Best Selling Books by James P. Blaylock

When a boat-sized shoe and giant spectacles wash up on the shore, three of the town''s orphans - Jack, Skeezix, and Helen - know there''s something fishy going on, and the old ghost in the orphanage attic is inclined to agree. An evil carnival comes to town, run by a sinister gentleman who can turn himself into a crow. A mouse-sized man hiding in the woodwork leaves Jack an elixir that might, just might, allow him to cross during Solstice to another world, a mysterious land of dreams that holds the key to Jack''s past and all their adventures. Land Of Dreams is a phantasmagorical adventure reminiscent of Charles Finney''s The Circus of Dr. Lao and Ray Bradbury''s Something Wicked This Way Comes. REVIEWS: "... a singular American fabulist." -- William Gibson "Land Of Dreams is Blaylock''s best yet - powerful, magical, suspenseful and funny, this novel sails us through the supernatural backwaters of the northern California coast, and none of its readers will ever quite be able to leave its landscape of rotting waterfront towns, and strange songs echoing in from the sea, and vast, unknown cities visible on dubious horizons. Blaylock is the best of contemporary writers, and Land Of Dreams is destined to be one of the field''s classics." -- Tim Powers "Striking, beautifully turned surreal fantasy... Weird, complex, wise, original, delightful: pounce!" -- Kirkus Reviews

This mesmerising collection from World Fantasy Award-winner James P. Blaylock offers seven brilliant excursions into one of the most idiosyncratic imaginations of our time. Highlighted by the acclaimed novella, "The Trismegistus Club" - a brilliant riff on the antiquarian ghost story - In for a Penny goes from strength to strength, taking us deep into the heart of a quirky, deeply engaging fictional world that no one but Blaylock could have created. Other high points include "Home Before Dark," which chronicles one man''s first few hours in the afterlife. Its thematic companion, "Small Houses," recounts an aging widower''s last few hours on earth. Both stories constitute deeply felt, lovingly detailed farewells to the things and places of this world. In "The Other Side," a minor precognitive episode leads the hero to an obsessive fascination with the hidden mysteries of the universe. In "His Own Back Yard," a story worthy of the great Jack Finney, a middle-aged man finds himself stranded in the haunted territory of his childhood. The blackly funny "War of the Worlds" uses a bowling ball and the imminent end of Life As We Know It to illuminate the fault lines in a modern marriage. Finally, in the wonderfully imagined title story, the single-minded pursuit of treasure - of something for nothing - leads Blaylock''s protagonist to a harrowing confrontation with his own worst self. Startling, funny, eccentric, and often unexpectedly moving, the Blaylockian worldview shines forth with undiminished vigor in this marvellous collection, which shows us ourselves - and the world around us - from a wholly unique perspective. REVIEWS from Publishers Weekly "Simply, almost artlessly written, the six fantasy stories in this slim collection from Blaylock (Thirteen Phantasms), set in the gentle, loving territory of his personal California world, verge on the sentimental but never slip into the banal. In the brief "Home Before Dark," the tale''s hero gets an unusual glimpse of heaven. In the nostalgic "His Own Back Yard," Alan revisits his old childhood home ("The abandoned house was boarded up, its chimney fallen, the white paint on the clapboards weathered to the color of an old ghost") and has the satisfaction of meeting a vision of his young father and discussing the past. "Small Houses" is a poignant reverie on age and shared love in which Johnson builds his own burial casket, to his wife''s dismay. "The War of the Worlds" focuses on some suburbanites who believe that a flying saucer has landed in their midst, but the real war is the unexpressed one between husband and wife. In the humorous "The Other Side," the premonition-prone protagonist winds up in a support group for the paranormally inclined. In the title story, a tale with a moral and the best of the lot, George Mason buys a worn purse at a garage sale with a penny he finds in the purse, with unexpected consequences. The dignified, understated jacket art of an old man in a library nicely suggests the mood of the stories." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Metamorphosis is collection of three short stories, written by three young students in collaboration by James P. Blaylock for a class taught by Tim Powers, who provides the introduction. Mirrors, shadows, and secret rooms: the houses in which we dwell are sometimes much stranger than they seem to be, as are the people we think we know. Here are three stories of haunted places that stand waiting for you to enter, their windows shuttered, but their doors unlocked. REVIEWS Coauthored by Blaylock and a trio of his high school students, these three reflective short-short stories employing Blaylock''s signature nostalgic prose are individually strong in technique, but weakened by thematic similarities. The eccentric hero of Adriana Campoy''s lighthearted "Stone Eggs" uncovers an entryway into a fantastic world while house-sitting for his uncle. In Brittany Cox''s well-written but unexciting "P-38," Anderson revisits his imperfect childhood by assembling a model airplane from his father''s former shop. Alex Haniford''s "Houses" hurtles toward darkness when Michael returns home for his mother''s funeral and accidentally unearths the chilling secret behind his father''s spiraling dementia. While Tim Powers offers a short foreword and William Ashbless (Powers and Blaylock''s joint nom de plume) provides a whimsical afterword, readers will recognize both as padding and be left wanting more real content. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

