Search Worlds Without End

For centuries two meg-powers from the future have been waging war for control of timelines of history. Alan Norlund, a WWII airman vet, is promised a life saving cure for his granddaughter, if he will undertake a mission fifty years back in time to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Hitler with his 'angels' from the opposing power would like to take over our timeline and 1933 Chicago may be just the place to start.

Continuing the time-line wars of Fred Saberhagen's MASK OF THE SUN.

A new entity is being born. Its cells are microprocessors, its soul lives in data banks from Wall Street to Red Square. It is neither good nor evil. But it is very dangerous. The Angra Oil Corporation thinks it is just another resource to be used up....

Coils: The story of a man and a woman trapped in the battle between a soulless corporation and the soul of a new machine.

In 1906 much is changing in Russia, and on the huge Lohmatski estate a man-eating bear has attacked at least two men. When Gregori Lohmatski, an ardent hunter visiting London, receives the urgent summons home, he invites his American friend and fellow hunter, John Sherwood, to join him.

Russia is far stranger than Sherwood imagined. When he and Gregori arrive, they find Greg's father gone, apparently killed by the bear; his brother Maxim missing; his beautiful, revolution-minded sister Natalya barely evading the political police; and the loyal but superstitious peasants in an uproar.

The Lohmatski men, Sherwood learns, have long been pursued by rumors of their ability to change into bears. Sherwood finds himself on the run with Natalya. From the Russian police. From Maxim, who is not quite what he seems. And from the fate that will inevitably follow Sherwood's wounding at the werebear's claws

In a world where zero population growth is strictly enforced and sexual permissiveness is the chief means of control, a young woman's decision to bear her third child makes her the target of concerted oppression.

Octagon: a player. Starweb: a computer moderated role playing game. Pay your fee, read the rules, take on a persona, mail-in your move and begin. Forge alliances, attack your enemies, build an empire. All great fun for computer savvy players, until something goes amiss and players begin dying.

Selection of stories from the finest writers of science fiction, all of whom understand how both glory and tragedy can be outlined on a checker board.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Joan Spicci Saberhagen and Fred Saberhagen
• The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton - (1977) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Unicorn Variation - (1981) - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• The Immortal Game - (1954) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• Midnight by the Morphy Watch - (1974) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Unsound Variations - (1982) - novella by George R. R. Martin
• A Game of Vlet - (1974) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
• Without a Thought - (1963) - shortstory by Fred Saberhagen
• A Board in the Other Direction - (1974) - shortstory by Ruth Berman
• Von Goom's Gambit - (1966) - shortstory by Victor Contoski
• Kokomu - novelette by Daniel Gilbert
• Moxon's Master - (1899) - shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• Rendezvous 2062 - poem by Robert Frazier
• Reflections on the Looking-Glass, An Essay - essay by Fred Stewart

As children they met and built sand castles on a beach out of space and time: Edgar Perry, Little Annie, and Edgar Allan Poe.... Fifteen years later, Perry meets Annie again, all grown up and beautiful - and in the real world. She warns him of his mortal peril, then flees for Europe on a mysterious black ship.

Perry is recruited by a fabulously wealthy man to follow that ship to Europe where he meets the famed detective Auguste Dupin, has an encounter with a Maelstrom and a black raven, has a run in with a Pit and a Pendulum, and lives many more of the stories his alter ego, Edgar Allan Poe, wrote. He and Poe have exchanged places: Perry will thrive in the dark, romantic world where lead can be transmuted to gold, ravens can speak, orangutans can commit murder, and beautiful women are easy to come by; while Poe is now doomed to live out his life a misfit, and end as a pauper, a drunk, and a genius....

Epanded from the version published in Ace Double M-103 (1964).

The road to hell is paved with good inventions....

Emiliano Nowell was a world-class genetic engineer. He was also a wealthy and idealistic man with the time and money necessary to follow his dreams. In secret laboratories far from Earth he used his powers to create 100 genetically perfect children...an enlightened cadre Nowell hoped would lead humanity out of that maze of war, famine, torture, and death called history.

But the Golden People proved to be more intelligent than even he believed possible. Among other frighteningly advanced talents, they had the power to mentally influence normal humans. Now, one of them has become the group's secret leader. His goal is not to help humanity?but to replace it.

When Mike Gabrieli's neer'do'well brother Tom disappears shortly after discovering a fabulously valuable Aztec relic, Mike rightly suspects that this time the family's black sheep has got himself into the kind of trouble from which even Mike won't be able to extricate him. But still, Tim is -- or was -- his brother, and Mike must do what he can.

For Mike this is the beginning of an adventure beyond imagining, an adventure that will put him in constant peril of his life as he shuttles between past, present and future of an alternate reality, fighting beside the descendants of the Incas as they battle to erase Pizarro's bloody footprints from the New World, and secure the reality of their own existence.

But is the "alternate reality" really an alternate, or is Mike actually struggling to erase the very future that gave him birth? The answer lies in the source of all his troubles and his only hope of survival: THE MASK OF THE SUN

A shorter version of this novela appeared in Ace Double M-127 (1965).

It drove men mad... but each in a different way. In one the effect was total, utter addiction. In another, a compulsion to absolute obedience. In a third, idealistic monomania. In a fourth, unending, all-consuming lust. Of all the enigmas surrounding the planet Kappa, none was more inscrutable than that mysterious liquid central to all the native rites.There was, in fact, only one certainty about it: Now that it threatened to contaminate the worlds of Earth, its source would have to be destroyed - even though for the native Kappans the Water of Thought was as necessary as the Breath of Life itself.

In the reign of Minos, King of the Cretans, the gods gave proof of their existence: a bull-headed man accompanied by his bronzen servitor strode forth from Neptune's realm. At last the gods had removed the veils that separated them from their worshippers... or had they?

Strangely enough, the Minotaur forswears all claim to divinity - and his metallic servant cannot speak at all. Instead, he comes to the Greeks bearing gifts of alien knowledge. But Daedelus at least will have cause to beware the teachings of... The White Bull.

