Best of
Speculative-Fiction

2002

The Grail Quest Trilogy (The Archers Tale, Vagabond, Heretic)


Bernard Cornwell - 2002
    Cornwell's Thomas of Hookton Three-Book For a limited time get three of Bernard Cornwell's works of historical fiction in one easy-to-order package, including Cornwell's latest, Heretic.

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories


Ursula K. Le Guin - 2002
    Le Guin has, in each story and novel, created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

Stories of Your Life and Others


Ted Chiang - 2002
    Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far-plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life . . . and others.

The Golden Age


John C. Wright - 2002
    Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion celebrating the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets an old man who accuses him of being an imposter, and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. Is he indeed an exile from himself? He can't resist investigating, even though to do so could mean the loss of his inheritance, his very place in society. His quest must be to regain his true identity and fulfill the destiny he chose for himself.The Golden Age is just the beginning of Phaethon's story, which will continue in The Phoenix Exultant, forthcoming from Tor.

Bubba Ho-Tep


Joe R. Lansdale - 2002
    Stuck in an East Texas old folks home, they must face off against a redneck mummy.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Mark of the Cat and Year of the Rat


Andre Norton - 2002
     In Mark of the Cat, Andre Norton presents a novel of magic and adventure- the unforgettable story of a boy’s journey of discovery, from trial to triumph. Hynkkel, commanded by his father to travel into the unknown in a test of survival, starts out with almost nothing, but the red-gold sandcat pendent worn around his neck as a reminder of his slain cat. His trek will bring him to a cave where he will enter the secret world of the cat…to a trail that will mark his destiny. In Year of the Rat, we find the natural water sources of the five queendoms of the Outer Region drying up. Hynkkel, not fully recovered from his previous trials, must now find a way to stop this loss and recover the missing water. To do so he must first find out who, or what, is causing the water loss and where it is going. When he and Murri, his sandcat, set out on their journey they make another, even more startling discovery. A being of ancient evil has returned and has brought with it, hoards and hoards of deadly desert rats, bent on one thing – to destroy the queendoms one by one. Can Hynkkel both find the missing water and stop the rats before all succumb to the Year of the Rat?

The Speed of Dark


Elizabeth Moon - 2002
    Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Unfortunately, there will be a generation left behind. For members of that missed generation, small advances will be made. Through various programs, they will be taught to get along in the world despite their differences. They will be made active and contributing members of society. But they will never be normal.Lou Arrendale is a member of that lost generation, born at the wrong time to reap the awards of medical science. Part of a small group of high-functioning autistic adults, he has a steady job with a pharmaceutical company, a car, friends, and a passion for fencing. Aside from his annual visits to his counselor, he lives a low-key, independent life. He has learned to shake hands and make eye contact. He has taught himself to use “please” and “thank you” and other conventions of conversation because he knows it makes others comfortable. He does his best to be as normal as possible and not to draw attention to himself. But then his quiet life comes under attack. It starts with an experimental treatment that will reverse the effects of autism in adults. With this treatment Lou would think and act and be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself? Would he still love the same classical music–with its complications and resolutions? Would he still see the same colors and patterns in the world–shades and hues that others cannot see? Most importantly, would he still love Marjory, a woman who may never be able to reciprocate his feelings? Would it be easier for her to return the love of a “normal”?There are intense pressures coming from the world around him–including an angry supervisor who wants to cut costs by sacrificing the supports necessary to employ autistic workers. Perhaps even more disturbing are the barrage of questions within himself. For Lou must decide if he should submit to a surgery that might completely change the way he views the world . . . and the very essence of who he is.Thoughtful, provocative, poignant, unforgettable, The Speed of Dark is a gripping exploration into the mind of an autistic person as he struggles with profound questions of humanity and matters of the heart.From the Hardcover edition.

