Among the most monstrous creations of our imaginations, the zombie terrifies with its capacity to pursue its prey unrelentingly, to run it down, exhaust it to surrender.In this title in the acclaimed Future Chronicles series of speculative fiction anthologies, fourteen authors confront that nightmare, that horrific mirror of ourselves turned base, soulless, and hungry.

    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.

    One is the main course of dinner, another the porn star contracted to copulate in space for a reality TV show. They become futuristic ant farms, get knocked up by the star high school quarterback and have secret abortions, use parakeets to reverse amputations, make love to garden gnomes, go into air conditioning ducts to confront their mother’s ghost, and do so in settings that range from Hell to the local white-supremacist bowling alley.

    A frustrated professor and his graduate student assistant accompany a group of soldiers to a remote Scottish island to learn what is buried there. A man plays an audiotape left for him by his late father and is initiated into a family story of monstrous deeds. A student learns frightening lessons in a surreal tutoring center. A young couple struggles to make their stand against a group of inhuman pursuers in a ravaged landscape. And, in a new story, an artist discovers a mysterious statue whose completion becomes his obsession.

    P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. AROUND THE CORNER - A man whose parents raised him in a cult suspects the new tenants in his apartment complex belong to a similar cult, and are summoning up powers that will change the world...and not for the betterment of humankind. AFTER THE FALL - Around the world, after a great storm the sky becomes filled with the fossilized remains of vast monsters locked in an ancient conflict, leaving humans to interpret this vision and to consider their own humble existence. SCRIMSHAW - In this alternate history story set in 1851, men in seafaring ships do not harvest whale blubber, but seek strange treasures in the bodies of immense alien creatures. From Jeffrey Thomas -- the author of Punktown.

    In here you'll find Verne and Wells, Tolstoy and Checkov, Stevenson and Oliphant, Kipling, Twain, Haggard and Blavatsky alongside their hosts.Come, join us for dinner and a story: Robert Louis Stevenson - Wee Davie Makes a Friend Rudyard Kipling - The High Bungalow Leo Tolstoy - The Immortal Memory Bram Stoker - The House of the Dead Mark Twain - Once a Jackass Herbert George Wells - Farside Margaret Oliphant - To the Manor Born Oscar Wilde - The Angry Ghost Henry Rider Haggard - The Black Ziggurat Helena P Blavatsky - Born of Ether Henry James - The Scrimshaw Set Anton Checkov - At the Molenzki Junction Jules Verne - To the Moon and Beyond Arthur Conan Doyle - The Curious Affair on the Embankment Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths. Interview with the author:So what makes this short story collection so special?Meikle: I love the idea that all these famous writers knew each other, and met for a meal, a drink, a smoke and some storytelling in an old London club / bar setting. It chimes almost exactly with my own idea of a good time. It's special to me in that it's a culmination of the past half dozen or so years of writing. Before this collection there were the Carnacki stories, the Holmes stories, the Challenger stories, and the collaborations with M Wayne Miller in numerous deluxe hardcovers. THE GHOST CLUB feels like an endpiece to all of that, a last celebration of everything I love about the era and the storytellers. Plus it's the most ambitious piece of work I've undertaken in my writing so far, the cause of much worrying and fretting on my part, so seeing the lovely blurbs and comments from writers I have long admired makes it extra special to me.Why should horror fans give Victorian Terror a try?Meikle: It's where we come from. The Victorian era storytelling tradition was the launching point for horror, and also for crime fiction, for science fiction, for fantasy and for much of how we see the world today. It gave us Sherlock Holmes, Dr Jeckyll, Dracula, the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, and all manner of ghosts, spooks and spectres that still fill our entertainment of choice today. It's my way of paying homage to that tradition. This is who I am.How did you choose which authors to use in this book?Meikle: Initially all I knew was that Doyle and Stoker were founder members of the club in London. Then I found out that Henry James was in London at the same time as them and it started to come together.

    It was Thursday and unseasonably hot for April. He had his suitcoat off, his tie removed and shirt collar opened, his sleeve cuffs folded back. There was sunlight on his left arm and on part of his lap. He could feel the heat of it through his dark trousers as he drove along the two-lane highway. For the past twenty minutes, he had not seen another vehicle going in either direction.Then he saw the truck...

