Even Closer Than the Sea

A small band of American soldiers man a lonely outpost on the coast of Massachusetts during WWII, and find themselves facing something far more terrifying than German submarines... Two wayward samurai track a strange beast and look for a payday in feudal Japan... The crew of a space probe to one of Jupiter's moons have to alter their mission when they realize that life on Europa is no longer hypothetical... A cattleman and his top hand in 1880's Texas learn that a lack of water might not always be the worst problem to have... A trooper becomes separated from her squad in the hostile desert of a strange planet, and finds herself pursued by merciless enemies... A family gathering at an old coastal estate in turn-of-the-century Maine takes a horrific turn as the family discovers that their grandfather accidentally brought something else back from Egypt along with his artifacts... These eleven tales of strange creatures and haunted landscapes take the reader from dark seas to arid deserts, from old Japan to distant planets in the far future. In the vein of classic fantasy, horror and science fiction, these stories capture the terror and bravery of average people facing unknown foes and unearthly challenges.