Search Worlds Without End

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy (2008), edited by William Schafer. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The story is included in the collection The Best of Kage Baker (2012).

Sidewise Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction (2006) edited by Mike Ashley. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Last and First Contacts (2012).

On the Day of the Dead, the Solona Music Hall is jumping. That's where Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.

Altagracia -- her friends call her Grace -- has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder, she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it'll never wash out. Grace works at Sanchez Motorworks, customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling.

Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. A few blocks around the Alverson Arms is all her world -- from the little grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes ("cigarettes can kill you," they tell her, but she smokes them anyway) to the record shop, to the library where Henry, a black man confined to a wheelchair, researches the mystery of life in death -- but she's got unfinished business keeping her close to home.

Grace loves John, and John loves her, and that would be wonderful, except that John, like Grace, has unfinished business -- he's haunted by the childhood death of his younger brother. He's never stopped feeling responsible. Like Grace in her way, John is an artist, and before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it's necessary to let some things go.

Hans Thomas and his father set out on a car trip through Europe, from Norway to Greece--the birthplace of philosophy--in search of Hans Thomas's mother, who left them many years earlier. On the way, Hans Thomas receives a mysterious miniature book--the fantastic memoir of a sailor shipwrecked in 1842 on a strange island where a deck of cards come to life.

Structured as a deck of cards--each chapter is one in the deck--"The Solitaire Mystery" weaves together fantasy and reality, fairy tales and family history. Full of questions about the meaning of life, it will spur its listeners to reexamine their own.

Elizabeth Gaskell is better known today for her pioneering social novels such as Mary Barton (1848) but she also wrote some fascinating tales of the supernatural and the macabre, which are collected here in this volume. The real charm of this dark anthology is its variety. Unlike so many writers of this kind of material, Gaskell allows the story to fit the style rather than the other way around and as result there is a charming freshness to each tale.

This remarkable author uses different voices, tones and topics to engage her readers and as you turn from one story to the next you cannot be quite sure what to expect.

Tales incude:

• The Old Nurse's Story
• The Squire's Story
• The Poor Clare
• Lois the Witch
• The Doom of the Griffiths
• The Ghost in the Garden Room
• The Grey Woman
• Curious, if True
• Disappearances

The sea is full of mysteries and rivers shelter the unknown. Dating back to ancient Assyria, folkloric tales of mermaids, sirens, rusalka, nymphs, selkes, and other seafolk are found in many cultures, including those of Europe, Africa, the Near East and Asia. Dangerous or benevolent, seductive or sinister - modern masters of fantasy continue to create new legends of these creatures that enchant and entertain us more than ever. Gathered here are some of the finest of these stories. Immerse yourself in this wonderful - and sometimes wicked - watery world!

CONTENTS

• Elizabeth Bear Bear - Swell
• Samuel R. Delany - Driftglass
• Neil Gaiman - The Sea Change
• Delia Sherman - Miss Carstairs and the Merman
• Margo Lanagan - Sea-Hearts
• Christopher Barzak - The Drowned Mermaid
• Genevieve Valentine - Abyssus Abyssum Invocat
• Seanan McGuire - Each to Each
• Sarah Monette - Somewhere Beneath Those Waves Was Her Home
• Peter S. Beagle - Salt Wine
• Caitlín R. Kiernan - The Mermaid of the Concrete Ocean
• Amanda Downum - Flotsam
• Cat Rambo - The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
• Anna Taborska - Rusalka3
• Chris Howard - The Mermaid Game
• Gene Wolfe - The Nebraskan and the Nereid
• Angela Slatter - A Good Husband
• A. C. Wise - Letters to a Body on the Cusp of Drowning
• Jane Yolen - The Corridors of the Sea
• Lisa L. Hannett - Forever, Miss Tapekwa County
• Catherynne M. Valente - Urchins, While Swimming
• Tanith Lee - Magritte's Secret Agent

Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Ms. Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation.

When Ms. Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham is drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark.

But the further the companions go in pursuit of the elusive blackmailer, the more impossible the case appears. Then again, in Khelathra-Ven reality is flexible, and the impossible is Ms. Haas' stock-in-trade.

Contents:

• The Human Chair - (1956) - short story
• The Hell of Mirrors - (1926) - short story
• The Caterpillar - (1929) - short story
• Preface (Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination) - (1956) - essay by James B. Harris
• The Psychological Test - (1956) - novelette
• The Cliff - (1956) - short story
• The Twins - (1956) - short story
• The Red Chamber - (1956) - novelette
• Two Crippled Men - (1956) - short story
• The Traveler with the Pasted Rag Picture - (1956) - novelette

In 1888 Henry James wrote 'There was the customary novel by Mr Le Fanu for the bedside; the ideal reading in a country house for the hours after midnight'. Madam Crowl's Ghost & Other Stories are tales selected from Le Fanu's stories which mostly appeared in The Dublin University Magazine and other periodicals, and their haunting, sinister qualities still have an enormous appeal for the modern reader. The great M.R. James, who collected and introduces the stories in this book, considered that Le Fanu 'stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories.'

• Epilogue, Biographical and Critical (Madam Crowl's Ghost ) essay by M. R. James
• Madam Crowl's Ghost short story
• Squire Toby's Will novelette
• Dickon the Devil short story
• The Child That Went with the Fairies short story
• The White Cat of Drumgunniol short story
• An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street short story
• Introduction (Ghost Stories of Chapelizod) essay
• The Village Bully short story
• The Sexton's Adventure short story
• The Spectre Lovers short story
• Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling short story
• Sir Dominick's Bargain short story
• Ultor de Lacy novelette (variant of Ultor de Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen 1861)
• The Vision of Tom Chuff short story
• Stories of Lough Guir short story

Choices are like roads, taking us to destinations both planned and unexpected, but lofty thoughts like that are of no concern to young Kevin Ellison, who only cares about his dreams of basketball glory.

One day, however, while riding his bicycle to shoot baskets with his best friend, he comes across a side-road he doesn't recognize, curving away into the woods.

Intrigued, he rides down this unmarked road and encounters something both wonderful and quietly terrible, something that forever changes his understanding of the world...

Two young psychics do battle with an ancient evil

Billy Creekmore was born to be a psychic. His mother, a Choctaw Indian schooled in her tribe's ancient mysticism, understood that the barrier between life and death is permeable. She knew how to cross it, and used that knowledge to help the dead rest easier. She passed that power on to her son, and he has spent his whole life learning how to communicate with the dead to prevent them from meddling with the living.

Though his powers are the same, Wayne Falconer's background could not be more different. The son of a prominent preacher, he would be disowned if his father learned he was using supernatural powers in service of the church. Though they don't know each other, Billy and Wayne share a recurring dream--and a common enemy. When a nightmarish monster descends on their community in Alabama, mankind's fate will rest in their hands.

Mark McLaughlin's 2002 poetry collection, "Professor LaGungo's Exotic Artifacts & Assorted Mystic Collectibles," now out of print, was a nominee for the 2003 Bram Stoker Award in the Poetry category. This "Increased Inventory" version of that collection features even more items from the notorious shelves of the Professor's occult shop.

Contains:

• A Loint of Paw
• The Singing Bell
• The Key
• The Billiard Ball
• The Dying Night
• I'm in Marsport Without Hilda
• Marooned off Vesta
• The Talking Stone
• Pate de Foie Gras
• The Dust of Death
• Anniversary
• Obituary
• Star Light
• What's in a Name

This collection of Poe's best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterise his work. As well as the Gothic horror of such famous stories as 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Fall of the House of Usher', 'The Premature Burial' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart', all of Poe's Auguste Dupin stories are included. These are the first modern detective stories and include 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', 'The Mystery of Marie Roget' and 'The Purloined Letter'.

Table of Contents:

• Ms. Found in a Bottle
• Berenice
• Morella
• Some Passages in the Life of a Lion (Lionizing)
• The Assignation
• Bon-Bon
• King Pest
• Metzengerstein
• Silence
• A Descent into the Maelstrom
• Ligeia
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• William Wilson
• The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
• The Man of the Crowd
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue
• The Mystery of Marie Rogèt
• The Colloquy of Monos and Una
• The Masque of the Red Death
• The Pit and the Pendulum
• The Tell-Tale Heart
• The Gold Bug
• The Black Cat
• The Spectacles
• The Premature Burial
• The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
• The Oblong Box
• The Cask of Amontillado
• Landor's Cottage

Sturgeon Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #86 November 2013. The story can also be found in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight (2014), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Speculations (1982), edited by Isaac Asimov and Alice Laurance. It is included in the collection Extra(ordinary) People (1984).

When Archibald Hunter comes to Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire, for his annual holiday, he looks forward to a tranquil few days by the sea. But as he sits by the bridge he is disturbed by a strange vision of a couple he had seen earlier, the man now carrying a small black coffin. Shortly afterwards he discovers their child has drowned. The following day, speaking to a fisherman, he is again confronted by a portent of doom. As he sets out to sea, the other men speak his name - Lauchlane Macleod: the very same whose death Gormala had foretold. But how can this gaunt old woman know such things? Where are these terrible visions, whose force he seems unable to counter, taking him? What is the significance of the pages of cipher which once belonged to Don de Escoban? Can he solve the Mystery of the Sea?

From award-winning author Lisa Tuttle comes a riveting novel that combines the contemporary story of one man's search for a missing young woman with history's most enduring legends of the disappeared. Gripping and unforgettable, here is a spellbinding mix of the mysteries that inhabit our everyday lives-and a mind-bending exploration of what happens when someone vanishes without a trace.

Ever since his father disappeared when he was nine years old, Ian Kennedy has had a penchant for stories about missing people-and a knack for finding them. Now he's a private investigator with an impressive track record. But when a woman enters his London office and asks him to find her lost daughter, Ian faces a case he fears he cannot solve-and one he knows he must.

Laura Lensky's stunning twenty-one-year-old daughter, Peri, has been missing for over two years-a lifetime, under the circumstances. But when Ian learns the details of her disappearance, he discovers eerie parallels to an obscure Celtic myth-and to the haunting case that launched his career, an early success he's never fully been able to explain. Though Ian suspects Peri may have chosen to vanish, his curiosity leads him to take on the search. Soon he finds himself drawing not only from the mysteries that have preoccupied his adulthood, but from the fables and folklore that pervaded his youth. What follows is a journey that takes Ian and those who care for Peri into the Highlands of Scotland, as the unknowns of the past and present merge in the case-and in their lives.

