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The Princes of the Golden Cage
by Nathalie MalletPrince Amir lives in a lavish and beautiful cage. He lives in a palace with hundreds of his brothers, all barred by law from ever leaving the palace until he, or one of his brothers, becomes the next Sultan. Living under constant threat of death at the hands of his scheming brothers, Amir has chosen a life of solitude and study. His scholarly and alchemical pursuits bring him under suspicion when his brothers begin to die from seemingly supernatural means. Amir finds himself thrown together with his brother Erik, the son of a barbarian princess. Together they must discover the dark secret that is stalking the halls of their golden cage.
When We Were Executioners (Dogsland)
by J.M. McDermottJ. M. McDermott returns to Dogsland in the stunning novel When We Were Executioners, book two of a sweeping fantasy series that revels in the small details of life.Corporal Jona, the demon-stained Lord of Joni, died in the woods. His lover, the Senta Rachel Nolander, is a demon-tainted fugitive, running from the wolfskin-clad priest and priestess of Erin, who track her through the city based on dreams plucked from Jona&’s crying skull, plotting to cleanse the world of the lovers&’ demonic taint. Past and present collide as the tale of two ill-fated outcasts unfolds, and the executioners of Erin grow ever closer to their quarry.
Darkness Divided
by John ShirleyDarkness can be divided. ?It can be split like an atom, and in it can be found a destructive fire?or light. Light, too, can be folded into darkness.The stories brought to light in John Shirley's stunning DARKNESS DIVIDED -- most of them never before collected, some written especially for this book--are presented in two sections: one featuring stories set in the present, or the past, the other set in myriad futures. These dark tales of new noir, science fiction, fantasy, and crime, demonstrate humankind's evolution from where we were and where we are, to where we have yet to be. Shadows are a current?a continuity?streaming from "Til Now" into "And Soon."John Shirley incisively explores human nature and the pitch-black streak within the soul that each of us fears. The twenty-two excursions collected here divide the darkness with scalpel-like precision, daring you to peek inside. In these divided shadows, in the shift of diffuse light and occlusion, things move--things that aren't there. There you will find your own id, the dark side of your own imagination.Read these words, and be forever changed by what you find.
The Siren Depths (The Books of the Raksura)
by Martha WellsAll his life, Moon roamed the Three Worlds, a solitary wanderer forced to hide his true nature — until he was reunited with his own kind, the Raksura, and found a new life as consort to Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud court. But now a rival court has laid claim to him, and Jade may or may not be willing to fight for him. Beset by doubts, Moon must travel in the company of strangers to a distant realm where he will finally face the forgotten secrets of his past, even as an old enemy returns with a vengeance. The Fell, a vicious race of shape-shifting predators, menaces groundlings and Raksura alike. Determined to crossbreed with the Raksura for arcane purposes, they are driven by an ancient voice that cries out from . . . .The siren depths.
The Last Weekend
by Nick MamatasVasilis &“Billy&” Kostopolos is a Bay Area Rust Belt refugee, failed sci-fi writer, successful barfly and, since the exceptionally American zombie apocalypse, an accomplished &“driller&” of reanimated corpses. There aren&’t many sane, well-adjusted human beings left in San Francisco, but facing the end of the world, Billy&’s found his vocation trepanning the undead, peddling his one and only published short story, and drinking himself to death.Things don&’t stay static for long. Billy discovers that both his girlfriends turn out to be homicidal revolutionaries. He collides with a gang of Berkeley scientists gone berserker. Finally, the long-awaited &“Big One&” shakes the foundation of San Francisco to its core, and the crumbled remains of City Hall can no longer hide the awful secret lurking deep in the basement. Can Billy unearth the truth behind America&’s demise and San Francisco&’s survival—and will he destroy what little&’s left of it in the process? Is he legend, the last man, or just another sucker on the vine?Nick Mamatas takes a high-powered drill to the lurching, groaning conventions of zombie dystopias and conspiracy thrillers, sparing no cliché about tortured artists, alcoholic &“genius,&” noir action heroes, survivalist dogma, or starry-eyed California dreaming. Starting in booze-soaked but very clear-eyed cynicism and ending in gloriously uncozy catastrophe, The Last Weekend is merciless, uncomfortably perceptive, and bleakly hilarious.
