Scheherazade’s One Thousand and One Nights stories have captured imaginations for a millennia. Fairy tales and fables abound, telling of the fantastic and mysterious, the comic and dramatic.

This anthology explores romantic Orientalism through a speculative fiction lens. You might find lost cities, magical lamps, mummies, thieves, intrepid explorers, slaves, robotic horsemen, noble queens, sorcerers, outcast princes, harems, dancers, djinn, assassins and even smart-talking camels and cats, set in exotic Persia, Egypt, Arabia, the Ottoman Empire, or a modern incarnation of these.

• Marilag Angway “Shadow Dancer”
• Cherith Baldry “The Green Rose”
• Alan Baxter “On A Crooked Leg Lightly”
• Jenny Blackford “The Quiet Realm of the Dark Queen”
• Jetse de Vries “Djinni Djinni Dream Dream”
• Thoraiya Dyer “The Saint George Hotel”
• Joshua Gage “The Dancer of Smoke”
• Richard Harland “The Tale of the Arrow Girl”
• Faith Mudge “The Oblivion Box”
• Havva Murat “Harmony Thicket and the Persian Shoes”
• Charlotte Nash “Parvaz”
• Anthony Panegyres “Oleander: An Ottoman Tale”
• Dan Rabarts “Silver, Sharp as Silk”
• Angela Rega “The Belly Dancing Crimes of Ms Sahara Desserts”
• Jenny Schwartz “The Pearl Flower Harvest”
• Barb Siples “The Sultan’s Debt”
• Pia Van Ravestein “Street Dancer”
• DC White “A Dash of Djinn and Tonic”

(writing as Glenda Noramly)

Havenstar is the story of Keris Kaylen, a map-maker’s daughter. When her father is murdered and a mountain disappears, Keris is betrayed by her brother. Forced to flee into the Unstable — the lethal chaos surrounding the eight Stabilities of Malinawar. She finds her safety is in the hands of a man bonded to the Lord Carasma, the Unmaker, and her ordered life is turned upside-down. Her survival will depend on a map and a place called Havenstar.

Barbara Davies review of Havenstar in Starburst: “Havenstar is an original, engrossing page-turner of a fantasy. You want strange and powerful magic, world changing heroism, and courage in unlikely places — it’s here. Terrific stuff?this author is one to watch. Starburst rating: 10/10 .”

Alex Wormall in The Alien Has Landed: “This is an exciting, fast-moving page-turner that draws you in from page one and holds your attention until the final full-stop. If you are looking for something new and a bit different, you could do a lot worse than this, one of the best books I have read this year.”

Havenstar was first published in 1999 in the UK by Virgin Books to much initial acclaim; the novel then disappeared following the publishing company’s collapse.

This is its first Australian publication.

Introduction by Robert Hood

Cover illustration by Jason Paulos

The debut collection of Jason Fischer’s award-winning short fiction. This collection features his post-apocalyptic and zombie related work.

Within these covers, you will find murderous dropbears, zombie kangaroos and undead camels. Poignant endings to the world mash-up with muscle car battles, featuring feral killers that make Mad Max look like the Disney channel. Everything is a Graveyard delves into the fantastic, the horrifying, the sad and the just plain weird.

“The President was alive. I was alive. No idea what the hell had just happened, other than that I was simply alive, and glad of it.”

Nations of Earth Ambassador Cory Wilson had thought the hardest part of his role would be mastering the many intricacies of gamra pronouns. Then the President is shot in front of him, and all clues point to extraterrestrial agencies.

Only the truth will prevent the conflict escalating, but to find it, Cory has to challenge the very top of the Coldi hierarchy, in a society where the simple act of looking someone in the eye or using the wrong pronouns can mean the difference between life and death.

Ambassador is a science fiction thriller, featuring interplanetary intrigue, unearthly greed, interstellar romance, and an ambassador from New Zealand.

Introduction by Kate Forsyth

Internal illustrations by James Blake

Five novellas (two original to the collection) by the multiple award-winning writer. All of the works are in some way based on or inspired by medieval literature and history.

Includes

• “The Death of Pamela”
• “Crown of Rowan”
• “Wild Dreams of Blood” (first print publication)
• “The Year of Ancient Ghosts” (original)
• “The Lark and the River” (original)

Introduction by Sean Williams

Cover illustration by Cat Sparks

WINNER OF THE DITMAR AWARD

Cat Sparks first rose to prominence as the founder of the acclaimed Agog! Press, publishing ten titles from 2002 to 2008. As a writer, Sparks is a graduate of the inaugural Clarion South workshop, a Writers of the Future winner, a multiple Ditmar and Aurealis Award winner, and the author of close to 60 published stories.

The 13 stories include the award-winning titles “All the Love in the World”, “Seventeen”, “Hollywood Roadkill”, and the acclaimed “Arctica”.

Introduction by Sophie Masson

Cover illustration by Pia Ravenari

This book collects 14 tales, including Juliet Marillier’s very best stories, and 5 stories written for this collection.

Juliet Marillier is a three-times winner of the Aurealis Award for fantasy novel. Publishers Weekly calls her “a fine folklorist and gifted narrator”.

