Search Worlds Without End

A ward-winning writer and editor Al Sarrantonio gathers together twenty-nine original stories from masters of the macabre. From dark fantasy and pure suspense to classic horror tales of vampires and zombies, 999 showcases the extraordinary scope of fantastical fright fiction. The stories in this anthology are a relentless tour de force of fear, which will haunt you, terrify you, and keep the adrenaline rushing all through the night.

A thousand years ago, something evil made a bold attempt to cross into this world. Now it's ready to try again. She's eternally young, lovely and lethal. Her cry for help is heard by a teenage boy in Bermuda. A confused orphan in Montreal. A political prisoner in Poland. A raging paraplegic on the Pacific coast. And a bloodthirsty psychopath in New York City. Each of them is lost, confused, alone. Too weak to resist her siren call.

They come cutting a path of carnage across the globe. And at last they meet. In a lonely mountain mansion. A place of unutterable evil. A place they are never meant to leave.

Professor Kevin Michaels has returned to the picturesque town of New Polk to fill a teaching position at the local university and pursue a long-held ambition: to revive interest in the town's most illustrious citizen, author Eileen Connel, and her neglected masterpiece, "Season of Witches". But first he must uncover the horror locked away inside the old woman's failing mind - a horror that had its birth one tragic Halloween night over forty years ago. Now, as October once again returns to upstate New York, so does a species of evil so monstrously alien it can only wear a human mask...

"The joy of fiction is the joy of the imagination...."

The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more--to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.

Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world--from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult--the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and "master anthologist" (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this "new literature of the imagination" is high. "We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all."

Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man's descent into evil in "Devil on the Staircase." In "Catch and Release," Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in "Unwell." Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in "Wildfire in Manhattan." Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams's "The Knife." Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in "The Therapist." A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman's novelette "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains."

As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume--sure to become a classic--will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Just Four Words - essay by Neil Gaiman
• Blood - shortstory by Roddy Doyle
• Fossil-Figures - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• Wildfire in Manhattan - shortstory by Joanne Harris
• The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• Unbelief - shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith
• The Stars Are Falling - novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
• Juvenal Nyx - novelette by Walter Mosley
• The Knife - shortstory by Richard Adams
• Weights and Measures - shortstory by Jodi Picoult
• Goblin Lake - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Mallon the Guru - shortstory by Peter Straub
• Catch and Release - shortstory by Lawrence Block
• Polka Dots and Moonbeams - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Loser - shortstory by Chuck Palahniuk
• Samantha's Diary - (2009) - shortstory by Diana Wynne Jones
• Land of the Lost - shortstory by Stewart O'Nan
• Leif in the Wind - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Unwell - shortstory by Carolyn Parkhurst
• A Life in Fictions - shortstory by Kat Howard
• Let the Past Begin - shortstory by Jonathan Carroll
• The Therapist - novelette by Jeffery Deaver
• Parallel Lines - shortstory by Tim Powers
• The Cult of the Nose - shortstory by Al Sarrantonio
• Human Intelligence - shortstory by Kurt Andersen
• Stories - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon - novella by Elizabeth Hand
• The Devil on the Staircase - (2010) - shortstory by Joe Hill

The carnival appears overnight on the old Scott property: Ferris wheel, Mirror Maze, midway, Tunnel of Love. Cold, monstrous eyes glare down as the calliope's bright music beckons through the carnival's wrought-iron gates. Once inside, there is no escape from terror, from the dance of death.

A single warrior stands against Ash, the master showman: thirteen-year-old Reggie Carson. Reggie must face Ash on his own ground, the twisted carnival landscape, and fight not only for his own soul - but for us all.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Toybox) - essay by Joe R. Lansdale
• Pumpkin Head
• The Man with Legs
• The Spook Man
• Wish
• Under My Bed
• The Big House
• Bogy
• The Corn Dolly
• The Electric Fat Boy
• Snow
• Garden of Eden
• The Dust
• Father Dear
• Children of Cain
• Red Eve
• Pigs
• Richard's Head
• Boxes

Commander John Sheridan, Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova, Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, and the many aliens who make space station Babylon 5 their home embark on a new thrilling, action-packed journey through a mysterious and dangerous outer space adventure.

