Then the Preservers abandoned their creation - leaving behind their law, their bureaucracies...and their trillions of machines, awake or slumbering, in the soil and the water and the air. In the Preservers' absence war came - and a dangerous heresy arose that split the world in two.But a babe swept in on the great river, cradled in the arms of death - the last and, perhaps, greatest of a remarkable bloodline - and now the end times are at hand. And as Yama grows to young manhood, he will make his way from necropolis to metropolis - and through the labrynthine country of the mind - in search of a past and a lost destiny. Each hairbreadth escape will make Yama stronger. And every unanticipated adventure will bring him one step closer to the staggering truth about his heritage and his purpose...and about a world that is not what it appears to be.

    As Riddley steps outside the confines of his small world, he finds himself caught up in intrigue and a frantic quest for power, desperately trying to make sense of things.

    Cimmeria poem1 The Phoenix on the Sword 19322 The Frost-Giant's Daughter 19763 The God in the Bowl 19524 The Tower of the Elephant 19335 The Scarlet Citadel 19336 Queen of the Black Coast 19347 Black Colossus 19338 Iron Shadows in the Moon 19349 Xuthal of the Dusk 193310 The Pool of the Black One 193311 Rogues in the House 193412 The Vale of Lost Women 196713 The Devil in Iron 1934

    And the thousands of devotees of the series now have a book that will be a goldmine of information, background details, and little-known facts about the Vorkosigan saga. Included are an all-new interview with Bujold as well as essays by her on crafting the Vorkosigan universe, articles on the biology, technology and sociology of the planet Barrayar, appreciations of the individual novels by experts, maps, a complete timeline of the series, and more. Readers can't get enough of the Vorkosigan series and they'll jump at the chance to read this story behind the stories. Baen has a new novel in the Vorkosigan series under contract.

    The a body with two holes in its neck and no blood left turned up at his back door, and he found himself dealing with the kind of information that can get a man killed, or worse, much worse.Being chased by things out of myth and nightmare, Jason has only two weapons: his best friend, and his won quick wits.In a battle against darkness, the brightest weapon is the light of reason.

    He was supposed to be the Halcyon, a magic-user of unsurpassed power, destined to save the world; instead he is restricted to menial tasks, and mocked for his failure to live up to the prophecy.But not everyone interprets prophecy in the same way. There are some factions who believe a cacographer such as Nicodemus could hold great power – power that might be used as easily for evil as for good. And when two of the wizards closest to Nicodemus are found dead, it becomes clear that some of those factions will stop at nothing to find the apprentice and bend him to their will…

    the Black Company ... Majipoor. For years, these have been some of the names that have captured the hearts of generations of readers and embodied the sword and sorcery genre. And now some of the most beloved and bestselling fantasy writers working today deliver stunning all-new sword and sorcery stories in an anthology of small stakes but high action, grim humor mixed with gritty violence, fierce monsters and fabulous treasures, and, of course, swordplay. Don't miss the adventure of the decade!Contents:- Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan- Goats of Glory by Steven Erikson- Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company by Glen Cook- Bloodsport by Gene Wolfe- The Singing Spear by James Enge- A Wizard in Wiscezan by C.J. Cherryh- A Rich Full Week by K.J. Parker- A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet by Garth Nix- Red Pearls: An Elric Story by Michael Moorcock- The Deification of Dal Bamore: A Tale from Echo City by Tim Lebbon- Dark Times at the Midnight Market by Robert Silverberg- The Undefiled by Greg Keyes- Hew the Tintmaster by Michael Shea- In the Stacks by Scott Lynch- Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe by Tanith Lee- The Sea Troll's Daughter by Caitlín R. Kiernan- Thieves of Daring by Bill Willingham- The Fool Jobs by Joe Abercrombie

    For ease of study, the trio formed their own gang and hit the road. In their travels they come across a broken time machine - the world will never be the same again.

    I love the soft blue veins on your wrist. I love your lopsided smile. I love watching TV and shelling sunflower seeds with you. The six recipients - a data analyst, a photojour­nalist, a schoolchild, a missionary, a writer, and a street vendor - inhabit an acutely observed, beauti­fully familiar yet particularly strange universe, as only Kevin Brockmeier could imagine it: a world in which human pain is expressed as illumination, so that one's wounds glitter, fluoresce, and blaze with light. As we follow the journey of the book from stranger to stranger, we come to understand how intricately and brilliantly they are connected, in all their human in­jury and experience.

