Dark Matter: Reading the Bones


Sheree Renée ThomasCharles Johnson - 2004
    The first volume was featured in the "New York Times," which named it a Notable Book of the Year.ContentsFiction. Ibo landing / ihsan bracy --The quality of sand / Cherene Sherrard --Yahimba's choice / Charles R. Saunders --The glass bottle trick / Nalo Hopkinson --Desire / Kiini Ibura Salaam --Recovery from a fall / David Findlay --Anansi meets Peter Parker at the Taco Bell on Lexington / Douglas Kearney --The magical Negro / Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu --Jesus Christ in Texas / W.E.B. DuBois --Will the circle be unbroken? / Henry Dumas --'Cause Harlem needs heroes / Kevin Brockenbrough --Whipping boy / Pam Noles --Old flesh song / Ibi Aanu Zoboi --Whispers in the dark / Walter Mosley --Aftermoon / Tananarive Due --Voodoo Vincent and the astrostoriograms / Tyehimba Jess --The binary / John Cooley --BLACKout / Jill Robinson --Sweet dreams / Charles Johnson --Buying primo time / Wanda Coleman --Corona / Samuel R. Delaney --Maggies / Nisi Shawl --Excerpt from Mindscape / Andrea Hairston --Trance / Kalamu ya Salaam --Essays. The second law of thermodynamics: transcription of a panel at the 1997 Black speculative fiction writer's conference held at Clark Atlanta University / Jewelle Gomez --Her pen could fly: remembering Virginia Hamilton / Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu --Celebrating the alien: the politics of race and species in the juveniles of Andre Norton / Carol Cooper.

Only the Animals


Ceridwen Dovey - 2014
    Each narrator also pays homage to an author who has written imaginatively about animals during much the same time span: Henry Lawson, Colette, Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Tolstoy, Günter Grass, Julian Barnes, and others.These stories are brilliantly plotted, exquisitely written, inevitably poignant but also playful and witty. They ask us to consider profound questions. Why do animals shock us into feeling things we can't seem to feel for other humans? Why do animals allow authors to say the unsayable? Why do we sometimes treat humans as animals, and animals as humans? Can fiction help us find moral meaning in a disillusioned world?Ceridwen Dovey is a prodigiously gifted storyteller, an insightful thinker, and a prose writer of great range. Each of the storylines is an opening to a new way of considering the nature of violence and the relationship between human and animal experiences of the world. Only The Animals will ask you to believe again, just for a moment, in the redemptive power of reading and writing fiction.

The Tangled Lands


Paolo Bacigalupi - 2018
    It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.

The Starlit Wood


Dominik ParisienKarin Tidbeck - 2016
    It’s how so many of our most beloved stories start.Fairy tales have dominated our cultural imagination for centuries. From the Brothers Grimm to the Countess d’Aulnoy, from Charles Perrault to Hans Christian Anderson, storytellers have crafted all sorts of tales that have always found a place in our hearts.Now a new generation of storytellers have taken up the mantle that the masters created and shaped their stories into something startling and electrifying.Packed with award-winning authors, this anthology explores an array of fairy tales in startling and innovative ways, in genres and settings both traditional and unusual, including science fiction, western, and post-apocalyptic as well as traditional fantasy and contemporary horror.From the woods to the stars, The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales takes readers on a journey at once unexpected and familiar, as a diverse group of writers explore some of our most beloved tales in new ways across genres and styles.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 2: January/February 2015


