Download or read book The Investigations of Avram Davidson written by Avram Davidson and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like Malamud and Jackson, Avram Davidson brought a unique level of charm, wit, and intrigue to the short story form. Collected here for the first time are his remarkable mystery tales, including the 1815 investigations of New York's Chief Constable; a sinister lesson in New England thrift; New Amsterdam river pirates versus the KGB; treachery in nursing home; and expatriates who will kill for a little peace and quiet. "Aficionados of short mystery fiction will be hard-pressed to find any more ingenious and entertaining stories than those in this volume." --Bill Pronzini, author of Boobytrap

Download or read book Adventures in Unhistory written by Avram Davidson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-11-28 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * Where did Sinbad Sail? * Who Fired the Phoenix? * The Boy Who Cried Werewolf * The Great Rough Beast * Postscript on Prester John * The Secret of Hyperborea * What Gave All Those Mammoths Cold Feet? And many more--fictional? authoritative? fantastic? deadpan?--investigations into the real, the true...and the things that should be true PREFACE BY PETER S. BEAGLE ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE BARR "Although the wombat is real and the dragon is not, nobody knows what a wombat looks like and everyone knows what a dragon looks like." Not a novel, not a book of short stories, Adventures in Unhistory is a book of the fantastic--a compendium of magisterial examinations of Mermaids, Mandrakes, and Mammoths; Dragons, Werewolves, and Unicorns; the Phoenix and the Roc; about places such as Sicily, Siberia, and the Moon; about heroic, sinister, and legendary persons such as Sindbad, and Aleister Crowley, and Prester John; and--revealed at last--the Secret of Hyperborea. The facts are here, the foundations behind rumors, legends, and the imaginations of generations of tale-spinners. But far from being dry recitals, these meditations, or lectures, or deadpan prose performances are as lively, as crazily inventive, as witty as the best fiction of the author, a writer praised by Gardner Dozois as "one of the great short story writers of our times." Who, on the subject of Dragons, could write coldly, dispassionately, guided only by logic? Certainly not Avram Davidson. Certain facts, these facts, deserve more than recitation; they deserve flourish, verve, gusto, style--the late, great Avram Davidson's unique voice. That prose which, in the words of Peter S. Beagle's Preface to this volume, "cries out to be read aloud."

Download or read book The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy written by Avram Davidson and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-08-29 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This invaluable collection of Avram Davidson's resonant, witty short stories describes some incidents in the career of many-times-Doctor Engelbert Eszterhazy, loyal subject of the Triune Monarchy of Scythia- Pannonia-Transbalkania, located in a nineteenth-century Europe whose political landscape will be, after a little reflection, familiar to most fantasy readers. Enquire with Doctor Eszterhazy into curious matters - the lurley; the old woman who lived with a bear; gingerbread men; dancing goats; and more.

Download or read book The Other Nineteenth Century written by Avram Davidson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-12-06 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Collection of Long Out-of-Print Stories From One of the Greatest Fantasists of the Twentieth Century Avram Davidson, who died in 1993, was widely regarded as one of the most outstanding authors of short fantasy fiction in our time. This collection comprises his distinctive historical fantasies-tales of strange Mitteleuropas, of magic in Victorian England and on the American frontier. Here are "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire," "Traveller from an Antique Land," and "What Strange Stars and Skies"; here are dragons, cameras, and "The Singular Incident of the Dog on the Beach." Witty, whimsical, dark, and strange, these tales of times and places that almost were will leave even the most jaded readers amazed. No one has ever written like Avram Davidson, before or since.

Download or read book Limekiller written by Avram Davidson and published by Or All the Seas with Oysters Publishing LLC.. This book was released on 2022-07-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Avram Davidson's six Jack Limekiller stories create a rich and colorful world where the magical and inexplicable coexist with the outboard motor and the escalation of the American war in Vietnam. British Hidalgo is "a place that you can put your arms around" - welcoming and friendly to the visitor, but uncanny beings dwell in the bush and roam along its coast. Afloat and ashore, Jack Limekiller, master of the working sailboat Saccharissa, encounters ghosts of the colonial past and monsters far older. Set in the imaginary Central American colony of British Hidalgo (a fictionalized British Honduras / Belize), originally published in various magazines, It includes a preface by Grania Davis, introductions by Lucius Shepard and Peter S. Beagle, and concluding material by Henry Wessells, the author, Grania Davis and Ethan Davidson.

