Book picks similar to
Frog Toes and Tentacles by Caitlín R. Kiernan
erotica
short-stories
fantasy
kiernan
Endangered Species
Gene Wolfe - 1989
This is a hefty volume of over 30 unforgettable stories in a variety of genres-- SF, fantasy, horror, mainstream-many of them offering variations on themes and situations found in folklore and fairy tales, and including two stories, "The Cat" and "The Map," which are set in the universe of his New Sun novels. Wolfe's deconstructions/reconstructions are provocative, multilayered, and resonant. This embarrassment of literary riches is a must for all Gene Wolfe fans, and anyone who loves a good tale beautifully told.
Upright Beasts
Lincoln Michel - 2015
In these short stories, we are the upright beasts, doing battle with our darker, weirder impulses as the world collapses around us.
Grimdark Magazine: Issue #1
Adrian Collins - 2014
Fiction: Bad Seed (Broken Empire) by Mark Lawrence Shadow Hunter (Shadows of the Apt) by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Woman I Used to Be by Gerri Leen The Neutral by Anatoly Belilovsky (translator) and Mike Gelprin (author) The Red Wraith by Nick Wisseman Non-Fiction: An interview with Joe Abercrombie An interview with Graham McNeill Book Review: Joe Abercrombie's Half a King - review by Kyle Massa Article: Grimdark is Here to Stay by Layla Cummins
Dark and Stormy Knights
P.N. ElrodCarrie Vaughn - 2010
1. A Questionable Client (Kate Daniels, #0.5) by Ilona Andrews: Kate Daniels guards shifter Saiman, less trustworthy than the enemy.2. Even Hand (Dresden Files, #11.6) by Jim Butcher: "Gentleman" John Marcone, Chicago's most dangerous crime lord, fights water demon with defenses against White Council wizard Harry Dresden. 3. The Beacon by Shannon K. Butcher: Hereditary fighter faces monster that killed his father and town, with a little girl that attracts said monster. 4. Even a Rabbit Will Bite by Rachel Caine: Liesl trains the new Dragonslayer before she faces the last dragon.5. Dark Lady (Vampire Files, #12.75) by P.N. Elrod: Vampire nightclub owner Jack Fleming promises radio to resident ghost.6. Beknighted by Deidre Knight: Artist tries to free knight painted in real gold.7. Shifting Star (Signs of the Zodiac, #4.6) by Vicki Peterson: Skamar, Tibetan for star, newly created tulpa, fights another vicious male of Tulpa. 8. Rookwood & Mrs King by Lilith Saintcrow: Vampire private eye is hired by wife to kill the woman's vampire husband. 9. God's Creatures (Kitty Norville, #0.8) by Carrie Vaughn: Cormac follows a werewolf to convent school.
The Amazing Screw-on Head and Other Curious Objects
Mike Mignola - 2002
But when Mignola needs a short break from the Hellboy universe, he turns to diversions such as The Amazing Screw-On Head, winner of the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication!When Emperor Zombie threatens the safety of all life on earth, President Lincoln enlists the aid of a mechanical head. With the help of associates Mr. Groin (a faithful manservant) and Mr. Dog (a dog), Screw-On Head must brave ancient tombs, a Victorian flying apparatus, and demons from a dimension inside a turnip. This new collection of oddball Mignola creations also includes The Magician and the Snake from Dark Horse Maverick: Happy Endings, and nearly fifty pages of brand new material, all as weird and hilarious as the beloved Screw-On Head.
