Search Worlds Without End

The twenty-first century had electronic scanners and listeners of all degrees of effectiveness, with computers programmed to produce any information about anyone in minutes, and robots geared to all the subtleties of surveillance. What place could there be for a private investigator?

Ed Braxton knew that his vocation was an anachronism in the eyes of most people, but when it came down to actual practice, there was no substitute for the human factor, in many cases. As a result, his mame was known not only throughout Earth, but also in the reaches of space. So when Karen Kepler, professional gossip, invited Braxton on a litte private jaunt to the Moon, he could be sure that KayKay, as she was known, had other reasons than a desire for his company.

La Kepler had been touting a little-known solar system--Riginal--which boasted thirteen planets, four of which were habitable. In fact there had been quite a splash about the Riginal System a while back, and not only in KayKay's column, "The Pulse of a Nation"; but it had cooled so quickly that Braxton...

Tong Yi lives in Taiwan and works as a messenger for Huli Transport--a company that specializes in delivering messages and packages for non-humans. He values his oath to the company and makes heroic efforts to ensure the messages entrusted to him arrive safely and on time.

However, between the awesome motorcycle he rides who insists of "dancing" with him by fishtailing and trying to dump him every chance she gets, and the brewing war between the non-humans, "...or die trying" seems more likely with every message he delivers.

And then his brother turns up as a combatant, and possibly his enemy...

If you enjoy Chinese myths and legends woven into a modern story, you'll love "The Immortals' War."

Involuntary Immortals is the story of a woman who finds herself outliving her lovers and the incredible peril she faces when she sets out to discover the source of her involuntary immortality. Helen Ranston discovers her own daughter Agnes thinks she is a witch or vampire. Agnes is 40, but still looks 20 and has never aged throughout her daughter's entire life. Even Agnes doesn't suspect the truth - that Helen is over 100 years old - and has no idea why she is apparently immortal. With her daughter vowing vengeance, Helen knows she will have to start her life over under a new identity, as she has so often before.

Then, she meets the young man with the figure-eight pin on his collar. Looking at him, Helen discovers his eyes are those of a much older man. When Eric Trent says, "You never thought there would be others," he catapults Helen into the midst of a lethal three-corner cat-and-mouse game, the pawn of ruthless schemers who know how to kill immortals and are willing to kill every one of them in order to control the priceless secret of selling eternal life!

Can Helen keep her immortality, or will she lose it - and her life along with it?

WHAT IS THE PRICE OF IMMORTALITY?

For nomad Marshall Cartwright, the price is knowing that he will never grow old. That he will never contract a disease, an infection, or even a cold. That because he will never die, he must surrender the right to live.

For Dr. Russell Pearce, the price is eternal suspicion. He appreciates what synthesizing the elixir vitae from the Immortal's genetic makeup could mean for humankind. He also fears what will happen should Cartwright's miraculous blood fall into the wrong hands.

For the wealthy and powerful, no price is too great. Immortality is now a fact rather than a dream. But the only way to achieve it is to own it exclusively. And that means hunting down and caging the elusive Cartwright, or one of his offspring.

The Immortals, James Gunn's masterpiece about a human fountain of youth, collects the author's classic short stories that ran in elite science-fiction magazines throughout the 1950s. All-new material accompanies this updated edition, including an introduction from renowned science-fiction writer Greg Bear, a preface from Gunn himself, and "Elixir," Gunn's new short story that introduced Dr. Pearce to another Immortal in the May 2004 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Factmagazine.

This short story originally appeared in Amazing Stories, Fall 1998 and was reprinted in Lightspeed, September 2011. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection Changing Planes (2003).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1972. The story can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Award Stories Eight (1973), edited by Isaac Asimov and The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 20th Series (1973). It is included in the collections The Gold at the Starbow's End (1972) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

This short story originally appreaed in the anthology disLocations (2007), edited by Ian Whates. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection (2008), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels (2009).

MANHATTAN.
Selene finds the body of a young woman on the banks of the Hudson river, mutilated and wearing a wreath of laurel. She feels a rage not felt in a lifetime, and an obligation: the promise that she made long ago. To protect those who are innocent -who cannot protect themselves.

MURDERS.
With the NYPD out of their depth, Selene must hunt the killer on her own. But when classics professor Theo Schultz offers his expertise to solve the case, the solitary huntress finds herself working with a man who's her opposite in every way.

GODS.
Together, they discover that a long-forgotten cult is behind the string of murders terrorizing the city. They'll need help from the one source Selene distrusts most of all: the city's other Immortals.

