Two years ago, readers eagerly devoured The Living Dead. Publishers Weekly named it one of the Best Books of the Year, and Barnes & Noble.com called it "The best collection of zombie fiction ever." Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is back for another bite at the apple -- the Adam's apple, that is -- with 44 more of the best, most chilling, most thrilling zombie stories anywhere, including virtuoso performances by zombie fiction legends Max Brooks (World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), and David Wellington (Monster Island).

From Left 4 Dead to Zombieland to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, ghoulishness has never been more exciting and relevant. Within these pages samurai warriors face off against the legions of hell, necrotic dinosaurs haunt a mysterious lost world, and eerily clever zombies organize their mindless brethren into a terrifying army. You'll even witness nightmare scenarios in which humanity is utterly wiped away beneath a relentless tide of fetid flesh. 



The Living Dead 2 has more of what zombie fans hunger for -- more scares, more action, more... brains. Experience the indispensable series that defines the very best in zombie literature.

Sherlock Holmes is back!

Sherlock Holmes, the world's first—and most famous—consulting detective, came to the world's attention more than 120 years ago through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels and stories. But Conan Doyle didn't reveal all of the Great Detective's adventures . . .

Here are some of the best Holmes pastiches of the last 30 years, twenty-eight tales of mystery and the imagination detailing Holmes's further exploits, as told by many of today's greatest storytellers, including Stephen King, Anne Perry, Anthony Burgess, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and many more.

These are the improbable adventures of Sherlock Holmes, where nothing is impossible, and nothing can be ruled out. In these cases, Holmes investigates ghosts, curses, aliens, dinosaurs, shapeshifters, and evil gods. But is it the supernatural, or is there a perfectly rational explanation?

You won't be sure, and neither will Holmes and Watson as they match wits with pirates, assassins, con artists, and criminal masterminds of all stripes, including some familiar foes, such as their old nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

In these pages you'll also find our heroes crossing paths with H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and even Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and you'll be astounded to learn the truth behind cases previously alluded to by Watson but never before documented until now.

These are tales that take us from the familiar quarters at 221B Baker Street to alternate realities, from the gaslit streets of London to the far future and beyond.

Whether it's mystery, fantasy, horror, or science fiction, no puzzle is too challenging for the Great Detective. The game is afoot!

This reprint anthology showcases the best Holmes short fiction from the last 30 years,
featuring stories by:

Stephen King Tim Lebbon Anne Perry Bradley H. Sinor Edward D. Hoch Vonda N. McIntyre Darrell Schweitzer Mary Robinette Kowal H. Paul Jeffers Barbara Roden Anthony Burgess Stephen Baxter Laurie R. King Geoffrey A. Landis Amy Myers Peter Tremayne Sharyn McCrumb Michael Moorcock Dominic Green Barbara Hambly Tony Pi Chris Roberson Naomi Novik Rob Rogers Mark Valentine Tanith Lee Neil Gaiman Robert J. Sawyer

Vampires. They are the most elegant of monsters—ancient, seductive, doomed, deadly. They lurk in the shadows, at your window, in your dreams. They are beautiful as anything you've ever seen, but their flesh is cold as the grave, and their lips taste of blood.

From Dracula to Twilight; from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to True Blood, many have fallen under their spell. Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams brings you 33 of the most haunting vampire stories of the past three decades, from some of today's most renowned authors of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Charming gentlemen with the manners of a prior age. Savage killing machines who surge screaming from hidden vaults. Cute little girls frozen forever in slender bodies. Long-buried loved ones who scratch at the door, begging to be let in. Nowhere is safe, not mist-shrouded Transylvania or the Italian Riviera or even a sleepy town in Maine. This is a hidden world, an eternal world, where nothing is forbidden . . . as long as you're willing to pay the price.

Edited by John Joseph Adams (Wastelands, The Living Dead), By Blood We Live features over 200,000 words of the very best in vampire fiction. Thirsty? By Blood We Live will satisfy your darkest cravings . . .

Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is home to one of the galaxy's premier institutions of higher learning. Both Theo's mother, Kamele, and Kamele's onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have for all of Theo's life, in Jen Sar's house at the outskirts of town.

 Suddenly, though, Theo's life changes. Kamele leaves Jen Sar and moves herself and Theo back into faculty housing, which is not what Theo is used to. Once settled back inside the Wall, Kamele becomes embroiled in faculty politics, and is appointed sub-chair of her department. Meanwhile, Theo, who has a notation in her file indicating that she is "physically challenged" has a series of misadventures, including pulling her best friend down on the belt-ride to class, and hurting a team mate during a scavage game.

  With notes piling up in her file, Theo only wants to go "home," to the house in the suburbs, and have everything just like it used to be.

  Then, Kamele uncovers evidence of possible dishonest scholarship inside of her department. In order to clear the department, she and a team of senior professors must go off-world to perform a forensic document search. Theo hopes this will mean that she'll be left in the care of the man she calls "Father," Professor Kiladi, and is horrified to learn that Kamele means to bring Theo with her!

About the Authors

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller live in the rolling hills of Central Maine with two insistent muses in the form of cats and a large cast of characters. The husband-and-wife team's collaborative work in science fiction and fantasy include twelve novels and numerous short stories in their award-winning Liaden Universe®. In addition to their collaborative work, Steve has seen short stories, nonfiction, and reviews published under his name, while Sharon has seen published short stories, newspaper pieces, and two mystery novels.

Steve was the founding curator of the University of Maryland's Kuhn Library Science Fiction Research Collection and a former Nebula juror. For five years, Sharon served the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, consecutively as Executive Director, Vice President and President. Sharon's interests include music, seashores and pine cones. Steve also enjoys music, plays tournament chess, and collects cat whiskers.

Welcome to Monster Hunter International.

Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer.

It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.

It's actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves.

Business is good . . .

About the Author

 Larry Correia is hopelessly addicted to two things: guns and B-horror movies. He lists his occupations: gun dealer, firearms instructor, accountant, and writer, and is part owner of FBMG (Fuzzy Bunny Movie Guns) a company specializing in firearms and movie props. He shoots competitively and is a certified concealed weapons instructor. Larry resides in Utah with his very patient wife and family. He has also designed a special patch for the agents of Monster Hunter International, Inc. As he puts it, "If you don't look good while you're killing stuff, then you're not really a monster hunter."

Lexile Score: 710

Doomsday Came About Every Five Years

Someone Out There really hated humans. Twenty years have passed since Shiva I first swept aside Earth's crude defenses and rained down destruction. Now Shiva V has entered the Solar System, more powerful than any of its predecessors.

The Shiva cannot be destroyed by fleets of ships: we tried, and it was the fleets that were destroyed. It cannot be defeated by a clandestinely developed super-weapon based on new principles of physics: no such weapon exists. It cannot be defeated by a forceful American President and his faithful generals: they do not know what to do.

There is only one way to defeat a Shiva: get inside and kill it. Once again, in the personae of five champions, four billion of us are about to do just that.

"A high-voltage adventure story" and an intriguing look at what the worldwide web may become."
—Vernor Vinge

"A brilliant vision of our future networked intelligence."
—Max More, Ph.D., President of the Extropy Institute and the Extropy Newsletter

"Why read expensive industry newsletters to puzzle out the future of the Web Read Earthweb to pull way ahead of today's Web pundits."
—Christine Peterson, Executive Director, The Foresight Institute

Genellan—a beautiful, Earthlike world where intelligent cliff dwellers waited in fear for the day the bear people would return, killing them for their fur . . .

Genellan—the only refuge for a ship's crew and a detachment of spacer Marines, abandoned by a fleet fleeing from alien attackers.

Stranded on Genellan, the humans struggled to make a home for themselves until—they hoped against hope—the fleet would return to rescue them. Lt. Sharl Buccari tried desperately to hold on to the threads of command over the spacers and the Marines—to keep her crew together and alive.

Winter was coming. No one knew if the winged natives would be friend or foe. And now the bear people were returning, intent on destroying the humans—but not before stealing the secret of hyperlight drive, the key to interstellar flight . . .

