Archive for the ‘Literature’ Category
A vampire-themed “Beauty and the Beast”: When Isobel’s neighbors sacrifice her sister as tribute to the mysterious “demon” who dwells in the nearby castle, Isobel offers herself as a substitute. Her new master, Reynard, proves very different from what she expected. As he preys on her body and ravishes her soul, she finds herself falling in love with a creature who isn’t even human. How can she endure the heartbreak when Reynard wants to send her home for her own good? A thousand years later, a descendant of Isobel’s sister travels to England to delve into her family’s history…and discovers that the ruined castle on the hill is not totally abandoned. These two stories, “Payer of Tribute” and “Demon on the Hill,” were originally published in GOOD GUYS WEAR FANGS 4.
Paula, a bestselling horror novelist’s widow, discovers his fiction was based on a terrifying alternate dimension he stumbled into through a labyrinth in the woods on their property. Right before his death, he warned her not to publish his final work in progress. However, Doug, his agent and literary executor, their best friend, urges Paula to get her husband’s posthumous work into print. When an obsessive fan keeps telling her the stories are based on fact and she is in danger, she appeals to Doug for help. He insists they should publish the last book, while she’s determined to obey her husband’s dying wish. Meanwhile, they also fight against their long-suppressed attraction to each other. Doug once wanted to become more than a friend to her, and now that she’s free, those feelings flare up again.
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An anthology of new stories in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s world of Darkover, including Margaret’s “Hidden Gifts”. The nedestra daughter of an aristocratic family gets kidnapped along with her mistress’s baby and, in her desperation, plumbs the depths of her own latent psi powers.