A collection of nineteen short stories from the Nebula and Hugo Award–winning author of The Iron Dragon’s Daughter and Stations of the Tide Written over the course of a decade, Tales from Old Earth contains nineteen masterful pieces of short fiction—including the Hugo Award–winning stories “The Very Pulse of the Machine” and “Scherzo with Tyrannosaur;” the World Fantasy Award–winning novella “Radio Waves;” Hugo Award finalists “The Dead,” “Radiant Doors,” and “Wild Minds;” and World Fantasy Award finalist “The Changeling’s Tale”—as well as an introduction by Bruce Sterling. From pure fantasy to hard science fiction, this finely crafted collection from one of the greatest science fiction writers of his generation promises to stretch readers’ minds far beyond ordinary limits. These tales are guaranteed to delight and are an excellent introduction to this highly praised author.
Chasing the Phoenix: a science fiction masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner Michael Swanwick! In the distant future, Surplus arrives in China dressed as a Mongolian shaman, leading a yak which carries the corpse of his friend, Darger. The old high-tech world has long since collapsed, and the artificial intelligences that ran it are outlawed and destroyed. Or so it seems. Darger and Surplus, a human and a genetically engineered dog with human intelligence who walks upright, are a pair of con men and the heroes of a series of prior Swanwick stories. They travel to what was once China and invent a scam to become rich and powerful. Pretending to have limited super-powers, they aid an ambitious local warlord who dreams of conquest and once again reuniting China under one ruler. And, against all odds, it begins to work, but it seems as if there are other forces at work behind the scenes. Chasing the Phoenix is a sharp, slick, witty science fiction adventure that is hugely entertaining from Michael Swanwick, one of the best SF writers alive. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The master of literary science fiction returns with this dazzling new collection. Michael Swanwick takes us on a whirlwind journey across the globe and across time and space, where magic and science exist in possibilities that are not of this world. These tales are intimate in their telling, galactic in their scope, and delightfully sesquipedalian in their verbiage. Join the caravan through Swanwick's worlds and into the playground of his mind. Travel from Norway to Russia and America to Gehenna. Discover a calculus problem that rocks the ages and robots who both nurture and kill. Meet a magical horse who protects the innocent, a semi-repentant troll, a savvy teenager who takes on the Devil, and time travelers from the Mesozoic who party till the end of time...
A tough, keen-edged blade of a story … powerful and moving!" ― Roger Zelazny "This episodic tale of life, war, and survival in post-meltdown Pennsylvania builds a potent new myth from the grim reality of radioactive waste. Swanwick's clean, strong prose makes the story compulsively readable." ― George R. R. Martin "A vivid, fast-paced and evocative story by one of science fiction's best new writers. A generation-spanning saga of the fight for power and survival in a chillingly possible alternate future America … one which could still yet come to pass, tomorrow or today." ― Gardner Dozois In this dystopic world, radiation from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident has contaminated all of central Pennsylvania. A century after the disaster, the fallout zone ― known as the Drift ― harbors two-headed monsters, mutated vampires, and other outcasts. In the Drift chronicles the struggles of those on both sides of the divide as they fight to survive and transcend their shattered world.
A 2020 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST AND KIRKUS BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF 2019 Award-winning author Michael Swanwick returns to the gritty, post-industrial faerie world of his New York Times Notable Book The Iron Dragon’s Daughter with the standalone adventure fantasy The Iron Dragon’s Mother. Caitlin of House Sans Merci is the young half-human pilot of a sentient mechanical dragon. Returning from her first soul-stealing raid, she discovers an unwanted hitchhiker. When Caitlin is framed for the murder of her brother, to save herself she must disappear into Industrialized Faerie, looking for the one person who can clear her. Unfortunately, the stakes are higher than she knows. Her deeds will change her world forever. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
This latest collection from renowned science fiction author Michael Swanwick contains 15 short-short stories on dinosaur themes. These dinosaurs are steely bureaucrats, genetically engineered Christmas toys, and beloved killer pets, clashing with immoral scientists, neighbourhood bullies, and society ladies with dangerous, sometimes moving, and wickedly funny consequences.
