Millennia ago, a magical disaster caused the fall of a great worldwide civilization, the end of a golden age. New civilizations have fought their way up from the ancient destruction and chaos, knowing little of the lost world that preceded them or the details of its fall.C orus today is a world of contending countries, of humans, but also of strange animals and supernatural creatures. It is a place of magical powers and of a few people who are talented enough to use them. Alusius, the hero of the story, is one.

Steffan Dekkard is an isolate, one of the small percentage of people who are immune to the projections of empaths. As an isolate, he has been trained as a security specialist, and he and his security partner Avraal Ysella, a highly trained empath, are employed by Axel Obreduur, a senior Craft Minister and the de facto political strategist of his party. When a respected Landor Councilor dies of “heart failure” at a social event, because of his political friendship with Obreduur, Dekkard and Ysella find that not only is their employer a target, but so are they.

This is the first story collection ever from best-selling fantasy and science-fiction writer L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Modesitt began publishing short fiction in the SF magazines in the 1970s, and this collection includes a selection of stories from the whole of his career. Some of the early stories are kernels for his early SF novels, others display the wide range of his talents and interests, from satire to military adventure.

When Anna Marshall is transported from her boring and frustrating life in Ames, Iowa, to the very different world of Erde, she's angry and confused. But she soon finds out that for the first time in her life she's uniquely powerful. In Iowa, Anna was a music teacher and small-time opera singer, but on Erde, her musical ability makes her a big-time sorceress-potentially. First, though, she must figure out how to use her ability before the rulers kill her.

Although Rhennthyl is the son of a leading wool merchant in L'Excelsis, the capital of Solidar, the most powerful nation on Terahnar, he has spent years becoming a journeyman artist and is skilled and diligent enough to be considered for the status of master artisan - in another two years. Then, in a single moment, his entire life is transformed when his master patron is killed in a flash fire and Rhenn discovers he is an imager.

Thousands of years in the future, Earth is a desolate ruin. The first human ship to return in millennia discovers an abandoned wasteland inhabited by only a few degenerate or mutated human outcasts. But among them is a boy of immense native intelligence and determination who grows up to become the force behind a plan to make Earth flower again.

Four centuries in the future, the world is rich—nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody—but no utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people: a singing teacher, a news researcher, a police investigator, a politician, and a ruthless businessman.

Young Lerris is dissatisfied with his life and trade, and yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. But in Recluce a change in circumstances means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or braving the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond Recluce, with the aim of learning how the world works and what his place in it might be. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses the dangergeld.

Who controls reality? And how? Ask the timedivers who ride the paths of time, manipulate cultures, lift and cast down civilizations in their corner of the galaxy. They are the Temporal Guard at Quest, the single city of the Immortals of Query, that hidden planet circling a very ordinary yellow sun in a very ordinary galaxy. This is the story of the timediver Loki, and of the unending war for control of reality in that galaxy.

When two real ghosts and the records of a murdered researcher enter the life of Johan Eschbach, the former spy and present professor finds himself caught with the secret of high technology de-ghosting, and the whole world, including his former spymasters, try to turn Johan himself into another ghost.

After finding out that he has unusual powers, he is banished from the planet Karnak. Thrust into the tranquil world of Aurore, vacation paradise for the galaxy, Martin finds that the reality of this planet is much different from its serene veneer. The gods are wantonly cruel and indifferent to the chaos they cause: Are they really gods or just men and women with larger-than-life powers? Whatever the answer, Martin Martel must challenge their supremacy to defend his life, love, and the fate of the galaxy.

In the far future, an indestructible and massive canal more than 2,000 miles long spans the mid-continent of Earth. Nothing can mar it, move it, or affect it in any fashion. At its western end, where it meets the sea, is an equally indestructible structure comprising three levels of seemingly empty chambers. Scientists from three different civilizations, separated in time by hundreds of thousands of years, are investigating the canal. In the most distant of these civilizations, religious rebellion is brewing.

Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese. For six months things went well: He found a quaint little shop, he befriended the local lord, the village folk loved him, he found a sharp young apprentice to help out, and, best yet, he met a comely young widow with the prettiest eyes.

Born to privilege, with preselected genetic advantages and the best nanotech augmentation his father's fabulous money can buy, Daryn spurned the lucrative family Media Network to seek his own path, a crafty raven among soaring eagles. After serving with distinction as a space pilot in the military, he enjoys success as a media consultant. But when he finds himself the target of sophisticated murder attempts, his world is turned upside down.

In the far future among the colonized worlds of the galaxy, there's a war going on between the majority of civilized worlds and a colonial theocracy. Trystin Desoll grows up fighting against religious fanatics and becomes a hero, a first-class pilot, then, amazingly, a spy. What do you do if you're a relatively humane soldier fighting millions of suicidal volunteers on the other side who know that they are utterly right, and you are utterly wrong, with no middle ground? Trystin Desoll has an idea.

Millennia ago, a magical disaster caused the fall of a great worldwide civilization, the end of a golden age. New civilizations have fought their way up from the ancient destruction and chaos, knowing little of the lost world that preceded them or the details of its fall.C orus today is a world of contending countries, of humans, but also of strange animals and supernatural creatures. It is a place of magical powers and of a few people who are talented enough to use them. Alusius, the hero of the story, is one.

The chronicles of the magical island of Recluce continue as young Dorrin, fascinated by forbidden science, goes into exile in the lands of Chaos, where he unwillingly invents devices of war to save his land from the evil Chaos wizards.

Although Rhennthyl is the son of a leading wool merchant in L'Excelsis, the capital of Solidar, the most powerful nation on Terahnar, he has spent years becoming a journeyman artist and is skilled and diligent enough to be considered for the status of master artisan - in another two years. Then, in a single moment, his entire life is transformed when his master patron is killed in a flash fire and Rhenn discovers he is an imager.

Who controls reality? And how? Ask the timedivers who ride the paths of time, manipulate cultures, lift and cast down civilizations in their corner of the galaxy. They are the Temporal Guard at Quest, the single city of the Immortals of Query, that hidden planet circling a very ordinary yellow sun in a very ordinary galaxy. This is the story of the timediver Loki, and of the unending war for control of reality in that galaxy.

Four centuries in the future, the world is rich—nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody—but no utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people: a singing teacher, a news researcher, a police investigator, a politician, and a ruthless businessman.