Saberhagen has brought together some of the best fantasy writers in the field to create their own stories within the universe of his Lost Swords series. This book features works by Walter Jon Williams, Sage Walker, and a new tale by the master himself--Fred Saberhagen's "Blind Man's Blade"--reveals how the Swords were originally thrust into the human realm.

The Golden People

Planeteers, go home!

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

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

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

Exile From Xanadu

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

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

We, the Venusians

Venus and its natives are exploited by humans.

The Water of Thought

One explorer had already disappeared on the primitive planet, Kappa. So the day that a second Terrestrial, Jones, ran away after drinking the sacred Kappan water that he had coerced the natives into giving him, the remaining planetologists meant to find out just what was going on.

Questioning the aliens only deepened the mystery. For they said that what Jones had drunk would enable him to communicate with his animal ancestors. It was their most precious and sacred possession.

But how could it affect a person never born on Kappa, a person without such "animal" ancestors? What had really happened to Jones and the other man - and what would happen if either of them managed to bring this incredible liquid back to Earth?

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in If, November 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr and Visions of Wonder (1996), edited by David G. Hartwell and Milton T. Wolf. It is included in the collection Berserker (1967).

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in If, January 1966. The story is included in the collections Berserker (1967) and The Berserker Wars (1981).

Long ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, two alien races met--and fought a war of mutual extinction. The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battlecraft carved a swath of death through the galaxy--until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man.

These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy--and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things.

Stories included:

• Fortress Ship
• Goodlife
• In Temple of Mars
• Mr. Jester
• Masque of Red Shift
• Patron of Arts
• Peacemaker
• Sign of the Wolf
• Stone Place
• Face of the Deep
• What'T' and 'I' Did

Also published as BROTHER BERSERKER.

The novel is told in three parts, each part based on a short novel: Stone Man, Winged Helmet and Brother Berserker.

On the planet Sirgol the death machines have a unique and subtle mode of attack--for all the galaxy only on Sirgol is time travel possible. Now, fought to a standstill in the present, they have turned to the past in an attempt to destroy the very roots of life. The time and place of the next attack has been pinpointed: the berserkers will try to eliminate Vincent Vincento, an early genius whose loss will cost mankind a hundred years of progress in the physical sciences.

Derron Odegard, one of the elite corps of Time Operatives, has the toughest assignment in Sirgol's history: protect Vincento at any cost.

The berserkers have chosen to focus their latest attack upon one individual. Their target, King Ay of Queensland. His removal from history would have disastrous consequences for us . . . In nineteen or twenty days' present-time, the historical shock wave reaches us. I'm told that the chances of our finding the enemy keyhole within nineteen days are not good.

Rearing over the ship was a head out of nightmare: a dragon face from some evil legend. The eyes were clouded suns the size of silver platters, the scales of head and neck were gray and heavy as wet iron. The mouth was a coffin, lid opened just a crack, all fenced inside with daggers . . . Ay met it bravely. But the full thrust of his long sword, aimed straight into the darkness of the throat, counted for no more than a jab from a woman's pin. The doorllike jaws slammed shut. For a moment, as the monstrous head swept away on its long neck, there could be seen the horrible display of broken limbs dangling outside the teeth. . .

Five hundred years have passed since the combined fleets of humanity met and broke the berserker armada at Stone Place. But through the human victory was total, one of the killer machines--weaponless, its star drive a ruin-- managed to limp to secret sanctuary on a planet called Hunter's World. Over the years since then a new cult has arisen there, a cult dedicated to Death as the only and ultimate Good. For Hunter's World has become BERSERKER'S PLANET.

The rifle stuttered in Suomi's hands. The sword-brandishing golem's left arm erupted in a spray of dry-looking particles and smoke as the man-thing spun in an incredible pirouette, more graceful by far than any wounded animal. Knocked off balance and deflected from its course by the shock of the rifle's force-packets, the towering shape slid past Suomi and on down the sloope.

But it did not fall. In another moment, near the bottom, it had regained full control and stopped its slide. Then it turned and was calmly climbing, like a mountain goat, at a fast run.

The sword, whirling and gleaming, came toward him once again . . .

Once mankind feared the berserkers, killer machines determined to eradicate all life in the universe. But the Berserker Wars are over and the threat of the sentient doomsday devices is over. Or is it?

The berserkers are back, stronger and more unstoppable than before. And one strange child, half human and half machine, may be humanity's only hope -- or its final destroyer. Now the fate of civilization rests in the hands of BERSERKER MAN.

He was driving them in evasive maneuvers now, while the hull crashed like a gong, and flashes of enemy force were plain in the simultaneous overload of instruments. Flash and crash again, blinding stroke from the enemy and blending sigh of their own weapons lashing back, more in defiance than in any true hope of damaging Goliath. The berserker which had caught them by surprise was too big to fight, too fast to get away from, here in relatively open space. Nothing to do but dodge--

Yet again the berserker struck . . .

BERSERKERS

The death machines are capable of any treachery, able to assume any disguise, motivated only by their prime directive: to seek out and destroy life wherever it may hide.

MAN

The fragile life-form that hides within its puny frame a curiously unquenchable something... call it 'spirit'. This odd facet of an otherwise undistinguished example of the disease of life has been a source of deep annoyance to the berserkers since first the two forms met: no wonder then that for each the other is THE ULTIMATE ENEMY

Contents:

• The Smile
• Pressure
• The Annihilation of Angkor Apeiron
• Inhuman Error
• Some Events at the Templar Radiant
• Starsong
• Smasher
• The Game
• Wings Out of Shadow

MESSAGE BEGINS
REPORT ON THE PRIVATE ARCHIVE OF THE THIRD HISTORIAN
A File which presents the History of the Galaxy...
Transmission Mode: Triplicate Message Torpedoes
Code: Trapdoor XIII
TX Date: 7645.11.0
From: Archivist Ingli, Expedition Co-ordinator
To: Chief Co-ordinator, Earth Archives
cc Defense Co-ordination Central

Hal: We're here, surrounded by friendly Carmpan of whom we rarely see more than one or two at a time, and then usually only with some partial or symbolic physical barrier between us. Everything is going pretty much as expected, we have experienced nothing really contrary to the experience of a thousand years' occasional and arm's-length contact with the race. By the way, it's beginning to look, to me at least, less and less coincidental that our first meeting with the Carmpan coincided almost exactly with the beginning of the Berserker War. I'll have more to say on this point presently.

