Search Worlds Without End

This novelette originally appeared in Lightspeed: People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue, June 2016. I can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2017, edited by Rich Horton.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The mysterious John Shade leads an unlikely squadron comprised of a robot, fire-eater, and various loners and rebels on an increasingly desperate mission to save twenty-first-century Mars from technological disaster.

New York had nearly destroyed Joshua Pinson. He had rejected his puritanical religious background for a high-powered urban career and the love of his wife, Mina. Now Mina was dead, murdered by a mugger; and Josh was left with their two small children, two large dogs, and a wealth of bad dreams. Suddenly, Josh was named sole heir to his eccentric Uncle Elijah's estate in rural Florida. Josh had never known his uncle, or seen the property, but it seemed a providential chance to take Sue and Chris away and begin like fresh.

Elijah's estate was at the end of a country road: thirty acres of forest and field, and abandoned mine, hidden caches of gold and gems, a warehouse of survivalist rations, chickens and a pony, and a solar house built beside a giant, ancient live-oak. There were just two problems. The house was only half built. And the land was rumored to be haunted - by animals and machines, by creatures which couldn't exist, by ghosts of the dead... and ghosts of the living.

Strange phenomena soon began - some eerie, some benign, all uncanny. A phantom train that ran on spectral tracks... a "possessed" chain saw... a specter washing dishes in a newly installed sink... a solar water tank that heated without sunlight. Then events turned darker, more menacing: an elderly neighbor found dead at the base of the tree; the pony turned murderous; a dog gored to death; hordes of hallucinatory, flesh-eating insects. Then skeletons rose from the earth to threaten the children; the Bigfoot-like Skunk Ape attacked Josh; and Sue fell victim to a weird, malignant disease.

But Josh refused to run, to abandon his family's new life, new friends... and his own new-found love. Not until he learned what pattern lay beneath the power, what force was in the land. Whether it could be reasoned with, or was beyond comprehension. Whether it was good, or evil; magic or necromancy. Whether he and his children had stumbled upon and confronted a horror... or a miracle.

An expedition in South America uncovers a terrifying race of men without bones who literally suck the life out of their prey. A man in 20th century London makes a horrifying discovery about a monster found off the coast of Brighton in 1745. A sea captain goes ashore on a deserted island and finds what seem to be the bones of a previously unknown species of monster, only to learn that the bones tell a much more tragic tale than he could ever have imagined. A war correspondent, none other than Kersh himself, is sailing to America when he meets a strange man who claims to be 438 years old. These are the plots of just a few of the weird tales you will find in this book.

Contents:

• A Lucky Day for the Boar - (1962) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh
• Bone for Debunkers - (1962) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh
• Busto Is a Ghost, Too Mean to Give Us a Fright!" - (1938) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh [as by P. J. Gahagan]
• Frozen Beauty - (1941) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh [as by Waldo Kellar ]
• Kersh, the Demon Prince - (1968) - essay by Harlan Ellison
• Men Without Bones - (1954) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh
• The Ape and the Mystery - (1948) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh
• The Brighton Monster - (1948) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh (variant of The Monster)
• The King Who Collected Clocks - (1947) - novelette by Gerald Kersh
• The Queen of Pig Island - (1949) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh
• Voices in the Dust of Annan - (1947) - shortstory by Gerald Kersh (variant of Voices in the Dust)
• Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? - (1953) - novelette by Gerald Kersh

Bailey Chen is fresh out of college with all the usual new-adult demons: no cash, no job offers, and an awkward relationship with Zane, the old friend she kinda-sorta hooked up with during high school.

But when Zane introduces Bailey to his monster-fighting bartender friends, her demons become a lot more literal. It turns out evil creatures stalk the city streets after hours, and they can only be hunted with the help of magically-mixed cocktails: vodka grants super-strength, whiskey offers the power of telekinesis, and tequila lets its drinker fire blasts of elemental energy. But will all of these powers be enough for Bailey to halt a mysterious rash of gruesome deaths? And what will she do when the safety of a "real world" job beckons?

This sharp and funny urban fantasy is perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and grown-up readers of Harry Potter. Includes 14 recipes from a book of ancient cocktail lore.

