Search Worlds Without End

A student of multiversal time travel slips from one version of New York to another, discovering that love may transcend timelines, but so too can heartbreak...

Read it for free here Tor.com

Fantasy spreads across the five boroughs in the first volume of a new anthology series collecting fantastic and extraordinary stories set in specific urban locales.

An intriguing but insular man with telekinetic powers becomes New York City's greatest superhero... A love affair blossoms between the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building... There are tunnels under New York that do not appear on any map... Being a Manhattan real estate broker for supernaturals is a real challenge...

Editor and anthologist Paula Guran collects a diverse array of unusual and memorable tales set in the Big Apple, from a who's-who of New York Times bestsellers and Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writers including George R. R. Martin, Peter Straub, Naomi Novik, Maria Dahvana Headley, Holly Black, and many more.

Anyone who's visited New York, New York knows what a "magical" place it is; these stories reveal just how marvelous, extraordinary, mysterious, and even occasionally eerie a truly fantastic city can be.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: A Place Apart - Paula Guran
• How the Pooka Came to New York City - Delia Sherman
• ...And the Angel with Television Eyes - John Shirley
• Priced to Sell - Naomi Novik
• The Horrid Glory of Its Wings - Elizabeth Bear
• The Tallest Doll in New York City - Maria Dahvana Headley
• Blood Yesterday, Blood Tomorrow - Richard Bowes
• Pork Pie Hat - Peter Straub
• Grand Central Park - Delia Sherman
• The Land of Heart's Desire - Holly Black
• The City Born Great - N. K. Jemisin
• La Peau Verte - Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Cryptic Coloration - Elizabeth Bear
• Caisson - Karl Bunker
• Red as Snow - Seanan McGuire
• A Huntsman Passing By - Richard Bowes
• Painted Birds and Shivered Bones - Kat Howard
• Salsa Nocturna - Daniel José Older
• Weston Walks - Kit Reed
• The Rock in the Park - Peter S. Beagle
• Shell Games - George R. R. Martin
• About the Authors
• First Publication Data
• About the Editor

Nebula Award-nominated author Maria Dahvana Headley has always loved Damon Runyon's stylized faux-reporting on New York City. This is her version of a Runyon tale--this one dealing with the architectural guys and dolls of New York City--and a valentine to all the beautiful buildings she knows.

It's Valentine's Day, 1938, and the Chrysler Building's tired of waiting on the corner of Forty-second and Lex for a certain edifice to notice her. Here's the story of what might happen if two of New York's greatest creations met on a day built for romance.

This story is included in the anthologies The New Voices of Fantasy (2017), edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman, New York Fantastic (2017), edited by Paula Guran, and Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction (2018), edited by Irene Gallo.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 2008. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20 (2009), edited by Stephen Jones, Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy Volume III (2010), edited by Matthew Cheney and Kevin Brockmeier, and The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 2 (2014), edited by Gordon Van Gelder. The story is included in the collection Just After Sunset (2008).

Dinnie, an overweight enemy of humanity, was the worst violinist in New York, but was practicing gamely when two cute little fairies stumbled through his fourth-floor window and vomited on the carpet...

When a pair of fugitive Scottish thistle fairies end up transplanted to Manhattan by mistake, both the Big Apple and the Little People have a lot of adjusting to do. Heather and Morag just want to start the first radical fairy punk rock band, but first they'll have make a match between two highly unlikely sweethearts, start a street brawl between rival gangs of Italian, Chinese, and African fairies, help the ghost of a dead rocker track down his lost guitar, reclaim a rare triple-bloomed Welsh poppy from a bag lady with delusions of grandeur, disrupt a local community performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and somehow manage to stay sober enough to save all of New York from an invasion of evil Cornish fairies.

If they can stop feuding with each other, that is.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally apeared in the anthology Dark Faith (2010), edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon.

Read the full story for free at Apex Magazine.

Rich vs. Poor. Life vs. Death.

When Skye Rogers and her twin brother, Red, move to Manhattan, rumors of a coming global apocalypse are building. But the ultra-wealthy young elites at their prestigious school keep partying like there's no tomorrow--while the city around them starts to fall apart.

Then Skye and Red are invited to join the Secret Runners, an exclusive group that has access to horrifying truths about the future. Can that insider information save them? Or is this the only time even one-percenters can't buy their way to safety?

As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city.

There is the market trader, who finds opportunities where others find trouble. There is the detective, whose work will never disappear -- along with the lawyers, of course.

There is the internet star, beloved by millions for her airship adventures, and the building's manager, quietly respected for his attention to detail. Then there are two boys who don't live there, but have no other home - and who are more important to its future than anyone might imagine.

Lastly there are the coders, temporary residents on the roof, whose disappearance triggers a sequence of events that threatens the existence of all -- and even the long-hidden foundations on which the city rests.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Lawrence Watt-Evans
• Cloister - (1991) - shortstory by Piers Anthony
• Getting Real - novelette by Susan Shwartz
• The Cleanest Block in Town - shortfiction by Janet Asimov
• Another Dime, Another Place - novelette by A. J. Austin
• Watching New York Melt - shortfiction by Lawrence Watt-Evans and Julie Evans
• Post Time in Pink - novelette by Mike Resnick
• Learning Experience - shortfiction by Laurence M. Janifer
• Ties - shortfiction by Martha Soukup
• Wild Thing - shortfiction by Eric Blackburn
• Rise and Fall - shortfiction by Stephen L. Antczak
• Shadows on the Moon - shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The Baby Track - shortfiction by Howard Mittelmark
• Clash of Titans (A New York Romance) - shortfiction by Kurt Busiek
• What Lives After - shortfiction by Robert Frazier
• Slow Burn in Alphabettown - shortfiction by S. N. Lewitt
• Let Me Call You Sweetheart - shortstory by Michael A. Stackpole
• Tomb w/ View - shortfiction by P. D. Cacek
• A Walk Through Beirut - novelette by John Shirley
• The Last Real New Yorker in the World - shortfiction by James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle
• Tunnel Vision - shortfiction by Esther M. Friesner
• A Nice Place to Visit - shortfiction by Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran
• Long Growing Season - novella by Robert J. Howe
• Candelabra and Diamonds - shortfiction by Don Sakers
• In the Good Old Summer Time - shortfiction by B. W. Clough
• Afterword - essay by Eric S. Johansson

