What happens when the world as we know it comes to an end? Will it be with a bang or a whimper? What comes next? Who survives and why? Here are four disparate stories of post-apocalyptic adventure, terror, revenge and love.

In The Last Pharmacist, underground cities are dealing with the deadly epidemic of a synthetic heroin supplied by an unknown source.

In Smile, the world is overrun by a terrible, terrifying invasion from an unstoppable interloper.

In White Sands, a girl searches for the one responsible for the worldwide pandemic that killed her father.

In Futureblind, one woman finds that she has survived a horrible fate only to face a unique destiny.

Welcome to the 4POCALYPSE — Four Tales of a Dark Future.

Fairy tales for our times from the Pulitzer Prize — winning author of The Hours.

A poisoned apple and a monkey's paw with the power to change fate; a girl whose extraordinarily long hair causes catastrophe; a man with one human arm and one swan's wing; and a house deep in the forest, constructed of gumdrops and gingerbread, vanilla frosting and boiled sugar. In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away — the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder — are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation.

Here are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed: the years after a spell is broken, the rapturous instant of a miracle unexpectedly realized, or the fate of a prince only half cured of a curse. The Beast stands ahead of you in line at the convenience store, buying smokes and a Slim Jim, his devouring smile aimed at the cashier. A malformed little man with a knack for minor acts of wizardry goes to disastrous lengths to procure a child. A loutish and lazy Jack prefers living in his mother's basement to getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a handful of magic beans.

Reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true.

30 Action-packed Pulse Pounding Tales!

That's exactly what you get in this collection of action stories from Matt Hilton, Paul D Brazill, Richard Godwin, Rod Glenn and many other established thriller authors, including stories from bestselling ebook authors and exciting up-and-comers.

Think back to the days when heroes were heroes and the action was furious and full-blooded. When often as not, the hero was quite the opposite: an anti-hero – but he needed to be, to bring the kind of violent justice to villains worse than him. When political correctness took a back seat, even as the bullets and karate chops were flying. Basically it was good old harmless fun. It was a case of disengaging your moral compass and getting down with the hero as they took on all comers, and they did it with balletic grace and uncompromising violence. Gratuitous? Mostly. Realistic? Not always. Great fun? You betcha!!!

Then fast forward to the here and now: What if the current action and thriller authors set their minds to bringing back the action genres of old?

Well, that question is answered here, for the second time:

Within these pages you will find hit men, secret agents, vigilantes, private eyes, assassins and professional thieves, savage warriors and one or two others who can’t be easily categorized, all kicking ass and taking names. Some of the tales are delivered with shocking realism, some as lighter entertainment, some on the grittier side, but each and every tale included in Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 2 is sure to get your heart racing.

A collection of stories

Wesleyan University Press has made a significant commitment to the publication of the work of Samuel R. Delany, including this recent fiction, now available in paperback. The three long stories collected in Atlantis: three tales — “Atlantis: Model 1924,” “Erik, Gwen, and D. H. Lawrence’s Aesthetic of Unrectified Feeling,” and “Citre et Trans” — explore problems of memory, history, and transgression.

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Guest of Honor at the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Delany was won a broad audience among fans of postmodern fiction with his theoretically sophisticated science fiction and fantasy. The stories of Atlantis: three tales are not SF, yet Locus, the trade publication of the science fiction field, notes that the title story “has an odd, unsettling power not usually associated with mainstream fiction.”

A writer whose audience extends across and beyond science fiction, black, gay, postmodern, and academic constituencies, Delany is finally beginning to achieve the broader recognition he deserves.

A nihilistic wit reminiscent of Samuel Beckett.?Independent on Sunday

The cast-offs of modern urban society are driven out onto the edges of the city and left to make a life there for themselves. They are not, however, in any natural wilderness, but in a world of refuse and useless junk?a place which denies any form of sustainable life. Here, the unemployed, the homeless, the old and the bereft struggle to build shelters out of old tin cans, scavenge for food and fight against insuperable odds.

And yet somehow they survive: it seems that society thrives on the garbage hills because it has always been built on one. In this dark fairy tale full of scenes taken from what has increasingly become a way of life for many inhabitants on this planet, Latife Tekin has written a grim parable of human destiny.

A major best seller in her native Turkey, Latife Tekin maintains a politically active presence and has written a number of literary works.

