The People - 6] - (1961) - short fiction (variant of VI (Pilgrimage: The Book of the People))
• 191 - Jordan - [The People] - (1959) - novelette
• 217 - No Different Flesh - [The People] - (1965) - novelette
• 249 - Mark & Meris 1 - [The People] - (1995) - short fiction
• 253 - Deluge - [The People] - (1963) - novelette
• 283 - Mark & Meris 2 - [The People] - (1995) - short fiction
• 287 - Angels Unawares - [The People] - (1966) - novelette
• 319 - Mark & Meris 3 - [The People] - (1995) - short fiction
• 321 - Troubling of the Water - [The People] - (1966) - novelette
• 351 - Mark & Meris 4 - [The People] - (1995) - short fiction
• 353 - Return - [The People] - (1961) - novelette
• 385 - Mark & Meris 5 - [The People] - (1995) - short fiction
• 387 - Shadow on the Moon - [The People] - (1962) - novelette
• 423 - Tell Us a Story - [The People] - (1980) - novella
• 461 - That Boy - [The People] - (1971) - novelette
• 497 - Michal Without - [The People] - (1995) - novelette
• 525 - The Indelible Kind - [The People] - (1968) - novelette
• 555 - Katie-Mary's Trip - [The People] - (1975) - short story
• 569 - The People Series - (1980) - essay
• 573 - Chronology of the People Stories - (1995) - essay by Mark L. Olson and Priscilla Olson

Imagine lacking something that everyone else has.

Something that proves you belong to this world. Something so vital that without it, you are nothing. A plague. A myth. A human.

Fifteen winters old, Hirka learns that she is an Odin's child--a tailless rot from another world. Despised. Dreaded. Hunted. She no longer knows who she is, and someone wants to kill her to keep it a secret. But there are worse things than humans, and Hirka is not the only creature to have broken through the gates...

Odin's Child is a unique fantasy with Norse roots. An epic clash of xenophobia, blind faith, and the right or will to lead. The first in a trilogy, Odin's Child is a thrilling modern fantasy epic.

She has no identity. No family. No money. But the fate of the worlds rests in her hands.

Hirka is stranded in a rotting world, with nothing but a raven and a notebook to connect her to the life she left behind in Ym. She came in search of her family, believing that she could protect Rime and the rest of Ym from the ancient evil of the blind. Instead, what Hirka finds in this new world are people willing to do anything for the blessing--or the curse--of eternal life. And for Rime, the threat of the blind is only growing stronger...

Separated by worlds, unsure who to trust, and in danger from all sides, Hirka and Rime fight to end a thousand-year quest for power and revenge--and, maybe, to find a way back to each other.

In this follow-up to the international bestseller Odin's Child, Norse-inspired mythology combines with modern-day action to create a work that is wholly original, endlessly surprising, and utterly unforgettable.

HIrka has been sent to the world of the blind, a powerful and immortal people whom she has been taught to fear since infancy--and who now see her as their only chance to reignite a thousand-year-old war. The blind will use Hirka's ability to travel between worlds to return to Ym, the land where Hirka grew up and where the blind were betrayed all those years ago. And this time, they will prevail.

Hirka is torn between her loyalties to the people who birthed her and the people who raised her, between the savior she is expected to be and the individual she wants to be. And every choice she makes pulls her further away from Rime, the love of her life, who is doing everything he can to stop Ym from falling to pieces all around him.

A million things stand between Hirka and Rime. But only together can they stop the end of the worlds.

A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.

Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society's fears to a rural Japan--a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic--haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late--for everyone--assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.

Dr. Ando who has yet to recover from his son's death at sea, conducts an autopsy on an old friend who has died under unusual circumstances. The corpse, that of cynical philosophy professor Ryuji Takayama, has something to tell him. And Ryuji isn't the only one who chooses to make a reappearance in this story.

You don't know what the RING is yet. The terms of the curse of the videotape undergo a jaw-dropping reconfiguration in this novel, the horror master's stunning reinvention of his own bestselling tale. Spiral is written as a stand-alone work; for Rinbg fans, its' a sequel that redefines the word.