A New York Times Notable Book: “Combining cyberpunk’s grit with dystopic fantasy, this iconoclastic hybrid is a standout piece of storytelling” (Library Journal). Jane is trapped as a changeling in an industrialized Faerie ruled by aristocratic high elves and populated by ogres, dwarves, night-gaunts, and hags. She is the only human in a factory where underage forced labor builds cybernetic, magical dragons that are weaponized and sent off to war. When the damaged dragon Melanchthon tempts Jane with promises of freedom, the stage is set for a daring escape that will shake the foundations of existence. Combining alchemy and technology, a coming-of-age story like no other, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter takes place against a dystopic mindscape of dark challenges and class struggles that force Jane to make costly decisions at every turn. A finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1994 Locus Award, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter a is one-of-a-kind melding of grimdark fantasy and cyberpunk grit from the Nebula Award–winning author of Stations of the Tide. It engages the reader in a nihilistic world in which nothing is as it seems and everything comes at a steep and often horrific price.
These thirteen stories established Michael Swanwick as one of the brightest stars in the science-fiction firmament. Alongside its companion volume, Tales of Old Earth, Gravity's Angels showcases the very best of Swanwick's considerable talent, including the Sturgeon Award--winner "The Edge of the World." Each story is a unique and engrossing exploration of character, conflict, and conscience.
A Russian émigré poet living in Paris is visited by a mysterious bear with an agenda... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The fourth in Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Michael Swanwick's "Mongolian Wizard" series of tales set in an alternate fin de siècle Europe shot through with magic, mystery, and intrigue. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
An alternate-history reimagining of the Faust legend from the Nebula Award–winning author of Stations of the Tide Taking as his canvas the classic tale of the temptation of Faust—made famous by such literary luminaries as Goethe, Marlowe, and Mann—author Michael Swanwick paints a fresh vision of the dangers posed by the pursuit of knowledge. Set in Old World Germany, this tale of science and damnation begins with the great scholar Dr. Johannes Faust burning his books, having concluded that all his knowledge is nothing compared to the vast sea of ignorance surrounding him. Out of his despair, he inadvertently summons the tempter spirit, Mephistopheles, who is the projection of a dying alien race determined to make the destruction of humankind its final deed. Their weapon is knowledge—of science and technology, the mechanics of flight, the nature of the atom, and the secrets of economics. When, in an act of defiance, Faust nails the Periodic Table of the Elements to a church door in Wittenberg, he ushers in a golden age of prosperity for Germany that will make him the most powerful man in the world. But the love of the beautiful Margarete will be his downfall. What happens when the greed for knowledge and glory goes unchecked? Has a demon ever made a bad deal yet? Nominated for the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the British Science Fiction Award, Jack Faust is a masterful retelling of legend by one of science fiction’s finest craftsmen.
The Nebula Award-wining novel from Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions. The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. A man from the Bureau of Proscribed Technologies has been sent to investigate. For Gregorian has come, a genius renegade scientist and charismatic bush wizard. With magic and forbidden technology, he plans to remake the rotting, dying world in his own evil image—and to force whom or whatever remains on its diminishing surface toward a terrifying and astonishing confrontation with death and transcendence. This novel of surreal hard SF was compared to the fiction of Gene Wolfe when it was first published, and the author has gone on in the two decades since to become recognized as one of the finest living SF and fantasy writers. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
We tamper with time at our peril. The Phantom in the Maze, a new story in the Mongolian Wizard series by award-winning author Michael Swanwick. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Michael Swanwick's "Annie Without Crow" is a historial fantasy short story--a Tor.com Original An act of indiscretion from her immortal trickster companion sends Annie and her league of ladies-in-waiting on a time-defying adventure that becomes the inspiration for William Shakespeare. An act of indiscretion from her immortal trickster companion sends Annie and her league of ladies-in-waiting on a time-defying adventure that becomes the inspiration for William Shakespeare. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A cyberpunk thriller from Nebula Award winner Michael Swanwick that explores bioengineering, wetware, and the riddle of personality Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark is a recorded personality owned by corporate giant Deutsche Nakasone. When Rebel’s personality is uploaded to persona tester Eucrasia Walsh and burned into her brain, Rebel escapes the corporation and takes off across an exotically transformed solar system, hijacking Eucrasia’s body and becoming the most wanted fugitive in existence. A fast-paced technological thriller, Vacuum Flowers allows the reader to consider the implications of bioengineering while providing an entertaining and dynamic story. Reminiscent of the innovative work of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling, this high-tech work of science fiction carves out a niche all its own with themes as relevant today as when it was first published.
