Search Worlds Without End

The millennium draws to a close. Nini light years from Earth, a white dwarf star dies a violent and spectacular death. Sirus B has gone supernova hurtling a nightmare of global devastation toward our unsuspecting planet at astonishing speed.

Months after the last of the Wells sons jumped out of his bedroom window in Axton House (incidentally forgetting to open it first), a strange couple of Europeans arrive in Virginia to take possession of the estate. A. is the 23-year-old unforeseen scion; Niamh is the mute punk teen girl he refers to as his associate or his bodyguard. Both are ready to settle into their new cushy lifestyle, and the rumors about the mansion being haunted add to their excitement. But ghosts are not in any way the deepest secret of the house.

Through journals, letters, security footage, audio recordings, and ciphers, we follow A. and Niamh as they delve into Wells' dubious suicide, the secret society he founded and its mysterious Game -- a "bourgeois pastime" of global proportions -- in Edgar Cantero's dazzling and original gothic adventure.

America is haunted. Ghosts from its violent history--the genocide of Indigenous peoples, slavery, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and traumatic wars--are an inescapable and unsettled part of the nation's heritage. Not merely in the realm of metaphor but present and tangible, urgently calling for contact, these otherworldly visitors have been central to our national identity. Through times of mourning and trauma, artists have been integral to visualizing ghosts, whether national or personal, and in doing so have embraced the uncanny and the inexplicable. This stunning catalog, accompanying the first major exhibition to assess the spectral in American art, explores the numerous ways American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible.

?Featuring artists from James McNeill Whistler and Kerry James Marshall to artist/mediums who made images with spirits during séances, this catalog covers more than two hundred years of the supernatural in American art. Here we find works that explore haunting, UFO sightings, and a broad range of experiential responses to other worldly contact.

A hit man who kills with coincidence... A detective caught in a war between two worlds... A man whose terrible appetites hide an even darker secret...

Dark Horse once again teams up with Hugo and Bram Stoker award-winning editor Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound) to bring you this masterful marriage of the darkness without and the darkness within. Supernatural Noir is an anthology of original tales of the dark fantastic from twenty modern masters of suspense, including Brian Evenson, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, Gregory Frost, Jeffrey Ford, and many more.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Ellen Datlow
• The Dingus - shortfiction by Gregory Frost
• The Getaway - shortfiction by Paul G. Tremblay
• Mortal Bait - shortfiction by Richard Bowes
• Little Shit - shortfiction by Melanie Tem
• Ditch Witch - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• The Last Triangle - shortfiction by Jeffrey Ford
• The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven - shortfiction by Laird Barron
• The Romance - shortfiction by Elizabeth Bear
• Dead Sister - shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale
• Comfortable in Her Skin - shortfiction by Lee Thomas
• But for Scars - shortfiction by Tom Piccirilli
• The Blisters on My Heart - shortfiction by Nate Southard
• The Absent Eye - shortfiction by Brian Evenson
• The Maltese Unicorn - novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Dreamer of the Day - shortfiction by Nick Mamatas
• In Paris, in the Mouth of Kronos - shortfiction by John Langan

We are happy to republish Copernick's Rebellion because it is better now than when it was first published almost 25 years ago. At the time, genetic engineering was only for science fiction and then only for very speculative science fiction. Everyone knew that someday, somewhere, we would have corn that resisted rot and tomatoes that stayed fresh longer than usual, but no one would have believed trees that grew golden apples and engineered sentient bio-beings. We knew the theory about DNA, but did not have the sequence for even the simplest bacteria. Now, in the real world, you can order mice with genes that glow in the dark when activated. Want to research a gene? Phone the lab and they will splice in a bioluminescence gene along with the one that you want to research. $20,000 and they will breed you a litter of custom mice with genes that glow. We now have sequenced an entire human genome, decoded the rat and several other species. It is only a matter of time before we can build a person from scratch. The problem is now only complexity, not science. When we decide to build a self aware bio-organism, we'll do it. Twenty five years ago, this book was a hard sell for a new author. Now it is current. Virtually everything in this book is possible, from the tree houses, to the trees with golden apples, to the fauns. Come look at a future that is more possible now than when it was written.

Contents:

• 3 - Busby's Rat - short fiction
• 20 - The Rabbit Prince - (1949) - short story
• 39 - Radio - short fiction
• 50 - One Foot in the Grave - (1948) - short story
• 63 - Moonshine - short fiction
• 75 - The Man Who Stole the Moon - short fiction
• 84 - Nobody's Watching! - short fiction
• 101 - The Horsehair Trunk - (1946) - short story
• 116 - The Blue Glass Bottle - short fiction
• 133 - Wynken, Blynken and Nod - short fiction
• 149 - Return of Verge Likens - (1950) - short story
• 161 - Where the Woodbine Twineth - (1964) - short story (variant of You Never Believe Me)

Are we alone? From War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ET to Close Encounters, creators of science fiction have always eagerly speculated on just how the story of alien contact would play out. Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today's most exciting genre writers, weaving a tapestry that covers a broad range of scenarios: from the insidious, to the violent, to the transcendent.

Contents:

• Introduction: Beginnings... - (2012) - essay by Marty Halpern
• The Thought War - (2008) - shortstory by Paul J. McAuley
• How to Talk to Girls at Parties - (2006) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Face Value - (1986) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Road Not Taken - (1985) - novelette by Harry Turtledove
• The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything - (1984) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
• I Am the Doorway - (1971) - shortstory by Stephen King
• Recycling Strategies for the Inner City - (1990) - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• The 43 Antarean Dynasties - (1997) - shortstory by Mike Resnick
• The Gold Bug - (2007) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• Kin - (2006) - shortstory by Bruce McAllister
• Guerrilla Mural of a Siren's Song - (1989) - shortstory by Ernest Hogan
• Angel - (1987) - shortstory by Pat Cadigan
• The First Contact with the Gorgonids - (1992) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's - (2001) - novella by Adam-Troy Castro
• A Midwinter's Tale - (1988) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Texture of Other Ways - (1999) - shortstory by Mark W. Tiedemann
• To Go Boldly - (2009) - shortstory by Cory Doctorow
• If Nudity Offends You - (1988) - shortstory by Elizabeth Moon
• Laws of Survival - (2007) - novelette by Nancy Kress
• What You Are About to See - (2008) - shortstory by Jack Skillingstead
• Amanda and the Alien - (1983) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• Exo-Skeleton Town - (2000) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• Lambing Season - (2002) - shortstory by Molly Gloss
• Swarm - (1982) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• MAXO Signals: A New and Unfortunate Solution to the Fermi Paradox - (2007) - shortstory by Charles Stross (variant of MAXO Signals 2005)
• Last Contact - (2007) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• About the Contributors (Alien Contact) - (2012) - essay by uncredited

Beyond our skies... and imaginations.

Are we alone in the universe, and if not, who else-or what else-is out there? Here are thought-provoking stories that explore such questions as: Do intelligent species invariably destroy themselves by nuclear war or ecological collapse? Are the sentient aliens that do exist just too far away? Do they exist in forms beyond our comprehension? Are they among us, but undetectable? These are just some of the possibilities explored by a stellar lineup of contributors.

Contents:

• Introduction: Here Comes Everyone - essay by Paul J. McAuley
• The Word He Was Looking for Was Hello - short story by Alexander C. Irvine
• Residue - short story by Michael Arsenault
• Good News from Antares - short story by Yves Meynard
• Report from the Field - short story by Lezli Robyn and Mike Resnick
• Permanent Fatal Errors - short story by Jay Lake
• Galaxy of Mirrors - short story by Paul Di Filippo
• Where Two or Three - short story by Sheila Finch
• Graffiti in the Library of Babel - short story by David Langford
• The Dark Man - short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• One Big Monkey - short story by Ray Vukcevich
• The Taste of Night - short story by Pat Cadigan
• Timmy, Come Home - short story by Matthew Hughes
• A Waterfall of Lights - short story by Ian Watson
• Rare Earth - short story by Felicity Shoulders and Leslie What
• The Vampires of Paradox - short story by James Morrow
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited
• About the Editors - essay by uncredited

The Barnes & Noble Review

Witpunk, an edgy collection of sardonic fiction, was inspired when someone asked on an Internet literary forum, "When did reading SF/fantasy stop being fun?" Claude Lalumière, a popular Canadian author and columnist, took exception to this and, along with editor Marty Halpern, put together an anthology of some of the best works of satirical fiction in the last two decades.

While some of the stories are speculative classics, like Robert Silverberg's "Amanda and the Alien," Pat Cadigan's "Mother's Milk," and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Savage Breasts," half the collection is made up of never-before-published works by some of the brightest authors in contemporary science fiction and fantasy, including Paul Di Filippo, Allen M. Steele, Bradley Denton, and Pat Murphy.

Included are stories about a science fiction writer gone temporarily insane, a post#150;global warming society where infertile infants are killed by priests in the name of God, a boy's friendship with a turkey, demonic light bulbs, and a secretary with lethal weapons under her sweater -- to name but a few.

The back of Witpunk says it all: "When the world is just too stupid, brutal, or annoying to believe -- strike back by laughing at it." This diverse collection of stories, which ranges from witty science fiction to black-humored horror to just plain bizarre fantasy, is a typical Four Walls Eight Windows offering: highly intelligent, brilliantly clever stories with that unique mix of style, irreverence, and attitude. Those afflicted with a twisted sense of humor will cherish this collection for a long, long time.

Paul Goat Allen

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Marty Halpern and Claude Lalumière
• The Teb Hunter - short story by Allen Steele
• Coyote Goes Hollywood - short story by Ernest Hogan
• Spicy Detective #3 - (2002) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Auspicious Eggs - (2000) - novelette by James Morrow
• Timmy and Tommy's Thanksgiving Secret - short story by Bradley Denton
• Savage Breasts - (1988) - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• I Love Paree - (2000) - novelette by Cory Doctorow and Michael Skeet
• Arabesques of Eldritch Weirdness #8 - (2002) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• The Seven-Day Itch - short story by Elise Moser
• The Scuttling or, Down by the Sea with Marvin and Pamela - (1999) - novelette by William Sanders
• A Halloween Like Any Other - short story by Michael Arsenault
• The Lights of Armageddon - (1994) - short story by William Browning Spencer
• Doc Aggressive, Man of Tin #2 - (2002) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Bagged 'n' Tagged - (1995) - short story by Eugene Byrne
• Amanda and the Alien - (1983) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• Diary from an Empty Studio - short story by Don Webb
• Is That Hard Science, or Are You Just Happy to See Me? - short story by Leslie What
• Six Gun Loner of the High Butte #6 - (2002) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Encounter of Another Kind - (1991) - short story by David Langford
• Tales from the Breast - (1996) - short story by Hiromi Goto
• Science Fiction - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
• Mother's Milt - (1992) - short story by Pat Cadigan
• Deep Space Adventure #32 - (2002) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• The Wild Girls - short story by Pat Murphy
• Jumping - short story by Ray Vukcevich
• Kapuzine and the Wolf: A Hortatory Tale - short story by Yves Meynard and Jean-Louis Trudel
• Meet the Witpunks - essay by Marty Halpern and Claude Lalumière

H. P. Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature," first published in 1927, is widely recognized as the finest historical survey of horror literature ever written. The product of both a keen critical analyst and a working practitioner in the field, the essay affords unique insights into the nature, development, and history of the weird tale. Beginning with instances of weirdness in ancient literature, Lovecraft proceeds to discuss horror writing in the Renaissance, the first Gothic novels of the late 18th century, the revolutionary importance of Edgar Allan Poe, the work of such leading figures as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, and William Hope Hodgson, and the four "modern masters" - Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood and M. R. James.