Learn the final truth about the Ring! In this much-awaited conclusion of the Ring trilogy, everything you thought you knew about the story will have to be put side. In Loop, the killer mimics both AIDS and cancer in a deadly new guise. Kaoru Futami, a youth mature beyond his years, must hope to find answers in the deserts of New Mexico and the Loop project, a virtual matrix created by scientists. The fate of more than just his loved ones depends on Kaoru's success. Loop is written as a stand-alone work though it is best enjoyed by fans of Ring and Spiral. The author's own favorite of the trilogy, this astounding finale is an emotionally resonant tale that scales conceptual heights from an angle all its own. Fiction about fiction has rarely been so gripping.

Birthday is Ring-master Koji Suzuki's return to the Ring universe, a collection of short stories focusing on the female characters with a theme of birth. An exploration of extraordinary circumstances from the perspective of memorable women, this expansion of the Ring, Spiral, and Loop world was adapted into a hit movie less than a year after the book's publication.

Thirty years before the tragic events of Ring, Sadako Yamamura was an aspiring stage actress on the verge of her theatrical debut. The beautiful and ravishing Sadako was the object of every male's desire involved with the company including n the director. There was one thespian she was interested in, but...

Fast forward past the events of Ring, Ryuji Takayama's distraught lover, Mai Takano is struggling in the wake of the professor's mysterious demise. Mai visits Ryuji's parents' house to find the missing pages of his soon-to-be published article. There she is drawn to a curious videotape and a fate more terrifying than Ryuji or Kazuyuki Asakawa's.

Reiko Sugiura questioned the purpose of bringing a child into a world where there was only death. She already lost one son, and the father of her unborn child, Kaoru Futami, had disappeared in search of a cure to the deadly disease that threatened all life. Despite Kaoru's to meet again in two months, he has not returned. Despondent but driven for answers Reiko is led to the Loop project, where she will discover the final truths of the Ring virus.

Twenty-one years after the legendary bestseller Ring, which spawned blockbuster films on both sides of the Pacific, and thirteen years after Birthday, the seeming last word on iconic villain Sadako and her containment, internationally acclaimed master of horror and Shirley Jackson Award-winner Koji Suzuki makes his much-awaited return to the famed trilogy's mind-blowing story world with a new novel, S.

Takanori Ando, son of Spiral protagonist Mitsuo, works at a small CGI production company and hopes to become a filmmaker one day despite coming from a family of doctors. When he's tasked by his boss to examine a putatively live-streamed video of a suicide that's been floating around the internet, the aspiring director takes on more than he bargained for. His lover Akane, an orphan who grew up at a foster-care facility and is now a rookie high-school teacher, ends up watching the clip. She is pregnant, and she is...triggered.

Sinking hooks into our unconscious from its very first pages with its creepy imagery, and rewarding curious fans of the series with clever self-references, here is a fitting sequel to a tale renowned for its ongoing mutations.

Long ago, the machines had rebelled, wiping out most of humanity and exiling the survivors in widely scattered reservations. Master System ruled unchallenged, the key to breaking its power--five microchips disguised as gold rings, carefully hidden away. But then an Amerindian called Hawks stumbled across information about the five rings, and suddenly Master System developed an interest in seeing Hawks dead....

Hawks had refused to help the ambitious Lazlo Chen in his quest to find the five gold rings that could break Master System's hold over humankind--and that refusal had landed him on the deadly prison planet Melchior.

But when Hawks and some fellow prisoners engineered a bold escape, it seemed almost too easy. Hawks guessed that Chen was pulling the strings, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was another, greater power involved. And that scared him.

Now the stakes were rising, and Hawks was more determined than ever to find the gold rings. But Master System was out to capture him, and Chen was trying to follow him--and the only place his small band of rebels could hide was smack in the middle of pirate territory...

Vulture is a shape-changer capable of absorbing the body and memories of any organic being. Without the information only Vulture can collect, the rebels will never succeed in gathering the five rings necessary to defeat Master System. Now an unknown entity seems to be giving Vulture an unseen hand. But the question is--whose side is it on?

The renegade pirates of the giant spaceship Thunder have collected all five of the rings necessary to eliminate the threat of Master System forever. But no one--not even Hawks--knows how the rings are used. And with Master System's space fleet dogging their every step, they better find out fast!

