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Eva Forge is the last paladin of a dead God. Morgan, God of battle and champion of the Fraterdom, was assassinated by his jealous brother, Amon. Over time, the Cult of Morgan has been surpassed by other gods, his blessings ignored in favor of brighter technologies and more mechanical miracles. Eva was the last child dedicated to the Cult of Morgan, forsaken by her parents and forgotten by her family. Now she watches as her new family, her Cult, crumbles all around her.

When a series of kidnappings and murders makes it clear that someone is trying to hasten the death of the Cult of Morgan, Eva must seek out unexpected allies and unwelcome answers in the city of Ash. But will she be able to save the city from a growing conspiracy, one that reaches back to her childhood, even back to the murder of her god?

In the country called One, dollmakers are vital members of the community. An artisan's doll is the height of society's accomplishments, while a guard's doll is the only thing standing between the people of One and the Shod: vicious, cobbled monstrosities that will tear apart any structure--living or dead, inanimate or otherwise--to add to their horde.

Apprentice Shean of Pearl is a brilliant dollmaker. With her clever dolls, she intends to outsmart and destroy the Shod, once and for all--a destiny she's worked her whole life toward accomplishing. But when the time comes for her dolls to be licensed, she's told her work is too beautiful and delicate to fight. A statement that wounds and infuriates her; the Shod killed everyone she loved. How could her fate be anything but fighting them?

In an attempt to help her see a new path for herself, Shean's mentor sends her on a journey to the remote village called Web, urging her to glean some wisdom from Ikiisa, a reclusive and well-respected guard dollmaker. But Shean has another plan: if she can convince the village of Web of her talents, the Licensor Guild will have to reconsider and grant her a guard's license. And what better way to convince them than challenging Ikiisa and instating herself as the official dollmaker of Web? Once she's done that, proving her dolls' worth in the fight against the Shod will be simple.

As simple, that is, as calling the Shod to Web...

Puckett, the Hitler-like dictator of Rockland, had plans to conquer Sunland, the only other nation in the world. To stop the tyrant, scientists produced sympathone, a love-inducing drug, which they secretly administered to the populce. But the S-project failed. Puckett and his warmongers were unaffected by the drug. And only one young scientist could prevent Puckett from destroying the last survivord on earth.

Do you remember when you believed in magic?

It is 1917, and while war wages across Europe, in the heart of London, there is a place of hope and enchantment.

The Emporium sells toys that capture the imagination of children and adults alike: patchwork dogs that seem alive, toy boxes that are bigger on the inside, soldiers that can fight battles of their own. Into this family business comes young Cathy Wray, running away from a shameful past. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own.

But Cathy is about to discover that the Emporium has secrets of its own...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Little Brother, a major novel of the booms, busts, and further booms in store for America.

Perry and Lester invent things-seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent entirely new economic systems, like the "New Work," a New Deal for the technological era. Barefoot bankers cross the nation, microinvesting in high-tech communal mini-startups like Perry and Lester's. Together, they transform the country, and Andrea Fleeks, a journo-turned-blogger, is there to document it.

Then it slides into collapse. The New Work bust puts the dot.combomb to shame. Perry and Lester build a network of interactive rides in abandoned Wal-Marts across the land. As their rides, which commemorate the New Work's glory days, gain in popularity, a rogue Disney executive grows jealous, and convinces the police that Perry and Lester's 3D printers are being used to run off AK-47s.

Hordes of goths descend on the shantytown built by the New Workers, joining the cult. Lawsuits multiply as venture capitalists take on a new investment strategy: backing litigation against companies like Disney. Lester and Perry's friendship falls to pieces when Lester gets the 'fatkins' treatment, turning him into a sybaritic gigolo.

Then things get really interesting.

Download this book for free from the author's website.

