Search Worlds Without End

In the frozen blackness of space, humankind found a dreaming world of sun-shot mists and iridescent oceans. They stayed to explore and study, claiming it for their own; but, its deepest secrets remained utterly beyond their reach. Humanity was new to the stars, their minds still earthbound, eyes closed and fearful. But, there were a few who saw, and understood, and dreamed. With special restless courage of their pioneering ancestors, they journeyed out from their homes, eager to create a new destiny for themselves are among the stars, stretching, soaring, learning to hold a Dialogue With Darkness. This is their story.

Table of Contents:

• A Chapter of Revelation - (1972) - novella
• Sister Planet - (1959) - novella
• The Life of Your Time - (1965) - novelette
• Time Heals - (1949) - novelette
• SOS - (1970) - novelette
• Conversation in Arcady - (1963) - shortstory
• Dialogue - (1976) - novelette
• The Communicators - (1970) - novelette

Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1971. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Best Science Fiction of the Year #1 (1972), edited by Terry Carr
• Nebula Award Stories Seven (1972), edited by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
• The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: A Special 25th Anniversary Anthology (1974), edited by Edward L. Ferman
• The Hugo Winners, Volume 3: (1970-75) (1977), edited by Isaac Asimov
• The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction (1980), edtied by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
• The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume IV (1986), edited by Terry Carr

It is included in the collections:

• The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories (1973)
• The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson, aka The Book of Poul Anderson (1974)
• Winners (1981)
• New America (1985)
• The Armies of Elfland (1992)
• Going for Infinity (2002)
• The Queen of Air and Darkness (2009)

This short story originally appeared in Lighspeed, September 2017.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed Magazine.

Conrad Navarro is a champion of the Pageant, a gruesome modern day gladiatorial exhibition held in secret arenas across the globe. Indentured by a cabal of ultra-rich patrons, his world is one of blood and mayhem, an existence where savagery reigns supreme while mercy leads to annihilation.

Conrad's sister has vanished while traveling in Mexico. Imogene, a decorated special agent for the FBI, was hot on the trail of a legendary scientist whose vile eugenics experiments landed him on an international most-wanted list. Imogene left behind a sequence of bizarre clues that indicate she uncovered evidence of a Byzantine occult conspiracy against civilization itself -- a threat so vast and terrible, its ultimate fruition would herald an event more inimical to all terrestrial life than mere extinction.

Now, Conrad is on the hunt, searching for his missing sister while malign forces seek to manipulate and destroy him by turns. It is an odyssey that will send this man of war from the lush jungles of South America, to the debauched court of an Aegean Prince, to the blasted moonscape of the American desert as he becomes inexorably enmeshed within a web of primordial evil that stretches back unto prehistory. All the while struggling to maintain a vestige of humanity; for Conrad has gazed into an abyss where the light is the darkness, and he has begun the metamorphosis into something more than human.

Regein was the first human colony struck by the Quarn - aliens never seen by man, yet who sow a strange death through man's crumbling empire. In humanity's wreckage, Ling Sanjen, a rare half-breed Caucasian, sets forth to find what - and who - has broken the spirit of mankind...

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeaed in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1969. The story can also be found in the anthology Sociology Through Science Fiction (1974) edited by Patricia Warrick, Joseph D. Olander, Martin H. Greenberg and John W. Milstead. It was later expanded to the full novel Deeper Than the Darkness (1970).

Edith Nesbit, best known as the author of The Railway Children and other children's classics, was also the mistress of the ghost story and tales of terror. She was able to create genuinely chilling narratives in which the returning dead feature strongly. Sadly, these stories have been neglected for many years, but now, at last, they are back in print.

In this wonderful collection of eerie, flesh-creeping yarns, we encounter love that transcends the grave, reanimated corpses, vampiric vines, vengeful ghosts and other dark delights to make you feel fearful. These vintage spooky stories, tinged with horror, are told in a bold, forthright manner that makes them seem as fresh and unsettling as today's headlines.

Includes:

• Man-Size in Marble
• Uncle Abraham's Romance
• From the Dead
• The Three Drugs
• The Violet Car
• John Charrington's Wedding
• The Pavilion
• Hurst of Hurstcote
• In the Dark
• The Head
• The Mystery of the Semi-detached
• The Ebony Frame
• The Five Senses
• The Shadow
• The Power of Darkness
• The Haunted Inheritance
• The Letter in Brown Ink
• The House of Silence
• The Haunted House
• The Detective

Lucifer is enjoying his retirement in an obscure corner of Limbo when he learns of a plot by Gabriel, the current ruler of Hell, to use humanity's greatest weapon against it -- Television! Cue the hottest reality game-show ever conceived: Who Wants To Be The Prince Of Darkness? Gabriel orchestrates an "Infernal takeover" of Earth by stealing unwitting mortal souls and sending them to a mostly empty Hell, hoping to reinvigorate the Infernal Realm. Now Lucifer must find a living champion to seize control of Hell and free millions of stolen mortal souls before the theft becomes permanent. But who would ever want to be Hell's champion?

He's passed his college entrance exams with flying colors. He can do pretty much whatever he wants. But what teenager Ron Morgan wants most is for his father to quit telling him what to do. Quit running his life. What better way to unwind than having a last blowout on Labor Day in the domed playground of Fun City: Manhattan.

Inside the dome, however, Ron loses his wallet and identity card. Worse, he's trapped when the dome closes for the season. There's no way out. Gangs roam the street. Food is scarce. Ron is on his own.

All Ron wanted was some fun. He'll be lucky to escape New York alive....

Ciudad de Cielo is the 'city in the sky', a space station where hundreds of scientists and engineers work in earth's orbit, building the colony ship that will one day take humanity to the stars.

When a mutilated body is found on the CdC, the eyes of the world are watching. Top-of the-class investigator, Alice Blake, is sent from Earth to team up with CdC's Freeman - a jaded cop with more reason than most to distrust such planetside interference.

As the death toll climbs and factions aboard the station become more and more fractious, Freeman and Blake will discover clues to a conspiracy that threatens not only their own lives, but the future of humanity itself.

John Abbott is all in.

He's up to his eyeballs in debt to pay for school, and he just moved his small family forty light-years from Earth for a plum job with the wealthy interstellar corporationTheSarovar Company. John's first assignment is todiscreetly investigate possible corruption at the remote Arrowhawk Station, where Company traders buy the famous Sarovari Weave from the three-sided, crablike Weavers.

John finds evidence of theft and worse, but when the guilty parties realize he's getting close, they come after him and his family. Can John catch the thieves and end their corrupt trade? Can he head off a war between the Company and the Weavers? Can he make a life for his family in this remote wilderness without corrupting himself?

With no way back to Earth, the only direction for John Abbott and his family to go is forward--into danger.

Cold sleep had given Earth the stars, but at what price?

Filled with the hope of a new life on a new world, many a voyager had entered the cryo-containers aboard the titanic starships sent to populate Jayvee 9, Earth's lone far-flung colony. For some that hope was fulfilled, for others there was no awakening at journey's end. And for those like ex-marshal Walker, a man permanently scarred by the madness and loneliness of seven years of cold sleep, the sole way to find peace was in space itself, flying the starways as a solitary mining pilot.

With the empathic alien Nis as his only companion, Walker combed the giant asteroid rings near Jayvee, searching for ore and returning periodically to his base at Hephaestus Station. It might not have been much of a life, but for Walker it was enough.

But the discovery of a massive derelict, the sleeper-ship E.S.S. Republic, found floating in the debris of Ring Belt 3 signaled an end to Walker's personal seclusion. Assigned to investigate this wreck which had been lost for more than a century, Walker and a team of anthropologists led by the renowned Dr. Elaine Bartlett, were about to confront an alien presence far more terrifying than Walker's most shocking cold-sleep nightmares!

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...

Would-be journalist Emily Winters is summoned by a mysterious phone call to an isolated church, only to find herself caught up in a story she could never print in a newspaper. The stranger, Jehail, tells her of a supernatural conspiracy involving her family, which puts her in a position of great power - and great danger.

Accompanied by her neighbour, Brett, and under the dubious protection of Jehail, Emily seeks out the various clues to her family's true calling - opposing a sacred order of elemental magicians who seek her family's inherent power.

With the cabal closing in on her family, Emily must come to terms with her magical inheritance, and decide if she is prepared to give up love and the life she knows to champion her family's destiny. The outcome will be known when she and her allies storm the cabal's headquarters on a night of magic and blood.

This novel by Jason Nahrung is based on an unpublished novella written by Nahrung and Mil Clayton in 2000.

Compiling the finest in frightening tales, this unique anthology offers a diverse selection of horror culled from the last 25 years. Hand selected from cutting-edge authors, each work blends subtle psychology and mischievousness with disturbingly visceral imagery. In the classic "Chattery Teeth," Stephen King provides a tautly drawn account of a traveling salesman who unwisely picks up yet another hitchhiker, while in Peter Straub's eerie "The Juniper Tree," a man whose nostalgia for the movies of his childhood leads to his stolen innocence.

Renowned fantasy author George R. R. Martin weaves a sinister yarn about a young woman encountering a neighbor who is overly enamored with her in "The Pear-Shaped Man." Combining acclaimed masters of the macabre, such as Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, and Thomas Ligotti, with bold new talents to the genre, including Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, this distinctive collection of stories will delight and terrify.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2010) - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Foreword - (2010) - essay by Stefan Dziemianowicz
• Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament - (1984) - novelette by Clive Barker
• Dancing Chickens - (1984) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• The Greater Festival of Masks - (1985) - shortstory by Thomas Ligotti
• The Pear-Shaped Man - (1987) - novelette by George R. R. Martin
• The Juniper Tree - (1988) - novelette by Peter Straub
• Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds - (1988) - shortstory by Dan Simmons
• The Power and the Passion - (1989) - shortstory by Pat Cadigan
• The Phone Woman - (1990) - shortstory by Joe R. Lansdale
• Teratisms - (1991) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• Chattery Teeth - (1992) - novelette by Stephen King
• A Little Night Music - (1992) - shortstory by Lucius Shepard
• Calcutta, Lord of Nerves - (1992) - shortstory by Poppy Z. Brite
• The Erl-King - (1993) - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• The Dog Park - (1993) - shortstory by Dennis Etchison
• Rain Falls - (1994) - shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith
• Refrigerator Heaven - (1995) - shortstory by David J. Schow
• ¦¦¦¦¦ - (1995) - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture) - (1996) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• The Specialist's Hat - (1998) - shortstory by Kelly Link
• The Tree Is My Hat - (1999) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Heat - (1999) - shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
• No Strings - (2000) - shortstory by Ramsey Campbell
• Stitch - (2002) - shortstory by Terry Dowling
• Dancing Men - (2003) - novelette by Glen Hirshberg
• My Father's Mask - (2005) - novelette by Joe Hill

FROM THE HEART OF DARKNESS come no gentle wraiths, no pastel fantasies of bittersweet, seductive evil. This horror slams like a muzzle blast into its victim's awareness, carves its image with razor claws of violence as vivid as graphic as uncensored imagination. This horror comes from the center of the man soul, FROM THE HEART OF DARKNESS.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1983) - essay by Karl Edward Wagner
• Children of the Forest - (1976) - novelette
• The Barrow Troll - (1975) - short story
• Smokie Joe - (1977) - short story
• The Shortest Way - (1974) - short story
• Dragons' Teeth - (1975) - novelette
• Men Like Us - (1980) - novelette
• The Automatic Rifleman - (1980) - novelette
• Something Had to Be Done - (1975) - short story
• Out of Africa - (1983) - short story
• Best of Luck - (1978) - short story
• The Hunting Ground - (1976) - short story
• Than Curse the Darkness - (1980) - novelette
• Blood Debt - (1976) - short story
• The Dancer in the Flames - (1982) - short story
• The Red Leer - (1979) - short story
• Firefight - (1976) - novelette

Thirty years ago, a terrifying anomaly known as Sungoback appeared over North Africa. Two hundred miles wide, the mysterious zone manifests as a pillar of darkness during the day and as a pillar of light at night. There is no telling what secrets it holds inside, as it defies science and destroys technology. Entering Sungoback is considered tantamount to suicide since most who do so are never seen again.

Now, nine strangers are headed to Sungoback. Each has their own motive for risking everything to enter. They should hope they don't all share the same fate inside...

While invoking an ancient Celtic deity to save her beloved pet, Brenna Fallon inadvertently creates a passageway between two worlds, a gateway that unleashes a terrifying plague around her, and moins forces with an unusual stray dog and a mysterious stranger to stop the threat.

In the small coastal town of Isolation Bay, a shadow hangs over the lives of Rohan Peters and his mother Eileen. Bound together by small town superstition, their lives are dominated by fear. Into this setting comes Rachel, a girl on the run from her own dark history. As Rohan and Rachel struggle to build a friendship amidst the paranoia of Isolation Bay, their pasts come crashing down on them in an event that will change both of their lives forever.

A giant sphere of unknown origin jumps between random locations on the Earth's surface and restricts the movement of objects trapped inside in bizarre ways.

Locus nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1992. The story is included in the collections Axiomatic (1995) and The Best of Greg Egan (2019).

A gorgeous Tuscan villa harboring a terrible secret houses this beautifully harrowing adventure of ancient mystery and modern intrigue.

Archaeologist Richard Keyes and his resourceful young bride, Barbara, are expecting a blissful honeymoon in a welcoming new country. But from the moment they arrive in their secluded new home, circumstances conspire against them.

The key to an ages-old mystery lies in the catacombs under the villa, in a familial conflict reawakened after generations of sacrifice, betrayal, and madness. This first publication of a newly discovered jewel from a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner is sure to please readers of all genres.

Sibyl Johnson is a graduate student in classical archeology. She is just this side of her Ph.D., when an anachronism at her dig in Italy causes her career to take a sudden lurch in time--and suddenly she's a slave in the very society she is studying. She, along with two others are castaways in time, victims of the same evil hand--and now they are out for vengeance.

Newly back in print by the author of THE ANCIENT OF DAYS, this is a spellbinding tale of sorcery, romance, and intrigue immersed in the blood drenched Spanish Inquisition of mid-17th Century Mexico.

From the mists of legend, the half-human priest, half-spirit Augustin Vasquez Ibanez appears in the occupied village of Oaxaca untouched by the raging conflict. He takes in a nameless boy to be trained in his dark, mysterious ways. The boy learns to read and write, rides through the world of hallucinogenic drugs, conjures storms, and falls tragically in love with a village girl whose family is aligned with enemies. Can he call upon one last surge of the old power against the conquerors when his people need him most?

Flashing swords and fearsome magicks... high adventure and wondrous wizardry... dread monsters and vast rewards...

Tales of sword and sorcery at their best offer keen wit, ingenious perception, freewheeling imagination, and canny invention. From its swashbuckling beginnings of good versus evil battles to clashes of more nuanced principles set in complex settings to havoc shaped by grittier perspectives, ambiguous morality, deep history, and expansive worldbuilding?readers continue to be thrilled by the exploits of great warriors and mighty mages.

Swords Against Darkness: an epic anthology of short stories and novellas from classic to modern, each tale a memorable vision from masters of mistresses of heroic fantasy past and present!

Contents:

Paula Guran, Introduction: "Knowledge Takes Precedence Over Death"

Forging & Shaping

• Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
• C. L. Moore, "Hellsgarde"
• Clark Ashton Smith, "The Dark Eidolon"
• Jack Vance, "Liane the Wayfarer"
• Leigh Brackett, "Black Amazon of Mars"
• Fritz Leiber, "Ill Met in Lankhmar"
• Michael Moorcock, "While the Gods Laugh"

Normalizing & Annealing

• Tanith Lee, "Hero at the Gates"
• C. J. Cherryh, "A Thief in Korianth"
• Karl Edward Wagner, "Undertow"
• Katherine Kurtz, "Swords Against the Marluk"
• Mercedes Lackey, "Out of the Deep"
• Michael Shea, "Epistle from Lebanoi"
• James Enge, "Payment Deferred"
• John Balestra, "The Swords of Her Heart" (original)

Tempering & Sharpening

• Joanna Russ, "Bluestocking"
• Samuel R. Delany, "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers"
• Elizabeth Moon, "First Blood"
• Saladin Ahmed, "Where Virtue Lives"
• Scott Lynch, "The Effigy Engine: A Tale of the Red Hats"
• Steven Erikson, "Goats of Glory"
• Elizabeth Bear, "The Ghost Makers"
• Kameron Hurley, "The Plague Givers"

Carl Bok is a citizen of Springworld, the heavy-gravity planet with monstrous and dangerous flora and fauna. Carl is well over two metres tall and weighs-in at 180 kilograms.

Now Carl has won a scholarship to Starschool. He'll spend a year on this touring school, visiting sixteen of the colonised planets. This will be the experience of a lifetime.

It's tough enough for Carl as the poor scholarship student among the rich kids. His problems get worse when they arrive at Earth. Carl finds himself in urgent need of big money and, since he's a pretty tough guy, becomes a paid fighter. He has to fight dangerous and deadly human and animal opponents. His fellow students, B'oosa, Miko, Alegria and Francisco "Pancho" Bolivar, get caught up in his exploits.

