Search Worlds Without End

"The opening chapter defies description. Imagine one of those 1930s screwball comedies with the crazy situations, but substitute malevolence for humor."-Karl Edward Wagner

"Doctor, I'm losing my mind." So begins John Franklin Bardin's unconventional crime thriller in which a psychiatrist attempts to help his patient lead to a dead-end world of amnesia and social outcasts. The Deadly Percheron is a murder mystery, poignant love story, and an unsettling and hallucinatory voyage into memory, madness, and despair.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Summer Days and Summer Nights (2016), edited by Stephanie Perkins. It can also be found in the anthology The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017, edited by Charles Yu and John Joseph Adams.

FATE CAN BE CHANGED. CURSES CAN BE BROKEN.

In a shabby house in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil. But when her scheming mistress discovers her scullion is hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to win over the royal court.

Determined to seize this chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of power-hungry nobility, desperate kings, holy men and seers, where the lines between magic, science and fraud blur. With the pyres of the Inquisition burning, she must use every bit of her wit and resilience to win fame and hide the truth of her ancestry -- even if that means enlisting the help of an embittered immortal familiar, whose own secrets could cost her everything.

<>For nearly forty years, renowned paranormal investigator Professor Charlatan Bardot has examined, documented, and acquired stories of haunted buildings around the world. Partnered with leading anthologist Eric J. Guignard, and gifted artists Steve Lines and James Gabb, the greatest of Charlatan's discoveries are made available now in this comprehensive travel anthology!

From the Philippines' tragic Ame-Soeur Clothing Factory, to Sweden's reverent Fish Church; from Tanzania's vengeful Unguja Restaurant, to Canada's cursed Crow Island Lighthouse, Charlatan Bardot presents a lifetime of experience and insight into paranormal architecture.

27 feature stories and 36 tiny tales are included of haunted temples, diners, hotels, shops, hospitals, outposts, theaters, and other building types, along with maps, travel notes, illustrations, and more, all designed to provide an immersive experience for veteran travelers and armchair ghost hunters alike!

Enter Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (2021 edition) and explore the strange and curious locales of the globe and of your imagination.

When it comes to big dreams and schemes, young Chuck Lambert would give Walter Mitty a run for his money. In fact, Chuck's biggest dream of all is really out of this world. Because he's got his eyes on a prize in the sky. Chuck wants to buy a planet of his own....

Madman Murphy, the King of Planetary Realtors, is more than happy to oblige. He's got a whole galaxy of planets for sale. All Chuck needs is money ... and a lot of it. Eleven years later, saving every penny he can scrape up, Chuck's dream comes true. He takes possession and takes off for Planet 19453X....

One problem: Madman Murphy has sold Chuck a world of trouble. Because on Planet 19453X the water is undrinkable, the air is unbreathable, and the laws of physics don't apply. Has Chuck's dream turned into a nightmare? Not quite. As he's about to discover, sometimes, to fulfill your true desire, it's simply a matter of digging a little deeper....

By the time A Matter of Matter appeared in 1949, L. Ron Hubbard's stature as a writer was well established. As author and critic Robert Silverberg puts it: he had become a "master of the art of narrative." Hubbard's editors urged him to apply his gift for succinct characterization, original plot, deft pacing and imaginative action to the genre of science fiction and fantasy. The rest is Sci-Fi history.

Also includes the science fiction adventures, "The Conroy Diary," in which the man who opens up the universe to mankind also opens himself to charges of fraud and tax evasion; The "Obsolete Weapon", the story of an American GI involved in the 1943 invasion of Italy who slips back in time and finds himself fighting a different kind of battle--as a gladiator in ancient Rome; and "The Planet Makers", in which a great deal is at stake for the engineers who make planets habitable, but one of them has a surprising plan all his own.

Boldly go to times where no one has gone before.

While transporting a contraband Russian time machine and developmental weaponry, Private Everett Dumphee finds himself cast into new settings when the device suddenly activates.

What follows are fantastic high-tech experiences that might be called the ultimate off-road adventure. For the determined Dumphee--narrowly escaping with his life and three beautiful women--it is not necessarily a matter of will he make his destination, but when.

These four vivid characters trek through this fun and fast-moving journey like there's no tomorrow. Wherever that may be in A Very Strange Trip.

In the year A.D. 3000, Earth is a dystopian wasteland, plundered of its natural resources by alien invaders known as Psychlos. Fewer than thirty-five thousand humans survive in a handful of communities scattered across the face of a post-apocalyptic Earth.

From the ashes of humanity rises a young hero, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. Setting off on an initial quest to discover a hidden evil, Jonnie unlocks the mystery of humanity’s demise and unearths a crucial weakness in their oppressors. Spreading the seeds of revolt, Jonnie and a small band of survivors pit their quest for freedom in an all-out rebellion that erupts across the continents of Earth and the cosmic sprawl of the Psychlo empire, making it one of the best space opera books of our time.

For the fate of the Galaxy lies on the Battlefield of Earth.

Firsten Guide is a tough, wise-cracking rebel leader who's light years ahead of his time--and about to lead his crew into a battle that's Beyond All Weapons.

He and his fellow colonizers of Mars have faced a brutal crackdown engineered by Earth's tyrannical government. But the resourceful Firsten has developed an extraordinary new fuel that enables him and his hardy band to escape into space--and time.

Escape, however, is not enough. Firsten wants revenge. But the universe is full of unexpected twists and turns. Just as Prometheus flew too close to the sun, Firsten will soon discover that when you attempt to break the laws of physics, you can get burned.

Also includes the science fiction adventures "Strain," the story of a space war's brutality and one man's struggle to keep a secret under the pain of torture; and "The Invaders," in which the distant crystal mines are under attack until a technician crystallizes a unique strategy to undermine the attackers.

Contents:

• Beyond All Weapons - (1950) - short story
• Strain - (1942) - short story
• The Invaders - (1942) - novelette

Fortune hunter Billy Newman is not a man of great strength or physical courage. Like a young Johnny Depp, he gets by on his wit, wiles and good looks. And he's had quite a good run--striking gold in the Philippines and buying his very own island in the South Seas....

But there's trouble in paradise, and Billy's in the thick of it; The island's crops are failing; The island's people are dying; And the island's owner--Billy--is taking the heat; Why? Because he's angered the 75-foot-tall big-boss god of the island.

75-foot tall? To Billy, it's a laughable superstition--until he finds out just how serious the islanders are. They're out to sacrifice a beautiful young woman to the supposed god. The only way Billy can save her is to humor the locals and pretend to take the spirit on. But the joke may be on Billy, as he has to screw up some very real courage to face the very real Danger in the Dark.

Hubbard lived on Guam in 1927, while his father was assigned to the US naval station there. In his journals he describes a local superstition: the great cheese ghost named Tadamona. He wrote that the devil had the shape of a man, attained the height of coconut trees and was the cause behind all sickness and disease. To dispel the superstition, Ron descended into Tadamona's supposed abode, a great underground stream--an encounter reflected in Danger in the Dark.

Includes the fantasy adventures "The Room", in which Uncle Toby goes to his room, never to return, leaving it to his nephew to explore the magic and mystery of the place, and "He Didn't Like Cats", the story of one man's feline phobia and the hauntingly high price he pays for it.

THE GOD PROTECT THOSE WHO SERVE

Flight Lieutenant Clayton McLean had bailed out of his burning plane...but the chute failed to open! No one could have survived such an experience, yet McLean did.

It was but the first of many such impossible excapes from certain death for the Lieutenant... and each time he was spared, someone else died.

By the time McLean realized what was happening to him, and what ruthless powers protected him, it was too late. He was a man who wanted desperately to die - but knew he could not...

London 1975. The World War is grinding to a halt. A force more sinister than Hitler's Nazi regime has seized control of Europe and is systematically destroying every adversary. Ordered by his superiors to return to British Headquarters, located in a vast underground fortress, "the Lieutenant" is torn between abiding by military codes and doing what he knows is right for his country.

Is Greed good? The future of Earth and all of mankind may hang on that one question. And George Marquis Lorrilard--a space-age ace-pilot, adventurer, and fortune-hunter--is just the man to answer it.

The world is divided between Asia and the United Continents--two great superpowers locked in eternal warfare. But the balance of power is about to shift in Asia's favor. They have developed a top-secret weapon--the cohesion projector--that could lead to annihilation on an unprecedented scale.

But as far as Lorrilard is concerned, the number one problem with the projector is that it stands in the way of his profits. Can he find a way to subvert the powerful weapon and resume his enterprising exploits? For millions of people on Earth survival may ultimately depend on the power of one man's Greed.

Also includes the science fiction adventures, "The Final Enemy," in which Earth discovers it faces a distant, yet devastating new foe, the identity of which is the most shocking blow of all; and "The Automagic Horse," the story of a Hollywood special effects wizard who is about to apply his movie magic to a project that is out of this world.

Contents:

• vii - Foreword: Stories from Pulp Fiction's Golden Age - (2008) - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• 1 - Greed - (1950) - short story
• 31 - Final Enemy - (1950) - short story
• 49 - The Automagic Horse - (1949) - novelette
• 60 - The Automagic Horse - (1949) - interior artwork by Edd Cartier
• 71 - The Automagic Horse [2] - (1949) - interior artwork by Edd Cartier
• 80 - The Automagic Horse [3] - (1949) - interior artwork by Edd Cartier
• 111 - Glossary (Greed) - essay by uncredited
• 121 - L. Ron Hubbard in the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction - (2009) - essay by uncredited
• 133 - The Stories from the Golden Age (bibliography) - (2008) - essay by uncredited

Does size matter? Is bigger better? That's no small question to Tom Little--the circus midget with giant dreams.

Tom may be king of the midgets, but he's got far grander ambitions--to become the muscleman at the top, the ringmaster. Now, drawing on some dark ancient secrets and mystic texts, he's about to get his wish.

Assuming another man's identity, Tom discovers he must also take on his sins, debts, and enemies. He may be living large--but now there are those who want to make him pay for the big man's sins.

Also includes "The Last Drop," an astounding tale of a New York bartender who mixes some very magical drinks--to amazing effect.

Contents:

• vii - Foreword: Stories from Pulp Fiction's Golden Age - (2008) - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• 1 - If I Were You - (1940) - short fiction
• 9 - If I Were You - (1940) - interior artwork by uncredited
• 53 - If I Were You [2] - (1940) - interior artwork by uncredited
• 61 - The Last Drop - (1941) - short fiction by L. Sprague de Camp and L. Ron Hubbard
• 71 - The Last Drop - (1941) - interior artwork by uncredited
• 97 - Glossary (If I Were You) - essay by uncredited
• 106 - "In writing an adventure story..." - (unknown) - essay
• 107 - L. Ron Hubbard and American Pulp Fiction - (unknown) - essay by uncredited

Renowned throughout the universe...

A star among the stars...

A timeless hero whose time is now...

Ole Doc Methuselah is his name, and saving the universe is his game.

He may be a touch absent-minded, a tad disorganized, with a slight tendency to lose all perspective in the presence of an attractive woman... but when it comes to saviors of the universe, you take what you can get.

And what you get with Ole Doc Methuselah--the most famous member of the most elite organization in the universe, the Soldiers of Light--is action, spectacle, mystery, and plenty of laughs along the way.

With his razor-sharp scalpel, hypodermic needles, and doctor's bag of tricks, he journeys to the far corners of the cosmos, vowing to cut out the corruption, confront the cruelty, and contain the warped psychology that plagues mankind--and all other kinds out there.

Yes, there is intelligent life in the universe after all. You'll find it in Ole Doc Methuselah. So if you're looking for an adventure to remember, this is just what the doctor ordered.

Contents:

• [iii] - Foreword - essay by uncredited
• 1 - Ole Doc Methuselah - (1947) - novelette
• 36 - Her Majesty's Aberration - (1948) - short story
• 52 - The Expensive Slaves - (1947) - short story
• 66 - The Great Air Monopoly - (1948) - novelette
• 98 - Plague - (1949) - novelette
• 126 - A Sound Investment - (1949) - novelette
• 150 - Ole Mother Methuselah - (1950) - novelette

Things are disappearing. Parts of buildings, parts of people, parts of the whole world--they're here today, gone tomorrow. Old Shellback--a character as crazy-smart as Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future--thinks he needs glasses. But all he really has to do is open his eyes... and see the light.

Or so says George Smiley--otherwise known as the Messiah. George claims that the reason things are vanishing is because he wants them to go away. He has no more use for the world... and so it goes. Say goodbye. But Old Shellback has a different idea, and since he is the most stubborn man in the universe, you might want to hear him out.

What's Shellback's idea? That two can play at this game. While George is making this world disappear, Old Shellback will make another one appear. Join him on an amazing odyssey--as he heads back to a future of his own making.

By the spring of 1938, Hubbard's stature as a writer was well established. As author and critic Robert Silverberg puts it: he had become a "master of the art of narrative." Hubbard's editors urged him to apply his gift for succinct characterization, original plot, deft pacing and imaginative action to a genre that was new, and essentially foreign, to him--science fiction and fantasy. The rest is Sci-Fi history.

Also includes the Science Fiction adventures "A Can of Vacuum," in which a practical joke on a space station proves that a good sense of humor is timeless, and "240,000 Miles Straight Up," the thrilling story of a race to the moon... and the one man who may be able to save the earth from Armageddon.

Set in an uncertain, strife-torn future when the first starships of man are traveling across the galaxy--but not without extracting a terrible price from their crews.

The novel's thought-provoking opening line, "Space is deep, Man is small and Time is his relentless enemy," powerfully captures the challenges facing the brave men and women of these vessels--people who must give up their former lives to explore space as entire generations and whole societies come and go on Earth, while those aboard remain essentially untouched by the passage of time in a vessel traveling at nearly the speed of light.

This immersing, remarkably ruthless drama begins when Alan Corday, a naively unseasoned but brialliant young engineer, is shanghaied from the spaceport at New Chicago and taken aboard the "Hound of Heaven"--bound for the stars.

Commanded by a distantly mysterious but charismatic leader by the name of Captain Jocelyn, the "Hound" traverses teh galaxy in an effort to keep a lifeline between Earth and the first colonies in other star systems. But in the time span of a few crossings, conditions on Earth grow gradually worse and more dangerous, while those aboard are increasingly treated as outcasts and a threat to the powers that control the planet.

Against his will, Corday is mercilessly driven by Jocelyn to use his untested intellect and abilities to serve the ship and the beleaguered space colonies. But as events unfold among the turbulent reaches of the galaxy, and during the perilous returns to Earth, Corday discovers a startling truth about his destiny that will give a whole new meaning to man's place in the stars.

Jules didn't want to be a necromancer. In fact he shoudn't have been one - particularly after he mixed, half and half - wrong halves at that! - the formula for reviving and restoring corpses and the formula for winning friends and influencing people.

Farmer Eben Smith is fed up with big government telling him how to run his life and his business. They pay him to bury his crops while folks starve in the streets, and he's not going to take it anymore. He's declaring his independence, loading up his fruits and vegetables, and heading for the city to wheel and deal....

But before he can trade in his turnips, Eben'll have to deal with something bigger--a break in the space/time continuum. He's at The Crossroads, where reality is turned upside-down and inside out. And before it's over, he'll turn his turnips into liquor, and the liquor into guns and gold, as he plunges into strange new worlds... finding ways to wreak havoc in all of them.

Also includes the fantasy adventures, "Borrowed Glory," the haunting story of two immortals who wager on two mortals given a single day of love... a wager that leads to heartbreak and tragedy; and "The Devil's Rescue" based on the legend of The Flying Dutchman, in which the sole survivor of a disaster at sea is "rescued" by the devil himself and finds that fate rests on a roll of the dice.

Contents:

• The Crossroads - (1941) - novelette
• Borrowed Glory - (1941) - short story
• The Devil's Rescue - (1940) - short story

WWII intelligence officer Charles Martel, jailed in Leavenworth for bucking insane post war politicians with a new world order agenda, is "freed" by the chaos of WW III. Gathering haggard forces across 3 continents he unleashes an unlimited source of useful energy in a redoubt in the Atlas Mountains of Morrocco. Who will gather around him to fight to rebuild civilization from the post WW III fascism that has gripped the world? Could it be those the fascists depend on most? The captive brains who try to steal the secret of his energy source blow themselves and half their cities up. What happens when open and unstoppable communication of human rights and real values invades through the airwaves?

"Irish" is a bellhop at the Burton Hotel in New York whose curiosity continually lands him in the maximum amount of trouble. When the evil and exotic looking ghoul checks in at The Burton and Irish delivers a large chest seeming to contain nothing but air to this foul looking stranger's room, the inquisitive Irish begins searching for answers and lands himself in mishap after mishap in order to free himself from the power of supernatural forces.

