ClubA Washington Post Notable BookAn NPR Great Read of 2013From the author of the novel Swamplandia!—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—comes a magical and uniquely daring collection of stories that showcases the author’s gifts at their inimitable best. Within these pages, a community of girls held captive in a Japanese silk factory slowly transmute into human silkworms and plot revolution; a group of boys stumble upon a mutilated scarecrow that bears an uncanny resemblance to a missing classmate that they used to torment; a family’s disastrous quest for land in the American West has grave consequences; and in the marvelous title story, two vampires in a sun-drenched lemon grove try to slake their thirst for blood and come to terms with their immortal relationship.Vampires in the lemon grove --Reeling for the Empire --Seagull army descends on Strong Beach, 1979 --Proving up --Barn at the end of our term --Dougbert Shackleton's rules for Antarctic tailgating --New veterans --Graveless doll of Eric Mutis

    He has guided us through the depths of our imagination to places we never would have ventured alone. Now, in Blood and Smoke, he takes us inside a world of yearning and paranoia, isolation and addiction. It is the world of the smoker.In this audio-only collection, the now politically incorrect habit plays a key role in the fates of three different men in three unabridged stories of unfiltered suspense.In, "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," Steve Davis is suffering through intense withdrawal -- from both nicotine and his wife. His desperation for a cigarette and for his ex are almost too much to bear, but that's nothing compared to the horrors that await him at a trendy Manhattan restaurant.In, "1408," Mike Enslin, bestselling author of true ghost stories, decides to spend the night in New York City's most haunted hotel room. But he must live to write about it without the help of his ex best-friends, his trusty smokes.And in, "In the Deathroom," a man named Fletcher is held captive in a South American stronghold. His captors will use any tortuous means necessary to extract the information they want from him. His only hope lies with his last request -- one last cigarette, please.A cartonfull of chills and thrills, Blood and Smoke is classic Stephen King. The most mesmerizing storyteller of our time is at his inventive and compelling best.Read by the AuthorAlthough, Blood and Smoke has only been published as an audiobook, the stories themselves can be found in Stephen King's publication of, "Everything's Eventual."4 Audio CDs / 3 Hours 30 mins (Approx)~

    With Buckley Township in his sights, Jonathan Healy is finally going home.The trouble is, home for him isn't home for Fran, who grew up in the desert, never lived under a fixed roof for more than a week at a time, and has no idea what to expect. To make matters worse, Jonathan's parents—Enid and Alexander Healy, late of the Covenant of St. George—are right on hand to make things more awkward for everyone.With her future on the line, it's time for Frances Brown to make one of the biggest decisions of her life. Does she stay in Buckley Township and try to make a life with the Healys? Or does she saddle up her horse and ride back into the sunset?

     And yet, there is an attraction, undeniable, to the vampire archetype, whether the pale European count, impeccably dressed and coldly masculine, yet strangely ambiguous, ready to sink his sharp teeth deep into his victims' necks, draining or converting them, or the vamp, the count's feminine counterpart, villain and victim in one, using her wiles and icy sexuality to corrupt man and woman alike... Edited and introduced by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams (Wastelands, The Living Dead), By Blood We Live gathers together the best vampire literature from the preceding three decades, authored by many of today's most renowned writers of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror. Contents: (Author, title (type, year of first publication, beginning page in print edition))01 - Neil Gaiman, Snow, Glass, Apples (short story, 1995, p3)02 - Anne Rice, The Master of Rampling Gate (novelette, 1984, p13)03 - Harry Turtledove, Under St. Peter's (novelette, 2007, p33)04 - Tad Williams, Child of an Ancient City (novelette, 1988, p43)05 - Michael A. Burstein, Lifeblood (novelette, 2003, p75)06 - Barbara Roden, Endless Night (short story, 2008, p88)07 - Garth Nix, Infestation (novelette, 2008, p106)08 - Carrie Vaughn, Life Is the Teacher (short story, 2008, p120)09 - Nancy Kilpatrick, The Vechi Barbat (short story, 2007, p134)10 - Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Beautiful, The Damned (short story, 1995, p148) 11 - David Wellington, Pinecones (short story, 2006, p161)12 - Norman Partridge, Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu (novelette, 1994, p165)13 - Sergei Lukyanenko, Foxtrot at High Noon (short story, 2008, p180)14 - Michael Marshall Smith, This Is Now (short story, 2004, p189)15 - Nancy Holder, Blood Gothic (short story, 1985, p199)16 - Jane Yolen, Mama Gone (short story, 1991, p204)17 - Joe Hill, Abraham's Boys (short story, 2004, p209)18 - Tanith Lee, Nunc Dimittis (novelette, 1983, p224)19 - Gabriela Lee, Hunger (short story, 2007, p240)20 - Caitlín R. Kiernan, Ode to Edvard Munch (short story, 2006, p250)21 - L.A. Banks, Finders Keepers (short story, 2008, p256)22 - Brian Stableford, After the Stone Age (short story, 2004, p275)23 - Kevin J. Anderson, Much at Stake (short story, 1991, p286)24 - Elizabeth Bear, House of the Rising Sun (short story, 2005, p297)25 - Lilith Saintcrow, A Stand-Up Dame (short story, 2008, p302)26 - Kelley Armstrong, Twilight (novelette, 2007, p316)27 - Eric Van Lustbader, In Darkness, Angels (novelette, 1983, p333)28 - Barbara Hambly, Sunrise on Running Water (novelette, 2007, p355)29 - Bruce McAllister, Hit (short story, 2008, p372)30 - Ken MacLeod, Undead Again (short story, 2005, p385)31 - Robert J. Sawyer, Peking Man (short story, 1996, p388)32 - Ben Lumley, Necros (short story, 1986, p396)33 - Catherynne M. Valente, Exsanguinations: A Handbook for the Educated Vampire by Anna S. Oppenhagen-Petrescu (short story, 2005, p409)34 - Charles Coleman Finlay, Lucy, In Her Splendor (short story, 2003, p415)35 - John Langan, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky (short story, 2009, p426)36 - Stephen King, One for the Road (short story, 1977, p464)37 - Ross E. Lockhart, For Further Reading (By Blood We Live) (essay, 2008, p477)