Let me first describe what I consider to be our main achievement so far on this mission. To begin with, the structure in which we are living and working is best described as a large, comfortable library, and we have been given free access to storage systems. (I hope, by the way, that the exchange team of Carmpan researchers on Earth are being treated as well as we are here.) Much of this mass of stored data is, as we expected, still unintelligible to us and so far useless. But quite early in the game our hosts pointed out to us, for our special attention, an alcove containing what we've come to call the private archive of the Third Historian. Having looked at the files therein, my colleagues and I agree unanimously that they were very probably compiled and largely writeen by the same Carmpan individual who used that name (or title) as signature to the messages he composed and sent to our ancestors some generations ago, when the Berserker peril was even greater than it is today.

Since a copy of this report is going directly to the military, Hal, bear with me when I pause now and then to insert a paragraph or two of history. We can't reasonably expect that all the readers over there are going to know as much of it offhand as we do.

Stories included:

• Stone Place
• The Face of the Deep
• What T and I Did?
• Mr. Jester
• The Winged Helmet
• Starsong
• Some Events at the Templar Radiant
• Wings Out of Shadow
• The Smile
• The Adventure of the Metal Murderer
• Patron of the Arts

A Collaboration by Fred Saberhagen, Poul Anderson, Edward Bryant, Stephen R. Donaldson, Larry Niven, Connie Willis and Roger Zelazny.

Created in an ancient war, implacable machines programmed to destroy all life, they seem invincible. But now humanity has come to a berserker base; Lars, a prisoner of war who will not surrender; the crew of ASTER'S HOPE, peaceful explorers who must now learn to fight; and Holt and Morgan, who will use the alien skills of the primitive 'Reen to face the planet killers.

• Itself Surprised - Roger Zelazny
• Teardrop Falls - Larry Niven
• With Friends Like These - Connie Willis
• Deathwomb - Poul Anderson
• What Makes Us Human - Steven R. Donaldson
• Pirates of the Twilight - Ed Bryant:
• Prisoners' Base - Fred Saberhagen
• Friends Together - Fred Saberhagen
• The Founts of Sorrow - Fred Saberhagen
• The Great Secret - Fred Saberhagen
• Dangerous Dreams - Fred Saberhagen
• Crossing the Bar - Fred Saberhagen
• Berserker Base - Fred Saberhagen

The Empress of the Eight Worlds has been assassinated during the Holiday of Life festivities on the planet Salutai. Prince Harivarman, exiled and a virtual prisoner on the Templar Radiant, a vast spherical fortress constructed around an ancient, benign, star-like source of inverse gravity, suspects that he will be the next victim. Help is scarce: Garielle, the Prince's stunning redheaded lover, fears for her own safety. Anne Blenheim, the fortress's clear-eyed, fair Commander is favorably disposed toward the Prince, but her first responsibility is to the Templar High Command. Beatrix, the Prince's dark, iron-nerved yet seemingly demure wife, has already left him once. And Chen Shizuoka, the Templar recruit who has stayed a demonstration on Harivarman's behalf during the disastrous celebration on Salutai is being stalked by planetary security forces.

When Prince Harivarman discovers an operable Berserker--one of the asteroid-sized, spacefaring war machines that had destroyed their makers and all other life they found in their path--his first instinct is to turn it in. But then he finds an ancient code that will either allow him to control the dreaded machine or lead him--and everyone else on the Templar Radiant--to certain death.

. . . stunning plot twists and rich descriptions of the sophisticated and somehow desolate Templar landscape. The harrowing climax, set in the fortress's outer reaches where walls have been inscribed with a mysterious forgotten art form, will surpass the expectations of veteran Saberhagen fans and delight all those lucky enough to be savoring this author's otherworldly talent for page-turning suspense for the very first time. This fascinating journey is intergalactic travel at its most exciting.

The great blue berserker's destruction of the human colony Shubra was swift and merciless.

Niles Domingo's daughter lies among the dead.

Niles Domingo is a man with a mission: Vengeance at any cost. With one small ship, he sets out against the great berserker called Leviathan, tracking it through the interstellar mists of the Milkpail Nebula. He is sure he is ready for anything. But nothing can prepare hom for the astonishing discoveries that lie between him and Leviathan.

Our wars were behind us. earth had a unfied governemnt and for the first time mankind was moving out from the planet of its birth. New worlds were settled and with the wealth of the galaxy at hand, poverty was eliminated. Then out of a clear summer sky came the first berserker attack.

These are tales from the final battles between life and non-life, between the great killing machines we came to call berserkers and humanity, all that it was or had ever held dear.

Contains:

• Masque of the Red Shift
• In the Temple of Mars
• Brother Berserker
• Smasher

Contents:

• The Machinery of Lies
• Masque of the Red Shift
• In the Temple of Mars
• Brother Berserker
• Smasher

Long, long ago. . . two alien races fought a war of extinction. All that is left of either of them are the Berserkers: vast, thinking, space-faring, killer machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all living things. For the first time in all of their history, they have met a life form that has a chance of stopping them.

In the cold reaches of space, the Berserkers seize a floating laboratory full of human germ-plasm--stored for retrieval and growth in a future colonization project. But the ship contains millions of human lives. Why are the Berserkers not destroying them? And will the human pursuers manage to find the missing lab, defeat the Berserkers, and save the nascent lives?

