A collection of stories spanning Marion Zimmer Bradley's writing career, with introductions by Elisabeth Waters.

It's a long wait until the Last Battle of Law and Chaos, when the forces of Good and Evil will clash for the final time. So what's a body to do in the meantime? Lythande has to earn a living, after all. Music and magic are saleable skills--sometimes both together. There's a magic lute.... Mermaids, dragons, small children--Lythande's life is full of challenges, of which the biggest is never allowing the Secret to be revealed, on pain of total loss of magic... oh, and death.

Return to the world of the Bloody Sun Over fifty years ago, master story-teller Marion Zimmer Bradley introduced readers to a compelling new world. Darkover, a distant planet circling a red sun, was home to telepaths and rebels, lovers and rivals, nonhuman races both friendly and deadly, ancient traditions and even more ancient feuds, and psychic gifts of unimaginable power, channeled through starstone gems and capable of changing not only individual lives, but the entire world. Generations of fans have fallen in love with Darkover, and many of them have gone on to notable literary careers of their own. Now editors Deborah J. Ross and Elisabeth Waters have gathered together luminaries of fantasy in this star-studded anthology of original stories that illuminate Darkover's rich history and culture. From the Ages of Chaos to re-contact with the Terrans, from the Dry Towns to the back streets of Thendara to the horse pastures of Armida, these tales offer action, courage, and humor, set in the wondrous world that is Darkover. This volume contains stories by Robin Wayne Bailey, Rachel Manjia Brown, Barb Caffrey, Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, Rosemary Edghill and Rebecca Fox, Leslie Fish, Gabrielle Harbowy, Steven Harper, Shariann Lewitt, Vera Nazarian, Diana L. Paxson, Janni Lee Simner, Kari Sperring, Judith Tarr, Ann Sharp and Elisabeth Waters.

Women of Steel and Spells...
For over two decades, the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, best-selling and beloved author, discovered and nurtured a new generation of authors. The roster of contributors over the years includes Mercedes Lackey, Laurell K. Hamilton, Charles de Lint, Diana L. Paxson, Emma Bull, Jennifer Roberson, and countless others.
The original stories featured here include such stellar authors as Deborah J. Ross, Dave Smeds, Pauline J. Alama, and exciting newcomers whose voices are sure to be heard again.
Enter a wondrous universe...
"Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress"
Volume 28 includes stories by Pauline J. Alama, Lorie Calkins, Steve Chapman, Jessie D. Eaker, Rebecca G. Eaker, Rabia Gale, Suzan Harden, Melissa Mead, Jonathan Moeller, Michael H. Payne, Deborah J. Ross, Katharina Schuschke, Jonathan Shipley, Dave Smeds, Catherine Soto, Michael Spence and Elisabeth Waters.

This is not a typical Marion Zimmer Bradley novel. This book is the result of a bet between Marion and Don Wollheim, her editor for the Darkover novels at DAW Books. In addition, it's her response to the Gor novels - where men were men and women were slaves - that were also being published by DAW Books. Yes, this book does start out with a heroine who has been captured and is being sold as a slave, who has amnesia and remembers nothing of her life before the trip across the desert with the slavers - and, due to a head injury, remembers mercifully little of that. But she does know that she would rather fight in the arena than be a harlot for the men who do, and that choice changes the rest of the book. In a Gor-style novel the woman would become less her own person, eventually learning to be a contented and obedient slave. In this book, even while the heroine, called Zadieyek of Gyre, remains a slave, she is something quite different from the typical 'slave girl' - she grows and develops, always searching for her memory and her past, convinced that this is not how her life is supposed to be. And, of course, she's right.