    P. Lovecraft. Despite this nearly unprecedented posthumous trajectory, at the time of his death at the age of forty-six, Lovecraft's work had appeared only in dime-store magazines, ignored by the public and maligned by critics. Now well over a century after his birth, Lovecraft is increasingly being recognized as the foundation for American horror and science fiction, the source of "incalculable influence on succeeding generations of writers of horror fiction" (Joyce Carol Oates).In this volume, Leslie S. Klinger reanimates Lovecraft with clarity and historical insight, charting the rise of the erstwhile pulp writer, whose rediscovery and reclamation into the literary canon can be compared only to that of Poe or Melville. Weaving together a broad base of existing scholarship with his own original insights, Klinger appends Lovecraft's uncanny oeuvre and Kafkaesque life story in a way that provides context and unlocks many of the secrets of his often cryptic body of work.Over the course of his career, Lovecraft―"the Copernicus of the horror story" (Fritz Leiber)―made a marked departure from the gothic style of his predecessors that focused mostly on ghosts, ghouls, and witches, instead crafting a vast mythos in which humanity is but a blissfully unaware speck in a cosmos shared by vast and ancient alien beings. One of the progenitors of "weird fiction," Lovecraft wrote stories suggesting that we share not just our reality but our planet, and even a common ancestry, with unspeakable, godlike creatures just one accidental revelation away from emerging from their epoch of hibernation and extinguishing both our individual sanity and entire civilization.Following his best-selling The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S. Klinger collects here twenty-two of Lovecraft's best, most chilling "Arkham" tales, including "The Call of Cthulhu," At the Mountains of Madness, "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Colour Out of Space," and others. With nearly 300 illustrations, including full-color reproductions of the original artwork and covers from Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, and more than 1,000 annotations, this volume illuminates every dimension of H. P. Lovecraft and stirs the Great Old Ones in their millennia of sleep.

