Search Worlds Without End

Hunted and mortally wounded by an ancient foe, Queen Amina of Zaria's one great task has never been more important or imperiled. In desperation she casts her fate, mantle, and relics of power 400 years into the future, into the hands of a teenage girl: Hadiza.

With no say in the matter, university student Hadiza Ibrahim finds she has inherited Queen Amina's enemies; evil and powerful beings from another dimension hell-bent on the destruction of her Northern kin. But she also receives the Queen's mighty weapons and supernatural abilities.

She sets out with the one ally she can trust, evading enemies on all sides, from the forests of Zamfara to the hills of Abuja on a quest to fulfill Queen Amina's task and become the new Guardian of the North.

Unknown to most American's, there is a plan for the day after. Before the dust of World War III has settled, Project Guardian moves into action. America's secret weapon is a four-man elite survival team, armed with awesome combat skills, equipped with the most devastating personal weaponry ever devised, trained to hair-trigger tautness, and entrusted with freedom's last hope: the top secret Blueprint for Renewal.

First step: get the new President safely out of ravaged Washington, across a thousand miles of chaos, and into the impregnable midwestern fortress known as Heartland.

A tall order, even for a bunch of hardcore heroes.

Global warming has taken its terrible toll. The seas have dried up and deserts cover much of the Earth's surface. Humankind has been annihilated by drought and the nuclear and biological conflicts following the Great Breakdown. Desperate bands of humans still survive. Some live far underground, away from the searing temperatures and ongoing conflicts on the surface; others scrape a living in the remains of shattered cities above ground.

In Paris, Pierre lives like an animal among the sand-drifted ruins of the once great city. Near death, he faces a choice: join the strangers heading south in search of water, or remain in the city and perish.

Guardians of the Phoenix tells the story of the last survivors on planet Earth, their desperate fight for survival and their last hope to save the world.

OLD EVIL

Four years have passed since the slaughter that took place at the old Whitcombe house. Four years since the tiny picture-perfect town of Antrim, Vermont, was devastated by the ugliest event in its history. Now the bloodstained Whitcombe walls have been painted over, the broken-down doors repaired. And a new family has moved in...

YOUNG BLOOD

Fifteen-year-old Will Crockett could have told his mother and stepfather that the bargain price on the Vermont house was too good to be true. But they never listened to him anyway. Now weird things were beginning to happen: open doors that he knew he had locked; strange scampering sounds on the porch roof. A sense of being watched. His parents didn't believe him, but Will knew something was wrong -- something so twisted and evil that only a kid's imagination could conceive of its horror...

Invasion, defection—and a last stand to save Earth.

Dissident alien commander Arid Ricimer and his human allies, Captain Jim Coalbridge and Lieutenant Commander Griff Leher, are the courageous and very mortal heroes who must face down the forces of a tyrannical star empire.

Captain Arid Ricimer, an alien starship commander with integrity and a clever plan, attempts to defect to Earth with his officers and entire spaceship—a vessel that mounts a superweapon of almost unimaginable power. He's pursued by his former fleet, a force that has already devastated Earth once and is poised to wipe humanity from existence forever. In a thriller filled with echoes of The Hunt for Red October and cool hard science fiction technology, it's a desperate gambit for the alien captain and for humanity, as well. Yet after years of battling back from the brink of destruction, the U.S. space navy has the wartested heroes to rise to the challenge, among them attack ship captain Jim Coalbridge and alien analyst, Griff Leher.

The players are in motion and the greatest confrontation this sector of the galaxy has ever witnessed is at hand. All depends on the courage of an honorable alien warrior and the intelligence and daring of his human counterparts and would-be compatriots.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September 1980.

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

In 1879, Rosa Tolliver, a college-educated blueblood, marries a wealthy man who turns out to be a brute. She flees her Philadelphia mansion with her 14-year-old son, Daniel, and the two of them make their way to Dodge City, Kans. Rosa retrospectively describes the trip in incredible detail: the modes of transportation they took; the people they met; the books she read. With each carefully placed detail, Rosa weaves the tapestry of her life, and among the threads, she hints at a destiny: something extraordinary happens to her, and each book she reads, each decision she makes, in retrospect has something to do with this destiny. Her stay in Dodge City lasts only four years, and she and Daniel flee again when a Pinkerton detective tracks them down. Another well-documented trip-this time to the Alaska gold fields-follows. Toward the end, an Indian shaman, Raven, shows her alien wonders and a vision of a future Earth in which humanity's destiny is intertwined with her own.

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Spencer is just like any other teenager at her boarding school. She hangs out with her best friend Kevin, she obsesses over Mark, a cute and mysterious bad boy, and her biggest worry is her paper deadline.

But then everything changes. The news headlines are all abuzz about a local string of serial killings that all share the same morbid trademark: the victims were discovered with their eyes missing. Then a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie's circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with Kevin, and a crazed old man grabs Ellie in a public square and shoves a tattered Bible into her hands, exclaiming, "You need it. It will save your soul." Soon, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies, Maori mythology, romance, betrayal, and an epic battle for immortality.

Don't all kids think there's a haunted house in their neighbourhood?

Can you remember yours?

What if, as a child, you knew something bad really had happened in that house?

What if you actually saw it? Then you tried to forget it for the next thirty years.

And then, one day, you had to go back inside that house?

Andrew Pyper's THE GUARDIANS is a ghost story for grown-ups. Prepare to enter the Thurman House on Caledonia Street.

You have been warned...

