The Refrigerator Monologues


Catherynne M. Valente - 2017
    A ferocious riff on women in superhero comics.A series of linked stories from the points of view of the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who’s ever been “refrigerated”: comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero’s storyline will progress.

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 7


Jonathan Strahan - 2012
    A multitude of astonishingly creative and gifted writers are boldly exploring the mythic past, the paranormal present, and the promises and perils of myriad alternate worlds and futures. There are almost too many new and intriguing stories published every year for any reader to be able to experience them all. So how to make sure you haven’t missed any future classics?Award-winning editor and anthologist Jonathan Strahan has surveyed the expanding universes of modern sf and fantasy to find the brightest stars in today’s dazzling literary firmament. From the latest masterworks by the acknowledged titans of the field to fresh visions from exciting new talents, this outstanding collection is a comprehensive showcase for the current state of the art in both science fiction and fantasy. Anyone who wants to know where the future of imaginative short fiction is going, and treat themselves to dozens of unforgettable stories, will find this year’s edition of Best Science Fiction and Fantasy to be just what they’re looking for!Contents:Introduction by Jonathan Strahan“The Contrary Gardener” by Christopher Rowe“The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times” by Eleanor Arnason“Close Encounters” by Andy Duncan“Great Grandmother” in the Cellar by Peter S. Beagle“The Easthound” by Nalo Hopkinson“Goggles c 1910″ by Caitlín R. Kiernan“Bricks, Sticks, Straw” by Gwyneth Jones“A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones” by Genevieve Valentine“The Grinnell Method” by Molly Gloss“Beautiful Boys” by Theodora Goss“The Education of a Witch” by Ellen Klages“Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas” on Dione by Paul McAuley“What Did Tessimond Tell You?” by Adam Roberts“Adventure Story” by Neil Gaiman“Katabasis” by Robert Reed“Troll Blood” by Peter Dickinson“The Color Least Used” by Nature by Ted Kosmatka“Jack Shade in the Forest” of Souls by Rachel Pollack“Two Houses” by Kelly Link“Blood Drive” by Jeffrey Ford“Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard“About Fairies” by Pat Murphy“Let Maps to Others” by K.J. Parker“Joke in Four Panels” by Robert Shearman“Reindeer Mountain” by Karin Tidbeck“Domestic” Magic by Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem“Swift, Brutal Retaliation” by Megan McCarron“Nahiku West” by Linda Nagata“Fade to White” by Catherynne M. Valente“Significant Dust” by Margo Lanagan“Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu

Prickle Moon


Juliet Marillier - 2013
    It contains eleven previously published stories and five new ones. Included are the Sevenwaters novella, "’Twixt Firelight and Water", the epic Nordic story, "Otherling", and "In Coed Celyddon", a tale of the young man who would one day become King Arthur. The title story, especially written for the collection, concerns an old Scottish wise woman facing an impossible moral dilemma. Other new stories in the book include "By Bone-Light", a contemporary retelling of the Russian fairy tale "Vasilissa the Wise", and "The Angel of Death", a dark story about a puppy mill rescue.

Behind the Mask: A Superhero Anthology


Tricia ReeksPatrick Flanagan - 2017
    Ranging from laugh-out-loud funny to deliciously dark, these stories are about the ordinary day-to-day challenges facing these extraordinary individuals growing up, growing old, relationships, parenting, coping with that age-old desire to fit in when, let s face it, they don't.“Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut” by Cat Rambo, copyright © 2009 by Cat Rambo, originally published in Strange Horizons (October 26, 2009); “Destroy the City with Me Tonight” by Kate Marshall, copyright © 2017 by Kate Marshall; “Fool” by Keith Frady, copyright © 2017 by Keith Frady; “Pedestal” by Seanan McGuire, copyright © 2017 by Seanan McGuire; “As I Fall Asleep” by Aimee Ogden, copyright © 2017 by Aimee Ogden; “Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning” by Jennifer Pullen, copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Pullen; “Inheritance” by Michael Milne, copyright © 2017 by Michael Milne; “Heroes” by Lavie Tidhar, copyright © 2016 by Lavie Tidhar, originally published in Strange Horizons (September 19, 2016); “Madjack” by Nathan Crowder, copyright © 2017 by Nathan Crowder; “Quintessential Justice” by Patrick Flanagan, copyright © 2017 by Patrick Flanagan; “The Fall of the Jade Sword” by Stephanie Lai, copyright © 2017 by Stephanie Lai; “Origin Story” by Carrie Vaughn, copyright © 2016 by Carrie Vaughn, LLC, originally published in Lightspeed Magazine (April 2016); “Eggshells” by Ziggy Schutz, copyright © 2017 by Ziggy Schutz; “Salt City Blue” by Chris Large, copyright © 2017 by Chris Large; “Birthright” by Stuart Suffel, copyright © 2017 by Stuart Suffel; “The Smoke Means It’s Working” by Sarah Pinsker, copyright © 2017 by Sarah Pinsker; “Torch Songs” by Keith Rosson, copyright © 2017 by Keith Rosson; “The Beard of Truth” by Matt Mikalatos, copyright © 2017 by Matt Mikalatos; “Over an Embattled City” by Adam R. Shannon, copyright © 2017 by Adam R. Shannon; “Origin Story” by Kelly Link, copyright © 2006 by Kelly Link, originally published in A Public Space (Winter 2006) and reprinted in Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble (Random House; 2015)

