Book picks similar to
Swords of the Four Winds: Tales of Swords and Sorcery in an Ancient East That Never Was by Dariel Quiogue
sword-and-silk
sword-and-sorcery
ancient-world
anthologies
The Shadows over Marquette (Journey Book 3)
Alex Gilbert - 2021
Dark Albion
David Brian - 2009
Now though, Mary is on the verge of breaking a story which could change the world forever. She has uncovered evidence of something that cannot possibly exist. But Mary knows the threat is real. Should she run with the story, or just bury it and get on with her career? And can she stay alive long enough to make a decision either way? Dark Albion is a novelette length slice of Horror, supported in this highly entertaining and innovative collection by seven other tales of Paranormal Mystery, Suspense and Dread. Traci Thornberry has been persuaded into covering the late shift at the Halfway House Hotel. She has never much enjoyed working nights, and after tonight she'll never want to cover a late shift again.Vlad has hunted his prey across the major cities of the world for many years, and after arriving amid the bright lights of London, he is excited at the prospect of this new hunting ground... Sometimes though, things don't go quite as planned. A wonderfully twisted collection of horror short stories, featuring weird and disturbing tales, which make up the strange world of Dark Albion.
The Vampire Chronicles: The Queen of the Damned, Interview with the Vampire, the Vampire Lestat, etc
Source Wikipedia - 2011
If you would prefer to read the unedited articles in their old format for free, we have provided a list of the article titles under "chapters" below. Simply go to Wikipedia and use their search form to locate each individual article.)Chapters: The Queen of the Damned, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Memnoch the Devil, The Tale of the Body Thief, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Those Who Must Be Kept, The Vampire Armand, Blood and Gold, Marius de Romanus, Maharet and Mekare, Pandora, Jessica Miriam Reeves, Khayman, Daniel Molloy, Talamasca Caste, Merrick, Blood Canticle, Vittorio the Vampire, Théâtre des Vampires, Merrick Mayfair, Amel, Blackwood Farm, Mona Mayfair, Avicus, Santiago.
The Forgotten (The MacKinnon Legacy #2)
J.A. Templeton - 2015
Before she can enjoy her freshman year, she's targeted by the spirit of Jaime, a girl who had gone missing months before. Jaime needed Madison's help to find her killer, but now that her body’s been found, she’s MIA. The same can’t be said for the malevolent spirits who want Madison to steer clear of the killer and his victims. Despite the danger she is in, Jaime’s brother, Haven continues to push Madison to find the killer. He won't stop until he gets justice for his sister. Madison’s hometown crush, Shane insists she forget about Jaime and the killer and get on with her life, but that's hard to do when no one will leave her alone. Torn between the two handsome men and her conscience that is telling her to find the killer, Madison has to make a decision—ignore the psychic visions and clues or keep digging for answers and become the killer’s next victim. The Forgotten is the final book in The MacKinnon Legacy series and is intended for readers over 17.
The Boy on the Bridge: Extended Free Preview
M.R. Carey - 2017
Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy.The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world.To where the monsters lived.
Happy Nightmares! Thriller Omnibus
Susan May - 2019
DEADLY MESSENGERS
Nobody's listening, so he'll just keep killing.Three massacres in the same city, the same month. Two detectives discover a link that can't possibly exist. One journalist unwittingly holds the answers. Zero clues to a killer who sends a deadly message.Kendall's usual freelance work consists of fluff magazine pieces until she scores an interview with the survivor of a horrific mass killing. Seven people brutally murdered with an axe at a cafe, with the killer left dead at the scene. She’ll soon discover these killings are part of a plan far greater than just these crimes. Someone is sending a message and soon many more will die.
BEHIND THE FIRE
What if all that stood between us and hell was a match?An ordinary couple stand accused of a heinous crime. They're the last people you'd expect to save the world. Are they criminals, heroes or completely insane? Or maybe all three?Something terrifying has led Bobby and Emily to leave their two young children with a sitter while they embarked on a crazy fire-bug spree. That something was an incredible secret they'd promised to protect. Inspired by true-life headlines, this is the tale of the random appearances of frightening black things, and one couple's battle to protect their town from these dangerous and hellish creatures.
