An overview of the best science fiction short stories of the 20th century as selected and evaluated by critically-acclaimed author Orson Scott Card.

    Introduction by Barry N. Malzberg. Dustjacket art by Bob Eggleton.

    Doerr explores the human condition in all its varieties-metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts-and conjures nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of his characters contend with tremendous hardship; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the mysteries of the universe outside themselves.

    R. James need no introduction. They are widely considered the very best classical supernatural tales ever committed to paper, and a testimony to their quality and universal appeal is the fact that James's Collected Ghost Stories has remained in print since its first publication in 1931. James's ghost stories are a towering achievement, and they continue to dominate the genre more than a century after they first began to appear.Ash-Tree Press has published collections by many of the writers who followed James and sought to emulate him, and is now proud to have published A Pleasing Terror, which collects all of M. R. James's writings on the supernatural. In addition to the thirty-three stories from Collected Ghost Stories, this volume includes a further three stories, seven story drafts left amongst his papers, all of his introductions and prefaces to his various collections, and his article 'Stories I Have Tried to Write'. In addition, there are the texts of twelve medieval ghost stories discovered and published by James, all of his articles about the ghost story, and his writings on J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

    The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God gathers his daring and provocative short stories for the first time in English. Brief, intense, painfully funny, and shockingly honest, Keret's stories are snapshots that illuminate with intelligence and wit the hidden truths of life. As with the best comic authors, hilarity and anguish are the twin pillars of his work. Keret covers a remarkable emotional and narrative terrain-from a father's first lesson to his boy to a standoff between soldiers caught in the Middle East conflict to a slice of life where nothing much happens. Bus Driver includes stories from Keret's bestselling collections in Israel, Pipelines and Missing Kissinger, as well as Keret's major new novella, "Kneller's Happy Campers," a bitingly satirical yet wistful road trip set in the afterlife for suicides.

    Born With A Tooth, Boyden's debut work of fiction, is a collection of thirteen beautifully written stories about aboriginal life in Ontario. They are stories of love, unexpected triumph, and a passionate belief in dreams. They are also stories of anger and longing, of struggling to adapt, of searching but remaining unfulfilled. The collection includes 'Bearwalker', a story that introduces a character who appears again in Boyden's novel Three Day Road. By taking on a new voice in each story, Joseph Boyden explores aboriginal stereotypes and traditions in a most unexpected way. Whether told by a woman trying to forget her past or by a drunken man trying to preserve his culture, each story paints an unforgettable and varied image of modern aboriginal culture in Ontario. An extraordinary first book, Born With A Tooth reveals why Joseph Boyden is a writer worth reading.

    The selection reveals the wide range of Premchand's genius and the scope of his appeal. While most of the stories are woven against a rural backdrop, some also demonstrate an urban sensibility.

    Brite, "Onion," an original novella by Caitlín R. Kiernan, and "The Rest of the Wrong Things," a brand-new collaborative story by Caitlín and Poppy set in Poppy's fictional stomping grounds of Missing Mile, North Carolina. Wrong Things also features an exclusive afterword by Caitlín and ten full-page interior illustrations by Richard Kirk.

    Dick has written some of the most intriguing, original and thought-provoking fiction of our time. He has been described by The Wall Street Journal as the man who, "More than anyone else…really puts you inside people's minds."

    A new collection of short stories from Hopkinson, including "Greedy Choke Puppy," which Africana.com called "a cleverly crafted West Indian story featuring the appearance of both the soucouyant (vampire) & lagahoo (werewolf)," "Ganger (Ball Lightning)," praised by the Washington Post Book World as written in "prose [that] is vivid & immediate," this collection reveals Hopkinson's breadth & accomplishments as a storyteller.