The Last Defender of Camelot


Roger Zelazny - 2002
    One of the most acclaimed writers in the field, Zelazny's rare ability to mix fantastical dream imagery with the real-life hardware of science fiction has won him more than a score of Hugo and Nebula nominations. He creates characters who live to haunt the reader beyond the page and who inhabit worlds both enchanting and disturbing--dazzling and memorable.7 • Introduction (The Last Defender of Camelot) • essay by Robert Siverberg11 • Comes Now the Power • (1966) • short story by Roger Zelazny18 • For a Breath I Tarry • (1966) • novelette by Roger Zelazny65 • The Engine at Heartspring's Center • (1974) • short story by Roger Zelazny76 • Halfjack • (1979) • short story by Roger Zelazny83 • Home is the Hangman • [Nemo] • (1975) • novella by Roger Zelazny165 • Permafrost • (1986) • novelette by Roger Zelazny195 • LOKI 7281 • (1984) • short story by Roger Zelazny204 • Mana from Heaven • [Magic Goes Away] • (1983) • novelette by Roger Zelazny250 • 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1985) • novella by Roger Zelazny329 • Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love • [Kalifriki] • (1992) • novella by Roger Zelazny388 • The Last Defender of Camelot • (1979) • novelette by Roger Zelazny

The Paths of the Dead


Steven Brust - 2002
    Deprived at a single blow of their Emperor, of the Orb that is the focus of the Empire's power, of their capital city with its Imperial bureaucracy, and of a great many of their late fellow citizens, the surviving Dragaerans have been limping through a long Interregnum, bereft even of the simple magic and sorcery they were accustomed to use in everyday life.Now the descendants and successors of the great adventurers Khaavren, Pel, Aerich, and Tazendra are growing up in this seemingly diminished world, convinced, like their elders, that the age of adventures is over and nothing interesting will ever happen to them. They are, of course, wrong . . .For even deprived of magic, Dragaerans fight, plot, and conspire as they breathe, and so do their still-powerful gods. The enemies of the Empire prowl at its edges, inscrutable doings are up at Dzur Mountain . . . and, unexpectedly, a surviving Phoenix Heir, young Zerika, is discovered—setting off a chain of swashbuckling events that will remake the world yet again.

The Borrible Trilogy


Michael de Larrabeiti - 2002
    They are missions combining excitement, violence, low cunning, betrayal, loyalty, greed, generosity, cowardice and insane bravery.This is an epic fantasy adventure that is both thought-provoking and thrilling until the very last second, set against the backdrop of an all too familiar yet weirdly different urban landscape.For the first time, Michael de Larrabeiti's much-loved, classic novels The Borribles, The Borribles Go for Broke and Across the Dark Metropolis are brought together in one book.

Exile of Lucifer


D. Brian Shafer - 2002
    Follow Lucifer's deceptive plans to rule over Earth and his inevitable fall from grace.

Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers


Kage Baker - 2002
    In these tales, sci-fi fans follow the secret activities of the Company's field agents--once human, now centuries-old time-traveling cyborgs--as they attempt to retrieve history's lost treasures.

The Colour Out of Space: Tales of Cosmic Horror by Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen, Poe, and Other Masters of the Weird


Douglas ThinHenry James - 2002
    An atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; a hint of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space." --H. P. Lovecraft This new collection features some of the greatest masters of extreme terror, among them Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Bram Stoker, and Henry James, and includes such classic works as Arthur Machen's "The White People," Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows," and of course Lovecraft's own weird and hideous "The Colour Out of Space." Contents: Edgar Allan Poe, "MS. Found in a Bottle"Bram Stoker, "The Squaw"Ambrose Bierce, "Moxon's Master"Ambrose Bierce, "The Damned Thing"Ambrose Bierce, "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"R. W. Chambers, "The Repairer of Reputations"M. P. Shiel, "The House of Sounds"Arthur Machen, "The White People"Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows"Henry James, "The Jolly Corner"Walter de la Mare, "Seaton's Aunt"H. P. Lovecraft, "The Colour Out of Space"A Note on the Selection by D. Thin

