Sixteen all-new stories by science fiction’s top talents, collected by bestselling author George R. R. Martin and multiple-award-winning editor Gardner Dozois From pulp adventures such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Carson of Venus to classic short stories such as Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” to visionary novels such as C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra, the planet Venus has loomed almost as large in the imaginations of science fiction writers as Earth’s next-nearest neighbor, Mars. But while the Red Planet conjured up in Golden Age science fiction stories was a place of vast deserts and ruined cities, bright blue Venus was its polar opposite: a steamy, swampy jungle world with strange creatures lurking amidst the dripping vegetation. Alas, just as the last century’s space probes exploded our dreams of Mars, so, too, did they shatter our romantic visions of Venus, revealing, instead of a lush paradise, a hellish world inimical to all life. But don’t despair! This new anthology of sixteen original stories by some of science fiction’s best writers—edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois—turns back the clock to that more innocent time, before the hard-won knowledge of science vanquished the infinite possibilities of the imagination. Join our cast of award-winning contributors—including Elizabeth Bear, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Gwyneth Jones, Mike Resnick, Eleanor Arnason, Allen M. Steele, and more—as we travel back in time to a planet that never was but should have been: a young, rain-drenched world of fabulous monsters and seductive mysteries. FEATURING ALL-NEW STORIES BY Eleanor Arnason • Elizabeth Bear • David Brin • Tobias S. Buckell • Michael Cassutt • Joe Haldeman • Matthew Hughes • Gwyneth Jones • Joe R. Lansdale • Stephen Leigh • Paul McAuley • Ian McDonald • Garth Nix • Mike Resnick • Allen M. Steele • Lavie Tidhar And an Introduction by Gardner Dozois Stories and Narrators: Introduction by Gardner Dozois read by Roy Dotrice “Frogheads” read by Jake Weber “The Drowned Celestial” read by Roy Dotrice “Planet of Fear” read by Tisha Donnelly “Greeves and the Evening Star” read by Stephen Fry “A Planet Called Desire “ read by Jake Stormoen “Living Hell” read by W. Morgan Sheppard “Bones of Air, Bones of Stone” read by Gethin Anthony “Ruins” read by Mandy Williams “The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” read by Wil Wheaton “By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers” read by Harry Lloyd “The Sunset of Time” read by Matt Frewer “Pale Blue Memories” read by Prentice Onayemi “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” read by Janis Ian “The Wizard of the Trees” read by Michael Dorn “The Godstone of Venus” read by Ron Donachie “Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts” read by Dame Diana Rigg Interstitial author biographies read by Scott Brick
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George R. R. Martin sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and television pilots that were never made. In the mid ’90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with the lovely Parris, a big white dog called Mischa, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
Jake Weber was born in London, the son of a British socialite and a race car driver. He is best known for his role as Michael in Dawn of the Dead and as Drew in Meet Joe Black. He plays Joe DuBois, husband of medium/psychic, Allison DuBois, in the popular television show Medium. He was also a regular on HBO’s The Mind of the Married Man, and has made appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue.
Ron Donachie is a Scotish actor who has appeared in over one hundred films and television shows, though he is also prolific in theater and voice-over work. Among his many credits are Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Titanic, Hamish Macbeth, and Waterloo Road.
Stephen Fry is a celebrated actor, novelist, journalist, presenter, intellectual, wit, and winner of several award for narration. He has produced four novels and two volumes of autobiography and has written for radio shows and television. His television credits include Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder, and he hosted the BBC TV series QI.
Erin Bennett is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a stage actress who played Carlie Roberts in the BBC radio drama Torchwood: Submission. She can be heard on several video games. Regional theater appearances include the Intiman, Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Laguna Playhouse, and the Getty Villa. She trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
W. Morgan Sheppard is an award-winning British actor who has appeared on Broadway and in major films and television shows. His audiobook narrations have garnered several Audie Awards and an AudioFile Earphones Award. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, including Star Trek, Mad Men, and the movie Transformers, among many others, and has won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
Wil Wheaton is an award–winning actor, voice artist, author, and audiobook narrator. Among his movie credits are Stand by Me and Toy Soldiers. His many television credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Big Bang Theory, and Generator Rex. As a narrator of more than a dozen audiobooks, he has twice won the prestigious Audie Award, twice been a finalist for the Audie, and earned an Earphones Award from AudioFile magazine.
Janis Ian is a singer, songwriter, and author. She is best known for her 1975 hit single, “At Seventeen,” which won a Grammy Award. She won a second Grammy in 2013 for the narration of her autobiography, Society’s Child.
Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. He attended UCLA and spent ten years in a traveling Shakespeare company. Passionate about the spoken word, he has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks. winning won more than fifty AudioFile Earphones Awards and several of the prestigious Audie Awards. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.