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Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology

Peter Ahlstrom

From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story's creation.

Brandon Sanderson's "Sixth of the Dusk," set in his Cosmere universe shared by the Mistborn books and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a lone trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him.

Mary Robinette Kowal's "A Fire in the Heavens" is a powerful tale of a refugee seeking to the near-mythical homeland her oppressed people left centuries ago. When Katin discovers the role the "eternal moon" occupies in the Center Kingdom, and the nature of the society under its constant light, she may find enemies and friends in unexpected places.

Dan Wells's "I.E.Demon" features an Afghanistan field test of a piece of technology that is supposed to handle improvised explosive devices. Or so the engineers have told the EOD team that will be testing it; exactly what it does and how it does it are need-to-know, and the grunts don't need to know. Until suddenly the need arises.

Howard Tayler's "An Honest Death" stars the security team for the CEO of a biotech firm about to release the cure for old age. When an intruder appears and then vanishes from the CEO's office, the bodyguards must discover why he is lying to them about his reason for pressing the panic button.

For years the hosts of Writing Excuses have been offering tips on brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revision, and now they offer an exhaustive look at the entire process. Not only does Shadows Beneath have four beautifully illustrated fantastic works of fiction, but it also includes transcripts of brainstorming and workshopping sessions, early drafts of the stories, essays about the stories' creation, and details of all the edits made between the first and final drafts.

Come for the stories by award-winning authors; stay for the peek behind the creative curtain.

Table of Contents:

  • Welcome to the Writing Excuses Anthology - essay by Brandon Sanderson
  • A Fire in the Heavens - interior artwork by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein
  • A Fire in the Heavens - novelette by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • I.E.Demon - interior artwork by Kathryn Layno
  • I.E.Demon - shortstory by Dan Wells
  • An Honest Death - interior artwork by Ben McSweeney
  • An Honest Death - shortstory by Howard Tayler
  • Sixth of the Dusk - interior artwork by Kekai Kotaki
  • Sixth of the Dusk - novelette by Brandon Sanderson
  • Writing Excuses 7.51: Brainstorming with Mary - essay by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal and Dan Wells and Howard Tayler
  • First Draft: A Fire in the Heavens - novelette by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Writing Excuses 9.30: Workshopping A Fire in the Heavens - essay by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal and Howard Tayler and Dan Wells
  • Edits: A Fire in the Heavens - novelette by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Writing Excuses 7.35: Brainstorming with Dan - essay by Dan Wells and Howard Tayler and Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Writing I.E.Demon - essay by Dan Wells
  • First Draft: I.E.Demon - shortstory by Dan Wells
  • Second Draft: I.E.Demon - shortstory by Dan Wells
  • Edits: I.E.Demon - shortstory by Dan Wells
  • Writing Excuses 8.9: Brainstorming with Howard - essay by Howard Tayler and Mary Robinette Kowal and Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells
  • First Draft: An Honest Death - shortstory by Howard Tayler
  • Second Draft: An Honest Death - shortstory by Howard Tayler
  • Writing Excuses 9.31: Workshopping An Honest Death - essay by Brandon Sanderson and Eric James Stone and Howard Tayler and Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Edits: An Honest Death - shortstory by Howard Tayler
  • Writing An Honest Death - essay by Howard Tayler
  • Writing An Honest Death - interior artwork by Howard Tayler
  • Writing Excuses 9.31: Brainstorming with Brandon - essay by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal and Dan Wells and Howard Tayler
  • First Draft: Sixth of the Dusk - novelette by Brandon Sanderson
  • Writing Excuses 9.28 and 9.29: Workshopping Sixth of the Dusk - essay by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal and Dan Wells and Howard Tayler
  • Edits: Sixth of the Dusk - novelette by Brandon Sanderson
  • When Your Story's Climax Isn't an Ending: Fixing Sixth of the Dusk - essay by Brandon Sanderson

Iron Shadows

Steven Barnes

Iron Shadows... an exciting, fast-paced thriller about a charismatic cult with a dark underside, a riveting adventure filled with passion and danger.

Cat Juvell has a black belt and a knack for solving difficult cases. She and her partner have been hired by a wealthy industrialist to retrieve his sister - and the family's millions - from the control of a mysterious cult known as the Golden Sun.

The cult's young leaders, twins Joy and Tomo, are said to have miraculous powers to heal and transform - and the cult's inner circle are rumored to perform erotic rituals in a quest to reach a higher consciousness.

But there are suggestions of darker practices, and a whispered phrase - Iron Shadows - that hints at a long-slumbering conspiracy of terror.

Shadows of Eternity

Gregory Benford

This novelette origianally appeared in the anthology Extrasolar (2017), edited by Nick Gevers. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke.

Shadows of Eternity

Gregory Benford

Shadows of Eternity is a novel set two centuries from now. Humanity has established a SETI library on the moon to decipher and interpret the many messages from alien societies we have discovered. The most intriguing messages are from complete artificial intelligences.

Ruth, a beginner Librarian, must talk to alien minds--who have aggressive agendas of their own. She opens doors into strangeness beyond imagination--and in her quest for understanding nearly gets killed doing it.

In the Shadows of Men

Robert Jackson Bennett

In the desolate flats of west Texas, two brothers purchase an old motel with the intent of renovating it and making a fortune off the population surge brought about by the fracking boom. Though each man is lured there by the promise of wealth, they are also fleeing something: a history of trauma, of failure, of family abuse, and shame.

But the motel proves to have a history of its own. Once the business of a distant relative of theirs, Corbin Pugh, the brothers begin to discover signs that it might have been more than just a motel back during the wildcatter days of the last oil boom.

As they live and labor in its dusty halls, fighting the crawling feeling that they are not alone here, they begin to wonder: what kind of a man was Corbin Pugh? What happened in the rooms he owned, so many decades ago? And is the motel changing them, warping them to become more ruthlessly ambitious and brutal - or is this what men must become in order to survive on the edge of civilization?

Green Shadows, White Whale

Ray Bradbury

In 1953, the brilliant but terrifying titan of cinema John Huston summons the young writer Ray Bradbury to Ireland. The apprehensive scribe's quest is to capture on paper the fiercest of all literary beasts -- Moby Dick -- in the form of a workable screenplay so the great director can begin filming.

But from the moment he sets foot on Irish soil, the author embarks on an unexpected odyssey. Meet congenial IRA terrorists, tippling men of the cloth impish playwrights, and the boyos at Heeber Finn's pub. In a land where myth is reality, poetry is plentiful, and life's misfortunes are always cause for celebration, Green Shadows, White Whale is the grandest tour of Ireland you'll ever experience -- with the irrepressible Ray Bradbury as your enthusiastic guide.

Shifting Shadows

Patricia Briggs

A collection of all-new and previously published short stories featuring Mercy Thompson, "one of the best heroines in the urban fantasy genre today" (Fiction Vixen Book Reviews), and the characters she calls friends...

Includes the new stories...

"Silver"
"Roses in Winter"
"Redemption"
"Hollow"

...and reader favorites

"Fairy Gifts"
"Gray"
"Alpha and Omega"
"Seeing Eye"
"The Star of David"
"In Red, with Pearls"

Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World

David Brin
Stephen W. Potts

Young people log their lives with hourly True Confessions. Cops wear lapel-cams and spy agencies peer at us -- and face defections and whistle blowers. Bank records leak and "uncrackable" firewalls topple. As we debate internet privacy, revenge porn, the NSA, and Edward Snowden, cameras get smaller, faster, and more numerous.

Has Orwell's Big Brother finally come to pass? Or have we become a global society of thousands of Little Brothers -- watching, judging, and reporting on one another?

Partnering with the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, and inspired by Brin's nonfiction book, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?, noted author and futurist David Brin and scholar Stephen W. Potts have compiled essays and short stories from writers such as Robert J. Sawyer, James Morrow, William Gibson, Damon Knight, Jack McDevitt, and many others to examine the benefits and pitfalls of technological transparency in all its permutations.

Among the many questions...

Do we answer surveillance with sousveillance, shining accountability upward?

Will we spiral into busybody judgmentalism? Or might people choose to leave each other alone?

Will empathy increase or decrease in a more transparent world?

What if we could own our information, and buy and sell it in a web bazaar?

Table of Contents:

Ad Justitiam Per Lucem

  • "Mine, Yours, Ours" (2017) short story by Jack Skillingstead
  • "Insistence of Vision" (2013) short story by David Brin [Twelve Tomorrows]
  • "Planetbound" (2017) short story by Nancy Fulda
  • "The Right's Tough" (2004) short story by Robert J. Sawyer [Visions of Liberty]
  • "The Circuit Riders" (1962) short story by R. C. FitzPatrick [Analog, April 1962]
  • "The Werewolves of Maplewood" (2017) short story by James Morrow
  • "The Road to Oceania" (2003) essay by William Gibson [The New York Times, 2003]

Surveillance--Sousveillance

  • "I See You" (1976) short story by Damon Knight [The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1976]
  • "Eyejacked" (2017) short story by David Walton
  • "FeastWar" (2016) short story by Vylar Kaftan [Tor.com, December 2016]
  • "Your Lying Eyes" (2017) short story by Jack McDevitt
  • "The Disaster Stack" (revised version, 2017) short story by Vernor Vinge (original version available to read for free here)

Lies And Private Lives

  • "First Presentation" (2017) short story by Aliette de Bodard
  • "AfterShift Memories" (2017) short story by David Ramirez
  • "Spew" (1994) short story by Neal Stephenson [WIRED Magazine, 1994 and Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing, 2012]
  • "Private Life in Cyberspace" (1991) essay by John Perry Barlow [Communications of the ACM, June 1991]

Big Brother, Little Brother, Village

  • "Elderjoy" (2016) short story by Gregory Benford [Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2016]
  • "Street Life in the Emerald City" (2017) short story by Brenda Cooper
  • "The Eyes Have It" (2017) short story by Stephen W. Potts

No Place To Hide

  • "Preferences" (2017) short story by Cat Rambo
  • "Vectors" (2017) short story by Stephen Gaskell
  • "Public Domain" (2017) short story by Scott Sigler
  • "To See the Invisible Man" (1963) short story by Robert Silverberg [Worlds of Tomorrow, April 1963]
  • "The Disconnected" (2017) short story by Ramez Naam

Looking Back... And Looking Up

  • "Eminence" (2017) short story by Karl Schroeder
  • "Sport" (2014) short story by Kathleen Ann Goonan [Exit Strategies, New Scientist]
  • "Elephant on Table" (2017) short story by Bruce Sterling
  • "Afterword: A Tsunami of Light" (2017) essay by David Brin

The Gaudy Shadows

John Brunner

Tileman could make our fantasies come true - create reality from your dreams - for a very high fee. Catering to the desires of London's most powerful - and decadent - figures, Tileman had top-level connections to guarantee him protection and influence.

But he had killed Laird Walker's best friend - and Walker, the dead man's sister, and a bizarre nightclub entertainer began a private war on Tileman... a war whose final battle was unimaginable horror.

Masks and Shadows

Stephanie Burgis

The year is 1779, and Carlo Morelli, the most renowned castrato singer in Europe, has been invited as an honored guest to Eszterháza Palace. With Carlo in Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's carriage, ride a Prussian spy and one of the most notorious alchemists in the Habsburg Empire. Already at Eszterháza is Charlotte von Steinbeck, the very proper sister of Prince Nikolaus's mistress. Charlotte has retreated to the countryside to mourn her husband's death. Now, she must overcome the ingrained rules of her society in order to uncover the dangerous secrets lurking within the palace's golden walls. Music, magic, and blackmail mingle in a plot to assassinate the Habsburg Emperor and Empress--a plot that can only be stopped if Carlo and Charlotte can see through the masks worn by everyone they meet.

Weird Shadows from Beyond

John Carnell

Table of Contents:

  • 11 - Introduction (Weird Shadows from Beyond) - essay by John Carnell
  • 13 - Danse Macabre - (1963) - short story by Mervyn Peake
  • 23 - Blood Offering - (1961) - short story by John Kippax
  • 39 - Same Time, Same Place - (1963) - short story by Mervyn Peake
  • 49 - Master of Chaos - [The Elric Saga] - (1964) - short story by Michael Moorcock
  • 63 - Wednesday's Child - [Child's Play - 2] - (1956) - short story by William Tenn
  • 83 - Dial 'O' for Operator - (1958) - novelette by Robert Presslie
  • 101 - The Flowers of the Forest - (1957) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss (variant of Flowers of the Forest)
  • 111 - Fresh Guy - (1958) - short story by E. C. Tubb
  • 127 - The Garden of Paris - short story by Eric C. Williams [as by Eric Williams]
  • 145 - The Graveyard Reader - (1958) - short story by Theodore Sturgeon

In Darkness, Shadows Breathe

Catherine Cavendish

You're next...

Carol and Nessa are strangers but not for much longer.

In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions - bending and twisting time itself - and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define.

Through it all, the words of Lydia Warren Carmody haunt them. But who was she? And why have Carol and Nessa been chosen?

The answer lies deep in the darkness...

A War of Shadows

Jack L. Chalker

In California, the victims are blind. In Maine, severely retarded. Small towns across America are being systematically "wiped out" by terrorists and their campaign of germ warfare waged against the U.S. The President's only option seems to be an equally deadly counterattack.

King of Shadows

Susan Cooper

Only in the world of the theater can Nat Field find an escape from the tragedies that have shadowed his young life. So he is thrilled when he is chosen to join an American drama troupe traveling to London to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream in a new replica of the famous Globe theater.

Shortly after arriving in England, Nat goes to bed ill and awakens transported back in time four hundred years - to another London, and another production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Amid the bustle and excitement of an Elizabethan theatrical production, Nat finds the warm, nurturing father figure missing from his life - in none other than William Shakespeare himself. Does Nat have to remain trapped in the past forever, or give up the friendship he's so longed for in his own time?

A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows

Gardner Dozois

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1999. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2002, edtied by Kim Stanley Robinson and the collections Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois (2001) and When the Great Days Come (2011).

Weighing Shadows

Lisa Goldstein

A new time-traveling fantasy from National Book Award-winner Lisa Goldstein.

Ann Decker fixes computers for a living, and in the evenings she passes the time sharpening her hacking skills. It's not a very interesting life, but she gets by--until one day she's contacted with a job offer for a company called Transformations Incorporated. None of her coworkers have ever heard of it before, and when Ann is finally told what the company does, she can hardly believe it: TI has invented technology to travel in time.

Soon Ann is visiting a matriarchy in ancient Crete, and then a woman mathematician at the Library of Alexandria. But Transformations Incorporated remains shrouded in mystery, and when Ann finally catches her breath, there are too many troubling questions still unanswered. Who are Transformations Incorporated, and what will they use this technology to gain? What ill effects might going back in time have on the present day? Is it really as harmless as TI says?

When a coworker turns up dead, Ann's superiors warn her about a covert group called Core out to sabotage the company. Something just isn't right, but before she has time to investigate, Ann is sent to a castle in the south of France, nearly a thousand years in the past. As the armies of the Crusade arrive to lay siege, and intrigue grows among the viscount's family, Ann will discover the startling truth--not just about the company that sent her there, but also about her own past.

A Crowd of Shadows

Charles L. Grant

Nebula Award winning and Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1976. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Winners Twelve (1978), edited by Gordon R. Dickson and the collection A Glow of Candles and Other Stories (1981).

Shadows Fall

Simon R. Green

Shadows Fall is the place where all stories find their ending, all quests are concluded and every lost soul finds its way home at last. Strange people and stranger creatures walk the sprawling streets and there are doors that can take you anywhere, to lands that no longer exist and worlds that someday might. But now Shadows Fall is under threat and the town has just one night in which to save itself.

A Skinful of Shadows

Frances Hardinge

A Skinful of Shadows is a dark YA historical fantasy set in the early part of the English Civil War. Kate is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family, and as such, she shares their unique hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. Reluctant to accept her appointed destiny as vessel for a coterie of her ancestors, she escapes. As she flees the pursuing Fellmottes across war-torn England, she accumulates a motley crew of her own allies, including outcasts, misfits, criminals, and one extremely angry dead bear. From Costa Book of the Year winner Frances Hardinge comes a new dark historical fantasy that's sure to satisfy her leagues of fans who are eager for more.

Shadows of the White Sun

Raymond Harris

Vell hangs in the sky like a rosy pearl, but it is indeed a poor, dry planet, where people starve and armies devastate whole continents, where superstition thrives and half the year is spent in darkness.

To Vell comes Seren of Khryashs, warrior and warlord, running from the death of his bitterest rival, Rhamant, the leading warrior, the Spear of Gheo. For all know of their rivalry, and all think Seren murdered the Spear.

Following Seren, dreaming of lust and vbengeance, is Risha Skhorb, court lady of Gheo, caught up in an interplanetary web of political intrigue.

Risha must wear the luruka scars, carved deep into her flesh, and she must accept the mantle of the goddess Ijejl, danding dreams and bringing visions, if she is to track down the man she loathes--and loves.

She bring him to justice... or perish in the attempt.

Cast Long Shadows

Cat Hellisen

Marjeta Petrell.

Replacement bride, shadow of a dead and perfect wife, step-mother to a duke's treasured daughter.

A girl out of her depth, alone and afraid.

Magic runs deep in her veins, stitched in blood ties, embroidered with kindness and pain.

In an unfamiliar court, Marjeta must discover who are her friends and who are enemies; who she can trust before she is accused of witchcraft and executed.

When Shadows Fall

L. Ron Hubbard

In a future where Mother Earth has cast her children to the distant stars to begin anew and colonize the cosmos, the planet remains depleted of natural resources. Its air polluted by caustic iron and belching smoke, Earth faces her last desperate days in the grip of global environmental collapse.

In one final and feeble effort, Earth's Grand President Mankin musters the dregs of his fleet and sends three separate missions to the deepest reaches of space. Their mission: solicit help from far-flung colonial civilizations, or watch the planet die.

Also includes the science fiction adventures, "Battling Bolto," the story of a giant, con man who's running an interstellar scam, while the biggest trick of all lies right under his nose; and "Tough Old Man," in which an aging constable's lack of feelings is not a matter of insensitivity, but of a secret--and surprising--side of his character.

Contents:

  • Tough Old Man - (1950) - novelette
  • When Shadows Fall - (1948) - short story
  • Battling Bolto - (1950) - short story

Shadows

Shaun Hutson

In Oxford and Paris psychic investigators are attempting to probe forbidden areas of the mind. In New York, writer David Blake is studying the methods of miracle healer Jonathon Mathias. Driven by their own desperate motives, these researchers are about to unlock Pandora's Box.

One Hundred Shadows

Hwang Jungeun

An oblique, hard-edged novel tinged with offbeat fantasy, One Hundred Shadows is set in a slum electronics market in central Seoul - an area earmarked for demolition in a city better known for its shiny skyscrapers and slick pop videos. Here, the awkward, tentative relationship between Eungyo and Mujae, who both dropped out of formal education to work as repair-shop assistants, is made yet more uncertain by their economic circumstances, while their matter-of-fact discussion of a strange recent development - the shadows of the slum's inhabitants have started to 'rise' - leaves the reader to make up their own mind as to the nature of this shape-shifting tale.

Hwang's spare prose is illuminated by arresting images, quirky dialogue and moments of great lyricism, crafting a deeply affecting novel of perfectly calibrated emotional restraint. Known for her interest in social minorities, Hwang eschews the dreary realism usually employed for such issues, without her social criticism being any less keen. As well as an important contribution to contemporary working-class literature, One Hundred Shadows depicts the little-known underside of a society which can be viciously superficial, complicating the shiny, ultra-modern face which South Korea presents to the world.

Promise of Shadows

Justina Ireland

Zephyr Mourning has never been very good at being a Harpy. She'd rather watch reality TV than learn forty-seven ways to kill a man, and she pretty much sucks at wielding magic. Zephyr was ready for a future pretending to be a normal human instead of a half-god assassin. But all that changed when her sister was murdered--and Zephyr used a forbidden dark power to save herself from the same fate.