A telephone rings in the dead of night with shocking news for single mother MaryAnne Carpenter: her friends the Wilkensons are suddenly, inexplicably dead, their only child, Joey, a sad and silent adolescent and MaryAnne's godchild, abruptly orphaned. But as MaryAnne rushes with her family to the Wilkenson's ranch to embrace her young charge, disturbing questions mount. Was it an accident that killed her friends? Or murder?

Now, as winter transforms the ranch into a place of blinding, dangerous storms, a series of horrific murders, killings that suggest a raging animal and defy solution by the local police, draw ever closer to MaryAnne and her young family.

Two alien powers contended for that world. One, Eliff, had assumed a godlike identity; the other, Udrig, imprisoned beneath the polar ice cap, was branded as the evil one -the would-be destroyer of the planet.

Unknown to himself, Teron of Korv was the key to their conflict. If he could meet the right girl, the noble Eldra the Seventh, and if they could combine their powers -the fight would be resolved.

Against that meeting worked Udrig's human agents, certain that the legends were wrong and Udrig was truly the Good One. In favor of the meeting was Eldra herself and the mysterious forces of the orbiting Eliff.

Aided by the dark magic of an evil sorcerer, a merciless army seeks to conquer the peaceful province of Chaldor. After Chaldor's king meets his death in battle, his queen urges the region's fiercest warrior, Gailard the Highlander, to carry out one final mission. She asks - and Gailard consents - to protect the royal daughter, Princess Ellyn, until she is old enough to gain her hereditary powers and win back her father's kingdom. But Gailard knows the enemy is closing in. In desperation, he turns to Shara, an enigmatic sorceress--and the only one with the power to help the pair survive. Shara vows to lead Gailard and Ellyn to their destiny. But will it be one of triumph...or destruction?

In "All Kinds of Proof," a down-and-out drunk makes the unlikeliest of friends when he is hired to train a mail-carrying robot; in "Blood Memory," a mother confronts the dangerous reality that her daughter will never assimilate in this world after she was the first child born through a teleportation device; in "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever," a physicist rushes home to be with his daughter after he hears reports of an atmospheric anomaly which he knows to be a sign of the end of the earth; in "Miss Gloria," a robot comes back to life in many different forms in a quest to save a young girl. Guardian Angels and Other Monsters displays the depth and breadth of Daniel H. Wilson's vision and examines how artificial intelligence both saves and destroys humanity.

In the divided England of the distant future, a recently-orphaned boy flees the sprawling area known as the Conurb for the serene world of the County where the people seem to live a simpler existence.

This is what Ang knows:

A dear friend is accused of murdering the Prime Minister of Bar-Selehm.

A mysterious but fatal illness is infecting the poor.

A fanatical politician seizes power, unleashing a wave of violent repression over the city.

This is what Ang must do:

Protect her family.

Solve a murder.

RESIST, no matter what, before it's too late.

Seemingly nothing in this world daunts the young criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl. In the fairy world, however, there is a small thing that has gotten under his skin on more than one occasion: Opal Koboi. In The Last Guardians, the evil pixie is wreaking havoc yet again. This time his arch rival has somehow reanimated dead fairy warriors who were buried in the grounds of Fowl Manor. Their spirits have possessed Artemis's little brothers, making his siblings even more annoying than usual. The warriors don't seem to realize that the battle they were fighting when they died-a battle against Artemis--is long over. Artemis has until sunrise to get the spirits to vacate his brothers and go back into the earth where they belong. Can he count on a certain LEPrecon fairy to join him in what could well be his last stand?

Young Galen Waylock is the last watchman of the dream-gate beyond which ancient evils wait, hungry for the human world. For a thousand years, Galen's family stood guard, scorned by a world which dismissed the danger as myth. Now, the minions of Darkness stir in the deep, and the long, long watch is over. Galen's patient loyalty seems vindicated.

That loyalty is misplaced. The so-called Power of Light is hostile to modern ideas of human dignity and liberty. No matter who wins the final war between darkness and light, mankind is doomed either to a benevolent dictatorship or a malevolent one. And so Galen makes a third choice: the sleeping Champions of Light are left to sleep. Galen and his companions take the forbidden fairy-weapons themselves. Treason, murder, and disaster follow. The mortals must face the rising Darkness alone.

When the colony worlds Adirondack and Silvern fell to the Troft forces almost without a struggle. Outnumbered and on the defensive, Earth made a desperate decision. It would attack the aliens not from space, but on the ground—with forces the Trofts did not even suspect. Thus were created the Cobras, a guerilla force whose weapons were surgically implanted, invisible to the unsuspecting eye, yet undeniably deadly. And the Moreau family were the most famous of the Cobra warriors. Long after victory over the Troft was achieved, the Cobras made common cause against their former adversaries against a new enemy. Their reward was three planets that would be a home for the Cobras, who deadly powers made them too dangerous to feel at home on Earth.

Now, years had passed and not everyone on the Cobra worlds thought that the Cobras were worth the cost of maintaining their existing built-in weaponry, let alone supporting research to improve the Cobra weapons, and possibly even put an end to the negative effects of that built-in weaponry, which caused Cobras to die much too young. Many who had never known interplanetary war were convinced that the Cobras were not needed at all.

That was a grave miscalculation, because a Troft faction has decided to invade the Cobra planets in force, using a new strategy that even the formidable Cobra warriors may not be able to defeat . . .

In ancient Argos, fabled city by the sea, Conan of Cimmeria discovers that behind a facade of law, the intrigues of trading houses can be no less deadly than the wars he had left behind. Even a merchant prince can dabble with sorcery, and the schemes of event he most beautiful nobles can lay snares for unwary feet.