Saliha Paker translates Turkish poetry and is a member of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham. Ruth Christie is a translator of Turkish poetry and prose.

"A provocative and enjoyable work."?Times Literary Supplement

"A small masterpiece of beauty."?Women's Review of Books

An anthology of stories based around the very first mystery detective, Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, created by Edgar Allan Poe.

Dupin famously featured in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841), then went on to star in two more investigations, 'The Mystery of Marie Rogêt' (1842) and 'The Purloined Letter' (1844).

The anthology will include the original 1841 story and Clive Barker's sequel, 'New Murders in the Rue Morgue' (which was first published in his Books of Blood series) to bookend the stories.

Conributors: Guy Adams, Steve Volk, Thomas Monteleone, Lisa Tuttle, Simon Clark, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Ed Gorman, Jonathan Mayberry, Yvonne Navarro, Weston Ochse and Clive Barker

The work of H. P. Lovecraft continues to inspire many of the leading contemporary authors of horror and the supernatural. In this anthology, S. T. Joshi, the world’s leading expert on Lovecraft and the author of the lively treatise The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos, tries his hand at assembling a modern-day Lovecraftian anthology, casting his net on both sides of the Atlantic and producing a volume that radically expands our notions of what constitutes “Lovecraftian” fiction. Caitlín R. Kiernan, Brian Stableford, and Nicholas Royle produce innovative deconstructions of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” and “The Hound.” Michael Shea transfers the Cthulhu Mythos to San Francisco, Laird Barron and Philip Haldeman set their Lovecraftian horrors in the Pacific Northwest, and Donald R. Burleson and William Browning Spencer enliven the parched Southwest with cosmic monsters. Ramsey Campbell, Jonathan Thomas, Jason Van Hollander, and others make Lovecraft himself a character in tales of cosmic menace, while David J. Schow and Michael Cisco ring new changes on the Lovecraftian concept of the forbidden book. These and other stories by Michael Marshall Smith, Norman Partridge, W. H. Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Darrell Schweitzer, Donald R. and Mollie L. Burleson, Sam Gafford, and Adam Niswander all reveal how vital and vibrant the Lovecraftian idiom remains… and how terrifying.

A pair of lectures from one of the twentieth century’s most mesmerizing speakers.

Lawrence Durrell was in his early twenties when, tired of the stiffness of London life, he took his family to live in Corfu. Interwar Greece, whose hard beds and mosquito swarms Durrell documented so tenderly in Prospero’s Cell, was no more. In the first of this pair of lectures, given during a 1970s visit to California, Durrell recalls those days, talking of family, poetry, and the joy of the islands as no other writer can.

When war came to the Mediterranean, Durrell was swept into diplomatic service, an adventure he recounts in his second lecture. Though a diplomat of the modern world, he served under men whose experience stretched back to the days before the telephone, when solutions for crises had to be devised by the ambassador, and not phoned in from London. These two lectures on long-vanished worlds are an elegant demonstration of the evocative power of Durrell’s unmatched storytelling.

Each of Lara Vapnyar's six stories invites us into a world where food and love intersect, along with the overlapping pleasures and frustrations of Vapnyar's uniquely captivating characters. Meet Nina, a recent arrival from Russia, for whom colorful vegetables represent her own fresh hopes and dreams. . Luda and Milena, who battle over a widower in their English class with competing recipes for cheese puffs, spinach pies, and meatballs. . and Sergey, who finds more comfort in the borscht made by a paid female companion than in her sexual ministrations. They all crave the taste and smell of home, wherever — and with whomever — that may turn out to be. A roundup of recipes are the final taste of this delicious collection.

Celtic tales collected and edited by Joseph Jacobs and orignally published in 1892.

Book text is taken from the site www.gutenberg.org

There are no fairy tales in the world like the Irish. For humor and exaggeration and excitement they can’t be beaten. On of the best teller of Irish tales is Seumas MacManus. In this book you have the perfect combination of good tales and perfect story teller. You’ll laugh as you haven’t laughed for many a day at “Conal and Donal and Taig”, “Manus the Miller,” and other stories found here.

English tales collected and edited by Joseph Jacobs. First published 1890.

Book text is taken from the site www.gutenberg.org

Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments, dark and light, by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from under the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.

 From the gentle tones of a story-teller's cadences to the terror of a blood sacrifice, tales of favorite characters from Marr's Wicked Lovely novels mix with accounts of new characters for readers to fall in love with . . . or to fear.