James Blaylock is one of the finest writers in the fantasy field. Sixteen of his acclaimed short stories are collected here for the first time. Included is "Thirteen Phantasms," his brilliant World Fantasy Award-winning story of a man who returns to the Golden Age of science fiction through an ad in a pulp magazine. "Myron Chester and the Toads" recounts one man''s encounter with aliens and the effect it has on him and his neighbors. And in the strange otherworldly California of "Paper Dragons" one man''s obsession with the creation of a dragon slowly destroys him.

Dedicated to his work and to his collection of rare books, a reclusive Calvin Bryson finally visits his aunt and uncle in New Cyprus, California, only to discover a town hiding strange secrets and an enigmatic group dedicated to the preservation of holy r

Jerry Larkin discovers an age-old secret buried beneath the foundation of the house that he and his wife Jane, an avid reader of ghost stories, bought six months ago in the idyllic town of Old Orange in southern California. Jane Larkin, whose MacArthur grant led to the creation of public gardens and a farmers market in the town’s central park, works against time to save what she has built as a 100-year storm moves in off the coast. Lettie Phibbs, a strange librarian whose Antiquity Center holds the secrets to the hidden history of Old Orange, inserts herself into the Larkins’ lives, growing increasingly eccentric and menacing, as unpredictable as the storm itself. PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, a six-day mystery, tells the tale of a small town haunted by the reanimated ghosts of a buried past, a story that reaches a terrifying crescendo of murder and intrigue in a high-paced rush toward fate and redemption. Praise For Pennies From Heaven "Pennies from Heaven is a gripping mash-up of mystery, history, thriller and horror. Expect conspirators, murderers, fraudsters, charlatans and unquiet spirits among the cheerful co-op gardeners. Author James P Blaylock weaves these diverse strands with effortless skill, painting people and landscapes with the authentic touch of long familiarity. You can almost smell the desert, the wet wind, and that very malicious ghost." —Clare Rhoden, Aurealis #161 "The supernatural elements in the book are vital and well done (the eventual capture of the ghost is colorful and ingenious), but the spook stuff takes a backseat to the human dynamics, the caper aspect and the interpersonal hijinks. Blaylock has always had an affection for eccentrics, misfits and visionaries, and while Jane and Jerry are more “normal” and wholesome than his typical cast, they qualify as non-whitebread souls. As for Phibbs, Blaylock succeeds in creating a true monster." — Paul Di Filippo, Locus Magazine

A trilogy sets sail with a novel that’s “charming, light-hearted and funny . . . Feels a little like The Hobbit or The Wind in the Willows” (Fantasy Literature). James P. Blaylock’s debut novel The Elfin Ship has become a classic of whimsical fantasy. With echoes of Kenneth Graham and Mark Twain, it’s a gentle, eccentric, and hilarious novel that will delight readers of all ages. Trading with the elves used to be so simple. Every year Master Cheeser Jonathan Bing would send his very best cheeses downriver to traders who would eventually return with Elfin wonders for the people of Twombly Town. But no more . . . First, the trading post at Willowood Station was mysteriously destroyed. Then, a magical elfin airship began making forays overhead. Something was definitely amiss. So Jonathan set off downriver to deliver the cheeses himself, accompanied by the amazing Professor Wurzle, the irrepressible Dooly, and his faithful dog Ahab. It would have been such a pleasant trip, if not for the weeping skeleton, mad goblins, magic coins, an evil dwarf, a cloak of invisibility—and a watch that stopped time. If only the return trip were so simple. “Madcap’s not a word heard much these days, but it’s a great one to apply to the characters and their adventures in The Elfin Ship. From start to finish, Blaylock maintains a high level of inventive goofiness that never lets up. If you want about as great a break as possible from the brutalities and cynicism of much of today’s fantasy, this book is it.” —Black Gate

It is the late 19th century and a mysterious airship orbits through the foggy skies. Its terrible secrets are sought by many, including the Royal Society, a fraudulent evangelist, a fiendish vivisectionist, an evil millionaire and an assorted group led by the scientist and explorer Professor Langdon St. Ives. Can St. Ives keep the alien homunculus out of the claws of the villainous Ignacio Narbondo?

