Search Worlds Without End

For hundreds of years, men have sought their hidden futures in the legendary images of the tarot--but what secrets of the past are harbored by the priestess, the magician, the hanged man... and the fool? The author of the explosive The Patron Saint of Plagues returns with a richly textured mystical mystery exploring the dark heart of one of our oldest traditions.

Years ago, fallen scholar Jeremiah Rosemont left the bitter rivalries of academia behind and now lives a simple nomadic existence in South America, far from the arguments that once defined his life. But he can't outrun his past... or the dangerous truth that lurks beneath his abandoned studies. Following an enigmatic summons to Rome, Rosemont finds himself at the center of a mystery that dates back to the fall of Troy, the pursuit of a mystical treasure many are willing to sacrifice fortunes and lives for: the earliest known tarot deck.

As Rosemont delves deeper and deeper into the tarot's unsettling secret origins, his own fate is inexorably intertwined with that of the Boy King, a homeless man with an unspeakable gift...and a mysterious past of his own. For these two men--and the demons, dupes, and power seekers drawn to them--the cards will reveal everything, even the shattering, unseen truths of human life itself....

In the dystopian world of Mafinga, Jasmin must contend with a dictator's sorcerer to cleanse the socialist state of its deadly pollution.

Mafinga's malevolent king dislikes books and, together with his sorcerer Atari, has collapsed the environment to almost uninhabitable. The sun has killed all the able men, including Jasmin's husband Godi. But Jasmin has Godi's secret story machine that tells of a better world, far different from the wastelands of Mafinga. Jasmin's crime for possessing the machine and its forbidden literature filled with subversive text is punishable by death.

Fate grants a cruel reprieve in the service of a childless queen who claims Jasmin's children as her own. Jasmin is powerless--until she discovers secrets behind the king and his sorcerer.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It was originally published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 1990. There are no other known publications available at this time.

With brain-suckers and body-snatchers around, not even your own identity is safe. When Marva, a Method actress, wakes up in a hologram pool in a club with new clothes, lots of money and a memory of murder, she knows something is wrong.

Summer 1971. A marvellous spell of weather, idyllic in its warmth. But new sun-spots had appeared; and with their appearance came a significant increase in the suicide rate. The wonderful summer continued for a decade: simultaneously Radiant Suicide reached endemic proportions, the only people to escape its effects being the supposed transnormals, the obsessionals, the eccentrics and the psychopaths. These were to be the only remnants of the ancient 'homo sapiens'...

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves) - essay by Alan Dean Foster
• 1 - As Is - novelette by Robert Silverberg
• 21 - The Same to You Doubled - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 33 - The Egg of the Glak - novelette by Harvey Jacobs
• 81 - Beibermann's Soul - short story by Mike Resnick
• 87 - Thimgs - short story by Theodore R. Cogswell
• 103 - Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin - short story by Marvin Kaye
• 111 - Unferno - novelette by George Alec Effinger
• 137 - Unicorn Variations - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• 166 - Yes Sir That's My - short story by Daniel P. Dern
• 179 - Please Stand By - [Max Kearny] - short story by Ron Goulart
• 205 - Bottle Party - short story by John Collier
• 215 - My Mother Was a Witch - short story by William Tenn
• 223 - Djinn, No Chaser - novelette by Harlan Ellison
• 246 - Up the Wall - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• 276 - Trouble with Water - short story by H. L. Gold
• 301 - Savage Breasts - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• 310 - Or the Grasses Grow - short story by Avram Davidson
• 321 - Snulbug - short story by Anthony Boucher
• 340 - Afterword (Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves) - essay by Alan Dean Foster

Set in an imagined land where magic and religion work in strange ways, this is the story of young Valemar, who discovers that he is the heir to the throne; his dark, manipulative cousin, Narrion; and Taja, a young woman who finds her destiny in magic. Along the way, there are intrigues, battles, duels with swords and with magic, and the revelation of complex human relationships.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2007. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Two (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse (2010), edited by Martin H. Greenberg, and Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse (2015), edited by John Joseph Adams. The story is included in the collection Fountain of Age: Stories (2012).

