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Worlds Without End Blog

Book Giveaway: Writers of the Future: Volume 39 Winners! Posted at 2:01 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: Volume 39The L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future: Volume 39 giveaway is over and it’s time to announce our winners! We assigned each entry a number then used a random number generator to pick out five names:

  • Zelda Anderson — @zeldander
  • Majin — @majinkos
  • Melvin — @mevuxa
  • Obiwho — @xamexavu
  • V. R. Craft — @vrcraftauthor

If you are one of our lucky winners please send your mailing address to “info at worlds without end dot com” so we can get these books in the mail for you!

Many thanks to Galaxy Press for making the contest possible. If you did not win, never fear – L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: Volume 39 was released today and is available now.


Thank you to everyone who participated in our retweet contest! Until next time, read on.

Book Giveaway: Writers of the Future: Volume 39 edited by Jody Lynn Nye & Dean Wesley Smith Posted at 11:08 AM by Dave Post

Dave Post

Win one of 5 copies!
To celebrate the newest addition to the long-running Writers of the Future anthology series, Galaxy Press has 5 copies of L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: Volume 39 edited by Jody Lynn Nye & Dean Wesley Smith to give away. That’s right, you can win it before you can even buy it on May 16. This contest is open world-wide. Note: US winners will receive a hard copy while winners outside the US will receive a digital download — unfortunately, we cannot mail the prizes elsewhere.

To enter, all you have to do is re-tweet this tweet:

…or comment here in the blog. Do both and double your chances! It’s about as easy as we can make it. We’ll have a random drawing from our re-tweeter pool and announce the winners on publication day, May 16, so tweet away and don’t forget to check back in a few weeks to see if you’ve won!


L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: Volume 39In the world of speculative fiction… Your favorite authors… Have selected the best new voices of the year. 24 Award-winning Authors and Illustrators

3 Bonus Short Stories by Kevin J. Anderson, L. Ron Hubbard, and S. M. Stirling

Art and Writing Tips by Lazarus Chernik, L. Ron Hubbard, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

16-page color gallery of artwork and Cover art by Tom Wood

Check out the stories Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Nnedi Okorafor, Robert J. Sawyer, Kevin J. Anderson, Jody Lynn Nye and others chose as the best of the best.

Be amazed. Be amused. Be transported… by stories that take you by surprise and take you further and deeper into new worlds and new ideas than you’ve ever gone before….

Twelve captivating tales from the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy accompanied by three from masters of the genre.

  • A miracle? An omen? Or something else? One day, they arrived in droves — the foxes of the desert, the field, the imagination…. — “Kitsune” by Devon Bohm
  • When a vampire, a dragon and a shape-shifting Chihuahua meet on a beach in Key West, fireworks go off! But that’s just the background. — “Moonlight and Funk” by Marianne Xenos
  • Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., faces one of his funniest and most perplexing cases ever — an enlightened ogre, a salamander with low self-esteem, and a raging fire dragon terrorizing the Unnatural Quarter! — “Fire in the Hole” by Kevin J. Anderson
  • The Grim Reaper, trapped in an IRS agent’s dying body, must regain his powers before he dies and faces judgment for his original sin. — “Death and the Taxman” by David Hankins
  • In a metaverse future, a woman who exposes falseness in others must decide what is real to her — the love she lost or the love she may have found. — “Under My Cypresses” by Jason Palmatier
  • Vic Harden wasn’t lured by glory on a daring mission into the reaches of outer space — he was ordered out there by his editor. — “The Unwilling Hero” by L. Ron Hubbard
  • Dangerous opportunities present themselves when an alien ship arrives in the solar system seeking repairs. — “White Elephant” by David K. Henrickson
  • With her spaceship at the wrong end of a pirate’s guns, a former war hero must face down her enemies and demons to save Earth’s last best chance for peace. — “Piracy for Beginners” by J. R. Johnson
  • Years after the Second Holocaust, the last surviving Jews on earth attempt to rewrite the past. — “A Trickle in History” by Elaine Midcoh
  • When I said I’d do anything to pay off my debts and get back home to Earth, I didn’t mean survey a derelict spaceship at the edge of the solar system — but here I am. — “The Withering Sky” by Arthur H. Manner
  • High-powered telescopes bring galactic life to our TVs, and network tuner Hank Enos figures he’s seen everything — until the day an alien boy stares back. — “The Fall of Crodendra M.” by T. J. Knight
  • Knights, damsels and dragons, curses and fates foretold — the stuff of legends and stories, but unexpectedly perverse. — “Constant Never” by S. M. Stirling
  • Determined to save his wife, Tumelo takes an unlikely client through South Africa’s ruins to the heart of the Desolation — a journey that will cost or save everything. — “The Children of Desolation” by Spencer Sekulin
  • When a terrorist smuggles a nuclear weapon into London, a team regresses in time to AD 1093 to assassinate a knight on the battlefield, thereby eliminating the terrorist a millennia before his birth. — “Timelines and Bloodlines” by L. H. Davis
  • The Grand Exam, a gateway to power for one, likely death for all others — its entrants include ambitious nobles, desperate peasants, and Quiet Gate, an old woman with nothing left to lose. — “The Last History” by Samuel Parr

You will love this collection of the best new voices because, as Locus magazine puts it, “Excellent writing… extremely varied. There’s a lot of hot new talent.”

The Best of World SF Giveaway Winners! Posted at 12:19 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

The Best of World SF: Volume 1The Best of World SF giveaway is over and it’s time to announce our winners! We assigned each entry a number then used a random number generator to pick out five names:

  • Sonia Oldrini
  • Steven Arellano Rose
  • Marian D Moore – @EzekielsOldest
  • Jim Harris – @JimHarris28
  • L. Raymond

If you are one of our lucky winners please send your mailing address to “info at worlds without end dot com” so we can get these books in the mail for you!

Many thanks to Lavie Tidhar and Head of Zeus for making the contest possible. If you did not win, never fear – The Best of World SF will be released on June 1, 2021 and is available for pre-order now.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our retweet contest! Until next time, read on.

Book Giveaway: The Best of World SF: Volume 1 Edited by Lavie Tidhar Posted at 10:16 AM by Dave Post

Dave Post

Win one of 5 copies! The Best of World SF, Volume 1 by Lavie Tidhar
Head of Zeus Head of Zeus is back with a new contest! This time we have 5 hardcover copies of The Best of World SF: Volume 1 edited by Lavie Tidhar to give away. That’s right, you can win it before you can even buy it on June 1. This contest is open to US and UK residents only — unfortunately, we cannot mail the prizes elsewhere.

To enter, all you have to do is re-tweet this tweet:


…or comment here in the blog. Do both and double your chances! It’s about as easy as we can make it. We’ll have a random drawing from our re-tweeter pool and announce the winners next Friday, May 21, so tweet away and don’t forget to check back next week to see if you’ve won!


The Best of World SF: Volume 1The Best of World SF: Volume 1
edited by Lavie Tidhar

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction.

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travelers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Stories:

  • ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard
  • ‘Debtless’ by Chen Qiufan
  • ‘Fandom for Robots’ by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • ‘Virtual Snapshots’ by Tlotlo Tsamaase
  • ‘What The Dead Man Said’ by Chinelo Onwualu
  • ‘Delhi’ by Vandana Singh
  • ‘The Wheel of Samsara’ by Han Song
  • ‘Xingzhou’ by Yi-Sheng Ng
  • ‘Prayer’ by Taiyo Fujii
  • ‘The Green Ship’ by Francesco Verso
  • ‘Eyes of the Crocodile’ by Malena Salazar Macia
  • ‘Bootblack’ by Tade Thompson
  • ‘The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things’ by Fabio Fernandes
  • ‘The Sun From Both Sides’ by R.S.A. Garcia
  • ‘Dump’ by Cristina Jurado
  • ‘Rue Chair’ by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo
  • ‘His Master’s Voice’ by Hannu Rajaniemi
  • ‘Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys’ by Nir Yaniv
  • ‘The Cryptid’ by Emil H. Petersen
  • ‘The Bank of Burkina Faso’ by Ekaterina Sedia
  • ‘An Incomplete Guide…’ by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • ‘The Old Man with The Third Hand’ by Kofi Nyameye
  • ‘The Green’ by Lauren Beukes
  • ‘The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir’ by Karin Tidbeck
  • ‘Prime Meridian’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • ‘If At First You Don’t Succeed’ by Zen Cho

Reviews:

“‘This excellent anthology proves editor Tidhar’s assertion that science fiction should no longer be thought of as ‘white, male, and American’ with 26 exemplary stories from 21 countries … Worthwhile both as a survey of international sci-fi and on a story-by-story level, this wonderful anthology should be a hit with any sci-fi fan.” — Publishers Weekly

“Although science fiction imagines diverse, imaginative, and frightening futures, genre anthologies rarely achieve the brilliant range and diversity of voices of The Best of World SF: Volume 1 … The anthology brings a fresh, revolutionary perspective in that its selections are intentionally curated to suggest that the horizon is both closer and brighter than Western readers might think. Vital and exciting, The Best of World SF blows the blast panels off the dusty, well-worn tropes of popular science fiction and lets in a dazzling burst of lunar light.” — Foreword

