"Over the past 30 years, Hoffman has received more than 30 nominations for a wide variety of awards...This collection of 16 fantastical stories, drawn from the latter half of her career to date and including one story not previously collected, highlights the talent that makes her a perennial nominee...Hoffman's skills shine at short lengths, and this collection of perfect, gemlike stories would complement any library." —Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)

Talebones was one of the most respected small press science fiction and fantasy magazines to come out of the past decade. The Best of Talebones includes forty-two of the best, most beloved stories from the magazine’s 39 issues, and contains some of the biggest names and the newest talent in the genre.

Endeavor Award Finalist!
With these 17 tales, Ken Scholes invites you to his Imagination Forest. You'll find a toy bear of Little Brain tasked with a Very Long Walk and a mysterious metal man with the power to bring down a city and the heart to weep for it. Follow Meriwether Lewis west, seeking the source of a mysterious scrap of currency from the future. Laugh and cry as Andro Giantslayer recounts the highlights of his dungeon-crawling, dragon-slaying and diaper-changing career with Luendyl the Fierce and Fair. Learn exactly how Cain found himself a wife, see what superheroes get up to in their sunset years, and watch Hodgson and Houdini as they traverse the landscape of Hell in search of Michelangelo's Crystalline Ear. And along the way, keep your eyes open. You'll meet alien babies, messianic Santas, typing chimps and maybe, if you look carefully, you'll find some off-brand love and a little bit of hope in Drum Farrelly's supply room. Buckle up. Hang on. A ride in the Imagination Forest is bound to be a strange journey . . .

Return to Ken Scholes' Imagination Forest in this second collection of quirky, off-beat stories. These 17 tales range from his first published story in 2000 to his most recent in 2009, including two stories set in his Psalms of Isaak series. You'll encounter cynical Santas and explore the dating woes of superheroes. You'll join God and Satan in the bar for a glass of merlot and watch the hyjinx unfold as Reverend Sparkle Jones leads his rag-tag gang of misfits across a post-apocalyptic America in search of the holy grail to stem the tide of an alien invasion. You'll meet the Lady of the Lake in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and bump into Abe and his backup singers as they do their part to save the world. So settle in for the ride and keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. Here in the Imagination Forest, you never know who — or what — you'll come across.