Howard's gorgeous world of enchantment, swordplay, glittering jewels, beautiful women, danger and passion come alive in this lushly illustrated book! This is the first new Conan adventure in years!Cover art by Sanjulián

    But a still greater horror will face the recluse - more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.A classic of the first water - H. P. Lovecraft

    Called to action by the enigmatic, brilliant man known only as Mr. Doyle, they hail from all planes of existence and are born from an array of supernatural and otherwordly back-grounds and bloodlines. But as the group struggles to come to terms with their shadowy pasts, personal demons, and conflicting loyalties, their greatest challenge awaits them.Together, they will confront the minions of utter darkness, who have already begun their quest to resurrect the most malevolent of the fallen angels - whose wrath against mankind knows no bounds...(Description from back cover of mass market paperback edition)

    John wanders the mountains on foot as an itinerant folk singer of the old songs (his nickname comes from his guitar strings made of silver --- a substance that also repels some supernatural nasties --- but he's also known as a "witch-master," that is, a kind of paranormal troubleshooter whose lore and skills render him "master over" and able to defeat the sinister sorcery of witches and "ha'nts." His variety of supernatural adventures bring him to face with time travel, revenants, various monsters of regional folklore such as the "Behinder," and other macabre phenomena.Contents:1 · Foreword: Manly in the Mountains · David Drake · fw * [Manly Wade Wellman] 4 · Introduction: Just Call Me John · Karl Edward Wagner · in * [Manly Wade Wellman] 9 · O Ugly Bird! · ss F&SF Dec ’51 25 · The Desrick on Yandro · ss F&SF Jun ’52 41 · Vandy, Vandy · ss F&SF Mar ’53 59 · One Other · ss F&SF Aug ’53 77 · Call Me from the Valley · ss F&SF Mar ’54 92 · The Little Black Train · ss F&SF Aug ’54 112 · Shiver in the Pines · ss F&SF Feb ’55 134 · Walk Like a Mountain · ss F&SF Jun ’55 154 · On the Hills and Everywhere · ss F&SF Jan ’56 165 · Old Devlins Was A-Waiting · ss F&SF Feb ’57 189 · Nine Yards of Other Cloth · ss F&SF Nov ’58 212 · Wonder as I Wander · gp F&SF Mar ’62; Then I Wasn’t Alone, vi; You Know the Tale of Hoph, vi; Blue Monkey, vi; The Stars Down There, vi; Find the Place Yourself, vi; I Can’t Claim That, vi; Who Else Could I Count On, vi 219 · Farther Down the Trail · gp Who Fears the Devil, Arkham House, 1963; John’s My Name, vi; Why They’re Named That, vi; None Wiser for the Trip, vi; Nary Spell, vi 223 · Trill Coster’s Burden · ss Whispers II, ed. Stuart David Schiff, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979 237 · The Spring · ss Shadows #2, ed. Charles L. Grant, Doubleday, 1979 252 · Owls Hoot in the Daytime · ss Dark Forces, ed. Kirby McCauley, Viking, 1980 268 · Can These Bones Live? · ss Sorcerer’s Apprentice #11 ’81 280 · Nobody Ever Goes There · ss Weird Tales #3, ed. Lin Carter, DAW, 1981 294 · Where Did She Wander? · ss Whispers Oct ’87

    The novel is set at some indeterminate time in a post-nuclear holocaust future, where science and sorcery co-exist and the Dark Empire of Granbretan (Great Britain) is expanding across Europe.

    In the ancient land of Shem, Conan joins with tomb-robbers to loot the untold wealth piled up in the huge royal mausoleum, yet so simple a decision enmeshes the mighty Cimmerian in intrigues and danger on every side.

    It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil War veteran, unexpectedly finds himself on to the red planet, scene of continuing combat among rival tribes. Captured by a band of six-limbed, green-skinned savage giants called Tharks, Carter soon is accorded all the honor of a chieftain after it's discovered that his muscles, accustomed to Earth's greater gravity, now give him a decided advantage in strength. And when his captors take as prisoner Dejah Thoris, the lovely human-looking princess of the city of Helium, Carter must call upon every ounce of strength, courage, and ingenuity to rescue her-before Dejah becomes the slave of the depraved Thark leader, Tal Hajus!Excerpt:Her oval face was beautiful in the extreme, her every feature finely chisled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Similar in face and figure to women of Earth, she was nevertheless a true Martian--and prisoner of the fierce green giants who held me captive, as well!

