Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror Edited by Ellen Datlow
Promo copy:
Compiling the finest in frightening tales, this unique anthology offers a diverse selection of horror culled from the last 25 years. Hand selected from cutting-edge authors, each work blends subtle psychology and mischievousness with disturbingly visceral imagery. In the classic “Chattery Teeth,” Stephen King provides a tautly drawn account of a traveling salesman who unwisely picks up yet another hitchhiker, while in Peter Straub’s eerie “The Juniper Tree,” a man whose nostalgia for the movies of his childhood leads to his stolen innocence. Renowned fantasy author George R. R. Martin weaves a sinister yarn about a young woman encountering a neighbor who is overly enamored with her in “The Pear-Shaped Man.” Combining acclaimed masters of the macabre, such as Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, and Thomas Ligotti, with bold new talents to the genre, including Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, this distinctive collection of stories will delight and terrify.
Table of Contents:
"Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament" Clive Barker 1984
"Dancing Chickens" Edward Bryant 1984
"The Greater Festival of Masks" Thomas Ligotti 1985
"The Pear-Shaped Man" George R.R. Martin 1987
"The Juniper Tree" Peter Straub 1988
"Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds" Dan Simmons 1988
"The Power and the Passion" Pat Cadigan 1989
"The Phone Woman" Joe R. Lansdale 1990
"Teratisms" Kathe Koja 1991
"Chattery Teeth" Stephen King 1992
"A Little Night Music" Lucius Shepard 1992
"Calcutta, Lord of Nerves" Poppy Z. Brite 1992
"The Erl King" Elizabeth Hand 1993
"The Dog Park" Dennis Etchison 1993
"Rain Falls" Michael Marshall Smith 1994
"Refrigerator Heaven" David J. Schow 1995
"—-" Joyce Carol Oates 1995
"Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)" Neil Gaiman 1996
"The Specialist’s Hat" Kelly Link 1998
"The Tree is My Hat" Gene Wolfe 1999
"Heat" Steve Rasnic Tem 1999
"No Strings" Ramsey Campbell 2000
"Stitch" Terry Dowling 2002
"Dancing Men" Glen Hirshberg 2003
"My Father’s Mask" Joe Hill 2005
WOW!
Geosynchron (Book Three of the Jump 225 Trilogy) by David Louis Edelman
Promo copy:
The conclusion to the "Landmark Series"! The Defense and Wellness Council is enmeshed in full-scale civil war between Len Borda and the mysterious Magan Kai Lee. Quell has escaped from prison and is stirring up rebellion in the Islands with the aid of a brash young leader named Josiah. Jara and the apprentices of the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp still find themselves fighting off legal attacks from their competitors and from Margaret Surina’s unscrupulous heirs – even though MultiReal has completely vanished. The quest for the truth will lead to the edges of civilisation, from the tumultuous society of the Pacific Islands to the lawless orbital colony of 49th Heaven; and through the deeps of time, from the hidden agenda of the Surina family to the real truth behind the Autonomous Revolt that devastated humanity hundreds of years ago. Meanwhile, Natch has awakened in a windowless prison with nothing but a haze of memory to clue him in as to how he got there. He’s still receiving strange hallucinatory messages from Margaret Surina and the nature of reality is buckling all around him. When the smoke clears, Natch must make the ultimate decision – whether to save a world that has scorned and discarded him, or to save the only person he has ever loved: himself.
The Ruling Sea by Robert V. S. Redick
Promo copy:
In his acclaimed first novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, Robert V. S. Redick launched the gargantuan ship Chathrand and its motley crew of misfits, murderers, and monsters toward a landfall that may exist only in legend. Now Redick masterfully ratchets up the suspense with deep intrigue, ancient powers, and shocking new revelations.
Though the immediate plans of the dark sorcerer Arunis have been thwarted, the battle for control of the Chathrand, on which the fate of empires hinges, is far from over. On board, a small band of allies bound together less by trust than by desperate need scrambles for a means to defeat the conspiracy, while the nobleborn Thasha Isiq and the lowly deckhand Pazel Pathkendle find themselves unwillingly drawn inward to the plot’s core—and into a deadly game that will force them to make hard sacrifices.
The wizard Ramachni has left the travelers and retreated to his own world to nurse his battle wounds, but Arunis remains at large—weakened, yet still a terrifying foe. More pressing is the conspiracy of the Arquali Emperor, his chief assassin, Sandor Ott, and the Chathrand’s notorious captain, Nilus Rose, to use the dawn wedding of Thasha and a Mzithrin prince as a signal to launch a war.
With every move they make, Thasha and her compatriots find that they have more to lose—especially the deposed ixchel queen, Diadrelu, and the woken rat, Felthrup, who each harbor terrible secrets they dare not reveal.
Worst of all is a hidden, festering horror lurking in the hold of the Chathrand. A danger that not even Ramachni could have foreseen, it is the twisted product of a malevolent power determined to pull down the pillars of the world.
Now, as the Chathrand sets course through the uncharted waters of the vast and mysterious Ruling Sea, the fragile bonds of trust and love beginning to form between the unlikely allies will be tested to the breaking point—by unspeakable terrors, magical wonders, and shattering betrayals that dwarf anything that has come before.
More in Part One.