Le Guin is one of the greatest science fiction writers and many times the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Her career as a novelist was launched by the three novels contained in Worlds Of Exile And Illusion. These novels, Rocannon's World, Planet Of Exile, and City Of Illusions, are set in the same universe as Le Guin's ground-breaking classic, The Left Hand Of Darkness.Tor is pleased to return these previously unavailable works to print in this attractive new edition.

    Here are stories that go beyond space and time.Contentsix • Introduction: Science Fiction is Alive and Well • (1996) • essay by David G. Hartwell1 • Think Like a Dinosaur • (1995) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly29 • Wonders of the Invisible World • (1995) • shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip45 • Hot Times in Magma City • (1995) • novella by Robert Silverberg111 • Gossamer • [Xeelee] • (1995) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter135 • A Worm in the Well • (1995) • novelette by Gregory Benford169 • Downloading Midnight • (1995) • novelette by William Browning Spencer203 • For White Hill • (1995) • novella by Joe Haldeman261 • In Saturn Time • (1995) • shortstory by William Barton283 • Coming of Age in Karhide • [Hainish] • (1995) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin309 • The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker • (1995) • shortstory by Roger Zelazny321 • Evolution • (1995) • novelette by Nancy Kress353 • The Day the Aliens Came • (1995) • shortstory by Robert Sheckley369 • Microbe • [Elysium Cycle] • (1995) • shortstory by Joan Slonczewski387 • The Ziggurat • (1995) • novella by Gene Wolfe

    No longer relegated to the fringes of literature, this explosive collection of the world’s best apocalyptic writers brings the inventors of alien invasions, devastating meteors, doomsday scenarios, and all-out nuclear war back to the bookstores with a bang.The best writers of the early 1900s were the first to flood New York with tidal waves, destroy Illinois with alien invaders, paralyze Washington with meteors, and lay waste to the Midwest with nuclear fallout. Now collected for the first time ever in one apocalyptic volume are those early doomsday writers and their contemporaries, including Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Lucius Shepard, Robert Sheckley, Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, William F. Nolan, Poul Anderson, Fredric Brown, Lester del Rey, and more. Relive these childhood classics or discover them here for the first time. Each story details the eerie political, social, and environmental destruction of our world.

    Now from this brilliant young writer comes a groundbreaking collection of stories, many of them previously unavailable in the United States, and including four never-before-published tales–one set in Miéville’s signature fantasy world of New Crobuzon. Among the fourteen superb fictions are“Jack”–Following the events of his acclaimed novel Perdido Street Station, this tale of twisted attachment and horrific revenge traces the rise and fall of the Remade Robin Hood known as Jack Half-a-Prayer. “Familiar”–Spurned by its creator, a sorceress’s familiar embarks on a strange and unsettling odyssey of self-discovery in a coming-of-age story like no other.

    The humble, pixelated games of the ‘70s and ‘80s have evolved into the vivid, realistic, and immersive form of entertainment that now rivals all other forms of media for dominance in the consumer marketplace. For many, video games have become the cultural icons around which pop culture revolves.PRESS START TO PLAY is an anthology of stories inspired by video games: stories that attempt to recreate the feel of a video game in prose form; stories that play with the concepts common (or exclusive) to video games; and stories about the creation of video games and/or about the video games—or the gamers—themselves.These stories will appeal to anyone who has interacted with games, from hardcore teenaged fanatics, to men and women who game after their children have gone to bed, to your well-meaning aunt who won’t stop inviting you to join her farm-based Facebook games.At the helm of this project are Daniel H. Wilson—bestselling novelist and expert in artificial intelligence—and John Joseph Adams—bestselling, Hugo Award-nominated editor of more than a dozen science fiction/fantasy anthologies and series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy (volume one forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin in 2015). Together, they have drawn on their wide-ranging contacts to assemble an incredibly talented group of authors who are eager to attack the topic of video games from startling and fascinating angles.Under the direction of an A.I. specialist and a veteran editor, the anthology will expose readers to a strategically chosen mix of stories that explore novel video game concepts in prose narratives, such as save points, kill screens, gold-farming, respawning, first-person shooters, unlocking achievements, and getting “pwned.” Likewise, each of our authors is an accomplished specialist in areas such as science fiction, fantasy, and techno-thrillers, and many have experience writing for video games professionally.Combining unique viewpoints and exacting realism, this anthology promises to thrill generations of readers, from those who grew up with Atari 2600s to the console and PC gamers of today.

