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Charlie the Pearl—con man, gambler, and ever absent father—is about to catch the dream that he’s chased his entire life—the secret of good luck. But it’s a secret that could cost Charlie the only thing in the world that he loves more than a winning streak—his daughter.

As First Officer on the part passenger ship, part space freighter, The Fiscal Restraint, Jack Dexter (Dex to his friends) thinks he knows all there is to know about "Murphy’s Law": If anything can go wrong, it will. And on the perpetually under-staffed, under-funded Restraint, it generally does. But he never expected to actually meet Murphy. The real Murphy. Dex hires Orville Sod onto the Restraint just before the ship makes the jump to deep space. Unfortunately, by the time that Dex figures out that Orville is a real-life "Murphy"—one of those sad souls who attract more than their fair share of calamity—things have become, uh, complicated. A VIP is almost killed… Food systems have shut down… The navigation computer has been destroyed.Well, at least things can’t get any worse…Oh…wait…"Douglas Smith showcases his talent for creating strong characters who are believable and sympathetic—even when they inhabit an absurd world. That world is painted vividly with efficient brush strokes as Smith expertly weaves between Murphy's misadventures on board the Fiscal Restraint and Dex's retelling of the same to his captive audience at The House Limit. 'Murphy's Law' is a hilarious, yet poignant read." —Rainbow Dragon Recommends

Jan Mirocek used to be a hunter. A very special hunter. Once, he had hunted the things that haunt the forests of the night in every culture of the world. The kallikantzari of Greece. The loup-garou of France. The kitsune of Japan. Were-beasts. Shape-shifters.Until one night, Jan made a mistake, and the woman he loved died. Now he shuns the dark and his own past, hiding in a big city. For the were-beasts never come here. Or do they? People are dying in Toronto, and all signs point to a shifter.But can Jan conquer his own fears to track down the killer? And what kind of shape shifter would be at home in a modern city?"A creature-hunter tale that kept me guessing until the very last paragraphs. I was on edge throughout the whole story!" —Melissa Minners, Global Pop Culture reviews"A police officer skilled in hunting supernatural entities encounters a new breed of shape-shifter specifically adapted to the urban environment." — Innsmouth Free Press

Aurora Award FinalistWhen James Mackaby, respected scholar, husband and father, accepts a dinner invitation from an old rival who has fallen on hard times, he has no idea that revenge is on the menu. During this singular evening, three very separate and very different dinners will take place, all at the same time, all in the same place, all with the same guests. And by the end of the last course, no one’s life will ever be the same again."Another standout is the masterful "State of Disorder," which contemplates the flexibility and fluidity of time." —Ideomancer Magazine"A neat twist on time travel and quantum physics." —Publishers Weekly"The claustrophobic atmosphere of this tale heightens its devilish suspense and draws favorable comparisons to Poe’s tales of trapped, desperate protagonists." —Tangent Online"A chilling story of three dinners in the same place and time, and a very satisfying ending made this another A++ story [in Chimerascope]." —Fantasy Book Critic"A stunning piece of work." —Kim Mohan, editor, Amazing Stories

Aurora Award Finalist. The colony ship, The Last Chance, has fled a plague-poisoned Earth with the remnants of the human race. Launched before completion of its biosphere, the ship is only partly self-sustaining. Humanity has to find a new home—and time is running out. It isn’t called The Last Chance for nothing. When they find the planet, it seems a dream come true. Earth-like, breathable atmosphere, unpopulated. They name it Aurora, for the beauty that dances in its skies. At least, it had seemed beautiful at the time. Now they aren’t so sure.Now people are dying.Gar Franck is the ship’s communication expert. When signs point to a non-human intelligence on the planet, Gar becomes the key to communicating with it. But how can he communicate with an alien being when he can’t even talk to his autistic son, Anton, or his increasingly distant wife, Clara?"There are two stories in "Symphony"...both converge in a spectacular, explosive finale. Smith's prose is poetic and evocative. He creates an intricate fabric of light, color, and sound with effortless flair. The story’s fluid style and the abundance of complex, wrenching emotions [make this] another recommended story in this issue." —Eugie Foster and Marsha Sisolak, Tangent Online"A strong SF-nal story about a 'sentient light symphony' that objects to humans colonizing 'its planet.' How would you communicate with such and how would it react to a baby who lacks all 'human baggage' are some of the issues addressed here. (A+)" —Fantasy Book Critic

