Here you’ll discover the dangers of walking the boulevards dreamed up by Harlan Ellison … the dark side of wishes granted by Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Djinn Number Seven … the wry twists of Rick Norwood’s wordplay … the sinister shadows lurking behind H. P. Lovecraft’s wonders … and the blood-curdling terror of feeding time at James Gunn’s zoo.This superb collection of the best short short works by outstanding contemporary writers packs an infinite amount of entertainment into these 100 small masterpieces of fantasy fiction… and takes you beyond the limits of time and space to savor the suspense, the shivers, the supernatural fun of every eerie, unforgettable one.Contents: Introduction: The widest field / Isaac Asimov — The Abraham Lincoln murder case / Rick Norwood — A dozen of everything / Marion Zimmer Bradley — The anatomy lesson / Scott Sanders — And I alone am escaped to tell thee / Roger Zelazny — Angelica / Jane Yolen — Apocryphal fragment / Edward Wellen — A prophecy of monsters / Clark Ashton Smith — At the bureau / Steve Rasnic Tem — Aunt Agatha / Doris Pitkin Buck — The Boulevard of Broken Dreams / Harlan Ellison — But not the herald / Roger Zelazny — Chained / Barry N. Malzberg — Chalk talk / Edward Wellen — Climacteric / Avram Davidson — The contest / Robert J. Sawyer — Controlled experiment / Rick Conley — The curse of Hooligan’s Bar / Charles E. Fritch — The Dark Ones / Richard Christian Matheson — Dead call / William F. Nolan — Deadline / Mel Gilden — Deal with the D.E.V.I.L. / Theodore R. Cogswell — The devil finds work / Mack Reynolds — Devlin’s dream / George Clayton Johnson — Displaced person / Eric Frank Russell — Echoes / Lawrence C. Connolly — Ex oblivione / H. P. Lovecraft — Farewell party / Richard Wilson — Feeding time / James Gunn — Final version / John Morressy — Five minutes early / Robert Sheckley — Freedom / Rick Norwood — Garage sale / Janet Fox — Getting back to before it began / Raylyn Moore — The giveaway / Steve Rasnic Tem — Give her hell / Donald A. Wollheim — God’s nose / Damon Knight — The good husband / Evelyn E. Smith — The handler / Damon Knight — The haters / Donald A. Wollheim — The house / Andre Maurois — How Georges Duchamps discovered a plot to take over the world / Alexei Panshin — The human angle / William Tenn — The importance of being important / Calvin W. Demmon — Interview with a gentleman farmer / Bruce Boston — Judgment Day / Jack C. Haldeman II — Just one more / Edward D. Hoch — The lady and the merman / Jane Yolen — The last unicorns / Edward D. Hoch — The last wizard / Avram Davidson — Letters from camp / Al Sarrantonio — L is for loup-garou / Harlan Ellison — Love filter / Gregg Chamberlain — The maiden’s sacrifice / Edward D. Hoch — Malice aforethought / Donald A Wollheim — The man who sold rope to the gnoles / Margaret St. Clair — Miranda-Escobedo / James Sallies — Mr. Wilde’s second chance / Joanna Russ — Mortimer Snodgrass Turtle / Jack C. Haldeman Ii — Mouse-kitty / Rick Norwood — Naturally / Fredric Brown — Night visions / Jack Dann — Once upon a unicorn / F. M. Busby — $1.98 / Arthur Porges — Opening a vein / Bill Pronzini, Barry N. Malzberg — The Other / Katherine Maclean — The other one / Rick Norwood — The Other Train Phenomenon / Richard Bowker — The painters are coming today / Steve Rasnic Tem — Paranoid fantasy #1 / Lawrence Watt-Evans — Perchance to dream / Katherine Maclean — Personality problem / Joe R. Lansdale — Pharaoh’s revenge / C. Bruce Hunter — Pick-up for Olympus / Edgar Pangborn — The poor / Steve Rasnic Tem — Prayer war / Jonathan V. Post — The prophecy / Bill Pronzini — The rag thing / Donald A. Wollheim — The recording / Gene Wolfe — Red carpet treatment / Robert Lipsyte — The sacrifice / Gardner Dozois — Santa’s tenth reindeer / Gordon Van Gelder — The second short-shortest fantasy ever published / Barry N. Malzberg — Sleep / Steve Rasnic Tem — Some days are like that / Bruce J. Balfour — Temporarily at liberty / Lawrence Goldman — The thing that stared / Richard Wilson — Thinking the unthinkable / Will Creveling — The third wish / Rick Norwood — Those three wishes / Judith Gorog — Thus I refute / Terry Carr — The toe / Phyllis Ann Karr — Tommy’s Christmas / John R. Little — The tower bird / Jane Yolen — Vernon’s dragon / John Gregory Betancourt — Voodoo / Fredric Brown — Weather prediction / Evelyn E. Smith — Who rides with Santa Anna? / Edward D. Hoch — Wisher takes all / William F. Temple — The world where wishes worked / Stephen Goldin — Your soul comes C.O.D. / Mack Reynolds