“Tidhar gives a cheerful, fannish introduction to the stories, drawn from 26 countries on five continents, and encompassing a dizzying range of tones and approaches.” — The Times

Lavie TidharAbout the Editor:

Lavie Tidhar is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Osama (2011), The Violent Century (2013), the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize-winning A Man Lies Dreaming (2014), and the Campbell Award-winning Central Station (2016), in addition to many other works and several other awards. His latest novels are the Locus Award nominated Unholy Land (2018) and debut children’s novel Candy (2018). He works across genres, combining detective and thriller modes with poetry, science fiction and historical and autobiographical material. His work has been compared to that of Philip K. Dick by the Guardian and the Financial Times, and to Kurt Vonnegut’s by Locus.

 

The Sword Falls Giveaway Winners! Posted at 4:55 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

The Sword FallsThe Sword Falls giveaway is over and it’s time to announce our winners! We assigned each entry a number then used a random number generator to pick out five names:

  • Red Bird – @rubylorikeet
  • Al – @herne2000
  • MrTester – @MrTeste75740273
  • Daniel Zhang – @Dantastic_
  • Jason Powell

If you are one of our lucky winners please send your mailing address to “info at worlds without end dot com” so we can get these books in the mail for you!

Many thanks to A. J. Smith and Head of Zeus for making the contest possible. If you did not win, never fear – The Sword Falls is available for purchase right now.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our retweet contest! Until next time, read on.

Book Giveaway! The Sword Falls by A. J. Smith Posted at 10:50 AM by Dave Post

Dave Post


Head of ZeusHey, look! A book giveaway! It’s been awhile hasn’t it? Well, as long as we’re bringing it back we might as well make it a good one.

This contest comes courtesy of Head of Zeus to promote the May 1st publication of The Sword Falls, book 2 of A. J. Smith’s Form & Void series. Of course it can sometimes be hard promoting the second book in a series so we’re giving away book 1 as well. Five copies of both books!

To enter, all you have to do is re-tweet this tweet:

…or comment here in the blog. Do both and double your chances! It’s about as easy as we can make it. We’ll have a random drawing from our re-tweeter pool and announce the winners next Friday, May 7, so tweet away and don’t forget to check back to see if you’ve won! Please note: This is a USA only contest. Unfortunately, we cannot mail the prizes internationally.


The Glass BreaksThe Glass Breaks
by A. J. Smith

Seventeen-year-old Duncan Greenfire is alive.

Three hours ago, he was chained to the rocks and submerged as the incoming tide washed over his head. Now the waters are receding and Duncan’s continued survival has completed his initiation as a Sea Wolf.

It is the 167th year of the Dark Age. The Sea Wolves and their Eastron kin can break the glass and step into the void, slipping from the real world and reappearing wherever they wish. Wielding their power, they conquered the native Pure Ones and established their own Kingdom.

The Sea Wolves glory in piracy and slaughter. Their rule is absolute, but young Duncan Greenfire and duelist Adeline Brand will discover a conspiracy to end their dominion, a conspiracy to shatter the glass that separates the worlds of Form and Void and unleash a primeval chaos across the world.


The Sword FallsThe Sword Falls
by A. J. Smith

A MAN OF THE DAWN CLAW WILL BE THE ALWAYS KING.

It will ever be so. They will always rule… but they will not always lead.

Prince Oliver Dawn Claw, heir to the Kingdom of the Four Claws, is thrust into a world he doesn’t understand as he waits for his father to die. Away from home, with few allies – and too many enemies – he faces a new and otherworldly threat from beneath the sea. Alliances break and masks fall, as the Dark Brethren reveal their true master.

Meanwhile, Adeline Brand – called the Alpha Wolf – refuses to wait, and becomes the edge of the sword that swings back at the Dreaming God. Assembling allies and crushing resistance, she enters a fight she doesn’t know if she can win, as the sea begins to rise.


What people are saying:

“Best described as George R.R. Martin meets H.P. Lovecraft, The Glass Breaks is a fine example of British fantasy writing at its most entertaining” — Guardian

“An epic feat of world-building from one of British fantasy’s most innovative voices” — Bookseller

“Interesting and enticing, deftly sidesteps fantasy cliché and thrusts you towards the next installment” — SFX

A. J. SmithAbout the Author:

Writing is the only thing I do that doesn’t make me feel like I should be doing something else.

Fantasy author of The Long War. Owner of 24 goblins (one too many).

The Black Guard The Dark Blood The Red Prince The World Raven

George R. R. Martin meets H. P. Lovecraft? Sounds like a winner to me. What do you think?

Winners: Classical Traditions in Science Fiction Posted at 10:11 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

Classical Traditions in Science FictionSorry for posting this so late but it took some time to gather all our contestant’s names.  We had 282 retweets and blog comments total!  To pick our winners we assigned each contestant a number then used a random number generator to pick out 2 winners.

Our first place winner is:
Cathy S @SeeCat42
who will receive a hardcover copy of CTSF.

Our second place winner is:
Marie&Jason @WholesomelySpun
who will get a paperback copy.

Our Congrats to you both!

Many thanks to Brett M. Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens and to their publisher Oxford University Press for making this contest possible.  If you did not win, never fear – Classical Traditions in Science Fiction is available for purchase as an eBook right now and will be out in dead tree form on February 9th.  If you appreciate this kind of scholarly work in genre fiction please show that appreciation by buying a copy for yourself.  Let the publishers out there know that there is a desire for these kinds of works in our community.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our retweet contest!  Until next time, read on.

Book Giveaway: Classical Traditions in Science Fiction Edited by Brett M. Rogers & Benjamin Eldon Stevens Posted at 2:01 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

It’s been some time since we last ran a book giveaway contest but we’re back now with a doozy.  Instead of our typical fiction offering we’ve got something a little more highbrow for you this time: Classical Traditions in Science Fiction edited by Brett M. Rogers & Benjamin Eldon Stevens from Oxford University Press.  CTSF is the first collection dedicated to the rich study of science fiction’s classical heritage, offering a much-needed mapping of its cultural and intellectual terrain.  Told you it was highbrow.

We have 2 copies to give away: our first place winner will receive a hardcover copy, worth $89.10, and our second place winner will receive a paperback copy. As always, we’ve made it super easy to enter.  All you have to do is re-tweet this tweet:

or comment here in the blog and you’re in – easy peasy. Do both and double your chances! We’ll have a random drawing and announce the winners next Monday so tweet away and don’t forget to tell your friends.

So now you know about the contest I’ll leave it for Brett and Ben to tell you about their book.


From its very beginning to its most recent moments, modern science fiction (SF) has looked back to Greek and Roman antiquity as a source of inspiration for ideas, images, and important questions. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction (CTSF) looks at some of the ways in which SF has looked to the future in part by looking back.

For example, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), arguably the starting point of SF, is subtitled “Or, The Modern Prometheus,” referring to the ancient myth of the Titan who stole fire, a symbol of technology, and gave it to humankind. The subsequent punishment of both Prometheus and humankind in the myth, like the consequences for creator and creature in Shelley’s haunting novel, suggests that our relationship to technology is a complicated one: even as we are awestruck by what we can do, we are asked to wonder how science and technology may affect our humanity. (Frankenstein is discussed at length in CTSF chapter two, while Prometheus is treated in the introduction, excerpted here, and in a related post on OUPblog.)

Likewise, nearly two hundred years later, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games Trilogy (2008-2010 as books, ongoing in films) asks how much we might give up so as to have access to technology of a different sort: in the pursuit of safety and security in society, are we sacrificing essential liberties? Collins invites us to ask this question by imagining a future version of the United States of America modeled on visions of ancient Imperial Rome, in which the ethically shallow excesses of a small libertine class are built on systems of oppressive, militaristic exploitation and control. Will our future thus resemble, in undesirable ways, the ancient past? (The Hunger Games are treated in CTSF chapter 13.)

In these two examples and many others, SF turns to ancient Greek and Roman mythology, literature, history, and art to raise questions about what it means to be human in an increasingly technoscientific world. At the deepest level, that connection matters because the methods by which we reconstruct the ancient past is much like how we speculate about the future: in both cases, we work to imagine a world in ways unlike our own… so as to see our own world, our present, more clearly.

We hope all of this is as fascinating to other readers of SF (and fantasy!) as it is for us. Check out the book, available now on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes; visit the book’s facebook page for excerpts, related events, and more; and attend our upcoming conference on “The Once and Future Antiquity,” March 27th-29th at the University of Puget Sound. We’re also very happy to answer questions and have conversations at classicalreceptions@gmail.com!

Benjamin Eldon Stevens Brett M. Rogers

Brett M. Rogers is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Puget Sound. His research focuses on poetics and performance in Greek poetry and drama, as well as classical receptions in contemporary media. He has published on a wide range of subjects, from Homer and classical drama to superhero narratives and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is co-editor of Classical Traditions in Science Fiction (Oxford University Press 2015). Outside of academia, Rogers has been a singer and songwriter for bands including the Gettysburg Pirate Orchestra.