Now our cast of adventurers are on the U.S. cruiser Minnetonka, and here we have the story that old Zenas Wright told on his return to America.

For the Minnetonka rescued a man floating in the sea on some drift material, a man clad in golden armor, and who could breathe with his head under water. But this was only the beginning of the events which led to the destruction of the cruiser by weapons undreamed of, and the taking of the survivors to an even stranger land than Sardanes--a land of wonder and horror, of super science and superstition.

But most fantastic of all, this was a land where a lovely woman known as the Goddess Glorian had awaited Polaris arrival for centuries--in accordance with an ancient prophecy which foretold him as the savior of the kingdom of Ruthar.

1900 BC: the once-proud Suryavanshi rulers of the Meluha Empire are in dire peril. The empire's primary river, the Saraswathi, is slowly drying up. There are devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis – and to make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills. The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient prophecy: when evil reaches epic proportions and all seems lost, a hero will emerge...

Thirteen-year-old DaIne has always had a knack with animals, but it's not until she's forced to leave home that she realizes it's more than a knack -- it's magic. With this wild magic, not only can Daine speak to animals, but also she can make them obey her. Daine takes a job handling horses for the Queen's Riders, where she meets the master mage Numair and becomes his student.
Under Numair's guidance, Daine explores the scope of her magic. But she begins to sense other beings too: immortals. These bloodthirsty monsters have been imprisoned in the Divine Realms for the past four hundred years, but now someone has broken the barrier. It's up to Daine and her friends to defend their world from an immortal attack.

When Daine is summoned by the wolf pack that saved her life a year earlier, she knows she has to go. She and Numair travel to Dunlath Valley to answer the call. But when they arrive, Daine realizes with a shock that it's not just the animals whose lives are threatened; people are in danger too. Dunlath's rulers have discovered black opals in their valley and are dead set on mining the magic these stones embody. Daine learns that Dunlath's lord and lady plan to use this power to overthrow King Jonathan -- even if it means irreversibly damaging the land and killing their workers.

On a mission to save both her animal friends and her human ones, Daine has to master her wild magic in order to fight for the kingdom and triumph over the would-be usurpers.

Sent to Carthak as part of the Tortallan peace delegation, Daine finds herself in the middle of a sticky political situation. She doesn't like the Carthaki practice of keeping slaves, but it's not her place to say anything -- she's just there to heal the emperor's birds. It's extremely frustrating! What's more, her power has grown in a mysterious way.

As the peace talks stall, Daine puzzles over Carthak's two-faced Emperor Ozorne. How can he be so caring with his birds and so cruel to his people? Daine is sure he's planning something. Daine must fight the powerful Emperor Mage, knowing that the safety and peace of the realm depend on stopping Ozorne's power-hungry schemes.

During a dire battle against the fearsome Skinners, Daine and her mage teacher Numair are swept into the Divine Realms. Though happy to be alive, they are not where they want to be. They are desperately needed back home, where their old enemy, Ozorne, and his army of strange creatures are waging war against Tortall.

Trapped in the mystical realms Daine discovers her mysterious parentage. And as these secrets of her past are revealed so is the treacherous way back to Tortall. So they embark on an extraordinary journey home, where the fate of all Tortall rests with Daine and her wild magic.

The Wandering Jew is a cosmic symbol-he is man, he is woman, he is sex, he is history, he is life itself.

Salome is the second in three important fantasy novels that were best sellers in their day; a sweeping Decadent epic trilogy consisting of My First Two Thousand Years: The Autobiography of the Wandering Jew; Salome: The Wandering Jewess; and The Invincible Adam. In this daring novel, Salome herself tells of her many loves, of her bold experiments and of the husbands and handmaidens whose lives she shaped over the past two thousand years. While Viereck's works are now considered classics, for many years he was persona non grata in the publishing world and with the public alike due to his having been an outspoken Nazi sympathizer during WWII.

"The Invincible Adam" completes the saga begun in "My First Two Thousand Years" and continued in "Salome, the Wandering Jewess." Kotikokura, the ape-man, is symbolical of man's lower being, representing the vital forces of nature and physical strength. In all his incarnations from the time when, hardly human, he is roaming primeval forests to when he dashes up the steps of a New York hotel dressed only in a monocle, he is seen struggling against the false conventions of civilisation that seek to bind him and limit him in his remorseless desires. Through the years he meets with many of the famous and the infamous of history. "The Invincible Adam" is part of a greater, and more ambitious saga of human passion. Anyone who desires to understand the larger pattern upon which the story is fashioned must acquaint himself with "My First Two Thousand Years" and "Salome, the Wandering Jewess."