Walter Jon Williams Books In Order

Dagmar Books In Publication Order

  1. This is Not a Game (2009)
  2. Deep State (2011)
  3. The Fourth Wall (2012)
  4. Diamonds from Tequila (2017)

Dread Empire’s Fall Books In Publication Order

  1. The Praxis (2002)
  2. The Sundering (2003)
  3. Conventions of War (2005)
  4. Investments (2012)
  5. Impersonations (2016)
  6. The Accidental War (2018)
  7. Investments plus The Stickpin (2018)
  8. Fleet Elements (2020)

Hardwired Books In Publication Order

  1. Hardwired (1986)
  2. Voice of the Whirlwind (By:Luis Royo) (1987)
  3. Solip (1989)

Maijstral Books In Publication Order

  1. The Crown Jewels (1987)
  2. House of Shards (1988)
  3. Ten Points for Style (1995)
  4. Rock of Ages (1995)

Metropolitan Books In Publication Order

  1. Metropolitan (1995)
  2. City on Fire (1997)

Privateers & Gentlemen Books In Publication Order

  1. The Privateer (1981)
  2. To Glory Arise (1981)
  3. The Tern Schooner (1981)
  4. The Yankee (1981)
  5. Brig of War (1981)
  6. The Raider (1981)
  7. The Macedonian (1984)
  8. Cat Island (1984)

Quillifer Books In Publication Order

  1. Quillifer (2017)
  2. Quillifer the Knight (2019)
  3. Lord Quillifer (2022)

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order Books In Publication Order

  1. Onslaught (By:Michael A. Stackpole) (1999)
  2. Vector Prime (By:R.A. Salvatore) (1999)
  3. Dark Tide (By:Michael A. Stackpole) (2000)
  4. Ruin (By:Michael A. Stackpole) (2000)
  5. Balance Point (By:) (2000)
  6. Balance Point (By:) (2000)
  7. Recovery (By:Troy Denning) (2001)
  8. Star by Star (By:Troy Denning) (2001)
  9. Ylesia (2002)
  10. Traitor (By:Matthew Woodring Stover) (2002)
  11. Dark Journey (By:Elaine Cunningham) (2002)
  12. Dark Journey (By:Elaine Cunningham) (2002)
  13. Dark Journey (By:Elaine Cunningham) (2002)
  14. Attack of the Clones (By:R.A. Salvatore) (2002)
  15. Destiny’s Way (2002)
  16. Force Heretic (By:Sean Williams) (2003)
  17. Remnant (By:Sean Williams) (2003)
  18. Reunion (By:Sean Williams) (2003)
  19. A Practical Man (By:Karen Traviss) (2006)

Wild Cards Books In Publication Order

  1. Wild Cards (By:George R.R. Martin) (1986)
  2. Aces High (By:George R.R. Martin) (1987)
  3. Jokers Wild (By:George R.R. Martin) (1987)
  4. Aces Abroad (By:George R.R. Martin) (1988)
  5. Down and Dirty (By:George R.R. Martin) (1988)
  6. Ace in the Hole (By:George R.R. Martin) (1990)
  7. Dead Man’s Hand (By:George R.R. Martin) (1990)
  8. One-Eyed Jacks (By:George R.R. Martin) (1991)
  9. Jokertown Shuffle (By:George R.R. Martin) (1991)
  10. Double Solitaire (By:George R.R. Martin) (1992)
  11. Dealer’s Choice (By:George R.R. Martin) (1992)
  12. Turn of the Cards (By:George R.R. Martin,Victor Milán) (1993)
  13. Deuces Down (By:George R.R. Martin) (2002)
  14. Death Draws Five (By:George R.R. Martin) (2006)
  15. Busted Flush (By:George R.R. Martin) (2008)
  16. Inside Straight (By:George R.R. Martin) (2008)
  17. Suicide Kings (By:George R.R. Martin) (2009)
  18. Fort Freak (By:George R.R. Martin) (2011)
  19. The Elephant in the Room (By:George R.R. Martin,Paul Cornell) (2013)
  20. Lowball (By:George R.R. Martin) (2014)
  21. Prompt. Professional. Pop! (2014)
  22. High Stakes (By:George R.R. Martin) (2016)
  23. The Thing about Growing Up in Jokertown (By:George R.R. Martin) (2016)
  24. The Flight of Morpho Girl (By:George R.R. Martin) (2018)
  25. Long is the Way (By:George R.R. Martin) (2019)
  26. Naked, Stoned, and Stabbed (By:) (2019)
  27. American Hero (By:George R.R. Martin) (2020)
  28. Three Kings (By:George R.R. Martin) (2020)
  29. Joker Moon (By:George R.R. Martin) (2021)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Ambassador of Progress (1984)
  2. Knight Moves (1985)
  3. Angel Station (1989)
  4. Days of Atonement (1991)
  5. Aristoi (1992)
  6. Wall, Stone, Craft (1993)
  7. The Rift (1999)
  8. Implied Spaces (2008)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Video Star (1986)
  2. Wolf Time (1987)
  3. Dinosaurs (1987)
  4. Prayers on the Wind (1991)
  5. Daddy’s World (1999)
  6. The Last Ride of German Freddie (2002)
  7. The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid (2004)
  8. The Boolean Gate (2012)
  9. No Spot of Ground (2014)
  10. Surfacing (2014)

Collections In Publication Order

  1. Facets (1990)
  2. Frankensteins and Foreign Devils (1998)
  3. The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories (2010)

The Year’s Best Science Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986)
  2. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eleventh Annual Collection (1994)
  3. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997)

The Dying Earth Books In Publication Order

  1. The Dying Earth / Mazirian the Magician (1950)
  2. Cugel’s Saga / Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight (1966)
  3. The Eyes of the Overworld / Cugel the Clever (1966)
  4. A Quest for Simbilis (1974)
  5. Morreion (1978)
  6. The Seventeen Virgins (1979)
  7. The Bagful of Dreams (1979)
  8. Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)
  9. The Laughing Magician (2006)
  10. Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance (2009)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986)
  2. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997)
  3. The Furthest Horizon (2000)
  4. Worlds that Weren’t (2002)
  5. Escape from Earth (2006)
  6. The Best of the Best, Vol 2 (2007)
  7. Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance (2009)
  8. Dead Man’s Hand (2014)
  9. Rogues (2014)

Dagmar Book Covers

Dread Empire’s Fall Book Covers

Hardwired Book Covers

Maijstral Book Covers

Metropolitan Book Covers

Privateers & Gentlemen Book Covers

Quillifer Book Covers

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order Book Covers

Wild Cards Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

The Year’s Best Science Fiction Book Covers

The Dying Earth Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Walter Jon Williams Books Overview

This is Not a Game

Once upon a time, there were four of them. And though each was good at a number of things, all of them were very good at games…


Dagmar is a game designer trapped in Jakarta in the middle of a revolution. The city is tearing itself apart around her and she needs to get out.


Her boss Charlie has his own problems 4.3 billion of them, to be precise, hidden in an off shore account.