Women. Liquor. Power...

Driven by greed and lust for power.

Does Fanner have a prayer?

That is Fanner Marston's mantra--his reason for being--and while he knows a little about the first and a lot about the second, he may well be on the verge of learning everything there is to know about the third. Power. He may, in fact, be about to uncover the key to gaining absolute control over the entire universe. The only problem is, Fanner is certifiably insane--a crazed Peter Lorre on a power trip....

His starship has crash-landed, and he's the sole survivor, which doesn't matter to him. Driven by greed and lust for power, wracked by thirst, hunger and pain, all he cares about is reaching the ancient city of Parva and making himself at home. Because there lies The Great Secret to universal domination--and what's a little suffering on the road to becoming God?

Does Fanner have a prayer? The writing's on the walls of Parva--and you won't believe what it says....

Also includes the Science Fiction adventures, The Space Can, in which a decrepit space battleship is a civilian fleet's only defense; The Beast, the tale of a hunter in the jungles of Venus, chasing an immoral beast; and The Slaver, in which an alien race has enslaved the human race, but can't repress the power of human love.

The year: 3975.

The man: Christopher Randolph Kellan.

The mission: Kill the king of the galaxy.

He is the Kingslayer.

Young Kit Kellan has led a rough-and-tumble life - knocking around the Vega System in his youth as a tiger hunter, a brawler, and a bouncer in a bar. But his real fight is just beginning. Summarily expelled from the prestigious Terra University, he is taken into custody by an agent of the System Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Kit's crime: thinking too much and thinking too well.

He's not in custody for long, however. Snatched from captivity by the People's Revolutionary Society, Kit sets out an epic adventure that will take him to the farthest reaches of the universe - as he is chosen to undertake a mission of extraordinary difficulty and danger: assassinate the Arbiter.

Just who is the Arbiter? He is the omnipotent ruler of the stars. Empires rise and fall, wars rage, planets vanish... all at the snap of his fingers. And as Kit discovers, it's not easy to kill the most powerful man in the universe.

He'll have to outsmart shadowy spies, battle deadly saboteurs, and match wits with women as beautiful as they are dangerous. In the end - if he lives to see the day - he might just make a discovery that will change him, and the galaxy, forever.

"An exciting novel of the future. One thrilling adventure to another, ending with a surprising climax. Highly recommended." (Los Angeles Daily News)

Contents:

• The Kingslayer - novella
• The Invaders - (1942) - novelette
• The Beast - (1942) - novelette
• Preface (The Kingslayer) - essay

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The Empire State Building has vanished into thin air! Gone, too, are Grant's Tomb and Grand Central Station, and all hell is breaking loose in New York City!

What's the story? One grizzled old newspaper reporter known simply as Pop--is on top of it... and better stay there because his livelihood is on the line. If Pop fails to get to the bottom of the vanishing landmarks, his job will disappear as well--and land in the hands of the newspaper publisher's son-in-law.

Any cub reporter could find someone breaking the laws of the city, but tracking down a suspect who's breaking the laws of physics is a different story altogether. But Pop's like a dog with a bone, and he won't let go until he gets at the truth... no matter how strange or astounding it is. In the end, he gets a lesson in larceny, proving that when you get down to business, size really does matter.

Also features the science fiction adventures "Battle of Wizards," in which an epic battle between science and magic unfolds with an entire planet hanging in the balance; and Hubbard's first published foray into science fiction and fantasy, "The Dangerous Dimension," the story of a mathematics professor who discovers an equation that enables him to teleport anywhere he can imagine... even if he doesn't want to go.

Contents:

• vii - Foreword: Stories from Pulp FIction's Golden Age (The Professor was a Thief) - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• 1 - The Professor Was a Thief - (1940) - novelette
• 55 - Battle of Wizards - (1949) - short story
• 73 - The Dangerous Dimension - (1938) - short story
• 103 - Story Preview: A Matter of Matter - (1949) - short fiction
• 113 - Glossary (The Professor was a Thief) - essay by uncredited
• 121 - L. Ron Hubbard in the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction - essay by uncredited
• 133 - The Stories from the Golden Age (bibliography) - (2008) - essay by uncredited

Penniless, homeless and virtually lifeless, the vagrant "Doughface" Jack is about to discover that where medical marvels meet the mysteries of the human mind, amazing things happen. Like one of the comic book X-Men mutants, The Tramp acquires a capability beyond his imagination and without equal on Earth.

Riding the rails, Jack runs afoul of a local sheriff and ends up with a crushed skull. He's as good as dead until a savvy country doctor performs a bit of medical magic. Jack wakes up to find that his brain has been drastically altered. He has the power to save lives--and destroy them--with a single glance.

Will Jack use his astounding power for good... or for evil? His journey of discovery takes him to New York and into the arms of a woman, who has a plan of her own. Together they're bound for Washington, D.C., and a psychic adventure that could change the shape of history.

The Tramp was originally serialized in 1938 in three issues of Astounding Science Fiction. Its respected editor, John W. Campbell, wrote: "Hubbard is a very highly experienced writer, an author with a tremendous background of writing in every field. He's one of the few professional writers I know of who gets a genuine kick out of the story he's writing. In The Tramp, the suspense is intensified step by step, because every step points the same way. There are no backward slips, no scattered accidents that tend in any direction other than the one toward which Hubbard is driving."

It's not easy living in someone else's world, trapped in a reality over which you have no control. But that is the story of Mike de Wolf's life... literally.

The whole thing started at his friend Horace's Greenwich Village apartment. Horace is a writer and he's decided to model one of his villains after Mike. Sounds crazy... until Mike reaches to turn on a light and gets the shock of his life.

Knocked unconscious, Mike wakes up to find himself tossing in a violent ocean surf and getting slammed against the rocks. That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the bullets flying over his head, followed by the swordfight, certain to end in death... if not for the wild, beautiful woman on horseback who comes to his rescue.

This isn't the West Village anymore. Apparently it's the West Indies, some three hundred years ago, and Mike de Wolf is now Miguel Saint Raoul de Lobo, pursued across the Spanish Main by pirates, Englishman, and worse.

He doesn't know how he got here or why, but he does know he has to get out fast. Two problems: first off, the bad guys in Horace's stories never get out alive, and second, Mike's not all that sure he wants to leave after all. Seems he's fallen for that wild woman on horseback... What's a guy to do? The answer's written in the sky---in a wildly original, wickedly amusing novel in which, if you're not careful, you might just find yourself getting lost.

In a future where Mother Earth has cast her children to the distant stars to begin anew and colonize the cosmos, the planet remains depleted of natural resources. Its air polluted by caustic iron and belching smoke, Earth faces her last desperate days in the grip of global environmental collapse.

In one final and feeble effort, Earth's Grand President Mankin musters the dregs of his fleet and sends three separate missions to the deepest reaches of space. Their mission: solicit help from far-flung colonial civilizations, or watch the planet die.

Also includes the science fiction adventures, "Battling Bolto," the story of a giant, con man who's running an interstellar scam, while the biggest trick of all lies right under his nose; and "Tough Old Man," in which an aging constable's lack of feelings is not a matter of insensitivity, but of a secret--and surprising--side of his character.

Contents:

• Tough Old Man - (1950) - novelette
• When Shadows Fall - (1948) - short story
• Battling Bolto - (1950) - short story

Historical fantasist Morgan Llywelyn's tale of the coming of the Irish to Ireland, and of the men and women who made that emerald isle their own

The story follows Amergin, druid and chief bard of the Galicians, a group of Celts living in Iberia during the fourth century BC. After years of decline, the Galicians hope that the unexpected arrival of Phoenician traders, led by Age-Nor, will help restore their prosperity. Unfortunately, neither side has anything worth trading. At a reception in the Heroes' Hall, Age-Nor is attacked by Amergin's brothers, and the druid uses his bardic talent to entrance his murderous sibling, thus saving Age-Nor.

Age-Nor rewards Amergin, despite the bard's vehement protests, by giving him a servant, a shipwright named Sakkar, and regaling him with a tale of a fabled land to the north, Ierne. After a series of mishaps and bad decisions, the tribe builds a series of ships with the help of Sakkar, and sets sail.

But when they arrive on Ierne, they are confronted by a mysterious people who will one day fuel legend and myth: the Tuatha Dé Danann, People of the Goddess Danu.

The newest novel from the World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Bell at Sealey Head.

With "her exquisite grasp of the fantasist's craft"* (Publishers Weekly) Patricia A. McKillip now invites readers to discover a place that may only exist in the mystical wisdom of poetry and music.

Scholar Phelan Cle is researching Bone Plain-which has been studied for the last 500 years, though no one has been able to locate it as a real place. Archaeologist Jonah Cle, Phelan's father, is also hunting through time, piecing history together from forgotten trinkets. His most eager disciple is Princess Beatrice, the king's youngest daughter. When they unearth a disk marked with ancient runes, Beatrice pursues the secrets of a lost language that she suddenly notices all around her, hidden in plain sight.

As familiar to many Hogwarts students as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggle children, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of popular stories written for young wizards and witches.

Translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, they include fascinating additional notes from Professor Albus Dumbledore, with intriguing glimpses into his life at Hogwarts, as well as illustrations from J.K. Rowling herself.

For wizarding and Muggle readers alike, this is a must-have edition, featuring fate-seeking witches, a hairy-hearted warlock and the tale of the three brothers who tried to cheat Death...

By buying this unique and special book, you are helping Lumos to make sure that, by 2050, no more children live in institutions or orphanages around the world, and that every child is able to enjoy their right to grow up in a family.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by J. K. Rowling
• The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
• The Fountain of Fair Fortune
• The Warlock's Hairy Heart
• Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
• The Tale of the Three Brothers

The captivating first novel by the best-selling, National Book Award nominee George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War

On February 22, 1862, two days after his death, Willie Lincoln was laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. That very night, shattered by grief, Abraham Lincoln arrives at the cemetery under cover of darkness and visits the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son's body.

Set over the course of that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently passed and the long dead, Lincoln in the Bardo is a thrilling exploration of death, grief, the powers of good and evil, a novel - in its form and voice - completely unlike anything you have read before. It is also, in the end, an exploration of the deeper meaning and possibilities of life, written as only George Saunders can: with humor, pathos, and grace.

Galaxy "Alex" Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world's most prestigious universities on a full ride. What's the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale's secret societies. Their eight windowless "tombs" are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street's biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy "Alex" Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory?even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies' most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren't just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she'll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university's very walls.

The wilderness of oak, ash and thorn that men call the Forest of Andred existed long before the Saxons entered Britain or Caesar's legions pressed against Kentish resistence, and even before the first iron-using Celts set foot on the island. Here lives the clan of the mandrake--the strange, gnarled vegetable folk. Here trods the unicorn, with blue vapor curling softly from nostrils soft as a woman's breast and dainty, precise hooves lethal as maces. Here are the sacred groves long abandoned, where Duids once fed the trees with human blood.

Through this forest of sorcery and society governed by the sword travels Felmid mac Fal, Bard of Erin, descendant of Druids and the Tuatha de Danann--the ancient faery race of Ireland, armed only with his harp and the fierce magical power of his poetry...

This is the tale of one Felimid mac Fal: vagabond, roustabout, poet -- and magician! For Felimid is a poet of the old Irish blood: a fully trained bard of Erin. And his is the sort of poetry that can sing shy dryads out of their trees and dragons into slumber and juggle the fixed round of the seasons as a jester juggles knives.

A man who saw the bard's pretty face and the harp on his back might think him a simple minstrel. That mistake could cost him his life.

But a woman who saw the bard's pretty face might have other ideas... particularly if she is Gudrun Blackhair, the most notorious pirate on the northern sea!

I am called Felimid mac Fal. I am a bard of the old blood, a lesser degree of Druid. Where I come from, bards have been knows to sing armies to defeat or victory and kings off their throne or on to them. Descended from the faery folk, the Tuatha de Dannann, my line's been poets and harpers in Erin since the world was new, and magic's in our heart-marrow.

She is called Gudrun Blackhair... as well as names a good deal less polite. She is the most dangerous pirate on the open seas, master of the enchanted ship Ormungandr, and the woman of my heart. If you wish to know more than that, ask the ballad singers and gossip mongers at any tavern. Half of what you hear will be fact, half will be lies, and even I can no longer separate the two. Yet this story, perhaps the strangest of them all, of shapeshiters and sorceresses and the sea-dwelling Children of Lir, is naught but the gods' own truth... on my honor as a bard.

HE IS FELIMID MAC FAL, once a bard of Ireland. Now he uses his wits and his magic in the service of his lover, the most notorious pirate on the seas of ancient Britain.

SHE IS GUDRUN BLACKHAIR, the lusty, legendary pirate chieftain who commands the sorcerous ship "Ormungandr" and numbers the shape-shifting Children of Lir among her crew.

Together they've sailed through adventure after adventure, and never known defeat. But Gudrun's many enemies are gathering, and Odin himself will lead them into battle against her. How can a poet and a pirate hope to defeat a god?

This is #4 in Bard Series.

"Some say that you are Fergus mac Buthi's grandson, come back from five years' wandering. They say that you are a bard of the third rank... They say that you carry the harp of Cairbre, which is among the Three Remaining Treasures of Erin... I think it is false."

When Felimid mac Fel returns to the land of his fathers, to the glorious shores of Erin, all is not as he left it. The Company of Bards is sullied by members who take advantage of their talents and spread disenchantment among the people - ruining their livelihoods with Satires of Cursing and other such abuses. With the aid of his magical harp, Golden Singer, Felimid easily rebuffs the challenge of one such, Ruarc Sunspear, but the demonic threats of Sunspear's mentor, Dicuil the Fiery, are not so lightly shaken off.

A young bard faces webs of lies and deception in a world where nothing is as it seems - and everything is a trap for the unwary - When young Kevin became a bard's apprentice, he thought that his new life would be filled with excitement and adventure; so when his new Master's first task for him is a perfectly ordinary manuscript copying errand to the castle of Count Volmar his disappointment knew no bounds. Why the Count was not even involved in Court politics!

But when the Count's niece is kidnapped by elves and the Count asks for his help in recovering her, Kevin is convinced that the adventure he craves is at last at hand. What he cannot know is that the distressed damsel is not really Count Valmar's niece, that the abductors are not really elves - and that even the rescue is not what it appears to be.

Return to the world of The Bard's Tale in this stand-alone sequel to the smash hit Castle of Deception. Naitachal, the Dark Elf who showed his true heroic nature in Castle, is now a Master Bard with a mystical apprentice. On an adventure to a distant, icy land, the pair rescue three strangers who make for strange companions indeed.

The hero of the first Bard's Tale novel, "Castle of Deception ," is now a very old man, but his mentor, the Dark Elf Naitachal, is still going strong and training new apprentices. His latest: the King's own son, Alaire.

The Dark Elf Naitachal, once a Necromancer who gained power by depriving others of their life forces, is now happy in the more peaceful role of Bard. But shadows from his past linger.

Naitachal's Dark Elf clan sees him as the worst of traitors for daring to turn towards the Light. They mean to take revenge. They create a trap, the Chaos Gate, a sorcerous portal that is meant to draw him into their lands and into their power.

Only Kevin, once Naitachal's apprentice, now a full Bard and Count in his own castle, stands between the Dark Elf and certain doom. But can even the powers of Bardic Magic be enough to vanquish the Darkness?

"A GHOST OF A CHANCE

A voice, an icy, whispering voice, came out of the darkness from all around her; from everywhere, yet nowhere. It could have been born of her imagination, yet Rune knew the voice was the Ghost's, and that to run was to die. Instantly, but in terror that would make dying seem to last an eternity.

"Why have you come here, stupid child" it murmured, as fear urged her to run away. "Why were you waiting here For me Foolish child, do you not know what I am What I could do to you "

Rune had to swallow twice before she could speak, and even then her voice cracked and squeaked with fear.

"I've come to fiddle for you-sir " she said, gasping for breath between each word, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

The Ghost laughed, a sound with no humor in it, the kind of laugh that called up empty wastelands and icy peaks. "Well, then, girl. Fiddle, then. And pray to that Sacrificed God of yours that you fiddle well, very well. If you please me, if you continue to entertain me until dawn, I shall let you live, a favor I have never granted any other. But I warn you-the moment my attention lags, little girl-you'll die like all the others and you will join all the others in my own private little Hell."

Rune, Robin and Nightingale
together they will save us all.
(If we're very lucky)

Rune: She ran away from an abusive home to become the greatest violinist her world had ever known—and when The Ghost of Skull Hill tried to stop her, she played him to sleep!

Robin: No mean musician herself, she must make her own visit to Skull Hill—to recruit the dreadful ghost to their cause.

Nightingale: Alone she could accomplish nothing. So she joined forces with T'fyrr, a strange nonhuman with the face of a raptor and the voice of an angelic choir.

