A Unique Speculative Fiction Collection From The Nordic Countries Storytelling has been a major force in the Nordic countries for thousands of years, renowned for its particular sense of dark humour, featuring pacts with nature and a view of the worlds you seldom find in other places. Perhaps it is the freezing cold winter? The closeness to the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic? Maybe it’s the huge ancient forests... Most have heard about Nordic crime fiction with its dark noir flare or the Icelandic Sagas. This anthology combines all that is unique about Nordic speculative fiction, from the darkest dystopian science fiction to terrifying horror. From the rational to the eccentric, these stories combine a deep sense of place with social criticism, themes of loneliness and the concern for humanity's impact on the wilderness. Featuring 16 stories from the best contemporary speculative authors from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Faroe Islands, including John Ajvide Lindqvist, Hannu Rajaniemi, Tor Åge Bringsværd and more, many of which are appearing in English for the very first time.

Visitors from other planets have long obsessed us. H.G. Wells' War of Worlds spawned a huge wave of speculative fiction but the roots of such fears run deep in our literature, where the mysteries of other cultures have long threatened the familiar and the comfortable. Did aliens build the ancient pyramids? do they live amongst us today? what happens when they invade? And are they just the people from the next valley? or country? or planet? Would it be an inevitable act of aggression, one of assistance and care, or simply a reminder of our paltry existence in a crowded universe? Flame Tree's successful Gothic Fantasy series brings a brilliant new mix of classic and new writing, in this beautiful edition. These new authors appear alongside the following classic and essential writers: George Tomkyns Chesney, George Allan England, Austin Hall, H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, Robert Potter, Garrett P. Serviss, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, H.G. Wells; along with text from The Taking of Ireland (retold tales from The Book of Invasions).

Dedicated to that ominous strain of horror that sends a shiver down your spine, this selection of masterful tales gathers the weird and wonderful from a rich tradition of genre writing. The sound of a sinister tread in an apparently abandoned house; mysterious crimes committed in the dead of night; a glimpse of a monstrous apparition through the murky gloom: all find their home here. This latest anthology in the popular series of Gothic Fantasy collections features new stories by contemporary authors alongside classic tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edith Nesbit, Sheridan Le Fanu, Hugh Walpole, Amyas Northcote, Ralph Adams Cram, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Edith Wharton, M.R. James, E.F. Benson (and more).

The twenty-first century has witnessed an explosion of speculative fiction in translation (SFT). Rachel Cordasco examines speculative fiction published in English translation since 1960, ranging from Soviet-era fiction to the Arabic-language dystopias that emerged following the Iraq War. Individual chapters on SFT from Korean, Czech, Finnish, and eleven other source languages feature an introduction by an expert in the language's speculative fiction tradition and its present-day output. Cordasco then breaks down each chapter by subgenre--including science fiction, fantasy, and horror--to guide readers toward the kinds of works that most interest them. Her discussion of available SFT stands alongside an analysis of how various subgenres emerged and developed in a given language. She also examines the reasons a given subgenre has been translated into English. An informative and one-of-a-kind guide, Out of This World offers readers and scholars alike a tour of speculative fiction's new globalized era.