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100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories
by Michael Arnzen
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"Horror is the genre of the jolt, the shock, the spark. The horror story's conflict is always a matter of life and death, but death ... almost always comes too soon--that's why we fear it."--Michael A. Arnzen, from the introduction. And now readers have a new reason to be afraid. One hundred new reasons! (Published: 2004) Bram Stoker Award Finalist
Words: 39788 - Reading Time: 113-159 min.
Category: Horror/Dark Fantasy
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2
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15 Serial Killers: Docufictions
by Harold Jaffe
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Taking as his text Georges Bataille's insight that "only at the extremes is there freedom," critically acclaimed "guerrilla writer" Harold Jaffe documents Bataille's aperçu with 15 bone-chilling illustrations. Manson, Starkweather, Speck, Son of Sam, the Night Stalker, Aileen Wuornos, the Unabomber, Dahmer, Bundy, Gacy, Kemper, Kevorkian and Kissinger are not merely present and accounted for, they are rendered into a "reality TV" that you've never seen before. Widely praised as a virtuoso stylis... more info>> (Published: 2003)
Words: 35116 - Reading Time: 100-140 min.
Category: True Crime/Horror
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3
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A Dirge for the Temporal
by Darren Speegle
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Prepare for a decadant feast. A Dirge for the Temporal, Darren Speegle's second collection of fiction, bursts with sensations. Like Baroque architecture, plush velvet furnishings or the richest chocolate truffle dessert, Speegle's prose delights all the senses. This collection heralds the return of the subtly crafted horror tale. A Dirge lingers on the dark mystery of the supernatural, creates the giddy feeling of fear mixed with excitement, that only comes from partial revelations, things half-... more info>> (Published: 2004)
Words: 67764 - Reading Time: 193-271 min.
Category: Dark Fantasy/Horror
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4
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And Your Point Is?: Scorn and Meaning in Jeff Lint's Fiction
by Steve Aylett
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This follow-up to Lint, the biography of cult author Jeff Lint, delves deeper into the psychosis of the seminal writer's work. This series of essays and reviews from around the globe, representing decades of study, is being presented for the first time in collected form. A must have for collectors, students, imitators, and stalkers alike. Contributors include Steve Aylett, Eileen Welsome, Arkhipov Halt, Daniel Guyal, Chris Diana, Alfred Bork, Michael H. Hersh, George Cane, Dennis Ofstein, and Je... more info>> (Published: 2006)
Words: 26211 - Reading Time: 74-104 min.
Category: Science Fiction/Humor
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5
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Discouraging at Best
by John Lawson
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Already known for his works of speculative fiction, author John Edward Lawson uses Discouraging at Best to take a look at the "real" world. On the pages within are five interlinked tales that, when pieced together, paint a panorama of apathy, greed, and manipulation. We follow the self-inflicted plight of working-class families and their efforts to step on others in the race to get ahead. We watch the petty wars of Nobel laureates. We become immersed in the minds of those caught in an ankle-bite... more info>> (Published: 2007)
Words: 61087 - Reading Time: 174-244 min.
Category: Humor/Family/Relationships
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6
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Dr. Identity, or Farewell to Plaquedemia
by D. Harlan Wilson
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For a professor at Corndog University it's quite acceptable to purchase a robotic dopplegänger and have it teach your classes for you. But how does it reflect on your teaching skills when your dopplegänger murders the whole class? Follow the Dystopian Duo (Dr. Blah Blah Blah and his robot Dr. Identity) on a killing spree of epic proportions through the irreal postapocalyptic city of Bliptown where time ticks sideways, artificial Bug-Eyed Monsters punish citizens for consumer-capitalist lethargy,... more info>> (Published: 2007)
Words: 57785 - Reading Time: 165-231 min.
Category: Science Fiction/Horror
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7
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Everybody Scream! [A Punktown Novel]
by Jeffrey Thomas
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Jeffrey Thomas first seduced readers to the world of Punktown through a short story collection of the same name, bending time and technology to create a futuristic world which felt more real than our own. Everybody Scream! continues the seduction with characters every bit as vibrant only this time each person's story collides with the others in a dizzying thrill-ride of a novel. It's the final day of the season for the annual Punktown Fair and excitement is high. For the couple in charge, Del an... more info>> (Published: 2004)
Words: 103581 - Reading Time: 295-414 min.
Category: Science Fiction/Horror
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8
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Fish, Soap and Bonds
by Larry Fondation
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Fish, Soap and Bonds follows the movements of three homeless persons on the unforgiving streets of Los Angeles. Through their eyes we experience both the depths and heights of humanity: hate and discrimination, sacrifice and redemption. This is the third in Fondation's series of "LA Stories." (Published: 2007)
Words: 39682 - Reading Time: 113-158 min.
