Face haunting new worlds filled with paranormal creatures and breathtaking romance. Journey with beautiful beasts, sexy-as-sin vampires, soul-searing demigods, shadowy necromancers, and unlikely heroes as they fall in love and battle for good in this collection of fantasy adventures. Will they survive the shadow’s call? There’s only one way to find out. Fans of Jim Butcher and Ilona Andrews will get lost in this heart-pounding magical collection of 25 tales from today’s USA Today bestsellers and talented new authors. One-Click today to summon your copy and see if you can survive the night.Featuring stories from... USA Today bestselling author Heather Marie Adkins USA Today bestselling author Lori Titus USA Today bestselling author Normandie Alleman USA Today bestselling author Nicole Morgan USA Today bestelling author and RITA Award Winner Sharon Ashwood Emerald Dodge S.A. McClure Anna Applegate Tamar Sloan Bella Andrews Claire Davon Robert Jeschonek Candace Sams & Angelique Armae McKayla Schutt Julie Kramer Jenny Foster Michele Barrow-Belisle Adrienne Blake Dani Rene & Cora Kenborn JT Lawrence D.C. Gomez Sabrina Ramoth Stefan Lear & E.M. Whittaker Calliope Bay New York Times Best Selling author Rebecca Hamilton

    Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: Ellen Hopkins Amanda Hocking Julie Kagawa Claudia Gray Rachel Hawkins Kimberly Derting Myra McEntire Malinda Lo Sarah Rees-Brennan Jackson Pearce Christine Johnson Jeri Smith Ready Shaun David Hutchinson Saundra Mitchell Sonia Gensler Tessa Gratton Jon Skrovon

    The story Pages from a Young Girl's Journal won Aickman the World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1973 before appearing in this collection.Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story (Pages from a Young Girl's Journal) but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.• The Swords • The Real Road to the Church • Niemandswasser • Pages from a Young Girl's Journal• The Hospice • The Same Dog • Meeting Mr. Millar • The Clock Watcher

    We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, a man-made virus taking over bodies and minds, filling them with one, unstoppable command...FEED.Countdown"Everglades"San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California BrowncoatsHow Green This Land, How Blue This SeaThe Day the Dead Came to Show and TellPlease Do Not Taunt the OctopusAll the Pretty Little HorsesComing to You Live

    Kevin Brockmeier's fiction has always explored the space between the fantastical and the everyday with profundity and poignancy. As in his previous books, The Ghost Variations discovers new ways of looking at who we are and what matters to us, exploring how mysterious, sad, strange, and comical it is to be alive--or, as it happens, not to be.

    From the ancient stone corridors of the labyrinth to the graffitied alleyways of the contemporary metropolis, they stalk the shadows. Leering from the darkness of the forest, jostling for space in our closets, they walk, crawl, creep and scuttle through our nightmares. Close as the clutter under the bed or the other side of the mirror, they are our truest companions.Creatures features the best monster fiction from the past thirty years, offering a wide variety of the best monster stories including original stories from the field's most relevant names and hottest newcomers including Clive Barker, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Kelly Link, China Miéville, and Cherie Priest.

    The cat is not only dead, but it appears to be some kind of improbable mutant: a cat with wings. The cat initially complicates Joe’s life as he hides it from his family, but he soon learns that more may be at stake than he realized. Little does he know, a battle for good and evil, between Heaven and Hell, is about to be fought in his garage.A RADIOACTIVE MONKEYThat bartender you really like, well, she just whipped up a potent cocktail called a “Radioactive Monkey.” Would you drink it? (Hint: you shouldn’t.) Jonny Stoops, however, decided to take the plunge. (Hint: it doesn't end well.)PRODUCT PLACEMENTImagine one morning you wake up and you discover that the world is now home to products you don’t recognize but everyone else does. Flix candy bars? Jack Kenny whiskey? Burrito Hut? Donnie’s never heard of these brands, but those around him say such products are beloved and have been here for years. Donnie’s quest to discover the truth – and prove he’s not nuts – reveals a marketing and advertising scheme not of this dimension.THIS GUY"Every day, I catch him before he makes it to the China Skillet... I drag him into the alleyway, and I beat him with a tire iron. Sometimes, I stab him with a kitchen knife. I do this every day. I think it's starting to affect me." Every day is the same for the protagonist: get up, drive to work, and on the way there, beat some zombie to death. Next day? Zombie’s back. It would take a toll on one’s sanity, wouldn’t it?MISTER MHU’S PUSSY SHOWNolan seeks untold pleasures, but never finds them: not until now, when he becomes swiftly obsessed with Tasanee, a Bangkok dancer at a hole-in-the-wall club. He is driven to pursue her at any cost, but what he finds at the end of his obsession is not pleasure, but pain.LETHE AND MNEMOSYNEOld age wreaks havoc on the body and mind, and in this flash fiction that has been never more apparent than when a senile old man’s children exhort him to remember the means by which he controlled the giant chicken wreaking havoc back home.THE AUCTIONBenjamin’s father shows his son the secret behind his job: he is a buyer and seller of very forbidden things, magical things, objects of a fantastical purview. He takes his son to “The Auction,” a place where anything can be bought and sold: mythological creatures, insane machines, haunted and horrific artifacts. Benjamin is lead astray by a religious man with pious words but sinister intent. When Benjamin encounters a sickly mermaid on the auction block, can the boy step in and avert disaster?BEWARE OF OWNERA short story of how father teaches son: Dad teaches the boy that you don’t need to beware of a dog, but you damn well better beware of owner.DO-OVERS AND TAKE-BACKSTaye and Beau are two characters from two different worlds: the first a boy in the city projects, the second a rich man with a hollow life and an estranged family. But a bizarre figure steps in as catalyst – an inhuman “Rag-Man” appears and draws connections between the two characters that could not have existed before.

    Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including: Neal Asher, Paolo Bacigalupi, Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Bear, Chris Beckett, David Gerrold, Dominic Green, Daryl Gregory, Joe Haldeman, Gwyneth Jones, james patrick Kelly, Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold, Ken MacLeod, Ian McDonald, Vonda N. McIntyre, David Moles, Steven Popkes, Hannu Rajaniemi, Alastair Rynolds, Robert Reed, Christ Roberson, Mary Rosenblum, William Sanders, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, Harry Turtledove, Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy, Liz Williams, and Gene Wolfe.Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and 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.Contents xi • Acknowledgments (The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-Third Annual Collection) • essay by Gardner Dozoisxiii • Summation: 2005 • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • The Little Goddess • [India 2047] • (2005) • novella by Ian McDonald32 • The Calorie Man • [The Windup Universe] • (2005) • novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi55 • Beyond the Aquila Rift • (2005) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds81 • Second Person, Present Tense • (2005) • novelette by Daryl Gregory98 • The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Back From the Stars • (2005) • shortstory by Ruth Nestvold and Jay Lake (aka The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Home From the Stars)115 • Triceratops Summer • (2005) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick125 • Camouflage • [The Great Ship Universe] • (2005) • novella by Robert Reed171 • A Case of Consilience • (2005) • shortstory by Ken MacLeod181 • The Blemmye's Strategem • (2005) • novelette by Bruce Sterling205 • Amba • (2005) • novelette by William Sanders229 • Search Engine • (2005) • novelette by Mary Rosenblum244 • Piccadilly Circus • (2005) • shortstory by Chris Beckett258 • In the Quake Zone • (2005) • novella by David Gerrold331 • La Malcontenta • (2005) • shortstory by Liz Williams338 • The Children of Time • (2005) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter350 • Little Faces • (2005) • novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre376 • Comber • (2005) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe384 • Audubon in Atlantis • [Lost Continent of Atlantis] • (2005) • novella by Harry Turtledove422 • Deus Ex Homine • (2005) • shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi433 • The Great Caruso • (2005) • shortstory by Steven Popkes447 • Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck • [Polity Universe] • (2005) • novelette by Neal Asher465 • Zima Blue • (2005) • shortstory by Alastair Reynolds481 • Planet of the Amazon Women • (2005) • novelette by David Moles503 • The Clockwork Atom Bomb • (2005) • shortstory by Dominic Green518 • Gold Mountain • [Celestial Empire] • (2005) • shortstory by Chris Roberson532 • The Fulcrum • (2005) • novelette by Gwyneth Jones554 • Mayfly • (2005) • shortstory by Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy565 • Two Dreams on Trains • (2005) • shortstory by Elizabeth Bear571 • Angel of Light • (2005) • shortstory by Joe Haldeman578 • Burn • (2005) • novella by James Patrick Kelly651 • Honorable Mentions: 2005 • essay by Gardner Dozois

    Some of the stories are inspired by true events and some are inspired by ideas of my dear readers! Find out which ones inside this scary collection."BABYSITTER"Rachel was just a regular teenager living a normal life, when the new, rich family moved into town. They had 2 children and were looking for a babysitter. She thought it would be a nice way to get some money. What was in store for her, however, was a bloody and shocking night to remember."DARK SIDE"Selene and Damien seemed like a normal couple, but Damien started to act weirdly and spent a lot of time in his price room where he did his job. Damien was an artist and needed his private area. What was Damien actually doing in his private room was more terrifying than Selene could ever have imagined."THE CURSE OF HERNANDEZ"A newly married couple found the perfect home to call their own. While cleaning out the upstairs attic the husband discovers an old suitcase. Upon opening, they find the remains of documents and papers with their last name on them- Hernandez. Strange, but they decided to ignore it and throw the suitcase away. They should have never done this because that is when strange things started to happen.

    It also includes a six-page introduction by Simak, and a three-page bibliography of his science fiction books. The book is edited by Angus Wells.Contents:1. A Death in the House2. Day of Truce 3. Final Gentleman4. Madness from Mars5. Shotgun Cure6. Small Deer7. Sunspot Purge8. The Autumn Land9. The Sitters10. The Thing in the Stone

    Worse yet, the steriods are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate! She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town  . . . and stay hormonally human.