This is a book of musical scores.Easy Piano Licensed Art & SdtkOur songbook matching the soundtrack to the hit Twilight sequel features indie/alt-rock originals written exclusively for the film. Includes Death Cab for Cutie's lead single "Meet Me on the Equinox" plus songs by Thom Yorke, Muse, Bon Iver, Band of Skulls, Sea Wolf, Lykke Li and others. 15 tunes in all: Done All Wrong * Friends * Monsters * New Moon (The Meadow) * No Sound but the Wind * The Violet Hour * A White Demon Love Song * and more.

    Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities. You won't find any elves or wizards here... but you will find the biggest, boldest, and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled. The Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miéville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon.

    Instead, they are following close on the heels of legendary evil, an old witch-woman named Gannajero, who captures children for her own purposes….

    The fifty-two stories and critical introductions are organized chronologically as well as thematically for classroom use. Filled with luminous ideas, otherworldly adventures, and startling futuristic speculations, these stories will appeal to all readers as they chart the emergence and evolution of science fiction as a modern literary genre. They also provide a fascinating look at how our Western technoculture has imaginatively expressed its hopes and fears from the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century to the digital age of today. A free online teacher's guide accompanies the anthology and offers access to a host of pedagogical aids for using this book in an academic setting.The stories in this anthology have been selected and introduced by the editors of Science Fiction Studies, the world's most respected journal for the critical study of science fiction.

    P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner of the Shirley Jackson Award.He returns with his second collection, Occultation. Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation’s nine tales of terror (two published here for the first time) were nominated for just as many Shirley Jackson awards, winning for the novella “Mysterium Tremendum” and the collection as a whole. Occultation brings more of the spine-chillingly sublime cosmic horror Laird Barron’s fans have come to expect. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

    These bewitching poems and stories unwind a fevered world of magic and longing and young women who chance the uncanny and gain wisdom beyond their years.

    Brave New Worlds brings together the best dystopian fiction of the last 30 years, demonstrating the diversity that flourishes in this compelling subgenre. This landmark tome contains stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, M. Rickert, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and many others.Table of ContentsIntroduction / John Joseph Adams --Lottery / Shirley Jackson --Red card / S.L. Gilbow --Ten with a flag / Joseph Paul Haines --Ones who walk away from Omelas / Ursula K. Le. Guin --Evidence of love in a case of abandonment / M. Rickert --The Funeral / Kate Wilhelm --O happy day! / Geoff Ryman --Pervert / Charles Coleman Finlay --From homogeneous to honey / Neil Gaiman & Bryan Talbot --Billennium / J.G. Ballard --Amaryllis / Carrie Vaughn --Pop squad / Paolo Bacigalupi --Auspicious eggs / James Morrow --Peter Skilling / Alex Irvine --The Pedestrian / Ray Bradbury --Things that make me weak and strange get engineered away / Cory Doctorow --Pearl diver / Caitlin R. Kiernan --Dead space for the unexpected / Geoff Ryman --"Repent harlequin!", said the Ticktockman / Harlan Ellison --Is this your day to join the revolution? / Genevieve Valentine --Independence day / Sarah Langan --Lunatics / Kim Stanley Robinson --Sacrament / Matt Williamson --Minority report / Philip K. Dick --Just do it / Heather Lindsley --Harrison Bergeron / Kurt Vonnegut Jr. --Caught in the organ draft / Robert Silverberg --Geriatric ward / Orson Scott Card --Arties aren't stupid / Jeremiah Tolbert --Jordan's waterhammer / Joe Mastroianni --Of a sweet slow dance in the wake of temporary dogs / Adam-Troy Castro --Resistance / Tobias S. Buckell --Civilization / Vylar Kaftan.

    Yet the full story of the conflict between the two most famous Transformers—everything that happened before Optimus and Megatron arrived on planet Earth—has always been a mystery . . . until now. Here, for the first time told in its entirety, is the thrilling saga of Optimus and Megatron before they were enemies, before they even knew each other. “Freedom is every Cybertronian’s right!” After Megatron utters these immortal words, the caste-bound planet of Cybertron is rocked to its foundations. Megatron, an undefeated gladiator thug, gives voice to the unspoken longings of the oppressed masses—and opens the mind of an insignificant data clerk to possibilities previously unthinkable.Long before becoming the honorable Optimus Prime, Orion Pax is a mere office underling, an unlikely candidate to answer an outlaw’s call to revolution. But Orion is determined to meet this defiant enemy of all that Cybertron stands for, no matter what he has to do, or how many laws he has to break.What happens between Orion Pax and Megatron forever changes the destiny of all Transformers. This gripping, action-packed novel reveals all the loyalties and treacheries, trust and betrayals, deadly violence and shining ideals, as well as the pivotal roles played by other characters, including Starscream, Sentinel Prime, Omega Supreme, and one of the thirteen original Primes, the last link to Cybertron’s glorious Golden Age.Discover how meek disciple Orion Pax becomes the fearless leader Optimus Prime; follow the tantalizing clues about the lost Matrix of Leadership and the lore surrounding it; find out why the two allies fighting a corrupt regime suddenly turn on each other, and what triggers their epic war. Transformers: Exodus provides everything fans ever wanted to know about one of the fiercest rivalries of all time.

    This short novella is part of the popular Joe Grey cat mystery series, of which Booklist said: "What makes this series so delightful for both cat lovers and readers of offbeat fantasies is that Murphy's convincing anthropomorphism allows the cats to maintain their feline natures while still adopting human speech and cognition." Both fans of the Joe Grey novels and new readers will enjoy it.The events in the story come between Cat Spitting Mad and Cat Laughing Last, and are referred to in some of the later books in the series.

     In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue. Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny – to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture – and eventually death itself.

    This subsequent career in the family business was tough: marked by war, mutiny and attempted assassination. But then her home was attacked and her parents killed - their trading empire left in ruins. Now she must save what is left of the family and the business, with few friends and too few assets. She must make full use of her hard-won experience to not just survive, but to restore the shattered fortunes of the Vatta family and their allies. Now, Kylara Vatta, space-trader and sometime privateer, has destined herself for a dangerous and unpredictable future. She will muster an interplanetary taskforce and forge them into a lethal weapon: one that the pirates who destroyed her family will never forget...

    In one, a 19th-century minister follows ghostly instructions to build a mechanical messiah. In another, a tyrannical army commander watches his apocalyptic command slip away as the memories of his men begin to fade and fail. Elsewhere, murders are indexed, new worlds are mapped, fairy tales are fractured and retold and then fractured again.Throughout these thirteen stories, Bell's careful prose burrows at the foundations of his characters' lives until they topple over, then painstakingly pores over the wreckage for what rubbled humanity might yet remain to be found.

    A tale of loss and healing, set in Kushner's Riverside series.

    Human apprentice Skeeve, powerless blue demon Pervect magician Aahz, dragon baby Gleep travel through strange worlds in pursuit of wealth, glory, and good-times -- but succeed mostly in getting into one myth-filled mess after another. Includes novelette "The Cold Cash War," and unpublished stories.