Counterfeit Unrealities


Philip K. Dick - 2002
    Scramble suits. Poison tongue darts. Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) may have invented more wildly imaginative creations per novel than any of his peers. An eccentric whose mind danced on the blurry edge between illusion and reality, madness and metaphysics, he produced a body of work that no science fiction reader should ignore. Lacked with humor, compassion, irony and paranoia, the four novels n Counterfeit Unrealities are among his best work.Contains Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep [aka Blade Runner], The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Solitaire


Kelley Eskridge - 2002
    Convicted of a crime she did not commit, former Hope child Jackal serves a terrible solitary imprisonment sentence and is eventually abandoned in a strange country where other people like herself help her learn the truth about her imprisonment.

A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease


Jonathan Safran Foer - 2002
    

The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories


Jeffrey Ford - 2002
    One tale recounts the author's search for a Kafka story that can only be found in an elusive and quite possibly cursed edition. Other stories feature humans dressing in full-body protective exoskins in the personas of old Hollywood movie stars to barter old Earth movies for an alien aphrodisiac and a young boy coming to terms with creation and moulding his own man out of detritus from a nearby forest. In the title story, a great fantasy writer loses touch with the world he has created and pleads with his young assistant to help him visualise the story's end and enable him to complete his greatest novel ever.

The Portable Promised Land


Touré - 2002
    In dazzling language and startling images, Touré invents a place called Soul City, America’s most miraculous metropolis. In an astonishing array of voices and styles, The Portable Promised Land celebrates the most soulful corners of America while questioning the very nature of Blackness.Among Touré’s unforgettable characters are the Right Revren Daddy Love, Brooklyn’s favorite sexually wayward preacher (“A Hot Time at the Church of Kentucky Fried Souls and the Spectacular Final Sunday Sermon of the Right Revren Daddy Love”), a boy with magic Air Jordans that let him fly above the ball court (“Falcon Malone Can Fly No Mo”), a child who can disappear into Romare Bearden paintings (“Solomon’s Big Day: A Children’s Story”), mystified parents who discover their beloved little boy has somehow turned into a little Black Sambo (“The Sambomorphosis”), and Huggy Bear Jackson, whose 1983 Cadillac Cutlass Supreme custom convertible’s supernatural stereo plays only Stevie Wonder songs (“The Steviewondermobile”).With a fearlessness and style that recall the work of Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison, Touré captures, through lyrical rhythms and relentless inventiveness, an America where magic can happen and Black is beautiful. The Portable Promised Land marks the entrance of a new and wildly compelling voice to American fiction.

Picture Maker


Penina Keen Spinka - 2002
    Three plagues devastated Europe, killing Europeans by the hundreds of thousands. But in North America, born into a powerful clan of women, Picture Maker is gifted with the ability to etch drawings that foreshadow the future. Her prophecy of war saves her beloved Ganeogaono people, but leads to her own brutal capture by the Algonquins. Through her courage and resilient spirit, and aided by a remarkable storyteller, she escapes her captors and finds refuge with the Naskapi, a peace-loving tribe. Her journey does not end there, however; Picture Maker’s travels take her across North America and into the distant corners of the western hemisphere where she ultimately meets Halvard, a Norse hunter who holds the key to the riddle of her birth. Together, they sail to Greenland, where Halvard’s way of life comes under attack and Picture Maker is shunned as an outcast for her special gifts. Her fate comes full circle as she struggles to save her young daughter from being taken from her, as she was long ago torn from her own clan.A towering saga of adventure and survival, love and loss, Picture Maker brings the fourteenth century to life…from the Iroquois Wars that marked a land forever, to the Norse Invasions, and through the bloody rise of Christianity. It is a stunning achievement from an award-winning historical writer.

