Brian Keene

It was an age of adventure. An age of sorcery. An age of unrelenting horror. Sword and sorcery and pulp horror go hand-in-hand. Sinister enchanters working foul magic. Hideous beasts lurking in shadowy dungeons. Blasphemous elder gods uncoiling from forgotten and forbidden temples.Swords in the Shadows features twenty-one stories with a bloody stake driven into the heart of both the horror and fantasy camps. Herein, you will find fantasy worlds, brave warriors, fabulous creatures, wondrous magic. But you will also uncover bloodcurdling chills, spine-tingling horror, and an examination of those things that truly terrify.

The living dead are more alive than ever! Zombies have become more than an iconic monster for the twenty-first century: they are now a phenomenon constantly revealing as much about ourselves — and our fascination with death, resurrection, and survival — as our love for the supernatural or post-apocalyptic speculation. Our most imaginative literary minds have been devoured by these incredible creatures and produced exciting, insightful, and unflinching new works of zombie fiction. We’ve again dug up the best stories published in the last few years and compiled them into an anthology to feed your insatiable hunger...

A travel guide to hauntings and the haunted, to lands with their own power, and to the communities that spring from these strange realms. What you hold in your hands is a travel guide to the strange and surreal. From arcades along a boardwalk and jetties at the edges of tourist towns, to a rural village in Pakistan and hollows hidden deep within a forest in Pennsylvania, strange things can happen no matter where you are. You can become lost in a city crowded with people, haunted within your own home, and slip from one reality into another in the space of a step. With twenty-two stories by authors such as Brian Keene, Maurice Broaddus, Ai Jiang, Samit Basu, and KS Walker, editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner take readers on a tour of places where weird things happen. Places where ghosts are real, old gods are hungry, and towns are not as idyllic as they appear to be. Welcome to The Map of Lost Places. Enter at your own risk. Includes original fiction from: Ai Jiang Brian Keene Beth Dawkins Danian Darrell Jerry Dimitra Nikolaidou Fatima Taqvi Ferdison Cayetano Gabrielle Paniccia Jenny Rowe Joshua Lim K.S. Walker Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv Maurice Broaddus Muhammed Awal Ahmed Octavia Cade Oliver Ferrie R.L. Meza Rebecca E. Treasure Rich Larson Samit Basu VH Ncube Vivian Chou With an introduction from Linda D. Addisona

"Brian Keene writes like a force of nature." - F. Paul WilsonTwenty years ago, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner and World Horror Grandmaster Brian Keene's The Rising was credited with "revitalizing the horror fiction genre" and "giving zombies an upgrade". In the decades since then, the series has spawned three sequels and earned generations of eager fans from all walks of life- united in the hope that the author would return once again to the franchise.This is that return.The Rising: More Selected Scenes From the End of the World features a splattering of new stories set within the world of Brian Keene's The Rising franchise, complimented with original illustrations by Anthrax's Charlie Benante. Featuring tales set both before and after the events of the previous books, it will appeal to long-time fans and new readers alike. Brian Keene's The Rising: More Selected Scenes From the End of the World- zombies just got another upgrade.

World Horror Grand Master Brian Keene returns to zombies in this relentless sword and sorcery horror epic! Einar, an enslaved barbarian, plots his escape from a war galley transporting troops and a mysterious weapon to far enemy shores. But when an apocalyptic storm at sea leaves Einar and his fellow captives shipwrecked on a strange, uncharted island, friend and foe alike must band together against a ravenous, steadily growing horde of the undead... and even worse dangers. Not even death is an escape from the... ISLAND OF THE DEAD

They thought it was over, but the second wave was only the beginning... In the aftermath of the Clickers and Dark Ones' siege and a coup against an insane President, America rebuilds. Change has come, and a better future is promised to all. But promises can be broken and there may be no future at all because deep beneath the ocean, a new terror awaits. Dagon, god of the Dark Ones, is waking up...and if humanity doesn't stop him, then mankind will face extinction. Trapped on a South Pacific Island, the cast of Clickers and Clickers 2: The Next Wave join forces with a mysterious group of occult agents to face off against the Clickers, the Dark Ones, Dagon and an all-new threat-the deadly obsidian Clickers. The stakes have never been higher. Dagon is rising... and humanity will fall. Clickers III: Dagon Rising - It's more giant monster carnage and B-movie fun as only J. F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene can bring you.