“Marillier’s fans will be delighted to see that her skills are as applicable to the short form as they are to the novel, and will particularly appreciate ” ‘Twixt Twilight and Water (A Tale of Sevenwaters)”, which ties in to her well-regarded Sevenwaters series.” – Publishers Weekly

Winner of the Ditmar Award, finalist for the Ned Kelly Award for First Crime Novel.

“I really, really enjoyed the book. It was an absolute page-turner, rising tension, as well as a lovely mystery yarn.” –Karen Joy Fowler

”A mystery within a mystery, this literary detective novel set in Australia begins when unemployed college graduate Mel Kirksley bumps into her ‘almost step-mother’, who knows of a perfect temporary job. Soon, Mel is hired by Roxanna Press, a feminist publishing company, to sleuth out the name of an anonymous author whose 1865 novel was serialized in the Tolletown Chronicle newspaper.” – Publishers Weekly

Silurian Tales Volume 2

Introduction by Barry N. Malzberg

This is the second volume collecting Utley’s Silurian Tales, following November 2012’s The 400-Million-Year Itch. Presented in an internally chronological order, 16 stories and novellas continue the ongoing narrative of a scientific expedition that has traveled through a space-time anomaly to the Earth of 400 million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era. Utley focuses on an ever-changing cast of scientists and creative types, using them as mouthpieces to debate politics, religion, parallel universe theory, love, environmentalism, and other weighty matters. There’s an understated disdain for big business, a melancholy yearning for a pristine world, and a keen understanding of human nature running throughout the stories, many of which are linked only by shared characters. Playing with the many-worlds hypothesis, Utley hints at a much larger picture without giving straight answers. No aspect of the premise goes unconsidered in these intelligent, provocative character- and concept-driven tales, making this collection a treat for readers in need of a challenge.
– Publishers Weekly

Contents

1. Invisible Kingdoms
2. The Real World
3. Babel
4. “Another Continuum Heard From!”
5. Variant
6. The World Within The World
7. The Despoblado
8. The Wave-Function Collapse
9. Treading The Maze
10. Diluvium
11. Sidestep
12. Slug Hell
13. There And Then
14. Silv’ry Moon
15. The World Without
16. A Paleozoic Palimpsest

In the third volume of this award-winning series, editors Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene have compiled an impressive list of fantastic stories first published in 2012, from New Zealand’s and Australia’s finest writers.

The 34 stories selected are

• Joanne Anderton, “Tied To The Waste”, Tales Of Talisman
• R.J. Astruc, “The Cook of Pearl House, A Malay Sailor by the Name of Maurice”, Dark Edifice 2
• Lee Battersby, “Comfort Ghost”, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 56
• Alan Baxter, “Tiny Lives”, Daily Science Fiction
• Jenny Blackford, “A Moveable Feast”, Bloodstones
• Eddy Burger, “The Witch’s Wardrobe”, Dark Edifice 3
• Isobelle Carmody, “The Stone Witch”, Under My Hat
• Jay Caselberg, “Beautiful”, The Washington Pastime
• Stephen Dedman, “The Fall”, Exotic Gothic 4, Postscripts
• Felicity Dowker, “To Wish On A Clockwork Heart”, Bread And Circuses
• Terry Dowling, “Nightside Eye”, Cemetary Dance
• Tom Dullemond, “Population Management”, Danse Macabre
• Thoraiya Dyer, “Sleeping Beauty”, Epilogue
• Will Elliot, “Hungry Man”, The One That Got Away
• Jason Fischer, “Pigroot Flat”, Midnight Echo 8
• Dirk Flinthart, “The Bull In Winter”, Bloodstones
• Lisa L. Hannett, “Sweet Subtleties”, Clarkesworld
• Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter, “Bella Beaufort Goes To War”, Midnight And Moonshine
• Narrelle M. Harris, “Stalemate”, Showtime
• Kathleen Jennings, “Kindling”, Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear
• Gary Kemble, “Saturday Night at the Milkbar”, Midnight Echo 7
• Margo Lanagan, “Crow And Caper, Caper And Crow”, Under My Hat
• Martin Livings, “You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet”, Living With The Dead
• Penelope Love, “A Small Bad Thing”, Bloodstones
• Andrew J. McKiernan, “Torch Song”, From Stage Door Shadows
• Karen Maric, “Anvil Of The Sun”, Aurealis
• Faith Mudge, “Oracle’s Tower”, To Spin A Darker Stair
• Nicole Murphy, “The Black Star Killer”, Damnation And Dames
• Jason Nahrung, “The Last Boat To Eden”, Surviving The End
• Tansy Rayner Roberts, “What Books Survive”, Epilogue
• Angela Slatter, “Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, This Is Horror Webzine
• Anna Tambour, “The Dog Who Wished He’d Never Heard Of Lovecraft”, Lovecraft Zine
• Kyla Ward, “The Loquacious Cadaver”, The Lion And The Aardvark: Aesop’s Modern Fables
• Kaaron Warren, “River Of Memory”, Zombies Vs. Robots