In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers


Caitlín R. Kiernan - 2002
    Meet Dancy Flammarion, an orphaned albino girl who talks to angels and is intent on ridding the world of monsters. But what happens when one of the monsters decides to use her for his own dark ends? In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers is award-winning fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan's first-ever novella, giving us a glimpse into the life of Dancy Flammarion shortly before her appearance in Kiernan's critically-acclaimed second novel, Threshold. This gritty yet decadent story of ghouls, corruption, and talking bears, draws us deeply into a world of madness and betrayal, forbidden appetites and deadly intrigue, and the light that shines from the most unlikely of heroes. In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers will include a full-color dustjacket and ten black and white interior illustrations by Dame Darcy! The limited edition will also include "On the Road to Jefferson," a previously unpublished chapbook available only with the novella, with cover art by Caitlín R. Kiernan.

Lion's Blood


Steven Barnes - 2002
    The survivors find themselves chained in the dark, filthy hold of a ship crossing the ocean to the New World, where they are sold into slavery. The powerful master of a vast Southern plantation purchases the 11-year-old Irish lad Aidan O'Dere. Yes, you read that right--in this alternate America, the South was colonized by black Africans, and the North by Vikings, who sell abducted Celts and Franks to the Southerners. Through his brilliant inversion of our history, author Steven Barnes examines the complex evils of slavery in a new light with Lion's Blood, an intelligent and exciting novel of freedom and bondage, battle and intrigue, sex and love, set in an America threatened by total war as Aztecs, Zulus, Moors, and whites clash. A Hugo Award and Cable Ace Award nominee, Steven Barnes has written 15 novels and 15 teleplays. --Cynthia Ward There is a sequel to this book called Zulu Heart

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisLeigh Kennedy - 2002
    New possibilities previously unimagined appear almost daily . . . and science fiction stories continue to explore those possibilities with delightful results:Collected in this anthology are such compelling stories as:"On K2 with Kanakaredes" by Dan Simmons. A relentlessly paced and absorbing tale set in the near future about three mountain climbers who must scale the face of K2 with some very odd company. "The Human Front" by Ken MacLeod. In this compassionate coming-of-age tale the details of life are just a bit off from things as we know them-and nothing is as it appears to be."Glacial" by Alastair Reynolds. A fascinating discovery on a distant planet leads to mass death and a wrenching mystery as spellbinding as anything in recent short fiction. The twenty-six stories in this collection imaginatively takes us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:Eleanor ArnasonChris BeckettMichael BlumleinMichael CassuttBrenda W. CloughPaul Di FilippoAndy DuncanCarolyn Ives GilmanJim GrimsleySimon IngsJames Patrick KellyLeigh KennedyNancy KressIan R. MacLeodKen MacLeodPaul J. McAuleyMaureen F. McHughRobert ReedAlastair ReynoldsGeoff RymanWilliam SandersDan SimmonsAllen M. SteeleCharles StrossMichael SwanwickHoward WaldropSupplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana


Lisa Lee - 2002
    A twist of fate forces a lone privateer ship and its crew to discover in this Graveyard a rift in the space-time continuum and a realm known as Morevi, a landlocked kingdom shrouded by jungles and mystery. This kingdom falls under the rule of Askana Moldarin, known in her realm as The Black Widow following her swift and bloody ascent to the throne. An archaic regime of hardship, cruelty and ruthlessness inspires young Askana Moldarin to lead a revolution. The downfall of the old government is duly replaced by a rule of women, Askana crowned First Queen of Morevi. In the dawn of this New Age, the predatory neighboring kingdom of Eyrie and hidden traitors in her own regime threaten to destroy everything she has won. She knows that her kingdom hangs in a delicate balance and that someone close to the throne is about to move against her. Askana, independent of council, seeks help outside of Morevi to reveal the conspiracy against her... Enter Rafe Rafton, captain of the Defiant. With a sum agreed upon, Rafe devises a plan to smuggle the queen and her personal guards out of the city walls. Once in Eyrie the captain would begin to play Askana's own counter-intrigue. but his trusted Eyriener connections double-cross him. He had taken precautions, but the privateer does not escape unscathed. The Defiant returns to England in hope of winning the support of King Henry the VIII, but now it falls upon Askana to save the life of Rafe Rafton, the one-time outlaw of her realm, now her link to a new world and powerful allies. As Askana traverses The Rift, movement against HouseMoldarin begins in Morevi. Accusations against the queen are led by a young lady of House Annaki, Min-Lu. She leads her own campaign against the Black Widow and rallies the Council of a hundred Turi into a fervor, claiming that Askana Moldarin is about to lead them into one of the bloodiest ages of their country. Following her address, Min-Lu shares a private audience with High Lord Ruain, an enigmatic ally from Eyrie. Their hushed voices reseolve a pledge to gain control of Morevi. With reports of Rafe and Askana as guests of the Tudor King, the High Lord Ruain journeys across The Rift to fulfill his own agenda, an agenda independent of Min-Lu's and carried out under his true identity...

