Born into poverty with an abusive home life, Dean Koontz found a respite in books. As he began a writing career in the late 1960s, Koontz began injecting the dark experiences of his own life into his literature, and autobiography became a central thematic element of his thrillers, science fiction and horror stories. Even Koontz's earliest pieces, like Star Quest and Demon Seed, are tapestries of raw, varied and energetic storylines equally as worthy of examination as his later popular novels. This compilation of essays examines the fiction of Dean Koontz, from his earliest literary efforts in the 1960s and '70s to his emergence as a bestselling author of suspense. Written by some of the top experts in popular culture studies, these essays will appeal to the many fans of Dean Koontz's work, as well as to general readers of popular thrillers. It is the first study to approach the evolution of major themes and intricacies in Koontz's early career as a bestselling author.

Peter Blood is a physician and an English gentleman who becomes a pirate out of a rankling sense of injustice. Barely escaping the gallows after his arrest for treating wounded rebels who were fighting the oppressive King James, Blood flees England and becomes enslaved on a Barbados plantation of buccaneers. When he escapes, no ship sailing the Spanish Main is safe from Blood and his companions. Abounding with adventure, color, romance, and strong social commentary on the evils of slavery and the dangers of intolerance, this classic adventure is a story about how oppression drives men to desperate actions, how fate plays a hand in everyone's life, and how love is ultimately the greatest power of all.

Edited with an introduction by Gary Hoppenstand.

Unlike other horror fiction and fantasy writers, Clive Barker is true to the literary heritage of the genre. Though aware of the importance of entertainment in his writing, he embraces the traditional formulas of horror fiction and builds upon them, all the while alluding to the works of Dante, Poe, Mary Shelley, and others. The complexity of Barker's writing is best evidenced in the six volume Books of Blood . Many of these short stories are entertaining ""hair raisers""; yet they do not revel in gratuitous violence, instead relying on style and a masterful sense of language to entertain. This detailed study analyses the significant themes in Barker's writing, placing him in the British Gothic tradition of Marlowe, Saki and others.

Considered one of the foremost humorists in England at the turn of the century, W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943) is best known for his masterpiece of horror, ""The Monkey's Paw."" He was the author of thirteen volumes of short stories-all of which were commercially successful-and eighteen of these are included together for the first time in this gripping collection of horror fiction.This book features Gothic narratives, stories of the macabre and supernatural tales. But they are also infused with shrewd and sardonic humor, for which Jacobs was justifiably famous. They demonstrate vividly his masterful instinct for weaving terror and suspense into scenes of ordinary everyday life. His boyhood memories of the South Devon Wharf lend authenticity to the many stories with nautical backgrounds or that feature seamen as protagonists.Because of its immense popularity, ""The Monkey's Paw"" has tended to overshadow a good deal of Jacobs' other work, and it is undoubtedly the most readily recognized and by far the most anthologized story in the collection. But readers will be delighted to know that Jacobs' craftmanship is abundantly apparent in many of his other tales, as they will discover in this new volume. Horror and mystery aficionados will be intrigued and delighted by his range of skillful and witty prose; and they will at last come to appreciate a writer whose other work has been for so long ""lost"" to the general public.

Award-winning popular culture scholar and expert, Gary Hoppenstand, assembles a collection of essays published over the past few decades that examine a vast array of popular adventure fiction. Some of the most famous novels in all of popular fiction are featured in these essays, such as Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel and Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood. Hoppenstand examines the cultural and literary impact of these great works of entertainment, often presenting forgotten classics in a new light. Informative analysis offers the interested reader of popular fiction important insights into the adventure story of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in American and British literature.

Slithering from these pages are never-before-collected tales of suspense and wonder by the woman who invented modern-day dark fantasy: A man goes quietly to bed aboard the doomed Lusitania and awakens on a magical South Pacific Island just as the passenger liner is torpedoed. In a future where women rule the world, a sentient island becomes murderously jealous of a shipwrecked couple. Dire consequences await a human swept into the dark, magical world of elves. A deadly labyrinth coils around the dark heart of a picturesque landscape garden. Within an Egyptian sarcophagus lies the horrifying price of infidelity. Swirling unseen around us are loathsome creatures giving form to our basest desires and fears. A beautiful, veiled medium may hold the key to preventing unspeakable evil from slipping through the borderlands between life and death. On a lost island a woman pipe player and her monstrous dancing partner bring death and terror to five adventurers. The stories in this collection have played an integral role in the development of modern dark fantasy, greatly influencing such writers as H. P. Lovecraft and A. Merritt.

"Oh, I wish I were anywhere but here, anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of ours! "I wish I were in the planet Mars!"" Whisked away to the legendary red planet, the intrepid Lieutenant Gullivar Jones is caught up in the adventure of a lifetime. To win the love of a beautiful princess, he fights his way across a dying and savage planet of desolate cities, lost races, utopian societies, and the haunting and unforgettable River of Death. This classic, influential tale of Mars, written in the utopian tradition of H. G. Wells's "The Time Machine," is also considered a possible inspiration for the immortal Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Both reflective and imaginative, "Gullivar of Mars" celebrates the acuity and storytelling power of science fiction writers of the early twentieth century and continues to influence writers and to entertain readers today. This commemorative edition includes the full text of the classic 1905 edition, a new introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, an illustration by Thomas Floyd, and an afterword by Gary Hoppenstand.

The finest tale ever written of fabled Atlantis, "The Lost Continent" is a sweeping, fiery saga of the last days of the doomed land. Atlantis, at the height of its power and glory, is without equal. It has established far-flung colonies in Egypt and Central America, and its mighty navies patrol the seas. The priests of Atlantis channel the elemental powers of the universe, and a powerful monarch rules from a staggeringly beautiful city of pyramids and shining temples clustered around a sacred mountain. Mighty Atlantis is also decaying and corrupt. Its people are growing soft and decadent, and many live in squalor. Rebellion is in the air, and prophecies of doom ring forth. Into this epic drama of the end of time stride two memorable characters: the warrior-priest Deucalion, stern, just, and loyal, and the Empress Phorenice, brilliant, ambitious, and passionate. The old and new Atlantis collide in a titanic showdown between Deucalion and Phorenice, a struggle that soon affects the destiny of an entire civilization.