Showing results for "The Birches" in Fantasy

Raven shifter Alan Petrov has faced down crime bosses in cities and fought ancient magical creatures in the far frozen north. Now he's taking his toughest assignment yet: going undercover at a day care for shifters in a sleepy town in Montana. Single mom and snowy owl shifter Kendra knows there's something off about the new help at Tiny Paws. Not only does he look more like a bouncer than a babysitter, he clearly doesn't understand diapers or dawdling. Instinct says her daughter is safe with him, but her heart definitely isn't.

The twos just got a lot more terrible. Ian had enough trouble trying to write for a living and keep up with his daughter, Lucy, even before she started shifting into a squirrel. Now that she's turning two and breathing fire? All bets are off. Olivia is used to her cat Seltzer bringing her live trophies, but she's not sure what to do with a squirrel that turns into an adorable little red-headed girl, or the gorgeous single dad who comes looking for her from next door.

Lynx shifter Addison has come to the quaint Montana town of Nickel City to work at a new, shifters-only daycare. She doesn't expect to meet a breathtakingly gorgeous man on her first day wrangling owl toddlers and armadillo kids. But she's been dazzled by a handsome face before and barely got away from her last controlling boyfriend. Can she trust her lynx's instinct that this is where she's meant to be at last?

The four previous volumes in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's anthology series of fairly-tales retold with a distinctively modern edge have been hailded by reviewers as "brilliant", "provocative", and "disturbing". In this triumphant new collection of original fiction, 21 of today's leading writers spin the cherished fables of childhood into glittering gold - offering magical tales for adults, as seductive as they are sophisticated.

Fletcher Lane wants to protect people. It was why he became a deputy. A month ago, it was why he killed a vampire who kidnapped one of his friends. Now, that death has started a cascade effect that's tearing his life apart, leaving him possessed by magic that whispers to him in ancient Gothic. While he's already fighting for control of his own mind, he has to hold it together when strangers come into town looking for the dead vampire.

Smith makes her final call and hears two final adventures involving the East Finchley Satanic League and an incredible portrait heist from the National Gallery. These sensational stories are interrupted by an unexpected visitor. Smith tries to persuade the Brigadier she is simply a publisher after his tall stories and has innocently sent a courier. Munchausen is instead convinced it his mortal enemy come for the formula once more.

Things look bleak for the Brigadier as he is sent to the bottom of Davy Jones’ Locker by the merciless hands of Knight Supremacist, St. John Lawrence-Malcaster. He makes bold his escape with the help of some surprising sailors, an old flame and a couple of antique cannon balls. His revenge is swift and he takes on the might of the Fourth Reich with a combination of pluck, will and a new found love of artillery.

The Brigadier is deliberately vague on the circumstances of his recent death and the particular bargain he struck with a certain deity and instead focuses on his time in Canada which, as it turns out, is very much like heaven or hell depending on how you look at it. He brings down the notorious biker gang, Hell’s Loggers, with the help of some wolves but soon finds himself on much more dangerous ground at the hands of the last remaining branch of the Knights Templar who are intent on using Munchausen’s marvelous formula to revive the Master Race.

Smith’s gentle interrogations continue, and the young brigadier reveals his contribution to the fall of communism through a series of Elton John impersonations. His astonishing achievements don’t stop there. When his accidental discoveries aboard a Swedish science research ship lead to the invention of a secret formula, the world is at his feet. The world kicks back, however, and after a desperate climb up Notre Dame, he finds himself pursued by the police, an old friend and two well-known figures of darkness.

The brigadier escapes from peril in an ancient Russian forest with the help of an obliging bison. Eurasian mobsters, intent on human sacrifice using the world’s oldest tree, are in pursuit. As his enemies ride after him full-throttle, and with guns blazing, he relays a dizzying array of stories focused on astounding encounters with the animal kingdom. These unlikely anecdotes result in the firm conclusion that the brigadier’s luck is finally about to run out.

The charismatic and reclusive Brigadier Munchausen is visited, online, by the mysterious Smith. Has he written his pages? Munchausen obliges and reveals some extraordinary incidents from his early life: a boy on the run, a fight with a seven-foot sailor and a romantic affair involving a whale. These extraordinary events all serve to propel our hero into the realisation that he is destined to save the world. But who is Smith, and why has he been sent? Why does the brigadier fear email? And, most of all, what really happened to him in Raqqa?