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The Weird Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the The Weird novel. A total of 163 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : The Weird.Jeff VanderMeer.Dedicated to Nicolas Cheetham, Gio Clairval, and all of the ed
The Weird.Jeff VanderMeer.Dedicated to Nicolas Cheetham, Gio Clairval, and all of the editors who helped us by way of example or advice.Foreweird.Michael Moorc.o.c.k.KEEP Austin Weird, it says on a popular b.u.mper sticker for the city where I spend much
- 1 The Weird.Jeff VanderMeer.Dedicated to Nicolas Cheetham, Gio Clairval, and all of the editors who helped us by way of example or advice.Foreweird.Michael Moorc.o.c.k.KEEP Austin Weird, it says on a popular b.u.mper sticker for the city where I spend much
- 2 I said it was like a 'start.' I know what I mean, but it's hard to explain without seeming to talk nonsense. Of course you cannot exactly 'hear' a person 'start'; at the most, you might hear the quick drawing of the breath between the parted lips a
- 3 How, indeed, could it be otherwise, since it told us so much of its secret life? At night we heard it singing to the moon as we lay in our tent, uttering that odd sibilant note peculiar to itself and said to be caused by the rapid tearing of the pebbles a
- 4 I plunged in from the point of the island, which had indeed altered a lot in size and shape during the night, and was swept down in a moment to the landing-place opposite the tent. The water was icy, and the banks flew by like the country from an express
- 5 'It's the deliberate, calculating purpose that reduces one's courage to zero,' the Swede said suddenly, as if he had been actually following my thoughts. 'Otherwise imagination might count for much. But the paddle, the canoe, the lessening food ''H
- 6 'Ah!' he exclaimed presently, 'ah!'The tone of his voice somehow brought back to me a vivid sense of the horror of the last twenty-four hours, and I hurried up to join him. He was pointing with his stick at a large black object that lay half in the wa
- 7 Mr Dunning's interest in the matter was kept alive by an incident of the following afternoon. He was walking from his club to the train, and he noticed some way ahead a man with a handful of leaflets such as are distributed to pa.s.sers-by by agents of e
- 8 In the midst of a motionless pause the red silk hangings of the background parted, and a closed sedan chair was carried on by two Moors, who placed it near the bottle. A ray of pale light from above now illuminated the scene. The spectators had formed the
- 9 Yesterday afternoon at six I felt a little uneasy. Darkness settled very early, and I felt a certain nameless fear. I sat at my desk and waited. I felt an almost unconquerable urge to go to the window certainly not to hang myself, but to look at Clarimond
- 10 At first the solitude of the deserted palace weighed upon me like a nightmare. I would stay out, and work hard as long as possible, then return home at night jaded and tired, go to bed and fall asleep.Before a week had pa.s.sed, the place began to exert a
- 11 'I was terrified, for they were plant cells! It was vegetable sap that crept slowly through my veins, replacing life-sustaining red fluid.'The doctors to whom I submitted the extraordinary question had to shrug their shoulders and declare themselves inc
- 12 After a time he began as quietly as before.'I crossed the span. I went down through the top of that building. Blue darkness shrouded me for a moment and I felt the steps twist into a spiral. I wound down and then I was standing high up in I can't tell y
- 13 'How "Come to me"? Where am I supposed to go?...What are you saying?...Where to? To h.e.l.l?...Come to the burning h.e.l.l? Whoever is this? Who could it be...? Ah!'The apprentice forgot all about mixing colours to observe the fear on his master's fa
- 14 XIX.But, a second later, the monkey disappeared. When sparks shot into the night, glittering like a pear peel sprinkled with gold, girl and beast sank under a whirl of black smoke. In the middle of the garden, only the burning carriage was visible as it b