This unlikely set of heroes had the daunting task of saving the King—and through him the Gypsies, Free Bards, and non-humans of the twenty kingdoms. Fortunately, their opponents had no idea how potent a weapon music could be....

Nightingale, a gypsy Free Bard, and T'fyrr, a birdman with the visage of a raptor, join forces to learn why the High King of the human kingdom is allowing the Church to become openly hostile to non-human sentients.

A MAGICAL MANIAC IS LOOSE IN ALANDA!

A magical murderer is loose in Alanda. The victims are always women, always lower-class, and the weapon is always a three-sided stiletto, most often found among Church regalia. But the killers are never churchmen, and they always commit suicide immediately after the bloody deed.

Tal Rufen is just a simple constable. But he really cares about his job, and when one of these murder/suicides happens on his beat he becomes obsessed. His superiors don't care—the victims will never be missed, and their murderers are already justly dead. But every instinct Tal Rufen has cries out that he has seen only one small piece of a bigger and much nastier puzzle....

Eric Banyon, musician, is out playing the blues on his flute one day, but he couldn't have known that the desperate sadness of his music would free a young elven noble from the magical prison he has been languishing in for centuries--nor does he believe it!

Elves in L.A.? When things get too hot there, they move north to San Francisco. But in their futuristic world, San Francisco is doomed to drop into the ocean The only hope lies with the humanlflord--who must summon the soul-devouring Nightflyers. Here is an exciting, all-new urban elven fantasy by the authors of Knight of Ghosts & Shadows. Lackey is also the author of Baen titles Bardic Voices: The Lark & the Wren and Born to Run with Larry Dixon.

Prequel to Bedlam's Bard

When one of her friends is gunned down, Kayla uses her latent healing powers to heal her friend--and the gang member who shot him--and soon the city's gangs are eager to use her powers for evil.

THIS IS YOUR SOUL ON DRUGS

After the events chronicled in Bedlam's Bard, world-saving bard and magician Eric Banyon moves into his new New York apartment hoping to settle down to the quiet life. No such luck: his building is a safe-house for a group of occultist Guardians protecting the city from supernatural evil. And there's a new evil for them to guard against....

When unethical drug researchers discover that they can induce amazing mental powers using psychotropic drugs, they begin planning to raise a drug-enslaved army of mercenaries and grow very, very rich. But this gets the attention of Aerune mac Audelaine, lord of the dark Unseleighe Sidney, who hopes to use the drugs to break through to the human world and feed on the suffering there. Both plans will bring terror to the world-and both are threatened by the very existence of Eric Banyan.

With his possibly loyal companions-a beautiful elven half-breed and a gargoyle Eric heads for a three-way battle of wizardry that will determine Gotham's fate-and his own.

SET A TRAP FOR A SORCERER... WITHOUT BEING TRAPPED YOURSELF!

Eric Banyon has settled into the New York whirl nicely: he's doing well at Juilliard, he's made a lot of new friends, he's defeated a lord of the Unseleighe Sidhe...

Or has he

Aerune mac Audelaine, whose beloved was killed by mortal men, was determined to destroy the human race until Eric, with a little help from his new friends the Guardians, thwarted Aerune's plans and exposed the chemists whose designer poison turned ordinary humans into zombie Mages. The human side of the threat is finished, but Aerune, like the rest of the Sidhe, has a long memory... and a lot of patience. He's also got Jeanette Campbell, former Threshold Black Ops, and the science behind the murder.

Can Eric stop Aerune's latest plan Only if he finds out about it before it's too late, but between babysitting a visiting Healer, training a banjo-playing Bard, attending his daughter's Underhill Naming ceremony, dealing with a dragon-and trying to survive summer school-Eric's got his hands full. Saving the world has never been more necessary-or come at a higher price.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary--and Quite Deadly...

Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, is finally about to graduate from Julliard and enter the Real World and so, with the help of a psychiatrist who specializes in the problems of magicians, he's finally coming to terms with his past. But a spur-of-the-moment trip home to Boston to visit his parents brings him more trouble than even Eric thought possible.

Meanwhile, his Bardic apprentice Hosea has discovered that the young homeless children in New York's shelters have created a bizarre mythology about a demon called Bloody Mary who preys on young children--and somehow Bloody Mary has taken on an independent life and now stalks the streets of the city.

And for some reason, she's after Eric as well....

Eric Banyon, also known as Bedlam's Bard, managed to rescue his young brother Magnus from what seemed to be a killer demon (in Mad Maudlin), but now he must rescue Magnus again, this time from their tyrannical parents.

Eric does not look forward to the battle, but is confident he can gain custody. His financial sources are virtually unlimited, his friend Ria Llewellyn heads the most high-powered law firm in New York, and in a pinch he and his friends can use to magic powers, even flummoxing a DNA test, it comes to that.

What Eric does not know is that his parents are allied with the evangelist Billy Fairchild, who himself is a tool of the evil Unseleighe elves, who feed off human sorrow and suffering. Fairchild specializes in getting "bad" children to shape up, which is accomplished by letting a soulsucker--malevolent creature from the elf world--drain the victim of all talent, creativity, and will, leaving an obedient zombie husk behind.

If Magnus and his friend Ace, who is also on the run from her twisted parents, fall into Fairchild's hands, they will join the Unseleighe's zombie ranks. And Eric's bardic magic may not be enough to save them.

Deeply depressed Olivia, whose parents are divorcing, is ripe for manipulation. And swimming star Blake is looking for someone just like her. Although her friend tries to warn her, Olivia falls for his ploys and accepts an invitation to go to the Adirondack resort camp of Lake Endor with him and his family.

But all is not as it seems at the hundred year old resort. Not only does Olivia discover that Blake is not the guy she thought he was, there is something sinister afoot at the lake.

There is something lying beneath the waters of Lake Endor. Something not of this world.

Will Olivia be drawn under or will she allow true friends to draw her from the lure of oblivion?

In the 25th Century the British Space Empire faces the gathering menace of the evil ant-soldiers of the Ghast Empire hive, hell-bent on galactic domination and the extermination of all humanoid life. Isambard Smith is the square-jawed, courageous, and somewhat asinine new commander of the battle damaged light freighter John Pym, destined to take on the alien threat because nobody else is available. Together with his bold crew--a skull-collecting alien lunatic, an android pilot who is actually a fugitive sex toy, and a hamster called Gerald--he must collect new-age herbalist Rhianna Mitchell from the laid back New Francisco orbiter and bring her back to safety in the Empire. Straightforward enough--except the Ghasts want her too. If he is to get back to Blighty alive, Smith must defeat void sharks, a universe-weary android assassin, and John Gilead, psychopathic naval officer from the fanatically religious Republic of New Eden before facing his greatest enemy: a ruthless alien warlord with a very large behind.

Tea... a beverage brewed from the fermented dried leaves of the shrub Camelli sinensis and imbibed by all the great civilizations in the galaxy's history; a source of refreshment, stimulation, and, above all else, of moral fiber--without which the British Space Empire must surely crumble to leave Earth at the mercy of its enemies. Sixty percent of the Empire's tea is grown on one world--Urn, principal planet of the Didcot system. If Earth is to keep fighting, the tea must flow! When a crazed cult leader overthrows the government of Urn, Isambard Smith and his vaguely competent crew find themselves saddled with new allies--a legion of tea-obsessed nomads, an overly-civilized alien horde. and a commando unit so elite that it has only five members. Only together can they defeat the self-proclaimed God Emperor of Didcot and confront the true power behind the coup--the sinister legions of the Ghast Empire and Smith's old enemy, Commander 462.

From the depths of Space a new foe rises to do battle with mankind: the British Space Empire is threatened by the lemming-people of Yull, ruthless enemies who attack without mercy, fear, or any concept of self preservation. At the call of their war god, the Yull have turned on the Empire, hell-bent on conquest and destruction in their rush towards the cliffs of destiny. When the Yullian army is forced to retreat at the battle of the River Tam, the disgraced Colonel Vock swears revenge on the clan of Suruk the Slayer, Isambard Smith's homicidal alien friend. Now Smith and his crew must defend the Empire and civilize the stuffing out of a horde of bloodthirsty lemming-men--which would be easy were it not for a sinister robotics company, a Ghast general with a fondness for genetic engineering, and an ancient brotherhood of Morris Dancers--who may yet hold the key to victory.

In the 25th century the future of the galaxy rests on a knife-edge. The actions of one man could save the British Space Empire or leave Earth at the mercy of deadly legions of ant-people. That one man is Captain Isambard Smith, and Earth is in a lot of trouble. After blowing up a top-secret enemy base, Space Captain Smith and his crew deserve a rest. But their holiday ends when forces unknown destroy the robot convoy they were meant to be guarding. Smith finds himself in hot pursuit of a mysterious vessel that can pass through dimensions, incurring the wrath of the dreaded Grand Witchfinder of New Eden--which would be much easier to deal with if his pilot wasn't cowering under the dashboard and his spaceship wasn't infested with man-eating toads. Meanwhile, the Empire is gathering its allies to form a united front against alien tyranny. Unfortunately, the delicate negotiations have been entrusted to Major Wainscott, a man who knows no fear and very little about diplomacy or trousers. Once again, Captain Smith must summon all his courage to unite humanity behind the Empire. His quest will take him on a journey to face his greatest fears: from the depths of space, through hell itself--and even to France.

The lemming men of Yullia are rushing headlong towards the cliffs of destiny, and they intend to take the British Space Empire with them. When moral fiber clashes with lemming spirit, only one thing is certain--surrender is no longer an option. In the back-streets of Ravnavar, greatest planet of the Space Empire, revolution stirs. Someone will have to go deep undercover, take on the robot underworld, and reveal what lies behind the mysterious Popular Front. Worst of all, Major Wainscott--commando and nudist--has gone renegade in the most dangerous jungle in the galaxy. Someone will have to travel upriver, terminate Wainscott's command, and make him put some trousers on. That someone is Isambard Smith. Once more, Smith and his crew must leap into action, civilize the galaxy, and force legions of angry rodents to stop their nonsense at once. Smith is destined to topple a mighty empire. The only question is--whose empire will it be?

The empire of the ant-people is beginning to crumble. As the British Space Navy prepares to invade the Ghast home world, the Secret Service comes up with a daring plan--the assassination of Number One, the small and furious dictator of the Ghasts. Only one man has the qualities needed to take on a job this dangerous--Captain Isambard Smith.

But Smith has problems of his own. Captured by the ruthless--and gormless--Criminarch of Radishia, Smith and his crew must survive the deadly sport of Hyperbowl, where it's not whether you win or lose that counts, but how you slay the game. Now Smith faces his toughest challenge yet. In order to civilize the galaxy, he will have to win a ball game, topple a dictator, and organize a party for a four-year-old.

All in a day's work for a hero of the British Space Empire--although it's going to be a very busy day indeed.

The battle for the kingdom of the dwarves comes to the door of its mad king...

Brandon Bluestone has finally cleared his family's name and rallied the nation of dwarves. Now one great task remains to him: he must open up the greatest of the dwarf nations, Thorbardin, which has been sealed against the outside world by the edict of a mad king.

Aided by Gretchan Pax, a mighty priestess, Brandon leads an army to the north gate of Thorbardin. The hill dwarves and mountain dwarves strive to bury longstanding enmity and form an uneasy alliance against the King of Thorbardin and his potent magical minions.

Magic and Peril Under the Earth

Deep beneath the mountain fortress of Skullcap, legend has it, are the remains of the dark wizard Fistandantilus and the path to the gates of the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin. Buried somewhere along that perilous path is the magical helm of Grallen, son of King Duncan, tragic hero of the Dwarfgate War. The finder of Grallen's helm, it is prophesized, will be rewarded and honored by a united Thorbardin -- but he will also open the gates of the realm to fresh horror and chaos.

In The Gates of Thorbardin, Dan Parkinson, author of Starsong, continues the history of the dwarves of Krynn in the tradition of Nancy Varian Berberick's best-selling Dragonlance novel, Stormblade.

In The Last Dragonlord and Dragon and Phoenix Joanne Bertin created a world unlike our own, where Dragonlords soar in the skies above the many realms of the land. The Dragonlords' magic is unique, giving them the ability to change from dragon to human form; to communicate silently among themselves; and other abilities not known to mortals. For many millennia, the Dragonlords have been a blessing to the world, with their great magic and awesome power. And though they live far longer than the humans who they resemble when not in their draconic state, these fabled changelings are still loyal to their human friends.

Now in Bard's Oath, their magic is not the only power abroad in the world. And not all the magic is as benign as theirs. Leet, a master bard of great ability and vaulting ambition, has his own magic, but of a much darker nature. Years ago, death claimed the woman he loved, setting him on a course to avenge her death, no matter the consequences. Now, mad with hatred and consumed by his thirst for revenge, Leet has set in motion a nefarious plot that ensnares the friend of a Dragonlord, using his bardic skills... and dark powers only he can summon, to accomplish his bitter task. Raven, a young horse-breeder friend of the Dragonloard Linden Rathan, is ensnared by Leet and under the bard's spell, is one of the bard's unwitting catspaws. When accused of a heinous crime, Raven turns to Linden, and while Dragonlords normally do not meddle in human affairs, Linden comes to Raven's aid, loath to abandon him in his time of desperate need. But Raven, and others victimized by Leet, are at the mercy of human justice. Can even a Dragonlord save them from a dire fate before it is too late?

What if everything you knew about your family was a lie? What if, when the lies began to crack, beneath them lay a truth so dark and deep, yet so compelling, that it pulled you inside?

Ariella Montero is seeking the true identities of her mother and father-and of herself. She's been taught literature, philosophy, science, and history, but she knows almost nothing about the real world and its complexities.

Her world is one wherein ghosts and vampires commune with humans; where Edgar Allan Poe and Jack Kerouac are role models; where every time a puzzle seems solved, its last piece changes the entire picture. When the last piece is murder, Ari goes on the road in search of her mother, who disappeared at the time of her birth. The hunt nearly costs Ari her life, and, in finding her mother, she loses her father. But gradually she uncovers the secrets that have kept the family apart, and she begins to come to terms with her own unique nature and her chances for survival.

Ariella Montero in the midst of the ongoing presidential campaign, discovers that a leading contender for America's top political office just happens to be a vampire surrounded by the demons of lying, cheating, and murder.

The Year of Disappearances traces Ariella Montero's fourteenth year, during which she is accused of lying, cheating, and murder (twice). Her education continues, but instead of literature, science, and math, she learns folklore, the art and craft of journalism, and most important, the nature of personal demons.

As Ari comes to question her own authenticity, listeners may begin to question her. Could the accusations against her be justified? Is she a reliable narrator? Or is someone else at work, telling us her story?

The vampire sects are at war--and war among vampires is fought not with weapons, but with minds.

My name is Ariella Montero, and I know a secret. Telling it will change everything.

Half-human and half-vampire, Ari confronts the darker sides of vampirism, and herself, as the sects deploy new technologies to battle for influence and power.

But beyond these challenges lie greater risks: Ari's relationship with Neil Cameron, the first vampire to run for the U.S. presidency, must be kept under wraps from even those she trusts most. When scandal inevitably erupts, Ari is forced to face the consequences of her actions, learning the hard way that love demands delicate negotiations between memory and desire.

Professor James Lowry didn't believe in spirits, or witches, or demons. Not until a gentle spring evening when his hat disappeared, and suddenly he couldn't remember the last four hours of his life. Now, the quiet university town of Atworthy is changing - slightly at first, then faster and more frighteningly each time he tries to remember. Lowry is pursued by a dark, secret evil that is turning his whole world against him while it whispers a warning from the shadows: If you find your hat you'll find your four hours. If you find your four hours then you will die...

Earth does not exist....

Or so they want you to believe.

They are the Voltarians of Voltar--an empire 110 planets strong.

And they are headed straight for us.

The scheming Soltan Gris tells all.

Discover a world where corporate power rules and political corruption is rife. Where governments are driven by oil and controlled by drugs. Where global warming is getting hotter by the minute and a scorching love affair could determine the fate of millions. Where a cosmic conspiracy is about to hit home--posing a grave danger to Earth--and one charismatic Voltarian, Jettero Heller, is out to save the planet from itself.

It's the end of the world as you know it and the beginning of one of the most spectacular, thought-provoking, and wildly inventive works of science fiction and espionage of our time.

The Voltarian Soltan Gris has a confession to make. The mission has begun. Some call it satire. Gris calls it the real story of a very Black Genesis.

They're here. And they're all eyes. The Voltarian scouting party--illegal aliens extraordinaire--on a top-secret expedition led by Jettero Heller, Royal Officer of the Fleet.

His mission: rescue the planet from pollution--and make it safe for the upcoming invasion.

