Here are twenty original stories of diabolical crimes and magical solutions featuring some of today's top science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writers. From the Elizabethan era to the far-flung future, from the interstellar realm of the Eraasian Hegemony to the Las Vegas Strip, these ingenious whodunits (or whatdunits) are sure to baffle and delight every lover of mystery and the fantastic.From WorldCat - Contents:Introduction and Afterword by Rosemary EdghillPiece of Mind by Jennifer RobersonSpecial Surprise Guest Appearance by ... by Carole Nelson DouglasDoppelgangster by Laura ResnickMixed Marriages Can Be Murder by Will GrahamCase of the Headless Corpse by Josepha ShermanDeath in the Working by Debra DoyleCold Case by Diane DuaneSnake in the Grass by Susan R. MatthewsDouble Jeopardy by M.J. HamiltonWitch Sight by Roberta GellisOverrush by Laura Anne GilmanCaptured in Silver by Teresa EdgertonNight at the Opera by Sharon Lee and Steve MillerTremble in the Air by James D. MacdonaldMurder Entailed by Susan KrinardDropping Hints by Lawrence Watt-EvansAu Purr by Esther FriesnerGetting the Chair by Keith R.A. DeCandidoNecromancer's Apprentice by Lillian Stewart CarlGrey Eminence by Mercedes Lackey

    With rich and vibrant worldbuilding, readers are transported to antiquated realms to witness noble sacrifices and astonishing wonders. Gathering a comprehensive survey of beloved stories from the genre, this compilation includes stories by such luminaries as George R.R. Martin, Melanie Rawn, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robin Hobb, and Tad Williams, with a foreword by author Brent Weeks. Inspiring and larger-than-life, these tales offer timeless values of courage and friendship in the face of ultimate evil and express mankind's greatest hopes and fears.Stories:01 - Robin Hobb, Homecoming02 - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word of Unbinding03 - Tad Williams, The Burning Man04 - Aliette de Bodard, As the Wheel Turns05 - Paolo Bacigalupi, The Alchemist06 - Orson Scott Card, Sandmagic07 - Patrick Rothfuss, The Road to Levinshir08 - Brandon Sanderson, Rysn09 - Michael Moorcock, While the Gods Laugh10 - Melanie Rawn, Mother of All Russiya11 - Kate Elliott, Riding the Shore of the River of Death12 - Mary Robinette Kowal, The Bound Man13 - N.K. Jemisin, The Narcomancer14 - Carrie Vaughn, Strife Lingers in Memory15 - Trudi Canavan, The Mad Apprentice16 - Juliet Marillier, Otherling17 - George R.R. Martin, The Mystery Knight

    What's the seating plan when rival clans of werewolves and vampires meet under the same roof? How can a couple in the throes of love overcome traps set by feuding relatives---who are experts at voodoo? Will you have a good marriage if your high-seas wedding is held on a cursed ship? How do you deal with a wedding singer who's just a little too good at impersonating Elvis? Shape-shifters, wizards, and magic, oh my!"The Wedding of Wylda Serene" / Esther Friesner"All Shook Up" /P.N. Elrod"Tacky" / Charlaine Harris"A Hard Day's Night-Searcher" / Sherrilyn Kenyon"Something Borrowed" / Jim Butcher"Spellbound" / L.A. Banks"Dead Man's Chest" / Rachel Caine"Charmed by the Moon" / Lori Handeland"...Or Forever Hold Your Peace" / Susan Krinard