 Lush, seductive, and chilling, Melissa Marr's stories revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.

Two hundred years ago, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the first volume of Children’s and Household Tales. Now, at a veritable fairy-tale moment — witness the popular television shows Grimm and Once Upon a Time and this year’s two movie adaptations of “Snow White” — Philip Pullman, one of the most popular authors of our time, makes us fall in love all over again with the immortal tales of the Brothers Grimm.

From much-loved stories like “Cinderella” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel” and “Hansel and Gretel” to lesser-known treasures like “Briar-Rose,” “Thousandfurs,” and “The Girl with No Hands,” Pullman retells his fifty favorites, paying homage to the tales that inspired his unique creative vision — and that continue to cast their spell on the Western imagination.

Presents recorded by the Brothers Grimm, many not available elsewhere. Includes such timeless favorites as Rapunzel, The Frog Prince etc. A delight for young and old alike.

First in the long-running series of erotic horror tales! Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Robert R. McCammon, Graham Masterton, Harlan Ellison, Ramsey Campbell, David J. Schow, Lisa Tuttle, F. Paul Wilson, Theodore Sturgeon, and other masters of the macabre take readers into their private world of fear, fantasy, and fatal attraction — in 24 tales of dread and debauchery, riveting stories of sex and terror.

In Hotter Blood, sex and horror are coupled to an ecstatic effect. This is the second in the provocative anthology series that defined a genre and spanned a generation. Grant Morrison’s Bram Stoker- nominated “The Braille Encyclopedia” spearheads a collection of 24 original stories, with additional contributions from horror stars like Richard Laymon and Nancy Collins, comic book talents Kurt Busiek and John Byrne, and superstar horror director Mick Garris. Explore the dark side of having your lover in “The Tub” with you, find out when “Confession” isn’t good for the soul, and feed your hunger for erotic horror with this delectable collection…

Cemetery Dance called Hotter Blood “outstanding,” Gauntlet labeled it “aggressive and riveting, a virtual Who’s Who of modern horror,” and to 2AM Magazine, it’s “Amazing… highly recommended.”

This anthology was edited by Michael Connelly. His essay is called "Once Upon a Midnight Dreary."

A collection of stories by thriller master Edgar Allan Poe with essays by beloved and bestselling writers, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. Authors involved include Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Lisa Scottoline, Laura Lippman, and twelve others.

***

Few have crafted stories as haunting as those by Edgar Allan Poe. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work.

Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe's poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe's insight into humanity's dark side in "The Genius of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.'" Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B-movie adaptations of Poe's tales. And in "The Thief," Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas… or maybe he just thought of them first.

Powerful and timeless, In the Shadow of the Master is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.

The Mystery Writers of America, founded in 1945, is the foremost organization for mystery writers and other professionals dedicated to the field of crime writing.

If you can possibly thirst for more mysterious metaphysical accounts of love, Trisha Telep has organized some of the greatest and most thrilling tales of paranormal paramours since The Eternal Kiss. She presents the acclaimed literary talent of thirteen unique authors, creating a collection of stories that will undoubtedly capture the imagination of every soul who dares to read them. Werewolves, ghosts, zombies, vampires, and fallen angels drive the plot of these riveting romances.

English tales collected and edited by Joseph Jacobs. First published 1894.

Illustrated by John D. Batten.

Book text and illustrations are taken from the site www.gutenberg.org

Commander Pirx, who drives space vehicles for a living in the galaxy of the future, here faces a new series of intriguing adventures in which robots demonstrate some alarmingly human characteristics.

Review

Five more tales featuring Pirx — a bumbling rookie in the original Tales (1979), now a seasoned and level-headed (but coolly cerebral) space jockey. The first three pieces are short, ironic, and somewhat thin on ideas: Pirx fails to intercept a drifting alien hulk thanks to a shipboard comedy of errors; he searches for a robot that has inexplicably cut loose to go mountain climbing; and he survives a close encounter with a berserk mining robot. The two long yarns, unfortunately, are not so much fiction as rather pedantic reflections on the nature of artificial intelligence: a choppy and overinvolved Turing test, in which Pirx must identify (and foil the murderous plans of) the robot among his crew as they fly through the rings of Saturn; and a talky, motionless analysis of why an intelligent computer aboard an experimental ship went neurotically haywire and crashed on Mars. A ruminative, often discursive bunch, wanting in urgency and drama — without the mature idea-wrestling of last year’s Memoirs of a Space Traveler. (Kirkus Reviews)

