Search Worlds Without End

Fantasy is one the best-selling and widely read of today's literary genres, thanks to the enduring popularity of authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and the blockbuster film versions of "The Lord of the Rings" and other fantasy books. "Seekers of Dreams" is a unique collection of some of the fantasy genre's best short stories. Featured authors include the legendary Bram Stoker, the master of modern fantasy horror Thomas Ligotti, the king of the weird and wonderful H.P. Lovecraft, and many, many more.This is a must-have volume for anyone with an interest in the increasingly popular world of fantasy fiction.

Contents:

• Introduction (Seekers of Dreams: Masterpieces of Fantasy) - essay by Douglas A. Anderson
• Friend's Best Man - (1987) - shortstory by Jonathan Carroll
• Mountains of the Moon - (1899) - shortstory by Laurence Housman
• The Gods of the Mountain - (1912) - shortfiction by Lord Dunsany
• The Challenge from Beyond (Part 1 of 5) - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1935) - shortfiction by H. P. Lovecraft and C. L. Moore and A. Merritt and Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Challenge from Beyond) [as by C. L. Moore ]
• The Challenge from Beyond (Part 2 of 5) - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1935) - shortfiction by H. P. Lovecraft and C. L. Moore and A. Merritt and Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Challenge from Beyond) [as by A. Merritt ]
• The Challenge from Beyond (Part 3 of 5) - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1935) - shortfiction by H. P. Lovecraft and C. L. Moore and A. Merritt and Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Challenge from Beyond) [as by H. P. Lovecraft ]
• The Challenge from Beyond (Part 4 of 5) - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1935) - shortfiction by H. P. Lovecraft and C. L. Moore and A. Merritt and Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Challenge from Beyond) [as by Robert E. Howard ]
• The Challenge from Beyond (Part 5 of 5) - [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] - (1935) - shortfiction by H. P. Lovecraft and C. L. Moore and A. Merritt and Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Challenge from Beyond) [as by Frank Belknap Long, Jr. ]
• The Bright Valley - (2002) - shortstory by R. H. Barlow
• The Shadow at the Bottom of the World - (1990) - shortstory by Thomas Ligotti
• The Saint and the Forest-Gods - (1917) - shortstory by Kenneth Morris
• The Unicorn Tapestries - (1981) - poem by Peter S. Beagle
• A King's Lesson - (1886) - shortstory by William Morris
• Senator Bilbo - (2001) - shortstory by Andy Duncan
• The Moon-Dial - (1932) - novelette by Henry S. Whitehead
• The Face by the River - (2004) - shortstory by Clark Ashton Smith
• The Fifty-First Dragon - (1919) - shortstory by Heywood Broun
• Quercus Hobbs - shortstory by Leonard Cline
• The Judge's House - (1891) - shortstory by Bram Stoker
• The Grimoire - (1936) - shortstory by Montague Summers
• The Were-Wolf - (1890) - novelette by Clemence Housman
• Inexplicable - (1917) - shortstory by L. G. Moberly
• The Golden Rat - (1913) - novelette by Alexander Harvey
• The Haunted Jarvee - [Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson)] - (1929) - shortstory by William Hope Hodgson
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (excerpt) - [Oz] - (1900) - shortfiction by L. Frank Baum
• Green Hill Country - shortstory by Verlyn Flieger

This short story originally appeared in Lighspeed, September 2017.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed Magazine.

Annalise may be cousin to the prince, but her past isn't what she claims, and she possesses a magic so powerful it takes all her strength to control it. Evra is a country girl, and has watched as each friend and family member came into their own magic, while hers remains dormant. But everything changes after Annalise loses control of herself and Evra begins experiencing the debilitating visions of a once-in-a-generation clairvoyant meant to serve the crown.

Thrown together at court, Evra and Annalise find that they have the same goal: to protect their kingdom from the powerful men who are slowly destroying it. But neither is quick to trust the other--Evra's visions suggest a threat to royal rule, and Annalise worries that her darkest secrets will be revealed. Their magic at odds, the young women circle each other, until the truth must come out.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2003. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois.

It's 1998, and Sylvie Patterson, a bookish student at a Northern California boarding school, falls in love with a spirited, elusive classmate named Gabe. Their headmaster, Dr. Adrian Keller, is a charismatic medical researcher who has staked his career on the therapeutic potential of lucid dreaming: By teaching his patients to become conscious during sleep, he helps them to relieve stress and heal from trauma. Over the next six years, Sylvie and Gabe become consumed by Keller's work, following him from the redwood forests of Eureka, California, to the enchanting New England coast.

But when an opportunity brings the trio to the Midwest, Sylvie and Gabe stumble into a tangled relationship with their mysterious neighbors--and Sylvie begins to doubt the ethics of Keller's research, recognizing the harm that can be wrought under the guise of progress. As she navigates the hazy, permeable boundaries between what is real and what isn't, who can be trusted and who cannot, Sylvie also faces surprising developments in herself: an unexpected infatuation, growing paranoia, and a new sense of rebellion.

In stirring, elegant prose, Benjamin's tale exposes the slippery nature of trust--and the immense power of our dreams.

The twelve-year solstice has come. And with it, a sinister carnival brings a new sense of terror and wonder to a small coastal town. An enormous shoe is washed up on the shore... a tiny man disguises himself as a mouse... a crow provides eyes for a blind innkeeper... and three curious adventures discover the gateway to the Land of Dreams - where you don't always get what you want, you get what you deserve...

Table of Contents:

• Sweets to the Sweet - (1947) - short story
• The Dream-Makers - (1953) - novelette
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice - (1949) - short story
• I Kiss Your Shadow-- - (1956) - short story
• Mr. Steinway - (1954) - short story
• The Proper Spirit - (1957) - short story
• Catnip - (1948) - short story
• The Cheaters - (1947) - novelette
• Hungarian Rhapsody - (1958) - short story
• The Light-House - (1953) - short story by Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Bloch
• The Hungry House - (1951) - novelette
• Sleeping Beauty - (1958) - short story
• Sweet Sixteen - (1958) - short story
• That Hell-Bound Train - (1958) - short story
• Enoch - (1946) - short story

It is the time of kalinerre - when young men and women of Aurlanus, chosen by lot, must leave their island home to be tested by the sea. Genetically engineered descendants of a human race from a world beyond the sky, they surrender to the mercies of the vast and terrifying ocean. Most return from their initiation. Some do not.

When her old friend, Ricky Maulders, who is dying of cancer, visits artist Dorothea Howard, he discovers sheis being held captive by the magical power of one of her own creations that she refuses to let go of, and haunted by the ghost of a judge in post-Revolution France. Dorothea insists that all she wants is to be left alone. But then three Chicano teens on the run from the police and a gaggle of summer-school students violently enter Dorothea's life, and she's confronted with all the messy stuff (like "politics") she's always sought to avoid.

In a near-future London, Millie Dack places her hand on her belly to feel her baby kick, resolute in her decision to be a single parent. Across town, her closest friend--a hungover Toni Munroe--steps into the shower and places her hand on a medic console. The diagnosis is devastating.

In this stunning, bittersweet family saga, Millie and Toni experience the aftershocks of human progress as their children and grandchildren embrace new ways of making babies. When infertility is a thing of the past, a man can create a child without a woman, a woman can create a child without a man, and artificial wombs eliminate the struggles of pregnancy. But what does it mean to be a parent? A child? A family?

Through a series of interconnected vignettes that spans five generations and three continents, this emotionally taut story explores the anxieties that arise when the science of fertility claims to deliver all the answers.

Glen Cook is, of course, best known for his enormously popular series fiction, which includes the Garrett P.I. and Dread Empire sequences, as well as the internationally acclaimed Chronicles of the Black Company. Readers familiar only with this aspect of Cook's career will find a great many pleasures--and an equal number of surprises--in his vibrant new collection, Winter's Dreams.

The fourteen standalone stories in Winter's Dreams range in length from vignettes ("Appointment in Samarkand") to novellas ("In the Wind"). Together, they encompass an astonishing variety of themes, tones, styles, and settings. Not one of these stories bears the slightest resemblance to the others. Each one manages to enchant, illuminate, and entertain in its own distinctive fashion.

• In the near future America of "Song from a Forgotten Hill," the nations' tragic racial history replays itself in an all too familiar form.
• "The Seventh Fool" recounts the comic misadventures of a charming con man who outsmarts both his gullible target--and himself.
• "The Waiting Sea" encapsulates the entire life history of a navy veteran haunted by the sea--and by the faceless voices only he can hear.
• In "Ponce," a poverty stricken St. Louis family encounters a mysterious blue-eyed dog--a dog that serves as a conduit to the undisclosed secrets of the universe.
• "The Recruiter" presents a powerfully disturbing portrait of an ultra-violent future and asks the question: How far will a man go in order to survive?

Equally suitable both for newcomers and for long-time Glen Cook fans, Winter's Dreams is something special, a consistently enthralling volume that claims new imaginative territory at every turn.

An illustrated tour de force and surreal dream-come-to-life for all those who love art, passion, fine wine, and Griffin and Sabine. An island republic located in the Mid-Atlantic, somewhat south of Bermuda, between the Sea of Clouds and the Sea of the Unseen, the Republic of Dreams is populated by all those who have an instinctive dislike of the narrow limitations of common sense -- dreamers, artists, eccentrics, and poets. They love love, youth, old age, beauty, splendor, wisdom, generosity, music, song, the feast, and the dance.

In this spectacular dream landscape -- where few places are not commemorated by an artist's inspiration, a philosopher's wit, or a poet's insight -- author/artist/narrator G. Garfield Crimmins rediscovers his alter ego, Victor La Nuage, and his sensuous lover, Nadja La Claire. Together, with the help of the elusive Dr. Prometheus, they seek to evade the machinations of the life-denying, imagination-stifling enemy of the Republic of Dreams and its citizens: the armed and dangerous League of Common Sense.

Joyously illustrated in Deco-Dada-Surrealist spirit, and complete with souvenir maps, telegrams, postcards, a poetic license, and a passport for return voyages, The Republic of Dreams gives escape literature a good name. A glorious affirmation of the dreamer within, it is a great gift for one's inner self and for many kindred spirits.

Hadriana in All My Dreams takes place primarily during Carnival in 1938 in the Haitian village of Jacmel. A beautiful young French woman, Hadriana, is about to marry a Haitian boy from a prominent family. But on the morning of the wedding, Hadriana drinks a mysterious potion and collapses at the altar. Transformed into a zombie, her wedding becomes her funeral. She is buried by the town, revived by an evil sorcerer, and then disappears into popular legend.

Set against a backdrop of magic and eroticism, and recounted with delirious humor, the novel raises universal questions about race and sexuality. The reader comes away enchanted by the marvelous reality of Haiti's Vodou culture and convinced of Depestre's lusty claim that all beings?even the undead ones?have a right to happiness and true love.

From acclaimed science fiction writer Thomas M. Disch comes "The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of", a keenly perceptive account of the impact science fiction has had on American culture. As only a consummate insider could, Disch provides a fascinating view of this world and its inhabitants, tracing science fiction's phenomenal growth into the multibillion-dollar global entertainment industry it is today. If America is a "nation of liars", as Disch asserts in this dazzling and provocative cultural history, then science fiction is the most American of literary genres. American SF writers have seen their wishes, dreams, and lies accorded the same respect as facts. From the protoscience-fiction tales of Edgar Allen Poe, to the utopian dreams and technological nightmares of European writers H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and J. G. Ballard, to American conservatives Robert Heinlein and Jerry Pournelle, liberals Joe Haldemann and Ursula le Guin, flakes William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick, and outright charlatans Ignatius Donnelly and various UFO "witnesses," Disch emphasizes science fiction's cultural role as both a lens and a medium for the very rapid changes driven by modern technology, highlighting its powers of prediction and prevarication. Much more than a history of the genre, "The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of" is an in-depth study of its ever-growing interaction with all aspects of culture-- politics, religion, and the fabric of our daily lives-- showing how it has become a cultural battlefield while helping us to adjust to new social realities, in everything from Star Trek's model of a multicultural workplace to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Disch is full of high praise and trenchant criticism of the genre, but sees its darker expression in the appearance of suicidal and homicidal UFO cults that blur science-fiction-fueled fantasies with reality. Behind the spaceships and aliens Disch reveals the blueprints of the dizzying postmodern future we have already begun to inhabit.

In this collection, the author has gathered 27 short works of fantasy that represent to him the essence of the genre. These are the "strange dreams" that stir the heart and mind, written by authors past and present.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Stephen R. Donaldson
• The Aleph - (1970) - short story by Jorge Luis Borges (trans. of El Aleph 1945)
• Lady of the Skulls - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• As Above, So Below - (1980) - short story by John M. Ford
• Eumenides in the Fourth-Floor Lavatory - (1979) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• Narrow Valley - (1966) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• The Dreamstone - (1979) - short story by C. J. Cherryh
• The Storming of Annie Kinsale - (1984) - short story by Lucius Shepard
• Green Magic - (1963) - short story by Jack Vance
• The Mark of the Beast - (1890) - short story by Rudyard Kipling
• The Big Dream - (1984) - novelette by John Kessel
• The House of Compassionate Sharers - (1977) - novelette by Michael Bishop
• The Fallen Country - (1982) - novelette by S. P. Somtow
• Strata - (1980) - novelette by Edward Bryant
• And Now the News ... - (1956) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• The White Horse Child - (1979) - short story by Greg Bear
• Prince Shadowbow - (1985) - short story by Sheri S. Tepper
• The Girl Who Went to the Rich Neighborhood - (1984) - short story by Rachel Pollack
• Consequences - [Liavek] - (1988) - novella by Walter Jon Williams
• The Stone Fey - (1985) - novelette by Robin McKinley
• Close of Night - (1984) - short story by Daphne Castell
• Hogfoot Right and Bird-Hands - (1987) - short story by Garry Kilworth
• Longtooth - (1970) - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
• My Rose and My Glove - (1984) - short story by Harvey Jacobs
• With the Original Cast - (1982) - novelette by Nancy Kress
• In the Penal Colony - (1948) - novelette by Franz Kafka (trans. of In der Strafkolonie 1919)
• Jeffty Is Five - (1977) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• Air Raid - (1977) - short story by John Varley
• The Dancer from the Dance - (1985) - short story by M. John Harrison

When Liz Drake's best friend vanishes, nothing can stop her nightmares. Driven by the certainty he needs her help, she crosses a continent to search for him. She finds Blake comatose in a Vancouver hospital, victim of a mysterious accident that claimed his lover's life - in her dreams he drowns.

