Night & Demons

An expanded reissue of Balefires (2007). Includes four additional stories.

A collection of horrific, weird, and fantastic tales by a master storyteller and creator of best-selling military science fiction. Here are weird stories set in the present, along with alternative histories filled with gritty realism and exacting detail as well as an assortment of horrors and monsters. Most of all, here are the tough heroes who throughout time master their own fears and face the very real terrors that haunt existence. Sometimes these heroes win a partial victory. Sometimes it’s enough to go down fighting.

Before Drake was a best-selling author of military science fiction, he was a prolific writer of horror and fantasy short fiction. “Denkirch,” Drake’s first sale, is here, and well as many stories set in the worlds of his fantasy novels (Ranks of Bronze, Lord of the Isles, and others).

More than just a collection of stories, Night & Demons features extensive story notes that chronicle the development of one of science fiction's most popular writers, and provide detailed snapshots of the larger-than-life editors, publishers, and writers with whom Drake has worked throughout his career.

Contents:

• The Red Leer
• A Land of Romance
• Smokie Joe
• Awakening
• Denkirch
• Dragon, The Book
• The False Prophet
• Black Iron
• The Shortest Way
• Lord of the Depths
• The Land Toward Sunset
• Children of the Forest
• The Barrow Troll
• Than Curse the Darkness
• The Song of the Bone
• The Master of Demons
• The Dancer in the Flames
• Codex
• Firefight
• Best of Luck
• Arclight
• Something Had to Be Done
• The Waiting Bullet
• The Elf House
• The Hunting Ground
• The Automatic Rifleman
• Blood Debt
• Men Like Us
• A Working Bibliography of David Drake's Writing by Karen Zimmerman