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| ATROCITY ARCHIVES [Charles Stross] In the title piece, Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, completes his theorem on 'Phase Conjugate Grammars for Extra-dimensional Summoning'. Turing's work paves the way for esoteric mathematical computations that, when carried out, have side effects that leak through a channel underlying the structure of the Cosmos. Out there in the multiverse are 'listeners' who can sometimes be coerced into opening gates. In 1945, Nazi Germany's Ahnenerbe-SS, in an attempt to escape the Allied onslaught, performs just such a summoning on the souls of more than six million. A gate opens to an alternate universe through which the SS move people and material -- to live to fight another day. But their summoning brings forth more than the SS have bargained for -- an evil, patiently waiting all this time while learning the ways of humans, now poises to lunch on Earth. Secret intelligence agencies, esoteric theorems, Lovecraftian horrors, Middle East terrorist connections, a damsel in distress, and a final battle on the surface of a dying planet round out this story. { 273pp, 155x230mm, May 2004; HB, £16.99, 1930846258:9781930846258 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| ATTACK OF THE JAZZ GIANTS : and Other Stories [Gregory Frost] This collection of 14 stories from a Nebula, Hugo, Tiptree, International Horror Guild, and World Fantasy Award finalist takes the reader on a wonderful and nightmarish journey. Beginning with a midnight odyssey to a shadowland where vehicles feast on vagrants, this compilation includes stories in which Poe's final days are revealed, factory workers are exploited by an apparition of the Virgin Mary, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pinwheels through the corridors of time. Also included is a tale of an apocalyptic entity that hides in a Ukranian village, a contemplation on the horror that dwells in Jack the Ripper's pocket watch, and a brand-new novella that combines an interplanetary road story with more than a dash of Flash Gordon. Behind-the-stories notes by the author are also included. { 344pp, 145x215mm, June 2005; HB, £17.50, 1930846347:9781930846340 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BLACK POCKETS : and Other Dark Thoughts [George Zebrowski] This collection of 19 horror stories, culled from the career of a writer best known for his literary science fiction, explores horror as a product of the human mind by allowing personal, political, and metaphysical obsessions to unleash terrors that beset these characters and by refusing to rely on genre-typical terrors such as serial killers and ancient curses. The original novella 'Black Pockets' depicts a hate so all-consuming that a man makes a bargain to carry out the revenge plot of a dying enemy in order to gain the power to pursue his own victims. In unusual zombie tale, 'I Walked with Fidel', Fidel Castro's ideals are slowly betrayed by both Cold War superpowers. And a Kafka-like uneasiness pervades 'A Piano Full of Dead Spiders', in which a composer's music actually is the result of spiders walking on piano strings. Posing as philosophical puzzles, the stories gain emotional power from an attention to character development and the insightful investigation of both private and collective nightmares. { 275pp, 145x215mm, May 2006; HB, £16.99, 1930846401:9781930846401 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BLACK PROJECTS, WHITE KNIGHTS : The Company Dossiers [Kage Baker] This collection brings together the early Company stories in one volume for the first time with three previously unpublished works, including 'The Queen in Yellow', written exclusively for this compilation. In these tales sci-fi fans follow the secret activities of the Company's field agents -- once human, now centuries-old time-travelling immortal cyborgs -- as they attempt to retrieve history's lost treasures. Botanist Mendoza's search for the rare hallucinogenic Black Elysium grape in 1844 Spanish-held Santa Barbara, facilitator Joseph's dreamlike solicitation of the ailing Robert Louis Stevenson in 1879, and marine salvage specialist Kalugin's recovering of an invaluable Eugène Delacroix painting from a sunken yacht off the coast of Los Angeles in 1894 are included. { 288pp, 140x215mm, October 2004; PB, £10.99, 1930846304:9781930846302 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BLACK PROJECTS, WHITE KNIGHTS : The Company Dossiers [Kage Baker] Is it possible to interfere with history in a moral way, especially if profit is the primary motivation for doing so? Is it possible to sustain any ethical standards at all when handed what amounts to unlimited power? These and other shadowy questions are raised in this book, the unofficial history of Dr Zeus, Inc -- known to its employees simply as the Company. This collection brings together the early Company stories in one volume for the first time. Also included are new stories, three previously unpublished, and one, 'The Queen in Yellow' written exclusively for this book. Science-fiction fans will follow the secret activities of the Company's field agents -- once human, now centuries-old time-travelling immortal cyborgs: Botanist Mendoza's search for the rare hallucinogenic Black Elysium grape in 1844 Spanish-held Santa Barbara, California; Facilitator Joseph's dreamlike solicitation of the ailing Robert Louis Stevenson in 1879; Marine Salvage Specialist Kalugin's recovering of an invaluable Eugène Delacroix painting from a sunken yacht off the coast of Los Angeles in 1894; and Literature Preservationist Lewis's retrieval of priceless literary artefacts, in 1914 Egypt, from the mummy case of Princess Sit-Hathor-Yunet. { 289pp, 145x215mm, September 2002; HB, £16.99, 1930846118:9781930846111 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BREATHMOSS & OTHER EXHALATIONS [Ian R Macleod] This collection of literary short fiction combines fantasy, science fiction, and horror in vivid settings, peopled with ordinary humans with normal relationships, and the interaction of the mundane with the fantastic. In "Breathmoss," a young girl must cope with the relationship with her family, love, and a community set in rigid custom, where males are a rarity. In "Verglas," a man must decide to leave his humanity by going native on an ice world or abandon his family. The events leading to the formation of the current government, the repression of Jews and homosexuals, and the horrors of being a closet homosexual in such a regime are examined in "The Summer Isles." Other stories encompass a scientist who searches for extraterrestrial intelligence; a rigid, aged