"It was the straying that found the path direct." - Austin Osman Spare In the final throes of the Blitz, Austin Osman Spare is the only salvation for Marlene, an artist escaping a traumatic past. Wandering Southwark's ruins she encounters Paddy Hughes, a fugitive of another kind. Falling under Marlene's spell Hughes agrees to seek out her lost mentor, the man she calls The Satyr. Yet Marlene's past will not rest as the mysterious Doctor Charnock pursues them, trying to capture the patient she'd once caged. The Satyr is a tale inspired by the life and ethos of sorcerer and artist Austin Osman Spare. Another three novellas of occult enchantment follow: a bookseller discovers that his late wife knew the Devil, in the Carpathian Mountains refugees shelter in a museum devoted to a forgotten author, and in Prague a portraitist must paint a countess whose appearance is never the same twice. This omnibus is comprised of The Satyr (2010) and The Bestiary of Communion (2011); newly illustrated, expanded, and revised.

The Satyr's Head: Tales of Terror. Contains stories by masters of the horror tale: Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Joseph Payne Brennan, Eddy C. Bertin, David A. Riley and others. Ten chilling tales of terror and the supernatural, of ghosts and demons and the inexplicable. Selected by British and World Fantasy Award winning editor, David A. Sutton.

With her magic stolen, Ivy Bennett is a witch doomed to die. But she isn't giving up without a fight. One ritual could restore her power, all she needs is a little elbow grease and an abandoned house in the woods. Unfortunately, the home's current resident -an arrogant satyr named Finn- will not tolerate a witch in his territory. Ivy will be damned if the goat-legged jerk gets in her way. If only he wasn't as sexy as he is infuriating. Charming a satyr isn't at the top of Ivy's do-to-list, but it's either come to a truce with the insufferable male or knock on death's door. After witnessing the slaughter of his herd, Finn's sole purpose is to protect his brother and his lands from deadly witches. But when one moves in, his fury rises. While the need to drive the witch away is strong, his desire for her is stronger. Soon he finds himself wanting the lovely, stubborn female more than hating her. But keeping Ivy as his own would forfeit everything he's held sacred. And now her presence has attracted something in the forest... Something that may destroy them all.

Prior to the first American publication of Brian Lumley's ground-breaking, dead-waking, best-selling Necroscope in 1988—the first novel in a long-lived, much-loved series—this British author had for twenty years been earning himself something of a reputation writing short stories, novellas, and a series of novels set against H. P. Lovecraft's cosmic Cthulhu Mythos backdrop. A soldier in 1967, serving in Berlin with the Royal Military Police, Lumley jumpstarted his literary career by writing to August Derleth, the then-dean of macabre publishers at his home in Sauk City, Wisconsin, telling of his fascination with the Mythos, and purchasing books by the "Old Gentleman of Providence, RI." In addition, he sent a page or two of written work allegedly culled from the various forbidden or "black books" of the Mythos. Suitably impressed, the master of Arkham House invited Lumley to write something solid in the Mythos as a possible contribution to a new volume he was currently contemplating, to be titled—what else but?—Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. And as might well be imagined, that set everything in motion. Years have passed since then and a good many words of Mythos fiction written, including critically acclaimed and award-nominated work, stories that have appeared in prestigious magazines such as Fantasy & Science Fiction, and hardcover volumes from publishers all over the world from the USA to China and the United Kingdom to Russia. Stories included in this collection: THE CALLER OF THE BLACK HAGGOPIAN CEMENT SURROUNDINGS THE HOUSE OF CTHULHU THE NIGHT SEA-MAID WENT DOWN NAME AND NUMBER RECOGNITION CURSE OF THE GOLDEN GUARDIANS AUNT HESTER THE KISS OF BUGG-SHASH DE MARIGNY’S CLOCK MYLAKHRION THE IMMORTAL THE SISTER CITY WHAT DARK GOD? THE STATEMENT OF HENRY WORTHY DAGON’S BELL THE THING FROM THE BLASTED HEATH DYLATH-LEEN THE MIRROR OF NITOCRIS THE SECOND WISH THE HYMN SYNCHRONICITY OR SOMETHING THE BLACK RECALLED THE SORCERER’S DREAM

Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle is the fabulous tale of Simbi, a rich and beautiful girl with a wonderful singing voice. She tires of her comfortable lifestyle, and decides that she must come to know poverty and punishment. The story tells, with terrifying imagination and comic invention, of how she achieves this experience and how, in the end, she escapes from it. Amos Tutuola was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1920. His first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, was acquired by T. S. Eliot and published by Faber in 1952.

In this frighteningly full issue of Fantasy Tales you will find: Foreign Parts, a bizarre tale of sex and death by the award winning Neil Gaiman (award-winning comics writer and co-author of the bestselling Good Omens). Thomas Ligotti opens a window into the beyond in The Spectacles in the Drawer. And a stomach-churning meal is on the menu in Gobble, Gobble by Logan's Run author William F Nolan. Plus non-fiction by Clive Barker and stories, verse and art by Kim Newman, Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes, Marvin Kaye, Janet Fox, J.K. Potter and others.