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The Quintana Roo is a real and very strange place. It is the long, wild easternmost shore of the Yucatan Peninsula, officially but not psychologically part of Mexico. A diary of daily life on its jungly beaches could sometimes be taken for a log of life on an alien planet, " writes James Tiptree, Jr., in the preface to this new collection of three talismanic tales of the supernatural. During the late 1970s, Tiptree -- one of the greatest American authors of short imaginative fiction -- lived for months on the eerie windswept shore of the Yucatan, and the true protagonist of this book is neither the Tiptree narrator nor the manifestations of ancient Maya civilization, but rather the Quintana Roo itself as a living, pulsating entity that envelops the reader within a uniquely alien ambience. Following Tiptree's introduction are these unforgettable nouvelles of weird fantasy: "What Came Ashore at Lirios, " "The Boy Who Waterskied to Forever, " and "Beyond the Dead Reef.

Table of Contents:

• A Note About the Mayas of the Quintana Roo - essay
• What Came Ashore at Lirios - (1981) - novelette
• The Boy Who Waterskied to Forever - (1982) - shortstory
• Beyond the Dead Reef - (1983) - shortstory

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1983. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection (1984), edited by Gardner Dozois
• The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 10 (1984), edited by Arthur W. Saha
• Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder (1989), edited by David G. Hartwell
• The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories (1994), edited by Tom Shippey
• A Century of Fantasy 1980-1989: The Greatest Stories of the Decade (1997), edited by Robert Silverberg

The story can also be found in the collection Tales of the Quintana Roo (1986).

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September 28, 1981. The story can also be found in the anthology Fantasy Annual V (1982) edited by Terry Carr and the collection Tales of the Quintana Roo (1986).

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1982. The story is included in the collection Tales of the Quintana Roo (1986).