Cirrus@Austlit

'They are superhuman champions: hyper-charged, meta-guardians of humanity; protecting the innocent from the corrupt, saving us from the sadistic; shielding us from human or inhuman evil in all its forms.

'But, what if the gleaming smile from the chiseled jaw was actually the animalistic baring of teeth? What if THEY were the nightmare threat? They are not superheroes, but superhorrors!

'This dark potential is revealed as we present tales of shock and the macabre from a roster that includes some of the greatest creative minds from the realms of fantasy, science fiction, horror and comic-books. What sort of dark and chilling fates arise when those with powers far beyond mere mortals are the central figures not in tales of triumph, but of terror?' (Publication summary)

'David Kuraria is your guide as you push through drenched tropical foliage in the torrential downpour. 

'In these tales we see a Melanesian farmer seeking land rights from a dominant tribe. Bearing gifts of persuasion, the farmer find that the tribe’s gods might first need appeasing.

'An artist experimenting with narcotics and obscure occult methods inadvertently solicits an unwelcome muse.

'A group of holidaymakers travel up a Northern Australian River on a converted war barge. Here brutal colonial past reaches out to ensnare them on a journey into horror.

'A survivor of the Christchurch earthquakes takes his deceased grandfather’s diaries to recreate the old man’s equatorial travels. On a tiny Micronesian island he steps into an ‘otherworld’, where any action has blackly comical and unpleasant consequences.

'Kuraria guides you through hidden valleys and treacherous swamps. Be careful not to step from the path.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the story that first established the monstrous cosmic terrors of his Mythos writer H. P. Lovecraft said “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity…” 

'Which makes it all the more fitting that the adepts of Lovecraft’s vision writing today would choose to unveil ever-evolving and terrible fears besetting those that live on the largest island on the planet, and force the protagonists of some startling new horror fiction tales in this book to face, indeed, not placidity, but their own black seas of infinity…and madness.

'Again, some of the greatest scribes of the weird and startling from the land down under bring you brand new stories in the Lovecraftian genre, taking you from the realms of contemporary Australian cities, to the blood-soaked, post-colonial past (touching the powerful original cultures of the land), and even hinting at the disturbing future of Terra Australis.

'You will fear a sunburnt country.

'Tales of terror by Alan Baxter, David Conyers, Julie Ditrich, Jason Fischer, Steve Kilbey, Steven Paulsen, Steve Proposch, Alf Simpson, Cat Sparks, Maurice Xanthos. Introduction by Cat Rambo and Afterword by Jack Dann.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'An anthology based on the Martian invasion of earth imagined by H.G. Wells.

'With stories set in Australia of the past, present and future, this riveting and inventive collection features 16 of Australia's best science fiction, crime and speculative fiction authors: Kerry Greenwood, Carmel Bird, Jack Dann, Janeen Webb, Sean Williams, Angela Meyer, Lindy Cameron, Jenny Valentish, Narrelle M Harris, Lucy Sussex, Rick Kennett, Jason Franks, Dmetri Kakmi, Bill Congreve, Jason Fischer, and Kaaron Warren.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In tribute to H. P. Lovecraft, this book is an assortment of the finest Australian dark fiction, bringing you a second volume of Lovecraftian stories of wonder and dread. Featured are new tales by Silvia Brown, Robert Hood, Kirstyn McDermott, and Lee Murray. The collection takes readers back below the equator, into the bizarre and headlong towards horror. From mist-shrouded peaks and canyons of Melanesian islands, through rainforests and scorching deserts of the island continent of Terra Australis, and across the Tasman Sea to the inhospitable hinterlands of New Zealand.' (Publication summary)

'Renai just wanted some land for his family; he nearly lost everything.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'24 established Australian genre fiction writers. 24 amazing artists. 24 gripping pieces of prose that will astound, horrify, amuse and delight you. H. P. Lovecraft began the traditions of his Cthulhu cosmology with 'The Call of Cthulhu' almost a century ago, and Australia was a prominent part of that first tale. Now HPL's Mythos, as it effects Australia, is the subject of its own collection of horror stories!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.