Download or read book The Roman Hat Mystery written by Ellery Queen and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A murder in a crowded Broadway theater presents a full house of suspects—the first in this classic mystery series starring Ellery Queen! Despite the dismal Broadway season, Gunplay continues to draw crowds. A gangland spectacle, it’s packed to the gills with action, explosions, and gunfire. In fact, Gunplay is so loud that no one notices the killing of Monte Field. In a sold-out theater, Field is found dead partway through the second act, surrounded by empty seats. The police hold the crowd and call for the one man who can untangle this daring murder: Inspector Richard Queen. With the help of his son Ellery, a bibliophile and novelist whose imagination can solve any crime, the Inspector attacks this seemingly impenetrable mystery. Anyone in the theater could have killed the unscrupulous lawyer, and several had the motive. Only Ellery Queen, in his debut novel, can decipher the clue of the dead man’s missing top hat.

Download or read book The Dutch Shoe Mystery written by Ellery Queen and published by Overamstel Uitgevers. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Queen visits an operating theater to witness a surgery, but finds a murder instead The son of a police detective, Ellery Queen grew up in a bloody atmosphere. Since he started lending his deductive powers to the New York City homicide squad, he has seen more than his fair share of mangled corpses. Though he is accustomed to gore, the thought of seeing a living person sliced open makes him ill. So when a doctor invites him to sit in on an operation, Queen braces his stomach. As it happens, his stomach is spared, but his brain must go to work. The patient is Abigail Doorn, a millionairess in a diabetic coma. To prepare her for surgery, the hospital staff has stabilized her blood sugar level and wheeled her to the operating theater—but just before the first incision, the doctors realize she is dead, strangled while lying unconscious on her gurney. Queen came to the hospital to watch surgeons work, but now it’s his time to operate.

Download or read book The Door Between written by Ellery Queen and published by Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raised in Japan by American expatriates, Karen Leith now lives a reclusive life in New York, known chiefly for her highly regarded novels, of which the latest has won a major American literary award. When she is found on the floor behind her desk, surrounded by blood, it looks like foul play. But the only possible suspect is Leith’s future daughter-in-law, Eva, who has recently become engaged. Eva swears by her innocence, even though she was the last to hear Leith alive and the first to find her dead. Eva was waiting outside Leith’s office to share the happy news and maintains that no one entered through that door, while the room's other possible exit was locked. The only one who can help her clear her name is mystery writer Ellery Queen, an acquaintance of the victim through New York’s literary circles. Queen intends to unravel the locked-room mystery, but with no murder weapon and too many incriminating fingerprints, this case just might be one even he can’t solve.

Download or read book Dr Franklin s Island written by Ann Halam and published by Laurel Leaf. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Semi, Miranda, and Arnie are part of a group of 50 British Young Conservationists on their way to a wildlife conservation station deep in the rain forests of Ecuador. After a terrifying mid-air disaster and subsequent crash, these three are the sole survivors, stranded together on a deserted tropical island. Or so they think. Semi, Miranda, and Arnie stumble into the hands of Dr. Franklin, a mad scientist who’s been waiting for them, eager to use them as specimens for his experiments in genetic engineering.

Download or read book Some of Your Blood written by Theodore Sturgeon and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the Horror Writers Association’s Top 40 Horror Books of All Time—the story of a troubled soldier and his bizarre, violent obsession with vampirism. At the height of an unnamed war, a soldier is confined for striking an officer. Referred to as George Smith in official papers and records, the prisoner comes under the observation of Army psychiatrist Philip Outerbridge, who asks the young man to put his story down on paper. The result is a shocking tale of abuse, violence, and twisted love, a personal history as dark and troubling as any the doctor has ever encountered. Believing the patient to be dangerously psychotic, Dr. Outerbridge must dig deeper into his psyche. And when the truth about the strange case of George Smith is fully revealed, the results will be devastating. Told through letters, transcripts, and case studies, Some of Your Blood is an extraordinary, poignant yet terrifying, genre-defying novel. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Theodore Sturgeon including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the University of Kansas’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the author’s estate, among other sources.

