This eclectic, wide-ranging collection of some of Di Filippo’s newest stories—plus one newly excavated gem from nearly thirty years past—illustrates the enormous territory encompassed by modern fantastical fiction in general, and this writer’s realm in particular. From the sheer Lovecraftian weirdness found in “The Horror at Gancio Rosso” to the biopunk future of “The Herple is a Happy Beast”; from the old-school pulp of “Airboy and Vooda Visit the Jungles of the Moon” to the hardcore cyberpunk of “A Faster, Deeper Now,” these tales chart the unexpected, the comical, the tragic and the likely-to-happen. Whether our heroes are trying to kill God (“The Trail of the Creator, the Trial of Creation”) or time-travel to a happier era (“I’ll Follow the Sun”), they exhibit all the intelligence, derring-do, resilience and manic assaults on the multiverse found in the best classic imaginative literature.

Award-winning, #1 international best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson has published nearly 150 books, which have appeared in 30 languages worldwide, in genres ranging from science fiction, epic fantasy, humorous horror, gritty suspense, steampunk, and mystery. He has published over half a million words of short fiction, the best of which are gathered in this multi-volume series.

This volume features Anderson’s wide-ranging imagination in the fantasy genre. You will read about obsessed sea captains, shape shifters, enchanted loincloths, bumbling knights in shining armor, ghosts haunting Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, a homeless mother and a troll under a bridge, Captain Nemo and his Nautilus, H.G. Wells’s Martians, and a very strange Wisconsin small town.

These tales showcase the breadth of Anderson’s talent with a variety of works, written solo or with collaborators, including Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Sarah A. Hoyt, Neil Peart from the legendary rock band Rush, and his wife Rebecca Moesta.

Six months after a case gone bad infected him with lycanthropy, private eye Ben Lockwood hasn’t simply come to terms with his new condition; he’s embraced it. The animal lets him just be instead of dwelling on past horrors, and he frequently sleeps better as a wolf. He thinks he’s fine, until a couple of supernatural law enforcement agents inform him that if he wolfs too much, he’ll forget his humanity—leaving them with a mess to clean up.

And then one of those past horrors comes roaring back into his life. Rutger Ostheim, enraged by the death of his family, breaks out of prison to seek vengeance. He’s aided by a ruthless businessman with slippery ethics and a separate grudge, who’s taken the werewolf nanotech to new and awful heights, determined to sell it to the highest bidder. No matter what they want Berserker Virus Murder-Wolf tech for.

However, when Ben is given the opportunity for some payback of his own, he may find his inner demons a far graver threat than a tech-enhanced werewolf nearly twice his size.

The Ydron Saga 2

Everyone who touches you transforms you, if only a little. But if you enter their minds, think what they have thought, in effect do what they have done, how complete will that transformation be?

If he had been born an ordinary man, his family would be safe—safe as anyone can be in a land torn apart by war. It is his singular gift, however, that causes his wife and children to be imprisoned and held hostage and him to be used as a tool. Caught up in a struggle between opposing warlords and refusing to play the game, Peniff elects to take the moral high road. This is the story of a man, in all other ways ordinary, rising above his fears to do what he must. Can he free his family before his betrayal comes to light? Moreover, what will he become before his journey is over?

Thought Gazer, the second volume of the Ydron Saga, is the first book of Awakening’s prequel trilogy.

The colony planet of Fremont was supposed to be free of all genetically altered beings—a new home for a pure race. So when six genetically altered children were abandoned on Fremont, they were not welcome. They vowed to get off the planet by any means necessary. Joseph and the others managed to escape, although Joseph finds their new home hostile, frightening, and deeply challenging. Chelo is left behind with her new-found love, Liam, and her best friend, the troubled Kayleen. Both sets of teens must contend with hostile adults, daunting environments, and unexpected challenges. And when Chelo’s very life is threatened, Joseph must find a way to save her.