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HarperVoyager
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Gardner Dozois
Introduction © 2018 by Gardner Dozois
Individual story copyrights appear here
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover illustration © Stephen Youll
The author of each individual story asserts their moral rights, including the right to be identified as the author of their work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
These stories are entirely works of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in them are the work of the authors’ imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008295844
Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780008295868
Version: 2019-01-12
“Sungrazer” by Liz Williams. Copyright © 2018 by Liz Williams.
“The Staff in the Stone” by Garth Nix. Copyright © 2018 by Garth Nix.
“No Work of Mine” by Elizbeth Bear. Copyright © 2018 by Elizabeth Bear.
“Widow Maker” by Lavie Tidhar. Copyright © 2018 by Lavie Tidhar.
“The Wolf and the Manticore” by Greg van Eekhout. © 2018 by Greg van Eekhout.
“A Night at the Tarn House” by George R.R. Martin. Copyright © 2009 by George R.R. Martin. First published in Songs of the Dying Earth, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.
“The Devil’s Whatever” by Andy Duncan. Copyright © 2018 by Andy Duncan.
“Bloom” by Kate Elliott. Copyright © 2018 by Kate Elliott.
“The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril” by Scott Lynch. Copyright © 2018 by Scott Lynch.
For
All those who work magic with words,
the most potent magic there is
Gardner Dozois 1947–2018
As an editor, Gardner had no peers. He discovered and nurtured more new talents than I could possibly remember or recount, myself included. It’s no exaggeration to say that I would not be where I am today if Gardner had not fished me out of the slush pile in 1970. He found me in his first editorial job, reading submissions at Galaxy, where he came upon my short story ‘The Hero’ and passed it along to the editor with a recommendation to buy. That was my first professional sale.
He was also the warmest, kindest, gentlest soul you’ll ever meet, larger than life, bawdy, funny … so funny. It was an honour to know him, and to work with him. I miss him so much.
George R.R. Martin, 2018
Contents
Copyright
Copyright Acknowledgements
Dedication
Introduction by Gardner Dozois
Sungrazer by Liz Williams
The Staff in the Stone by Garth Nix
No Work of Mine by Elizabeth Bear
Widow Maker by Lavie Tidhar
The Wolf and the Manticore by Greg Van Eekhout
A Night at the Tarn House by George R.R. Martin
The Devil’s Whatever by Andy Duncan
Bloom by Kate Elliott
The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril by Scott Lynch
About the Publisher
Introduction by Gardner Dozois
Sorcerer, witch, shaman, wizard, seer, root woman, conjure man … the origins of the magic-user, the-one-who-intercedes-with-the-spirits, the one who knows the ancient secrets and can call upon the hidden powers, the one who can see both the spirit world and the physical world, and who can mediate between them, go back to the beginning of human history—and beyond. Fascinating traces of ritual magic have been unearthed at various Neanderthal sites: the ritual burial of the dead, laid to rest with their favorite tools and food, and sometimes covered with flowers; a low-walled stone enclosure containing seven bear heads, all facing forward; a human skull on a stake in a ring of stones … Neanderthal magic.
A few tens of thousands of years later, in the deep caves of Lascaux and Pech Merle and Rouffignac, the Cro-Magnons were practicing magic too, perhaps learned from their vanishing Neanderthal cousins. Deep in the darkest hidden depths of the caves at La Mouthe and Les Combarelles and Altamira, in the most remote and isolate galleries, the Cro-Magnons filled wall after wall with vivid, emblematic paintings of Ice Age animals. There’s little doubt that these cave paintings—and their associational phenomena: realistic clay sculptures of bison, carved ivory horses, the enigmatic “Venus” figurines, and the abstract and interlacing paint-outlined human handprints