A biblical betrayal drives this trilogy from the World Fantasy Award–winning author, “a singular American fabulist” (William Gibson, author of Neuromancer). The price of immortality . . . Two thousand years ago, there lived a man who sold some valuable information for a fee of thirty silver coins. His name was Judas Iscariot, and he is no longer with us. The coins, however, still exist—and still hold an elusive power over all who claim them . . . Like Andrew Vanbergen, whose attempts at innkeeping bring in stranger business than he ever expected. And Aunt Naomi, whose most prized family heirloom is a silver spoon—with a curiously ancient-looking engraving. And especially old Mr. Pennyman, who is only five silver coins short of immortality . . . “The Last Coin should confirm Blaylock’s position as a trendsetter, breaking new ground rather than just exploring the old.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Against a lyric vision of the Southern California coast, cosmic conspiracy theories bump heads in a gleeful farce to produce another strange and wonderful book from the idiosyncratic author of Homunculus and Land of Dreams.” —Publishers Weekly “Weird and wonderful touches abound; Blaylock makes good use of his coastal setting, extracting his own brand of magic from familiar places and familiar things. While Biblical conspiracies and revisionist scriptures are all the rage now, Blaylock got the jump on the current crop by several years.” —SFF Chronicles

The collapse of the Victoria Embankment uncovers a passage to an unknown realm beneath the city. Langdon St. Ives sets out to explore it, not knowing that a brilliant and wealthy psychopathic murderer is working to keep the underworld’s secrets hidden for reasons of his own. St. Ives and his stalwart friends investigate a string of ghastly crimes: the gruesome death of a witch, the kidnapping of a blind, psychic girl, and the grim horrors of a secret hospital where experiments in medical electricity and the development of human, vampiric fungi, serve the strange, murderous ends of perhaps St. Ives’s most dangerous nemesis yet.

Southern California - sunny days, blue skies, neighbours on flying bicycles ... ghostly submarines ... mermen off the Catalina coast ... and a vast underground sea stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Inland Empire where Chinese junks ply an illicit trade and enormous creatures from ages past still survive. It is a place of wonder ... and dark conspiracies. A place rife with adventure - if one knows where to look for it. Two such seekers are the teenagers Jim Hastings and his friend, Giles Peach. Giles was born with a wonderful set of gills along his neck and insatiable appetite for reading. Drawing inspiration from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giles is determined to build a Digging Leviathan. Will he reach the center of the earth? or destroy it in the process?

Life as a man of leisure was becoming a bit dull for Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, so he welcomed Professor Wurzle''s invitation to visit the empty castle of Selznak, the Evil Dwarf. There they chanced upon a treasure map. Soon Jonathan, his wonderpooch Ahab, the Professor and Miles the magician set off by boat for the location of the treasure - the unknown city called Landsend. But between them and their goal lay the Case of the Missing Squire, the Attack of the Headless Oarsmen, a mysterious witch, some evil goblins - and the Secret of the Purloined Globe.

The second thriller in the supernatural trilogy by the World Fantasy Award–winning author— An “intriguing and absorbing work from a major talent” (Kirkus Reviews). Howard Barton came to Mendocino in search of a folded scrap of paper. Not just any old scrap of paper, but one bearing what might be a sketch by the legendary Japanese artist, Hoku-sai. But Howard, unfortunately, is not the only one who wants the sketch . . . There’s old Heloise Lamey, whose lush and noxious garden is watered with blood, ink, and stranger substances. And the enigmatic Mr. Jimmers, the owner of a workshop that holds a bizarre invention designed to raise the dead. Even Howard’s Uncle Roy, a builder of haunted houses and founder of the Museum of Modern Mysteries, has an interest in the sketch. In Northern California, nothing is what it appears, but everything is connected— and Howard is led to a mysterious private war between secret, underground societies. Now he just needs to figure out whose side he’s on in the quest for the Paper Grail. “Blaylock redeems the familiarity of his plot with a gift for drawing characters who are eccentric in delightful and original ways, whichever side of the war they are on.” —Publishers Weekly “Blaylock ventures into the realm of magical realism as eccentric matrons and failed entrepreneurs assume mythic proportions in this witty and intelligent metaphysical novel. This crossover novel belongs equally well in literary and fantasy collections.” —Library Journal

