New Releases by Michael Swanwick

An unabridged collection of the “best of the best” science fiction stories written in 2011 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In “Dying Young,” by Peter M. Ball, cyborgs, clones and post-humans collide with a dragon bent on revenge in a post-apocalptic space western. “Martian Heart,” by John Barnes, chronicles a teenage couple taken to Mars as indentured servants in a “rags to riches” tale. In “Canterbury Hollow,” by Chris Lawson, two lovers on a planet orbiting a killer sun share their few remaining weeks together before they die. “The Choice,” by Paul McAuley, set in the author’s Jackaroo universe, follows two boys who set sail to investigate a beached alien vessel on the English coast. In “After the Apocalypse,” by Maureen McHugh, a mother and daughter traverse a ravaged U.S. in a tale that takes on McCarthy’s, The Road, from a female viewpoint. “Purple,” by Robert Reed, tells of a blind and maimed young man convalescing in an off-world menagerie of wayward alien species, prior to returning to Earth. In “Laika’s Ghost,” by Karl Schroeder, a Russian and an American search the steppes of the former U.S.S.R. for metastable weapons that terrorists could use to make nuclear bombs. “Bit Rot,” by Charles Stross, follows post-humans struggling to survive after their generation ship is struck by a Magnetar ray in this clever zombies-in-space tale. In “For I Have Laid Me Down on The Stone of Loneliness and I’ll Not Be Back Again,” by Michael Swanwick, Irishmen plot to strike back against alien occupiers by enlisting an Irish American tourist to their cause. Finally, Steve Rasnic Tem, tells of a young man awakened from suspended animation, on a future Earth, with the technological know-how of plant-like aliens in “At Play in the Fields.”

This collection of unabridged, unforgettable tales, written by some of science fiction’s most esteemed authors, pays homage to one of the genre’s most cherished story types. Whether time travel stories leap forward in time or slip into the past, they remain popular with fans. John Barnesspins a tale of intrigue as the principles of science are discovered centuries ahead of time while mankind is divided into classes (Com'n and Liejt) and the Irish people are slaves in “Things Undone.” Nancy KressAnne Boleyn and that of historians from a distant future to which pivotal historic figures are taken in order to prevent otherwise inevitable bloodshed in “And Wild for to Hold.” Ian R. MacLeodsends three time traveling historians from the future to rescue Captain Oatesfrom the doomed Scott party amidst the race to the South Pole in the early 20thcentury in “Home Time.” Tom Purdomsets historians from the future on a high seas adventure to document a 19thcentury British Admiralty anti-slavery patrol in “The Mists of Time.” Science fiction grand master, Robert Silverberg, slowly slides the fifty-seven year old owner of a Toyota dealership in the San Francisco Bay area backwards in time towards his birth in “Against the Current.” Allen M. Steeletells the story of how a U.S. Navy blimp crewmember happens upon time travelers while monitoring Soviet sea traffic around Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in “The Observation Post.” Michael Swanwickfollows the director of a dinosaur research center holding a timeline-polluting fund raiser located in the late Cretaceous period in the Hugo award winning story, “Scherzo with Tyrannosaur.” Genevieve Valentineobserves the detrimental effects of time travel on the timeline through the eyes of a seamstress whose wealthy patrons are obsessed with their time period costumes in “Bespoke.”

A collection of some of the best original short fiction published on Tor.com in 2011. Includes stories by Charlie Jane Anders, James Allan Gardner, Yoon Ha Lee, Nnedi Okorafor, Paul Park, Matthew Sandborn Smith, Michael Swanwick, and Harry Turtedove. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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.

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.

When the elves come out of the mirrors one Christmas, they send Sasha on a harrowing train trip to get back a brother she never knew she had. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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.

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.

Each year, members of the World Science Fiction Convention vote for the science fiction and fantasy works they love the most: the Hugo Awards. Now, for the first time in more than a decade, you can find these treasured gems within a single volume. The Hugo Award Showcase collects the stories-by rising stars like Kij Johnson, beloved taleslingers like Michael Swanwick, and literary legends like Nancy Kress-that have captured the hearts and imaginations of some of the genre's most dedicated readers.

Typescript and autographed letter to Janis Ian, signed by the author.

Hope-in-the-Mist is the first book-length study of British author Hope Mirrlees (1887-1978), whom Virginia Woolf described as "her own heroine -- capricious, exacting, exquisite, very learned, and beautifully dressed." Raised in Scotland and Zululand, Mirrlees studied with the great classical scholar Jane Harrison and later lived with her in Paris and London. Mirrlees wrote one major poem, Paris (1920), the missing link between French avant-garde poetry and her friend T. S. Eliot''s The Waste Land (1922); her novel Lud-in-the-Mist is an acknowledged classic of fantastical literature.

A fantasy masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner! A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the idyllic fields of a post-industrialized Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes young Will his lieutenant. Nightly, he crawls inside the young fey''s brain to get a measure of what his subjects think. Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, witnesses the violent clash of giants, and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal. Evacuated to the Tower of Babel -- infinitely high, infinitely vulgar, very much like New York City -- Will meets the confidence trickster Nat Whilk. Inside the Dread Tower, Will becomes a hero to the homeless living in the tunnels under the city, rises as an underling to a politician, and meets his one true love–a high-elven woman he dare not aspire to. You''ve heard of hard SF: This is hard fantasy from a master of the form.

The first comprehensive overview of the extraordinary career of a master storyteller.

A collection of sixteen stories from the Hugo-winner features such situations as time-traveling dinosaurs wreaking havoc on a quiet town in Vermont to a locked room murder of an ogre.

Critical monograph examining the writings of Virginia fantasistJames Branch Cabell (1879-1958), author of Jurgen.

Brand-new contributions to the hoard of dragon lore by five top fantasy authors. Orson Scott Card''s "In the Dragon''s House" is a gothic yarn about the mysterious dragon that lives in the wiring of an old house, noticed by a young boy who shares its body in dreams and feels its true size and power. Mercedes Lackey''s "Joust" tells the story of a slave boy who is chosen to care for a warrior''s dragon--a dragon whose secrets may be the key to his freedom. Tanith Lee''s "Love in a Time of Dragons" is a fable is imbued with her signature atmosphere--Old World, moody, erotic--as a kitchen maid goes a-questing with a handsome champion to slay the local drakkor. Elizabeth Moon''s "Judgment" tells the tale of a young man forced by lies to flee his village . . . into an adventure of dwarfs and dragonspawn. Michael Swanwick''s "King Dragon" invokes a truly sinister and repellent creature--a being with the soul of a beast and the body of a machine--part metal, part devil . . . all merciless.

The definitive short story collection of science fiction author James Tiptree, Jr. (a pen name of Alice Bradley Sheldon).

Often humorous, sometimes chilling, always entertaining, this collection of award-winning author Michael Swanwick''s short-short fiction is a work of masterfully sustained whimsy for adults. Cigar-Box Faust contains more than seventy fantastical stories in fewer than a hundred pages. The title piece is a five-minute condensation of a classic of Western literature, featuring a cigar-cutter as Mephistopheles; a box of matches in the roles of Helen of Troy, an Angel of the Lord, and the Light of Ontology; and a cigar as Faust himself. Although it has previously been performed live by the author, this is its first appearance in print. There is also an abecedary showcasing Swanwick''s bravura imagination with a separate story for every letter of the alphabet, another set of tales for every planet in the solar system, and a series of pieces that the author literally wrote in his sleep! To say nothing of a clutch of alternate autobiographies, a novella of decadence and corporate politics in a future Venice that has been boiled down to 416 words, Picasso and Philip K. Dick as existential heroes...and a rhyme for orange.

MUTINY IN SPACE began as a novella entitled "Valentine's Planet," which appeared in the August 1964 issue of Worlds of Tomorrow. "To space opera of the time, the character of the captain was as important as that of the king was to Shakespeare. He (the captain was always a "he," even when the author was female) was the model and exemplar for society, the man with the right stuff, he who made the tough decisions and enforced discipline?

From pure fantasy to hard science fiction, this finely crafted offering by one of the greatest science fiction writers of his generation promises to stretch readers'' minds far beyond ordinary limits. Nineteen tales from Michael Swanwick''s best short fiction of the past decade are gathered here for the first time, including the 1999 Hugo Award-nominated "Radiant Doors" and "Wild Minds" and this year''s winning story, "The Very Pulse of the Machine." The collection also features "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O," written especially for this volume.

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 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.