Austin is the businessman the VC. He’s the one with the plan and the one to keep the geeks in line.


BJ was there from the start, but while Charlie’s star rose, BJ sank into the depths of customer service. He pads his hours at the call center slaying on line orcs, stealing your loot, and selling it on the internet.

But when one of them is gunned down in a parking lot, the survivors become players in a very different kind of game. Caught between the dangerous worlds of the Russian Mafia and international finance, Dagmar must draw on all her resources not least millions of online gamers to track down the killer. In this near future thriller, Walter Jon Williams weaves a pulse pounding tale of intrigue, murder, and games where you don’t get an extra life.

Deep State

Dagmar Shaw is one of the world’s hottest designers of alternate reality games. She is the Puppetmaster and thousands of gamers are dancing on her strings. But when the campaign she is running in Turkey comes into conflict with the new, brutal regime, she realises that games can have very real consequences. When an old friend approaches Dagmar with a project so insane, so ambitious, she can’t possibly say no, she is plunged into a world of spies and soldiers. A nation hangs in the balance and in a world of intrigue and betrayal, the master player must face the possibility that she has, herself, been played. Dagmar is the Puppetmaster, but when the bullets are real and her ‘puppets’ start dying, is any cause worth it?

The Fourth Wall

Dagmar Shaw got out of the game…
and into the movies. Sean is a washed up child actor reduced to the lowest dregs of reality television to keep himself afloat. His life was a downward spiral of alcoholism, regret, and failure…
until he met Dagmar. Except Sean has secrets, dark even for the Hollywood treadmill of abuse, addiction, and rehab. And Dagmar is a cipher. There are dark rumors about her past, the places she’s been, the things she was involved in. People tend to die around her and now, she wants Sean for something. A movie, she says, but with her history, who’s to say what her real game is?

The Praxis

All will must bend to the perfect truth of The Praxis For millennia, the Shaa have subjugated the universe, forcing the myriad sentient races to bow to their joyless tyranny. But the Shaa will soon be no more. The dread empire is in its rapidly fading twilight, and with its impending fall comes the promise of a new galactic order…
and bloody chaos. A young Terran naval officer marked by his lowly birth, Lt. Gareth Martinez is the first to recognize the insidious plot of the Naxid the powerful, warlike insectoid society that was enslaved before all others to replace the masters despotic rule with their own. Barely escaping a swarming surprise attack, Martinez and Caroline Sula, a pilot whose beautiful face conceals a deadly secret, are now the last hope for freedom for every being who ever languished in Shaa chains as the interstellar battle begins against a merciless foe whose only perfect truth is annihilation.

The Sundering

The alien Naxids have won a shattering victory at Magaria, a victory that clears the way for an advance on the loyalist capital, Zanshaa. To help save Zanshaa comes Lord Gareth Martinez, formerly a despised provincial officer, now, in the aftermath of a brilliant victory, a celebrated war hero. But no sooner does Martinez arrive at the capital than he finds himself entangled in intrigue, first by political enemies intending to deprive him of command, then by his own brother Roland, who wants to use him to further the ambitions of a Martinez dynasty. Destiny also waits for Martinez, in the form of the mysterious survivor Caroline Sula, a woman whose beautiful face conceals a deadly secret, and whose brilliant mind holds the key to victory over the Naxids. While Martinez prepares to engage an enemy fleet that has long been prepared for his assault, Sula is put in command of a guerrilla force that must engage the enemy in a desperate, dirty war fought in the teeming slums of Zanshaa. Both sides claim the legitimacy of the Praxis, but the very real danger exists that there will be nothing left for the victors to rule…

Conventions of War

The universe has fallen into bloody chaos now that the dread empire of the tyrannical Shaa is no more at the mercy of the merciless insectoid Naxid, who now hunger for domination. But the far flung human descendants of Terra have finally tasted liberty, and their warrior heroes will not submit. Separated by light years, Lord Gareth Martinez and the mysterious guerrilla fighter Caroline Sula each pursue a different road to victory in tomorrow’s ultimate battle for the new order will be far more terrible than the old…
unless one last, desperate stratagem can hold a shattered galaxy together.

Hardwired

Ex fighter pilot Cowboy, ‘Hardwired‘ via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun for hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals.

Voice of the Whirlwind (By:Luis Royo)

Steward is a clone. A beta. His memories are fifteen years old, because his alpha never did have a brain scan update. And in those fifteen years, the entire world has changed: The Orbital Policorp which held his allegiance has collapsed; dozens of his friends died in an off planet war which he survived; an alien race has established relations with humanity; both his first and second wives have divorced him. And someone has murdered him.

Rock of Ages

In the sequel to The Crown Jewels, someone turns the tables on Drake Maijstral, the Human Constellation’s number one rated Allowed Burglar, when Drake’s father’s coffin is stolen. AB. LJ.

Onslaught (By:Michael A. Stackpole)

In this epic of unsurpassed action and imagination, Michael Stackpole helps to launch an exciting new era in Star Wars history. ONSLAUGHT pits the battle tested heroes of the past Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa Solo along with the next generation of Jedi and droids, against fearsome never before encountered enemies from beyond the galactic rim…
It is a perilous time for the New Republic. Just when unity is needed most, mistrust is on the rise. Even the Jedi feel the strain, as rogue elements rebel against Luke’s leadership. When alien invaders known as the Yunnan Vong strike without warning, the New Republic is thrown on the defensive. Merciless warriors, the Yunnan Vong glory in torture. Their technology is as strange as it is deadly. Most ominous of all, they are impervious to the Force. Now Luke must wield all the awesome powers of a Jedi Master to defeat the gravest threat since Darth Vader. As Leia and Gavin Darklighter lead desperate refugees in a fighting retreat from Yunnan Vong forces, Mara Jade, Anakin, Jacen, and Corran Horn find themselves tested as never before by a faceless, implacable foe determined to smother the light of the New Republic forever beneath a shroud of darkest evil…

Vector Prime (By:R.A. Salvatore)

An exciting new era of Star Wars history is about to begin as fantasy and science fiction’s most acclaimed authors propel the legendary epic into the next millennium, introducing us to a rich cast of characters that features old favorites Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa Solo along with the next generation of Jedi and never before seen creatures, droids, and deadly agents of darkness. In Vector Prime, the launch novel for this thrilling new saga, New York Times bestselling author R. A. Salvatore takes the Star Wars universe to previously unscaled heights of action and imagination, expanding the beloved story of a galaxy far, far away…
Twenty one years have passed since the heroes of the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star, breaking the power of the Emperor. Since then, the New Republic has valiantly struggled to maintain peace and prosperity among the peoples of the galaxy. But unrest has begun to spread; tensions erupt in outbreaks of rebellion that, if unchecked, threaten to destroy the Republic’s tenuous reign. Into this volatile atmosphere comes Nom Anor, a charismatic firebrand who heats passions to the boiling point, sowing seeds of dissent for his own dark motives. In an effort to avert a catastrophic civil war, Leia travels with her daughter Jaina, her sister in law Mara Jade, and the loyal protocol droid C 3PO, to conduct face to face diplomatic negotiations with Nom Anor. But he proves resistant to Leia’s entreaties and, far more inexplicably, within the Force, where a being should be, was…
blank space. Meanwhile, Luke is plagued by reports of rogue Jedi Knights who are taking the law into their own hands. And so he wrestles with a dilemma: Should he attempt, in this climate of mistrust, to reestablish the legendary Jedi Council?As the Jedi and the Republic focus on internal struggles, a new threat surfaces, unnoticed, beyond the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim. An enemy appears from outside known space, bearing weapons and technology unlike anything New Republic scientists have ever seen. Suddenly Luke, Mara, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca along with the Solo children are thrust again into battle, to defend the freedom so many have fought and died for. But this time, all their courage, sacrifice, and even the power of the Force itself may not be enough…
.