And then there are the aliens.

Sixteen-year-old Ari Wyndham lost her best friend in the sea. Everybody told her it was an accident, but Ari can't forgive herself. Her own life is cut short when a tiger-snake delivers a deathly bite, and a beautiful, ghostly and strangely familiar young woman appears, summoning Ari's soul to the underworld. Ari, however, refuses to go. Though she knows there will be a terrible price to pay for her transgression, the mysterious guide chooses to save Ari.

Their rebellion upsets the balance of life and death in Ari's remote coastal village. A rift opens from the underworld, unleashing dark magic: savage dog packs emerge at night, fishermen catch ghostly bodies in their nets, and children go missing. Together, Ari and her guide battle the dark powers of the underworld and heal the rift. Though their bond seems unbreakable, it may not be enough. It is up to Ari to find the courage to do the one thing that will save the world from darkness.

Eleven-year-old Amy lives in a decaying underground city. Ignored by her mother and under surveillance by authorities because she can read, Amy reluctantly finds herself befriending Axel-a strange boy who claims to have come from a mythical place called... Outside. Is Axel crazy? Amy knows there is no such place as Outside.

But what if there were? What would it be like?

Curious, Amy convinces Axel to escape. What she hopes to find is something Axel remembers called freedom. But what she discovers is beyond her wildest dreams.

One morning the residents of Walden, Virginia, woke up to find the rest of the world gone. Just... gone.

Surrounding their town was a wall of inky darkness, plummeting Walden into permanent night. Nothing can get in - not light, not people, not even electricity, radio, TV, internet, food, or water. And nothing can get out. No one who dared to penetrate the mysterious barrier has ever been seen again. Only their screams were heard.

But for some, the darkness is not the worst of their fears. Driven mad by thirst, hunger, and perpetual night, the residents of Walden are ready to explode. The last few sane prisoners of this small town must prepare a final stand against their neighbors, themselves, and something even worse... something out there... in the darkness...

Superman or Supermonster? Although he was the first successful poduct of the Artificial Creation laboratory - the government workshop for the production of new talents by tampering with the genes of the unborn, Simeon Kelly would work for them only under compulsion. And the compulsion the generals applied to get him to probe the mind of the thing called Child had to be the greatest.

Tina Evans can think of no better time for a fresh start. It's been a year of unbelievable heartache since her son Danny's death. Now the Vegas show that she directed is about to premiere, so she vows to out her grief behind her. Only there is a message for Tina, scrawled on the chalkboard in Danny's room. Two words that will send Tina on a terrifying journey... NOT DEAD.

Heart of Darkness is a short novel by Polish novelist Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's experience as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa.

The river is "a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land". In the course of his travel in central Africa, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz.

The story is a complex exploration of the attitudes people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized society and the attitudes on colonialism and racism that were part and parcel of European imperialism.

Originally published as a three-part serial story, in Blackwood's Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Heart of Darkness as the sixty-seventh of the hundred best novels in English of the twentieth century.

HIGH IN THE SAN FRANSCISCO HILLS, SOMETHING STIRS, AND AWAKENS....

Deep in the heart of the city, Franz Westen watches and waits, gripped by a nameless fear. Poised at the heart of the unknown, he feels the terror grow.

Now he walks the ciry, no longer safe in his own home. Neither locked doors nor crowded streets can protect Franz Westen frm the ancient evil that has chosen him. Soon now he must step into his lover's cold and eternal embrace. Soon now he must give in...

A once handsome youth lay hidden behind a boulder on the isolated new England coast, his body hideously torn and a deep burn penetrating his chest...

The sky darkens and fills with vast shadows. A wild panic sweeps the beach as an alien shape forms in the sky for the barest instant...

They were being attacked, one by one, but how can you defend yourself from an enemy you cannot see, from a danger of unknown origin.

On Account of Darkness and Other Stories brings together for the first time every science fiction story that Bill and Barry wrote together during their long careers, featuring a brand-new introduction. These short, sharp stories, each a paradigm of the craft of science fiction, are prime examples of two authors working at the height of their collaborative powers, resulting in a collection of truly speculative fiction.

Contents:

• On Account of Darkness (1977) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• A Clone at Last (1978) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• "Do I Dare to Eat a Peach?" (1982) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• On the Nature of Time (1981) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• Night Rider (1977) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Opening a Vein (1980) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• Reading Day (1979) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Fascination (1980) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• The Lyran Case (1980) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• Whither Thou, Ghost (1981) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Vanishing Point (1982) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Out of Quarantine (1978) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• Shakespeare MCMLXXXV (1982) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• In Our Image (1981) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Another Burnt-Out Case (1978) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• Inaugural (1976) by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini
• The Last One Left (1980) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Coming Again (1975) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Multiples (1976) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Prose Bowl (1979) by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
• Final War (1968) by Barry N. Malzberg
• Epitaph (1983) by Bill Pronzini
• Toy (1985) by Bill Pronzini
• The Rec Field (1980) by Bill Pronzini
• The Hungarian Cinch (1976) by Bill Pronzini

Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light is about a lonely young woman, recently moved to the big city, who is looking for love. What she finds is a friend and confidante who is much older and wiser than she.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Two amazing science fiction adventures by bestselling author L. E. Modesitt, Jr.!

Haze

What lies beneath the millions of orbiting nanotech satellites that shroud the world called Haze?

Major Keir Roget's mission reveals a culture on Haze seemingly familiar, yet frighteningly alien. But he isn't certain how much of what he sees is real--or how to convey a danger he cannot even prove to his superiors, if he can escape Haze.

The Hammer of Darkness

Martin Martel is an exile in trouble with the gods.

"You know about the gods, Martel. The ones like Apollo who can kill with a gesture, manipulate your feelings with a song, throw thunderbolts if they feel like it..."

Are the gods really gods? Or men and women with larger-than-life powers playing god over a planet that wasn't really a planet?

Whatever the answer, Martin Martel must battle the gods for his life, love, and the fate of the galaxy.

Martin Martel is an exile in trouble with the gods.

After finding out that he has unusual powers, he is banished from the planet Karnak. Martin is thrust into the tranquil world of Aurore, vacation paradise for the galaxy. There he finds that the reality of Aurore is much different from its serene veneer. The gods are wantonly cruel and indifferent to the chaos they cause: are they really gods or just men and woman with larger-than-life powers? Whatever the answer Martin Martel must challenge their supremacy to defend his life, love, and the fate of all mankind.

Nebula Award-nominated Novelette

An act of compassion puts a trapeze master in India on a collision course with a terrifying supernatural power.

This novelette was originally published on Tor.com on January 23, 2019.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This novella was first published in Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2023.

Read the full story for free at the publisher's website here.

This brilliant new collection showcases the best short stories and novellas of one of Italy's leading horror writers, now available in English for the first time. In 'Lactic Acid', a runner out for a jog through the countryside decides to take a shortcut that leads him straight into a nightmare. In 'Uironda', a jaded truck driver hears an eerie legend of a mysterious highway exit that leads to another dimension, but the reality of the horror he finds there is beyond his wildest imagination. In 'The Stag', a journalist covering a traditional festival in a small town finds himself lost in the woods with a monstrous and terrible deity. And in the title novella, after a girl vanishes from a supermarket without a trace, her grieving parents begin to find solace when they discover a bottomless hole in their basement from which the little girl's voice seems to be coming. But the shimmering allure of that different darkness is not all it seems ...

As Brian Evenson writes in his introduction, "Musolino has a strong and original voice and uses it to get to some uniquely dark places. Rather than blood or gore, he's ultimately interested in what's truly terrifying: the vertiginous darkness that threatens to open up and swallow us. A darkness that calls to us, calls to us, until we can't help but answer and stumble toward it." Set among the plains and mountains of Musolino's native Piedmont and drawing on Italian folkloric traditions, these tales may have an Italian flavor to them, but the strangeness and horror they explore are universal.

Boy in Darkness, the centrepiece of this collection, will be of special interest to fans of the Gormenghast books, as it comprises a chapter in the life of Titus Groan that unfolds beyond the pages of Mervyn Peake's monumental trilogy. It begins on the occasion of Titus's fourteenth birthday. Overwhelmed by the pomp and gruelling ritual of life in Gormenghast, he braves an escape from his hereditary gaol. Beyond the castle walls, Titus wanders into a sinister and soulless land, where he is captured by Goat and Hyena, the grotesque henchmen of an evil master intent on claiming young Titus's soul. A disturbingly atmospheric tale, told with the force and simplicity of allegory, 'Boy in Darkness' distills the strange logic of the Gormenghast trilogy into a story of pith and mystery, which bears comparison with Kafka and Poe.

Written across a range of genres, from a ghost story, to wry character studies drawn from his life in London and on the Isle of Sark, the other stories in the volume reveal surprisingly different facets of Peake's uncanny imagination. Ultimately, the collection coheres through Peake's powers to enchant the mundane and to render the fantastic normal.

Featuring 40 illustrations by the author

With a foreword by the acclaimed author Joanne Harris and an introduction by the author's late widow, Maeve Gilmore

Table of Contents:

• Foreword (2008) - essay by Joanne Harris
• Preface (2008) - essay by Sebastian Peake
• Foreword to Boy in Darkness (2008) - essay by Maeve Gilmore
• Boy in Darkness (1956)
• The Weird Journey (1981)
• I Bought a Palm-Tree (1981)
• The Connoisseurs (1981)
• Danse Macabre (1963)
• Same Time, Same Place (1963)

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Boris Karloff
• The Test - (1920) - shortstory by Maurice Level
• "John Gladwin Says..." - (1928) - shortstory by Oliver Onions
• The Black Pool - (1917) - novelette by Frederick Stuart Greene
• The Scoop - shortstory by Leonora Gregory
• Femme et Chatte - poem by Paul Verlaine
• The Hanging of Alfred Wadham - (1928) - shortstory by E. F. Benson
• The Departure - (1937) - shortstory by Selma Robinson
• The Adventure of Second Lieutenant Bubnov - (1916) - shortstory by Ivan Turgenev
• In the Wheat - (1920) - shortstory by Maurice Level
• The Madman - shortstory by Guy de Maupassant
• The Storm - (1944) - shortstory by McKnight Malmar
• L'Amour après la Mort - (1884) - shortstory by Lafcadio Hearn
• Rizpah - (1895) - poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson
• One Who Saw - (1931) - shortstory by A. M. Burrage
• My Favorite Murder - (1888) - shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• The Grove of Ashtaroth - (1910) - novelette by John Buchan
• The Case of Lady Sannox - (1893) - shortstory by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Black Godmother - (1912) - shortfiction by John Galsworthy
• The Stranger - (1927) - shortstory by Algernon Blackwood
• The Panelled Room - (1933) - shortstory by August Derleth
• The Mask - shortstory by F. Tennyson Jesse
• Richard Cory - poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson
• The Witness - (1910) - shortstory by Violet Hunt
• The Caged White Werewolf of the Saraban (excerpt) - shortfiction by William B. Seabrook
• Footsteps - shortstory by Eileen Verrinder
• The Island - (1924) - shortstory by L. P. Hartley
• The Red Lodge - shortstory by H. Russell Wakefield
• The Cyprian Cat - (1933) - shortstory by Dorothy L. Sayers
• An Official Position - shortstory by W. Somerset Maugham
• The Garden of Proserpine - poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
• Little Louise Roque - novelette by Guy de Maupassant
• The Sutor of Selkirk - (1937) - shortstory by uncredited
• The Idol with Hands of Clay - (1923) - shortstory by Sir Frederick Treves
• Another American Tragedy - (1940) - shortstory by John Collier
• The Razor of Pedro Dutel - (1917) - shortstory by Richard Matthews Hallet
• The Crucifixion of the Outcast - shortstory by William Butler Yeats
• Ulalume - (1847) - poem by Edgar Allan Poe
• Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched - (1922) - novelette by May Sinclair
• The Ghost - (1926) - shortstory by Richard Hughes
• Jenshih, or The Fox Lady - shortstory by Shen Chi-chi
• Three O'Clock - novelette by Cornell Woolrich
• The Mortal - (1926) - shortstory by Oliver Onions
• The Listeners - (1911) - poem by Walter de la Mare
• The Well - (1902) - shortstory by W. W. Jacobs
• The Horrible God - (1934) - shortstory by Thomas Burke
• Mrs. Adis - (1934) - shortstory by Sheila Kaye-Smith
• Telling - (1927) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bowen
• The Death of the Poor - poem by Charles P. Baudelaire
• A Maniac - (1920) - shortstory by Maurice Level
• An Illusion in Red and White - (1900) - shortstory by Stephen Crane
• A Modest Proposal - (1729) - essay by Jonathan Swift
• The Chaser - (1940) - shortstory by John Collier
• Where the Tides Ebb and Flow - (1908) - shortstory by Lord Dunsany
• My Last Duchess - (1842) - poem by Robert Browning
• Out of the Deep - (1923) - novelette by Walter de la Mare
• Perchance to Dream - (1930) - shortstory by Michael Joyce
• The Empty House - (1920) - shortstory by Maurice Level
• Browdean Farm - (1927) - shortstory by A. M. Burrage
• Breakdown - (1929) - novelette by L. A. G. Strong
• The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan - (1932) - shortstory by Clark Ashton Smith
• The Angelus - (1935) - shortstory by William Younger
• Song of the Shirt - poem by Tom Hood
• The Silver Mask - (1932) - shortstory by Hugh Walpole
• The Viy - (1835) - novelette by Nikolai Gogol
• Death - shortfiction by Dorothy Richardson
• Prospice - poem by Robert Browning
• The Woman's Ghost Story - (1907) - shortstory by Algernon Blackwood
• The Brute - (1906) - shortstory by Joseph Conrad
• The Thing on the Doorstep - (1937) - novelette by H. P. Lovecraft

Good is a construct. Evil is a virus.

The Starship Sa Niro and the Starship Sß Oubliette were in orbit around a black hole, one afternoon... by the end of the day, the crews of both starships were dead, victims of a single killer: Captain Alpha Raine.

Raine claims he's acting under the command of a voice emanating from the black hole: Mr Modo. No one believes him.Everyone knows that things go into black holes; nothing comes out.

But something inexplicable has been happening to Raine, and whatever it is seems to be spreading. An historian studying serial killers from the 21st century interviews him... and then nearly kills someone herself. It becomes increasingly undeniable that there's something inside that black hole... and it's found a way out...

Like Daughters of Darkness and Dark Angels, Pam Keesey's successful series of lesbian vampire stories from Cleis Press, Sons of Darkness gathers first-rate horror fiction that reveals the inherent homoeroticism of the vampire myth.

En route to their honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands, Paul and Carol Wilson lose their way in an unseasonable blizzard and are forced to take shelter in remote Ardvreck House.

But this sprawling, dilapidated Victorian mansion, with its reputation as the scene of violent unsolved mysteries, is also playing host to an eclectic and mysterious group of people who are engaged in a bizarre experiment. It soon becomes clear that even more threatening than the worsening storm outside are the dangers within: The Wilsons and the rest of the assembled company may not survive their stay, as Ardvreck House, home to a century-old evil, refuses to give up its long-buried secret - the devil in the darkness.

Renowned professor of astronomy Archie Roy was also a prominent researcher in the field of the paranormal. Drawing heavily on his own experience and investigations, Devil in the Darkness (1978) is a chilling haunted house story in the tradition of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Richard Matheson's Hell House. This new edition makes Roy's sixth novel available in America for the first time and includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur.

Villejeune, Florida. A secluded little town at the edge of a vast, eerie swamp. Far from prying eyes. Far from the laws of civilization. Here folks live by their own rules -- dark rites of altars and infants, candles and blood.

Years ago the Andersons left town with a dream. Now they are back. To live out a nightmare. Something has been waiting for them. Something unspeakably evil. It feeds on the young and the innocent. And soon it will draw their teenage daughter into its unholy embrace....

A refugee from the dark realm he was born to rule as wizard, Ilaron Highborn comes to the aid of Denise Sheridan, curator of an art museum in New York City threatened with destruction by a Sumerian demon.

No writer combines the "delight in dread" with social consciousness and metaphysical meaning the way John Shirley does. Although In Darkness Waiting begins in much the same vein as many horror novels (mysterious deaths; a small town invaded by evil; plucky, attractive young lovers; the logical level-headed doctor; some salt-of-the-earth townsfolk...) by its end you will have discovered it is not "just another horror novel."

With its exploration of the "insect" inside us all, In Darkness Waiting proves more relevant today than ever. Considering a read of In Darkness Waiting is like considering a trip through the Amazon with no weapons and no vaccinations and no shoes. It's like contemplating a journey in the Arctic clad only in your underwear. Or maybe it's more like dropping into one of those spelunker's challenges, those chilling pitch-black shafts into the Earth's crust--and when you get down there your light burns out and you remember the chitinous fauna of the cavern...

Unlike undertaking those endeavors, you can get through the harrowing pages of In Darkness Waiting alive (although we are not promising you'll remain unscathed.) Towards the end you'll discover one of the most extreme yet literate passages ever written. It may well be the most outré scene ever created.

But John Shirley wasn't after shock alone. Shock is never enough for him.

