Fantasy Short Stories

This omnibus collection contains the books New Player in Town, Mech Hunt, and Showdown at Craydon, as well as a previously unpublished prologue story, "Final Days"!

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.

The Drexian warriors are big, and gorgeous, and tasked with keeping Earth safe from violent invaders. In exchange, Earth has agreed to send a select number of women to their holographic space station, to be the warriors’ mates. Too bad, the women don’t know anything about it. Not until they’ve been abducted, at least. As hot as the Drexian warriors are, not all the abducted women want to take an alien mate. But these warriors aren’t used to being disobeyed. And they aren’t used to feisty human women. Sparks will fly.

A supernatural mystery with humor and romantic spice. If you're looking for a paranormal twist that will have you laughing out loud, then prepare yourself for Werewolves, Vampires and Demons, Oh My. This collection includes all three books in the series: Indecent Werewolf Exposure, Mr. Peabody's House, and A Demon Stole My Kitty.

Katya deals in Authenticities, trading on nostalgia for a past long gone. But when she encounters a stranger who calls himself Johnny in the woods - even she can't say whether it's real or not.

This collection highlights the imaginative brilliance of Ray Bradbury, one of the most influential voices in science fiction. Spanning over 15 stories, the anthology offers a window into Bradbury's unique ability to blend futuristic ideas with profound human emotions. Featured stories like The Monster Maker, Morgue Ship, The Irritated People, Pillar of Fire, Zero Hour, A Little Journey, and Asleep in Armageddon showcase the author's wide-ranging themes, from space exploration and dystopian futures to the darker sides of human nature.

The intrepid necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach—scourges of civilization, raisers of the dead, reapers of the souls of the living, devourers of hope, betrayers of faith, slayers of the innocent and modest personifications of evil—have a lot to answer for and answer they will, but first they must lie, murder and cheat their way through three more escapades in some of the harsher fringes, deprived wastelands and impoverished communities of the Malazan Empire. Much to the shame of their long-suffering general factotum, Emancipor Reese...

What begins as a trip to unlock the secrets of famed healing springs transforms into far more when Alaeron, an alchemist and explorer, learns of a tomb full of ancient relics and wealth. There's only one problem - the other would-be tomb robbers got there first. Can Alaeron talk his way to treasure, or would he have been better off staying in the healing pools?

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

Kelvin comes from an isolated community of fierce warriors known as the Xaros. They train rigorously to battle across the portal realms. Through their conquests and tribulation, they allow their society to operate in safety. For Kelvin, he hopes to prove to live up to the legends when he ventures away from home with his twin battle axes infused with magic. He's eager to slay foes and repay the investment sunk into his fancy gear–paid for through the blood and lives of those before him.

Dubbed "the American Tolkien" by Time magazine, #1 New York Times bestselling author George R.R. Martin is a giant in the field of fantasy literature and one of the most exciting storytellers of our time. Now he delivers a rare treat for readers: a selection of his shorter works, collected...

Prepare to be spooked! Here are tales of vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night!

Moonlit graveyards, ravenous monsters, and deadly reflections in the mirror...some nightmares are so diabolically delicious, you never want them to end. And now they don’t have to. Scare Street brings you volumes one and two of Short Horror Stories in a single edition. Six macabre morsels of fear, brought together for your listening pleasure. And each tale packs enough spine-tingling chills to last a lifetime. The clock chimes midnight. Your heart pounds in your chest as you start to listen. You begin to wonder...can you survive long enough to see the next nightmare begin?

Civilization has collapsed, and the man who's responsible is buried in a small town graveyard. At night, teens Wren and Elias meet near his grave to spend some alone time together, but a stranger resembling a character from an old children's book interrupts them with a strange message.

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

About this story, author Cat Rambo says, "This is the second time I've written about Serendib (the first story featured the antagonist from this one), but the world's been floating around in my head for a couple of decades now, originally as a game setting, and I can tell more stories and a possible novel are lurking within it as well. I chose a middle-aged married couple as my protagonists because I don't see much heroic fantasy with characters like that, and it seems like a definite lack to me."

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision - veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

The last time Matteo tried out for the Rangers, he lost an arm. In a world plagued by monstrous threats, Matteo is granted a second chance to join the elite Rangers—the monster hunters protecting the city atop a giant turtle. With the promise of wielding a powerful magical artifact, he vows to excel in boot camp and make this opportunity count. Yet, as he endures the grueling trials of the Ranger training, a dark revelation surfaces: their ranks are thinning at an alarming rate.

William and his friends have battled scores of the diseased and left communities behind them on their journey to find what lies south of the wall bisecting the country. They’ve lost loved ones and overcame many challenges, but they’ve never faced an obstacle as great as the one before them: the wall, steel, sheer, and 200 feet tall—an insurmountable barrier designed to separate the north and south. Their dream should stop here, but the group has a plan to get to the other side, and it might just work.

For well over a century, Monster Hunter International has kept the world safe from supernatural threats small and large - and, in some cases, very, very large. Now, join us as MHI opens their archives for the first time. From experienced hunters on their toughest cases, to total newbies' initial encounters with the supernatural, The Monster Hunter Files reveals the secret history of the world's most elite monster fighting force.