His problem: Soltan Gris is out to sabotage him at every turn. One way or another, Heller is about to undertake a journey of discovery and it's a real trip.

Between the Mafia wars and the brothel whores, between the ruthless IRS agents and the crazy cab drivers, between the muggings and the weapons of mass destruction, he's on one heck of a roller-coaster ride. And before it's over, all Heller will break loose in the name of Black Genesis.

Soltan Gris, you're cunning and crafty Voltarian narrator has seen it all and now he tells all--in The Enemy Within. Is it Satire? Or something far more sinister?

In a web of espionage, intrigue, and betrayal, even Voltarian Royal Combat Engineer Jettero Heller doesn't know whom he can trust. Gris has formed a secret alliance with a dirty DC politician, a ruthless billionaire industrialist, and a mysterious media madman. Their mission: terminate Jettero Heller.

Beset by double-crossing body doubles and backstabbing identity shifters, Heller discovers that the most dangerous battle of all is about to begin against The Enemy Within.

What on Earth are the Voltarians up to now?

Fast cars and fast women.

Voltarian Royal Officer Jettero Heller is putting the pedal to the metal--and the action is about to shift into high gear.

Behind the wheel of his souped-up Caddy, fueled by a new sustainable energy source, Heller's in a race against time--not to mention against suicide car bombers and accelerator bullets. But his greatest challenge is a fight to the death atop the Empire State Building.

Meanwhile, Heller's sworn enemy Soltan Gris has his own battles to figh... and he's learning that, sometimes, love hurts. Especially in the hands of a couple of sadistic sweethearts named Miss Pinch and Candy Licorice--girls who really get under his skin.

People of Earth take note: there is nothing more seductive, more tantalizing, or more terrifying than An Alien Affair.

The Voltarian invaders are getting down and dirty in the deadliest of games. The prize: Planet Earth.

Voltarian Royal Officer Jettero Heller has heart, nerve, and a quick mind on his side. His archenemy Soltan Gris has cunning, ruthlessness, and a devious plan on his. But what neither of them has is money.

Heller's solution is Atlantic City, where he puts a new spin on gambling while the Atlantic City mafia puts a spin of their own on him.

Gris, on the other hand, has struck gold--if only he could figure out a way to move 12 tons of it. Until then, he'll just sell his body.

Into this world of dirty money, dirty tricks, and dirty games, the wildest of wild cards is about to change everything. Countess Krak is back--and this voluptuous Voltarian could prove to be the key player in coming to grips with a Fortune of Fear.

True story. Your Voltarian narrator, Soltan Gris, wouldn't have it any other way. He tells it like it is. Satire? Gris doesn't know the meaning of the word.

Voltarian Royal Officer Jettero Heller will go to any length to win back his beloved yet heartbroken Countess Krak--smash boats, set off bombs, fight off every paternity suit that comes his way.

But Gris is just as determined to put the Countess and her damned hypno-helmet out of commission--for good--even if it means hiring the kinkiest hit man in New York.

And as if Gris didn't have enough on his plate, the Voltarian stud is about to tie the knot--with two women!

Yes, love is a battlefield. But in this warped war of twisted desires, perverse passions, and unholy alliances--the entire Mission Earth enterprise could soon morph into a decadent Death Quest.

Lies, betrayal, and deception are all in play in this treacherous game of history, and here are the players:

Countess Krak: victim of a spectacular alien abduction, she's bound for a distant dungeon where she faces a venomous fate. She may be looking death in the face.

Royal Officer Jettero Heller: convinced that the Countess, his love, is dead, he's holed up in a Connecticut roadhouse, standing square in an assassin's crosshairs.

And don't forget Soltan Gris: on the run with a sex-crazed young temptress named Teenie Whopper, he undertakes a drug-fueled voyage across the Atlantic on the multibillion-dollar yacht bought with a credit card.

So who is in command? And is there any hope for planet Earth? The answers lie at the end of a rocking Voyage of Vengeance.

Question #1: Are Jettero Heller and Countess Krak dead!? The answer could prove a shock to the system--the solar system, that is.

Heller, for his part, has been busy saving the world:

Global warming reversed. The energy crisis over. The greatest problems on Earth solved.

But saving the world is never easy.

He'll have to blast a gang of space pirates. He'll have to capture and control a black hole and set it up as an inexhaustible supply of sustainable energy. He'll have to undertake a journey to Saturn and back, a titanic chunk of ice in tow. And he'll have to confront and capture Soltan Gris.

Then comes the hard part. Heller is headed back to Voltar, where he uncovers the identity of the powerful figure behind the conspiracy to end all conspiracies. He's facing his deadliest nemesis yet, and before the intergalactic battle is over, the entire mission could end in Disaster.

Earth is rising in the House of Voltar. And there'll be hell to pay!

That's right. The action couldn't be hotter, and the plot couldn't be more diabolical.

But the villainous Soltan Gris is no longer telling the tale. Fast forward 100 years: Your new narrator is Monte Pennwell, the greatest investigative journalist and satirist in all of Voltar not to mention the only one.

Murder, blackmail, drugs, psychoanalysis, PR firms, sex-crazed teenyboppers, riots in the streets, women in chains. These are the secret weapons of war--perfected on Earth and imported to Voltar--being exploited by Lombar Hisst, chief of the Coordinated Information Apparatus. His obsession: total domination of the Voltarian Confederacy.

Can anyone stop the madness? Does anyone have the courage and charisma to crash this party?

Enter Royal Officer of the Fleet, Jettero Heller. Dodging Death Battalions and death warrants, he's racing from Earth to face the challenge. But Hisst has taken Heller's beautiful sister hostage, and she may be the one who pays the ultimate price of Villainy Victorious.

Who will control Voltar?

What is Earth's ultimate fate? Does it even exist? And if so, is it The Doomed Planet?

And last but not least: what is the big mystery?

Reporting from the scene is the brilliant (by his own account) investigative journalist Monte Pennwell. The satire is about to explode--on The Doomed Planet.

The moment of truth is finally at hand--and it's a real blast! In the middle of it all stands Royal Officer of the Fleet, Jettero Heller.

Together with an army one hundred thousand strong, Heller lays siege to Palace City, which has fallen into the depraved hands of Lombar Hisst. But the success of Heller's great adventure is far from a sure thing. To achieve victory, he will not only have to break the laws of Voltar--but defy the laws of physics.

Journey into a world that will change the way you see our world. Experience the unfolding mysteries, the violent pleasures, and the biting, inescapable truths you can only find in the final reckoning of The Doomed Planet.

Millionaire Jan Palmer's fortunes abruptly change when the seal on an ancient Arabian copper jar is broken and a powerful and relentless evil is released - Zongri the Jinn. Imprisoned for thousands of years, Zongri has sworn that whoever sets him free will die. But when he fulfills this vow by slashing Professor Frobish in two, it is Jan Palmer, holding the bloody scimitar, who is caught by the police.

For Jan, his problems have just begun: Zongri, before departing, curses him with "Eternal Wakefulness." Locked in a prison cell, charged with murder, Jan comes to a horrible realization of what this means. As he drifts into slumber he finds himself in a strange world, one where humans rank below slaves, where evil Jinn reign and danger is all too real. On Earth he is Jan Palmer, imprisoned for murder, and in the land of the Jinn he is "Tiger," the swashbuckling rogue - but in both, he faces death at every turn.

In this milestone sequel to Slaves of Sleep, Jan Palmer finds himself in possession of the "Two World Diamond", a talisman more powerful and dangerous than anything any human has seen before -- and the key to his becoming master of day and night.

Young, wealthy, and good-looking, Jan Palmer leads the kind of life most of us would die for. He has it all - except for one thing: happiness. Trapped under the weight of his responsibilities to his family, his business, and his life, he wishes only to escape to another world.

But you have to be careful what you wish for. Waking out of a deep sleep, Jan finally finds escape - into a living nightmare.

He surprises a prowler who has broken into his mansion, attempting to steal from his priceless collection of antiques. There is a scuffle. An ancient copper jar is opened...and all hell breaks loose. For not just any copper jar, it has long imprisoned a powerful and ruthless Jinni, whose anger has been bottled up for centuries. The Jinni kills the thief and curses Jan to eternal wakefulness.

Jan finds himself straddling two parallel dimensions. On earth he is his mild-mannered self, falsely imprisoned for murder. But in the world beyond, where the sleep-souls of humans are enslaved by the Jinn, he is a swashbuckling warrior facing death at every turn.

In an exotic world of dark arts, deadly secrets, and dangerous dancing girls, he is drawn into the great battle between the Masters of Sleep and the Slaves of Sleep. He will uncover clues to the magic at the heart of history - and discover that the destiny of all humankind lies in his hands. Abounding in untold mystery and revelation, this eye-opening tale may just wake you out of a dead sleep.

Contents:

• Slaves of Sleep - (1939) - novel
• The Masters of Sleep - (1950) - novel

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Enter the Grishaverse...

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, the tales in The Language of Thorns will transport you to lands both familiar and strange?to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, each of them lavishly illustrated and culminating in stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

Table of Contents:

• Ayama and the Thorn Wood - novelette
• The Too-Clever Fox - (2013) - short story
• The Witch of Duva - (2012) - novelette
• Little Knife - (2014) - short story
• The Soldier Prince - novelette
• When Water Sang Fire - novella

Face your demons... or feed them.

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country's bloody civil war?and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka's coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren't meant to stay buried?and some wounds aren't meant to heal.

The Demon King. As Fjerda's massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm - and even the monster within - to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king's gift for the impossible.

The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.

The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.

King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first.

The highly anticipated sequel to the thrilling #1 New York Times-bestselling Six of Crows.

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets?a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

In this third Grisha Trilogy folk tale from Leigh Bardugo, a young girl's beauty causes discord in her small town, but her father's solution may prove far more dangerous. "Little Knife" is a companion story to the third book of the Grisha Trilogy, Ruin and Rising, and the stories "The Witch of Duva" and "The Too-Clever Fox."

This story is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

In Ravka, just because you avoid one trap, it doesn't mean you'll escape the next. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo's upcoming novel, Siege and Storm, the second book in the Grisha Trilogy.

This story is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls... or so the story goes. But it's just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo's debut novel, Shadow and Bone.

This story cam alsp be found in the anthology Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction (2018), edited by Irene Gallo. It is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life - a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha, and the secrets of her heart.

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Siege and Storm is the second book in The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo.

The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction--and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she's fighting for.

Ruin and Rising is the thrilling final installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

Deadly wolves attack throughout the kingdom of Belbidia, while the king's wife-to-be has been kidnapped. For both of these, the Barony of Torra Alta is blamed. The heroes must face magic and blood in their quests to avenge the wrongs done to them and restore the Trinity of priestesses.

Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and is a rare talent on the harp. But Liobhan's burning ambition is to join the elite warrior band on Swan Island. She and her brother train there to compete for places, and find themselves joining a mission while still candidates. Their unusual blend of skills makes them ideal for this particular job, which requires going undercover as traveling minstrels. For Swan Island trains both warriors and spies.

Their mission: to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has gone missing. If the instrument is not played at the upcoming coronation, the candidate will not be accepted and the kingdom will be thrown into disarray. Faced with plotting courtiers and tight-lipped druids, an insightful storyteller, and a boorish Crown Prince, Liobhan soon realizes an Otherworld power may be meddling in the affairs of the kingdom. When ambition clashes with conscience, Liobhan must make a bold decision--and the consequences may break her heart.

A young woman who is both a bard--and a warrior--seeks to repay her debts and settle scores in this thrilling historical fantasy series.

The young warrior and bard Liobhan has lost her brother to the Otherworld. Even more determined to gain a place as an elite fighter, she returns to Swan Island to continue her training. But Liobhan is devastated when her comrade Dau is injured and loses his sight in their final display bout. Blamed by Dau's family for the accident, she agrees to go to Dau's home as a bond servant for the span of one year.

There, she soon learns that Oakhill is a place of dark secrets. The vicious Crow Folk still threaten both worlds. And Dau, battling the demon of despair, is not an easy man to help.

When Liobhan and Dau start to expose the rot at the center of Oakhill, they place themselves in deadly danger. For their enemy wields great power and will stop at nothing to get his way. It will take all the skills of a Swan Island warrior and a touch of the uncanny to give them a hope of survival....

Bard and fighter Liobhan is always ready for a challenge. So when news arrives at Swan Island that the prince of Dalriada has gone missing after an assault by both masked men and the sinister Crow Folk, she's eager to act.

While Liobhan and her fellow Swan Island warriors seek answers to the prince's disappearance, the bard Brocc, Liobhan's brother, finds himself in dire trouble. His attempts to communicate with the Crow Folk have led him down a perilous path. When Liobhan and her comrades are sent to the rescue, it becomes clear the two missions are connected--and a great mystery unfolds.

What brought the Crow Folk to Erin? And who seeks to use them in an unscrupulous bid for power? As Liobhan and Brocc investigate, it will take all their strength and will to continue pursuing the truth. With the safety of their loved ones in the balance, the risks they must take may cost them everything.

She will become one of the world's greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning....

Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law--risking exile--to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.

Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn't know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer--a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies--mortal and divine--determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

Table of Contents:

• About L. Ron Hubbard - essay by Algis Budrys
• Introduction - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• On Shaping Creativity - essay by Algis Budrys
• Tyson's Turn - novelette by Michael D. Miller
• A Step Into Darkness - novelette by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Tiger Hunt - novelette by Jor Jennings
• A Writer's Beginnings - essay by Robert Silverberg
• In the Garden - short story by A. J. Mayhew
• Arcadus Arcane - short story by Dennis J. Pimple
• Recalling Cinderella - novelette by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Ebbing - novelette by Leonard Carpenter
• What Are You Doing Here? - essay by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Land of the Leaves - short story by Norma Hutman
• Anthony's Wives - short story by Randell Crump
• The Thing from the Old Seaman's Mouth - short story by Victor L. Rosemund
• Without Wings - short story by L. E. Carroll
• On Science Fiction - essay by Jack Williamson
• Shanidar - novelette by David Zindell
• One Last Dance - short story by Dean Wesley Smith
• Measuring the Light - novelette by Michael Green
• A Way Out - short story by Mary Frances Zambreno
• The Writer's Life and Uniqueness - essay by Roger Zelazny
• About the Artists - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• L. Ron Hubbard: March 13, 1911 - January 24, 1986 - essay by uncredited
• On This Book - essay by Algis Budrys
• Introducing L. Ron Hubbard On Art - essay by Algis Budrys
• Art, More About - (1973) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Beast - short story by Jon Gustafson
• In the Smoke - short story by Howard V. Hendrix
• The Book of Time - novella by Camilla Decarnin
• The Old Organ Trail - short story by Bridget McKenna
• Click - novelette by Ray Aldridge
• An Idea That... - essay by Gene Wolfe
• A Sum of Moments - novelette by Laura E. Campbell
• All You Can Eat! - short story by Don Baumgart
• They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships - short story by Marina Fitch
• A Thousand or So Words of Wisdom - essay by Anne McCaffrey
• The Trout - short story by Marianne O. Nielsen
• Redmond - novelette by Kenneth Schulze
• Mudpuppies - novelette by Robert Reed
• The Single Most Important Piece of Advice - essay by Frank Herbert
• Dream in a Bottle - short story by Jerry Meredith and D. E. Smirl
• The Cinderella Caper - novelette by Sansoucy Kathenor
• The Helldivers - novelette by Parris ja Young
• Tell Me a Story - essay by Larry Niven
• Welcome to Freedom - short story by Jay Sullivan

Table of Contents:

• A Growing Thing - essay by Algis Budrys
• Introducing L. Ron Hubbard on Art and Communication - essay by uncredited
• Art and Communication - (1977) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Jacob's Ladder - novelette by M. Shayne Bell
• The Language of the Sea - novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• Living in the Jungle - short story by Martha Soukup
• How to Impress an Editor - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Very Last Party at #13 Mallory Way - novelette by L. E. Carroll
• Monsters - short story by Jean Reitz
• Long Knives - novelette by J. R. Dunn
• A Little of What You Fancy - short story by Mary Catherine McDaniel
• How to Sound Like an Expert - essay by Gregory Benford
• In the Sickbay - novelette by R. V. Branham
• A Day in the Life - short fiction by Christopher Ewart
• Old Mickey Flip Had a Marvelous Ship - novelette by Lori Ann White
• Time and Chance - novelette by Eric M. Heideman
• No Pets - short story by Tawn Stokes
• Building Plausible Futures - essay by Jerry Pournelle
• On My Way to Paradise - novella by Dave Wolverton
• Resonance Ritual - short story by Paula May
• About the Story Illustrators - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Tomorrow's Miracles - (1938) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• River of Stone - short story by Michael Green
• The Mirror - novelette by Nancy Farmer
• What a Story Is - essay by Algis Budrys
• The Zombie Corps: Nine-Lives Charlie - novelette by Rayson Lorrey
• High Fast Fish - short story by John Moore
• A Winter's Night - novelette by Pat MacEwen
• The Right Kind of Writing Workshop - essay by Orson Scott Card
• The Troublesome Kordae Alliance and How It Was Settled - novelette by Flonet Biltgen
• Growlers - short story by Larry England
• What Do I See in You? - short story by Mary A. Turzillo
• Diving in at Sag Harbor - essay by Tim Powers
• The Gas Man - novella by Richard Urdiales
• The Fruit Picker - short story by Jo Beverley
• Black Sun and Dark Companion - short story by R. Garcia y Robertson
• To the Next Generation - essay by Ramsey Campbell
• 6770: The Cause - short story by Mark D. Haw
• Mother's Day - novelette by Astrid Julian
• Buffalo Dreams - short story by Jane Mailander
• SF Illustration As an Art - essay by Frank Kelly Freas
• Heroic Measures - short story by Paul Edwards
• Old Times There - short story by Dennis E. Minor
• About the Illustrators - essay by Frank Kelly Freas

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Daddy's Girls - short story by K. D. Wentworth
• The Nomalers - novelette by Jamil Nasir
• Blue Shift - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• Just Don't - short fiction by Eolake Stobblehouse
• Circulate - (1935) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Rachel's Wedding - novella by Virginia Baker
• The Wallet and Maudie - novelette by Dan'l Danehy-Oakes and Alan Wexelblat
• Dear Mom - short story by Stephen C. Fisher
• A Little Womanly Advice - essay by Marta Randall
• Prosthetic Lady - novella by Paula May
• Despite and Still - novelette by Marc Matz
• A Walk by Moonlight - novelette by Mark Anthony
• Wisdoms & Warnings: Writing SF for Younger Readers - essay by Jane Yolen
• Starbird - novelette by J. Steven York
• A Ghost in the Matrix - novelette by Steve Martindale
• Under Ice - novelette by C. W. Johnson
• The Magic Picture - essay by Hal Clement
• The Disambiguation of Captain Shroud - short story by Gary W. Shockley
• Writing for the Future - essay by Algis Budrys
• Illustrating for the Future - essay by Frank Kelly Freas

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1990) - essay by Algis Budrys
• Kansas City Kitty - (1990) - novelette by Michael L. Scanlon
• Red Eyes - (1990) - novelette by Stephen Milligan
• Winter's Garden - (1990) - short story by Sharon Wahl
• A Foreign Exchange - (1990) - short story by Matthew Wills
• Suspense - (1937) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Dancing with Dinosaurs - (1990) - short story by Charles D. Eckert
• Water - (1990) - short story by John W. Randal
• A Branch in the Wind - (1990) - short story by Bruce Holland Rogers
• Riches Like Dust - (1990) - short story by Scot Noel
• Blueprint for Success in Art - (1990) - essay by Alex Schomburg
• Eulogy for Lisa - (1990) - novelette by Jason Shankel
• The Dive - (1990) - novelette by James Verran
• Flutterbyes - (1990) - short story by Jo Etta Ledgerwood
• The Magician - (1990) - novelette by Michael I. Landweber
• Science in Science Fiction - (1990) - essay by Ben Bova
• The Bookman - (1990) - short story by David Ira Cleary
• The Vintager - (1990) - short story by James Gleason Bishop
• Mothers of Chaos - (1990) - short story by Pete D. Manison
• The Children of Crèche - (1990) - novelette by James Alan Gardner
• Why This Book Is - (1990) - essay by Algis Budrys
• The Scholar of the Pear Tree Garden - (1990) - short story by Annis Shepherd
• Under Glass - (1990) - novelette by David F. Carr
• The Illustrators' Contest - (1990) - essay by Frank Kelly Freas

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Georgi - novelette by James C. Glass
• A Plumber's Tale - novelette by Merritt Severson
• Seventeen Short Essays on the Relationship Between Art and Science - short story by Michael C. Berch
• Search for Research - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Relay - novelette by Michelle L. Levigne
• Hopes and Dreams - short story by Mark Garland
• Pandora's Box 2055 - novelette by David Hast
• My Advice to the Undiscovered - essay by Ray Aldridge
• The Trashman of Auschwitz - novelette by Barry H. Reynolds
• The Cab Driver from Hell in the Land of the Pioux Hawques - novelette by Allen J. M. Smith
• The Difference - essay by Frank Frazetta
• Yarena's Daughter - novelette by Terri Trimble
• You, Yourself, Are a Delight, and It Is Only Your Work That Is Overwrought or Lacking in Affect or Clichéd or Drearily Jejune - essay by Karen Joy Fowler
• Sensations of the Mind - novelette by Valerie J. Freireich
• The Raid on the Golden Horn - short story by Don Satterlee
• It Is Just Good Business - essay by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith
• A Plea for Mercy - novelette by Öjvind Bernander
• Balanced Ecology - novelette by William Esrac
• Writing and Selling Your First Novel - essay by Dave Wolverton
• An Exultation of Tears - novelette by Ross Westergaard
• Crow's Curse - novelette by Michael H. Payne
• Why We're Glad to Be Here - essay by Algis Budrys
• A Note from Frank Kelly-Freas - essay by Frank Kelly Freas

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Dave Wolverton
• The Last Indian War - novelette by Brian Burt
• The Winterberry - short story by Nicholas A. DiChario
• Boos and Taboos - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Bringing Sissy Home - novelette by Astrid Julian
• Winter Night, with Kittens - short story by Sam Wilson
• Invisible Man - short story by Larry Ferrill
• Naming Characters and Why - essay by Algis Budrys
• Surrogate - short story by Mark Sumner
• The Coat of Many Colors - short story by Christine Beckert
• Timepieces - novelette by Mike E. Swope
• Notes to the New Artist - essay by Edd Cartier
• Anne of a Thousand Years - novelette by Michael Paul Meltzer
• Subterranean Pests - short story by James S. Dorr
• Getting Started - essay by Lois McMaster Bujold
• A Cold Fragrant Air - short story by C. Maria Plieger
• Blueblood - novelette by Bronwyn Elko
• Not Simply Blue - novelette by Gene Bostwick
• Write from the Heart - essay by R. Garcia y Robertson
• Scary Monsters - novelette by Stephen Woodworth
• Pale Marionettes - novelette by Mark Budz
• Running Rings Around the Moon - short story by Kevin Kirk
• The Augmented Man - novelette by Wendy Rathbone
• More Than a Contest - essay by Dave Wolverton
• A Note from Frank Kelly-Freas - essay by Frank Kelly Freas

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1993) - essay by Dave Wolverton
• Fire - (1993) - novelette by Elizabeth E. Wein
• An Afternoon With George - (1993) - short story by Steve Duff
• Ghosts of the Fall - (1993) - novelette by Sean Williams
• Story Vitality - (1993) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Borealis - (1993) - novelette by D. A. Houdek
• The Dictates - (1993) - short story by Vaughn Heppner
• The Monitor - (1993) - short story by John Richard DeRose
• Adjusting the Moon - (1993) - novelette by Karawynn Long
• The Witchin' Man - (1989) - short story by Douglas Jole
• Breaking Into Comics - (1993) - essay by Julius Schwartz
• Memorease of Tommy - (1993) - short story by Pete D. Manison
• Los Muertos - (1993) - novelette by Lisa Smedman
• Lady's Portrait, Executed In Archaic Colors - (1993) - novelette by Charles M. Saplak
• No Excuses: Finding the Time to Write - (1993) - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• Cinders of the Great War - (1993) - short story by Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury
• Messages - (1993) - novelette by Stoney Compton
• M - (1993) - short story by Lisa Maxwell (1990s)
• Furor Scribendi - (1993) - essay by Octavia E. Butler
• A Child's Handful of the Moon - (1993) - novelette by David Phalen
• The Children China Made - (1993) - novelette by Tom Drennan
• Entropy, and the Strangler - (1993) - novelette by Eric Flint
• About the Contests - (1993) - essay by Dave Wolverton

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Dave Wolverton
• ...Never See His Like Again - essay by Frank Kelly Freas
• Schrödinger's Mousetrap - novelette by Alan Barclay
• Where Memories Go - short story by Lauren Fitzgerald
• Magic Out of a Hat - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Silicon de Bergerac - novelette by W. Eric Schult
• A Few Tips on the Craft - essay by H. R. Van Dongen
• An Anniversary to Remember - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Achilo - novella by D. E. Lofgran
• Winter's Cycle - novelette by Ron Ginzler
• The Key to Making Your Characters Believable - essay by A. C. Crispin
• To a Writer Just Starting Out - (1994) - essay by Robert Silverberg
• Storm Jumper - novella by James Gladu Jordan
• Kidswap - short story by Sheila Hartney
• A Handful of Stones - short story by Mark Schimming
• The Healer - (1994) - novelette by Susan J. Kroupa
• After the War is Over - novelette by Dan Gollub
• The Bridge to Over There - short story by C. Ellis Staehlin
• Getting Down to Business - (1994) - essay by Jennifer Roberson
• And Abel Begat... - short story by Audrey Lawson
• Seekers - novelette by Bruce Hallock
• R for Character - essay by Jack Williamson
• The Writers of the Future Decade - essay by Dave Wolverton

Table of Contents:

• Rosita's Baby - short fiction by Beverly Suarez-Beard
• Not Worth Fixing - (1995) - short story by Brian Plante
• Steps in the Right Direction - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Harpbreak - short fiction by Melissa Lee Shaw
• Ghost Woman - short fiction by Gordon R. Menzies
• A Measure of Understanding - essay by Joseph P. Loftus
• Burnt Offerings - short fiction by Shira Daemon
• Oh, Jungleland - short fiction by Grant Avery Morgan
• Derivatives and Futures--A Non-Financial Prospectus - essay by Alan Dean Foster
• Ears - short fiction by Steve Rissberger
• Sea of Chaos - short fiction by Julia H. West
• A Portion For Foxes - short fiction by Brook West
• Pictures That Tell Stories - essay by Bob Eggleton
• Patient's End - short fiction by J. F. Peterson
• Final Jeopardy - short fiction by William J. Austin
• The Witch's Cat - short fiction by Ann Miller Jordan
• The Tilted Playing-Field - essay by Charles Sheffield
• Merchant Trust - short fiction by Susan Urbanek Linville
• The Last Blade - short fiction by Elisa Romero-McCullough
• About the Writers and Illustrators of the Future - essay by Dave Wolverton

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Dave Wolverton
• Dead Faces - novelette by Edwina Mayer
• After the Rainbow - novella by Fruma Klass
• Reflections in Period Glass - short story by Scott M. Azmus
• The Savant Death Syndrome - novelette by Jerry Craven
• The Manuscript Factory - (1935) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Ploughshares - short story by M. W. Keiper
• Tempering Day - novelette by Darren C. Cummings
• His Best Weapon - novelette by Arlene C. Harris
• Eyes of Light - novelette by Richard Flood
• Science Fiction and Fantasy Art: Three Keys - essay by Paul Lehr
• Requiem for a Deathwatcher - short story by Carrie Pollack
• The Unhappy Golem of Rabbi Leitch - novelette by Russell William Asplund
• A Report from the Terran Project - short story by Scott Everett Bronson
• Devil's Advocate - short story by Syne Mitchell
• Narcissus Rising - short story by Roge Gregory
• Quixchotol - novelette by E. Robertson Rose
• The Heart of the Matter - essay by Doug Beason
• In the Elephant's Graveyard, Where Space Dances with Time - novelette by Sue Storm
• Grail's End - novelette by Callan Primer
• About the Writers and Illustrators of the Future - essay by Dave Wolverton

Table of Contents:

• Welcome to the Future - essay by Dave Wolverton
• The Scent of Desire - novelette by John Brown
• Recursion - short story by S. Seaport
• Altar - novelette by Malcolm Twigg
• The Fast Production Writer - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• White Jade - short story by Janet Martin
• Orange - novella by Sara Backer
• Black on Black - novelette by Kyle David Jelle
• The Art of Love - essay by Ron Lindahn
• A Prayer for the Insect Gods - novelette by Morgan Burke
• The Winds - novelette by Heidi Stallman
• The Garden - novella by Cati Coe
• Only Half the Equation - essay by Ed Gorman
• Wings - short story by Alan Smale
• The Gods Perspire - short story by Ken Rand
• The Biggest Little Job in Fiction - essay by Janet Berliner
• Troder - novelette by David L. Felts
• For the Strength of the Hills - novella by Lee Allred
• About Writers of the Future - essay by Dave Wolverton

Table of Contents:

• On to the Future - essay by Dave Wolverton
• The Dhaka Flu - novelette by Richard Flood
• Nocturne's Bride - short story by Brian Wightman
• Jenny, with the Stars in Her Hair - (1998) - novelette by Amy Sterling Casil
• How to Drive a Writer Crazy - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Spray Paint Revolutions - short story by J. C. Schmidt
• The Disappearance of Josie Andrew - short story by Ron Collins
• Waiting for Hildy - novelette by Chris Flamm
• Valuable Advice - essay by Anne McCaffrey
• Agony - novelette by Ladonna King
• Metabolism - short story by Scott Nicholson
• Silent Justice - novelette by Maureen Jensen
• Our Mission to Dream - essay by Vincent Di Fate
• Cyclops on B Minor - novelette by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• Broken Mirror - novelette by David Masters
• Red Tide, White Tide - novelette by T. M. Spell
• On Writing Science Fiction - essay by Eric Kotani
• Literacy - novelette by Stefano Donati
• The Dragon and the Lorelei - novelette by Carla Montgomery
• Red Moon - novelette by Scott M. Azmus
• The Third Agenda - essay by Michael A. Stackpole
• Faller - novelette by Tim Jansen
• Conservator - novelette by Steven Mohan, Jr.
• A Few Notes on This Volume - essay by Dave Wolverton
• Contest Information - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Blade of the Bunny - novelette by Jim C. Hines
• Art vs. Eats - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• A Man More Ordinary - short story by Manfred Gabriel
• Bearing the Pattern - novelette by G. Scott Huggins
• The One-Eyed Man - novelette by Gregory Janks
• Dream the Dream - essay by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
• The Unbound - novella by Nicole Montgomery
• Out of the Blue - novelette by Ron Collins
• By Other Windings - novelette by Franklin Thatcher
• How I've Been Passing the Time Until Waiting Is Filled - essay by K. D. Wentworth
• My Son, My Self - novelette by Amy Sterling Casil
• The Price of Tea in China - novelette by David Wesley Hill
• The Great Wizard Joey - novella by W. G. Rowland
• Holding Bogart's Fort - essay by Tim Powers
• Great White Hunter - novelette by Don Solosan
• The Vampire Shortstop - novelette by Scott Nicholson
• Fifteen Years of L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future - essay by Algis Budrys

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Home Grown - short story by William Brown
• Like Iron Unicorns - novelette by Paul Batteiger
• Atlantis, Ohio - novella by Mark Siegel
• Search for Research - (1991) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• A Conversation with Schliegelman - novelette by Dan Barlow
• In Orbite Medievali - novelette by Tobias S. Buckell
• Guildmaster - novella by Dan Dyson
• An Essay on Art - essay by Judith Holman
• Skin Song - short story by Melissa Yuan-Innes
• As the Crow Flies - short story by Leslie Claire Walker
• Mud and Salt - short story by Michael Jasper
• The Basic Basics of Writing - essay by Algis Budrys
• The Quality of Wetness - novella by Ilsa J. Bick
• Your Own Hope - novelette by Paul E. Martens
• Pulling Up Roots - novelette by Gary Murphy
• Fame? Fortune? Chocolate? - essay by Michael H. Payne
• Daimon! Daimon! - novella by Jeff Rutherford
• L. Ron Hubbard's Writers and Illustrators of the Future - essay by Algis Budrys
• Contest Information - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Black Box - short story by Janet Barron
• A Familiar Solution - short story by Marguerite Devers Green
• The Plague - novelette by A. C. Bray
• Boos and Taboos - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• El Presidente Munsie - novelette by Tony Daley
• Time Out of Mind - novelette by Everett S. Jacobs
• Brother Jubal in the Womb of Silence - novelette by Tim Myers
• The Sharp End - novelette by Kelly McCullough
• The Writer's Life and Uniqueness - (1985) - essay by Roger Zelazny
• Lucretia's Nose - short story by Philip Lees
• Dreams and Bones - short story by Eric M. Witchey
• Marketplace of Souls - short story by David Lowe
• Interrupt Vector - short story by Robert B. Schofield
• Getting "Lucky" - essay by Sergey Poyarkov
• Ten Gallons a Whore - novelette by Anna D. Allen
• Magpie - novelette by Meredith Simmons
• God Loves the Infantry - novella by Greg Siewert
• Hello and Goodbye - novelette by Michele Letica
• T.E.A. and Koumiss - novelette by Steven C. Raine
• An Idiot Rode to Majra - novelette by J. Simon
• Life Eternal - short story by Bob Johnston
• The Year in the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys
• Contest Information - essay by Algis Budrys