man finding magic by a pool; and an 18-year-old girl who gains the reputation of being a death flower during WWII. { 300pp, 140x215mm, June 2004; HB, £16.99, 1930846266:9781930846265 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BRIGHTEN TO INCANDESCENCE [Michael Bishop] Seventeen of writer Michael Bishop's favourite stories were handpicked from his previously uncollected works to create this compelling collection, providing an excellent overview of a career that includes award-winning science fiction, horror, fantasy, satire, space opera, and mystery. In 'A Tapestry of Little Murders', a murderer attempts to escape along a literal road to self-destruction. A medical missionary, tortured by government thugs, reveals her dying wish in 'With a Little Help from Her Friends'. In 'The Procedure', an operation to remove a tumourous growth will hopefully excise from the patient's mind and body all tendencies toward faith and superstition. From futuristic mystery and Vietnam-era dark fantasy to theological speculation on Christ's death, a variety of lyrical voices speak through these haunting stories. An essay by the author divulges the genesis of each story. { 296pp, 145x215mm, June 2003; HB, £16.99, 1930846169:9781930846166 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BUDAYEEN NIGHTS [George Alec Effinger] George Alex Effinger's first short-fiction collection in nearly 15 years, these nine tales are set in Budayeen, the walled city in the sand, a city of dark shadows and even darker inhabitants, where a Raymond Chandleresque vision has been created -- hardboiled, noir, futuristic -- but with a twist. The sights, smells, and denizens of Budayeen are brought to life -- from the city's sordid, decadent underbelly to the glamorous excesses of the sex industry. This collection includes four tales of Marîd Audran, the protagonist in Effinger's three highly acclaimed Budayeen novels. Also included is Effinger's best-known story, 'Schrödinger's Kitten', in which a young girl's dreams portend myriad possible quantum futures, all focused on her encounter with a would-be rapist. { 235pp, 145x215mm, September 2003; HB, £16.99, 1930846193:9781930846197 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BUMPER CROP [Joe R Lansdale] This collection of 26 stories contains some of Joe R Lansdale's favourite and most violent dark horror tales. 'God of the Razor' introduces the dark god behind serial killers. A martial arts fight to the death between a reluctant champion and a sadistic alpha male, is featured in 'Master of Misery'. Human sacrifice, to ensure prosperity or as a coming-of-age ritual, are themes of 'On a Dark October' and 'Duck Hunt'. In 'The Fat Man', young boys learn the hard way that some mysteries should not be investigated. Many of the tales are truly weird, such as 'Chompers', the story of the false teeth with an appetite. All stories are individually introduced by Lansdale, who explains the humorous, weird, and sometimes sad genesis for each. { 199pp, 155x230mm, April 2004; HB, £16.99, 193084624X:9781930846241 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| BUMPER CROP [Joe R Lansdale] Joe R. Lansdale compiles and introduces 26 of his own favourite and most violent dark horror tales in this review of his work. 'God of the Razor' introduces the dark god behind serial killers. A martial arts fight to the death between a reluctant champion and a sadistic alpha male is featured in 'Master of Misery.' Human sacrifice to ensure prosperity and as a coming-of-age ritual, are themes of 'On a Dark October' and 'Duck Hunt.' In 'The Fat Man,' young boys learn the hard way that some mysteries should not be investigated. Many of the tales are truly weird, such as 'Chompers,' a story of false teeth with an appetite. All of the stories are individually introduced by Lansdale, who explains the humorous, weird, and sometimes sad genesis for each. { 199pp, 135x210mm, May 2005; PB, £10.99, 1930846339:9781930846333 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| CLAREMONT TALES [Richard A Lupoff] These twelve science fiction stories comprise a wealth of genres, from mystery to science fiction to autobiographical fiction. Included is a Sherlock Holmesian mystery, a Walter Mitty-like escape into the world of software, and a Cthulhu Mythos tale in the Lovecraft tradition. Among the varied plot lines are a tale of book-collecting in the distant future, the story of a gambler who faxes Lady Luck, and a detective's account of his work on a moon of Mars. { 290pp, 145x215mm, May 2001; HB, £15.99, 1930846002:9781930846005 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| CLAREMONT TALES II [Richard A Lupoff] These thirteen tales twist the conventions of science fiction, mystery, horror, humour, and adventure into one gripping collection. In 'Green Ice' unassuming Mr Ino is assigned to recover a missing extraterrestrial artefact, believed to be from the icy moon of Europa. 'The Devil's Hop Yard' is a sequel to H P Lovecraft's classic 'The Dunwich Horror'. The perils of being a too-avid book collector are illustrated in 'Whatever Happened to Nick Neptune'. A most peculiar visit to the bathroom and its ramifications on the safety of the sun yields the story 'Stream of Consciousness'. { 298pp, 140x215mm, March 2002; HB, £15.99, 193084607X:9781930846074 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| CLAREMONT TALES, LIMITED EDITION [Richard A Lupoff] Book in slipcase. These 12 science fiction stories comprise a wealth of genres, from mystery to science fiction to autobiographical fiction. Included is a Sherlock Holmesian mystery, a Walter Mitty-like escape into the world of software, and a Cthulhu Mythos tale in the Lovecraft tradition. Among the varied plot lines are a tale of book-collecting in the distant future, the story of a gambler who faxes Lady Luck, and a detective's account of his work on a moon of Mars. { 290pp, 145x210mm, April 2001; HB, £66.99, 1930846010:9781930846012 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| CUCKOO'S BOYS [Robert Reed] A decade's worth of prolific short stories are showcased in this compilation of Robert Reed's best work. Among the dozen thought-provoking tales is the never-before-published 'Abducted Souls', about a college student who becomes increasingly unsure of himself and his self-worth when the alien abduction he experienced as a child is questioned. Also included is the Asimov's Science Fiction Reader's Choice Award-winning 'Savior', about a military commander who is held accountable for tortuous acts that may have saved the human race. The hot topic of cloning is discussed in futuristic terms in the title tale, 'The Cuckoo's Boys', which tells of a lonely genius who clones himself, not once, but millions of times, and of a teacher who tests and challenges three of these clones. Two ageless aliens become friends with Ash, an immortal human, as he strives to help them recover lost memories in 'Night of Time', a selection taken from the popular Marrow book. The collection closes with an afterword by the author, in whi { 315pp, 140x210mm, December 2005; HB, £16.99, 1930846371:9781930846371 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| CUSTER'S LAST JUMP : and Other Collaborations [Howard Waldrop et al] Story collaborations between cult figure Howard Waldrop and numerous other celebrated science fiction and fantasy writers are collected for the first time in this unique volume. 