Introducing stories of circuses traditional and bizarre, futuristic and steeped in tradition, joyful and heart-breaking! And among the actors you will find old friends, be they sad clowns or free-spirited gymnasts, as well as new ones – mammoths, mechanical piano men, and things best not described at all. Come in, come all, and enjoy the literary show unfolding!
Kapcsolódó könyvek
Iain M. Banks - The State of the Art
The first ever collection of Iain M. Banks's short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent.
Christopher Barzak - Before and Afterlives
Discover the haunting stories of Crawford Award-winning author Christopher Barzak in his new collection Before and Afterlives. These are tales of relationships with unearthly domesticity and eeriness: a woman falls in love with a haunted house; a beached mermaid is substituted for a lost missing daughter; the imaginary friend of a murdered young mother stalks the streets of her small town; a teenage boy is afflicted with a disease that causes him to vanish; a father exploits his daughter's talent for calling ghosts to her; and a wife leaves her husband and children to fulfill her obligations to a world from which she escaped
Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow
With its strange, imaginative blend of horror, science fiction, romance and lyrical prose, Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow is a classic masterpiece of weird fiction. This series of vaguely connected stories is linked by the presence of a monstrous and suppressed book which brings fright, madness and spectral tragedy to all those who read it. An air of futility and doom pervade these pages like a sweet insidious poison. Dare you read it?
This collection has been called the most important book in American supernatural fiction between Poe and the moderns. H. P. Lovecraft, creator of the famed Cthulu mythos, whose own fiction was greatly influenced by this book stated that The King in Yellow ‘achieves notable heights of cosmic fear’.
Michael Swanwick - The Dog Said Bow-Wow
Science fiction and fantasy's most adept short-story author reinvents some classic themes in an engaging collection that includes three of his Hugo award–winning stories. These smart expansions of traditional themes summon dinosaurs, dragons, peril in space, myths, faeries, and time travel, each undergoing artful alchemy to create serious genre literature that is playful, original, and clever. Comprising 16 imaginative and mischievous adventures, including the previously unpublished novelette, The Skysailor's Tale, this adroit gathering makes a collection to truly revel in.
Ismeretlen szerző - Songs of the Dying Earth
To honor the magnificent career of Jack Vance, one unparalleled in achievement and impact, George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, with the full cooperation of Vance, his family, and his agents, have created a Jack Vance tribute anthology: Songs of the Dying Earth. The best of today's fantasy writers to return to the unique and evocative milieu of The Dying Earth, from which they and so many others have drawn so much inspiration, to create their own brand-new adventures in the world of Jack Vance’s greatest novel.
Half a century ago, Jack Vance created the world of the Dying Earth, and fantasy has never been the same. Now, for the first time ever, Jack has agreed to open this bizarre and darkly beautiful world to other fantasists, to play in as their very own. To say that other fantasy writers are excited by this prospect is a gross understatement; one has told us that he'd crawl through broken glass for the chance to write for the anthology, another that he'd gladly give up his right arm for the privilege. That's the kind of regard in which Jack Vance and The Dying Earth are held by generations of his peers.
This book contains original stories from George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, Elizabeth Moon, Tanith Lee, Tad Williams, Kage Baker, and Robert Silverberg, along with fifteen others--as well as an introduction by Dean Koontz.
Ismeretlen szerző - The Reign of Istar
Open the door to the magic and wonder of the Dragonlance world...
Meet an irrepressible kender determined to become a Solamnic knight.
A bounty-hunter of heretics.
An unlikely ogre savior of the dwarven race.
And a black-robed mage juggling the fate of the world in the Tower of High Sorcery.
Poetry and short stories by well-known Dragonlance authors, topped by a Raistlin novella by original creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
All set in the faraway time of the Kingpriest.
Marissa Meyer - Scarlet (angol)
Prepare to see the New York Times-bestselling series like you’ve never seen it before, now with new cover art!
The second book in the #1 New York Times- and USA Today- Bestselling Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer! Our cyborg heroine teams up with two new characters, Scarlet and Wolf, to defend Earth against a wicked space queen.