Dark Tide (By:Michael A. Stackpole)

From the depths of catastrophe, a glimmer of hopeAfter the capture of Coruscant, the mighty heart of the New Republic, a stunned galaxy fears that nothing can stop the Yuuzhan Vong. Still, that crushing defeat produces one small miracle: Jacen Solo is alive. Yet he can scarcely imagine himself in stranger circumstances. The young Jedi Knight is in the care of Vergere, a fascinating creature of mystery and power, her intentions hard to fathom, her cruelties rarely concealed. But this master of inscrutable arts has much to teach the young Jedi…
for she holds the key to a new way to experience the Force, to take it to another level dangerous, dazzling, perhaps deadly. In the wrong hands, the tremendous energies of the Force can be devastating. And there are others watching Jacen’s process closely, waiting patiently for the moment when he will be ready for their own dire purposes. Now, all is in shadows. Yet whatever happens, whether Jacen s newfound mastery unleashes light or darkness, he will never be the same Jedi again…
.

Ruin (By:Michael A. Stackpole)

Read by Anthony Heald2 Cassettes, 3 HoursThe stunning sequel to Dark Tide: Onslaught by the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars X Wing seriesThe alien Yuuzhan Vong have launched an attack on the worlds of the Outer Rim. They are merciless, without regard for life and they stand utterly outside the Force. In the face of this impervious foe, the Jedi once the greatest guardians of peace in the galaxy have been rendered helpless…
and their solidarity has begun to unravel. While Luke struggles to keep the Jedi together, Knights Jacen Solo and Corran Horn start off on a reconnaissance mission to the planet Garqi, an occupied world. There, at last, they uncover a secret that might be used to undermine the enemy if only they can stay alive long enough to use it!

Balance Point (By:)

Vector Prime, the New York Times bestselling first novel in The New Jedi Order series, boldly ventured into uncharted Star Wars territory, bringing an element of dark tragedy and suspense into the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and the other legendary figures of that galaxy far, far away. With the passing of Chewbacca, the Republic mourned the loss of one of its greatest heroes. Now veteran Star Wars author Kathy Tyers continues the epic struggle between good and evil as the New Republic, led by the battered but still unbroken Jedi, braces for the next onslaught of its merciless alien foe. Poisoned by centuries of technological excess, the planet Duro is an unlivable hell, long abandoned by its own inhabitants, who dwell above their polluted world in orbital habitats. But there is no place else to channel the flood of refugees fleeing the murderous Yuuzhan Vong. So a deal is struck: In exchange for a new home, the refugees will work to restore the planet to health, under the watchful eye of Leia Organa Solo. As tempers begin to flare between the Duros and the New Republic, and between groups of refugees, Han Solo, his son, Jacen, and the Ryn called Droma arrive to keep the peace. They are unaware that Leia is on Duro…
and that Luke, Mara, and Anakin are on their way, searching for a missing Jedi apprentice. And none realize that the Yuuzhan Vong have chosen this embattled planet as the next target in their brutal coreward thrust. The unrest only strengthens Jacen Solo’s growing belief that a true Jedi should not fight, but should lead others to peace through a deeper understanding of the Force. Now, as the fragile stability on Duro threatens to collapse into violence, Jacen Solo must face his greatest dilemma: At what point does the use of power become aggression? Whatever he decides, his next step could tip the galaxy’s destiny toward the light or toward darkness with the life of someone he loves hanging in the balance…

Balance Point (By:)

Vector Prime, the New York Times bestselling first novel in The New Jedi Order series, boldly ventured into uncharted Star Wars territory, bringing an element of dark tragedy and suspense into the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and the other legendary figures of that galaxy far, far away. With the passing of Chewbacca, the Republic mourned the loss of one of its greatest heroes. Now veteran Star Wars author Kathy Tyers continues the epic struggle between good and evil as the New Republic, led by the battered but still unbroken Jedi, braces for the next onslaught of its merciless alien foe. Poisoned by centuries of technological excess, the planet Duro is an unlivable hell, long abandoned by its own inhabitants, who dwell above their polluted world in orbital habitats. But there is no place else to channel the flood of refugees fleeing the murderous Yuuzhan Vong. So a deal is struck: In exchange for a new home, the refugees will work to restore the planet to health, under the watchful eye of Leia Organa Solo. As tempers begin to flare between the Duros and the New Republic, and between groups of refugees, Han Solo, his son, Jacen, and the Ryn called Droma arrive to keep the peace. They are unaware that Leia is on Duro…
and that Luke, Mara, and Anakin are on their way, searching for a missing Jedi apprentice. And none realize that the Yuuzhan Vong have chosen this embattled planet as the next target in their brutal coreward thrust. The unrest only strengthens Jacen Solo’s growing belief that a true Jedi should not fight, but should lead others to peace through a deeper understanding of the Force. Now, as the fragile stability on Duro threatens to collapse into violence, Jacen Solo must face his greatest dilemma: At what point does the use of power become aggression? Whatever he decides, his next step could tip the galaxy’s destiny toward the light or toward darkness with the life of someone he loves hanging in the balance…

Star by Star (By:Troy Denning)

The New York Times bestselling Star Wars series The New Jedi Order enthralls readers with its epic drama and thrilling adventure. Now readers will pierce the very heart of darkness, as those fascinating figures in that galaxy far, far away Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, as well as their children spring to vivid life to battle their deadliest adversaries. It is a solemn time for the New Republic, as the merciless Yuuzhan Vong continue their ruthless campaign of terror and destruction. The brutal enemy has unleashed a savage creature capable of finding and killing Jedi Knights. And now Leia Organa Solo faces a terrible ultimatum from the mighty alien foe determined to conquer the galaxy. If the location of the secret Jedi base is not revealed within one week, the Yuuzhan Vong will blast millions of refugee ships into oblivion. As the battered but still unbroken Jedi scramble to deal with the newest onslaught, Leia’s son Anakin lays out a daring plan. A Jedi strike force will allow itself to be ‘captured’ by the Yuuzhan Vong and taken to their stronghold in the realm of darkness, where the Jedi will sabotage the evil empire’s deadliest weapons. The leaders of the force are the three Solo siblings. The risks are tremendous. Can the Jedi fight a ruthless enemy without becoming ruthless themselves and falling victim to the dark side?