'One Horse Town' breathes fresh life into an ancient tale, combining elements from the sack of Troy, Homer's early days, the last day in the life of a Trojan warrior, and the archaeological dig at Troy. In 'Custer's Last Jump!' the legendary Crazy Horse uses Confederate monoplanes in his famous battle against General Custer. 'A Voice and Bitter Weeping' paints a grim post-nuclear age where Israeli mercenaries fight Texans in a never-ending, hopeless war. Mystery, intrigue, and treachery abound in the Heian Japan setting of 'The Latter Days of the Law', where a clever man must find a lost prince. { 254pp, 145x215mm, April 2003; HB, £16.99, 1930846134:9781930846135 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| DOGGED PERSISTENCE [Kevin J Anderson] This short story collection is from the best-selling author well known for his novels based on Star Wars and The X-Files. The title story is a gritty tale of the ultimate use of nanotechnology -- immortality. 'Human, Martian -- One, Two, Three' is a novella-length story about the terraforming of Mars. In addition to Anderson's original fiction, this collection features his shared writing, including the first new Dune fiction, the story 'A Whisper of Caladan Seas', co-written with Brian Herbert. Also included are the horrific tale 'Drumbeats', written with drummer Neal Peart of the band Rush, and 'Prisoner of War', a sequel to Harlan Ellison's classic Outer Limits teleplay, 'Soldier'. { 305pp, 140x215mm, May 2001; HB, £17.50, 1930846037:9781930846036 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| DRAGONS OF SPRINGPLACE [Robert Reed] No American writer during the 1990s has published a more distinguished bibliography of first-rate science fiction than Robert Reed. In the title piece, a renegade misfit conquers the dragons and renews the threat of nuclear chaos aboard Springplace, a man-made repository for old reactor cores, dirty plutonium, and dismantled bombs. Another story is a sprawling intergalactic epic that takes place aboard a starship. Salvaged and commandeered by humans, the massive generation starship becomes the setting for a titanic struggle between two alien entities who engage in a monumental battle for survival. In 'Chrysalis', the author explores not just an alien milieu but the nature of man himself when another ancient starship lands and investigates an icy unknown planet inhabited by humans millions of years earlier. { 312pp, 145x215mm, March 1999; HB, £15.99, 096559016X:9780965590167 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| ETERNAL LOVECRAFT : The Persistence of HPL in Popular Culture [Jim Turner] Fantasist H P Lovecraft enjoys an honour shared by few other authors of imaginative fiction -- since his death, the term Lovecraftian has come into world-wide use to describe a body of work so fully realised as to influence countless generations of subsequent writers. Each author in this volume came under the Lovecraftian conjuration and then wrote a story that in some way reflects this experience, providing compelling testimony that H P Lovecraft is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. These stories have been previously published but are now gathered together to create this excellent but diverse anthology. { 410pp, 145x215mm, September 1998; HB, £17.50, 0965590178:9780965590174 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| FANTASY WRITER'S ASSISTANT : and Other Stories [Jeffrey Ford] At times literary, at other times surreal, this collection offers an eclectic group of stories that deal with real-life conflicts, human values, and coming-of-age experiences all placed within fantastical settings. One tale recounts the author's search for a Kafka story that can only be found in an elusive and quite possibly cursed edition. Other stories feature humans dressing in full-body protective exoskins in the personas of old Hollywood movie stars to barter old Earth movies for an alien aphrodisiac and a young boy coming to terms with creation and moulding his own man out of detritus from a nearby forest. In the title story, a great fantasy writer loses touch with the world he has created and pleads with his young assistant to help him visualise the story's end and enable him to complete his greatest novel ever. { 247pp, 145x215mm, June 2002; HB, £15.99, 193084610X:9781930846104 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| FICTION FACTORY [Jack Dann] First dates with Jesus, dinosaurs falling out of the sky, and a famous painting that eats art critics are among the quirky stories found in this collaborative collection. Each piece was written by Jack Dunn and one or more coauthors, and the joint creations are 18 highly entertaining and cutting-edge genre stories, many of them award-winning or award-nominated. Employees are drafted by corporations in the Nebula Award-nominated story 'High Steel', and the first manned landing on Mars is imagined in 'The God of Mars', just two examples of the futuristic flavour of the collection. Short, clever essays by the coauthors, among them Susan Casper, Gardner Dozois, and Gregory Frost, introduce each story and provide insight into the friendships, conflicts, and story conferences involved in collaborative writing. { 310pp, 145x215mm, November 2005; HB, £16.99, 1930846363:9781930846364 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| FROM THE FILES OF THE TIME RANGERS [Richard Bowes; Foreword by Kage Baker] Greek gods are posing as humans and pulling humanity's strings in this mosaic novel about time travel, alternate worlds, and the making of a president. The Time Rangers, Apollo's chosen servants, are in charge of preserving the peace and harmony along the Time Stream, the pathway between various worlds and times, but Apollo has given them a new task-to protect Timothy Macauley, the chosen one who must become the president of the United States or else witness the destruction of humankind. Standing in the Rangers's way are other gods: Mercury, who's working his wiles in the world of public relations; Diana, cruising New York City in the guise of an NYPD detective; Pluto, who is in the process of grooming his successor; and Dionysus, who has caused the annihilation of an alternate world. Nonstop action keeps the story rolling from the 1950s to the present day, through this world and others. The author shares his insights into, and the history of, the mosaic novel in the afterworld. { 272pp, 140x210mm, September 2005; HB, £16.99, 1930846355:9781930846357 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| GEORGE ALEC EFFINGER LIVE! FROM PLANET EARTH [George Alec Effinger] Originally intended to be a collaboration with the author, this collection of the most memorable short stories of the late George Alec Effinger is a tribute from those who best knew his work -- his friends, fellow writers, and editors. In addition to handpicking their favourite pieces, Michael Bishop, Neil Gaiman, Barbara Hambly, Mike Resnick, Howard Waldrop, and others have contributed a personal introduction or afterword to accompany each selection that reveals their deep respect for and insights into the author. The short stories 'The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything' and 'Everything but Honor,' both Hugo Award finalists, are among those included. Of special interest are seven previously uncollected short stories and a poem written under the author's pen name, O. Niemand. Introduced by Gardner Dozois, former editor of Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, these stories are uniquely written in the style of other authors including Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, James Thurber, and Mark Twain. Considered by Effinger to be 'sympathetic homage' rather than parody or caricature, they present his perspective on how these noted authors would have tackled science fiction, such as 'The Man Outside,' the John Steinbeck-inspired story about a loner in a domed city on an asteroid deep in space. { 360pp, 140x215mm, May 2005; HB, £17.50, 1930846320:9781930846326 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| GIRL WHO LOVED ANIMALS : & Other Stories [Bruce McAllister] From his first professional story written when he was 16, "The Faces Outside," to his most critically acclaimed work, the novelette Dream Baby -- a finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards -- these 17 stories showcase the author's five decades of science fiction writing. Whether it be an elderly woman who uses her vast wealth to create a genetically perfect son ("Angels") or a young boy who learns the rituals of an alien culture in order to obtain an assassin's help for his unborn sister ("Kin"), the stories resonate with a child's sense of wonder coming face-to-face with the realities of the human condition in a science-fictional world. The book also features story notes that reveal each story's origin as well as the influences -- both literary and human -- on the author's life and writing career. An introduction by science fiction great Harry Harrison, an afterword by the John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winner Barry N. Malzberg, and cover art by 2005 Chesley Award-winner John Picacio, make this a keepsake collection. REVIEW: "Among top short story talents in the field, McAllister is a leader. Polished, moving, thought-provoking -- this collection is without parallel." -- Harry Harrison, author, The Stainless Steel Rat" { 306pp, 125x210mm, October 2007; HB, £16.99, 1930846495:9781930846494 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| GOLDEN [Lucius Shepard] Deviating from traditional tales that feature lonely vampires who prowl through human society in search of victims or solace, this account of vampires flourishing in their own 'inhuman society' takes place in the year 1860, when their centuries-long breeding experiments have finally produced 'The Golden', a mortal whose blood is perfect and powerful. Mobilised by the news of this discovery, aristocratic vampire clans arrive at the looming Castle Banat, where they plan to partake of the sublime blood. To their shock, the guests find that The Golden, a young girl, has been brutally murdered and her blood already drained. The story also follows the Inspector Michael Beheim -- a recent vampire -- assigned to track down the killer. Recounted in full 19th-century literary style with gothic elements and foreshadowing, the inspector navigates his way through the vampire world and the crime therein. { 203pp, 140x215mm, April 2006; PB, £9.99, 193084638X:9781930846388 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| GREAT ESCAPE [Ian Watson] Combining science fiction and fantasy into an amusing and eclectic mix, this collection of 19 short stories mixes the seasoned writing skills of a master writer with tales of the fantastic. From fallen angels mounting a breakout from Hell and computer game designers haunted by cyberghosts to alien coffins bombarding the solar system and Jesus' brother aboard the first starship, these stories, irreverent and bizarre, are sure to amuse, bemuse, and entertain. This anthology brilliantly takes on the eerie and the weird-and does it with humour, wit, and tension. { 286pp, 140x215mm, May 2002; HB, £15.99, 1930846096:9781930846098 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| GUILD OF XENOLINGUISTS [Sheila Finch] The galaxy-wide Guild of Xenolinguists handles all cross-cultural communications by sending agents abroad to learn new languages and program translation computers. The travails of novice linguists animate these 11 stories as they face much more than simple translation work, taking on alien parasites and viruses, a mysterious and violent star-faring race, dolphin instructors, and large tyrant ants. As cultures and languages collide, first contact quickly becomes a matter of morality, galactic politics, death, and war. { 281pp, 145x215mm, September 2007; HB, £16.99, 1930846487:9781930846487 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| HARVEST OF CHANGELINGS [Warren Rochelle] Although the familiar themes of fantasy are present in this novel, the characters are not princes or sorcerers but ordinary people with seemingly ordinary lives. Ben Tyson, a librarian, met and loved Valeria, a fairy woman; but her death left Ben to raise their child, Malachi, alone. The two of them lived a fairly ordinary life until Malachi turned 10 and began to manifest previously unknown powers. Now the lords of Fairy have called home the changelings they left in the universe generations ago, waking up long-dormant DNA and changeling blood. More than