Search Worlds Without End

A collection of nineteen dark, wildly imaginative short stories from the author of the award-winning TikTok sensation Tender Is the Flesh.

From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica's vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways--often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In "Roberto," a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman's neighbor jumps to his death in "A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound," and in "Candy Pink," a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps.

Written in Bazterrica's signature clever, vivid style, these stories question love, friendship, family relationships, and unspeakable desires.

Call them the spare parts of people. They chose the risk - jail for convicted crimes or semi-freedom as someone's bonded servant for the same term. The price was that they were body insurance. If their master lost a leg or an internal organ, they would have to supply the missing part. That was the risk. Sagar used bondsmen in his other-world farm where he raised exotic alien pelts to sell to the rich. He had no thoughts on the bondsmen problem, pro or con. But when Carioca Jones, 3-V star, visited him he met her bonded companion, the lovely girl with the musical talent.

It's dangerous to fall in love with a bondsmaiden. Doubly so when her mistress is in love with you. Triply so when it might set off the social explosion that had been smouldering beneath the delicately balanced surface of their post-cataclysmic Peninsula.

When Madlyn and Rollo are sent to stay at ancient Clawstone Castle, they soon fall in love with the house and its eccentric, penniless inhabitants.

There's grumpy, limping Uncle George, mousey Miss Emily, and reclusive Cousin Howard, who hardly ever leaves his library.

But the children are especially enchanted by the cattle of Clawstone Park - rare and beautiful beasts, as white as snow and as wild as wolves. No one knows where they came from, but the owners of Clawstone have always protected them. So, as the castle crumbles away, Madlyn and Rollo devise a money-raising scheme.

This short story originally appaered in Lightspeed, May 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 Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Edison's Frankenstein (2009) edited by Nick Gevers and Peter Crowther, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, September 2013. It is included in the collection Objects in Dreams (2012).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

A tale of love, money, and family conflict--among dragons.

A family deals with the death of their father. A son goes to court for his inheritance. Another son agonises over his father's deathbed confession. One daughter becomes involved in the abolition movement, while another sacrifices herself for her husband.

And everyone in the tale is a dragon, red in tooth and claw.

Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchmen and family retainers, of courtship and country houses...in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which the great and the good avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby.

You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw.

Lemography is a unique collection of critical essays on Stanislaw Lem, writer and philosopher. Its aim is to introduce aspects of his work hitherto unknown or neglected by scholarship and evaluate his influence on twentieth-century literature and culture - and beyond. The book's uniqueness is enhanced by the global makeup of the contributors who hail from Canada, United States, Great Britain, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Sweden and Finland. In all cases, these are scholars and translators who for many years have pursued, and in some cases defined, Lem scholarship. Rather than study Lem as a science fiction writer, each essay commands a wider sphere of reference in order to appraise Lem's literary and philosophical contributions. Each focuses on a different novel (or set of novels) from the writer's opus, examining them critically. Between them, the essays cover virtually all phases of Lem's multidimensional career, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

Andrea Cort became a "war criminal" at the age of eight when an unexplained darkness invaded her soul.

Now, decades later, the Devil is calling her.

Employed by the Diplomatic Corps but secretly aiding the AI masters of the universe, Counselor Andrea Cort despises the powerful Bettelhines-unrepentant death merchants who have prospered from the annihilation of civilizations. Now curiosity compels her to answer a cryptic summons to their home world, where the only law is Bettelhine law. But a murder attempt greets her arrival at Xana's orbital entry port-and far graver peril awaits aboard the elevator transport meant to carry Andrea to the planet's surface.

Trapped miles above Xana-surrounded by suspicious Bettelhines, their slavishly loyal retainers . . . and a corpse liquefied by a 15,000-year-old weapon-Andrea must unmask an assassin or die an equally hideous death. But the true reason for her summons-and sordid secrets weaving through her own dark past-threaten to destroy Andrea Cort more completely than the Claw of God.

Calliope Reaper-Jones is Death's Daughter. She owes a debt to Cerberus, the three headed dog that guards the gate's of hell-a debt that involves a trip to Purgatory, Las Vegas, ancient Egypt, and a discount department store that's more frightening than any supernatural creature she'll ever encounter.

The Viking king Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately, but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy-a prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory.

But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. After ensuring that his faithful warriors, witnesses to what has happened, die during the raid, Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the troll wall. And he places his destiny in their hands.

So begins a stunning multivolume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal Viking king down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin, and Loki, the eternal trickster, spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history and our lives.

This is the myth of the werewolf as it has never been told before and marks the beginning of an extraordinary new fantasy series.

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count's sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city.

Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn't do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn't do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state another. The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them.

But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.

