Book picks similar to
Down the Arches of the Years by Lee Allred


vampires
alternate-history
dark-fantasy
horror

Raven, Red


Connie Suttle - 2019
     Arianne Leone, a mountain lion shapeshifter, owns an art gallery in Deep Ellum, a popular tourist attraction and haven for musicians for decades. Together, they are charged with guarding the one who bears the Hermit's Stone, an ancient artifact that has held worlds together—and kept them separate—for eons. Possession of the stone falls to Ari's friend and art student, nineteen-year-old Nico Garcia. When Nico's parents are killed in an attempt to destroy him, Ari and Mac must set aside their differences and work together, protecting Nico at all costs…

Yellowstone Reflections


Peggy L. Henderson - 2018
    Both his heart and his mind will forever be with the woman he loves. Before he settles down, he must prove to himself that, despite being a novice time traveler from the 21st century, he can make it on his own in the Yellowstone wilderness of 1835. Confident he will learn everything he needs to know from his trusted companion Elk Runner, Chase is surprised to discover through a vision that it is actually others who put their confidence in him. When he is abruptly left completely isolated in an unfamiliar vastness, he must dig deep within himself to find what it takes to survive and return to Sarah, his only reason for living. Other Titles in the YELLOWSTONE ROMANCE SERIES (in Recommended Reading Order) Yellowstone Heart Song (Book 1) Return to Yellowstone (Sequel to Yellowstone Heart Song -novella) A Yellowstone Christmas (novella) Yellowstone Redemption (Book 2) Yellowstone Reflections (novella) Yellowstone Love Notes (short story) A Yellowstone Homecoming (novella) A Yellowstone Season of Giving (short story) Yellowstone Awakening (Book 3) Yellowstone Dawn (Book 4) Yellowstone Deception (Book 5) A Yellowstone Promise (novella) Yellowstone Origins (Book 6) Yellowstone Legacy (Book 7) Yellowstone Legends (Book 8) - coming 2018 Related books and Series: TETON ROMANCE SERIES Teton Sunrise Teton Splendor Teton Sunset Teton Season of Joy Teton Season of Promise WILDERNESS BRIDES SERIES Cora’s Pride Anna’s Heart Caroline’s Passion Josie’s Valor (coming soon)

PETER AND THE WEREWOLVES


Darren Pillsbury - 2011
    Rowling (the HARRY POTTER series), Darren Shan (CIRQUE DU FREAK), R.L. Stine (the GOOSEBUMPS series), and Stephen King (IT) and Ray Bradbury (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES)…Volume Two in the PETER AND THE VAMPIRES series!Peter and his best friend Dill survived the last book barely intact. But along the way, Peter discovered there’s a centuries-old Curse on his family – he just has no idea what it is, or how it got there. Peter’s grandfather is the only person who knows, but he’s not telling…In this volume, Peter encounters another chilling gallery of villains and monsters, including:A band of murderous mannequins that roam the local mall at night…A psychotic group of trick-or-treaters who not only rob Peter of his Halloween haul, but then come to his house, demanding something far worse…A carnival run by a group of evil sideshow freaks who keep a ghastly secret in their Hall of Mirrors…And a trio of college frat boys who want to use our hero in a horrific rite of initiation.The PETER AND THE VAMPIRES series is for teens and adults who, when they were kids, were looking for stories that kicked butt. The protagonist might be young, but the stories are dark, funny, and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful.PETER AND THE WEREWOLVES is the second in an ongoing series that includes PETER AND THE VAMPIRES (Volume 1) and PETER AND THE FRANKENSTEIN (Volume 3). This book is 112,000 words (320+ pages) and contains some mild language, violence, and scary situations.

That Darn Squid God


Nick Pollotta - 2004
    While most of Humanity finds the event fascinating, two British explorers know the horrible truth. The rotating moon is the legendary sign that foreshadows the return of a prehistoric demon, the monstrous destroyer of Atlantis, an unkillable colossus known only as the deadly, dreaded Squid God.Racing around the world, and against the clock, Prof. Einstein and Lord Carstairs battle the fanatical legions of Squid God worshippers in a valiant effort to stop the ghastly rebirthing ceremony and keep the demonic mollusk locked in the stygian depths of its unearthly lair. Authors Nick Pollotta & James Clay have lovingly crafted a splendid Fantasy/Adventure, heavily laced with their classic off-the-wall humor, and sprinkled with a light dusting of parody toward the legendary works of H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and just about everything else from the golden glory days of Victorian England."Rewrites literary history, remodels London worse than the Blitz, and convinces that it is wise never to deny the supremacy of British womanhood! What more can you ask?" --ANALOG

