A killer’s blade craves fresh blood… Marcus Holt is Subject B, a Vietnam veteran forced to take part in Professor Abel Worthe’s sadistic experiment. Worthe keeps his human lab rats in a village haunted by murderous ghosts, and forces them to one terrifying ordeal after another. This time, the prisoners find themselves hunted by another vicious spirit. Within the walls of a rotting old New England cottage, the ghost of a vicious serial killer lies in wait. His name is Christopher, and his razor-sharp bayonet longs to taste the blood of a fresh victim. Even as they plan to defeat Christopher, Marcus prepares for an onslaught from outside the village walls, and finds strange new allies in the coming battle. He must fight on two fronts, battling an undead killer within the village walls, and an enemy gathering strength beyond the gates. But will victory be enough to free them all from the professor’s unholy grasp? Or is it all just another trap in Worthe’s diabolical game?

A city ruled by Gods, a mortal champion, a misfit girl and a disobedient dragon... Stolen from his home, Corthie Holdfast has arrived in the City of the Eternal Siege as a new Champion. He must fight alongside the Blades, whose lives are dedicated to the defence of the City against the hordes of monstrous Greenhides; or die at the hands of the Gods who rule. Maddie Jackdaw, a young Blade, faces her last chance. Thrown out of every unit defending the City, either she takes on a new role, or she will be sent to the Rats, a company of misfits given the perilous tasks beyond the Great Walls. Her new role, if she takes it, will bring her face to face with her deepest fears, for beneath the walls, in a secret and hidden lair, lies a dragon, imprisoned and waiting...

A Champion in chains, a Demigod in hiding and a Dragon betrayed. The new Prince of Tara rules the City of the Eternal Siege and nothing will get in his way - all must kneel before him or die. But what is power without the woman he desires? For three hundred years, the Prince has longed for Aila, wanting her as his bride. Now that the City is in his hands, he will do anything to possess her, even if it means plunging the City into a new Civil War. Beneath the Great Walls, the heart of the black dragon is filled with despair. Back in chains with no hope of freedom, she longs for death. Her only reason to live is her rider - but is Maddie enough?

A thought experiment in future-shock survivalism' Robert MacFarlane 'Gripping ... of all science fiction's apocalypses, this is one of the most haunting' Financial Times WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE A post-apocalyptic vision of the world pushed to the brink by famine, John Christopher's science fiction masterpiece The Death of Grass includes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane in Penguin Modern Classics. At first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turns out, the governments have been lying to their people. When the deadly disease hits Britain, society starts to descend into barbarism. As John and his family try to make it across country to the safety of his brother's farm in a hidden valley, their humanity is tested to its very limits. A chilling psychological thriller and one of the greatest post-apocalyptic novels ever written, The Death of Grass shows people struggling to hold on to their identities as the familiar world disintegrates - and the terrible price they must pay for surviving. John Christopher (1922-2012) was the pen name of Samuel Youd, a prolific writer of science fiction. His novels were popular during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably The Death Of Grass (1956), The World in Winter (1962), and Wrinkle in the Skin (1965), all works depicting ordinary people struggling in the midst of apocalyptic catastrophes. In 1966 he started writing science-fiction for adolescents; The Tripods trilogy, the Prince in Waiting trilogy (also known as the Sword of the Spirits trilogy) and The Lotus Caves are still widely read today. Ifyou enjoyed The Death of Grass, you might like John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

Power opens all doors. Some should stay closed. Adam Slate sees something other humans can’t: Connections, all around him. People, places, relationships, possessions, all as clear as letters on a page. But seeing the web makes it too easy to pull the strands, and even his riskier machinations—an illegal slave trade for one, and a gathering of dark magicians, for another—are growing boring. That is, until he runs across a slave with a connection he can’t see. Everybody’s looking for something, and Micah can craft a persona to suit any taste. Or so he thought until his newest owner. He tries one tactic after another to please Slate, to no avail. It’s as if Slate can see straight through Micah’s many masks and doesn’t like what lies—or doesn’t lie—beneath. In relentless pursuit of Micah’s mysterious connection, Slate’s magic opens a gateway to a place that seems like nowhere. The damage mounts, but the door sings a siren song that Slate can’t resist. Micah’s connected to something in the darkness, and Slate’s determined to find out what—even if it kills them both. A standalone The Powers That Be prequel. **See this title's page on RiptidePublishing.com for content warnings.**

