Those who survived tried to maintain some sort of civilization...which meant more killing, as it turned out. But bit by bit, generation by generation, people began to succeed. With occasional setbacks.

    Or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same mysterious dream. A handful of silent children can still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. Global panic ensues. A medical fact: after six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. After four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, a bizarre new world arises and swallows the old one whole. A world called Nod.

    These stories describe the fall of civilization, the destruction of the entire Earth, or the end of the Universe itself.Contents:When we went to see the end of the world - Robert SilverbergThe End of the World - Sushma JoshiThe Clockwork Atom Bomb - Dominic GreenBloodletting - Kate WilhelmWhen Sysadmins ruled the World - Cory DoctorowThe Rain at the End of the World - Dale BaileyThe Flood - Linda NagataThe End of the World Show - David BarnettFermi and Frost - Frederik PohlSleepover - Alastair ReynoldsThe Last Sunset - Geoffrey LandisMoments of Inertia - William BartonThe Books - Kage BakerPallbearer - Robert ReedAnd the Deep Blue Sea - Elizabeth BearThe Meek - Damien BroderickThe Man who Walked Home - James Tiptree JRA Pail of Air - Fritz LeiberGuardians of the Phoenix - Eric BrownLife in the Anthropocene - Paul di FilippoTerraforming Terra - Jack WilliamsonWorld Without End - F Gwynplaine MacIntyreThe Children of Time - Stephen BaxterThe Star called Wormwood - Elizabeth Counihan

    What follows is the most terrible global catastrophe in the history of the human race-and a Dark Age more universal and complete than could possibly be imagined.

    He's got a job — transcribing old books and presenting them as the words of the great new leader, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe — and though he doesn't enjoy the privileged status of a Murza, at least he's not a serf or a half-human four-legged Degenerator harnessed to a troika. He has a house, too, with enough mice to cook up a tasty meal, and he's happily free of mutations: no extra fingers, no gills, no cockscombs sprouting from his eyelids. And he's managed — at least so far — to steer clear of the ever-vigilant Saniturions, who track down anyone who manifests the slightest sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that waits in the wilderness beyond.

    It is the late twenty-first century and a deadly virus has seeped into human kind's genetic make-up. In only a few generations this plague will have wiped us off the face of the planet, but we're not going down without a fight. Teams of scientists, geneticists and programmers race to find a cure, but time is not on our side and our only hope lies in one last, desperate gamble...Eighteen years later and ten individuals are about to come of age. One of them, a young man, is suddenly startled awake. He has no memory. His surroundings mean nothing to him. All he knows for certain is that someone is trying to kill him. Unsure who he can trust, he is reacquainted with his companions, all of whom are being trained at a special establishment run by the elusive Maestro. As he tries to uncover the identity of his would-be killer, it becomes clear that more - so much more - than just his life is at stake...Smart, stylish, terrifying and thrilling in equal measure, Idlewild fuses the fierce imagination of The Matrix with the chilling social vision of Minority Report, and introduces a singular new literary voice.

    Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive "cyberpunk" short fiction collection.Contents:The Gernsback Continuum (1981) by William GibsonSnake-Eyes (1986) by Tom MaddoxRock On (1984) by Pat CadiganTales of Houdini (1981) by Rudy Rucker400 Boys (1983) by Marc LaidlawSolstice (1985) by James Patrick KellyPetra (1982) by Greg BearTill Human Voices Wake Us (1984) by Lewis ShinerFreezone (1985) by John ShirleyStone Lives (1985) by Paul Di FilippoRed Star, Winter Orbit (1983) by William Gibson and Bruce SterlingMozart in Mirrorshades (1984) by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner

    They have become the monsters that best express the anxieties and fears of the modern west. This collection gathers together zombie works by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Poppy Z. Brite, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale. These brilliant minds, and The Living Dead, cover the many types of zombie fiction. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

    The sombre story of a group of people in their fifties who face the fact that there is no younger generation coming to replace them; instead nature is rushing back to obliterate the disaster they have brought on themselves.

     Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy. And the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. As the heat of summer intensifies, the residents struggle with the new way of life in a world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish. A captivating, utterly realistic novel, World Made by Hand takes speculative fiction beyond the apocalypse and shows what happens when life gets extremely local.

    As the world and cyberworlds come crashing down, bending perception and reality, a monster snowstorm cuts New York off from the world, becoming a wintry tomb where no one can be trusted, and nothing is what it seems...CyberStorm is a techno-thriller set in present-day New York City that will appeal to fans of Michael Chichton and Tom Clancy as well as devotees of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. It is an exploration of the human condition as the cyberworld collides with our own, a compelling portrait of a possible future that is all too terrifyingly real.

