This collection of deftly rearranged myths and fairy tales, including six original stories, rekindles the excitement of adored childhood adventures. National Endowment for the Arts recipient Michael Cadnum creates twice-told narratives revealed through their supporting casts, from the protective giantess at the top of the beanstalk to an extremely bratty Gingerbread Man.

Richard Stirling is a successful lawyer who specializes in defending the rights of the underprivileged. He falls in love with the pianist Rebecca Pennant, and as their romance develops, a tragic event takes Rebecca out of his life. In the wake of this dramatic misfortune, Richard re-encounters an heirloom, an astonishing mirror.This is a vampire story unlike any other, a tale of this contemporary world reflected from that other land where the dead are more alive than any dreamer.

San Francisco Bay Area archaeologist Davis Lowry has everything—success, a fascinating profession—but he is troubled by a bout of sleepwalking. For a change of scenery, he travels to York, England, where a bog man has been unearthed. A series of macabre accidents plague the site, and Davis finds himself enmeshed in a modern-day horror with roots in the bloody past.

San Francisco architect Stratton Fields has just discovered that a contest was rigged against him and that the man who engineered the cheat, Ty DeVere, is determined to keep Stratton from success. But when Stratton's enemies, including Ty, start dying mysteriously—and Stratton encounters several apparitions—he wonders if he unknowingly made a deal with a supernatural force. Or maybe he murdered these people himself and has no memory of his deeds. Stratton must confront both the humans and ...

Hamilton Speke is a successful playwright and composer—an extraordinary creative force. He lives and works on an estate south of San Francisco, secure in a woodland sanctuary where, to his surprise, he receives a visitor from his past, an old friend and former partner. Then everything changed. Speke's life of celebrity and vision is ruptured by bloodshed and insanity, in a world where it's revealed that no one, and no career, is far from danger.

Paul Wright's family sends him to find his cousin, a photographer whose subjects have become increasingly macabre. Paul investigates Len's last known address, a cabin in California's Napa Valley, only to discover the frightening and sinister truth behind his cousin's obsession with the past.

Red Patterson is a TV psychiatrist, a video force, and a famous healer. His newest patient, Curtis Newns, is an artist with a damaged soul. Red is so intrigued by Curtis that he seeks to separate the artist and his wife and claim Curtis's creative talent as his own. He decides to hold troubled, talented Curtis in his desert estate, where the macabre secrets of Red's life are waiting to be unearthed. Set in the San Francisco Bay Area and the California desert, this is a story of love pitted...

A National Book Award nominee!Returning to the same era of his "In a Dark Wood", Cadnum's majestic novel--part mystery, part history--chronicles the pageantry and brutality of the Crusades under King Richard.Edmund, a young apprentice, is awaiting punishment as a counterfeiter when a knight intervenes on his behalf--and compels Edmund to join Richard Lionheart's forces in the Holy Land. There, amidst the savagery of the twelfth-century Crusades, Edmund learns both courage a...

Collector Benjamin Byrd has added a new and eerie item to his archives: a set of fangs embedded in silver. As he grows more and more obsessed with his new treasure, he finds himself experiencing dreams and visionary adventures. Soon, Benjamin's normal, successful routine is transformed beyond anything he ever imagined; he has to confront the truth that he is no longer simply human. This powerful and lyrical story brings into our own day-to-day lives the story of the werewolf.

This collection of deftly rearranged myths and fairy tales, including six original stories, rekindles the excitement of adored childhood adventures. National Endowment for the Arts recipient Michael Cadnum creates twice-told narratives revealed through their supporting casts, from the protective giantess at the top of the beanstalk to an extremely bratty Gingerbread Man.

Drawing on the mythology of the Green Man and the power of nature, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, and others serve up "a tasty treat for fantasy fans" ( Booklist).There are some "genuine gems" in this "enticing collection" of fifteen stories and three poems, all featuring "diverse takes on mythical beings associated with the protection of the natural world," most involving a teen's coming-of-age. Delia Sherman "takes readers into New York City's Central Park, wh...

"A diverse and thoughtful array of 16 stories written around the theme of endangered species—be they human or animal, mythical or alien." — Publishers WeeklyIn this poignant yet uplifting anthology about extinction, science fiction stories draw you into compelling, adventurous, and even humorous tales that will make you think about the future of animals, humanity, and the world around us. You'll find bugs and buffalo, humans and aliens, creatures that have ...