    With a "genius for illuminating that sometimes ephemeral apogee in people's lives when they prove capable of generating a brightly burning spark" "(Columbia Journalism Review), " Robert McG. Thomas Jr. commemorated fascinating, unconventional lives with signature style and wit."The New York Times" received countless letters over the years from readers moved to tears or laughter by a McG. Eschewing traditionally famous subjects, Thomas favored unsung heroes, eccentrics, and underachievers, including: Edward Lowe, the inventor of Kitty Litter ("Cat Owner's Best Friend"); Angelo Zuccotti, the bouncer at El Morocco ("Artist of the Velvet Rope"); and Kay Halle, a glamorous Cleveland department store heiress who received sixty-four marriage proposals ("An Intimate of Century's Giants"). In one of his classic obituaries, Thomas described Anton Rosenberg as a "storied sometime artist and occasional musician who embodied the Greenwich Village hipster ideal of 1950's cool to such a laid-back degree and with such determined detachment that he never amounted to much of anything." Thomas captured life's ironies and defining moments with elegance and a gift for making a sentence sing. He had an uncanny sense of the passion and personality that make each life unique, and the ability, as Joseph Epstein wrote, to "look beyond the facts and the rigid formula of the obit to touch on a deeper truth."Compiled by Chris Calhoun, one of Thomas's most dedicated readers, and with a fittingly sharp introduction from acclaimed novelist and critic Thomas Mallon, "52 McGs." will win legions of new fans to the masterful writer who transformed the obituary into an art form.

    But Lankhmar is under attack from a strange horde of invaders, including a two-headed dragon and an army of miniature wanderers ...Once those threats are seen off, a quest to the farthest reaches of Nehwon is in prospect. And then, in the last book of their adventures, Fafhrd goes sailing through the clouds, and the Mouser takes to the seas, before we finally bid a fond, if sad, farewell to Lankhmar. THE SECOND BOOK OF LANKHMAR includes the last three volumes of the hugely enjoyable series.

    Dick has written some of the most intriguing, original and thought-provoking fiction of our time. This collection includes stories that will make you laugh, cringe...and stop and think.The Minority Report: a special unit that employs those with the power of precognition to prevent crimes proves itself less than reliable...We Can Remember It For You Wholesale: an everyguy's yearning for more exciting "memories" places him in a danger he never could have imagined (basis of the feature film Total Recall)...Paycheck: a mechanic who has no memory of the previous two years of his life finds that a bag of seemingly worthless and unrelated objects can actually unlock the secret of his recent past — and insure that he has a future...Second Variety: the UN's technological advances to win a global war veer out of control, threatening to destroy all of humankind (basis of the movie Screamers)...The Eyes Have It: a whimsical, laugh-out-loud play on the words of the title.

    Sin's Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances is the 4th volume of Night Shade Books' five volume "Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman."Contents:• Introduction by David Drake• The Undead Soldier• Larroes Catch Meddlers• Up Under the Roof• Among Those Present• The Terrible Parchment• Sin's Doorway• The Golgotha Dancers• Changeling• For Fear of Little Men• Where Angels Fear• The Witch's Cat• School for the Unspeakable• Voice in a Veteran's Ear• These Doth the Lord Hate• The Liers in Wait• The Hairy Thunderer• The Song of the Slaves• It All Came True in the Woods• When it Was Moonlight• His Name on a Bullet• The Valley Was Still• Back to the Beast• Finger of Halugra• Arimetta• Half Bull

    Jenkyn Thomas was dismayed to find that his students — who took such delight in the fairy stories of other nations — knew nothing at all of their own country's rich heritage of fairy tales. To fill the need for a collection of Welsh fairy tales for young readers, he compiled this definitive treasury.Abounding in phantoms, fairies, witches, magical spells, and other time-honored fairy-tale ingredients, the 83 fascinating stories include "Lady of the Lake," in which a young country boy falls in love with a beautiful girl who agrees to marry him under very strange conditions; "The Adventures of Three Farmers," and "The Fairy Wife," in which fairies outsmart mortals; and a wealth of other fanciful, imaginative tales. Among these are such favorites as "Elidyr’s Sojourn in Fairy-Land," "Pergrin and the Mermaiden," "The Cave of the Young Men of Snowdonia," "Goronwy Tudor and the Witches of Llanddona," "A Strange Otter," "Nansi Llwyd and the Dog of Darkness," "The Bride from the Red Lake," "Lowri Dafydd Earns a Purse of Gold," and many more. Overflowing with charm, whimsy, and authentic Welsh flavor, this stimulating collection is sure to delight not only children but also fairy- and folk-tale lovers of all ages.

