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The Thing at the Foot of the Bed and Other Scary Tales
by Maria Leach Kurt WerthA mysterious hitchhiker, a lovelorn pig, and a backseat gangster are among the colorful characters that populate these spooky stories. Noted folklorist Maria Leach spins a tapestry of yarns that originated in the British Isles, New England, and the American South. Moody black-and-white drawings complement the stories, which range from humorous and playful to downright eerie.There's the one about the fellow who saw two eyes staring at him from the foot of the bed, and the one about the family that ran away from their malevolent household spirit only to find that it had come with them. The tale of the golden arm, a favorite of Mark Twain's, is a standard of campfire gatherings. Other chilling stories recount scenes from haunted houses, ghostly visitations, and midnight trips to the graveyard. An amusing selection of "Do's and Don't's About Ghosts" offers advice to those who go looking for scares as well as those who find them accidentally, and the stories' sources and backgrounds are explained in helpful notes and a bibliography.
Vuckovic's Horror Miscellany: Stories * Facts * Tales & Trivia
by Jovanka VuckovicFrom 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula' to 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'The Omen', this grisly grimoire conjures up ghouls, demons and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Crammed with endless facts, trivia, and stories about every aspect of horror-from 1950s EC Comics and TV series 'The Twilight Zone'; to the music of Black Sabbath and Japanese horror films-this little gem of spookiness is guaranteed to keep readers up all night. Intriguing insights into the lives and work of classic horror writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Clive Barker, and Stephen King are complemented by fascinating behind-the-scenes peeks into the productions of 'Psycho', 'The Thing', and 'Halloween'.Vuckovic's many authoritative lists include: The Top 13 Vampire Films; Scariest Horror Video Games; and The Best Horror Movie Taglines: " The good news is your date is here! The bad news is ... he's dead!" revealing humor in the horror.'Vuckovic's Horror Miscellany' is the ideal present for 'The Walking Dead' and 'World War Z' fan in your life. Just don't read it alone!
The Atlantic Abomination
by John BrunnerAn alien hidden in the ocean&’s depths is awakened—and wreaks havoc on mankind—in this science fiction classic from the Hugo Award–winning author. In The Atlantic Abomination, an exploratory expedition to the bottom of the ocean discovers the remnants of a long-lost civilization, and then, the enormous body of an alien being preserved for unknown millennia. An attempt to raise the body unleashes a horror beyond imagining as the creature revives from a long sleep and begins to exert control over men&’s minds throughout the world. This is a classic SF horror story in the mode of John W. Campbell&’s The Thing, the source material for SF thriller movies in the 1950s and again, via John Carpenter, in the 1980s. For each generation, there is a writer meant to bend the rules of what we know. Hugo Award winner (Best Novel, Stand on Zanzibar) and British science fiction master John Brunner remains one of the most influential and respected authors of all time, and now many of his classic works are being reintroduced. For readers familiar with his vision, this is a chance to reexamine his thoughtful worlds and words, while for new readers, Brunner&’s work proves itself the very definition of timeless.
Barrier Unknown
by John Glasby A.J. MerakThe logical outcome of the space race, and the preliminary step towards the Moo, was the manned satellite, the Big Wheel moving in a stable orbit about the Earth, integrating the data necessary for a landing on the Moon, and eventually acting as a fuelling station for the Lunar rockets.After several failures, the station is ready, but even there, danger exists, unseen, unheard, invisible and terrible. Forced to exist in the belt of cosmic radiation surrounding the planet, men die within weeks from aplastic anemia. Seeking a solution to the problem, Doctor Paul Russell is sent up to the satellite and here learns of the two men fro the previous crew who vanished without a trace after spotting an unidentified spaceship in orbit further out from Earth than themselves.
Black Abyss
by John Glasby J.L. PowersWith the discovery of the hyperdrive, mankind at last possessed the means of going out to the stars. Four expeditions had already gone by the fine the fifth starship left Pluto for Vega. Carrying its complement of scientists and military personnel, they arrived at the solar system of Vega to find one planet sufficiently like Earth to allow them to land. Here, they discovered mystery. The ruins of great cities built on the shattered remains of still earlier fortresses, showing that some great race of conquerors had passed that way sometime in the past thirty thousand years. No life now remained on this planet and speeding to the next sun, they found a civilisation which possessed powers so utterly strange to them that one native almost succeeded in destroying them and taking over the ship. And still the mystery remained, for the legends of the planet spoke of a race of gods who had come down from the stars twenty thousand years before. It was not until they reached the planet of a red giant sun that they ran into a race of creatures so fantastically alien that there was no defence against them, and they learned the real identity of the race which had conquered the stars millennia before...
