Search Worlds Without End

WFA nominated novella.

It starts with a mystery: an old manor house is surrounded by an impenetrable bubble, and all that lives within it seems to wither and die. Investigating, the Army find two men inside the house: men who vanished some 100 years ago but who have now reappeared, and as young as the day they disappeared. There are rumours of a machine which could puncture the dimensions, allowing man to travel beyond the bounds of the Earth... and for other things to travel here. Another day, another war.

The kingdom of Carinthia is rich, powerful and undefeated. A thousand years ago, its ancestors were the spell-wielding northern tribes who crushed the Roman Empire. Their legendary hexmasters can destroy whole armies and turn battlefields into fiery lakes of lava.

Magic is Carinthia's wealth, protection and way of life. But the age of magic is dying. Some would do anything to see it return: any act, no matter how terrible, is justified, so long as the hexmasters can still protect their homeland.

The kingdom is poised between order and chaos - and the smallest spark is the difference between disaster and triumph.

ARCANUM is powerful new epic fantasy from an award-winning author.

A breathless drama set in the depths of space: aboard a ship that has travelled beyond the reach of human knowledge, Corbyn discovers he is not as alone as he ought to be.

Sent to Earth to explore, survey, collect samples and report back to its makers, an alien probe arrives in the middle of a warzone. Witnessing both the best and worst of humanity, the AI probe faces situations that go far beyond the parameters of its programming, and is forced to improvise, making decisions that have repercussions for the future of our entire world.

Welcome to the Metrozone - post-apocalyptic London of the Future, full of homeless refugees, street gangs, crooked cops and mad cults. Enter Samuil Petrovitch: a Russian ?migr? with a smart mouth, a dodgy heart and a dodgier past. He's brilliant, selfish, cocky and might just be most unlikely champion a city has ever had. Armed with a genius-level intellect, extensive cybernetic replacements, a built-in AI with god-like capabilities and a plethora of Russian swearwords - he's saved this city from ruin more than once. He's also made a few enemies in the process - Reconstruction America being one of them. So when his adopted daughter Lucy goes missing, he's got a clue who's responsible. And there's no way he can let them get away with it.

Award-winning author Simon Morden joins Gollancz with a stunning SF quest across a vast world that mirrors every London ever built.

Instead of fire, there was water.

A wave slapped through the open doorway, and a gust of wind blew into the smoke-filled corridor, dragging a spiral of soot outwards and away.

MARY. One slip away from prison, fighting to build herself a future from nothing.

DALIP. The gentle son of a warrior tradition. A young man who must fight for independence from his family.

STANISLAV. A fierce and capable man carrying the wounds of a brutal war.

They left London in flames for a place where everything was different. A place that can uncover your secrets.

A place haunted by a man called Crows...

Let's face it, none of us deserve to be saved. None of us are wiser, smarter, stronger or prettier than all those we watch die. Whatever criteria Down uses, how worthy we are doesn't come into it.

Since escaping London's inferno, Mary and Dalip have fought monsters and won - though in the magical world of Down, the most frightening monsters come from within. Now they hold the greatest of treasures: maps that reveal the way to the White City, where they can find the answers they're looking for and learn the secrets of Down. But to get there they must rely on Crows, who has already betrayed them at every turn.

As they battle their way towards the one place in all of Down without magic, they must ask themselves how far they will go to find their way home. After all, if there's one thing the White City offers those brave enough to enter, it's more than they bargained for.

Simon Morden's Down Station was an extraordinary quest for meaning and identity. Now he's leading us to the kind of truths that leave us changed.

Samuil Petrovitch is a survivor.

He survived the nuclear fallout in St. Petersburg and hid in the London Metrozone - the last city in England. He's lived this long because he's a man of rules and logic.

For example, getting involved = a bad idea.

But when he stumbles into a kidnapping in progress, he acts without even thinking. Before he can stop himself, he's saved the daughter of the most dangerous man in London.

And clearly saving the girl = getting involved.

Now, the equation of Petrovitch's life is looking increasingly complex.

Russian mobsters + Yakuza + something called the New Machine Jihad = one dead Petrovitch.

But Petrovitch has a plan - he always has a plan - he's just not sure it's a good one.

Theorem: Petrovitch has a lot of secrets.

Proof: Secrets like how to make anti-gravity for one. For another, he's keeping a sentient computer program on a secret server farm - the same program that nearly destroyed the Metrozone a few months back.

Theorem: The city is broken.

Proof: The people of the OutZone want what citizens of the Metrozone have. And then burn it to the ground. Now, with the heart of the city destroyed by the New Machine Jihad, the Outies finally see their chance.

Theorem: These events are not unconnected.

Proof: Someone is trying to kill Petrovitch and they're willing to sink the whole city to do it.

The Six Degrees of Petrovitch

Michael is an AI of incalculable complexity trapped under the remains of Oshicora tower. Petrovitch will free him one day, he just has to trust Michael will still be sane by the time he does.

Maddy and Petrovitch have trust issues. She's left him, but Petrovitch is pretty sure she still loves him.

Sonja Oshicora loves Petrovitch too. But she's playing a complicated game and it's not clear that she means to save him from what's coming.

The CIA wants to save the world. Well, just America, but they'll call it what they like.

The New Machine Jihad is calling. But Petrovitch killed it. Didn't he?

And the Armageddonists tried to kill pretty much everyone by blowing the world up. Now, they want to do it again.

Once again, all roads lead back to Petrovitch. Everyone wants something from him, but all he wants is to be free...

Two centuries after the Earth fell to enigmatic alien machines known as the Visitors, humanity survives in sparse nomadic tribes. Macsen is an adventurer, undertaking hazardous quests for the captivating Hona Loy; quests that have made him a hero.

Macsen never fails, but this time he crosses the path of a Jugger, one of the deadliest of all the Visitors. Can he find a way to defeat the alien and survive, or will it fall to his faithful companion Laylaw to return to the tribe with the tale of his noble death?