Clark"Nettle Coat" by Jane Yolen"How to Die on a Faraway Planet" by H. Mellas"A Myth as Big as a Mile" by Jane YolenDepartments"Editorial: Excelsior!" by Sheila Williams"Reflections: Gog and Magog" by Robert Silverberg"On the Net: Time Party" by James Patrick Kelly"On Books" by Peter Heck"SF Conventional Calendar" by Erwin S. StraussAsimov's Science Fiction, November/December 2017, Vol. 41, Nos. 11-12 (Whole Nos. 502-503)Sheila Williams, editorCover art by Eldar Zakirov

    Enjoy!

    This story was originally published in the Black Library Games Day Anthology 2012.

    Includes:Jim Shepard’s "Tedford and the Megalodon"Glen David Gold’s "The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter"Dan Chaon’s "The Bees"Kelly Link’s "Catskin"Elmore Leonard’s "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman"Carol Emshwiller’s "The General"Neil Gaiman’s "Closing Time"Nick Hornby’s "Otherwise Pandemonium"Stephen King’s "The Tale of Gray Dick"Michael Crichton’s "Blood Doesn’t Come Out"Laurie King’s "Weaving the Dark"Chris Offutt’s "Chuck’s Bucket"Dave Eggers’s "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"Michael Moorcock’s "The Case of the Nazi Canary"Aimee Bender’s "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers"Harlan Ellison’s "Goodbye to All That"Karen Joy Fowler’s "Private Grave 9"Rick Moody’s "The Albertine Notes"Michael Chabon’s "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance"Sherman Alexie’s "Ghost Dance"

    For one thing, Tanner is still recovering from being in stasis for 150 years, with some odd and unexpected side effects.These side effects might be what his commanders are interested in. Is Tanner being used for some purpose which will shorten his career abruptly, or does he have a future with the Deep Space Initiative? Are the DSI's enemies all on the outside, or are some on the ship?Half human and half alien, Tanner is no stranger to being an outsider. Turns out his Laldoralin alien father is behind Tanner's early promotion. Can Tanner trust the motives of an absent father he hasn't seen for 150 years - and then some?This young cadet has a lot to learn about space, alien worlds, working with others on a spaceship, figuring out who is really out to get him, and coming to terms with his own abilities.An amazing journey lies ahead for Cadet Voss.Hopefully he will survive it.By the author of the award-winning Mac Crow wilderness thriller series.

    Billions are now dead due to starvation, disease, civil unrest, and the plummeting temperatures. What remains of humanity now live in small settlements or isolated makeshift villages, carving out miserable lives in this grim new reality.Some, like Chris Weston, choose to travel among the vast winter wastelands between the bastions of civilization. In the aftermath of the great collapse, Chris finds himself strangely suited for this new world. Strong, motivated, patient, and already possessing a fair amount of knowledge on wilderness survival, he’s lucky enough to feed the strong urge of wanderlust that grips him despite the new, icebound Earth.While walking along a lonely highway, Chris comes across an isolated gas station, an almost-functional vehicle, and a very attractive woman. Her name is Mary, and he learns she is very amenable to some hot fun in exchange for a safe escort to civilization…A WARM PLACE contains detailed, hot sexual encounters and scenes of violence.

    With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism.The SwordFor five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to onlAbout the Raj Whitehall series:“[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action . . . devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.”—Publishers Weekly“[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series . . . superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.”—BooklistAbout David Drake:“[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank … rivals Crane and Remarque …” –Chicago Sun-Times“Drake couldn’t write a bad action scene at gunpoint.” –BooklistThe General SeriesThe ForgeS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe HammerS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe AnvilS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe SteelS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe SwordS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe ChosenS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe ReformerS. M. StirlingDavid DrakeThe TyrantEric FlintDavid DrakeThe HereticTony DanielDavid DrakeThe SaviorTony DanielDavid DrakeOmnibus EditionsWarlordDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Forge and The HammerConquerorDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Anvil and The SteelHope RebornDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Forge and The HammerHope RearmedDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Anvil and The SteelThe Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to get away.

    He must now fight to save his brother’s life from the same disease that is slowly killing him.His race for a cure sends him across the galaxy to Terra Omega, the world where he lost everything—and where his story and that of Project Icarus truly began. There, he and Warbeast Team come face to face with monstrous creatures of nightmare, inhuman soldiers, and technology far deadlier than anything previously encountered.Can the elite unit defeat overwhelming odds and achieve an impossible high-stakes covert incursion, or will their efforts to save one cost all these brave solders their lives? Don't miss The penultimate book in the epic Cerberus Series by Andy Peloquin.

    

    

    Where do you go after being Destiny’s Spacemage?What do you do after wielding an order of magic never seen in the galaxy before?Who have you become?And what is there left to do?Bud saved the Imperium, but didn’t cease to exist as he expected.Now unable to go home because he is actually there, he must find a new purpose.Some higher must want him in the past, but what do they want him to do?For Bud it comes down to one feeling, summed up by one word.Adrift.

    Planning to test it on himself, he must first self-administer the zombie virus and allow the infection to run its full course. The process and the aftermath are captured in a series of voice recordings, leaving their intended audience little doubt about the experiment's spectacular outcome. **************************************************************"Golgotha" is a selected title from the collection "Shorting the Undead and Other Horrors: a Menagerie of Macabre Mini-Fiction."Approximately 10,000 words (about 35 print pages).For ages 16 and older.

     A colony is under invasion. It’s time to send in the Commandos. When the Royal Marines are called to New Bristol, they’re expecting their mission will be just another insurgent hunt. What they face when they arrive is anything but a spot of local trouble though.After a brutal firefight, Lieutenant Warden finds himself leading the remaining Commandos in defence of the colonists. Their enemy has superior numbers, weaponry and armour. They see the colony as a soft target, but they weren’t counting on facing the Royal Marine Space Commandos. Warden must bring the fight to the enemy, and bring it with all the fire and fury he can summon. With only their basic weapon packages and equipment available, it’ll be a tough fight.Can one young Lieutenant and a score of Marines bring an end to the invasion?

    You might have heard the rumours—whispers of an evil plot involving time travel, dangerous experiments, a secret fortress, a terrible book, famous authors and, regrettably, murder. You might also have heard of heroes who were caught up in this plot, fighting to do the right thing. That sounds a lot more impressive than it actually was. My name is Boone Shepard. I’m here to set the record straight.”Boone is taking a break from writing for The Chronicle newspaper to hunt down and destroy every last copy of a very rare, very dangerous book. But then his editor calls to demand he investigate a missing persons case deep in the Scottish Highlands—in the company of his rival, photographer Promethia Peters—and he is forced to abandon his personal goals and get back to work. Restless and begrudging, Boone is unprepared when this hunt leads him back to the one story that won’t stop chasing him—his own. Boone Shepard is the first in a series of young adult novels following the adventures of an Australian expat, errant journalist and accidental hero.

    Dan Webber and his son guide wealthy hunters 100 million years back in time where Tyrannosaurs rule and Velociraptors scavenge. New understandings of physics alleviate the once-honored fear of altering the future by new actions committed in the past. But when an anomaly interferes with the time machine’s programming, Dan and the others find themselves in a life-threatening situation no one has prepared for! Paying homage to the SF classics A Gun for Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp and A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, One Dinosaur One Bullet pits six time travelers against vicious dinosaurs in the prehistoric past. One Dinosaur One Bullet is a novella 22,000 words long, available at this time for the special price of .99 cents.