On the run from a punishment worse than death, an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend upends Zephyr's world--and not only because her old friend has grown surprisingly, extremely hot. It seems that Zephyr might just be the Nyx, a dark goddess that is prophesied to shift the power balance: for hundreds of years the half-gods have lived in fear, and Zephyr is supposed to change that.

But how is she supposed to save everyone else when she can barely take care of herself?

Clive Barker's Shadows in Eden

Stephen Jones

In this unique book about horror fiction writer Clive Barker, readers get a fascinating look at the man and his work through a collection of interviews, essays, reviews, and discussions. Heavily illustrated with rare photos, stills, and drawings, 16 in full color. With an introduction by Stephen King.

Bleeding Shadows

Joe R. Lansdale

Bleeding Shadows is Joe R. Lansdale's largest, most varied collection to date. Weighing in at 480 pages and 150,000 words, these stories, poems, and novellas--supplemented by the author's introduction and by an invaluable set of story notes--move effortlessly from horror, adventure, and suspense to literary pastiche. It is, by any measure, a major addition to an already impressive body of work.

The volume opens with "Torn Away," in which a small town sheriff encounters a man on the run from his own predatory shadow. The stories that follow come from all points of the narrative compass. In "Morning, Noon, and Night," a young boy stumbles across a monstrous, multi-faceted killer from which there is no escape. "The Bleeding Shadow" is a tale of music, monsters, and deals-with-the devil set in post-WWII Texas. In "Star Light, Eyes Bright," an ordinary husband makes a startling discovery, one that leads to an unimaginable act of personal transformation. Elsewhere, the author offers us twisted Christmas stories ("Santa at the Café"), tales of a zombie apocalypse ("A Visit with Friends"), and one story--"Christmas with the Dead"--that encompasses both of these elements. Other highlights include a pair of informed, affectionate acts of literary homage. "Metal Men of Mars" pays tribute to the Martian novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, while in "Dread Island," the masterful novella that concludes this collection, the world of Huckleberry Finn merges seamlessly with the worlds of H. P. Lovecraft and Joel Chandler Harris.

Sometimes funny, often horrifying, and always compulsively readable, this generous gathering of stories--few of which have previously appeared in book form--constitutes a significant publishing event. Bleeding Shadows is an indispensable, vastly entertaining volume, one that no admirer of Joe R. Lansdale's distinctive brand of fiction can afford to miss.

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction
  • Torn Away
  • The Bleeding Shadow
  • A Visit with Friends
  • Christmas Monkeys
  • Christmas with the Dead
  • Quarry
  • Six Finger Jack
  • Mr. Bear
  • Old Man in the Motorized Chair
  • Apache Witch
  • Soldierin'
  • Death Before Bed
  • Apocalypse
  • A Strange Poem
  • Little Words
  • The Man
  • Dead Air
  • Dog in Winter
  • Hide and Horns
  • The Stars are Falling
  • Metal Men of Mars
  • Morning, Noon, and Night
  • Santa at the Café
  • What Happened to Me
  • Oink
  • Star Light, Eyes Bright
  • Dead Sister
  • Shooting Pool
  • The Folding Man
  • Dread Island
  • Story Notes

Conservation of Shadows

Yoon Ha Lee

There is no such thing as conservation of shadows. When light destroys shadows, darkness does not gain in density elsewhere. When shadows steal over earth and across the sky, darkness is not diluted...

In this debut collection of short fiction from one of science fiction and fantasy's most notable new writers, Yoon Ha Lee often integrates tropes of science fiction with elements of myth to create tales that are both wonderfully fresh and deeply ancient. No matter what the theme, her wide variety of stories are strikingly original and always indelible.

Table of Contents:

Conservation of Shadows

Yoon Ha Lee

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #59 August 2011. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2012, edited by Paula Guran and Clarkesworld: Year Five (2013), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke. It is included in the collection Conservation of Shadows (2013).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Ship of Shadows

Fritz Leiber

Hugo Award winning and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1969. The story can also be found in the anthologies World's Best Science Fiction: 1970, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: A Special 25th Anniversary Anthology (1974), edited by Edward L. Ferman, and The Hugo Winners, Volume 3: (1970-75) (1977), edited by Isaac Asimov. It is included in the collections Ship of Shadows (1979), The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber (1990), Gummitch and Friends (1992) and Masters of Science Fiction: Fritz Leiber (2016). It is half of Tor Double #5: No Truce With Kings/Ship of Shadows (1989, with Poul Anderson).

Ship of Shadows (collection)

Fritz Leiber

A collection of stories.

FABULOUS VOYAGER...

Fritz Leiber, America's finest fantasist, is the winner of six Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. In this award winning new collection you can be transported to a shadowy alternate reality where Germany won the Second World War; watch a man play dice with the devil; sail in the farthest realms of dark imagining, or observe a war being fought back and forth across time on a shuttle of shifting and uncertain reality...

These are tales of humour and horror, invention and enchantment, conjuring us into the incomparable universe of Fritz Leiber, a fabulous voyager in the incandescent world of his own imagining.

Table of Contents:

The Shadows Between Us

Tricia Levenseller

"They've never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart. And they never will."

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:

1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.

No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King's power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she's going to do everything within her power to get it.

But Alessandra's not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen--all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

Game of Shadows

Erika Lewis

Thousands of years ago in Ireland, an ancient race fought a world-changing battle -- and lost. Their land overrun, the Celtic gods and goddesses fled, while the mythical races and magical druids sailed to an uncharted continent, cloaked so mankind could never find it. This new homeland was named Tara.

In modern day Los Angeles, Ethan Makkai struggles with an overprotective mother who never lets him out of her sight, and a terrifying secret: he can see ghosts. Desperate for a taste of freedom, he leaves his apartment by himself for the first time -- only to find his life changed forever. After being attacked by dive-bombing birds, he races home to find the place trashed and his mother gone.

With the help of a captain from Tara who has been secretly watching the Makkais for a long time, Ethan sets out to save his mother; a journey that leads him to the hidden lands, and straight into the arms of a vicious sorcerer who will stop at nothing until he controls Tara. With new-found allies including Christian, the cousin he never knew he had, and Lily, the sword-slinging healer who'd rather fight than mend bones, Ethan travels an arduous road -- dodging imprisonment, battling beasts he thought only existed in nightmares, and accepting help from the beings he's always sought to avoid: ghosts. This L.A. teen must garner strength from his gift and embrace his destiny if he's going to save his mother, the fearless girl he's fallen for, and all the people of Tara.

Songs of Stars and Shadows

George R. R. Martin

A feast of legends to savor - some with a shudder, some with a smile - Deadly spiders big as pumpkins consume victims who scream with joy...The saga of a man who lives alone on his own planet...Adrian Colmer, Master Probe, takes on a client who claims to be the subject of telepathic torment...An all-too-possible revolution in the United States, post-1984...How Jupiter got its thirteenth moon...And other astonishing tales.

Table of Contents

Shadows

Robin McKinley

Maggie knows something's off about Val, her mom's new husband. Val is from Oldworld, where they still use magic, and he won't have any tech in his office-shed behind the house. But--more importantly--what are the huge, horrible, jagged, jumpy shadows following him around? Magic is illegal in Newworld, which is all about science. The magic-carrying gene was disabled two generations ago, back when Maggie's great-grandmother was a notable magician. But that was a long time ago.

Then Maggie meets Casimir, the most beautiful boy she has ever seen. He's from Oldworld too--and he's heard of Maggie's stepfather, and has a guess about Val's shadows. Maggie doesn't want to know... until earth-shattering events force her to depend on Val and his shadows. And perhaps on her own heritage.

In this dangerously unstable world, neither science nor magic has the necessary answers, but a truce between them is impossible. And although the two are supposed to be incompatible, Maggie's discovering the world will need both to survive.

House of Shadows

Phyllis Miller
Andre Norton

Mike and Susan feel a mounting sense of urgency and terror as they try to protect their younger brother who seems threatened by an invisible and powerful force in a house that has long been in their family, on which there is supposedly a curse.

She Walks in Shadows

Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Paula R. Stiles

They emerge from the shadows, to claim the night.... Women from around the world delve into Lovecraftian depths, penning and illustrating a variety of Weird horrors. The pale and secretive Lavinia wanders through the woods, Asenath is a precocious teenager with an attitude, and the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Nitocris has found a new body in distant America. And do you have time to hear a word from our beloved mother Shub-Niggurath? Defiant, destructive, terrifying, and harrowing, the women in She Walks in Shadows are monsters and mothers, heroes and devourers. Observe them in all their glory. Iä! Iä!

Table of Contents:

  • "Bitter Perfume" by Laura Blackwell
  • "Violet is the Color of Your Energy" by Nadia Bulkin
  • "Body to Body to Body" by Selena Chambers
  • "Magna Mater" by Arinn Dembo
  • "De Deabus Minoribus Exterioris Theomagicae" by Jilly Dreadful
  • "Hairwork" by Gemma Files
  • "The Head of T'la-yub" by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
  • "Bring the Moon to Me" by Amelia Gorman
  • "Chosen" by Lyndsey Holder
  • "Eight Seconds" by Pandora Hope
  • "Cthulhu of the Dead Sea" by Inkeri Kontro
  • "Turn out the Light" by Penelope Love
  • "The Adventurer's Wife" by Premee Mohamed
  • "Notes Found in a Decommissioned Asylum, December 1961" by Sharon Mock
  • "The Eye of Juno" by Eugenie Mora
  • "Ammutseba Rising" by Ann K. Schwader
  • "Cypress God" by Rodopi Sisamis
  • "Lavinia's Wood" by Angela Slatter
  • "The Opera Singer" by Priya Sridhar
  • "Provenance" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
  • "The Thing in The Cheerleading Squad" by Molly Tanzer
  • "Lockbox" by E. Catherine Tobler
  • "When She Quickens" by Mary Turzillo
  • "Shub-Niggurath's Witnesses" by Valerie Valdes
  • "Queen of a New America" by Wendy N. Wagner

House of Shadows

Rachel Neumeier

Orphaned, two sisters are left to find their own way. Sweet and proper, Karah's future seems secure at a glamorous Flower House. She could be pampered for the rest of her life... if she agrees to play their game.

Nemienne, neither sweet nor proper, has fewer choices. Left with no alternative, she accepts a mysterious mage's offer of an apprenticeship. Agreeing means a home and survival, but can Nemienne trust the mage? With the arrival of a foreign bard into the quiet city, dangerous secrets are unearthed, and both sisters find themselves at the center of a plot that threatens not only to upset their newly found lives, but also to destroy their kingdom.

House of Small Shadows

Adam Nevill

Catherine's last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a top television production company saw her fired and forced to leave London, but she was determined to get her life back. A new job and now things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself - to catalogue the late M H Mason's wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Rarest of all, she'll get to examine his elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting scenes from World War I. When Mason's elderly niece invites her to stay at the Red House itself, where she maintains the collection, Catherine can't believe her luck. Until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle's 'Art'. Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but M H Mason's damaged visions raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she'd hoped had finally been erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge. And some truths seem too terrible to be real.

Brother to Shadows

Andre Norton

A senior member of an order of spies, assassins, and bodyguards forces Jofre out into an unfamiliar world, where he encounters an obsessed alien archaeologist and a beautiful, deadly rival. By the award-winning author of the "Witch World" series.

Stalking Shadows

Cyla Panin

Seventeen-year-old Marie mixes perfumes to sell on market day in her small eighteenth-century French town. She wants to make enough to save a dowry for her sister, Ama, in hopes of Ama marrying well and Marie living in the level of freedom afforded only to spinster aunts. But her perfumes are more than sweet scents in cheap, cut-glass bottles: A certain few are laced with death. Marie laces the perfume delicately--not with poison but with a hint of honeysuckle she's trained her sister to respond to. Marie marks her victim, and Ama attacks. But she doesn't attack as a girl. She kills as a beast.

Marking Ama's victims controls the damage to keep suspicion at bay. But when a young boy turns up dead one morning, Marie is forced to acknowledge she might be losing control of Ama. And if she can't control her, she'll have to cure her. Marie knows the only place she'll find the cure is in the mansion where Ama was cursed in the first place, home of Lord Sebastien LaClaire. But once she gets into the mansion, she discovers dark secrets hidden away--secrets of the curse, of Lord Sebastien... and of herself

Those Shadows Laugh

Geoff Ryman

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September-October 2016. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eleven (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Shadows

John Saul

They call it the Academy. A secluded, cliff-top mansion overlooking the rugged Pacific coast. A school for children gifted -- or cursed -- with extraordinary minds. Children soon to come under the influence of an intelligence even more brilliant than their own -- and unspeakably evil. For within this mind a dark plan is taking form. A plan so horrifying, no one will believe it. No one but the children. And for them it is already too late. Too late, unless one young student can resist the seductive invitation that will lead... into the Shadows.

Silk Roads and Shadows

Susan Shwartz

Alexandra, sister of the dying Emperor of Byzantium, undertakes a mission to smuggle live silkworms from the mysterious Empire of Ch'in. Hounded by ferocious sorcery and an array of magical helpers, she must walk the length of the known world to save an empire threatened by her very existence.

Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror by Lovecraft, Chambers, Machen, Poe, and Other Masters of the Weird

D. Thin

From the fictional land of Carcosa that inspired the HBO show True Detective to H. P. Lovecraft's accursed New England hills, this collection features some of the most legendary landscapes of the cosmic horror genre. The collection includes the following twelve stories:

  • Edgar Allan Poe, "MS. Found in a Bottle"
  • Bram Stoker, "The Squaw"
  • Ambrose Bierce, "Moxon's Master"
  • Ambrose Bierce, "The Damned Thing"
  • Ambrose Bierce, "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"
  • R. W. Chambers, "The Repairer of Reputations"
  • M. P. Shiel, "The House of Sounds"
  • Arthur Machen, "The White People"
  • Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows"
  • Henry James, "The Jolly Corner"
  • Walter de la Mare, "Seaton's Aunt"
  • H. P. Lovecraft, "The Colour Out of Space"

"The true weird tale has something more than a secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains. An atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; a hint of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space." -- H. P. Lovecraft

Legion From the Shadows

Karl Edward Wagner

Karl Wagner wrote this pastiche of Robert E. Howard's pictish king, Bran Mac Morn, during the heyday of Howard reprints in paperback.

Wagner wove a tale of swords and sorcery around the very real disappearance of the Roman 9th Legion in Britain.

Set in the earliest days of Britain, Legion from the Shadows chronicles the efforts of Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, to hold the land against Roman invaders. But soon Bran Mak Morn must lead his folk not only against the Romans but also against the dreaded People of the Dark.

Shadows of War: Stories

Robert Westall

In 'Adolf', a young boy becomes convinced his elderly neighbour is actually Adolf Hitler in hiding. The British soldiers in 'The German Ghost' have an otherworldly encounter with a mysterious and sinister figure in black. 'East Doddingham Dinah' is a stray cat who takes up residence on an RAF base and seems to possess the unsettling ability to know which planes will be shot down. A late-night aerial mission at 24,000 feet becomes a terrifying supernatural experience for the crew in 'After the Funeral'.

Master storyteller Robert Westall (1929-1993) loved writing about three subjects above all: World War II, cats, and ghosts, and all three of these interests are on display in this collection featuring eleven of Westall's finest wartime stories, several of them supernatural. Originally published between 1982 and 1997, these stories are gathered together here for the first time and will delight readers of all ages.

Table of Contents:

  • The German Ghost (1997)
  • Adolf (1989)
  • Daddy-Long-Legs (1994)
  • Gifts from the Sea (1989)
  • After the Funeral (1991)
  • Cathedral (1997)
  • Zakky (1989)
  • The Making of Me (1989)
  • The Christmas Cat (1994)
  • The Haunting of Chas McGill (1982)
  • East Doddingham Dinah (1989)

Spectral Shadows: Three Supernatural Novellas

Robert Westall

Three supernatural novellas by Robert Westall, hailed as the finest British author of ghost stories since M. R. James, collected together for the first time...

BLACKHAM'S WIMPEY

Why should three successive crews flying a Second World War bomber - Blackham's Wimpey - be driven to madness, despair, even death, though the plane returns from each mission without a scratch?

THE WHEATSTONE POND

Too many deaths, too many suicides. It was more than coincidence. The Wheatstone Pond was a killer. When it's drained, antique dealer Jeff Morgan gets interested, hoping there'll be a few valuable wrecks of model boats down there. He isn't prepared for the horror he will find instead...

YAXLEY'S CAT

Sepp Yaxley vanished seven years ago, and no one has seen him since. Rose and her children Tim and Jane thought his vacant cottage, alone by the marshes, seemed like the perfect place for a holiday adventure. But that was before they decided to find out what happened to old Yaxley. Before they started to find strange things in the garden. Before the neighbors began to act weird. Before Yaxley's cat came back...

Shadows of Ecstacy

Charles Williams

A humanistic adept has discovered that by focusing his energies inward he can extend his life almost indefinitely. He undertakes an experiment using African lore to die and resurrect his own body thereby assuring his immortality. His followers begin a revolutionary movement to supplant European civilisation. The first of Williams's novels to be written, though not the first published.

Shadows of Death

J. N. Williamson

HOUSE TO SWAP:PROFESSOR AND WIFE SEEK TO TRADE ARIZONA HOME. GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR THE RIGHT PERSON.

The ad seems the answer to Sherry's dreams. It will take her far away from Indianapolis and the unhappiness of her past. It doesn't warn of the horror waiting in that isolated house... about the strange experiments that have opened a door to the other side... about the dead whose shadows brush the whitewashed wall, waiting for the one human who can bring them back from paradise... or hell.

That human is Sherry, who does not know the terrifying secrets that haunt the charming house in Red Mountain...who cannot guess the fate awaiting her--until something reaches out its boney hand... touches her with withered lips... unleashes her blood-chilling scream and whispers of the killing time to come.

Jack of Shadows

Roger Zelazny

They're going to have a devil of a time trying to catch the sharpest thief in hell....

Shadows of the Future: H. G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy

Patrick Parrinder

H. G. Wells - inventor of the concept of the time machine and the phrase "the shape of things to come" - described his life's work as one of critical anticipation. This book unravels the complex layers of meaning in "The Time Machine", and shows how, throughout his life, he sought to exploit the potential of literary and cultural prophecy in new ways.

Described by John Middleton Murry as "the last prophet of bourgeois Europe", he was its first futurologist. In "Shadows of the Future", Wells's assumption of the prophet's role is related to his championing of the modern scientific outlook, and to the theory and practice of science fiction and utopian literature. Parrinder explores the connections between novelty and repetition, between imagining the future and imagining the past, and between prophecy and parody as literary modes. Wells's science fiction is reexamined both as a projection of the cosmology implicit in the writings of Darwin and Huxley, and as a new variation on the Romantic and Enlightenment themes of such earlier authors as Blake, Gibbon and Mary Shelley. Later chapters relate Wells's fiction to his nonfiction and look at the uneasy relationship of his utopianism to literary prophecy, and at the paradoxes inherent in the militant internationalism of the "prophet at large". Finally, Well's influence is traced in a study of the antiutopian fictions in Zamayatin and Orwell, and in a broad account of the connections between science fiction and the scientific outlook down to our time.

Shadows Over Baker Street

Michael Reaves
John Pelan

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime.

For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle's peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself.

In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today's most cutting edge writers provide their answers to that burning question.

"A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it – and only one man can hope to stop it.

"A Case of Royal Blood" by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost – or perhaps something far worse than a ghost.

"Art in the Blood" by Brian Stableford: One man's horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind.

"The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone" by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible cannot be eliminated.

"The Horror of the Many Faces" by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London – and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

  • Elizabeth Bear
  • Poppy Z. Brite
  • Simon Clark
  • David Ferguson
  • Paul Finch
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Barbara Hambly
  • Caitlin R. Kiernan
  • Tim Lebbon
  • James Lowder
  • Richard A. Lupoff
  • F. Gwynplaine McIntyre
  • John Pelan
  • Steve Perry
  • Michael Reaves
  • Brian Stableford
  • John P. Vourlis
  • David Niall Wilson
  • Patricia Lee Macomber

Of Stars and Shadows

Mark W. Tiedemann

One year after the Great Sack, Protector General Ril Cowel took what remained of the fleet of Camrus and set out after the empire responsible for hammering his home into oblivion, the Empire of B'Nan. Cowel chased the mythic emperor for fifteen years. At last, fate seemed to hand him his chance, and in a swift strike Cowel damaged the imperial fleet and killed B'Nan. The terror now over, he intended to dismantle the empire, to take it apart so that it could no longer destroy worlds like his own.

But the more Ril Cowel tries, the harder it seems to be rid of the vast machinery B'Nan had constructed over a thousand years or more. For the emperor was reputed to have lived the entire time his empire grew. Cowel never gave credence to such stories...until he becomes emperor himself.

Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing / Writers on Wolfe

Peter Wright

Gene Wolfe is one of the most important American writers to emerge in the latter half of the twentieth century. The fact that he publishes in the field of fantastic literature (which includes horror, science and speculative fiction) has meant that his significance has been largely unacknowledged beyond and, at times, even within the genre. Nevertheless, he remains the author of some of the most stylistically distinct, structurally complex, and intellectually invigorating imaginative fiction of recent years. This collection of interviews and essays places under one cover an amazing selection of difficult-to-find resources for the avid Gene Wolfe reader and scholar. Essays concern the nature of writing, including character, structure and the profession of the writer. Also included are a series of interviews with Wolfe and the holy grail of 'New Sun' aficionados: Books in the Book of the New Sun, previously only available in a rare small-press volume. This collection will inspire fans and scholars alike to commit themselves to debating new interpretations of Wolfe's fiction.

Contents:

  • 1 - Introduction (Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing / Writers on Wolfe) - (2007) - essay by Peter Wright
  • 11 - Gene Wolfe: An Interview - (1973) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Malcolm Edwards
  • 24 - An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (1981) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Joan Gordon
  • 36 - An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (1981) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Melissa Mia Hall
  • 44 - Interview: Gene Wolfe: 'The Legerdemain of the Wolfe' - (1983) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Robert Frazier
  • 56 - Riding a Bicycle Backwards: An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (1984) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Colin Greenland
  • 66 - Gene Wolfe in Conversation - (1985) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Nancy Kress and Calvin Rich
  • 73 - An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (1986) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Elliott Swanson
  • 79 - On Encompassing the Entire Universe: An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (1988) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Larry McCaffery
  • 101 - Gene Wolfe Interview - (2007) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by James B. Jordan
  • 132 - Gene Wolfe Interview - (1994) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Brendan Baber
  • 139 - Peter and the Wolfe: Gene Wolfe In Conversation - (2007) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Peter Wright
  • 167 - Suns New, Long, and Short: An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (1998) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Lawrence Person
  • 177 - A Magus of Many Suns: An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (2002) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Nick Gevers
  • 184 - Some Moments with the Magus: An Interview with Gene Wolfe - (2003) - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Nick Gevers and Michael Andre-Driussi and James B. Jordan
  • 193 - The Books in The Book of the New Sun - (1984) - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 203 - Wolfe's Rules: What You Must Do To Be a Writer - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 204 - Balding, Avuncular Gene's Quick and Dirty Guide to Creating Memorable Characters - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 206 - Wolfe's Irreproducible Truths about Novels - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 208 - Nor the Summers as Golden: Writing Multivolume Works - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 214 - What Do They Mean, SF? - (1980) - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 219 - The Special Problems of Science Fiction - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 224 - How to Be a Writer's Family - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 228 - Libraries on the Superhighway - Rest Stop or Roadkill? - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 238 - The Handbook of Permissive English - (2007) - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 241 - More than Half of You Can't Read This - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 243 - Wolfe's Inalienable Truths About Reviewing - essay by Gene Wolfe
  • 244 - A Fantasist Reads The Bible and Its Critics - essay by Gene Wolfe

A Gathering of Shadows

A Darker Shade of Magic: Book 2

V. E. Schwab

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagent international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.

A Guile of Dragons

A Tournament of Shadows: Book 1

James Enge

Those of you who have met Morlock will get to run the streets with him a bit earlier in his wanderings. The new trilogy, A Tournament of Shadows focuses on an adult, but not yet centuries old Morlock we see in Blood of Ambrose, This Crooked Way, and The Wolf Age The first of the new series is A Guile of Dragons.

Wrath-Bearing Tree

A Tournament of Shadows: Book 2

James Enge

The tale of the early days of Morlock Ambrosius continues!

Into the Unguarded Lands . . . . The masked powers of Fate and Chaos are killing gods in the land of Kaen, facing the Wardlands across the Narrow Sea. Vocates Aloe Oaij and Morlock Ambrosius go into the Unguarded Lands, on a mission to find the reasons for the godslaying, and to avert any threat to the lands the Graith of Guardians has sworn to protect. After crash-landing on the hostile coast of Kaen, they will face vengeful frightened gods, a calmly murderous dragon, a demon called Andhrakhar, and a bitter old necromancer named Merlin Ambrosius. Amid these dangers they will find that they can trust no one but themselves-and each other.

The Wide World's End

A Tournament of Shadows: Book 3

James Enge

The tale of the early days of Morlock Ambrosius--master of all magical makers, wandering swordsman, and son of Merlin--concludes!

From beyond the northern edge of the world, the Sunkillers (undying enemies of everything that lives and breathes and is an individual) are reaching into the sky of Laent to drain out its light and warmth. Their hope is to scrape sky, land, and sea clean of mortal life and return to where they once dwelled, before the first rising of the sun. Against them stand only the Graith of Guardians, defenders of the peaceful anarchy of the Wardlands. But the agents of the Sunkillers are abroad even in the Wardlands: plotting, betraying, murdering among the Graith.

Married now for a century, Morlock Ambrosius and Aloê Oaij will take different paths to counter the threat. As Aloê ferrets out the enemy within the Graith, Morlock joins forces with his sister, the formidable Ambrosia Viviana, and crosses the monster-haunted plains of the deep north to confront the Sunkillers in their own realm. Morlock and Aloê think their parting is temporary, but it is final. They may or may not save the world, but they will not save each other, or themselves.

Sea of Shadows

Age of Legends: Book 1

Kelley Armstrong

In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire's worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.

Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters' journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they've ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court--one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

The Shadows of God

Age of Unreason: Book 4

J. Gregory Keyes

As the ruthless forces of Russia lay waste to the New World, English troops make landfall in the east, determined to reconquer the colonies. Trapped in between are the Native Americans, ex-slaves, and European refugees, led by Benjamin Franklin and the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes. But the balance of power rests with the French woman Adrienne de Montchevreuil, whose grasp of science is the equal of Franklin's, whose magic may be stronger than the Choctaw, and whose shocking secret may call into question where her true allegiances lie....

Alien: Out of the Shadows

Aliens Universe: Out of the Shadows: Book 1

Tim Lebbon

In a dramatic twist, this novel will return us to that time, to Ellen Ripley, and to never-before-revealed secrets of the Weyland-Yutani Corporations... secrets which launch a terrifying new adventure that bridges the gap between Alien and Aliens.

Officially sanctioned and true to the Alien canon, Alien: Out of the Shadows expands upon the well-loved mythos and is a must for all Alien fans.

Alien: Sea of Sorrows

Aliens Universe: Out of the Shadows: Book 2

James A. Moore

As a deputy commissioner for the ICC, Alan Decker's job is to make sure the settlements on LV178 follow all the rules, keeping the colonists safe. But the planet known as New Galveston holds secrets, lurking deep beneath the toxic sands dubbed the Sea of Sorrows.

The Weyland-Yutani Corporation has secrets of its own, as Decker discovers when he is forced to join a team of mercenaries sent to investigate an ancient excavation. Somewhere in that long-forgotten dig lies the thing the company wants most in the universe--a living Xenomorph.

Decker doesn't understand why they need him, until his own past comes back to haunt him. Centuries ago, his ancestor fought the Aliens, launching a bloody vendetta that was never satisfied. That was when the creatures swore revenge on the Destroyer... Ellen Ripley.

Alien: River of Pain

Aliens Universe: Out of the Shadows: Book 3

Christopher Golden

When Ellen Ripley finally returns to Earth, she learns that the planet LV-426--now called Acheron--has been colonized. But LV-426 is where Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo found the original Xenomorph--the killing machine known as the Alien.

Protected by the Colonial Marines, the colonists seek to terraform the storm-swept planet. Two such residents are Anne and Russell Jorden, seeking a fortune that eluded them on Earth. On Acheron, Anne gives birth to the colony's first newborn. Rebecca Jordan, also known as Newt.

The wildcatters discover a vast, decaying spaceship. The horseshoe-shaped vessel is of particular interest to Weyland-Yutani, and may be the answer to their dreams. But what Anne and Russ find on board proves to be the stuff, not of dreams, but of nightmares.

Magic in the Shadows

Allie Beckstrom: Book 3

Devon Monk

Allison Beckstrom?s magic has taken its toll on her, physically marking her and erasing her memories?including those of the man she supposedly loves. But lost memories aren?t the only things preying on Allie?s thoughts.

Her late father, the prominent businessman?and sorcerer?Daniel Beckstrom, has somehow channeled himself into her very mind. With the help of The Authority, a secret organization of magic users, she hopes to gain better control over her own abilities?and find a way to deal with her father?

Shadows of Aggar

Amazons of Aggar: Book 1

Chris Anne Wolfe

Shadows of Aggar - Book 1 - Amazons of Aggar Diana n'Athena is an Amazon working for the Terran empire on the medieval planet of Aggar. Her mission is to rescue a downed pilot/spy from Aggar's wilds. But when the Council of Aggar demands Diana be bonded to a Shadow in order to be allowed to make the journey, things get interesting. Shadows are exceptional guides and fighters, but Elana is something more -- she has the gift of the Blue Sight.

As the two women race against time to prevent an all-out intergalactic war, they become erotically entangled, complicating both their lives and putting their mission in danger.

Binding the Shadows

Arcadia Bell: Book 3

Jenn Bennett

Renegade mage and bartender Cady Bell has had a rough year, but now the door to her already unstable world is coming completely unhinged. When a citywide crime wave erupts, Cady's demon-friendly tiki bar is robbed by Earthbounds wielding surreal demonic abilities that shouldn't exist. With the help of her devilishly delicious boyfriend, Lon Butler, Cady sets out to find the people who wronged her. But the criminals aren't the only ones experiencing unnatural metamorphoses--Cady's own Moonchild abilities are evolving beyond her control. Can Cady track down the monsters responsible before the monster inside destroys everything--and everyone--she loves?

Shadows of Glass

Ashes of Twilight: Book 2

Kassy Tayler

Wren's world has changed. The thing that she fought for, escaping the dome has come to fruition, but it's not the paradise she thought it would be. Most of the shiners have died, and according to James, she is to blame for many of the deaths, a burden which sits heavy on her shoulders. Still some have survived and Wren is determined to keep them safe as they fight to establish a home outside while hiding from the rovers who have weapons that can kill from far away. But as long as she has Pace she knows everything will be fine. Still Wren wonders, as she sees the smoke that continually pours forth from the dome, how did her friends inside fare? Will they ever find out if Lucy, David, Jill and Harry, along with Pace's mother survive the explosions?

Meanwhile, someone else has also seen the smoke. A band of explorers from across the sea arrive in an airship, curious about the dome, and offering help to those who survive. When Wren meets the handsome Levi Addison, she suddenly questions her love for Pace as Levi offers to show her the world from his airship. Does she really love Pace? Or was it just the circumstances that made her think she did? Meanwhile, word arrives from inside via Pip, and Wren is forced to go back inside the dome, a thing that terrifies her more than anything else, to save her friends. Once she's back inside will she be able to escape again?

Casting Shadows

Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages: Book 1

Jeanne Cavelos

As Elric and his student Galen watch with taut anticipation, dragons, angels, and shooting stars rain from the sky, heralding the arrival of the techno-mages on the planet Soom. It's the first time Elric -- a member of the ruling Circle -- has hosted such a gathering, and if all goes well, Galen and the other apprentices will emerge triumphant from the grueling initiation rites, ready to embrace their roles as full mages among the most powerful beings in the known universe.

But rumors fly of approaching danger, and Galen and his young lover, Isabelle, are chosen to investigate the dark tidings. An ancient race has awakened after a thousand years, thirsty for war, slaughter, and annihilation. Will the techno-mages be the deciding factor in the war ahead? Or the first casualties?

Shadows of War: Twilight of the Clans Vol. VI

Battletech: Book 40

Thomas Gressman

Learning of a heavily guarded secret route to the homeworld of Clan Smoke Jaguar, the Lords of the Successor States have managed to put aside their differences and create Operation Serpent, a mighty invasion force that launches an all-out assault on the Jaguar Clan. After brutal fighting with heavy losses on both sides, victory for the Defense Force is close at hand, but when a few Clan warriors escape to spread the alarm, the Successor States find themselves in the fight of their lives!.

Knight of Ghosts and Shadows

Bedlam Bard: Book 1

Mercedes Lackey
Ellen Guon

Eric Banyon, musician, is out playing the blues on his flute one day, but he couldn't have known that the desperate sadness of his music would free a young elven noble from the magical prison he has been languishing in for centuries--nor does he believe it!

Shadows of Annihilation

Black Chamber: Book 3

S. M. Stirling

The third novel in a World War I alternate history series where America's greatest weapon against Germany is Black Chamber secret agent Luz O'Malley and technical genius Ciara Whelan. Only they can protect America's best hope of winning the war.

The Great War is at a stalemate, and the only thing stopping Germany from striking America is the threat of the United States using their own Annihilation Gas against them. But America's supply is quickly decaying and the Central Powers know it.

A plant is under construction in the remote highlands of Mexico so that America can make their own supply. President Teddy Roosevelt assigns crack agent Luz O'Malley and her technical genius Ciara Whelan to watch over the plant operating under cover identities.

But German agent Horst von Duckler has escaped from the POW camp in El Paso, and he's heading in the same direction--bent on revenge against Luz, and sabotage that will deprive America of its deterrent and kill tens of thousands.

Port of Shadows: A Chronicle of the Black Company

Black Company: Tales of the Black Company: Book 5

Glen Cook

The soldiers of the Black Company don't ask questions, they get paid. But being "The Lady's favored" is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs--and the Company's historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.

The one person who was taken into The Lady's Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn't trust any of the Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister...

Shadows Linger

Black Company: The Book of the North: Book 2

Glen Cook

Mercenary soldiers in the service of the Lady, the Black Company stands against the rebels of the White Rose. They are tough men, proud of honoring their contracts. The Lady is evil, but so, too, are those who falsely profess to follow the White Rose, reincarnation of a centuries-dead heroine. Yet now some of the Company have discovered that the mute girl they rescued and sheltered is truly the White Rose reborn. Now there may be a path to the light, even for such as they. If they can survive it.

Heir to the Shadows

Black Jewels: Book 2

Anne Bishop

Ambitions unfurl as the realm's dreams of a liberator have finally been made flesh: Jaenelle, singled out by prophecy as the living embodiment of magic, is haunted by the cruel battles the Blood have fought over her - for not all of them await her as their Savior.

The Valley of Shadows

Black Tide Rising: Book 5

Mike Massa
John Ringo

From his corner office on the forty-fourth floor of the Bank of the Americas tower on Wall Street, Tom Smith, global managing director for security, could see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park--and a ravening zombie horde.

Officially, Smith was paid to preserve the lives and fortunes of employees, billionaires, and other clients. And with an implacable virus that turned the infected into ravenous zombies tearing through the city, the country, and the world, his job just got a lot harder.

Good thing Smith, late of the Australian special forces, isn't a man to give up easily. But saving civilization is going to take more than the traditional banking toolbox of lawyers, guns, and money. Smith needs infected human spinal tissue to formulate a vaccine--and he needs it by the truckload. To get it, he will have to forge a shady alliance with both the politicians of the City of New York and some of its less savory entrepreneurs.

But all of his back-alley dealing may amount to nothing if he can't stave off the fast-moving disease as it sweeps across the planet, leaving billions dead in its wake. And if he fails, his only fallback is an incomplete plan to move enough personnel to safe havens and prepare to restart civilization.

What's more, there are others who have similar plans--and believe it or not, they're even less charitable than a Wall Street investment banker. Sooner or later Smith will have to deal with them.

But first he has to survive the Fall.

A Song of Shadows

Charlie Parker: Book 13

John Connolly

Grievously wounded, private detective Charlie Parker investigates a case that has its origins in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War.

Broken, but undeterred, private detective Charlie Parker faces the darkest of dark forces in a case with its roots in the second world war, and a concentration camp unlike any other...

Recovering from a near-fatal shooting and tormented by memories of a world beyond this one, Parker has retreated to the small Maine town of Boreas to recover. There he befriends a widow named Ruth Winter and her young daughter, Amanda. But Ruth has her secrets. She is hiding from the past, and the forces that threaten her have their origins in the Second World War, in a town called Lubko and a concentration camp unlike any other. Old atrocities are about to be unearthed, and old sinners will kill to hide their sins. Now Parker is about to risk his life to defend a woman he barely knows, one who fears him almost as much as she fears those who are coming for her.

His enemies believe him to be vulnerable. Fearful. Solitary.

But they are wrong. Parker is far from afraid, and far from alone.

For something is emerging from the shadows...

Circle of Shadows

Circle of Shadows: Book 1

Evelyn Skye

Sora can move as silently as a ghost and hurl throwing stars with lethal accuracy. Her gemina, Daemon, can win any physical fight blindfolded and with an arm tied around his back. They are apprentice warriors of the Society of Taigas - marked by the gods to be trained in magic and the fighting arts to protect the kingdom of Kichona.

As their graduation approaches, Sora and Daemon look forward to proving themselves worthy of belonging in the elite group - but in a kingdom free of violence since the Blood Rift Rebellion many years ago, it's been difficult to make their mark.

So when Sora and Daemon encounter a strange camp of mysterious soldiers while on a standard scouting mission, they decide the only thing to do to help their kingdom is to infiltrate the group. Taking this risk will change Sora's life forever - and lead her on a mission of deception that may fool everyone she's ever loved.

Cloak of Night

Circle of Shadows: Book 2

Evelyn Skye

After the devastating Ceremony of Two Hundred Hearts, Sora, Daemon, Fairy, and Broomstick are truly alone in the fight to save their kingdom. Empress Aki is missing, and everyone else who could help them is a prisoner to Prince Gin's mind control.

At least Sora understands what they're up against. Or so she believes, until she overhears Gin bargaining with the god of war for immortality and learns that ryuu magic may be a more insidious danger than she realized.

Suddenly, the stakes are higher and even more personal for Sora--not only must she stop a seemingly indestructible Prince Gin, but she must also unravel the secrets of ryuu magic before it is too late for nearly everyone she loves.

Sora Daemon, Fairy, and Broomstick face dangerous obstacles at every turn, but the greatest challenge may be discovering who they truly are and what, if anything, they are capable of.

The fate of a kingdom rests in their hands.

Girl in the Shadows

Cirque American: Book 2

Gwenda Bond

Eighteen-year-old Moira Mitchell grew up in the shadows of Vegas's stage lights while her father's career as a magician soared. More than anything, Moira wants to be a magician too, but her father is dead set against her pursuing magic.