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
by Edgar Allan PoeStories of terror and suspense. Master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe brings his nightmare visions to vivid, dramatic life in this definitive collection of 14 of his classic stories, including "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and his only full-length novel, "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. " Afterword by R. P. Blackmur
Hydrosphere
by John Glasby A.J. MerakThe Colony on Rigel IV had been founded seven hundred years earlier but for the past six centuries, they had been forced to exist on the bottoms of the great oceans of the planet, kept there by the tremendously potent weapons of the alien star-race which had swept down out of space and wiped them off the land masses of the new world.Kerrel Stevens found himself trapped in one of the Shells, unable to remember how he came to be there, aware only that for some strange reason, he held the secret which could release these people from their terrible existence, but that his memory and all of the knowledge which could help in the struggle against the aliens had been erased from his mind.In the Shells, he finds what he is seeking - others like himself, different from the people who had become used to this life on the sea bottom, where science had gradually given way to superstition and witchcraft - and this chance meeting provides the key which unlocked the amnesia in his mind. For him, it opened the doorway to the surface of this strange, impossible planet, plunging him breathlessly towards the stars- and the unbelievable secret which spelt destruction for the alien star-race.
King of Morning, Queen of Day
by Ian McdonaldWinner of the Philip K. Dick Award and the Prix Imaginales: Three generations of women share a mysterious power--one that threatens to destroy themIn early-twentieth-century Ireland, life for Emily Desmond is that of the average teenage girl: She reads, she's bored with school, and she has a powerful imagination. Then things begin to change. Her imagination is so powerful, in fact, that she wills a faerie into existence--an ability called mythoconsciousness. It's this power that opens a dangerous door that she will never want to close, and whose repercussions will reverberate across time.First to be affected is her daughter, Jessica, who, in the mid-1930s, finds that she must face her mother's power by using the very same gift against her. Then, in the near future, Jessica's granddaughter, Enye, must end the cycle once and for all--but it may prove too powerful to overcome.
Lady of Mallow
by Dorothy EdenHailed by the New York Times as a novel that &“should easily satisfy the same readers who made a bestseller out of Victoria Holt&’s Mistress of Mellyn,&” Dorothy Eden&’s masterwork of Gothic romance presents the story of a governess who falls dangerously in love with the mysterious heir to a manor houseIt&’s a precarious charade with the highest stakes imaginable. Sarah Mildmay&’s entire future rests on exposing the current lord of Mallow as the great pretender he is. Blane Mallow, presumed dead after years at sea, has suddenly returned to claim his title—and the magnificent English estate that rightfully belongs to Sarah&’s fiancé, Blane&’s cousin Ambrose.Determined to unmask the imposter, Sarah talks her way into a position as governess to Blane&’s son, Titus. At Mallow Hall, she meets Blane&’s suspicious wife, Amalie, and the formidable Lady Malvina. But the deception Sarah suspects reveals itself to be far more malevolent and far-reaching than she imagined. As she fights her growing attraction to Blane, the arrival of a stranger sets in motion a series of events that will have deadly consequences. Desperate to protect Titus, Sarah moves closer to a shattering truth: The man she loves may be a cold-blooded murderer . . .
Lady of Mallow
by Dorothy EdenHailed by the New York Times as a novel that &“should easily satisfy the same readers who made a bestseller out of Victoria Holt&’s Mistress of Mellyn,&” Dorothy Eden&’s masterwork of Gothic romance presents the story of a governess who falls dangerously in love with the mysterious heir to a manor houseIt&’s a precarious charade with the highest stakes imaginable. Sarah Mildmay&’s entire future rests on exposing the current lord of Mallow as the great pretender he is. Blane Mallow, presumed dead after years at sea, has suddenly returned to claim his title—and the magnificent English estate that rightfully belongs to Sarah&’s fiancé, Blane&’s cousin Ambrose.Determined to unmask the imposter, Sarah talks her way into a position as governess to Blane&’s son, Titus. At Mallow Hall, she meets Blane&’s suspicious wife, Amalie, and the formidable Lady Malvina. But the deception Sarah suspects reveals itself to be far more malevolent and far-reaching than she imagined. As she fights her growing attraction to Blane, the arrival of a stranger sets in motion a series of events that will have deadly consequences. Desperate to protect Titus, Sarah moves closer to a shattering truth: The man she loves may be a cold-blooded murderer . . .