- 15 In the extreme physical depression following my awakening from drugged sleep, and knowing nothing of its cause, I believed my adventure fact in its entirety. My mentality was at too low an ebb to resist its dreadful suggestion. I was searching among Holt
- 16 'Stop talking nonsense,' Kalina said. 'He's probably very depressed and is sitting at home like a bear in the back woods.'The evening pa.s.sed sadly and slowly, as it was without the presence of our most fervent listener.There was no joking around th
- 17 On the night of the sixteenth he complained of feeling tired. It was the first and last time I had ever heard him say a word about himself, and I had known him for three years.It was just three o'clock and we were running only one wire. I was nodding ove
- 18 On Lammas Night, 1924, Dr Houghton of Aylesbury was hastily summoned by Wilbur Whateley, who had lashed his one remaining horse through the darkness and telephoned from Osborn's in the village. He found Old Whateley in a very grave state, with a cardiac
- 19 Those without the telescope saw only an instant's flash of grey cloud a cloud about the size of a moderately large building near the top of the mountain. Curtis, who held the instrument, dropped it with a piercing shriek into the ankle-deep mud of the ro
- 20 She and Nora had kept Mike with them all the evening and taken him to sleep in their room for a treat. He had lain at the foot of Jean's bed and they had all gone to sleep. Then Jean began her old dream of the hand moving over the books in the dining-roo
- 21 The schoolmaster had not appeared. We did not worry: we had been paid in cash for six weeks in advance, and Turnip had said he would not leave until the last drop of rum was gone.One morning this serenity was shattered. Steevens had just filled a keg with
- 22 I related the incident to Jellewyn. He slowly nodded.'I mustn't exaggerate Friar Tuck's clairvoyant powers,' he said. 'When he first saw the schoolmaster, he said to me, "That man makes me think of an unscalable wall behind which something immense a
- 23 We heard rapid footsteps on the deck. It sounded as though a busy crowd were moving around.'I thought so,' said Jellewyn. He laughed. 'We're gentlemen of leisure now: we have others working for us.'The sounds had become more precise. The helm creaked
- 24 The clothes were empty; two artificial hands and a wax head were attached to them. My bullet had gone through the wig and broken the nose.You already know Ballister's story. He told it to us when he woke up toward the end of that infernal night. He spoke
- 25 Lotte abruptly pulled back the heavy curtain. Herr Huhnebein was there, leaning out the open window, motionless.Lotte went over to him, then leapt back with a cry of horror.'Don't look! For the love of heaven, don't look! He...he...his head is gone!'I
- 26 That was the only odd thing I remembered in my life; but did it have any connection with Saint Beregonne's Lane?It was a sprig of the viburnum bush that set off the adventure.But am I sincere in looking there for the initial tap that set events in motion
- 27 I now heard the clamor from much closer, hostile and threatening. I began walking back toward the Mohlenstra.s.se. The scenes went by like the quatrains of a ballad: three little doors and viburnum bushes, three little doors and viburnum bushes...Finally
- 28 Clark Ashton Smith.Clark Ashton Smith (18931961) was an important, largely self-taught American writer whose stories frequently appeared in Weird Tales and who maintained a long-term correspondence with both H. P. Lovecraft and swords-and-sorcery writer R
- 29 'I'm lost!'These lonely words rose in my heart as I came to my senses and left my contemplations behind. Immediately I became uneasy and began to look frantically for the road. I backtracked in an attempt to find it. Instead, I became all the more turn
- 30 'We're alone here,' Fenwick answered. 'Don't you feel the stillness? The men will have left the quarry now and gone home. There is no one in all this place but ourselves. If you watch you will see a strange green light steal down over the hills. It l