A major Berserker novel -- one of Saberhagen's finest -- with one hell of a surprise up its sleeve.

Before George Lucas's Death Star, before Star Trek's Doomsday Machine, came the Berserkers: intelligent, space-faring killing machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all life. BERSERKER FURY is the latest in Fred Saberhagen's thrilling series, where mankind is pitted against the relentless machine organisms bend on destruction.

The Berserkers have developed a new trick: Berserker units that can pass for human-created androids. They're gambling on the advantage this gives them, and massing for an all-out attack on human-held space. But the humans have developed a trick of their own: they've cracked the Berserkers' basic codes and know what their battle plans are:

Both sides are betting everything they have.

For one of them, it will be the beginning of the end.

In a sector of the galaxy occupied by Earth-descended people, one Berserker® computer has suddenly and mysteriously developed a tactical strategy unlike anything the human opposition has seen before. Shiva, like the Hindu god of destruction after which it was named, annihilates entire colonies with the help of its fiendish subordinates. Commander Claire Normandy struggles to prepare for Shiva's attacks, while Pilot Harry Silver realizes that he must deal with his own demons in order to help her. When the Berserkers approach, a decision is made to destroy the destroyer, whatever the cost. Neither side, however, is prepared for the incredible risks that emerge as the attack becomes imminent. Can Normandy, Silver, and their forces face the possbility that something wholly unexpected yet eerily familiar lies gnarled within the steel?

Acclaimed author Fred Saberhagen continues his widely popular and influential Berserker Series, a chronicle of a war between humanity and the terrifying race of sentient machines bent on death and destruction.

Pilot Harry Silver's name is known throughout the galaxy--and that notoriety does not always work in his favor. While he has defeated his share of Berserkers, he has also stolen a powerful weapon from the Space Force, making him a fugitive from the life he once knew. Looking for an adventure, and not one to turn down a lot of cash, Harry agrees to bring a passenger aboard his ship, Lily, a woman who is on a quest to retrieve her husband.

It won't be easy, as Lily's husband has joined a secretive religious cult on Maracanda, an almost-planet lodged between a shifting black hole and a neutron star. While the landscape of Maracanda is treacherous, so too, may be the people around Harry Silver.

As the search for Lily's husband deepens, Harry finds himself investigating a larger mystery and looking for missing persons, almost ending up one himself. And as always, there is the threat of death from above, in the path of a machine whose only intent is to kill . . .

Master storyteller Fred Saberhagen continues his bestselling Berserker series, detailing humanity's war with the dreaded juggernaut-like machines programmed to destroy all life in the galaxy.

In the Twin World planets, Prairie and timber, Plenipotentiary Gregor is determined to serve his government. Even if it means executing innocent Huvean hostages, invaders from another planet. And even though Gregor's granddaughter, Luon, is in love with Reggie, a Huvean.

But now the Berserkers are threatening the TGwin Worlds, crashing a scoutship, capturing the planets' president, and reprogramming this brain to suit their violent agenda. And only the Huveans, in a desperate reprieve, can save the Twin Worlds' populace from annihilation.

Harry Silver had already had a lifetime of trouble from Berserkers, the automated killing machines which were armed with weapons powerful enough to sterilize a planet and programmed eons ago by a now extinct race to denude the galaxy of life. After losing his merchant spaceship in a recent battle with one of the death machines, he faced economic ruin.

Then Winston Cheng, one of the wealthiest humans in the galaxy, offered to buy him a new top-of-the-line ship in return for doing a job. While the two men talked, a holograph of a young woman and her child played over and over. The woman was Cheng's granddaughter. She and her son were Cheng's only surviving descendants -- and they had been kidnapped from their space yacht by a Berserker. Cheng wanted to hire Silver to rescue them.

The offer would have been tempting if Silver hadn't thought the job was not only too dangerous, but likely to be futile, as well. Berserkers usually killed humans outright, in accord with their programming. When one of the killer machines took humans alive, it was invariably for experimentation, trying to determine what made their human enemies tick and looking for a weakness to exploit. Silver was certain that Cheng's loved ones were dead by now, or, if alive, no longer recognizable as anything human. And Silver had barely survived his previous encounters with Berserkers. So he declined Cheng's offer -- until Silver's own wife and daughter were similarly kidnapped by a Berserker, possibly the same one.

Silver now had nothing to live for but revenge. Cheng's offer was still open, and silver quickly joined the assault team, but not without suspicions which he kept secret. The timing of the abduction of his wife and daughter could not be a matter of chance. someone on Cheng's team must have leaked silver's name to the Berserkers somehow. He also thought it suspicious that an old acquaintance with a strong grudge against him was also on the team. Before the mission was over, Silver would find that his wildest suspicions fell far short of the truth. And he would find himself in an alliance he could never have predicted -- one which he was unlikely to survive . . .

The tale is told in Saberhagen's bestselling FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD BOOK OF SWORDS of how the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they had forged too well: the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now, the gods gone, the Swords are scattered across the land, some held by those of good heart . . . others by those whose purposes are evil.

Mark, Prince Consort of Tasavalta, and his wife, Princess kristin, have a seven-year-old son Adrian, who has been blind and racked by seizures since birth. The magic Sword Woundhealer, the Sword of Healing, is said to be held at the White Temple far to the south. Mark is convinced that if he can find Woundhealer, Adrian will be cured.

Thus Mark embarks on his perilous journey in search of Woundhealer. But the evil wizard Burslam has joined in partnership with Mark's enemy, Baron Amnitor, and they are also intent on gaining the lost Swords. Baron Amintor has stolen Woundhealer from the White Temple . . . and Burslam has lured Mark's nephew Zoltan away, hoping to use him to gain other Swords in Mark's possession. Zoltan escapes, only to enter into his own dangerous quest.

Before their missions end, four of the great Swords -- Woundhealer, Dragonslicer, Sheidlbreaker and the terrible Sword of Vengeance -- Farslayer -- are drawn in battle. And Mark and Zoltan have encountered far stranger things than the Swords of Power.