Third in the Balumnia Trilogy from the author of The Elfin Ship and The Disappearing Dwarf, “a singular American fabulist” (William Gibson, author of Neuromancer). Jonathan Bing wasn’t the first citizen of Twombly Town to have a run-in with Selznak the Dwarf. Meet the young Theophile Escargot, aggrieved former citizen of Twombly Town. Divorced, exiled, and humiliated—all for the crime of eating his own pie—he sets off down the Oriel River in search of a fetching barmaid, only to find himself traveling by submarine into fabled Balumnia, where is he is beset on all sides by an evil dwarf, a piratical elf, a stone giant, and an unlucky bag of marbles. With a little help, Escargot must rescue his true love, save the elves, and—most importantly—redeem his dignity. Revisit the world of The Elfin Ship and The Disappearing Dwarf, and discover where the adventures began. “Blaylock crafted a story of engaging characters, cozy settings, and goofy adventures. Escargot is one of the most likable and ridiculous rogues in fantasy. His evolution from layabout and pie-thief to actual hero is terrific.” —Black Gate Praise for the Balumnia Trilogy “A magical world, magically presented . . . Having journeyed there, you will not wish to leave, nor ever to forget.” —Philip K. Dick, Hugo Award–winning author of The Man in the High Castle

From the dark imagination of James P. Blaylock comes a new, chilling tale of the supernatural. When Peter Travers moves into an old house in a remote canyon to try to separate himself from his old existence, his wish becomes reality... all too literally. For his wife and son vanish and the people of the idyllic rural town begin to relive the horrors of a nightmarish crime committed one windy autumn, sixty years earlier. Against a backdrop of murder and midnight terror, Peter must contend with the abandoned relics of his own past before he can overcome the dark forces that haunt the canyon and the people he loves. REVIEWS: “Night Relics is a first rate tale of the supernatural with well drawn characters and plenty of shivery moments” -- Dean Koontz “Superb characters and setting, in a plot that meshes seamlessly...” -- Kirkus Reviews “[NIGHT RELICS] ... is marked by good prose, believable dialogue and fine description...” -- Publishers Weekly

A skeletal hand clutching an iron key lies hidden within a mermaid’s wooden sarcophagus; a hand-drawn map is stolen from beneath the floorboards an old museum; an eccentric sleeping inventor dreams of a passage to the center of the hollow earth, and by dreaming of the passage, brings it into being.... Pursued by kidnappers thinking of riches and murder, Katherine Perkins and her two cousins, junior members of The Guild of St. George, must descend into the depths of the hollow earth in order to return the Sleeper to his ancestral home on the shores of Lake Windermere. But to awaken him might mean the end of his dream, the closing of the Windermere Passage, and the three intrepid explorers marooned in a savage land forgotten by time itself.... Zeuglodon, set in the world envisioned in James Blaylock’s The Digging Leviathan, is a landscape of color, mystery, and adventure, in which reality and fantasy are shifting currents, and nothing is quite what it seems to be. “James P. Blaylock''s Zeuglodon is the most fun I''ve had reading in ages, with an unabashed budding cryptozoologist protagonist, mummified mermaid, underground passages, lost world, and the scariest busybody since Margaret Hamilton put Toto in her bicycle basket. Don''t miss it.” - Locus ABOUT THE AUTHOR World Fantasy Award winning author James P. Blaylock, one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre, has written eighteen novels as well as scores of short stories, essays, and articles. His steampunk novel Homunculus won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and his short story “The Ape-box Affair,” published in Unearth magazine, was the first contemporary steampunk story published in the U.S. Recent publications include Knights of the Cornerstone, The Ebb Tide, and The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs.

Within the magical gears of Lord Kelvin''s incredible machine lies the secret of time. The deadly Dr. Ignacio Narbondo would murder to possess it and scientist and explorer Professor Langdon St. Ives would do anything to use it. For the doctor it means mastery of the world and for the professor it means saving his beloved wife from death. A daring race against time begins...

