A dazzling anthology of avian-themed fiction guaranteed to frighten and delight, edited by one of the most acclaimed horror anthologists in the genre.

Birds are usually loved for their beauty and their song. They symbolize freedom, eternal life, the soul.

There’s definitely a dark side to the avian. Birds of prey sometimes kill other birds (the shrike), destroy other birds’ eggs (blue jays), and even have been known to kill small animals (the kea sometimes eats live lambs). And who isn’t disgusted by birds that eat the dead—vultures awaiting their next meal as the life blood flows from the dying. One of our greatest fears is of being eaten by vultures before we’re quite dead.

Is it any wonder that with so many interpretations of the avian, that the contributors herein are eager to be transformed or influenced by them? Included in Black Feathers are those obsessed by birds of one type or another. Do they want to become birds or just take on some of the “power” of birds? The presence or absence of birds portends the future. A grieving widow takes comfort in her majestic winged neighbors, who enable her to cope with a predatory relative. An isolated society of women relies on a bird to tell their fortunes. A silent young girl and her pet bird might be the only hope a detective has of tracking down a serial killer in a tourist town. A chatty parrot makes illegal deals with the dying. A troubled man lives in isolation with only one friend for company—a jackdaw.

In each of these fictions, you will encounter the dark resonance between the human and avian. You see in yourself the savagery of a predator, the shrewd stalking of a hunter, and you are lured by birds that speak human language, that make beautiful music, that cypher numbers, and seem to have a moral center. You wade into this feathered nightmare, and brave the horror of death, trading your safety and sanity for that which we all seek—the promise of flight.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s stories shaped modern horror more than any other author’s in the last two centuries: Cthulhu, the Old Ones, Herbert West: Reanimator, and more terrifying nightmares emerged from the mythos of this legendary writer.

Dark Horse teams up with Hugo and Bram Stoker Award–winning editor Ellen Datlow to bring you this anthology of original prose stories that are inspired by Lovecraft’s mythos.

With a gorgeous cover by Mike Mignola and stories by:

• Nesters                                                            Siobhan Carroll
• Little Ease                                                      Gemma Files
• Eternal Troutland                                         Stephen Graham Jones
• The Supplement                                            John Langan
• Mortensen’s Muse                                        Orrin Grey
• Oblivion Mode                                               Laird Barron
• Mr. Doornail                                                  Maria Dahvana Headley
• The Secrets of Insects                                   Richard Kadrey
• Excerpts for An Eschatology Quadrille   Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Jules and Richard                                         David Nickle
• Glasses                                                            Brian Evenson
• When the Stitches Come Undone               A.C. Wise
• On These Blackened Shores of Time           Brian Hodge
• Bright Crown of Joy                                       Livia Llewellyn

Unlucky thieves invade a house where Home Alone seems like a playground romp. An antique bookseller and a mob enforcer join forces to retrieve the Atlas of Hell. Postapocalyptic survivors cannot decide which is worse: demon women haunting the skies or maddened extremists patrolling the earth.

In this chilling twenty-first-century companion to the cult classic Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, Ellen Datlow again proves herself the most masterful editor of the genre. She has mined the breadth and depth of ten years of terror, collecting superlative works of established masters and scene-stealing newcomers alike.

A man determined to kill a clown. A child’s eleventh birthday heralds the arrival of a bizarre new entourage. A suicidal performer just can’t seem to die. All of these weird marvels and more can be found at the Nightmare Carnival! Featuring an introduction by Katherine Dunn (Geek Love).