    From the summer isles to the mysterious people next door all the way to the odd guy one cubicle over, Hand teases apart the dark strangenesses of everyday life to show us the impossibilities, broken dreams, and improbable dreams that surely can never come true.“Ten evocative novellas and stories whisper of hidden mysteries carved on the bruised consciousness of victims and victimizers. Memories and love are as dangerous as the supernatural, and Hand often denies readers neat conclusions, preferring disturbing ambiguity. The Hugo-nominated “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” marries science fiction and magical realism as three men recreate a legendary aircraft’s doomed flight for a dying woman. A grieving widower in “Near Zennor” unearths a secret of spectral kidnapping in an ancient countryside. “Hungerford Bridge,” a lesser piece, shares a secret that can only be enjoyed twice in one’s life. Celtic myth and human frailty entangle in the darkly romantic “The Far Shore.” The vicious nature of romantic love is dissected with expressionistic abandon in the dreamlike “Summerteeth.” Hand’s outsiders haunt themselves, the forces of darkness answering to the calls of their battered souls. Yet strange hope clings to these surreal elegies, insisting on the power of human emotion even in the shadow of despair. Elegant nightmares, sensuously told.”—Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsThe Maiden Flight of McCauley’s BellerophonNear Zennor (a Shirley Jackson Award winner)Hungerford BridgeThe Far ShoreWinter’s WifeCruel Up NorthSummerteethThe Return of the Fire WitchUncle LouErrantryElizabeth Hand's novels include Shirley Jackson Award–winner Generation Loss, Mortal Love, and Available Dark.

    In this charming and sweet solo show, Wally investigates a hiccup in the spacetime fabric of his neighborhood which is causing a number of strange events and occurrences. Part science fiction and part coming-of-age story, Wally Roux charts one boy's journey of self-discovery and identity.

    It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "King City" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "King City". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it.

    She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating site where she first met her husband. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.Version Control is about a possible near future, but it’s also about the way we live now. It’s about smart phones and self-driving cars and what we believe about the people we meet on the Internet. It’s about a couple, Rebecca and Philip, who have experienced a tragedy, and about how they help — and fail to help — each other through it.

    One is the main course of dinner, another the porn star contracted to copulate in space for a reality TV show. They become futuristic ant farms, get knocked up by the star high school quarterback and have secret abortions, use parakeets to reverse amputations, make love to garden gnomes, go into air conditioning ducts to confront their mother’s ghost, and do so in settings that range from Hell to the local white-supremacist bowling alley.

    Long years from now the stories here may still touch someone, cause that person to blink, and put the book down for a second, and stare off through the hallow air, and shirver in wonder." Contents 1 • Preface (The Legend Book of Science Fiction) • (1991) • essay by Gardner Dozois7 • The Country of the Kind • (1956) • shortstory by Damon Knight22 • Aristotle and the Gun • (1958) • novelette by L. Sprague de Camp59 • The Other Celia • (1957) • shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon78 • Casey Agonistes • (1958) • shortstory by Richard McKenna [as by Richard M. McKenna ]90 • Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith116 • The Moon Moth • (1961) • novelette by Jack Vance157 • The Golden Horn • [Tales of a Darkening World] • (1962) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn196 • The Lady Margaret • [Pavane] • (1966) • novelette by Keith Roberts (aka The Lady Anne)238 • This Moment of the Storm • (1966) • novelette by Roger Zelazny273 • Narrow Valley • (1966) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty287 • Driftglass • (1967) • shortstory by Samuel R. Delany309 • The Worm That Flies • (1968) • shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss331 • The Fifth Head of Cerberus • (1972) • novella by Gene Wolfe397 • Nobody's Home • (1972) • shortstory by Joanna Russ416 • Her Smoke Rose Up Forever • (1974) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.437 • The Barrow • (1976) • shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin447 • Particle Theory • (1977) • shortstory by Edward Bryant472 • The Ugly Chickens • (1980) • novelette by Howard Waldrop499 • Going Under • (1981) • novelette by Jack Dann [as by Jack M. Dann ]521 • Salvador • (1984) • shortstory by Lucius Shepard543 • Pretty Boy Crossover • (1986) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan557 • The Pure Product • (1986) • novelette by John Kessel580 • The Winter Market • (1985) • novelette by William Gibson603 • Chance • (1986) • novelette by Connie Willis637 • The Edge of the World • (1989) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick654 • Dori Bangs • (1989) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling671 • Afterword (The Legend Book of Science Fiction) • (1991) • essay by Gardner Dozois