Search Worlds Without End

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie's death in combat, along with his personal effects -- but something doesn't make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something -- or someone -- else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura's and Freddie's deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging -- or better left behind entirely.

Ghosts of Yesterday is a stunning new collection by multiple-award-winning author Jack Cady The Off Season, The Haunting of Hood Canal. Cady captures the sights and emotions of America, from the Pacific Northwest ("Jeremiah"), to the streets of San Francisco ("The Lady With the Blind Dog"), to the Midwest-heartland ("Halloween 1942"), along the roads and highways in between ("The Ghost of Dive Bomber Hill"), and back into the history of the American Southeast ("The Time That Time Forgot").

The stories that make up Ghosts of Yesterday are detailed and realistic portraits of the world that, despite (and perhaps because) of their authenticity, manage to convey a sense of wonder and fantastic, where anything is possible.

The characters and places that Cady brings to life demonstrate clearly why he is one of the most versatile and respected writers today... His stories will move you, and change the way you look at the world.

Contents:

• The Lady With the Blind Dog
• Jeremiah
• Science Fiction, Utopia, and the Spirit
• Halloween 1942
• On Writing the Ghost Story
• The Ghost of Dive Bomber Hill
• Weird Row
• Daddy Dearest
• Jacket Copy
• Griffin
• Isreal
• The Time that Time Forgot

Here together for the first time in one volume are the twenty five spooky stories created by Sir Andrew Caldecott in two collections the 1940s: "Not Exactly Ghosts" and "Fires Burn Blue". Caldecott, who only turned to fiction after retiring from the civil service, allowed his lifelong fascination with the supernatural full reign in these simple yet remarkably disturbing stories. Taking his inspiration from the master of the ghost story, M. R. James, who chilled by implication rather than by gory description, Caldecott created believable but unsettling scenarios which effectively produce a sense of unease in the reader. The mundane becomes horrific; the everyday is unnerving; and the commonplace is frightening. At last these rare forgotten gems are available once more to stir the imagination and chill the blood.

Ramsey Campbell's Ghosts Know is a fascinating exploration of the twists and turns of reality-media personalities, the line between the dead and the living... and how the truth can be twisted to serve all manner of reality.

Graham Wilde is a contentious, bombastic host of the talk radio program Wilde Card. His job, as he sees it, is to stir the pot, and he is quite good at it, provoking many a heated call with his eccentric and often irrational audience. He invites Frank Jasper, a purported psychic, to come on the program. He firmly believes that the man is a charlatan, albeit a talented one. When Jasper appears on his show, Wilde draws upon personal knowledge about the man to embarrass him on air, using patter similar to that which Jasper utilizes in his act.

Wilde's attack on Jasper earns him the enmity of his guest and some of the members of his audience. He next encounters Jasper when the psychic is hired by the family of a missing adolescent girl to help them find her. Wilde is stunned and then horrified when Jasper seems to suggest that he might be behind the girl's disappearance.

Thus begins a nightmarish journey as circumstantial evidence against Wilde begins to mount, alienating his listeners, the radio station, and eventually, his lover. As Wilde descends into a pit of despair, reality and fantasy begin to blur in a kaleidoscope of terror....

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 3: New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness (2010), edited by Mike Allen. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, edited by Rich Horton.

Listen to the full story for free at PodCastle.

Which is harder: seeing your own future -- or truly knowing your past? A science fiction tale of Christmases past and yet to come.

This story can be found in David Hartwell anthology Year's Best SF 18 (2013), Paula Guran's Time Travel: Recent Trips (2014) and the collection A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories (2015).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Seventeen all-new stories illuminate the steampunk world of fog and fear!

Modern masters of the supernatural weave their magic to revitalize the chilling Victorian and Edwardian ghostly tale: here are haunted houses, arcane inventions, spirits reaching across the centuries, ghosts in the machine, fateful revelations, gaslit streets scarcely keeping the dark at bay, and other twisted variations on the immortal classics that frighten us still.

When Sophia Galich was twelve, she starred in her older sister Layla's amateur horror movie Vermillion, which recorded raw footage of her very real reactions to scenes her sister concocted in their old Californian house on the coast--Cashore House.

In the years after the film's release, Sophia's relationship with her sister became more strained, while her memories of the now-infamous house fueled her nightmares. Vermillion amassed an army of fanatical fans who speculated about the film's hidden messages, and it was rumored that Layla made a pact with the devil--her soul in exchange for fame and arcane knowledge. Sophia dismissed this as gossip... until Layla disappeared.

Now, Sophia must study the trail of clues Layla has left behind, returning to the very place where it all began. As she gets closer and closer to Cashore House's haunted heart, she must once again confront the ghosts of her childhood. But the house won't reveal its secrets without a fight.

Three-year-old Vangie is mute and unresponsive. She shows no interest in the people or world around her, much to the frustration of her callous foster parents. Little do they know, Vangie is otherwise occupied observing "ghosts" - an infinite number of versions of herself, in an infinite number of parallel universes.

When a tornado hits their trailer and Vangie is severely injured, she makes a desperate leap into another timeline where she survives the tornado, but her foster parents do not. So begins a life of shuttling through various foster homes, cultivating her abilities to seek out alternate timelines, and making jumps calculated to better her circumstances in order to avoid the exploitation of adults who seek to harness her powers for their own means.

Vangie never communicates with her avatars, until one day the "Council" - a group of Vangies - appear to her and warn her of an ominous, growing threat in the multiverse: a man they call the Massive. And thus begins an epic conflict, spanning millennia and worlds, in a brutal effort to control the fate of the multiverse.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1999. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2002, edtied by Kim Stanley Robinson and the collections Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois (2001) and When the Great Days Come (2011).

Coming back into town after a hunting expedition, Alexandre Dumas witnesses an incredible scene: a man has come to hand himself in to the mayor after decapitating his wife, terrified by the fact that her severed head spoke to him even after her death. This prompts the guests at a dinner Dumas attends later that evening to exchange stories of death and the supernatural, ranging from accounts of the guillotine during the Terror to tales of vampires and fratricide in the Carpathians.

The Thousand and One Ghosts - here presented in its first and only translation into English - is a gloriously macabre work by the celebrated author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, which also touches on the serious political issue of capital punishment.

By all accounts, 16-year-old Maya Blair is a typical teen-age high school student. She hangs out with her best friend Lucy, has a turbulent relationship with her ex-boyfriend Stuart, and works at her family's diner - the main restaurant on the island of Coronado Bay.

But Maya has an extraordinary secret - she can see, hear, and talk to ghosts. And when spirits are near her they revert back to solid form. She is what her deceased grandmother Elsa calls a Seer.

For years, Elsa was the only ghost Maya knew. But that changes when the century-old wreckage of the Black Lady, a ship that capsized in Coronado Bay's waters, is raised from the ocean floor and placed on display in the local museum. During a school tour of the Black Lady exhibit, Maya meets Blake Hennessy, a young, fair-skinned boy to whom she is instantly attracted. Shortly thereafter, a sensual, gothic young man named Gavin Hamlin crosses her path, and she is equally smitten. Her feelings bloom before she realizes they are both ghosts - Blake, the kind-hearted spirit who cares for Maya's well being, and Gavin, the dark wizard who thirsts to finish the evil task he longed to complete 100 years before.

To accomplish his nefarious plan, Gavin has to be human again. And for that, he needs the blood of a virgin witch. In his mind, Maya is the perfect candidate. Now it's up to Maya, Lucy, and Blake to save Coronado Bay and the world from destruction. But time is running out, people are dying, and Gavin's powers are growing.

Things were so much simpler when all she had to worry about was a date for the dance.

This novelette originally appeared in the collection Artificial Things (1986). It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (1987).

This short story originally appeared in the collection The Rose in Twelve Petals and Other Stories (2004), and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, August 2008.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

THE CHRISTMAS SPIRITS --

Everyone knows the Chirstmas season has truly arrived when A Christmas Carol takes center stage in both amateur and professional porductions, and the classic films and animated versions are shown over and over on television. Now, Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg have challenged some fo the most creative minds in fantasy and science fiction to tell readers exactly what those Christmas ghosts are up to when they're not scaring a stingy old man into self-reformation. The result is a sondrous seasonal mix, a perfect present for those ready to snuggle up with a good book on a cold winter's night.