Never before published in English, the stories in Mr. Kafka and Other Tales from the Time of the Cult were written mostly in the 1950s and present the Czech master Bohumil Hrabal at the height of his powers. The stories capture a time when Czech Stalinists were turning society upside down, inflicting their social and political experiments on mostly unwilling subjects. These stories are set variously in the gas-lit streets of post-war Prague; on the raucous and dangerous factory floor of the famous Poldi steelworks where Hrabal himself once worked; in a cacophonous open-air dance hall where classical and popular music come to blows; at the basement studio where a crazed artist attempts to fashion a national icon; on the scaffolding around a decommissioned church. Hrabal captures men and women trapped in an eerily beautiful nightmare, longing for a world where “humor and metaphysical escape can reign supreme.”

Michael Cunningham, Francine Prose, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Jim Shepard, and more than thirty other extraordinary writers celebrate fairy tales in this thrilling new volume. Inspire by everything from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Match Girl" to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and "Cinderella" to the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" and "Rumpelstiltskin" to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino and from China, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Norway, and Mexico, here are stories that soar into boundless realms, filled with mischief and mystery and magic, and renewed by the lifeblood of invention. Although rooted in hundreds of years of tradition, they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature.

MYTH-TOLD TALES is a collection of short stories by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye that introduce and set up the new Myth Adventures Series which launches in August 2003 with MYTH ALLIANCES!

In this thrilling collection of original stories some of today's hottest paranormal authors delight, thrill and captivate readers with otherworldly tales of magic and mischief. In Jim Butcher's ' Curses' Harry Dresden investigates how to lift a curse laid by the Fair Folk on the Chicago Cubs. In Patricia Briggs' 'Fairy Gifts,' a vampire is called home by magic to save the Fae who freed him from a dark curse. In Melissa Marr's 'Guns for the Dead,' the newly dead Frankie Lee seeks a job in the afterlife on the wrong side of the law. In Holly Black's 'Noble Rot,' a dying rock star discovers that the young woman who brings him food every day has some strange appetites of her own.

Featuring original stories from 20 authors, this dark, captivating, fabulous and fantastical collection is sure to have readers coming back for more.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year," the old song tells us. But that doesn't mean the people celebrating it are always so nice. Criminals get the Christmas spirit, too!

In this collection of hilarious short stories, you'll see what the thieves, killers, psychos and scumbags are up to come the holidays…and it's not caroling door to door. Well, not unless they're casing the neighborhood for a break-in, as a rag-tag gang does in the title story. You'll also meet a mall elf menaced by a very, very bad Santa (in "I Killed Santa Claus"), a London police inspector hunting for the man who murdered Ebenezer Scrooge (in "Humbug"), a trucker out to save his shipment of Cabbage Patch Dolls from bumbling hijackers (in "Special Delivery") and many more characters you'll never forget.

Originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, these nine tales from award-winning short story master Steve Hockensmith (Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Holmes on the Range) are sure to have you ho-ho-hoing from the first page to the last.

In this novel of Neveryóna, a girl takes off on a dragon’s back for an adventure of amazement and wonder.

One of the few in Neveryóna who can read and write, pryn has saddled a wild dragon and taken off from a mountain ledge. Self-described as an adventurer, warrior, and thief, in her journey pryn will meet plotting merchants, sinister aristocrats, half-mad villagers, and a storyteller who claims to have invented writing itself. The land of Neveryóna is mired in a civil war over slavery, and pryn will also find herself — for a while — fighting alongside Gorgik the Liberator, from whom she will learn the cunning she needs as she journeys further and further south in search of a sunken city; for at history’s dawn, some dangers even dragons cannot protect you from.

The second volume in Samuel R. Delany's

Return to Neveryóna cycle, Neveryóna is the longer of its two full-length novels. (The other is The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals.)

An intriguing meditation on the power of…

Born in California, Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of over twenty books. She is the recipient of numerous awards such as the Hugo and Nebula awards for her science fiction. Ms. Le Guin lives in Portland, Oregon.

Contents

The Fountains

The Barrow

Ile Forest

Conversations at Night

The Road East

Brothers and Sisters

A Week in the Country

An die Musik

The House

The Lady of Moge

Imaginary Countries

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1976 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:

The Barrow first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1976.