Human for a Day


Martin H. GreenbergDavid D. Levine - 2011
    If you were an intelligent robot, would the opportunity to become human for a day be worth the risks? If a magic spell switched the bodies of a vampire and a teenage girl, would both savor the experience or search for a way to undo the enchantment? What tests would an angel face if transformed into a mortal for a day? These are just a few of the inventive stories-some humorous, some sad, many thought-provoking, and all unique-to be found in Human for a Day.

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vol 1


August Derleth - 1969
    P. Lovecraft"The Return of the Sorcerer" by Clark Ashton Smith"Ubbo-Sathla" by Clark Ashton Smith"The Black Stone" by Robert E. Howard"The Hounds of Tindalos" by Frank Belknap Long"The Space-Eaters" by Frank Belknap Long"The Dweller in Darkness" by August Derleth"Beyond the Threshold" by August Derleth"The Salem Horror" by Henry Kuttner"The Haunter In The Graveyard" by J. Vernon Shea

Sword and Sorceress XX


Marion Zimmer BradleyMary Soon Lee - 2003
    The bestselling Sword and Sorceress series continues with this exciting 20th edition of all-new stories. It's all here: hard-hitting action, spellbinding magic, butt-kicking heroines... and some of the most popular names in fantasy today.

Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology


Ann VanderMeerAngélica Gorodischer - 2015
    Including stories from the 1970s to the present day, the collection seeks to expand the conversation about feminism while engaging the reader in a wealth of imaginative ideas. Sisters of the Revolution seeks to expand the ideas of both contemporary fiction and feminism to new fronts.Contents:The forbidden words of Margaret A. / L. Timmel Duchamp --My flannel knickers / Leonora Carrington --The mothers of Shark Island / Kit Reed --The palm tree bandit / Nnedi Okorafor --The grammarian's five daughters / Eleanor Arnason --And Salome danced / Kelley Eskridge --The perfect married woman / Angélica Gorodischer --The glass bottle trick / Nalo Hopkinson --Their mother's tears : the fourth letter / Leena Krohn --The screwfly solution / James Tiptree, Jr. --Seven losses of na Re / Rose Lemberg --The evening and the morning and the night / Octavia E. Butler --The sleep of plants / Anne Richter --The men who live in trees / Kelly Barnhill --Tales from the breast / Hiromi Goto --The Fall River axe murders / Angela Carter --Love and sex among the invertebrates / Pat Murphy --When it changed / Joanna Russ --The woman who thought she was a planet / Vandana Singh --Gestella / Susan Palwick --Boys / Carol Emshwiller --Stable strategies for middle management / Eileen Gunn --Northern chess / Tanith Lee --Aunts / Karin Tidbeck --Sur / Ursula K. Le Guin --Fears / Pamela Sargent --Detours on the way to nothing / Rachel Swirsky --Thirteen ways of looking at space/time / Catherynne M. Valente --Home by the sea / Elisabeth Vonaburg.

Iraq + 100: stories from a century after the invasion


Hassan BlasimDiaa Jubaili - 2016
    Along the way a new aesthetic for the ‘Iraqi fantastical’ begins to emerge: thus we meet time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues, macabre museum-worlds, even hovering tiger-droids, and all the time buoyed by a dark, inventive humour that, in itself, offers hope.

Ill Met in Lankhmar


Fritz Leiber - 1970
    White Wolf presents the entire seven-novelette Lankhmar series in four volumes.The two greatest heroes ever are back, proving why Fritz Leiber is a literary legend. Join Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser as they take you on unforgettable adventures. Includes Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death.

The Future is Female! Women's Science Fiction Stories from the Pulp Era to the New Wave


