Die Zauberkugel wurde zerstört, und die Todesfee Roxane ist verschwunden. In Freistatt scheint endlich wieder Frieden eingekehrt zu sein. Tempus denkt sogar daran, seine wilden Stiefsöhne wieder zum Hexenwall abzuziehen. Doch wer wird dann die Macht in der Diebeswelt ergreifen? Da tritt Chenaya, die Gladiatorin und Tochter der Sonne, auf den Plan: Sie will sich mit den gefürchtetsten Männern von ganz Freistatt verbünden – der Rebellen der Unterwelt. Neue Abenteuer aus der Stadt der Diebe, wo man sich mit Feuer und Flamme der Magie verschreibt, selbst wenn man sich dabei furchtbar die Finger verbrennt.

An overview of the best science fiction short stories of the 20th century as selected and evaluated by critically-acclaimed author Orson Scott Card. Featuring stories from the genre's greatest authors: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl, Harlan Ellison, George Alec Effinger, Brian W. Aldiss, William Gibson & Michael Swanwick, Theodore Sturgeon, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, James Blish, George R. R. Martin, James Patrick Kelly, Karen Joy Fowler, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., Terry Bisson, Poul Anderson, John Kessel, R.A. Lafferty, C.J. Cherryh, Lisa Goldstein, and Edmond Hamilton

Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction—and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure. Now, in The Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters—many of them set in their authors’ best-loved worlds....

Deep in an abandoned, shattered castle, an old man of the Old Magic muttered almost forgotten words. His purpose — to create out of the insubstance of the air, from a shimmering of light and a fluttering of shadows. that most wonderous of spells, a Shaping. A Shaping in the form of a, young man who will be sent east on the road the old was to old to travel. To right the wrongs of a long-forgotten wizard war, and call new wars into being. Here is the long-awaited major new novel from one of the brightest stars in the fantasy and science fiction firmament. C.J.Cherryh's haunting story of the wizard Mauryl, kingmaker for a thousand years of Men, and Tristen, fated to sow distrust between a...

This is the second, after *Turning Points* (2002), in another series of collections of new stories about the city of Sanctuary, originally the creation of editor Abbey and Robert Asprin in their Thieves' World, now long a setting exploited by a variety of authors. Sanctuary was founded by runaway slaves, hence the name, and remains a refuge for those able to call no other place home--a deadly fate, indeed, for there is no one there to guard one's back. Weapons, wizardry, music--any of these can start something in Sanctuary that only the boldest can finish. Editor Abbey unifies this book with the device of a shipwreck off the coast of Sanctuary, with the stuff looted from it cranking up the...

Heroes from Earth including Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Julius Caesar become caught up in a war between demons and mortals

Freedom was an isolated planet, off the spaceways track and rarely visited by commercial spacers. It wasn't that Freedom was inhospitable as planets go. The problem was that outsiders—tourists and traders—claimed the streets were crowded with mysterious characters in blue robes and with members of an alien species. Native-born humans, however, said that was not the case. There were no such blue-robes and no aliens. Such was the viewpoint of both Herrin the artist and Waden the autocrat—until a crisis of planetary identity forced a life-and-death confrontation between the question of reality and the reality of the question…

The Empire of Sabis was falling, besieged by the army of a more powerful empire and by hostile wizards. A small group of philosopher-scientists could reverse the tide if they could convince the rulers of Sabis to build the deadly new weapon that they have invented: the cannon. But when the rulers prove too short-sighted and Sabis falls, the scientists flee, disguising their knowledge under the cover of religion. Though centuries will pass and the Sabim race will be oppressed and persecuted, the powerful knowledge will be preserved in secret by the Order. And the time will come when only one thing stands against destruction by a ruthless and invincible barbarian horde: The Sword of Knowledge.

They said that Ciaran Cuilean was fey—that he had the touch of the Sidhe on him, and on his lands. And it was true. Elvish blood ran in his veins, and he had been to that other world—that parallel and magical land of Eald, where Arafel, the Lady of Trees, held dominion. But what should have been a blessing was as much a curse—for jealousy and fear grew in the lands of men. Shadows of newly awakened evil swarmed across both landscapes threatening to bring the clang and reek of war from the warm hearthstones of the mortal world keeps to the silvery heart of Ealdwood. And Ciaran knew that he must once again put his humanity aside and reclaim his haunted weapons from the Tree of Swords or...

Now betrayed by the Emperor he once protected, master swordsman Saukendar leaves the way of the sword behind him forever--so he thinks. When a headstrong peasant girl burning to avenge her murdered family demands that he train her, Saukendar is faced with a momentous choice. Send Taizu away, never see her again--or join her and destroy the tyrant who has nearly destroyed them both.