Patricia A. McKillip

A rich & varied collection of the best short fantasy fiction of the last two centuries. Escape into the fantastic worlds of Charles Dickens, J.M. Barrie, Graham Greene, Harlan Ellison, and others found in these 38 magical tales.

No one captures the complexities of Appalachia as evocatively as Rash. This collection of short stories demonstrate his ability to evoke the heart and soul of this land and its people.

Sealey Head is a small town on the edge of the ocean, a sleepy place where everyone hears the ringing of a bell no one can see. On the outskirts of town is an impressive estate, Aislinn House, where the aged Lady Eglantyne lies dying, and where the doors sometimes open not to its own dusty rooms, but to the wild majesty of a castle full of knights and princesses

A knight goes in quest of the non-existent throme of the Erril of Sherill since the king will not allow his daughter to marry without it.

Though Morgon the Riddle-Master was reunited with his beloved Raederle, his purpose in life and the reason for the stars on his forehead remained a mystery. All around him, the realm shook with war and disaster as mysterious shape-changers battled against mankind. Without the missing High One, Morgon must assume responsibility for all his world After leading an army of the dead to protect his island of Hed, he and Raederle set out for Lungold, where the wizards were assembling against the evil Ghisteslwchlohm. And behind them came Deth, the crippled harpist, Morgon's friend and betrayer. But Lungold was only the beginning of the quest that would lead him to the truth of ancient struggle and the fate of the High One, until at last he could solve all mysteries and know his own awesome destiny! Third in the Quest of the Riddle-Master series.

From the inside flap: It was on a ferry ride to Manhattan that the idea for this anthology was conceived, Robin McKinley tells us in her foreword. The stories all would be fantasy, but with a particularly strong sense of location of the lands in which they take place. The result is an enthralling collection of nine stories, the settings of which range from what might be mistaken for a California landscape in James P. Blaylock's "Paper Dragons", to the hidden town beneath a real Norwich, England in Robert Westall's "The Big Rock Candy Mountain", to Robin McKinley's "The Stone Fey" which takes place in imaginary Damar, the scene of her prizewinning novels. And expert fantasists Peter Dickinson, P. C. Hodgell, Michael de Larrabeiti, Patricia A. McKillip, Joan D. Vinge, and Jane Yolen contribute their own visionary landscapes. The armchair traveller will find dragons and fairies, magic and myth, the best of fantasy on this grand tour of Imaginary Lands.

Scholar Phelan Cle is researching Bone Plain--which has been studied for the last 500 years, though no one has been able to locate it as a real place. Archaeologist Jonah Cle, Phelan's father, is also hunting through time, piecing history together from forgotten trinkets. His most eager disciple is Princess Beatrice, the king's youngest daughter. When they unearth a disk marked with ancient runes, Beatrice pursues the secrets of a lost language that she suddenly notices all around her, hidden in plain sight.

Unwillingly betrothed to Korre, totally unlike her curious self, Kyreol accepts an opportunity to accompany a friend on a trip to the end of their known world, during which she explores many cultures and experiences troubling thoughts.

The death of Royce Greve, Ombria's prince, leads to chaos as his aunt, Domina Pearl, attempts to wrest power away from the late prince's son, causing the forces of light and dark to vie for control of the city.

The Riddle-Master of Hed: In seeking the answer to the riddle of the three stars on his forehead and the three stars on the enchanted harp and sword, Morgon, Prince of Hed, goes ultimately to the High One, himself. Heir of Sea and Fire: When Morgon, Prince of Hed, fails to return from his journey to the High One, his fiancée, accompanied by his sister and a friend, sets out to find him. Harpist in the Wind: In the midst of conflict and unrest the Prince of Hed solves the puzzle of his future when he learns to harp the wind, discovers who the shape changers are, and understands his own relationship to Deth, harpist of the wizard Ohm.

