Here are 25 stories of science fiction that push the boundaries, by the biggest names in an emerging crop of high-tech futuristic writers including Charles Stross, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton and Neal Asher.

    He doesn't need to hunt, respects human life, and would never hurt a soul. But a series of appalling murders makes his lover, Helen, question her faith in him.

    But with the master storyteller Josh Malerman as your tour guide, you'll discover the secrets that hide behind its closed doors. These six novellas tell the story of a place where the rain is always falling, nighttime is always near, and your darkest fears and desires await. Welcome to Goblin. . . .A Man in Slices: A man proves his "legendary love" to his girlfriend with a sacrifice even more daring than Vincent van Gogh's--and sends her more than his heart.Kamp: Walter Kamp is afraid of everything, but most afraid of being scared to death. As he sets traps around his home to catch the ghosts that haunt him, he learns that nothing is more terrifying than fear itself.Happy Birthday, Hunter!: A famed big-game hunter is determined to capture--and kill--the ultimate prey: the mythic Great Owl who lives in Goblin's dark forests. But this mysterious creature is not the only secret the woods are keeping.Presto: All Peter wants is to be like his hero, Roman Emperor, the greatest magician in the world. When the famous magician comes to Goblin, Peter discovers that not all magic is just an illusion.A Mix-Up at the Zoo: The new zookeeper feels a mysterious kinship with the animals in his care . . . and finds that his work is freeing dark forces inside him.The Hedges: When his wife dies, a man builds a hedge maze so elaborate no one ever solves it--until a little girl resolves to be the first to find the mysteries that wait at its heart.

    who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor's guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch's candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high-class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them...What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty-one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.Legendary editor Ellen Datlow (Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe), winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One.

    He is the winner of numerous awards, including a Bram Stoker Award. Critics have raved about his work and fans have eagerly embraced him as a contemporary master of the macabre. — Perhaps nowhere are the reasons for his popularity more evident than in this collection of four of his most chilling novellas. Two of these dark gems received British Fantasy Awards, and another was written specifically for this book and has never previously been published. Together, these terrifying tales form a perfect showcase for this startling talent, a window into a world of horrors that once experienced, can never be forgotten.

    Featuring tales from fantasy heavyweights such as Hal Duncan, Catherynne M. Valente, Jay Lake, and Barth Anderson, the collection whisks readers from dizzying rooftop perches down to the underpasses, gutters, and the sinister secrets therein. Mutilated warrior women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, and escape artists are just some of the wonders and horrors explored in this bizarre assembly of works from voices new and old.

     There is something seriously wrong with the house at Sixty-Five Stirrup Iron Road. Its history is awash with sadistic violence and fiendish sex. For generations the house has corrupted its inhabitants. Now Arrianne and Chuck have moved in, and the house is ready to hunt once more. But this time the house's occupants won't be the only targets. No one is safe-not the reader, not the authors, and not the horror genre itself... Nine of the biggest names in horror fiction collaborate on a gore-and-sex-soaked novel with all proceeds benefiting modern master of crime and terror, Tom Piccirilli.

    All had family waiting for them. All, except two. The town of Carruthers, Texas, has seen its share of drifters and lowlifes. But never anyone like Steven and Earl. They move from town to town. Hustling the pool halls. Raising a little hell. Drinking a little blood. They sleep by day and hunt by night--the ultimate predators. The perfect life. Until now. A barroom brawl ends in disaster. The soil from Steven's grave has been stolen. And a young boy's death sparks an all out war between vampires and mortals that will turn the local Frontier Day celebration into a blood bath....

    It features some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's masters of the macabre — including Neil Gaiman, Glen Hirshberg, Tanith Lee, Ramsey Campbell, and Charles Coleman Finlay.Contents: Summer / Al Sarrantonio --Digging deep / Ramsey Campbell --Night watch / John Gordon --Luxury of harm / Christopher Fowler --Sentinels / Mark Samuels --Saffron gatherers / Elizabeth Hand --What nature abhors / Mark Morris --Last reel / Lynda E. Rucker --American dead / Jay Lake --Between the cold moon and the earth / Peter Atkins --Sob in the silence / Gene Wolfe --Continuity error / Nicholas Royle --Dr. Prida's dream-plagued patient / Michael Bishop --Ones we leave behind / Mark Chadbourn --Mine / Joel Lane --Obsequy / David J. Schow --Thrown / Don Tumasonis --Houses under the sea / Caitlín R. Kiernan --They / David Morrell --Clockwork horror / F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre --Making cabinets / Richard Christian Matheson --Pol Pot's beautiful daughter (Fantasy) / Geoff Ryman --Devil's smile / Glen Hirshberg --Man who got off the ghost train / Kim Newman --Necrology: 2006 / Stephen Jones & Kim Newman.

