Search Worlds Without End

In the Rue Morgue, the jungles of Tarzan, the fables of Aesop, and outer space, the apes in these seventeen fantastic tales boldly go where humans dare not. Including a foreword from Rupert Wyatt, the director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this provocative anthology delves into our fascination with and fear of our simian cousins.

"Evil Robot Monkey" introduces a disgruntled chimp implanted with a chip that makes him cleverer than both his cohort and humans alike. In "Murders in the Rue Morgue," a murder mystery unravels with the discovery of a hair that does not appear quite human. Merging steampunk with slapstick, "The Ape-Box Affair" has a not-so-ordinary orangutan landing on Earth in a spherical flying ship--where he is promptly mistaken for an alien. King Kong sets a terrible example with booze and Barbie dolls in "Godzilla's 12-Step Program."

If you've ever wondered what makes humans different from apes, soon you'll be asking yourself, is it even less than we think?

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Rupert Wyatt
• A Brief Introduction - essay
• The Ape-Box Affair [Langdon St. Ives] (1978) - novelette by James P. Blaylock
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue [Chevalier Dupin] (1841) - novelette by Edgar Allan Poe
• Evil Robot Monkey (2008) - short story by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Apes in Literature - essay by Jess Nevins
• Tarzan's First Love [Tarzan] (1916) - short story by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Rachel in Love (1987) - novelette by Pat Murphy
• Her Furry Face (1983) - short story by Leigh Kennedy
• The Four-Color Ape - essay by Scott A. Cupp
• Red Shadows [Solomon Kane] (1928) - novelette by Robert E. Howard
• The Cult of the White Ape (1933) - novelette by Hugh B. Cave
• The Maze of Maâl Dweb [Maal Dweb] (1933) - short fiction by Clark Ashton Smith
• Quidquid Volueris (1837) - short fiction by Gustave Flaubert (trans. of Quidquid volueris)
• Gorilla of Your Dreams: A Brief History of Simian Cinema - essay
• After King Kong Fell [Wold Newton] (1973) - short story by Philip José Farmer
• Deviation from a Theme (1976) - short story by Steven Utley
• Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program (1994) - short story by Joe R. Lansdale
• The Men in the Monkey Suit - essay by Mark Finn
• Dr. Hudson's Secret Gorilla (1977) - short story by Howard Waldrop
• The Apes and the Two Travelers [Aesop's Fables] (569) - short fiction by Aesop (trans. of The King of the Apes)
• A Report to an Academy [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie] (1917) - short story by Franz Kafka (trans. of Ein Bericht für eine Akademie)
• Faded Roses (1989) - short story by Karen Joy Fowler

From the silent tombs of the pharaohs it came, infecting the world with an insidious disease more terrifying than the Black Plague. The vile infection transformed those it touched into savage demented beasts. But the victims of this ancient curse did not die, they overran the earth, thriving on the meat of the healthy. Survivors could either contract the hideous sickness--or meet death in the jaws of a rabid killer.

From apocalypse...

An act of terrorism unleashed an unspeakable biological weapon...and hell on earth. But as the masses felled by a hideous virus rose from the dead to prey on the living, a small band of survivors defied death and its ghastly spawn--determined to outrun the world's end and somehow begin again.

To Armageddon...

But beyond the undead-besieged shores of Europe lies something closer to damnation than salvation. Rescued from certain death at sea, a young Spanish lawyer, the beautiful woman he loves, and his brash, battle-hardened best friend--who have weathered the worst of the unnatural disaster--think they're escaping to freedom but are delivered into a stronghold of hate.

In a United States ravaged by a zombie plague and overrun by the undead, only Gulfport, Mississippi, offers sanctuary... for a price: subservience to a fascist dictator and his brutal enforcers. But their reign of terror will soon be challenged--by rebels hungry for vengeance and invaders bent on conquest.

The Demonlord Jarsun is poised to claim the Burning Throne and cement his rule over the Burnt Empire. Standing in his way is his daughter, now reincarnated into a new avatar named Krushni, who is determined to avenge her mother's death by his hand--and put an end to her father's reign of terror once and for all. Aligned with him is the vast army of the Empire, the One Hundred children of Emperor Adri, and their former guru, the legendary warrior Dronas.

Krushni has allies too. Also opposing the tyrant Jarsun are the children of his nephew Shvate--the supernaturally-gifted quintet known as the Five. But Krushni and The Five are vastly outnumbered, while other rogue individuals like Ladislew, the warrior-witch, serve their own secret agendas.

In this final volume of Banker's epic saga of the Krushan dynasty, the land of Hastinaga will be torn asunder as the final battle for the empire rages between father and daughter, uncle and nephew, lover and enemy. And the Burning Throne will revel in the violence of it all.