We are not alone, and it's our own damn fault...

Something demonic is stalking the brightest men and women in the computer industry. It attacks without warning or mercy, leaving its prey insane, comatose – or dead.

Mayhem is on the rise. Something far nastier than any virus, worm, or Trojan horse program is being evolved in laboratory confinement by well-intentioned but misguided researchers. When their artificial life-form escapes onto the Internet, no conventional defense against malicious software can begin to compete. As disasters multiply, computer scientist Doug Carey knows that unconventional measures may be civilization's last hope.

And that any artificial life-form learns very fast....

Protestants, Catholics, aliens... Just another division in Belfast

When the alien Shian come to Earth, they offer technology in exchange for a home. Belfast, Northern Ireland, is where eighty thousand of them settle. From that point on, the already-divided city takes on yet another partition. The Shian integrate themselves into the city's culture, becoming one more set of faces in the crowd. Now, a series of ghastly murders has stunned the city and affected both the Shian and the humans.

Andy Gillespie, a Loyalist and former criminal, is immediately named the main suspect in the killings. To clear his name, he must find the true perpetrators, and in order to do so, he must get help from any source possible--be it Protestant, Catholic, or extraterrestrial.

Shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award, Sacrifice of Fools depicts a city at once familiar and peculiar. Belfast resident Ian McDonald's interpretation of his hometown is one in which the people live their lives to the best of their abilities; one in which they have to deal with the basics of life with extraterrestrials, from language barriers to surprising new fetishes. Here, Belfastians discover how little things truly change.

Terra Viridian is a young woman who obeyed a vision, took a laser assault rifle, and turned fifteen hundred innocents into light. She was captured, convicted, and sentenced to the orbital prison called the Underworld. Forever.

Seven years later: a bar-band pianist named The Magician suddenly plays Bach, while a riot burns around him. The Queen of Hearts, a drifter who hides her life beneath a golden mask, steps enigmatically from the shadows. Underworld administrator Jase Klyos unexpectedly lets a concert bring sound to his silent, sterile hell. And behind her mad eyes, the vision of a psychotic killer... changes. The thing that Terra Viridian saw is coming. Growing. Watching.

And it must be set free.

In the world of Fool on the Hill dogs and cats can talk, a subculture of sprites lives in the shadows and underfoot (if you're the sensitive type, or drunk enough, you might see them cavorting across the lawn), and the Bohemians, a group of Harley- and horseback-riding students dedicated to all things unconventional, hold all-night revels for the glory of their cause.

Then there is Stephen Titus George, the novel's youthful hero, who somehow finds himself the main player in a story that began well over a century ago. George is a mild-mannered flier of kites, a sometimes writer of bestselling fiction, and would-be knight looking for a maiden. George will find his girl and the century-old story will provide the proverbial dragon whose slaying will sanctify their love. But it will not be a sword that fells the foe but the transforming power of the imagination.

Home to generations of humans, the starship Argonos has wandered aimlessly throughout the galaxy for hundreds of years, desperately searching for other signs of life. Now, a steady, unidentified transmission lures them toward a nearby planet, where the grisly remains of a former colony await the crew. Haunted by what they have seen, the crew has no choice but to follow when another signal beckons the Argonos into deep space and into the dark heart of an alien mystery...

Published in the UK as Unto Leviathan

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Orbit 7 (1970), edited by Damon Knight. The story is included in the collection The Infinity Box (1975).

Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in the anthology Silver Birch, Blood Moon (1999), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. No other publications are know at this time.

For 500 years we have carried our ancient hatreds and millennia-old wars into interstellar space. With them have gone the seeds of new self-aware lifeforms mutating from artificial intelligences, technoviruses, and info-flow. Beings with no bodies and no limits, evolving to leap from cyberspace to outer space. Beings born to be our rivals...

