Search Worlds Without End

A professor in pandemic isolation rescues books from the flooded and collapsing McPherson Library. A man plants fireweed on the hillside of his depopulated Vancouver Island suburb. An aspiring luthier poaches the last ancient Sitka spruce to make a violin for a child prodigy. Campbell's astonishing vision pulls the echoing effects of small acts and intimate moments through this multi-generational and interconnected story of how a West coast community survives the ravages of climate change.

Contents:

• [viii] - Hyperborea (map) - interior artwork by Lin Carter
• ix - About Hyperborea and Clark Ashton Smith: Behind the North Wind - essay by Lin Carter
• 3 - The Muse of Hyperborea - [Prose Pastels - 3] - (1934) - poem
• 4 - The Seven Geases - [Hyperborea] - (1934) - novelette
• 30 - The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan - [Hyperborea] - (1932) - short story
• 41 - The White Sybil - [Hyperborea] - (1934) - short story
• 53 - The Testament of Athammaus - [Hyperborea] - (1932) - short story
• 77 - The Coming of the White Worm - [Hyperborea] - (1941) - short story
• 94 - Ubbo-Sathla - [Hyperborea] - (1933) - short story
• 104 - The Door to Saturn - [Hyperborea] - (1932) - short story
• 128 - The Ice-Demon - [Hyperborea] - (1933) - short story
• 148 - The Tale of Satampra Zeiros - [Satampra Zeiros] - (1931) - short story
• 164 - The Theft of Thirty-nine Girdles - [Satampra Zeiros] - (1958) - short story
• 181 - The Abominations of Yondo - (1926) - short story
• 190 - The Desolation of Soom - poem (variant of The Abomination of Desolation 1938)
• 192 - The Passing of Aphrodite - [Prose Pastels - 5] - (1934) - poem
• 195 - The Memnons of the Night - (1917) - poem
• 197 - Notes on the Commoriom Myth-Cycle - essay by Lin Carter

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2007, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #97 October 2014. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Two (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010, edited by Rich Horton.

The continent of Borea prospers and suffers in harmony with the authority and strength of The Fells, its greatest city. And The Fells rises and falls as the balance of power shifts between the Keep of its king, the Agate Tower of its wizards, and the Jingle of its brokers who grow fat on the trade in magic.

In The Fells live: a soldier violating the tomb of a dead sorcerer-king; a would-be regicide changed into a dog as an act of mercy; a killer of dragons (and children); a lover of a queen and of a peasant; an officer in the guard of the Keep; a traveller to the farthest northern reaches of his land; a survivor, a buyer of magic and seller of his own sword; and an amnesiac murderer whose brother was a blind jester.

A powerful fantasy adventure filled with dark magic and deadly intrigue, from the worldwide bestselling author of the Saga of the Pliocene Exile.

Conrig Wincantor, Prince Heritor of Cathra, has a vision: to unite the whole island of High Blenholme under Cathran sovereignty.

He has so far been thwarted in this ambition by his cautious, aging father, King Olmigon, who, though weak with illness, still clings firmly to the reigns of the government.

Now Conrig has hit upon a scheme that will convince the Lords that his plan can suceed. He has formed an alliance with Ullanoth, princess of the remote northern province of Moss and a fearsome sorceress. With her help his army will have the advantage it needs to subdue the only domain refusing to sign his Edict of Sovereignty.

But before Olmigon will give his consent he insists on making a pilgrimage to the Oracle of Emperor Bazekoy, there to ask the one question permitted to a dying monarch, which the Emperor must answer truthfully.

Meanwhile, Ullanoth tends her own schemes. Posessing the talent to call on the unearthly powers of the Beaconfolk, mysterious otherworldy beings who appear as lights in the sky, her power is undeniable. But the Lights are fickle, and their interference in human affairs unpredictable. If Ullanoth calls on them to help Conrig, they are likely to extract an unforeseeable price.

The continuation of a powerful new fantasy adventure filled with dark magic and deadly intrigue, from the worldwide bestselling author of the SAGA OF THE PLIOCENE EXILE.

