We’ve partnered with Bundle of Holding for Ellen Datlow’s Tales of Terror, featuring seven Datlow anthologies plus books by Lauren Beukes, Daryl Gregory, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Powers, and Mary Shelley.
Cover by Ann MonnCover by John PicacioCover by Ann MonnCover by John Coulthart
Get into a Halloween mood with this all-new ebook fiction bundle, Ellen Datlow Presents Tales of Terror, featuring horror anthologies curated by masterful editor Ellen Datlow, as well as other fiction from Tachyon Publications. For more than three decades Ellen Datlow, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, has kept her finger on the racing pulse of the horror genre, introducing readers to writers whose tales can unnerve, frighten, and terrify. This Tales of Terror offer brings you seven fine Datlow anthologies with stories by Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell, and dozens more – plus a novel by Tim Powers, a best-of collection by Joe R. Lansdale, and lots more. It’s 4,700 pages of terrific reading for an unbeatable bargain price. And each title is presented in DRM-free .PDF, ePub, and Kindle versions.
Cover by Nihil Design by Elizabeth StoryCover by Hannes Hummel Design by Elizabeth StoryCover art by Clara Bacou
Design by Elizabeth StoryCover by John Coulthart
Ten percent of your payment (after gateway fees) will be donated to the charity designated by Tachyon Publishing, the Horror Writers Association. The HWA is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it.
Cover by Reiko Murakami
Cover design by Elizabeth StoryCover by Elizabeth StoryCover by Valentina Brostean
Born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in the southeastern U.S., writer, vertebrate paleontologist, and musician Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of thirteen acclaimed novels including Silk (1998; winner of International Horror Guild Award), Threshold (2001; International Horror Guild), Murder of Angels (2004), The Red Tree (2009), The Drowning Girl (2012; Tiptree and Stoker), the Siobhan Quinn series (all as by Kathleen Tierney; Blood Oranges [2013], Red Delicious [2014], and Cherry Bomb [2015]), Tinfoil Dossier (Agents of Dreamland [2017], Black Helicopters [2018], The Tindalos Asset [2020]), and La Belle Fleur Sauvage: Plague of the Womb (2019).
Their more than two hundred and fifty short stories have been collected in Candles for Elizabeth (1998), Tales of Pain and Wonder (1999), Wrong Things (2001 with Poppy Z. Brite), To Charles Fort, with Love (2005), A Is for Alien (2009), Two Worlds and In Between (2011), Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (2012), The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (2013; winner of the World Fantasy Award), Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea (2015), Dear Sweet Filthy World (2017), The Dinosaur Tourist (2018), Houses Under the Sea (2019), A Little Yellow Book of Fever Dreams (2019), THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN (2019), Comes a Pale Rider (2020), Vile Affections (2021), and several others.
Kiernan has written graphic novels for both DC/Vertigo and Dark Horse Comics including The Dreaming (1996-2001 with various artists), a spin off series from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and the Stoker Award winning Alabaster: Wolves (2013; with artist Steve Lieber). They fronted Death’s Little Sister, a short-lived goth-rock band.
A vertebrate paleontologist, Kiernan co-founded the Birmingham Paleontological Society (1984). They co-authored papers describing a new genus and species of an ancient marine lizard the mosasaur Selmasaurus russelli (1988) and in 2020, a new large fossil sea turtle, Asmodochelys parhami. In 2019, Kiernan became a research associate and fossil preparator at McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
In November 2005, they began publishing the Sirenia Digest, “a monthly subscription-only e-zine continuing Caitlín’s exploration of the fusion of erotic literature with elements of dark fantasy and science fiction, usually creating brief, dreamlike vignettes, and sometimes much longer short stories.” There are currently sixty-six issues and more than eighty vignettes.
Andi and Lise loved this collection of self-curated short stories (plus one novella) by majorly award-winning spec fic writer Marjorie Liu. These stories represent a collection from roughly 2009 until more recently, and span a range of spec fic genres, including paranormal, post-apocalyptic, fairy tale, superhero, and steampunk. Liu writes multi-layered character-driven stories that will suck you right in and leave you wanting more. Do yourself a favor and definitely pick up a copy of THE TANGLEROOT PALACE: STORIES.
