Search Worlds Without End

Hugo and Locus Award winning short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Shadows Over Baker Street (2003), edited by John Pelan and Michael Reaves. The story can also be found in the anthologies Science Fiction: The Best of 2003, edtied by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (2004), edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link, and The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2009). It is included in the collection Fragile Things (2006).

Read the full story for free at the author's website (pdf).

Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman invite you to tour the Shambles, that historic old Chicago neighborhood which miraculously survived the Great Fire of 1871. ('Ya can't burn Hell,' as one local politician laughingly remarked.) Uniquely Chicago, the Shambles offers an array of delights for the intrepid sightseer: Cereal House with its Terribly Strange Bed (be sure to fill out the 'next of kin' form if you stay the night: a quaint touch adding to the fun of an overnight visit); the House of Clocks boasts a collection of 20,000 time pieces Ñ make sure you arrive on the hour, for an unforgettable moment; the historic H.H. Holmes' House with the bars on his children's windows still intact; Saunders Park, a soothing respite from the city streets (if one is careful), with its gardens, statuary, ornamental lake and the infamous Petting Zoo (a favorite with children, but it's best not to bring your own); plus many more intriguing sights...

In the finest tradition of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey, our trustworthy guides Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman reveal the secrets of the Shambles, finding the best places to eat, (and where not to accept food under any circumstances), where to begin your walking tour, and when to run.

The Shambles has been called a place of dark magic and deadly menace. Many will insist there is no such place. Most pray it does not exist. Certainly, a spot not to be missed by any avid sightseer.

Come along... walk lively, now. The inhabitants of the Shambles are dying to meet you.

This lovely edition of A Walking Tour of the Shambles sports a cover by Gahan Wilson, America's reigning King of Whimsical Terrors, plus interior illustrations of Shambles' locales by Randy Broecker and Earl Geier, two daring Chicagoans.

This short story originally appeared in McSweeny's, Issue 40, 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015).

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance (2009), edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, and was reprinted Lightspeed, October 2013. It is included in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Fables from the Fountain (2011), edited by Ian Whates. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 17 (2012), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015).

This novelette first appeared in the Nalo Hopkinson anthology Mojo: Conjure Stories (2003). It has been reprinted in the anthologies The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 15 (2004), edited by Stephen Jones, The Living Dead (2008), edited by John Joseph Adams and Zombies: The Recent Dead (20110), edited by Paula Guran. It is also included in the collection Fragile Things (2006).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

When Mrs. Whitaker buys the Holy Grail at a thrift shop, Sir Galahad shows up at her house determined to retrieve it.

Appeared in the 1992 anthology Grails: Quests, Visitations and Other Occurrences edited by Robert Gould.

Hugo-, Nebula-, BSFA-, Stoker, and Locus-winning, and Mythopoeic-, World-Fantasy-, and IHG-nominated Novella

When Coraline explores her new home, she steps through a door and into another house just like her own... except that it's different. It's a marvelous adventure until Coraline discovers that there's also another mother and another father in the house. They want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to keep her forever!

Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home.

Hear this novella read on a podcast from Harper Teen.

Told in the same fanciful, irreverent style as the Hitchhiker trilogy, with scraps of scripts, letters and comments from Adams, Don't Panic is the perfect companion to one of the most successful series in publishing history.

A mysterious circus terrifies an audience for one extraordinary performance before disappearing into the night, taking one of the spectators along with it...

In a novella set two years after the events of American Gods, Shadow pays a visit to an ancient Scottish mansion, and finds himself trapped in a game of murder and monsters...

In a Hugo Award-winning short story set in a strangely altered Victorian England, the great detective Sherlock Holmes must solve a most unsettling royal murder...

Two teenage boys crash a party and meet the girls of their dreams--and nightmares...

In a Locus Award-winning tale, the members of an excusive epicurean club lament that they've eaten everything that can be eaten, with the exception of a legendary, rare, and exceedingly dangerous Egyptian bird...

