Occult Horror

We each inhabit many worlds, often at the same time. From worlds on the inside to the world on a cosmic scale. Worlds imposed on us, and worlds of our own making. In time, though, all worlds will end. With Skidding Into Oblivion, his fifth collection, award-winning author Brian Hodge brings together his most concentrated assortment yet. It includes all of the best picks and awards finalists. All stories have one thing in common: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we don’t feel fine at all.

Tallyn O’Malley’s dreams are coming true. Her husband is back from the war, their son is opening up to him, and they’ve just been invited to be participants on the hottest game show in the nation. But things are not what they seem. An attempted kidnapping goes wrong and Tallyn is hurled into a world she didn’t know existed. Pursued by a relentless and smart supernatural force that wants revenge, fight or flight is the only answer. And she is a fighter.

It’s the mid-'90s. Grunge and flannel are fading as the Spice Girls and Hot Topic conquer the malls. Cherry gloss glistens on the lips of the youth. Modems hiss as America comes online. And in a fog-drenched cove at the edge of New England, something terrible awakens when a fisherman reels in a gruesome catch: the remains of a young woman. Remains still pulsing with furious life.

Flair Hardwicke knows three things: Magic is real, love isn’t, and relying on either ends in disaster. So while she’s grateful for the chance to take over her grandmother’s Kansas bakery after she finally leaves her cheating husband, she won’t be embracing Nana’s fortune-telling side-hustle.

Isabeau, the witch, longs to rejoin her sister and her home in these uncertain times, but she must first complete one last task for her teachers. To find her true purpose in life, she must reach the Skull of the World and listen to the silent words of the White Gods. Few survive. But those who do are changed forever. Now, when she does return home, she does so with an extraordinary gift. But when Margrit of Arran decides to take advantage of Lachlan’s absence by kidnapping his son - heir to the throne, Isabeau must learn to use her gifts in the face of evil - and overcome her enemy.

How do you keep the people you care about safe from enemies you can’t remember? Ten years ago, Nate Garrett awoke on a cold warehouse floor with no memory of his past and the only clues to his identity were a piece of paper with his name on it and a propensity toward magic. Now he’s a powerful sorcerer and a successful thief for hire, but it turns out that those who stole his memories aren’t done with him yet. When they cause a job to go bad, threatening a sixteen-year-old girl, Nate swears to protect her.

Some people have nightmares of finding a monster in their closet, but how many fantasize about it? If you fall into the latter category, you get me. There I was, simply working to program my visual novel and find my muse, when bam! Monster girl in my closet. Needless to say, she changed my life. For the better at first, sure. But then there was the hunter, and the crazy lady who spoke of another world where the monsters live.

Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1870) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton is an early science fiction novel. The setting is a strange subterranean world inhabited by beautiful entities that resemble the angels described in scripture. The advanced beings known as Vril-ya live underground - using the mysterious "Vril" as an energy source - but intend to reclaim the surface of the earth as their own. The narrator ends up deep inside the Earth via a natural chasm in a mine shaft.

Kat is on a mission, and the fate of the universe depends on whether or not she succeeds. She must journey into the heart of the underworld and track down Isfet before time runs out. Before the bonding withdrawals claim her bond-mate’s life and her ticket out of the afterlife vanishes. Before the Mother of All attacks. For once, luck is on Kat’s side. Some of her closest friends and most trusted allies have her back, even in the hereafter. But it doesn’t take Kat long to realize that the underworld is far more dangerous than she ever could have imagined....

Aidan Flynn, a private investigator and eldest of the Flynn brothers, scoffs at the haunted-house rumors - especially since Kendall Montgomery, a tarot card reader who has been living in the mansion, is the one to tell him the tale of a woman in white. But when he finds a human bone on the grounds and another by the river, Aidan delves into the dark history of the Flynn plantation.

Barcelona, 1957. Daniel Sempere y su amigo Fermín, los héroes de La Sombra del Viento, regresan de nuevo a la aventura para afrontar el mayor desafío de sus vidas. Justo cuando todo empezaba a sonreírles, un inquietante personaje visita la librería de Sempere y amenaza con desvelar un terrible secreto que lleva enterrado dos décadas en la oscura memoria de la ciudad. Al conocer la verdad, Daniel comprenderá que su destino le arrastra inexorablemente a enfrentarse con la mayor de las sombras: la que está creciendo en su interior.

Necroscope®: The Last of the Lost Years, Volume 2, the 20th volume in Brian Lumley's Necroscope® series, contains two short novels, one long novella, one short story, and a closing piece entitled Resurrection. Each of these, except the short story, (Old Man With A Blade where Harry is pursued by the Grim Reaper), feature the Necroscope, Harry Keogh, during this final (?) period of his life known as "The Lost Years".

Shadow Beings come in different shapes and sizes. Some are horrid looking and stare on for what seems like an eternity, while others are misty-like and disappear in the blink of an eye. Everyone has had a nightmare at one point of their life. But what if that nightmare was crouched next to your bed watching you sleep? A figure so terrifyingly darker than the unlit surroundings of your room.

Ghost hunter Shane Ryan has cheated death countless times. But death has a funny way of collecting what it’s owed. And when James Moran asks Shane to retrieve a group of deadly spirits and their haunted items, the retired Marine finds himself wading into battle with supernatural evil once more.

Kyle Murchison Booth, archivist at the Parrington Museum, has heard of Thirdhop Scarp. Everyone has. The house has been notorious ever since the night that homeowner J. A. Cathcart murdered his entire family, and was found cupping the heart of his eldest daughter in his hands as tenderly as he would a wounded bird.

For as long as she can remember, Sara Hansen dreamed of living in paradise. Sinking her family’s savings into the Pirate Cove resort, Sara and her husband relocate to the beautiful island of Sainte Isabel. But shadows cloud the island’s pristine shores. And Sara quickly finds herself plunged into a legacy of evil and bloodshed. A legend of a sinister death ship with a brutal captain - and an unholy fleet of ghostly pirate vessels - plague the tropical island.

In February 1959, a group of friends went on a ski-hiking trip to a remote mountain in the northern Urals. Something killed them. When a rescue expedition eventually found their camp, they discovered that for some unknown reason, the nine friends had cut their way out of their tent (instead of simply opening the flaps) and fled down the mountain, half undressed and without their shoes.

When Detective Jacinta Perez calls on retired Marine, Shane Ryan, to look into a bizarre series of deaths, the ghost hunter quickly confirms a supernatural connection to the crimes. Lost souls call out to him, all clamoring for justice to be served. But when Shane’s investigation leads him to a body hidden in the woods, he suddenly finds himself a suspect in the crimes. Framed for murder and with Jacinta getting kidnapped, Shane must use all the help he could get to destroy supernatural evil, once and for all.

Aaron Andrews, a newly-minted doctor, returns to the village of Aetherton to take up his late father's practice. Hopes of easing into his new role and restoring the local clinic are dashed, however, when the disfigured body of a child is discovered in an empty flowerbed. Working closely with Evander Cochrane, the village's sole law enforcement officer, Andrews is forced to admit that the girl's death is anything but natural.

The game of death has only just begun.... Professor Able Worthe’s experiment in terror continues. But as Marcus Holt battles against these supernatural killers, a new terror rises up from the village’s haunted grounds - terror that even the Professor can’t control.