Table of Contents:

• The Dragon Cave - short story by Drew Morby
• The Haunted Seed - short story by Ray Roberts
• Rewind - short story by David D. Levine
• Windseekers - short story by Nnedi Okorafor
• Magic Out of a Hat - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Lost on the Road - short story by Ari Goelman
• Graveyard Tea - short story by Susan Fry
• Carrying the God - short story by Lee Battersby
• A Few Tips on the Craft of Illustration - essay by H. R. Van Dongen
• Memoria Technica - short story by Leon J. West
• Free Fall - short story by Tom Brennan
• All Winter Long - short story by Jae Brim
• The Art of Creation - short story by Carl Frederick
• Advice to the New Writer - essay by Andre Norton
• The Road to Levenshir - novelette by Patrick Rothfuss
• Eating, Drinking, Walking - short story by Dylan Otto Krider
• Origami Cranes - short story by Seppo Kurki
• A New Anthology - essay by Tim Powers
• Worlds Apart - short story by Woody O. Carsky-Wilson
• Prague 47 - short story by Joel Best
• What Became of the King - short story by Aimee C. Amodio
• The Year in Contests - essay by Algis Budrys

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• Numbers - short story by Joel Best
• Trust Is a Child - short story by Matthew Candelaria
• A Boy and His Bicycle - novelette by Carl Frederick
• Suspense - (1937) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• A Few Days North of Vienna - novella by Brandon Butler
• A Ship That Bends - short story by Luc Reid
• Bury My Heart at the Garrick - novella by Steven Savile
• A Silky Touch to No Man - novella by Robert J Defendi
• To the Illustrators of the Future - essay by Will Eisner
• Dark Harvest - novelette by Geoffrey Girard
• From All the Work Which He Had Made... - novelette by Michael Chruchman
• Beautiful Singer - novella by Steve Bein
• Gossamer - novelette by Ken Liu
• Ten Years After - essay by Sean Williams
• Walking Rain - novelette by Ian Keane
• Blood and Horses - short story by Myke Cole
• Into the Gardens of Sweet Night - novella by Jay Lake
• The Year in the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys
• Contest Information - essay by Algis Budrys

Table of Contents:

• The Nature of Creativity - essay by Algis Budrys
• On Our Twentieth Anniversary - essay by William J. Widder
• Monkey See, Monkey Deduce - short story by Jonathan Laden
• Bottomless - novelette by Luc Reid
• Art, More About - (1973) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Flotsam - novelette by Bradley P. Beaulieu
• Kinship - novelette by Jason Stoddard
• In Memory - short story by Eric James Stone
• On the Writing of Speculative Fiction - (1947) - essay by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Key - novella by Blair MacGregor
• Cancilleri's Law - short story by Gabriel F. W. Koch
• Sleep Sweetly, Junie Carter - novelette by Joy Marchand
• Twenty Years! - essay by Robert Silverberg
• Conversation with a Mechanical Horse - novelette by Floris M. Kleijne
• Weapons of the Lord Are Not Carnal - novelette by Andrew Tisbert
• Sunrunners - novella by Matthew Champine
• State of the Art - essay by Vincent Di Fate
• Shipwoman - novelette by Roxanne Hutton
• Last Days of the Mahdi - novelette by Tom Pendergrass
• Asleep in the Forest of the Tall Cats - short story by Kenneth Brady
• False Summits - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• The Plastic Soul of a Note - novelette by William T. Katz
• The Year in the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys
• Contest Information - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• In the Flue - short story by John Schoffstall
• Needle Child - novelette by M. T. Reiten
• The Story of His Life - novelette by David W. Goldman
• Introducing "Tomorrow's Miracles" - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Green Angel - short story by Sean A. Tinsley
• The Firebird - short story by Andrew Gudgel
• My Daughter, the Martian - novelette by Sidra M. S. Vitale
• Meeting the Sculptor - novelette by Floris M. Kleijne (trans. of Ontmoeting met Vormgever 2013)
• Seven Keys to Writing Success - essay by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Into the Blank Where Life is Hurled - short story by Ken Scholes
• Mars Hath No Fury Like a Pixel Double-Crossed - novelette by Stephen R. Stanley
• Blackberry Witch - novella by Scott M. Roberts
• Style Points - essay by Stephen Hickman
• Betrayer of Trees - novelette by Eric James Stone
• Deadglass - short story by Lon Prater
• Last Dance at the Sergeant Majors' Ball - (2004) - short story by Cat Sparks
• Annus Mirabilis - short story by Mike Rimar
• The Keeper Alone - novella by Michael Livingston
• The Year in the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Algis Budrys
• The Sword from the Sea - short fiction by Blake Hutchins
• Broken Stones - short fiction by Judith Tabron
• Advice to the Word-Weary - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Games on the Children's Ward - short fiction by Michail Velichansky
• Evolution's End - short fiction by Lee Beavington
• The Red Envelope - short story by David Sakmyster
• Art Is a Journey - essay by Bob Eggleton
• Schroedinger's Hummingbird - short story by Diana Rowland
• On the Mount - short fiction by David John Baker
• Eight Things New Writers Need to Know - essay by Robert J. Sawyer
• Life on the Voodoo Driving Range - short story by Brandon Sigrist
• At the Gate of God - short fiction by Joseph Jordan
• Are We at the End of Science Fiction? - essay by Orson Scott Card
• Balancer - short story by Richard Kerslake
• The Bone Fisher's Apprentice - short story by Sarah Totton
• Tongues - short fiction by Brian Rappatta
• The Year in the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys
• Contest Information - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2007) - essay by Algis Budrys
• Primetime - (2007) - novelette by Douglas Texter
• The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom - (2007) - novelette by Andrea Kail
• The Frozen Sky - (2007) - novella by Jeff Carlson
• Art and Communication - (1977) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Stone Cipher - (2007) - novella by Tony Pi
• Obsidian Shards - (2007) - novelette by Aliette de Bodard
• Ripping Carovella - (2007) - novelette by K. J. Zimring
• If Only I Had the Time - (2007) - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• Our Last Words - (2007) - novelette by Damon Kaswell
• Saturn in G Minor - (2007) - short story by Stephen Kotowych
• By the Waters of the Ganga - (2007) - novelette by Stephen Gaskell
• Pilgrimage - (2007) - novelette by Karl Bunker
• Here's the Thing - (2007) - essay by Judith Miller
• The Gas Drinkers - (2007) - novelette by Edward Sevcik
• The Phlogiston Age - (2007) - novella by Corey Brown
• Mask Glass Magic - (2007) - novella by John Burridge
• The Year in the Contests - (2007) - essay by Algis Budrys
• Contest Information - (2007) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Why There Are the Contests by Algis Budrys (1931-2008) - essay by uncredited
• Why There Are the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys
• A Man in the Moon - short fiction by Philip Edward Kaldon
• Bitter Dreams - novelette by Ian McHugh
• Taking a Mile - short fiction by J. Kathleen Cheney
• Circulate - (1935) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Crown of Thorns - short fiction by Sonia Helbig
• Hangar Queen - short fiction by Patrick Lundrigan
• Snakes and Ladders - short fiction by Paula R. Stiles
• The Well-Adjusted Writer - essay by Rebecca Moesta
• Epiphany - short fiction by Laura Bradley Rede
• Cruciger - short fiction by Erin Cashier
• Circuit - short fiction by J. D. EveryHope
• A War Bird in the Belly of the Mouse - short fiction by David Parish-Whittaker
• The Four C's to Success - essay by Cliff Nielsen
• Simulacrum's Children - short fiction by Sarah L. Edwards
• The Bird Reader's Granddaughter - short fiction by Kim A. Gillett
• The Girl Who Whispered Beauty - short fiction by Al Bogdan
• The Year in the Contests - essay by Algis Budrys

Embark on Voyages of Imagination and Wonder

Discover the new visionaries of imagination in the Writers of the Future—celebrating 25 years of showcasing the best new talent. Established in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard expressly for the aspiring writer, Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction. Never before published first-rate science fiction and fantasy stories selected by top names in the field.

"Some of the best Sci Fi of the future comes from Writers of the Future and you can find it in this book."--David Hartwell, Editor

Includes essays written by professionals of the craft: L. Ron Hubbard, Robert Silverberg & Ron Lindahn

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by K. D. Wentworth
• Garden of Tian Zi - novelette by Emery Huang
• The Shadow Man - novelette by Donald Mead
• Life in Steam - novelette by Grá Linnaea
• On Writing and Science Fiction - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Assignment of Runner ETI - novella by Fiona Lehn
• The Candy Store - novelette by Heather McDougal
• Risqueman - novelette by Mike Wood
• Writers of the Future - essay by Robert Silverberg
• Gray Queen Homecoming - novelette by Schon M. Zwakman
• The Dizzy Bridge - novelette by Krista Hoeppner Leahy
• Gone Black - novella by Matthew S. Rotundo
• Persistence of Vision - essay by Ron Lindahn
• The Reflection of Memory - novelette by C. L. Holland
• After the Final Sunset, Again - novelette by Jordan Ellinger
• The Farthest Born - novelette by Gary Kloster
• The Year in the Contests - essay by uncredited

Discover Imaginative New Worlds of Tomorrow. Discover the new visionaries of imagination in the Writers of the Future. Let tomorrow's masters of science fiction and fantasy books take you on a journey.

Meet a female warrior created to fight horrific, high-tech future wars, who discovers her humanity.

Get lost in a magic room that comes to life, in the midst of rivaling magicians

Can an unlikely friendship with an exotic Alien race save an injured human girl?

What would happen if you shared your mind with a terrorist, and their violence started to seep through?

Can an android marked for death become human instead in a twist of fate?

Established in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard expressly for the aspiring writer, Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction. Never before published first-rate science fiction and fantasy stories selected by top names in the field. Authors and artists discovered by Writers of the Future have gone to publish more works than other Writing Contest. It is a leading showcase of Creative Writing.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2010) - essay by K. D. Wentworth
• Living Rooms - (2010) - novelette by Laurie Tom
• The Black Side of Memory - (2010) - short fiction by Lael Salaets
• Lisa with Child - (2010) - short fiction by Alex Black
• The Golden Pen - (2010) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Not in the Flesh - (2010) - short fiction by Adam Colston
• Seeing Double - (2010) - short fiction by Tom Crosshill
• Exanastasis - (2010) - short fiction by Brad R. Torgersen
• Standing Up - (2010) - essay by Dean Wesley Smith
• Poison Inside the Walls - (2010) - short fiction by Scott W. Baker
• Confliction - (2010) - short fiction by Simon Cooper
• Digital Rights - (2010) - short fiction by Brent Knowles
• Advice to Illustrators Getting Into the Field - (2010) - essay by Stephen Youll
• Coward's Steel - short story by K. C. Ball
• Written in Light - (2010) - short fiction by Jeff Young
• The House of Nameless - (2010) - short fiction by Jason Fischer
• The Year in the Contests - (2010) - essay by uncredited

Your passage to unforgettable worlds of imagination and escapism. From the farthest reaches of the universe to the innermost workings of the human heart and mind... Let tomorrow's masters of science fiction and fantasy books take you on a journey that will capture your imagination.

A peaceful warrior tries to impose peace on warring alien races, even if that means destroying the world to save it.

From survivors on a sky city to salvage specialists hunted by space pirates...biological warfare to an immortal woman cursed for eternity, this is a non-stop look into the Science Fiction & Fantasy greats of tomorrow.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by K. D. Wentworth
• The Unreachable Voices of Ghosts - short story by Jeffrey Lyman
• Maddy Dune's First and Only Spelling Bee - short story by Patrick O'Sullivan
• The Truth, from a Lie of Convenience - novelette by Brennan Harvey
• How to View Art - (1984) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• In Apprehension, How Like a God - short story by R. P. L. Johnson
• An Acolyte of Black Spires - novelette by Ryan Harvey
• The Dualist - novelette by Van Aaron Hughes
• Making It - essay by Mike Resnick
• Bonehouse - short story by Keffy R. M. Kehrli
• This Peaceful State of War - novelette by Patty Jansen
• Sailing the Sky Sea - short story by Geir Lanesskog
• Creating Your Own Destiny - essay by Robert Castillo
• Unfamiliar Territory - novelette by Ben Mann
• Medic! - short story by Adam Perin
• Vector Victoria - novelette by D. A. D'Amico
• The Sundial - novelette by John Arkwright
• The Year in the Contests - essay by uncredited

Science Fiction short stories from the freshest, most talented new voices in Science Fiction and Fantasy, each illustrated by the best new artist in the genre

Behold... A magical woven man who holds the keys to the Kingdom...

Discover... gateways to alternate universes

Explore... on Mars to unravel the fantastic mystery of a an ancient civilization.

Clone Wars... can a clone become human when she her soul

Paranoia... post apocalyptic kindle fiction

Alien Infestation... To stop these deadly aliens, she must die repeatedly, like a vivid chapter of "All You need is Kill"

"The offerings are thought provoking and varied, with a trend towards excellence... The future is in good hands." --Publishers Weekly

"The Writers of the Future ... Long may it continue!" --Neil Gaiman

Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction. Never before published first-rate science fiction and fantasy stories selected by top names in the field. Authors and artists discovered by Writers of the Future have gone to publish more works than other Writing Contest. It is a leading showcase of creative writing and opens gateways to art.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by K. D. Wentworth
• Of Woven Wood - novelette by Marie Croke
• The Rings of Mars - novelette by William Ledbetter
• The Paradise Aperture - short fiction by David Carani
• Story Vitality - (1993) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Fast Draw - short fiction by Roy Hardin
• The Siren - novella by M. O. Muriel
• Contact Authority - novella by William Mitchell
• The Importance of Short Fiction - essay by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The Command for Love - novella by Nick T. Chan
• My Name Is Angela - novelette by Harry Lang
• Lost Pine - novella by Jacob A. Boyd
• Advice For A New Illustrator - essay by Shaun Tan
• Shutdown - short fiction by Corry L. Lee
• While Ireland Holds These Graves - novelette by Tom Doyle
• The Poly Islands - novelette by Gerald Warfield
• Insect Sculptor - novelette by Scott T. Barnes
• The Year In Contests - essay by uncredited
• New Writers! L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest - essay by uncredited
• New Illustrators! L. Ron Hubbard Presents Illustrators of the Future Contest - essay by uncredited

Science Fiction short stories from the freshest, most talented new voices in Science Fiction and Fantasy, each illustrated by the best new artist in the genre

Turn the page... open your eyes... and look into the future
They unleash the power of dreams and unlock the secrets of the universe.
They bend time, twist perception, and put a new spin on the laws of physics.
They show us who we are, what we may become, and how far we can go.
They are the Writers of the Future.
Experience their vision:

In twelve seconds you will catch one last glimpse of the world

A Love Story... with Death

Alien Contact has meaning deep beneath the ads ... don't trust what you read

The Steampunk Clock is not only broken, so is TIME itself

She is not a dream weaver or a dream catcher... She is a dream eater

Hero Duty calls.... all the way from the Dead

Love and War know no bounds... or do they?

"Adventurous, lighthearted, thought-provoking, and grim, these stories cover a wide range of science and magic, each unique, refreshing, and innovative in a variety of different ways. The anthology is fleshed out by essays from the late Hubbard, Nnedi Okorafor, and artist Larry Elmore. This book is not to be missed, full of exciting new writers to watch." --Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"The Writers of the Future... Long may it continue!" --Neil Gaiman

Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction. Never before published first-rate science fiction and fantasy stories selected by top names in the field. Authors and artists discovered by Writers of the Future have gone to publish more works than other Writing Contest. It is a leading showcase of creative writing and opens gateways to art.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2013) - essay by Dave Wolverton
• War Hero - (2013) - short fiction by Brian Trent
• Planetary Scouts - (2013) - novella by Stephen Sottong
• Twelve Seconds - (2013) - novelette by Tina Gower
• The Manuscript Factory - (1935) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Grande Complication - (2013) - short fiction by Christopher Reynaga
• Cop for a Day - (2013) - short fiction by Chrome Oxide
• Gonna Reach Out and Grab Ya - (2013) - short fiction by Eric Cline
• The Sport of Writing - (2013) - essay by Nnedi Okorafor
• Vestigial Girl - short fiction by Alex Wilson
• Holy Days - (2013) - short fiction by Kodiak Julian
• The Ghost Wife of Arlington - (2013) - novelette by Marilyn Guttridge
• Journey For a New Artist - (2013) - essay by Larry Elmore
• Everything You Have Seen - (2013) - short fiction by Alisa Alering
• Scavengers - (2013) - short fiction by Shannon Peavey
• Dreameater - (2013) - novelette by Andrea G. Stewart
• Master Belladino's Mask - (2013) - novelette by Marina J. Lostetter
• The Year In Contests - (2013) - essay by uncredited

Celebrate
New Writers
New Winners
New Worlds

Writers of the Future: Volume 30

This is your window into incredible worlds of wizardry, warfare and wonder.

