An innocent family, carjacked on a desolate highway, is abducted to a bizarre new world. A world being born in the Californian desert. They discover Earth has been invaded by an alien microorganism. The deadly entity attacks like a virus, but survivors of the disease genetically bond with it, developing amazing powers, near-immortality, unnatural desires - and a need to spread the contagion and create a secret colony of the transformed. Now the meaning of "survival" changes. For the babies born in the colony are clearly, undeniably, not human...

In a violent near-future, Asa Elias Doyle and her companions encounter an alien life form so heinous and destructive, they exile themselves in the desert so as not to contaminate other humans. To resist the compulsion to infect others is mental agony, but to succumb is to relinquish humanity and free will. Desperate, they kidnap a doctor and his two daughters as they cross the wasteland--and endanger the world.

In an alternate America marked by volatile class warfare, Blake Maslin is traveling with his teenage twin daughters when their car is ambushed. Their attackers appear sickly yet possess inhuman strength, and they transport Blake's family to an isolated compound. There, the three captives discover that the compound's residents have a highly contagious alien disease that has mutated their DNA to make them powerful, dangerous, and compelled to infect others. If Blake and his daughters do not escape, they will be infected with a virus that will either kill them outright or transform them into outcasts whose very existence is a threat to the world around them. In the following hours, Blake and his daughters each must make a vital choice: risk everything to escape and warn the rest of the world, or accept their new reality -- as well as the uncertain fate of the human race.

Seiichi is back home for the first time in ages to inter his father's remains in the family grave. After that, he'll be finished, nothing left to hold him in this world...until he happens to bump into Fukiishi, resurrecting all the feelings he had buried along with his past—

Will Seiichi finally find peace in death? Or will the specters of the past keep him here against his will...?

Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate. The one thing you never talk about while you're in the Scholomance is what you'll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it's all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we'll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I'm out, we're all out—and I didn't even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother's prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn't kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves everywhere. Ha, only joking! Actually, it's gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war.

And the first thing I've got to do now, having miraculously gotten out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.

Her city is under siege. The zombies are coming back. And all Nona wants is a birthday party.

In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona is not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back.

The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever.

And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face...

What destiny awaits them after the screaming? After abruptly departing from a train in a small town, a couple encounters a weeping woman—a professional mourner—sobbing inconsolably at a funeral. Mako changes afterward—she can't stop crying! In another tale, having decided to die together, a couple enters Aokigahara, the infamous suicide forest. What is the shocking otherworldly torrent that they discover there?

One of horror's greatest talents, Junji Ito beckons readers to join him in an experience of ultimate terror with four transcendently terrifying tales.

Junji Ito meets Mary Shelley! The master of horror manga bends all his skill into bringing the anguished and solitary monster—and the fouler beast who created him—to life with the brilliantly detailed chiaroscuro he is known for.

Also included are six tales of Oshikiri—a high school student who lives in a decaying mansion connected to a haunted parallel world. Uncanny doppelgangers, unfortunately murdered friends, and a whole lot more are in store for him.

Bonus: The Ito family dog! Thrill to the adventures of Non-non Ito, an adorable Maltese!

It's been 20 years since his mother told Seiichi that she renounced motherhood, since she thanked him for being a killer, since he tried to strangle her there in the courtroom—and somehow he made it through. Living alone, working the night shift at a commercial bakery, barely speaking to his father, Seiichi's life is solitary and empty, and he likes it that way. But nothing lasts forever... The grand preface is over—and now the real story begins!!

A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik's groundbreaking crossover series. At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules.

With keen insight and mordant humor, Novik reminds us that sometimes it is not enough to rewrite the rules—sometimes, you need to toss out the entire rulebook.

Horror master Junji Ito explores a new frontier with a grand cosmic horror tale in which a mysterious woman has her way with the world! Did she wander in? Or was she drawn in…? A woman walks alone at the foot of Mount Sengoku. A man appears, saying he's been waiting for her, and invites her to a nearby village. Surprisingly, the village is covered in hairlike volcanic glass fibers, and all of it shines a bright gold.

