Showing results for "The Beast" in Anthologies & Short Stories

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

In a post-apocalyptic future, 15-year-old Vic wanders the wasteland with Blood, his genetically-altered telepathic dog, in the Hugo Award-nominated and Nebula Award-winning novella, A Boy and His Dog - the basis of the cult classic film. An intergalactic conspiracy infects the minds of the most powerful politicians in the Republican Party - and only one jolly old elf can save them in “Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R.” And in the Hugo Award-winning title story, disparate threads of violence, conflict, and conversation weave an intricate tapestry across worlds and times.

In Nebula Award-winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection—featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar—queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the boys, beasts, and men roaming through Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy listeners, yet leave them wanting more. 

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), more commonly known as H. P. Lovecraft, was an American writer renowned for his highly influential works of horror fiction. "The Beast in the Cave" is a typical example of Lovecraft's mastery and descriptive genius. A man is lost in an extensive cavern with his light about to run out. He has already given up hope of ever finding his way out. As he is plunged into darkness, he hears the sound of weird padding steps approaching....

A man touring Mammoth Cave separates from his guide and becomes lost. His torch expires and he is giving up hope of finding a way out in the pitch dark, when he hears strange non-human footsteps approaching him. Thinking it to be a lost mountain lion or other such beast, he picks up a stone and throws it toward the source of the sound. The beast is hit and crumples to the floor. The guide finds the protagonist back, and together they examine the fallen creature with the guide's torchlight.

In this story by H.P. Lovecraft, the line between man and beast is blurred. The Beast in the Cave follows the story of a man who gets separated from his group of tourists. They’ve all come to see the mammoth cave, but the man fears that it might be the last wonder he sees as he continues to wander further from his group. Eventually, his torch runs out of fuel and he is left with no other choice but to fend off approaching inhuman footsteps with the toss of a rock.

Spald arrives at the business of his potential employer and is hired to find and destroy a creature interfering with the operations of a lucrative mine. He doesn’t take too seriously the doomsday stories of almost a dozen hunters already killed by the beast, but he does take seriously the opportunity to recover eleven pouches of gems. As he explores the mine, though, he can’t help but face the truth-this is no fanciful fear brought on by superstition. Instead, an all-to-real native beast threatens the colonists who lost touch with Earth decades before.

A ship bearing the souls of sinful sailors drifts upon a ghostly sea. An abbey looms as the final defense between mortals and ghouls of the underworld. In the stillness of a throne room, statues stand forever frozen in a moment of terror. Monsters and men stalk their prey deep in the jungle's shadows. A rose blooms in the dead of winter, sheltered in the ruins of an ancient Scottish castle.