When an invitation to join the Cirque American mistakenly falls into Moira's possession, she takes action. Instead of giving the highly coveted invitation to its intended recipient, Raleigh, her father's handsome and worldly former apprentice, Moira takes off to join the Cirque. If she can perform alongside its world-famous acts, she knows she'll be able to convince her dad that magic is her future.

But when Moira arrives, things take on an intensity she can't control as her stage magic suddenly feels like... real magic. To further distract her, Raleigh shows up none too pleased at Moira's presence, all while the Cirque's cocky and intriguing knife thrower, Dez, seems to have it out for her. As tensions mount and Moira's abilities come into question, she must decide what's real and what's an illusion. If she doesn't sort it out in time, she may forever remain a girl in the shadows.

Crown of Shadows

Coldfire Trilogy: Book 3

C. S. Friedman

Unlikely allies Damien and Tarrant are faced with an enemy who may prove invulnerable-a demon who has declared war on mankind. Called Calesta, he is a master of illusion and devourer of pain, and he plans to remake the human species until it exists only to sate his unquenchable thirst for suffering. The war against Calesta will take Damien and Tarrant from the depths of Hell to the birthplace of demons and beyond-in a battle that could cost them not only their lives, but the very soul of mankind.

Talon of the Silver Hawk

Conclave of the Shadows: Book 1

Raymond E. Feist

Evil has come to a distant land high among the snow-capped mountains of Midkemia, as an exterminating army wearing the colors of the Duke of Olasko razes village after village, slaughtering men, women, and children without mercy. And when the carnage is done, only one survivor remains: a young boy named Kieli. A youth no longer, there is now but one road for him to travel: the path of vengeance. And he will not be alone. Under the tutelage of the rescuers who discovered him, Kieli will be molded into a sure and pitiless weapon. And he will accept the destiny that has been chosen for him ... as Talon of the Silver Hawk.

But the prey he so earnestly stalks is hunting him as well. And Talon must swear allegiance to a shadowy cause that already binds his mysterious benefactors -- or his mission, his honor, and his life will be lost forever.

King of Foxes

Conclave of the Shadows: Book 2

Raymond E. Feist

In the mountains of Midkemia, a boy came brutally of age in blood and in terror. And now he lives for one purpose alone ... revenge!

An exceptionally skilled swordsman, young Tal Hawkins was the only survivor of the massacre of his village -- rescued, recruited, and trained by the mysterious order of magicians and spies, the Conclave of Shadows. Now one of the secret society's most valuable agents, he gains entrance into the court of Duke Olasko, the bloodthirsty and powerful despot whose armies put Tal's village to the sword, by posing as a nobleman from the distant Kingdom of the Isles. But the enemy is cunning and well protected -- in league with the foul necromancer Leso Varen, dark master of death-magic -- and to gain the Duke's trust and confidence, Tal Hawkins must first sell his soul.

Exiles Return

Conclave of the Shadows: Book 3

Raymond E. Feist

Saved by a mage's intervention from certain death, Kaspar, the evil Duke of Olasko, is lord no more -- reduced to an exile's existence and forced to wander the harshest realms of the world he once enslaved.

Merciless deserts, forbidding mountains, and vast oceans now separate the once powerful despot from his former seat of power -- his dark dreams of vengeance overwhelmed by the daily struggle for survival. But there is a larger drama that will entangle the broken dictator. An evil devastating and deadly seeks entrance to the land -- the mystical tool of a dark empire hungry for conquest and destruction -- and Kaspar has inadvertently discovered the key.

Suddenly, Midkemia's last hope is a disgraced and exiled duke whose history is written in blood, and who now must wield his sword as her champion . . . if he so chooses..

A Flush of Shadows

Constance and Charlie

Kate Wilhelm

Over the years, Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn have investigated a wide variety of murder and arson cases. This collection assembles for the first time the shorter cases of the detecting duo, including: "With Thimbles, with Forks, and Hope," their first case ever; the harrowing account of an arsonist out for revenge, "Torch Song," which has never been published before; and "All for One," also published first in this volume - a bittersweet tale of murderous family relations. Together with "Sister Alice" and "The Gorgon Field," these stories comprise a full house of fantastic fiction.

Table of Contents:

Shadows of Self

Cosmere: Mistborn: Wax and Wayne: Book 2

Brandon Sanderson

The Mistborn trilogy's heroes are now figures of myth and legend, even objects of religious veneration. They are succeeded by wonderful new characters, chief among them Waxillium Ladrian, known as Wax, hereditary Lord of House Ladrian but also, until recently, a lawman in the ungoverned frontier region known as the Roughs. There he worked with his eccentric but effective buddy, Wayne. They are "twinborn," meaning they are able to use both Allomantic and Feruchemical magic.

Shadows of Self shows Mistborn's society evolving as technology and magic mix, the economy grows, democracy contends with corruption, and religion becomes a growing cultural force, with four faiths competing for converts.

This bustling, optimistic, but still shaky society now faces its first instance of terrorism, crimes intended to stir up labor strife and religious conflict. Wax and Wayne, assisted by the lovely, brilliant Marasi, must unravel the conspiracy before civil strife stops Scadrial's progress in its tracks.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell

Cosmere: Threnody

Brandon Sanderson

When the familiar and seemingly safe turns lethal, therein danger lies. Amid a forest where the shades of the dead linger all around, every homesteader knows to follow the Simple Rules: "Don't kindle flame, don't shed the blood of another, don't run at night. These things draw shades." Silence Montane has broken all three rules on more than one occasion. And to protect her family from a murderous gang with high bounties on their heads, Silence will break every rule again, at the risk of becoming a shade herself.

This novella was originally published in the Georgre R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois anthology Dangerous Women (2013). It is also included in Paula Guran's The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2014.

Burning Shadows

Count of Saint-Germain: Book 23

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership.

In Burning Shadows, Yarbro looks at the legendary Huns from the perspective of the people who faced the brunt of their attacks. The vampire Saint-Germain seeks sanctuary at an isolated monastery, unwilling to abandon the hundreds of terrified villagers he has led in flight from the Huns. A few Roman soldiers and some village Watchmen are the monastery's defense force—and they are undermined by the religious fervor of some of the monks, who argue that since everyone's fate is in God's hands, it is foolish to defend themselves. In the hothouse atmosphere of the high-walled monastery, Saint-Germain must take special care when slaking his vampire thirst, for discovery of his True Nature will result in his True Death.

Play of Shadows

Court of Shadows: Book 1

Sebastien de Castell

Damelas Chademantaigne picked a poor night to flee a judicial duel.

He has precious little hope of escaping the wrath of the Vixen, the most feared duellist in the entire city, until he stumbles through the stage doors of the magnificent Operato Belleza and tricks his way into the company of actors. An archaic law provides a temporary respite from his troubles - until one night a ghostly voice in his head causes Damelas to fumble his lines, inadvertently blurting out a dreadful truth: the city's most legendary hero may actually be a traitor and a brutal murderer.

With only the help of his boisterous and lusty friend Bereto, a beautiful assassin whose target may well be Damelas himself, and a company of misfit actors who'd just as soon see him dead, this failed grandson of two Greatcoats must somehow find within himself the courage to dig up long-buried truths before a ruthless band of bravos known as the Iron Orchids come for his head.

Oh, and there's still that matter of the Vixen waiting to duel him...

Shadows in the Sun

Crown Classics of SF: Book 9

Chad Oliver

Anthropologist Paul Ellery discovers that the small Texas town of Jefferson Springs is actually an imitation of small-town America created by the aliens who now offer him a chance to explore the universe.

Whisper of Shadows

Diamond City Magic: Book 3

Diana Pharaoh Francis

War is coming...

When the FBI uses an anti-magic law to arrest and torture Riley's boyfriend, they have no idea what hell they are about to unleash. If Riley can't rescue Clay before he breaks, the result will be a disaster of epic proportions.

With time running out, Riley and her family must rely on two people more likely to stab them in the back than actually help. And, even if Riley manages the rescue, she's still got to deal with two kidnappings and the return of her dad from the dead--the same dad who'd been willing to see her dead to protect his secrets.

What's a girl to do? Kick ass, take names, and protect those she cares about at all costs.

Dreams and Shadows

Dreams and Shadows: Book 1

C. Robert Cargill

Something is missing from Ewan and Colby's lives. Residing in the corners of their memories is their time in Limestone Kingdom, a realm filled with magic and mystery, a world where only some may travel amongst the menagerie of mystical souls and sinister demons.

Cargill offers well-crafted characters and an absorbing, intricate plot that will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman and Lev Grossman. Dreams and Shadows pulls you into an extraordinary universe of darkness that exposes the magic and monsters in our world, and in ourselves.

Screenwriter and acclaimed film critic C. Robert Cargill makes his fiction debut with Dreams and Shadows, taking beloved fantasy tropes, giving them a twist, and turning out a wonderful, witty, and wry take on clash between the fairy world and our own.

Queen of the Dark Things

Dreams and Shadows: Book 2

C. Robert Cargill

Screenwriter and noted film critic C. Robert Cargill continues the story begun in his acclaimed debut Dreams and Shadows in this bold and brilliantly crafted tale involving fairies and humans, magic and monsters--a vivid phantasmagoria that combines the imaginative wonders of Neil Gaiman, the visual inventiveness of Guillermo Del Toro, and the shocking miasma of William S. Burroughs.

Six months have passed since the wizard Colby lost his best friend to an army of fairies from the Limestone Kingdom, a realm of mystery and darkness beyond our own. But in vanquishing these creatures and banning them from Austin, Colby sacrificed the anonymity that protected him. Now, word of his deeds has spread, and powerful enemies from the past--including one Colby considered a friend--have resurfaced to exact their revenge.

As darkness gathers around the city, Colby sifts through his memories desperate to find answers that might save him. With time running out, and few of his old allies and enemies willing to help, he is forced to turn for aid to forces even darker than those he once battled.

Following such masters as Lev Grossman, Erin Morgenstern, Richard Kadrey, and Kim Harrison, C. Robert Cargill takes us deeper into an extraordinary universe of darkness and wonder, despair and hope to reveal the magic and monsters around us... and inside us.

Hero in the Shadows

Drenai Saga: Book 9

David Gemmell

The ruined city of Kuan Hador reeks of dark mystery. Shunned by brigands and merchants alike, it is home to fearsome wild things and legends that freeze the blood--tales that speak of slavering white beasts, locked behind a powerful wall of spells, who possess an insatiable appetite for death. Millennia have passed since they were bound, and the spell of imprisonment has begun to fade. Soon the foul minions will be free to wreak a horrible vengeance against all that lives.

But no army waits to oppose them, only a ragtag group of unlikely heroes. Leading them is the mysterious Gray Man, an enigmatic figure with a blood-drenched past who has killed for principle and for payment--a man of destiny known throughout the lands of the Drenai as Waylander the Slayer . . .

Daughter of Gods and Shadows

Eden Reid: Book 1

Jayde Brooks

Eden Reid is not interested in prophesy. The problem is that a doozy of a prophesy is bearing down on her. Such is the case when you're a twenty-four-year-old from Brooklyn, New York who is about to discover she is an ancient god. A truly powerful one. And with power comes problems. A truly formidable demon is gunning for her; a zombie-like pandemic is spreading across the country, creating creatures who are hungry for flesh, fast on their feet and clever; and there is the mysterious, handsome stranger with powers of his own who claims to have been her lover from a time and a life that Eden cannot remember. He promises to help awaken her powers for the upcoming war. A war where there is only one prize: survival... in Daughter of Gods and Shadows from debut author Jayde Brooks.

The Shadows of Avalon

Eighth Doctor Adventures: Book 31

Paul Cornell

The Brigadier, mourning the loss of his wife Doris, is called to help find a nuclear weapon that's gone missing over the Wiltshire Downs. The Doctor is on his way there too, to pick up his companion Compassion, after her holiday on Earth. But when the Doctor's TARDIS explodes, he, the Brigadier, Compassion and Fitz are thrown into the other-dimensional world of Avalon. Magic faces down science, dragons duel with jet fighters.

Long Shadows

Elizabeth Cage: Book 3

Jodi Taylor

I don't know who I am. I don't know what I am.

The identity of Elizabeth Cage has always been a mystery. Even she doesn't know who, or what, she is. But she's learned to live with it.

Until now, when what should have been a peaceful holiday turns into anything but, and Elizabeth is forced to recognise that she isn't what she seems.

But neither is anyone else. Has her whole life been a lie?

Someone very badly wants to know the truth about Elizabeth Cage. And they'll do anything to find out. But who will live to regret it?

Shadows in Flight

Ender's Universe: Ender's Shadow: Book 5

Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten--a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders--the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Forgotten Realms: Baldur's Gate: Book 2

Philip Athans

Bhaal is dead!

But his disciples want to bring him back. The blood of the god of murder runs through his children, and bad blood attracts bad people.

Shadow thieves, vampires, ninjas, and rockworms run rampant on the Sword Coast in the action-packed novelization of the Baldur's Gate II computer game from BioWare and Interplay.

Daughter of the Drow

Forgotten Realms: Starlight and Shadows: Book 1

Elaine Cunningham

As beautiful as she is deadly, Liriel Baenre flits through the shadows of Menzoberranzan, city of the dark elves. Amid the treachery and murder that are the drow's daily fare, she feels something calling to her... something beyond this dusky world far removed from the sun. Yet as she ventures toward the surface and the lands of light, enemies pursue her unceasingly.

And one of those enemies may offer the only hope of salvation.

Tangled Webs

Forgotten Realms: Starlight and Shadows: Book 2

Elaine Cunningham

Exiled from her home, the beautiful dark elf Liriel Baenre wanders to the surface world with her companion Fyodor. But even far from the dark haunts of Menzoberranzan, she is not safe from the vengeance of her arch-enemy. Even as she and her friend sail the dangerous seas of the Sword Coast, a drow priestess plots a terrible fate for them.

And in the depths of the earth, the spider queen Lolth weaves her own webs of terror and treachery.

Windwalker

Forgotten Realms: Starlight and Shadows: Book 3

Elaine Cunningham

Crossing the wide realms of the Faerûn in search of adventure, the dark elf princess Liriel Baenre and her companion Fyodor find themselves in the barbarian's homeland of Rashemen. In a land ruled by witches, Liriel must disguise herself lest she spark the people's hatred of dark elves.

Yet from the deep tunnels of the Underdark, eyes glittering with malice are watching her every move, preparing for vengeance.

In Sylvan Shadows

Forgotten Realms: The Cleric Quintet: Book 2

R. A. Salvatore

Enter the Forest of Shadows...

In Sylvan Shadows follows Cadderly the scholar-priest, as he leaves his home to combat the evil unleashed by the Chaos Curse. To counter Castle Trinity's plans for conquest, the cleric and his friends enter the beautiful forest of Shilmista. But among the trees and glades of the forest, Cadderly must battle a monstrous evil.

Shadows of Doom

Forgotten Realms: The Shadow of the Avatar Trilogy: Book 1

Ed Greenwood

Elminster's Doom

It was the eve of the Time of Troubles. The chaos of spilled blood, lawless strife, monsters unleashed, and avatars roaming Faerûn was still to come. Unbeknownst to mortals, the gods had been summoned together, and among them was Mystra, grown proud and willful in the passing eons. With the others, she was about to be stripped of her godhood.

The secret of her power gave her an idea. She made certain preparations, looking always for one who would be her successor... But until that person's ascension, her power must be preserved.

A lone mortal must carry the greater share of her divine energy until the power could be reclaimed, and it was the fate of this mortal to risk being destroyed or driven wild, involuntarily and without warning.

This was the occaision of Elminster's Doom.

Cloak of Shadows

Forgotten Realms: The Shadow of the Avatar Trilogy: Book 2

Ed Greenwood

The Shadow Over Faerûn

The Time of Troubles had arrived. The chaos of spilled blood, lawless strife, monsters unleashed, and avatars roaming Faerûn had come.

But wrathful and warring gods were not Faerûn's only problem.

The dreaded and insidious Shadowmasters had seized the opportunity to increase their influence and power while Mystra and her minions were otherwise engaged. The Shadowmasters had woven a mgical cloak of spells that would render the wearer invisible to their rival's magic.

The shadow over Faerûn spreads.

All Shadows Fled

Forgotten Realms: The Shadow of the Avatar Trilogy: Book 3

Ed Greenwood

The Shadow Spreads

The Time of Troubles had almost passed. The chaos of spilled blood, lawless strife, monsters unleashed, and avatars roaming Faerûn was reaching an end.

However, not so Those Who Walk in Shadow.

The dreaded and insidious Shadowmasters realize that they have one last chance to seize control while chaos wrecks havoc on all of the Realms, and in doing so seal the fate of not just their archenemy Elminster, but all of Mystra's minions as well.

Darkness threatens to envelop all Faerûn.

The shadows loom.

Shadowstorm

Forgotten Realms: The Twilight War Trilogy: Book 2

Paul S. Kemp

The invasion of the arch-wizards is on!

The archwizards of Shade Enclave have come out of the desert with a message of peace, and an act of war. Split by petty disputes and causeless feuds, the merchant realm of Sembia is wide open for invasion, and with no shortage of Sembians more than happy to sell out to the Shadovar, can only one man--even if that man is Erevis Cale--do anything to stop it?

Dread Brass Shadows

Garrett, P.I.: Book 5

Glen Cook

Everyone wants to find it... a treasure so rich it makes even a hard-boiled detective like Garrett nervous. It's the legendary Book of Shadows, made of brass and holding secrets no mortal was ever meant to master and Garrett must make sure no one ever has the chance to work its spells on an unsuspecting and unprotected world.

Archangel's Shadows

Guild Hunter: Book 7

Nalini Singh

In the wake of a brutal war, the archangel Raphael and his hunter consort, Elena, are dealing with the treacherously shifting tides of archangelic politics and the people of a battered but not broken city. The last thing their city needs is more death, especially a death that bears the eerie signature of an insane enemy archangel who cannot--should not--be walking the streets.

This hunt must be undertaken with stealth and without alerting their people. It must be handled by those who can become shadows themselves...

Ash is a gifted tracker and a woman cursed with the ability to sense the secrets of anyone she touches. But there's one man she knows all too well without a single instant of skin contact: Janvier, the dangerously sexy Cajun vampire who has fascinated and infuriated her for years. Now, as they track down a merciless killer, their cat-and-mouse game of flirtation and provocation has turned into a profound one of the heart. And this time, it is Ash's secret, dark and terrible, that threatens to destroy them both.

Shadows of the Short Days

Hrimland: Book 1

Alexander Dan Vilhjalmsson

Sæmundur the Mad, addict and sorcerer, has been expelled from the magical university, Svartiskóli, and can no longer study galdur, an esoteric source of magic. Obsessed with proving his peers wrong, he will stop at nothing to gain absolute power and knowledge, especially of that which is long forbidden.

Garún is an outcast: half-human, half-huldufólk, her very existence is a violation of dimensional boundaries, the ultimate taboo. A militant revolutionary and graffiti artist, recklessly dismissive of the status quo, she will do anything to achieve a just society, including spark a revolution. Even if she has to do it alone.

This is a tale of revolution set in a twisted version of Reykjavik fuelled by industrialised magic and populated by humans, interdimensional exiles, otherworldly creatures, psychoactive graffiti and demonic familiars.

Shadowsword

Imperial Guard: Book 15

Guy Haley

No-holds-barred tank warfare set amid the pitiless battlefields of the Warhammer 40,000 galaxy.

Arriving in the Geratomro warzone, Honoured Lieutenant Bannick and the crew of the Baneblade Cortein's Honour are assigned as close support to a company of Shadowsword Titan hunters and find themselves thrust into a deadly battle for the fate of three star systems. New and deadly allies throw into doubt all that Bannick has been told of the Imperium, threatening not only his life, but also his soul...

Shadows of Doom

Iron Tower Trilogy: Book 2

Dennis L. McKiernan

Through the mists of the Shadowlight, Modru's plan takes its sinister shape.