White-skinned, black-haired Sovaz is beautiful and wayward, yet seemingly soulless - as if vampirised by some unknown force. Wife of a very wealthy but older husband, she is the prize ornament of his treasure collection, yet she is toying with a naive young American lover. And while the faces of this doomed trio converge, somewhere outside the glowing casements a creature of darkness prepares to feed...

Here are a novel and twelve short stories encompassing all the richness and variety of Tanith Lee's unique talent.

This fascinating and disturbing collection casts a new and chilling light on that ancient mythical creature, the mermaid... pinpoints the ultimate peril of mankind's fascination with the domestic cat... sucks us into the pulsing horror of bricks and mortar with a life of their own... investigates the dark and marvellous legends of tree spirits, and the tantalising allure of other carnal obsessions.

Table of Contents:

• Nightshade - (1993) - novella
• The Mermaid - (1991) - short story
• After the Guillotine - (1985) - short story
• Meow - (1981) - short story
• Il Bacio (Il Chiave) - (1983) - short story
• A Room with a Vie - (1980) - short story
• Paper Boat - (1978) - short fiction
• Blue Vase of Ghosts - (1983) - novelette
• Pinewood - (1984) - short story
• The Janfia Tree - (1989) - short story
• The Devil's Rose - (1988) - novelette
• Huzdra - (1977) - short story
• Three Days - (1984) - novelette

Haunted by starlings in the dark, a young woman spirals into an altered state of consciousness.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's Children

In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill.

The mysterious Shade -- once a man, but now more like the machines he fights -- recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power -- and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become ...

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology In the Field of Fire (1987), edited by Jack Dann and Jeanne Van Buren Dann, and was reprinted in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1987. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories (2011), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. It is included in the collections The Ends of the Earth (1991) and The Best of Lucius Shepard (2008).

For a vampire, saying goodbye to your mortal lover can be the hardest thing you ever have to do. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a Nebula Award nominated story from USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith.

This story was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1996 and can also be found in Nebula Awards 32 (1998), edited by Jack Dann.

With their hard-edged, street-wise prose, they created frighteningly probable futures of high-tech societies and low-life hustlers. Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive "cyberpunk" short fiction collection.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Bruce Sterling
• The Gernsback Continuum - (1981) - shortstory by William Gibson
• Snake-Eyes - (1986) - shortstory by Tom Maddox
• Rock On - (1984) - shortstory by Pat Cadigan
• Tales of Houdini - (1981) - shortstory by Rudy Rucker
• 400 Boys - (1983) - shortstory by Marc Laidlaw
• Solstice - (1985) - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• Petra - (1982) - shortstory by Greg Bear
• Till Human Voices Wake Us - (1984) - shortstory by Lewis Shiner
• Freezone - (1985) - shortstory by John Shirley
• Stone Lives - (1985) - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
• Red Star, Winter Orbit - (1983) - novelette by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
• Mozart in Mirrorshades - (1985) - shortstory by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner

One of Wu's stories about a drifter Jack Hong, who is pursuing the keilin, or Chinese unicorn, across the United States, meeting ghosts, fox fairies, and ancient deities along the way.

Can be found in the anthology Unicorns II by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.

Most people only know one London; but what if there were several? Kell is one of the last Travelers-magicians with a rare ability to travel between parallel Londons. There's Grey London, dirty and crowded and without magic, home to the mad king George III. There's Red London, where life and magic are revered. Then, White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. But once upon a time, there was Black London...

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagent international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.

Londons fall and kingdoms rise while darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire, and the fraught balance of magic blossoms into dangerous territory while heroes struggle. The direct sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, and the final book in the Shades of Magic epic fantasy series, A Conjuring of Light sees the newly minted New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab reach a thrilling conclusion concerning the fate of beloved protagonists--and old foes.

The final book in the New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Gallactica and Prometheus!

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx startled--and annoyed--by the arrival of a house boat on his mystical river. At first afraid that the boat will put him out of business, he later finds out that he is to be appointed the boat's janitor. What follows are eleven stories set on the house boat.

There is no central theme; each chapter features various souls from history and mythology, and in the twelfth chapter the house boat disappears, seguing into the sequel, Pursuit of the House-Boat.

Not even death can keep a good pirate down--but the world's greatest detective might be able to give him a run for his money

The houseboat on the river Styx is the afterlife's hippest meeting spot, and it attracts some of history's greatest luminaries: William Shakespeare, Confucius, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, and Socrates have all spent time together there. But such illustrious men also attract less savory characters from the past. One of these scoundrels, the great pirate Captain Kidd, seizes an opportunity to pick up some cigars from London with the houseboat. Now the vessel is missing, and there's only one dead man skilled enough in deduction to track down Kidd and the boat--the world's foremost detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Meanwhile, Captain Kidd has his hands full, as the stolen boat contains an unexpected set of stowaways who are making his quick jaunt far more difficult than he bargained for.

The Pursuit of the House-Boat is a raucous romp through the underworld.

John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922)is without doubt one of the most prolific writers of fantastic novels and stories set in Hades. The three works which comprise his "Hades" series, A Houseboat on the Styx (1895), Pursuit of the Houseboat (1897), and The Enchanted Type-Writer (1899) are acknowledged classics of modern fantasy, precursors to works by Thorne Smith (Topper), Philip Jose Farmer (The Fabulous Riverboat), and many others. The Enchanted Type-Writer stands alone; you do not have to have read the first two novels to enjoy it fully. At the turn of the 20th century, when copyright laws were less rigidly enforced than they probably should have been, Bangs felt free to "borrow" other writers' characters, including two of the most famous.

Table of Contents:

• The Discovery
• Mr. Boswell Imparts Some Late News of Hades
• From Advance Sheets of Baron Munchausen's Further Recollections
• A Chat with Xanthippe
• The Editing of Xanthippe
• The Boswell Tours: Personally Conducted
• An Important Decision
• A Hand-Book to Hades
• Sherlock Holmes Again
• Golf in Hades

Subtitled: Being a True Account of Some of the Recent Adventures Beyond the Styx of the Late Hieronymus Carl Friedrich, Sometime Baron Munchausen of Bodenwerder, as originally reported for the Sunday Edition of the Gehenna Gazette by its special interviewer the late Mr. Ananias formerly of Jerusalem, and now first transcribed from the columns of that journal by J. K. Bangs

Table of Contents:

• Mr. Munchausen - interior artwork by Peter Newell
• vii - Editor's Apology and Dedication - short fiction
• 3 - Encounter the Old Gentleman - short story
• 13 - The Sporting Tour of Mr. Munchausen - short story
• 26 - Three Months in a Balloon - short story
• 37 - Some Hunting Stories for Children - short story
• 49 - The Story of Jang - short story
• 61 - He Tells the Twins of Fire-Works - short story
• 73 - Saved by a Magic Lantern - short story
• 85 - An Adventure in the Desert - short story
• 95 - Decoration Day in the Cannibal Islands - short story
• 105 - Mr. Munchausen's Adventures with a Shark - short story
• 116 - The Baron as a Runner - short story
• 129 - Mr. Munchausen Meets His Match - short story
• 143 - Wriggletto - short story
• 155 - The Poetic June-Bug, Together with Some Remarks on the Gillyhooly Bird - short story
• 168 - A Lucky Stroke - short story

Juliet Marillier continues the epic fantasy begun with The Dark Mirror, which Interzone called: "A fascinating evocation of life in Pictish England and an emotional roller coaster of a story."

King Bridei is a man with a mission. His wish to unite his kingdom seems almost within his grasp but there are forces working to undo his dream. He sends Faolan, his most trusted advisor (who is also a master assassin and spymaster) out into the world to ferret out the truth of who is friend and who is foe.

Along the way Faolan will uncover many truths. Some may hold the key to Bridei's future. But more important, they may unlock the secrets that Faolan has held deep within his soul for decades.

And offer him the chance of redemption.

An apocalyptic spell has been cast, an ancient evil banished. Now the land of Balaia, still driven by war, must live with the consequences. The Dawnthief spell - designed to destroy the world, but cast to save it - has torn a hole in the sky, a pathway into the dragon dimension, and, through it, unfriendly eyes are turning to Balaia. With war already sweeping the land, there are no armies to send against the dragons. All that stands between Balaia and complete dominion by these tyrannous beasts is a tiny, but legendary band of mercenaries: The Raven. And if they fail, Balaia will fall beneath the wings of countless dragons.