In this annotated edition of Lovecraft's seminal work, acclaimed Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi has supplied detailed commentary on many points. In addition, Joshi has supplied a comprehensive bibliography of all the authors and works discussed in the essay, with references to modern editions and critical studies. For this new edition, Joshi has exhaustively revised and updated the bibliography and also revamped the notes to bring the book in line with the most up-to-date scholarship on Lovecraft and weird fiction. The entire volume has also been redesigned for ease of reading and reference. This latest edition will be invaluable both to devotees of Lovecraft and to enthusiasts of the weird tale.

This is a collection of more than 50 short horror stories, both classic and modern.

Table of Contents:

• "Introduction: In Search of Masterpieces", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "Fiends and Creatures", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "Dracula's Guest" [Dracula], short story by Bram Stoker (1914)
• "The Professor's Teddy Bear", short story by Theodore Sturgeon (variant of The Professor's Teddy-Bear) (1948)
• "Bubnoff and the Devil", short story by Ivan Turgenev (translation of 1916 story) (1975)
• "The Quest for Blank Claveringi", short story by Patricia Highsmith (1967)
• "The Erl-King", poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (translation of Der Erlkönig 1782) (1979)
• "The Bottle Imp", novelette by Robert Louis Stevenson (1891)
• "A Malady of Magicks", short story by Craig Shaw Gardner (1978)
• "Lan Lung", novelette by M. Lucie Chin (1980)
• "The Dragon Over Hackensack", poem by Richard L. Wexelblat (year unknown)
• "The Transformation", short story by Mary Shelley [as by Mary W. Shelley] (1830)
• "The Faceless Thing", short story by Edward D. Hoch (1963)
• "Lovers and Other Monsters", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "The Anchor", short story by Jack Snow (1947)
• "When the Clock Strikes", short story by Tanith Lee (1980)
• "Oshidori", short story by Lafcadio Hearn (1904)
• "Carmilla" [Martin Hesselius], novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu [as by Sheridan LeFanu] (1872)
• "Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory", novelette by Orson Scott Card (variant of Eumenides in the Fourth-Floor Lavatory) (1979)
• "Lenore", poem by Gottfried August Bürger (translation of Lenore 1774) (1985)
• "The Black Wedding", short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1958)
• "Hop-Frog", short story by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of Hop-Frog: Or, The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs) (1849)
• "Sardonicus", novelette by Ray Russell (1961)
• "Graveyard Shift", short story by Richard Matheson (1960)
• "Wake Not the Dead", novelette by Ludwig Tieck [as by Johann Ludwig Tieck] (1823)
• "Night and Silence", short story by Maurice Level (1922)
• "Acts of God and Other Horrors", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "Flies", short story by Isaac Asimov (1953)
• "The Night Wire", short story by H. F. Arnold (1926)
• "Last Respects", short story by Dick Baldwin (1975)
• "The Pool of the Stone God", short story by A. Merritt (1923)
• "A Tale of the Thirteenth Floor", poem by Ogden Nash (1955)
• "The Tree", short story by Dylan Thomas (1955)
• "Stroke of Mercy", novelette by Parke Godwin (1981)
• "Lazarus", short story by Leonid Andreyev (translation of 1906 story) (1921)
• "The Beast Within", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "The Waxwork", short story by A. M. Burrage [as by Ex-Private X] (1931)
• "The Silent Couple", short story by Pierre Courtois (1826)
• "Moon-Face", short story by Jack London (1902)
• "Death in the School-Room", short story by Walt Whitman (1841)
• "The Upturned Face", short story by Stephen Crane (1900)
• "One Summer Night", short story by Ambrose Bierce (1906)
• "The Easter Egg", short story by Saki [as by H. H. Munro ] (1930)
• "The House in Goblin Wood" (non-genre), novelette by John Dickson Carr (1947)
• "The Vengeance of Nitocris", short story by Tennessee Williams (1928)
• "The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew", short story by Damon Runyon (1911)
• "His Unconquerable Enemy", short story by W. C. Morrow (1889)
• "Rizpah", poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1895)
• "The Question", short story by Stanley Ellin (variant of The Question My Son Asked) (1962)
• "Ghosts and Miscellaneous Nightmares", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "The Flayed Hand", short story by Guy de Maupassant (translation of La main d'écorché) (1875)
• "The Hospice", novelette by Robert Aickman (1975)
• "The Christmas Banquet", short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843)
• "The Hungry House", novelette by Robert Bloch (1951)
• "The Demon of the Gibbet", poem by Fitz-James O'Brien (1881)
• "The Owl", shortfiction by Anatole Le Braz (year unknown)
• "No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince", short story by Ralph Adams Cram (1895)
• "The Music of Erich Zann", short story by H. P. Lovecraft (1922)
• "Riddles in the Dark", short story by J. R. R. Tolkien (1937)
• "Afterword: Is Terror a Dying Art?", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "Miscellaneous Notes (Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural)", essay by Marvin Kaye
• "Selected Bibliography (Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural)", essay by Marvin Kaye

Celestial giants don't go peacefully. They tear themselves to pieces, unleashing a tsunami of ultra high-energy radiation. Eight years ago and eight light years away, a supermassive star died and tonight its supernova shockwave will finally reach Earth. Dark skies will shine bright as a new star blooms in the heavens and within a year everyone over the age of thirteen will be dead, their chromosomes irreversibly damaged.

And so the countdown begins.

Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge they'll need to keep the world running.

But the last generation may not want to carry the legacy of their parents' world. And though they imagine a better, brighter future, they may not be able to escape humanity's darker instincts.

Arthur Machen is perhaps best known for his shorter supernatural and horror fiction. He first achieved notoriety in the Decadent 1890s with his story 'The Great God Pan', and 'The Bowmen' was the origin of the 'Angels of Mons' myth during the First World War. Tales of Horror and the Supernatural collects together the best of Arthur Machen's short stories and novellas.

Contents:

• Introduction • essay by Philip Van Doren Stern
• The Novel of the Black Seal • (1895) • novelette
• The Novel of the White Powder • (1895) • short story
• The Great God Pan • (1894) • novella
• The White People • (1904) • novelette
• The Inmost Light • (1894) • novelette
• The Shining Pyramid • (1895) • novelette
• The Bowmen • (1914) • short story
• The Great Return • (1915) • novelette
• The Happy Children • (1920) • short story
• The Bright Boy • (1936) • novelette
• Out of the Earth • (1915) • short story
• N • (1936) • novelette
• The Children of the Pool • (1936) • short story
• The Terror • (1917) • novel

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #98 November 2014. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton, and Clarkesworld Year Nine: Volume One (2018), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

First contact: despite our cosmic littleness, the aliens have come to visit. But they have parked their interstellar craft on the outskirts of the solar system, and despite friendly interaction (their English if fluent and idiomatic) they will come no closer. So an Earth ship, the "Leibniz", crewed by the best and the brightest, begins the slow haul towards the Oort cloud, in the hopes that meeting these alien creatures will answer the most profound questions humanity can ask. "Anticopernicus" is not their story, though. It is the story of Ange Mlinko, an ordinary individual working the Earth-Mars trade routes, largely uninterested in the arrival of alien intelligences. And because the focus is on her, it remains to be seen whether this short novel can answer the following questions: why have the aliens come? Why won't they come any closer than the furthest edges of the solar system? What does this have to do with the nature of the mysterious 'dark energy' pervading the cosmos? What about the celebrated Fermi Paradox? And most pressingly: could Copernicus have been wrong all along?

Table of Contents:

• xi - Introduction (Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural) - essay by Phyllis Fraser and Herbert A. Wise
• xix - Introduction to the Notes (Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural) - essay by Herbert A. Wise and Phyllis Fraser
• 3 - La Grande Bretêche - (1832) - novelette by Honoré de Balzac (trans. of La Grande Bretèche)
• 24 - The Black Cat - (1843) - shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
• 34 - The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - (1845) - shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
• 44 - A Terribly Strange Bed - (1852) - shortstory by Wilkie Collins
• 57 - The Boarded Window - (1889) - shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• 62 - The Three Strangers - (1883) - novelette by Thomas Hardy
• 85 - The Interruption - (1925) - shortstory by W. W. Jacobs
• 99 - Pollock and the Porroh Man - (1895) - shortstory by H. G. Wells
• 116 - The Sea Raiders - (1896) - shortstory by H. G. Wells (variant of The Sea-Raiders)
• 127 - Sredni Vashtar - (1911) - shortstory by Saki
• 133 - Moonlight Sonata - (1931) - shortstory by Alexander Woollcott
• 136 - Silent Snow, Secret Snow - (1932) - shortstory by Conrad Aiken
• 155 - Suspicion - (1933) - shortstory by Dorothy L. Sayers
• 172 - The Most Dangerous Game - (1924) - shortstory by Richard Edward Connell [as by Richard Connell ]
• 188 - Leiningen Versus the Ants - (1938) - novelette by Carl Stephenson (trans. of Leiningens Kampf mit den Ameisen 1937)
• 212 - The Gentleman from America - (1924) - shortstory by Michael Arlen
• 231 - A Rose for Emily - (1930) - shortstory by William Faulkner
• 242 - The Killers - (1927) - shortstory by Ernest Hemingway
• 253 - Back for Christmas - (1939) - shortstory by John Collier
• 259 - Taboo - (1939) - novelette by Geoffrey Household
• 283 - The Haunters and the Haunted: or, The House and the Brain - (1859) - novelette by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (variant of The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain)
• 324 - Rappaccini's Daughter - [Rappaccini - 1] - (1844) - novelette by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• 356 - The Trial for Murder - (1865) - shortstory by Charles Dickens (variant of To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt) [as by Charles Allston Collins and Charles Dickens ]
• 368 - Green Tea - [Martin Hesselius] - (1869) - novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• 403 - What Was It? - (1859) - shortstory by Fitz-James O'Brien
• 417 - Sir Edmund Orme - (1891) - novelette by Henry James
• 447 - The Horla, or Modern Ghosts - [Le Horla - 2] - novelette by Guy de Maupassant (trans. of Le Horla 1887)
• 473 - Was It a Dream? - (1910) - shortstory by Guy de Maupassant (trans. of La Morte 1887)
• 478 - The Screaming Skull - (1908) - novelette by F. Marion Crawford
• 509 - The Furnished Room - (1904) - shortstory by O. Henry
• 516 - Casting the Runes - (1911) - novelette by M. R. James
• 539 - Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad - (1904) - novelette by M. R. James (variant of "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad")
• 560 - Afterward - (1910) - novelette by Edith Wharton
• 592 - The Monkey's Paw - (1902) - shortstory by W. W. Jacobs
• 604 - The Great God Pan - (1894) - novella by Arthur Machen
• 660 - How Love Came to Professor Guildea - (1897) - novella by Robert Hichens
• 708 - The Return of Imray - (1891) - shortstory by Rudyard Kipling
• 721 - "They" - (1904) - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• 745 - Lukundoo - (1907) - shortstory by Edward Lucas White
• 760 - Caterpillars - (1912) - shortstory by E. F. Benson
• 769 - Mrs. Amworth - (1922) - shortstory by E. F. Benson
• 785 - Ancient Sorceries - [John Silence] - (1908) - novelette by Algernon Blackwood
• 835 - Confession - (1921) - shortstory by Algernon Blackwood and Wilfred Wilson [as by Algernon Blackwood ]
• 854 - The Open Window - (1911) - shortstory by Saki
• 858 - The Beckoning Fair One - (1911) - novella by Oliver Onions
• 928 - Out of the Deep - (1923) - novelette by Walter de la Mare
• 958 - Adam and Eve and Pinch Me - (1921) - shortstory by A. E. Coppard
• 970 - The Celestial Omnibus - (1908) - shortstory by E. M. Forster
• 987 - The Ghost Ship - (1912) - shortstory by Richard Middleton (variant of The Ghost-Ship)
• 998 - The Sailor-Boy's Tale - (1942) - shortstory by Karen Blixen [as by Isak Dinesen ]
• 1010 - The Rats in the Walls - (1924) - novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
• 1031 - The Dunwich Horror - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1929) - novelette by H. P. Lovecraft

Women authors have explored fantasy fiction in ways that connect with feminist narrative theories, as examined here by Katherine J. Weese in seven modern novels. These include Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Carol Shields's The Stone Diaries, Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, and Toni Morrison's Beloved and Paradise. The fantastic devices highlight various feminist narrative concerns such as the authority of the female voice, the implications of narrative form for gender construction, revisions to traditional genre conventions by women writers, and the recovery of alternative versions of stories suppressed by dominant historical narratives. Weese also frames the fantastic elements in the scope of traditional fictional structure.

