Search Worlds Without End

Omnibus edition containing The Broken Lands (1968), The Black Mountains (1971) and Changeling Earth (1973). The text of these novels has been substantially revised for the omnibus publication.

In the distant future, society has crumbled. Dark forces now rule the land, keeping all humans under their oppressive thumbs.

In the darkness of the shadows and whispered on the winds, there is talk of a rebellion. In the swamps, a small band has formed. Determined to regain their freedom, the rebellion, heavily outnumbered, plans to overthrow an army of thousands... with the help of one incredible weapon.

It is only a legend, a story left over from the Old World before magic and the wizards came to the land. A weapon of technology. It is the mystical Elephant, and whoever masters it holds the key to freedom, or defeat.

One young man, determined to avenge the death of his family, sets out to join the rebellion and find Elephant. What he discovers will change everything.

The passing of thousands of years left the planet Earth a series of broken lands... a mutated world of distant alien empires and near-at-hand rapacious satraps.

The hunted common people were sustained by one last legend--that some day one would come who would "ride the Elephant" and thereby bring back the Golden Age.

This is the gripping novel of the young rebel who found out what the legend really signified, and of how he sought to use that banned knowledge in the very heart of the satrap's stronghold of alien magics and well-guarded scientific mysteries.

When Chup's castle fell to the forces of the West, the ex-lord was reduced to beggary at its gates. Each day he faced the Black Mountains of the East to which he had sworn fealty--and where he hoped his unclaimed bride still waited.

Behind, the West plotted to assault the Black Mountains with their new weapons from the forbidden lore of Old Technology. Ahead, lay the three most powerful lords in all creation. One was good, one was Evil, one was immortal.

Chup knew the East would not help him unless the could profit by it. Nor could he refuse anything asked of him and still survive. If they reached him in any way, he might be both blessed and cirsed. and then, one howling, windy night, came the deformed luminescence of a demon...

The planet was Earth. The time was fifty thousand years from now. Magic and witchcraft worked and the Old Science didn't.

Why this was so nobody knew - it had always been that way during the long tyranny of the Empire of the East. During that same period there had always been little bands of rebels using fragments of white magic against the demonic armies. Rolf was the latest of these rebels - and he had on his side the mysterious power known as Ardneh.

It's been a thousand years since the time of Ardneh, the transcendant being that saved humanity from the vicious archdemon Orcus. It was a legndary battle between magic and technology that killed them both, but left behind tales of Ardneh's heroism and newly found hope for humanity. But in the passing years only a few remain that actually believe these legends as truths.

Chance Rolfson comes from a long line of Ardneh's followers, descendants from Rolf, the illustrious warrior who fought in Ardneh's name for humanity many years ago. A young man plagued with vivid nightmares, Chance hopes to clear his head by joining a forest expedition that seeks physical proof of Ardneh's existence. Their goal is to discover the great vault prophesized to hold the savior of humanity's secrets to his own power and wisdom. But the dangers are high in the uncharted forests, rife with bandits and demons that no magic can stop. And as Chance's dreams become more clear, he soon realizes these are not merely dreams but visions, and he alone holds the key to unlocking Ardneh's greatest gift, known to the followers as Ardneh's Sword.