H. P. Lovecraft pioneered a fusion of terror and science fiction themes, and is widely credited as having invented the sub-genre of ‘cosmic horror’. While America’s New England was the focus and setting for many of Lovecraft’s tales, the Southern Hemisphere held a fascination for him. Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica were featured locations in his Mythosian novellas.In tribute to this, presented here is an assortment of the finest Australian dark fiction, bringing you a second volume of Lovecraftian stories of wonder and dread. Featured are new tales by ROBERT HOOD, LEE MURRAY, KIRSTYN McDERMOTT and SILVIA BROWN.Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2 takes us back below the equator, into the bizarre and headlong towards horror. From mist-shrouded peaks and canyons of Melanesian islands, through rainforests and scorching deserts of the island continent of Terra Australis, and across the Tasman Sea to the inhospitable hinterlands of New Zealand.Tales of terror by:Kirstyn McDermottRobert HoodLee MurrayJason NahrungBill CongreveJ ScherpenhuizenSilvia BrownT.S.P. SweeneyGeoff BrownDavid KurariaAlso an introduction by Mythos fiction guru and horror author, Peter Rawlik. Views: 66
Escape to the Devon coast, with Part Four of a brand-new four-part serial from the author of Willow Cottage. Daisy Wickens has returned to Ottercombe Bay, the picturesque Devon town where her mother died when she was a girl. She plans to leave as soon as her great uncle's funeral is over, but Great Uncle Reg had other ideas. He's left Daisy a significant inheritance – an old building in a state of disrepair, which could offer exciting possibilities, but to get it she must stay in Ottercombe Bay for twelve whole months. With the help of a cast of quirky locals, a few gin cocktails and a black pug with plenty of attitude, Daisy might just turn this into something special. But can she ever hope to be happy among the ghosts of her past? Authors and readers love Bella Osborne's gorgeous novels: 'I really enjoy Bella Osborne's books' – Katie Fforde 'An absolutely glorious read full of laugh out loud moments and beautifully observed characters who spring to life on the page' Phillipa... Views: 66
After having narrowly escaped a trap set for him by Empress Agrippina the Younger, Jacob Hunter and his band of weary time travelers lay low in the ancient city of Damascus, planning their next move. Joined now by a team of Special Forces operators from an alternate and skewed timeline with their own agendas and motivations, Hunter now finds himself without direction. Since escaping Ancient Rome four years earlier, his only goal was to survive long enough to enact his scheme to remove Agrippina from power and place Vespasian, a once and future emperor of Rome, on the throne in her place. But all his well laid plans came to a fruitless end when he and his friends narrowly escaped a grisly fate at the hands of Agrippina. However, there was one thing that survived Hunter’s encounter with the empress to focus his mind. The orb. He has often thought on it, but has never really understood it, yet now comes the moment when he must come to grips with the fact that only by understanding its nature will he be able to harness its power and send everyone home. The orb should have been his sole source of focus from the very beginning, but it was only after his recent failure to apprehend Agrippina that this fact was fully realized. Found in the rubble of Agrippina’s villa was a note left for him by his deceased friend Marcus Varus, tasking him with a mission to track down ancient Druids who may be able to help him. Now, after years trapped in Antiquity, Hunter must finally seek answers to the central mystery that has plagued him since becoming history's first recorded time traveler. Armed with fresh clues and a final destination, Hunter and his company embark on a new quest, one that will take them beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire in search of centuries old information about a relic few even know exists. But a darkness accompanies them. While the orb is a powerful tool, it is also a deadly device in the hands of those who underestimate or do not understand its dark potential. With its ability to grant certain users the ability to manipulate time, also comes a degenerative property that can reduce an individual into a simpering, doddering fool, or warp him into a tyrannical despot. The orb’s ability to do this is well documented in both Caligula and Claudius, and perhaps Agrippina too, but it is Hunter who should be most concerned by its influence. He has interacted with it far more than anyone else, and as he and his friends begin their odyssey, his challenge will be greater than simply discovering the