The Best Horror of the Year (Best Horror of the Year)
by Ellen DatlowThis statement was true when H. P. Lovecraft first wrote it at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains true at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The only thing that has changed is what is unknown.With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this &“light&” creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year, edited by Ellen Datlow, chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness, as articulated by today&’s most challenging and exciting writers.The best horror writers of today do the same thing that horror writers of a hundred years ago did. They tell good stories—stories that scare us. And when these writers tell really good stories that really scare us, Ellen Datlow notices. She&’s been noticing for more than a quarter century. For twenty-one years, she coedited The Year&’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and for the last six years, she&’s edited this series. In addition to this monumental cataloging of the best, she has edited hundreds of other horror anthologies and won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards.More than any other editor or critic, Ellen Datlow has charted the shadowy abyss of horror fiction. Join Join her on this journey into the dark parts of the human heart . . . either for the first time . . . or once again.
Weighing Shadows
by Lisa GoldsteinA new time-traveling fantasy from National Book Award-winner Lisa Goldstein.Ann Decker fixes computers for a living, and in the evenings she passes the time sharpening her hacking skills. It's not a very interesting life, but she gets by—until one day she's contacted with a job offer for a company called Transformations Incorporated. None of her coworkers have ever heard of it before, and when Ann is finally told what the company does, she can hardly believe it: TI has invented technology to travel in time.Soon Ann is visiting a matriarchy in ancient Crete, and then a woman mathematician at the Library of Alexandria. But Transformations Incorporated remains shrouded in mystery, and when Ann finally catches her breath, there are too many troubling questions still unanswered. Who are Transformations Incorporated, and what will they use this technology to gain? What ill effects might going back in time have on the present day? Is it really as harmless as TI says?When a coworker turns up dead, Ann&’s superiors warn her about a covert group called Core out to sabotage the company. Something just isn&’t right, but before she has time to investigate, Ann is sent to a castle in the south of France, nearly a thousand years in the past. As the armies of the Crusade arrive to lay siege, and intrigue grows among the viscount&’s family, Ann will discover the startling truth—not just about the company that sent her there, but also about her own past.
Scourge of the Betrayer (Bloodsounder's Arc)
by Jeff SalyardsMany tales are told of the Syldoon Empire and its fearsome soldiers, who are known throughout the world for their treachery and atrocities. Some say that the Syldoon eat virgins and babies–or perhaps their own mothers. Arkamondos, a bookish young scribe, suspects that the Syldoon&’s dire reputation may have grown in the retelling, but he&’s about to find out for himself.Hired to chronicle the exploits of a band of rugged Syldoon warriors, Arki finds himself both frightened and fascinated by the men&’s enigmatic leader, Captain Braylar Killcoin. A secretive, mercurial figure haunted by the memories of those he&’s killed with his deadly flail, Braylar has already disposed of at least one impertinent scribe . . . and Arki might be next.Archiving the mundane doings of millers and merchants was tedious, but at least it was safe. As Arki heads off on a mysterious mission into parts unknown, in the company of the coarse, bloody-minded Syldoon, he is promised a chance to finally record an historic adventure well worth the telling, but first he must survive the experience!A gripping military fantasy in the tradition of Glen Cook, Scourge of the Betrayer explores the brutal politics of Empire–and the searing impact of violence and dark magic on a man&’s soul.
Shadow of the Scorpion
by Neal AsherRaised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn&’t remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance.
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year
by Jonathan StrahanFor the first time ever, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has assembled the best science fiction and the best fantasy stories of the year in one volume. More than just two books for the price of one, this book brings together over 200,000 words of the best genre fiction anywhere. Strahan's critical eye and keen editorial instincts have served him well for earlier best of the year round-ups in the Best Short Novels, Science Fiction: Best of and Fantasy: Best of series, and this is his most impressive effort yet.
The Living Dead 2
by John Joseph AdamsThe Living Dead 2 has more of what zombie fans hunger for — more scares, more action, more... brains! Experience the indispensable series that defines the very best in zombie literature with original stories by Kelley Armstrong, Karina Sumner-Smith, Carrie Ryan, Jamie Lackey, Genevieve Valentine, Brian Keene, Simon R. Green, David Wellington, David Barr Kirtley, Matt London, Joe McKinney, Walter Greatshell, Bob Fingerman, S. G. Browne, Jonathan Maberry, Mira Grant, Marc Paoletti, cherie priest, Robert Kirkman, Max Brooks, David Moody, Sarah Langan, Steven Gould, and John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow. In addition to these original stories, The Living Dead 2 features 18 additional reprint zombie stories. All this adds up to a Landmark volume that helps define what zombie godfather John Skipp calls "The New Zombie Literature."
