Search Worlds Without End

When a lone goblin researcher stumbles across an artifact containing a terrifying message--that the world is in grave and immediate peril--she scrambles to find help. A very unusual asteroid (one constructed as a cage for dragons) is headed straight for the planet, and Xenon is the only person in the world who knows. As she clambers across hill and dale with her quill, journal, and dwindling coin purse to untangle the mystery, she'll need plenty of luck to find the right clues and the right sort of help.

Meanwhile, our heroes have their own problems. They have a bank to rob, a sea to cross, and a kingdom to infiltrate. Luckily, Rime is a wild mage--the laws of reality quiver when she gives them a stern look--and her guardian, Jonas, wields a reasonably sharp sword. But Rime is slipping ever closer to the abyss of madness, and Jonas is wanted for murder at their final port of call. To make matters worse, the mage-killing Hunt and its commander, Linus, follow the duo like a patient shadow, bent on Rime's destruction.

When the wise are underfunded, the brave are overbooked, and the cruel are unconcerned, can the world be saved from destruction?

This novelette was originally published in Subterranean Press Magazine, Spring 2014. It has been reprinted in the anthology The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2015, edited by Paula Guran and can be found in the collection Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong (2015).

Read the full story for free at Subterranean Press Magazine.

After the collapse of civilization Nora and her family live a quiet life in the Midwestern Plains until a great fiery god of the sky descends and makes her an irresistible offer--an offer that will take her away from those she loves forever.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Dragons are common in the backwater kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouse-like vermin all the way up to castle-smashing monsters.

Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad's job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart in part because he likes dragons, feeling a kinship with them, but mainly because his dream has always been the impossible one of transcending his humble origin to someday become a princess valet.

Needless to say, fate has something rather different in mind...

Here is an exciting collection of stories about dragons--those fascinating creatures of myth and legend.

Some of the dragons are friendly, others are quite dangerous. But all the stories are sure to give you hours of reading pleasure.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - The Book of Beasts
• 19 - Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger
• 39 - The Deliverers of Their Country
• 57 - The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told
• 79 - The Island of the Nine Whirlpools
• 99 - The Dragon Tamers
• 119 - The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold
• 139 - Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice

Wold Fantasy Award winning and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the athology Imaginary Lands (1985), edited by Robin McKinley. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986) and Modern Classics of Fantasy (1997), both edited by Gardner Dozois, Nebula Awards 21 (1986), edited by George Zebrowski, Dragons! (1993), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, and Wings of Fire (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon. It is inlcued in the collection Thirteen Phantasms and Other Stories (2000).

Unbeknownst to Noressa, she is the daughter of a powerful, doomed queen, and was spirited away at birth to be raised as a commoner, keeping her safe from the aunt who would have her dead. But when her foster parents die, Noressa is given an amulet by a strange old woman and answering its powerful mental summons, Noressa leaves her primitive home to fulfill her destiny.

A young wizarding apprentice is sent to kill a dragon which has been devouring girls from a nearby kingdom.

A novel by Wayland Drew based on the screenplay written by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins.

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves) - essay by Alan Dean Foster
• 1 - As Is - novelette by Robert Silverberg
• 21 - The Same to You Doubled - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 33 - The Egg of the Glak - novelette by Harvey Jacobs
• 81 - Beibermann's Soul - short story by Mike Resnick
• 87 - Thimgs - short story by Theodore R. Cogswell
• 103 - Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin - short story by Marvin Kaye
• 111 - Unferno - novelette by George Alec Effinger
• 137 - Unicorn Variations - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• 166 - Yes Sir That's My - short story by Daniel P. Dern
• 179 - Please Stand By - [Max Kearny] - short story by Ron Goulart
• 205 - Bottle Party - short story by John Collier
• 215 - My Mother Was a Witch - short story by William Tenn
• 223 - Djinn, No Chaser - novelette by Harlan Ellison
• 246 - Up the Wall - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• 276 - Trouble with Water - short story by H. L. Gold
• 301 - Savage Breasts - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• 310 - Or the Grasses Grow - short story by Avram Davidson
• 321 - Snulbug - short story by Anthony Boucher
• 340 - Afterword (Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves) - essay by Alan Dean Foster

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Dragons and Dreams) - essay by Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh and Jane Yolen
• 1 - The Box - short story by Bruce Coville
• 12 - The Thing That Goes Burp in the Night - short story by Sharon Webb
• 32 - Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer's Son - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• 43 - All the Names of Baby Hag - short story by Patricia MacLachlan
• 55 - The Three Men - short story by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• 70 - Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale - novelette by Jane Yolen
• 95 - Laughter in the Leaves - [Cerin Songweaver] - short story by Charles de Lint
• 108 - Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream - [Chrestomanci] - novelette by Diana Wynne Jones
• 136 - The Singing Float - short story by Monica Hughes
• 151 - Uptown Local - [Young Wizards] - novelette by Diane Duane

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Company He Keeps (2010), edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue Six, September/October 2015.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

WELCOME TO MR. McGULVEY'S MAGIC LIBRARY...

...where each book Sherman Potts reads is literally the door into a whole new world. In the poisoned city of Cuspidor, valiant Sir Sherm faces the treacherous toxic dragons. In an imperiled Washington, D.C., psychic Sergeant Sherm faces the sinister psi-fiend from dimension X. On the distant planet of New Batavia, intrepid Commander Sherm confronts a cake-snatching demon from beyond space. But some adventures just aren't enough, so Sherm finds a way to add a little spice to Mr. McGulvey's library with an addition all his own. What he doesn't realize is that one little addition could have world-shattering implications. And now just plain Sherm must battle bravely to keep reality from destroying Mr. McGulvey's library - and vice versa!

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2010. It can also be found in the anthologies War & Space: Recent Combat (2012), edited by Rich Horton and Sean Wallace, and Clarkesworld: Year Four (2013), edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace. The story is included in the collection Conservation of Shadows (2013).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

The Magic That Doesn't Go Away

Cutbacks have forced Sarah out of the asylum in which she was raised--and into a strange new place where the Head Wolf rules the beautiful and the doomed.

But Sarah can never truly assimilate, for she possesses wild talents. Walls tell her their secrets. Safes tell her their combinations. And a favorite toy dragon whispers dire warnings about those who would exploit her for their own malevolent purposes. There's no place Sarah can hide, from her pursuers or from her past...

Anne McCaffrey's dragons are the stuff of which SF/fantasy legends are made. All of her dragon books have been national bestsellers.

The Girl Who Heard Dragons is a feast for McCaffrey fans and for all readers--a big, satisfying compilation of her fiction. Best of all, it opens with an original short novel of Pern, "The Girl Who Heard Dragons."

In addition, the book contains twenty-four beautiful black and white drawings by award-winning artist Michael Whelan. Romance, humor, colorful description, and affecting characters are Anne McCaffrey's hallmarks and the fifteen stories herein have these virtues in abundance. No wonder the Chicago Sun-Times described her as a "master of the well-told tale."

"The Girl Who Heard Dragons" is the story of Aramina, a teenage girl of Pern who hears dragons--a skill which does not seem likely to help solve her family's problems. They are "holdless," and must constantly roam the land, trying to hide from bandits. Aramina's mother fears losing her daughter completely to the life of a dragonrider, but McCaffrey has another fate in mind for her young heroine.

Table of Contents:

• So, You're Anne McCaffrey - essay
• The Girl Who Heard Dragons - (1986) - novelette
• Velvet Fields - (1973) - shortstory
• Euterpe on a Fling - shortstory
• Duty Calls - (1988) - novelette
• A Sleeping Humpty Dumpty Beauty - (1990) - novelette
• The Mandalay Cure - shortstory
• A Flock of Geese - (1985) - shortstory
• The Greatest Love - (1977) - novella
• A Quiet One - (1991) - novelette
• If Madam Likes You ... - (1989) - shortstory
• Zulei, Grace, Nimshi, and the Damnyankees - (1992) - novelette
• Cinderella Switch - (1981) - shortstory
• Habit Is an Old Horse - (1986) - shortstory
• Lady-in-Waiting - shortstory
• The Bones Do Lie - shortstory

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, December 2017.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

Dragons have invaded Crumbling Castle, and all of King Arthur's knights are either on holiday or visiting their grannies. It's a disaster!

Luckily, there's a spare suit of armour and a very small boy called Ralph who's willing to fill it. Together with Fortnight the Friday knight and Fossfiddle the wizard, Ralph sets out to defeat the fearsome fire-breathers.

But there's a teeny weeny surprise in store . . .

Fourteen fantastically funny stories from master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett, full of time travel and tortoises, monsters and mayhem!

In the title story of this first-rate science fiction collection, a renegade misfit conquers the dragons and renews the threat of nuclear chaos aboard Springplace, a man-made repository for old reactor cores, dirty plutonium, and dismantled bombs. Another story is a sprawling intergalactic epic that takes place aboard a starship. Salvaged and commandeered by humans, the massive generation starship becomes the setting for a titanic struggle between two alien entities who engage in a monumental battle for survival. The tale "Chrysalis" explores not just an alien milieu but the nature of man himself when another ancient starship lands and investigates an icy unknown planet inhabited by humans millions of years earlier.

Table of Contents

• The Dragons of Springplace - (1997) - novelette
• Waging Good - (1995) - novelette
• To Church with Mr. Multhiford - (1997) - short story
• Stride - (1994) - novelette
• Chrysalis - (1996) - novelette
• The Utility Man - (1990) - short story
• Guest of Honor - (1993) - novelette
• Decency - (1996) - short story
• The Remoras - (1994) - novelette
• Aeon's Child - (1995) - novelette
• The Shape of Everything - (1994) - short story

This novelette originally appeared on Sci Fiction, December 1, 2004. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois, Year's Best Fantasy 5 (2005), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer, and Wings of Fire (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon.

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

Old Man's War author John Scalzi's sendup of the heroic fantasy genre was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

This was Tor.com's April Fool's Day Joke in 2011. The title was chosen based on the statistically-most-used words in Fantasy novels. Fun Fact: Scalzi's agent actually received a call from someone in Hollywood, wanting to buy the option on this "novel" for a movie.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Watch Hugo-nominated Fan Writer "Mark Reads" Oshiro's hilarious video reading of this story here. (PG for profanity)

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, November 2015.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Born of a crack-addicted mother in a charity ward in Washington, D.C., after the "crash," Job Napoleon Salk is destined to change the world.

Collection of related science fiction stories, most of which were originally published in ANALOG magazines, plus one original written for this volume. The stories are set among independent space pilots traveling between the moons and planets of our solar system, using believable near-future technology.

Table of Contents:

• Europa: The Ice Dragon's Song - (1998) - novella
• Jupiter: Pumpkin - (2001) - novelette
• Jupiter: Primrose and Thorn - (1996) - novella
• Mars: Olympus Mons - (1998) - novelette
• Io: The Debt - (2000) - novelette

It is the waning days of the Russian monarchy. A reckless man rules the land and his dragons rule the sky. Though the Tsar aims his dragons at his enemies - Jews and Bolsheviks - his entire country is catching fire. Conspiracies suffuse the royal court: bureaucrats jostle one another for power, the mad monk Rasputin schemes for the Tsar's ear, and the desperate queen takes drastic measures to protect her family.

Revolution is in the air - and the Red Army is hatching its own weapons.

Here there be dragons...

From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations.

Contents:

• Introduction (The Book of Dragons) - essay by Jonathan Strahan
• What Heroism Tells Us - poem by Jane Yolen
• Matriculation - short fiction by Elle Katharine White
• Hikaya Sri Bujang, or The Tale of the Naga Sage - short fiction by Zen Cho
• Yuli - short fiction by Daniel Abraham
• A Whisper of Blue - novelette by Ken Liu
• Nidhog - poem by Jo Walton
• Where the River Turns to Concrete - novelette by Brooke Bolander
• Habitat - short fiction by Tom Holt [as by K. J. Parker]
• Pox - short fiction by Ellen Klages
• The Nine Curves River - short fiction by R. F. Kuang
• Lucky's Dragon - novelette by Kelly Barnhill
• I Make Myself a Dragon - poem by Beth Cato
• The Exile - short fiction by JY Yang
• Except on Saturdays - short fiction by Peter S. Beagle
• La Vitesse - short fiction by Kelly Robson
• A Final Knight to her Love and Foe - poem by Amal El-Mohtar
• The Long Walk - short fiction by Kate Elliott
• Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz - short fiction by Garth Nix
• Hoard - short fiction by Seanan McGuire
• The Worm of Lirr - poem by C. S. E. Cooney
• The Last Hunt - short fiction by Aliette de Bodard
• We Continue - short fiction by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky
• Small Bird's Plea - short fiction by Todd McCaffrey
• The Dragons - poem by Theodora Goss
• Dragon Slayer - short fiction by Michael Swanwick
• Camouflage - short fiction by Patricia A. McKillip
• We Don't Talk About the Dragon - short fiction by Sarah Gailey
• Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It - short fiction by Scott Lynch
• A Nice Cuppa - poem by Jane Yolen

On one side of the border lies the modern world: the internet, homecoming dances, cell phones. On the other side dwell the ancient monsters who spark humanity's deepest fears: dragons.

Seventeen-year-old Kay Wyatt knows she's breaking the law by rock climbing near the border, but she'd rather have an adventure than follow the rules. When the dragon Artegal unexpectedly saves her life, the rules are abruptly shattered, and a secret friendship grows between them.

But suspicion and terror are the legacy of human and dragon interactions, and the fragile truce that has maintained peace between the species is unraveling. As tensions mount and battles begin, Kay and Artegal are caught in the middle. Can their friendship change the course of a war?

In her young-adult debut, New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn presents a distinctly twenty-first-century tale of myths and machines, and an alliance that crosses a seemingly unbridgeable divide.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Orbit 14 (1974), edited by Damon Knight. The story is included in the collection Children of the Wind (1989).

Dragons were fire and terror to the Western world, but in the East they brought life-giving rain...

Now, no longer hailed as gods and struggling in the overheated pollution of Beijing, only the Eastern dragons survive. As drought plagues the aquatic creatures, a mysterious disease--shaolong, or "burnt lung"--afflicts the city's human inhabitants.

Jaded college student Xiang Kaifei scours Beijing streets for abandoned dragons, distracting himself from his diagnosis. Elijah Ahmed, a biracial American medical researcher, is drawn to Beijing by the memory of his grandmother and her death by shaolong. Interest in Beijing's dragons leads Kai and Eli into an unlikely partnership. With the resources of Kai's dragon rescue and Eli's immunology research, can the pair find a cure for shaolong and safety for the dragons? Eli and Kai must confront old ghosts and hard truths if there is any hope for themselves or the dragons they love.

DARK OF THE WOODS

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt though be in the field.
Thou shalt be blessed above all...

Our holy empire of the Alliance of mankind has fulfilled our destiny. Remember the many heroic humans who have died in conquering the stars for you. Therefore, do not let misguided sympathy toward inferior and conquered animals deter you from your inherent title of divine rulers of the universe. Do not lose this birthright by succumbing to the "attractions" of any alien creature. Remember the penalties imposed by the Supremacy of Man party for this transgression.

Our blessings be with you as you follow in the paths of your brothers and sisters. We have faith in mankind and we have faith in you. But, however, should you falter from the paths of righteousness, we have many willing hands eager to show you the error of your ways....

SOFT COME THE DRAGONS

Mutilated, mutant by-products of America's "Artificial Wombs" created by attempts at producing human weapons...

An American team of doctors sent to China to combat the runaway ultimate in biological warfare...

The genetically mutated daughter of LSD users, hiding her powers in order to survive society...

And Gabe, the vital, young man mistakenly locked in an antiseptic old-age ward...

The following stories are included in this book:

• "Soft Come the Dragons" (1967)
• "A Third Hand" (1970) [F&SF, Jan 1970]
• "The Twelfth Bed" (1968)
• "A Season for Freedom" (1977) - [revised and re-issued version of "Killerbot" (1969)]
• "The Psychedelic Children" (1968)
• "Dragon In the Land" (1969)
• "To Behold the Sun" (1967)

When destiny calls, there's no fighting back.

Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, a thief and a minstrel's son raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself at the mercy of his new family's ruthless power plays and political ambitions.

Practically a prisoner, Kihrin discovers that being a long-lost prince is nothing like what the storybooks promised. The storybooks have lied about a lot of other things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he isn't the hero after all. For Kihrin is not destined to save the world.

He's destined to destroy it.

Jenn Lyons begins the Chorus of Dragons series with The Ruin of Kings, an epic fantasy novel about a man who discovers his fate is tied to the future of an empire.

Kihrin D'Mon is a wanted man.

Since he destroyed the Stone of Shackles and set demons free across Quur, he has been on the run from the wrath of an entire empire. His attempt to escape brings him into the path of Janel Theranon, a mysterious Joratese woman who claims to know Kihrin.

Janel's plea for help pits Kihrin against all manner of dangers: a secret rebellion, a dragon capable of destroying an entire city, and Kihrin's old enemy, the wizard Relos Var.

Janel believes that Relos Var possesses one of the most powerful artifacts in the world?the Cornerstone called the Name of All Things. And if Janel is right, then there may be nothing in the world that can stop Relos Var from getting what he wants.

And what he wants is Kihrin D'Mon.

THE LONGER HE LIVES
THE MORE DANGEROUS HE BECOMES

Now that Relos Var's plans have been revealed and demons are free to rampage across the empire, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies--and the end of the world--is closer than ever.

To buy time for humanity, Kihrin needs to convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual which will strip the entire race of their immortality, but it's a ritual which certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the messengers.

Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to the king of demons, Vol Karoth, is growing steadily in strength.

How can he hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all?

In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed.

The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin's enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he's willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies.

Now they face a choice: can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy.

The end times have come.

Relos Var's final plans to enslave the universe are on the cusp of fruition. He believes there's only one being in existence that might be able to stop him: the demon Xaltorath.

As these two masterminds circle each other, neither is paying attention to the third player on the board, Kihrin. Unfortunately, keeping himself classified in the "pawn" category means Kihrin must pretend to be everything the prophecies threatened he'd become: the destroyer of all, the sun eater, a mindless, remorseless plague upon the land. It also means finding an excuse to not destroy the people he loves (or any of the remaining Immortals) without arousing suspicion.

Kihrin's goals are complicated by the fact that not all of his "act" is one. His intentions may be sincere, but he's still being forced to grapple with the aftereffects of the corrupted magic ritual that twisted both him and the dragons. Worse, he's now tied to a body that is the literal avatar of a star - a form that is becoming increasingly, catastrophically unstable. All of which means he's running out of time.

After all, some stars fade - but others explode.

Dubbed "the American Tolkien" by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the #1 New York Times bestselling author delivers the fifth book in his spellbinding landmark series--as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a fragmented empire.

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again--beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has three times three thousand enemies, and many have set out to find her. Yet, as they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

To the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone--a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, will face his greatest challenge yet. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all....

Those of you who have met Morlock will get to run the streets with him a bit earlier in his wanderings. The new trilogy, A Tournament of Shadows focuses on an adult, but not yet centuries old Morlock we see in Blood of Ambrose, This Crooked Way, and The Wolf Age The first of the new series is A Guile of Dragons.

Table of Contents:

• The Name of Our Field - [Asimov's Editorials] - (1978) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• The Name of Our Field - interior artwork by Frank Kelly Freas
• The Last Full Measure - (1978) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
• The Last Full Measure - interior artwork by Vincent Di Fate
• The Voyage of the Bagel - [SF Puzzles] - (1978) - shortstory by Martin Gardner
• Pièce de Résistance - (1978) - shortstory by J. F. Bone [as by Jesse Bone ]
• Pièce de Résistance - (1978) - interior artwork by Freff
• Polly Plus - (1978) - shortstory by Randall Garrett
• Polly Plus - (1978) - interior artwork by Vincent Di Fate
• Wolf Tracks - (1978) - poem by Donald Gaither
• Wolf Tracks - (1978) - interior artwork by Roy G. Krenkel
• Guilt - (1978) - novelette by James E. Gunn
• Guilt - (1978) - interior artwork by Alex Schomburg
• A Choice of Weapons - (1978) - shortstory by Michael Tennenbaum
• A Choice of Weapons - (1978) - interior artwork by Alex Schomburg
• Star Train - (1978) - shortstory by Drew Mendelson
• Star Train - interior artwork by Rick Sternbach
• The Man Who Took the Fifth - (1978) - shortstory by Michael Schimmel
• The Man Who Took the Fifth - interior artwork by Phil Foglio [as by Philip Foglio ]
• Born Again - (1978) - shortstory by Sharon N. Farber
• Born Again - (1978) - interior artwork by Freff
• A Child of Penzance - (1978) - novelette by Tony Sarowitz
• A Child of Penzance - (1978) - interior artwork by Vincent Di Fate
• Lipidleggin' - [LaNague Federation] - (1978) - shortstory by F. Paul Wilson
• Lipidleggin' - (1978) - interior artwork by Freff
• Singularity - (1978) - novella by Mildred Downey Broxon
• Singularity (I) - interior artwork by Jack Gaughan
• Singularity (II) - interior artwork by Jack Gaughan

A glowing anthology of gems from the ancient writers, including excerpts from:

The Volsunga Saga
Beowulf
The Mabinogion
The Shah-Namah
The Kalevala
and many, many more.

The companion volume to "The Young Magicians." Edited and with introduction and notes by Lin Carter

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction: Over the Hills and Far Away - essay by Lin Carter
• 10 - The Ogre - (1961) - short story by unknown
• 30 - The High History of the Sword Gram - [Volsungs] - (1870) - short story by unknown
• 54 - Manawyddan Son of the Boundless - (1930) - short story by Kenneth Morris
• 64 - Puck's Song - (1905) - poem by Rudyard Kipling
• 67 - Barrow-Wight - juvenile - (1890) - short story by Sabine Baring-Gould [as by S. Baring-Gould]
• 73 - Fingal at the Siege of Carric-Thura - poem by James Macpherson
• 83 - The Sword of Avalon (excerpt from Le Morte d'Arthur) - short fiction by Sir Thomas Malory
• 98 - Tom O'Bedlam's Song - poem by Anonymous
• 102 - The Last Giant of the Elder Age - (1886) - short story by unknown (variant of Ilya of Murom the Peasant Hero, and Hero Svyatogor)
• 112 - The Lost Words of Power - poem by unknown
• 125 - Wonderful Things Beyond Cathay - (1895) - short story by unknown
• 135 - Prospero Evokes the Air Spirits (excerpt from The Tempest) - poem by William Shakespeare
• 138 - The Lords of Faerie (excerpt from The Faerie Queen) - (1953) - short fiction by Edmund Spenser
• 144 - Tales of the Wisdom of the Ancients - (1959) - short story by unknown
• 160 - The Magical Palace of Darkness (excerpt from Palmerin of England) - [Amadis de Gaula] - (1807) - short story by Francisco de Moraes
• 178 - Rustum Against the City of Demons - short story by Firdausi
• 197 - Childe Rolande to the Dark Tower Came - (1855) - poem by Robert Browning
• 203 - The Princess of Babylon (abridged) - (1885) - novella by Voltaire
• 275 - The Horns of Elfland - (1909) - poem by Alfred Tennyson [as by Alfred Lord Tennyson]

During a recent dwarf civil-war deep under the Karamakkos Mountains, the magick-enslaved dragonlords have broken free from centuries of imprisonment and slaughtered tens of thousands throughout the Five Havens before exploding from the mountain and heading in fire and vengeance for the lands of Vagandrak.

Two once-noble war heroes of Vagandrak -- Dakeroth and his wife Jonti Tal, an archer and scholar, the Axeman, the White Witch and a Kaalesh combat expert find themselves in a unique position: for they have discovered the ancient dragon city of Wyrmblood, and a thousand unhatched dragon eggs.

Dakeroth and his companions must work with their enemies, Skalg and the Church of Hate, in order to bring down the dragonlords and save the world of men and dwarves. But there is no bartering with these ancient dragons; for they seek to hatch their eggs and rebuild the cruel Wyrmblood Empire of legend.

It all started about a decade ago, when the Portal suddenly opened up over the stadium right in the middle of a game. Cleveland just hadn't been the same since, what with electronic devices pretty much useless--unless you were willing to spend a fortune in digital protection and redundancy equipment--and all the dragons, elves, gnomes, dwarves, gargoyles, etc. who'd come through the Portal to take up residence within the areas covered by the Portal's magical field.

For Kline Maxwell, City Hall reporter for the Cleveland Press, magic-based Cleveland had long since become the status quo. At least until a fellow reporter named Morgan came down with a case of eyeballs growing all over his body. The diagnosis: stay out of Portal territory and he'd be just fine. But that meant Maxwell and all the other reporters were going to have to take up the slack. And Maxwell hated the thought of doing "fuzzy gnome" stories. Still, he took his job seriously, and when he was assigned to cover a dragon's death by crash-landing into the Cuyahoga, he headed over to the accident site with only a modest number of curses. But what should have been a simple accident report soon led Maxwell in search of a much bigger story--one that would see him kidnapped by elves, framed for murder, holding secret meetings with dragons, and fleeing not only from the cops but from pretty much everyone....

In the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise--and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere, people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive.

But scattered across the face of the Earth are communities that have returned to the natural life of soil and small farm. In the village of Raven's Mill, Edmund Talbot, master smith and unassuming historian, finds that all the problems of the world are falling in his lap. Refugees are flooding in, bandits are roaming the woods, and his former lover and his only daughter struggle through the fallen landscape. Enemies, new and old, gather like jackals around a wounded lion.