Sacrifice of Fools
by Ian McdonaldProtestants, Catholics, aliens . . . Just another division in BelfastWhen the alien Shian come to Earth, they offer technology in exchange for a home. Belfast, Northern Ireland, is where eighty thousand of them settle. From that point on, the already-divided city takes on yet another partition. The Shian integrate themselves into the city's culture, becoming one more set of faces in the crowd. Now, a series of ghastly murders has stunned the city and affected both the Shian and the humans.Andy Gillespie, a Loyalist and former criminal, is immediately named the main suspect in the killings. To clear his name, he must find the true perpetrators, and in order to do so, he must get help from any source possible--be it Protestant, Catholic, or extraterrestrial.Shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award, Sacrifice of Fools depicts a city at once familiar and peculiar. Belfast resident Ian McDonald's interpretation of his hometown is one in which the people live their lives to the best of their abilities; one in which they have to deal with the basics of life with extraterrestrials, from language barriers to surprising new fetishes. Here, Belfastians discover how little things truly change.
Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone
by Ian McdonaldEthan Ring has created the ultimate power to kill . . . but will it consume him? Also included is The Tear, finalist for the Hugo Award for Best NovellaFracters are the next wave in military technology. Developed by a design student named Ethan Ring, they are images that can control the minds of others, giving their users the power to hurt, hypnotize, or even kill.Witnessing the destruction that his invention has wrought, Ring finds himself guilt ridden and depressed. Seeking redemption, he embarks on a Shikoku pilgrimage across cyber-feudal twenty-first-century Japan, through the eighty-eight sacred sites of Shingon Buddhism. With the help of his friend Masahiko, Ring tours this strange new Japan in search of ways to rid himself of the curse that he has created. In the process, he not only learns about himself, he discovers new ways to use this terrible weapon to help and heal. With Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, author Ian McDonald has created an indelible introspective journey through one of the most haunting environments imaginable.Also included is The Tear, a stunning novella set in a far-future world whose inhabitants develop multiple "aspects:" completely separate personalities that take over when required. The story follows young Ptey as he matures, takes on new aspects, and plays a vital role in a battle against an implacable enemy. The resulting story is tragic, hopeful, packed with ideas, and completely memorable.
Supernatural Stories featuring Whirlwind of Death (Supernatural Stories)
by R L Fanthorpe Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel FanthorpeHave you ever faced one of those savage biting winds that try to hurl men from perilous heights? Have you sailed into the teeth of a vicious 90 m.p.h. gale and wondered whether there was some strange power behind the wind? An evil power? A dark power?
Thunder Heights: Window On The Square, Thunder Heights, And The Golden Unicorn
by Phyllis A. WhitneyFrom the “Queen of the American gothics”: In turn-of-the-century New York, a strange inheritance lures a vulnerable governess into a trap (The New York Times). Camilla King knows little of her family history, having never met her estranged relatives. Her late father wanted it that way. But when she receives a startling invitation from her immeasurably wealthy and ailing grandfather, Orrin Judd, to return to Thunder Heights, the crumbling mansion on the Hudson where her mother died under mysterious circumstances, Camilla complies, partly out of curiosity for the family she never had, and partly because of whispers of an inheritance. What she finds there is a demanding and unwelcoming tyrant, two wraithlike aunts haunted by an unnamable grief, a cunning idler living off the Judd fortune, and her grandfather’s rigid and suspicious aide. When a series of accidents befall Camilla, she has reason to fear her homecoming may be a carefully designed trap—the same one her own mother fell prey to many years ago. New York Times–bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Phyllis A. Whitney “is, and always will be, the Grand Master of her craft” (Barbara Michaels). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.