Of Limited Loyalty
by Michael Stakpole1767. In the three years since defeating the Tharyngians at Anvil Lake, The Crown Colonies of Mystria have prospered. Colonists, whether hunting for new land or the Promised Land of prophecy, have pushed beyond the bounds of charters granted by the Queen of Norisle. Some of these new communities have even had the temerity to tell the Crown they are no longer subject to its authorities. To survey the full extent of the western expansion, the Crown has sent Colonel Ian Rathfield to join Nathaniel Woods, Owen Strake, and Kamiskwa on an expedition into the Mystrian interior. They discover a land full of isolated and unique communities, each shaped in accord with the ideals of the founders. Conflicts abound among them, and old enemies show up at the least useful moments. Worse yet, lurking out there is a menace which the Twilight People only know from folklore as the Antedeluvians; and westward penetration stumbles into their lands and awakens them. Alerted to this threat by his men, Prince Vlad petitions the Crown to send troops and supplies to destroy this new and terrifying enemy. The Crown refuses, citing massive debts from the last war. They dismiss Vlad's claims as fantasy, and impose a series of taxes on Mystrian trade to finance their own recovery. Faced with fighting an inhuman foe in a land seething with resentment against the Crown, Vlad must unite the Colonies in a common cause, or preside over their complete destruction.
The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson: The Ghost Pirates & Other Revenants of The Sea
by William Hope HodgsonThe third volume of our Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson.
The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: The Maze of the Enchanter
by Clark Ashton SmithThis series presents Clark Ashton Smith's fiction chronologically, based on composition rather than publication. Editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith's notes and letters, in order to prepare a definitive set of texts.The Maze of the Enchanter includes, in chronological order, all of his stories from "The Mandrakes" (February, 1933) to "The Flower-Women" (May, 1935). This volume also features an introduction, and extensive notes on each story.
Wastelands
by John Joseph AdamsFamine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon — these are our guides through the Wastelands... From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today&’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon.
Exile
by Betsy DornbuschDraken vae Khellian, bastard cousin of the Monoean King, had risen far from his ignominious origins, becoming both a Bowrank Commander and a member of the Crown&’s Black Guard. But when he is falsely condemned for the grisly murder of his beloved wife, he is banished from the kingdom and cast upon the distant shore of Akrasia, at the arse-end of the world.Compared to civilized Monoea, Akrasia is a forbidding land of Moonlings, magic, and restless spirits. It is also a realm on the brink of a bloody revolution, as a sinister conspiracy plots against Akrasia&’s embattled young queen–and malevolent banes possess the bodies of the living.Consumed by grief, and branded a murderer, Draken lives only to clear his name and avenge his wife&’s murder. But the fates may have bigger plans for him. Alone in a strange land, he soon finds himself sharing the bed of an enigmatic necromancer and a half-breed servant girl, while pressed into the service of a foreign queen whose life and land may well depend on the divided loyalties of an exiled warrior . . .Exile is the beginning of an ambitious fantasy saga by an acclaimed new author.
Seed
by Rob ZieglerIt's the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. The United States has become a nation of migrants -starving masses of nomads who seek out a living in desert wastelands and encampments outside government seed-distribution warehouses.In this new world, there is a new power. Satori is more than just a corporation, she is an intelligent, living city that grew out of the ruins of Denver. Satori bioengineers both the climate-resistant seed that feeds a hungry nation, and her own post-human genetic Designers, Advocates, and Laborers. What remains of the United States government now exists solely to distribute Satori seed; a defeated American military doles out bar-coded, single-use Satori seed to the nation's starving citizens.When one of Satori's Designers goes rogue, Agent Sienna Doss-Ex-Army Ranger turned glorified bodyguard-is tasked by the government to bring herin: The government wants to use the Designer to break Satori's stranglehold on seed production and reassert themselves as the center of power.Sianna Doss's search for the Designer intersects with Brood and his younger brother Pollo - orphans scrapping by on the fringes of the wastelands. Pollo is abducted, because he is believed to suffer from Tet, a newly emergent disease, the victims of which are harvested by Satori.As events spin out of control, Brood and Sienna Doss find themselves at the heart of Satori, where an explosive climax promises to reshape the future of the world.
