Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, February 2017. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Twelve (2018), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

There are 22 candidates. There are 12 seats.

The last interstellar colony ship is down to its final batch of humans after the robots in charge unhelpfully deleted the rest. But rebooting a species and training them for the arduous task of colonisation isn't easy - especially when the planet below is filled with monsters, the humans are more interested in asking questions than learning, and the robots are all programmed to kill each other.

But the fate of humanity rests on creating a new civilization on the planet below, and there are twelve seats on the lander. Will manipulation or loyalty save the day?

Lucy is just a regular teenager with regular worries: homework, friends, getting home for dinner on time. Oh, and there's the small matter of how she's going to tell her mother about her unplanned pregnancy.

When Lucy hears she's been enrolled in Drake's College, a school for students with magical talent, she's sure someone's messing with her. But despite her scepticism, she's soon swept up into a new double life--and now she's got something else to hide.

At Drake's, Lucy befriends the handsome Jack, a teacher's assistant who has secrets of his own. More concerningly, Lucy's 'talent' doesn't seem to be materialising, and one of the other students collapses in a mysterious incident. There's danger in the air...

American businesswoman Sarah Leonard is supervising the construction of a major new international hotel in post-Cold War Warsaw. If the job doesn't come in on time and under budget, Sarah will be out of a job.

Shockingly, a headless body is discovered in a sewer tunnel at the construction site. Polish authorities pressure the Warsaw police to solve the case quickly, even if they have to invent a murderer, lest the hotel chain withdraw its investment dollars.

Unluckily for the authorities, the case is assigned to Komisarz Stefan Rej. Rej wants a real investigation and real justice, particularly once his investigation turns up evidence that more than one person has disappeared or been slaughtered near the hotel site. The location is linked to the ancient legend of the Tunnel Child, a murderous creature with the face of an angel. Rumors insist that the Nazis attempted to create such a being with their warped science.

Who, or what, are Sarah and Rej chasing?

Reunited after twelve long years apart, Gyre and Maya will soon find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing civil war between those who wield magic and those who do not in the second instalment in Django Wexler's epic new fantasy series.

Long ago a great war wreaked devastation, destroying an empire and leaving a new republic in its wake. Now a new civil war has begun, pitting those with the power to wield magic against those without. Across that divide stand a brother and sister.

Twelve years after she was taken by the mysterious Twilight Order, Gyre has finally found his sister Maya, now a powerful magical warrior known as Burningblade. But given the chance to kill her and brandish a great blow against the oppressive Order, he instead let her free. The love for his sister was too strong, despite the terrible authority she represents.

All the while, trouble brews within their factions. A small but influential group of the Order conspire, intent to bring about the return of the Chosen; and the warriors of the resistance will need to learn to work as one if they are to stand any chance.

A blood-freezing story of venomous cobras, Hindoo vengeance, and a beautiful dancing-girl-a brilliant exploit of Jules de Grandin

The Jules de Grandin series is not numbered but this is the fifty first published story of such.

This novelette is included in the collection The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin volume 4 "A Rival From the Grave".

It first appeared in the August, 1933 Issue of Weird Tales, available free on Internet Archives.

Born to rule...

With Ancient technology scattered across the Pegasus galaxy, the Atlantis team is not surprised to find it in use on a world once defended by Dalera, an Ancient who was cast out of her society for falling in love with a human.

But in the millennia since Dalera's departure much has changed. Her strict rules have been broken, leaving her people open to Wraith attack. Only a few of the Chosen remain to operate Ancient technology vital to their defense and tensions are running high. Revolution simmers close to the surface.

When Major Sheppard and Rodney McKay are revealed as members of the Chosen, Daleran society convulses into chaos. Wanting to help resolve the crisis and yet refusing to prop up an autocratic regime, Sheppard is forced to act when Teyla and Lieutenant Ford are taken hostage by the rebels...

The Wizard Lord's duty is to keep the world in its delicate balance. He must govern lightly to protect his domain from power-hungry interlopers, such as certain wizards who previously fought to rule the world...But if the Wizard Lord himself strays from the way of the just, then it is up to the Chosen to intercede.

The Chosen ones are the Leader, the Seer, the Swordsman, the Beauty, the Thief, the Scholar, the Archer, and the Speaker. Each are magically-infused mortal individuals who, for the term of their service, have only one function--to be available to remove an errant Wizard Lord, whether by persuasion or by stronger means.

Breaker, a young man of ambition, has taken the mantle of Swordsman from its former bearer who wished to retire. Never did he realize that he would be called to duty so quickly, or that the balance of power in his world would be so precarious.

He had a duty to perform. A world to save.

So why does he still have doubts... not just about himself, but about the entire balance of power?

All of the world is kept in a delicate balance under the supervision of the Wizard Lord. It is his duty to govern lightly and protect his domain...but if he should stray from the way of the just, then it is up to the Chosen to intercede.

The Chosen are the Leader, the Seer, the Swordsman, the Beauty, the Thief, the Scholar, the Archer, and the Speaker. These are magically infused mortal individuals who for the term of their service have only one function--to remove an errant Wizard Lord.

The Chosen fulfilled this role when they removed the previous Wizard Lord and exposed treachery from within their own ranks.

Since their last adventure, the world has returned to apparent peace and prosperity. The new Wizard Lord rules benevolently... but with an eye towards modernization through technology, instead of magic.

Do such plans jeopardize the delicate balance of power?

Is a Wizard Lord who is able to rule without magic a threat to the Chosen?

All of the world is kept in a delicate balance under the supervision of the Wizard Lord. It is his duty to govern lightly and protect his domain...but if he should stray from the way of the just then it is up to the Chosen to intercede. The Chosen are the Leader, the Seer, the Swordsman, the Beauty, the Thief, the Scholar, the Archer, and the Speaker, magically infused mortal individuals who for the term of their service have only one function--to remove an errant Wizard Lord.

But the new Wizard Lord has now changed the playing field by neutralizing all magic in his domain (both his own and that of the Chosen) and has successfully killed and/or blocked his adversaries and their challenges to his omnipotence. Sword (now on the run) must work alone to restore order to their fair land and unravel the mystery of the Ninth Talisman--which might be the salvation or downfall of all that is good in their well ordered land.

Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.

Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society - she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She's also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.

But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.

Nick Carraway--paper soldier and novelist--has found a life and a living watching the mad magical spectacle of New York high society in the late thirties. He's good at watching, and he's even better at pretending: pretending to be straight, pretending to be human, pretending he's forgotten the events of that summer in 1922.

On the eve of the second World War, however, Nick learns that someone's been watching him pretend and that memory goes both ways. When he sees a familiar face one very dark night, it quickly becomes clear that dead or not, damned or not, Jay Gatsby isn't done with him.

In all paper there is memory, and Nick's ghost has come home.

His nephew has been kidnapped and, as he works desperately to save Luke, Detective Inspector Cass Jones has been framed for murder. He's on the run, being hunted by former colleagues, and is unwelcome wherever he goes . . . until he gets help from a very unexpected figure from his past. Detectives Hask and Ramsey are on a different case - searching for the killer behind the lethal Strain II virus currently sweeping its way through London . . . a search which throws up an unexpected clue that suggests Cass might be innocent of murder after all. But when they're ordered not to investigate further, they realise the mystery behind the murder is far greater than they thought. Somehow it's linked to Mr Bright, and to the Network which manipulates everyone from the shadows. A rift is growing between these rival factions as Strain II takes a firmer hold on the city, and as the Interventionists warn of a final battle which will bring them all together - or, once and for all, tear everything apart. Cass Jones is going up against The Bank and its sinister employees one last time. He needs every ally he can get, and this time he means to find answers - even if he has to uncover the true history of humanity to do it. And the more he learns, the more everything hinges on finding Luke.

Kragan, wielder of dark magic, has failed to vanquish the light in Lorness Carol Rafel, the woman prophesied to destroy him. Now Kragan has leveled a new threat against her: an unholy order of foul priests enlisted to storm her stronghold and destroy her and her companions once and for all.

Lorness Carol is waiting.

In the valley of Misty Hollow, she's finally conquered her fear of her magic. She has awakened a new power within her: the ability to manipulate minds. But even Carol is unprepared for where this new battle will take her.

For her brother, Lord Alan, is unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy as well. As the Chosen of the Dread Lord, he is amassing an army of feared soldiers--a battalion that could save the world, or pitch his sister's legacy into everlasting darkness.

Picking up where their highly successful sreies The General leaves off, The Chosen follows the further adventures of Raj Whitehall and Battle Central--this time to the stars! Working with an ancient battle computer in order to prepare hundreds of planets for membership in the Second Federation of Man, Raj Whitehall encounters the militarist planet of Visigar, where racial practices are used to prevent unity.

The allies are trapped on Mistmurk Mountain and the God-Emperor guards every way of escape.

There's only one chance left: for demure little Maelys to confess to a crime she has not committed, though if she does it must turn her friends against her. And even if they can escape through the perilous shadow realm, the God-Emperor's armies will hunt them to the ends of the world.

Nish, Flydd and Maelys have no choice but to trek to the Tower of a Thousand Steps, on the frozen Isle of Noom. There they must seek aid from the implacable sorcerer who has controlled the world for an unknown but terrible purpose for more than a century -- the Numinator.

But on that tragic journey they will uncover a deadly secret, a folly that has been shaping life and death in the Three Worlds for over three thousand years, and now threatens to consume them all.

Young Carnelian has spent his entire life alone with his father, who years ago rejected the savage cruelty of the Masters of Osrakum and was sent into exile. But now a ship has come flying through the winter gales to shatter his quiet world. Three Masters disembark, and as they remove their masks of gold, Carnelian is awed by the light that seems to radiate from their skin. In formal conclave they beg Carnelian's father to return with them to Osrakum to oversee the election of a new God Emperor.

And so Carnelian begins to fulfill his destiny. Along his perilous journey to the Osrakum, he is forced to learn bitter lessons in bloodshed, power, intrigue, love, and treachery--and sets in motion the concluding events in a story four thousand years old.

Effie Truelove has just been expelled from magic class and now she can't even get back to the Otherworld--the place she most loves and where she feels she belongs. If she can find a copy of The Chosen Ones by Laurel Wilde to give her father then she might be able to fix everything.

The only problem is that there are suddenly no copies of the book anywhere, because Albion Freake, the richest man in the world, is paying for them to be destroyed so that he can own the single-volume limited edition that publisher Skylurian Midzhar is making for him.

Raven Wilde's witch's intuition tells her there's something suspicious about Skykurian's plan, but she's not sure what it is.

And Maximilian has somehow managed to go missing deep in Napoleonic Europe.

Will the five friends from Dragon's Green--Effie, Raven, Maximilian, Lexy, and Wolf--be able to combine their skills again to save the world from the Diberi? And can they get away from Terrence Deer-Hart, the children's author who seems a bit too interested in Effie's life?