Download or read book The Brains of Rats Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Michael Blumlein and published by . This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Michael Blumlein's debut collection The Brains of Rats (1990) first appeared, it marked the arrival of a major new talent, earning widespread acclaim from mainstream critics as well as genre stalwarts Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison, Pat Cadigan and many others. In the World Fantasy Award-nominated title story, a geneticist conflicted over his own sexuality, and the nature of male and female gender roles in general, proposes a drastic solution. The politically charged "Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report" describes in chilling detail a surgeon's evisceration of President Ronald Reagan. In "Bestseller," a struggling novelist unable to sell his books must sell something else unthinkably horrific in order to provide for his family. In these and the nine other startlingly original stories in this collection, Blumlein blurs the boundaries between horror, science fiction and fantasy, creating a strange and nightmarish world not unlike our own, where nothing is what it seems. This new edition features an introduction by bestselling horror novelist and screenwriter Michael McDowell. "Michael Blumlein is something new, a real original. I think he will have a great impact on the horror field, but I don't think anybody is going to be able to imitate him." - Peter Straub "Blumlein has an exceptional vision, and he conveys it with exceptional talent." - Washington Post "Blumlein's first collection signals the appearance of a major talent on the horror scene. Subtle and chilling." - Publishers Weekly "Blumlein is a powerful and highly original voice. He writes like his soul's on ice. Disturbing stuff. More please " - Joe R. Lansdale "The Brains of Rats is blindingly brilliant. Blumlein is beyond any genre, a genuinely great writer." - Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love "This is not a book for everyone. Only those who delight in splendid, original thinking and rich, pyrotechnical language need apply.... Mr. Blumlein carves enigmas and fabulous dark surprises from the magic mountain of his imagination." - Harlan Ellison "I didn't read these stories, I hallucinated them. I dare anyone to read Blumlein's work and come out the other side unchanged." - Pat Cadigan "Blumlein is an eclectic and daring writer, using experimental techniques and fragmented narrative to achieve spectacular results. The stories here are all disturbing and they all work - no small accomplishment for experimental fiction." - Locus

Download or read book The Year s Best Science Fiction Thirty Third Annual Collection written by Gardner Dozois and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the field. With an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation of short stories has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.

Download or read book The Horror Stories of Robert E Howard written by Robert E. Howard and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2008-10-28 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here are Robert E. Howard’s greatest horror tales, all in their original, definitive versions. Some of Howard’s best-known characters—Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and sailor Steve Costigan among them—roam the forbidding locales of the author’s fevered imagination, from the swamps and bayous of the Deep South to the fiend-haunted woods outside Paris to remote jungles in Africa. The collection includes Howard’s masterpiece “Pigeons from Hell,” which Stephen King calls “one of the finest horror stories of [the twentieth] century,” a tale of two travelers who stumble upon the ruins of a Southern plantation–and into the maw of its fatal secret. In “Black Canaan” even the best warrior has little chance of taking down the evil voodoo man with unholy powers–and none at all against his wily mistress, the diabolical High Priestess of Damballah. In these and other lavishly illustrated classics, such as the revenge nightmare “Worms of the Earth” and “The Cairn on the Headland,” Howard spins tales of unrelenting terror, the legacy of one of the world’s great masters of the macabre.

Download or read book The Weird written by Jeff VanderMeer and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 2482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities. You won't find any elves or wizards here...but you will find the biggest, boldest, and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled. The Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miéville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon. The Weird is the winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book How to Survive a Human Attack written by K. E. Flann and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know human attacks account for a staggering 100 percent of premature deaths for witches, swamp monsters, cyborgs, and other supernatural, mutant, and exceptionally large beings? The past millennia or so has seen not only an uptick in human attacks, but also increasingly indiscriminate victim selection. It is understandable to feel overwhelmed. From renowned preternaturalist K. E. Flann, How to Survive a Human Attack provides critical information at a critical time with chapters specifically tailored to their target audience, including: · A Zombie’s Guide to Filling the Emptiness and Moving Forward · First-Time Haunter’s Guide for Ghosts, Spirits, Poltergeists, Specters, and Wraiths · Self-Training 101 for Werewolves: Sit, Don’t Speak, Stay Alive! · What’s Happening to My Body?: Radioactive Mutants and the Safety of the Nuclear Family

