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WFA and BFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Exorcising Angels (2003). The story can also be found in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 15 (2004), edited by Stephen Jones.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Omni Best Science Fiction Three (1993), edited by Ellen Datlow, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, February 2013. It can also be found in the anthologies Omni Best Science Fiction Three (1993), edited by Ellen Datlow, and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. The story is included in the collections Antiquities (1993) and Novelties & Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction (2004).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

"Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. It's very unlikely that you'll die right now. It wouldn't be narratively complete."

Anna Sinjari -- refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker -- has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. Enter Ssrin, a many-headed serpent alien who is on the run from her own past. Ssrin and Anna are inexorably, dangerously drawn to each other, and their contact reveals universe-threatening stakes.

While humanity reels from disaster, Anna must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world.

The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act... different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries--and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

This psychological thriller follows a family to their Appalachian farmhouse, where they encounter an unimaginable horror.

In the summer of 1994, psychologist Daniel Hill buys a rustic farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills of West Virginia.

Along with his wife and teenage daughter, the family uproots their lives in Ohio and moves south. They are initially seduced by the natural beauty of the country setting. That soon changes when they discover a hidden room in the basement with a well, boarded shut and adorned with crucifixes.

Local legends about the previous owner being an exorcist come to light, but by then, all Hell has broken loose.

Like with Antoine Volodine's other works (Minor Angels, We Monks & Soldiers), Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven takes place in a corrupted future where a small group of radical writers--those who practice "post-exoticism"--have been jailed by those in power and are slowly dying off. But before Lutz Bassmann, the last post-exoticist writer, passes away, a couple journalists will try and pry out all the secrets of this powerful literary movement.

With its explanations of several key "post-exoticist" terms that appear in Volodine's other books, Lesson Eleven provides a crucial entryway into one of the most ambitious literary projects of recent times: a project exploring the revolutionary power of literature.

Exorcisms and Ecstasies includes appreciations and reminiscences by friends and fellow writers including Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, David Drake, James Wagner, and David J. Schow, a photo section, and a bibliography.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Talking with Karl - essay by Stephen Jones
• Midnight Sun - (1974) - poem
• Various Encounters with Karl - essay by Peter Straub
• Did They Get You to Trade? - (1992) - novelette
• The Kind Men Like - (1991) - short story
• Cedar Lane - (1990) - short story
• The Slug - (1991) - novelette
• Final Cut - (1996) - short story
• Locked Away - (1995) - short story
• Endless Night - (1987) - short story
• A Walk on the Wild Side - (1993) - short story
• Passages - (1994) - short story
• Little Lessons in Gardening - (1993) - short story
• I've Come to Talk with You Again - (1995) - short story
• An Awareness of Angels - (1988) - short story
• But You'll Never Follow Me - (1990) - short story
• Plan 10 from Inner Space - (1995) - novelette
• Prince of the Punks - (1995) - short story
• The Picture of Jonathan Collins - (1995) - short story
• Gremlin - (1995) - short story
• Brushed Away - short story
• In the Middle of a Snow Dream - (1994) - short story
• The Big Dutchman - essay by Frances Wellman
• All Good Friends - essay by David J. Schow
• In the Wake of the Night: An Excerpt - (1981) - short fiction
• The Treasure of Lynortis - (1984) - novella
• The Gothic Touch - (1994) - short story
• At First Just Ghostly - (1989) - novella
• Deep in the Depths of the Acme Warehouse - (1994) - short story
• Friends Die - essay by Ramsey Campbell
• Doc Wagner - essay by Jenny Campbell
• Satan's Gun - (1987) - short story
• Hell Creek - (1993) - short story
• One Paris Night - (1992) - short story
• The Truth Insofar As I Know It - essay by David Drake
• Brother Karl: Stories First and Last - essay by James R. Wagner
• The Education of Gergy-doo-doo - short story
• Stardust - (1959) - short story
• Killer - (1974) - novelette with David Drake
• The Coming of Ghor (Part 2 of 17) - (1977) - short fiction
• A Fair Cop - (1991) - short story
• Karl Edward Wagner: Sassenach - essay by Brian Lumley
• Karl Edward Wagner: A Working Bibliography of English Language First Editions - essay by Scott F. Wyatt and Stephen Jones
• Afterword: Karl Edward Wagner--A Personal Farewell - (1994) - essay by C. Bruce Hunter
• Death Angel's Shadow - (1974) - poem

Ahriman, exiled sorcerer lord of the Thousand Sons, has many servants who do his bidding. Each has a tale to tell, but few as compelling as that of Ctesias the twice-dead, summoner of daemons. From an encounter with the mysterious Dead Oracle to the perils of the Hounds and Wrath and navigating the Gates of Ruin, Ctesias is a vital link in Ahriman's grand plan. This is Ctesias' tale, in his own words, of his trials and the great and terrible deeds he has performed in his master's name. This is the chronicle of his path to damnation as he leads Ahriman to his exodus from the Eye of Terror.

