“[Holly Philips,] The celebrated lyrical fantasist returns with a second short fiction collection, featuring 11 stories (with one original, “Castle Rock”), plus story notes by the author and a laudatory introduction by Peter S. Beagle.”

“This anthology of “Fantasy Under the Big Top” includes 20 of the best stories about bizarre circuses, strange carnivals, and sinister fairs, with work by Christopher Barzak, Kij Johnson, Ken Scholes, Peter Straub, Howard Waldrop, Genevieve Valentine, Jeff VanderMeer, and more.”

Read the whole list here!

Future Games edited by Paula Guran
Publication Date: January 16, 201

Human competition is eternal. No matter what the future brings, sports will be a part of it. But what forms will these games take? Who will be the spectator, who will play? Will aliens be our opponents or machines? What rules will we play by? What will be at stake? What rewards will be reaped by the victors? What fates await the defeated? Will the entire universe be our arena or will our world be smaller than today? Visionary authors speculate on what swifter, higher, stronger will mean in the near and distant future.

CONTENTS (alphabetical order):
“Distance” by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card
“Anda’s Game” by Cory Doctorow
“Breakaway” by George Alec Effinger
“Pawn” by Timons Esaias
“Will the Chill” by John Shirley
“Diamond Girls” by Louise Marley
“Run to Starlight” by George R.R. Martin
“The Fate of Nations” by James Morrow
“The Survivor” by Walter F. Moudy
“Listen” by Joel Richards
“Name That Planet!” by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
“Man-Mountain Gentian” by Howard Waldrop
“Unsportsmanlike Conduct” by Scott Westerfeld
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis!” by Kate Wilhelm
“Kip Running” by Genevieve Williams

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“Liz Williams’ Worldsoul hits the ground fast and comes up running. The first in a planned trilogy, the book is a natural progression from Williams’ Detective-Inspector Chen novels. In those, what started as a mashup between classical Chinese mythology and urban noir rapidly expanded its cosmology, gleefully mashing up Chinese, Indian and other elements into a single creative stew.

Here, Williams starts with the mashup already in place. The city, Worldsoul, is the center of creation (more or less) in a cosmology where stories have power and a reality all their own, and being a Librarian is one of the trickiest jobs there is. The city’s derived from Earth but not of it, and its Quarters reflect various aspects of Earth cultural tradition. The North Quarter, for example, harkens back to Scandinavian culture and myth, while the Eastern is overseen by the mysterious Suleiman and draws its flavor from Middle Eastern roots.”

Read the rest here!

“Portraying human reaction to dire change or extreme circumstance, combining the real intruded upon by the fantastic or the fantastic grounded in reality, Phillips describes the world as it is, as it may be, as something impossible yet entirely acceptable, enthralling the reader with her words.”

Read the rest here!

Over on our Twitter feed, we’re doing a giveaway! Between now and September 25th, tweet at us your favorite ghost story and be entered into the drawing for a free ebook of Ghosts: Recent Hauntings.

Edited by Paula Guran, Ghosts contains stories by Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Peter Straub, Joe R. Lansdale, and many more!