But what the jackals do not know is that while old he may be, this lion is far from death. And hidden in the past is a mystery that has waited until this time to be revealed. You cross Edmund Talbot at your peril, for a smith is not all he once was....

The first book in a thrilling new epic fantasy saga, written exclusively for Audible by Jack Campbell, the New York Times best-selling author of The Lost Fleet series!

For centuries, the two Great Guilds have controlled the world of Dematr. The Mechanics and the Mages have been bitter rivals, agreeing only on the need to keep the world they rule from changing. But now a Storm approaches, one that could sweep away everything that humans have built. Only one person has any chance of uniting enough of the world behind her to stop the Storm, but the Great Guilds and many others will stop at nothing to defeat her.

Mari is a brilliant young Mechanic, just out of the Guild Halls, where she has spent most of her life learning how to run the steam locomotives and other devices of her Guild. Alain is the youngest Mage ever to learn how to change the world he sees with the power of his mind. Each has been taught that the works of the other's Guild are frauds. But when their caravan is destroyed, they begin to discover how much has been kept from them.

As they survive danger after danger, Alain discovers what Mari doesn't know - that she was long ago prophesized as the only one who can save their world. When Mari reawakens emotions he had been taught to deny, Alain realizes he must sacrifice everything to save her. Mari, fighting her own feelings, discovers that only together can she and Alain hope to stay alive and overcome the Dragons of Dorcastle.

The Great Guilds had conspired for centuries to keep Dematr unchanged. The Mechanics Guild kept secret the technolgy for steam locomotion, rifles, and far-talkers, leaving most people to live in a world of oil lamps, crossbows, and horse cavalry, while the Mages treated all others as if they were nothing - until Master Mechanic Mari, dragon slayer and pirate queen, and Master of Mages Alain raised the army of the new day to free their world.

Kira of Pacta Servanda, the daughter of the two greatest heroes of her world, was six years old the day she stood on a battlement in Dorcastle, kept safe from the nearby crowds by bodyguards as she stared up at a statue of her mother. As the morning sun cast the shadow of Mari's statue over Kira, she realized that she would spend the rest of her life in that shade.

Then the world of Dematr learned that a new kind of ship had left the far-distant world of Urth. The ship would take just 10 years to cover the immense distances between stars. Of all the colony worlds, the ship was coming to Dematr. But for what purpose? Kira was 16 when the ship from Urth arrived, and she discovered that her world still needed heroes.

Twenty years after the war that overthrew the Great Guilds, the Empire is vowing to avenge the massive defeat of the Imperial legions at Dorcastle. Aiding the Imperials are renegade Mechanics and Mages still loyal to the old Guilds or employed by the Empire.

But before they can launch an all-out war, the Imperials must eliminate a major threat: Kira, daughter of Master Mechanic Mari and Master of Mages Alain. Kidnapped and imprisoned, Kira has to escape and avoid recapture as the full might of the Empire is aimed at her. Her only hope lies in the skills she has mastered; her indomitable spirit; and the unfailing aid of Jason, her boyfriend from the distant world of Urth.

With the Imperial legions closing in and thousands of lives riding on her efforts, Kira has to use every weapon available to her, including special abilities she has kept secret until now - abilities that may prove to be as dangerous as the enemy forces. Mari and Alain must come to Kira's aid and work to create an alliance against the Empire.

If they fail, a deadlier new war will erupt, with every soldier carrying a rifle instead of a sword or crossbow - and the Peace of the Daughter will end in a bloodbath.

Ancient weapons of mass destruction lie hidden under the city of Pacta Servanda. Remnants of the Great Guilds and rebellious factions of the Empire want to seize those weapons to allow them to regain control of the world of Dematr. Only Jason, brought by the first ship from Earth since the colony failed, might be able to disarm the threat. But he also might know how to employ those weapons, making him a danger for all sides.

Standing between those threats is Kira of Dematr. But Kira, who inexplicably has been able to manifest Mage powers as well as technical skills, finds herself being consumed by the mental conflicts between those powers and skills. As rogue Mechanics, Mages, and mercenaries attack with every weapon at their disposal, Kira suffers more blackouts and begins to lose her mind. The fate of her world rests on whether she can stay alive and find answers in time to problems that no one else has ever confronted.

They say family always sticks together, but when you're your dad's only lifeline and the whole world--humans, dragons, and gods--wants you dead, "family bonding" takes on a whole new meaning.

My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I'm in way over my head. I thought getting rid of my dad's bad luck curse would put things back to normal. Instead, I'm stuck playing caretaker to the Great Dragon of Korea. That wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't such a jerk, or if every dragon on the planet wasn't out to kill him, or if he were my only problem.

Turns out, things can always get worse in the DFZ. When a rival spirit attacks my god/boss to turn the famously safety-optional city into a literal death arena with Nik as his bloody champion, I'm thrust onto the front lines and way out of my comfort zone. When gods fight, mortals don't usually survive, but I'm not alone this time. Even proud old dragons can learn new tricks, and with everything I love falling to pieces, the father I've always run from might just be the only force in the universe stubborn enough to pull us back together.

Lunar New Year should be a time for familial reunions, ancestor worship, and consumption of an unhealthy amount of candied fruit.

But when dragon prince Thuan brings home his brooding and ruthless husband Asmodeus for the New Year, they find not interminable family gatherings, but a corpse outside their quarters. Asmodeus is thrilled by the murder investigation; Thuan, who gets dragged into the political plotting he'd sworn off when he left, is less enthusiastic.

It'll take all of Asmodeus's skill with knives, and all of Thuan's diplomacy, to navigate this one--as well as the troubled waters of their own relationship...

It was supposed to be a holiday, with nothing more challenging than babysitting, navigating familial politics and arguing about the proper way to brew tea.

But when dragon prince Thuan and his ruthless husband Asmodeus find a corpse in a ruined shrine and a hungry ghost who is the only witness to the crime, their holiday goes from restful to high-pressure. Someone is trying to silence the ghost and everyone involved. Asmodeus wants revenge for the murder; Thuan would like everyone, including Asmodeus, to stay alive.

Chased by bloodthirsty paper charms and struggling to protect their family, Thuan and Asmodeus are going to need all the allies they can--and, as the cracks in their relationship widen, they'll have to face the scariest challenge of all: how to bring together their two vastly different ideas of their future...

As her merciless armies sweep from the north, the tyrant Chytrine pursues her quest to become empress of the world in a brutal campaign of unspeakable bloodshed and unholy sorcery. While cities and kingdoms topple, her agents, both living and dead, search for fragments of the shattered DragonCrown--which, when reassembled, will make her unstoppable.

Opposing Chytrine is the beautiful and determined Alexia, Princess of Okrannel. As she struggles to save the life of Kedyn's Crow, a mysterious human warrior accused of treachery, she gathers around her an alliance of unlikely heroes, including Resolute, an exiled Vorquelf out for vengeance; Kerrigan Reese, a mage with uncertain potential; and last but not least, young Will, an orphan thief from the slums of Yslin, who may be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy--or its innocent victim. Alexia and her friends will need all their courage and magick, their only advantage the secret possession of a vital fragment of the DragonCrown.

But when Chytrine's terrifying horde of cruel warriors, voracious minions, and remorseless undead slaves join the battle against them, even courage and magick may not be enough to stem the tide of ultimate darkness.

A collection of the best Dragonlance short stories from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

This anthology showcases 20 years of storytelling in the Dragonlance world by gathering into a single volume the most popular stories written by the New York Times best-selling authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Their tales have defined the entire Dragonlance saga from inception to the present day, from the Chronicles to the War of Souls and beyond. Drawn from various Dragonlance anthologies published over the last two decades, each classic story now features an introduction from a Dragonlance author. Each introduction will be different and will share that author's perspective on the past 20 years of Dragonlance tales.

Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.

No one expected them to be heroes.

Least of all, them.

Now the people know that the dragon minions of Takhisis, Queen of Dragons, have returned. The people of all nations prepare to fight to save their homes, their lives, and their freedom. But the races have long been divided by hatred and prejudice. Elven warriors and human knights fight among themselves. It seems the battle has been lost before it begins.

The companions are separated, torn apart by war. A full season will pass before they meet again--if they meet again. As the darkness deepens, a disgraced knight, a pampered elfmaiden, and a rattle-brained kender stand alone in the pale winter sunlight.

The war against the dragon minions of Queen Takhisis rages on. Armed with the mysterious, magical dragon orbs and the shining, silver dragonlance, the companions bring hope to the world. But now, in the dawn of a new day, the dark secrets that have long shadowed the hearts of the friends come to the light. Betrayal, treachery, frailty, and weakness will nearly destroy all that they have accomplished.

The greatest battle they have left to fight is within each of them.

Yet, in the end, they will be heroes.

The Summer of Chaos has ended. Ansalon's nightmare has only just begun.

The gods have departed the world, heralding a new Age of Mortals. But before the dust of war can settle, vast shadows cover the land. Dragons have come to Ansalon, larger and more powerful than any ever seen, and they will wreak havoc on nations still trembling from war. As the lands themselves begin to change under the dire magic of the new dragon overlords, new heroes arise to lead the fight for freedom.

The first book in a rerelease of a key trilogy in the Dragonlance saga, this trilogy covers key events that take place between Dragons of Summer Flame and the bestsellingWar of Souls trilogy. Will all-new artwork and cover designs, these books tie in with The Dhamon Saga.

The Summer of Chaos has ended.

Ansalon's nightmare has only just begun. The gods have departed the world, heralding a new Age of Mortals. But before the dust of war can settle, vast shadows cover the land. Dragons have come to Ansalon, larger and more powerful than any ever seen, and they will wreak havoc on nations still trembling from war. As the lands themselves begin to change under the dire magic of the new dragon overlords, new heroes arise to lead the fight for freedom.

In an age of tyranny, one evil rises above all others.

The Summer of Chaos swept its devastation across the world of Krynn. In its wake, foul dragon overlords of immeasurable power conquered Ansalon and remade the lands in their own image. But Malystryx, the greatest and most evil of all the dragons, is no longer content with ruling her domain. She wants to ascend to godhood, and only one band of stalwart heroes stands in her way.

The War of the Lance is long over. The seasons come and go as the pendulum of the world swings. Now it is summer, a hot parched summer such as no one on Krynn has ever known. And an uneasy balance light and dark begins to shift.

Distraught by a grievous loss, the young mage Palin Majere seeks to enter the Abyss in search of his lost uncle, the infamous archmage Raistlin.

Elsewhere, the Dark Queen has found new champions. Devoted followers, loyal to the death, the Knights of Takhisis follow the her vision to victory. And a dark paladin, Steel Brightblade, rides to attack the High Clerist's Tower, the fortress his father died defending.

And on a small Island, the mysterious Irda capture an ancient artifact and use it to ensure their own safety. Usha, the child of the Irda, arrives in Palanthas claiming that she is Raistlin's daughter.

The summer will be deadly. But for whom, only the swing of the pendulum will tell.

The Dragons of Krynn

In this one-of-a-kind collection, you'll find:

• An elite corps of bridge-building draconians.
• A solamni stalking a dangerous spectre.
• A minotaur captured by a dark wizard and put to a cruel and unusual test.
• Kender who pilfer magic, gully dwarves who cook a delicious rat sstew, and gnomes who invent whatchamacallits that wreak spectacular havoc.
• Plus, all manner and hue of dragons, good, evil, and just plain mischievous.

These exciting and other-worldy short stories are by authors of the Dragonlance saga, one of the world's best-selling fantasy series. Authors include Nancy Varian Berberick, Jeff Grubb, Richard A. Knaak, Roger E. Moore, Douglas Niles, Nick O'Donohoe, Michael and Teri Williams, and Margaret Weis.

Table of Contents:

• Seven Hymns of the Dragon - poem by Michael Williams
• The Final Touch - novelette by Teri McLaren and Michael Williams
• Night of Falling Stars - novelette by Nancy Varian Berberick
• Honor Is All - shortstory by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• Easy Pickings - shortstory by Douglas Niles
• A Dragon to the Core - novella by Roger E. Moore
• Dragon Breath - novelette by Nick O'Donohoe
• Fool's Gold - novelette by Jeff Grubb
• Scourge of the Wicked Kendragon - shortstory by Janet Pack
• And Baby Makes Three - shortstory by Amy Stout
• The First Dragonarmy Bridging Company - novelette by Don Perrin
• The Middle of Nowhere - novelette by Dan Harnden
• Kaz and the Dragon's Children - novelette by Richard A. Knaak
• Into the Light - novelette by Linda P. Baker
• The Best - (1993) - shortstory by Margaret Weis
• The Hunt - shortstory by Kevin Stein

Dragons at War

Dragsons, the true children of Krynn., are power incarnate, and they know it. They come in all guises and forms. Their personalities are as varied as thier colors. Their magical abilities are virtually unlimited. And nothing is so terrifying as dragons on the wing.