M.D. Lachlan's stunning epic of mad Gods, Vikings and the myth of Fenrir, the wolf destined to kill Odin at Ragnarok, powers forward into new territories of bloody horror, unlikely heroism, dangerous religion and breathtaking action.

On a battlefield strewn with corpses, a ragged figure, dressed in wolfskin and intent on death, slips past the guards into the tent of the Emperor and draws his sword.

The terrified citizens of Constantinople are plagued by mysterious sorcery. The wolves outside the city are howling. A young boy had traded the lives of his family for power. And a Christian scholar, fleeing with his pregnant wife from her enraged father, must track down the magic threatening his world.

All paths lead to the squalid and filthy prison deep below the city, where a man who believes he is a wolf lies chained, and the spirits of the dead are waking.

The Norsemen camped outside the city have their own legends, of the wolf who will kill the gods, but no true Christian could believe such a thing.

And yet it is clear to Loys that Ragnarok is coming. Will he be prepared to sacrifice his life, his position, his wife and his unborn child for a god he doesn't believe in?

The Harrowing has come to the North. And the wolf of Viking legend, a wolf that will kill a god, is on the hunt...

Valkyrie's Song moves the action to Norman England and the Harrowing of the North. An immortal wolf and an immortal woman are on the run, fighting for their lives. They carry a magic within them, runes which flare with power when brought together. But others hold runes of their own, and the runes desire to be united.

And when they are, Ragnarok will come.

The world is at war again. London is suffering from the German Blitz. For one immortal werewolf, the war means little. He knows he will soon have to give up his identity once more, begin a new life. Before the wolf emerges.

But a chance conversation leads him to the scene of a gruesome murder, and the realisation that another war is being fought. The runes want to be together, and the when they are the wolf's story will end.

And in Germany, one weak-willed doctor finds himself caught up in the Third Reich's fascination with the occult and the Norse myths. They believe that the runes will bring them power, and wish to abuse them for their own ends.

And if they succeed, Ragnarok will come.

Professor Richard Helms heads up a tight-knit band of scientists and soldiers sent to explore New Amazon, a lush but savage planet seemingly determined to attack them at every turn. When they are done cataloguing every detail of this vast, unfamiliar ecosystem, they will burn it to the ground and make it fit for human habitation.

But when the team falls under attack, Helms and his followers are forced to flee into the depths of the jungle. Here, old enemies and petty rivalries surface as they struggle to survive. They soon end up fighting for their lives - against the planet they are exploring, the robots designed to protect them and, most of all, against each other. For the countdown into madness is ticking.

Palmer burns a new path for science fiction in this gripping, dark tale of man's place in the universe.

Danger and adventure await you on a school trip to a gas refinery infested by giant crustaceans! Only you can help the Doctor and Amy put a stop to the Macra's plans and save Earth! Join the Eleventh Doctor and Amy on their travels through time and space in the TARDIS and influence the story with your decisions. Choose a direction and let the adventures begin! This new series contains interactive stories that continue online. With links to exclusive animated scenes and an exciting online game, there's a new adventure with every read!

In the 3rd book of the #4 New York Times best-selling Neverwinter Saga, Drizzt draws his swords once more to aid his friends. His lover, Dahlia Sin'felle, can speak of nothing but the moment she will face the Netherese lord Herzgo Alegni once again. Drizzt has already followed a trail of vengeance beside Dahlia. Can he justify one more battle to settle a grudge he does not understand? Artemis Entreri too seeks vengeance. He offers to aid Dahlia in her mission to destroy Alegni. But Charon's Claw, Alegni's sentient sword, dominates Entreri's movements--if not his mind. And then there's the way Entreri looks at Dahlia. Can Drizzt trust his old foe?

Inspired by Frank Franzetta's painting, "Death Dealer", this third fantasy features Gath of Baal who sets off to the land beyond dreams in search of the legendary Noon, beautiful Queen of Cats. But one of his companions is a servant of the dreaded Dark Lord, and plans treachery.

College teacher Jim Rook has a special talent: a near-death experience in childhood gave him the facility to see ghosts and spirits that nobody else can see.Into his remedial English class at West Grove Community College comes Susan White Bird, the daughter of a Navajo Indian. Susan is beautiful and shy, but all her life she has been closely protected by her two older brothers, Sam and George. And when college senior Brad Dolman takes a fancy to Susan, there are frightening consequences. Brad's body is found one morning in his automobile, his face and body terribly mutilated - almost as if he has been attacked by a wild animal - and it is Susan's brothers who are immediately arrested.

Only when two more students are attacked do the police realise that the brothers are innocent, and that there is something terrible lurking around the college campus... something that threatens to transform Susan into the most horrific creature known to Navajo myth. And there is only one man who can save her, a man who can see the oncoming danger - Jim Rook.