Katmer Al Shei, owner of the starship Pasadena, does not know she is carrying a live entity in her ship's computer systems. Or that the electronic network her family helped weave holds a new race fighting for survival. Or that her ship's professional Fool is trying to avert a battle that could destroy entire worlds. And when Al Shei learns the truth, all she'll really know is that it's time to take sides...

Wales, 1198. A time of treachery, passion, and uncertainty. King Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon, known as Noble, struggles to protect his small kingdom from foes outside and inside his borders. Pressured into a marriage of political convenience, he takes as his bride the young, headstrong Isabel Mortimer, niece of his powerful English nemesis.

Through strength of character, Isabel wins her husband's grudging respect, but finds the Welsh court backward and barbaric, and is soon engaged in a battle of wills against Gwirion, the king's oldest, oddest, and most trusted friend. Before long, however, Gwirion and Isabel's mutual animosity is abruptly transformed, and the king finds himself as threatened by loved ones as by the enemies who menace his crown.

A masterful novel by a gifted storyteller, The Fool's Tale combines vivid historical fiction, compelling political intrigue, and passionate romance to create an intimate drama of three individuals bound -- and undone -- by love and loyalty.

In the Penultimate Age of the Archonate, callow young fop Filidor Vesh is perfectly content to spend his days in the pursuit of shallow amusements, until he is summoned by a wizened old dwarf in need of a voluntary good deed - deliver a parcel to his uncle, the all -powerful and original 98th Archon, sole ruler of the world. So begins Filidor's reluctant odyssey through peculiar provinces peopled with odious denizens, including such road killers as mutant rodents, alien ants and a vengeful thamaturge. Now in terra incognito, his narrow conception of life shaken to the extreme, Filidor will strive to say and do the right things...and grow up in the process.

After returning from his quest to save the world from his uncle, Filidor Vesh now stumbles blindly through an attempt to squelch the machinations of a would-be political usurper. As a result, he must contend with evil agents as well as his true love.

When Tohko learns that someone is vandalizing books in the school library, she immediately launches an investigation. After all, there is hardly a more serious crime imaginable to a literature-eating goblin! Of course, Konoha is pulled (reluctantly) into his capricious club president's latest obsession, and when the culprit is caught, his penance is to participate in a play that Tohko has decided to organize for the school's cultural festival.

Just as Oscar Wilde posited that "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life," Konoha begins to notice similarities emerging between the circumstances that led to the vandalism of the library books and the relationships borne out in the literature club's play. The sometimes-frightening ties between people force Konoha to reexamine his understanding of true friendship... but will Konoha's newfound openness only leave him more vulnerable to betrayal?

Heroes and Fools

A submarine trip to an island of ghosts. A band of fugitive actors. A deadly draconian who has had too much holiday punch. And veritable onslaught of dryads, shadow wights, and that rarest of all monsters, the dread forest boojum.

Also, from the team of Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, the latest adventure of Kang and his wayward troop of draconians.

In the proud tradition of the best-selling Dragonlance anthologies, Heroes and Fools promises a sometimes heroic -- sometimes foolish -- visit to the world of Krynn.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1999) - essay by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
• Boojum, Boojum - (1999) - shortstory by Janet Pack
• Tree of Life - (1999) - shortstory by Miranda Horner
• Songsayer - (1999) - novelette by Todd Fahnestock and Giles Custer
• Gnomebody - (1999) - novelette by Jeff Grubb
• The Road Home - (1999) - novelette by Nancy Varian Berberick
• Nobless Oblige - (1999) - novelette by Paul B. Thompson
• Much Ado About Magic - (1999) - novelette by Kevin James Kage
• A Pinch of This, A Dash of That - (1999) - novelette by Nick O'Donohoe
• A Perfect Plan - (1999) - novelette by Linda P. Baker
• The Thief in the Mirror - (1999) - novelette by Richard A. Knaak
• Reorx Steps Out - (1999) - novelette by Jean Rabe
• The Bridge - (1999) - shortstory by Douglas Niles
• Gone - (1999) - novelette by Roger E. Moore
• To Convince the Righteous of the Right - (1999) - novelette by Don Perrin and Margaret Weis