Transhuman Space


David L. Pulver - 2002
    A strange new world is unfolding - nightmarish to some, utopian to others. Soon we'll have the power to reshape our children's genes, build machines that think, and upload our minds into computers. And Earth no longer confines us. Space tourism, mining the Moon and asteroids, a settlement on Mars: all are dreams poised to take wing. The universe of Transhuman Space is a synthesis of these two visions - a world in which ultra-technology and space travel fuse to forge a new destiny for mankind. Neither utopia nor dystopia, it is a place of hopes, fears, and new frontiers. Welcome to the Future

Sheep with Boots


Maritgen Matter - 2002
    Wolf is hungry and goes out, shivering, in search of a meal. He finds Sheep in a lonely barn. Wolf persuades Sheep to go outside with him, his mouth watering at the idea of some fresh mutton.Sheep has no idea what’s really going on, and he isn’t the slightest bit afraid. Finally, he’s found a friend.But can a wolf be anything other than a wolf? Can Sheep escape Wolf’s hungry plan?

A Shadow on the Glass and The Tower on the Rift


Ian Irvine - 2002
    

Twin Visions: The Magical Art of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell


Boris Vallejo - 2002
    This unique collection of over 120 fantasy paintings takes us into a magical universe, otherwise visited only in our dreams. In this sumptuous anthology, new fans of Boris and Julie will discover the beauty and sheer wonder of their paintings, while seasoned ones will find much to surprise and delight them. Charged with drama and eroticism, Boris and Julie have created enchanting visions of loveliness and terrifying nightmares side by side, beauty and the beast inhabiting realms of limitless possibility. This edition includes provocative paintings that were originally created for calendars and other commissions, as well as a selection of pictures from earlier in their careers that have never been featured in their books.

The Man Who Had Everything


Simon R. Green - 2002
    When Owen Deathstalker, unwilling head of his clan, seeks to avoid the perils of the Empire's warring factions, he unexpectedly finds a price on his head. He flees to Mistworld, where he begins to build an unlikely force to topple the throne. With the help of his crew, Deathstalker takes the first step on a far more dangerous journey to claim the role for which he has been destined since before his birth.

Dreams of the Compass Rose


Vera Nazarian - 2002
    Breathtaking vivid prose unveils a world beyond belief in this fantasy novel by Vera Nazaraian.

Janus


Andre Norton - 2002
    By Naill inexplicably begins to remember another life, in another time - a time when he was not human, but something else: a native of this world, in the days before its civilization fell.

The Unicorn's Secret Collection


Kathleen Duey - 2002
    To protect the mare and her magical foal, Heart must leave her village and embark on a quest that will not only reveal the unicorn's secret, but raise tantalizing mysteries about Heart's own history. Ages 7-10.Contents:MoonsilverThe silver threadThe silver braceletThe mountains of the moon

The Occult Detectives of C.J. Henderson


C.J. Henderson - 2002
    Teddy London were being read and enjoyed by fans around the world. Now, for the first time ever, the absolute best of his supernatural sleuthing tales have been brought together in one incredible collection. Join him in the pages of fright-filled compilation as he furthers the careers of Lin Carter's remarkable Anton Zarnak and H.P. Lovecraft's resilient Inspector Legrasse. Experience his haunting takes on the mythos worlds of both Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley. And immerse yourself in stores featuring all the characters of his London universe. Here are thirteen tales of the greatest otherworld investigators ever created--private eyes, college professors, police officers, and even TV reporters--tackling witches, werewolves, and every other terror that crawls, flies, or creeps through the night. It's the best stories ever from the reigning monarch of macabre mysteries!