The Daedalus Incident
by Michael MartinezMars is supposed to be dead…a fact Lt. Shaila Jain of the Joint Space Command is beginning to doubt in a bad way.Freak quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll—seemingly of their own volition—carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their realize that their routine geological survey of a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty&’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents…and the immense Void between the Known Worlds. Across the Solar System and among its colonies—rife with plunder and alien slave trade—through dire battles fraught with strange alchemy, nothing much can shake his resolve. But events are transpiring to change all that.With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl with a remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who has embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself.Set sail among the stars with this uncanny tale, where adventure awaits, and dimensions collide!
Dark Intelligence (Transformations)
by Neal AsherOne man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed...Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago. Spear had been trapped on a world surrounded by hostile Prador forces, but Penny Royal, the AI inside the rescue ship sent to provide backup, turned rogue, annihilating friendly forces in a frenzy of destruction and killing Spear. One hundred years later the AI is still on the loose, and Spear vows for revenge at any cost.Isobel Satomi ran a successful crime syndicate, but after competitors attacked she needed power and protection. Negotiating with Penny Royal, she got more than she bargained for: Turning part-AI herself gave Isobel frightening power, but the upgrades hid a horrifying secret, and the dark AI triggered a transformation that has been turning her into something far from human…Spear hires Isobel to track Penny Royal across worlds to its last known whereabouts. But he cheats her in the process and quickly finds himself in her crosshairs. As Isobel continues to evolve into a monstrous predator, it&’s clear her rage will eventually win out over reason. Will Spear finish his hunt before he himself becomes the hunted?Dark Intelligence is the explosive first novel in a brand new trilogy from military SF master Neal Asher and a new chapter in his epic Polity universe.
Prepare to Die!
by Paul TobinNine years ago, Steve Clarke was just a teenage boy in love with the girl of his dreams. Then a freak chemical spill transformed him into Reaver, the man whose super-powerful fists can literally take a year off a bad guy&’s life.Days ago, he found himself at the mercy of his arch-nemesis Octagon and a whole crew of fiendish super-villains, who gave him two weeks to settle his affairs–and prepare to die.Now, after years of extraordinary adventures and crushing tragedies, the world&’s greatest hero is returning to where it all began in search of the boy he once was . . . and the girl he never forgot.Exciting, scandalous, and ultimately moving, Prepare to Die! is a unique new look at the last days of a legend.
Binding: Book Two of the Moon Wolf Saga
by Carol WolfWhat do you do after you&’ve saved the world—and nobody believes you?Amber is a teenage runaway, hiding out in Los Angeles, who is also a daughter of the wolf kind. And, not long ago, she had her own personal demon. Richard was her servant, her lover, and a hellish force bound to the earth against his will. Together they turned back the World Snake that threatened to destroy the city—and she had granted Richard his freedom.Now Amber is alone, but nobody accepts that she has truly shed her demon. Many still fear the World Snake and seek to capture the demon&’s power for their own purposes, unaware that Richard has already departed the mortal realm. Amber finds herself hunted, in both wolf and human forms, by cultists, illusionists, raisers of power, and even an evil veterinarian.Saving the world was one thing. To save herself, Amber may have to call back her fearsome demon lover, who is no longer bound to obey her . . .
