A man wakes up inside a coffin with no knowledge of how he got there or who he is. After freeing himself, he finds a note in his pants directing him to “Avoid the sunlight! Don’t touch anybody!” Afraid, hurt, and alone, he starts a journey to discover the truth about himself. But some things are better left unknown. . . .
The stories here are short (some very short) and are mostly sf – that is, speculative fiction: fantasies, myths, science fiction, slipstream . . . all the flavors of fabulation except, I hope, for the mundane. Many were written with the audience of the Usenet newsgroup talk.bizarre in mind, back when text was the thing. —APS . . .
As the curse of Talia is passed down through the generations, Reza becomes the most recent recipient. She is gifted with the ability to bless friends and family and to curse her enemies with a touch, but this gift comes with a heavy price. Every night she dreams of her death-a horrible fate she can not prevent. When the . . .
Lilith Parker is working at the local paper, announcing births and birthdays and deaths. One morning her boss Shannon gives her a more exciting assignment – research the local haunted house and write an article on its history. Nice flavor for Halloween, right? But then Shannon turns up dead the next day, the local townspeople seem intent on keeping . . .
Divination from the spirit world. Con artistry. Cats and mirrors. The implications of Freudian psychology. Death. Life. Birth. Murder. And ice cream. . . . Charlotte Rowe has been cast in the role of medium from childhood, and studied under a clever fraud. But does Charlotte have a real vision into the spirit world? . . .
I didn’t like this story, but it’s not the fault of the writing. The writing, in fact, is of a very high calibre: sophisticated, rich, intelligently researched, effectively surreal – and full of horror. And cold.
It starts off relatively innocently, the elegantly designed website seducing the hapless reader. Even if [more . . .]