Blake's new circle of artists and mystics draws her in, but all of them are lying or keeping dangerous secrets. Soon nightmare creatures stalk the waking city, and Liz can't fight a dream from the daylight world: to rescue Blake she must brave the darkest depths of the Dreamlands.

Even the attempt could kill her, or leave her mind trapped or broken. And if she succeeds, she must face the monstrous Yellow King, whose slave Blake is on the verge of becoming forever.

Gardner Dozois's multifaceted, sharp-edged, surreal fiction has long been regarded among science fiction's finest offerings. The fourteen masterworks in this volume are unique and beautiful constructions whose images etch themselves indelibly in the reader's mind.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - (1992) - essay by Robert Silverberg
• Morning Child - (1984) - shortstory
• Dinner Party - (1984) - shortstory
• Executive Clemency - (1981) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois and Jack C. Haldeman, II
• A Special Kind of Morning - (1971) - novelette
• Down Among the Dead Men - (1982) - novelette by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann
• Solace - (1989) - shortstory
• Slow Dancing With Jesus - (1983) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann
• The Peacemaker - (1983) - shortstory
• One for the Road - (1982) - shortstory
• Chains of the Sea - (1973) - novella
• A Dream at Noonday - (1970) - shortstory
• Disciples - (1981) - shortstory
• Après Moi - (1990) - shortstory
• A Kingdom by the Sea - (1972) - novelette

This was where the game was played: the planet Meridian, a galactic plague spot that could have been a Paradise. These were the players: a tiny band of outlaws that hid on a seven-mile-high mountain, coming down only to raid the food factories or to establish communication with the queer, half-human Greens. These were the stakes: freedom, survival and life itself! The name of the game was revolution, a strange sort of struggle that was covered by TV like a sporting event--and masked a deeper, more complex game than any that had played before.

Following the debut of the highly-acclaimed collection, The Dark Country, comes RED DREAMS, Dennis Etchison's seminal collection that redefined the short story in modern horror. From desert highways to dark urban landscapes, Etchison weaves a world of unlimited imagination.

This special "definitive" edition features a special introduction from Dennis' good friend, the late Karl Edward Wagner, and extensive story notes by the author, and the author's own preferred texts for all the stories.

Fourteen tales from the Master of Dark Fantasy-

• Talking In The Dark
• Wet Season
• I Can Hear The Dark
• The Graveyard
• One The Pike
• Keeper Of The Light
• Black Sun
• White Moon Rising
• The Chill
• The Smell Of Death
• Drop City
• The Chair
• Not From Around Here

This novelette originally appeared in Clarkesworld, Issue 115, April 2016. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2017, edited by Rich Horton.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Fine literary writing meets Science Fiction. A thematic tour-de-force exploring the concept of being human through the eyes of imperfect protagonists struggling with their demons. More than just great SF, these are great stories told with style, wit and sensitivity. Six memorable stories, each independent, but each tangentially touching on the others.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay
• Melodies of the Heart - (1994) - novella
• Captive Dreams - (1992) - novelette
• Hopeful Monsters - shortstory
• Places Where the Roads Don't Go - novelette
• Remember'd Kisses - (1988) - novelette
• Buried Hopes - shortstory

Sturgeon Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1997. There are no other known publications available at this time.

Below Covent Garden lies the Under Market, where anything and everything has a price: a lover's first blush, a month of honesty, five minutes of strength, a wisp of luck and fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the most powerful merchants of the Under Market as a human apprentice. Now, after seventeen years of servitude and stealing his master's secrets, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but his place amongst the Under Market's elite.

A runaway princess escapes to the market, looking to sell her destiny. Deri knows an opportunity when he sees it and makes the bargain of the century. If Deri can sell it on, he'll be made for life, but if he's caught with the goods, it will cost him his freedom forever. Now that Deri has met a charming and distractingly handsome young man, and persuaded him that three dates are a suitable price for his advice and guidance, Deri realises he has more to lose than ever.

News of the princess spreads quickly and with the royal enforcers closing in, Deri finds himself the centre of his master's unwanted attention. He'll have to pull out all the stops to outmanoeuvre the Master Merchant, save the man he loves, make a name for himself, and possibly change the destiny of London forever.

To dream is to enter inner worlds of terror and revelation, to look the collective unconscious in the face. In this ground-breaking anthology, five modern masters of the fantastic conjure especially potent encounters with the stuff of the sleeping mind, unveiling dark hints about who (or what) we truly are, about our uncertain relationships with the waking world. The stories in The Book of Dreams are bold ventures into the kingdom of Morpheus, upon which individual destinies crucially depend--or perhaps the destiny of the entire human species.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - The Prisoner - novelette by Robert Silverberg
• 29 - Dream Burgers at the Mouth of Hell - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• 59 - Testaments - short story by Jay Lake
• 85 - Rex Nemorensis - short story by Kage Baker
• 105 - 86 Deathdick Road - short story by Jeffrey Ford

Dream broadcasting is the latest entertainment medium. Wayne Corrigan and his colleagues at Dramatic Dreams can broadcast dreams directly into your mind as you sleep for the ultimate in personal adventure.

But when a mysterious malfunction occurs, Wayne is called on to enter a Dream started by another Dreamer. Once inside, he finds a situation run wild and people enslaved by the original Dreamer--a genius bent on self-destruction.

Now, tens of thousands of people--including the woman Wayne loves--are in danger of dying or going insane unless he can find some way to wrest control of the Dream away from a madman.

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Dragons and Dreams) - essay by Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh and Jane Yolen
• 1 - The Box - short story by Bruce Coville
• 12 - The Thing That Goes Burp in the Night - short story by Sharon Webb
• 32 - Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer's Son - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• 43 - All the Names of Baby Hag - short story by Patricia MacLachlan
• 55 - The Three Men - short story by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• 70 - Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale - novelette by Jane Yolen
• 95 - Laughter in the Leaves - [Cerin Songweaver] - short story by Charles de Lint
• 108 - Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream - [Chrestomanci] - novelette by Diana Wynne Jones
• 136 - The Singing Float - short story by Monica Hughes
• 151 - Uptown Local - [Young Wizards] - novelette by Diane Duane

Contains:

• A Time to Live
• Tricentennial
• To Howard Hughes: A Modest Proposal
• Anniversary Project
• The Mazel Tov Revolution
• A Mind of His Own
• 26 Days, On Earth
• Armaja Das
• The Private War of Private Jacob
• Counterpoint
• All the Universe in a Mason Jar
• Summer's Lease
• Juryrigged

Out of body, out of time...

Though basically a skeptic, William Reynolds had known out-of-body experiences in the past. But never before had he floated past the boundaries of Baltimore... and across the borders of time. And now, with the fires of Civil War looming on the horizon, the astonished graduate student was hobnobbing with none other than the dark poet Edgar Allan Poe. But their meeting of minds was to have chilling consequences. For a desperate Confederacy planned to use them both to remold the world - and to change history... for the worse.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Trampoline (2003), edited by Kelly Link. The story is included in the collection Pictures from an Expedition (2006).

They had escaped their country, but they couldn't escape the past

Having lost both her home and family to a brutal dictatorship, Isabel has fled to Spain, where she watches young, bronzed beauties and tries to forget the horrors that lie in her homeland.

Shadowing her always, attired in rumpled linen suits and an eyepatch, is "The Eye," a fellow ex-pat and poet with a notorious reputation. An unlikely friendship blossoms, a kinship of shared grief. Then The Eye receives a mysterious note and suddenly returns home, his fate uncertain.

Left with the keys to The Eye's apartment, Isabel finds two of his secret manuscripts: a halting translation of an ancient, profane work, and an evocative testament of his capture during the revolution. Both texts bear disturbing images of blood and torture, and the more Isabel reads the more she feels the inexplicable compulsion to go home.

It means a journey deep into a country torn by war, still ruled by a violent regime, but the idea of finding The Eye becomes ineluctable. Isabel feels the manuscripts pushing her to go. Her country is lost, and now her only friend is lost, too. What must she give to get them back? In the end, she has only herself left to sacrifice.

THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY asks:

How does someone simply give up their home... especially when their home won't let them?

The mysterious Palace of Dreams stands at the heart of a vast but fragile Balkan empire. Inside, workers assiduously sift, sort, classify, and ultimately interpret the dreams of the empire's citizens. The workers search out Master-Dreams that will provide clues to the destiny of the empire and its Sultan. Mark-Alem, scion of a noble family that has provided viziers to the Sultan from time immemorial, and whose power the Sultan distrusts, is recruited into the Palace of Dreams at the humblest level.

He immediately feels the terrible pressure that drives his coworkers, the dread of overlooking a crucial dream whose capture and interpretation might avert political disaster. But he rapidly rises through the hierarchy--only barely ?nding his bearings in one section of the Palace's labyrinthine passages that represent the entire empire's consciousness laid bare before he is promoted to another. And the pressure only increases as he becomes familiar with the fates of subversive dreamers and personally responsible for the sorts of dreams that might ruin an entire family. A family like his own with this beautifully bound hardcover edition, The Palace of Dreams is powerfully imagined and beautifully written, a national classic from one of Albania's premiere literary voices.

With numerous unforgettable movies based on his short stories--including Shawshank Redemption, 1408, and The Green Mile--readers will be delighted to rediscover this classic collection, also released as a television mini-series and on DVD. Featuring twenty short horror stories, a television script, an essay, and a poem, Nightmares and Dreamscapes contains unique and chilling plots including everything from dead rock star zombies to evil toys seeking murderous revenge. It will be treasured by King fans new and old.

Table of Contents:

• Dolan's Cadillac
• The End of the Whole Mess
• Suffer the Little Children
• The Night Flier
• Popsy
• Masques II
• It Grows on You
• Chattery Teeth
• Dedication
• The Moving Finger
• Sneakers
• You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
• Home Delivery
• Rainy Season
• My Pretty Pony
• Sorry, Right Number
• The Ten O'Clock People
• Crouch End
• The House on Maple Street
• The Fifth Quarter
• The Doctor's Case
• Umney's Last Case
• Head Down
• Brooklyn August
• The Beggar and the Diamond

A master storyteller at his best -- the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.

Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. "Afterlife" is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers -- the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in "Obits;" the old judge in "The Dune" who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In "Morality," King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil's pact they can win.

Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant reader -- "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2015) - essay
• Mile 81 - (2011) - novella
• Premium Harmony - (2009) - short story
• Batman and Robin Have an Altercation - (2012) - short story
• The Dune - (2011) - short story
• Bad Little Kid - (2015) - novelette
• A Death - (2015) - short story
• The Bone Church - (2009) - poem
• Morality - (2009) - novelette
• Afterlife - (2013) - short story
• Ur - (2009) - novella
• Herman Wouk Is Still Alive - (2011) - short story
• Under the Weather - (2011) - short story
• Blockade Billy - (2010) - novelette
• Mister Yummy - (2015) - short story
• Tommy - (2010) - short story
• The Little Green God of Agony - (2011) - novelette
• That Bus is Another World - (2014) - short story
• Obits - (2015) - novelette
• Drunken Fireworks - (2015) - novelette
• Summer Thunder - (2013) - short story

What do writers of science fiction write about?

Are their stories merely wild tales to thrill the kids? Or are their stories profound predictions about today and distant tomorrows?

This book will answer these questions by showing that science fiction writrs do both. Their fiction is exciting -- the most exciting being written. It is thoughtful fiction -- the most relevant to our modern world.

The author, whose interest has virtually spanned the entire period since the coining of the term 'science fiction', demonstrates by pictures and literary extracts what the authors have been saing in the field. His accompanying text undertakes a Gargantuan task, to make coherent the richness of thought and the variety of ideas and dreams of science fiction.

If you have enjoyed his Pictorial History of Science Fiction and thrilled to the story of the development of 'sf', you will be equally enthralled by being taken on a quick by stimulating introduction to what these provocative writers write about -- and also what their fellow artists see.

Publication of The Birthgrave in 1975 heralded a new and brilliant luminary in the firmament of modem fantasy. Ostensibly a sword-and-sorcery epic in the tradition of Robert E. Howard, this novel about a youthful heroine with incipient psychic powers astounded readers with its striking originality and intense emotional impact. Tanith Lee today is one of the most versatile and respected writers of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and DREAMS OF DARK AND LIGHT represents a massive midcareer retrospective of her achievements over the previous decade.

