Flashing swords and fearsome magicks . . . high adventure and wondrous wizardry . . . dread monsters and vast rewards . . . Tales of swashbuckling sword and sorcery at their best offer keen wit, ingenious perception, freewheeling imagination, and canny invention. From its swashbuckling beginnings of good versus evil battles to clashes of more nuanced principles set in complex settings to havoc shaped by grittier perspectives, ambiguous morality, deep history and expansive worldbuilding―readers continue to be thrilled by the exploits of great warriors and mighty mages.Swords Against Darkness: an epic anthology of short stories and novellas from classic to modern, each tale a memorable vision from masters and mistresses of heroic fantasy past and present!

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of 2018's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than five hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique—sure to delight as well as disturb . . .

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror offers more than four hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique?sure to delight as well as disturb!

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of 2017's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than five hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique—sure to delight as well as disturb . . .

Award-winning editor Paula Guran presents a diverse reprint anthology collecting classic myths and legends, retold by today's top fantasy writers.The Native American trickster Coyote . . . the snake-haired Greek Gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turned men to stone . . . Kaggen, creator of the San peoples of Africa . . . the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend . . . Freyja, the Norse goddess of love and beauty . . . Ys, the mythical sunken city once built on the coast of France . . . Ragnarok, the myth of a world destroyed and reborn . . . Jason and the Argonauts, sailing in search of the Golden Fleece . . .Myths and legends are the oldest of stories, part of our collective consciousness, and the source from which all fiction flows. Full of magic, supernatural powers, monsters, heroes, epic journeys, strange worlds, and vast imagination, they are fantasies so compelling we want to believe them true.This new anthology compiles some of the best modern short mythic retellings...

Join twenty-five masterful authors and talented newcomers with more than 400 pages of the disturbing, unnerving, haunting, and strange. This outstanding annual exploration of the year's best dark fiction delivers tales of deathly possession, the weirdly surreal, mysterious melancholy, and frighteningly plausible futures. Confront your own humanity and the fears that stir you—from the darkly supernatural and painfully familiar to the disquieting terror of the unknown.

Prepare to embark on yet another fantastic adventure with award-winning fantasy editor Paula Guran. Delve into realms that exceed the limits of your imagination and embrace the surreal! Twenty-eight tales ranging from wonderful to wicked fill the pages of the second volume in The Year's Best Fantasy series. From lore and legends to myths and fables of alternative realities, you will discover bewitchment with the turn of every page. The Year's Best Fantasy, Volume 2 has something for every fantasy lover, representing a diverse array of accomplished talent from around the world, and perhaps beyond. . .

An Anthology of Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy from Award-Winning Editor Paula GuranSpeculative fiction imagines drastically diverse ways of being and worlds that are other than the one with which we are familiar. Queerness is a natural fit for such fiction, so one would expect it to be customarily included. That has not always been the case, but LGBTQ+ representation in science fiction and fantasy—in both short and long form—is now relatively common. Even so, most of the queer science fiction and fantasy anthologies published in the last thirty-five years have been narrowly focused: specifically gay male or lesbian (or, more recently, transgender) themes, or all science fiction or all fantasy, or adhering to a specific theme or subgenre.Far Out: Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy, on the other hand, features both science fiction and fantasy short fiction from the last decade and includes characters, perspectives, and...

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated and modern authors are carrying on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, the stories for this eighth volume of the series include sinister fairy tales, dreadful new legends, and spooky tales sure to spur the shivers. Encounter the eclectic terrors of today, frightening glimpses of bleak futures, and alarming considerations of the past. Welcome to the best of dark fantasy and horror.

The mummy lives . . . As a figure of the supernatural the mummy has attained iconic status in the popular imagination. For the first time, The Mammoth Book of the Mummy presents a collection of tales written for the twenty-first century—including three brand-new stories—that explore, subvert, and reinvent the mummy mythos. Some delve into the past, others explore alternative histories, and some bring mummies into our own world. Within these covers lie stories of revenge, romance, monsters, and mayhem, ranging freely across time periods, genres, and styles sure to please both mummy-lovers and those less wrapped up in mummy lore!