The first wave was just the beginning ... The United States is in ruins. It has just suffered one of the worst hurricanes in history, the people are demoralized, and the president is a religious fanatic. Then things get really bad - the Clickers return. Thousands of the monsters swarm across the entire nation and march inland, slaughtering anyone and anything they come across. But this time the Clickers aren't blindly rushing onto land - they are being led by an intelligence older than civilization itself. A force that wants to take dry land away from the mammals. Those left alive soon realize that they must do everything and anything they can to protect humanity - no matter the cost. This isn't war, this is extermination.

Rogan-the aging, jaded barbarian who gave up his throne-painfully realizes that his most storied childhood heroes are fading into antiquity, becoming mere ballads in the eyes of the younger warriors. And he might be next.He stops at the hometown of his idol, but little remains to show of the man's exploits ... until he meets the hero's daughter, Roan, riding her father's infamous seven-hundred-year-old horse. Roan has a vendetta against General Tolin La Gaul, who harbors a dark secret. She tries to convince Rogan to join her in riding upon the Citadel of Nosmada in the land of Nod to confront Tolin, but Rogan has no interest in such a dicey plan. That is, until his nephew, Javan, goes missing, presumed captured. Now the Citadel has become a snare, and he has no choice but to spring the trap's jaws.Rogan's path leads him into darker and more twisted schemes than even he could have imagined ... gods, devils, and an undead dragon, forcing him to confront not only his own mortality and place in history-but even his god, Wodan.Steven L. Shrewsbury and Brian Keene's award-winning Bastards Saga comes to its exciting conclusion with CURSE OF THE BASTARDS

Two titans of modern horror-Brian Keene and Bryan Smith-team up for the terrifying crossover sequel to both Keene's URBAN GOTHIC and Smith's THE FREAKSHOW.The Westgate Galleria Mall was once a sprawling, shining monument to American consumerism and suburban growth. Now, it is a crumbling reminder of how both have fallen-an architectural ghost, haunting the outskirts of society. That makes it the perfect filming location for a YouTube channel devoted to the exploration of abandoned places. But the mall isn't as empty as it seems and the residents have sinister obscene plans for them. Now, with the daylight still hours away, both the hunters and the hunted will fight to stay alive...and desperately try to make it home.SUBURBAN GOTHIC by Brian Keene and Bryan Smith-Home is where is the severed heart is...

For a group of middle-aged friends, the trip into the forest was supposed to be simple. All they had to do was find a place to set up their criminal enterprise, and all of their financial problems would be solved. But now, night is falling, and with the darkness comes something else. Something fast. Something ferocious. Something... with teeth. From best-selling, award-winning horror writer Brian Keene comes a vicious new novella WITH TEETH.

Inspired by specially curated mixtapes, Bev Vincent and Brian Keene present two new spine-chilling novellas...As a blizzard descends upon the sleepy town of Bayport, Rhode Island, brothers Joey and Frank Shaw investigate the mysterious disappearances of several townsfolk. After the discovery of strange tunnels, tunnels that only Joey can see, the trio suspect something is lurking beneath the snowbound town. Something burrowing. Something hungry. And it looks like Joey might be next in The Dead of Winter. Did you imagine the world vanishing to a flood or a comet, the hand of God or nuclear war? What if it started with something as innocuous as the Berenstain Bears, and something known as the Mandela Effect? Barricaded in a seedy motel room, one man makes sense of love, loss, and life as the end of the world looms. Do you see what he sees? Do you know what he knows?

A hilarious, shocking, terrifying thrill-ride across the American landscape, The Damned Highway combines two great flavors of weird: the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and the uncanny terrors of H.P. Lovecraft. Horror legend Brian Keene and cult storytelling master Nick Matamas dredge up a tale of drug-fueled eldritch madness from the blackest depths of the American Nightmare. On a freaked-out bus journey to Arkham, Massachusetts, and the 1972 Presidential primary, evidence mounts that sinister forces are on the rise, led by the Cult of Cthulhu and its most prominent member - Richard M. Nixon.