The Fall of Hades

Literature & Fiction

Thomas, Jeffrey

Genre Fiction

Dark Renaissance Books

Halloween. The name itself conjures up a witch's brew of images. Leering Jack-O-Lanterns sitting on porches, costumed children trick-or-treating across suburban neighborhoods, skeletal trees marking the passage of another season, and lonely fields of corn swaying gently in a chill, autumn breeze. But there is also a darker side to this magical night, one which can breathe life into things which were only possibility, and sculpt them into dreadful reality. Every home has at least one closet which harbors a skeleton. There's a house in every town with a morbid past and haunted occupant. Families hide their dark secrets, and inside each of us wages a struggle of good against evil, one in which the final outcome is never certain, or necessarily pretty. Within the folds of the dark season, all things emerge from the shadows to celebrate, claiming the holiday for their own sinister purpose, and for every treat there's a nasty trick waiting somewhere close by...  "There's only a handful of young writers I will drop whatever I am doing to read...Paul Melniczek is one of them. Atmospheric, lyrical storytelling at its best. He always delivers." - Richard Chizmar, Cemetery Dance  "Literate, well-written, and scary as Hell Halloween treats. Each story resonates with an awareness and deep appreciation of past classics. The concluding tale, "The Attic Door," is a richly compelling read, easily justifying by itself the cost of the collection. Highly recommended." - Gene O'Neill, Stoker Award winning author of JADE and DEATHFLASH  "Paul Melniczek writes about Halloween as if it's his birthday, Christmas and the Fourth of July all rolled up into one!" - Al Sarrantonio, author of over 40 books including the ORANGEFIELD cycle, BABYLON 5, and MASTERS OF MARS

A Haunted Halloween

Melniczek, Paul

United States

At 2:31 a.m., seismic monitoring stations in China and South Korea detect a magnitude-4 event consistent with a nuclear detonation in the southeastern corner of North Korea, within the Korean Demilitarized Zone. With the threat of full-scale war escalating by the minute, the United Nations Security Council dispatches an elite unit of peacekeepers to cross the border, penetrate the cloud of dust hanging over the site, and determine the exact nature of the seismic disturbance. What they find triggers a series of events that culminates in a civilian biomedical engineer boarding a transport carrier at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, bound for the Far East. His name is Dr. Parker Ramsey and he is uniquely qualified for this mission. He is the brains behind a secret project--Code Name Hindsight--developed under the oversight of the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. Hindsight has never been field-tested, but with global catastrophe looming on the horizon, the only chance of averting it lies in utilizing the project's extraordinary capabilities. If it works, Dr. Ramsey will be able to unravel the mystery behind the detonation and identify the responsible party. For, thanks to Hindsight, Dr. Ramsey will be able to see something that no one has ever seen before... He'll be able to see the moment of death through the eyes of the dead. If he's able to survive long enough to do so. "Writing with the soul of a poet and the imagination of a demon, Michael McBride creates terrifying enchantments." - Bruce Boston, author of The Nightmare Collection "McBride just keeps getting better!" - Hellnotes "Whether he's writing stuff that's quietly creepy or stuff that's action-packed and blood-drenched, Michael McBride never fails to deliver a fantastic read!" - Jeff Strand, author of Dweller and Pressure "Make no mistake, Michael McBride is now ready to step in with the heavy hitters. Jeffery Deaver, Michael Marshall Smith, Thomas Harris--are you doing your roadwork?" - Gene O'Neill, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Taste of Tenderloin

