Fantasy Short Fiction

This collection features Howard at his finest and Conan at his most savage. Truly heroic fantasy at its best, this volume contains "The Servants of Bit-Yakin", "Beyond the Black River", "The Black Stranger", "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula", and "Red Nails", which is perhaps Conan's most famous adventure.

Ren has to be the grumpiest Voxeran in the universe. So why does his touch light me on fire? With the arrival of a ship from Vox, we’ll finally have a chance to escape Nuthora. Unfortunately, the blue-skinned alien rebel who comes to rescue us is the most frustrating man I’ve ever met. From our very first meeting when he pulls a knife on me, to the pointed barbs we trade back and forth, I think it’s safe to say we don’t like each other very much. But that doesn’t explain why he suddenly kisses me in the middle of an argument…or why I kiss him back.

Vitus Adamson has a second chance at life now that he's no longer a zombie. But after killing his brother, Jamie, Vitus lands in prison on murder charges. Jamie's death exposes secret government projects so deep in the black they cannot be seen - without Vitus, that is. Sprung from jail, the government hires Vitus to clean up Jamie's messes, but tracking down his brother's homemade monsters gone rogue is easier said than done. The first of them is a convicted killer assumed to be safely behind bars.

A perfect introduction for new listeners and a must-have for avid fans, this New York Times Notable Book includes "Bloodchild," winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and "Speech Sounds," winner of the Hugo Award. Appearing in audio for the first time, "Amnesty" is a story of a woman named Noah who works to negotiate the tense and co-dependent relationship between humans and a species of invaders. Also new to this collection is "The Book of Martha" which asks: What would you do if God granted you the ability—and responsibility—to save humanity from itself?

Jane Sagan: Soldier. Killer. Lover. Dreamer. In John Scalzi's best-selling Old Man's War series of science-fiction novels, we see this warrior woman as the other characters see her - silent and strong, from the outside. But now The Sagan Diary shows us Sagan from another point of view: her own, as she prepares to leave military life and join her new husband and adopted daughter on a colony world.

Long before movies like Minority Report and The Matrix, the world's writers have been recording the future as it might exist - and as it turns out, they were right. This bizarre anthology collects the most stunning predictions and imagined inventions here for the first time. Visions of Tomorrow includes "The Land Iron Clads" by H. G. Wells, who described a military tank in 1903 - long before it was ever a possibility; "The Yesterday House" by Fritz Leiber, who wrote about cloned humans; and more.

Deep in the forest, a cop-for-hire investigates a gruesome murder – as she tries to forget an operation gone so wrong that her marriage, to her partner, lies in ruins. She teams with an Interpol agent tracking an exotic species smuggling operation tied to the killing. What they find leads them to a hidden compound - and two rather unusual children. This story was originally published in the Audie Award-winning METAtropolis: Cascadia.

In a realm where wizards rule, magic reigns supreme. Power. The ambitious thirst for it. But when a power-hungry wizard lord seeks to expand his might, he triggers a series of events unforeseen. The balance of magic is altered, races of old return, and beasts of legend stalk the land. This omnibus includes the first three books in the series.

Detective-Lieutenant Gene Trimble faces an increasing number of bizarre suicides in a world struggling to come to terms with its place in a multiverse of different timelines, where every decision ever made by anyone becomes an alternate universe.

Levi Walker died by Truck-Kun and found himself reincarnated on the magical world of Taryl. With a new body comes a whole new curriculum as he's expected to enroll in the Otherworld Academy, a prestigious institute that trains magi to hone their magical prowess. If that's not enough, Levi's been sorted into the smallest house in the school, told he's a Demon Lord, and his dominant magic is beast taming. But Levi's never been one to focus on the negative. With beautiful classmates, entrancing faculty, and a very sassy squirrel at his side, he's ready to make Taryl his new home.

At turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki's singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.

A larval Great Old One is growing day by day in power and just about ready to pop. If Chad Gadenier can't convince "the powers that be" to get involved, not only New Orleans, but the entire world, is going to fall under the power of the nastiest of nasties. Now on the outs with the US government and in exile from his usual job of saving the world, Chad must rally the forces of light against the coming darkness. The problem is one guy with a sword and a sub-gun isn't going to solve this one.

A reluctant servant of Pharasma, Salim is no missionary. Yet when a desperate eidolon seeks his help in saving his master's soul, Salim has little choice in the matter. Saddled with a strange curse, this mysterious snake-man's creator is no longer in control of his actions - yet they may still weigh on his soul when it comes time for Pharasma's judgment. Only Salim can put a stop to events before they go too far. But are some souls really worth saving?

New world. New life. New everything. I thought it was the end when my car flew off a cliff. But a beautiful goddess stepped in and offered me a second chance. Now I have the power of light itself within me, and that power is growing. Which is just as well, because I have to battle villains, monsters, mutants and more. I’m not a natural born superhero, but just maybe, I can become something more.

Enter the Druidverse® and discover a world of magic, mythology, and urban fantasy! This set contains three short story collections and three novellas: Blood Scent (a prequel novella), Druid Blood (a prequel novella), Blood Circus (a short story collection), Blood Ties (a short story collection), Blood Bound (a short story collection), and Colin McCool Saves Christmas (a Christmas novella). The novellas primarily focus on everyone’s favorite down-on-his-luck druid, Colin McCool, while many of the short stories feature supporting characters.

I’ve spent my entire life running from my past and staying out of trouble. That’s how I’ve kept alive ever since my parents were killed by the Black Dragon, who’s ruled the world under her oppressive talons for as long as anyone can remember. But it’s hard to keep a low profile when four handsome strangers turn up in your village claiming you’re destined to save the world. According to them, they’ve been chosen by the gods to become elemental dragons — and I’m their fated mate.

It is in Skinwalker that Jane Yellowrock first meets George Dumas (Bruiser) and Leo Pellissier. Now, in "First Sight", that encounter is revisited - only this time from Bruiser’s point of view.

A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the past three decades of New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu's prolific career, putting his nonfiction essays and short stories side-by-side for the first time. This collection includes essays and interviews that shed light on Liu's experiences as a reader, writer, and lover of science fiction throughout his life, as well as short fiction that gives glimpses into the evolution of his imaginative voice over the years.

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

From a woman who marries into a family of volatile wizards to a couple fleeing a gang of love-hungry cupids, from a girl who seeks sanctuary in the form of a graceful goose to the disgruntled superhero Captain Housework, listeners will revel in the many twists and turns of fortune in these fantastical fairy tales and lush parables. Even hardened vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake gets blindsided by the disturbing motives of her clients in the new "Those Who Seek Forgiveness" and in "The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death."