- 31 I'll go out, I thought with sudden decision. I'll eat in the town. There must be a good cafe somewhere.Beyond the gate, I plunged into the heavy, damp, sweet air of that peculiar climate. The grayness of the aura had become somewhat deeper: now it seeme
- 32 'No scientist on this earth ever had a chance like that before, and I was making the best of it.I found out all there was to be found before I collapsed over my laboratory table and had to be taken to the hospital.'Of course long before that I had told
- 33 'A Negro?' asked Catesby, moistening his lips.The doctor laughed nervously. 'I imagine so, though my first odd impression was that it was a white man in blackface. You see, the color didn't seem to have any brown in it. It was dead-black.'Catesby mov
- 34 Donald Wollheim (19141990) was an American science fiction writer as well as an influential editor and publisher. Eventually inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Wollheim edited the first science fiction reprint anthology, The Pocket Book of Sc
- 35 'Let me tell you then.' He felt the bed under him, the sunlight on his face. 'You'll think I'm crazy. I was driving too fast, I know. I'm sorry now. I jumped the curb and hit that wall. I was hurt and numb, I know, but I still remember things. Mostl
- 36 And that's the way it's been since time began, when crowds gather. You murder much easier, this way. Your alibi is very simple; you didn't know it was dangerous to move a hurt man. You didn't mean to hurt him.He looked at them, above him, and he was c
- 37 Under the step, toward the right, I saw a small iridescent sphere of almost unbearable brightness. At first I thought it was spinning; then I realized that the movement was an illusion produced by the dizzying spectacles inside it. The Aleph was probably
- 38 'I'm hungry, mother. You can see I'm alive and kicking since I'm hungry and thirsty.''May you never again disappear like that!''I promise, but don't ever ask me for an explanation', I said.And everything was all right again.How long did this dre
- 39 Mrs. Allison hurried with her pie. Twice she went to the window to glance at the sky to see if there were clouds coming up. The room seemed unexpectedly dark, and she herself felt in the state of tension that precedes a thunderstorm, but both times when s
- 40 She tugged again. This time the window raised a good six inches and then something slipped. The window came down like the blade of a guillotine, and she got her hands out just in time. She bit her lip, sent strength through her shoulders, raised the windo
- 41 Then the new heirs had stepped in, briskly, with their pooh-poohs and their harsh dismissals of advice, and the house had been cleaned and put up for rental.So he and she had come to live here with it. And that was the story, all of the story.Mr. Hacker p
- 42 Pedaling with superhuman speed or rather, appearing to, because in reality the bicycle was pedaling him Bill Soames vanished down the road in a cloud of dust, his thin, terrified wail drifting back across the heat.Anthony looked at the rat. It had devoure
- 43 Dan's eyes misted even before he opened the package. He knew it was a record.'Gosh,' he said softly. 'What one is it? I'm almost afraid to look...''You haven't got it, darling,' Ethel Hollis smiled. 'Don't you remember, I asked about You Are My
- 44 'And Mr. Taylor? By that time he already had been designated as a special adviser to the Const.i.tutional President. Now, and as an example of what individual effort can achieve, he was counting his thousands by the thousands; but this did not cause him
- 45 'What is it you don't want me to see? What are you afraid of, Brother?''Mr. Ellington? I do not have the authority to grant your request. When you are well enough to leave, Father Jerome will no doubt be happy to accommodate you.''Will he also be ha
- 46 'Wait.'Now the heat began.'Wait.'By a row of shops I fell. My chest was full of pain, my head of fear: I knew the madmen would come swooping from their dark asylum on the hill. I cried out to the naked hairy man: 'Stop! Help me!''Help you?' He lau
