They're not a very happy family, his father the most feared man in all the City of Reeds, maybe in the whole country and his mother being murdered by him when Sekenre is still quite young. And it doesn't get any better when Vashtem dies and travels upriver to the Land of the Dead. When Vashtem - now dead - also kills Sekenre's sister, and the citizens of the City of Reeds turns against him, he sees no other way than to seek the advice of the ancient Sybil, who lives under the city. She gives him the means to, while still alive, travel upriver to the Land of the Dead, the stomach of Surat-Kemad, the crocodile god. He undertakes the trip, but nothing turns out the way he hoped.

    This naturally brings him in contact with the house full of students and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment of stress, reveals to him that she has wings--wings, moreover, which grow back after each attempt to cut them off. Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two. His father is a mountain; his mother is a washing machine; and among his brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls. Now two of the three nesting dolls, Edward and Frederick, are on his doorstep--well on their way to starvation, because their innermost member, George, has vanished. It appears that yet another brother, Davey, who Alan and his other siblings killed years ago, may have returned...bent on revenge.Under such circumstances it seems only reasonable for Alan to involve himself with a visionary scheme to blanket Toronto with free wireless Internet connectivity, a conspiracy spearheaded by a brilliant technopunk who builds miracles of hardware from parts scavenged from the city's dumpsters. But Alan's past won't leave him alone--and Davey is only one of the powers gunning for him and all his friends.

    It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the sixteenth volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in June 1970. It was the first themed collection of Smith's works assembled by Carter for the series. The stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines in the 1930s, notably Weird Tales. The book collects one poem and all sixteen tales of the author's Zothique cycle, set on the Earth's last continent in a far distant future, with an introduction and map and epilogue by Carter. Contents:"Introduction: When the World Grows Old", by Lin Carter "Zothique" (poem) "Xeethra" "Necromancy in Naat" "The Empire of the Necromancers" "The Master of the Crabs" "The Death of Ilalotha" "The Weaver in the Vault" "The Witchcraft of Ulua" "The Charnel God" "The Dark Eidolon" "Morthylla" "The Black Abbot of Puthuum" "The Tomb-Spawn" "The Last Hieroglyph" "The Isle of the Torturers" "The Garden of Adompha" "The Voyage of King Euvoran" "Epilogue: The Sequence of the Zothique Tales", by Lin Carter

    Armored knights ride their horses across dunes of rust, battling for the honor of the Queen. But the knights find more to menace them than mere swords and lances. A brave quest leads them face to face with the awesome power of a complex, lethal technology that has been erased from the face of the Earth--but lives on, underground.

    But now Ligotti has pulled together a collection of his favorite fiction, both old and new, representing his best and most characteristic works.Thomas Ligotti's stories are perhaps best described as dark magical realism. Many of his stories center on the distorted perspective of a frequently doomed narrator. The title story, "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World," reimagines a kind of Bradbury-like small town that encounters the appearance of a kind of existential darkness, written with a sharp imagery like that of William S. Burroughs. In story after story in this collection, Ligotti does not merely present his readers with isolated incidents of supernatural horror - he challenges them to confront nightmares that are entwined in the very fabric of life itself.QUOTES:"The best new American writer of weird fiction to appear in years" - The Washington Post"Ligotti is wonderfully original; he has a new vision of a dark and special kind, a vision that no one had before him." - Interzone"Aficianados of the macabre consider Ligotti one of the finest writers in the field" - The Sunday Times"Thomas Ligotti is an absolute master of supernatural horror and weird fiction, and a true original. He pursues his unique vision with admirable honesty and rigorousness and conveys it in prose as powerfully evocative as any writer in the field. I'd say he might just be a genius." - Ramsey Campbell ("Britain's most respected living horror writer," according to the Oxford Companion toEnglish Literature)

    Fantastic Adventures Jul ’50 · Four Ghosts in Hamlet · nv F&SF Jan ’65 · The Creature from Cleveland Depths · na Galaxy Dec ’62What if all the world were a clockwork mechanism, and its people merely toys? All are trapped within the mechanism, but a few learn the secret of escape from their programmed lives. Carr Mackay was one such—"awakened" one day by a chance meeting with Jane, an-other "living" person. He soon learned, with her help, to enjoy the freedom of invisibility—for the machine kept going as if he were in his proper place.But they were not alone. There were other living souls sharing their special world; others who enjoyed the power even more than the freedom. They would stop at nothing to remain invulnerable—and Carr and Jane had no one to turn to for help.

    Wright's brilliant forays into the dark fantasy world of William Hope Hodgson's 1912 novel, The Night Land. Part novel, part anthology, the book consists of four related novellas, "Awake in the Night", "The Cry of the Night-Hound", "Silence of the Night", and "The Last of All Suns", which collectively tell the haunting tale of the Last Redoubt of Man and the end of the human race. Widely considered to be the finest tribute to Hodgson ever written, the first novella, "Awake in the Night", was previously published in 2004 in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection. AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND marks the first time all four novellas have been gathered into a single volume. John C. Wright has been described by reviewers as one of the most important and audacious authors in science fiction today. In a recent poll of more than 1,000 science fiction readers, he was chosen as the sixth-greatest living science fiction writer.

