Short Stories/Novellas
In this Hugo Award-winning story, movie buff Pete discovers a video store stocked with DVDs of films that were never made: a director's cut of The Magnificent Ambersons; Harlan Ellison's version of I, Robot; The Death of Superman directed by Tim Burton; and even more impossible visions. But there's something even more interesting than the remarkable movies: the woman working behind the counter.
This short story concerns an ancient, secret organization called the Table, and their quest for an artifact of awesome power. An elite but dysfunctional team -- including a methamphetamine addict who can see into the past, a murderous witch, a man who takes on the powers of any creature he devours, and the living embodiment of mankind's evil -- criss-cross the globe (and other worlds) to find a Cup older and more powerful than the Holy Grail (and even closer to God). Drugs, violence, and apocalypse abound in this miniature epic. First published in groundbreaking anthology Twenty Epics, and subsequently reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy.
Even ordinarily, cloudmining can be dangerous -- those silver linings are heavy and potentially lethal -- but it's nothing compared being a cloudminer on the run. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
This story is a poignant, profane, and magical secret history about the outlaw Pearl Hart, one of the last stagecoach robbers in the Old West, and her mysterious partner in crime, John Boot. First published in a volume of the celebrated Polyphony anthology series, this piece was was later selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories: 2005.
"Even her bicycle was evil." So begins "The Witch's Bicycle," award-winning author Tim Pratt's first professionally published story. This contemporary fantasy novelette is a classic tale of boy meets girl... and psychopathic bully... and witch. First published in Realms of Fantasy in 2002.
"Living with the harpy presented certain difficulties. Her feathers clogged the shower drain, and the smell of unsavory meats cooked over chemical fires drifted from her room. She screamed profanity sometimes, as if afflicted with Tourette's, but with obvious glee. I occasionally found drowned mice in the coffeemaker." This short story -- about a woman, her unusual roommate, and the inevitable dangers of love -- first appeared in Strange Horizons in 2002, and was nominated for a Gaylactic Spectrum Award for best short story the following year. Includes story notes by the author.
Mr. Zealand is an elite assassin facing his most difficult assignment ever: to kill an immortal sorcerer. His client? The sorcerer himself, who can't remember where he put his soul for safekeeping. This story was first published in Lenox Avenue in 2004, and was subsequently reprinted in a volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy. Fans of Pratt's Marla Mason series of urban fantasy novels may remember Mr. Zealand from the novel Poison Sleep. This is the story that introduced him.
"Artifice and Intelligence" is the story of the world's first self-aware computer system, an artificial intelligence that calls herself Saraswati. When a powerful organization called The Consortium threatens the peace and security of the world, Saraswati assembles a team to fight it... but what if the AI's motives aren't what they seem? This short story was first published in Strange Horizons in 2007, and later reprinted in The Year's Best SF 13.
"A is for Annabelle, who turned ten today." So begins this fantasy coming-of-age story about a little girl discovering her true identity, in the form of an abecedary: 26 singular moments in her life, one for each letter of the alphabet. First published in the influential 'zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, this was subsequently reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.
Novelette "Romanticore" may be award-winning author Tim Pratt's most ambitious and personal story: a deadly love triangle that includes a young writer, a monster pretending to be human, and a human who may be more monstrous than any beast of myth and legend. It's about the lengths people go to for love... and the terrible price those lovers sometimes have to pay. The wrong romance can cost you a lot more than a broken heart. Includes story notes by the author.
In this moving story by Hugo Award-winning author Tim Pratt, a grieving young man named Graydon returns to his Georgia hometown to take a break from the pains of real life. But when he becomes obsessed with catching a legendary giant catfish said to inhabit a local fishing hole, his life takes a turn for the strange.
Rangifer Volans is a tale of Christmas... and cryptids. A young cryptozoologist, not content with proving the existence of Bigfoot, the Mongolian Death Worm, and the Loch Ness Monster, sets his sights on a cryptid so unlikely that not even his colleagues believe it's real: rangifer volans, the elusive flying reindeer. On Christmas Eve, he sets his trap... but if flying reindeer are real, who's in that sleigh they're pulling? A strange (and, admittedly, a little dark) short story about the power of belief, Christmas spirit, and tranquilizer guns, by Hugo Award winner Tim Pratt.
The Nome King and the Shroud is new space opera novella by Hugo Award winner Tim Pratt. Mazha Sun is a "troublesolver," a specialist in dealing with the unexpected, and when she's awakened from cryosleep years ahead of schedule, she knows something is very wrong. The colony ship's AI tells her it's detected something incredible: a Dyson sphere, an immense stellar structure created by unknown aliens, seemingly dormant and abandoned. Since the sphere is close (astronomically speaking) to their planned homeworld, Mazha decides they should take a closer look. But the sphere isn't as dead as it seems: it has an operative artificial intelligence called Shroud, who asks for help staving off a megastructure-destroying cataclysm. Mazha will just need to wake up a few of her colleagues first.... But can Shroud be trusted? And once they enter the interior of the sphere... will the crew and the sleeping colonists ever be allowed to leave?