Vaya is an immortal Valkyrie and favorite daughter of Odin All Father, sworn to carry dead heroes from the battlefields of Earth to live forever in Valhalla. One day, she intervenes on the battlefield to save the life of a soldier who has captured her heart, and is forced by Odin to choose between immortality and the man she loves. Vaya chooses love, not knowing that the hardest choice still lies ahead of her."…exemplifies the best elements of Douglas Smith’s writing. A Valkyrie falls for her hero, gives up her immortality for him then has to make that inevitable and awful choice afterwards. As always, even for such a brief time, there is so much life in these characters. I don’t bother to marvel at how quickly I come to care for Douglas Smith’s people anymore, it’s a given." —SF Crowsnest Reviews"A gripping portrayal of Vaya, a Valkyrie, and the ultimate sacrifices one makes for love." —SFRevu

Aurora Award FinalistBest New Horror SelectionCath, a beautiful young sidewalk artist, is driven by a mysterious hunger that feeds from the portraits she draws of her victims. Joe loves Cath still, but as Cath’s hunger grows, so does Joe’s fear--fear that one day she may draw him down."The best of the bunch…a haunting variant on the vampire legend with an understated and brutal ending." —Publishers Weekly“Highlights among the stories include Douglas Smith's delightfully creepy ‘By Her Hand, She Draws You Down,’ about a young woman who is driven by a mysterious hunger to sketch people and steal their life force as her horrified lover looks on.” —Booklist"I was reminded of the tone of some of Harlan Ellison’s best work…where many of the protagonists seemed to be the unwitting victims of dark, irrational forces.” —The Fix“...a title that rules. ...psychic vampirism, creepy street performers, the horrors of small coastal towns. And Smith took the story somewhere that surprised me. The twist is sustained.” —Jay Lake, Tangent Online“...examines vampirism from an unusual and genuinely horrifying angle.” —SF Site Review"Well done and with a nice twist…" —Fantasy Book Critic"Haunting passages and scenes..." —Strange Horizons“...a chilling, weird tale of an artist with a great hunger.” —The Haunted Weblog“Familiar subjects...dealt with in an original form and with a final turn that will surprise you.” — Bibliopolis

Aurora Award FinalistThink of human emotion as a geography, with peaks of pleasure and valleys of pain. Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy. Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide. They will kill. And they will revel in it.Welcome to the world of Scream.Jarrod is a Scream-addicted soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when his unit encounters the Be’nan, aliens who hold the secret to true enlightenment, no one is prepared for the result."…reaches far past the muddled mediocrity of swashbuckling tales forgotten before the page is turned to the next story. I enjoyed the alien anthropology and the details are tremendous…in this tale of tremendous sacrifice" —Tangent Online"My favourite of the selection was 'Enlightenment' by Douglas Smith. A strange story indeed about Earth people engaged in strip-mining planets and relocating indigenous populations. ... The end is horrific in many respects but it's also thought-provoking." —SF Crowsnest Reviews"…[tells of] a spiritual undertaking by a member of a brutal planetary occupation force who "goes native" in which Douglas Smith provides a riff on Ray Bradbury's famous rationale of space travel: for Man to find God in the cosmos. A science fictional depiction of the mistreatment of "aliens" to subvertly criticize the atrocities of imperialist colonization." —SF Site"... unexpected twists and a superb ending; the story is as powerful as any in the [Chimerascope] collection (A++)" —Fantasy Book Critic"Douglas Smith…succeeds in evoking an alien society with mythic/religious overtones in his moving tale ‘Enlightenment’." —New Hope International Review Online"Another strong story, looking at humanity's treatment of indigenous people." —Best SF"...oppressed inhabitants of distant worlds making the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring mankind back to the realisation of what right and wrong truly mean." —Whispers of Wickedness reviews"Nicely judged depictions of alien customs…" —SF Site"...was my favourite of the issue. ‘Enlightenment’ went exactly where I expected it to, but that was where I wanted it to go--I was there for the ride" "Stories [were] great, particularly ‘Enlightenment.’ [I] was just engrossed in the whole thing...and applaud it thoroughly!" "…just blew me away…I was taken away by the lovely prose." "...provoked some really interesting ideas…" "…mind-blowing…" —InterZone readers forum

