ABOUT THIS EBOOK

The stories selected for this eBook came from a variety of sources.

All the stories were either scans of books I own or in digital format---pdf, rtf, txt and/or HTML 1.0 files. I converted, cleaned-up and re-formatted all the stories contained in this eBook to better suit an eBook reader.

I “test” my final epubs on a Nook Color and an iPad2 to ensure the best possible reading experience; however, not all eReaders are the same and don’t always display epubs in the same way as others. This is especially true when it comes to the Table of Contents (ToC), images within the epub and the display of the book cover.

I adhered as much as possible to the original punctuation, spelling and sentence structure in each story. Many of these stories were written with a very specific structure and style that may seem odd when presented in an electronic format. I found this especially true in the way many characters’ dialogue was written.

Please understand, in an effort to preserve the author’s text, some words, structures etc. may seem like errors that I missed while creating this eBook for you. No words or text of the authors’ original works were omitted or altered; each story is word-for-word as presented in the original source file.

If you find errors, or run into any difficulty with this eBook please feel free to contact me through Bolt.

Finally, it is my sincerest wish that you have the best possible reading experience with this eBook.

Flyboy707

October, 2011

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Algernon Henry Blackwood was born on march 14, 1869 and was an English short story writer and novelist. Blackwood was one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that "his work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".

Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas". Blackwood had a varied career, working as a milk farmer in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, journalist for the New York Times, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher.

Throughout his adult life, he was an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined the “Ghost Club”. He never married; according to his friends he was a loner but also cheerful company.

Jack Sullivan points out that "Blackwood's life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer. Like his lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination of mystic and outdoorsman; when he wasn't steeping himself in occultism, including Rosicrucianism and Buddhism, he was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing.”

His two best known stories are probably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". He would also often write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was unsure exactly how many short stories he had written and there is no sure total. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels The Centaur, which climaxes with a traveller's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and Julius LeVallon and its sequel The Bright Messenger, which deal with reincarnation and the possibility of a new, mystical evolution in human consciousness.

Algernon Blackwood dies on December 10, 1951. He was 82 years old.

Aus der Amazon.de-Redaktion

Die Welt auf dem Planeten Darkover ist geprägt von fremden Völkern, sonderbaren Traditionen, dem Glauben an Götter und magische Kräfte, und durch die Herrschaft des Geschlechts der Hastur. In diese Umgebung versetzen einen die über 20 Geschichten dieses Bandes.

Die jeweils in sich abgeschlossenen Episoden erzählen vom Leben auf Darkover in unterschiedlichen Epochen. Der Leser erfährt Geschehnisse aus dem Herrscherhaus, etwa die ungeheure Bedeutung, die für einen Hastur sein gegebenes Wort hat, so daß er dafür sogar von den Toten zurückkehrt. Oder er liest über Begebenheiten aus dem häufig von fremdartigen Bräuchen bestimmten Leben der einfachen Bürger, deren Entscheidungsfreiheit oftmals eingeschränkt ist, etwa was den Ehepartner oder die Dauer der Beziehung angeht; der Brauch der Jahresbraut fordert nun einmal den jährlichen Wechsel der Partnerin.

Man erhält facettenreiche Einblicke in das Leben auf dieser Welt, sieht etwa, wie man Magie durch List ersetzen kann oder wie schwierig das Zusammenleben verschiedener Rassen ist. Dabei trifft man auch auf alte Bekannte aus früheren Erzählungen. Aber ein großes Achtung muß man all denen zurufen, die eine reine Zimmer Bradley-Geschichte erwarten. Denn anders als der Eindruck, den der Einband erweckt, ist dies ein Band mit Stories diverser Autoren. Einzig eine kleine Geschichte von Marion Zimmer Bradley selbst findet sich hier, ansonsten hat die Meisterin der Fantasy nur das Grundmuster der Reihe vorgegeben und andere Autoren füllen dieses trefflich aus. Das mindert jedoch keineswegs den Lesespaß und schließlich ist diese Form von Sammelband den Darkover-Fans bereits bekannt. --Joachim Hohwieler

Kurzbeschreibung

Mit dem Planeten Darkover erschuf Marion Zimmer Bradley eine geheimnisvolle Welt, die seit Jahrzehnten Schriftsteller und Fans in ihren Bann schlägt. Hier versammelt die Königin der phantastischen Literatur die besten Kurzgeschichten, die auf ihrer Welt unter der blutroten Sonne spielen.