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach
Steven Erikson - 2009
The first three tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, the famed necromancers from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, collected in one volume.Contents:Blood Follows (2002)The Healthy Dead (2004)The Lees of Laughter's End (2007)
Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard's Name
Phil BrucatoSandra Buskirk - 2009
TuckerFeaturing Tales by:Nathan BallingrudAri BerkHolly BlackFrancesca Lia BlockPhil BrucatoStorm ConstantineCharles de LintBen DobynsAlexandra DuncanJaymi ElfordNeil GaimanLaurell K. HamiltonAlexandra Elizabeth HonigsbergElizabeth Jordan LeggettShira LipkinAngel Leigh McCoySeanan McGuireKris MilleringMaria NutickMidori SnyderS.J. TuckerCarrie VaughnCatherynne M. ValenteTerri WindlingErzebet YellowBoyWith Art and Illustrations by:Jenny AnckornTheodore BlackAmy BrownEcho ChernikHeather Keith FreemanJulia JeffreyStephanie Pui-Mun LawWendy Lyon MartinJames A. OwenBrian SymeChelsea WrightEdited by:Phil Brucato & Sandra BuskirkGraphic Design by:Sherry Lynne Baker
The Doll's Alphabet
Camilla Grudova - 2017
Dolls, sewing machines, tinned foods, mirrors, malfunctioning bodies - many images recur in stories that are in turn child-like and naive, grotesque and very dark.In Unstitching, a feminist revolution takes place. In Waxy, a factory worker fights to keep hold of her Man in a society where it is frowned upon to be Manless. In Agata's Machine, two schoolgirls conjure a Pierrot and an angel in a dank attic room. In Notes from a Spider, a half-man, half-spider finds love in a great European city.By constantly reinventing ways to engage with her obsessions and motifs, Camilla Grudova has come up with a method for storytelling that is highly imaginative, incredibly original, and absolutely discomfiting.Content:- Unstitching (2017)- The Mouse Queen (2017)- The Gothic Society (2017)- Waxy (2016)- The Doll's Alphabet (2017)- The Mermaid (2017)- Agata's Machine (2015)- Rhinoceros (2017)- The Sad Tale of the Sconce (2017)- Edward, Do Not Pamper the Dead (2017)- Hungarian Sprats (2017)- The Moth Emporium (2017)- Notes from a Spider (2017)
The Thrilling Adventure Hour
Ben AckerLar Desouza - 2013
Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Busy Philipps, Nathan Fillion, Linda Cardellini, Patton Oswalt, Neil Patrick Harris, and many, many more. And now those serialized characters will come to life on the pages of this hardcover anthology featuring all-new stories from the worlds of the TAH universe by top artists from the comics community! Each stand-alone tale celebrates and reinvigorates a new genre from the radio comedies of yesteryear, including science fiction, fantasy, westerns, superheroes, horror, war dramas, and many more. A unique, timey-wimey blend of silver age pulp and post-modern pop, this one-of-a-kind anthology promises something for everyone as this cult phenomenon jumps off the proscenium stage and onto the page for the first time in over eight years and 100+ consecutive shows around the globe!
The Jester
Michael J. Sullivan - 2016
A thief, a candlemaker, an ex-mercenary, and a pig farmer walk into a trap…and what happens to them is no joke. When Riyria is hired to retrieve a jester’s treasure, Royce and Hadrian must match wits with a dwarf who proves to be anything but a fool. Difficult choices will need to be made, and in the end those who laugh last do so because they are the only ones to survive.This is a graphic novel, based on Sullivan's short story The Jester, and featuring the two charming rogues who are the main characters of both of his Riyria series, No prior knowledge of The Riyria Revelations or The Riyria Chronicles is required to enjoy it to its fullest, making this a perfect introduction for new readers or a chance for Riyria veterans to spend a little more time with old friends. The Jester is a story of adventure, bonds of friendship, and a recognition that the choices we make dictates the future we find.
PYM: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket / An Antarctic Mystery
Edgar Allan Poe - 2008
Poe's work is full of mystery, horror, and a dark imagination, while Verne focuses on action and adventure. It is a fascinating look at two great literary minds as they work on the same subject: the strange voyage of Arthur Gordon Pym to the Antarctic.