A Tiger Walks
by Ian NiallYosef and Ram Sing stop in a small Welsh village, get a little drunk and release a tiger.
Twice Lost
by Phyllis PaulWho could have been so cruel as to do away with poor Vivian Lambert? And why oh why couldn&’t she just stay dead?In a rustic, idyllic English village, on a summer&’s day, in the midst of a carefree tennis party, a fragile, needy child, left too much on her own, vanishes from her family&’s front garden. Years pass and the mystery persists: an enduring torment for the teenage Christine Gray, the last person to see Vivian alive. Perhaps if she&’d shown the girl a little kindness, and seen her safely home, Vivian might still be with them? Yet when someone claiming to be a grown-up Vivian returns to the land of the living, the enigma seems only to deepen, threatening to consume the wicked and innocent alike. Equal parts The Turn of the Screw, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and gothic thriller, Twice Lost was admired by such authors as Elizabeth Bowen, Rebecca West, and John Cowper Powys—yet the strange, haunting novels of Phyllis Paul are themselves a mystery with no simple solution. Virtually lost to time even before her death, her novels have been out of print for more than fifty years, and fetch fantastic prices in the rare book trade.
Un verano tenebroso
by Dan SimmonsEl gran clásico de terror de Dan Simmons que te pondrá los pelos de punta. Verano de 1960. En el pueblecito de Elm Haven, Illinois, cinco pre-adolescentes de doce años pasan sus días bajo atardeceres en bicicleta, juegos y descubrimientos propios de una pacífica infancia en un lugar idílico. Sin embargo, tras la desaparición de un compañero de clase, su afán de aventura los llevará a averiguar mucho más de lo que esperaban: un mundo paralelo en el que la realidad y la fantasía apenas se distinguen. El inesperado repique de una extraña campana europea en medio de la noche marcará el fin de los días tranquilos. Ahora, desde las profundidades de Old Central School, el mal acecha. Acontecimientos insólitos y escalofriantes comienzan a apropiarse del día a día, propagando el miedo por el pueblo: un soldado muerto que los persigue, gusanos gigantes bajo el suelo, el cuerpo animado de un profesor fallecido y una serie de demoniosque han despertado y que solo nuestros cinco protagonistas podrán desafiar, decididos a acabar con la fuerza oscura que domina la noche... Reseña:«Simmons escribe como un auténtico ángel, cargando su pesadilla americana con sustos, suspense y una nostalgia dulce y sorprendente. Uno de esos libros únicos que hay que leer. Me he quedado boquiabierto.»Stephen King
Wall of Serpents (Gateway Essentials #63)
by L. Sprague deCamp Fletcher PrattThe Mathematics of Magic was probably the greatest discovery of the ages - at least Professor Harold Shea thought so. With the proper equations, he could instantly transport himself back in time to all the wondrous lands of ancient legend.But slips in time were a hazard, and Shea's magic did not always work - at least, not quite as he expected . . .The Wall of Serpents is the third in L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's much-loved Compleat Enchanter series.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
by Henry Farrell Mitch DouglasThe chilling novel that inspired the iconic film--with three never-before-published short stories Once an acclaimed child star of vaudeville, Baby Jane Hudson performed for adoring crowds before a move to Hollywood thrust her sister, Blanche, into the spotlight. As Blanche's film career took off, a resentful Jane watched from the shadows as her own career faded into obscurity--until a tragic accident changed everything. Now, years later, the two sisters live in a decaying mansion, isolated from the outside world. Crippled by the accident, Blanche is helpless under the control of her abusive sister, who is slowly descending into madness. And when Baby Jane decides it's time to revive her childhood act, she won't let anything--or anyone--stand in her way.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
by Henry FarrellBaby Jane Hudson was a child star in Vaudeville, with the looks of an angel and the temperament of a diva. The breadwinner for her family, she got all her father's love and attention, while little sister Blanche tagged along in the rear. When the girls grew up, Blanche became a famous movie actress while Jane's star faded and she played thankless roles in Blanche's pictures. Then came the auto accident--or was it an accident?--that left Blanche an invalid in a wheel chair, living in near isolation with Jane. When Blanche's movies start running on TV over two decades later, the uneasy truce between the sisters begins to fall apart as Jane's behavior grows stranger and more erratic. Blanche soon realizes that her life is in danger, but who can save her from Jane's watchful malevolence? The cleaning woman? The next door neighbor? The young man Jane hires to be the accompanist for what she dreams will be a brilliant comeback? Time will tell in this story of madness, love, hate, jealousy and death.
