From the 1898 Martian Siege of Baltimore to a forlorn AI attack dog on the blue-star-scarred surface of MZ458-C and from the merc-manned Freestead Mayflower off the coast of post-apocalyptic Portland to the man-desperate shores of the Red Sea, here are seventeen science fiction stories of valiant endurance. These heroes battle conspiracies of usurpers, confront the unearned consequences of others’ willful lunacy, seek out buried truths at unbearable personal expense and endure the inhuman demands of digital rebellion in worlds innately hostile to truth and freedom. With original, never-before-published works from veteran authors, including William F. Wu, as well as emerging talents.

He was the King of Assassins, the King of the Dark World. No one knew his real name and no one knew where he came from. Because of an accident, he had returned to Hidden City after being heavily injured. Furthermore, he wanted to see just how he would cause such a bloodbath in the city ...

"Smart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: The exhilaration of the act." The New Yorker Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting. A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing. Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play, Red is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Michael Grandage.

Much-Afraid had been in the service of the Chief Shepherd, whose great flocks were pastured down in the Valley of Humiliation. She lived with her friends and fellow workers Mercy and Peace in a tranquil little white cottage in the village of Much-Trembling. She loved her work and desired intensely to please the Chief Shepherd, but happy as she was in most ways, she was conscious of several things which hindered her in her work and caused her much secret distress and shame. Here is the allegorical tale of Much-Afraid, an every-woman searching for guidance from God to lead her to a higher place.

In the Middle Ages, religious crusaders took up arms, prayed, bade farewell to their families, and marched off to fight in holy wars. These Christian soldiers also created accounts of their lives in lyric poetry, putting words to the experience of personal sacrifice and the pious struggle associated with holy war. The crusaders affirmed their commitment to fighting to claim a distant land while revealing their feelings as they left behind their loved ones, homes, and earthly duties. Their poems and related visual works offer us insight into the crusaders’ lives and values at the boundaries of earthly and spiritual duties, body and soul, holy devotion and courtly love. In The Subject of Crusade, Marisa Galvez offers a nuanced view of holy war and crusade poetry, reading these lyric works within a wider conversation with religion and culture. Arguing for an interdisciplinary treatment of crusade lyric, she shows how such poems are crucial for understanding the crusades as a complex cultural and historical phenomenon. Placing them in conversation with chronicles, knightly handbooks, artworks, and confessional and pastoral texts, she identifies a particular “crusade idiom” that emerged out of the conflict between pious and earthly duties. Galvez fashions an expanded understanding of the creative works made by crusaders to reveal their experiences, desires, ideologies, and reasons for taking up the cross.