    The exciting military career she hoped for never got off the ground but Ky Vatta ended up seeing plenty of combat when she took the helm of one of the commercial transport vessels in her family's fleet...and steered it into a full-blown war. Now the lessons she learned in that trial by fire are about to pay off: because this time, the war has come to her. To be exact, someone unknown has launched a full-throttle offensive against Vatta Transport Ltd., Ky's father's interstellar shipping empire. In short order, most of Ky's family is killed, and subsequent attacks sever vital lines of communication, leaving Ky fighting, in every sense, to survive.Determined to identify the ruthless mystery enemy and avenge her family's name, Ky needs not only firepower but information. And she gets both in spades from the band of stranded mercenaries she hooks up with, from her black-sheep cousin, Stella, who's been leading a secret life, and from Stella's roguish ex-lover, Rafe. Together they struggle to penetrate the tangled web of political intrigue that's wreaking havoc within InterStellar Communications, whose effective operation their own livelihoods and perhaps lives depend on.But the infighting proves to be infectious, and it isn't long before Ky's hired military muscle are turning their suspicions on the enigmatic Rafe, whose wealth of knowledge about ISC's clashing factions and startling new technologies has begun to make him smell like a rat...or a mole. With swift, violent destruction a very real possibility, the last thing Ky needs is a crew divided against itself and she's prepared to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that Vatta stays in business, as well as in one piece.What she's not prepared for is the shocking truth behind the terror and a confrontation with murderous treachery from a source as unexpected as it is unrelenting. (Part 2 of 2)

    The United States, Canada, and Mexico now comprise a single, unified front to the world: the North American Union. Implanted ID chips are soon to become mandatory for every citizen of the NAU, and Trez Sleighton, a disgruntled ex-Army officer, takes to the mountains of Colorado to come to terms with the changing world—and his own hand in the whole mess.Then sounds the trumpet.Around the planet, people simply disappear.In their wake, monsters of legend suddenly roam free to terrorize those who have been left behind. The legendary Nephilim, half-angels who struggle with their own demons, walk the earth in both darkness and light. The world’s most beloved celebrity, movie star Samouel Gallo, comes forward to make a long-awaited announcement that might mean world peace—or world damnation.Meanwhile, a handful of the remaining citizens of the NAU feel the call to go west. Stricken by the loss of their loved ones, alienated by the inhumanity that has consumed their cities, these select few are moved by an inexplicable impulse to converge on a small town tucked away in the Rocky Mountains… a town most of them have never even heard about. As their paths turn toward Shaleford, CO, where Trez is struggling to understand an apocalyptic truth, the rest of the world waits to hear what tidings Samouel Gallo will bring. Is he the man of legend—a Bringer of Peace? Is he the archenemy of old? Is he… the Antichrist?Open the pages of Pray and journey with those who set out to fight for their salvation as the world races to its horrific conclusion.The Book of Revelation just got scarier.

    The brilliantly unorthodox Kylara Vatta, black-sheep scion of Vatta Transport Ltd., one of the galaxy's wealthiest merchant houses, is a heroine like no other, blessed with a killer instinct for business and for battle. Now, in the aftermath of cold-blooded assassinations that have left her parents dead and the Vatta shipping empire shattered, Kylara faces her greatest challenge yet.There is a time for grief and a time for revenge. This is decidedly the latter. Placing her cousin Stella in command of the trading vessel Gary Tobai, Ky embarks aboard the captured pirate ship Fair Kaleen on a twofold mission: to salvage the family business and to punish those responsible for the killings...before they strike again.Since the network providing instantaneous communication between star systems has been sabotaged, news is hard to come by and available information impossible to trust. But as she travels from system to system, with Stella a step behind, Ky pieces together the clues and discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness.The only hope the independent systems and merchants have against this powerful enemy is to band together. Unfortunately, because she commands a ship known to belong to a notorious pirate - her own relative Osman Vatta, whom she killed for his part in her parents' deaths - Ky is met with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Rumors swirl about her intent, her very identity. Soon even Stella begins to question her cousin's decisions and her authority to make them.Meanwhile, the conspiracy Ky hunts is hunting her in turn, with agents insinuated into every space station, every planetary government, every arm of the military, and every merchant house - including her own. Before she can take the fight to the enemy, Kylara must survive a deadly minefield of deception and betrayal. (Part 2 of 2)

    Kiernan's The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. In his introduction, Jeff VanderMeer (City of Saints and Madmen, Finch) writes, Kiernan creates her own light in this remarkable collection, and shines it on dark places. In doing so, she gives us gritty, lyrical, horrible, beautiful truths. In The Ammonite Violin & Others, the author rises to meet the high expectations she set with such collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, A is for Alien, and the World Fantasy Award-nominated To Charles Fort, With Love. Within these pages, you ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakbale and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime. Here are stories of dream and metamorphosis, strange lands and beings existing beyond the veil of death and beyond this earth. Here is a selkie who's lost her sealskin, a woman with a blackhole in her heart, a fairie girl fallen to the Queen of Decay, the descent of a modern-day Orpheus, and a killer who has fashioned the most exquisite musical instrument from the remains of one of his victims. Here are dreams, nightmares, and worse things yet.The Ammonite Violin & Others is comprised of stories first published in the subscription only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlin for her most devoted readers. This publication marks the stories' first availability to the general public.

    He is chosen by a group of scientists to create a philosophy for a computer-generated world exactly like ours. Much to his frustration every model he introduces—from Darwinism, to Existentialism, to Relativism, to Buddhism—fails. The only way to preserve the computer world is to introduce laws from outside their system through a Law Giver. Of course this goes against everything he's ever believed, and he hates it. But even that doesn't completely work because the citizens of that world become legalists and completely miss the spirit behind the Law. The only way to save them is to create a computer character like himself to personally live and explain it. He does. So now there are two of him—the one in our world and the one in the computer world. Unfortunately a rival has introduced a virus into the computer world. Things grow worse until our computer-world professor sees the only way to save his world is to personally absorb the virus and the penalty for breaking the Law. Of course, it's clear to all, including our real-world professor, that this act of selfless love has become a reenactment of the Gospel. It is the only possible choice to save their computer world and, as he finally understands, our own.

    Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man.He is ruthless, cunning, and above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he's only ever made one mistake.One mistake, though, can be enough.

    Plus more! An excellent gift! Delightful reading!

