Search Worlds Without End

After a strange bloodstone amulet is found in an ancient Arabian tomb by archaeologists, the native employees of the expedition attack the others when they refuse to leave. One of the archaeologists, Lance Vidor, seeks refuge in the tomb, where he is transported to a different point in the time circle of Earth. Vidor finds others who have been summoned to the time period for the purpose of saving the Earth from an oncoming comet.

Twenty years ago, a toxic spill in the small, southwest Texas town of Exile poisoned residents with permanent rage. The feds' response? Quarantine. Only residents who pass the feds' 4-S test can escape Exile's heavily fortified borders.

Heidi Palermo, unwilling medic to her family of bloodthirsty street warriors, has taken the test repeatedly, trying to prove she's smart, strong, sterile, and sane. Three out of four ain't bad, but the feds don't grade on a curve. When her abusive brother dies in battle, Heidi turns her clinical eye to his killer.

An Outsider who arrived post-spill, Tank seems open to Heidi's advances. Is Tank her ticket out of Exile? Before she can find out, the two are besieged by her vengeful family. Heidi must keep their blood feud from triggering a war with the feds if she wants to escape Exile. But Tank's about as trusting as Heidi is monogamous--which is to say, not at all. So Heidi's picked the wrong mark, her family is gunning for her, and the feds are itching to nuke Exile once and for all. Heidi's got her fourth S now: Screwed.

When a girl who said she had been kidnapped from the year 1777 appeared in modern New York, she was either deluded or the victim of an incredible time-spanning plot. And when it turned out the strange man with a mechanical servant who had kidnapped her had been seen in other centuries, it became clear that a super-scientific plot was afoot that must reach far into the unknown cities of the future.

Who was this strange girl who had been born in this place--and still it wasn't her home?...

This short story appears in the collection, Homecalling and Other Stories: The Complete Solo Short SF of Judith Merril (2005), by Judith Merril

Originally appeared in the November, 1956 issue of Fantastic Universe , the story is available free on Project Gutenberg.

Hollywood film star David Caspian finds himself falling through a crack in time--into the back alleys of Hitler's Germany. The problem is--he's not David Caspian any longer and the Gestapo is after him.

HOMer-nominated Novel

Twenty years ago, the starship came, bearing gifts of knowledge and truth...

The ship was immediately destroyed. Those who heard the voice in the sky were silenced or killed.

Today, one man will enter the world of the exiled -- and hear their forbidden memories...

When Meer Faschen, a former idealist who now works for the system against which he used to rebel, learns that a friend he had sentenced to exile has died, he sets out to retrieve the body.

As the normal crackle of the police radio fades out, the dispatcher's voice reports that a woman has sighted a unicorn on a nearby beach.

Somehow Hank Dell, police reporter for the Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune, knows that this is not going to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill night spent chasing down car crashes.

But what Dell can't know is that the unicorn is merely the vanguard of a whole parade of alien creatures transported by a freakish warp from Ellendon, a land normally separated from earth by the thin magical veil between different dimensions.

And Dell also can't forsee that he, too, will travel through that crack in reality, through multicolored flames crystallized into transparent glass, to Ellendon itself.

If Dell possibly could have prophesied that he would join Ellendon's brutal battle for its land and its liberty, he might have known that he would enter into a treacherous search for a sacred sword and a magical ring. But he never could have predicted that the search would become a personal crusade as important to him as any quest for the Holy Grail. Or that for once in his life, he would be more than just a police reporter on the trail of a hot story, but a man who made a mark on the world that no one could ever erase, that no one could ever ignore.

Centuries had passed since the Final War devastated Earth & turned its surface into an intolerable radioactive desert. To survive at all, the only place to live was Center--a huge city built of rock & steel in a vast undergroud cavern.

Misha is a mutant who has extraordinary telepathic powers which forever linked her to the mental calls of her family. When the pseudosibs landed and took over most of the ruling power, Mischa saw her chance to escape the tyranny of her relatives. To survive, Mischa had chosen a life of crime....

"We dream of angels, black as space, and wish they could return from the future to warn us of the dark years ahead. We who have forgotten our origin, exiles in a land we may have shaped with our own hands; we who struggle to find meaning in a world that only vouchsafes us deadly revelation; we wage war, for reasons now lost to us, and our hopes are as tenuous as the light of a single star." In these twelve sombre tales, ranging from baroque science fiction to bleak fantasy, Yves Meynard brings to life wonders and horrors. From space travellers who must rid themselves of the sins their souls accumulate in transit, to a young man whose love transcends time; from refugees in a frozen hold at the end of space, to a city drowning under the weight of its architectural prayer; from an alien Jerusalem that has corrupted the Earth, to a land still bleeding from the scars of a supernatural war; here are windows opened onto astonishing vistas, stories written with a scientist's laser focus alloyed with a poet's sensibilities.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, February 1994. The story is included in the collections An Alien Land (1998), Win Some, Lose Some: The Hugo Award Winning (and Nominated) Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of Mike Resnick (2012) and The Incarceration of Captain Nebula and Other Lost Futures (2012).

Willard Hamilton Bentham Ill was but one of many, in many different groups, who wanted to be in on the ground floor when exploitation of the moon became a reality. And this was very close, for American and Russian rockets had landed on the moon simultaaneiysky, and each commander had taken possession in the name of his councy.

It was a tense international situation, but for the moment, the world was trying to be rational--the question was refered to the International Court of Justice in the Peace Palace at The Hague. And as this was going on, Willard Hamilton Bentham III dreamed...

He was in an arena so huge that he barely could make out rippling frescoes on its tarther wall. He was one of thousands perched in ranks that ran out of sight to left and right.

"Fledges!" Avron, the Mistress, was so distant she seemed a dot on the central dais, but her thought coiled strong, like smoke through wet leaves. "Fledges, the Council has spoken. This is the end... and the beginning.

A war with an enemy. which had been driven out of space and back to his own planet--but this was only a temporary victory. The choice was between exterminating the enemy or retreating, since energy metals and other natural resources were nearly exhausted. They would not consider the first alternative. Said The Avron: "To win and impose a dictated peace, we would be forced to employ mass terror, the only language The Enemy understand. Do that and we become The Enemy brutal, callous, and incapable of further evolution. When equally matched opponents fight to the death... the few survivors always refurn to barbarism.

Contact must be maintained with The Enemy. The Avron called for spies. Volunteers would be placed in a deep sieep and their personalities impressed upon the germ plasm of enemies now captive, who would be freed. "They will lie dormant in the bodies of these hosts and, if need be, those of their descendants, generation after generation.

Many spies would be needed, for if the family line of a host came to an end, that would be the end of the Fledge sleeping within the host. And when an emergency arose, a post-hypnotic suggestion would arouse the sleeper.