Two brothers divided over the future of a country on the brink of revolution. Multimillion copy bestselling author Wilbur Smith returns with a brand-new historical epic, set against the backdrop of the American revolution. The Courtney family is torn apart as three generations fight on opposing sides of a terrible war that will change the face of the world forever. 'Best Historical Novelist' Stephen King 1774. Rob Courtney has spent his whole life in a quiet trading outpost on the east coast of Africa, dreaming of a life of adventure at sea. When his grandfather Jim dies, Rob takes his chance and stows away on a ship as it sails to England, with only the family heirloom, the Neptune Sword, to his name. Arriving in London, Rob is seduced by the charms of the big city and soon finds himself desperate and penniless. That is until the navy comes calling. Rob is sent across the Atlantic on a ship to join the war against the rebellious American colonists. But on the other side of the Atlantic, unbeknownst to Rob, his distant cousins Cal and Aidan Courtney are leading a campaign against the British. Their one desire is American independence, and they are determined to drive the British out of America - by whatever means necessary. . . A powerful new historical thriller by the master of adventure fiction, Wilbur Smith, of families divided and a country on the brink of revolution.

Christopher Sinclair goes out for a walk on a mild Arizona evening and never comes back. He stumbles into a freezing winter under an impossible night sky, where magic is real -- but bought at a terrible price. A misplaced act of decency lands him in a brawl with an arrogant nobleman and puts him under a death sentence. In desperation he agrees to be drafted into an eternal war, serving as a priest of the Bright Lady, Goddess of Healing. But when Marcius, god of war, offers the only hope of a way home to his wife, Christopher pledges to him instead, plunging the church into turmoil and setting him on a path of violence and notoriety. To win enough power to open a path home, this mild-mannered mechanical engineer must survive duelists, assassins, and the never-ending threat of monsters, with only his makeshift technology to compete with swords and magic. But the gods and demons have other plans. Christopher's fate will save the world... or destroy it.

FOUR COMPLETE NOVELS—ONE CAPTIVATING WORLD In the Forests of the Night Three hundred years ago Risika had a family—a brother and a father who loved her. Three hundred years ago she was human. Now she is a vampire, a powerful one. And her past has come back to torment her. Demon in My View Jessica isn’t your average high school student—she’s an acclaimed published author of vampire fiction. Now two new students at her high school strongly remind her of her favorite characters. But those characters only live in her imagination—right? Shattered Mirror Christopher Raneva and Sarah Vida may look like a normal high school couple, but he’s actually a vampire who’s sworn off human blood and she’s an incredibly powerful, vampire-hunting witch. As if that weren’t enough to prevent their love, his past and her future collide when they get tangled up with Nikolas, one of the most reviled vampires ever. Midnight Predator Once a happy teenager, Turquoise Draka is now a vampire hunter. Her current assigment is to assassinate Jeshikah, one of the cruelest vampires in history. But to do that, she’ll have to enter Midnight, a fabled vampire realm, as a human slave. . . .

Subject B is about to learn a new lesson in terror… Marcus Holt survived the Vietnam War. But his greatest battle has only just began. Kidnapped by the sadistic Professor Abel Worthe, the retired soldier is forced to take part in a diabolical experiment. Now known as Subject B, Marcus is trapped in a haunted village, where he must survive one terrifying ordeal after another. All so Worthe can discover just how much fear one man can survive… When the insane professor imprisons a former employee in the haunted village, the terrified young man joins forces with Marcus and the others. As the group navigates the remains of a rotting old schoolhouse, they are stalked by the vengeful spirit of its former headmaster. This blood-thirsty ghost is forever bound to an old wooden cane… a weapon he uses to beat people to death. Marcus must call upon all his strength and courage to survive this new threat, and unravel a secret that links his fate to the diabolical Professor Worthe. But when another survivor develops the terrifying power to see the dead, they soon find themselves faced with a new mystery… Is this chilling psychic ability a blessing? Or a deadly curse in disguise?

For the first time in one volume, a collection of Shirley Jackson’s scariest stories, with a foreword by PEN/Hemingway Award winner Ottessa Moshfegh After the publication of her short story “The Lottery” in the New Yorker in 1948 received an unprecedented amount of attention, Shirley Jackson was quickly established as a master horror storyteller. This collection of classic and newly reprinted stories provides readers with more of her unsettling, dark tales, including the “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Summer People.” In these deliciously dark stories, the daily commute turns into a nightmarish game of hide and seek, the loving wife hides homicidal thoughts and the concerned citizen might just be an infamous serial killer. In the haunting world of Shirley Jackson, nothing is as it seems and nowhere is safe, from the city streets to the crumbling country pile, and from the small-town apartment to the dark, dark woods. There’s something sinister in suburbia. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.