It is now left to Jim and his engaging class of slow-lane students to face a shattering confrontation between the cultures of new and ancient America.

It's Not Over Til The Skinny Lady Sings . . .

Working off of a piece of intelligence from our alien allies, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to investigate rumors of an ancient and powerful civilization that may have been the creators of the “black box” that drives humanity's only space ship. Any remnant technology would be nice but what the Blade finds is much more than they bargained for. Worse, the ship is infested by an alien species of scorpion-like arachnoids that has the potential to wipe out a world. Worst of all, instead of being Astrogator, Captain William Weaver is now the XO and he is not getting along with the new commander. And the new commander does not get along with Weaver, the ship's female savant-linguist or most of the rest of the original crew. And what is that weird noise the ship makes every time it's in hard maneuvers?

Leave it to the oddball geniuses of the Blade to sort it all out. And the Dreen are not going to like the answers.

A deadly plague is ravaging the planet of Aerius and millions of Imperial citizens are dying. Inquisitor Sternberg turns to the fearsome Space Wolves for aidin the recovery of the ancient Talisman of Lykos, which he believes can cure the corruption ravaging the world.

Ragnar Blackmane and his squad of Blood Claws embark on a near-suicidal mission to retrieve the talisman before it is too late. But this is no ordinary plague, and the servants of Nurgle await the Space Wolves. Will they be able to overcome the forces of Chaos, or is Aerius doomed?

Ntignano was a populated world with a perfect sun -- until the right technology fell into the wrong hands. Now the sun is failing quickly, and the Starship Enterprise has just one chance to evacuate the fleeing refugees. Captain Jean-Luc Picard must succeed in delicate negotiations with the only people who can help them: a prickly neighboring species known as the Tsorans.

To assist in that effort, Commander Will Riker was assigned a very different diplomatic task. As a polite formality and show of good faith, he accompanied a young Tsoran prince to an exclusive hunting preserve. There, technology-damping fields and some of the galaxy's deadliest predators were supposed to test the untried noble's ability in the kaphoora -- the hunt. But the shuttlecraft didn't land on Fandre; it crashed.

Now, cut off from Tsora and the Enterprise, the survivors of the disaster face the ultimate struggle for survival. Without the aid of tricorders or phasers, Riker, his royal charge, and their would-be rescuers must fight for their lives with the only weapons they can muster -- spears and bat'leth, tooth and claw.

The second volume of "The Book of the New Sun". The torturer Severian continues his journey of exile to the city Thrax, carrying with him the ancient executioner's sword and the Claw of the Conciliator, a gem of extraterrestrial power and beauty which no one man is meant to possess.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 23, July-August 2018.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

The final book in the NYT bestselling Underland Chronicles!

Everyone in the Underland has been taking great pains to keep The Prophecy of Time from Gregor. Gregor suspected it says something awful but he never imagined just how awful: It calls for the warrior's death. Now, with an army of rats approaching and his mom and sister still in Regalia, Gregor the warrior must gather up his courage to help defend Regalia and get his family home safely. The entire existence of the Underland is in Gregor's hands, and time is running out. There is a code to be cracked, a mysterious new princess, Gregor's burgeoning dark side, and a war to end all wars.

A complex and gripping story of witches, enchantment, magical creatures and dragons. Dragonclaw is the debut novel from Kate Forsyth, a fresh new talent in the tradition of Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Since the Day of Reckoning witches and magic have been outlawed on Eileanan. The great towers, once centres of learning, are now abandoned ruins. The penalty for practising witchcraft is death.

Yet the lodestar still calls to the Righ, king of Eileanan, making him uneasy. And there are those determined restore witches and their craft to their rightful place in Eileanan. In a hidden valley deep in the mountains, in the shadow of the peak of Dragonclaw, Isabeau the foundling grows to womanhood in the care of Meghan, an old wood witch. Meghan can call animals to her hand and knows the secrets of herb-lore. But Isabeau dreams of adventure...

Carrying a magic talisman that contains the last hopes of the persecuted witches, Isabeau is hunted through the land by the evil Banrigh. Meanwhile the sea-dwelling Fairgean stir, children mysteriously disappear in the night, and Isabeau's guardian climbs Dragonclaw to seek guidance from the most ancient and dangerous wisdom in the land...

In this first book in a new trilogy, Kurt Leitzig, a knight in the Count of Ostermark's bodyguard, hides his shameful past as the son of a family condemned and burned by witch-hunters. However, when another with hunt brews, Kurt discovers that when the powers of Chaos become involved he cannot trust those closest to him--perhaps not even himself.