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The suburbs, right now...

Seventeen-year-old Ivy's summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she's always known?that there's more to her mother than meets the eye.

The city, back then...

Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural. As the trio's aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.

Years after it began, Ivy and Dana's shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should've messed with.

Goddess, goddess, count to five
In the morning, who's alive?

In the course of a single winter's night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town.

Nora's estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca's disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her town's past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local lore: a legendary goddess of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca's own childhood games...

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it's not just a story.

As the day of her twin brother's wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she's willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn't afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.

Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming... human or demon. Princess or monster.

Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone--has never beat at all, in fact, but she'd always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king's heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she'll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen's image, at her father's order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do--and who to be--to win back the only mother she's ever known... or else defeat her once and for all.

Poppy Z. Brite, an acclaimed horror fan favorite, is known for going to the edge and back--and this collection of stories, many set against the backdrop of the author's native New Orleans, explores the outermost regions of murder, sex, death, and religion.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1998) - essay by Peter Straub
• Preface - (1998) - essay by Stewart P. Butkis
• In Vermis Veritas - (1996) - short story
• Arise - (1998) - short story
• Saved - (1994) - short story with Christa Faust
• King of the Cats - (1996) - short story with David Ferguson
• Self-Made Man - (1997) - novelette
• Pin Money - (1997) - short story
• America - (1996) - short story
• Entertaining Mr. Orton - (1997) - short story
• Monday's Special - [Dr. Brite] - (1998) - short story
• Vine of the Soul - (1998) - short story
• Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz - (1995) - novelette
• Are You Loathsome Tonight? - (1998) - short story
• ...And in Closing (for Now) - (1998) - essay by Caitlín R. Kiernan

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Still Dead (1992), edited by john Skipp and Craig Spector. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection (1993), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• The Living Dead (2008), edited by John Joseph Adams
• Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror (2010), edited by Ellen Datlow
• The Century's Best Horror Fiction 1951-2000 (2012), edited by John Pelan

It is included in the collection Swamp Foetus: A Collection of Short Stories (1993).

Zach is a computer hacker who looks like Edward Scissorhands, and Trevor, a comics artist, is traumatized by his father's murder of his mother and brother 20 years previously. Both on the run from their pasts, they end up as lovers in the town of Missing Mile.

To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his "art" to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his "art" to limits even Compton hadn't previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London's Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, and punctuated by rants from radio talk show host Lush Rimbaud, a.k.a. Luke Ransom, Tran's ex-lover, who is dying of AIDS and who intends to wreak ultimate havoc before leaving this world, Exquisite Corpse unfolds into a labyrinth of murder and love. Ultimately all four characters converge on a singular bloody night after which their lives will be irrevocably changed -- or terminated.

Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.

In the French Quarter of New Orleans the Mardi Gras celebrations conceal a different group of pleasure-seekers. For Zillah, Molochai and Twig, the party has been going on for centuries, fuelled by sexual frenzy, green Chartreuse and innocent blood. Born in horror and brought up in suburban Maryland, Nothing has always suspected he's different from other teenagers - and when he has his first taste of human blood, he knows he is right. Ghost is the singer of the band Lost Souls. When Nothing is drawn into Zillah's fatal circle, Ghost has to decide whether to save the boy - or abandon him to his bloody birthright. "Lost Souls" is a dark, decadent and delicious work of fantasy from the mistress of modern horror.

A collection of erotic horror stories follows the adventures of solace-seeking lonelyhearts on a North Carolina highway, behind a dusty Georgia carny show, in a Baton Rouge mausoleum, and an alley in Calcutta.

Table of Contents:

• The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire - (1991) - novelette
• Optional Music for Voice and Piano - (1986) - short story
• Missing - (1986) - short story
• The Elder - (1987) - short story
• Love (Ash 1) - (1987) - short story
• Goldengrove Unleaving - (1987) - short fiction
• Xenophobia - (1990) - short story
• Footprints in the Water - (1990) - short story
• His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood - (1990) - short story
• How to Get Ahead in New York - (1992) - short story
• Calcutta, Lord of Nerves - (1992) - short story
• The Sixth Sentinel - (1993) - short story

Edited by literary historian Melissa Edmundson, Women's Weird 2 features thirteen classic Weird short stories that showcase how these authors moved beyond the traditional ghost story and into areas of Weird fiction and dark fantasy. Featuring thirteen remarkably chilling stories, Women's Weird 2 is sure to thrill new readers and delight these authors' fans.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Melissa Edmundson
• The Blue Room - (1897) - short story by Lettice Galbraith
• The Green Bowl - (1901) - short story by Sarah Orne Jewett
• A Dreamer - (1902) - short story by Barbara Baynton
• The Hall Bedroom - (1903) - short story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
• The Red Bungalow - (1919) - short story by B. M. Croker
• Outside the House - (1920) - novelette by Bessie Kyffin-Taylor
• Florence Flannery - (1924) - short story by Marjorie Bowen
• The House Party at Smoky Island - (1935) - short story by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Black Stone Statue - (1937) - short story by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
• Roaring Tower - (1937) - short story by Stella Gibbons
• A Twin-Identity - (1891) - short fiction by Edith Stewart Drewry
• The House - (1912) - short fiction by Katherine Mansfield
• Young Magic - (1925) - short fiction by Helen Simpson
• Notes - essay by Kate Macdonald

Melissa Goodrich's debut short story collection, Daughters of Monsters, is a raw and magical book of spells, an honest yet harrowing look at the wonder and threat of the world. In these 17 short stories, a toxic cloud sweeps west to east across the country, devouring all in its path. Past versions of a man show up at the birthday party he's thrown himself. A lonely trucker delivers two-headed angels as part of a money-making scheme. And, in the title story, a daughter of monsters awaits her coming-of-age. The characters in this collection tempt disintegration as they attempt to become their fuller selves, staring hard into the treacherous fog in their ways.

Xibalba, home of torture and sacrifice, is the kingdom of the lord of death. He stalked the night in the guise of a putrefied corpse, with the head of an owl and adorned with a necklace of disembodied eyes that hung from nerve cords. He commanded legions of shapeshifting creatures, spectral shamans, and corpses hungry for the flesh of the living. The Mayans feared him and his realm of horror. He sat atop his pyramid temple surrounded by his demon kings and demanded sacrifices of blood and beating hearts as tribute to him and his ghostly world.

These legends, along with those that lived in fear of them, have been dead and gone for centuries. Yet now, a doorway has been opened in Georgia. A group of college students seek their missing professor, a man who has secretly uncovered the answer to one of history's greatest mysteries. However, what they find is more than the evidence of a hidden civilization. It's also a gateway to a world of living nightmares.

Your granddaughters are lost, Candelaria. Bianca, the brainy archaeologist, had to forfeit her life's work in Guatemala after her advisor seduced and deserted her. Paola, missing for over a decade, resurfaces in Boston as a brainwashed wellness cultist named Zoe. And Candy, the youngest, is a recovering addict who finds herself pregnant by a man she's not even sure ever existed. None of this concerns you of course, until a cataclysmic earthquake hits Boston. Now you must traverse the crumbling city to reach the Watertown Mall Old Country Buffet--for a reason you still cannot disclose--battling strange entities and your own strange past to save your granddaughters and possibly the world.

Marr revisits favorite fan characters such as faeries Niall and Irial, and introduces fascinating new beings, including a vampire, a pair of selchie brothers, and a goblin. The strange creatures can appear anywhere, coming from the sea, from the woods, from inside storms; they may come seeking to bring destruction or to find a passionate encounter...

Lush, seductive, and chilling, the stories in Melissa Marr's Faery Tales & Nightmares blend fairy tales and folklore, horror and fantasy, and allow us to revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.

