Nick Mamatas

Two pieces of fiction, and two pieces of nonfiction. Authors: Nick Mamatas Steve Rasnic Tem Benjamin Whitmer James Sallis

Decades, centuries, and even thousands of years in the future: the horrors inspired by Lovecraft do not know the limits of time...or space. Journey through this anthology of science fiction stories and poems inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Listen to the stars that whisper and drive a crew mad. Worship the Tloque Nahuaque as he overtakes Mexico City. Slip into the court of the King in Yellow. Walk through the streets of a very altered Venice. Stop to admire the beauty of the flesh-dolls in the window. Fly through space in the shape of a hungry, malicious comet. Swim in the drug-induced haze of a jellyfish. Struggle to survive in a Martian gulag whose landscape isn't quite dead. But, most of all, fear the future!

In this science-fiction revision of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Kalivas lives in exile on the Farallon Islands from the rise of posthumanity until the arrival of the Master and his daughter M who place Kalivas into servitude. An uneasy balance is struck after the Master establishes himself on the island. Kalivas, the last free-range human, raised himself after the death of his mother, and is threatened into completing dangerous and menial tasks on the Master's behalf. That is until a great storm brings more cyborg mainlanders and a recurring shimmer to the air. Will Kalivas finally break free from his servitude and claim his island back once and for all, or will his growing affection for M and the uncertainty about the island's future keep him tied to the Master forever?Kalivas Or, Another Tempest reframes the anticolonial drama through futuristic gizmos, a broken continent, and a one-act play invoking the theater of the absurd. Told from the point of view of the Bard's least civilized, and perhaps most human, creations, Nick Mamatas crafts an epic for the modern era.

“There was video of the second shooter. There was video.”In the first reports of every mass shooting, there’s always mention of a second shooter—two sets of gunshots, a figure seen fleeing the scene—and they always seem to evaporate as events are pieced together.Commissioned by a fringe publisher to investigate the phenomenon, journalist Mike Karras finds himself tailed by drones, attacked by a talk radio host, badgered by his all-knowing (and maybe all-powerful) editor, and teaming up with an immigrant family of conspiracy buffs.Together, they uncover something larger and stranger than anyone could imagine—a technomystical plot to ‘murder America.’Time for Karras to meet his deadline.

He walks the stars embedded in the virtual dome of night and, when he tires of a world, throws a small black stone over his shoulder--and entire societies blink out of existence. The work is necessary, or so he insists. But the Planetbreaker's son has his own ideas. Meanwhile, in "The Strange Case Of," Mamatas gleefully blinks sentimental, shopworn ideas out of easy acceptance. "The Twin Dragons of Sentimentality and Didacticism" explores the dangers and pleasures of Animal Rescue. But listen. That "Ring, Ring, Ring" (and so forth) you hear is the dreaded ouija phone connecting the living with the dead. And it's for you. Of course we include our predictably unpredictable, outrageously rageous Outspoken Interview with Mamatas. Also for you.

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.

“Think Run Lola Run by way of the Columbine massacre. . . . A noir steeped in teenage misery and revenge” by the author of Sensation and Sabbath (Backlisted). Every day, Dave Holbrook runs the gauntlet of high school in northern New Jersey, complete with racial tensions, bullying, and outright violence. His home life isn’t so great either. His mother’s an alcoholic and his father can’t be bothered. So Dave subsists on over-the-counter cough syrup and his love for her . . . She’s a transfer student, a waitress, a goddess of discord named Eris. And she offers Dave a way out of his miserable existence—and into an infinite number of tragically short lives. In one, he dies of bronchitis as a baby. In another, he has a job installing lottery machines until a fatal car wreck. And in the darkest one of all, he arms himself with an Uzi and walks into his school. No matter what happens, it seems, Dave is trapped on a never-ending ride of infinite possibilities—with Eris at the wheel. “Nick Mamatas’s work is often so relevant and timely as to border on the prophetic, and his fourth solo novel is no exception. It may also be his most accessible book to date, which is all the more impressive when you consider its non-linear, unique structure, and the Gus Van Sant-sized elephant in the classroom—Bullettime centers around a miserable teenager shooting up his high school.” —Strange Horizons “Complex, ambitious . . . Readers willing to venture off the beaten path will be intrigued by Dave’s sometimes pathetic and sometimes oddly endearing life stories.” —Publishers Weekly “Mamatas’s strong voice shines.” —SF Signal