From a Chirstmas encounter with a beggar that may haunt a wealthy traveler for the rest of his life... to a far different journey into Scrooge's Christmases past, a visit that amy expose some unsuspected truths about Ebenezer's former friends and acquaintances... to a script writer hired to give the story of Christmas a real "nineties twist," here are tales to savor over a holidy punch, imaginatively wrapped up for you by such generous gift givers as Mercedes Lackey, Frank M. Robinson, Judith Tarr, and Kristing Kathryn Rusch.

Contents:

• 13 - Introduction (Christmas Ghosts) - (1993) - essay by Mike Resnick
• 15 - Hunger - (1993) - short story by Michelle West [as by Michelle Sagara]
• 27 - Merry Christmas, No. 30267 - (1993) - short fiction by Frank M. Robinson
• 39 - The One That Got Away - (1993) - short story by Mark Aronson
• 53 - Elephantoms - (1993) - short fiction by Lawrence Schimel
• 55 - A Foreigner's Christmas in China - (1993) - short story by Maureen F. McHugh
• 67 - Upon a Midnight Dreary - (1993) - short fiction by Laura Resnick
• 84 - Modern Mansions - (1993) - short fiction by Barbara Delaplace
• 101 - Cadenza - (1993) - short fiction by Terry McGarry
• 114 - Gordian Angel - (1993) - short fiction by Jack Nimersheim
• 126 - The Timbrel Sound of Darkness - (1993) - short story by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
• 136 - A Prophet for Chanukah - (1993) - short fiction by Deborah J. Wunder
• 152 - Dumb Feast - (1993) - short story by Mercedes Lackey
• 163 - Shades of Light and Darkness - (1993) - short fiction by Josepha Sherman
• 181 - The River Lethe Is Made of Tears - (1993) - short fiction by John Gregory Betancourt
• 188 - Absent Friends - (1993) - short story by Martha Soukup
• 201 - Presentes - (1993) - short story by Nicholas A. DiChario
• 208 - Peter's Ghost - (1993) - short fiction by Marie A. Parsons
• 220 - The Case of the Skinflint's Specters - (1993) - short fiction by Brian M. Thomsen
• 228 - Christmas Presence - (1993) - short story by Kate Daniel
• 241 - The Ghost of Christmas Scams - (1993) - short fiction by Lea Hernandez
• 250 - Wishbook Days - (1993) - short story by Janni Lee Simner
• 266 - Holiday Station - (1993) - short fiction by Judith Tarr
• 280 - State Road - (1993) - short fiction by Alan Dormire and Robin J. Nakkula
• 288 - The Ghosts of Christmas Future - (1993) - short fiction by Dean Wesley Smith
• 292 - Three Wishes Before a Fire - (1993) - short fiction by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• 299 - The Ghost of Christmas Sideways - (1993) - short story by David Gerrold
• 307 - The Bear Who Found Christmas - (1993) - short fiction by Alan Rodgers

The spirits of the dead have walked among our legends, myths, and stories since before recorded history. Ghostly visitations, hauntings, unquiet souls seeking the living, vengeful wraiths, the possibility of life beyond the grave that can somehow reach out and touch us... these are some of literature's most enduring icons. Now, in the twenty-first century, we are no less fascinated with phantoms than our cave-dwelling ancestors or our Victorian-age forebears. Thirty modern masters of fright and fantasy fill this anthology with shivers, chills, and spooky explorations of both sides of the veil. Be prepared to keep a light on all night!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Questionable Shapes - essay by Paula Guran
• There's a Hole in the City - (2005) - shortstory by Richard Bowes
• The Trentino Kid - (2003) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• A Soul in a Bottle - (2006) - novelette by Tim Powers
• The Watcher in the Corners - (2007) - shortfiction by Sarah Monette
• The Palace - (2007) - shortstory by Barbara Roden
• The Proving of Smollett Standforth - (2011) - shortstory by Margo Lanagan
• The Third Always Beside You - (2011) - novelette by John Langan
• The Plum Blossom Lantern - (2003) - shortstory by Richard Parks
• Uncle - shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Rag-and-Bone Men - (1999) - shortstory by Steve Duffy
• October in the Chair - (2002) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Savannah is Six - (2000) - shortstory by James Van Pelt
• Wonderwall - (2004) - shortstory by Elizabeth Hand
• Between the Cold Moon and the Earth - (2006) - shortstory by Peter Atkins
• The Muldoon - (2006) - novelette by Glen Hirshberg
• Booth's Ghost - (2010) - shortfiction by Karen Joy Fowler
• Apokatastasis - (2002) - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Lagerstätte - (2008) - novelette by Laird Barron
• Cell Call - (2003) - shortstory by Marc Laidlaw
• Cruel Sistah - (2005) - shortstory by Nisi Shawl
• The Box - (2006) - shortstory by Stephen Gallagher
• Ancestor Money - (2003) - shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh
• Dhost - (2007) - shortstory by Melanie Tem
• Mrs. Midnight - (2009) - shortstory by Reggie Oliver
• Tin Cans - (2010) - shortstory by Ekaterina Sedia
• Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle - (2004) - novella by Peter Straub
• The Score - (2009) - novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• The Ex - (2011) - shortfiction by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Faces in Walls - (2010) - shortfiction by John Shirley
• The Case of the Lighthouse Shambler - (2011) - shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2003) - essay by Leslie What
• The Skeleton Key - (1993) - novella
• Objects of Desire - (1998) - shortstory
• Unleashed - (1991) - shortstory
• Mint Condition - (2001) - novelette
• Night Life - (2000) - shortstory
• Entertaining Possibilities - (2003) - shortstory
• Toobychubbies - (1999) - shortstory
• Haunted Humans - (1994) - novella
• Egg Shells - (2000) - shortstory
• About the Author - (2003) - essay

Tivoli Gardens.

White lights, a Ferris wheel, music, balloons, frosted ginger bread hearts and a fountain that sprays into the red sky like fairy dust.

The magic land all that was good and fun in life.

For Neils the enchantment was alway ruined by the knowledge that soon he would have to return to the gray, real world--even grayier now that his sister Emilie was dying.

But on her deathbed Emilie make him promise to return to Tivoli to search for the magic he has never known.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 17, July-August 2017.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

Award-winning film actress Annette Carlson finds the perfect refuge from her demanding career on Nantucket Island. For brilliant, burnt-out cop Tim Brooks, the island offers the chance to get away from the crime-ridden streets of the city. And for Reverend George Osaro, ghost hunter, it is about to become a place of unspeakable terror.

Imogene is young, beautiful... and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945....

Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing....

John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead....

Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of '77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds....

The past isn't dead. It isn't even past.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Christopher Golden
• Scheherazade's Typewriter - shortstory
• Best New Horror - (2005) - shortstory
• 20th Century Ghost - (2002) - shortstory
• Pop Art - (2001) - novelette
• You Will Hear the Locust Sing - (2004) - shortstory
• Abraham's Boys - (2004) - shortstory
• Better Than Home - (1999) - novelette
• The Black Phone - (2004) - shortstory
• In The Rundown - (2005) - shortstory
• The Cape - (2005) - shortstory
• Last Breath - (2005) - shortstory
• Dead-Wood - (2005) - shortstory
• The Widow's Breakfast - (2002) - shortstory
• My Father's Mask - novelette
• Voluntary Commital - (2005) - novella

Everly and her best friend aren't your typical college students. Instead of raucous Saturday night parties, they spend their weekends conjuring up things from the beyond. Ectoplasm, levitation, death photography--you name it, and Everly knows all about it. But while this obsession with the supernatural is only supposed to be in good fun, the girls soon discover themselves drifting deeper into magic and further from each other. Then when one evening ends with an inadvertently broken promise, everything they've ever known is shattered in an instant, sending them spiraling into a surreal haunting. Now Everly must learn how to control the spectral forces she's unleashed if she wants any chance of escaping a ghost more dangerous than all the witchcraft she can summon.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 15th Series (1966), edtied by Edward L. Ferman, Worlds Near and Far (1974), edited by Terry Carr, and A Treasury of Modern Fantasy (1981) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Terry Carr. It is included in the collections You're All Alone (1972), The Ghost Light (1984), The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber (1990) and Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories (2010).

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, August 2015. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Beatrice Bird is plagued by ghosts. It's a gift she's had since she was a small child. Unfortunately, it's a gift that has grown more intense, shifting from flashes and feelings to physical manifestations she can't escape. In a desperate attempt for relief, Beatrice flees her home, her partner and a psychology practice in San Francisco for a remote island with only nuns and a few cows for company. She sees as few people as she possibly can. She doesn't call home.

Then she meets Anne Iredale, a timid woman who has lost everything that matters to her. For the first time in a long time, Beatrice's gift will be called on to help someone in need. The path to healing awaits both of them - if Beatrice can find the courage to take the first step.

