All original stories about the return of Cthulhu and the Old Ones to Earth. Some of the darkest hints in all of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos relate to what will happen after the Old Ones return and take over the earth. What happens when Cthulhu is unleashed upon the world? What happens when the other Old Ones, long since banished from our universe, break through and descend from the stars? What would the reign of Cthulhu be like on a totally transformed planet where mankind is no longer the master? Find out in these exciting, brand-new stories

An anthology of stories Move over, vampires. Make room for the hottest creatures in fantasy: werewolves. Most people think werewolves are creatures of ancient legend, associated with prowling darkened forests and terrifying peasants in medieval cottages. But what about today's werewolf in modern society? Has twenty-first century life changed the rules and lifestyles of the contemporary lycanthrope? Are wolf packs communicating online via social networks? Could the person who at first glance looks like an average commuter (on the early train, to avoid the rising of the full moon) be one of them? Have werewolves infiltrated every level of government? Full Moon City answers these questions, and many more. Featuring contributions from bestselling fantasy luminaries, this collection of spellbinding stories puts the fun back into dark fiction

"Slow Birds," by Ian Watson tells the story of a strangely idyllic world which is plagues by mysterious invaders. Dubbed "slow birds," because the cylindrical objects fly at the rate of only a few feet per minute, the artefacts are a complete mystery. Jason Babbidge's life is inexorably changed and linked to the slow birds when his brother, Daniel, climbs aboard a slowbird shortly before it disappears into the unknown. Watson's story deals with Jason's quest for his brother and later the revelation which comes to him as he climbs aboard a slow bird of his own. "Slow Birds" was nominated for the 1983 Nebula for best novelette

Another story collection from the prolific Watson (Salvage Rites, Evil Water, Slow Birds), this one comprising 12 tall tales published between 1985 and 1990. The longest piece here is brilliantly conceived: a company of Ushabti, tiny clay figurines placed in the sarcophagus of a pharaoh as his attendants, explore their sarcophagus-universe, then attempt to revive their dead master; what makes no stylistic or literary sense, and irredeemably flaws the story, is Watson's introduction of some investigating Egyptologists in the form of a play and, worse, chanting blank verse. Also noteworthy: the impressively imagined title yarn, which probes the strange consequences arising from deliberately distorted maps but all too soon meanders off into unfathomable byways; and a persuasive yarn that features the surrealist architect Gaudi. Elsewhere, three clumsily obvious metaphors (time travel and race hatred; rich vs. poor; a human chicken becomes chancellor of Oxford University) irritate rather than uplift; a jailer physically and psychically absorbs his prisoners; an English village hides odd goings-on; Sherlock Holmes ponders Cinderella, to astonishing effect; and an ayatollah's eyeball elicits only routine irony. Amazingly inventive – but too often inattentive or downright eccentric in the execution

The Embedding opens in a research institute where Chris Sole is teaching a strange form of language whose grammar can be “self-embedded” by computers to create an artificially complex means of communication that opens up the vast potential of the human mind

Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has one thing in common: each features some alteration in history, some divergence from historical reality, which results in a world very different from the one we know today. As well as original stories specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow, Stephen Baxter and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s story of how World War II atomic bomber the Enola Gay, having crashed on a training flight, is replaced by the Lucky Strike with profoundly different consequences