Infinite earths wait within easy reach. All you need is a powerful machine called a ripper, and the courage to leap into the unknown. Kala grows up in a world born from this extraordinary technology—a vicious, male-dominated world where pretty young women are routinely abducted and then taken away to new earths. But Kala wants to break free of this cycle, and she eventually gets her chance. "Claire stepped out the front door, and hesitated. Two long trucks were parked in the otherwise empty street. But where was the campus? Past the trucks, exactly where the Fine Arts building should be standing, a rugged berm had been made of gray dirt and gray stone and shattered tree trunks. Beyond the berm was a forest of strange willowy trees. Nameless odors and a dense gray mist were drifting out of the forest on a gentle wind. And illuminated by the moon and endless stars was a flock of leathery creatures, perched together on the nearest limbs, hundreds of simple black eyes staring at the newcomers." "A Billion Eves" won the Hugo Award as the best novella of 2006. It has been reprinted many times, but this version has tweaks and small improvements supplied by the author and another decade of writing experience.