Fantasy Short Stories

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 33 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2020.

The (black) magical season is here - and whether it's a solstice seance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year's with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu, or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously hellish!

Jane Yellowrock, her best friend Molly Trueblood, an earth witch, police detective Paul "Brax" Braxton, and Molly's husband Evan go after a blood-family of rogue-vampires who killed a local family.

Clay's deepest desire is to have a baby. The hyena omega was born to be a dad - and now that he's turning thirty, he plans to make that happen ASAP. No mate? No problem. He just needs an alpha to get him pregnant. He'll raise the cub on his own. The stern, powerful alpha of the pride has everything Clay wants in a sperm donor - but they also have a long-buried history Clay would rather forget. Will Clay ask Landon to get him pregnant, no strings attached? And if Landon accepts, will he end up wanting to keep his omega daddy - forever? (Omega Daddy is an M/M paranormal romance featuring ...

"The Last Command" was first published in the November 1965 issue of Bizarre! Mystery Magazine. Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) is regarded as one of the most influential science fiction writers of all time. He was named a grand master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

In Virginia DeMarce's witty and touching "Pastor Kastenmayer's Revenge", a Lutheran pastor gets even with the American who eloped with his daughter by scheming to gain new adherents through eight separate arranged marriages between Lutheran down-timers and American up-timers. Also included: Gorg Huff's "Other People's Money", plus much more.

Cat burglar takes on a whole other meaning when you are a werelion. But thief, Trisha Sandstrom considers it her livelihood; her sole purpose in life is to steal from the rich and make herself well-off. No Robin Hood philosophy for her. Ever since she was turned into a werelion, life has taken on a rather selfish patina for Trisha. Ready to shake the dust of Georgia from her heels, one last heist lies between her and the beaches of Saint-Tropez. Summer Branson is one of Savannah, Georgia’s wealthiest women. She operates a business catering to men’s most base and sensual desires, but ...

Kitty Norville is everybody's favorite werewolf DJ and out-of-the-closet supernatural creature. Over the course of eight books, she's fought evil vampires, were-creatures, and some serious black magic. She's done it all with a sharp wit and the help of a memorable cast of werewolf hunters, psychics, and if-not-good-then-neutral vampires by her side. Kitty's Greatest Hits not only gives listeners some of Kitty's further adventures, it offers longtime fans a window into the origins of some of their favorite characters.

Molly Everhart Trueblood and Jane Yellowrock try to discover if a local house is indeed haunted. But the problem that they discover is far worse than a ghostly haunting, and far more difficult to solve.

In a futuristic world where predictive software can map out the lives of every living person and their descendants, Naomi Prynne is on trial. The charge: endangerment by way of a pregnancy. Thirteen jurors will determine whether Naomi is allowed to carry the pregnancy to term, but the jurors are also all plaintiffs, the software having predicted how Naomi Prynne’s child will affect each of them in life-changing ways.

Echo of Silence: In a deep-sea station, Tazia Nerif has found her life's work as an engineer, keeping things running smoothly. But she wants nothing more than to break down the barrier of silence between her and her telekinetic Psy station commander. Dorian: A changeling who can never shift lives a life of quiet frustration - until he learns how to let his leopard come out and play.

Dr. Alison Winters has a secret: She’s looking for a cure for vampiric blood madness. After years of research, Alison is hopeful she might, at long last, have the answers that will save her high school friend from an eternity of blood madness. And the handsome, mysterious vampire who shows up at her door can’t just be there by coincidence. The gorgeous woman isn’t what the vampire Laurent expected to find. She’s tempting, but he suspects things aren’t at all what they seem. Barely able to keep his hands off her, Laurent knows Alison is his fated mate, and he’s determined to ...

"Earthlight" was first published in the August 1951 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. It was later expanded into the novel of the same name. Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) is regarded as one of the most-influential science fiction writers of all time. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

The new United States in central Germany launches a one-plane Doolittle Raid on Paris, France. The target: their arch-enemy, Cardinal Richelieu. Meanwhile, an ambassador from the Mughal Empire of northern India is being held captive in Austria by the Habsburg dynasty. Mike Stearns decides to send a mercenary company to rescue him, led by two 17th-century mercenary officers: an Englishman and a Irishman, who seem to spend as much time fighting each other as they do the enemy.

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

How do you systematically destroy a child with love? It's not something that any parent aspires to do, yet a surprising number come perilously close to achieving it.

When an inexplicable cosmic disturbance hurls your town from 20th century West Virginia back to 17th century Europe - and into the middle of the Thirty Years War - you'd better be adaptable to survive. And the natives of that time period, faced with American technology and politics, need to be equally adaptable.

For over three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror listeners crave. Now, with the eighth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the audio of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman; Kelley Armstrong; Stephen King; Linda Nagata; Laird Barron; Margo Lanagan; and many others.

This audiobook collects Wellman’s John Thunstone and Lee Corbet stories, written between 1943 and 1979. These stories combine the mystical and horrific with traditional Southern folk tales and legends. These stories also reveal a post-World War II modernism that make them much more then pulp romanticism. The paranoia and cynicism of modern weird icons, such as The X-files, may well have had their genesis in the pulp musings of Manly Wade Wellman.