    They include:1. The Moving Finger2. Sleeping Murder3. Nemesis4. A Caribbean Mystery5. 4.50 From Paddington6. A Pocket Full of Rye7. They do it With Mirrors8. At Bertram's Hotel9. The Body in the Library10. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, and two more.Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection, "The Complete Miss Marple." Entries for each of the individual novels can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. Librarian's note #2: the word "Complete" in the title implies the full set of 12 Miss Marple novels. That means that the other two are "The Murder at the Vicarage," and "A Murder is Announced."

    It includes such classic stories as "Child's Play," "Time in Advance," "Down Among the Dead Men," and "On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi."The next volume on the series, Here Comes Civilization, will contain the remainder of his short science fiction, the novel Of Men and Monsters, and the short novel A Lamp for Medusa.Tenn has long been considered one of the major satirists in the field. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia calls him "one of the genre's very few genuinely comic, genuinely incisive writers of short fiction." Theodore Sturgeon had the following to say:"It would be too wide a generalization to say that every SF satire, every SF comedy and every attempt at witty and biting criticism found in the field is a poor and usually cheap imitation of what this man has been doing since the '40s. [But] his incredibly involved and complex mind can at times produce constructive comment so pointed and astute that the fortunate recipient is permanently improved by it."

    Among the photographers included by the editors of this piquant and varied collection stand Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Wolfgang Eichler, Bob Carlos Clarke, Mario Testino, Wolfgang Tilmans, Roy Stuart, Trevor Watson, Michele Serchuk, Trevor Baker, Pascal Baetens, and Eric Kroll. All the photographers in the volume are generously represented by six pages of images that showcase their particular talent to best advantage in highly nuanced, top-quality black-and-white reproductions. Accompanying the presentation of each set of images, meticulously chosen for their aesthetic as well as their erotic appeal, are brief biographical vignettes of the photographers themselves that together provide a survey of developments and experiments that have advanced the artistry of contemporary erotic photography.

    The critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition continues with another stunning collection, including stories by Jack Cady, Ramsey Campbell, Susanna Clarke, Jack Dann, Terry Dowling, Dennis Etchison, Greer Gilman, Nalo Hopkinson, Kelly Link, Kathe Koja, Paul J. McAuley, Delia Sherman. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

    We meet the war veteran Markham whose deformation ends in tragedy; Susanna, the merry widow who loved each of her seven husbands to death and Kundan Singh, the reckless rake whom women find irresistible. There are also fascinating stories from the author’s childhood, about the eccentric characters and memorable animals of old Dehradun. CONTENTSWhen Darkness FallsThe Garden of MemoriesThe Ghost of GardenReturn of the White PigeonYoung Man in a TongaThe Writer's BarTopazSusanna's Seven HusbandsThe Amorous ServantMonkey TroubleColonel Wilkie's Good HuntingThe Family GhostLiving Without Money

    Hartley was also a much admired adept of the macabre short story. Hartley was no dilettante in the genre: he was well-versed in its long and distinguished tradition, and these carefully crafted tales represent some of the most successful attempts to carry the ghost story into the twentieth century. The Collected Macabre Stories includes thirty-seven of Hartley's best tales, ranging from the well-known, traditional ghost stories 'The Cotillon' and 'Feet Foremost', through the dark humour of 'The Travelling Grave' and 'The Killing Bottle' to the Aickmanesque 'The Pylon'. These encompass a wide range of settings, from English Country Houses to Venetian Palaces. Two accomplished fantasies, 'Conrad and the Dragon' and 'The Crossways' display Hartley's range and versatility. Taken as a whole, the collection represents one of the most impressive achievements of twentieth-century macabre fiction.Contents: From the Introduction to Lady Cynthia Asquith’s Third Ghost Book/ A Visitor from Down Under/ Podolo/ Three, or Four, for Dinner/ The Travelling Grave/ Feet Foremost/ The Cotillon/ A Change of Ownership/ The Thought/ Conrad and the Dragon/ The Island/ Night Fears/ The Killing Bottle/ A Summons/ W.S./ The Two Vaynes/ Monkshood Manor/ Two for the River/ Someone in the Lift/ The Face/ The Corner Cupboard/ The Waits/ The Pampas Clump/ The Crossways/ Per Far L’Amore/ Interference/ The Pylon/ Mrs Carteret Receives/ Fall in at the Double/ Paradise Paddock/ Roman Charity/ Pains and Pleasures/ Please Do Not Touch/ Home Sweet Home/ The Shadow on the Wall/ The Sound of Voices/ Mrs G. G./ The Stain on the Chair