Rich in pathos and steeped in secrets, The Mysteries opens a thought-provoking door from one world into the heart of another, where some of our most perplexing enigmas-and their answers-are startlingly alive.

A science fiction mystery from the author of THE HARVEST, in which a small American town vanishes, and its inhabitants wake up one morning in a world strangely different from their own - a world of curfews, rationing and secret police.

Can you name the first detective novel ever published? For years, many believed it to be Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, published in 1868. Others speculated it might be Émile Gaboriau’s first Monsieur Lecoq novel, L’Affaire Lerouge. Actually, the firstmodern detective novel predates both of these by several years—Charles Warren Adams’s The Notting Hill Mystery, originally published as an eight-part serial in Once A Week magazine in 1862 under the pseudonym Charles Felix, then as a single-volume novel in 1863 by Bradbury & Evans, is considered to truly be the first.

The Notting Hill Mystery begins in London, where the wife of the sinister Baron R. dies after drinking from a bottle of acid, apparently while sleepwalking in her husband’s home laboratory. It looks like an accident, until insurance investigator Ralph Henderson learns that Baron R. took out numerous life insurance policies on his wife. As Henderson investigates the case, he discovers not one, but three murders. Presented as Henderson’s evidential findings—diary entries, family letters, chemical analysis reports, interviews with witnesses, along with a crime scene map—the novel displays innovative techniques that would not become common features of detective fiction until the 1920s.

To the delight of all fans of detective fiction, the British Library makes this landmark text available once again. This handsome new edition also includes George du Maurier’s illustrations, the first edition to do so since the original publication in serial form.

The 13 essays in this volume explore Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular Twilight series in the contexts of literature, religion, fairy tales, film, and the gothic. Several examine Meyer's emphasis on abstinence, considering how, why, and if the author's Mormon faith has influenced the series' worldview. Others look at fan involvement in the Twilight world, focusing on how the series' avid following has led to an economic transformation in Forks, Washington, the real town where the fictional series is set.

Other topics include Meyer's use of Quileute shape-shifting legends, Twilight's literary heritage and its frequent references to classic works of literature, and the series' controversial depictions of femininity.

When a planet, moving faster than Earth, entered the Solar System out beyond Pluto, the reporters, for want of a better name, termed it "Planet X." "Planet X, that astronomical curiosity," became, in a few short weeks, an object of stark terror to the billions of men scattered on the planets around our Sun, from blazing Mercury to frigid Pluto.

To Bob Griffith's father, Commander of the Ninth Wing of the Solar Federation's Space Navy, fell the task of investigating the strange visitor whose black ships moved through space without rocket exhaust, and whose weapons literally melted spaceships out of the heavens.

As his father's aid, aboard the gleaming LANCE OF DEIMOS that led the reconnaissance fleet, Bob watched in horror the first incident that would start a war which the Solar Federation "could not win."

This gripping tale that rockets from Neptune's tiny moon of Outpost, base of the Federation's Navy, to the orbit of an Earth threatened with destruction, features a young space cadet and his father, who, while preparing for war, desperately search for peace. How Bob Griffith finds himself a captive on the mysterious planet, Thule; details of life on a world that has learned how to overcome the forces of gravity and momentum; the discussions that rage over the acceptance of a "wandering planet" into the Solar alliance come alive in a book that vividly creates a troubled era in a fascinating universe of the future!

One of the most fascinating areas in the solar system - the Asteroid Belt - gives this tale of mystery, intrigue and excitement a unique background. In this "orbit of danger," where rugged space frontiersmen risked their necks in a sea of swirling rock, teen-age Peter Clay and his father were faced with the possibility of having their small claim to Asteroid mining rights wiped out.

In the shaky system of justice that had grown up between Mars and Jupiter to protect the individual miner, the Ama (Asteroid Miners' Association) played an important part. It policed the Belt, spotted claim jumpers and was expectied to aid any individual unlucky enough to get lost or disabled. When events led the Clays to suspect the Ama of invalidating claims for criminal purposes, they could only look to themselves and the sketchy Martian-sponsored government for help.

From the moment the Clays heard a miner signaling for help from a tiny asteroid until they, with a group of honest men, band together to protect their claim from the Ama's marauding ships, action and suspense color every page of this unusual story. How Peter Clay unraveled a maze of false clues; his narrow brush with desperate men who had a mining empire within their grasp; the details of life on the Asteroid frontier create, in MYSTERY OF THE THIRD MINE, a vivid world of drama and danger unique in the annals of science fiction.

This was the most popular novel of Radcliffe's time and Radcliffe's portrayal of her heroine's inner life raised the Gothic romance to a new level. The atmosphere of fear and the gripping plot continue to thrill today. This is the story of the orphaned Emily St Aubert who finds herself separated from the man she loves and confined within the Castle of Udolpho by her aunt's new husband, Montoni. Here she must cope with an unwanted suitor, Montoni's threats, and the wild imaginings and terrors which threaten to overwhelm her.

The greatest conqueror history's never seen!

At last, the time has come for the gods to bestow young Alsrod Nayvil with his official profession. As a minor feudal lord, Alsrod hopes he'll get a job impressive enough to let him step out of his older brother's shadow. However, he ends up with an unheard-of job called... "Oda Nobunaga"?!

It's not long before Alsrod learns the Oda Nobunaga entity involved is a famous conqueror from another world who will forever change his destiny! Now the young ruler has his sights set on greater endeavors?-namely, taking over the entire kingdom!

KEEP YOUR ALLIES CLOSE AND YOUR TRAITORS CLOSER!

Budding conqueror Alsrod has proved himself to be one of the most powerful forces in the kingdom upon subjugating the massive Nagurry Prefecture with the help of his powerful job and mentor, Oda Nobunaga. Now he intends to invade the royal capital and install the son of the former king as the sovereign... But can Alsrod trust his newest vassal-who possesses the equally mysterious job of Akechi Mitsuhide-not to pull the rug out from under him and foil his lofty plans?!

A JOB WELL DONE

l that stands between him and the throne is the current king, Hasse, leaving the young conqueror no choice but to defy the crown if he wants full control of the kingdom. With his vassals and their powerful jobs of Akechi Mitsuhide and Takeda Shingen at his disposal, Alsrod's military prowess is a significant threat to Hasse's half-hearted reign... Who will live, who will die, and who will claim the ultimate victory in this final chapter of A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga?!

Thirty-year-old Black woman Sidney Taylor is a talented early American historian, working in fast-paced Washington DC, with her eyes on promotion. She's also currently persona non grata. Who knew that making an inconvenient historical discovery would see her stuck at her desk, shuffling paper?

So when she receives an anonymous and very cryptic invitation to visit historic small-town Robbinsville, North Carolina and hunt for a missing archaeological treasure -- with a million-dollar pay out at stake -- it's one she can't refuse. Besides, her beloved grandmother lives in Robbinsville, and it's been too long since she's paid her a visit.

Soon, Sidney's on an exciting treasure hunt, following two-hundred-year-old clues that lead her ever closer to the artefact she's searching for. But what is the artefact? And why is Sidney starting to feel like she's at the heart of a terrifying conspiracy she doesn't understand?

The answer blows Sidney's world apart, plunging her into a dark, glittering world of secret societies, ancient bloodlines, witches and magic, linked to an ages-old conspiracy that could destroy the very principles upon which America was founded.

WFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Warriors (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin. The story can also be found in the anthology Epic: Legends of Fantasy (2012), edited by John Joseph Adams. It is included in the collection A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2015).

Margerit Sovitre did not expect to inherit Baron Saveze's fortunes--even less his bodyguard, a ruthlessly efficient swordswoman known only as Barbara. Wealth suddenly makes Margerit a highly eligible heiress and buys her the enmity of the new Baron. He had expected to inherit all, and now eyes her fortune with open envy.

Barbara proudly served as the old Baron's duelist but she had expected his death to make her a free woman. Bitterness turns to determination when she finds herself the only force that stands between Margerit and the new Baron's greed.

At first Margerit protests the need for Barbara's services, but soon she cannot imagine sending Barbara away. And Barbara's duty has become something far more hazardous to her heart than the point of a sword. But greater dangers loom than one man's hatred--the Prince of Alpennia is ill. Deadly intrigue surrounds the succession and the rituals of divine power known as The Mysteries of the Saints.

Heather Rose Jones debuts with a sweeping story rich in intrigue and the clash of loyalties and love.

Antuniet Chazillen lost everything the night her brother was executed. In exile, she swore that treason would not be the final chapter of the Chazillen legacy in Alpennia's history. A long- hidden book of alchemical secrets provides the first hope of success, but her return to the capital is haunted by an enemy who wants those secrets for himself.

Jeanne, Vicomtesse de Cherdillac is bored. The Rotenek season is flat, her latest lover has grown tediously jealous and her usual crowd of friends fails to amuse. When Antuniet turns up on her doorstep seeking patronage for her alchemy experiments, what begins as amusement turns to interest, then something deeper. But Antuniet's work draws danger that threatens even the crown of Alpennia.

The alchemy of precious gems throws two women into a crucible of adversity, but it is the alchemy of the human heart that transforms them both in this breathtaking follow-up to the widely acclaimed Daughter of Mystery.

Tom Pasmore, ten years old, survives a near fatal accident. During his long recovery, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder and finds he has clues to solving it that he shouldn't. Lamont von Heilitz has spent his life solving mysteries, until he wanted to know nothing more of the terror of life and the horror of death. When a new murder disrupts their world of wealth, power, and pleasure, the two must form an unlikely partnership to confront demons from the past and the dark secrets that still haunt the present.