In the winter of 1928, still seeking some kind of resolution to the horrors of World War I, Freddie is traveling through the beautiful but forbidding French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Dazed, he stumbles through the woods, emerging in a tiny village, where he finds an inn to wait out the blizzard. There he meets Fabrissa, a lovely young woman also mourning a lost generation.

Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, Freddie will have unearthed a tragic, centuries-old mystery, and discovered his own role in the life of this remote town.

Nebula-nominated Novella

A Confederate veteran revisits a haunted battleground outside of Petersburg, Virginia. Many years later, his great-grandson returns obsessively to a mansion (now a museum) in southern Vermont, the scene of an unsolved murder. In the late eighteenth century, in eastern Connecticut, a separatist minister receives a visit from a flying saucer, while, coincidentally, a young officer takes the stand at his own court-martial in 1919. Not a hundred and fifty years further on, a beautiful young woman self-destructs in New York State, while two hundred miles and a mere generation away, an old woman dances on a cold Rhode Island beach.

In Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance, Paul Park braids these and other seemingly mutually exclusive strands, and the resulting text, part memoir and part fiction, could serve as a last will and testament not only for Park himself, but also for John Crowley and Elizabeth Hand, old friends who, through a series of oversights, have guided it towards publication.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally apeared in the anthology Dark Faith (2010), edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon.

Read the full story for free at Apex Magazine.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, November/December 2023.

Read the full story for free here.

Irish writer Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, ranks among the twentieth century's great masters of supernatural and science fiction. An outstanding dramatist whose supernatural plays anticipated the theater of the absurd, Dunsany was also a virtuoso writer of short stories and essays. This selection presents the finest of his works, gathered from long-out-of-print sources.

Contents include the famous "Three Sailors' Gambit," possibly the best chess story ever written; the remarkable trilogy about Nuth and the Gnoles, Thangobrind the Jeweller, and the Gibbelins; exploits of the Gods, including both "The Gods of Pengana" and adventures from other books; and favorite adventures of Jorkens, prince of liars. Dunsany's spellbinding tales are complemented by the remarkable visions of Sidney H. Sime, whose delicate illustrations form an indispensable complement to the stories.

Lily is Furious.

She can't believe she has to move again after her mom's break-up with the latest loser boyfriend. Now they're broke and they'll have to spend the winter in Uncle Wes's creepy house in Cape May, New Jersey.

And the place is crawling with ghosts.

From the spiteful teenager who mistakes Lily for her high school nemesis to the restless spirit of her eccentric Uncle Max, Lily is haunted by a host of unhappy phantoms. But why are they here? And what do they want?

With the help of some mysterious clues, Lily and an intriguing new friend, local boy Vaz, uncover a sinister plot. If they don't foil the villainous plan in time, they may end up doing some haunting of their own.

The Obverse Book of Ghosts collects 13 tales of spectral terror, guaranteed to leave you awake at night.

Contents:

• The Windmill - short story by Rebecca Levene
• Down to the Last Drop - short fiction by Guy Adams
• Just a Fox - short fiction by Mark Wright
• Have to - short fiction by Stuart Douglas
• Platform Alteration - short fiction by Scott Handcock
• The Cull - short fiction by George Mann
• Facebook of the Dead - short fiction by Paul Magrs
• Miss Carkshine's Donation - short fiction by Philip Meeks
• Damaged Goods - short fiction by Mark Michalowski
• Missed Call - short fiction by Cavan Scott
• Flats - short fiction by Tom Fletcher
• Lost Heads - short fiction by Nick Walters
• Sins of the Father - short fiction by Nick Peers

Timeless, beautiful, and haunting, spirals connect the four episodes of The Ghosts of Heaven, the mesmerizing new novel from Printz Award winner Marcus Sedgwick.

They are there in prehistory, when a girl picks up a charred stick and makes the first written signs; there tens of centuries later, hiding in the treacherous waters of Golden Beck that take Anna, who people call a witch; there in the halls of a Long Island hospital at the beginning of the 20th century, where a mad poet watches the oceans and knows the horrors it hides; and there in the far future, as an astronaut faces his destiny on the first spaceship sent from earth to colonize another world. Each of the characters in these mysterious linked stories embarks on a journey of discovery and survival; carried forward through the spiral of time, none will return to the same place.

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, whom they consider to be less than human.

When the autopsy of Matilda's sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother's suicide some quarter century before, Aster retraces her mother's footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she's willing to fight for it.

Table of Contents:

• Hunger, an Introduction - (1995) - novelette by Peter Straub
• Styx - (1995) - short story by Norman Partridge
• Jubilee - (1995) - short story by Kathe Koja
• Not Far From Here - (1995) - short story by Tim Smith
• Mamma Ghost - (1995) - novelette by Alan Rodgers
• Daddy's Girl - (1995) - short story by Gordon R. Ross
• Coventry Carol - (1995) - novelette by Chet Williamson
• And He Who Mourns - (1995) - short story by David B. Silva
• His Mother's Hands - (1995) - novelette by Clark Perry
• Bill Smith's Sleigh Ride - (1995) - short story by Tyson Blue
• Sotto Voce - (1995) - short story by Lawrence Greenberg
• A Real Babe - (1995) - short story by Brad Linaweaver
• Looking for Mr. Flip - (1995) - novelette by Thomas F. Monteleone
• Present in Spirit - (1995) - short story by Don D'Ammassa
• The Wedding Party - (1995) - novelette by Paul M. Sammon
• The Authors - (1995) - essay by uncredited

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends domestic drama, psychological suspense, and a touch of modern horror, reminiscent of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In, and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Amos Tutuola's second novel, was first published in 1954. It tells the tale of a small boy who wanders into the heart of a fantastical African forest, the dwelling place of innumerable wild, grotesque and terrifying beings. He is captured by ghosts, buried alive and wrapped up in spider webs, but after several years he marries and accepts his new existence. With the appearance of the television-handed ghostess, however, comes a possible route of escape.

Short story translated by Ken Lui. This story can be found in the anthologies The Apex Book of World SF 3 (2013), edited by Lavie Tidhar and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2013 Edition edited by Rich Horton, Invisible Planets (2016), edited by Ken Liu, and More Human Than Human: Stories of Androids, Robots, and Manufactured Humanity (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume IX (1993), edited by Dave Wolverton, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, May 2015. It is included in the collection Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams (2008).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Honour Among Ghosts is a high-action historical mystery set in a small Irish village where there are sorcerers, moralistic ghosts and spell-scribbling scribes. When 12-year-old Penny's working-class father is thrown into jail for a burglary he didn't commit, she is convinced he has been framed. Her best friend Colm, son of the wealthy and prejudiced Magistrate Nightwick (both the sentencer and victim of the robbery), vows to help Penny solve the crime. Enter Mab, a confident and clever magical scribe's apprentice, and Niclas, a young traveller living on the streets, who join forces with Penny and Colm to try to catch the thief before more innocent townspeople are blamed.

The critically acclaimed final masterwork of John Gardner is an American novel haunted with macabre and cerebral elements.

The final novel by John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, originally published in 1982 just months before his untimely death in a motorcycle accident, is a tour de force. The protagonist Peter Mickelsson, a former star philosophy professor at Brown, relocates to Binghamton University. On the verge of bankruptcy, separated from his wife, in questionable mental health, and drinking heavily, Mickelsson decides to buy a country house in northeastern Pennsylvania. What he encounters there are impassioned and shameless love affairs (one of which results in a regrettable pregnancy), a Mormon extremist cult, small town mythologies, the robbery of a robber, multiple murders, the ghosts of an incestuous family, Plato, and our hero's own possible insanity.

The dazzling debut from a brilliant new fantasy talent.

This highly original, darkly atmospheric fantasy novel immerses readers in a world where ghosts and other malevolent spirits seek entry into mortal realms—invisible to all but those who are not entirely human themselves. Drawn into the ancient city of Merafi, yet barred from entering by an ancient pact sealed in blood, these hungry haunts await their opportunity to break through the magical border and wreak havoc on the city's innocent denizens.

And as a priestess and prince weave a sorcerous plot to shatter the pact and bring ruin on Merafi, only a failed assassin-priest who is now a courtesan, a noble lord married into the ruling family of Merafi, an officer of the city guard, a woman warrior who was the former lover of a now-dead lord, and the ghost of that lord himself stand between Merafi and the tidal wave of magic that may soon bring ruin flooding down upon the city.

