Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2011, Speakman beat the disease as well as the massive medical debt he amassed from its treatment. He did this by publishing Unfettered, an anthology featuring short stories donated by some of the best science fiction and fantasy writers working today. The fight will not stop there. In an effort to pay forward the aid he received--and to memorialize his mother who passed away from stomach cancer in early 2016--Speakman has again collaborated with celebrated genre authors to publish Unfettered II. All proceeds from the anthology will either help eliminate medical debt for other authors or be donated to cancer research hubs around the world. Twenty original new tales comprise this amazing collection and, as the title suggests, the writers were again free to contribute whatever they wished. With the help of New York Times bestselling authors as well as talented newcomers, Speakman has taken the platform Unfettered created to not only confront medical debt but to support the battle against one of our gravest illnesses. Unfettered II is a fantastic sequel anthology but it is more than that; it is proof that we are stronger together than we are apart. After all, isn't that what genre fiction is all about?

Legends say that on stormy nights, or during sunsets, there sometimes comes a strange whistling in the sky followed by sightings of enormous black dogs. But these are no ordinary dogs. They are demonic things, hounds loose from the Wild Hunt, and they are searching for lost souls. They are rarely sighted more than one at a time, but if all seven should come together, it will mean the end of the world. In the picturesque New England town of Kingsbury, Vermont, a young woman named Rose Kerrigan mourns the death of her grandfather, the sweet but strange old man who raised her. Soon, Rose will learn the legend of the Seven Whistlers. They've come to Kingsbury in search of a soul that has been hidden from them, and they will not leave without it. First there was one, then two...then four...If they don't find what they're looking for soon, perhaps all seven will gather in Kingsbury. And if all seven should come together....Praise for The Seven Whistlers - "A quick, intriguing, satisfyingly creepy read, refreshingly free of emo sap. Fans of dark, post-modern fantasy should find it to be a tasty morsel."-- The Green Man Review"Powerful, beautifully conceived and developed, and utterly riveting. Benson and Golden have created a new mythology that rings true. This is a writing force to be reckoned with, a team who can produce the kind of modern mythic fiction that drives Gaiman, de Lint and Bull fans wild. It's too good not to share."-- Rambles.net

"A moving, thoughtful feminist novel set in a gritty and believable dystopian future."-- Kirkus Reviews In Book One of the Holdfast Chronicles, Aldera the Messenger, along with all other women, is a slave. In Book Two, Aldera the Runner lives in two worlds, both consisting entirely of women. Now In Book Three, The Furies, Aldera the Conqueror leads an army back over the mountains, hoping to end the tyranny and free the salves she left behind.

A Nebula-nominated classic by a Grandmaster of Science Fiction, Robert Silverberg, The Masks of Time tells the story of Vornan-19...a naked man who suddenly appears on the Spanish Stairs. *** Vornon-19 claims to have come from the far future and has access to technological marvels that support his claim. But is he really what he claims to be? *** Leo Garfield and his fellow scientists must unravel the truth about Vornon-19, but are they up to the job, or will they too fall under his magic-like spell, just like the rest of the world who is ready to worship a new kind of a messiah?

In the classic noir tradition of "Have Gun, Will Travel," Rachel Pollack--one of the world's foremost authorities on the Tarot--gives us the tale of Jack Shade, an occult shaman for hire. Jack Shade has a secret, and this hidden part of his past sends him on a journey through time and space and a great number of metaphysical doorways. From the cosy poker table in the eleventh floor apartment of the Hotel de Reve Noire to the ethereal Forest of Souls to the faded houses along the Gold River, Jack flows in and out of this world. Even when his own duplicate hires him to kill himself, Jack is mercury in motion. Jack the Nimble. Jack the Quick. The Fissure King: A Novel in Fire Stories collects the four existing Jack Shades novellas and shows us Jack's final trick--one last story that finally reveals Jack's true nature. Only Rachel Pollack, one of the world's greatest authorities of tarot and an award-winning novelist and comic book writer, could dream of someone as mischievous and mythopoeic as Jack Shade. The King is dead. Long live the King.

Set in an imagined land where magic and religion work in strange ways, this is the story of young Valemar, who discovers that he is the heir to the throne; his dark, manipulative cousin, Narrion; and Taja, a young woman who finds her destiny in magic. Along the way, there are intrigues, battles, duels with swords and with magic, and the revelation of complex human relationships.

