Your cart is empty

©2026 Fable Group Inc.
3.0 

Little Deaths

By Ellen Datlow & J. Calvin Pierce &
Little Deaths by Ellen Datlow & J. Calvin Pierce &  digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

The title of this acclaimed anthology comes from the French term "la petite mort," a seventeenth-century euphemism for orgasm. It was thought that part of a man's life-force was drained from him each time he climaxed. In , renowned horror editor Ellen Datlow collects twenty-two stories that explore the connection between sex and death. These stories range from the erotic to the psychological, all against a backdrop of horror. Authors include Lucy Taylor, Nicola Griffith, Kathe Koja, Richard Christian Matheson, Lucius Shepard, and many more.

Download the free Fable app

app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities
app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

Little Deaths Reviews

3.0
Anxious Face with sweat“Ellen Datlow's anthologies are typically good. This one was not. It should've been called "Ruminating about Relationships." The opening story set high expectations then none of the stories grabbed me, no matter how famous the author--and, as usual, Ellen has a couple well-known writers in the mix. Missable. Side note: The edition I read had punctuation and spelling errors.”
“top stories are Barker, Matheson, & Eskridge; however even then below the typical Datlow quality mix (IMHO)”

About Ellen Datlow

was editor of Sci Fiction, the multi award- winning fiction area of scifi.com, for almost six years. Previously, she was fiction editor of for over seventeen years. She has won the World Fantasy Award seven times, two Bram Stoker Awards, the International Horror Guild Award, the 2002 and 2005 Hugo Award, and the 2005 Locus Award, for her work as an editor. Sci Fiction won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Website. Datlow and Windling are the co-editors of over eleven original anthologies and of seventeen volumes of .

J. Calvin Pierce

J. Calvin Pierce was the author of the Ambermere fantasy series. “Sahib” was one of two short stories he wrote. He died in 2021.

Joel Lane

Joel Lane was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, critic, and anthology editor. In addition to his dark fantasy and horror short fiction, Lane published two novels, and . He received the World Fantasy Award in 2013 for his collection, , and won the British Fantasy Award twice. His short stories have been collected in seven volumes. He died in 2013.

Kelley Eskridge

Kelley Eskridge is an author and screenwriter. Her novel is a New York Times Notable Book, and her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree (now Otherwise), Gaylactic Spectrum, and Endeavour Awards. Her film was a selection at multiple film festivals. She lives in Seattle with her wife, Nicola Griffith. She loves food, wine, and good conversations.

Sarah Clemens

Sarah Clemens is an artist who also writes. She has authored short stories for Ellen Datlow’s anthologies, as well as . Much of her art is also related to the fantastic. She and her husband live in Arizona with their cats, carnivorous plants, and terrariums.

Nicola Griffith

is the multiple-award-winning author of several novels, including , and a memoir. A native of Yorkshire, England—now a dual U.S./U.K. citizen—she is a onetime self-defense instructor who turned to writing full-time upon being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She lives with her wife, the writer Kelley Eskridge, in Seattle.

M. John Harrison

M. John Harrison, is a multi-award winning English author and literary critic. His work includes the Viriconium novels and short stories, , and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, which consists of , , and . His most recent book, has been referred to as an anti-memoir.

Douglas Clegg

Douglas Clegg is a screenwriter, poet, and the author of dozens of novels, novellas, and short story collections. His fiction has won the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award. He is married to Raul Silva and lives near the New England coast, where he is currently writing his next work of fiction.

Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, grew up in Daytona, Florida, and lived the last years of his life in Portland, Oregon. His short fiction won the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the National Magazine Award, the Locus Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He died in 2014.

Stephen Dedman

Stephen Dedman grew up (though many would dispute this) on the outer limits of Perth’s metropolitan area, far enough from a good library that he had to make up his own science fiction and horror stories. He continued to do this when he should have been studying, and after false starts at two other universities, received a bachelor’s in creative writing and film in 1984. Since then, he’s held too many boring jobs and a few interesting ones, including actor, tutor, experimental subject, editorial assistant for   magazine, education officer and used dinosaur salesman for the WA Museum, and the manager of a science fiction bookshop. He has been writing for fun for more than thirty years, and for money for twenty; he sold his first short story in 1977, and his first novel in 1995. He quit yet another boring job in 1996 to write full time, and is currently working on two novels and writing one new story a month. Dedman is the author of the novels   (Tor, 1997) and   (Tor, 1999), and the nonfiction book   (Omnibus, 1998). His short stories have appeared in an eclectic range of magazines and anthologies, including  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , and  . His work has won the Aurealis Award and Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award, and been shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Dedman lives in western Australia, and enjoys reading, travel, movies, complicated relationships, talking to cats, and startling people.

Lucy Taylor

Lucy Taylor is an award-winning author who has published seven novels and over a hundred short stories in anthologies and magazines. Her most recent work can be found in the anthologies , , , and , , and . Her Bram Stoker Award–winning novel, , was recently reprinted in German by Festa Verlag Publications and is currently being translated into Russian by Poltergeist Press. Taylor lives in the high desert outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Harry Crews

Harry Crews wrote novels, nonfiction books, and a memoir. His best known works are , , , and . His work was gritty, and he often wrote about outsiders and grotesques living in the Deep South. Crews lived in Florida and died in 2012.

Wayne Allen Sallee

Wayne Allen Sallee primarily writes short fiction, and several of his stories were reprinted in Karl Edward Wagner’s anthologies. All of his short fiction is being reprinted by Crossroad Press in . Sallee’s novel, , has been published in five languages. He wrote , a memoir, and is currently updating , a chapbook that will include ruminations about the COVID pandemic and how it affected Chicago.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Notification Icon
©2026 Fable Group Inc.
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB