- Table View
- List View
The Best Horror of the Year Volume 9
by Ellen DatlowAn elderly man aggressively defends his private domain against all comers?including his daughter;a policeman investigates an impossible horror show of a crime; a father witnesses one of the worst things a parent can imagine; the abuse of one child fuels another’s yearning; an Iraqi war veteran seeks a fellow soldier in his hometown but finds more than she bargains for . . . The Best Horror of the Year showcases the previous year’s best offerings in short fiction horror. This edition includes award-winning and critically acclaimed authors Adam L. G. Nevill, Livia Llewellyn, Peter Straub, Gemma Files, Brian Hodge, and more. For more than three decades, award-winning editor and anthologist Ellen Datlow has had her finger on the pulse of the latest and most terrifying in horror writing. Night Shade Books is proud to present the ninth volume in this annual series, a new collection of stories to keep you up at night. Table of Contents: Summation 2016 - Ellen Datlow Nesters -- Siobhan Carroll The Oestridae -- Robert Levy The Process is a Process All its Own -- Peter Straub The Bad Hour -- Christopher Golden Red Rabbit -- Steve Rasnic Tem It's All the Same Road in the End -- Brian Hodge Fury -- DB Waters Grave Goods -- Gemma Files Between Dry Ribs -- Gregory Norman Bossert The Days of Our Lives -- Adam LG Nevill House of Wonders -- C.E. Ward The Numbers -- Christopher Burns Bright Crown of Joy -- Livia Llewellyn The Beautiful Thing We Will Become -- Kristi DeMeester Wish You Were Here -- Nadia Bulkin Ragman -- Rebecca Lloyd What’s Out There? -- Gary McMahon No Matter Which Way We Turned -- Brian Evenson The Castellmarch Man -- Ray Cluley The Ice Beneath Us -- Steve Duffy On These Blackened Shores of Time -- Brian Hodge Honorable Mentions
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five
by Ellen DatlowDarkness, both literal and psychological, holds its own unique fascination. Despite our fears, or perhaps because of them, readers have always been drawn to tales of death, terror, madness, and the supernatural, and no more so than today when a wildly imaginative new generation of dark dreamers is carrying on in the tradition of Poe and Lovecraft and King, crafting exquisitely disturbing literary nightmares that gaze without flinching into the abyss-and linger in the mind long after.Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow knows the darkest corners of fiction and poetry better than most. Once again, she has braved the haunted landscape of modern horror to seek out the most chilling new works by both legendary masters of the genre and fresh young talents. Here are twisted hungers and obsessions, human and otherwise, along with an unsettling variety of spine-tingling fears and fantasies. The cutting edge of horror has never cut deeper than in this comprehensive showcase of the very best the field has to offer. Enter at your own risk.
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 6
by Ellen DatlowThis statement was true when H. P. Lovecraft first wrote it at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains true at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The only thing that has changed is what is unknown.With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this "light" creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year, edited by Ellen Datlow, chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness, as articulated by today's most challenging and exciting writers.The best horror writers of today do the same thing that horror writers of a hundred years ago did. They tell good stories-stories that scare us. And when these writers tell really good stories that really scare us, Ellen Datlow notices. She's been noticing for more than a quarter century. For twenty-one years, she coedited The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and for the last six years, she's edited this series. In addition to this monumental cataloging of the best, she has edited hundreds of other horror anthologies and won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards.More than any other editor or critic, Ellen Datlow has charted the shadowy abyss of horror fiction. Join her on this journey into the dark parts of the human heart . . . either for the first time . . . or once again.
The Best New Horror 5
by Ramsey Campbell Stephen JonesBest New Horror has established itself as the world's premier horror annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. In this latest volume, the multi-award winning editors have chosen razor-sharp stories of suspense and disturbing tales of terror by authors on the cutting edge of the genre. Along with a comprehensive review of the year and a fascinating necrology, this is the book no horror fan can afford to miss.