- 47 Astonished, I glanced around, taking in the hawsers coiled in every corner. Cords of rope similar to those I'd spotted on moored boats. The s.h.i.+p reeked of tar.At the noise of heavy footfalls, I clenched my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep. A kick
- 48 The dawn was as black as muddy dirt. The stars had fled but the night seemed to last forever. A silence as heavy as the heat hung in the air. The crew must have been wallowing in rum. Toine, who had returned to his hammock, no longer spoke, but in the dar
- 49 Once more, I lost consciousness.When I awoke again, I was astonished to be alive and still tied to the mast. The dawn was turning into day, the sea becalmed. I raised my head as much as my restraints allowed it and saw Toine lying at the other end of the
- 50 To cap it all, when we halted to drink, we discovered our provision of water had turned red. We drank it all the same. Its warm temperature strengthened the impression we were drinking blood.We resumed our march toward hope. In the evening, we found the f
- 51 'What happened?' I asked.He let a few minutes pa.s.s before answering. He then turned a strange gaze on me, and said in a strangled voice, 'Son. I'm starting to doubt what I just saw. At the very instant I called you, the gravel under my feet gave way
- 52 His mud-gloved hand pointed to the forest, where all the trees shone with a metallic glow. In a brusque movement, I detached myself from the mountain soil. I heard a bizarre sound, and I felt moisture under my muddy hand. I bent low to examine the place w
- 53 I opened the Spam and sat down to be alone with it and my memories, but it wasn't to be for long. The kind of people who run with people like Carl don't like to be alone, ever, especially with their memories, and they can't imagine anyone else might, a
- 54 And then I looked at Carl, laughing and relaxed and absolutely free of care, absolutely unchilled, finally, at last, after years of And then I looked at Carl again.And then I looked down at my drink, and then I looked at my knees, and then I looked out at
- 55 'Is she on her way?' asked Laura.'About to pa.s.s our table now,' he told her.Seen on her own, the woman was not so remarkable. Tall, angular, aquiline features, with the close-cropped hair which was fas.h.i.+onably called an Eton crop, he seemed to r
- 56 She was still intent upon the menu, she had not seen the sisters, but any moment now she would have chosen what she wanted to eat, and then she would raise her head and look across the room. If only the drinks would come. If only the waiter would bring th
- 57 'It is unfortunate,' said the manager, 'that we do not know the name of the two ladies or the hotel where they were staying. You say you met these ladies at Torcello yesterday?''Yes...but only briefly. They weren't staying there. At least, I am cert
- 58 He crossed the Piazza San Marco, now thronged with after-dinner strollers and spectators at the cafes, all three orchestras going full blast in harmonious rivalry, while his companion kept a discreet two paces to his left and never uttered a word.They arr
- 59 The instantaneity of the service (apart from the fact that Maybury was late) could be accounted for by the large number of the staff. There were quite certainly four men, all, like the lad, in white jackets; and two women, both in dark blue dresses. The s
- 60 'Yes,' she replied with simple gravity. 'It comes from Rome. Would you like to touch it?'Naturally, Maybury would have liked, but, equally naturally, was held back by the presence of the watchful lad.'Touch it,' she commanded in a low voice. 'G.o.d
- 61 'No,' said Bannard in a giggling whisper. 'Not Number 13, not yet Number 12 A.'As a matter of fact Maybury had not noticed the number on the door that Bannard was now cautiously closing, and he did not feel called upon to rejoin.'Do be quiet taking y
- 62 Besides she's ill. And we have a son. There's him to consider too.''How old is your son?''Nearly sixteen.''What colour are his hair and eyes?''Really, I'm not sure. No particular colour. He's not a baby, you know.''Are his hands still soft?
- 63 He took a long sweet pull from the can. Then he started walking.The Firebird was empty.And the next car, and the next.Each car he pa.s.sed looked like the one before it, which seemed crazy until he realized that it must be the work of the light. It cast a
- 64 Cold.He removed his hand, and a dead moth clung to his thumb. He tried to brush it off the hood, but other moth bodies stuck in its place. Then he saw countless shriveled, mummified moths pasted over the hood and top like peeling chips of paint. His finge
- 65 'Oh, no, sir!' cries Lipsitz, horrified.'What are you actually doing with those rats? I hear all kinds of idiotic rumors.''Well, I'm working up the genetic strains, sir. The coefficient of h.o.m.ozygosity is still very low fo
- 66 My G.o.d, it is everything, he thinks. It is Hamlin in reverse; all the abused ones, the gentle ones, are leaving the world. He risks another glance back and thinks he can see a human child too and maybe an old person among the throng, all measuredly, sil
- 67 Silence. Then all three of them begin to howl like dogs.The crowd is thinning out in the hallway. Under the pale oval, an old gent with graying hair wets his moustache in a last swig of bourbon. Frosted cubes tinkle at the sides of the gla.s.s through whi
- 68 Anybody there got a light?Someone tapped the back of my chair and handed me a book of matches. I pa.s.sed it to the registrar. He opened it, tore out a match, struck its blue tip a rasp, the sudden burst of fire on the flint-strip. He cupped his mittens o
- 69 The letters stopped. Through the fog, Kress saw something moving. That was enough for him, that and the word 'Lifeforms' in their advertis.e.m.e.nt. He swept his walking cloak over his shoulder and entered the store.Inside, Kress felt disoriente
- 70 'No,' Kress said. 'I am their master and their G.o.d, after all. Why should I wait on their impulses? They did not war often enough to suit me. I corrected the situation.''I see,' said Wo. 'I will discuss the matter with
- 71 Down in his deepest wine cellar, he came upon Cath m'Lane's corpse.It sprawled at the foot of a steep flight of stairs, the limbs twisted as if by a fall. White mobiles were swarming all over it, and as Kress watched, the body moved jerkily acro
- 72 Kress sobbed, and was very still for a while, but nothing happened.He opened his eyes again. He trembled. Slowly the shadows began to soften and dissolve. Moonlight was filtering through the high windows. His eyes adjusted.The living room was empty. Nothi
- 73 Kress stopped suddenly. 'No,' he said, 'oh, no. Oh, no.' He backpedaled, slipped on the sand, got up and tried to run again. They caught him easily. They were ghastly little things with bulging eyes and dusky orange skin. He struggled,
- 74 Krantz was babbling uncontrollably. 'We're still here, Gilson, we're still here, we still exist, everything seems the same. Maybe he didn't change things much, maybe the future is fixed and he didn't change anything at all. I was
- 75 At once he regretted that thought. The old woman's face loomed behind him: eyes still as metal, skin the colour of pale bone. He turned nervously; the light capered. Of course there was only the quivering mouth of the hall. But the face was present n
- 76 'They sure do hang on. You take off now, Trav. Get some sleep and be back at sunup. What temperature we getting?'The pale stetson, far clearer in the starlight than the shadowface beneath it, wagged dubiously. 'Thirty-six. She won't ge
- 77 A sequence of unbearable images unfolded in the doctor's mind, even as the robot carrion turned from the gurney and walked to the instrument table: the sheriff's arrival just after dawn, alone of course, since Craven always took thought for his
- 78 Something in him yearned for a confrontation. He reached his table, but found himself unable to sit down. He turned, took a deep breath, and walked woodenly toward the bar. He wanted to tap her on her smooth shoulder and ask who she was, and exactly what
- 79 'I don't quite see what he's getting at,' I said.'Ah,' said Lucas. He thought for a moment. He had expected my reaction, I could see, but was disappointed all the same. 'You saw the hole in his argument though?' He
- 80 I knew then that if I reached out I would touch some transparent membrane which had grown up between us to protect the secret. I nodded hopelessly. 'That's fine,' I said. 'Good.' I arranged to meet him again soon. I arranged to me
- 81 But in the morning she was gone.Her clothes lasted a little longer, which worried me, as I had visions of A. R. committing flashery around and about the neighborhood, but in a few days they too had faded into mist or the elemental particles of time or wha