    Includes new stories by Larry Correia and Jim Butcher! Come visit the Old West, the land where gang initiations, ride-by shootings and territory disputes got their start. But these tales aren't the ones your grandpappy spun around a campfire, unless he spoke of soul-sucking ghosts, steam-powered demons, and wayward aliens. Here then are seventeen stories that breathe new life in the Old West. Among them: Larry Correia explores the roots of his best-selling Monster Hunter International series in "Bubba Shackleford's Professional Monster Killers." Jim Butcher reveals the origin of one of the Dresden Files' most popular characters in "A Fistful of Warlocks." And Kevin J. Anderson's Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., finds himself in a showdown in "High Midnight." Plus stories from Alan Dean Foster, Sarah A. Hoyt, Jody Lynn Nye, Michael A. Stackpole, and many more. This is a new Old West and you ll be lucky to get outta town alive! Contributors: David Boop Larry Correia Jody Lynn Nye Sam Knight Robert E. Vardeman Phil Foglio Nicole Kurtz Michael A. Stackpole Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Ken Scholes Maurice Broaddus Sarah A. Hoyt Alan Dean Foster David Lee Summers Kevin J. Anderson Naomi Brett Rourke Julie Campbell Peter J. Wacks Jim Butcher"

    Leaving their infant son with Jonathan's parents, the Healys are leaving Buckley Township, Michigan for the cosmopolitan wonders of the city of Chicago, where they can properly celebrate the fact that they managed to have a wedding without anybody winding up dead.Of course, these are the Healys we're talking about, and nothing in Chicago is exactly fitting the description provided by the Bureau of Tourism. From the gorgon-run hotel where they'll be staying to the swamp hags in the Chicago River, things are definitely business as usual, at least by the family definition of "usual."Bootlegger Arturo Gucciard has only just been introduced to the Healy definition of "usual," but he's going to need to get awfully familiar with it if he wants to live long enough to have a honeymoon of his own. And Jonathan, well. Jonathan just wants to have a normal honeymoon.Good luck with that.

    Readers only familiar with such masterpieces as The Dragonbone Chair and Talchaser’s Song will be delighted to discover that in his short fiction, Williams has been able to explore myriad new possibilities and adventures.Previously collected in multiauthor anthologies and limited hardcover editions, these superlative talks of dragons, super-soldiers, wizards, cyberpunks, heroes, and fools are now available together for the first time in an affordable trade paperback edition. These stories showcase the exhilarating breadth of Williams’ imagination, in stories hearkening to the tales of such classic fantasists as J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Ray Bradbury, and Peter S. Beagle. Included is an original tale written specifically for this volume.The Very Best of Tad Williams is a true delight to those who have imagined themselves in fantastic worlds beyond the everyday and mundane.TABLE OF CONTENTSThe Old Scale GameThe Storm DoorThe Stranger’s HandsChild of an AncientCityThe Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland StoryThree Duets for Virgin and NosehornDiary of a DragonNot with a Whimper, EitherSome Thoughts Re: Dark DestroyerZ is for...Monsieur Vergalant’s CanardThe Stuff that Dreams are Made OfFish Between FriendsEvery Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the AirA Stark and Wormy KnightBlack SunshineAnd Ministers of Grace

    The timing of the story sort of puts it between A Perfect Blood and Ever After, but the feeling of it is seriously slanted toward Ever After. If you get a chance to read it, I’d [author] be curious to know what you think about the “voice.” One of the things I tried to do–besides get a chance to see Rachel and Trent work together–was to give it a more mainstream feel since there’s the chance readers who would normally never pick up the Hollows might be reading it.

    A. Corey’s NYT-bestselling Expanse series, Auberon explores a new and alien world and the age-old dangers that humanity has carried with it to the stars. Now a Prime Original series.Auberon is one of the first and most important colony worlds in humanity’s reach, and the new conquering faction has come to claim it. Governor Rittenaur has come to bring civilization and order to the far outpost and guarantee the wealth and power of the Empire.But Auberon already has its own history, a complex culture, and a criminal kingpin named Erich with very different plans. In a world of deceit, violence, and corruption, the greatest danger Rittenaur faces is love.