Long ago, the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they had forged too well: the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now the gods gone, the Swords are scattered across the land, some held by those of good heart . . . others by those whose purposes are evil . . . and one, Sightblinder, is held by Arnfinn, a young country boy who knows nothing of the Tale of Swords or of Sightblinder's power; to make the viewer see that which he most desires -- or most fears.

The tale begins innocently enough as Prince Mark of Tasavalta, accompanied by his nephew Zoltan and doughty Ben of Purkinje, seeks out the castle of the good and mighty wizard Honan-Fu, hoping that Honan-Fu will agree to tutor Mark's young son Adrian. But as they approach the lakebound keep, soldiers set upon them, and Mark is seized by an enormous griffin, carried off to the castle, and thrown into a hellish prison of enchantment.

Honan-Fu, powerful as he is, has been vanquished by the Ancient One, a being at once reptilian and human who has slipped the bonds of time, armed not only with his personal spells and demons, but with Prince Mark's captured weapon, the Sword of Force, Shieldbreaker.

It is up to Ben and Zoltan t o rescue Mark. But first they must deal with ex-Queen Yambu, and the unlikely assistance she offers; with the innocent Arnfinn, holder of Sightblinder; and with the stunningly beautiful girl Arnfinn loves -- the Lady Ninazu, Honan-Fu's daughter. Not to mention the enigmatic Emperor.

Told with Fred Saberhagen's enormous gusto and narrative skill, SIGHTBLINDER'S STORY will delight the readers who made THE FIRST BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: WOUNDHEALER'S STORY a fantasy bestseller.

Long ago the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they had forged too well: the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now, the gods gone, the Swords are scattered across the land, some held by those of good heart, others by those whose purposes are evil.

The Sword Stonecutter -- which can hew mountains and diamonds with equal ease -- is missing. The Sword has been stolen from Prince al-Farabi's desert caravan, from the tent of young Kasimir, a physician en route to the city of Eylau in search of employment. Fortunately, at the next oasis Kasimir encounters the legendary Magistrate Wen Chang, whose black, glittering eyes (it is said) can see into the secret hearts of men and women.

It is even greater good fortune that Wen Chang undertakes the finding of Stonecutter, for his strength is more powerful than magic: it is intelligence.

As al-Farabi follows the thief's trail into the desert, Wen Chang and Kasimir make their way toward Eylau. Finding evidence of Stonecutter's passage -- an unmistakably smooth and easy roadway cut through a ridge -- Wen Chang quickly learns of a mysteriously missing man -- and three murders.

In the walled city of Eylau, where the Red Temple, devoted to sensual pleasures, has engaged the great sculptor Robert de Borron to create new statuary, Kasimir encounters embarrassment and Natalia, a young woman who is more beautiful unclothed than clothed.

Meanwhile, Wen Chang has learned of a certain fabulous diamond, and of Mistress Headmark, the lapidarist whose duty it will be to cleave it, perfectly.

Either a lapidarist or a sculptor would have great use for Stonecutter . . .

But so would the smoothest assassin Eylau has ever seen.

Wen Chang and Kasimir have only a slim chance to find Stonecutter -- if they can stay alive.

Told with Fred Saberhagen's zest and narrative skill, STONECUTTER'S STORY combines the pleasures of classic detection with the vibrant magical world of the Swords in an absorbing, many-layered tale. It will delight the readers who made THE SECOND BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: SIGHTBLINDER'S STORY a fantasy bestseller.

FARSLAYER -- the Sword whose power is to kill the bearer's enemy even at the other end of the world -- is rediscovered. Its finder is the beautiful mermaid Black Pearl, herself the victim of a magical curse that has changed her from a simple fisherman's daughter to a creature of the river. She gives the sword to the minor wizard Cosmo Malolo, who has seduced her while promising her that he will restore her to human form permanently. Unfortunately, the Malolo clan has been feuding for generations with the Senones, their rival clan across the river, and Farslayer simply enables them to kill each others' leaders in a one-night bloodbath that more than decimates the clans.

In the hills that wild and stormy night, the hermit Gelimer finds a stranded traveler -- Cosmo, bearing Farslayer. Cosmo dies mysteriously, and Gelimer hides Farslayer -- just before Prince Zoltan and the Lady Yambu turn up at this hermitage, victims of a shipwreck that has altered their continuing pilgrimage. And not long after their departure, another, more sinister visitor arrives: one Chilperic, sworn servant of the evil macro-wizard Wood, who will stop at nothing to obtain the Sword. Chilperic is attended by the demon Rabisu, placed under Chiperic's command by Wood.

Zoltan encountered the mermaid Black Pearl three years ago, and he has never forgotten the beautiful creature. In love with her, he has no idea that her heart is already given to the wretched Cosmo . . . Zoltan swears to help her regain human form.

With the arrival of Prince Mark and Ben of Purkinje the plot thickens further. Mark wants Farslayer (of course), knowing full well the havoc it can wreak in hands bent on revenge.

And then Tamsin, an enigmatic, sensuous healer, arrives on her griffin.

This is a rousing tale of action, magic and bittersweet love, told with all the gusto that characterizes Fred Saberhagen's enormous narrative gift.

Long ago, the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they forged too well; the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now, the gods are gone, the Swords are scattered. Some are helb by those of good heart, others by those whose purposes are evil. And one -- Coinspinner -- is held only as long as Coinspinner chooses. The Sword is subject to no rules but its own, and exactly what those rules are no one knows.

At the moment Coinspinner is in the hands of Crown prince Murat of Culm, who is visiting Tasavalta to beg Princess Kristin for permission to take Woundhealer, the sword of Healing, on a mission of mercy to Culm. The princess's refusal sparks a theft: Woundhealer is removed from the White Temple.