Traitor (By:Matthew Woodring Stover)

From the depths of catastrophe, a glimmer of hopeAfter the capture of Coruscant, the mighty heart of the New Republic, a stunned galaxy fears that nothing can stop the Yuuzhan Vong. Still, that crushing defeat produces one small miracle: Jacen Solo is alive. Yet he can scarcely imagine himself in stranger circumstances. The young Jedi Knight is in the care of Vergere, a fascinating creature of mystery and power, her intentions hard to fathom, her cruelties rarely concealed. But this master of inscrutable arts has much to teach the young Jedi…
for she holds the key to a new way to experience the Force, to take it to another level dangerous, dazzling, perhaps deadly. In the wrong hands, the tremendous energies of the Force can be devastating. And there are others watching Jacen’s process closely, waiting patiently for the moment when he will be ready for their own dire purposes. Now, all is in shadows. Yet whatever happens, whether Jacen s newfound mastery unleashes light or darkness, he will never be the same Jedi again…
.

Dark Journey (By:Elaine Cunningham)

The New Jedi Order continues as Jaina Solo struggles with anger and despair after the Jedi Knights’ harrowing adventure behind enemy lines. Though the Jedi strike force completed its deadly mission into Yuuzhan Vong territory, the price of success was tragedy: not everyone made it out alive. In a daring getaway, hotshop pilot Jaina Solo stole an enemy ship, taking along her fellow survivors and leaving behind a huge piece of her heart. With the enemy in hot pursuit, Jaina is forced to seek haven in the unprotected, unfriendly Hapes Cluster, where the Jedi are held responsible for a past tragedy and where the royal family has grim plans for their famous Jedi guest. Even more sinister are the intentions of the Yuuvhan Vong, desperate to capture Jaina for a hideous sacrifice. Grief stricken and obsessed with revenge, Jaina is blind to these threats and to the overpowering evil dangerously close to consuming her. In the coming conflagration, Jaina will be fighting not for victory or vengeance, but fore her very being…
From the Paperback edition.

Dark Journey (By:Elaine Cunningham)

The New Jedi Order continues as Jaina Solo struggles with anger and despair after the Jedi Knights’ harrowing adventure behind enemy lines. Though the Jedi strike force completed its deadly mission into Yuuzhan Vong territory, the price of success was tragedy: not everyone made it out alive. In a daring getaway, hotshop pilot Jaina Solo stole an enemy ship, taking along her fellow survivors and leaving behind a huge piece of her heart. With the enemy in hot pursuit, Jaina is forced to seek haven in the unprotected, unfriendly Hapes Cluster, where the Jedi are held responsible for a past tragedy and where the royal family has grim plans for their famous Jedi guest. Even more sinister are the intentions of the Yuuvhan Vong, desperate to capture Jaina for a hideous sacrifice. Grief stricken and obsessed with revenge, Jaina is blind to these threats and to the overpowering evil dangerously close to consuming her. In the coming conflagration, Jaina will be fighting not for victory or vengeance, but fore her very being…
From the Paperback edition.

Dark Journey (By:Elaine Cunningham)

The New Jedi Order continues as Jaina Solo struggles with anger and despair after the Jedi Knights’ harrowing adventure behind enemy lines. Though the Jedi strike force completed its deadly mission into Yuuzhan Vong territory, the price of success was tragedy: not everyone made it out alive. In a daring getaway, hotshop pilot Jaina Solo stole an enemy ship, taking along her fellow survivors and leaving behind a huge piece of her heart. With the enemy in hot pursuit, Jaina is forced to seek haven in the unprotected, unfriendly Hapes Cluster, where the Jedi are held responsible for a past tragedy and where the royal family has grim plans for their famous Jedi guest. Even more sinister are the intentions of the Yuuvhan Vong, desperate to capture Jaina for a hideous sacrifice. Grief stricken and obsessed with revenge, Jaina is blind to these threats and to the overpowering evil dangerously close to consuming her. In the coming conflagration, Jaina will be fighting not for victory or vengeance, but fore her very being…
From the Paperback edition.

Attack of the Clones (By:R.A. Salvatore)

There is a great disturbance in the Force…
. From the sleek ships of the glimmering Coruscant skyscape to the lush gardens of pastoral Naboo, dissent is roiling. The Republic is failing, even under the leadership of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, elected ten years earlier to save the crumbling government. Separatists threaten war, and the Senate is hopelessly divided, unable to determine whether to raise an army for battle or keep the fragile peace. It is a stalemate that once broken, could lead to galactic chaos. Mischievous and resolved, courageous to the point of recklessness, Anakin Skywalker has come of age in a time of great upheaval. The nineteen year old apprentice to Obi Wan Kenobi is an enigma to the Jedi Council, and a challenge to his Jedi Master. Time has not dulled Anakin’s ambition, nor has his Jedi training tamed his independent streak. When an attempt on Senator Padm Amidala s life brings them together for the first time in ten years, it is clear that time also has not dulled Anakin s intense feelings for the beautiful diplomat. The attack on Senator Amidala just before a crucial vote thrusts the Republic even closer to the edge of disaster. Masters Yoda and Mace Windu sense enormous unease. The dark side is growing, clouding the Jedi s perception of the events. Unbeknownst to the Jedi, a slow rumble is building into the roar of thousands of soldiers readying for battle. But even as the Republic falters around them, Anakin and Padm find a connection so intense that all else begins to fall away. Anakin will lose himself and his way in emotions a Jedi, sworn to hold allegiance only to the Order, is forbidden to have. Based on the story by George Lucas and the screenplay by George Lucas and Jonathan Hales, this intense and revealing novel by bestselling author R. A. Salvatore sheds new light on the legend of Star Wars and skillfully illuminates one of our most beloved sagas. From the Hardcover edition.

Destiny’s Way

The time of reckoning is close at hand. Events in the New York Times bestselling Star Wars The New Jedi Order series take a decisive turn, as the heroes of the New Republic prepare for their most volatile clash yet with the enemy from without and within. In the war against the ruthless Yuuzhan Vong, the fall of Coruscant leaves the New Republic divided by internal strife, and on the verge of bowing to conquest. But those who steadfastly refuse to consider surrender Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and their children and comrades in arms are determined to seize victory against overwhelming odds. And now, finally, there are signs that the tide may be turning in the New Republic’s favor. After capturing crucial Yuuzhan Vong intelligence, Jedi fighter pilot Jaina Solo prepares to lead a daring surprise strike against an enemy flagship. Meanwhile, Jaina s brother Jacen liberated from the hands of the enemy and newly schooled in an even greater mastery of the Force by the Jedi Knight Vergere is eagerly poised to bring his unique skills to bear against the invaders. And on Mon Calamari, the New Republic s provisional capital, the retired, ailing hero Admiral Ackbar has conceived a major tactical plan that could spell the beginning of a swift end for the Yuuzhan Vong. Yet even as opposing squadrons face off in the depths of space, intrigue runs rampant: in the heated political race for Chief of State…
in the shadows where Yuuzhan Vong spies plot assassinations…
and in the inscrutable creature Vergere, a Jedi Knight whose allegiance is impossible to predict. And as Luke Skywalker sets about reestablishing the Jedi Council, the growing faction opposed to the ways of the Force unveil a terrifying weapon designed to annihilate the Yuuzhan Vong species. But in doing so, they may be dooming the New Republic to becoming the very thing it has sworn to fight against and unleashing the power of the dark side. From the Hardcover edition.