King Conrig Ironcrown now rules the entire island of High Blenholme. But the peace he achieved after ruthlessly uniting its four quarrelling kingdoms into a Sovereignty is about to be challenged by enemies both mortal and supernatural.

Rumours abound that his vengeful first wife, Maudrayne, believed to have committed suicide when she discovered his infidelity, is in fact still alive and about to reveal a secret that could cost Conrig his throne.

A more tangible threat is posed by the ambitious sorcerer Beynor, and his crony, Conrig's traitorous former alchymist Kilian, who have stolen a trove of currently inactive moonstones capable of drawing tremendous power from the mysterious supernatural Beaconfolk. After initiating a civil war, the pair hope to utilize this power to vanquish Conrig's fatally divided realm and rule it themselves.

The King's unlikely champion is his royal intelligencer, Deveron, a young man secretly possessed of magical talents. But Deveron is torn between his loyalty to the iron-willed king and his own conscience. The resulting clash involves not only human beings, but also the ancient races who inhabited High Blenholme before them - and who now intend to take back their lost homeland.

The stunning conclusion to a powerful epic fantasy from the worldwide bestselling author of the Saga of the Pliocene Exile.

For sixteen years King Conrig Ironcrown has ruled High Blenholme, battling both to preserve the Sovereignty he ruthlessly established over the four provinces of the island kingdom and to repel the invading Salka monsters that threaten them all. His hope for the future is his heir, Prince Orrion, whose betrothal to a princess of the province of Didion should assure the future peace of High Blenholme. But Orrion has no interest in the girl, and is determined to marry instead his childhood sweetheart, Lady Nyla.

Orrion's madcap twin, Corodon, dreams up a scheme to keep Orry and Nyla together by asking the supernatural Beaconfolk, who appear as lights in the sky, for a magical intercession. The twins are unaware that the Beaconfolk are fighting their own battle with others of their kind; to them all humans, even princes, are but pawns to be used in their own conflict. Their granting of Orrion's wish comes in a manner the twins far from expected, and precipitates chaotic infighting amongst the folk of High Blenholme.

As battles rage both on the ground and in the sky, the only hopes for peace can be found deep in King Conrig's murky past. His former spy, Deveron Austrey, has secret magical powers and no love for the Beaconfolk. And while many of his subjects no longer remember the King's first wife, Maudrayne, she has never forgotten that her son is the true heir to the throne of High Blenholme.

Beyond Sea and Sky the Wizard Eibon Pursues His Outlandish Wanderings.

This short story is included in the collections:

• The Door to Saturn: Volume Two of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (2007), Clark Ashton Smith
• Lost Worlds (2006), Clark Ashton Smith
• The Emperor of Dreams (2002), Clark Ashton Smith
• The Book of Eibon (2002), editor Robert M. Price

It first appeared in the January 1931 Issue of Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror available free on Internet Archives.

Can it get any stranger? Absolutely!

When Peg, Meg, and Teg were first summoned Over Where, vast and varied life experience (along with wide reading choices) helped them adjust to a world where they were the only humans, magic was real, ships could fly, and reincarnation was a confirmed fact.

In the company of the "inquisitors," Xerak, Grunwold, and Vereez, the three newly appointed mentors rediscovered the Library of the Sapphire Wind, and, within it, revelations that transformed the young people's pasts into a vast tangle of lies and half-truths.

But there are still questions to be answered. Before they are done, Meg the retired librarian, Teg the archeologist-turned-mage, and the multi-talented, ever surprising Peg will deal with kidnappings, betrayal, arcane artifacts, romantic intrigues, and the inescapable reality that past lives cast long shadows.

Together, the three mentors and their young allies will uncover the startling truth about what lies on the other side of the Aurora Borealis Bridge--a truth that holds the secret of Over Where, and that will change all their lives forever.

Following the Timelock, the Quester, de Maringy, finds himself on the parallel universe of Borea. Borea - ice-planet - is a ravaged arena of psychic combat between the Warlord of the Plateau, Armandra and the Wind-Walker.