Short Stories Audiobooks | Science Fiction & Fantasy

The Altar of the Dead (Unabridged) Audiobook

The Altar of the Dead by Henry James - is a short story by Henry James, first published in his collection Terminations in 1895. A fable of literally life and death significance, the story explores how the protagonist tries to keep the remembrance of his dead friends, to save them from being forgotten entirely in the rush of everyday events. He meets a woman who shares his ideals, only to find that the past places what seems to be an impassable barrier between them. Although James was not religious in any conventional sense, the story shows a deep spirituality in its treatment of mortality and the transcendent power of unselfish love. Plot summary Aging George Stransom holds sacred the memory of the great love of his life, Mary Antrim, who died before they could be married. One day Stransom happens to read of the death of Acton Hague, a former friend who had done him a terrible harm. Stransom starts to dwell on the many friends and acquaintances he is now losing to death. He begins to light candles at a side altar in a Catholic church, one for each of his Dead, except Hague. Later he notices a woman who regularly appears at the church and sits before his altar. He intuitively understands that she too honours her Dead, and they very gradually become friends. However Stransom later discovers that her Dead number only one: Acton Hague. Hague had wronged her too, but she has forgiven him. When his friend realises Stransom's feelings about Hague, she declares that she can no longer honour Hague at Stransom's altar. Stransom cannot bring himself to resolve the issue by forgiving Hague and adding a candle for him. This disagreement drives the two friends apart. Stransom's friend ceases visiting the altar, and Stransom himself can find no peace there. Months later, Stransom, now dying, visits his altar one last time. Collapsing before the altar, he has a vision of Mary Antrim, and it seems that Mary Antrim is asking him to forgive Hague: '[H]e felt his buried face grow hot as with some communicated knowledge that had the force of a reproach. It suddenly made him contrast that very rapture with the bliss he had refused to another. This breath of the passion immortal was all that other had asked; the descent of Mary Antrim opened his spirit with a great compunctious throb for the descent of Acton Hague.'

Henry James (Author), Dorlene Kaplan, Larry Caplan (Narrator)

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[Danish] - Randolph Carters erklæring

'Randolph Carters erklæring' af H. P. Lovecraft er nummer elleve i rækken af HN Publishings Lovecraft-udgivelser. Novellen blev første gang udgivet i The Vagrant i maj 1920. Den fortæller historien om en traumatiserende begivenhed i Randolph Carters liv, en hovedperson, der studerede det okkulte og som sporadisk refererer til Lovecraft selv. Det er den første historie, hvor Carter optræder. Elementer af 'Randolph Carters erklæring' er siden blevet indføjet i horror-filmen 'The unnamable II: The statement of Randolph Carter' fra 1992, som blev instrueret af Jean-Paul Ouellette.

H.P. Lovecraft (Author), Klaus Kalsbøll Elmer (Narrator)

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Superhero Shrink: Climate Change

The Superhero Shrink' is ''The Avengers' Meets 'Ordinary People,'' an honest look at the people behind the masks. Dr. Christopher has a very difficult, unique job. He's a psychiatrist who works with superheroes. Some legendary warriors come with baggage and his job is to help 'keep 'em flying.' How are you supposed to save people who are supposed to be saving us? Half-serious, half-dark comedy. Climate Change is about the disasters of superhero fights - how do you clean up the pollution from a hyperdimensional monster robot war?

Jackson Allen (Author), Jeremiah Jones (Narrator)

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[Portuguese] - Não Olhe Pelo Buraco da Fechadura

Batuta Ribeiro (Author), Leandro Simões (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - EMILIA PARDO BAZÁN: CUENTOS DE NAVIDAD

Emilia Pardo Bazán (Author), Ricardo De Alvarado (Narrator)

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No Old Ladies in Jannah: Short Stories

A lottery winner accepts Islam the next day—only to realize he probably should've kept the lottery news to himself. A barista who can read Quran gets away with listing 'Arabic speaker' on his resume—until the day a man comes in to test him. A talk show host unwittingly asks, 'what happens after you die?' to a Muslim audience member who's got a surprise for him. A man intent on memorizing the Quran starts by naming his first daughter Fatihah, his wife unaware of what he plans to name their next daughter. We meet a fella who's jealous of the other kids' favorite 'djinn story' teller; a Hollywood hopeful pitching a Quranic Cinematic Universe; and a Muslim man reliving the same day over and over à la Groundhog Day. Along the way, we meet a kid named Simon who doesn't appreciate the 'Bismillah game,' a variation on Simon Says, a couple who has some amendments to make to their nikah contract, and we learn why you should leave all business behind on Jummah day. Finding inspiration from the marital journeys of Batman and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to the tweaked supplications of an Artificial Intelligence bot, No Old Ladies in Jannah sources comedy from the connecting dots of a Muslim mind in a mainstream world. Exhibiting playfulness with heart, humanity with humor, and traditions with a twist, this debut collection from Jawaad Khan is sure to entertain readers with a variety of themes, subjects, tones, and narrative voices. The many pieces here will take you in all directions, but are ultimately centered by the deft hand of a writer who takes both the silly and the serious quite seriously.

