Book picks similar to
Grave Decisions by Stephen R. King
horror
reading-challenge
sci-fi
short-stories
Tears of the Anaren
C.W. Longbottom - 2021
Longbottom, the Nebula Award-winning science-fiction and fantasy author and head writer of Mythic Quest. C.W. found literary fame with Inside the Caves of Beneroth and Tears of the Anaren, but even his most loyal fans don’t know that Tears of the Anaren began as a short story he wrote in the early 1970s while interning at Amazing Tales magazine.This never-before-published draft is now yours to discover, complete with C.W.’s (extremely) colorful commentary and an Introduction and Afterword by Ian Grimm, the iconoclastic creator of Mythic Quest. As sparks fly between heroic scoundrel Zeb and space seductress Merrith, we get a glimpse into the mind of a talented young man yearning for greatness. Like early Mozart, it is raw and green — but also magic.From Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney, the Apple TV+ original comedy series, Mythic Quest, goes behind the scenes to follow the game’s creators. In a workplace focused on building worlds, molding heroes, and creating legends, the most hard-fought battles don’t occur in the game — they happen in the office. Rob McElhenney stars as Ian Grimm alongside Charlotte Nicdao and F. Murray Abraham.
Sherman's Library
Ron Ripley - 2015
Sherman’s death sparks one of the wildest, weirdest adventures he’s ever had… Upon Mr. Sherman’s death, Charles learns the rich old gentleman gave away all his money, leaving only his Victorian mansion and the huge library in the house. His will clearly stipulates the new owner must keep the library intact. Of course, with Mr. Sherman being dead, how would he know or even care about the library? It isn’t until Charles buys the house and discovers someone has stolen items from the library that he understands the significance of keeping the library intact. Mr. Sherman’s letter to the new owner shares the secret of the library—every item in the library is haunted! But how can Charles ever imagine just how deadly the library keeper’s job is…or the blood bath that will follow if he fails to “protect and serve” according to Mr. Sherman’s will?
The Lakeview Man (The Lakeview Man Series Book 1)
D.A. Roberts - 2020
Trained to trust his instincts and to pay close attention to detail, his rational brain is at war with what he has seen. Something very strange is happening in rural Sloan County, Missouri. Nothing in his experience has prepared him for anything like this. More disappearances only make the mystery deepen as the Sheriff tries to cover up what's really going on. Clark enlists the aid of other deputies who, like himself, have seen things that don't make sense. Things that aren't real. Or are they?A creature from our primordial nightmares has found its hunting grounds in the rural Ozarks, along the shores of Table Rock Lake. The closer they get to finding the creature, the more pressure they get to stay out of the investigation. Pressure from the sheriff and mysterious F.B.I. Agents who know more than they will admit. Soon, Clark learns that the creature he's been hunting has been hunting him as well. The ultimate battle of man versus beast is about to take place in the Ozarks. Can Clark defeat a beast from out of our nightmares or will the creature claim yet another victim?Can anything stop The Lakeview Man?
The Prison
Amy Cross - 2014
Now the prison is being re-opened, but as a new generation of prisoners arrive to fill the cells, something evil is waiting in the shadows. Amanda Weir doesn't remember killing her children. All she knows is that she woke up with their bloody bodies in her arms. Sentenced to life in prison, she arrives at Hardstone and tries to adjust to her new life. All she wants is to forget her old self, and to find some way to live with what she did. After all, there's no way she could be innocent... There's something else at Hardstone, however. Something lost and alone, something angry. The ghost of a little girl has been spotted several times, and the prisoners have learned a valuable lesson: whenever the ghost is seen, anyone who looks into its eyes will be dead within a matter of days. But what does the ghost want, and exactly how far has its influence spread in the lives of the prisoners? The Prison is a dark horror story about a woman who finds herself facing the truth about her own past, and about a dead little girl who refuses to accept that her life is over.
SNAFU: Future Warfare
Geoff BrownSteve Lewis - 2016
See far-flung worlds, they said. Meet interesting creatures, and kill them all. Soldiers fighting aliens in unforgiving landscapes, where every breath could be their last. Featuring stories by Weston Ochse, Mike Resnick, and others. From near-future to far-future, featuring some of the best writers working in the field today.