Contents:

• Mysteries of the Worm - interior artwork by Steven Gilberts
• 2 - The Secret in the Tomb - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 3 - The Secret in the Tomb - (1935) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 9 - The Suicide in the Study - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 10 - The Suicide in the Study - (1935) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 15 - The Shambler from the Stars - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 16 - The Shambler from the Stars - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1935) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 24 - The Faceless God - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 25 - The Faceless God - (1936) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 39 - The Grinning Ghoul - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 40 - The Grinning Ghoul - (1936) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 49 - The Opener of the Way - essay by Robert M. Price
• 50 - The Opener of the Way - (1936) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 62 - The Dark Demon - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 63 - The Dark Demon - (1936) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 72 - The Brood of Bubastis - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 73 - The Brood of Bubastis - (1937) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 85 - The Mannikin - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 86 - The Mannikin - (1937) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 100 - The Creeper in the Crypt - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 101 - The Creeper in the Crypt - (1937) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 110 - The Secret of Sebek - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 111 - The Secret of Sebek - (1937) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 125 - Fane of the Black Pharaoh - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 126 - Fane of the Black Pharaoh - (1937) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 141 - The Eyes of the Mummy - essay by Robert M. Price
• 142 - The Eyes of the Mummy - (1938) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 154 - The Sorcerer's Jewel - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 155 - The Sorcerer's Jewel - (1939) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 169 - Black Bargain - essay by Robert M. Price
• 170 - Black Bargain - (1942) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 185 - The Unspeakable Betrothal - essay by Robert M. Price
• 186 - The Unspeakable Betrothal - (1949) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 198 - The Shadow from the Steeple - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 199 - The Shadow from the Steeple - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1950) - novelette by Robert Bloch
• 217 - Notebook Found in a Deserted House - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 218 - Notebook Found in a Deserted House - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1951) - novelette by Robert Bloch
• 236 - Terror in Cut-Throat Cove - (1993) - essay by Robert M. Price
• 237 - Terror in Cut-Throat Cove - (1958) - novelette by Robert Bloch
• 269 - Philtre Tip - essay by Robert M. Price
• 270 - Philtre Tip - (1961) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 276 - Afterword (Mysteries of the Worm) - (1981) - essay by Robert Bloch
• 280 - Demon-Dreaded Lore: Robert Bloch's Contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos - (1993) - essay by Lin Carter (variant of Demon-Dreaded Lore 1981)

At a time when Verne is making a comeback in the US as a mainstream literary figure, Wesleyan is pleased to publish a new translation of one of his best-known novels, The Mysterious Island. Although several editions under the same title are in print, most reproduce a bowdlerized nineteenth-century translation which changes the names of the characters, omits several important scenes, and ideologically censors Verne's original text.

The Mysterious Island was published in 1874, and it is one of Verne's longest novels.

The books is based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile.

The book tells the adventures of five Americans on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. The story begins in the American Civil War, during the siege of Richmond, Virginia. As famine and death ravage the city, five northern prisoners of war decide to escape by the unusual means of hijacking a balloon.

After flying in stormy weather for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown island. They name it Lincoln Island. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on this fantastic island of bewildering goings-on, as they strive to uncover the island's many secrets.

A marvelous adventure story, The Mysterious Island is also notable for its modern retelling of the utopian deserted-island myth, with repeated echoes of Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices and an introduction by Verne scholar William Butcher, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition.

A drilling project in Dudley in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom hits a cavern 20 miles beneath the surface of the Earth and detects strange microbes. U.N.E.X.A. send Russian Serge Smylov down to search for other forms of life in a rocket-propelled capsule but it is damaged when it hits the bottom of the cavern. Then strange creatures start attacking him...

Published in the U. S. as The Mohole Menace.

Nebula Award winning and Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2003. It can also be found in the anthologies Best Short Novels: 2004, edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Nebula Awards Showcase 2006, edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories (2006) and The Best of Walter Jon Williams (2021).

It was an ageless thing that had existed since the beginning of time -- a monstrous green face that spoke sudden death. With its legions of ghostly, nebulous soul slaves, it had begun to terrorize the world. Even Doc Savage and his fantastic five were helpless against its awesome power, until....

Lester Dent authored this book under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

There was only one clue to the bloody enigma of TAZ -- the illegible, dying scrawl of a horribly mutilated sailor. What was the message he had so desperately tried to deliver? Why had sizzling acid been forced into his mouth? What secret had the dead man unraveled about the flamboyant and brutal Captain Flamingo? Held captive aboard a tramp steamer, The Man of Bronze and his bold allies wrestle with the dread riddle of Taz.

Lester Dent authored this book under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

It might be a hoax, and it might not be. Blood has been spilled! People are dead! The Man of Bronze ably confronts a dangerous crackpot scheme that has a baffled world wondering what will happen next.

Lester Dent authored this novel under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

In one of his most important adventures, the Man of Bronze journeys north to Canada, and in her magnificent wilderness solves a billion-dollar riddle: Who or What has committed murder -- and worse! -- to possess the secret of the miracle called Benlanium?

Lester Dent authored this novel under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

Happy Bones -- sinister island in the Caribbean that harbors a secret wealth vital to the success of World War II. The Man of Bronze exposes the Germans and undergoes one of the most shattering confrontations of the war. And Doc encounters the beautiful and savage Hannah, the last descendant of a lusty line of pirate marauders.

Lester Dent authored this novel under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

More information available at the Hidalgo Trading Company website.

One-Eyed Mystic

A criminal master of mind-control conspires to sell the ultimate weapon of terror and destruction to the Nazis. Only Doc and his daring crew can stop him. They trail their malevolent quarry to the frozen Arctic sea -- and fall into an icy evil trap of machine guns, U-boats and sheer insanity!

This is # 111 in the Doc Savage Novels series.

More information about One-Eyed Mystic available at the Hidalgo Trading Company website.

The Man Who Fell Up

Out of the darkness, yellow and bodiless eyes peer into the faces of Doc Savage and his crew. And when Monk vanishes inside a locked room, Doc leaps to the rescue -- plunging straight into a vicious international maelstrom that could change the course of history!

This is # 112 in the Doc Savage Novels series.

More information about The Man Who Fell Up available at the Hidalgo Trading Company website.

Lester Dent authored both novels under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

Some secrets are meant to stay buried

When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She's really into Edinburgh's secret societies - but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she's had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed.

Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns - and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.

Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland's past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa is running out of time.

No one escapes their past as the crew of the You Sexy Thing attempts to navigate the hazards of opening a pop-up restaurant and the dangers of a wrathful pirate-king seeking vengeance...

Life's hard when you're on the run from a vengeful pirate-king...

When Niko and her crew find that the intergalactic Gate they're planning on escaping through is out of commission, they make the most of things, creating a pop-up restaurant to serve the dozens of other stranded ships.

But when an archaeologist shows up claiming to be able to fix the problem, Niko smells something suspicious cooking. Nonetheless, they allow Farren to take them to an ancient site where they may be able to find the weapon that could stop Tubal Last before he can take his revenge.

There, in one of the most dangerous places in the Known Universe, each of them will face ghosts from their past: Thorn attempts something desperate and highly illegal to regain his lost twin, Atlanta will have to cast aside her old role and find her new one, Dabry must confront memories of his lost daughter, and Niko is forced to find Petalia again, despite a promise not to seek them out.

Meanwhile, You Sexy Thing continues to figure out what it wants from life--which may not be the same desire as Niko and the rest of the crew.

Ranging from the unforeseen consequences of an angelic invasion (Robert Sampson's "A Plethora of Angels") to a poignant last visit by a modern-day Frankenstein's monster to its former home (Alan Rodgers's "Frankenstein Goes Home"), the 27 original stories in this collection provide a varied sampling of some of the best writers in speculative fiction. Contributions by established authors including Vonda N. McIntyre, Patricia A. McKillip, David Brin, and Greg Bear as well as new authors David Cleary, Joseph Gangemi, Marcos Donnelly, Deborah Million, and Mike Kallenberger testify to the continued strength of the genre. -- Library Journal

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Full Spectrum 2) - essay by Lou Aronica
• 'Saurus Wrecks - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Whistle - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
• Attitude of the Earth Toward Other Bodies - shortstory by James Sallis
• Malheur Maar - shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
• The Boy in the Tree - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• All Our Sins Forgotten - shortstory by David Ira Cleary
• The Painted Man - shortstory by Joseph Gangemi
• A Plague of Strangers - shortstory by Karen Haber
• The Giving Plague - (1988) - shortstory by David Brin
• Re: Generations - novella by Mike McQuay
• Silver - novelette by Steven Spruill
• As A Still Small Voice - shortstory by Marcos Donnelly
• Then I Sleeps and Dreams of Rose - shortstory by Deborah Million
• A Plethora of Angels - shortstory by Robert Sampson
• Strange Attractors - shortstory by Lori Ann White
• Barbara Hutton Toujours - shortstory by Gay Partington Terry
• The Gamemaker - novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• An Excerpt from The Confession of the Alchemist Edward Dee, Who Was Burnt in the City of Findias on the Planet Paracelsus, 1437 PIC (Post Imperial Colonial Period) - shortstory by Michaela Roessner
• The Doorkeeper of Khaat - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Dogs Die - shortstory by Michael Kallenberger
• Rain, Steam and Speed - shortstory by Steven Popkes
• Close to Light - shortstory by Charles Oberndorf
• Shiva - shortstory by James Killus
• Sleepside Story - (1988) - novella by Greg Bear
• Frankenstein Goes Home - shortstory by Alan Rodgers
• The Edge of the World - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• The Part of Us That Loves - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson

Ursula K. Le Guin and Poul Anderson are the best known of the 22 talented contributors to this diverse and richly imaginative collection, the third in a series of speculative fiction anthologies.

In "Desert Rain," Mark L. Van Name and Pat Murphy give a high-tech variation on the familiar relationship triangle: a man named Jeff, a woman named Teresa and a prototype of a computerized home management system named Ian, a caring kind of guy who could "steal your heart."

In Wolfgang Jeschke's "Loitering at Death's Door" (translated from the German), coming back from the dead isn't all it's cracked up to be, when Kristos Katsuranis returns as a "really lousy copy" of his former self.

An Afrikaner realizes what it means to be black in South Africa when he becomes invisible to other whites in Michael Bishop's "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana."

In Ted Chiang's "Division by Zero," a brilliant mathematician's world begins to crumble when she discovers she can prove, irrefutably, that one equals two.