But those who think to use the Cimmerian, to brush him aside and grasp what he has sworn to protect, will discover that they face no ordinary man. He is--Conan the Guardian.

Everyone knew the dark legend of the Crystal Keep...

Of its endless hallways and infinite doors. Of the all-knowing Oracle hidden within its walls. And of the all-powerful Guardian who challenged those who dared to enter.

No one knew for sure what was truth and what was rumor, except that few people went there. And even fewer returned.

But Dara knew it was her only hope.

So begins a strange and mysterious journey of discovery, a young woman's search for her own special magic--and her own self. Behind every door awaits new worlds of possibility. And deep within every heart lies the greatest secret of all: that strength and courage have a magic all their own.

Arrabar - a nation of mercenaries at odds with its neighbors and at war with itself...

The Scions of Arrabar - heirs to a legacy of blood and steel...

Vambran and Emriana have survived assassination attempts, family feuds, arranged marriages, and monster-guarded secrets.

But now things are starting to get really dangerous!

GUARDIAN.

There existed nothing like it in the known World. It climbed boldly into the sky, a symbol of the power and imagination of those who had created it...

Varian Hamer stood face to face with a robot. It was not only fantastic - it was impossible. In the known World there were no such things as robots. They had been destroyed, along with everything else, thousands of years before, in what many supposed was Armageddon.

But there it was, staring him in the eye. And shortly, Varian and a small band of adventurers embarked on the greatest search the world had ever known. To find Guardian. The sentinel of the First Age. The Last artifact of a lost civilization.

And while they searched, Guardian waited...

The scientific magicians of the First Age who built the Artificial Intelligence machine called it Guardian. Secure in the Citadel, a secret complex constructed to contain it, Guardian had survived the holocaust which consumed its creators and the rest of civilization. Now , the world was only beginning to emerge from the ashes of the First Age; it was a time when the technologies of earlier days were little more than half-forgotten myths.

The modern fantasy danmei/Boys' Love trilogy about gods, ghosts, and supernatural investigations!

Zhao Yunlan heads up a covert division of the Ministry of Public Security that deals with the strange and unusual, blurring the line between the mortal realm and the Netherworld. His cocky, casual attitude conceals both a sharp mind and an arsenal of mystical tools and arcane knowledge.

While investigating a gruesome death at a local university, Zhao Yunlan crosses paths with the reserved Professor Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan is immediately intrigued by Shen Wei's good looks and intense gaze, and the attraction between them is immediate and powerful, even as Shen Wei tries to keep his distance. Shen Wei and his secrets are a puzzle Zhao Yunlan feels compelled to solve as mysterious circumstances throw them together, and their connection becomes impossible to deny.

THE SLEEPING GOD STIRS

As snow quietly covers Dragon City in the final days of the lunar year, patients writhing in pain flock to the hospital. Baffled doctors call upon Zhao Yunlan and his team for help. As the case unfolds, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan discover that one of the Four Hallowed Artifacts, the Merit Brush, has appeared in the Mortal Realm. In the wrong hands, its power can be transformative.

While each step toward the artifact only pulls the pair deeper into a vortex of mysteries, Zhao Yunlan keeps stumbling upon a name: Kunlun. Who is Kunlun, and what is his connection to the Merit Brush? As Zhao Yunlan closes in on the answer, will he also uncover the truth behind Shen Wei's knowing gaze?

Magic flickers.
Love flames.
Chaos reigns.

Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called an abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before.

Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about?appeasing her stepmother's cruel whims, looking after her blind younger sister, and keeping her own magical gifts under control?without having to deal with rumors of monsters re-emerging in the marsh. But when a chance encounter with an easily flustered young man named Han brings her into contact with a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn, Zhara realizes there may be more to these rumors than she thought. A mysterious plague is corrupting the magicians of Zanhei and transforming them into monsters, and the Guardians of Dawn believe a demon is responsible.

In order to restore harmony and bring peace to the world, Zhara must discover the elemental warrior within, lest the balance between order and chaos is lost forever.

Captives of Sorcery...

It began as just another evening of fantasy gaming with James, Karl, Andrea, and the rest ready to assume their various roles as wizard, cleric, warrior, or thief. But sorcerous gamemaster Professor Deighton had something else planned for this unsuspecting group of college students. And the "game" soon became a matter of life and death as the seven adventurers found themselves transported to an alternate world and into the bodies of the actual characters they had been pretending to be.

Cast into a land where magic worked all too well, dragons were a fire-breathing menace, and only those quick enough with a sword or their wits survived, the young gamers faced a terrible task. For the only way they would ever see Earth again was if they could find the legendary Gate Between Worlds - a place guarded by the most terrifying and deadly enemy of all....

WARRIOR, WIZARD, DWARF, THIEF, AND MASTER BUILDER all of them had chosen this world as their destiny, a realm where dragons were only too real and magic, not science, was the law of the land. Karl, Andrea, Ahira, Walter, and Lou knew there was no going back to twentieth-century America now. Instead they were stranded in a time and place where only healing spells and their own wits stood between them and the sharp, deadly edge of a slaver's blade.

But even if they could have returned home by some sorcerous trick, all of them would have refused the chance, bound by their pledge to bring this incredible realm the one treasure it lacked -freedom! But leagued against them in their fight were the entire forces of both Wizards and the Slavers guilds. And, in this world where a wrong step or a twisted spell could transform friend into foe, how could Karl and his band fulfill their pledge?

The stronghold called Home was prospering, and Karl's dream of bringing freedom to everyone in this land, peopled by wizards, warriors, lords and slaves, dwarfs and elves, and dragons, was at last coming true. But by attacking slaver caravans, by offering Home as a haven to any eager to throw off their chains, Karl, Andrea, Ahira, and their comrades had made many powerful enemies.