Force Heretic (By:Sean Williams)

As the bloodied and weary galaxy faces battle once more, the Jedi take on the formidable task of bringing the last of the Empire into the light…
.

From the ashes of the New Republic torn to shreds by the savage Yuuzhan Vong forces the newly formed Galactic Alliance has risen, determined to bring peace to the entire galaxy. But first the Yuuzhan Vong must be contained once and for all. And so Luke Skywalker seeks a world long lost to legend: Zonama Sekot, a sentient planet believed to have repelled an invasion by the Yuuzhan Vong decades ago. Deciphering the enigmatic secrets of Zonama Sekot just might turn the tides of a relentless war.

Aboard the Jade Shadow, Luke, his wife Mara, Jacen Solo, and other Jedi head off into the Unknown Regions, where rumors and clues suggest Zonama Sekot might be found. Yet the mission has barely begun when the searchers stumble into a horrific battle. The Imperial Remnant, in retreat from the mighty Yuuzhan Vong, is about to be destroyed. It would seem those aboard the Jade Shadow have little choice but to leave the Empire to its fate. But these are no ordinary space travelers, they are Jedi…
.

Remnant (By:Sean Williams)

As the bloodied and weary galaxy faces battle once more, the Jedi take on the formidable task of bringing the last of the Empire into the light…
.

From the ashes of the New Republic torn to shreds by the savage Yuuzhan Vong forces the newly formed Galactic Alliance has risen, determined to bring peace to the entire galaxy. But first the Yuuzhan Vong must be contained once and for all. And so Luke Skywalker seeks a world long lost to legend: Zonama Sekot, a sentient planet believed to have repelled an invasion by the Yuuzhan Vong decades ago. Deciphering the enigmatic secrets of Zonama Sekot just might turn the tides of a relentless war.

Aboard the Jade Shadow, Luke, his wife Mara, Jacen Solo, and other Jedi head off into the Unknown Regions, where rumors and clues suggest Zonama Sekot might be found. Yet the mission has barely begun when the searchers stumble into a horrific battle. The Imperial Remnant, in retreat from the mighty Yuuzhan Vong, is about to be destroyed. It would seem those aboard the Jade Shadow have little choice but to leave the Empire to its fate. But these are no ordinary space travelers, they are Jedi…
.

Reunion (By:Sean Williams)

The Jedi move one step closer to saving the embattled galaxy only to confront a formidable wall of resistance. The harrowing search for Zonama Sekot is finally over for Luke Skywalker, Jacen Solo, and the others aboard the Jade Shadow. But joy turns to alarm when the living planet sends a defiant message: it refuses to follow them back to a galaxy full of war, exploitation, and misery. While Luke works feverishly to persuade the elusive planet to reconsider, the Yuuzhan Vong launches a full scale attack aimed at the heart of the new alliance. Sent to defend a major communications base, Han and Leia find themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Reinforcements are just too far away to help before everything is destroyed. So the courageous pair must now fight an unrelenting battle against staggering odds. Whether they actually survive is another matter…
.

Wild Cards (By:George R.R. Martin)

On September 15, 1946, a biological weapon created by an alien race was accidentally detonated above the streets of New York City, killing countless numbers of men, women, and children. But those who survived the initial explosion soon began to wish they had died also, once they discovered they had been forever mutated by the virus unleashed in the blast…
. When the first volume in the Wild Cards series made its debut in 1986, it caused a sensation in the science fiction and fantasy communities. Here were stories of superpowered beings in a real world setting, detailing the lives of Aces ?those given superhuman powers by the Wild Cards virus?and Jokers ?those whom the virus transformed into freaks and monsters. Over the course of fifteen volumes, the world created by editor George R.R. Martin and some of SF’s most talented writers was explored through the eyes of both Aces and Jokers across the globe. In this all new collection of Wild Cards stories, the spotlight is on the most unusual Wild Cards of them all?the Deuces. As you ll discover in this thrilling collection, their role in the Wild Cards Universe is just as important as that of the Aces and the Jokers. In fact, their actions have affected the course of Wild Cards history. Set in an alternate, shared world universe, Deuces Down is the one place you ll find such never before told tales as John J. Miller s exciting 1969 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Brooklyn Dodgers; Michael Cassutt s first moon landing, when the whole world wasn t watching; Walton Simons Great New York City Blackout of 1977; Melinda M. Snodgrass s account of Grace Kelly s mysterious disappearance during the filming of The French Lieutenant s Woman. It s a strange and terrifying world, where anything can happen. A world of Wild Cards.

Aces High (By:George R.R. Martin)

30 years later, the victims of the gene altering ‘Wild Cards’ virus face a new nightmare. From the far reaches of space comes The Swarm, a deadly menace that could very will destroy the planet. Aces and Jokers must form an uneasy alliance and prepare for a battle they must not lose. When a group of SF’s most imaginative writers discovered they shared a secret love of the larger than life heroes of the four colour comics and Saturday matinee serials, they gave each other a challenge: What would our world be like if these superhuman heroes and villains had been real flesh and blood men and women who lived through this century’s most turbulent history? In WILD CARDS 2, the year is 1970. The place is New York City, home of Aces High, the glamourous lounge atop the Empire State Building, and Jokertown, the squalid residence of the city’s underclass. The victims of the Wild Card Virus are no longer new and strange, but neither are they accepted by a world that still fears them. But as the ’80s dawn, all eyes are drwn to the skies, and the Wild Cards may be the planet’s only hope, as an abomination called the Swarm arrives to threaten Earth.

Jokers Wild (By:George R.R. Martin)

The streets of New York have erupted in celebration of Wild Card Day the annual event held every September 15th to remember the dead and cherish the living. It is a day for fireworks and street fairs and parades, for political rallies and memorial banquets, for drinking and fighting in the alleys. With each passing year, the festivities become larger and more fevered. And this year 1986, the fortieth anniversary promises to be the biggest and best Wild Card Day ever. The media and tourists have discovered the celebration, and taverns and restaurants expect record setting business. But lurking in the background is a twisted genius who cares nothing for fun and festivity. The Astronomer has only one concern: destruction…

Aces Abroad (By:George R.R. Martin)

Wild Cards is a science fiction and superhero anthology series set in a shared universe. The series was created by a group of New Mexico science fiction authors, and mostly edited by George R. R. Martin. While most of the books are made up of individual short stories, they generally focus on a central theme or event. There were also several longer storylines which run through several of the books. Some volumes use the format of a mosaic novel. This involved several writers writing individual story lines which were then edited together into one novel length story. Finally, some volumes are a complete novel written by a single author. Wild Cards was inspired by superhero comics, and many of the authors play with the conventions of the medium, while some characters are based on existing heroes for example, Jetboy was modeled on the Hillman Periodicals’ character Airboy. Many of the original authors were also inspired by a long running Albuquerque, New Mexico campaign of the role playing game Superworld, gamemastered by George R. R. Martin, and many modeled their characters on their in game persona. There are certain broad clas*ses of characters in the Wild Cards universe of superhero novels started by George R. R. Martin. Aces: To be classified as an Ace, the person must still be basically human in appearance and generally be able to ‘pass’ in society as normal people as opposed to the physical mutations affecting those known as Jokers, resulting in various physical deformities or debilitating conditions. Certain individuals with both powers and physical alterations are still considered Aces, such as the celebrity Ace known as Peregrine, who despite having a pair of feathered wings growing from her shoulder blades is otherwise physically attractive in appearance.