- 82 Premendra Mitra.Translated into English by P. Nandy.Premendra Mitra (19041988) was a renowned Bengali poet, novelist and short-story writer. He was also an author of Bangla science fiction and thrillers. He was born in Varanasi, India. His work was first
- 83 'I want you to take me down there,' she said in the tone she used when she wanted to be stubborn. 'If you don't want to help, okay. But I do.''No!' I said that louder than I wanted to and she flinched. More softly: '
- 84 'I'm tired,' I said. It was the truth. The trip across the street had been exhausting.'Me, too.' She yawned.'Want to get some sleep?' I knew she did. I was just staying a step or two ahead of her so she wouldn't hav
- 85 T'Gatoi picked up the writhing grub carefully and looked at it, somehow ignoring the terrible groans of the man.Abruptly, the man lost consciousness.'Good,' T'Gatoi looked down at him. 'I wish you Terrans could do that at will.�
- 86 'Ask me, Gatoi.''For my children's lives?'She would say something like that. She knew how to manipulate people, Terran and Tlic. But not this time.'I don't want to be a host animal,' I said. 'Not even yours.�
- 87 'They're all masterpieces according to that b.l.o.o.d.y book.'Mick felt his control slipping.'Two and a half hours at most''I told you, I don't want to see another church; the smell of the places makes me sick. Stale inc
- 88 'Sounds almost like guns,' he said, starting the car. 'Big guns.'Through his Russian-made binoculars Vaslav Jelovsek watched the starting-official raise his pistol. He saw the feather of white smoke rise from the barrel, and a second l
- 89 'We haven't even got a map...it's in the car.''Jesus...Christ...Almighty.'They walked down the track together, away from the field.After a few meters the tide of blood began to peter out. Just a few congealing rivulets dribbl
- 90 'Do what you like I'm walking.'His footsteps receded: the dark encased him.After a minute, Judd followed.The night was cloudless and bitter. They walked on, their collars up against the chill, their feet swollen in their shoes. Above them t
- 91 The meadow murmured around us as I thought, and its scents began to make both of us feel faint. We walked under a clouds of meadowsweet they were indeed in full flower but at that moment I would rather have been walking on regular, hard, reliable paving s
- 92 'Why do you keep asking?' Longhorn cried, growing angry. 'They set fire to themselves.'But I could not stop; I went on, stubbornly: 'But who are they? What do they want?'Longhorn had turned his back to me and was pretending t
- 93 But today I walked past a chirping flock of sparrows and it fell silent as a wave of nausea swept across me and suddenly the earth gave way beneath my feet and I remembered once more that beneath Tainaron is nothing but a crust, as insubstantial as one ni
- 94 'But this part of the city is old,' I thought aloud. 'Was it not surveyed many generations ago? What could there be to measure here?'He looked at me in disbelief. 'What is there to measure?' he asked. 'It was a different
- 95 Longhorn raised his finger and pointed westward. And there, too, I saw demolition work, destruction, collapse, landslides. But almost at the same time, in place of the former constructions, new forms began to appear, softly curving mall complexes, flights
- 96 Then I saw that I had never known him and that I had never even wanted to know him. And as he grew, he became thinner and more indistinct; his form slipped into the darkness of the stairwell and he no longer had shape or ma.s.s.But his eyes, his eyes rema
- 97 I sat and sipped and stared, thoughtless and unfocused. The bicyclists zipping past were bright blurs with jingling bells, and the light was that heavy leaded-gold light that occurs when a tropical sun has broken free of an overcast. Smells of charcoal, f
- 98 'You see,' he went on, 'when I appeared in the village, when I walked around and' he chuckled 'haunted the place, those times were like sleepwalking. I barely knew what was happening. But the rest of the time, I was somewhere else
- 99 Harlan Ellison.Harlan Ellison (1934) is an iconic writer called 'one of the great living American short story writers' by The Was.h.i.+ngton Post. His career has spanned over fifty years and he has won more awards for his work than any other liv
- 100 He tried to ask what it was she had felt, what it was in him that had so unhinged her, but she reached in with the flexing hand and touched his forearm.'You'll have to come with me.''Where?''To meet the real REM Group.'A