Led by the evil Ahrmin, the Slaver Guild was stirring the kingdoms into a bloody war in which Karl and his friends might soon have to choose sides. And the elfin kingdom of Therranj claimed Karl's valley sanctuary as part of its own territory and was demanding both tribute and loyalty from the people of Home.

Caught between slaver forces armed with a magical new weapon and elves attempting to steal the treasured secret of gunpowder, could Karl's human, dwarf, elf, and dragon warriors keep the walls of Home standing for long?

Karl Cullinane and his fellow Earth-exiles Andrea, Ahira, Walter, and Lou had succeeded beyond their wildest expectations in the years since a wizard's spell had cast them into an alternate world where magic and dragons were real. Now Karl was Emperor and his son Jason was of an age to begin learning the realities if war and leadership. And with the aid of dwarves, elves, humans, and one sarcastic dragon, Karl and his friends had freed many from the evil specter of slavery and were pledged to fight till slavery was at an end.

But their actions had made them some extremely powerful enemies, chief among whom was Ahrmin of the Slaver's Guild. And for Ahrmin the time of final reckoning had at last arrived.

With or without the aid of the Guild, he would draw sword and take blood vengeance on Karl and Jason Cullinane and all they held dear....

The word arrives that Karl Cullinane is dead. Jason, his son and heir, assumes command. He leads the inner circle of warriors and the dragon Ellegon against the evil Slaver's Guild. Then Jason learns his father still lives. When a dwarf appears, signaling death, Jason faces a choice and the full weight of kingship.

As magic from Faerie begins to creep into This Side, the border town of Ehvenor becomes the site of a battle between Jason Cullinane's warriors and the invading forces of sorcery.

The Road to Ehvenor is the sixth installment of the Guardians of the Flame series.

Hoping to intercept his bitter best friend's crusade to kill off all the slave masters in the land and keep the legend of the Warrior alive, baron Jason Cullinane is unaware that his search will force him into a dangerous pact.

Kethol -- The pretty fellow, a long and lanky redhead with an easy smile and an easygoing attitude that his clever eyes deny. He is quick with a quick... and quicker with a sword.

Durine -- The big man, a head taller than most and twice as wide, built like a barrel, with a loyal heart and hands too thick to use anything more delicate than an ax handle.

Pirojil -- The ugly one, his face heavy-jawed, with an eye ridge that would mark him as a Neanderthal only to the most gracious. But looks deceive, and his might be the rarest gift of all.

Athos, Porthos, and Aramis they're not.

Several of them, in fact. He's the heir to an empire-but he doesn't want to be. And nobody believes that he could or would walk away, and give the job of ruling the kingdom to someone else.

In this roller coaster of a sequel to Not Exactly the Three Musketeers, it looks like the stage is set for a major shake-up in the kingdom. Jason's help in keeping everything from blowing up are the self-appointed soldiers of the errant Jason, sent by that wily off-worlder Walter Slovotsky to keep Jason in one piece... more or less.

There's Kethol, the long and lanky redhead with an easy smile, who's quick with a quip and quicker with a sword; Pirojil, the ugly one, whose looks deceive and whose might and loyalty are worth a kingdom; and the fledgling wizard Erenor, a man who tries to stay two steps ahead of his enemies--as well as one step ahead of his friends. They're all part of the Cullinane retinue, sworn to protect the Cullinane manse and the sometimes-heroic Jason Cullinane and they have their hands full.

Because no one likes a vacuum--or one too many contenders for power, Jason's soldiers are going to have to do some fast adventuring to make it all turn out all right.

Next in Joel Rosenberg's bestselling Guardians of the Flame series, Not Quite Scaramouche continues the adventures of the journeyman soldiers of Castle Cullinane (and their sometimes ill-fated leader) in all their raucous glory.

Kethol is an adventurer with an easy smile, a man who is quick with a quip and quicker with a sword.

His partner, Pirojil, the ugly one, looks impressive and deceives people into thinking he's stupid to their sorrow-for his might and loyalty are worth a kingdom.

And the fledgling wizard Erenor, a man who tries to stay two steps ahead of his enemies, as well as one step ahead of his friends.

Loyal retainers they are, sworn to Jason Cullianane, a man who walked away from a crown, and who has been trying to convince all the almost-warring factions that he doesn't want the job back. Their lives aren't very easy, what with keeping Jason from getting killed by yet another conspiracy, rescuing some damsel or whatnot in distress, and squirreling away something for the ever-diminishing prospect of retirement.

And now it looks like our heroes might wind up succeeding in none of their schemes, for there are plots within plots, and Kethol has been forced into a disguise not of his own making. There is magic aplenty in the air (and on the ground), and in order to save a kingdom, they may have to pull off a complicated scheme that could kill them all--or land them in positions of supreme power.

But, hey, whoever said that a soldier's life was a cakewalk?

Set in Joel Rosenberg's bestselling Guardians of the Flame series, Not Really the Prisoner of Zenda is the third adventure of the journeymen soldiers of Castle Cullianane (and their sometimes ill-fated leader) in all their raucous glory. A fun, fast-paced read, it's a rollicking roller coaster of a book that will have fantasy fans reaching for more.

Ashâke is an acolyte in the temple of Ifa, yearning for the day she is made a priest and sent out into the world to serve the orisha. But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. For years she has watched from the sidelines as peer after peer passes her by and ascends to full priesthood.

Desperate, Ashâke attempts to summon and trap an orisha -- any orisha. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world.