The Cat's Pajamas and Other Stories
James K. Morrow - 2004
Other outlandish tales include John Wayne battling cancer using a highly alternative therapy, a gene for integrity being harvested from the brain of an unwilling donor, and the landing of Christopher Columbus in modern-day Manhattan. Included are the Locus and Nebula Award-nominated novelette Auspicious Eggs and several previously unpublished pieces.ContentsIntroduction by Michael Swanwick“Auspicious Eggs”“Come Back, Dr. Sarcophagus”“Director’s Cut”“Fucking Justice”“Isabella of Castile Answers Her Mail”“Martyrs of the Upshot Knothole”“The Cat’s Pajamas”“The Eye That Never Blinks”“The Fate of Nations”“The War of the Worldviews”“The Wisdom of the Skin”“The Zombies of Montrose”
Academic Exercises
K.J. Parker - 2014
Parker, and it is a stunner. Weighing in at over 500 pages, this generous volume gathers together thirteen highly distinctive stories, essays, and novellas, including the recent World Fantasy Award-Winner, “Let Maps to Others”. The result is a significant publishing event, a book that belongs on the shelf of every serious reader of imaginative fiction.The collection opens with the World Fantasy Award-winning “A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong”, a story of music and murder set against a complex mentor/pupil relationship, and closes with the superb novella “Blue & Gold”, which features what may be the most beguiling opening lines in recent memory. In between, Parker has assembled a treasure house of narrative pleasures. In “A Rich, Full Week”, an itinerant “wizard” undergoes a transformative encounter with a member of the “restless dead.” “Purple & Black”, the longest story in the book, is an epistolary tale about a man who inherits the most hazardous position imaginable: Emperor. “Amor Vincit Omnia” recounts a confrontation with a mass murderer who may have mastered an impossible form of magic.Rounding out the volume — and enriching it enormously — are three fascinating and illuminating essays that bear direct relevance to Parker’s unique brand of fiction: “On Sieges”, “Cutting Edge Technology”, and “Rich Men’s Skins”.Taken singly, each of these thirteen pieces is a lovingly crafted gem. Together, they constitute a major and enduring achievement. Rich, varied, and constantly absorbing, Academic Exercises is, without a doubt, the fantasy collection of the year.Contents:- A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong (2011)- A Rich, Full Week (2010)- Amor Vincit Omnia (2010)- On Sieges (2009)- Let Maps to Others (2012)- A Room with a View (2011)- Cutting Edge Technology (2011)- Illuminated (2012)-
Purple and Black
(2009)- Rich Men’s Skins; A Social History of Armour (2013)- The Sun and I (2013)- One Little Room an Everywhere (2012)-
Blue and Gold
(2010)Cover illustration by Vincent Chong
Cursed Bunny
Bora Chung - 2021
Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society.Anton Hur’s translation skilfully captures the way Chung’s prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous. Winner of a PEN/Heim Grant.
The Collected Stories of H. P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft - 2011
P. Lovecraft's stories includes 52 short stories and novellas all in one Kindle book. This edition has a fully linked active Table of Contents, with date written for each story and novella on the title pages. Table of ContentsThe Alchemist (1916)The Beast in the Cave (1918)Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919)Dagon (1919)Memory (1919)The Picture in the House (1919)The White Ship (1919)The Cats of Ulthar (1920)The Doom That Came to Sarnath (1920)Nyarlathotep (1920)Polaris (1920)The Statement of Randolph Carter (1920)The Street (1920)Ex Oblivione (1921)Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (1921)The Nameless City (1921)The Terrible Old Man (1921)The Tree (1921)Celephais (1922)The Music of Erich Zann (1922)The Tomb (1922)Hypnos (1923)The Lurking Fear (1923)I. The Shadow On The ChimneyII. A Passer In The StormIII. What The Red Glare MeantIV. The Horror In The EyesWhat the Moon Brings (1923)In the Vault (1925)He (Weird Tales, 1926)The Moon-Bog (Weird Tales, 1926)The Colour Out of Space (1927)The Horror at Red Hook (Weird Tales, 1927)Pickman's Model (Weird Tales, 1927)Cool Air (1928)The Call of Cthulhu (Weird Tales, 1928)I. The Horror In ClayII. The Tale of Inspector LegrasseIII. The Madness from the SeaThe Dunwich Horror (Weird Tales 1929)The Silver Key (Weird Tales, 1929)The Strange High House in the Mist (Weird Tales, 1931)The Whisperer in the Darkness (Weird Tales, 1931)The Other Gods (1933)The Dreams in the Witch House (Weird Tales, 1933)From Beyond (1934)The Quest of Iranon (1935)The Haunter of the Dark (Weird Tales, 1936)The Shadow out of Time (Astonishing Stories, 1936)The Shunned House (Weird Tales, 1937)The Thing on the Doorstep (Weird Tales, 1937)Azathoth (1938)The Book (1938)The Descendant (1938)The Evil Clergyman (Weird Tales, 1939)The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Weird Tales, 1941)I. A Result and a PrologueII. An Antecedent and a HorrorIII. A Search and an EvocationIV. A Mutation and a MadnessV. A Nightmare and a CataclysmThe Shadow over Innsmouth (Weird Tales, 1942)The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (The Arkham Sampler, 1948)