Short Stories/Novellas
What do you do if the man you've vowed to kill dies before you can kill him? In college, Tom Holbrook worshipped Shasta DiMaio from afar, but she married the arrogant John Atwater—and Atwater eventually murdered her. All that's left for Tom is revenge. He has devoted the rest of his life to finding Atwater and killing him—but when he finally finds him, Atwater is in a bag in the Los Angeles County morgue. How do you kill a man who has already died?
In California, a secret magical underground exists. Souls of the dead haunt electronic equipment. Bibles are cleansed of offending verses, and the blood of murderers stills the whispers of the dead. But, as always in Powers, magic comes at a price. Wizard Torrez, the bible repairman, has a soul tainted by murder, a dead child, a broken marriage, and an intellect leaking away. And a new client wants to take away what little he has left. While taking place in a world reminiscent of his novel Expiration Date, there is no secret history here, no grand conspiracies -- just a subtle tale of loss, sin, and sacrifice.
A first edition of a 1968 book of poems, with a sonnet that appears in no other copy -- a mysterious girl with a special fountain-pen, who needs a special favor -- and an old woman who warns used-book dealer George Sydney that helping the girl he's fallen in love with will mean that he will never have fallen in love. Hollywood Boulevard, with its bars and used-book stores and the legendary Chinese Theater, is the psychic killing ground where Sydney must learn the rules of an old supernatural rivalry -- and choose to save either the woman he loves, or his soul.
2012 World Fantasy Award Winner In his first new collection since 2005, Tim Powers, the master of the secret history, delves into the mysteries of souls, whether they are sacrificed on the pinnacle of Mount Parnassus or lodged in a television cable box. With two new stories and short fiction only previously available in limited editions, the cornerstone of the collection is a postscript to his harrowing novel of the haunting of the Romantic poets, The Stress of Her Regard. After Byron and Shelley break free of the succubus that claimed them, their associate, Trelawny, forges an alliance with Greek rebels to reestablish the deadly connection between man and the nephilim. Meanwhile, in a Kabbalistic story of transformation, the executor of an old friend’s will is duped into housing his soul, but for the grace of the family cat. A rare-book collector replaces pennies stolen from Jean Harlow’s square in the Hollywood Walk of Fameand discovers a literary mystery with supernatural consequences. In a tale of time travel between 2015 and 1975, a tragedy sparked by an angel falling onto a pizza shop is reenactedand the event is barely, but fatally, altered.
San Francisco rare book dealer Richard Blanzac finds himself on a unexpected adventure back to 1957 after he uncovers a consignment box that holds an assortment of literary rarities and commonplace items.
A trio of twisted little tales from the master of twistedness. With an introduction by Tim Powers. Edward Bryant is the multi-Nebula Award winning author of over a hundred short stories, over a thousand essays and reviews, and one novel with Harlan Ellison, PHOENIX WITHOUT ASHES.
When three professors attempt to raise the ghost of a former colleague, using a device the late professor invented, they unintentionally access a different reality.
A down-and-out screenwriter is hired to deliver a mummified head as the ransom for a kidnapped Belgian heiress, but his encounters with the supersitious kidnappers and the heiress lead him to question his actions.