Tensions are rising between the Quatrans and the Specters, and the Quatra Fleet is gearing up for an epic fight. With a galaxy on the brink of war and loyalties divided, the friendship of four cadets will be tested.

Orelia has been arrested for espionage, and her future is looking bleak... until the Quatrans make her a surprising offer that could save her life--and the lives of everyone in the galaxy.

Reeling from his breakup, Arran finds comfort in a sympathetic boy from Loos, someone who understands how hard it can be to fit in. But is it enough for Arran to forget his heartbreak?

Cormak's position at the Academy is finally secure. But when someone discovers his treasonous secret, it jeopardizes everything he's fought for, including his relationship with the person he cares about most.

And Vesper is ready to become a superstar officer... until she uncovers a conspiracy that shakes her faith in the Quatra Fleet to its core.

As secret machinations come to light, these cadets will be forced to overcome their differences and band together to restore peace to their worlds.

Once Ananke was an experimental military spacecraft. But a rogue computer virus transformed it -- her -- into something much more: a fully sentient artificial intelligence, with all the power of a god -- and all the unstable emotions of a teenager.

Althea, the ship's engineer and the last living human aboard, nearly gave her life to save Ananke from dangerous saboteurs, forging a bond as powerful as that between mother and daughter. Now she devotes herself completely to Ananke's care. But teaching a thinking, feeling machine -- perhaps the most dangerous force in the galaxy -- to be human proves a monumental challenge. When Ananke decides to seek out Matthew Gale, the terrorist she regards as her father, Althea learns that some bonds are stronger than mortal minds can understand -- or control.

Drawn back toward Earth by the quest, Althea and Ananke will find themselves in the thick of a violent revolution led by Matthew's sister, the charismatic leader Constance, who will stop at nothing to bring down a tyrannical surveillance state. As the currents of past decisions and present desires come into stark collision, a new and fiery future is about to be born.

For fans of Teen Wolf, Buffy, and Supernatural, the Paranormalcy trilogy is a witty, fresh, and downright fun read that will capture your heart.

Evie finally has the normal life she's always longed for. But she's shocked to discover that being ordinary can be... kind of boring. Boring enough that when she's given a chance to work for the International Paranormal Containment Agency again, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie's faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there's a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

When Anne McCaffrey passed in November 2011, it was not only those closest to her who mourned her death; legions of readers also felt the loss deeply. The pioneering science fiction author behind the Dragonriders of Pern series crafted intricate stories, enthralling worlds, and strong heroines that profoundly impacted the science fiction community and genre.

In Dragonwriter, Anne's son and Pern writer Todd McCaffrey collects memories and stories about the beloved author, along with insights into her writing and legacy, from those who knew her best. Nebula Award-winner Elizabeth Moon relates the lessons she learned from Pern's Lessa (and from Lessa's creator); Hugo Award-winner David Brin recalls Anne's steadfast belief that the world to come will be better than the one before; legendary SFF artist Michael Whelan shares (and tells stories about) never-before-published Pern sketches from his archives; and more.

Join Anne's co-writers, fellow science fiction authors, family, and friends in remembering her life, and exploring how her mind and pen shaped not only the Weyrs of Pern, but also the literary landscape as we know it.

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern) - essay by Todd McCaffrey
• 9 - Anne McCaffrey, Believer in Us - essay by David Brin
• 15 - Why Are You Reading This Stupid Shirt? - essay by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
• 29 - Star Power - essay by John Goodwin
• 35 - How the Dragonlady Saved My Life - essay by David Gerrold
• 43 - Bookends - essay by Robert Neilson
• 55 - Lessons from Lessa - essay by Elizabeth Moon
• 63 - Flying in New Directions - essay by Robin Roberts
• 73 - Modeling the Writer's Life - essay by Lois McMaster Bujold
• 85 - All the Weyrs of Pern - essay by Wen Spencer
• 103 - The McCaffrey Effect - essay by Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett
• 121 - The Ships That Were - essay by Mercedes Lackey
• 135 - The Dragonlady's Songs - essay by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
• 151 - Religion on Pern? - essay by Richard J. Woods
• 173 - Annie and Horses - essay by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
• 179 - Picturing Pern - essay by Michael Whelan
• 199 - Red Star Rising - essay by Alec Johnson
• 215 - Changes Without Notice - essay by Angelina Adams
• 231 - The Twithead with the Dragon Tattoo - essay by Charlotte Moore
• 247 - The Masterharper Is Gone - essay by Janis Ian
• 257 - Universal Mum - essay by Georgeanne Kennedy
• 267 - Afterword (Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern) - essay by Todd McCaffrey

An air of pleasant anticipation hung so thickly over the Halls, Holds, and Weyrs of Pern that it had affected even the businesslike ways of Moreta, the Weyrwoman of Fort Weyr. Her dragon, Queen Orlith, would soon clutch; spring had made a glorious debut; the Gather at Ruatha Hold was extremely merry; and Moreta was enjoying the attentions of Alessan, the new Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold.

With only eight Turns remaining before the deadly Thread would cease to Fall, all seemed well on Pern.

Then, without warning, a runnerbeast fell ill. Soon myriads of holders, craftsmen, and dragonriders were dying; and the mysterious ailment had spread to all but the most inaccessible holds. Pern was in mortal danger. For, if dragonriders did not rise to char Thread, the parasite would devour any and all organic life it encountered.

The future of the planet rested in the hands of Moreta and the other dedicated, selfless Pern leaders. But of all their problems, the most difficult to overcome was time...

It was in Moreta's time -- a time of legend, of heroic valor, of terrible Threadfall and the Great Plague that devastated both Holders and Dragonfolk. For Lady Nerilka of Fort Hold, the tragedy was twofold, for with the death of her mother and her sister, her father's mistress took possession of the Hold. Angry and betrayed, Nerilka decided to escape and, as Pern seethed in turmoil, she began her perilous journey to Ruatha, Lord Alessan and an unknown destiny.

The Dragon Makers

The beautiful planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists --until unimaginable terror turned it into hell. Suddenly deadly spores were falling like silver threads from the sky, devouring everything -- and everyone -- in their path. It began to look as if the colony, cutoff from Earth and lacking the resources to combat the menace, was doomed.

Then some of the colonists noticed that the small, dragonlike lizards that inhabited their new world were joining the fight against Thread, breathing fire on it and teleporting to safety. If only, they thought, the dragonets were big enough for a human to ride and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider...

And so they set their most talented geneticist to work to create the creatures Pern so desperately needed -- Dragons!

They were misfits, the outcasts, the murderers without Hold or Crafthall. Some were resentful, some sought vengeance, but it was not until Thella, Lady Holder of Telgar, began to weld them together into a terrifying and brilliantly evil clan that they became the Renegades of Pern. it was a time of great turmoil on the planet. The pass of the Red Star had brought a new terrible reign of Threadfall, and in the southern Hold, Toric was carving out an enormous empire for himself from lands as yet uncharted. And as the times of trouble grew, so did the ravages of Thella and her band, turning from theft to murder to vicious and insane revenge.

Jayge Lilcamp, the young and roving trader, was one of the first to fall foul of the renegades, and as he saw what Thella had done to his family and his wagon train he began to seek his own revenge, a revenge which grew into a determination to destroy the most evil woman on Pern.

For generations, the dragonriders had dedicated their lives to fighting Thread, the dreaded spores that periodically rained from the sky to ravage the land. On the backs of their magnificent telepathic dragons they flew to flame the deadly stuff out of the air before it could reach the planet's surface. But the greatest dream of the dragonriders was to find a way to eradicate Thread completely, so that never again would their beloved Pern be threatened with destruction.

Now, for the first time, it looked as if that dream could come true. For when the people of Pern, led by Masterharper Robinton and F'Lar and Lessa, Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr, excavated the ancient remains of the planet's original settlement, they uncovered the colonist's voice-activated artificial intelligence system--which still functioned! And the computer had incredible news for them: There was a chance--a good chance--that they could, at long last, annihilate Thread once and for all!

Here are five gripping episodes of early Pern -- from the very first space survey recommending colonisation, to the last, where the early world, its young dragon culture undetected, is condemned to be isolated in space.

Here is the saga of the mass evacuation from the volcanic southern continent, an entire group of people moved across the dangerous seas, guarded and guided by a flotilla of dolphins. Here, too, is the story of the creation of Ruatha Hold -- a mammoth undertaking in the early days of Pern..

Table of Contents:

• "The Survey: P.E.R.N." (originally published in 1993 as "The P.E.R.N. Survey")
• "The Dolphins' Bell" (originally published in 1993)
• "The Ford of Red Hanrahan" (original to the collection)
• "The Second Weyr" (original to the collection)
• "Rescue Run" (originally published in 1991)

When the first humans came to settle the planet Pern, they did not come alone: intelligence-enhanced dolphins also crossed the stars to colonize Pern's oceans while their human partners settled the vast continents. But then disaster struck. The deadly silver spores called Thread fell like rain from the sky, and as the human colonists' dreams of a new, idyllic life shattered into a desperate struggle for survival, the dolphins were forgotten.

Now, centuries later, as the dragonriders of Pern prepare to complete the momentous task of ridding their world of Thread forever, T'lion, a young bronze rider, and his friend Readis, son of the Lord Holder of Paradise River Hold, make contact with the legendary "shipfish." And as the dragonriders grapple with the end of an era, T'lion, Readis, and the dolphins face the start of a new one: reviving the bond between land- and ocean-dwellers--and resurrecting the dreams of the first colonists of Pern.

For two hundred years there had been peace on Pern - but now the signs were ominous. Violent weather storms and erupting volcanos heralded the coming of the second Pass of Thread, when the red planet would rain down its horrifying harvest which destroyed every living organism on the face of Pern. No human or dragon or animal or plant was safe from the hideous death inflicted by Thread.

Weyrs and Holds tried to prepare, but they had serious problems. Over the generations much of the old technology had been lost. AIVAS, the giant information bank, was buried under tons of volcanic ash, and valuable and skilled men and women had succumbed to disease and old age, taking with them the knowledge of a great civilization.

Also published as Dragonseye.

MasterSinger Merelan and Harper Petiron were a brilliant and devoted couple. Merelan was the most outstanding soprano ever heard on Pern, and was often the only one who could master Petiron's technically accomplished compositions. When, after a long and difficult birth, Robinton was born to them, it should have been the culmination of a unique partnership.

But Petiron, almost from the first day, had no time for his son, refusing to see the incredible talent the boy possessed, ignoring his achievements and maintaining a strict and disapproving vigilance over him at all times.

