The arrangements for the dinner party were overseen by Queen Quenevere herself. She selected the apples with her own hands. And before the evening ended, a young knight lay dead...and Arthur's beloved, unfaithful queen stood branded as a murderess and condemned to death

Phyllis Ann Karr has taken Celtic legend and given it a fresh new twist in this magical murder-mystery of knights and sorcery, romantic entanglements and courtly intrigues. This is a tale that explores the passions and motivations of the men and women who stride through the pages of Mallory's romance: Sir Kay, the sharp-tongued seneschal; Nimue, the elusive Lady of the Lake; Morgan le Fay, Merlin's complex nemesis; the tormented sons of Lot and Morgawse; and Mordred, Arthur's own bitter, terrified son

A Fantasy Historical Romance of the First Decade of Papa's Pride, by Clea Ortiz Newcome-but actually a Gilbert & Sullivan Fantasy in Space Opera Framework, by Phyllis Ann Karr

Some have told me that the events of Ship Years 8 and 9 were far too terrible to use as underpinning for a light fantasy romance, and one that in any case can appeal chiefly to the hundred or so avid Savoyards in the ship's population. My response is that light treatment has been among humanity's most effective defense mechanisms for dealing with disaster, probably since our race became recognizably human back in Old Earth's paleolithic; and that Savoy enthusiasm is as precious in Papa's Pride as any other artifact of our Old Earth heritage.

In any case, these things lie more than half a century in our own past, and if half a century does not make them fair game for historical fantasy, what does? Is the past not the past, whether ten or ten thousand years ago, whether back on Old Earth or out here in our great colony starship of twenty-four pylons revolving around a vast central core?

While retaining the names of such entities as the Antique Terra Theater, which had not yet split into the Order-sponsored Old Earth Company and the committee-sponsored Players to the Stars, with their respective screenplay arms Universal Aspirations and Pride Productions, I have fictionalized the names and other aspects of individuals actually involved in Chuck Wang's crime -- the worst ever perpetrated and, we hope, ever to be perpetrated in Papa's Pride. I have added some completely fictional people to the cast, omitted many historical figures entirely, and somewhat condensed, even rearranged, certain of the events. There were never any deliberate murders connected with Wang's outrage, at least as far as we know. Shipnet will make it very easy for interested readers to collate my tale with as much as we have of the truth.

"Spanish Inquisitor Don Felipe considers himself a loyal servant of Holy Church. Despite his lifelong friendship with the Jewish Gamito, despite the courtly love for their Islamic playfellow's sister that inspired him to celibacy and the priesthood (not necessarily in that order). Despite his own secret sin, despite his own arrest and long imprisonment in midlife by the Inquisition he serves, despite his love for and private marriage with the barren Romany woman Pilar. Why, then, these nightmares that recurrently trouble his sleep, in which his ancestress the heretic Raymonde and purported descendant the Pagan Rosemary guide him through terrible visions of the evil humans do to one another in the name of righteousness?"

At the last fair of the season, the toymaker Torin proposes to the beautiful sorceress Sharys, and watches his world shatter. Sharys refuses his marriage token because she has just accepted the proposal of his best friend, the adventurer Valdart. Torin's brother falls suddenly and mysteriously ill, and hovers at the brink of death. Valdart's valuable marriage token is turned into a citron fruit, and he accuses Torin, an ex-magician, of enchanting the necklace to stop his marriage to Torin's beloved. And Torin, who may have created magic in his dreams, doesn't know whether or not he changed Valdart's gift in his sleep.

Journey once more into the land where no one grows old. Travel along with a group of unusual Ozites-including a female nome, an unmagnified woggle-bug, a considerate kalidah, a hot-tempered art student, a lazy lion, a winged hammerhead, and an educated troll-who are seeking the help of the sorcerer Zim Greenleaf to rescue a mysterious woman who has been trapped inside a diamond ring. In this volume, readers will be treated to a visit with Boq the Munchkin, who entertained Dorothy during her first trip to the Land of Oz; an encounter with a beastly serpent with the head of a tiger; a magical potion that can grant one's every wish; a beautiful country that exists inside of a flower; a wild unexplored bayou; a glass boat shaped like a swan; and the bizarre land of Fantasque, where reason and logic are left behind. But the old witch Mombi is on the loose, and she's got plans for the merry kingdom, including its ruler, Princess Ozma!

Everyone knows the Robin Hood legend, but for this retelling, Phyllis Ann Karr has found a historical precedent to create a female Sheriff of Nottingham and suddenly the whole myth explodes, taking on new meanings that resonate deep within contemporary culture.