    A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary-the remains of St. Louis-a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. Then a rider comes from the wasteland beyond its walls. She reports on the outside world: west of the Cascades, rain falls, crops grow, civilization thrives. But there is danger too: the rising power of an army that pillages and enslaves every community they happen upon. Against the wishes of the Sanctuary, a small group sets out in secrecy. Led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark, they hope to expand their infant nation, and to reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

    Their cups, combs and jewelry are found in every Illyrian home. They left behind a legend, too—a hidden sanctuary called Haven, where even now the secrets of their civilization might still be found.Chaka's brother was one of those who sought to find Haven and never returned. But now Chaka has inherited a rare Roadmaker artifact—a book called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—which has inspired her to follow in his footsteps. Gathering an unlikely band of companions around her, Chaka embarks upon a journey where she will encounter bloodthirsty rirver pirates, electronic ghosts who mourn their lost civilization and machines that skim over the ground and air. Ultimately, the group will learn the truth about their own mysterious past.

    A revelation of what was formerly undisclosed, the harbingers of apocalypse are edging ever closer...The wasteland of abandoned memories, the end of the world or a chance for a new beginning. Be it a personal apocalypse, or one of great cataclysm, the stories that arise from the rubble are tales of aftermath and tales of survival. Bridging the gap between Science Fiction and Horror, the gothic overtones of the apocalyptic imagination are explored to their full extent in these short stories.After the Fall is a collection of twenty short stories, all apocalyptic or dystopian in nature. Some bringing laughter and others bringing tears, but each unique in its interpretation of the theme.Casting off by Robert Holtom (Competition winner)As I sit in a cafe, waiting for a loved one, so I contemplate the end of the world.Nightshade by Damon DiMarcoCivilization’s death rattle as we succumb to the Nightshade virus in a curious and ironic way.Rush Hour by Thomas BrownA man reflects on what it means to be alive in the 21st century.They Turn Red Then Black by Spencer LawesIn a run-down village dependent on a river of garbage, two boys desperately try to find a way to stop their crippled mother being raped by the inhabitants of nearby villages.Sale of the Century by Liam BrownThe end of the world is coming - it should make for some truly excellent TV ratings.The Dying and the Desolation by Paul S. HugginsDrake is alive, man and animal alike have been wiped off the planet by a virilent form of rabies, immune or lucky he must adapt if he wants to survive.Diary of a Zee by Brian LeCluyseSet in an apocalyptic, dying Austin, Texas and told from the point of view of a vegetarian, pot-smoking, hippie, liberal zombie.We Don’t Go to the River by Jeremy WatssmanIn a foul plague-ridden town, a recently unemployed man goes looking for fresh water to save his sister and himself.In Debt by Javier Moyano PerezA dystopian story about a fictitious America enslaved for eternity by merciless creditors and artificial age preservation.All Clear in the Anderton House by Claire FullerMoving from house to house away from the flood waters, Finlay has a compulsion to check every room in every house before he can contemplate living there.Over the Vanishing City by Toby LloydIt's the end of the world and three young men go out for a drink, much like they have always done.Up the Road by Andrew SaxsmaWhat if the world was destroyed, not by disease, war, zombies, or famine, but by fairytales...Seen and not Heard by Ilana MasadA mother's fight to retain her sanity and her illegal, secret, son in the post-nuclear dictatorship she lives in.The End of Time by Robert LeggThe beginning of an apocalypse and its fallout from the point of view of the machine responsible.Stasis by Rebecca Jane GarnerA woman's struggle to come to terms with a world where the majority of the human race has fallen into a state of catalepsy.The Ambulancemen by Heather ParryA world turned on its head; a world where the sirens of an Ambulance are to be feared, not respected.The Comeback Tour by Andrea Mullaney“After the world gets used to zombies, an enterprising rock music manager sees a gap in the market for a very special artist …Anaesthetised by Emma LyskavaHumans have pushed nature to its limit with devastating consequences.You Call This an Apocalypse by Errick A. NunnallyTwo foster kids more different than alike, from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Boston during the first day of the zombie apocalypse.The Remnants of Civilization by Vince LiberatoAfter a global cataclysm called the Sundering, Seth and Ty hunt the creatures that populate much of the Earth, for the good of and continued existence of Civilization.Forward by Kelly Gardner

    A world paralysed by genetic mutationJohn Wyndham takes the reader into the anguished heart of a community where the chances of breeding true are less than fifty per cent and where deviations are rooted out and destroyed as offences and abominations.