Dead Man's Hand: An Anthology of the Weird West


John Joseph AdamsSeanan McGuire - 2014
    Here are twenty-three original tales—stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic—produced specifically for this volume by many of today’s finest writers. Included are Orson Scott Card’s first “Alvin Maker” story in a decade, and an original adventure by Fred Van Lente, writer of Cowboys & Aliens. Other contributors include Tobias S. Buckell, David Farland, Alan Dean Foster, Jeffrey Ford, Laura Anne Gilman, Rajan Khanna, Mike Resnick, Beth Revis, Fred Van Lente, Walter Jon Williams, Ben H. Winters, Christie Yant, and Charles Yu, with an introduction by editor John Joseph Adams.CONTENTS:01 - Joe R. Lansdale, The Red-Headed Dead02 - Ben H. Winters, The Old Slow Man and his Gold Gun from Space03 - David Farland, Hellfire on the High Frontier04 - Mike Resnick, The Hell-Bound Stagecoach05 - Seanan McGuire, Stingers and Strangers06 - Charles Yu, Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger07 - Alan Dean Foster, Holy Jingle08 - Beth Revis, The Man With No Heart09 - Alastair Reynolds, Wrecking Party10 - Hugh Howey, Hell from the East11 - Rajan Khanna, Second Hand12 - Orson Scott Card, Alvin and the Apple Tree13 - Elizabeth Bear, Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle14 - Tad Williams, Strong Medicine15 - Jonathan Maberry, Red Dreams16 - Kelley Armstrong, Bamboozled17 - Tobias S. Buckell, Sundown18 - Jeffrey Ford, La Madre del Oro19 - Ken Liu, What I Assume You Shall Assume20 - Laura Anne Gilman, The Devil's Jack21 - Walter Jon Williams, The Golden Age22 - Fred Van Lente, Neversleeps23 - Christie Yant, Dead Man's Hand

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer


Jonathan L. Howard - 2009
    Johannes Cabal, a brilliant scientist and notorious snob, is single-mindedly obsessed in heart and soul with raising the dead. Well, perhaps not "soul" . . . He hastily sold his years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. But now, tormented by a dark secret, he travels to the fiery pits of Hell to retrieve it. Satan, who is incredibly bored these days, proposes a little wager: Johannes has one year to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. To make the bet even more interesting, Satan throws in that diabolical engine of deceit, seduction, and corruption known as a "traveling circus" to aid in the evil bidding. What better place exists to rob poor sad saps of their souls than the traveling carnivals historically run by hucksters and legendary con men? With little time to lose, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire (an unfortunate side effect of Johannes's early experiments with necromancy), to be the carnival's barker. On the road through the pastoral English countryside, this team of reprobates wields their black magic with masterful ease, resulting in mayhem at every turn. Johannes may have the moral conscience of anthrax, but are his tricks sinful enough to beat the Devil at his own game? You'll never guess, and that's a promise! Brilliantly written and wickedly funny, "Johannes Cabal the Necromancer" combines the chills and thrills of old-fashioned gothic tales like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the mischievous humor of "Wicked," and the sophisticated charms of" Jonathan Strange &Mr. Norrell "and spins the Faustian legend into a fresh, irreverent, and irresistible new adventure.

Six Bits


Laurence E. Dahners - 2015
    Two of them, Porter and Macos have been available on Amazon as stand-alone stories in the past, but readers complained that they were too short to justify Amazon’s minimum $0.99 price. Thus, I removed Porter and Macos from Amazon, extensively rewrote them and then compiled them with some new short stories in order to provide a better value. If you already purchased and read Porter and Macos when they were available as stand-alone stories you may be disappointed, but they only make up 34% of the total and the price for all six stories is still just $0.99. The book consists of six stories (65K words – same length as the novel “Quicker”). 1. Sander (Novelette - 8K words) – a story about growing up in the asteroid belt and encountering a man who‘s a complex mixture of good and evil 2. Exceltor (Novella - 19K words) – a story considering how warfare might work in a future where wormholes allow sudden bridging of large distances in space 3. Macos (Short Story - 8K words) – a coming of age story wherein a young man finds his father is a completely different man than he had always imagined 4. Porter (Novelette - 14K words) – a young girl can open small portals from one location to another with her mind but—to her father’s great disappointment—she just wants to play guitar 5. Billy Benoit (Novelette - 12K words) – a man who thinks it would be awesome to go back in time, finds out it isn’t as cool as he’d hoped – not at all… 6. Guitar Girl (Short Story - 4K words) – a cover band at a beach bar invites a pretty girl with a guitar to play a set with them – having no idea who she really is…