The people of Earth learn a lesson in humanity when they detect a sign of life on another planet: an SOS from "alien, but cute" beings, in Norman Spinrad's "The Helping Hand." -- Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Full Spectrum 3) - essay by Lou Aronica
• Daughter Earth - shortstory by James Morrow
• Dogstar Man - shortstory by Nancy Willard
• Prism Tree - shortstory by Tony Daniel
• Desert Rain - novella by Mark L. Van Name and Pat Murphy
• Precious Moments - shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Lethe - novelette by Peg Kerr
• Lake Agassiz - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
• Transfusion - shortstory by Joëlle Wintrebert (trans. of Transfusion 1988)
• The Dark at the Corner of the Eye - shortstory by Patricia Anthony
• Tracking the Random Variable - shortstory by Marcos Donnelly
• Division by Zero - shortstory by Ted Chiang
• Matter's End - (1989) - novella by Gregory Benford
• Newton's Sleep - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Helping Hand - shortstory by Norman Spinrad
• Fondest of Memories - shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson
• Loitering at Death's Door - novelette by Wolfgang Jeschke (trans. of Nekromanteion 1985)
• Rokuro - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• Police Actions - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
• Black Glass - novelette by Karen Joy Fowler
• Chango Chingamadre, Dutchman, & Me - shortstory by R. V. Branham
• Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana - (1989) - novella by Michael Bishop
• Snow on Sugar Mountain - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• When the Rose Is Dead - novelette by David Zindell

The editors of Full Spectrum have gathered here original speculative fiction that is astonishing both in range and quality. From medieval sorcery to dystopian futures, from computer-generated virtual realities to space research outposts, from idol worship to scientific philosophy, the volume shows off the best of well-known (Stephen Donaldson, Ursula Le Guin) and not so well-known SF and fantasy authors.

Dave Smeds conjures a future where regeneration and eternal youth are made possible through biotechnology; his story tells what happens to a dysfunctional mother and daughter in a world where suicide is a hobby and murder a misdemeanor. A. R. Morlan's men and women have changed social roles due to a disease that has reduced male births to less than 15%. David Brin and L. Timmel Duchamp also weigh in with reproduction stories, Brin through a highly technical story of a future in which cloning has made men unnecessary, Duchamp through a tale of an infectious hermaphrodite from another world. The focus on women throughout and the general excellence of the stories should give this volume broad appeal. -- Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

• Fragments from the Women's Writing - essay by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Fragments from the Women's Writing - poem by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Motherhood, Etc. - (1993) - novelette by L. Timmel Duchamp
• The Saints - (1993) - shortstory by Bonita Kale
• The Best Lives of Our Years - (1993) - shortstory by A. R. Morlan
• Embodied In Its Opposite - (1993) - shortstory by John M. Landsberg
• Foreigners - (1993) - shortstory by Mark Rich
• The Googleplex Comes and Goes - (1993) - shortstory by Del Stone, Jr.
• The Beauty Addict - (1993) - novella by Ray Aldridge
• In Medicis Gardens - shortstory by Jean-Claude Dunyach (trans. of Dans les jardins Médicis 1986)
• The Woman Who Loved Pigs - (1993) - novella by Stephen R. Donaldson
• The Story So Far - (1993) - shortstory by Martha Soukup
• Suicidal Tendencies - [Nanodocs] - (1993) - novelette by Dave Smeds
• The Mind's Place - (1993) - novelette by Gregory Feeley
• Ah! Bright Wings - (1993) - novelette by Howard V. Hendrix
• Vox Domini - (1993) - novelette by Bruce Holland Rogers
• The Erl-King - (1993) - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• The Death of John Patrick Yoder - (1993) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Human, Martian - One, Two, Three - (1993) - novelette by Kevin J. Anderson
• What Continues, What Fails ... - (1991) - novelette by David Brin
• Roar at the Heart of the World - (1993) - shortstory by Danith McPherson

Six people locked in a haunted hall... Cameras watching their every move... And then someone dies...

Welcome to Spooky Time, the hit TV ghost-hunting show where the horror is scripted... and the ratings are declining rapidly. What better way to up the stakes - and boost the viewership - than by locking a select group of Z-list celebrities up for the night in The Most Haunted Hall in England (TM) and live-streaming the 'terrifying' results?

Soon Alistair, a newly appointed Bishop, actress Diana, medium Leslie, comedian Toby and celebrity chef Indira are trapped inside Stonehaven town hall, along with June, the host and producer of the show. The group tries to settle in and put on a good show, but then strange things start happening in their hall of horrors.

What is it about this place - and why is the TV crew outside not responding? Are they even on air? Logical Alistair and intuitive Diana attempt to keep the group's fears at bay and rationalize the odd events, but there are things that just can't be explained within reason... Can the pair stop a cold-blooded would-be killer - even if it's come from beyond the grave?

In a universe protected by the Three Laws of Robotics, human are safe.

The First Law states: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

When an experiment with a new type of robot brain goes awry, the unthinkable happens.
Caliban is created...

A robot without guilt or conscience, a robot with no knowledge of or compassion for humanity... a robot without the Three Laws.

Isaac Asimov's famous Three Laws provide far-future humanity with omni-compliant robots, but ultimately lead to the hell of existence with all challenges removed. Thus Asimov proposed the New Laws to Roger MacBride Allen, laws which endow helping hands, not slaves.

But the upheaval this creates, on planets where humans are split into two antagonistic cultures and the idea of working alongside free-thinking mechanicals produces terrible anxiety, is enormous... On the decaying world of Inferno, the no-law robot Caliban finds himself intermediary in the complex relations between robots and humans. But when a key politician is murdered, fear of Caliban as the robot without guilt or conscience, the one who could start the rebellion to overthrow all humanity escalates - and crisis begins.

On Inferno the tensions between Spacer and Settler are as strong as ever, but now the majority of robots are working on terraforming rather than as personal servants. Governor Alvar Kresh is content to have his wife give support to the renegade robot leaders she has created, but is not so keen to advertise the fact. Caliban and Prospero, New Law robots, and their fellows have settled in Valhalla, a city in the northern Utopia region. What they are unaware of is that in order to bring the climatic changes essential for further terraforming, the Governora and his political colleagues are planning to bring down the Comet Grieg on Utopia causing massive devastation and creating an artificial sea.

The Mystery of Khufu's Tomb features Mundy's hero Jeff Ramsden, as he sets out to aid the beautiful Joan Angela Leich, whose interests in Egypt have brought her unwelcome attention.

Judge Dee must himself stand trial before his fellow vampires for the loss of a valuable manuscript, even as those vampires are murdered, one by one, by an unknown hand.

Originally published on 9 November 2022, read it for free at Tor.com

Phadre Golmin and Jiarna Kay are perfectly matched. Both astounding intellects, sharing a passion for academic pursuits and each other. Traveling from the University of Maradaine to Trenn College in Yin Mara, they are excited for the opportunity to study magical and mystical theory with the famed Professor Salarmin. So when they come across a dead body that defies all logic, they should leave it alone.

But Phadre and Jiarna tasted adventure in Maradaine, so the discovery of similar victims, paired with their scientific curiosity, makes the situation far too intriguing to ignore. Knowing that they alone have the knowledge to unravel the mystery, Phadre and Jiarna are determined to resolve it, no matter the cost to their academic careers.

Marie Jenner has never had much luck. Her job sucks. Her apartment -- the one with the unbreakable lease -- has a ghost. And worst of all, her mother won't let up about her joining the "family business." Since that business is moving the spirits of the dead on to the next plane of existence and doesn't pay at all, Marie's not interested. She wants a normal job -- a normal life. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Apparently, it is. Even when she applies for the job of her dreams, Marie doesn't get what she wants. Well, not entirely. She does get the job -- but she also gets another ghost. Farley Hewitt, the newly dead caretaker of the building, wants her to prove his death is not an accident, and she's pretty sure he's going to haunt her until she does.

All she wants is normal. She isn't going to get it.

Marie Jenner is at it again!

In this fast-paced paranormal mystery, the second in the Marie Jenner Mystery series, amateur sleuth Marie Jenner tries--one more time with feeling--to pull her life together. She takes on the case of Honoria Lowe, a woman of interest in Eddie Hansen's gruesome murder by crucifixion.

Since Marie knows where Eddie Hansen's spirit is, she figures it will be a slam dunk. All she has to do is ask him who nailed him to the tree, and she'll have one in the win column for her more or less boss, James Lavall.

But, James thinks Honoria's either crazy or lying, and doesn't want to take her case. Worse than that, Marie can't find Eddie. He should be right by the crucifixion tree, but he isn't. Of course.

There's never a ghost around when you want one.

Marie Jenner is going home.

When Marie's slightly-more-than-boss, James Lavall, decides it is vital that he speak to her mother, face to face, about Marie and all her secrets, she follows him to Fort McMurray to make certain that he doesn't learn everything about her life before Edmonton.

What Marie doesn't realize is that her stalkery ex-boyfriend, Arnie Stillwell, has gone home, too. And he's managed to get himself killed, just about the time James rolled into town, making James "a person of interest" in the Stillwell murder investigation.

Marie's going to have to figure out who really killed Arnie to get James off. She's also going to have to figure out a safe way to move Arnie's spirit on to the next plane of existence, because the last thing she needs is for him to go all stalkery on her now that he's dead.

Murder can really put a kink in a Jenner family reunion.

Marie Jenner needs some sunshine.

Marie's past year has been tough. She lost her apartment and her mother, and she's been beaten up more times than she cares to count. She decides--on the advice of her shrink--that exercise will help. So, she joins a softball team.

But there's a problem, of course. A dead girl is hanging around second base at Marie's first game, and she won't leave. She won't even tell Marie her name. So Marie decides to do a little sleuthing, and what she finds out puts her in more danger than she's ever been in her life.

All Marie wants is fresh air and exercise. Is that too much to ask?

Marie Jenner just wants out.

Marie's life has taken a bad turn. Marie's shrink, Dr. Parkerson--who most definitely does not believe in ghosts--has committed her to a mental institution, deeming her a danger to herself and others.

As Marie desperately tries to talk her way out of the institution, ghosts start showing up in her room. Most just want to chat, but some of them believe that one of the hospital staff is killing patients. They want Marie to investigate, and they don't care that she's on lockdown or that she's being given meds that are slowly taking away her ability to interact with them. They just want the deaths to stop.

When Dr. Parkerson's name tops the suspect list, Marie realizes that she doesn't just need to convince her shrink that she's sane. She also has to figure out if Dr. Parkerson's the killer... before Marie becomes the next victim.

Marie wants the nightmares to stop. Doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.

Marie Jenner just wants things to stay the same

Life is finally starting to look up for Marie. Her brand-new business--moving on ghosts for actual money--is taking off. Her relationship with James Lavall is rock solid. All she has to do is find the last two poltergeists from the ball diamond and move them on to the next plane of existence and, as far as she's concerned, everything will be perfect.