    Our most imaginative literary minds have been devoured by these incredible creatures and produced exciting, insightful, and unflinching new works of zombie fiction. We've again dug up the best stories published in the last few years and compiled them into an anthology to feed your insatiable hunger….©2014 Paula Guran (P)2014 Audible Inc.• Joanne Anderton, “Trail of Dead”• Michael Arnzen, “Rigormarole” (poem)• Marie Brennan, “What Still Abides• Mike Carey, “Iphigenia in Aulis”• Jacques L. Condor (Mak a Tai Meh), “Those Beneath the Bog”• Neil Gaiman, “The Day the Saucers Came” (poem)• Roxane Gay, “There is No ‘E' in Zombi Which Means There Can Be No You Or We”• Ron Goulart, “I Waltzed with a Zombie”• Eric Gregory, “The Harrowers”• William Jablonsky, “The Death and Life of Bob”• Shaun Jeffrey, “Til Death Do Us Part”• Matthew Johnson, “The Afflicted”• Stephen Graham Jones, “Rocket Man”• Joy Kennedy-O'Neill “Aftermath”• Caitlín R. Kiernan, “In The Dreamtime of Lady Resurrection”• Nicole Kornher-Stace, “Present”• Joe R. Lansdale, “The Hunt: Before and The Aftermath”• Shira Lipkin, “Becca at the End of the World”• David Liss, “What Maisie Knew”• Jonathan Maberry, “Jack & Jill”• Alex Dally MacFarlane, “Selected Sources for the Babylonian Plague of the Dead (572-571 BCE)”• Maureen McHugh, “The Naturalist”• Lisa Mannetti, “Resurgam”• Joe McKinney, “The Day the Music Died”• Tamsyn Muir, “Chew”• Holly Newstein, “Delice”• Cat Rambo, “Love, Resurrected”• Carrie Ryan, “What We Once Feared”• Marge Simon, “The Children’s Hour” (poem)• Maggie Slater, “A Shepherd of the Valley”• Simon Strantzas, “Stemming the Tide”• Charles Stross, “Bit Rot”• Genevieve Valentine, “The Gravedigger of Konstan Spring”• Carrie Vaughn, “Kitty’s Zombie New Year”• Don Webb, “Pollution”• Jay Wilburn, “Dead Song”

    It doesn't appear as a standalone work, but is included with several collections. The story is a prequel to the events in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and has the young Zaphod Beeblebrox working as a salvage ship operator. He guides some bureaucrats to a crashed spaceship which may be leaking some hazardous materials. The bureaucrats are determined to "make it safe". The comic asides in the story include some of the time travel paradoxes which are a common running theme in Adams' SF work, and plenty of material about lobsters

    though I did leave out some of the original "diary" entries that appeared on an earlier version of the Morganville website, simply because they were just scenes and not stories, and were generally really short snippets. This is all short fiction, and it's been carefully organized into the timeline, so you can read from the earliest adventures (some of which belong to vampires) all the way through some post-Daylighters goodies.MIDNIGHT BITES includes a total of more than 50,000 words of brand new content, which makes me very happy indeed (and I hope will also make you happy, too). From stories featuring our favorite bunny-slipper-wearing mad scientist to a mystery solved by police chief Hannah Moses, I think you'll find this is a diverse group of stories that will shine a little more light in the murkiest corners of Morganville.

    Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Ranging from Lovecraft's own tales (including classics such as the novel At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Colour Out of Space) to works by his friends and contemporaries (Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, and Robert Bloch), to later followers (Henry Kuttner, Lin Carter, Brian McNaughton), and contemporary afficianados (Brian Stableford, Mark McLaughlin, Adrian Cole) -- and many more. This is one collection no Lovecraft fan can afford to miss! Included are: At the Mountains of Madness, by H. P. Lovecraft The Events at Poroth Farm, by T.E.D. Klein The Return of the Sorcerer, by Clark Ashton Smith Worms of the Earth, by Robert E. Howard Envy, the Gardens of Ynath, and the Sin of Cain, by Darrell Schweitzer Drawn from Life, by John Glasby In the Haunted Darkness, by Michael R. Collings The Innsmouth Heritage, by Brian Stableford The Doom That Came to Innsmouth, by Brian McNaughton The Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H. P. Lovecraft The Nameless Offspring, by Clark Ashton Smith The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long The Faceless God, by Robert Bloch The Children of Burma, by Stephen Mark Rainey The Call of Cthulhu, by H.P. Lovecraft The Old One, by John Glasby The Holiness of Azedarac, by Clark Ashton Smith Those of the Air, by Darrell Schweitzer and Jason Van Hollander The Graveyard Rats, by Henry Kuttner Toadface, by Mark McLaughlin The Whisperer in Darkness, by H. P. Lovecraft The Eater of Hours, by Darrell Schweitzer Ubbo-Sathla, by Clark Ashton Smith The Space-Eaters, by Frank Belknap Long The Fire of Asshurbanipal, by Robert E. Howard Beyond the Wall of Sleep, by H.P. Lovecraft Something in the Moonlight, by Lin Carter The Salem Horror, by Henry Kuttner Down in Limbo, by Robert M. Price The Dweller in the Gulf, by Clark Ashton Smith Azathoth, by H.P. Lovecraft Pickmans Modem, by Lawrence Watt-Evans The Hunters from Beyond, by Clark Ashton Smith Ghoulmaster, by Brian McNaughton The Spawn of Dagon, by Henry Kuttner Dark Destroyer, by Adrian Cole The Dunwich Horror, by H. P. Lovecraft The Dark Boatman, by John Glasby Dagon and Jill, by John P. McCannAnd don't forget to search this ebook store for more entries in the Megapack series -- collections covering Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery, Adventure ... and many more!"

     Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous-these all-new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires (or birthdays) in quite the same way again. In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's "Dracula Night," Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula's birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up-and finds Sookie to be a tasty-looking present. New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher's crime-solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role-playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in "It's My Birthday Too," only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don't share their brotherly love. In "Twilight," Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year-but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt. Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake.Contents xi • Preface: A Few Words (Many Bloody Returns) • (2007) • essay by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner1 • Dracula Night • [Sookie Stackhouse 4.3] • shortstory by Charlaine Harris21 • The Mournful Cry of Owls • novelette by Christopher Golden50 • I Was a Teenage Vampire • novelette by Bill Crider73 • Twilight • [Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction 7.2] • novelette by Kelley Armstrong100 • It's My Birthday, Too • [The Dresden Files 9.2] • novella by Jim Butcher146 • Grave-Robbed • [Vampire Files] • novelette by P. N. Elrod176 • The First Day of the Rest of Your Life • [The Morganville Vampires: Extras 2.5] • novelette by Rachel Caine201 • The Witch and the Wicked • novelette by Jeanne C. Stein230 • Blood Wrapped • [Henry Fitzroy] • novelette by Tanya Huff254 • The Wish • shortstory by Carolyn Haines265 • Fire Ice and Linguini for Two • [Garnet Lacey 2.5] • novelette by Lyda Morehouse [as by Tate Hallaway ]290 • Vampire Hours • novelette by Elaine Viets318 • How Stella Got Her Grave Back • novelette by Toni L. P. Kelner

    She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.Three short lines, fired over social media in response to questions of why Senator Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the floor of the United States Senate, for daring to read aloud the words of Coretta Scott King. As this message was transmitted across the globe, it has become a galvanizing cry for people of all genders in recognition of the struggles that women have faced throughout history.Three short lines, which read as if they are the opening passage to an epic and ageless tale.We have assembled this flash fiction collection featuring several of the best writers in SF/F today, including Seanan McGuire, Charlie Jane Anders, Maria Dahvana Headley, Jo Walton, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherynne M. Valente, Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kameron Hurley, Nisi Shawl and Carrie Vaughn. Together these authors share unique visions of women inventing, playing, loving, surviving, and – of course – dreaming of themselves beyond their circumstances.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    "Number Thirteen," "The Mezzotint," "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook," and more. Renowned for their wit, erudition and suspense, these stories are each masterfully constructed and represent a high achievement in the ghost genre. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

    The secrets of the core of the earth. Dreams of other people’s lives. A girl who goes mad in the darkness. Monsters in Bavaria. A generational spaceship where night doesn’t exist. And other mysteries and oddities. The contributors to the enthralling collection are: Sarah Rees Brennan, Tessa Gratton, Rachel Hawkins, Christine Johnson, Valerie Kemp, Malinda Lo, Myra McEntire, Saundra Mitchell, Sarah Ockler, Jackson Pearce, Aprilynne Pike, Dia Reeves, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan, Jon Skovron, Courtney Summers, and Kate Espy, winner of the Defy the Dark new author contest.