Lynne M. ThomasAmal El-Mohtar - 2008
    Featuring new fiction by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu), Sam J. Miller, Amal El-Mohtar, Richard Bowes, and Sunny Moraine, classic fiction by Ann Leckie, essays by Jim C. Hines, Erika McGillivray, Michi Trota, and Keidra Chaney, poetry by Isabel Yap, Mari Ness, and Rose Lemberg, interviews with Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) and Ann Leckie, by Deborah Stanish, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editoral by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. Contents:FictionThe Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History by Sam J. MillerFolding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken LiuLove Letters to Things Lost and Gained by Sunny MoraineAnyone With a Care for Their Image by Richard BowesPockets by Amal El–MohtarThe Nalendar by Ann LeckiePoetryAfter the Moon Princess Leaves by Isabel YapAfter the Dance by Mari Nessarchival testimony fragments / minersong by Rose LembergEditorialsThe Uncanny Valley by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian ThomasEssaysThank You, Again, Kickstarter Backers!The Politics of Comfort by Jim C. HinesAge of the Geek, Baby by Michi TrotaThe Evolution of Nerd Rock by Keidra ChaneyThe Future’s Been Here Since 1939: Female Fans, Cosplay, and Conventions by Erica McGillivrayInterviewsInterview: Hao Jingfang by Deborah Stanish, translated by Ken LiuInterview: Ann Leckie by Deborah Stanish

Growing Things and Other Stories


Paul Tremblay - 2019
    . . or not.Joining these haunting works are stories linked to Tremblay’s previous novels. The tour de force metafictional novella Notes from the Dog Walkers deconstructs horror and publishing, possibly bringing in a character from A Head Full of Ghosts, all while serving as a prequel to Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. “The Thirteenth Temple” follows another character from A Head Full of Ghosts—Merry, who has published a tell-all memoir written years after the events of the novel. And the title story, Growing Things, a shivery tale loosely shared between the sisters in A Head Full of Ghosts, is told here in full.From global catastrophe to the demons inside our heads, Tremblay illuminates our primal fears and darkest dreams in startlingly original fiction that leaves us unmoored. As he lowers the sky and yanks the ground from beneath our feet, we are compelled to contemplate the darkness inside our own hearts and minds.Growing things --Swim wants to know if it's as bad as swim thinks --Something about birds --The getaway --Nineteen snapshots of Dennisport --Where we all will be --The teacher --Notes for "The Barn in the Wild" --_______ --Our town's monster --A haunted house is a wheel upon which some are broken --It won't go away --Notes from the dog walkers --Further questions for the somnambulist --The ice tower --The society of the monsterhood --Her red right hand --It's against the law to feed the ducks --The thirteenth temple --Notes --Acknowledgments --Credits

The Book of Cthulhu


Ross E. LockhartMichael Shea - 2011
    Initially created by H. P. Lovecraft and a group of his amorphous contemporaries (the so-called "Lovecraft Circle"), The Cthulhu Mythos story cycle has taken on a convoluted, cyclopean life of its own. Some of the most prodigious writers of the 20th century, and some of the most astounding writers of the 21st century have planted their seeds in this fertile soil. The Book of Cthulhu harvests the weirdest and most corpulent crop of these modern mythos tales. From weird fiction masters to enigmatic rising stars, The Book of Cthulhu demonstrates how Mythos fiction has been a major cultural meme throughout the 20th century, and how this type of story is still salient, and terribly powerful today.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.

Forest of Memory


Mary Robinette Kowal - 2016
    Her clients are rich and they demand items and experiences with only the finest verifiable provenance. Other people’s lives have value, after all.But when her A.I. suddenly stops whispering in her ear she finds herself cut off from the grid and loses communication with the rest of the world.The man who stepped out of the trees while hunting deer cut her off from the cloud, took her A.I., and made her his unwilling guest.There are no Authenticities or Captures to prove Katya’s story of what happened in the forest. You’ll just have to believe her.

Welcome To Orphancorp


Marlee Jane Ward - 2015
    'Takes all of your dystopian nightmares and connects them to a mother lode of pure emotional intensity. There's so much keen detail here about the cruel logic of oppressive institutions, you'll feel Mirii's yearning for freedom in your bones - and you'll rejoice at every tiny moment of escape that she achieves. Welcome to Orphancorp is harrowing, scarily real, and ultimately super moving.' - Charlie Jane Anders (i09) 'Punchy, crunchy, sexy and smart, Welcome to Orphancorp is a short, sharp shock of a story with bruised-but-not broken characters and a bonsai dystopia you can actually believe in. Marlee Jane Ward is a writer of heart and passion, muscle and slow-burning anger.' - Ian McDonald 'Welcome to Orphancorp is an intimate, heartfelt story set in the darkest of places. I can't stop thinking about these characters.' - Kij Johnson 'An object lesson in how to dehumanise young people by locking them up and depriving them of all warmth and care - has never been more timely. This gritty, greasy story is peppered with violence and lit with the slenderest shafts of affection and hope. It will make your jaw clench with fear for the indomitable Mirii Mahoney, and your fist punch the air at her every tiny victory.' - Margo Lanagan