Ctesias, a name you're sure to recognise from the Ahriman trilogy, takes centre stage and is the hero of his own story in this collection of tales... and that might just make Ahriman the villain. See the arch-sorcerer's manipulations through new eyes and experience some of the horrors he inflicts on his followers. The book also contains the first Black Library appearance of a classic character: Be'lakor, the first daemon prince of Chaos.

After the Clans are foiled in their attempt to conquer the Inner Sphere at the Battle of Tukayyid, one embittered soldier of Clan Smoke Jaguar resorts to treachery, upsetting the BattleTech universe for good.

Earth is a distant memory. Habitable extrasolar planets are still out of reach. For generations, humanity has been clinging to survival by establishing colonies within enormous vacuum-breathing space beasts and mining their resources to the point of depletion.

Rash, dreamy, and unconventional, Seske Kaleigh should be preparing for her future role as clan leader, but her people have just culled their latest beast, and she's eager to find the cause of the violent tremors plaguing their new home. Defying social barriers, Seske teams up with her best friend, a beast worker, and ventures into restricted areas for answers to end the mounting fear and rumors. Instead, they discover grim truths about the price of life in the void.

Then, Seske is unexpectedly thrust into the role of clan matriarch, responsible for thousands of lives in a harsh universe where a single mistake can be fatal. Her claim to the throne is challenged by a rival determined to overthrow her and take control--her intelligent, cunning, and confident sister.

Seske may not be a born leader like her sister, yet her unorthodox outlook and incorruptible idealism may be what the clan needs to save themselves and their world.

Nearly a thousand years removed from Earth, the remnants of humanity cling to existence inside giant, space faring creatures known as the Zenzee. Abused and exploited by humans for generations, these majestic animals nearly went extinct, but under the command of its newly minted ruler, Doka Kaleigh, life in the Parados I has flourished. Thanks to careful oversight and sacrifice by all of its crew, they are now on the brink of utopia, and yet Doka's rivals feel threatened by that success.

The Senate allowed Doka to lead their people believing he'd fail spectacularly--a disaster that would cement the legitimacy of their long-standing matriarchy. Despite vocal opposition and blatant attacks on his authority, Doka has continued to handle his position with grace and intelligence; he knows a single misstep means disaster. When a cataclysmic event on another Zenzee world forces Doka and his people to accept thousands of refugees, a culture clash erupts, revealing secrets from the past that could endanger their future. For Doka, the stakes are bigger and more personal than ever before--and could cost him his reign and his heart.

He has fallen for the one woman he is forbidden to love: his wife, Seske.

Doka and Seske must work closely together to sway the other Zenzee worlds to stop their cycles of destruction. But when they stumble upon a discovery that can transform their world, they know they must prepare to fight a battle where there can be no winners, only survivors.

It's been a century of peace since Earth became a colony of an alien race with far reaches into the galaxy. Some die-hard extremists still oppose their rule on Earth, but Donovan Reyes isn't one of them. His dad holds the prestigious position of Prime Liaison in the collaborationist government, and Donovan's high social standing along with his exocel (a remarkable alien technology fused to his body) guarantee him a bright future in the security forces. That is, until a routine patrol goes awry and Donovan's abducted by the human revolutionary group Sapience.

When Sapience realizes who Donovan's father is, they think they've found the ultimate bargaining chip. But the Prime Liaison doesn't negotiate with terrorists, not even for his own son. Left in the hands of terrorists who have more uses for him dead than alive, the fate of Earth rests on Donovan's survival. Because if Sapience kills him, it could spark another intergalactic war. And Earth didn't win the last one...