    It didn't give you the date and it didn't give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words DROWNED or CANCER or OLD AGE or CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. It let people know how they were going to die." Machine of Death tells thirty-four different stories about people who know how they will die. Prepare to have your tears jerked, your spine tingled, your funny bone tickled, your mind blown, your pulse quickened, or your heart warmed. Or better yet, simply prepare to be surprised. Because even when people do have perfect knowledge of the future, there's no telling exactly how things will turn out. Featuring stories by: * Randall Munroe* Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw* Tom Francis* Camille Alexa* Erin McKean* James L. Sutter* Douglas J. Lane* and many others.Featuring illustrations by: * Kate Beaton* Kazu Kibuishi* Aaron Diaz* Jeffrey Brown* Scott C.* Roger Langridge* Karl Kerschl* Cameron Stewart* and many others

    This subsequent career in the family business was tough: marked by war, mutiny and attempted assassination. But then her home was attacked and her parents killed - their trading empire left in ruins. Now she must save what is left of the family and the business, with few friends and too few assets. She must make full use of her hard-won experience to not just survive, but to restore the shattered fortunes of the Vatta family and their allies. Now, Kylara Vatta, space-trader and sometime privateer, has destined herself for a dangerous and unpredictable future. She will muster an interplanetary taskforce and forge them into a lethal weapon: one that the pirates who destroyed her family will never forget...

    Valente’s acclaimed short fiction comes together in a single volume. From Mars to ancient India, from the interstellar deeps to post-war Leningrad, from selkies and gingerbread houses to zombies, noir detectives, and video games that never were, these stories leap from genre to genre, voice to voice, outer reaches to inner hearts. Here you will find strange secret histories, back-alley deals between steampunk and pirate stories, between fairy tales and moon colonies, Antarctic cartographers and interplanetary documentary filmmakers. Here an author throws her voice—and a family of strange dolls speaks, as if by magic.

    Lovecraft are in one giant collection with an easy to navigate table of contents.At the Mountains of MadnessThe Call of CthulhuThe Case of Charles Dexter WardThe Color Out of SpaceDarknessThe Dream Quest of Unknown KadathThe Dreams in the Witch-HouseThe Dunwich HorrorHerbert West: ReanimatorThe Horror at Red HookThe Horror in the MuseumHypnosImprisoned with the PharaohsThe Lurking FearThe Other GodsThe Shadow Out of TimeThe Shadow Over InnsmouthShunned HouseThe Thing on the DoorstepThrough the Gates of the Silver Key

    Valente has been sending stories out into the wild. Every month, for twenty-four months, a new tale has appeared in mailboxes all over the world.Here, for the first time, these stories have been brought together in a single anthology. Two years of detectives, fairy tales, frost giants, lost moon colonies, furies and minotaurs.Two years of magic.Accompanied by fantastical illustrations created by the subscribers of the project, these hitherto unpublished stories paint a landscape of fiction, family, and a new kind of connection between author and reader.Open the book and become part of a secret world.

    There's also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty, and the slaughter of Ky's family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way, including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort.

    Klaus? Michelle Erickson brings readers a delightful story of a princess and a carpenter. Eralee's father is a River King and her mother is a Queen. They live in the forest of Everaude, a world filled with immortals and the Rashim (deer). Her parents planned a marriage for her to a river prince. She had no desire to marry him. When she saw a human freezing to death in the woods, she wanted to save him, although it was forbidden by her people. The reader watches as Klaus and Eralee fall in love. Throughout this enchanted story the reader learns the answers to many Santa questions. The reader also meets several incredible secondary characters such as Dasher, Dancer and Vixen. Erickson explains why reindeer can fly and why their antlers glow. Eralee refused to give up the man she loves, no matter the cost. Erickson combines romance, adventure, suspense, and humor to create one of the best Christmas tales I've ever read. Eralee's antics were very funny and her innocence was extremely heartwarming. This book will become a family favorite. I can see this tale making it to TV as a Christmas special. I highly recommend Klaus for the whole family... Eralee is a misfit among immortals. She is supposed to marry a philandering river Prince. She doesn’t want him. She wants to save the human called Klaus. Klaus lives alone at the edge of the Everaude Forest, a dangerous forbidden place. He’s convinced he will never know love until he meets Eralee. Unfortunately, she’s immortal - there's no reason for her to return that love There is another immortal who wants him. She is Kamichen, the Winter Witch, known in legend for eating men’s hearts. She has plans for Klaus and they don’t include Eralee.

    Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.

    The brilliantly unorthodox Kylara Vatta, black-sheep scion of Vatta Transport Ltd., one of the galaxy's wealthiest merchant houses, is a heroine like no other, blessed with a killer instinct for business and for battle. Now, in the aftermath of cold-blooded assassinations that have left her parents dead and the Vatta shipping empire shattered, Kylara faces her greatest challenge yet.There is a time for grief and a time for revenge. This is decidedly the latter. Placing her cousin Stella in command of the trading vessel Gary Tobai, Ky embarks aboard the captured pirate ship Fair Kaleen on a twofold mission: to salvage the family business and to punish those responsible for the killings...before they strike again.Since the network providing instantaneous communication between star systems has been sabotaged, news is hard to come by and available information impossible to trust. But as she travels from system to system, with Stella a step behind, Ky pieces together the clues and discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness.The only hope the independent systems and merchants have against this powerful enemy is to band together. Unfortunately, because she commands a ship known to belong to a notorious pirate - her own relative Osman Vatta, whom she killed for his part in her parents' deaths - Ky is met with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Rumors swirl about her intent, her very identity. Soon even Stella begins to question her cousin's decisions and her authority to make them.Meanwhile, the conspiracy Ky hunts is hunting her in turn, with agents insinuated into every space station, every planetary government, every arm of the military, and every merchant house - including her own. Before she can take the fight to the enemy, Kylara must survive a deadly minefield of deception and betrayal. (Part 1 of 2)

    He’s not smart or athletic, he’s shorter than kids five years younger than him and his facial features are so pointy that everyone avoids him. His foster mother constantly warns him to avoid attention, though Flea has no idea who’s after them. But Flea has recently discovered several abilities that change his life forever: snowy weather follows him wherever he goes, he stops snowballs in mid-flight and he builds anything in shop class in the matter of minutes despite his lack of training. An appearance on The Great Build-Off – a popular construction game show – leads him to a magical place he thought existed only in Christmas stories.At the North Pole, Flea feels even more like an outsider. In fact, this storybook village reminds him of every school he’d ever attended, complete with overachievers and underachievers, popular elves and outcasts, even elves who aren’t afraid to march to their own beat. But during his training to become a proper builder elf, he discovers that the North Pole has an arch-nemesis bent on invading the elfish lands and ending Christmas forever. With a war looming against the South Pole, Flea’s sudden appearance at the North Pole is no coincidence, as he questions his role in the fate of the world’s greatest holiday.“The North Pole Challenge” is not your typical Christmas story. Everyone knows about Santa Claus, his elves and the North Pole but this book provides a fresh outlook on the old familiar tales. Imagine Santa Claus as a reclusive loner, Rudolph as a narcissistic whiner, the elves as cruel party animals. And no great story would be complete without an enemy of epic proportions, another familiar Christmas name with a wicked past never before told… Until now...CHECK OUT OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHORFLEA'S FIVE CHRISTMASESBOOK ONE - THE NORTH POLE CHALLENGEBOOK TWO - THE RUDOLPH CHALLENGEBOOK THREE - THE JACK FROST CHALLENGEBOOK FOUR - THE FROSTIE CHALLENGE BOOK FIVE - THE SOUTH POLE CHALLENGE