Jawaad Khan (Author), Jawaad Khan (Narrator)

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Spectral Evidence

For almost thirty years, Shirley Jackson Award–winning horror author Gemma Files has consistently served up tale after tale celebrating monstrosity in all its forms: the imperfect, the broken, the beautifully alien, and the sadly familiar. Her characters make their own choices and take their own chances, slipping from darkness into deeper darkness yet never losing their humanity—not even when they’re anything but. An embittered blood-servant plots revenge against the vampires who own him; a little girl’s best friend seeks to draw her into an ancient, forbidden realm; two monster-hunting sisters cross paths with an amoral holler-witch again and again, battling both mortal authorities and immortal predators. From the forgotten angels who built the cosmos to the reckless geniuses whose party drug unleashes a plague, madness, monsters and murder await at every turn. And in “The Speed of Pain,” sequel to the International Horror Guild Award–winning story “The Emperor’s Old Bones,” we find that even those who can live forever can’t outrun their own crimes … Following in the footsteps of her critically praised Kissing Carrion, The Worm in Every Heart, and We Will All Go Down Together, this is the first of two new Gemma Files collections from Trepidatio Publishing, bringing together nine of her best stories from the past ten years. So whether you’re returning to Files’ dark dreamlands or visiting for the first time, we advise you to get ready to review the Spectral Evidence.

Gemma Files (Author), Andrew Eiden, Andrew Gibson, Chelsea Stephens, Hillary Huber, Joel Froomkin, Nancy Peterson, Neil Hellegers, Zura Johnson (Narrator)

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The Ghost Sequences

“A haunting is a moment of trauma, infinitely repeated. It extends forward and backward in time. It is the hole grief makes. It is a house built by memory in-between your skin and bones.” A lush and elegant collection of tales—many having appeared in various “Best Of” anthologies—teeming with frightful and tragic events, yet profoundly and intimately human. These chilling tales will engross and enthrall. For readers of Kelly Link, Carmen Maria Machado, and Angela Carter, this is a must have collection of ghostly tales set to deliver a frisson of terror and glee.

A. C. Wise (Author), Alex Boyles, Andrew Gibson, Bradford Hastings, Emily Lawrence, Erica Sullivan, Hillary Huber, Kate Mulligan, Kevin Kenerly, Krystal Hammond, Traber Burns (Narrator)

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Chilling Shorts: Twisted Tales Of Madness, Disturbia And The Supernatural, For Enjoyment Before Bedt

17 twisted short stories and poems from the author of the Victorian Gothic series of novels. From first dates to shipwrecked sailors, encompassing modern horror to gothic tropes, this anthology has something for everyone with one thing in common: they want something to think about when they go to bed.

D. R. Miller (Author), Jonathan Keeble, Julie Teal, Malk Williams (Narrator)

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Ezra’s Ghosts

Award-winning author Darcy Tamayose returns with Ezra’s Ghosts, a collection of fantastical stories linked by a complex mingling of language and culture, as well as a deep understanding of grief and what it makes of us. Within these pages a scholar writes home from the Ryukyu islands, not knowing that his hometown will soon face a deadly calamity of its own. Another seeker of truth is trapped in Ezra after her violent death, and must watch how her family—and her killer—alter in her absence. The oldest man in town, an immigrant who came to Canada to escape imperial hardships, sprouts wings, and a wounded journalist bears witness to his transformation. Finally, past and present collide as a researcher reflects on the recent skinwars that have completely altered the world’s topography. Binding the stories together is an intersect of arrival and departure—in a quiet prairie town called Ezra.

Darcy Tamayose (Author), Stephany Seki (Narrator)

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The Picture of Dorian (Unabridged)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The novel-length version was published in April 1891. The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian's and an artist infatuated with Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and is soon enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and visually records every one of Dorian's sins. Wilde's only novel, it was subject to much controversy and criticism in its time but has come to be recognized as a classic of gothic literature. For the fuller 1891 novel, Wilde retained Stoddart's edits and made some of his own, while expanding the text from thirteen to twenty chapters and added the book's famous preface. Chapters 3, 5, and 15-18 are new, and chapter 13 of the magazine edition was divided into chapters 19 and 20 for the novel. Revisions include changes in character dialogue as well as the addition of the preface, more scenes and chapters, and Sibyl Vane's brother, James Vane. The edits have been construed as having been done in response to criticism, but Wilde denied this in his 1895 trials, only ceding that critic Walter Pater, whom Wilde respected, did write several letters to him 'and in consequence of what he said I did modify one passage' that was 'liable to misconstruction'. A number of edits involved obscuring homoerotic references, to simplify the moral message of the story.

Oscar Wilde (Author), John Gonzalez (Narrator)

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Silence - A Fable (Unabridged)

Silence: A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Demon recounts the story of how he tormented a man in the Congo. The man was seated on a rock on the edge of a churning river. The river was bordered by water lillies and surrounded by a forest of poisonous flowers. The man trembled in fear but did not run from the world he saw. Demon then cast a spell that turned the world into a violent one. The winds raged. The Earth shook, but the man remained still trembling. The Demon then cast a spell of silence. The Earth ceased to move. The wind stopped as did the water. There was complete silence. The man stood and strained to hear something. The man was then overcome with terror and 'fled afar off, in haste.' Edgar Allan Poe The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer's oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America's first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe's reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry. Just as the bizarre characters in Poe's stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author's name.

Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Chad Sawyer (Narrator)

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Short Stories Audiobooks in Science Fiction & Fantasy