Le Guin has created a profound and transformational literature. The award-winning stories in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea range from the everyday to the outer limits of experience, where the quantum uncertainties of space and time are resolved only in the depths of the human heart. Astonishing in their diversity and power, they exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers and the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intact.A Fisherman of the Inland Sea containsAnother Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea • [Hainish]Dancing to Ganam • [Hainish] Introduction: On Not Reading Science Fiction Newton's Sleep The Ascent of the North FaceThe First Contact with the GorgonidsThe KerastionThe Rock That Changed ThingsThe Shobies' Story • [Hainish]

    Two unlikely heroes are destined to oppose the malign forces that threaten their lives and the survival of their world.

    And the greatest Blade of them all was—and is—Sir Durendal. But a lifelong dream of protecting his beloved liege from enemies, traitors, and monsters is dashed to bits when Durendal is bonded till death to an effete noble fop at his king's orders. Yet Destiny has many strange and inscrutable plans for the young knight—for a mission, a contest, and, perhaps, a treasure await him in a faraway land. But he soon finds himself enmeshed in treason and foul intrigues, compelled to betray the king he had hoped to serve. The Blades have ways to protect their own, but death and madness haunt the path to salvation—and few ever return unscathed.

    Others come from Mother Earth. Some gain their powers from radiation, cosmic rays, or toxic waste. Others are supreme athletes driven by superhuman dedication. They take colorful names. Don colorful capes. And they save us from ourselves...Contents:Introduction / John Varley --A clean sweep / Laurell K. Hamilton --Time for a hero / Brain M. Thomsen --Peer review / Michael A. Stackpole --Shadow storm / Micky Zucker Reichert --Empowered / Alan Dean Foster --Handing on the goggles / B.W. Clough --She who might be obeyed / Roland J. Green and Frieda A. Murray --And the sea shall cast him out / William Marden --The defender of central park / Josepha Sherman --Reflected glory / Paul Kupperberg --Super acorns / Mike Resnick and Lawrence Schimel --Vets / Richard Lee Byers --(to be continued). (Continued) Four tales of many names / Gerald Hausman --The long crawl of hugh glass / Roger Zelazny --God save the king / P.J. Beese and Todd Cameron Hamilton --Contract hit / Richard A. Knaak --Origin story / Dwight R. Decker --Tu quoque / John DeChancie --Theme music man / Jody Lynn Nye --Bicycle superhero / Dennis O'Neil --Captain Asimov / Steve Antczak --Press conference / Brad Linaweaver --Basic training / Jerry Bingham --One of the boys / Lawrence Watt-Evans --Truth, justice and the politically correct socialist path / John Varley.

    From high elves holding court in the heart of Faerie to mischievous wood sprites ready to have their fun with the unwary to dark lords working magic against all mankind to those struggling to survive as the World of Iron spreads its rule, the whole of the elvish realms are explored in this book.

    J. Cherryh built, a low-tech, inhospitable planet where the human survivors of a colony nearly destroyed by an enigmatic alien menace still dwell, salvaging what they can, while awaiting the return of the alien menace or rediscovery by the Terrans who abandoned them in that long-ago terror.And in Merovingen, the fantastic canal city, where the wealthy and powerful reside in the highest towers, and beggars, spies, thieves and boaters like Altair Jones ply the highly polluted interlacing waterways below, intrigue, thievery and revolution are the very breath of life. And now with the Festival of Scouring approaching, C. J. Cherryh has invited some of today's finest writers into Merovignen, to weave together this tale of Festival Moon, a time of mystery and murder, of power games both high and low, a Festival after which this world will never be quite the same again...

    The second son of a newly anointed nobleman, he must endure the rigors of military training at the elite King's Cavalla Academy--and survive the hatred, cruelty, and derision of his aristocratic classmates--before joining the King of Gernia's brutal campaign of territorial expansion. The life chosen for him will be fraught with hardship, for he must ultimately face a forest-dwelling folk who will not submit easily to a king's tyranny. And they possess an ancient magic their would-be conquerors have long discounted--a powerful sorcery that threatens to claim Nevare Burvelle's soul and devastate his world once the Dark Evening brings the carnival to Old Thares.

    McKillip has created worlds of intricate beauty and unforgettably nuanced characters. For 25 years, she's drawn readers into her spell, spinning modern-day fables with a grace rarely seen. Now she presents a book of previously uncollected short stories, full of beautiful dragons, rueful princesses, and handsome bards, and written in the gorgeous--and often surprisingly funny--prose she's known for. This is her world, wrapped up in the finery of fairy tales.

    When she fails to return, her consort Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult.The Tale of Indigo and Cloud explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon came to Court. In the distant past, Indigo stole Cloud from Emerald Twilight. But in doing so, the reigning Queen Cerise and Indigo are now poised for a conflict that could ruin everything.Stories of Moon and the shape changers of Raksura have delighted readers for years. This world is a dangerous place full of strange mysteries, where the future can never be taken for granted, and must always be fought for with wits and ingenuity, and often tooth and claw. With two brand-new novellas, Martha Wells shows that the world of Raksura has many more stories to tell...Contains: The Falling World #3.6The Tale of Indigo and Cloud #0.1The Forest Boy #0.2Adaptation #0.4Appendices

    Here, for the first time, is a collection of his stories about teenagers&150a collection for teen and adult readers alike. From the streets of his famed Newford to the alleys of Bordertown to the realms of Faerie, this is storytelling that will transfix and delight, with characters who will linger in the mind&150many of them from his novels. Featuring an illuminating preface by acclaimed author, anthologist, and critic Terri Windling, Waifs and Strays is a must-own for de Lint fans, and an ideal introduction to his work for newcomers.

    Challenges and delights await readers in this all-original collection of imaginative dragon tales tales by such top talents as Alan Dean Foster, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Esther Friesner, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Robert Sheckley, and others.

    It has been a big success, drawing submissions from well-known sf and fantasy writers, as well as fostering some amazing new talents. This collection contains some of the best of those stories from the past year.There is fiction from David Farber, Tim Pratt, and David Lubar among others, also four new Ender's Game universe stories by Card himself. This collection is sure to appeal to Card's fans, and be a great ambassador to them for these other talented writers.

    Peter Hamilton takes us on a journey from a murder mystery in an alternative Oxford in the 1800s to a story featuring Paula Myo, Deputy Director of the Intersolar Commonwealth's Serious Crimes Directorate.

    And so the Editor ventured forth, wandering the land of Story from shore to shore, climbing massive mountains of books and delving deep into lush, literary forests, gathering together thirty-three of the best re-tellings of fairy tales he could find. Not just any fairy tales, mind you, but tantalizing tales from some of the biggest names in today’s fantastic fiction, authors like Gregory Maguire, Susanna Clarke, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, Alethea Kontis, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Paul Di Filippo, Gregory Frost, and Nancy Kress. But these stories alone weren’t enough to satisfy the Editor, so the Editor ventured further, into the dangerous cave of the fearsome Bill Willingham, and emerged intact with a magnificent introduction, to tie the collection together. And the inhabitants of Story—from the Kings and Queens relaxing in their castles to the peasants toiling in the fields, from the fey folk flitting about the forests to the trolls lurking under bridges and the giants in the hills—read the anthology, and enjoyed it. And they all lived... ...Happily Ever After.

    So she joined forces with T'fyrr, a strange nonhuman with the face of a raptor and the voice of an angelic choir.This unlikely set of heroes had the daunting task of saving the King—and through him the Gypsies, Free Bards, and non-humans of the twenty kingdoms. Fortunately, their opponents had no idea how potent a weapon music could be....