Blindspot

McBride, Michael

Carnacki: Heaven and Hell by William Meikle is the fourth entry in our ongoing Ghost House imprint. It includes six interior illustrations from artist Wayne Miller. All new tales of William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki. Meet an Edwardian occult detective who goes where no other gentleman will dare. Nine stories and a novella that take Carnacki deep into neolithic barrows, into the crypts of ancient cathedrals and see him fighting the elemental powers of darkness on his own terms. The Blooded Iklwa: A malevolent spirit is intent on blood. Can Carnacki identify the source of the attacks and stop the Zulu blade from its nightly haunting? Or will his client be forced to suffer a death of a thousand cuts? The Larkhill Barrow: A pounding terror has been called up out of Salisbury Plain; an ancient darkness that will haunt your dreams. The Sisters of Mercy: Battle hardened old soldiers lie sick abed in fear for their souls. Only someone with intimate knowledge of the powers of darkness can help them. The Hellfire Mirror: The rituals of an infamous club have left their mark on a mirror, leading Carnacki into a fight to stop his own home from being overrun with the forces of darkness. The Beast of Glamys: Danger to the daughter of a Scottish Lord leads Carnacki to a remote castle, and the uncovering of the secret behind a legend that has persisted for centuries. The Tomb of Pygea: Something serpentine whispers in the dark under Admiralty Arch, and only Carnacki has the skills, and the nerve, to descend, and to listen. The Lusitania: A cruise ship is berthed in Liverpool, deserted by passengers and crew, stuck in port until Carnacki can remove the cause of their terror; apparitions of disaster and shipwreck The Haunted Oak: Ghosts of the recent dead walk beneath its spreading boughs and the Church needs Carnacki's expertise. But some things are best left to take their course -- natural, or supernatural. The Shoreditch Worm: When one of the churches of London changes its chimes, something old starts to wake. Can Carnacki stop it before it is too late? The Dark Island: Carnacki uncovers a gateway to a dark realm of magic and myth, where the far future of our planet can be touched and seen, if a man has the stomach for it. Meet Carnacki: Ghosthunter. "William Meikle does a stand up job here, of capturing the tone of the original stories. He falls naturally into the more formal language of the period, without making it any less easy to read." - The British Fantasy Society

Carnacki: Heaven and Hell

Meikle, William

There is a cold that cannot be imagined, a chill so deep it turns blood to ice, cracks flesh, tears meat from bone. It is the horror of our own reality, the terrifying curse of our own survival. Can you feel it creeping down your spine? Simon Strantzas, author of the mesmerizing Beneath the Surface and brilliant Nightingale Songs, brings his critically-acclaimed and long out-of-print collection back to find a whole new audience. In these thirteen strange and dark tales, you will find vacationers on the edge of forever, lonely pilgrims searching for answers, the dying reminded of all they have lost and all they have yet to lose. Strantzas's fiction is a haunting echo across the barren Arctic tundra, and once you hear its howl you will never forget the sound.

Cold to the Touch

Strantzas, Simon

A new retrospective collection! InTHE SEA OF BLOOD by Reggie Oliver brings together some of the finest work from his six collections of stories, and two new works of fiction. A long-dead nun with a fatal gift for prophesy comes to you across a sea of blood... A television reality show host tries to restore a derelict London Music Hall and accidentally uncovers the true identity of Jack the Ripper... A great Shakespearean actor is haunted by his former mistress in the shape of an all too affectionate cat... A terribly strange meeting takes place on a playing field between an officer on leave from the World War I trenches and his former headmaster... An aristocrat tries to exploit a haunted room at his county seat, but has the tables turned on him by a member of the Royal Family... A theatrical landlady has her house taken over by a troupe of midgets who will not leave her alone, even after they are dead... A Pantomime Horse is haunted... The Devil and the Seven Deadly Sins go on holiday to an English seaside resort and create havoc... And many other equally strange and terrible events, all told in Oliver s famously elegant and evocative style. You are in for a sophisticated ride... Nightmarish, terrifying, dangerous, theatrical, often strangely profound, a ride which will inspire and haunt your mind. Winner of the 2012 Children of the Night Award for Best Work of Supernatural Fiction and short listed for numerous other awards.

