A late starter, Baker published her first short stories in 1997, at the age of forty-five. From then until the end of her life, she wrote prolifically and well, leaving an astonishing body of work behind.The Best of Kage Baker is a treasure trove that gathers together twenty stories and novellas, eleven of which have never been collected anywhere. The volume is bookended by a pair of tales from her best known and best loved creation: The Company, with its vivid cast of time traveling immortals. In “Noble Mold,” Mendoza the botanist and Joseph, the ancient “facilitator,” find themselves in 19th century California, where a straightforward acquisition grows unexpectedly complex, requiring, in the end, a carefully engineered “miracle.” In “The Carpet Beds of Sutro Park,” an autistic Company operative named Ezra encounters a lost soul named Kristy Ann, and finds a way to give her back the world that she has lost.Among the volume’s many other highlights are a pair of brilliant Company novellas: the Hugo Award-nominated “Son, Observe the Time” and “Welcome to Olympos, Mr. Hearst,” a tour de force set in the Hollywood of the 1930s and featuring an encounter with legendary newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. There is also a generous assortment of equally brilliant standalone tales, including “Calamari Curls,” the account of a faded resort town that takes a surprising turn into Lovecraftian terrain, and the World Fantasy Award-nominated “Caverns of Mystery,” in which ancient stories play themselves out repeatedly, shaping and altering the world around them.These are only a few of the pleasures waiting within this book. The Best of Kage Baker is exactly what the title proclaims: the best short work of a gifted and irreplaceable writer. Anyone with an interest in first-rate imaginative fiction – anyone with an interest in lovingly crafted fiction of any kind – needs to read this book.

    Clarke is one of the greatest science fiction writers of the century, and surely the most celebrated science fiction author alive. He is -- with H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein -- one of the writers who define the genre. Now, at the dawn of the year 2001, Sir Arthur C. Clarke has cooperated in the preparation of a massive definitive edition of his collected shorter works, which will be made available on audio in four chronological volumes, followed by a 30 cassette gift set, the most ambitious science fiction audio project in history. Brief introductions place each story in the context of Clarke's career. Fantastic Audio has acquired exclusive audio rights to this collection. From early stories like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre," to classics like "The Star," "Earthlight," "The Nine Billion Names of God," and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel, and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later works like "A Meeting With Medusa" and "The Hammer of God," this immense volume encapsulates one of the great SF careers of all time.

    With established names and new talent this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the reader to the outer-reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.ContentsIntroduction by Jonathan StrahanThe Future Is Blue / Catherynne M. ValenteMika Model / Paolo BacigalupiSpinning Silver / Naomi NovikTwo's Company (The First Law Universe) / Joe AbercrombieYou Make Pattaya / Rich LarsonYou'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay / Alyssa WongA Salvaging of Ghosts (Universe of Xuya) / Aliette de BodardEven the Crumbs Were Delicious / Daryl GregoryNumber Nine Moon / Alex IrvineThings with Beards / Sam J. MillerSuccessor, Usurper, Replacement / Alice Sola KimLaws of Night and Silk / Seth DickinsonTouring with the Alien / Carolyn Ives GilmanThe Great Detective (Cwmlech Manor #2) / Delia ShermanEveryone from Themis Sends Letters Home / Genevieve ValentineThose Shadows Laugh / Geoff RymanSeasons of Glass and Iron / Amal El-MohtarThe Art of Space Travel / Nina AllanWhisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) / Caitlín R. KiernanRed Dirt Witch / N. K. JemisinRed as Blood and White as Bone / Theodora GossTerminal / Lavie TidharFoxfire, Foxfire / Yoon Ha LeeElves of Antarctica / Paul J. McAuleyThe Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight / E. Lily YuSeven Birthdays / Ken LiuThe Visitor from Taured / Ian R. MacLeodFable / Charles YuHonorable Mentions: 2016 -- essay

    Question: What sort of idiot installs his mistress in his wife's house? Especially when that mistress is Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, Queen of Egypt and the most notorious woman of her time? Answer: Julius Caesar - poised to become King of Rome. Or as good as. Question: At this potentially sensitive point in your political manoeuvrings, who are the last people you'd want crashing through the door, observing, recording, documenting ...? I think we all know the answer to that one. Roman Holiday - an epic, stand alone tale set in Ancient Rome, 44 BC, featuring, in no particular order: an attempted murder, stampeding bullocks, Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, a bowl of poisonous snakes, a smallish riot, Julius Caesar, and Mr Markham's wayward bosoms.

