AustLit

'From a searing caricature of John Howard's white picket fence to a Canterbury tale of 21st century Britain; from a parable of life in a city skyscraper to a futuristic Western set in an impossible desert; from the end of the Earth to and Earth surviving under alien rule; from an adult fairy tale of a plague ridden Europe to the future. The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy fifth annual volume represents the best of Australia's writers for the fantastic, at the peak of their form' (Amazon).

Comprising twelve stories by twelve Australian authors, contributors to the fourth volume in Mirrordance Books Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy series are: Greg Egan, Adam Browne, Terry Dowling, Trent Jamieson, Lucy Sussex, Richard Harland, Cat Sparks, Ben Peek, Rick Kennett, Ana Tambour, Rjurik Davidson, and Garth Nix.

Provoking and inventive, this third annual edition of the Best of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy includes talented newcomers as well as established professionals at the peak of their form. The contributors are Simon Brown, Deborah Biancotti, Terry Dowling, Margo Lanagan, Geoffrey Maloney, Lee Battersby, Chris Lawson, Alistair Ong, Ben Peek, Kim Westwood and Kaaron Warren.

'For ex-cop Terrence Sands the boy was just another missing persons case, a chance to pay the rent, with a little left over to feed his cigarette habit. But as he searches, Sands is drawn into a world of death and violence, where even the truth cannot always be trusted.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'These are stories of madness, the love of children, and terror that breaks through the calm of everyday life to reveal the shifting uncertainties that lie below. Reading Congreve's mutant vampire fiction you won't know whether to be terrified or delighted:

A father pursues his errant son into the wilds of far north Queensland, chasing more than mere revenge; a vampire child murders her father in a small country town, and Father Luigi Calvino must discover why; a millionaire socialite kidnaps a girl child from the basement of a vampire's suburban home; a father hires a private investigator to find the body of his daughter, Cindy, on Sydney's mean streets, but Cindy is alive and much more than she seems; hack journalist Tony Masters is doublecrossed by his editor and consigned to Hell to interview Satan, endlessly, and there he meets a creature out of the worst nightmares of a Japanese B-grade monster movie producer; and a mother vampire struggles to feed and protect her children in Sydney's western suburbs.'

[Sourcve: Amazon]