WARRIOR, WIZARD, DWARF, THEIF, AND MASTER BUILDERall of them had chosen this world as their destiny, a realm where dragons were only too real and magic, not science, was the law of the land. Karl, Andrea, Ahira, Walter, and Lou knew there was no going back to twentieth-century America now. Instead they were stranded in a time and place where only healing spells and their own wits stood between them and the sharp, deadly edge of a slaver's blade.But even if they could have returned home by some sorcerous trick, all of them would have refused the chance, bound by their pledge to bring this incredible realm the one treasure it lacked -freedom! But leagued against them in their fight were the entire forces of both Wizards and the Slavers guilds. And, in this world where a wrong step or a twisted spell could transform friend into foe, how could Karl and his band fulfill their pledge?

When thief and swindler Nacky Patcher and orphaned eleven-year-old Teedie Flinn discover a huge wrecked boat in a small mountain lake near their town, they try to unite all the inhabitants to help rebuild the vessel--an endeavor that forever changes all of their lives.

"Aspen (the hostage prince) and Snail (the midwife's apprentice) must gather an army to face the Unseelie forces that want to destroy Aspen's home country"--

The wandering fire: "After a thousand years of imprisonment the Unraveller has broken free and frozen Fionavar in the ice of eternal winter. His terrible vengeance has begun to take its toll on mortals and demi-gods, mages and priestesses, dwarves and the Children of Light. The five brought from Earth across the tapestry of worlds must act to wake the allies Fionavar desperately needs. But no one can know if these figures out of legend have power enough to shatter the icy grip of death upon the land--or if they even want to..."--Provided by publisher.

The third novel in the original saga based on the movie Willow From the story by George Lucas, creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones , and Chris Claremont, author of the bestselling X-Men adventures, comes the thrilling and unforgettable climax to an epic saga of myth, magic, and legend. Elora Danan has in her possession two last dragon eggs . . . and the last hope of the world. To protect them, Elora spellbinds herself to her faithful companions Thron Drumheller, the sorcerer and her sworn guardian, and Khory Bannefin, the woman warrior inhabited by a demon's offspring. It is a dire spell that ensures none of them will betray their cause . . . even at the cost of their lives. Meanwhile, Elora and her allies are being relentlessly pursued by the dreaded Black Rose, the Deceiver's commando assassins. But the greatest enemy lies within Elora herself. For the Deceiver is her own dark twin from a potential future of unimaginable evil. And the only way Elora can stop that future is to befriend an enemy whose insatiable appetite for destruction could destroy all of creation. Or is that, too, part of the Deceiver's plan?

In Union Grove, early spring is a challenging season, known as the "six weeks want," a time when fresh food is scarce and the winter stores are dwindling. The town is struggling in particular this year as the Hudson River trade route to Albany has been halted by the local plantation tycoon Stephen Bullock, who has deemed it too resource-intensive and is now striving for self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, after returning from his travels around what is left of the United States, Daniel Earle is intent on resurrecting a newspaper for the community, and finds an interesting story to cover when representatives of a group of anti-establishment, hyper-liberals known as the Berkshire People's Republic arrive in the town.

Introducing Marvel's all-new, never-before-seen heroes of the 1930s! With a new evil washing over an unsuspecting New York City, the Operative, the Aviatrix, the Surgeon, the Revenant and Achilles blast through dangers from blood-soaked mob warehouses to monster-infested mansions, and fight to blow the lid off a conspiracy that could bring the nation itself to its knees! Award-winning historical thriller novelist David Liss (Black Panther: The Man Without Fear) and acclaimed artist Patrick Zircher (Spider-Man Noir) weave an edge-of-your-seat and in-continuity adventure intertwined with America's most scandalous crimes! Before the Invaders...before the Twelve...who were the Mystery Men? COLLECTING: MYSTERY MEN 1-5

Once her parents are off to bed, Poesy excitedly awaits the monsters that creep into her room. With the knowledge she's gained from her trusty Monster Book and a few of her favorite toys, Poesy easily fends off a werewolf, a vampire, and much more.

All Calliope Reaper-Jones ever wanted out of life was a fabulous job in New York City and a really hot boyfriend. But now, she's the brand-new President of Death, Inc. With the Board of Death breathing down her neck and her dad's copy of How to be Death (A Fully Annotated Guide) unopened, Callie's really feeling the tension. And when the guide book is stolen at a fancy formal dinner, Callie has to figure out how to be the boss--before the powers held within the book get out and destroy humanity forever...

