Fantasy Patrick

Orphan-warrior Caltus Talienson must capture Skryling's Blade, the ancient rune-carved sword and the only weapon that can slay the Dark Lord's fire-breathing servant.

Alex Khan finished his military service and enrolled in college with the money he’d earned, ready to major in history. But when a nearby lightning strike activates an ancient stone portal, Alex is torn away from Earth. He finds himself on an alien world full of wonder and danger.

Professor Harak H'gin leads a peaceful life studying linguistics on his native planet of Plumeria. Until the day he stumbles across a bedraggled, beautiful human female. Dared by a colleague to transform the pitiful creature into a true member of their society, Harak takes on the challenge. Forced to eke out a meager living selling flowers, Liza is desperate to improve her situation. When a chance meeting offers the opportunity to become something more than a menial worker, she doesn't hesitate—even though it means moving in with the arrogant, handsome alien.

Magic: To some, it's spectacle. To others, it's proof that there's more to life than meets the eye. To Jonah, it means one simple thing: money. A shaman for hire, Jonah knows how to tap into his powers as easily as he can turn on a light switch, but the real money is in putting on a show. That is, until a mysterious woman makes him an offer he can't afford to refuse: $20,000 all if he finds a little thing called the Ledberg runestone, legend of Norse mythology. With debt collectors like the Carver brothers breathing down his neck, the offer should be tempting, but when they threaten his father's life, it becomes a mission Jonah must take.

It has been over a decade since Andrew Keane's Union regiment was mysteriously pulled away from the Civil War and marooned in time on a hostile alien planet. But now it appears as if everything the Lost Regiment has fought and died for has been in vain.

I never wanted to lie to her, but I knew I couldn't keep her safe if she knew. I hurt her, more than I ever wanted to and I have to live with that each day that I'm away from her. But one day she'll know, that every day spent away from her was hell. Watching her move on. Watching her change. But it will all be worth it once she's safe. Even if she doesn't know it, she is my Rapture.

The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....

I used to think my life would be common, boring even. My online guildies and my friends sure thought so. Yet everything I knew to be true in this world all changed drastically one fateful night... or should I say, it shifted. As it turns out, my father passed on more than his name to me. Something feral and mighty awoke within me, and I knew at once, I would never be the same again. Shortly after, I received an invitation that I didn't expect, a call to attend the mysterious Apex Academy.

It’s been eight years since the Change rendered technology inoperable across the globe. Rising from the ashes of the computer and industrial ages is a brave new world. Survivors have banded together in tribal communities, committed to rebuilding society. In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, former pilot Michael Havel’s Bearkillers are warriors of renown. Their closest ally, the mystical Clan Mackenzie, is led by Wiccan folksinger Juniper Mackenzie. Their leadership has saved countless lives.

Vesta Colony has a problem: Aliens are snatching men until they disappear for good. Humanity's defensive forces are stretched too thin to help a distant outpost, and so, the desperate founders, as well as their investors, are given the bad option of recruiting the worst while bribing the rest.

When I catch a fire druid lurking around the latest victim, the deaths don’t seem so innocent. Add a kidnapping case involving Manhattan’s most hallowed cathedral, and I’m seeing dangerous parallels to my first major outing as a wizard. The one that landed me face-to-face with a demon lord.

You know you really made someone raging mad—when they try to kill you with a nuke. Michael and those who follow him had reached a temporary safe base, but now those in power know his identity. His people are in a race against time, and it's no longer a question of if they are going to be discovered—but when. Opposing them are modern-day pirates, slavers, genocidal terrorists, drug cartels, and those who rule the Earth from the shadows. And every single one of them wants to see Michael dead.

After prospecting for gold in Arizona, Confederate Civil War hero John Carter stumbles upon a mysterious cave - a portal, it turns out, to the ecologically endangered planet Mars. Once there, he finds his place with a tribe of green Martians, and his newfound powers in the reduced Martian gravity make him an important figure in their war against a rival tribe. At the heart of this conflict lies the beautiful Dejah Thoris, the kidnapped Princess of Helium. Rescuing her soon becomes paramount, for only she can help Carter save the dying planet he now calls home.

Thousands of crew are reported dead, including the ship’s captain. Reluctantly, the young XO, Galvin Quintos, will be taking command of the fleet's crippled dreadnaught, the USS Hamilton, while doing his best to bring fleet survivors back to Earth. To make matters worse, there’s a murderer running loose on board the ship, critically low fuel levels, and the Grish are back, in fast pursuit and ready to finish what they’d started. Only by sheer luck - and a good measure of cagey smarts - will Quintos be able to rise to the challenge.

After the recent near-destruction of the USS Hamilton, Captain Galvin Quintos has been lying low, getting the USS Jefferson ready for service. In the midst of refurbishing the vessel, he gets a call for help from his former XO, new starship captain Gail Pristy. The Varapin have lured the Ninth Fleet into a devious trap, and it’s not long before Quintos has his orders to hurry to the rescue. But the Varapin have a colossal new warship - one that puts anything the US Space-Navy has to shame.

In his oppressively small 10x10 cell at the Norfolk Naval Station’s Brig, Captain Galvin Quintos sits awaiting his impending court-martial when he's unexpectedly contacted by Fleet Commander Admiral Block. He’s proposing an off-book, secret operation, coming at the request of the Pleidian Weonan Empress Shawlee Tee. For Quintos, telling Shawlee “no” was never an option. Unfortunately, according to the admiral, this very well could be a mission of no return.

Captain Galvin Quintos had returned home to Earth soon after liberating Ironhold Station from a ruthless band of Pylorian pirates. But the Grish had been waiting for his transport ship - an attack he barely survived. Now, three months later, he’s still recuperating within the walls of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

When a monstrous alien smashes into the deserted planet we're studying, it's with the raging force of a natural disaster. I'm not sure if he's a dragon, a god, or a man. He's massive and terrible, with scales like emeralds, glowing wings, and only one maddened eye left. In the rush to retreat from this berserk behemoth, my fellow humans leave me behind. But he doesn't. His burning eye lands on me, and it's like I'm the only thing left in the universe. When he comes for me, his body heaving with violence, I know that he will kill me.

From Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, here are the best stories of 2002, written by four of the most respected writers of our day: Robert Silverberg, James Patrick Kelly, Ian Watson, and Gregory Benford. Also try The Best of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 2002.

Gideon Gull leads a double life: one as a talented young bard at the Rhapsodic College, the other as a student of the Shadow School, where Taldor's infamous lion blades are trained to be master spies and assassins. When a magical fog starts turning ordinary people into murderous mobs along the border between Taldor and Gideon's home nation of Andoran, it's up to him and a crew of daring performers to solve the mystery before both nations fall to madness and slaughter.