This is your escape into fantastic realms of the human mind lurking just beyond your imagination...and reaching deep into your wildest dreams.

This is your ticket to tomorrow.

Celebrate the future of science fiction and fantasy... now.

"Keep the Writers of the Future going. It's what keeps sci-fi alive." --ORSON SCOTT CARD

Included: Bonus short stories by Orson Scott Card, Mike Resnick & L. Ron Hubbard & a color spread highlighting the story illustrations

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Dave Wolverton
• Another Range of Mountains - short story by Megan E. O'Keefe
• Shifter - short story by Paul Eckheart
• Beneath the Surface of Two Kills - short story by Shauna O'Meara
• Artistic Presentation - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• Beyond All Weapons - (1950) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• Animal - short story by Terry Madden
• Rainbows for Other Days - short story by C. Stuart Hardwick
• Giants at the End of the World - short story by Leena Likitalo
• ... And Now Thirty - essay by Robert Silverberg
• Carousel - (2012) - short story by Orson Scott Card
• The Clouds in Her Eyes - short story by Liz Colter
• What Moves the Sun and Other Stars - short story by K. C. Norton
• Long Jump - short story by Oleg Kazantsev
• These Walls of Despair - short story by Anaea Lay
• Synaptic Soup - essay by Val Lakey Lindahn
• Robots Don't Cry - (2003) - short story by Mike Resnick
• The Shaadi Exile - short story by Amanda Forrest
• The Pushbike Legion - short story by Timothy Jordan
• Memories Bleed Beneath the Mask - short story by Randy Henderson
• A Word on the Art Direction - essay by Stephen Hickman
• List of Illustrations by Artist - essay by uncredited
• The Year in the Contests - essay by uncredited

The future is here... the future is now! Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson and Larry Niven have seen the future. Now, you can, too.

A constellation of the brightest lights in the Science Fiction and Fantasy firmament have judged these authors to be the best, the brightest, the truest emerging stars in the field.

From Alien Invasion to Alternate History, from Cyberpunk to Comic Fantasy to Post-Apocalyptic Worlds, these are the winning writers who have mastered every version and vision of sci-fi and fantasy.

Don't be left behind. Get a read on what's next.

"The Writers of the Future contest looks for people with the best imaginations who can see through the possibilities of the strangest and best ideas and tell stories that intrigue us and involve us." --ORSON SCOTT CARD

Celebrate the 31st anniversary of the Writers of the Future contest and the 26th anniversary of the Illustrators of the Future contest.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Peter J. Wacks
• Introduction - essay by David Farland
• Switch - novelette by Steve Pantazis
• The God Whisperer - short story by Daniel J. Davis
• Stars That Make Dark Heaven Light - novella by Sharon Joss
• Art - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• When Shadows Fall - (1948) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• A Revolutionary's Guide to Practical Conjuration - novelette by Auston Habershaw
• Twelve Minutes to Vinh Quang - short story by Tim Napper
• Planar Ghosts - novelette by Krystal Claxton
• Fiction Without Paper - essay by Orson Scott Card
• Rough Draft - (2005) - short story by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta
• Between Screens - short story by Zach Chapman
• Unrefined - novelette by Martin L. Shoemaker
• Half Past - short story by Samantha Murray
• Purposes Made for Alien Minds - short story by Scott R. Parkin
• Inconstant Moon - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
• The Illustrators of the Future - essay by Bob Eggleton
• The Graver - novelette by Amy M. Hughes
• Wisteria Melancholy - novelette by Michael T. Banker
• Poseidon's Eyes - novelette by Kary English
• The Year in the Contests - essay by unknown

Science Fiction & Fantasy Anthology and Advice to Writers 2016

You are about to meet:

YOUR NEXT FAVORITE AUTHOR

The 32nd edition of Writers of the Future may be the best new book yet! Brand-new adventure through space, time and possibility.

Along the way these new authors will introduce you to fascinating characters such as Nate, a very loyal companion--like most werewolves would be. Keanie has a parasite that lets her morph and so transform into anyone. Liz owns a dinosaur maker, but raw ingredients can be a problem. Anna slaves away in a factory but her magic leaves her unfulfilled. These authors take creative writing to a whole new level!

The answers, the stories, the visions, and the mind-stretching possibilities are all waiting inside.

Welcome to the future of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It gets better every year. These are the award winning short stories of the international contest that have launched the writing careers of some of the best new books!

BONUS stories and articles on how to write by New York Times best sellers Tim Powers, Sean Williams, Brandon Sanderson, Sergey Poyarkov & L. Ron Hubbard

"The Writers of the Future contest looks for people with the best imaginations who can see through the possibilities of the strangest and best ideas and tell stories that intrigue us and involve us." --Orson Scott Card

Celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the Writers of the Future contest and the 27th anniversary of the Illustrators of the Future contest.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David Farland
• The Star Tree - short story by Jon Lasser
• Images Across a Shattered Sea - short story by Stewart C. Baker
• Möbius - short story by Christoph Weber
• How to Drive a Writer Crazy - (1998) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Last Admiral - (1950) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Jack of Souls - novelette by Stephen Merlino
• Swords Like Lightning, Hooves Like Thunder - novelette by K. D. Julicher
• Where Steampunk Started - essay by Tim Powers
• Hellfire on the High Frontier - (2014) - novelette by David Farland
• Squalor and Sympathy - novelette by Matt Dovey
• Dinosaur Dreams in Infinite Measure - short story by Rachael K. Jones
• Cry Havoc - short story by Julie Frost
• A Glamour in the Black - short story by Sylvia Hiven
• The Broad Sky Was Mine, and the Road - short story by Ryan Row
• The Fine Distinction Between Cooks and Chefs - essay by Brandon Sanderson
• The Jade Woman of the Luminous Star - (2011) - novelette by Sean Williams
• Freebot - short story by R. M. Graves
• Last Sunset for the World Weary - short story by H. L. Fullerton
• The Sun Falls Apart - short story by J. W. Alden
• Flawless Imperfection - essay by Sergey Poyarkov
• Directing the Art - essay by Bob Eggleton
• The Year in the Contests - essay by uncredited

Internationally acclaimed anthology of award winning science fiction and fantasy short stories.

Explore diverse new universes of possibility through a variety of creative and fresh new ideas--all in one anthology. From dragons to mythical death dealers, from murder on the moon to deep space mystery, these stories bring you the hot new talent in science fiction, fantasy & horror.

Enjoy these award-winning stories & illustrations, with bonus stories by New York Times bestselling authors Robert J. Sawyer, Todd McCaffrey & L. Ron Hubbard.

Learn how to write or improve your craft with tips from Grand Master fantasy author Anne McCaffrey and New York Times bestselling author L. Ron Hubbard.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David Farland
• Moonlight One - novelette by Stephen Lawson
• The Armor Embrace - short story by Doug C. Souza
• Envoy in the Ice - novelette by Dustin Steinacker
• Search for Research - (1991) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Devil's Rescue - (1940) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• Tears for Shülna - short story by Andrew L. Roberts
• The Drake Equation - short story by C. L. Kagmi
• Acquisition - short story by Jake Marley
• Obsidian Spire - short story by Molly Elizabeth Atkins
• A Thousand or So Words of Wisdom - (1986) - essay by Anne McCaffrey
• Gator - (1997) - short story by Robert J. Sawyer
• A Glowing Heart - short story by Anton Rose
• The Long Dizzy Down - short story by Ziporah Hildebrandt
• The Woodcutter's Deity - short story by Walter Dinjos
• How to Become an Illustrator - essay by Larry Elmore
• The Dragon Killer's Daughter - short story by Todd McCaffrey
• Useless Magic - short story by Andrew Perry
• Adramelech - short story by Sean Hazlett
• The Fox, the Wolf, and the Dove - novelette by Ville Meriläinen
• The Magnificent Bhajan - short story by David VonAllmen
• Notes on Art Direction: Is It DIrection or Suggestion? - essay by Bob Eggleton
• The Year in the Contests - essay by David Farland

24 Award-Winning Authors and Illustrators.

Accompanied by Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, Jody Lynn Nye, Jerry Pournelle, Ciruelo and Echo Chernik and Edited by David Farland.

Your search for something new and different in sci-fi and fantasy ends here.

Presenting this year's collection of fresh voices, fabulous worlds, and fantastic new characters.

Each year, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests' blue-ribbon judges search the world to discover and introduce to you the very best new talent in sci-fi and fantasy.

Created by L. Ron Hubbard, whose commitment to help new writers and artists gave rise to the annual Writers of the Future anthologies--a launching pad for writers and artists who are sure to command our attention for decades to come.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David Farland
• Illustrators of the Future - essay by Echo Chernik
• Turnabout - short story by Erik Bundy
• A Smokeless and Scorching Fire - short story by Erin Cairns
• The Howler on the Sales Floor - short story by Jonathan Ficke
• The Minarets of An-Zabat - novelette by Jeremy A. TeGrotenhuis
• Suspense - (1937) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Death Flyer - (2008) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• Odd and Ugly - novelette by Vida Cruz
• Mara's Shadow - novelette by Darci Stone
• Theme - essay by Orson Scott Card
• The Lesson - (2010) - short story by Brandon Sanderson
• Paying It Forward - essay by Jerry Pournelle
• What Lies Beneath - short story by Cole Hehr
• The Face in the Box - short story by Janey Bell
• Flee, My Pretty One - short story by Eneasz Brodski
• Passion and Profession - essay by Ciruelo Cabral
• Illusion - essay by Jody Lynn Nye
• A Bitter Thing - novelette by N. R. M. Roshak
• Miss Smokey - short story by Diana Hart
• All Light and Darkness - novelette by Amy Henrie Gillett
• The Year in the Contests - essay by uncredited

The 35th collection of winners of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future competition features expertly crafted stories and art, spanning the gamut from hard core sci-fi to epic fantasy. 12 stories so fresh and new, they're 5-10 years ahead of the curve--the future is literally here and now.

Let your imagination run wild.

If you're ready to travel to a universe of mystery, sacrifice, and suspense, where the laws of physics are optional, book your journey here.

On this odyssey of enchantment, enlightenment, and endless possibility, you will meet a murderer who's out to save mankind, a cyborg who robs the dead to rescue the living, and a lost boy who holds the key to peace. Discover visions of the world, of mankind, and of the future that are sure to open your eyes.

Every illustration will touch you.

Every word will move you.

Every idea will take you by surprise.

Just imagine.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David Farland
• Cover Art by Bob Eggleton - essay by uncredited
• Directing the Art - essay by Echo Chernik
• Untrained Luck - short fiction by Elise Stephens
• Untrained Luck - interior artwork by Aliya Chen
• The First Warden - short fiction by Kai Walden
• The First Warden - interior artwork by Alexander Gustafson
• The Damned Voyage - short fiction by John Haas
• The Damned Voyage - interior artwork by Allen Morris
• Tomorrow's Miracles - (1938) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Idealist - (1940) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• The Idealist - interior artwork by Brian C. Hailes
• Thantos Drive - short fiction by Andrew Dykstal
• Thantos Drive - interior artwork by Qianjiao Ma
• A Harvest of Astronauts - short fiction by Kyle Kirrin
• A Harvest of Astronauts - interior artwork by Sam Kemp
• Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler - short fiction by Wulf Moon
• Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler - interior artwork by Alice Wang
• Tips for Embryonic Pros - essay by Mike Resnick
• Lost Robot - short fiction by Dean Wesley Smith
• Lost Robot - interior artwork by Bob Eggleton
• Are You the Life of the Party? - short fiction by Mica Scotti Kole
• Are You the Life of the Party? - interior artwork by Josh Pemberton
• Release from Service - short fiction by Rustin Lovewell
• Release from Service - interior artwork by Emerson Rabbitt
• Dark Equations of the Heart - short fiction by David Cleden
• Dark Equations of the Heart - interior artwork by Vytautas Vasiliauskas
• Advice for Artists - essay by Rob Prior
• Yellow Submarine - short fiction by Rebecca Moestra
• Yellow Submarine - interior artwork by David Furnal
• An Itch - short fiction by Christopher Baker
• An Itch - interior artwork by Jennifer Ober
• Dirt Road Magic - short fiction by Carrie Callahan
• Dirt Road Magic - interior artwork by Yingying Jiang
• A Certain Slant of Light - short fiction by Preston Dennett
• A Certain Slant of Light - interior artwork by Christine Rhee
• The Year in Contests - essay by uncredited

Sci-fi and fantasy of tomorrow... selected by masters of today.

Where can you find the hottest new talent all in one book?

Right here. This year's winning stories include a diverse collection of brilliantly realized worlds of dystopian politics, magical realism, post-apocalyptic adventure, and romance, dark fantasy and more.

You'll love this anthology because these writers push the boundaries--and break beyond them... these illustrators envision the impossible--and render it real... these stories challenge the way we see ourselves--and present the world in a new way.

Table of Contents:

• The Trade - short fiction by C. Winspear
• Foundations - short fiction by Michael Gardner
• A Word That Means Everything - short fiction by Andy Dibble
• Steps in the Right Direction - essay by R. Walton Willems
• Borrowed Glory - (1941) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• Catching My Death - short fiction by J. L. George
• A Prize in Every Box - short fiction by F. J. Bergmann
• Yellow and Pink - short fiction by Leah Ning
• Making Collaboration Work for You or Co-writing with Larry and Sean - essay by Sean Williams
• The Phoenix's Peace - short fiction by Jody Lynn Nye
• Educational Tapes - short fiction by Katie Livingston
• Trading Ghosts - short fiction by David A. Elsensohn
• Stolen Sky - short fiction by Storm Humbert
• Breathing In - essay by Mike Perkins
• The Winds of Harmattan - (2013) - short story by Nnedi Okorafor (variant of Asuquo, or The Winds of Harmattan 2003)
• As Able the Air - short fiction by Zack Be
• Molting Season - short fiction by Tim Boiteau
• Automated Everyman Migrant Theater - short fiction by Sonny Zae
• The Green Tower - [Deryni Universe] - (2002) - novelette by Katherine Kurtz

The Sci-Fi and Fantasy of Tomorrow Selected by Masters of Today

26 Award-winning Authors and Illustrators

Get ready to get carried away... to places no one has ever gone before.

Turn the page... from dark fantasy to dystopian nightmare, from magical realism to military science, from paranormal urban fantasy to post-apocalyptic power trips... and beyond.

Take flight on a starship powered by a godlike being, willing to go to any length to know what it is to be human. Delve into the psyche of a scientist who must choose between ambition and compassion while compelled to participate in a secret and sadistic government project. Get lost in the chilling Museum of Modern Warfare, where one woman is about to discover life-changing secrets. Experience the stories that challenge our sense of self--and our sense of the world. And that's just the beginning of your journey....