Table of Contents:

• xiii - Introduction (Faery Tales & Nightmares)
• 1 - Where Nightmares Walk
• 5 - Winter's Kiss
• 21 - Transition
• 63 - Love Struck
• 119 - Old Habits - [Wicked Lovely]
• 213 - Stopping Time - [Wicked Lovely]
• 277 - The Art of Waiting
• 287 - Flesh for Comfort
• 297 - The Sleeping Girl and the Sumer King
• 315 - Cotton Candy Skies - [Wicked Lovely]
• 335 - Unexpected Family - [Wicked Lovely]
• 379 - Merely Mortal - [Wicked Lovely]

Anyone who adores dark fantasy, horror, and paranormal suspense is going to love Graveminder, a hauntingly atmospheric tale of the walking dead--and the living who are charged with keeping them at rest--from Melissa Marr, the New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series. A young woman returns to the rural small town of her adolescence only to discover it is cursed ground bordering the land of the dead in this spectacularly imagined supernatural tale that will appeal to fans of Charlaine Harris, Joe Hill, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Neil Gaiman, and Carol Goodman.

Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital to discover she possesses a strange new skill--the ability to foresee people's deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from her hit-and-run accident, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva's power to keep their friends--and each other--from falling into the hands of a killer.

This contemporary romantic suspense novel from five-time New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr earned widespread critical acclaim, with Kirkus Reviews calling it a "riveting whodunit that delivers a bouquet of teen romance, paranormal, and thriller." And BCCB declared, "Between the suspense, the horror, the romance, and the wit, this will have equal appeal for fans of Sarah Dessen and Rosemary Clement-Moore."

A stark departure from her fantasy settings, this Southern Gothic, racy thriller gives fans old and new chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance.

The best writers of our generation retell classic tales.

From Sir Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops," literature is filled with sexy, deadly, and downright twisted tales. In this collection, award-winning and bestselling authors reimagine their favorite classic stories, the ones that have inspired, awed, and enraged them, the ones that have become ingrained in modern culture, and the ones that have been too long overlooked. They take these stories and boil them down to their bones, and reassemble them for a new generation of readers.

Written from a twenty-first century perspective and set within the realms of science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, and realistic fiction, these short stories are as moving and thought provoking as their originators. They pay homage to groundbreaking literary achievements of the past while celebrating each author's unique perception and innovative style.

Today's most acclaimed authors use their own unique styles to rebuild the twelve timeless stories:

• Sir Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene - Saladin Ahmed
• W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" - Kelley Armstrong
• Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" - Holly Black
• "Sleeping Beauty" - Neil Gaiman
• The Brothers Grimm's "Rumpelstiltskin" - Kami Garcia
• Kate Chopin's The Awakening - Melissa Marr
• Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" - Garth Nix
• Henry James's "The Jolly Corner" - Tim Pratt
• E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" - Carrie Ryan
• Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto - Margaret Stohl
• William Seabrook's "The Caged White Werewolf of the Saraban" - Gene Wolfe
• Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark" - Rick Yancey

Melissa Marr returns to faery in a dramatic story of the precarious space between two worlds--and the people who must thrive there. The combination of ethereal fae powers, tumultuous romance, and a bloodthirsty faery queen will have longtime fans and new readers alike at the edge of their seats.

Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal--she's half human, half fae, and since the time before she was born her very blood has been illegal. A war has been raging between humans and faeries, and the Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of the fae courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir due to the actions of reckless humans.

Lily's father has always shielded her from the truth, but when she's sent to the prestigious St. Columba's school, she's delivered straight into the arms of a fae Sleeper cell--the Black Diamonds. The Diamonds are planted in the human world as the sons and daughters of the most influential families, and tasked with destroying it from within. Against her will, Lilywhite's been chosen to join them... and even the romantic attention of the fae rock singer Creed Morrison isn't enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the familiar world she knows.

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Shards and Ashes) - essay by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr
• 1 - Hearken - novelette by Veronica Roth
• 38 - Branded - [Otherworld] - novella by Kelley Armstrong
• 90 - Necklace of Raindrops - novelette by Margaret Stohl
• 130 - Dogsbody - novelette by Rachel Caine
• 179 - Pale Rider - novelette by Nancy Holder
• 216 - Corpse Eaters - novelette by Melissa Marr
• 247 - Burn 3 - novelette by Kami Garcia
• 277 - Love Is a Choice - [Across the Universe] - novelette by Beth Revis
• 311 - Miasma - novella by Carrie Ryan
• 365 - About the Authors (Shards and Ashes)

Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippie; Melody, a mentally unbalanced 1950's housewife; and Hector, a former carnival artist.

None know why they arrived there -- or if there is a way out of a world populated by monsters and filled with corruption.

Just as she did in Graveminder, Marr has created a vivid fantasy world that will enthrall. melissa Marr's The Arrivals is a thoroughly original and widly imagined tale about making choices in a life where death is unpredictable and often temporary.

"The Maiden Thief" by Melissa Marr is a dark fantasy novelette about a teenager whose town is plagued by the annual disappearances of girls and young women. Her father blames her when one of her sisters is one of the taken.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

What might have happened had Alexander not marched into India, but turned back west? This is the question posed in Ms. Scott's alternate history. Yet another revolt in Greece (even more serious than the historical revolt of King Agis of Sparta) forces Alexander to turn around and march back home. Having been thwarted then in his bid for India, he turns his interest west instead, to Rome and Carthage.

Governed by two political rulers, the planet Burning Bright is the location of the biggest virtual reality game in the universe. Quinn Lioe is tangled in a web of love and suspense when she becomes determined to play at the center of the virtual reality world and gets stuck in the war between the two empires. This science fiction adventure is one of Scott's best and the complex futuristic world is unforgettable.

Persephone is a planet wracked by class struggle and economic and political upheaval. Celinde Fortune is an entertainer, an illusionist who makes good money but plays the Empire theater, a venue prone to bomb threats. When she combines two advanced computer chips in a new way to sophisticate her act, the resulting form of computer life seems awfully like a true artificial intelligence. And this is beyond controversial--it could get her killed.

Dreamships is the story of a freelance space pilot and her crew, who are hired by a rich corporate owner to track down her crazy brother--who just may have created the first sentient Artificial Intelligence. Social texture and a tough, cyberpunk attitude make this an exceptionally intense read.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED--HIRE IT DONE!

What does a big corporation do when a job is too dirty and dangerous for its own employees? Why hire a freelancer, of course. That's how salvage operators Gwynne Heikki and her sidekick Sten Djuro find themselves commissioned to make their way to the surface of an undeveloped planet where they are to find and return a lost cargo.

Dangerous, maybe, and dirty certainly, but the job seemed simple enough--with just enough complication to make it "interesting": the fact that the cargo locators had failed in the crash; that the place swarmed with dangerous animals; that the worst of those animals was of almost human intelligence and more than human ferocity...

But there were a few problems that the company didn't tell them about... It was almost as if their employers wanted them to fail--and to die in the process.

Melissa Scott's award-winning work is known for its vividly imagined settings that explore humanity's far future. IN NIGHT SKY MINE, young Ista Kelly is a foundling, the only survivor of a pirate raid on an asteroid mine. In a future where one cannot live without an official identity, this is the story of Ista's harrowing journey back to the asteroid to find her true identity.

In the far future, human culture has developed five distinctive genders due to the effects of a drug easing sickness from faster-than-light travel. But on the planet Hara, where society is increasingly instability, caught between hard-liner traditions and the realities of life, only male and female genders are legal, and the ''odd-bodied'' population are forced to pass as one or the other. Warreven Stiller, a lawyer and an intersexed person, is an advocate for those who have violated Haran taboos. When Hara regains contact with the Concord worlds, Warreven finds a larger role in breaking the long-standing role society has forced on ''him,'' but the search for personal identity becomes a battleground of political intrigue and cultural clash.

GOD SAVE THE KING OF SCOTLAND

The heavy summer air of 1593 is full of portents for Elizabeth, England's Queen, and James VI, King of Scotland. A coven of witches secretly controlled by the Wizard Earl of Bothwell has summoned a storm to sink the ship that bears James' bride to Scotland. Though the ship made port, the success of their summoning has emboldened them; the coven is now launching wizardly attacks on the King himself -- and James is terrified.

FROM SATAN'S WIZARD EARL

The King has protectors -- not least the Queen of England herself -- but not even Elizabeth's secret service and her champion, the redoubtable Sir Philip Sidney, can be on watch every instant. Eventually a trap is sprung, and King James is at the mercy of the satanic Bothwell's deadly spells...

