Here are smart, savvy tales of space adventure, time travel, weird science, mysterious phenomena, apocalypse and dystopia, tales that reflect the concerns of their day, yet eerily foreshadow our own. There's Successful Operation, a Twilight Zone-ish gem in which a dictator gets his just desserts...Let There Be Light, about two inventors who triumph over political corruption...and On the Slopes of Vesuvius, in which a Bomb-fearing barkeep sees his worst fears realized. -And He Built A Crooked House- tells of an architect whose innovative home design leads straight into a funhouse fourth dimension. Solution Unsatisfactory gives us a chilling alternate end to WWII, while -All You Zombies- paints a time-twisty picture of the ultimate causality paradox. All these and more, including three previously uncollected stories, Beyond Doubt, My Object All Sublime and Pied Piper, display Heinlein's creative genius to full extent.

    Her mother is reluctant. She is terrified of birds. As she rightfully should be...The Bird is a short story from The Queen of Scream. A quick and scary read, as only Willow Rose can deliver it.

    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)

    An expert on the beast.A mysterious village tucked away from the world, deep in the northern woods.Four friends from Minneapolis heading north to a rented cabin for a weekend of fun.All have a separate agenda. None are prepared for the terrifying outcome lying in wait.This novella also appears in WARPED: A Menapace Collection of Short Horror, Thriller, and Suspense Fiction

    

    The small town of Wreythville suddenly finds itself the prey of vengeful vampires when a receding lake exposes an island of graves.

    Featuring seven reprints, a brand new story "The Toll", an introduction, and rounded out by the author's recommended reading and viewing lists, DEAD LEAVES makes for the perfect autumnal read.

    That's when they came. The people who wanted to take him away...change him. Make him like them. They were more horrible than words could describe. And there was nothing he could do to stop them.Bonnie Laine watched her son in terror. Every day he changed a little, grew weaker, paler. Each night he woke up screaming "Don't let it get me!" And somehow she knew the horror was just beginning. Soon it would grow far beyond a little boy's nightmares.Shep Thomas had dedicated his life to destroying the creatures that killed his brother. And Evan was going to lead him right to their hiding place, the place they called the creche. And even though they were far fro human, he was going to send them straight to Hell!

    Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories.Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse.THE END IS NIGH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others.