In this collection, a follow-up to the popular The Dragonss of Krynn anthology, Dragonlance creators, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman serve up a fantastical array of dragon tales featuring the motley races of Krynn and the deadliest creatres of the Dragonlance saga.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Margaret Weis
• Dream of the Namer - shortfiction by Michael Williams
• People of the Dragon - novelette by Mark Anthony
• Quarry - shortstory by Adam Lesh
• Glory Descending - novelette by Chris Pierson
• A Lull in the Battle - novelette by Linda P. Baker
• Proper Tribute - shortstory by Janet Pack
• Blind - shortstory by Kevin T. Stein
• Nature of the Beast - shortstory by Teri McLaren
• Even Dragon Blood - shortstory by J. Robert King
• Boom - shortstory by Jeff Grubb
• Storytellers - novelette by Nick O'Donohoe
• The First Dragonarmy Engineer's Secret Weapon - novelette by Don Perrin and Margaret Weis
• Through the Door at the Top of the Sky - novelette by Roger E. Moore
• Aurora's Eggs - novelette by Douglas Niles

The Chaos War Rages

For fans of Dragons of Summer Flame, this is a new short-story collection, featuring the brave heroes, dark villains, differing races, and all varieties of dragons of one of the most popular fantasy worlds -- Krynn.

Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, this volume highlights familiar and beloved characters (and creatures), filling in some intriguing gaps of lost Dragonlance history.

Table of Contents:

• Eyes of Chaos - (1997) - shortstory by Sue Weinlein Cook
• The Noble Folly - (1997) - shortstory by Mark Anthony
• Lessons of the Land - (1997) - novelette by Linda P. Baker
• The Son of Huma - (1997) - novelette by Richard A. Knaak
• Personal - (1997) - shortstory by Kevin T. Stein
• The Dragon's Eye - (1997) - shortstory by Adam Lesh
• Dragonfear - (1997) - shortstory by Teri McLaren
• Tavern Tales - (1997) - shortstory by Jean Rabe
• The Dragon's Well - (1997) - shortstory by Janet Pack
• The Magnificent Two - (1997) - novelette by Nick O'Donohoe
• There Is Another Shore, You Know, Upon the Other Side - (1997) - novelette by Roger E. Moore
• The First Gully Dwarf Resistance - (1997) - novelette by Chris Pierson
• The Star-Shard - (1997) - shortstory by Jeff Grubb
• Master Tall and Master Small - (1997) - shortstory by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin
• Icewall - (1997) - novelette by Douglas Niles

Dragons dead, and dragons alive. Every size, type, color, and strange mood. Some good, some bad, and some not very snuggly.

Welcome to an evil wizard's macabre puppet show. Meet a chain of fools locked in a showdown with a brass dragon. Read the latest edition of "The Flying Dragon."

These and more fantastic tales come from Richard A. Knaak, Jean Rabe, Paul B. Thompson, and other Dragonlance authors telling new tales of Krynn and of dragons that have shaped the world.

Table of Contents:

• "Homecoming" by Lizz Weis
• "Chain of Fools" by Cam Banks
• "Jaws of Defeat" by Paul B. Thompson
• "Unforgotten" by Jean Rabe
• "I Read It in The Flying Dragon" by Douglas W. Clark
• "Aurora's Heart" by Rachel Gobar
• "The Dragon's Claw" by Jake Bell
• "Bloodrage" by Kevin T. Stein
• "The Vow" by Richard A. Knaak
• "Song of the Mother" by Lucien Soulban
• "The Eight" by Mary H. Herbert
• "No Strings Attached" by Miranda Horner and Margaret Weis

Tanis Half-Elven... Flint Fireforge... Tasslehoff Burfoot... the classic Dragonlance characters are back!

Picking up where the first book of the classic Dragonlance Chronicles left off, this tale follows the Companions of the Lance on their adventures following the rescue of the refugees of Pax Tharkas. Flint and Tanis Half-Elven travel to the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin, while the rest of the Companions confront challenges of their own.

The Chronicles retold--from evil's point of view.

The story starts in Neraka, where Kitiara uth Matar and Emperor Ariakas hatch a plan to retrieve a dragon orb and thereby destroy Solamnia and the Companions in one fell swoop. But the guardian of the dragon orb, Highlord Feal-Thas, disagrees with this plan. Kitiara must go to Ice Wall to force him to accept Ariakas' will, but her journey does not end there. Thrown out of favor, she conceives a daring plan to enlist the aid of the most feared beings on Krynn--Lord Soth and the Dark Queen. Meanwhile, Laurana and the Companions retrieve the dragon orb and take it back to Solamnia--not knowing that they bring their allies' doom with them.

The second volume of a new trilogy from celebrated authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, The Lost Chronicles details the famed War of the Lance from the perspective of the evil that menaces Krynn. The books are written in such a way that they will be marvelous complements to the original Chronicles, while at the same time accessible and exciting to new readers.

Between Chronicles and Legends, what made Raistlin aspire to godhood?

Raistlin Majere has become a Black Robe wizard and travels to Neraka, the lord city of the Dark Queen, ostensibly to work for her, though in reality he means to further his own quest for power. But Takhisis finds out that the dragon orb has entered her city and sends her draconians to find and destroy the wizard who has it in his possession. Before her agents can strike, though, Raistlin finds out that Takhisis means to take control of all wizardly magic. She has ordered Kitiara to set a trap for the Gods of Magic on the Night of the Eye, when all the high-ranking wizards will be in Neraka to celebrate.

As the forces of light, with help from the good dragons, are turning the tide of battle, Raistlin is forced to flee, for his foes are closing in on him. As the Dragon Highlords vie for the Crown of Power in the Temple of the Dark Queen, Raistlin Majere wages his own desperate battle against Takhisis in the dungeons below and meets again the brother he betrayed. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

War Among the Dragons...

"When dragons make war, Krynn can only tremble in the shaodw of angry wings."
-- Astinus Lorekeeper

Aurican and Darlantan, mighty serpents of gold and silver, have been nurtured in a world of wisdom, meditation, and sublime faith. On the other side of Ansalon, Crematia, a dragon of red, inherits the Dark Queen's legacy of betrayal, violence, conquest, and plunder.

The advent of a worldwide war sweeps these powerful beings and many more into desperate strife. Battles rage over Krynn with a fury that threatens to annilhilate nations and whole races -- even dragonkind. As campaigns ebb and flow, generations of lesser mortals come and go, and the great serpents are left to determine the fate of the world. Their triumphs may create a destiny of all-encompassing light or cast the world beneath the shadoe of ultimate darkness.

The Dragons

The Lost Histories Series probes the historical roots and epic struggles of little-known inhabitants of Krynn.

Nearra does not know who she is or where she lives, but she does know one thing: someone wants her dead. Her only hope lies leagues away, in an ancient temple, where healing clerics may be able to restore her memory.

A helpful young ranger, a failed warrior, a sneaky elf, and a kender wizard offer to accompany Nearra on her journey. She soon learns her newfound friends have secrets of their own. As goblins, an angry minotaur, and a vicious green dragon attempt to stop them at every turn, friendships are tested and all of if may come to ruin from the one Nearra trusts the most.

The people of Krynn have known war in past ages. Some are still alive who remember the triumph of good at the conclusion of the War of the Lance. Still more remember the devastation of the Chaos War, which ended the Fourth Age of the world.

But now a new war is about to begin, more terrible than any have known. This war is one for the very heart and soul of the world itself.

A mysterious force holds Krynn in thrall. A young woman, protected by her regiment of dark-armored knights, calls upon the might of an unknown god to bring victory to her army as it sweeps across the land. The souls of the dead rob the living of their magic. A dragon overlord threatens the very land the elves hold most dear.

Amidst the chaos, a band of brave and selfless heroes struggles against an immortal power that appears to thwart them at every turn. The encroaching darkness threatens to engulf all hope, all faith, all light.

The War of Souls rages on.

The flames of war devour Ansalon. The army of dead souls marches toward conquest, led by the mystical warrior Mina, who serves the powerful One God.

A small band of heroes, driven to desperate measures, leads the fight against overwhelming odds.

Two unlikely protagonists emerge. One is a dragon overlord who will not easily relinquish her rule. The other is an irrepressible kender who has been on a strange and remarkable journey that will end in startling and unforeseen fashion.

The stirring climax of the War of Souls.

An accident has opened the Way Between the Worlds--to a land where the mythical creatures of Earth are real... and headed our way! The great dragon Dalvenjah and her young dragonet are stranded in a strange new land--known to its natives as "California."

The Way Between the Worlds has been opened...and Jenny Barker couldn't be happier. How else could a California girl meet a real-life dragon? Sure, dragons are an uncommon sight in the land of fun and sun. But what if the shoe was on the other foot? How would a world of dragons react to a blonde human on a skateboard? Jenny is about to find out.

New York City attracts all kinds of strange people. Who would even notice Sherlock Holmes, a dragon, and a California ghost girl? An evil sorceress has snatched the body of jenny Barker, the California girl who's really a dragon in human form. And now Jenny is searching East Side, West Side, all around the town - with a little help from the master detective.

If they can make it there, they'll make it anywhere!

The dragons are coming! Here are thirteen original tales about that most popular of fabulous beasts--the dragon! Edited by Orson Scott Card, this book features works by authors such as Roger Zelazny, Michael Bishop, Craig Shaw Gardner, Steve Rasnic Tem and more.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Orson Scott Card
• Ice Dragon - novelette by George R. R. Martin
• The George Business - shortstory by Roger Zelazny
• One Winter in Eden - novelette by Michael Bishop
• A Drama of Dragons - novelette by Craig Shaw Gardner
• Silken Dragon - novelette by Steven E. McDonald
• Dragon Lore - poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Eagle-Worm - shortstory by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• The Dragon of Dunloon - novelette by Arthur Dembling
• If I Die Before I Wake - novelette by Greg Bear
• As Above, So Below - shortstory by John M. Ford
• Cockfight - novelette by Jane Yolen
• From Bach to Broccoli - shortstory by Richard Kearns
• Dragon Touched - novelette by Dave Smeds

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Orson Scott Card
• Filed Teeth - novelette by Glen Cook
• Vince's Dragon - shortstory by Ben Bova
• The Thermals of August - (1981) - novelette by Edward Bryant
• The Dragons' Clubs - shortstory by Stephen Kimmel
• Negwenya - novelette by Janet Berliner
• Middle Woman - shortstory by Orson Scott Card
• The Storm King - (1980) - novelette by Joan D. Vinge
• My Bones Waxed Old - poem by Robert Frazier
• Soldatenmangel - shortstory by Victor Milán
• Alas, My Love, You Do Me Wrong - novelette by James Tucker
• Fear of Fly - shortstory by Lynn Mims
• Though All the Mountains Lie Between - novelette by Jeffrey A. Carver
• The Lady of the Purple Forest - novelette by Allan Bruton
• A Dragon in the Man - (1980) - shortstory by Kevin Christensen
• A Plague of Butterflies - shortstory by Orson Scott Card

Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled.

Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change.

The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever.

The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.

But the links of fate bind us all.

They called her the Witch Queen...

Driven from her kingdom, the would-be queen now seeks haven in the land of her mother, but Ashlyn will not stop until justice has been done. Determined to unlock the secret of powers long thought impossible, Ashlyn bends her will and intelligence to mastering the one thing people always accused her of, sorcery.

Meanwhile, having learned the truth of his mutation, Bershad is a man on borrowed time. Never knowing when his healing powers will drive him to a self-destruction, he is determined to see Ashlyn restored to her throne and the creatures they both love safe.

Welcome to the World of Dragonships!

Skylan Ivorson is a sea-raider of the Vindras and eventually becomes the Chief of Chiefs of all Vindras clans, an honor he truly feels he deserves as one who has been blessed by Skoval, the god of war.

But sometimes a blessing is a curse in disguise.

Skoval and the other ancient gods are under siege from a new generation of gods who are challenging them for the powers of creation... and the only way to stop these brash interlopers lies within the mysterious and hidden Five Bones of the Vektan Dragons.

It will be up to the Vindras people, as the dragon-goddess's champions, to undertake the quest to recover all Five. The fate of the Old Gods and the Vindras rests on their recovery--for this is not only a quest to save the world. It is also a quest for redemption.

Filled with heroes and heroines young and old and exotic adventure in a magic-forged world, this is a series that fully illustrates the mastery of world-building and storytelling that has made Weis and Hickman into the bestselling fantasy co-authors of all time.

The gods that once held control over human existence are in trouble. New gods are challenging the power of the high god, Torval, for rule of the world. New religions are giving power to these brash interloping young gods, and the only way to stop them lies with the five bones of the Vektia Dragons—for these bones hold the primordial power of creation and destruction. The hope of the Vindrasi lies in finding the dragon bones before the followers of the new god Aelon can use them to redefine existence. But the Vindrasi gods have a traitor in their midst...

