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Paul Cornell has written Doctor Who for the BBC, Batman & Robin for DC, and Wolverine for Marvel. He has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, the Eagle Award for his comics, and shares a Writer's Guild Award for television. He is one of only two people to be Hugo Award nominated for all three media.

A Better Way to Die is his first ever short story collection, providing a comprehensive overview of his work. Featured here are both his contributions to George RR Martin's Wildcards series and all the Jonathan Hamilton stories, including "One of Our Bastards is Missing", shortlisted for the Hugo Award in 2010, and "A Better Way to Die", winner of a BSFA Award in 2011.

With an introduction by John Scalzi, the eBook edition contains 21 stories, representing almost all of Paul's published short fiction to date.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by John Scalzi
• The Deer Stalker - (2005) - shortfiction
• Michael Laurits Is: DROWNING - (2008) - shortstory
• Global Collider Generation: an Idyll - (2009) - shortfiction
• Secret Identity - (2010) - shortstory
• The Occurrence at Slocombe Priory - (2011) - shortfiction
• The Sensible Folly - (2011) - shortfiction
• More - (2011) - shortfiction
• The Elephant in the Room - (2013) - novelette
• A New Arrival at the House of Love - (2012) - shortfiction
• The Ghosts of Christmas - (2012) - novelette
• Tom - (2013) - shortstory
• Ramesses on the Frontier - (2013) - shortstory
• Zeta Reticuli - (2014) - shortfiction
• Catherine Drewe - (2008) - shortstory
• One of Our Bastards Is Missing - (2009) - novelette
• The Copenhagen Interpretation - (2011) - novelette
• A Better Way to Die - (2014) - novelette

Andrew Waggoner has always hung around with his fellow losers at school, desperately hoping each day that the school bullies -- led by Drake -- will pass by him in search of other prey. But one day they force him into the woods, and the bullying escalates into something more; something unforgivable; something unthinkable.

Broken, both physically and emotionally, something dies in Waggoner, and something else is born in its place.

In the hills of the West Country a chalk horse stands vigil over a site of ancient power, and there Waggoner finds in himself a reflection of rage and vengeance, a power and persona to topple those who would bring him low.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 13, November-December 2016.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue Six, September/October 2015.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

Paul Cornell's story follows Ramesses I, founder of his dynasty, on his journey through the Duat to earn his eternal reward. To the great confusion of Ramesses, however, the Duat is not what he had been led to expect. He must travel across America, at the turn of the new millennium.

This story was originally published in the Jared Shurin anthology The Book of the Dead (2013). It can also be found in the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

"The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects."

When five sentient digital beings?condemned for over three hundred years to crew the small survey ship by the all-powerful Company?encounter a mysterious black sphere, their course of action is clear: obtain the object, inform the Company, earn lots of praise.

But the ship malfunctions, and the crew has no choice but to approach the sphere and survey it themselves. They have no idea that this object?and the transcendent truth hidden within?will change the fate of all existence, the Company, and themselves.

Which is harder: seeing your own future -- or truly knowing your past? A science fiction tale of Christmases past and yet to come.

This story can be found in David Hartwell anthology Year's Best SF 18 (2013), Paula Guran's Time Travel: Recent Trips (2014) and the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Police officers Quill, Costain, Sefton, and Ross know the worst of London—or they think they do. While investigating a mobster's mysterious death, they come into contact with a strange artifact and accidentally develop the Sight. Suddenly they can see the true evil haunting London's streets.

Armed with police instincts and procedures, the four officers take on the otherworldly creatures secretly prowling London. Football lore and the tragic history of a Tudor queen become entwined in their pursuit of an age-old witch with a penchant for child sacrifice. But when London's monsters become aware of their meddling, the officers must decide what they are willing to sacrifice to clean up their city, in London Falling by Paul Cornell.

Desperate to find a case to justify the team's existence, with budget cuts and a police strike on the horizon, Quill thinks he's struck gold when a cabinet minister is murdered by an assailant who wasn't seen getting in or out of his limo. A second murder, that of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, presents a crime scene with a message... identical to that left by the original Jack the Ripper.

The new Ripper seems to have changed the MO of the old completely: he's only killing rich white men. The inquiry into just what this supernatural menace is takes Quill and his team into the corridors of power at Whitehall, to meetings with MI5, or 'the funny people' as the Met call them, and into the London occult underworld. They go undercover to a pub with a regular evening that caters to that clientele, and to an auction of objects of power at the Tate Modern.