A collection forty-six horror and fantasy fiction stories from the year 1995 from a wide selection of well-known genre authors Acknowledgement -- Summation 1995: fantasy / Terry Windling -- Summation 1995: horror / Ellen Datlow -- Horror and fantasy in the media: 1995 / Edward Bryant -- Obituaries / James Frankel -- Home for Christmas / Nina Kiriki Hoffman -- Heartfires / Charles de Lint -- Screens / Terry Lamsley -- King of crows / Midori Snyder -- Professor Gottesman and the Indian rhinoceros / Peter S. Beagle -- The hunt of the unicorn / Ellen Kushner -- More tomorrow / Michael Marshall Smith -- Penguins for lunch / Scott Bradfield -- Ether OR / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Paper lantern / Stuart Dybek -- [Lunch at the Gotham café]( / Stephen King -- Queen of knives (poem) / Neil Gaiman -- Dragon-rain / Eileen Kernaghan -- Llantos de la Llorona: warnings from the wailer (poem) / Pat Mora -- Too short a death / Peter Crowther -- The James Dean garage band / Rick Moody -- Because of dust / Christopher Kenworthy -- Loop / Douglas E. Winter -- La loma, la luna / Sue Kepros Hartman -- Women's stories (poem) / Jane Yolen -- Swan/princess (poem) / Jane Yolen -- Switch / Lucy Taylor -- Scaring the train / Terry Dowling -- Blood knot / Steve Rasnic Tem -- The girl who married the reindeer (poem) / Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin -- The otter woman (poem) / Mary O'Malley -- Resolve and resistance / S.N. Dyer -- La dame / Tanith Lee -- Circe's power (poem) / Louise Glück -- Dragon's fin soup / S.P. Somtow -- The granddaughter / Vivian Vande Velde -- Daphne and Laura and so forth (poem) / Margaret Atwood -- A lamia in the Cévennes / A.S. Byatt -- The guilty party / Susan Moody -- She's not there / Pat Cadigan -- The white road (poem) / Neil Gaiman -- Refrigerator heaven / David J. Schow -- After the elephant ballet / Gary A. Braunbeck -- Henry V, part 2 / Marcia Guthridge -- Mrs. Greasy / Robert Reed -- / Joyce Carol Oates -- The printer's daughter / Delia Sherman -- Prayer (poem) / Nancy Willard -- Jacob and the angel (poem) / Jane Yolen -- The lion and the lark / Patricia A. McKillip -- Honorable mentions.

Brenden Vetch has a gift. With an innate sense he cannot explain to himself or describe to others, he connects to the agricultural world, nurturing gardens to flourish and instinctively knowing the healing properties each plant and herb has to offer. But Brenden's gift isolates him from people--and from becoming part of a community.Until the day he receives a personal invitation from the wizard Od. She needs a gardener for her school in the great city of Kelior, where every potential wizard must be trained to serve the Kingdom of Numis. For decades the rulers of Numis have controlled the school, believing they can contain the power within it--and punish any wizard who dares defy the law.But unknown to the reigning monarchy is the power possessed by the school's new gardener--a power that even Brenden isn't fully aware of, and which is the true reason Od recruited him...

A collection of short stories, within whose pages we "find a youthful artist possessed by both his painting and his muse and seductive travelers from the sea enrapturing distant lovers. The statue of a mermaid comes suddenly to life, and two friends are transfixed by a haunted estate"--Amazon.com.

Cyan Dag, knight of Gloinmere, is sworn to serve King Regis Aurum of Yves. Cyan's oath leads him headlong into dangerous magical territory, however, when Idra, Bard of Skye, reveals that the King's new bride, Lady Gwynne, is an impostor. The true Lady Gwynne is trapped in an enchanted stone tower in distant Skye, a magical mirror her only means of viewing the outside world. Bound by his oath to protect the King, Cyan rides west to free Lady Gwynne. In the meantime, Thayne Ysse, son of the king of Ysse, has never forgotten his father's defeat at the hands of King Regis Aurum. Now he seeks a tower guarded by a dragon, a tower filled with gold enough to raise a new army and defeat Yves once and for all. And in another ancient tower outside the coastal village of Stony Wood, Melanthos, the daughter of a land-bound selkie and a fisherman, obsessively embroiders pictures of a lonely woman trapped in a distant tower who may or may not be real. Although Cyan Dag took up his quest with one goal in mind, he soon realizes that the only route to saving Lady Gwynne lies tangled with the lives of Thayne and Melanthos, and in the mysterious motives of Idra and her woods-wise sister Sidera.