Such marvelous creations and more--including a short story set in the world of The Matrix, and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction--can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his terrifyingly entertaining dark sense of humor. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (2006) - essay
• A Study in Emerald - (2003) - novelette
• The Fairy Reel - (2004) - poem
• October in the Chair - (2002) - shortstory
• The Hidden Chamber - (2005) - poem
• Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire - (2004) - shortstory
• Closing Time - (2003) - shortstory
• Going Wodwo - (2002) - poem
• Bitter Grounds - (2003) - novelette
• Other People - (2001) - shortstory
• Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story - (1999) - shortstory
• Good Boys Deserve Favours - (1995) - shortstory
• Strange Little Girls - (2001) - shortstory
• Harlequin Valentine - (1999) - shortstory
• Locks - (1999) - poem
• The Problem of Susan - (2004) - shortstory
• Instructions - (2000) - poem
• My Life - (2002) - poem
• Feeders and Eaters - (2002) - shortstory
• Diseasemaker's Croup - (2003) - shortstory
• Goliath - (1998) - shortstory
• Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky - (2002) - shortstory
• How to Talk to Girls at Parties - shortstory
• The Day the Saucers Came - (2006) - poem
• Sunbird - (2005) - novelette
• Inventing Aladdin - (2003) - poem
• The Monarch of the Glen - (2003) - novelette
• Credits (Fragile Things) - (2006) - essay

There is a distinct hint of Armageddon in the air. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, armed with awkwardly antiquated instructions and stick pins. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring.... Right. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan.

Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon -- each of whom has lived among Earth's mortals for many millennia and has grown rather fond of the lifestyle -- are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him....

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Rogues (2014), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the anthology The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by Joe Hill and John Joseph Adams. The story is included as an extra in later editions of Neverwhere (1996).

Hugo Award nominated short story.

Enn is a sixteen-year-old boy who just doesn't understand girls, while his friend Vic seems to have them all figured out. Both teenagers are in for the shock of their young lives, however, when they crash a local party only to discover that the girls there are far, far more than they appear!

The story originally appeared in the collection Fragile Things (2006) and was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2007. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Alien Contact (2012), edited by Marty Halpern. The story is included in the collection M Is for Magic (2007).

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

Short story originally published in Dagon #16, 1987. Full title of the story is: I, Cthulhu, or, What's A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9' S, Longitude 126° 43' W)?

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Stories to delight, enchant, and surprise you.

Bestselling author and master storyteller Neil Gaiman here presents a breathtaking collection of tales that may chill or amuse readers--but always embrace the unexpected:

• A teenage boy who has trouble talking to girls finds himself at a rather unusual party.
• A sinister jack-in-the-box haunts the lives of the children who owned it.
• A boy raised in a graveyard makes a discovery and confronts the much more troubling world of the living.
• A stray cat fights a nightly battle to protect his adopted family from a terrible evil.

These eleven stories illuminate the real and the fantastic, and will be welcomed with great joy by Neil Gaiman's many fans as well as by readers coming to his work for the first time.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2007) - essay
• The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds - (1984) - short story
• Troll Bridge - (1993) - short story
• Don't Ask Jack - (1995) - short story
• How to Sell the Ponti Bridge - (1985) - novelette
• October in the Chair - (2002) - short story
• Chivalry - (1992) - short story
• The Price - (1997) - short story
• How to Talk to Girls at Parties - (2006) - short story
• Sunbird - (2005) - novelette man
• The Witch's Headstone - (2007) - novelette
• Instructions - (2000) - poem

Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

Neil Gaiman has long been inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction. Now he turns his attention back to the source, presenting a bravura rendition of the great northern tales.

In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin's son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki, son of a giant, blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator.

Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Once, when Thor's hammer is stolen, Thor must disguise himself as a woman, difficult with his beard and huge appetite, to steal it back. More poignant is the tale in which the blood of Kvasir, the most sagacious of gods, is turned into a mead that infuses drinkers with poetry. The work culminates in Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods and rebirth of a new time and people.

Through Gaiman's deft and witty prose emerge these gods with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to duping others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, making these long-ago myths breathe pungent life again.