Meanwhile, in Paul Cornell's The Severed Streets, the Ripper keeps on killing and finally the pattern of those killings gives Quill's team clues towards who's really doing this....

The ghost of Sherlock Holmes is dead, but who will solve his murder?

The Great Detective's ghost has walked London's streets for an age, given shape by people's memories. Now someone's put a ceremonial dagger through his chest. But what's the motive? And who - or what - could kill a ghost?

When policing London's supernatural underworld, eliminating the impossible is not an option. DI James Quill and his detectives have learnt this the hard way. Gifted with the Sight, they'll pursue a criminal genius - who'll lure them into a Sherlockian maze of clues and evidence. The team also have their own demons to fight. They've been to Hell and back (literally) but now the unit is falling apart...

"The time of humanity on this world has come to an end. The long night is starting. The age of the undead is upon us."

Manchester, 1993. The vampires of Great Britain have received a message: the long-awaited arrival of their evil messiah is imminent. It's time for a recruitment drive.

On holiday in Tasmania with Tegan and the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa is attacked by a demonic child. She escapes unharmed -- except for two small wounds in her neck.

Why are the descendants of the Great Vampire so desperate to obtain the blood of a Time Lord? And what is their connection to a forbidden ancient Gallifreyan cult?

The Brigadier, mourning the loss of his wife Doris, is called to help find a nuclear weapon that's gone missing over the Wiltshire Downs. The Doctor is on his way there too, to pick up his companion Compassion, after her holiday on Earth. But when the Doctor's TARDIS explodes, he, the Brigadier, Compassion and Fitz are thrown into the other-dimensional world of Avalon. Magic faces down science, dragons duel with jet fighters.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Fast Forward 2 (2008), edited by Lou Anders. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three (2009). The story can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 15 (2010), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois and Twenty-First Century Science Fiction (2013), edited by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden. It is included in the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

BSFA winning and Hugo and Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2011. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection (2012), edited by Gardner Dozois and the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Rogues (2014), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Martin. The story is included in the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

When the Doctor lands his TARDIS in the Lancaster town of Kennet, in the present day, he finds that something is terribly wrong. The people are scared. They don't like going out onto the streets at night, they don't like making too much noise, and they certainly don't like strangers asking too many questions. What alien force has invaded the town? Why is it watching barmaid Alison Cheney? And what plans does it have for the future of the planet Earth? While starting with a small community under threat, this old-fashioned, very traditional but very up to date Doctor Who adventure takes in the entire world, from New Zealand to India, Siberia to the USA, and cosmic expanses beyond.

The Shalka Doctor is sardonic, witty, compassionate, and tired of how foolish humans can be. He has lived through things his predecessors never dreamed of but has difficulty with things that those before him have taken for granted. He has secrets that may put him, Alison, and the whole world in danger.

The parishioners of Cheldon Bonniface walk to church on the Sunday before Christmas, 1992.Snow is in the air, or is it the threat of something else? The Reverend Trelaw has a premonition, too, and discusses it with the spirit that inhabits his church. Perhaps the Doctor is about to visit them again?

Some years earlier, in a playground in Perivale, Chad Boyle picks up a half-brick. He's going to get that creepy Dorothy who says she wants to be an astronaut. The weapon falls, splitting Dorothy's skull. She dies instantly.

The Doctor has pursued the Timewyrm from prehistoric Mesopotamia to Nazi Germany, and then to the end of the universe. He has tracked down the creature again: but what trans-temporal trap has the Timewyrm prepared for their final confrontation?

On a planet called Heaven, all hell is breaking loose.

Heaven is a paradise for both humans and Draconians - a place of rest in more ways than one. The Doctor comes here on a trivial mission - to find a book, or so he says - and Ace, wandering alone in the city, becomes involved with a charismatic Traveller called Jan.

But the Doctor is strenuously opposed to the romance. What is he trying to prevent? Is he planning some more deadly game connected with the mysterious objects causing the military forces of Heaven such concern?

Archaeologist Bernice Summerfield thinks so. Her destiny is inextricably linked with that of the Doctor, but even she may not be able to save Ace from the Time Lord's plans.

This time, has the Doctor gone too far?

This time, anarchy's real. There are power cuts and Wilson's resignation, a great upheaval of unease. But now there's real fear too. Real panic. And that's not how it's supposed to be.