Here are unforgettable tales of werewolves that prowl chateaux, an Earthwoman in exile on a distant planet, demons that inhabit bodies of the living dead, a race of vampiric creatures who prey upon a cursed castle, and many other works of exotic vision, mythic science fiction, and contemporary horror. Also included are two stories that have received the World Fantasy Award, "Elle est Trois, (La Mort)" and "The Gorgon," making DREAMS OF DARK AND LIGHT a distinguished one volume library of myth-weaving at its most eloquent and evocative.

Although acclaimed as the "Princess Royal of Heroic Fantasy," Tanith Lee has long since transcended genre conventions to create a body of work of remarkable psychological depth and artistic distinction. In her imaginative sympathy with characters, human or otherwise, Lee remains unexcelled in the portrayal of deeply felt emotions. Her stories explore many of the most significant themes in twentieth-century literature - life and death, coming of age, the nature of good and evil, love in all its manifestations. And she remains, above all, one of the great natural storytellers working in the English language ... Tanith Lee truly has become the Scheherazade of our time.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Rosemary Hawley Jarman
• Because Our Skins Are Finer - (1981) - shortstory
• Bite-Me-Not or, Fleur de Fur - (1984) - novelette
• Black as Ink - (1983) - novelette
• Bright Burning Tiger - (1984) - shortstory
• Cyrion in Wax - (1980) - shortstory
• A Day in the Skin (or, The Century We Were Out of Them) - (1984) - shortstory
• The Dry Season - (1981) - novelette
• Elle Est Trois, (La Mort) - (1983) - novelette
• Foreign Skins - (1984) - novelette
• The Gorgon - (1982) - novelette
• La Reine Blanche - (1983) - shortstory
• A Lynx With Lions - (1982) - novelette
• Magritte's Secret Agent - (1981) - novelette
• Medra - (1984) - shortstory
• Nunc Dimittis - (1983) - novelette
• Odds Against the Gods - (1977) - novelette
• A Room With a Vie - (1980) - shortstory
• Sirriamnis - (1981) - novelette
• Southern Lights - (1982) - novelette
• Tamastara - (1984) - novelette
• When the Clock Strikes - (1980) - shortstory
• Wolfland - (1980) - novelette
• Written in Water - (1982) - shortstory

A modern classic, Einstein's Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.

Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein's Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

Plagued by insane nightmare visions, Walter Gilman seeks help in Miskatonic University's infamous library of forbidden books, where, in the pages of Abdul Alhazred's dreaded Necronomicon, he finds terrible hints that seem to connect his own studies in advanced mathematics with the fantastic legends of elder magic. "The Dreams in the Witch House," gathered together here with more than twenty other tales of terror, exemplifies H. P. Lovecraft's primacy among twentieth-century American horror writers.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by S. T. Joshi
• Suggestions for Further Reading - essay by S. T. Joshi
• A Note on the Texts - essay by S. T. Joshi
• Polaris - [Dream Cycle] - (1920) - short story
• The Doom That Came to Sarnath - [Dream Cycle] - (1920) - short story
• The Terrible Old Man - (1921) - short story
• The Tree - (1921) - short story
• The Cats of Ulthar - [Dream Cycle] - (1920) - short story
• From Beyond - [Dream Cycle] - (1934) - short story
• The Nameless City - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1921) - short story
• The Moon-Bog - (1926) - short story
• The Other Gods - [Dream Cycle] - (1933) - short story
• Hypnos - [Dream Cycle] - (1922) - short story
• The Lurking Fear - (1928) - novelette
• The Unnamable - [Randolph Carter] - (1925) - short story
• The Shunned House - (1928) - novelette
• The Horror at Red Hook - (1927) - novelette
• In the Vault - (1925) - short story
• The Strange High House in the Mist - [Dream Cycle] - (1931) - short story
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath - [Randolph Carter] - (1943) - novella
• The Silver Key - [Randolph Carter] - (1929) - short story
• Through the Gates of the Silver Key - [Randolph Carter] - (1934) - novelette
• The Dreams in the Witch House - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1933) - novelette
• The Shadow Out of Time - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1936) - novella
• Explanatory Notes - essay by S. T. Joshi

A Box of Dreams is a surreal extravaganza set in a gothic castle somewhere in snowbound middle-Europe. The young narrator finds himself on a train at night, wearing no trousers, unable to recall who he is or where he is going. On the train he encounters an elderly man who says he is Dr Freud of Vienna (but not the Dr Freud) and a sadistic guard called Malkowitz. At Schloss Flachstein, ancestral home of Count Wilhelm, he finds himself expected to deliver a lecture on yodelling, accidentally starts a stampede of feral cows and becomes infatuated with Adelma, the count's nymphomaniac daughter. Dream opens up onto dream almost ad infinitum as the young man struggles to discover his identity and to separate reality from illusion. Yet all is not what it seems, as the very last page of the book makes clear!
(author)

The young hero awakes to find himself on a train with Dr Freud from Vienna and the sadistic train attendant Malkowitz. He can't remember who he is nor where he is going and has certainly no idea why he is not wearing his trousers. He allows himself to be led off dressed in a lady's skirt on a visit to a nearby castle where it seems he is expected. Everyone is looking forward to his lecture the next day on the art of yodelling. While trying to learn what he can about yodelling in the count's library he encounters Adelma, the count's precocious daughter with an insatiable sexual appetite. He is ready for love but can't get away from the archbishop's wife and is constantly thwarted by the servants desire to let him hear the secrets of their bizarre lives.

Everything is not as it appears as David Madsen leads us through story within story, dream within dream with characters whose reality is constantly changing. We arrive we think back at the beginning ready to begin our journey yet again until the author pulls his final surprise out of his box of tricks.

A baroque black comedy.
(publisher)

The id is out of its box and scampering all over this often hilarious and surreally distrubing gothic romp. The narrator wakes from a dream of sexual assault on a train--or was it' Finding himself in a bewildering Mitteleuropa, he is counselled by a bogus Dr. Freud and embroiled in the irrational doings of a malodorous ticket inspector, a sadistic valet, a lascivious count and his luscious daughter. He is also confined to a velveteen skirt and taken for an authority on yodelling. Madsen has his favorite themes -- food, sex and Catholics -- and here adds psychoanalysis to the mix, as the hero struggles for self-knowledge. He sidles from dream to dream, and wakes to find his consciousness drooling again.
(Amazon)

What happens to us after we die? Chris Nielsen had no idea, until an unexpected accident cut his life short, separating him from his beloved wife, Annie. Now Chris must discover the true nature of life after death.

But even Heaven is not complete without Annie, and the divided soul mates will do anything to reach each other across the boundaries between life and death. When tragedy threatens to divide them forever, Chris risks his very soul to save Annie from an eternity of despair.

Published simultaneously with Desolation Road, the Empire Dreams collection was intended to exploit the author's nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1985. It collects the following stories:

Table of Contents:

• Vivaldi Visits to Remarkable Cities
• Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh
• Scenes from a Shadowplay Radio Marrakech
• King of Morning, Queen of Day
• The Island of the Dead
• Empire Dreams (Ground Control to Major Tom)
• Christian The Catharine Wheel (Our Lady of Tharsis)

Bestselling author Patricia A. McKillip (The Riddle-Master of Hed) is one of the most lyrical writers gracing the fantasy genre. With the debut of three brand-new stories, Dreams of Distant Shores is a true ode to her many talents.

Within these pages you will find a youthful artist possessed by both his painting and his muse and seductive travelers from the sea enrapturing distant lovers. The statue of a mermaid comes suddenly to life and two friends are transfixed by a haunted estate.

Fans of McKillip's ethereal fiction will delight in these previously-uncollected tales; those new to her work will find much to enchant them.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, December 2012. It can also be found in the anthology Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse (2015).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

In Earth's distant future, Tyndel is both teacher and mentor, a staunch devotee to his conservative and rigidly structured religious culture. Then a rogue infection of nanotechnology transforms him into a "demon", something more than human, and he is forced into exile, fleeing to the more technologically advanced space-faring civilization that lies to the north, one that his own righteous people consider evil. Although shaken by his transformation, he has the rare talent required to become a space pilot. What no one, least of all Tyndel, expects, is his deep-space encounter with a vastly superior being--perhaps with God.

Jirel of Joiry, the first of the great female warriors, the beautiful commander of the strongest fortress in the kingdom, would face any danger to defend her beloved country. She wielded her bright sword against mighty armies, the sinister magic of evil sorcerers and fearsome castles guarded by the dead, even daring to descend into Hell itself...

Northwest Smith, the scarred and weathered outlaw, the legendary hero of the spaceways, forced to confront the terrible mysteries, the terrifying, mythic monsters of the universe...

Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith are C.L. Moore's greatest creations and she used them not only to spin spellbinding tales but also to explore the mysteries of the human psyche.

This is the omnibus edition of the collections Jirel of Joiry (aka Black Gods) and Scarlet Dream (aka Northwest Smith).

Undead girls begin re-entering the world of the living, emerging from refrigerators.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Blaine Ramsey is an image-digger. He dreams images, and turns them into computer-animated ads for an American conglomerate. While stationed in Egypt, Blaine catches a glimpse of a brutal attack on a young Arab beauty. He is tormented by the violent act--a nightmare from which he cannot escape. But Blaine soon discovers that the woman's appearance in his dreams represents more than his own outrage at human cruelty.

Ramsay Kimble finds himself living in an alien world, the focus of a complex and dangerous political struggle, and only his ability to dream can help him triumph over his adversaries.

Contents:

• Toys of Tamisan
• Ship of Mist
• Get Out of My Dream
• Nightmare

The fantastic has always been at the edges of Heather O'Neill's work. In her bestselling novels, Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, she transforms the shabbiest streets of Montreal with her beautiful, freewheeling metaphors. She describes the smallest of things?a stray cat or a secondhand coat?with an intensity that makes them otherworldly.

In Daydreams of Angels, O'Neill's first collection of short stories, she gives free rein to her imaginative gifts. In "Swan Lake for Beginners," generations of Nureyev clones live out their lives in a grand Soviet experiment. In "The Holy Dove Parade," a teenage cult follower writes a letter to explain the motivation behind her crime. And in another tale, a grandmother reveals where babies come from: the beach, where young mothers-to-be hunt for infants in the surf. Each of these beguiling stories twists the beloved narratives of childhood?fairy tales, fables, Bible parables?to uncover the deepest truths of family life.

Locus Award winning and Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in a collection of the same name. It can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Awards 22 (1988), edited by George Zebrowski, Future on Ice (1998), edited by Orson Scott Card and Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century (2001), edited by Orson Scott Card.

Robot Dreams spans the body of Asimov's fiction from the 1940s to the mid-80s, and features classic Asimovian themes, from the scientific puzzle to the extraterrestrial thriller, all introduced in an exclusive essay written especially for this collection.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1989) - essay
• Little Lost Robot - (1947) - novelette
• Robot Dreams - (1986) - shortstory
• Breeds There a Man...? - (1951) - novelette
• Hostess - (1951) - novelette
• Sally - (1953) - shortstory
• Strikebreaker - (1957) - shortstory
• The Machine That Won the War - (1961) - shortstory
• Eyes Do More Than See - (1965) - shortstory
• The Martian Way - (1952) - novella
• Franchise - (1955) - shortstory
• Jokester - (1956) - shortstory
• The Last Question - (1956) - shortstory
• Does a Bee Care? - (1957) - shortstory
• Light Verse - (1973) - shortstory
• The Feeling of Power - (1958) - shortstory
• Spell My Name with an S - (1958) - shortstory
• The Ugly Little Boy - (1958) - novelette
• The Billiard Ball - (1967) - novelette
• True Love - (1977) - shortstory
• The Last Answer - (1980) - shortstory
• Lest We Remember - (1982) - novelette

Blood of Dreams follows the story of a woman who has the power to stop a killer as he stalks the dreams of his victims.

As Venice is taken over by the hedonism of Carnevale, a charismatic stranger roams the city, intent on stealing the dreams of others by taking their lives. A series of gruesome deaths brings the murderer, the priest and the beautiful young opium addict together in an astonishing encounter from which no one will emerge unscathed.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing (2007), edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, May 2014. It can also be found in the anthology People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy (2010), edited by Sean Wallace and Rachel Swirsky. The story is included in the collection The Beatrix Gates (2018).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Hugo Award winning short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2006. The story can also be found in the anthology Other Worlds Than These (2012), edited by John Joseph Adams. It is included in the collection Hart & Boot & Other Stories (2007).

This novella was first published in Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2023.

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

New Dreams for Old is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by Mike Resnick, showing the depth and range that has not only made him a popular seller, but also placed him fourth (and climbing) on the all-time award list of all science fiction writers living and dead (as compiled by Locus).

This book contains award winners and nominees. It contains two stories that are currently in development by Hollywood. It contains stories that have won readers polls, that have won foreign prizes, and a few that are just out-and-out hilarious.

Most of these stories constitute recent work. One of them -- "Travels With My Cats" -- was a 2005 Hugo Award-winner and a Nebula nominee, while another -- "A Princess of Earth" -- was also a 2005 Hugo nominee. The story "Robots Don't Cry" was a 2004 Hugo nominee the previous year. Also included are the Hugo and Nebula nominee "For I Have Touched the Sky," Hugo nominee "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle," and Hugo winner "The 43 Antarean Dynasties." This collection also includes two novellas that have never seen print outside of the members-only Science Fiction Book Club.