The Best New Horror 5
by Ramsey Campbell Stephen JonesBest New Horror has established itself as the world's premier horror annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. In this latest volume, the multi-award winning editors have chosen razor-sharp stories of suspense and disturbing tales of terror by authors on the cutting edge of the genre. Along with a comprehensive review of the year and a fascinating necrology, this is the book no horror fan can afford to miss.
The Best New Horror 6
by Stephen JonesThe Best New Horror has established itself as the world's premier annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. In this latest volume, the multi-award winning editor has chosen razor-sharp stories of suspense and disturbing tales of terror by writers on the cutting edge of the genre. Along with a comprehensive review of the year and a fascinating necrology, this is the book no horror fan can afford to miss.
The Best New Horror 6
by Stephen JonesThe Best New Horror has established itself as the world's premier annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. In this latest volume, the multi-award winning editor has chosen razor-sharp stories of suspense and disturbing tales of terror by writers on the cutting edge of the genre. Along with a comprehensive review of the year and a fascinating necrology, this is the book no horror fan can afford to miss.
The Best New Horror 7
by Stephen JonesThe Best New Horror has established itself as the world's premier annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. In this latest volume, the multi-award winning editor has once again chosen more than twenty terrifying tales of supernatural fear and psychological dread by some of the most acclaimed authors working in the genre. Along with the most comprehensive review of the year and a fascinating necrology, this is the book no horror fan can afford to miss.
The Best New Horror 7
by Stephen JonesThe Best New Horror has established itself as the world's premier annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. In this latest volume, the multi-award winning editor has once again chosen more than twenty terrifying tales of supernatural fear and psychological dread by some of the most acclaimed authors working in the genre. Along with the most comprehensive review of the year and a fascinating necrology, this is the book no horror fan can afford to miss.
The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told (Best Stories Ever Told)
by John Helfers Martin H. GreenbergParanormal crime stories by bestselling fiction writers like Kelley Armstrong, Anne Perry, Simon R. Green, Patricia Briggs, and more. A massive, monumental volume of paranormal crime fiction by bestselling authors. Gripping tales of mayhem include both novellas and short stories like "Stalked by," by Kelley Armstrong, "The Judgment" by worldwide bestselling author Anne Perry, "Appetite for Murder" by Simon R. Green, ", "Road Dogs" by Norman Partridge, "The Hex Is In" by Mike Resnick, "Doppelgangster" by Laura Resnick, the chilling "If Vanity Doesn't Kill Me" by Michael A. Stackpole, and many, many, more. Compiled and edited by the world's most prolific anthologist-the award-winning Martin H. Greenberg-this is the biggest paranormal crime book on the market and the ultimate collection for crime lovers, ghost hunters, and thrill seekers everywhere. Also included are multiple stories by New York Times bestselling authors. The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told is a new book in the series, which includes The Best Hunting Stories Ever Told and The Best Fishing Stories Ever Told.
The Best Supernatural Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle
by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleHow often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -- Sherlock HolmesWhen Holmes wearied of mundane Victorian reality, he reached for the cocaine; his creator Doyle reached beyond reality, to the occult mystery world as real to him as a hansom cab--so real that it became part of his fiction. It is no surprise that in the year "A Study in Scarlet" appeared (1887), this versatile writer was reading seriously in spiritualism, attending séances, and had already written some of the thrilling tales in this book. The Best Supernatural Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle gathers together for the first time in an American edition the fifteen finest short stories in this genre by the master storyteller. Relative to his vast literary output, Doyle wrote comparatively few stories dealing specifically with spiritualism, Egyptian magic, psychometry, and other occult domains he knew so thoroughly -- and these scattered stories, skeptically dismissed or simply buried beneath the mass of his detective, historical, sports, medical, and other pieces, have yet to receive their due as superior or typical examples of his narrative power. The polymath Doyle has recourse to many twilit borderline realms of the beyond in these stories which appeared in various periodicals from 1880 to 1921. "The Bully of Brocas Court" gives a new slant to the Victorian ghost story in one of Doyle's favorite settings, the world of boxing. "The Captain of the Polestar" recalls the weird northern backdrop of the author's whaling adventures; "The Brown Hand" deals in body-soul bondage with a touch of the East. Two hackle-raising histories, "Lot No. 249" and "The Ring of Thoth," depend on the riddle of Egyptian mummy lore; "The Leather Funnel" and "The Silver Hatchet" involve psychometry, a material object's retention of an aura or memory of its past, which a sensitive being can "replay" through dreams. And then there is "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," Doyle's speculative solution to the Marie Celeste conundrum, which was vehemently denounced when published (anonymously) because it seemed so true and so terrible. Doyle readers, students of the occult, and anyone who loves an imaginative tale will wish to experience, through these obscure, rarely reprinted stories, what was personally so close to their author.
