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

Multiple award-winners Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have gathered together 22 tales of unearthly temptations wickedly concocted by some of today's most potent literary conjurers - including Neil Gaiman, Jan Yolen, Michael Swanwick, and Joyce Carol Oates. Here are stories of incubi and succubi, of forbidden fruits harvested in erotic gardens, of pleasures that persist beyond death. So heed the sirens' song. Lie back, relax, and submit to the darkest delights you have ever experienced.

Roguish swordsman Korm and his cyclops companion, Aebos, are no strangers to death, yet neither would have expected that starvation on the high seas would be the foe to eventually lay them low. When a beautiful spellcaster in a magical ship arrives just in time to save them from being roasted alive by mutinous sailors, it seems like their luck may finally be turning around - yet are they jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

In the Hereditary Tyranny of Tartesh, what was once a vast sea basin is now a dried-out, unforgiving desert. When the kingdom's enemies try to shake down the Barrier Mountains and let the ocean in, Trench Park tour guide Radnal vez Krobir must stop them or be destroyed along with everything he holds dear. Down in the Bottomlands received the 1994 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

In "Skin Like Porcelain Death" a half-resurrected cleanup man for the bureaucracy of death confronts a sorcerous collection of chipped porcelain dolls in an attempt to save the soul of a horny young man who chose the wrong girlfriend.

In a post-apocalyptic America, range rider Deaver Teague is trying to get to the town of Moab to replace his dead horse. Along the way, he's picked up by the Aal family’s pageant wagon. When Deaver decides to help them set up their next show, he becomes embroiled in a family crisis.

This story is included in Orson Scott Card's collection The Folk of the Fringe.

Interpol investigator Gennady Malianov finds himself in Immigration limbo. Then, a temporary gig comes along that could solve his problems. But what he finds out about the nature of consciousness and morality could change the world.

Deep in his past, Reg helped create the orbiting environment of Skyholme. Now, he spends his days talking to his dead wife, his genetic alterations extending his weary existence. Until one day when he's asked to investigate a murder like any other because the victim is Skyholme itself.

"The First Kill" is a bit of backstory for the universe of The Shadow Campaigns. The Shadow Throne implies a connection between Andreas, Duke Orlanko's brutally efficient go-to killer, and Sothe, the Gray Rose, his best agent turned bitter enemy. In this story, we get to see these two at an earlier point in their careers, and take a look at how that relationship got started.

After a century of imprisonment, demons have broken free of the wardstones surrounding the Worldwound. As fiends flood south into civilized lands, Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard, Radovan, must search through the ruins of a fallen nation for the blasphemous text that opened the gate to the Abyss in the first place - and that might hold the key to closing it.

The Playground was part of the first hardcover edition of Ray Bradbury's legendary work Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953. In the story, Charles Underhill is a widower who will do anything to protect his young son Jim from the horrors of the playground - a playground which he and the boy pass by daily and the tumult of which, the activity, brings back to Charles the anguish of his own childhood.

Actress and geek goddess Felicia Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural) narrates R.A. Salvatore's first published short story. Bruenor, who had seemingly met his demise at the end of Streams of Silver, appears here as a young, beardless dwarf on a quest for revenge.

Celebrated nerd hero Wil Wheaton ( Star Trek: The Next Generation; The Big Bang Theory) brings R.A. Salvatore's only Forgotten Realms novella to audio. If Ever They Happened Upon My Lair is a story of the Bloodstone Lands that deals with a contested issue of the Forgotten Realms: the mortality of dragons.

Solomon and the rest of the Gold Squad have proven themselves to be resilient and capable in the most difficult of circumstances. But now, they will be pushed to the limit and their resolve will be tested. Can they overcome dark secrets and unknown players, or is interstellar war inevitable?

Sean Astin ( Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit), who played one of the "greatest sidekicks" and "top heroes" in the history of fantasy literature, narrates this tale of Entreri and Jarlaxle. Here in Wickless in the Nether, their friendship is explored as they face off against the dragon sisters Tazmikella and Ilnezhara.

David Duchovny ( The X-Files, Californication) describes the journey of aged barbarian Wulfgar as he knowingly sets out on one last hunt.

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 Eternal Empress has an unstoppable weapon and is on the verge of enslaving the galaxy. As the battle for freedom intensifies, Anders, Dalia, and their friends must find a weapon that has been lost in time. Can they find a way to overcome their indomitable enemy or will they be wiped from history for all time? The Eternal Enemy Omnibus contains the last three books in the Memories of Earth space opera.

Jack Forge was transformed from an unwilling Marine recruit to savior of the human race. The only problem: He’s now lost in space looking for the remnants of humanity. Just when he thinks he’s found help, TWO new hostile alien races enter the picture. Can Jack find - and save - humanity or will he forever be lost in space, fighting to survive?

"Mather’s Blood" takes place before the start of the DemonWars Saga and tells of the ranger Mather Wyndon, uncle of Elbryan, a central figure in DemonWars.

"A Song For Sadye" is a tale of the DemonWars, and offers new insights into the life of the bard, Sadye.