Down and Dirty (By:George R.R. Martin)

WILD CARDS V: DOWN AND DIRTY George R.R. Martin, ed. The fifth volume in the Wild Cards alternate universe saga is set in the New York City of 1986. The simmering streets of Jokertown have erupted, as gang war breaks out between ruthless rivals: the Shadow Fists and the Mafia. As the violence rages out of control, even the metahuman Aces and Jokers alike are forced to go underground and wage their own war against the powers of the netherworld! The fifth volume of the reissued ‘shared world’ superhero series created by current New York Times bestselling author George R.R. Martin. First trade paperback edition! Features stories by ROGER ZELAZNY, MELINDA M. SNODGRASS, GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, and ARTHUR BYRON COVER. Cover art by internationally acclaimed artist BRIAN BOLLAND.

Ace in the Hole (By:George R.R. Martin)

Continuing the best sage alternate universe series edited by George R.R. Martin, the sixth volume in the Wild Cards saga is set in Atlanta of 1988. Terror stalks the halls of the Omni convention center. For a fanatical religious leader has vowed to crush the rights of all Wild Cards, and a hidden Ace wields a terrifying power to determine the outcome of the convention. Against this backdrop of passion and intrigue, a handful of Aces and Jokers struggle for control of a nation. Features stories by Walton Simons, Victor Milan, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Stephen Leigh, and Walter Jon Williams.

Double Solitaire (By:George R.R. Martin)

Fleeing the battle between the Jokers, Aces, and Nats, Blaise heads for the planet Takis in the body of Dr. Tachyon, leaving Tach trapped in the pregnant body of a teenage runaway.

Dealer’s Choice (By:George R.R. Martin)

As the final battle between the Nats and Bloat rages on Ellis Island, the Turtle throws in the towel, Modular Man switches sides, Reflector faces defeat, and assassins reach Bloat’s chamber.

Turn of the Cards (By:George R.R. Martin,Victor Milán)

Pursued by the CIA, the DEA, and the Wild Card mistress of the winds, Mistral, renegade biochemist Mark Meadows uses the three personalities buried in his psyche in order to outwit his pursuers.

Busted Flush (By:George R.R. Martin)

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived to mutate into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times 1 bestseller George R. R. Martin ‘The American Tolkien’ Time magazine along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then and of the heroes among the one percent.

Now a new generation of heroes has taken its place on the world stage, its members crucial players in international events. At the United Nations, veteran ace John Fortune has assembled a team of young aces known as the Committee, to assist at trouble spots around the world including a genocidal was in the Niger Delta, an invasion of zombies in hurricane ravaged New Orleans, and a freak nuclear explosion in a small Texas town.

Inside Straight (By:George R.R. Martin)

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent of those who survived mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times 1 bestseller George R. R. Martin along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then and of the heroes among that one percent. Originally begun in 1986, long before George R. R. Martin became a household name among fantasy readers ‘The American Tolkien’ Time magazine, the Wild Cards series earned a reputation among connoisseurs for its smart reimagining of the superhero idea. Now, with Inside Straight, the Wild Cards continuity jumps forward to a new generation of major characters, entirely accessible to Martin’s hundreds of thousands of new readers, with all original stories by Martin himself, along with Daniel Abraham, Michael Cassutt, and Stephen Leigh, among others.

Suicide Kings (By:George R.R. Martin)

From the 1 New York Times bestseller, the third of a new generation of Wild Cards tales In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived to mutate into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times 1 bestseller George R. R. Martin The American Tolkien Time magazine along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then and of the heroes among the one percent. Ranging from New York and New England to ravaged Africa and New Orleans, encompassing war, devastation, and stubborn hope, Suicide Kings advances the story of the Wild Cards, and their struggle to be fully human in a world that fears and mistrusts them.

Fort Freak (By:George R.R. Martin)

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived, mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared universe series, created and edited by New York Times 1 bestseller George R. R. Martin called the American Tolkien by Time, is the tale of the history of the world since then and of the heroes among the one percent. Now, in the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel, we get to know the hardbitten world of Manhattan’s Fifth Precinct or Fort Freak, as cops and malefactors alike call the cop shop where every other desk sergeant, detective, and patrol officer is more than human. Featuring original work by writers such as Cherie Priest, author of the bestselling Boneshaker; Paul Cornell, Hugo nominated comic book and Doctor Who writer; David Anthony Durham, winner of 2009 s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; and many others, Fort Freak is one of the strongest offerings yet in the ongoing Wild Cards project.

Aristoi

Successful in its efforts to create a glittering interstellar empire, founded on the use of an ultra advanced computer and bioengineering technology, humankind becomes the prey of its own creation, the Aristoi.

The Rift

It starts with the dogs. They won’t stop barking. And then the earth shrugs8.9 on the Richter scale. It’s the world’s biggest earthquake since Lisbon in 1755, and it doesn’t hit California or Japan or Mexico, but New Madrid, Missouri, a sleepy town on the Mississippi River. Seismologists had predicted the scope of the disaster…
but no one listened. For hundreds of miles around, dams burst, engulfing entire counties in tidal waves of mud and debris. Cities collapse into piles of brick and shards of glass. Hospitals and schools crumble. Bridges twist and snap, spilling rush hour traffic into rivers already swollen with bodies. Within minutes, there is nothing but chaos and ruin from St. Louis to Vicksburg, from Kansas City to Louisville. Every bridge down, every highway torn, every house gone. America’s heartland has fallen into the nightmare known as The Rifta fault line in the earth that wrenchingly exposes the fractures in American society itself. As a strange white mist smelling of sulfur rises from the crevassed ground, the real terror begins for the survivors, who will soon envy the dead, including: Jason Adams, a teenager separated from his mother;Nick Ruford, an African American engineer searching for his estranged daughter; Noble Frankland, the TV preacher whose visions of hell have become all too real;Larry Hallock, a technician working frantically to prevent a nuclear meltdown at his power station;and Omar Paxton, a sheriff and Ku Klux Klansman who seeks racial vengeance in the turmoil of disaster. Walter J. Williams has created a modern American disaster saga, a story based on terrifying fact, filled with nonstop action, and peopled with characters who are heartbreakingly real. Witnessing authentic heroes surfacing in the unlikeliest places, you will share their horror, feel their despair, and triumph with them in their struggle to survive. One thing you will know for sure: It con happen here. And sooner or later, it will.A Disaster Waiting to HappenIt was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who finally made the Swampeast habitable. Just south of Cape Girardeau the levee line began, to Continue 2,200 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. The levees kept the floodwaters Out. During the decades of prosperity, the farmers had forgotten the conditions under which they had prospered were artificial. Southeastern Missouri was as artificial as the Washington Monument, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, or the space shuttle, and like these, existed as a monument to the ingenuity of humankind. The land there had been manufactured. But that which is artificial occupies a precarious position in the world of nature. Its existence depends upon the maintenance of the conditions under which it was designed. The Mississippi River’s levee system was built with the understanding that two things would remain constant: The flood waters would not rise much higher than they had in the past, and the land on which the levees were built would not move of its own accord. The first of these constants was violated regularly. The result was a greater commitment to reinforced levees. The second constant, the requirement that the earth not move, had not been tested. Though such a test, as history showed, was inevitable.

Implied Spaces

From Walter Jon Williams, the celebrated and influential author of Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind, and Angel Station comes Implied Spaces, a new novel of post singularity action, pyrotechnics, and intrigue. Aristide, a semi retired computer scientist turned swordsman, a scholar of the Implied Spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself! Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole edged sword Tecmessa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

Wolf Time

Steward is a clone. A beta. His memories are fifteen years old, because his alpha never did have a brain scan update. And in those fifteen years, the entire world has changed: The Orbital Policorp which held his allegiance has collapsed; dozens of his friends died in an off planet war which he survived; an alien race has established relations with humanity; both his first and second wives have divorced him. And someone has murdered him.

Frankensteins and Foreign Devils

This volume is a limited edition collection of the author’s short science fiction. Among the stories included are some of his most acclaimed science fiction novellas and short stories. There are ten stories in total, of which two appear here for the first time in print: ‘The Bad Twin,’ and a prototype Wild Cards story, ‘Bag Lady.’ The other stories in this collection are: ‘Solip:System,’ ‘Broadway Johnny,’ ‘Woundhealer,’ ‘Red Elvis,’ ‘Prayers on the Wind,’ ‘Erogenoscape,’ the Sidewise award winning ‘Foreign Devils,’ and the Hugo nominated ‘Wall, Stone, Craft.’ It includes an introduction by the Hugo winning editor Gardner Dozois, and black and white interior illustrations by Omar Rayyan.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection

Third in series, winner of the 1987 Locus Poll Award, Best Anthology. Contents include Introduction: Summation: 1985, essay by Gardner Dozois; The Jaguar Hunter, by Lucius Shepard nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1985 World Fantasy Award; Dogfight, by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1986 Hugo Award; Fermi and Frost, by Frederik Pohl winner, 1986 Hugo Award; Green Days in Brunei, by Bruce Sterling nominated, 1985 Nebula Award; Snow, by John Crowley nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1986 Hugo Award; The Fringe, by Orson Scott Card nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1986 Hugo Award; The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things, by Karen Joy Fowler; Sailing to Byzantium, by Robert Silverberg winner, 1985 Nebula Award; nominated, 1986 Hugo Award; Solstice, by James Patrick Kelly; Duke Pasquale’s Ring, novella by Avram Davidson; More Than the Sum of His Parts, by Joe Haldeman nominated, 1985 Nebula Award; Out of All Them Bright Stars, by Nancy Kress Winner, 1985 Nebula Award; Side Effects, by Walter Jon Williams; The Only Neat Thing to Do, by James Tiptree, Jr. nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1986 Hugo Award; winner, 1986 Locus Poll Award; Dinner in Audoghast, by Bruce Sterling nominated, 1986 Hugo Award; Under Siege, by George R. R. Martin 1986 Locus Poll Award, 6th Place; Flying Saucer Rock & Roll, by Howard Waldrop nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1986 Hugo Award; A Spanish Lesson, by Lucius Shepard Locus Poll Award, 11th Place; Roadside Rescue, by Pat Cadigan; Paper Dragons, by James P. Blaylock winner, 1986 World Fantasy Award; nominated, 1985 Nebula Award; Magazine Section, by R. A. Lafferty; The War at Home, by Lewis Shiner 1986 Locus Poll Award, 21st Place; Rockabye Baby, by S. C. Sykes nominated, 1985 Nebula Award; Green Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson nominated, 1985 Nebula Award, 1986 Hugo Award.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection

Join twenty eight of today’s finest writers for a host of imaginative tours through worlds as fabulous as the farthest galaxy and as strange as life on earth can be. Among the talented story tellers in this volume are: Stephen Baxter, James P. Blaylock, Tony Daniel, Gregory Feeley, Gwyneth Jones, Jonathan Lethem, Robert Reed, Michael Sanwick, Cherry Wilder, Walter Jon Williams, Gene Wolfe, Steven Utley, and many more of tomorrow’s leading imaginations. Gardener Dozois’s summary of the year in science fiction and a long list of honorable mentions round out this volume, making it the one book for anyone who’s interested in SF today.

The Dying Earth / Mazirian the Magician

The stories included in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisdom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home in Vance’s lyrically described fantastic landscapes like Embelyon where, The sky was a mesh of vast ripples and cross ripples and these refracted a thousand shafts of colored light, rays which in mid air wove wondrous laces, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues…
. The dying Earth itself is otherworldly: A dark blue sky, an ancient sun…
. Nothing of Earth was raw or harsh the ground, the trees, the rock ledge protruding from the meadow; all these had been worked upon, smoothed, aged, mellowed. The light from the sun, though dim, was rich and invested every object of the land…
with a sense of lore and ancient recollection. Welcome. The Dying Earth and its sequels comprise one of the most powerful fantasy/science fiction concepts in the history of the genre. They are packed with adventure but also with ideas, and the vision of uncounted human civilizations stacked one atop another like layers in a phyllo pastry thrills even as it induces a sense of awe at…
the fragility and transience of all things, the nobility of humanity s struggle against the certainty of an entropic resolution. Dean Koontz, author of the Odd Thomas novels. He gives you glimpses of entire worlds with just perfectly turned language. If he d been born south of the border, he d be up for a Nobel Prize. Dan Simmons author of The Hyperion Cantos.

Cugel’s Saga / Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight

‘Vance sees himself in the tradition of popular fantasy writers, but his classic writing style is also comparagle to Homer’s Odyssey, and Cervante’s Don Quixote. Though the Cugel tales may lack the scope and pathos of the greatest adventure yarns, in the twenty-first century, they may be as close as one gets to the celebration of epic human perseverance.’–editor, Brilliance Audio Cugel’s Saga, published 17 years after Eyes of the Overworld, is the second novel that features the scoundrel and trickster, Cugel. Again, Cugel tests wits with Iucounu and acquires rudimentary powers himself. ‘Cugel the Clever [is a rogue so venal and unscrupulous that that he makes Harry Flashman look like Dudley Do-Right. How could you not love a guy like that?…
. Judging from the number of times that Cugel has come back…
you can’t keep a bad man down.’ -George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire. ‘Cugel the Clever [is a liar and thief in a doomed world of liars and thieves…
. Probably the least attractive hero it would be possible to find, struggling through a universe like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, a hero only in that nearly everybody else he encounters in that universe is on the make too, and yet the Cugel stories are howlingly funny.’ -Kage Baker, author of Empress of Mars.

