“I dreamed a dream of angels. I saw them and heard them in a great and endless galactic night. I saw the lights that were these angels, flying here and there, in streaks of irresistible brilliance . . . I felt love around me in this vast and seamless realm of sound and light . . . And something akin to sadness swept me up and mingled my very essence with the voices who sang, because the voices were singing of me . . . ”Thus begins Anne Rice’s lyrical, haunting new novel, a metaphysical thriller of angels and assassins that once again summons up dark and dangerous worlds set in times past. Anne Rice takes us to other realms, this time to the world of fifteenth-century Rome, a city of domes and rooftop gardens, rising towers and crosses beneath an ever-shifting layer of clouds; familiar hills and tall pines . . . of Michelangelo and Raphael, of the Holy Inquisition and of Leo X, second son of a Medici, holding forth from the papal throne . . . And into this time, into this century, Toby O’Dare, former government assassin, is summoned by the angel Malchiah to solve a terrible crime of poisoning and to search out the truth of a haunting by an earthbound restless spirit—a diabolical dybbuk.O’Dare soon discovers himself in the midst of dark plots and counterplots surrounded by a darker and more dangerous threat as the veil of ecclesiastical terror closes in around him.As he embarks on a powerful journey of atonement, O’Dare is reconnected with his own past, with matters light and dark, fierce and tender, with the promise of salvation and with a deeper and richer vision of love.

Ray Bradbury's second short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!? (Illustrated by Joe Mugnaini.) Contents: · The Dwarf · ss Fantastic Jan/Feb ’54 · The Next in Line · nv Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947 · The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse · ss Beyond Fantasy Fiction Mar ’54 · Skeleton · ss Weird Tales Sep ’45 · The Jar · ss Weird Tales Nov ’44 · The Lake · ss Weird Tales May ’44 · The Emissary · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947 · Touched with Fire [“Shopping for Death”] · ss Maclean’s Jun 1 ’54 · The Small Assassin · ss Dime Mystery Magazine Nov ’46 · The Crowd · ss Weird Tales May ’43 · Jack-in-the-Box · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947 · The Scythe · ss Weird Tales Jul ’43 · Uncle Einar · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947 · The Wind · ss Weird Tales Mar ’43 · The Man Upstairs · ss Harper’s Mar ’47 · There Was an Old Woman · ss Weird Tales Jul ’44 · The Cistern · ss Mademoiselle May ’47 · Homecoming · ss Mademoiselle Oct ’46 · The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone · ss Charm Jul ’54

In 1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and dissolute priest of the parish of Loudun was tried, tortured and burnt at the stake. He had been found guilty of conspiring with the devil to seduce an entire convent of nuns in what was the most sensational case of mass possession and sexual hysteria in history. Grandier maintained his innocence to the end and four years after his death the nuns were still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic bondage. Huxley's vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession transforms our understanding of the medieval world.

How to summarize the psychedelic, witty, helter-skelter mind of Harlan Ellison? A mind that refused to be contained by something as rudimentary as genre, form, or even a particular label. A mind that created some of the most outrageous short stories and novellas of the science fiction, fantasy, and speculative genres – including “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” with its unhinged artificial intelligence bent on torturing what is left of humanity, and “Jeffty Is Five,” featuring a young boy’s mysterious, time-bending powers. A mind that passionately identified with the underdog, sometimes with disastrous results. A mind incandescent with fury, that saw storytelling as “a holy chore.” Assembled by the Harlan and Susan Ellison Foundation, Greatest Hits is an overview of Ellison’s award-winning and highly acclaimed short stories – as well as the stories that Ellison himself most treasured. Featuring a preface by Ellison’s executor and friend J. Michael Straczynski, a foreword by award-winning and bestselling author Neil Gaiman, and an introduction by bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, this collection of short stories and novellas serves as a guide to a writer who left his mark on the twentieth century – and whose legacy is in your hands.

How to summarize the psychedelic, witty, helter-skelter mind of Harlan Ellison? A mind that refused to be contained by something as rudimentary as genre, form, or even a particular label. A mind that created some of the most outrageous short stories and novellas of the science fiction, fantasy, and speculative genres – including “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” with its unhinged artificial intelligence bent on torturing what is left of humanity, and “Jeffty Is Five,” featuring a young boy’s mysterious, time-bending powers. A mind that passionately identified with the underdog, sometimes with disastrous results. A mind incandescent with fury, that saw storytelling as “a holy chore.” Assembled by the Harlan and Susan Ellison Foundation, Greatest Hits is an overview of Ellison’s award-winning and highly acclaimed short stories – as well as the stories that Ellison himself most treasured. Featuring a preface by Ellison’s executor and friend J. Michael Straczynski, a foreword by award-winning and bestselling author Neil Gaiman, and an introduction by bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, this collection of short stories and novellas serves as a guide to a writer who left his mark on the twentieth century – and whose legacy is in your hands.