Strange Shadows opens a window into the dark, visionary worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, whose verbal black magic was a significant force in the American science fiction and fantasy movement of the 1930s. This annotated collection of his previously unpublished works provides a unique opportunity to savor the full range of Smith's literary contribution. Featuring fantasies and ironic short stories, prose-poems, plays, unfinished stories, and more than 100 story synopses, it offers valuable documentation and commentary on the work of one of the most distinctive and consistently interesting modern masters of the fantasy genre. An introduction by Robert Bloch (the author of Psycho) examines Smith's work and places it in historical perspective. Among the highlights of the collection are the satirical title story; variant drafts of two of Smith's most famous stories--The Coming of the White Worm and The Beast of Averoigne--and a play entitled The Dead Will Cuckold You, which has been hailed as a masterpiece. The editor's annotations include extensive quotations from Smith's correspondence to H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, and other important fantasy authors, together with textual commentary and discussion of connections between published and unpublished works. Information on lost writings and lists of published story titles, characters, and place names are supplied. An important resource for fantasy readers and scholars, this book will appeal to those with an interest in dark fantasy, science fiction, and the history of American science fiction.

As shadows stretch across the land, Her light becomes our hope. Thomaras lives by a strict set of rules: Get paid up front, never use your real name, and never be a hero. Little does he know that his next job will tear his rules, and his life, apart. Ashea is only safe when she’s on the move. Pursued by nightmares and the consequences of her own growing power, one small mistake traps her in a cell that could be her end. To escape, she is forced to trust a man that can’t be trusted. Half Granite Ogre, half Human, Torin travelled south into Haven to live among his mother’s people. Quiet and unassuming despite his size, Torin is about to be thrust into a conflict that threatens Humans and Granite Ogres alike. Watching it all from another plane of existence, a dark entity slowly exerts its power. Influencing. Manipulating. Waiting.

Lausanne, Switzerland. In the cathedral tower lives a strange boy with a limp who talks to the bells. In a luxury penthouse lives a high-class prostitute who's in mortal danger. And in a low-rent hotel lives a private investigator who has no idea how he got there. Jay Harper finds himself in Switzerland on the trail of a missing Olympic athlete. A hard drinker, he can barely remember how he got home last night, let alone why he accepted this job. When he meets the stunning but aloof Katherine in a hotel bar, he quickly realises that he's not the only one in town who's for hire. She's a high-class hooker who can't believe her luck. Which is about to change. For the worse. In the meantime, Marc Rochat spends his time in the belfry talking to the statues, his cat and the occasional ghost. His job is to watch over Lausanne at night and to wait for the angel his mother told him he'd one day have to save. When he sees Katherine, he thinks his moment has come. Which indeed it has. But not in a good way...

The world as Hadge knows it seems to unravel around him, as the mystery of a strange book is thrust upon him along with what it really means to him, and the survival of Elysium. HADAGERY! The book of Elysium has been opened, and darkness will unfold, bleeding upon the land like a plague. WORLD CAST IN DARKNESS. Elysium is the remnants of a dying world, dimmed by evil, and the ignorance of mankind. SURVIVORS ARE BEING ISOLATED AND DEVOURED. Those that have survived the turmoil have devolved into scavengers, even as their bodies have adjusted to the cold dark climate, and dangers around every corner. WHERE HOPE FALLS. Is in the hands of an ordinary hairy little man named the Hadge. He is the only one who can seal the evil book of Elysium, and save the world. Throughout his journey he learns that he is a divine being, born upon every world with life, as a safeguard to guide each world from evil. He is the only hope. HADGE’S DARK JOURNEY. Startling events are set into motion during a trip to Ennead Mountains, as his friend Uwee quickly vanishes, and giant glowing spiders appear. Hadge and Uwee barely escape the mountain alive, however he comes to the conclusion that a book had beset Elysium into this age of darkness. A mysterious whispering book he discovers he cannot read, and is determined to find someone to reveal its secrets. Hadge journeys through the mountain where the deadly scyphus live, beyond the giant mountain troll that saves his life, and into the lost woods where his life is turned upside down. He at last identifies the voices from the book, as they read from the pages, telling Hadge he's a divine being, and that sealing the book would be Elysium's only hope for a future. Disturbingly to seal the book he has to journey straight into hordes of demons, and into the bowels of Hell, where he will be related a terrible fact, "Oh shit kid. You're not even real."

HORROR FROM THE DEPTHS "Nothing that I could have imagined... would be in any way comparable to the demoniac, blasphemous reality that I saw..." For decades, H. P. Lovecraft's masterpiece of terror, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, has inspired countless writers with its gripping account of a tiny village whose inhabitants have surrendered to an ancient and hideous evil. In this companion to the acclaimed anthology Shadows Over Innsmouth, World Fantasy Award- winning editor Stephen Jones has assembled eleven of the most skilled practitioners of the Lovecraftian craft. Included here are: The Taint by Brian Lumley Take Me to the River by Paul McAuley Another Fish Story by Kim Newman ...and nine more masterpieces of horror. Including the original unpublished draft of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft, master of the macabre. NOMINATED FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AND BRAM STOKER AWARDS

WRITTEN AS A BOOK OF FICTION - BUT IS IT Revealed in this book, is the mystery behind the Missing Link, the answer to the 'creation or evolution' question, the origins of the races, the origins of Rh-Negative blood; the Red Thread, the Origin of the Hebrew people, the wandering planet of Hibiru - yes, Hibiru, and much more. See, how patterns can reveal the future, what the Garden of Eden really was, and learn about the ancient Gods of Sumer, the Mazzaroth trail, and much more. This book has a heart wrenching love story, and is full of mystery, danger, and excitement, but more importantly, it contains the unveiling of secret knowledge from some old secret journals. Journals, scribed in 1650, have passed down to 'the keeper of the secrets', Samantha O'Brian, who decides to share these amazing secrets with the world. These secrets will open your eyes to wisdom so astounding, that you won't believe your eyes.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was one of the major poets of the English Romantic period. This is the fifth volume of a six-volume edition of The Poems of Shelley, which aims to present all of Shelley’s poems in chronological order and with full annotation. Date and circumstances of composition are provided for each poem and all manuscript and printed sources relevant to establishing an authoritative text are freshly examined and assessed. Headnotes and footnotes furnish the personal, literary, historical and scientific information necessary to an informed reading of Shelley’s varied and allusive verse. Most of the poems in the present volume were composed between late summer 1821 and late January 1822. They include Hellas, a lyrical drama written in support of the Greek War of Independence, composed in September–November 1821 and published in February–March 1822, his unfinished tragedy Charles the First which he had been planning for several years, as well as important shorter poems such as ‘The Indian Girl’s Song’, ‘Autumn: a Dirge’ and his ‘Epitaph’ for John Keats. In addition to accompanying commentaries, there are extensive bibliographies to the poems, a chronological table of Shelley’s life and publications, and indexes to titles and first lines. Now completed, this is the most comprehensive edition of Shelley’s poetry available to students and scholars.