"If ever your heart has said, 'The great days are no more. The golden afternoon of golden tales has faded into night, and I came late, born out of time, to warm my hands at the embers that flicker and fade hour by hour' -- read this. . . Here are ghosts grim and gentle, red gold of Ophir, and fell weavings. Here is a tale to keep Scheherazade talking a hundred years." -- Gene Wolfe "Darrell Schweitzer is a fine writer . . . Not only is he skilled in the exotic use of the best trappings of Fantasy, he employs a disquieting awareness of the dark nooks of the mind and soul. . . .Best of all, Schweitzer is a story-teller, by whose smoky fire one may sit spell-bound." -- Tanith Lee "Superlative." --Interzone Darrell Schweitzer has been three-times nominated for the World Fantasy Award, twice for Best Collection, and once for the novella "To Become a Sorcerer," which forms the first four chapters of this book. He is also the author of "The White Isle," "The Shattered Goddess," and nearly 300 short stories, many of which are collected in such volumes as "The Darrell Schweitzer Megapack." An expert on fantastic fiction, who has written books about Lord Dunsany and H.P. Lovecraft, he also co-edited the legendary "Weird Tales" magazine.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the amazing story of Shah’s apprenticeship to one of India’s master conjurers, Hakim Feroze, and his initiation into the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Told with self-deprecating wit, panache, and an eye for the outlandish, it is an account of a magical journey across India. Feroze teaches the author the basics of his craft, such as sleights of hand, immersing his hands in boiling oil and lead, and—Aaron’s old trick from the Bible—turning a rod into a serpent. To complete his training and prove himself, he is sent on a quest to discover the ways illusion is manifested in every corner of the subcontinent. Saddled with a hilarious sidekick and guide he calls the Trickster, Shah travels from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay. Even as he recounts the most miraculous and bizarre feats of the sadhus, sages, sorcerers, avatars, fortune- tellers, healers, hypnotists, and humbugs whom he encounters, he reveals—and admires—the imagination and resourcefulness ordinary Indians deploy in order to survive. In this incredible book, Tahir Shah lifts the veil on the East’s most puzzling miracles and exposes a side of India that most never imagine exists.

Amidst the glittering optimism defining America's post-War period, the great metropolis of New York City is watched over by a legion of costumed superheroes. Half a century later, the heroes are all gone, and New York has collapsed into seemingly irreparable ruin. Throughout the 1950s, superhuman beings with fantastic abilities face off against bizarre enemies and absurd situations in their ongoing fight to uphold justice, defend the innocent, and safeguard the public welfare. In the early 21st century, a group of young superhumans is mentored by the few former heroes that remain, while monstrous gangsters and crazed supervillains battle for control of New York's decrepit husk. This epic saga, spanning two distinct eras, details the exploits of such magnificent champions as the patriotic Star-Spangled Angel, the sorcerer Dr. Obscura, the nigh omnipotent Super-Atomic Man, and the antisocial Urban Ranger, and the incredible adventures they undertake at the height of the Superheroic Age, while simultaneously examining the mystery of their disappearance, and the events that mold the shape of the dystopian New York of today.