    But no longer.You hold in your hands a volume of wonders -- magical tales of trolls and ogres, of bewitched princesses and kingdoms accursed, penned by some of the most acclaimed fantasists of our day. But these are not bedtime stories designed to usher an innocent child gently into a realm of dreams. These are stories that bite -- lush and erotic, often dark and disturbing mystical journeys through a phantasmagoric landscape of distinctly adult sensibilities... where there is no such thing as "happily ever after." The "Snow White, Blood Red" Collection #1. Snow White, Blood Red #2. Black Thorn, White Rose #3. Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears #4. Black Swan, White Raven #5. Silver Birch, Blood Moon #6. Black Heart, Ivory Bones

     - At a Kansas carnival, fun and games turns to murder and mayhem, thanks to soul-snatching demons and flesh-craving ghouls luring visitors into an all-too-real house of horrors. - Verily, in olde England, striking up a friendship with William Shakespeare lands both Atticus and the Bard in boiling hot water with a trio of infamous witches. - During the Gold Rush, the avatar of greed himself turns the streets of San Francisco red with blood and upsets the elemental Sequoia. Atticus may have to fight fire with fire if he's going to restore balance.More, you say? Indeed there is--including bogeymen, vampire hordes, wrathful wraiths, and even a journey to the realm of the dead. Prepare to be besieged with nine tantalizing tales--not to be missed, never to be forgotten.

    When a Child is Born - A jump back to 1066 to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror goes slightly astray. Roman Holiday - Max and her team become spectacularly involved with Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and a basket of confused asps. Christmas Present - An attempt to rescue lost historians involving an enraged pig and Boudicca herself. The Very First Damned Thing - Discover the truth about the very beginning of St Mary's. Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings - A gun left behind in Ancient Egypt and a race against time to prevent a catastrophe. The Great St Mary's Day Out - Hooray! It's a happy holiday. For everyone except Max - the only one with her mind on the job. My Name is Markham - Alfred, the cakes and Mr Markham. The Great British Bake Off it's not! And a bonus - a new and previously unpublished short story.

    Will Laurence is serving with honor in the British Navy when his ship captures a French frigate harboring most a unusual cargo–an incalculably valuable dragon egg. When the egg hatches, Laurence unexpectedly becomes the master of the young dragon Temeraire and finds himself on an extraordinary journey that will shatter his orderly, respectable life and alter the course of his nation’s history.Thrust into England’s Aerial Corps, Laurence and Temeraire undergo rigorous training while staving off French forces intent on breaching British soil. But the pair has more than France to contend with when China learns that an imperial dragon intended for Napoleon–Temeraire himself– has fallen into British hands. The emperor summons the new pilot and his dragon to the Far East, a long voyage fraught with peril and intrigue. From England’s shores to China’s palaces, from the Silk Road’s outer limits to the embattled borders of Prussia and Poland, Laurence and Temeraire must defend their partnership and their country from powerful adversaries around the globe. But can they succeed against the massed forces of Bonaparte’s implacable army?Together in one volume, here are the first three novels in Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestselling Temeraire series, combining the gripping history of the Napoleonic era, the thrill of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books, and the excitement of Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures. In His Majesty’s Service also includes an exclusive original Temeraire short story - "In Autumn, a White Dragon Looks over the Wide River".

