Edited by NY Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry and featuring heart-stopping stories by some of today s hottest writers of mystery, thriller, science fiction, and horror."

    Valente, Dexter Palmer and others KAREN JOY FOWLER, guest editor, is the author of six novels and four short story collections, including We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. She is the winner of the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, and has won numerous Nebula and World Fantasy awards. JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS, series editor, is the best-selling editor of more than two dozen anthologies, including Brave New Worlds and Wastelands. He is the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare and is the editor of John Joseph Adams Books, a new science fiction/fantasy novel imprint from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Table of Contents:"Meet Me in Iram" by Sofia Samatar"The Game of Smash and Recovery" by Kelly Link"Interesting Facts" by Adam Johnson"Planet Lion" by Catherynne M. Valente"The Apartment Dweller’s Bestiary" by Kij Johnson"By Degrees and Dilatory Time" by S.L. Huang"The Mushroom Queen" by Liz Ziemska"The Daydreamer by Proxy" by Dexter Palmer"Tea Time" by Rachel Swirsky"Headshot" by Julian Mortimer Smith"The Duniazát" by Salman Rushdie"No Placeholder for You, My Love" by Nick Wolven"The Thirteen Mercies" by Maria Dahvana Headley"Lightning Jack’s Last Ride" by Dale Bailey"Things You Can Buy for a Penny" by Will Kaufman"Rat Catcher’s Yellows" by Charlie Jane Anders"The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History" by Sam J. Miller"Three Bodies at Mitanni" by Seth Dickinson"Ambiguity Machines: an Examination" by Vandana Singh"The Great Silence" by Ted Chiang

    Do not purchase this book if you are easily offended or require trigger warnings!Meet Brad.A quiet, hardworking man who goes about his daily routine with joy. He works as a telemarketer, trying his best to sell poorly made, over-priced products to the unsuspecting people on the other end of the phone. Brad doesn't mind though, it's a means to an end.Life's about to change for Brad. Now that Father has anointed him the Chosen one, the one to open the gates and allow them to flock into the Black Heavens.Eternity awaits.But is Brad ready to perform on the big day?

    This book is Rated R: Adults Only. Some may find the themes addressed disturbing. Content includes child abuse, rape, suicide, murder and violence.This dark fiction collection contains 12 short stories:Skeleton in the Closet and Childlike Bride - What happens to the vulnerable when they are taken advantage of then abandoned?A Friend – A lonely ghost bears witness to a Halloween prank that ends in tragedy.Frozen and Frozen in Reverse – Parallel stories detailing an attack in the words of the victim and then the rapist.Ready or Not – What’s your idea of hell?Justice – The lengths the heartbroken will go to for justice... or revenge.Forever Young – Sometimes regrets come too late.Peace, Deals, A Great Day, A Little Girl in my Room – Four offerings of the supernatural kind.