Download or read book Mr Penumbra s 24 Hour Bookstore written by Robin Sloan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a web-design drone, and serendipity, sheer curiosity and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than its name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Instead they “check out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behaviour and roped his friends into helping him figure out just what’s going on. But once they take their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the secrets extend far beyond the walls of the bookstore. Evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or Umberto Eco, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like—an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.

Download or read book The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy written by Avram Davidson and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Shambleau written by C.L. Moore and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised by H.P. Lovecraft as a “magnificent” debut, C.L. Moore’s first story is still one of the most famous and enduring tales in science fiction. Passing through the streets of Lakkdarol, the newest human colony on Mars, Northwest Smith witnesses a bizarre sight: a young woman, clad in scarlet, being chased by a mob chanting “Shambleau! Shambleau!” As beautiful as she is frightened, Northwest shields her from death at the hands of the mob, but alone in his quarters, she reveals how she intends to thank him and what lies inside the closely wrapped turban on her head... One of the strangest, and surely one of the most imaginative stories ever written, SHAMBLEAU was hailed by readers, authors, and editors as the debut of a truly gifted writer during the golden age of science fiction.

Download or read book The Man in the High Castle written by Philip K. Dick and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2011 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Slavery is back. America, 1962. Having lost a war, America finds itself under Nazi Germany and Japan occupation. A few Jews still live under assumed names. The 'I Ching' is prevalent in San Francisco. Science fiction meets serious ideas in this take on a possible alternate history.

Download or read book Shadows in the Stone written by Jack Dann and published by Ifwg Publishing International. This book was released on 2019-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of The Age #1 bestselling novel The Memory Cathedral returns to Renaissance Italy with a transcendent vision of the ultimate battle between good and evil. In Shadows in the Stone Jack Dann creates a fully-realized, living, breathing universe, a universe where the Vatican is in Venice, Jehovah is really a lesser god known as the Demiurge, and the magus John Dee's experiments with angels are true and repeatable. Here you'll discover a nun who has the expertise and agility of a Ninja warrior, the reincarnated snake goddess known as the Daughter of Light, the famed Florentine magician Pico Della Mirandola, a young magus who is part stone, the Knights Templar of the Crimson Cross, the sapphire tablet: the most secret of the Dead Sea scrolls, and a 15th Century dirigible kept aloft by imprisoned souls. Here you'll find wild adventure and Machiavellian subtlety, treason and heroism, love and carnality, joy and loss, magic, machines, the cosmic machinations of angels, demons, gods, and half-gods; and the absolutely breathtaking vistas that are their battle grounds. New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson has compared Shadows in the Stone with Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, calling it "such a complete world that Italian history no longer seems comprehensible without Dann's] cosmic battle of spiritual entities behind and within every historical actor and event." Join Jack Dann's protagonists--Louisa Morgan and Lucian Ben-Hananiah--and the fellowship of The Dark Companions in their apocalyptic battle against the Demiurge--described in the forbidden Gnostic texts as the demon god Yaldabaoth... and known to us as Jehovah.

Download or read book The Egyptian Cross Mystery written by Ellery Queen and published by Overamstel Uitgevers. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Queens are intrigued when a grisly murder mars a small town’s Christmas It’s Christmas in Chicago, and Inspector Richard Queen is enjoying a busman’s holiday at a conference on gangland violence—but his son, amateur sleuth Ellery, is bored silly. Until, that is, Ellery reads of an unusual killing in rural Arroyo, West Virginia: A schoolmaster has been found beheaded and crucified. Ellery hustles his father into his roadster and heads east, since there is nothing he’d like better for Christmas than a juicy, gruesome puzzle. When the Queens arrive in Arroyo, they learn that the victim was an eccentric atheist, but not the sort to make enemies. What initially looks to be the work of a sadistic cult turns out to be something far more sinister. In the months ahead, more victims will turn up all over the world—all killed in the same horrifying manner. It will take several bodies before Queen divines the clue that unlocks the mystery of the Christmas crucifixion.

Download or read book The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy written by Mike Ashley and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2014-04-11 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new and truly awesome collection of comic fantasy masterpieces! It isn't often you find a posse of Greek goddesses putting down insurrection among unruly classical mortals, stranded aliens escaping earth in a church converted into a rocket, or a light-fingered time-traveller attempting to steal the universe - but here they all are, in another selection of bizarre comic fantasies.