Search Worlds Without End

Captivating audiences of all ages, this timeless story follows the unforgettable journey of a lost alien and the 10-year-old boy he befriends. Join Elliot, Gertie, and Michael as they come together to help E.T. find his way back home.

Locus Award nominated short story.

The story originally appeared in the anthology Fellowship of the Stars (1974), edited by Terry Carr. It has been reprinted many times and can be found in the anthologies:

• The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4 (1974), edited by Terry Carr
• The Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction Masterpieces (1983), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Robert Silverberg
• The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF (1994), edited by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell

The story is included in the collections:

• The Compas Rose (1982)
• Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1990)
• Outer Space, Inner Lands (2012)
• The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose (2015)
• The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (2016)

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 1979. The story can be found in the anthologies The 1980 Annual World's Best SF (1980), edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, Fantasy Annual III (1981), edited by Terry Carr and Nebula Winners Fifteen (1981), edited by Frank Herbert. It is included in the collection The Zanzibar Cat (1983).

Ten tantalizing tales of man, woman and child - and their cosmic connections...

Contents:

• Angel Fix (1974)
• Beaver Tears (1976)
• Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light! (1976)
• The Screwfly Solution (1977)
• Time-Sharing Angel (1977)
• We Who Stole the Dream (1978)
• Slow Music (1980)
• A Source of Innocent Merriment (1980)
• Out of the Everywhere (1981)
• With Delicate Mad Hands (1981)

Eliza McKay is, by extreme necessity, a low-profile Extractionist. McKay is an expert in the virtual reality space where minds are uploaded as digital personas. When rich or important people get stuck in the Swim for reasons that are sleazy, illegal, or merely unlucky--it's her job to quietly extract them. And McKay's job just got a lot more dangerous.

After McKay repels an attack on her Swim persona, hired thugs break into her house to try to hack her cybernetic implants directly. Meanwhile, the corporate executive she was hired to rescue from VR space is surprisingly reluctant to be extracted. Something is lurking in the Swim, and some very powerful people will stop at nothing to keep it secret. This job might be the big break McKay has been waiting for to reboot her career--but only if she can survive long enough to beat the hackers at their own game.

Everyone knowns the extraterritorials protect the Association's interests outside the Barrier; no one really undertands how. Even Martin Selkirk, an extraterritorial himself, has only a hazy idea of his work. And that is how the Association likes it. But when Selkirk begins to dream - ugly, terrifying images that grow increasingly vivid - he realizes they are not dreams, but memories of hideous atrocities he has committed for the Association. And Selkirk plans his revenge.

To the purple born, the key to life on Earth is the DNA helix, which determines all the characteristics of every living thing. The helix, a series of molecules within the life cell, is a spiral - with a left-hand turn.

The planet called Dextra could have been a duplicate of Earth. It teemed with life, both flora and fauna. But on Dextra the helix of life had a right-hand thread. And there could be no viable combination between the two life forms, the native and the invading Terran.

So it became a battle on the part of the colonists to uproot the native Dextran ecology - purple plants and beasts with surprising intelligence - and replace it with Earth-born green. But the planet fought back in its own way. And the result is a science fiction novel that is unusual, exciting, and highly original.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It orginally appeared in Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, July 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies Analog 5 (1967), edited by John W. Campbell and Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space (1984) edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh and Isaac Asimov. It is included in the collection The Best of Mack Reynolds (1976).

Aboard a notorious criminal syndicate's luxurious starliner, Commonwealth operative Simon Kovalic and his crew race to steal a mysterious artifact that could shift the balance of war...

Still reeling from a former teammate's betrayal, Commonwealth operative Simon Kovalic and his band of misfit spies have no time to catch their breath before being sent on another impossible mission: to pull off the daring heist of a quasi-mythical alien artifact, right out from under the nose of the galaxy's most ruthless crime lord.

But their cold war rivals, the Illyrican Empire, want the artifact for themselves. And Kovalic's newest recruit, Specialist Addy Sayers, is a volatile ex-con with a mean hair-trigger who might put the whole mission at risk. Can Kovalic hold it all together, or will the team tear themselves apart before they can finish the job?