"Caliphate is Mark Steyn's America Alone with body count."—John Ringo

"Slavery is a part of Islam . . . Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." —Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid ("Monotheism") and senior Saudi cleric.

Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to dhimmitude, a form of second class citizenship. They are denied arms, denied civil rights, denied a voice, and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya. Their sons are taken as conscripted soldiers while their daughters are subject to the depredations of the continent's new masters.

In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family's yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother's diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America.

But it will take more than magic to free Petra and Europe from their bonds; it will take guns, superior technology, and a reborn spirit of freedom.

About the author

In 1974, at age seventeen, Tom Kratman became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army. He stayed a Regular Army infantryman most of his adult life, returning to Massachusetts as an unofficial dissident while attending Boston College after his first hitch. Back in the Army, he managed to do just about everything there was to do, at one time or another. After the Gulf War, and with the bottom dropping completely out of the anti-communism market, Tom decided to become a lawyer. Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. His family, muttering darkly, put up with this for years. He no longer practices law, instead writing full time for Baen. His novels for Baen include A State of Disobedience, A Desert Called Peace and its sequel Carnifex, as well as two collaborations with John Ringo, Watch on the Rhine and Yellow Eyes.

A NEW STAR OF MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION

Praise for Carnifex:

"[Kratman's] audience. . . will enjoy it for it's realistic action sequences, strong characterizations and thoughts on the philosophy of war."-Publishers Weekly

Praise for A State of Disobedience:

"Probably the most realistic depiction of a second American Revolution ever written."-John Ringo

"Tom Kratman makes a strong case in this gripping futuristic political military thriller for when is it acceptable to go beyond civil disobedience to outright revolt against the government."-The Midwest Book Review

". . . it's easy to get sucked into the story and want to cheer for the good guys."-SFRevu.com

Praise for Watch on the Rhine:

"Ringo and Kratman pull no punches in this audacious and deliberately shocking effort. . . Readers. . . will be rewarded with an exciting view from 'the other side of the hill."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for Yellow Eyes:

"In this breathless page-turner, the latest in the Posleen military SF series from Ringo and Kratman Latin America falls to the reptilian alien invaders without much struggle, except for Panama. There, members of the U.S. military enlist local forces and desperately resist. . . the battle tactics are worked out in satisfying detail.-Publishers Weekly

"The usual many good action scenes are on hand, along with. . . intelligent lectures on military science and the expected charming superwaepon, here the old heavy cruiser Des Moines ,fitted with a number of advanced systems, including an Al named Daisy. The series already has a number of fun books in it. This is another."-Roland Green, Booklist

The inhuman Rulers of the galaxy sent three fleets to learn what had happened to the world located by Captain North and the Survey Team he led. Neither a soul nor a message returned. The fourth time, the Rulers sent a single man: Nils Hansen.

Commissioner Hansen had a mind that saw the shortest path to each task's completion and a ruthless determination to do what the task required. The cost - to himself and whoever happened to be in the way - didn't matter. Hanson's Special Units had kept his planet safe from the most sophisticated and violent criminals in the galaxy. Now Hansen was being sent to penetrate a spacetime enigma which had made gods or demons of the first humans to discover it. He would succeed or die.

Northworld: a place of slashing violence and mystic transformation
Northworld: a place of treachery and dazzling beauty
Northworld: a place of honor, of faith, and of love.

Hansen's iron will and strong arm confront godlike power and godlike cunning while a galaxy trembles for the outcome. And if Hansen dies - he will not die alone!

Praise for The Northworld Trilogy:

"Down and dirty . . . this one blazes!" — Los Angeles Daily News

"Fast-paced adventure with convincing depth!"
—Publishers Weekly

"Good military SF . . . the action is fast and the tension is high!"
— Locus

" Northworld is that rare work-a novel that works on more than one level. A stunning tapestry . . . highly recommended!" — The SFRA Newsletter

 Because of the large size and number of images used in the Granville Gazette, the images are stored on the Web so they can be downloaded by those with an interest in them

THE SAGA OF THE SLAMMERS BEGINS!