The year is 1899. At the dawn of a new century, London physician Dr. Andrew Quimby has witnessed much pain and suffering in the city's infamous East End. When a series of murders leaves the victims drained of blood, neither Andrew nor his lover, La Contessa di Rospo, believes the rumors that the killer is not human. But the Contessa's expertise in such matters belies a secret that will place them both in grave danger.

A thousand years in the future, the earth has been conquered by an alien race and covered by a single sea. Dovirr Stargan, who is disgusted with the servility of his life on the floating city of Vythain, longs to become one of the Sea-Lords, who roam the sea as powerful protectors of the cities. Dovirr gets his wish, but the return of the alien race brings unexpected and critically dangerous crises to his new life as he learns the real, sometimes terrible, significance of power.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny (1998), edited by Martin H. Greenberg, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #94 July 2014. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Dangerous Games (2007), edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. The story is included in the collection The Ocean and All Its Devices (2006).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

An American icon renowned for his bestselling novels, Peter Straub displays his full and stunning range in this crowning collection. He has consistently subverted the boundaries of genre for years, transcending horror and suspense to unlock the dark, unsettling, and troubling dissonances that exist on the edges of our perception. Straub's fiction cracks the foundation of reality and opens our eyes to an unblinking experience of true horror, told in his inimitable and lush style with skill, wit, and impeccable craft.

With uncanny precision, Straub writes of the city and of the Midwest, of the depraved and of the righteous, of the working class and of the wealthy--nothing and no one is safe from the ever-present darkness that he understands so well. "Blue Rose" follows the cycles of violence and power through the most innocent among us, leading to a conclusion that is audacious and devastating. In the darkly satirical masterpiece "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff," a stern estate lawyer known as the Deacon hires a pair of "Private Detectives Extraordinaire" to investigate and seek revenge on his unfaithful wife. "The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine" follows a man and his much younger lover as they explore their decadent and increasingly sinister fantasies aboard a luxurious yacht on the remotest stretch of the Amazon River.

Interior Darkness brings together sixteen stories from twenty-five years of dazzling excellence. It is a thrilling, highly entertaining, and terrifying testament to the prodigious talent of Peter Straub.

Table of Contents:

• Blue Rose - (1985) - novella
• In the Realm of Dreams - (1990) - short fiction
• The Juniper Tree - (1988) - novelette
• Going Home - (1990) - short fiction
• The Buffalo Hunter - (1990) - novella
• Bar Talk - (2005) - short story
• A Short Guide to the City - (1990) - short story
• Ashputtle - (1994) - novelette
• Pork Pie Hat - (1994) - novella
• Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff - (1997) - novella
• Little Red's Tango - (2002) - novelette
• Lapland, or Film Noir - (2004) - short story
• Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle - (2004) - novella
• Mallon the Guru - (2010) - short story
• The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine - (2011) - novella
• The Collected Stories of Freddie Prothero - (2013) - short story

Pioneering science fiction writer Alice Sheldon, who found fame using the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr., among others, left behind a remarkable body of short fiction, much of it uncollected or out of print. Now The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness, co-edited by Jeffrey D. Smith and two-time Booker Prize nominee Karen Joy Fowler, brings new light to some of Tiptree's best and overlooked stories.

The stories represented span Tiptree's career, and were primarily selected from a list made by Sheldon which she called "the cream of Tiptree," none of which were included in Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. With a title drawn from Sheldon's description of Tiptree as "the voice that murmurs in the darkness," among the wonders featured here are...

In "Excursion Fare," Dag and Philippa are about to be lost at sea in the wreckage of their balloon Sky-Walker, their grand adventure a failure, when a hospice ship called Charon rescues them, and they find themselves on a cruise exclusively for the dying--which may be carrying far stranger passengers. A surreal evening ensues

in "The Man Doors Said Hello To," when a tall man enters a bar, carrying miniature girls as tenants in his pockets, and takes the narrator with him on a strange rescue mission through secrets hiding in the corners and ledges of the city.

At nineteen, Jolyone Schram cries out in "Time-Sharing Angel," despairing when she glimpses a vision of overpopulation and resulting planetary devastation, only to be heard by an interstellar angel who produces a shocking, simple fix that affects children across Earth and changes the future.

And, in "Yanqui Doodle," a soldier undergoes a harrowing detox treatment from specialized drugs given to soothe the conscience during combat--a process that might itself be as painful as the memories of atrocities committed under their influence--and grows ever more unstable.

The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness encompasses thirteen exceptional stories and one essay ("How to Have an Absolutely Hilarious Heart Attack"), covering the years 1968 to 1987, and includes an exclusive introduction from Karen Joy Fowler. Throughout this landmark new collection is Tiptree's remarkable prose, shot through with invention and big ideas, exploring classic themes of identity, politics, what it is to be human, and the miraculous oddity of life--from what lies inside us out to the very edges of the universe.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness) - (2023) - essay by Karen Joy Fowler
• 11 - Excursion Fare - (1981) - novelette
• 59 - The Snows Are Melted, the Snows Are Gone - (1969) - short story
• 73 - The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats - (1976) - novelette
• 101 - Fault - (1968) - short story
• 109 - All the Kinds of Yes - (1972) - novelette
• 131 - The Man Doors Said Hello to - (1970) - short story
• 139 - Beam Us Home - (1969) - short story
• 155 - The Only Neat Thing to Do - [Rift] - (1985) - novella
• 215 - Time-Sharing Angel - (1977) - short story
• 229 - How to Have an Absolutely Hilarious Heart Attack - (2023) - essay
• 239 - What Came Ashore at Lirios - [Quintana Roo] - (1981) - novelette (variant of Lirios: A Tale of the Quintana Roo)
• 269 - Yanqui Doodle - (1987) - novelette
• 309 - Out of the Everywhere - (1981) - novelette
• 351 - In Midst of Life - (1987) - short story

This novel chronicles the future destruction and eventual rebirth of human civilization. It is linked to the future world of both Beloved Son and Drowning Towers, as well as others of his works.

About a hundred years in the future, two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action not by being killed but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death. They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been "cleansed" from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life.

The cleansing was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world - and who, in this distant future, are dying off.

This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner's characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.

In the small town of Ptolemy, darkness is a living thing. A powerful thing. Its home is in the shadows of a bizarre, hidden club named Penumbra, where it is worshiped by followers who need the pleasure it gives them. They are addicted to it. They live for it. And they kill for it.

When Aaron was first introduced to Penumbra, he thought it was just a secret club where members could indulge their kinkier fantasies. Bit by bit, as he learned the club's true purpose, he began to change in subtle, horrible ways. Now it's time for Aaron to prepare his first human sacrifice to the waiting darkness. It's too late for him to back out now, but murder is the least of Penumbra's sins. The true terror is still to come when... Darkness Wakes.

Wrongly imprisoned, Frederick Whithers is desperate to commit the crime he's already being punished for: defrauding the bank out of a vast inheritance. He fakes his death to escape, but when he's seen climbing out of a coffin everyone assumes he's a vampire; when he shows none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, they decide he must be the most powerful vampire in the history of the world.

Half horror and half farce, Frederick's tale is an ever-growing avalanche of bankers, constables, graverobbers, poets, ghouls, morticians, vampires, vampire hunters, not to mention some very unfortunate rabbits. With a string of allies even more unlikely than his enemies, can Frederick stay alive long enough to claim his (well, somebody's) money? And if he can't, which of his innumerable enemies will get to him first?

Set on a faraway world, the seminal tale of a battle between Ancient Egyptian gods, Creatures of Light and Darkness is a grand display of the imagination, wit, and audacious genius that has placed Zelazny eternally alongside Heinlein, Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, and other legendary genre masters.

Mardee Haskell, a beautiful black actress early career, he knows nothing about Haiti, though that is the country of his mother. About to face another winter in New York, without work and facing a divorce, welcomes an invitation from his great-aunt to visit Haiti. It is with real astonishment that perceives to be the descendant of a rich woman, whose property serves as a backdrop to the filming of an exciting epic. In the romantic setting of the island, a willful Mardee native lion, becomes involved with three very different men: Sebastian Wright, the filmmaker and passionate Scorpio, the handsome actor Kip Tybalt, a native of twins who seem to embody the whole mystery and Haiti's own ambivalence and Brian Dawes, a beautiful journalist and pragmatic, native rock, which seems to be the only anchor that secures it to reality. But the tropical splendor in suspense becomes deadly when a sinister voodoo ritual corners Mardee a frenzy of supernatural horror from which escape might not ever.

Michael Cayle, PhD, moves his family into their new home in Ashborough, NH. But Ashbourough has a deep, dark secret . . . and it's living in the woods behind his home.

GATHER, DARKNESS! is a science-fiction classic. It tells the story of Armon Jarles, a man on the edge, living amidst the disputes of two rival powers at large in the world. 360 years after a nuclear holocaust ravaged mankind, throwing society back into the dark ages, the world is fraught with chaos and superstition. The new rulers over the masses of humanity are the techno-priests of the Great God, endowed with scientific knowledge lost to the rest of humanity. Jarles, originally of peasant descent, rises to become a priest of the Great God. He knows the gospel propagated by the priests to be a fraud, based on illusion and trickery. Even more offensive to him is the paucity of true believers among the priesthood. One day he rebels against his priestly training and attempts to incite the peasants to rise up and demand freedom, but they are not ready. Jarles is not the only dissenter trying to sabotage and expose the false theocracy of the priesthood - witchcraft is slowly gaining strength and support among the populace. Although Jarles is unaware, his rebellion against the power of the priests is about to throw him headlong into the middle of the greatest holy war the world has ever seen.

Conquerors from the Darkness

A thousand years in the future, the earth has been conquered by an alien race and covered by a single sea. Dovirr Stargan, who is disgusted with the servility of his life on the floating city of Vythain, longs to become one of the Sea-Lords, who roam the sea as powerful protectors of the cities. Dovirr gets his wish, but the return of the alien race brings unexpected and critically dangerous crises to his new life as he learns the real, sometimes terrible, significance of power.

Master of Life and Death

Global overcrowding, a new immortality serum and an unfriendly alien ambassador are only a few of the problems confronting Roy Walton, government's new Master of Life and Death in Robert Silverberg's early and accomplished novel. Praised by a distinguished critic, Anthony Boucher, for "its complete clarity and narrative drive" the novel retains its power today.

The Darkness Before Tomorrow by Robert Moore Williams. Were all humans their guinea pigs?

The Ladder in the Sky by Keith Woodcott (pseudonym for John Brunner). Black magic or unimaginable super-science?

In The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr brings back the vivid world of his bestselling The Alienist but with a twist: this story is told by the former street urchin Stevie Taggert, whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Thus New York City, and the groundbreaking alienist Dr. Kreizler himself, are seen anew.

It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends--high-living crime reporter John Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime--have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case. But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara's aid, the team reunites to help find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. Their investigation leads the team to a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children.

Domaris, disciple of the Temple of Light, was wrenched from her peaceful life by the arrival of Micon, the Atlantean prince, whose powers over wind and sun, earth and fire, are coveted by the sorcerers of the dark who would harness his gifts for their own evil ends...

Soon, out of a tender, earthly passion, would rise forces that might decide the final victory. For soon Domaris would bear Micon a son - but Deoris, her sister, would be enthralled by the forces of darkness.

Prince Daros of Han-Gilen is an infamous rake and wastrel-and a hidden and completely untrained mage of enormous power. Caught breaking the strictest laws of the Mageguild and their magical Worldgates, he is sentenced to serve an aged emperor far away from either taverns or temptations.

But a tide of darkness is rising to swallow the worlds of the Gates. Mages are dying and worse; but Daros's very lack of training shows him the way to stand against the tide: to enter the darkness, and pay its price, and engage it on its own ground.

Blind to the fact that he is a pawn in the Drakh's deadly strategy, Centauri prime minister Durla launches an overwhelming blitzkrieg, sending Centauri warships to devastate other races' homeworlds and pave the way for total conquest. Yet Durla is forced to fight a war on two fronts: even as he mobilizes the massive space fleet for its glorious attack, resistance leader Vir Cotto works feverishly to counter the Drakh's evil influence on Centauri Prime.

Emperor Londo Mollari possesses the key that can reveal the presence of the Drakh, but to do so would spell disaster, so he is forced to remain silent. But when the Drakh bring another pawn into play -- David Sheridan, son of Alliance president John Sheridan -- the time for silence may be past. If Vir and the Resistance are to prevail, it will be only through action, and with help from very strange allies...

As billions die and the flames of destruction rage unchecked, the Shadows seem poised for absolute victory. Soon the entire galaxy will fall to their evil. But the war isn't over... not yet. At long last, in a forgotten corner of the universe, Galen has finally won the Circle's permission to leave the techno-mage hiding place. He is the only mage who has faced the Shadows and lived, the only one who possesses the unstoppable Spell of Destruction.

Galen's orders are clear. Though the galaxy is being torn apart by bloody conflict - in which his powers might tip the balance - he is to locate only three key enemies and kill them. But Galen has unearthed the Shadows' darkest secret - and discovered a monstrous truth about himself.

In this desperate, apocalyptic battle, there's no telling who will be the victor. Or if there will be any survivors at all...

Belisarius is all that stands between the alien Malwa and the domination of sixth-century Earth. The ruthless supermind that controls the Malwa intends first to rule the world and then to put its stamp upon all eternity. Guided by visions from a future that may never be, Belisarius and his companions must fight their way across Northern India, seeking the heart of the enemy's power. Against them are numbers, savagery and an icy inhuman intelligence that is without weakness or mercy. And Belisarius has another enemy to contend with, closer to home: in Constantinople, his own emperor, Justinian the Great, begins to see him as a threat...

It's been a year and a half since the Anomaly, when They tried to force their way into the world from the shapeless void.

Nick Prasad is piecing his life together, and has joined the secretive Ssarati Society to help monitor threats to humanity - including his former friend Johnny.

Right on cue, the unveiling of Johnny's latest experiment sees more portals opened to Them, leaving her protesting her innocence even as the two of them are thrown together to fight the darkness once more...

The wind whines and howls with bitter breath. Lightning snarls and barks. Rage is an animate force upon the plain of glittering stone. Even shadows are afraid. At the heart of the plain stands a vast grey stronghold, unknown, older than any written memory. One ancient tower has collapsed across the fissure. From the heart of the vastness comes a great, deep, slow breath like that of a slumbering world-heart, cracking the olden silence.

Death is eternity. Eternity is stone. Stone is silence. Stone cannot speak, but stone remembers.

So begins the next movement of Glittering Stone.... The tale again comes to us from the pen of Murgen, Annalist and Standard Bearer of the Black Company, whose developing powers of travel through space and time give him a perspective like no other.

Led by the wily commander, Croaker, and the Lady, the Company is working for the Taglian government, but neither the Company nor the Taglians are overflowing with trust for each other. Arrayed against both is a similarly tenuous alliance of sorcerers, including the diabolical Soulcatcher, the psychotic Howler, and a four-year-old child who may be the most powerful of all.

Jaenelle Angelline now reigns as Queen-protector of the Shadow Realm. No longer will the corrupt Blood slaughter her people and defile her lands. But where one chapter ends, a final, unseen battle remains to be written, and Jaenelle must unleash the terrible power that is Witch to destroy her enemies once and for all.Even so, she cannot stand alone. Somewhere, long lost in madness, is Daemon, her promised Consort.

Hugo Award winning short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2000 and was reprinted in Lightspeed, May 2012. The story can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 6 (2001), edited by David G. Hartwell, The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and New Skies: An Anthology of Today's Science Fiction (2003), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. It is included in the collection Different Kinds of Darkness (2004).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Emerging from the burned remains of her old home, the ancient, elegant Scarabae ready themselves for a new life of seduction and feasting, until little Ruth ignites a blaze of chaos through the streets of London that threatens them all.

A new tale of horror featuring the mysterious vampiric family of Scarabae follows Anna, a family member, as she and twenty other children are kidnapped and taken to a pyramid under the southern ice by an immortal named Cain.

From the international and instant New York Times bestselling author John Connolly, the beloved and brilliant Charlie Parker series returns with a heart-wrenching crime only one man can solve.

In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone--ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk--has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty.

But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife's guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old, twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built.

A house, and what dwells beneath.

As the only vampire ever born, and the daughter of two very powerful Chicago vampires, Elisa Sullivan knew her life was going to be... unusual. But she wanted to make her own way in the world, preferably away from her famous family. Then supernatural politics--and perhaps a bit of destiny--intervened, and Elisa had to steady her nerves and sharpen her steel to fight for the city of Chicago. Luckily, Connor Keene, son of the North American Central Pack's Apex wolf, is right by her side.

When Elisa and her Ombudsman colleagues agree to escort a vulnerable supernatural to Chicago, they inadvertently set in motion a scheme of long-awaited magical vengeance. The city may pay an arcane price it can't afford unless Elisa and her allies rise to the challenge.

The Confederation of Wizards is forced to put aside its long-standing historical dispute with the inhabitants of Rovac. Instead, both must join together in a common cause, to prevent the utter destruction of their world. They face two perils: the Swarms, and a power that turns living things to stone and brings rocks to life.