When mankind moves out to the stars, the colonists of the future will remake the worlds they inhabit in their image. Included here are twenty stories from the most imaginative writers in the field, including:

Poul Anderson * Stephen Baxter * Gregory Benford * Arthur C. Clarke * Greg Egan * Joe Haldeman * Philip Jennings * William H. Kieth * Geoffrey A. Landis * Ian McDonald * Richard McKenna * Laura Mixon * G. David Nordley * Robert Reed * Kim Stanley Robinson * Pamela Sargent * Cordwainer Smith * Bruce Sterling * John Varley * Roger Zelazny

These are the stories of the explorers and pioneers who transform their destinations in the image of their distant home--exciting tales of alien landscapes and the struggle to make them suit human desires.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Gardner Dozois
• The Big Rain - (1954) - novella by Poul Anderson
• When the People Fell - (1959) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith
• Before Eden - (1961) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Hunter, Come Home - (1963) - novelette by Richard McKenna
• The Keys to December - (1966) - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• Retrograde Summer - (1975) - novelette by John Varley
• Shall We Take a Little Walk? - (1981) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• The Catharine Wheel - (1984) - novelette by Ian McDonald
• Sunken Gardens - (1984) - shortstory by Bruce Sterling
• Out of Copyright - (1989) - shortstory by Charles Sheffield
• A Place with Shade - (1995) - novelette by Robert Reed
• Dawn Venus - (1995) - novelette by G. David Nordley
• For White Hill - (1995) - novella by Joe Haldeman
• The Road to Reality - (1996) - novelette by Phillip C. Jennings
• Ecopoiesis - (1997) - novella by Geoffrey A. Landis
• People Came from Earth - (1999) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• Fossils - (1999) - novelette by William H. Keith, Jr.
• A Martian Romance - (1999) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Dream of Venus - (2000) - novelette by Pamela Sargent
• At Tide's Turning - (2001) - novelette by Laura J. Mixon

A special new collection of Ellison's short stories, selected especially for this volume by the author, including the newly revised and expanded 6,500 word tale "Never Send to Know for Whom the Lettuce Wilts."

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Harlan Ellison has written or edited 75 books, more than 1700 stories, essays, articles and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays, and a dozen movies. Now, for the first time anywhere, Troublemakers presents a collection of Ellison's classic stories-chosen by the author-that will introduce new readers to a writer described by the New York Times as having "the spellbinding quality of a great nonstop talker, with a cultural warehouse for a mind."

Includes the award-winning stories "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" and "Deeper Than the Darkness"

Since the time of pre-history, carpetmakers tie intricate knots to form carpets for the court of the Emperor. These carpets are made from the hairs of wives and daughters; they are so detailed and fragile that each carpetmaker finishes only one single carpet in his entire lifetime.

This art descends from father to son, since the beginning of time itself.

But one day the empire of the God Emperor vanishes, and strangers begin to arrive from the stars to follow the trace of the hair carpets. What these strangers discover is beyond all belief, more than anything they could have ever imagined.

According to his business cards, Harry Ransom is a "professor" and a "lightbringer" and "licensed"... not that business cards mean much in a town called Disorder.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Contents:

• 9 - Introduction (The Future Makers) - (1968) - essay by Peter Haining
• 11 - The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use - (1939) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 28 - Abreaction - (1948) - short story by Theodore Sturgeon
• 41 - The Piper - (1943) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• 57 - The Eternal Now - (1944) - novelette by Murray Leinster
• 91 - Columbus Was a Dope - (1947) - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
• 96 - Castaway - (1947) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 103 - The Hour of Battle - (1953) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 110 - Equator - [The Year Before Yesterday] - (1961) - novella by Brian W. Aldiss (variant of Vanguard from Alpha 1959)

On the edge of a war-weary and devastated galaxy, charismatic Lewis Orne has landed on Hamal. His assignment: to detect any signs of latent aggression in this planet's population. To his astonishment, he finds that his own latent extrasensory powers have suddenly blossomed, and he is invited to join the company of "gods" on this planet--and the people here place certain expectations on their gods. The Godmakers is an expansion of four short stories written from 1958-1960. It is an exploration of the concepts of war and peace, government and relgion.

Immortal aliens have observed Earth for centuries, making full sensory movies of wars, natural disasters, and horrific human activities . . . all to relieve their boredom. When they finally became jaded by ordinary, run-of-the-mill tragedies, they found ways to create their own disasters, just to amuse themselves. However, interfering with human activities was forbidden, and by the time Investigator Kelexel arrived to investigate, things were really getting out of hand. . . .

In a new, primitive society of the distant future a young cadet warrior seems loyal to the god-like mutant Makers, but situations occur which cause him to question his humanity and in his search for understanding he discovers his mutant mother and another perspective of life.