Are there really elephants on Neptune? What does Old MacDonald of nursery-rhyme fame actually grow on his farm? Is there much difference between pruning elderly flowers and elderly people? A trio of award nominees, "The Elephants on Neptune," "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," and "Hothouse Flowers," provide the answers.

This is a collection of enormous range and the highest quality. More to the point, every story will not only make the reader think, but feel. The collection is introduced by Nancy Kress, herself a multiple Hugo and Nebula winner, and a monthly columnist for Writer's Digest.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2006) - essay by Nancy Kress
• Robots Don't Cry - (2003) - shortstory
• The Elephants on Neptune - (2000) - shortstory
• Travels with My Cats - (2004) - shortstory
• A Princess of Earth - (2004) - shortstory
• Down Memory Lane - (2005) - shortstory
• The Chinese Sandman - (2002) - novelette
• Guardian Angel - (2005) - novella
• Old MacDonald Had a Farm - (2001) - shortstory
• The Amorous Broom - (2004) - shortstory
• Hothouse Flowers - (1999) - shortstory
• His Award-Winning Science Fiction Story - (1988) - shortstory
• For I Have Touched the Sky - (1989) - novelette
• Unsafe at Any Speed - (2003) - essay
• The Pale Thin God - (1993) - shortstory
• Mwalimu in the Squared Circle - (1993) - shortstory
• Here's Looking at You, Kid - (2003) - shortstory
• The Burning Spear at Twilight - (2005) - shortstory
• The Kemosabee - (1994) - shortstory
• The 43 Antarean Dynasties - (1997) - shortstory
• Keepsakes - (2004) - novella

WFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Map of Dreams (2006).

Fantasy has come to be associated with a literature of escapism but M. Rickert's collection, Map of Dreams, hearkens back to the root meaning of "fantasy," from the word "phantasia" or "a making visible." Myths exist here, not as old stories, but as ancient truths about the nature of being a modern human.

There are winged creatures in these stories, and there is odd magic as well, but these serve as elementals of emotion, making apparent the inner lives of humans. There is terror, and humor, too; love and sorrow, despair and recovery -- all in a reality where dreams and nightmares do not fade away upon close inspection. Rickert's stories do not lull; they awaken.

In the title story, a near-40,000-word novella published here for the first time, Annie Merchant witnesses -- experiences -- her daughter's murder by a sniper; a random murder. Annie then vows to relive that moment, and prevent her daughter's death. She forsakes her marriage, her friends, her home, and invests body and soul into this endeavor. She studies every tome she can find at the library on physics and "curved space"; her quest eventually takes her to Australia where the everyday myths and dreams of the Aborigines become her new reality; she befriends people, from the present as well as the past, who aide her in her search for the past. But above all else, her love for her daughter gives her the strength of will to find and embrace redemption.

"Peace on Suburbia" is a different kind of Christmas story, about a different kind of Saviour; a world in which parents fear for their children's safety, and terrorism poses a threat to home and neighborhood. And in this same world -- our world! -- where our children go off to war, the story "Anyway" asks the questions: What if you could save the world?... Would you do it?

"Cold Fires," about love and obsession, which Locus magazine calls "virtuoso narrative artistry, two embedded tales conspiring to tell the story that frames them," was a finalist for the Speculative Literature Foundation's Fountain Award, and named to Locus's 2004 "Best of the Best" list.

Map of Dreams -- featuring seventeen tales plus four interstitial framing sections: Dreams, Nightmares, Waking, and Rising -- is the highly anticipated first short fiction collection from M. Rickert, heralded as "the hot new writer of the year" by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, editors of the Year's Best anthology series. With an introduction by Christopher Barzak and an afterword by Gordon Van Gelder, editor and publisher of the prestigious The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Who Is M. Rickert? - essay by Christopher Barzak
• Map of Dreams
• Dreaming of the Sun
• Leda - (2002)
• Cold Fires - (2004)
• Angel Face - (2000)
• Night Blossoms
• Feeding the Beast
• Bread and Bombs - (2003)
• Art Is Not a Violent Subject - (2004)
• Anyway - (2005)
• A Very Little Madness Goes a Long Way - (2005)
• What I Saw, When I Looked
• The Girl Who Ate Butterflies - (1999)
• Many Voices - (2004)
• More Beautiful Than You
• Peace on Suburbia - (2003)
• Flight
• Moorina of the Seals - (2001)
• The Harrowing - (2005)
• The Super Hero Saves The World - (2003)
• The Chambered Fruit - (2003)
• Afterword (Map of Dreams) - essay by Gordon Van Gelder

The realm of Azenor has spent years plagued by a curse. Every new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians--who serve as territory wardens--stand between people and their worst dreams.

Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians arrive to challenge her, she is unknowingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets--as well as romance--begin to rise.

To fight the realm's curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn, Clementine must unite with her rival. But will their efforts be enough to save Azenor from the nightmares that lurk around every corner?

One of the most decorated and famous novellas of the 1990s, The Gallery of His Dreams remains a timeless tale of love, loss, and the power of art.

Mathew Brady, the first great war photographer, died broke in service of his art. In The Gallery of His Dreams, acclaimed writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch gives Mathew Brady a look at the future repercussions, power, and incredible value of his art, as only another true artist can do.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's transformative novella The Gallery of His Dreams earned the Locus award for best novella and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards.

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

Trying to escape her embarrassing immigrant mother, Vimbai moves into a dilapidated house in the dunes... and discovers that one of her new roommates has a pocket universe instead of hair, there's a psychic energy baby living in the telephone wires, and her dead Zimbabwean grandmother is doing dishes in the kitchen. When the house gets lost at sea and creatures of African urban legends all but take it over, Vimbai turns to horseshoe crabs in the ocean to ask for their help in getting home to New Jersey.

From the vampire-haunted alleyways of mediaeval Averoigne to the shining spires of dying Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith weaves his literary sorcery, transporting us to forgotten realms of necromancies and nightmares, lost worlds and other dimensions. In the enchanted regions of Hyperborea, Atlantis and Xiccarph, encounter malefic magic and demonic deeds beneath the last rays of a fading sun...

For the first time ever, this volume encompasses Clark Ashton Smith's entire career as a writer. Smith virtually stopped writing stories in 1937, for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, but he left behind a unique legacy of fantasy fiction which is as imaginative and decadent today as when it was first published in the pulp magazines more than half a century ago.

Contents: series are in [ ]

• On Fantasy (1934), essay
• Song of the Necromancer (1937), poem
• The Abominations of Yondo (1926), short story
• The Ninth Skeleton (1928), short story
• The Last Incantation, [Malygris] (1930), short story
• A Rendezvous in Averoigne, [Averoigne] (1931), short story
• The Return of the Sorcerer, [Cthulhu Mythos] (1931), short story
• The Tale of Satampra Zeiros, [Satampra Zeiros] (1931), short story
• The Door to Saturn, [Hyperborea] (1932), short story
• The Gorgon (1932), short story
• The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan, [Hyperborea] (1932), short story
• The Nameless Offspring (1932), novelette
• The Empire of the Necromancers, [Zothique] (1932), short story
• The Hunters from Beyond (1932), short story
• The Isle of the Torturers, [Zothique] (1933), short story
• The Beast of Averoigne, [Averoigne] (1933), short story
• Genius Loci (1933), short story
• Ubbo-Sathla, [Hyperborea] (1933), short story
• The Kiss of Zoraida (1933), short story
• The Seed from the Sepulcher (1933), short story
• The Weaver in the Vault, [Zothique] (1934), short story
• The Ghoul (1934), short story
• The Charnel God, [Zothique] (1934), novelette
• The Death of Malygris, [Malygris] (1934), short story
• The Tomb-Spawn, [Zothique] (1934), short story
• The Seven Geases, [Hyperborea] (1934), novelette
• Xeethra, [Zothique] (1934), novelette
• The Dark Eidolon, [Zothique] (1935), novelette
• The Flower-Women, [Maal Dweb] (1935), short story
• The Treader of the Dust (1935), short story
• The Black Abbot of Puthuum, [Zothique] (1936), novelette
• Necromancy in Naat, [Zothique] (1936), novelette
• The Death of Ilalotha, [Zothique] (1937), short story
• The Garden of Adompha, [Zothique] (1938), short story
• Mother of Toads, [Averoigne] (1938), short story
• The Double Shadow, [Poseidonis] (1933), short story
• The Coming of the White Worm, [Hyperborea] (1941), short story
• The Root of Ampoi (1949), short story
• Morthylla, [Zothique] (1953), short story
• An Offering to the Moon (1953), short story
• The Theft of Thirty-nine Girdles, [Satampra Zeiros] (1958), short story
• Symposium of the Gorgon (1958), short story
• Told in the Desert (1964), short story
• Prince Alcouz and the Magician(1977), short story
• A Good Embalmer (1989), short story
• The Mortuary (1971), poem
• Afterword: The Lost Worlds of Klarkash-Ton,essay by Stephen Jones

Charlie is a dreamhacker, able to enter your dreams and mould their direction. Forget that recurring nightmare about being naked at an exam - Charlie will step in to your dream, bring you a dressing gown and give you the answers. As far as she knows, she's the only person who can do this. Unfortunately, her power comes with one drawback - Charlie also has narcolepsy, and may fall asleep at the most inopportune moment.

But in London 2022, her skill is in demand. And when she is hired by a minor celebrity - who also happens to be the new girlfriend of Charlie's lamented ex - who dreams of a masked Creeper then sleepwalks off a tall building, Charlie begins to realise that someone else might be able to invade dreams...

All his life, Jon Ward has been plagued by a recurrent nightmare, one that plunges him again and again into a world of mindless terror and haunts his waking hours. Desperate to discover the source of his evil dreams, Jon seeks psychiatric treatment, to no avail. If anything, his fantasies become stronger, more horrific, until at least he becomes aware of the presence of another personality within him, speaking through his lips, demanding to be reborn and to complete the subjugation of mankind, thwarted so long ago, to his maniacal will....

Subterranean Press proudly presents a major new collection by one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Catherynne M. Valente, the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and other acclaimed novels, now brings readers a treasure trove of stories and poems in The Bread We Eat in Dreams.

In the Locus Award-winning novelette 'White Lines on a Green Field,' an old story plays out against a high school backdrop as Coyote is quarterback and king for a season. A girl named Mallow embarks on an adventure of memorable and magical politicks in 'The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland--For a Little While.' The award-winning, tour de force novella 'Silently and Very Fast' is an ancient epic set in a far-flung future, the intimate autobiography of an evolving A.I. And in the title story, the history of a New England town and that of an outcast demon are irrevocably linked.

The twenty-six pieces collected here explore an extraordinary breadth of styles and genres, as Valente presents readers with something fresh and evocative on every page. From noir to Native American myth, from folklore to the final frontier, each tale showcases Valente's eloquence and originality.

Table of Contents:

• The Consultant - (2013) - shortstory
• White Lines on a Green Field - (2011) - novelette
• The Bread We Eat in Dreams - (2011) - shortstory
• The Melancholy of Mechagirl - (2011) - poem by Catherynne M. Valente
• A Voice Like a Hole - (2011) - shortstory
• The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland -- For a Little While - (2011) - novelette
• How to Raise a Minotaur - (2013) - shortstory
• The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World - (2013) - shortstory
• Mouse Koan - (2012) - poem
• The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset - (2013) - shortstory
• In the Future When All's Well - (2011) - shortstory
• Fade to White - (2012) - novelette
• Aeromaus - (2013) - shortstory
• Red Engines - (2009) - poem
• The Wolves of Brooklyn - (2011) - shortstory
• One Breath, One Stroke - (2012) - shortstory
• Kallisti - (2013) - shortstory
• The Wedding - (2013) - shortstory
• The Secret of Being a Cowboy - (2011) - poem
• Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus - (2013) - shortstory
• We Without Us Were Shadows - (2013) - novelette
• The Red Girl - (2013) - shortstory
• Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985 - (2012) - poem
• The Room - (2013) - shortstory
• Silently and Very Fast - (2011) - novella
• What the Dragon Said: A Love Story - (2012) - poem

This short story originally appeared in Apex Magazine, November 2011. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2012, edited by Paula Guran. The story is included in the collection The Bread We Eat in Dreams (2013).

Read the full story for free at Apex.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 24, September-Octorber 2018.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

These inter-connected stories are set in an opulent quasi-historical world of magick and high manners called the Republic of Califa. The Republic is a strangely familiar place--a baroque approximation of Gold Rush era-California with an overlay of Aztec ceremony--yet the characters who populate it are true originals: rockstar magicians, murderous gloves, bouncing boy terrors, blue tinted butlers, sentient squids, and a three year old Little Tiny Doom and her vengeful pink plush pig.

By turn whimsical and horrific (sometime in the same paragraph), Wilce's stories have been characterized as "screwball comedies for goths" but they could also be described as "historical fantasies" or "fanciful histories" for there are nuggets of historical fact hidden in them there lies.

