Darrell Schweitzer

For more than half a century, Darrell Schweitzer has been contributing poems of fantasy, horror, and the supernatural to countless venues. Dancing Before Azathoth is a major retrospective of Schweitzer's verse over the past two or three decades, selecting the best poems from earlier collections-including Groping Toward the Light (2000) and Ghosts of Past and Future (2008)-with uncollected poems that have appeared in Weirdbook, Spectral Realms, Asimov's, Space and Time, and other periodicals. The title poem is one of many that draw inspiration from the work of H. P. Lovecraft, emphasizing the cosmicism in that writer's work as well as exploring the human tragedies implicit in his tales (as in "Lavinia Whateley"). More conventional motifs-the witch, the werewolf, the ghost-are given new life in Schweitzer's contemplative poems. A profound student of history, Schweitzer sees horror in the bountiful realms of classical myth, as in "The Ghosts of Troy" and "Hadrian's Tomb." From an opposite perspective, Schweitzer looks to the future and finds abundant sources of terror there as well, Terrifying yet poignant, sinister yet sensitive, Darrell Schweitzer's poetry-whether in formal meter or free verse-will remain in the reader's memory as the work of a master craftsman who understands both the sources of terror and the depths of human emotion.

" This] novel has immense power in its climax," said The Encyclopedia of Fantasy about Darrell Schweitzer's 1982 novel, THE SHATTERED GODDESS. Now, at last, here's the companion volume to that work, a cycle of eleven stories set "in the time of the death of the Goddess." This is an Earth of the far future, when the planet has declined into chaos, and darkness looms at the end of human history. Here you'll meet...a dadar, a wizard's shadow attempting to become a man; two sorcerers grotesquely transformed by their fratricidal hatred; a musician who becomes the lord of death; a boy-priest consumed by divine visions; and a witch who loves a god, among many others. Here's strangeness, wonder, and terror in the tradition of Clark Ashton Smith's Xothique or Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. Schweitzer is a master fantasist, whom anthologist Mike Ashley once called "today's supreme stylist." Great fantasy reading, now collected into book form for the first time

Science Fiction Voices, Volume Five gathers conversations with eight storied figures of the genre. Isaac Asimov reflects on his Foundation saga, Leigh Brackett recalls pulp magazines, Lin Carter explores the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, and Lester del Rey examines the real science behind the stories. Frank Belknap Long shares memories of H. P. Lovecraft, Clifford D. Simak reveals his approach to crafting tales, and Wilson Tucker discusses his dual life as fan and writer. Finally, Jack Williamson reviews his (at the time) fifty-year career as author and teacher. All interviews conducted by World Fantasy Award-winner Darrell Schweitzer.

The 47th issue of Weirdbook magazine presents another mindbending excurion to the far reaches of terror and the imagination. Here and fantasy and horror stories spanning time and space, by some of the best authors currently practicing. This issue contains: THERAPOSA, by Jessica S J Brown THE DRAGONS OF THE NIGHT, by Darrell Schweitzer IT STARTS NOW, by Lorenzo Crescentini UNDERHEAD, by Charles Wilkinson BYE, BYE, CUBBY, by Franklyn Searight DIMENSIONS OF SCALE, by John R. Fultz A DEAD MAN'S TALE, by Adrian Cole RETURN TO SENDER: ARMSTRONG-9, by Samson Stormcrow Hayes BUTTERFLIES AND MOONBEAMS, by Kenneth Bykerk HEX ON THE BEACH, by Bryce Beattie FERAL, by Joe Arcara SIGYN HANTA AND BRONWYN DULCEA SPERANZA, by Patrick S. Baker EGO URN, by Eddie D. Moore SWEET HONEY IN THE BONES, by Matt Thompson NIGHT SHIFT, by Cynthia Ward THE HORROR FROM THE STARS, by Steve Dilks BELLICO AND THE HUSKS OF THE "HEAVENSENT", by Richard Toogood DON'T OPEN YOUR EYES, by Taylor Grant THE IRON LAW, by David C. Smith

The dead come from the sea, at night. They merely arrive and are discovered in the morning on the wharves, lying in great heaps. It has been the immemorial custom for people to take them into their homes, to find places for them, to pattern their increasingly cluttered lives around the growing accumulation of corpses. No one knows why, although it is the irresistible decree of the Unseen Government that the order of things must be preserved, at all costs. Old and young must participate, and carry away the dead, on bicycles, in carts, on their backs if need be. It has always been so. It always will be so.This isn't Hell, or an Afterlife, just a place, a fog-shrouded, tradition-stifled town without a name, where the dead are accommodated at the expense of the living, where the established way of life has become a grotesque absurdity, and a few brave or foolish or deviant souls struggle to find some meaning, and perhaps unravel the mystery of the dead.On the knife-edge of horror and dark comedy, like an improbable collaboration between Franz Kafka and Clive Barker, this book is a brilliant departure, even for the author of The Mask of the Sorcerer.