The second volume of Dennis L. McKiernan's Iron Tower Trilogy, Shadows of Doom, takes the reader once again to the magical land of Elves, demons, Dwarves, wizards, and Warrows as the perilous adventures of Tuck, Danner, and Patrel continue.

Modru's nefarious Dimmendark cloaks Challerain Keep in what promises to be eternal twilight. Prince Igon has been wounded and Princess Laurelin is a captive of the Evil One - and King Galen, with faithful Tuck at his side, must decide whether to ride north and attempt the rescue of his beloved, or south to muster the Host to battle Modru's ravaging hordes...

The Figure in the Shadows

Lewis Barnavelt: Book 2

John Bellairs

Settled into his new life, Lewis seems content living with his magical Uncle Jonathan and neighbor Mrs Zimmermann. He even has a new best friend, Rose Rita, who loves to play sports, build Roman ship models and play with magic--all the things Lewis loves to do too! After discovering Grandpa Barnavelt's 1859 lucky coin, Lewis is certain that it is magical, so he puts it to the test--he recites one of Mrs Zimmermann's spells to awaken its magic. Only Lewis hasn't awakened a good sort of magic.

As he wears the coin around his neck, sinister things start to happen. Strange letters addressed to Lewis arrive at midnight, a dark shadowy figure begins to follow him in town and something seems to be inside his body controlling his actions. As the figure in the shadows appears more and more, Lewis is possessed by its power, unable to free himself. Has Lewis awakened a force beyond his control? And can Uncle Jonathan, Mrs. Zimmermann and Rose Rita make it in time to rescue Lewis?

Crown of Shadows

Locke & Key: Book 3

Gabriel Rodriguez
Joe Hill

The dead plot against the living, the darkness closes in on Keyhouse, and a woman is shattered beyond repair, in the third storyline of the Eisner-winning series. Dodge continues his relentless quest to find the key to the black door, and raises an army of shadows to wipe out anyone who might get in his way. Surrounded and outnumbered, the Locke children find themselves fighting a desperate battle, all alone, in a world where the night itself has become their enemy.

H. P. Lovecraft and Others: Shadows Over Innsmouth

Lovecraft and Others: Book 1

Stephen Jones

Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's classic, today's masters of horror take up their pens and turn once more to that decayed, forsaken New England fishing village with its sparkling treasure, loathsome denizens, and unspeakable evil. This anthology features seventeen chilling stories by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell and Kim Newman, as well as the original masterpiece of horror.

Contents:

  • ix - Introduction: Spawn of the Deep Ones (Shadows Over Innsmouth) - essay by Stephen Jones
  • 1 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1936) - novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
  • 51 - Beyond the Reef - novella by Basil Copper
  • 101 - The Big Fish - [The Diogenes Club] - novelette by Kim Newman [as by Jack Yeovil ]
  • 127 - Return to Innsmouth - (1992) - shortstory by Guy N. Smith
  • 132 - The Crossing - shortstory by Adrian Cole
  • 146 - Down to the Boots - (1989) - shortstory by D. F. Lewis
  • 149 - The Church in High Street - (1962) - shortstory by Ramsey Campbell
  • 161 - Innsmouth Gold - shortstory by David Sutton
  • 173 - Daoine Domhain - (1992) - novelette by Peter Tremayne
  • 191 - A Quarter to Three - (1988) - shortstory by Kim Newman
  • 195 - The Tomb of Priscus - novelette by Brian Mooney
  • 221 - The Innsmouth Heritage - (1992) - shortstory by Brian Stableford
  • 237 - The Homecoming - shortstory by Nicholas Royle
  • 255 - Deepnet - shortstory by David Langford
  • 260 - To See the Sea - novelette by Michael Marshall Smith
  • 285 - Dagon's Bell - (1988) - novelette by Brian Lumley
  • 316 - Only the End of the World Again - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
  • 330 - Afterwords: Contributors' Notes (Shadows Over Innsmouth) - essay by uncredited

H. P. Lovecraft and Others: Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth

Lovecraft and Others: Book 2

Stephen Jones

For decades, H. P. Lovecraft's masterpiece of terror has inspired writers with its gripping account of a village whose inhabitants have surrendered to an ancient and hideous evil. In this companion to the acclaimed anthology Shadows Over Innsmouth, World Fantasy Award winning editor Stephen Jones has assembled eleven of today's most prominent and well-respected horror authors - the finest of the Lovecraftian acolytes.. Included is Lovecraft's own unpublished draft of The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Contents:

  • 1 - Introduction: Weird Shadows... - essay by Stephen Jones
  • 6 - Discarded Draft of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" - (1931) - shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft
  • 13 - The Quest for Y'ha-nthlei - novelette by John S. Glasby [as by John Glasby ]
  • 34 - Brackish Waters - novelette by Richard A. Lupoff
  • 62 - Voices in the Water - shortstory by Basil Copper
  • 81 - Another Fish Story - [The Diogenes Club] - novelette by Kim Newman
  • 115 - Take Me to the River - novelette by Paul J. McAuley [as by Paul McAuley ]
  • 142 - The Coming - (1997) - shortstory by Hugh B. Cave
  • 156 - Eggs - (2000) - shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • 169 - From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6 - novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • 196 - Raised by the Moon - (2001) - novelette by Ramsey Campbell
  • 211 - Fair Exchange - shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith
  • 228 - The Taint - novella by Brian Lumley
  • 281 - Afterwords: Contributors' Notes - essay by uncredited

H. P. Lovecraft and Others: Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth

Lovecraft and Others: Book 3

Stephen Jones

Respected horror anthologist Stephen Jones edits this collection of 17 stories inspired by the 20th century's master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," in which a young man goes to an isolated, desolate fishing village in Massachusetts, and finds that the entire village has interbred with strange creatures that live beneath the sea, and worship ancient gods.

Contents:

  • xiii - Introduction: Weirder Shadows... - essay by Stephen Jones
  • 1 - The Port - [Fungi from Yuggoth - 8] - (1930) - poem by H. P. Lovecraft
  • 2 - Innsmouth Bane - (2005) - shortstory by John S. Glasby [as by John Glasby ]
  • 17 - Richard Riddle, Boy Detective in "The Case of the French Spy" - [The Diogenes Club] - (2005) - novelette by Kim Newman
  • 46 - Innsmouth Clay - (1971) - shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
  • 58 - The Archbishop's Well - novelette by Reggie Oliver
  • 83 - You Don't Want To Know - novelette by Adrian Cole
  • 108 - Fish Bride - (2009) - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • 119 - The Hag Stone - novelette by Conrad Williams
  • 153 - On the Reef - (2011) - shortfiction by Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • 162 - The Song of Sighs - shortstory by Angela Slatter
  • 179 - The Same Deep Waters as You - novelette by Brian Hodge
  • 218 - The Winner - (2005) - shortstory by Ramsey Campbell
  • 232 - The Transition of Elizabeth Haskings - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • 237 - The Chain - shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith
  • 258 - Into the Water - shortstory by Simon Kurt Unsworth
  • 275 - Rising, Not Dreaming - (2011) - shortstory by Angela Slatter
  • 279 - The Long Last Night - (2012) - novelette by Brian Lumley
  • 314 - Afterwords: Contributors' Notes - essay by Stephen Jones

Shadows Bite

Magistrale: Book 2

Stephen Dedman

Hungry L.A. Women

Something is amiss in Los Angeles. A body vanishes from the morgue. The errant son of L.A.'s most notorious necromancer has unleashed demons that not even his father can control. Women hungry for more than love are suddenly appearing among the vampire wannabes at the Crypt, a local goth cafe. And a yakuza boss has put a contract out on stuntman Charlie Takumo's friend Michelangelo "Mage" Magistrale, seeking vengeance--and a magical "key" that unlocks enormous power.

The two friends' plight deepens when they're thrust into the middle of a series of mysterious nocturnal deaths that suddenly plague the City of Angels. Caught between professional assassins and ancient terrors that are undead and stalking the L.A. nightlife, they'll need all of Takumo's fighting skills--and Mage's magic--if they want to survive to see the dawn, because...

The King of Shadows

Matthew Corbett: Book 8

Robert R. McCammon

It's January of 1704, and Matthew Corbett continues his mission to Italy, accompanied by Hudson Greathouse and former enemy Professor Fell. They seek Brazio Valeriani and information about the mirror created by his father, the sorcerer Ciro. Legend claims the mirror can be used to summon demons from beyond.

But fate has other plans for Matthew as their ship is disabled by a pod of whales, and they seek refuge on a secluded island. The islanders welcome them with a massive feast, but all is not what it seems. As the island pulls them deeper into its influence, the castaways struggle to maintain their grip on reality, even their very identity. Matthew must keep his wits about him and solve the mystery enshrouding the other side of the island, where an active volcano looms and a secretive creature lurks.

A Kiss of Shadows

Meredith Gentry: Book 1

Laurell K. Hamilton

"All it would take was my true name being mentioned after dark, and it would float back to my aunt. She was the Queen of Air and Darkness, and that meant that anything said in the dark was hers to hear, eventually.

"The fact that spotting the missing Elven American Princess had become more popular than spotting Elvis helped. Her magic was always chasing blind leads: Princess Meredith skiing in Utah. Princess Meredith dancing in Paris. Princess Meredith gambling in Vegas. After three years, I was still a front-page story for the tabloids, though the latest headlines had been speculating that I was as dead as the King of Rock and Roll."

In fact, Meredith has been posing as a human in Los Angeles, living as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen's chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back - whether she likes it or not. And suddenly Meredith finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt's plans...plans that affect the future of the entire UnSeelie Court.

The requirements of the job: to enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful - and immortal - men in the world. The reward: the crown - and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty: death.

MJ-12: Shadows

MJ-12: Majestic-12: Book 2

Michael J. Martinez

It's 1949, and the Cold War is heating up across the world. For the United States, the key to winning might be Variants -- once ordinary US citizens, now imbued with strange paranormal abilities and corralled into covert service by the government's top secret MAJESTIC-12 program.

Some Variants are testing the murky international waters in Syria, while others are back at home, fighting to stay ahead of a political power struggle in Washington. And back at Area 51, the operation's headquarters, the next wave of recruits is anxiously awaiting their first mission. All the while, dangerous figures flit among the shadows and it's unclear whether they are threatening to expose the Variants for what they are... or to completely destroy them. Are they working for the Soviet Union, or something far worse?

Luck in the Shadows

Nightrunners: Book 1

Lynn Flewelling

A showman, spy, thief—Seregil gathers intelligence information for the Queen about the threat of war by Plenimar. During one of his missions, he discovers an orphan lad and takes him on as an apprentice. When a mission goes awry, leaving Seregil in a coma, it falls to Alec to get his mentor to safety in order to avert a sinister plot of epic proportios.

Shadows Return

Nightrunners: Book 4

Lynn Flewelling

With their most treacherous mission yet behind them, heroes Seregil and Alec resume their double life as dissolute nobles and master spies. But in a world of rivals and charmers, fate has a different plan.…

After their victory in Aurënen, Alec and Seregil have returned home to Rhíminee. But with most of their allies dead or exiled, it is difficult for them to settle in. Hoping for diversion, they accept an assignment that will take them back to Seregil's homeland. En route, however, they are ambushed and separated, and both are sold into slavery. Clinging to life, Seregil is sustained only by the hope that Alec is alive.

But it is not Alec's life his strange master wants—it is his blood. For his unique lineage is capable of producing a rare treasure, but only through a harrowing process that will test him body and soul and unwittingly entangle him and Seregil in the realm of alchemists and madmen—and an enigmatic creature that may hold their very destiny in its inhuman hands…. But will it prove to be savior or monster?

The Watcher in the Shadows

NYPD Inquisitor: Book 2

Chris Moriarty

At the turn of the twentieth century, New York's Bowery District becomes the scene of a terrible murder when the Klezmer King gets fried to a crisp by his Electric Tuxedo--on stage! The Inquisitor's apprentice, thirteen-year-old Sacha Kessler, tries to help find the killer, but the closer he gets to solving the crime, the more it sounds as if the creature that haunted him in his first adventure is back. Worse still, his own Jewish family is in danger. Sacha has avoided learning magic until now, but as his world falls apart around him, he changes his mind.

A Man of Shadows

Nyquist Mysteries: Book 1

Jeff Noon

Below the neon skies of Dayzone--where the lights never go out, and night has been banished--lowly private eye John Nyquist takes on a teenage runaway case. His quest takes him from Dayzone into the permanent dark of Nocturna.

As the vicious, seemingly invisible serial killer known only as Quicksilver haunts the streets, Nyquist starts to suspect that the runaway girl holds within her the key to the city's fate. In the end, there's only one place left to search: the shadow-choked zone known as Dusk.

Army of Shadows

Orcs: Bad Blood: Book 2

Stan Nicholls

A sojourn in their idyllic homeworld has left Stryke and the Wolverines lacking purpose. So when an opportunity for bloodletting appears, Stryke seizes it. Utilizing mysterious artifacts, the Wolverines are transported to Acurial, a world where the indigenous orc population is cruelly subjugated by human invaders.

Upon their arrival, Stryke's band joins with Acurial's emerging resistance movement. As the revolution gathers pace, the Wolverines are forced to embark on a quest that will see Stryke and his comrades pursued by both their most ruthless enemy and a mysterious troop hell-bent on their destruction.

Out of the Shadows: A Structuralist Approach to Understanding the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft

Popular Writers of Today: Book 75

James Arthur Anderson

James Arthur Anderson takes a structuralist approach to dissecting the horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). This book offers both scholars and fans alike new insight into the work of the best-known American horror writer of the first half of the 20th century.

As S. T. Joshi states: "Anderson's thorough familiarity with Lovecraft's texts (essays and letters, as well as stories), and with the best scholarship on Lovecraft, is evident on every page; and the fluidity with which he weaves together critical approaches into a unified commentary is enviable." Complete with chronology, bibliography, and index.

To Clear Away the Shadows

RCN Series: Book 13

David Drake

ADVENTURES BEYOND THE EDGE OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

The truce between Cinnabar and the Alliance is holding, and the Republic of Cinnabar Navy is able to explore regions of the galaxy without the explorers being swept up in great power conflict.

The Far Traveller is probing sponge space to open routes for Cinnabar traders--and for RCN warships if war breaks out again. But besides astrogation, the Far Traveller is to survey and catalog life forms on the worlds it touches.

Harry Harper has just been posted to the Traveller. He's an RCN officer by convention, a scientist by training--and a member of one of leading aristocratic families on Cinnabar by birth.

Lieutenant Rick Grenville would rather serve on a warship in the heart of battle, but peace and the whim of the Navy Board have put him on an exploration vessel instead. He finds that the dangers on the fringes of civilization are just as great as those from missiles and gunfire that he expected to face.

As internal struggles cause the Alliance to relax its iron grip, regional forces are attempting to increase their own power--and they're not fussy about the means they use.

Besides the biological answers that officials on Cinnabar expect the Far Traveller to find, the ship's Director of Science, Doctor Veil, has her own agenda: to learn more about the Archaic Spacefarers who roamed the universe tens of thousands of years before humans reached the stars.

The crew of the Far Traveller is poised to clear more of the shadows away from the deep past than ever before in human history--if they survive.

Reign of Shadows

Ruby Throne: Book 1

Deborah Chester

Caelan E'Non, son of the land's most powerful healer, is naturally expected to follow in his father's footsteps. Except Caelan has no interest in healing. Instead, he feels a burning desire for something more glorious and possesses a magic he does not understand.

Elandra Albain has been raised as a servant in her father's house. Her sister, Lady Bixia, has been pampered and spoiled, and is thought to be destined for greatness. But Elandra has a destiny all her own.

For as long as Caelan or Elandra can recall, Emperor Kostimon has ruled the land. For nine centuries his life has been sustained. But this wondrous immortality stems from a bargain with the very source of evil itself -- the dark lord Beloth. Now, as Kostimon's tenth and final lifetime begins, the shadow god is growing restless.

Island in a Sea of Stars

Saga of Shadows

Kevin J. Anderson

An adventure from Kevin J. Anderson's The Saga of Shadows: The Dark Between the Stars

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Dark Between the Stars

Saga of Shadows: Book 1

Kevin J. Anderson

Twenty years after the elemental conflict that nearly tore apart the cosmos in The Saga of Seven Suns, a new threat emerges from the darkness. The human race must set aside its own inner conflicts to rebuild their alliance with the Ildiran Empire for the survival of the galaxy.

In Kevin J. Anderson's The Dark Between the Stars, galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and factions of humanity are pitted against each other. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making.

Blood of the Cosmos

Saga of Shadows: Book 2

Kevin J. Anderson

An epic space opera of the titanic conflict of several galactic civilizations against a life-destroying force of shadows, a dark cosmic force that has swept through the undercurrents of the human interstellar empire.

The intertwined plots, overflowing with colorful ideas, a large cast of characters, and complex storylines, span dozens of solar systems, alien races, and strange creatures.

As the second book of the trilogy opens, the humans and Ildirans, having narrowly escaped annihilation at the hands of the Shana Rei and their robot allies in Book One, are desperate to find a way to combat the black cloud of antimatter of the Shana Rei. The mysterious alien Gardeners, who had helped them previously, turn out to be a disaster in disguise and because of them, the world tree forests are again in danger. The allies believing they have found a way to stop their dreaded enemies, a new weapon is tested, but it's a horrible failure, throwing the human race and its allies to the brink of extinction.

Eternity's Mind

Saga of Shadows: Book 3

Kevin J. Anderson

Eternity's Mind, the climactic final volume in Kevin J. Anderson's Hugo-nominated Saga of Shadows trilogy.

The desperate war with the Shana Rei seems lost. All across the transportal network, space is tearing apart, the links between the gateways are breaking down, the fabric of space unraveling, and entire sections of the Spiral Arm are becoming galactic dead zones.

The Shana Rei have infiltrated the transportal network, and desperate populations have to cut themselves off, shutting down their portals, often their only connection with the rest of the Spiral Arm.

In desperation, humans and Ildirans turn to the most unlikely allies, the unpredictable faeros.

Storm from the Shadows

Saganami Island: Book 2

David Weber

The Solarian League Navy has been the premier navy of the galaxy for centuries. Indeed, no one can remember a time when it hasn't been acknowledged as the most powerful fleet in existence.

Until now, that is.

A conference to end the terrible war between the Peeps of Haven and the Manticorean Star Kingdom is slated. Peace is finally within reach.

Yeah, right.

Not with the slaver conspiracy that calls itself Manpower, Inc. pulling intergalactic strings. The plan To plunge the Star Kingdom into a two-front war with Peeps and Sollies—a process calculated to blast Honor Harrington's home system to smoking ruin!

Assassination's afoot. And out on the galactic frontier known as the Verge, big trouble boils over as Solarian League arrogance butts up against the steely resolve of Harrington protégé Michelle Henke, aka Admiral Gold Peak.

Too bad for the Sollies. For Harrington's officers have a habit of coming through in the clutch and finding a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But most of all—whatever the odds—they never, ever give up the fight!

Lord of the Shadows

Second Sons: Book 3

Jennifer Fallon

Darkness threatens Ranadon again in the form of an eclipse. The Goddess wants to give the people of Ranadon a sign - and only Dirk Provin can interpret it. To do so, Dirk has systematically betrayed his one-time allies to join his most hated enemies. Now, with neither side trusting him, Dirk sets his own devious plot in motion.

Senet's Crippled Prince, Misha, has found unexpected and tenuous sanctuary among the Baenlanders of Mil. To secure their trust, he offers them the one thing they cannot refuse. Meanwhile, Alenor, Queen of Dhevyn, betrayed by her husband, Kirsh, and Tia Veran, deceived by Dirk, set out for revenge and to finally free their people at any cost. As the second sons and the rest of their generation pursue different paths to survival and freedom, they discover that the will of the Goddess - and of men - works in mysterious ways. And as Dirk's old enemies join with new ones, his attempt to save Ranadon may cost him his friends, his love...and his life.