    The novella “A Necessary Being” showcases Octavia E. Butler’s ability to create alien yet fully believable “others.” Tahneh’s father was a Hao, one of a dwindling race whose leadership abilities render them so valuable that their members are captured and forced to govern. When her father dies, Tahneh steps into his place, both chief and prisoner, and for twenty years has ruled without ever meeting another of her kind. She bears her loneliness privately until the day that a Hao youth is spotted wandering into her territory. As her warriors sharpen their weapons, Tahneh must choose between imprisoning the newcomer—and living the rest of her life alone. The second story in this volume, “Childfinder,” was commissioned by Harlan Ellison for his legendary (and never-published) anthology The Last Dangerous Visions™. A disaffected telepath connects with a young girl in a desperate attempt to help her harness her growing powers. But in the richly evocative fiction of Octavia E. Butler, mentorship is a rocky path, and every lesson comes at a price. The award-winning author of science fiction classics Parable of the Sower and Kindred bestows these compelling, long lost gems “like the miraculous discovery that the beloved book you’ve read a dozen times has an extra chapter” (Los Angeles Review of Books). Harlan Ellison and Dangerous Visions are registered trademarks of the Kilimanjaro Corporation. All rights reserved.

    In Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, Zelazny's rare ability to mix the dream-like, disturbing imagery of fantasy with the real-life hardware of science fiction is on full display. His vivid imagination and fine prose made him one of the most highly acclaimed writers in his field.Contents:· The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth · nv F&SF Mar ’65 · The Keys to December · nv New Worlds Aug ’66 · Devil Car [Sam Nurdock] · ss Galaxy Jun ’65 · A Rose for Ecclesiastes · nv F&SF Nov ’63 · The Monster and the Maiden · vi Galaxy Dec ’64 · Collector’s Fever · vi Galaxy Jun ’64 · This Mortal Mountain · nv If Mar ’67 · This Moment of the Storm · nv F&SF Jun ’66 · The Great Slow Kings · ss Worlds of Tomorrow Dec ’63 · A Museum Piece · ss Fantastic Jun ’63 · Divine Madness · ss Magazine of Horror Sum ’66 · Corrida · ss Anubis v1 #3 ’68 · Love Is an Imaginary Number · ss New Worlds Jan ’66 · The Man Who Loved the Faioli · ss Galaxy Jun ’67 · Lucifer · ss Worlds of Tomorrow Jun ’64

    Le Guin40 • The Remoras • [The Great Ship Universe] • (1994) • novelette by Robert Reed65 • Nekropolis • (1994) • novelette by Maureen F. McHugh93 • Margin of Error • (1994) • shortstory by Nancy Kress98 • Cilia-of-Gold • (1994) • novelette by Stephen Baxter118 • Going After Old Man Alabama • (1994) • shortstory by William Sanders131 • Melodies of the Heart • (1994) • novella by Michael F. Flynn206 • The Hole in the Hole • [Wilson Wu and Irving • 1] • (1994) • novelette by Terry Bisson230 • Paris in June • (1994) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan243 • Flowering Mandrake • (1994) • novelette by George Turner273 • None So Blind • (1994) • shortstory by Joe Haldeman281 • Cocoon • (1994) • novelette by Greg Egan305 • Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge • [Birthright Universe] • (1994) • novella by Mike Resnick343 • Dead Space for the Unexpected • (1994) • shortstory by Geoff Ryman355 • Cri de Coeur • (1994) • novella by Michael Bishop402 • The Sawing Boys • (1994) • novelette by Howard Waldrop417 • The Matter of Seggri • (1994) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin446 • Ylem • (1994) • novelette by Eliot Fintushel465 • Asylum • (1994) • novella by Katharine Kerr492 • Red Elvis • (1994) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams507 • California Dreamer • (1994) • shortstory by Mary Rosenblum520 • Split Light • (1994) • shortstory by Lisa Goldstein531 • Les Fleurs Du Mal • [Biotech Revolution] • (1994) • novella by Brian Stableford585 • Honorable Mentions: 1994 • (1995) • essay by Gardner Dozois