A strange message summons Langdon St. Ives and his companions to the Half Toad Inn in Smithfield, London, and along with the eccentric but fabulously wealthy Gilbert Frobisher, they set out for an uncharted island in the Caribbean, carrying a map that promises a treasure that beggars description. What they find – a terrible, pagan god from the depths of the ocean – leads them back to London, carrying within the hold of Frobisher’s steam yacht a fearsome, tentacled menace that threatens to devastate London.

It is the summer of 1883 and Professor Langdon St. Ives - brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer - is at home in Aylesford with his family. However, a few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay; the crew murdered and pitched overboard. In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives. When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race to London in pursuit... The first new steampunk novel in over twenty years from one of the genre''s founding fathers!

Fifteen years ago, on a deserted California beach, Dave Quinn swam out into the winter ocean to save two drowning girls - identical twin sisters. He was only able to save one. Now, years last, he meets Anne, a strugglng artist from Canada. He has no idea she is the child he saved so long ago. And he has no idea that Elinor, the long-dead sister he couldn''t save, has come with her... REVIEWS: "... a singular American fabulist." -- William Gibson "This story of good and evil siblings examines how we all learn to live with who we are, and does so through supple writing and a tense and carefully executed plot... Blaylock combines the supernatural with a deep understanding of contemporary California and human nature, producing a book with appeal for both fantasy fans and readers of realistic fiction." -- Publishers Weekly "Vivid descriptions and deft characterisations... Winter Tides exposes the underbelly of human nature" -- Library Journal "One creepy, creepy book... Blaylock will scare you to death with a minimum of splatter and maximum of tension, Hitchcock-style. I read Winter Tides in one long sitting and found my heart wouldn''t stop racing." -- Woodland Hills Daily News (California)

“Blaylock is one of the most brilliant of that new generation of fabulist writers: All the Bells on Earthmay be his best book . . . Enthralling” (The Washington Post Book World). In the dead of night, a man climbs the tower of St. Anthony’s Church, driven by a compulsive urge to silence the bells. In a deserted alley, a seemingly random victim is consumed by a torrent of flames. And in the deceptive light of day, a mail-order businessman named Walt Stebbins receives a bizarre artifact—a glass jar containing the preserved body of a bluebird. Things like this don’t usually happen in a town like Orange, California. Ordinary people don’t expect to face evil—real evil—in their backyards. But as Walt unravels the mystery of the bird in the jar, he learns that the battle between good and evil takes place every day . . . “An absolute page-turner . . . A terrific novel by a master of the offbeat and the absurd.” —The Washington Post Book World “In the best tradition of The Twilight Zone, crossed with wacky characters, humor and moments of real love stunningly portrayed.” —Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column “With acrobatic grace, Blaylock, winner of two World Fantasy Awards, once again walks the dividing line between fantasy and horror—this time, as he relates a deal-with-the-devil story set in suburban Southern California.” —Publishers Weekly “While juxtaposing subtle humor with grim horror, the author portrays a world in which human virtues become mystic weapons and unlikely heroes grope their way toward salvation.” —Library Journal

Deep beneath the quicksands of Morecambe Bay lies a shifting graveyard of lost things, long sunk to the sea bottom. Pursued by the nefarious Dr. Narbondo, Langdon St. Ives and his stalwart companions descend beneath the sands in a diving chamber, and amid the debris of human bones and the wreckage of human lives, they search for an alien device, which, in the wrong hands,could change the course of human history and provide Narbondo with the means to enslave mankind....

