Short Stories Science

A powerful, eerily unsettling story collection from a major international literary star. Unearthly and unexpected, the stories in Mouthful of Birds burrow their way into your psyche and don't let go. Samanta Schweblin haunts and mesmerizes in this extraordinary, masterful collection. Schweblin's stories have the feel of a sleepless night, where every shadow and bump in the dark take on huge implications, leaving your pulse racing, and the line between the real and the strange blur.

R.F. Kuang, Kate Elliott, Ken Liu, Todd McCaffrey, Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, and other modern masters of fantasy and science fiction put their unique spin on the greatest of mythical beasts - the dragon - in never-before-heard works written exclusively for this fantasy anthology compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan!

For over a quarter of a century, Gorlen Vizenfirthe has entertained fans of wandering bards. Famous for playing his silver-strung eduldamer with one hand of flesh and one of stone, he has traveled from the dankest dens of Dankden to the desiccated domiciles of Wumnal Wells, first in search of a gargoyle with a hand of flesh, and then on the trail of the elusive wizard who swapped their hands in the first place. The Gargoyle’s Handbook collects for the first time all the Gorlen tales that take place before the events of the novel Underneath the Oversea.

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.

"Chico", a story by Robert McCammon, was first published in his short fiction collection Blue World.

From the author of science-fiction classics such as The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? comes a collection of 13 short stories of dystopic visions of technological terror, post-nuclear holocaust warfare, time travel, space travel, man vs. alien, man vs. machine, man becomes machine, man becomes plant, and other fantastic tales performed in a vividly dramatic narration by Andy Harrington.

After losing her partner in the line of duty, Agent Sidney Shaw is forced to team up with a renegade bounty hunter. And she doesn’t like it. John Smoke—an incarcerated wild card—is released into her custody, only to push her vaunted training to the limits and toss the FBI playbook out. But a vast hidden network of criminals with the terrifying ability to shape-shift into monsters is spreading its supernatural sickness in the very fabric of human society. Innocents end up dead or missing.

Award-winning novelist and erotica writer Kristina Wright goes over the river and through the woods to find the sexiest fairy tales ever written. Playfully seductive, supernaturally sensual, and darkly erotic, Fairy Tale Lust showcases clever twists to classic tales and introduces new stories inspired by the ever-popular genre.

This Children’s Short Story Collection contains many short stories great for kids of all ages.

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.

At the end of the Victorian era, a handful of public intellectuals advocated for tolerance of the "Uranian"—a man who loved other men. Some went so far as to propose that these "intermediate sexes" might, in fact, constitute a totally different species, even serve as intrepid guides in our march toward an uncertain future. The five speculative stories in Theodore McCombs's kaleidoscopic collection span several possible worlds, teasing the boundaries between coexisting realities and taking up the question of queer difference from one surprising vantage after another.

Life in the Trench is harsh but simple - until a young girl braves an unknown path in a bracing coming-of-age short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Sweet Tooth and the Gideon Falls comics.

Herbert George Wells was one of the most prolific and visionary British writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. H. G. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels, although he wrote across many genres, including nonfiction. His fiction embraces history, science fiction, horror, satire, fantasy, and social commentary. Wells was also a futurist, foreseeing air travel, tanks (as in “The Land Ironclads” - part of this anthology) space travel, nuclear weapons, and even satellite television.

Kelly Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In “The Summer People,” a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house....

Tantor Media presents a collection of some of the most popular Christmas stories read by award-winning narrators Renee Raudman and Alan Sklar. This special anthology will transport listeners back to the Christmases of their youth, when they first heard these holiday tales.

A chilling short story from the author of Dracula. In the Valley of the Shadow is a tale about a delirious man and his hallucinations while hospitalized.

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.

The last thing I remember was being cryogenically frozen, but now I was in a strange room, surrounded by advanced technology I had never seen before. My confusion only grew as I explored this new world–a future that was nothing like I ever could have imagined. It didn't take long for me to learn that humanity was extinct and that I was now in the hands of a stunning AI, a siren with camouflaging powers, and a monster girl who happens to be a great engineer–beings that are as fascinating as they are strange.

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we'd do to survive the coming zombie plague.

Walter M. Miller, Jr., is best remembered as the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz, which has been universally recognized as one of the greatest novels of modern science fiction. But he also produced many shorter works of fiction of stunning originality and power. His profound interest in religion and his innate literary gifts combined perfectly in the production of such works as The Darfstellar, for which he won a Hugo in 1955, Conditionally Human, "I, Dreamer", and "The Big Hunger", all of which are included in this brilliant and essential collection.