Chasing the Shadows

Sentinels of the Galaxy: Book 2

Maria V. Snyder

Year 2522. Lyra Daniels is dead.

Okay, so I only died for sixty-six seconds. But when I came back to life, I got a brand new name and a snazzy new uniform. Go me! Seriously, though, it's very important that Lyra Daniels stays dead, at least as far as my ex-friend Jarren, the murdering looter, knows.

While dying is the scariest thing that's happened to me, it morphed my worming skills. I can manipulate the Q-net like never before. But Jarren has blocked us from communicating with the rest of the galaxy and now they believe we've gone silent, like Planet Xinji (where silent really means dead).

A Protector Class spaceship is coming to our rescue, but we still have to survive almost two years until they arrive -- if they arrive at all. Until then, we have to figure out how to stop an unstoppable alien threat. And it's only a matter of time before Jarren learns I'm not dead and returns to finish what he started.

There's no way I'm going to let Jarren win. Instead I'll do whatever it takes to save the people I love. But even I'm running out of ideas...

Son of the Shadows

Sevenwaters: Book 2

Juliet Marillier

Beautiful Sorcha is the courageous young woman who risked all to save her family from a wicked curse and whose love shattered generations of hate and bridged two cultures. It is from her sacrifice that Sorcha's brothers were brought home to their ancestral fortress Sevenwaters, and her life has known much joy. But not all the brothers were able to fully escape the spell that transformed them into swans, and it is left to Sorcha's daughter, Liadan, to help fulfill the destiny of the Sevenwaters clan. Beloved child and dutiful daughter, Liadan embarks on a journey that shows her just how hard-won was the peace that she has known all her life.

Liadan will need all of her courage to help save her family, for there are dark forces and ancient powers conspiring to destroy this family's peace - and their world. And she will need all of her strength to stand up to those she loves best, for in the finding of her own true love, Liadan's course may doom them all...or be their salvation.

Shadowspeer

Shadith's Quest: Book 2

Jo Clayton

The price of a world's death was extremely high, but Ginbiryol Seyirshi would give any buyer his money's worth. Creator of Limited Editions, "productions" in which entire populations became unwilling actors in planet-devastating wars, Seyirshi had once held Shadith captive. But now she and her comrades were free from Seyirshi's control, and they had sworn to track down the monster and put an end to his evil works.

But Seyirshi had made many enemies in his long career and had long ago learned how to protect himself from those in search of vengeance. To stop the world-wrecker, Shadith would first have to find him. And now she and her comrades had found the perfect bait, Wargun, one of Seyirshi's devoted "customers". But before they could carry out their real mission, they had to capture Wargun. And even with Shadith's unique talents, this first challenge would prove almost as impossible as catching Seyirshi himself...

A Dance of Shadows

Shadowdance: Book 4

David Dalglish

"Prove that you can stand against the darkness and live."

In book #4 of the Shadowdance series, Haern is the King's Watcher, born an assassin only to become the city of Veldaren's protector against the thief guilds.

When Lord Victor Kane attacks the city, determined to stamp out all corruption, foreign gangs pour in amidst the chaos in an attempt to overthrow the current lords of the underworld.

And when a mysterious killer known as the Widow begins mutilating thieves, paranoia engulfs the city. Haern knows someone is behind the turmoil, pulling strings. If he doesn't find out who -- and soon -- his beloved city will burn.

Light or darkness: where will the line be drawn?

Shadowrun: Into the Shadows

Shadowrun: Book 7

Jordan K. Weisman

As supercorporations rule the world, engaging in corporate wars, power games, and espionage missions, the shadowrunners, beings who deliver goods for the leaders, survive by their wits and their greed.

The Best of Shadows

Shadows

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • Naples - (1978) - short story by Avram Davidson
  • The Gorgon - (1982) - novelette by Tanith Lee
  • Moving Night - (1986) - short story by Nancy Holder
  • Jamie's Grave - (1987) - short story by Lisa Tuttle
  • Sneakers - (1983) - short story by Marc Laidlaw
  • The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands - (1981) - short story by Stephen King
  • At the Bureau - (1980) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • Mackintosh Willy - (1979) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
  • Following the Way - (1982) - short story by Alan Ryan
  • The Storm - (1984) - short story by David Morrell
  • The Silent Cradle - (1983) - short story by Leigh Kennedy
  • Wish - (1985) - short story by Al Sarrantonio
  • The Spider Glass - (1981) - novelette by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Shadows

Shadows: Book 1

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - Charles L. Grant
  • Naples - Avram Davidson
  • The Little Voice - Ramsey Campbell
  • Butcher's Thumb - William Jon Watkins
  • Where All the Songs are Sad - Thomas F. Monteleone
  • Splinters - R.A. Lafferty
  • Picture - Robert Bloch
  • The Nighthawk - Dennis Etchison
  • Dead Letters - Ramsey Campbell
  • A Certain Slant of Light - Raylyn Moore
  • Deathlove - Bill Pronzini
  • Mory - Michael Bishop
  • Where Spirits Gat Them Home - John Crowley
  • Nona - Stephen King

Shadows 2

Shadows: Book 2

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1979) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • Saturday's Shadow - (1979) - novelette by William F. Nolan
  • Night Visions - short story by Jack Dann
  • The Spring - (1979) - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
  • Valentine - (1979) - short story by Janet Fox
  • Mackintosh Willy - (1979) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
  • Dragon Sunday - (1979) - short fiction by Ruth Berman
  • The White King's Dream - short story by Elizabeth A. Lynn
  • The Chair - (1979) - short story by Alan Dean Foster and Jane Cozart
  • Clocks - (1979) - short story by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
  • Holly, Don't Tell - (1979) - short story by Juleen Brantingham
  • The Old Man's Will - (1979) - short story by Lee Wells
  • The Closing Off of Old Doors - (1979) - short story by Peter D. Pautz
  • Dead End - (1979) - short story by Richard Christian Matheson
  • Seasons of Belief - short story by Michael Bishop
  • Petey - (1979) - novella by T. E. D. Klein

Shadows 3

Shadows: Book 3

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • The Brown Recluse - (1980) - novelette by Davis Grubb
  • To See You With, My Dear - (1980) - short story by Bruce Francis
  • Avenging Angel - (1980) - short story by Ray Russell
  • The Ghost Who Limped - (1975) - short story by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
  • Janey's Smile - (1980) - short story by Juleen Brantingham
  • Opening a Vein - (1980) - short story by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
  • The Partnership - (1980) - short story by William F. Nolan
  • Wish Hound - (1980) - short story by Pat Murphy
  • Ant - (1980) - short story by Peter D. Pautz
  • Tell Mommy What Happened - (1980) - short story by Alan Ryan
  • At the Bureau - (1980) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • Cabin 33 - (1980) - novella by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Shadows 4

Shadows: Book 4

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1981) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands - (1981) - short story by Stephen King
  • Yours, -Guy - (1981) - short story by Robert F. Young
  • The Belonging Kind - (1981) - short story by John Shirley and William Gibson
  • Calling Collect - (1981) - short story by Barry N. Malzberg and Arthur L. Samuels
  • Hearing Is Believing - (1981) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
  • Threshold - (1981) - short story by Deirdre L. Kugelmeyer
  • A Visit to Brighton - (1981) - short story by Alan Ryan
  • Echoes From a Darkened Shore - (1981) - short story by Cherie Wilkerson
  • The Blue Chair - (1981) - short story by Tabitha King
  • Meow - (1981) - short story by Tanith Lee
  • The Giveaway - (1981) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • Need - (1981) - short story by Lisa Tuttle
  • Waiting for the Knight - (1981) - short story by Beverly Evans
  • Under My Bed - (1981) - short story by Al Sarrantonio
  • The Hour of Silhouette - (1981) - short story by Juleen Brantingham
  • Snow, Cobwebs, and Dust - (1981) - short story by John Keefauver
  • The Spider Glass - (1981) - novelette by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Shadows 5

Shadows: Book 5

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction (1982) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • The Gorgon - (1982) - novelette by Tanith Lee
  • Stone Head - (1982) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • Pieta - (1982) - short story by Alan Ryan
  • Boxes - (1982) - short story by Al Sarrantonio
  • And I'll Be With You By and By - (1982) - short story by Avon Swofford
  • Dark Wings - (1982) - short story by Phyllis Eisenstein
  • Estrella - (1982) - short story by Terry L. Parkinson
  • Singles - (1982) - short story by Marta Randall
  • The Piano Man - (1982) - short story by Beverly Evans
  • Following the Way - (1982) - short story by Alan Ryan
  • Renewal - (1982) - novella by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Shadows 6

Shadows: Book 6

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1983) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • We Share - (1983) - short story by Lori Allen
  • The Appearances of Georgio - (1983) - short story by Leslie Alan Horvitz
  • The Touch - (1983) - short story by Wayne Wightman
  • Sneakers - (1983) - short story by Marc Laidlaw
  • Reunion - (1983) - short story by Jack Dann
  • By the Hair of the Head - (1983) - short story by Joe R. Lansdale
  • Dreams - (1983) - short story by Elisabeth Erica Burden
  • Crutches - (1983) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • Eenie, Meenie, Ipsateenie - (1983) - short story by Pat Cadigan
  • Cold Heart - (1983) - short story by Peter D. Pautz
  • Peppermint Kisses - (1983) - short story by Jesse Osburn
  • A Last Testament for Nick and the Trooper - (1983) - short story by J. Michael Straczynski
  • Mariana - (1983) - short story by Melissa Mia Hall
  • The Man with Legs - (1983) - short story by Al Sarrantonio
  • The Silent Cradle - (1983) - short story by Leigh Kennedy
  • But at My Back I Always Hear - (1983) - short story by David Morrell

Shadows 7

Shadows: Book 7

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1984) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • Mrs. Clendon's Place - (1984) - short story by Joseph Payne Brennan
  • Stillwater, 1896 - (1984) - short story by Michael Cassutt
  • The Haunting - (1984) - short story by Susan Casper
  • Daddy - (1984) - short story by Earl Godwin
  • Seeing the World - (1984) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
  • Three Days - (1984) - novelette by Tanith Lee
  • Still Frame - (1984) - short story by Jack C. Haldeman, II
  • Talking in the Dark - (1984) - short story by Dennis Etchison
  • A Matter of Taste - (1984) - short story by Parke Godwin
  • Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darlin' - (1984) - short story by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
  • Decoys - (1984) - short story by Jere Cunningham
  • Rapture - (1984) - short story by Melissa Mia Hall
  • The Storm - (1984) - short story by David Morrell
  • I Shall Not Leave England Now - (1984) - novelette by Alan Ryan

Shadows 8

Shadows: Book 8

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1985) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • Everything's Going to Be All Right - (1985) - short story by Gene DeWeese
  • Cycles - (1985) - short story by Kim Antieau
  • The Tuckahoe - (1985) - short story by Nancy Etchemendy
  • Between the Windows of the Sea - (1985) - short story by Jack Dann
  • The Battering - (1985) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • The Shadow of a Hawk - (1985) - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
  • Toy - (1985) - short story by Bill Pronzini
  • The Man Who Loved Water - (1985) - short story by Craig Shaw Gardner
  • The Pooka - (1985) - short story by Peter Tremayne
  • Sand - (1985) - short story by Alan Ryan
  • Blood Gothic - (1985) - short story by Nancy Holder
  • The Blue Man - (1985) - short story by Terry L. Parkinson
  • A Demon in Rosewood - (1985) - short story by Sharon Webb
  • Wish - (1985) - short story by Al Sarrantonio
  • The Blind Man - (1985) - short story by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
  • A Night at the Head of a Grave - (1985) - short story by Thomas Sullivan
  • Do I Dare to Eat a Peach? - (1985) - novelette by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Shadows 9

Shadows: Book 9

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1986) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • The Jigsaw Girl - (1986) - short story by Stephen Gallagher
  • The Lesson - (1986) - short story by Christopher Browne
  • On the Turn - (1986) - short story by Leanne Frahm
  • Moving Night - (1986) - short story by Nancy Holder
  • Sanctuary - (1986) - short story by Kim Antieau
  • Now You See Me - (1986) - short story by Sheri Lee Morton
  • The Fishing Village of Roebush - (1986) - short story by Leslie Alan Horvitz
  • Icarus - (1986) - short story by Galad Elflandsson
  • Ants - (1986) - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
  • Nor Disreguard the Humblest Voice - (1986) - short story by Ardath Mayhar
  • The Skins You Love to Touch - (1986) - short story by Janet Fox
  • Walk Home Alone - (1986) - short story by Craig Shaw Gardner
  • The Father Figure - (1986) - short story by Terry L. Parkinson
  • An Ordinary Brick House - (1986) - short story by Joseph Payne Brennan
  • Overnight - (1986) - short story by Lou Fisher
  • The Last Time I Saw Harris - (1986) - short story by Galad Elflandsson
  • Tavesher - (1986) - short story by Peter Tremayne
  • Bloodwolf - (1986) - novelette by Steve Rasnic Tem

Shadows 10

Shadows: Book 10

Charles L. Grant

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - (1987) - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • Jamie's Grave - (1987) - short story by Lisa Tuttle
  • Apples - (1987) - short story by Nina Downey Higgins
  • A World Without Toys - (1986) - short story by T. M. Wright
  • Law of Averages - (1987) - short story by Wendy Webb
  • The Fence - (1987) - short story by Thomas Sullivan
  • Moonflower - (1987) - short story by Melissa Mia Hall
  • Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming - (1987) - short story by Bob Leman
  • The Finder-Keeper - (1987) - short story by Ken Wisman
  • Just a Little Souvenir - (1987) - short story by Cheryl Fuller Nelson
  • Like Shadows in the Dark - (1987) - short story by Stephen Gallagher
  • Office Hours - (1987) - short story by Douglas E. Winter
  • We Have Always Lived in the Forest - (1987) - short story by Nancy Holder
  • Just Like Their Masters - (1987) - short story by Mona A. Clee
  • Pigs - (1987) - short story by Al Sarrantonio

Final Shadows

Shadows: Book 11

Charles L. Grant

In the stunning final volume of the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology, editor Charles Grant closes a decade of award-winning fantasy with a last spectacular anthology of more than 450 pages of richly satisfying reading. Includes works by Tanith Lee, David Morrell, Michael Bishop, and other masters of the genre.

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction - essay by Charles L. Grant
  • The Boarder - short story by Wendy Webb
  • Magpie - short story by Stephen Gallagher
  • Fastening - short story by Julie R. Good
  • Past Tense - short story by Brian Hodge
  • Under the Boardwalk - short story by Lori Allen
  • The Picnickers - novelette by Brian Lumley
  • Fry Day - short story by Melanie Tem
  • Out Behind the Shed - short story by Bill Pronzini
  • Fear a' Ghorta - short story by Peter Tremayne
  • The Sweetest Rain - short story by Nancy Holder
  • Wrong Side of the Road - short story by Norman Partridge
  • Island of the Seals - (1977) - short story by Samantha Lee
  • Thirteen Lies About Hummingbirds - short story by Michael Bishop
  • The Stone Face - short story by Colin Greenland
  • Medusa's Child - short story by Kim Antieau
  • The Tape - short story by Jessica Palmer
  • The Dark Places in Between - short story by Karen Haber
  • I'll See You on Saturday Night - short story by Guy N. Smith
  • Beijing Craps - novelette by Graham Masterton
  • Samhain - short story by Bernard Taylor
  • The Mermaid - short story by Tanith Lee
  • Rescheduled - short story by Mike Chinn
  • Going Away - short story by Craig Shaw Gardner
  • A Father's Dream - short story by Chet Williamson
  • The Magic House - short story by Lynn S. Hightower
  • When They Gave Us Memory - short story by Dennis Etchison
  • A Sailor's Pay - short story by Jack Cady
  • Something About Camilla - short story by Juleen Brantingham
  • Parallax - short story by Nicholas Royle
  • The Door - short story by Sharon Webb
  • Photo-Call - short story by David Sutton
  • Against the Skin - short story by Mark Morris
  • Of Natural Causes - short story by Ashley McConnell
  • Mulberry's Crystal - short story by Brian Mooney and Stephen Jones
  • Together - short story by David Garnett
  • The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves - novelette by David Morrell

Empire in Black and Gold

Shadows of the Apt: Book 1

Adrian Tchaikovsky

The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades, bastions of civilization, prosperity and sophistication, protected by treaties, trade and a belief in the reasonable nature of their neighbors.

But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, it killing Art . . . And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable.

Only the aging Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path.

But first he must stop himself from becoming the Empire's latest victim.

Dragonfly Falling

Shadows of the Apt: Book 2

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life.

In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire's imminent threat to their survival. In a colorful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force.

This volume continues the story that so brilliantly unfolded in Empire in Black and Gold - and the action is still non-stop.

Blood of the Mantis

Shadows of the Apt: Book 3

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever. Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons.

Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year's end.

In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition.

Salute the Dark

Shadows of the Apt: Book 4

Adrian Tchaikovsky

The vampiric sorcerer Uctebri has at last got his hands on the Shadow Box and can finally begin his dark ritual--a ritual that the Wasp-kinden Emperor believes will grant him immortality--but Uctebri has his own plans for both the Emperor and the Empire.

The massed Wasp armies are on the march, and the spymaster Stenwold must see which of his allies will stand now that the war has finally arrived. This time the Empire will not stop until a black and gold flag waves over Stenwold's own home city of Collegium.

Tisamon the Weaponsmaster is faced with a terrible choice: a path that could lead him to abandon his friends and his daughter, to face degradation and loss, that might possibly bring him before the Wasp Emperor with a blade in his hand--but is he being driven by Mantis-kinden honor, or manipulated by something more sinister?

The Scarab Path

Shadows of the Apt: Book 5

Adrian Tchaikovsky

The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease, seeking for meaning in a city that no longer seems like home. The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities who refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again. Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones...

The Sea Watch

Shadows of the Apt: Book 6

Adrian Tchaikovsky

A shadow is falling over Collegium. Despite the tenuous peace, Stenwold Maker knows that the Empire will return for his city. Even as he tries to prepare for the resurgence of the black and gold, a hidden threat is steadily working against his people. Ships that sail from Collegium's harbour are being attacked, sunk by pirates. Some just go missing . . . Lulled by the spread of lies and false promises Stenwold’s allies are falling away from him. He faces betrayal on every side, and the Empire is just waiting for the first sign of weakness to strike. But the Empire is not the only power that has its eyes on Collegium. And even the Wasp-kinden may be powerful enough to stave off the forces massing in the darkness and turning hungry eyes towards Stenwold's city.

Heirs of the Blade

Shadows of the Apt: Book 7

Adrian Tchaikovsky

She remembered how it felt to lose Salma, first to the wiles of the Butterfly-kinden girl, then to hear the news of his death, abandoned and alone in the midst of the enemy. She remembered how it felt to see her father hacked to death before her eyes. But of her murder of Achaeos, of the bite of her blade into his unsuspecting flesh, the wound that had sapped him and ruined him until he died, she remembered nothing, felt nothing. In such a vacuum, how could she possibly atone? Tynisa is running, but she cannot escape the demons of her own mind. Amidst the fragmenting provinces of the Dragonfly Commonweal her past will at last catch up with her. Her father's ghost is hunting her down. At the same time, the Wasp Empress, Seda, is on the move, her eyes on the city of Khanaphes, the fallen jewel of the ancient world. Whilst her soldiers seek only conquest, she sees herself as the heir to all the old powers of history, and has her eyes on a far greater prize.