The nightmare never ends, an evil presence once walked the halls of Aubrey House. First it seduced its victims, then destroyed them. Its ghostly holocaust left a bloody legacy of death, dismemberment and unbridled fear. No one dared to stay at Aubrey house again, except young Olivia Aubrey. Olivia wasn't afraid, until the dreams began. Terrifying dreams that tormented her.

In the fifth of this thrilling Aotearoa series, Matiu Douglas must travel back to the past once more to help save the future. they say the past is another country. Some people can go there. It hasn't been an easy time for Matiu Douglas, magical adept. One of his friends is now a ghost, his enemies have stolen the treaty of Waitangi, he can't date the girl he really likes and he keeps getting unwanted marriage proposals from a dangerous, centuries-old tohunga's daughter. But when his best friend, Riki, is snatched into the ghost-world of Aotearoa during a school trip, Mat has to put all his other worries aside and act fast. For Riki vanished at Parihaka, scene of one of the darkest acts from New Zealand's colonial past, and in Aotearoa such places are deadly dangerous.

Eric Banyon, musician, is out playing the blues on his flute one day, but he couldn't have known that the desperate sadness of his music would free a young elven noble from the magical prison he has been languishing in for centuries--nor does he believe it!

Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn't like to think about it), she can pull back the Veil that separates the living from the dead... and enter the world of spirits. Her best friend is even a ghost.

So things are already pretty strange. But they're about to get much stranger.

When Cass's parents start hosting a TV show about the world's most haunted places, the family heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Here, graveyards, castles, and secret passageways teem with restless phantoms. And when Cass meets a girl who shares her "gift," she realizes how much she still has to learn about the Veil -- and herself.

And she'll have to learn fast. The city of ghosts is more dangerous than she ever imagined.

NYT bestselling author Victoria Schwab delivers a thrillingly spooky and action-packed tale of hauntings, history, mystery, and the bond between friends (even if that friend is a ghost...).

EVIL TAKES MANY FORMS.

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR CHARLIE PARKER HUNTS THEM ALL.

It is deep winter. The darkness is unending.The private detective named Jaycob Eklund has vanished, and Charlie Parker is dispatched to track him down. Parker's employer, Edgar Ross, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has his own reasons for wanting Eklund found. Eklund is no ordinary investigator. He is obsessively tracking a series of homicides and disappearances, each linked to reports of hauntings. Now Parker will be drawn into Eklund's world, a realm in which the monstrous Mother rules a crumbling criminal empire, in which men strike bargains with angels, and in which the innocent and guilty alike are pawns in a game of ghosts...

From the number one Sunday Times and multi-million-copy bestselling author John Connolly comes the most compelling and unsettling Charlie Parker thriller yet.

The Charlie Parker novels can be read and enjoyed in any order. A Game of Ghosts is the fifteenth book in this globally bestselling series.

Investigating a series of strange and ghostly occurrences in the otherwise peaceful town of Sleath, psychic detective David Ash is forced to confront the demons of his own past, which threaten to drive him to the brink of insanity.

Winner, Asimov's Annual Readers' Poll

The Fleet. In Boss' time, a thing of legend. Long before Boss and her crew found their first Dignity Vessel, long before the Room of Lost Souls claimed its first life, the Fleet used its advanced technology to explore the galaxy. But even in its heyday that technology sometimes malfunctioned. And occasionally, that malfunction exacted an unfathomable price.

This novella first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in October-November 2010. In a slightly modified form, it is contained in its entirety within the novel City of Ruins. It has been collected in The Diving Bundle.

Fears of ghosts and a deadly giggling gas become a terrifying reality to millions of people threatened by the S.R.G.V. The Man of Bronze faces a supreme test as he pits might against the forces of evil.

Lester Dent authored this novel under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

India in 1947 is a country in the grip of chaos - a country torn apart by internal strife. When the Doctor and Donna arrive in Calcutta, they are instantly swept up in violent events.

Barely escaping with their lives, they discover that the city is rife with tales of 'half-made men', who roam the streets at night and steal people away. These creatures, it is said, are as white as salt and have only shadows where their eyes should be.

With help from India's great spiritual leader, Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi, the Doctor and Donna set out to investigate these rumours.

What is the real truth behind the 'half-made men'? Why is Gandhi's role in history under threat? And has an ancient, all-powerful god of destruction really come back to wreak his vengeance upon the Earth?

"When the barrier gives way this planet will be flooded by all the evil in N-Space. And, at the moment, I have no idea how to stop it."

Sarah Jane Smith, on holiday with her chum Jeremy and a bad case of writer's block, is amazed to find the Brigadier in the same part of Italy. He is there to help a distant relative whose tiny island home has been threatened by American mobster Max Vilmio.

When the ghosts that haunt the island's crumbling castle are joined by less benign spectres, the Brigadier summons the Doctor -- who discovers that the whole of mankind is threatened by the plans of the ruthless Vilmio and his mysterious, hooded henchman.

It was supposed to be a holiday, with nothing more challenging than babysitting, navigating familial politics and arguing about the proper way to brew tea.

But when dragon prince Thuan and his ruthless husband Asmodeus find a corpse in a ruined shrine and a hungry ghost who is the only witness to the crime, their holiday goes from restful to high-pressure. Someone is trying to silence the ghost and everyone involved. Asmodeus wants revenge for the murder; Thuan would like everyone, including Asmodeus, to stay alive.

Chased by bloodthirsty paper charms and struggling to protect their family, Thuan and Asmodeus are going to need all the allies they can--and, as the cracks in their relationship widen, they'll have to face the scariest challenge of all: how to bring together their two vastly different ideas of their future...

THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She's got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump, who wants immediate payback in the form of a dangerous job that involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump's ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

ENEMIES DON'T NEED TO BE ALIVE TO BE DEADLY.

For Chess Putnam, finding herself near-fatally poisoned by a con psychic and then stopping a murderous ghost is just another day on the job. As an agent of the Church of Real Truth, Chess must expose those looking to profit from the world's unpleasant little poltergeist problem--humans filing false claims of hauntings--all while staving off any undead who really are looking for a kill. But Chess has been extra busy these days, coping with a new "celebrity" assignment while trying on her own time to help some desperate prostitutes.

IT'S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.

Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess's bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city's most notorious crime boss--and Chess's drug dealer--gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isn't bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he's not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of seriously nasty magic--all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.

READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss--who also happens to be her drug dealer--to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess's boyfriend, Terrible, doesn't trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there's the little matter of Chess's real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead--and if Chess doesn't watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she's not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

A DEADLY HIGH

Magic-wielding Churchwitch and secret addict Chess Putnam knows better than anyone just how high a price people are willing to pay for a chemical rush. But when someone with money to burn and a penchant for black magic starts tampering with Downside's drug supply, Chess realizes that the unlucky customers are paying with their souls--and taking the innocent with them, as the magic-infused speed compels them to kill in the most gruesome ways possible.

As if the streets weren't scary enough, the looming war between the two men in her life explodes, taking even more casualties and putting Chess squarely in the middle. Downside could become a literal ghost town if Chess doesn't find a way to stop both the war and the dark wave of death-magic, and the only way to do that is to use both her addiction and her power to enter the spell and chase the magic all the way back to its malevolent source. Too bad that doing so will probably kill Chess--if the war doesn't first destroy the man who's become her reason for living.

In a world where sorcery is illegal, someone is murdering young women in ways that defy all reason--and all detection. Only one man knows how to track such an untraceable killer, a man called to deliver justice by an onslaught of...

For Dubric Bryerly, head of security at Castle Faldorrah, saving lives has become a matter of saving his sanity. A silent killer is afoot, savagely mutilating servant girls and leaving behind no clues and no witnesses--except the gruesome ghosts of the victims. Ghosts that only Dubric can see.

Caught in the eye of the grisly storm is Nella, a linen maid working to free herself from a dark past--if she can survive an invisible killer's rampage. But with the death toll rising and Nella under the protective wing of a man who may be a prime suspect, Dubric must resort to unconventional methods. With the future of Faldorrah and countless lives at stake, including his own, he can't afford to be wrong. And if he's right, the entire kingdom could be thrust into war.

Some men can never outrun their ghosts.

Enchei thought he'd found a home at last - a life of quiet obscurity far removed from the horror of his military days. After a decade in the Imperial City his mistakes have been few, but one has now returned to haunt him.

As Narin's pregnant lover comes to term, life has never been so perilous. There couldn't be a worse time for a nightmare to be unleashed on the Imperial City, but luck's rarely been on Narin's side.

