Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in Interzone, #233 March-April 2011. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, edited by Rich Horton.

Martin Newland is fascinated by time. Watches and clocks are for him metaphorical time machines, a means of coming to terms with the past and voyaging into the future. But was his first timepiece a Smith, given to him on his fourteenth birthday, or the Longines he received four years later? Was it the small brass travelling clock unearthed in the run-down house for which he is to act as estate agent? And who is the maker of these time machines?

It is the largest oil spill in history: a supertanker crashes into the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay. Desperate to avert environmental damage (as well as the PR disaster), the multinational oil company releases an untested designer oil-eating microbe to break up the spill.

What the company didn't realize is that their microbe propagates through the air... and it mutates to consume anything made of petrocarbons: oil, gasoline, synthetic fabrics, plastics of all kinds. And when every piece of plastic begins to dissolve, it's too late....

An incredible journey through the interstellar space mysteries...

From Mars to the Stars, this is the mission of the starship Leonardo da Vinci. Planet after planet, wonders and mysteries came along to reveal a superior intelligence from a bare world, where powerful winds modeled the rocks into spooky spears and pinnacles, to a planet where hidden artifacts point to other worlds; and to Ambra, the planet with a huge, gigantic marble stairway half a mile wide, ten miles long, six miles high. An invitation to climb it, but with a you can do it only on foot, command.

The sails were the product of the Old Technology, lost long ago in the depleted Earth, and they were priceless. For with those fantastic sheets of etheric material, ships could sail the sky and even brave the radiant tides between worlds and stars.

The alchemists who had replaced scientists still sough the ancient secrets, and Rachad, apprentice to such a would-be wizard, learned that the key to his quest lay in a book abandoned in a Martian colonial ruin long, long ago.

But how to get to Mars? There was one way left - take a sea vessel, caulk it airtight, steal new sails and fly the star winds in the way of the ancient windjammers.

Here is an intriguing, unusual and colourful novel of ships that sail the stars riding before the solar breeze that blows between worlds.

A collection of 6 early stories.

Table of Contents:

• Preface (1983) - essay by Greg Bear
• The Wind from a Burning Woman (1978)
• The White Horse Child (1979)
• Petra (1982)
• Scattershot (1978)
• Mandala (1978)
• Hardfought (1983)

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, August 1999. It is included in the collection Lord Stink and Other Stories (2002).

"A Window or a Small Box," by Jedediah Berry, is a charming and weird contemporary novelette of magic realism about a couple about to get married who find themselves on the run from "goons" in an alternative United States.

This story is included in Rich Horton's The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014 Edition.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

With Earth struggling with too few resources for too many people, Jeff Holman heard the call to colonize the stars. Jeff signed up hoping for adventure, and hoping he could help save Earth's teeming masses by creating a new world: Altair VI. Jeff is determined to make Altair a haven for the human race before Earth collapses.

But Altair VI isn't making it easy. The atmosphere needs to be terraformed, and the plant has a flourishing ecology that isn't giving in. Living in a space station orbiting the planet, the scientists atttempt to wrest control of the planet by directly controlling the toughest beast at the top of the food chain: the Wolfcat. Jeff's job is to take over the mind of a wolfcat and bend it to his will.

Only Jeff learns a heart-wrenching secret from the wolfcat, a secret that leads to even deeper secrets that could unravel the entire plan to save humanity.

In a city divided between opulent luxury in the Light and fierce privations in the Dark, a determined young woman survives by guarding her secrets.

Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own - one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised. Lucie alone knows the young men's deadly connection, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth.

Blood and secrets alike spill out when revolution erupts. With both halves of the city burning, and mercy nowhere to be found, can Lucie save either boy - or herself?

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2009 and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #100 January 2015. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Picture this: you're riding the bus home from work, with the very first newspaper article ever published under your byline clutched in your hot little hand, when a coked-up idiot attempts to hold up everyone on the bus. He takes a dislike to you and is about to slice you open when a large, gorgeously hairy man attacks him and saves your life. Only your rescuer is not a man, but a giant wolf who leaves a bloody pawprint on your newspaper, all over your precious byline...

If you're an intrepid reporter, you don't panic. You run for the newsroom to get a photo of the pawprint before it disappears... because the paper you work for thrives on stories of alien invasions and Elvis sightings and Bigfoot's baby, and this, unlike all of those stories, this is real.

Of course, it's not that simple. The highly civilized Denver werewolves don't want anyone to know of their existence, not even beautiful young reporters who make Lucas, the leader of the pack, think lustful thoughts. But Lucas and his pack have a much bigger problem to deal with: there's another were-pack hunting in their territory -- and being messy about it. If the police solve any of those brutal, apparently random, murders, Denver's more patrician lycanthropes may wind up in big trouble.

Gerry moved to the quiet village of Abbotsford six months ago, and although he's far from being accepted as a 'local' just yet, he reckons he is getting the hang of country life and the rural veterinary practice he's taken on. Nothing prepared him, though, for the strange wind that springs up to stir the leaves in unnatural fashion, nor for the strikingly beautiful woman he meets, whom the villagers are so reluctant to talk about...

A new collection from the author who brough us 2001, a Space Odyssey.

Contents:

• Preface (The Wind from the Sun) - (1972) - essay
• The Food of the Gods - (1964) - shortstory
• Maelstrom II - (1965) - shortstory
• The Shining Ones - (1964) - shortstory
• The Wind from the Sun - (1964) - novelette
• The Secret - (1963) - shortstory
• The Last Command - (1965) - shortstory
• Dial F for Frankenstein - (1965) - shortstory
• Reunion - (1971) - shortstory
• Playback - (1966) - shortstory
• The Light of Darkness - (1966) - shortstory
• The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told - (1966) - shortstory
• Herbert George Morley Roberts Wells, Esq. - [Editorial (If)] - (1967) - essay
• Love That Universe - (1961) - shortstory
• Crusade - (1968) - shortstory
• The Cruel Sky - (1967) - shortstory
• Neutron Tide - (1970) - shortstory
• Transit of Earth - (1971) - shortstory
• A Meeting With Medusa - (1971) - novelette

This is an extensive compilation of fact, fiction, poems, short stories, and other snippets about the Windigo, a cannibalistic spirit of the Northwoods Indians.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Windigo: An Anthology of Fact and Fantastic Fiction) - essay by John Robert Colombo
• A Sort of Werewolf (excerpt) - shortfiction by Paul Le Jeune
• Veritable Werewolves (excerpt) - shortfiction by Paul Le Jeune
• Onaouientagos (excerpt) - shortfiction by Bacqueville de la Potherie
• The Devil (excerpt) - shortfiction by James Isham
• Another Being (excerpt) - shortfiction by Henry Ellis
• Guilty of Murder (excerpt) - shortfiction by Samuel Hearne
• An Evil Being (excerpt) - shortfiction by Edward Umfreville
• Man Eaters (excerpt) - shortfiction by David Thompson (I)
• Cannibals (excerpt) - shortfiction by Edwin James (I)
• The Weendigoes - shortstory by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
• Superstitous Belief (excerpt) - shortfiction by Paul Kane
• A Tale of the Windego - shortstory by J. B. Nevins
• Legendary Lore (excerpt) - shortfiction by Francis Parkman
• The Walker of the Snow - poem by C. D. Shanly
• Some Sort of Madness (excerpt) - shortfiction by Earl of Southesk
• Cannibal Lake (excerpt) - shortfiction by Henry Youle Hind
• Giant Cannibals (excerpt) - shortfiction by Henry Youle Hind
• He's a Windigo (excerpt) - (1872) - shortfiction by William Francis Butler [as by Sir William Francis Butler ]
• Windagoos! Cannibals! (excerpt) - shortfiction by Egerton Ryerson
• Red-Headed Windego - shortstory by E. W. Thomson
• A Cannibal Spirit (excerpt) - shortfiction by Charles Mair
• The Windigo - (1901) - poem by William Henry Drummond
• The Snow-Wetigo - shortstory by Arthur Heming
• A Weetigo in the Woods (excerpt) - shortfiction by Philip H. Godsell
• The Wendigo - (1910) - novella by Algernon Blackwood
• A Tale of the Grand Jardin - (1915) - shortstory by W. H. Blake
• Wintigoes (Giants) - shortfiction by Peter Yorke and G. E. Laidlaw
• Me Sah Ba and the Wintigo - shortfiction by Jonas George and G. E. Laidlaw
• Windigo Story - (1924) - shortfiction by Joe Cosh and G. E. Laidlaw
• Windigo Story - shortfiction by Kenneth G. Snake and G. E. Laidlaw
• To Kill Windigo (excerpt) - (1928) - shortfiction by D. S. Davidson
• The Immortal Cannibal (excerpt) - shortfiction by Frank G. Speck
• A Human Being Transformed (excerpt) - shortfiction by Diamond Jenness
• The Wendigo - poem by Ogden Nash
• The Windigo Personality (excerpt) - shortfiction by Ruth Landes
• The Thing That Walked on the Wind - (1933) - shortstory by August Derleth
• Ithaqua - (1941) - shortstory by August Derleth
• Restless Souls (excerpt) - shortfiction by Richard Morenus
• Supernatural Creatures (excerpt) - shortfiction by Pierre Berton
• The Existence of the Witgo (excerpt) - shortfiction by Roger Vandersteene
• Windigo Psychosis - essay by Mortom I. Teicher
• Windigo - (1965) - poem by George Bowering
• Windigo - shortstory by Herbert T. Schwarz
• Stories of the Windigo - shortstory by James R. Stevens
• A Near Encounter (excerpt) - shortfiction by Dan Kennedy
• A Man named Weendigo (excerpt) - shortfiction by Basil Johnson
• The Death of Windigo (excerpt) - shortfiction by Norval Morrisseau

Praise God, never the wind

1996 - Luca Saracino is thirteen and has been completely blind for eight months when his parents move to a Southern Italian farmhouse they dream of turning into a hotel. With his brother dropping out of university and the family reeling from Luca's diagnosis, they are chasing dreams of rebirth and reinvention.

As Luca tells his story without sight - experiencing the world solely through hearing, smell, taste and touch - he meets the dauntless Ada Guadalupi, who takes him out to explore the rocky fields and empty beaches. But Luca and Ada find they can't escape the grudges that have lasted between their families for generations, or the gossiping of the town. And Luca is preyed upon by the feral Wanderer, who walks the vineyards of his home.

As Luca's family starts to crack at the seams, Luca and Ada have to navigate new lands and old rivalries to uncover the truths spoken as whispers on the wind.

You have nothing to fear but fear itself! The only trouble is, fear comes in so many different shapes and sizes these days. It comes as rejection by a beautiful woman. It comes in the brutalization of your love by an amoral man. It comes with the threat of impending nuclear holocaust; with the slithering shadows in the city streets; with the ripoff artists who lie in wait behind every television commercial.

Fear is the erratic behavior of all the nut cases and whackos walking the streets-they look just like you and me and your lover and your mother-and all they need is a wrong word and there they go to the top of an apartment building with a sniperscope'd rifle. Fear is all around you. You have nothing to fear but fear itself, right? Sure. The only trouble is, the minute you get all the rational fears taken care of, all battened down and secure, here comes something new.

Like what? Well, like the special fears generated in these 16 incredible stories. Fear described as it's never been described before, by the startling imagination of Harlan Ellison, master fantasist, tour-guide through the land of dreadful visions, unerring observer of human folly and supernatural diabolism. Or, quoting the Louisville Courier-Journal & Times, Ellison's "stories are kaleidoscopic in their range, breathtaking in their beauty, hideous in their deformity, insulting in their arrogance and unarguable in the accuracy of their insight."

And here are 16 new terrors to scare the bejeezus out of you!

Table of Contents:

• Blood/Thoughts - (1975) - essay by Harlan Ellison
• The Whimper of Whipped Dogs - (1973)
• Eddie, You're My Friend - non-genre - (1975)
• Status Quo at Troyden's - non-genre - (1958)
• Nedra at f:5.6 - non-genre - (1957)
• Opposites Attract - non-genre - (1957)
• Toe the Line - non-genre - (1957)
• Down in the Dark - non-genre - (1967)
• Pride in the Profession - non-genre - (1966)
• The Children's Hour - (1958)
• White Trash Don't Exist - non-genre - (1956)
• Thicker Than Blood - non-genre - (1958)
• Two Inches in Tomorrow's Column - non-genre - (1965)
• Promises of Laughter - non-genre - (1969)
• Ormond Always Pays His Bills - non-genre - (1957)
• The Man on the Juice Wagon - non-genre - (1963)
• Tired Old Man - non-genre - (1975)

A woman falling out of sync with the world; a king's servant hypnotized by his murderous horse; a transplanted ear with a mind of its own. The characters in these stories live as interlopers in a world shaped by mysterious disappearances and unfathomable discrepancies between the real and imagined. Brian Evenson, master of literary horror, presents his most far-ranging collection to date, exploring how humans can persist in an increasingly unreal world. Haunting, gripping, and psychologically fierce, these tales illuminate a dark and unsettling side of humanity.

Praised by Peter Straub for going "furthest out on the sheerest, least sheltered narrative precipice," Brian Evenson is the author of ten books of fiction. He has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the World Fantasy Award, and the winner of the International Horror Guild Award, and the American Library Association's award for Best Horror Novel. Fugue State was named one of Time Out New York's Best Books of 2009. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and three O. Henry Prizes, including one for the title story in "Windeye," Evenson lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he directs Brown University's Literary Arts Department.

Table of Contents:

• Windeye - (2009)
• The Second Boy - (2012)
• The Process - (2012)
• A History of the Human Voice - (2012)
• Dapplegrim - (2010)
• Angel of Death - (2012)
• The Dismal Mirror - (2009)
• Legion - (2012)
• The Moldau Case - (2012)
• The Sladen Suit - (2012)
• Hurlock's Law - (2012)
• Discrepancy - (2012)
• Knowledge - (2012)
• Baby or Doll - (2012)
• The Tunnel - (2012)
• South of the Beast - (2012)
• The Absent Eye - (2011)
• Grottor
• Bon Scott: The Choir Years - (2012)
• Tapadera - (2012)
• The Other Ear - (2012)
• They - (2012)
• The Oxygen Protocol - (2012)
• The Drownable Species - (2012)
• Anskan House - (2012)

Ishmael, lone survivor of the doomed whaling ship Pequod, falls through a rift in time and space to a future Earth - an Earth of blood-sucking vegetation and a blood-red sun, of barren canyons where once the Pacific Ocean roared. Here too there are whales to hunt - but whales that soar through a dark blue sky....

Hugo Award-winner Philip José Farmer spins a fascinating tale of whaling ships and sailors of the sky in a bizarre future world where there are no seas to sail and no safe harbor to call home....

Sturgeon and Nebula Award nominated short story. It was first published in the anthology The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (2007), edited by Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling. The story can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Two (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and the collection The Drowned Life (2008).

"Cold Wind", by Nicola Griffith, is a dark fantasy tale about a woman who enters a Seattle bar on a cold wintry night in the midst of the Christmas holidays, searching for something... or someone.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Teenager Julian has perfect recall, which means he has trouble finding his place in the world. But he really does know his own mind. So when he starts experiencing someone else's memories, which are also tantalizing glimpses of the future, Julian realizes he must find out why. And as he comes to know this unmet friend, it becomes clear that this man is in danger.

