Ten years in the service of Kublai Kahn...Marco, Niccolo, and Maffeo Polo have seen magic and miracles, and accumulated riches beyond their dreaming. But now all they want is to return to their beloved Venice. Alas - as the only Westerners in the glittering Mongol court, they are high favourites with the Khan of Khans. And before he will allow them to leave, they must undertake one strange, final quest. Kublai is beginning to suffer the ravages of old age. Tales have reached him of a mysterious princess who sleeps forever, yet remains forever young, unaging...Surely she has the secret of immortality. Bring me the princess, he tells the Polos, and you are free!

Folktales and fairy tales are living stories; as part of the oral tradition, they change and evolve as they are retold from generation to generation. In the last thirty years, however, revision has become an art form of its own, with tales intentionally revised to achieve humorous effect, send political messages, add different cultural or regional elements, try out new narrative voices, and more. These revisions take all forms, from short stories to novel-length narratives to poems, plays, musicals, films and advertisements. The resulting tales paint the tales from myriad perspectives, using the broad palette of human creativity. This study examines folktale revisions from many angles, drawing on examples primarily from revisions of Western European traditional tales, such as those of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. Also discussed are new folktales that combine traditional storylines with commentary on modern life. The conclusion considers how revisionists poke fun at and struggle to understand stories that sometimes made little sense to start with.

A new collection of magic and mayhem from fantasy's funniest, wackiest writers, including Harlan Ellison, Esther Friesner, Neil Gailman, Craig Shaw Gardner, Harry Harrison, Tom Hold and Julia Mandala.

When the menace of Dr. Ludwig Sanzmann first appeared, like a cloud no bigger than a man's hand, Dr. Fred B. Turbyfil, at twenty-seven, had been the youngest museum director in the country; and now at thirty-five he was still one of the youngest.

Avram Davidson's six Jack Limekiller stories create a rich and colorful world where the magical and inexplicable coexist with the outboard motor and the escalation of the American war in Vietnam. British Hidalgo is "a place that you can put your arms around," welcoming and friendly to the visitor, but uncanny beings dwell in the bush and roam along its coast. Afloat and ashore, Jack Limekiller, master of the working sailboat Saccharissa, encounters ghosts of the colonial past and monsters far older.

This year's edition of The Year's Best Science Fiction demonstrates once again why the anthology received the 1988 Locus Award for the best anthology in the field. Gardner Dozois presents the finest writing of the year, from both new writers and old favorites, including Walter Jon Williams, James Patrick Kelly, Brian Stableford, Steven Gould, Harry Turtledove, Eileen Gunn, Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick, Bruce McAllister, Connie Willis, Lewis Shiner, Judith Moffett, Bruce Sterling, Robert Silverberg, George Alec Effinger, Howard Waldrop, Kim Stanley Robinson, James Lawson, Michael Swanwick, John Kessel, Stephen Kraus, Pat Cadigan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, D. Alexander Smith, Kathe Koja, Kim Newman, Lucius Shepard. Encompassing the entire genre, this year's edition once again brings you the best science fiction stories available anywhere. "Dozois's best-of-the-year collection has become a landmark of the genre."--Publishers Weekly

Like Malamud and Jackson, Avram Davidson brought a unique level of charm, wit, and intrigue to the short story form. Collected here for the first time are his remarkable mystery tales, including the 1815 investigations of New York's Chief Constable; a sinister lesson in New England thrift; New Amsterdam river pirates versus the KGB; treachery in nursing home; and expatriates who will kill for a little peace and quiet. "Aficionados of short mystery fiction will be hard-pressed to find any more ingenious and entertaining stories than those in this volume." --Bill Pronzini, author of Boobytrap

Here there be dragons... Earth was old, her riches gone. Her children too had left her, all but a few who lived peacefully off the land. And then came the Kar-Chee, to crack Earth open and suck out what remained of her richness, threatening the twilight of the old planet with an evil beyond anything that had gone before. With them they brought their servants, beasts so cruel and horrible that men could recall their like only from ancestral nightmares, and named them "dragons"...

A collection of some of the best short story work from the Hugo and World Fantasy Award winning author. This short story collection contains: Sacheverell; Take Wooden Indians; The Vat; The Tail Tied Kings; Paramount Ulj; A Bottle Full of Kismet; The Goobers; Dr Morris Goldpepper Returns; The Certificate; Ogre in the Vly; Apres Nous; Climacteric; Yo Ho and Up; The Sixty Third Street Station; The House the Blakeneys Built; The Power of Every Root; and The Sources of the Nile.