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    In the Stacks: Author's Enhanced Edition
    In the Stacks: Author's Enhanced Edition
    In the Stacks: Author's Enhanced Edition
    Ebook70 pages1 hour

    In the Stacks: Author's Enhanced Edition

    By Scott Lynch

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    About this ebook

    Life is always complicated for students of magic at the High University of Hazar, but the fifth-year exam is a particular challenge: Each student must return one library book.

    Of course, they must return it to the Living Library, a haunted collection of ten million magical tomes, a collection where the rules of time, space, weather, and reality itself are subject to sudden change. Escorted by armored battle-librarians, a group of four students battles mysteries and monsters in a fight to get their books back on the shelves in this fast-paced sword and sorcery tale.

    Originally published in 2010, the Author's Enhanced Edition of "In the Stacks" is newly revised and expanded, featuring new dialogue, new scenes, and a new introduction from the author.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScott Lynch
    Release dateAug 6, 2018
    ISBN9780986373527
    In the Stacks: Author's Enhanced Edition
    Author

    Scott Lynch

    Author of the internationally best-selling Gentleman Bastard sequence, Scott has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, the Campbell Award, and the Compton Crook Award. He received the British Fantasy Society Award for Best Newcomer in 2008. Scott was born in 1978 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the first of three brothers. At various times he was a dishwasher, a waiter, a graphic designer, an office manager, a prep cook, and a freelancer/self-publisher in the gaming field, before accidentally selling his first novel in 2004. After training at Anoka Technical College in Minnesota in 2005, Scott joined his local fire department in St. Croix County, Wisconsin and served as a paid-on-call firefighter for eleven years. In 2016, Scott moved to Massachusetts and married his longtime partner, famed SF/F writer Elizabeth Bear.

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    • 5/5
      A really good short story with realized characters and setting.
    • 4/5
      Completely unexpected at the end, beautifully written, but most importantly, it was easy to follow. Of you are a fantasy beginner like myself, you are going to love this short story!!!! Why did I give it 4 starts then? Because I wish it had continued.

    Book preview

    In the Stacks - Scott Lynch

    IN THE STACKS

    Author’s Enhanced Edition

    By Scott Lynch

    © 2018 Scott Lynch

    All Rights Reserved

    Distributed by Smashwords

    ISBN 978-0-9863735-2-7 (ebook)

    Designed by Scott Lynch

    Cover Image: Georgina Gibson (Used Under License)

    Table of Contents

    Author’s Note

    In the Stacks

    About the Author

    Novels by Scott Lynch

    Author’s Note

    An earlier version of this story was published in Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery, in June 2010. That anthology, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, marked the appearance of my first professionally-sold and mostly-professionally-crafted short story. I say mostly because I was not well during the time in which it was written. In point of fact, I was an undiagnosed clinical depressive still many months away from treatment. As a result, while the story was generally well received, I have never been entirely satisfied with it.

    The deficiencies of In the Stacks were structural as well as artistic. The story pressed so tight against the limits of the word count Lou and Jonathan could give me that I had to truncate a few scenes and gloss over one of the more crucial points of resolution, for the sake of letting the story be published at all. In this new edition, I have tried to preserve as much of the original text as possible while smoothing over some of the rougher bits and completing all the scenes that had to be trimmed or excluded.

    While I’m generally averse to the notion of modifying anything I’ve already published, it seemed unfair that In the Stacks, alone among all my existing work, should be sent back out into the world without my complete confidence. I hope the results of my adjustments are pleasing.

    This new edition is cordially dedicated to the two gentlemen whose patience and generosity made it possible in the first place: Jonathan and Lou.

    Scott Lynch

    South Hadley, Massachusetts

    July 2018

    In the Stacks

    Scott Lynch

    Laszlo Jazera, aspirant wizard of the High University of Hazar, spent a long hour on the morning of his fifth-year exam worming into an uncomfortable suit of leather armor. Why had it once seemed like such a good idea to have the cuirass rakishly form-fitted, the straps made more decorative than functional? Time and the university dining halls had conspired to punish his vanity, and anything wishing to take a bite out of him might find itself having a lucky day.

    You’ve had a growth spurt. Casimir Vrana, his chambers-mate, strolled into the room. Mostly horizontal, it seems. Aren’t you in some sort of dueling society?

    Casimir was already fully armored, of course. Not merely with pristine leathers, but with his usual air of total ease. In truth he’d barely touched fighting gear in a half-decade at school. He simply had the sort of impenetrable deportment usually seen in patrician faces stamped on coins, and doubtless had more than one ancestor who’d ended up as such. Casimir could have feigned confident relaxation while standing in fire up to his privates.

    We wear silks, huffed Laszlo, flexing and buckling his stiff neck-guard. Makes it more interesting. Also less work. It’s a lazy sort of daring. This heap of preserved pigskin, I’ve hardly worn since I took Archaic Homicide Theory—

    Forgot to go to the armory for a re-fit, eh?

    I’ve been dutifully spending every waking hour wetting my breeches over exams, thanks.

    A fifth-year aspirant, busy and confused at finals time? What an unprecedented misfortune. A unique tale of woe. Casimir moved around Laszlo and began adjusting what he could. The shades of ten thousand mighty wizards are waiting in the anteroom to offer you warm milk and cuddles.

    I swear on my mother, Caz, I’ll set fire to your cryptomancy dissertation—

    Can’t. I turned it in two hours ago. Let’s stop fussing with primitive material solutions to your problem, shall we? Casimir muttered incantations, and the familiar heat of spontaneous magic ran up and down Laszlo’s back. A moment later, the armor felt looser. Still not rakishly form-fitted, but at least not tight enough to hobble his every movement. Better?

    Moderately. Never took you for a leather-fitter. What will your parents say when they find out you’ve turned tradesman?

    "I don’t mean to lecture, magician, but sooner or later you should probably start using this thing called magic to smooth out your little inconveniences."

    You’ve always been more confident with practical work than I am.

    Theory’s a wading pool, Laz. You’ve got to come out into deep water sooner or later. Casimir grinned, and slapped Laszlo on the back. You’ll see that today, I promise. Let’s get your kit together so they don’t start without us.

    Laszlo pulled on a pair of fingerless leather gauntlets, the sort peculiar to the profession of magicians intending to go in harm’s way. With Casimir’s oversight, he filled the sheathes on his belt and boots with half-a-dozen stilettos, then strapped or tied on no fewer than fourteen auspicious charms and protective wards. Some of these he’d crafted himself; the rest had been begged or temporarily stolen from friends. His sable cloak and mantle,

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