The problem is, life has a way of kicking Marie in the teeth. Patrick Whitecroft, professional psychic debunker, shows up at the Jimmy Lavall Detective agency. He's out to prove that she's a fake--live, on TV--and he doesn't care who he hurts to do it. Even worse, he has over a hundred desperate spirits bound to him, and they want something completely different. They want to be saved.

As Marie tries to help the spirits and keep Patrick from dismantling her life, she finally finds the poltergeists. But they're not interested in moving on. They want Patrick Whitecroft's spirits for themselves. If Marie can't figure out a way to move all the spirits on to the next plane of existence, the poltergeists will happily take them, so they can create an army bent on revenge.

Looks like Marie's life is going to get interesting. Again.

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder plunges readers into the heart of London, to the secret tunnels that exist far beneath the city streets. There, a mysterious group of detectives recruited for Miss Brickett's Investigations & Inquiries use their cunning and gadgets to solve crimes that have stumped Scotland Yard.

Late one night in April 1958, a filing assistant for Miss Brickett's receives a letter warning her that a heinous act is about to occur. She goes to investigate, but at the stroke of midnight, she is murdered by a killer she can't see--her death the only sign she wasn't alone.

Marion Lane, a first-year Inquirer-in-training, finds herself being drawn ever deeper into the investigation. When her colleague is framed for the crime, she must sort through the hidden alliances at Miss Brickett's and secrets dating back to WWII to uncover the real killer. Brimming with imagination and suspense, Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder is a fresh take on the Agatha Christie-style locked-room mystery with an exciting new heroine detective at the helm.

The envelope was tied with three delicate silk ribbons: "One of the new recruits is not to be trusted..."

It's 1959 and a new killer haunts the streets of London, having baffled Scotland Yard. The newspapers call him The Florist because of the rose he brands on his victims. The police have turned yet again to the Inquirers at Miss Brickett's for assistance, and second-year Marion Lane is assigned the case.

But she's already dealing with a mystery of her own, having received an unsigned letter warning her that one of the three new recruits should not be trusted. She dismisses the letter at first, focusing on The Florist case, but her informer seems to be one step ahead, predicting what will happen before it does. But when a fellow second-year Inquirer is murdered, Marion takes matters into her own hands and must come face-to-face with her informer--who predicted the murder--to find out everything they know. Until then, no one at Miss Brickett's is safe and everyone is a suspect.

With brilliant twists and endless suspense, all set within the dazzling walls and hidden passageways of Miss Brickett's, Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose is a deliciously fun new historical mystery you won't be able to put down.

The raven had struck. And the thing was, she knew exactly who was next...

London, 1960. Marion Lane, a twenty-five-year-old apprentice detective at the elusive Miss Brickett's Investigations & Inquiries, is busier than ever and determined to prove herself worthy of an official Inquirer badge. But when her close friend's girlfriend, Darcy, is targeted by a dangerous gang leader and seeks out the Inquirers' assistance, Marion cannot help but get involved.

Just when Marion thinks she has the situation under control, Darcy disappears and the agency receives a package containing a dead raven. Everyone is puzzled by what the threat could mean, except for Marion. She recognizes it as the same calling card left on her mother's doorstep just before she died.

With harrowing twists and turns, Marion Lane and the Raven's Revenge follows Marion's most personal case to date. To uncover who is behind these ominous packages and find Darcy, she must piece together how they are related to her mother's mysterious death and secretive past.

The ages of Myst are worlds of adventure and awe; of mystery and beauty; of intrigue and betrayal. The world's best-selling CD-ROM game is just a piece of the picture. Now, take a step into the fictional legend of Myst.

These pages are your link to the story of Atrus, son of Gehn, and the last of the race of D'Ni -- the masters of The Art, the craft of linking to other worlds through the descriptive art of writing in special books. For most of his young life, Atrus thought the stories his grandmother told him were just strange legends. Then his time came to explore the magnificent underground realm...

The Book of Atrus is a tale of son against father; of truth versus evil; and of love and redemption. You will travel to wonderful new ages and have all your questions answered -- for this story ends where the world of the MYST game just begins.

The ages of Myst are worlds of adventure and awe; of mystery and beauty; of intrigue and betrayal. You have seen a glimpse of the picture, and know the history of Catherine and Atrus. Now take a step further in the fictional legend of Myst.

These pages are your link to the story of Ti'ana--known among humans as Anna--the first woman from the outside world to enter the domain of the D'ni. She wandered into a place she never should have seen, and her intelligence and wisdom surprised some. And terrified others. When one young lord befriends her, then marries her, all layers of D'ni society are shaken. But no one realizes just how deeply.

The Book of Ti'ana is a tale of friend versus friend; of virtue against evil, and of trust and betrayal. It is a story that many do not want told. For you will watch as the unimaginable comes to pass, and only one is left to carry on the legacy.

The ages of Myst are worlds of adventure and awe; of mystery and beauty; of intrigue and betrayal. You have seen a glimpse of the images, and know the histories of Catherine, Atrus, and Ti'Ana. Now, take a step further into the fictional legend and origins of Myst.

These pages are your link to the story of Eedrah, son of Jethhe Ro'Jethhe, lord of Terahnee--Eedrah's ethereal homeland. Atrus and Catherine set out to rebuild D'Ni and stumble into his world of spectacular waterfalls, lush fields, rich music, and astonishingly beautiful architecture. Everything is perfect, this is a world they could scarcely imagine. But when a boy gets sick, only a prophecy and some fate can shape Terahnee's destiny.

Myst: The Book of D'ni is a tale of one man against a powerful legacy; of integrity against corruption; and of love and valor. It is the story that has been kept secret for thousands of years. And with good reason, for you will watch as the unthinkable comes to light, and only one man's life and vision is the key to salvation of a culture.

London, England, 1871.

When I applied for the position of bookkeeper with Professor Twickham and his daughter, I lied about my qualifications.

In turn, they lied about the job for which I was applying.

Had we not been so untruthful with each other, there might have been fewer night terrors stalking the inhabitants of the City.

Fewer unexplained disappearances.

Fewer deaths.

Now, nobody is safe from the creeping horrors we've unleashed.

With no time to spare, we face an impossible task: we must discover the mysteries in metal in order to right this wrong.

But is it already too late?

England, 1871. A quiet country village is rocked by murder. Police have no leads and no clues, apart from the grisly state of the victim's body.

Evidence points to a supernatural killer, but Professor Twickham is curiously reluctant to lend his assistance.

Roberta, his daughter, has no such qualms, and she involves me in the case as well... only to turn around and abandon me for a sick friend.

Now I must unmask the vicious killer on my own, but had I only known the truth, I'd never have got involved...

This standalone novel is the second title in the Mysteries in Metal gaslamp fantasy series.

WHAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW MIGHT KILL HER: Hedi looks normal. Yet that's taken effort. Her fellow Starbucks baristas don't see her pointed ears, fae amulet or her dark past, and normal is hard for a half-fae, half-werewolf on the run. Hedi's life changed ten years ago, when her parents were murdered by unknown assassins. She's been in hiding with her loopy aunt Lou since, as whatever they wanted she's determined they won't get it.

Things change when wolves capture Lou, forcing Hedi to steal to free her - for if she can offer up a fae amulet like her own they may trade. But it belongs to a rogue werewolf named Robson Trowbridge, who betrayed Hedi on the night of her greatest need. Over forty-eight hours, Hedi will face the weres of Creemore, discover the extent of her fae powers and possibly break her own heart in the process.

In the never-ending saga that is my love-hate relationship with Robson Trowbridge, I, half-Were Hedi Peacock, have had a change of heart. Ever since I shoved Trowbridge through the Gates of Merenwyn, I've been the leader of the pack--hard to believe, right? The thing is: I'm half-Fae. So even though my Were side is ready to heed the call of the wild, the other part of me is desperate to take flight. And much as it pains me to admit it, life without Trowbridge is really starting to were me down...

To make matters worse, the wolves of Creemore want my blood--and the North American Council of Weres wants me dead. So I'm just counting the days until Trowbridge returns from the other realm... and comes to my brave rescue...and becomes my alpha mate. Wishful thinking? Of course it is. But given all the mess I've been through already, what's the harm in doing a little bit of daisy-plucking? Besides, Trowbridge owes me bigtime. A girl can dream.

NEVER MAKE A PROMISE...

Robson Trowbridge, the Alpha of Creemore and my gorgeous mate, tries to protect me, Hedi Peacock, half-Fae, half-were, from all the trouble I get into. The thing is, my past is pretty messy and bad guys keep knocking down my door. Witches, thug bikers, the North American Council of Weres, dark magic Fae, and even an evil wizard are all after me. The Old Mage is the only one I really care about: He has my dear twin brother captive on the other side of the Gates of Merenwyn--not cool. So my alpha love is helping me to keep my promise to free my brother...

YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO KEEP.

Unfortunately, everyone who helps me ends up in a heap of trouble too--including my Trowbridge. Now, I admit I've had my moments as a shivering coward, hoping he will come to my brave rescue. The whole Prince Charming thing is hard to shake. But these bad guys after me mean business and those damsel in distress days are over. You know that "last straw" metaphor? That was two straws ago. It's now or never. Again...

WHY WHISTLE IN THE DARK...
There are very few days off when you're on an epic quest. Believe me, I know. I'm Hedi Peacock-one half Fae, the other were-and if being a half-breed with one foot in each world isn't tough enough to manage, there are the four chambers of my heart to consider. The one who holds the strings? Robson Trowbridge, the Alpha of Creemore. If I had my way, he and I would be locked in a bedroom, for eternity, but a pressing family matter needs my attention. It's true what they say: A woman's work is never done.

WHEN YOU CAN HOWL AT THE MOON?
My twin brother is being held captive by the Old Mage in another realm. Lo and behold, as soon as Trowbridge and I arrive in Merenwyn, we're separated in spectacular, dramatic fashion-and I'm left to figure out how to maintain the fragile balance between my Fae magic and my wolf's blood in a realm that cries to both. Not easy, particularly when I'm keeping an iron-grip on my temper so as not to dispatch with extreme prejudice the odd wizard or smart-mouthed mutt servant who crosses my path. My mama never told me there'd be days like these, but I'm not going down without a fight... or my mate.

Finalist for Analog Readers' Award for Best Novella

This novella orginally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 2013. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois, and is Chapter 8 of the novel The Last Dance.

At the heart of a mystery unfolding in space, the opposing forces make a treacherous journey between Earth and Mars.

In space, mutiny means death--that's why Inspector General Park Yerim is taking her investigation so seriously. The alleged mutineer is Captain Nicolau Aames, whose command of the massive Earth-Mars vessel Aldrin has come under fire. The vast System Initiative says he disobeyed orders, but his crew swears he's in the right.

En route to Mars, Park gathers testimony from the Aldrin's diverse crew, painting a complex picture of Aames's character: his heroism, his failures, even his personal passions. As the investigation unfolds, Park finds herself in the thrall of powerful interests, each pushing and pulling her in a fiery cosmic dance.

Corruption, conflicting loyalties, and clashing accounts make it nearly impossible to see the truth in fifty million miles of darkness, and Park faces danger from every direction. All eyes are on her: one way or another, her findings will have astronomical implications for the Aldrin and the future of space travel.

A colony on Mars becomes home to a killer conspiracy in a Near-Earth Mystery...

Brazilian investigator Rosalia Morais, and her husband, revered American spacer Nicolau Aames, are building a life together in Mars's Maxwell City, the fastest-growing settlement on the planet. Good news: there are no natural predators. Bad news: there are humans. That means the crime rate is growing, too.

To ensure public safety, Rosie's appointed by the mayor as the Red Planet's first chief of police. No sooner does she build a law enforcement squad than the biggest challenge looks to be internal. Policing the police for graft and corruption is one thing. But when an industrialist is found among the chars of an arson, it's murder.

The fire leads to questions that can be answered by only one man--Nick's former officer on the Earth-to-Mars vessel the Aldrin. And Nick is still duty bound to keep the officer's secrets. As loyalties shift, trust breaks, and the tide of a political conspiracy rises, Rosie must solve a mystery that could doom the future of humanity on Mars.

The good old Count Renaud is dead, and his will makes the degenerate Rhodophil his heir, disinheriting his other son Ferdinand, who has married against his father's wishes. Rhodophil promises to share his new riches with his younger brother and his wife Claudina, but Ferdinand hears a mysterious voice from beyond the grave, warning him to flee his brother and his wife to save himself from sin and death!

Ferdinand obeys the supernatural warning and sets out to find fortune and adventure. In the course of his quest he will encounter a recluse in a ruined castle with a horrible secret, find himself captured and imprisoned by the Turkish army, and encounter one of Gothic literature's most depraved female characters, the monstrous Fatima. And if he survives all these dangers, Ferdinand must return to Renaud Castle to solve the mystery of the ghostly voice and uncover the terrible truth about his wife and his brother!

This edition includes the unabridged text of the four volume 1796 edition, with a new introduction and notes by Karen Morton, and reproductions of illustrations from the 1796 and 1824 editions.

A bizarre work whose labyrinthine plot defies summary, Horrid Mysteries (1796) recounts the experiences of Don Carlos and his friend, the Marquis of G******, who become entangled in the web of a secret society bent on world domination. As the heroes flee from place to place across Europe, the agents of this dark confederacy, seemingly possessed of supernatural powers, are always at their heels--and death lies around every corner!

Unavailable for nearly 50 years, this unabashedly lurid Gothic novel written by an enigmatic German who styled himself the "Marquis of Grosse" and "Marquis of Pharnusia" returns to print at last as the seventh and final reissue in Valancourt's series of the rare Gothic novels mentioned in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. This edition includes a new introduction by Prof. Allen W. Grove.

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

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

In a city dissolving into an infected sprawl of ideas, where words come to life and reality is contaminated by stories, John Nyquist wakes up in a room with a dead body... The dead man's impossible whispers plunge him into a murder investigation like no other. Clues point him deeper into an unfolding story infesting its participants as reality blurs between place and genre.

Only one man can hope to put it all back together into some kind of order, enough that lives can be saved... That man is Nyquist, and he is lost.

The third book in Jeff Noon's widely acclaimed 'Nyquest Mysteries' find our protagonist caught up in a new mystery that delves into nightmares, Saints and the answer to his father's disappearance

In the winter of 1959, private eye John Nyquist arrives in the village of Hoxley-on-the-Hale with only a package of cryptic photographs, and the frail hope of finding an answer to a question he's been asking since his childhood.

But the villagers offer little help, as each day brings a twisted new rule in the name of a different Saint that they, and Nyquist, must follow. And there are whispers of the return of the Tolly Man, an avatar of chaos in a terrible mask...

As Nyquist struggles to distinguish friend from foe, and the Tolly Man draws nearer, he must race to finally settle the one mystery he has never been able to solve: the disappearance of his father.

From the singular imagination of Jeff Noon comes this dark tale of folk horror in the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated John Nyquist series.

File Under: Horror Fantasy [ Everyday Saints | Not the Ravens | Fatherland | Written in Blood ]

In the year 1960, private eye John Nyquist arrives in Delirium, a city of a million borders, to pursue his strangest case yet: tracking down the stolen sentient image of faded rock'n'roll star Vince Craven.

As Nyquist tracks Vince's image through Delirium, crossing a series of ever-stranger and more surreal borderzones, he hears tantalising stories of a First Border, Omata, hidden within the depths of the city. But to find it, he'll have to cross into the fractured minds of Delirium's residents, and even into his own.

Thanks to his relationship with the ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan, Oberon the Irish wolfhound knows trouble when he smells it--and furthermore, he knows he can handle it.

When he discovers that a prizewinning poodle has been abducted in Eugene, Oregon, he learns that it's part of a rash of hound abductions all over the Pacific Northwest. Since the police aren't too worried about dogs they assume have run away, Oberon knows it's up to him to track down those hounds and reunite them with their humans. For justice! And gravy!

Engaging the services of his faithful Druid, Oberon must travel throughout Oregon and Washington to question a man with a huge salami, thwart the plans of diabolical squirrels, and avoid, at all costs, a fight with a great big bear.

But if he's going to solve the case of the Purloined Poodle, Oberon will have to recruit the help of a Boston terrier named Starbuck, survive the vegetables in a hipster pot pie, and firmly refuse to be distracted by fire hydrants and rabbits hiding in the rose bushes.

At the end of the day, will it be a sad bowl of dry kibble for the world's finest hound detective, or will everything be coming up sirloins?

Oberon the Irish wolfhound is off to Portland to smell all the things with canine companions wolfhound Orlaith and Boston terrier Starbuck, and, of course, his human, ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan. The first complication is an unmistakable sign of sinister agendas afoot: a squirrel atop the train. But an even more ominous situation is in store when the trio plus Atticus stumble across a murder upon arrival at the station. They recognize Detective Gabriela Ibarra, who's there to investigate. But they also recognize the body--or rather that the body is a doppelganger for Atticus himself. The police, hampered by human senses of smell and a decided lack of canine intuition, obviously can't handle this alone. Not with Atticus likely in danger. Oberon knows it's time to investigate once more--for justice! For gravy! And possibly greasy tacos!

Alongside his faithful Druid, Oberon and the other loyal hounds navigate by nose through Portland to find a bear-shifter friend with intel, delicious clues at the victim's home, and more squirrels. Always more squirrels!
But will our hungry band of heroes be able to identify the culprit before someone else is murdered? Will there be mystery meat in gravy as a reward or tragedy in store for the world's (or at least the Pacific Northwest's) greatest dog detective.

Like its predecessor The Purloined Poodle, the latest of Oberon's Meaty Mysteries novella, The Squirrel on the Train, is not to be missed by fans of Kevin Hearne's New York Times best-selling Iron Druid series.

Gnat the Devourer is becoming a more prominent figure in grand space politics. Sure, he may not be totally independent yet, but he has enough leeway to be able to differentiate Earth's interests from those of its Geckho suzerains and act exclusively for the good of his own kind.

Gnat must balance obligations to his almighty suzerains against a desire to advance humanity's position in space, and his home planet's search for ever more allies. Although Earth's masters are not big fans of his independent ways, the great war has shifted the historic balance of forces, and the Geckho are no longer as powerful as they once were, leaving them with no choice but to abide the Kung of Earth's antics.

So, will Earth be able to take this chance and free itself from alien control completely? And if so, is it even a good idea?

And that means one of the human leaders will have to back down.

When Hazel Wilmot calls Amanda Vickers, her former student and the editor of Roaming New England Magazine, with a story idea about a haunted New Hampshire inn, Amanda is intrigued, but intrigue soon turns to shock. Before Amanda can travel to New Hampshire in time, Hazel dies suspiciously in a fall while exploring the abandoned inn. Amanda quickly decides to investigate her death. Was it accidental or due to something more sinister?

Accompanied by Marcie Ducasse, her young associate editor, Amanda travels to Shadsborough, New Hampshire, a quaint New England town hidden away in the White Mountains. Though its view of the mountains is picturesque, Shadsborough is a small town gripped by fear. And it seems to be catching as Marcie and Amanda discover that neither Hazel's death nor the stories of the ghostly crying girl at the inn are exactly what they seem.

Amanda Vickers and Marcie Ducasse, editors at Roaming New England Magazine, return in this story to once again investigate the mysteries surrounding supernatural events in New England. Marcie pays a visit to the town of West Windham, Maine, to check out a report about the so-called Monster of Lake Opal, a Loch Ness-type creature that is said to inhabit the dark depths of the lake. Amanda joins Marcie to attend a seance at the home of a man trying to contact his late wife's spirit, in hopes of discovering the identity of her killer. The spirit channeled by the medium tells them to look in her coffin to find a clue to the murderer's identity. Shortly after the seance, the mausoleum containing the coffin is broken into and a local boy is attacked and seriously injured in the process. Marcie and Amanda quickly find themselves drawn into the hunt for both a strange sea creature and a murderer who appears willing to kill again in order to prevent this grave justice.

An android is found in the ruins of a colony on Omicron Theta. The crew of the "Tripoli" reactivate the android and discover his name is Data, a name that suits his incredible curiosity. With the encouragement of his new friends, Data applies to Starfleet AcademyTM and is accepted. Cadet Data begins his journey to Starfleet Academy aboard the science vessel, "Yosemite." Even as he looks forward to the Academy, he struggles to find his own identity and to fit in with the other cadets.

But Data's worries are cut short when the "Yosemite" is suddenly attacked by an unknown vessel and suffers severe damage. When power is restored, Data discovers that the adult crew has mysteriously disappeared, and only Data and the other Academy-bound cadets are left to face the wrath of a new alien race, who are demanding that Data and his cadet crew surrender their ship, or be destroyed.