TAB: You use magic and fantasy in your latest novel, The Peculiarities. I am curious to know what led you to do this.
DL: I’ve always had a fascination with real historical magic, by which I mean magic that was practiced by real people who believed that what they were doing was an efficacious way to interact with or influence the world around them. In particular, I’ve had an ongoing interest in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was a massively influential magical organization in late Victorian London. It’s no exaggeration to say that most people in the West who practice magic today are practicing some form of Golden Dawn magic. THE PECULIARITIES began with the desire to write about the Golden Dawn, though I didn’t really know what angle I wanted to take when I began researching. At some point in the process, I decided that treating their magical practices as valid and efficacious appealed to me as a narrative premise, and the rest unfolded from there.
In Locus, Paul di Filippo gushes about The Citadel of Forgotten Dreams, Michael Moorcock’s return to his seminal character Elric.
Moorcock’s ability to convey action vividly, to envision otherworldly vistas, and to couch it all in elegant prose remains undimmed. I mentioned Lord Dunsany as a predecessor for Moorcock, but I would also have to enter Clark Ashton Smith as an inspiration and coequal. This alliance extends to Moorcock’s great ability to conjure up names, although I did object to one such: the evil Ramada Sabaru. The given name, of course, instantly evokes a hotel chain, while the surname echoes a carmaker. But aside from that, all is Vancian perfection.
This could very well be the final installment of Elric’s long exploits, and if so, Moorcock can retire proudly from the walls of Imrryr.
The World Fantasy Convention is an annual gathering and reunion of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of light and dark fantasy art and literature. The convention is generally held on one of the two weekends bracketing Halloween, with some light early-bird programming usually beginning Thursday evening and the convention generally concluding Sunday afternoon, usually shortly after the World Fantasy Award Banquet. The awards banquet is a culminating highlight of the convention, offering awards ranging from lifetime achievement, to various aspects of art and literature. Additional highlights include an autograph reception, and often some sort of reception honoring the arts. Individual conventions often use programming and special events to highlight the themes of the convention and local flavor.
Author Special Guests: Caitlín R. Kiernan, Andrei Codrescu, Brandon O’Brien
Featured Guest: Nisi Shawl
Toastmaster: Ursula Vernon
The World Fantasy Convention offers a massive selection of readings, signings, and panels. To find any of these authors, check out the entire schedule on their site.
Be sure to visit the Tachyon tables in the dealer’s room, where we’ll be hosting several signings.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in the southeastern U.S., writer, vertebrate paleontologist, and musician Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of thirteen acclaimed novels including Silk (1998; winner of International Horror Guild Award), Threshold (2001; International Horror Guild), Murder of Angels (2004), The Red Tree (2009), The Drowning Girl (2012; Tiptree and Stoker), the Siobhan Quinn series (all as by Kathleen Tierney; Blood Oranges [2013], Red Delicious [2014], and Cherry Bomb [2015]), Tinfoil Dossier (Agents of Dreamland [2017], Black Helicopters [2018], The Tindalos Asset [2020]), and La Belle Fleur Sauvage: Plague of the Womb (2019).
Their more than two hundred and fifty short stories have been collected in Candles for Elizabeth (1998), Tales of Pain and Wonder (1999), Wrong Things (2001 with Poppy Z. Brite), To Charles Fort, with Love (2005), A Is for Alien (2009), Two Worlds and In Between (2011), Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (2012), The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (2013; winner of the World Fantasy Award), Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea (2015), Dear Sweet Filthy World (2017), The Dinosaur Tourist (2018), Houses Under the Sea (2019), A Little Yellow Book of Fever Dreams (2019), THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN (2019), Comes a Pale Rider (2020), Vile Affections (2021), and several others.
Kiernan has written graphic novels for both DC/Vertigo and Dark Horse Comics including The Dreaming (1996-2001 with various artists), a spin off series from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and the Stoker Award winning Alabaster: Wolves (2013; with artist Steve Lieber). They fronted Death’s Little Sister, a short-lived goth-rock band.