A star-flung empire the prize - in a deadly war of succession.

Melissa Scott, winner of the John W. Campbell Award, twice winner of the Lambda Award for best novel, and author of the cyberpunk classic, Trouble and Her Friends, returns with a hip novel of the media-dominated future, when the internet is filled with Jazz: intentional misinformation and bewildering disinformation that are both an artform and a business.

Tin Lizzy, a respected Jazz artist with a checkered past, is a theatrical Web site designer who does backgrounds for Jazz productions. When a nifty new script shows up on the web, Lizzy is surprised to learn it came from a teenage boy named Keyz. It turns out Keyz used his parents' access codes to borrow a Hollywood studio's editing program- the true, hidden source of the studio's success. Now the studio head wants to lock him in jail and throw away the key.

So Lizzy rescues him and takes him on the road, across the altered landscape of twenty-first century USA, trying to stay one step ahead of the police... . and the vengeance of a megalomaniac CEO.

The Jazz is a road chase novel of the future, filled with shady characters, close calls, and colorful neat ideas.

Orestes was a cruel world, cold and inhospitable. Its first colonists were castaways from a crash landing, clinging to survival through the institution of strict socio-political controls. Over the generations life grew somewhat easier, but the code of honour remained. Misdeeds - and errors - were paid for with blood. At one time all miscreants were executed. Now a social death is imposed. Every Oresteian city has a colony of "ghosts": ostracised citizens who must survive, somehow, without help from the living. But galactic civilisation is spreading - and Orestes is in its path. The old ways are under scrutiny. And though the Oresteian aristocracy will fight for the status quo, they have not reckoned on the power of a thousand ghosts.

In The Shapes of Their Hearts, a computer tape of the brain of a religious prophet has been allowed to merge with an AI; the result is both a religious icon on the planet Idun and a powerful terrorist. Anton Tso must come up with a way to stop the terrorism without killing God.

India Carless, alias Trouble, managed to stay one step ahead of the feds until she retired from life as a hacker and settled down to run a small network for an artist's co-op.

Now someone has stolen her pseudonym and begun to use it for criminal hacking. So Trouble returns. Once the fastest gun on the electronic frontier, she has been called out of retirement for one last fight. And it's a killer.

Less than a hundred years from now, the forces of law and order crack down on the world of the internet. It is the closing of the frontier. The hip, noir adventurers who got by on wit, bravado, and drugs, who haunt the virtual worlds of the shadows of cyberspace are up against the edges of civilization. It's time to adapt or die.

In this unforgettable story full of charm, wit--and just a bit of magic--a woman down on her luck is given a second chance at fixing her life and trying one year all over again...

Sadie Thatcher's life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend--all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn't believe magic will fix her life, but taking a leap of faith, Sadie makes her wish, opens her eyes, and... nothing has changed. And then, in perhaps her dumbest move yet, she kisses her brother's best friend, Jacob.

When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she's in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. Checking the date, she realizes it's January 1... of last year. As Sadie navigates her second-chance year, she begins to see the red flags she missed in her relationship and in her career. Plus, she keeps running into Jacob, and she can't stop thinking about their kiss... the one he has no idea ever happened. Suddenly, Sadie begins to wonder if her only mistake was wishing for a second chance.

After her twin sister's brutal murder, former US Army Sergeant Allison "Lex" Luther vowed to protect her niece, Charlie. So when two vampires try to kidnap the baby, it quickly turns into a fight to the death--Lex's death, that is.

She wakes up to two shocking discoveries: she has miraculously survived the fight, and baby Charlie is a "null," gifted with the ability to weaken supernatural forces... and a target for creatures who want to control that power. Determined to guarantee her niece's safety, Lex makes a deal with the local vampires. She sets out with the mysterious--and undead--"fixer" Quinn to track down whoever's responsible for the kidnapping, sharpening her newfound magic skills along the way. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous her powers become.

Boundary Crossed is a dark, thrilling journey into a world where the line between living and dead isn't nearly as solid as it appears...

Fitting into the Old World isn't going very well for Boulder boundary witch Allison "Lex" Luther: she may have earned a place in a vampire's service, but now it seems as if every supernatural creature in town has found a reason to hate her. And when Lex and her partner are assigned to investigate the suspicious disappearance of two vampires during the night of the full moon, they find themselves with more questions than answers.

Was it murder... or mutiny?

The crusade for answers will lead Lex all over the Colorado Old World, from a prison cell for a broken werewolf to a haunted Denver brothel. And when Lex determines the responsible party, the hunt is just beginning: something has been awakened in Boulder, something as old and powerful as it is terrifying. Only the woman with death in her blood can stop what's coming.

Something wicked is at work in Colorado's supernatural community. Vampires are being paralyzed or killed with poison... a weapon favored by witches. This offense threatens to break apart the already-fractured alliance between witches and the undead.

The state's cardinal vampire, Maven, summons boundary witch Allison "Lex" Luther to stop the killing before it ignites a war. Lex has barely started investigating when she gets another surprise: the biological father she's never met arrives on her doorstep. He has answers to all of Lex's questions about her bloodline, but getting those answers could mean betraying the life she's already built.

Then the next vampire is poisoned--and this time it's Maven herself. The new evil that hunts Lex is powerful and ruthless enough to stop the strongest supernatural creature in the state. In order to find such a killer, Lex will have to face down her own birthright and call on every ally--both living and dead.

Scarlett Bernard is used to cleaning up messes. As a human who cancels out any magic around her, Scarlett's job is to keep the supernatural world hidden--at any cost.

But on the eve of the Vampire Trials, a two-day tribunal that allows the otherworldly community to air their grievances, Scarlett receives a blood-soaked message from Molly, her estranged former roommate. Molly, a vampire, had been living with twelve human college students...and in one terrible night, she slaughtered them all.

Scarlett believes Molly's been set up, but no one else in the Old World agrees with her. Meanwhile, the true perpetrator is determined to make sure Molly goes on trial for the massacre--and the penalty is death.

With less than two days to prove her friend's innocence, Scarlett calls on former LAPD detective Jesse Cruz to help her dig into Molly's past. But no one--Molly included--wants Scarlett and Jesse to bring the terrible truth to light.

If there is one city that Scarlett Bernard hates, it's Las Vegas. But when the cardinal vampire of Los Angeles convinces her to go investigate a new vampire-themed stage show, Scarlett quickly finds herself shoulder-deep in sequins, slot machines, and Old World intrigue.

The show's creators are vampire celebrities Arthur and Lucy Holmwood, who once inspired characters from the original Dracula. Now, however, they have no qualms about announcing their true status to the human world, endangering the secrecy of the Old World and Scarlett's mission to keep it hidden.

But before she can begin untangling the Holmwoods' motives, Scarlett also discovers that their new production has attracted more than just fans: Las Vegas's many vampires are suddenly disappearing, and rumors are flying that actual vampire hunters may have followed Arthur and Lucy to town.

Now, without her allies, her bargest, or her frequent partner Jesse Cruz, Scarlett must navigate a new underworld of secrets and murders in a city where nothing is ever as it seems. And the stakes have never been higher.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology The Other Half of the Sky (2013), edited by Athena Andreadis and Kay Holt. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Garder Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology To Shape the Dark (2016), edited by Athena Andreadis. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Cassilde Sam is a barely solvent salvage operator, hunting for relics in the ruins left by the mysterious Ancestors--particularly the color-coded Elements that power most of humanity's current technology, including the ability to navigate through hyperspace. Cassilde is also steadily fading under the onslaught of Lightman's, an incurable, inevitably fatal disease. She needs one last find big enough to leave a legacy for her partner and fellow salvor Dai Winter.

When their lover and former colleague Summerlad Ashe reappears, offering them a chance to salvage part of an orbiting palace that he claims contains potentially immense riches, Cassilde is desperate enough to take the gamble, even though Ashe had left them both to fight on the opposite side of the interplanetary war that only ended seven years ago. The find is everything Ashe promised. But when pirates attack the claim, Cassilde receives the rarest of the Ancestors' Gifts: a change to her biochemistry that confers near-instant healing and seems to promise immortality.