Aurora Award Finalist.The Builders had made the House generations ago, to shelter the remnants of humanity from the poisons of the Outside. The Inners, the direct descendants of the Builders, now rule the House. The House protects the People, and the Inners protect the House. And Smoothers are the arms and legs of that protection. Big G is a Smoother, ensuring that the daily activities of the House are not interrupted by "Harveys," citizens who suffer violent mental breakdowns in the claustrophobic House. But when Big G discovers a strange photograph of blue and white swirls of nothingness during a Harvey call, it leads him to world within the world he thought he knew—and a world outside it as well."I first read this story in a workshop nearly a decade ago. Since then, Doug sold it to a number of different markets and it was a finalist for Canada’s prestigious Aurora Award. Now it’s out in e-book format. I read a lot, as you can tell, and I don’t remember most stories the next day, let alone decades later. The images and the power of the story have stayed with me all this time. That’s one of the strongest recommendations I can give."—Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Recommended Reading List, Aug 2011"Hands down, my favourite story … I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of a city that encompasses what we know of the known world. … Smith’s version, the ‘House,’ is well conceived, but as always, it’s his characters that drive the story. Big G is pitch perfect. Every aspect of his personality is just spot on. Though he’s not a completely accessible character, portrayed as being not as intelligent as a more usual protagonist, he is completely there and three-dimensional and his reactions and motivations are plausible. It works! The ending is just right. It couldn’t have been any other way..." —SF Crowsnest Reviews"Going Harvey in the Big House" fed into my natural fears, suspicions, and all-round disillusionment with authority. Thereafter, I began an inquiry. I read Orwell’s 1984, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Zamyatin’s We, Huxley’s Brave New World… "Going Harvey in the Big House" led me to places I thought I’d never be, culminating eventually in sweat-soaked nightmares about a post-apocalyptic world." —Cicada

Aurora Award FinalistThe year is 1999. The world awaits a new millennium with a mixture of anticipation and dread. The fear stems from the much-hyped Y2K computer problem, the so-called millennium bug, which could cause uncorrected programs to fail all over the world. PCWare is the world’s largest software company. John Dunne is team leader for the company’s newest operating system, the first with a virtual reality user interface, complete with virtual human agents. But on Millennium Eve, John has problems. A Y2K bug has been discovered in the software…and John’s virtual girlfriend has become far too real."The story deals with the Y2k bug, and although that might seem dated now, the story is not, since its ideas continue to be relevant today." —Bibliopolis

Aurora Award Finalist.On the anniversary of his wife’s death, Liam makes a startling discovery. The particle accelerator experiments that he is conducting for the university are capable of opening a window back in time. Can he tune that window to the night his wife died? Can he actually go back in time to save her? But what of the strange radio broadcasts he keeps hearing? Broadcasts that warn that changing the past could produce a very dark future for the world—or no future at all. How much is Liam willing to risk to bring back the only woman he ever loved?"A very human story of a man hung up on the past for far too long, and a woman who can't make him realize her true feelings. ... The resolution is a key moment of personal growth for our protagonist, and that's really what I ask for in a story." —Scientifically Bookish"This is a great story, that connects [the reader} with the emotional pain and trauma [of the characters]." —Contemplating the Cosmos

AURORA AWARD WINNERA Heroka story. The Heroka are an ancient race of shape shifters, drawing vitality from their animal totems. Gwyn Blaidd, a Heroka of the wolf totem, has been a recluse ever since a deadly battle with the Tainchel, the covert government agency that hunts his kind—a battle that cost him the woman he loved. But to save an old friend, Gwyn must again face the Tainchel—and his own dark past.“A vivid and wonderfully written tale about Native Canadian spirits, in the vein of Thomas King.” —Challenging Destiny“Draws on North American Indian myths, particularly the idea of shapeshifters... Smith once more creates a credible and sympathetic protagonist, Gwyn Blaidd, [who] returns to his old stomping ground to help out some fellow shapeshifters who have become embroiled in a conflict with a large logging concern.” —The Fix

A shapeshifter hero battles ancient spirits, a covert government agency, and his own dark past in a race to solve a murder that could mean the end of the world.Cree and Ojibwe legends mix with current day environmental conflict in this fast-paced urban fantasy that keeps you on the edge of your seat right up to its explosive conclusion. With an introduction by Charles de Lint.The Heroka walk among us. Unseen, unknown. Shapeshifters. Human in appearance but with power over their animal totems.Gwyn Blaidd is a Heroka of the wolf totem. Once he led his people in a deadly war against the Tainchel, the shadowy agency that hunts his kind. Now he lives alone in his wilderness home, wolves his only companions.But when an Ojibwe girl is brutally killed in Gwyn’s old hometown, suspicion falls on his former lover. To save her, Gwyn must return, to battle not only the Tainchel, but even darker forces: ancient spirits fighting to enter our world…And rule it.“An immersive and enjoyable reading experience. Readers will delight in learning more about Native American mythology, which is skillfully woven throughout the story. Smith’s novel is both well paced and deftly plotted—leaving readers curious about what comes next for the Heroka in the modern world.” — Publishers Weekly“What makes THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE WORLD such an engrossing read are the characters and Doug’s wonderful prose, a perfect blend between matter-of-fact and lyricism. I can’t remember the last time I read a book that spoke to me, so eloquently, and so deeply, on so many levels. ... I’ll be rereading it in the future because it’s that sort of book. Richly layered and deeply resonant. An old friend, from the first time you read it.” — Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner