Eggers’ irreverent approach included a pioneering design that incorporated chapbooks, drawings, and all manner of cultural confetti previously unseen in the lit-mag format. McSweeney’s became an instant hit, showcasing the work of major new voices as well as literary luminaries such as William T. Vollman and Joyce Carol Oates. Long out of print and available only in the pricey collectors’ market, the first three issues appear in this omnibus, reproduced precisely as they first appeared. Longtime fans can revisit some of the best of the early McSweeney’s, while those new to the journal will see what all the fuss was about. A bracing range of topics include John Hodgman writing on the topic of cavemen, Jon Langford on Lester Bangs, Gary Greenberg on the Unabomber, and much more.

    In the first eBook short story, there are high stakes on the high seas as the always cunning Reaver takes on a ruthless pirate king.   Captain Dread has made a deal with the port cities: They pay him for protection, and he doesn’t raid them. It’s a neat and tidy arrangement, all agree, except for one man, Reaver, the daring outlaw blessed with eternal youth, who refuses to cede his hometown of Bloodstone. After Reaver sends back one too many heads in a duffel bag, Dread decides to take matters into his own hands. To his surprise, Reaver surrenders willingly. But Dread’s new prisoner is no coward. It’s all part of Reaver’s unbelievably bold—and bloody—plan, which ultimately pits pirate against pirate in an explosive showdown that will live forever in the legendary world of Fable™.   © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Fable, Lionhead, the Lionhead logo, Xbox, and the Xbox logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

    This short story was originally published in Joe Hill's collection 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS.

    Twain's Adam was based on himself while Eve was modelled after his wife Livy. It is fitting that these two essays be joined together in one package.

    This is a little story about a fateful confrontation of a very feisty rooster vs. Bert the Shirt and his chihuahua. Which side will back down? Who will come away with the neighborhood crowing rights? Who's the chicken, after all?

    Taut and powerful, it is a keen reimagining of a whodunit in which everyone is implicated and no one is safe. It’s the summer of 1976 on the South Shore of Massachusetts. The Bicentennial is a season-long celebration, and flags are everywhere, snapping in the seaside winds, ironed onto T-shirts, tattooed into biceps. Tim O’Connor works the Cigarette Game booth at Funland—toss a quarter placed on an eight-sided ball into the right slot and you win two packs of smokes or maybe, if you’re lucky, a carton. If asked his age, he’d say he’s seventeen, but in truth he’s fourteen. Yet the kids in blue-collar Grantham—a town first imagined by Haigh in her devastating bestseller "Faith"—grow up fast, are known for being wild, and more often than not drop out of school to punch the clock at the nearby Raytheon plant. When Tim disappears after the park’s closing one night, no one makes much of it till late morning. It’s not the first time his mother, Kay, has forgotten to pick him up. It’s not the first time he has stayed out all night. By the time local cops begin their investigation, there is little trace of the boy, only witnesses to a complicated set of relationships in a place where surviving isn’t always thriving and where disappointment mixes with the salt in the air. In this superbly crafted story, the search for a missing boy becomes a search for the American dream, laying bare how destructive its promises often are. Recalling Dennis Lehane in setting and subject and masters like Graham Greene and Richard Ford in tone and style, Haigh’s latest work is a testament to all that short fiction can be. It’s a searing portrait of how much a community loses when one of its own is lost.

    Arrasmith was his opposite, a Blobel spy on earth who was unwilling to return to Titan due to the shame of being in human form for almost three quarters of each day.The story deals with the ramifications for the agents' personal and social identity from this alteration.Author quote: "Here I nailed down the ultimate meaningless irony of war; the human turns into a Blobel and the Blobel, his enemy, turns into a human, and there it all is, the futility, the black humor, the stupidity. And in the story they all wind up happy."

    Each tells the story of a planetary invasion by men on a do-or-die mission. "An Army of One" by B. V. Larson (a novella in the Star Force series) – One man attempts to stay neutral…and fails. The Macros are invading from the skies. The only nanotized man who isn’t officially part of Star Force learns how hard it can be to avoid an interstellar war."First Conquest" by David VanDyke (Book #1 of the Stellar Conquest series) – In 2115, EarthFleet sends its best warships and bravest Marines on a one-way trip to conquer an alien star system, to win or die trying."Cyborgs!" by Vaughn Heppner (a novella set in the Doom Star series) – The Space Marines are in the Oort Cloud, racing in their insertion pods to the frozen planetoid of Tyche. Alone in the dark, outnumbered and outgunned by the cyborgs waiting for them on the methane-ice surface, the hour of desperation has arrived.