Earth's century of peace as a colony of an alien race has been shattered. As the alien-run government navigates peace talks with the human terrorist group Sapience, Donovan tries to put his life back together and return to his duty as a member of the security forces. But a new order comes from the alien home planet: withdraw. Earth has proven too costly and unstable to maintain as a colony, so the aliens, along with a small selection of humans, begin to make plans to leave. As word of the withdrawal spreads through the galaxy, suddenly Earth becomes vulnerable to a takeover from other aliens races. Aliens who do not seek to live in harmony with humans, but will ravage and destroy the planet.

As a galactic invasion threatens, Donovan realizes that Sapience holds the key that could stop the impending war. Yet in order to save humankind, all species on Earth will have to work together, and Donovan might just have to make the ultimate sacrifice to convince them.

This mind-blowing classic conjures a universe of unrelenting sexual degradation and horror. Private dick Herald Childe is sent a snuff movie of his partner being hideously murdered. His pursuit of the killers leads him into a waking nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality, as he becomes entangled with sex-starved she-ghosts, libidinous snake-women, a filthy human sow, and a she-creature who gives birth to an ectoplasmic simulacrum of Satanic child-killer Gilles de Rais.

Herald Childe has quit being a detective and gone back to college to study history. One day he sees one of the "people" from his adventure and decides to follow her. He gets caught and becomes their prisoner once again but this time things are different. It turns out that he is actually the son of Lord Byron, who was also one of "them". All of these monsters are aliens and there are two waring groups of them. Both sides want to control Childe because he is the only one who can get them back home. Childe, however, has other plans.

A machine that enables the living to communicate with the dead threatens to allow angry and vengeful ghosts to reenter the world of the living and enact cruel revenge.

The phenomenal bestseller that inspired the classic motion picture.

A young boy is found horribly murdered in a mock crucifixion. Is the murderer the elderly woman who witnessed the crime? A neurologist who can no longer bear the pain life inflicts on its victims? A psychiatrist with a macabre sense of humor and a guilty secret? A mysterious mental patient, locked in silent isolation?

Lieutenant Kinderman follows a bewildering trail that links all these people, confronting a new enigma at every turn even as more murders surface. Why does each victim suffer the same dreadful mutilations? Why are two of the victims priests? Is there a connection between these crimes and another series of murders that took place twelve years ago—and supposedly ended with the death of the killer?

Legion is a novel of breathtaking energy and suspense. But more than this, it is an extraordinary journey into the uncharted depths of the human mind and the most agonizing questions of the human condition.

Humans have colonized a thousand worlds and empires have risen and fallen. Now the Phoenix House rules the Thousand Suns from their planet Arthelion. And now the Emperor Gelasaar has won the mortal enmity of Eusabian, Lord of Vengeance, Avatar of Dol, the Ruler of Dol'jhar.

In one swift instant that has taken more than twenty years to plan, Eusabian will strike, slaying Gelasaar's sons and taking the Emperor himself captive. And then Eusabian will sit on the Emerald Throne, and Dal'jhar will rule the Thousand Suns.

But Brandon nyr-Arkud, the Emperor's scapegrace son, has chosen this moment to defy protocol and evade a ceremonial duty. And so he escapes the death prepared for him, and lives. Now the hopes of the Thousand Suns rests in the sensual, surprisingly capable hands of an aristocratic fugitive with an agenda all his own.

Jerrode Eusabian, Avator of Dol, sits uneasy on the Emerald Throne of the Thousand Suns, while Brandon vlith-Arkad, rightful heir to the throne, is harried across space. Brandon was meant to die, along with his two older brothers. But he escaped by merest chance - now he is the only hope for the restoration of the Phoenix Empire and the salvation of the people they once ruled. Brandon and his allies, the crew of the ship Telvarna, must flee from peril to peril in search of the one haven no Rifter would ever willingly seek: Ares Station, heart of the Empire's military power. And across the unthinkable reaches of space, the scattered Fleet of the Thousand Suns is slowly learning that their Emperor has been taken, and their home worlds sacked.

Brandon vlith-Arkad is safe on Ares, the Panarchic Navy's HQ. The sole heir to the Phoenix Throne must now fight a battle of symbols and deadly political intent, if he is to win the power to order the Navy into battle, to rescue his father, and win back the Empire now usurped by Eusabian of Dol'jhar. With him in this prison of velvet ropes and poisoned gifts is the crew of the Telvarna, the Rifter pirates whose loyalty Brandon has won in battle. Meanwhile, Brandon's father, the Panarch of the Thousand Suns, is being transported to the prison planet Gehenna. On board the ship his is fighting his own subtle war with his former fosterling, Eusabian's son Anaris. If Gelasaar can discover any hint that Anaris can rule as an Arkad would, the captive Panarch will aid Anaris to overthrow Eusabian himself.