Table of Contents:

• The Biography of a Bouncing Boy Terror!
• Quartermaster Returns
• Metal More Attractive
• The Lineaments of Gratified Desire
• Lovelocks
• Hand in Glove
• Scaring the Shavetail

Eight stories by science fiction's finest prose stylist... Speculation, not science, is Wilhelm's forte, and these stories deal with a town in a state of perpetual intellectual somnambulism, two strange hounds that show up on the stoop of a young housewife's home, a man and a woman who take refuge from a snow storm in a bus stop, and a woman who abandons her dreary family to dream about adventures on Mars. -- Booklist

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - (1978) - essay by R. Glenn Wright
• Somerset Dreams - (1969)
• The Encounter - (1970)
• Planet Story - (1975)
• Mrs. Bagley Goes to Mars - (1978)
• Symbiosis - (1972)
• Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis - (1976)
• The Hounds - (1974)
• State of Grace - (1977)

For Jeff Johnston, a young historical reseacher for a Civil War novelist, reality is redefined on a bitter cold night near the close of a lingering winter. He meets Annie, an intense and lovely young woman suffering from vivid, intense nightmares. Haunted by the dreamer and her unrelenting dreams, Jeff leads Annie on an emotional odyssey through the heartland of the Civil War in search of a cure. On long-silenced battlefields their relationship blossoms: two obsessed lovers linked by unbreakable chains of history, torn by a duty that could destroy them both.

This short story originally appeared on Strange Horizons, 3 January 2005. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (2007), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. The story is included in the collection The Chains That You Refuse (2006).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award Finalist

For centuries fairy tales have been a powerful mode of passing cultural values onto our children, and for many these stories delight and haunt us from cradle to grave. But how have these stories become so powerful and why?

In When Dreams Came True, Jack Zipes explains the social life of the fairy tale, from the sixteenth century on into the twenty-first. Whether exploring Charles Perrault or the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen or The Thousand and One Nights, The Happy Prince or Pinocchio, L. Frank Baum or Hermann Hesse, Zipes shows how the authors of our beloved fairy tales used the genre to articulate personal desires, political views, and aesthetic preferences within particular social contexts. Above all, he demonstrates the role that the fairy tale has assumed in the civilizing process -- the way it imparts values, norms, and aesthetic taste to children and adults.

Heaven, reported St John in Revelation, was a cubical city 12,000 furlongs high made of 'pure gold, like unto clear glass'. That was 1,900 years ago, and Heaven as it is today has changed out of all recognition. This book is the account of a recent journey to the metropolis at the nerve-centre of the universe. The journey was undertaken not by a mystical reporter like St John, but by Howard Baker, an observer of much more modern outlook. He finds a city that offers rich opportunities for leisure and enjoyment - but one which also presents a moral and intellectual challenge. In short, a city that is highly adapted to the requirements of modest, responsible, likeable, educated men of liberal views and genuine social concern called Howard Baker.

The novel recounts the life of a young man, Lucian Taylor, focusing on his dreamy childhood in rural Wales, in a town based on Caerleon. The Hill of Dreams of the title is an old Roman fort where Lucian has strange sensual visions, including ones of the town in the time of Roman Britain. Later it describes Lucian's attempts to make a living as an author in London, enduring poverty and suffering in the pursuit of art.

After the end, the world will be un-American. This speculation forms the nucleus of Un-American Dreams, a study of US apocalyptic science fiction and the cultural politics of disimagined community in the short century of American superpower, 1945-2001. Between the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which helped to transform the United States into a superpower and initiated the Cold War, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which spelled the Cold War's second death and inaugurated the War on Terror, apocalyptic science fiction returned again and again to the scene of America's negation. During the American Century, to imagine yourself as American and as a participant in a shared national culture meant disimagining the most powerful nation on the planet.

Un-American Dreams illuminates how George R. Stewart, Philip K. Dick, George A. Romero, Octavia Butler, and Roland Emmerich represented the impossibility of reforming American society and used figures of the end of the world as speculative pretexts to imagine the utopian possibilities of an un-American world. The American Century was simultaneously a closure of the path to utopia and an escape route into apocalyptic science fiction, the underground into which figures of an alternative future could be smuggled.

This book studies the treatment of science and technology from ancient myths to current works, demonstrating the importance of science to human civilization as evidenced in literature. Works studied include the Bible, Greek mythology, tales from the Middle Ages (including those about the Golem and Dr. Faustus), Gulliver's Travels, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, and Aldous Huxley, among others.

Like every teen, Anna has secrets. Unlike every teen, Anna has a telepath for a father and Commerce City's most powerful businessperson for a mother. She's also the granddaughter of the city's two most famous superheroes, the former leaders of the legendary Olympiad, and the company car drops her off at the gate of her exclusive high school every morning. Privacy is one luxury she doesn't have.

Hiding her burgeoning superpowers from her parents is hard enough; how's she supposed to keep them from finding out that her friends have powers, too? Or that she and the others are meeting late at night, honing their skills and dreaming of becoming Commerce City's next great team of masked vigilantes?

Like every mother, Celia worries about her daughter. Unlike every mother, Celia has the means to send Anna to the best schools and keep a close watch on her, every second of every day. At least Celia doesn't have to worry about Anna becoming a target for every gang with masks and an agenda, like Celia was at Anna's age.

As far as Celia knows, Anna isn't anything other than a normal teen. Still, just in case, Celia has secretly awarded scholarships at Anna's private high school to the descendants of the city's other superpowered humans. Maybe, just maybe, these teens could one day fill the gap left by the dissolution of The Olympiad....in Carrie Vaughn's Dreams of the Golden Age.

No one is as good at stripping bare the dark desires of the inhuman soul as Laurell K. Hamilton, something she has proven time after time in her New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels. Now, in Incubus Dreams, Anita's life is more complicated than ever, as she is caught between her obligations to the living and the undead.

A vampire serial killer who preys on strippers is on the loose. Called in to consult on the case, Anita fears her judgment may be clouded by a conflict of interest. For she is, after all, the consort of Jean-Claude, the ever-intoxicating Master Vampire of the City. Surrounded by suspicion, overwhelmed by her attempts to control the primal lusts that continue to wrack her as a result of her passionate contacts with vampires, werewolves, and the shapeshifter Micah, Anita does something unprecedented: She calls for help.

Dark incantations expose the minds of Miskatonic University students to supernatural horrors...

The mysterious disappearance of a gifted student at Miskatonic University spurs his troubled roommate, Elliot Raslo, into an investigation of his own. But Elliot already struggles against the maddening allure of a ceaseless chant that only he can hear... When Elliot's search converges with that of a Greenland Inuk's hunt for a stolen relic, they are left with yet more questions. Could there be a connection between Elliot's litany and the broken stone stele covered in antediluvian writings that had obsessed his friend? Learning the answers will draw them into the heart of a devilish plot to rebirth an ancient horror.

Croaker has fallen and, following the Company's disastrous defeat at Dejagore, Lady is one of the few survivors--determined to avenge the Company and herself against the Shadowmasters, no matter what the cost.

But in assembling a new fighting force from the dregs and rabble of Taglios, she finds herself offered help by a mysterious, ancient cult of murder--competent, reliable, and apparently committed to her goals.

Meanwhile, far away, Shadowmasters conspire against one another and the world, weaving dark spells that reach into the heart of Taglios. And in a hidden grove, a familiar figure slowly awakens to find himself the captive of an animated, headless corpse.

Mercilessly cutting through Taglian intrigues, Lady appears to be growing stronger every day. All that disturbs her are the dreams which afflict her by night--dreams of carnage, of destruction, of universal death, unceasing...

The national bestselling Black Jewels trilogy established award-winning Anne Bishop as an author whose "sublime skill... blends the darkly macabre with spine-tingling emotional intensity, mesmerizing magic, lush sensuality, and exciting action."* Now the saga continues-with four all-new adventures of Jaenelle and her kindred.

Table of Contents:

• Weaver of Dreams - shortstory
• The Prince of Ebon Rih - novel
• Zuulaman - novelette
• Kaeleer's Heart - novel

The latest addition to the Myths series from Canongate, now available in paperback, is a beguiling tale from the beloved author of the best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Angus is one of the earliest Celtic deities and one of the most cherished to this day. Like an even more handsome combination of Apollo and Eros, he is the god of love, youth, and beauty. Just the sight of him has made people fall in love, and he has the power to reveal a person's true love in a dream, if asked politely.

Alexander McCall Smith has turned his renowned storytelling talents to crafting irresistible stories from this ancient myth. Five exquisite contemporary fables of love lost and found unfold alongside Angus's search for the beautiful Caer, the swan maiden he met in his dreams. McCall Smith unites reality and dreams, today and the ancient past, mesmerizingly, leaving the reader to wonder: what is life but the pursuit of dreams?

THEY CALL IT "THE CITY OF A HUNDRED ROWS".

City of Dreams & Nightmare is the first in a series of novels set in one of the most extraordinary fantasy settings since Gormenghast - the ancient vertical city of Thaiburley. From its towering palatial heights to the dregs who dwell in The City Below, this is a vast, multi-tiered metropolis, and demons are said to dwell in the Upper Heights...

Having witnessed a murder in a part of the city he should never have been in, street thief Tom has to run for his life. Down through the vast city he is pursued by sky-borne assassins, sinister Kite Guards, and agents of a darker force intent on destabilising the whole city. Accused of the crime, he must use all of his knowledge of this ancient city to flee a certain death; his only ally is Kat, a renegade like him, but she has secrets of her own...

In this action-packed sequel to City of Dark Magic, we find musicologist Sarah Weston in Vienna in search of a cure for her friend Pollina, who is now gravely ill and who may not have much time left. Meanwhile, Nicolas Pertusato, in London in search of an ancient alchemical cure for the girl, discovers an old enemy is one step ahead of him. In Prague, Prince Max tries to unravel the strange reappearance of a long dead saint while being pursued by a seductive red-headed historian with dark motives of her own.

In the city of Beethoven, Mozart, and Freud, Sarah becomes the target in a deadly web of intrigue that involves a scientist on the run, stolen art, seductive pastries, a few surprises from long-dead alchemists, a distractingly attractive horseman who's more than a little bloodthirsty, and a trail of secrets and lies. But nothing will be more dangerous than the brilliant and vindictive villain who seeks to bend time itself. Sarah must travel deep into an ancient mystery to save the people she loves.

Long before 1984, Star Wars, or The Hunger Games, Victorian authors imagined a future where new science and technologies reshaped the world and universe they knew. The great themes of modern science fiction showed up surprisingly early: space and time travel, dystopian societies, even dangerously independent machines, all inspiring the speculative fiction of the Victorian era.

In Frankenstein Dreams, Michael Sims has gathered many of the very finest stories, some by classic writers such as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells, but many that will surprise general readers. Dark visions of the human psyche emerge in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's "The Monarch of Dreams," while Mary E. Wilkins Freeman provides a glimpse of "the fifth dimension" in her provocative tale "The Hall Bedroom.'

With contributions by Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Fuller, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others, each introduced by Michael Sims, whose elegant introduction provides valuable literary and historical context, Frankenstein Dreams is a treasure trove of stories known and rediscovered.

Fueled by a mysterious new drug, Celtic fairies and Teutonic elves battle for turf and power-with humans caught in the middle. As the body count rises, Connor Grey uncovers a vast conspiracy that threatens to destroy not only the city, but the world.

In this thrilling conclusion to the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, Karou is still not ready to forgive Akiva for killing the only family she's ever known.

When a brutal angel army trespasses into the human world, Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat--and against larger dangers that loom on the horizon. They begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves--maybe even toward love.

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera, and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

When the barriers between the human world and the Faerie world of myth crumble on All Hallows Eve, north Georgia college students David, Alec, Aiken, and Liz stumble into the middle of the treacherous Wild Hunt.

Lens Larque was just as unique as the other Demon Princes--uniquely appalling. He was personally ugly, startling vicious, and arrogant above all others. Larque's own mission was a villainy of the highest order, and his personal obsession with success kept him hidden well from attackers--almost well enough. Howard Alan Treesong poisoned his friends, tortured his colleagues, and wrote his own horrific holy book, The Book of Dreams. But, clever as he may be, a galaxy-wide guessing game will be his undoing--and Kirth Gersen's sworn vengeance will be complete.

Three unlikely heroes fight to save their planet from a deadly plague in this thrilling space opera set in Jo Clayton's beloved Diadem universe.

No one on the barbarian planet Jaydugar knows where the hypnotically beautiful Ranga Eye gems came from, but everyone who encounters them pays a terrible price. These magic alien crystals, so smooth and pleasing to the touch, provide the holder with an extraordinary sense of peace and joy, causing them to see and experience wondrous, enchanting things. But the need for the visions the Ranga Eye provides quickly becomes an addiction that eats away at the soul and ultimately leads to a horrible, drawn-out death.

An exquisite embroiderer, Gleia has pined for independence and true purpose throughout her life of servitude. She finds both when she manages to buy her freedom and sets out to locate and obliterate the sparkling, druglike scourge that ripped a devastating hole in her personal world.

On a quest fraught with peril across a treacherous landscape of slavers, brigands, and mercenary aliens, Gleia's path will intertwine with those of the enigmatic, long-lived juggler Shounach--a perplexing, often infuriating rogue born off-world three centuries earlier to intergalactic adventurer Aleytys--and young Deel the Dancer, both of whom have suffered tragic, life-altering loss as a result of the terrible, beautiful jewels.

Now the fate of the entire planet depends upon three unlikely champions locating the source of the sparkling plague and destroying the gems forever. But in a world of uncertainty and ever-present danger will they even survive to reach their journey's end, and once there, can they resist the irresistible fatal seduction of the deadly Ranga Eyes?

Accomplished world-builder Jo Clayton returns to the galaxy she so brilliantly brought to life in her sensational Diadem Saga, once again seamlessly blending science fiction and high fantasy in an epic, thrill-packed quest adventure that confirms her position among C. J. Cherryh, Alan Dean Foster, Andre Norton, and other speculative fiction greats.