Download or read book The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories Volume One written by John Blackburn and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, you will encounter tales of ghosts, haunted houses, witchcraft, vampirism, lycanthropy, and sea monsters. Stories of cruelty and vengeance, of a body that refuses to be cremated, a deranged performer with one last shocking show, a frozen corpse that may not be dead. With stories ranging from frightening to horrific to weird to darkly funny, by a lineup of authors that includes both masters of horror fiction and award-winning literary greats, this is a horror anthology like no other. Spanning two hundred years of horror, this new collection features seventeen macabre gems, including two original tales and many others that have never or seldom been reprinted, by: Charles Birkin • John Blackburn • Michael Blumlein • Mary Cholmondeley • Hugh Fleetwood • Stephen Gregory • Gerald Kersh • Francis King • M. G. Lewis • Florence Marryat • Richard Marsh • Michael McDowell • Christopher Priest • Forrest Reid • Bernard Taylor • Hugh Walpole 'The things were there and they were hiding in the slime; waiting ... waiting to clutch and claw and savage’ - AUNTY GREEN by John Blackburn ‘The sound that came from her throat, a small, pleading cry of terror, was cut off before she’d hardly had a chance to utter it’ - OUT OF SORTS by Bernard Taylor ‘The words filled her with an indescribable fear, and she turned to run; but her way was blocked by a figure, gigantic in stature​ – and its monstrous shape moved towards her, and she knew it was the incarnation of evil itself ’ - THE TERROR ON TOBIT by Charles Birkin

Download or read book Cold Moon Over Babylon Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Michael McDowell and published by Bright Sparks. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy Alabama small town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a terrible tragedy. Now they are about to endure another: fourteen-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law. But something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror ... And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form. Night after night it will pursue the murderer. And when the full moon rises over Babylon, it will seek a terrible vengeance ...

Download or read book November Night Tales written by Henry Chapman Mercer and published by . This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The six origninal stories from the first edition of 1928 plus Well of Monte Corbo, found after his death.

Download or read book My Best Friend s Exorcism written by Grady Hendrix and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to be a major motion picture. This ENHANCED DIGITAL EDITION features TONS of TOTALLY AWESOME ’80s bonus materials—including Satanic Panic educational pamphlets, a do-it-yourself exorcism cheat sheet, a Spotify playlist of awesome ’80s tunes, animated cover artwork, and much more! From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, this unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist blends teen angst and unspeakable horrors into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Download or read book Sweetheart Sweetheart written by Bernard Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Warwick, an Englishman living in New York, has a sudden premonition that his twin brother, Colin, is in danger. He returns to England and learns the shocking truth: both Colin and his young bride Helen have died ghastly deaths - deaths that no one in the village wants to talk about. Now David has inherited his brother's home, Gerrard's Hill Cottage, a lovely house with a lush garden that seems to promise peace and comfort to all who dwell there. But as David tries to unearth the facts of what really happened to his brother and his wife, he has no idea of the horror and evil that surround him or the terrible fate that may be in store ... A chilling story that builds slowly and inexorably towards its shocking climax, Bernard Taylor's Sweetheart, Sweetheart (1977) has been recognized as one of the finest horror novels ever written. This edition features a new introduction by Michael Rowe. "My favorite ghost story ... at once manages to be both moving and extremely unsettling ... there isn't anything that beats it." - Charles L. Grant "Ingenious and well-crafted - a most satisfying chiller " - Grand Rapids Press "A slow-burning, invisibly seductive ghost story." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Download or read book Paperbacks from Hell written by Grady Hendrix and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires comes a nostalgic and unflinchingly funny celebration of the horror fiction boom of the 1970s and ’80s. Take a tour through the horror paperback novels of two iconic decades . . . if you dare. Page through dozens and dozens of amazing book covers featuring well-dressed skeletons, evil dolls, and knife-wielding killer crabs! Read shocking plot summaries that invoke devil worship, satanic children, and haunted real estate! Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby. Complete with story summaries and artist and author profiles, this unforgettable volume dishes on familiar authors like V. C. Andrews and R. L. Stine, plus many more who’ve faded into obscurity. Also included are recommendations for which of these forgotten treasures are well worth your reading time and which should stay buried.