    This collection brings together alien encounters, classic fantasy creatures, strange magic, historical milieus; stories with heart, of people making their ways in the world the best they can, however strange and hostile those worlds might be; rare, hard-to-find stories that haven't been available in years. All this, now brought together in the first widely-available retrospective collection of Vaughn's work, including her Hugo-nominated, WSFA Small Press Award winning story "Amaryllis," about a post-catastrophe future in which a community struggles to live in balance with the environment and each other."Amaryllis" was also published in Lightspeed Magazine.ContentsTHE BEST WE CANSTRIFE LINGERS IN MEMORYA HUNTER'S ODE TO HIS BAITSUN, STONE, SPEARCROWSSALVAGEDRAW THY BREATH IN PAINTHE GIRL WITH THE PRE-RAPHAELITE HAIRGAME OF CHANCEROARING TWENTIESA RIDDLE IN NINE SYLLABLES1977DANAE AT SEAFOR FEAR OF DRAGONSTHE ART OF HOMECOMINGASTROPHILIABANNERLESSAMARYLLIS

    Contains:Introduction"A Dead Singer" (1974) novelette"The Greater Conqueror" (1963) novelette"Behold the Man" (1966) novella"Good-Bye, Miranda" (1964) short fiction"Flux" (1963) novelette"Islands" (1963) short story"Waiting for the End of Time..." (1970) short story

    Midshipwoman Harrington" by David Weber: Before she saved the galaxy, she was "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington," and then an encounter with "pirates" who were more than they seemed began Honor Harrington's Brilliant Career. "Choosing Sides" by David Drake: Lieutenant Huber stepped off the starship into an ambush--but Slammers aren't supposed to get ambushed. Huber can save his career if he survives a suicide mission. "The Island" by Eric Flint: Think General Belisarius was tough? Meet the wife of one of his officers. She is determined to reach her wounded husband--going over the broken bodies of the enemy if necessary.

    Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction — and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure. Now, in the Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters — many of them set in their authors’ best-loved worlds. Join today’s finest tellers of fantastic tales, including George R.R. Martin, K.J. Parker, Robin Hobb, Ken Liu, C.J. Cherryh, Daniel Abraham, Lavie Tidhar, Ellen Kushner, and more on action-packed journeys into the outer realms of dark enchantment and intrepid derring-do, featuring a stunning assortment of fearless swordsmen and warrior women who face down danger and death at every turn with courage, cunning, and cold steel.Contents:- The Best Man Wins by K.J. Parker- Her Father’s Sword by Robin Hobb- The Hidden Girl by Ken Liu- The Sword of Destiny by Matthew Hughes- "I Am a Handsome Man", Said Apollo Crow by Kate Elliott- The Triumph of Virtue by Walter Jon Williams- The Mocking Tower by Daniel Abraham- Hrunting by C.J. Cherryh- A Long, Cold Trail by Garth Nix- When I Was a Highwayman by Ellen Kushner- The Smoke of Gold Is Glory by Scott Lynch- The Colgrid Conundrum by Rich Larson- The King’s Evil by Elizabeth Bear- Waterfalling by Lavie Tidhar - The Sword Tyraste by Cecelia Holland- The Sons of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin

    She wants to steal their dinners, but is being chased by a terrifying lawman she calls “Darkness.”What kind of magic is she using? Is the word “awesomeness” commonplace in this part of Roshar? Read on!