In the land of mortals, Raegar, a Vindraisi turned Aelon warrior-priest, searches for the spirit bones. Torval has a champion as well—Skylan Ivorson, sea-raider and high chief of the Vindrasi clans, cousin and sworn enemy to Raegar. But Skylan and his people are captives in Sinaria, where they must fight for survival. The fates of men and gods and are rushing headlong to destruction. Skylan can stop the calamity, but only if he discovers the secret of the dragon.

Skylan Ivorson is the gods-chosen Chief of all Vindras clans. But the gods from whom the Vindrasi draw their earth-dwelling power are besieged by a new generation of gods challenging them for the powers of creation. The only way to stop these brash interlopers lies within the Five Bones of the Vektia Dragon—which have been lost for generations. With the Gods of the New Dawn amassing a vast army, Skylan finds allies in former enemies. They must sail the Sea of Tears into the Forbidden Empire of the Cyclops to implement a cunning yet delicate plan that risks Skylan's life and leadership at every corner. But a new enemy lies deep in the sea, one who draws upon powers never harnessed by land dwellers.

New York Times bestselling authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman deliver another action-packed Dragonships novel with Rage of the Dragon.

In three previous novels, Skylan Ivorson overcame obstacles that would have defeated a lesser man, rising from obscurity to become the Chief of Chiefs of the fearsome Vindrasi who sail their living dragonships far and wide to raid and plunder for the glory of the gods. However, a cruel twist of fate struck him down before he and his beloved could complete their quest for the five sacred dragonbones that would summon the great dragon Ilyrion and save their people from destruction at the hands of an evil god. But even true death is denied him, and his destiny is unfulfilled.

Caught between life and death, he must lead those who journeyed with him to battle the evil god and the vast army of the god and his human emperor. Skylan must fight as he never has before to win back his life and his love, while seeking the last Spiritbone--the key to summoning the ultimate victory--before it can be snatched away by the forces of evil.

Weis and Hickman have crafted a pulse-pounding fantasy adventure that brings this great saga to a rousing, satisfying conclusion that will stir the passions of their legions of fans.

An artificial Jurassic world spins through space, kilometers long and made to order, build to endure for an eternity. An enticing mystery for the humans of the Heinlein exploratory mission, it holds deadly secrets from the universe's savage past.

INSIDE THE MILES-LONG SPACESHIP IT WAS 160 MILLION YEARS AGO ...

Day after artificial day, outwitting the carnivorous saurians that had devoured their shipmates, the two survivors of the Heinlein expedition to the mysterious object known as Artifact One picked their way through the vast, horizonless jungle that filled the hull of the star-traveling terrerium.

They did what a man and a woman fighting together to survive usually do:
They prayed for rescue.
They searched for a way to escape.
They fell in love

Then, from a rise in the forest, they saw a wall.
And something on the wall saw them.

THE SENTRY

Atop a crumbling rampart stood a sentry, weapon grasped in its four-fingered hand, partly clothed ... its snout instintively twitching at the scent of the man and woman walking toward its city.

On a a miles-long spaceship on a journey between the stars...

After establishing communications with the sentient dinosaurs aboard the gigantic alien warship Dragonstar, the human exploration forces were ready to reveal their accomplishments to an eager public... then disaster struck!

During a live holovision broadcast, something made the cooperative Saurians go berserk--and begin slaughtering and eating their former friends.

At the same moment, the Dragonstar's access hatches closed down, imprisoning all aboard her.

Then, for the first time in centuries, the Dragonstar's mighty engines started up...

The 160-million-year-old, world-sized starship with its crew of sentient dinosaurs mystified humankind when it entered our solar system. Careers and even governments rose and fell in the fight to board it, explore it, and understand its origin and purpose.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone. Only this time there were humans aboard--men and women lost in hyperspace, allying with the dinosaurs in their mutual fight for survival, trapped between the savage jungle within the ship... and the unknown horror without.

When the ship dropped into "real" space, they were far beyond the edge of the Universe, orbiting a planet that was old when Earth was young, in the eerie light of a star that was due to go nova at any moment.

And someone--something--waited outside the ship, wanting to get in!

Don't miss the first and second books in this series: Day of the Dragonstar and Night of the Dragonstar!

BIRTH... AND DEATH!

Balanced expertly on their back legs, the hatchlings eyed their audience eagerly. Their heads were almost half their body mass, and their jaws were already filled with rows of sharp teeth. With round, flat eyes glaring, they stood in the leathery wreckage of their eggs, they were already as tall as five-year-old humans.

"My God, Phineas, what are they?" Kate said.

"I don't know," Phineas said, "but I think they're littleT-Rexes..."

The Saurian warriors weren't waiting to find out. Shrieking and hissing with joy, they unleashed a hail of arrows, and the warm nest became a slaughter pit.

Even as the mother arrived...

Transported to a land that cannot exist, transformed from Suzanne and Braithwaite into Alouzon and Dythragor, they are the bearers of the Dragonswords, guardians of Gryylth and defenders of the Circle. They are the dragonmasters.

Transported to the Dark Ages, archaeology graduate student Suzanne Helling must use her empowerment as Guardian of the land to fight a mysterious force that employs the nuclear weapons of the twentieth century that Suzanne unwittingly brought with her...

Cast back to Los Angeles with the Specter of Death's hounds in pursuit, Alouzon Dragonmaster, the Goddess of Gryylth and a former UCLA graduate student, searches for a gateway back to the magic land that she has come to call home.

Imprisoned in the void of a ruined universe by vengeful gods, Tharizdun--the Chained God, the Elder Elemental Eye--shares his exile with the Progenitor, a pool of liquid crystal that is all that remains of the Abyss that destroyed his universe.

Enter our heroes Albanon, Shara and Uldane--all three adventurers readers will know from The Mark of Nerath. They thought their quests were over and done with, but danger still burns like the embers of a smoldering fire in the tall grass. The Progenitor was locked safely away, guarded by Albanon's dead master, but early on our heroes realize it was stolen and released in the presence of the green dragon Vestapalk as he fell at Shara's sword.

Now, alerted to the danger of the liquid crystal by a mysterious cleric who claims allegiance to an order that has protected the substance for time immemorial, they must go in search of the dragon's body, to ensure his demise has not been exaggerated. What they discover has consequences that could change the world...

Following directly in the wake of The Temple of Yellow Skulls, our heroes face the totality of the destructive and pestilent forces presented by the Abyssal Plague. The disease of the liquid crystal Voidharrow spreads throughout the land, transforming unsuspecting creatures into plague demons. Shara, Uldane, and the unlikely drow hero Valmaggar join forces with Tempest and Rohgar from The Mark Of Nerath, and together they set out in search of the green dragon Vestapalk, or the creature Vestapalk has become--the patient zero of this abyssal plague.

Meanwhile, Albanon and the mysterious cleric Kri Redshal--the last remaining member of the Order of Vigilance, an order dedicated to guarding the Voidharrow--go in search of answers to the disease that sweeps the land. While their search takes them deep into the heart of the darkness that is enveloping the land, the answers they find are truly in need of new questions. As they become aware of the true scale of the tragedy at hand, they see the forces behind them are more powerful than they had ever dreamed, and perhaps more seductive.

In the aftermath of the plague demons' attack on Fallcrest, Roghar's inspiring optimism has played a significant role in the rebuilding of the town. Albanon, meanwhile, has not recovered so well. Tormented by his experiences and his near-transformations first by Vestapalk then by Kri, he has retreated to Moorin's tower, where he immerses himself in books. He is the last member of the Order of Vigilance, touched by both the Voidharrow and Tharizdun--he feels as if he stands on the brink of madness.

The Nentir Vale has been ravaged by the abyssal plague and the plague demons. The area is lawless and suspicions run rampant. Only safe as long as they hide, the heroes scout as close as they dare. But with Vestapalk growing ever-stronger and plague demons on the rise, they know they have to act soon. The world cannot afford to wait any longer.

As they journey toward the greatest concentration of demons they learn they are on the right path and they gain an ally. Kri, believed dead, resurfaces with wisdom garnered from the Chained God. It seems even Tharizdun himself is against Vestapalk.

After the fateful battle between the ice wolves and the scorch dragons, Anders and his twin sister, Rayna, have been reunited. But there's no time to celebrate.

The temperature all over Vallen is starting to drop. And Anders quickly learns that the wolves have stolen a weather-altering artifact called the Snowstone, and every dragon, including Rayna, is now in danger. Desperate to broker peace, Anders enlists the help of a few new flame-breathing friends to stop the wolves' next plan of attack.

Together, these former rivals must go on a dangerous quest to find the scattered pieces of the Sun Scepter, the only artifact that can counteract the Snowstone. Because if either device goes unchecked, all hope for a truce will be lost.

Take one bored princess. Make her the seventh daughter in a very proper royal family. Have her run away.

Add one powerful, fascinating, dangerous dragon.

Princess Cimerone has never met anyone (or anything) like the dragon Kazul. But then, she's never met a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird or a stone prince either.

Princess Cimerone ran away to find some excitement.

She's found plenty.

Those wicked wizards are at it again! This time they are draining power from the Enchanted Forest. And that does not sit well with Mendanbar the King. On the advice of the witch Morwen, Mendanbar decides to consult with Kazul, the King of Dragons. When he arrives at Kazul's cave, he meets Princess Cimorene and learns that Kazul has been captured by those horrible wizards. Mendanbar and Cimorene will have to search for him, traveling over mountains and past man-eating giants, terrifying rock snakes, and an assortment of magic-wielders.

The third of four volumes in the critically acclaimed Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Queen Cimorene, Morwen the witch, and a host of other characters once again foil the plots of the perfidious wizards in this third volume of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

This time, the dastardly wizards have stolen King Mendanbar's magic sword, vital to the health of the forest, right out of the castle armory. Morwen joins Cimorene, Kazul, Telemain, several cats, and Killer on a quest to retrieve the sword. Meanwhile, back at home, the forces of the wizards are gathering.

"Mother taught me to be polite to dragons...."

Daystar never thought he'd be walking through the Enchanted Forest with a magic sword, a fire-witch, and a baby dragon. He never dreamed his mother, Cimorene, would tell him to leave their home and not to return until his task was complete. Or that he alone held the power to release King Mendanbar and the Enchanted Forest from the wizards' evil spell. He doesn't even know who King Mendanbar is.

But Daystar learns quickly, and that's good, because he's about to encounter magic and wizards and dragons - quite a deadly combination.

Renegade dragon hunter Dorn hates dragons with a passion few can believe, let alone match. He has devoted his entire life - a life spent in the twisted body of a half-golem - to killing every dragon he can find.

You might feel the same way if one of them had killed your entire family in front of your eyes, bitten you in half, and left you for dead.

Killing one dragon at a time is hard enough, but when the irresistible impluse to slip into feral madness begins to overcome ont one, but every dragon all across Faerûn, civilization's only hope may lie in the last alliance Dorn and his fellow dragon hunters would ever accept.

No matter what happens, the next year is going to be a difficult one for Dorn, and for Faerûn itself. The Year of Rogue Dragons has come...

The second in a new trilogy of novels from R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen author Richard Lee Byers.

The Rite is the second title in a trilogy exploring the ancient secrets of dragon society in the Forgotten Realms world. Author Richard Lee Byers will write the entire trilogy, and the cover art for the trilogy and the associated anthology will be rendered by award-winning fantasy artist Matt Stawicki.

The climactic conclusion of The Year of Rogue Dragons! Madness takes hold, Sammaster draws closer to victory, and forgotten secrets are revealed at last. Dorn and the rogue dragons will have to find the source of a millennia-old curse, then find some way to destroy it, before the Rage overcomes the world.

A low-stakes con artist and killer poker player, Griffen McCandles drifted through college, always taking for granted that there'd be a family job waiting for him after he graduated. He just never suspected what his family was...

His mysterious uncle drops the bomb: Griffen and his sister, Valerie, are dragons--and almost purebred ones to boot. Unwilling to let Uncle Mal take him under his wing, so to speak, Griffen heads to New Orleans with Valerie to make a living the only way he knows how. And even the criminal underworld of the French Quarter will heat up when Griffen lands in town...

Griffen McCandles is adjusting well to running his gambling operation in the French Quarter of New Orleans and to his newfound status as head dragon. But he still doesn't know much about dragon protocol--or what he's really capable of. Other dragons are getting a whiff of his reputation, though, and they're not happy about it. Which is why there's suddenly a hit out on Griffen.

As head dragon and owner of a successful gambling operation in New Orleans, Griffen McCandles has a lot on his plate. Especially since the Krewe of Fafnir--a society of dragons--has asked him to be the king of its Mardi Gras parade. Being the king is a huge honor, and despite the extra responsibilities, Griffen can't resist the krewe's offer to lead the biggest party of the year.

Griffen already has his hands full running his gambling operation in New Orleans and dealing with his dragon heritage. Now his pregnant sister, Valerie, is missing--possibly kidnapped--and his uncle, Malcolm McCandles, has flown into town for a mysterious meeting with a powerful man who's been dead for almost eight decades.