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he's discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They've already killed his sister, so he's not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe's hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead - and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets - where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that's when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted ...

In 2136 A.D. the settlers on the planet Isis, under the dominance of an absolute ruler, have lost all the technical knowledge of their forefathers and reverted to a primitive society dominated by myths and taboos.

During the carnage of World War One, James Asher joins forces with the vampires of Europe to counter an even deadlier threat.

The vampires call them 'The Others'. Neither living nor dead, the revenants are mindless and unstoppable--and in the carnage of the First World War, governments already running short of men to throw into battle might be very interested in soldiers who don't ask questions and are hard to kill. Front-line volunteer nurse Lydia Asher is horrified to learn that someone has found a way to control revenants, and is creating them for this purpose.

Back in London, Lydia's husband, former spy James Asher, is even more appalled to learn that revenants are beginning to show up in England, on the loose. Since revenants devour vampires, the vampires of Europe--most of whom are at the Front, feeding completely unnoticed on the dying--join forces with the Ashers to find the source of the threat before the world is overwhelmed.

While the Earth quaked, a deadly power burst forth from ancient Atlantis. For the gate of time had been torn open, freeing a cataclysmic evil.

Only the last guardian, Jon Shannow, the legendary pistoleer, could shut the deadly portal. But to accomplish this he would have to find the shining Sword of God, said to be floating among the clouds in the perilous lands beyond the wall, where beasts walked like men and worship a dark goddess. As Shannow embarked on his impossible quest, demons gathered in wait.

And--somewhere--a golden-haired woman was dreaming of blood...

Caught between her beloved father, the Merlin of Britain, and Arthur Pendragon, the old ways and the new, Wren must find a way to balance the forces of Chaos with peace. She nurtures the land and the people, creating a haven for anyone displaced by the turbulence. And for the safety of all she must guard her heart against the deep love she shares with Arthur, a married king who holds the future of all the Britains in his hands and his sword.

The quest for peace and protection in Britain has passed down from the Merlin and Arthur the Pendragon to the sole survivor, Resmiranda Griffin. Raised in the Christian tradition, she refuses to acknowledge her magical talents or the existence of helpful fairies, until dark forces force her into the complex politics, both mundane and magical, that divides England from their lawful king, John Plantagenet.

Inspired by a demon, her distant cousin Radburn Blakely whispers divisive advice into John's ear. Only Resmiranda can counter this darkness and lead England to what will create peace between a fearful king and his power-mad barons: The Magna Carta.

The glory of the Elizabethan Age is tarnished by the continuing religious conflict begun by Henry VIII. Griffin Kirkwood renounces his title, his lands, his love for the mysterious demon-ridden Roanna, and his magical heritage as a descendant of both King Arthur and the Merlin to become a Catholic priest in France. His twin, Donovan (his mirror image in face and form and rarely more than a thought away) shoulders the responsibilities willingly. He agrees to two arranged-marriages, one after the other, and takes on the outward appearance of whichever religion is dominant to protect all that he loves, but without magic, or the love of his life.

Together and separately the twins must fight to guide Queen Elizabeth through the intricate maze of politics and religion. Their spiritual and magical journeys cross each other, oppose, and re-align as they battle internal demons and external threats.

Deirdre Kirkwood, the bastard child of Griffin, a Catholic priest, and demon-infested Roanna Douglas, has been raised with her cousins Betsy and Hal, the children of Griffin's twin, Donovan. Each of them has inherited a powerful magical talent and a wolfhound familiar. Any of them could become the next Merlin of Britain.

Deirdre's quest to know something, anything, about her father leads to a confrontation with El Lobison the Master of all Werewolves. No one is safe from him, as the cousins learn to their terror

In and out of royal courts, the three cousins build a network of spies who are the only ones who can counter the weather, the werewolves, and the Spanish as England faces the relentless Spanish Armada.

1763: all of Europe is at war with each other and the Turks are storming toward Vienna. The magical protection of Britain requires that Georgina Kirkwood, a potential Merlin, leave the secret Pendragon Society and disguise herself as man to fight for England.

Wounded and no longer able to carry a sword, Georgina is recruited by the King as a spy in the American Colonies. Transplanted to a land and people vibrant with life and ideas, she begins to question her loyalties. Only her love for Major Roderick Wythe gives her the love and partnership she needs to work with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams and many other notable leaders to discover what being the Merlin truly means and to determine who she is protecting from whom.

Porsche Winter has a problem... as a fully fledged guardian angel, she is charged with the safety of her clients at all times. But you take your eye off the monitor for just one moment, and the Devil is in there with a demon snatching the soul from one of your clients. But not just any client: dreamboat and all round lust object Alex Chalmers. With the soul lost to the Devil, Porsche realises that this is just a part of a plan for the Dark One to assert his authority over the Neverworld and to take control of Heaven. It doesn't help that Porsche too is the object of the Devil's lust, or that she's been set up for a fall by jealous colleague and office slimeball Wynn Jarrett. With all that's going on, Porsche's day has started badly and is set to get even worse...

In the year 2737, Earth is mostly depopulated in the wake of a massive supervolcano, but civilization and culture are preserved in vast orbiting ringstations.

Tem, the nine-year-old son of a ringstation anthropologist and a Happdal bow-hunter, wants nothing more than to become a blacksmith like his uncle Trond. But after a rough patch as the only brown-skinned child in the village, his mother Car-En decides that the family should spend some time on the Stanford ringstation.

Tem gets caught up in the battle against Umana, the tentacle-enhanced 'Squid Woman', while protecting a secret that could change the course of humanity and civilization.