    These stories are about the future, worlds beyond our own, the realms of our imaginations and dreams but, more importantly, they are the stories of ourselves. Featuring best-selling writers and emerging talents, here are some of the most exciting genre writers working today. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan once again brings you the best stories from the past year. Within you will find twenty-eight amazing tales from authors across the globe, displaying why science fiction and fantasy are genres increasingly relevant to our turbulent world.CONTENT “Tough Times All Over”, Joe Abercrombie “The Scrivener”, Eleanor Arnason “Moriabe’s Children”, Paolo Bacigalupi “Covenant”, Elizabeth Bear “Slipping”, Lauren Beukes “Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)”, Holly Black “Shadow Flock”, Greg Egan “The Truth About Owls”, Amal El-Mohtar “Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology”, Theodora Goss “Cold Wind”, Nicola Griffith “Someday”, James Patrick Kelly “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8)”, Caitlin R Kiernan “Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying”, Alice Sola Kim “Amicae Aeternum”, Ellen Klages “Calligo Lane”, Ellen Klages “The Lady and the Fox”, Kelly Link “The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION”, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009”, Ken Liu “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”, Usman T Mailk “Four Days of Christmas”, Tim Maughan “The Fifth Dragon”, Ian McDonald “Shay Corsham Worsted”, Garth Nix “I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There”, K. J. Parker “Kheldyu”, Karl Schroeder “Tawny Petticoats”, Michael Swanwick “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)”, Rachel Swirsky “The Insects of Love”, Genevieve Valentine “Collateral”, Peter Watts “The Devil in America”, Kai Ashante Wilson

    Many of the field's finest practitioners are represented here, along with stories from promising newcomers, including:William Barton * Rob Chilson * Tony Daniel * Cory Doctorow * Jim Grimsley * Gwyneth Jones * Chris Lawson * Ian McDonald * Robert Reed * William Browning Spencer * Allen Steele * Michael Swanwick * Howard Waldrop * Cherry Wilder * Liz Williams A useful list of honorable mentions and Dozois's insightful summation of the year in sf round out this anthology, making it indispensable for anyone interested in SF today.Contents xi • Summation: 1998 • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • Oceanic • (1998) • novella by Greg Egan37 • Approaching Perimelasma • (1998) • novelette by Geoffrey A. Landis56 • Craphound • (1998) • shortstory by Cory Doctorow72 • Jedella Ghost • (1998) • shortstory by Tanith Lee87 • Taklamakan • [Chattanooga] • (1998) • novelette by Bruce Sterling118 • The Island of the Immortals • (1998) • shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin126 • Sea Change, with Monsters • (1998) • novella by Paul J. McAuley161 • Divided by Infinity • (1998) • novelette by Robert Charles Wilson181 • US • (1998) • shortstory by Howard Waldrop191 • The Days of Solomon Gursky • (1998) • novella by Ian McDonald234 • The Cuckoo's Boys • (1998) • novella by Robert Reed277 • The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness • (1998) • shortstory by William Browning Spencer289 • The Very Pulse of the Machine • (1998) • novelette by Michael Swanwick304 • Story of Your Life • (1998) • novella by Ted Chiang339 • Voivodoi • (1998) • shortstory by Liz Williams349 • Saddlepoint: Roughneck • [Saddle Point • 4] • (1998) • novella by Stephen Baxter393 • This Side of Independence • (1998) • shortstory by Rob Chilson404 • Unborn Again • (1998) • shortstory by Chris Lawson416 • Grist • (1998) • novella by Tony Daniel462 • La Cenerentola • (1998) • shortstory by Gwyneth Jones476 • Down in the Dark • (1998) • novelette by William Barton510 • Free in Asveroth • (1998) • shortstory by Jim Grimsley524 • The Dancing Floor • (1998) • novelette by Cherry Wilder544 • The Summer Isles • (1998) • novella by Ian R. MacLeod603 • Honorable Mentions: 1998 • essay by Gardner Dozois

    Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, bestselling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Seanan McGuire to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans—and, really, any reader with an appetite for richly imagined worlds. Stories include: Seanan McGuire’s “Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust” finds Dorothy grown up, bitter, and still living in Oz. And she has a murder to solve—assuming Ozma will stop interfering with her life long enough to let her do her job. In “Blown Away,” Jane Yolen asks: What if Toto was dead and stuffed, Ozma was a circus freak, and everything you thought you knew as Oz was really right here in Kansas? “The Cobbler of Oz” by Jonathan Maberry explores a Winged Monkey with wings too small to let her fly. Her only chance to change that rests with the Silver Slippers. In Tad Williams’s futuristic “The Boy Detective of Oz,” Orlando investigates the corrupt Oz simulation of the Otherland network. Frank Baum’s son has the real experiences that his father later fictionalized in Orson Scott Card’s “Off to See the Emperor.”Some stories are dystopian... Some are dreamlike... All are undeniably Oz.***No stranger to Oz reinvention himself, Wicked author Gregory Maguire provides the foreword to these outstanding modern stories inspired by the enchanting Land of Oz.