That night, as the villagers gaze up at the starry sky, countless unidentified flying objects come raining down on them—the opening act for the terror about to occur.

Tomie Kawakami is a femme fatale with long black hair and a beauty mark just under her left eye. She can seduce nearly any man, and drive them to murder as well, even though the victim is often Tomie herself. While one lover seeks to keep her for himself, another grows terrified of the immortal succubus. But soon they realize that no matter how many times they kill her, the world will never be free of Tomie.

Tomie is a chilling horror saga that combines the macabre with the seductive and the grotesque. Junji Ito, the master of horror manga, weaves a tale that will haunt readers long after they turn the last page.

A vengeful family hides an army deserter for eight years after the end of World War II, cocooning him in a false reality where the war never ended. A pair of girls look alike, but they’re not twins. And a boy's nightmare threatens to spill out into the real world...

This hauntingly strange story collection showcases a dozen of Junji Ito's earliest works from when he burst onto the horror scene, sowing fresh seeds of terror.

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don't walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school's dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

Seiichi's aunt and uncle have arrived to confront Seiko, and the truth has come out at last. The lies—and his family—are falling apart, and Seiichi is left to pick up the pieces... But as he shakes off his mother's influence and faces police questioning, a shocking revelation about his past emerges!

Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor's haunted space station. She answered the Emperor's call. She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend. In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath — but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her. Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find—her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She's a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí's dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes his latest suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

Seiichi's outburst has brought him and his mother closer together, but also served to deepen his aunt's suspicions. It's only a matter of time before the truth comes out...and before Seiichi's psychic tension erupts into violence!!

Shigeru has finally awakened from the coma he's been in since Seiko pushed him off the cliff—but he remembers nothing of the incident, nor does he even recognize his assailant. Rather than setting Seiko's mind at ease, however, this only serves to disturb her further.

Meanwhile, Seiichi is determined to keep his promise to his mother—with devastating consequences for everyone around him.

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

Beset by mental images of his mother, Seiichi flees from Fukiishi's embrace and returns home. Safety and reconciliation aren't the only things that await him there, however. The Osabes have become one big happy family again...but at what cost?

Shuzo Oshimi's masterfully nuanced tale of familial horror continues to tighten its grip on the minds of its characters and readers alike.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

Unable to process the horrifying events of the past few months, Seiichi’s anger, fear, and frustration boil over. But even as he is haunted by the memory of his mother’s hands around his throat, he finds his voice again thanks to his classmate Fukiishi. Their puppy love provides a tenderness he has been missing, but it quickly comes under threat from his mother’s insane jealousy...

Torn between the two women in his life, Seiichi is forced to make a choice that could bring his whole world crashing down.

The last days of summer creep toward a violent climax... Seiichi's family begins to fall apart in the wake of his cousin's accident, but nothing compares to the mental and emotional torture he undergoes as he tries to maintain some sense of self in the face of his mother's manipulations.

Torn by his love for her, Seiichi is pushed to the breaking point and finds himself unable to speak, both literally and figuratively. The tension continues to build in Shuzo Oshimi's masterwork of understated psychological horror, as Seiichi falls further and further into the abyss of his mother's unraveling psyche.

Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of the duality of good and evil in man's nature sprang from the darkest recesses of his own unconscious—during a nightmare from which his wife awakened him, alerted by his screams. More than a hundred years later, this tale of the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll and the drug that unleashes his evil, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr. Hyde—has lost none of its ability to shock.

Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly relates Jekyll's desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul—and gives voice to our own fears of the violence and evil within us. Written before Freud's naming of the ego and the id, Stevenson's enduring classic demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the personality's inner conflicts—and remains the irresistibly terrifying stuff of our worst nightmares.

At the Mountains of Madness is a tale of terror unlike any other. The barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless—or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found the strange fossils of unheard-of creatures...and the carved stones tens of millions of years old...and, finally, the mind-blasting terror of the City of the Old Ones.

Three additional strange tales, written as only H.P. Lovecraft can write, are also included in this macabre collection of the strange and the weird.