    Now, in "Overtime," the Laundry is on a skeleton staff for Christmas—leaving one bureaucrat to be all that stands between the world and annihilation by the Thing That Comes Down Chimneys. Written especially for Tor.com's holiday season, Charles Stross's novelette is a finalist for the 2010 Hugo Award. Charles Stross is the Hugo-winning author of some of the most acclaimed novels and stories of the last ten years, including Singularity Sky, Accelerando, Halting State, the "Merchant Princes" series beginning with The Family Trade, and the story collections Toast and Wireless.

    Lansdale - “Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm - “I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block - “Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson - A Cosmere story - “A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman - “The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman - A Magicians story - “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress - “City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland - “Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon - An Outlander story - “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon - “Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling - An Emberverse story - “Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes - “Caretakers” by Pat Cadigan - “Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector - A Wild Cards story - “The Princess and the Queen” by George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire story

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris edits and contributes an all-new story-set in her Sookie Stackhouse universe-to this anthology from the Mystery Writers of America. Other authors include: Steve Brewer Dana Cameron Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane Barbara D'Amato Brendan DuBois Terrie Farley Moran Jack Fredrickson Parnell Hall Carolyn Hart S. W. Hubbard Toni L. P. Kelner Lou Kemp William Kent Kreuger Harley Jane Kozak Margaret Mahon Martin Meyers Jeffrey Somers Elaine Viets Mike Wiecek

    No air, cosmic radiation, absolute lack of other life-sustaining essentials.What better way to deal with space travel than to man ships with creatures that regenerate or don’t need air, or are immune to various maladies? In a future world where zombies, vampires and werewolves co-exist with ‘normal’ humans on Earth, these ships are staffed by a motley crew of various types of undead or near-dead creatures.Of course no one really knows what happens when zombies and vampires are squeezed together in the close confines of a spaceship.Don’t you love surprises?Mercedes Lackey is a New York Times best selling author with over 80 books in print. She is well known for creating complex multi-cultural worlds inhabited by human and non-human characters. Her acclaimed and best selling series of books related to the Valdemar saga takes place in the intricately woven world of Velgarth. To date there are 27 novels and six anthologies set in this world, and many of these books have become New York Times bestsellers.

    These days, women are quite capable of solving their own problems and slaying their own dragons (or demons, as the case may be).In this all-new anthology, Kerrie L. Hughes and New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine have collected original stories from thirteen of today’s most exciting urban fantasy and paranormal authors. Each story features a strong heroine who kicks butt and takes names in a dangerous world and makes that world a better place for everyone in it—except the bad guys, of course. And if she finds a bit of romance along the way, well, a little heat warms the heart and sharpens the mind…just as long as the man can keep up. Includes: Shiny by Rachel CaineIn Venito Veras by Karen ChanceHunt by Rachel VincentMonsters by Lilith SaintcrowVampires Prefer Blondes by P.N. ElrodNine-Tenths of the Law by Jenna BlackDouble Dead by Cheyenne McCrayA Rose by Any Other Name Would Still be Red by Elizabeth A. VaughnSuperman by Jeanne C. SteinMonster Mash by Carole Nelson DouglasWanted: Dead or Alive by L.A. BanksMist by Susan KrinardBeyond the Pale by Nancy Holden

    Once the government is back in business then the short story will no longer be available on line, at least not until my publisher and I figure out what we might want to do with it. But for right now, while we’re all wondering how it got to this point, here’s a brand new Anita Blake short story, featuring our favorite bad boy werewolf, yep, I mean Richard Zeeman. Hey, I’ve been telling you, he’s been working his therapy: read on to see the results that hard work and being brave enough to own your whole self can get you.

    As a lupi warrior who’s lived most of his life at Clanhome, Benedict is more than a little nervous. He isn’t used to fitting in with humans, let alone a family who celebrates the Wiccan holiday of Yule. Benedict even asked his brother for advice about clothes, hoping to create the right impression. So it's a shame that things go wrong from the moment he steps out of the car . . .Originally found in anthology Tied with a Biow