But the change also drags her into an underworld where Gifts are traded in blood, and powerful Gifts bring equally powerful enemies. Hunted for her Gift and determined to find Gifts for her lovers, Cassilde discovers that an old enemy is searching for the greatest of the Ancestral artifacts: the power that the Ancestors created and were able to barely contain after it almost destroyed them, plunging humanity into the first Long Dark. Haunted by dream-visions of this power whispering its own version of what happened, Cassilde must find it first, before her enemy frees it to destroy her own civilization.

Nic en Doroney was promised an education and an academic career in exchange for sharing the nanite burden she carries in her bloodstream. Instead, the Novilis family broke that bargain, and now Nic is captain of a small starship, competing with larger businesses by using illegal Ancestral technology to chart her way through the adjacent possible. But when Rejane Novilis re-enters her life, Nic is unable to resist the chance to work with her again, even if it means challenging the malevolent AI who have already destroyed human society once before.

While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales. Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time--Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell--and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition.

As railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed. This anthology includes ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies, psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Curated by Klinger and Morton with an aim to presenting work that has languished in the shadows, all of these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today's readers.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Melissa Edmundson
• Notes - essay by Melissa Edmundson
• Further Reading - essay by Melissa Edmundson
• Bibliographical Notes - essay by Melissa Edmundson
• Bibliographical Details - short story by Melissa Edmundson
• The Weird of the Walfords - short story by Mrs. Alfred Baldwin [as by Louisa Baldwin]
• Let Loose - (1890) - short story by Mary Cholmondeley
• The Giant Wistaria - (1891) - short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The Shadow - (1905) - short story by E. Nesbit [as by Edith Nesbit]
• Kerfol - (1916) - novelette by Edith Wharton
• Unseen - Unfeared - (1919) - short story by Francis Stevens
• Hodge - (1921) - short story by Elinor Mordaunt
• Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched - (1922) - short story by May Sinclair
• The Haunted Saucepan - (1987) - short story by Margery Lawrence
• The Twelve Apostles - (1929) - novelette by Eleanor Scott
• The Book - (1930) - short story by Margaret Irwin
• Couching at the Door - (1933) - novelette by D. K. Broster
• With and Without Buttons - (1938) - short story by Mary Butts
• Notes - essay by Kate Macdonald

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature--freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.

At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called "the Blue." They say it's a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it's a place where Nat won't be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all. This is a remarkable first book in a spellbinding new series about the dawn of a new kind of magic.

Months after Nat and Wes said good-bye on the shores of the Blue, Nat is learning how to control and use her new power. She and her drakon are the last of their kind--and she's risked her life for their reunion. When she receives a mysterious distress call, she races to help, soliciting the guidance of her new friend, the beautiful and aloof Faix Lazaved of the Blue.

Still heartbroken over losing Nat, Wes is racing cars on a New Vegas racetrack while his team is scattered and lost. When he finds out that his sister, Eliza, is being held in the golden domes of El Dorado, he does what he's best at--running to her side--and gambles on luck to see him through one more time.

Magic, romance, and danger collide as Nat and Wes become entangled in a dark new adventure that leads right to the heart of the mystery of their frozen, broken world. They soon discover that the answer to both their quests lies in the same question: Who is Eliza Wesson--what is she capable of, and why was she stolen from her family so long ago?

With the ruins of New Kandy still smoldering around them and Nat's bond to her beloved drakon quickly fraying, Nat and Wes are lost amid a sea of destruction--with Wes at death's door. Wes tried to save his sister, Eliza, and protect them from her cruelty, only to see firsthand just how dark her power had become.

Desperate to escape the dangers lurking in New Kandy, Wes accepts help from a mysterious voice calling out to him from the Blue, leading Nat and his crew into even more perilous surroundings. They quickly realize that their only chance for survival lies with Nat and the quest for a new world to replace their broken one--but at what cost?

In this epic conclusion to the Heart of Dread trilogy, Nat and Wes must put their love to the ultimate test in hopes of seeing their world reborn.

His practice newly established, metaphysician Ned Mathey can't afford to turn away any clients. But the latest Londoner to seek Ned's magical aid gives him pause: Mr Edgar Nevett, an arrogant banker, is the father of the bully who made Ned's life hell at boarding school. Nevertheless, Ned accepts the commission to ensure the Nevett family silver bears no ancient or modern curses, and then prepares to banish the Nevett family to unpleasant memory again. Until Edgar Nevett is killed by an enchanted silver candlestick one of the pieces Ned declared magically harmless.

Calling on his old school friend Julian Lynes--private detective and another victim of the younger Nevett--Ned races to solve the murder, clear the stain on his professional reputation, and lay to rest the ghosts of his past. Assisted by Ned's able secretary Miss Frost, who has unexpected metaphysical skills of her own, Ned and Julian explore London's criminal underworld and sodomitical demimonde, uncover secrets and scandals, confront the unexpected murderer and the mysteries of their own relationship.

In Death by Silver veteran authors Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold introduce a Victorian London where magic works, influencing every aspect of civilized life, and two very appealing detectives.

In the sequel to Lambda Literary Award-winning Death by Silver, metaphysician Ned Mathey and private detective Julian Lynes again challenge magical and murderous threats in a Victorian London not quite the city in our history books.

Mathey is recruited by Scotland Yard to assist the new Metaphysical Crimes Squad in the case of a literally heartless corpse. Mathey soon discovers that the magic used to rob the man of his heart and life does not conform to the laws of modern metaphysics and then a second victim turns up. Meanwhile, a minor poet hires Lynes to track down and stop the blackmailer threatening to reveal him as the pseudonymous author of popular romances. When another target of the same blackmailer, a friend of Mathey's assistant Miss Frost, appeals for aid, Lynes and Mathey begin to suspect murders and blackmail are connected.

Digging deep into the clandestine worlds of lawless antique magic and the gay demimonde, Mathey and Lynes must uncover the source and nature of a heart-stealing supernatural creature before it can kill them too, even as they face the scandal of exposing themselves as sodomites in order to close the case.

A sexy new repackaging of the extremely popular anthology of vampire erotica, edited by acclaimed author Poppy Z. Brite.

The classic horror tale is about fear. But in the last few years a new literature of the macabre has arisen, one that goes deeper than horror, beyond fear, to explore our darkest, most intimate hungers. The ones even lovers are forbidden to share.

Acclaimed dark fantasy author Poppy Z. Brite has brought together this genre's most powerful and seductive authors in an original collection of vampiric erotica, a shameless celebration of unspeakable intimacies. It is not for everyone.

But neither is the night.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (1994) - essay by Poppy Z. Brite
• Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu - (1994) - novelette by Norman Partridge
• Geraldine - (1994) - novelette by Ian McDowell
• In the Greenhouse - (1994) - short story by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
• Cafe Endless: Spring Rain - (1994) - short story by Nancy Holder
• Empty Vessels - (1994) - novelette by David B. Silva
• The Final Fete of Abba Adi - (1994) - short story by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• Cherry - (1994) - short story by Christa Faust
• White Chapel - (1994) - novelette by Douglas Clegg
• Delicious Antique Whore - (1994) - short fiction by W. H. Pugmire
• Triptych di Amore - (1994) - novelette by Thomas F. Monteleone
• Queen of the Night - (1994) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• The Marriage - (1994) - short story by Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem
• In This Soul of a Woman - (1994) - short story by Charles de Lint
• The Alchemy of the Throat - (1994) - novelette by Brian Hodge
• Love Me Forever - (1994) - short story by Mike Baker
• --And the Horses Hiss at Midnight - (1994) - short story by A. R. Morlan
• Elixir - (1994) - short story by Elizabeth Engstrom
• The Gift of Neptune - (1994) - short story by Danielle Willis
• From Hunger - (1994) - short story by Wayne Allen Sallee
• A Slow Red Whisper of Sand - (1994) - novelette by Robert Devereaux

A second helping of blood and passion...