Within this volume lie the complete Steampunk short stories of Professor Langdon St. Ives, Victorian adventurer, written by avowed Steampunk Legend, James P. Blaylock. St. Ives, traveler through time and space and an often misunderstood member of the Explorers Club and the Royal Society, has trodden the foggy London streets and Thames-side alleyways for decades, caught up in near-death adventures in pursuit of nefarious villains and obscure knowledge. In the pages of this chronicle, the intrepid Professor and his stalwart friends face down strange enemies and avert catastrophes that the world scarcely knows exist, finding themselves stalked through the idol-infested jungles of Borneo, set adrift in the starlit reaches of outer space, plunged into the infamous “barrel madness” that descended upon London in the late 18th century, and wandering in a past-and-future age when they stumble upon a time portal in the midst of ancient standing stones in the idyllic Kent countryside. World Fantasy Award winning author James Blaylock, one of the pioneers of the Steampunk genre along with Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter, has written more than 25 novels as well as scores of short stories, essays, and articles. His Steampunk novel Homunculus won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and his short story “The Ape-box Affair,” published in Unearth magazine in 1978, was the first contemporary Steampunk story published in the U.S. His recent Steampunk works include The Aylesford Skull, Beneath London, River’s Edge, and The Gobblin’ Society. Praise for James P. Blaylock: “A singular American fabulist.” —William Gibson “Blaylock is a magician!” —Michael Swanwick “Blaylock’s prose is so rich it literally sings!” —Charles de Lint “Blaylock is better than anyone else at showing us the magic that secretly animates our world...” —Tim Powers “While many recent novels have picked up the steampunk banner, this one fully delivers, offering action, farce, tender relationships, and prose full of genuine Victorian cadence and flavor.” —Publishers Weekly on The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs “St. Ives has to be one of the most fleshed out Victorian characters ever written, and I m sincerely hoping that Blaylock isn t finished with this scientist adventurer. The Aylesford Skull can easily stand alone without any knowledge of Blaylock s previous steampunk stories, but you’ll want to hunt down additional St. Ives tales, I’m for certain.” —Wired.com “Blaylock throws in all the furniture of the genre: derring-do and cliffhangers, a vivid portrayal of Victorian London, a gallery of grotesque characters and the obligatory airship, but the strength of the novel is his rendering of St Ives caught between his love of the chase and his commitment to family.” —The Guardian

A YA adventure from World Fantasy Award winning author James P. Blaylock. A suddenly appearing curiosity shop owned by a small man who might, or might not, be the Man in the Moon; a pair of strange spectacles buried in a fishbowl full of marbles; an old window glazed with sea-green glass found beneath a suburban house; and two adventurous boys who buy the spectacles and climb through the window into a land of goblins, ghosts, and rope ladders that reach to the moon... Who exactly is Mr. Deener, the fat man who makes magic out of bits of coloured glass, has a passion for glazed doughnuts, and whose seeming twin brother sleeps fitfully in an attic room? And who are the little men who ride out of the forest on windblown sycamore leaves in order to whisper into Mr. Deener''s ear? Is Mr. Deener, like a fallen Humpty Dumpty, broken apart? John and Danny need to know. To find their way home they''ll have to put Mr. Deener back together again and solve the mystery of the sleeping land - a task that leads them to the pool of reflections in the deep woods and ultimately to a house built of light and magic and memory that sits at the edge of the heart''s ocean. PRAISE FOR JAMES P. BLAYLOCK: "Blaylock is one of the most brilliant of that new generation of fabulist writers." -- Washington Post Book World "Blaylock allows us to see the mundane world through new eyes, to perceive the familar as strange and therefore fascinating - for what it is as well as for what it might be." -- Charles de Lint "[Blayock has]...a gift for drawing characters who are eccentric in delightful and original ways, whichever side of the war they are on." -- Publishers Weekly

Deep within the cavern-riddled chalk cliffs above the English Channel there brews a threat to the very sanity of the people of Britain. A startling madness infects the members of the Explorer’s Club in London, the debacle coinciding with the disappearance of Alice St. Ives and the murder of the lighthouse keeper at Beachy Head. Langdon St. Ives sets out to rescue his wife and to stop the accelerating train of events hurtling he and his friends into a dark tunnel of madness and death.

It''s a gray, wet winter in southern California, and Phil Ainsworth is alone. The sudden death of his young wife has left him shaken, and he gets eerie sensations as he roams around the big, old house he inherited from his mother. He''s sure he''s seen people snooping around his property, by the old well that, in this wet weather, always seems ready to overflow. How much is real and how much is in his head? That''s the question. A late-night phone call brings more bad news: Phil''s sister has died, leaving her ten-year-old daughter Betsy an orphan and naming Phil as guardian. It seems like a bad time to bring a child into this unhappy house, but Phil had always promised he''d take care of Betsy - and now she''s all the family he has left. What he can''t know is that Betsy is a very special child. She has the ability to sense the powerful emotions of the past, to hear voices of the dead, and to see the uncanny powers that are closing in around this house... James P. Blaylock has set the standard for the contemporary ghost story. The Washington Post called him "a master." Dean Koontz has hailed his writing as "first rate." A brilliant blend of psychological insight and unearthly phenomena, The Rainy Season blurs the lines between the past and the present, the living and the dead, fantasy and reality. REVIEWS: "The author of Winter Tides continues to display an uncanny talent for low-key, off-kilter drama, infusing the modern world with a supernatural tint. Blaylock''s evocative prose and studied pacing make him one of the most distinctive contributors to American magical realism." -- Library Journal "This may be Blaylock''s weirdest yet: intriguing, dramatic, atmospheric." -- Kirkus Reviews