Download or read book A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century written by Henry Augustin Beers and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Compulsory Games written by Robert Aickman and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best and most interesting stories by Robert Aickman, a master of the supernatural tale, the uncanny, and the truly weird. Robert Aickman’s self-described “strange stories” are confoundingly and uniquely his own. These superbly written tales terrify not with standard thrills and gore but through a radical overturning of the laws of nature and everyday life. His territory of the strange, of the “void behind the face of order,” is a surreal region that grotesquely mimics the quotidian: Is that river the Thames, or is it even a river? What does it mean when a prospective lover removes one dress, and then another—and then another? Does a herd of cows in a peaceful churchyard contain the souls of jilted women preparing to trample a cruel lover to death? Published for the first time under one cover, the stories in this collection offer an unequaled introduction to a profoundly original modern master of the uncanny.

Download or read book Reading Vampire Gothic Through Blood written by Aspasia Stephanou and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-17 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading Vampire Gothic Through Blood examines the manifestations of blood and vampires in various texts and contexts. It seeks to connect, through blood, fictional to real-life vampires to trace similarities, differences and discontinuities. These movements will be seen to parallel changing notions about embodiment and identity in culture.

Download or read book THE CIPHER written by Kathe Koja and published by Roadswell Editions. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kathe Koja's classic, award-winning horror novel is finally available as an ebook. Nicholas, a would-be poet, and Nakota, his feral lover, discover a strange hole in the storage room floor down the hall - "Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." It begins with curiosity, a joke - the Funhole down the hall. But then the experiments begin. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says "We're not." But they're not in control, not from the first moment, as those experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation for everyone who gets too close to the Funhole. THE CIPHER was the winner of the 1991 Bram Stoker Award, and was recently named one of io9.com's Top 10 Debut Science Fiction Novels That Took the World By Storm. Long out-of-print and much sought-after, it is finally available as an ebook, with a new foreword by the author. "An ethereal rollercoaster ride from start to finish." - The Detroit Free Press "Combines intensely poetic language and lavish grotesqueries." - BoingBoing "Kathe Koja is a poet ... [T]he kind that prefers to read in seedy bars instead of universities, but a poet." - The New York Review of Science Fiction "Her 20-something characters are poverty-gagged 'artists' who exist in that demimonde of shitty jobs, squalid art galleries, and thrift stores; her settings are run-down studios, flat-beer bars, and dingy urban streets [a] long way from Castle Rock, Dunwich, or Stepford, that's for sure." - Too Much Horror Fiction "This powerful first novel is as thought-provoking as it is horrifying." - Publishers Weekly "Unforgettable ... [THE CIPHER] takes you into the lives of the dark dreamers that crawl on the underbelly of art and culture. Seldom has language been so visceral and so right." - Locus "[THE CIPHER] is a book that makes you sit up, pay attention, and jettison your moldy preconceptions about the genre ... Utterly original ... [An} imaginative debut." - Fangoria "Not so much about the vast and wonderful strangeness of the universe as it is about the horrific and glorious potential of the human spirit." - Short Form

Download or read book Gothic written by Fred Botting and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-10 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Botting expertly introduces the transformations of the gothic through history, discussing key figures such as ghosts, monsters and vampires, as well as tracing its origins, characteristics, cultural significance and critical interpretations.

Download or read book The Art of the Occult written by S. Elizabeth and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A visual feast of eclectic artwork informed and inspired by spiritual beliefs, magical techniques, mythology and otherworldly experiences. Mystical beliefs and practices have existed for millennia, but why do we still chase the esoteric? From the beginning of human creativity itself, image-makers have been drawn to these unknown spheres and have created curious artworks that transcend time and place – but what is it that attracts artists to these magical realms? From theosophy and kabbalah, to the zodiac and alchemy; spiritualism and ceremonial magic, to the elements and sacred geometry – The Art of the Occult introduces major occult themes and showcases the artists who have been influenced and led by them. Discover the symbolic and mythical images of the Pre-Raphaelites; the automatic drawing of Hilma af Klint and Madge Gill; Leonora Carrington's surrealist interpretation of myth, alchemy and kabbalah; and much more. Featuring prominent, marginalised and little-known artists, The Art of the Occult crosses mystical spheres in a bid to inspire and delight. Divided into thematic chapters (The Cosmos, Higher Beings, Practitioners), the book acts as an entertaining introduction to the art of mysticism – with essays examining each practice and over 175 artworks to discover. The art of the occult has always existed in the margins but inspired the masses, and this book will spark curiosity in all fans of magic, mysticism and the mysterious.