Fantasy Short Stories

Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive "preferred text" for Smith's entire body of work.

The aliens left. Their monsters didn’t. Life after the invasion is perilous for these young men. The world ended while they were still learning to drive. Now, they’re all that stands between humanity and extinction. But here’s the kicker: Earth’s alien invaders didn’t take everything when they departed. They left monsters behind. This collection contains five explosive sci-fi survival stories from bestselling author M.G. Herron. Each one follows a different hero facing impossible odds as he discovers what it takes to remain human when the world—and its alien monsters—want him dead.

The Grand Hotel is a horror novel by esteemed best-selling author Scott Kenemore ( Zombie, Ohio) that takes the reader on a thrilling ride through an interconnected series of stories narrated by the desk clerk and the residents of the hotel itself. And while it is not known whether or not the desk clerk is actually the devil incarnate, it is strange that so many visitors who come for a tour of the hotel have a way of never leaving.

Not one to let being banged up in Sick Bay stop her, Max has had a brilliant idea. But she needs Markham to execute it on her behalf. The subject of this cunning plan is Peterson, struggling with another bereavement and not doing very well. What’s needed to get him through it is sympathy, sensitivity, tact and understanding. Step forward Mr Markham, for whom sympathy, sensitivity, etc., are things that happen to other people.

Damien was a simple man, cruising on the highway of life. A goddess of temptation lures him into a deal he scoffs at. To him, superstition is for the foolish. Small problem: she's real, her ritual works, and Damien is magically teleported into a strange new realm. He awakens in Nordan, a land of myth and magic. A realm where humans battle legendary creatures for the amusement of the gods. In a war between man and myth. Damien's powers set him above the rest, a lord of life and death - enemy of all. Stranded, but not alone, will he perish, or conquer his way home?

Laurel is stabilizing a patient in the ER when the power goes out. When the rest of the hospital evacuates, she refuses to leave her patients behind—especially her sick mother. She’s determined to fight for their lives. Even if it means putting her own in danger… In a remote mountain cabin hundreds of miles away, Laurel’s husband, Bear, begins a grueling trek across Minnesota. He’ll do whatever it takes to reunite his family. But it’s a dangerous journey, and he’s all alone save for his loyal dog, Jessamine, and Trent, an orphaned boy he finds along the way.

Step into the visionary imagination of Ray Bradbury with this powerful collection of classic science fiction and speculative tales that helped define the Golden Age of the genre. The Selected Works of Ray Bradbury brings together seven unforgettable short stories that explore humanity’s hopes, fears, and moral crossroads against the vast backdrop of space, time, and the unknown.

Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation's eight tales of terror (two never before published) include the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated story "The Forest" and Shirley Jackson Award nominee "The Lagerstatte."

A romantasy series filled with magic, romance, ruthless love interests, and fated mates. The Arrow Hart Academy is a complete series comprising five books—Fractured Fates, Twisted Ties, Shattered Stars, Burdened Bonds, and Destined Dawn.

For over three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror listeners crave. Now, with the eighth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the audio of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman; Kelley Armstrong; Stephen King; Linda Nagata; Laird Barron; Margo Lanagan; and many others.

In this sweeping, threaded narrative of the global phenomenon known as the Vampire Wars, mankind is unwittingly infected by a millennia-old bacteria unknowingly exhumed by a scientific expedition in Antarctica. Now, in some rare cases, a person’s so-called junk DNA becomes activated. Depending on their racial and ethnic heritage, they begin to manifest one of the many diverse forms of the "others" that are the true basis for the legends of supernatural creatures. These aren’t your usual vampires and werewolves - it goes much deeper than that.

AN HBO ORIGINAL SERIES, COMING JANUARY 2026 Taking place nearly a century before the events of A Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms compiles the three official prequel novellas to George R. R. Martin's ongoing masterwork, A Song of Ice and Fire. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED...

Corey is new to Clydebank, a small town where the "Clydebank Welcome" means getting beat up. Blistering his hands mowing lawns to buy his first guitar, Corey’s lonely world shifts when he encounters Shadow, a Maine Coon with hypnotic turquoise eyes and a terrifying, magical power hidden in the town's uncultivated gully. Inspired by the dualities of Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice, this story explores a world where souls can burn with rage or freeze from grief.

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

Long buried beneath the desert sands, hidden in the leather-bound pages of a notorious outlaw's lost journal, lies a collection of the most scandalous confessions ever written. These aren't just stories; they're the whispered sins of gunslingers, saloon girls, ruthless bounty hunters, and untamed lovers who lived for passion, defied the law, and surrendered to desires as fierce as the frontier itself.

Anna has just started her new job at a mega-conglomerate corporation. Upon being assigned a tough task, Anna hears rumors about her supposedly arrogant and brash CEO. Things change dramatically when she is assigned to accompany him on a business trip.

Who would suspect that the same mind that created the most famous literary detective of all time also took on the eternally popular genre of vampires? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a contemporary of Bram Stoker, gave us some fascinating works of vampire fiction. From the bloodsucking plant in "The American's Tale" to the bloodsucking wife in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," he reveled in the horror created by creatures who survived on the blood of men and women.

Mark wanted to clock out of work, like an average guy, to have an average night with dreams of kicking his feet up. Fate happened to have another plan. After a dust storm envelops him, Mark awakes in the mythical land of Lathinia where adventure awaits. The land is teaming with magical monsters, and yes, fearsome dragons. Armed with a legendary sword and a very unique mount, he'll utilize a skill point system in the hopes of returning home.

29 Brand-New Sci-Fi Horror Stories. The future is now, and it's not what we were promised. The optimistic science fiction of old was wrong. Progress is not linear, technology creates as many problems as it solves, and the concept of a better tomorrow has become an abstraction that is in no way guaranteed. When looking at the future now, we no longer ask what is possible, we wonder how we'll cope. Contained within this anthology are 29 never-before-published works by supremely talented authors.

After traveling across the entirety of the Sealance Empire and the deserts of Lowenthal, Larek has returned home to the Kingdom of Androthe to find that the situation is quite different from what he remembered. Not only are there massive Apertures called Calamities consuming large portions of the landscape, but most of his friends are also scattered to locations unknown around the Kingdom. Worse yet, they have no idea who he is because of the Dominion magic used on them before he was transported to the Empire.