The Brian Lumley Companion


Brian Lumley - 2002
    The Companion is illustrated with photographs from the author’s private collection and full-color reproductions of Hugo Award–winning artist Bob Eggleton’s eye-catching cover art for Lumley’s works. Contributors to The Brian Lumley Companion include some of today’s most noted experts on horror fiction, including W. Paul Ganley, founder of Weirdbook Press and two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award; Stephen Jones, coeditor of Horror: 100 Best Books and winner of multiple World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards; Robert M. Price, author of H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos and one of the most respected analysts of Lovecraftian fiction; Robert G. Weinberg, an acknowledged specialist in weird fiction, and Stanley Wiater, host of the TV series “Dark Dreamers.”In The Brian Lumley Companion, Lumley aficionados will find an overview of Lumley’s career, from his first short fiction up to the present day; essays comparing Lumley and H. P. Lovecraft, a lengthy interview with the author that delves into the heart of Lumley’s relationship with the writers and editors who inspired him and the fans who support him, and analyses of Lumley’s short fiction and novels. An interview with Bob Eggleton gives insight into the development of his striking covers for the Necroscope series and other Lumley works. This companion also includes complete listings of the first publications of each of Lumley’s novels, short fiction, and poetry. Major attractions are the detailed concordances that focus on individual novels and series, including the three Psychomech titles, the Dreamlands and Primal Lands series, and each volume in the Necroscope series.As a special treat, The Brian Lumley Companion includes three short short stories by Brian Lumley, works that have never before appeared in book form.

The Father Costume: Ben Marcus and Matthew Ritchie


Ben Marcus - 2002
    Witness a father who takes his two boys out to sea, in flight from some menace at home, thus launching their adventures in a strange and dangerous territory. Artist Matthew Ritchie's striking images blend scientific diagramming with vivid, colorful renderings of the apocalypse, while writer Ben Marcus's cold prose plumbs the inner workings of two boys caught out at sea with a father whose costumes grow increasingly menacing. In this collaborative work, Ritchie's and Marcus's shared obsessions of mythology, physics and ancient texts have produced a conjunction of text and image in which people themselves are merely costumes for the darker needs that drive them.

Lies & Ugliness


Brian Hodge - 2002
    While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Translating Mo'um


Cathy Park Hong - 2002
    Asian American Studies. Zoo --Ontology of Chang and Eng, The Original Siamese Twins --Rite of Passage --Helix --Assiduous Rant --Translating Pagaji --Scale --Body Builder --Melanin --Assimilation of Sitting --The Shameful Show of Tono Maria --During Bath --All the Aphrodisiacs --Not Henry Miller but Mother --On Splitting --Movement --Translating Michin'yun --To Collage a Beginning --Hottentot Venus --Androgynous Pronoun --The Scavenging --CAT Scan --Wing --Ablution --The Gatherer --Translating Mo'um --Timetable.