And Griffen certainly hasn't got the time to protect Councilwoman Penny Dunbar, a dragon who's running for governor of Louisiana--if malign forces don't take her out first. Griffen learned a long time ago to play the hand fate has dealt him, but with many lives at stake--including Val's unborn dragon--he's hoping for an ace in the hole...

Every two hundred years or so, shimmering Threads fall from space, raining death and black ruin on Pern. The great dragons of Pern hurl themselves through the beleagured skies, flaming tongues of fire to destroy deadly Thread and save the Planet. But it was not Threadfall that made young Menolly unhappy. It was her father who betrayed her ambition to be a Harper, who thwarted her love of music. Menolly had no choice but to run away. When, suddenly, she came upon a group of fire lizards, wild and smaller relatives of the fire-breathing dragons, she let her music swirl around them. She taught nine of them to sing. Suddenly Menolly was no longer alone -- she was Mistress of Music and Ward of the dazzling fire dragons.

When Menolly, daughter of Yanus Sea Holder, arrived at the Harper Craft Hall, she came in style, aboard a huge bronze dragon, followed by her nine fire lizards. The Masterharper of Pern, aware of her unique skills, had chosen her as his only girl apprentice. But the holdless girl had first to overcome many heartaches in this strange new life. Two things sustained her -- her devoted lizards, a subject on which she was fitted to instruct her Masters -- and the music...music of compelling beauty, music-making where at last she was accepted. In the Great Hall, Menolly could fulfil her destiny.

The Greater Lindworm is dead, its monstrous armies have fled, and the Battle of North Fields is over--or at least that's what Aliza Bentaine, now a Daired, fervently wants to believe.

With memories of the blood-soaked fields behind them, she and Alastair are happy to escape the aftermath within the walls of the Daireds' family fortress, safe from the Tekari bent on destroying them. There, gods willing, they can begin to enjoy their well-earned happily ever after.

Unfortunately, the gods have other plans. Rumors are spreading of a new monster creeping across Arle, something leaving the mutilated bodies of both humans and Oldkind creatures in its wake. When the plea for aid arrives from the remote Castle Selwyn on the northern border of the kingdom, Alastair and his dragon, Akarra, prepare once more for the hunt.

And if Aliza has anything to say about it, they won't be hunting alone.

Torn between the world she was born to and the high calling of the Riders, Aliza refuses to stay at House Pendragon, determined to do her part to protect those she loves. But their journey through the Old Wilds proves more perilous than she can imagine, for she is not the only one following her husband north. Shadowing the Daireds is an ancient evil, a harbinger of a dark danger of which the Worm was only a foretaste, and all too soon Aliza realizes the terrible truth.

The Battle of North Fields may be over, but the real war is just beginning.

Young readers encounter dragons of every conceivable form, from horrifying to harmless, in an illustrated anthology of inventive stories and poems about these fascinating mythical beasts.

Table of Contents:

• Why Dragons? - (1993) - poem
• Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale - (1986) - novelette
• The Dragon Woke and Stretched - (1990) - shortfiction
• "Story," the Old Man Said, - (1993) - shortstory
• Cockfight - (1980) - novelette
• Dragon Night - (1980) - poem
• Dragonfield - (1985) - novelette
• The King's Dragon - (1987) - shortstory
• Into the Wood - (1985) - poem
• The Dragon's Boy - [Merlin's Booke] - (1985) - novelette
• The Making of Dragons - (1986) - poem
• One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King - (1993) - novelette
• Here There Be Dragons - (1993) - poem

Claire is barely scraping a living on her friend's ranch near Tucson, Arizona. She looks after the long-abandoned horse facility, makes occasional attempts to resuscitate her academic career, and pays the bills, more or less, with her skills as an animal communicator. Those skills don't always let her say the tactful thing to the human with the checkbook. Sometimes she has to tell the truth.

After a particularly unfortunate session, Claire gets one last chance to keep her home and her livelihood. A small herd of horses needs a place to live and a person to care for them.

But these are no ordinary horses. They represent an old, old breed, the rarest in the world, and they protect an ancient and terrible secret. And something is hunting them.

The ranch is a perfect sanctuary. The powers that live on and under and above it can protect the horses--if Claire can control them. But first she has to control her own abilities, and learn to believe in herself.

It's Hiccup's birthday, but that's not going to keep him from getting into trouble. To save his dragon, Toothless, from being banished, Hiccup must sneak into the Meathead Public Library and steal the Viking's most sacred book. But the Vikings see books as a dangerous influence, and keep them locked up and under heavy guard. To save his friend, Hiccup must brave the Hairy Scary Librarian and his dreadful army of Meathead Warriors and face off against the formidable Driller-Dragons. Will he make it out and live to see his next birthday?

You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart - no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon's presence, even for the briefest of moments - even at the risk of one's life - is a delight that, once experienced, can never be forgotten. . . .

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world's preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.

Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

Marie Brennan introduces an enchanting new world in A Natural History of Dragons.

This stunning epic fantasy debut introduces two exciting new authors—and a world brimming with natural and man-made wonders, extraordinary events, and a crisis that will test the mettle of men, the boundaries of magic, and the heart and soul of a kingdom.

Thanks to its elite Dragon Corps, the capital city of Volstov has all but won the hundred years’ war with its neighboring enemy, the Ke-Han. The renegade airmen who fly the corps’s mechanical, magic-fueled dragons are Volstov’s greatest weapon. But now one of its members is at the center of a scandal that may turn the tide of victory. To counter the threat, four ill-assorted heroes must converge to save their kingdom: an exiled magician, a naive country boy, a young student—and the unpredictable ace who flies the city’s fiercest dragon, Havemercy. But on the eve of battle, these courageous men will face something that could make the most formidable of warriors hesitate, the most powerful of magicians weak, and the most unlikely of men allies in their quest to rise against it.

Led to victory by its magic-fueled Dragon Corps, Volstov has sent a delegation to its conquered neighbors to work out the long-awaited terms of peace. Among those in the party are the decorated war hero General Alcibiades and the formerly exiled magician Caius Greylace. But even this mismatched pair can’t help but notice that their defeated enemies aren’t being very cooperative. The hidden truth is that the new emperor is harboring a treacherous secret—and once it is revealed, Alcibiades and Caius may be powerless to stop it.

With their only ally an exiled prince now fleeing his brother’s assassins, the countryside rife with terror, and Alcibiades and Caius all but prisoners, it will take the most powerful kind of magic to heal the rift between two strife-worn lands and unite two peoples against a common enemy: shadow magic.

During the war between the kingdoms of Volstov and Ke-Han, no fighter could match Rook for sheer arrogance and skill. Only Rook could ride the great dragon Havemercy, whose savagery and bloodlust matched his own. His brother, Thom, is bookish, diffident, and reserved, yet he yearns for Rook’s approval—and fears he can never earn it. With the war over, and an uneasy truce between the two nations, Thom hopes the long-lost brothers can bond on a trip together.

But Rook cares only that Havemercy lies scattered in pieces across Ke-Han—and someone is buying up her parts, and those of other fallen dragons. The beasts are dead, but the magic that powered them is not. And now a Ke-Han agent, a Volstov sorceress, and a group of desert tribesmen are vying to possess that magic and control the future.

With Havemercy, Shadow Magic, and Dragon Soul, the acclaimed writing team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett has fused magic and technology into something that can only be termed "magicpunk." Their distinctive style, featuring a chorus of quirky first-person narrators and brilliantly sophisticated world-building, has won these young writers the plaudits of fans and critics.

In the Volstov capital of Thremedon, Owen Adamo, the hard-as-nails ex–Chief Sergeant of the Dragon Corps, learns that Volstov's ruler, the Esar, has been secretly pursuing the possibility of resurrecting magically powered sentient robot dragons—even at the risk of igniting another war. That Adamo will not allow. Though he is not without friends—Royston, a powerful magician, and Balfour, a former corpsman—there is only so much Adamo and his allies can do. Adamo has been put out to pasture, given a professorship at the University. Royston, already exiled once, dares not risk the Esar's wrath a second time. And Balfour, who lost both hands in the climactic battle of the war, is now a diplomat who spends most of his time trying to master his new hands—metal replacements that operate on the same magical principles as the dragons and have earned him an assortment of nicknames of which "Steelhands" is the least offensive.

But sometimes help comes where you least expect it. In this case, from two first-year university students freshly arrived in Thremedon from the country: Laurence, a feisty young woman whose father raised her to be the son he never had, and Toverre, her fiancé, a brilliant if neurotic dandy who would sooner share his wife-to-be's clothes than her bed. When a mysterious illness strikes the first-year students, Laurence takes her suspicions to Adamo—and unwittingly sets in motion events that will change Volstov forever.

Street magician Missy Masters inherited more than the usual genetic cocktail from her estranged grandfather. She also got his preternatural control of shadow and his legacy as the vigilante hero, Mr Mystic. Problem is, being a pulp hero takes more than a good fedora and a knack for witty banter, and Missy lacks the one thing Mr Mystic had: experience. Determined to live up to her birthright, Missy journeys to China to seek the aid of Lung Huang, the ancient master who once guided her grandfather.

Lung Huang isn't quite as ancient as Missy expected, and a romantic interlude embroils her in the politics of Lung Huang and his siblings, the nine dragon-guardians of creation. When Lung Di-Lung Huang's brother and mortal enemy-raises a magical barrier that cuts off China from the rest of the world, it falls to the new Mr. Mystic to prove herself by taking down the barrier.

As Missy prepares to confront Lung Di, she faces a tough decision: remain loyal to Lung Huang and see China destroyed, or side with the bad guy and save the world.

The follow-up to The Arm of the Starfish has Simon and the O'Keefes trying to find a stolen painting and a murderer, all while trapped aboard a ship.

Thirteen-year-old Simon Renier has no idea when he boards the M.S. Orion with his cousin Forsyth Phair that their journey to Venezuela will be a dangerous one. His original plan--to return a family heirloom, a portrait of Simon Bolivar, to its rightful place--is sidetracked when cousin Forsyth is found murdered. When the portrait is stolen, all passengers and crew are suspects. Simon's newfound friends, Poly and Charles O'Keefe, and their scientist father help Simon try to find his painting, and his cousin's murderer. But will they succeed before they land? Or will the murderer and thief escape into the jungles of Venezuela?

WFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Nightmare Seasons (1982).

The Dragon Makers

The beautiful planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists --until unimaginable terror turned it into hell. Suddenly deadly spores were falling like silver threads from the sky, devouring everything -- and everyone -- in their path. It began to look as if the colony, cutoff from Earth and lacking the resources to combat the menace, was doomed.

Then some of the colonists noticed that the small, dragonlike lizards that inhabited their new world were joining the fight against Thread, breathing fire on it and teleporting to safety. If only, they thought, the dragonets were big enough for a human to ride and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider...

And so they set their most talented geneticist to work to create the creatures Pern so desperately needed -- Dragons!

For more than thirty years, Pern has conjured visions of brave men and women mounted upon the backs of dragons. As anyone knows who has been touched by the storytelling magic of Anne McCaffrey, to read of the exotic world of Pern is to inhabit it--and to experience its extraordinary dragons is to soar aloft with them and share their dazzling adventures.

Now, A Gift of Dragons brings together three beloved stories and a thrilling new tale of Pern in a single volume illustrated with beautiful artwork by Tom Kidd. In "The Smallest Dragonboy," Keevan is the youngest dragonrider candidate, determined to impress a dragon when the next clutch of eggs hatches. But what transpires will surprise everyone--Keevan most of all. In "The Girl Who Heard Dragons," a young girl's rare ability to communicate with dragons puts her family in danger and will bring her face to face with her greatest fears--and with her most secret desire. The "Runner of Pern" is a girl named Tenna, who follows family tradition by delivering messages--and who will find her destiny on the mossy traces that runners have used for centuries under the dragon-filled sky. And finally, a very special gift: an exciting new Pern adventure, published here for the first time, fresh from the imagination of Anne McCaffrey.

Table of Contents:

• "The Smallest Dragonboy" (1973)
• "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" (1986)
• "Runner of Pern" (1998)
• "Ever the Twain" (original to the collection)

In Dragon's Kin, bestselling author Anne McCaffrey did the unthinkable: for the first time ever, she invited another writer to join her in the skies of her most famous fictional creation. That writer was her son, Todd McCaffrey. Together, they penned a triumphant new chapter in the annals of the extraordinarily popular Dragonriders of Pern. Now, for the first time, Todd McCaffrey flies alone. And Dragonsblood is proof that the future of Pern is in good hands. After all, dragons are in his blood....

Never in the dramatic history of Pern has there been a more dire emergency than that which faces the young dragonrider Lorana. A mysterious fatal illness is striking dragons. The epidemic is spreading like wildfire... and the next deadly cycle of Threadfall is only days away. Somehow, Lorana must find a cure before the dragons-including her own beloved Arith-succumb to the sickness, leaving Pern undefended.

The lyrics of an all-but-forgotten song seem to point toward an answer from nearly five hundred years in the past, when Kitti Ping and her daughter Wind Blossom bred the first dragons from their smaller cousins, the fire-lizards. No doubt the first colonists possessed the advanced technology to find the cure for which Lorana seeks, but over the centuries, that knowledge has been lost. Or has it?

For in the distant past, an aged Wind Blossom worries that the germs that affect the fire-lizards may one day turn on larger prey-and unleash a plague that will destroy the dragons, Pern's only defenders against Thread. But as her people struggle to survive, Wind Blossom has neither the time nor the resources to expend on a future that may never arrive-until suddenly she uncovers evidence that her worst fears will come true.

Now two brave women, separated by hundreds of years but joined by bonds transcending time, will become unknowing allies in a desperate race against sickness and Threadfall, with nothing less than the survival of all life on Pern at stake.

After a vicious plague swept through the world of Pern, there are no longer enough dragons to fight off the current onslaught of Thread, the deadly spore that falls like rain from the skies and devours everything organic in its path.

Pern's last best chance to rebuild the decimated dragon population lies with a group of young dragonriders and their dragons left stranded on an unexplored island. Leadership of these dragons and riders falls to Xhinna, female rider of a blue dragon, who, as the most experienced dragonrider in the new Weyr, must earn the respect of all who follow her, as not everyone is ready to accept a female wingleader. She must solve the problem of how to get sufficient numbers of dragon eggs, although her newfangled ideas, like letting green dragons mate and lay eggs to hatch new dragons, cause uproar. All the while she must protect her people and baby dragons from the predators and, worse, traitors or all hope for Pern will be lost!

It's been four years since Gary Leger slew a dragon and returned home from Faerie, and almost half a year since his father died. Ever since that fateful day, he's been aching to take his wife, Diane, leave Earth behind, and go back to Faerie to see his friends and get away from it all.

His friends wish he'd come back, too - and fast. The threat of war looms over the land like a dark cloud. The king is brutally suppressing his subjects, acting more ruthless than ever before. And the most powerful witch in Faerie, banished to a remote island, isn't letting that stop her from sowing the seeds of destruction. Gary wants to escape responsibility in his own life. But Faerie's heroic dragonslayer once again has the fate of the world in his hands.

Dragons in space? A preposterous legend. But when star pilot Jael defies an abusive ship's master and rigs "the mountain route" through the hyperdimensional Flux, the dragons indeed appear--and challenge her to duel. If she escapes, she would be wise never to return. But the currents of the Flux are fickle, and when fate steers her this way again, she finds Highwing the dragon under sentence of death for the kindness he showed her. Only Jael can intervene--and so she must, for the sake of one who risked his life to save hers.

There's a bar called "The Captain's Table," where those who have commanded mighty vessels of every shape and era can meet, relax, and share a friendly drink or two with others of their calling. Sometimes a brawl may break out but it's all in the family, more or less. Just remember, the first round of drinks is always paid for with a story...even beyond the final frontier.

Captain James T. Kirk must join forces with Captain Hikaru Sulu, new commander of the U.S.S. Excelsior, to resolve a simmering political situation in a distant star system. For more than twenty years, the ancient enmity between Nykkus and Anjiri has resisted the best efforts of Federation diplomats. Now Kirk and Sulu have one last chance to end the bloodshed -- before it erupts into a full-scale interstellar war!

When captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise receive news of a human planet hidden in the center of an immense stellar cloud, they immediately investigate.

Penetrating the cloud, the Starship crew is shocked to discover a world of knights and serfs lifted right out of Earth's Middle Ages. Ruthlessly exploiting the planet is a ring of intersellar trophy hunters preying on the immense, native dragon-lizards twentey-feet tall and armored like tanks.

Beaming down, an away team soon becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder. Taken prisoner, Picard, Riker, Data and Ro must somehow escape and stop the hunters or face destruction from the hunters' weapon, based on an advanced technoloy capable of utterly annihilating the Starship Enterprise.

This novel consists of four novellas: "Son of the Morning", "The King's Dogs", "Nebuchadnezzar", and "A Judgment of Dragons".

The main characters are Khreng and Prandra, members of a race called the Ungrukh, who are leopard-like creatures with reddish fur, paws better adapted for manipulating objects (though no opposable thumbs), sentience, and a high incidence of ESP ability. The latter makes them valuable to the Galactic Federation. Khreng & Prandra, a mated pair, are among the first Ungrunkh to work for GalFed.

In the first story, they run afoul of a time vortex set up by an alien Qumedni in a 19th-century Polish village, and have to defeat it. In the second, while Prandra is getting her ESP-ability tested at GalFed HQ, they are framed for murder. In the third, they attempt to break drug-runners' hold on a planet whose inhabitants are not capable of successfully opposing them. In the fourth, they confront the Qumedni responsible for creating their race (from Earth leopards), and the Qumedni intent on stealing the secret of how sentience is bestowed.

Despite the title, there are no dragons in this book.

War games...

It was meant to be a soft mission, something to ease Doctor Daniel Jackson back into things after his time among the Ancients -- after all, what could possibly go wrong on a simple survey of ancient Chinese ruins? As it turns out, a whole lot.

After accidentally activating a Goa'uld transport ring, Daniel finds himself the prisoner of Lord Yu, the capricious Goa'uld System Lord. Meanwhile, SG1's efforts to rescue their friend are hampered by a representative of the Chinese government with an agenda of his own to follow -- and a deep secret to hide.

But Colonel Jack O'Neill is in no mood for delay. He'll go to any lengths to get Daniel back -- even if it means ignoring protocol and taking matters into his own hands.

Naomi Novik delivers the final adventure in a New York Times bestselling series that has won fans of Napoleonic-era military history, Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, and Patrick O'Brian's seafaring adventures. Since His Majesty's Dragon, Capt. William Laurence and his fearless dragon, Temeraire, have been battling Napoleon and his armies... and now the time has come to stop him for good.

We follow an unlikely pair as they expose the secrets at the heart of the mountain city of Ancris.

Lorelei Aurelius is the smartest inquisitor in the mountain city of Ancris. When a mysterious tip leads her to a clandestine meeting between the Church and the hated Red Knives, she uncovers a plot that threatens not only her home but the empire itself.

The trail leads her to Rylan Holbrooke, a notorious thief posing as a dragon singer. Rylan came to Ancris to solve the very same mystery she stumbled onto. Knowing his incarceration could lead to the Red Knives' achieving their goals, Lorelei makes a fateful decision: she frees him.

Now branded as traitors, the two flee the city on dragonback. In the massive forest known as the Holt, they discover something terrible. The Red Knives are planning to awaken a powerful demigod in the holiest shrine in Ancris, and for some reason the Church is willing to allow it. It forces their return to Ancris, where the unlikely allies must rally the very people who've vowed to capture them before it's too late.

When Benton Collins returned from Barakhai-where magic had turned all but the royal family into inadvertent shapeshifters-he thought his adventures were at an end. But the friends he'd left behind still needed his aid, and Ben had to return to join in their desperate quest...

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable war for generations. The lucky ones are born gifted: some have the power to call down dragons, others can be magically transformed into bigger, stronger, faster killing machines.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Tau Tafari wants more than this, but his plans of escape are destroyed when those closest to him are brutally murdered.

With too few gifted left the Omehi are facing genocide, but Tau cares only for revenge. Following an unthinkable path, he will strive to become the greatest swordsman to ever live, willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill three of his own people.

"The Imaginarium Geographica

"What is it?" John asked.

The little man blinked and arched an eyebrow.

"It is the world, my boy," he said. "All the world, in ink and blood, vellum and parchment, leather and hide. It is the world, and it is yours to save or lose.""

An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the first World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica -- an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. These lands, Bert claims, can be traveled to in his ship the "Indigo Dragon," one of only seven vessels that is able to cross the Frontier between worlds into the Archipelago of Dreams.

Pursued by strange and terrifying creatures, the companions flee London aboard the Dragonship. Traveling to the very realm of the imagination itself, they must learn to overcome their fears and trust in one another if they are to defeat the dark forces that threaten the destiny of two worlds. And in the process, they will share a great adventure filled with clues that lead readers to the surprise revelation of the legendary storytellers these men will one day become.

An extraordinary journey of myth, magic, and mystery, "Here, There Be Dragons" introduces James A. Owen as a formidable new talent.

The dragon kingdom continues to slide into anarchy following the death of Albekizan and the capture of Dragon Forge by human rebels. But a cunning sky-dragon slavecatcher named Vulpine has organized a blockade to break the rebellion, assisted by the brutish earth-dragon war-boss Sawface. Inside the town, tensions rise between the fanatical prophet Ragnar, leader of the rebels, and his uneasy ally Burke the Machinist. Meanwhile, Jandra sets out on a desperate quest to reclaim her lost magic, joining forces once more with legendary dragon-slayer Bant Bitterwood as they hunt for Hex, the sun-dragon who stole her powers. Yet the plans of both dragons and men are about to be upended as a new power rises in the land, a mysterious healer who attracts both men and dragons to the Free City with a message of peace that may conceal more sinister motives. The Bitterwood Trilogy reaches to its climax as former friends face off as enemies to determine the future of mankind and the secret of Atlantis is finally revealed.

Sofia is the other princess. Not the crown princess - that's her perfect big sister, Katrin. Sofia is the princess who always says the wrong thing; who hates going to parties; who doesn't like people; who just wants to sit and read her books. So when Sofia is shipped off on a stomach-churning dragon flight to make another royal visit, she decides it's time for this princess to take a little break. In disguise, Sofia soon finds herself discovering a magical city of learning, new friends and freedom. In short, everything is going wonderfully. right up until it goes horribly wrong. And that's before the ice giants show up.

Welcome to the Dragonvarld...

In Mistress of Dragons we are introduced to a world where political deception, greed, and avarice have lead to a violation of the "hands off" policy of the Parliament of Dragons concerning the affairs of men.

Indeed that violation threatens more than policy and order it threatens the freedoms and survival of the entire human race.

In Mistress of Dragons we were introduced to a world where political deception, greed, and avarice have lead to a violation of the "hands off" policy of the Parliament of Dragons concerning the affairs of men.

In The Dragon's Son twins born out of violence and raised apart discover the secrets of their legacy and the plot to incite a war between dragons and men.

Now as the evidence of deceit, betrayal, and perdition is revealed to them, who will emerge as mankind's savior as the Master of Dragons?

A divided Parliament of Dragons where division and self preservation incite war and threaten the order of the ages.

A hidden stronghold where insidious and outlaw dragons hatch a race bent on the subjugation of all mankind.

The ancient city of Seth and its mystical order of warrior priestesses who have the power to fight back against the attacks of dragons.

The twins Marcus and Ven must unlock the secrets of these places and their own powers and overcome their own personal differences as they prepare to clash in a war that may pit brother against brother and dragon against dragon to determine dominion of the world and the survival of the fittest.

Master of Dragons is the epic conclusion of Margaret Weis's triumphant Dragonvarld trilogy, an epic of politics, war, and the delicate balance of the ways of dragons and men.

This novelette oriignally appeared in the anthology Fearsome Journeys (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld #125, February 2017. It was anthologized in The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014 edited by Rich Horton, and collected in The Father of Lies (2018).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld Magazine.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann
• Draco, Draco - (1984) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Two Yards of Dragon - (1976) - novelette by L. Sprague de Camp
• Mrs. Byres and the Dragon - (1990) - novelette by Keith Roberts
• A Handful of Hatchlings - (1993) - short story by Mark Sumner
• Covenant With a Dragon - (1987) - short story by Susan Casper
• Paper Dragons - (1985) - novelette by James P. Blaylock
• Up the Wall - (1990) - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• Lan Lung - (1980) - novelette by M. Lucie Chin
• Climacteric - (1960) - short story by Avram Davidson
• The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule - (1984) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• Further Reading - essay by uncredited

An anthropologist travels to the central Australian desert to search for the source of an aboriginal myth; he suspects the terrible "Rainbow Serpent" is connected to the sacred Uluru rock formations. The holographic "Gate" he discovers with his nephew explains not just the origin of a legend, but the origin of man, and the true fate of the dinosaurs.

The walls between the worlds are down. A new unfolding has begun...

It started long ago, as a war between the shadowy Immortals that persists today, as the wizard Mauryl's Shaping confronts the Shadows summoned from Chaos. Tristen is that Shaping. Both more and less than human, he successfully fought sorcery's evil tides, a victory that brought his friend Cefwyn both a kingdom and true love.

But the Lines that hold the world in place are shifting again. A ruthless enemy is preparing for battle. Once again, Tristen will take up the sword inscribed with "Truth" and "Illusion" on its blade. But he faces more than war and a pretender to Cefwyn's throne. The Shadows he sees are straight from Ruin -- a flow of darkness covering the world like ink...

Fortress of Dragons completes the high-fantasy epic begun in Fortress in the Eye of Time and continued in Fortress of Eagles and Fortress of Owls --a powerful tale set in a world of magic, violence, wonder and awe -- a world as vividly real as our own.