In the depths of the Maine woods, the wreckage of an aeroplane is discovered. There are no bodies, and no such plane has ever been reported missing, but men both good and evil have been seeking it for a long, long time. What the wreckage conceals is more important than money: it is power. Hidden in the plane is a list of names, a record of those who have struck a deal with the Devil. Now a battle is about to commence between those who want the list to remain secret and those who believe that it represents a crucial weapon in the struggle against the forces of darkness.

The race to secure the prize draws in private detective Charlie Parker, a man who knows more than most about the nature of the terrible evil that seeks to impose itself on the world, and who fears that his own name may be on the list. It lures others too: a beautiful, scarred woman with a taste for killing; a silent child who remembers his own death; and the serial killer known as the Collector, who sees in the list new lambs for his slaughter.

But as the rival forces descend upon this northern state, the woods prepare to meet them, for the forest depths hide other secrets.

Someone has survived the crash.
Some thing has survived the crash.
And it is waiting...

The Great Guilds, fearing the loss of their control of the world of Dematr, have gathered their power and joined it with the relentless legions of the Empire. The full might of that host will fall upon the fortress city of Dorcastle. If Dorcastle falls, the revolt led by Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain will fail, and their world will soon descend into chaos.

Only Mari, believed to be the daughter of an ancient prophecy, can inspire the people and lead the defense of Dorcastle. The prophecy says she has a chance to win, but it doesn't say she will survive. Alain will stand by her, both willing to die for the other, but neither one knows if their sacrifices will mean victory.

As they battle the Imperial legions and see friends fall, Mari and Alain face their greatest challenges. And if they somehow win in the face of impossible odds, neither one can be certain what sort of world that victory will produce.

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch... she's falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise face off against the genetically-engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh, a character who first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek television series episode "Space Seed".

When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise must stop him from acquiring the powerful Genesis terraforming device and turning it into a horrifying weapon. But the price they must pay to prevent galaxy-wide destruction by Khan might be more than they can bear...

Forged by rage. Taken as a child and trained in the ways of the Sith, he became the apprentice to the greatest evil the galaxy has ever known...

Honed by the dark side. After years of plotting in secrecy, he and his Master will take revenge on the Jedi Order--and the once-mighty Republic will tremble...

The savage story of Darth Maul has been shrouded in mystery--until now.

Iris Marlow can't die. For years, she was tormented by her missing memories and desperate to learn her real identity. So when the mysterious Adam Temple offered to reveal the truth of who she was in exchange for her joining his team in the Tournament of Freaks, a gruesome magical competition, it was an offer she couldn't refuse. But the truth would have been better left buried.

Because Adam is a member of the Enlightenment Committee, an elite secret society built upon one fundamental idea: that the apocalypse known as Hiva had destroyed the world before and would do it again, and soon. But what the Committee--and Iris--never guessed is that Hiva is not an event. Hiva is a person--Iris.

Now, no matter how hard Iris fights for a normal life, the newly awakened power inside her keeps drawing her toward the path of global annihilation. Adam, perversely obsessed with Iris, will stop at nothing to force her to unlock her true potential, while a terrifying newcomer with ties to Hiva's past is on the hunt for Iris.

All Iris wants is the freedom to choose her own future, but the cost might be everything Iris holds dear--including the world itself.

Foully betrayed and left to die alone in the tomb of a dead god, Corin Hugh has emerged victorious from an unexpected quest, hungry for revenge and sporting strange new powers. He soon sees the perfect chance to right the wrong that was done to him and rescue an innocent victim in the process.

But he must act quickly, using all of his cunning, because his arch-enemy and betrayer, Ethan Blake, has left his "civilian" days behind and resumed his position as the tyrant Vestossis, a powerful--and seemingly untouchable--member of the mighty ruling family.

Corin is soon joined in his quest by a beautiful and mysterious druid named Aemelia, who possesses otherworldly powers of her own--and, strangely, seems to know Corin better than he knows himself.

Set against a dark backdrop of betrayal, tyranny, and supernatural forces, the two unlikely heroes must combine their powers and, ultimately, learn to trust one another as they race against time itself in an epic battle for freedom and good.

A dead man, walking between the worlds, foresees the end of the gods. A survivor searching for a weapon releases a demon from fiery Muspelheim. A village is slaughtered by Christians, and revenge must be taken.

The bonds between the gods and Midgard are weakening. It is up to Hilda, Ragnar, their tribesmen Einer and Finn, the chief's wife Siv and Tyra, her adopted daughter, to fight to save the old ways from dying out, and to save their gods in the process.