Withdrawing the Sword Stonebreaker from the Tasavaltan armory, the doughty General Rostov sets off in pursuit of Prince Murat -- only to find that Woundhealer is not with the prince, and that one of the Culmians has absconded with Coinspinner. But Coinspinner will not stay with its new possessor for long . . .

Meanwhile, far from Tasavalta, a young Prince Adrian, whose magical gifts are immense, is approaching the extremely unreliable City of Wizards, where nothing -- not even the sun -- is what it seems. He and his beautiful companion Trilby, will face unexpected peril there.

Elsewhere, Wood, the evil Macrowizard who has slipped the bonds of time, is polishing his plans to abduct Adrian, hated spawn of his old enemy Prince Mark.

But first Wood wants Coinspinner.

Coinspinner, however, has its own agenda. Bestowing gigantic luck on he who holds it, the Sword moves where it wants, and when it wants, changing all circumstances in a twinkling.

It's not surprising that Wood wants it. EVERYONE wants Coinspinner.

Told with Fred Saberhagen's huge gusto and narrative skill. THE FIFTH BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: COINSPINNER'S STORY will delight the reader.

Long ago, the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they forged too well; the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now, the gods are gone, the Swords are scattered, the great Mindsword reenters the world of men. Long lost from human sight, the Sword of Glory brings mindless devotion to him who wields it. It is Crown Prince Murat of Culm who finds it.

Murat, basically a decent man, intends to give Mindsword to Princess Kristin of Tasavalta. Taken with the beautiful princess when he first met her years ago, Murat resolves to keep Mindsword sheathed until he lays it at her feet. But suddenly, faced with a band of Brigands, concerned for the safety of his son, Prince Carlo, Murat draws the sword.

Now the brigands -- and his own son -- give him the adulation usually reserved for gods. It is not a comfortable state of affairs. And there is worse to come.

The Princess herself falls under Mindsword's spell. Not at all what Murat wanted: slavish devotion is no substitute for freely given love.

Or is it? Murat finds that Kristin's adulation is not without its attractions . . .

Meanwhile, the great dark King, thought dead for a dozen years, senses the rediscovery of the Mindsword even in his madness, and forges an alliance with Akbal, a most untrustworthy demon, to regain the weapon.

And Prince Mark of Tasavalta, returning with Ben of Purkinje from a journey on behalf of the Emperor, finds that he must do battle for his beloved wife, for the kingdom, and perhaps for the soul of the world.

Told with all Fred saberhagen's nimble style, quicksilver invention and tremendous narrative gifts, MINDSWORD'S STORY will delight its readers.

Long ago, the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they forged too well; the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now, the gods are gone, the Swords are scattered, Wayfinder, the Sword of Wisdom, turns up in the hut of one Valdemar, a simple (or is he?) grower of grapes.

This strong yet gentle young giant is in want of a wife.

It is the property of Wayfinder to lead its wielder where the wielder wants to go -- thus Valdemar asks for guidance to the one who is most fit to share his life.

But the Sword of Wisdom leads him to the Lady Yambu -- a vigorous sixty-year-old, at least in appearance! Once known as the Silver Queen, the Lady Yambu is on a pilgrimage of her own, accompanied by Prince Zoltan, and has no desire to spend her declining years in a vineyard.

And yet Wayfinder will not let Valdemar leave the Lady . . .

Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the Blue Temple, where vast amounts of the world's wealth are stored, the evil macrowizard Wood and his gorgeous sidekick, Tigris, have an interview with the Chairman . . .

Doughty, aging Ben of Purkinje wakes in a barn to discover himself surrounded by hostile armed men . . .

In Sarykam, Prince Mark scans the dawn skies eagerly for a winged messenger: How is the hunt for Woundhealer, the sword of mercy, progressing? It is the only hope for the grievously injured Princess Kristin . . .

But Wayfinder has a way of complicating all quests in which it becomes involved . . .

Fred Saberhagen brings his immensely popular Swords Series to a thrilling conclusion in the tale of Shieldbreaker -- the Sword of Force, against which there is no defense.

Long ago, the gods forged Twelve Swords of Power and threw them on the gameboard of life to watch men scramble. But they forged too well; the Swords could kill the gods themselves.

Now, ages later, the Swords are as powerful as ever -- and still coveted by good and evil men alike. Some have been lost again, and some destroyed. Prince Mark of Tasavalta holds five Swords: Woundhealer, Stonecutter, Dragonslicer, Sightblinder, and the greatest of them all, Shieldbreaker -- the Sword of Force against which no enemy can stand. With their help, he has ruled peacefully, protecting his people from all dangers.

A year ago, Prince Mark defeated Vilkata, the dark King, who sought to gain the swords by force. Mark exiled Vilkata beyond the boundaries of the world, where not even Vilkata's horde of demons should have been able to find an escape for the mad sorcerer.

But the Dark King has overcome all barriers and returned to seek revenge. With him he brings Mindsword, the Sword of Glory -- with the power to compel obedience from all who come within its range.

The Dark King's timing is perfect: Prince Mark is in a far corner of his kingdom, defending his people against a dragon. Vilkata finds the castle almost undefended, the ultimate power of the Swords almost in his grasp. Between him and the Sword vault stands only one small warrior: Prince Mark's son, Prince Stephen, armed with Shieldbreaker, Sword of Swords. But how can a fourteen-year-old boy, no matter how well armed, resist the evil power of the Dark King -- especially with the Mindsword in Vilkata's hand?

The Swords were forged on a lifeless, wind-scoured mountaintop, with fire drawn from the Earth's belly, and metal that fell from the sky. They were tempered with human sweat and human blood by the hand of the god Vulcan, Master Smith.

There were Twelve Swords, created as the playing pieces in a whimsical game of the gods. Into each Sword was placed an awesome power -- to vanquish in battle, or stay by even more horrible means ...to deceive an enemy's eyes, or destroy his soul. . . to bestow unfailing luck, or heal . . .

Only one man had seen the Forging of the Swords of Power, a human smith named Jord. And for the arm that Vulcan took from him that unforgettable night, Jord received one of the Swords. It would be his legacy to his son.

