Most Popular Books by Esther Friesner

Is anything more terrifying than a dragon? Bat-winged nightmares swooping down from the sky to breathe fire and ice on the wretched humans below; kidnapping princesses, hoarding treasure, swallowing cows. Or not. In DRAGONESQUE, the latest fantastic anthology from Zombies Need Brains, you finally get to experience all that awfulness from the dragon’s point of view. And what if it isn’t necessarily that awful? What if the princess wants to be kidnapped, or the dragon is tired of being made fun of week after week at the Renaissance Faire? Or maybe a dragonet just really, really wants to be a unicorn? Perhaps they’re happiest collecting art, or enjoy being tattooed? Or maybe some dragons like putting out fires more than starting them...unless they absolutely have to? DRAGONESQUE features sixteen original stories from such fiery authors as Esther M. Friesner, Madeline Dau, Niall Spain, Russell Hugh McConnell, Grace Eliza, Mike Jack Stoumbos, Paul D. Smith, Jean Marie Ward, Gerald Brandt, Gini Koch & Bebe Bayliss, Larry Ivkovich, Barbara Campbell, Journey Sloane, Em McDermott, Auston Habershaw, and David B. Coe. See the world as the dragons see it, from the delightfully delicious to the tastefully transactional. Welcome to DRAGONESQUE.

A missing intergalactic artifact valuable enough to inspire murder. A cartoon gag gone bad that leads to a gruesome death. Greek deities unraveling a divine mystery in New York City. A human detective navigating the temptations of Faerie in pursuit of a magical killer. Call them sleuths, call them gumshoes, call them shamuses or dicks or beagles—these private investigators prowl the back alleys of imagination, explaining the unexplainable, seeking answers and justice for two hundred dollars a day plus expenses. In Noir, speculative fiction authors Hal Bodner, Jessie Kwak, Esther M. Friesner, Travis Wade Beaty, John Zakour, Alex Bledsoe, Erik Grove, Andrija Popovic, Julie E. Czerneda, Aprilynne Pike, D.B. Jackson, Justin Jordan, Steven Harper, R.S. Belcher, and Eve Golden-Woods spin tales of intrigue and danger, introducing you to worlds where information is currency and life is cheap. So put on your fedora, raise your trench coat collar against the evening chill, and come explore the shadows. But remember, in this seedy business, you can trust no one...sometimes not even yourself.

THE MEN IN BLACK ARE BACK— TO SAVE THE PLANET FROM CERTAIN DOOM. When an unauthorized spacecraft lands smack-dab in the middle of New York’s Central Park, and is found abandoned with enough antimatter weapons to turn the island of Manhattan into a new Atlantis, it’s a job for Men in Black—the top-secret organization that monitors the activities of all extraterrestrials living on Earth. There’s a new ET in town, as beautiful as she is deadly. Immediately, Agent J is assigned to the case, but in order to succeed in his mission, he must locate his old partner, Agent K, whose memory was wiped clean when he “retired.” For it’s K, now a postal worker in Massachusetts, who holds the key: In his mind rests a powerful secret—one that could save the earth, or destroy everything, if it falls into the wrong tentacles. . . . From the Paperback edition.

From evil overlords to bumbling henchmen, talking cats to lovelorn fishermen, mad queens to wise opossums, the collected fourteen stories subvert popular fantasy tropes in surprising and delightful ways. This book collects some of the best funny fantasy fiction published in the past decade. Included are works by Hugo and Nebula Award winners, New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, as well as up-and-coming talented writers. Includes the following stories: "Dave the Mighty Steel-Thewed Avenger" by Laura Resnick "Crumbs" by Esther Friesner "Fellow Traveler" by Donald J. Bingle "A Fish Story" by Sarah Totton "Another End of the Empire" by Tim Pratt "Giantkiller" by G. Scott Huggins "A Mild Case of Death" by David Gerrold "Fairy Debt" by Gail Carriger "A Very Special Girl" by Mike Resnick "The Blue Corpse Corps" by Jim C. Hines "Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel" by Shaenon K. Garrity "The Queens Reason" by Richard Parks "The Best Little Cleaning Robot in All of Faerie" by Susan Jane Bigelow "Suede This Time" by Jean Rabe

Welcome to Ampyrium, a city of a thousand wonders! May the trading be always in your favor. Powerful magicians called the Magnum have created a massive city contained within eight walls, each with its own portal to another world. Here, eight different magical lands collide. In these streets, all of the races from those worlds come to trade, to politic, to carouse, and to murder. Merchants and royalty, thieves and assassins; caravans and envoys, armies and entourages. Everyone...and everything...can be found in Ampyrium. Every dream can be made real. Every vice is available. Every wish can be fulfilled. All you have to do is stay clear of the Magnum...and their Eyes are everywhere. Enter the streets of AMPYRIUM with your guides in tow-authors Joshua Palmatier, Juliet E. McKenna, David B. Coe, Esther Friesner, Patricia Bray, S.C. Butler, and Jason Palmatier. Eight stunning worlds await you. But beware. Don''t stray. Don''t fall behind. Don''t get lost. Because the streets of Ampyrium will swallow you whole.

18 Short Stories of Humorous Horror Read this book to: * Meet communist werewolves, mad scientists and Jewish vampires. * Reject novel pitches from famous zombie novelists. * Provide psychotherapy for Cthulhu. * Domesticate angry gods. * Install Linux on a dead badger. Includes the following stories: "No Children, No Pets" by Esther Friesner "43 Responses to ''In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nako''" by Barbara A. Barnett "Kvetchula''s Daughter" by Darrell Schweitzer "The Great VuDu Linux Teen Zombie Massacree" by Lucy A. Snyder "Good Neighbors" by Amanda C. Davis "Happily and Righteously" by Larry Hodges "Stalking the Zombie" by Mike Resnick "Restless in R''yleh" by Oliver Buckram "P.R. Problems" by Eric James Stone "Hot Fudge and Whipped Cream" by Tarl Kudrick "Death: A List" by Tanya Bryan "Soccer Mom Smackdown" by Julia S. Mandala "The God Whisperer" by Daniel J. Davis "Meat and Greet" by Jamie Todd Rubin "Something Virtual This Way Comes" by Laura Resnick "The Story of Emily and Control" by Scott Alexander "Howl!" by Jody Lynn Nye "Final Corrections" by M. Bennardo

Raisel leaves her shetl for America and goes to work in the Triangle Shirt Factory.

Tim Desmond, a mere freshman at Princeton University, must battle the forces of evil when his girlfriend disappears, his mother falls in love with a black magician, and the forces of Death and Destruction gather in Poughkeepsie