Description:

Johnny and Fran are on assignment again, this time heading for Colorado to investigate reports of an unusually large Apraxis hive. Apraxis wasps are large, deadly, and worst of all, capable of consuming the memories of the people they kill, which makes them the sort of thing that no one really wants living nearby. Upon arriving in Colorado, our intrepid pair naturally discover that things aren't as simple as they appear—and they didn't appear to be that simple to begin with. Johnny and Fran will have to contend with dragon princesses, suspicious locals, and threats that neither of them have ever dreamed could exist if they want to make it out of this one alive. Survival has never been so difficult, or so important, because if they don't make it home, how can they warn the others? "Stingers and Strangers" was originally published in the Titan Books anthology Dead Man's Hand, released in May of 2014. Copies are available from a bookstore near you.

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD!

From a kill-or-be-killed gunfight with a vampire to an encounter in a steampunk bordello, the weird western is a dark, gritty tale where the protagonist might be playing poker with a sorcerous deck of cards, or facing an alien on the streets of a dusty frontier town. Here are twenty-three original tales—stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic—produced specifically for this volume by many of today’s finest writers.

Included are Orson Scott Card’s first “Alvin Maker” story in a decade, and an original adventure by Fred Van Lente, writer of Cowboys & Aliens. Other contributors include Tobias S. Buckell, David Farland, Alan Dean Foster, Jeffrey Ford, Laura Anne Gilman, Rajan Khanna, Mike Resnick, Beth Revis, Fred Van Lente, Walter Jon Williams, Ben H. Winters, Christie Yant, and Charles Yu, with an introduction by editor John Joseph Adams.

CONTENTS :

01 - Joe R. Lansdale, The Red-Headed Dead
02 - Ben H. Winters, The Old Slow Man and his Gold Gun from Space
03 - David Farland, Hellfire on the High Frontier
04 - Mike Resnick, The Hell-Bound Stagecoach
05 - Seanan McGuire, Stingers and Strangers
06 - Charles Yu, Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger
07 - Alan Dean Foster, Holy Jingle
08 - Beth Revis, The Man With No Heart
09 - Alastair Reynolds, Wrecking Party
10 - Hugh Howey, Hell from the East
11 - Rajan Khanna, Second Hand
12 - Orson Scott Card, Alvin and the Apple Tree
13 - Elizabeth Bear, Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle
14 - Tad Williams, Strong Medicine
15 - Jonathan Maberry, Red Dreams
16 - Kelley Armstrong, Bamboozled
17 - Tobias S. Buckell, Sundown
18 - Jeffrey Ford, La Madre del Oro
19 - Ken Liu, What I Assume You Shall Assume
20 - Laura Anne Gilman, The Devil's Jack
21 - Walter Jon Williams, The Golden Age
22 - Fred Van Lente, Neversleeps
23 - Christie Yant, Dead Man's Hand