Aurora  in  Four  Voices

By Catherine Asaro

Cover by Joe Bergeron

A convicted murderer trying to escape the misery of his captivity in a city based on mathematics finds the thing he least expected…compassion.

Two orphans, cousins, share their grief over the death of one of their mothers in the remote New Mexico desert where the legends and traditions of their culture may have more power than science should allow.

A surprising inter-dimensional romance in which knowledge in more ways than one, provides the key to a feudal world’s future.

A test pilot pushes himself, his vehicle, and his computer beyond the limits of physical space in an attempt to regain that which he has lost.

An escaped scion of a royal family leads a private eye through a maze of dangers, between the criminal underclass which would as soon see her dead, and the highest levels of society who she can’t afford to offend.

And, as a bonus, an essay explaining how Asaro uses math to craft her alien worlds.

The Collected Hugo Stories

by Mike Resnick

Publication set for August 2012 at Chicon 7

Twenty-nine of Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Mike Resnick’s stories, brought together in a unique collection.

Each story carries its own introduction written by someone notable in his or her own right.

And the book is introduced by the person who probably knows him best of all:  his wife Carol.

Assassin and Other Stories

by Steven Barnes

Cover by Duncan Long

After Abdul-Wahid saw his parents killed by Crusaders, he and his foster brother fled the ruins of their village and life ahead of the invaders.  Found by members of the feared assassins, Abdul-Wahid was taken in and trained, only to find the need to suppress his desire for vengeance in the face of the greater good of his community.

His quest for retribution, and justice, takes him from the peak of the fabled fortress of Alamut, home of the legendary assassins, to the coastal villages of Gaza and into the tent of the great Saracen commander Saladin, himself.

As one of the fabled assassins, can Abdul-Wahid retain his humanity while he leaves behind an evergrowing number of bodies?  As he travels around the Mideast on assignments, he must deal not only with those who have been marked for death and their defenders, but also the regular people who live in the villages and towns who want nothing more than to see the end of strife and be allowed to find love, have children, and grow old, something Abdul-Wahid can’t picture himself doing.

The Shadow on the Doorstep

by James P. Blaylock

Cover by Phil Foglio

The Author’s Personal Favorites of his own Short Fiction, plus an Introduction by Tim Powers and an Afterword by Lewis Shiner.

SIT DOWN.  GRAB A BOX of doughnuts.  Make it a baker’s dozen, one for each story.

James Blaylock has carefully constructed these stories to fill the reader with wonder, looking at the magic just below the surface, and offering you a variety of different styles of fantasy.

If you like your fantasy filled with darkness, try “The Old Curiosity Shop,” in which Doyle Jimmerson must come to terms with the death of his wife and his own inadequacies that helped create the world in which he finds himself.

Or you might prefer the nostalgia-glazed fantasy.  If so, bite into “Thirteen Phantasms,” where the discovery of an old box of magazines leads Landers to yearn for a simpler time when it was easier to find a sense of wonder.

You say the frosting of the paranormal is what makes you sit up?  Try sampling “The Other Side” and just wait for the hairs on your arms to stand on end.

If you’re wondering why this sounds like it was written in a bakery, turn to “Doughnuts,” and find what Blaylock refers to as “the true quill.”

When you’re finished reading the stories in this collection, you’ll find yourself as full of goodness as your doughnut box is empty.

When Diplomacy Fails

Edited by Eric Flint & Mark Resnick

Cover by David Mattingly

Grunts, Tommies, Gropos, Dogfaces

Whatever you call them, these are the men, women, and aliens who fight the wars the politicians come up with.

Join nine outstanding authors as they explore the ever and never changing role of the soldier in ISFiC Press's latest collection of short stories.

In these stories, selected by Eric Flint and Mike Resnick, brave veterans and the rankest recruits face, not only expected threats such as gunfire and bombs, but dragons, man-tanks and cyborg soldiers and, not the least threat, the incompetents and would-be heroes that every cause attracts (and kills). 

Finding Magic

by Tanya Huff

Cover by Jody A. Lee

Tanya Huff has personally selected these seventeen pieces for Finding Magic, her fourth short story collection.  They showcase her amazing versatility as she effortlessly moves from the science fiction of "I Knew a Guy Once" to the vampiric "After School Specials" to the fantastic in "Brock" to the humorouis  "A Woman's Work...."

Outbound

by Jack McDevitt

Cover by Stephan Martinière

This book is Out of Print, but you can still read about it here.  Perhaps you can find a used copy for sale.

Jack McDevitt has an uncanny ability to transport his readers to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and show them the most amazing spectacles nature has to offer.  Within Outbound, McDevitt will allow you to...

  ...gaze on an alien statue discovered on Saturn's moon.

  ...delve into the mysteries of brown dwarf stars.

  ...travel through time on a distant planet. 

More about this book...

Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches

Edited by Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari

Cover by Bob Eggleton

"Fellow Science Fiction Fans:  I am mighty glad to be here among as fine a crowd of live-wires and go-getters that has ever assembled under one roof.  I always pictured you Science Fans just as you are.  Always ready for any adventure and argue any question at the drop of a hat."

Guest of Honor, Frank R. Paul said that in 1939 addressing a group of 200 science fiction fans in New York for the first World Science Fiction Convention.  And here's the book that proves his case with 31 Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches.

Mike Resnick and Joe Siclari have rescued many of these from oblivion.  Speeches only preserved on tape or printed in obscure, hard-to-find fanzines, are now collected in this fine hard cover edition.  These speeches are treasure troves of ideas, quotes and insightful commentary by some of the greatest writers in the science fiction field:  Robert A. Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, Kate Wilhelm, Theodore Sturgeon, and so many more.  Starting with Paul's first Worldcon speech all the way through Christopher Priest's 2005 speech at Interaction in Glasgow, each speech presents a snapshot of the concedrns of authors and fans within the genre and the world at large.

More about this book...

The Cunning Blood

by Jeff Duntemann

Cover by Todd Cameron Hamilton

Peter Novilio was going to Hell

CAUGHT VIOLATING THE ZERO TOLERANCE for Violence laws, he was sentenced to a oneway trip to Earth's prison planet in the Zeta Tucanae system.  Hell was forever  Its ecosphere had been infected with microscopic nanomachines that destroyed electrical conductors, condemning its inmates to a neo-Victorian gaslight society without computers, spaceflight, or hope of escape.

Every Inch A King

by Harry Turtledove

Cover by Bob Eggleton

It's Good to Be the King.

They say that everyone has a twin somewhere and when Otto of Schlepsig sees the picture of Prince Halim Eddin, he realizes that he's not only fouind his twin, but his ticket out of the third-rate circus run by Dooger and Clark.  Instead of performing on a tightrope for the marks, he's taking his act to Shqiperi, where the Prince has been invited to become their new king, a role that Otto is more than happy to assume himself.

Relativity

Stories and Essays by Robert J. Sawyer

Cover by Jael

Robert J. Sawyer established his reputation as a fine novelist when he burst on the science fiction scene with Golden Fleece in 1991.  More quietly, he has built an impr3ssive body of short fiction, essays, articles, and speeches.  Relativity is his first collection of these.

Read the stories collected, and you'll...

  ...become a modern day killer who walks with dinosaurs in "Just Like Old Times." 

  ...experience first contact with an alien race, with all that implies in "Ineluctable."

  ...fly on board a space ship in "The Shoulders of Giants." 

A Walk On the Windy Side

          (Compact disc)

A promotional item for Windycon XXIX (held in 2002)

Produced by Gretchen Roper of Dodeka Records

Engineered and mastered by Bill Roper

Cover art by Lisa Snellings

A Walk on the Windy Side was produced as a promotional item for Windycon XXIX in 2002.  Copies were given to all members of the convention, but no copies were made available for sale.

In addition to music, the CD contained story readings by Frederik Pohl and Kristine Smith and interstitial dialogue performed by Bill Roper and Sam Paris.