Brothers and Sisters first appeared in The Little Magazine, Vol. 10, Nos. 1 & 2, Summer 1976.

A Week in the Country first appeared in The Little Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 4, Spring 1976.

An die Musik first appeared in The Western Humanities Review, Vol. XV, No. 3, Summer 1961.

Imaginary Countries first appeared in the Harvard Advocate.

First HarperPaperbacks printing: May 1991

Earth, Wind Fire aren't just a band anymore…

Used to be my greatest achievement was holding a job more than three days. Now suddenly I can shoot fireballs, chill your drink, or blow-dry your hair at fifty paces with a blink of my eye!

It all started when this crazy scientist dropped something in my Grande Mocha Latte. Of course I got wicked sick. Next morning I'm waking up with this total hottie bending over me. He tells me 1)his name's Rome Masters, 2)he's a government agent and 3)I can control the four elements with a thought.

He seems even less pleased by my (apparently irreversible) transformation than I am… Because now he'll have to kill me.

The arc of history is unpredictable, and no one knows where it’s headed. But that’s never stopped speculative fiction writers from shouting out a warning.

Join twenty-seven of today’s top science fiction authors as they write about possible tomorrows we hope to avoid, drawing on challenges taken from today’s headlines. Hugo and Nebula Award winners, New York Times best sellers, and some of the hottest names in Hollywood all come together to share tales from a future worth fighting against.

This is a project of passion for all involved. We hope that passion is evident and contagious. At least 50% of each sale of this anthology will go to the ACLU. To learn more about their mission, go to www.aclu.org.

Welcome to the Resistance.

The sassy ladies of sexy Romantic Comedy serve up some spooky and spicy Halloween fun.

A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband. An elderly lady with Charles Bonnet’s syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly-formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. A woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. And a crime committed long-ago is revenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion year old stromatalite.

In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood ventures into the shadowland earlier explored by fabulists and concoctors of dark yarns such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Daphne du Maurier and Arthur Conan Doyle — and also by herself, in her award-winning novel Alias Grace. In Stone Mattress, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

An introduction to the residents of Firozsha Baag, an apartment complex in Bombay. We enter the daily routine and rhythm of their lives, and by the time we reach the final story we are as familiar with the people as we are with our own neighbours. The crowded, throbbing life of India is brilliantly captured in this series of stories.

CHINATOWN... A place of mystery and intrigue, where Tong wars rage and sinister Oriental criminals plot world domination! Sax Rohmer, creator of legendary super-villain Fu Manchu, takes the reader on nine trips into the seedy underbelly of Chinatown with this fascinating collection of stories: "The Daughter of Huang Chow," "Kerry's Kid," "The Pigtail of Hi Wing Ho," "The House of Golden Joss," "The White Hat," "Tcheriapin," "The Dance of the Veils," "The Hand of the Mandarin Quong," "The Key of the Temple of Heaven."

From one of the masters of SF comes this new collection of stories, all set on his most famous creation—the world of Majipoor.A massive world of adventure, romance and danger. A place where dreams can soothe the restless or flay the minds of the guilty. Where humans, aliens and natives live in a shifting, uneasy alliance and where two great men rule over all. No matter who bears the title, there is always a Coronal and a Pontifex, forever miles apart, forever striving to maintain the balance of their far-flung civilization. Here, collected for the first time, are the final tales of Majipoor. From the earliest legends of the Shapeshifters to an untold mystery late in the reign of Valentine Pontifex, the seven stories in this collection expand upon and flesh out the remarkable world that Robert Silverberg has created. Spanning a decade of writing from one of the masters of science-fiction, this collection is both a fantastic introduction for those new to Majipoor and a welcome return for those who have visited before.

When H.P. Lovecraft first introduced his macabre universe in the pages of Weird Tales magazine, the response was electrifying. Gifted writers — among them his closest peers — added sinister new elements to the fear-drenched landscape. Here are some of the most famous original stories from the pulp era that played a pivotal role in reflecting the master’s dark vision.

FANE OF THE BLACK PHARAOH by Robert Bloch: A man obsessed with unearthing dark secrets succumbs to the lure of the forbidden.

BELLS OF HORROR by Henry Kuttner: Infernal chimes ring the promise of dementia and mutilation.