As far as Elkie's concerned, it's all over and her happy ending is just around the corner. She's on her way back to Wales having freed Ben from the clutches of the controlling Dr Olsen and ensured that Dave, her ex-everything, will never be in a position to kill again. She's even managed to find herself a (somewhat unwilling) father figure in Conn, the one werewolf in the world who seems to have his shit together. All she has to do is say "thank you" to the Valemon, a company so at odds with Olsen they were willing to support her, then get on a plane for home. Easy, right?

FitzChivalry -- royal bastard and former king's assassin -- has left his life of intrigue behind. As far as the rest of the world knows, FitzChivalry Farseer is dead and buried. Masquerading as Tom Badgerlock, Fitz is now married to his childhood sweetheart, Molly, and leading the quiet life of a country squire.

Though Fitz is haunted by the disappearance of the Fool, who did so much to shape Fitz into the man he has become, such private hurts are put aside in the business of daily life, at least until the appearance of menacing, pale-skinned strangers casts a sinister shadow over Fitz's past...and his future.

Robin Hobb returns to her best loved characters with the second volume in a brand new series.

Happy endings never last...

Years ago, they freed a dragon from the glaciers on Aslevjal. Then they parted ways, the Fool returning to far-off Clerres, while Fitz finally claimed a wife, a family, and a home of his own.

Now, betrayed by his own people and broken by torment, the Fool has made his way back to the Six Duchies. But as Fitz attempts to heal his old friend in Buckkeep Castle, his young daughter Bee is abducted from Withywoods by pale and mysterious raiders who leave ruin and confusion in their wake.

Fitz must find a way to rescue his beloved Bee. At the same time it is the Fool's fiercest wish to return to Clerres with the best assassin he has ever known, to gain vengeance and justice.

Can Fitz bear to take up the tools of his old trade again, even to avenge his dearest friend and save his child?

Prince FitzChivalry Farseer's daughter Bee was violently abducted from Withywoods by Servants of the Four in their search for the Unexpected Son, foretold to wield great power. With Fitz in pursuit, the Servants fled through a Skill-pillar, leaving no trace. It seems certain that they and their young hostage have perished in the Skill-river.

Clerres, where White Prophets were trained by the Servants to set the world on a better path, has been corrupted by greed. Fitz is determined to reach the city and take vengeance on the Four, not only for the loss of Bee but also for their torture of the Fool. Accompanied by FitzVigilant, son of the assassin Chade, Chade's protg Spark and the stableboy Perseverance, Bee's only friend, their journey will take them from the Elderling city of Kelsingra, down the perilous Rain Wild River, and on to the Pirate Isles.

Their mission for revenge will become a voyage of discovery, as well as of reunions, transformations and heartrending shocks. Startling answers to old mysteries are revealed. What became of the liveships Paragon and Vivacia and their crews? What is the origin of the Others and their eerie beach? How are liveships and dragons connected?

But Fitz and his followers are not the only ones with a deadly grudge against the Four. An ancient wrong will bring them unlikely and dangerous allies in their quest. And if the corrupt society of Clerres is to be brought down, Fitz and the Fool will have to make a series of profound and fateful sacrifices.

In the Five Hundred Kingdoms, never believe what your eyes tell you.

The seventh daughter of the Sea King, Ekaterina is more than a pampered princess—she's also the family spy. Which makes her the perfect emissary to check out interesting happenings in the neighboring kingdom... and nothing interests her more than Sasha, the seventh son of the king of Belrus. Ekaterina suspects he's far from the fool people think him. But before she can find out what lies beneath his facade, she is kidnapped!

Trapped in a castle at the mercy of a possessive Jinn, Ekaterina knows her chances of being found are slim. Now fortune, a fool and a paper bird are the only things she can count on—along with her own clever mind and intrepid heart.

Fool--the bawdy and outrageous New York Times bestseller from the unstoppable Christopher Moore--is a hilarious new take on William Shakespeare's King Lear... as seen through the eyes of the foolish liege's clownish jester, Pocket. A rousing tale of "gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity," Fool joins Moore's own Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, and You Suck! as modern masterworks of satiric wit and sublimely twisted genius, prompting Carl Hiassen to declare Christopher Moore "a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word."

New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore channels William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe in The Serpent of Venice, a satiric Venetian gothic that brings back the Pocket of Dog Snogging, the eponymous hero of Fool, along with his sidekick, Drool, and pet monkey, Jeff.

Venice, a long time ago. Three prominent Venetians await their most loathsome and foul dinner guest, the erstwhile envoy of Britain and France, and widower of the murdered Queen Cordelia: the rascal Fool Pocket.

This trio of cunning plotters--the merchant, Antonio; the senator, Montressor Brabantio; and the naval officer, Iago--have lured Pocket to a dark dungeon, promising an evening of spirits and debauchery with a rare Amontillado sherry and Brabantio's beautiful daughter, Portia.

But their invitation is, of course, bogus. The wine is drugged. The girl isn't even in the city limits. Desperate to rid themselves once and for all of the man who has consistently foiled their grand quest for power and wealth, they have lured him to his death. (How can such a small man, be such a huge obstacle?). But this Fool is no fool... and he's got more than a few tricks (and hand gestures) up his sleeve.

Shakespeare meets Dashiell Hammett in this wildly entertaining murder mystery from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore--an uproarious, hardboiled take on the Bard's most performed play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring Pocket, the hero of Fool and The Serpent of Venice, along with his sidekick, Drool, and pet monkey, Jeff.

Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging--last seen in The Serpent of Venice--washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool.

But the island is in turmoil. Egeus, the Duke's minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed... or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool's impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke's guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape.

He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, IS short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow--the mischievous sprite better known as Puck--was found dead. Murdered. Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can't refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow. But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard's most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead.

With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well.

A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a Midsummer Night's noir--a wicked and brilliantly funny good time conjured by the singular imagination of Christopher Moore.

From the barren isles of the North come the Eyrans. Hardy seafaring folk. From the South come their old enemies, the Istrians. Slave-owners, who drove the Eyrans from their lands. And from all over Elda come the nomadic peoples - the Footloose - purveyors of charms and (until now) harmless potions. But whence comes the sorcery that disrupts the annual Allfair at which they all gather?

Katla Aransen and her family have sailed to the fair to trade their goods. The Vingo clan have travelled from Istria to purchase a bride for their appalling eldest son. Tycho Issian has come to sell his daughter to the highest bidder. King Ravn Asharson, Stallion of the North, seeks a political alliance; while others seek his downfall.

For centuries, Elda has been bereft of magic; but this year something has changed. A mysterious force is abroad once more, and it will change the world forever...

Magic has returned to Elda, creating all manner of wonders and terrors. None yet know that the source of this magic is the legendary Rosa Eldi, restored to the world, but not yet restored to herself. Unaware of her true nature, she has married King Ravn Asharson of the North, and now with usurpers and assassins circling she must conceive a child to establish the succession.

In the Southern Empire, the fire of holy war is smouldering and violence is everywhere, fuelled by fundamentalist hatred and bigotry. Caught up in these machinations, peace-loving Saro Vingo is forced to take up arms against the North; and Virelai, apprentice sorcerer, finds himself chained to the murderous plans of his master, Tycho Issian.

Ignoring his king's call to arms, Aran Aranson, chief of the Rockfall clan, is in the grip of a mad obsession borne of a magical map and dreams of sailing the frozen seas to Sanctuary, island of legend, to find a fortune. His daughter, Katla, dreams of sailing with him; but her fate lies elsewhere. All over Elda, forces are aligning themselves for good or for evil. There is magic in the world again, but it is wild and unpredictable, and few will count its touch a blessing.