The discovery of forty reels of a lost 1911 movie adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, impossibly well-made and yet ineluctably old, is...weird. But for the journalist protagonist of "The Film-makers of Mars," that's only the beginning of the weirdness to come...

Geoff Ryman's longer works include The Unconquered Country, the novella version of which won the World Fantasy Award in 1985; The Child Garden, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1990; the hypertext novel 253, the "print remix" of which won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1999; and Air, which won the Arthur C. Clarke and James Tiptree, Jr. Awards in 2006.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

In the era of "the big squeeze" - when an environmentally ravaged Earth groans beneath the weight of twelve billion people - two men control the destiny of humankind. One was recently senile... the other is going insane.

In the year 2069, with the Earth's population dangerously out of control, procreation and the medical treatment of terminal illness are the two most heinous crimes against society. But behind the doors of the top secret Biophysical Institute, an old man has been illegally cured of the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and made artificially younger - to serve the unspecified purposes of Premier Jeremy Beltane, one of the world's most powerful leaders.

A member of the underprivileged "Wardie" class, Detective Sergeant Harry Ostrov has been assigned to serve as a guardian to the mysteriously rejuvenated nonagenarian - and entrusted with a devastating secret that could topple the unstable "Minder" government. But once within the confines of the Beltane family enclave, the dedicated police officer is dragged deeper and deeper into a lethal mire of scandal, corruption, political outrage, and moral dilemma - sworn to silence even as he observes his nation's ruler, a man ultimately responsible for the future of civilization, descend steadily into depression, uncertainty... and madness.

A literary genre that pervades 21st-century popular culture, science fiction creates mythologies that make statements about humanity's place in the universe and embody an intersection of science, religion and philosophy.

This book considers the significance of this confluence through an examination of myths in the writings of H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert. Presenting fresh insights into their works, the author brings to light the tendency of science fiction narratives to reaffirm spiritual myths.

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.

Veridon, City of Cog, is about to be rocked by a conspiracy taking in the highest levels of the Council, the Church and its founding families. Heart of Veridon marks the start of a superb new trilogy from an exciting new trilogy from an exciting new author, set in an exotic fantasy world.

Trouble finds Jacob Burn. Kicked out of his house, out of his comfortable life, out of everything that is familiar, even turned away from his circle of criminal friends and interesting enemies. Two years after he saved an ungrateful city from a mad angel, thwarting the plans of every powerful faction in Veridon, Jacob is still trying to pull his life together. And still trouble finds him.

A bad job goes worse, and soon old enemies present themselves as allies, and former friends set themselves against Jacob as he tries to put the dead to rest and the living to justice. Everything gets more difficult when he’s appointed by the Council to investigate the rise of the cog-dead, while some hold him personally accountable, and others in the city work to use the chaos to their advantage.

Whether or not Ted Marrett would be able to harness the weather for the good of man depended upon some stiff opposition...

In an age of cross-country rockets and undersea mining, weather is the last frontier of man, the one resource which remains untamed. An elemental power which can roar through the land with hurricane force, leaving death and destruction in its wake...

But Dr. Rossman didn't believe in weather control unless he could get the credit for it; and the President and his Science Advisor didn't want to fight hurricanes in an election year; and the Pentagon felt that weather control should be a military weapon....

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, April 1965. The story can also be found in World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr. It is included in the colection An Affair with Genius (1969) and Conscience Interplanetary (1975).

Happiness, Guaranteed...

In the not-too-distant future, money truly can buy happiness, and Hedonics, Inc., is willing to sell it to you. They'll even offer you a money-back guarantee, if you're not "happy" with the product. But with their team of psychologists, life specialists, and self-improvement coaches, they don't have any "unhappy" customers.

What happens when a company grows too big, becomes too successful? It wants to guarantee its place in society and its future, and Hedonics is no exception. When your product is happiness, the way you guarantee your success is to pass laws mandating happiness.

But when universal happiness is required, does it really matter if you're getting what you want, or happy with what you have?

James Gunn has been a professional science fiction writer for more than 60 years, and in 2007, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named him a Grand Master.

