Science Horror

Possessed of an extraordinary telekinetic gift - she can make objects burst into flames - Dahlia Le Blanc has spent her life isolated from other people. But just when she thinks she's finally achieved some peace, her world comes crashing down. For a reason she cannot guess, she has become the target of deadly assassins. Suddenly, no place is safe - not even the secret refuge she established long ago. Now she must rely on Nicolas Trevane, a dangerous warrior sent to track her down and protect her.

Dr. Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious young scientist, is consumed by a fanatic desire to create a living being. He fashions an eight-foot-tall creature and succeeds in animating him, but, horrified by his visage, perceives his creation to be a monster and frightens him away. The monster, wandering in search of human companionship, is spurned and repulsed by all he approaches and learns to hate and to kill.

Sabina Kane doesn't really fit in. And being an assassin doesn't help matters. But she's never brought her work home. Until now. Sabina's latest mission is uncomfortably complex and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As she scrambles to figure out which side she's on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family, and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life changing, but together they could be lethal.

You can't kill the dead! Like any good monster, the zombie has proven to be ever-evolving, monumentally mutable, and open to seemingly endless imaginative interpretations: the thralls of voodoo sorcerers, George Romero's living dead, societal symbols, dancing thrillers, viral victims, reanimated ramblers, video-gaming targets, post-apocalyptic permutations, shuffling sidekicks, literary mash-ups, the comedic, and, yes, even the romantic.

Ten years after the collapse, Huxley has built a good life again. He has a loving wife, a farm with fields of golden barley, and a daughter with a strange and wonderful gift. Then the slavers come. Working out in the fields during the attack, Huxley returns too late. His daughter has been taken, and his wife is bleeding out, her last whispered words about a man with a scorpion tattoo on his neck. Where do the slavers go? Huxley has no idea. He knows only that they head east, and so will he, setting out on foot across the desert of the Wastelands.

Just like all little girls, I hoped I was special and that one day my powers would be revealed. My parents would be bewildered, my friends would equally worship and envy me, and my bullies would run away in terror! Nothing happened when I turned 10. I didn't grow wings at 12, still wasn't able to make things move with my mind at 14, and at 16, I was already too old to believe in such nonsense. Well, what do you think happened the day I turned 18? I got the confirmation that I was only human. In the mail! Oh, and also an invitation to apply to the Grim Reaper Academy.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER If you think you know the truth behind Dr. Brenner’s experiments at Hawkins Laboratory, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in the first official Stranger Things novel—“the prequel story that fans have been waiting for” (Kirkus Reviews). It’s the...

In a desperate bid to survive as hordes of bloodthirsty undead now dominate the ravaged US population, a navy commander discovers an incredible secret about the pandemic in this fourth novel in the acclaimed Day by Day Armageddon series. Task Force Phoenix may be humanity's final hope, and the narrator's agonizing decisions could mean living one more day - or surrendering to the eternal hell that exists between life and death.

My life ended the moment the X-Clan found me. Bitten. Turned. And claimed by him. My genetic markers label me as a rare Omega. But inside, I'm all female alpha. And I will not heel. Not even to the Alpha of Andorra Sector. Ander Cain promises me protection. A new world of pleasure and pain. But he wants all of me in return. Even if it means taking me by force. I'll be damned if I give up my inner fight. I spent the last 21 years battling the walking dead. These wolves won't know what hit them when I'm through.

Gabriel Delling might call himself a professional con artist, but when walking superstitions start trying to bite his face off, his charm is shockingly unhelpful. It turns out living nightmares almost never appreciate a good joke. Together with a succubus who insists on constantly saving his life, Gabe desperately tries to survive a new reality that suddenly features demons, legends, and a giant locust named Dale - all of whom pretty much hate his guts. And when an ancient horror comes hunting for a spirit locked in his head, Gabe finds himself faced with the excruciating choice between death...or becoming some kind of freaking hero.

An exciting audio adaptation of the classic DC comic book series, All-Star Superman by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, featuring a full cast, sound effects, and music. All-Star Superman is a spectacular reimagining of the Superman mythos, from the Man of Steel's origin to his...

Douglas Kirk is having a bad week. Not only are humans hunting him, but whole packs of werewolves have been commanded to kill him on sight, forcing him to flee Halifax without identification, money, weapons, even his phone.

The outbreak began in New York. Soon it had spread to the rest of the world. People were attacked and infected, and they died. Then they came back. Nowhere is safe from the undead. As anarchy and civil war took grip across the globe, Britain was quarantined. The press was nationalized. Martial law, curfews, and rationing were implemented. It wasn't enough. An evacuation was planned.

A week before Lenore Warwick's 21st birthday, she's kidnapped by the brooding and dangerous stranger with cold eyes and a lethal touch, who has been stalking her on San Francisco's fog-shrouded streets. Absolon "Solon" Stavig isn't your average criminal though. He's a centuries-old vampire who's caught between wanting to kill Lenore and wanting to save her.

Dak Korasa believed he was a galaxy-exploring archaeologist and expert in alien antiquities. But his body is merely a vessel, grown in a laboratory to find and play host to an alien parasite species known as the chok’tal. Possessed by this entity, Dak was granted superhuman abilities as well as the consciousness of the chok’tal’s previous host: special forces soldier Jekra Modri. Now, he’s a Purifier, one of the deadliest predators in the universe. But to survive, Dak must earn “kill points” in combat—or the chok’tal within his body will kill him.

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.

When the American ace Major Jack Freeman - poster boy for the war against the Kaiser's undead army of shamblers - is shot down over enemy lines and taken captive, veteran Captain Michael "Madman" Burke is the only man brave and foolish enough to accept the mission to recover him. Burke assembles a team of disparate members - his right-hand man, Sergeant Moore, big-game-hunter-turned-soldier Clayton Manning, and Professor Dan Graves, one of Tesla's top men and the resident authority on all things supernatural, among them - to dare the impossible.

In Canterbury, as the virus rages out of control, one troop of Royal Marine Commandos fights a 360-degree battle for survival while also racing to rescue the Channel Tunnel survivors from a relentless siege, all before Hellfire missile strikes and carpet bombing kill anyone left alive. Across the Atlantic,the crew of the USS John F. Kennedy risks a catastrophic reactor meltdown to get out of the path of a 10-mile-wide tide of the dead.

In Ghostly Japan collects 12 ghostly stories from Lafcadio Hearn, deathless images of ghosts and goblins, touches of folklore and superstition, salted with traditions of the nation. While some of these stories contain nightmare imagery worthy of a midnight creature feature, others are not ghostly or ghastly at all. "Bits of Poetry" offers an engaging study on verse, and "Japanese Buddhist Proverbs" explains the meaning of several aphorisms based on Japanese cultural references.

This statement was true when H. P. Lovecraft first wrote it at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains true at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The only thing that has changed is what is unknown. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year, edited by Ellen Datlow, chronicles these shifting shadows.