Togura Poulaan, a questing hero whether he liked it or not, is precipitated into a series of adventures in a world which includes dragons, sea serpents, war, wild tribes and the wizard Hostaja Sken-Pitilkin, lord of the island of Drum.

A fast-paced fantasy novel published in the USA as two volumes, THE QUESTING HERO and THE HERO'S RETURN.

After an oracle's prediction, Yenn Olas becomes involved in the life-long feud of the warlords of the Collosnon Empire. She was a witness to war, madness and wizardry, and would play a greater part in the events of her time that a mere oracle has any right to expect.

Being thrown overboard was a light punishment and Drake knew he had a good deal. What he didn't know was that this was only the start of a long journey that would take him far from his home and his love - and he would have to endure far worse before either could be regained.

The action of this volume of the Chronicles takes place just before that of The Wizards and the Warriors.

The young Sean Kelebes Sarazin, returning to Selzirk after a long period as a hostage, expects to play a major role in the city where his mother, Farfalla, is the kingmaker. But his hopes are rudely dashed: his comfortable life as a hostage had left him ill-prepared for a life of war, intrigue and wizardry, and in the event, acquiring power proved rather more complicated than he imagined. Nevertheless, he has a vision: he sees himself as the legendary figure of prophecy, Watashi, and sets out to make that vision come true

Volume six in the series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, this book tells of the trials and misadventures of Chegory Guy. Chegory is a rock-gardener from the notorious Ebrell Islands, wending his way through demonic possession, treason, theft, riot and gun-running.

The seventh volume in the series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. The powerful Hermit Crab, angered by the violent political disputes which disturb the peace of his kingdom, orders Empress Justina and Varazchavardan to resolve their differences or be turned inside out as punishment.

This story features the adventures of Alfric Danborg, a banker by profession but a Yudonic knight by birth. In his travels he is required to face not only ogres, dragons, assassins and She Who Walks By Night but, worst of all, more senior bankers.

This ninth book of a fantasy series is also a complete story in itself. Asodo Hatch and Lupur Lon Oliver compete for the position of instructor at Combat College, which produces Startroopers for the Stormforce of the Nexus. One has to defeat the other in combat within the illusion tanks.

This massive novel of 57 chapters and about 250,000 words is the story of a barbarian named Guest Gulkan. He, the self-styled Weaponmaster, is the son of an emperor known as the Witchlord. The story concerns, amongst other things, the struggle for the control of the empire, and the sweep of the action encompasses battles, wars, the invention of air travel and the first-ever airwreck. (Actually, to use the parlance of the wizard Sken-Pitilkin, they didn't get air-wrecked. Rather, they crashed.)

Before Guest is done, he had learnt an enormous amount about geography by fighting battles on various bits and pieces of it, by adventuring through it and by being airwrecked on it. He survives a duel in Enskandalon Square, sword against sword in fair combat against the Rovac warrior Thodric Jarl, and survives, also, an encounter with the Great Mink.

Survival is not painless, as the following excerpt suggests:

"For Guest Gulkan, arms and legs both shredded by the mauling strength of the Great Mink, there was no blessed darkness."

Will Guest Gulkan survive being savaged by the Great Mink? And how will he fare against the quokka when he eventually encounters it in the Stench Caves of Logthok Norgos? The key issue in politics, as one of the wise has said, is "who whom". That is, who has the power to do what to whom? When Guess Gulkan comes face-to-face with the quokka, who will be hung and who will do the hanging? And who, ultimately, will rule the empire?

In this sprawling saga, a tale of combat, torture, power struggles and (on occasion) encounters with the irregular verbs (and more, much, much more) the tale of Guest Gulkan unfolds in a self-contained novel which is complete in itself. No prior knowledge of Guest Gulkan or his world is required. Eat well, pack lightly, make sure your boots have plenty of road-wear left in them, then begin, if you dare, this, the ultimate saga adventure.

The epic journey of boy and wolf begins

Six thousand years ago. Evil stalks the land. According to legend, only twelve-year-old Torak and his wolf-cub companion can defeat it. Their journey together takes them through deep forests, across giant glaciers, and into dangers they never imagined. Torak and Wolf are terrified of their mission. But if they do not battle to save their world, who will?

As the Moon of No Dark waxes large, the clans fall prey to a horrifying sickness. Fear stalks the Forest. No one knows the cause—and only Torak can find the cure.

His quest takes him across the sea to the mysterious islands of the Seal Clan. Here, Torak battles an unseen menace and uncovers a betrayal that will change his life—forever.

It's winter, and Wolf, Torak's beloved pack-brother, has been captured by an unknown foe. In a desperate bid to rescue him, Torak and Renn must brave the frozen wilderness of the Far North.

As they battle for survival amid howling blizzards and the ever-present menace of the great white bear, their friendship is tested to the breaking point, and Torak is forced to get closer to his enemies than ever before. . . .

A thrilling story of friendship, survival, and the need to belong.

For two moons Torak has hidden a terrible secret—and now it is revealed. He bears the mark of the Soul-Eater, and must pay the price. Cast out from the clans, he is alone and on the run: cut off from his best friend, Renn, and his beloved pack-brother, Wolf.

He flees to the haunted reed-beds of Lake Axehead, where he is hunted by the Otter Clan, taunted by the Hidden People, and, as soul-sickness claims him, he falls prey to an even greater menace. Tormented by secrets and broken trust, he uncovers a deception that will turn his world upside down.

A thrilling story about friendship, loyalty, and revenge

When he was outcast, Torak was the hunted one. Nine moons later he becomes the hunter when he vows to avenge the killing of one of his closest friends. Racked by guilt and grief, he follows the killer into the Deep Forest, where the World Spirit stalks the hidden valleys as a tall man with the antlers of a stag. But there is a rottenness at the heart of the Forest, for its clans have succumbed to the lies of the Soul-Eaters. Here, Torak must face fire, war, and overwhelming evil. Oath Breaker is a story about keeping promises and the true cost of vengeance.

A Riveting Story About Saving the Balance of Good and Evil in the World

Winter is coming. Souls' Night draws near. Eostra the Eagle Owl Mage holds the clans in the grip of terror. Torak must leave the Forest and seek her lair in the Mountain of Ghosts, while Renn faces an agonizing decision. Wolf, their faithful pack-brother, must overcome wrenching grief. And in the final battle against the forces of darkness, Torak will make the most shattering choice of all. ghost hunter, the final book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, draws you for the last time into the shadowy world of the deep past, and brings Torak to the end of his incredible journey.

For two summers Torak and Renn have been living in the Forest with their faithful pack-brother, Wolf. But their happiness is shattered when Renn realizes Torak is in danger -- and she's the threat.

When she mysteriously disappears, Torak and Wolf brave the Far North to find her. At the mercy of the Sea Mother and haunted by ravenous ice bears, their quest leads them to the Edge of the World. There they must face an enemy more evil than any they've encountered.

VIPER'S DAUGHTER: read it as a standalone or part of the series and plunge into the Stone-Age world of Torak, Renn and Wolf -- a world of demons, Hidden People and exhilarating adventure which has entranced millions of readers.

Run wild with Wolf Brother in a Stone Age world we all want to be a part of with million-copy-selling author, Michelle Paver. Danger, magic and non stop adventure await Torak, Renn and Wolf. The Clans will be tested as never before, as they battle to find ways to survive and thrive in their beloved Forest.

In the Dark Time of midwinter, disaster strikes the Forest. Chaos rules. Bears woken from their dens prowl the shadowy valleys. Desperate clans battle for survival. Only demons thrive.

With their world in turmoil, Torak, Renn and Wolf are tested as never before. And as a new evil haunts the devastated land, Torak must risk his sanity, his life and even his souls to save everything he loves...

It is early spring, a turbulent, perilous time of sudden storms, frozen river fractures and drifting ice. Fleeing from a demon intent on devouring his souls, Wolf is swept out to sea far from the forest and his pack. The ocean, too, teems with danger: sea wolves, sharks and hunters of the deep, and the demon is gaining ground. Torak and Renn must race to save their pack-brother, battling the harsh icy waves and merciless torrents. If they can't find Wolf in time, the bond between them will be severed forever....

Run wild with Wolf Brother for the last time in a Stone Age world we all want to be part of.

Twice the combined might of Ynis Aielle's greatest heroes and wizards has hurled back the demon armies of Morgan Thalasi. Always the Black Warlock has rebounded, stronger and more evil. But never has he wielded such power as now. With the Staff of Death, Thalasi can raise a new army from out of the very ground -- soldiers who cannot be killed because they are already dead.

As the Black Warlock and his fearsome general -- the foul wraith that was once Hollis Mitchell -- prepares a devastating attack, the humans and elves of Ynis Aielle are staggered by a fresh calamity. The beautiful Rhiannon, daughter of the Emerald Witch, has been captured by Mitchell and given over to his dark master. Now the last hope of defeating Thalasi -- and Rhiannon's last hope as well -- lies at the heart of a mountain, guarded by a dragon as old as the world itself...

A great storm brews out at sea and batters the Devon coast, flooding vast swathes of land. At Wintercombe Abbey the preceding weeks have been spent in a ferment of experimentation, as Jake Wilde's father, David and Maskelyne work furiously on Operation Leah. They have been practising changing tiny events in the past, in preparation for the rescue of Venn's wife Leah from death, the culmination of their work with the Obsidian Mirror. But in the aftermath of the storm, the Abbey is a drowned house. Where is the Mirror? What has happened to the two halves of the Janus coin? Whose is the mysterious boat wrecked up on the nearby beach? And what plans of mischief and mayhem lay in store for Halloween -- the day chosen for Leah's return?

Arriving in the Viceroyalty of Peru, San Germanno makes himself useful as a healer; at the request of the Presidencia he escorts Acanna Tupac, one of the last surviving Incan aristocrats, with whom he becomes involved. His failure to prevent her suicide sends him traveling north to Mexico where with the help of the blind linguist Oaxatli, he ends up in the hands of Dona Azul, the head of a group of Aztecs with their own brand of Christianity. They crucify San Germanno, who is finally rescued by Rogerian.

The fight against darkness rages on for the next generation...

Being half werewolf and half Aedh, Risa Jones can enter the twilight realms between life and death and see the reapers, supernatural beings that collect the souls of the dead. But she soon makes a terrifying discovery: Some sinister force is stealing souls, preventing the dead from ever knowing the afterlife.

Reapers escort souls--not snatch them--but Risa is still unnerved when a reaper shadows her in search of someone Risa has never met: her own father, an Aedh priest, who is rumored to be tampering with the gates of hell for a dark purpose. With the help of her "aunt"--half-werewolf, half-vampire Riley Jenson--and an Aedh named Lucian who may have lost his wings but none of his sex appeal, Risa must pursue whatever shadowy practitioner of blood magic is seizing souls, and somehow stop her father... before all hell breaks loose.

Risa will go to any lengths to avenge her mother's murder--even if it means making a pact with the most evil vampire she's ever met. Lethal and powerful, Madeline Hunter is leader of the vampire council, and will put her resources behind finding the killer--for a price. The venerable vampire requires the assistance of Risa's psychic powers. Quid pro quo.

Someone--or something--is targeting the elders of the local council, cursing the immortal vampires to rapidly age, sink into madness, and die. Risa must track down the vengeful being responsible. But Risa's father, a rogue Aedh priest, also enlists her in a dangerous mission. And not even the great Madeline Hunter may be able to protect her from the shadowy forces that desire nothing less than Risa's destruction.

Half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones can enter the realm between life and death, and she can see the Reapers who collect the souls of the dead. Now, she is using her gifts--and the investigative know-how of a man who broke her heart--to find a cabal searching for the power to control time, reality, and fate. And this is besides her work for the Vampire Council, half of whom want her dead.

But for now the Council needs her alive. Someone is killing blood-whore addicted vampires, and Risa must find the guilty party. If she succeeds, she may finally convince the council to lift the execution order on her life. But before she succeeds, she must first survive...

Risa Jones, half-Aedh/half-werewolf, can enter the realm between life and death. She can speak to the dying and the dead, and she can see the reapers, collectors of souls. What she can not yet see is the identity of a stranger murdering women and draining their blood. Now Risa must summon her gifts to find him, even if it means putting her own life in danger. But Risa needn't look far. The killer knows who she is.

He tells her his victims are infected by darkness and he's fated to destroy them. Fascinated by Risa, he engages her in a sinister game: the chance to save the life of his next victim by deciphering his series of clues. In a race against time, she enlists the help of the reaper Azriel.

But as an attraction between them grows, so does the fear that the stranger's motives are only part of a larger, more dangerous stratagem--one that that has lured Risa and Azriel into the dark.

Half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones is beginning to believe that the only way to find the keys she's been searching for and save her friends is by dying. And when Wolfgang Schmidt, the lover of her boss at the vampire council, is found dead, her worst fears are confirmed. With the first portal of hell permanently open, the energies of the dark path are leaching into the world.

Searching for Schmidt's killer and the keys at the same time, Risa and reaper Azriel track a shape-shifting spider spirit capable of changing her form into a seductive woman. But when they finally find the second key, the Aedh Lucian snatches it and disappears.

Risa is intent on finding Lucian and fighting him to the death--for in her mind, she knows that neither can remain while the other lives....

Half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones races to save the world from descending into ultimate chaos....

Risa has angered several powerful people, and she's starting to feel the pressure from all sides. She also finds herself under the scrutiny of the vampire council, some of whom consider her a monster who should be destroyed. But they offer her a bloody bargain: Take on the lethal head of the council and others will support her.

As the search for the keys to hell heats up, Risa realizes that she has no choice. For the sake of the people she loves, she must find the keys--and get rid of Hunter--before the next gate is opened and brings the world closer to all hell breaking loose....

A breathtaking conclusion as half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones treads a knife's edge between the salvation of the human race and its total annihilation...

The search for the last key to the gates of hell has begun, and half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones is in more danger than ever--and one misstep could prove ruinous. It's only a matter of time before Madeleine Hunter, the dangerous head of the vampire council, begins her hunt for complete domination. And for Risa, that comes with an alarming ultimatum: hand over the last key to Hunter or, one by one, her loved ones will die.

Now, it's a race against time for Risa to save those she loves, and to stop Hunter's apocalyptic plan to open the very gates of hell.

When the Duke of Bari suddenly dies, the neighboring nation of Algarve, long seething over its defeat a generation ago in the Six Years' War, sees its chance to bring Bari into the fold...an action which the other countries surrounding Algarve cannot, by treaty, tolerate. As nation after nation declares war, a chain of treaties are invoked, ultimately bringing almost all the Powers of Derlavai into a war of unprecedented destructiveness.

For modern magic is deadlier than in ears past. Trained flocks of dragons rain explosive fire down on defenseless cities. Massed infantry race from place to place along a network of ley-lines. Rival powers harness sea leviathans to help sabotage one another's ships. The lights are going out all across Derlavai, and will not come back on in this lifetime.

Against this tapestry Harry Turtledove tells the story of an enormous cast of characters: soldiers and generals, washerwomen and scholars, peasants and diplomats. For all the world, highborn and low, is being plunged by world war...into the darkness.

Now Turtledove returns to the story of a World War in a world where magic works, with this moving second volume. Algarvian soldiers corral Kaunians to send them west, towards Unkerlant, to work camps. The Kaunians left behind are worried about what the work camps might mean, but are assauged by Algarvian lies.

In Kuusamo, scholars race to find the relation between the laws of similarity and contagion. Rumors abound about the Algarvian work camps, rumors most cannot believe as true. But the mages know, for they can feel the loss of life in their very souls.

Turtledove's cast of characters takes on its own life as the reader sees the war from all sides and understands how the death and destruction benefits no one, not even the victors.

A young Kaunian girl is forced to remain hidden while her Forthwegian savior braves the rough, Algarvian-controlled streets to earn their keep. The scholars of Kuusamo are no closer to understanding the bloodless magic that may win the war-and time is short. Kuusamo has joined into an unsteady alliance with Lagoas and Unkerlant. No one kingdom trusts another, but they must unite, for it is only together that they can defeat the Algarvian threat.

The war is no longer confined to soldiers and sorcerers. Common folk are joining together to fight from underneath their oppressors, whether they be Algarve or Unkerlant. What those farmer soldiers lack in skill, they make up for in dedication. A dedication that will carry them... through the darkness.

Beginning with Into the Darkness, Darkness Descending, and Through the Darkness, bestselling author Harry Turtledove ("The master of alternative history"-Publishers Weekly) has been telling an epic tale: the story of a world war, comparable to the terrible world wars of our own 20th century, in a world where magic works.

Imagine the drama and terror of the Second World War-only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks are great lumbering beasts, and fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets. Welcome to the world of the Derlavaian War, a world that is slowly but surely being conquered, mile by bloody mile, by the forces of the Algarvian empire... forces whose most terrible battle magics are powered by the slaughter of innocent people, the Kaunians, whom Algarve-like much of the world-holds in disdain.

In this, the fourth volume of the series which began with Into the Darkness, the war for the continent of Derlavai builds toward its crescendo as the mages of Kuusamo, aided by their former rivals from Lagoas, work desperately to create a newer form of magic that will change the course of the war. But this is really a story of ordinary people-on all sides of the conflict-forced by fate to rise to their heroic limits... or sink to the level of their darker natures.