Galactic Empires
by Neil ClarkeNeil Clarke, publisher of the award-winning Clarkesworld magazine, presents a collection of thought-provoking and galaxy-spanning array of galactic short science fiction. From E. E. "Doc" Smith&’s Lensman, to George Lucas&’ Star Wars, the politics and process of Empire have been a major subject of science fiction&’s galaxy-spanning fictions. The idiom of the Galactic Empire allows science fiction writers to ask (and answer) questions that are shorn of contemporary political ideologies and allegiances. This simple narrative slight of hand allows readers and writers to see questions and answers from new and different perspectives. The stories in this book do just that. What social, political, and economic issues do the organizing structure of &“empire&” address? Often the size, shape, and fates of empires are determined not only by individuals, but by geography, natural forces, and technology. As the speed of travel and rates of effective communication increase, so too does the size and reach of an Imperial bureaucracy.Sic itur ad astra—&“Thus one journeys to the stars.&” At the beginning of the twentieth century, writers such as Kipling and Twain were at the forefront of these kinds of narrative observations, but as the century drew to a close, it was writers like Iain M. Banks who helped make science fiction relevant. That tradition continues today, with award-winning writers like Ann Leckie, whose 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice hinges upon questions of imperialism and empire. Here then is a diverse collection of stories that asks the questions that science fiction asks best. Empire: How? Why? And to what effect? Table of Contents: - &“Winning Peace&” by Paul J. McAuley - &“Night&’s Slow Poison&” by Ann Leckie - &“All the Painted Stars&” by Gwendolyn Clare - &“Firstborn&” by Brandon Sanderson - &“Riding the Crocodile&” by Greg Egan - &“The Lost Princess Man&” by John Barnes - &“The Waiting Stars&” by Aliette de Bodard - &“Alien Archeology&” by Neal Asher - &“The Muse of Empires Lost&” by Paul Berger - &“Ghostweight&” by Yoon Ha Lee - &“A Cold Heart&” by Tobias S. Buckell - &“The Colonel Returns to the Stars&” by Robert Silverberg - &“The Impossibles&” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - &“Utriusque Cosmi&” by Robert Charles Wilson - &“Section Seven&” by John G. Hemry - &“The Invisible Empire of Ascending Light&” by Ken Scholes - &“The Man with the Golden Balloon&” by Robert Reed - &“Looking Through Lace&” by Ruth Nestvold - &“A Letter from the Emperor&” by Steve Rasnic Tem - &“The Wayfarer&’s Advice&” by Melinda M. Snodgrass - &“Seven Years from Home&” by Naomi Novik - &“Verthandi&’s Ring&” by Ian McDonald
The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: The Door To Saturn
by Clark Ashton SmithPublished in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive &“preferred text&” for Smith's entire body of work. This second volume of the series brings together 20 of his fantasy stories.
Brave New Worlds
by John Joseph AdamsYou are being watched.Your every movement is being tracked, your every word recorded. Your spouse may be an informer, your children may be listening at your door, your best friend may be a member of the secret police. You are alone among thousands, among great crowds of the brainwashed, the well-behaved, the loyal. Productivity has never been higher, the media blares, and the army is ever triumphant. One wrong move, one slip-up, and you may find yourself disappeared -- swallowed up by a monstrous bureaucracy, vanished into a shadowy labyrinth of interrogation chambers, show trials, and secret prisons from which no one ever escapes. Welcome to the world of the dystopia, a world of government and society gone horribly, nightmarishly wrong.What happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life? From 1984 to The Handmaid's Tale, from Children of Men to Bioshock, the dystopian imagination has been a vital and gripping cautionary force. Brave New Worlds collects the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today's most visionary writers, including Neil Gaiman, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ursula K. Le Guin.When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state. Will you fight the system, or be ground to dust beneath the boot of tyranny?
Silicon Embrace
by John ShirleyA near-future where technology and ancient spiritual secrets merge into something very strange... something as strange as a silicon embrace. America has suffered ecological breakdown and the Second Civil War. But the balkanization of the U.S.—along with humanity&’s secret history and what has really been going on in Area 51 and UFOs for decades—are all part of a startling convergence which will transform humanity... or destroy it.* * *Reviews:&“John Shirley has written the best novel of his career. Mature yet youthfully indignant, spiritually insightful yet carnally streetwise, his new book is aboil with ideas and action, full of keen-eyed speculations for the future and daring revisions of history.&”—Asimov&’s&“Silicon Embrace is at once sly, sad eloquent, gonzo, mystic, surreal, and all-American, mixing the pulpiest Sci-Fi with true literary sophistication. A new gem from John Shirley.—Locus&“Angels and aliens alike figure in this metaphysical SF novel from proto-cyberpunker Shirley, who here throws UFOs, black helicopters, several major biblical figures and spiritual transcendence into the early 21st century... it's clear that the author is having fun tying together disparate UFO, conspiracy and New Age myths; readers will have fun watching him do the tying, too.&”—Publishers Weekly