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.

The Gospel of Shadows enabled the Catholic Church to control all manner of supernatural beings for centuries. When the book was destroyed -- and the ruling body of the Church with it -- it enabled the Shadows, the vampires of legend, to learn the hidden truth of their triple nature: part human, part demonic, part divine. But it also weakened the barriers that exist between the worlds, and now beings of pure evil are breaking through -- creatures from other dimensions for which Hell is just a name.

Peter Octavian, once a powerful Shadow, now restored to humanity, is the only man with sufficient knowledge to stop them. Aided by a earthwitch, a vampire and a priest, and calling on the magical forces of mother nature herself, Octavian stands between the Earth and apocalypse, as entire cities are plunged into the abyss...

Lakewalker Barr Foxbrush returns from two years of patrolling the bitter wilds of Luthlia against the enigmatic, destructive entities called malices, only to find that the secret daughter he'd left behind in the hinterland of Oleana has disappeared from her home after a terrible accusation. The search for her will call on more of Barr's mind and heart than just his mage powers, as he tries to balance his mistakes of the past and his most personal duties to the future.

Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family’s farm. But en route to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, nomadic soldier–sorcerers from the northern woodlands. Feared necromancers armed with mysterious knives made of human bone, they wage a secret, ongoing war against the scourge of the "malices," immortal entities that draw the life out of their victims, enslaving human and animal alike.

It is Dag—a Lakewalker patroller weighed down by past sorrows and onerous present responsibilities—who must come to Fawn’s aid when she is taken captive by a malice. They prevail at a devastating cost—unexpectedly binding their fates as they embark upon a remarkable journey into danger and delight, prejudice and partnership . . . and perhaps even love.

Ill-chance brought young Fawn Bluefield together with Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned soldier-sorcerer, but it was love and loyalty that joined their fates. While their unorthodox marriage has been grudgingly accepted by the clever farm girl's people, Dag's Lakewalker kin are less tolerant, greeting their union with derision, suspicion, and prejudice.

The specter of permanent exile looms above the couple—until a final decision on their lot is diverted by a sudden, viciously magical malice attack on a neighboring hinterland. Sworn to duty, Dag must answer the call, leaving his new bride behind. But what awaits him and his patrol could have serious and unimagined consequences for farmers and Lakewalkers alike, forever altering the lovers, their families, and their world.

Young Fawn Bluefield and soldier-sorcerer Dag Redwing Hickory have survived magical dangers with their passionate hearts strong and united. The bigotry of blood kin, however, cannot be easily overcome.

Leaving behind all that they have ever known, the couple sets off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples—but their passage will not be ventured alone. New companions join them on their road: Fawn's brother, Whit, escaping a hopeless future on the family farm; a pair of novice Lakewalker patrollers fleeing the catastrophic consequences of an honest mistake; a young flatboat captain searching for her vanished father and fiancé; a shrewd backwoods hunter; and a farmer boy unintentionally beguiled by Dag's growing magery.

On an eventful journey to where great rivers join, the ill-assorted crew will be sorely tested and tempered, as they encounter a new world of hazards both human and uncanny.

The concluding volume in the epic fantasy saga from multiple Hugo Award-winning author Lois McMaster Bujold

A Lakewalker entrusted with protecting the populace from malices—terrifying remnants of ancient magic—Dag Redwing Hickory never expected to fall in love with Fawn Bluefield, the farmer girl he rescued. When they joined in marriage, defying their kin, they bridged the perilous split between their peoples. Now Dag's extraordinary maker abilities have grown—along with his fears about who and what he is becoming, and his frustration with the disdain in which Lakewalker soldier-sorcerers are expected to hold their farmer neighbors.

Fawn and Dag's world is changing, and the traditional Lake-walker practices cannot continue to hold every malice at bay. At the end of their long journey home, the pair must at last answer the question they've grappled with for so long: When the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world's deadliest foe?

In the free-fall environment of the Smoke Ring, the descendants of the crew of the Discipline no longer remembered their Earth roots -- or the existence of Sharls Davis Kendy, the computer-program despot of the ship. Until Kendy initiated contact once more.