Discover the mesmerizing power of these new stories, thought-provoking new ideas, brilliant new horizons, and astounding new writers and illustrators--the chosen ones, selected by today's bestselling science fiction and fantasy authors and artists.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 37) - essay by Dave Wolverton [as by David Farland]
• 4 - The Illustrators of the Future Contest - essay by Echo Chernik
• 7 - The Tiger and the Waif - interior artwork by André Mata
• 8 - Sixers - interior artwork by Will Knight
• 9 - The Enfield Report - interior artwork by Stephen Spinas
• 10 - The Widow's Might - interior artwork by Madolyn Locke
• 11 - The Dangerous Dimension - interior artwork by Anh Le
• 12 - How to Steal the Plot Armor - interior artwork by Dan Watson
• 13 - The Redemption of Brother Adalum - interior artwork by Isabel Gibney
• 14 - The Argentum - interior artwork by Rupam Grimoeuvre
• 15 - Soul Paper - interior artwork by Mariah Salinas
• 16 - The Skin of My Mother - interior artwork by Shiyi Yu
• 17 - Death of a Time Traveler - interior artwork by Jennifer Bruce
• 18 - The Battle of Donasi - interior artwork by Ben Hill
• 19 - The Museum of Modern Warfare - interior artwork by Isabel Gibney
• 20 - A Demon Hunter's Guide to Passover Seder - interior artwork by Jeff Weiner
• 21 - Hemingway - interior artwork by Sethe Nguyen
• 22 - Half-Breed - interior artwork by Daniel Bitton
• 23 - The Tiger and the Waif - short story by John M. Campbell
• 32 - The Tiger and the Waif [2] - interior artwork by André Mata (variant of The Tiger and the Waif)
• 43 - Sixers - novelette by Barbara Lund
• 51 - Sixers [2] - interior artwork by Will Knight (variant of Sixers)
• 67 - The Enfield Report - novelette by Christopher Bowthorpe
• 83 - The Enfield Report [2] - interior artwork by Stephen Spinas (variant of The Enfield Report)
• 93 - The Widow's Might - short fiction by Elizabeth Chatsworth
• 95 - The Widow's Might [2] - interior artwork by Madolyn Locke (variant of The Widow's Might)
• 111 - Magic Out of a Hat - (1994) - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• 121 - On "Magic Out of a Hat" - essay by Orson Scott Card
• 133 - The Dangerous Dimension - (1938) - short story by L. Ron Hubbard
• 155 - The Dangerous Dimension [2] - interior artwork by Anh Le (variant of The Dangerous Dimension)
• 159 - How to Steal the Plot Armor - novelette by Luke Wildman
• 162 - How to Steal the Plot Armor [2] - interior artwork by Dan Watson (variant of How to Steal the Plot Armor)
• 185 - The Redemption of Brother Adalum - short story by K. D. Julicher
• 190 - The Redemption of Brother Adalum [2] - interior artwork by Isabel Gibney (variant of The Redemption of Brother Adalum)
• 203 - The Argentum - short story by Anj Dockrey
• 224 - The Argentum [2] - interior artwork by Rupam Grimoeuvre (variant of The Argentum)
• 227 - The Phoenixes' War - short story by Jody Lynn Nye
• 249 - Phoenix Passage - interior artwork by Echo Chernik (variant of cover art for L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 37)
• 251 - Soul Paper - short story by Trent Walters
• 269 - Soul Paper [2] - interior artwork by Mariah Salinas (variant of Soul Paper)
• 271 - The Skin of My Mother - short story by Erik Lynd
• 283 - The Skin of My Mother [2] - interior artwork by Shiyi Yu (variant of The Skin of My Mother)
• 285 - Death of a Time Traveler - short story by Sara Fox
• 292 - Death of a Time Traveler [2] - interior artwork by Jennifer Bruce (variant of Death of a Time Traveler)
• 295 - The Battle of Donasi - novelette by Elaine Midcoh
• 313 - The Battle of Donasi [2] - interior artwork by Ben Hill (variant of The Battle of Donasi)
• 321 - The Rewards of Imagination - essay by Craig Elliott
• 327 - The Museum of Modern Warfare - (2015) - short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• 344 - The Museum of Modern Warfare [2] - interior artwork by Isabel Gibney (variant of The Museum of Modern Warfare)
• 351 - A Demon Hunter's Guide to Passover Seder - novelette by Ryan Cole
• 365 - A Demon Hunter's Guide to Passover Seder [2] - interior artwork by Jeff Weiner (variant of A Demon Hunter's Guide to Passover Seder)
• 375 - Hemingway - short story by Emma Washburn
• 380 - Hemingway [2] - interior artwork by Sethe Nguyen (variant of Hemingway)
• 385 - Half-Breed - novelette by Brittany Rainsdon
• 409 - Half-Breed [2] - interior artwork by Daniel Bitton (variant of Half-Breed)
• 417 - The Year in Contests (L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 37) - essay by uncredited

In the World of Science Fiction... this Anthology stands out for three reasons:

The stories. The art. The extras. Which will you love most?

Standing on the shoulders of giants, these writers of the future have earned their place in the hallowed pages of volume 38. With 25 award-winning authors and illustrators, this collection is a masterwork.

These diverse stories will fill you with wonder and new ideas. And a few just might break your heart.

Just imagine...

• It's game on, the fate of the universe is on the line--and you're about to go all in.
• Saving the mammoths is in your hands--can you conjure the magic to make it happen?
• You've got a monster BFF--whom you're hiding from your own monster-hunting family.
• You're part of a sting, out to catch some bar hoppers who are not only bending their elbows, but bending time as well.
• And much more!

Think you've seen it all? Think again.

The beautiful art and writing tips by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert, L. Ron Hubbard, and Diane Dillon are just as wonderful as the collection of stories. How would you like to read one of Frank Herbert's rare stories or know his "Single Most Important Piece of Advice?"

Volume 38 is a treasure.

You'll love this collection from past and future science fiction masters, because these stories are hand-picked by some of your favorite authors--including Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Nnedi Okorafor, Robert J. Sawyer, and Jody Lynn Nye.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction by David Farland (1957-2022) - essay by uncredited
• 2 - Introduction (L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 38) - essay by Dave Wolverton [as by David Farland]
• 4 - The Illustrators of the Future Contest and the Importance of Art Direction - essay by Echo Chernik
• 7 - Agatha's Monster - interior artwork by Zaine Lodhi
• 8 - The Magic Book of Accidental City Destruction - interior artwork by Ari Zaritsky
• 9 - The Squid Is My Brother - interior artwork by Natalia Salvador
• 10 - Gallows - interior artwork by Nick Jizba
• 11 - The Professor Was a Thief - interior artwork by Michael Talbot (I)
• 12 - Lilt of a Lark - interior artwork by Brett Stump
• 13 - The Mystical Farrago - interior artwork by Annalee Wu
• 14 - Tsuu, Tsuu, Kasva Suuremasse - interior artwork by Natalia Salvador
• 15 - The Daddy Box - interior artwork by André Mata
• 16 - The Island on the Lake - interior artwork by Majid Saberinejad
• 17 - The Phantom Carnival - interior artwork by Xiaomeng Zhang
• 18 - The Last Dying Season - interior artwork by Jerome Tieh
• 19 - The Mammoth Leaders - interior artwork by Bob Eggleton
• 20 - The Greater Good - interior artwork by Jim Zaccaria
• 21 - For the Federation - interior artwork by Arthur M. Doweyko
• 22 - Psychic Poker - interior artwork by Tenzin Rangdol
• 23 - Agatha's Monster - short fiction by Azure Arther
• 49 - Agatha's Monster [2] - interior artwork by Zaine Lodhi (variant of Agatha's Monster)
• 55 - The Magic Book of Accidental City Destruction: A Book Wizard's Guide - short fiction by Z. T. Bright
• 68 - The Magic Book of Accidental City Destruction: A Book Wizard's Guide - interior artwork by Ari Zaritsky (variant of The Magic Book of Accidental City Destruction)
• 75 - The Squid Is My Brother - short fiction by Mike Jack Stoumbos
• 78 - The Squid Is My Brother [2] - interior artwork by Natalia Salvador (variant of The Squid Is My Brother)
• 95 - Gallows - short fiction by Desmond Astaire
• 98 - Gallows [2] - interior artwork by Nick Jizba (variant of Gallows)
• 119 - Boos and Taboos - essay by L. Ron Hubbard
• 127 - The Professor Was a Thief - (1940) - novelette by L. Ron Hubbard
• 161 - The Professor Was a Thief [2] - interior artwork by Michael Talbot (I) (variant of The Professor Was a Thief)
• 167 - Lilt - short fiction by Michael Panter
• 173 - Lilt [2] - interior artwork by Brett Stump (variant of Lilt of a Lark)
• 221 - The Mystical Farrago - short fiction by N. V. Haskell
• 224 - The Mystical Farrago [2] - interior artwork by Annalee Wu (variant of The Mystical Farrago)
• 245 - Tsuu, Tsuu, Kasva Suuremasse - short fiction by Rebecca E. Treasure
• 248 - Tsuu, Tsuu, Kasva Suuremasse [2] - interior artwork by Natalia Salvador (variant of Tsuu, Tsuu, Kasva Suuremasse)
• 263 - The Single Most Important Piece of Advice - (1986) - essay by Frank Herbert
• 267 - The Daddy Box - (2014) - short story by Frank Herbert
• 272 - The Daddy Box [2] - interior artwork by André Mata (variant of The Daddy Box)
• 281 - Teamwork: Getting the Best out of Two Writers - essay by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert
• 291 - The Island on the Lake - short fiction by John Coming
• 295 - The Island on the Lake [2] - interior artwork by Majid Saberinejad (variant of The Island on the Lake)
• 319 - The Phantom Carnival - short fiction by M. Elizabeth Ticknor
• 337 - The Phantom Carnival [2] - interior artwork by Xiaomeng Zhang (variant of The Phantom Carnival)
• 343 - The Last Dying Season - short fiction by Brittany Rainsdon
• 346 - The Last Dying Season [2] - interior artwork by Jerome Tieh (variant of The Last Dying Season)
• 375 - The Third Artist - essay by Diane Dillon
• 387 - A Word of Power - short fiction by Dave Wolverton [as by David Farland]
• 393 - A Word of Power [2] - interior artwork by Bob Eggleton (variant of The Mammoth Leaders)
• 395 - The Greater Good - short fiction by Em Dupre
• 398 - The Greater Good [2] - interior artwork by Jim Zaccaria (variant of The Greater Good)
• 425 - For the Federation - short fiction by J. A. Becker
• 444 - For the Federation [2] - interior artwork by Arthur M. Doweyko (variant of For the Federation)
• 447 - Psychic Poker - short fiction by Lazarus Black
• 458 - Psychic Poker [2] - interior artwork by Tenzin Rangdol (variant of Psychic Poker)
• 465 - The Year in the Contests - short fiction by uncredited

In the world of speculative fiction... Your favorite authors... Have selected the best new voices of the year. 24 Award-winning Authors and Illustrators

3 Bonus Short Stories by Kevin J. Anderson, L. Ron Hubbard, and S. M. Stirling

Art and Writing Tips by Lazarus Chernik, L. Ron Hubbard, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Jody Lynn Nye

16-page color gallery of artwork and Cover art by Tom Wood

Check out the stories Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Nnedi Okorafor, Robert J. Sawyer, Kevin J. Anderson, Jody Lynn Nye and others chose as the best of the best.

Be amazed. Be amused. Be transported ... by stories that take you by surprise and take you further and deeper into new worlds and new ideas than you've ever gone before....

Twelve captivating tales from the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy accompanied by three from masters of the genre.

• A miracle? An omen? Or something else? One day, they arrived in droves -- the foxes of the desert, the field, the imagination.... -- "Kitsune" by Devon Bohm
• When a vampire, a dragon and a shape-shifting Chihuahua meet on a beach in Key West, fireworks go off! But that's just the background. -- "Moonlight and Funk" by Marianne Xenos
• Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., faces one of his funniest and most perplexing cases ever -- an enlightened ogre, a salamander with low self-esteem, and a raging fire dragon terrorizing the Unnatural Quarter! -- "Fire in the Hole" by Kevin J. Anderson
• The Grim Reaper, trapped in an IRS agent's dying body, must regain his powers before he dies and faces judgment for his original sin. -- "Death and the Taxman" by David Hankins
• In a metaverse future, a woman who exposes falseness in others must decide what is real to her -- the love she lost or the love she may have found. -- "Under My Cypresses" by Jason Palmatier
• Vic Harden wasn't lured by glory on a daring mission into the reaches of outer space -- he was ordered out there by his editor. -- "The Unwilling Hero" by L. Ron Hubbard
• Dangerous opportunities present themselves when an alien ship arrives in the solar system seeking repairs. -- "White Elephant" by David K. Henrickson
• With her spaceship at the wrong end of a pirate's guns, a former war hero must face down her enemies and demons to save Earth's last best chance for peace. -- "Piracy for Beginners" by J. R. Johnson
• Years after the Second Holocaust, the last surviving Jews on earth attempt to rewrite the past. -- "A Trickle in History" by Elaine Midcoh
• When I said I'd do anything to pay off my debts and get back home to Earth, I didn't mean survey a derelict spaceship at the edge of the solar system -- but here I am. -- "The Withering Sky" by Arthur H. Manner
• High-powered telescopes bring galactic life to our TVs, and network tuner Hank Enos figures he's seen everything -- until the day an alien boy stares back. -- "The Fall of Crodendra M." by T. J. Knight
• Knights, damsels and dragons, curses and fates foretold -- the stuff of legends and stories, but unexpectedly perverse. -- "Constant Never" by S. M. Stirling
• Determined to save his wife, Tumelo takes an unlikely client through South Africa's ruins to the heart of the Desolation -- a journey that will cost or save everything. -- "The Children of Desolation" by Spencer Sekulin
• When a terrorist smuggles a nuclear weapon into London, a team regresses in time to AD 1093 to assassinate a knight on the battlefield, thereby eliminating the terrorist a millennia before his birth. -- "Timelines and Bloodlines" by L. H. Davis
• The Grand Exam, a gateway to power for one, likely death for all others -- its entrants include ambitious nobles, desperate peasants, and Quiet Gate, an old woman with nothing left to lose. -- "The Last History" by Samuel Parr

You will love this collection of the best new voices because, as Locus magazine puts it, "Excellent writing...extremely varied. There's a lot of hot new talent."

Get it now.

Spine-tingling
Breathtaking
Mind-blowing

Experience these powerful new voices--vivid, visceral, and visionary--as they explore uncharted worlds and reveal unlimited possibilities.

Open the Writers of the Future and be carried away by stories--and illustrations--that will make you think, make you laugh, and make you see the world in ways you never imagined.

Twelve captivating tales from the best new writers of the year as selected by Writers of the Future Contest judges accompanied by three more from L. Ron Hubbard, Nancy Kress, S.M. Stirling. Each is accompanied by a full-color illustration.

Plus Bonus Art and Writing Tips from Gregory Benford, Bob Eggleton, L. Ron Hubbard, Dean Wesley Smith

"When her owner goes missing, a digital housecat must become more than simulation to find her dearest companion through the virtual world.--"The Edge of Where My Light Is Cast" by Sky McKinnon, art by Carina Zhang

No one came to his brother's funeral. Not even the spirits. Étienne knew it was his fault.--"Son, Spirit, Snake" by Jack Nash, art by Pedro N.

Man overboard is a nightmare scenario for any sailor, but Lieutenant Susan Guidry is also running out of air--and the nearest help is light years away.--"Nonzero" by Tom Vandermolen, art by Jennifer Mellen

Mac wanted to invent a cocktail to burn itself upon the pages of history--but this one had some unexpected side effects.--"The Last Drop" by L. Ron Hubbard and L. Sprague de Camp, art by Chris Arias

Dementia has landed Dan Kennedy in Graydon Manor, and what's left of his life ahead seems dismal, but a pair of impossible visitors bring unexpected hope.--"The Imagalisk" by Galen Westlake, art by Arthur Haywood

When a teenage swamp witch fears her mama will be killed, she utilizes her wits and the magic of the bayou--no matter the cost to her own soul.--"Life and Death and Love in the Bayou" by Stephannie Tallent, art by Ashley Cassaday

Our exodus family awoke on the new world--a paradise inexplicably teeming with Earth life, the Promise fulfilled. But 154 of us are missing....--"Five Days Until Sunset" by Lance Robinson, art by Steve Bentley

Spirits were supposed to lurk beneath the Lake of Death, hungry and patient and hostile to all life.--"Shaman Dreams" by S.M. Stirling, art by Dan dos Santos

A new app lets users see through the eyes of any human in history, but it's not long before the secrets of the past catch up with the present.--"The Wall Isn't a Circle" by Rosalyn Robilliard, art by Guelly Rivera

In the shadows of Teddy Roosevelt's wendigo hunt, a Native American boy resolves to turn the tables on his captors, setting his sights on the ultimate prey--America's Great Chief.--"Da-ko-ta" by Amir Agoora, art by Connor Chamberlain

When squids from outer space take over, a punk-rock P.I. must crawl out of her own miserable existence to find her client's daughter--and maybe a way out.--"Squiddy" by John Eric Schleicher, art by Tyler Vail

Another outbreak? This time it's a virus with an eighty percent infection rate that affects personality changes... permanently.--"Halo" by Nancy Kress, art by Lucas Durham

Planet K2-18b is almost dead, humanity is enslaved, and it's Rickard's fault. Now in his twilight years, he'd give an arm and a leg for redemption. Literally.--"Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber" by James Davies, art by May Zheng

What if magic could undo the unthinkable, and undo Death itself? Would you use it no matter the cost? What would you sacrifice for love?--"Summer of Thirty Years" by Lisa Silverthorne, art by Gigi Hooper

Joe is a prospector tasked with exploring the cosmos on behalf of an all-powerful government. Breadna is a toaster. There have been weirder love stories, but that's unlikely.--"Butter Side Down" by Kal M, art by Selena Meraki

24 Award-winning Authors and Illustrators

16-page color gallery of artwork