In 1633 Al-Shouf, a mother keeps demons at bay with the combined power of grief and music. In 1775 Paris, as social tensions come to a boil, a courtesan tries to save the woman she loves. In 1838 Georgia, a pregnant woman's desperate escape from slavery comes with a terrible price. In 1900 Ilocos Norte, a forest spirit helps a young girl defend her land from American occupiers. These gripping stories have been passed down through the generations, hidden between the lines of journal entries and love letters. Now 27 of today's finest authors – including Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Ken Liu, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, and Sabrina Vourvoulias – reveal the people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history.

    It was featured in the episode "The Angels Take Manhattan", with The Doctor reading it.The story of "The Angels Take Manhattan" is formed in The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story.Synopsis:On some days, New York is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.This was one of the other days…Melody Malone, owner and sole employee of the Angel Detective Agency, has an unexpected caller. It’s movie star Rock Railton, and he thinks someone is out to kill him. When he mentions the ‘kiss of the Angel’, she takes the case. Angels are Melody’s business…At the press party for Railton’s latest movie, studio owner Max Kliener invites Melody to the film set of their next blockbuster. He’s obviously spotted her potential, and Melody is flattered when Kliener asks her to become a star. But the cost of fame, she’ll soon discover, is greater than anyone could possibly imagine.Will Melody be able to escape Kliener’s dastardly plan – before the Angels take Manhattan?

    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.

    Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King’s finest gifts to his constant reader—“I made them especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”

    But Commonwealth operative Simon Kovalic knows nothing ever goes to plan. So, when a duplicitous bounty hunter lives up to his reputation, Kovalic’s ready—just maybe not ready enough.Now he and his team must get offworld, before their enemies catch up with them…

    In his singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris wheels. In a voice full of fable, myth, and dream, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination.Contains 40 stories, including "The Duck," "The Man and the Moose," and "Death and the Fruits of the Tree," as heard on NPR's This American Life, "The Book," as heard on Selected Shorts, and "The TV," as found in The New Yorker.A selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program and the Starbucks Coffee Bookish Reading Club.Winner of the 2011 Nobbie Award for Best Book of the Year."This guy can write!" –Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451

    All the tales contain some science fiction or fantasy element, and all remain true to the spirit and personality of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous and enduring creation.Contents; * Introduction: The Detective Who Refused to Die (Sherlock Holmes in Orbit) • essay by Mike Resnick * The Musgrave Version (1995) / short story by George Alec Effinger * The Case of the Detective's Smile / short story by Mark Bourne * The Adventure of the Russian Grave / short story by William Barton and Michael Capobianco * The Adventure of the Field Theorems / novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre * The Adventure of the Missing Coffin / short story by Laura Resnick * The Adventure of the Second Scarf / short story by Mark Aronson * The Phantom of the Barbary Coast / novelette by Frank M. Robinson * Mouse and the Master / short story by Brian M. Thomsen * Two Roads, No Choices / short story by Dean Wesley Smith *The Richmond Enigma / short story by John DeChancie * A Study in Sussex / short story by Leah A. Zeldes * The Holmes Team Advantage / short story by Gary Alan Ruse * Alimentary, My Dear Watson / short story by Lawrence Schimel * The Future Engine / novelette by Byron Tetrick * Holmes Ex Machina (1995) / short story by Susan Casper * The Sherlock Solution / short story by Craig Shaw Gardner * T he Fan Who Molded Himself / short story by David Gerrold * Second Fiddle / short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch * Moriarty by Modem (1995) / short story by Jack Nimersheim * The Greatest Detective of All Time / short story by Ralph Roberts * The Case of the Purloined L'Isitek / short story by Josepha Sherman * The Adventure of the Illegal Alien / short story by Anthony R. Lewis * Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers / short story by Barry N. Malzberg * You See But You Do Not Observe / short story by Robert J. Sawyer * Illusions / short story by Janni Lee Simner *The Adventure of the Pearly Gates / short story by Mike Resnick.

    Graham McNeill’s epic trilogy of Ultramarines novels is a masterpiece of non-stop action! Containing the novels Nightbringer, Warriors of Ultramar and Dead Sky, Black Sun, the series follows the adventures of Space Marine Captain Uriel Ventris and the Ultramarines as they battle against the enemies of mankind. From their home world of Macragge, into the dreaded Eye of Terror and beyond, Graham McNeill’s prose rattles like gunfire and brings the Space Marines to life like never before. Read it because It's three novels full of Ultramarines action... Do you need a better reason?