A series of intimate and insightful interviews of some of the very best science fiction writers of the day.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: What Kind of a Nut...? - essay by Charles Platt
• Isaac Asimov - interview by Charles Platt
• Thomas M. Disch - interview by Charles Platt
• Robert Sheckley - interview by Charles Platt
• Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - interview by Charles Platt
• Hank Stine - interview by Charles Platt
• Norman Spinrad - interview by Charles Platt
• Frederik Pohl - interview by Charles Platt
• Samuel R. Delany - interview by Charles Platt
• Barry N. Malzberg - interview by Charles Platt
• Edward Bryant - interview by Charles Platt
• Alfred Bester - interview by Charles Platt
• C. M. Kornbluth - essay by Charles Platt
• Algis Budrys - interview by Charles Platt
• Philip José Farmer - interview by Charles Platt
• A. E. van Vogt - interview by Charles Platt
• Philip K. Dick - interview by Charles Platt
• Harlan Ellison - interview by Charles Platt
• Ray Bradbury - interview by Charles Platt
• Frank Herbert - interview by Charles Platt
• Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight - interview by Charles Platt
• Michael Moorcock - interview by Charles Platt
• J. G. Ballard - interview by Charles Platt
• E. C. Tubb - interview by Charles Platt
• Ian Watson - interview by Charles Platt
• John Brunner - interview by Charles Platt
• Gregory Benford - interview by Charles Platt
• Robert Silverberg - interview by Charles Platt
• Brian W. Aldiss - interview by Charles Platt
• Self-Profile - essay by Charles Platt
• Appendix: Right of Reply - essay by Charles Platt

More of Platt's excellent interviews with the brightest stars in the science fiction firmament. This time with women!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay
• Jerry Pournelle - interview
• Larry Niven - interview
• Christopher Priest - interview
• William S. Burroughs - interview
• Arthur C. Clarke - interview
• Alvin Toffler - interview
• John Sladek - interview
• D. M. Thomas - interview
• The Head-Rape - (1968) - poem by D. M. Thomas
• Keith Robert - interview
• Andre Norton - interview
• Piers Anthony - interview
• Keith Laumer - interview
• Joe Haldeman - interview
• Fritz Leiber - interview
• Robert Anton Wilson - interview
• Poul Anderson - interview
• Jack Vance - interview
• Theodore Sturgeon - interview
• L. Ron Hubbard - interview
• Joanna Russ - interview
• Janet Morris - interview
• Joan D. Vinge - interview
• Harry Harrison - interview
• Donald A. Wollheim - interview
• Edward L. Ferman - interview
• Kit Reed - interview
• James Tiptree, Jr. - interview
• Stephen King - interview
• A Message to the Reader - essay
• Charles Platt - interview by Douglas E. Winter

John Rast went to the Ren Faire looking for a fight. Well, a simulated fight, with blunt swords and safety equipment. But when his final opponent turns into a living, fire-breathing dragon, John finds himself in the fight of his life. It's John or nothing stopping a disaster in its tracks--and the only real weapon at hand is his mom's Volvo. So John decides to let it roll...

And that's when destiny comes to call. John is spirited away to the well-hidden base of Knight Watch, the organization that stands between humanity and the real nasties the rest of the world doesn't know about.

Knight Watch would be John's dream job - except for the storm goddess that destroys his parents' house, the abandoned mall replete with too much dead, and the Fetch that aims to make John's domain a final resting place. All this has John's putative allies in the Knight Watch worried that John is the one bringing bad things into multiple worlds. John and his reluctant teammates have to figure out who, or what, is pulling the strings before all of Knight Watch falls prey to a well-concealed puppetmaster and far worse things enter this world.

When John Rast signed up for Knight Watch, he expected it to be all fighting dragons and rescuing maidens. You know, hero stuff. But instead he's stuck patrolling game conventions and cosplayer competitions, looking for dangerous anachronisms and the villains who may be trying to exploit them. Fortunately, all that changes when an honest-to-goodness necromancer shows up wielding a weapon created by Nazi occultists and accompanied by some badass evil Valkyries, hell-bent on kicking off the end of the world.

John and the team will go to great lengths even Minnesota to find out who's responsible for all this and foil their plans. Also, there's a giant dog who thinks the moon is a ball. It's epic.