The Eyes of the Overworld / Cugel the Clever

The Eyes of the Overworld is the first of Vance’s picaresque novels about the scoundrel Cugel. Here he is sent by a magician he has wronged to a distant unknown country to retrieve magical lenses that reveal the Overworld. Conniving to steal the lenses, he escapes and, goaded by a homesick monster magically attached to his liver, starts to find his way home to Almery. The journey takes him across trackless mountains, wastelands, and seas. Vance s career began when he was in the merchant marine and continued through extended stays in exotic cities. Through cunning and dumb luck, the relentless Cugel survives one catastrophe after another, fighting off bandits, ghosts, and ghouls stealing, lying, and cheating without insight or remorse leaving only wreckage behind. Betrayed and betraying, he joins a cult group on a pilgrimage, crosses the Silver Desert as his comrades die one by one and, escaping the Rat People, obtains a spell that returns him home. There, thanks to incompetence and arrogance he misspeaks the words of a purloined spell and transports himself back to the same dismal place he began his journey.

Rhialto the Marvellous

Rhialto the Marvellous takes up the personal and political conflicts among a conclave of two dozen magicians of Ascolais and Almery in the 21st Aeon. The shocking appearance of the Llorio the Murtha, a powerful female force from an earlier aeon threatens to unbalance nature by ensqualming or feminizing the magicians. This triggers a tremendous struggle for power and the other mages turn against Rhialto. Hoping to reestablish his rightful place, Rhialto travels to other aeons to restore the missing Perciplex which projects the Mostrament, the constitution of the association. In his final adventure, Rhialto must, ultimately, travel to the very ends of time and space to confront an old adversary whom he had wronged and must commit further misdeeds to restore order. Out of this welter of exotic politics, values systems, personal eccentricity, and magic, the figure of Rhialto slowly comes into focus and takes on dimension. He is a vain, apparently superficial man, not ashamed to demonstrate his melancholy to enhance his reputation. But he is courteous, patient, and subtle, even kind. He is self aware and introspective as Cugel never could be the wisest and most sympathetic of all of Vance’s wizards.

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance

Thank You, Mr. Vance, by Dean Koontz. 2009 by Dean Koontz. Preface, by Jack Vance. 2009 by Jack Vance. The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale, by Robert Silverberg. 2009 by Agberg, Ltd. Grolion of Almery, by Matthew Hughes. 2009 by Matt Hughes Company Ltd. The Copsy Door, by Terry Dowling. 2009 by Terry Dowling. Caulk the Witch Chaser, by Liz Williams. 2009 by Liz Williams. Inescapable, by Mike Resnick. 2009 by Mike Resnick. Abrizonde, by Walter Jon Williams. 2009 by Walter Jon Williams. The Traditions of Karzh, by Paula Volsky. 2009 by Paula Volsky. The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod, by Jeff VanderMeer. 2009 by Jeff VanderMeer. The Green Bird, by Kage Baker. 2009 by Kage Baker. The Last Golden Thread, by Phyllis Eisenstein. 2009 by Phyllis Eisenstein. An Incident in Uskvesh, by Elizabeth Moon. 2009 by Elizabeth Moon. Sylgarmo’s Proclamation, by Lucius Shepard. 2009 by Lucius Shepard. The Lamentably Comical Tragedy or the Laughably Tragic Comedy of Lival Laqavee, by Tad Williams. 2009 by Tad Williams. Guyal the Curator, by John C. Wright. 2009 by John C. Wright. The Good Magician, by Glen Cook. 2009 by Glen Cook. The Return of the Fire Witch, by Elizabeth Hand. 2009 by Elizabeth Hand. The Collegeum of Mauge, by Byron Tetrick. 2009 by Byron Tetrick. Evillo the Uncunning, by Tanith Lee. 2009 by Tanith Lee. The Guiding Nose of Ulf nt Bander z, by Dan Simmons. 2009 by Dan Simmons. Frogskin Cap, by Howard Waldrop. 2009 by Howard Waldrop. A Night at the Tarn House, by George R. R. Martin. 2009 by George R. R. Martin. An Invocation of Incuriosity, by Neil Gaiman. 2009 by Neil Gaiman.

Worlds that Weren’t

This is a landmark anthology of four original novellas by the reigning masters of alternate history. Set in different eras, different places, and different times, these forays into ‘what might have been’ showcases the stunning breadth and far reaching possibilities the genre represents.

Escape from Earth

Imagine a world where interplanetary travel isn t just possible it’s commonplace. Human beings have terraformed Mars. You can reach into another dimension through a wormhole. The virtual world can be the only place where you exist, because you don t have a body. The possibilities are endless. Escape from Earth, inspired by Robert Heinlein s juveniles, featuring stories by Orson Scott Card Ender s Game, Elizabeth Moon the Vatta books, and Joe Haldeman The Forever War, among others, will take you places beyond your imagination.

The Best of the Best, Vol 2

For more than twenty years The Year’s Best Science Fiction has been recognized as the best collection of short science fiction writing in the universe and an essential resource for every science fiction fan. In 2005 the original Best of the Best collected the finest short stories from that series and became a benchmark in the SF field. Now, for the first time ever, Hugo Award winning editor Gardner Dozios sifts through hundreds of stories and dozens of authors who have gone on to become some of the most esteemed practitioners of the form, to bring readers the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels from his legendary series. Included are such notable short novels as: Sailing to Byzantium by Robert SilverbergIn the fiftieth century, people of Earth are able to create entire cities on a whim, including those of mythology and legend. When twentieth century traveler Charles Philip accidentally lands in this aberrant time period, he is simultaneously obsessed with discovering more about this alluring world and getting back home. But in a world made entirely of man’s creation, things are not always as they seem on the surface. Forgiveness Day by Ursula K. Le GuinLe Guin returns to her Hainish settled interstellar community, the Edumen, to tell the tale of two star crossed lovers who are literally worlds apart in this story of politics, violence, religion, and cultural disparity. Turquoise Days by Alastair ReynoldsOn a sea wold planet covered with idyllic tropical oceans, peace seems pervasive. Beneath the placid water lurks an ominous force that has the potential to destroy all tranquility. Contributors include: Greg Egan; Joe Haldeman; James Patrick Kelly; Nancy Kress; Ursula K. Le Guin; Ian R. MacLeod; Ian McDonald; Maureen F. McHugh; Frederick Pohl; Alastair Reynolds; Robert Silverberg; Michael Swanwick; Walter Jon Williams With work spanning two decades, The Best of the Best, Volume 2 stands as the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels ever published in the world.

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