This landmark anthology presents thirty groundbreaking stories from the masters of speculative fiction heralding the future of the genre with original and revolutionary works.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2001) - essay by Al Sarrantonio
• On K2 with Kanakaredes - (2001) - novelette by Dan Simmons
• The Building - (2001) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Froggies - (2001) - novelette by Laura Whitton
• What We Did That Summer - (2001) - short story by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
• A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club - (2001) - short story by Michael Moorcock
• In Xanadu - (2001) - short story by Thomas M. Disch
• Commencement - (2001) - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• Unique Visitors - (2001) - short story by James Patrick Kelly
• Black Tulip - (2001) - novelette by Harry Turtledove
• Belief - (2001) - short story by P. D. Cacek
• In the Un-Black - (2001) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• Weeping Walls - (2001) - short story by Paul Di Filippo
• Anomalies - (2001) - short story by Gregory Benford
• Captive Kong - (2001) - short story by Kit Reed
• Feedback - (2001) - short story by Robert E. Vardeman
• Between Disappearances - (2001) - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Resurrection - (2001) - short story by David Morrell
• Cleopatra Brimstone - (2001) - novella by Elizabeth Hand
• Burros Gone Bad - (2001) - short story by Peter Schneider
• Pockets - (2001) - novelette by Rudy Rucker and John Shirley
• Ave de Paso - (2001) - short story by Catherine Asaro
• Road Kill - (2001) - short story by Joe Haldeman
• Ting-a-Ling - (2001) - short story by Jack Dann
• 'Bassador - (2001) - short story by Catherine Wells
• Ssoroghod's People - (2001) - short story by Larry Niven
• Two Shot - (2001) - short story by Michael Marshall Smith
• Billy the Fetus - (2001) - short story by Al Sarrantonio
• Viewpoint - (2001) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Fungi - (2001) - short story by Ardath Mayhar
• Rhido Wars - (2001) - novelette by Neal Barrett, Jr.

This daring, star-packed collection is the fantasy publishing event of the year. Challenging the boundaries of modern fantasy, this all-original anthology features stories from Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, Harry Turtledove, Larry Niven, Dennis L. McKiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, George R. R. Martin, Barbara Hambly, Charles de Lint, Terry Bisson, Patricia A. McKillip, Tim Powers, and more.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Al Sarrantonio
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice - (2004) - novelette by Robert Silverberg
• Perpetua - short story by Kit Reed
• The Edges of Never-Haven - novelette by Catherine Asaro
• Pat Moore - novelette by Tim Powers
• Six Hypotheses - short story by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Silver Dragon - novelette by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• Fallen Angel - short story by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
• The Following - novelette by P. D. Cacek
• A Tower with No Doors - short story by Dennis L. McKiernan
• Boomerang - short story by Larry Niven
• Wonderwall - (2004) - short story by Elizabeth Hand
• Blood, Oak, Iron - short story by Janny Wurts
• Riding Shotgun - (2004) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Demons Hide Their Faces - short story by A. A. Attanasio
• Relations - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Tourists - short story by Neal Barrett, Jr.
• The White Man - novelette by Thomas M. Disch
• Out of the Woods - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• Perchance to Dream - short story by David Morrell
• Coming Across - novelette by Harry Turtledove
• The Problem of Susan - (2004) - short story by Neil Gaiman
• Keeper of Lost Dreams - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• Watchfire - novelette by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
• Tots - short story by Peter Schneider
• Jupiter's Skull - (2004) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Death's Door - (2004) - short story by Terry Bisson
• Bill, the Little Steam Shovel - novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
• Sleepover - short story by Al Sarrantonio
• Golden City Far - (2004) - novelette by Gene Wolfe