Once, Enchei swore he'd take his own life rather than let his past catch up with him, but now it's not just his own in the balance. Demons, rogue mages and vengeful noblemen haunt the city - and a man's ghosts are always watching and waiting...

Ghosts trail after us. They are our fears and the shape of our hates. We bring them into our lives and into our homes.

Poltergeists and the spirits of drowned girls; malicious presences and portents; cat vampires and roaming bushrangers. These ghosts haunt Canberra - these ghosts can kill.

Lil is elegant and troubled. Ann has just retired and is about to divorce: she sees vistas of nothingness in her future. Mabel is wedded to her garden. Kat is fifteen and has tried hard to drop out of life.

It takes these four women, one cup of tea at a time, to face the ghosts and other supernatural beings in Canberra. But can they face down the darkness and keep Canberra's streets clear of danger?

Necromancer Eric Carter's problems keep getting bigger. Bad enough he's the unwilling husband to the patron saint of death, Santa Muerte, but now her ex, the Aztec King of the dead, Mictlantecuhtli, has come back -- and it turns out that Carter and he are swapping places. As Mictlantecuhtli breaks loose of his prison of jade, Carter is slowly turning to stone.

To make matters worse, both gods are trying to get Carter to assassinate the other. But only one of them can be telling him the truth and he can't trust either one. Carter's solution? Kill them both.

If he wants to get out of this situation with his soul intact, he'll have to go to Mictlan, the Aztec land of the dead, and take down a couple of death gods while facing down the worst trials the place has to offer him: his own sins.

In the Chaos-infested Sabbat system, the massed ranks of the Imperial Guard stand shoulder to shoulder as they counter an invasion by heretical forces. Amongst the Guard are the troops of the Tanith First and Only, a displaced army forced to flee their home planet before it succumbed to the unrelenting assault of Chaos. Nicknamed the Ghosts, their specialist scouting role has thrown them into the thickest of the fighting, trying to complete whatever desperate mission their uncaring commanders have volunteered them for. Now, their leader Ibram Gaunt must evade the treacherous scheming of rival regiments and the lethal firepower of the enemy if he is to win through and lead his Ghosts to victory.

CONTENTS

• First and Only
• Ghostmaker
• Necropolis

For a thousand years, the Sabbat Worlds have been lost to the Imperium, claimed by the dread powers of Chaos. Now, a mighty crusade seeks to return the sector to Imperial rule. And at the forefront of that crusade are Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only - better known as Gaunt's Ghosts.

Trapped in the grinding trench warfare of Fortis Binary, the Ghosts find themselves drawn into a conspiracy to assassinate the crusade's leader, Warmaster Macaroth. With enemies all around them and no one to trust, Gaunt and his men must find a way to save the warmaster and prevent the Sabbat Worlds Crusade from falling into anarchy - even if it means waging war on their supposed allies.

On Monthax, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his Tanith First-and-Only await the order to advance into the sweltering jungle and drive the alien eldar from the world. As battle approaches, Gaunt walks the lines, raising his men's spirits and remembering their most heroic deeds - and the tragedies that have dogged Gaunt's Ghosts from the day of their founding on lost Tanith. The day that Gaunt became known as the Ghostmaker.

This edition includes the additional short story 'Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities', where a deadly ambush in enemy territory forces the fractious Ghosts to rally around Gaunt and save his life - and their own existence.

On the world of Verghast, a grinding war between two hive cities - one loyal to the Imperium, the other fallen to the worship of the Dark Gods - is bolstered by the forces of the Astra Militarum, spearheaded by the Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only. But bitter rivalries and treachery threaten to derail the defence of Vervunhive, and it falls to Gaunt to take command of the Imperial forces and forge victory from an almost certain defeat.

This edition includes the additional short story 'In Remembrance', in which Gaunt's Ghosts hunt down enemy guerrilla forces in the ruins of a once-great city.

In the blood-soaked Sabbat Worlds Crusade, the massed ranks of the Imperium battle the dark forces of Chaos for dominion. At the forefront of this conflict are the Imperial Guard - untold numbers of ordinary soldiers fighting to preserve the Emperor's holy realm. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the men of the Tanith First and Only are at the heart of this struggle.

Forced to flee their planet before it was destroyed by Chaos, their specialist scouting role has earned them the nickname 'Ghosts', along with any dangerous mission their commanders choose to throw at them. Follow Gaunt's epic adventures as he and his men storm into battle with their war cry: 'Men of Tanith, do you want to live forever?'

CONTENTS:

• Honour Guard
• The Guns of Tanith
• Straight Silver
• Sabbat Martyr

In disgrace after a catastrophic war, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First are sent to retrieve precious artefacts from a world lost to Chaos. With enemy all around them and time against them, Gaunt's Ghosts and their allies must prevent the holy relics of Saint Sabbat from falling into their foes' hands, and as mysterious events begin to occur, Gaunt begins to suspect that the Saint herself might be aiding them from beyond the grave.

Gaunt's Ghosts embark on their most dangerous mission yet as they make a daring drop assault on the world of Phantine. With the elite enemy Blood Pact and vicious xenos mercenaries ranged against them and short of ammunition with no means of escape, things look grim for the Tanith First. But the greatest danger may come from within the regiment as an old grudge is settled and tragedy strikes.

On the battlefields of Aexe Cardinal, the struggling forces of the Imperial Guard are locked in a deadly stalemate with the dark armies of Chaos. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment, the Tanith First-and-Only, are thrown headlong into the living hell of trench warfare, where death by an unseen enemy is always just a moment away. The only chance for Gaunt and his lightly armed scouts to survive is to volunteer for a mission so dangerous that no one else dares accept it!

With the future of the Sabbat Worlds campaign balanced on a knife edge, new hope arises in the form of Saint Sabbat herself, reincarnated to lead the Imperium to victory against the dark forces of Chaos. The living saint calls for Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First to be her guardians. Doubting that she is who she claims, Gaunt must discover the truth while fending off enemy troops and lethal assassins. But treachery within the Ghosts will not only threaten the mission, but will rip the Tanith asunder.

The Lost collects four Gaunt's Ghosts novels in one value-for-money omnibus edition.

The Tanith First-And Only are among the most legendary regiments of Imperial Guard and at their head stands Commissar Ibram Gaunt, unflinching in duty and unrelenting in combat. The Lost sees the very furure of the regiment in jeopardy as Gaunt battles the forces of Chaos the Sabbat Worlds, from rescue missions to the horrors of the battlefield, the Tanith First-And-Only must survive extreme dangers or be forever lost.

An Imperial general has defected to the enemy, and the secrets he carries could spell the end of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and a small team from the Tanith First must infiltrate an enemy-held world and gain the trust of the local underground, all the while trying desperately to avoid the ever-present taint of Chaos.

Their mission: to stop the traitor general from revealing his secrets - by any means necessary.

The Tanith First are no more. Moved into another regiment under a charismatic new commander, the loyalties of the former Ghosts are put to the test when Colonel-Commissar Gaunt, long believed dead, returns.

As the enemy overrun the Imperial forces, Clashing with Crusade command, and suspected of harbouring the taint of Chaos, Gaunt must fight not only to be reunited with his Ghosts, but to stop all their lives being thrown away in an unwinnable war.

Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt spent a year fighting as part of the underground resistance on the enemy-held world of Gereon. When he left, he promised that he would bring the forces of the Imperium to liberate Gereon's citizens from their oppressors. Now he has returned, a crusade army at his back, but he finds a world devastated by war and a people irrevocably damaged by the taint of Chaos.

Now Gaunt must fight to save Gereon not only from the enemy, but from the Imperium itself.

The Sabbat Worlds Crusade has reached the fortress-world of Jago, and the Tanith First are given a vital - and dangerous - ission to defend a key pass against the enemy, garrisoned in an ancient mansion, the Hinzerhaus. Strange things are happening there. There are voices on the wind and people are disappearing.

With enemy outside and ghosts within, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and his men must face their fears - for only in death does duty end.

The Tanith First have been pulled back from the front line and are enjoying some well-deserved rest. But that is about to end. An enemy prisoner - one of the deadly Blood Pact - wants to betray his masters, but he will only talk to Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt. Can he be trusted, and what exactly does he know?

Gaunt must discover the truth and avert a deadly threat to both his own life and to the Sabbat Worlds Crusade itself.

The Ghosts of the Tanith First-and-Only have been away from the front line for too long. Listless, and hungry for action, they are offered a mission that perfectly suits their talents. The objective: the mysterious Salvation's Reach, a remote and impenetrable stronghold concealing secrets that could change the course of the Sabbat Worlds campaign. But the proposed raid is so hazardous, it's regarded as a suicide mission, and the Ghosts may have been in reserve for so long they've lost their edge.