    In most of Norton's works, alienated outsiders undertake a journey through which they realize their full potential. Many planets in the books are Earth-like places, where humans can live without special protection, and have extensive flora and fauna which are described in considerable detail and often have substantial bearing on the plot.On February 20, 2005, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which had earlier honored her with its Grand Master Award in 1983, announced the creation of the Andre Norton Award, to be given each year for an outstanding work of fantasy or science fiction for the young adult literature market, beginning in 2006. Nobody today is telling better stories of straight-forward interstellar adventure.Included in this volume:Book One: Storm Over Warlock - Stranded on the alien world of Warlock, Shann Lantree's expedition camp has been wiped out by the Throgs, beings so alien that humans have yet to communicate with them. Lantree must quickly learn how to survive under harsh conditions while being chased by the Throgs -- and how to distinguish the real from the dreamed when he meets the mysterious Wyverns. A satisfying and mature novel which readers will seize upon if they want to enjoy a good adventure story...Book Two: Star Born - When the oppressive global dictatorship of Pax took over Earth they put a stop to space exploration. Still, a few rebels escaped in the sleeper ships to found free new colonies -- or perish in the attempt. Those few colonists that reached inhabitable worlds were cut off for centuries, and in that isolation and freedom they developed the mysterious mental powers that "civilization" had all but destroyed...Book Three: Star Hunter - Somewhere on the jungle world of Jumala, there was a man in hiding--a man whose mind had been reconditioned with another's brain pattern and for whom there was a fabulous reward. Star Hunter is a thrill-packed account of that other-worldly game of hide-and-seek between a man who did not know all his own powers and an interstellar safari that sought something no man had a right to find...Book Four: Plague Ship - A fast-moving suspense tale, full of unusual detail and unexpected turns. Several highlights make the book really shine: the sunset gorp hunt on the reefs of an oily sea; a raid on an asteroid's emergency station; and a landing in the Big Burn, resulting in an encounter with the mutant life-forms that reside there...Book Five: Voodoo Planet - Dane Thorson of the space-trader 'Solar Queen' found himself embroiled in a desperate battle of minds between the rational science of the spaceways and the hypnotic witchcraft of the mental wizard that ruled the Voodoo Planet...Book Six: The Gifts of Asti - Varta, the last priestess of Asti, lives alone with Lur, a telepath of the lizardfolk, in Asti's isolated mountain retreat. Decadent Memphir has long since drifted away from the austere paths of Asti, and now the barbarians of Klem are sacking the city, and the smoke of its burning drifts up to the temple...Book Seven: The People of the Crater - "Send the Black Throne to dust; conquer the Black Ones, and bring the Daughter from the Caves of Darkness." These were the tasks Garin must perform to fulfill the prophecy of the Ancient Ones--and establish his own destiny in this hidden land!This are the original and unabridged versions of these tales.

    

    Featuring Newford fiddler Geordie Riddell, it's a gentle story of love, loss and the bonds of friendship.First published in Post Mortem edited by Paul F.Olson and David B. Silva, 1989; also appears in Dreams Underfoot and The Very Best of Charles de Lint.Timeskip is where Newford began: "Newford was not planned out in advance. It started (unbeknownst to me) with“Timeskip,” a short story that I wrote for an anthology. I wanted to set the story somewhere other than the Ottawa area where most of my stories had taken place, but I didn’t feel comfortable writing about a city that I couldn’t physically visit. So I decided to use various aspects of large urban centers that I had visited, and create a fictitious setting."–Charles de Lint, from an interview with FairyRoom.com"I can never recapture the feeling of first arriving in Newford and meeting the people and seeing the sights as a newcomer. However, part of the beauty of Newford is the sense that it has always been there, that de Lint is a reporter who occasionally files stories from a reality stranger and more beautiful than ours. De Lint also manages to keep each new Newford story fresh and captivating because he is so generous and loving in his depiction of the characters. Yes, there are a group of core characters whose stories recur most often, but a city like Newford has so many intriguing people in it, so many diverse stories to tell, so much pain and triumph to chronicle."— Challenging DestinyCharles de Lint is the modern master of urban fantasy. Folktale, myth, fairy tale, dreams, urban legend—all of it adds up to pure magic in de Lint's vivid, original world. No one does it better.— Alice HoffmanCharles de Lint writes like a magician. He draws out the strange inside our own world, weaving stories that feel more real than we are when we read them. He is, simply put, the best.— Holly BlackDe Lint is probably the finest contemporary author of fantasy– Booklist, American Library AssociationUnlike most fantasy writers who deal with battles between ultimate good and evil, de Lint concentrates on smaller, very personal conflicts. Perhaps this is what makes him accessible to the non-fantasy audience as well as the hard-core fans. Perhaps it’s just damned fine writing.– Quill QuireDe Lint’s evocative images, both ordinary and fantastic, jolt the imagination.– Publishers WeeklyIt is hard to imagine urban fantasy done with greater skill– Booklist, American Library Association

      America’s greatest Western storytellers take you inside the dangerous world of undercover agents—and one man’s mission to hell and back . . .   BREAKOUT OF THE CENTURY   Hank Fallon used to be one of the best deputy marshals in the country. Then he got framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Got sentenced to ten years in a federal penitentiary. And got out early for saving the life of the captain of the guards during a riot. When Fallon is released, a private detective is waiting for him. He wants to put Hank behind bars again—but this time, as an undercover agent . . .   The last thing Fallon wants is to return to jail. Especially a rat-infested hellhole like Yuma Territorial Prison. But if he wants to clear his name, he’s got to take the job.  Get himself arrested. Make friends with criminal mastermind Monk Quinn. Find out where he stashed  a fortune in stolen money. And join Monk’s gang for the biggest breakout in American history. If Hank succeeds, he’ll be on the run with the deadliest cutthroats alive. That’s when all hell will break loose . . .   Live Free. Read Hard.

    This short story is taken from one of Steinbeck's early works, "The Pastures of Heaven."

    This collection of evocative and powerful poems from the pages of his phenomenal bestseller Dune echoes the richness found in Herbert's epic sagas of sandworms and mystical power struggles on the planet Arrakis.

    Each story is accompanied by a ghastly illustration from the mind of Andy Sciazko... the kind of illustrations that will disturb you in the best way possible.