I cannot make the driver of my spider-car take me into the camp of the enemy. I have asked her to leave me and make her own way back to Yelta. I am writing this with a stub of pencil. I am alone on the high altiplano. Above the shield wall, the cloud layer is breaking up. Enormous shafts of dazzling light spread across the high plain. Two mounted figures have broken from the line and ride toward me. I am afraid—and yet I am calm. I take the Blue Empress from its box and grasp it tight in my gloved hand. Hard to write now. No more diary. They are here.
V. Gloria medianocte: the Midnight Glory, or Blue Empress.
Card, paper, ink.
For Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger,
who would love to paint the wallowing
dinosaurs of swampy Venus
Story Copyrights
“Introduction: Return to Venusport,” by Gardner Dozois. Copyright © 2015 by Gardner Dozois.
“Frogheads,” by Allen M. Steele. Copyright © 2015 by Allen M. Steele.
“The Drowned Celestial,” by Lavie Tidhar. Copyright © 2015 by Lavie Tidhar.
“Planet of Fear,” by Paul McAuley. Copyright © 2015 by Paul McAuley.
“Greeves and the Evening Star,” by Matthew Hughes. Copyright © 2015 by Matthew Hughes.
“A Planet Called Desire,” by Gwyneth Jones. Copyright © 2015 by Gwyneth Jones.
“Living Hell,” by Joe Haldeman. Copyright © 2015 by Joe Haldeman.
“Bones of Air, Bones of Stone,” by Stephen Leigh. Copyright © 2015 by Stephen Leigh.
“Ruins,” by Eleanor Arnason. Copyright © 2015 by Eleanor Arnason.
“The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss,” by David Brin. Copyright © 2015 by David Brin.
“By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers,” by Garth Nix. Copyright © 2015 by Garth Nix.
“The Sunset of Time,” by Michael Cassutt. Copyright © 2015 by Michael Cassutt.
“Pale Blue Memories,” by Tobias S. Buckell. Copyright © 2015 by Tobias S. Buckell.
“The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” by Elizabeth Bear. Copyright © 2015 by Sarah Wishnevsky.
“The Wizard of the Trees,” by Joe R. Lansdale. Copyright © 2015 by Joe R. Lansdale.
“The Godstone of Venus,” by Mike Resnick. Copyright © 2015 by Kirinyaga Inc.
“Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan,” by Ian McDonald. Copyright © 2015 by Ian McDonald.
By George R. R. Martin
A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE
Book One: A Game of Thrones
Book Two: A Clash of Kings
Book Three: A Storm of Swords
Book Four: A Feast for Crows
Book Five: A Dance with Dragons
The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones
Dying of the Light
Windhaven (with Lisa Tuttle)
Fevre Dream
The Armageddon Rag
Dead Man’s Hand (with John J. Miller)
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Dreamsongs: Volume I
Dreamsongs: Volume II
A Song for Lya and Other Stories
Songs of Stars and Shadows
Sandkings
Songs the Dead Men Sing
Nightflyers
Tuf Voyaging
Portraits of His Children
Quartet
EDITED BY GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
New Voices in Science Fiction, Volumes 1–4
The Science Fiction Weight Loss Book (with Isaac Asimov and Martin Harry Greenberg)
The John W. Campbell Awards, Volume 5
Night Visions 3
Wild Cards I–XXII
CO-EDITED WITH GARDNER DOZOIS
Warriors I–III
Songs of the Dying Earth
Songs of Love and Death
Down These Strange Streets
Old Mars
Dangerous Women
Rogues
By Gardner Dozois
NOVELS
Strangers
Nightmare Blue (with George Alec Effinger)
Hunter’s Run (with George R. R. Martin and Daniel Abraham)
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
When the Great Days Come
Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois
Geodesic Dreams
Morning Child and Other Stories
Slow Dancing Through Time
The Visible Man
EDITED BY GARDNER DOZOIS
The Year’s Best Science Fiction #1–30
The New Space Opera (with Jonathan Strahan)
The New Space Opera 2 (with Jonathan Strahan)
Modern Classics of Science Fiction
Modern Classics of Fantasy
The Good Old Stuff
The Good New Stuff
The “Magic Tales” series 1–37 (with Jack Dann)
Wizards (with Jack Dann)
The Dragon Book (with Jack Dann)
A Day in the Life
Another World
About the Editors
George R. R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire—A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Gardner Dozois has won fifteen Hugo Awards and thirty-two Locus Awards for his editing work, plus two Nebula Awards for his own writing. He was the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction for twenty years and is the author or editor of over a hundred books, including The Year’s Best Science Fiction.