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Escaping into the world of Faery when her own home begins to fall apart, Maria Blanca joins in the fight against the savage trogs that threaten the eleven great elven cities and is taken into the heart of the trog empire.

A corrupt Congress rules a drugged-out America, land of slums and malls. But in the underground, a few violent young malcontents will stop at nothing to smash the system... and bring back the constitution and the president. They're outnumbered, outgunned, and led by Johnny Zed. He's the high-tech hero who betrays his revolution, the terrorist who parties with the power-mongers, the assassin of assassins, the saboteur of hearts.

Steel-clawed catmen Hangman and Slash prowl the burned-out urban Sprawl. For the gene-modded catmen, ripping off hot cargoes from rival animen is a fine life of thief vs. thief... cat vs. dog. Until Slash scores a take that's a little too hot: the PED spy-eye, a top-secret sense-recorder implant that turns the human brain into a perfect playback machine. Any brain, living or dead...

Ker Orrum longed for a life of magic. When an Oracle tells of a journey and a gem, his fate is sealed. Vowing to challenge the mighty god known as the Blind Archer, he sets out to win his fortune... and finds a destiny few would envy. Pawn to wizards and gods, blinded and helpless, he accidentally sets an ancient evil loose on the world... an evil which only he can defeat!

The legendary pirate king Ulrich gets more than he had bargained for when he enters into an unholy pact with The Hag, the Abomination, to free his kingdom from savage orog and goblin tribes.

The best stories of the year: here is a collection of the best horror prose written in 2005, by some of the genre's greatest authors, and selected by two of horror's most respected editors. In this volume you'll find stories by Joe Lansdale, Jack Cady, Holly Phillips, Nicholas Royle, Joe Hill, Caitlin Kiernan, M. Rickert, Richard Bowes, Barbara Roden, Clive Barker, Laird Barron, Jeff VanderMeer, Ramsey Campbell, Nick Mamatas, Michael Marshall Smith, Simon Owens and David Niall Wilson.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2006) - essay by Sean Wallace and John Gregory Betancourt
• The Shadows, Kith and Kin - (2005) - short story by Joe R. Lansdale
• The Souls of Drowning Mountain - (2005) - short story by Jack Cady
• The Other Grace - (2005) - novelette by Holly Phillips
• Sitting Tenant - (2005) - short story by Nicholas Royle
• The Cape - (2005) - short story by Joe Hill
• La Peau Verte - (2005) - novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• A Very Little Madness Goes a Long Way - (2005) - short story by M. Rickert
• There's a Hole in the City - (2005) - short story by Richard Bowes
• Northwest Passage - (2004) - novelette by Barbara Roden
• Proboscis - (2005) - novelette by Laird Barron
• Haeckel's Tale - (2005) - short story by Clive Barker
• Lost - (2005) - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
• Unblinking - (2005) - novella by Ramsey Campbell
• Real People Slash - (2006) - short story by Nick Mamatas
• Fair Exchange - (2005) - short story by Michael Marshall Smith
• This Hand, Waving - (2005) - short story by Simon Owens
• The Call of Farther Shores - (2005) - novelette by David Niall Wilson

The Hortas of Janus VI are the greatest miners in the galaxy, capable of burning through solid rock the way humanoids move through air. Recruited to help rebuild Bajor's devastated mining industry, the Hortas could provide new hope for the planet's struggling economy.

But when Cardassian raiders abduct the Mother Horta, Commander Sisko finds himself stuck with twenty Horta eggs -- and then the eggs begin to hatch...

While Major Kira leads a desperate rescue mission deep into Cardassian space, Commander Sisko faces a ravaging mass of newborn Hortas -- uncontrollable, indestructible, and eager to consume Deep Space Nine itself!

While a crucial peace conference fills Deep Space NineTM with rumors of intrigue and conspiracy, Major Kira and Lt. Commander Worf embark on a dangerous undercover mission deep into the heart of the Gamma Quadrant. Their mission: to find the secret of the addictive substance that the Changelings use to control their Jem'Hadar warriors. But how long can Worf and Kira remain undetected in the midst of the Dominion? Odo may be their only hope; but to save them, he'll have to stand against his own people.

Like the twisted strands of mutant chromosomes, an insidious alien conspiracy winds its way through the entire Alpha Quadrant, just as it stretches across several years of Starfleet history -- beginning near the very start of Captain Picard's command of the Starship Enterprise!

It is only the first year of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D's ongoing mission when a virulent epidemic strikes the populace of Archaria III, endangering the lives of thousands and provoking acts of mob violence against those believed responsible for the spread of the disease. While Data and Natasha Yar team up to uncover the true origins of the virus, Dr. Crusher finds that the implacable sickness resists all her efforts to find a cure. The desperate quest for a cure becomes even more urgent when Deanna Troi succumbs to the dreaded plague... again and again.

Tracking a shuttle's distress signal to the nearly deserted Arbuk System, the U.S.S. VoyagerTM crew encounters an unusual weapon a thousand times more powerful than the Starship. Inside the shuttle, the crew discovers an unconscious alien and no more information about the device. Captain Janeway and her crew are attacked by a group of mysterious warships with an interest in the weapon's power. With warp power off line, the crew of the Starship Voyager must find a way to save themselves from a group of aliens desperate to control the superweapon.