A vertebrate paleontologist, Kiernan co-founded the Birmingham Paleontological Society (1984). They co-authored papers describing a new genus and species of an ancient marine lizard the mosasaur Selmasaurus russelli (1988) and in 2020, a new large fossil sea turtle, Asmodochelys parhami. In 2019, Kiernan became a research associate and fossil preparator at McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
In November 2005, they began publishing the Sirenia Digest, “a monthly subscription-only e-zine continuing Caitlín’s exploration of the fusion of erotic literature with elements of dark fantasy and science fiction, usually creating brief, dreamlike vignettes, and sometimes much longer short stories.” There are currently sixty-six issues and more than eighty vignettes.
Kiernan lives in Birmingham, Alabama with their partner, Kathryn Pollnac, and two very large cats, Selwyn and Lydia.
All of us at Tachyon wish the lyrical and memorable Caitlín a happy birthday, full of dark fantasy and dinosaurs.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in the southeastern U.S., writer, vertebrate paleontologist, and musician Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of thirteen acclaimed novels including Silk (1998; winner of International Horror Guild Award), Threshold (2001; International Horror Guild), Murder of Angels (2004), The Red Tree (2009), The Drowning Girl (2012; Tiptree and Stoker), the Siobhan Quinn series (all as by Kathleen Tierney; Blood Oranges [2013], Red Delicious [2014], and Cherry Bomb [2015]), Tinfoil Dossier (Agents of Dreamland [2017], Black Helicopters [2018], The Tindalos Asset [2020]), and La Belle Fleur Sauvage: Plague of the Womb (2019).
Their more than two hundred and fifty short stories have been collected in Candles for Elizabeth (1998), Tales of Pain and Wonder (1999), Wrong Things (2001 with Poppy Z. Brite), To Charles Fort, with Love (2005), A Is for Alien (2009), Two Worlds and In Between (2011), Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (2012), The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (2013; winner of the World Fantasy Award), Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea (2015), Dear Sweet Filthy World (2017), The Dinosaur Tourist (2018), Houses Under the Sea (2019), A Little Yellow Book of Fever Dreams (2019), THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN (2019), Comes a Pale Rider (2020), and several others.
Kiernan has written graphic novels for both DC/Vertigo and Dark Horse Comics including The Dreaming (1996-2001 with various artists), a spin off series from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and the Stoker Award winning Alabaster: Wolves (2013; with artist Steve Lieber). They fronted Death’s Little Sister, a short-lived goth-rock band.
A vertebrate paleontologist, Kiernan co-founded the Birmingham Paleontological Society (1984). They co-authored papers describing a new genus and species of an ancient marine lizard the mosasaur Selmasaurus russelli (1988) and in 2020, a new large fossil sea turtle, Asmodochelys parhami. In 2019, Kiernan became a research associate and fossil preparator at McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
In November 2005, they began publishing the Sirenia Digest, “a monthly subscription-only e-zine continuing Caitlín’s exploration of the fusion of erotic literature with elements of dark fantasy and science fiction, usually creating brief, dreamlike vignettes, and sometimes much longer short stories.” There are currently sixty-six issues and more than eighty vignettes.
Kiernan lives in Birmingham, Alabama with their partner, Kathryn Pollnac, and two very large cats, Selwyn and Lydia.
All of us at Tachyon wish the lyrical and memorable Caitlín a happy birthday full of dark fantasy and dinosaurs.
We’ve partnered with Humble Bundle for the Supermassive Sci-fi, Fantasy, & Horror bundle with award-winning, acclaimed books from Kage Baker, Lauren Beukes, Marie Brennan, Ellen Datlow, Daryl Gregory, Kameron Hurley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nancy Kress, R. B. Lemberg, Patricia A. McKillip, Michael Moorcock, James Morrow, Daniel Pinkwater, Tim Powers, Mary Shelley, Nancy Springer, Bruce Sterling, Lavie Tidhar, Kimberly Unger, Jeff VanderMeer, Carrie Vaughn, Jo Walton, Peter Watts, Jane Yolen, and many more.