The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
by Robert BlochLovecraft is "the American writer of the twentieth century most frequently compared with Poe, in the quality of his art ... [and] its thematic preoccupations (the obsessive depiction of psychic disintegration in the face of cosmic horror)."
The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: The Best Weird Tales Of H. P. Lovecraft (Best Of Series)
by H. P. LovecraftSix timeless stories of supernatural terror and macabre imagination by &“the 20th century&’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale&” (Stephen King). H. P. Lovecraft&’s unique literary vision has influenced generations of authors whose work comprises its own subgenre: Lovecraftian horror. His legacy can be seen everywhere, from the HBO drama series Lovecraft Country to the enduring Cthulhu Mythos—a fictional universe first developed by Lovecraft in several of the stories included here. An essential collection for any horror fan, this volume presents some of Lovecraft&’s finest short fiction, including &“The Call of Cthuhlu,&” &“The Dunwich Horror,&” and &“The Shadow Over Innsmouth,&” among others.
The Best of Jules de Grandin: 20 Classic Occult Detective Stories
by Seabury QuinnA collection of the 20 greatest tales of Jules de Grandin, the supernatural detective made famous in the classic pulp magazine Weird Tales. Today the names of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith, all regular contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the first half of the twentieth century, are recognizable even to casual readers of the bizarre and fantastic. And yet despite being more popular than them all during the golden era of genre pulp fiction, there is another author whose name and work have fallen into obscurity: Seabury Quinn. Quinn&’s short stories were featured in well more than half of Weird Tales’s original publication run. His most famous character, the supernatural French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey. In de Grandin there are familiar shades of both Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, and alongside his assistant, Dr. Samuel Trowbridge, de Grandin’s knack for solving mysteries—and his outbursts of peculiar French-isms (grand Dieu!)—captivated readers for nearly three decades. The Best of Jules de Grandin, edited by George Vanderburgh, presents twenty of the greatest published works featuring the supernatural detective. Presented in chronological order with stories from the 1920s through the 1940s, this collection contains the most incredible of Jules de Grandin's many awe-inspiring adventures.
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future
by Christi NogleThe Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future is whimsical and dreadful, verdant and sinister. Readers of &“quiet horror&” or &“slow-burn horror&” will enjoy this collection."Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant ImmortalsThe Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future collects Christi Nogle&’s finest psychological and supernatural horror stories. Their rural and small-town characters confront difficult pasts and look toward promising but often terrifying futures. The pieces range in genre from psychological horror through science fiction and ghost stories, but they all share fundamental qualities: feminist themes, an emphasis on voice, a focus on characters&’ psychologies and a sense of the gothic in contemporary life. Stories here may recall Charlotte Perkins Gilman&’s &“The Yellow Wallpaper,&” Shirley Jackson&’s &“The Renegade,&” or Kelly Link&’s &“Stone Animals.&”
The Best of Richard Matheson
by Richard Matheson Victor LavalleThe definitive collection of terrifying stories by "one of the greatest writers of the 20th century" (Ray Bradbury), edited by award-winning author Victor LaValleAmong the greats of 20th-century horror and fantasy, few names stand above Richard Matheson. Though known by many for novels like I Am Legend and his sixteen Twilight Zone episodes, Matheson truly shines in his chilling, masterful short stories. Since his first story appeared in 1950, virtually every major writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy has fallen under his influence, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, and Joe Hill, as well as filmmakers like Stephen Spielberg and J.J. Abrams. Matheson revolutionized horror by taking it out of Gothic castles and strange cosmos and setting it in the darkened streets and suburbs we recognize as our own. He infused tales of the fantastic and supernormal with dark explorations of human nature, delving deep into the universal dread of feeling alone and threatened in a dangerous world. The Best of Richard Matheson brings together his greatest hits as chosen by Victor LaValle, an expert on horror fiction and one of its brightest talents, marking the first major overview of Matheson's legendary career."[Matheson is] the author who influenced me most as a writer." -Stephen King"Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories . . . For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov." -Steven Spielberg"He was a giant, and YOU KNOW HIS STORIES, even if you think you don't." -Neil GaimanFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
The Betrayal (Fear Street Saga #1)
by R. L. StineThrough 20 books, R. L. Stine has alluded to the cursed Fear family, whose mansion burned down in a terrible fire. All that remains of the Fears is a legacy of evil. Now Stine takes readers back in time, telling them finally the awful truth of what happened to the Fears . . . and why their evil lives on after 300 years.