    Here are twenty-three original tales—stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic—produced specifically for this volume by many of today’s finest writers. Included are Orson Scott Card’s first “Alvin Maker” story in a decade, and an original adventure by Fred Van Lente, writer of Cowboys & Aliens. Other contributors include Tobias S. Buckell, David Farland, Alan Dean Foster, Jeffrey Ford, Laura Anne Gilman, Rajan Khanna, Mike Resnick, Beth Revis, Fred Van Lente, Walter Jon Williams, Ben H. Winters, Christie Yant, and Charles Yu, with an introduction by editor John Joseph Adams.CONTENTS:01 - Joe R. Lansdale, The Red-Headed Dead02 - Ben H. Winters, The Old Slow Man and his Gold Gun from Space03 - David Farland, Hellfire on the High Frontier04 - Mike Resnick, The Hell-Bound Stagecoach05 - Seanan McGuire, Stingers and Strangers06 - Charles Yu, Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger07 - Alan Dean Foster, Holy Jingle08 - Beth Revis, The Man With No Heart09 - Alastair Reynolds, Wrecking Party10 - Hugh Howey, Hell from the East11 - Rajan Khanna, Second Hand12 - Orson Scott Card, Alvin and the Apple Tree13 - Elizabeth Bear, Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle14 - Tad Williams, Strong Medicine15 - Jonathan Maberry, Red Dreams16 - Kelley Armstrong, Bamboozled17 - Tobias S. Buckell, Sundown18 - Jeffrey Ford, La Madre del Oro19 - Ken Liu, What I Assume You Shall Assume20 - Laura Anne Gilman, The Devil's Jack21 - Walter Jon Williams, The Golden Age22 - Fred Van Lente, Neversleeps23 - Christie Yant, Dead Man's Hand

    From Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar of the acclaimed Cemetery Dance Publications, Dark Screams: Volume One reaches across genres to take readers beyond the precipice of mortal toil and into the glimmering void of irreality and beyond.  WEEDS by Stephen King When a meteorite lands on his property, Jordy Verrill envisions an easy payday. Unfortunately for Jordy, this is no ordinary rock—and the uncompromising force inside has found its first target.  THE PRICE YOU PAY by Kelley ArmstrongNever pay more than you owe. Sounds like easy advice to follow. But for Kara and her childhood friend Ingrid, some debts can never be repaid . . . especially those tendered in blood.  MAGIC EYES by Bill Pronzini Edward James Tolliver has found a weary sort of asylum among the insane. He knows he’s not one of them—but how can he tell anyone about the invaders without sounding that way?  MURDER IN CHAINS by Simon Clark Imagine awaking to find yourself in an underground vault, chained by the neck to a murderous lunatic, a grunting goliath who seems more animal than man. What would you do to save yourself?  THE WATCHED by Ramsey Campbell Little Jimmy gets a glimpse of the cold truth when he finds out that it’s not always what you see that can get you into trouble; it’s who knows what you see.

    “The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen,” copyright © 2012 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr.“The Last Master of Aeronautical Winters,” copyright © 2012 by Larry D. Sweazy“Lowstone,” copyright © 2012 by Anton Strout“The Flower of Arizona,” copyright © 2012 by Seanan McGuire“The Ghost in the Doctor,” copyright © 2012 by Brenda Cooper“Surveyor of Mars,” copyright © 2012 by Christopher McKitterick“Coyote, Spider, Bat,” copyright © 2012 by Steven Saus“Maybe Another Time,” copyright © 2012 by Dean Wesley Smith“Renn and the Little Men,” copyright © 2012 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch“Showdown at High Moon,” copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Brozek"The Clockwork Cowboy,” copyright © 2012 by J. Steven York“Black Train,” copyright © 2012 by Jeff Mariotte“Lone Wolf,” copyright © 2012 by Jody Lynn Nye

    In a Kabbalistic tale of transformation, the executor of an old friend’s will is almost duped into housing his soul. In a tale of time travel between 2015 and 1975, a tragedy sparked by an angel falling onto a pizza shop is reenacted—and the event is barely, but fatally, altered. The cornerstone of the collection is a postscript to the harrowing novel of the haunting of the Romantic poets, The Stress of Her Regard. Once Byron and Shelley break free of the succubus that claimed them, their associate, Trelawny, forges an alliance with Greek rebels to reestablish the deadly connection between man and the nephilim. Fans of Powers’s renowned secret histories will delight as he deftly weaves an array of fantastical creatures into richly layered narratives of the past.

    The innovative cinematography, the unsettling music score, and the stabbing scene in the shower at the Bates Motel, have established "psycho" as an enduring classic. Filled with Janet Leigh's memories, some well-known and some never-before-published photographs, and new interviews with key players, this book takes a revealing look at one of the most famous films ever made.

    The Dark takes a look at the tormented and unquiet dead; the darkness in us, the living; and the sometimes tenuous boundary between the two.