• At the Mountains of Madness • A complete short novel, part of the Cthulhu Mythos.
• The Dreams in the Witch-House • A novelette, part of the Cthulhu Mythos.
• The Shunned House • A novelette.
• The Statement of Randolph Carter • A short story, part of the Randolph Carter series.

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

His mother has done the unthinkable...and now Seiichi must decide if he will be complicit. But before he can even catch his breath, what remains of his sense of self is smashed to pieces by her next shocking act...

Shuzo Oshimi invites us to watch as a once-happy household quietly transforms into an inescapable living hell.

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

Seiichi's mother loves him very much, and his days pass with placid regularity. School, friends, even the attention of his attractive classmate Fukiishi. Until one terrible summer day, that all changes...

Shuzo Oshimi delivers his most unsettling work yet, the tale of a seemingly normal family suddenly swallowed up by the creeping horror of everyday life. Gorgeous art and an understated script only serve to heighten the tension as we watch Seiichi Osabe's life spiral into nightmare.

Dissolving Classroom revolves around a pair of twisted siblings - Yuuma, a young man obsessed with the devil, and Chizumi, the worst little sister in recorded history. Their unsettling presence causes all sorts of terrifying and tragic events wherever they go. This collection of scary short stories will shock readers with a literal interpretation of the ills that plague modern society.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock is an eerie tale that blends literary fiction, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror. Elizabeth Sanderson's world is turned upside down when she receives the devastating news that her fourteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park. The lack of answers from the search efforts leaves Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, grappling with the inconceivable.

Their distress is amplified by frustration and anger, as the local and state police fail to produce any leads. Tommy's friends, Josh and Luis, who were with him on that fateful night at Borderland State Park—a place cursed according to local lore—might not be completely forthcoming with what they know.

As Elizabeth lives through what seems like a never-ending nightmare, she encounters a series of bizarre occurrences. She believes she sees a ghostly apparition of Tommy in her bedroom; Kate and other residents also report sightings of a mysterious figure peering into their homes at night. Adding to the eeriness, pages from Tommy's journal start to appear out of nowhere, revealing his fascination with the supernatural, the tragic loss of his father, and a chilling folktale tied to the very woods where he disappeared.

The deeper the search for answers goes, the more haunting and malevolent the implications become. No one is ready to face the harrowing truth about the night Tommy disappeared at Devil's Rock.

Las autodenominadas «mujeres ardientes», que protestan contra una forma extrema de violencia doméstica que se ha vuelto viral; una estudiante que se arranca las uñas y las pestañas, y otra que intenta ayudarla; los años de apagones dictados por el gobierno durante los cuales se intoxican tres amigas que lo serán hasta que la muerte las separe; el famoso asesino en serie llamado Petiso Orejudo, que sólo tenía nueve años; hikikomori, magia negra, los celos, el desamor, supersticiones rurales, edificios abandonados o encantados... En estos doce cuentos el lector se ve obligado a olvidarse de sí mismo para seguir las peripecias e investigaciones de cuerpos que desaparecen o bien reaparecen en el momento menos esperado. Ya sea una trabajadora social, una policía o un guía turístico, los protagonistas luchan por apadrinar a seres socialmente invisibles, indagando así en el peso de la culpa, la compasión, la crueldad, las dificultades de la convivencia, y en un terror tan hondo como verosímil.

«El terror, en los cuentos de Mariana Enriquez, se desliza como un jadeo de agua negra sobre baldosas al sol. Como algo imposible que, sin embargo, podría suceder» (Leila Guerriero).

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood.

By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.

How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

This collection includes the following stories:

• I am legend
• Buried talents
• The near departed
• Prey
• Witch war
• Dance of the dead
• Dress of white silk
• Mad house
• The funeral
• From shadowed places
• Person to person

Station Eleven, an audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition, is set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. Day One: The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. Week Two: Civilization has crumbled.

Year Twenty: A band of actors and musicians, known as the Travelling Symphony, move through the territories of a changed world, performing concerts and Shakespeare at the settlements that have formed. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and it threatens the world every hopeful survivor has tried to rebuild.