Leopold Berry is a teenager living in Los Angeles with his blowhard father. Leopold's mother died when he was twelve and was the source of her son's love both for LA and for movie magic. Since her passing, much of his life has been spent avoiding disappointing his father and obsessing over his favourite TV show - a 1990s kids' fantasy series called Sunderworld.

To call Sunderworld a cult favorite is generous. As far as Leopold knows, he and his best friend Emmet are the only people in the world who watch it. Leopold and Emmet spent much of their early teens recreating the show, cheesy special effects and all. Leopold is convinced the Sunder mythology is real and he's destined to be Sunderworld's chosen one. It turns out he's half right.

With the help of his best friend and some surprising allies from LA's weird side, Leopold must find a way to survive in a magical Los Angeles that's less disappointing and far stranger than even he ever imagined.

Books and films have skewered Hollywood's excesses, but none has ever portrayed one man's crazy vision of the future of big action/adventure films as The Extra does. As over-the-top as Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles, as savagely dark as Robert Altman's The Player, and more violent than Rollerball, this is the story of the ultimate, so-insane-it-could-only-happen-in-Hollywood formula for success, a brave new way to bring the ultimate in excitement to the silver screen. Producer Val Margolian has found the motherlode of box-office gold with his new "live-death" films whose villains are extremely sophisticated, electronically controlled mechanical monsters. To give these live-action disaster films greater realism, he employs huge casts of extras, in addition to the stars. The large number of extras is important, because very few of them will survive the shoot.

It's all perfectly legal, with training for the extras and long, detailed contracts indemnifying the film company against liability for the extras' injury or death. But why would anyone be crazy enough to risk his or her life to be an extra in such a potentially deadly situation?

The extras do it because if they survive they'll be paid handsomely, and they can make even more if they destroy any of the animatronic monsters trying to stomp, chew, fry, or otherwise kill them. If they earn enough, they can move out of the Zoo--the vast slum that most of L.A. has become. They're fighting for a chance at a reasonable life. But first, they have to survive...

Less than a hundred years in the future, pollution, economic disaster, and the rapacious greed of the corporate oligarchy has brought America to its knees and created dystopian urban nightmares, of which L.A. may be the worst.

Curtis, Japh, and Jool are film extras, who--with the help of a couple of very gutsy women--survived being anonymous players in a "live-action" film in which getting killed on-screen meant getting killed for real. Surviving the shoot made them rich enough to escape the post-apocalyptic Hell that L.A. has become. But their survival was not what Panoply Studios' CEO Val Margolian had in mind, especially since it cost his company millions.

Now he's taking his revenge. After several plainclothes police are found dead in the former extras' new home, the bucolic, peaceful town of Sunrise, California, the entire town is subjected to Margolian's invidious plan to punish the entire town... and make a fortune doing it. Margolian has created toxic, murderous wasp-like mechanical creatures to set upon the people of Sunrise, while his film crew captures the carnage in what promises to be the bloodiest "live-action" film yet. With their haven from L.A. besieged by the deadly assault, the former extras--and their fellow townspeople--are faced with a grim task: to defeat the creatures and take back their town and their freedom. Michael Shea's Assault on Sunrise is a saga of courage and sacrifice in a world gone mad.

In Nova City, there are extraordinary people, capable of feats that defy the imagination. Shadow Star protects the city and manipulates darkness, and Pyro Storm is determined to bring the city to its knees using his power over fire.

And then there's Nick who... well, being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

Instead of fighting crime, Nick contends with a new year at school, a father who doesn't trust him, and a best friend named Seth, who may or may not be the love of Nick's short, uneventful life. It should be enough. But after a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City's mightiest hero (and Nick's biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he'll do it with or without Seth's reluctant help...

Through bravery, charm, and an alarming amount of enthusiasm, Nick landed himself the superhero boyfriend of his dreams. Now instead of just writing stories about him, Nick actually gets to kiss him. A lot. But having a superhero boyfriend isn't everything Nick thought it would be - he's still struggling to make peace with his own lack of extraordinary powers.