Would definitely recommend much of Caitlín R. Kiernan’s work. Most of her anthologies deliver her particular slant on that Lovecraftian dread, sometime within the mythos, sometimes just inspired. Probably more towards a horror of the ocean/Deep Ones kind of stuff, and often from a female POV. Her THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN is a fine collection and actually seems to have more Lovecraftian stories than some others.
One of my favorite writers is Caitlin R. Kiernan. She has written science fiction, fantasy, and horror, oftentimes blending the three together. Her short fiction, especially, is excellent, and her recent collection VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN is a good place to start.
Anything by Caitlín R. Kiernan, her The Red Tree might be a good starting point (ignore the cover) or the recent collection THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN
This is a weekly discussion focusing on short stories within the Weird Fiction genre. For those who do not know, Weird Fiction is a subgenre of horror, fantasy, and speculative fiction is which is infamously hard to quantify.
Each week I will be posting a new thread on a story from the current collection, moving from front-to-back. We are currently following through a single collection as a pilot, and when we’re done with it, we will set a broader schedule.
In a Paul Semel interview with co-editor Joe M. McDermott about their anthology The Way of the Laser, editor Eric Bosarge recommends Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE.
It’s unfortunate that scheduling didn’t quite work out so that Kameron Hurley could be included in this collection, because her collection MEET ME IN THE FUTURE. absolutely blew my mind. It sorts of mingles and juxtaposes some ideas about technology and biological fusion, quietly contemplating what that might mean for the soul, both for humans and machines, in a way I thought was truly beautiful.
CLARKESWORLD (Issue 166, July 2020) published the Michael Swanwick story “Artificial People.”
My first moment of consciousness pleased me so much that I wanted it to last forever. An insect hanging upon invisible wings, a dust mote jittering in a sunbeam, the flash of motion that was a vanished tetra in the fish tank, the smell of coffee from the break room . . . My brain was sparking. Everything filled me with joy and made me grateful to be alive.
I drew a breath. Bliss! I took a step. Ecstasy!
It was only later that I realized I had just been born. At the time, I was too entranced by the wonder of existence to notice.
Subroutines booted up vocal and musical abilities and I began to sing.
All but lost among the many wonders crowding about me was Dr. Ellen Lange. I saw her delighted smile and liked it no less than everything else I beheld.
“Stop that noise and tell me how you feel,” Dr. Leonidas Erdmann said. “Please focus. How are your cognitive functions? Can you see my hand? How many fingers am I holding up? What is the capital of Kyrgyzstan?”
“You have a lovely voice,” said Dr. Lange. “Do you feel as happy as you sound?”
“Oh, yes!”
“Ellen, please. Don’t muddle the data.” To me: “That’s enough for a start. I’m going to put you down now.”
Since joining Tachyon in 2002 as the managing editor, Jill Roberts has overseen the remaking of the press from one that originally published 2-3 titles a year and only sold to specialty bookstores into its present incarnation of 8-10 books a year and mainstream distribution. Tachyon titles under her watch have won Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, Campbell, Neukom, Sturgeon, and Locus awards and routinely make “best of the year” lists. Among the numerous acclaimed titles Roberts oversaw include HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOREVER by James Tiptree Jr., THE EMPEROR’S SOUL by Brandon Sanderson, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE by Daryl Gregory, STEAMPUNK edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, CENTRAL STATION by Lavie Tidhar, THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND by Kage Baker, THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION by Peter Watts, THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, and THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES by R. B. Lemberg.
Cover by Elizabeth Story based on initial concepts by Francesca Myman
Prior to Tachyon, Roberts worked within the gaming, fashion, and health industries. She has been a columnist for Books to Watch Out For and the Thirteenth Moon, as well as a consulting editor at the nonprofit writing program Streetside Stories.
Everyone at Tachyon wishes the amazing Jill a happy birthday. And not just because we’re scared of her.