William Hamilton Bentham Ill awoke, and remembered that he was Glath. Two personalities in his body were struggling for control--Bentham and Glath, the Fledge. Glath knew he must contact the others, if there were others. He finally got an answer from Tani--who turned out to be inhabiting the body of a thirteen-year old slum girl in Brooklyn. Mura and the others did not answer.

What awakened them? Bentham knew when he found that the expeditions to the moon had uncovered a pylon radiating into space. And with the third expedition under Colonel Kane, one man had been left behind to set up equipment.

Together, Glath and Tani tried to arouse Mura--and they received a reply. Mura was in the man left behind on the moon; Mura knew the meaning of the pylon--and Mura was insane, determined to destroy The Enemy. One cobalt bomb on Moscow would set off the final war on Earth, and this is what Mura intended.

Planet of Exile

The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years, and ten of Werel's years are over 600 terrestrial years, and the lonely and dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter, a season that lasts for 15 years, the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches and call the farborns. But hilfs and farborns have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals and eerie preying snow ghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?

Mankind Under the Leash

Ever since the alien Masters had taken control, domesticating mankind with their energy-technology and the all-powerful mental Leash, the human condition had changed from toil and trouble to Total Wish Fulfillment. Only the Dingoes, the obstinate ones who resisted the Masters' Leash, weren't invited to the cosmic party. Poor Dingoes!

The Golden People

Planeteers, go home!

The planet was called Golden in honor of the planeteer whose ship had crashed there years before. It was an Earth-type world, with humanoid natives, and other creatures that were--something less.

Or maybe more, for almost all of the planet was covered by an invisible Field which blanked radar, damped the power of the Earthmen's stunners, immobilized their robots and caused watches to run backward. No machine or weapon more complicated than the lever or knife could work inside the Field.

Which meant that the Space Force had to revert to the primitive to explore the world of Golden. And obviously, someone or something hidden in the vast reaches of the planet had planned it that way...

Exile From Xanadu

Regan's last waking memory was of the clamor of alarm bells--a sound that lasted a bare second before it dissolved and was lost in a holocaust of roaring noise and flame. He never did recall the reflex action that flung his screaming body towards the survival capsule.

When he awoke at last, there was nothing but blackness, yet the pain was gone. His body was compressed and comforted in an all-embracing nest of yielding softness that was like a vast mother-womb, so close did it enfold him. He moved slightly, and at once a voice said, "Can you hear me?" In a panic Regan tried to open his eyes, but could not. With dread, he lay very still, waiting. For the voice was not human...

A Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer seeks the power of the gods

All is dust... Spurned by his former brothers and his father Magnus the Red, Ahriman is a wanderer, a sorcerer of Tzeentch whose actions condemned an entire Legion to an eternity of damnation. Once a vaunted servant of the Thousand Sons, he is now an outcast, a renegade who resides in the Eye of Terror. Ever scheming, he plots his return to power and the destruction of his enemies, an architect of fate and master of the warp.

Twenty-three years ago, a Duke with a grudge led a ruthless coup against the empire of Semilla, killing thousands. He failed. The Duke was executed, a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer was imprisoned, and an unwilling princess disappeared.

The empire moved on.

Now, when Quill, an apprentice scribe, arrives in the capital city, he believes he's on a simple errand for another pompous noble: fetch ancient artifacts from the magical Imperial Archives. He's always found his apprenticeship to a lawman to be dull work. But these aren't just any artifacts - these are the instruments of revolution, the banners under which the Duke lead his coup.

Just as the artifacts are unearthed, the city is shaken by a brutal murder that seems to have been caused by a weapon not seen since the days of rebellion. With Quill being the main witness to the murder, and no one in power believing his story, he must join the Archivists - a young mage, a seasoned archivist, and a disillusioned detective - to solve the truth of the attack. And what they uncover will be the key to saving the empire - or destroying it again.

Marîd Audran has risen from hustling on the streets of the decadent Budayeen ghetto to being the right-hand man of one of the Maghreb’s most feared men. As an enforcer for the powerful Friedlander Bey, Marîd is just beginning to enjoy his newfound wealth and privilege, when he and Bey are betrayed by a rival and accused of murder.

Sentenced to exile and abandoned to die in the vast Arabian desert, Marîd and Bey must somehow survive the searing sands and make their way back to the now-hostile Budayeen-and, then, take their vengeance.

By turns thrilling and philosophical, The Exile Kiss is the culmination of one of the great works of modern SF.

The final part of the Caledon Saga.

For centuries the royal line of Caledon has been the guardian of the Anchorstone, a mysterious - and dangerous - artifact that commands the terrible power of the Mists. But now Queen Mhairi of Caledon and her nemesis, King Edwin of Beringar, are summoned to the City of Exile on Feylara to end the war between their two kingdoms forever. In an unprecedented act of goodwill, Mhairi is prepared to give up possession of the Anchorstone.

But the Berings have no such harmonious motives in mind. Their wish is to kill the queen by summoning a demonic force so evil that it could disrupt the legacy of the Anchorstone. Meanwhile her husband Fannon, with his companions of old, has journeyed to a distant island. Here he will find an unsuspected secret that might save or ruin the queen, but to gain it he must face dangers greater than any he has encountered before.

As all sides come together in the City of Exile, the mysterious secrets of the Feyan are revealed and Mhairi learns that more is at stake than her own kingdom. The entire world is under threat from a menace almost beyond imagining.

Under King Charles II, England's New World colonies are flourishing, as is France's colony Louisianne. Napolean is the dreaded Master of the European continent . . . And Sarah Cunningham, a woman from our own world, knows all too well what a difference this makes, for not long ago she was ripped from her life as a United States citizen in our history.

Sarah, now the Duchess of Wessex, journeys to North America with her new husband, the Duke--but this is no pleasure trip. The fate of the world--New and Old--rests on her saving her friend Meriel, rescuing Louis, rightful King of France, from the clutches of the Marquis de Sade, and finding the Holy Grail. But she and her beloved Duke are beset by perils that will test their strength and spirit to the utmost.

From master storyteller Melina Marchetta comes an exhilarating new fantasy springing from her celebrated epic, Finnikin of the Rock. Three years after the curse on Lumatere was lifted, Froi has found his home . . . or so he believes. Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been taken roughly and lovingly in hand by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family, and has learned to control his quick temper with a warrior's discipline. But when he is sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn, nothing could have prepared him for what he finds in its surreal royal court. Soon he must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad princess in this barren and mysterious place. It is in Charyn that he will discover there is a song sleeping in his blood . . . and though Froi would rather not, the time has come to listen.

Saved by a mage's intervention from certain death, Kaspar, the evil Duke of Olasko, is lord no more -- reduced to an exile's existence and forced to wander the harshest realms of the world he once enslaved.

Merciless deserts, forbidding mountains, and vast oceans now separate the once powerful despot from his former seat of power -- his dark dreams of vengeance overwhelmed by the daily struggle for survival. But there is a larger drama that will entangle the broken dictator. An evil devastating and deadly seeks entrance to the land -- the mystical tool of a dark empire hungry for conquest and destruction -- and Kaspar has inadvertently discovered the key.

Suddenly, Midkemia's last hope is a disgraced and exiled duke whose history is written in blood, and who now must wield his sword as her champion . . . if he so chooses..

A Feast in Exile draws readers back to the time when the Mongol hordes of Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane) swept across fourteenth-century India and Asia. Delhi's civilized veneer crumbles along with its walls. Foreigners, which the vampire Saint-Germain-here called Sanat Ji Mani-surely is, lose their positions, homes, wealth, and sometimes their lives, if they cannot escape the falling city.

Before he can flee Delhi, Sanat Ji Mani must ensure the safety of Avasa Dani, his beautiful ward, who has been abandoned by her husband. Sanat Ji Mani's love has awakened Avasa Dani's every sense; even she will become a vampire upon her death, but she finds no terror in this fate.

Avasa Dani and Rojire, Sanat Ji Mani's servant, successfully make their way out of Delhi, but Sanat Ji Mani himself is trapped. His life is bought by his skills with medicine, but, at Timur's command, he must travel-by day, and exposed to the sun-with the conqueror's army. Crippled and unable to escape, he knows that his vampire nature will soon be revealed, and then...

Avasa Dani, with a worried Rojire at her side, considers her options as a woman without a visible male protector in a land and time ruled by men. While one of Sanat Ji Mani's allies searches desperately for the missing vampire, Saint-Germain and a young acrobat, with whom he has escaped from Timur's forces, make their slow and painful way to freedom. The journey changes them both forever.

Neve has spent her life in the shelter of the Crystal Keep, developing her talent for magic and preparing to inherit from her father the Guardianship of this mysterious world.

With this post comes the remarkable magic of the Nexus. But control of the Nexus is an awesome and dangerous responsibility, and to prove that she is capable of manipulating its formidable energies, Neve must journey through the outside world to the home of the Keep's creator.

Along the way, she will meet a handsome young sailor whose love and guidance are essential to her survival.

And, in this brutal foreign land, she must confront the dark side of the Nexus ... to claim the power that is her birthright.

The world of Deverry: an intricate tapestry of fate, past lives, and unfathomable magic. With A Time Of Exile, Katharine Kerr opens new territory in The Deverry Saga, exploring the history of the Elcyion Lacar, the elves who inhabit the country west of Deverry. It is years since the half-elven Lord Rhodry took the throne of Aberwyn. When Rhodry's lost lover, Jill-now a powerful wizard-comes to Aberyn and tells him it's time he accepted his elven heritage, Rhodry faces the most difficult choice of his life. But with Jill's help and that of a human wizard named Aderyn who has lived for years in the westlands, Rhodry begins to understand how his life is connected not just to his own people, but to the Elcyion Lacar as well. At last, destiny begins to unravel its secrets, revealing Aderyn's true purpose among the elves-and the god' deeper design behind Rhodry's dual heritage.

The first book in a brand new trilogy by well-loved Dragonlance authors!

Two of the authors of the Elven Nations trilogy now continue the story of the elves! The fortunes of war have driven the once-great elven nations into exile in the desert land of Khur. The elves must overcome extraordinary perils including treachery to establish a new homeland.

While the Elven Exiles struggle for survival in the distant kingdom of Khur, the elves remaining in Qualinesti face persecution, enslavement, and extermination. Amid great suffering and unrelieved evil, a rebel leader - masked, anonymous, and with strange powers - appears, determined to cleanse the land of invaders.

Meanwhile, Kerianseray, the Lioness, Kagonesti general and wife of Speaker Gilthas, finds herself magically transported from certain death in Khur to equally dire straits in her former homeland. As Gilthas leads the elves across the trackless desert in search of a new home, the Lioness fights ruthless slavers and crosses paths with the mysterious masked revolutionary of Qualinesti.

The Elven Exiles trilogy ends with a monumental struggle for control of the last refuge of the elven race.

The remaining free elves of Ansalon have come together at last in the shunned valley of Inath-Wakenti. While the disfigured genius Porthios wants to lead a crusade to free the elves' ancestral homelands, the rightful ruler of the elven nation, Gilthas, dreams of establishing a new homeland in the haunted valley. To do that he will have to solve the riddle of the ancient ruins dotting the landscape, the curse that prevents animals from living in the valley, and deal with swarms of ghosts lurking behind every tree and stone. But the greatest threat of all may come from a single outcast sorcerer who seeks to turn the cursed land's power to his own ends.

The third title in a trilogy that explores the south of the Dragonlance world after the War of Souls.

Return of the Exile concludes a trilogy that centers on Linsha Majere, the grandchild of one of the central characters in the entire Dragonlance saga. This trilogy advances the story of post-War of Souls events in the Dragonlance world and introduces a major new villain to the setting.

Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled.

Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change.

The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever.

The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.

But the links of fate bind us all.

After twenty-three years, Orson Scott Card returns to his acclaimed best-selling series with the first true, direct sequel to the classic Ender's Game.

In Ender's Game, the world's most gifted children were taken from their families and sent to an elite training school. At Battle School, they learned combat, strategy, and secret intelligence to fight a dangerous war on behalf of those left on Earth. But they also learned some important and less definable lessons about life.

After the life-changing events of those years, these children-now teenagers-must leave the school and readapt to life in the outside world.

Having not seen their families or interacted with other people for years-where do they go now? What can they do?

Ender fought for humanity, but he is now reviled as a ruthless assassin. No longer allowed to live on Earth, he enters into exile. With his sister Valentine, he chooses to leave the only home he's ever known to begin a relativistic-and revelatory-journey beyond the stars.

What happened during the years between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead? What did Ender go through from the ages of 12 through 35? The story of those years has never been told. Taking place 3000 years before Ender finally receives his chance at redemption in Speaker for the Dead, this is the long-lost story of Ender.

For twenty-three years, millions of readers have wondered and now they will receive the answers. Ender in Exile is Orson Scott Card's moving return to all the action and the adventure, the profound exploration of war and society, and the characters one never forgot.

On one of these ships, there is a baby that just may share the same special gifts as Ender's old friend Bean....

Lady Angarred Hashan was raised in exile far from Pergodi, the capital city. Angarred never knew what had caused her father's exile; she only knew that at the age of four, she was brought to Hashan House, an isolated and crumbling manor, and raised by servants. Her mother, she was told, had died. Angarred spent hours in her mother's rooms, handling the fine dresses of Emindal cloth---when she wasn't running wild through the forests and fields.

Her father was distant and obsessed with regaining his place at court. The only visitors they ever saw were secretive men and women who brought news of the events at court---news of wars and alliances, of the queen's failure to conceive an heir, of the Princess Roharren's madness and Prince Norue's growing power, and of the disappearance of the magicians. The visitors came and went, plotting revenge for mysterious slights, eating and drinking their way through the storerooms while Hashan House fell down around them.