    Anderson * Doug Beason * M. Shayne Bell * David Bischoff * A.C.Crispin * Kenneth C. Flint * Barbara Hambly * Rebecca Moesta * Daniel KeysMoran * Jerry Oltion * Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens * Jennifer Roberson* Kathy Tyers * Tom Veitch & Martha Veitch * Dave Wolverton * TimothyZahn

    No longer relegated to the fringes of literature, this explosive collection of the world’s best apocalyptic writers brings the inventors of alien invasions, devastating meteors, doomsday scenarios, and all-out nuclear war back to the bookstores with a bang.The best writers of the early 1900s were the first to flood New York with tidal waves, destroy Illinois with alien invaders, paralyze Washington with meteors, and lay waste to the Midwest with nuclear fallout. Now collected for the first time ever in one apocalyptic volume are those early doomsday writers and their contemporaries, including Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Lucius Shepard, Robert Sheckley, Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, William F. Nolan, Poul Anderson, Fredric Brown, Lester del Rey, and more. Relive these childhood classics or discover them here for the first time. Each story details the eerie political, social, and environmental destruction of our world.

    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.

    If you've ever wanted to know more about the Bounty Hunters that appear in The Empire Strikes Back, this is the book!Contents: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina [Star Wars: Tales] (1995) 16 short stories / anthology by Kevin J. Anderson: In a far corner of the universe, on the small desert planet of Tatooine, there is a dark, nic-i-tain-filled cantina where you can down your favorite intoxicant while listening to the best jazz riffs in the universe. But beware your fellow denizens of this pangalactic watering hole, for they are cutthroats and cutpurses, assassins and troopers, humans and aliens, gangsters and thieves... Tales of the Bounty Hunters [Star Wars: Tales] (1996) 5 novellas / anthology by Kevin J. Anderson: In a wild and battle-scarred galaxy, assassins, pirates, smugglers, and cutthroats of every description roam at will, fearing only the professional bounty hunters-amoral adventurers who track down the scum of the universe...for a fee. Tales from Jabba's Palace [Star Wars: Tales] (1996) 19 short stories / anthology by Kevin J. Anderson: In the dusty heat of twin-sunned Tatooine lives the wealthiest gangster in a hundred worlds, master of a vast crime empire and keeper of a vicious, flesh-eating monster for entertainment (and disposal of his enemies). Bloated and sinister, Jabba the Hutt might have made a good joke -- if he weren't so dangerous. A cast of soldiers, spies, assassins, scoundrels, bounty hunters, and pleasure seekers have come to his palace, and every visitor to Jabba's grand abode has a story. Some of them may even live to tell it....

    

    The Bound Folio tells their stories from the tortured childhood of the legendary Blademaster the Sword of the North, to the humble origins of the Queen of the Five Kingdoms, to the death of one of the world's greatest assassins. This anthology collects together eight dark stories of swords, sorcery, and seduction from First Earth, the setting of Rob J. Hayes' The Ties That Bind trilogy.CONTENTS"The Sword of the North" - Northborn lordling Derran Fowl has a natural affinity for swordplay. Even so, such a talent cannot contend with an alcoholic father who invites an Arbiter to their estate in order to investigate his own sickly daughter and Derran's beloved little sister, Leesa. Learn the origins of what drives young Derran to begin a journey that ends with the Sword of the North."The Night Blade" - A tale in which two fabled assassins, one a veteran of the trade, the other a promising upstart, are hired by the same man to kill one another, with the prize being a major contract for a hefty sum."The Kid" introduces an undersized street rat at the bottom of the pecking order in his small group of famished and thieving orphans. A victim of frequent beatings and constant bullying, learn how he overcomes his enemies in the unfeeling gutters and alleyways of Korral."The Battle of Underbridge" - Tristan Southerland and his fellow squires intend to get riproaring drunk on a night out. Instead, they find themselves fighting for their lives — and dying — against a pestilent tide of ceaseless foes."The Merchant of Truridge" - Sirion Tell is married to the perfect woman, and although his father has recently passed, he has inherited a considerable sum and the future looks bright for the enterprising newlyweds...until he crosses paths with the pirate known as Drake Morass."The Twins" - Irris the Drurr is charged with the protection of royal half-breed twins as they flee to the surface world. In the coming weeks, beneath the open skies, will she be able to lead both small girls to a safe haven? Or will they be caught by human hunters; or worse, their own merciless people, intent on slaughtering the twins merely for being born?"The Mistress of the West" - In the western deserts of the Five Kingdoms, the school of mistresses instructs young girls like Shián how to capture rich and powerful husbands to increase their family's status; however, will the mistresses be able to teach Shián what cost the price of vengeance?"Beck" - An Arbiter of the Inquisition finds herself at the mercy of pirates, taken captive for her magical abilities and used to locate a mysterious treasure. When the treasure itself turns out to potentially be heretical, the Arbiter finds she must make a choice between her duty or freedom.