With "The Mongolian Wizard," Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Michael Swanwick launches a new fiction series at Tor.com -- beginning with this story of a very unusual international conference in a fractured Europe that never was. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A locked room, a murder, and an unexpected kind of magic: the fifth of Michael Swanwick's "Mongolian Wizard" tales. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The third in Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Michael Swanwick's "Mongolian Wizard" series of tales set in an alternate fin de siècle Europe shot through with sorcery and intrigue. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A sampling of Michael Swanwick's work, with seven stories, one play, six essays, and two speeches. All selections written by Michael Swanwick, except as noted.
Michael Swanwick—The Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy award- winning author of Stations of the Tide—delivers a stunning "Postutopian" novel of swashbuckling adventure, dangerous women, and genocidal AIs. Dancing with Bears follows the adventures of notorious con men Darger and Surplus: They've lied and cheated their way onto the caravan that is delivering a priceless gift from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Muscovy. The only thing harder than the journey to Muscovy is their arrival in Muscovy. An audience with the duke seems impossible to obtain, and Darger and Surplus quickly become entangled in a morass of deceit and revolution. The only thing more dangerous than the convoluted political web surrounding Darger and Surplus is the gift itself, the Pearls of Byzantium, and Zoësophia, the governess sworn to protect their virtue. This steampunk-esque adventure explores the great game of espionage and empire building, from the point of view of the world’s most accomplished con men, Darger and Surplus.
Long after the wars, there are things abroad in the world—things more than human. And they have scores to settle with one another. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Spies and sorcerers face off during the Cold War, with the fate of the world in balance in this print edition of a hugely popular serial novel from five award-winning and critically acclaimed authors. The Cold War rages in back rooms and dark alleys of 1970s Prague as spies and sorcerers battle for home and country. The fate of the East and the West hangs in the balance right along the Iron Curtain—and crackling beneath the surface is a vein of magic that is waiting to be tapped. This novel was previously published serially at SerialBox.com/Serials/ColdWitch.
There is no light without dark; no highlights without shadows; no good without evil. The Devil is where things happen. Where stories begin. This collection brings together stories from multiple cultures, featuring the Devil both as an abstract concept and a creature, a terror, a force of nature, an enemy, a trickster, and so many more. Step into the world of shadows, and travel through Devil’s many incarnations spanning centuries of history and myth, from the Ancient Greece, African and Caribbean folklore, dark ages in Europe, all the way to the present day. This anthology features new and established authors from diverse, multicultural backgrounds.