Julian resolves to do everything in his power to track him down - a journey which takes him to the heart of London's commercial district, home to the city's financial elite. He can't give up, as he might just prevent a murder.

"Earthwind" tells the story of two people trapped on the planet Aeran. What has happened to the colonists of this world to obliterate their memories of who and what they were, and to have rebuilt in their place a precise and accurate copy of a stone age culture that had flourished in Ireland during the fourth millennium BC?

Elspeth Mueller, fighting against time as her memory decayed, tried to find out; deformed and embittered by the barbaric rituals of her 'civilised' home world, she struggled against her own fear to accept the cruel customs of Aerani society, knowing that the answers she sought lay in those same rituals.

Peter Ashka, his life inextricably interwoven with the I Ching, tried to find out as well - but his quest brought him into conflict with the two authorities that guided his life.

On the shores of time are ferocious, mind-tearing winds... when they take you... you die.....

Kris Dojaan, seeking a brother swept into Othertime, volunteers for the suicide mission from which no man has returned--on a planet ravaged by mysterious Winds that whine and scream, then explode, booming into the atmosphere--a planet where men die into the future and vanish beneath a blackening sky....

Leo Faulcon must find the terrible secret of the Winds, a secret guarded by horrible mutants, the Manchanged, genetically and surgically adapted to the harsh planet...to rescue Kris and Faulcon's lover, Lena...before they disappear forever!

Annalyn Court is the daughter of the President of Mars, one of his many children over the years. She is a member of the elite of Martian society without truly understanding what that entails. She is thrust into a political struggle for her father's wealth and power in which the President defends himself against all comers, including his own family. Along with Hector Protector (her robotic bodyguard), Annalyn survives not only the destruction of the dome shields of the capital city Olympia but also an assassination attempt. As she searches for her commoner friend Shala in the ruins of Midtown, Annalyn comes to learn that dominion and leadership are not the same thing. She must choose for herself which path she will follow in the rebuilding of Olympia.

Oa had been the prime contender for the throne of Dynast -- closer than any other heirs to holding the reins of Empire, and all the power, intrigue, luxury and illusion that went with them. Until the reigning Dynast put an insurmountable obstacle in her path: she must kill her true love in the deadly High Dance or forsake her life's ambition....

Avoiding her fate and fleeing downriver to the unknown lands of the west, Oa finds herself on a high plateau where those with power ride remarkable beasts whose soaring flight is like the primeval rush of the wind itself, and whose riders sail between earth and sky. And Oa knows that she would fight any battle and face any odds to feel the freedom of speed and space on the untamed back of a Windsteed!

ALONE AGAINST AN EMPIRE.

When Yash of Zeltah arrives in the fortress city of Honaq, she is greeted as a barbarian, a simple pawn. Her marriage to prince Chej has been arranged, they say, to avert war. Yet she knows the truth, for the armies already ravage the land.

A skilled and deadly assassin, there is more to Yash than any might suspect. Before another day can pass, she must defeat the masters of the nine towers - the plagues, magics, and monsters they control, the soldiers they command. Without raising an alarm, she must kill all who oppose her - even the immortal emperor. The lives and souls of Zeltah, the people and the land upon which they live, all depend on it.

The Apocalypse didn't end with a BANG, but with a whimper. Silently, the 'amnesia wind' swept away all of mankind's knowledge. Thousands of years of human civilization vanished overnight as people forgot how to use the tools of modern civilization; who they were, how to speak - everything! Technology decayed as mankind was reduced to an extremely primitive level. Two years after the devastation, a young man explores a nation reduced to barbarism: America. Miraculously re-educated after the cataclysm, he is accompanied by a young woman - somehow spared the obliterating effects of the amnesia wind. Pursued by a relentless killing machine, they search for those responsible for stealing their memories.

Also includes Invader Summer.

WFA winning novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Frights (1976), edited by Kirby McCauley. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series VI (1978) edited by Gerald W. Page, The World Fantasy Awards, Volume Two (1980), edited by Stuart David Schiff and Fritz Leiber, and The Dark Descent: The Evolution of Horror (1987), edited by David G. Hartwell. It is included in the collections The Princess of All Lands (1979) and Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology Of Ghostly Tales (2004).

The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her lyrical writing, rich characters, and diverse worlds. The Wind's Twelve Quarters collects seventeen powerful stories, each with an introduction by the author, ranging from fantasy to intriguing scientific concepts, from medieval settings to the future.

Including an insightful foreword by Le Guin, describing her experience, her inspirations, and her approach to writing, this stunning collection explores human values, relationships, and survival, and showcases the myriad talents of one of the most provocative writers of our time.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Semley's Necklace - (1964)
• April in Paris - (1962)
• The Masters - (1963)
• Darkness Box - (1963)
• The Word of Unbinding - (1964)
• The Rule of Names - (1964)
• Winter's King - (1969)
• The Good Trip - (1970)
• Nine Lives - (1969)
• Things - (1970)
• A Trip to the Head - (1970)
• Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - (1971)
• The Stars Below - (1974)
• The Field of Vision - (1973)
• The Direction of the Road - (1975)
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - (1973)
• The Day Before the Revolution - (1974)

Grand Master Ursula K. LeGuin has been recognised for almost fifty years as one of the most important writers in the SF field - and is likewise feted beyond the confines of the genre. The Wind's Twelve Quarters was her first collection and it brings together some of finest short fiction, including the Hugo Award-winning 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas', the Nebula Award-winning 'The Day Before the Revolution', and the Hugo-nominated 'Winter's King', which gave readers their first glimpse of the world later made famous in her Hugo- and Nebula-winning masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness.

This is the omnibus edition of the two short story collections The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Graham Sleight

The Wind's Twelve Quarters

• Foreword - (1975) - essay
• Semley's Necklace - (1964) - shortstory
• April in Paris - (1962) - shortstory
• The Masters - (1963) - shortstory
• Darkness Box - (1963) - shortstory
• The Word of Unbinding - (1964) - shortstory
• The Rule of Names - (1964) - shortstory
• Winter's King - (1969) - novelette
• The Good Trip - (1970) - shortstory
• Nine Lives - (1969) - novelette
• Things - (1970) - shortstory
• A Trip to the Head - (1970) - shortstory
• Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - (1971) - novelette
• The Stars Below - (1974) - shortstory
• The Field of Vision - (1973) - shortstory
• Direction of the Road - (1973) - shortstory
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - (1973) - shortstory
• The Day Before the Revolution - (1974) - shortstory

The Compass Rose

• Preface - (1982) - essay
• The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics - (1974) - shortstory
• The New Atlantis - (1975) - novelette
• Schrödinger's Cat - (1974) - shortstory
• Two Delays on the Northern Line - (1979) - shortstory
• SQ - (1978) - shortstory
• Small Change - (1982) - shortstory
• The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb - (1978) - shortstory
• The Diary of the Rose - (1976) - novelette
• The White Donkey - (1980) - shortstory
• The Phoenix - (1982) - shortstory
• Intracom - (1974) - shortstory
• The Eye Altering - (1976) - shortstory
• Mazes - (1975) - shortstory
• The Pathways of Desire - (1979) - novelette
• Gwilan's Harp - (1977) - shortstory
• Malheur County - (1979) - shortstory
• The Water Is Wide - (1976) - shortstory
• The Wife's Story - (1982) - shortstory
• Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time - (1979) - shortstory
• Sur - (1982) - shortstory

Nebula award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1980. It can also be found in the anthologies The 1981 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, The Best Science Fiction of the Year #10 (1981), edited by Terry Carr, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 24th Series (1982), edited by Edward L. Ferman, Crucified Dreams (2011) edited by Joe R. Lansdale, and The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories (2011), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. The story is included in the collection Feesters in the Lake & Other Stories (2002).

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1975. The story is included in the collections The Horror at Oakdeene and Others (1977), Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi (1993) and The Taint and Other Novellas (2007).

A Victorian fairy tale that has enchanted readers for more than a hundred years: the magical story of Diamond, the son of a poor coachman, who is swept away by the North Wind -- a radiant, maternal spirit with long, flowing hair -- and whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of the beautiful country "at the back of the north wind." It combines a Dickensian regard for the working class of mid-19th-century England with the invention of an ethereal landscape.

This novelette originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1987. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988), edited by Gardner Dozois.

As Tor.com departs from its longtime home, the iconic Flatiron building, we present this sweet farewell from Seanan McGuire.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com

Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, based on his own manga, was released in 1984 and has been a cult classic ever since. In a long-ago war, humankind set off a devastating ecological disaster. The earth is slowly submerging beneath the expanding Sea of Decay, an enormous toxic forest that creates mutant insects and poisonous spores. Beyond the sea lies the Valley of the Wind, a kingdom of barely 500 citizens and home to Nausicaä, who risks everything to save her people and bring peace and health to the valley. Includes sketches, developmental water colors, cel animation, and more.

Earth's future is one of peace. There are no more wars, nuclear weapons are outlawed, and technology is raising mankind to new heights. Many cities are now underground. Alain von Bek is a bastard of distinguished lineage working an unassuming job with city administration in the underground city of Switzerland. But with the appearance of a massive clownish figure calling himself the Fireclown, Alain's life and the course of Earth's future are both about to change.

The Fireclown claims to hold the keys to mankind's salvation. He carries an undeniable charisma that is winning him followers, chief among them Helen Curtis, Alain's cousin and former lover, not to mention serious candidate in the next presidential election. But there are also those who mistrust the Fireclown. At the forefront of this opposition is Minister Simon von Bek, Alain's grandfather, and Helen's chief competition in the forthcoming election.

Gradually, Alain finds himself sucked into a game of chess between these three polarizing forces, but each new revelation raises new questions, about his past and that of the world's future. He will have to put his trust in someone, and time is running out—for him and the world—to make the right choice in this story of Michael Moorcock's celebrated multiverse.

original title: The Fireclown

Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II.

In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon.

Here is a novel with a totally fresh setting and a very original approach. It is often forgotten that Dublin, in the early Middle Ages, was a Norse town. And those were stirring times. Be a strange accident a modern man find himself thrown back into the midst of the eleventh-century town. Half-accepted, half-suspected, he lives for four months in the midst of fierce rushing life of the people. sharing their loves and hates, their hopes and fears.

No such picture of ancient Norse life has ever been given outside of the great novels of Sigrid Undset. Here is nothing of the mere saga, nothing of the merely historical, but a life lived with an intensity and vividness that make the life of today pale by comparison. A story of adventure undoubtedly, sind the tale races from cover to cover but the dominating adventures are in it are the dark adventures of a man's soul, the shock of opposing creeds, the profound despair of one who has found no solutions to the eternal question. The wash and moan of the sea are the enveloping music of the book and behind it are the was and moan of the greater sea that envelops all men's lives.

The Woman in the Window is a novella by Joyce Carol Oates. It originally appeared in One Story #217 (2016).

In the Ooni Kingdom, children born dada-with vines growing in their hair-are rumored to have special powers. Zahrah Tsami doesn't know anything about that. She feels normal. Others think she's different-they fear her. Only Dari, her best friend, isn't afraid of her. But then something begins to happen-something that definitely marks Zahrah as different-and the only person she can tell is Dari. He pushes her to investigate, edging them both closer and closer to danger. Until Dari's life is on the line. Only Zahrah can save him, but to do so she'll have to face her worst fears alone, including the very thing that makes her different.

Asimov at his best! A 21-story salute featuring a levitating professor, alien traders bringing something to sell, a black hole hurtling toward Earth, the universe being created and many other matters of great import!

Table of Contents

• About Nothing
• A Perfect Fit
• Belief
• Death of a Foy
• Fair Exchange?
• For the Birds
• Found!
• Good Taste
• How It Happened
• Ideas Die Hard
• Ignition Point!
• It Is Coming
• The Last Answer
• The Last Shuttle
• Lest We Remember
• Nothing for Nothing
• One Night of Song
• The Smile That Loses
• Sure Thing
• To Tell at a Glance (previously published in an edited version)
• The Winds of Change

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2014. It can also be found in the anthology The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by Joe Hill and John Joseph Adams.

This Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award nominated novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, September-October 2017. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke and Nebula Awards Showcase 2019, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Read the story at the author's website here. (.pdf file)

Stoker Award winning and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the November/December 1998 issue of The North American Review and was reprinted in Realms of Fantasy, April 2000. The story can be found in the anthologies Bedtime Stories to Darken Your Dreams (1999), edited by Rogers himself, and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 10 (2000), edited by Stephen Jones. It is also included in the collection Wind Over Heaven and Other Dark Tales (2000).

Read the full story for free here.

From dark fairy tales to creepy science fiction to a theological mystery set in the Old West, the mind of Bruce Holland Rogers takes you to territories of the bizarre: Wall Street, Suburbia, and Mexico. In the Nebula Award-nominated story "These Shoes Strangers Have Died Of," a World War II veteran confronts the perpetrators and victims of genocide, and the would-be perpetrators, through his art. The title story, "Wind Over Heaven," exposes the weird underside of the upscale restaurant business. And the 1998 Bram Stoker Award-winner "The Dead Boy at Your Window" (which also won a Pushcart Prize for literary fiction) takes readers on a journey to the land of the dead like no other.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Listen Carefully - (2000) - essay by Alan Rodgers
• The Dead Boy At Your Window - (1998) - shortstory
• Vox Domini - (1993) - novelette
• An Eye for Acquisitions - (1995) - shortstory
• Cloud Stalking Mice - (1999) - shortstory
• Gravity - (1994) - shortstory
• On Top - (2000) - novelette
• The Apple Golem - (1995) - shortstory
• Wind Over Heaven - (1996) - shortstory
• Bright Seeds in a Whirlwind - (1997) - novelette
• These Shoes Strangers Have Died Of - (1995) - shortstory

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Lace and Blade (2008) edited by Deborah J. Ross. There are no other known publications at this time.

Something is wrong out West.

The Buffalo Soldiers sent to subdue the Cheyenne are deserting and going over to the other side. The Sioux are leaving their barren reservations in hordes. Armed bands of Apaches have been seen east of the Mississippi!

Lemuel Rowland, formerly Poyeshao, has spent his life learning the white man's ways. Now he must choose between his career as a Washington bureaucrat and the ancient dreams of his people. An obscure Lakota chief called Touch-the-Clouds, armed by a Russian spy and inspired by a woman with the gift of prophecy, is uniting the "horse tribes" into an awesome horde that will thunder eastward and reclaim the entire continent for its original owners.

It should be Lemuel Rowland's job to stop thembut he wants them to succeed!

Combining the startling insights of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle with the elegiac lyricism of Dee Brown's bestseller, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Pamela Sargent's brilliant new alternate history epic asksand answersthe most heartbreaking and troubling question in American history:

What if the warlike Indian nations of the high plains had combined under a strong leader? What if they had struck eastward at a weakened America, still reeling from the devastation of the Civil War?

What if they had won?

The complex and fascinating answer, as presented in this extraordinary work of speculative fiction from an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, will either shock you, enrage you, or make you nostalgic for an America that could have been.

But whatever your reaction, you will never look at our history in the same way again.

The White Man's NightmareThe Indian's Dream!

The children were waiting. Waiting for centuries. Waiting for someone to hear their cries. Now nine-year-old Christine Lyons has come to live in the house on the hill -- the house where no children have lived for fifty years. Now little Christie will sleep in the old-fashioned nursery on the third floor. Now Christie's terror will begin.