"An interesting mash up of fairy tales and science fiction . . . a cross between Cinderella, Terminator, and Star Wars."―Entertainment Weekly on the Lunar Chronicles
"Prince Charming among the cyborgs." ―The Wall Street Journal on the Lunar Chronicles
Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison―even though she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive if she does―in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.
The adventure continues in this fresh fairytale retelling that combines elements of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.
Trisha Wolfe - Unveiled
Novelette (Short story)
Amongst the wasteland lies the gleaming city of Karm. A Camelot-esque utopia built from the ashes of a dying world. Seventeen-year-old Fallon is no daughter of Karm.
She's its assassin.
Raised by a secret society of rebels, she's bent on bringing down the King's sham of an existence. But her first mark, one of the King's top knights of the Force, makes her question everything. Even her heart.
Ismeretlen szerző - Őrségváltás
Ehhez a könyvhöz nincs fülszöveg, de ettől függetlenül még rukkolható/happolható.
Ismeretlen szerző - Izéhordák
Ha akad olyan olvasó, aki azt hiszi, hogy a sci-fi és fantasy történetek csakis és kizárólag gigantikus, az egész emberiség sorsát eldöntő űrháborúkról, elgondolkodtató, az életet gyökeresen megváltoztató találmányokról, izmos hősök és dús keblű hősnők halált megvető bátorsággal vívott harcáról szólnak - nos, ez az olvasó téved. Méghozzá óriásit! A fantasztikummal foglalkozó mesélők is emberek, nekik is megvannak a saját hibáik és erényeik. A hibáikról most ne ejtsünk szót, az erények közül is csak kettővel foglalkozzunk: a humorérzékkel és az öniróniával.
Csak a legjobbak, a legnagyobbak lehetnek képesek arra, hogy ne vegyék véresen komolyan magukat. Csak a legjelentősebb írók tudják és hajlandóak megtenni azt, hogy kifigurázzák azt a műfajt, amellyel egész életükben foglalkoztak, és amiből élnek. Ebben a kötetben olyan novellákat gyűjtöttünk össze, amelyek szerzői több "komoly", de legalábbis jelentős művel álltak már az olvasók elé, most azonban a sci-fi és a fantasy talán éppen általuk megteremtett elemeit teszik élcelődéseik céltáblájává.
Clark Ashton Smith - Gonosz mesék
A megkeseredett szívű kőfaragó szobraiban legtitkosabb vágyai és érzései ébrednek gonosz életre. A bosszúszomjas halottidéző óriási gólemet küld Vyônes városa ellen, s egy volt tanítványára hárul a feladat, hogy minden varázstudományát latba vetve szembeszálljon vele. Egy üstökösről félelmetes szörnyeteg ereszkedik a Földre, s az egyház kénytelen egy fekete mágussal szövetkezni, hogy véget vessen garázdálkodásának. Ilyen és ehhez hasonló rémségek és furcsaságok várnak az olvasóra, aki Clark Ashton Smith kimeríthetetlen képzelőerővel megformált világába látogat.
Smith ugyanabban az időszakban élt és alkotott, mint a természetfölötti irodalom nagy klasszikusa, Lovecraft – akivel ugyan sohasem találkoztak személyesen, de rengeteget leveleztek és baráti viszonyban voltak. Lovecraft neve holta után világhírűvé vált, Smith vele egyenrangú munkásságát azonban kevesebben ismerik: műveinek átfogó, kritikai igényű kiadására angol nyelven is meglepően későn került sor – vállalkozásunk tehát ebben az összevetésben is naprakésznek mondható.
Kötetünk – melyet bevezetőnek szánunk a szerző életművébe – a középkori Franciaország fiktív tartományában, Averoigne-ban játszódó elbeszéléseket gyűjti csokorba. Smith páratlan költői érzékkel nyúl bármilyen témához, legyen szó természetfölötti rémségek pusztításáról, elvarázsolt erdők titkairól vagy furcsa és groteszk személyek dekadens vágyairól. Képzeletének szüleményei oly tarkán elevenednek meg az olvasó előtt, mint valami álom – a bizarr és nyugtalanító fajtából, amelyből nem kínál menekvést az irgalmas ébredés.