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Year An anthology featuring all-original tales of gaslamp fantasy from bestselling and award-winning authors including Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked. "Gaslamp Fantasy," or historical fantasy set in a magical version of the nineteenth century, has long been popular with readers and writers alike. A number of wonderful fantasy novels owe their inspiration to works by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Brontës, and George Meredith to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Morris. And, of course, the entire steampunk genre and subculture owes more than a little to literature inspired by this period. Queen Victoria''s Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy. The result is eighteen stories by experts from the fantasy, horror, mainstream, and young adult fields, including both bestselling writers and exciting new talents, who present a bewitching vision of a nineteenth century invested (or cursed!) with magic. Includes short stories by Delia Sherman, Jeffrey Ford, Genevieve Valentine, Maureen McHugh, Kathe Koja, Elizabeth Wein, Elizabeth Bear, James P. Blaylock, Kaaron Warren, Leanna Renee Hieber, Dale Bailey, Veronica Schanoes, Catherynne M. Valente, Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer, Jane Yolen, Gregory Maguire, Tanith Lee, Theodora Goss. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

When poison fish begin to wash ashore along the River Medway, Langdon St. Ives sets out to investigate the Majestic Paper Mill and their corrupt owners. The body of a young girl is found dead in the river, and mystery grows darker and even more deadly, opening a door onto possible human sacrifice, witchcraft, and a growing threat to his family and friends. He finds himself fighting to save his wife Alice’s life, and prevent the ruination of his friends, his once idyllic life devolving into a dark puzzle for which there is no clear solution. Victorian-era investigator Langdon St. Ives is caught up in skullduggery when he looks into the murder of a mill worker in his seventh full-length adventure (after Beneath London) from World Fantasy Award–winner Blaylock. Charles Townover, owner of the Majestic Paper Mill in scenic Snodland, England, is determined to save his business. Chemicals from the mill are poisoning local streams and workers, and union men have been urging the women working at the mill to strike. Mother Laswell, the leader of a neighborhood spiritualist colony and a determined environmentalist, is also calling on the mill to clean up its act. When former mill worker Daisy Dumpel is found murdered, a local union organizer is charged with the crime, but St. Ives has doubts. Then Laswell is accused of witchcraft and St. Ives’s own wife is arrested, and he has extra incentive to find the truth quickly. Blaylock’s industrial Victorian setting is home to a host of intriguing characters, and their tangled motivations, along with the suspicion of otherworldly involvement, keep the sometimes meandering story moving. —Publisher''s Weekly

“...[A] twisted but delightful fantasy tale... Mystery, mesmerism, murder, and mayhem combine into a jolly good time. Blaylock’s fans will be gratified.” —Publishers Weekly When coffins bearing what might be living corpses are discovered in a sea cave long used by smugglers, Langdon St. Ives and his wife Alice are precipitated into a hellish mystery involving an ages-old house standing on the chalk cliffs of the Kentish coast. The strange house, shunned by the people Broadstairs and Margate, caters to a century-old eating society that offers a secret catalogue of corpses for sale and a menu for wealthy members with... eccentric tastes. When the society sets out to entrap St. Ives, an onrushing adventure ensues as Alice and the formidable Frobishers fight for their lives—an adventure that seems to ensure a deadly ending.

A good deal of controversy arose late in the last century over what has been referred to by the more livid newspapers as The Horror in St. James Park or The Ape-box Affair.... So begins the first chronicle in the long and often obscure life of Langdon St. Ives, Victorian scientist and adventurer, respected member of the Explorers Club and of societies far more obscure, consultant to scientific luminaries, and secret, unheralded savior of humankind. From the depths of the Borneo jungles to the starlit reaches of outer space, and ultimately through the dark corridors of past and future time, the adventures of Langdon St. Ives invariably lead him back to the streets and alleys of the busiest, darkest, most secretive city in the world -- London in the age of steam and gaslamps, with the Thames fog settling in over the vast city of perpetual evening. St. Ives, in pursuit of the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, discovers the living horror of revivified corpses, the deep sea mystery of a machine with the power to drag ships to their doom, and the appalling threat of a skeleton-piloted airship descending toward the city of London itself, carrying within its gondola a living homunculus with the power to drive men mad....