    There need be no monsters for us to be terrified in the dark, but if there are, they are just as often human and supernatural. Join us in this outstanding annual exploration of the year's best dark fiction that includes stories of quiet fear, the utterly fantastic, the weirdly surreal, atmospheric noir, mysterious hauntings, seductive nightmares, and frighteningly plausible futures. Featuring thirty-five tales from masterful authors and talented new writers sure to make you reconsider walking in the shadows alone...Instructions for Use • Paula GuranNo Ghosts in London • Helen MarshallFake Plastic Trees • Caitlín R KiernanThe Natural History of Autumn • Jeffrey FordGreat-Grandmother in the Cellar • Peter S. BeagleRenfrew’s Course • John LanganEnd of White • Ekaterina SediaWho is Arvid Pekon? • Karin TidbeckIphigenia in Aulis • Mike CareySlaughterhouse Blues • Tim LebbonEngland Under the White Witch • Theodora GossThe Sea of Trees • Rachel SwirskyThe Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury • Neil GaimanThe Education of a Witch • Ellen KlagesWelcome to the Reptile House • Stephen Graham JonesGlamour of Madness • Peter BellBigfoot on Campus • Jim ButcherEverything Must Go • Brooke WondersNightside Eye • Terry DowlingEscena de un Asesinato • Robert HoodGood Hunting • Ken LiuGo Home Again • Simon StrantzasThe Bird Country • K. M. FerebeeSinking Among Lilies • Cory SkerryDown in the Valley • Joseph BruchacArmless Maidens of the American West • Genevieve ValentineBlue Lace Agate • Sarah MonetteThe Eyes of Water • Alison LittlewoodThe Tall Grass • Joe R. LansdaleGame • Maria Dahvana HeadleyPearls • Priya SharmaForget You • Marc LaidlawWhen Death Wakes Me to Myself • John ShirleyDahlias • Melanie TemBedtime Stories for Yasmin • Robert ShearmanHand of Glory • Laird Barron

    Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is filled with subtle shades of gray. Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R.R. Martin himself offers a brand-new A Game of Thrones tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire history of Ice and Fire.Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, and Connie Willis, as well as other masters of literary sleight-of-hand, in this rogues gallery of stories that will plunder your heart — and yet leave you all the richer for it.Contents:- Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie (a Red Country story)- What Do You Do? (aka The Grownup) by Gillian Flynn- The Inn of the Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes- Bent Twig by Joe R. Lansdale (a Hap and Leonard story)- Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick- Provenance by David Ball- The Roaring Twenties by Carrie Vaughn- A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch- Bad Brass by Bradley Denton- Heavy Metal by Cherie Priest- The Meaning of Love by Daniel Abraham- A Better Way to Die by Paul Cornell (a Jonathan Hamilton story)- Ill Seen in Tyre by Steven Saylor- A Cargo of Ivories by Garth Nix (a Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz story)- Diamonds From Tequila by Walter Jon Williams (a Dagmar story)- The Caravan to Nowhere by Phyllis Eisenstein (a Tales of Alaric the Minstrel story)- The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives by Lisa Tuttle- How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman (a Neverwhere story)- Now Showing by Connie Willis- The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss (a Kingkiller Chronicle story)- The Rogue Prince, or, A King’s Brother by George R.R. Martin (a Song of Ice and Fire story)

    Brought together in this volume, these stories represent an unprecedented accomplishment in American literature. In their iconoclasm and needle-sharp irony, their formal and thematic ingenuity and element of surprise, they differ markedly from the fiction admired in Bierce's time. Readers familiar with the classic An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge will want to turn to Bierce's other Civil War stories. Also included here are his horror stories, among them The Death of Halpin Frayser and The Damned Thing, and such tall tales as Oil of Dog and A Cargo of Cat.

    Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including: Neal Asher, Stephen Baxter, Damien Broderick, Karl Bunker, Aliette de Bodard, Brendan DuBois, Greg Egan, Alexander Jablokov, James Patrick Kelly, Jake Kerr, Nancy Kress, Jay Lake, Ken Liu, Ian R. MacLeod, Paul J. McAuley, Ian McDonald, Sandra McDonald, Sean McMullen, Sunny Moraine, Val Nolan, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Geoff Ryman, Melissa Scott, Martin L. Shoemaker, Allen M. Steele, Michael Swanwick, Lavie Tidhar, and Carrie Vaughn.Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book both a valuable resource and the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination, and the heart.Content: “The Discovered Country” by Ian R. MacLeod “The Book Seller” by Lavie Tidhar “Pathways” by Nancy Kress “A Heap of Broken Images” by Sunny Moraine “Rock of Ages” by Jay Lake “Rosary and Goldenstar” by Geoff Ryman “Gray Wings” by Karl Bunker “The Best We Can” by Carrie Vaughn “Transitional Forms” by Paul McAuley “Precious Mental” by Robert Reed “Martian Blood” by Allen M. Steele “Zero For Conduct” by Greg Egan “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard “A Map of Mercury” by Alastair Reynolds “One” by Nancy Kress “Murder on the Aldrin Express” by Martin L. Shoemaker “Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince” by Jake Kerr “The Plague” by Ken Liu “Fleet” by Sandra McDonald “The She-Wolf’s Hidden Grin” by Michael Swanwick “Bad Day on Boscobel” by Alexander Jablokov “The Irish Astronaut” by Val Nolan “The Other Gun” by Neal Asher “Only Human” by Lavie Tidhar “Entangled” by Ian R. MacLeod “Earth 1″ by Stephen Baxter “Technarion” by Sean McMullen “Finders” by Melissa Scott “The Queen of Night’s Aria” by Ian McDonald “Hard Stars” by Brendan DuBois “The Promise of Space” by James Patrick Kelly “Quicken” by Damien Broderick

    They have become the monsters that best express the anxieties and fears of the modern west. This collection gathers together zombie works by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Poppy Z. Brite, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale. These brilliant minds, and The Living Dead, cover the many types of zombie fiction. 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.

    There is clearly something amiss since the commuter exhibits a disconcerting tendency to literally vanish on close questioning about this ephemeral town. However, based on the information the manager manages to extract from the commuter, he undertakes an investigation and so boards the train the commuter swears is scheduled to stop at the town. Lo and behold, the station manager arrives at the non-existent town and further puzzling adventures ensue.

    Sprague de Camp77 • The Flight of the Horse • [Svetz] • (1969) • shortstory by Larry Niven (aka Get a Horse!)96 • On the Downhill Side • (1972) • shortstory by Harlan Ellison116 • The Night of the Unicorn • (1975) • shortstory by Thomas Burnett Swann124 • Mythological Beast • (1979) • shortstory by Stephen R. Donaldson149 • The Final Quarry • (1970) • novelette by Eric Norden176 • Elfleda • (1981) • shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre193 • The White Donkey • (1980) • shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin198 • Unicorn Variation • (1981) • novelette by Roger Zelazny231 • The Sacrifice • (1982) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois236 • The Unicorn • (1952) • shortstory by Frank Owen247 • The Woman the Unicorn Loved • [Anderson] • (1981) • novelette by Gene Wolfe271 • The Forsaken • (1982) • shortstory by Beverly Evans286 • The Unicorn • (1939) • shortfiction by T. H. White307 • Selected Bibliography (Unicorns!) • (1982) • essay by uncredited

    Most often the realm of male authors writing about male vampires, over the last century the genre has seen a refreshing swing toward authors of both sexes exploring the other side of the vampiric gender—the women of the night.The sixteen stories collected within these pages are among the very best of their kind, from many of the best fantasy and horror authors writing today. From an encounter with a predatory spouse in a New England storm to a continuation of the Dracula story featuring a completely different tale of love, longing and loss, these stories explore both what it is to be female, human—and vampire, and often all at the same time.The selected stories include: "One for the Road" by Stephen King. The regulars at Tookey’s Bar know better than to wander around Jerusalem’s Lot—especially at night. But when a husband needs help during a snowstorm, they travel into the heart of the blizzard ... and an encounter with pure evil. <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /> "Sister Death" by Jane Yolen. Even the heart of a millennia-old vampire who accompanies the Angel of Death on his appointed rounds can be swayed by the yearning look of a young child. "Queen of the Night" by Gene Wolfe. The lady in white came for the boy in the dead of night, spiriting him away to her dark castle, wherehe would experience such things that would change his life forever... "Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu" by Norman Partridge. The real story of what happened after the events of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula is told against the vast, wild Texas frontier, as one of Dracula’s hunters returns home to claim everything that is his ... including his one true love.  With stories by:Stephen King    *      Neil Gaiman    *     Eric Van Lustbader    *     Philip K. Dick    *   Nina Kiriki Hoffman    *     Kristine Kathryn Rusch     *     Nancy Holder    *    Tanith Lee    *    Gene Wolfe    *    P. D. Cacek    *    Jane Yolen    *    Susan Shwartz    *   Tanya Huff    *    Esther M. Friesner    *    Roxanne Longstreet    *    Norman Partridge

    Feist's Riftwar Saga is the setting of the tale of "The Wood Boy."

    Each short story cultivates a whimsical sense of imagination and reveals a mature, darker voice than previously experienced from this legendary author. In one tale the Angel of Death enjoys newfound celebrity while moonlighting as an anchorman on the network news, while in another the shortsighted ruler of a gentle realm betrays himself in dreaming of a "manageable war." Further storylines include an American librarian who discovers that, much to his surprise and sadness, he is the last living Frenchman, and rivals in a supernatural battle who decide to forgo pistols at dawn, choosing instead to duel with dramatic recitations of terrible poetry. Featuring several previously unpublished stories alongside a bevy of recently released works, this haunting compilation is appealing to both genre readers and mainstream literature lovers.Includes "By Moonlight," Locus Award-winner for Best Novelette.