THE FIRE OF ASSURBANIPAL by Robert E. Howard: In the burning Afghan desert, a young American unleashes an ancient curse.

THE ABYSS by Robert A. W. Lowndes: A hypnotized man finds himself in an alternate universe, trapped on a high wire between life and death.

AND SIXTEEN MORE TALES OF ICY TERROR

The first bite is only the beginning.

Twenty of today's favorite writers explore the intersections between the living, dead, and undead. Their vampire tales range from romantic to chilling to gleeful — and touch on nearly every emotion in between.

Neil Gaiman's vampire-poet in "Bloody Sunrise" is brooding, remorseful, and lonely. Melissa Marr's vampires make a high-stakes game of possession and seduction in "Transition." And in "Why Light?" Tanith Lee's lovelorn vampires yearn most of all for the one thing they cannot have — daylight. Drawn from folk traditions around the world, popular culture, and original interpretations, the vampires in this collection are enticingly diverse.

But reader beware: The one thing they have in common is their desire for blood.

The residents of an East Yorkshire village are revisited with eth nightmare of a murder that happened 10 years before. there was some doubt about the guilty verdict passed on Jeanie Long and now it would seem that the killer is still at large. Inspector Vera Stanhope builds up a picture of a community afraid of itself and of outsiders.

Telling Tales Shiloh Walker Sheriff Kellan Grant has been dreaming of Darci Law for a very long time. Wild, sexy dreams. But he was badly burned once, and is interested in only one thing when it comes to women. Kellan knows that Darci will make him want more than one night in her arms, so he keeps his distance. Darci's dreams about Kellan are so intense that they leave her shaking and feeling obsessed. She can't stop thinking about the sexy sheriff-the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he. But he never so much as looks in her direction. So when Kellan shows up at her front door, she is understandably a little confused, but ready to take advantage of any opportunity to finally get close to the man who haunts her dreams. Hot, liquid excitement swamps her system as midnight images rush through her head. He is finally within reach. Then Kellan tells her why he has come. There has been a murder. And she is his number one suspect.

Ten Tales Tall & True carries on the tradition, illustrations and all, from the alarming story of the train of the future and the child who has not yet made up its mind whether to be male or female to the poignancy of "Time Travelling, " a memorable picture of old age. There are, as the author assures us, social realism, sexual comedy, science fiction, and satire included here. There are also, as Gray confesses, more than ten tales — but "I would spoil my book by shortening it, spoil the title if I made it true." These stories are pure, unadulterated Alasdair Gray.

Ackroyd's retelling of Chaucer's classic isn't exactly like the Ethan Hawke'd film version of Hamlet, but it's not altogether different, either. Noting in his introduction that the source material is as close to a contemporary novel as Wells Cathedral is to an apartment block, Ackroyd translates the original verse into clean and enjoyable prose that clears up the roadblocks readers could face in tackling the classic. The Knight's Tale, the first of 24 stories, sets the pace by removing distracting tics but keeping those that are characteristic, if occasionally cringe-inducing, like the narrator's insistence on lines like, Well. Enough of this rambling. The rest of the stories continue in kind, with shorter stories benefiting most from Ackroyd's treatment, though the longer entries tend to… ramble. The tales are a serious undertaking in any translation, and here, through no fault of Ackroyd's work, what is mostly apparent is the absence of the original text, making finishing this an accomplishment that seems diminished, even if the stories themselves prove more readable.

***

A fresh, modern prose retelling captures the vigorous and bawdy spirit of Chaucer's classic

Renowned critic, historian, and biographer Peter Ackroyd takes on what is arguably the greatest poem in the English language and presents the work in a prose vernacular that makes it accessible to modern readers while preserving the spirit of the original.

A mirror for medieval society, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales concerns a motley group of pilgrims who meet in a London inn on their way to Canterbury and agree to take part in a storytelling competition. Ranging from comedy to tragedy, pious sermon to ribald farce, heroic adventure to passionate romance, the tales serve not only as a summation of the sensibility of the Middle Ages but as a representation of the drama of the human condition.

Ackroyd's contemporary prose emphasizes the humanity of these characters-as well as explicitly rendering the naughty good humor of the writer whose comedy influenced Fielding and Dickens-yet still masterfully evokes the euphonies and harmonies of Chaucer's verse. This retelling is sure to delight modern readers and bring a new appreciation to those already familiar with the classic tales.

