Cassandra Khaw

This is the third annual edition of the Long List Anthology. Every year, supporting members of WorldCon nominate their favorite stories first published during the previous year to determine the top five in each category for the final Hugo Award ballot. This is an anthology collecting more of the stories from that nomination list to get them to more readers. The Long List Anthology Volume 3 collects 20 science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories from that nomination list, totaling over 500 pages of fiction by writers from all corners of the world. From intelligent appliances gone feral to Lovecraftian detective noir, from tech-enhanced wilderness races to Egyptian science fantasy steampunk, from hard science fiction to fairy tale to humor and more. There is a wide variety of styles and types of stories here, and something for everyone. The stories included are: "Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo"A Salvaging of Ghosts" by Aliette de Bodard"Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0" by Caroline M. Yoachim"Razorback" by Ursula Vernon"We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?" by Rebecca Ann Jordan"Lullaby for a Lost World" by Aliette de Bodard"Terminal" by Lavie Tidhar"Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands" by Seanan McGuire"Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller"The Venus Effect" by Venus Allen"The Visitor From Taured" by Ian R. MacLeod"Blood Grains Speak Through Memories" by Jason Sanford"Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea" by Sarah Pinsker"A Dead Djinn in Cairo" by P. Dj l Clark "Red as Blood and White as Bone" by Theodora Goss"Foxfire, Foxfire" by Yoon Ha Lee"Forest of Memory" by Mary Robinette Kowal"Chimera" by Gu Shi, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu and Ken Liu"Hammers on Bone" by Cassandra Khaw"Runtime" by S. B. Divya

Deacon James is a rambling bluesman straight from Georgia, a black man with troubles that he can't escape, and music that won't let him go. On a train to Arkham, he meets trouble - visions of nightmares, gaping mouths and grasping tendrils, and a madman who calls himself John Persons. According to the stranger, Deacon is carrying a seed in his head, a thing that will destroy the world if he lets it hatch. The mad ravings chase Deacon to his next gig. His saxophone doesn't call up his audience from their seats, it calls up monstrosities from across dimensions. As Deacon flees, chased by horrors and cultists, he stumbles upon a runaway girl, who is trying to escape the destiny awaiting her. Like Deacon, she carries something deep inside her, something twisted and dangerous. Together, they seek to leave Arkham, only to find the Thousand Young lurking in the woods. The song in Deacon's head is growing stronger, and soon he won't be able to ignore it any more.

John Persons is a private investigator with a distasteful job from an unlikely client. He s been hired by a ten-year-old to kill the kid s stepdad, McKinsey. The man in question is abusive, abrasive, and abominable. He s also a monster, which makes Persons the perfect thing to hunt him. Over the course of his ancient, arcane existence, he s hunted gods and demons, and broken them in his teeth. As Persons investigates the horrible McKinsey, he realizes that he carries something far darker. He s infected with an alien presence, and he s spreading that monstrosity far and wide. Luckily Persons is no stranger to the occult, being an ancient and magical intelligence himself. The question is whether the private dick can take down the abusive stepdad without releasing the holds on his own horrifying potential. Hammers on Bone is a new novella from rising author Cassandra Khaw."

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our December 2015 issue (#111) contains: Original Fiction by Liu Cixin ("Yuanyuan's Bubbles"), Tamsyn Muir ("Union"), Seth Dickinson ("Morrigan in Shadow"), and Cassandra Khaw ("When We Die on Mars"). Reprints by Sean McMullen ("Technarion"), Walter Jon Williams ("Daddys World")Walter Jon Williams ("Daddy's World"). Non-fiction by Jason Heller (A Dance with Futuristic Dragons: The Science-Fantasy Glamour of Marc Bolan and T. Rex), an interview with Gene Wolfe, an Another Word column by Cat Rambo, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.