Science fiction and fantasy's most adept short-story author reinvents some classic themes in an engaging collection that includes three of his Hugo award-winning stories. These smart expansions of traditional themes summon dinosaurs, dragons, peril in space, myths, faeries, and time travel, each undergoing artful alchemy to create serious genre literature that is playful, original, and clever. Comprising 16 imaginative and mischievous adventures, including the previously unpublished novelette, "The Skysailor's Tale, "this adroit gathering makes a collection to truly revel in. The collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow contains the following stories: "'Hello,' Said the Stick" (Hugo Nominee for Short Story 2003, Locus Nominee for Short Story 2003) "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" (Hugo Winner for Short Story 2002, Nebula Nominee for Short Story 2003, Locus Nominee for Short Story 2002) "Slow Life" (Hugo Winner for Novelette 2003, Locus Nominee for Novelette 2003) "Triceratops Summer" (Locus Nominee for Short Story 2006) "Tin Marsh" (Locus Nominee for Short Story 2007) "An Episode of Stardust" "The Skysailor's Tale" (Locus Nominee for Novelette 2008) "Legions in Time" (Hugo Winner for Novelette 2004, Locus Nominee for Novelette 2004) "The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport" (Hugo Nominee for Short Story 2003, Locus Nominee for Short Story 2003) "The Bordello in Faerie" "The Last Geek" (Locus Nominee for Short Story 2005) "Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play" (Locus Nominee for Novelette 2006) "A Great Day for Brontosaurs" "Dirty Little War" (Locus Nominee for Short Story 2003) "A Small Room in Koboldtown" (Hugo Nominee for Short Story 2008, Locus Winner for Short Story 2008) "Urdumheim" (Locus Nominee for Novelette 2008)

Dancing With Bears follows the adventures of notorious con-men Darger and Surplus: They've lied and cheated their way onto the caravan that is delivering a priceless gift from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Muscovy. The only thing harder than the journey to Muscovy is their arrival in Muscovy. An audience with the Duke seems impossible to obtain, and Darger and Surplus quickly become entangled in a morass of deceit and revolution. The only thing more dangerous than the convoluted political web surrounding Darger and Surplus is the gift itself, the Pearls of Byzantium, and Zoesophia, the governess sworn to protect their virtue.

A science fiction masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner! In the distant future, Surplus arrives in China dressed as a Mongolian shaman, leading a yak which carries the corpse of his friend, Darger. The old high-tech world has long since collapsed, and the artificial intelligences that ran it are outlawed and destroyed. Or so it seems. Darger and Surplus, a human and a genetically engineered dog with human intelligence who walks upright, are a pair of con men and the heroes of a series of prior Swanwick stories. They travel to what was was once China and invent a scam to become rich and powerful. Pretending to have limited super-powers, they aid an ambitious local warlord who dreams of conquest and once again reuniting China under one ruler. And, against all odds, it begins to work, but it seems as if there are other forces at work behind the scenes. This is a sharp, slick, witty science fiction adventure that is hugely entertaining from one of the best SF writers alive.