_„A puszta démoni furcsaság és a buján tobzódó fantázia terén talán egyetlen ma élő vagy megboldogult író sem múlja fölül Mr. Smitht.”_
H. P. Lovecraft
Ismeretlen szerző - Machine of Death
The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. No dates, no details. Just a slip of paper with a few words spelling out your ultimate fate -- at once all-too specific and maddeningly vague.
A top ten Amazon Customer Favorite in Science Fiction & Fantasy for 2010, The Machine of Death is an anthology of original stories bound together by a central premise. From the humorous to the adventurous to the mind-bending to the touching, the writers explore what the world would be like if a blood test could predict your death.
But don't think for a moment this is a book entirely composed of stories about people meeting their ironic dooms. There is some of that, of course. But more than that, this is a genre-hopping collection of tales about people who have learned more about themselves then perhaps they should have, and how that knowledge affects their relationships, their perception of the world, and how they feel about themselves.
Features thirty-four stories by Randall Munroe, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Tom Francis, Camille Alexa, Erin McKean, James L. Sutter, David Malki !, Ryan North, and many others
Features illustrations by Kate Beaton, Kazu Kibuishi, Aaron Diaz, Jeffrey Brown, Scott C., Roger Langridge, Karl Kershl, Cameron Stewart, and many others
Ismeretlen szerző - Galaktika 45.
A kötetben Kuczka Péter a fantasy-irodalom néhány jól sikerült példányát gyűjtötte össze: Az ún. "kard és boszorkányság" vagy másképpen "hősi fantasztikus" történetek a science fiction közvetlen közelében, annak egyik irányzataként születtek. (...) A szórakoztatóipar termékeihez tartoznak tehát, nem akarnak nagy igazságokat mondani az emberről és életéről, de azért, ha jobban megnézzük őket, azt látjuk, hogy néha - talán szerzőik szándékával ellentétben - groteszk és túlzó vonásokat találunk bennük, már-már az önkritika fintorát.
Ismeretlen szerző - Talisman
In this special anthology, here are stories of heroism and courage as human, dwarf, troll and elf battle the insidious Horrors. It is a world before time, before the magic went away; a realm where only decisive action and strength of character allow one to survive another day against the magic-wielding invaders.
Ismeretlen szerző - The Living Dead
"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth!" From White Zombie to Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil to World War Z, zombies have invaded popular culture, becoming the monsters that best express the fears and anxieties of the modern west. Gathering together the best zombie literature of the last three decades from many of today's most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale, The Living Dead covers the broad spectrum of zombie fiction.
Mercedes Lackey - Michelle Sagara West - Cameron Haley - Harvest Moon
A Tangled Web by New York Times bestselling author Mercedes LackeyKidnapping Persephone should have been an easy task. But in the Five Hundred Kingdoms, nothing's ever simple—and the wrong blonde goddess is stolen by mistake, leaving Prince Leopold without his new bride. At least until he braves the realm of the dead to get her back
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Cast in Moonlight by New York Times bestselling author Michelle Sagara
Barely a teenager, Kaylin Neya is a thief, a fugitive and an attempted assassin. She also has a smart mouth, sharp wits and mysterious markings on her skin. All of which make her perfect bait for a child prostitution sting in the city of Elantra—if she survives her first meeting with the Hawks!
Retribution by Cameron Haley
In the underworld, there are tricks to killing. Like executing rivals at crossroads so ghosts won't follow you home. But sometimes retribution is hard to avoid—and now a supernatural hit man has a contract on Domino Riley's life. Luckily she knows a thing or two about death
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Ismeretlen szerző - Monsters
Here are future nighmares - the enemies that await us both within and outside our world, from a small town in Kansas to the seas of Venus.
Fantastic and thrilling short novels and stories by science fiction's bestselling authors.