The Betrayal (Fear Street Saga #1)
by R. L. StineNora knows the secrets behind the horrifying things happening on Fear Street and reveals the dark legacy that marked the start of the terror three hundred years earlier, when a young girl was burned at the stake.
The Betrayed: The Cursed The Hexed The Betrayed (Krewe of Hunters #14)
by Heather Grahamwww.eHeatherGraham.comSleepy Hollow isn't so sleepy anymore... One night, New York FBI agent Aiden Mahoney receives a visitor in a dream-an old friend named Richard Highsmith. The very next day he's sent to Sleepy Hollow because Richard's gone missing there. Maureen-Mo-Deauville now lives in the historic town and works with her dog, Rollo, to search for missing people. She's actually the one to find Richard...or more precisely his head, stuck on a statue of the legendary Headless Horseman. Mo and Aiden, a new member of the Krewe of Hunters, the FBI's unit of paranormal investigators, explore both past and present events to figure out who betrayed Richard, who killed him and now wants to kill them, too. As they work together, they discover that they share an unusual trait-the ability to communicate with the dead. They also share an attraction that's as intense as it is unexpected...if they live long enough to enjoy it!
The Between
by Ryan LeslieWhile landscaping his backyard, ever-conscientious Paul Prentice discovers an iron door buried in the soil. His childhood friend and perpetual source of mischief, Jay Lightsey, pushes them to explore what's beneath. When the door slams shut above them, Paul and Jay are trapped in a between-worlds place of Escher-like rooms and horror story monsters, all with a mysterious connection to a command-line, dungeon explorer computer game from the early '80s called The Between. Paul and Jay find themselves filling roles in a story that seems to play out over and over again. But in this world, where their roles warp their minds, the biggest threat to survival may not be the Koŝmaro, risen from the Between's depths to hunt them; the biggest danger may be each other. "I found The Between dark, super creepy, and pushing the limits of my limited amounts of courage to explore-but I couldn't stop myself from coming back for more because it's propulsive, addictive, and scary good fun." - Sean Gibson, author of The Stuff About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True "...an incredibly intricate novel that skillfully blends aspects of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and cyberpunk." - Nicole Willson, author of Tidepool. "While in the first third of this book, I mentioned that the atmosphere reminded me of one of my favorite horror novels, SL Grey's The Mall. There's a surreal, not-right quality to that book that touched off a nerve in me that I just adored....I don't at all mean this as an insult, as that's a damn fun book- and so is this one! ....It's almost like a grown up, more gory and violent horror version of Heir Apparent." - Alexandra, Goodreads "This debut novel by author Ryan Leslie combines elements of science fiction and horror that at times reminded me of The Hike by Drew Magary and Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer, all while being something distinctly different." - Matt, Goodreads "It was a great mix of horror, sci-fi and adventure gaming!" - Stephanie, Goodreads
The Between
by Tananarive DueWhen Hilton was just a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African-American judge in Dade County, FL, begins to receive racist hate mail, he becomes obsessed with protecting his family. Soon, however, he begins to have horrible nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are the strange dreams trying to tell him something? His sense of reality begins to slip away as he battles both the psychotic threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep. Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between follows the struggles of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves, but may have already lost. The compelling plot holds readers in suspense until the final, profound moment of resolution.
