Showing results by author "Kevin Candela" in All Categories

A Year in the Borderlands writer Kevin Candela's wild second excursion into alternate realities includes 17 tales, twelve of which have appeared in previously released anthologies and are collected here for the first time. These short stories combine with five never before released works, including the novella It's Only Funny if You Laugh, to produce a wide-ranging panoramic view of the worlds and realities that exist beyond our own. Playing With Reality is another vividly detailed page in the Atlas of the Unknown.

The big squidheaded guy who's not Cthulhu is back - and this time, it's really, really personal, because the monster who's out to destroy him is his own brother! Twenty years after Krakenstein and Magenti saved humanity from itself, the giant monster battles are still going on. Towering "bug lady" Magenti may have disappeared of late, but Krakey is still patrolling the world. Tailed by the Moray 2 stealth sub, which is captained by none other than longtime Krakenstein "human friend" Shea Sanders, the titan isn't able to stop the latest problem by himself.

In Ghost in the Sky, the first installment in the Bob the Interdimensional Trucker series, Sam Gage has picked up an enigmatic motorist whose mere presence, it seems, is making Gage hear the sound of a small propeller-driven passenger airplane...or maybe even a crop duster. But whatever is really making the sound, which his rider can't hear, is not only keeping pace with Gage's truck at an impossibly slow speed for airplane flight - it's also invisible.

Grayson Lone Feather loves to wander the woods behind his stepdad's property. He finds all kinds of things out there, chief among them typically being peace of mind. But when Gray comes upon a barrel-sized egg exposed by the collapse of a short limestone bluff, and what's inside it turns out to be alive and more than kicking, he finds himself at the center of action far beyond his wildest imaginings. Soon a gigantic "something" is roaming the Illinois skies, and Gray and his friend Jaleen are off to find it.

Rada Dunn is used to the solitary life of the arid valley north of the little town of Peace. Nothing much happens there, and her bean and wheat crops provide her with just enough to keep her away from the rest of her kind...which is how she's come to like it. But when she comes upon human remains that have recently been burned so intensely that they are merely sticky black bones, her serenity is shattered.

One thing a sneak thief needs is ambition, and Sal and Gazel certainly don't come up short there. Sure, they're mainly just ripping off low profile places like out of the way frontier museums...but they have big plans.

Something ancient has awakened in the depths. So terrifying is this newly freed entity that sea slugs are driven onto resort beaches to climb hotel walls...and die. Yet the threat posed by the primal sentience is far less obvious to the world's dominant species, seemingly manifesting in the trance states of a couple rescued by Ben Miles and his celeb wife, Morna Belchek...and subsequently communicated to Morna as well.

The creator of The Krakenstein Chronicles follows up his first two SF/fantasy/horror/comedy short story collections, A Year in the Borderlands and Playing with Reality, with a third heaping helping of generally freakish tales from the other side of existence. Wild narratives of mystery, horror, awe - and even some laughs - are assembled here together for the first time. Lost Radio brings you the timelessly eerie and thrilling stories of things that very well could be - whether you want them to exist or not.

Here collected for the first time are the thrilling and hopefully hilarious tales of the world's most embarrassed superhero. "Everyman" Race Harleson just wanted to do his guard shift and pick up his check - so the cosmos decided he'd get to be special, giving him Superman-like powers including strength, flight, and virtual invulnerability...so long as he's completely naked while he fights crime and saves the world.

Nakedman Race Harleson runs for US president - and runs interference between scoffing, scared humanity and an intervening alien race of contractor/mercenaries who have clamped down on the plutocratic pharaohs of the modern age. In the thrilling conclusion of Volume One of Nakedman: Uncomfortable Tales of Epic Adventure, Race and Ellen both end up having to risk everything for a mere outside chance to save the world...and not just from alien invaders.

Time Weathers didn’t so much mind the car breakdown...just another hassle, albeit at an extremely inconvenient locale. But now reality itself is threatening to do the same, and she’s not quite as adaptable to that. Time was just minding her own business, ambling along on an old road under the blistering Nevada sun, hoping for the kind of road rescue help you aren’t typically going to find in the middle of the desert anyway, when the disconnected phone in the dusty booth outside the dilapidated gas station she was passing began to ring.

Just two utterly bizarre days ago, Hylas Bond wouldn't have believed the famous-infamous "Men in Black" even existed. Yet there he is, dodging killer drones on a ridiculously long shot cross-country scramble with a quite possibly crazed girl who's got two dead ones in the trunk of her car. Coby Forge is on a mission, not that she knows where she's going, and once Hylas rear-ends her car and pops that lid open in the middle of a slushy highway with morning traffic zipping past - well, she's got no choice, does she?

Erno the vole is on a mission to beat the Gardener's brilliant series of tomato garden defenses. He may be the greatest vole thief and acrobat in...well...at least the neighborhood - but that doesn't mean he's up for the challenges ahead. He'll need all his wits, wisdom, strength, and stamina if he wants to take a bite out of those luscious pink-orange tomatoes tonight.

In these two "inspired by actual accounts" but still entirely fictional tales, a pair of challengers of the unknown go one on one with two of the world's most famous mysterious legends. In "Beneath Still Waters", a lake-dwelling giant creature draws a devoted paranormal investigator into a staggering encounter that goes far beyond a blurry photo of something with a long neck and humps passing by a Loch Ness excursion boat.

Gigantic centipedes born of genetic engineering and experimental pesticides and fertilizers storm a small farming community, running down and devouring everything on two legs, in this exciting new tale of suburban terror and mayhem.

Gray, leaden clouds blot out the sky, a cold wind chills your bones, and a frantic whispering is heard among the trees. What is happening? There is no need to ask, for you already know the truth: The terror of Trick-or-Treat Thrillers Best Paranormal has returned for yet another year.... Whether it is a monster from your worst nightmares, an ancient evil that should not still live, a mysterious entity hiding near your home, or even your own demonic family members waiting to pounce, our authors know what frightens you.

When monsters rule the earth...Herein you’ll find a series of sojourns to places where humans are often quite literally overshadowed by the action at hand. This collection of exciting tales from writers who love the giant monster genre runs the gamut from mutation to invasion - from insurrection to vengeance - from the distant past to a far-off future, all with a single common factor: Great big game-changing things.

Race Harleson is up against it big time: The world is stripping naked, and it seems to be some form of viral madness. He ends up shot into space with a couple of sharp veteran astronauts...and a new sidekick, Dark Matter. Physics super-prodigy Crayten "Cray-Cray" Hobbs has juiced himself up so much that he can alter the essence of matter to his rather freewheeling will, so Race is understandably both awed and annoyed by the hyper young man, and he's stuck keeping his fingers crossed that the people who sent them up there knew what they're doing.

In Vapor, a man trying to collect his thoughts turns at the sound of screams to see other patrons dissolving right in front of his eyes. He makes a panicked escape, but that's only the beginning of his problems - because he's a witness to what happened, and that can't be allowed. Then in Chiller, an uneasy alliance of corporate-minded "pioneers" and scientists come across something impossible: a spot under the ice with a temperature reading of close to 200 degrees below zero. Tense debate ensues...until the anomaly vanishes. But it's not gone, it just moved.

The name actually means "greatest of sages," but let's face it: Sinbad is synonymous with adventure. His voyages are legendary, but only a few are really well-known. Here, then, are three consecutive tales brought to light for the first time, a trilogy of epic scope that spans not just the seven seas but the universe - and even time itself! Ride along with the sea captain as he heroically faces off against deadly sorcerers, fearsome creatures, and dark deities, most of them fiercely determined to either enslave humanity or destroy it.