Riley's lost the last damned thing she's willing to lose. She's declaring war and prisoners are optional.

After escaping the FBI, Riley and her family have become fugitives, and not just from the law. Every bad guy on the planet wants a piece of Riley. Gregg has been kidnapped. Worse than that, Price's newly discovered magic is dangerously out of control, and her own is trying to kill her. She has little time to worry about any of that before all hell breaks loose in Diamond City, and she finds herself smack dab in the crossfire.

With the clock ticking down, Riley gathers her friends and family to execute a Hail Mary plan that will pit them against seven of the most dangerous thugs in Diamond City, a serial killer, Riley's psychopath father, and a mysterious billionaire with plans of his own. If she succeeds, she makes herself an even bigger target. If she fails, everybody she cares about dies.

But the shadows hold danger even Riley will never see coming....

In Jack Nightingale's world - where reality and the occult collide - sometimes the only way to fight evil is with evil. A farmer walks into a school and shoots eight children dead before turning the gun on himself. It's a harrowing but straightforward case - until police search the man's farm and unearth evidence of dark Satanic practices. When the perpetrator's brother approaches Nightingale, adamant that his brother was set up, it's clear that something even more sinister lurks at the heart of the case.

And there are dark forces elsewhere. A young girl miraculously returns to life, claiming she's spoken to those from beyond the grave. Those in contact with her are dying hideous deaths... forcing Jack Nightingale to make the hardest decision he's ever faced.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July-August 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

The fantasy novel you've always wished Jane Austen had written

Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Jane Austen if she had been a fantasy writer: Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality.

Jane and her sister Melody vie for the attentions of eligible men, and while Jane's skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face. When Jane realizes that one of Melody's suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right-and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

Steven Gould's classic SF novel Jumper is the story of a young man with a single mysterious superpower: he can teleport anywhere, in the blink of an eye. Now, in a story set after Jumper's sequel Reflex, we see that a single mysterious superpower can add up to a lot of different kinds of miracle...

In 2008 Jumper was brought to the screen as a big-budget SF adventure of the same name, directed by Doug Liman and starring Hayden Christiansen and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie rearranged the story line and gave the protagonist a teleporting sidekick. When the movie's producers expressed a desire to see a novel published about the sidekick's backstory, Gould chose to write the book himself; it was published as Jumper: Griffin's Story (2007), and is not canonical with the other two "Jumper" novels. "Shade" takes place in the world of the novels, not the alternate continuity of the movie.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The eagerly awaited addition to the series begun with the New York Times best-seller Life As We Knew It, in which a meteor knocks the moon off its orbit and the world changes forever.

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

"Be careful which star you wish upon..."

The unseelie--banished by Oberon long ago--are stirring awake, and there's one name on their dark lips: Nightshade.Kesh is beginning to settle into her role as Halow's messenger, saving people from the fae with the help of Kellee, Talen, Arran and Sota, but if she has any hope of making her wrongs right, she must trust those around her. Without them, there is no messenger. Friends, lovers, more. But one has a secret. A secret so dark it threatens to change everything Kesh believes in. A secret that could change the fate of Faerie, Halow, and all of humanity. When the fae abandoned the stars long-ago, they left behind more than fairytales. They left behind their monsters.

Alex McKenna is the new Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations--the division tasked with investigating crimes involving shades.

Or vampires, as they're more widely known.

Children have been going missing, and agents are routinely being slaughtered. It's up to McKenna, and some unlikely allies, to get to the bottom of the problem, and find the kids before it's too late.

Nightshades is a new gritty urban fantasy from Melissa F. Olso

Three weeks after the events of Nightshades, things are finally beginning to settle for the Chicago branch of the BPI, but the brief respite from the horror of the previous few weeks was never destined to last.

The team gets a call from Switch Creek, WI, where a young man has been arrested on suspicion of being a shade.

The Chicago field office of the Bureau of Preternatural Investigation is facing its deadliest challenge, yet?internal investigation! Alex and Lindy are on the hook, and on the run.

But when all of the BPI's captive vampires are broken free from their maximum security prison, and Hector finally steps out of the shadows, Alex must use every trick to stay ahead of both the BPI and the world's most dangerous shade.

Confrontation is inevitable. Success is not.

As an Earth runaway, Shade had been happy to be planetside again, free of the captain of the star freighter on which she'd stowed away. But after one day on her own in Deadtown, Shade knew she'd merely traded one prison for a larger and far deadlier one. For this was a world where you were fair game for anyone's desires if you didn't have plenty of protection. Still, Shade was a quick learner, and she soon became one of the coolest of Deadtowners, a survivor at any cost. At least until she found herself played for a pawn by the three dominant alien races on the planet -- powerful and ruthless beings on the planet -- powerful and ruthless beings ready to make use of her talent for scoping into other peoples's minds...

HOOK
A mean, backwater mining planet where the alien Q'rin rule. Taking the wrong side can get you killed and humans have little hope for escape.

LARISSA
A young woman with a talent for sports...and knives. She's beating the aliens at their own particularly harsh game until someone dies. Novy she must flee Hook.

OFF-PLANET
The stakes are higher, the competition even deadlier. Here, Larissa fights for survival --and for humanity.

Hundreds of years in the future, the world is an alarmingly different place.

Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.

For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey ...

Welcome to Chromatacia, where the societal hierarchy is strictly regulated by one's limited color perception. Civilization has been rebuilt after an unspoken "Something that Happened" five hundred years ago. Society is now color vision-segregated, professions, marriages, and leisure activities all dictated by an individual's visual ability, and everything run by the shadowy National Color in far-off Emerald City.

Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, twenty-year-old Eddie Russett is being bullied into an arranged marriage with the powerful DeMauve family, purples who hope to redden up their progeny's color-viewing potential with Eddie's gene stock. Their obnoxious daughter Violet is confident the marriage won't hamper her style for too long because Eddie is about to go on trial for a murder he didn't commit, and he's pretty sure to be sent on a one-way trip to the Green Room for execution by soporific color exposure. Meanwhile, Eddie is engaged in an illegal relationship with his co-defendant, a Green, the charismatic, unpredictable, and occasionally deadly Jane Grey. Time is running out for Eddie and Jane to figure out how to save themselves. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules within their society, they search for a loophole--some truth of their world that has been hidden from its hyper-policed citizens.

The day that Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London to start a new life at boarding school is also the day a series of brutal murders breaks out over the city, killings mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper spree of more than a century ago. Soon "Rippermania" takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one.

Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him--the only one who can see him. And now Rory has become his next target. In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.

Rory Deveaux has changed in ways she never could have imagined since moving to London and beginning a new life at boarding school. As if her newfound ability to see ghosts hadn't complicated her life enough, Rory's recent brush with the Jack the Ripper copycat has left her with an even more unusual and intense power.

Now, a new string of inexplicable deaths is threatening London, and Rory has evidence that they are no coincidence. Something sinister is going on, and it is up to her to convince the city's secret ghost-policing squad to listen before it's too late.

Rory and her friends are reeling from a series of sudden and tragic events. While racked with grief, Rory tries to determine if she acted in time to save a member of the squad. If she did, how do you find a ghost? Also, Rory's classmate Charlotte has been kidnapped by Jane and her nefarious organization. Evidence is uncovered of a forty-year-old cult, ten missing teenagers, and a likely mass murder. Everything indicates that Charlotte's in danger, and it seems that something much bigger and much more terrible is coming.

Time is running out as Rory fights to find her friends and the ghost squad struggles to stop Jane from unleashing her spectral nightmare on the entire city. In the process, they'll discover the existence of an organization that underpins London itself--and Rory will learn that someone she trusts has been keeping a tremendous secret.

The battle for an empire has now reached a critical turning point. With the seat of power of the Valtegan Empire stolen by an usurper and Prince Zsurtul's entire family executed, the only hope to avoid a galaxy-wide war of conquest is to retake the Palace and the City of Light, and place Prince Zsurtul on the throne. But whether Kusac, his fellow Sholans, and their allies can accomplish this seemingly impossible task remains to be seen.