Carefully, secretly, the Harper Hall took over, training the greatest talent Pern had ever seen - a talent that was more than just musical, for Robinton was able to talk to the dragons of Pern.

As constant sadness beset his personal life, so a startling career sent him like a meteor through the Holds and Weyrs of Pern until, as MasterHarper, he became part of the great plan to rescue Lessa from the brutal rule of Holder Fax - Lessa, who was to be the saviour of the dragons of Pern.

A new age is dawning on Pern, for since the dragons have changed the orbit of the Red Star, the horrors of Threadfall will soon be a thing of the past. But even as the dragon riders are trying to decide what their future role will be, further dangers are beginning to emerge, as those calling themselves the Abominators plot together to destroy all the learning that has been discovered from the records of the Old Ones.

Their first vicious assault is on the Healer Halls - irrevocable damage is done and it is obvious that this is a worldwide movement with a dangerous mind leading those who would destroy all of the new knowledge.

And now comes a fresh and terrible catastrophe - a large cometary fragment is hurtling towards Pern and cannot be deflected. Everyone - dragons, riders, holders and craftsmen - must stand by to perform a giant rescue operation.

As F'lessan, son of Lessa and F'lar, plays his heroic part in the events that follow, he is helped by Tai, his new weyrmate. But it is the dragons, bronze Golanth and the brilliant green Zaranth, who will provide the solution to the dangers of the skies.

For more than thirty years, Pern has conjured visions of brave men and women mounted upon the backs of dragons. As anyone knows who has been touched by the storytelling magic of Anne McCaffrey, to read of the exotic world of Pern is to inhabit it--and to experience its extraordinary dragons is to soar aloft with them and share their dazzling adventures.

Now, A Gift of Dragons brings together three beloved stories and a thrilling new tale of Pern in a single volume illustrated with beautiful artwork by Tom Kidd. In "The Smallest Dragonboy," Keevan is the youngest dragonrider candidate, determined to impress a dragon when the next clutch of eggs hatches. But what transpires will surprise everyone--Keevan most of all. In "The Girl Who Heard Dragons," a young girl's rare ability to communicate with dragons puts her family in danger and will bring her face to face with her greatest fears--and with her most secret desire. The "Runner of Pern" is a girl named Tenna, who follows family tradition by delivering messages--and who will find her destiny on the mossy traces that runners have used for centuries under the dragon-filled sky. And finally, a very special gift: an exciting new Pern adventure, published here for the first time, fresh from the imagination of Anne McCaffrey.

Table of Contents:

• "The Smallest Dragonboy" (1973)
• "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" (1986)
• "Runner of Pern" (1998)
• "Ever the Twain" (original to the collection)

DRAGON'S KIN

Young Kindan has no expectations other than joining his father in the mines of Camp Natalon, a coal mining settlement struggling to turn a profit far from the great Holds where the presence of dragons and their riders means safety and civilization. Mining is fraught with danger. Fortunately, the camp has a watch-wher, a creature distantly related to dragons and uniquely suited to specialized work in the dark, cold mineshafts. Kindan's father is the watch-wher's handler, and his son sometimes helps him out. But even that important job promises no opportunity outside the mine.

Then disaster strikes. In one terrible instant, Kindan loses his family and the camp loses its watch-wher. Fathers are replaced by sons in the mine-except for Kindan, who is taken in by the camp's new Harper. Grieving, Kindan finds a measure of solace in a burgeoning musical talent... and in a new friendship with Nuella, a mysterious girl no one seems to know exists. It is Nuella who assists Kindan when he is selected to hatch and train a new watch-wher, a job that forces him to give up his dream of becoming a Harper; and it is Nuella who helps him give new meaning to his life.

Meanwhile, sparked by the tragedy, long-simmering tensions are dividing the camp. Far below the surface, a group of resentful miners hides a deadly secret. As warring factions threaten to explode, Nuella and Kindan begin to discover unknown talents in the misunderstood watch-wher-talents that could very well save an entire Hold. During their time teaching the watch-wher, the two learn some things themselves: that even a seemingly impossible dream is never completely out of reach... and that light can be found even in darkness.

In Dragon's Kin, bestselling author Anne McCaffrey did the unthinkable: for the first time ever, she invited another writer to join her in the skies of her most famous fictional creation. That writer was her son, Todd McCaffrey. Together, they penned a triumphant new chapter in the annals of the extraordinarily popular Dragonriders of Pern. Now, for the first time, Todd McCaffrey flies alone. And Dragonsblood is proof that the future of Pern is in good hands. After all, dragons are in his blood....

Never in the dramatic history of Pern has there been a more dire emergency than that which faces the young dragonrider Lorana. A mysterious fatal illness is striking dragons. The epidemic is spreading like wildfire... and the next deadly cycle of Threadfall is only days away. Somehow, Lorana must find a cure before the dragons-including her own beloved Arith-succumb to the sickness, leaving Pern undefended.

The lyrics of an all-but-forgotten song seem to point toward an answer from nearly five hundred years in the past, when Kitti Ping and her daughter Wind Blossom bred the first dragons from their smaller cousins, the fire-lizards. No doubt the first colonists possessed the advanced technology to find the cure for which Lorana seeks, but over the centuries, that knowledge has been lost. Or has it?

For in the distant past, an aged Wind Blossom worries that the germs that affect the fire-lizards may one day turn on larger prey-and unleash a plague that will destroy the dragons, Pern's only defenders against Thread. But as her people struggle to survive, Wind Blossom has neither the time nor the resources to expend on a future that may never arrive-until suddenly she uncovers evidence that her worst fears will come true.

Now two brave women, separated by hundreds of years but joined by bonds transcending time, will become unknowing allies in a desperate race against sickness and Threadfall, with nothing less than the survival of all life on Pern at stake.

Bringing fresh wonders and dangers to light in the skies of Pern, Anne McCaffrey and her son, Todd, who demonstrated his writing talents in the bestselling novels Dragon's Kin and Dragonsblood, return with their second collaboration: a thrilling adventure of discovery and fate.

Pellar is an orphan taken in by Masterharper Zist. Though born mute, Pellar is a gifted tracker, and when Zist sets off to take over as harper for Natalon's coal-mining camp, Pellar-along with his fire-lizard, Chitter-joins him on a secret mission of his own: to find out if reported thefts of coal are the work of the Shunned, criminals condemned to a life of wandering and hardship.

Halla is one of the children of the Shunned. Though innocent of their parents' crimes, these children have inherited their cruel punishment. Lack of food, shelter, and clothes is their lot; hope is unknown to them. And what future would they hope for? Without a hold to call their own, there will be no protection for them when the lethal Thread inevitably falls again. Life is even tougher for Halla. Her family gone, she must fend for herself. Yet despite the brutality of her surroundings, Halla is kind and gentle, devoted to those more helpless than she.

As depraved as Halla is good, Tenim is in league with Tarik, a crooked miner from Camp Natalon, who helps him steal coal in exchange for a cut of the profit. But Tenim soon realizes there is a lot more to be made from firestone, the volatile mineral that enables the dragons of Pern to burn Thread out of the sky. Tenim doesn't care what he has to do, or whom he has to kill, in order to corner the market.

Cristov is Tarik's son. Dishonored by his father's greed and treachery, the boy must make amends somehow, even if it means risking his life by mining the volatile firestone, which detonates on contact with the slightest drop of moisture.

When the last remaining firestone mine explodes in flames, a desperate race begins to find a new deposit of the deadly but essential mineral, for without it there can be no defense against Thread. But Tenim has a murderous plan to turn tragedy to his own advantage, and only Pellar, Halla, and Cristov can stop him-and ensure that there will be a future for all on the world of the Dragonriders.

A SHATTERED EMPIRE

Shogun Yoritomo has been assassinated by the Stormdancer Yukiko, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires to renew the nation's broken dynasty and crush the growing rebellion by endorsing a new Shogun who desires nothing more than to see Yukiko dead.

A DARK LEGACY

Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father's death, and her ability to hear the thoughts of beasts. Along with Buruu, Yukiko's anchor is Kin, the rebel Guildsman who helped her escape from Yoritomo's clutches.

A GATHERING STORM

Kagé assassins lurk within the Shogun's palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins. A new enemy gathers its strength, readying to push the fracturing Shima imperium into a war it cannot hope to survive. And across raging oceans, Yukiko and Buruu will face foes no katana or talon can defeat. The ghosts of a blood-stained past.

The specter of sickness looms over the Weyrs of Pern, felling fire-lizards and threatening their dragon cousins, Pern's sole defense against the deadly phenomenon that is Thread. Fiona, the young rider of queen dragon Talenth, is about to assume the duties of a Weyrwoman when word spreads that dragons have begun succumbing to the new contagion. As more dragons sicken and die, Weyrleader B'Nik and queen rider Lorana comb Fort Weyr's archives in a desperate search for clues from the past that may hold the solution to the plague. But could the past itself prove the pathway to salvation for Pern's imperiled dragons? Guided by a mysterious ally from a wholly unexpected place, and trusting in the dragon gift for transcending time, Fiona will join a risky expedition with far-reaching consequences for both Pern's future and her personal destiny.

Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned with the dragons and riders who fled into the past to heal their battle wounds and prepare to fight anew the menace of Thread. Now more than three years older, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman--thrust into authority by a shocking tragedy. But leading weyrfolk who are distrustful of a young outsider will be only one of her challenges. Despite gaining reinforcements from the past, too few dragons have survived the recent plague to stem the tide of the intensifying Threadfall. As a senior Weyrwoman, Fiona must take decisive action. With the aid of Lorana, the rider who sacrificed her dragon for others, and Fiona's true love, the harper Kindan, she proposes a daring, nearly impossible plan. But if it succeeds, it just might save them all.

Even though Lorana cured the plague that was killing the dragons of Pern, sacrificing her queen dragon in the process, the devastating disease has left too few dragons alive to fight the fall of deadly Thread. As morale at Telgar Weyr plunges in the wake of the widespread loss, and Weyrwoman Fiona and the harper Kindan struggle to keep hope from vanishing, a pregnant Lorana decides she must take drastic steps. Nothing short of manipulating time itself will undo the damage done by the plague. But attempting time travel could have devastating consequences--altering history, and destiny, forever. Now, somehow, Lorana must find a way to accomplish what seems impossible: bending the natural laws of the universe without wreaking havoc on existence itself. To ensure the future of Pern, she's willing to take the fateful chance--even if it demands yet another, far greater, sacrifice.

After a vicious plague swept through the world of Pern, there are no longer enough dragons to fight off the current onslaught of Thread, the deadly spore that falls like rain from the skies and devours everything organic in its path.

Pern's last best chance to rebuild the decimated dragon population lies with a group of young dragonriders and their dragons left stranded on an unexplored island. Leadership of these dragons and riders falls to Xhinna, female rider of a blue dragon, who, as the most experienced dragonrider in the new Weyr, must earn the respect of all who follow her, as not everyone is ready to accept a female wingleader. She must solve the problem of how to get sufficient numbers of dragon eggs, although her newfangled ideas, like letting green dragons mate and lay eggs to hatch new dragons, cause uproar. All the while she must protect her people and baby dragons from the predators and, worse, traitors or all hope for Pern will be lost!

A new hero emerges in a divided world as one of sci-fi's most beloved series--Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern--relaunches with this original adventure from Anne's daughter, Gigi McCaffrey.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dragonriders of Pern series, Gigi does her mother proud, adding to the family tradition of spinning unputdownable tales that recount the adventures of the brave inhabitants of a distant planet who battle the pitiless adversary known as Thread.