Moving backward and forward in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: celebrated actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan, a bystander warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife, Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend, Clark; Kirsten, an actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed "prophet."

Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the fragility of life, the relationships that sustain us, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

Kurôzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the world. It manifests itself in everything from seashells and whirlpools in water to the spiral marks on people's bodies, the insane obsessions of Shuichi's father and the voice from the cochlea in our inner ear. As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of Kurôzu-cho are pulled ever deeper into a whirlpool from which there is no return!

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

Kimihiro Watanuki's after-school job working for the mysterious witch Yûko Ishikawa has taken a dangerous turn. A recent assignment cost Kimihiro his right eye to a spider with a grudge. Now the missing eye has become the latest must-have item in the spirit world. Even the Zashiki-Warashi, the pretty spirit who has a crush on Kimihiro, has become entangled in the mess — and she's being held captive by an unknown evil! Can Kimihiro save both the girl and his eye—without getting himself killed by beings more powerful than he can imagine?

Includes chapters 48-51.

A searing, post-apocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

Light thinks he's put an end to his troubles with the FBI—by using the Death Note to kill off the FBI agents working the case in Japan! But one of the agents has a fiancée who used to work in the Bureau, and now she's uncovered information that could lead to Light's capture. To make matters worse, L has emerged from the shadows to work directly with the task force headed by Light's father.

With people pursuing him from every direction, will Light get caught in the conflux?

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami, a death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil.

But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal... or his life?

Boredom
Light tests the boundaries of the Death Note's powers as L and the police begin to close in. Luckily, Light's father is the head of the Japanese National Police Agency and leaves vital information about the case lying around the house. With access to his father's files, Light can keep one step ahead of the authorities. But who is the strange man following him, and how can Light guard against enemies whose names he doesn't know?

In the deft hands of Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion, and anything is possible. In Smoke and Mirrors, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders. Imagine a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under Pest Control, and where a frightened young boy must barter for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks.

Explore a new reality, obscured by smoke and darkness, yet brilliantly tangible, in this extraordinary collection of short works by a master prestidigitator. It will dazzle your senses, touch your heart, and haunt your dreams.

A twentieth-century successor to Edgar Allan Poe as the master of "weird fiction," Howard Philips Lovecraft once wrote, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." In the novellas and stories he published in such pulp magazines as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories—and in the work that remained unpublished until after his death, including some of his best writing—H. P. Lovecraft adapted the conventions of horror stories and science fiction to express an intensely personal vision, cosmic in its ramifications and fearsome in its shuddering view of human destiny.

In this Library of America volume, the best-selling novelist Peter Straub brings together the very best of Lovecraft's fiction in a treasury guaranteed to bring fright and delight both to longtime fans and to readers new to his work. Early stories such as The Outsider, The Music of Erich Zann, Herbert West–Reanimator, and The Lurking Fear demonstrate Lovecraft's uncanny ability to blur the distinction between reality and nightmare, sanity and madness, the human and non-human. The Horror at Red Hook and He reveal the fascination and revulsion Lovecraft felt for New York City; Pickman's Model uncovers the frightening secret behind an artist's work; The Rats in the Walls is a terrifying descent into atavistic horror; and The Colour Out of Space explores the eerie impact of a meteorite on a remote Massachusetts valley.

In such later works as The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time, Lovecraft developed his own nightmarish mythology in which encounters with ancient, pitiless extraterrestrial intelligences wreak havoc on hapless humans who only gradually begin to glimpse "terrifying vistas of reality, and our frightful position therein." Moving from old New England towns haunted by occult pasts to Antarctic wastes that disclose appalling secrets, Lovecraft's tales continue to exert a dread fascination.

Hundreds of years in the future, Manhattan has become a deadly slum, run by mutant crime-lords and disinterested cops. Stuck in the middle is a young girl who thought she had no future, but learns she has a great destiny.

In a world so poisoned that it doesn't notice the monsters on its streets, how can a street kid like Fray unite a fallen city against a demonic plot to consume mankind? Joss Whedon, the celebrated creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, brings his vision to the future in this unique tale.

