Conrad Nomikos has a long, rich personal history that he'd rather not talk about and a job he'd rather not do. Escorting an alien grandee on a tour around a shattered post-nuclear war Earth is not something he relishes, especially when he becomes central to an intrigue determining Earth's future.

In TO DIE IN ITALBAR, the galaxy is in chaos, with people falling prey to an unidentifiable disease. Only one man has the ability to help - a man who can heal or kill with a touch. Known only as 'Mr. H', he is being sought after by everyone, but for vastly different reasons. Even Francis Sandow is seeking him, and may be the only one with a clue as to who H really is...In the bonus novel 'A Dark Travelling', James Wiley is an 'ordinary' 14-year-old who has lost his scientist father to a parallel world in the darkbands. With the help of Becky, his sister with magical powers, Barry the exchange student and Uncle George, the werewolf, James goes in search of his parent. But he must take care: for if there just happens to be a full moon at the wrong moment, James's itchy palms might lead him into trouble...

He had destroyed his punchcards and changed his face. There was no credit card, birth record, or passport for him in the International Data Bank. His names were many...any he chose. His occupation was taking megarisks in the service of a vast global detective agency. His interworld assignments were highly lucrative, incalculably vital, and terrifyingly deadly. And more often then not, his life was a living hell!

Here are strange, beautiful stories covering the full spectrum of the late Roger Zelazny's remarkable talents. He had a rare ability to mix the dream-like, disturbing imagery of fantasy with the real-life hardware of science fiction. His vivid imagination and fine prose made him one of the most highly acclaimed writers in his field. Three times he won the Nebula Award, and six times the Hugo Award, for excellence in novels and short fiction. Roger Zelazny possessed a unique, dazzling talent; his visions of the future, of other worlds and of other realities are, by turns, enchanting and disturbing, and always memorable.

"Isle of the Dead" features Francis Shadow, a centuries-old man kept young through science. His advanced age has allowed him to accumulate enough wealth to own a planet, where he is considered a god by the world's natives, who believe he has absorbed the powers of their ancient ancestors. His abilities -- Does he really have any? -- are tested when another planet-owning ruler challenges his dominance.

When the galaxy's most skilled hunter is asked to use his skill to protect an important political mission, he realizes that he needs specialized aid. Thus Billy Singer must seek the telepathic creature only known as "Cat", whom he had caught and trapped for a museum. Cat agrees to help on the condition that, once the mission is over, he be given the chance to hunt his former captor...

Zelazny died in 1995 after beginning this next-to-last hard sf collaboration with Lindskold. They have created a dazzling, 22nd-century future in which the real world, Verite, coexists with a computer-generated realm, Virtu. While citizens of Verite can visit the virtual world, denizens of Virtu cannot exist in Verite until John D'Arcy Donnerjack makes a deal with Death to save his beloved Virtual, Ayradyss. She is the first to cross over to Verite in exchange for giving their firstborn son to Death. First Donnerjack and then his son must find a way to cheat Death. In this intricately plotted novel, the authors create believable, densely populated worlds with a richness of characterization and subplots that will leave readers believing in Virtu. Highly recommended for most sf collections.

Charles Render is a shaper, one of a small number of psychotherapists qualified, by his granite will and ultra-stability, to use the extraordinary device that enables him to to participate in, and control, his patients' dreams. But this is a dangerous therapy for the therapist and only his armour-plated integrity protects Render from too deep an involvement in the mental worlds of the damaged people he seeks to help. But then, Eileen Shallot, another therapist who is blind, asks him to help her 'see' by transferring from his mind to hers a world of colour and light. Render agrees but suddenly finds himself obsessed with Eileen and drawn into fantasies which, she controls.

...A futuristic world where space travel & psi talent are both commonplace. When a boy is born with a gift of telepathy that is so powerful that it becomes a curse - even moving him to the moon isn't the answer. He taps into too many minds, including one that is extremely unique mind that belongs to a man who knows how we were created & why we are here...

Hell Tanner isn't the sort of guy you'd mistake for a hero: he's a fast-driving car thief, a smuggler, and a stone-cold killer. He's also expendable - at least in the eyes of the Secretary of Traffic for the Nation of California. Tanner doesn't care much for those eyes. You'd also never mistake Hell Tanner for a humanitarian. Facing life in prison for his various crimes, he's given a choice; rot away his remaining years in a tiny jail cell, or drive cross-country and deliver a case of antiserum to the plague-ridden people of Boston, Massachusetts...if anyone is still alive there to receive it, that is. The chance of a full pardon does wonders for getting his attention. And don't mistake this mission of mercy for any kind of normal road trip - not when there are radioactive storms, hordes of carniverous beasts, and giant, mutated scorpions to be found along every deadly mile between Los Angeles and the East Coast. But then, this is no normal part of America, you see. This is DAMNATION ALLEY...

Leaving his ever-popular and ever-expanding Amber series behind for the nonce, Zelazny delivers a cheerful, witty, well-crafted fantasy narrated by Snuff, dog-companion to Jack the Ripper. It seems that Jack is in fact a sorcerer and his gruesome exploits were perpetrated in the service of his magic. But the Ripper's killings are tangential to the tale of an upcoming struggle between magical personages. In a rare occurrence, the cosmic forces are in alignment, permitting an opening for the Elder Gods to return to Earth. "Openers" are contending with "closers," who want to keep the Elder Gods shut out. Snuff recounts the day-by-day preparations as players size up the competition, gather their magical arsenals and make and break alliances. Snuff himself maneuvers among other familiars (a cat named Graymalk, a snake called Quicklime, etc.). An instantly recognizable gothic compliment of characters includes a mad doctor trying to reanimate a patchwork corpse with lightning, a werewolf named Larry Talbot and a "Great Detective" who haunts the sidelines. Zelazny handles this material with a charm few can match, and while this novel does not approach the depth of his best work like Lord of Light , its deft, understated good humor and spare, poetic prose reaffirm Zelazny as one of fantasy's most skilled practitioners.