In the sequel to the million-copy bestseller, The Sentinel, evil is raging on the 20th floor of an apartment building on the West Side.

In an open window, a hideous blind nun perpetually gazing... watching. A body, burned beyond recognition. Then two more murders... strangely connected. And the discoverer, a beautiful young woman, raped. Her innocent child exposed to horror. Her husband, furious, relentlessly set on revenge. A cool, calculating, laughing priest intent on saving more lives from the destruction. And so it begins... powerful, satanic, terrifying... a time you will never forget.

For two centuries the portion of the great Sovereign Stone belonging to the humans of Loerem was lost from sight and memory. But there are those who dare never forget...

A magical relic has been miraculously recovered -- and the battle for the future of Loerem begins. It is a nightmare conflict that will ensnare dwarf, human, elf, and orken beings, as the immortal dark lord Dagnarus launches terrible war from the blackest depths of the Void. And now heros must emerge from the most unlikely corners of the world to deny Dagnarus the awesome power of the Stone -- or suffer the hideous damnation of his hellish reign.

Blasting through the cosmos on a collision course with adventure, the 311 inhabitants of Alpha travel to mysterious, uncharted regions of the galaxy. Each day is a game of survival with the merciless universe.

On Alpha, Commander Koenig is still breathing. His soul has been stolen by a dazzling woman in a purple city that exists in the realm of thought only. And blood runs cold when an alien force transforms a crewman into an icy, energy-consuming monster -- who won't stop until Alpha freezes over.

As a corrupt Commonwealth rules the galaxy through the might of its armies, its most influential general--a renegade Guardian of the deposed Starfire royal line--pursues the rumor of a hidden heir to the throne and searches for a woman he loves and is destined to destroy.

By calling a temporary truce, Derek Sagan and the rebels thwarted the alien Corasian invasion. Enemies once again, the rebels have resumed their defiance and Sagan has retumed to his campaign to topple the corrupt galactic government. He plans to set up Dion as king of the Starfire dynasty--and to place himself as the ruling power behind the throne.

On a remote planetary sinkhole of sin and corruption, a small weapon-barely ten centimeters on a side--is hidden. If activated, this seemingly harmless crystal cube could tear a hole in the universe... and destroy the fabric of creation. Sagan wants it. Lady Maigrey wants it. And so does Abdiel, a cruel genius who commands a drugged army of mindless slaves. And now Dion is caught in this momentous struggle as he faces his greatest trial yet in his battle to gain the interstellar throne.

The spellbinding conclusion to the star-spanning saga of adventure and intrigue. At the end of King's Test, Sagan--the man who overthrew Dion's father--pledged his allegiance to Dion as the new king. Now, Dion battles alien and human enemies, and must give up both his lover and one of his men as he learns what it truly means to be king.

Young Dion Starfire is the ruler of a galaxy that is finally at peace after years of strife and bloodshed. Yet the peace is an uneasy one. Dion has fallen desperately in love with a woman who is not his queen, and suddenly the fragile alliances that rest of his marriage are threatened. Then real violence erupts as an illegitimate son of the dead king, in hiding on a forgotten planet, plots Dion's overthrow. At his command is an army of unseen "ghosts"--alien presences that can roam the galaxy and kill at will.

Dion must turn to an old mentor and enemy, Derek Sagan, as the one man who can help him battle the bastard prince and his dark minions. And at Derek's side hovers the powerful, shadowy presence of his lost love, Lady Maigrey. If Dion can only win their aid, he may have one last chance to preserve his throne--and peace for the galaxy.

Gods' Magic, Mortal's Doom...

In a land where magic is real, where elves and dragons menace the unwary, and where the Norse gods wage a deadly campaign, using mortals as their favourite pawns, Loki, god of deception, and Freyr, god of war, are locked in a battle that could tip the universal balance toward order or eternal chaos. Searching the alternate timeways, Freyr has reached out to snatch Al Larson, twentieth-century American soldier, from the midst of a fire-fight in Vietnam, flinging him through time and space into the body of an elvish warrior to stand against Loki and his sorcerous ally, Bramin.

Torn from a world where bullets and grenades are the weapons of choice, and locked into an elvish body on a world where sword and spell are the means of battle, Al must adapt swiftly - or die. For the gods have marked him as their own private battleground, and Al's only chance rests in completing the quest Freyr has set him, a quest that will lead him to the very gates of Hel, where he must save a god - or destroy one!

His father wrongly executed when he was a child, Taziar Medakan had turned to stealing for his survival. He was the Shadow Climber, skilled at remaining one with the shadows, unseen in the midst of his enemies. And he stole not for profit, but for the challenge of it, donating most of his booty to those in need.

But though Taz could defeat any trap, he wasn't prepared for the treachery of Ilyrian, a cunning politician ready to sacrifice the Shadow Climber to gain power himself. So Taz found himself in the baron's dreaded dungeons from which even a master thief's only escape might be death! There he met Moonbear, a prince among barbarians, a swordsman beyond compare, and Taz's last hope for salvation.

Together the two sought their pathway to freedom. But it was a pathway that would set a whole kingdom on their trail in a pursuit led by Ilyrian and a Dragonrank sorcerer on his own mission of magical revenge.

Godslayer - was the name Al Larson earned when, torn away from the midst of the firefight in Vietnam and catapulted to a time and place where the Norse gods fought a deadly war of their own, he was instrumental in the death of Loki, a key lord of Chaos.

But now Larson, the master swordsman Gaelinar, and the elusive thief known as the Shadow Climber were about to embark on an even more desperate quest. For the balance between Chaos and Law had been all but lost.

