If it was possible to give out 1/2 stars on here, this would have a .5 star out of 5 rating. This book completely failed to achieve it's goal of making the reader (a.k.a. me) laugh! Most of the jokes were either way too corny or downright mean. I think I laughed at a total of two jokes in the ENT...
Pretty much the first thing that struck me about these sagas is how immediately accessible they are – I have read medieval texts before (even if not very many), and usually (i.e., unless one happens to be a medievalist) it takes a lengthy introduction and extensive notes for any modern-day reader...
These stories... are really hilarious. I mean they are seriously great. It is one of the most tragic things that I will never be able to hear these recited to me and five hundred others in a great hall over the course of three days by a bard who truly knows his craft, because these fragmented tra...
From the reign of the Tsars in the early nineteenth century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, the short story has long occupied a central place in Russian culture. Included here are pieces from many of the acknowledged masters of Russian literature—including Pushkin, Turgenev, Dosto...
Many writers have revisited the Reichenbach Falls in the hope of summoning up the ghost of Sherlock Holmes. Now Richard Lancelyn Green has succeeded triumphantly with this collection of stories by expert writers of the calibre of Ronald Knox and Julian Symons. Designed not to compete with or paro...
November 20134★I've been reading some of R. L. Stine's books in between my reading of Dracula (over halfway read and liking it). Nightmare Hour I've read a little over half of. And now I've just finished Haunting Hour. These both are short stories with a Stine's horror imagination. It's even m...
What is real and what is imaginary? Do evil creatures lurk in the shadows? Do demons attack the helpless? Are there such things as invisible men? For generations, storytellers have given substance to our worst fears. In Ask the Bones, master storytellers Arielle North Olson and Howard Schwartz re...
In the series of anthologies of original stories which began with this volume, the late editor Bradley mines similar territory, and deals with similar strong female protagonists, as does Esther Freisner in the later Chicks in Chainmail series. The quality of writing (at least in the initial volu...
1337 Commerce Drive, #13 Stow, OH 44224 ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-4199-0085-4 Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned): Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML NIGHT SCREAM © 2004 DENISE A. AGNEW BODY CHEMISTRY © 2004 TAWNY TAYLOR EARTHWORK © 2004 ANNIE WINDSOR GHOST ...
It was an intense, immersive experience, reading and evaluating all those diverse narratives; at times my mind swam with characters and settings, images and events. In the end, though, I believe we all zeroed in on those stories that really stayed with us – the ones that not only moved into our h...
And we have to admit the occasional twinge of pride when we consider the variety of themes, subgenres, settings, tropes, techniques, symbols, storytelling styles and voices we’ve been able to include over the past fifty issues. For example, Interzone #242 included ‘Strigoi...
I wasn't ready to talk to Sophie after the stunt she'd pulled. Turning back to the television, I tried to convince myself I was watching the show. If I'd known she'd be so stupid, I would have taken out that dusty cauldron and unused potion book and learned how to brew a common sense potion. Mom ...
It scared me a little, seeing his name on the screen like that in the middle of the afternoon. Usually I was the one who made the calls, nearly every evening since my mother passed away three years ago. He only ever phoned when he was upset about something, often late at night when his eighty-yea...
I just want that on the record. It was business. It was supposed to be food and drinks and schmoozing. A semi-hard sell, sure. I mean why would he want me to redesign his restaurant when his lovely wife was a budding designer? Why? Because I am good. I am beyond good. I am outstanding. And I was ...
The sound had the shape of a snarled curse. The heavens’ anger was rich with spite. It rumbled into the physical realm as a literal thunderclap, the aftershock of a god’s volcanic contempt, a deity’s ill-temper translated into the world of natural laws and physical constants. It was a command tha...
No one who stepped into its shadows was ever seen again. Rusty axes lay on the ground, dropped there by wood-cutters who disappeared forever. Baskets lay smashed in the bushes, left by terrified berry pickers who never returned home. The roaring was terrible. It echoed through the forest day and ...
Ebenezer Scrooge, the richest man in town, hurried toward his office. “Merry Christmas!” someone shouted. “Bah, humbug,” Scrooge muttered. He didn’t know why everyone had to be so cheerful at Christmas time. When Scrooge reached the door to his office, he looked up at the sign. It read SCROOGE &a...
