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A gravely ill soldier sails home from the Far East, sustained by memories of snow, family, and a village impossibly far away.
A French settler in colonial Algeria recalls the restless woman whose freedom never fit the life he tried to give her.
A naval officer recalls an Indian expedition where a prince’s troubling gift binds him to a child trapped by courtly power.
In colonial Algeria, a traveler’s affair with a married woman leads him from sensual confidence into a reckless encounter under her husband’s roof.
An old colonial officer recalls a seven-man punitive expedition whose celebrated success depended on ruthless deception and force.
An Indian prince’s cremation beneath the cliffs of Étretat confronts a French resort town with an unfamiliar rite.
A Paris officer recognizes a former colonial soldier whose chaotic courage and appetite once shaped life inside a blockaded town.
A shipwreck survivor in a diving suit is mistaken for a god, but keeping up the role may cost him the treasure he came to recover.
After crossing a feared secret society, an arrogant colonial traveler finds that revenge follows him from Sierra Leone to London.
A Brazilian gunboat sent against a plague of giant ants discovers an organized enemy capable of challenging human rule of the Amazon.
A colonial patrol trapped on a cliff must escape enemy fire, thirst, and a drop that seems impossible to survive.
Two exhausted adventurers follow a stolen treasure map into a tropical forest, certain that murder has put a fortune within reach.
A captive fur trader claims he can make his skin resist an axe, then wagers his life on a test.
On the anniversary of Parnell’s death, campaign workers shelter from the rain and argue over Irish politics.
When her French village empties under British rule, a young hunter must decide where she belongs.
A reckless English volunteer joins Greek fighters and survives a battle beside their grieving young leader.
A Polish exile in Naples finds love while carrying papers that could imperil an empire.
A Terran boy visits his alien friends on the day their people finally begin winning back a century of conquered worlds.
On a colonized, dying Mars, an exiled musician plays a tune that may summon a violent reckoning for Earth’s occupiers.
An alien envoy announces Earth’s forced annexation and dares a military research team to overcome his perfect defenses.
At Tokyo’s dazzling Rokumeikan ball in 1886, a seventeen-year-old Japanese woman dances for the first time with a visiting French naval officer.
A defeated space fleet returns to peaceful Earth for fuel and turns a willing welcome into occupation, forced labor, and revolt.
22 stories