Table of Contents:

• A Bait of Dreams - (1979) - novelette
• Interlude Among the Shaborn - (1985) - short fiction
• A Thirst For Broken Water - (1979) - novella
• Southwind My Mother - (1980) - novella
• Companioning - (1980) - novella
• Currents - (1985) - novella
• Old Acquaintances and New - (1985) - novella

Magical tracking expert Riley Hollis is on a mission to save five teenagers lost inside a mountain. But nothing is what it seems, and soon Riley finds herself bruised, bloodied, and embroiled in a battle to bring down a sadistic criminal dealing in human souls and the darkest of magics.

Her only hope may be to swallow her pride and ask for help from her not-quite-ex-boyfriend and his notorious brother -- Tyet criminal boss, Gregg Touray. Even that may not be enough to protect her. Something has gone very wrong in the trace dimension and in Riley's head.

If she doesn't figure out how to handle the past, the present, the trace, and the bad guys, the road to hell is going to look like a great alternative.

In the far future, the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack find a world on which fiction has been outlawed. A world where it's a crime to tell stories, a crime to lie, a crime to hope, and a crime to dream. But now somebody is challenging the status quo. A pirate TV station urges people to fight back. And the Doctor wants to help until he sees how easily dreams can turn into nightmares. With one of his companions stalked by shadows and the other committed to an asylum, the Doctor is forced to admit that fiction can be dangerous after all. Though perhaps it is not as deadly as the truth.

Double En, the most powerful corporation ever created, and its founders, Nakamura and Norton, are two of the most brilliant minds in history. But now they have launched a private war against each other and winner takes all. While Norton is hidden deep inside the heart of the Double En's mainframe, Nakamura is busy hiring the very best in computer warfare -- that's Iceberg Berg, master of security systems. No one can penetrate a barrier he has created, except for one woman, his ex-wife, Icebreaker Calley. No wall has ever been barred to her. Together again, they face the impossible task of separating Norton from his beloved matrix before the man becomes the computer and the computer becomes more powerful than anything humanity has ever seen.

Described as one of the seminal books of the cyberpunk era, Dreams of Flesh and Sand was rated as one of the best science fiction books of the year by Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine.

Author W. T. Quick continued the ground-breaking story of Berg, Calley, Toshi, and their many friends and enemies in this book, the second of the Dream Trio. This newly published reissue has been restored by the author to appear as the second book of The Dream Trio, as it was originally intended, unshackled by DRM.

Breathtaking in scope, startling in its effects, groundbreaking in its originality - this mesmerizing cyberpund classic comes to you once again in a permanent version from the author's own hand.

W.T. Quick gives corporate warfare a new name in his esteemed novel, Singularities.

Luna Inc. would live, he promised himself dourly. Even if he, the last of the Schollanders, died in the survival effort. It was in his genes, maybe, as Auntie Elaine had once said. But it was in his heart and mind as well. What had that long-dead mercenary rally cry been? Grab 'em by their balls--their hearts and minds will follow? Nakamura sure had balls. He had to give him that. But that was okay, too. It gave him a target to grab. And squeeze.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eddie Raven isn't quite sure what's happening to him--and he's in a race to find out before it kills him.

His adventures begin with a shooting in a very strange shop in Manhattan--but soon he finds himself the owner of a very familiar bar in Casablanca. By the time he adjusts to that reality, he's suddenly become one of several undersized people helping a young woman search for a wizard. And after confronting the wizard, he somehow finds himself in Camelot.

But as he rushes to solve the mystery of his many appearances, a larger threat looms. Because someone or something is stalking him through time and space with deadly intent....

An adventure through space and time as Eddie Raven tries to outrun the dark forces pursuing him...

Her name is Lisa, and ever since Eddie Raven hooked up with her, strange things keep happening.

How strange? Lisa can take on any role at a moment's notice. She's Maid Marian. She's Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. In an instant, she can become the sexy, gum-chewing secretary to his hard-boiled detective. She can even become Doc Holliday's frontier lady, Big Nose Kate.

But who is she really? That's something Eddie's got to find out before this series of strange adventures, which began in The Master of Dreams, overtakes him. And if Lisa's not enough of a problem, there's also the powerful creature who claims to be the chief demon in hell, who seems convinced that he, Eddie, and Lisa are on the same side.

Is Eddie being told the truth? He'd better decide quickly, because the one thing that's clear is that he's running out of time.

This is an "omnibus" edition of all the stories subsequently published in Dreamsongs 1 & 2

Table of Contents:

A Four-Color Fanboy
1 "Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark" 1967
2 "The Fortress" 2003 Written in the 1960s
3 "And Death His Legacy" 2003 Written in the 1960s

The Filthy Pro
4 "The Hero" 1971 "A Song for Lya" (1976)
5 "The Exit to San Breta" 1972 "A Song for Lya" (1976)
6 "The Second Kind of Loneliness" 1972 "A Song for Lya" (1976) "Portraits of His Children (1987)
7 "With Morning Comes Mistfall" 1973 "A Song for Lya" (1976) "Portraits of His Children (1987)

The Light of Distant Stars
8 "A Song for Lya" 1974 "A Song for Lya" (1976) "Nightflyers" (1985)
9 "This Tower of Ashes" 1976 "Songs of Stars and Shadows" (1977) "Songs the Dead Men Sing" (1983)
10 "And Seven Times Never Kill Man" 1975 "Songs of Stars and Shadows" (1977) "Nightflyers" (1985)
11 "The Stone City" 1977 "Sandkings" (1981)
12 "Bitterblooms" 1977 "Sandkings" (1981)
13 "The Way of Cross and Dragon" 1979 "Sandkings" (1981)

The Heirs of Turtle Castle
14 "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" 1976 "Songs of Stars and Shadows" (1977) "Portraits of His Children" (1987)
15 "The Ice Dragon" 1980 "Portraits of His Children" (1987)
16 "In the Lost Lands" 1982 "Portraits of His Children" (1987)

Hybrids and Horrors
17 "Meathouse Man" 1976 "Songs the Dead Men Sing" (1983)
18 "Remembering Melody" 1981 "Songs the Dead Men Sing" (1983)
19 "Sandkings" 1979 "Sandkings" (1981) "Songs the Dead Men Sing" (1983)
20 "Nightflyers" 1980 "Songs the Dead Men Sing" (1983) "Nightflyers" (1985)
21 "The Monkey Treatment" 1983 "Songs the Dead Men Sing" (1983)
22 "The Pear-Shaped Man" 1987 Previously uncollected

A Taste of Tuf
This section features two stories in the Haviland Tuf series, about an overweight space trader encountering various civilizations.
23 "A Beast for Norn" 1976 "Tuf Voyaging" (1986)
24 "Guardians" 1981 "Tuf Voyaging" (1986)

The Siren Song of Hollywood
This section features two television screenplays by George R. R. Martin. The former is a script for an episode of The Twilight Zone, and the latter is a pilot for a never-made science fiction series similar to Sliders.
25 "The Road Less Travelled" 1986
26 "Doorways" 1993

Doing the Wild Card Shuffle
This section features two of George R. R. Martin's contributions to the Wild Cards shared universe.
27 "Shell Games" 1987
28 "From the Journal of Xavier Desmond" 1988

The Heart in Conflict
29 "Under Siege" 1985 "Portraits of His Children" (1987)
30 "The Skin Trade" 1988 "Quartet" (2001)
31 "Unsound Variations" 1982 "Portraits of His Children" (1987)
32 "The Glass Flower" 1986 "Portraits of His Children" (1987)
33 "The Hedge Knight" 1998 Previously uncollected
34 "Portraits of His Children" 1985 "Portraits of His Children" (1987)

Even before A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin had already established himself as a giant in the field of fantasy literature. The first of two stunning collections, Dreamsongs: Volume I is a rare treat for readers, offering fascinating insight into his journey from young writer to award-winning master.

Gathered here in Dreamsongs: Volume I are the very best of George R. R. Martin's early works, including his Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker award-winning stories, cool fan pieces, and the original novella The Ice Dragon, from which Martin's New York Times bestselling children's book of the same title originated. A dazzling array of subjects and styles that features extensive author commentary, Dreamsongs, Volume I is the perfect collection for both Martin devotees and a new generation of fans.

Dubbed "the American Tolkien" by Time magazine, number-one New York Times best-selling author George R. R. Martin is a giant in the field of fantasy literature and one of the most exciting storytellers of our time. Now he delivers a rare treat for listeners: a compendium of his shorter works, collected into two stunning volumes, that offers fascinating insight into his journey from young writer to award-winning master.

BONUS: Each selection includes extensive commentary by author George R. R. Martin.

When Jessica Drake learned that her DNA didn't match that of her parents, she had no idea that the search for her heritage would put her family's lives in danger, or force her to cross into another world. In an alternate Earth dominated by individuals with unnatural powers called Gifts, Jessica learned that there was a curse within her blood, one so feared that all who possessed it were destroyed on sight. For she was a Dreamwalker, and the same dark Gift that would allow her to enter the dreams of others would eventually destroy her mind and spread insanity to all those around her.

Now she is back with her family, but there is no peace to be found. Her childhood home has been destroyed, her mother's mind is irreparably damaged, and the Gift of the Dreamwalkers is beginning to manifest in her in terrifying ways.

When a stranger invades her dreams and creatures from her nightmares threaten to cross into the waking universe, Jessica knows she must return to the alternate Earth where she was born and seek allies... even if doing so means she must bargain with those she fears the most.

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Flashing Swords! #4: Barbarians and Black Magicians (1977), edited by Lin Carter. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Finest Fantasy (1978), edited by Terry Carr, and Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder (1989), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It is included in the collection The Jack Vance Treasury (2007). A limmited edition chapbook also appeared in 1979.

It was that transitional time of the world, when man first brought the clang of iron and the reek of smoke to the lands which before had echoed with inhuman voices. In that dawn of man and death of magic there yet remained one last untouched place -- the small forest of Ealdwood -- which kept a time different from elsewhere, and one who dwelt there who had more patience, pride and love of the earth than any other of her kind -- Arafel the Sidhe. This is the story of the last defense of Faery against the encroaching iron sword of the Era of Man.

Dreamstone allows people to record and play back their dreams; it can only be found on a certain moon. The Doctor and Sam travel there to prevent its destruction whilst Anton La Serre wants to know why his pleasant dreams have turned into nightmares.

When wizards threaten Glorianna Belladonna and her work to keep Ephemera balanced, her brother Lee sacrifices himself in order to save her-and ends up an asylum inmate in the city of Vision.

But a darkness is spreading through Vision, perplexing the Shamans who protect it. And Lee is the only one who can shed any light on its mysteries...

Meet the Horowitzes. Sam and Brandy are private eyes, finding no business, going dead broke - or maybe just dead! A missing person case may save them: find Martin Whitlock, a hotshot banker who skipped town with over two million in laundered drug money.

Whitlock's trail led from a posh mansion to a hick burg in Oregon, and the G. O. D. Inc., those geeks who hawk overpriced garbage on late-night TV. They found their man(?); in fact, they found three of him(?). One was female. One was dead. The third was just plain dangerous.

They found themselves involved with a mob far more powerful and vicious than the Mafia. McInerny, Oregon wasn't just off the map. It was off the Earth! It was the entrance into the Labyrinth of Dreams

Lisa Tuttle's stories examine the nuances of relationship and family dynamics. Her work has been commended by such contemporaries as Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, Kelley Armstrong, Robert Holdstock and Dean R. Koontz. She is a winner of both the John W Campbell Award (1974) and the 1989 BSFA Award for best short story. In 1982 she was also awarded a Nebula, which she refused on a point of principle. Drawing largely on her output over the past decade, Objects in Dreams is Lisa at her best; a stunning collection of tales that switch effortlessly between SF, dark fantasy, and horror.

Table of Contents:

• Dreams and Stories: An Introduction - essay
• Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear - (2011) - shortstory
• Old Mr. Boudreaux - (2007) - shortstory
• A Cold Dish - (2000) - shortfiction
• Ragged Claws - (2009) - shortstory
• In Translation - (1989) - shortfiction
• The Man in the Ditch - (2011) - shortstory
• Shelf-Life - (2011) - shortstory
• Paul's Mother - shortfiction
• Closet Dreams - (2007) - shortstory

Ever been offered a promotion that seems too good to be true? The kind where you snap their arm off to accept, then wonder why all your long-serving colleagues look secretly relieved, as if they're off some strange and unpleasant hook? It's the kind of trick that deeply sinister companies like J.W. Wells & Co. pull all the time. Especially with employees who are too busy mooning over the office intern to think about what they're getting into. And it's why, right about now, Paul Carpenter is wishing he'd paid much less attention to the gorgeous Melze, and rather more to a little bit of job description small-print referring to 'pest' control.

Thunstone arrives in the village of Clines to witness the local ritual of overtuning the Dreamer Rock, as is the "pagan" custom every July 4th. This July 4th will be different than usual.

The Kerrion consuls - from their luxurious headquarters on Draconis they reign over a great merchant empire.

This book is the climax to the three part saga of the Kerrion Empire. It is up to Shebot a young woman challenging the Universe's greatest power, in order to save its most magnificent creation the intelligent space-fearing cruisers.

World Fantasy Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1997. It was later incorporated in the fix-up novel Minions of the Moon (1999). It can also be found in the collections Transfigured Night and Other Stories (2001) and Streetcar Dreams and Other Midnight Fancies (2006).

Imagine a world where a new crop, the red yam, emerged in Australia thousands of years ago. The red yam changed societies across the continent as a new form of farming spread. When Europeans first visit Australia's shores, they find a land that is alien to everything they know.