Holidays To Make You Scream @page { margin-bottom: 5.000000pt; margin-top: 5.000000pt; } Chicken By Elizabeth R. Peake Let's get something understood right now before I go any further. Oscar hated chickens. Not that any chicken did him any harm or he was allergic to them. He hated chickens simply...
The summer had come early this year. The heat burnt the grass brown and took the nearby river down a foot by June, the high watermark lying naked on the granite banks. Paul went down the porch steps with a plastic cooler that had their lunch inside. He stopped on the gravel driveway and had to sq...
Knapp Now… Vlad reached out to give the cashier money for his candy bar. A chipped name tag pinned to the cashier’s shirt read “Dimitri.” When Vlad’s skin made contact with the old man’s hand, he saw what Dimitri had for dinner. He saw his thoughts during his smoke break, the agony he was in ...
You look across the clutter of the big loft, to see Tim, electric and alone, near the door, his date nowhere in sight. “Shut up!” he yells over. “She’s gone, all right?” He whirls and punches the door, hard, twice, and that shakes you, too. “FUCK!” he blares. Of course he hurt himself. “FUCK!” ag...
A breath of wind, a palm frond moving, and shadows thickening below the hotel balcony. Jim Withers sat forward and watched the white-clad figure climbing the steep road toward the hotel. Even at that distance he recognized the man and frowned. In another moment he leaned forward again and nodded ...
Some of the writers represented in this volume are veterans of TALES 1 and 2, and certain of them will continue to write about the world of Krynn in an exciting series of DRAGONLANCE novels in the immediate future. “A Good Knights Tale” by Harold Bakst suitably begins this...
He glanced back to see if Dalamar was behind him (to gloat a little, if the truth must be told) when the door slammed shut. There was a click, a snap. Sudden fear assailed Palin, trapped alone in the darkness. Frantically, he groped for the silver door handle, his fingers trying desperately to fi...
Tasslehoff Burrfoot!” we shout sternly, peering down the road. “Come back with our magical time-traveling device, you doorknob of a kender!” “I'll come out,” shouts Tas, “if you tell me some more stories!” “Promise?” we ask, peering behind bushes an...
B.C.-184 B.C.) Amphitryon Translated by Sir Robert Allison CHARACTERS MERCURY, disguised asSosia SOSIA, slave of Amphitryon JUPITER, disguised as Amphitryon ALCMENA, wife of Amphitryon AMPHITRYON, leader of the Theban army BLEPHARO, a pilot BROMIA, maid-servant of Alcmena THESSALA (persona muta),...
I have an MBA, I’m licensed to drive every kind of vehicle in the standard hotel fleet, and I’m proficient in eight languages. I can hold numerous detailed schedules at the same time in my head, but always keep the computer’s records up-to-date as well. Basically, I’m the ...
The first step on a journey that few humans will ever take.” —The Traveler, Dorvan V, 2370 HE HAD KEPT the dang sweater. Of all the things to drag to the Academy, her son had chosen the ugliest piece of clothing she’d ever made him wear. Doctor Beve...
Particularly when you’re just starting out, being accepted in an anthology – an actual book instead of a magazine, something with a spine, something that people might buy in a bookstore – feels like donning a tiara. But it wasn’t until I sat on the Journey Prize jury myself, fourteen years later,...
Myra pulled her across the room and through a doorway that led to a bathing chamber. A large steaming pool of water tempted her with its sparkling depths. Leah hadn’t had a hot bath in months. Her skin suddenly felt the weeks of grime and dirt that the trip had left on her. Myra began pulling pie...
She stared at us from the windows of Murakami Bakery and Mrs. Nakamura’s noodle shop, from the sliding glass door of Yoshimoto Drugs, and of course from the giant poster in front of the police station. It was impossible to go anywhere without seeing her. Iwata Supermarket and Mori Grocers pinned ...
The smell of blood drew me into consciousness. Shock hit me when I opened my eyes. The once stark white sheet that used to cover the couch was now stained red. The smell of familiar blood wafted into my nose. I’d tasted it before. It was Brenna’s. Droplets of it had dribbled on the floor as if a ...