    Including stories from the 1970s to the present day, the collection seeks to expand the conversation about feminism while engaging the reader in a wealth of imaginative ideas. Sisters of the Revolution seeks to expand the ideas of both contemporary fiction and feminism to new fronts.Contents:The forbidden words of Margaret A. / L. Timmel Duchamp --My flannel knickers / Leonora Carrington --The mothers of Shark Island / Kit Reed --The palm tree bandit / Nnedi Okorafor --The grammarian's five daughters / Eleanor Arnason --And Salome danced / Kelley Eskridge --The perfect married woman / Angélica Gorodischer --The glass bottle trick / Nalo Hopkinson --Their mother's tears : the fourth letter / Leena Krohn --The screwfly solution / James Tiptree, Jr. --Seven losses of na Re / Rose Lemberg --The evening and the morning and the night / Octavia E. Butler --The sleep of plants / Anne Richter --The men who live in trees / Kelly Barnhill --Tales from the breast / Hiromi Goto --The Fall River axe murders / Angela Carter --Love and sex among the invertebrates / Pat Murphy --When it changed / Joanna Russ --The woman who thought she was a planet / Vandana Singh --Gestella / Susan Palwick --Boys / Carol Emshwiller --Stable strategies for middle management / Eileen Gunn --Northern chess / Tanith Lee --Aunts / Karin Tidbeck --Sur / Ursula K. Le Guin --Fears / Pamela Sargent --Detours on the way to nothing / Rachel Swirsky --Thirteen ways of looking at space/time / Catherynne M. Valente --Home by the sea / Elisabeth Vonaburg.

    Most of the stories are modern, with many especially written for this collection. The book also includes classic reprints and rare gems from comic fantasy's roots in past years.

    Home to the Heralds and their mysterious horselike Companions, the magical Tayledras Hawk-people, and of course, the powerful gryphons, Valdemar has garnered a devoted global following. Now these 17 new tales by fantasy's greatest authors are sure to add their own chapter to the history of this enchanting land.This anthology contains: Introduction by Mercedes Lackey Sunlancer by Philip M. Austin and Mercedes Lackey The Demon's Den by Tanya Huff Ironrose by Larry Dixon and Mel. White Babysitter by Josepha Sherman The Salamander by Richard Lee Byers A Child's Adventures by Janni Lee Simmer Blood Ties by Stephanie D. Shaver ... Another Successful Experiment by Lawrence Schimel Choice by Michelle West Song of Valdemar by Kristin SchwengelThe School Up the Hill by Elisabeth Waters Chance by Mark Shepherd Sword of Ice by Mercedes Lackey & John Yezeguielian In the Forest of Sorrows by John Heifers Vkandis' Own by Ben Ohlander A Herald's Honor by Mickey Zucker Reichert A Song For No One's Mourning by Gary A. Braunbeck Blue Heart by Philip M. Austin and Mercedes Lackey

    There’s mute Lily, in “The Healer,” who has the power to help others, and receives a startling opportunity to find her voice when a mysterious mage stumbles into town. And Queen Ruen, who is at the mercy of a power-hungry uncle until she encounters a shape-changer in “The Stagman.” In “Touk’s House,” a maiden who has grown up with a witch and a troll has a chance to become a princess, but she must decide whether she would really live happily ever after. When a curse follows Coral to her new husband’s farm in “Buttercups,” the pair has a choice: Succumb to defeat or find a way to turn a disastrous enchantment into a fruitful new venture. Finally, travel to upstate New York with Annabelle. In the title story, her family moves shortly after her sixteenth birthday, and just as she starts to adjust to her new life in a small town, a plan to build a superhighway threatens her new home. But a strange box hidden in a secret attic in the new house may be the answer. This is a delightful assortment of tales from an author with “a remarkable talent for melding the real and the magical into a single, believable whole” (Booklist).