COLONEL ALOIS HAMMER: He welded five thousand individual killers into a weapon more deadly than any other in the human universe. When a planetary government faces unfriendly natives, guerrilla insurgents, or ruthless terrorists, they do the only thing that might save them— they hire Hammer's Slammers, the toughest, meanest bunch of mercs who ever wrecked a world for pay. Known throughout the galaxy for their cold, ruthless ferocity, the men of Colonel Hammer's indomitable armored brigade routinely accept impossible missions. Again and again, they go up against overwhelming forces, or fight a two-front war against ferocious opposition, all without atomizing their civilian employers. Can they keep doing it Not if they abide by the rules of civilized warfare...but nobody ever said the Hammers were nice. Even when their chances are not good—those who oppose them have no chance at all!

Publisher's Note: THE TANK LORDS contains two full volume's worth of the Hammer's Slammer's saga, for the first time presented in chronological story sequence as determined by the author.

HE RAISED AN ARMY
AGAINST THOSE WHO
TOOK EVERYTHING FROM HIM

They should have picked their enemies more carefully.

Five centuries from now, on a remarkably Earthlike planet that is mankind's sole colony in space, religious fanatics called the "Salafi Ikhwan" have murdered the uncle of former colonel Patrick Hennessey. That was their first mistake, because uncle was rich and Hennessey was rather a good colonel. But they also murdered Hennessey's wife, Linda, and their three small children, and that was their worst mistake for she was the only restraint Hennessey had ever accepted.

From the pile of rubble and the pillar of fire that mark the last resting place of Linda Hennessey and her children arises a new warrior—Carrera, scourge of the Salafis. He will forge an army of ruthless fanatics from the decrepit remains of failed state's military. He will wage war across half a world. He will find those who killed his family. He will destroy them, and those who support them, utterly, completely, without restraint or remorse.

Only when he is finished will there be peace: the peace of an empty wind as it blows across a desert strewn with the bones of Carrera's enemies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In 1974, at age seventeen, Tom Kratman became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army. He stayed a Regular Army infantryman most of his adult life, returning to Massachusetts as an unofficial dissident while attending Boston College after his first hitch. Back in the Army, he managed to do just about everything there was to do, at one time or another. After the Gulf War, and with the bottom dropping completely out of the anti-communism market, Tom decided to become a lawyer. (Big mistake, way big. Chilluns, don't do it.) Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. His family, muttering darkly, still puts up with this. His novels for Baen include A State of Disobedience and two collaborations with John Ringo, Watch on the Rhine and Yellow Eyes.

A Liaden Universe® Novel "LEE AND MILLER STRIKE SPACE OPERA GOLD."
 —Robin Wayne Bailey

Once a brilliant First-in Scout, Val Con yos'Phelium was "recruited" by the mysterious Liaden Department of Interior and brainwashed into an Agent of Change—a ruthless covert operative who kills without remorse.

Fleeing the scene of his latest murderous mission, he finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a tough Terran on the run from a team of interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other—or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

"I was mesmerized, awed, and totally entertained. I am hooked by the Liaden world. Bravo!"
—Mary Balogh

"Full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. OUTSTANDING."
—Booklist

"You may never care about a cast of characters more or await their return with more anticipation."
—SF Site

Paradigms Shift, Worlds Collide!

A daring and resourceful paleontologist uncovers something at the infamous K-T boundary marking the end of dinosaurs in the fossil record � something big, dangerous, and absolutely, categorically impossible.  It's a find that will catapult her to the Martian moon Phobos, then down to the crater-pocked desert of the Red Planet itself.  For this mild-mannered fossil hunter may just have become Earth's first practicing xenobiologist!

A new hard SF thriller from best-selling alternate history master Eric Flint and ace game designer Ryk E. Spoor.

"[Eric Flint is] an SF author of particular note, one who can entertain and edify in equal, and major, measure." —Publishers Weekly

The Battle Against
Those Determined
to Rule the World—or
Destroy It—Continues

In the future the world was a paradise—and then, in a moment, it ended. The council that controlled the Net fell out and went to war, while people who had never known a moment of want or pain were left wondering how to survive.

