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“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to digest.

Accused of domestic terrorism, Emilio Vega was on his way to a Department of Global Security death camp when the mega-quake hit. The streets beneath his transport vehicle buckled, tossing the van in the air like a toy. He survived the crash, but the world is now in ruins. However, for a condemned man, this disaster may be just the lucky break he needed.

When the black rain began to fall, it was a worldwide phenomenon that mystified everyone. There was little time to ponder the cause. Most animals died at the onset. While some humans were unaffected, others experienced a half-death of sorts, morphing into blood and flesh-crazed creatures with a desire to hunt the living. Climbing Fox Wattana of the Henomawi Nation claims responsibility for the black rain; he says it will will ensure the ultimate extinction of the United States government as revenge for robbing his people of their land. Cole "CB" Baxter isn't taking this lying down.

The EMP has officially crippled the nation and her infrastructure sits in ruin. Can a burned-out DEA agent, a Guatemalan-born cartel daughter, and an estranged brother find their way back to their families, or will they succumb to the perils of a nation in steep decline? The Complete Age of Embers is a no-holds-barred post-apocalyptic adventure series chronicling a nationwide descent into a powerless world.

When Tammy Gleason received a frantic phone call from her father, that was all it took to put her on the road home to Fort Bragg from Memphis, Tennessee, trying to outrun a disaster. On her way out of town, she befriends a young man whose only name is Ringo and who just might be a little bit more than he seems.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand.

Navigating life was already no picnic for Riley, a young widowed surgeon with a teenage daughter. Now, it will take near superhuman courage to find safe harbor in a world gone mad. With the help of a brilliant but quirky cardiologist named Coop, she must conquer her fears, traverse hundreds of miles of frozen terrain, and survive hostile confrontations to get her daughter, Julia, to safety. Will she have the strength and determination to ensure they survive?

Cass Neary made her name in the 70s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures earned her a brief moment of fame. Thirty years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out when an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Down East, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and she finds one final shot at redemption.

Seventeen-year-old Aussie Che Taylor loves his younger sister Rosa. But he's also certain that she's a diagnosable psychopath - clinically, threateningly, dangerously. Recently Rosa has been making trouble, hurting things. Che is the only one who knows; he's the only one his sister trusts. Rosa is smart, talented, pretty, and very good at hiding what she is and the violence she's capable of. Their parents, whose business takes the family from place to place, brush off the warning signs as Rosa's "acting out".