Ruby Young's new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she's kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there's more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can't solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn't kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can't, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake's death... and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

From the 1860s to the present day, these are the accounts of the Diogenes Club, whose agents solve crimes too strange for Britain's police, protecting the realm-and this entire plane of existence-from occult menaces, threats born in other dimensions, magical perfidy and the Deep Dark Deadly Ones. Kim Newman continues the series began in The Man From the Diogenes Club, revealing more mysteries of the British Empire's most secret service.

Table of Contents:

• Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch - (2008) - novella
• Kentish Glory - (2010) - short fiction
• Moon Moon Moon - (2009) - novella
• Organ Donors - (1992) - novelette
• Seven Stars - (1999) - novella

Mary Jekyll and the Athena Club race to save Alice--and foil a plot to unseat the Queen, in the electrifying conclusion to the trilogy that began with the Nebula Award finalist and Locus Award winner The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter.

Life's always an adventure for the Athena Club... especially when one of their own has been kidnapped! After their thrilling European escapades rescuing Lucina van Helsing, Mary Jekyll and her friends return home to discover that their friend and kitchen maid Alice has vanished-- and so has their friend and employer Sherlock Holmes!

As they race to find Alice and bring her home safely, they discover that Alice and Sherlock's kidnapping are only one small part of a plot that threatens Queen Victoria, and the very future of the British Empire. Can Mary, Diana, Beatrice, Catherine, and Justine save their friends--and save the Empire? Find out in the final installment of the fantastic and memorable Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series.

Everyone loves a family reunion.

He can deny it all he likes, but everyone knows Viking warlord Unnthor Reginsson brought home a great chest of gold when he retired from the longboats and settled down with Hildigunnur in a remote valley. Now, in the summer of 970, adopted daughter Helga is awaiting the arrival of her unknown siblings: dark, dangerous Karl, lithe, clever Jorunn, gentle Aslak, henpecked by his shrewish wife, and the giant Bjorn, made bitter by Volund, his idiot son.

And they're coming with darkness in their hearts.

The siblings gather, bad blood simmers and old feuds resurface as Unnthor's heirs make their moves on the old man's treasure - until one morning Helga is awakened by screams. Blood has been shed: kin has been slain.

No one confesses, but all the clues point to one person - who cannot possibly be the murderer, at least in Helga's eyes. But if she's going to save the innocent from the axe and prevent more bloodshed, she's got to solve the mystery - fast...

Lies. Manipulation. Murder. There's nothing quite like family...

Omri and his family move to an old farmhouse which has been in the family for generations. He finds an ancient notebook, written by his great-great aunt, that reveals a family secret-and the mysterious origins of his magical cupboard.

A twist of time has left Runebreaker Travis Wilder and three of his otherworldly friends stranded on 1880s Earth in a lawless Colorado mining town. As they search for a way back to their own time, Grace Beckett - in present-day Eldh - journeys to a frozen kingdom where she learns her own terrifying destiny: to oppose the Pale King and his monstrous army in the coming cataclysmic battle that will decide Eldh's future forever.

If the Pale King emerges victorious, his master Mohg, the dread Lord of Nightfall, will return from exile, break the First Rune, and remake Eldh in his own dark image. And Earth itself, Eldh's sister world, will be the next to fall under shadow.

Even if Travis returns to Eldh in time to align his calling as Runebreaker with Grace's destiny as Blademender, how can two mere humans hope to defeat an evil more ancient than any world, more powerful than all existence?

A startling, seductive literary novel that entwines suspense, science fiction, adventure, romance and history into an intoxicating new genre.

1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice.

But as the city prepares for spring, it feels more like qaartsiluni, "the time when something is about to explode in the dark." Local "poletics" are wracked by tensions with the Eskimos circling the city, with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drug round-ups by the secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the Night. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt.

Their lead suspect is Brentford Orsini, one of the city's most prominent figures. But as the Gentlemen of the Night tighten the net around him, Orsini receives a mysterious message from a long-lost love that compels him to act.

What transpires is a literary adventure novel unlike anything you've ever read before. Brilliant in its conception, masterful in its prose, thrilling in its plot twists, and laced with humor, suspense, and intelligence, it marks the beginning of a great new series of books set in New Venice-and the launch of an astonishing new writer.

It's 1907 in the icily beautiful New Venice, and the hero of the city's liberation, Brentford Orsini, has been deposed by his arch-rival -- who immediately assigns Brentford and his friends on a dangerous diplomatic mission to Paris.

So, Brentford recruits his old friend and louche counterpart, Gabriel d'Allier, underground chanteuse and suffragette Lillian Lake, and the mysterious Blankbate--former Foreign Legionnaire and leader of the Scavengers, the city's garbage collecting cult--and others, for the mission.

But their mode of transportation--the untested "transaerian psychomotive"--proves faulty and they find themselves transported back in time to Paris 1895 ... before New Venice even existed. What's more, it's a Paris experiencing an unprecedented and crushingly harsh winter.

They soon find themselves involved with some of the city's seediest, most fascinating inhabitants. But between attending soirees at Mallarmé's house, drinking absinthe with Proust, trying to wrestle secrets out of mesmerists, and making fun of the newly-constructed Eiffel Tower, they also find that Paris is a city full of intrigue, suspicion, and danger.

For example, are the anarchists they encounter who are plotting to bomb the still-under construction Sacre Coeur church also the future founders of New Venice? And why are they trying to kill them?

And, as Luminous Chaos turns into another lush adventure told in glorious prose rich in historical allusion, there's the biggest question of them all: How will they ever get home?

For hundreds of years, high-born nobles have competed for the chance to learn of the Myst. Powerful, revered, and often reclusive, Mystics have the unique ability to summon and manipulate the Myst: the underlying energy that lives at the heart of the universe. Once in a very great while, they take an apprentice, always from the most privileged sects of society. Such has always been the tradition-until a new High Mystic takes her seat and chooses Pomella AnDone, a restless, low-born teenager, as a candidate.

Commoners have never been welcomed among the select few given the opportunity to rise beyond even the highest nobility. So when Pomella chooses to accept the summons and journey to Kelt Apar, she knows that she will have more to contend with than the competition for the apprenticeship.

Breaking both law and tradition, Pomella undergoes three trials against the other candidates to prove her worthiness. As the trials unfold, Pomella navigates a deadly world of intolerance and betrayal, unaware that ruthless conspirators intend to make her suffer for having the audacity to seek to unravel the secrets of the Myst.

Seven years have passed since lowborn Pomella AnDone became an unlikely Mystic's apprentice.

Though she has achieved much in a short time, as a rare celestial event approaches, Pomella feels the burden of being a Mystic more than ever. The Mystical realm of Fayün is threatening to overtake the mortal world, and as the two worlds slowly blend together, the land is thrown into chaos. People begin to vanish or are killed outright, and Mystics from across the world gather to protect them. Among them is Shevia, a haunted and brilliant prodigy whose mastery of the Myst is unlike anything Pomella has ever seen.

Shevia will challenge Pomella in every possible way, from her mastery of the Myst to her emotional connection with Pomella's own friends--and as Shevia's dark intentions become more clear, Pomella fears she may be unstoppable.

Fifty-four years have passed since Crow Tallin, the catastrophic celestial event that merged Fayün and the human world. One devastating result of that cataclysm is that most human babies are born fused with fay spirits. The Mystics of Kelt Apar, once beloved, are blamed for this worldwide phenomenon.

On the island of Moth, the Barons have declared the Myst illegal and imprisoned all Mystics under house arrest. Under the watchful eyes of deadly Hunters, a much-older Pomella AnDone now lives as a prisoner at Kelt Apar with her granddaughter and apprentice Mia, as well as the rapidly declining High Mystic of Moth, Yarina Sineese.

When the time comes to conduct the ceremony intended to pass the title of High Mystic from Yarina to her successor Vivianna, something goes horribly wrong, leaving the lineage of Mystics in doubt.

With new rivals seeking to claim Moth for their own, Pomella must undergo a dangerous dreamwalk into the mind-bending and heart-wrenching Mystic Skies in order to learn the mystical name of the island itself.

The greatest mystery of all time... the history of human origins... will be revealed.

Seventy thousand years ago, the human race almost went extinct. We survived, but no one knows how.

Until now.

The countdown to the next stage of human evolution is about to begin, and humanity might not survive this time.

The Immari are good at keeping secrets. For 2,000 years, they've hidden the truth about human evolution. They've also searched for an ancient enemy - a threat that could wipe out the human race. Now the search is over.

Off the coast of Antarctica, a research vessel discovers a mysterious structure buried deep in an iceberg. It has been there for thousands of years, and something is guarding it. As the Immari rush to execute their plan, a brilliant geneticist makes a discovery that could change everything.

Dr. Kate Warner moved to Jakarta, Indonesia to escape her past. She hasn't recovered from what happened to her, but she has made an incredible breakthrough: a cure for autism. Or so she thinks. What she has found is far more dangerous - for her and the entire human race. Her work could be the key to the next stage of human evolution. In the hands of the Immari, it would mean the end of humanity as we know it.

Agent David Vale has spent 10 years trying to stop the Immari. Now he's out of time. His informant is dead. His organization has been infiltrated. His enemy is hunting him. But when David receives a coded message related to the Immari attack, he risks everything to save the one person that can help him solve it: Dr. Kate Warner.

Together, Kate and David must race to unravel a global conspiracy and learn the truth about the Atlantis Gene...and human origins. Their journey takes them to the far corners of the globe and into the secrets of their pasts. The Immari are close on their heels and will stop at nothing to obtain Kate's research and force the next stage of human evolution - even if it means killing 99.9% of the world's population. David and Kate can stop them... if they can trust each other. And stay alive.

A PANDEMIC 70,000 YEARS IN THE MAKING WILL CHANGE HUMANITY... FOREVER.

In Marbella, Spain, Dr. Kate Warner awakens to a horrifying reality: the human race stands on the brink of extinction. A pandemic unlike any before it has swept the globe. Nearly a billion people are dead--and those the Atlantis Plague doesn't kill, it transforms at the genetic level. A few rapidly evolve. The remainder devolve.

As the world slips into chaos, radical solutions emerge. Industrialized nations offer a miracle drug, Orchid, which they mass produce and distribute to refugee camps around the world. But Orchid is merely a way to buy time. It treats the symptoms of the plague but never actually cures the disease.