The Between: A Novel
by Tananarive Due“An extraordinary work of humane imagination . . . call it magic realism with soul.”—Locus“Finely honed . . . always engages and frequently surprises.”—New York Times Book ReviewA man risks his soul and his sanity to save his family from malevolent forces in this brilliant novel of horror and the supernatural from the award-winning pioneer of speculative fiction and author of the classic My Soul to Keep. When Hilton was a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors—macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are these bizarre dreams the dark imaginings of a man losing his hold on sanity—or are they harbingers of terrible events to come? As Hilton battles both the sociopath threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep, the line between reality and fantasy dissolves . . . Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between is the haunting story of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves as he slowly loses himself.
The Bewdley Mayhem: Hellmouths of Bewdley, Pontypool Changes Everything, and Caesarea
by Tony BurgessTogether for the first time, the complete Bewdley trilogy will alter your imagination as it details the strange, dark happenings in a rural Ontario town.The Hellmouths of Bewdley is a series of 16 stories hiding in a novel about a small town in Ontario&’s cottage country. Navigating through drunk and dead men, prisons and suicides and mad doctors, these short stories act as a halfway house for literary delinquents. Pontypool Changes Everything is the terrifying story of a devastating virus. Caught through conversation, once it has you, it leads you into another world where the undead chase you down the streets of the smallest towns and largest cities. In Caesarea, everybody&’s embarrassed and nobody is mentioning the mess. Caesarea, you see, is the town that can&’t get to sleep at night. Only Burgess demands answers to the really big question: Who&’s been sleeping in your bed? With a preface by Jonathan Ball.Praise for Tony Burgess &“These stories are universally dark and not for the timid or prudish. A subtle horror invades the fine writing; intimate biological details of violent death are revealed in a manner that suggests Stephen King having a confidential chat with Hieronymus Bosch in the north woods. What Burgess reveals is that the dark edges of humanity we stereotypically equate with the urban are present and even more threatening in areas with no 911 service.&” —Quill & Quire on The Hellmouths of Bewdley &“Pontypool Changes Everything may be one of the most genuinely horrifying horror novels—as opposed to simply discomforting, sickening or terrifying, although it is all of these as well—that I have ever read.&” —Horrorscope
The Beyond (The\well-built City Trilogy Ser. #3)
by Jeffrey FordThe ruins of the Well-Built City and the village of Wenau are not all the world has to offer-there is also the Beyond, a dark land between life and death, populated by flying demons, restless ghosts, invisible terrors, and ravenous trees. Cast out by the people of Wenau after finding a cure for their sickness, former physiognomist Cley sets out to brave the dark mountains and seas of the Beyond in order to find the woman he doomed on his quest to destroy the Well-Built City. As Cley journeys deeper into the unknown, he is accompanied by an invisible companion-the demon Misrix, who is searching for his own humanity.
The Beyond: The Physiognomy, Memoranda, And The Beyond (The Well-Built City Trilogy #3)
by Jeffrey FordThe gripping final volume of the Well-Built City Trilogy The ruins of the Well-Built City and the village of Wenau are not all the world has to offer--there is also the Beyond, a dark land between life and death, populated by flying demons, restless ghosts, invisible terrors, and ravenous trees. Cast out by the people of Wenau after finding a cure for their sickness, former physiognomist Cley sets out to brave the dark mountains and seas of the Beyond in order to find the woman he doomed on his quest to destroy the Well-Built City. As Cley journeys deeper into the unknown, he is accompanied by an invisible companion--the demon Misrix, who is searching for his own humanity. The final episode in Jeffrey Ford's Kafkaesque Well-Built City Trilogy, The Beyond fleshes out Ford's world further than ever before.