Surrounded by a vast, poisonous desert, Echo City is built upon the graveyard of its own past. Most inhabitants believe that their city and its subterranean Echoes are the whole of the world, but there are a few dissenters. Peer Nadawa is a political exile, forced to live with criminals in a ruinous slum. Gorham, once her lover, leads a ragtag band of rebels against the ruling theocracy. Nophel, a servant of that theocracy, dreams of revenge from his perch atop the city’s tallest spire. And beneath the city, a woman called Nadielle conducts macabre experiments in genetic manipulation using a science indistinguishable from sorcery. They believe there is something more beyond the endless desert . . . but what? It is only when a stranger arrives from out of the wastes that things begin to change. Frail and amnesiac, he holds the key to a new beginning for Echo City—or perhaps to its end, for he is not the only new arrival. From the depths beneath Echo City, something ancient and deadly is rising. Now Peer, Gorham, Nophel, and Nadielle must test the limits of love and loyalty, courage and compassion, as they struggle to save a city collapsing under the weight of its own history.

Seventeen original tales of sword and sorcery penned by masters old and new Elric ... the Black Company ... Majipoor. For years, these have been some of the names that have captured the hearts of generations of readers and embodied the sword and sorcery genre. And now some of the most beloved and bestselling fantasy writers working today deliver stunning all-new sword and sorcery stories in an anthology of small stakes but high action, grim humor mixed with gritty violence, fierce monsters and fabulous treasures, and, of course, swordplay. Don't miss the adventure of the decade! Contents: \- Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan \- Goats of Glory by Steven Erikson \- Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company by Glen Cook \- Bloodsport by Gene Wolfe \- The Singing Spear by James Enge \- A Wizard in Wiscezan by C.J. Cherryh \- A Rich Full Week by K.J. Parker \- A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet by Garth Nix \- Red Pearls: An Elric Story by Michael Moorcock \- The Deification of Dal Bamore: A Tale from Echo City by Tim Lebbon \- Dark Times at the Midnight Market by Robert Silverberg \- The Undefiled by Greg Keyes \- Hew the Tintmaster by Michael Shea \- In the Stacks by Scott Lynch \- Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe by Tanith Lee \- The Sea Troll's Daughter by Caitlín R. Kiernan \- Thieves of Daring by Bill Willingham \- The Fool Jobs by Joe Abercrombie