Hellbender


Frank J. Fleming - 2019
     The red flag was that he said he was Satan. But the deal was good: Listen to Satan’s story in exchange for some donuts. And Doug only half-fulfilled his part of the bargain. But maybe he should have listened better, because during his friend Bryce’s next scheme (theft with light to moderate treason—the usual), Doug and the rest of his friends—Lulu (the fun one) and Charlene (the not fun one)—end up with a powerful artifact, a small metal cube with world-ending power that Lulu decorated with bunnies. And now everyone wants the bunny cube, which means Doug, Bryce, Lulu, and Charlene are being pursued by an insane supermodel general, an army of sadists, a vast criminal organization, a smaller, more-in-startup-mode criminal organization, and an unstoppable killing machine—the worst kind of killing machine. Doug and his friends may be a bunch of losers who aren’t particularly smart or good at anything, but they have one thing going for them: a really cool name for their mercenary group. And now it’s up to Hellbender to save the world—well, what’s left of it. It’s pretty ruined and war-torn already. But, you know, they live there, so they kind of need it. It’s a mess, but that’s what you get for listening to Satan. Or half-listening.

Black Hand Gang


Pat Kelleher - 2010
    There they must learn to survive in a hostile environment, while facing a sinister threat from within their own ranks and a confrontation with an inscrutable alien race!

Curtsies & Conspiracies - FREE PREVIEW EDITION (The First 87 Pages)


Gail Carriger - 2013
    A conspiracy is afoot--one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.In this sequel to New York Times bestselling Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail's distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season.

Clovenhoof's Diary: October


Heide Goody - 2018
     He has spent six years living the quiet life in the suburbs after losing his job as Lord of Hell and now he thinks it’s time to indulge in all that life has to offer. Whether it’s dating the older woman, demonstrating supreme loyalty to his local coffee shop or fighting the scourge of the lollipop lady, Clovenhoof knows how to enjoy himself to the fullest. Join Clovenhoof as he continues his year-long journey to tackle the big issues in life.

The Shadows over Marquette (Journey Book 3)


Alex Gilbert - 2021
    

Funny Science Fiction


Alex ShvartsmanShaenon Garrity - 2015
    Fiction by Hugo and Nebula award winners and nominees as well as talented newcomers. Stories were selected by the Unidentified Funny Objects series curator Alex Shvartsman.

Dark Mondays


Kage Baker - 2006
     This captivating new collection of fantastic short fiction is sure to cement her reputation as one of the most original storytellers working in the fantasy and speculative fiction genres today. Whether spinning tales of the mysterious young woman and the dreadful pirate captain Henry Morgan in the original novella “The Maid on the Shore,”or the tiny California beach community assaulted by Lovecraftian terrors in “Calamari Curls,” or the girl menaced by a haunting photograph and a trio of aspiring vampires at the heart of “Portrait, With Flames,” Kage Baker distinguishes herself throughout Dark Mondays as a storyteller extraordinaire, crafting intricately woven plots, compelling characters, and captivating settings filled with convincing detail. As likely to shock and surprise as it is to fill you with a sense of weird wonder and delight, Dark Mondays will entrance you with its inventive prose, astound you with its action, and seduce you with its style. Dark Mondays features five never-before-published stories, including the forty-one-thousand-word pirate novel, “The Maid on the Shore,” which chronicles the lesser known aspects of Captain Henry Morgan’s infamous sacking of Panama City.

Anomaly


Hugo Navikov - 2018
     An Above-Top-Secret project brings military brass, elite commandos, ice-drilling experts, and abducted scientists to investigate a 100-mile-long 'gravitational anomaly' half a mile under the West Antarctic Ice Shelf. Their target: a spaceship buried for millions of years, home to a menagerie of alien and prehistoric horrors that could be unleashed on Earth and end every life on it.