Publisher Description
This third volume of Orson Scott Card's five-book anthology of short stories features ten fantasies and fables full of princesses and giants, bears and monkeys, magic and revelation. Discover the pitfalls of paradise, how to handle a dragon, the true secret of happiness, and much more. Card offers background commentaries for each story in a series of afterwords and introductions.
Unaccompanied Sonata
A musical child prodigy, raised alone in a cabin so that his only influences come from nature, plays a complicated instrument capable of a wide range of sound. Against his keepers' wishes, he is introduced to the music of Bach and is ejected from his musical Eden. As he strives to make music, his nemesis strives to stop him.
A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon
A young man blames all of America's problems on former president Richard Nixon.
The Porcelain Salamander
A curse can be lifted only once it is complete.
Middle Woman
An average woman—who is a middle child, of middle income, and living mid-way between her other two sisters—meets a cruel, trickster dragon on the road who grants her three wishes. Through wisdom and compassion, she is able to outsmart his trickery.
The Bully and the Beast
A giant hired as the king's bully falls hopelessly for the king's daughter, the most beautiful woman in the world.
The Princess and the Bear
A magic bear saves a princess' life twice: once from a wolf in the forest and once from her own husband.
Sandmagic
A young boy who watches his parents die vows to avenge their pain. This story is set in the Mithermages universe, which includes the story "Stonefather."
The Best Day
A woman rejects an old peddler's explanation that happiness is a matter of taking joy in overcoming the difficulties in life. Instead, she prefers to buy a traveling medicine man's elixir of happiness which promises that your best day will be with you forever. In reliving one happy day from her past she misses out on the rest of her life.
A Plague of Butterflies
Selfishly choosing to save his own life by not slaying a dragon, Amasa becomes involved in evil and allows it to flourish. Since it's too late to change matters, he must suffer eternal anguish knowing what he has done.
The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun
Paradise can have its hidden pitfalls.
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“The award-winning author of Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, and the Alvin Maker series demonstrates his talent for shorter fiction in this collection of 46 stories that range from fantasy and SF to horror and theological speculation…Detailed introductions and afterwords reveal insights into the thought processes of one of the genre’s most convincing storytellers. An important volume; for most libraries.”
—
Library Journal on the anthology
About the Narrators
Emily Rankin is an audio narrator and winner of two AudioFile Earphones Awards.
Rosalyn Landor is an English-born television, theater, and multiple-award-winning audiobook narrator. Her television credits include Love in a Cold Climate, Rumpole of the Bailey, Sherlock Holmes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has won numerous Audie awards and AudioFile magazine Earphones awards.
Mirron Willis—actor of film, stage, and television—is the winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2012 and a finalist for the Audie in 2015, as well as the winner of four AudioFile Earphones Awards for his audiobook recordings. He has worked extensively in film and television and on stage with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and the Ensemble Theatre, among others. He has recorded some 150 audiobooks, including the Smokey Dalton series by Kris Nelscott and My Song by Harry Belafonte. He resides and records audiobooks on his family’s historic ranch in East Texas.
David Birney is an American
actor and director whose career performances include both contemporary and
classical roles in theater, film and television. He has recorded numerous
audiobook bestsellers, including works by Dean Koontz, Paul Theroux, Annie
Dillard, Thomas Kenneally, and Orson Scott Card. His reading of Julie Salomon’s
The Christmas Tree was honored with the
prestigious Audie Award and has also been the recipient of several AudioFile Earphone
Awards.
Paul Boehmer is an American actor best known for his numerous appearances in the Star Trek universe, in addition to Frasier, Judging Amy, Guiding Light, and All My Children. He is a 1992 Masters of Fine Arts graduate of the Professional Theater Training Program at the University of Delaware. As a narrator, Paul has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie Award.
Paul Boehmer is an American actor best known for his numerous appearances in the Star Trek universe, in addition to Frasier, Judging Amy, Guiding Light, and All My Children. He is a 1992 Masters of Fine Arts graduate of the Professional Theater Training Program at the University of Delaware. As a narrator, Paul has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie Award.
Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.
John Rubinstein is an actor, composer, and director who won a Tony Award for his starring role in Broadway’s Children of a Lesser God. He has narrated dozens of audiobooks, earning several AudioFile Earphones Awards and being named a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2013.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than three thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.
Robin Eller is a narrator, actress, singer, and dance educator. She has appeared on stage, in films, and on such television programs as The Bernie Mac Show, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, and General Hospital, as well as numerous commercials. As a dancer, she has traveled the world with the legendary James Brown.