Calliope, Death's Daughter, owes a debt to Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell--a debt that involves a trip to Purgatory, Las Vegas, ancient Egypt, and a discount department store that's more frightening than any creature she'll ever encounter.

THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A NEW ARRIVAL ON OMEGA AVERAGED THREE EARTH YEARS Barrent had been tried, convicted, and memory-washed on Earth - an Earth strangely altered and stratified by fear of the radical and non-conformist. Now he was serving his sentence on Omega - a prison planet walled by a ring of hovering guard-ships from which there was no escape. Omega was a world of horror, a savage, ruthless way of life. But it was only a momentary ordeal, a prelude to a return to Earth and the subtle terrors of its own status civilization. Robert Sheckley was a Hugo and Nebula-nominated American author. He was first published in science fiction magazines of the 1950's. His numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and comical. Sheckley was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

From Pulitzer Prize–winner Mark Strand comes an exquisitely witty and poignant series of prose poems. Sometimes appearing as pure prose, sometimes as impure poetry, but always with Strand’s clarity and simplicity of style, they are like riddles, their answers vanishing just as they appear within reach. Fable, domestic satire, meditation, joke, and fantasy all come together in what is arguably the liveliest, most entertaining book that Strand has yet written.

The unofficial bible of the French Symbolist movement, admired by Mallarmé, Jarry and Gide, in a new translation When Marcel Schwob published The Book of Monelle in French in 1894, it immediately became the unofficial bible of the French Symbolist movement, admired by such contemporaries as Stéphane Mallarmé, Alfred Jarry and André Gide. A carefully woven assemblage of legends, aphorisms, fairy tales and nihilistic philosophy, it remains a deeply enigmatic and haunting work more than a century later, a gathering of literary and personal ruins written in a style that evokes both the Brothers Grimm and Friedrich Nietzsche. The Book of Monelle was the result of Schwob's intense emotional suffering over the loss of his love, a "girl of the streets" named Louise, whom he had befriended in 1891 and who succumbed to tuberculosis two years later. Transforming her into the innocent prophet of destruction, Monelle, Schwob tells the stories of her various sisters: girls succumbing to disillusionment, caught between the misleading world of childlike fantasy and the bitter world of reality. This new translation reintroduces a true fin-de-siècle masterpiece into English. A secret influence on generations of writers, from Guillaume Apollinaire and Jorge Luis Borges to Roberto Bolaño, Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman (whom he translated into French). Paul Valéry and Alfred Jarry both dedicated their first books to him, and he was the uncle of Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun.

In honor of Harlan Ellison's eightieth birthday, Susan Ellison-his wife of thirty years, the Electric Baby-has scoured raw eight (8) decades of his written output (from his 1949 serialized stories in The Cleveland News to as-yet unpublished tales fresh from his Olympia Manual typewriter) to present one artifact from each calendar decade. Where possible, the eight stories herein have been reproduced from Ellison's original typescripts, as preserved in his meticulous archives. In some cases, they may differ from the preferred texts established over years of revisions and reprints. From the 1940s: "The Sword of Parmagon," a five-part serial inspired by the works of Sir Walter Scott. Originally published in the Cleveland News when the author was fifteen years old, this story has been re-set with the original illustrations for this printing. From the 1950s: "Nedra at f:5.6," Ellison's homage to Fritz Leiber, reprinted from the revised typescript. From the 1960s: "The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie," a novella of Hollywood written as a showpiece for Ellison's first hardback collection. Reprinted from the original typescript with the author's handwritten corrections. From the 1970s: "The Diagnosis of Dr. D'arqueAngel," a fantasy written from a concept generated before an audience of California high school students by the author, Ray Bradbury, and Frank Herbert. Reprinted from the original typescript. From the 1980s: "She's a Young Thing and Cannot Leave Her Mother," the story Ellison was writing while attending the Scottish convention where he met the future Susan Ellison (and Neil Gaiman). Reprinted from the original typescript. From the 1990s: "Scartaris, June 28th," the story that--according to Susan Ellison--crystallized a new auctorial voice for her husband, the one that would go on to appear in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES with "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" (available in HARLAN 101: ENCOUNTERING ELLISON). Reprinted from the original typescript. From the 2000s: "Incognita, Inc.," the story that explores the source of all those maps to buried treasure and magical lands. Reprinted from the original typescript, it makes its first appearance in an Ellison collection here. From the 2010s: "Weariness," inspired by a random piece of art, was first published in an anthology dedicated to the late Ray Bradbury. Reprinted from the original typescript, it makes its first appearance in an Ellison collection here.