Black Cat Weekly 16 is a special holiday issue, featuring three holiday-themed mysteries for your reading pleasure. We didn’t have any holiday science fiction or fantasy stories on tap this time, but we will definitely try to do better next year. (Decembers are always a bit chaotic at Wildside Press—we also have to get out the year-end royalties for hundreds of authors.) If you are a fan of classic science fiction, you’ll appreciate “The Star Sneak,” by Larry Tritten—a Jack Vance parody, unearthed from 1974. And Darrell Schweitzer and Cindy Ward bring in stories by two masters—Michael Swanwick and Nisi Shawn. Tarnished Utopia by Malcolm Jameson is our pulp classic from the legendary Startling Stories magazine. For the mystery reader, we lead off with my own “Christmas Pit,” an entry in my “Pit-Bull” Peter Geller series. Our editors Barb Goffman and Michael Bracken bring in holiday tales (with very similar titles!) by Paige Sleuth and Stacy Woodson. Plus a classic hardboiled story from Frank Kane, and a Mr. Clackworthy story by Christopher B. Booth. And what issue would be complete without a solve-it-yourself story by Hal Charles? Without further ado, here is the lineup: Mysteries / Suspense “A Christmas Pit,” by John Gregory Betancourt [short story] Sister Knows Best, by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] Frame, by Frank Kane [short novel] “Mr. Clackworthy Forgets His Tonic,” by Christopher B. Booth [short story] “Holiday Holdup,” by Paige Sleuth [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “Holiday Hitman,” by Stacy Woodson [Michael Bracken Presents short story] Science Fiction & Fantasy “Maggies,” by Nisi Shawl [Cynthia M. Ward Presents short story] “A Small Room in Koboldtown,” by Michael Swanwick [Darrell Schweitizer Presents short story] Tarnished Utopia, by Malcolm Jameson [novel] “The Star Sneak,” by Larry Tritten [short story]
A new story in the Mongolian Wizard universe. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A new story in the Mongolian Wizard universe At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Welcome to Prague, 1970: ground zero in a Cold War of spies and sorcerers. The streets are a deadly chessboard on which the CIA and KGB make their moves, little dreaming that a deeper game is being played between the Consortium of Ice and the Acolytes of Flame, ancient organizations that seek to harness elemental magic. Tanya Morozova is a KGB officer and the latest in a long of Ice sorceresses; Gabe Pritchard is a CIA officer and reluctant Ice recruit. Enemies at one turn, but forced into alliances at the next, their relationship is as explosive as the Cold War itself. Praise for The Witch Who Came in from the Cold: "Those who like to mix magic, spycraft, and secret history should enjoy this—it may please fans of Stross’s Laundry series." —Locus Magazine "Full of fast-paced, high-intensity action paired with magic at a level that has not been seen until now, with a cliff-hanger that lets readers know that the game is not over and has only just begun." —The San Francisco Book Review "The Witch Who Came in from the Cold is a chilly evocation of a different kind of Cold War." —Charles Stross, author of the Laundry Files series “Take a double shot of Le Carré, a dash of Deighton, a twist of Quiller, a splash of Al Stewart’s The Year of the Cat, throw in a jigger full of elemental magic, mix well ... and voilà! The Witch Who Came In From The Cold.” —Victor Milán, author of The Dinosaur Lords "The occult love child of John le Carre and The Sandbaggers." —Marie Brennan, author of A Natural History of Dragons "As soon as I saw that, I was instantly hooked, and the pilot jacked the intrigue to the max. Two female Soviet spy witches, an American spy with something weird drilling magical holes in his head, and a world of secrets within secrets in a locale where old-world myth and the Cold War face off, pedal to the metal . . . it’s awesome. Or as we said in 1970, Far out. " —Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel "The installments are easy to read one at a time, but the tangles of alliances, secrets, and shocking double-crosses will have readers up all night mumbling, “Just one more.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