Immari International offers a different approach: do nothing. Let the plague run its course. The Immari envision a world populated by the genetically superior survivors--a new human race, ready to fulfill its destiny.

With control of the world population hanging in the balance, the Orchid Alliance and the Immari descend into open warfare. Now humanity's last hope is to find a cure, and Kate alone holds the key to unraveling the mystery surrounding the Atlantis Plague. The answer may lie in understanding pivotal events in human history--events when the human genome mysteriously changed. Kate's journey takes her across the barren wastelands of Europe and northern Africa, but it's her research into the past that takes her where she never expected to go. She soon discovers that the history of human evolution is not what it seems--and setting it right may require a sacrifice she never imagined.

A global cataclysm beyond imagination... a mysterious signal from space... and one last hope to save the human race: The Atlantis World.

As the clock ticks down to humanity's extinction, a team of scientists will risk it all to unravel the secrets of the past.

Northern Morocco: Dr. Kate Warner cured a global pandemic, and she thought she could cure herself. She was wrong. And she was wrong about the scope of the Atlantis conspiracy. Humanity faces a new threat, an enemy beyond imagination. With her own time running out and the utter collapse of human civilization looming, a new hope arrives: a coded message from a potential ally.

Arecibo Observatory: Mary Caldwell has spent her life waiting, watching the stars, looking for signs of intelligent life beyond our world. When that day comes, Mary finds herself in the middle of a struggle older than the human race, with far greater stakes. She must decide who to trust, because there's nowhere to hide.

Antarctica: In the wake of the Atlantis Plague, Dorian Sloane finds himself a puppet to Ares' mysterious agenda. As Dorian prepares to take control of the situation, Ares unleashes a cataclysm that changes everything. As the catastrophe circles the globe, Ares reveals the true nature of the threat to humanity, and Dorian agrees to one last mission: find and kill David Vale and Kate Warner. There will be no prisoners this time. The orders are seek and destroy, and Dorian has been promised that his own answers and salvation lie on the other side.

With Dorian in pursuit, Kate, David, and their team race through the ruins of the Atlantean ship left on Earth, across Atlantean science stations throughout the galaxy, and into the past of a mysterious culture whose secrets could save humanity in its darkest hour. With their own lives on the line and time slipping away, Kate, David and Dorian are put to the ultimate test.

A human has been murdered on Kopernik and the clues point toward a robot as the killer. But how can that be, when robots are programmed to never bring harm to humans? Before long, roboticist Derec Avery is on his way to Kopernik to investigate. Former Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, meanwhile, has a mystery of her own to unravel: Citizens of the Nova Levis colony have been disappearing in greater numbers, while the cyborg population has suddenly started growing at a dramatic rate. With the help of old friends - and potentially new enemies - Derec searches for the identity of a killer, unaware that Ariel is walking directly into the centre of the web of intrigue.

Senator Clar Eliton of Earth and Ambassador Galiel Humadros of Aurora hope to alter the strained and explosive relationships between Earth and the Spacer and Settler Worlds. But as the Spacers arrive on Earth to begin the conference that will reconcile decades of mistrust, assassins strike down Eliton and Humadros and their staffs.

In the chaotic aftermath, Derec Avery - and Ariel Burgess - join forces, to penetrate an insidious conspiracy that sprawls across Earth, Spacer, and Settler worlds and threatens to bring them all to the brink of war.

Coren Lanra is the head of security for DyNan Manual Industries. A former Special Service agent, he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy, or deception. And he hates mysteries.

Lanra's troubles begin with the death of Nyom Looms, daughter of DyNan president Rega Looms, during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis - all were apparently murdered, but why?

The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victims, but it has been deactivated, and Lanra is denied access to its memories. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, Lanra searches for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost.

The Third Law of Robotics states that a robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws...

In Mirage and Chimera, Mark W. Tiedemann explored the fear and hatred toward robots - and their offworld owners - held by the people of Earth, and the animosity toward Terrans expressed by all Spacers. Now, all the plot threads of Tiedemann's epic story come together in this exciting conclusion to the Isaac Asimov's Robot Mysteries cycle.

After the diplomatic failures of the Spacer mission on Earth - which began with the assassinations of key diplomats and politicians, and culminated with the uncovering of a vast plot to create cyborgs from terminally-handicapped human infants - Ambassador Ariel Burgess and roboticist Derec Avery are recalled to their home planet, Aurora. Unfortunately, their situation only worsens when they arrive, as they become suspects in yet another murder - one that, based on the evidence, could only have been committed by a non-human.

On a world with a 20-to-1 robot-to-human population, is it possible a robot could have violated the Three Laws governing its behavior - and if so, why? Or is something far more sinister at work?

He holds the secret that can end the world.

The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.

The records show that he died in 1418.

But his tomb is empty.

The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Sometimes legends are true.

And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.

Ghosts. Psychics. Murder. Just another day in Donn's Hill.

Mackenzie Clair needs a fresh start. The death of her father and a broken relationship rendered her old life unlivable. What better place to build a new one than Donn's Hill, the most haunted town in America and her favorite childhood vacation spot?

But returning to Donn's Hill awakens more than nostalgia. As memories resurface, so does a lost psychic ability to talk to the dead... a power the poltergeist haunting Mac's apartment is eager to use.

Aided by her new roommate--a spirited Tortoiseshell cat named Striker--and the ghost-hunting crew of the Soul Searchers, Mac struggles to control her newfound talents. She'd better get a handle on them fast, because someone in town is hiding a deadly secret. If Mac can't divine the truth, Donn's Hill will never be the same.

Return to the most haunted town in America...

Mackenzie Clair finally has this whole ghost-hunting psychic thing figured out. The Soul Searchers are a hit, she's got pet-parenting down, and she even has a plan to banish the poltergeist running amok at a lakeside cabin. Best of all, Donn's Hill feels like home. But not everyone loves the town as much as Mac.

A world-famous paranormal debunker thinks the psychics in Donn's Hill are lying about their abilities. His determination to destroy the Soul Searchers threatens Mac's livelihood, and when a killer strikes, the sheriff's suspicions threaten her freedom.

Mac needs all the help she can get to find the real murderer and clear her name... even if that help comes from beyond the grave.

How do you catch a killer who moves like a ghost?

Mackenzie Clair is sure she'll find answers in New Mexico. The mysteries around her mother's past have haunted her for twenty years, and every sign points toward the truth lurking in her childhood home. But the Donn's Hill Body Magnet should have known better than to expect a quiet trip. Everywhere Mac goes, ghosts follow.

All her life, Mac thought her mother's death was just a tragic accident. But when a tourist dies under suspiciously similar circumstances, connections between Evelyn Clair and more recent victims start stacking up. There's a serial killer on the prowl, and they've set their sights on Donn's Hill.

Hard as she tries, Mac can't convince the police the deaths are related. The murderer is like a ghost, moving through the living world in ways only a psychic can follow. It's up to Mac to solve the case, but if she can't sift through the clues from her past, she won't live to see her future.

An old friend of the family....

Alexandra Belarus is a struggling artist living in New York City, even though her family is rich in real estate, including a towering Gothic Gramercy Park building built by her great-great-grandfather. But the truth of her bloodline is revealed when she is attacked on the street and saved by an inhumanly powerful winged figure. A figure who knows the Belarus name....

Lexi's great-great-grandfather was a Spellmason - an artisan who could work magic on stone. But in his day, dark forces conspired against him and his, so he left a spell of protection on his family. Now that Lexi is in danger, the spell has awoken her ancestor's most trusted and fearsome creation: a gargoyle named Stanis.

Lexi and Stanis are equally surprised to find themselves bound to each other. But as they learn to work together, they realize that only united can they save the city they both love....

In the final battle of Light against Shadow, warring factions prepare to meet the bare fist of Arithon's fury, sparked by the execution of the innocent murdered by divine decree.

As the Fellowship Sorcerers clash with rebellious dragons bent on catastrophic annihilation, those faithful to the True Sect raise armies to extinguish the clans and fight a last, bloody conquest of the free wilds. All while the Prime Matriarch courts reckless power to seize charge of Mankind's destiny.

As contention threatens to snap the final restraint of old Charter Law, bitter strife and vicious ambition threaten to revoke humanity's right to inhabit the world. The only hope of survival for all lies in the recovery of the Paravians, those who last called Athera home before Mankind.

The true hearts of heroes will be challenged in the savage fires of conflict; Elaira and Daliana's steadfast loyalties must rise against the odds or fall as Lysaer's reckoning collides with the Mistwraith's secretive machinations. But not before Elder Powers arise to claim their debt for a grievance spanning millennia...

Gillengaria seethes with unrest. In the south, hostility toward magic and its users has risen to a dangerous level, though King Baryn has ordered that such mystics are to be tolerated. It is whispered that he issued the decree because his new wife used her magic powers to ensnare him...

The King knows there are those in the noble Twelve Houses who could use this growing dissent to overthrow him. So he dispatches the mystic Senneth to assess the threat throughout the realm. Accompanying her is a motley band of magic-users and warriors including Tayse, first among the King's Riders--who holds a hard view of mystics in general, and Senneth in particular.

But as the unlikely allies venture farther into the south, they will face death in a land under the sway of a fanatical cult that would purge Gillengaria of all magic users. And they will come to realize that their only hope of survival lies in standing together...

A girl's dying wish sends D on an impossible quest in this riveting prose novel.

Even a reluctant hero can't refuse the last request of a beautiful woman. On her deathbed, the mortally wounded woman gives him a strange gem and asks him to deliver the priceless stone to her sister, far off in a North Sea fishing village. D's journey is made ever more perilous by a series of scoundrels and rogues hired by the girl's murderer. They'll stop at nothing to claim the jewel. Will they catch him? Hideyuki Kikuchi's crackling narrative and Yoshitaka Amano's imaginative artwork make this a must-read entry in the series.

The picturesque coastal town of Florence was known for millennia as a pleasure resort for the Nobility. As retribution for their decadence, the cruel and beautiful vampire inhabitants were "punished," driven out more than a thousand years ago by a solitary traveler in black. Only one-Baron Meinster-refused to leave, only to be thrown to the waves by the mysterious assassin.

Summoned to contemporary Florence by Su-in, sister of a murdered village girl, the enigmatic Vampire Hunter D discovers a vampire curse ravaging the town's human inhabitants. The plague apparently originating, impossibly, from the unforgiving sea-could it be Meinster's Revenge?