As inventive in the comics medium as in that of television or film, Whedon spins a complex tale of a skilled thief coming of age without the help of friends or family, guided only by a demonic Watcher.

Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies the city of New Crobuzon, where the unsavory deal is stranger to no one--not even to Isaac, a gifted and eccentric scientist who has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before encountered.

Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. Soon an eerie metamorphosis will occur that will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon--and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it evokes.

This volume collects, for the first time, the entire Dream Cycle created by H. P. Lovecraft, the master of twentieth-century horror, including some of his most fantastic tales:

• The Doom that Came to Sarnath - Hate, genocide, and a deadly curse.
• The Nameless City - Death lies beneath the shifting sands, in a story linking the Dream Cycle with the legendary Cthulhu Mythos.
• The Cats of Ulthar - In Ulthar, no man may kill a cat...and woe unto any who tries.
• The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath - The epic nightmare adventure with tendrils stretching throughout the entire Dream Cycle.

And twenty more tales of surreal terror.

Countless tombstones stand in rows throughout a small community, forming a bizarre tableau. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window?

Fresh nightmares brought to you by horror master Junji Ito.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft forever changed the face of horror, fantasy, and science fiction with a remarkable series of stories as influential as the works of Poe, Tolkien, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. His chilling mythology established a gateway between the known universe and an ancient dimension of otherworldly terror, whose unspeakable denizens and monstrous landscapes - dread Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, the Plateau of Leng, the Mountains of Madness - have earned him a permanent place in the history of the macabre.

In Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, a pantheon of horror and fantasy's finest authors pay tribute to the master of the macabre with a collection of original stories set in the fearsome Lovecraft tradition.

Contents:

• Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn! (1990) by Jim Turner
• The Call of Cthulhu (1928) by H.P. Lovecraft
• The Return of the Sorcerer (1931) by Clark Ashton Smith
• Ubbo-Sathla (1933) by Clark Ashton Smith
• The Black Stone (1931) by Robert E. Howard
• The Hounds of Tindalos (1929) by Frank Belknap Long
• The Space-Eaters (1928) by Frank Belknap Long
• The Dweller in Darkness (1944) by August Derleth
• Beyond the Threshold (1941) by August Derleth
• The Shambler from the Stars (1935) by Robert Bloch
• The Haunter of the Dark (1936) by H.P. Lovecraft
• The Shadow from the Steeple (1950) by Robert Bloch
• Notebook Found in a Deserted House (1951) by Robert Bloch
• The Salem Horror (1937) by Henry Kuttner
• The Terror from the Depths (1976) by Fritz Leiber
• Rising with Surtsey (1971) by Brian Lumley
• Cold Print (1969) by Ramsey Campbell
• The Return of the Lloigor (1969) by Colin Wilson
• My Boat (1976) by Joanna Russ
• Sticks (1974) by Karl Edward Wagner
• The Freshman (1979) by Philip Jos� Farmer
• Jerusalem's Lot (1978) by Stephen King
• Discovery of the Ghooric Zone (1977) by Richard A. Lupoff

The conclusion of the Phantom Blood Arc! Jonathan Joestar and his mentor Zeppelli continue their pursuit of the villainous vampire, Dio! But to get to him, they must first face down his murderous henchmen! In battle after bloody battle, JoJo and Zeppelli are pushed to their limits and beyond!

Young Jonathan Joestar's life is forever changed when he meets his new adopted brother, Dio. For some reason, Dio has a smoldering grudge against him and derives pleasure from seeing him suffer. But every man has his limits, as Dio finds out. This is the beginning of a long and hateful relationship!

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a thought-provoking short story that poses a powerful ethical question. It explores the concept of a seemingly utopian city, Omelas, where the prosperity and happiness of its citizens are contingent upon the perpetual misery of a single child. The narrative delves into the moral implications of this arrangement and the reaction of the citizens when confronted with the reality of the child's suffering.

Ursula K. Le Guin's masterful storytelling invites readers to ponder the sacrifices made for the greater good and the individual's role in confronting injustices. The tale's enduring relevance and its challenge to societal norms make it a compelling read that continues to inspire philosophical debate and reflection.