Table of Contents:

• An Introduction - essay
• The Players - short story
• Before the Beginning, and After - short story
• Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds - short story
• Mimir's Head and Odin's Eye - short story
• The Treasures of the Gods - short story
• The Master Builder - short story
• The Children of Loki - short story
• Freya's Unusual Wedding - short story
• The Mead of Poets - short story
• Thor's Journey to the Land of the Giants - short story
• The Apples of Immortality - short story
• The Story of Gerd and Frey - short story
• Hymir and Thor's Fishing Expedition - short story
• The Death of Baldur - short story
• The Last Days of Loki - short story
• Ragnarok: The Final Destiny of the Gods - short story
• A Glossary - essay

A collection of funny, frivolous and frightening poems by thirty of the world's best known science fiction, fantasy and horror authors, all written in the style of A. A. Milne's Now We are Six.

Table of Contents:

• A Landlady's Lament - (1986) - poem by Ramsey Campbell
• A Mother's Tender Love - (1986) - poem by Jo Fletcher
• A Slice of Life - (1986) - poem by Diana Wynne Jones
• The Good Ship "Revenger": or, What the Crew Don't Know Won't Hurt Me - (1991) - poem by Galad Elflandsson
• Another Cursed House Story (or) Always Enquire About the Prior Tenants - (1986) - poem by John M. Ford
• Auntie Ethel - (1991) - poem by Richard Hill
• Catcawls - (1991) - poem by Samantha Lee
• Chocolate and Worms - (1991) - poem by David Garnett
• In the Dark - (1991) - poem by Storm Constantine
• Lights Out - (1991) - poem by Alex Stewart
• Mummy's Blocked the Lav Again - (1991) - poem by John Grant
• Nasty Snow - (1991) - poem by Jody Scott
• Now We Are Sick - (1986) - poem by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones
• Radio Nasty - (1991) - poem by Stephen Gallagher
• Rice Pudding - (1991) - poem by Brian W. Aldiss
• Something Came Out of the Toilet - (1991) - poem by John Brosnan
• The Answering Machine - (1991) - poem by S. P. Somtow
• The Borgia Brats - (1991) - poem by Garry Kilworth
• The Children's Hour - (1986) - poem by Alan Moore
• The Dangers of Colour TV - (1991) - poem by John Brosnan
• The Dream of Omar K. Yam - (1991) - poem by David Sutton
• The Haunted Henhouse: or The Irate Ghost of Thomas Hood - (1991) - poem by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• The Secret Book of the Dead - (1991) - poem by Terry Pratchett
• The Thing at the Top of the Stairs - (1991) - poem by Sharon Baker
• Things that Go Bump in the Night - (1991) - poem by Ian Pemble
• Waiting... - (1991) - poem by James Herbert
• Warning: Death May Be Injurious to Your Health - (1991) - poem by Robert Bloch
• When the Music Breaks - (1991) - poem by R. A. Lafferty
• Why Private War or, "Why They Pinned This Name on My Progenitor" - (1986) - poem by Gene Wolfe
• You Always Eat the One You Love - (1991) - poem by Kim Newman
• You're Deceased, Father William - (1991) - poem by Colin Greenland

Locus Award winning and WFA nomintated short story.

As the Months gather for their regular meeting their personalities shine as stories are exchanged and October tells his siblings the story of a little boy who ran away and befriended a ghost.

The story originally appeared in the anthology Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists (2002), edited by Peter Straub and Bradford Morrow. It has been reprinted many time and can also be found in the anthologies:

• Year's Best Fantasy 3 (2003), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 14 (2003), edited by Stephen Jones
• The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy (2004), edited by Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan
• Poe's Children: The New Horror: An Anthology (2008), edited by Peter Straub
• Ghosts: Recent Hauntings (2012), edited by Paula Guran

It is included in the collections Fragile Things (2006) and M is for Magic (2007).

In this inventive, short, yet perfectly formed novel inspired by traditional Norse mythology, Neil Gaiman takes readers on a wild and magical trip to the land of giants and gods and back.

In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he's had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless freezing winter is making villagers dangerously grumpy.

Out in the forest Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle--three creatures with a strange story to tell.

Now Odd is forced on a stranger journey than he had imagined--a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants who have invaded it.

It's going to take a very special kind of twelve-year-old boy to outwit the Frost Giants, restore peace to the city of gods, and end the long winter.

Someone cheerful and infuriating and clever...

Someone just like Odd .

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 14 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010), edited by Kate Bernheimer. The story is included in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015).

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy (1998), edited by Mike Ashley. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and The Book of Cthulhu 2 (2012), edited by Ross E. Lockhart. It is included in the collection Smoke and Mirrors (1998) and also appeared as a chapbook.

In the deft hands of Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion... and anything is possible. In Smoke and Mirrors, Gaiman's imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders-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.

In the sleepy English countryside at the dawn of the Victorian Era, life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall--a secluded hamlet so named for an imposing stone barrier that surrounds a fertile grassland. Armed sentries guard the sole gap in the bulwark to keep the inquisitive from wandering through, relaxing their vigil only once every nine years, when a market fair unlike any other in the world of men comes to the meadow.

Here in Wall, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to beautiful Victoria Forester. But Victoria is cold and distant--as distant, in fact, as the star she and Tristran see fall from the sky on a crisp October evening. For the coveted prize of Victoria's hand, Tristran vows to retrieve the fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends the lovelorn swain over the ancient wall, and propels him into a world that is strange beyond imagining.

But Tristran is not the only one seeking the heavenly jewel. There are those for whom it promises youth and beauty, the key to a kingdom, and the rejuvenation of dark, dormant magics. And a lad compelled by love will have to keep his wits about him to succeed and survive in this secret place where fallen stars come in many guises--and where quests have a way of branching off in unexpected directions, even turning back upon themselves in space and in time.

"The joy of fiction is the joy of the imagination...."

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.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Just Four Words - essay by Neil Gaiman
• Blood - shortstory by Roddy Doyle
• Fossil-Figures - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• Wildfire in Manhattan - shortstory by Joanne Harris
• The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• Unbelief - shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith
• The Stars Are Falling - novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
• Juvenal Nyx - novelette by Walter Mosley
• The Knife - shortstory by Richard Adams
• Weights and Measures - shortstory by Jodi Picoult
• Goblin Lake - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Mallon the Guru - shortstory by Peter Straub
• Catch and Release - shortstory by Lawrence Block
• Polka Dots and Moonbeams - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Loser - shortstory by Chuck Palahniuk
• Samantha's Diary - (2009) - shortstory by Diana Wynne Jones
• Land of the Lost - shortstory by Stewart O'Nan
• Leif in the Wind - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Unwell - shortstory by Carolyn Parkhurst
• A Life in Fictions - shortstory by Kat Howard
• Let the Past Begin - shortstory by Jonathan Carroll
• The Therapist - novelette by Jeffery Deaver
• Parallel Lines - shortstory by Tim Powers
• The Cult of the Nose - shortstory by Al Sarrantonio
• Human Intelligence - shortstory by Kurt Andersen
• Stories - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon - novella by Elizabeth Hand
• The Devil on the Staircase - (2010) - shortstory by Joe Hill

The members of an exclusive Epicurian (foodies') club dare a dish when they start to mourn that they've tried everything there is to eat -- the legendary Sunbird (phoenix), which requires a trip all the way to Egypt.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things... That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out (2005), edited by Ted Thompson and Eli Horowitz. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005, edited by Jonathan Strahan
• Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton
• Year's Best Fantasy 6 (2006), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer
• Unnatural Creatures (2013), edited by Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley

The story is included in the collections Fragile Things (2006) and M Is for Magic (2007).

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod's family...

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac - as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark, from storytelling genius Neil Gaiman. It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

A story inspired by one of David Bowie's alter egos. It first appeared in the collection Trigger Warning (2015).

Read the full story for free on Neil Gaiman's website.

There is a dark king who rules our dreams from a place of shadows and fantastic things. He is Morpheus, the lord of story. Older than humankind itself, he inhabits -- along with Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium, his Endless sisters and brothers -- the realm of human consciousness. His powers are myth and nightmare -- inspirations, pleasures, and punishments manifested beneath the blanketing mist of sleep.

Surrender to him now.

A stunning collection of visions, wonders, horrors, hallucinations, and revelations from Clive Barker, Barbara Hambly, Tad Williams, Gene Wolfe, Nancy A. Collins, and sixteen other incomparable dreamers -- inspired by the groundbreaking, bestselling graphic novel phenomenon by Neil Gaiman.

