Unlucky thieves invade a house where Home Alone seems like a playground romp. An antique bookseller and a mob enforcer join forces to retrieve the Atlas of Hell. Postapocalyptic survivors cannot decide which is worse: demon women haunting the skies or maddened extremists patrolling the earth. In this chilling twenty-first-century companion to the cult classic Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, Ellen Datlow again proves herself the most masterful editor of the genre. She has mined the breadth and depth of ten years of terror, collecting superlative works of established masters and scene-stealing newcomers alike. “Introduction” Ellen Datlow “Shallaballah” Mark Samuels “Sob In The Silence” Gene Wolfe “Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” Brian Hodge “Dead Sea Fruit” Kaaron Warren “Closet Dreams” Lisa Tuttle “Spectral Evidence” Gemma Files “Hushabye” Simon Bestwick “Very Low-Flying Aircraft” Nicholas Royle “The Goosle” Margo Lanagan “The Clay Party” Steve Duffy “Strappado” Laird Barron “Lonegan’s Luck” Stephen Graham Jones “Mr. Pigsny” Reggie Oliver “At Night, When the Demons Come” Ray Cluley “Was She Wicked? Was She Good?” M. Rickert “The Shallows” John Langan “Little Pig” Anna Taborska “Omphalos” Livia Llewellyn “How We Escaped Our Certain Fate” Dan Chaon “That Tiny Flutter of the Heart I Used to Call Love” Robert Shearman “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” Caitlín R. Kiernan “Shay Corsham Worsted” Garth Nix “The Atlas of Hell” Nathan Ballingrud “Ambitious Boys Like You” Richard Kadrey
Authors
Gene Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying a Catholic. He was a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the field. The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013. While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