Acclaimed dark fantasist Poppy Z. Brite's previous excursion into the nightmare realm of terrifying sensuality offered readers a sumptuous blood feast of unspeakable pleasures. Now she has done it again, serving up more provocative tales from some of the most inventive and accomplished writers in the field -- an unabashed exploration of shadow places and terrible hungers that's more dangerously seductive, more boldly erotic than the first.

If you found Love in Vein disturbingly dark, unsettlingly seductive, and deliciously carnal -- you're going to adore Twice Bitten: Love in Vein II. But be warned. It may be more than you can handle. It may open doors into the darkest corners of your unspoken fears. And it may be exactly what you've been secretly lusting for.

Table of Contents:

• Snow, Glass, Apples - (1995) - short story by Neil Gaiman
• Bela's Plot - (1997) - short story by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Armies of the Heart - (1997) - short story by Christopher Fowler
• Whispers in Walled Tombs - (1997) - short story by O'Neil De Noux
• Ceilings and Sky - (1997) - short story by Lucy Taylor
• The Fly Room - (1997) - novelette by Thom Metzger
• The Subtle Ties That Bind - (1997) - short story by David Niall Wilson
• When Memory Fails - (1997) - novelette by Roberta Lannes
• The I of the Eye of the Worm - (1997) - short story by Janet Berliner and George Guthridge
• Stigmata - (1997) - short story by Jean-Daniel Brèque (trans. of Stigmates)
• The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins - (1997) - novella by Brian Hodge
• I'm Not Well, But I'm Better - (1997) - short story by Pat Califia
• Kingyo no fun - (1997) - novelette by Nicholas Royle
• First Date - (1997) - novelette by Richard Laymon
• To Have You with Me - (1997) - short story by Randy Fox
• Dusting the Flowers - (1997) - novelette by David J. Schow
• Bloodlight - (1997) - short story by Stephen Mark Rainey
• The Privilege of the Dead - (1997) - short story by Thomas S. Roche

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1975. The story can also be found in the anthologies The 1976 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Fifth Annual Collection, (1976), edited by Lester del Rey, The Best Science Fiction of the Year #5 (1976), edited by Terry Carr and Nebula Award Stories 11 (1976), edited by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Alex McKenna is the new Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations--the division tasked with investigating crimes involving shades.

Or vampires, as they're more widely known.

Children have been going missing, and agents are routinely being slaughtered. It's up to McKenna, and some unlikely allies, to get to the bottom of the problem, and find the kids before it's too late.

Nightshades is a new gritty urban fantasy from Melissa F. Olso

Three weeks after the events of Nightshades, things are finally beginning to settle for the Chicago branch of the BPI, but the brief respite from the horror of the previous few weeks was never destined to last.

The team gets a call from Switch Creek, WI, where a young man has been arrested on suspicion of being a shade.

The Chicago field office of the Bureau of Preternatural Investigation is facing its deadliest challenge, yet?internal investigation! Alex and Lindy are on the hook, and on the run.

But when all of the BPI's captive vampires are broken free from their maximum security prison, and Hector finally steps out of the shadows, Alex must use every trick to stay ahead of both the BPI and the world's most dangerous shade.

Confrontation is inevitable. Success is not.

In 1929 archeologists began draining Lake Nemi in search of the mysterious ships that have been glimpsed beneath its waters since the reign of Claudius. What they awakened had been drowned for two thousand years. For a very good reason.

Veteran aviator Lewis Segura has been drifting since the Great War ended, fetched up at last at the small company run by fellow veterans and pilots Alma Gilchrist and Mitchell Sorley, assisted by their old friend Dr. Jerry Ballard, an archeologist who lost his career when he lost part of his leg. It's a living, and if it's not quite what any of them had dreamed of, it's better than much that they've already survived. But Lewis has always dreamed true, and what he sees in his dreams will take them on a dangerous chase from Hollywood to New York to an airship over the Atlantic, and finally to the Groves of Diana Herself....

The world is full of lost treasures. Some of them are better off not found.

In this sequel to Lost Things, when the Gilchrist Aviation team tries to win the money to keep the business going by placing first in a coast-to-coast air race, things get complicated! A stolen necklace, a runaway Russian countess, and a century-old curse seem like trouble enough, but then there's New Orleans, and the unsolved murders of the New Orleans Axeman. But what if the murderer is one of them?

A series of mysterious plane crashes in the Rocky Mountains in the midst of a Depression winter call Air Corps reservists Mitch Sorley and Lewis Segura out to fly search and rescue, but it's more than just a simple navigational hazard. Fortunately Mitch and Lewis are more than just pilots. With Lewis' wife Alma and their old friend Dr. Jerry Ballard they're members of an esoteric Lodge dedicated to the protection of the world.

The Silver Bullet Mine is haunted -- or is it? Can ghosts bring down aircraft? And are the small-time crooks who are interested in the Mine simply looking to make a buck -- or the vanguard of something more evil and deadly? Aided by their former con artist office manager Stasi Rostov, they've got to get to the bottom of what's happening at the Silver Bullet Mine before more lives are lost.

It may be that Jerry holds the key not only to Silver Bullet, but to an even more dangerous secret, one that men have killed to gain for two thousand years. The Lodge is in deep, and there is only one man who can help them, the legendary scientist Nikola Tesla!

Melissa Scott and Jo Graham tell yet another gripping story, and with their intense detail and snappy dialogue it is an adventure on the page. -- Historical Novel Society Review on Silver Bullet

It's the summer of 1935, and Gilchrist Aviation's owner Alma Gilchrist Segura has brokered a deal that will take herself and fellow pilots Lewis Segura and Mitchell Sorley to Honolulu to test a new seaplane. It pays well enough to take their families along for a working vacation - including the children of the company's part time handyman, whose father has abandoned them. Better still, archeologist Jerry Ballard is already there supervising a dig investigating whether Hawaii was actually discovered by the Chinese. It's a crackpot idea, but it's his only chance to prove that he can still handle field work after losing his leg at the end of the Great War, and he's determined to restart his career.

However, not all is as it seems. The dig is funded by anonymous sources who seem to have far too much influence on its management, including the hiring of German archaeologist Willi Radke, and who seem to know exactly what they want to find. The seaplane's testing is plagued by mysterious mechanical problems - and rumors of a curse spread through the hangar. Can you murder someone by magic? And who would want to kill a middle aged Army officer who belongs to an allied lodge? Alma, Jerry, Mitch, Lewis and Stasi are determined to defend themselves, but the power arrayed against them is greater than they imagined. It will take everything they have - as flyers, scholars, and magicians - to survive this deadly paradise.

Aces high...

As the threat of European war looms, the Kingdom of Ethiopia is one of the first to come under attack from the Fascist powers. When Dr. Jerry Ballard's long-anticipated dig in Alexandria is interrupted by the arrival of his old friend Iskinder on a secret mission for the Ethiopian Emperor, Jerry has to make a stand -- even if it means delaying his dream of finding the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Fortunately, the rest of the Lodge, Alma, Lewis, Mitch, and Stasi are in Sicily showing the Catalina flying boat at a prestigious European air show. Bound by oaths and friendship, they undertake a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean and into the heart of a battle where they will be tested as never before.

Nicolas Rathe is a pointsman, a dedicated watchman in the great city of Astreiant. During the annual trade fair, with a city filled with travelers and merchants, someone is stealing children. The populace is getting angry and frightened and convinced that a foreigner must be to blame. Rathe calls on the aid of both an out-of-work soldier, the handsome Philip Eslingen, and the necromancer Istre b'Estorr.

The art of astrology is a very real power in the kingdom and plays as much a role in politics as greed and intrigue. Rathe finds himself struggling to find the children before a major astrological event brings about catastrophe. The first in a series of fantasy novels filled with adventure, intrigue and gay romance.

The city of Astreiant has gone crazy with enthusiasm for a new play, "The Drowned Island," a lurid farrago of melodrama and innuendo. Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is not amused, however, at a real dead body on stage and must investigate. A string of murders follow, perhaps related to the politically important masque that is to play on that same stage. Rathe must once again recruit the help of his lover, former soldier Philip Eslingen, whose knowledge of actors and the stage, and of the depths of human perversity and violence, blends well with Rathe's own hard-won experience with human greed and magical mayhem.