Filled with magic and quests, war and deception, fantastic cultures and exotic landscapes, and a most dynamic heroine, the Fool's Gold trilogy concludes.

Rosa Eldi, has escaped the clutches of the evil sorcerer Rahe. But will she regain her memory and restore her world before man's baser nature triumphs and brings ruin to Elda forever?

The three temperamental gods that rule this world are bound under a renegade magician. In their struggle to break free, they will change their world, affecting the fates of their peoples.

Reinmar of Bielawa, sometimes known as Reynevan, is a doctor, a magician and, according to some, a charlatan. And when a thoughtless indiscretion finds him caught in the crosshairs of powerful noble family, he is forced to flee his home.

But once he passes beyond the city borders, he finds that there are dangers ahead as well as behind. Strange mystical forces are gathering in the shadows. And pursued not only by the affronted Stercza brothers, bent on vengeance, but also by the Holy Inquisition, Reynevan finds himself in the Narrenturm, the Tower of Fools.

The Tower is an asylum for the mad, or for those who dare to think differently and challenge the prevailing order. And escaping the Tower, avoiding the conflict around him, and keeping his own sanity might prove a greater challenge than Reynevan ever imagined.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July-August 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens (2016).

Read the full story for free at the Baen website.

From dungeon to cathedral, from brothel to hermit's hut, the gambits of the mighty face the power of seers and stars. In the fortress of Bren, mad King Kylock and the wizard Baralis spread their sadistic terror across the shattered kingdoms. Meanwhile, the fallen knight Tawl and Jack, the baker's boy, meet in a quest to save widowed Melliandra and her unborn child.

Soon sons will turn on fathers and dread secrets will be revealed, as Jack and Kylotk clash in a magical apocalypse that will rewrite the meaning of Destiny and unknit the very fabric of time... in the wondrous conclusion to the brilliant saga The Book of Words.

Who has the right to change the world forever?

How will we live online?

How do we find comfort in an increasingly isolated world?

The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While the robots were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction with only their presence. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl's path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories.

Months later, April's friends are trying to find their footing in a post-Carl world. Andy has picked up April's mantle of fame, speaking at conferences and online; Maya, ravaged by grief, begins to follow a string of mysteries that she is convinced will lead her to April; and Miranda is contemplating defying her friends' advice and pursuing a new scientific operation... one that might have repercussions beyond anyone's comprehension. Just as it is starting to seem like the gang may never learn the real story behind the events that changed their lives forever, a series of clues arrive--mysterious books that seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers--all of which seems to suggest that April could be very much alive.

Visit an American West that never was, but could have been.

A woman in search of her fate, a people looking for a new place to call home, a young girl about to become more than she could ever dream, a magical creature trapped between What Is and what Will Be...

These stories and more welcome you to the Territory, where little is as it seems and everything is what we make of it.

Table of Contents:

• "Crossroads" (2011) short story
• "The Devil's Jack" (2014) short fiction
• "Boots of Clay" (2017) short story
• "A Town Called Flood" short fiction
• "The Devil's Hope" short fiction
• "West Winds' Fool" short fiction
• "Gabriel's Road" (novella excerpt)

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work — magical or mundane.

But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses — and the first two don't count…

This shoty story originally appeared in the anthology Swords & Dark Magic (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Five (2011), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Sharp Ends (2016).

In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans have learned to live in relative peace. Still, students like Claire Danvers know that after dark, studying can take a backseat to staying alive. But the tenuous good-neighbor policy is really turned on its head with the arrival of Mr. Bishop. Bad to the bone, the ancient old-school vampire cares nothing about harmony. Staying at the top of the food chain is enough. What he wants from the town's living and dead is unthinkably sinister. It's only at a formal ball attended by vampires and their human dates that Claire realizes Bishop's plan---and the elaborately evil trap he's set for the warm-blooded souls of Morganville.