But one day, while hunting in the forest, Lord Hashan was murdered. And Angarred, in her outrage, determined to go to the capital and seek justice from the king---for, surely, the murderer of a lord, even an exiled lord, should be punished! But the naïve young woman finds a swirling world of palace intrigue, a dying queen, and an ensorcelled king. With the help of Mathewar, a handsome but very troubled, magician, she journeys from the crowded streets of Pergodi to the Enchanted Forest, from the deadly land of the Others to the arches of the Giant's Bridge, as she begins to unravel the secrets of the kingdom and her own history.

Lady Angarred Hashan married the Master of the College of Magicians, and retreated from the life of the Royal Court of Karededin, to manage their school and raise a family of their own. The reign of Queen Rodarren was calm and the Kingdom prospered.

But Rodarren died too soon, leaving her 14 year old son to rule. Young King Jerret, unprepared for his new responsibility, soon fell under the influence of an ambitious lord from the North, and the royal court became a place where Angarred and Mathewar were no longer welcome. So it is with surprise and concern that they received a summons from the King. And it is with horror that they discover that Lord Haru is not content to rule Karededin through Jerret, but intends to place one of his own sons on the throne instead, by war or assassination.

From the city of Pergodi, to the far Northern island kingdom of Ou, they will travel to discover the truth of how the Haru family has come to have such powerful magic, and to find a way to stop them.

When all the best of Earth's scientists are forced into exile to a space station to prevent their work from upsetting the status quo, they decide to embark on an even grander adventure to the stars. An epic three-volume saga from a science fiction master, all in one book:

• Exiled From Earth
• Flight of Exiles
• End of Exile

A powerful world government has scientists transported from an overpopulated earth to a satellite on the eve of their discovery of a method to modify the human embryo.

Fleeing persecution to build a free colony on the planet Lenfell, the magic-wielding Mageborns find their new home torn apart by civil war between the Mage Guardians and the Lords of Malerris.

A group of scientists and other space travellers face life and death decisions after their spacecraft is damaged by fire.

The Mage Guardians have survived the war - barely. Now Mage Captal Cailet and her sister Sarra are struggling to rebuild their society: politically, economically, and magically. Yet though defeated, their ancient enemies, the Malerissi, have not been destroyed, and under the leadership of Cailet's and Sarra's sister Glenin, these masters of a darker magic are once again weaving a web with which to entangle the entire world. And even as Cailet's dreams of a restored Mage Hall become a reality, Glenin prepares to strike at the very heart of both her sisters' power...

Born and brought up on a space ship that is slowly deteriorating, Linc discovers its secrets and the way to get the remaining occupants to their ultimate destination.

A dedicated priestess of Boq'urak, Thia has spent the whole of her young life in devout worship -- until she inadvertently discovers the unholy truth about the deity she serves. Cruelly thrust back into a world she does not know, she has become an exile in a land torn asunder by terror and conflict. But Thia will not be making her journey alone. An outcast warrior priest, a mysterious healer, an enslaved prince, and an embittered spy must join with her to save a realm ravaged by invasion -- and rescue the future from the terrible wrath of a demon god.

King Arthur is dead. Surrounded by traitors and usurpers, Guinevere must defend the empire she struggled so desperately to help forge. Aided by the loyalty of Bedivere, Gareth, Lancelot, and others from Arthur's reign, she works toward settling her uneasy nation. But when faced with unthinkable treachery, Guinevere is swept into a life she never understood, driven to the depths of servitude to a bold Saxon who is unaware of her true identity. Much like Arthur, he is an idyllic dreamer with a magnificent mind. With him, she discovers more of humanity than she ever imagined! And we see Guinevere for all she is: brilliant leader, shrewd schemer, compassionate ruler, heartless tyrant, lover, warrior, slave--and always, always a Queen.

As I became a creature of the empty tunnels, survival became easier and more difficult all at once. I gained in the physical skills and experience necessary to live on. I could defeat almost anything that wandered into my chosen domain. It did not take me long, however, to discover one nemesis that I could neither defeat nor flee. It followed me wherever I went -- indeed, the farther I ran, the more it closed in around me. My enemy was solitude, the interminable, incessant silence of hushed corridors.

- Drizzt Do'Urden

It's been sixteen years since an army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises forced Arek's family underground and into the hole where he was born; it's the only home he's ever known. But now, post-end-of-the-world, the army of horny, hungry praying mantises might finally be dying out, and Arek's ready to leave the hole for good.

All he has are mysterious letters from Breakfast, a naked, wild boy traveling the countryside with his silent companion, Olive. Together, Arek and his best friend Mel, who stowed away in his van, navigate their way through the ravaged remains of the outside world.

A single-volume omnibus of the first three Hainish novels.

Intergalactic war reaches Fomalhaut II in Rocannon's World.

Born out of season, a precocious young girl visits the alien city of the farborns and the false-men in Planet of Exile.

In City of Illusions a stranger wandering in the forest people's woods is found and his health restored; now the fate of two worlds rests in this stranger's hands...

Contents

• Rocannon's World (1966)
• Planet of Exile (1966)
• City of Illusions (1967)

The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years, and ten of Werel's years are over 600 terrestrial years, and the lonely and dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter, a season that lasts for 15 years, the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches and call the farborns. But hilfs and farborns have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals and eerie preying snow ghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?

Struggling to deal with her lover's murder and a forced retirement, Captain Honor Harrington assumes the role of Steadholder on the planet Grayson, but a threatening uprising calls her back into duty as head of the Grayson Navy.

Star-trading Clan Korval--known to Terrans as the Tree-and-Dragon Family and to the locals simply as "the Dragon"--has been convicted of crimes against the homeworld. No matter that one of the "crimes" consisted of saving the elitist planet of Liad from very real internal threats, the Council of Clans wanted Korval heads to roll. Unfortunately for the Council, the Dragon's allies conspired to impose a milder punishment for saving the world: banishment, rather than execution.

Now relocated to the free-for-all world of Surebleak, the Dragon is under contract to keep the Port Road open to all traffic, and to back the New Bosses in imposing law and order on a society originally based on larceny and assassination. This modest rustication is going surprisingly well, until Korval discovers that the enemy they'd sought to destroy. . .wasn't quite destroyed, and is more determined than ever to eradicate Korval.

While the banishment killed no one initially, many of Korval's trading allies are spooked, and some are reneging on ancient agreements, leaving the Dragon to make its own way. The clan's efforts to stealthily recruit new allies is going haywire, and a secret death toll is rising even as the clan's adherents endure increasing exposure to danger and deceit off-world.

To make matters worse, an active portion of Surebleak's native population liked the Old Ways just fine, and are conspiring to take the New Bosses--and the Dragon--down, and are sure they have the firepower and people to do it.