truth about the orb’s origins, but overcoming and surviving its ill effects as he struggles to maintain control of his mind.About the AuthorEdward Crichton, a native Clevelander, lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife, where he spends his time coming to grips with his new found sports allegiances. A long time enthusiast of Science Fiction, Fantasy, History and everything in between, he spends his time reading, writing, and overusing his Xbox. Until recently, Crichton had often hoped for a cat, but his wife decided to let him have a baby boy instead. Due in November of 2013, he and his wife could not be more excited. His Sci-Fi epic Starfarer: Rendezvous with Destiny, was released in April of 2013, and the latest book in his Praetorian Series: A Hunter and His Legion, was released in September of 2013. Crichton hopes to spend a few months bonding with his wife and newborn child before getting back into writing, but he still hopes to release the next book in his Praetorian Series in the spring of 2014. Views: 66
‘I lived the same life as everyone else, the life of ordinary people, the masses.’ Sitting in a prison cell in the autumn of 1944, Hans Fallada sums up his life under the National Socialist dictatorship, the time of ‘inward emigration’. Under conditions of close confinement, in constant fear of discovery, he writes himself free from the nightmare of the Nazi years. His frank and sometimes provocative memoirs were thought for many years to have been lost. They are published here in English for the first time. The confessional mode did not come naturally to Fallada the writer of fiction, but in the mental and emotional distress of 1944, self-reflection became a survival strategy. In the ‘house of the dead’ he exacts his political revenge on paper. ‘I know that I am crazy. I’m risking not only my own life,...The EPUB format of this title may not be compatible for use on all handheld devices. Views: 66
Wolf Among Wolves is a sprawling saga of the collapse of a culture--its economy and government--and the common man's struggle to survive it all. Set in Weimar Germany soon after Germany's catastrophic loss of World War I, the story follows a young gambler who loses all in Berlin, then flees the chaotic city, where worthless money and shortages are causing pandemonium. Once in the countryside, however, he finds a defeated German army that has deamped there to foment insurrection. Somehow, amidst it all, he finds romance--it's The Year of Living Dangerously in a European setting.Fast-moving as a thriller, fascinating as the best historical fiction, and with lyrical prose that packs a powerful emotional punch, Wolf Among Wolves is the equal of Fallada's acclaimed Every Man Dies Alone as an immensely absorbing work of important literature. Views: 66
Revolving around the opera, these tales are an "archaeological excavation of the slag-heaps of our collective existence" (W. G. Sebald)Combining fact and fiction, each of the one hundred and two tales of Alexander Kluge's Temple of the Scapegoat (dotted with photos of famous operas and their stars) compresses a lifetime of feeling and thought: Kluge is deeply engaged with the opera and an inventive wellspring of narrative notions. The titles of his stories suggest his many turns of mind: "Total Commitment," "Freedom," "Reality Outrivals Theater," "The Correct Slowing-Down at the Transitional Point Between Terror and an Inkling of Freedom," "A Crucial Character (Among Persons None of Whom Are Who They Think They Are)," and "Deadly Vocal Power vs. Generosity in Opera." An opera, Kluge says, is a blast furnace of the soul, telling of the great singer Leonard Warren who died onstage, having literally sung his heart out. Kluge introduces a Tibetan scholar who realizes that... Views: 66
A gifted writer makes her fiction debut with this lyrical and haunting story of missed chances and enduring love, set against the backdrop of high society Charleston, which probes the eternal question: can we ever truly go home again?When Eliza Poinsett left the elegant world of Charleston for college, she never expected it would take her ten years to return. Now almost a decade later, she is an art historian in London with a charming Etonian boyfriend who adores her. But the past catches up with her when she runs into Henry, her childhood love, at a wedding in the English countryside.Already unnerved by the encounter, Eliza's carefully guarded equilibrium is shattered when she meets Henry again in Charleston, where she's come for her stepsister's debut. Set against a backdrop of stately homes, the seductive Lowcountry landscape, and the entangled lives of families who trace their ancestors back for generations, Eliza has to decide if she is willing to risk... Views: 66