    The Dover Thrift Edition:"The Country of the Blind" (1904)"The Star" (1897)"The New Accelerator" (1901)"The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" (1895)"Under the Knife" (1896)"The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper" (1932)

    * The Rizzoli Bag -- A sad young man in a Roman cafe is offered a once-in-a-lifetime bargain... * Out of the Frying Pan -- The life of a part-time witch working in a shopping mall is turned upside down in a day... * The Queen and the Thief and the Dragon -- A (fairy) tale of the True West, and a young monarch's solution to a thorny diplomatic problem... * Bears -- An ancient sorrow (with a modern twist) wanders through the tumult of a pre-Lenten street carnival... * The Fix -- In the dark guts of Rome's Colosseum, a slave boy with an impossible dream becomes entangled in the machinations of immortals... * Herself -- In the heart of Dublin, something is killing the People of the Hills -- and it's going to take Ireland's only superhero to stop it... * Hopper Painting -- Desolation and redemption in a midnight diner... * The Back Door -- Two terrorists meet in Zurich to carry out a very unusual heist with a confederate who's more dangerous than they imagine......And of course, the title story, beloved and sought after for a quarter century by Young Wizards fans, and finally available in an ebook -- along with the only other Young Wizards short story, Theobroma.

    Clarke with his bestselling space operas Eon & Eternity. Tangents is his 1st collection of short stories & includes two tales that won both Hugo & Nebula Awards: Tangents a remarkable account of contact with beings from another dimension, & the original short version of his Blood Music.Blood Music (later expanded into novel Blood Music) Sleepside Story Webster A Martian Ricorso Dead Run Schrödinger's Plague Through Road no Whither Tangents Sisters The Machineries of Joy

    There is no better anthology that captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. Published in 1973 to honor stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country. This volume contains novellas by: Ray Bradbury, James Blish, Algis Budrys, Theodore Cogswell, E. M. Forster, Frederik Pohl, James H. Schmitz, T. L. Sherred, Wilmar H. Shiras, Clifford D. Simak, and Jack Vance.Contents: Introduction · Ben Bova · in · Call Me Joe · Poul Anderson · nv Astounding Apr ’57 · Who Goes There? [as by Don A. Stuart] · John W. Campbell, Jr. · na Astounding Aug ’38 · Nerves · Lester del Rey · na Astounding Sep ’42 · Universe [Hugh Hoyland] · Robert A. Heinlein · na Astounding May ’41 · The Marching Morons · C. M. Kornbluth · nv Galaxy Apr ’51 · Vintage Season [as by Lawrence O’Donnell] · Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore · na Astounding Sep ’46 · ...And Then There Were None · Eric Frank Russell · na Astounding Jun ’51 · The Ballad of Lost C’Mell · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Oct ’62 · Baby Is Three · Theodore Sturgeon · na Galaxy Oct ’52 · The Time Machine [Time Machine] · H. G. Wells · na The New Review Jan, 1895 (+4) · With Folded Hands... [Humanoids] · Jack Williamson · nv Astounding Jul ’47

    Complete with a preface, introduction, and story notes by Card himself, here are early stories from eighteen incredibly talented authors who have since shattered the face of science fiction.

    V. Larson! This 60,000 word book is an Anthology of short stories. Most are Science Fiction mixed with Horror. Others might be called Dark Fantasy... Many have been published previously in various magazines.The Barrier – What does it take to go faster than light?Symptoms of Godhood – How far can you modify a body and still call the results human?Discharged – A long war and an even longer stay in an automated hospital.Teeth at Bedtime – Technology follows us everywhere.The Insect Requirement – Great sacrifices are required for Earth’s early colonists.Blind Eyes – If we can design our own children, how far will we go?TA96 – Do our genes belong to us?Zundra’s Movies – A future where video is created with the mind, and insanity is fun to watch.Pinball – A young man builds his own watchdog.Love Aboard the Kamadeva – A love triangle between two desperate souls and a digital mirage.Starplay – A window into the universe becomes a door.The One-Way Gang – Leaving Earth is easy, but you can never come back.Rusted Metal – What has spent the last century in the basement?Lunar Lotto – Death comes instantly to outlaws in vacuum.The Rollers – Crime has been mostly eliminated by removing all forms of cash... Mostly.