    Bill Roorbach's men are sweet and passionate and usually kind. They may seem like losers but at least they're trying, and sometimes even when misguided, they actually get it right.In settings ranging from New York to California, Michigan to Texas, these stories are small miracles that offer the sweep and scope and completeness of little novels. There is a rare assuredness in these tales of men in motion -- moving from swagger to sweetness, from machismo to tenderness, and from loneliness toward love.

    In the transformative “The Metaphor,” the narrator proclaims, “when the world looks like every little promise has been lanced and bled out, you need a story to tell yourself.” So we move seamlessly between the lives of people both real and imagined and the life of the author, and what emerges is not only a composite of sharply drawn and revealing moments, but also a book-length meditation on the nature of, and necessity for, storytelling itself. Including three new stories — “Sam at the Gun Show,” “Strangers and Dreams,” and “Heroism #2” — this revised edition announces an understated, arresting new voice in literature.

    Their landscapes harken back to the South of Reid’s first novel, In the Breeze of Passing Things, and form their own kind of topography, the human heart and  its many urges. Within the world of this collection, girls and women sidle the precipice of new lives and new selves. In “If You Must Know,” a young woman serves as host to a cicada and tries to recreate the bliss of her first sexual experience, the very moment when the insect chose to burrow into her. “Pearl in a Pocket” is the story of young teen Vyla—one of thirteen sisters, some living, more miscarried—who discovers how powerless love can be. “So There,” a 15-year old girl recalls the rhythm of nights her father swung her around the Black Diamond Lounge while her mother stole dances with anyone and everyone else. The girls and women of these stories stand at the edge of rebirth undeniably aware that who they are—their shape, their class, their family, their brand of love or crazy—makes them far more complicated than the world will allow. They are brave and terrified, isolated and enveloped; they are dead and bleed to live. And all seem to stand with hands on hips, defiant in that knowledge, even perhaps eating it up.

    Sharply tuned, haunting, and darkly humorous, these stories take readers from the country fair to the suburban home to the boy scout camping trip, flipping each stopping point on its head. Every story begins and ends with one voice, and each contains a mystery or turn of events that shocks, entertains, and frightens--and often all three. In the title story, rest area, a father chats with other drivers while he waits for his daughter at a rest stop. She went to the bathroom, and he's been waiting for her ever since, and now he's handing out her picture. Have you seen her? Are you sure you haven't seen her? A remarkable combination of unexpected tenderness, deep sensitivity, and a fascination with the darker side of domesticity, these tales of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations will echo in your head long after you close the pages. Entering into its sixth year, Clay Chapman's Pumpkin Pie Show has established itself as an all-points artistic hodgepodge of music, theatre, and literature. It is a rigorous story-telling session backed with its own live soundtrack, built upon the same structure as a rock band, complete with musicians and vocalists. Each show consists of four 15 minute short stories, which can either be read or performed on stage.

    In these tightly told tales, he explores with precision of thought and expression the humanity of individuals and their places in society. The collection includes some of Sahni's best known stories: 'Dinner for the Boss', a tragi-comic tale of a man trying to please his employer and a mother's attempt to please her son; 'Paali', the drama of a young boy shared between a Muslim and a Hindu family during Partition; and 'Sparrow', a story of love and loss in a marriage. Among the other stories in this anthology are popular favourites like 'Veero', 'The Witch', 'Before Dying', 'Radha-Anuradha' and 'Salma Aapa'. The author, Bhisham Sahni, is a well known novelist and was recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Tamas in 1976. He lives in New Delhi.