The time: the 1840s. The place: California during the gold rush.

As the white settlers begin penetrating the remote mountain canyons, they discover an ancient race, the Tenanken, who date back at least sixty thousand years. Some members retain the genetic memories of their distant past, while others project mystical visions of comfort and joy. All flee the coming of the white man, and appear to be doomed to extinction.

Only the genius Pegre finds a possible solution: integrate and intermarry with their distant white "cousins," the Hinchai, and form a new entity. He's aided by the girl...

Kati used the light of creation to win a war, and now, as empress, she must forge new alliances with former enemies. When her daughter, Yesui, is born with powers exceeding her own, Kati discovers that raising a super-being is no simple task. Yesui, a willful prankster, enjoys torturing her baby brother, Mengjai, who also turns out to be much more than he seems. But Yesui is the true Empress of Light and is later called upon to save a dying gaseous planet by adding mass to its core. There she falls in love with a gentle empath and must help in resisting a coup that endangers his family. Along...

On the planet Shanji, a ruthless emperor rules a subjugated people. Kati, raised by the lower caste Tumatsin, is taken captive by the emperor's troops, and then saved by the Searchers, who see her as the promised Empress of Light, whose psychic powers can control the hot light of creation. But those powers can destroy a planet or star, and could be beyond everyone's control. Kati must decide how to use her abilities when there is a planetary invasion from afar, led by a mighty empress whom she thought of as a friend and teacher. Kati must take charge of her own destiny, not only for herself,...

The Shanji Trilogy, which began with Shanji and Empress of Light, comes to its stunning conclusion with this tale of three generations of Creators. Kati, the light-wielding genetic changeling who saved her planet and became its empress, is now threatened with assassination. Yesui, Kati's daughter who came to control mass as well as light, faces revolution and learns the uses of diplomacy. And Bao and Shaan, Yesui's twin daughters, take the lineage to its limit. Leaving their universe behind, they spin forth a radiant new creation.

Rubion Federation ship HMS Belsus visits a three-hundred-year-old colony planet, and discovers a society near revolution against the rule of a "transfigured being" known as Toth. Commander Michael Queal's crew and ship are immediately threatened by Toth and his followers, including a host of strange bioengineered creatures unique to the planet.

Only a banished people on a remote island are willing to aid Queal in his fight to bring freedom to the colony, and allow him to survive the wrath of a monstrous, unbalanced dictator. But help sometimes comes from unexpected directions

A new collection of seventeen science fiction and horror stories by a well-known SF novelist, including four published for the first time. New York Times bestselling author Steve Perry notes in his introduction: "He tends to grab you with the first line and not let go until the last line, and it's an interesting ride all the way through. I do believe Glass has a winner here."