Master the Vorkosiverse! "I've always tried to write the kind of book I most loved to reacharacter-centered adventure. Readers return to such books because those characters have become their friends, and there is no limit to the number of times you want to be with your friends again." ¾Lois McMaster Bujold, from The Vorkosigan Companion. It's the companion for everything Miles and Vorkosigan: Insightful essays, encyclopedic entries on the characters, the plots and¾most of all¾the fantastic world-building! Plus, an extensive story-behind-the-story essay on the creation of the books, and a Bujold mini-biography! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "Bujold mixes quirky humor with action [and] superb character development. [E]normously satisfying." ¾Publishers Weekly

The exciting follow-up to Brothers in Arms. Miles Vorkosigan is in trouble. His brother, a cloned stranger formed from tissue stolen from Miles when he was a child, wants to murder and replace him. Unfortunately, Mark has learned that without Miles, he is . . . nothing.

Readers have awarded Lois McMaster Bujold four Hugo Awards for Best Novel, a number matched only by Robert Heinlein. Her Vorkosigan series redefined space opera with its emotional depth and explorations of themes such as bias against the disabled, economic exploitation, and the role of women in society. Acclaimed science fiction scholar Edward James traces Bujold's career, showing how Bujold emerged from fanzine culture to win devoted male and female readers despite working in genres--military SF, space opera--perceived as solely by and for males. Devoted to old-school ideas such as faith in humanity and the desire to probe and do good in the universe, Bujold simultaneously subverted genre conventions and experimented with forms that led her in bold creative directions. As James shows, her iconic hero Miles Vorkosigan--unimposing, physically impaired, self-conscious to a fault--embodied Bujold's thematic concerns. The sheer humanity of her characters, meanwhile, gained her a legion of fans eager to provide her with feedback, expand her vision through fan fiction, and follow her into fantasy.

On Monday, 8:15 a.m., August 6, 1945, the world changed forever. In the single largest act of destruction ever initiated by humans, a bomb with the equivalent force of 20,000 tons of TNT shattered Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands of civilians, people who had become used to the American war planes flying overhead, planes that were purposely not dropping bombs on their city, to the point where the rush to the bomb shelters had become lackadaisical, and the normal activities continued with little interruption – getting the children up and off to school, opening the many small retail stores for the daily customers, perhaps stopping at a local café for morning coffee or tea, perhaps joining in on the group exercise classes. This is the precise instant we entered the postmodern world, one where the easy truths of centuries no longer applied. Speculative Fiction projects real possibilities beyond the now shattered assumptions, moving through marginalized fictional landscapes – science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero comics, graphic novels, and movies, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, Cyber Punk, the New Wave, as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts, including everything from graphic novels to video games.

Thisvolume of essays continues the establishment of Lois McMaster Bujold as an importantauthor of contemporary science fiction and fantasy. It argues persuasively thatBujold's corpus spans the distance between two full arcs of US feminism, andhas anticipated or responded to several of its current concerns in ways thatinvite or even require theoretical exploration. The fourteen essays collected here provide wide-ranging scholarly analysesof Bujold's work and worlds so far, covering not only the science fiction and fantasyseries, but taking into account the wealth of ancillary material inspired byher works, such as fan fiction and role-playing games. Examining the majorseries through a range of perspectives, including feminist readings, queertheory, and disability studies, this volume aims to establish beyond doubt theseriousness of intent behind Bujold's various artistic projects and provide aset of rich readings of this engaging, experimental, playful, and popularauthor.

Lois McMaster Bujold has won a shelf full of awards--Hugos, Nebulas, and others--for both her science fiction and fantasy writing. She is one of the most respected names in the field, always delivering polished, thoughtful, and well-crafted writing. She consistently addresses great issues and problems on a human level, where they are faced by quirky, prickly, and very real characters, and her exploration of the theory of reader-response is an important critical contribution. Yet there has been a surprising dearth of serious critical writing about her output--in part because she resists neat and easy classification by genre, politics, or subject matter. This collection of fresh essays aims to correct that situation by presenting critical insights into many aspects of her writing. Attention is given to both her Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series and her Chalion and Sharing Knife fantasy series, as well as the books that fall outside these series.

Taking up where Of Modern Dragons (2007) left off, these essays continue Lennard's investigation of the praxis of serial reading and the best genre fiction of recent decades, including work by Bill James, Walter Mosley, Lois Mcmaster Bujold, and Ursula K. Le Guin. There are groundbreaking studies of contemporary paranormal romance, and of Hornblower's transition to space, while the final essay deals with the phenomenon and explosive growth of fanfiction, and with the increasingly empowered status of the reader in a digital world. There is an extensive bibliography of genre and critical work, with eight illustrations. John Lennard is Director of Studies at Hughes Hall, Cambridge and has also taught for the Universities of London, Notre Dame, and for the Open University, and was Professor of British & American Literature at the University of the West Indies-Mona, 2004-09. Of Modern Dragons and other essays on genre fiction (2007), is also available from Lulu.

This anthology marks the 27th edition of the award-winning annual compilationof the year's best science fiction stories.