The Makers are an advanced, intelligent alien species. For hundreds of millennia, they have been on the hunt for the secret to faster-than-light travel. Their chosen instruments were the far-reaching Life Probes, in hopes of encountering other advanced civilizations out among the stars.

After a 10,000 year long journey, one of these machines stumbles upon 22nd-century Earth. Upon arrival, the probe isn't quite sure that this planet contains anything that could be considered "advanced" or "intelligent".

But the Makers need help from humankind--the probe is damaged and must be repaired if their search for knowledge is to continue...

For millennia, the Makers' Life Probes explored the farthest reaches of space in search of the secret behind faster-than-light speed. In the 22nd century, the people of Earth made a pact with this far-flung civilization--all of the Makers' intelligence in exchange for help in their mission.

Three hundred years later, descendants of the original Procyon expedition have returned to Earth in a starship. They find a world that has forgotten the generations-old contract.

No matter. The returning colonists have overcome far greater obstacles in their single-minded drive to redeem a promise made before any of them were born...

Stolen from her people as a child and raised as a citizen of the Tyranian Empire, Ligea Gayed is the obvious choice to despatch to her homeland, occupied Kardiastan, with orders to root out a rebel conspiracy.

At first, she devotes herself to her new assignment with zeal. Adopted daughter of the Empire's greatest general, and possessing a fearsome reputation within the ruthless Imperial spy network known as the Brotherhood, Ligea views herself as a loyal servant of Tyrans. But blood will out, and with each day she spends among her parents' people, her disciplined self-image crumbles a little.

And there are secrets in Kardiastan, secrets that will inevitably force Ligea to choose between her upbringing and her birthright. Secrets that will shape the destiny of two nations.

Ligea Gayed has been lied to once too often. Now she has turned against her former employer, the secretive Brotherhood of the Tyrans Empire, and must evade Favonius and his Jackals while also recruiting others to fight with her.

Yet, despite her best efforts, a rebellion is hard to come by. Except within her own family, of course. Ligea's son, Arrant, is prey to feelings of inadequacy, and is angry about his mother's relationship with a man who is not his father. Unable to accept what is happening to him, he becomes susceptible to the blandishments of his mother's enemies. Worse still, in the middle of a war he is a Magoroth unable to control or use his power in a constructive way.

In seeking to punish Ligea for her relationship with Brand, Arrant and those around him might well lose everything.

Ligea's son, Arrant, leaves Tyrans for Kardiastan to take his place as Mirager-heir, while Ligea prepares to halt an insurrection. But Arrant's skills as a Magoroth are dangerously inconsistent, and his father, Temellin, finds it difficult to communicate with this secretive young man he barely knows.

Arrant's singular ability to communicate with his half-brother, Tarran - a part of the collective mind known as the Mirage Makers - leads them both towards the possibility of a tragic clash with the encroaching Ravage.

As Arrant's enemies among the Magoroth plot to ruin his family and his future as heir, he begins to realise there is a greater mystery to solve if he is to prevail.

After restoring their powers, Sideways just wants to get on with senior year. But the covens have convened for the trial of Madeline Kline. When this stubborn, independent witch begs the Scapegracers to save her from a cruel and unusual punishment, Sideways knows they have to get involved. It's the right thing to do, even if Madeline did steal their soul and wear it for a time. Right?

Making an example out of Madeline seems, strangely, just as important to the most powerful covens as divvying up the Scapegracers amongst themselves. Sideways, Jing, Daisy, and Yates are reluctant to abandon what they've built together, but as the college acceptances (and rejections) roll in, the offer of a magical family beyond Sycamore Gorge becomes increasingly tempting.

Unfortunately, choosing a new coven will have to wait: witchfinders are gathering in town, and some of these visitors make the Chantrys seem tame in comparison. Every witch -- Scapegracer or not -- is about to be in grave danger.

And on top of all that, Sideways thinks they just might be in love.

Vietnam veteran and MIT student Tim Harper uses his new invention, a time machine, to travel ninety thousand years into the future, where he is captured by Alghera clansmen who seek to use his discovery to change the course of history.

Tim Harper, a member of the Algheran Project, is assigned to train Kylene, a telepath, for a secret mission to change an important event in the past.

Tim Harper, an agent for the Algheran Time-Travel Project, travels back in time to correct a previous agent's error, only to face Kalm, a telepathic traitor who hunts down Algheran agents.