Fourteen years later, only Jeffer, the Citizens Tree Scientist, knew that Kendy was still watching -- and waiting. Then the Citizens Tree people rescued a family of loggers and learned for the first time of the Admiralty, a large society living in free fall amid the floating debris called the Clump. And it was likely that the Admiralty had maintained, intact, Discipline's original computer library.

Exploration was a temptation neither Jeffer nor Kendy could resist, and neither Citizens Tree nor Sharls Davis Kendy would ever be the same again...

Loosely based on Larry Niven's 1973 novella "Flash Crowd," Red Tide continues to examine the social consequences of the impact of having instantaneous teleportation, where humans can instantly travel long distances in milliseconds.

"Red Tide", by Larry Niven, is an updated version of his 1973 novella "Flash Crowd", about the social consequences of inventing an instant, practically free transfer booth that can take one anywhere on Earth in milliseconds.

One consequence not foreseen by the builders of the system was that with the almost immediate reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide - along with criminals - would teleport to the scene of anything interesting, thus creating disorder and confusion. The plot centers around a television journalist who, after being fired for his inadvertent role in inciting a post-robbery riot in Los Angeles, decides to independently investigate the teleportation system for the flaws in its design allowing for such spontaneous riots to occur.

"Dial at Random", a companion novelette also by Niven, steps back in time to when the new, experimental long-distance teleportation system is being tested by its inventor. Something goes terribly awry, and a teenage girl is subjected to a bizarre journey.

"Sparky the Dog" a novelette by Brad R. Torgersen, ties the lives of the journalist and inventor together with a flashback to the early days of the teleportation experiments, when the inventor and his dog went on a wild adventure.

"Displacement Activity" a novelette by Matthew J. Harrington, relates the story of a man accidentally teleported far across the galaxy, where he must adapt into a distant future society where humans are not much better than slaves.

Teleportation is a theme that has fascinated Niven throughout his career and even appears in his seminal work Ringworld, where the central character celebrates his birthday by instantly teleporting himself to different time zones, extending his birthday. Niven also discusses the impact of such instantaneous transportation in an included essay, "Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation."

Maria Lunurin has been living a double life for as long as she can remember. To the world, she is Sister Maria, dutiful nun and devoted servant of Aynila's Codicían colonizers. But behind closed doors, she is a stormcaller, chosen daughter of the Aynilan goddess Anitun Tabu. In hiding not only from the Codicíans and their witch hunts, but also from the vengeful eye of her slighted goddess, Lunurin does what she can to protect her fellow Aynilans and the small family she has created in the convent: her lover Catalina, and her younger sister Inez.

Lunurin is determined to keep her head down - until one day she makes a devastating discovery, which threatens to tear her family apart. In desperation, she turns for help to Alon Dakila, heir to Aynila's most powerful family, who has been ardently in love with Lunurin for years. But this choice sets in motion a chain of events beyond her control, awakening Anitun Tabu's rage and putting everyone Lunurin loves in terrible danger. Torn between the call of Alon's magic and Catalina's jealousy, her duty to her family and to her people, Lunurin can no longer keep Anitun Tabu's fury at bay.

For the goddess of storms demands vengeance. And she will sweep aside anyone who stands in her way.

A family is hunted by a centuries-old monster: a man with a relentless obsession who can take on any identity.

The String Diaries opens with Hannah frantically driving through the night--her daughter asleep in the back, her husband bleeding out in the seat beside her. In the trunk of the car rests a cache of diaries dating back 200 years, tied and retied with strings through generations. The diaries carry the rules for survival that have been handed down from mother to daughter since the 19th century. But how can Hannah escape an enemy with the ability to look and sound like the people she loves?

Stephen Lloyd Jones's debut novel is a sweeping thriller that extends from the present day, to Oxford in the 1970s, to Hungary at the turn of the 19th century, all tracing back to a man from an ancient royal family with a consuming passion--a boy who can change his shape, insert himself into the intimate lives of his victims, and destroy them.

If Hannah fails to end the chase now, her daughter is next in line. Only Hannah can decide how much she is willing to sacrifice to finally put a centuries-old curse to rest.

See the girl. Leah Wilde is twenty-four, a runaway on a black motorbike, hunting for answers while changing her identity with each new Central European town.

