With Clarke's characteristic historical detail and diction, these dark, enchanting tales unfold in a slightly distorted version of our own world, where people are bedeviled by mischievous interventions from the fairies. With appearances from beloved characters from her novel, including Jonathan Strange and Childermass, and an entirely new spin on certain historical figures, including Mary, Queen of Scots, this is a must-have for fans of Susanna Clarke's and an enticing introduction to her work for new readers. Some of these stories have never before been published; others have appeared in the "New York Times" or in highly regarded anthologies."" In this collection, they come together to expand the reach of Clarke's land of enchantment--and anticipate her next novel (Fall 2008).

    and anything is possible. In this, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders -- a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under "Pest Control," and where a frightened young boy must barter for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks. Explore a new reality -- obscured by smoke and darkness, yet brilliantly tangible -- in this extraordinary collection of short works by a master prestidigitator. It will dazzle your senses, touch your heart, and haunt your dreams.

    Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction. Here in one volume are twelve of her greatest stories, including double award-winner "Fire Watch," set in the universe of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, in which a time-traveling student learns one of history's hardest lessons. In "A Letter from the Clearys," a routine message from distant friends shatters the fragile world of a beleaguered family. In "The Sidon in the Mirror," a mutant with the unconscious urge to become other people finds himself becoming both killer and victim. Disturbing, revealing, and provocative, this remarkable collection of short fiction brings together some of the best work of an incomparable writer whose ability to amaze, confound, and enlighten never fails.Contents:Fire Watch (1982)Service for the Burial of the Dead (1982)Lost and Found (1982)All My Darling Daughters (1985)The Father of the Bride (1982)A Letter from the Clearys (1982)And Come from Miles Around (1979)The Sidon in the Mirror (1983)Daisy, in the Sun (1979)Mail-Order Clone (1982)Samaritan (1978)Blued Moon (1984)

    This book began a series of novels set in an alternate Britain where certain gifted individuals wield the powers of the elements: earth, air, fire, and water, for good or ill. The headquarters of this secret organization is London's White Lodge, and it is led by the aristocratic and powerful David Alderscroft, a Fire Master of unrivaled abilities known to insiders as "The Wizard of London." From his seemingly traditional men's club in the city, Lord Alderscroft and his fellow Masters monitor the magical doings in their realm, and find, guide, protect, and train all those in the British Isles who are born with the ability to control the elements. Be they commoners, women, or those not completely human, these Masters set aside the rigid customs of their day to help those gifted with magic.Inspired by this magically parallel turn-of-the-century Britain, other time travelers have followed Mercedes Lackey to this universe to add their gifts to this rich world. Join Tanya Huff, Diana Paxson, Fiona Patton, Elisabeth Waters, and others in the very first anthology of the Elemental Masters, including a never before published story by the real head of the White Lodge — Mercedes Lackey.

    . . ." The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal. Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world—from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult—the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and "master anthologist" (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this "new literature of the imagination" is high. "We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all." Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man's descent into evil in "Devil on the Staircase." In "Catch and Release," Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in "Unwell." Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in "Wildfire in Manhattan." Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams's "The Knife." Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in "The Therapist." A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman's novelette "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains." As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume—sure to become a classic—will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction.

    There are princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune’s fool stealing into the present instead of the future. In one mesmerizing tale, a time-traveling angel is forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather’s religious ravings, while another narrative finds a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen and returning the treasure that is rightfully hers. Bewitching, bittersweet, and deeply intoxicating, this collection draws elements from the fables of history and re-creates them in startlingly magical ways.

    Tolkien composed his own version, now published for the first time, of the great legend of Northern antiquity, in two closely related poems to which he gave the titles The New Lay of the Völsungs and The New Lay of Gudrún.In the "Lay of the Völsungs" is told the ancestry of the great hero Sigurd, the slayer of Fáfnir most celebrated of dragons, whose treasure he took for his own; of his awakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild, who slept surrounded by a wall of fire, and of their betrothal; and of his coming to the court of the great princes who were named the Niflungs (or Nibelungs), with whom he entered into blood-brotherhood. In that court there sprang great love but also great hate, brought about by the power of the enchantress of the Niflungs, skilled in the arts of magic, of shape-changing and potions of forgetfulness.In scenes of dramatic intensity, of confusion of identity, thwarted passion, jealousy, and bitter strife, the tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild, of Gunnar the Niflung and Gudrún his sister, mounts to its end in the murder of Sigurd at the hands of his blood-brothers, the suicide of Brynhild, and the despair of Gudrún. In the "Lay of Gudrún" her fate after the death of Sigurd is told, her marriage against her will to the mighty Atli, ruler of the Huns (the Attila of history), his murder of her brothers the Niflung lords, and her hideous revenge.Deriving his version primarily from his close study of the ancient poetry of Norway and Iceland known as the Poetic Edda (and where no old poetry exists, from the later prose work Völsunga Saga), J.R.R. Tolkien employed a verse-form of short stanzas whose lines embody in English the exacting alliterative rhythms and the concentrated energy of the poems of the Edda.

    Mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories have all been written about cats.From legendary editor Ellen Datlow comes Tails of Wonder and Imagination, showcasing forty cat tales by some of today’s most popular authors. With uncollected stories by Stephen King, Carol Emshwiller, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, Dennis Danvers, and Theodora Goss and a previously unpublished story by Susanna Clarke, plus feline-centric fiction by Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George R.R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Joyce, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Marshall Smith, and many others.Tails of Wonder and Imagination features more than 200,000 words of stories in which cats are heroes and stories in which they’re villains; tales of domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, cats transformed into people. And yes, even a few cute cats.Table of Contents:"Through the Looking Glass (excerpt)" - Lewis Carroll"No Heaven Will Not Ever Heaven Be..." - A. R. Morlan"The Price" - Neil Gaiman"Dark Eyes, Faith, and Devotion" - Charles de Lint"Not Waving" - Michael Marshall Smith"Catch" - Ray Vukcevich"The Manticore Spell" - Jeffrey Ford"Catskin" - Kelly Link"Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality" - Michaela Roessner"Guardians" - George R. R. Martin"Life Regarded as a Jigsaw Puzzle of Highly Lustrous Cats" - Michael Bishop"Gordon, the Self-Made Cat" - Peter S. Beagle"The Jaguar Hunter" - Lucius Shepard"Arthur's Lion" - Tanith Lee"Pride" - Mary A. Turzillo"The Burglar Takes a Cat" - Lawrence Block"The White Cat" - Joyce Carol Oates"Returns" - Jack Ketchum"Puss-Cat" - Reggie Oliver"Cat in Glass" - Nancy Etchemendy"Coyote Peyote" - Carole Nelson Douglas"The Poet and the Inkmaker's Daughter" - Elizabeth Hand"The Night of the Tiger" - Stephen King"Every Angel is Terrifying" - John Kessel"Candia" - Graham Joyce"Mbo" - Nicholas Royle"Bean Bag Cats(R)" - Edward Bryant"Antiquities" - John Crowley"The Manticore's Tale" - Catherynne M. Valente"In Carnation" - Nancy Springer"Old Foss is the Name of His Cat" - David Sandner"A Safe Place to Be" - Carol Emshwiller"Nine Lives to Live" - Sharyn McCrumb"Tiger Kill" - Kaaron Warren"Something Better than Death" - Lucy Sussex"Dominion" - Christine Lucas"Tiger in the Snow" - Daniel Wynn Barber"The Dweller in High Places" - Susanna Clarke"Healing" - Benjamin Dennis Danvers"The Puma" - Theodora Goss

    Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is filled with subtle shades of gray. Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R.R. Martin himself offers a brand-new A Game of Thrones tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire history of Ice and Fire.Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, and Connie Willis, as well as other masters of literary sleight-of-hand, in this rogues gallery of stories that will plunder your heart — and yet leave you all the richer for it.Contents:- Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie (a Red Country story)- What Do You Do? (aka The Grownup) by Gillian Flynn- The Inn of the Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes- Bent Twig by Joe R. Lansdale (a Hap and Leonard story)- Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick- Provenance by David Ball- The Roaring Twenties by Carrie Vaughn- A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch- Bad Brass by Bradley Denton- Heavy Metal by Cherie Priest- The Meaning of Love by Daniel Abraham- A Better Way to Die by Paul Cornell (a Jonathan Hamilton story)- Ill Seen in Tyre by Steven Saylor- A Cargo of Ivories by Garth Nix (a Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz story)- Diamonds From Tequila by Walter Jon Williams (a Dagmar story)- The Caravan to Nowhere by Phyllis Eisenstein (a Tales of Alaric the Minstrel story)- The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives by Lisa Tuttle- How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman (a Neverwhere story)- Now Showing by Connie Willis- The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss (a Kingkiller Chronicle story)- The Rogue Prince, or, A King’s Brother by George R.R. Martin (a Song of Ice and Fire story)

    Here are traditional tales about the trees and plants that shape our landscapes and our lives through the seasons. They explore the complex relationship between people and plants, in lowlands and uplands, fields, bogs, moors, woodlands and towns.Suitable for all ages, this is an essential collection of stories for anyone interested in botany, the environment and our living heritage.