BACK AGAIN
Between life and death lies fate and one hell of a fightA single mom struggles with unexplained lost time. An angry young woman makes a fatal mistake, taking them on a collision course that will shatter their lives to pieces.Since childhood, Dawn has "lost time." She awakens in strange places, far away from her last memory. Now she's just trying to be a good mom to her son while fearing another blackout episode. Kylie is over her dead-end job and has just been fired. As she drives from the supermarket lot, she picks up her cell to send a text. In the next terrifying moment, she’ll realize the gravity of her mistake when Dawn’s and her destinies collide.
Stranger
Satyajit Ray - 2001
* New Edition. * Includes a new translation of 'Fotikchand'.
True Crime Case Histories - Volume 7: 12 Disturbing True Crime Stories (True Crime Collection)
Jason Neal - 2021
Real true crime is not for everyone. The stories in this book represent humanity at its absolute worst. Pure evil. Television crime shows and news articles often skip the gruesome parts of true crime stories. The real details are just too grisly for the average viewer or reader.In my books, however, I do my best to include the details, regardless of how unsettling they may be. Each story requires hours of research. I search through old newspaper articles, court documents, police reports, autopsy results, and first-hand descriptions. Some of the specifics can be disconcerting. I choose to include the details not to shock, but to give the reader a deeper view into the mind of the killer. Although it’s unlikely any of us will understand the motives of a diabolical monster, the level of depravity will keep you turning pages.That being said, if you are overly squeamish about the details of true crime, this book may not be for you. If you’re okay with it… then let’s begin.Volume 7 features: Longer stories, more photos, a bonus chapter, and an online appendix with additional photos, videos, and documents. Volume 7 of True Crime Case Histories features twelve new stories from the past fifty years.A sampling of the stories include:You’ll read about a law enforcement officer that took advantage of the trust associated with his uniform. His brutal reign of terror lasted eight years. It took the bravery of two young women that escaped his grasp to bring him down.There’s the story of the recent law school graduate with a crush on his neighbor. Rather than asking her out on a date, he stalked and spied on his classmate, eventually taking her life. There’s also the heartbreaking story of a single mom, drowning in debt, that did the unthinkable for insurance money.Seven of the stories in this book feature women killers, two of which took the time to meticulously dismember their victims—a task that can take great strength. Another woman manipulated her two teenage boys into killing for her. Yet another woman staged an elaborate hoax to get rid of her loving husband rather than go through the agony of a messy divorce.You’ll also read of a sadistic group of up to twelve killers that took joy in abducting and torturing young men in Australia. Sadly, only one of the mysterious group has been brought to justice.Plus many more disturbing stories.The twelve stories in this volume are shocking and disturbing, but they’re true. These things really happen in the world. We may never understand why killers do what they do, but at least we can be better informed. You may have heard of a few of the stories in this volume, but there are several I’m almost certain you haven’t.
True Ghost Stories: Jim Harold's Campfire 5
Jim Harold - 2016
It makes you wonder what is REALLY out there?" -- Reader, Beverly (on Campfire 4)
*Each of the first four books in the Campfire series has reached #1 Best Seller status on the Kindle Supernatural rankings on Amazon.
FREE Audio Download with Purchase
On this special audio Campfire, Jim replays his 5 favorite stories as told by the actual experiencers! Get the exclusive link with your purchase of True Ghost Stories: Campfire 5!
Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus
Robert E. Howard - 2017
Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author. The hardcover, a Multimedia Bundle Edition, includes the e-book and audiobook editions as downloadable bonus content.Excerpt from Introduction:"When the first Conan of Cimmeria story appeared in the pages of Weird Tales magazine in December 1932, nothing quite like it had ever before appeared in print.Author Robert E. Howard had been writing stories broadly similar to it for half a decade; but it was with Conan, and the Hyborian Age storyworld in which he was placed, that Howard finally fully doped out the sub-genre that would become known as “sword and sorcery,” of which Howard is today considered the founding father."Conan’s origins date back to an experiment in 1926 titled “The Shadow Kingdom,” featuring the character Kull, exile of Atlantis. The idea — Howard’s great innovation — was, at its core, historical fiction set in a pre-historical period. That pre-historical period — being, of course, lost in the mists of time — could contain anything Howard might like to include: evil races of sentient snake-things, sorcerers, undead creatures, demons walking upon the earth, anything."In other words, Howard was creating a secular mythology."And as with any mythology, secular or no, there would be a hero, a Ulysses or a Theseus, an exceptional man of legend striding through that myth-world, sword in hand, righting wrongs and slaying supernatural monsters and, along the way, providing metaphorical insight onto his world and ours."At the same time, he was finding success with another historical-fiction-fusion innovation: The grim, savage English Puritan Solomon Kane. Kane’s world was the skull-strewn chaos of Europe and north Africa during the Thirty Years War, in the early 1600s. Little enough is known about specific events during that dark time that it was possible to take historical liberties with it as a storyworld, so that it could accommodate dark magic, walking skeletons, vampires, magic staffs, and, of course, N’Longa the witch-doctor."Howard quickly realized he was onto something with Solomon Kane. The first Solomon Kane story, “Red Shadows,” appeared in August 1928 in Weird Tales, and readers loved it. Here was a dark, brooding world of menace and witchcraft connected pseudo-genealogically to their own. It was easy for readers to “take the ride” — to suspend their disbelief and envision Kane’s adventures as a part of the real world."But, perhaps the connection with the real world was too close. The countries of 1630s Europe are well known; the causes of the conflict fully understood. There was only so much Howard could do in Solomon Kane’s world. Moreover, Solomon Kane is just a hard character to root for. Unlike Kull, he is, not to put too fine a point on it, really not a sane man."So it makes perfect sense that after the shadowy, prehistoric world of Kull and the dark, necromantic world of Solomon Kane, Howard would combine these two precursors to develop a world that was far enough into the distant past to be free of actual historical constraints — like Kull’s — yet close enough to the present to still exist as echoes and legends in the world’s mythologies."And so Howard created The Hyborian Age, circa 10,000 B.C. And to play the role of our avatar as we explore this shadowy, almost-historical world, he gave us Conan the Cimmerian - to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."
Manuscript 512
Rick Chesler - 2018
Thought to be buried somewhere within the Mato Grosso region of the Amazon rainforest, the lure of the vanished riches has long proven deadly to treasure-seekers who brave the forbidding wilderness and mysterious creatures in search of it. Disgraced historian Dr. Hunter Winslow, fired from a lucrative professorship for stealing rare documents in order to gain a competitive edge over his colleagues, thinks the key to Manuscript 512 lies not in its words, but in its paper itself. The only problem is that to confirm his hypothesis means to destroy the document, something the Brazil National Library in Rio de Janeiro will never allow. But old habits die hard, and Hunter knows his way around a Special Collections room. After a brazen theft that triggers an international manhunt, the rogue historian is able to reveal the document’s secrets in a way no one else can, or ever will be able to again—by using its physical properties to reveal missing sections that had supposedly been irreversibly damaged. Armed with this new information, Hunter embarks on an expedition to the deepest Amazon to put to rest the mystery of the lost city once and for all. But while Hunter is looking for the fabled treasure, the long arm of the law is looking for him. Will they catch up to him before he can locate the treasure of a thousand lifetimes, or will he become as lost as the city he seeks?
The Darwin Effect
Mark Lukens - 2016
They are all suffering from short-term memory loss and they can't remember why or how they got on this ship. The onboard computer (MAC) tells them that it was programmed to wake them up early. They believe MAC woke them up by mistake. They can't re-enter suspended animation, there's only enough food for a few months, and they are too far away to return to Earth ... but even if they could return, MAC tells them that the Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war. They realize that they are all going to die on this ship.Cromartie, the unelected leader of their group, tries his best to keep the others calm, but soon they are at each other's throats. After one of them is found murdered, Cromartie and Sanders form an alliance. Cromartie tells Sanders that pieces of his memories are beginning to come back to him in his dreams; he believes he's seeing clues to their survival.But after the next murder, Cromartie and Sanders must work fast to find the mind-blowing key to their survival and figure out which one of them is the killer before it's too late.
The Sweetman Curve
Graham Masterton - 1979
Investigations into brutal random murders on the California freeways dramatically touch the lives of a presidential aspirant, an aging movie star, and a brilliant scientist with a deadly secret.
The Forsaken Boy, a werewolf novel
Troy Tradup - 2010
Weirdo. Queer. Tonto. Redskin.People have tormented Brandon Turner his entire life. For eighteen years, he's been abused, humiliated, ostracized -- hated.Maybe it's his shabby clothes. Maybe it's the bruises on his arms or the haunted look in his eyes. Or maybe it's some essential, unexplainable difference hidden deep inside. Not quite white, not quite Indian, and soon now ... not quite human.Because Brandon is about to walk a lonely country road and discover a hunger and a power he'd never imagined.By the light of the next full moon, Brandon will reintroduce himself to the town that's always hated him.And for anyone in his path, the only option will be to run ...