Contents:

• Preface - essay by Frank McConnell
• Masquerade and High Water - short story by Colin Greenland
• Chain Home, Low - novelette by John M. Ford
• Stronger Than Desire - short story by Lisa Goldstein
• Each Damp Thing - novelette by Barbara Hambly
• The Birth Day - short story by B. W. Clough
• Splatter - short story by Will Shetterly
• Seven Nights in Slumberland - short story by George Alec Effinger
• Escape Artist - short story by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• An Extra Smidgen of Eternity - short story by Robert Rodi
• The Writer's Child - short story by Tad Williams
• Endless Sestina - poem by Lawrence Schimel
• The Gate of Gold - short story by Mark Kreighbaum
• A Bone Dry Place - short story by Karen Haber
• The Witch's Heart - novelette by Delia Sherman
• The Mender of Broken Dreams - short story by Nancy A. Collins
• Ain't You 'Most Done? - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Valóság and Élet - short story by Steven Brust
• Stopp't-Clock Yard - novelette by Susanna Clarke
• Afterword: Death - essay by Tori Amos

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales (2013), edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt.

It was the closest kingdom to the queen's, as the crow flies, but not even the crows flew it.

You may think you know this story. There's a young queen about to be married. There are some good, brave, hardy dwarfs; a castle shrouded in thorns; and a princess cursed by a witch, so rumor has it, to sleep forever.

But no one is waiting for a noble prince to appear on his trusty steed here. This fairy tale is spun with a thread of dark magic, which twists and turns and glints and shines. A queen might just prove herself a hero if a princess needs rescuing....

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011, edited by Paula Guran, and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015).

You ask me if I can forgive myself? I can forgive myself for many things. For where I left him. For what I did.

The text of The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains was first published in the collection anthology Stories: All New Tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (2010). This gorgeous full-color illustrated book version was born of a unique collaboration between writer Neil Gaiman and artist Eddie Campbell, who brought to vivid life the characters and landscape of Gaiman's story.

Hugo-nominated Related Work

An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics--from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories--observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's probing, amusing, and distinctive style.

An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestselling fiction. Now, The View from the Cheap Seats brings together for the first time ever more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author's experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Insightful, incisive, witty, and wise, The View from the Cheap Seats explores the issues and subjects that matter most to Neil Gaiman--offering a glimpse into the head and heart of one of the most acclaimed, beloved, and influential artists of our time.

Bod (NoBODy Owens), raised in a cemetary by ghosts, his guardian a vampire. Why can't he be friends with the ghost of a witch? All she wants is a headstone.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy (2007), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Two (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan, Year's Best Fantasy 8 (2008), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 (2008), edited by Stephen Jones, and Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful (2012), edited by Paula Guran. It is included in the collection M Is for Magic (2007).

Multiple award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume.

In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well "Black Dog," a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.

Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In Adventure Story--a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane--Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience A Calendar of Tales are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year--stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale The Case of Death and Honey. And Click-Clack the Rattlebag explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we're all alone in the darkness.

A sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, Gaiman entrances with his literary alchemy, transporting us deep into the realm of imagination, where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday incandescent. Full of wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul from one of the most unique and popular literary artists of our day.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Neil Gaiman
• Making a Chair - (2011) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• A Lunar Labyrinth - (2013) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• The Thing About Cassandra - (2010) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Down to a Sunless Sea - (2013) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains..." - (2010) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• My Last Landlady - (2010) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Adventure Story - (2012) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Orange - (2008) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• A Calendar of Tales - (2013) - shortfiction by Neil Gaiman
• The Case of Death and Honey - (2011) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury - (2012) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Jerusalem - (2007) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Click-Clack the Rattlebag - (2012) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• An Invocation of Incuriosity - (2009) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• "And Weep, Like Alexander" - (2011) - shortfiction by Neil Gaiman
• Nothing O'Clock - (2013) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale - (2009) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• The Return of the Thin White Duke - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Feminine Endings - (2008) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Observing the Formalities - (2009) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• The Sleeper and the Spindle - (2013) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• Witch Work - (2012) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• In Relig Odhráin - (2011) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Black Dog - novelette by Neil Gaiman

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Snow White, Blood Red (1993), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and was reprinted in Realms of Fantasy, October 1994. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and Happily Ever After (2011), edited by John Klima. It is included in the collections Smoke and Mirrors (1998) and M Is for Magic (2007).