    Thomas and Michael Damian ThomasHenosis / short story by N. K. JemisinClearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand / short story by Fran WildeThough She Be But Little / short story by C.S.E. CooneyDown and Out in R'lyeh / novelette by Catherynne M. ValenteFandom for Robots / short story by Vina Jie-Min PrasadAt Cooney's / novelette by Delia ShermanGhost Town / short story by Malinda LoMy Voice-Over Life / essay by Sophie AldredLet Me Tell You / essay by Cecilia TanI'm Not the Only One: Why Wonder Woman Doesn't Need to Stand Alone in Order to Stand Tall / essay by Sarah KuhnResistance 101: Basics of Community Organizing for SF/F Creators and Consumers— Volume Four: "Don't Let Him Catch You With Your Work Undone"—Activism for the Long Haul / essay by Sam J. Miller and Jean RiceChangeable Skins, Consummate Catchphrases / essay by Sabrina VourvouliasToo Much Dystopia? / poem by Jo WaltonBirth, Place / poem by Brandon O'BrienA Lovesong from Frankenstein's Monster / poem by Ali TrottaThe Golem of the Gravestones / poem by Gwynne GarfinkleInterview: C. S. E. Cooney / interview by Julia RiosInterview: Delia Sherman / interview by Julia Rios

    . . serves as an excellent snapshot of modern SF.”—The Guardian We are not alone! From War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ET to Close Encounters, creators of science fiction have always eagerly speculated on just how the story of alien contact would play out. Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today's most exciting genre writers, (FEATURING STORIES BY: STEPHEN BAXTER, ORSON SCOTT CARD, CORY DOCTOROW, KAREN JOY FOWLER, NEIL GAIMAN, STEPHEN KING,URSULA K. LE GUIN, ELIZABETH MOON, PAT MURPHY, CHARLES STROSS, MICHAEL SWANWICK, HARRY TURTLEDOVE, AND MANY OTHERS) weaving a tapestry that covers a broad range of scenarios: from the insidious, to the violent, to the transcendent.

    From sinister feline mummies to ravenous zombified cars and any and all things in-between, the living dead have returned from their graves, junkyards, and even the war torn skies to haunt the lands of the living. With stories horrific, funny, and weird, Strange Afterlives has a little something for everyone who has ever wondered what terrible secrets could be lurking in that rotting tree or broken toy.Stories included in this anthology:Mouse Trouble by A. Lee MartinezAfter the Invasion by Russell C. ConnorSeated Woman with Child by Rosemary Clement-MooreRoots by Brooke FosseyThe Late Mrs. Buttons by Sally HamiltonAn Undercover Haunting by Kristi HutsonGImme Shelter by David C. Whiteman01001110 by Nik HolmanThe Runner by John BartellNight Witch by Shawn ScarberThe Scavenger Hunt by John Sanders Jr.Strange Afterlives will terrify and amuse. You may never look at a rusted automobile the same way again.

    A den of vice and illicit deeds where the law is failing and justice is fleeting. Glutted merchant-kings turn the wheels of industry, feeding the engine of war on distant worlds while the lowly dream only of survival. As the gilded prosper, hidden behind their fortress walls, the masses must find a place within the underbelly. But regardless of station, whether criminal or law-keeper, one fact remains true – this city is dirty, and no one escapes it without a little sin.For in Varangantua, there are no good men.CONTENTSAberrant by Chris WraightExit Wound by Darius HinksThe View from Olympus by Gareth HanrahanImpurities by Graham McNeillNo Use for Good Men by Guy HaleyCold Cases by Marc CollinsAgainst the Grain by Nick Kyme

    Here are seventeen short stories, including her Hugo Award-winning story "Cat Pictures Please," which is about what would happen if artificial intelligence was born out of our search engine history. Two stories are previously unpublished. Kritzer has a gift for telling stories both humorous and tender. Her stories are filled with wit and intelligence, and require thoughtful reading.

    These stories explore everything from artificial intelligence to parallel universes to video games, and each story is accompanied by an author’s note exploring the background and genesis of each story.   Howey’s incisive mind makes Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories a compulsively readable and thought-provoking selection of short works—from a modern master at the top of his game.

    When his assistant Tera recognizes the most recent waterlogged cadaver they bought off the street, though, he finds that his new body is carrying more trouble than he bargained for.