Fenris Wolf stalked the lands of men, thirsting to drink the lifeblood of Larson and Gaelinar, while Hel herself sought vengeance for Loki's destruction. Pursued by these foes out of nightmare, could Larson and the others survive long enough to recover the one hope of the forces of Law - the legendary rod of Geirmagnus, the first Dragonrank mage - a mission that would take them from the citadel of Dragonrank powers to war-torn Vietnam to Hel's dark realm and beyond?

When Shadow received a message that Shylar needed his aid, the master thief and his three companions, Allerum - now an elf swordsman but once a twentieth century American soldier - and the two Dragonmages, Silme and Astryd, immediately set out for Shadow's hometown of Cullinsberg. For Shylar, town madam and high in the thieves' underground, was all the family Shadow had.

But Cullinsberg was an armed trap waiting to close on the four adventurers. For they had slain the Chaos Dragon, and in so doing unleashed a force of pure Chaos, a force which then bonded with the single greatest surviving Dragonmage. Driven by Chaos-induced madness, this master of powers far beyond those of Silme and Astryd would now use anyone and any means to take his deadly revenge on those four warriors of Law.

For Al Larson it all began with his death in a fire-fight in Vietnam. He woke from this certain death to find himself alive - in a body and a world that was not his own! Transformed into an elven warrior, he became an unsuspecting pawn of the Norse gods, claimed as a weapon by both the forces of Chaos and of Law. Faced with challenges that would take him to Hel and back, Al made a place for himself in a land of swordsmen and spell-casters, and, after slaying one god, he found himself leagued with sorceresses and a master thief in the endless battle against Chaos.

But when Al and Shadow the thief slew the Chaos dragon, they unleashed a magical force beyond anyone's power to contain. And Al and his companions would be forced to work a desperate magic to flee back to a twentieth century America which was not quite the one from which Al had originally come. But Chaos would not let Al, Shadow, and the Dragonrank mages Silme and Astryd escape so easily, and, a mortal man once again, Al would find himself caught in a desperate fight to save everyone he held dear, as Chaos pursued him into the heart of New York City.

Now in one volume, the first three novels in the startlingly original Bifrost Guardians series: an epic saga of a Vietnam soldier sent through time and space.

Godslayer: Torn away from the midst of firefight in Vietnam and catapulted to a time and place where the Norse gods fight a deadly war of their own, Al Larson finds himself locked into an elvish body on a world where swords and spells are the means of battle. Al must adapt swiftly or die. For the gods have marked him as their own private battleground, and Al's only chance rests in completing the quest Freyr has set him, a quest that will lead him to the very gates of Hel, where he must save a god--or destroy one.

Shadow Climber: Taziar Medakan is the Shadow Climber, skilled at remaining one with the shadows, unseen in the midst of his enemies. But though Taz can defeat any trap, he isn't prepared for the treachery that lands him in the baron's dreaded dungeon. In that seemingly inescapable place, he meets Moonbear, a prince among barbarians, a swordsman beyond compare, and Taz's only hope for salvation. But when the two seek a pathway to freedom, they find the whole kingdom on their trail in a pursuit led by a Dragonrank sorcerer on his own mission of magical revenge.

Dragonrank Master: The balance between Chaos and Law has been all but lost. Fenris Wolf and Hel herself both seek vengeance on Al Larson and his allies, the Shadow Climber and the master swordsman Gaelinar. Pursued by these nightmare foes, can Larson and the rest survive long enough to recover the one hope of the forces of Law--the legendary rod of Geirmagnus, the first Dragonrank mage--a mission that will take them from the citadel of Dragonrank powers to war-torn Vietnam to Hel's dark realm and beyond?

Table fo Contents:

• 1 - Godslayer - [The Bifrost Guardians - 1] - (1987) - novel by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• 161 - Shadow Climber - [The Bifrost Guardians - 2] - (1988) - novel by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• 375 - Dragonrank Master - [The Bifrost Guardians - 3] - (1989) - novel by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Now in one volume, the final two novels in the startlingly original Bifrost Guardians series: an epic saga of a Vietnam soldier sent through time and space.

Shadow's Realm: When Shadow received a message that Shylar needed his aid, the master thief and his three companions, Allerum--once a twentieth-century American soldier but now an elf swordsman--and the Dragonmages, Silme and Astryd, immediately set out for Shadow's hometown of Cullinsberg. For Shylar, town madam and high in the thieves' underground, was all the family Shadow had. But Cullinsberg was an armed trap waiting to close on them. For they had slain the Chaos Dragon and unleashed a force of pure Chaos, a force which then bonded with the single greatest surviving Dragonmage. Driven by Chaos-induced madness, this master of powers far beyond theirs would use anyone and any means to take his deadly revenge on these four warriors of Law....

By Chaos Cursed: For Al Larson, it began with his death in a firefight in Vietnam. He woke from death to find himself alive--in a body and a world not his own! Transformed into an elf warrior, he became an unsuspecting pawn of the Norse gods, claimed by both Chaos and Law. Faced with challenges that would take him to Hel and back, Al teamed up with two sorceresses and a master thief in the endless battle against Chaos. But when Al and Shadow the thief slew the Chaos Dragon, they unleashed a magical force beyond anyone's power to contain. Working a desperate magic, Al and his companions fled back to a twentieth-century America which was not quite Al's own. But Chaos wouldn't let Al, Shadow, and the Dragonrank mages Silme and Astryd escape so easily. A mortal man once again, Al found himself caught in a last-ditch fight to save everyone he held dear, as Chaos pursued him into the heart of New York City....