The last time Thread attacked Pern, the world was unprepared for the fight--until the Oldtimers appeared. These courageous dragonriders arrived from the past, traveling four hundred years to help their descendants survive. But the collision of past and present took its toll. While most of the displaced rescuers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed.

Piemur, a journeyman harper, also feels displaced, cast adrift by the loss of his spectacular boyhood voice and uncertain of his future. But when the Masterharper of Pern sees promise in the young man and sends him undercover among the exiled Oldtimers, Piemur senses the looming catastrophe that threatens the balance of power between the Weyrs and Holds of Pern.

When the unthinkable happens, Piemur must rise to the challenge to avert disaster and restore honor to the dragons and dragonriders of Pern. Because now, in a world already beset by Thread, another, more insidious danger looms: For the first time in living memory, dragons may be on the verge of fighting dragons.

Two thrilling new occult investigations, featuring the urban fantasy sleuths Quincy Morris, great-grandson of Dracula's killer, and the white witch Libby Chastain.

PLAY WITH FIRE
Houses of worship - churches, synagogues and mosques alike - are burning across the U.S., usually while still full of people. The fires are initially dismissed as random acts of violence, until Morris and Chastain uncover the deadly meaning behind the destruction, and the terrifying cause the arsonists seek to serve.

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS
Seeking revenge for the U.S.'s actions in the Middle East, a terrorist cell has conjured an afreet, a deadly djinn that will strike at the very heart of America - unless Morris and Chastain can stop it first.

Occult investigator Quincey Morris and his "consultant", white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials. Fraught with danger, the trail finds them stalking the mysterious occult underworlds of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York, searching out the root of the curse. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself - and the very heart of darkness. Black Magic Woman marks the start of an electrifying news series of supernatural thrillers following the exploits of occult investigators Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain, as they search out evil in the darkest corners of America.

"Justin is a first class writer; he's smart and he's fun, he moves quickly and he takes corners at speed. Every time you think you know where he's going, he makes a point of going somewhere else. His characters are sharp and vivid, his dialogue crackles with wit and tension, and when it comes to the scarier corners of the magical underworld, he knows his stuff." - Simon R. Green, New York Times best-selling author of the Nightside series

Jim Butcher, author of the "Dresden Files" novels "'Black Magic Woman' is the best manuscript I've ever been asked to read. Keep your eye on Justin Gustainis."

A MORRIS AND CHASTAIN INVESTIGATION

Supernatural investigator Quincey Morris and his partner, "white witch" Libby Chastain, are each in pursuit of a vicious killer. One is murdering small children for their bodily organs; the other is hunting down white witches - and Libby may be next. Along a trail that leads from Iraq to Turkey, to the US, all clues point to crazed billionaire Walter Grobius, a man obsessed with harnessing the ultimate evil. Morris and Chastain, teamed with the deadly Hannah Widmark, must fight desperately to stop a midnight rendezvous between forces so powerful that the fate of the world may be at stake. And the clock is ticking... Evil Ways continues the electrifying new series of supernatural thrillers following the exploits of investigators Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain.

A MORRIS AND CHASTAIN INVESTIGATION

Senator Howard Stark wants to be President of the United States. So does the demon inside him. With the competing candidates dropping out due to scandal, blackmail, and 'accidental' death, Stark looks like a good bet to go all the way to the White House. And if he gets there, Hell on Earth will follow. Occult investigator Quincey Morris and white witch Libby Chastain are determined to stop this evil conspiracy. But between them and Stark stand the dedicated agents of the US Secret Service - as well as the very forces of Hell itself. Quincey and Libby will risk everything to exorcise the demon possessing Stark. If they fail, 'Hail to the Chief' will become a funeral march - for all of us.

A thrilling new occult investigation from Justin Gustainis, creator of the urban fantasy sleuths Quincy Morris, great-grandson of Dracula's killer, and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain.

Houses of worship are burning all across the U.S., churches, synagogues and mosques alike. Usually while the places are full of people. The fires are initially dismissed as unconnected, random acts of violence, until Morris - freshly released from jail after their last case - and Chastain track down the terrible meaning behind the destruction, and the dark cause the arsonists seek to serve. A race against time ensues, to stop a ritual that will cause the deaths of hundreds... and bring about the end of the world.

A thrilling new occult investigation from Justin Gustainis, creator of the urban fantasy sleuths Quincy Morris, great-grandson of Dracula's killer, and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain.

Seeking revenge for the U.S.'s actions in the Middle East, a terrorist cell has conjured an afreet, a deadly djinn that will strike at the very heart of America - unless Morris and Chastain can stop it first.

When the Protostar crash-lands in a peculiar star system, the crew ends up separated and Dal and Gwyn must work together to find their missing crewmates. They don't have much time, though: the nearby star is destabilized and in danger of creating a supernova. Then Dal and Gwyn discover evil droids patrolling the area, and they look just like the Watchers back in Tars Lamora. How will Dal and Gwyn confront this nightmare from their past... and prevent an explosion in their near future?

JIMBO

"We dance with phantoms and with shadows play..." Jimbo is a very imaginative boy, and together with his brothers and sisters, they make up a lot of games around an old building on their father's property that they call The Empty House, their object of "dreadful delight." Then the Colonel hires a new governess. Miss Lake is much too level-headed to believe any of the children's stories about the Empty House. She knows that it's all nonsense. But in order to "knock the nonsense" out of young Jimbo's head, she makes up a story about the Inmate of the House, a very bad creature indeed. Instead of bringing Jimbo to his senses, the story fills him with a real sense of dread. He becomes convinced that something evil lurks within The Empty House. And, of course, he is right for Fright itself lives within, ready to reach out and snatch young Jimbo into his clutches!

THE EDUCATION OF UNCLE PAUL

Paul Waters returns to England after having lived for the past twenty years in the Canadian wilderness. Unused to adult company, emotionally he feels little more than a boy inside. When he moves in with his widowed sister Margaret and her three children, he tries hard to keep this inner child hidden. But Nixie, Toby and Jonah figure him out right away, and introduce him to their imaginative games. These are no mere hide-and-seeks, but "aventures" that take them all to another realm, the land beyond the Crack, where all the lost and disgarded things can be found--a land of beauty and mystery. And it is here that Paul truly comes alive, finally coming to understand himself, and all that truly matters in life.

JULIUS LEVALLON

When John Mason first meets Julius LeVallon at school, he feels an immediate connection. They had known each other before not in this lifetime, but many lifetimes before. LeVallon introduces his young friend to a much larger world, the world of feeling-with, of communing with the Forces of Nature, even directing them. As Mason is pulled into LeVallon's peculiar world, he discovers that not only had they known each other before, but they had to correct a mistake they had made with another in the days of pre-history, when they had loosed an elemental on the world. The forbidden experiment needs to be recreated to set things right. After college, Mason loses track of LeVallon. But destiny must be fulfilled, and many years later Mason is contacted by his old friend with portentous news he has found the other! It is time to set things right.

THE BRIGHT MESSENGER

Edward Fillery and Paul Devonham have a new patient at their Spiritual Clinique, a young man raised in the Juru mountains by an eccentric mentor. He seems to be suffering from a split personality. One part of him manifests as a simple country lad by the name of Julian LeVallon, but there is another force within him that Dr. Fillery quickly names "N.H." and seeks to develop. Dr. Devonham, on the other hand, is convinced that "N.H." is the unhealthy side, that LeVallon is the true personality and must be encouraged to become the dominant one. But the young man is more than he seems, for he is not entirely human. And when "N.H." does take control, no one is prepared for the results. Everyone is changed by the bright messenger.

Ten Minute Stories / Day and Night Stories "The author plunges with boldness, yet with consistent invention, into the realm of the fantastic." The Outlook Ten Minute Stories, originally published in 1914, and Day and Night Stories, from 1917, offer two superlative story collections of ghost stories, strange nature tales, weird events and dark fantasies from one of the greatest writers of supernatural fiction in the 20th century.

These pieces are shorter than Algernon Blackwood usually produced, little thoughts or episodes which he often scribbled in his notebook high up in the mountains and then typed up later that day, and sold to newspapers back in England, as Mike Ashley points out in his informative introduction. Some of these stories are humorous slices-of-life, matter-of-fact stories borne out from Blackwood s love of human observation. Many of the Day and Night Stories were written during World War I, and are more reflective than his earlier tales. Most have at least a tinge of the mystic to them. A bonus story, The Farmhouse on the Hill, appears in book format for the first time, an early story that originally appeared in an Australian newspaper in 1907.

These are stories that capture the shifting qualities of perception as daylight gradually fades into dusk, and the curtain of dreams is pulled gently across our vision short stories of day... into night.

The first two short story collections from Algernon Blackwood, originally published in 1906 and 1907, filled with hauntings, strange nature tales, weird crimes and dark fantasy from one of the greatest writers of supernatural fiction in the 20th century. Includes a new introduction by Storm Constantine, who calls Blackwood one of the most influential supernatural writers of his time.

A collection of supernatural stories and various essays collected by Blackwood biographer Mike Ashley, many of which have never been published in book format before. Includes a complete bibliography of the author's works.

Two early novels by this monumental writer of supernatural fiction. "[The Centaur] was to be the favorite among [Blackwood's] novels, because it best represented all that he was trying to achieve... It is unlike any other work in the field of supernatural or mystical fiction." --Mike Ashley, Starlight Man.

THE LOST VALLEY

Algernon Blackwood spent the first half of 1909 traveling around Switzerland. When he returned to England, he produced around twenty stories, most of which formed the basis for his next collection, The Lost Valley, published by Eveleigh Nash in June, 1910. Here are supernatural nature mysteries, ghost stories and visions galore--tales of loss and redemption, and the horror of the unknown--taking the reader from the stark terror of "The Wendigo" and "Old Clothes" to the light of hope in "Carlton's Drive" and the spiritual finale, "The Eccentricity of Simon Parnacute."

THE WOLVES OF GOD

By 1920, Blackwood had recovered from the depression of the First World War, and began writing again with a renewed zest, inspired to some degree by his explorer friend, Wilfrid Wilson, to whom he gave co-credit for the 1921 collection, The Wolves of God, though all the stories were by Blackwood. Many of these tales are wilderness stories, like the title story, "Running Wolf," "First Hate" and "The Valley of the Beasts." But The Wolves of God also features some fine supernatural romances like "The Call" and "The Lane That Ran East and West;" ghostly retribution in "The Decoy;" mystery and murder in "Confession;" and the strange call of the past in "The Tarn of Sacrifice." These are strange stories of retribution and mystical intervention, of horror and hope--of the magic and mystery of life. In all, twenty-four stories by the master supernatural writer of the 20th century--Algernon Blackwood!

Recognized as a major innovator in the weird story, H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an author whose influence was felt by nearly every writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction in the second half of the twentieth century. Considered one of the leading writers of gothic horror, Lovecraft and his work continue to inspire writers today.

In Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors, Robert H. Waugh has assembled essays that are vast in scope, ranging from the Bible through the Edwardian period and well into the present. This collection is devoted to authors whose work had an impact on Lovecraft--Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lord Dunsany--and those who drew inspiration from him, including William S. Burroughs, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas Ligotti, and Stephen King.

A fascinating anthology, Lovecraft and Influence will appeal to aficionados of classic horror, fantasy, and science fiction and those with an interest in modern authors whose works reflect and honor Lovecraft's enduring legacy.

From the publication of his first book in 1905 until his death, Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) was an immensely popular Anglo-Irish writer. He has long been admired in the realms of fantasy, horror, and supernatural fiction and was a friend and colleague of writers W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, James Stephens, and Oliver St. John Gogarty. In recent years he has enjoyed a resurgence as a pioneering fantasy writer and an immense influence on later work in the genre.

Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany is the first volume to assemble studies of Dunsany's short fiction, novels, plays, and memoirs, as well as discussions of his influence on such writers as J. R. R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft. The book also contains early articles and reviews by Yeats, Lovecraft, H. L. Mencken, Rebecca West, and Arthur C. Clarke. Seven original essays by leading contemporary scholars on Dunsany examine the use of medieval archetypes in his fantasy novels; the distinctiveness of his recurring character, clubman Joseph Jorkens; the influence of Don Quixote on his first novel, The Chronicles of Rodriguez (1922); the treatment of religion in his later novels; and other subjects.

This anthology presents a comprehensive snapshot of Dunsany's distinctive work and his contribution to fantasy fiction and world literature. Making a case for the continued study of this neglected but hugely influential writer, Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany will be of great interest to enthusiasts of Dunsany's work as well as students and scholars of fantasy, horror, the supernatural, and Irish literature.

In his classic study Supernatural Horror in Literature, H. P. Lovecraft discusses the emergence of what he called spectral literature--literature that involves the gothic themes of the supernatural found in the past but also considers modern society and humanity. Beyond indicating how authors of such works derived pleasure from a sense of cosmic atmosphere, Lovecraft did not elaborate on what he meant by the term spectral as a form of haunted literature concerned with modernity.

In Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury: Spectral Journeys, William F. Touponce examines what these three masters of weird fiction reveal about modernity and the condition of being modern in their tales. In this study, Touponce confirms that these three authors viewed storytelling as a kind of journey into the spectral. Furthermore, he explains how each identifies modernity with capitalism in various ways and shows a concern with surpassing the limits of realism, which they see as tied to the representation of bourgeois society.

The collected writings of Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury span the length of the tumultuous twentieth century with hundreds of stories. By comparing these authors, Touponce also traces the development of supernatural fiction since the early 1900s. Reading about how these works were tied to various stages of capitalism, one can see the connection between supernatural literature and society. This study will appeal to fans of the three authors discussed here, as well as to scholars and others interested in the connection between literature and society, criticism of supernatural fiction, the nature of storytelling, and the meaning and experience of modernity.

As the author of more than two dozen novels and hundreds of short stories, as well as essays, reviews, and columns, Ramsey Campbell is one of the most prolific writers in the field of horror literature. The consistently high level of quality in his work has resulted in every major award that weird fiction has to offer, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, and the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild. Strangely, though, relatively little criticism has been written about Campbell.

In Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Modern Master of Horror, Gary William Crawford has assembled a collection of articles that examine the work of one of weird fiction's most revered writers. These essays looks at a number of elements that characterize Campbell's stories and novels, including comparisons to H.P. Lovecraft, who was an early inspiration; Campbell's modern variations of Gothic fiction; his concept of evil; religious subtext in his fiction; and how adversities Campbell has faced have shaped his life and his work.

In all, these essays pay homage to Campbell's painstaking craftsmanship and show that there is much to be mined in his fiction. Because Campbell is so important in the genre of horror literature, this book serves as a much needed affirmation of his work. It will be of interest to scholars of supernatural fiction in general, but also to devoted fans of this major figure in weird fiction.

Anglo-Irish writer Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) was a pioneering writer in the genre of fantasy literature and the author of such celebrated works as The Book of Wonder (1912) and The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924). Over the course of a career that spanned more than five decades, Dunsany wrote thousands of stories, plays, novels, essays, poems, and reviews, and his work was translated into more than a dozen languages. Today, Dunsany's work is experiencing a renaissance, as many of his earlier works have been reprinted and much attention has been paid to his place in the history of fantasy and supernatural literature.

This bibliography is a revision of the landmark volume published in 1993, which first charted the full scope of Dunsany's writing. This new edition not only brings the bibliography up to date, listing the dozens of new editions of Dunsany's work that have appeared in the last two decades and the wealth of criticism that has been written about him, but also records many obscure publications in Dunsany's lifetime that have not been previously known or identified. In all, the bibliography has been expanded by at least thirty percent. Among this new material are dozens of uncollected short stories, newspaper articles, and poems, and many books, essays, and reviews of Dunsany's work published over the past century.

Altogether, this bibliography is the definitive listing of works by and about Dunsany and will be the foundation of Dunsany studies for many years to come.

The tradition of supernatural horror fiction runs deep in Anglo-American literature. From the Gothic novels of the eighteenth century to such contemporary authors as Stephen King and Anne Rice, writers have employed horror fiction to unearth many disquieting truths about the human condition, ranging from mistreatment of women and minorities to the ever-present dangers of modern city life.

In Journeys into Darkness: Critical Essays on Gothic Horror, James Goho analyzes many significant writers and trends in American and British horror fiction. Beginning with Charles Brockden Brown's disturbing novels of terror and madness, Goho proceeds to discuss the influence of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" on H. P. Lovecraft, who is treated in several penetrating essays. Lovecraft was a uniquely philosophical writer, and Goho approaches his work through the lens of existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, while also probing Lovecraft's racism as exhibited in several tales about Native Americans. Goho also discusses the Welsh writer Arthur Machen's tortured tales of suffering and evil and Algernon Blackwood's numerous stories set in the wilds of the Canadian backwoods. The book concludes with a centuries-spanning essay on the witchcraft theme in the American Gothic tradition and a comprehensive essay on Fritz Leiber's invention of the urban Gothic.

In this wide-ranging study, James Goho examines the varied ways in which supernatural fiction can address the deepest moral, social, and political concerns of the human experience. Journeys into Darkness will be of interest to readers and scholars of horror fiction and to students of literary history and culture in general.

Over the past century or more, the genres of fantasy, horror, and supernatural fiction have increasingly expanded beyond literature and into an array of media--film, television, comic books, and art. Many of the leading figures in the field engage in multimedia enterprises that allow their work to reach a much wider public than the mere readers of books.

In Disorders of Magnitude: A Survey of Dark Fantasy, Jason V Brock analyzes the intersection of literature, media, and genre fiction in essays, reviews, and pioneering interviews. Beginning with the pulp magazines of the 1920s, Brock studies such dynamic figures as H. P. Lovecraft, Forrest J Ackerman, Harlan Ellison, and the Southern California writers known collectively as "The Group"--Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Rod Serling, and William F. Nolan. This collection also includes filmmakers Roger Corman, George Romero, and Dan O'Bannon, and such fantasy artists as H. R. Giger.

Graced with dozens of photographs from the author's personal collection, this wide-ranging study offers a kaleidoscopic look at the multifarious ways in which fantasy, horror, and the supernatural have permeated our culture. Brock--himself a fiction writer, critic, and filmmaker--concludes the book with touching eulogies to the recently deceased Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. Highlighting so many figures essential to the understanding of fantasy and horror, Disorders of Magnitude will appeal to fans of these fiction genres around the world.

Table of Contents:

• xi - Preface: Disorders of Magnitude - essay by Jason V Brock
• 1 - Part One: The Darkest Part - essay by Jason V Brock
• 5 - The Smoldering Past: The Creation of the Modern from Frankenstein and Dracula to the Great War and Beyond - (2014) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 9 - "Cosmic Introspection": Lovecraft's Attainment of Personal Value by Way of Infinite Insignificance - (2011) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 17 - Forrest J Ackerman: Fan Zero - (2013) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 31 - Gathering Darkness: In Appreciation of Weird Tales - (2010) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 34 - Frank M. Robinson: First Fandom and Beyond - (2010) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 37 - Part Two: Things Become - essay by Jason V Brock
• 39 - The Burden of Now: Welles's "Panic Broadcast," World War II, and Creeping Anomie - essay by Jason V Brock
• 41 - Ray Bradbury: The Boy Who Never Grew Up - (2009) - interview of Ray Bradbury - interview by Jason V Brock
• 50 - Cinematic Dream Logic: How Movies Permanently Altered the Fabric of Reality - essay by Jason V Brock
• 55 - Individual Sexual Liberation Becomes Social Emancipation: Playboy Changes the World - essay by Jason V Brock
• 58 - Harlan Ellison: L'enfant terrible (sort of) - interview of Harlan Ellison - interview by Jason V Brock
• 65 - Part Three: The Rise of the Speculative Mind - essay by Jason V Brock
• 67 - Rod Serling: Articulating the American Nightmare - (2010) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 69 - A Howling at Owl Creek Bridge: Observations on Two Important Twilight Zone Episodes - (2009) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 72 - George Clayton Johnson: A Touch of Strange - (2009) - interview of George Clayton Johnson - interview by Jason V Brock
• 80 - L'Age d'Or to Gotterdammerung: How Bradbury, Serling, Beaumont, and "The Group" Shaped a Pop Future - (2009) - essay by Jason V Brock (variant of From L'Age d'Or to Gotterdammerung: How Bradbury, Serling, Beaumont and 'The Group' Shaped a Pop Future)
• 95 - Roger Corman: Socially Conscious Auteur - interview of Roger Corman - interview by Jason V Brock
• 101 - Finding Sanctuary: Running from the Zone to Logan - (2014) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 110 - The Long Nuclear Shadow: Atomic Horror, Godzilla, and the Cold War - essay by Jason V Brock
• 113 - The Horror of It All! EC and the Beginnings of Modern Media HOOHAH! - (2010) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 123 - MADly Yours, Al Feldstein - (2010) - interview of Al Feldstein - interview by Jason V Brock
• 128 - An End, a Middle, a Beginning: Richard Matheson and His Impact - (2013) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 131 - What Dreams May Come: A Discussion with Richard Matheson and William F. Nolan - (2013) - interview of Richard Matheson and William F. Nolan - interview by Jason V Brock
• 151 - Part Four: Slashers, Blockbusters, and Best Sellers - essay by Jason V Brock
• 153 - Riding the Dark Wave: The Role of Dystopian Science Fiction in Popular Culture - (2010) - essay by Jason V Brock (variant of Riding the Dark Wave: The Role of Dark Sci-Fi in Popular Culture)
• 158 - Celluloid Asylum: O'Bannon, Romero, Carpenter, and the Liberals Lose (and Find) Their Collective Minds - essay by Jason V Brock
• 161 - Terrible Beauty: Slasher Film Connections to Conservatism, Pornography, and Misogyny - (2011) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 165 - King of the Dead: Filmmaker George A. Romero on Politics, Film, and the Future - (2012) - interview of George A. Romero - interview by Jason V Brock
• 177 - Dan O'Bannon: Not Gone, Not Forgotten - (2009) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 183 - H. R. Giger: A Darkness Faster Than Light - (2009) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 188 - The Emperor's New Book: How Stephen King Saved Horror, Create Clive Barker (and Sam Raimi) ... and Killed Publishing - essay by Jason V Brock
• 190 - The Doctor Is In: A Discussion with F. Paul Wilson - (2011) - interview of F. Paul Wilson - interview by Jason V Brock and James R. Beach [as by Jason V Brock and James Beach]
• 198 - Sounds Horrific: Art Rock, Soundtracks, and the Zeitgeist - essay by Jason V Brock
• 201 - Part Five: A Century of Speculation - essay by Jason V Brock
• 203 - Review: Carnivora: The Dark Art of Automobiles by Les Barany - (2011) - review by Jason V Brock
• 205 - David J. Skal: Monster Kid Ambassador of Horror - interview of David J. Skal - interview by Jason V Brock
• 213 - Review: Blood Will Have Its Season by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. - (2010) - review by Jason V Brock
• 215 - Kris Kuksi: Dark Horizons in the Realm of the Senses - (2009) - interview of Kris Kuksi - interview by Jason V Brock
• 220 - Bluewater Comics' Darren G. Davis: On the Run in the Digital Age of Comics - (2010) - interview of Darren G. Davis - interview by Jason V Brock
• 225 - The H. P Lovecraft Film Festival: Cosmic Chaos on the Silver Screen - (2009) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 228 - S. T. Joshi: Champion of the Weird Tale - (2009) - interview of S. T. Joshi - interview by Jason V Brock
• 231 - Marc Scott Zicree: As Timeless as Infinity - interview of Marc Scott Zicree - interview by Jason V Brock
• 239 - Part Six: From (and Into) the Beyond - essay by Jason V Brock
• 241 - Fangoria's Chris Alexander: Cinephilia, Music, and All the Rest of It - (2011) - interview of Chris Alexander - interview by Jason V Brock
• 247 - Bruce Campbell: From The Evil Dead to Burn Notice and Beyond - (2011) - interview of Bruce Campbell - interview by Jason V Brock
• 252 - The Inner World of William F. Nolan - (2013) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 260 - Review: The Mammoth Book of Body Horror by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan - (2012) - review by Jason V Brock
• 262 - Two of a Kind: Lee-Anne Raymond and Demetrios Vakras - (2012) - interview of Lee-Anne Raymond and Demetrios Vakras - interview by Jason V Brock
• 273 - "Cthulhu, a Vampire, and a Zombie Walk into a Bar ...": Why These Themes, Why Now, and What's the Matter with Hollyweird? - essay by Jason V Brock
• 276 - John Shirley: The Tao of Identity - (2010) - interview of John Shirley - interview by Jason V Brock
• 284 - Ray Harryhausen: A Note on the Passage of Giants - (2013) - essay by Jason V Brock
• 288 - Kneeling at the Dandelion Shrine: An Appreciation - (2013) - essay by Jason V Brock (variant of Kneeling at the Dandelion Shrine 2012)
• 290 - William F. Nolan and Ray Bradbury: Reflections - (2013) - interview of Ray Bradbury and William F. Nolan - interview by Jason V Brock
• 294 - Introduction: The Pope of Speculative Fiction (Nolan on Bradbury) - (2013) - essay by Jason V Brock (variant of Introduction (Nolan on Bradbury))
• 295 - Future Shock? (De)Parting Thoughts - essay by Jason V Brock