    K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, and more. For many Americans, imagining a bright future has always been an act of resistance. A People's Future of the United States presents twenty never-before-published stories by a diverse group of writers, featuring voices both new and well-established. These stories imagine their characters fighting everything from government surveillance, to corporate cities, to climate change disasters, to nuclear wars. But fear not: A People's Future also invites readers into visionary futures in which the country is shaped by justice, equity, and joy.Edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams, this collection features a glittering landscape of moving, visionary stories written from the perspective of people of color, indigenous writers, women, queer & trans people, Muslims and other people whose lives are often at risk.Contributors include: Violet Allen, Charlie Jane Anders, Ashok K. Banker, Tobias S. Buckell, Tananarive Due, Omar El Akkad, Jamie Ford, Maria Dahvana Headley, Hugh Howey, Lizz Huerta, Justina Ireland, N. K. Jemisin, Alice Sola Kim, Seanan McGuire, Sam J. Miller, Daniel José Older, Malka Older, Gabby Rivera, A. Merc Rustad, Kai Cheng Thom, Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel H. Wilson, G. Willow Wilson, and Charles Yu.

    Buckell“The Deckhand, the Nova Blade, and the Thrice-Sung Texts” © 2017 by Becky Chambers“The Sighted Watchmaker” © 2011 by Vylar Kaftan. Originally published in Lightspeed“Infinite Love Engine” © 2017 by Joseph Allen Hill. Originally published in Lightspeed“Unfamiliar Gods” © 2017 by Adam-Troy Castro & Judi B. Castro“Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” © 2015 by Caroline M. Yoachim. Originally published in Lightspeed“Our Specialty Is Xenogeology” © 2017 by Alan Dean Foster“Golden Ring” © 2017 by Karl Schroeder“Tomorrow When We See the Sun” © 2015 by A. Merc Rustad. Originally published in Lightspeed“Bring the Kids and Revisit the Past at the Traveling Retro Funfair!” © 2017 by Seanan McGuire“The Dragon That Flew Out of the Sun” © 2017 by Aliette de Bodard.“Diamond and the World Breaker” © 2017 by Linda Nagata“The Chameleon’s Gloves” © 2017 by Yoon Ha Lee“The Universe, Sung in Stars” © 2015 by Kat Howard. Originally published in Lightspeed“Wakening Ouroboros” © 2017 by Jack Campbell“Warped Passages” © 2017 by Kameron Hurley“The Frost Giant’s Data” © 2017 by Dan Abnett.

    "Anda's Game" is a spin on the bizarre new phenomenon of "cyber sweatshops," in which people are paid very low wages to play online games all day in order to generate in-game wealth, which can be converted into actual money. Another tale tells of the heroic exploits of "sysadmins" — systems administrators — as they defend the cyber-world, and hence the world at large, from worms and bioweapons. And yes, there is a story about zombies, too.

    The title comes from Asimov's breakthrough short story.CONTENTS:Nightfall - Astounding, Sept 1941Green Patches - Galaxy, Nov 1950Hostess - Galaxy, May 1951Breeds There a Man . . . ? - Astounding, June 1951C-Chute - Galaxy, Oct 1951In a Good Cause - "New Tales of Space & Time", 1951What If--- - Fantastic, Summer 1952Sally - Fantastic, June 1953Flies - F&SF, June 1953Nobody Here But--- - Star SF #1, 1953It's Such a Beautiful Day - Star SF #3, 1954Strikebreaker - Original SF Stories, Jan 1957Insert Knob A in Hole B - F&SF, Dec 1957The Up-to-Date Sorcerer - F&SF, July 1958Unto the Fourth Generation - F&SF, April 1959What is this Thing Called Love? - Amazing, March 1961The Machine That Won the War - F&SF, Oct 1961My Son, the Physicist - Scientific American, Feb 1962Eyes Do More Than See - F&SF, April 1965Segregationist - Abbottempo, Book 4, 1967