All the death traps in the galaxy, and she had to walk into mine. At first I didn’t recognize her—and when I did, I knew it still couldn’t be right. She was dead.

In a distant future of interstellar assassins, temporal labyrinths, and reality-bending technology, Kalifriki is a Master of the Thread—a weapon more powerful than a black hole. Subtle, potentially infinite in its variations, and nearly impossible to escape, the Thread can wander anywhere, allowing its wielder to turn the forces of doom, destiny, and desire against any target. But even the galaxy’s deadliest hunter cannot anticipate every twist of fate—and attempting to observe every possible future can end only in madness.

When a mysterious shifter escapes from the Assassin’s Garden carrying a treasure almost beyond price, Kalifriki launches a cosmic pursuit across alien worlds and through the Valley of Frozen Time. The chase entangles Kalifriki with the elusive Kife, a destructive octad, and Alice, a woman who cannot possibly be alive. Hunters become hunted, identities shift, and carefully constructed pitfalls backfire against their creators. Kalifriki may command the mightiest weapon in the universe, but within a maze of time, fate, deception, and death, even a Master of the Thread may discover that nothing is truly under control.

This two-story science-fantasy collection brings together Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Roger Zelazny’s complete Kalifriki cycle: Kalifriki of the Thread and its sequel, Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love. Filled with temporal paradoxes, reality-altering weapons, cosmic anomalies, daring escapes, karmic backlashes, and impossible returns, Kalifriki showcases Zelazny’s singular fusion of New Wave science fiction, mythic fantasy, metaphysical mystery, and poetic world-building. Together, these connected far-future tales create an elaborate interdimensional adventure that reveals new possibilities with every reading.

Perfect for fans of Jack Vance, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, Samuel R. Delany, Cordwainer Smith, Philip José Farmer, and Gene Wolfe, as well as readers of cosmic fantasy, philosophical sci-fi, time travel, alternate realities, space-time manipulation, nonlinear narratives, surrealist fiction, and classic space opera.

"A storyteller without peer. He created worlds as colorful and exotic and memorable as any our genre has ever seen."  –George R. R. Martin

". . . his performance was never anything other than dazzling."  –Robert Silverberg

Prefer a physical book? Click here to purchase the print edition from Ingram, our distribution partner, and save 10% off the price Amazon charges (and make us smile!)