When new Extraordinaries begin arriving in Nova City - siblings who can manipulate smoke and ice, a mysterious hero who can move objects with their mind, and a drag queen superhero with the best name and the most-sequined costum anyone has ever had - it's up to Nick and his friends Seth, Gibby, and Jazz to determine who is virtuous and who is villainous.

And new Extraordinaries aren't the only things coming to light. Long-held secrets and neglected truths are surfacing that challenge everything Nick knows about justice, family, and being extraordinary. Which is a lot to handle when Nick really just wants to finish his self-insert bakery AU fanfic.

Will it all come together in the end or will it all go down in flames?

School's out for the summer and a raging heat wave has blanketed Nova City. Still, Nick's life is pretty much perfect, as he finally gets to team up with his superhero boyfriend to bring justice, protection, and disaster energy to the world.

Meanwhile, Seth, Jazz, and Gibby are setting up headquarters for Lighthouse, their hero team, Nick's dad's private investigation agency is taking off, and Nick's mother, the superhero known as TK, is right there at Nick's side. Where she's always been. Hasn't she?

But something's off. It's not just Simon Burke campaigning to 'cure' Extraordinaries. And it's not the rumours of Nick's ex-boyfriend and villain-in-the-making's escape. Something isn't right and Nick will need all his loved ones together to uncover the truth - a truth that will reveal a traitor in their midst and burn through their lives like a wild fire.

Based on some of literature's horror and science fiction classics, this is the story of a remarkable group of women who come together to solve the mystery of a series of gruesome murders--and the bigger mystery of their own origins.

Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents' death, is curious about the secrets of her father's mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father's former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture... a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes.

But her hunt leads her to Hyde's daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.

Mary Jekyll's life has been peaceful since she helped Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the Whitechapel Murders. Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, Justine Frankenstein, and Mary's sister Diana Hyde have settled into the Jekyll household in London, and although they sometimes quarrel, the members of the Athena Club get along as well as any five young women with very different personalities. At least they can always rely on Mrs. Poole.

But when Mary receives a telegram that Lucinda Van Helsing has been kidnapped, the Athena Club must travel to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to rescue yet another young woman who has been subjected to horrific experimentation. Where is Lucinda, and what has Professor Van Helsing been doing to his daughter? Can Mary, Diana, Beatrice, and Justine reach her in time?

Racing against the clock to save Lucinda from certain doom, the Athena Club embarks on a madcap journey across Europe. From Paris to Vienna to Budapest, Mary and her friends must make new allies, face old enemies, and finally confront the fearsome, secretive Alchemical Society. It's time for these monstrous gentlewomen to overcome the past and create their own destinies.

Mary Jekyll and the Athena Club race to save Alice--and foil a plot to unseat the Queen, in the electrifying conclusion to the trilogy that began with the Nebula Award finalist and Locus Award winner The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter.

Life's always an adventure for the Athena Club... especially when one of their own has been kidnapped! After their thrilling European escapades rescuing Lucina van Helsing, Mary Jekyll and her friends return home to discover that their friend and kitchen maid Alice has vanished-- and so has their friend and employer Sherlock Holmes!

As they race to find Alice and bring her home safely, they discover that Alice and Sherlock's kidnapping are only one small part of a plot that threatens Queen Victoria, and the very future of the British Empire. Can Mary, Diana, Beatrice, Catherine, and Justine save their friends--and save the Empire? Find out in the final installment of the fantastic and memorable Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series.

1888. A little girl called Mirror and her extraordinary shape-shifting guardian Goliath Honeyflower are washed up on the shores of Victorian England. Something has been wrong with Mirror since the day her grandfather locked her inside a mysterious clock that was painted all over with ladybirds. Mirror does not know what she is, but she knows she is no longer human.

John Loveheart, meanwhile, was not born wicked. But after the sinister death of his parents, he was taken by Mr Fingers, the demon lord of the underworld. Some say he is mad. John would be inclined to agree.

Now Mr Fingers is determined to find the little girl called Mirror, whose flesh he intends to eat, and whose soul is the key to his eternal reign. And John Loveheart has been called by his otherworldly father to help him track Mirror down...

An extraordinary dark fairytale for adults, for fans of Catherynne Valente and Neil Gaiman.