Showing titles in Short Stories

Neal Asher has firmly established himself as one of the leading British writers of science fiction. Most of his stories are set in a galactic future-scape called The Polity, and with The Gabble - and Other Stories, a collection of marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, he takes us further into the manifold diversities of that amazing universe.

Private McAuslan’s admirers already know him as court-martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover and golf caddie extraordinary; in this third and final volume of army memoirs, he appears as the most unlikely of batmen to his long-suffering protector and persecutor, Lieutenant Dand MacNeill; as guardroom philosopher and adviser to the leader of the Riff Rebellion; and even as Lance Corporal McAuslan, the Mad Tyrant of Three Section!

H.H. Munro (Saki) is one of the undisputed masters of the short story. In this complete compendium, the full gamut of his subjects and themes is experienced. His stories are imbued with humorous satire, biting irony, and often the macabre, all of which have one target: the stupidities and hypocrisies of Edwardian upper-class society.

From a small rural American town subjected to horrors brought by an elaborate deep-fake hoax, to Black Mirror-esque fables about technology dependency, age extension, and psychological invasions, Artificial Artifacts invites listeners on a journey where the boundaries between human and machine blur, and the consequences of our creations become chillingly profound.

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has produced the definitive audio recording of Lovecraft's collaboration tales. Working from texts prepared by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, this collection features stories HPL wrote with other authors and includes, “The Curse of Yig”, “The Horror in the Museum”, “The Mound”, “The Night Ocean”, and many others. All tales include original music by HPLHS composer Troy Sterling Nies. This collection features 33 stories adding up to more than 23 hours of Lovecraftian listening fun.

A woman meets her next-door neighbor and loans her a spatula, then starts suffering horrific gaps in her memory. A man, feeling jilted by an unrequited love, becomes obsessed with sorting through his neighbors' garbage in the belief that it will teach him how to better relate to people. A landlord decides to raise the rent, and his tenants hatch a plan to kill him at a team-building retreat. In 10 captivating, unnerving stories, Flowers of Mold presents a range of ordinary individuals who have found themselves left behind by an increasingly urbanized and fragmented world.

Evie loves running her beach café in Cornwall, but with a baby on the way she's been told to put her feet up. Helen's come to Cornwall to escape the stress of city living. She hopes a seaside life will be the answer to all her dreams. When she sees a job advertised at the café, it sounds perfect. But the two women clash, and sparks fly. Can the pair of them put aside their differences in a crisis?

One of the world’s greatest novelists, Leo Tolstoy was also the author of a number of superb short stories, one of his best known being “The Kreutzer Sonata.” This macabre story involves the murder of a wife by her husband. It is a penetrating study of jealousy as well as a piercing complaint about the way in which society educates men and women in matters of sex - a serious condemnation of the mores and attitudes of the wealthy, educated class.

Not the End of the World is Kate Atkinson's first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks just beneath the surface of our consciousness, a world where the myths we have banished from our lives are startlingly present and where imagination has the power to transform reality.

At the border with another world, a line of people wait for the gates to open; on the floor of a lonely room, a Born Winner runs through his life’s achievements and losses; in a suburban garden, a man witnesses a murder that pushes him out into the community. Struggling to realise the human ideals of love and freedom, the characters of Dark Neighbourhood roam instead the depths of alienation, loss and shame.

Imagine a world without Mr. Darcy. How would things have been different if he had never been born? In a moment of despair over Elizabeth’s rejection, the iconic hero of Pride and Prejudice wishes his life away. Now, on a tour with a surprising celestial guide, he must face up to the results. Instead of everybody being better off, as he had supposed, there have been unexpected consequences for his closest friends. Darcy realizes, too late, that his presence made a positive difference in the world, and that he really had a wonderful life. Is it all lost and gone forever?

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, GA, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues - and the college authorities are eager to avoid a scandal - but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up. Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home.

This sublime collection dips into the wit and wisdom of the man behind The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, uncovering his unique comic musings on everything from his school-trousers to malt whisky and from the letter Y through to his own nose, via atheism, hangovers and fried eggs. These hilarious collected writings reveal the warmth, enthusiasm and ferocious intelligence behind this most English of comic writers; a man who was virtually an unofficial member of the Monty Python team.

Something between a tale and a polemic, these 'fables of reason' are feats of narrative compression and contain much of Voltaire's best and funniest writing. From ribald tales of adultery to conversations between cosmic travellers, the stories in this collection pose moral, philosophical and social questions. Listener and protagonist alike find their assumptions challenged as Voltaire mingles rationality and fantasy.

The millions of listeners of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of comprise which operate at the heart of modern marriages.

A widow spends weeks haunting a cemetery, desperate to track down an unknown woman who keeps leaving flowers on her husband’s grave; A daughter searches a foreign city for her father, trying to understand why he disappeared forty-five years ago; A former gay lover of Roger Casement stands among the crowds at his state funeral in 1965, paying silent homage to the closeted world they were forced to inhabit at the dawning of the Irish State. A writer at a book launch comes face to face with the person secretly responsible for his success.

Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Archer returns with his eagerly awaited, brand-new collection, Tell Tale, giving us a fascinating, exciting and sometimes poignant insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across and the countries he has visited during the past 10 years.

In each story in this collection, Haruki Murakami sidesteps the real and sprints for the surreal. Everyday events are transcended, leaving the reader dazzled by this master of his craft. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is Murakami's most eclectic collection of stories to date, spanning five years of his writing.

There will never be another Western writer like Louis L’Amour. A legendary author and indisputably the greatest storyteller in his genre of all time, L’Amour captivated millions of readers and has sold well over three hundred million copies of his works, which includes nearly ninety novels and countless short stories. Mistakes Can Kill You highlights an essential selection featuring nine of L’Amour’s earlier short stories, sometimes written under the pen name Jim Mayo, that exemplify the rugged morality of the best Western writing.

Every shadow holds a secret, every moment a destiny. In the heart of modern London, an ancient darkness stirs, and only The Raven stands in its path. John Smith, an idealistic Victorian constable, was murdered by Jack The Ripper but given a chance at vengeance and redemption. Recruited by Death, John becomes a forgotten sentinel, protecting humanity from evil. Lost and isolated in the present day, his purpose reignites when he encounters Kimberley Mansfield, an innocent yet brave young woman who is dragged into a world beyond her academic beliefs.