A visitor from Moscow Center has Tanya seeing red, while Gabe baits his hook in the latest episode of Serial Box's The Witch Who Came in from the Cold, featuring the distinctive storytelling magic of award-winning author and special-guest writer Michael Swanwick. When an unwanted interloper from Moscow Center intrudes on local KGB operations in Prague, Tanya finds that red tape can strangle as effectively as any garrote. Meanwhile, Gabe must deal with a new arrival from Washington, D.C., sent to command the ANCHISES operation. It seems that bureaucracy is the same on both sides of the Iron Curtain! Where can two enemy spies turn for help . . . but to each other? This episode is brought to you by the award-winning Michael Swanwick, who would like to warn you that looks can be deceiving. Praise for The Witch Who Came in from the Cold: "Those who like to mix magic, spycraft, and secret history should enjoy this—it may please fans of Stross’s Laundry series." —Locus Magazine "Full of fast-paced, high-intensity action paired with magic at a level that has not been seen until now, with a cliff-hanger that lets readers know that the game is not over and has only just begun." —The San Francisco Book Review "The Witch Who Came in from the Cold is a chilly evocation of a different kind of Cold War." —Charles Stross, author of the Laundry Files series “Take a double shot of Le Carré, a dash of Deighton, a twist of Quiller, a splash of Al Stewart’s The Year of the Cat, throw in a jigger full of elemental magic, mix well ... and voilà! The Witch Who Came In From The Cold.” —Victor Milán, author of The Dinosaur Lords "The occult love child of John le Carre and The Sandbaggers." —Marie Brennan, author of A Natural History of Dragons "As soon as I saw that, I was instantly hooked, and the pilot jacked the intrigue to the max. Two female Soviet spy witches, an American spy with something weird drilling magical holes in his head, and a world of secrets within secrets in a locale where old-world myth and the Cold War face off, pedal to the metal . . . it’s awesome. Or as we said in 1970, Far out. " —Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel "The installments are easy to read one at a time, but the tangles of alliances, secrets, and shocking double-crosses will have readers up all night mumbling, “Just one more.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
Will Radio Jones's invention save the day? Can Amelia Spindizzy outfly all competition and outsmart the brains in jars? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Wizard has swallowed more and more of Europe--and inside his shuttered realm are magic and mass death. The Pyramid of Krakow is the sixth of Michael Swanwick's "Mongolian Wizard" tales. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A second "Mongolian Wizard" tale from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Michael Swanwick – continuing an epic of magic and deception in an alternate Europe of railroads and sorcery. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Since 2006, Clarkesworld Magazine has been entertaining science fiction and fantasy fans with their brand of unique science fiction and fantasy stories. Collected here are all of the stories this Hugo Award-winning magazine published during their eighth year. Includes stories by Michael Swanwick, Yoon Ha Lee, Robert Reed, Susan Palwick, Sean Williams, N.K. Jemisin, James Patrick Kelly, E. Lily Yu, Ken Liu, Xia Jia, Seth Dickinson, Juliette Wade, Matthew Kressel, and many more! CONTENTS Introduction by Neil Clarke Passage of Earth by Michael Swanwick Mystic Falls by Robert Reed Weather by Susan Palwick Human Strandings and the Role of the Xenobiologist by Thoraiya Dyer A Gift in Time by Maggie Clark Never Dreaming (In Four Burns) by Seth Dickinson Wine by Yoon Ha Lee The Cuckoo by Sean Williams Five Stages of Grief After the Alien Invasion by Caroline M. Yoachim Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade by Benjanun Sriduangkaew And Wash Out by Tides of War by An Owomoyela Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable by Cat Rambo Grave of the Fireflies by Cheng Jingbo Bonfires in Anacostia by Joseph Tomaras Stone Hunger by N. K. Jemisin The Contemporary Foxwife by Yoon Ha Lee Suteta Mono de wa Nai by Juliette Wade The Saint of the Sidewalks by Kat Howard Daedalum, the Devil's Wheel by E. Lily Yu The Rose Witch by James Patrick Kelly The Creature Recants by Dale Bailey Spring Festival: Happiness, Anger, Love, Sorrow, Joy by Xia Jia Of Alternate Adventures and Memory by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz wHole by Robert Reed Pepe by Tang Fei The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul by Natalia Theodoridou Bits by Naomi Kritzer Communion by Mary Anne Mohanraj The Aftermath by Maggie Clark Water in Springtime by Kali Wallace Soul's Bargain by Juliette Wade The Symphony of Ice and Dust by Julie Novakova Migratory Patterns of Underground Birds by E. Catherine Tobler Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points by JY Yang Autodidact by Benjanun Sriduangkaew Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickinson The Clockwork Soldier by Ken Liu The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye by Matthew Kressel About the Authors Clarkesworld Census About Clarkesworld
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