Haunted by spectres from the past and stalked by the Archenemy, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and his Ghosts embark upon what could be their finest hour... or their final mission.

After the success of their desperate mission to Salvation's Reach, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First race to the strategically vital forge world of Urdesh, besieged by the brutal armies of Anarch Sek. However, there may be more at stake than just a planet. The Imperial forces have made an attempt to divide and conquer their enemy, but with Warmaster Macaroth himself commanding the Urdesh campaign, it is possible that the Archenemy assault has a different purpose - to decapitate the Imperial command structure with a single blow.

Has the Warmaster allowed himself to become an unwitting target? And can Gaunt's Ghosts possibly defend him against the assembled killers and war machines of Chaos?

For a thousand years, the Sabbat Worlds have been lost to the Imperium, claimed by the dread powers of Chaos. Now, a mighty crusade seeks to return the sector to Imperial rule. The Space Marines of the Iron Snakes strike against heretic enclaves. Astra Miltarum units such as the Volpone Bluebloods defend worlds from the ruinous hordes. The forces of the enemy - the vicious Blood Pact and Sons of Sek - fight amongst themselves for the honour of facing their foes. And at the forefront of the crusade are Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only - better known as Gaunt's Ghosts.

This anthology contains the following stories:

• Family by Dan Abnett
• You Never Know by Dan Abnett
• Ghosts and Bad Shadows by Dan Abnett
• A Ghost Return by Dan Abnett
• The Blood Bound by Rob Sanders
• Son of Sek by John French
• Tempest by Nick Kyme
• Viduity by Nik Vincent
• The Fissure by Nik Vincent
• The Deeper Wounds by David Annandale
• Arnogaur by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• The Inheritor King by Matthew Farrer

Now for the first time in one big volume, two novels of Dr. Johan Eschbach, professor at a small college in the northeast and secret agent for the government of Columbia. This is an alternate history world shaped by the fact that ghosts are not mere superstition but have a literal physical reality--and political implications--because your crimes can haunt you, and the ghosts of your crimes are visible to others.

Here are two adventures--Of Tangible Ghosts and Ghost of the Revelator--that bring Johan Eschbach out of his retirement and happy marriage in northern New Bruges and into danger and intrigue. This edition includes a new afterword by the author explaining the history of this fascinating alternate world.

Modesitt returns to science fiction with Of Tangible Ghosts, a carefully crafted alternate universe novel. In this world, the Dutch never lost control of the Northeast, and France, Spain, and Chung Kuo are today's superpowers, as is Colombia. And in this universe, the ghosts of the dead linger, sometimes visible, sometimes speaking to the living. Johan Eschbach has retired from service as an agent of the government of Colombia and gone north to teach at a university in his native Dutch territory. Research is being conducted in the university's physics department - research on the control of ghosts - that is of interest to governments worldwide. And Johan is forced by his former employers to work again as a spy. When he discovers too much, he is marked for death. But at least one ghost wants to keep him alive.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr., has gained a legion of devoted fans for his science fiction as well as his epic fantasy novels. The Ghost of the Revelator is one of the best displays yet of his ability to blend dramatic, imaginative stories with rigorous social and scientific extrapolation.

Doktor Johan Eschbach (the central character of Modesitt's popular alternate history SF novel, Of Tangible Ghosts) had hoped for a quiet life in retirement from the intelligence service, teaching environmental science at the University of New Bruges and living with his new wife, the vocalist Llysette du Boise. Llysette, a refugee from the burning remains of France, would herself like little more than to resume her singing career and forget her time in the prison camps of the Hapsburg Empire.

But an unusual invitation from the Mormon nation of Deseret inexorably drags Johan back into the spy business, though he isn't quite sure why or for whom. It quickly becomes apparent that he is being used as a pawn in a deadly game of international maneuverings that are leading the world closer to war.

Set in a fascinating alternative world in which ghosts are real, the United States never came into existence, and Russia is still ruled by the Romanovs, this sequel to Of Tangible Ghosts and The Ghost of the Revelator continues the adventures of semi-retired spy Dr. Johan Eschbach.

His lovely wife Llysette du Boise, a refugee from the burning remains of France and a world-famous vocalist, has been invited to provide a command performance for the Russian Imperial household. Johan accompanies her, allowing him to work on the oil concession in Russian Alaska that Columbia so desperately needs and do some spying on the side. Johan's espionage is carried out against the backdrop of the famous white nights of St. Petersburg, the nearly Arctic midsummer when the sun barely dips below the horizon and the sky seems to dissolve in ivory light. But even the oil shortage will fade to insignificance when Johan discovers what new weapons technology the Russians are developing, a threat even more fearsome than the atomic bombs of Austro-Hungary.

Working in the tradition of Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson for hard-edged adventure with sophisticated social and political dimensions, Modesitt provides a unique blend of speculation and intrigue that brings the trilogy to a rousing end.

INTRODUCING THE WORLD'S FIRST STEAMPUNK SUPERHERO

1926. New York. The Roaring Twenties. Jazz. Flappers. Prohibition. Coal-powered cars. A cold war with a British Empire that still covers half of the globe. Yet things have developed differently to established history.

America is in the midst of a cold war with a British Empire that has only just buried Queen Victoria, her life artificially preserved to the age of 107. Coal-powered cars roar along roads thick with pedestrians, biplanes take off from standing with primitive rocket boosters and monsters lurk behind closed doors and around every corner. This is a time in need of heroes. It is a time for The Ghost.

A series of targeted murders are occurring all over the city, the victims found with ancient Roman coins placed on their eyelids after death. The trail appears to lead to a group of Italian-American gangsters and their boss, who the mobsters have dubbed 'The Roman'. However, as The Ghost soon discovers, there is more to The Roman than at first appears, and more bizarre happenings that he soon links to the man, including moss-golems posing as mobsters and a plot to bring an ancient pagan god into the physical world in a cavern beneath the city.

As The Ghost draws nearer to The Roman and the center of his dangerous web, he must battle with foes both physical and supernatural and call on help from the most unexpected of quarters if he is to stop The Roman and halt the imminent destruction of the city.

NEW YORK CITY IS BEING PLAGUED BY A PACK OF FEROCIOUS BRASS RAPTORS...

...strange, skeletonlike creations with batlike wings that swoop out of the sky, attacking people and carrying them away into the night. The Ghost has been tracking these bizarre machines, and is close to finding their origin: a deranged military scientist who is slowly rebuilding himself as a machine.

However, this scientist is not working alone, and his scheme involves more than a handful of abductions. He is part of a plot to escalate the cold war with Britain into a full-blown conflict, and he is building a weapon—a weapon that will fracture dimensional space and allow the monstrous creatures that live on the other side to spill through. He and his coconspirators—a cabal of senators and businessmen who seek to benefit from the war—intend to harness these creatures and use them as a means to crush the British.

But the Ghost knows only too well how dangerous these creatures can be, and the threat they represent not just to Britain, but the world. The Ghost's efforts to put an end to the conspiracy bring him into an uneasy alliance with a male British spy, who is loose in Manhattan protecting the interests of his country. He also has the unlikely assistance of Ginny, a drunken ex-lover and sharpshooter, who walks back into his life, having disappeared six years earlier in mysterious circumstances.

While suffering from increasingly lucid flashbacks to WWI, the Ghost is subjected to rooftop chases, a battle with a mechanized madman, and the constant threat of airborne predators, while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Can he derail the conspiracy and prevent the war with the British from escalating beyond control?

A woman is found dead on the streets of New York, ancient Egyptian symbols carved into her flesh. A ghostly figure is seen floating over the rooftops of the city. And an expedition returns from Cairo to exhibit their finds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gabriel's old friend and lover, Ginny Gray, was part of the expedition, but when Gabriel goes to meet the ship, Ginny is not on board.

Ancient forces are stirring and the Ghost, Ginny and Gabriel's friend Donovan are caught right in the middle...

In the aftermath of the events in Ghosts of Karnak, and with the political climate somewhat eased, Gabriel takes Ginny to London by airship to recuperate. But he isn't counting on coming face-to-face with a man who claims to embody the spirit of Albion itself, sinister forces gathering in the London Underground and an old ally--the British spy, Peter Rutherford--who could desperately use his help.