The exiled Dragon has to make an urgent choice--accept an alliance with criminals or face down each and every enemy in person, one by one.

The Free Trader starship Lydis appears to be making an ordinary run to the planet Thoth, carrying incense for the great temples of Kartum. And so she is - until a civil war lands her in the middle of a battle of ancient powers and nameless evil, with a Forerunner treasure at its heart.

Alexander Heflin, Imperator of North America, had his hands full: a war was brewing that could destroy the Imperium. Seeking to protect his wife, Lani, from their increasingly powerful enemies, Alex called on the one person he could trust: ex-war hero Rod Garvin.

Babysitting an Imperatrix seemed too easy a job for an adventurer of Garvin's caliber. After all, it kept him on Mars, while the action was happening on Earth. Little did he know that Alex was embarking upon a desperate ploy to save his nation by destroying it -- and it would be up to Garvin to pick up the pieces.

Antor Trellig, head of a ruthless interstellar syndicate, had seized a super computer with godlike powers, which could make him omnipotent. The Council offered master criminal Mavra Chang any reward if she stopped Trellig - and horrible, lingering death if she failed. But neither Trellig nor Mavra had taken the Well World into consideration. Built by the ancient Markovians, the Well World controlled the design of the cosmos. When the opponents were drawn across space to the mysterious planet, they found themselves in new alien bodies, and in the middle of a battle where strange races fought desperately, with the control of all the Universe as the prize.

Tilda Gray hates Spellhaven, the city where her husband was born, even though she has never set foot in the place, and she does not believe in the magic it's supposed to have held. Now her husband is dead, she would rather avoid any mention of the city. But her sons, Nicholas and James, have befriended Hugo, a young boy threatened by forces none of them understand. When Hugo's uncle and guardian, Stephen Cole, visits the Gray family to ask for help, Tilda agrees against her better judgement. Between them, as they search for ways to banish or at least help Hugo cope with the ghosts that are driving him mad, they seek out the dubious aid of the exiles from Spellhaven. In doing so they must face new dangers and unknown magic, unlike anything Tilda could have believed possible.

For three centuries the people of Alaj and the people of Etolos have been bitter enemies. However, when crippling disasters strike both worlds, each planet becomes the other's hope for survival.

With time running out, Captain Picard and his crew are called to negotiate a peaceful settlement and begin rescue efforts. But some factions would rather see both planets perish and will stop at nothing to prevent peace.

Soon the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is caught up in a web of intrigue and terrorism that culminates with an act of ultimate revenge against bother peoples -- revenge that will meant he destruction of two worlds and the Enterprise.

Captain James T. Kirk embarks on a mission that he may soon regret in this all-new Original Series adventure from the New York Times bestselling author.

A beautiful green world, rich in fertile soil and temperate climate... a textbook Class-M planet that should be teeming with life. Scans show no life-signs, but there are refined metals, including those associated with a space-faring race... and a lone city. But where are all of the inhabitants? Captain James T. Kirk leads a landing party from the U.S.S. Enterprise, hoping to get some answers.

The away team discovers a city in ruins, covered by dust, utterly bereft of life. Tricorder readings indicate that this is no ancient metropolis--it has been deserted only for a year. And just beyond the citadel lies what appears to be an ancient spaceport... a graveyard of ships that have clearly been sabotaged.

With these ruins too far from either the Klingon or the Romulan Empires, the Enterprise crew can only wonder: Who could have done this? And could this unnamed threat now pose an imminent danger to the Federation?

At last -- the untold chapter in the history of Star Trek's most notorious villain, KHAN. Searing and powerful, To Reign in Hell masterfully bridges the time period between Khan Noonien Singh's twenty-third-century revival in the Original Series classic episode "Space Seed" and his unforgettable return in the acclaimed feature film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

What truly transpired during Khan's long years of exile on the forbidding world of Ceti Alpha V, before the tyrant escaped to embark on a murderous campaign of vengeance against Admiral James T. Kirk? What horrific trials spawned Khan's insane lust for revenge?

Haunted by the memory of Khan's bitter accusations, Kirk now revisits Ceti Alpha V to discover for himself what ultimately drove Khan to madness. There, buried beneath the desolate surface of a dying planet, Kirk and his allies find the untold story of their greatest foe -- and of the woman who loved him: Lieutenant Marla McIvers of Starfleet.

Along with Khan's genetically engineered followers from the twentieth century, Khan and Marla are left on Ceti Alpha V with the hopes of building a new life together. Although the planet is savage and untamed, full of deadly predators and unexpected hazards, Khan dreams of carving out an empire even greater than the one he once ruled on Earth.

But when catastrophe strikes, laying waste to the entire world, Khan and the others find themselves trapped in a desperate struggle for survival. Now Khan must use every ounce of his superhuman strength and intellect to wage a fearsome battle against the planet, his people... and the growing darkness in his own soul.

Following on from the events of Vulcan's Soul: Exodus, a bloody war is raging between the Romulans and the mysterious Watraii. Ambassador Spock, pursuing his dream of ending the centuries-old enmity between Romulus and Vulcan, must find and penetrate the home base of the Watraii, where long-hidden secrets that link this newly-discovered people to the ancient Vulcan race are finally revealed. Through masterful use of flashbacks to an earlier time in Vulcan civilization, Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwartz bring the history of Vulcan to life as never before in a stirring tale of explorers who took their chances amidst the cold and distant stars.

Tensions remain high as the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire attempt to maintain their fragile post-Dominion War peace in the wake of the brutal attack by the mysterious Watraii that ended with the loss of Admiral Pavel Chekov. When Admiral Uhura receives intelligence regarding a Watraii base that may contain more than one surprise, she sends Ambassador Spock, Captain Saavik, Ruanek, Captain Montgomery Scott, and Lieutenant Commander Data on a covert mission to learn its secrets....

But the true secrets of the Watraii have their basis millennia in the past. In the time of Surak, Vulcans were at a crossroads, on the cusp of either embracing logic or succumbing to emotion and destroying themselves. With Surak's blessing, a group of Vulcans left their turbulent homeworld to find their destiny among the stars -- but the stars prove themselves even more unforgiving than the sands of Vulcan's deserts, as Karatek, the reluctant leader of the exiles, must struggle to hold the community together.

In the galaxy, evil is on the move as the Galactic Alliance and Jedi order battle forces seen and unseen, from rampant internal treachery to the nightmare of all-out war.

With each victory against the Corellian rebels, Jacen Solo becomes more admired, more powerful, and more certain of achieving galactic peace. But that peace may come with a price. Despite strained relationships caused by opposing sympathies in the war, Han and Leia Solo and Luke and Mara Skywalker remain united by one frightening suspicion: Someone insidious is manipulating this war, and if he or she isn't stopped, all efforts at reconciliation may be for naught.

And as sinister visions lead Luke to believe that the source of the evil is none other than Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith, the greatest peril revolves around Jacen himself.