Unnatural Creatures is a collection of short stories about the fantastical things that exist only in our minds--collected and introduced by beloved New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman.

The sixteen stories gathered by Gaiman, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, range from the whimsical to the terrifying. The magical creatures range from werewolves to sunbirds to beings never before classified. E. Nesbit, Diana Wynne Jones, Gahan Wilson, and other literary luminaries contribute to the anthology.

Sales of Unnatural Creatures benefit 826DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students in their creative and expository writing, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Neil Gaiman
• * - (1972) - short story by Gahan Wilson
• The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees - (2011) - short story by E. Lily Yu
• The Griffin and the Minor Canon - (1885) - short story by Frank R. Stockton
• Ozioma the Wicked (2013) - short fiction by Nnedi Okorafor
• Sunbird - (2005) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• The Sage of Theare - (1982) - novelette by Diana Wynne Jones
• Gabriel-Ernest - (1909) - short story by Saki
• The Cockatoucan; or, Great-Aunt Willoughby - (1900) - short story by E. Nesbit
• Moveable Beast (2013) - short fiction by Maria Dahvana Headley
• The Flight of the Horse - (1969) - short story by Larry Niven
• Prismatica - (1977) - novelette by Samuel R. Delany
• The Manticore, the Mermaid, and Me (2013) - short fiction by Megan Kurashige
• The Compleat Werewolf - (1942) - novella by Anthony Boucher
• The Smile on the Face - (2004) - short story by Nalo Hopkinson
• Or All the Seas with Oysters - (1958) - short story by Avram Davidson
• Come Lady Death - (1963) - short story by Peter S. Beagle

'It followed me home,' he said, conversationally.

In a rural northern village, legend tells of a ghostly black dog that appears from the darkness before you die.

Shadow Moon has been on the road a while now but he can't walk any further tonight, not with the rain lashing down. Gratefully, he heads home with a nice English couple, who offer a box room, hot whisky and local tales.

But when the man collapses en route, Shadow realises that something about this place has been left untold.

Something ancient, something within the very walls of the village.

Something shadowing them all.

Black Dog originally appeared in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015). It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight (2016), edited by Ellen Datlow, Best New Horror #27 (2017), edited by Stephen Jones, and The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016, edited by Paula Guran.

The storm was coming....

Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.

On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.

But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter -- all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.

Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.

All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought -- and the prize is the very soul of America.

As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.

God is dead. Meet the kids.

When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life.

Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself.

When Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman and Emmy Award winner Michael Reaves teamed up, they created the bestselling YA novel InterWorld.

InterWorld tells the story of Joey Harker, a very average kid who discovers that his world is only one of a trillion alternate earths. Some of these earths are ruled by magic. Some are ruled by science. All are at war.

Joey teams up with alternate versions of himself from an array of these worlds. Together, the army of Joeys must battle evil magicians Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo to keep the balance of power between all the earths stable.

Written by New York Times bestselling authors Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves, The Silver Dream is a riveting sequel to InterWorld, full of bravery, loyalty, time and space travel, and the future of a young man who is more powerful than he realizes.

Dangerous times lie ahead, and if Joey Harker has any hope of saving InterWorld and the Altiverse, he's going to have to rely on his wits--and, just possibly, on the mysterious Time Agent Acacia Jones.

The heart-pounding conclusion to the bestselling InterWorld series, from Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves! Eternity's Wheel is full of time and space travel, magic, science, and the bravery of a young boy who must now face his destiny as a young man.

Joey Harker never wanted to be a leader. But he's the one everyone is looking to now that FrostNight looms, and he'll have to step up if he has any hope of saving InterWorld, the Multiverse, and everything in between.

Locus Award winning short story. It originally appeared in the anthology A Study in Sherlock (2011), edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six (2012), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013), edited by Paula Guran. The story is included in the collection Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015).