Somebody has been toying with the Seventh Doctor's past, testing him, threatening him, leading him on a chase that has brought the TARDIS to London in 1976 -- where reality has been altered once again.

Black Star terrorists foment riots in the streets. The Queen barely escapes assassination. A fearful tension is rising. Something is going to happen. Something bad.

Meanwhile, Benny's the lead singer in a punk band. Ace can't talk to her or the Doctor without an argument starting, so she's made murderous plans of her own. The Doctor's alone -- he doesn't know who his enemy is, and even the Brigadier has disowned him.

As usual, it's up to the Doctor to protect the world. And he can't even protect himself.

This book represents the Seventh Doctor in the History Collection.

"Who's going to save us this time?"

April, 1914. The inhabitants of the little Norfolktown of Farringham are enjoying an early summer, unaware that war is on the way. Amongst them is Dr. John Smith, a short, middle-aged history teacher from Aberdeen. He's having a hard time with his new post as house master at Hulton College, a school dedicated to producing military officers.

Bernice Summerfield is enjoying her holiday in the town, getting over the terrible events that befell her in France. But then she meets a future Doctor, and things start to get dangerous very quickly. With the Doctor she knows gone, and only a suffragette and an elderly rake for company, can Benny fight off a vicious alien attack? And will Dr Smith be able to save the day?

"Doctor, this is my fiancé. Please don't kill him."

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Mr Jason Kane and Professor Bernice S. Summerfield, to be held in the village of Cheldon Bonniface in the year 2010.

If everything works out, that is. Between rows, fights and pre-emptive divorce proceedings, there may not be a wedding at all. Especially if there really is someone who wants to prevent it happening.

Everybody's coming: from Ice Warriors to UNIT veterans, a flirtatious Ace to a suspicious Hamlet Macbeth -- and a very confused trio of Isley Brothers. The Doctorhas to organise a buffet, Roz has a mystery to solve, and Chris has a girlfriend who used to be the Timewyrm.

George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards multi-author shared-world universe has been thrilling readers for over 25 years. Now, in addition to overseeing the ongoing publication of new Wild Cards books (like 2011's Fort Freak, Martin is also commissioning and editing new Wild Cards stories for publication on Tor.com. Paul Cornell's "The Elephant in the Room" is the tale of a young woman who can temporarily take on the superpowers of people she's near... and of the crisis this leads her into as she struggles to deal with an overcontrolling mother, a very strange boyfriend, and the beginning of a career.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Traveler, Cleric, Witch.

The villagers in the sleepy hamlet of Lychford are divided. A supermarket wants to build a major branch on their border. Some welcome the employment opportunities, while some object to the modernization of the local environment.

Judith Mawson (local crank) knows the truth -- that Lychford lies on the boundary between two worlds, and that the destruction of the border will open wide the gateways to malevolent beings beyond imagination.

But if she is to have her voice heard, she's going to need the assistance of some unlikely allies...

It's December in the English village of Lychford--the first Christmas since an evil conglomerate tried to force open the borders between our world and... another.

Which means it's Lizzie's first Christmas as Reverend of St. Martin's. Which means more stress, more expectation, more scrutiny by the congregation. Which means... well, business as usual, really.

Until the apparition of a small boy finds its way to Lizzie in the church. Is he a ghost? A vision? Something else? Whatever the truth, our trio of witches (they don't approve of "coven") are about to face their toughest battle, yet!

It's a period of turmoil in Britain, with the country's politicians electing to remove the UK from the European Union, despite ever-increasing evidence that the public no longer supports it. And the small town of Lychford is suffering.

But what can three rural witches do to guard against the unknown? And why are unwary hikers being led over the magical borders by their smartphones' mapping software? And is the immigration question really important enough to kill for?

The borders of Lychford are crumbling. Other realities threaten to seep into the otherwise quiet village, and the resident wise woman is struggling to remain wise. The local magic shop owner and the local priest are having troubles of their own.

And a mysterious stranger is on hand to offer a solution to everyone's problems. No cost, no strings (she says).

But as everyone knows, free wishes from strangers rarely come without a price...

There are changes in the air, both in Lychford and in the land of fairy.

The magical protections previously employed by the town are gone, and the forces of darkness are closing in - both figuratively and literally.

Can Autumn and Lizzie save their community, and... well, the world...?