Lisa Yaszek - 2018
    Now, two hundred years after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, SF-expert Lisa Yaszek presents the best of the female tradition in American science fiction, in the most comprehensive collection of its kind ever published. From Pulp Era pioneers to New Wave experimentalists, here are over two dozen brilliant writers ripe for discovery and rediscovery, including Leslie F. Stone ("The Conquest of Gola," 1931), Judith Merril ("That Only a Mother," 1948), Leigh Brackett ("All the Colors of the Rainbow," 1957), Kit Reed ("The New You," 1962), Joanna Russ ("The Barbarian," 1968); Ursula K. Le Guin ("Nine Lives," 1969), and James Tiptree Jr. ("Last Flight of Dr. Ain," 1969). Imagining strange worlds and unexpected futures, looking into and beyond new technologies and scientific discoveries, in utopian fantasies and tales of cosmic horror, these women created and shaped speculative fiction as surely as their male counterparts. Their provocative, mind-blowing stories combine to form a thrilling multidimensional voyage of literary-feminist exploration and recovery.Contents:Introduction / Lisa Yaszek --The miracle of the lily / Clare Winger Harris --The conquest of Gola / Leslie F. Stone --The black god's kiss / C. L. Moore --Space episode / Leslie Perri --That only a mother / Judith Merril --In hiding / Wilmar H. Shiras --Contagion / Katherine Maclean --The inhabited men / Margaret St. Clair --Ararat / Zenna Henderson --All cats are gray / Andrew North --Created he them / Alice Eleanor Jones --Mr. Sakrison's halt / Mildred Clingerman --All the colors of the rainbow / Leigh brackett --Pelt / Carol Emshwiller --Car pool / Rosel George Brown --For sale, reasonable / Elizabeth Mann Borgese --Birth of a gardener / Doris Pitkin Buck --The tunnel ahead / Alice Glaser --The new you / Kit Reed --Another rib / John Jay Wells & Marion Zimmer Bradley --When I was Miss Dow / Sonya Dorman --Baby, you were great / Kate Wilhelm --The barbarian / Joanna Russ --The last flight of Dr. Ain / James Tiptree Jr --Nine lives / Ursula K Le Guin --Biographical notes.

This Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers


Elizabeth Merrick - 2006
    Davis • Jennifer Egan • Carolyn Ferrell • Mary Gordon • Cristina Henríquez • Samantha Hunt •Binnie Kirshenbaum • Dika Lam • Caitlin Macy • Francine Prose • Holiday Reinhorn • Roxana Robinson • Curtis Sittenfeld • Lynne Tillman • Martha Witt Chick lit: A genre of fiction that often recycles the following plot: Girl in big city desperately searches for Mr. Right in between dieting and shopping for shoes. Girl gets dumped (sometimes repeatedly). Girl finds Prince Charming. This Is Not Chick Lit is a celebration of America’s most dynamic literary voices, as well as a much needed reminder that, for every stock protagonist with a designer handbag and three boyfriends, there is a woman writer pushing the envelope of literary fiction with imagination, humor, and depth. The original short stories in this collection touch on some of the same themes as chick lit–the search for love and identity–but they do so with extraordinary power, creativity, and range; they are also political, provocative, and, at turns, utterly surprising. Featuring marquee names as well as burgeoning talents, This Is Not Chick Lit will nourish your heart, and your mind. “This Is Not Chick Lit is important not only for its content, but for its title. I’ll know we’re getting somewhere when equally talented male writers feel they have to separate themselves from the endless stream of fiction glorifying war, hunting and sports by naming an anthology This Is Not a Guy Thing.”–Gloria Steinem“These voices, diverse and almost eerily resonant, offer us a refreshing breath of womanhood-untamed, ungroomed, and unglossed.”–ELLE

None So Blind


Joe Haldeman - 1994
    But Haldeman, like Einstein, proves that clerks can have enough vision to rock the cosmos. This book includes 11 stories and four story poems, ranging in length from two pages to just over 100. Together they have earned two Nebula, two Hugo and one World Fantasy awards. Each one showcases the author's grasp of what it means to be alive and human (or inhuman), written with a powerful clarity and a subtle imagination. Publishers Weekly called this one "a stunner."Contents:Feedback (1993)Passages (1990)Job Security (1992)The Hemingway Hoax (1990)Images (1991)Beachhead (1991)The Monster (1986)If I Had the Wings of an Angel (1991)The Cure (1994)Graves (1992)None So Blind (1994)The Homecoming (1990) poemFire, Ice (1994) poemTime Lapse (1989) poemDX (1987) poem

The Gods of HP Lovecraft


Aaron J. FrenchJames A. Moore - 2015
    Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the twelve principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose within its pages. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many NY Times bestsellers, full of original fiction and artwork, and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.About the book: Lovecraft’s bestiary of gods has had a major influence on the horror scene from the time these sacred names were first evoked. Cthulhu, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth—this pantheon of the horrific calls to mind the very worst of cosmic nightmares and the very darkest signs of human nature. The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft brings together twelve all-new Mythos tales from:Cthulhu (Adam Nevill) – Yog-Sothoth (Martha Wells) – Azathoth (Laird Barron) – Nyarlathotep (Bentley Little) – Shub-Niggurath (David Liss) – Tsathoggua (Brett Talley) – The Mi-Go (Christopher Golden & James A. Moore) – Night-gaunts (Jonathan Maberry) – Elder Things (Joe Lansdale) – Great Race (Rachel Caine) – Yig (Douglas Wynne) – The Deep Ones (Seanan McGuire)With commentary on each deity by Donald Tyson

The Avram Davidson Treasury: A Tribute Collection


Avram Davidson - 1998
    He was erudite, cranky, Jewish, wildly creative, and sold most of his wonderful stories to pulp magazines. They are wonderful.Now his estate and his friends have brought together a definitive collection of his finest work, each story introduced by an SF luminary: writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Poul Anderson, Gene Wolfe, Guy Davenport, Peter S. Beagle, Gregory Benford, Thomas M. Disch, and dozens of others. This is a volume every lover of fantasy will need to own.