A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the idyllic fields of a post-industrialized Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes young Will his lieutenant. Nightly, he crawls inside the young fey's brain to get a measure of what his subjects think. Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, witnesses the violent clash of giants, and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal.

Evacuated to the Tower of Babel -- infinitely high, infinitely vulgar, very much like New York City -- Will meets the confidence trickster Nat Whilk. Inside the Dread Tower, Will becomes a hero to the homeless living in the tunnels under the city, rises as an underling to a haint politician, meets his one true love – a high-elven woman he dare not aspire to.

In the good old days, magic was powerful, unregulated by government, and even the largest spell could be woven without filling in magic release form B1-7g.

Then the magic started fading away.

Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers. But work is drying up. Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and even magic carpets are reduced to pizza delivery.

So it's a surprise when the visions start. Not only do they predict the death of the Last Dragon at the hands of a dragonslayer, they also point to Jennifer, and say something is coming. Big Magic...

A long time ago magic faded away, leaving behind only yo-yos, the extremely useful compass-pointing-to-North enchantment and the spell that keep bicycles from falling over. Things are about to change. Magical power is on the rise and King Snodd IV of Hereford has realised that he who controls magic controls almost anything. One person stands between Snodd and his plans for power and riches beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. Meet Jennifer Strange, sixteen-year-old acting manager of Kazam, the employment agency for sorcerers and soothsayers. With only one functioning wizard and her faithful assistant 'Tiger' Prawns, Jennifer must use every ounce of ingenuity to derail King Snodd's plans. It may involve a trip on a magic carpet at the speed of sound to the Troll Wall, the mysterious Transient Moose, and a powerless sorceress named Once Magnificent Boo. But one thing is certain: Jennifer Strange will not relinquish the noble powers of magic to big business and commerce without a fight.

The Mighty Shandar, the most powerful wizard the world has ever seen, returns to the Ununited Kingdoms. Clearly, he didn't solve the Dragon Problem, and must hand over his fee: eighteen dray-weights of gold.

But the Mighty Shandar doesn't do refunds, and vows to eliminate the dragons once and for all - unless sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange and her sidekicks from the Kazam house of enchantment can bring him the legendary jewel, The Eye of Zoltar.

The only thing that stands in their way is a perilous journey with a 50% Fatality Index - through the Cambrian Empire to the Leviathan Graveyard, at the top of the deadly Cadir Idris mountain. It's a quest like never before, and Jennifer soon finds herself fighting not just for her life, but for everything she knows and loves...

Sean McMullen, one of Australia's leading genre authors, delivers Glass Dragons, the scintillating sequel to Voyage of the Shadowmoon which Kirkus Reviews called "a brilliantly inventive, marvelously plotted sea-faring fantasy that both mocks and surpasses genre expectations.... Australian author McMullen writes like Roger Zelazny at the peak of his powers: his dashing, flamboyant, cleverly resourceful characters trade off insults and reveal surprising abilities as they swagger bravely from one hair-raising scene to another. Exciting, suspenseful, vividly believable, and great, clever fun: a major fantasy-award contender."

Glass Dragons continues the tale of Laron, the chivalrous 700-year-old vampire, the appallingly dangerous and beautiful Velander, and the long-suffering Terikel, as they investigate a secret project of arcane magic, a magic so dangerous it could destroy their world. A project which threatens to fall into the wrong hands.

Glass Dragons is a broad and complicated tale, filled with wonderful characters both new and old, woven through with low humor and great courage, built upon grand acts of heroism and love. Enjoy.

A towering epic of fantasy, The Pearl, is launched in The Ring of Five Dragons. Filled with action, color, and the myriad details of another world, The Pearl is the first great fantasy series of the new millennium, set to rival Robert Jordan, David Eddings, George R. R. Martin, Terry Brooks, and Terry Goodkind in popular appeal.

This astonishing first volume opens as the Kundalan people have suffered for a century under the viciously oppressive, technologically-superior V'ornn invaders. In the resulting crisis of faith -- why hasn't their goddess Miina saved them? -- Kundalan religion has fallen under the control of evil forces from within who forbid the teaching of traditional sorcery, pretending to have no magic of their own. The V'ornn's mysterious leaders, the Gyrgon, know better, and search for the lost Ring of Five Dragons, the key to the door of the fabled Kundalan Storehouse, and perhaps to Kundalan sorcery as well.

But misused, the Ring is the trigger of seemingly inexorable annihilation for V'ornn and Kundalan alike. Now from among the oppressed must arise the hero of prophecy, the Dar Sala-at, who alone can wield the sorcerous power to save the world.

Thus begins a huge epic rooted in the conflict between spiritual and technological cultures. The twisting plot raises difficult and provocative moral questions in the course of a constantly surprising, sometimes shocking, fantastic adventure that will transport fantasy readers to new heights of enthusiasm, and make them ask for more.

Jakkin and his girlfriend, Akki, discover a primitive cult that sacrifices dragons.

The dragon keepers and fledgling dragons have discovered a route to the lost city of Kelsingra but there is one problem: they need to be able to fly to cross the treacherous waters and enter the fabled city. At first, only a few dragons are willing to try--the others are either too ashamed of their deformed wings and feeble muscles or too proud to risk failure and humiliation.

But the rewards waiting at Kelsingra for those brave enough to take to the air are worth more than they could possibly imagine. This was a city built for dragons and their keepers. Alise Finbok is overwhelmed by the treasures she finds there, and spends hours carefully uncovering wonder after wonder, recording her findings for posterity. She knows the knowledge will change everything the world thought about dragons and the Elderlings.

Yet rumours of the city's discovery have floated down the Rain Wild River and reached envious ears in Bingtown and beyond. Adventurers, pirates and fortune hunters are coming in droves to pillage what they can from the city. Will the dragons, only just finding their strength, and their keepers, who are changing in their own mysterious ways, be able to fend them off?

And what has happened to Tintaglia, the dragon-mother who started it all? Has she really abandoned her offspring forever? Or will she too return to seek the riches of Kelsingra...

Dragon blood and scales, dragon liver and eyes and teeth. All required ingredients for medicines with near-miraculous healing powers. The legendary blue dragon Tintaglia is dying of wounds inflicted by hunters sent by the Duke of Chalced, who meanwhile preserves his dwindling life by consuming the blood of the dragon's poet Selden Vestrit.

If Tintaglia perishes, her ancestral memories will die with her. And the dragons in the ancient city of Kelsingra will lose the secret knowledge they need to survive. Their keepers immerse themselves in the dangerously addictive memory-stone records of the city in the hope of recovering the Elderling magic that once allowed humans and dragons to co-exist. In doing so they risk losing their own identities, even their lives.

And danger threatens from beyond the city, too. For war is coming: war between dragonkind and those who would destroy them.

Kait Galwiegh is now a fugitive, seeking the Mirror of Souls in order to resurrect her lost family. But to get it she must battle with Crispin Abir, who believes the artefact will make him god. Both are terribly wrong; using the artefact will in fact unleash the souls of the long dead sorcerers who once before conquered the world. Held captive within the mirror, the magicians wait for freedom and the opportunity for vengeance.

In the continuation of the epic Sunset Warrior fantasy series, a man-god rises once more to confront a fearsome and unstoppable evil in a savage world where nothing is as it seems

Once he was but a man named Ronin. Trained as a swordsman, endowed with breathtaking skill, he was not destined merely to live and then die in a doomed city beneath a frozen world. Many years have passed since he first ventured into the void. Now he possesses powers beyond all imagining--godlike abilities both marvelous and terrible. Now he is revered and feared as savior and avenger, the tamer of monstrous beasts, the destroyer of the dark angel of Chaos--and dearly loved by his devoted bond-brother, Moichi Annai-Nin, and the beautiful, enigmatic, and lethal Chiisai. Now he is Dai-San, the Sunset Warrior. Gone are the days of fire, ice, and necromancy, and yet there are grave perils in this world of illusion--and enemies, once defeated, who seek a way back to this plane, driven by an insatiable need for vengeance. For Chaos must again have its day, and no power in the universe can prevent its terrible reemergence--not even the might of the Sunset Warrior.

The blood-thirsty, epic Traitor Son Cycle comes to its gripping conclusion in this fifth and final book.

In the climax of the Traitor Son Cycle, the allied armies of the Wild and the Kingdoms of men and women must face Ash for control of the gates to the hermetical universe, and for control of their own destinies. But exhaustion, treachery and time may all prove deadlier enemies.

In Alba, Queen Desiderata struggles to rebuild her kingdom wrecked by a year of civil war, even as the Autumn battles are fought in the west. In the Terra Antica, The Red Knight attempts to force his unwilling allies to finish the Necromancer instead of each other.

But as the last battle nears, The Red Knight makes a horrifying discovery... all of this fighting may have happened before.

With the great king dying, the sole hope of the people of Alemar to protect them from the powerful dragon and its minions lies in two warriors, lost deep in the heart of a perilous desert.

The dragon sends forth wizards and armies to devastate the kingdoms of men. The last descendants of the Dragonslayer flee assassins. And from a distant wilderness two warriors come in search of the talisman that could decide the fate of all.

Two continents at war: the Three Kingdoms and Ishara have been in conflict for a thousand years. But when an outside threat arises--the reawakening of a powerful ancient race that wants to remake the world--the two warring nations must somehow set aside generations of hatred to form an alliance against a far more deadly enemy.

Dragonslayer is the fourth epic instalment in the death-seeking saga of Gotrek and Felix. After the daring exploits in Daemonslayer, the fearless duo find themselves pursued by the insidious and ruthless skaven-lord, Grey Seer Thanquol. Drogonslayer sees the fearless Trollslayer and his sworn companion back aboard the arcane dwarf airship in search of a golden hoard - and its deadly guardian! New edition with stunning redesigned cover!

The epic war between dwarfs and elves continues.

For millennia, the elves of Ulthuan and the dwarfs of the mountain realm have been friends and allies. Now that time is over and the War of Vengeance has begun. Prince Imladrik, master of dragons and Ulthuan's finest warrior, is ordered to leave his beloved homeland and lead his host in a war he does not believe in. Facing the fury of the dwarfs, the jealousy of his brother and the ever-present threat of Malekith's dark elves, Imladrik must balance his love for his wife and home with the thrill of battle.

When the Black Dragon seized the Deep of Ylferdun, young Gareth braved the far Winterlands to find John Aversin, Dragonsbane -- the only living man ever to slay a dragon. In return for the promise of the King to send help to the Winterlands, Aversin agreed to attempt the nearly impossible feat again.

With them, to guard them on the haunted trip south, went Jenny Waynest, a half-taught sorceress and mother of Aversin's sons.

But at the decadent Court, nothing was as expected. Rebellion threatened the land. Zyerne, a sorceress of seemingly unlimited power, held the King under an evil spell, and he refused to see them. Meantime, the dragon fed well on the knights who had challenged him.

In the end, Aversin, Jenny, and Gareth had to steal away at night to challenge Morkeleb, largest and wisest of dragons.

But that was only the beginning of the perils they must face.

Lord John Aversin--with the help of his mageborn wife, Jenny Waynest-- has fought and defeated two dragons, earning the title of Dragonsbane. But there are creatures more terrifying than dragons. Demonspawn from a dark dimension have learned to drink the magic--and the souls--of mages and dragons alike, turning their victims into empty vessels. And now they've stolen John and Jenny's mageborn son, twelve-year-old Ian.

In desperation, John seeks the help of the eldest and strongest dragon: Morkeleb the Black. But the demons have allies, too: a vast army poised to plunge the Realm into civil war. In the coming struggle, Morkeleb will sacrifice what he values most. Jenny will question everything she trusts and believes in. And John will embark on a perilous quest for the only things capable of defeating such powerful demons--even more powerful demons . . .

Condemned to die for consorting with demons, dragonslayer Lord John Aversin sits in a dank prison cell and calculates the odds of escape, while smelling the smoke of the executioners? pyres. In Winterlands, Jenny Waynest pays a heavy price for choosing to be human, mourning the loss of her husband, Lord John, and the dangers that engulf her family. But in a season of the Dragon Star, strange miracles are about to transpire.

As a pitched battle between the Hellspawn and the human rages, Jenny and John will be reunited in a city under siege. And there, they will have one last chance to understand all that has happened to them and why, who their true enemies and true allies are, and most of all, for what magical purpose each has been chosen.

A vast adventure and a powerful mystery teeming with demons and witches, gnomes and dragons, Dragonstar explores profound issues of faith, fate, and technology?while obscuring long held boundaries between good and evil, love and hate, what is human and what is fantastic. With this glorious finale to a breathtaking series, Barbara Hambly establishes herself as one of the most visionary and inventive storytellers in the field of fantasy fiction today.

Trapped in the court of the Burgund by an insidious magic, champion warrior and shape-shifter Sigfrid Sigmundson is thrust into battle against Brunahild, the woman he once loved, in order to win her for another man.