J. G. Ballard - The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard
“More than one thousand compelling pages from one of the most haunting, cogent, and individual imaginations in contemporary literature.”—William Boyd
The American publication of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard is a landmark event. Increasingly recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic novelists, J. G. Ballard was a “writer of enormous inventive powers,” who, in the words of Malcolm Bradbury, possessed, “like Calvino, a remarkable gift for filling the empty deprived spaces of modern life with the invisible cities and the wonder worlds of imagination.”
Best known for his novels, such as Empire of the Sun and Crash, Ballard rose to fame as the “ideal chronicler of disturbed modernity” (The Observer). Perhaps less known, though equally brilliant, were his devastatingly original short stories, which span nearly fifty years and reveal an unparalleled prescience so unique that a new word—Ballardian—had to be invented. Ballard, who wrote that “short stories are the loose change in the treasury of fiction, easily ignored beside the wealth of novels available,” regretted the fact that the public had increasingly lost its ability to appreciate them.
With 98 pulse-quickening stories, this volume helps restore the very art form that Ballard feared was comatose. Ballard’s inimitable style was already present in his early stories, most of them published in science fiction magazines. These stories are surreal, richly atmospheric and splendidly elliptical, featuring an assortment of psychotropic houses, time-traveling assassins, and cities without clocks. Over the next fifty years, his fierce imaginative energy propelled him to explore new topics, including the dehumanization of technology, the brutality of the corporation, and nuclear Armageddon. Depicting the human soul as “being enervated and corrupted by the modern world” (New York Times), Ballard began to examine themes like overpopulation, as in “Billenium,” a claustrophobic imagining of a world of 20 billion people crammed into four-square-meter rooms, or the false realities of modern media, as in the classic “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan,” a faux-psychological study of the sexual and violent reactions elicited by viewing Reagan’s face on television, in which Ballard predicted the unholy fusion of pop culture and sound-bite politics thirteen years before Reagan became president. Given Ballard’s heightened powers of perception, it is astonishing that the dehumanized world that he apprehended so acutely neither diminished his own febrile imagination nor his engagement with mankind, evident in every story, including two new ones for this American edition.
So eerily prophetic is his vision, so commanding are his literary gifts, the import and insight of J. G. Ballard’s deeply humanistic and transcendent works can only grow in years to come.
Neil Gaiman - Nothing O'Clock
Thousands of years ago, Time Lords built a Prison for the Kin. They made it utterly impregnable and unreachable. As long as Time Lords existed, the Kin would be trapped forever and the universe would be safe. They had planned for everything… everything, that is, other than the Time War and the fall of Gallifrey. Now the Kin are free again and there’s only one Time Lord left in the universe who can stop them!
China Miéville - Perdido pályaudvar, végállomás I-II.
Új-Crobuzon városa gigászi folt a világ közepén, emberek, mutánsok és idegen kultúrák lakóhelye. A szennyezett folyók partján, a nyomornegyedek, gyárak és paloták felett több mint ezer éve a diktatórikus parlament és a milícia uralkodik vasmarokkal, de most történik valami, ami a feje tetejére állítja a megszokott rendet.
Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a renegát tudós és törvényen kívüli fantaszta különös megbízatást kap: Yagharek, a nomád madáremberek kitaszítottja ismét repülni akar. Kérése azonban olyan eseményláncolatot indít el, amely egyre nagyobb örvénnyé duzzadva elnyeli Isaacet, a barátait, a férfi khepri szeretőjét, Lint, sőt az egész várost pusztulással fenyegeti. A helyzetet ráadásul bonyolítja egy embernek nehezen nevezhető maffiafőnök, egy öntudatra ébredő számító-gépezet, illetve a polgármester túlvilági ügynöke.
Idegen hatalom szabadul el a városban, és milliók élete egy csapatnyi szedett-vedett renegáttól függ. A lidérces kőrengetegben, a gőzmasinák, tudósok, titkosrendőrök és bűbájosok világában kirobbanó küzdelemben bárki áldozattá válhat, és a végső győzelemhez kegyetlen döntések és személyes áldozatok árán vezet az út.