Hailed as "epic fantasy on a George R. R. Martin scale, but on speed" (Fixed on Fantasy), the Broken Empire trilogy introduced a bold new world of dark fantasy with the story of Jorg Ancrath's devastating rise to power. Now, Mark Lawrence returns to the Broken Empire with the tale of a less ambitious prince...

The Red Queen is old but the kings of the Broken Empire dread her like no other. For all her reign, she has fought the long war, contested in secret, against the powers that stand behind nations, for higher stakes than land or gold. Her greatest weapon is The Silent Sister-unseen by most and unspoken of by all.

The Red Queen's grandson, Prince Jalan Kendeth-drinker, gambler, seducer of women-is one who can see The Silent Sister. Tenth in line for the throne and content with his role as a minor royal, he pretends that the hideous crone is not there. But war is coming. Witnesses claim an undead army is on the march, and the Red Queen has called on her family to defend the realm. Jal thinks it's all a rumor-nothing that will affect him-but he is wrong.

After escaping a death trap set by the Silent Sister, Jal finds his fate magically intertwined with a fierce Norse warrior. As the two undertake a journey across the Empire to undo the spell, encountering grave dangers, willing women, and an upstart prince named Jorg Ancrath along the way, Jalan gradually catches a glimmer of the truth: he and the Norseman are but pieces in a game, part of a series of moves in the long war-and the Red Queen controls the board.

Return to the world of the Farseers...

Robin Hobb's best loved characters, Fitz , The Fool and Nighteyes the wolf, face new adventures and trials in the first book of The Tawny Man trilogy.

When Assassin's Quest closed, Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain, he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders and torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings, and of raising a dragon.

Now, in this the first of a trilogy, we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies and the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first Assassin trilogy.

Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken's effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another 'Piebald Prince', a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit, together with his bonded companion, the wolf Nighteyes?

Fitz has succeeded in rescuing Prince Dutiful from the clutches of the Piebald rebels, and has returned with him to Buckkeep castle. With Dutiful safe again, Queen Kettricken can proceed with plans to marry him to the Outislander princess, Elliania, but with tensions building among the peoples of the Six Duchies over Kettricken's tolerance of the Wittted, even Buckkeep is no longer safe. A reluctant Fitz is assigned to protect the young prince, and also train him in the Skill, and in doing so he finally makes contact not only with his estranged daughter, Nettle, but with someone in Buckkeep who may possess a greater Skill talent than Fitz. And who may represent a terrible threat to the Farseers. Meanwhile, Elliania arrives, and before she will accept Prince Dutiful's betrothal challenges him to undertake an impossible quest. He must kill a legendary Outislander dragon.

The moving end to the tale of the Farseers, in which kingdoms must stand or fall on the beat of a dragon's wings, or a Fool's heart.

A small and sadly untried coterie--the old assassin Chade, the serving-boy Thick, Prince Dutiful, and his reluctant Skillmaster, Fitz--sail towards the distant island of Aslevjal. There they must fulfil the Narcheska's challenge to her betrothed: to lay the head of the dragon Icefyre, whom legends tell is buried there deep beneath the ice, upon her hearth. Only with the completion of this quest can the marriage proceed, and the resulting alliance signal an end to war between the two kingdoms.

It is not a happy ship: tensions between the folk of the Six Duchies and their traditional enemies, the Outislanders, lie just beneath the surface. Thick is constantly ill, and his random but powerful Skilling has taken on a dark and menacing tone, while Chade's fascination with the Skill is growing to the point of obsession.

Having ensured that his beloved friend the Fool is safely left behind in Buckkeep, Fitz is guilt-stricken; but he is determined to keep his fate at bay, since prophecy foretells the Fool's death if he ever sets foot on the isle of the black dragon. But as their ship draws in towards Aslevjal a lone figure awaits them...