The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories


Book Description

In The Bone Chime Song & Other Stories, Joanne Anderton explores the darkness and the beauty of humans caught on the fringes and pushed to the very edge of the abyss. Enter worlds where terrible secrets are hidden in a wind chime's song, where crippled witches forge magic from scrap, and the beautiful dead dance for eternity. With deities built from circuits and wires, sacrificial drought-ridden towns, and artists who dabble in bone and decay, every story plots a course from the gothic to the fantastic and winds its way back again. Whether charting bleak futures or delving into the darkest of horrors, Anderton’s extraordinary talent weaves magic into every tale, presenting stories guaranteed to draw you in—and never let you go. Winner of both The Australian Shadows Award and Aurealis Award for best collection, The Bone Chime Song & Other Stories returns to entice a new generation of readers.




The Best Horror of the Year


Book Description

This statement was true when H. P. Lovecraft first wrote it at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains true at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The only thing that has changed is what is unknown. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this “light” creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year, edited by Ellen Datlow, chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness, as articulated by today’s most challenging and exciting writers. The best horror writers of today do the same thing that horror writers of a hundred years ago did. They tell good stories—stories that scare us. And when these writers tell really good stories that really scare us, Ellen Datlow notices. She’s been noticing for more than a quarter century. For twenty-one years, she coedited The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and for the last six years, she’s edited this series. In addition to this monumental cataloging of the best, she has edited hundreds of other horror anthologies and won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards. More than any other editor or critic, Ellen Datlow has charted the shadowy abyss of horror fiction. Join




The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 25


Book Description

For a quarter of a century, this multiple award-winning annual selection has showcased some of the very best, and most disturbing, short stories and novellas of horror and the supernatural. As always, this landmark volume features superior fiction from such masters of the genre and newcomers in contemporary horror as Michael Chislett; Thana Niveau; Reggie Oliver; Tanith Lee; Niel Gaiman; Robert Shearman; Simon Strantzas; Lavie Tidhar; Simon Kurt Unsworth and Halli Villegas. With an in-depth introduction covering the year in horror, a fascinating necrology and a unique contact directory, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror remains the world’s leading anthology dedicated solely to presenting the very best in modern horror. Praise for previous Mammoth Books of Best New Horror: 'Stephen Jones . . . has a better sense of the genre than almost anyone in this country.' Lisa Tuttle, The Times. 'The best horror anthologist in the business is, of course, Stephen Jones, whose Mammoth Book of Best New Horror is one of the major bargains of this as of any other year.' Roz Kavaney. 'An essential volume for horror readers.' Locus




Best New Horror


Book Description

Best New Horror combines dozens of the best and grisliest short stories of today. For twenty-five years this series has been published in the United Kingdom as The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, and now comes to the US to delight and terrify thriller enthusiasts. This has been the world’s leading annual anthology dedicated solely to showcasing the best in contemporary horror fiction. This newest volume offers outstanding new writing by masters of the genre, such as Joan Aiken, Peter Atkins, Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Joe R. Lansdale, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Robert Silverberg, Michael Marshall Smith, Evangeline Walton, and many others! Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.




The Art of Broken Things


Book Description

“Few things are more enjoyable or disturbing than a Joanne Anderton story. They feel like reality with the gravity turned off and, freed from those surly bonds, you float. But beware: broken things lurk in the darkness of space, earth, sea – and they’re hungry.” — Angela Slatter, award-winning author of All the Murmuring Bones A marriage dissolves in the middle of a spacewalk… A lonely robot searches for the remains of a long-lost child… An empty nester is haunted by victims of the bushfires that surround her home… These are tales of breaking and rebuilding, falling apart and being put back together. The stories in The Art of Broken Things blur the line between genres to explore some of our deepest, most fundamentally human concerns: what does it mean to build a family? And what are we willing to sacrifice, to keep that family together? From multiple award-winning author Joanne Anderton comes a new collection of dark science fiction, horror and weird. “Joanne Anderton is a master of the uncanny. Each of her stories is like a torch shone into the dark crevices of the imagination, and you may not always like what they reveal: terror, wonder, and a strange, dark beauty. Highly recommended.” — Helen Marshall, author of The Migration “Joanne Anderton’s stories are deeply atmospheric and powerfully engage the heart and the mind. She imagines futures both dark and entirely too possible, with characters you will come to know intimately. One of this generation’s most talented writers, this collection showcases an author firing on all cylinders.” — Alan Baxter, author of The Gulp and Devouring Dark