World Fantasy Award winning story in graphic format. Is was written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess. It originally appeared in Sandman #19.

Twenty-five years since THE SANDMAN first changed the landscape of modern comics, Neil Gaiman's legendary series continues!

THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE heralds New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman's return to the art form that made him famous, ably abetted by artistic luminary JH Williams III (BATWOMAN, PROMETHEA), whose lush, widescreen images provide an epic scope to The Sandman's origin story.

From the birth of a galaxy to the moment that Morpheus is captured, THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE will feature cameo appearances by fan-favorite characters such as The Corinthian, Merv Pumpkinhead and, of course, the Dream King's siblings: Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny.

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

During Morpheus's incarceration, three dreams escaped the Dreaming and are now loose in the waking world. At the same time, a young woman named Rose Walker is searching for her little brother. As their stories converge, a vortex is discovered that could destroy all dreamers, and the world itself. Features an introduction by Clive Barker.

The third book of the Sandman collection is a series of four short comic book stories. In each of these otherwise unrelated stories, Morpheus serves only as a minor character. Here we meet the mother of Morpheus's son, find out what cats dream about, and discover the true origin behind Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream. The latter won a World Fantasy Award for best short story, the first time a comic book was given that honor.

Ten thousand years ago, Morpheus condemned a woman who loved him to Hell. Now the other members of his immortal family, The Endless, have convinced the Dream King that this was an injustice. To make it right, Morpheus must return to Hell to rescue his banished love -- and Hell's ruler, the fallen angel Lucifer, has already sworn to destroy him.

Take an apartment house, add in a drag queen, a lesbian couple, some talking animals, a talking severed head, a confused heroine and the deadly Cuckoo. Stir vigorously with a hurricane and Morpheus himself and you get this fifth installment of the SANDMAN series. This story stars Barbie, who first makes an appearance in THE DOLL'S HOUSE and now finds herself a princess in a vivid dreamworld.

The critically acclaimed THE SANDMAN: FABLES AND REFLECTIONS continues the fantastical epic of Morpheus, the King of Dreams, as he observes and interacts with an odd assortment of historical and fictional characters throughout time. Featuring tales of kings, explorers, spies, and werewolves, this book of myth and imagination delves into the dark dreams of Augustus Caesar, Marco Polo, Cain and Abel, Norton I, and Orpheus to illustrate the effects that these subconscious musings have had on the course of history and mankind.

Delirium, youngest brother of the Endless, prevails upon her brother, Dream, to help her find their missing sibling. Their travels take them through the world of the waking until a final confrontation with the missing member of the Endless and the resolution of Dream's relationship with his son change the Endless forever.

When Brant and Charlene wreck their car in a horrible snowstorm in the middle of nowhere, the only place they can find shelter is a mysterious little inn called World's End. Here they wait out the storm and listen to stories from the many travelers also stuck at this tavern. These tales exemplify Neil Gaiman's gift for storytelling--and his love for the very telling of them. This volume has almost nothing to do with the larger story of the Sandman, except for a brief foreshadowing nod. It's a nice companion to the best Sandman short story collection, Dream Country, (and it's much better than the hodgepodge Fables and Reflections). World's End works best as a collection--it's a story about a story about stories--all wrapped up in a structure that's clever without being cute, and which features an ending nothing short of spectacular.

Distraught by the kidnapping and presumed death of her son, and believing Morpheus to be responsible, Lyta Hall calls the ancient wrath of the Furies down upon him. A former superheroine blames Morpheus for the death of her child and summons an ancient curse of vengeance against the Lord of Dream. The "kindly ones" enter his realm and force a sacrifice that will change the Dreaming forever.

A groundbreaking and award-winning epic that masterfully creates a modern myth of dark fantasy, the Sandman series tells the tale of Morpheus, the King of Dreams. As a being of infinite power, Morpheus has ruled over the realm of the dreaming since the beginning of time. But now after a tragic fall, Morpheus is no more. In the touching and final chapter of this fantastical legend, friends, siblings, enemies and lovers gather to mourn and honor the fallen Lord. Realistically depicting the feelings of loss and despair associated with death, THE SANDMAN: THE WAKE is an emotional tale of remembrance and rebirth.