    In their time, long before the rise of the native civilizations, they had terrorized a hundred worlds—not from villainy but from folly, from tampering with the strands that held a universe together.Now the task was to uproot these Gates, destroy their potency for mischief, take horror out of the hands of the few who hungered for power by misuse of the Gates.This is the story of one such Gate and one such world.

    A place where the princes and magicians were kind and wise beyond all imagination. A place where wine and song were always sweet, every purse was fat with gold, and every heart at ease. The Far Kingdoms...said to lie in the distant east, across the straits of the Narrow Sea, beyond the benighted Pepper Coast, in uncharted territory. The Far Kingdoms...a place no one could reach even if it were real - which surely it wasn't. Young, pampered Amalric Antero cared only for real places and possible dreams. The time had come to Find His Tradewind, to make the traditional journey seeking out new lands, new riches, new customers as his merchant father, and his father's father, had done before him. He meant only to do as all young traders did: travel to the known lands in the west and return home having proved himself able to deal well with his father's customers. Nothing more was expected. But then he met Janos Greycloak, a dashing soldier who dabbled in forbidden magic and who carried on him proof of riches and mysteries beyond imagination. And suddenly Amalric found himself setting out on the adventure of a lifetime, a daring and perilous quest through unknown lands peopled by nightmares, to seek the ultimate in fables...The Far Kingdoms!

    Assembling an array of talent, this collection includes contributions from visionaries Michael Moorcock and China Miéville, modern icon Clive Barker, and audacious new talents Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, and Sarah Monette. An essential snapshot of a vibrant movement in popular fiction, this anthology also features critical writings from authors, theorists, and international editors as well as witty selections from online debates.ContentsIntroduction: The New Weird: “It’s Alice?” by Jeff VanderMeer“The Gutter Sees the Light That Never Shines” by Alistair Rennie“Watson’s Boy” by Brian Evenson“Cornflowers Beside the Unuttered” by Cat Rambo“Jack” by China Miéville“In the Hills, the Cities” by Clive Barker“Forfend the Heaven’s Rending” by Conrad Williams“Locust-Mind” by Daniel Abraham“Tracking Phantoms” by Darja Malcolm-Clarke“Constable Chalch and the Ten Thousand Heroes” by Felix Gilman“The Lizard of Ooze” by Jay Lake“Festival Lives: Preamble: An Essay” by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer“At Reparata” by Jeffrey Ford“Immolation” by Jeffrey Thomas“The Art of Dying” by Darja Malcolm-Clarke“Whose Words You Wear” by K. J. Bishop“The Neglected Garden” by Kathy Koja“Letters from Tainaron” by Leena Krohn“The Luck in the Head” by M. John Harrison“Crossing Cambodia” by Michael Moorcock“Death in a Dirty Dhorti” by Paul Di Filippo“All God’s Chillun Got Wings” by Sarah Monette“The Braining of Mother Lamprey” by Simon D. Ings“The Ride of the Gabbleratchet” by Steph Swainston“A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing” by Thomas Ligotti“European Editor Perspectives on the New Weird: An Essay” by Martin Šust, Michael Haulica, Hannes Riffel, Jukka Halme, Konrad Walewski“The New Weird: I Think We’re the Scene” by Michael Cisco“New Weird Discussions: The Creation of a Term” by various authors

    None are more memorable than her Witch World novels.Far from the besieged home of Simon and Jaelithe, in peaceful Norsdale, we meet Gillan, who longs to leave her dull life in a secluded country abbey. But when her wish comes true, she finds more than a little adventure. As she ventures out, not only is her life in danger, but also the power that lies within her, waiting to be discovered.

    Lovecraft inspired the work of Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. As he perfected his mastery of the macabre, his works developed from seminal fragments into acknowledged masterpieces of terror. This volume traces his chilling career and includes:IMPRISONED WITH THE PHARAOHS--Houdini seeks to reveal the demons that inhabit the Egyptian night.AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS--An unsuspecting expedition uncovers a city of untold terror, buried beneath an Antarctic wasteland.Plus, for the first time in any Del Rey edition:HERBERT WEST: REANIMATOR--Mad experiments yield hideous results in this, the inspiration for the cult film Re-Animator.COOL AIR--An icy apartment hides secrets no man dares unlock.THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN--The intruders seek a fortune but find only death!AND TWENTY-FOUR MORE BLOOD-CHILLING TALES

    His only clues point to a conspiracy that reaches far beyond his own murder, and survival lies in discovering other fugitives who know the truth about the ultimate weapon of chaos and salvation. Reprint.

    Science rules the dayside of the globe. Magic rules the World of Night, and Jack of Shadows, Shadowjack the Thief, who broke the Compact and duped the Lord of High Dudgeon, walks in silence and in shadows to seek vengeance upon his enemies.

    It is said a race of shapeshifters once lived here, only to perish when men came. But one man believes they can still be found, somewhere in the back of the beyond.In The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Wolfe skillfully interweaves three bizarre tales to create a mesmerizing pattern: the harrowing account of the son of a mad genius who discovers his hideous heritage; a young man's mythic dreamquest for his darker half; the bizarre chronicle of a scientists' nightmarish imprisonment. Like an intricate, braided knot, the pattern at last unfolds to reveal astonishing truths about this strange and savage alien landscape.