When madness is your inheritance, how do you escape it?

Scott Mast thought he got away - first from a family haunted by a dark fate, then from a dull career writing greeting cards in Seattle. But now he has come back to his New Hampshire hometown only to find that his family is in ruins, his nephew needs a home, and a shattering truth is clawing its way into the light.

Fifteen years ago, Scott's mother died in a fire. And now the shadowy circumstances - the bodies buried beneath the ashes, the lives ripped apart that fateful day - are starting to be revealed. The answers unspool in the pages of a peculiar old manuscript - an unfinished ghost story written in his father's own hand that beckons Scott out to a strange house in the wood with a lightless corridor that cannot be seen from the outside. here Scott Mast will uncover all that has been hidden - and perhaps finish his father's unspeakable work.

These 29 essays on fantasy, skepticism, writing, and related topics--spanning nearly two decades--are filled with the insightful observations of a literary master. Schweitzer is one of the best critics in the field.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Notes from Notes from Beyond the Fields We Know - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Necessity of Skepticism - (1990) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Cost of Credulity - (1994) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Layercake of History - (1993) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• My Career as a Hack Writer - (1991) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Lands that Clearly Pertain to Faery: The Elusive Basics of Fantasy - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Uttering the P-Word: or, The Return of the Factory System - (1992) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Why Horror Fiction? - (1990) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Intimate Horror - (1993) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Horror Beyond New Jersey - (1995) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Limits of Craziness - (1991) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• H. P. Lovecraft: Still Eldritch After All These Years - (1987) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• About "The Whisperer in Darkness" - (1995) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• H. P. Lovecraft's Favorite Movie - (1989) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• M. R. James and H. P. Lovecraft: The Ghostly and the Cosmic - (1994) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Richard Middleton: Beauty, Sadness, and Terror - (1986) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• How Much Dunsany Is Worth Reading? - (1991) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Count Dracula and His Adapters - (1993) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Philip K. Dick: Absurdist, Visionary - (1991) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: VALIS by Philip K. Dick - (1991) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick - (1991) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick - (1991) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• Kipling's Science Fiction - (1993) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: Kipling's Science Fiction by Rudyard Kipling - (1993) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Black Flame - (1996) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum - (1996) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• On Brian Aldiss's Barefoot in the Head - (1993) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss - (1993) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - (1995) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea by Ursula K. Le Guin - (1995) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• Lexicon Urthus - (1995) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: Lexicon Urthus by Michael Andre-Driussi - (1995) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• Prospero's Dracula - (1995) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Cthulhu 2000 - (1996) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: Cthulhu 2000 by Jim Turner - (1996) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• The Dragon Path - (1996) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Review: The Dragon Path by Kenneth Morris - (1996) - review by Darrell Schweitzer
• An Interview with Edgar Allan Poe - (1993) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• One Fine Day in the Stygian Haunts of Hell: Being the Lore and Legend of the Fabled "Eye of Argon" - (1987) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Creating Frivolous Literary Theories - (1985) - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Notes - essay by Darrell Schweitzer
• Selected Bibliography - essay by Darrell Schweitzer

When the celebrated actor Nandou first sees Jeanne Sorel on the Paris streets, his heart is pierced by her innocent beauty, glowing like a pearl amid the squalor of her surroundings. Unable to bear the prospect of abandoning her to a life of grinding poverty, he takes her to live with him and teaches her about his beloved theatre, about literature, and about life in the bohemian world of nineteenth-century Paris.

Although he loves her, Nandou knows that Jeanne can never be his, and he watches jealously as Jeanne and Louis, the radical son of the wealthy Vollard family, become lovers.

When Jeanne is left pregnant with Louis's child, too ashamed to ask for help, she struggles on alone until Nandou comes to her aid. Then her daughter is kidnapped and Jeanne swears revenge on her former lover, but it is some years before she fulfils her vow...

The heroes are eager to sail to Troy for war, but the wind is still. To fill their sails and set out, they must sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia--and how does a human girl become the wind?

Read this story online for free at Tor.com.

Hugo-nominated and Nebula-winning Novella

This award-winning fantasy novella explores the conjunction of invocation, deep time, and culture shock. It was originally published in Subterranean Magazine, in the summer of 2010, and subsequently republished in Heiresses of Russ 2011: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2011 and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 5.

Naeva - the Lady of the story's title - is a sorceress in a matriarchy. After being fatally injured, she is persuaded to allow her spirit to be bound, so that she can be summoned and thus continue to advise her queen. However, after the queen has herself died, Naeva continues to be summoned... first by the queen's successor, and then by people from civilizations millenia later.

Read this story online for free at Subterranean Press.

The Huntresses of Artemis must obey two rules: never disobey the goddess, and never fall in love. After being rescued from a harrowing life as an Oracle of Delphi, Kahina is glad to be a part of the Hunt; living among a group of female warriors gives her a chance to reclaim her strength. But when a routine mission goes awry, Kahina breaks the first rule in order to save the legendary huntress Atalanta.

To earn back Artemis's favor, Kahina must complete a dangerous task in the kingdom of Arkadia-where the king's daughter is revealed to be none other than Atalanta. Still reeling from her disastrous quest and her father's insistence on marriage, Atalanta isn't sure what to make of Kahina.

As her connection to Atalanta deepens, Kahina finds herself in danger of breaking Artemis's second rule. She helps Atalanta devise a dangerous game to avoid marriage, and word spreads throughout Greece, attracting suitors to go up against Atalanta in a race for her hand. But when the men responsible for both the girls' dark pasts arrive, the game turns deadly.

THE PRINCE: Spoiled, reckless, heedless of any wants or needs but his own, sentenced to a terrible fate for his sins against man, woman, and God.

THE STALLION: Equally spoiled, equally reckless, bound until death to a bitter servitude.

THE TURK'S HEIR: Fiercest of rivals, most devoted of enemies, whose armor hides a secret. Come into the world of the Arabian Nights, where magic and mystery meet; where justice lays a sinner low, and the magic of the heart turns hate to love.

Autumn 1939. In an alternative world, where Edward VIII still sits on the throne, storm clouds gather over Europe, German troops amass and a 'King's Party' of fascist peace campaigners is stealthily undermining the war effort.

For Cynthia Kirkpatrick, the war brings a new-found freedom--lunchtime drinks at the Ritz, rented attic rooms, late-night rackety parties and intriguing new acquaintances.

But two new friends loom larger than others, her glamorous colleague Anthea and Tyler, an enigmatic American working at the Embassy. Initially Cynthia is dazzled by them both but soon discovers they have secrets which could prove dangerous, both to her and the country at large...

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, February 2010. It can also be found in the anthology Clarkesworld: Year Four (2013), edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Wellington. The wind city. New Zealand's home of art and culture, but darker forces, forgotten forces, are starting to reappear. Aotearoa's displaced iwi atua--the patupaiarehe, taniwha, and ponaturi of legend--have decided to make Wellington their home, and while some have come looking for love, others have arrived in search of blood.

A war is coming, and few can stand in their way. Saint (lovably fearless, temporarily destitute, currently unable to find a shirt) may be our only hope. Tony, suddenly unemployed and potentially a taniwha herself, has little choice but to accept the role her bloodline dictates. And Hinewai, who fell with the rain? If she can't find her one true love, there's a good chance that none will live to see the morning.

Wellington will never be the same again.

This collection assembles in one volume five works by Kate Wilhelm, masterful fantasist and one of science fiction's premier storytellers:

In 'Children of the Wind', identical twins J-1 and J-2 play subtle games with their parents' lives. Are the boys just precocious, or are they far more strange - and powerful? 'The Gorgon Field' finds Charlie and Constance caught in a mystery of mystical proportions in the Arizona desert. 'A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls' depicts a future in which survival may not be merely enough - it may be too much, whilst 'The Blue Ladies' studies a disabled woman's abilities to share his vision. 'The Girl Who Fell Into the Sky', winner of the Nebula Award for best novelette, weaves a dreamy tale of love, death and an old piano amid the Kansas plains.

These five tales present luminous, absorbing visions of the world as it could be and as it is.

Table of Contents:

• Children of the Wind - (1989) - novella
• The Gorgon Field - (1985) - novella
• A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls - (1974) - novelette
• The Blue Ladies - (1983) - novella
• The Girl Who Fell into the Sky - (1986) - novelette

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology When the Music's Over (1991), edited by Lewis Shiner. The story can also be foun in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection (1992), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (1999), also edited by Gardner Dozois . It is included in the collections Frankensteins and Foreign Devils (1998) and The Best of Walter Jon Williams (2021).

Hugo Award winning and World Fantasy Award nominated novella. The story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1999. It is included in the collections The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

"Variety is the soul of pleasure," And variety is what this comprehensive new collection of Connie Willis is all about. The stories cover the entire spectrum, from sad to sparkling to terrifying, from classics to hard-to-find treasures with everything in between--orangutans, Egypt, earthworms, roast goose, college professors, mothers-in-law, aliens, secret codes, Secret Santas, tube stations, choir practice, the post office, the green light on Daisy's dock, weddings, divorces, death, and assorted plagues, from scarlet fever to "It's a Wonderful Life." And a dog.

Famous for her "sure-hand plotting, unforgettable characters, and top-notch writing," Willis has been called, "the most relentlessly delightful science fiction writer alive," and there are numerous examples here. Among them, Willis's most famous stories--the Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning "Fire Watch" and "Even the Queen" and "The Last of the Winnebagos"--along with undiscovered gems like Willis's heartfelt homage to Jack Williamson, "Nonstop to Portales." Her magical Christmas stories are here, too, from "Newsletter" to "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know..." which last year was made into the TV movie, Snow Wonder, starring Mary Tyler Moore.

We've collected stories from throughout Willis's career, from early ones like "Cash Crop" and "Daisy, in the Sun," right up to her newest stories, including the wonderful "The Winds of Marble Arch." There's literally something for everyone here. If you're a diehard Willis fan, you'll be delighted with hard-to-find treasures like the until-now uncollected, "The Soul Selects Her Own Society..." If you've never read Connie Willis, this is your chance to discover "A Letter from the Clearys" and, well, "Chance." To say nothing of, "At the Rialto," the funniest story ever written about quantum physicists. And Willis's chilling, "All My Darling Daughters."

And...oh, there are too many great stories here to list and pleasures galore. So enjoy!

Tentative Table of Contents:

In Which May be Found Personal Correspondence, Travel Guides, References to Royalty, Weather Reports, Parking Fines, and Other Violations, including Matters of Life and Death (and Afterwards), an Epiphany or Two, and an Appendix.

Weather Reports

• The Winds of Marble Arch (*)
• Blued Moon
• Just Like the Ones We Used to Know (*)

Personal Correspondence

• A Letter from the Clearys
• Newsletter

Travel Guides

• Fire Watch
• Nonstop to Portales (*)

Parking Fines and Other Violations

• Ado
• All My Darling Daughters
• In the Late Cretaceous

Royalty

• The Curse of Kings (*)
• Even the Queen
• Inn

Matters of Life and Death

• Samaritan
• Cash Crop (*)
• Jack
• The Last of the Winnebagos

And Afterwards

• Service for the Burial of the Dead
• The Soul Selects Her Own Society... (*)

Epiphanies

• Chance
• At the Rialto
• Epiphany

Exclusive to the Limited/Lettered Editions

• Capra Corn (*)--the first screwball comedy Connie published
• Substitution Trick (*)--a haunting uncollected tale
• Bibliography (*)--including, for the first time a list of all of Connie's science fiction short stories, and her now legendary "confessions" stories

* previously uncollected

F. Paul Wilson's powerful World War II novel is an unforgettable saga of passion and terror, the ravages of war, the pain of betrayal, and the glory of love.

At the heart of the story are four people torn between love and honor: Matsuo Okumo, born in Japan, raised in America, and hated in both lands; Hiroki Okumo, his brother, a modern samurai sworn to serve a secret cult and the almighty Emperor; Meiko Satsuma, the woman they both love; and Frank Slater, the American who turned away when Matsuo needed him, and who now struggles to repay his debt of honor.

If the melt-down, flood, plague, the third World War, new Ice Age, Rapture, alien invasion, clamp-down, meteor, or something else entirely hit today, what would tomorrow look like? Some of the biggest names in YA and adult literature answer that very question in this short story anthology, each story exploring the lives of teen protagonists raised in catastrophe's wake-whether set in the years soon after the change, or in decades far in the future. New York Times bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• The Segment - shortfiction by Genevieve Valentine
• After the Cure - shortfiction by Carrie Ryan
• Valedictorian - shortstory by N. K. Jemisin
• Visiting Nelson - shortfiction by Katherine Langrish
• All I Know of Freedom - shortfiction by Carol Emshwiller
• The Other Elder - shortfiction by Beth Revis
• The Great Game at the End of the World - shortfiction by Matthew Kressel
• Reunion - shortfiction by Susan Beth Pfeffer
• Blood Drive - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Reality Girl - shortstory by Richard Bowes
• How Th'irth Wint Rong by Hapless Joey @ homeskool.gov - shortfiction by Gregory Maguire
• Rust with Wings - shortfiction by Steven Gould
• Faint Heart - shortfiction by Sarah Rees Brennan
• The Easthound - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• Gray - shortfiction by Jane Yolen
• Before - shortfiction by Carolyn Dunn
• Fake Plastic Trees - shortfiction by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• You Won't Feel a Thing - shortfiction by Garth Nix
• The Marker - shortfiction by Cecil Castellucci
• Afterword - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Table of Contents:

• A Troll and Two Roses - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Thirteenth Fey - short story by Jane Yolen
• Lullaby for a Changeling - (1976) - short story by Nicholas Stuart Gray
• Brat - (1941) - short story by Theodore Sturgeon
• Wild Garlic - short story by William F. Wu
• The Stranger - (1978) - short story by Shulamith Oppenheim
• Spirit Places - short story by Keith Taylor
• The Box of All Possibility - short story by Z. Greenstaff
• The Seekers of Dreams - (1963) - short story by Felix Marti-Ibanez
• Bridge - short story by Steven R. Boyett
• Crowley and the Leprechaun - short story by Gregory Frost
• The Antrim Hills - (1976) - novelette by Mildred Downey Broxon
• The Snow Fairy - novelette by M. Lucie Chin
• The Five Black Swans - (1973) - short story by Sylvia Townsend Warner
• Thomas the Rhymer - poem by Anonymous
• Prince Shadowbow - short story by Sheri S. Tepper
• The Erlking - (1977) - short story by Angela Carter
• The Elphin Knight - poem by Anonymous
• Rhian and Garanhir - (1979) - short story by Lin Carter
• The Woodcutter's Daughter - short story by Alison Uttley
• The Famous Flower of Serving Men - poem by Anonymous
• Touk's House - novelette by Robin McKinley
• The Boy Who Dreamed of Tir na n-Og - (1979) - short story by Michael M. McNamara

"Gaslamp Fantasy," or historical fantasy set in a magical version of the nineteenth century, has long been popular with readers and writers alike. A number of wonderful fantasy novels, including Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Prestige by Christopher Priest, owe their inspiration to works by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Brontës, and George Meredith to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Morris. And, of course, the entire steampunk genre and subculture owes more than a little to literature inspired by this period.

