Lights in the sky. Strange visitors. Clashes between the FBI and a mysterious group of men clad in black.For as far back as history goes, there has been one unanswered question that just won't seem to go away: What are those unidentifiable flying objects in the sky? And furthermore, who are they?With stories spanning the past, present and future, this anthology focuses on this question that has made Science-Fiction great for the better part of a century. Enclosed i...

YOUR CALL TO CTHULHU IS IMPORTANT TO US. PLEASE HOLD.Red tape. Catch-22s. Circular chains of command. Whether you're a customer or co-worker, bureaucracies drive us all insane. Even management is just a cog in a vast machine. Information, items, and even people get lost in the system, never gone but never found. No one seems to notice the insanity surrounding them... or if they do, they keep it to themselves. After all, those who notice and call attention to it ten...

Are we alone? From War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ET to Close Encounters, creators of science fiction have always eagerly speculated on just how the story of alien contact would play out. Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today's most exciting genre writers, weaving a tapestry that covers a broad range of scenarios: from the insidious, to the violent, to the transcendent.

More than 70 very short stories in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror! Why are 18 million spoons disappearing from Melbourne, Australia each year? How good is the magic of a discount wizard? What if superheroes were afraid to use their powers? These and other flash fiction challenges were put to the writers in the forum at Aphelion Webzine, one of the internet’s oldest and finest sources for fiction. The 17 authors in this book responded to those challenges with amazing tales that will t...

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon — these are our guides through the Wastelands... From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction...

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend... who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor's guilt...

A doomsday masterpiece from the New York Times –bestselling, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of Eon and Hull Zero Three .On July 26, Arthur Gordon learns that Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter, has disappeared. Not hiding, not turned black, but gone.On September 28th, Edward Shaw finds an error in the geological records o...

There's a delicate balance between mental health and mental illness…Who are STRANGERS AMONG US?We are your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers. We staff your stores, cross your streets, and study in your schools, invisible among you. We are your outcasts and underdogs, and often, your unsung heroes.Nineteen science fiction and fantasy authors tackle the division between mental health and...

“One of the most thrilling writers working today. Miss him at your peril.” – Blake Crouch, Wayward PinesThe second book in the Next post-apocalyptic thriller seriesEARTH ZEROAs the remnants of the human race mobilize for an attack on the mutants who have taken over the abandoned cities, a small band of survivors are caught in the middle of the conflict.Rachel Wheeler’s own mutant abilities could make her a valuable resource for the ...

Richard Wilson (1920-1987) was a Nebula Award winning American science fiction writer and fan. He was a member of the Futurians, and was at his most prolific in the 1950s -- though he continued writing throughout his entire life. This volume focuses on his science fiction (24 stories) from the 1950s, but also includes a "non fiction" ghost story and a brief autobiography written in the 1980s. Included are:MURDER FROM MARSSTEPSONS OF MARSDATELINE: MARSVISITOR FR...

IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS.You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your eye. It is a groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide.From text-based adventures to first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers to horror games, ...

For more than eighty years H.P. Lovecraft has inspired writers of supernatural fiction, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and gaming. His themes of cosmic indifference, the utter insignificance of humankind, minds invaded by the alien, and the horrors of history—written with a pervasive atmosphere of unexplainable dread—remain not only viable motifs, but are more relevant than ever as we explore the mysteries of a universe in which our planet is infinitesimal and climatic change is overwhelm...