Speculative fiction is the literature of questions, of challenges and imagination, and what better to question than the ways in which gender and sexuality have been rigidly defined, partitioned off, put in little boxes? These seventeen stories explore the ways in which identity can go beyond binary from space colonies to small college towns, from angels to androids, and from a magical past to other worlds entirely, the authors in this collection have brought to life wonderful tales starring people who proudly define (and redefine) their own genders, sexualities, identities, and so much else in between.

Jim has had a lifelong interest in UFOs since he was a child in the late 50's. This led to his current position as a Religious Research specialist for the Mutual UFO Network since 1996. He is also a member of the alumni at Central Bible College and was ordained by the Independent Assemblies of God in 1980. An avid reader, Jim is experienced and comfortable with studying the Bible in its original languages and spending hours in research as a hobby. Originally from Detroit Michigan, Jim founded and served in one of the nation's first evangelical Christian Motorcycle clubs in the early 70's which appeared on the 700 club. Jim served as Pastor in the inner city of Detroit working within the counter cultures associated with drugs and gangs. He has had almost 30 years experience working in deliverance ministries engaged in spiritual warfare that have enabled many to be set free from these bondages. Taking this experience with him into the investigation of UFOs and Alien abductions, Jim has become actively involved within the UFO community. With two other colleagues, The Alien Abduction Crises Centers of America was founded. This is a nation-wide network to provide Biblical based support and help for abductees after receiving terminations of their abduction experiences from the Biblical based counseling they provide as a free service. Jim has also traveled across the US providing Biblical based information at UFO conventions which led to setting up a book store/ museum in Roswell NM where he lived for four years. This book is the result of over ten years intensive first hand investigation and study of the subject and the people involved. It promises to be one of the most comprehensive scripturally backed books written so far, that weaves many different topics into one story of Paradise lost and found. Not since the great flood of Noah has there been such an elaborate deception put upon mankind. This book exposes it all for your consideration. Unlike many sensational books that leave you left in fear and hopelessness, this book will leave you with hope and answers for the fearful things described and soon to fall upon an unsuspecting planet.

Beyond the Story: American Literary Fiction and the Limits of Materialism argues that theology is crucial to understanding the power of contemporary American stories. By drawing on the theories of M. M. Bakhtin, Christian personalism, and contemporary phenomenology, Lake argues that literary fiction activates an irreducibly personal intersubjectivity between author, reader, and characters. Stories depend on a dignity-granting valuation of the particular lives of ordinary people, which is best described as an act of love that mirrors the love of the divine. Through original readings of the fiction of Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, Toni Morrison, and others, Lake enters into a dialogue with postsecular theory and cognitive literary studies to reveal the limits of sociobiology’s approach to culture. The result is a book that will remind readers how storytelling continually reaffirms the transcendent value of human beings in an inherently personal cosmos. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of theology and literary studies, as well as a broad audience of readers seeking to engage on a deeper level with contemporary literature.

A collection of 15 short stories by female, Latin American writers, including Isabel Allende and Luisa Valenzuela. Ranging across boundaries of geography and gender, the work covers such topics as incest, race, politics, sexual needs, love, old age, and child abuse.

"From Beyond" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in 1920 and was first published in The Fantasy Fan in June 1934. The story is told from the first-person perspective of an unnamed narrator and details his experiences with a scientist named Crawford Tillinghast. Tillinghast creates an electronic device that emits a resonance wave, which stimulates an affected person's pineal gland, thereby allowing them to perceive planes of existence outside the scope of accepted reality. Sharing the experience with Tillinghast, the narrator becomes cognizant of a translucent, alien environment that overlaps our own recognized reality. From this perspective, he witnesses hordes of strange and horrific creatures that defy description. Tillinghast reveals that he has used his machine to transport his house servants into the overlapping plane of reality. He also reveals that the effect works both ways, and allows the alien creature denizens of the alternate dimension to perceive humans. Tillinghast's servants were attacked and killed by one such alien entity, and Tillinghast informs the narrator that it is right behind him. Terrified beyond measure, the narrator picks up a gun and shoots it at the machine, destroying it. Tillinghast dies immediately thereafter as a result of apoplexy. The police investigate the scene and it is placed on record that Tillinghast murdered the servants in spite of their remains never being found. Famous works of the author Howard Phillips Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Horror at Red Hook, The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadows over Innsmouth, The Alchemist, Reanimator, Ex Oblivione, Azathoth, The Call of Cthulhu, The Cats of Ulthar, The Dunwich Horror, The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Festival, The Silver Key, The Other Gods, The Outsider, The Temple, The Picture in the House, The Shunned House, The Terrible Old Man, The Tomb, Dagon, What the Moon Brings.

Winner of the first John W. Campbell Memorial Award. “A mind-bending read . . . certainly entertaining, often very funny and very thought-provoking.” —Medium A two-man mission to Venus fails and is aborted; when it returns, the Captain is missing and the other astronaut, Harry M. Evans, is unable to explain what has happened. Or, conversely, he has too many explications; his journal of the expedition—compiled in the mental institution to which NASA has embarrassedly committed him—offers contradictory stories: he murdered the Captain, mad Venusian invaders murdered the Captain, the Captain vanished, no one was murdered and the Captain has returned in Evans’s guise. As the explanations pyramid and the supervising psychiatrist’s increasingly desperate efforts to get a straight story fail, it becomes apparent that Evans’s madness and his inability to explain what happened are expressions of humanity’s incompetence at the enormity of space exploration. “Barry Malzberg’s dark, bleak vision of the future is one of the most terrifying ever to come out of science fiction.” —Robert Silverberg “Beyond Apollo is a masterpiece; a multi-faceted rumination on repression; a virulent critique of the space program and America’s obsession with space.” —Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations “A light shone through a crystal. The reader never gets to see the crystal or the light, only the resulting refraction . . . a very satisfying work of post-modern science fiction.” —Speculiction “Veins of gold . . . a beautiful and heart-breaking book.”—Fantasy and Science Fiction “Written with wit . . . the most original and pleasing SF novel of the last five years.”—Brian Aldiss, New Review

Regarded as one of the best authorities on the fiction of C.S. Lewis, Thomas Howard presents in this work brilliant new insights into Lewis' fiction and helps us to see things we may not have seen nor appreciated before. Focusing on Narnia, the space trilogy and Til We Have Faces, Howard explores with remarkable clarity the moral vision in the imaginary world of the master storyteller Lewis.