Classic Literature Dark

Fifty-One Tales is a collection of fantasy short stories by Irish writer Lord Dunsany, a major influence on J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin and others. Each story is a short vignette, a single moment of strangeness or horror in the face of death.

Franz Kafka was one of the first and greatest masters of dystopian literature. In his bleak world view, man is presented as helpless and ineffectual, his destiny determined by distant, obscure and essentially unfriendly agencies. In none of his works is this savage and unreasoning enslavement presented more vividly than in Metamorphosis, a novella in which Gregor Samsa, a respectable employee and dutiful son, wakes to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect.

The mission is simple. The Trinity - a mysterious device found in the tomb of a forgotten Atlantean king - has been stolen. It's up to Captain Eric Collier and his elite team of Navy SEALs to recover the artifact or destroy it. But the first rule of battle is that nothing ever goes as planned. Restored to life by the Trinity itself, Collier is given a new mission: unite the world's faithful to hear the revealed will of the Wise Father, the timeless entity who brought humanity out of the Stone Age with the power of the Trinity.

When Blaine Kendricks discovers strangers in Shadow Hollers, she thinks they've come to trade. She couldn't be more wrong. When Dacey Childers comes to Shadow Hollers, Blaine's family thinks he's there to hunt game. They couldn't be more wrong.

When the Annekteh come to Shadow Hollers, they think the isolated community living there has no way to resist their invasion. They're pretty much right on target. But the last man of the lost seer's blood has returned, and is about to draw Blaine into his magic, his adventure...and the most dangerous hunt she could ever imagine.

A collection of strange and often grisly tales by some of the world's greatest writers, ranging from mildly unsettling to hair-raising.

Eric Carter has a lot on his plate. He's hunting the Oracle of Las Vegas, a literal talking head that manipulates the future to make its prophecies come true. But it has a new trick. It can change the past, too. Now Jazz Age Los Angeles is invading the present. Long gone buildings suddenly restored, decommissioned Red Car trains appearing on paved over tracks, miles of the city changing back to orange groves.

Three long years have passed since Anna, First of Tomas, survived the purge in Malijad after being forced to use her scribe sigils to create an army of immortals. Safely ensconced in the shelter of the Nest, a sanctuary woven by one of her young allies, Anna spends her days tutoring the gifted yet traumatized scribe, Ramyi, and coming to terms with her growing attachment to an expatriate soldier in her company. Away from her refuge, war drums continue to beat. Thwarted in her efforts to locate the elusive tracker and bring him to justice, Anna turns to the state of Nahora for help.

The Cats of Ulthar, written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1920, is a short yet striking tale that showcases his ability to blend dark fantasy with moral allegory. First published in Tryout in 1920, the story is a haunting meditation on justice, retribution, and the mystical bond between cats and the arcane. It occupies a unique place in Lovecraft’s body of work, weaving a fable-like narrative that retains the eerie undertones characteristic of his writing.

With the Summit on barely unified tenterhooks and hellkin bubbling into Earth with no sun to stop them, Ayala Storme has her hard-won family, an uncertain new love, and a team of allies - half of who have betrayed her in the past. When the cities of North America begin to fall to demon hordes, Ayala has to fight her way back into Nashville in a desperate hope to save her city.

A young boy finds a homeless dog desperate for love and brings him into his home. What is frightening about Crane's take on this typical relationship, a boy and his dog, are the parallels between the young boy's treatment of the dog and his abusive, alcoholic father's treatment of those around him.

When several young girls are abducted from various locations in Edinburgh, Detective John Granger and his brother Alan, a reporter, investigate the cases from different directions. The abductor is cunning, always one step ahead, and the only clue he leaves behind at each scene are the brutalized corpses of black swans.

Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale, Medea, who is responsible for the deaths of five men, including her husbands. The scholar is soon cast under her spell from behind the grave.

Rathen, a former Captain in King Delvant's army, is approached by the emissaries of a powerful lord to lead a team of fighters, healers, and mages to dispel brigands from his lands. Rathen quickly recruits his best friend Bulo, an ex-gladiator and landlord of the local tavern, to assist him. The two join other members of the group and begin to hear stories of magical creatures and numerous dead in the land they are supposed to cleanse. Despite this, they head for Ghrakus Castle.

Three years have passed since Isiah's run-in with Samuel Harrigan and the Devil. He has some time on his hands- a perfect opportunity to track down the Sorcerer, Harrigan's mentor. It should have been a simple enough task, but the Sorcerer has more followers than Isiah ever imagined, and a plan bigger than anyone could have dreamed. With the help of some powerful new friends, Isiah must track down the Sorcerer and his cult of blood before they change the world forever.

What is the secret of Die Glocke? Will Lazarus Gray and his teammates discover the answer in time to stop a power hungry madman and his undead soldiers? The Adventures of Lazarus Gray returns with an epic adventure where the fate of the world is at stake. Is even Lazarus Gray up to a task that could take him to the very gates of Hell itself? Also, Assistance Unlimited takes a case that will bring them face to face with terror and the making of a hero!

A terrorist on the run hides in a brothel. Desperate for respite after evading authorities for days, he hires a prostitute even though he has lived his life as a chaste man. The well-off idealistic young man and the poor woman doing what she can to survive clash but also inspire each other in this dark tale of failed dreams.

Branimir is a slave to the mighty Highborn. Unwittingly, his masters forge a copper dagger capable of destroying the Ash Tree. Drawn along on the quest to remedy the mistake of his masters, Branimir becomes the most unlikely of heroes in an inimical world of magic and mayhem.

Fell's Hollow: a seedy, thief-riddled, sorcerer-plagued city tucked away in a hidden cove. Here you'll meet the most fascinating characters, characters that live and die by the skill of their blades, the breadth of their wit, and the whim of their luck...Meet these characters and more as they struggle to survive in a city smothered in crime, threatened by war, and haunted by a bloodsucking creature that stalks the streets at night. Enter the world of Fell's Hollow, where swords, sorcery, and sinister dealings are the daily fare!

A traditional psychological ghost story, ‘A Phantom Lover’ tells the story of an artist who is commissioned to paint eccentric couple Mr and Mrs Oke of Okehurst. But the Okes have a dark family history, and the fateful events of two centuries previous come back to haunt them.

Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, Frankenstein. You've lived with the stories your whole life. You've read the tales. You've watched the films. But what if the stories were different? What if the things you read about these monsters were warped and twisted? Here lie stories you may not have heard. Stories both weird and shocking. Bizarre and grotesque. Alternate versions of your favorite classic monsters you've never read and never will again. Featuring 13 stories by Jonathan Moon, The Sisters of Slaughter, Tom Lucas and more!