And with the other two members of his Triad--Carrie and Kaid--on their way to a rendezvous point, Kusac will not be able to avoid a long overdue confrontation with those he cares about most.

To make the situation even worse, both the gods and the agents of the Camarilla--the elder races' secret ruling organization--have targeted Kusac as a pawn in their plans to control the destinies of the Sholans, Humans, and Valtegans. Hailed by all as the long-awaited Avatar, can Kusac break free of manipulation, and chart a new future for all three races?

After 200 years of civil war, the planet Oriana is dying. Most of the surface vegetation is gone, the air is almost unbreathable, and the population is nearly extinct. The two warring factions have finally agreed to talk peace, and Captain Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are sent to help them negotiate a settlement. Picard, Lt. Worf, and Counsellor Troi beam down to Oriana, just as the Enterprise is called away on another urgent mission. Alone on the planet, the U.S.S. Enterprise team learns that there are people who would rather finish the devastating conflict than talk peace. Now, Worf and Troi must prevent planet-wide disaster, before time runs out....

Carter's a homicide cop in Titanshade, an oil boomtown where 8-tracks are state of the art, disco rules the radio, and all the best sorcerers wear designer labels. It's also a metropolis teetering on the edge of disaster. As its oil reserves run dry, the city's future hangs on a possible investment from the reclusive amphibians known as Squibs.

But now negotiations have been derailed by the horrific murder of a Squib diplomat. The pressure's never been higher to make a quick arrest, even as Carter's investigation leads him into conflict with the city's elite. Undermined by corrupt coworkers and falsified evidence, and with a suspect list that includes power-hungry politicians, oil magnates, and mad scientists, Carter must find the killer before the investigation turns into a witch-hunt and those closest to him pay the ultimate price on the filthy streets of Titanshade.

Three brand new short stories by Hugo, Nebula & World Fantasy Award-nominated author N.K. Jemisin, set in the world of The Inheritance Trilogy.

From the shadows of the greater stories, away from the bright light of Sky and wending 'round the sagas of the Arameri, come three quieter tales: A newborn god with an old, old soul struggles to find a reason to live. A powerful demon searches for her father, and answers. And in a prequel to The Inheritance Trilogy, a newly-enslaved Nahadoth forges a dark alliance with a mortal, for survival... and revenge.

"The Wild Boy" is a prequel, set in the early days of Nahadoth's confinement, and tells a story of his relationship with a mortal determined to avenge himself against those who enslaved him.

In "The God without a Name," a new god born from the body used by Nahadoth during his enslavement searches for his nature and for a reason to continue living.

And in "The Third Why," Glee Oree, demon daughter of Itempas, seeks out her father in the hopes that through him she will find answers to questions she scarcely knows how to ask.

Return to the world of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in these three interconnected short tales.

Ace has never known the Doctor so withdrawn and melancholic. He is avoiding her company, seeking solace in the forgotten rooms and labyrinthine passages of his ancient time machine.

Perhaps he will find the peace he yearns for on his favourite planet, Earth, in the second half of thetwentieth century - in the isolated village of Crook Marsham, to be precise, in 1968, the year of peace, love and understanding.

But one by one the villagers are being killed. The Doctor has to act, but for once he seems helpless, indecisive, powerless. What are the signals fromspace that are bombarding the radio telescope on the moor? What is the significance of the local legends from the Civil War? And what is the aeons-old power that the Doctor is unable to resist

Lore has been living by her wits since she was a child, running poisons for the cartel that took her in, avoiding the attention of the law, and keeping her illicit affinity for death magic a secret.

When a job goes wrong and Lore is captured by the Sainted King's warrior-monks, she expects death. But King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what's happening - or face the pyre.

Thrust into a lavish court where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted, Lore must navigate an intricate web of politics, religion, and forbidden romance and solve the King's mystery. A mystery more dangerous and twisted than Lore can even imagine.

The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore - a necromancer and former smuggler - to his right-hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the royal court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kirythean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore's old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian has changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he's become reckless, domineering, and cold.

And something has been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that's telling her there's more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.

With Bastian's coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince, and her country before they all come crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1995. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection (1996) and Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming (2001), both edited by Gardner Dozois.