The Sea of Blood

Reggie Oliver

Product Description 
Rhysling Award winner Mary Soon Lee has created a fantastic world that is marvelous in scope. Drawing upon elements from Asian and Celtic culture while incorporating dragons, bloody wars, horsemanship, kingship and other tropes of the genre, she never ignores the human cost of heroism. Gorgeous black-and-white illustrations by M. Wayne Miller complete this first book of 
The Sign of the Dragon, and epic fantasy in verse. 
"And what will you pay for the crown, 
little princeling? Gold? Men? A song?" 
"My freedom!" he shouted at her. 
"Well," she said, "that's a start." 
 Review 
"Here is the voice of a true-born storyteller, using the oldest of narrative tools--poetry--in a vibrant and thoroughly contemporary way. This multi-faceted tale of a prince's evolution toward kingship gallops along at the pace of legend. It is a world to fall into, a lyrical entertainment for fantasy fans and loves of speculative verse alike." --Ann K. Schwader, author of Twisted in Dream & Stoker Award Finalist\n"Lee conjures the magic of hoofbeats and human kindness in her poems revolving around the remarkable King Xau. These Chinese-inspired epic fantasy poems are both easy to read and profound. I'm very glad that this is just book one." --Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger\n"With her majestic powers of character conjuration, this reader fully expects Mary Soon Lee to populate worlds every bit as popular if not more popular than Anne McCaffery or Robert Jordan--all the taste without the fattening calories (glory be to writers who can economize)..." --Trent Walters, SF Site 
 About the Author 
Mary Soon Lee a transplanted Londoner of Chinese and Irish descent, has lived in Pittsburgh for the past twenty years. She has had over two hundred poems published, including work in 
American Scholar, Atlanta Review, Star*Line, and the 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 2014, she won the Rhysling Award for Best Long Poem for her poem "Interregnum." Once upon a time, she also wrote short stories, including appearances in 
Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Year's Best Fantasy #4, and 
The Year's Best SF #5. She has a husband, two children, and two cats.

CROWNED: The Sign of The Dragon Book 1

Mary Soon Lee

THE HITCHHIKING EFFECT spans Gene O'Neill's thirty-year-plus writing career, including his first major sale, "The Burden of indigo," to the The Twilight Zone Magazine. In time, O'Neill would develop this short tale of a dyed criminal's search for salvation, into a full-length novel, eventually resulting in the much-anticipated four-book Cal Wild Chronicles, set in post-apocalyptic California.O'Neill's autobiographical introduction candidly explains the significance of this collections title. Four Stoker Award finalists are included among these brilliant, gritty stories, including "Balance," a Marine vet's struggle to keep the world balanced; RUSTING CHICKENS, a Marine's return to a home possibly more dangerous and surreal than his deployment in Afghanistan; THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. ZACH, the first book of the Cal Wild; and an intriguing novelette, THE HUNGRY SKULL: a jump-pilot, half-man, half-machine, defines what character is--with a shocking ending. A novelette of supernatural obsession, FIREBUG was written especially as an end note for this retrospective, a signature event in Gene O'Neill's award-winning career.

The Hitchhiking Effect

Gene O'Neill

The Ghost of Fear and Others: H. P. Lovecraft's Favorite Horror Stories Vol. 1

Seabury, Quinn

E.F. BENSON

M.P. Shiel

E. Hoffmann Price

Fiona, Macleod

Théophile, Gautier

Arthur, Machen

H.G.Wells

Lord, Dunsany

F. Marion Crawford

Edward Lucas White

Arthur J. Burks

Rudyard, Kipling

Edgar-Allan-Poe

Nathaniel, Hawthorne

"I know them, these hills." In the foothills of the Green Mountains, a child grows up in an abandoned village, haunted by memories of his absent parents. In a wayside tavern, a murderous innkeeper raises a young girl among the ghosts of his past victims. Elsewhere the village of Whistler's Gore is swept up in the tumult of religious fervor, while in rural Falmouth, the souls of the buried dead fall prey to a fungal infestation. This is New England as it was once envisioned by Hawthorne and Lovecraft, a twilit country of wild hills and barren farmland where madness and repression abound. The Lord Came At Twilight presents 14 stories of doubt and despair, haunter and haunted, the deranged and the devout. "The Lord Came At Twilight is a significant and sophisticated contribution to modern weird fiction." --Reggie Oliver, WORMWOOD "If you like your horror well written, haunting and resonant, look no further: Daniel Mills is your man!" --Dejan Ognjanovic, RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE

The Lord Came at Twilight

Daniel Mills

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