The Air War

Shadows of the Apt: Book 8

Adrian Tchaikovsky

All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, the spies watch each other and ready their knives, while Myna sees the troops muster at its border and emotions run high as it vows never to be enslaved again. In Collegium, the students argue

War Master's Gate

Shadows of the Apt: Book 9

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Relentlessly advancing towards Collegium, the Empire is again seeking to break down its walls. The mighty imperial armies have learnt from their failures, and Empress Seda will brook no weakness in her soldiers. However, Stenwold Maker has earned his title, and the War Master has strategies to save his city. His aviators rule the skies – but the Wasp Kinden Empire has developed a terrifying new aerial weapon.

Yet the campaign may be decided far from marching armies and the noise of battle. In an ancient forest, where Mantis clans pursue their own civil war, the Empress Seda is seeking lost magic. Some dangerous shadow of old night is locked up among these trees and she is wants its power.

Cheerwell Maker must stop her, at any cost, but will their rivalry awaken something far deadlier? Something that could make even their clash of nations pale into insignificance . . .

Seal of the Worm

Shadows of the Apt: Book 10

Adrian Tchaikovsky

For all the fans who loved the long-running series of Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time series, comes the concluding novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky's ten book epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt.

The Empire stands victorious over its enemies at last.

With her chief rival cast into the abyss, Empress Seda now faces the truth of what she has cost the world in order to win the war. The Seal has been shattered, and the Worm stirs towards the light for the first time in a thousand years. Already it is striking at the surface, voraciously consuming everything its questing tendrils touch.

Faced with this threat, Seda knows that only the most extreme of solutions can lock the Worm back in the dark once again. But if she will go to such appalling lengths to save the world from the Worm, then who will save the world from her?

The last book in the epic, critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series.

The Darkest Bloom

Shadowscent: Book 1

P. M. Freestone

In the empire of Aramtesh, scent has power.

Seventeen-year-old Rahil has a great talent for fragrances, but her scentlore skills aren't enough to heal her dying father; a plague is spreading across the land. She leaves her desert village for the city of Aphara in a desperate attempt to save him. Instead, she finds herself indentured to the head priestess at the temple, who holds many secrets - cryptic, ancient tales as well as buried truths from Rahil's past.

Royal bodyguard Ash is sworn to protect First Prince Nisai, and the imperial prince protects him in turn, by keeping Ash's true identity hidden.

One fateful night, the temple's precious scented flowers are set ablaze, and Prince Nisai is found poisoned. Caught in the smoke, Rahil realizes that she is the prime suspect - and that she holds the only clue to finding an antidote. And any chance for a cure is a risk that Ash is willing to take, even if it means disobeying orders, partnering with a fugitive, and going on the run.

Before the poison takes hold, the unlikely pair must race across the empire to save the prince, themselves, and everything they hold dear.

Crown of Smoke

Shadowscent: Book 2

P. M. Freestone

The exciting conclusion to the Shadowscent duology! Rakel travels outside the borders of the empire, seeking answers to new questions about the past. Meanwhile, Ash must find a way to warn the others of dangers to come. All this as the empire itself hurtles towards a civil war that's been brewing since the gods last walked the land. Prince or servant, everyone must take a stand.

Fire in the Sky

Shadowsong: Book 1

Jo Clayton

Emerging from her centuries-long imprisonment inside an alien artifact, Shadith learns that she has developed an empathic musical skill, and is called upon to delegate a mission with a musically communicating alien race.

The Burning Ground

Shadowsong: Book 2

Jo Clayton

Freed from ages of imprisonment in the Diadem, an alien artifact, Shadith discovers that she has the power to transfer her consciousness into any living creature, a talent that she uses to try to destroy a syndicate that creates civil wars as a tourist attraction.

Crystal Heat

Shadowsong: Book 3

Jo Clayton

Hired to return an innocent creature to people who only wish to destroy it, psychic detective Shadith cannot bring herself to fulfill her mission and is forced to betray her strongest supporter while outwitting a smuggler.

A Taint in the Blood

Shadowspawn: Book 1

S. M. Stirling

Eons ago, the powerful Homo Nocturnis ruled the earth. While their numbers have been greatly reduced, they still exist-though not as purebreds. Adrian Breze is one such being. Wealthy and reclusive, he is more Shadowspawn than human. But he rebelled against his kind, choosing to live as an ordinary man. Now, to save humanity, he must battle the dark forces of the world-including those in his own blood...

The Council of Shadows

Shadowspawn: Book 2

S. M. Stirling

Adrian Breze has long defied his pure-bred Shadowspawn heritage as part of an ancient race of shapeshifters who once reigned supreme. But when his ruthless sister Adrienne kidnapped his human lover Ellen, he emerged from seclusion to rescue her.

Before her defeat, Adrienne revealed that the Council of Shadows was marshalling its strength to rule the world once again. To stop them, Adrian and Ellen must ally with the Brotherhood, a resistance group dedicated to breaking the Council's hold on humankind.

In the coming confrontation, Adrian must fight not only the members of the Council but also his own nature...and, he will come to suspect, traitors within the Brotherhood itself...

Shadows of Falling Night

Shadowspawn: Book 3

S. M. Stirling

She's back....

Near-purebred Homo nocturnus Adrian Brézé and his human mate, Ellen, thought they had dealt with his twin sister, Adrienne. In fact, they thought she was dead.

But she survived and now leads a faction of the Shadowspawn--the ancient, shape-shifting, blood-drinking breed who secretly control the world--that wants to leave just enough of the human race alive to satisfy their hunger and serve their needs. She has nothing but hatred and contempt for her brother, who remains on the side of humanity, fighting with the Brotherhood against the Shadowspawn.

To defeat him, she has suborned his mentor--the greatest warrior of the Brotherhood. The man thinks he's bringing a weapon to the Council of Shadows that will wipe out the Shadowspawn's leaders. In truth, his actions will make Adrienne demon-goddess of the world...unless Adrian and Ellen can turn him back in time.

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: The Cthulhu Casebooks: Book 1

James Lovegrove

It is the autumn of 1880, and Dr John Watson has just returned from Afghanistan. Badly injured and desperate to forget a nightmarish expedition that left him doubting his sanity, Watson is close to destitution when he meets the extraordinary Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating a series of deaths in the Shadwell district of London. Several bodies have been found, the victims appearing to have starved to death over the course of several weeks, and yet they were reported alive and well mere days before. Moreover, there are disturbing reports of creeping shadows that inspire dread in any who stray too close. Holmes deduces a connection between the deaths and a sinister drug lord who is seeking to expand his criminal empire. Yet both he and Watson are soon forced to accept that there are forces at work far more powerful than they could ever have imagined. Forces that can be summoned, if one is brave - or mad - enough to dare...

Shadowsinger

Spellsong Cycle: Book 5

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

The Climax of The Spellsong Cycle

Secca, foster daughter of the Soprano Sorceress, and now her successor as Sorceress Protector of Defalk, must deal carefully with her willful master and wield her power to save his kingdom from the armies, fleets and master sorcerers of the Maitre of Sturinn. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, she is forced to test her own powers over and over again, while teaching her new husband and her inexperienced apprentice the skills they will need to aid her in creating spells powerful enough to shake the foundations of the world.

Shards and Shadows

Star Trek: Crossovers: Mirror Universe: Book 3

Margaret Clark
Marco Palmieri

Fractured history. Broken lives. Splintered souls. Since the alternate universe was first glimpsed in the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror," something about Star Trek's dark side has beckoned us, called to us, tempted us -- like forbidden fruit on the Tree of Knowledge. To taste it is to lose oneself in a world of startling familiarity and terrifying contradictions, where everything and everyone we knew is somehow disturbingly different, and where shocking secrets await their revelation.

What began in 2007 with Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances -- the first truly in-depth foray into the turbulent history of this other continuum -- now continues in twelve new short tales that revisit and expand upon that so-called "Mirror Universe," spanning all five of the core incarnations of Star Trek, as well as their literary offshoots, across more than two hundred years of divergent history, as chronicled by...

Contents:

  • 1 - Nobunaga - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Dave Stern [as by David Stern]
  • 33 - Ill Winds - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
  • 71 - The Greater Good - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Margaret Wander Bonanno
  • 105 - The Black Flag - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by James Swallow
  • 145 - The Traitor - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Michael Jan Friedman
  • 179 - The Sacred Chalice - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Rudy Josephs
  • 215 - Bitter Fruit - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Susan Wright
  • 247 - Family Matters - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Keith R. A. DeCandido
  • 271 - Homecoming - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Peter David
  • 311 - A Terrible Beauty - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Jim Johnson
  • 359 - Empathy - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by Christopher L. Bennett
  • 393 - For Want of a Nail - [Star Trek: Mirror Universe] - novelette by David Mack

Shadows on the Sun

Star Trek: The Original Series: Giant Novels: Book 9

Michael Jan Friedman

As a young doctor with a beautiful family and a promising medical career, Dr. Leonard McCoy thought he had it all. But when the woman he loved betrayed him, McCoy fled to Starfleet, hoping to lose his pain in the depths of space. Now, more than forty years later, the Enterprise and her crew are ordered to transport a group of mediators to the planet Ssan, a world where assassination is a time-honored tradition, and McCoy is surprised to learn that his ex-wife, now remarried, is one of the mediators. And before he can come to terms with his conflicted feelings for his former love, she and Captain Kirk are trapped on Susan, and McCoy is caught in an explosive civil war, the only one with the power to save the woman who once nearly destroyed him.

Shadows of the Empire

Star Wars

Steve Perry

Darth Vader joins forces with Xizor, an ambitious and ruthless Underlord of a criminal organization called Black Sun, to target the young Jedi knight Luke Skywalker, while Princess Leia launches a desperate campaign to free Han Solo, frozen in a carbonite slab.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

Star Wars

Matthew Stover

Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader are dead. The Empire has been toppled by the triumphant Rebel Alliance, and the New Republic is ascendant. But the struggle against the dark side and the Sith Order is not over. Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and their faithful comrades have had little time to savor victory before being called on to defend the newly liberated galaxy.

Powerful remnants of the vanquished Empire, hungry for retaliation, are still at large, committing acts of piracy, terrorism, and wholesale slaughter against the worlds of the fledgling New Republic. The most deadly of these, a ruthless legion of black-armored Stormtroopers, do the brutal bidding of the newly risen warlord Shadowspawn. Striking from a strategically advantageous base on the planet Mindor, they are waging a campaign of plunder and destruction, demolishing order and security across the galaxy -- and breeding fears of an Imperial resurgence. Another reign of darkness beneath the boot-heel of Sith despotism is something General Luke Skywalker cannot, and will not, risk.

Mobilizing the ace fighters of Rogue Squadron -- along with the trusty Chewbacca, See-Threepio, and Artoo-Detoo -- Luke, Han, and Leia set out to take the battle to the enemy and neutralize the threat before it's too late. But their imminent attack on Mindor will be playing directly into the hands of their cunning new adversary. Lord Shadowspawn is no freshly anointed Sith Chieftain but in fact a vicious former Imperial Intelligence officer -- and Prophet of the Dark Side. The Emperor's death has paved the way for Shadowspawn's return from exile in the Outer Rim, and mastery of ancient Sith knowledge and modern technology has given him the capability to mount the ultimate power play for galaxy wide dominion. Dark prophecy has foretold that only one obstacle stands in his way, and he is ready -- even eager -- for the confrontation.

All the classic heroes, all the explosive action and adventure, all the unparalleled excitement of Star Wars come breathlessly alive as the adventures of Luke Skywalker continue.

Out of the Shadows

Star Wars: The High Republic - Series Two: Book 2

Justina Ireland

The darkest secrets are the hardest to bring to light....

Sylvestri Yarrow is on a streak of bad luck with no end of sight. She's been doing her best to keep the family cargo business going after her mom's death, but between mounting debt and increasing attacks by the Nihil on unsuspecting ships, Syl is in danger of losing all she has left of her mother. She heads to the galactic capital of Coruscant for help, but gets sidetracked when she's drawn into a squabble between two of the Republic's most powerful families over a patch of space on the frontier. Tangled up in familial politics is the last place Syl wants to be, but the promise of a big payoff is enough to keep her interested...

Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh has been summoned to Coruscant, but with no idea of why or by whom. She and her Padawan Imri Cantaros arrive at the capital along with Jedi Master Cohmac Vitus and his Padawan, Reath Silas?and are asked to assist with the property dispute on the frontier. But why? What is so important about an empty patch of space? The answer will lead Vernestra to a new understanding of her abilities, and take Syl back to the past...and to truths that will finally come out of the shadows.

Fortress of Shadows

Stonehaven League: Book 2

Carrie Summers

A giant telepathic parrot with a rather foul mouth, a horde of smelly goblins, and a tyrannical demon priestess...

Welcome to Devon Walker's "new normal."

During her first weeks in the deeply immersive VR game, Relic Online, she's hacked out a home from a choking jungle, gathered a tribe of loyal followers, and earned a wisp stalker who insists she's some kind of champion.

But Relic Online isn't some wussy kids' game, and there will be no easy-street cruising for Devon. Like a monk racking up combo points, the system opens a fresh offensive by crippling her most powerful ability. Following through, it strangles the village food supply, sends demons bursting through rifts in the earth, and delivers a final, devastating throat punch by exploiting Devon's worst fear.

The players have discovered Devon's home. Now everything changes.

A Cavern of Black Ice

Sword of Shadows: Book 1

J. V. Jones

In Spire Vanis, an uncrowned ruler steals magic from tortured captives, while an innocent girl is haunted by nightmares of ice. On the frigid steppes, two brothers find their kinsmen slain by swords that draw no blood. At a remote homestead, a hardened warrior leaves his family to follow a raven's summons.

And in a deadly wilderness where nature and the gods have no mercy, two young fugitives will confront the unfolding of an apocalyptic prophecy.

A Fortress of Grey Ice

Sword of Shadows: Book 2

J. V. Jones

Ash March knew Raif Sevrance was special from the moment he helped rescue her from the tyranny of her foster father in the city of Spire Vanis. Like her, Raif was an outcast. Though from different worlds, he from the clanholds, she from the fortress city, their lives were somehow entwined by fate and by the need of the cold, dark north of their world. It has been a thousand years since the dreaded Endlords have tried to breach the boundary between the living and the dead, but now the forces that hold back the damned souls of the dead have weakened; new heroes must emerge to combat this terrible threat.

Raif, wrongly accused and cast out of his clan by the treachery of their new headsman. Ash, raised as a foundling, is a warrior sacred to the Sull, an ancient race who once ruled the north. But raised in isolation, she must learn and accept the power and responsibility of her heritage.

As Ash learns of the role she must fulfill, Raifs task looms dark and desperate: he must journey through the nightmare realm of the desolate Want, where even the Sull fear to tread. For deep within the Want is the Fortress of Grey Ice, and there he must heal the breach in the Blindwall that already threatens the world. Should he fail, not even Ash's powers can save them.

A Sword from Red Ice

Sword of Shadows: Book 3

J. V. Jones

The Long Night has begun. The Endlords and their dark army of Unmade prepare to unleash untold destruction upon the world. Every Sull warrior must step forward and fight, or risk the North falling into eternal darkness.

Key to mankind's survival is the sacred warrior Ash March. But for Ash to realise her true potential as a Reach, and become the Sull's greatest weapon, she must keep herself safe as the perils that surround her multiply. Raif Sevrance has an equally perilous task. The exile must travel to the barren wastes of the Red Glaciers and recover the legendary sword named Loss. For Sull legend decrees that he who wields the Sword from Red Ice will bring terror to their enemies.

But fulfilment of these goals may yet come too late. In the remote reaches of the Bitter Hills, the Endlords' minions have made a cataclysmic discovery: a crack in the Blindwall, an ancient and unguarded passage leading directly into the realms of men.

Watcher of the Dead

Sword of Shadows: Book 4

J. V. Jones

In the frigid wasteland of the north, Raif Sevrance, Watcher of the Dead, has endured many trials to lay claim to the renowned sword known as Loss. But the price of wielding the legendary weapon is high, and Raif is unsure if he is willing to pay it. Ash Marsh, Daughter of the Sull, still struggles to come to terms with her heritage, and the knowledge that the Watcher, armed with Loss, could be the one who will save the Sull, or end them. Raina Blackhail, widow of a murdered ruler and wife of his brutal successor, has seen her clan disgraced and has, herself, taken up the mantle of chief. But there are enemies both beyond her gates and within. And in the murky swamps of the Stillwater, two children will learn the secrets of the Marsh clan. Secrets so old they threaten everything.

A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows

Technic Civilization: Dominic Flandry: Book 7

Poul Anderson

Raconteur, bon vivant, troubleshooter for the decaying Terran Empire, Dominic Falndry doesn't crave further danger in the service of galactic unity.

But duty calls, so it's back to the spaceways for the most elegant Special Agent is a hundred star systems--straight into the well-laid plans of his lifelong enemy Aycharaych.

Win or lose, though, the long night of human civilization is coming and Flandry knows it. How many more battles can he stand to win in a losing cause? And how many planets will die meanwhile?

War of Shadows

The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga: Book 3

Gail Z. Martin

Amidst the shadows, chaos reigns.

Blaine "Mick" McFadden managed to partially restore Donderath's magic, but not without a cost. He and the magic are now bound together, and the power remains dangerous and erratic - draining the life from him with every use.

New threats are rising from the wreckage of the battered kingdoms, and warlords both mortal and undead vie for control. Now, Blaine and his unlikely band of convict heroes must find allies amidst a seas of enemies, and discover a way to rebind magic to the will of mortals before it destroys him. And time is running out...

The Alchemist in the Shadows

The Cardinal's Blades: Book 2

Pierre Pevel

Welcome to Paris, in 1633, where dragons menace the realm. Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful and most feared man in France, is on his guard. He knows France is under threat, and that a secret society known as the Black Claw is conspiring against him from the heart of the greatest courts in Europe. They will strike from the shadows, and when they do the blow will be both terrible and deadly.

To counter the threat, Richelieu has put his most trusted men into play: the Cardinal's Blades, led by Captain la Fargue. Six men and a woman, all of exceptional abilities and all ready to risk their lives on his command. They have saved France before, and the Cardinal is relying on them to do it again.

So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen... and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu's protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It's a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows...

The River of Shadows

The Chathrand Voyage: Book 3

Robert V. S. Redick

The latest novel in Robert V.S Redick's stunning and original fantasy epic is a taut race against time that takes the Chathrand across the seas in a desperate bid to stop the sorcerer Arunis unleashing the Swarm of Night.

From the mysterious River of Shadows to the Infernal Forest, to the Island Wilderness Pazel and his companions face a phatasmogoric journey through altered relaities, a nightmare journey which offers glimpses of what might have been while taking them into the terror of what is to come. Will Arunis use the cursed Nilstone to end the world?

This is a rich fantasy of nightmares and unexpected beauty and is proof positie that Redick is one of the most exciting new talents in fantasy.

Knight of Shadows

The Chronicles of Amber: Book 9

Roger Zelazny

Confronting his deadliest enemy in a reincarnated Julia, his former lover, Merlin of Amber is forced to choose between the Patterns of Amber and Chaos while continuing his search for his father, Corwin.

Lord of Shadows

The Dark Artifices: Book 2

Cassandra Clare

Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she'd be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?

And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters' demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear--before it's too late.

Siege of Shadows

The Effigies: Book 2

Sarah Raughley

There's nowhere to hide.

Not when you're an Effigy. No matter where they go, Maia and the other Effigies can't escape the eyes of the press--especially not after failing to capture Saul, whose power to control the monstrous Phantoms has left the world in a state of panic. It's been two months since Saul's disappearance, and there's still no sign of him, leaving the public to wonder whether the Sect--and the Effigies--are capable of protecting anyone.

When Saul suddenly surfaces in the middle of the Sahara desert, the Sect sends Maia and her friends out after him. But instead of Saul, they discover a dying soldier engineered with Effigy-like abilities. Even worse, there may be more soldiers like him out there, and it looks like the Effigies are their prime targets.