Harry Turtledove's masterful story of a magical world's cataclysmic war-which began with Into the Darkness, Darkness Descending, Through the Darkness, and Rulers of the Darkness-continues in this, the fifth volume of the series. The grand conflict for control of the continent of Derlavai rages on, in a battle with all the drama and terror of the Second World War-only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks and submarines are great lumbering beasts, and the fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets.

Yet hope may be dawning at last. The terrible onslaught of the conquering forces of Algarve-who power their battle magics with the life energy of their murdered victims-begins to founder as it runs into Habbakuk: a sorcerous ship of ice used by embattled nations of Lagoas and Kuusamo to ferry their deadly dragons across the seas to strike at the very heart of Algarvian power.

But though the tide has begun to turn, the conflict is far from over. The widely disdained Kaunians still struggle desperately to escape as the Algarvians kill them by the thousands-for life energy, but also simply for the crime of being Kaunian. And as the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides continue to feed the flames of war, those who have struggled to survive and preserve their freedom have only their passions to see them through....

Harry Turtledove's rousing saga of a fantastic world at war, which began in Into the Darkness and continued through Darkness Descending, Through the Darkness, Rulers of the Darkness, and Jaws of Darkness, draws to its climactic conclusion in Out of the Darkness.

As the Derlavaian War rages into its last and greatest battles, allied nations maneuver for positions against each other in a postwar world. But before that time can come, the forces of Algarve, Unkerlant, and their allies must clash a final time, countering army with army and battle magic with ever-more-powerful battle magic. In the midst of it all, the people the war has battered and reshaped must struggle to face their greatest individual challenges, as loves are shattered and found, terrible crimes avenged... and some journeys end forever.

And the end of the war may not bring peace...

The Pioneering Novel of New York After the Fall - New York City - the end of the 3rd millennium. Monumental buildings in ruins. Central Park a jungle peopled by savage sub-humans. A huge black shape moving across the night sky occluding the stars. Civilization has vanished along with humankind. Into this hostile new world two survivors of our enlightened age awaken from 1000 years of slumber - to fall victims to a world gone wild? - or to give mankind a second chance?

1000 Years After Our World Died - A Man and a Woman With the Future of Humanity in Their Hands - The distant future - New York is a jungle in more ways than one. Exotic flora and fauna thrive - savage tribes of cannibalistic sub-humans fight for dominance. It's a place of little hope The last vestiges of humanity set out across America's devastated landscape in search of their dream. Led by hope that dies and is reborn again at every turn - enticed onward by a mysterious and vast black chasm 500 miles deep - does the future threaten extinction for mankind? - or offer one last chance of redemption?

The Afterglow - The Classic Novel of a New America.

Somewhere near the Great Lakes, 1000 years from now. 500 miles below our planet's surface tribes of near human albino warriors eke out an existence in a hostile environment. They tell stories of a golden age, of sunlight, of art and culture; but such tales are mere myths ---- until a man and a woman with god-like abilities arrive and promise to lead them towards the surface, towards the light and to a new life of plenty.

Collected together for the first time in two handsomely produced volumes from PS Publishing are all the supernatural and macabre short stories and novellas of legendary British writer Basil Copper. Drawn from numerous collections, anthologies and magazines as varied as the legendary Pan Book of Horror Stories series, rare and collectible compilations edited by Peter Haining and Richard Dalby, and the author's own highly-prized books from Arkham House, these two extensive collections contain more than four decades' worth of weird fiction from one of the genre's most renowned practitioners. In this initial volume you will find such classics of the macabre as the author's first professionally published short story, 'The Spider', along with memorable tales like 'Camera Obscura' (adapted by Rod Serling for the TV series Night Gallery), 'The Academy of Pain', 'Amber Print', 'The Recompensing of Albano Pizar' (dramatised by BBC Radio 4) and the author's terrifying Cthulhu Mythos novella, 'Shaft Number 247'.

With an historical Introduction by editor Stephen Jones, volume one of Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper also contains original illustrations by Dave Carson, Les Edwards, Bob Eggleton, Gary Gianni and Allen Koszowski, along with a stunning cover painting by Stephen E. Fabian.

Collected together for the first time in two handsomely produced volumes from PS Publishing are all the supernatural and macabre short stories and novellas of legendary British writer Basil Copper. Drawn from numerous collections, anthologies and magazines as varied as the legendary Pan Book of Horror Stories series, rare and collectible compilations edited by Peter Haining and Richard Dalby, and the author's own highly-prized books from Arkham House, these two extensive collections contain more than four decades' worth of weird fiction from one of the genre's most renowned practitioners. In this initial volume you will find such classics of the macabre as the author's first professionally published short story, 'The Spider', along with memorable tales like 'Camera Obscura' (adapted by Rod Serling for the TV series Night Gallery), 'The Academy of Pain', 'Amber Print', 'The Recompensing of Albano Pizar' (dramatised by BBC Radio 4) and the author's terrifying Cthulhu Mythos novella, 'Shaft Number 247'.

With an historical Introduction by editor Stephen Jones, volume one of Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper also contains original illustrations by Dave Carson, Les Edwards, Bob Eggleton, Gary Gianni and Allen Koszowski, along with a stunning cover painting by Stephen E. Fabian.

To protect their world from the savage demon hordes, the Black Sorcerer Pug and Midkemia's clandestine protectors, the Conclave of Shadows, forged an uneasy alliance of formidable magical talents. Together, this brave band of wizards, demon masters, warriors, and elves defeated the brutal Demon King Maarg and turned back the onrushing death tide.

But Maarg's fall has not stopped the demonic onslaught, and danger now looms greater than ever before. Amid the barren ridges of the Valley of Lost Men, in the shadows of an ancient Keshian fortress, the fearsome demon Dahun and the mad necromancer Belasco have joined forces, creating an unstoppable union of deathly black magics that even Pug and a united Conclave may not be strong enough to withstand.

Battling the Demon Legion has taken a heavy blood toll on the valiant and dedicated magician, claiming the lives of nearly all those he loves. Though he is racked by despair and rage, Pug knows that the time for mourning must wait. Putting aside his pain, he and the Conclave and their allies—the cold-blooded master spy Jim Dasher; the fearsome young Knight-Adamant Sandreena; her former lover the necromancer Amirantha; two renegade Star Elves; and Pug's surviving son, Magnus—must marshal their resources against this latest threat. None can forget the dozens of worlds overrun by the demon plague and the millions of dead left behind in their wake. At the gates of darkness, where shadows hide even deeper shadows, these magical defenders will face what is sure to be the bloodiest, nastiest fight their land has ever seen. And as evil, mayhem, and dark magic are unleashed, none can predict if they—and Midkemia itself—will survive.

The defeat and death of the evil Wulfgar should inspire a time of rejoicing throughout Eutracia. But Prince Tristan grieves. Not only is his beloved wife dead, but across the Sea of Whispers, in the island fortress known as the Citadel, Wulfgar's bride, the sorceress Serena, plots to continue her husband's nefarious plans, aided by the Scroll of the Vagaries and the advice of the otherworldly Heretics. Although the ranks of Tristan's faithful soldiers were decimated in recent battle, the prince nevertheless plans a bold surprise attack.

But on the eve of the mission, disaster strikes. From behind the towering azure wall of magical energy in the forbidding face of the massive Tolenka Mountains comes Xanthus, a powerful warrior dispatched by the Heretics to bring Tristan into their mysterious realm. A master of a mystical martial art against which even the great swordsman Tristan is helpless, Xanthus launches a reign of terror against Eutracia's innocent subjects, compelling Tristan to journey behind the azure wall. There, in a magical land as beautiful as it is violent, Tristan will learn the shocking truth about the destiny he and Shailiha, his sister, will share.

In Tristan's absence, Shailiha must lead the fleet of Black Ships against the Citadel, accompanied by the wizards Faegan and Wigg and the beautiful pirate queen Tyranny. But unknown to them, Serena has prepared a deadly trap with hellish creatures summoned by the Heretics. And as Shailiha's troops sail blindly into danger, Serena is preparing a spell unlike anything the world has ever seen--a spell powerful enough to defeat death itself.

Acclaimed author of the dazzling cycle of fantasy novels set in Deverry and the Westlands, Katharine Kerr continues her epic saga of humanity as a shift of power on the astral plane brings change to the world of men...

The city of Cengarn is under siege. Armies both astral and physical are massing for and against the goddess Alshandra, who seeks to prevent the birth of one fate-bound child. It falls to the dweomermaster Jill and her allies to protect the child's human mother, Princess Carra--and Deverry's already foretold future--by magic and by might. But as the warrior Rhodry wings toward the battle on dragonback, he cannot know that soon he will face his ancient enemy, Alshandra's high priestess Raena, who will use any means to destroy him. Their confrontation could turn the tide of the siege--and change the fate of Deverry forever.

For Donna Noble, the Andromeda galaxy is a long, long way from home. But even two and a half million light years from Earth, danger lurks around every corner...

A visit to an art gallery turns into a race across space to uncover the secret behind a shadowy organisation.

From the desert world of Karris to the interplanetary scrapyard of Junk, the Doctor and Donna discover that appearances can be deceptive, that enemies are lurking around every corner - and that the centuries-long peace between humans and machines may be about to come to an end.

Because waiting in the wings to bring chaos to the galaxy is The Cult of Shining Darkness.

The Doctor travels to Karagula to meet the fabled Darksmiths in a bid to outwit the Agent and get the crystal. Can the Doctor uncover the mystery of the childless village? Who is the travelling Dreams-Merchant? Is there a link with the Dark Cathedral of the Darksmiths? Will the Agent arrive and identify the Doctor to the Darksmiths? Find out by reading the third exciting instalment of "The Darksmith Legacy"!

Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Ásmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker's world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, "Powers of Darkness"), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published (as a book) in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker's preface to the book. However, no one looked beyond the preface and deeper into Ásmundsson's story.

In 2014, literary researcher Hans de Roos dove into the full text of Makt Myrkranna, only to discover that Ásmundsson hadn't merely translated Dracula but had penned an entirely new version of the story, with all new characters and a totally re-worked plot. The resulting narrative is one that is shorter, punchier, more erotic, and perhaps even more suspenseful than Stoker's Dracula. Incredibly, Makt Myrkranna has never been translated or even read outside of Iceland until now.

Powers of Darkness presents the first ever translation into English of Stoker and Ásmundsson's Makt Myrkranna. With marginal annotations by de Roos providing readers with fascinating historical, cultural, and literary context; a foreword by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and bestselling author; and an afterword by Dracula scholar John Edgar Browning, Powers of Darkness will amaze and entertain legions of fans of Gothic literature, horror, and vampire fiction.

Before the War of the Lance.

The Companions have gone their separate ways, each vowing to return with news of the growing darkness in Ansalon. Sturm Brightblade, a warrior whose honor is his life, and Kitiara, a passionate woman of uncertain loyalties, travel north in search of Sturm's long-lost father.

Before they reach their destination, a band of gnomes begs for their help. But nothing with gnomes ever goes as planned. The two adventurers are soon thrown into a perilous adventure that will take them beyond the realms of Ansalon, through love and hate, to darkness and light.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Orson Scott Card
• Filed Teeth - novelette by Glen Cook
• Vince's Dragon - shortstory by Ben Bova
• The Thermals of August - (1981) - novelette by Edward Bryant
• The Dragons' Clubs - shortstory by Stephen Kimmel
• Negwenya - novelette by Janet Berliner
• Middle Woman - shortstory by Orson Scott Card
• The Storm King - (1980) - novelette by Joan D. Vinge
• My Bones Waxed Old - poem by Robert Frazier
• Soldatenmangel - shortstory by Victor Milán
• Alas, My Love, You Do Me Wrong - novelette by James Tucker
• Fear of Fly - shortstory by Lynn Mims
• Though All the Mountains Lie Between - novelette by Jeffrey A. Carver
• The Lady of the Purple Forest - novelette by Allan Bruton
• A Dragon in the Man - (1980) - shortstory by Kevin Christensen
• A Plague of Butterflies - shortstory by Orson Scott Card

As worlds collide...

Hatushaly, last scion of the Firemane dynasty; his beloved Hava, and their dubious friend Donte have been transported across space and time from their war-torn world of Garn to the relative peace of Midkemia.

There, on Sorcerer's Isle, under the guidance of the great magician Magnus and his reincarnated father Pug, Hatu will explore and expand his unique magical abilities: for if Garn is to be saved, they will be needed.

With the evil Pride Lords defeated, the Church of the One has risen to bring death and destruction to Hatu's home world. The kingdom of Ilcomen has fallen, and now the Church is sending forces to Marquensas, where Daylon Dumarch has declared himself king, and master swordsmith Declan Smith finds himself suddenly raised to the status of prince and war commander.

But there are even greater menaces than the Church of the One waiting in the wings, beings from the Void, creatures born of Darkness...

At empire's end war is not all hell. Mocker finds old friends in the halls of death, and Nepanthe new lovers in the fields of blood and bone. The war-child wields the sword of truth: the Star Rider's dread secret is at last revealed. And so it ends. Though "end" is but a wizard-word for new beginnings.

As guardian of the Universe's freedom from the domination by the Cyclan, Earl Dumarest is ruthlessly hunted by their agent, Cyber Broge, as he searches for the fortune necessary to finance his epic quest for Terra - the planet of his birth. Hunter and fugitive, predator and victim, Earl Dumarest lands on the planet Zakym.

ZAKYM - a cadaverous, twin-sunned world where the spectres of the dead daily claim the lives of the living; a decadent world that threatens to explode with the unparalleled violence of civil war and broken taboos.

ZAKYM - home of the beautiful, haunted Lavinia whose soul is claimed and condemned by a power-crazed madman.

Both Lavinia and her planet are doomed until a man appears who promises to be their saviour. Dumarest is the only person capable of challenging the terrifying menace of the Cyclan and the terrors of Zakym. But can even he triumph against such foes?

The entire city of Phlan has vanished, ripped from the surface of Toril by dire creatures and magical forces. While the minions of the evil god Bane bicker over the spoils, the brave citizens of Phlan mount a stubborn defense.

A ranger-thief named Ren seeks his missing friends, Shal Bal and Tarl Desanea, spellcasters nonpareil. But to do so, Ren must band together with a mysterious sorceress and her intrepid shapershifter cat, as well as a couple of droll druids and a fearful knight who is absolutely, positively dead.

Gods Walk the Realms!

Rising up from the black depths of the Underdark, the drow once more meet the dwarves of Mithral Hall. Bruenor Battlehammer, with Drizzt at his side, won't go down without a fight--but they'll have to fight without Wulfgar or Catti-brie at their sides.

Can the Crystal Shard be destroyed at last?

Drizzt is determined to destroy the evil Crystal Shard, and seeks out the help of the scholar-priest Cadderly. But instead, his worst fears are realized, and Crenshinibon falls into the hands of the dark elf mercenary Jarlaxle and his unlikely ally Artemis Entreri.

The Silent Blade is the book that brought Drizzt back to the Realms, and was a New York Times best seller on its initial release--and has been in print every day since. Like the rest of the Legend of Drizzt(R) reissues, The Silent Blade features beautiful new cover art by award-winning illustrator Todd Lockwood.

Join the world's most famous drow elf in the penultimate chapter of the Legend of Drizzt series!

Spending time in the unimaginable torture chambers of the Abyss for even a day would be enough to break even the heartiest soul, and the barbarian Wulfgar was there for years. When he returns, his friends find him a changed man, and not changed for the better. But Wulfgar's road to redemption is one he must travel on his own, even if it leads to the bottle.

The Legend of Drizzt comes to an end... for now!

The mighty warhammer Aegis-fang has found its way into the hands of the wicked pirate captain Sheila Kree, and Wulfgar is hot on her trail. When Drizzt and his companions leave Mithral Hall in search of Wulfgar, they find themselves on the trail of the warhammer as well, a trail that will lead them to a startling reunion, and the last battle for the heart and soul of Wulfgar.

Martin Padway, 20th-century archaeologist, becomes a reluctant one-way time-traveller, landing in Rome on the verge of the Dark Ages. With no way home, he sets out to make the world he's in a better place.

In short order, Padway "invents" and introduces such things as Printing and newspapers, Arabic numerals, Double entry bookkeeping, Copernican astronomy, and, most important -- Distilling. And the world of decaying Rome will never be the same!

After a meteor explosion, Rikardon wakes in a new body--and in a strange desert land named Gandalara, where a sacred gem known as the Ra'ira grants its owner the power to rule--or to destroy...

Rikardon and Tarani have the Ra'ira in their possession and plan to return it to the Council at Raithskar. But before they reach their destination, Rikardon is dealt a savage blow--Keeshah, his giant war cat, leaves to reunite with his own kind in the Valley of the Sha'um.

Newly vulnerable, Rikardon and Tarani are captured and brought back to Eddarta, where Tarani is forced to surrender the Ra'ira to the vicious High Lord Indomel. As Indomel's older sister, Tarani has a claim to his throne--and the gem. But to win the support of the other Lords, Rikardon and Tarani need more than birthright. They need an ancient talisman that can only be recovered by traveling to the poisonous crater known as the Well of Darkness--a journey that will test their courage and bond to the breaking point.

Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the planet Gethen, a world perpetually in winter. The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they can become male ot female at the peak of their sexual cycle. They seem to Genly Ai alien, unsophisticated and confusing. But he is drawn into the complex politics of the planet and, during a long, tortuous journey across the ice with a politician who has fallen from favour and has been outcast, he loses his professional detachment and reaches a painful understanding of the true nature of Gethenians and, in a moving and memorable sequence, even finds love...

Demon hunter Maxine Kiss, inked with living tattoos, is on a mission to rescue the man she loves from a bloodthirsty army. To save him, Maxine has only one choice: to lose control--and release her own powers of darkness.

England's trilogy, Darkness and Dawn (published in 1912, 1913 and 1914 as The Vacant World, Beyond the Great Oblivion and Afterglow) tells the story of 2 modern people who awake a thousand years after the earth was devastated by a meteor. They work to rebuild civilization.

The Vacant World - Beatrice Kendrick, and her boss, engineer Allan Stern, wakes up on an upper floor of a ruined Manhattan skyscraper, thousands of years in the future when civilization has been destroyed. The pair has been in a state of suspended animation for fifteen hundred years. Changes in the earth's features as well as monstrously mutated ""humans"" make it clear they have little hope of survival.

Beyond the Great Oblivion - Allan and Beatrice begin to discover the nature of the catastrophe that has split the Earth open. Rebuilding an airplane, they find a ""bottomless"" chasm near Pittsburgh where a huge portion of the Earth has been torn away to become a second moon. Alan and Beatrice earn the loyalty of the People of this Abyss and lead them from the chasm to New York.

The Afterglow - Allan and Beatrice, with the People of the Abyss, prepare to recolonize the Earth's surface. But first, they must defeat the devolved, cannibalistic survivors who populate Earth's cities.

In this work written in 1941, at the most frightening point of World War II, Stapledon projects two separate futures for humanity, depending not on the outcome of that particular conflict but on the failure or success of a future "Tibetan Renaissance" to influence the temper and ideology of the militaristic Russian and Chinese empires that threaten it. One of the futures involves worldwide Chinese imperialism and subsequent degeneration and extinction of the human race, unable to defend itself against speedily evolving rats. The other ends in overthrowing the empires and creation of a worldwide socialist utopia.

The end of the beginning...

For two thousand years mankind had suffered a return to the Dark Ages. If Ormson was defeated it might never progress.

His armies of Companions had taken Cornath's capital, and his suicidal ramfleets had swept Cornath's fleet from the world-girdling ice. But Michael Ormson -- called the Ice Prophet by some -- had not brought relief to the common people, and his officers were making powerful enemies.

Soon Ormson would be fighting for his life -- and the outcome would decide whether mankind would forever be prisoner to the forces that had condemned Galileo millennia before.

When James Asher and his wife Lydia's baby daughter Miranda is kidnapped by the Master Vampire of London, the stakes are high: blindly follow the Master Vampire's instructions, keep out of the way of the human networks that serves the vampires, destroy the interloper who seeks to seize control of the London Nest, and find the key to the Nest's tortuous inner workings: The Book of the Kindred of Darkness.

Even with the vampire Don Simon Ysidro on their side, there's no guarantee that anything - or anyone - is who or what they appear to be. Nor is there any certainty that they'll see their child again - or survive the experience themselves.

When James Asher is found unconscious in the cemetery of the Church of St. Clare Pieds-Nus with multiple puncture-wounds in his throat and arms, his wife, Lydia, knows of only one person to call: the vampire Don Simon Ysidro. Old friend and old adversary, he is the only one who can help Lydia protect her unconscious, fevered husband from the vampires of Paris.

Why James has been attacked - and why he was called to Paris in the first place - Lydia has no idea. But she knows that she must find out, and quickly. For with James wavering between life and death, and war descending on the world, their slim chance of saving themselves from the vampires grows slimmer with each passing day...

Someone is sabotaging the Universal Transmitting Company's new technology--instantaneous transport of objects and people around the world. When Detective Jan Darzek investigates, the mystery seems inexplicable--out of this world.

Thunstone runs across his arch-enemy Rowley Thorne at a symposium on American folklore. On Thorne's side is a coven of witches, on Thunstone's are his comrades Judge Persuivant, Ruben Manco and more.

THROUGH THE UNSTABLE LANDS

Etjole Ehomba is a herdsman whose simple sense of honor demands that he fulfill the dying wish of a ship-wrecked stranger. Even though his promise means that Ehomba--armed only with a bone knife and a sky-metal sword--must walk the length of a world, cross lands of unceasing peril, sail an impassable ocean, vanquish an unstoppable evil, and resuce a woman he has never met for the sake of a dead man he did not know.

No wizard or warrior would attempt such a mad quest. But a man who poses questions to everything he meets may find answers that no wizard could imagine...

Kane. An immortal, cursed to wander the Earth until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created. A warrior and statesman: As comfortable in the shadowy halls of courtly intrigue as he is on the bloody battlefields where those intrigue's inevitably play themselves out. Karl Edward Wagner's complex and compelling character of Kane redefines the boundaries of heroic fantasy, and stands besides Michael Moorcock's Elric, and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser as one of the most idiosyncratic and compelling characters of the fantasy genre. Gods in Darkness gathers together in one volume the complete novels of Kane

Kane - indestructible swordsman, invincible sorcerer, immortal wanderer through strange worlds. Efrel, Empress of Pellin, seeks vengeance on the King of Thovnos and chooses Kane as her champion.

Now is the time to tell the story of an ancient realm, a tragic tale that sets the stage for all the tales yet to come and all those already told...

It's a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power. and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners' great hero, Vatha Urusander, is being promoted by his followers to take Mother Dark's hand in marriage, but her Consort, Lord Draconus, stands in the way of such ambitions. The impending clash sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold...

Steven Erikson entered the pantheon of great fantasy writers with his debut Gardens of the Moon. Now he returns with the first novel in a trilogy that takes place millennia before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and introduces readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness. It is the epic story of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in shaping the world of the Malazan Empire.

As the renowned granddaughter of Isabella Camherst (Lady Trent, of the riveting and daring Draconic adventure memoirs) Audrey Camherst has always known she, too, would want to make her scholarly mark upon a chosen field of study.

When Lord Gleinheigh recruits Audrey to decipher a series of ancient tablets holding the secrets of the ancient Draconean civilization, she has no idea that her research will plunge her into an intricate conspiracy, one meant to incite rebellion and invoke war. Alongside dearest childhood friend and fellow archeologist Kudshayn, must find proof of the conspiracy before it's too late.

A Priestess is abducted by an evil sorcerer, and some adversaries turn into uneasy allies in an attempt to rescue the woman. All of that while the undercurrents of the poltical landscape are anything but simple.

Thoric is taken in battle and hauled off to E'lil, where everything started. While that's going on, a mercenary and a merchant attempt to break into the palace of a powerful prince.

Years ago, Evangeline Hollis spent a blistering night with a darkly seductive man she can't forget. But that evening of addictive pleasure has become a disaster of biblical proportions: She's been branded with the Mark of Cain.

Thrust into a world where sinners are marked and drafted to kill demons, Eve's former one-night stand, Cain, is now her mentor--and his equally sexy brother Abel is her new boss.

Now Eve has become the latest point of contention in the oldest case of sibling rivalry in history...

Cursed by God, hunted by demons, desired by Cain and Abel... All in a day's work.

"I am Meredith, princess of faerie, wielder of the hands of Flesh and Blood, and at long last, I am with child twins, fathered by my royal guard. Though my uncle, Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, claims that he is the true father, since he abducted me from my home, betrayed, and defiled me. And now he has branded my guards as a threat to my unborn children.

"Bearing an heir has placed me halfway to my aunt's throne, that much closer to my reign over the Unseelie Court and well ahead of her son, my cousin Cel, in this race. Now I must stay alive to see my children born and claim my place as queen.

"But not all in faerie are pleased with the news, and conspirators from every court in the realm plot against me and mine. They seek to strip my guards, my lovers, from me by poisoned word or cold steel. But I still have supporters, and even friends, among the goblins and the sluagh, who will stand by me.

"I am Meredith Nic Essus, and those who would defy and destroy me are destined to pay a terrible price for I am truly my father's daughter. To protect what is mine, I will sacrifice anything, even if it means waging a great battle against my darkest enemies and making the most momentous decision ever made as princess of faerie."

Bixby, Oklahoma, is full of secrets. Some come out at midnight. Some should stay hidden.

As the Midnighters search for the truth about the secret hour, they uncover terrifying mysteries woven into the very fabric of Bixby's history, and a conspiracy that touches the world of daylight.

This time Jessica Day is not the only Midnighter in mortal danger, and if the group can't find a way to come together, they could lose one of their own... forever.

Darkness Beckons is the fourth volume in the non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. A terrifying cocktail of the familiar and the new, the established and the emerging.

Contents:

• SAINT BARBARA by Nina Allan
• HARE MOON by H.V. Patterson
• UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS by Stephen Volk
• DUSK by Angela Slatter
• A FACE LEAVING NO TRACES by Brian Evenson
• GOOD BONES by Sarah Read
• FACTS CONCERNING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ORLOFF SIX by Alyssa C. Greene
• HE WASN'T THERE AGAIN TODAY by Peter Atkins
• DODGER by Carly Holmes
• FROM THE MAN-SEAT by Reggie Oliver
• THE SERVICE by Ally Wilkes
• THE LATE MRS. APPLEGARTH by Mark Gatiss
• THE FIG TREE by Lucie McKnight Hardy
• IF YOUR SOUL WERE A PITCHFORK I'D DESPISE YOU by Eric LaRocca
• HEEBIE JEEBIES by Amanda Cecelia Lang
• KILLING BONES by Simon Clark
• IL CREPUSCOLO by Helen Marshall
• REMEMBER ME by Ronald Malfi
• WITCH'S CLUTCH by Simon Strantzas
• CAMP NEVER by J.S. Breukelaar

Seregil of Rhiminee and his companion, Alec of Kerry, attempt to save their land from an ancient evil, as Alec learns the shocking truth about his own shadowed heritage and he, Seregil, and a group of loyal companions are thrown into a deadly conflict with the ultimate evil.

A great working of Wild Magic and High Magic strikes at the heart of the Demon Queen's plots, but the human city, the Golden City of the Bells, falls farther under her sway with each day that passes. And without the City's High Magicians, the Wild Magicians, the Elven Army, and all their allies will surely fall before the onslaught of the Demon Queen's malignant warriors.

But all hope is not lost. The Light's young mages, tempered by war, grow ever more powerful. High Mage Cilarnen learns an ancient secret that can make him, for a brief, white-hot time, the greatest mage in the world--unless it kills him.

Jermayan, the first Elf-Mage in centuries, has linked with the dragon Ancaladar and rediscovered the swift-as-thought powers of Elven magic, which can reshape mountains and summon lightning from clear skies.

Knight-Mage Kellen has molded his troops and the Unicorn Knights into a deadly fighting force. Soon the Elven King and his Commanders put Kellen's magical gifts to their greatest test, in the final battle between the Elves, the humans, and the Demons.

We're the D'Artigo sisters, savvy ex-operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But being half-human, half-Fae means our powers go haywire at all the wrong times. My sister Delilah is a Death Maiden and werecat who belongs to the Autumn Lord. My sister Menolly is a vampire who's dating a gorgeous werepuma, and the godfather of the undead-set. And me? I'm Camille, Priestess of the Moon Mother, married to a dragon, a youkai, and a Svartan. But my dragon father-in-law has decided that he doesn't like having me for a member of the family...

It's Winter Solstice, and Aeval welcomes me into her Court of Darkness. With Morio still dangerously weak from his injuries and Vanzir alive only thanks to my silence, the thought of training under Morgaine doesn't seem as daunting as it did. But then, Hyto returns to shatter my life. Captured and swept off to the Dragon Reaches, can I manage to stay alive long enough to escape, even as Smoky's father intends to break my spirit, then my body?

We're the D'Artigo sisters: savvy half-human, half-Fae ex-operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. My sister Camille is a wicked-good witch. Delilah is a two-faced werecat and a Death Maiden. And me? I'm Menolly, a vampire married to a gorgeous werepuma. As the war in Otherworld arrives, Blood Wyne, Queen of the Vampires, summons me. Apparently, my position as Roman's consort entails more than I imagined...

As the Demon Lord Shadow Wing creates his own sinister version of the Keraastar Knights - the guardians of the spirit seals - to destroy the portals and free himself from the Sub Realms, his ally, the necromancer Telazhar, leads an assault from Otherworld into the streets of Seattle. And my sisters and I are caught dead center.

Then, on the eve of war, my wife, Nerissa, is captured. The enemy demands we surrender the rest of the spirit seals, or they are going to kill her. I will do anything to save her. Even if it means leading an army of vampires into the very depths of the Subterranean Realms...

Sally Ann and Martha. Two women, searching for love. Finding terror.

During a terrifying storm, a gentle childhood is destroyed by a twisted man who promises love but delivers nightmare.

In the lightless depths of an underground labyrinth, unseen creatures lie in wait for an innocent traveler, cold skeletal hands stretched out in welcome.

There is horror in darkness--horror made greater WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US

Sally Ann is a bright and bubbling farm girl, still caught in the thrill of a brand-new husband and a shining future ahead. When a careless exploration leaves her trapped underground, she learns to live again in the absence of everything she once knew. Even driven by love and light, Sally Ann finds the deepest darkness within herself in When Darkness Loves Us.

Old Martha Mannes has been a part of Morgan, Illinois since her birth. The whole town knows her as the dim-witted woman who was born without a nose, but Martha's mind wasn't always a blank slate. Unlocking the monster buried deep in her memories may bring back the sparkling child she once was... or it may send those around her crashing down into the nightmares of a little girl gone wrong in When Darkness Loves Us.

A tall, thin Albino man, in various guises, appears in different parts of the world where he holds secret meetings with an array of agents. These agents believe that they are working for the French Secret Service, but are in fact on the payroll of a sinister crime organization known as the Magnate. They come from all walks of life -- the one thing they have in common is that they are all psychometrically linked to one another.

The Doctor is on Earth and alerted to a cult that attracts an array of young, vulnerable people. When the leader of the cult is held responsible for the abduction of a Magnate agent, the Doctor must work out what the connection is -- and find out exactly what plans the Magnate have for planet Earth.

At a remote Tibetan monastery, FBI Special Agent Pendergast must find a powerful and ancient artifact before it falls into the wrong hands.

A luxury ocean liner on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic, awash in wealth and decadence...

An ancient Tibetan box, its contents unknown, sealed with a terrifying warning...

An FBI agent destined to confront what he fears most--himself...

The wild magic was loose in Toronto, for an Adept of Darkness had broken through the barrier into the everyday mortal world. And in this age when only fools and innocents still believed in magic, who was there to fight against the invasion by evil?

Luckily - or perhaps by more than luck - Toronto did have some unexpected champions of the Light: Rebecca, who some called simple yet who was gifted with the Sight; Roland, a street musician who might one day be a Bard; Mrs. Ruth, a bag lady with some unexpected tricks in her bags; Daru, an overworked social worker with a case load that mushroomed as rapidly as the power of the Dark; Tom, a cat of rare vision and courage; and Evan, Adept of the Light, summoned to stand with these mortals in the desperate battle to keep the Earth from falling into final, total Darkness.

She's hunting a killer--
and shattering every boundary--
she's ever known....

Part vamp, part werewolf, Riley Jenson plays by her own rules, whether it's her stormy love life or her job as a guardian. But when her family's alpha male demands that she solve the mystery of a vanished girl, Riley can feel a trap closing in around her. Because the job comes with a catch: if Riley fails, her own mother will die.

Now the stakes are raised, the hunt is on...and when more women vanish, Riley is caught between a lover who demands that she give up her work, a serial killer who knows no boundaries, and a club where humans and supernaturals mix at their own peril. Thrust into a realm of seduction and violence unlike any she could have imagined, Riley has to battle to save everything she holds dear. But the ultimate hunt has only just begun....

Joshua Wolfe has four sworn enemies: the Chitet cult, a power-mad baron, the Federation government, and the alien "virus" that is slowly invading the known universe.

And he has one hope: the Ur-Lumina, the legendary power-enhancing crystal of the vanished race, the Al'ar.

But the Ur-Lumina is in the hands of a ruthless gangster. And Wolfe isn't on her good list at the moment...

In the midst of unrest on his home world of Shola, Kusac has chosen to undertake a secret mission of which only those in the highest echelons of the Brotherhood are aware. And even they are not privy to all the information Kusac has uncovered, nor all the plans he has made.

Carrie and Kaid have not been told the truth. So when Kusac flees Shola, seemingly abandoning his responsibilities, his Triad, and his Clan, Carrie is devastated and Kaid is furious. Yet Carrie will not give up on Kusac, certain he will one day return to explain his actions.

