by Neil Gaiman
www.alsarrantonio.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
ALSO BY NEIL GAIMAN
FOR ADULTS
The Graveyard Book (with illustrations by Dave McKean)
Anansi Boys
Coraline (with illustrations by Dave McKean)
American Gods
Stardust
Neverwhere
Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett)
FOR ALL AGES
M Is for Magic
Fragile Things
Smoke and Mirrors
Odd and the Frost Giants (illustrated by Brett Helquist)
Crazy Hair (illustrated by Dave McKean)
Blueberry Girl (illustrated by Charles Vess)
The Dangerous Alphabet (illustrated by Chris Grimly)
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (illustrated by Dave McKean)
The Wolves in the Walls (illustrated by Dave McKean)
ALSO BY AL SARRANTONIO
NOVELS
The Orangefield Trilogy (Hallow Eve, Horrorween, Halloweenland)
Masters of Mars (Haydn of Mars, Sebastian of Mars, Queen of Mars)
The Five Worlds Trilogy (Exile, Journey, Return)
Moonbane
Skeletons
October
House Haunted
West Texas
Kitt Peak
Cold Night
Summer Cool
The Boy with Penny Eyes
Totentanz
Campbell Wood
STORY COLLECTIONS
Toybox
Hornets and Others
Halloween and Other Seasons
AS EDITOR
999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense
Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction
Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy
The National Lampoon Treasury of Humor
The Fireside Treasury of New Humor
The Fireside Treasury of Great Humor
Credits
Jacket design by James L. Iacobelli
Jacket illustration by Tom Gauld
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
“Introduction: Just Four Words” by Neil Gaiman. Copyright © 2010 by Neil Gaiman.
“Blood” by Roddy Doyle. Copyright © 2010 by Roddy Doyle.
“Fossil-Figures” by Joyce Carol Oates. Copyright © 2010 by the Ontario Review.
“Wildfire in Manhattan” by Joanne Harris. Copyright © 2010 by Frogspawn, Ltd.
“The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains” by Neil Gaiman. Copyright © 2010 by Neil Gaiman.
“Unbelief” by Michael Marshall Smith. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Marshall Smith.
“The Stars Are Falling” by Joe R. Lansdale. Copyright © 2010 by Joe R. Lansdale.
“Juvenal Nyx” by Walter Mosley. Copyright © 2010 by Walter Mosley.
“The Knife” by Richard Adams. Copyright © 2010 by Richard Adams.
“Weights and Measures” by Jodi Picoult. Copyright © 2010 by Jodi Picoult.
“Goblin Lake” by Michael Swanwick. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Swanwick.
“Mallon the Guru” by Peter Straub. Copyright © 2010 by Peter Straub.
“Catch and Release” by Lawrence Block. Copyright © 2010 by Lawrence Block.
“Polka Dots and Moonbeams” by Jeffrey Ford. Copyright © 2010 by Jeffrey Ford.
“Loser” by Chuck Palahniuk. Copyright © 2010 by Chuck Palahniuk.
“Samantha’s Diary” by Diana Wynne Jones. Copyright © 2010 by Diana Wynne Jones.
“Land of the Lost” by Stewart O’Nan. Copyright © 2010 by Stewart O’Nan.
“Leif in the Wind” by Gene Wolfe. Copyright © 2010 by Gene Wolfe.
“Unwell” by Carolyn Parkhurst. Copyright © 2010 by Carolyn Parkhurst.
“A Life in Fictions” by Kat Howard. Copyright © 2010 by Kat Howard.
“Let the Past Begin” by Jonathan Carroll. Copyright © 2010 by Jonathan Carroll.
“The Therapist” by Jeffery Deaver. Copyright © 2010 by Jeffery Deaver.
“Parallel Lines” by Tim Powers. Copyright © 2010 by Tim Powers.
“The Cult of the Nose” by Al Sarrantonio. Copyright © 2010 by Al Sarrantonio.
“Human Intelligence” by Kurt Andersen. Copyright © 2010 by Kurt Andersen.
“Stories” by Michael Moorcock. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Moorcock.
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand. Copyright © 2010 by Elizabeth Hand.
“The Devil on the Staircase” by Joe Hill. Copyright © 2010 by Joe Hill.
STORIES. Copyright © 2010 by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
EPub Edition © May 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200857-2
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com