From Pirate to Emperor... - Young Brandon Arkad has been brought by war and disaster to a duty he never expected: Pananch of the Thousand Suns, Emperor of the human worlds beyond the Rift. But his Empire is in shambles, as the implacable Jerrod Eusabian and his Rifter allies continue to pillage whole planets, and the Emerald Throne is out of reach on occupied Arthelion. The surviving nobility of the Panarchy have gathered aboard Ares, the headquarters of the Panarchic Fleet. Now Brandon must grasp the power given him in the moment of his father's death, and wield it to wrest his empire from the hands of the usurper. But he must win the faith of his people before he can hope to win a war, and that will not be easy. For there is a traitor at the heart of the Panarchy, thwarting Brandon's every move with poisonous rumor and murderous plots - a traitor at the center of Brandon's councils, close enough to be invisible - a traitor who will stop at nothing to destroy the Arkad dynasty.

The final battle for the Thousand Suns is at hand. Brandon hai-Arkad has been crowned Emperor, but his throne remains in the hands of his enemy, Jarrod Eusabian of Dol'jhar. The fleet has been gathered, the order or battle drawn. Brandon will reclaim his father's empire, or die.

Award-winning author, Steven Gould, returns to the world of his classic novel Jumper in Exo, the sequel to Impulse, blending the drama of high school with world shattering consequences.

Cent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the only people in the world who can. This is not as great as you might think it would be--sure, you can go shopping in Japan and then have tea in London, but it's hard to keep a secret like that. And there are people, dangerous people, who work for governments and have guns, who want to make you do just this one thing for them. And when you're a teenage girl things get even more complicated. High school. Boys. Global climate change, refugees, and genocide. Orbital mechanics.

But Cent isn't easily daunted, and neither are Davy and Millie, her parents. She's going to make some changes in the world.

The Photurians -- a hivemind of sentient AIs and machines -- were awakened by humanity as part of a complex political trap. But they broke free, evolved, and now the human race is almost finished. Once we spanned dozens of star systems; now only four remain, and Earth is being evacuated.

But the Photes can infect us, and among the thousands rescued from our home world may be enemy agents. Tiny colonies struggle to house the displaced. Our warships are failing. The end of humanity has come.

But on a distant planet shielded from both humanity and the Photurians, one hope may still live. The only person who might be able to intervene. The roboteer. He is trapped in a hell of his own making, and does not know he is needed. And so a desperate rescue mission is begun. But can he be reached in time? Or will he be the last remnant of humanity in the universe?

Ambassador Spock has married his fellow Vulcan Starfleet officer, Captain Saavik, but he and his wife have little time to enjoy their newlywed status before both of them are plunged into the heart of a clandestine war. Pursuing his hope of uniting Vulcan and Romulus after centuries of hostility between them, Spock finds himself inadvertently drawn into conflict with a long-lost race -- also of Vulcan descent -- who are set on the destruction of the weakened Romulan Empire. Together with the surviving members of Captain James T. Kirk's old crew, Spock and Saavik are forced to abandon the aegis of the Federation and wage their own secret war behind the scenes. And even as their relationship deepens, their future is threatened as Spock's dream of peace leads him into deadly danger...

One year after the end of the Dominion War, the Romulan Star Empire comes under attack by a mysterious and alarmingly powerful enemy calling itself the Watraii, a species with a long-standing vendetta against the Romulans. Yet though they remain tenuously allied, the Federation, the Romulans, and the Klingons are unready to become embroiled in another sustained conflict, forcing Ambassador Spock, Admiral Uhura, Admiral Chekov, Captain Saavik, and some unexpected allies to defy their governments in order to meet the new threat head-on. But the first blood drawn may prove to be among the dearest of all.

Unknown to the defenders, the secret behind the Watraii's attack is buried in Vulcan's violent ancient past, during the time of Surak himself, when the proto-Romulans -- staunch opponents of Surak's reforms -- were compelled to take their chances among the cold and distant stars. Now Spock must begin the first leg of a long and dangerous road to learn the truth... before his hopes for the future become ashes.

The Promised Land Has A Vermin Problem...

Once before, the sentient races in the known part of the galaxy had united against alien invaders. Decades have since passed and new generations have grown complacent... dangerously so.