Year’s Best Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2013


Book Description

Our goal is to uncover the best young adult short fiction of the year published in the anthologies dedicated to the form, the occasional special edition of a magazine, and individual pieces appearing in otherwise “adult” anthologies and magazines, and bring them together in one accessible collection. Fans of Kaleidoscope will find more tales of wonder, adventure, diversity, and variety in this collection devoted to stories with teen protagonists. Table of Contents Selkie Stories Are For Losers - Sofia Samatar By Bone-Light - Juliet Marillier The Myriad Dangers - Lavie Tidhar Carpet - Nnedi Okorafor I Gave You My Love by the Light of the Moon - Sarah Rees Brennan 57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides - Sam J. Miller The Minotaur Girls - Tansy Rayner Roberts Not With You, But With You - Miri Kim Ghost Town - Malinda Lo December - Neil Gaiman An Echo in the Shell - Beth Cato Dan's Dreams - Eliza Victoria As Large As Alone - Alena McNamara Random Play All and the League of Awesome - Shane Halbach Mah Song - Joanne Anderton What We Ourselves Are Not - Leah Cypess The City of Chrysanthemum - Ken Liu Megumi's Quest - Joyce Chng Persimmon, Teeth, and Boys - Steve Berman Flight - Angela Slatter We Have Always Lived on Mars - Cecil Castellucci




Served Cold


Book Description

SERVED COLD 2019 AUSTRALIAN SHADOWS AWARDS WINNER – Best Collected Work Includes “In Vaulted Halls Entombed” as seen on the Netflix Original Series LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS 16 provocative and intensely chilling tales blending horror, fantasy, and the weird. “At turns creepy and visceral, Baxter delivers the horror goods.” – Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World Collected together for the first time ever, these sixteen provocative and intensely chilling tales by multi-award-winning-author Alan Baxter venture into the depths of the darkest and most shadowy places where unspeakable horrors are the predators and we the willing prey. Prepare for an always terrifying, frequently heartbreaking journey in multiple stages, each piece echoing Baxter’s unique voice that effortlessly blends horror, fantasy and the weird, cementing his place as a modern master of the dark fantastique, and resulting in an unforgettable volume of fiction. This collection includes 16 stories, several of which received a number of accolades: “Served Cold” – Finalist for the 2016 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novella and Finalist for the 2016 Australian Shadows Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction “In Vaulted Halls Entombed” – adapted for the Netflix Original series LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS and winner of the 2015 Australian Shadows Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction “Crying Demon” – Finalist for the 2018 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story “The Ocean Hushed The Stones” – Finalist for the 2019 Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Story and received an Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 12 “Yellowheart” – Finalist for the 2019 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novella




The Fall


Book Description

Strange things happen in The Gulp. The residents have grown used to it. The isolated Australian harbour town of Gulpepper is not like other places. Some maps don’t even show it. And only outsiders use the full name. Everyone who lives there calls it The Gulp. The place has a habit of swallowing people. A man enjoying early retirement makes the mistake of visiting The Gulp. A fishing boat crew find themselves somewhere entirely unexpected. A farmer has an argument with his wife that turns violent and then entirely catastrophic. A Venture Scout troop from Enden travel a little too far on their bush excursion. Everything that’s been getting stranger than usual in The Gulp begins to run completely out of control. Five more novellas. Five more descents into darkness. Welcome to The Gulp, where nothing is as it seems. “If you’re a fan of one town horror anthologies with a best of 80s vibe (like anything from Castle Rock or Josh Malerman’s Goblin) then you really should get yourself some ‘Tales from the Gulp‘ by Alan Baxter.” – Sarah Pinborough, bestselling author of BEHIND HER EYES




Inanimates: Tales of Everyday Fear


Book Description

Following on from her Aurealis and Australian Shadow Award-winning debut collection, Joanne Anderton’s Inanimates finds the terrifying in the everyday, bringing together seven stories where ordinary objects become the source of nightmares and extraordinary threat. In “Thread Embrace,” a well-dressed killer finds himself at the mercy of an unexpectedly sartorial attack. “Simulation Theory” sees a wounded soldier bond with the bomb disposal robot he worked with in the field. In the heartbreaking last story, “High Density”, the comfortable suburban ideal of a retired couple becomes a war against a dark and dangerous form of urban renewal. In turns wicked, delightful, horrifying, and fantastic, Inanimates: Tales of Everyday Fear showcases a hidden gem of the Australian genre scene, and highlights Anderton's ability to see the dark, supernatural threats inherent in ordinary things.




Song without End and Other Stories


Book Description

In ‘Connectivity’ a retired bureaucrat’s telephone line is accidentally connected to that of a grieving man’s; while a heart surgeon helps his patient across the great abyss in ‘Song without End’. The skilful grooming of a poet is described in ‘A Lane in Lucknow’; and a senile old nawab finds himself a stranger to an altered world in ‘The Taste of Almonds’. In ‘Through the Looking Glass’ a man losing his sight finds he can get to the heart of all the books in his library by an inexplicable miracle; and in ‘Play’ the roles an actor enacts are a source of important life lessons. Song without End and Other Stories is a collection of fifteen captivating short stories by Neelum Saran Gour that amuse and absorb by their lively engagement with people; places and ideas in an unforgettable way. Funny; humane and culturally vibrant; these tales portray characters who are challenged by life and who arrive at their own individual truths.