Nineteen Ghost Stories of M.R. James to Keep You Up at Night: 3 Volumes
M.R. James - 2009
R. James is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. One of James' most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal gothic trappings of his predecessors, and replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.According to James, a story must "put the reader into the position of saying to himself: 'If I'm not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!'"
Guest Of Honor: A Novelette
Mark S.R. Peterson - 2013
Parties, booze, boys--you name it, she does it. Her parents don't care what she does, and when she is home they ignore her. Their attitude started over a year ago when Megan's older brother was tragically killed in a car accident. Then, when her parents die on the same road that took her brother, Megan decides to start over and move far away. She auctions off her parents' property, a country home in northwestern Minnesota, and heads down to the Twin Cities. Megan knows hitchhiking is dangerous, but lately has become a way of life. And this time is no different. She gets picked up by Bart Simms, an attorney from Minneapolis, who agrees to take her where she needs to go. But only after he conducts a bit of estate planning business. The Engels are a farming family who live not far from Megan's old place. They revel peacefully in their secluded backwoods sanctuary, and have a strong desire to keep as much of the government away from their family's farming legacy. Hence the reason they sought the impecable skills of Bart Simms, who has a deep reputation for saving many family farms from unwanted death and estate taxes. But Megan has a problem with the Engels. She has never heard of them, and she's lived in the area all of her life. When she explores their home, she finds more that is out of sorts. She discovers a picture of a teenage girl. A girl who resembles that of a recent murder victim from Minneapolis. Is there more to this backwoods family than meets the eye? This suspenseful story was inspired by the gruesome real-life tales of Ed Gein and the Master of Horror himself Stephen King. Also included in this are two bonus materials: a serial killer short story titled "Hatchet Harry" and an excerpt of Mark S. R. Peterson's thriller novel (published August 2013) titled BEHOLDER'S EYE.
Stephen King The Dark Tower The Long Road Home #4
Peter David
And for the last of the line of Eld there may be no way out. Meanwhile, on Mid-World, Alain and Cuthbert desperately struggle to protect Roland's unconscious form, and themselves, against a pack of ravening wolves.
The Variant
John August - 2009
But when a terrified woman falls through his bathroom ceiling, he's forced back into a life of gunfights, double agents and paranormal research. The secret he's been keeping for nearly four decades might reunite him with his lost love, or kill millions.This new short story by John August falls into the genre of paranoid "spy-fi" popularized by writers like Jorge Luis Borges and shows like The Prisoner and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.== What Others Say =="I really dug the story. Gave it a glance just to see, got totally hooked, and blazed on through to the end."-- Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union) "The Variant" is both a good, fun, smart story and an interesting experiment in indie self-publishing for fiction."-- John Gruber, daringfireball.net== About the Author ==An excerpt of The Variant is available at johnaugust.com/variant About the AuthorJohn August is the screenwriter of eight feature films, including Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. He wrote and directed the 2007 movie The Nines.He can be found on Twitter, @johnaugust
The Birds & Don't Look Now
Daphne du Maurier - 1997
These two stories are perhaps even better known as films (The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock and Don't Look Now by Nic Roeg), but here we bring you the full terrifying texts, superbly read by Peter Capaldi, who brings the true dimension of these works to the imagination.
Bedlam Boy: The Forger & The Traitor
Ian W. Sainsbury - 2020
Sainsbury. Two short, punchy, action-packed episodes in each book.They murdered his parents, shot him in the head, and left him to die. They should have made sure.Twenty years after Tom Lewis watched his parents die, those responsible are being killed. One by one.Gentle, brain-damaged Tom, a giant of a man who can barely speak, can’t be responsible for their deaths. Can he?When Tom Lewis was shot, something new was created. Something unique. Something deadly. Something patient enough to plan revenge for twenty long years.Meet Bedlam Boy
Slice and Dice
Jeff Strand - 2021
Desperate to win back his father’s approval, the boy hatches a plan involving his father’s love of slasher films. If the boy can become a real-life slasher right out of the movies, it just might be an opportunity to make his father proud again, no matter what the cost.In Iain Rob Wright’s “The Reckoning,” the year is 2035 and people live inside their individual worlds. Amelie’s ‘pod’ is a marvel of tech-centric existence, taking care of her every need. But when a serial killer that the press have named ’The Reckoning’ comes calling for Amelie, her futuristic living space turns deadly.In William Malmborg's "Billy's Blade," a budding serial killer bites off more than he can chew when he tries to stab Stacy Collins to death on the Prairie Path. A ruthless investigative journalist, Stacy goes on the offensive, goading the killer with unflattering articles, all in hopes of sparking a second encounter. Will Billy and Stacy meet again?Jeff Strand’s “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” recounts the grisly events surrounding the terrible slasher flick THE ROOFER, remembered only because an obsessed fan tried to reenact the murders as they played out on the screen. When the same theater shows the film twenty years later, will the warnings that this is a really, really bad idea be justified?
