Lucius Shepard's acclaimed 'Dragon Griaule' stories are presented here in a single volume. It contains: 'The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule', 'The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter', 'The Father of Stones', 'Liar's House', 'The Taborin Scale', and 'The Skull'.

"...Beautiful Blood begins in the 1850s in the town of Teocinte, in a world "separated from our own by the thinnest margin of possibility." It is a landscape whose dominant feature is the massive, long-dormant body of an ancient dragon that has lain there motionless, for millennia, exerting a powerful but mysterious influence on the surround area. The novel tells the story of Richard Rosacher, an ambitious young medical student who becomes fascinated by the properties inherent in the dragon's blood. His exploitation of those properties launches him on a career that leads him from the shabbiest quarter of Teocinte to a morally ambiguous position of power, wealth, and influence. Beautiful Blood takes us through the entire length of that career, which is marked throughout by the invisible agency of Griaule, who may well be the driving force behind Rosacher's astonishing ascension. The novel also encapsulates the events of the initial Griaule story, events that dovetail neatly with the current tale. Meric Cattanay, the eponymous protagonist of "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule," makes a welcome reappearance here. Meric's decades-long involvement with the dragon begins at roughly the same time as Rosacher's. Their stories proceed along parallel but independent lines that occasionally intersect, providing us with a view of familiar events wider and deeper than any we have had before. The result is a colorful, involving narrative with profound metaphysical overtones, one that raises - but does not answer - significant questions. Is the dragon merely a bizarre but entirely natural phenomenon? Or is he/it the manifestation of some divine purpose? And to what extent are the actions of men like Meric and Rosacher the reflections of its implacable but enigmatic will? Quesions such as these animate the narrative at every turn, adding an extra level of resonance to one of the most original and important fictional creations of recent years." -- dust jacket inside flaps.

Now expanded: The definitive visual guide to writing science fiction and fantasy—with exercises, diagrams, essays by superstar authors, and more. From the New York Times-bestselling, Nebula Award-winning author, Wonderbook has become the definitive guide to writing science fiction and fantasy by offering an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism. It also embraces the visual nature of genre culture and employs bold, full-color drawings, maps, renderings, and visualizations to stimulate creative thinking. On top of all that, it features sidebars and essays—most original to the book—from some of the biggest names working in the field today, among them George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Charles Yu, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Karen Joy Fowler. For the fifth anniversary of the original publication, Jeff VanderMeer has added fifty more pages of diagrams, illustrations, and writing exercises, creating the ultimate volume of inspiring advice. “One book that every speculative fiction writer should read to learn about proper worldbuilding.” —Bustle “A treat . . . gorgeous to page through.” —Space.com

Five Autobiographies and a Fiction, the long-awaited new collection from master storyteller Lucius Shepard, is a significant publishing event, a volume equal in every way to such earlier Shepard classics as The Jaguar Hunter and The Dragon Griaule. Its six long stories offer narrative pleasures as diverse and profound as anything to be found in modern imaginative fiction. "Ditch Witch," set in rural Oregon, concerns a young man on the run in a stolen car, a hitchhiker who may or may not have witch-like powers, and the bizarre inhabitants of the seemingly innocuous Elfland Motel. "The Flock" is a tale of high school football and small town malaise set against an impossible intrusion from the natural world. A washed-up actor and a Malaysian "woman of power" stand at the center of "Vacancy," the account of a man forced to confront the very real demons of his past. "Dog-eared Paperback of My Life" follows a writer (Thomas Cradle) on his erotically charged journey down the Mekong River, a

A brand new novella of the dragon Grialue, limited to 500 numbered copies signed by the author.

While humanity has been telling fantastic stories for millennia, fantasy fiction has only come into its own as a genre in the latter half of the twentieth century, as the works of such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard have found a wide audience. This wonderful collection celebrates fantasy's heyday with 33 masterpieces of short fiction, ranging from 1940s stories by L. Sprague de Camp, H.L.Gold, Fritz Leiber, and Manly Wade Wellman to more recent tales by such towering modern talents as Peter S. Beagle, Terry Bisson, James P. Blaylock Suzy McKee Charnas, John Crowley, Tanith Lee, Michael Swanwick, Judith Tarr, Howard Waldrop, Jane Yolen, and Roger Zelazny. Just as Gardner Dozois's Modern Classics of Science Fiction has helped longtime fans and new readers alike discover the genre's finest short stories, so too shall this anthology allow readers to find in one volume more than two dozen masterworks of fantasy.

Dragons come in all shapes and sizes: from wise and gentle winged beasts to mighty, fire-breathing killers. Here are ten tales from experts in the field, including James P. Blaylock, Avram Davidson, Tanith Lee, Lucius Shepard, L. Sprague De Camp, and others.

A New York Times Notable Book: “Combining cyberpunk’s grit with dystopic fantasy, this iconoclastic hybrid is a standout piece of storytelling” (Library Journal). Jane is trapped as a changeling in an industrialized Faerie ruled by aristocratic high elves and populated by ogres, dwarves, night-gaunts, and hags. She is the only human in a factory where underage forced labor builds cybernetic, magical dragons that are weaponized and sent off to war. When the damaged dragon Melanchthon tempts Jane with promises of freedom, the stage is set for a daring escape that will shake the foundations of existence. Combining alchemy and technology, a coming-of-age story like no other, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter takes place against a dystopic mindscape of dark challenges and class struggles that force Jane to make costly decisions at every turn. A finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1994 Locus Award, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter a is one-of-a-kind melding of grimdark fantasy and cyberpunk grit from the Nebula Award–winning author of Stations of the Tide. It engages the reader in a nihilistic world in which nothing is as it seems and everything comes at a steep and often horrific price.

The most academically credible case for alien visitation. Is the existance of civilisation on earth the result of contact from inhabitants of a planet in the system of the star Sirius prior to 3000BC? There are tribal cultures in present-day Africa whose most sacred and secret and traditions are based on this theory. Central to their cosmology is a body of knowledge concerning the system of the star Sirius that is astounding it in its accuracy of detail, including specific information only recently accessible to modern science. Robert Temple traces the traditions of the Dogon and three related tribes back 5, 000 years to the ancient Mediterranean cultures of Sumer and Egypt. He shows a knowledge dependent on physics and astrophysics, which they claimed was imported to them by visitors from Sirius.

The Mammoth Book of Great Fantasy offers a wonderful collection - both classic and new - of this ever-popular genre. Mike Ashley brings together the great masters and originators of the form, such as George Macdonald and Lord Dunsany, through the great days of Conan the Barbarian, Elric and Melnibone and, of course, the creations of J.R.R.Tolkien, to today's craftsmen of fantasy such as Terry Pratchett, David Gemmell and Tanith Lee. Stories include: Yesterday was Monday, in which Theodore Sturgeon writes about a man who goes to sleep on Monday and awakes to find the next day is Wednesday - he has slipped out of time. The Wall Around the World, by Theodore Cogswell, tells of a young boy who masters flight in order to escape from a world in which he has become trapped. A Witch Shall be Born, one of Robert E.Howards greatest Conan the Barbarian stories. Aelfwine of England, a rare tale by J R R Tolkien, linking Dark Age Britain to Middle Earth.