The long road home... Reeling from the shocking revelation at the end of STARGATE SG-1: Hostile Ground, Colonel O'Neill's team continues its quest to find a way home. But as SG-1 comes to terms with new circumstances, they find themselves divided. With tensions mounting, the team undertakes a dangerous rescue mission on behalf of their new allies - and O'Neill makes a decision that will threaten the future of his team.

Meanwhile, fleeing the Goa'uld attack, Dr. Janet Fraiser negotiates a treacherous path as she and the other refugees struggle to survive on a barren new world. But she soon discovers that the most dangerous enemies of all are those who lie within...

SHALE is finally free from his greatest enemy. But now, he is responsible for bringing life-giving rain to all the people of the Quartern. He must stretch his powers to the limit or his people will die-if they don't meet a nomad's blade first. And while Shale's own highlords and waterpriests plot against him, his Reduner brother plots his revenge.

TERELLE is Shale's secret weapon, covertly boosting his powers with her own mystical abilities. But she is compelled by the strange magic of her people and will one day have to leave Shale's side. No one knows what waits for her across the desert, but her people gave the Quartern its first Stormlord and they may save Shale and his people once again-or lead them to their doom.

This is the final volume of the epic Stormlord series.

The King is dead. The Oluso rebel. War is here.

With the end of Alistair Sorenson's tyrannical reign, Dèmi has accepted Jonas's proposal to rule as his Queen with hopes to finally free her people, the magical Oluso. Yet social prejudice, corrupt council members, and the continued distrust of the nonmagical Ajès throughout the kingdom prove seemingly implacable obstacles. To make matters worse, Dèmi struggles to control her newly awakened iron blood magic. As Ekwensi's rebel army - led in part by Colin, her best friend and one-time lover - become more triumphant in their mission, war seems inevitable.

Before long, a new evil appears that hunts Oluso and Ajè alike, promising desolation on a larger level than ever before. When the failed assassination puts the life of Dèmi's loved one in danger as well as the future of the Oluso into question, Dèmi embarks on a treacherous journey to find an ancestral spirit whose aid could tip the scales in her favor. Whether her new powers will destroy the kingdom or heal the blood-soaked rifts that have pulled it apart, she does not know.

Beyond the battles of swords and magic, there is the battle for Dèmi's heart. Jonas - the former enemy prince - has divided loyalties despite his love for Dèmi. And Ekwensi and Colin have every intention of winning her to their side, while a past pledge hangs over Dèmi's head. Dèmi is caught between the kingdom, her people, and the spirits, and must decide what sacrifices she is willing to make for peace, and whether she can outrun the greatest danger that constantly puts her in peril - her own heart. Only one thing is for certain...

There will be blood.

Alaric, a young ministrel with a talent for magic, roamed the lands in search of his fortune. And in Castle Royale, it seemed he had found both his fortune and his true love, the beautiful Princess Solinde. But could a penniless orphan hope to claim such a royal treasure?

The exiled Queen Ylia calls upon all of her magical powers in order to bring together the scattered survivors of her beleaguered kingdom, Nedao. This is the tale of the young Queen Ylia who chooses to accept the challenges disaster can bring. She flees from the broken and defeated city of Koderra and treks through the terrible haunted mountains to the North. Although such a perilous journey tests all of her strength and resources, it is not until she reveals herself in the full tilt of battle that it is clear how the powers that are her birthright can save her kingdom.

Snow shrouds Venice in cold darkness, ice fills the canals, and a thousand ghosts pluck at the shadow's edge.A violent attack on Lady Giulietta's son forces Tycho from his new-found happiness and back into the treacherous intrigue of the court. For Giulietta's sake he would go to the world's end to track down those responsible.As Venice teeters on the brink of civil war, its warring families prepare to discover who is a player and who a pawn in the coming struggle for power. The Exiled Blade is the climatic finale to Tycho's story.

Safiya and her fellow bandits thought they had found an easy mark, but they quickly learned that they picked the worst possible victim. Now Luker Essendar, one of the warrior Guardians of Erin Elal, is after them, and his relentless pursuit is driving the bandits toward an abandoned fort--one that appears strewn with evidence of a terrible battle. But nothing is exactly as it seems...

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

If you pick a fight with Shroud, Lord of the Dead, you had better ensure your victory, else death will mark only the beginning of your suffering.

A book giving its wielder power over the dead has been stolen from a fellowship of mages that has kept the powerful relic dormant for centuries. The thief, a crafty, power-hungry necromancer, intends to use the Book of Lost Souls to resurrect an ancient race and challenge Shroud for dominion of the underworld. Shroud counters by sending his most formidable servants to seize the artifact at all cost.

However, the god is not the only one interested in the Book, and a host of other forces converge, drawn by the powerful magic that has been unleashed. Among them is a reluctant Guardian who is commissioned by the Emperor to find the stolen Book, a troubled prince who battles enemies both personal and political, and a young girl of great power, whose past uniquely prepares her for an encounter with Shroud. The greatest threat to each of their quests lies not in the horror of an undead army but in the risk of betrayal from those closest to them. Each of their decisions comes at a personal cost and will not only affect them, but also determine the fate of their entire empire.

Dragon Hunters, the sequel to Marc Turner's When the Heavens Fall features gritty characters, deadly magic, and meddlesome gods

Once a year on Dragon Day the fabled Dragon Gate is raised to let a sea dragon pass from the Southern Wastes into the Sabian Sea. There, it will be hunted by the Storm Lords, a fellowship of powerful water-mages who rule an empire called the Storm Isles. Alas, this year someone forgot to tell the dragon which is the hunter and which the hunted.

Emira Imerle Polivar is coming to the end of her tenure as leader of the Storm Lords. She has no intention of standing down graciously. She instructs an order of priests called the Chameleons to infiltrate a citadel housing the mechanism that controls the Dragon Gate to prevent the gate from being lowered after it has been raised on Dragon Day. Imerle hopes the dozens of dragons thus unleashed on the Sabian Sea will eliminate her rivals while she launches an attack on the Storm Lord capital, Olaire, to secure her grip on power.

But Imerle is not the only one intent on destroying the Storm Lord dynasty. As the Storm Lords assemble in Olaire in answer to a mysterious summons, they become the targets of assassins working for an unknown enemy. When Imerle initiates her coup, that enemy makes use of the chaos created to show its hand.

The Rubyholt Isles is a shattered nation of pirate-infested islands and treacherous waterways shielding the seaboards of Erin Elal and the Sabian League. The Augerans approach the Warlord of the Isles, seeking passage for their invasion fleet through Rubyholt waters. When an Erin Elalese Guardian assassinates the Augeran commander in the Rubyholt capital, the Augerans raze the city, including its Temple of the White Lady. Avallon Delamar, the Emperor of Erin Elal, requests a meeting with the Storm Lords to discuss an alliance against the Augerans. When the Augerans get word of the gathering, strike, in the hope of eliminating the Erin Elalese and Storm Lord high commands. They have not counted on the Rubyholters, however, who come seeking revenge for the destruction of their capital. But the battle lines for the struggle are not as clearly drawn as it might at first appear.