But whether Kusac and his elite team can actually accomplish their mission and escape with their lives remains to be seen. For to achieve their goal they must rendezvous with the Valtegan general who is Kusac's archenemy in the hopes of rescuing Kusac's young son. But even if he succeeds--branded rebel by his own people, struggling to deal with new powers he scarcely understands, and caught between the machinations of his own god and those of a secret and ancient alien organizations--can Kusca hope to regain all that he has lost on Shola?

Soledad "Bullet" O'Roark writes her own rules. Usually it gets her in trouble. On her first day with the L.A.P.D.'s elite Mtac squad, Soledad takes down an outlawed super-powered freak with a weapon she designed herself-a definite violation. Her love life is no less chaotic. It's hard to find a decent guy with nothing to hide. But there's not much room in Soledad's life for romance when a cop-killer is on the loose. The "baddest" freak of all, this one can control people's minds and make them commit anything he wants... including murder

ALL PATHS LEAD TO VENGEANCE

These are dark times for the Kingdom of Khalad. As the magical mists of the Veil devour the land, the populace struggles beneath the rule of ruthless noble houses and their uncaring immortal king.

Kat doesn't care about any of that. A talented thief, she's pursuing one big score that will settle the debt that destroyed her family. No easy feat in a realm where indentured spirits hold vigil over every vault and treasure room. However, Kat has a unique gift: she can speak to those spirits, and even command them. She'll need every advantage she can get.

Kat's not a hero. She just wants to be free. To have her old life back. But as rebellion rekindles and the war for Khalad's future begins, everyone - Kat included - will have to pick a side.

Second in line for succession to the throne, Prince Dagnarus will have his crown... and his queen -- though his heart's prize is a married elfin beauty. Let his hated half-brother Prince Helmos and the Dominion Lords dare to oppose him. For Dagnarus's most loyal servant has ventured into the terrible darkness, where lies the most potent talisman in the realm. And once it is in the dark prince's hand, no power will deter his Destiny.

Once they moved from world to world in a single step, through innumerable doors that spanned the galaxy. They were masters of space, and to those who feared them, they were demons of air and darkness. But long ago they left their empire and their miraculous technology behind. Now someone has found the key to it, and all those doors have been sprung open.

>A world near Deep Space 9, threatened with destruction from the distant Delta Quadrant, becomes the focus of a massive rescue effort as Colonel Kira Nerys, her crew, and some unexpected allies fight to avert disaster on a planetary scale. Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Nog and Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane search for a way to shut down the spatial portals forever, Quark becomes involved in a dangerous game that could determine, once and for all, who will control the Gateways.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

The Enterprise discovers a lifeless Federation research vessel orbiting a planet hidden behind a mysterious energy shield. Despite the objections of his senior officers, Captain Picard and an away team beam over in search of the missing crew, and they vanish as well. Riker assumes command, and soon he discovers another problem besides the disappearance of his captain for a mysterious disease has struck the Enterprise crew. Riker races against time to unravel the secrets of the planet below in order to save his captain and the crew.

One year after the tragic events of The Fallen Star, the Jedi fight to break the Nihil's control over the galaxy.

The galaxy is divided. Following the shocking destruction of Starlight Beacon, the Nihil have established an impenetrable barrier called the Stormwall around part of the Outer Rim, where Marchion Ro rules and his followers wreak havoc at his every whim. Jedi trapped behind enemy lines, including Avar Kriss, must fight to help the worlds being pillaged by the Nihil while staying one step ahead of the marauders and their Nameless terrors.

Outside the Nihil's so-called Occlusion Zone, Elzar Mann, Bell Zettifar, and the other Jedi work alongside the Republic to reach the worlds that have been cut off from the rest of the galaxy. But every attempt to breach the Stormwall has failed, and even communication across the barrier is impossible. The failures and losses weigh heavily upon both Elzar and Bell as they search desperately for a solution.

But even if the Republic and Jedi forces manage to breach the Stormwall, how can the Jedi fight back against the Nameless creatures that prey on the Jedi's connection to the Force? And what other horrors does Marchion Ro have in store? As desperation for both the Jedi and the Republic grows, any hope of reuniting the galaxy could be all but extinguished....

Christmas, Hawkins, 1984. All Chief Jim Hopper wants is to enjoy a quiet first Christmas with Eleven, but his adopted daughter has other plans. Over Hopper's protests, she pulls a cardboard box marked "New York" out of the basement--and the tough questions begin. Why did Hopper leave Hawkins all those years ago? What does "Vietnam" mean? And why has he never talked about New York?

Although he'd rather face a horde of demogorgons than talk about his own past, Hopper knows that he can't deny the truth any longer. And so begins the story of the incident in New York--the last big case before everything changed....

Summer, New York City, 1977. Hopper is starting over after returning home from Vietnam. A young daughter, a caring wife, and a new beat as an NYPD detective make it easy to slip back into life as a civilian. But after shadowy federal agents suddenly show up and seize the files about a series of brutal, unsolved murders, Hopper takes matters into his own hands, risking everything to discover the truth.

Soon Hopper is undercover among New York's notorious street gangs. But just as he's about to crack the case, a blackout rolls across the boroughs, plunging Hopper into a darkness deeper than any he's faced before.

The tradition of supernatural horror fiction runs deep in Anglo-American literature. From the Gothic novels of the eighteenth century to such contemporary authors as Stephen King and Anne Rice, writers have employed horror fiction to unearth many disquieting truths about the human condition, ranging from mistreatment of women and minorities to the ever-present dangers of modern city life.

In Journeys into Darkness: Critical Essays on Gothic Horror, James Goho analyzes many significant writers and trends in American and British horror fiction. Beginning with Charles Brockden Brown's disturbing novels of terror and madness, Goho proceeds to discuss the influence of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" on H. P. Lovecraft, who is treated in several penetrating essays. Lovecraft was a uniquely philosophical writer, and Goho approaches his work through the lens of existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, while also probing Lovecraft's racism as exhibited in several tales about Native Americans. Goho also discusses the Welsh writer Arthur Machen's tortured tales of suffering and evil and Algernon Blackwood's numerous stories set in the wilds of the Canadian backwoods. The book concludes with a centuries-spanning essay on the witchcraft theme in the American Gothic tradition and a comprehensive essay on Fritz Leiber's invention of the urban Gothic.

In this wide-ranging study, James Goho examines the varied ways in which supernatural fiction can address the deepest moral, social, and political concerns of the human experience. Journeys into Darkness will be of interest to readers and scholars of horror fiction and to students of literary history and culture in general.

Heroic fantasy in the tradition of Robert E. Howard

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Foreword (Swords Against Darkness) - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 12 - Nekht Semerkeht - novelette by Robert E. Howard and Andrew J. Offutt
• 49 - The Tale of Hauk - novelette by Poul Anderson
• 80 - The Smile of Oisia - [Nalcon] - novelette by Geo. W. Proctor
• 118 - Pride of the Fleet - short story by Bruce Jones
• 135 - Straggler from Atlantis - [Kardios] - novelette by Manly Wade Wellman
• 170 - The Ring of Set - [Simon of Gitta] - novelette by Richard L. Tierney
• 206 - Largarut's Bane - short story by Raul Garcia Capella
• 220 - Dragons' Teeth - (1975) - novelette by David Drake
• 250 - The Sustenance of Hoak - [Ryre] - novelette by Ramsey Campbell

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Call It What You Will - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 13 - Sword of Unbelief - [Witch World Universe] - novelette by Andre Norton
• 59 - The Changer of Names - [Ryre] - novelette by Ramsey Campbell
• 85 - The Dweller in the Temple - [Kardios] - novelette by Manly Wade Wellman
• 117 - The Coming of Age in Zamora - novelette by David M. Harris
• 157 - The Scroll of Thoth - [Simon of Gitta] - novelette by Richard L. Tierney
• 179 - Odds Against the Gods - novelette by Tanith Lee
• 227 - On Skellig Michael - [Bard] - short story by Keith Taylor [as by Dennis More]
• 247 - Last Quest - novelette by Andrew J. Offutt

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Foreword (Swords Against Darkness III) - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 14 - The Pit of Wings - [Ryre] - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• 34 - The Sword of Spartacus - [Simon of Gitta] - novelette by Richard L. Tierney
• 58 - Servitude - (1976) - short story by Wayne Hooks
• 72 - Descales' Skull - (1973) - short story by David C. Smith
• 90 - In the Balance - short story by Tanith Lee
• 97 - Tower of Darkness - (1975) - novelette by David Madison
• 125 - The Mantichore - short story by David Drake
• 143 - Revenant - poem by Kathleen Resch
• 146 - Rite of Kings - short story by Jon DeCles
• 162 - The Mating Web - short story by Robert E. Vardeman
• 182 - The Guest of Dzinganji - [Kardios] - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
• 201 - The Hag - [Julian] - short story by Darrell Schweitzer
• 218 - A Kingdom Won - [Nalcon] - novelette by Geo. W. Proctor
• 256 - Swordslinger - short story by M. A. Wahil
• 270 - On Thud and Blunder - essay by Poul Anderson

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Foreword--In Two Parts - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 12 - Mai-Kulala - [Imaro] - (1977) - short story by Charles R. Saunders
• 31 - At the Sign of the Brass Breast - (1979) - novelette by Jefferson P. Swycaffer [as by Jeff P. Swycaffer]
• 60 - The Reaping - (1979) - short story by Ardath Mayhar
• 73 - The Ballad of Borrell - (1979) - novelette by Gordon Linzner
• 94 - Deux Amours d'une Sorcière - short story by Tanith Lee
• 115 - Of PIGS and MEN - (1972) - essay by Poul Anderson
• 124 - Cryptically Yours... - (1977) - short story by Brian Lumley
• 148 - The Dark Mother - [Shanna of Sharteyn] - (1979) - short story by Diana L. Paxson
• 155 - Dedication - (1979) - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 167 - Wooden Crate of Violent Death - (1979) - short story by Joey Froehlich
• 175 - The Fane of the Grey Rose - [Cerin Songweaver] - (1979) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• 223 - Sandmagic - [Mither Mages] - (1979) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• 246 - The Edge of the World - [Kardios] - (1979) - novelette by Manly Wade Wellman

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Foreword to the Fifth Volume of Swords Against Darkness - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 12 - The Mouths of Light - [Ryre] - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• 31 - Perfidious Amber - [Cyrion] - short story by Tanith Lee
• 48 - Awake, Awake, Ye Northern Winds - novelette by Simon R. Green [as by Simon Green]
• 76 - Rats - short story by Robert Fester
• 88 - The Forging - novelette by Robin Kincaid
• 116 - Hungry Grass - short story by Keith Taylor
• 134 - The Tale of the Cat, the Mouse, the Sorcerer, and the Children - [Myrd Cherf] - novelette by Edward DeGeorge
• 162 - Golden Vanity - short story by James Arthur Anderson [as by James Anderson]
• 175 - The Castle of Kites and Crows - [Julian] - short story by Darrell Schweitzer
• 191 - The Scream of the Rose - novelette by Paul McGuire [as by Paul McGuire, III]
• 222 - Joni - novelette by Gordon Linzner
• 248 - Druin's Heritage - novelette by Richard K. Lyon

Before the events of Battlemage, the gruff and mysterious warrior known as Vargus has meant many things to many people over the course of his long life. But when he hears of mauled livestock and strange disappearances in the village of Morgan's Creek, he must once again take up the mantle of the Gath - the people's protector - before any more children go missing.

'I can command storms, summon fire and unmake stone,' Balfruss growled. 'It's dangerous to meddle with things you don't understand.'

BALFRUSS is a battlemage, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears his kind.
VARGUS is a common soldier - while mages shoot lightning from the walls of his city, he is down on the front line getting blood on his blade.
TALANDRA is a princess and spymaster, but the war will force her to risk everything, and make the greatest sacrifice of all.

The people of Perizzi have survived the battlemage war, but their future is looking darker than ever.

BYRNE is a Guardian of the Peace, investigating a series of murders in which the corpses were drained entirely of life.

FRAY's expertise with magic is needed to catch the killer, but working with the Guardians destroyed his father, years before.

CHOSS, renowned as a fighter, must work for peace, to diffuse a war in the underworld that threatens to turn the streets red with rivers of blood.

KATJA must use her skills as a spy to try to prevent a massacre that will topple two dynasties and destroy the fragile peace in the city for ever.

Guardians and spies, assassins and criminals will clash on the streets in this magic-fuelled adventure from the author of Battlemage.

Voechenkais a city under siege. Decimated by the Battlemage War, its dead now walk the city at night, attacking survivors, calling their names and begging the living to join them beyond the grave.

Tammy is a watchman sent to the city to investigate, so the ruling powers can decide whether to help Voechenka or leave it to its grisly fate.

Zannah is a pariah in Voechenka - making up for her people's war crimes by protecting refugees who fear her far more than they fear their unearthly attackers.

Balfruss is a scholar, a traveler... and the infamous mage who single-handedly ended the war.

No one else may enter or leave the city - so if this ragtag group of survivors can't figure out what is going on, they'll live out their last few, short days within its walls.

And night is coming on fast...

The Age of Darkness approaches.
Five lives stand in its way.
Who will stop it... or unleash it?

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations?until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.

All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world's salvation... or the cause of its destruction. With chaos on the horizon, five souls are set on a collision course:

A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.

One of them--or all of them--could break the world. Will they be savior or destroyer?

The Last Prophet has been found, yet he sees destruction ahead.

In this sequel to the critically-acclaimed There Will Come a Darkness, kingdoms have begun to fall to a doomsday cult, the magical Graced are being persecuted, and an ancient power threatens to break free. But with the world hurtling toward its prophesized end, Anton's haunting vision reveals the dangerous beginnings of a plan to stop the Age of Darkness.

As Jude, Keeper of the Order of the Last Light, returns home in disgrace, his quest to aid the Prophet is complicated by his growing feelings for Anton. Meanwhile, the assassin known as the Pale Hand will stop at nothing to find her undead sister before she dies for good, even if it means letting the world burn. And in Nazirah, Hassan, the kingdom-less Prince, forms a risky pact to try to regain his throne. When the forces of light and darkness collide in the City of Mercy, old wounds are reopened, new alliances are tested, and the end of the world begins.

Following the destruction of the City of Mercy, an ancient god has been resurrected and sealed inside Beru's body. Both are at the mercy of the Prophet Pallas, who wields the god's powers to subjugate the Six Prophetic Cities. But every day, the god grows stronger, threatening to break free and sow untold destruction.

Meanwhile, far away from Pallas Athos, Anton learns to harness his full powers as a Prophet. Armed with the truth about how the original Prophets killed the god, Anton leads Jude, Hassan, and Ephyra on a desperate quest to the edge of the world. With time running out, the group's tenuous alliance is beset by mounting danger, tumultuous romance, and most of all by a secret that Anton is hiding: a way to destroy the god at the price of an unbearable sacrifice. But the cost of keeping that secret might be their lives?and the lives of everyone in the Six Prophetic Cities.

When a bomb goes off at 221B Baker Street, Evelina Cooper is thrown into her uncle Sherlock's world of mystery and murder. But just when she thought it was safe to return to the ballroom, old, new, and even dead enemies are clamoring for a place on her dance card.

Before Evelina's even unpacked her gowns for a country house party, an indiscretion puts her in the power of the ruthless Gold King, who recruits her as his spy. He knows her disreputable past and exiles her to the rank alleyways of Whitechapel with orders to unmask his foe.

As danger mounts, Evelina struggles between hiding her illegal magic and succumbing to the darker aspects of her power. One path keeps her secure; the other keeps her alive. For rebellion is brewing, a sorcerer wants her soul, and no one can protect her in the hunting grounds of Jack the Ripper.

Air and Darkness, an intriguing and fantastic adventure, is both an independent novel and the gripping conclusion of the Books of the Elements, a four-volume set of fantasies set in Carce, an analog of ancient Rome by David Drake. Here the stakes are raised from the previous novels in an ultimate conflict between the forces of logic and reason and the forces of magic and the supernatural. During the extraordinary time in which this story is set, the supernatural is dominant. The story is an immensely complex journey of adventure through real and magical places.

Corylus, a soldier, emerges as one of the most compelling heroic figures in contemporary fantasy. Battling magicians, spirits, gods, and forces from supernatural realities, Corylus and his companions from the family of the nobleman Saxa-especially Saxa's impressive wife Hedia, and his friend (and Saxa's son) Varus-must face constant deadly and soul-destroying dangers, climaxing in a final battle not between good and evil but in defense of logic and reality.

'Tell her I am called Fuer Grissa Ost Drauka -- The Bringer of Death -- and I am coming for her'

The insatiable hunger of Golden Goddess...

The irresistible power of a Witch's Oath...

A fracture in the world of life...

An opening in the world of death...

To confront an apocalyptic nightmare, Richard Rahl must step...

INTO DARKNESS.