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy. The result is eighteen stories by experts from the fantasy, horror, mainstream, and young adult fields, including both bestselling writers and exciting new talents such as Elizabeth Bear, James Blaylock, Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Gregory Maguire, Delia Sherman, and Catherynne M. Valente, who present a bewitching visionof a nineteenth century invested (or cursed!) with magic.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Introduction: Fantasy, Magic, and Fairyland in Nineteenth-Century England - essay by Terri Windling
• Queen Victoria's Book of Spells - shortfiction by Delia Sherman
• The Fairy Enterprise - shortfiction by Jeffrey Ford
• From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) - shortfiction by Genevieve Valentine
• The Memory Book - shortfiction by Maureen F. McHugh
• La Reine D'Enfer - shortfiction by Kathe Koja
• For the Briar Rose - shortfiction by Elizabeth Wein
• The Governess - shortfiction by Elizabeth Bear
• Smithfield - shortfiction by James P. Blaylock
• The Unwanted Women of Surrey - shortfiction by Kaaron Warren
• Charged - shortfiction by Leanna Renee Hieber
• Mr. Splitfoot - shortfiction by Dale Bailey
• Phosphorus - shortfiction by Veronica Schanoes
• We Without Us Were Shadows - novelette by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Vital Importance of the Superficial - shortfiction by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
• The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown - (2013) - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• A Few Twigs He Left Behind - shortfiction by Gregory Maguire
• Their Monstrous Minds - shortfiction by Tanith Lee
• Estella Saves the Village - shortfiction by Theodora Goss
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

Here are original stories that straddle the borderline between "fantasy" and "mainstream" fiction, stories both bright and dark in tone (without straying into the realm of horror fiction). Sometimes set in the contemporary or historical world, sometimes pure fantasy or an imagined "history," these are striking, fresh, finely crafted works that demonstrate the best the short story form has to offer. Among the authors included are Delia Sherman, Peter Beagle, Greer Gilman, Paul Di Filippo, Jeffrey Ford, Gregory Maguire, and Lucius Shepard.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• La Fée Verte - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Dust Devil on a Quiet Street - short story by Richard Bowes
• To Measure the Earth - short story by Jedediah Berry
• A Gray and Soundless Tide - short story by Catherynne M. Valente
• Concealment Shoes - short story by Marly Youmans
• The Guardian of the Egg - short story by Christopher Barzak
• My Travels with Al-Qaeda - short story by Lavie Tidhar
• Chandail - short story by Peter S. Beagle
• Down the Wall - short story by Greer Gilman
• Femaville 29 - short story by Paul Di Filippo
• Nottamun Town - short story by Gregory Maguire
• Yours, Etc. - short story by Gavin J. Grant
• The Mask of '67 - short story by David Prill
• The Night Whiskey - (2006) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• The Lepidopterist - short story by Lucius Shepard

A dangerously seductive collection of tales that--like the sirens themselves--are impossible to resist

Sensuality mingles with fantasy in this sultry anthology starring fairies, sphinxes, werewolves, and other beings by masterful storytellers including Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Ellen Kushner, and more. Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers features a vampire who falls in love with her human prey, an updated Red Riding Hood fantasy, an unsuspecting young man who innocently joins in seductive faerie revelry, and a cat goddess made human. Alluring and charismatic, this collection from master editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling will stimulate more than just your imagination.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1998) - essay by Terri Windling
• A Wife of Acorn, Leaf, and Rain - (1998) - shortstory by Dave Smeds
• Taking Loup - (1998) - shortstory by Bruce Glassco
• Persephone or, Why the Winters Seem to Be Getting Longer - (1998) - shortfiction by Wendy Froud
• The House of Nine Doors - (1998) - shortstory by Ellen Kushner
• Private Words - (1998) - novelette by Mark W. Tiedemann
• The Light that Passes Through You - (1998) - shortstory by Conrad Williams
• O for a Fiery Gloom and Thee - (1998) - shortstory by Brian Stableford
• The Eye of the Storm - (1998) - novelette by Kelley Eskridge
• The Sweet of Bitter Bark and Burning Clove - (1998) - novelette by Doris Egan
• Tastings - (1998) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Bird Count - (1998) - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• In the Season of Rains - (1998) - novelette by Ellen Steiber
• Attachments - (1998) - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• No Human Hands to Touch - (1998) - shortstory by Elizabeth E. Wein
• Midnight Express - (1998) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Mirrors - (1998) - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Ashes on Her Lips - (1998) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Wolfed - (1998) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Broke Heart Blues - (1998) - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Faerie Cony-Catcher - (1998) - shortstory by Delia Sherman
• My Lady of the Hearth - (1998) - shortstory by Storm Constantine
• Heat - (1998) - poem by Melissa Lee Shaw

The first bite is only the beginning.

Twenty of today's favorite writers explore the intersections between the living, dead, and undead. Their vampire tales range from romantic to chilling to gleeful--and touch on nearly every emotion in between.

Neil Gaiman's vampire-poet in "Bloody Sunrise" is brooding, remorseful, and lonely. Melissa Marr's vampires make a high-stakes game of possession and seduction in "Transition." And in "Why Light?" Tanith Lee's lovelorn vampires yearn most of all for the one thing they cannot have--daylight. Drawn from folk traditions around the world, popular culture, and original interpretations, the vampires in this collection are enticingly diverse.

But reader beware: The one thing they have in common is their desire for blood....

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Things to Know About Being Dead - (2011) - shortstory by Genevieve Valentine
• All Smiles - (2011) - shortstory by Steve Berman
• Gap Year - (2011) - novelette by Christopher Barzak
• Bloody Sunrise - (2011) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Flying - (2011) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Vampire Weather - (2011) - shortstory by Garth Nix
• Late Bloomer - (2011) - novelette by Suzy McKee Charnas
• The List of Definite Endings - (2011) - shortstory by Kaaron Warren
• Best Friends Forever - (2011) - shortstory by Cecil Castellucci
• Sit the Dead - (2011) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Sunbleached - (2011) - shortstory by Nathan Ballingrud
• Baby - (2011) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• In the Future When All's Well - (2011) - shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente
• Transition - (2011) - novelette by Melissa Marr
• History - (2011) - shortstory by Ellen Kushner
• The Perfect Dinner Party - (2011) - shortstory by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black
• Slice of Life - (2011) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• My Generation - (2011) - poem by Emma Bull
• Why Light? - (2011) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited

The Armless Maiden is more than an extraordinary collection of original fiction and essays by many of fantasy's finest writers. A groundbreaking work in the tradition of Joseph Campbell, Bruno Bettelheim and Robert Bly, this book explores the darker side of childhood--loss, betrayal, oppression, and abuse.

Contents:

• Introduction (The Armless Maiden) - essay by Terri Windling
• The Armless Maiden - shortstory by Midori Snyder
• The Hero's Journey - essay by Midori Snyder
• Bedtime Story - poem by Lisel Mueller
• Allerleirauh - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Snow White to the Prince - poem by Delia Sherman
• She Sleeps in a Tower - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) - (1971) - poem by Anne Sexton
• In the House of My Enemy - (1993) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Fear of Falling - poem by Susan Palwick
• Princess in Puce - shortstory by Annita Harlan
• The Stepsister's Story - poem by Emma Bull
• The Session - shortstory by Steven Gould
• The Mirror Speaks - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Juniper Tree - [Blue Rose] - (1988) - novelette by Peter Straub
• Dolls - poem by Guy Summertree Veryzer
• This Is Us, Excellent - (1989) - shortstory by Mark Richards
• Saturn - (1987) - poem by Sharon Olds
• The Twelve-Windowed Tower - shortstory by Silvana Siddali
• Now I Lay Me - (1987) - poem by Sharon Olds
• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep - shortstory by Ellen Kushner
• Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny - (1976) - poem by Lisel Mueller
• Knives - shortstory by Munro Sickafoose
• Scars - poem by Munro Sickafoose
• The Pangs of Love - (1990) - shortstory by Jane Gardam
• Brother and Sister - poem by Terri Windling
• The Face in the Cloth - (1985) - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Their Father - (1990) - poem by Gwen Strauss
• The Chrysanthemum Robe - shortstory by Kara Dalkey
• Watching the Bobolinks - essay by Caroline Stevermer
• The Boy Who Needed Heroes - shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Wolves - essay by Sonia Keizc
• Wolf's Heart - shortstory by Tappan King [as by Tappan Wright King ]
• The Story I Hadn't Planned to Write - essay by Tappan King [as by Tappan Wright King]
• Gretel in Darkness - (1969) - poem by Louise Gluck
• The Lily and the Weaver's Heart - shortstory by Nancy Etchemendy
• Silvershod - poem by Ellen Steiber
• The Lion and the Lark - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Iron Shoes - (1986) - poem by Johnny Clewell
• The Green Children - shortstory by Terri Windling
• Guardian Neighbor - (1991) - essay by Lynda Barry
• The Little Dirty Girl - (1982) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• Donkeyskin - poem by Terri Windling
• In the Night Country - novella by Ellen Steiber
• A Matter of Seeing - essay by Ellen Steiber
• Dream Catcher - shortstory by Will Shetterly
• About the Contributors to This Book - essay by uncredited
• A Short List of Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

Leaving behind her fashionable West Coast life, Maggie Black comes to the Southwestern desert to pursue her passion and her dream. Her mentor, the acclaimed poet Davis Cooper, has mysteriously died in the canyons east of Tucson, bequeathing her his estate and the mystery of his life--and death.

Maggie is astonish by the power of this harsh but beautiful land and captivated by the uncommon people who call it home--especially Fox, a man unlike any she has ever known, who understands the desert's special power.

As she reads Cooper's letters and learns the secrets of his life, Maggie comes face-to-face withe the wild, ancient spirits of the desert--and discovers the hidden power at its heart, a power that will take her on a journey like no other.

Tom and Kate's daughter turns six tomorrow, and they have to tell her about sleep.

If you sleep unwatched, you could be Taken. If you are Taken, then watching won't save you.
Nothing saves you.

Your knowledge. Your memories. Your dreams.
If all you are is on the Feed, what will you become when the Feed goes down?

For Tom and Kate, in the six years since the world collapsed, every day has been a fight for survival. And when their daughter, Bea, goes missing, they will question whether they can even trust each other anymore.

The threat is closer than they realise...

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appaered in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2001 and can also be found in the collection Swift Thoughts (2002).

Crisis on Cheiron

Carl Race and his mentor, Donovan Petry, have arrived on Cheiron. The two Federation ecologists have been called in to figure out what mysterious occurrence is causing Cheiron's local fauna to fail.

Ostensibly working as impartial observers, the ecologists were called in to protect the interests of Consolidated Enterprises as their competitors, Trans-Galactic, hover and wait. The slightest misstep, and T-G will swoop in and take over the trade. If things go bad enough, all humans (known as Terrans) will be banned from the planet altogether.

The planet's native and highly intelligent lifeforms, the centaur-like Cheironi, seem to be working in peace with the space-travelling Terrans, but tensions are rising as crops fail and insects begin to behave strangely. The local Terran school teacher, Marcy DeLaurent, is brought in as translator as Carl and Donovan work to solve the mystery of the failing crops.

However, someone is determined to stop Carl and company from unearthing the strange source of Cheiron's problems...

Things are about to take a violent turn, and the hunters are quickly becoming the hunted.

Carl is now faced with a life and death struggle--to find out the mystery behind the Cheiron problem while trying to save his own life.

The Winds of Gath

Mercenary. Galactic traveller. Survivor. Earl Dumarest is all those things--and more. For he claims to come from the mythical planet of Earth. And those claims have just attracted the attention of the sinister Cyclan...

Stranded on Gath with no way off, Dumarest becomes embroiled in the schemes of a sadistic prince and a dying matriarch. Plots within plots unfold--and Dumarest is the key to their success. For amid the schemes of prince and matriarch alike, all have come to experience the legendary Winds of Gath.

For when the star swarms come, when the music of the spheres rises over the the planet's valleys and mountains, the dead can speak to the living... and men go mad!

The Winds of Darkover

Dan Barron was a rational and efficient member of the Terran space-force - until nightmare visions drove him from the safety of the trade city into the unmapped heart of the Darkovan mountain ranges. Into an ancient battle that would shape the destiny of more than one world.

The Anything Tree

On Jensen's wold, the Tree is master and man the servant.

The Winds of Gath

This is the tale of Earl Dumarest. Space-wanderer, gladiator-for-hire, seeker of Man's forgotten home. Dumarest's search begins on the ghost-world of Gath, where he becomes unwilling champion of the Matriarch of Kund, and must undergo a fight-to-the-death at stormtime. Victory could give Dumarest his first clue to the whereabouts of the planet he fled from as a child - an obscure world scarred by ancient wars, which lies countless light years from the thickly populated centre of the galaxy; a world no-one else in the inhabited universe believed exists. Earth, the birthplace of Man.

Derai

Still driven by his search for Man's fabled birthplace, Earl Dumrest accepts a commission to guard the Lady Derai, heiress to the proud House of Caldor, on the feudal world of Hive. On Derai's home planet, Dumarest had hoped to meet a living witness to Earth. But instead he finds himself in the lists of the deadly Contest on Folgone - with the Lady of Caldor as prize. And on Folgone, for the first time, Dumarest confronts the Cybers: ruthless, emotionless tools of a great Gestalt which holds the mighty of the universe in its grip - a power which may yet provide him with the key to his quest for Earth.

An immortal Sherlock Holmes; a deathless Jack the Ripper in a fantasy duel through the corridors of time.

This Nebula Award-nominated novelette was originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #175 in June 2015. It can also be found in the anthology Heiresses of Russ 2016: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction (2016), edited by A. M. Dellamonica and Steve Berman.

Read the full story for free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

In a dense star cluster, the solar winds blow fiercely. The star sailing ship HMSS Daring is running at full sheet with a letter of marque allowing them to capture enemy vessels involved in illegal trading. Sailing under a false flag to protect the ship and its mission, Daring's crew must gather intelligence that will lead them to the pirates' base.

Posing as traders, Daring's dashing second-in-command Liam Blackwood and brilliant quartermaster Amelia Virtue infiltrate shady civilian merchant networks, believing one will lead them to their quarry.

But their mission is threatened from within their own ranks when Daring's enigmatic captain makes a series of questionable choices, and rumblings of discontent start bubbling up from below decks, putting the crew on edge and destroying morale. On top of it all, Liam and Amelia must grapple with their growing feelings for each other.

Facing danger from unexpected quarters that could steer the expedition off course, Blackwood and Virtue must identify the real enemy threat and discover the truth about their commander--and their mission--before Daring falls prey to the very pirates she's meant to be tracking.

You'd think that being chief seer for the supernatural world would come with a few perks. But as Cassie Palmer has learned, being Pythia doesn't mean you don't have to do things the hard way. That's why she finds herself on a rescue mission skipping through time--even though she doesn't entirely understand her dimension-bending new power.

Rescuing her friend John Pritkin should have been an in-and-out kind of deal, but with the near-immortal mage's soul lost in time, Cassie has to hunt for it through the ages--with Pritkin's demon dad in tow. He's the only one who can reverse Pritkin's curse, but with the guardians of the timeline dead set on stopping anyone from mucking about, Cassie will have to figure out how to get her friend back without ruffling too many feathers--or causing a world-ending paradox or two....

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

She was haunted by thunder and plagued by dreams... Strange, dark dreams of a world beyond time and space, a land of magic and mystery. But Charley knew it was more than a dream - for her friend Sam shared her vision.