Mark grew up with the Sword hanging on his father's wall. He knows well its keen edge and its unearthly perfection. But he does not realize its power until Duke Fratkin's men arrive one day to wrest the Sword from Jord. As Mark watches, the Sword strikes out, screaming with an inner fury that cares little for safety of its wielder. When the fight is over, the Duke's men are dead; but Jord and Mark's older brother, too have fallen.

Carrying the Sword with him. Mark flees the Duke's vengeance, heading for the lands of the Kind Sir Andrew. Along the way, he joins forces with the dragonhunter Nestor--owner, too of a Sword--and his two assistants, the big simple-seeming Ben, and pretty Barbara.

But they do not find the peace they seek at Sir Andrew's. For mighty forces are on the move, set in motion by hunger for the mastery over their fellow men promised by the Swords . . .

For a game the gods have given the world twelve Swords of Power so that they might be amused as the nations go to war for possession of them. But Vulcan Swordmaker has had his little joke: the Swords can kill the gods themselves. What started out as Divine Jest has become all too serious. Now the gods want their swords back--but even gods must tread most carefully when faced with the Swords of Power.

In a flash understanding came. The gods were coming to take charge.

The cloud, no longer serving any purpose of concealment, was being allowed to dissipate, and it vanished quickly. The handful of beings who had ridden it were walking now, already entering the parade ground at its far side, and approaching quickly. The sea of humans occupying the open space parted at the deities' approach. Four gods and one goddess, each as tall as Draffut, came striding forward without pause, and Mark got the impression that they would have stepped on people without noticing had any remained in their way.

Humanity had hope of being saved, by the beings who had made the Swords, from powers that were too much for it to manage.

A hundred years ago Count Dracula, Vlad Tepes to some, joined forces with Sherlock Holmes in a pact of blood and honor. Now the thread of the Count's adventures is picked up by his biographer. This title has been published in parts as "An Old Friend of the Family" and "Thorn".

The immortal Count Dracula--Bram Stoker portrayed him as a terrifying creature of the night, preying upon the pure and innocent. The truth is far different. For Dracula is no villain, but a noble, powerful tower of strength. And it is those who hunt him who are the true villains!

1887, London, Victoria's Jubilee -- criminals threaten to release thousands of plague infested rats on the day of celebration. The extraordinary powers of the Count and sharp mind of the Master Detective team up to avert a catastrophic public disaster. (And, the reader discovers more than a deerstalker hat and an Invernes Cape in Holmes' family closet.)

The Southerland family left the old world to start anew in America, but little did they know that a blood-feud, older than history itself, would follow them through the generations to come.

Kate Southerland, the first born of the latest generation of Southerlands, has been murdered, but she is not dead. Her little brother, Johnny, has also vanished, a severed, bloody finger the only clue.

But the Southerlands have no clue what they've fallen into. Their enemy is no mortal madman, but the undying mistress of evil enchantment, Morgan Le Fay, and the Southerlands are not her true target. She seeks to do battle with their protector, their defender, the only man who is capable of saving this mortal family from a war they've never realized was waged.

A Love Affair for the Ages. Five hundred years ago their paths first crossed. He possessed her totally, not quite against her will. Until she fled. And was captured. And was punished. And fled. And is fleeing still...

Dracula tells the story of his life and his great love before he became undead. The portrait of his beloved from those precious living days is in the hands of villains. The Prince must pursue and possess this link with his breathing life. The Southerlands, particularly Judy, are ready to assist an old friend of the family.

When two ancient, ruthless beings, locked in a struggle for the ultimate magic Weapon, bring their blood feud to New York, Vlad Tepes races to hide the coveted weapon.

Matthew Maule, no stranger to revenge, unexpectedly encounters enemies bent on his destruction for events now over five hundred years in the past—events revealed on a tape found in Uncle Matthew's Chicago apartment.

For a time, only the Southerlands and Joe Keogh stand between the poisoned and incapacitated Uncle Matthew and his attackers.

But Uncle Matthew is not one to easily surrender his existence.

A tale of revenge and honor.

Drawn to the Grand Canyon where the earth exposes her life line, Edgar Tyrrell, a nosferatu sculptor builds a home on the South Rim. Edgar would capture the very forces of the earth in his stone statues. Hidden within a Great Unconformity Tyrrell's workshop offers a base from which he can work and travel through time. He needs helpers. A young woman artist from 1965 is entrapped. She lures a 1935 CCC worker into Tyrrell's camp. Together the captives are plotting Tyrrell's destruction and a way back to normal time.

Sixty years later, one of Tyrrell's young breathing relatives goes missing in the Canyon. Private detective Joe Keogh is hired for the search. Sensing the presence of nosferatu Joe calls on Mr. Strangeways aka Drakulya. Accessing the situation, Drakulya returns to England seeking the wisdom of Darwin, Merlin and his beloved Mina. Much more than a dangerous rogue nosferatu awaits in Deep Canyon.

A seance held in an aristocratic London home goes horribly awry when one of the undead nosferatu appear. The resulting chaos leaves one of the fraudulent spiritualists dead, Sherlock Holmes missing, and Dr. Watson alone and mystified. With time running out, Watson has no choice but to summon the only one who might be able to help--Holmes' vampire cousin, Prince Dracula.

In 1792, Philip Radcliffe, the bastard son of Benjamin Franklin, comes to France to deliver a letter to Thomas Paine--only to get caught up in a conflict far more horrifying than the Revolution. By foiling a powerful vampire's attempt at fratricide, Radcliffe dooms himself and his descendants to suffer the vampire's eternal vengeance.

In present day, Philip and June Radcliffe are kidnapped on their honeymoon. Their captor, a mysterious Mr. Graves, swears that he aims to protect them. Yet as the thrilling story unfolds, involving Napoleon, the Marquis de Sade, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, as well as Jerry Cruncher and Detective Dupin, the young couple refuses to believe him--a mistake that is certain to cost them their lives.