See the man, having come of age in extraordinary suffering and tragedy in nineteenth-century Budapest; witness to horror, to love, to death, and the wrath of a true monster. Izsák still lives in the present day, impossibly middle-aged. He's driven not only to hunt this immortal evil but to find his daughter, stolen from an Arctic cabin and grown into the thing Izsák has sworn to kill.

See the monster, a beautiful, seemingly young woman who stalks the American West, seeking the young and the strong to feed upon, desperate to return to Europe where her coven calls.

Written in the Blood is the epic thriller of the year, a blazing and dexterous saga spanning generations, and threading the lives of five individuals driven by love, by sacrifice, by hunger and by fear. They seek to save a race--or to extinguish it forever.

If all that is good thinks you evil... are you?

Once upon a time, the Seven Shapers dwelled in accord and Shaped the world to their will. But Satoris, the youngest among them, was deemed too generous in his gifts to the race of Men, and so began the Shapers' War, which Sundered the world. Now six of the Shapers lay to one end of a vast ocean, and Satoris to the other, reviled by even the race of Men.

Satoris sits in his Darkhaven, surrounded by his allies. Chief among them is Tanaros Blacksword, immortal Commander General of his army. Once a mortal man who was betrayed by King and Wife, Tanaros fled to Darkhaven a thousand years ago, and in Satoris's service has redeemed his honor-but left his humanity behind.

Now there is a new prophecy that tells of Satoris's destruction and the redemption of the world. To thwart it, Satoris sends Tanaros to capture the Lady of the Ellylon, the beautiful Cerelinde, to prevent her alliance with the last High King of Men.

Supreme Commander Lord Tanaros was once human. But he chose darkness and immortality when his wife betrayed him with his king. He killed them both, and fled the realms of Men and now cares nothing for their fates.

A thousand years passed. His only allegiance is to his master, the dark god Satoris, who gave the gift of Life to the race of Men. Satoris, who rebelled against his elder brother God Haomane who had demanded that gift be taken away. Their fight cracked the very world in two; the name of Satoris became the word for evil throughout all the races, while the legend of Tanaros is the seminal tale of treachery.

And yet not all tales told are true.

A final prophecy has begun to unfold, and the races are uniting in their quest to rid the world of Satoris. The elder gods and goddesses, stranded on the other side of the world, send dreams to spur all to destroy Satoris and Tanaros, but those loyal to their god know a different side of the story and try to defend their citadel of Darkhaven, where Satoris sits in sorrow, controlling his own dominion, seeking neither victory nor vengeance.

Satoris's followers capture the beautiful Elvish princess Cerelinde, and without her the Allies cannot fulfill the prophecy. All who support Satoris clamor for her death-but Satoris refuses to act like the monster that he is made out to be, for he recognizes in Cerelinde a spark of the love that he once bore for his fellow gods.

She is a great danger to Satoris--and a greater danger for Tanaros and all that he holds dear. For she reminds him that not all women need be false... and that though he may be immune to death, his heart is still very much mortal.

Strong storytelling with evocative, compelling, and unforgettable characters, Godslayer is the thrilling conclusion to the events begun in Banewreaker, a haunting tale of love and loss that ultimately asks the question: If all that is considered good considers you evil, are you?

Two men. One is a prince of royal blood. The other is a half-breed - part human, part elf. But the part that is human is also royal. Two women. One is a princess, pampered and protected. The other lives in the forest, the leader of a band of rebels. She too has elven blood.

This is their story -- the tale of love and hate, courage and cowardliness, and magic both dark and light.

It is a world of betrayals and alliances, of spells and magic, of haunting dreams and dark desires...

The rebel princess Alexeika is captured and tortured by the evil Grethori--but is sustained by dreams of the man who will set her free...

Prince Gavril yearns to control the dark magick of a cursed sword--while his desperate betrothed pursues another man's heart...

Asked to help protect Gavril, the half-elven Dain continues a quest to fulfill his adoptive father's dying wish...

It is a journey that will give him the chance to save the woman he loves--and will place him at odds with the destiny that he and Alexeika share.

A destiny that can only be realized with the help of a long-lost talisman.

As the final confrontation with the darkness approaches, two mortal enemies will search for the key to life itself...

