Beautifully written speculative fiction from Metaphorosis magazine. Snow queens and their daughters, invisible giants pining for vanished lovers, transformations, searches, quests, and voyages of all kinds. The best science fiction and fantasy stories from Metaphorosis magazine's second year.

A heart that's a building, a dog that's a program, a woman who's sinking irretrievably - stories about love, loss, and motion. A collection of speculative stories from author and editor B. Morris Allen. Chambers of the Heart – it's hard, living in someone's heart Building on Sand – how to choose between children Blush – when everyone else wears a mask, what's it like to bare your face? Minstrel Boy Howling at the Moon – magic, music, and ... buffalo? Fetch – she may be a simulation, but out on the edge, she’s one man’s best friend The Humblebract Expedition – even dying children like to play When Dooryards First in the Lilac Bloomed – a doorway to opportunity and change, if only humans can understand it Some Sun and Delilah – a sunny island, an abandoned temple, and thoug Crying in the Salt House – the house is built from tears, or so they say Full of Stars – jar half empty, jar half full Memory and Faded Ink – the aliens are perfectly human ... and just as flawed Fountainhead – arranged meetings never work, especially with different species Adaptations to Coastal Erosion – when your spouse is literally falling away from you Outburst – Earth is dead, except for a few teens on a decaying orbital The Irrigation Ditch – they came to hide, but didn’t realize it was from each other Dragons I Have Slain – take hope where you find it Cover art by Bonnie Leeman

Orson Scott Card's The Last Shadow is the long-awaited conclusion to both the original Ender series and the Ender's Shadow series, as the children of Ender and Bean solve the great problem of the Ender Universe—the deadly virus they call the descolada, which is incurable and will kill all of humanity if it is allowed to escape from Lusitania. One planet. Three sapient species living peacefully together. And one deadly virus that could wipe out every world in the Starways Congress, killing billions. Is the only answer another great Xenocide? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A young man is transformed into a barbarian fighter in this adventure from “one of the leading masters of epic fantasy” (Publishers Weekly). Wallie Smith can feel the pain. He goes to the hospital and remembers the doctors and the commotion, but when he wakes up it all seems like a dream. However, if that was a dream, how do you explain waking up in another body and in another world? Little Wallie finds himself in the physique of a barbarian swordsman, accompanied by both an eccentric priest babbling about the Goddess and a voluptuous slave girl. Is this a rude awakening or a dream come true? What in the world will Wallie do now that he has found himself stranded in a strange realm? Well, it just so happens that the Goddess is in need of a swordsman. It will not be easy, but if he succeeds he will have everything he wants. If he does not, things could get ugly. Wallie is reluctant but sees his chance. If only he had the faintest clue as to the adventure he is about to unleash! If only he could imagine the forces that will be out to vanquish him!

Metaphors are widely used within marketing literature, yet so far have remained unacknowledged. This book aims to redress that omission. Such widely known topics such as globalization of markets, viral marketing and many others are in fact metaphors; moreover, marketing itself may be a metaphor, underlying many exchanges and relationships.

Eager for a home of their own, the crew of Nordvik, an antiquated trading ship, decide to set up camp on Slowyear, a rarely visited planet whose population must live underground during bitter winters lasting five Earth-years. Reprint.