Fiction

"In a Grove" is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto

It is whispered that there is a play that leaves only insanity and sorrow in its wake. It tempts those who read it, bringing upon them a vision of madness that should be left unseen.

Captain Brandon was a pioneer. He explored the far reaches of space and reported back on how things were out there. So it was pretty disquieting to find out that the “far reaches of space” knew more about what went on at home than he did.

New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1882, is a collection of short stories previously published in magazines between 1877 and 1880.

"The Phoenix on the Sword" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard, and first published in Weird Tales magazine, in December, 1932. The tale, in which Howard created the character of Conan, was a rewrite of the unpublished Kull story, "By This Axe I Rule!", with long passages being identical.

Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. He is well known for having created the character Conan the Cimmerian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond. Voracious reading, along with a natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, conspired to create in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer.

" Jewels of Gwahlur" is a short story by Robert Ervin Howard. Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was born and raised in the state of Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing. From the age of nine he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death at the age of 30 by suicide, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he had become successful in several genres

"Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert Ervin Howard. Due to its epic scope and atypical romance, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his most famous tales.

People of the Dark is a collection of stories by Robert E. Howard that includes: "The Black Stone", "Children of the Night", "The Dark Man", "The Footfalls Within", "Gods of Bal Sagoth", "Horror from the Mound", "Kings of the Night", "The Last Day", "People of the Dark", "The Song of the Mad Minstrel", and "The Thing on the Roof". The title story, "People of the Dark", is considered to be part of the Cthulhu Mythos.

" Gods of the North" is a short story by Robert Ervin Howard. Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was born and raised in the state of Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing. From the age of nine he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death at the age of 30 by suicide, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he had become successful in several genres. Although a Conan novel was nearly published into a book in 1934, his stories never appeared in book form during his lifetime.

The foreword to the story tells of Conan's travels to Punt with Muriela, refers to a scam perpetrated against worshippers of an ivory goddess and then on to Zembabwei, where he joins a trading caravan on its way to Shem.

Black Colossus is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. A powerful wizard named Thugra Khotan is awoken from his three-thousand year sleep by an audacious yet unlucky Zamoran thief named Shevatas. Thugra wakes with dreams of world domination. He assumes the name Natohk, the Veiled One, gathers an army of desert tribes and sets out to conquer the Hyborian nations.

The most dangerous game is a tense story pitting man against man and the hunted against the hunter. Sanger Rainsford falls from a yacht on route to Rio de Janeiro to hunt jaguars. He manages to swim to a nearby island, but there the hunter becomes the hunted.

"A Witch Shall Be Born" is one of the original novellas by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in December 1934. A book edition was published in 1975 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher with illustrations by Alicia Austin. The story concerns a witch replacing her twin sister as queen of a city state, which brings her into conflict with Conan who had been the captain of the queen's guard.

A man can be killed by a toy gun—he can die of fright, for heart attacks can kill. What, then, is the deadly thing that must be sealed away, forever locked in buried concrete—a thing or an idea?

Mars and Earth are on the verge of war when a Martian city vanishes without a trace. Mars must find out who is responsible for this and what it all means.

The Gun is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1952 September issue of Planet Stories, and later published in Beyond Lies the Wub in 1984. "The Gun" has been published in Italian, German, French and Polish translations. The plot centers around a group of space explorers who investigate a planet which appears deserted. However, they are shot down and crash land on the planet. While repairing their ship, a team of explorers sets to survey the surrounding area, where they discover the ruins of an ancient city. Upon further investigation, it is revealed that the gun which shot them down is in the city, and is programmed to shoot anything down which enters the airspace above the city. They examine the gun and discover that it is protecting a tomb directly underneath it—a tomb which contains artifacts, film and photographs of a lost civilization. In order to prevent themselves from being shot down by the same gun while attempting to leave the planet, they destroy the gun and take the artifacts with them.

“Warrior of the Light” is a collection of texts that, for the first time, are gathered from the internet writings of Paulo Coelho. In his inimitable style, Paulo Coelho helps us to discover the warrior of the light within each of us. In these volumes readers are invited to to travel through the life and imagination of a pilgrim writer.

Beyond the Door is a low fantasy short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the January 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe. The plot follows a cuckoo clock, which may or may not be intelligent, and a cuckolded husband. Larry Thomas buys a cuckoo clock for his wife Doris, just like her mother had. He makes clear that he bought it wholesale and otherwise ruins the moment. Doris talks to the cuckoo and becomes convinced that the cuckoo likes her but does not like Larry. Larry is being cuckolded by antique-enthusiast Bob Chambers. When he is at the Thomas' house, and Doris is showing him the clock, Larry returns home unexpectedly and catches them; he throws both out but keeps the clock because he paid for it. Larry keeps winding the clock because he dislikes the empty, quiet house. The clock sometimes does not chime for Larry, who ends up arguing with the cuckoo for not coming out when he should.