Down and Out in Purgatory

Twenty pulse-pounding, mind-bending tales of science fiction, twisted metaphysics, and supernatural wonder from the two-time World Fantasy and Philip K. Dick Award winning author of The Anubis Gatesand On Stranger Tides.

A complete palette of story-telling colors from Powers, including acclaimed tale “The Bible Repairman,” where a psychic handyman who supernaturally eliminates troublesome passages of the Bible for paying clients finds the remains of his own broken soul on the line when tasked with rescuing the kidnapped ghost of a rich man’s daughter. Time travel takes a savage twist in “Salvage and Demolition,” where the chance discovery of a long-lost manuscript throws a down-and-out book collector back in time to 1950s San Francisco where he must prevent an ancient Sumeric inscription from dooming millions in the future. Humor and horror mix in “Sufficient unto the Day,” when a raucous Thanksgiving feast takes a dark turn as the invited ghosts of relatives past accidentally draw soul-stealing demons into the family television set. And obsession and vengeance survive on the other side of death in “Down and Out in Purgatory,” where the soul of a man lusting for revenge attempts to eternally eliminate the killer who murdered the love of his life. Wide-ranging, wonder-inducing, mind-bending—these and other tales make up the complete shorter works of a modern-day master of science fiction and fantasy.

Cover Art by Adam Burn

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, November 7, 2017

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4814-8279-0
eISBN: 978-1-62579-616-5

Foreword © 2017 by David Drake
Introduction © 2017 by Tony Daniel
All other material © 2017 by Tim Powers

“Salvage and Demolition” © 2013 by Tim Powers. First published as Salvage and Demolition (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press).
“The Bible Repairman” © 2006 by Tim Powers. First published as The Bible Repairman (Subterranean Press: Burton, Michigan).
“Appointment at Sunset” © 2014 by Tim Powers. First published as Appointment at Sunset (Catskill, NY: Charnel House).
“The Better Boy” © 1995 by James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers.
First appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (February 1991).
“Pat Moore” © 2004 by Tim Powers. First appeared in Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy (New York: Roc).
“The Way Down the Hill” © 1982 by Tim Powers. First appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (December 1982).
“Itinerary” © 1999 by Tim Powers. First appeared in 999 (New York: Avon Books).
“A Journey of Only Two Paces” © 2011 by Tim Powers. First appeared in The Bible Repairman and Other Stories (San Francisco, Cali.: Tachyon). (A shorter version of this story first appeared in 2009 in “LX Eastercon: The Souvenir Book” edited by Steve Cooper. (Bradford, United Kingdom).
“The Hour of Babel” © 2008 by Tim Powers. First appeared in Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, edited by William Schaefer (Subterranean Press: Burton, Michigan).
“Where They Are Hid” © 1995 by Tim Powers. First published as Where They are Hid (New York: Charnel House).
“We Traverse Afar” © 1995 by James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers. First appeared in Christmas Forever (New York: Tor Books).
“Through and Through” © 2003 by James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers. First appeared in The Devils in the Details (Burton, Mich.: Subterranean Press).
“Night Moves” © 1986 by Tim Powers. First published as Night Moves (Seattle, Wash.: Axolotl Press).
“A Soul in a Bottle” © 2006 by Tim Powers. First published as A Soul in a Bottle (Subterranean Press: Burton, Michigan).
“Parallel Lines” © 2010 by Tim Powers. First appeared in Stories, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (HarperCollins: New York).
“Fifty Cents” © 2003 by James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers. First appeared in The Devils in the Details (Burton, Mich.: Subterranean Press).
“Nobody’s Home: An Anubis Gates Story” © 2014 by Tim Powers. First published as Nobody’s Home (Burton, Mich.: Subterranean Press).
“A Time To Cast Away Stones” © 2008 by Tim Powers. First published as A Time to Cast Away Stones (Catskill, NY: Charnel House).
“Down and Out in Purgatory” © 2016 by Tim Powers. First published as Down and Out in Purgatory (Burton, Mich.: Subterranean Press).
“Sufficient Unto the Day” © 2017 by Tim Powers. First appeared at Baen.com (October 2017).

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

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