When the last of the Gravediggers, an elite imperial infiltration unit, are disbanded and hunted down by the emperor they once served, munitions expert Colonel Thomas Granger takes refuge in the unlikeliest of places. He becomes a jailer in Ethugra – a prison city of poison-flooded streets and gaols in which a million enemies of the empire are held captive. But when Granger takes possession of two new prisoners, he realises that he can't escape his past so readily.

Ianthe is a young girl with an extraordinary psychic talent. A gift that makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf – the sisterhood of telepaths who are all that stand between the Empire and the threat of the Unmer, the powerful civilization of entropic sorcerers and dragon-mounted warriors. In this war-torn land, she promises to make Granger an extremely wealthy man, if he can only keep her safe from harm.

This is what Granger is best at. But when other factions learn about Ianthe's unique ability, even Granger's skills of warfare are tested to their limits. While, Ianthe struggles to control the powers that are growing in ways no-one thought were possible. Another threat is surfacing: out there, beyond the bitter seas, an old and familiar enemy is rising – one who, if not stopped, will drown the world and all of humanity with it...

Welcome back to the irresistible world of Greenglass House where thirteen-year-old Milo is, once again, spending the winter holidays stuck in a house full of strange guests who are not what they seem. There are fresh clues to uncover as friends old and new join in his search for a mysterious map and a famous smuggler's lost haul.

This exciting sequel to a beloved book that was praised in a starred review as "an enchanting, empowering read" is sure to thrill both fans and newcomers. Like its predecessor, it's a smart, suspenseful tale that offers ghosts, friendships, and a cast of unforgettable characters, all wrapped up in a cozy mystery.

The Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend.

But just how many Spartans are left?

While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as "Section Three" devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They're going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though... and one more Spartan to get the job done.

The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. But when the Master Chief destroys Halo, something is triggered deep within Onyx: Ancient Forerunner technology stirs, and fleets of UNSC and Covenant race to claim it to change the course of the Human-Covenant War.
But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own...

This novel is based on a mature-rated game.

Microsoft, the Microsoft Game Studios Logo, Bungie, the Bungie Logo, Halo, the Halo logo, Xbox, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries and are used under license from owner.

Ten years ago, Hell Diver Xavier "X" Rodriguez fell to Earth. Those he left behind went on without him aboard the airship he once called home.

Michael Everheart -- the boy once known as Tin -- has grown into a man and the commander of Hell Diver Raptor Team. While Michael dives to help keep the Hive in the air, Captain Leon Jordan rules with an iron fist at the helm of the ship. But unrest stirs under his strict leadership as a prophecy of hope sweeps the lower decks.

When a mysterious distress signal calls the Hell Divers to the surface, Michael and his loyal team begin to uncover long-buried truths and the secrets Captain Jordan will do anything to keep. They dive so humanity survives... but will they survive the ultimate betrayal?

Ghosts, specters, the dead, and the undead fill the pages of this spectacular gift book by master storyteller Jane Yolen. From the ghostly goadings of an insistent - and recently deceased - choir teacher to the most frightening prom date you never want to have, this riveting collection of poems and stories is sure to leave even the most skeptical of readers all shivers and gooseflesh. Lavishly illustrated by David Wilgus's haunting pencil drawings, each tale is prefaced by a note from the author in which she discusses the writer's craft and why it is that storytellers - and their listeners - are drawn to spooky yarns.

Table of Contents:

• It Was the Hour - (1998) - poem
• Ghost Boy - (1998) - shortstory
• Tombmates - (1989) - poem
• Police Report - (1998) - shortstory
• The White Lady - (1998) - poem
• The Boy Who Sang for Death - (1979) - shortstory
• Seance for Eight - (1998) - poem
• Mrs. Ambroseworthy - (1994) - shortstory
• Night Wolves - (1995) - shortstory
• The Singer of Seeds - (1989) - shortstory
• In the Silvered Night - (1998) - poem
• Mandy - (1998) - shortstory
• Haunt - (1998) - poem
• Green Ghosts - (1998) - shortstory
• Souls - (1998) - shortfiction
• The Moon Ribbon - (1976) - shortstory
• Prom Ghost - (1998) - shortstory
• My Own Ghosts - (1998) - poem

Fourteen chilling tales--including Charles L. Grant's "Come Dance With Me on my Pony's Grave," Parke Godwin's "The Fire When it Comes," and Isaac Asimov's "Author Author"--tells of ghosts returned on quests of justice, love, and vengeance...

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Introduction: Ghosts - (1988) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• 11 - Ringing the Changes - (1955) - novelette by Robert Aickman
• 39 - Author! Author! - (1964) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• 67 - Touring - (1981) - novelette by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick [as by Jack M. Dann and Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick]
• 85 - The Wind in the Rose-Bush - (1902) - novelette by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
• 102 - Come Dance with Me on My Pony's Grave - (1973) - short story by Charles L. Grant
• 115 - The Fire When It Comes - (1981) - novelette by Parke Godwin
• 159 - The Toll-House - (1907) - short story by W. W. Jacobs
• 169 - The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost - (1983) - novelette by Russell Kirk
• 213 - A Terrible Vengeance - (1889) - novelette by Mrs. J. H. Riddell [as by Charlotte Riddell]
• 254 - Elle Est Trois, (La Mort) - (1983) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• 275 - A Passion for History - (1976) - short story by Stephen Minot
• 286 - Daemon - (1946) - short story by C. L. Moore
• 309 - The Lady's Maid's Bell - (1902) - novelette by Edith Wharton
• 329 - The King of Thieves - [Magnus Ridolph] - (1949) - short story by Jack Vance

Ensign Nell "Sapphi" Zika has been working hard to get past her trauma, but the unnerving pleas for help she's hearing in the Verge and the song she can't get out of her head are making that increasingly difficult. As Zuma's Ghost gears up for a final run at the Boarding Games, their expert hacker is feeling anything but confident. Plus, her chief's robot dog, Doge, is acting weird--a computer problem she can't find an answer to--and the increasing number of missing freighters is putting everyone living on or stationed around Trappist on edge.

It doesn't help the NeoG's mission that Dread Treasure is sidelined from competing in the Boarding Games, and Commander D'Arcy Montaglione is stuck on the front lines of the mystery of the missing ships while also stuck in his own head. Never good at trusting people to begin with, he's struggling to piece together his new crew in the aftermath of a great betrayal, knowing this may be his final chance at command. The last thing he wants to do is prove his enemies right and end up getting shoved behind a desk and forgotten. The easy answer to missing ships is pirates, but D'Arcy soon realizes the easiest answer is rarely the right one out in the vacuum of space. What's worse is that the actual pirates are scared of something out beyond the asteroid belt. Something that's been taking their ships too...

As the unknowns multiply and one of their mysterious enemies escalates by launching an attack on the NeoG itself, the Interceptor crews must brave both cyber and outer space to hunt down their foes, but no one is prepared for the truth that is revealed or the way it will shake the foundations of everything they believe about the universe.

The underworld trempbles at the rise of the sun...

In book #5 of the Shadowdance series...a night of fire and blood heralds Muzien the Darkhand's arrival to Veldaren. With him comes the might of the Sun Guild, eager to spread their criminal empire.

Left blind after being attacked by the Widow, Alyssa Gemcroft struggles to hold together the remnants of the Trifect as the Sun Guild's arrival threatens to shatter whatever future her son might have left.

Veldaren's only hope is in the Watcher, but Haern is no longer there. With his father, Thren Felhorn, he is traveling to the Stronghold, an ancient bastion of the dark paladins of Karak. Will they find the answers they seek? Or will the Stronghold be their final destination?

Killer or savior; the line can no longer remain blurred.

The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks, and vampires. There, the Downworlders buy and sell magical objects, make dark bargains, and whisper secrets they do not want the Shadowhunters to know. Through two centuries, however, there has been a frequent visitor to the Shadow Market from the very heart of the Shadowhunters' world. Jem Carstairs is searching through the Shadow Market, in many different cities over long years, for a relic from his past.

Follow Jem and see - against the backdrop of the Shadow Market's dark dealings and spectacle - Anna Lightwood's doomed romance, Matthew Fairchild's great sin, and Tessa Gray as she is plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul at the Market and a young Jace Wayland's soul finds safe harbor. In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost, and no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Jem.