Suddenly, the dreams become a reality... As a raging storm sweeps Charley and Sam to the fantastic land of Akahlar, where unicorns and griffins run free, an enchantress commands a den of unearthly pleasures, and a wizard warns of a terrifying inescapable event.

The Changewinds are coming... Savage, purple-tinged storms that alter the shapes of man and beast alike. Soon, all creatures must look to the skies - and beware...

The Changewinds blow from the Seat of Probability across the worlds that they themselves created, at once random and consistent, obeying the rules of their own strange spectral meteorology. Most of the universes the Winds have made exist separately from one another in time and space, but close to the Seat of Probability they are more densely packed, and one may walk from one to the other and not realise it until it is too late....

For countless centuries the Ahkbreed sorcerers have dreamed of the ultimate power - control and direction of the Changewinds themselves, a power that would truly make them gods over all universes everywhere. And for centuries those who pay tribute to the Ahkbreed have dreamed of a deliverer. Now two brave young women from Earth have found themselves caught up in the fury of the Changewinds. They themselves will be transformed. But, in the process, they will change everything.

The evil wizard Klittichorn has discovered how to predict the Changewinds, granting him enormous power. Now, the evil of the Inner Hells could place the power of the Winds in Klittichorn's destructive hands. The magic of the Changewinds could alter the shape of every man and beast in Akahlar.

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Farrel Din
• Prodigy - novella by Steven R. Boyett
• Gray - short fiction by Terri Windling [as by Bellamy Bach ]
• Stick - novella by Charles de Lint
• Charis - novelette by Ellen Kushner

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Farrel Din
• Danceland - novella by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly
• Demon - novella by Midori Snyder
• Exile - novelette by Terri Windling [as by Bellamy Bach ]
• Mockery - novella by Terri Windling and Ellen Kushner [as by Ellen Kushner and Bellamy Bach]

Contents:

• Lost in the Mall (I) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Global News Service: Life on the Border - uncredited short story
• Nevernever - [Wolfboy of Bordertown] - short story by Will Shetterly
• Lost in the Mall (II) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Nightwail - short story by Kara Dalkey
• Lost in the Mall (IV) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Alison Gross - novella by Midori Snyder
• Lost in the Mall (V) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Berlin - (1989) - novella by Charles de Lint
• Lost in the Mall (VI) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Reynardine - novella by Michael Korolenko
• Light and Shadow - short story by Craig Shaw Gardner
• Lost in the Mall (VII) - short story by Ellen Kushner
• Rain and Thunder - novella by Terri Windling [as by Bellamy Bach ]
• For it All - poem by Emma Bull
• Lost in the Mall (VIII-IX) - short story by Ellen Kushner

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling
• From the World to the Border - essay by Terri Windling
• Oak Hill - (1998) - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Path from the True and Only Realm to the False Lands and the City of Illusion (Translation for Humans: How to Get from Elfland to Bordertown) - essay by Terri Windling
• Dragon Child - (1998) - novelette by Midori Snyder
• First Things First: So You Need a Place to Stay - essay by Terri Windling
• Socks - novelette by Delia Sherman
• The Gangs: And Life's Other Little Annoyances - essay by Terri Windling
• Half Life - novelette by Donnárd Sturgis
• What to Eat: A Tasteful Guide to Border Cuisine - essay by Terri Windling and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• Hot Water: A Bordertown Romance - short story by Ellen Kushner
• The Music Scene: What's Up and What Ain't - essay by Terri Windling and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• Arcadia - short story by Michael Korolenko
• Nightlife: Where to Find It - essay by Terri Windling
• Changeling - novelette by Elisabeth Kushner
• So You Want to Be a Star: Get Real - essay by Terri Windling
• May This Be Your Last Sorrow - short story by Charles de Lint
• Uptown: How the Other Half Lives - essay by Terri Windling
• Rag - short story by Caroline Stevermer
• The Peculiar Joy of Cooking on the Border - essay by Terri Windling and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• When the Bow Breaks - short story by Steven Brust
• A Human Guide to Elvin Etiquette - essay by Terri Windling and Mimi Panitch
• Argentine - novelette by Ellen Steiber
• A Trueblood Guide to Human Peccadillos - essay by Terri Windling
• Cover Up My Tracks with Rain - novelette by Micole Sudberg
• Famous Last Words - essay by Terri Windling
• How Shannaro Tolkinson Lost and Found His Heart - novelette by Felicity Savage

A few stones falling in the right place can set a landslide in motion.

That's what Lescari exiles told themselves in Vanam as they plotted to overthrow the warring dukes.

But who can predict the chaos that follows such a cataclysm?

Some will survive against all the odds; friends and foes alike. Hopes and alliances will be shattered beyond repair.

Unforeseen consequences bring undeserved grief as well as unexpected rewards. Necessity forces uneasy compromise as well as perilous defiance.

Wreaking havoc is swift and easy. Building a lasting peace may yet prove an insuperable challenge.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare--and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium's place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide - Adolin in Azir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah in Thaylenah. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons... and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiant killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium's champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos.

The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

Ayla Nightshade prepares to meet with the Kardise ambassador to sign a treaty between Mirrorvale and Sol Kardis. However, negotiations are halted as the ambassador is discovered dead in his chambers, poisoned by the same bottle of taransey he and Ayla had shared the night before.

Ayla has been framed for murder and the peace between two kingdoms is at stake. Tomas Caraway and his Helmsmen must rush to prove her innocence before war destroys all they have fought for.

Along the way they discover the plans for a Parovian airship, the Windsinger, which reveal a chamber designed for a special cargo: a living one.

Together Ayla and Tomas set out to uncover their real enemies - a search that will lead them closer to home than they ever anticipated.

David Sullivan, a Georgia teenager, enjoys reading Irish myth. When he develops Second Sight, however, the reality of the Faerie world proves as dangerous as it is fantastic.

Amidst incredible chaos in the kingdom, Vered and Santan, two freebooters, must steal the Demon Crown from the Wizard King and find his missing twin, to restore peace and order in the land.

Matt Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker are positioned to push the line of battle to the breaking point on an alternate Earth, in the thrilling return to the New York Times bestselling Destroyermen series.

Matt Reddy and his sailors have fought, bled, and died for their Lemurian friends and other allies from across time, but their enemies are still operational. In Africa, the Grik General Esshk has escaped defeat to build a new army and new weapons, and is desperate enough to use them to destroy the world if he can't have it.

In South America, the NUS, General Shinya, and the Army of the Sisters have the evil Dominion on the ropes and are closing in on the seat of its blood-drenched power, but the twisted Don Hernan has struck a deal with the fascist League, and Victor Gravois is finally assembling the awesome fleet of modern ships he's always craved. If he's successful, the war will be lost.

Undermined by treachery on a stunning scale, Matt Reddy must still steam his battered old ship halfway around the world, scraping up what forces he can along the way, and confront the mightiest armada the world has ever seen in a fiery duel to the death.

On The Path Toward Greatness, Every Hero Makes a Choice

Legends sing of Sir Gawain, one of the most respected warriors of King Arthur's reign and one of the greatest champions of all time. But this is not that story. This is the story of Gwalchmai, middle son of the beautiful, infinitely evil sorceress Morgawse, and gifted student of her dark magical arts. A story of an uncertain man, doubting his ability to follow his elder brother's warrior prowess and seeking to find his own identity by bonding with his frightening and powerful mother. Disappointed in himself and despised by his father, Gwalchmai sets out on a journey that will lead him to the brink of darkness...

A tale of loss, redemption, and adventure, Hawk of May brings new depth and understanding to Sir Gawain, the legend of King Arthur, and the impact of choices made-and the consequences that follow.

On the path toward greatness, even a hero makes mistakes.

Armed with his magical sword and otherworldly horse, Gwalchmai proves himself the most feared and faithful warrior of Arthur's noble followers. But while defending the kingdom, he commits a grave offense against the woman he loves, leading her to disappear from his life and haunt his memories.

With his trusted servant, Rhys, a commonsense peasant, Gwalchmai tries to find her in the Kingdom of Summer, where Arthur has sent him. But an unexpected and most malevolent force of evil and darkness is loose-that of his mother, the witch-queen Morgawse-and Gwalchmai finds that the secrets of his past may deny him peace...

In the second book of Gillian Bradshaw's critically acclaimed trilogy, Sir Gawain comes to life as Gwalchmai, startlingly human yet fantastically heroic.

Vows broken... Friendships betrayed... The fate of heroes finally revealed...

As powerful enemies attack the throne from inside the kingdom, Arthur, his queen, and his greatest warrior Gwalchmai will be put to the ultimate test. Never faltering in her loyalty to the king, Gwynhwyfar has stood at Arthur's side through rebellion and war. But one desperate decision could cost her all they've built. With the kingdom crumbling around them, following the Queen's heart could be the greatest threat of all...

A year has passed since the Chaos War threatened Krynn. In the east, on the Dairly Plains, the hard-won peace is shattered by a new threat: the red dragon Malystryx.

The kender Kronn-alin Thistleknot travels to Abasasinia with his older sister Catt. Together they seek heroes to stop the dragon from destroying Kendermore.

Riverwind, aging chieftain of the Que-Shu, answers the call.

Accompanied by his beloved daughter Brightdawn, Riverwind sets out in his final quest to save the kender from Malys's wrath... and to find sense in a world abandoned by the gods.

Chris Pierson's novel tells the stirring tale of the final quest of Riverwind, one of the original companions of the best-selling Dragonlance series.

To prove himself worthy of his beloved Goldmoon, Riverwind is sent on quest by the elders of his tribe. The quest seems impossible: In a godless land, Riverwind must find evidence of the true gods.

Accompanied by an eccentric soothsayer and an escaped slave girl, Riverwind is soon caught in a world of slavery, sorcery, and rebellion. He and his friends must fight their way to Xak Tsaroth, but the companions are stalked by fate and prophecy: one will go mad, one will die, and one will find glory.

An omnibus collection the first three Dread Empire novels: A Shadow of All Night's Falling, October's Baby and All Darkness Met.

It has ended. It begins again. In Kavelin, Lady Nepanthe's new life with the wizard Varthlokkur is disturbed by visions of her lost son, while King Bragi Ragnarson and Michael Trebilcock scheme to help the exiled Princess Mist re-usurp her throne - under their thumb. In Shinsan, a pig-farmer's son takes command of Eastern Army, while Lord Kuo faces plots in his council and a suicide attack of two million Matayangans on his border. But in the desert beyond the Dread Empire, a young victim of the Great War becomes the Deliverer of an eons-forgotten god, chosen to lead the legions of the dead. And the power of his vengeance will make a world's schemes as petty as dust, blown wild in the horror that rides the east wind.

Originally appeared in Ace Double H-27 (1967) and later in Ace Doube #89301 (1973). Published in 1968 as Gath, thereafter as The Winds of Gath.

This is the tale of Earl Dumarest. Space-wanderer, gladiator-for-hire, seeker of Man's forgotten home. Dumarest's search begins on the ghost-world of Gath, where he becomes unwilling champion of the Matriarch of Kund, and must undergo a fight-to-the-death at stormtime. Victory could give Dumarest his first clue to the whereabouts of the planet he fled from as a child - an obscure world scarred by ancient wars, which lies countless light years from the thickly populated centre of the galaxy; a world no-one else in the inhabited universe believed exists. Earth, the birthplace of Man.

There is a gala opening for a new exhibition at the Tate Modern - "The Tomorrow Windows." The concept behind the exhibition is simple - anyone can look through a Tomorrow Window and see into the future. Of course, the future is malleable, and so the future you see will change as you formulate your plans. You can the see the outcome of every potential decision, and then decide on the optimum course of action. According to the press pack, the Tomorrow Windows will bring about world peace and save humanity from every possible disaster. So, of course, someone decides to blow it up. There's always one, isn't there? As the Doctor investigates and unravels the conspiracy, he begins a Gulliver's Travels-esque quest, visiting bizarre worlds and encountering many peculiar and surreal life forms...

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold
• The Green Child - short story by John Crowley
• Pooka's Bridge - short story by Gillian Fitzgerald
• The Hosting of the Sidhe - (1893) - poem by William Butler Yeats
• The Judgement of St. Yves - short story by Evangeline Walton
• Sweetly the Waves Call to Me - short story by Pat Murphy
• The Merman in Love - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Renders - short story by Janny Wurts
• The Golden Slipper - (1959) - short story by Antanas Vaiciulaitis
• A Spell for Sleeping - poem by Alastair Reid
• The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship - (1972) - short story by Gabriel García Márquez (trans. of El último viaje del Buque Fantasma 1954)
• Pale Horse - (1969) - poem by Masao Takiguchi
• The Thunder Cat - (1965) - short story by Nicholas Stuart Gray
• Queen Louisa - (1972) - short story by John Gardner
• The Song of the Dragon's Daughter - (1977) - poem by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Prodigal Daughter - novelette by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• Little Boy Waiting at the Edge of the Darkwood - short fiction by Andrew J. Offutt
• The Tree's Wife - (1978) - short story by Jane Yolen
• Introduction (An Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina) - essay by Tappan King
• An Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina - (1981) - novelette by Austin Tappan Wright
• The Unicorn Masque - novelette by Ellen Kushner
• The Succubus - (1971) - poem by John Alfred Taylor
• Ku Mei Li: A Chinese Ghost Story - novelette by M. Lucie Chin
• Tatuana's Tale - (1973) - short story by Miguel Angel Asturias (trans. of Leyenda de la Tatuana 1930)
• Overheard on a Saltmarsh - (1912) - poem by Harold Monro
• Tales of Houdini - short story by Rudy Rucker
• Oh! My Name Is John Wellington Wells - (1877) - poem by W. S. Gilbert
• Elric at the End of Time - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• Song of Amergin - (1948) - poem by Robert Graves
• Viriconium Knights - [Viriconium] - short story by M. John Harrison
• The Magician - (1971) - short story by William Kotzwinkle
• Sea Change - short story by C. J. Cherryh
• Contributors' Notes - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold
• In the Very Earliest Time - poem by Eskimo Chant
• Junction's Pleasure - novelette by Richard Englehart
• The Ern Queen - short story by Jane Newbold
• Gwydion's Loss of Llew - poem by Ellen Kushner
• Amigo Heliotropo - (1963) - short story by Felix Marti-Ibanez
• The Golden Goat - short story by Michael de Larrabeiti
• The Island and the Cattle - (1979) - poem by Nicholas Moore
• The Fallen Country - novelette by S. P. Somtow
• Small Dragon - (1962) - poem by Brian Patten
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses - (1971) - poem by Anne Sexton
• The Courtship of Mr. Lyon - (1979) - short story by Angela Carter
• Lord of the Reedy River - (1971) - poem by Donovan Leitch
• In the Hall of Grief - short story by Jane Yolen
• Magic Strings - poem by Li Ho
• The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World - (1971) - short story by Gabriel García Márquez (trans. of El ahogado más hermoso del mundo 1968)
• Haunted - (1955) - poem by R. P. Lister
• Visitors to a Castle - (1972) - short story by Sylvia Townsend Warner
• A Tourist Camped on a Donegal Field - poem by Terri Windling
• Gran and the Roaring Boys - (1974) - short story by Jenny Sullivan
• Homecoming - (1967) - poem by Peter Viereck
• The Little Dirty Girl - novelette by Joanna Russ
• A Young Man, Gleaming, White - (1968) - short story by Joäo Guimaräes Rosa
• Cerridwen and the Quern of Time - short story by Paul Hazel
• The Ship from Away - short story by Evangeline Walton
• The Day the World Died - short fiction by Thomas Wiloch
• Blood and Dreams - novelette by Richard Monaco
• The Trash Dragon of Shensi - (1978) - poem by Andrew Glazer
• The Vanishing Trolls - (1980) - short story by Gaird Wallig
• The Magic Wood - (1945) - poem by Henry Treece
• The Healer - novelette by Robin McKinley
• The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath - novelette by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Moon Porthole - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• Contributors' Notes - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Betty Ballantine
• God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot - (1966) - poem by Leonard Cohen
• The Stagman - novelette by Robin McKinley
• Harvest Child - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
• And When the Green Man Comes - (1966) - poem by John Haines
• Simpson's Lesser Sphynx - short story by Esther M. Friesner
• Intruder - (1975) - poem by Susan Feldman
• The Duke of Orkney's Leonardo - (1976) - short story by Sylvia Townsend Warner
• The Unknown - (1982) - short story by María Luisa Bombal (trans. of Lo secreto 1941)
• In the Court of the Crimson King - (1969) - poem by Peter Sinfield
• The Warrior's Daughter - short story by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe
• Gretel in Darkness - (1969) - poem by Louise Gluck
• Rocinante - short story by Steven R. Boyett
• Springsong in East Gruesome, Vermont - (1968) - poem by Ramon Guthrie
• The Idol's Eye - short story by James P. Blaylock
• The Lady of the House of Love - (1975) - short story by Angela Carter
• The Undead - (1954) - poem by Richard Wilbur
• Voices Answering Back: The Vampires - (1969) - poem by Lawrence Raab
• Happy Dens: or, A Day in the Old Wolves Home - short fiction by Jane Yolen
• The Six Badgers - (1960) - poem by Robert Graves
• The Chapel Perilous - (1955) - short story by Naomi Mitchison
• Malagan and the Lady of Rascas - short story by Michael de Larrabeiti
• Bones - novelette by P. C. Hodgell
• The Toaster - (1980) - poem by William Jay Smith
• The One We Were - novelette by Tanith Lee
• On the Dark Side of the Station Where the Train Never Stops - short story by Pat Murphy
• Simultaneously - (1964) - poem by David Ignatow
• "Franz Kafka" by Jorge Luís Borges - (1970) - short story by Alvin Greenberg
• The Strange Fellows' Palm-Wine Tapster - (1952) - short story by Amos Tutuola
• Tort and the Dancing Market-Women - (1952) - short story by Amos Tutuola
• Kitty - (1981) - short story by Paul Bowles
• Princeps Tenebrarum - (1984) - poem by John Alfred Taylor
• Riquiqui, I Love You! - (1963) - novelette by Felix Marti-Ibanez
• Being a Giant - (1976) - poem by Robert Mezey
• A Matter of Music - novelette by Patricia A. McKillip
• Contributors' Notes - essay by uncredited
• Index to the Elsewhere Trilogy - essay by uncredited