“The Green Book,” a small, unassuming diary of a young girl; an unheard of book of the Talmud known as the “Tractate Middoth”; “The King in Yellow,” a play that drives people to insanity; two mysterious grey stone plaques from the sands of Chaldea known as the “Tablets of The Gods”; “The Confessions of Constantine,” which drives its readers into a homicidal rage—these accursed books are the subject of this collection of olden tales.

Supernatural forces and desires come alive in these thirteen vampire tales. Like love, the adventures are never safe and hungers never die. And chances are taken. If you are seduced by the mystery of the heart, beating for a destiny unknown, you will helplessly follow the characters' in this collection — longing for one to call their own. Featuring several New York Times Bestsellers, connect with the pulse of the talented Eternal Kiss authors . . .

A collection of twenty-two fairy tales by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, most translated into English for the first time, show the influence of German Romanticism, psychoanalysis, and Eastern religion on his development as an author.

Originally published in 1975, and long out of print, this classic horror anthology sees a first reprint in over forty years. This anthology features ten macabre short stories by such horror masters as Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Joseph Payne Brennan and David A. Riley.

«The Nightingale Floors» were part of a crumbling Chicago museum and only the brave or the foolish ventured there after dark. The building had a weird history — and no night watchman stayed there long…

Winnie was «The Prefect Lady» and Rupert loved every little bit of her. But when the neighbours saw her at close quarters, panic spread through Lavender Hill…

«Aunt Hester» had strange powers. Her ability to transfer herself into the body of her twin brother had a hideous ending — or was it a beginning?

Lamson was intrigued by «The Satyr’s Head». He bought the little relic from an old tramp. It brought him nightmares, disease and, worst of all, unnatural passion from a foul incubus…

Characterized by gratuitous acts of brutality and surprise endings, these tales of obsession and violence are the creations of a twentieth-century French writer whose works were staged by the legendary Théâtre du Grand-Guignol of Paris. The precursors of modern thrillers and slasher films, these stories have been specially selected for this edition and introduced by horror specialist S. T. Joshi.

Thirty-nine conte cruel (“cruel tales”) include “In the Light of the Red Lamp,” in which a husband’s photographs of his dead wife reveal a deeper tragedy; “Fascination,” the tale of a morbid passion that develops when the narrator, determined to stay at home, shoots his mistress for the sake of peace and quiet; and “The Bastard,” concerning a father’s suspicions about his son’s paternity. Other stories include “The Taint,” a view of infanticide as mercy-killing; “The Test,” in which an accused murderer is forced to reenact his crime; and “A Maniac,” recounting a thrill-seeker’s ghoulish impulse to witness death-defying stunts gone wrong.

Got Vampires? Ghosts? Monsters? We Can help!

Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives, is your one-stop-shop for Urban Fantasy’s finest anthology of the supernatural. 14 sleuths are gathered together for the first time in all-original tales of unusual cases which require services that go far beyond mere deduction!

Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives brings together popular characters from many Urban Fantasy paranormal investigative series, for your enjoyment.

Meet the Detectives:

Danny Hendrickson - from Laura Anne Gilman's Cosa Nostradamus series.

Kate Connor - from Julie Kenner’s Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series.

John Taylor - from Simon R. Green’s Nightside series.

Jill Kismet - from Lilith Saintcrow’s Jill Kismet series.

Jessi Hardin - from Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series.

Quincey Morris - from Justin Gustainis’ Morris/Chastain Investigations series.

Marla Mason - from T. A. Pratt's Marla Mason series.

Tony Foster - from Tanya Huff’s Smoke and Shadows series.

Dawn Madison - from Chris Marie Green’s Vampire Babylon series.

Pete Caldecott - from Caitlin Kittredge’s Black London series.

Tony Giodone - from C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp’s Tales of the Sazi series.

Jezebel - from Jackie Kessler’s Hell on Earth series.

Piers Knight - from C. J. Henderson’s Brooklyn Knight series.

Cassiel - from Rachel Caine’s Outcast Season series.

Demons may lurk, werewolves may prowl, vampires may ride the wind. These are things that go bump in the night, but we are the ones who bump back!

Two Estonian Fairy Tales

Two newly revised translations from the Hebrew, with new and illustrated annotations, of two novellas by Nobel Laureate S.Y. Agnon. Two stories clearly in dialogue with one another, sharing elements of moonstruck sleepwalkers, disengaged academics, and the typically Agnonian unfulfilled love.