Duke Edmund Talbot has been assigned a simple mission: Go to the Southern Isles and make contact with the scattered mer-folk—those who, before the worldwide collapse of technology, had altered their bodies in the shape of mythical sea-dwelling creatures. He must convince them to side with the Freedom Coalition in the battles against the fascist dictators of New Destiny. Just a simple diplomatic mission. That requires the service of a dragon-carrier and Lieutenant Herzer Herrick, the most blooded of the Blood Lords—because New Destiny has plans of its own.

The fast-paced sequel to There Will be Dragons is a rollicking adventure above and below the high seas with dragons, orcas, beautiful mermaids— and the irrepressible Bast the Wood Elf, a cross between Legolas and Mae West.

The Empress of Earth

Finest passenger liner in the galaxy —

Brightest link in the chain that binds the starflung civilization of the 23rd century—

Six thousand lives in a single hull, trembling through multiple universes to land on raw, often violent worlds, each with its own history and wonder —

The Empress of Earth

Neutral pawn in an interstellar war!

When hostile necessity knows no law, Ran Colville and the rest of the complement of the Empress of Earth must bring home their ship and the passengers entrusted to them. From the Captain on his bridge to the Cold Crewmen who work in conditions that differ from Hell only by name, they'll have their work cut out for them this voyage!

Sergeant Kendra Pacelli is innocent, but that doesn't matter to the repressive government pursuing her. Mistakes might be made, but they are never acknowledged, especially when billions of embezzled dollars earned from illegal weapons sales are at stake. But where does one run when all Earth and most settled planets are under the aegis of one government? Answer: The Freehold of Grainne. There, one may seek asylum and build a new life in a society that doesn't track its residents every move, which is just what Pacelli has done. But now things are about to go royally to hell. Because Earth's government has found out where she is, and they want her back. Or dead.

It's Time to Remember the
Alamo All Over Again!

In the long war against terrorism, the US Government had taken on extraordinary powers. And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country—but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. And, though the Federal Government had more guns and troops, David was about to give Goliath a run for his money. . . .

 

"Probably the most realistic depiction of a second American Revolution ever written." —John Ringo

Paradise Lost

In the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise—and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive.

But scattered across the face of the earth are communities which have returned to the natural life of soil and small farm. In the village of Raven's Mill, Edmund Talbot, master smith and unassuming historian, finds that all the problems of the world are falling in his lap. Refugees are flooding in, bandits are roaming the woods, and his former lover and his only daughter struggle through the Fallen landscape. Enemies, new and old, gather like jackals around a wounded lion.

But what the jackals do not know is that while old he may be, this lion is far from death. And hidden in the past is a mystery that has waited until this time to be revealed. You cross Edmund Talbot at your peril, for a smith is not all he once was. . . .

Praise for the Science Fiction of John Ringo

"MARVELOUS!" —David Weber

"Explosive. . . . Fans of strong military SF will appreciate Ringo's lively narrative and flavorful characters. . . . One of the best new practitioners of military SF." —Publishers Weekly

". . . since his imagination, clearly influenced by Kipling and rock and roll, is fertile, and his storytelling skill sound, [When the Devil Dances] is irresistible." —Booklist

". . . fast-paced military sf peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse." —Library Journal

"If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo . . . good reading with solid characterizations—a rare combination." —Philadelphia Weekly Press

"Ringo provides a textbook example of how a novel in the military SF subgenre should be written. . . . Crackerjack storytelling." —Starlog

Vampires are Real—
but Everything You Thought You
Knew About Them is Wrong!

When freelance information specialist Jason Wood found that a suspected drug kingpin didn't appear on photographs, he decided to investigate, suspecting that the kingpin was actually a vampire. But things wouldn't turn out to be that simple, and he soon found he was in danger from the last person he would have suspected. Trying to survive in a bizarre night world, Jason learns not only that vampires and werewolves really exist, but that they are part of a universe stranger than he ever imagined. . . .