Once upon a time, fairy tales were for children... But no longer.

You hold in your hands a volume of wonders -- magical tales of trolls and ogres, of bewitched princesses and kingdoms accursed, penned by some of the most acclaimed fantasists of our day. But these are not bedtime stories designed to usher an innocent child gently into a realm of dreams. These are stories that bite -- lush and erotic, often dark and disturbing mystical journeys through a phantasmagoric landscape of distinctly adult sensibilities... where there is no such thing as "happily ever after."

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: White as Snow: Fairy Tales and Fantasy - (1993) - essay by Terri Windling
• Introduction: Red as Blood: Fairy Tales and Horror - (1993) - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Like a Red, Red Rose - (1993) - novelette by Susan Wade
• The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep - (1993) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Frog Prince - (1993) - shortstory by Gahan Wilson
• Stalking Beans - (1993) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Snow-Drop - (1993) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Little Red - (1993) - shortstory by Wendy Wheeler
• I Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood - (1993) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• The Root of the Matter - (1993) - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Princess in the Tower - (1993) - shortstory by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• Persimmon - (1993) - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Little Poucet - (1993) - shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Changelings - (1993) - novelette by Melanie Tem
• The Springfield Swans - (1993) - shortstory by Caroline Stevermer and Ryan Edmonds
• Troll Bridge - (1993) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman (variant of Troll-Bridge)
• A Sound, Like Angels Singing - (1993) - shortstory by Leonard Rysdyk
• Puss - (1993) - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• The Glass Casket - (1993) - shortstory by Jack Dann
• Knives - (1993) - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Snow Queen - (1993) - novelette by Patricia A. McKillip
• Breadcrumbs and Stones - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• Recommended Reading - (1993) - essay by uncredited
• Terri Windling - (1993) - essay by uncredited
• Ellen Datlow - (1993) - essay by uncredited

Eighteen masterful fairy tales for adults from a remarkable gathering of contemporary Grimms and Andersens, the new princesses and princes of fantastical fiction

World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling return with another superb collection of wonders and terrors. In Black Thorn, White Rose, the magical tales we were told at bedtime have been upended, turned inside out, reshaped, and given a keen, distinctly adult edge by eighteen of the most acclaimed storytellers ever to reinvent a fairy tale. Our favorite characters, from Sleeping Beauty to Rumpelstiltskin to the Gingerbread Man, are here but in different guises, brought to new life by such masters as Nancy Kress, Jane Yolen, Storm Constantine, and the late, great Roger Zelazny.

These breathtaking tales of dark enchantments range from the tragic and poignant to the humorous to the horrifying to the simply astonishing. The story of an aging woodcutter persuaded to help a desperate prince make his way through the brambles to save a sleeping beauty twists ingeniously around like the thorny wall that impedes them. The fable of an all-controlling queen mother who faces her most fearsome adversary in a sensitive princess who appears mysteriously during a storm is a dark, disturbing masterpiece. And readers will long remember the exquisite tale of Death, his godson, football, and MTV.

Anyone who has ever loved or even feared the old tales of witches and trolls and remarkable transformations will find much to admire in this extraordinary collection--happily ever after or not.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Words Like Pale Stones - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Stronger than Time - novelette by Patricia C. Wrede
• Somnus's Fair Maid - novelette by Ann Downer
• The Frog King, or Iron Henry - shortstory by Daniel Quinn
• Near-Beauty - shortstory by M. E. Beckett
• Ogre - shortstory by Michael Kandel
• Can't Catch Me - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Journeybread Recipe - shortstory by Lawrence Schimel
• The Brown Bear of Norway - shortstory by Isabel Cole
• The Goose Girl - shortstory by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Tattercoats - novelette by Midori Snyder
• Granny Rumple - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• The Sawing Boys - novelette by Howard Waldrop
• Godson - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• Ashputtle - novelette by Peter Straub
• Silver and Gold - poem by Ellen Steiber
• Sweet Bruising Skin - novelette by Storm Constantine
• The Black Swan - novelette by Susan Wade
• Recommended Reading - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel, and other storybook icons are ingeniously reimagined in this stunning collection of updated adult fairy tales from some of today's finest fantasists

For many of us, the fairy tale was our first exposure to the written word and the power of storytelling. These wondrous works of magic and morality enthralled us, enchanted us, sometimes terrified us, and remain in our hearts and memories still. Once again, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have compiled an extraordinary collection of reimagined tales conceived by some of today's most acclaimed contemporary purveyors of literary fantasy, science fiction, and horror, including Neil Gaiman, Gahan Wilson, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, Nancy Kress, Gene Wolfe, and others.

Remarkable things lurk in these dark and magical woods. Here Beauty confronts a serial-killer Beast, Hansel and Gretel's witch resides not in a gingerbread house but in a luxurious resort, and Rumpelstiltskin is truly the devil demanding his due, rightfully or otherwise. The hilarious "Roach in Loafers" ingeniously combines the classic "Elves and the Shoemaker" tale with "Puss in Boots" and adds an insectile twist, while in a modern fable that blends The Wizard of Oz and Hans Christian Andersen, Dorothy is set adrift in Hollywoodland, ruby slippers and all. These are not the fairy stories you remember from childhood.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1995) - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Ruby Slippers - (1995) - shortstory by Susan Wade
• The Beast - (1995) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Masterpiece - (1995) - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Summer Wind - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• This Century of Sleep or, Briar Rose Beneath the Sea - (1995) - poem by Farida S. T. Shapiro
• The Crossing - (1995) - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• Roach in Loafers - (1995) - shortstory by Roberta Lannes
• Naked Little Men - (1995) - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Brother Bear - (1995) - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• The Emperor Who Had Never Seen a Dragon - (1995) - shortstory by John Brunner
• Billy Fearless - (1995) - novelette by Nancy A. Collins
• The Death of Koshchei the Deathless (a tale of old Russia) - (1995) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Real Princess - (1995) - shortstory by Susan Palwick
• The Huntsman's Story - (1995) - shortstory by Milbre Burch
• After Push Comes to Shove - (1995) - poem by Milbre Burch
• Hansel and Grettel - (1995) - shortstory by Gahan Wilson
• Match Girl - (1995) - novelette by Anne Bishop
• Waking the Prince - (1995) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• The Fox Wife - (1995) - novella by Ellen Steiber
• The White Road - (1995) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• The Traveler and the Tale - (1995) - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• The Printer's Daughter - (1995) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Recommended Reading - (1995) - essay by uncredited

Unforgettable stories of witches and wishes, Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites, ingeniously twisted into darker, more grown-up shapes by fantasy fiction's most talented practitioners

Once again, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling prove that fairy tales don't have to be for little children and that happily ever after doesn't necessarily mean forever. Black Swan, White Raven is Datlow and Windling's fourth collection of once-familiar and much-beloved bedtime stories reimagined by some of the finest fantasists currently plying their literary trade--acclaimed writers like Jane Yolen, John Crowley, Michael Cadnum, and Joyce Carol Oates, who give new lives and new meanings to the plights of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel, and more.

Hansel and Gretel make several appearances here, not the least being at their trial for the murder of a supposedly helpless old woman. The shocking real reason for Snow White's desperate flight from her home is revealed in "The True Story," and the steadfast tin soldier, made flesh and blood, pays a terrible price for his love and devotion.

The twenty-one stories and poems in this collection run the gamut from triumphant to troubling to utterly outrageous, like Don Webb's brilliant merging of numerous tales into one wild, hallucinogenic trip in his "Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs." All in all, the reimagined fairy tales and fables in Datlow and Windling's literary offering mine the fantastical yarns we loved as children for new and darker gold.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• The Flounder's Kiss - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• The Black Fairy's Curse - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• Snow in Dirt - novelette by Michael Blumlein
• Riding the Red - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• No Bigger Than My Thumb - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
• In the Insomniac Night - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Little Match Girl - poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Trial of Hansel and Gretel - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Rapunzel - shortstory by Anne Bishop
• Sparks - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Dog Rose - shortstory by Sten Westgard
• The Reverend's Wife - novelette by Midori Snyder
• The Orphan the Moth and the Magic - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs - shortstory by Don Webb
• True Thomas - novelette by Bruce Glassco
• The True Story - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• Lost and Abandoned - shortstory by John Crowley
• The Breadcrumb Trail - poem by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• On Lickerish Hill - novelette by Susanna Clarke
• Steadfast - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Godmother Death - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

Twenty-one darker, deeper, more adult takes on some of our favorite childhood fairy tales, from acclaimed contemporary fantasists

Long ago, when we were children, our dreams were inspired by the fairy tales we heard at our mothers' and grandmothers' knees--stories of princesses and princes and witches and wondrous enchantments, by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and from the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights. But, as World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling remind us, these stories were often tamed and sanitized versions. The originals were frequently darker--and in Silver Birch, Blood Moon, they turn darker still.

Twenty-one modern Grimms and Andersens--masterful storytellers including Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kress, and Tanith Lee--now reinvent beloved bedtime stories for our time. The Sea Witch gets her say, relating the story of "The Little Mermaid" from her own point of view. "Thumbelina" becomes a tale of creeping horror, while a delightfully naughty spin is put on "The Emperor's New Clothes." Author Caitlin R. Kiernan transports Snow White to a dark, gritty, industrial urban setting, and Patricia Briggs details "The Price" of dealing with a royal and unrepentantly evil Rumpelstiltskin.

Rich, provocative, and unabashedly adult, each of these tales is a modern treasure, reminding us that wishes have consequences and not all genies have our best interests at heart.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1999) - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Kiss Kiss - (1999) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Carabosse - (1999) - poem by Delia Sherman
• The Price - (1999) - shortstory by Patricia Briggs
• Glass Coffin - (1999) - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Vanishing Virgin - (1999) - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Clad in Gossamer - (1999) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Precious - (1999) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Sea Hag - (1999) - novelette by Melissa Lee Shaw
• The Frog Chauffeur - (1999) - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• The Dybbuk in the Bottle - (1999) - novelette by Russell William Asplund
• The Shell Box - (1999) - novelette by Karawynn Long
• Ivory Bones - (1999) - shortstory by Susan Wade
• The Wild Heart - (1999) - shortstory by Anne Bishop
• You Wandered Off Like a Foolish Child to Break Your Heart and Mine - (1999) - shortstory by Pat York
• Arabian Phoenix - (1999) - shortstory by India Edghill
• Toad-Rich - (1999) - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Skin So Green and Fine - (1999) - novelette by Wendy Wheeler
• The Willful Child, the Black Dog, and the Beanstalk - (1999) - novelette by Melanie Tem
• Locks - (1999) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Marsh-Magic - (1999) - novelette by Robin McKinley
• Toad - (1999) - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Recommended Reading - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Favorite fairy tales are updated and hauntingly reimagined by twenty of today's finest writers of fiction and fantasy

Once upon a time, all our cherished dreams began with the words once upon a time. This is the phrase that opened our favorite tales of princes and spells and magical adventures. World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling understand the power of beloved stories--and in Black Heart, Ivory Bones, their sixth anthology of reimagined fairy tales, they have gathered together stories and poetry from some of the most acclaimed writers of our time, including Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, Charles de Lint, and Joyce Carol Oates. But be forewarned: These fairy tales are not for children.

A prideful Texas dancer is cursed by a pair of lustrous red boots... Goldilocks tells all about her brutal and wildly dysfunctional foster family, the Bears... An archaeologist in Victorian England is enchanted by a newly exhumed Sleeping Beauty... A prince of tabloid journalism is smitten by a trailer-park Rapunzel... A clockwork amusement park troll becomes sentient and sets out to foment an automaton revolution. These are but a few examples of the marvels that await within these pages--tales that range from the humorous to the sensuous to the haunting and horrifying, each one a treasure with a distinctly adult edge.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Rapunzel - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• The Crone - poem by Delia Sherman
• Big Hair - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
• The King with Three Daughters - novelette by Russell Blackford
• Boys and Girls Together - poem by Neil Gaiman
• And Still She Sleeps - novelette by Greg Costikyan
• Snow in Summer - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Briar Rose - poem by Debra Cash
• Witch - poem by Debra Cash
• Chanterelle - novelette by Brian Stableford
• Bear It Away - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Goldilocks Tells All - shortstory by Scott Bradfield
• My Life as a Bird - (1996) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Red Boots - shortstory by Leah Cutter
• Rosie's Dance - shortstory by Emma Hardesty
• You, Little Match-Girl - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• Dreaming Among Men - shortstory by Bryn Kanar
• The Cats of San Martino - novelette by Ellen Steiber
• The Golem - shortstory by Severna Park
• Our Mortal Span - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
• Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower - novella by Susanna Clarke
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

These are not your mother's fairy tales...