Long ago, much of the population of an entire planet fled their world before its sun went nova in thousands of ships, each one larger than a city. Now, the armada has arrived at the world they intend to make their new home. They regard the fact that the planet is already colonized by humans as a mere inconvenience, and their mode of communication is so different from anything humans use that they do not consider humans and their allies to be truly intelligent.

This time, the races of the old alliance will not have to worry about becoming an invader's meal -- but that will be small comfort if these new invaders decide that genocide is justified for their own survival....

The eye of the beholder...

When Dr. Carson Beckett disturbs the rest of two longdead Ancients, he unleashes devastating consequences of global proportions.

With the very existence of Lantea at risk, Colonel John Sheppard leads his team on a desperate search for the long lost Ancient device that could save Atlantis. While Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Elizabeth Weir battle the ecological meltdown consuming their world, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Zelenka travel to a world created by the Ancients themselves. There they discover a human experiment that could mean their salvation...

But the truth is never as simple as it seems, and the team's prejudices lead them to make a fatal error -- an error that could slaughter thousands, including their own Dr. McKay.

Exogene (n.): factor or agent (as a disease-producing organism) from outside the organism or system. Also: classified Russian program to merge proto-humanoids with powered armor systems (slang).

Catherine is a soldier. Fast, strong, lethal, she is the ultimate in military technology. She's a monster in the body of an eighteen year old girl. Bred by scientists, grown in vats, indoctrinated by the government, she and her sisters will win this war, no matter the cost.

And the costs are high. Their life span is short; as they age they become unstable and they undergo a process called the spoiling. On their eighteenth birthday they are discharged. Lined up and shot like cattle.

But the truth is, Catherine and her sisters may not be strictly human, but they're not animals. They can twist their genomes and indoctrinate them to follow the principles of Faith and Death, but they can't shut off the part of them that wants more than war. Catherine may have only known death, but she dreams of life and she will get it at any cost. (2012)

Exodus from the Long Sun concludes Gene Wolfe's masterful sci-fi epic series, the Book of the Long Sun

It is the far future, and the giant spaceship, The Whorl, has traveled for forgotten generations toward its destination.

Lit inside by the artificial Long Sun, The Whorl is so huge that whole cities can be seen in the sky. And the gods of The Whorl have begun to intervene in human affairs. An entirely unexpected future awaits as Patera Silk and the other inhabitants are confronted with the world of an alien race.

Wolfe's great work is complete, with the mysterious fullness of life itself.

The sudden appearance of a second space elevator in Brazil only deepens the mystery about the aliens who provided it: the Builders. Scavenger crew captain Skyler Luiken and brilliant scientist Dr. Tania Sharma have formed a colony around the new Elevator’s base, utilizing mobile towers to protect humans from the Builders’ plague. But they are soon under attack from a roving band of plague-immune soldiers. Cut off from the colony, Skyler must wage a one-man war against the new threat as well as murderous subhumans and thugs from Darwin—all while trying to solve the puzzle of the Builders’ master plan . . . before it’s too late for the last vestiges of humanity.

Lieutenant Keira Jenkins and her Jackals may have survived confrontations with the Black Spiral terrorist network and a betrayal by one of their own. Yet their troubles are only just beginning.

With their starship badly damaged, they find themselves adrift in hostile territory. Somehow they must find a way to warn the Alliance before the Black Spiral unleashes a new war across the galaxy.

But first they must face the Alliance's oldest enemy: the Asiatic Directorate. And the Directorate has a score to settle with Jenkins...

The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.

But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake--going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven--the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.

Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for a case that will test every spell, skill, and odd magical artifact in their considerable bag of tricks.

The Doctor and Ace arrive in London 1951, but discover that somehow the Nazis have won the war. They must travel back into the history of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party to ensure that history is restored to its proper course. Timewyrm: Exodus is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. It is a sequel to author Terrance Dick's 1969 Second Doctor story The War Games as well as part of the ongoing four novel Timewyrm narrative.

It starts with a series of unexplained events. Earth tremors across the globe. Women being driven insane by their scrambled senses. Governments and scientists are bewildered and silent. The world needs Torchwood, but there's not much of Torchwood left.

Captain Jack Harkness has tracked the problem to its source: a village in Peru, where he's uncovered evidence of alien involvement. In Cardiff, Gwen Cooper has discovered something alien and somehow connected to Jack. If the world is to be restored, she has to warn him – but she's quickly becoming a victim of the madness, too...