Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Anthologies & Short Stories

These are stories that explore the scarred outposts of desperation and desire, sickness and death, sex and decay. Within this audiobook, you will also find the acclaimed novella Nearly People (nominated for awards by the International Horror Guild and the British Fantasy Society), in which a woman's search for food in a nightmarish city brings her attention from an enigmatic man known as The Dancer, and a host of terrible epiphanies.

What newly married couple doesn't dream of a romantic retreat where they can escape the world for a while - but what happens when supernatural forces intrude on their wedded bliss? Nine of today's hottest paranormal authors answer that question in this all-star collection of supernatural stories.

Dragons, magic, princesses of mighty kingdoms: elements of fantasy that have carried on throughout the many ages and yet may one day be forgotten. Enter, and delve into the roots of fantasy, rediscovering the fantastic, and exploring lost worlds. This is storytelling at its best. This collection of original works will take listeners back to the moment when they first fell in love with the genre; featuring stories from writers across the spectrum such as Mark Lawrence, R.S. Belcher, Miles Cameron, and many more.

Who would suspect that the same mind that created the most famous literary detective of all time also took on the eternally popular genre of vampires? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a contemporary of Bram Stoker, gave us some fascinating works of vampire fiction. From the bloodsucking plant in "The American's Tale" to the bloodsucking wife in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," he reveled in the horror created by creatures who survived on the blood of men and women.

In their third critically acclaimed collection of original fairy tales for adults, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling present 21 new stories by some of the top names in literature today. Dark, disturbing and delightful, each story was written expressly for this superb collection of distinctly grown-up fantasy - a brilliant companion volume to Datlow and Windling's acclaimed anthologies, Snow White, Blood Red, and Black Thorn, White Rose.

Father John has lived his whole life without knowing a woman's touch. Hard at first, his self-denial grew easier over time, as he learned to master his urges with a regimen of prayer, cold showers, and jigsaw puzzles. That changes the day that Debra Rocks enters his confessional. A rough-talking adult film actress, she has come to ask him to pray for a murdered costar.

Not bound as a book. Free. Like Unfettered before it, the contributing writers of Unbound were allowed to submit the tales they wished fans of genre to hear - without the constraints of a shackling theme. The result is magical. Twenty-three all-original stories are sure to captivate you - some will move you to tears while others will keep you listening long into the night. The power of Unbound lies in its variety of tales and the voices behind them. If you are a fan of discovering new writers or hearing the works of beloved authors, Unbound is for you.

The four previous volumes in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's anthology series of fairly-tales retold with a distinctively modern edge have been hailded by reviewers as "brilliant", "provocative", and "disturbing". In this triumphant new collection of original fiction, 21 of today's leading writers spin the cherished fables of childhood into glittering gold - offering magical tales for adults, as seductive as they are sophisticated.

Whether he's breaking into an impregnable fortress, fighting pirates, or striking the final blow in political war, Ahren is the man for the job. After being framed for murder, his reward posters have named him The Black Raven. In order to survive, Ahren finds himself drafted into the Tyenee, a secret criminal organization whose influence stretches across the world. Their missions are the most daring and most dangerous, and the penalty for failure...is death.

For Ahren, it's no longer a question of someone trying to kill him; it's who will try next. Still on the run for a murder he didn't commit, Ahren adapts to life as an outlaw as his reputation of the Black Raven grows. Yet nothing comes easily. Dogged by bounty hunters, he finds himself crossing steel with pirates on the high seas and battling monsters in subterranean cities. If that wasn't enough, he's paid to assassinate an immortal and must break out of a heavily fortified prison.

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

From Roger Zelansky's delightful tale of Death's disobedient godson to Peter Straub's blood-chilling examination of a gargantuan Cinderella and her terrible twisted "art," here are stories strange and miraculous - remarkable modern storytelling that remold our most cherished childhood fables into things sexier, more sinister - and more appealing to grown-up tastes and sensibilities.

"A Song For Sadye" offers new insights into the life of the bard, Sadye, who plays an important role in the second half of the DemonWars Saga. "The Education of Brother Thaddius" picks up the DemonWars story immediately following Immortalis, the last book of DemonWars, and opens to door for the next saga in the world of Corona.

Brennan, Hart and Corin were the three Cheysuli sons of Niall, ruler of Homana, and the next link in the generations-old prophecy of the Firstborn. Now the time had come for all three to take the paths for which they were fated: Brennan, heir to the throne of Homana, would face the menance of unknown assassins and trecherous Ihlini magic.

Terak is an orphaned elf who has been raised by the severe order of monks known as the Enclave. Inside the walls of the Black Keep, he is an outcast in more ways than one. In a world of magic, he must learn how to survive with no magic of his own. Can the very thing that makes him despised save those that would rather he didn't exist at all?

When the English journalist named Cave visits the island of Autotelia, he finds the dockyards of the old harbor gentrified and the island’s famous ruins a tourist attraction. When he gets to know the alluring Julia Vicente, a former film actress, he discovers that her life has been marked by the childhood disappearance of her brother. Was she guilty of his death, or was it an accident after all? As Cave’s life grows entwined with hers, he tries to answer these questions, while his new lover seems determined to perpetuate the mystery.

The outcast elf with no magic will be the only one who can overcome a magical apocalypse, but first, he must embrace the very thing he has been running from.

A follow-up to his 1970 science fiction collection, The General Zapped an Angel, Fast’s book of 13 new science fiction stories is brisk and engrossing. In "The Hoop", a scientist builds a portal to an unknown destination, which the mayor of New York City hijacks to use as a garbage dump until the location’s surprising, and hilarious, revelation. And in "The Egg", set 3,000 years in the future, a research team discovers an egg, something they have never seen before, cryogenically frozen in a nuclear bunker. These 13 stories are bizarre, hilarious, poignant, and sure to entertain.

1945: Russian troops have entered Berlin, and are engaged in a violent orgy of robbery, rape, and revenge! Wehrmacht officer Hasso Pemsel, a career soldier on the losing end of the greatest war in history, flees from a sniper's bullet, finding himself hurled into a mysterious, fantastic world of wizards, dragons, and unicorns!

Zothique est le nom d'un continent. Un monde mythique de sortilèges, de prodiges, d'incongruités, de maléfices et de terreurs innombrables. Dans cet univers, l'amour et la mort ont les couleurs de l'illusion, et les hallucinations sont toujours moins effrayantes que la réalité. Dans les villes et villages, dans les forêts et les campagnes, les morts, les momies, les squelettes ne laissent aux vivants aucun répit et, sans cesse, les assaillent et les poursuivent.