Contents:

• Cast Long Shadows - novelette by Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare
• Every Exquisite Thing - novella by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson
• Learn About Loss - novelette by Cassandra Clare and Kelly Link
• A Deeper Love - novelette by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson
• The Wicked Ones - novella by Cassandra Clare and Robin Wasserman
• Son of the Dawn - novelette by Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare
• The Land I Lost - novella by Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare
• Through Blood, Through Fire - novelette by Cassandra Clare and Robin Wasserman
• The Lost World - novelette by Cassandra Clare and Kelly Link
• Forever Fallen - novella by Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare

Without warning, Phiblizo appears and attacks Chaos Dragon Gaav. He kidnaps Gourry by using the Sword of Light and taunts Lina to join them in Sairaag, a city that is now a barren wasteland with only a single Flagoon since the demon's resurrection. But Lina doesn't have time to think about the consequences--she has to settle things with the Hellmaster once and for all!

Tilda Gray hates Spellhaven, the city where her husband was born, even though she has never set foot in the place, and she does not believe in the magic it's supposed to have held. Now her husband is dead, she would rather avoid any mention of the city. But her sons, Nicholas and James, have befriended Hugo, a young boy threatened by forces none of them understand. When Hugo's uncle and guardian, Stephen Cole, visits the Gray family to ask for help, Tilda agrees against her better judgement. Between them, as they search for ways to banish or at least help Hugo cope with the ghosts that are driving him mad, they seek out the dubious aid of the exiles from Spellhaven. In doing so they must face new dangers and unknown magic, unlike anything Tilda could have believed possible.

Raconteur, bon vivant, troubleshooter for the decaying Terran Empire, Dominic Falndry doesn't crave further danger in the service of galactic unity.

But duty calls, so it's back to the spaceways for the most elegant Special Agent is a hundred star systems--straight into the well-laid plans of his lifelong enemy Aycharaych.

Win or lose, though, the long night of human civilization is coming and Flandry knows it. How many more battles can he stand to win in a losing cause? And how many planets will die meanwhile?

Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather's throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin.

Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.

Irresistibly drawn to mysteries, if only to debunk them, reporter Lionel Page exposes supernatural frauds, swindlers, and charlatans. His latest case is an obsession--at least for an ancient and wealthy heiress: verify the authenticity of a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript circulating through New York City's literary underworld. But the shrewd Regina Dunkle offers more than money. It's a pact. Fulfill her request, and Lionel's own notorious buried past, one he's been running from since he was a child, will remain hidden.

As Lionel's quest begins, so do the warnings. And where rare books go, murder follows. It's only when Lionel meets enigmatic stranger Madison Hannah, his personal usher into the city's secret history, that he realizes he's being guided by a force more powerful than logic... and that he isn't just following a story. He is the story.

Now that the true purpose of his mission is revealing itself in the most terrifying ways, it may finally be time for Lionel to believe in the unbelievable.

Once upon a time, Lionel Page didn't believe in magic.

That was before his odyssey to New York City, and the quest for a lost manuscript that ended in mysteries, murder, and the buried secrets of his own past. He used to be a professional skeptic. Now he's a witch in the service of Hekate, chasing myths across the heartland of a haunted America.

The reappearance of a hero from Greek legend is just one sign of the coming storm. There are Amazons on the highway, and death-spirits lurking in cheap roadside motels. And Madison, Lionel's lover, is on a mission of her own. A mission, fueled by vengeance, to slay a man who can't be killed: her ex-husband. If Lionel doesn't catch up with her in time, neither of them will survive.

In Ghosts of Gotham, Lionel Page opened his eyes to the real world. Now he has to fight to protect it.

The discovery of lost letters between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, describing historical events that never happened, sends shockwaves through the academic world. Meanwhile, a citywide surveillance program is coming to New York on a groundswell of dirty money and dead bodies. To hard-nosed Brooklyn reporter Nell Bluth, the two mysteries couldn't be more different.

Then she finds the missing link. Seelie Rose, a transgender runaway and the eyewitness to a murder, has a priceless secret in her pocket and a ruthless assassin on her trail. Nell and her partner Tyler are drawn into a centuries-old vendetta, a conspiracy dating back to the Revolutionary War...and witchcraft.

A secret war is raging on the streets of New York. It's a battle to control the narrative of history itself, and the winner rewrites the world. Three unlikely heroes will have to outrun and outwit every obstacle in their path; with time running out, they're the last hope to save the past, the present, and the future. And if they can't, they won't live to see tomorrow.

When a daughter of Hekate is gunned down outside a Brooklyn bodega, reprisal comes by moonlight: one by one, the victims of a spreading curse fall into a deep sleep, lost in inescapable visions. And their numbers are growing.

Seelie Rose knows a thing or two about visions. As a fledgling witch and the inheritor of a magical legacy, it's her duty to watch over the dreamscape of New York City. Usually that means battling errant nightmares; now she's facing down alien intelligences, incursions from other realms, and the dawning suspicion that she isn't the only dream-witch in town.

Meanwhile, creatures of the night are turning up dead, and the ghoul princess lurking in Seelie's closet wants a favor. Not the kind she can refuse, unless she wants to be next on the princess's macabre menu. If Seelie plays her cards just right, she may uncover a conspiracy, stop a deadly plot, and survive...at least until graduation.

Attempting to come to terms with a failed marriage and longing for his son, Peter Travers's struggle to build a new life is haunted by mysterious visions of a woman and child as the spirits of the past come alive and a dark and terrible secret refuses to die.

Fifteen years ago, Dave Quinn swam out into the winter ocean to save two drowning girls--identical twin sisters. He was only able to save one. Now, years later, he meets Anne, a struggling artist from Canada. He has no idea that she is the child he saved so long ago. And he has no idea that Elinor, the long-dead sister he couldn't save, has come with her.

After the sudden death of his wife, Phil Ainsworth senses an eerie presence in the house. His niece, left in his care, is a special child who can sense powerful emotions from the past--and see the uncanny powers closing around them.

Robin of Locksley and his one true love, Marian, are married. It has been close on two decades since they beat the Sheriff of Nottingham with the help of a diverse band of talented friends. King John is now on the throne, and Robin has sworn fealty in order to further protect not just his family, but those of the lords and barons who look up to him - and, by extension, the villagers they protect.

There is a truce. An uneasy one, to be sure, but a truce, nonetheless.

But when the Locksley children are stolen away by persons unknown, Robin and Marian are going to need the help of everyone they've ever known, perhaps even the ghosts that are said to reside deep within Sherwood.

And the Locksley children, despite appearances to the contrary, are not without tricks of their own...

With her vampire protector Philip Branté and their human companion Wade Sheffield, a former police psychologist, Eleisha Clevon searches the world for isolated vampires--and offers them sanctuary. She wants to provide a home where she can teach them to follow the Four Laws that will protect them and their kind.

But not all vampires want to live by anyone's rules but their own. Christian Lefevre has been posing a psychic, catering to the upper crust of Seattle society by making contact with their dead loved ones--and leaving his clients faint and weak after each encounter. Now Eleisha must confront the most deadly predator she has ever faced--or lose everything she has fought to protect...

The Terran military has defeated the invading fleet, but the war is far from over. As a covert agent embeds himself on Earth, advanced Centauri technology enables him to pry into the military's most secure files, accessing secrets that could lead to millions of deaths.

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Kane, Lieutenant Katja Emmes, and Sublieutenant Jack Mallory again find themselves at the forefront of the planet's defenses. Yet terrorism isn't the only threat they face. Given what they've experienced, their greatest challenge may be defeating the memories of war.

The Mesan Alignment: a centuries-old cabal that seeks to impose its vision of a society dominated by genetic rank onto the human race. Now the conspiracy stands exposed by spies Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat--one an agent of Honor Harrington's Star Kingdom of Manticore, the other a Havenite operative. The outing of the Alignment has turned the galaxy's political framework topsy-turvy. Old coalitions have disintegrated. New alliances have been born.

For starters, the long and hard-fought war between the Republic of Haven and the Star Empire of Manticore is not only over, but these bitter enemies have formed a new pact. Their common foe: the Mesan Alignment itself.

But more information is needed to bring the Alignment out of the shadows. Now, defying the odds and relying on genetic wizardry themselves for a disguise, Zilwicki and Cachat return to Mesa--only to discover that even they have underestimated the Alignment's ruthlessness and savagery.

Soon they are on the run in Mesa's underworld, not only hunted by the Alignment but threatened by the exploding conflict on the planet between Mesa's overlords and the brutalized slaves and descendants of slaves who have suffered under their rule for so long. But if Zilwicki and Cachat succeed in rooting out the ancient conspiracy, a great evil may be finally removed from the galaxy--and on a long-oppressed planet, freedom may finally dawn.

Short story in De Bodard's Xuya universe. It originally appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #195, March 17, 2016. It is also included in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 11 (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.