The most dangerous matrix on all Darkover was the legendary Sharra. Embodied in the image of a chained woman, wreathed in flames, it was the last remaining weapon of the Age of Chaos that had almost destroyed civilization on the planet of the Bloody Sun. The Sharra had been exiled off-planet among the far stars of the Terran Empire in the custody of Lew Alton... until he found himself called back to his homeworld to contest his rights.

But once the Sharra was back, the flaming image spread far and wide---and set in motion events that were to change the land, the domains, and the future of Darkover forever....

Haunted by childhood memories of a strange silver man and a woman in flames, Margaret Alton returns to Darkover, the planet of her birth, where her memories lead her into a trap set centuries before her birth.

The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide.

They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve.

Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they'll need to get everyone out.

To do that they're going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive.

Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove, Alan Smale's gripping alternate history series imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has survived long enough to invade North America in 1218. Now the stunning story carries hero Gaius Marcellinus deeper into the culture of an extraordinary people--whose humanity, bravery, love, and ingenuity forever change his life and destiny.

In A.D. 1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus is ordered to conquer North America and turning it into a Roman province. But outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia, his legion is destroyed outright; Marcellinus is the only one spared. In the months and years that follow, Marcellinus comes to see North America as his home and the Cahokians as his kin. He vows to defend these proud people from any threat, Roman or native.

After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, Marcellinus realizes that a weak and fractured North America won't stand a chance against the returning Roman army. Worse, rival factions from within threaten to tear Cahokia apart just when it needs to be most united and strong. Marcellinus is determined to save the civilization that has come to mean more to him than the empire he once served. But to survive the swords of Roma, he first must avert another Iroqua attack and bring Cahokia together. Only with the hearts and souls of a nation at his back can Marcellinus hope to know triumph.

Outcast and exiled, the demon Tarrik Nal-Valim has long been forgotten by the world of humans. At least, so he thinks.

But when he is summoned as a last resort by a desperate sorcerer, it seems as though his past has caught up with him. The sorcerer is Serenity "Ren" Branwen, the daughter of Tarrik's former master--and friend. Though she seems cold, driven, and ruthless, Tarrik can tell that Ren has her back against a wall, and he is compelled by ferocious powers to obey her.

As their world sinks into a terrifying maelstrom of murder, intrigue, and insurrection, Tarrik is forced to serve Ren's arcane designs--plans that, if they were to succeed, would resurrect unimaginable power and could destroy Tarrik's entire race.

But as events unfurl, the lines between demon and master become blurred, and Tarrik realizes that Ren is not what she seems. To prevent utter devastation, Tarrik may have to surrender what he values most: a chance at redemption and an end to his exile.

Years have passed since the demon Tarrik and his master, the sorcerer Ren, destroyed the servants of Samal and suppressed the very essence of the vile lord. The cost was greater than even a demon could have imagined. But in the realms of demons and humans, no evil can be fully controlled, and no one's true fate can be foretold. Including Tarrik's. He's been summoned once more, now by the vengeful Linriel, who's fallen in with one of Samal's ravaged survivors.

Linriel takes Tarrik, bound again to serve, on a journey to the harsh southern lands to find the source of Ren's coveted powers, and there they discover a part of Tarrik's past he thought had been lost forever. As old bindings more powerful than sorcery fetter him, Tarrik is drawn into an obsessive and insane mission to erase the demon lord Samal from existence forever. And only if he succeeds will he at last be freed from exile.

As old threats are reborn, he must decide what sacrifices he's willing to make and what risks he's willing to take on the unforgiving road to redemption.

Morgaine must meet her greatest challenge--Gault, who is both human and alien, and also seeks control of the world and its Gate. She will meet the true Gatemaster--a mysterious lord with power as great, or greater, than her own.

For over 300 years the mystics have lived alongside the true-men, until King Charald lays siege to the mystic's island city. Imoshen, most powerful of the female mystics, is elected to negotiate with the true-man king. The male mystics still resent her, but she has an ally in Sorne, the half-blood, who was raised by true-men. Even though he is vulnerable to her gifts, he gives Imoshen his loyalty. In return, she gives him the most dangerous of tasks, to spy for her. She negotiates exile for her people. They must pack all their valuables, reach port and set sail by the first day of winter. But to do this they have to cross a kingdom filled with true-men who are no longer bluffed by their gifts. Meanwhile, there are mystics living in the countryside unaware that their people have been exiled. King Charald announces any mystics who remain behind after they are exiled will be hunted down and executed.

Bollywood actress Sunita Ashoka's reality show Swayamvara Live has ended in bloodshed and disaster. Vikram, Amanjit and Rasita are on the run, accused of the actress' murder. Exiled like the heroes of the Ramayana, they are seemingly beset by the same perils, especially when Vikram encounters an unlikely temptress. Then another tragedy, also foretold in the Ramayana, forces Vikram into the open. But there is hope: Amanjit's skills as a warrior are returning, Rasita is beginning to remember her own past lives, and Deepika is awakening to powers undreamt. But the Enemy, Ravindra, has also found allies-the nightmarish Rakshasa army. Memories and legends are coming alive all over India, from the bloodied sands of Ullal and the fortress of Jhansi to secret places in Mumbai, Pushkar and Varanasi. The fight to the finish has begun...

When a one-way time tunnel to Earth's distant past, specifically six million B.C., was discovered by folks on the Galactic Milieu, every misfit for light-years around hurried to pass through it. Each sought his own brand of happiness. But none could have guessed what awaited them. Not even in a million years....

Exiled beyond the time-portal into the world of six million years ago, the misfits of the 22nd century are enmeshed in the age-old war of two alien races. In this strange world, each year brings the ritual combat between the Firvulag and the Tanu.

On Earth, six million B.C., two species of alien ruled, the graceful humanoid Tanu and their twisted brethren, the Firvulag. Then men from twenty-second century Earth arrived through a one-way time tunnel -- and soon the aliens were locked in a battle to the death, for the humans had upset the precarious balance of power that existed between them. But when the tides of combat had receded, no one group held firm control, though Aiken Drum, man of no woman born, had declared himself the Nonborn King . . . .

The fourth and final volume of The Saga of Pliocene Exile.

Until the arrival of Aiken Drum, the 100,000 humans who had fled backward in time to Pliocene exile on Earth knew little but slavery to the Tanu -- the humanoid aliens who came from another galaxy. But King Aiken's rule is precarious, for the Tanu's twisted bretheren are secretly maneuvering to bring about his downfall. Worse -- Aiken is about to confront a man of incredibly powerful Talents who nearly overthrew a galactic rule. He is Marc Remillard. Call him . . . The Adversary.

Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, Han Alister journeys south to begin his schooling at Mystwerk House in Oden's Ford. But leaving the Fells doesn't mean that danger isn't far behind. Han is hunted every step of the way by the Bayars, a powerful wizarding family set on reclaiming the amulet Han stole from them. And Mystwerk House has dangers of its own. There, Han meets Crow, a mysterious wizard who agrees to tutor Han in the darker parts of sorcery-but the bargain they make is one Han may regret.

Meanwhile, Princess Raisa ana'Marianna runs from a forced marriage in the Fells, accompanied by her friend Amon and his triple of cadets. Now, the safest place for Raisa is Wein House, the military academy at Oden's Ford. If Raisa can pass as a regular student, Wein House will offer both sanctuary and the education Raisa needs to succeed as the next Gray Wolf queen.

Everything changes when Han and Raisa's paths cross, in this epic tale of uncertain friendships, cut-throat politics, and the irresistible power of attraction.

Banished to an uninhabited planet, a handful of genetic scientists prepare to live out eternity. Here, beyond the reach of their accusers, theory becomes reality. Experimenting with stolen human germ plasm, they shape mankind into races unlike anything Earth has ever seen: the whimsical Llani metamorphs, the inventive but rebellious Ganus, and the Rhodaru warriors with the truth sense. Once their great test has begun, the immortal geneticists agree never to interfere.

But like the races they invent, the scientists are human. Still, nothing they do prepares the Llanis for the Ganu uprising 500 years later. Queen Sivell is young, but she possesses an unerring wisdom -- a trait rare in Llanis of any age. As she ascends to the throne, war has already begun. Sivell's own unique parentage and her newfound knowledge of her people's origins could bring peace to her world -- or death to her people!

Exiled from Earth for their radical experiments in the biogenetics, the Venn scientists took their illegal craft to a new world they called Llia. Here the immortal Venn redesigned mankind into races unlike anything their accusers could have imagined, then watched and manipulated as their inventions began fashioning societies fit for themselves.

Nearly six hundred years later, the shape-shifting Llanis and the ingenious Ganus have forged a truce. Together, despite the Venn's meddling, they are becoming one people, becoming Llian. But Rhodaru warriors -- men rumored to possess the truth-sense and to be able to see in the dark -- have camped in the hills on Ganu land. Superstitious and ignorant of their origins, Rhodarus know only one way to unite Llia... war.

The strange races of the planet Llia were created by the Venn, genetic engineers banished from Earth for tampering with human lives. Centuries later, the peoples of Llia have begun the struggle for control of their own destiny. In a world torn asunder by war and rebellion, a courageous young woman of mixed heritage holds the key to Llia's future as the last of the Shapers face justice at the hands of their creations.

Revolution.

Riot.

Enslaved magical creatures and an exiled, reluctant hero.

Bella Kanto finds herself aboard a hostile ship bound for a frontier town. When she encounters an old lover along the way, she has a chance to escape--but does she really want to take it?

Meanwhile apprentice Lucy and her friend Maz have been kidnapped from Tabat and taken to the Southern Isles in search of ancient magic. They fear what will happen when they get there, particularly when their kidnapper realizes he's wrong about Lucy's identity.

Return to a world where magical creatures fight for their right to be free in a system that makes use of their work and sometimes their very bodies in a city full of revolution and riot, ready for the return of its lost champion: the reluctant Bella Kanto.

Welcome to the year 2072. Earth is under new management.

Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the Reapers came to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it's night, as sure as darkness, they will come.

In a valiant rebellion against the half-century Kurian occupation, the newly formed Texas and Ozark Republics have dealt the vampiric aliens their first major defeat. Resistance member David Valentine is revered as a hero, but he has a dangerous enemy within his own ranks, who will have him facing charges for abusing the Quisling prisoners-the human pawns of the Kurians. When fellow freedom fighter William Post is badly wounded, he asks Valentine to find his wife, who has vanished into the darkness of the Kurian Order. But what Valentine finds there will shake his sanity to its very core.

A nameless priestess will stop at nothing to get revenge on the killers of her lover.

In a world of turmoil, following the king's death, the traitor Vasic is struggling to secure his rule over the combined Peninsular Kingdoms whilst the exiled queen, Alwenna, has taken refuge with a freemerchant community whose elders fear her dark power.

Mistrust rules the day with bribery, drugs, trafficking of children, and murder rife throughout the kingdom.

As the priestess' plot for revenge continues, Alwenna leaves to seek the outcast group of loyal kinsman. Marten attempts to restore Alwenna to the throne but as the priestess closes in, will he succeed?

A former captain in the Army of Karse, Alberich has long hidden his unique psychic talents for fear of retaliation by the Sunpriests, but when his gifts are revealed and he is forced by his conscience to take a perilous stand, he is rescued from certain death by one of the magical Companion horses and chosen to serve the queen of Valdemar, Karse's archenemy.

Once a heroic Captain in the army of Karse, a kingdom at war with Valdemar, Alberich becomes one of Valdemar's Heralds. Despite prejudice against him, he becomes the personal protector of young Queen Selenay. But can he protect her from the dangers of her own heart?

From out of the East they came riding like a merciless plague - destroying kingdom after kingdom and the sovereigns who had previously mocked the warlord Loethar and his barbarian horde. Now only one land remains unconquered - the largest, richest, and most powerful realm of the Denova Set... Penraven.

The Valisar royals of Penraven face certain death, for the savage tyrant Loethar covets what they alone possess: the fabled Valisar Enchantment, an irresistible power to coerce, which will belong to Loethar once every Valisar has been slain. But the last hope of the besieged kingdom is being sent in secret from his doomed home, in the company of a single warrior. The future of Penraven now rests on the shoulders of the young Crown Prince Leonel who, though untried and untested in the ways of war, must survive brutality and treachery in order to claim the Valisar throne.

The Scattered Pearls Belt is a string of habitats on the edge of a huge galactic empire--a glittering, decadent society rife with corruption. Now, one of its victims--Qu?nh, a scholar betrayed and left for dead--has come back for her revenge, under the guise of the glamorous and enigmatic Alchemist of Streams and Hills.

Qu?nh's path intersects that of Minh, the daughter of one of her oldest enemies, who chafes at her own lack of freedom; and of Hoà, a near-destitute engineer who poses a threat to all Qu?nh's careful plans. Qu?nh finds herself inexorably attracted to Hoà, even as her plans upend the fragile political equilibrium of the Belt.

Falling in love wasn't part of Qu?nh's plans; but will she be able to grasp this second chance at happiness, or will she cling on to a revenge that may well consume her whole?

This story was originally published in Solaris Rising 1.5: An Exclusive Ebook of New Science Fiction (2012), edited by Ian Whates. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 18 (2013), edited by David G. Hartwell.