The Pica Stone, which could prove the salvation of the elves and humans alike has been shattered, and eight of its shards are missing, scattered on worlds throughout the planes of existence. And it is up to Kevral, Darris, Ra-khir, Tae, and their fellow adventurers to journey to these different realms in hopes of recovering the shards. Yet even as they undertake their quest, Colbey and Odin have begun a final struggle, a new war of the gods which will determine the fate of the mortal world.

A dark, gritty urban fantasy debut set in modern-day San Francisco, filled with gods, sinister government agencies, and worlds of dark magic hidden just below the surface. When a secret government agency trying to enslave you isn't the biggest problem you're facing, you're in trouble. Erik, a former teen star living in San Francisco, thought his life was complicated; having his ex-boyfriend in jail because of the scandal that destroyed his career seemed overwhelming. Then Erik learned he was Blooded: descended from the Gods.

Struggling with a power he doesn't understand and can barely control, Erik discovers that a secret government agency is selling off Blooded like lab rats to a rival branch of preternatural beings in 'Zebub--San Francisco's mirror city in an alternate dimension. Lil, a timid apprentice in 'Zebub, is searching for answers to her parents' sudden and mysterious deaths. Surrounded by those who wish her harm and view her as a lesser being, Lil delves into a forgotten history that those in power will go to dangerous lengths to keep buried. What neither Erik nor Lil realize is that a darkness is coming, something none have faced in living memory. It eats. It hunts. And it knows them. In The Root, the dark and surging urban fantasy debut from Na'amen Tilahun, two worlds must come together if even a remnant of one is to survive.

In Corpiliu, an alternate dimension to our own, a darkness grows, devouring whole cities as it spreads. Robbed of her greatest power, separated from her siblings and thrown among people she does not trust, Lil, a 'dant from the city Zebub, must find a way to turn everything around, to trust in a power she knows nothing about.

Erik travels from San Francisco to Zebub, haunted by the ghost of his ex, still coming to terms with his true identity as a descendant of the gods, and unsure how to fight what seems to have no weakness. Pushing back against taboos meant to keep the true history of Corpiliu secret, he gains many enemies and few allies, and strange visions will make him question his own sanity.

Between Earth and Corpiliu, a war is developing on two fronts, one that might well mean the end of both dimensions. In The Tree, the dynamic follow-up to the exciting fantasy debut The Root, long-held secrets will be revealed, and long-trusted loyalties will be put to the test.

Following The Root and The Tree, the final novel in the Wrath & Athenaeum, a compelling urban fantasy set in a San Francisco merged with a dimension filled with gods and magic.

The ravenous darkness threatening the twin worlds of Earth and Corpiliu is trapped... for now. But the alliance of two societies is fragile: new species clash with existing ones, monster-like Antes enslave humans, and humans hunt the "invaders" down.

Meanwhile, young warrior Erik has left everything behind to wander the world keeping order, haunted by visions of his lost love. But is it a trick like before--or the real thing? And even as word of Erik's deeds begins to spread, his own father, now fallen to the darkness, is spreading hatred and gathering legions.

Elsewhere, seer Tae and dream-visionary Melinda must learn how to defeat the forces arrayed against them, but they'll need the help of gods driven beyond morality and sanity. And as Lil adapts to her new world, her magical powers grow beyond her control and threaten everything she's working for.

When all of these powers collide, the world will break. And the one created afterward may not be what anyone expected....

Gul has spent her life running. She has a star-shaped birthmark on her arm, and in the kingdom of Ambar, girls with such birthmarks have been disappearing for years. Gul's mark is what caused her parents' murder at the hand of King Lohar's ruthless soldiers and forced her into hiding to protect her own life. So when a group of rebel women called the Sisters of the Golden Lotus rescue her, take her in, and train her in warrior magic, Gul wants only one thing: revenge.

Cavas lives in the tenements, and he's just about ready to sign his life over to the king's army. His father is terminally ill, and Cavas will do anything to save him. But sparks fly when he meets a mysterious girl--Gul--in the capital's bazaar, and as the chemistry between them undeniably grows, he becomes entangled in a mission of vengeance--and discovers a magic he never expected to find.

Dangerous circumstances have brought Gul and Cavas together at the king's domain in Ambar Fort... a world with secrets deadlier than their own.

With King Lohar dead and a usurper queen in power, Gul and Cavas face a new tyrannical government that is bent on killing them both. Their roles in King Lohar's death have not gone unnoticed, and the new queen is out for blood. What she doesn't know is that Gul and Cavas have a connection that runs deeper than romance, and together, they just might have the strength and magic to end her for good.

Then a grave mistake ends with Cavas taken prisoner by the government. Gul must train an army of warriors alone. With alliances shifting and the thirst for vengeance growing, the fate of Ambar seems ever more uncertain. It will take every ounce of strength, love, and sacrifice for Gul and Cavas to reach their final goal--and build a more just world than they've ever known.