a straightforward fantasy novel, this tale's underlining current deals with people that are different -- physically, mentally, and in their choice of lifestyle. The fairy children are seen as outsiders to mainstream culture, and as they become aware of each other they must unite to overcome the apathy and prejudice of humans, as well as the evil Fomorii, before it is too late. { 313pp, 155x230mm, May 2007; HB, £16.99, 1930846460:9781930846463 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| HIGH COTTON : Selected Stories of Joe R Lansdale [Joe R Lansdale] This collection of Joe R Lansdale stories represents the best of the 'Lansdale' genre -- a strange mixture of dark crime, even darker humour, and adventure tales. The stories are varied in setting and theme, but they are all pure Lansdale -- eerie, amusing, and occasionally horrific. In 'The Pit', modern gladiators square off against one another using Roman methods. An alternate-history tale called 'Trains Not Taken' shows Buffalo Bill as an ambassador and Wild Bill Hickok as a clerk. Lansdale's love of large lizards and humour are evident in the stories 'Godzilla's Twelve Step Program' and 'Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland'. { 267pp, 155x230mm, July 2003; PB, £10.99, 1930846177:9781930846173 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| HIGH COTTON : Selected Stories of Joe R Lansdale [Joe R Lonsdale] This collection of Lansdale stories represents the best of the 'Lansdale' genre-a strange mixture of dark crime, even darker humour, and adventure tales. The stories are varied in setting and theme, but they are all pure Lansdale-eerie, amusing, and occasionally horrific. In 'The Pit', modern gladiators square off against one another using Roman methods. An alternate-history tale called 'Trains Not Taken' shows Buffalo Bill as an ambassador and Wild Bill Hickok as a clerk. Lansdale's love of large lizards and humour are evident in the stories 'Godzilla's Twelve Step Program' and 'Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland'. { 280pp, 140x210mm, November 2000; HB, £15.99, 0965590127:9780965590129 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| LOUISIANA BREAKDOWN [Lucius Shepard] Welcome to Grail, Louisiana -- next to nothing and just beyond reality -- where hoodoo meets Jesus, and townsfolk pray to both. This dark fantasy delves into the psychological and motivational depths of Grail and its residents. Miss Sedele mixes up green cocktails called 'cryptoverdes' at Le Bon Chance. Vida Dumars, owner of the Moonlight Diner, peers into the deepest realms of her customers' hearts as though they were picture windows. Town spirit Good Gray Man has promised good fortune to the town as long as it hangs onto tradition. A quirky, fantastical town's heart and soul are slowly, often painfully revealed in this dark and captivating novella. { 145pp, 145x215mm, April 2003; HB, £14.99, 1930846142:9781930846142 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| MAD DOG SUMMER : And Other Stories [Joe R Lansdale] Joe Lansdale returns with his characteristic dark take on the horrors that lurk beneath the surface of mundane life in this collection of short stories and novellas. Originally available only in limited-edition hardcover, these tales run the gamut from devilish fantasy to twisted courtroom drama to vampire-robot western. Each story has an introduction in which the author relates the background of and inspiration for the story, whether it was drawn from history, literature, or pure imagination. The title story, about a serial killer in Texas in the 1930s, won the 1999 Bram Stoker Horror Award for long fiction. { 262pp, 140x215mm, September 2006; PB, £9.99, 1930846428:9781930846425 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| MAP OF DREAMS [M Rickert] Set in a reality where nightmares do not fade upon waking, this anthology skims along the surface of life and dips just beneath, revealing the hidden machinations that fuel dreams. These underlying myths and fantasies exist not as musty old stories but as ancient truths that have come to illuminate the modern human condition. The title story touches on themes of grief, redemption, and time travel; Cold Fire ventures into love and obsession; and Peace on Suburbia introduces readers to a Christmas with an entirely different kind of savior. These and 13 other tales are framed by four interludes -- Dreams, Nightmares, Waking, and Rising -- that guide readers through a world that is at once familiar and eerily off-kilter. { 310pp, 140x215mm, October 2006; HB, £16.99, 1930846444:9781930846449 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| MOCKYMEN [Ian Watson] This wonderfully weird tale uncovers the secrets of the 'mockymen', aliens who have inhabited drug-addled humans' bodies. A young British couple who make jigsaw puzzles are hired for an outlandish job in a park by an elderly Norwegian man. Toward the end of the Second World War, a blood sacrifice was carried out in this park by Nazis trying to create an occult cordon around Norway, and the ageing Norwegian hopes to access the power residing in the park to achieve reincarnation for himself. The Hardship Years intervene, when climate change, ecological collapse, and global economic crises derail human civilisation, but in 2010 salvation arrives in the shape of an alien expedition promising new technologies. As the aliens begin to inhabit the bodies of humans strung out on the drug Bliss, a young Blisshead named Jamie recalls his prior life as a Norwegian, and the aliens' true motives are revealed. This wild, absurd, and far-out tale reveals a keen intelligence at work and at play. { 324pp, 145x215mm, October 2003; HB, £17.99, 1930846215:9781930846210 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| MOON MAID & OTHER FANTASTIC ADVENTURES [R García y Robertson] A series of tales about high adventure and exotic interplanetary romances that capture the exhilarating sense of wonder from SF's Golden Age. { 275pp, 140x215mm, March 1998; HB, £15.50, 0965590186:9780965590181 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| NANO COMES TO CLIFFORD FALLS : And Other Stories [Nancy Kress] Blending a focus on cutting-edge technology with deep emotional impacts, this enticing collection draws its stories from various Year's Best and Reader's Choice lists. The pathos of the human condition is explored in such stories as "My Mother, Dancing," in which seedlings are planted and those responsible must decide if they will play God with them, or let natural selection progress; or in "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls," where nanotechnology brings every wish to everyone -- yet dire problems still ensue. The narratives reveal many forms of artificial intelligence including a persecuted slave in "Computer Virus," a controlling force of the universe in "Mirror Image," or even one that's entirely indifferent to humans in "Saviour". From the centre of the galaxy to the swamps of Earth, all 13 inventive tales offer a trademark mix of hard science fiction interacting with flawed humanity. REVIEW: "Another of the author's substantial and provocative examinations of near-future biotechnology. . . . Kress is certainly the most probing writer of the past decade on this theme." -- Locus magazine" { 340pp, 125x210mm, September 2008; HB, £16.99, 1930846509:9781930846500 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| NOTHING HUMAN [Nancy Kress] Told from the perspective of several generations of teenagers, this science fiction novel involves an Earth ravaged by mankind, high-tech manipulative aliens, and advanced genetics. Early in the 21st century, global warming has caused sickness and death among plants, animals, and humans. Suddenly aliens contact and genetically modify a group of 14-year-olds, inviting them to visit their spacecraft. After several months of living among the aliens and studying genetics, the students discover that the aliens have been manipulating them and rebel. Upon their return to Earth, the girls in the group discover that they are pregnant and can only wonder what form their unborn children will take. Generations later, the offspring of these children seek to use their alien knowledge to change their genetic code, to allow them to live and prosper in an environment that is quickly becoming uninhabitable from the dual scourges of global warming and biowarfare. But after all the generations of change, will the genetically modified creatures resemble their ancestors, or will nothing human remain? { 300pp, 155x230mm, September 2003; HB, £17.99, 1930846185:9781930846180 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| PERPETUITY BLUES & OTHER STORIES [Neal Barrett Jr] The work of novelist and short-story writer Neal Barrett Jr runs the gamut from science fiction, westerns, and historical novels to off-the-wall but well-received mainstream fiction. This collection brings together 11 previously uncollected short stories, many of which first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Best of the West, and The New Frontier. It also features the novella 'Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus' and presents the reader with a distinct mix of science fiction and western, which is Barrett at his offbeat best. Here readers will discover Billy the Kid, Erwin Rommel, and the Wright brothers all sharing a dilapidated hotel on the edge of nowhere in 'Sallie C', see how business is done with art-loving extraterrestrials in the 'Trading Post', and meet Maggie McKenna, a country girl whose auctorial aspirations are aided by an alien temporarily stranded on Earth, in 'Perpetuity Blues'. This collection is both irresistably amusing and darkly bittersweet. { 256pp, 140x215mm, July 2001; HB, £14.99, 0965590143:9780965590143 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| PRINCE OF CHRISTLER-COKE [Neal Barrett Jr] Set in a future where the power of big corporations has reached unbelievable heights, this sardonic and humorous story traces the adventures of Asel Iacola, former head of the Christler-Coke corporation, who has been banished to a corporate prison after a hostile take-over. Undaunted, and with the help of fellow deposed corporate noble Sylvan Lee-McCree, Asel escapes with hopes of confronting his rival, Jackie-Cee of the Disney-Dow corporation. During his escape he learns to rely on himself as he is almost hung by the TechsMechs Rangers of Oklahomer, sold by the hustlers of Two-kum-curry to the Nones of Our Lady of Reluctant Desire, and befriended by a mechanical bear. Making his way across a nation ruled by big business, Asel is confronted by the country's forgotten poor, and discovers the enormous gulf between the haves and have-nots created by companies like Christler-Coke. { 244pp, 155x230mm, September 2004; HB, £17.50, 1930846282:9781930846289 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| RESURRECTION MAN'S LEGACY : and Other Stories [Dale Bailey] Dale Bailey's literary fantasies have delighted readers for the past decade, and this collection brings together the best of his work. The title story, 'The Resurrection Man's Legacy', has been optioned for a movie. In it, a young orphan must live with an elderly aunt who proves unable to supply all that the boy requires and purchases a robotic, surrogate father for him. In 'The Anencephalic Fields', another coming-of-age story, a boy is isolated with his mother on a farm where humanlike plants are grown. 'Sheep's Clothing' is a near-future science fiction tale of an assassin planning to kill a politician by assuming control of his daughter's body and using it to commit the murder. The ending novella, 'In Green's Dominion', is the story of a spinster professor reflecting on her life as it nears its conclusion, settling her affairs and remembering the magic moments in her life. Other stories blend fantasy with reality, with the dead arising to vote, the painful burial of a firstborn child, a lost southern town where slavery still rears its ugly head, and other horrific, thought-provoking, terrible, and wonderful tales of life. { 332pp, 140x215mm, November 2003; HB, £16.99, 1930846223:9781930846227 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| SECRET LIFE [Jeff VanderMeer] This collection of 23 stories reflects a diversity of approaches to key questions about the human condition, including questions about mortality, love, obsession, and creativity. 