Cirrus@Austlit

'The Mad Butterfly’s Ball is an essential compendium of stories dedicated to the lurking horror and profound wonder of those that live, largely unseen, in the world around us—the enigmatic insect! Featuring original and new works by Clive Barker, Jeffrey Thomas, Kaaron Warren, Paul Di Filippo, Eugen Bacon, and many more, alongside classics of the subgenre, The Mad Butterfly’s Ball is the largest and most comprehensive anthology of its kind, with stunning illustrations by Richard Kirk and Yoshika Nagata.' (Publication summary) 

'Olivia has been missing for months. Her family have tried to accept that perhaps she’ll never be found, and they’ll never know what happened. So when her brother Craig unexpectedly receives a stack of letters from Liv, all written not long after her disappearance, he’s both excited and frightened. Reading through her correspondence, Craig begins to get a sense of where she was, but he still doesn’t know where she is now, or if she’s still alive. Using what clues he can from the old letters, Craig sets off with his partner and his father to find Olivia, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Happy ever after is for normal people without a past!

'Life is falling into place for Eve, futures are beginning and things are moving forward in all the right directions. Eve finally knows who she is, and best of all, where she’s going, with the love of her life right by her side.

'Life is now better than ever… until it’s not!

'The people Eve loves, aren't all whom they seem to be, the truth has been lost in her attempt to have the life she deserves. The deception and evil goes deeper than she ever imagined. Just when Eve is about to have it all, her past comes back to take revenge. Everything and everyone she loves is on the line.' (Publication summary)

'Every love story deserves a second chance, and it's time for Eve to move forward in her life. She’s older, wiser, stronger, and sexier. Her life is full again, she’s having great sex again, living in a new city and sharing her life with the man she’s always loved. Eve’s hoping this is her destiny even though there’s still a massive secret between them.

'Time has passed, Eve’s family and friends need her more than ever, and she’s trying her best to be everything to everyone while carrying her own emotional baggage. She’ll do whatever it takes to get her happily ever after.' (Publication summary)

'Welcome to a world of murder mystery, warped and enhanced through a Cthulhu Mythos lens! We bring to you within these pages twelve stories written by some of weird fiction’s best and brightest authors. This includes writers such as Tim Waggoner, Lucy A. Snyder, John Langan, and more. Join us as their detectives, amateur, professional, and accidental, attempt to solve mysteries set within the weirdest, most godforsaken places. See if you can solve the crimes before our flawed but most intrepid detectives do. Lives may be lost, sanity, most certainly, and all within the murder mystery genre we all know and love, combined with Lovecraftian horror at its finest.' (Publication summary)

'Fifteen of the greatest minds in speculative fiction come together to explore this concept, with their own unique takes on the theme. From relationship disintegration to age disintegration to dark post-apocalyptic fantasy, these stories weave a web of imagination that encroaches upon our real lives all too disturbingly.' (Publication summary)

'Worlds within. Worlds without end. Seven novellas from Australia’s #1 New York Times-bestselling “Emperor of Sci-fi” that take the reader on journeys deep and wide: through space- and time-bending labyrinths; via machines that challenge our very notions of reality; to the very ends of humanity and the furthest reaches of the human heart.

'THESKYINSIDE collects work by Sean Williams set in his TWINMAKER, ASTROPOLIS and STRUCTURE series that have been recognised by the Aurealis, Ditmar and Locus Awards, along with new work that spans the decades of his writing career' (Publication summary)

'Dirty Dangerous Secrets
It's a world far from her own, full of dangerous pleasures!

'Eve is sure she’s addicted to the seductive, infamous crime figure Evan Li. Not to mention his mystery, his body, and his sex. Evan knows her inside and out in every way possible, he’s a master manipulator and a fantastic lover! Eve asks herself constantly, how someone so bad, can feel so damn good.

'She can’t walk away, it’s love.

'Loyal to her own detriment, Eve knows being with a man like Evan takes great resilience, and nobody sees the man she sees. He’s her protector and her pleasure. With all his badness, there is so much passion and love…

'And he knows all her secrets!

'Through tragedy and turmoil Eve finds true love and comfort in the most unlikely man.' (Publication summary)

'A single summer changes everything for Eve Frank. Her innocent and privileged high school days are over, it's time to take a tropical holiday with her two best friends, it's their first taste of freedom.

'Her secret love becomes her sexy reality, it’s a dream holiday romance that she never saw coming and one she will never forget. When the holiday is over so is Eve’s innocence... She’s left with an even bigger secret.

