In response, the distressed mother, who grew up a Quaker and has never seen a gun, steals weapons from the sheriff’s office and tools from a local hardware store. Frantically racing to rescue her stolen daughter, she is surprised to discover she knows how to expertly handle these dangerous, heavy tools. And it suddenly occurs to Karen that not only has her town changed, she has no idea who she is either!

    From video game characters seeking civil rights and a cave dragon loan shark pondering an investment, to Santa Claus's Australian vacation and an enemy of Sam Spade's out for revenge, plus visits to the Nightside and Sookie Stackhouse's hometown, these stories will take readers around the world on a magical mystery tour."Lucky" by Charlaine Harris -- a Sookie Stackhouse short"Bogieman" by Carole Nelson Douglas"Looks are Deceiving" by Micheal A. Stackpole"the House of Seven Spirits" by Sharon Shinn"Glamour" by Mike Doogan"Spellbound" by Donna Andrews"the Duh Vice" by Michael Armstrong"Weight of the World" by John Straley"Illumination" by Laura Anne Gilman"the House" by Laurie R. King"Appetite for Murder" by Simon R. Green -- a Nightside short"A Woman's Work" by Dana Stabenow

    Few authors have matched the versatility and stylishness of Walter Jon Williams. His genre-defining novels have received wide critical acclaim and captured the rapt attention of fans worldwide. He has been nominated for every major SF award. The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories contains nine bleeding-edge tales showcasing Williams’ flexibility, power-chord storytelling, and engagingly human and post-human characters. From Walter Jon Williams, author of more than twenty novels, including This Is Not a Game, Implied Spaces, and the definitive cyberpunk novel Hardwired, comes The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, a stunning collection of short fiction including the Nebula Award-winning stories “Daddy’s World” and “The Green Leopard Plague,” and featuring an introduction by Charles Stross, plus in-depth story notes.

    For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.

    Tasked with discovering who or what is reaching out to the stars, his mission will force him to confront the ghosts of his past in his hometown of Lorain, Ohio. Our government told us the signal was a hoax.Agent Conrad Reid must lead a team who neither know nor trust him... and is briefed that if the Soviets reach the source of the transmission before he does, then millions will die. Our government lied Doctor Rose Santiago knows of the shared secrets that bind the team and, even as the mystery unravels, that accounts must be settled.Because Ohio never forgets its debts, and everyone must heed the call

    As a blizzard worsens, the trap tightens until only a twelve-year-old girl holds the secret of survival. This chilling e-story proves why David Morrell received a lifetime-achievement ThrillerMaster Award from the International Thriller Writers organization as well as three Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association. Morrell, who has been called “the father of the modern action novel,” is also an Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominee. “David Morrell is, to me, the finest thriller writer living today, bar none.” —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Jefferson Key “David Morrell is a master of suspense. He wields it like a stiletto—knows just where to stick it and how to turn it. If you’re reading Morrell, you’re sitting on the edge of your seat.” —Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Lincoln Lawyer “Morrell, an absolute master of the thriller, plays by his on rules and leaves you dazzled.” —Dean Koontz, New York Times bestselling author of Odd Thomas

    Caitlín R. Kiernan first introduced Dancy in the pages of her award-winning second novel, Threshold (2001), then went on to write several more short stories and a novella about this unlikely heroine, each a piece, of which, has become an epic dark fantasy narrative. Alabaster finally collects all these tales into one volume, illustrated by Ted Naifeh (Gloomcookie, Courtney Crumrin)

    Four mismatched survivors take refuge from a zombie plague inside a shopping mall, and absolute terror ensues. This companion film to George A. Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead now takes on new life in a graphic novel adaptation by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Wake the Dead) and new art star Chee (Wake The Dead).

    

    From Gold Pen Award-winner and master storyteller Brandon Massey come fourteen darker-than-night tales of sheer terror that will make your blood run cold...A man driving home from a Halloween costume party suddenly comes face to face with an evil that's all too real...An elderly woman, obsessed with obituaries, finds herself intimately connected with the dead in the most unlikely of ways...A lifelong racist is plunged into his ultimate nightmare...An unfaithful husband discovers to his horror that his attractive new neighbor has in mind seduction of the wickedest kind....Prepare to be petrified by this chilling collection, certain to send you spiraling into a dark realm of imagination where the once-familiar becomes menacingly twisted...

