From the mind of John Smith to the pages of the Judge Dredd Megazine, eight stories are now together for the first time in this digital collection. From the sublime to the downright disturbing, these stand-alone short stories feature the worlds and characters from some of John Smith's best known series. The reptillian nun, conceptual artist and cosmic bounty hunter, Tyranny Rex, must survive Demonic forces, Occult organisations and dimension-hopping dream parasites if she wants to keep her tail in tact! Agents of the interdimensional INDIGO PRIME continue their work repairing (and often even rebooting) universes under threat from catastophic reality-shattering events including New York disappearing due to a mass LSD trip and a powerful Vodoo Priestess resurrecting Elvis Presley by way of Magickal haircuts. Meanwhile, vampiric Vatican agent, international celebrity and bon vivant, Devlin Waugh, finds himself the target of an obsessed stalker and diabolic entities...

∙ Earth scientists rocket to Mars, bearing a secret plan for future Martians. But the Martians have plans of their own. ∙ A devious AI runs amok. Mars's entire security apparatus can't pin it down. ∙ Through startling revelations, a lovelorn man uncovers the root of his wife's troubles. ∙ An old smartaleck Deadhead from Princeton University's maintenance garage harbours a top-secret story. ∙ A struggling artist finds unusual allies: bums and a witch. ∙ After 219 years, a warlock stumbles into his first love.

Star radio-host Rich Terfry presents the amazing tales of his alter ego, musician Buck 65, in this rollicking account of growing up poor, talented, baseball-obsessed, music-mad and girl-smitten. With wit, style and a born writer's knack for telling detail, Rich Terfry gives us the wildly entertaining story of his unusual life through the eyes of his shy but brilliant and preternaturally observant alter-ego, Buck. Born in a small town in Nova Scotia to a mother who begins yelling at him the moment he is born and a father who keeps his own counsel, Buck imbibes fear and insecurity like other kids guzzle milk. Hobbled by his fears and demons, Buck almost disappears into the “evil in the woods” that lurks just beyond the town's border . . . until he is saved by three gifts: baseball, romantic love and music. His epic journey­­—full of diversions, coincidences, and larger-than-life characters—out of the darkness of his suicide-plagued childhood and into the bright wide world begins with a killer pitching arm (Buck almost makes it to the pros) and continues with his transformation into hip hop artist Buck 65. Along the way, Buck develops into a hopeless romantic and an obsessively creative, shape-shifting man who both fears life and dives into it with abandon. Wicked and Weird is a lively, sometimes shocking portrait of a life lived on the edge, by turns funny and heartbreaking.

In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world. In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity. Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear. Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities. You won't find any elves or wizards here...but you will find the biggest, boldest, and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled. The Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miéville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon. The Weird is the winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Rails Trails and Other Tales weaves the reader through the romance and adventure of hopping freight trains and being out in the wilderness. Along with others, there are stories of dogs, ducks and commentaries on the misunderstood mule. Stories lived and stories handed down, kept alive with the telling and given longevity with the pen. Adventure and experiences through which the reader can get an idea of how life in the open and on the move can get into ones psyche to the point that wondering becomes solace to a wayward spirit. Some experiences in life we pursue and acquire, others just come along and happen to us when we put ourselves in their paths. Either way experiences and adventures are elements in life that give substance to our memories. We may not be able to experience all we wish, but we can, visit some experiences lived by others. You, reader may not be able to wander in the fi rst person but here you can sit back and do some arm-chair wandering and have a look at some other tid-bits of life. Also you may get a little look into what can happen sometimes when one just casts his way into the winds of chance. Meynardie

From more than 150 short stories produced during four decades of professional writing, Barbara has picked twenty that show a variety of themes, from humour to tragedy, love to hate, revealing a wide range of human emotions and yearnings, and the highs and lows that make humanity such a fascinating study. The opening story, No Time for Pity, is a new look at an old crime: the murders of two young princes in the Tower of London, 1483. Australians are all too aware of the theme of Beached Spirit - the unwelcome arrival of beached whales. For light relief, The Cornish Pot introduces a real fairy, and in Whatever Happened to Love? the eccentricities of the aristocracy meet head-on with the end result of an ungentlemanly act. Malcolm, 15, goes to The Island to escape the irritations of family life, but the island's peace is transitory. The Old Bloke introduces us to a tramp, whose unchanging routine is shattered when he finds a dollar coin outside a fairground. How wrong can you be? The author in Breakfast in Paradise fancies himself as a student of human nature. But his confidence is deflated when breakfast at the Hotel Paradiso turns briefly into chaos. Are people ever what they seem? The final story, The Wallflower, has been included because of its special status in Barbara's career - it was the first she ever sold, and it was broadcast by the BBC.