'Eve’s young, sheltered life is suddenly propelled into a state of disarray. Lost and alone, dealing with family turmoil and an identity crisis, Eve finds herself in the dangerous arms of an irresistible older man. She’s torn between what she knows is right and wrong. The sensually comforting distraction this mystery man offers both physically and mentally is hard to ignore.

'In search of her soul, feeling lost and confused, and desperate for answers, Eve goes to France to seek the unconditional love and support of her grandmother at the family chateau and wineyard.' (Publication summary)

'When a strange creature approaches Selke’s campfire, intent on filling its stomach with who knows what (or whom), Selke disarms it with her own meal and the promise of stories, eager to prolong her life while she searches for salvation.

'There follows the tale of Gwynn, a young witch determined to survive the prince’s court and avoid the fate of his many wives; the story of a dital harp, imbued with the magic of its maker to aid in her quest for revenge, and lastly, the tale of Selke’s search for the bone lantern, and through it her salvation…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'From The Waste Land - stories inspired by T.S. Eliot's “The Waste Land” Plaintive ghosts, deep space, medieval castles, rising seas, parched deserts, abandoned villages…Inspired by its powerful themes—still highly resonant in an era looking for hope—nineteen original tales mark the centenary of Eliot’s poem. From the Waste Land brings together decorated writers and new voices in fantasy; ghost tales, horror, dystopia and science fiction. With a blend of the grotesque and the sublime, the poignant and the horrifying, the sad and the stoic, you’ll find stories that conjure wastelands from the 1500s to many centuries hence. You’ll also find the hope for humanity and the belief in our joint future that these writers seek for us all.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In a kingdom where magic is banned and rules abound, Princess Emer escapes to the forest. When an accursed raven pecks her hand, Emer is transformed and finds herself at the heart of a war between her mother and her aunt. Only the Crown of Feathers can set them all free, and Emer must find it and her true self along the way.'(Publication summary)

'What’s the weirdest thing you could imagine going on in a national library?

'Dropout physics student Angela Donohoe is about to discover just that. Release it.  Become it. All in a world where colonial history did not quite turn out like ours, where the global power is the Federated Kingdom of Mendana and David Bowie was an astronaut, The White Library is a surreal escapade of library friends and enemies, love—and a remarkable woman.

'The White Library: beautifully written, sensitive, idiotic.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Meet the shapeshifting dragons of Hong Kong. Adept at passing for human, they are the kind of dragons you'd find at a Gatsby party—charming, sophisticated, glamorous, outrageously wealthy—and utterly ruthless.

'Nothing, it seems, can challenge their privileged lives—until Lady Feng leaves one of her eggs to be raised by human foster parents in a remote mountain village.

'The dragon child hatches. Born with dragon power, raised with human emotion, this child is trouble. And his powers are growing ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In this special companion volume to The Complete Rynosseros, author Terry Dowling discusses the origins and development of every story in the classic saga of the Blue Captain.

'There are fascinating insights into the parts played by boyhood movies, picture books, comics and SF magazines, by the work of the Surrealists and Scheherazade’s tales from the Thousand and One Nights, everything from Jacobean song lyrics, modern-day movie soundtracks and a child’s drawing of a robot to the fiction of Cordwainer Smith, Ray Bradbury and J.G. Ballard, as well as that of his long-time writer friends Jack Vance and Harlan Ellison.

'Whether through the support and wise counsel of editors like Peter McNamara and Philip Gore, the artwork and design input of friend and colleague Nick Stathopoulos, or the titles, questions and suggestions offered by many interested companions along the way, Songs from the Inland Sea focuses, too, on learning the craft. It highlights the role of hard work, improvisation and—in true Surrealist fashion— serendipity, the part played by chance so prized by Max Ernst and other luminaries in the movement.

'For the completist, the die-hard fan or curious newcomer, Songs from the Inland Sea provides an intriguing, heartfelt look at how one writer went about pursuing the dream, and not only added a truly unforgettable character to the canon of modern fantastic literature, but, as often happens in any creative life, came to discover himself in the process.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Events are fast nearing crisis point for the seven Coloured Captains. While Tom strives to learn the meaning of his three signs from the Madhouse, he continues to test the patience and goodwill of the tribes who rule this amazing Australia of the future.

'As he roams the dream-ridden streets of Twilight Beach, travels the strange wind river called the Soul, wanders the shores of the Inland Sea and visits the desert wastes of Totem Rule and Pentecost, his very existence cannot help but provoke the tribal Princes and their powerful allies.

'Going walkabout doesn’t help either, for Tom cannot be other than the man he is. By aiding outcasts, travellers, fellow captains, even rogue belltrees in his search for his forgotten past, the point is finally reached where something must be done and a deadly plan is put in place that will deal with the Captains once and for all.

'The question is: will Tom find answers before it’s too late.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.