Other Earths - By Nick Gevers & Jay Lake

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AGES OF WONDER edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin Fantasy—the very word conjures infinite possibilities. And yet far too often, writers limit themselves to a few well-mined areas of the vast fantasy realms. But the history of our world offers many cultures and areas rich in lore and legend that have barely been explored. And so we have AGES OF WONDER. The nineteen tales included here take us from the Age of Antiquity to the Age of Sails, the Colonial Age, the Age of Pioneers, the Pre-Modern Age, and the Age Ahead. Join these adventurers as they explore all that fantasy has to offer in stories ranging from a Roman slave forced to seek a witch’s curse to aid his master . . . to an elemental trapped in a mortal’s body unable to reach for the power of the wind . . . to a family of tree-people hoping to find a new life in America . . . to a Native American tribe’s search for a new hunting ground and the one girl whose power could prove the difference between life and death . . . to the impact of technology on those who live by magic . . . and the Age that may await when science and magic combine into something new.

WE THINK, THEREFORE WE ARE edited by Peter Crowther Writers have been telling stories about sentient robots, computers, etc., since the Golden Age of science fiction began. Now fifteen masters of imagining have turned their talents to exploring the forms AIs may take in the not too distant future. Here are the descendants of Robby the Robot, the Terminator, and the Bicentennial Man, by authors such as Stephen Baxter, Brian Stableford, James Lovegrove, Tony Ballantyne, Robert Reed, Paul Di Filippo, Patrick O’Leary, Ian Watson, and others.

IMAGINARY FRIENDS edited by John Marco and Martin H. Greenberg When you were a child, did you have an imaginary friend who kept you company when you were lonely or scared, or who had the most delightful adventures with you? For anyone who fondly remembers that unique companion no one else could see or hear, here is a chance to recapture that magical time of your life. Join thirteen top imaginers like Rick Hautala, Anne Bishop, Juliet McKenna, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Kristen Britain, Bill Fawcett, Fiona Patton, and Jim C. Hines, as they introduce you to both special friends and special places in their spellbinding tales. From the adventurous doings of a dragon and a boy . . . to a young woman held captive in a tower, and the mysterious being who is her only companion, though he can’t enter her room . . . to a beggar, bartender, and a stray dog in the heart of Nashville . . . and a woman who seems to have lost her creativity until a toy Canadian Mountie suddenly comes to life . . . you’ll find an intriguing assortment of comrades to share some of our time with.

Copyright © 2009 by Tekno Books, Nick Gevers, and Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

All Rights Reserved.

DAW Book Collectors No. 1472.

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA).

All characters in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

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First Printing, April 2009

eISBN : 978-1-101-02464-5

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Introduction copyright © 2009 by Nick Gevers and Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

“This Peaceable Land, or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe,” copyright © 2009 by Robert Charles Wilson

“The Goat Variations,” copyright © 2009 by Jeff VanderMeer

“The Unblinking Eye,” copyright © 2009 by Stephen Baxter

“Csilla’s Story,” copyright © 2009 by Theodora Goss

“Winterborn,” copyright © 2009 by Liz Williams

“Donovan Sent Us,” copyright © 2009 by Gene Wolfe

“The Holy City and Em’s Reptile Farm,” copyright © 2009 by Greg van Eekhout

“The Receivers,” copyright © 2009 by Alastair Reynolds

“A Family History,” copyright © 2009 by Paul Park

“Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life,” copyright © 2009 by Lucius Shepard

“Nine Alternate Alternate Histories,” copyright © 2009 by Benjamin Rosenbaum

INTRODUCTION

Nick Gevers and Jay Lake

In a sense, all fiction is alternate history. Did Odysseus rule in Ithaca? Where is Jack Aubrey in the recorded naval