Did you ever wonder how the dwarves felt after Snow White ditched them for the prince? Do you sometimes wish Cinderella hadn't been so helpless and petite? Are you ready to hear the Giant's point of view on Jack and his beanstalk? Then this is the book for you.

Thirteen award-winning fantasy and science fiction writers offer up their versions of these classic fairy tales as well as other favorites, including The Ugly Duckling, Ali Baba, Hansel and Gretel, and more. Some of the stories are funny, some are strange, and others are dark and disturbing -- but each offers something as unexpected as a wolf at the door.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2000) - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• The Months of Manhattan - (2000) - short story by Delia Sherman
• Cinder Elephant - (2000) - short story by Jane Yolen
• Instructions - (2000) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Mrs. Big: "Jack and the Beanstalk" Retold - (2000) - short story by Michael Cadnum
• Falada: The Goose Girl's Horse - (2000) - short story by Nancy Farmer
• A Wolf at the Door - (2000) - short story by Tanith Lee
• Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens - (1999) - short story by Janeen Webb
• Swans - (2000) - short story by Kelly Link
• The Kingdom of Melting Glances - (2000) - short story by Katherine Vaz
• Hansel's Eyes - (2000) - short story by Garth Nix
• Becoming Charise - (2000) - short story by Kathe Koja
• The Seven Stage a Comeback - (2000) - poem by Gregory Maguire
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses - (2000) - short story by Patricia A. McKillip

Just as fairy-tale magic can transform a loved one into a swan, the contributors to this book have transformed traditional fairy tales and legends into stories that are completely original, yet still tantalizingly familiar.

In this book you will find:

• a Rapunzel whose most confining prison is her loneliness
• a contemporary rendering of the Green Man myth
• two different versions of Red Riding Hood
• a tale that grew out of a Celtic folk song
• Sleeping Beauty's experience of her enchantment
• two works inspired by the Arabian Nights
• and more

In the follow-up to A Wolf at the Door, thirteen renowned authors come together with a selection of new and surprising adaptations of the fairy tales we think we know so well. These fresh takes on classic tales will show you sides of each.

Everyone thinks they know the real story behind the villains in fairy tales - evil, no two ways about it. But the villains themselves beg to differ. In Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's new anthology for younger readers, you'll hear from the Giant's wife ("Jack and the Beanstalk"), Rumplestiltskin, the oldest of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and many more. A stellar lineup of authors, including Garth Nix, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman and Nancy Farmer, makes sure that these old stories do new tricks!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2009) - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Wizard's Apprentice - (2009) - shortstory by Delia Sherman
• An Unwelcome Guest - (2009) - shortfiction by Garth Nix
• Faery Tales - (2009) - poem by Wendy Froud
• Rags and Riches - (2009) - shortfiction by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Up the Down Beanstalk: A Wife Remembers - (2009) - shortfiction by Peter S. Beagle
• The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces - (2009) - shortfiction by Ellen Kushner
• Puss in Boots, the Sequel - (2009) - poem by Joseph Stanton
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf - (2009) - shortstory by Holly Black
• Troll - (2009) - shortfiction by Jane Yolen
• Castle Othello - (2009) - shortfiction by Nancy Farmer
• 'Skin - (2009) - shortfiction by Michael Cadnum
• A Delicate Architecture - (2009) - shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente
• Molly - (2009) - shortfiction by Midori Snyder
• Observing the Formalities - (2009) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• The Cinderella Game - (2009) - shortstory by Kelly Link
• Further Reading

When Tokyo falls victim to a deadly terrorist attack, Detective Sergeant Mariko Oshiro knows who is responsible, even if she doesn't have proof. She urges her commanding officers to arrest the perpetrator--an insane zealot who was just released from police custody. When her pleas fall on deaf ears, she loses her temper and then her badge, as well as her best chance of fighting back.

Left on her own, and armed with only her cunning and her famed Inazuma blade, Mariko must work outside the system to stop a terrorist mastermind. But going rogue draws the attention of an underground syndicate known as the Wind. For centuries, they have controlled Japanese politics from the shadows, using mystical relics to achieve their nefarious ends--relics like Mariko's own sword and the iron demon mask whose evil curse is bound to the blade. Now the Wind is set on acquiring Mariko.

Mariko is left with a perilous choice: Join an illicit insurgency to thwart a deadly villain, or remain true to the law. Either way, she cannot escape her sword's curse. As sure as the blade will bring her to victory, it also promises to destroy her....

A mage, seeking to enslave the Valley and destroy the Forest, has brutally sundered a family. A mother has fled into the woods with her infant girl-child, while the depraved sorcerer holds the babe's twin--a boy--captive in a black tower. The mother dies but the girl survives. Adopted by the strange denizens of the Forest--safe from the mage's malevolent influence--she grows to young womanhood, cultivating a cherished skill that has been denied the others of her kind: the ability to truly hear the sounds of her world. But her future will be fraught with trial and terror, for only she can smash the chains that shackle the Balley and its inhabitants. It is her destiny to confront sorcerer and demon minions, and to oppose the one she must conquer and free: the magician's protégé and her most powerful adversary. Her bane and blood. Her brother.

Crossing the wide realms of the Faerûn in search of adventure, the dark elf princess Liriel Baenre and her companion Fyodor find themselves in the barbarian's homeland of Rashemen. In a land ruled by witches, Liriel must disguise herself lest she spark the people's hatred of dark elves.

Yet from the deep tunnels of the Underdark, eyes glittering with malice are watching her every move, preparing for vengeance.

Drizzt Do'Urden finds new friends and foes in the windswept towns of Icewind Dale, also the setting of the D&D adventure book Rime of the Frostmaiden

With his days in the Underdark far behind him, drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden sets down roots in the windswept Ten-Towns of Icewind Dale. A cold and unforgiving place, Ten-Towns sits on the brink of a catastrophic war, threatened by the barbarian tribes of the north.

It's in the midst of battle that a young barbarian named Wulfgar is captured and made the ward of Bruenor, a grizzled dwarf leader and a companion to Drizzt. With Drizzt's help, Wulfgar will grow from a feral child to a man with the heart of a dwarf, the instincts of a savage, and the soul of a hero. But it will take even more than that to defeat the corrupt wizard who wields the demonic power of Crenshininbon--the fabled Crystal Shard.

The Crystal Shard is first book in the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the fourth book in the Legend of Drizzt series.

The epic tale of everyone's favorite dark elf reaches new heights when Drizzt and his companions set out to reclaim a lost dwarven stronghold

Drizzt Do'Urden still struggles with his own inner voices, voices that call him back to the pitless depths of the Underdark. But louder still are the voices of his newfound friends Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis--and the call of a dream that, at long last, Bruenor has decided to fulfill.

Long ago, Bruenor and his people were driven from their home in Mithral Hall by a shadow dragon of the Underdark. Now, Bruenor is determined to reclaim his homeland and his rightful seat as its king. Aided by the combined might of his friends, Bruenor sets out on a treacherous quest for Mithral Hall, finding obstacles at every turn. But despite the terrors of the Trollmoors and the racism aimed at Drizzt, the group continues to fight--together.

Streams of Silver is the second book in the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the fifth book in the Legend of Drizzt series.

Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar embark on a perilous mission to rescue their halfling friend in this action-packed finale of the Icewind Dale Trilogy

Artemis Entreri has taken Regis back to his former master, Pasha Pook--but Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar are fast on the assassin's heels. Armed with the scimitar Twinkle, Drizzt defeats a banshee and acquires an enchanted artifact that masks its wearer's true identity. With Drizzt now disguised as a normal elf, the duo continues their journey, traveling from Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate, and beyond, in search of their friend.

Meanwhile, Entreri is always one step ahead, aided by the magical gem Regis once stole from Pasha Pook. Together, Regis' captors thwart Drizzt and Wulfgar's mission at every turn, cornering them into battles with pirates, treks through the Calimshan deserts, and encounters with otherwordly monsters. But will it be enough to stop them from rescuing Regis?

The Halfling's Gem is the third book in the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the sixth book in the Legend of Drizzt series.

The sorceress Frostflower has the power to guide the lightning through the air...and to leave her body to roam the Tanglelands. But her fellow traveller and fellow sorcerer Windbourne, blamed for the murder of a farmer-priest, carries a monstrous guilt that saps his powers and threatens their lives. Led by the valiant warrior Thorn, Frostflower and Windbourne begin the dangerous journey to Five Roads Crossing, where the mourning High Priestess lies in wait...

For nearly two years, Cade has been rejecting his Fae gift, his prescient Elsewhens--simply refusing to see or experience them. But the strain is driving a wedge between him and his theater troupe, Touchstone, and making him erratic on stage and off. It takes his best friend Mieka to bully Cade into accepting the visions again. But when Cade finally looks into the possible futures, he sees a royal castle blowing up, though his vision does not tell him who is responsible. But he knows that if it is in his visions, he can take action to stop it from happening. And when he finally discovers the truth, he takes the knowledge to the only man in the Kingdom who would believe him: his deadly enemy the Archduke.

Melanie Rawn's delightful creation of the world of Albeyn is a place where the magical races have joined with humans in a melting pot of powers, and everyone loves the theater of magic. In Window Wall, her irrepressible cast of characters mature--at least a little. Not that they'll ever settle down.

Griffins lounged all around them, inscrutable as cats, brazen as summer. They turned their heads to look at Kes out of fierce, inhuman eyes. Their feathers, ruffled by the wind that came down the mountain, looked like they had been poured out of light; their lion haunches like they had been fashioned out of gold. A white griffin, close at hand, looked like it had been made of alabaster and white marble and then lit from within by white fire. Its eyes were the pitiless blue-white of the desert sky.Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. The course of Kes' life seems set: she'll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer for the village of Minas Ford, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she's content with that path -- or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human... or a healer who can be made into something not quite human.

A very unusual house...Eddy and Eleanor Hall have always known that their family was a bit out of the ordinary. After all, they live in one of the most remarkable houses in all of Concord. But they never guessed just how extraordinary their house really is, or what tremendous secrets about their family's past it holds. That is, until they discover the magical attic room with its beautiful stained-glass window, abandoned toys, and two perfectly made-up, empty beds that seem to be waiting, perhaps for two children just like themselves...

Taking place in the world of Cassandra Rose Clarke's Magic of Blood and Sea, this is the story of a would-be witch who embarks on an adventure filled with intrigue, mystery, mermaids, and magic.

Hanna has spent her life hearing about the adventures of her namesake Ananna, the lady pirate, and assassin Naji, and dreams to have some adventures of her own.

One day when Hanna is with her apprentice--a taciturn fisherman called Kolur--the boat is swept wildly off course during a day of storms and darkness. In this strange new land, Kolur hires a stranger to join the crew and, rather than heading home, sets a course for the dangerous island of Jadanvar. As Hanna meets a secretive merboy--and learns that Kolur has a deadly past--she soon realizes that wishing for adventures can be deadly... because those wishes might come true.

This is an omnibus version consisting of The Wizard's Promise and The Nobleman's Revenge.

Steward is a Beta -- a clone. In his memories, he's an elite commando for an orbital policorp -- but because his Alpha never did a brain-scan update, Steward's memories are fifteen years out of date... and in those fifteen years, everything has changed.

An interstellar war destroyed the company that held his allegiance. His wife has divorced him, along with the second wife that he can't even remember. Most of his comrades died in a useless battle on a world called Sheol, and those who survived are irrevocably scarred. An alien race has arrived and become the center of a complex and deadly intrigue.

And someone has murdered him.

With their usual skill, Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have taken ideas left behind by Frank Herbert and filled them with living characters and a true sense of wonder. Where Paul of Dune picked up the saga directly after the events of Dune, The Winds of Dune begins after the events of Dune Messiah.

Paul has walked off into the sand, blind, and is presumed dead. Jessica and Gurney are on Caladan; Alia is trying to hold the Imperial government together with Duncan; Mohiam dead at the hands of Stilgar; Irulan imprisoned. Paul’s former friend, Bronso of Ix, now seems to be leading opposition to the House of Atreides. Herbert and Anderson’s newest book in this landmark series will concentrate on these characters as well the growing battle between Jessica, and her daughter, Alia.

Max knows what trusting the wrong person can cost you. Her former friend Giselle, a powerful witch, enslaved Max years ago, turning her into a Shadowblade -- a deadly warrior compelled to fight for Giselle. But there's more at stake now than Max's thirst for revenge. The Guardians, overseers of the magical world, have declared war on humanity and on any witches not standing with them. Max and Giselle have come to an uneasy truce in order to protect what's left of Horngate, their coven's home. Max would do anything for Horngate -- even give herself over to a mysterious otherworldly creature in the nearby mountains in exchange for his help. But first, she intends to save the mortal family she left behind. And Alexander, the Shadowblade warrior who could be her closest ally or her deadliest enemy, is going with her.

On a road trip into the unknown, Max and Alexander face wild magic, desperate enemies, and battles that bruise both body and soul. But the greatest challenge will come from unexpected revelations that test everything Max believes about who she is -- and where her loyalties lie.

Two queens, two concubines, six princes. A single hidden blade.

The imperial palace -- full of ambitious royals, sly gossip, and unforeseen perils -- is perhaps the most dangerous place in the Empire of Zhaon. Komor Yala, lady-in-waiting to the princess of the vanquished kingdom of Khir, has only her wits and her hidden blade to protect herself and her charge, who was sacrificed in marriage to the enemy as a hostage for her conquered people's good behavior, to secure a tenuous peace.

But the Emperor is aging, and the Khir princess and her lady-in-waiting soon find themselves pawns in the six princes' deadly schemes for the throne -- and a single spark could ignite fresh rebellion in Khir.

Then, the Emperor falls ill -- and a far bloodier game begins...

Since the beginning Jane Hawk has been resolute in her quest to take down the influential architects of an accelerating operation to control every level of society via an army of mind-altered citizens. At first, only Jane stood against the "Arcadian" conspirators, but slowly others have emerged to stand with her, even as there are troubling signs that the "adjusted" people are beginning to spin viciously out of control.

Jane will require all her resources - and more - as she confronts those at the malevolent, impregnable center of power as she wages her final battle against a terrifying conspiracy - for vengeance, for justice, and for humanity's freedom.

The fourth omnibus edition of the classic science fiction of A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes books, with four full length novels and six interconnected short stories in this renowned SF saga. Pipe-smoking, action-loving spaceship commander Lieutenant John Grimes (think Captain Kirk with more of a navy, salty attitude) moves out of the Federation navy and finds his true calling adventuring along the spaceways of the galactic rim.