Witches' Brew


Yvonne JocksH.P. Lovecraft - 2002
    Be they good witches or bad witches, ancient sorcerers or modern-day Wiccans, their aura of magic, nature, and power is irresistible. Here, the greatest authors of all time are gathered together to stir up a little trouble. From Shakespeare’s Wyrd Sisters in Macbeth to Dean Koontz’s doddering old crone in “Snatcher” to Erica Jong’s Mother Goddess in “Smoke,” these works of prose and poetry capture the witch in all her guises: wicked, empowering, romantic, and pagan.No longer relegated to fairy tale villains, witches have become potent personifications of feminine power—and have found a place in every genre of writing.  So, leave your preconceived notions at the door and dive headfirst into Witches’ Brew, the ultimate collection of witch literature.Let the world’s greatest writers put you under a spell…Erica Jong • Dean Koontz • Louise Erdrich • William Shakespeare • Ursula K. Le Guin • Harlan Ellison • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle • Shirley Jackson • W.B. Yeats • Brothers Grimm • Ben Franklin • Emily Brontë • Louisa May Alcott • Ray Bradbury • Anton Chekhov • Emily Dickinson • H.P. Lovecraft • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Ambrose Bierce • H.P. Blavatsky • Mary Coleridge • Rosemary Edghill • P.N. Elrod • Anita Endrezze • Mary Wilkins Freeman • David Gerrold • M.V. Ingram • Mercedes Lackey • Cotton Mather • Charles Perrault • Kathryn Ptacek • Doreen Valiente • Evelyn Vaughn • Lady Wilde

The World-Thinker and Other Stories


Jack Vance - 2002
    (1951), The Absent Minded Professor (1953), The Devil on Salvation Bluff (1954), The Phantom Milkman (1955), Where Hesperus Falls (1955), A Practical Man's Guide (1956), and The House Lords (1956).This collection was first published as volume 1 of the Vance Integral Edition.

Urban Legends: 666 Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend...of a Friend…of a Friend


Thomas J. Craughwell - 2002
    We've all heard the one about the alligators that roam New York City's sewers, or how "Mikey" of Life Cereal fame died from eating Pop Rocks mixed with Coke. And what about the flustered parents who left their baby on the car roof, or the scuba diver who was found in the middle of a forest after a fire? These classic tall tales are featured here in all of their creepy glory along with hundreds of others, and they're guaranteed to amuse, enlighten, and intrigue, but be careful: they may stick in your mind forever.

A Fistful of Sky


Nina Kiriki Hoffman - 2002
    Real magic. As a teenager, a LaZelle undergoes "the Transition' —a severe illness that will either kill him or leave him with magical powers. If he's lucky, he gains a talent like shape-changing or wish-granting. If he's unlucky, he never experiences Transition. If he's especially unlucky, he undergoes Transition late, which increases his chances of dying. And if he survives, he will bear the burden of a dark, dangerous magic: the ability to cast only curses. And curse he must, for when a LaZelle doesn't use his magic, it kills him.In Nina Kiriki Hoffman's A Fistful of Sky, Gypsum LaZelle is unique among her brothers and sisters: she has not undergone Transition. She resigns herself to a mundane, magic-bereft existence as a college student. Then one weekend, when her family leaves her home alone, she becomes gravely ill... — Cynthia Ward

Technogenesis


Syne Mitchell - 2002
    And only Jaz can stop it from controlling the world.

The Essence of Stone


Beverly A. Hale - 2002
    Only then will he teach him the powerful magic he knows, and only when Kehan is himself a powerful sorcerer will the people of his village treat he and his mother with the respect that he so craves. His master orders him to accompany him on a quest. Their destination and purpose are cloaked in secrecy. Along the way Kehan will make new friends and enemies and face challenges on many levels, but will he every find the essence of stone?

Tyrant Moon


Elaine Corvidae - 2002
    Thraxis is an Athraskani wizard who created a magic jewel that would gift any mage with enormous power. A rogue wizard stole the jewel, using it to cast a death curse on Thraxis before fleeing to hide among the barbarian tribes. The Arrow that Flies the Farthest is the Champion of her clan-its most skilled warrior, whose ritual combats with other Champions were meant to prevent war among the clans. But war is unleashed nevertheless when her ambitious chieftain joins forces with the rogue Athraskani. Arrow's only hope of stopping the war seems to lie with Thraxis, who alone knows how to destroy the jewel he created. But can a pacifist wizard and a woman born to kill find the common ground needed to work together...before time runs out for them both?