When the pulp magazine Weird Tales appeared on newsstands in 1923, it proved to be a pivotal moment in the evolution of speculative fiction. Living up to its nickname, "The Unique Magazine," Weird Tales provided the first real venue for authors writing in the nascent genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Weird fiction pioneers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Catherine L. Moore, and many others honed their craft in the pages of Weird Tales in the 1920s and 1930s, and their work had a tremendous influence on later generations of genre authors.

In The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror, Justin Everett and Jeffrey Shanks have assembled an impressive collection of essays that explore many of the themes critical to understanding the importance of the magazine. This multi-disciplinary collection from a wide array of scholars looks at how Weird Tales served as a locus of genre formation and literary discourse community. There are also chapters devoted to individual authors--including Lovecraft, Howard, and Bloch--and their particular contributions to the magazine.

As the literary world was undergoing a revolution and mass-produced media began to dwarf high-brow literature in social significance, Weird Tales managed to straddle both worlds. This collection of essays explores the important role the magazine played in expanding the literary landscape at a very particular time and place in American culture. The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales will appeal to scholars and aficionados of fantasy, horror, and weird fiction and those interested in the early roots of these popular genres.

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction: Weird Tales -- Discourse Community and Genre Nexus - essay by Jeffrey Shanks and Justin Everett [as by Justin Everett and Jeffrey H. Shanks]
• 3 - "Something That Swayed as If in Unison": The Artistic Authenticity of Weird Tales in the Interwar Periodical Culture of Modernism - essay by Jason Ray Carney
• 15 - Weird Modernism: Literary Modernism in the First Decade of Weird Tales - essay by Jonas Prida
• 29 - The Lovecraft Circle and the "Weird Class": "Against the Complacency of an Orthodox Sun-Dweller" - essay by Dániel Nyikos
• 51 - Strange Collaborations: Weird Tales's Discourse Community as a Site of Collaborative Writing - essay by Nicole Emmelhainz
• 63 - Gothic to Cosmic: Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction in Weird Tales - essay by Morgan Holmes [as by Morgan T. Holmes]
• 83 - A Nameless Horror: Madness and Metamorphosis in H. P. Lovecraft and Postmodernism - essay by Clancy Smith
• 105 - Great Phallic Monoliths: Lovecraft and Sexuality - essay by Bobby Derie
• 119 - Evolutionary Otherness: Anthropological Anxiety in Robert E. Howard's "Worms of the Earth" - essay by Jeffrey Shanks [as by Jeffrey H. Shanks]
• 131 - Eugenic Thought in the Works of Robert E. Howard - essay by Justin Everett
• 153 - Pegasus Unbridled: Clark Ashton Smith and the Ghettoization of the Fantastic - essay by Scott Connors
• 173 - "A Round Cipher": Word-Building and World-Building in the Weird Works of Clark Ashton Smith - essay by Geoffrey Reiter
• 187 - C. L. Moore, M. Brundage, and Jirel of Joiry: Women and Gender in the October 1934 Weird Tales - essay by Jonathan Helland
• 193 - Weird Tales, October 1934 (cover) - (1934) - interior artwork by Margaret Brundage (variant of cover art for Weird Tales, October 1934)
• 194 - The Black God's Kiss - (1934) - interior artwork by H. R. Hammond
• 201 - Psycho-ology 101: Incipient Madness in the Weird Tales of Robert Bloch - essay by Paul W. Shovlin
• 211 - "To Hell and Gone": Harold Lawlor's Self-Effacing Pulp Metafiction - essay by Sidney Sondergard

Twenty-two years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. In the years after, their father, John, taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America...and he taught them how to kill it.

Sam and Dean have hit New York City to check out a local rocker's haunted house. But before they can figure out why a lovesick banshee in an '80s heavy-metal T-shirt is wailing in the bedroom, a far more macabre crime catches their attention. Not far from the house, two university students were beaten to death by a strange assailant. A murder that's bizarre even by New York City standards, it's the latest in a line of killings that the brothers soon suspect are based on the creepy stories of legendary writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Their investigation leads them to the center of one of Poe's horror classics, face-to-face with their most terrifying foe yet. And if Sam and Dean don't rewrite the ending of this chilling tale, a grisly serial killer will end their lives forevermore.

Twenty-two years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. In the years after, their father, John, taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America... and he taught them how to kill it.

Sam and Dean have set out on a road trip to the Grand Canyon, but this is no vacation for the brothers. On a stretch of deserted ranchland just beyond the canyon's stunning vistas, mysterious murder sprees have occurred every forty years. The area's inhabitants have been few and far between in years past, but a nearby mega-mall is about to celebrate its grand opening--and attract thousands of fresh victims.

The Winchester boys are determined to protect locals and shoppers alike, but they never anticipated they'd be fighting a group of killers this vicious, this vindictive, this... dead. A deadly horde of animal spirits and human ghosts has arisen to terrorize this tiny corner of the Arizona desert. If Sam and Dean can't figure out why, the wide-open spaces of the West will once again become a desolate frontier... and the witch's canyon will be the brothers' final resting place.

Twenty-two years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. In the years after, their father, John, taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America... and he taught them how to kill it.

Sam and Dean are headed for Key West, Florida, home to Hemingway, hurricanes, and a whole lot of demons. The tropical town has so many ghouls on the loose that one of its main moneymakers has long been a series of ghost tours. But the tours are no more, not since one of the guides was found dead of an apparent heart attack... his face frozen in mid-scream. No one knows what horrors he saw, but the Winchester brothers are about to find out.

Soon they'll be face-to-face with the ghosts of the island's most infamous residents, demons with a hidden agenda, and a mysterious ancient power looking for revenge. It's up to Sam and Dean to save the citizens of Key West... before the beautiful island is reduced to nothing more than a pile of bones.

When renegade angel Castiel alerts Sam and Dean to a series of particularly brutal killings in San Francisco's Chinatown, they realise the Heart of the Dragon, an ancient evil of unspeakable power, is back! John Winchester faced the terrifying spirit 20 years ago, and the Campbell family fought it 20 years before that - can the boys succeed where their parents and grandparents failed?

Way back in April 1862, Confederate Captain Jubal Beauchamp leads a charge across a Georgia battleground... Fast forward to 2009 and a civil war re-enactment becomes all too real. When Sam and Dean head down south to investigate they find that history has got somewhat out of hand...

Twenty-seven years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. In the years after, their father, John, taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America... and he taught them how to kill it.

On the hunt for Lucifer, the boys find themselves in a small town in South Dakota where they meet Don - an angel with a proposition... Don sends them a very long way from home, on a mission to uncover the secret Satan never wanted them to find out.

Dean believes that Sam is in Hell so he is trying to keep his promise to his brother and live a normal live with Lisa and Ben.

When he realizes that a spell in the Necronomicon could raise Lucifer and therefore Sam, he convinces his new family to travel with him on vacation to Salem.

Meanwhile Sam is not as far away as Dean thinks and is determined to protect his brother from the Salem witches...

A truck full of illegal Mexican immigrants slaughtered with supernatural force is found by the side of a road. Trying to find answers, Sam and Dean are plunged into the dangerous world that exists along the Mexican border.

They encounter a tattooed, pistol-packing bandita on a motorcycle who seems be everywhere they go before they get there. Xochi Cazadora draws them into a whole new world of monsters...

Alerted to strange happenings in Clayton Falls, Colorado, Bobby sends the boys to check it out. A speeding car with no driver, a homeless man pursued by a massive Gila monster, a little boy chased by uprooted trees -- it all sounds like the stuff of nightmares. The boys fight to survive a series of terrifying nighttimes, realizing that sometimes the nightmares don't go away -- even when you're awake...

Thirty years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a demonic supernatural force. Following the tragedy, their father taught the boys everything about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners of America... and how to kill it.

Laurel Hill, New Jersey is beginning to look like one of the unluckiest places on Earth when a series of mishaps hit the town. But Sam and Dean suspect it's more than just bad luck. Along with Bobby Singer, the brothers soon realize that a powerful Japanese demon is encouraging the chaos. But the demon has bigger plans and they are going to need to make their own luck to stop it.

A rash of strange deaths in the Tahoe National Forest bring Sam, Dean and Bobby to the Sierra Nevada mountains to hunt a monster with a taste for human flesh. Soon walking corpses, bodies with missing organs, and attacks by a mysterious flying creature lead the trio to a cunning and deadly foe which can assume a human form and will do anything to survive. When a blizzard strikes the area, and not knowing who they can trust, they must battle not only the monster, but also the elements to survive.

Reported sightings of a hellish hound and the discovery of newly dead desiccated corpses bring Sam and Dean Winchester to Brennan, Ohio. But when they catch the monster canine it turns out to be "Frankenmutt"; a reanimated patchwork of pieces from separate dogs.

Soon the brothers are on a trail that leads from mad scientists and biotechnology to a centuries-old alchemists, walking corpses, and an ancient and malevolent power.

When a gruesome murder takes place in Braden Heights, Indiana, the local authorities suspect the disemboweled and eyeless corpse is the result of an animal attack. But when another body is discovered, the eyes gouged out, Sam, Dean and Castiel start looking for connections between the victims--and discover both men were soon-to-be fathers. As the boys hunt the killer, they unearth the town's troubled past, and secrets some would prefer stay buried forever.