Yet the looming danger of Saul and this mysterious new army doesn't overshadow Maia's fear of the Sect, who ordered the death of the previous Fire Effigy, Natalya. With enemies on all sides and the world turning against them, the Effigies have to put their trust in each other--easier said than done when secrets threaten to tear them apart.

Scorched Shadows

The Hellequin Chronicles: Book 7

Steve McHugh

In the final chapter of the Hellequin Chronicles, secrets will be revealed, friendships tested, and destinies fulfilled.

Avalon is under siege. A shadowy cabal, headed by a mysterious figure known only as "My Liege," has launched a series of deadly attacks across the globe, catching innocent human bystanders in the crossfire.

Emerging from the debris of battle, Nate Garrett, the sixteen-hundred-year-old sorcerer also called Hellequin, and his friends must stop My Liege once and for all. But powerful forces stand in their way. To save Avalon, they will need to enlist the help of Mordred, once Nate's greatest nemesis, now his most formidable ally. But Mordred is grappling with a dark prophecy that could spell Nate's doom...

The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Even if Nate can halt the war, will there be anything left worth saving?

Shadows of Treachery

The Horus Heresy: Book 22

Christian Dunn
Nick Kyme

From the battlefields of Phall and Isstvan, to the haunted shadows of Terra itself - the greatest war in the history of mankind rages on. While the traitor Legions continue their campaign of terror across the galaxy, preparations are made for the defence of the Imperial Palace and the final, inevitable reckoning that must yet come between Horus and the Emperor...

This anthology spans the entire Horus Heresy, with short stories from Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill and Gav Thorpe, as well as two brand new novella-length tales. Learn the fate of Rogal Dorn's fleet originally sent to Isstvan III in 'The Crimson Fist' by John French, and descend deeper into the darkness of the Night Lords Legion in 'Prince of Crows' by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Shadows

The Masks of Aygrima: Book 2

E. C. Blake

In Masks, Mara Holdfast's life changed forever. As the daughter of the Autarch's Master Maskmaker, she had a clearly defined future: a quiet, ordered life in the capital, making Masks with her father and doing work important to the ruling Autarch.

But when her Mask, specially made by her own father, cracked and fell to pieces during her Masking ceremony, Mara was exiled from everything she once knew.

Now she has become part of an underground rebellion, rejecting the unjust rules of a Masked society. She must try to understand her unprecedented ability to use all types of magic--and to tear magic from the living bodies of those around her. But Mara has yet to discover just how horrifying her power can be....

The Crowded Shadows

The Moorehawke Trilogy: Book 2

Celine Kiernan

Every tyrant who ever threatened the Kingdom is gathering to Alberon's table, and the forest is alive with spies, wolves, and bandits. Within these crowded shadows, Protector Lady Wynter Moorehawke travels alone and unprotected, determined that she shall find the rebel prince and heal the rift that has come between the King and his legitimate heir. But who is an ally and who is a foe?

In this, the second volume of The Moorehawke Trilogy, old friends and even older enemies ensure that Wynter is never certain of who she can trust.

The Way of Shadows

The Night Angel Trilogy: Book 1

Brent Weeks

The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets.

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city’s most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’s grown up in the slums, and learned the hard way to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

Beyond the Shadows

The Night Angel Trilogy: Book 3

Brent Weeks

Logan Gyre is king of Cenaria, a country under siege, with a threadbare army and little hope. He has one chance - a desperate gamble, but one that could destroy his kingdom.

In the north, the new Godking has a plan. If it comes to fruition, no one will have the power to stop him.

Kylar Stern has no choice. To save his friends-and perhaps his enemies-he must accomplish the impossible: assassinate a goddess.

An Ambush of Shadows

The Pelbar Cycle: Book 5

Paul O. Williams

An Ambush of Shadows is the fifth book in the classic series of postapocalyptic novels about the people of Pelbar. Despite the tentative peace established in the eleven hundred years since the destruction of the United States, the Tantal tribe remains ready for battle. After their disastrous defeat by the Pelbar tribes at Northwall, the slaveholding Tantal have kept their distance. But since the Pelbar forces began moving northward to colonize the shores of the Bitter Sea, the Tantal forces have been on the attack.

Then one day, a roving tribe of Tantal warriors kidnaps a young girl during a raid on Pelbar explorers. The child is Raydi, daughter of Stel Westrun, Pelbar master craftsman, reinventor of the steamboat, and son of the leader of the Pelbar city-state Pelbarigan. Stel vows to reclaim his daughter and seek revenge, becoming the single-minded foe of all things Tantal.

Hunting the Shadows

The Selected Stories of Tanith Lee: Book 2

Tanith Lee

Volume two of the magical short story collection by Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner Tanith Lee, author of The Silver Metal Lover and The Birthgrave. "Gothic poetess, comic young-adult author, robust adventure-fantasy novelist: Tanith Lee has more writing personas than Sybil. But in her short fiction, all these aspects come gloriously together. Such stories as 'Antonius Bequeathed' or 'The Persecution Machine,' with their death-defying mixture of prose poetry, genre trope reversals and ominous wit, could be written by no one else." - WEIRD TALES magazine Stories include: "The Woman in Scarlet," "One For Sorrow," "Unlocking the Golden Cage," "Antonius Bequeathed," "Doll Skulls," "Queens in Crimson," "Flower Water," "The Persecution Machine," "All the Birds of Hell," "Vermilia."

Table of Content

  • The Woman in Scarlet - (2000) - shortstory
  • Zelle's Thursday - (1989) - shortstory
  • Unlocking the Golden Cage - (1999) - shortstory
  • The Eye in the Heart - (2000) - shortstory
  • Vermilia - (1999) - shortstory
  • Flower Water - (1998) - shortstory
  • Doll Skulls - (1996) - novelette
  • Queens in Crimson - shortfiction
  • All the Birds of Hell - (1998) - novelette
  • The Persecution Machine - (1994) - shortstory
  • Antonius Bequeathed - (1993) - shortstory
  • One for Sorrow - (1994) - novelette

Of Saints and Shadows

The Shadow Saga: Book 1

Christopher Golden

A secret sect of the Catholic Church, armed with an ancient book of the undead called The Gospel of Shadows, has been slowly destroying vampires for centuries. Now the book has been stolen, and the sect races to retrieve it before their purpose is discovered: a final purge of all vampires. As the line between saints and shadows grows ominously faint, private eye Peter Octavian is drawn into the search. And he'll do anything to find the book... for Peter Octavian is also a vampire.

Ostracized by his kindred for refusing to take part in the 'blood song', he cannot stand by and watch while they are destroyed. In a deadly game with a driven, sadistic assassin, the trail leads to Venice at the time of carnival, where the Defiant Ones, as the vampires are known, are engaged in a savage battle for their lives. Filled with plot twists, mystery, sex and violent death, Of Saints and Shadows is a spine-tingling thriller which opens the door to the world of The Shadow Saga.

Shadowshaper

The Shadowshaper Cypher: Book 1

Daniel José Older

Paint a mural. Start a battle. Change the world.

Sierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears... Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.

With the help of a fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for generations to come.

Full of a joyful, defiant spirit and writing as luscious as a Brooklyn summer night, Shadowshaper introduces a heroine and magic unlike anything else in fantasy fiction, and marks the YA debut of a bold new voice.

Shadowhouse Fall

The Shadowshaper Cypher: Book 2

Daniel José Older

Sierra and her friends love their new lives as shadowshapers, making art and creating change with the spirits of Brooklyn. Then Sierra receives a strange card depicting a beast called the Hound of Light -- an image from the enigmatic, influential Deck of Worlds. The shadowshapers know their next battle has arrived.

Thrust into an ancient struggle with enemies old and new, Sierra and Shadowhouse are determined to win. Revolution is brewing in the real world as well, as the shadowshapers lead the fight against systems that oppress their community. To protect her family and friends in every sphere, Sierra must take down the Hound and master the Deck of Worlds... or risk losing them all.

Shadowshaper Legacy

The Shadowshaper Cypher: Book 3

Daniel José Older

A house divided

Sierra and the shadowshapers have been split apart. Juan, Anthony, and Izzy are in jail, anxiously waiting to find out what will become of them. Back in Brooklyn, the other shadowshapers have been getting threatening messages from whisper wraiths, catching strangely shaped figures stalking them, and fending off random spirits. A war is brewing among the houses, and the very magic of the shadowshapers is at stake.

The fate of the worlds

Sierra is determined to protect her own in the coming conflict, even if that means keeping secrets from them. But a deal with Death by one of Sierra's ancestors has far-reaching consequences in the battles of the present, and as old fates tangle with new powers, Sierra will have to harness the Deck of Worlds and confront her family's past if she has any hope of saving the future and everyone she loves. Only doing so will mean following the magic to places the shadowshapers have never gone before... and may never return from.

The Scent of Shadows

The Signs of the Zodiac: Book 1

Vicki Pettersson

When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert.

By rights, she should be dead.

Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset - a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow - seeking answers to whom or what she really is... and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure.

But the nightmare is just beginning - for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful Shadows want her for their own...

Lord of Snow and Shadows

The Tears of Artamon: Book 1

Sarah Ash

Three kingdoms. One man.
A destiny written in blood.
An epic new fantasy series begins...

Seemingly always the outsider, Gavril Andar - an impoverished young painter - yearns to join the privileged circles of Muscobar polite society. However, unbeknownst to him, he does have royal blood in his veins: the dark and powerful blood of a father he never knew - the Drakhaon, ruler of the isolated northern kingdom of Azhkendir. And when the Drakhaon is brutally murdered, an unwilling Gavril is forced to take up the mantle of both his father's rule - and his power. For blood will out. And the Drakhaon's carries within it a taint that gives its bearer access to awesome, unimagined magics - but at a soul-shattering price.

Now trapped in this bleak, mist-shrouded land full of superstition and racked by bitter rivalries, Gavril faces an awesome task. He must find his father's killer and unite his fractured kingdom against those who see it as weak, defenceless and ripe for invasion before he pays the price of kinship and succumbs to the dread curse that uncoils within him...

Richly imagined, full of intrigue, magic and dark romance and boasting a cast of superbly-drawn players, LORD OF SNOW AND SHADOWS is the first book in a thrilling new trilogy and marks the triumphant return of one of fantasy's most original and exciting voices.

A Sleight of Shadows

The Unseen World: Book 2

Kat Howard

After taking down the source of the corruption of the Unseen World, Sydney is left with almost no magical ability. Feeling estranged from herself, she is determined to find a way back to her status as one of the world's most dangerous magicians. Unfortunately, she needs to do this quickly: the House of Shadows, the hell on earth that shaped her into who she was, the place she sacrificed everything to destroy, is rebuilding itself.

"The House of shadows sits on bones. All of the sacrifices, all of the magicians who died in Shadows, they're buried beneath the foundations. Bones hold magic."

The magic of the Unseen World is acting strangely, faltering, bleeding out from the edges. Determined to keep the House of Shadows from returning to power and to defeat the magicians who want nothing more than to have it back, Sydney turns to extremes in a desperate attempt to regain her sacrificed magic. She is forced to decide what she will give up and what she will lose and whether what must be destroyed is not only the House of Shadows, but the Unseen World itself.

World Fantasy Award finalist Kat Howard has written a sequel that asks how you have a happily ever in a world that doesn't want it, where the cost of that happiness may be too much to bear.

Knot of Shadows

The World of the Five Gods: Penric: Book 11

Lois McMaster Bujold

When a corpse is found floating face-down in Vilnoc harbor that is not quite as dead as it seems, Temple sorcerer Penric and his chaos demon Desdemona are drawn into the uncanny investigation. Pen's keen questions will take him across the city of Vilnoc, and into far more profound mysteries, as his search for truths interlaces with tragedy.

Shadowspawn

Thieves' World

Andrew J. Offutt

Now, in the fourth full-length novel inspired by Thieves World, Andrew J. Offutt--author of the "Cormac Mac Art" series and the "Spaceways" series--takes his beloved character, Shadowspawn, beyond the walls of Sanctuary, into new realms of sorcery and high adventure.

Shadows of Sanctuary

Thieves' World: Book 3

Lynn Abbey
Robert Lynn Asprin

Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin. Cover art by Gary Ruddell. Cover: Jubal defends himself against Tempus.

Shadows of Sanctuary
The Thieves' World Adventure continues.
Edited by Robert Asprin

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED STORIES FROM THE TOP NAMES IN FANTASY

In the beginning there was Thieves' World, a book so popular that it earned a panel all its own at the World Science Fiction Convention. Then came Tales form the Vulgar Unicorn...

And now "Shadows of Sanctuary", Sanctuary, the meanest, seediest town in all of fantasy, has captured the imaginations of some of the most popular writers in all of fantasy -- ROBERT ASPRIN, LYNN ABBEY, ANDREW J. OFFUTT, VONDA N. MCINTYRE, JANET MORRIS, C. J. CHERRYH.

Join them, and the characters you came to love in previous books, in this third volume of the most unique series in science fiction.

Contents:

  • Introduction by Robert Asprin
  • Looking for Satan by Vonda N. McIntyre
  • Ischade by C.J. Cherryh
  • A Gift in Parting by Robert Asprin
  • The Vivisectionist by Andrew J. Offutt
  • The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn by Diana L. Paxson
  • Then Azyuna Danced by Lynn Abbey
  • A Man and His God by Janet Morris
  • Essay: Thing the Editor Never Told Me by Lynn Abbey

Queen of Shadows

Throne of Glass: Book 4

Sarah J. Maas

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. Now she returns to the empire -- to confront the shadows of her past... The fourth breathtaking instalment in the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series.

Bloodthirsty for revenge on the two men responsible for destroying her life, and desperate to find out if the prince and his captain are safe, Celaena returns to Rifthold, the seat of so much evil. She has accepted her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, there are dark truths to learn and debts to be paid. Aelin must stay hidden beneath her assassin's hood and draw on her mortal strength as Celaena to prevent the King of Adarlan from tearing her world apart. Only then can she fight for her people.

Readers will be held rapt as Celaena's story builds to an agonising crescendo, packed with heart-pounding action and swoon-worthy romance.

Shadows and Light

Tir Alainn: Book 2

Anne Bishop

Ever since the slaughter of the witches, the Fae—who should be shielding their long-lost cousins from danger—have ignored the needs of the rest of the world. And shadows are again gathering in the eastern villages—dark, potent shadows that threaten the lives of every witch, woman, and Fae. Only three Fae can stand against the growing madness and help prevent more bloodshed—the Bard, the Muse, and the Gatherer of Souls.

Aiden, the Bard, knows how desperately the world depends upon the Fae's protection. But the Fae refuse to heed his warnings about the wickedness lurking amid the trees. Now Aiden and his one true love—Lyrra, the Muse—must embark on a perilous journey to find the one Fae who can convince the rest to leave their secure perches to save the witches and mortals. Because if the Fae don't act soon, no one will survive....

Smoke and Shadows

Tony Foster: Book 1

Tanya Huff

Tony, rescued from Toronto streets by vampire Henry Fitzroy, works on Vancouver TV detective show where shadows do not behave like shadows. Arra, special effects wizard, is a real wizard from another world destroyed by the Shadowlord, whose minions followed her here. When hetero star Lee is possessed by a minion, homosexual Tony gets lover Henry to press Arra for help.

Tor Double #5: No Truce With Kings / Ship of Shadows

Tor Double: Book 5

Fritz Leiber
Poul Anderson

No Truce With Kings:

Anderson's tale follows Colonel Mackenzie of the Army of the Pacific States of America as civil war breaks out in the wake of the President usurping power. Decades after a nuclear war, the inheritors of the United States of America - rather like the European kingdoms after Rome's fall - are feudal, vie for power, and hope to recapture the technological and, perhaps, political glories of the past.

But, with the Espers, a religion that promises the development of man's latent psychic powers, something new in human history may have been brought into the mix.

Ship of Shadows:

The setting is a spaceship; Spar is just a man who wants some teeth and better eyes. Old Doc says he may be able to use some old technology to give those to him. But then Spar gets involved with Crown, the local gangster. Oh, and people keep disappearing - maybe due to vampires.

The Watcher in the Shadows

Trilogy of Fog: Book 3

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A mysterious toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the mechanical beings he has created... an enigma surrounding strange lights that shine through the mists that envelop the small island on which the old lighthouse stands... a shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods... these are the elements of a mystery that bind 14-year-old Irene to Ismael during one magical summer spent in the Blue Bay. Irene's mother has taken a job as a housekeeper for the toymaker, Lazarus, but his house contains more secrets than Irene and Ishmael have bargained for.

The Shadows

Vampire Huntress Legend: Book 11

L. A. Banks

In the newest Vampire Huntress novel from national bestselling author, L. A. Banks, more than vampires are coming out to play...

The Dark Realms are taking cover after an angel onslaught from On High. The Anti-Christ has been injured and the fourth Biblical seal has been broken. Yonnie and Val, a strange combination of a daywalker and an angel hybrid, have joined Damali and Carlos's team. And the two new Council Level vamps, Elizabeth Bathory and Lucrezia Borgia, are still in recovery from their last mission.

Seething in the underworld is the Unnamed One, so furious that he's bringing the battle topside, unleashing a full-frontal assault on mankind for the offenses committed by the Vampire Huntress team. This time, Damali and Carlos must address serious human casualties and collateral damage... all while the vampire councilman, Nuit rebuilds Blood Music to become more than a record label, but a media brainwashing empire for the dark lord.

The Court of Shadows

Vampyria: Book 1

Victor Dixen

Louis XIV transformed from the Sun King into the King of Shadows when he embraced immortality and became the world's first vampire. For the last three centuries, he has been ruling the kingdom from the decadent Court of Shadows in Versailles, demanding the blood of his subjects to sate his nobles' thirst and maintain their loyalty.

In the heart of rural France, commoner Jeanne Froidelac witnesses the king's soldiers murder her family and learns of her parents' role in a brewing rebellion involving the forbidden secrets of alchemy. To seek her revenge, Jeanne disguises herself as an aristocrat and enrolls in a prestigious school for aspiring courtiers. She soon finds herself at the doors of the palace of Versailles.

But Jeanne, of course, is no aristocrat. She dreams not of court but of blood.

The blood of a king.

Venus of Shadows

Venus Trilogy: Book 2

Pamela Sargent

The Venus Project calls upon the strongest and most courageous to create a prosperous world in the dismal wilderness of Venus. Those who demonstrate the skill and the passion to embark on this adventure must transform the barren planet in the midst of political and cultural unrest. When Risa and Benzi, children of Iris, one of the first people to partake in this project, find themselves in opposing forces on the battlefield, it is their love and perseverance that will determine the destiny of the new land.

Shadows Out of Hell

War of the Gods on Earth: Book 2

Andrew J. Offutt

Healer. Killer. Jarik Blacksword is as schooled in the terrors of war as he is skilled in the wizardry of healing. One hand bears the magic blade that hungers for the very flesh that the other hand yearns to heal.

And now, in his most dreaded adventure ever, he is sent on a quest past world's end by the woman he must serve, then slay!

Shadowsong

Wintersong: Book 2

S. Jae-Jones

Six months after the end of Wintersong, Liesl is working toward furthering both her brother's and her own musical careers. Although she is determined to look forward and not behind, life in the world above is not as easy as Liesl had hoped. Her younger brother Josef is cold, distant, and withdrawn, while Liesl can't forget the austere young man she left beneath the earth, and the music he inspired in her.

When troubling signs arise that the barrier between worlds is crumbling, Liesl must return to the Underground to unravel the mystery of life, death, and the Goblin King?who he was, who he is, and who he will be. What will it take to break the old laws once and for all? What is the true meaning of sacrifice when the fate of the world?or the ones Liesl loves?is in her hands?