Their task is complicated by the season, for it is the time of year when the spirits of the dead haunt the city and influence everyone, and also by the change in their relationship when the loss of Philip's job forces him to move in with Nicolas. Mystery, political intrigue, floral magic, astrology, and romance--both theatrical and personal-- combine to make this a compelling read.

A winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Speculative Fiction!

A welcome return to the vividly realized city of Asteiant with its intricate magics and deadly politics. Point of Knives takes place in the interval between the widely praised earlier novels Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams. A fantastical mystery and a rousing adventure, Point of Knives also reveals for the first time the beginning of the romance between Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and ex-soldier Philip Eslingen.

The events of Midsummer have hardly been forgotten by the Fall Balance, and Nicolas Rathe can hardly complain that they've done any harm to his reputation, or to the reputation of the Points in general. However, it has meant that he's more in demand as an investigator, and the increased recognition and workload has made it hard to pursue friendship, or anything more, with Philip Eslingen, his comrade in the rescue of the stolen children. Eslingen is still Hanselin Caiazzo's bodyguard and Caiazzo is involved in any number of questionably legal ventures, and it does neither of them any good to be seen too often in each other's company. When a father and son who are both rumored to have been pirates are murdered on the same night, and Rathe finds Eslingen standing over the son's body, Eslingen proves his innocence easily enough, though he refuses to say exactly what errand he's running for Caiazzo at that hour of the morning. But when the old man's grandson and the son's self-proclaimed wife quarrel over the son's meager belongings, and Caiazzo dispatches Eslingen to represent his interests in the investigation, Rathe begins to wonder if their friendship is going to survive. Or whether they'll survive at all.

During Dog Moon, the chief entertainment in the great city of Astreiant, for nobles and commons alike, is the basket-terrier races at New Fair. This year, with spectacularly bad timing, the massive and suspicious bankruptcy of a young nobleman has convulsed the city, leading to suicides, widespread loss of employment, and inconvenient new laws around the universal practice of betting on the races. As well, a rash of mysterious burglaries seems to suggest a magistical conspiracy.

Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is naturally in the midst of all these disturbances--as is his lover, foreign former mercenary Philip Eslingen. When Eslingen receives a basket-terrier puppy in the redistribution of the bankrupt's household goods, he makes the best of it by having the pup trained for the races, an action that draws him and Rathe deeper into the coils of a mystery somehow involving New Fair's dog races, bookies and bettors, the bankruptcy and its causes and fallout, burglaries, and a new uncanny form of murder.

Fourth in the Astreiant series, Fairs' Point once again demonstrates Melissa Scott's mastery of fantasy world building, detective-story plotting, and the provision of sheer delight.

Autumn downpours soak the city of Astreiant and cast a gloomy pall over its streets, while storms at sea have delayed merchant ships bearing important cargoes from distant lands. For Philip Eslingen, whose stars are bad for water, the season adds damp misery to the complications of organizing the new and controversial City Guard.

The murder of a tea captain brings to a head the rivalry between Point of Sighs, where the crime took place, and Point of Dreams, where Eslingen's lover, Adjunt Point Nicolas Rathe, doubts the evidence against the son of a prominent Dreams merchant house. As extortion against traders by the dockers of Point of Sighs and corruption among the district pointsmen come to light, the mystery deepens, but nothing can prepare Rathe and Eslingen for the return of a legend and the revival of a savage cult.

Centuries ago the hungry spirit that haunted the River Sier was propitiated by the ritual sacrifice of handsome young man, but the Riverdeme has long been bound by the city's bridges. Now the river seethes with vicious dogfish, mauled corpses are pulled from the water, and Eslingen--peculiarly at risk from any watery threat--and Rathe must uncover the person who seeks to unleash an ancient evil.

Leaping into the body of a doctor who is searching for a downed airplane in the wilds of British Columbia, Sam Beckett is unaware that a lightning bolt has caused Al to leap into one of the plane's crash victims.

One woman will either save an entire continent or completely destroy it in a captivating epic fantasy bursting with intrigue and ambition, questioned loyalties, and broken magic.

"Guard the tower, ward the stone. Find your answers writ in bone. Keep your trust through wits or war - nothing must unseal the door."

Deep within Gloamingard Castle lies a black tower. Sealed by magic, it guards a dangerous secret that has been contained for thousands of years.

As Warden, Ryxander knows the warning passed down through generations: nothing must unreal the Door. But one impetuous decision will leave her with blood on her hands - and unleash a threat that could doom the world to fall to darkness.

Ryxander, Warden of Gloamingard, has failed. Unsealed by her blood, the Door hidden within the black tower has opened. Now, for the first time since the age of the Graces, demons walk the world.

As tensions grow between nations, all eyes-and daggers are set on Morgrain, fallen under the Demon of Discord's control. In an attempt to save her home from destruction, Ryx and the Rookery set out to find a powerful artifact. But powerful enemies are on the hunt and they're closing in fast.

The Dark Days have returned. The Demon of Carnage mercilessly cuts through villagers and armies. The Demon of Corruption rots the land. The Serene Empire and the Witch Lords race towards war. And in the middle of it all stands Rxyander, the Warden of Gloamingard.

Burdened by conflicting loyalties and guilt, Ryx searches desperately for a way to defeat the demons before the world she loves is completely destroyed. To find answers, she'll have to return to where it all started... the black tower at the heart of Gloamingard.

Scarlett Bernard knows about personal space: step within ten feet of her, and anything supernatural is instantly neutralized--vampires and werewolves become human again, and witches can't cast the slightest spell. Scarlett uses her status as a null to cover up crime scenes for Los Angeles's three most powerful magical communities, helping them keep humanity, and the LAPD, in the dark.

One night Scarlett gets caught at the scene of a grisly murder by the all-too-human LAPD cop Jesse Cruz, who blackmails her into a deal: he'll keep quiet about the supernatural underworld if she helps him crack the case. Their pact doesn't sit well with Dashiell, the city's chief vampire, who fears his whole empire is at stake. And when the clues start to point to Scarlett herself, it'll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.

As a null, Scarlett Bernard possesses a rare ability to counteract the supernatural by instantly neutralizing spells and magical forces. For years she has used her gift to scrub crime scenes of any magical traces, helping the powerful paranormal communities of Los Angeles stay hidden. But after LAPD detective Jesse Cruz discovered Scarlett's secret, he made a bargain with her: solve a particularly grisly murder case, and he would stay silent about the city's unearthly underworld.

Now two dead witches are found a few days before Christmas, and Scarlett is once again strong-armed into assisting the investigation. She soon finds a connection between the murders and her own former mentor, Olivia, a null who mysteriously turned into a vampire and who harbors her own sinister agenda. Now Scarlett must revisit her painful past to find Olivia--unless the blood-drenched present claims her life first.

Actions have consequences--a lesson Scarlett Bernard is learning the hard way. As a "null," Scarlett has always been able to negate the powers of the supernatural beings that surround her. But now her reckless decision to permanently change Eli from a werewolf to a human has left the Los Angeles werewolf pack in shambles, and upset the balance of power among the city's supernatural factions. To make matters worse, Scarlett's employers discover that a newly changed werewolf is running amok in the city. To catch the rogue werewolf, Scarlett will need help from both Eli and Detective Jesse Cruz of the LAPD... a situation that will force her to finally choose between them.

However, Scarlett and her friends aren't the only ones on the hunt--someone else is chasing the wolf. Someone with no reservations about collateral damage. Now Scarlett and her allies must stop both the rogue wolf and the deadly hunter before the full moon rises and all hell breaks loose.

Filled with the same suspense and wit readers loved in Dead Spots and Trail of Dead, this may be Scarlett Bernard's most harrowing adventure yet...

