City


Clifford D. Simak - 1952
    Simak's "City" is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.Contents:· City · May 1944 · Huddling Place · Jul 1944 · Census · Sep 1944 · Desertion · Nov 1944 · Paradise · Jun 1946 · Hobbies · Nov 1946 · Aesop · Dec 1947 · The Simple Way [The Trouble with Ants] · Jan 1951.

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders


Neil Gaiman - 2006
    By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time.Contents:• A Study in Emerald • (2003) • novelette• The Fairy Reel • (2004) • poem (variant of The Faery Reel)• October in the Chair • (2002) • shortstory• The Hidden Chamber • (2005) • poem• Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire • (2004) • shortstory (variant of Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire)• The Flints of Memory Lane • (1997) • essay• Closing Time • (2003) • shortstory• Going Wodwo • (2002) • poem• Bitter Grounds • (2003) • novelette• Other People • (2001) • shortstory• Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story • (1999) • shortstory• Good Boys Deserve Favours • (1995) • shortstory• The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch • (1998) • shortstory• Strange Little Girls • (2001) • shortstory• Harlequin Valentine • (1999) • shortstory• Locks • (1999) • poem• The Problem of Susan • (2004) • shortstory• Instructions • (2000) • poem• How Do You Think It Feels? • (1998) • shortstory• My Life • (2002) • poem• Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot • (1998) • shortstory• Feeders and Eaters • (2002) • shortstory• Diseasemaker's Croup • (2003) • shortstory• In the End • (1996) • shortstory• Goliath • (1998) • shortstory• Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky • (2002) • shortstory• How to Talk to Girls at Parties • (2006) • shortstory• The Day the Saucers Came • (2006) • poem• Sunbird • (2005) • novelette• Inventing Aladdin • (2003) • poem• The Monarch of the Glen • [American Gods] • (2003) • novelette

The Legacies


Pittacus Lore - 2012
    (Legacies originally published as eBooks.)You know we're out there, living among you.You know we're waiting for our day to come.You have seen the power of our legacies.You know this is why they hunt us.You may think you know our stories.You are wrong.We each have our own story.We know the time has come to share them with you.Our legacies are your only hope.

Night Shift


Stephen King - 1978
    Especially with an anthology that features the classic stories "Children of the Corn," "The Lawnmower Man," "Graveyard Shift," "The Mangler," and "Sometimes They Come Back"-which were all made into hit horror films.From the depths of darkness, where hideous rats defend their empire, to dizzying heights, where a beautiful girl hangs by a hair above a hellish fate, this chilling collection of twenty short stories will plunge readers into the subterranean labyrinth of the most spine-tingling, eerie imagination of our time.Contents:· Introduction · John D. MacDonald · in · Foreword · fw · Jerusalem’s Lot · nv Night Shift, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978 · Graveyard Shift · ss Cavalier Oct ’70 · Night Surf · ss Cavalier Aug ’74 · I Am the Doorway · ss Cavalier Mar ’71 · The Mangler · nv Cavalier Dec ’72 · The Boogeyman · ss Cavalier Mar ’73 · Gray Matter · ss Cavalier Oct ’73 · Battleground · ss Cavalier Sep ’72 · Trucks · ss Cavalier Jun ’73 · Sometimes They Come Back · nv Cavalier Mar ’74 · Strawberry Spring · ss Ubris Fll ’68; Cavalier Nov ’75 · The Ledge · ss Penthouse Jul ’76 · The Lawnmower Man · ss Cavalier May ’75 · Quitters, Inc. · ss Night Shift, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978 · I Know What You Need · nv Cosmopolitan Sep ’76 · Children of the Corn · nv Penthouse Mar ’77 · The Last Rung on the Ladder · ss Night Shift, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978 · The Man Who Loved Flowers · ss Gallery Aug ’77 · One for the Road · ss Maine Mar ’77 · The Woman in the Room · ss Night Shift, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978Librarian's Note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780450042683

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisLeigh Kennedy - 2002
    New possibilities previously unimagined appear almost daily . . . and science fiction stories continue to explore those possibilities with delightful results:Collected in this anthology are such compelling stories as:"On K2 with Kanakaredes" by Dan Simmons. A relentlessly paced and absorbing tale set in the near future about three mountain climbers who must scale the face of K2 with some very odd company. "The Human Front" by Ken MacLeod. In this compassionate coming-of-age tale the details of life are just a bit off from things as we know them-and nothing is as it appears to be."Glacial" by Alastair Reynolds. A fascinating discovery on a distant planet leads to mass death and a wrenching mystery as spellbinding as anything in recent short fiction. The twenty-six stories in this collection imaginatively takes us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:Eleanor ArnasonChris BeckettMichael BlumleinMichael CassuttBrenda W. CloughPaul Di FilippoAndy DuncanCarolyn Ives GilmanJim GrimsleySimon IngsJames Patrick KellyLeigh KennedyNancy KressIan R. MacLeodKen MacLeodPaul J. McAuleyMaureen F. McHughRobert ReedAlastair ReynoldsGeoff RymanWilliam SandersDan SimmonsAllen M. SteeleCharles StrossMichael SwanwickHoward WaldropSupplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies


John Joseph AdamsAlan Dean Foster - 2017
    Buckell“The Deckhand, the Nova Blade, and the Thrice-Sung Texts” © 2017 by Becky Chambers“The Sighted Watchmaker” © 2011 by Vylar Kaftan. Originally published in Lightspeed“Infinite Love Engine” © 2017 by Joseph Allen Hill. Originally published in Lightspeed“Unfamiliar Gods” © 2017 by Adam-Troy Castro & Judi B. Castro“Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” © 2015 by Caroline M. Yoachim. Originally published in Lightspeed“Our Specialty Is Xenogeology” © 2017 by Alan Dean Foster“Golden Ring” © 2017 by Karl Schroeder“Tomorrow When We See the Sun” © 2015 by A. Merc Rustad. Originally published in Lightspeed“Bring the Kids and Revisit the Past at the Traveling Retro Funfair!” © 2017 by Seanan McGuire“The Dragon That Flew Out of the Sun” © 2017 by Aliette de Bodard.“Diamond and the World Breaker” © 2017 by Linda Nagata“The Chameleon’s Gloves” © 2017 by Yoon Ha Lee“The Universe, Sung in Stars” © 2015 by Kat Howard. Originally published in Lightspeed“Wakening Ouroboros” © 2017 by Jack Campbell“Warped Passages” © 2017 by Kameron Hurley“The Frost Giant’s Data” © 2017 by Dan Abnett.

Twenty-First Century Science Fiction


David G. HartwellM. Rickert - 2013
    Valente, John Scalzi, Jo Walton, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, and Peter Watts, and the stories selected include winners and nominees of all of the science fiction field's major awards.One of Publishers Weekly's Best Science Fiction Books of 2013

Journey Into Space


Toby Litt - 2009
    Those who set out on this journey are long-since dead. Those who will arrive at their destination have yet to be born. For those who must live and die in the cold emptiness between the stars, there is only the claustrophobic permanence of non-being. Life lived in unending stasis. Then the unthinkable happens: two souls - Auguste and Celeste - rebel. And from the fruit of their rebellion comes a new and powerful force which will take charge of the ship's destiny. "Journey into Space" is science fiction at its most classic and beguiling: timeless, vast in scope and daring in execution.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisG. David Nordley - 1998
    The anthology also includes an invaluable summation about the state of the science fiction publishing field, and a list of honorable mentions (think of them as almost-made-its) for 1997.Contents xi • Summation: 1997 • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • Beauty in the Night • (1997) • novelette by Robert Silverberg30 • Second Skin • (1997) • shortstory by Paul J. McAuley49 • Steamship Soldier on the Information Front • (1997) • novelette by Nancy Kress69 • Reasons to Be Cheerful • (1997) • novelette by Greg Egan95 • Moon Six • (1997) • novelette by Stephen Baxter122 • We Will Drink a Fish Together . . . • (1997) • novelette by Bill Johnson155 • Escape Route • [Confederation Universe Stories] • (1997) • novella by Peter F. Hamilton197 • Itsy Bitsy Spider • (1997) • shortstory by James Patrick Kelly207 • A Spy in Europa • [Revelation Space] • (1997) • shortstory by Alastair Reynolds224 • The Undiscovered • (1997) • novelette by William Sanders245 • Echoes • (1997) • novelette by Alan Brennert267 • Getting to Know You • [North American future] • (1997) • novelette by David Marusek288 • Balinese Dancer • (1997) • shortstory by Gwyneth Jones306 • Marrow • [The Great Ship Universe] • (1997) • novella by Robert Reed348 • Heart of Whitenesse • (1997) • shortstory by Howard Waldrop364 • The Wisdom of Old Earth • (1997) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick373 • The Pipes of Pan • (1997) • novelette by Brian Stableford391 • Crossing Chao Meng Fu • (1997) • novelette by G. David Nordley418 • Yeyuka • (1997) • shortstory by Greg Egan432 • Frost Painting • (1997) • shortstory by Carolyn Ives Gilman447 • Lethe • (1997) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams474 • Winter Fire • (1997) • shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis488 • Nevermore • (1997) • novelette by Ian R. MacLeod505 • Open Veins • (1997) • shortstory by Simon Ings520 • After Kerry • (1997) • novelette by Ian McDonald543 • The Masque of Agamemnon • [Troy Stories] • (1997) • novelette by Sean Williams and Simon Brown565 • Gulliver at Home • (1997) • novelette by John Kessel576 • A Cold Dry Cradle • (1997) • novella by Elisabeth Malartre and Gregory Benford617 • Honorable Mentions: 1997 • essay by Gardner Dozois

Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three


Clive Barker - 1984
    For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator's mind. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes: I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore.... We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen--that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing--have gone. I lost their maker a long time ago. These enthusiastic tales are not ashamed of visceral horror, of blood splashing freely across the page: "The Midnight Meat Train," a grisly subway tale that surprises you with one twist after another; "The Yattering and Jack," about a hilarious demon who possesses a Christmas turkey; "In the Hills, the Cities," an unusual example of an original horror premise; "Dread," a harrowing non-supernatural tale about being forced to realize your worst nightmare; "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," about a woman who kills men with her mind. Some of the tales are more successful than others, but all are distinguished by strikingly beautiful images of evil and destruction. No horror library is complete without them. --Fiona Webster

The Circle


Dave Eggers - 2013
    The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company's modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can't believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world--even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman's ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.(front flap)

To Hold the Bridge


Garth Nix - 2015
    It is not an easy task, for many dangers threaten the bridge builders, from nomad raiders to Free Magic sorcerers. Despite the danger, Morghan wants nothing more than to join the Bridge Company as a cadet. But the company takes only the best, the most skillful Charter mages, and trains them hard, for the night might come when only a single young cadet must hold the bridge against many foes. Will Morghan be that cadet?Also included in this collection are eighteen short stories that showcase Nix’s versatility as he adds a fantastical twist on an array of genres including science fiction, paranormal, realistic fiction, mystery, and adventure.

The Second Science Fiction Megapack


Robert SilverbergC.M. Kornbluth - 2011
    KornbluthGHOST, by Darrell SchweitzerDEATH WISH, by Robert Sheckley THE WAVERIES, by Fredric BrownADAM AND NO EVE, by Alfred BesterFOXY LADY, by Lawrence Watt-EvansTHIN EDGE, by Randall GarrettCOMPANDROID, by Nina Kiriki HoffmanPOSTMARK GANYMEDE, by Robert SilverbergKEEP OUT, by Fredric BrownTHE HATE DISEASE, by Murray LeinsterUNIVERSAL DONOR, by Nina Kiriki HoffmanTHE GREEN BERET, by Tom PurdomMR. SPACESHIP, by Philip K. DickBRKNK’S BOUNTY, by Jerry SohlTHE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG SCIENCE, by Pamela RentzTHE EGO MACHINE, by Henry KuttnerTHE MAN FROM TIME, by Frank Belknap LongTHE SENSITIVE MAN, by Poul AndersonREVOLUTION, by Mack ReynoldsTHE THING IN THE ATTIC, by James BlishKNOTWORK, by Nina Kiriki HoffmanTHE DUELING MACHINE, by Ben Bova and Myron R. LewisTHE PLANET SAVERS, by Marion Zimmer BradleyAnd don't forget to check out all the other volumes in the "Megapack" series! Search on "Megapack" in the ebook store to see the complete list...covering adventure stories, military, fantasy, ghost stories, and more!

The Pawn in the Portal


Nick Cole - 2016
    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.

Memento


Amie Kaufman - 2020
    The advanced AI system was supposed to protect a fleet of survivors who’d escaped the deadly attack on Kerenza IV. AIDAN was supposed to be infallible. But in the chaotic weeks and months that followed, it became clear that something was terribly, terribly wrong with AIDAN…