    She is two thousand years old, a Child of the Millennia, the first vampire ever made by the great Marius. David persuades her to tell the story of her life. Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to recount her mesmerizing tale, which takes us through the ages, from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. She carries us back to her mortal girlhood in the world of Caesar Augustus, a world chronicled by Ovid and Petronius. This is where Pandora meets and falls in love with the handsome, charismatic, lighthearted, still-mortal Marius. This is the Rome she is forced to flee in fear of assassination by conspirators plotting to take over the city. And we follow her to the exotic port of Antioch, where she is destined to be reunited with Marius, now immortal and haunted by his vampire nature, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift as they set out on the fraught and fantastic adventure of their two turbulent centuries together.

    Unlikely associates, this cynical thief and idealist swordsman, were just learning how to work together as a team. In this standalone short story of The Riyria Chronicles, Royce is determined to teach his naive partner a lesson about good deeds. Join Royce and Hadrian in this short story (5,400 words).This is now a chapter in Ryria Chronicles # 2: The Rose and the Thorn, so for those looking to read the entire series in order, reading this short story on its own isn't necessary.

    1 The Bastard Stepchild - George R.R. Martin 2 Death by Dahlia - Charlaine Harris 3 The Bleeding Shadow - Joe R. Lansdale 4 Hungry Heart - Simon R. Green 5 Styx and Stones - Steven Saylor 6 Pain and Suffering - S.M. Stirling 7 It's Still the Same Old Story - Carrie Vaughn8 The Lady is a Screamer - Conn Iggulden 9 Hellbender - Laurie R. King 10 Shadow Thieves - Glen Cook 11 No Mystery, No Miracle - Melinda M. Snodgrass 12 The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery - M.L.N. Hanover13 The Curious Affair of the Deodand - Lisa Tuttle 14 Lord John and the Plague of Zombies - Diana Gabaldon15 Beware the Snake - John Maddox Roberts 16 In Red, with Pearls - Patricia Briggs 17 The Adakian Eagle - Bradley Denton

    From the battlefields of a Vietnam veteran's memory to an old-time movie hero's search for a serial killer, from Halloween in a special town--where the rules of trick-or-treat are written in blood--to a Texas road where a wrong turn leads to a nest of evil, horror master McCammon is at his terrifying best in this collection of stories.

    A young English gentleman of means, Aubrey is immediately intrigued by Lord Ruthven, the mysterious newcomer among society’s elite. His unknown origin and curious behavior tantalizes Aubrey’s imagination. But the young man soon discovers a sinister character hidden behind his new friend’s glamorous facade.   When the two are set upon by bandits while traveling together in Europe, Ruthven is fatally injured. Before drawing his last breath, he makes the odd request that Aubrey keep his death and crimes secret for a year and a day. But when Ruthven resurfaces in London—making overtures toward Aubrey’s sister—Aubrey realizes this immortal fiend is a vampyre.   John William Polidori’s The Vampyre is both a classic tale of gothic horror and the progenitor of the modern romantic vampire myth that has been fodder for artists ranging from Anne Rice to Alan Ball to Francis Ford Coppola. Originally published in 1819, many decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and misattributed to Polidori’s friend Lord Byron, The Vampyre has kept readers up at night for nearly two hundred years.

    Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are monsters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape.Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts but has spent most of his life in the South. He worked as a bartender in New Orleans and New York City and a cook on offshore oil rigs. His story "The Monsters of Heaven" won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his daughter.

    Howard reprint line by presenting all of the original 1970s and 1980s Marvel color comic books featuring Solomon Kane in one awesome volume! This graphic novel features the landmark stories "The Mark of Kane" and "Fangs of the Gorilla God," by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin, and the entire Sword of Solomon Kane mini-series, by Ralph Macchio and a host of talented artists — including Mike Mignola, Al Williamson, Bret Blevins, John Ridgeway, and others! From the French countryside to the Black Forest in Germany, from England to Africa, follow Robert E. Howard's solemn, driven Puritan, Solomon Kane, as he cuts a path of vengeance across the globe!

    Justice Harbottle, The Room in the Dragon Volant, and Carmilla. The five stories are purported to be cases by Dr. Hesselius, a 'metaphysical' doctor, who is willing to consider the ghosts both as real and as hallucinatory obsessions. The reader's doubtful anxiety mimics that of the protagonist, and each story thus creates that atmosphere of mystery which is the supernatural experience. This new annotated edition includes an introduction, notes on the text, and explanatory notes.NB: The Familiar is a revision of The Watcher; Mr. Justice Harbottle is a revision of An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street.