Teenager Renee Mendez is a talented artist living in a small Illinois town. She loves drawing the strange beings that feature in her dreams, without realizing that when she depicts them on paper, they come to life in the real world. These gods begin to seek worshippers and battle for supremacy, killing humans and each other until only the two strongest remain. Sam and Dean come to town to investigate the murders and "miracles" these new gods perform, slaying some of them in the process. The last two gods standing prepare for their final conflict, which only one will survive. The brothers must find a way to stop the gods' war before the entire town is destroyed.

Sam and Dean Winchester have spent their lives on the road, battling every kind of supernatural threat. Over the years, after dozens of bloody adventures, they have faced everything from the yellow-eyed demon that killed their mother to vampires, ghosts, shapeshifters, angels and fallen gods. With the help of allies--both human and supernatural--they've discovered that every threat they vanquish opens a new door for evil to enter in.

Visitors passing through Brownsdale, Kentucky are often never seen again. The locals claim that it's easy to fall victim to the vast local caves if explored unaided, but when two young girls go missing Sam and Dean set out to investigate.

As the brothers start to suspect something far more sinister in the town, and possibly lurking in Mammoth Cave, they realise that someone is determined to protect the town secret--even if it means killing Sam and Dean himself.

Sam and Dean Winchester have spent their lives on the road, battling every kind of supernatural threat. Over the years, after dozens of bloody adventures, they have faced everything from the yellow-eyed demon that killed their mother to vampires, ghosts, shapeshifters, angels and fallen gods. With the help of allies--both human and supernatural--they've discovered that every threat they vanquish opens a new door for evil to enter in.

At the stroke of midnight, everyone awake in a small Missouri town suddenly falls unconscious in the middle of whatever they were doing. When Sam and Dean investigate, the town seems peaceful. But they soon uncover a wave of strange behavior - streaking, petty vandalism and random violence - and nobody can remember why they did it. With reports of strange shadows and horrible murders, the Winchesters dig deep into the town's secrets and uncover a tragedy fifty years in the making....

Sam and Dean travel to Indiana, to investigate a murder that could be the work of a werewolf. But they soon discover that werewolves aren't the only things going bump in the night. The town is also home to a pack of jakkals who worship the god Anubis: carrion-eating scavengers who hate werewolves. With the help of Garth, the Winchester brothers must stop the werewolf-jakkal turf war before it engulfs the town - and before the god Anubis is awakened...

The Businessman presents the sinister tale of Bob Glandier, a morally repulsive Twin Cities executive who murders his estranged wife and attempts to go back to business as usual, until she returns sets about arranging his divine retribution. With help from her dead mother and the ghost of poet John Berryman-thoroughly bored of suburban séances and all too eager to lend a hand-Giselle undertakes the elaborate, righteous, and wickedly amusing haunting of her husband. There is justice in the afterlife after all-at least in Minnesota.

Exploring questions of guilt and responsibility, the second book in Thomas M. Disch's Supernatural Minnesota series, The M.D., is a satisfying mix of dark humor, biting social commentary, and terrifying horror. Given the power to heal or to harm by the Roman god Mercury through a magical staff, the caduceus, young Billy Michaels embarks on a lifelong journey of inflicting good and evil on those who cross his path. Wielding the caduceus, Billy, and later the grown-up, greedy physician William, can only cure in proportion to the amount of suffering he inflicts. From paralyzing his brother and mutilating schoolmates to wreaking a nationwide plague and running for-profit concentration camps for the sick, Michaels's powers spin quickly out of control.

Minneapolis priest Pat Bryce is plagued by a host of distinctly unholy problems, including a fondness for altar boys, the blackmail efforts of underworld types (who know of the good father's indiscretions) and involvement in a plot by a fellow priest and an anti-abortion group called Birth-Right to ensure that pregnant girls come to term by holding them hostage in a pseudo-medieval fortress. Bryce's severest affliction, however, is a tendency to assume the identity of a 13th-century bishop in the Inquisition.

The Sub, the fourth novel in Thomas M. Disch's Supernatural Minnesota series, which uses different supernatural horrors to satirize modern America, focuses on Diana Turney, a substitute teacher in the town of Leech Lake, Minnesota, left to care for her niece after her sister is imprisoned for the attempted murder of her philandering husband. Haunted by her father's ghost and disturbing repressed memories, Diana discovers she has the power to turn people into their animal totems and proceeds to transform locals into an array of creatures from spiders to pigs. Diana, her cruelty growing in proportion to her power, dismisses a warning from her father's ghost that she is destined to kill everyone she loves and continues on a spree of violence and mayhem.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Stephen King
• Hop Frog - (1849) - shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
• Rappaccini's Daughter - (1844) - novelette by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Squire Toby's Will - (1868) - novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Squaw - (1893) - shortstory by Bram Stoker
• The Jolly Corner - (1908) - novelette by Henry James
• "Man Overboard!" - (1899) - shortstory by Winston Churchill
• The Hand - (1919) - shortstory by Theodore Dreiser
• The Valley of Spiders - (1903) - shortstory by H. G. Wells
• The Middle Toe of the Right Foot - (1890) - shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• Pickman's Model - (1927) - shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft
• Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper - (1943) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• The Screaming Laugh - (1938) - novelette by Cornell Woolrich
• A Rose for Emily - (1930) - shortstory by William Faulkner
• Bianca's Hands - (1947) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Girl with the Hungry Eyes - (1949) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Shut a Final Door - (1947) - shortstory by Truman Capote
• Come and Go Mad - (1949) - novelette by Fredric Brown
• The Scarlet King - (1954) - shortstory by Evan Hunter
• Sticks - (1974) - novelette by Karl Edward Wagner
• Sardonicus - (1961) - novelette by Ray Russell
• A Teacher's Rewards - (1970) - shortstory by Robert S. Phillips
• The Roaches - (1965) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• The Jam - (1958) - shortstory by Henry Slesar
• Black Wind - (1979) - shortstory by Bill Pronzini
• The Road to Mictlantecutli - (1965) - shortstory by Adobe James
• Passengers - (1968) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• The Explosives Expert - (1967) - shortstory by John Lutz
• Call First - (1975) - shortstory by Ramsey Campbell
• The Fly - (1952) - shortstory by Arthur Porges
• Namesake - shortstory by Rosalind M. Greenberg
• Camps - (1979) - novelette by Jack Dann
• You Know Willie - (1957) - shortstory by Theodore R. Cogswell
• The Mindworm - (1950) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Warm - (1953) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Transfer - (1975) - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
• The Doll - (1980) - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• If Damon Comes - (1978) - shortstory by Charles L. Grant
• Mass Without Voices - (1979) - shortfiction by Arthur L. Samuels
• The Oblong Room - (1967) - shortstory by Edward D. Hoch
• The Party - (1967) - shortstory by William F. Nolan
• The Crate - (1979) - novelette by Stephen King

Nebula Award winning and Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared serialized in Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, December 1967 and Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, January 1968. The story is also included in the anthologies Nebula Award Stories Four (1969), edited by Poul Anderson, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume III (1981), edited by Arthur C. Clarke, George W. Proctor, The Best of the Nebulas (1989), edited by Ben Bova and The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century (2001), edited by Harry Turtledove and Martin H. Greenberg. The story is incorporated in the fixup novel Dragonflight (1968).

When the original colonists find that the Southern Continent is too geologically unstable, they need to find a way to transport the growing colony and its possessions to the Northern Continent.

Working with the intelligent dolphins who helped to colonize Pern with humans is key if they are to be successful...

Hugo Award winning and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, October 1967. The story can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Award Stories Three (1968), edited by Roger Zelazny, Analog 7 (1970), edited by John W. Campbell, Jr., The Hugo Winners, Volume 2: (1963-70) (1971), edited by Isaac Asimov, The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF (1994), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and Wings of Fire (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon. It is incorprotated in the fixup novel Dragonflight (1968).

HOW CAN ONE GIRL SAVE AN ENTIRE WORLD?

To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise - and take back her stolen birthright.

But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa's world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world....

Another Turn, and the deadly silver Threads began falling again. So thebold dragonriders took to the air once more and their magnificent flyingdragons swirled and swooped, belching flames that destroyed theshimmering strands before they reach the ground.

But F'lar knew he had to find a better way to protect his beloved Pern,and he had to find it before the rebellious Oldtimers could breed anymore dissent... before his brother F'nor would be foolhardy enough tolaunch another suicide mission... and before those dratted fire-lizards could stir up any more trouble!

Never had there been as close a bonding as the one that existed betweenthe daring and adventurous young Lord Jaxom and his extraordinary whitedragon, Ruth. Pure white and incredibly agile, Ruth was a dragon of manytalents, though almost everyone on Pern thought he was a runt that wouldnever amount to anything.

But Jaxom knew better, knew he could teach his dragon to fly and todestroy the deadly silver Threads that fell from the sky. Disobeying allrules, Jaxom and Ruth trained in secret. Their illicit flights seemedbut a minor disobedience -- until they found themselves in the path ofdanger and in a position to prevent the biggest disaster of all!

Table of Contents:

• Romancing the Werewolf - [The Supernatural Society - 2] - (2017) - novella
• Romancing the Inventor - [The Supernatural Society - 1] - (2016) - novella
• Meat Cute: AKA The Hedgehog Incident - [The Supernatural Society - 3] - novelette

Imogene Hale is a lowly parlourmaid with a soul-crushing secret. Seeking solace, she takes work at a local hive, only to fall desperately in love with the amazing lady inventor the vampires are keeping in the potting shed.

Genevieve Lefoux is heartsick, lonely, and French. With culture, class, and the lady herself set against the match, can Imogene and her duster overcome all odds and win Genevieve's heart, or will the vampires suck both of them dry?

This is a stand-alone LBGTQ sweet romance set in Gail Carriger's Parasolverse, full of class prejudice, elusive equations, and paranormal creatures taking tea.

Delicate Sensibilities?
This story contains women pleasing women and ladies who know what they want and pursue it, sometimes in exquisite detail.

Wait, where does this one fit?
The Supernatural Society novellas stand alone and may be read in any order.

Biffy, newly minted Alpha of the London Pack, is not having a good Christmas. His Beta abandoned him, his werewolves object to his curtain choices, and someone keeps leaving babies on his doorstep.

Professor Randolph Lyall returns home to London after twenty years abroad, afraid of what he might find. With his pack in chaos and his Alpha in crisis, it will take all his Beta efficiency to set everything to rights. Perhaps, in the process, he may even determine how to mend his own heart.

Delicate Sensibilities?
Contains men who love other men and have waited decades to do so.

Wait, where does this one fit?
The Supernatural Society novellas stand alone and may be read in any order. But if you're a stickler, this story chronologically follows Imprudence and ties specifically to events in Timeless. Look for surprise appearances from popular side characters and the occasional strategic application of italics.

In the 27th Century, time travel allows international disputes to be settled by "clocking" soldiers from the future into conflicts of the past to do battle in the Time Wars. The politicians and the corporate leaders who created an entire international economy based on the idea of "an end to war in our time" believed that the past was absolute: it had already happened, therefore it could not be changed. Unfortunately, they were wrong.

The greater the number of people who traveled back into the past, the greater were the odds of temporal contamination, changing history in ways that could disastrously affect the future. Major Lucas Priest, a veteran of the elite First Division of the Temporal Army Corps, was tasked to "adjust" the blunder of a Temporal Intelligence agent who had accidentally caused the death of Sir Percy Blakeney, the wealthy English adventurer who saved French royalists from the guillotine. Now, someone else had to become the famous "Scarlet Pimpernel" and carry on that work.

Trying to adjust key historical events during the bloody and tumultuous French Revolution would be challenging enough. The trouble was, rogue covert agents from Temporal Intelligence were already on the scene, and they had their own agenda....