    That’s when New York Times best-selling author Terry Brooks offered to donate a short story Shawn could sell toward alleviating those bills—and suggested Shawn ask the same of his other friends.Unfettered is the result, an anthology built to relieve that debt, featuring short stories by some of the best fantasy writers in the genre.Every story in this volume is new and, like the title suggests, the writers were free to write whatever they wished. Authors contributing are -Walker and the Shade of Allanon by Terry Brooks (a Shannara tale)-Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks (a precursor to the Word/Void trilogy)-How Old Holly Came To Be by Patrick Rothfuss (a Four Corners tale)-River of Souls by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (a Wheel of Time tale)-The Old Scale Game by Tad Williams-Martyr of the Roses by Jacqueline Carey (a precursor to the Kushiel series)-Dogs by Daniel Abraham-Mudboy by Peter V. Brett (a Demon Cycle tale)-Nocturne by Robert V. S. Redick-The Sound of Broken Absolutes by Peter Orullian (a Vault of Heaven tale)-The Coach with Big Teeth by R.A. Salvatore-Keeper of Memory by Todd Lockwood (a Summer Dragon tale)-Game of Chance by Carrie Vaughn-The Lasting Doubts of Joaquin Lopez by Blake Charlton-The Chapel Perilous by Kevin Hearne (an Iron Druid tale)-Select Mode by Mark Lawrence (a Broken Empire tale)-All the Girls Love Michael Stein by David Anthony Durham-Strange Rain by Jennifer Bosworth (a Struck epilogue tale)-Unbowed by Eldon Thompson (a Legend of Asahiel tale)-In Favour with Their Stars by Naomi Novik (a Temeraire tale)-The Jester by Michael J. Sullivan (a Riyria Chronicles tale)-The Duel by Lev Grossman (a Magicians tale)-The Unfettered Knight by Shawn Speakman (an Annwn Cycle tale)and artist Todd Lockwood, who donated artwork as well as a story.With the help of stalwart friends and these wonderful short stories, Shawn has taken the gravest of life hardships and created something magical. Unfettered is not only a fantastic anthology in its own right but it’s a testament to the generosity found in the science fiction and fantasy community—proof that humanity can give beyond itself when the need arises.After all, isn’t that the driving narrative in fantasy literature?

    Yeats included almost every sort of Irish folk in this marvelous compendium of fairy tales and songs that he collected and edited for publication in 1892.-- Yeats was fascinated by Irish myths and folklore, and joined forces with the writers of the Irish Literary Revival. He studied Irish folk tales and chose to reintroduce the glory and significance of Ireland's past through this unique literature.

    The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists. A newly married couple become participants in an apocalyptic beauty pageant. Sexy blond aliens invade New York City. A young girl learns how to make herself disappear.These eleven extraordinary stories are quirky, spooky, and smart. They all have happy endings. Every story contains a secret prize. Each story was written especially for you.Stories from Stranger Things Happen have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Award. Stranger Things Happen was a Salon Book of the Year, one of the Village Voice's 25 Favorite Books of 2001, and was nominated for the Firecracker Alternative Book Award.Contents:- Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1998)- Water Off a Black Dog's Back (1995)- The Specialist's Hat (1998)- Flying Lessons (1995)- Travels with the Snow Queen (1996/1997)- Vanishing Act (1996)- Survivor's Ball, or, The Donner Party (1998)- Shoe and Marriage (2000)- Most of My Friends Are Two-Thirds Water (2001)- Louise's Ghost (2001)- The Girl Detective (1999)Cover painting by Shelley Jackson

    But in the Five Hundred Kingdoms, nothing's ever simple—and the wrong blonde goddess is stolen by mistake, leaving Prince Leopold without his new bride. At least until he braves the realm of the dead to get her back….Cast in Moonlight by New York Times bestselling author Michelle SagaraBarely a teenager, Kaylin Neya is a thief, a fugitive and an attempted assassin. She also has a smart mouth, sharp wits and mysterious markings on her skin. All of which make her perfect bait for a child prostitution sting in the city of Elantra—if she survives her first meeting with the Hawks!Retribution by Cameron HaleyIn the underworld, there are tricks to killing. Like executing rivals at crossroads so ghosts won't follow you home. But sometimes retribution is hard to avoid—and now a supernatural hit man has a contract on Domino Riley's life. Luckily she knows a thing or two about death….

    As A.S. Byatt renders this relationship with a powerful combination of erudition and passion, she makes the interaction of the natural and the supernatural seem not only convincing, but inevitable.The companion stories in this collection each display different facets of Byatt's remarkable gift for enchantment. They range from fables of sexual obsession to allegories of political tragedy; they draw us into narratives that are as mesmerizing as dreams and as bracing as philosophical meditations; and they all us to inhabit an imaginative universe astonishing in the precision of its detail, its intellectual consistency, and its splendor.