Bombardier - The Complete Series
S.D. Tanner - 2016
Ark is the Commander of the Bombardiers, the transformed soldiers working as the United Guild's army in space. Two hundred years earlier, aliens used mankind's own DNA to destroy Earth. Now, the Bombardiers hunt for the enemy aliens, destroying them wherever they are. Book One: Tyranny Ark is preparing to take over the Bombardier army. Traveling with his mentor, Tank, he discovers the Guild is committing genocide against any planet with even a hint of enemy DNA. Learning he is part of a tyrannical empire, he must decide whether to start a war against Earth. Book Two: Treason Armed with advanced weapons and ships, Ark finds out Dunk hasn't been idle. Hopelessly outnumbered, Bombardiers take on the Navigator fleet with devastating consequences. An epic space war begins. Book Three: Empire Both sides have made a mistake by forgetting their true enemy. Earth is once again under attack, but Ark is in another galaxy looking for a solution. The true face of the enemy aliens is revealed, proving they have all been taken for fools. Bombardier is an epic fight for control of the universe, filled with alien species, cool technology and politics.
Also by SD Tanner
Books in Bombardier Bombardier Trilogy Books in Navigator Enemy Lines Blind Sighted Killer Edge Broken Arrow Navigator Boxset (Books 1-4) The Hunter Wars series Books in Hunter Wars Eve of the Hunter Wars Heaven Meets Hell Army of Angels Gift from God Right to Rule Call to War Books in Eden Lost Trilogy Hidden Evil Dead Alive Divine Death Standalone Books Time to Die Twisted Daze Website: http://www.sdtanner.com Twitter: @SDTanner1
The Day the Tide Kept Rising
Greg Jefferys - 2015
A thrilling tale filled with action, adventure, intrigue and a pleasant pinch of romance the story is set primarily in Antarctica, Tasmania and on the east coast of Australia. The book follows the lives of four different people in their struggles to survive after a huge tsunami, caused by the massive Ross Shelf icesheet sliding off Antarctica and into the Southern Ocean, sweeps across the Pacific. The tsunami leaves a trail of death and destruction after which the water levels of Earth's oceans begin to rise rapidly causing cataclysmic disaster as well as massive political and social upheaval. As cities and nations are flooded the fabric of civilisation is torn as groups and individuals struggle for survival in a terrifying new world. The three parallel story lines are exciting, predictive and thought provoking. The author has degrees archaeology and history with a particular interest in the effects of the end of the last Ice Age on the humans of 8,000 B.C. He has transposed known archaeological information on rapid sea level rises onto the modern world to create an exciting, informative and relevant novel that attempts to answer the question of what would really happen to you and I if the Earth's sea levels rose more than six meters. The stories. Katherine Brown is a climatologist based on Antarctica, when the Ross Iceshelf shatters and slides into the ocean she and her team must traverse the rapidly changing Antarctic terrain to reach the relative safety of a base camp at Cape Colbeck; only a few will survive the trek through ice and mud and snow. Peter Taylor and his family survived the first wave but not the second. Alone and homeless he is forced to scavenge in flooded supermarkets for food and avoid roving gangs of bandits that quickly establish themselves as social norms disintegrate to be replaced by anarchy. He meets a mysterious and alluring woman, who, like himself, finds herself thriving in the post apocalypse world. Jeremy Jones is an archaeologist with a particular interest in Paleo- climatology. He is fired from his prestigious position at the Queensland University for predicting massive sea level rises even as his predictions, and much worse, come true. Karen Whitaker had been partying with girlfriends when the first tsunami tore through Hobart. Trapped overnight in the remains of a collapsed building, she emerged to discover a ruined city strewn with the bodies of the dead, the dying and the injured. Living in a refugee camp she does what she must to make the best of the new world.