There is no light without dark; no highlights without shadows; no good without evil. The Devil is where things happen. Where stories begin. This collection brings together stories from multiple cultures, featuring the Devil both as an abstract concept and a creature, a terror, a force of nature, an enemy, a trickster, and so many more.Step into the world of shadows, and travel through Devil's many incarnations spanning centuries of history and myth, from the Ancient Greece, African...

“This guy can write!” —Ray BradburyLoory's collection of wry and witty, dark and perilous contemporary fables is populated by people-and monsters and trees and jocular octopi-who are united by twin motivations: fear and desire. In his singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris whee...

**“Mesmerizing and magical. . . . A stunning book.” —NPR.org“Short stories so imaginative — and yet so perplexingly familiar — they could have formed in a dream. . . . Taut, meticulously balanced and written in Loory’s direct, witty prose, his own stories take a page from Aesop: high-flying tales nonetheless boiled down to the essentials.” —The Los Angeles Times“Ben Loory’s stories are little gifts, strange and moving and wonderfully human. I devoured this book in ...

A sweet and poignant story of friendship, from acclaimed short-story writer Ben LooryThe baseball player has it all—money, fame, and success. But something is missing. He doesn’t know what it is until he goes to the zoo and sees a walrus. What a splendid creature! Surely it could bring joy to his life. With happiness just a walrus away, the baseball player sets out to create the perfect enclosure for his new friend. He’s even willing to give up his job to be with t...

Encounter the scariest clowns and freakiest curiosities under the big top, in stories by Stephen Graham Jones, Laird Barron, Priya Sharma, and others.With an introduction from Katherine DunnLadies and gentlemen, step right up for fifteen tales of terrifying rides, supernatural sideshows, and petrifying performers guaranteed to keep you up all night—with Hugo and Bram Stoker Award–winning editor Ellen Datlow as the ringmaster.In Stephen Grah...

It's Christmas Eve: a time of wonder, magic, anticipation... and terror.A father who will go to any lengths to feed his hungry children. An unsuspecting woman who inherits a house with a deadly secret. A murderous widow who shares a train carriage with Jack the Ripper. Two burglars who bite off more than they can chew during a late-night raid.These and many more bedtime stories come hideously to life in Mark L'Estrange's nineteen tales of terror, each set on the most festiv...

A monumental career retrospective"This vibrant collection brings together World Fantasy Award winner Goss's exquisite interpretations of and variations on familiar folk and fairy tales. The [poems and stories] span the length of Goss's career ... All approach well-known stories from unexpected angles and with deep empathy for the characters ... The abundance of pieces sometimes has the effect of a musical fugue: common motifs, places, and characters echo through th...

"Campbell has mastered the art of generating a sense of sustained unease." The Washington Post. A new masterpiece from the master of suspense.Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he se...

The 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 ...

A remarkable collection, Robots through the Ages includes stories from some of the best writers of science fiction, both old and new.This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica t...

An exceptional third book in the horror anthology series which Publishers Weekly highlighted as “Beautifully written pieces that lean into the intuitive and fantastic.”Close to Midnight is the third volume in an annual, non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been com...

Amid the danger and death of a decaying 19th century city, the Pawnbroker plies his trade. A man of evil temper, he craves the one thing that will bring him the fulfillment he covets.In the present day, two teenage boys explore an abandoned Tudor-style house. An eerie atmosphere fills the boys with a sense of dread, and they realize that something sinister is in the air.As the past reaches the present, the boys must uncover the mystery of the house... and face the ancient e...