Even though he passed over 80 years ago, H. P. Lovecraft maintains a visceral influence over a host of contemporary writers. Inspired by the Master of the Macabre's more optimistic writings, this unique collection spotlights the weird works of nine current horror and fantasy authors, including the award-winning Michael Cisco and Livia Llewellyn plus Victor LaValle, Molly Tanzer, and Masahiko Inoue. Also includes Clark Ashton Smith's 1931 "The City of the Singing Flame" and Lovecraft's own "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as well as an extensive Introduction by leading Lovecraftian scholar Nick Mamatas.

Highlander meets Seven in Nick Mamatas's Sabbath, the story of a legendary warrior who dies in battle, wakes up in the present day, and is tasked with hunting down the Seven Deadly Sins.The infamous eleventh-century warrior Hexen Sabbath is plucked from death and certain damnation by a being claiming to be an angel of the Lord, and finds himself dropped into contemporary Manhattan with no clothes, no weapons, no resources, and one mission--to track down and kill the living personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins before they bring about Armageddon. With time running out and his only ally a destitute art gallery owner, Sabbath must fight his way through New York's elite and challenge the world's most powerful man, or an eternity of suffering will be his, and our, only reward.

"Readers will be enthralled, chilled, and astonished." -- Tom Piccirilli, author of A Choir of Ill Children. In the first of many references to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," this thoroughly unique novel begins with the rise of the lost city of R'lyeh, portending certain doom for human existence. The witness to this deadly harbinger is Jack Kerouac, who recruits fellow beats Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs for a cross-country road trip that will climax in a confrontation with a murderous cult.

For millennia, male infernal figures have been portrayed as both dazzling tempters and dark seducers. The alluring fantasy of Handsome Devil highlights Lucifer's role as the beautiful trickster who steals hearts (as well as souls), and features stories — both new and old — of tantalizing tempters, sexy incubi, demon lovers, and devils who beguile and betray.

More Americans were killed during the years 1861-1865 than any other date in history. Men shattered, women lost, families broken. In Shades of Blue and Gray, editor Steve Berman offers readers tales of the supernatural — ghost stories that range from the haunts of the battlefield to revenants on the long march home. Yank. Rebel. Both finding themselves at odds in flesh and spirit.

The perfect companion to Stuff Every Man Should Know (160,000 net) and Jokes Every Man Should Know (140,000 net), Quotes Every Man Should Know is chock full of aphorisms, bons mots, and universal truths for every occasion. With sections on immortal quotations, inspirational quotations, humorous quotations, famously inaccurate quotations, and even quotations about quotations, this pocket-size reference offers quotable wisdom by everyone from Buddha, Plato, and Voltaire to Dororthy Parker, Jerry Seinfeld, Daniel Tosh, and more. Don't go back to school without it!

With over 100,000 copies in print, the 2008 release "Jokes Every Man Should Know" proved that some subjects are evergreen - especially when packaged in a stylish pocket-size hardcover. Now Quirk is proud to introduce the perfect companion volume: "Insults Every Man Should Know". From the ancient Chinese insult Screw your ancestors for eighteen generations back to Jeff Foxworthy's Just how many times were you circumcised, this handsome anthology collects the world's finest insults, along with commentary and historical context. Topics include: Insulting Someone's Intelligence; Insulting Someone's Sexual Prowess; Insults for the Office; Comebacks, Insulting Gestures, and Backhanded; Compliments; and, much more.

What if everyone actually was famous for exactly fifteen minutes? What if Joey Ramone could save the world? What if the spiritual enlightenment of saints and sages was a sexually transmitted disease? These are the fictions. Neon signs that predict a city's future. Companies paying people to insult their clients online. Edgar Allan Poe's New York is still alive, but not well. These are the facts. And they say speculative fiction and personal essays don't belong in the same book. Whether in the glossy pages of the men's magazine Razor or the stolen reams of office supplies that make up the zine The Whirligig, the writing of Nick Mamatas is your hitchhiker's guide to the new, and very weird, millennium. Don't know where the world is headed? Nick does and it's 3000 miles per hour in every direction at once.