A land of many new cultures, of ancient cities, proud warriors, new faiths, and dangerous diseases. A land of gold and spices. A land of temptation, where the European trading companies seek to claim new wealth wherever they can find it. This is the tale of the new cultures which emerged in changed Australia, and of the collision of cultures when Europeans arrive. A tale of commerce and would-be conquistadors. A time of challenge, where the question is whether this new land of gold will also be stained with blood.

In the aftermath of a devastating clash between gods and men, two unlikely allies--one immortal and one human--must band together to survive in the sequel to the epic fantasy debut The Song of All.

The war between men and immortals that raged across the frozen Northland of Davvieana has ended. For men, the balance of power between Believer and Brethren, between honoring the gods and honoring the sword, has shifted to favor priests over Hunters.

But it is the legacy of one man's love for his son that shapes the lives of all who survived.

While Irjan, the once-legendary immortal hunter, has saved his son's life, he cannot save Marnej from the men who will make him a killer, nor can he save the immortal girl he'd promised to protect from the secret of her birth.

Raised by Irjan among the immortals, Dárja has been trained to fight by a man who once hunted her kind. Prisoner among the humans, her hatred for them is challenged by the chance to give Irjan what he has always wanted--his son Marnej returned to him.

Together, Marnej and Dárja, human and immortal, must find a way to trust one another if they are to live long enough to learn the truth behind the secrets and lies that have forged their lives.

The years since first be gained the Starburst Crown have been difficult ones for Coronal Lord Prestimion and the vast, unfathoniable realm he rules. But finally peace has been restored to Majipoor. And now it is time for Prestimion to name the able Prince Dekkeret his succeeding Coronal and to descend to the Labyrinth as Pontifex. But a power from a dark past that both men believed was dead is stirring once again -- an evil more potent and devastating than either leader dares to remember.

Once, decades past, a then knight-initiate Dekkeret had his dreams stolen from him. His quest for recovery led him to a remarkable helmetthat could invade the psyches of sleeping foes, a device the newly anointed Coronal Prestimion later utilized to defeat his enemy Dantirya Sambail, tyrant of the continent Zimroel. In the fires of civil war, the terrible weapon was destroyed forever -- or so it was believed.

The noxious weed of rebellion was torn out at its roots but its seeds have borne frightening fruit. Dantirya Sambail is dead, and the hungry jackals who ran at his heels now scheme to recover his lost lands and power. At their head is the tyrant's former henchman Mandralisca -- a villain of great wiles and icy heart, who somehow has unleashed a devastating plague of the mind upon Prestimion's subjects, Dark visions are invading the sleep of those loyal to the Lords and the Lady of Majipoor -- soul-shattering scenes of madness and monstrosity, driving those inflicted to commit horrible, destructive acts. And the dark wave is flowing ever-closer to the throne, seeping beneath the doors of the 30,000 rooms of the towering edifice atop Castle Mount ... and into sacrosanct depths of the imperial Labyrinth itself.

A new campaign for the soul of Majipoor has been declared -- and its catastrophic opening salvos have been fired in silence and in mystery. Once again Prestimion and Dekkeret have been called onto the battlefield of nightmare. But this time it will be a war to the death against a foe greater than all who came before: the master of murderous shadows who aspires to be King of all.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave..."

Kesh fled Faerie as a queen killer. Now she returns as the Faerie King's secret obsession. But on Faerie, nothing is as it seems, not even Kesh herself. With days to stop Arran's execution and the stoic guardian, Sirius, as her constant shadow, Kesh must weave her lies deep within Faerie's courts where magic and whispers combine and conspire. Soon, Kesh learns there is more at stake than Arran's life. Faerie is dying. Oberon's reign is crumbling. The time to strike against the fae is now. But with Talen, Kellee and Sota a thousand light-years away, Kesh cannot succeed alone...

Beneath the courtly politics, the glittering facades, and the King's fragile hold on his people, the Dreamweaver is locked in eternal slumber, dreaming of the day his Queen of Hearts will set him free... because he knows, Kesh Lasota has no other choice. Kesh survived the Dreamweaver once before. Now all she has to do is control him. But Faerie's Dreamweaver has other ideas for the peoples' Messenger. He knows who, and what Kesh really is and he has every intention of using her to make all his dreams come true.

He takes your mind, makes it his, takes your soul, makes you cruel. Dare you answer the Dreamweaver's call?

The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life-until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees.

Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.

Welcome to Newford. . . .

Welcome to the music clubs, the waterfront, the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song.

Like Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale and John Crowley's Little, Big, Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life.

Exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for the past year.

But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World.

When Mal's dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice - and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.

This short story originally appeared in Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 7: Spring 1990. The story can also be found in Spiritwalk (1992), Waifs and Strays (2002) and The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010).

Before they even met. Mikael Lee and Shironne Anjir were tangled together in their need to solve murders.

Mikael Lee, an aide to the king's brother, dreams his way into others' deaths, and then follows the clues within back to the killer. Shironne Anjir, a young girl so sensitive to the stimuli around her that she cannot shut it out, has been sharing those dreams with him, and when a death falls closer to her doorstep, she's the one who takes up the task of finding a killer... a path that might give her a direction for the rest of her life.

Table of Contents:

• "A Mention of Death", short story
• "Touching the Dead", novelette
• "Endings", novelette

Shironne Anjir's status as a sensitive is both a gift and a curse. Her augmented senses allow her to discover and feel things others can't, but her talents come with a price: a constant assault of emotions and sensations has left her blind. Determined to use her abilities as best she can, Shironne works tirelessly as an investigator for the Larossan army.

A member of the royal family's guard, Mikael Lee also possesses an overwhelming power--he dreams of the deaths of others, sometimes in vivid, shocking detail, and sometimes in cryptic fragments and half-remembered images.

But then a killer brings a reign of terror to the city, snuffing out his victims with an arcane and deadly blood magic. Only Shironne can sense and interpret Mikael's dim, dark dreams of the murders. And what they find together will lead them into a nightmare...

What does it mean to be bound? Mikael and Shironne have known for a month now that they are bound, but neither truly knows what their future holds.

When Shironne is kidnapped, Mikael uses the nascent tie between them to get her back, and to keep her safe, Shironne is placed among the Family in their underground Fortress. As long as she's within those walls, outsiders can't get to her. That leaves Mikael working to discover who would steal her away in the first place. Her ability to creep into others' thoughts, memories, and dreams is unprecedented, but who would be able to use that?

And Shironne must deal with a new and frustrating way of life, where contact with adults -- including Mikael -- is strictly curtailed and her time is constantly monitored. She also has to live among a yeargroup, and the Sixteens are not the calm, unemotional Family she's accustomed to seeing from a distance. They have their own problems and petty jealousies, not too different from her own sisters. Finding her place among them is going to be a challenge.

Fortunately, Shironne can access Mikael's thoughts to guide her in her new life... while for some reason, he can't access hers, leaving him without guidance at times when he could definitely use it.

Mikael Lee has dreamed of death for a decade now. He shares the last moments of murder victims, usually ones he's later fated to investigate. But one death has always eluded him: his father's murder.

Now he's dreaming his father's murder again, an old and powerful dream that can drag him to the brink of death. This time, though, he has a witness who can help him find the truth: Shironne Anjir. She's been dragged into Mikael's dreams for years. As much as Mikael does, she wants this dream put to bed, the deaths in Mikael's memories solved once and for all.

And more than that, Mikael wants his father's greatest secret - the identity of a half-brother Mikael has never met.

The Second Doctor and his companions land in what seems to be a medieval castle. In reality, it is a fortress/prison, the last stronghold for military forces. The TARDIS crew quickly finds itself in danger from outside threats and inside, not the least of which is seemingly self-animating suits of armor.

This book chosen to represent the Second Doctor in the 50th Anniversary Collection.

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

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

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

Kovac is an agent of the Mandate, assigned to a world whose inhabitants have no idea that their whole society is an experiment. When a young pregnant woman turns up at his door fearing for her life, Kovac is drawn into deadly intrigues that soon make it apparent there are agencies at work on the world that have no right being there...

Function through Malfunction: Unit 5709 is a success - a new high-line model of robot that works precisely as intended. The military are thrilled and 5709 is soon deployed on the battle field. But all is not as it seems; the robot prefers to be called 'Niner' and is unique, working only because of an undetected glitch. Every further model fails.

Are humans to be trusted with the important things: the structure of society, governing their own lives, meting out justice, etc, or would an AI be better suited to the job? If an AI really cared about humanity, would it be willing to sit back and watch us bumble along, making a mess of things, or would it step in to help us, to make things better?

Despite the best of intentions, could such intervention ever work? After all, we humans are flawed, limited by our vision and by the dictates of the society that helped shape us, and an AI is limited by its programming, which is carried out by humans... At the end of the day, are any of us - human or AI - truly free?

Long ago, a precious object was lost between the stars...

The Ghipheth tunnels are 258 million years old, and their walls were once lined with Gleam, the most precious substance in the world. When a cave-in exposes two ancient skeletons that defy all rational explanation, Roh is sent to investigate.

It soon becomes clear that all is not well amongst the workforce, and there, in the shadow of a carnivorous forest on the shores of Lake Oph, where monsters are said to dwell, Roh encounters intrigue and danger beyond his wildest imagining...

The first major fantasy novel from the author of the popular Outremer series.

In the city known as Maras-Sund, an uneasy peace threatens to unravel between two cultures. And a young man and woman will find their own destinies: one determined to hold onto power and supremacy, the other struggling for survival-and freedom.

This is the haunting story of an extraordinary woman and her dangerous quest to reclaim her healing powers. Revered healer Snake must undertake a journey in search of the dreamsnake, whose bite eases the fear and pain of death.

A runaway slave sold into the service of troubled Emirate diplomat Mira LoDire, Costa, a female breeder, finds herself drawn to her reluctant mistress and discovers that her troubling visions may hold the key to defying ruthless Faraqui domination.

A galaxy whirls in conflict as tyrant slavers prepare to reclaim the frontier planets wrested from them generations ago. Living on one of the forfeited worlds they covet most is Frenna, bred for bondage and given a virus that guarantees two decades of youth for servitude, followed by an agonizing death. But then she learns an amazing secret: the end is not inevitable. There is an escape. An antidote. A cure.

Yet Frenna's escape is into an exotic, bloodswept world, a fierce arena where muscled slaves wage brutal battles for their masters' amusement. Frenna has become a medic: her job is to administer a mercifully quick end to the mortally wounded. But she still carries the secret of freedom. And as warships arrive in conquest, this last hope must survive in a murderous domain of monstrous holograms and irresistible deadly potions. In the final frenzy, sisters and lovers, killers and saviors, all will be swept together in a maelstrom of annihilation, survival and redemption.

The Enterprise-E arrives in unclaimed space for a rendezvous with the Starfleet science vessel Newton.

Jean-Luc Picard and his crew have been ordered to assist the Newton with the final phase of its current mission--a mission that brings Picard face to face with something he never thought he would see again: the phenomenon known as the Nexus. Less than twelve years after it left the Alpha Quadrant, the Nexus ribbon has now returned. Tasked to track and study the phenomenon as it re-entered the galaxy, the specialist science team on the Newton discovered that the orbital path of the Nexus has been radically altered by the actions of the rogue El-Aurian Tolian Soren--taking it deep into the territory of The Holy Order of the Kinshaya, one of the key members of the Typhon Pact. Starfleet Command is unwilling to allow the Kinshaya--and by extension, the Typhon Pact--free access to what is essentially a gateway to anywhere and anywhen, as a single operative could use the Nexus to change the course of galactic history....

Before James T. Kirk, another captain stood on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, spearheading its mission of exploration into the uncharted reaches of the galaxy. He was a man driven to perfection, a brooding soul whose haunted eyes reflected the burden of the impossible standards he set for himself, and for whom his longtime science officer, Spock, one day would risk everything for him. Yet, little is truly known about the enigmatic Christopher Pike, the events that defined him... or the secrets that consumed him.

From the embers of his early childhood among Earth's blossoming interstellar colonies, to the terrifying conflagration that led him back to the world of his birth; from the mentor who would ignite young Chris's desire to return to the stars, to the career he blazed in Starfleet that would end in supreme sacrifice -- the path of Pike's astonishing life leads through fire again and again. But even amid the ashes of Talos IV, the forbidden world on which he would live out the remainder of his days, the dreams smoldering still within his aging, radiation-ravaged breast fan the flames of Pike's spirit to accomplish one final task.

A merchant ship's frantic S.O.S sends the U.S.S. Enterprise speeding to the rescue! But the starship's mission of mercy soon becomes a desperate struggle for survival against a nightmarish enemy Captain Kirk can neither identify nor understand, an enemy he must defeat without the aid of one of his most trusted officers.

For the Leonard McCoy Kirk knew is gone. In his place stands a stranger -- a man with no memory of his Starfleet career, his family, his friends... or the one thing James T. Kirk needs most of all: his dreams.

As the war threatens to demolish the fragile space-time continuum, the future of space travel for all races is endangered. Kyllikki, a Teleod telepath working for the Metaji, is the only one capable of reconciling the different philosophies of the two groups. Few are willing to help her, but she finds allies in Zuchmul, a Luren, and Elias, an earthling. Elias possesses a quality that makes him an ideal spy -- his ability to dream.