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Shadow's Realm - [The Bifrost Guardians - 4] - (1990) - novel by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• 287 - By Chaos Cursed - [The Bifrost Guardians - 5] - (1991) - novel by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Seri has one errand to do as she waits for her beloved Prince of Avonar to regain his memory: to relay her brother's dying words to his son. But something is clearly wrong with the ten-year-old. Secretive, isolated, angry, the boy shows an inordinate terror of Seri's past. Though determined not to care for a child whose life she resents, she finds herself intrigued. And when an old nemesis arrives at her ancestral home...the world falls apart. A child with secrets, a sorcerer with a broken mind, a woman armed only with courage and wit, and an illiterate boy who knows everything of honor...all ensnared by the Lords of Zhev'Na in their plot to destroy D'Arnath's Bridge and plunge two worlds into chaos.

The Dragon Empire is under threat ... Kylie Chan, bestselling author of White Tiger, returns with the follow-up to Scales of Empire - imaginative, epic and a whole lot of fun.

Earth has joined the Galactic Empire, a vast interstellar society ruled by dragon-like aliens where everybody is immortal. Pain, famine and disease have been eradicated, but this doesn't mean the end of conflict.

A cruel alien Republic has been watching from afar and wants to take the Empire's progress for its own. Jian Choumali, ex-British forces and now Colonel in the Imperial space force, must fight to keep her friends, family and fellow citizens in the Empire safe. A brutal battle of skill and wits begins as Jian and her human colleagues attempt to combat the invaders -- but with all their technology, enhancements and weapons in the hands of their enemies, the odds are stacked against them, and there is the very real threat of the destruction of the Empire itself.

Outcast and exiled, the demon Tarrik Nal-Valim has long been forgotten by the world of humans. At least, so he thinks.

But when he is summoned as a last resort by a desperate sorcerer, it seems as though his past has caught up with him. The sorcerer is Serenity "Ren" Branwen, the daughter of Tarrik's former master--and friend. Though she seems cold, driven, and ruthless, Tarrik can tell that Ren has her back against a wall, and he is compelled by ferocious powers to obey her.

As their world sinks into a terrifying maelstrom of murder, intrigue, and insurrection, Tarrik is forced to serve Ren's arcane designs--plans that, if they were to succeed, would resurrect unimaginable power and could destroy Tarrik's entire race.

But as events unfurl, the lines between demon and master become blurred, and Tarrik realizes that Ren is not what she seems. To prevent utter devastation, Tarrik may have to surrender what he values most: a chance at redemption and an end to his exile.

Years have passed since the demon Tarrik and his master, the sorcerer Ren, destroyed the servants of Samal and suppressed the very essence of the vile lord. The cost was greater than even a demon could have imagined. But in the realms of demons and humans, no evil can be fully controlled, and no one's true fate can be foretold. Including Tarrik's. He's been summoned once more, now by the vengeful Linriel, who's fallen in with one of Samal's ravaged survivors.

Linriel takes Tarrik, bound again to serve, on a journey to the harsh southern lands to find the source of Ren's coveted powers, and there they discover a part of Tarrik's past he thought had been lost forever. As old bindings more powerful than sorcery fetter him, Tarrik is drawn into an obsessive and insane mission to erase the demon lord Samal from existence forever. And only if he succeeds will he at last be freed from exile.

As old threats are reborn, he must decide what sacrifices he's willing to make and what risks he's willing to take on the unforgiving road to redemption.

Admiral Geary's First Fleet of the Alliance has survived the journey deep into unexplored interstellar space, a voyage that led to the discovery of new alien species, including a new enemy and a possible ally. Now Geary's mission is to ensure the safety of the Midway Star System, which has revolted against the Syndicate Worlds empire--an empire that is on the brink of collapse.

To complicate matters further, Geary also needs to return safely to Alliance space not only with representatives of the Dancers, an alien species, but also with Invincible, a captured warship that could possibly be the most valuable object in human history. Despite the peace treaty that Geary must adhere to at all costs, the Syndicate Worlds regime threatens to make the fleet's journey back grueling and perilous.

And even if Geary escorts Invincible and the Dancers' representatives safely unharmed, the Syndics' attempts to spread dissent and political unrest may have already sown the seeds of the Alliance's destruction...

A sequel to THE BELGARIAD, Garion has slain the evil God Torak, and fulfilled the prophecy. But suddenly another prophecy is foretold. Again a great evil is brewing in the East. And again Garion finds himself caught between two ancient Prophecies, with the fate of the world resting on him....

Locus Award winning and Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, October 12, 1981. The story is included in the collections Tuf Voyaging (1986) and GRRM: A RRetrospective (2003).

Contents:

• Time Patrol
• Brave to be King
• The Only Game in Town
• Delenda Est

The grand city of Movoc-under-Keeper lies in ruins. The sinister puppet men have revealed their true nature, and their plan to tear down the veil between worlds. To have a chance of defeating them, Tanyana must do the impossible, and return to the world where they were created, on the other side of the veil. Her journey will force her into a terrible choice, and test just how much she is willing to sacrifice for the fate of two worlds.

The Dark Forest of Athel Loren, home of the Wood Elves, is a place of mystery and danger, a place no mortal man dares enter. Leofric, a noble knight of Bretonnia, has been raised since birth to shun and fear the forest and its enigmatic denizens. But a beastman plot to corrupt the sacred places of Athel Loren throws Leofric into an uneasy alliance with the wood elf Kyarno as they battle the invasion. If the Beastmen succeed, not only will the elves and their forest home be wiped off the face of the earth, but the destructive spirits of the forest will be unleashed to lay waste to all Bretonnia.