A Working of Stars (Mageworlds)


Debra Doyle, James D. MacDonald - 2002
    The Great Working—the effort to do the unthinkable and reunite a galaxy long sundered by the Gap Between—remains incomplete, left unfinished in the aftermath of the dissolution of Arehkon’s Mage-Circle. But too much energy and too many lives have been poured into the Working already; and it cannot end so long as any of the Circle members remain alive and bound into it.

Trust


David Moody - 2002
    Perspectives are altered. Perceptions are changed. Nothing will ever be the same again. Is this a moment of deliverance for the human race, or the beginning of its end? Tom Winter thinks he knows, but if he's right, then seven billion other people are wrong.

I-O


Simon Logan - 2002
    It contains eight stories, none of which have been seen before, exploring a world of dead TV's, hallucinogenic chemicals, sad machines and concrete wastelands of scrap metal. The settings are as carcinogenic as a lethal poison, the characters constructed like semi-automatic pistols. Here the only future is that which is produced on the assembly line in one hundred thousand identical units from which you must choose. Welcome to the realm of the cybergoth - welcome to Science Friction.

Hades' Daughter


Sara Douglass - 2002
    Destroyed by revenge. Reborn in the darkest magic of all. THE TROY GAME. The ancient Aegean sorcery lives on.Theseus bested the Minotaur with the aid of Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth. So when Theseus betrays her, Ariadne turns her wrath upon him and all his world, the catastrophe strikes the Mediterranean. Thera explodes, Atlantis sinks below the waves, poisons fill the air, tidal waves inundate nations, entire peoples are destroyed.Amid the chaos, the great city of Troy falls, undone as much by Ariadne's revenge as by Greek cunning. Among the scattered Trojans wanders one man, Brutus, who carries with him the Troy Game, the greatest secret the western world has ever known. And Ariadne wants it – badly. As do her wicked daughter-heir successors.The Greek goddess, Artemis appears to Brutus and offers him a splendid and powerful future if only he can resurrect the Troy Game. Hungry for power and a home for his people, Brutus accepts her challenge. And so the Troy Game begins, on the shores of the Thames in ancient Iron Age Britain.But the malevolent Minotaur, Asterion, has escaped death and seeks to destroy the Game completely. And Cornelia, Brutus’ strange, unknowable wife, trails death in her wake.Everywhere lurks Ariadne’s legacy of hatred, carrying western Europe into a maelstrom of darkness

The DNA Cowboys Trilogy: The Quest of the DNA Cowboys/Synaptic Manhunt/The Neural Atrocity


Mick Farren - 2002
    With influences that range from Star Trek to Kung Fu, from the Marquis de Sade to Sam Peckinpah, Farren has created a bizarre universe populated with pre-teen dictators, huge twin-brained domestic lizards, and growing bio-computers tended by martial arts-practising monks. Farren let his imagination run wild and the results are awesome. Expect fanciful weapons, medieval jails, public hangings, Albert Speer architecture, gunfights, stiletto heels and femmes fatales in tight clothing, orgies, orgasms, and undefined monsters called Disruptors that suck up all life and logic. The Quest of the DNA Cowboys: Striding out of the small township of Pleasant Gap - reproduction pistols in their hands, portable generators at their belt - come Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys. They hit the long and winding trail through the molecular dissolution of the Nothings, teetering on the edge of non-existence, to Graveyard and beyond...Synaptic Manhunt: Brother Jeb Stuart Ho's mission will take him out into the sick, post-cataclysmic world, to the pleasure city of Litz, with its Sex-O-Mats, its Torture-Parlours, its genetically-bred courtesans, where Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys, have found their private hells.The Neural Atrocity: The all-knowing, all-providing computer at Stuff Central has made a critical error that could mean the end of human life. Against all its programming, the cloning plant at Stuff Central has supplied A.A. Catto - sadistic child-woman ruler of Quahal - with enough genetically-engineered soldiers to realise her dream of world conquest. The Brotherhood orders Jeb Stuart Ho to stop her.