To save the governments and space travel Kyllikki must unleash certain powers within Elias. If she succeeds, she will face the fury of both the Teleod and the Metaji. Complicating her task further, Kyllikki struggles with her intense feelings for Elias, a rock star of a different race, with whom she never expected to fall in love.

In the city-state of Hokesh, time plays tricks; the present is unreliable, the future impossible to intimate. A derelict street child, Joey Quine, finds himself subject to horrifying visions and fugues. His only friend in this, the only one to whom he can turn for help, is a mysterious stranger who calls herself Ace.

And in an unknowable future the Seventh Doctor is busily inciting a state of bloody unrest, on the basis that one must be cruel to be kind -- simultaneously, for preference. The Glorious Ruler of the city, Magnus Solaris, is worried: his memory is failing him; his influence deserting him; his city is falling apart. What is happening to him truly? Only the Doctor knows -- and he's not telling.

There is worse to come. As both world and time crumble, Magnus Solaris and Joey Quine will unearth secrets the like of which nobody in Hokesh could have ever possibly suspected.

TO SAVE THEIR CIVILISATION HE MUST DESTROY IT...

When images of a lost civilization are 'dreamed' by a self-proclaimed prophet of the age, Nigel Sheldon, inventor of wormhole technology and creator of the Commonwealth society, is asked to investigate. Especially as the dreams seem to be coming from the Void - a mysterious area of living space monitored and controlled because of its hugely destructive capabilities. With it being the greatest threat to the known universe, Nigel is committed to finding out what really lies within the Void and if there's any truth to the visions they've received. Does human life really exist inside its boundary?

But when Nigel crash lands inside the Void, on a planet he didn't even know existed, he finds so much more than he expected. Bienvenido: a world populated by the ancestors of survivors from Commonwealth colony ships that disappeared centuries ago. Since then they've been fighting an increasingly desperate battle against the Fallers, a space-born predator artificially evolved to conquer worlds. Their sole purpose is to commit genocide against every species they encounter. With their powerful telepathic lure - that tempts any who stray across their path to a slow and painful death - they are by far the greatest threat to humanity's continued existence on this planet.

But Nigel soon realizes that the Fallers also hold the key to something he'd never hoped to find - the destruction of the Void itself. If only he can survive long enough to work out how to use it...

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. Now that the world knows of her ability to 'read' objects, and therefore, read the past, she has become a media darling, earning the title, 'America's Sweetheart Seer'. But not everyone is so accepting of the Diviners' abilities...

Meanwhile, mysterious deaths have been turning up in the city, victims of an unknown sleeping sickness. Can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld and catch a killer?

A royal enchantress is torn between a magic legacy and a shattering destiny....

In a world of treachery and magic, a warrior princess must face an unknown future -- while her past comes back to haunt her....

Fair Isle was once a lush and lovely land, renowned for its wealth and elegance. Now its fields lie blackened by barbarian Ghebite conquerors who despise its traditions of female freedom -- and fear its captive young empress, Imoshen.

One of the last pure T'En -- legendary for their subtle enchantments and fearsome beauty -- Imoshen's magical nature is just beginning to emerge as this new era dawns on Fair Isle. Now, pregnant with Ghebite leader Tulkhan's child, she must battle to save both her land and her new union from being torn apart by suspicion and fear.

Despite their clashing cultures, Tulkhan stirs in Imoshen a quicksilver passion, an all-consuming attraction that trembles on the brink of love. But as Imoshen tries to resist the urge to give in to this powerful longing, an older bond -- and more sacred lust -- tempts her. For she cannot forget her youthful betrothal to her kinsman Reothe, the last T'En warrior, a proud and sorcerous renegade who now seeks to reclaim Fair Isle -- and Imoshen as well.

Even for a charismatic pirate, three years is a long time to chase after an unimaginable treasure hidden in the ruins of an ancient city. But when the fabled riches turn out to be virtually worthless, the outraged crew mutinies and leaves their former captain for dead.

He is rescued by a mysterious king and transported back to a time of dwarves, druids, and fairies. Enchanting as it is, though, his only wish is to return home and find justice--but only the king has the power to return him...for a price.

Aided by a new and motley group of mystical creatures and misfits, he sets out on his quest, ultimately getting caught up in a war he wants nothing to do with--and in the process changing the course of history itself.

In war everyone loses. This brutal truth can be seen in the eyes of every soldier in every world...

In Letherii, the exiled Malazan army commanded by Adjunct Tavore begins its march into the eastern Wastelands, to fight for an unknown cause against an enemy it has never seen.

And in these same Wastelands, others gather to confront their destinies. The warlike Barghast, thwarted in their vengeance against the Tiste Edur, seek new enemies beyond the border and Onos Toolan, once immortal T'lan Imass now mortal commander of the White Face clan, faces insurrection. To the south, the Perish Grey Helms parlay passage through the treacherous kingdom of Bolkando. Their intention is to rendezvous with the Bonehunters but their vow of allegiance to the Malazans will be sorely tested. And ancient enclaves of an Elder Race are in search of salvation-not among their own kind, but among humans-as an old enemy draws ever closer to the last surviving bastion of the K'Chain Che'Malle.

So this last great army of the Malazan Empire is resolved to make one final defiant, heroic stand in the name of redemption. But can deeds be heroic when there is no one to witness them? And can that which is not witnessed forever change the world? Destines are rarely simple, truths never clear but one certainty is that time is on no one's side. For the Deck of Dragons has been read, unleashing a dread power that none can comprehend...

The fourth in Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Michael Swanwick's "Mongolian Wizard" series of tales set in an alternate fin de siècle Europe shot through with magic, mystery, and intrigue.

The story is included in the collection 'Not So Much' Said the Cat (2016).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Secretary of Dreams combines classic tales of terror from the mind of Stephen King with the critically acclaimed artwork of Maine artist Glenn Chadbourne. This unique book displays an incredible and original blend of King's words with Chadbourne's one-of-a-kind illustrations: text and artwork brought together to tell these stories in a whole new way. As you venture into The Secretary of Dreams you'll discover "Home Delivery," "Jerusalem's Lot," and "The Reach" presented on beautifully designed oversized pages. These stories are heavily illustrated with spot artwork, full page illustrations, and even multiple-page art spreads. Dozens of painstakingly crafted illustrations bring King's characters to life.

Also within this collection are "The Road Virus Heads North," "Rainy Season," and "Uncle Otto's Truck," which appear for the very first time in full graphic format as imagined by Chadbourne. Not one word from King's original manuscripts has been left out. Instead Chadbourne presents the stories through a variety of techniques: traditional paragraphs of text merged directly into the artwork, handwritten bursts of dialogue to convey emotion, and even multiple fonts to match the mood of each scene. The Secretary of Dreams is a collection of Stephen King's greatest short stories presented in a way never before imagined. Glenn Chadbourne spent over two years creating the artwork within these pages, digging deep inside the text to make each of these classic tales burst off the page.

Table of Contents:

• Home Delivery - (1989)
• The Road Virus Heads North - (1999)
• Jerusalem's Lot - (1978)
• Rainy Season - (1989)
• The Reach - (1981)
• Uncle Otto's Truck - (1983)

World Fantasy Award winner Cemetery Dance Publications, critically acclaimed artist Glenn Chadbourne, and New York Times bestselling author Stephen King are proud to announce The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two). This second venture into the world of Stephen King's stories contains even more artwork and detailed illustrations that could only have come from the inspired hands of artist Glenn Chadbourne!

The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two) continues where the first acclaimed volume left off: combining classic tales of terror from the mind of Stephen King with the haunting artwork of Maine artist Glenn Chadbourne. This unique book displays an incredible and original blend of King's words with Chadbourne's one-of-a-kind B&W illustrations: text and artwork brought together to tell these chilling stories in a whole new way.

As you venture into this new volume of The Secretary of Dreams you'll discover "The Monkey," "Strawberry Spring," and "In the Deathroom" presented on beautifully designed oversized pages. These stories are heavily illustrated with spot artwork, full page illustrations, and even multiple-page art spreads. Dozens of painstakingly crafted illustrations bring King's characters to life.

Also within this collection are "Gray Matter," "One for the Road ," and "Nona," which appear for the very first time in full graphic format as imagined by Chadbourne. Not one word from King's original manuscripts has been left out. Instead Chadbourne presents the stories through a variety of techniques: traditional paragraphs of text merged directly into the artwork, handwritten bursts of dialogue to convey emotion, and even multiple fonts to match the mood of each scene.

Like the first volume of The Secretary of Dreams, this is a new collection of Stephen King's greatest short stories presented in a way never before imagined. Glenn Chadbourne has spent over two years creating the artwork within these pages, digging deep inside the text to make each of these classic tales burst off the page.

Table of Contents:

• One for the Road - (1977)
• The Monkey - (1980)
• Gray Matter - (1973)
• In the Deathroom - (1999)
• Strawberry Spring - (1975)
• Nona - (1978)

Much of the city can't wake up. And more are dozing off each day.

Instead of powerful forces storming Seattle, a more insidious invasion is happening. Most of Joanne Walker's fellow cops are down with the blue flu--or rather the blue sleep. Yet there's no physical cause anyone can point to--and it keeps spreading.

It has to be magical, Joanne figures. But what's up with the crazy dreams that hit her every time she closes her eyes? Are they being sent by Coyote, her still-missing spirit guide? The messages just aren't clear.

Somehow Joanne has to wake up her sleeping friends while protecting those still awake, figure out her inner-spirit dream life and, yeah, come to terms with these other dreams she's having about her boss...

The dead are walking, men are dying impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become unstable: all are signs of the imminence of the Last Battle, when Rand alThor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One as humanitys only hope. But Rand dares not fight until he possesses all the surviving seals on the Dark Ones prison. And he faces other dangersthere are those among the Forsaken who will go to any length to see him dead.

The winds of time have become a storm, and things that everyone believed were fixed in place forever are changing before their eyes. Now Rand must ride those storm winds, or the Dark One will triumph.

The Tide Lords have gathered in Jelidia and find they must find the Chaos Crystal that brought them to this world. It is discovered that Elyssa, Scard Crasii, Warlock's cruel immortal mistress knows the location of the Chaos crystal and with every immortal searching for the crystal the stakes are high.

In the Clock of Dreams, Cthulhu, one of the Elder Gods, sleeps and dreams - dreams so potent, so powerful, that they can warp reality itself. The mysterious Clock that is capable of hurling men through space and time, even into the monster's dreams, is de Marigny's only hope of finding Titus Crow and saving him from a soul destroying fate.

As the twin planets of AltaAr eclipse each other, a mysterious blue Sea rises up from the darkness, killing most of the Earth colonists who have settled the strange new world. In the devastating aftermath, the survivors must make a new life amid the abandoned, yet curiously intact cities of a long-vanished alien population. But their greatest challenge is yet to appear, for in a world of ancient memory and forgotten history, the answer to salvation may lie in the strange dreams of the colonists themselves. But are their dreams the key to survival, or a final warning of the dangers to come?

Rachael Townsend is the first artist ever to leave Earth and journey out into the galaxy - but after an encounter with an alien artifact, she can't make art at all.

Elza Monteiro is determined to be the first human to venture inside the Palace of Scented Tears and compete for the chance to become a princess - except that inside the palace, she finds the last person she ever wanted to see again.

Tina Mains is studying at the Royal Space Academy with her friends, but she's not the badass space hero everyone was expecting.

Soon Rachael is journeying into a dark void, Elza is on a deadly spy mission, and Tina is facing an impossible choice that could change all her friends lives forever.

In a world where even the smallest and most remote village is being terrorized by the monsters that stalk the night, there is a hamlet, prosperous and peaceful, where mortals and vampires have lived in harmony for years. It is there that 17-year-old Sheavil Schmidt has slept, neither waking nor aging, for 30 years since first receiving the vampire's immortal kiss. The mysterious Vampire Hunter D is lured to the tranquil oasis by recurrent dreams of the beautiful, undying girl bathed in an eerie blue light and dancing in a ghostly chateau.

Iris Angharads, a determined, independent woman, sets herself one massive goal: to make the poison-filled atmosphere of Venus hospitable to humans. She works day and night to realize her dream, with only one person sharing her passion, Liang Chen. It seems impossible to make Venus, with its intolerable air and waterless environment, into a paradise, but Iris succeeds. And in doing so, she also creates a powerful dynasty, beginning with her first born, Benzi Liangharad.

In a futuristic variation upon the modern detective story, we follow Hal as he returns from retirement, seeking the answer to the mysterious disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, last seen with a child prodigy and an unknown older man. We accompany him during his encounters with the jaded individuals who now occupy sullied Manhattan, and share his anguish at the gradual realization of the devastating effects that Virtual Reality is having upon his fellow citizens, rapidly losing their abilities to interact in the real world.

Deep within the shadowy foothills of the Grey Mountains, a dark and deadly plot is uncovered by an innocent young merchant. A mysterious stranger leads young Reinmar Weiland to stumble upon the secrets of a sinister underworld hidden beneath the very feet of the unsuspecting Empire - and learn of a legendary elixir, the mysterious and forbidden Wine of Dreams.

Tracing the adventures of Thyri, who has been trained by the sorceress Scacath in the arts of battle and the secrets of Norseland so that she can become a warrior, this book tells how she is attacked by the legendary local werewolf and forced, at full moon, to satiate her fatal bloodlust.

When the curse of Morgana sends her into an alien world, Thyri, a young werewolf, must rely on Gerald, a mystical warrior, to help her battle its evil forces.

The old gods are dying, and the war that will shape all destiny has begun...