The half-elven Dain, now recognized as the long-lost heir to the kingdom of Nether, prepares to fight for his throne. Suddenly his love, Princess Pheresa, is struck down by poison meant for him.

Now, Dain and his hated rival, Prince Gavril, must undertake a perilous quest to find the one thing that can save her -- the Chalice of Eternal Life, the powerful relic that Dain's own father lost his life trying to hide from mortal hands.

It will be a journey shadowed by treachery and death as Dain confronts old enemies, and finds an important new ally in the rebel leader Alexieka.

Sure to become an epic fantasy classic, Helen Lowe's magnificent Wall of Night series is big, ambitious, and gorgeously drawn—a story of bravery, treachery, and cataclysm in a richly imagined world. The Gathering of the Lost is the second of four books set in a fantastic imperiled realm garrisoned by nine great Houses and protected from the terrible Darkswarm by the towering mountain range that gives the series its name. Supremely literate, brilliantly imagined and executed fantasy in the vein of Brandon Sanderson, Guy Gavriel Kay, and Barbara Hambly, The Gathering of the Lost is populated by a grand cast of unforgettable characters, some still holding to the beleaguered Wall, others scattered in their quest for the fabled Heir of Night, who vanished from their midst five years earlier.

Reina is desperate.

Stuck on the edges of society, Reina's only hope lies in an invitation from a grandmother she's never met. But the journey to her is dangerous, and prayer can't always avert disaster.

Attacked by creatures that stalk the mountains, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña's magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn--and keep--her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.

Eva Kesaré is unwanted.

Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family's shame. She tries to be the perfect daughter, but Eva is hiding a secret: Magic calls to her.

Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet it's hard to ignore power when it has always been denied you. Eva is walking a dangerous path. And in the end, she'll become something she never imagined.

Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.

The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan's editor---his wife, Harriet McDougal---to complete the final book. The scope and size of the volume was such that it could not be contained in a single book, and so Tor proudly presents The Gathering Storm as the first of three novels that will make up A Memory of Light. This short sequence will complete the struggle against the Shadow, bringing to a close a journey begun almost twenty years ago and marking the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, the preeminent fantasy epic of our era.

In this epic novel, Robert Jordan's international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward---wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders---his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.

Egwene al'Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower---and possibly the world itself.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Master magician Blais was dead, murdered by the evil ice-lord Nimir. Now there was only Tristan, an ill-trained apprentice, to carry on the quest to rescue Allaire, a princess held in enchanted sleep in Nimir's frozen halls. Though a thousand master mages had already failed in the quest, Tristan must succeed - or all of Calandra would be doomed by Nimir's greed. First Tristan would have to find the wonder-horse Valadan, who had vanished long ago. Then he had to secure the aid of the one knight among many who was a true Heir to the Throne. Together, they must overcome the Guardian dragon of Nimir's realm. After that - well, there was still the tenth ring to be found, since Allaire was powerless without it. Nothing, of course, was ever that simple. There were complications...

Zombies. Thrilling and horrific story set in a horribly altered London.

Tomes of The Dead is a collection of some of the very best eyeball popping, gut munching, zombie fiction around, groaning with horror and excitement. Each book will explore the zombie genre in new and thrilling ways. Join us in these worlds of the dead and remember to leave your sanity by the door! London is a city overrun by the zombies hordes. Most of the human survivors live from day to day, scraping together an existence amongst the ruins, avoiding the shambling, flesh-hungry undead that stalk the streets. But for others the situation is an opprtunity, a chance to estabblish a powerbase within the capital now that all authority has virtually collapsed. For gang lord Harry Flowers, the plague is his chance to finally rule the city unopposed...

The Wandering Jew is a cosmic symbol-he is man, he is woman, he is sex, he is history, he is life itself.

Salome is the second in three important fantasy novels that were best sellers in their day; a sweeping Decadent epic trilogy consisting of My First Two Thousand Years: The Autobiography of the Wandering Jew; Salome: The Wandering Jewess; and The Invincible Adam. In this daring novel, Salome herself tells of her many loves, of her bold experiments and of the husbands and handmaidens whose lives she shaped over the past two thousand years. While Viereck's works are now considered classics, for many years he was persona non grata in the publishing world and with the public alike due to his having been an outspoken Nazi sympathizer during WWII.