THE MAGI HAD MASTERED THE NEW PHYSICS and harnessed the newly discovered power of the elemental harmonies--Alchemy. In doing so, they changed the facr of technology for all time. But it was pilots like Silence Leigh who conquered the starlanes. Silence herself dreamed of a ship--a ship of her own and a destiny removed from the Hegemony's oppression. But not untill she joined the crew of the Sun Treader did the dream take on reality...and a destiny never imagined became Silence's own as well.

In Five-Twelfths of Heaven, Silence Leigh discovered that she was not only unusual, as a female pilot, but that impossible thing, a female magus. Her unique abilities make her the only person capable of reaching Earth, humanity's original home, now sealed behind a mysterious barrier — but first she must learn to use her new-found talents. As the Hegemon's men close in on her and her husbands and teacher, she must make a dangerous bargain: undertake an impossible rescue mission in exchange for a vital map. If she succeeds, she may be able to save Earth. If she fails…

Silence Leigh now faces the ultimate test of her skills as a pilot and of her powers as a sage.

The free flow of traffic to the Gamma Quadrant is vital to the recovery and survival of the planet Bajor and to Federation interests as well. When a mysterious cloaked ship begins raiding wormhole shipping, cleaning out holds and killing entire crews, Commander Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine acts at once to stop the menace.

Commander Sisko has unexpected aid: the cloaked vessel has been striking Cardassian ships as well, and the Cardassian commander Gul Dukat intends to destroy the ship at all costs. Their unlikely alliance works well -- until two of Sisko's crewmen are captured by the raiders. Gul Dukat will stop at nothing to gain his victory; now Sisko must locate the predator ship, hold off the Cardassians long enough to rescue his people -- and prevent an interstellar war!

While on the routine mission to retrieve a research drone for recycling, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a Romulan space station adrift within Federation borders. Exploring the lifeless station, the crew finds ghostly apparitions flitting at the edges of sight.

Soon the U.S.S. Enterprise is also inexplicably without power. Captain Kirk and his crew must now solve the mystery of the strange apparitions before the Starship suffers the station's fate.

The situation becomes desperate when a Romulan warship arrives looking for the station, and the Romulan Commander accuses the Federation of treachery. Before Captain Kirk can save the Starship Enterprise from complete destruction, he must avoid becoming drawn into a deadly shell game -- a game that will leave no winners and no survivors...

Desperately in need of vital nutritional supplies, the crew of the USS Voyager must risk dealing with an enigmatic race known as the Kirse, legendary for the bountiful crops of their world - and for their secretive ways. Despite Neelix's warnings, Captain Janeway leads an Away Team to the Kirse homeworld. But when the hostile Andirrim attack the Kirse, Janeway finds herself caught in a deadly situation. Forced to fight alongside the Kirse, Janeway and her crew can only hope that their strange, new allies are not more dangerous than their common foe.

Solara Brooks needs a fresh start, someplace where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. Still, off-world travel doesn't come cheap, and Solara is left with no choice but to indenture herself in exchange for passage to the outer realm. She just wishes it could have been to anyone besides Doran Spaulding, the rich, pretty-boy quarterback who made her life miserable in school. The tables suddenly turn when Doran is framed for conspiracy on Earth, and Solara cons him into playing the role of her servant on board the Banshee. Given the price on both Doran and Solara's heads, it may just be the safest place in the universe.

It's been a long time since Solara has believed in anyone, and Doran is the last person she expected to trust. But when the Banshee's dangerous enemies catch up with them, Solara and Doran must come together to protect the ship that has become their home--and the eccentric crew that feels like family.

When Princess Cassia Rose fled her home world of Eturia to escape an arranged marriage, she had no idea her sudden departure would spark a war. Now after two years hiding as a ship hand, she is finally returning to her beloved home but not in the way she imagined. Shackled by bounty hunters, she is violently dragged back to account for her crimes. Her only solace is that the Banshee crew managed to evade capture, including Kane Arric, her best friend...with occasional benefits.

Meanwhile, Kane and the rest of the crew of the Banshee plan a desperate rescue mission. But when they arrive on Eturia, Cassia isn't exactly in need of heroics -- she's claimed her birthright as Eturia's queen, but has inherited a war-torn planet simmering with rebellion. Cassia must make alliances, and Kane, the bastard son of a merchant, isn't a choice that will earn her any friends. Kane knows he will never find someone to replace Cassia -- and is certain she returns his feelings -- but how can he throw away his own promising future waiting on a queen?

When the outer realm is threatened by the dangerous Zhang mafia, Cassia, Kane and the rest of the Banshee crew uncover a horrifying conspiracy that endangers the entire universe. In the face of unspeakable evil, Cassia must confront her own family's complicated legacy on Eturia and decide once and for all who her real family is.

The first of a six book series set after the end of Stargate Atlantis's final season.

Homecoming sees Atlantis return to the Pegasus Galaxy. But the situation in Pegasus has changed. The Wraith are on the verge of unification under the new and powerful Queen Death. She stages a daring raid with one goal: the capture of the only man able to give their ships hyperdrive and lead them to Earth ? Dr. Rodney McKay.

Enemies and friends Reeling from the shocking discovery of Rodney McKay's fate, Colonel Sheppard and his team retreat to Atlantis to regroup. With Rodney not only in the hands of the Wraith, but apparently working for them, Atlantis faces a new danger - their own man, turned against them. While Zelenka and Colonel Carter work frantically to crack the security protocols McKay embedded in Atlantis's computer system, Ronan revisits his past and finds much is changing on Sateda. Meanwhile, Queen Death prepares to make use of her most valuable prisoner; with Rodney still unaware of his true identity, the fate of Atlantis hangs in the balance...

Set after the TV series' exciting finale, STARGATE ATLANTIS: Allegiance is book three of the gripping new Legacy series.

Old secrets, new truths... It is the aftermath of battle. Scattered and struggling to regroup, Colonel Sheppard's team face their darkest days yet in the war against the Wraith Queen, Death. Continuing her perilous masquerade as Queen Steelflower, Teyla Emmagan's friendship with Guide grows stronger. With his help she must journey into the Wraith's distant past to uncover the shocking truth about their origin - and the key to Queen Death's defeat. Meanwhile, Rodney McKay has a different battle to fight as he struggles to regain his humanity in the face of the atrocity the Wraith have committed against him. With his life hanging in the balance, will Rodney be forced to do the unthinkable in order to survive...?

End game The battle lines are drawn.

Queen Death is mustering her fleet. But who will stand against her? As conflicts and betrayal threaten to shatter Atlantis's fragile alliances with Guide's Wraith and the Genii, humanity's only hope of survival rests on the fate of an Ancient device - a weapon too terrible to use but too powerful to cast aside. A weapon capable of exterminating every Wraith in the galaxy, and with them every human carrying Wraith DNA... With Queen Death's fleet fast approaching, Colonel Sheppard and his team must make their final choice.

In the sixth and concluding installment of the STARGATE ATLANTIS Legacy series, the future of Atlantis will be decided - and more than one of her crew will be called upon to sacrifice everything in the fight for her survival...

Elizabeth Weir and Ronon are prisoners of the Vanir whose damaged ship is plummeting into the mountains of Sateda. Meanwhile, Atlantis is in lockdown, infected by a virulent contagion, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. And time is running out...

Helped by Daniel Jackson, Colonel Shepherd's team fight not only to save their city and free their friends but ultimately to save an entire species from extinction. As tensions rise between the Wraith, Travelers and Lanteans, old enemies - and long lost friends - must unite to walk a third path if the fragile peace in the Pegasus galaxy is to hold.

In this riveting conclusion to the Legacy series, the destiny of Atlantis and her people will be decided.

PAST IMPERFECT Stranded in Ancient Egypt at the end of the STARGATE SG-1 episode Moebius, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c and Daniel Jackson are enjoying the simple lives they've forged in the years since Ra was driven from Earth. But life never stays simple for long... Back in the twenty-first century, trouble strikes the SGC. With one of their own people snatched by renegade Tok'ra, Colonel Cameron Mitchell leads the new SG-1 on a chase through time to rescue their friend - and to protect their future. But for Carter, Daniel and Teal'c, the greatest challenge is encountering themselves - and coming to terms with the consequences of their own choices.

