TEENS

One freezing morning, a lone man wandering across the Arctic ice caps is rescued by a ship's captain. As he is nursed back to health, Victor Frankenstein recounts his story of ambition, murder, and revenge. As a young scientist Frankenstein pushed moral boundaries in order to create life itself. But his creation is a monster stitched together from grave-robbed body parts who has no place in the world, and whose life can only lead to tragedy.

A wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric DNA. Before opening the attraction to the public, he invites some scientists to experience the park and help calm anxious investors; but, during the visit, the security system breaks down and prehistoric creatures break out.

A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease. We owe our good health to a humble parasite: a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the Intestinal Bodyguard worm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system, and even secretes designer drugs. It's been successful beyond the scientists' wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them. But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives... and will do anything to get them.

In the title piece, Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, completes his theorem, which paves the way for esoteric mathematical computations that, when carried out, have side effects that leak through a channel underlying the structure of the Cosmos. Out there in the multiverse are "listeners" who can sometimes be coerced into opening gates. In 1945, Nazi Germany's Ahnenerbe-SS performs just such a summoning. But their summoning brings forth more than the SS have bargained for --an evil, patiently waiting all this time while learning the ways of humans, now poises to lunch on Earth.

Inch by inch, day by day, Scott Carey is getting smaller. Once an unremarkable husband and father, Scott finds himself shrinking with no end in sight. His wife and family turn into unreachable giants, the family cat becomes a predatory menace, and Scott must struggle to survive in a world that seems to be growing ever larger and more perilous - until he faces the ultimate limits of fear and existence.

One evening Tommy comes home to find a small rag doll on his doorstep. Curious, he brings it inside. That night, Tommy hears an odd popping sound and looks up to see the stitches breaking over the doll's heart. Something terrifying emerges from the pristine white cloth, something that will follow Tommy wherever he goes. It wants Tommy's life and he doesn't know why.

This dark tale depicts a small town's fatal encounter with creatures from outer space. Events start with Roberta Anderson unearthing a flying saucer on her remote wooded property. Five hundred pages later alcoholic poet Jim Gardener, Roberta's former English teacher, finds himself aboard the flying saucer in outer space. In the interval the creatures (Tommyknockers) destroy the citizenry of Haven, Maine.