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Introduction (Rick Katze)
• Poul Anderson by Mike Resnick
• The Queen of Air and Darkness
• Jennifer's Lament
• Industrial Revolution
• Cradle Song
• Operation Afreet
• On Imaginary Science
• Upon the Occasion of Being Asked at a Court of Love to Declare That About His Lady Which Pleases Him the Most
• The Longest Voyage
• Brave to Be a King
• Midsummer Song
• Christa McAuliffe
• Brake
• Jennifer's Song
• The Hardness of Hard Science Fiction
• The Burning Bridge
• Veleda Speaks
• Science Fiction and History
• A World Called Maanerek
• The Pirate
• To Build a World
• Say It with Flowers
• My Object All Sublime
• Innocent at Large
• Route Song of the Winged Folk
• The Corkscrew of Space
• A Little Knowledge
• Marque and Reprisal
• Uncleftish Beholding
• The Critique of Impure Reason
• Science and Creation
• Of the Sea
• Epilogue
• Tanka

This second volume continues the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Drawn from such classic pulp magazines as Astounding Stories, Wonder Stories, and this volume features ten tales, four never published in book form, including novel-length adventure, Amazing Stories,The Stone from the Green Star. Also included are Williamson's letters and contest entries to the editors of the SF magainzes of the early 30's.

The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by noted writer Harlan Ellison, Wolves of Darkness imparts the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "And Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, a Man Who Needs No Introduction” by Harlan Ellison
• "The Lake of Light" (Astounding Stories Apr ’31)
• "Through the Purple Cloud" (Wonder Stories May ’31)
• "The Doom from Planet 4" (Astounding Stories Jul ’31)
• "Twelve Hours to Live!" (Wonder Stories Aug ’31)
• "The Stone from the Green Star" (Amazing Stories Oct ’31 & Nov '31)
• "Wolves of Darkness" (Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror Jan ’32)
• "The Moon Era" (Wonder Stories Feb ’32)
• "The Pygmy Planet" (Astounding Stories Feb ’32)
• "Red Slag of Mars" (w/Laurence Schwartzman) (Wonder Stories Quarterly Spr ’32)
• "The Lady of Light" (Amazing Stories Sep ’32)
• Afterword by Jack Williamson

Darknesses, the sequel to Legacies, is the second volume of L. E Modesitt, Jr. 's new fantasy sequence, the Corean Chronicles.

Corus is a world of humans, but also of strange animals and supernatural creatures. It is a world of magical powers and of a few people who are Talented enough to use them. Alucius, the hero of the story, is one such person. In Legacies we saw how he grew from a Talented child on a lonely Nightsheep ranch in the Iron Valleys to a proficient soldier who used his wits and his Talent to become the first to escape military enslavement in the neighboring country of Madrien. Now captain of the Twenty-first Company, the youngest officer of his rank in the Militia, he must face new challenges, both military and magical.

Corus has been fragmented since the collapse of its ancient magic-powered civilization. A would-be conqueror has somehow revived sorcerous creatures of legend to assist in his crusade to reunite the continent under his rule. The Iron Valleys are forced into an alliance with the Lord-Protector of Lanachrona and the Twenty-first is dispatched to stand against the invaders. Neither the officers above him nor the men under him know it, but Alucius's Talent is their only hope for victory, or even survival.

In Darknesses, Alucius learns more about his magical Talent, meets many more supernatural creatures, and discovers the sinister forces vying for power behind the scenes across Corus. This volume resolves many questions raised in the first book, but it is not the end of Corean Chronicles.

What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the disease that is destroying the race of warlocks. Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

After the betrayal at Isstvan, Horus begins his campaign against the Emperor, a galaxy-wide war that can lead only to Terra. But the road to the final confrontation between father and son is a long one – seven years filled with secrecy and silence, plans and foundations being formed across distant stars. An unknown history is about to be unveiled as light is shed on the darkest years of the Horus Heresy, and revelations will surface that will shake the Imperium to its very foundation...

Contents:

• Rules of Engagement by Graham McNeill
• Liar's Due by James Swallow
• Forgotten Sons by Nick Kyme
• The Last Remembrancer by John French
• Rebirth by Chris Wraight
• The Face of Treachery by Gav Thorpe
• Little Horus by Dan Abnett
• The Iron Within by Rob Sanders
• Savage Weapons by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

After a long and gruelling conflict, the traitors at last close upon Terra. But time is dwindling for an attack. Both Guilliman and the Lion are returning with all haste, and their armies could turn the tide. The hosts of the Warmaster must unite, for only then can they attack the Throneworld itself. While Mortarion is sent on ahead as the fleet's vanguard, it falls to Lorgar and Perturabo to marshal Fulgrim and Angron, both now elevated to daemonhood and perhaps beyond even the will of the Warmaster to command.

But Horus lies wounded and as the greatest battle the galaxy has ever know looms, it is up to Maloghurst to hold his fractious Legion together and to wrench Horus himself from the edge of oblivion.

"We believe that death should always be part of life."

The Doctor's last three visits to the scattered human colonies of the third millennium have not been entirely successful. And now that Ace has rejoined him and Bernice, life on board the TARDISis getting pretty stressful. The Doctor yearns for a simpler time and place: Earth, the tropics, the early twentieth century.

The TARDIS lands in Haiti in the early years of theFirst World War. And the Doctor, Bernice and Ace land in a murderous plot involving vodoun, violent death, zombies and German spies. And perhaps something else -- something far, far worse.

A quest for the Unholy Grail-the goblet from which Judas drank at the Last Supper-takes private eye John Taylor deep into the secret, magical heart of London...called the Nightside.

Strikingly original in its conception, ambitious in scope, with characters engrossingly and vividly drawn, the first book in R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series creates a remarkable world from whole cloth—it's language and classes of people, its cities, religions, mysteries, taboos, and rituals—the kind of all-embracing universe that has thrilled readers of Stephen R Donaldson and George R.R. Martin.

It's a world scarred by an acopalyptic past, evoking a time both two thousand years past and two thousand years into the future, as untold thousands gather for a crusade. Travelling among them, two men and two women are ensnared by a mysterious traveler, Anasurimbor Kellhus—part warrior, part philosopher, part sorcerous, charismatic presence—from lands long thought dead. The Darkness that Comes Before is a history of this great holy war, and like all histories, the survivors write its conclusion.

With this stunning debut, R. Scott Bakker is poised to become one of the next great fantasy writers of his generation. The Darkness that Comes Before proves again that epic fantasy can be intelligent, majestic, and terrifying.

An epic remimagining of The Mahabharata

Some ballads are inked in blood.

Bled dry by violent confrontations with the Magadhan Empire, the Mathuran Republic simmers on the brink of oblivion. Krishna and Satyabhama have put their plans in motion within and beyond the Republic's blood-soaked borders to protect it from annihilation. But they will soon discover that neither gold nor alliances last forever.

They are however not alone in this game.

Mati, Pirate-Princess of Kalinga, has decided to mend her ways to be a good wife. But old habits die hard, especially when one habitually uses murder to settle old scores. Brooding but beautiful Karna hopes to bury his brutal past but finds that destiny is a miser when it comes to giving second chances. The crippled hero-turned-torturer Shakuni limps through the path of daggers that is politics only to find his foes multiply, leaving little time for vengeance.

Their lives are about to become very difficult for a cast of sinister queens, naive kings, pious assassins and ravenous priests are converging where the Son of Darkness is prophesied to rise, even as forgotten Gods prepare to play their hand.

An evil wind blows through Midkemia. Dark legions have risen up to crush the Kingdom of the Isles and enslave it to dire magics. The final battle between Order and Chaos is abotu to begin in the ruins of the city called Sethanon.

Now Pug, the master magician sometimes known as Milamber, must undertake an awesome and perilous quest to the dawn of time to grapple with an ancient and terrible Enemy for the fate of a thousand worlds.

The River into Darkness omnibus editon. Collects Beneath the Vaulted Hills and The Compass of the Soul.

The last of the world's great mages, the enigmatic Lord Eldrich has dedicated his life to eradicating all remaining vestiges of magic in the world. But the fanatical Tellerites--followers of a long-dead mage-apprentice--oppose Eldrich, desiring the hidden knowledge of the magical arts and with it the coveted key to immortality. Drawn into this conflict against his will is Erasmus Flattery, who as a boy dwelt with Eldrich, and is still haunted by the memories of what transpired during his stay with the mage. Now Erasmus must lead as expedition to search for a secret taht has remained hidden since the time of the first Mages!

In his quest to destroy all magic in the world, the last great mage, Lord Eldrich, has sent Erasmus Flattery to find and eradicate Anna, the leader of the Tellerites, a group of finatics desperate to preserve the magic--including the key to immortality--Eldrich wants to eliminate. Torn by his resentment of Eldrich's manipulations and his strange loyalty to Anna, Erasmus willl undergo a magical and spiritual journey which will cause him to question all he believes to be true...and rock the foundations of his world!

Chrysantha Stathos has won.

By hiding her intelligence and ambition behind the mask of a beautiful air-headed girl, she has become a wealthy duchess. And, once her elderly husband dies, she will have all the freedom, money, and safety she's ever wanted. Or so she thought.

A man claiming to be the estranged grandson of Chrysantha's lecherous late husband has turned up to steal her inheritance. To make matters worse, her little sister is going to be queen and is rubbing it in her face.

Chrysantha decides that the only thing to do is upstage Alessandra at her own wedding. And as for this grandson, he has to go. Never mind that he's extremely handsome and secretive with mysterious powers... No, Chrysantha wants Eryx Demos dead, and in the end, a Stathos girl always gets what she wants.

After a fierce battle, Erin of Elliath and her comrades have brought hope back to the Servants of the Bright Heart. The throne of Marantine has been reclaimed, and a new king rules the last remnants of Lernan's people.

Within the lands of the Dark Empire, however, the power of the Bright Heart grows dim. The last stronghold of the Light, the well of Lernan's power, is quickly draining in the shadow of the inexorable forces of Darkness. The High Priests compete for supremacy, and even the nobility of the Dark Empire has begun to feel the burden of their never-ending war. The First of the Sundered, Lord Stefanos, has returned, once again walking the night and devouring the innocent in mourning for his lost beloved--Lady Sara, Erin of Elliath.

Erin is determined to free the Light and release her long-dead friends from the purgatory of the Dark Heart. She must once more journey into the heart of the Dark Lands to confront the legacy of Lady Sara and the inevitable destiny of the lines, forcing her toward a final confrontation with her most formidable and ancient enemy--the man she loves.

Darkness is the friend and enemy of those who hunt by night.

Ellie and her friends have found safety after months of fighting. But the New Zealand Defence Force needs their help to infiltrate occupied Australian territory.

And so the friends must fight on.

Conjure Wife:

Witchcraft. Norman Saylor considered it nothing but superstition, until he learned that his own wife was a practicing sorceress. Even still, he refuses to accept the truth that every woman knows... that in the secret occult warfare that governs our lives, witchcraft is a matter of life and death.

Our Lady of Darkness:

Middle-aged San Francisco horror writer Franz Westen is rediscovering ordinary life following a long alcoholic binge. The one day, peering at his apartment window from a top a nearby hill, he sees a pale, brown thing lean out his window... and wave.

This encounter sends Westen on a quest through ancient books and modern streets, for the dark forces and paramental entities that thrive amidst the towering skyscrapers... and, meanwhile, the entities are also looking for him.

They're the galaxy's most wanted--and our only hope.

When Elza became a space princess, she thought she'd be spending her time at the palace, wearing gorgeous couture and soaking up everything there is to know--but instead, she's on the run, with everyone hunting for her and her friends.

Rachael followed her best friend Tina on the adventure of a lifetime--but now Tina's gone, and Rachael's the only one keeping her friends together, as they go on a desperate quest to save everyone from an ancient curse.

Rachael, Elza and their friends have found one clue, one shining mysterious chance to stop the end of the world. And that takes them back to the second-to-last place they'd want to be: enlisting the aid of Captain Thaoh Argentian, the woman who stole Tina's body (and who now seems to be relishing a second chance at teenage chaos and drama, instead of living up to her legacy of an intrepid heroic commander).

With only a ragtag band of misfits, crewmates, earthlings, friends, lovers (and one annoying frenemy), the Unstoppable Crew are up against the universe--and they soon find that in order to survive, they may have to cross a line they vowed never to cross.

The Darkness descends with the arrival of the Armageddon in the tenth novel of L. A. Banks's bestselling Vampire Huntress Legend series.

After the battle at Masada, the Neteru team returns to San Diego believing forty-thousand demons had been eradicated and that Lilith's spawn has been killed. But somehow the treacherous little creature got away. Just as had been prophesized at the dawn of the Armageddon, the anti-Christ has been born and will soon rise to power.

Rewarded for her creation, Lilith is given the daylight bite and power to make Councilmen day-walkers. Having Fallon Nuit and Sebastian able to withstand sunlight is a huge problem, especially when they are adding new master vampires at record breaking levels. Meanwhile the dark realms are healing and adding to what had previously been wiped out--feeding off the dark energy of the newly created anti-christ who is only waiting to emerge.

It's been two years since Auris escaped from the sinister Goblin prison and learned of her heritage as one of the Fae. She is now happily partnered with her Fae lover, Harrow, and deeply bonded with her new family. All seems to be going perfectly--until, surprisingly, the Goblin attacks begin again. Someone, it seems, has not forgotten that Auris exists and seems determined to retrieve her... but who? And why?

As Auris begins to dig deeper into the mystery, old friends and new enemies appear, and she starts to realize that her still-shrouded past must contain the answers she needs. But even Auris does not suspect how far down the rabbit hole she is about to go, until Harrow is taken and an impossible ransom demand is issued. With two new companions at her side, Auris must attempt to unlock the remaining secrets of her past. For if she cannot, she will never see Harrow alive again.

In this first book in a new trilogy, Kurt Leitzig, a knight in the Count of Ostermark's bodyguard, hides his shameful past as the son of a family condemned and burned by witch-hunters. However, when another with hunt brews, Kurt discovers that when the powers of Chaos become involved he cannot trust those closest to him--perhaps not even himself.

Following the cataclysmic events in "The Claws of Chaos, Kurt Leitzig sits uneasily as the chosen warrior of the Gods. With the villagers of Fjaergard becoming angered by his life of luxury, Kurt is forced to prove his mettle. Promising riches beyond their wildest dreams, Kurt sails off with a war party to the fabled lands of Araby, where he discovers a seemingly deserted city of rising pyramids, forgotten tombs--and an newly awakened army that has been dead for thousands of years....

Once a noble warrior of the Empire, Kurt Leitzig has fallen prey to the evil clutches of Chaos, and his former lover, Ursula, must risk everything to raise an army to stop him from being transformed into a daemon that would destroy the Warhammer world, in the fantastical conclusion of the Slave to D

A Queen to be Mistress of the Jewels of Westria, and wield their magical thrall over the elements. A Queen to conquer the mysteries of the Kingdom, as she had conquered the King's heart.

But the young and gentle Queen little suspected treachery in the magical spheres of the Westrian court, where jealousy festered and a sorcerer bridled at her powers.

Now her beloved King lay gravely ill, and the hands of sorcer sought to seize the sacred Jewels themselves. Now the Queen alone must battle the Kingdom's darkest threat since the Cataclysm, as whirlwinds of destruction descend upon fair Westria.

The Forelands are at war. The magic-wielding Qirsi and their Eandi masters have mobilized their forces. The Eandi have had to look beyond past differences to make alliances for the sake of the future, praying it isn't too late for them to change the outcome of the war. Tavis, an Eandi prince who was framed for murdering the princess to whom he was pledged, and endured torture before winning his freedom, has at last avenged her death. Still, the murder and its aftermath have brought war to the Forelands just as the Qirsi conspirators who bought his love's blood had intended. Now Tavis and Grinsa, a Qirsi shaper with more powers than he reveals, who saved Tavis when nobody else would believe his innocence, venture across the Forelands, risking death to help save the land they love...

A powerful Qirsi weaver has brought this terrible war to the land, bending the minds of those he controls and of his enemies in an effort to forge alliances and mobilize forces to destroy the Eandi. His powerful magical ability estranges lovers, betrays leaders, and wreaks murder and death throughout the land. But even with his powerfully malign intelligence, he underestimates the mettle of his opponents. In a psychological duel with Grinsa, the Weaver's formidable powers are sorely tested. Grinsa withstands the Weaver's most powerful attacks at nearly the expense of his own life, and in the process discovers the Weaver's identity.

Will Grinsa's challenge to the Weaver spell the end of the Weaver's reign of doom? Or has Grinsa's discovery come too late to help the Eandi cause? The answers lie in the growing war that may sunder the Forelands forever.

An ordinary town... full of deadly secrets

Strange things have been happening in sixteen-year-old Maya's small Vancouver Island community-from the mountain lions that have been constantly approaching her to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations. There's also a sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel... different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is-a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

In The Calling, the sizzling second book in the Darkness Rising trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong pumps up the romance, danger, and suspense that left readers of The Gathering clamoring for more.

Things are getting desperate for Maya and her friends. Hunted by the powerful St. Clouds and now a rival Cabal as well, they're quickly running out of places to hide. And with the whole world thinking they died in a helicopter crash, it's not like they can just go to the authorities for help.

All they have is the name and number of someone who might be able to give them a few answers. Answers to why they're so valuable, and why their supernatural powers are getting more and more out of control.

But Maya is unprepared for the truths that await her. And now, like it or not, she'll have to face down some demons from her past if she ever hopes to move on with her life. Because Maya can't keep running forever.

Old secrets are revealed and unexpected characters make a surprising return in this stunning conclusion to Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Darkness Rising trilogy.