Tim Harper is in exile in Alghrea 90,000 years from his own time - unless he can change the fate of history and win a war already lost, Alghera is doomed to destruction. Harper has died and lost the war once , and though time-travel allows him another attempt, there are agents within the project who plan to subvert any manipulation of the past.

Timothy Harper, late of twentieth century Boston, was an Agent of the Algheran Time-Travel Project, attempting to save the planet from nuclear holocaust by altering the outcome of a pivotal battle 90,000 years in the future.

But changing the course of a war was not so simple. Harper's army was not prepared to win, and besieged in the pastoral hamlet of Midpassage, he was alone in his quest, deserted by his fellow agent, the telepath Kylene--who had stolen his time machine for a private mission of revenge.

Both Harper and Kylene had some lessons to learn about the perils and paradoxes of time tavel. And as Harper struggled to win a war he shouldn't have been fighting, and Kylene confronted the true meaning of love and loyalty, they could only hopw that death was not the final barrier it seemed...

The Celestial Church has all but eliminated the old pagan ways, ruling the people with an iron hand. Demonic gheists terrorize the land, hunted by the warriors of the Inquisition, yet it's the battling factions within the Church and age-old hatreds between north and south that tear the land apart.

Malcolm Blakley, hero of the Reaver War, seeks to end the conflict between men, yet it will fall to his son, Ian, and the huntress Gwen Adair to stop the killing before it tears the land apart. The Pagan Night is an epic of mad gods, inquisitor priests, holy knights bound to hunt and kill, and noble houses fighting battles of politics, prejudice, and power.

MAD GODS WALK THE LAND

Tensions flare between north and south, and hatreds erupt into war. Yet the conflicts of men are quickly overshadowed by a far greater threat. Creatures long kept confined rise from below, spreading destruction on an unimaginable scale.

The flames of war are fanned by the Celestial Church, whose inquisitors and holy knights seek to destroy the pagans wherever they are found. A secret cabal creates unexpected allies, and pursues its own dark agenda...

While Malcolm Blakley seeks to end the war before all of Tenumbra is consumed, his son Ian searches for the huntress Gwendolyn Adair, and finds himself shadowed by the totem of his family, the Iron Hound. Gwen herself becomes allied with the pagans, and wrestles with the effect of having been bound to a god.

Ruling with an iron hand, the Church has eliminated the ancient pagan ways. Yet demonic gheists terrorize the land, hunted by the Inquisition, while age-old hatreds rage between the north and the south. Three heroes--Malcolm and Ian Blakeley and Gwendolyn Adair--must end the bloodshed before chaos is unleashed.

Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World -- a world changed by the Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods. Eight years ago, Sophia's parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned.

Then Shadrack is kidnapped. Sophia must search for him with the help of Theo, a refugee from the West. Together they travel over rough terrain and uncharted ocean, encounter pirates and traders, and rely on a combination of Shadrack's maps, common sense, and Sophia's unusual powers of observation. Little do they know that their lives are in as much danger as Shadrack's.

It is the summer of 1892, one year since Sophia Tims and her friend Theo embarked upon the dangerous adventure that rewrote the map of the world. Since their return home to Boston, she has continued searching for clues to her parents' disappearance, combing archives and libraries, grasping at even the most slender leads. Theo has apprenticed himself to an explorer in order to follow those leads across the country -- but one after another proves to be a dead end.

Then Sophia discovers that a crucial piece of the puzzle exists in a foreign Age. At the same time, Theo discovers that his old life outside the law threatens to destroy the new one he has built with Sophia and her uncle Shadrack. What he and Sophia do not know is that their separate discoveries are intertwined, and that one remarkable person is part of both.

There is a city that holds all of the answers -- but it cannot be found on any map. Surrounded by plague, it can only be reached by a journey through darkness and chaos, which is at the same time the plague's cure: The Golden Specific.

It is late August 1892, and Sophia Tims is coming home from a foreign Age, having risked her life in search of her missing parents. Now she is aboard ship, with a hard-earned, cryptic map that may help her find them at long last.