Hob Draconian, American-born but a two-decade resident of Ibiza and a tie-dyed-in-the-wool hippie philosopher, is happily back from America and living in Ibiza--until he learns that the property he's renting is about to be sold for re-development and he needs a quick $10K to save his house. Time for the Alternative Detective Agency to find a lucrative case to solve--one where he can avoid danger, get away with being a smart-mouth quipster and still save the day--and get paid.

WOULD YOU GIVE UP YOUR SOUL TO SAVE A CITY? JACK NIGHTINGALE WOULD.

Teenagers are being possessed and turning into sadistic murderers. Priests can't help, nor can psychiatrists.

So who is behind the demonic possessions? Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate, and finds his own soul is on the line.

THE STREETS OF MANHATTAN... WHERE DRAGONS WALK BY NIGHT

Now the showdown has begun. On a planet called Earth and the city known as New York, knight and dragon confront each other in one final battle. As the deathly dance begins, the city of asphalt and steel slowly wakes to the magic in its midst. Beneath the streets the tattered subway dwellers meet in secret convocation to worship the Dragon as God. In Spanish Harlem a young boy is apprenticed to a great warrior. On Fifth Avenue hardened cabbies tremble as a Nightmare parades the streets. And in St. Patrick's Cathedral the Dragon takes control of the greatest city on Earth...

WHEN MAGIC MEETS MORTAL

When Amanda Taylor and her stepson, the elf prince Cassiodoron, fled Elfhame for the mortal Lands of Earth, Cass's father Kelerison, Lord King of Elfhame Ultramar, swore he'd hunt them down and bring them back.

Now he's found them... and their haven in the peaceful town of Godwin's Corners faces invasion by the not-so-peaceable Fair Folk. But all is not well in Elfhame--and soon Amanda, Cass and their unlikely allies find themselves caught up in a struggle for the elfin throne itself...

ELF DEFENCE

When magic meets reality anything can happen.

The sphynx is back, and armed with a new set of riddles, she sets out--in human form--to the newest, poshest casino in Atlantic City... where sides are drawn and spells are cast as a new kind of pandemonium erupts around the roulette wheels!

In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. But when the US president crash-lands inside, only one man can bring him back: notorious outlaw and former Special Forces war hero Snake Plissken. But time is short. In 24 hours, an explosive device implanted in his neck will end Snake's mission, and his life, unless he succeeds!

A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city - for the undead! Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can't take off her resume --- human.

Not to be put off by anything -- especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker -- Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble -- with Zoe right in the middle.

New York in 2040 is a city of the lost. A good place to work in Missing Persons. But business is not quite good enough for Hal Halliday to forget his sister, burned alive when only child all those years ago. And now VR offers the chance of bringing her back, the future may yet allow Hal to live in the past. If he can survive the next job...

Hal Halliday runs a missing persons business in mid 21st century New York. It is a city that is drowning in refugees after terrorist outrages have left much of America a radioactive wasteland. People colour their grim lives with endless hours spent in VR. It is an addiction which has made VR magnate Sergio Mantoni a multi-millionaire.

But now Mantoni faces a threat from a guerilla group called VIREX, who are dedicating to ending the false promise of VR. And when Hal accepts a job to look for the missing sister of a Holodrama star, he find himself drawn into the complex world of VR and VIREX ...

In a futuristic variation upon the modern detective story, we follow Hal as he returns from retirement, seeking the answer to the mysterious disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, last seen with a child prodigy and an unknown older man. We accompany him during his encounters with the jaded individuals who now occupy sullied Manhattan, and share his anguish at the gradual realization of the devastating effects that Virtual Reality is having upon his fellow citizens, rapidly losing their abilities to interact in the real world.

1880

Witches Adelaide Thom and Eleanor St Clair have opened a tea shop in Manhattan specialising in cures, palmistry and potions.

When an enchanting woman called Beatrice joins the witches as an apprentice, she soon proves indispensable, but her new life is marred by strange occurrences.

She sees things no one else can see. She hears voices no one else can hear. Has she been touched by magic or is she simply losing her mind?

Amidst the witches' tug-of-war over how best to nurture her gifts, Beatrice disappears. But was it by choice or by force? In a time when women were corseted, confined and committed for merely speaking their minds, is anyone really safe?

During the nights between Christmas and New Year's, the witches of New York--Adelaide Thom, Eleanor St. Clair and the youngest, Beatrice Dunn--gather before the fire to tell ghost stories and perform traditional Yuletide divinations. (Did you know that roasting chestnuts was once used to foretell one's fate?)

As the witches roast chestnuts and melt lead to see their fate, a series of odd messengers land on their doorstep bearing invitations for a New Year's Eve masquerade hosted by a woman they've never met. Gossip, dreams and portents follow, leading the witches to question the woman's motives. Is she as benevolent as she seems or is she laying a trap? And so, as Gilded-Age New York prepares to ring in the new year, the witches don their finery and head for the ball, on the hunt for answers that might well be the end of them.