Category: Politics/Government/People
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9
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Fugue XXIX
by Forrest Aguirre
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Fugue XXIX is the first full-length collection of short stories available from World Fantasy Award winning editor and author Forrest Aguirre. These marvelous tales come to you from the fringe of speculative literary fiction where innovative minds keep busy dreaming up the future's uncharted territories and mining forgotten treasures of the past. Whether exploring the stars or unearthing ancient cultures these stories will surprise and delight. In Aguirre's world anything can happen, and does, wi... more info>> (Published: 2005)
Words: 53402 - Reading Time: 152-213 min.
Category: Dark Fantasy/Science Fiction
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10
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Last Burn in Hell
by John Lawson
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Kenrick Brimley, the state prison's official gigolo, hangs over a lava pit on trial for his life in a strange land. He will reveal the course of his life one misguided step at a time for his captors. From his romance with serial arsonist Leena Manasseh to his lurid angst-affair with a lesbian music diva, from his ascendence as unlikely pop icon to otherworldly encounters, the one constant truth is that he's got no clue what he's doing. As unrelenting as it is original, Last Burn in Hell is John ... more info>> (Published: 2006)
Words: 69040 - Reading Time: 197-276 min.
Category: Erotica/Humor
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11
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Meat Puppet Cabaret [A Baroque Novel]
by Steve Beard
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Meat Puppet Cabaret is a dark fantasy novel that restores the perverse sex, bad drugs and violent rock 'n' roll to contemporary folklore. It starts from a weird idea: what if Jack the Ripper were a demon summoned by the black magician John Dee to steal Princess Diana's baby Allegra from the scene of the car crash in Paris? What if Allegra were hidden in a children's home in East London, but then 14 years later escaped? The novel follows Allegra's adventures as she quests to discover her true ide... more info>> (Published: 2005)
Words: 81399 - Reading Time: 232-325 min.
Category: Dark Fantasy/Science Fiction
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12
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Pseudo-City
by D. Harlan Wilson
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In Pseudofoliculitis City nothing is as it seems and everything is as it should be. Today's forecast calls for extreme confrontation, with sandwich flurries and the threat of handlebar mustaches to the west. By turns absurd and surreal, dark and challenging, Pseudo-City exposes what waits in the bathroom stall, under the manhole cover and in the corporate boardroom, all in a way that can only be described as mind-bogglingly irreal. (Published: 2005)
Words: 58428 - Reading Time: 166-233 min.
Category: Science Fiction/Dark Fantasy
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13
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Sick: An Anthology of Illness
by John Lawson
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Here the pen is not merely mightier than the sword; it is a plague heralding the apocalypse for convention, writing a dirge for complacency. Sick is an anthology compiled by editor John Edward Lawson. Themes explored are physical, mental, and societal in nature. These Sick stories are horrendous, hilarious, and stupefying dissections of creative minds on the scalpel's edge. (Published: 2003)
Words: 96716 - Reading Time: 276-386 min.
Category: Horror/Dark Fantasy
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14
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Tempting Disaster
by John Lawson, Simon Logan, Michael Hemmingson
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This anthology from the fringe examines our culture's obsession with taboos and the added temptation that forbidden pleasures bring. Warnings of danger and peril only heighten our desire for those things we have been told are bad, wrong and have been warned against doing. Post-modernists and surrealists come together in these pages with renegade horror and sci-fiction authors to re-envision what is "acceptable." By turns humorous and horrific then shocking and alluring, the authors dissect those... more info>> (Published: 2005) Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Honorable Mention
Words: 75643 - Reading Time: 216-302 min.
Category: Erotica/Horror
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15
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Terror-Dot-Gov
by Harold Jaffe
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As in Harold Jaffe's two previous "docufiction" collections, False Positive and 15 Serial Killers, the author of Terror-Dot-Gov selects then "treats" his texts such that the reader is incapable of distinguishing between fact and fiction. That ambiguity permits Jaffe to cunningly tease out the contradictions and subtexts of official "news" or "information" and torque it into what it so often is fundamentally: jingoism, xenophobia and propaganda. Jaffe's subject in Terror-Dot-Gov is not the everyw... more info>> (Published: 2005)
Words: 31402 - Reading Time: 89-125 min.
Category: Politics/Government
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16
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The Unauthorized Woman
by Efrem Emerson
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The Unauthorized Woman showcases the world of the inner freak, where no matter how "normal" or technologically advanced we become, we are consumed by our demons. Enter a landscape populated by the pre-dead and morticioners, by cockroaches and 300-lb robots. And, whatever you do, don't eat the overcooked lamb... (Published: 2005) Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Honorable Mention
Words: 29697 - Reading Time: 84-118 min.
Category: Horror/Humor
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17
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Westermead
by Scott Thomas
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The ways of old merge with the magical and fantastic in this wondrous world. Experience Westermead's thaw and awakening season by season, the lush heat of summer's passion and the retreat into winter's desolate embrace. Come celebrate and mourn with the people of Westermead as they make their way through a world steeped both in beauty and dread. More than just a collection of tales, Westermead brings to life an enchanted country where the supernatural is as natural as the sunrise. Follow the int... more info>> (Published: 2006)
Words: 89685 - Reading Time: 256-358 min.
Category: Dark Fantasy/Horror
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