When The Gods Came
by John Glasby John AdamsMen had fought wars throughout history, but never such a war as the one which destroyed the cities of earth and turned vast areas into badlands, stretches of intense radioactivity where nothing could grow and no one could live. It also produced the deviates, mutants who had warped bodies and strange talents.But there were others who had still stranger talents, mental powers exceeding those of the mutants, and whose bodies did not bear the sign of the deviate. Their origin could not be traced to an atomic war; even they themselves had no idea whence they came.Forced to take part in the abortive war between the Eastern and Western Federations, one man and one man eventually escaped and discovered creatures similar to themselves. But to discover their origin they had to go back five thousand years; and the answer lay not on earth, but somewhere in the stars.
The Witches
by Peter CurtisWalwyk seemed a dream village to the new schoolteacher, Miss Mayfield. But dreams can change into nightmares...When one of her students accuses his friend Ethel's grandmother of abusing her, Miss Mayfield cannot let it go. But Ethel won't say anything, despite the evidence of Miss Mayfield's own eyes. But as she attempts to get to the truth of the matter, she stumbles on something far more sinister. Walwyk seems to be in the grip of a centuries-old evil, and anybody who questions events in the village does not last long. Death stalks more than one victim, and Miss Mayfield begins to realise that if she's not careful, she will be the next to die...
Alien
by John Glasby John E. MullerThey came out of the great abyss which lay around the Earth, from the planet of a star so distant that it could not be seen with the naked eye. Their purpose was survival and the conquest of Earth. They were alien and possessed a mysterious force which lay at the very origin of human comprehension; the ability to enter into a man's mind, to make him think the thoughts they chose, to make him hear and see and feel the things they wanted.Against such a force there seemed no defence; for who could say that the man or woman by his side was not motivated by one of these creatures? Who could say that his own thoughts and senses belonged to him and not to some 'thing' seated in some alien way inside his brain?
Black Light
by Elizabeth HandA decadent tale of ancient darkness that &“does for upstate New York what Stephen King has done for rural Maine,&” from the author of Waking the Moon (Publishers Weekly). Lit Moylan lives what she thinks is an ordinary life. Sure, her town has a few eccentric theater types, but that&’s all. That is until her Warholian godfather, Axel Kern, moves into the big house on the hill. He throws infamously depraved parties, full of drinks, drugs, and sex. But they also have a much more sinister purpose. At one of these parties, Lit touches a statue, and learns she has much more of a role to play in this world than she ever thought possible. Ornate and decadent, Black Light visits an irresistible world of ancient gods and secret societies as enthralling as it is dangerous. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Elizabeth Hand including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s personal collection.
Blue Fire
by Phyllis A. WhitneyA bride is swept up in family secrets and the blood diamond trade when she returns to South Africa in this novel by a New York Times–bestselling author. When Chicagoan Susan Hohenfield brings her new husband, Dirk, to her childhood home in Cape Town, it’s with the innocence of a young girl. She remembers only the beauty of South Africa—and the pain of being abandoned by her father. Now, with a new perspective, she sees a country destroyed by apartheid. And her father, once accused of diamond smuggling, seems not the ogre she imagined, but a broken man powerless against the prison term that wrenched him from his daughter’s arms. At least that’s the story Susan has been told. But she’ll discover the truth as this intimate family reunion raises grave and troubling new questions. Why is the man responsible for her father’s fate still lingering in the shadows? Why has Dirk’s former lover arrived with threats and incriminations? And why does Susan feel like a stranger in her own home? Now, in a place that is at once strange and familiar, charged with fear and intrigue, Susan must confront a dangerous past that isn’t quite through with her. More than a classic gothic tale, Blue Fire is one of the first novels to deal with the turmoil in South Africa. It was written nearly three decades before the dismantling of apartheid and a half-century before the film Blood Diamond would bring attention to the devastating effects of the smuggling trade. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.