'Balzac's War' is a harrowing, powerful far-future novella that pits brother against brother in a landscape ravaged by war with Earth's newly sentient human-made species. In 13th-century Cambodia, a lone artist is torn between his love of his craft and his unspoken love for a woman in 'The Bone Carver's Tale'. In 'The Emperor's Reply' and 'The Compass of His Bones', set in 17th-century Peru, the last Incan Emperor, having brutally fallen at the hands of the Conquistadores, seeks his revenge. { 305pp, 140x215mm, June 2004; HB, £16.99, 1930846274:9781930846272 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| SILVER GRYPHON [Gary Turner & Marty Halpern (eds)] In celebration of Golden Gryphon Press's 25th book, writers who contributed to the first 24 books were asked to write a story that best defines them as writers. The result is an anthology of stories ranging from fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror to genres that are often a combination of all four. Warren Rochelle portrays a struggle between magical and normal humans. George Zebrowski questions how to reclaim one's life when thrust two and a half years into the past. Andy Duncan combines literary style with southern heritage in a strange tale of courtship on a ghost trolley car. Michael Bishop spins the sad tale of a dead Vietnam soldier who won't die and continues to lay down his life to help others. James Patrick Kelly paints a world where people are regulated, even in their ability to become parents, and there is no place for dissenting views. The wide range in style, tone, and content in these tales provides genre fans with a diverse spectrum of short fiction. { 330pp, 140x215mm, April 2003; HB, £18.99, 1930846150:9781930846159 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| SLEEPING POLICEMEN [Dale Bailey & Jack Slay Jr] Horror combines with noir motifs and a fast-moving plot in this tale of four college students who run over a pedestrian while driving at night in the Smoky Mountains. Finding a sheaf of hundred dollar bills and a mysterious key in the pockets of the dead man's coat, their curiosity is piqued and the friends follow clues to a bus station locker and a home made video depicting the rape and murder of a missing teenage girl. In the hours that follow, the students find themselves under pressure from both a private detective who claims to represent the father of the missing girl and a state trooper who has connected them with the man they left for dead on the fog-shrouded mountain. Suddenly, into their nightmare of guilt and confusion, a shadowy underworld figure known as the Pachyderm appears, vehemently demanding his money and video back. Inexperienced young people battle both criminals and their own flawed instincts in this disturbing lesson about greed, excess, and cultural corruption. { 198pp, 145x215mm, June 2006; HB, £16.99, 193084641X:9781930846418 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| STORIES FOR AN ENCHANTED AFTERNOON [Kristine Kathryn Rusch] The first story in this collection of the author's best short fiction, 'Millennium Babies', looks at the 'losers', the infants who are not the first born in the New Year. Then in the novella 'The Gallery of His Dreams', a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, the life and talent of Matthew Brady, a daguerreotype photographer who photographs the horrors of future wars and atrocities in order to preserve the past, is detailed. The collection also includes 'Skin Deep', 'Echea', 'Coolhunting', 'Going Native', 'Harvest', 'Strange Creatures', 'Monuments of the Dead', 'Spirit Guides', and 'Burial Detail'. { 284pp, 145x215mm, June 2001; HB, £16.99, 1930846029:9781930846029 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| STRANGE BUT NOT A STRANGER [James Patrick Kelly] The sixteen stories in this collection run the gamut from cyber adventure and a ghostly haunting to chemically modified romance and a time travel mission to save the world. The Hugo Award winner, '10 (to the 16th) to 1', tells the story of a boy in the 1960s who gets caught up in a spirited adventure that becomes a desperate attempt to prevent a nuclear holocaust. In 'The Cruellest Month', a grieving mother is haunted both by the past and a ghost. 'The Prisoner of Chillon' presents a radioactive Lake Geneva overrun with cyberpunks seeking fame and fortune through software piracy. By turns humorous and harrowing, this collection highlights the short fiction of a lauded author at his best. { 298pp, 155x230mm, September 2002; HB, £19.99, 1930846126:9781930846128 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| STRANGE TRADES [Paul Di Filippo] Revolving around the inescapable process of earning a living, these eleven stories present a welcome and refreshing change of pace from more typical science fiction. Speculating about future lifestyles and how to function as a member of the new global economy, these tales emphasise the moral and spiritual dimensions of employment and examine the practical and ethical quandaries that possible future occupations may provide. Though written primarily about jobs, careers, and professions, these narratives are filled with suspense and adventure, romance, and laughter. { 342pp, 145x210mm, November 2001; HB, £16.99, 1930846053:9781930846050 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| SWIFT THOUGHTS [George Zebrowski] Ranging from hard science fiction ('Gödel's Doom') to alternate history ('Lenin in Odessa') to first alien contact ('Bridge of Silence'), this collection delineates one of the unique voices writing science fiction today. In the tradition of Stanislaw Lem, each of the stories in this collection confronts the big questions of human existence. The detailed notes that follow each story provide insight into the author's influences and include commentary from other noteworthy authors in the field. { 314pp, 155x230mm, April 2002; HB, £16.99, 1930846088:9781930846081 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| THINK LIKE A DINOSAUR : and Other Stories [James Patrick Kelly] This first major retrospective collects Kelly's finest short fiction from a 20-year career and includes a dazzling array of work, from hard science fiction and Twilight Zone-inspired fantasies to stark futuristic horror. The grim fable "Pogrom" presents a near-futuristic scenario in which internecine warfare has broken out between the ageing boomer generation and a youthful dispossessed proletariat who must support them. The landmark novella "Mr Boy" is the wildly inventive tale of a genetically stunted 12-year-old who literally lives inside his mother, who has turned herself into a three-quarter-scale model of the Statue of Liberty. "The First Law of Thermodynamics" is a remarkable evocation of the psychedelic sixties -- the time of Vietnam, Kent State, and acid rock -- in which, like that era itself, nothing is what it appears to be. The now-famous title story, "Think Like a Dinosaur", is a tale of a transporter beam maintained by aliens, through which humanity can visit the stars. { 275pp, 135x210mm, September 2003; PB, £10.99, 1930846207:9781930846203 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| THOUSAND DEATHS [George Alec Effinger] This volume of science fiction thrillers contains a novel and seven short stories centered on the semi-autobiographical character Sandor Courane. The collection's feature novel, In the Wolves of Memory, paints a world where Earth's governing body, the Representatives, has relinquished control to an increasingly intelligent and self-aware computer known as TECT. Deemed a social