A collection that includes the Nebula Awardโwinning titular novella and โLight and Shadow,โ the story that begins the Saga of the Skolian Empire series.
In โThe Spacetime Pool,โ recent MIT grad Janelle Aulair is hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains when a man appears out of nowhere to request her help. Shaken by his impossible appearance, she steps awayโand falls through a portal onto a beach in another universe.
Thatโs when Dominick, the man who waylaid Janelle, reveals she is part of a prophecy. It foretells a bizarre future: if Dominick marries Janelle, heโll depose his twin brother and become Emperor of the land. If Dominick doesnโt marry her, his brotherโa brutal tyrant who will do anything to keep his throneโwill murder him. Janelle finds herself caught in a conflict that could destroy the realm. If thatโs not mind-blowing enough, she discovers books that prove this civilization achieved interstellar travel five centuries ago. Yet now theyโre living in a culture that doesnโt have electricity, riding two-horned creatures that definitely arenโt horses, and sword-fighting. To find her way home, Janelle must figure out what happened between then and nowย .ย .ย .
The Spacetime Pool also includes Catherine Asaroโs first-ever published story, โLight and Shadow,โ featuring Kelric, a popular character from the Saga of the Skolian Empire series, and an illustrated essay on the math in her fiction titled โA Poetry of Angles and Dreams.โ
Praise for Catherine Asaro
โReaders seeking the harmonious meld of hard SFโs rigor and human chemistryโs heat should read Catherine Asaroโs fiction.โ โSciFi Weekly