    A legend has to start somewhere... As so many writers have said, it's in the shorter and mid-length work that the storytelling craft is best learned. Hard-Luck Diggings brings together fourteen such pieces from the first twelve years of Grand Master Jack Vance's genre-defining career, from back when he first worked to pay the mortgage, buy the groceries, travel the world, eventually building his own private 'dream castle' and starting a family.Like any writer serious about staying in the game, we see him targeting the markets of the day, doing what was needed to meet the tastes of editors and their readerships while at the same time perfecting his own special way of doing things so that his name, his distinctive voice, stood a chance (in modern marketing parlance) of becoming a viable 'brand.'Hard-Luck Diggings brings that fascinating process to life in fine style. As well as serving up vintage entertainment from one of the field's genuine masters, it provides an illuminating armchair tour of how the Jack Vance enterprise came to be, full of zest and life, the thrill of the upward climb and of so much more to be done. This is a book to be savoured with a twinkle in the eye, a knowing smile, but most of all, with a love of adventure and high romance firmly in place.Contents:Introduction-essay by Jonathan Strahan and Terry Dowling;-afterword-essay following each story, by Jack Vance; Hard-Luck Diggings [Magnus Ridolph] (1948); -- The Temple of Han (1951); -- The Masquerade on Dicantropus (1951); -- Abercrombie Station (1952); -- Three-Legged Joe (1953); -- DP! (1953); -- Shape-Up (1953); -- Sjambak (1953); -- The Absent-Minded Professor (1954); -- When the Five Moons Rise (1954); -- The Devil on Salvation Bluff (1955); -- Where Hesperus Falls (1956); -- The Phantom Milkman (1956); -- Dodkin’s Job (1959).Cover illustration by Tom Kidd.

    Gary Braunbeck uses film, fiction, and life experience to elucidate the finer points of storytelling, both in and out of genre. This part-autobiographical, always analytical book looks at how stories develop and what makes them work--or not work--when they're told.Be warned: reality is as brutal as fiction. Rob Zombie, police shootings, William Goldman, and human misery are all teachers to the horror neophyte, and Braunbeck uses their lessons to make To Each Their Darkness a whirlwind of horror and hope for the aspiring writer.

    Black-Winged Angels is a collection of 10 incredible contemporary retellings of fairy tales, featuring an introduction by multiple award-winning author Juliet Marillier, and illustrations by multiple World Fantasy Award nominee Kathleen Jennings.

    Jeff McGrath has recently lost his job, and he and his wife Eden are having trouble making ends meet. Saddled with a mountain of growing bills, the prospect of being evicted from their apartment and an enigmatic homeless man who lives on the steps of their building and seems inexplicably drawn to the young couple, things look exceedingly bleak. But when one afternoon Jeff meets a beautiful businesswoman who wants to recruit him for a high-paying job at an internationally-renowned company owned by the wildly successful CEO Foster Hope, he thinks his luck may be changing. But what initially seems like the break of a lifetime soon becomes an unimaginable nightmare Jeff may never escape. Because an evil as ancient and elusive as the sands of time has come calling, nothing is as it seems, nothing happens by accident or chance, and one man’s dream-come-true may very well be another man’s descent into inconceivable horror.Careful what you wish for…evil has many names…

    She has no reason to suspect that she isn't entirely human... At age six, Tasya's mother was murdered and her twin brother kidnapped by priestesses of the Order. At eight she was sent by her father to become handmaid to the blind princess, and a spy in the royal court. Nearly sixteen years later, the old Queen dies and the fragile princess is poised to become Queen. Tasya will be forced to choose between the princess she loves and the father she serves. Meanwhile, the gods have problems of their own. It will be no easy task for them to save their favorite humans from extinction, and themselves from permanent exile.

    The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan meet Alexander the Great – but their excitement is tempered by the realization that these are the final days of Alexander's life. As the travellers become embroiled in the tragic events, the inevitability of history unfolds around them. But can they – and should they – change it?The Fragile Yellow Arc of FragranceFragrance is a paradise world – a utopia that the travellers are loathe to leave after a relaxing stay. But the way of life is different here. And so is the way of love – as Barbara discovers when the Fragile Yellow Arc is broken...

    In the east the savage Mer­duks, followers of the Prophet Ahrimuz, have cap­tured the holy city of Aekir. The western kingdoms are too distracted by internecine bickering to intervene and the Church seems more obsessed with rooting out heresy. It is an age where men go to the stake for the taint of magic in their blood, where gunpowder and cannon co-exist with werewolves and sorcerers. It is the turning point when two great religions will fight to the death and the common folk will struggle to merely survive.

    Starburst Magazine has called the books "a hugely impressive example of outrageous literary wit and uncommon good sense, demonstrating once more that Aylett is the coolest writer alive today." SFX has called them "Bizarre, innovative and utterly original." Collecting the titles Only an Alligator, The Velocity Gospel, Dummyland and Karloff's Circus, THE COMPLETE ACCOMPLICE follows the simple Barny and his friends through the intertwisted power manipulations of Accomplice, a zone where hell's defected demons discover they can never match or out-do humanity when it comes to spectacular dishonesty and evasion. "Something this rapid shouldn't be so intoxicating or so dense with ideas. It's a roaring, groaning perpetual motion machine decked out as a fun fair attraction. Read it and you'll need resuscitating" - 3: AM

    Chief PrimeLine reporter, Leslie Bing, after learning of the existence of monsters was committed to educating the public about their dangers. Mr. Bing’s original plan was to broadcast the interviews as a series of public service announcements before Halloween. However, the tapes were later seized by an unnamed federal agency and the staff of PrimeLine was admonished to never speak of monsters publically. The only thing that remains from these conversations are the transcripts of the original un-edited PSA footage, presented here for the first time.

    Gretel likes to pick wildflowers. Gretel is one of the subjects on the farm, and she is Doctor Gottlieb's responsibility, but she knows something she isn't telling -- and if Doctor Gottlieb doesn't figure it out, it may be his body in a ditch next. This story is set in the world of Ian Tregillis's Milkweed series, which began with Bitter Seeds.

    Campbell Award Nominee and Two Time Parsec Award Winner"Lafferty's most memorable and exciting creation to date." ~Goodreads.com"...a really fun read. I love the setting (an alien settlement on the moon becomes "Mollywood", the hottest cultural Mecca of the 21st century), as well as how it looked at art, media, and commerce and the sometimes messy ways that they interact." ~Goodreads.comHave you ever tasted a symphony? Listened to a seven course meal?An alien species brings back the old artist patronage system, and suddenly Sally Ride Lunar Base is transformed into the new artistic center of the universe: “Mollywood.” These aliens can do amazing things with art and the senses, allowing a painting, for example, to stimulate other senses than simply sight. Marco wanted a coveted patronage, once. But then his girlfriend got one and shuttled off to Mollywood for fame and fortune, and Marco stayed home, waiting for his own patron. His career faltered. His agent dumped him. But then he gets THE call. But he’s about to find out that an artistic patronage isn’t what it was in the good old days, and that the only friend he’s made, a tiny old woman who’s the star of a blood sports reality series called The Most Dangerous Game, has secrets of her own.Nominated for the 2011 Parsec Award for Best Novella Podcast

    The Omnibus contains The Door into Fire, The Door into Shadow, and The Door into Sunset, all in the author's preferred versions, updated and revised from the previous print editions for this omnibus.

    As Peter is transported to a mysteriously delicious, faraway land, a curious people known as the Candonites, some of whom have no time for a non-Candonite, will teach Peter a lesson on what it means to be different and what it means to forgive.For ages 7 and up.~2013 B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree~2012 USA BEST BOOK AWARDS Award-Winning Finalist in both categories of Children's Fiction & Children's Book Series

    Only Rackham, with the help a young Hyrum Graff, can rid the I.F. of its old guard and pave the way for Earth's next great commander.

    But what would you do if you suddenly found out that you were one of the few who creates dreams for the whole world? Would you use your power to harness the light and weave it into beautiful tapestries of magic and wonder, or would you fall prey to the seductive siren song of darkness and nightmares? For artist Aura Mayville, this becomes a reality as she is ripped from her life.

    Ren bottoms. Neither gives an inch. Kinky, tough, troubled, caring. Cops and lovers, fighting crime and, sometimes, each other, in a vast cold land where the criminals read minds and the cops never know what they'll face next.

    It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child. Things would be pointed out and named, etc. Again I do not know what the right answer is, but I think both approaches should be tried."The first approach has been tried many times in both science fiction and reality. In this new novella, at over 30,000 words, his longest work to date, Ted Chiang offers a detailed imagining of how the second approach might work within the contemporary landscape of startup companies, massively-multiplayer online gaming, and open-source software. It's a story of two people and the artificial intelligences they helped create, following them for more than a decade as they deal with the upgrades and obsolescence that are inevitable in the world of software. At the same time, it's an examination of the difference between processing power and intelligence, and of what it means to have a real relationship with an artificial entity.

    Old and new worlds co-exist, cultures mingle and, if we are lucky, magic happens. Familiar characters appear, but in these versions the gods live in a contemporary world and are motivated by human concerns. In this perplexing world, characters connect with each other and find ancient wisdom that carries them through. Available from Huia Publishers: http://www.huia.co.nz/shop&item_i...

    “Van Name has created a hero worth at least a dozen more novels . . . I want this to be a series. I want to read a new one every year.” —Orson Scott Card      Jon Moore: A nanotech-enhanced warrior who wants nothing more than a quiet life and a way back to his strange home world. Lobo: An AI-enhanced Predator-Class Assault Vehicle, a mobile fortress equipped for any environment from the seabed to interstellar space. TWO WOLVES IN A GALAXY OF LARGER PREDATORS!       For the first time in a Jon & Lobo book, “My Sister, My Self,” the short story which introduced Jon Moore.      One Jump Ahead: Jon Moore wanted only to relax on the pristine planet of Macken--but Macken was the secret battleground of two megacorporations, both determined to control the local jump gate and the riches of an undeveloped world. Finding allies and enemies among terrorist groups and elite mercenaries, gun-runners and the only kind of government possible on a frontier short on rules and long on riches, Jon and Lobo fight to a climax with a corporate army that can't afford to leave any witnesses. Exotic settings, fast action, real tech, mechanically-enhanced animals—and a beautiful woman who's as deadly as a cobra! Slanted Jack: The job looked simple enough:  Jon agreed to help a con man, a friend from a part of his past he’d rather forget, protect a very special young boy.  But the deal didn’t stay simple, as each move Jon and Lobo made resulted in more danger and more enemies. The best con man Jon’s ever known, a ruthless gang boss, a heavily armed group of religious fanatics, a beautiful woman with a mysterious agenda, and an interstellar government out to clean up a dangerous frontier world rush together toward an explosive climax—and Jon and Lobo are caught in the middle. Plus new introductions by the author, making this a package that every Jon & Lobo fan will want to buy.

    Armed with only their notebooks, MP3 players, and wits, Jenni and her classmates are unknowingly transported to another world. Follow Jenni and her class on their extraordinary adventures in their fight to discover who and what they really are.

    Episodic novel of a paranormal investigator in the world of the 19th century Triune Monarchy.Contents:Polly Charms, the Sleeping WomanThe Crown Jewels of Jerusalem, or The Tell-Tale HeadThe Old Woman Who Lived with a BearThe Church of Saint Satan and PandaemonsMilord Sir Smiht, the English WizardThe Case of the Mother-in-Law of PearlThe Ceaseless StoneThe King's Shadow Has No Limits

    But what if it were all true? What if there was such a place, and a poor, broken priest once stumbled past its borders, discovering, not a Christian paradise, but a country where everything is possible, immortality is easily had, and the Western world is nothing but a dim and distant dream?Brother Hiob of Luzerne, on missionary work in the Himalayan wilderness on the eve of the eighteenth century, discovers a village guarding a miraculous tree whose branches sprout books instead of fruit. These strange books chronicle the history of the kingdom of Prester John, and Hiob becomes obsessed with the tales they tell. The Habitation of the Blessed recounts the fragmented narratives found within these living volumes, revealing the life of a priest named John, and his rise to power in this country of impossible richness. John's tale weaves together with the confessions of his wife Hagia, a blemmye--a headless creature who carried her face on her chest--as well as the tender, jeweled nursery stories of Imtithal, nanny to the royal family.

    While science fiction writers expressed the dreams and nightmares of the era in pulp print, real-life rocket engineers worked on making space travel reality. The imaginations of many Cold War scientists were fed by science fiction literature, and companies often promoted their future capabilities with fantastical, colorful visions aimed at luring young engineers into their booming workforce. In between the dry articles of trade journals, a new visual vernacular sprang up. Aerospace industry ads pitched the idea that we lived in a moment where anything was possible — gravity was history, and soon so would be the confines of our solar system. Another Science Fiction presents nearly 200 entertaining, intriguing, inspiring, and mind-boggling pieces of space-age eye candy.

    Shipp's fiction will be familiar with his minimalist, breakneck pacing, his surreal forays into political satire, and his seamless blending of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Now, in his fourth book, the Bram Stoker Award finalist expands on what many critics and fans alike have long considered the most compelling aspect of his work-relationships. This story collection explores how a person's desire can infect their every action and interaction with others. The desire to protect. The desire to hurt. The desire to be desired. Fungus of the Heart explores what happens between people when society breaks down and the rules go out the window. Haunting and heartbreaking, pithy and potent, the quirky inhabitants of Shipp's bizarro world will carve an indelible line from your funnybone to your spleen to your emotional core.

    Charles is just a normal guy working at a doughnut shop until an apple and a banana shoot each other in a mafia dispute, leaving a briefcase full of foreign currency and a specimen bucket at the corner booth. When Charles turns the wiseguys into doughnuts and steals their luggage, hoping for a better life for himself and his kiwi fruit girlfriend, he finds himself in the middle of a mafia war. As his girlfriend travels the DC metro area, selling off the contents of the bucket, Charles finds he is the target of a seasoned hit-tomato, who happens to be the biggest Michael Jackson fan who ever lived.

    The stories traverse the magical and the mundane, where supernatural beings are indistinguishable from their mortal counterparts in their complexity and complicity.

    Instead he goes toe-to-toe with the high king's champion over an ancient dagger and his claim to the throne.Who will triumph? The king of the road or the king of the realm? Either way, the Hunt is on!

    Seo-Young Chu offers a bold challenge to this perception of the genre, arguing instead that science fiction is a form of "high-intensity realism" capable of representing non-imaginary objects that elude more traditional, "realist" modes of representation. Powered by lyric forces that allow it to transcend the dichotomy between the literal and the figurative, science fiction has the capacity to accommodate objects of representation that are themselves neither entirely figurative nor entirely literal in nature. Chu explores the globalized world, cyberspace, war trauma, the Korean concept of han, and the rights of robots, all as referents for which she locates science-fictional representations in poems, novels, music, films, visual pieces, and other works ranging within and without previous demarcations of the science fiction genre. In showing the divide between realism and science fiction to be illusory, Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? sheds new light on the value of science fiction as an aesthetic and philosophical resource--one that matters more and more as our everyday realities grow increasingly resistant to straightforward representation.

    It was not because of a comet, prophecy, natural disaster or whatever garbage foretold on the internet, but because every myth ever written turned out to be an account of historical fact. These monsters we’ve read about as children waged a war that lead to the human race’s downfall. And the unlucky who survived are hunted down or, worse, tortured.In these dark times, people could only turn to the Shepherd for help. I am one such Shepherd and I thought my only task was to protect the few humans who still thrived on this desolate world. But when I rescued Dorian from Dwende captivity, I discovered that not only is he the most dangerous thing to have around, but he could be our one hope for redemption. I now find myself protecting a born killer, but in doing so, I’m turning my back on everything human.

    Experience the spiritual side of the zombie apocalypse in "The Days of Flaming Motorcycles" and transcend both hell and nirvana in "Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch's Damnation." Look into "The Mad Eyes of the Heron King" to find the beautiful brutality written in the moment of epiphany or "Go and Tell it On the Mountain," where Jesus Christ awaits your last plea to enter heaven--if there is a heaven to enter when all is said and done.Horror's top authors and promising newcomers whisper tales that creep through the mists at night to rattle your soul. Step beyond salvation and damnation with thirty stories and poems that reveal the darkness beneath belief. Place your faith in that darkness; it's always there, just beyond the light.

    He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.And then he meets a girl.First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn't want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

    From funkadelic airships to post-apocalyptic advertising, you're sure to find brilliant and original short fiction in our second Book of Apex. These stories represent the second year of original online content from Apex Magazine. Enjoy work from acclaimed story masters such as Jennifer Pelland, Ekaterina Sedia, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peter M. Ball, Seanan McGuire, Mark Henry, and many more! Table of Contents "She Called Me Sweetie" Glenn Lewis Gillette ..".That Has Such People in It" Jennifer Pelland "Pimp My Airship" Maurice Broaddus "Kenny 149" Brad Becraft "Advertising at the End of the World" Keffy R.M. Kehrli "Fungal Gardens" Ekaterina Sedia "Ghost Technology from the Sun" Paul Jessup "A Poor Man's Roses" Alethea Kontis "To Dream of Stars: An Astronomer's Lament" Peter M. Ball "Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys" Nir Yaniv "After the Fire" Aliette de Bodard "Overclocking" James L. Sutter "59 Beads" Rochita Loenen-Ruiz "Wondrous Days" Genevieve Valentine "White Christmas" James F. Reilly "The Lady or the Tiger" J.M. McDermott "p.a. chic" Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf "Beyond the Garden Close" Mary Robinette Kowal "The Bride Replete" Mary Robinette Kowal "Dying with Her Cheer Pants On" Seanan McGuire "Seafoam" Mark Henry "The Last Stand of the Ant Maker" Paul Jessup "City of Refuge" Jerry L. Gordon "Sol Asleep" Naomi Libicki "Laika's Dream" Holly Hight "Artifact" Peter Atwood "Schrodinger's Pussy" Terra Lemay "

    The only chance for a target to hide … is to Disappear--erasure of all personal records, genetic alteration, and a new life with a new name in a new place. For an exorbitant fee under non-negotiable terms of employment, private detective Miles Flint finds the Disappeared. Originally published in Analog, 2000.Locus Poll Award Nominee, Hugo Award Nominee, AnLab Award Nominee

    Ancient myths are re-imagined with an exciting queer twist masterfully depicting the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today.

    Only recently, however, have they been available in English translation.Detha has a gift for selecting the most provocative tales he hears from his fellow villagers and re-creating them in a literary form as engaging and daring as his oral sources. In one tale a ghost uses his powers to change a woman's sex so that she can stay married to the woman she loves. In another--re-created in film by Mani Kaul in the early 1970s as Duvidha and more recently by Bollywood director Amol Palekar as the wildly successful Paheli--a ghost falls in love with a young bride and assumes her husband's form so convincingly even her in-laws are fooled. In the title story of this collection, a group of Bania merchants engage in battle to the death with a group of nomadic Banjaras over a misplaced fleck of straw.These stories pose riddles that fi nd new relevance across languages and eras: Who has the right to tell us whom to marry? What counts as truth when it comes to protecting someone we love? How do the epic stories we hear encourage us to repeat scenes of ethnic violence?Detha's tales combine the local Rajasthani storytelling idiom with narrative technique from the modern short story to set a new standard for contemporary writing in India. Translator Christi A. Merrill has worked with the author and his Hindi translator Kailash Kabir to craft a style that allows these stories to come alive in English with equal inventiveness and vibrancy.

    Writers who are both seasoned and up and coming, African American, as well as from the African Diaspora contributed more than 20 pieces of the most entertaining, eclectic, and enthralling stories that will cature your imagination.Featured authors include: Linda Addison, Charles Saunders, Edward Uzzle, Milton Davis, B. Sharise Moore, Carole McDonnell, Valjeanne Jeffers and many more.

    Ross Lamos, 21stCentury Karmic Detective, knows that somehow, the history of the three jades is his as well.Yu, the Stone of Heaven, jade art born from the genius of ancient China. Lamos has built his career dealing Asian art and antiquities by hiding his very useful psychic Touch. When he holds the jades, the yu will reveal an extraordinary history. Lamos will risk everything to protect the jades, and finally remember his role in a love story that changed the course of a Dynasty ... the love between an extraordinary Concubine and a Prince, the son of her Emperor, and the Poet caught between them all ... a story hidden for two thousand years in three pieces of yu.Yu is the award winning first novel by Joy Shayne Laughterand begins the Ross Lamos mystery series.

    His trajectory: the stars. His companion: a computer poised at the brink of sentience. An unlikely friendship on a prototype spaceship at lightspeed towards Alpha Centauri, and redemption.

    There’s a fearlessness to this prose, a melody of life and magic and loss. This Collector’s Edition contains three previously uncollected stories.

    Paul was slated to study for the priesthood; instead, he studied art and architectural and mechanical drafting. The impact of these studies is evident in his brilliant and original science fiction artwork.To say that Frank R. Paul is the father of science fiction illustration art is an understatement. His fertile imagination, amply demonstrated by the paintings and drawings in this book, speak for themselves and his legacy continues to influence the field today.Here, in this compendium, is the very first collection ever published showcasing many of Paul's full color science fiction artwork along with appreciations and critical essays by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and by Stephen Koshak; Jerry Weist and Roger Hill; Sam Moskowitz; Gerry de la Ree; Forrest J. Ackerman; and Frank Wu.

    Charming outlaw with own transport and limited social skills seeks lucrative, employment at minimal risk.When you're running from a murderous government and work for an equally murderous gangster, accidentally torching his apartment is a bad move.The Pan of Hamgee just wants a quiet life but destiny has other plans.The correct genres for this book are: Comedy/fantasy/sci-fi

    From a changed Jerusalem to windmills which draw their own wind. From windswept British campsites to vast slave empires which have never been. MacLeod's breadth of vision in this collection is extraordinary, but what unites these stories is his abiding interest in humanity, and the way in which he combines the fantastically strange and with the memorably everyday. Expect widescreen wonder in Journeys, with many surprising truths, and some dazzling writing, along the way.Despite a distinguished record as a novelist, which has recently won him both the Arthur C Clarke and John W Campbell Awards for his novel Song Of Time, Ian R MacLeod is probably still most widely known as one of the great writers of shorter fiction. He says that it's still his own abiding love in the genre, and, after more than twenty years of writing, the area where he feels you can take the biggest risks, have the most fun, and make the biggest (and most entertaining) mistakes. MacLeod lives in the riverside town of Bewdley in England with his wife Gillian, and divides his time between writing, teaching, and trying to write.Contents: * "The Master Miller's Tale", first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 2007 * "Taking Good Care of Myself", first published in Nature, May 2006 * "The English Mutiny", first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, October/November 2008 * "Topping off the Spire", first published as a pamphlet for Novacon, November 2008 * "Elementals", first published in Extraordinary Engines * "The Camping Wainwrights", first published in Postscripts, WInter 2008 * "The Hob Carpet", first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2008 * "On the Sighting of Other Islands", first published in Celebration * "Second Journey of the Magus", first published online by Subterranean Online

    Valente"Messenger" by Julia M SidorovaNON-FICTION"Even the Best Stories Have Flaws: Inside Altered Fluid" by Jeremy L. C. Jones"Drawing the Lines around a Moving Object" by Neil Clarke

    The same two ghosts who have now approached him on the school playground, ghosts who look older and actually smell bad. Paavo's cry for help brings the authorities, a few lawyers, and Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, who learns some secrets about the ghosts--and about Paavo's parents. This short stand-alone science fiction novel in the Retrieval Artist series received a Special Mention from the prestigious international UPC contest.This stand-alone short novel fits after the full novel Duplicate Effort in the timeline.

    During one of the many conflicts, clan leader Khalen was forced to kill his mate after she was seduced by the Shadows. Now, he vows to banish them from his territory forever, but like most adversaries, if you kill one, many take its place.His soul lingers in a dark turmoil of mistrust and vengeance until a most unexpected female enters his life. Skye's innocent nature awakens a protective drive in Khalen that both surprises and terrifies him. Despite his attempts to keep her safe, her unique gifts have attracted the Shadows attention. Can he protect her or will the Shadows claim another life and take what is left of his hollow soul?

    This brand new anthology features a small sampling of these very writers, in a speculative fiction collection that will capture the imagination and dazzle the senses. The storytelling genius in this collection is most evidenced by its memorable characters: a young woman haunted by her ex-boyfriend’s sweater, time travelers with a suspicious interest in babies, a gender-changing alien desperate to heal a loved one… In these stories, fourteen independent authors display the imagination, insight and wonderful originality that characterizes the unique world of online fiction.

    Crichton's worst adversary, fandom favorite villain, and one of science fictions greatest antagonists finds himself deposed from his throne on Hyneria and making a bold new discovery that could put him back on top of the Uncharted Territories! An excellent new entry point for Farscape fans that might have missed the previous BOOM! Farscape graphic novels that have come before! Written by the FARSCAPE creator Rockne S. O'Bannon and scripted by fan-favorite STAR TREK novelist David Alan Mack!

    No two of them are quite alike, yet together they create a single impression of a world radiant with an aura of mystery and magic, a land full of the bizarre and the dangerous and the beautiful, a shimmering region of horror, wonder and love." -From the Foreword by Christopher Fletcher

    Tony Stark gave Pepper Potts the Iron Man treatment, with a repulsor chest implant and a suit of armor to call her own! Now see one of Rescue's incredible solo adventures, as Pepper Potts lets loose with her bleeding-edge suit and her astonishing power!

    His stories are powerfully charged explorations of psychical violence, their effects heightened by detailed character studies graced with a powerful poetic elegance. In simple terms Oliver Onions goes for the cerebral rather than the jugular. However, make no mistake, his ghost stories achieve the desired effect. They draw you in, enmeshing you in their unnerving and disturbing narratives.This collection contains such masterpieces as The Rosewood Door, The Ascending Dream, The Painted Face and The Beckoning Fair One, a story which both Algernon Blackwood and H. P. Lovecraft regarded as one of the most effective and subtle ghost stories in all literature. Long out of print, these classic tales are a treasure trove of nightmarish gems.

    S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 5 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.The Stories of Lough Guir: 1 The Magician Earl 2 Moll Rial’s Adventure 3 The Banshee 4 The Governess’s Dream 5 The Earl’s Hall The Vision of Tom Chuff Dickon The Devil

    This box set collects five adventures which are either wholly or partially lost from the TV archives, but which can be enjoyed in their entirety on audio. Presented in chronological order of transmission, the stories in this collection are Marco Polo, The Reign of Terror, The Crusade, Galaxy 4, and The Myth Makers, all starring William Hartnell as the original Doctor and date from February 1964 to November 1965. Linking narration is provided by original cast members William Russell, Carole Ann Ford and Peter Purves.

    Worlds Next Door has its own website containing lesson plans and ideas, free downloads of individual stories, podcasts and lots of other great material for use in the classroom.There are worlds where ships take travellers through space like taxis. Worlds where your worst nightmare destroys your greatest dreams. Worlds where magic makes the rules.What you have here is not a book, but a key to worlds that exist under your bed, in your cupboard, in the dark of night when you’re sure you’re being watched. what you have is a passport to the worlds next door.Containing 25 bite-sized stories by Australian authors including Paul Collins, Michael Pryor, Pamela Freeman, Dirk Flinthart, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Jenny Blackford, Worlds Next Door is perfect for the budding reader.