The Bram Stoker Award–Winning saga continues . . . .

Matthew Maule has seen many horrific things in his five hundred years as one of the most powerful vampires in the world. But even his formidable talents cannot predict the unthinkable acts about to occur within his own home.

When the vampire Dickon and his human partner appear in the middle of the night frightened for their lives, Matthew offers them protection. They carry with them a small Egyptian statue of great value and many secrets. By morning, Matthew has woken from a mysterious trance to discover that Dickon's human friend has been brutally murdered, the vampire has gone missing, and their statue has been smashed to pieces. Matthew has also made a dangerous new enemy, one who possesses strength even Matthew may be no match for.

For the statue is no ordinary artifact, but one of six replicas. However, only one contains a gem in the center, a stone of unimaginable magical power that could spell the end of humanity if it ever fell in the wrong hands.

Matthew sets out on a heart-pounding journey to track down the remaining statues before his ancient foe finds them. Racing across the country, the vampire teams up with both the living and the undead, though not all are the allies they pretend to be. Using his wits, he must unearth the answers to a millennia-old mystery in order to prepare himself for a final showdown against the evil stalking him at every turn. Acclaimed fantasy and science fiction author Fred Saberhagen takes readers along for a trek of unbelievable suspense, action, and pure page-turning entertainment.

Omnibus edition containing The Broken Lands (1968), The Black Mountains (1971) and Changeling Earth (1973). The text of these novels has been substantially revised for the omnibus publication.

In the distant future, society has crumbled. Dark forces now rule the land, keeping all humans under their oppressive thumbs.

In the darkness of the shadows and whispered on the winds, there is talk of a rebellion. In the swamps, a small band has formed. Determined to regain their freedom, the rebellion, heavily outnumbered, plans to overthrow an army of thousands... with the help of one incredible weapon.

It is only a legend, a story left over from the Old World before magic and the wizards came to the land. A weapon of technology. It is the mystical Elephant, and whoever masters it holds the key to freedom, or defeat.

One young man, determined to avenge the death of his family, sets out to join the rebellion and find Elephant. What he discovers will change everything.

The passing of thousands of years left the planet Earth a series of broken lands... a mutated world of distant alien empires and near-at-hand rapacious satraps.

The hunted common people were sustained by one last legend--that some day one would come who would "ride the Elephant" and thereby bring back the Golden Age.

This is the gripping novel of the young rebel who found out what the legend really signified, and of how he sought to use that banned knowledge in the very heart of the satrap's stronghold of alien magics and well-guarded scientific mysteries.

When Chup's castle fell to the forces of the West, the ex-lord was reduced to beggary at its gates. Each day he faced the Black Mountains of the East to which he had sworn fealty--and where he hoped his unclaimed bride still waited.

Behind, the West plotted to assault the Black Mountains with their new weapons from the forbidden lore of Old Technology. Ahead, lay the three most powerful lords in all creation. One was good, one was Evil, one was immortal.

Chup knew the East would not help him unless the could profit by it. Nor could he refuse anything asked of him and still survive. If they reached him in any way, he might be both blessed and cirsed. and then, one howling, windy night, came the deformed luminescence of a demon...

The planet was Earth. The time was fifty thousand years from now. Magic and witchcraft worked and the Old Science didn't.

Why this was so nobody knew - it had always been that way during the long tyranny of the Empire of the East. During that same period there had always been little bands of rebels using fragments of white magic against the demonic armies. Rolf was the latest of these rebels - and he had on his side the mysterious power known as Ardneh.

It's been a thousand years since the time of Ardneh, the transcendant being that saved humanity from the vicious archdemon Orcus. It was a legndary battle between magic and technology that killed them both, but left behind tales of Ardneh's heroism and newly found hope for humanity. But in the passing years only a few remain that actually believe these legends as truths.

Chance Rolfson comes from a long line of Ardneh's followers, descendants from Rolf, the illustrious warrior who fought in Ardneh's name for humanity many years ago. A young man plagued with vivid nightmares, Chance hopes to clear his head by joining a forest expedition that seeks physical proof of Ardneh's existence. Their goal is to discover the great vault prophesized to hold the savior of humanity's secrets to his own power and wisdom. But the dangers are high in the uncharted forests, rife with bandits and demons that no magic can stop. And as Chance's dreams become more clear, he soon realizes these are not merely dreams but visions, and he alone holds the key to unlocking Ardneh's greatest gift, known to the followers as Ardneh's Sword.

This novel picks up where Mary Shelley's classic tale left off, continuing the narrative from the monster's point of view. Through flashbacks in the monster's journal, Saberhagen also rescrambles the original story in such a way that the monster is absolved of the murders of Victor Frankenstein's brother William and fiancee Elizabeth. The monster sets off on a quest for his own identity that takes him from the Arctic and his first sexual experience with an "Esquimeaux" to a meeting in Paris with Ben Franklin, whose experiments with electricity led Frankenstein to attempt the monster's initial animation. Throughout, the irrationality of the monster's sheer existence is set against the values and science of Enlightenment Europe. In the tour-de-force ending, rationality triumphs by means of a neat science-fiction twist.

When college student Tom Scheffler agrees to care for the luxury Chicago apartment of his great-uncle Montgomery Chapel, he soon realizes that traveler Chapel's apartment contains more than a priceless collection of exquisite Egyptian artifacts. An alternate Egyptian world awaits Tom, a world of ancient gods, uncountable treasure, and danger. A world where revenge will be had. A world very much of interest to a dangerous fugitive and time-traveler named Pilgrim.

Promised financial security, Jerry Flint hires on with the mysterious Pilgrim Foundation. Next morning Jerry awakes in 19th century Illinois. His irrevocable assignment: Save President Lincoln from assassination. With only his wits, an unusual natural gift, and Pilgrim's mysterious pocket watch, Jerry must succeed or remain trapped in a time loop.