Omnibus containing Malekith, Shadow King, Caledor

The third book in the Time of Legends series begins the epic tale of the Sundering. Malekith triggers a tragic sequence of events that plunges the realm of the elves into a civil war from which they will never recover.

When his family is betrayed and slain, Alith Anar, ill-fated prince of the Nagarythe, is forced to walk a dark path. With the island of Ulthuan in the grip of a civil war with their evil counterparts, the druchii, Alith Anar follows his destiny to become the Shadow King. Hunting his enemies from the darkness, he is now on a quest for vengeance that will never end.

Ulthuan is burning. Its peoples are scattered, its lands in ruin. Under the iron fist of the Witch King dark elves sack and pillage. His desire is nothing short of total domination and the utter extinction of the high elves. Skies blacken with the wings of dragons and smoke occludes the sun. Daemons crawl from their hell-pits, hungering for souls. Through the fires of civil war, a general becomes a king. Prince Caledor takes up the Phoenix Crown and with it the hopes of all of Ulthuan. Though it is a burden unwished for, he is the last heroic thread that can unite the realm of the true asur. Darkness closes, filled with the screams of war. Dead elves soak the land in blood, anointing a spell of unbinding, a cataclysm intended to end the very world.

After the rout at Rasenna, Concord faces enemies on all fronts and nobody believes that the last surviving Apprentice is equal to these crises – but Torbidda didn't become Apprentice by letting himself be manipulated.

While Sofia – Rasenna's Contessa – is struggling to understand her miraculous pregnancy, the City of Towers grows wealthy. But it's not long before the people of Rasenna start arguing again and as the city falls apart once more, Sofia realises she must escape Etruria to save her baby. When prophecy leads her to another cesspit of treachery, the decadent Crusader kingdom of Oltremare, Sofia begins to despair, for this time she can see no way out...

In the small town of Pennygaff, where Owen has been sent to live after his mother's death, a legendary golden harp has been found. Knowing of the prophesy of the Harp of Teirtu, Owen must prevent the magic harp from falling into the evil clutches of its reputed owner, the sinister and diabolical Lord Mayln. But it won't be easy. Owen and his friend Arabis are plunged into a hair-raising adventure of intrigue, kidnapping, exotic underground worlds, savage beasts... even murder.

For only too late will Owen learn that Lord Mayln will stop at nothing to have the golden harp.

Dido Twite's sharp wits are put to the test in this new adventure in the Wolves Chronicles. After King Richard dies, Dido's good pal Simon is put on the English throne, but he hates being cooped up in drafty St. James Palace, and his crusty old advisors won't let him have any fun at all. If only another descendent of the king could be found, Simon would gladly be replaced. Never short a solution, Dido discovers a lead to another member of the royal line. But no one knows exactly who--or where--the child is.

The masterful storyteller Joan Aiken once again invites readers into a spellbinding world of magic, mystery, and mayhem--with a dose of "proper" English hilarity, of course.

An ordinary town... full of deadly secrets

Strange things have been happening in sixteen-year-old Maya's small Vancouver Island community-from the mountain lions that have been constantly approaching her to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations. There's also a sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel... different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

From renowned social critic, energy expert, and bestselling author James Howard Kunstler, The Harrows of Spring is a moving and gripping novel that completes the story of the quaint upstate New York town of Union Grove, thrown into a future world that in many ways resembles the nineteenth century.

In Union Grove, early spring is a challenging season, known as the "six weeks want," a time when fresh food is scarce and the winter stores are dwindling. The town is struggling in particular this year as the Hudson River trade route to Albany has been halted by the local plantation tycoon Stephen Bullock, who has deemed it too resource-intensive and is now striving for self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, after returning from his travels around what is left of the United States, Daniel Earle is intent on resurrecting a newspaper for the community, and finds an interesting story to cover when representatives of a group of anti-establishment, hyper-liberals known as the Berkshire People's Republic arrive in the town. The thrilling conclusion to Kunstler's beloved series, The Harrows of Spring is a powerful, moving tale of insurrection, survival, and what it means to be human.