    Welcome to the night shift...The omnibus edition of Jill Kismet contains: Night Shift, Hunter's Prayer, Redemption Alley, Flesh Circus, Heaven's Spite and Angel Town.

    Steel your nerves, reach into your weapons locker, and tie tight your running shoes as humanity takes up arms against the monsters and gods of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Grab your pistols, your knives, your gearpunk grenades. Confront deep ones, mi-go, and flying polyps. Fight in the past, present and future, from the birth of the shotgun to the end of the world. Escape by car, carriage, and hot air balloon. Above all, remember to count your bullets...you may need the last one for yourself.

    The Kindred Move Among UsNot merely mad beasts of lonely hunters, the vampires of the World of Darkness who call themselves The Kindred because of the blood that elementally binds them together, are dangerously organized and cunning. They hide behind a plan they call the Masquerade so that they do not draw the attention or ire of mortals, and the society this masquerade obscures is as rich with wonders and as rife with conflict as any ever known among men.This collection of stories concerning the Kindred of the World of Darkness serves as both an introduction to their nature and an expose of the danger they pose. Collected within this second edition are favourites of the first edition, including stories by S.P. Somtow and Mathew J. Costello, as well as two all-new stories from Gherbod Flemming and Eric Griffin, two authors of the bestselling Vampire Clan Novel series.

    Here are twenty-three original tales—stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic—produced specifically for this volume by many of today’s finest writers. Included are Orson Scott Card’s first “Alvin Maker” story in a decade, and an original adventure by Fred Van Lente, writer of Cowboys & Aliens. Other contributors include Tobias S. Buckell, David Farland, Alan Dean Foster, Jeffrey Ford, Laura Anne Gilman, Rajan Khanna, Mike Resnick, Beth Revis, Fred Van Lente, Walter Jon Williams, Ben H. Winters, Christie Yant, and Charles Yu, with an introduction by editor John Joseph Adams.CONTENTS:01 - Joe R. Lansdale, The Red-Headed Dead02 - Ben H. Winters, The Old Slow Man and his Gold Gun from Space03 - David Farland, Hellfire on the High Frontier04 - Mike Resnick, The Hell-Bound Stagecoach05 - Seanan McGuire, Stingers and Strangers06 - Charles Yu, Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger07 - Alan Dean Foster, Holy Jingle08 - Beth Revis, The Man With No Heart09 - Alastair Reynolds, Wrecking Party10 - Hugh Howey, Hell from the East11 - Rajan Khanna, Second Hand12 - Orson Scott Card, Alvin and the Apple Tree13 - Elizabeth Bear, Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle14 - Tad Williams, Strong Medicine15 - Jonathan Maberry, Red Dreams16 - Kelley Armstrong, Bamboozled17 - Tobias S. Buckell, Sundown18 - Jeffrey Ford, La Madre del Oro19 - Ken Liu, What I Assume You Shall Assume20 - Laura Anne Gilman, The Devil's Jack21 - Walter Jon Williams, The Golden Age22 - Fred Van Lente, Neversleeps23 - Christie Yant, Dead Man's Hand

    Two worlds. One prophecy. Seventeen-year-old Ember Lonergan has made an art of isolating herself. She prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in old cemeteries and her nights hiding from her alcoholic father at the funeral home where she works. When her own father dies, Ember learns her whole life is a lie.Mace is a monster, a soulless assassin tasked with a single purpose: follow Ember. He only has two rules. Do not interact with her. Do not to kill her. Simply watch and report. But Mace has never been good at following orders, and Ember is a temptation he simply can't resist.Whisked away to a small Florida town, Ember must learn to embrace a family she's never known, a supernatural world she never knew existed, and a power so vast it just might kill her. All that stands between Ember and destruction is that beautiful dangerous boy from the cemetery.Can she learn to trust him before it's too late?This edition features exclusive hidden art under the dust jacket.