Number four in the collected adventures of the legendary John Grimes of the Galactic Rim series, including four novels:

• The Anarch Lords: John Grimes' short career as a somewhat benevolent space pirate is over, but he has sunk even lower, becoming a politician. He's now the governor of a planet of anarchists, where term limits are unnecessary, what with all the assassinations taking place.
• The Last Amazon: Back on Sparta, the formerly all-male planet, Grimes is waiting for his own ship to arrive when he's caught up in yet another revolution--and you can't tell the good guys (or gals) without a program.
• The Wild Ones: Back on Earth was the last place that Grimes expected to be. Another thing he hadn't expected was accusations of witchcraft being taken seriously.
• Catch the Star Winds: An experimental sailing ship of space was intended to exceed the speed of light. Then strange things happened involving time itself, and the crew wasn't sure they would ever see home, or their home time, again.

Plus six interrelated short stories starring the indefatigable John Grimes, rounding out a large volume of space adventure with a dash of humor, and a likable hero who always gamely manages to muddle through...

Where once the mighty Kane has passed, no one who lives forgets. Now, down the trail of past battles, Kane travels again. To the ruins of a devastated city peopled only with half-men and the waif they call their queen. To the half-burnt tavern where a woman Kane wronged long ago holds his child in keeping for the Devil. To the cave kingdom of the giants where glory and its aftermath await discovery. To the house of death itself where Kane retrieves a woman in love.

The past, the future, the present - all these are one for Kane as he travels through the centuries.

Table of Contents:

• "Undertow"
• "Two Suns Setting"
• "The Dark Muse"
• "Raven's Eyrie"
• "Lynortis Reprise"
• "Sing a Last Song of Valdese"

Rod was a television reporter with the ultimate gimmick. Thanks to the marvels of microsurgery, TV cameras were implanted in his eyes. He could broadcast people's actions without them even knowing it. But when he was forced to spy on a dying woman, he deliberately blinded himself by overloading his sensitive circuits.

Rod thought that he could opt out of the tough choice that society was forcing him to make. He was wrong, of course. Dead wrong...

Travelers to the village where Kote runs an inn are rare, but those who've shown up lately have brought bad news. A sort of demonic spider attacks a local, and then Kote rescues a wandering scholar, bringing him to the inn to recover. The man recognizes Kote as the legendary hero Kvothe and begs him to reveal the reality behind all the legends.

The prelude to the upcoming Legend of the Five Rings series.

This novel introduces new characters and settings based on the events in the Legend of the Five Rings: The Spirit Wars card set. This book also sets up the story for future novels in the upcoming series The Four Winds Saga.

The Clan War is over. The danger is not.

Once the greatest samurai in all Rokugan, Toturi has managed to hold the Empire together despite warring clans and internal treacheries. But nothing has prepared him for the hordes of vile spirits ravaging his beloved realm.

As the Spirit Wars rage, Toturi and his children are the only hope for Rokugan.

The Emperor is Dead.

The Steel Throne, seat of imperial power in Rokugan, sits empty. Ambition wars with justice and deception with truth as the emperor's heirs seek to gain the favor of the Clans. The fate of the Empire walks the edge of a blade, and before all is lost, the Lady of hte Sword must step forward to restore honor to a land in need.

The Steel Throne Sits Empty...

Rokugan stands on the brink of chaos. As his brothers and sister seek the favor of the clans, the illegitimate son Akodo Kaneka forsakes grasping for power and takes up a new quest--defending the helpless and destroying those who ravage the common people. But as his world crumbles about him, he discovers that no son of Toturi can escape his destiny.

Darkness Grows in the Empire...

Naseru, known as "The Anvil," will stop at nothing to sit upon the Throne of Rokugan. When dark forces rise in the City of Night, he must act swiftly. To save his beloved Empire, Naseru must learn to wield the most unlikely weapon of all -- justice.

This concluding title to The Four Winds Saga explores a different character's perspective on the events taking place in the series. The overall storyline is based on the Gold Edition set for the Legend of the Five Rings trading card game released by AEG. The ending of this title will actually be decided by the Legend of the Five Rings readers and fans in a tournament during the Summer of 2003, allowing players to have direct impact on novel content.

One of our most enduring, universal myths is that of the Green Man-the spirit who stands for Nature in its most wild and untamed form, a man with leaves for hair who dwells deep within the mythic forest. Through the ages and around the world, the Green Man and other nature spirits have appeared in stories, songs, and artwork, as well as many beloved fantasy novels, including Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Now Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, the acclaimed editors of over twenty anthologies, have gathered some of today's finest writers of magical fiction to interpret the spirits of nature in short stories and poetry. Charles Vess (Stardust) brings his stellar eye and brush to the decorations, and Windling provides an introduction exploring Green Man symbolism and forest myth.

The Green Man will become required reading for teenagers and adults alike-not only for fans of fantasy fiction, but for anyone interested in mythology and the mysteries of the wilderness.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Introduction: About the Green Man and Other Forest Lore - essay by Terri Windling
• Going Wodwo - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Grand Central Park - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Daphne - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Among the Leaves So Green - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Song of the Cailleach Bheur - poem by Jane Yolen
• Hunter's Moon - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Charlie's Away - novelette by Midori Snyder
• A World Painted by Birds - novelette by Katherine Vaz
• Grounded - novelette by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Overlooking - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• Fee, Fie, Foe, et Cetera - novelette by Gregory Maguire
• Joshua Tree - novelette by Emma Bull
• Ali Anugne O Chash (The Boy Who Was) - shortstory by Carolyn Dunn
• Remnants - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• The Pagodas of Ciboure - novelette by M. Shayne Bell
• Green Men - poem by Bill Lewis
• The Green Word - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• About the Editors - essay by uncredited
• About the Artist - essay by uncredited

Faeries, or creatures like them, can be found in almost every culture the world over-benevolent and terrifying, charming and exasperating, shifting shape from country to country, story to story, and moment to moment. In The Faery Reel, acclaimed anthologists Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have asked some of today's finest writers of fantastic fiction for short stories and poems that draw on the great wealth of world faery lore and classic faery literature. This companion to the World Fantasy Award-winner and Locus bestseller The Green Man is edgy, provocative, and thoroughly magical. Like the faeries themselves.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Introduction: The Faeries - essay by Terri Windling
• The Boys of Goose Hill - (1991) - poem by Charles de Lint
• CATNYP - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Elvenbrood - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Your Garnet Eyes - shortstory by Katherine Vaz
• Tengu Mountain - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Faery Handbag - novelette by Kelly Link
• The Price of Glamour - novelette by Steve Berman
• The Night Market - shortstory by Holly Black
• Never Never - novelette by Bruce Glassco
• Screaming for Faeries - novelette by Ellen Steiber
• Immersed in Matter - novelette by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Undine - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Oakthing - novelette by Gregory Maguire
• Foxwife - novelette by Hiromi Goto
• The Dream Eaters - novelette by A. M. Dellamonica
• The Faery Reel - poem by Neil Gaiman
• The Shooter at the Heartrock Waterhole - novelette by Bill Congreve
• The Annals of Eelin-Ok - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• De La Tierra - shortstory by Emma Bull
• How to Find Faery - poem by Nan Fry
• Further Reading - essay by uncredited
• About the Editors - essay by uncredited
• About the Illustrator - essay by uncredited

Coyote. Anansi. Brer Rabbit. Trickster characters have long been a staple of folk literature. Twenty-six authors, including Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Charles de Lint (Little (Grrl) Lost), Ellen Klages, (The Green Glass Sea), Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters), Patricia A, McKillip (Ombria in Shadow), and Jane Yolen, have crafted stories and poems drawing from cultures and traditions all over the world--each surprising, engrossing, and thought provoking. Terri Windling provides a comprehensive introduction to the trickster myths of the world, and the entire book is highlighted by the remarkable decorations of Charles Vess.

The Coyote Road, like its companions The Green Man (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Faery Reel (a World Fantasy Award Finalist), is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary fantasy fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling
• One Odd Shoe - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• Coyote Woman - poem by Carolyn Dunn
• Wagers of Gold Mountain - shortstory by Steve Berman
• The Listeners - shortstory by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Realer Than You - shortstory by Christopher Barzak
• The Fiddler of Bayou Teche - shortstory by Delia Sherman
• A Tale for the Short Days - shortstory by Richard Bowes
• Friday Night at St. Cecilia's - shortstory by Ellen Klages
• The Fortune-Teller - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• How Raven Made His Bride - poem by Theodora Goss
• Crow Roads - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• The Chamber Music of Animals - shortstory by Katherine Vaz
• Uncle Bob Visits - shortstory by Caroline Stevermer
• Uncle Tompa - poem by Midori Snyder
• Cat of the World - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Honored Guest - shortstory by Ellen Kushner
• Always the Same Story - shortstory by Elizabeth E. Wein
• The Señorita and the Cactus Thorn - shortstory by Kim Antieau
• Black Rock Blues - shortstory by Will Shetterly
• The Constable of Abal - shortstory by Kelly Link
• A Reversal of Fortune - shortstory by Holly Black
• God Clown - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• The Other Labyrinth - shortstory by Jedediah Berry
• The Dreaming Wind - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Kawaku Anansi Walks the World's Web - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change - novelette by Kij Johnson
• Further Reading - essay by uncredited
• About the Editors - essay by uncredited
• About the Illustrator - essay by uncredited

What do werewolves, vampires, and the Little Mermaid have in common? They are all shapechangers. In The Beastly Bride, acclaimed editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling bring together original stories and poems from a stellar lineup of authors including Peter S. Beagle, Ellen Kushner, Jane Yolen, Lucius Shepard, and Tanith Lee, as well as many new, diverse voices. Terri Windling provides a scholarly, yet accessible introduction, and Charles Vess's decorations open each story. From Finland to India, the Pacific Northwest to the Hamptons, shapechangers are part of our magical landscape and The Beastly Bride is sure to be one of the most acclaimed anthologies of the year.

Table of Contents:

• "Island Lake" by E. Catherine Tobler
• "The Puma's Daughter" by Tanith Lee
• "Map of Seventeen" by Christopher Barzak
• "The Selkie Speaks" by Delia Sherman
• "Bear's Bride" by Johanna Sinisalo
• "The Abominable Child's Tale" by Carol Emshwiller
• "The Hikikomori" by Hiromi Goto
• "The Comeuppance of Creegus Maxin" by Gregory Frost
• "Ganesha" by Jeffrey Ford
• "The Elephant's Bride" by Jane Yolen
• "The Children of Cadmus" by Ellen Kushner
• "The White Doe Mourns Her Childhood" by Jeanine Hall Gailey
• "The White Doe's Love Song" by Jeanine Hall Gailey
• "The White Doe Decides" by Jeanine Hall Gailey
• "Coyote and Valorosa" by Terra L. Gearheart
• "One Thin Dime" by Stewart Moore
• "The Monkey Bride" by Midori Snyder
• "Pishaach" by Shweta Narayan
• "The Salamander Fire" by Marly Youmans
• "The Margay's Children" by Richard Bowes
• "Thumbleriggery and Fledglings" by Steve Berman
• "The Flock" by Lucius Shepard
• "The Children of the Shark God" by Peter Beagle
• "Rosina" by Nan Fry

There is no peace in the season of the Red Emperor.

Traumatized by their escape from Bassa, Lilong and Danso have found safety in a vagabond colony on the edge of the emperor's control. But time is running out on their refuge. A new bounty makes every person a threat, and whispers of magic have roused those eager for their own power.

Lilong is determined to return the Diwi--the ibor heirloom--to her people. It's the only way to keep it safe from Esheme's insatiable desire. The journey home will be long, filled with twists and treachery, unexpected allies and fabled enemies.

But surviving the journey is the least of their problems.

Something ancient and uncontrollable awakens. Trouble heads for Bassa, and the continent of Oon will need more than ibor to fix what's coming.

In a long-ago war, humankind set off a devastating ecological disaster. Thriving industrial societies disappeared. The earth is slowly submerging beneath the expanding Sea of Corruption, an enormous toxic forest that creates mutant insects and releases a miasma of poisonous spores into the air.

At the periphery of the sea, tiny kingdoms are scattered on tiny parcels of land. Here lies the Valley of the Wind, a kingdom of barely 500 citizens; a nation given fragile protection from the decaying sea's poisons by the ocean breezes; and home to Nausicaä.

Nausicaä, a young princess, has an emphatic bond with the giant Ohmu insects and animals of every creed. She fights to create tolerance, understanding and patience among empires that are fighting over the world's remaining precious natural resources.

Princess Nausicaä has left the Valley of the Wind to join Princess Kushana's forces. However, Nausicaä gets separated from the Torumekian fleet and finds herself face to face with the mysterious Ohmu, who open their hearts to her. But will Nausicaä be able to interpret their urgent warning about the southern forest? And what of the war which rages all around her?

Nausicaä finds herself on the edge of despair as she comes to realize the full extent of the ecological destruction that's ravaging Earth. Meanwhile, Queen Kushana of Torumekia plots to lead her troops back to the imperial capital and seize the crown. Nausicaä agrees to join Kushana and her people in the fight against the Doroks and her scheming brothers.

A monk warns Nausicaä that omens of an apocalypse, Daikaisho, will appear soon and the forest will boil over to cover the land. His predictions appear to be coming true when she arrives in the Forest in the South and discovers Lord Miralupa has developed mutant spores for biological warfare, but the mould begins growing uncontrollably and there's no antidote.

Emperor Namulith wants to unite the warring Dorok and Torumekian empires, but needs Pricess Kushana's cooperation to do so. Meanwhile, a mutant strain of mold has spawned and is consuming everything in its path!

Nausicaä embarks on an inner, spiritual journey to the heart of the Sea of Corruption, where she discovers its surprising secret. She returns to the land of the living, compelled to share her discovery, but Nausicaä accidentally awakens a God Warrior from its stasis.

Now, Princess Nausicaä and the God Warrior, a biotechnological abomination of the war known as the Seven Days of Fire, embark on a journey to the Crypt of Shuwa to seal away the terrible weaponry hidden within. But everyone seems to be conspiring to prevent Nausicaä from carrying out her mission, even the guardian of the crypt himself!

De Lint's first adult fantasy novel in 8 years weaves a rich tapestry of story with classic CdL elegance.

Young Thomas Corn Eyes sees into the otherworld, but all he wants to do is get off the rez. Steve Cole escaped from his rock star life to disappear into the desert and mountains. Fifteen-year-old barrio kid Sadie Higgins has been discarded once too often. Blogger Leah Hardin needs to leave Newford, come to terms with the loss of her best friend, and actually engage with her life. When these lives collide in the Hierro Maderas Mountains, they must struggle to escape their messy pasts and find a way to carve a future for themselves.

They don't just have to learn how to survive. They have to learn how to fly.

Today, Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are counted among the best science fiction writers of the twentieth century.

In their Noon Universe novels, they imagined twenty-second-century Earth as a space-faring communist utopia, devoted to guiding the progress of civilization on alien worlds. But as the authors became increasingly disillusioned with life in the Soviet Union, their Noon Universe stories grew darker and more complex as well.

The Waves Extinguish the Wind provides the epic conclusion to the Noon Universe saga, as eighty-nine-year-old Maxim Kammerer looks back at his most earth-shattering investigation, which brought an entire era of human civilization to an end. Searching for evidence that the mysterious alien Wanderers were interfering in Earth's development, Kammerer and his young trainee Toivo Glumov discovered a deeper and more disturbing secret within humanity itself.

This new translation by Daniels Umanovskis joins updated editions of Hard to Be a God, The Inhabited Island, and The Beetle in the Anthill to bring the saga of the Noon Universe to its fitting end: a search for truth and answers in a universe that provides only questions.