In Betrothed, Jacob Rechnitz, a marine biologist arrives in pre-World War I Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast of the Land of Israel. His scholarly pursuits and gentle dalliance with six girls is interrupted by the arrival of his benefactor Ehrlich and his daughter Shoshanah, who is destined to rouse Jacob from his waking slumber through the power of their childhood betrothal oath.

The idyllic peace of Betrothed is counterpointed in Edo and Enam by restlessness leading to tragedy. The scholars Ginat and Gamzu are wanderers; men like the narrator himself, gambling on travel for some magical answer to their problems. Ironically, Gamzu’s wife Gemulah, a sleepwalker, puts an end to their quest in a manner as tragic as it is unexpected.

В книге представлены занимательные рассказы о храбром и кровожадном капитане Шарки, принадлежащие перу Артура Конан Дойля (1859–1930), адаптированные (без упрощения текста оригинала) по методу Ильи Франка. Уникальность метода заключается в том, что запоминание слов и выражений происходит за счет их повторяемости, без заучивания и необходимости использовать словарь.

Пособие способствует эффективному освоению языка, может служить дополнением к учебной программе. Предназначено для широкого круга лиц, изучающих английский язык и интересующихся английской культурой.

Сказки и легенды Ирландии, составляющие свой особенный чарующий и загадочный мир, в настоящем издании адаптированы (без упрощения текста оригинала) по методу Ильи Франка. Уникальность метода заключается в том, что запоминание слов и выражений происходит за счет их повторяемости, без заучивания и необходимости использовать словарь.

Пособие способствует эффективному освоению языка, может служить дополнением к учебной программе. Предназначено для широкого круга лиц, изучающих английский язык на начальном этапе.

Два ранних романа Алана А. Милна, писателя, чья «взрослая» проза была невероятно популярна при жизни автора, но незаслуженно забыта впоследствии и обрела «вторую жизнь» лишь в наши дни.

Изысканный, чисто английский юмор в лучших традициях П. Г. Вудхауса, увлекательные сюжеты и яркие, колоритные персонажи – именно за это произведения Милна любят читатели любого возраста.

Веселые приключения молодого британца Тедди и его новой знакомой, американки Амелии, на улицах Лондона «золотых 20-х».

Остроумная и изящная история Хлои Марр – женщины-загадки, которую обожали все и которую по-настоящему не знал никто, – рассказанная влюбленными в нее мужчинами.

Эти прекрасные произведения захочется читать и перечитывать!

Книга содержит двадцать пять сказок на английском языке на разные сюжеты. Занимательные сказки позволят вам погрузиться в мир заколдованных великанов и храбрых принцесс, а также познакомиться с культурой разных стран.

Все тексты адаптированы для удобства читателя и снабжены комментариями. В конце книги вы найдете общий словарь, который поможет понимаю текста.

Предназначается для всех, кто изучает английский язык (уровень 2 – для продолжающих нижней ступени).

Адаптация текста, комментарии и словарь Е. А. Лебедевой

Иллюстрации В. Рябова

На странице одного из томов первого издания Большой советской энциклопедии, принадлежавшей Иосифу Виссарионовичу Сталину, на полях текста, имевшего прямое отношение к академику-лингвисту, археологу, этнографу, историку, организатору и руководителю множества научных и учебных заведений, путешественнику Николаю Яковлевичу Марру (1864/65—1934), кремлевский вождь спустя несколько лет после Второй мировой войны написал: «Язык — материя духа». Это неожиданное высказывание доктор исторических наук Борис Илизаров решил взять в качестве камертона для своей новой книги о Сталине. Автор первым поднял все сохранившиеся материалы о языковедческой эпопее в сталинском архиве, изучил книжные издания с пометами генсека, сохранившиеся в его личной библиотеке, а также материалы из архива академика Марра, более полвека пролежавшие в забвении. Но сама по себе дискуссия — это лишь эпизод в истории России середины ХХ столетия, а также один из штрихов в политической биографии Сталина. Гораздо важнее то, что вместе с героями новой книги Борис Илизаров пытается разглядеть тончайшие нити, связывающие каждого из нас, родившихся на планете Земля, с древнейшим прошлым человечества, с тем прошлым, когда человечество озарили первые вспышки сознания.