Old friends, new enemies When Dr Daniel Jackson discovers the location of a lost Ancient laboratory, the temptation to investigate proves impossible to resist... In the lab, he uncovers a powerful device - a prototype technology designed by the Ancient inventor, Janus, to supersede the Stargate network. But when the Ouroborus device accidentally activates, it strands General O'Neill and his team on a dangerous new world where friends are not always friends and a terrible enemy is stirring. Now all SG-1 have to do is survive long enough to find their way home...

Another thrilling adventure from Melissa Scott, co-author of the hit Stargate Atlantis Legacy series.

A now classic study of the beginning portion of the Life, Work, and Influence of the Fantasy Master Stephen Donaldson.

Years before either becomes a literary legend, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde must overcome their disdain for one another to battle the Black Bishop, a mysterious madman wielding supernatural forces to bend the British Empire to his will. With the help of a European vampire expert, a spirited actress and an American businessman, our heroes fight werewolves, vampires and the chains of Victorian morality. The fight will take them through dark forests in Ireland, the upper-class London theater world and Stonehenge, where Bram and Oscar must stop a vampire cult from opening the gates of Hell.

Thinking they have put their monster-hunting days behind them, Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker return to their normal lives. But when their old ally Robert Roosevelt and his nephew Teddy find a new nest of vampires, they are once again pulled into the world of the supernatural, this time in the American West. A train robbery by a band of vampire gunslingers sets off a series of events that puts Bram on the run, Oscar leading a rescue party and our heroes being pursued by an unstoppable vampire bounty hunter who rides a dead, reanimated horse.

Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde have returned to their lives in London after their adventures in the American West. Bram is managing a theatre and Oscar is rising to fame and planning his upcoming wedding when they are once again called upon to battle supernatural evil.

Grief-crazed scientist Victor Mueller needs Bram's unusual blood for his mad quest to bring his dead wife back to life, and he'll resort to kidnapping to get it. Meanwhile, a young medium named Lorna Bow runs fake séances in London under the thumb of an abusive uncle. When her mother Endora returns, Lorna learns the truth: they come from a long line of witches, and soon Endora has awakened Lorna's dormant powers.

When the scientist and the witches combine forces, all Hell breaks loose. Long-dead souls find themselves back in the land of the living, and some of them have scores to settle with our heroes. But as Mueller's ambition and her mother's desire for vengeance against the men who imprisoned her become clear, Lorna soon finds herself questioning the morality of their work.

Bram and Oscar must team up with American secret agent Cora Chase to protect all they hold dear. Only a mission into the Land of the Dead can stop Mueller and Endora from bringing back more souls.

Bram's wife Florence must call on the monster-fighting skills she honed in America, and even Oscar's bride Constance has to face new challenges as she learns how the supernatural has shaped her own history.

In an adventure that spans continents -- and even other worlds -- they confront old enemies and unknown dangers. Teaming up with old friends Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Burton and new allies like Arthur Conan Doyle and Nicola Tesla, they too must harness both science and magic to protect our world from intruders from the Land of the Dead.

In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled -- taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon army.

Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire Empire.

Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations.

But fate has bound the heir and the mage. And as war looms on the horizon, a single spark could turn their city into a pyre.

Across the border, the Witch Lords of Vaskandar are preparing for war. But before an invasion can begin, they must call a rare gathering of all seventeen lords to decide a course of action.

Lady Amalia Cornaro knows that this Conclave might be her only chance to smother the growing flames of war, and she is ready to make any sacrifice if it means saving Raverra from destruction.

Amalia and Zaira must go behind enemy lines, using every ounce of wit and cunning they have, to sway Vaskandar from war. Or else it will all come down to swords and fire.

The final volume of the Gemmell Morningstar Award-shortlisted Swords and Fire fantasy trilogy, in which political scion Amalia and her bound fire warlock Zaira must save the Empire from a ruthless, magical enemy. Perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce, The Queen of the Tearling, and Uprooted.

While winter snows keep the Witch Lord Ruven's invading armies at bay, Lady Amalia Cornaro and the fire warlock Zaira attempt to change the fate of mages in the Raverran Empire forever, earning the enmity of those in power who will do anything to keep all magic under tight imperial control. But in the season of the Serene City's great masquerade, Ruven executes a devastating surprise strike at the heart of the Empire - and at everything Amalia holds most dear.

To stand a chance of defeating Ruven, Amalia and Zaira must face their worst nightmares, expose their deepest secrets, and unleash Zaira's most devastating fire.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Born Yesterday - novella by George Alec Effinger
• 55 - The Care and Feeding of Earthling George - short story by Lois June Wickstrom [as by Lois Wickstrom]
• 63 - A Child of Earth and Hell - novelette by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• 89 - Amana Mañana - novelette by Freff
• 111 - The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Void - novelette by Karl Hansen
• 137 - New Olympus - novelette by Ronald Anthony Cross
• 167 - Encroachment - short story by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
• 181 - The Ninth Path - novelette by Mike Conner [as by Michael Conner]
• 209 - Sandy Lust - poem by Gregory Benford
• 213 - Waterloo Sunset - short story by David Bischoff
• 231 - Tapestry - novelette by Stephen Leigh
• 263 - Biographical Notes (The Berkley Showcase, Vol. 5) - essay by uncredited

In the Deep Echoes, no one can save you.

Kembral Thorne has a few hours away from her newborn, and she's determined to enjoy herself at the year-turning ball. But when guests start dropping dead, she can't help sniffing out trouble - she's a Hound, after all. Especially when her professional and personal nemesis, notorious burglar Rika Nonesuch, is also on the prowl.

Everyone knows you shouldn't get involved with Echo games. Let alone one involving ancient Echo lords who can turn layers of reality into a gameboard with human lives for pieces. But as the ballroom grows stranger and more otherworldly with each strike of the hour, it's clearly too late.

Kem knows the rules: One Echo down is no big deal. Stay alert for trouble.

Four Echoes down, there are things with eyes in their teeth, and walls that drip blood. Four is the limit.

As the party plunges through increasingly deadly realities, the rules can't help Kem anymore. She'll have to rely on her wits - and Rika - to unravel the most dangerous game of the century before it unleashes catastrophe on their world.

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away?by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: "Stay away from the Hazel Wood."

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother's cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began?and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.

With Finch's help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother's dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland's survivors?and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and?if he can find it?a way back home...

A book such as this spins not only words but also whole worlds: eighteen of them, representing the best lesbian-themed stories of the fantastic or futuristic published the prior year: An artisan who tests the skills and wares of her friends in the hope of finding the ideal housing for an idealized love. A shape-shifting sidekick ensures that the heroine, who might not even be aware of her, saves the day. The device on a young girl's wrist that counts down the years until she will meet her soul mate poses the ultimate challenge of delayed gratification. A daydreamer wonders how she will face the coming Stone Moon and its gathering when her culture demands fertility yet her heart belongs to her best friend, who is not only female but of a higher caste. The women to be met in these pages will find themselves tested not because of their sexual identity but rather the identity they have composed, constructed, and spun.

Table of Contents:

• "The Gold Mask's Menagerie" by Chante McCoy
• "Counting Down the Seconds" by Lexy Wealleans
• "The Other Bridge" by Alex Jeffers
• "Love Over Glass, Skin Under Glass" by Penny Stirling
• "Hungry" by Robert E. Stutts
• "Liquid Loyalty" by Redfern Jon Barrett
• "Her Infinite Variety" by Sacchi Green
• "The Coffinmaker's Love" by Alberto Yanez
• "Terminal City" by Zoe Blade
• "The Bride in Furs" by Layla Lawlor
• "Your Figure Will Assume Beautiful Outlines" by Claire Humphrey
• "Blood, Stone, Water" by A.J. Fitzwater
• "Vector" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
• "Of Selkies, Disco Balls, and Anna Plane" by Cat Rambo
• "Selected Program Notes from the Retro-spective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer
• "Difference of Opinion" by Meda Kahn
• "Boat in Shadows, Crossing" by Tori Truslow
• "The Raven and Her Victory" by Tansy Rayner Roberts