Defying Doomsday


Tsana DolichvaCorinne Duyvis - 2016
    Teens form an all-girl band in the face of an impending comet.A woman faces giant spiders to collect silk and protect her family.New friends take their radio show on the road in search of plague survivors.A man seeks love in a fading world.How would you survive the apocalypse?Defying Doomsday is an anthology of apocalypse fiction featuring disabled and chronically ill protagonists, proving it’s not always the “fittest” who survive -- it’s the most tenacious, stubborn, enduring and innovative characters who have the best chance of adapting when everything is lost.In stories of fear, hope and survival, this anthology gives new perspectives on the end of the world, from authors Corinne Duyvis, Janet Edwards, Seanan McGuire, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Stephanie Gunn, Elinor Caiman Sands, Rivqa Rafael, Bogi Takács, John Chu, Maree Kimberley, Octavia Cade, Lauren E Mitchell, Thoraiya Dyer, Samantha Rich, and K Evangelista.Table of ContentsAnd the Rest of Us Wait by Corinne DuyvisTo Take Into the Air My Quiet Breath by Stephanie GunnSomething in the Rain by Seanan McGuireDid We Break the End of the World? by Tansy Rayner RobertsIn the Sky with Diamonds by Elinor Caiman SandsTwo Somebodies Go Hunting by Rivqa RafaelGiven Sufficient Desperation by Bogi TakácsSelected Afterimages of the Fading by John ChuFive Thousand Squares by Maree KimberleyPortobello Blind by Octavia CadeTea Party by Lauren E MitchellGiant by Thoraiya DyerSpider-Silk, Strong as Steel by Samantha RichNo Shit by K EvangelistaI Will Remember You by Janet Edwards

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion


Margaret Killjoy - 2017
    Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious and sudden suicide, she ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa. All is not well in Freedom, however: things went awry after the town’s residents summoned a protector spirit to serve as their judge and executioner.Danielle shows up in time to witness the spirit—a blood-red, three-antlered deer—begin to turn on its summoners. Danielle and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town—or get out alive.

The Witch of Duva


Leigh Bardugo - 2012
    But it's just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo's debut novel, Shadow and Bone.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Nox Pareidolia


Robert S. WilsonKristi DeMeester - 2019
    Nox Pareidolia includes tales by Laird Barron, S.P. Miskowski, Brian Evenson, Gwendolyn Kiste, Micheal Wehunt, Kristi DeMeester, Christopher Ropes, Zin E. Rocklyn, Paul Jessup, Doungjai Gam, Don Webb and Duane Pesice, K.H. Vaughan, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, and more yet to be announced!

A Protocol for Monsters


John Birmingham - 2016
    When an oil rig drills too deep under the Gulf of Mexico it breaks the capstone separating our world from the UnderRealms - home to monsters, daemons and dark magiks. The nightmares of our long ago come flooding back into the world where they are met by automatic weapons fire, heating seeking missiles (they're hell on dragons, don'tcha know) and one drunken, dissolute son of a bitch called Dave. But this is not Dave's story. This is the story of the poor bastards who had to put up with him while he saved the world and acted like a jerk.

That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote


K.J. Bishop - 2012
    Lost creatures in a bizarre post-apocalypse. Fables lingering into almost-modern worlds. From hallucinatory surrealism to human dramas at the fuzzy edges of reality, these stories and poems by the author of The Etched City are by turns exuberant, poignant, darkly funny and delightfully deranged, all showcasing the inventive magic of an acclaimed literary fantasist.Includes Aurealis Award winner The Heart of a Mouse and two stories in the world of The Etched City, one previously unpublished."Bishop is one of my favorite writers. She is an unmatched stylist and an alarming dreamer. Like her first novel, That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote is an astonishment, a portfolio of wonders." —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.