    They know now that the Creature that haunted their dreams is not only real--it’s coming for them. Their only chance of survival is to find a lone girl hidden somewhere among the decimated American landscape. Their journey is a race against time as the nightmarish Creature devours their planet. Traveling from ocean to ocean in search of the place of stone and light, the heroic pair must evade their adversary and his dark minions while enduring the brutal conditions of their dying world. Only then will they find refuge from the monster and learn about their incredible identities as they draw ever closer to fulfilling their destinies. The end of the world is just the beginning.

    Jamie Bell and her older brother have always been inseparable, so when she finds him gone without a trace, she starts a quest to find him.

    Continuing a tradition started in 1978, the 2010 Rhysling Anthology showcases science fiction, fantasy, horror, mythical, magical, macabre, and surreal poetry nominated as the best published in 2009 by the members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

    Having been brought up to stare at everything and everyone, he finds that most people, and even the ducks at the park, don't enjoy that level of scrutiny. Although he can always go the art gallery and stare at the paintings, Staring Owl wants more than anything a career that will suit his unique talents. What can that be?

    They haunt her nights and show her dreams of things that haven’t yet occurred. If she dreams the same thing three times, it comes true. When she has a vision of a dead lion and sees the name of a man, she searches the city to find him only to become sidetracked by an addiction she can’t fight.Enter Nicholas Pemberton. Although charming and charismatic, he hides a secret, one that is deadly as well as mysterious. He’s a shape shifter and the urge to change into a lion is a battle he constantly wages with himself, second to the recently discovered obsession he feels for Noelle.As the two fight their mutual attraction to each other, Nicholas attempts to elude the local police force intent on linking recent murders to his name, while Noelle continues to seek peace in her life and to understand her purpose in the mix. Soon these misunderstood people realize their connection is too strong to ignore. As passion ignites, so does the danger. Lives are threatened and destinies collide, but will love be enough to save their souls?

    They remember Granny Holgolde’s stories of the elephant Marta Ashkarot, who travels through the Bardo to find her home and be reincarnated again and again. They remember the Soviet folk singer Lyudmila Zykina and her melancholic, simple songs of unspeakable beauty. They remember the half-human birds Granny Holgolde called strange cormorants, the ones who knew how to live in fire, secrecy, and death, and as the flames grow they hope to become them.Draeger, a heteronym for the acclaimed French writer Antoine Volodine, and a librarian in a dystopic prison camp, gives post-exoticism an element of tenderness, and a sense of nostalgia for children’s tales that is far less visible in the other post-exotic works. Eleven Sooty Dreams is her first book written for adults, a moving story of the constancy of brotherly, loving faithfulness.

    It wasn't her fame as the star witness in the local werewolf trial. What brought on the gooseflesh, first time I saw her, was she's the spitting image of her murdered identical twin.

    Or is that really all there is to it?Angela Sequira is feeling a few odd twinges of hunger, herself. And it’s going to take an unlikely hero -- a blond surfer dude with an ornery little green truck -- to steal her heart and save her from joining the ranks of LA’s zombie women.

    Oludara, a slave, and Gerard, an outcast, must each outwit a legendary foe to overcome their pasts and forge a new future together.Tired of the same old fantasy tropes? The Fortuitous Meeting, a finalist for the Nebula Award in 2011, is unlike anything you've read before. It's a mixture of action, adventure, humor, magic,and South American folklore in the wilderness of sixteenth-century Brazil. Legendary characters like the one-legged prankster Sacy-Perey and the flaming serpent Botat come to life in these pages.This is the story that started it all, the first in a series of adventures that can each be enjoyed in a single sitting.

    The anthology extends the discursive boundaries of science fiction by examining iconic writers like Octavia Butler, Walter Mosley, and Nalo Hopkinson through the lens of ecofeminist veganism, post-9/11 racial geopolitics, and the effect of the computer database on human voice and agency. Contributors expand what the field characterizes as speculative fiction by examining for the first time the vampire tropes present in Audre Lorde’s poetry, and by tracing her influence on the horror fiction of Jewelle Gomez. The collection moves beyond exploration of literary fiction to study the Afro-futurist representations of Blacks in comic books, in the Star Trek franchise, in African films, and in blockbuster films like Independence Day, I Robot, and I Am Legend.

    CambiasBlind Spot – Rick Wilber and Nick DiCharioSteadfast Castle – Michael SwanwickF&SF Mailbag – David GerroldAbout It – Terry Bisson

    Linebarger was a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare.Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms "Carmichael Smith" (for his political thriller Atomsk), "Anthony Bearden" (for his poetry) and "Felix C. Forrest" (for the novels Ria and Carola)."Scanners Live in Vain" was Linebarger's first published SF story as an adult (his short story "War No. 81-Q," which he wrote at age 15 was published in his high school magazine), and the first appearance of the Cordwainer Smith pen name. It was written in 1945, and had been rejected by a number of magazines before its acceptance and publication in Fantasy Book in 1950. It was in that obscure magazine that it was noticed by SF writer Frederik Pohl who, impressed with the story's powerful imagery and style, subsequently re-published it in 1952 in the more widely read anthology Beyond the End of Time.

    Discover Bizarro Fiction, the hottest American literary movement since the Beats!

    I want some of whatever it is he’s been smoking.—Lourd de Veyra

    These are the legends of Australian fantasy - eleven of Australia's best-loved and most widely read writers ... Gathered together by equally legendary editors Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan to produce an entirely original compilation ...Celebrate the legends of Australian fantasy. Extraordinary voices ... extraordinary worlds. Come to Erith, to a faerie tale with a sting, or to Obernewtyn, long before the Seeker was born. Revisit a dark pocket of history for the Magician's Guild or get caught up in the confusion of an endlessly repeating day in the Citadel. Cross the wall, where Charter magic is all that lies between you and death. A trip with a graverobber can be gruesome, and it's hard to share the fear of a woman who must kill her husband if her child is to rule ... A mysterious tale plays out in Sevenwaters. Catch up with Ros and Adi as they prepare for the greatest change of all. Other twists in these fabulous tales bring us to demonic destiny and an alternate WWII. these eleven short novels will take you on amazing new journeys with favourite characters from the worlds you know and love ...

    In this powerful, tender excerpt, Dikéogu, a "meta-human" runaway slave with the power to create storms, meets Tumaki, the daughter of a wealthy Muslim family. The two fall in love and hang out in Tumaki's secret basement library, reading and making love. In the meantime, people are disappearing from Timia: "It was a slow disease in Timia. I might have left that city if it weren't for Tumaki. Hiding away in her library, I didn't realize how bad it was getting. Not until the day she came running down the winding staircase, shaking, eyes wide and wet..."Mary Anne Mohanraj contributes a mix of emotionally rich and intimate stories, poems, and essays. In "Identity Papers," "Revised Itineraries," and "Saying Hello," Mohanraj, who was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in the United States since the age of two, recounts and reflects on a recent trip to Sri Lanka, where she wonders if she could ever feel at home. "Sequins" explores the complications bisexuality bring to an apparently traditional marriage, while in the space opera tale "Jump Space," Sarita tests her polyamorous marriage when she independently makes a commitment that could affect the future of her entire family. The volume concludes with Mohanraj's discussion of racism and how to write characters of color well.