But her homecoming is anything but peaceful. Threatening clouds hang over New Orleans harbor. Sinkholes have been opening in Boston, swallowing parts of the city whole. Rogue weirwinds tear up the Baldlands. Worst of all, New Occident is at war, led by a prime minister who will do anything to expand the country westward. He has blackmailed Sophia's beloved uncle Shadrack into drawing the battle maps that will lead countless men and boys -- including Sophia's best friend, Theo -- to their deaths.

As Sophia puzzles out her next move, Shadrack is peeling back layers of government intrigue, and Theo is bracing himself to fight. A red fog of war is rising, and New Occident's future hangs in the balance...

Imagine: a future empire of super-science, so strong that it had lasted thousands of years, so vast that it encompassed the entire Solar System, and whose ruler was a glamorous and thoroughly willful young woman. Yet, this tremendous set-up was completely unable to cope with the machinations of one solitary outlaw.

That man was the amazing Robert Hedrock, and though Hedrock had been declared a kill-on-sight outcast even by those who had once been his own faction, neither they nor their empress foe suspected that he alone could provide the solution to their deadliest cosmic crisis.

A war to the death.

Empress Adele has launched a grand crusade against the vampire clans of the north. Prince Gareth, the vampire lord of Scotland, serves the Equatorian cause, fighting in the bloody trenches of France in his guise as the dashing Greyfriar. But the human armies are pinned down, battered by harsh weather and merciless attacks from vampire packs.

To even the odds, Adele unleashes the power of her geomancy, a fearsome weapon capable of slaughtering vampires in vast numbers. However, the power she expends threatens her own life even as she questions the morality of such a weapon.

As the war turns ever bloodier and Adele is threatened by betrayal, Gareth faces a terrible choice. Their only hope is a desperate strike against the lord of the vampire clans-Gareth's brother, Cesare. It is a gamble that could win the war or signal the final days of the Greyfriar.

The Vampire Empire trilogy rushes to a heart-wrenching conclusion of honor and love, hatred and vengeance, sacrifice and loss.

Beyond 2001! By the twenty-first century the great power struggle on Earth has been resolved in the Only possible way. The United States, Russia and China all have fallen by the wayside and Brazil has assumed her rightful place as world leader. Thus it is naturally Brazil that conducts the first interstellar explorations and creates the great space transport system.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Something New Under the Sun - essay by Robin Scott Wilson
• 15 - The Prize of Wonder - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 18 - The Balloon-Hoax - short story by Edgar Allan Poe
• 34 - Flatland: Two Excerpts - short fiction by Edwin A. Abbott
• 46 - Moxon's Master - short story by Ambrose Bierce
• 58 - The Land Ironclads - novelette by H. G. Wells
• 86 - With the Night Mail - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• 112 - The Machine Stops - novelette by E. M. Forster
• 152 - The Unparalleled Invasion - short story by Jack London
• 170 - The Disintegration Machine - short story by Arthur Conan Doyle
• 186 - Metropolitan Nightmare - poem by Stephen Vincent Benét
• 190 - Nightmare Number Three - poem by Stephen Vincent Benét
• 194 - Killdozer! - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
• 276 - Surface Tension - novelette by James Blish

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Reaching Out of Tomorrow - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 12 - Dominions Beyond - short story by Ward Moore
• 34 - Living Space - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 54 - The Gun Without a Bang - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 66 - We Never Mention Aunt Nora - short story by Frederik Pohl
• 80 - And Miles to Go Before I Sleep - short story by William F. Nolan
• 88 - Eastward Ho! - short story by William Tenn
• 110 - Report on the Nature of the Lunar Surface - short story by John Brunner
• 114 - The Horn of Time the Hunter - short story by Poul Anderson
• 136 - The Monster and the Maiden - short story by Roger Zelazny
• 140 - Computers Don't Argue - short story by Gordon R. Dickson
• 158 - I Have My Vigil - short story by Harry Harrison
• 164 - The Twelfth Bed - short story by Dean R. Koontz
• 180 - High Weir - novelette by Samuel R. Delany
• 207 - The Adventure of the Martian Client - short story by Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman
• 224 - The Falcon and the Falconeer - short story by Barry N. Malzberg
• 240 - The Evergreen Library - short story by Bill Pronzini and Jeffrey M. Wallmann
• 256 - Xong of Xuxan - short story by Ray Russell
• 266 - Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 306 - Caught in the Organ Draft - short story by Robert Silverberg