Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Dark Fantasy

Black Heart, Ivory Bones showcases 20 beguiling tales for the child who was and the adult who is, penned by 20 of the most creative artists in contemporary American literature. Here dissected are the darker anatomies of the timeless, seemingly simple stories we have long loved. Here wonder and truth have serious bite.

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.

Im Land zwischen den Bergen ist die Zeit des Friedens vorbei. Krieg liegt in der Luft, und dann taucht auch noch ein tödlich verwundeter Zwerg im südlichen Hochland von Wlachkis auf - Ereignisse, die wie ein dunkler Schatten auf dem Land liegen. Doch die eigentliche Gefahr nähert sich aus dem Dunkel in den Tiefen der Berge: blutrünstige Wesen, die Jagd auf Trolle machen und neue Zwietracht zwischen den Stämmen säen. Der Feind, der nun erwacht ist, bedroht alles Leben unter und über der Erde. Werden Trolle und Menschen sich zur letzten großen Schlacht vereinen können?

Während ein gewaltiges Türkenheer mit der Belagerung von Wien beginnt, suchen Andrej und Abu Dun in der Stadt nach dem Gelehrten Franz von Breiteneck, von dem sie Aufklärung über das Rätsel ihrer Vampyr-Identität erhoffen. Die beiden werden in die Verteidigung der Stadt eingebunden, wobei sich ihre Kampfkünste - und ihre Unsterblichkeit - als äußerst nützlich erweisen...

Noch immer sind der Schwertkämpfer Andrej und sein gefährte Abu Dun auf der Suche nach der Puuri Dan, die Andrej über das Rätsel seiner Herkunft...

Ein anonymer Erzähler träumt von allerlei wunderlichen Ereignissen. Athanasius Pernath ist sein Name, er lebt als Gemmenschneider im jüdischen Getto von Prag und nach dem Besuch eines mysteriösen Auftraggebers gerät sein Leben aus den Fugen. Er nimmt an, der Besucher könne eine alte sagenhafte Gestalt - der Golem - gewesen sein, ein aus Lehm geschaffener Gehilfe, der die Juden beschützen sollte.

Cline and Amelie Fawe can see into anyone's past and future simply by touching him. They have used their powers to secure sanctuary - and a fine apothecary's shop - in the village around Castle Sone. But their continued safety has a price....

A fourth anthology from the editors of Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears presents contemporary retellings of traditional fairy tales in Gregory Frost's "Sparks", "The Dog Rose" by Sten Westgard, and other works by Jane Yolen, Joyce Carol Oates, Nancy Kress, and John Crowley.

Nola and Tina are both girls with problems. They don't know each other yet, but they will, because each is a Creator, with the magical ability to turn dreams into reality. It would be a great gift and a great power - if either knew she had it. But this world is hard on dreamers, whether they dream true or not.

Killing children is an ugly business, but the alternative is so much uglier. Abner Slate just watched his five-year-old daughter Olive kill his wife and son. Olive is a sopath. Born without souls, sopaths are children who will lie, cheat, rape, and murder to get what they want. There's one in every family these days, destroying America's heartland from within. After murdering his daughter in self-defense, Abner is taken in by a secret network of sopath victims called Pariah.

Alex Locke is a reformed ex-con forced into London's criminal underworld for one more job. He agrees to steal a priceless artefact - a human heart carved from the blackest obsidian - but when the burglary goes horribly wrong, Alex is plunged into the nightmarish world of the Wolves of London, unearthly assassins who will stop at nothing to reclaim the heart. As he races to unlock the secrets of the mysterious object, Alex must learn to wield its dark power - or be destroyed by it.

At 17 years old, Mary Paige has become one of the most powerful creatures on the planet - a Blood Vivicanti. Scientifically recreated in an underground layer by Wyn (the first Blood Vivicanti and brilliant, billionaire engineer), Mary Paige discovers that her speed and strength have increased, but so has her appetite for blood. Drinking blood comes with a surprising side effect: Blood Memories.

Lowen the Dark Man - a ghost from the planet Khariton who possesses human hosts - has captured Theo, imprisoned the Red Man, and has turned almost an entire city into his army of Sleeper Devils. Wyn and Ms. Crystobal have planned a daring rescue attempt for Theo and the Red Man, but they cannot pull it off without the help of Mary Paige, the young Blood Vivicanti with the photographic memory.

Mary Paige’s photographic memory has made her a powerful Blood Vivicanti. Unlike the others, Wyn and Theo, she is the only one who can retain her Blood Memories and the talents of her victims. But her power took her too far and she nearly murdered a whole family in their sleep. Drunk on power and blood, Mary Paige then drank the black blood of a Sleeper Devil and was left for dead at the edge of a cliff.

The long-awaited third installment of the best-selling Talisman Chronicles finds brothers Jack and Jeremy Kenney, wanted in the US for murders they didn't commit, loitering on Mexico's white sand beaches and inexorably succumbing to their growing wanderlust. Three years into their exile, Jeremy ventures across South America in search of the ancient castle of the Essenes, responsible for saving his and Jack's lives.

Harrison is the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. Now he’s in his mid-30s and spends most of his time not sleeping. Stan became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Barbara is haunted by the messages carved upon her bones. Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. And for some reason, Martin never takes off his sunglasses.

Mary Paige is a seventeen-year-old genius. Her photographic memory has made her smarter than anyone else, and more alone and lonely too. Her parents do not understand her. Her peers reject her. But her life changes during her senior year of high school. Mary Paige changes schools and it changes her life. Now she attends a special Academy of the Arts in a quiet mountain village, Idyllville. Little does anyone know: Idyllville is also the home of The Blood Vivicanti.

After escaping certain death at the hands of a rogue faction of the FBI in Manassas, Virginia, Jack and Jeremy Kenney race home to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Time is quickly running out for them and the rest of the world to prevent seven mysterious, but deadly, objects from reaching the United States. The objects resemble enormous golden towers, and along with an eighth shimmering tower moving through America’s Deep South, they belong to deities that once ruled the earth thousands of years ago.

Mary Paige fell from a cliff and Wyn saved her by making her a Blood Vivicanti. Now Mary Paige is falling again - only this time for Theo, a handsome Blood Vivicanti who possesses wisdom, grace, and raw animal power. Theo teaches Mary Paige how to pierce her victim’s neck with her tongue, how much blood to drink, and how to eat the right kind of Blood Memories. But the more blood she drinks, and the more Blood Memories she eats, Mary Paige discovers that her photographic memory has made her the most powerful Blood Vivicanti.

Shadowgod continues the epic tale, begun in Shadowkings, of resolve and sacrifice, and a world teetering on the brink of endless, terrible night. A harsh winter is settling in across the land and the Shadowkings' deepest, darkest plans are hatching...the worst is yet to come. Ikarno Mazaret, now Lord Regent, still grieves over the death of his beloved, the mage Suviel. Ranging forth from the city of Besh-Darok, he takes ever more perilous risks. Tauric has been crowned Emperor yet feel increasingly powerless to influence events.