Benjamin Eldon Stevens, Visiting Assistant Professor of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr College, has taught at Hollins University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Bard College, including the Bard Prison Initiative. He has published on Latin poetry, linguistics, and the senses in culture, and is the author of Silence in Catullus (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013) and co-editor of Classical Traditions in Science Fiction (Oxford University Press 2015). Outside of academia, Stevens is a singer, vocal percussionist, and coach in a cappella.


Our thanks to Brett and Ben and the folks at Oxford University Press for the opportunity to bring this exciting new work to our fans attention.  Best of luck to everyone!

Pretender: Saving Luke Giveaway Winners! Posted at 7:03 AM by Rico Simpkins

icowrich

Time to give out some more books!  For our Pretender contest we had 81 re-tweets and 25 blog comments.  Here are our 5 lucky winners:

David Miller
(@bhawks8881)
Montana Phantom
(@montanaphantom)
Jessi-Skye
(@Shamrocklady_8 )
Kindu
(@Its_Kindu)
Leandra Martin
(blog comment)

 

 

Congrats to our winners! If you are one of our prize winners please send us your full name and snail-mail address to info@worldswithoutend.com so we can send your prize right away. Be sure to mention Pretender: Saving Luke in your email so we know which prize you’re claiming.

Our thanks to Steven and Craig and everyone at The Centre Universe for the great contest and prizes and to everyone who participated! We’ll be back with another giveaway soon come on back!

The Pretender: Saving Luke Giveaway! Posted at 8:12 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

The_PretenderThere are Pretenders among us, geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be. In 1983 a corporation known as The Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their research. Then, one day, their Pretender ran away…

Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, the duo behind the 90’s hit NBC TV series, The Pretender, are back again with the second installment of the new Pretender book series.  The Pretender: Saving Luke is the sequel to the critically acclaimed first book, Rebirth and picks up right where that book left off with more Jarod being awesome and Miss Parker being hot — and hot on his heels. Throw a little Sydney and Broots in there for some existential angst and charming confusion respectively and you’ve got another winner on your hands.

The good folks at The Centre Universe have come back to us to help them spread the word and we have 5 autographed trade paperback copies of Saving Luke to give away.

You know the drill: re-tweet this tweet:

or comment here in the blog to enter the contest – easy peasy. Do both and double your chances! We’ll have a random drawing and announce the winners next Monday so tweet away and don’t forget to tell your friends.


The Pretender:  Saving LukeThe Pretender: Saving Luke
by Steven Long Mitchell & Craig W. Van Sickle

Now comes the exciting climax to the first fully original, mystery thriller novel, The Pretender: Rebirth – the return of Jarod, Miss Parker, Sydney and the nefarious, clandestine activities of The Centre, in The Pretender: Saving Luke.

Jarod uses his dazzling mind and unequaled abilities to save a kidnapped boy and thwart a deadly plot threatening the innocent lives of hundreds while he continues his search for the truth about his identity and hides from those who want to recapture him.

Leading the Centre hunt for Jarod is the sexy, complex, bitch-on-wheels, Miss Parker. Theirs is a pursuer/pursued relationship bound together by emotional ties, mutual scars and an unspoken passion for each other.

Alongside Miss P. is Sydney, Jarod’s surrogate father figure and Centre psychologist who nurtured his genius for the Centre’s disreputable purposes. But Jarod’s patience with Sydney roils with anger over lack of answers to Jarod’s past and the identity of his natural birth parents.

Authors Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle, have encored with a return tome sure to please not only returning fans of the original TV series but also new readers unfamiliar with the world of The Pretender.

There are Pretenders among us…


Craig W. Van SickleSteven Long MitchellAbout the Authors:
Steve Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle have written, produced and/or directed over two hundred hours of prime network programming including such series as Alien Nation, Murder She Wrote, Medical Investigation, 24 and NCIS. From situation comedy to drama, comic books to mystery, science fiction to action-adventure, their career has covered a broad imaginative spectrum. Together they have also created numerous television series, most notably, NBC’s The Pretender on which they served as Executive Producers for its entire five-year run of episodes as well as a series of two-hour movies.

In 2008 they were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Mini-Series as the Writers/Executive Producers on Syfy Channel’s, TinMan, an updated re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz that, in addition to its critical acclaim, has broken ratings records both domestically and internationally. Recently the team completed their first novel, The Pretender: Rebirth and are near completion on the second book in the series, The Pretender: Saving Luke.

Both reside with their families in the Los Angeles area and can be contacted through their web site, ThePretenderLives.com.

Our thanks to Steven and Craig and everyone at The Centre Universe for the opportunity to bring this new chapter to our fans!  Best of luck to everyone.