misfit and banished from Earth to Planet D for his inability to fall in line, Sandor finds the new planet's idyllic environment and fulfilling lifestyle to his liking -- at first. Upon discovering that all of the inhabitants of Planet D succumb to an insidious, debilitating disease, Sandor embarks on a race against time to discover the meaning behind Planet D, the motives of TECT, and the mysterious malady. Utilising a unique approach with the use of flashbacks, this powerful story, with poignant and sardonic tones, is a heartrending display of one man's pain and absolution. { 340pp, 145x215mm, June 2007; HB, £16.99, 1930846479:9781930846470 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| THRESHOLD SHIFT [Eric Brown] This unique collection of science fiction stories focuses on the human emotions that have no place in a world made unrecognizable by science and technology. Three stories that deal with the Kethani aliens -- a group that has come to present-day Earth offering life after death via technological resurrection -- are included, as is The Children of Winter, a lucid tale of doomed love between alien species on a far-off world in the distant future. As characters are pushed to their moral thresholds, they attempt to deal with the unforseen consequences contained in fascinating new technologies. { 218pp, 140x215mm, September 2006; HB, £16.99, 1930846436:9781930846432 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| THUMBPRINTS [Pamela Sargent] This eclectic group of short stories traverses time, place, and genre to deliver vivid accounts of captivating worlds, both real and imagined. By weaving together the historical and the fantastic, the stories in this collection produce fascinating narratives that remain deeply human. The startling title story, 'Thumbprints', explores the darker side of the book business when a literary agent goes too far to ensure that his author's fees are paid in full. 'Erdeni's Tiger', a historical drama, features a young wife in twelfth-century Mongolia who must master the spirit world to save her tribe. 'Climb the Wind' revisits Mongolia in a modern-day setting as the country's military past haunts its current inhabitants. { 281pp, 140x215mm, October 2004; HB, £17.50, 1930846290:9781930846296 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| TWO TRAINS RUNNING [Lucius Shepard] This collection of fact and fiction was inspired by the time science fiction writer Lucius Shepard spent with Missoula Mike, Madcat, and other members of a controversial brotherhood known as the Freight Train Riders of America. Shepard rode the rails throughout the western half of the United States with the disenfranchised, the homeless, the punks, the gangs, and the joy riders for the magazine article 'The FTRA Story'. That original article is presented here, along with two new hobo novellas, 'Over Yonder' and 'Jailbait'. In 'Over Yonder', alcoholic Billy Long Gone finds himself on an unusual train. As Billy travels his health improves and his thinking clears, and he arrives in Yonder -- an unlikely paradise where a few hundred hobos live in apparent peace and tranquillity. But every paradise has its price, and in Yonder, peace and tranquillity breed complacency and startling deaths. 'Jailbait' is a hardcore tale of deception, lust, revenge, and murder in the seedy underbelly of rail yards and train hopping. Madcat, who functions best in a whiskey-induced haze, must decide between solitude and companionship when he meets up with Grace, an underaged runaway. Grace, in turn, seeks the security of an older man and the life about which only young girls can dream. { 112pp, 145x215mm, March 2004; HB, £15.50, 1930846231:9781930846234 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| WILD BOY [Warren Rochelle] Humans have domesticated animals for thousands of years; in this novel, a spacefaring race descends on Earth to domesticate humankind. The Lindauzi came to Earth at the turn of the millennium with a mission to breed humans to become their emotional symbionts. Technically superior, within a generation the Lindauzi dominate the Earth, running a breeding program designed to produce humans capable of full emotional symbiosis. This is the story of Ilox, a human raised by the Lindauzi, his banishment and adoption by a tribe of wild humans, and his eventual reunion with his Lindauzi bond-mate, Phlarx. While alien invasion is a common plot in science fiction, this fresh voice breathes new life into such a story, focusing on the theme of what it means to be human. { 260pp, 155x230mm, October 2001; HB, £15.50, 1930846045:9781930846043 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| WILD GALAXY : Selected Science Fiction Stories [William F Nolan] Representing the best of a 50-year writing career, these 19 short stories have been collected from the wide-ranging oeuvre of William F. Nolan. Zany tales are included, such as 'Toe to Tip, Tip to Toe, Pip-Pop as You Go,' in which everyone is kept in perpetual drugged states and the social deviates are those who are straight. More serious stories are also told such as 'The Small World of Lewis Stillman,' in which the last surviving resident of Los Angeles must conceal himself in storm sewers in order to avoid a new wave of smaller city dwellers who, although primitive, are dangerous in their numbers. Interspersed are narratives that address the emotional attachments of robots to humans, mix science fiction with the classic Wild West, and allow alien rock stars and human groupies to intermingle. { 199pp, 140x215mm, April 2005; HB, £17.50, 1930846312:9781930846319 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |
| WRECK OF THE GODSPEED : And Other Stories [James Patrick Kelly] Providing new insights into the human psyche, this remarkable collection gathers 13 cutting-edge tales of science fiction that reveal both the dark and light side of progress. In the Nebula award-winner, "Burn," an idyllic planet wrestles with ecological responsibility and terrorism, while the problems and temptations of a happy virtual reality are examined in "The Dark Side of Town." Colourful pilgrims travel to new worlds until their ship's artificial intelligence begins to act strangely in the namesake, "The Wreck of the Godspeed," and the extent that future television programs will go to get ratings is explored in "The Leila Torn Show," Combining hard technology with complex, character-based dilemmas, each inventive narrative shares the message that science is not a panacea and often leads to personal decisions that are neither clear nor easy. { 350pp, 125x210mm, August 2008; HB, £16.99, 1930846517:9781930846517 , IPG (Golden Gryphon Press) } |